the key to theosophy…

“Mr. Kingsland:  Mr. Cobbold as a practical Theosophist will give us his views.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  What can Theosophists do?

 
Countess Wachtmeister:  Theosophists should try and not backbite their neighbors.

 
Mr. Old:  I think there is a negative aspect to action, HPB I was thinking the same as yourself, Countess. I thought there was a negative side to Theosophical duty — what the Theosophist should not do; that is to say, he should not create any obstructions – which very often he does, unconsciously through ignorance, or consciously through spleen.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  Personality is the curse in the Theosophical Society, as it is everywhere.

 
Countess Wachtmeister:  I don’t think it is put strongly enough there, that every evil springs from personality, and that personality is the great curse.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  You have not heard the whole thing. This is only a chapter, and I have eleven more.

 
Countess Wachtmeister:  The first duty of a Theosophist is to try and forget his personality.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  Exactly. How few do it. You just make a footnote, and mark it there. Are not these Buddhist precepts beautiful! I can assure you, if I one day translate them, you will say they are splendid.

 
Mr. Old:  They are very poetical.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  And written so beautifully.

 
A Lady:  They are indeed sublime.

 
Mr. Johnson:  It says there that “attacks made on the Society should be defended by any means in one’s power.” I think that is rather loose.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  We cannot oblige anyone to do anything. We cannot create penances.

 
Countess Wachtmeister:  I think Mr. Johnson meant “legitimate means”, that is what he meant.

 
Mr. Kingsland:  Not in the doctrine of the Jesuits.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  Now, gentlemen, please, some more.

 
Countess Wachtmeister:  You put down your negative points, that Mr. Old was just saying, of what Theosophists should not do. That is later on in the book.

 
Mme. Blavatsky:  I have covered all the tenets of Theosophy. I have spoken about Karma and Devachan and the states of afterlife – and not that we are obliged to believe in it, but only Theosophists who study Occultism believe in it. This is what I have been putting. A Theosophist may believe in anything he likes.”

 
H. P. Blavatsky