Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Published: 2018-02-07
Total Pages: 23
Get eBook
Sinnett’s “Esoteric Buddhism” was an excellent work with a very unfortunate title. Esoteric BuDhism (spelled with one D), or Inner Wisdom (Sophia, in Greek), is a pre-Vedic term millennia older than 643 BCE, the year Siddhartha Gautama, Prince of Kapilavastu, was born. It has nothing to do with the BuDDhist religion whatsoever. An agnostic student of Theosophy puzzled by “Esoteric Buddhism.” Puzzle solved by Madame Blavatsky BuDDhism, the religious system of ethics preached by Lord Gautama and named after his title of BuDDha, the “Enlightened,” and BuDha or Inner Wisdom are totally unrelated terms. Long kalpas had passed before the epithet of Buddha became so humanised, as to allow the term to be applied to mortals and, finally, to Siddhartha Gautama. BuDhism is Archaic Wisdom-Religion. It reconciles all religions, strips every one of its outward, human garments, and shows the root of each to be identical with that of every other great religion. It proves the necessity of an immutable Divine Principle in nature but rejects the gods of monotheistic religions, sorry caricatures created by man in his own image and likeness. Truth is its god and dogma. Orthodox, Exoteric BuDDhism, or the public teachings of Gautama Buddha, differ greatly from the Secret Doctrine, or Esoteric BuDhism, that he had reserved for the initiated Brahmans of his day and his Arhats. Sinnett defends his “Esoteric Buddhism.” Though “Esoteric Buddhism” preceded “Isis Unveiled” and “The Secret Doctrine,” its contents are not original. His letter to “Lucifer,” annotated by Madame Blavatsky in her capacity as Editor of Lucifer.” Theosophy is not BuDDhism, whether Exoteric or Esoteric. Bodhi and Sophia are one and the same, supersensuous wisdom from within. Bodha, Bodhi, Buddha, Buddhi are one and the same, Divine Wisdom.