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2003
Theosophical Society in Australia
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Frequently Asked
Questions
about Theosophy and The Theosophical
Society
Is Theosophy a religion?
No, Theosophy is Divine Wisdom, the
universal spiritual heritage of all humanity – past, present
and future. It is the core teaching at the heart of all religious
traditions and philosophical systems of the world. It is referred
to as Ancient Wisdom, Perennial Philosophy, Wisdom-Tradition,
Esoteric Philosophy or Wisdom-Religion. Its antiquity predates
all known religions and philosophies.
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What is The Theosophical
Society?
It is a world wide organisation,
established in New York in 1875 by Helena P Blavatsky, Henry S
Olcott and others, which has its international Headquarters at
Adyar, Chennai (Madras), India, and its National Headquarters in
Sydney. It is represented in about 60 countries. The Society
seeks to promote the practical realisation of the universal
brotherhood of humanity without any distinctions, to encourage
the study of comparative religion, philosophy and science, and to
investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in
the human being.
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Is there a spiritual
authority in the TS?
No. The Society encourages a free and
fearless search for Truth and for this reason freedom of thought
is one of the central principles in its work. There is no
opinion, no doctrine, no teaching which is binding on any member.
The Society has an international President, who is elected by the
membership worldwide and who shares his or her views with the
members as a fellow-student of Theosophy. The Society encourages
its members to enquire for themselves into the deeper aspects of
life.
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Is the work of the TS of
an intellectual nature?
As we said before, Theosophy is Divine
Wisdom, and wisdom is different from knowledge. One of the core
principles in Theosophy is the undivided oneness of all life. It
means that deep down, beyond appearances and opinions, all life
is one. When such a principle is meditated upon with attentive
awareness, its understanding expresses itself as compassion,
selflessness, service and reverence for all expressions of life.
The same is true of every other theosophical principle, like
karma, reincarnation, evolution, the multidimensional levels in
the human consciousness, and others.
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Does the TS encourage
activism among its members?
The Society as such doesn’t, for it
has a neutral platform and doesn’t affiliate with any other
organisation, any group and any cause, save its own Objects,
which represent the essence of its policy and its action. But it
leaves its members entirely free to engage in any individual
activity – humanitarian, social or political – that
they may choose. Many members work through the Theosophical Order
of Service (TOS), founded in 1908 by Annie Besant. Its motto is
"The union of all who love, in the service of all that
suffers." The TOS does very commendable practical work in
many countries in the areas of social work, education, promotion
of world peace, animal welfare and healing, among others.
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Is the TS a New Age
organisation?
Madame Blavatsky was once called "the
grandmother of the New Age", probably because it was through
her books and articles that ideas which are now so popular, like
karma and spiritual evolution, were first introduced to a
skeptical and materialistic world. The founding of the TS in 1875
was indeed the ushering of a new era in which the Ancient Wisdom
became widely available to all seekers all over the world.
But the Society is not a New Age
organisation for it doesn’t encourage any sort of psychic
practices so common in New Age circles and doesn’t make its
members rely on so-called ‘seers’ or on past-life
therapies, to mention only a few. The Theosophical Society was
founded to ‘assist in showing that such a thing as Theosophy
exists’, and to help seekers to move towards it ‘by
studying and assimilating its eternal verities.’
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The Theosophical Society in Australia
