Category: Esoteric Buddhism
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Talbot Mundy’s “The Nine Unknown” Men of Ashoka, the Maurya Clan, and its Connection to Theosophy
Talbot Mundy’s “The Nine Unknown” Secret Society of King Asoka In 1923, Talbot Mundy, of the British police wrote a fiction novel called The Nine Unknown, about a secret society founded by Mauryan Emperor Asoka (c. 268 to 232 BCE) after his conversion to Buddhism. The secret society preserved the ancient science of India. Koot Hoomi and Morya…
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Tirthankaras: Growth in the Wisdom of all Beings
A doctrine (Buddha-nature) in Buddhism teaches that all man possesses the germ of wisdom (Buddha) in them, which is the non-conceptual nature of space (dhātu) and the purity of the nature of mind. The idea, that mankind could become a whole race of Buddhas, or Tīrthaṅkaras (world-conquerors of Illusion), is nothing new in the Wisdom-tradition. It is not the glorification, and crowning…
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Inspiring Buddhist Truths: All Beings have the Buddha Nature
No matter, what is happening in the world, remember the dignity of every human being; and feel the pains and sorrow of man, as in relation to your own. Remember, all mankind is suffering on various levels in this life. རྫོགས་སངས་སྐུ་ནི་འཕྲོ་ཕྱིར་དང༌། ། དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་དབྱེར་མེད་ཕྱིར་དང༌། ། རིགས་ཡོད་ཕྱིར་ན་ལུས་ཅན་ཀུན། །རྟག་ཏུ་སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན། ། “Because the perfect buddhas’s kaya is all-pervading, Because reality is undifferentiated, And…
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Siddhartha Gautama in Kalama Sutta: ‘Do not believe on faith…’
Believe nothing on faith alone, or on authority. “Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities…
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The Context of Alfred P. Sinnett’s ‘Esoteric Buddhism’
A.P. Sinnett’s Esoteric Budhism 1884 In learning about ‘Theosophy,’ it is still wise to return to the very first installments, expressing what it is, namely Alfred Percy Sinnett’s Esoteric Buddhism (online 1884 ed.), or rather Budhism. This 1884 work was the result or learning acquired from correspondences between A.P. Sinnett and the two gentlemen, Koot Hoomi…
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The Truth about the Future Maitreya Buddha in Theosophical Writings
H.P. Blavatsky was a Theosophist and Buddhist, and held to the traditional and Theravada Position regarding Maitreya, which is in conflict with contemporary beliefs originating from later Neo-Theosophical influences of a Christo-Buddhist Theosophical innovation, and reinterpretation of Christology as held by Annie Besant. H.P.B. did not advocate or emphasize any millenarian element, or messianism in Theosophy,…
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Anagarika Dharmapala and Gandhi Distrusted Charles Leadbeater and Besant
Anagarika Dharmapala was a Buddhist revivalist from Sri Lanka, who founded the Maha Bodhi Society May, 31, 1891. He was also an active member of the Theosophical Society. Dharmapala provides his insight into the controversies in the history of the organization known as the Theosophical Society. Upon reading about the Masters from Alfred P. Sinnet’s…
The American Minervan 