Madame Blavatsky On Spinoza And Western Philosophers

This volume is a collection of articles that looks at the work of Baruch Spinoza through his metaphysics, his philosophy of politics and religion, and alternative approaches to Spinoza.

Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher, one of the great rationalists and philosophers of the 17th century within the so-called Modern Philosophy, alongside René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. Spinoza believed that God was the mechanism that moved the Universe, and that the biblical texts were nothing more than symbols that dispense with any rational approach. According to his view, the texts contained therein do not translate the reality that involves the Creator and his creation. In the Protestant society that dominated the Netherlands, there was no room for such heretical thinking; therefore, the Jewish leaders, received with clemency by these religious figures, could not tolerate an attitude that went against the very foundations of Christianity. Spinoza was accused of blasphemy and expelled from the Synagogue of Amsterdam, being disinherited by his family. The book " Ethics – Demonstrated in the Geometrical Manner," completed in 1675, is his masterpiece and has influenced, and continues to influence, the thinking of numerous great philosophers.

Western Orientalists keep claiming papal authority over of Buddhist doctrines. Here are four quick and easy steps on how anyone can become an authority on Buddhism. The “authority” is ready and ignorant Mrs. Grundy, “soft on whose lap her laureate sons recline,” will crown the new Pope, and force him upon the acceptance of the ignorant public. For example, a squib review of Sinnett’s “Esoteric Buddhism” called “The Cosmogony of an Artificial Fifth Rounder,” is no review but a totally meaningless ex-cathedra chaff. The witty criticaster reminds us of that naive witness, a tailor, who claimed better acquaintance with the defendant’s murdered father than his son, on the ground that the old coat and hat of the victim had been made and bought at his establishment. Between the diametrically opposed views of Mr. Lillie’s “Buddha and Early Buddhism,” and Mr. Rhys-Davids’ “Buddhism,” “M.A., Oxon.” shows no preference. Both are good as weapons against the Theosophists.

There are Spirits and Spirits; High Planetary Spirits who have been human beings millions of ages since, and upon other besides our own planet; there are the illusionary appearances of these, projected upon the intra-psychic screen of our mediumistic, hence confused, perceptions; and there are seers and mediums, as there are great men of science, willing and sincere, but ignorant tyros. Spiritualism has spawned almost as many books as a herring does eggs. There can be no spiritual intercourse, either with the souls of the living or the dead, unless it is preceded by self-spiritualization, the conquest of selfishness, and the unfoldment of the nobler powers within us. Spiritualism and Theosophy are mere opinions and beliefs, and nothing more. They can no more claim to be regarded as “facts” than any other emotional belief, for the facts of one will be delusion in the eyes of the other. Spiritualists and Theosophists fully agree that there are higher and pure spirits outside the realm of our physical senses. But they entirely disagree as to the nature and causal agency of “communicating intelligences.” The “disembodied spirits,” instead of having become the wiser for being rid of the physiological impediments and the restraints of their gross material senses, would seem to have become far more stupid, far less perspicacious and, in every respect, worse than they were during their earthly life. As nations became restricted by their own tongue, the once-universal Mystery Language is being gradually denied to subsequent generations. While the disciples of Eastern Occultism are trying to purify matter, Western Spiritualists are striving to degrade spirit. Spiritualists and Theosophists travel along a parallel, if not quite identical, path. Yet, to those bereft of a metaphysico-spiritual vocabulary, Eastern Occultism will remain impassable to the babel tower of modern thought, caused by ignorance of the true meaning of words and their synonyms, a skin deep learning leading to mistaken notions, and the tendency of elevating misconceptions to the dignity of dogmas. If people would stop speculating, and would simply stick to substantiated fact, truth would be more readily attained in each and every case. Truth stands higher than any earthly consideration ever will. Let each of us show our facts and give our explanations; and let those who are neither Occultists, Spiritualists, nor sceptics, adjudicate between the contestant parties. The world must learn at last, under the penalty of falling back to superstitious beliefs in the biblical devil, why such phenomena do so happen, and to what cause or causes they are to be attributed. New Dispensation is the latest folly of dogmatic Christianity. We are not acquainted with a god who thinks, plots, rewards, punishes, and repents. The only god whom we serve is humanity, and our only cult is love of our fellow man. This our religion and dogma. Men have done their best to replace the solar rays with the false glare of error and fiction; none more so than the bigoted, narrow-minded theologians and priests of every faith, the sophists and perverters of the Spirit of Truth. Parsifal is the theatrical representation of good and evil in a supreme struggle. It is our universe, saved through atonement; it is sin redeemed through grace, and the triumph of faith and charity. Thus far, Pilate’s “What is truth?” has never been sufficiently answered to the satisfaction of narrow-minded sectarians. The Theosophical Society upholds and advocates only corroborated facts and Truth, and nothing but the Truth, whencesoever and from whomsoever it may come. Our views have to stand or fall upon their own merit, since we claim neither divine revelation nor infallibility. We will not serve Truth and Falsehood at the same time. Our policy is war to death to every unproved dogma, superstition, bigotry, and intolerance.