1 of 1- Charlemagne
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Offline - Registered: 8/31/2015
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Theosophy
Has anyone ever took interest in Theosophy around here? It seems to posit a sort of principle, an Absolute Infinite Omnipresent Divine Principle which is the source and substratum of all. It is the Causeless Cause and the Rootless Root of all. It is impersonal, immutable, and unconditioned. It is the “One and Only” eternal Reality. It is really beyond all definition and description but is THAT which is referred to in Hinduism as Brahman or Parabrahm, in Buddhism as Adi-Buddhi, and in the Kabbalah as Ain-Soph. It is not a Person or Being of any kind. It would be misleading and misrepresentative to speak of It as “God” since It is not any type of God. It can be better spoken of as the infinite and eternal energy and consciousness which is all and in all. It seems to posit that it doesn't matter which abstraction you prefer, it is found within man and is something akin to a Godel statement of our universe: something which can't be fully comprehended from our hierarchical level of existence.
However, it also seems to fight every anthropomorphic conception of the great unknowable. Theosophy would teach its adherents that animal man, the finite, having been studied for ages and found wanting in everything but animalism - he being the moral as well as physical synthesis of all the forms and beings through which he has evolved, hence beyond correction and something that must be left to time and the work of evolution - it is more profitable to turn our attention to the spiritual or inner man, the infinite and the immortal.There seems to be a conflict between classical theism and Theosophy, (Blavatsky's, in particular), but to my eye, it seems at face value quite compatible, what do you guys think? Did the Masters of Wisdom contact Blavatsky? Is Theosophy the only tool that could save civilisation from materialism? Could it be the white ray of the spectrum, and every religion only one of the seven prismatic colours?
Last edited by Charlemagne (12/20/2016 6:54 pm)
- Jeremy Taylor
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Re: Theosophy
I must say I have only a limited knowledge of the Theosophical Society, but as I understand it, much of their thought derives from Indian thought, especially Vedanta. Other than that, they add their own spin.
I'm somewhat put off by the particularly Theosophical aspects of their thought, but I find Indian thought and Vedanta very interesting. Some Vedanta thinkers, such as that of Ramanuja or Madhvacharya seem to me to be uncomplicatedly fit under the label of classical theism. I would even suggest that Shankara and Advaita can more or less be classed as classical theism. After all, Platonism and various other Western and Islamic schools (Eriugena, Meister Eckhart, some Sufis, Kabbalah) we'd call classical theist are non-dual as well.
Incidentally, it is unfortunate that Blavastky and her group has taken over the name theosophy. Jacob Boehme and others called themselves or were called theosophists, and it would be a useful word to describe mystical thought that is somewhere between philosophy and theology.