Tag: New Age

Alice A. Bailey on Krishnamurti

Who was Krishnamurti, and what did Alice A. Bailey (AAB) have to say about him? First a little bit about Jiddu Krishnamurti from Wikipedia:

Jiddu Krishnamurti  (12 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was an Indian philosopher, speaker and writer. In his early life he was groomed to be the new World Teacher but later rejected this mantle and withdrew from the Theosophy organization behind it. His subject matter included psychological revolution, the nature of mind, meditation, inquiry, human relationships, and bringing about radical change in society. He constantly stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasised that such revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity, be it religious, political, or social.

Krishnamurti was born in British India. In early adolescence he had a chance encounter with prominent occultist and theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater in the grounds of the Theosophical Society headquarters at Adyar in Madras. He was subsequently raised under the tutelage of Annie Besant and Leadbeater, leaders of the Society at the time, who believed him to be a ‘vehicle’ for an expected World Teacher. As a young man, he disavowed this idea and dissolved the Order of the Star in the East, an organisation that had been established to support it.

He said he had no allegiance to any nationality, caste, religion, or philosophy, and spent the rest of his life travelling the world, speaking to large and small groups and individuals. Many of his talks and discussions were published as transcripts; among them The First and Last Freedom, and The Only Revolution, and also several diaries were published, including Krishnamurti’s Notebook. His last public talk was in Madras, India, in January 1986, a month before his death at his home in Ojai, California.

Krishnamurti’s teachings have had an influence on the thoughts of several notable public figures, including Kahlil Gibran, Aldous Huxley, Henry Miller, Bruce Lee, Jackson Pollock, Philip Guston, David Bohm, Joseph Campbell, Beatrice Wood, Deepak Chopra, Indira Gandhi, and Eckhart Tolle.

Apparently some in the Theosophical Society had big plans for Krishnamurti but he chose not to take that route. It looks like AAB’s comments here largely concern that incident. Below are the three places in the writings of AAB where he is mentioned by name:

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Alice A. Bailey on Homosexuality

By today’s standards Alice A. Bailey (AAB) and Djwhal Khul (DK) appear to have had very backward views on homosexuality – views you would expect more in the 1940s than the 21st century. You will see these views in both the writings solely attributed to AAB (The Unfinished Autobiography) and those attributed to DK (Esoteric Healing and Esoteric Astrology).

To be perfectly clear, I am not advocating these ideas as concretely expressed. I believe in presenting the evidence and letting you, the reader, reach your own conclusions as to whether these writings represent “ancient wisdom” or “ancient prejudices.” Some will see what is on the surface and some will look deeper.

Personally I lean more towards the interpretation of author and longtime AAB/DK student Joseph J. Dewey who has some interesting takes on this subject in the AAB/DK writings – see his quotes below (and follow the links for a fuller exposition):

“While society focuses on the disadvantage of the gays few realize that for every disadvantage there is an advantage. In the case of the gay, he is closer to the zero point in energy than the heterosexual. If he thus learns the right use of sex energy he will find consistent soul contact easier than the hetro who is distracted by the attraction of opposites. Of course, the powers of the soul are available to both sides of the equation. Both sides have their own peculiar problems in attaining them.” -Joseph J. Dewey, DK on Gays

“If the child was a different sex in the past life then the person will often be homosexual in the current life.” -Joseph J. Dewey, Keys Writings 2015, Part 11

“That said, you may ask if I agree with the teachings of DK on homosexuality. The answer is this. I agree with the underlying principles behind his words, but if I were to teach those same principles I would write them much differently, and some I have already written.”

“Several things he teaches do need some clarification. He calls homosexuality a perversion. This is indeed inflammatory language in our day and it also gives a wrong impression. The truth of the matter is there is perversion among both homosexuals and heterosexuals. Homosexual orientation is a natural occurrence caused by a shift in male/female energy which occurs as we move from live to life. Christian fundamentalists are wrong when they say it is a choice. Once a person is born in a certain energy flow, no choice can change it. He can only choose what he will do with the energy which is in circulation in his life.”

“Wrong use of the sexual energy, whether one be straight or gay, is where the “perversion” comes in. Perversion is a strong word in this age. It is better to say that wrong use of energy is merely a mistake that leads to less than a fullness of soul energy.” -Joseph J. Dewey, Gay Thoughts

It is also possible that God, the Hierarchy, Ascended Masters, or whatever you believe in, speaks to humanity at any given time in a way and vernacular that people of that time can understand and relate to. If a real DK exists and were to speak to us today he would probably use very different language attuned to how we understand the universe (which is vastly different than how people in the West understood these things in the first half of the 20th century  when AAB was writing).

Here are the quotes from the writings of Alice A. Bailey. Judge for yourself.

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Is Reality Real?

Is reality real, or just an illusion? Does it exist, or is it just a dream that I will awake from in the “real” reality?

It is popular in many spiritual writings today to emphasize that the world we appear to live in is not real, that it is merely illusion, and to “wake up” is to recognize this fact. On the laptop on which I perceive myself writing this little post the Dictionary defines “illusion” like this:

• a thing that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses: the illusion makes parallel lines seem to diverge by placing them on a zigzag-striped background.

• a deceptive appearance or impression: the illusion of family togetherness | the tension between illusion and reality.

• a false idea or belief: he had no illusions about the trouble she was in.

Science actually supports the idea that “what you see is not what you get!” For example we look at a solid wood table but the whole “solid” concept is our perception, not the underlying reality. Science tells us that much of what we see as a “table” is in fact empty space with myriads of particles we call protons, neutrons, electrons, neutrinos, etc. – the menagerie of particles grows and grows as scientists continually come up with new ones to explain some nagging problem that prevents a “unified theory of everything.”

But even those “particles” may not be really real. They may be waves, or vibrations, or energy – anything but something truly solid. There are famous experiments in science where in some cases light looks like a particle, and in another experiment like a wave. Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2 seems to says that mass is just a condensed form of energy. Maybe nothing is really solid, or real?

Nevertheless our perceptions are useful for living in this world, real or illusion. If we could actually see the myriad of “real” detail down to the sub-atomic particles that would be just too much, a mass of confusion, especially if your overriding motive right now is to find something tasty to eat. It is a lot more useful to see a banana as a whole, and not the sub-atomic particles science tells us that it really is.

It seems that our senses, such that they are, are useful for dealing with the level of perception or illusion we currently appear to reside on. Also despite our limited perception (is there anything that exists that is not limited?) scientists have – depending on your point of view – come up with powerful explanations or intricately contrived pictures of the illusion we call existence.

It doesn’t matter …

I have come to one conclusion about the reality of existence that I find useful. It doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter ultimately what the absolute reality is. If we exist, then we have to deal with the illusion that we currently live and have our being in. If we don’t exist, then it doesn’t matter anyway. Either way you flip the coin, real or illusion, it just doesn’t matter.

Those who claim to have a knowledge of higher reality rarely have useful advice on how to deal with this reality (or illusion). I don’t claim to have a lot of knowledge about those higher realities, but here is my advice about this reality, whatever it is.  Don’t be too attached to it. Take it for what it is (or is not), get what you can out of it, and be prepared to modify your views as your vision widens.

You are the question, and reality is the answer.

Question reality.