Nothing answers questions like Theosophy can!:-The Key to Theosophy

The Key to Theosophy

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

1831 -1891

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The Key to Theosophy

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

Key to Theosophy Index

Theosophy is Not Buddhism

Q. You are often spoken of as "Esoteric Buddhists." Are you then all followers

of Gautama Buddha?

A. No more than musicians are all followers of Wagner. Some of us are Buddhists by religion; yet there are far more Hindus and Brahmins than Buddhists among us, and more Christian-born Europeans and Americans than converted Buddhists. The mistake has arisen from a misunderstanding of the real meaning of the title of Mr. Sinnett's excellent work, Esoteric Buddhism, which last word ought to have been spelt with one, instead of two, d's, as then Budhism would have meant what it was intended for, merely "Wisdom-ism" (Bodha, bodhi, "intelligence," "wisdom") instead of Buddhism, Gautama's religious philosophy. Theosophy, as already said, is the wisdom-religion.

Q. What is the difference between Buddhism, the religion founded by the Prince

of Kapilavastu, and Budhism, the "Wisdomism" which you say is synonymous with Theosophy?

A. Just the same difference as there is between the secret teachings of Christ,

which are called "the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven," and the later

ritualism and dogmatic theology of the Churches and Sects. Buddha means the

"Enlightened" by Bodha, or understanding, Wisdom. This has passed root and

branch into the esoteric teachings that Gautama imparted to his chosen Arhats

only.

Q. But some Orientalists deny that Buddha ever taught any esoteric doctrine at

all?

A. They may as well deny that Nature has any hidden secrets for the men of

science. Further on I will prove it by Buddha's conversation with his disciple

Ananda. His esoteric teachings were simply the Gupta-Vidya(secret knowledge) of the ancient Brahmins, the key to which their modern successors have, with few exceptions, completely lost. And this Vidya has passed into what is now known as the inner teachings of the Mahayana school of Northern Buddhism. Those who deny it are simply ignorant pretenders to Orientalism. I advise you to read the Rev. Mr. Edkin's Chinese Buddhism-especially the chapters on the Exoteric and Esoteric schools and teachings-and then compare the testimony of the whole ancient world upon the subject.

Q. But are not the ethics of Theosophy identical with those taught by Buddha?

A. Certainly, because these ethics are the soul of the Wisdom-Religion, and were once the common property of the initiates of all nations. But Buddha was the first to embody these lofty ethics in his public teachings, and to make them the foundation and the very essence of his public system. It is herein that lies the

immense difference between exoteric Buddhism and every other religion. For while in other religions ritualism and dogma hold the first and most important place, in Buddhism it is the ethics which have always been the most insisted upon. This accounts for the resemblance, amounting almost to identity, between the ethics of Theosophy and those of the religion of Buddha.

The Most Basic Theosophy

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A quick overview of Theosophy

and the Theosophical Society

If you run a Theosophy Study Group you

can use this as an introductory handout.