WHITE LOTUS DAY 8.5.
THIS WHITE LOTUS DAY, GET TO KNOW HPB FOR YOURSELF
Since that time, this date has been commemorated annually amongst Theosophists as "White Lotus Day," so named because of the unusually abundant profusion of white lotuses that bloomed at the Adyar, India headquarters of The Theosophical Society upon the first anniversary of her passing.
White Lotus Day commemoration meetings often include readings from "The Light of Asia" and the Bhagavad Gita (as she requested) as well as from "The Voice of the Silence," which she translated in 1889 from the esoteric Buddhist "Book of the Golden Precepts."
Today it is the case that many people voice and express respect and gratitude for HPB and yet have never even read or studied any of her books or articles. So what are they actually grateful or respectful for?
Others voice and express respect and gratitude for her and yet are primarily students and followers of the Alice Bailey teachings or of C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant or others, despite those being in profoundly clear opposition and contradiction to the words, work, and mission, of HPB, {1} and believe that HPB was only a sort of preparatory forerunner for those later "teachers." In what sense, then, are they actually grateful or respectful to her?
Still others voice and express respect and gratitude for her but at the same time criticise and demean those Theosophists and Theosophical groups - such as the United Lodge of Theosophists or ULT for short - who are most active and dedicated to studying, promoting, and making available HPB's teachings and books in their original, unaltered, unabridged form and presenting Theosophy in the same way that she did, caring naught for later claimants to "occult successorship." Such Theosophical students are derided as "Blavatsky fundamentalists" and "orthodox Theosophists," which brings to mind these words from a letter by B.P. Wadia:
"If there is to be orthodoxy in any Theosophical organization let there be the orthodoxy of H.P.B. and of those who teachings are in conformity with her Message. The U.L.T. stands for no orthodoxy save the orthodoxy of Truth. We preach, practise and promulgate teachings not because they have been put forward by H.P.B. and Mr Judge, but because they are true and for which reason show the position of their original advocates and servants."
And then there are those who voice and express respect and gratitude for her and yet depreciate, ignore, or even criticise and reject William Q. Judge, co-founder with HPB and Col. Olcott of the Theosophical Society, and about whom she spoke in more consistently glowing and occultly significant terms than anyone else {2}, repeatedly calling him "my ONLY friend," "my alter-ego," the Antahkarana or connecting link between Western thought and the Trans-Himalayan esoteric knowledge, "part of herself since several eons" and much more besides. Anything said or done against WQJ is of necessity something said or done against HPB, since they cannot be separated or treated as apart from one another…and it was she more than anyone who sought to draw attention to his special nature and work. How then can such Theosophists believe that they are really being grateful, respectful, or appreciative to her?
The unfortunate fact is that H.P. Blavatsky is not REALLY appreciated very much at all in the Theosophical world.
As a somewhat remote and abstract symbol, viewed as a representation of power, wisdom, knowledge, compassion, and fortitude, she is honoured by almost all and this is certainly no bad thing. But this is not truly appreciating HPB, for and as Herself and as the Direct Agent and Messenger of the Masters who sent her to us.
How many have studied "The Secret Doctrine"? Most have no interest in doing so and many others dismiss it as being "too complicated" or "too difficult," despite the contrary fact that it is successfully studied around the world by people of many different nationalities, languages, ages, and educational backgrounds.
How many have decided to familiarise themselves as thoroughly and deeply as possible with her voluminous writings in order to be able to serve as a competent, confident, yet humble and impersonal ambassador of her teachings and message to those who are desirous and in need of it?
How many have studied her biography and the story of her life so as to be able to accurately defend her against the myriad of lies, slanders, and misrepresentations that swarm around the internet and elsewhere?
How many have ever decided to fully lay aside all existing preconceptions, ideologies, and beliefs, in order to sit, read, study, absorb, and contemplate the Eastern Esoteric Philosophy that SHE presented (not others' later interpretations and revisions of it) so as to be able to REALLY UNDERSTAND exactly what Theosophy is, exactly what Theosophy teaches, exactly where Theosophy comes from, and exactly what its role, mission, and potential is in this world?
These are of course rhetorical questions and we expect no answers or replies.
All we would ask, if we have the right to ask anything, is that Theosophists think carefully over the above and decide whether the honour and gratitude they bestow upon HPB - at White Lotus Day or at any other time - is real honour and gratitude for the real HPB. She of all people was most strongly against cant, hypocrisy, and shams.
Just three weeks before she left the body, HPB wrote, "every wish and thought I can utter are summed up in this one sentence, the never-dormant wish of my heart, "Be Theosophists, work for Theosophy!" ("Five Messages from H.P. Blavatsky to the American Theosophists" p. 31)
To really be a Theosophist is to really work for Theosophy. And one is tremendously limited in one's work for Theosophy if one is not well acquainted with its philosophy, its metaphysics, and its underlying Bodhisattvic impulse and ethics. No-one stops or hinders us in this apart from our own selves.
The task is great and of an almost unutterable seriousness:
"If Theosophy prevailing in the struggle, its all-embracing philosophy strikes deep root into the minds and hearts of men, if its doctrines of Reincarnation and Karma, in other words, of Hope and Responsibility, find a home in the lives of the new generations, then, indeed, will dawn the day of joy and gladness for all who now suffer and are outcast. For real Theosophy IS ALTRUISM, and we cannot repeat it too often. It is brotherly love, mutual help, unswerving devotion to Truth. If once men do but realize that in these alone can true happiness be found, and never in wealth, possessions, or any selfish gratification, then the dark clouds will roll away, and a new humanity will be born upon earth. Then, the GOLDEN AGE will be there, indeed.
"But if not, then the storm will burst, and our boasted western civilization and enlightenment will sink in such a sea of horror that its parallel History has never yet recorded." (HPB, "Our Cycle and the Next")
It is still not too late to be a Theosophist and to work for Theosophy…but the sooner one begins, the better for all. Let this be paramount in our hearts and minds this White Lotus Day.
NOTES
{1} The serious incompatibility of such later teachings with those of HPB and the Masters has been sufficiently demonstrated in numerous articles online, including "Tibetan Master or Christian Priest? (Uncovering the real inspiration behind the Alice Bailey Books)" (https://blavatskytheosophy.com/tibetan-master-or-christian…/), "The Case against C.W. Leadbeater" (https://blavatskytheosophy.com/the-case-against-c-w…/), "Original Theosophy and Later Versions" (https://blavatskytheosophy.com/original-theosophy-and…/), "The Closing Cycle" (https://blavatskytheosophy.com/the-closing-cycle/), and "Maitreya in the Light of Real Theosophy" (https://blavatskytheosophy.com/maitreya-in-the-light-of…/).
{2} See the compilation of quotes and statements in "Understanding The Importance of Mr. Judge" at https://blavatskytheosophy.com/understanding-the…/ and also such articles as "Who was William Quan Judge?" (https://blavatskytheosophy.com/who-was-william-quan-judge/) and "The Welcome Influence of William Q. Judge" (https://blavatskytheosophy.com/the-welcome-influence-of…/).
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