BLAVATSKY and CONFUCIUS SOME PARALLELS BETWEEN THEOSOPHY and CONFUCIANISM by John Algeo White Lotus Day, 2009

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BLAVATSKY AND CONFUCIUS SOME PARALLELS BETWEEN THEOSOPHY AND CONFUCIANISM By John Algeo White Lotus Day, 2009 THEOSOPHY CONFUCIANISM 1. "real Theosophy IS ALTRUISM, and we cannot 1. The basic principle of life is "shu (considera- repeat it too often" (CW 11:202). tion of others). What you do not wish for yourself, do not impose on others" (Analects 15.24). 2. "Their spirits are no spirits but spooks—rags, 2. "While showing respect for ghosts and spirits, the cast off second skins of their personalities to keep away from them—this may be called that the dead shed in the astral light as serpents wisdom" (Analects 6.22). shed theirs on earth" (Letters, p. 20). 3. "The Secret Doctrine was the universally 3. "I only hand on: I cannot create new things. I diffused religion of the ancient and prehistoric believe in the ancients and therefore I love them" world" (SD 1:xxxiv). (Analects 7.1). 4. Parabrahm: "An Omnipresent, Eternal, 4. Taiji (t'ai-chi) 'supreme ultimate' or 'ridgepole' Boundless, and Immutable PRINCIPLE . the supporting the universe (I Ching, one of the five 'Causeless Cause'" (SD 1:14). Confucian Classics). 5. Periodicity: "the absolute universality of that 5. I Ching or Book of Changes, on which Confu- law of . flux and reflux, ebb and flow . cius is said to have written a commentary, deals recorded in all departments of nature" (SD 1:17). with the constant transformations of this world. 6. "Spirit (or Consciousness) and Matter are . 6. Yang and yin are the two energies of the . the two facets or aspects of the Absolute I Ching from which the universe emerges: (Parabrahm), which constitute the basis of conditioned Being" (SD 1:15). 7. "The putting on of flesh periodically by the 7. "Ji-lu asked . 'May I venture to ask what Soul or the Ego was a universal belief; nor can death is?' The Master said, 'You do not anything be more consonant with justice and understand life yet; how can you understand Karmic law" (Theosophical Glossary, s.v. death?'" (Analects 11.12). "Reincarnation"). 8. Sixth-Round Avatars; fifth-Round Chohans, 8. Sheng or sage; Junzi or exemplary person; Shi fourth-Round Chelas, fourth-Round humans. or scholar; Shiao-ren or little person. 9. "There is a road, steep and thorny, beset with 9. The Master said: "Set your heart on the Way, perils of every kind, but yet a road, and it leads base yourself on virtue, rely on humaneness, and to the very heart of the universe" (CW 13:219). take your relaxation in the arts" (Analects 7.6). Analects (1.1): "To learn something and then to practice it at the right time, is that not a pleasure?" Analects (20.3): "The Master said: If one does not understand the plan of Heaven, one has no way of becoming an exemplary person; if one does not understand ritual, one has no way of taking a stand; if one does not understand words, one has no way of understanding people." .

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