Dear Nick and Crew,
Best wishes for the new Theosophy Forum. I have been a lurker on the various Theosophy discussion lists for a few years, but with the expertise of many of the posters on those lists, I feel as though there's little I could add. Also, I refuse
to participate in flame wars. I believe in the original principles of the Theosophical Society regarding open-minded study and thought. While I tend to be a "Back to Blavatsky" person myself--and I would include people such as W.Q. Judge and
Robert Crosbie as extensions of that--I have found much of value in the thoughts of people as diverse as Leadbeater, Tingley, Alice Bailey, Besant, C. Jinarajadasa,
G. de Purucker, and Krishnamurti. They may not be in agreement with HPB, and they may not be pure Theosophists (or Theosophists at all!), but they have illuminated many topics for me from different perspectives, and I find that the more flashlights aimed on a subject from different perspectives, the more illumination will be provided. I am also a serious Vedanta student (I had the privilege of attending some small classes with Swami Bodhananda Saraswati
last weekend) and have been for decades, and I have received much of value
from the Golden Dawn tradition. Tolerance and open-mindedness are
essential to me. I hope I will have something useful to add to discussions on this forum.
I wonder if one discussion thread we could get going on this list is "what I'm reading now", where people could mention what they are reading and then give a few comments about the work. That way, people could learn about works they'd only heard about or seen on book lists, and we could also get different perspectives on works we've read before. I know that sometimes I have re-read a book after encountering someone else's discussion of it, and Theosophical works
(and spiritual works in general) tend to lend themselves to multiple readings
over the years. I will volunteer to provide such a post in the next day or two, if others will do the same. That might be a good jumpstart for the list...just an idea...

Bill (aka Django), from Texas

Bill,

Your idea of "What I Am Reading Now" is a great idea. I'll put that up. One of the problems with Theosophy is that there are thousands of Theosophical books out there. I visited the Krotona library in California last summer, and the librarian there said she had over 15,000 Theosophical books in that library alone! If we can take a look at a few different books at a time, that would be a good way to discuss Theosophical ideas.

I will create the sub-forum for that, I will list what I am reading, and I will wait to hear what you (and everyone else out there!) is reading.

Thanks for the suggestion.

You said,

"They may not be in agreement with HPB, and they may not be pure Theosophists (or Theosophists at all!), but they have illuminated many topics for me from different perspectives, and I find that the more flashlights aimed on a subject from different perspectives, the more illumination will be provided."

--< I think HPB and everyone else would agree with you. Theosophy is not the only source of Divine Wisdom. We must always be open-minded, and look at new ideas from different sources.

Dear Nick,

Congratulations on your new endeavor. I am looking forward to seeing your approach to this BB. Any effort that promotes constructive communication between the various members of the greater Theosophical community is something that we need to continue.

Best wishes,
Jerry

Jerry,

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Actually, it has been a lot of fun so far.

Care to share any info about yourself? Location? Relationship to Theosophy?