An elderly Buddhist monk from Thailand told me to read Rudolf Steiner today. He studied under Jiddu Krishnamurti many years ago and works in a Steiner school. So what should I read by Steiner to learn about theosophy and esoteric religion?
>>25374465There’s plenty of books on Steiner schools in the Scandinavian languages since they’re relatively popular there. Though seen as equally odd and alternative.
Steiner, like Krishnamurti, is an outgrowth of the Blavatsky's Theosophical Society. Charles Ledbetter probably molested Jiddu and his brother, or at the very least taught them how to masturbate. You will now understand why Jiddu was always very reluctant to speak in any kind of detail about being selected as the Messiah by the Theosophical Society. This book "Theosophy History of a Pseudo-Religion" and "The Spiritist Fallacy" will give you great insight into the inner workings of Blavatsky's organization, a close inspection of her claimed abilities and a sense of her influences and the circles she ran in. There is substantial influence from Freemasonry and other secret societies as well as vast amounts of evidence for fraudulent behavior on the part of Blavatsky. At the same time it is clear she was scraping valid (and invalid) material off the edges of the secret societies she interacted with, and almost certainly fell under the influence of intelligent forces that were not human. Her personality was extremely suspect, hardly what one would expect of a religious visionary (sexual partners with young men while still legally married, two failed marriages, drug usage, a mercurial temperament that could turn into a rage, intentionally lying, fraudulent seances, and extreme manipulation of others). There is also strong circumstantial evidence Annie Bessant was acting on behalf of the British Crown as a kind of activist-spy, and the Theosophical Society in India (which drew almost zero interest from Indians) was a kind of clearing-house for covert operations. It is no coincidence the Protestant Christian Sun Yat Sin who installed himself after the overthrow the Qing Dynasty was a Theosophical Society member, as was DT Suzuki who later helped popularize California Buddhism alongside his (British) friend Alan Watts. Steiner falls under the influence of these same forces since he is certainly in her lineage. He also seems to have picked up a lot of the strange esoteric beliefs that were circulating in proto-Nazi Germany and many of his followers came from the same circles as what eventually became the Thule Society. You can read about Steiner in Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke's two excellent histories "Black Sun" and "The Occult Roots of Nazism." He was not an influence on Nazism nor was he a Nazi but you must take note of the milieu he came from.Finally I have to caution you that your Buddhist friend sounds heavily influenced by western ideas. If you follow Theosophy closely you will see it had an enormous impact on the 20th century and is the source of many beliefs that later informed the New Age. Proceed with great caution.
>>25374534Forgot picOne of the things that makes this book so great is that the author was clearly working with insider knowledge.
>>25374465Aw Christ I went to a Waldorf School. I always had this distinct feeling that if the people teaching were autistic Germans it'd have been great but instead it was all fat retarded lib burnouts from California.
>>25374534You shouldn't lump Steiner in as just another Theosophical society associate. Things aren't always so clear cut. A big part of why is he left is he didn't like their petty internal power games. He also consistently advocated for personal spiritual development and cautioned taking anything he said as authoritative. He never intended to start a religion or erase existing religions. As for his "strange esoteric beliefs", either they can be verified and have a basis in reality or they don't. If you dive deep enough into any belief system or religion they all get weird. I do think it is perfectly justifiable to investigate him in light of his associations, given what they are, and I don't disagree with you that the Theosophical society gives a great many signs of being a counter-religion. But you must understand that where there's spiritual potential or impulse, a lot of counter-religion/power-seekers are going to be drawn in. (I might add in passing, as you seem to take the Traditionalist stance, that traditional religious structures/institutions provide little to no special protection against these things). I, however, have not found Steiner to be such a character, nor do I have any evidence of disreputable actions or statements on his part.>t. appreciator of steiner as well as traditionalist eschatology
>>25374465What the fuck was it with euros and esp Germans becoming indiaboos?
>>25374643India has always been a place with a lot of religious innovation. It heavily influenced most of Asia for many centuries. Why should it be surprising that it influenced Europe too? It influenced Germans especially because we the deepest spiritual character of the European peoples. Von Franz talks about this.
>>25374643It's basically insatiably interesting once you get into it. Indian philosophy (especially Vedanta) is more sophisticated than Greek philosophy. Then there's the whole Proto-Indo-European thing which indicates the Indian mind has some kind of intimate historical or genetic connection to the Greco-Roman mind. Not to mention an abundance of pre-modern contact between those two. In fact they seem to have been in a state of continuous communication for all of known history.
>>25374643Short version it's seen as vaguely exotic and there was just enough transmission via the greek/indian contact early on to remain that way. So it's new and different and fascinating and you can't really get enough because of the limitations of the time. No need to worry about the poo then, you didn't know it existed. While it often expressed the same ideas it did it in different ways, with not much western intellectual 'territory' staked. Meanwhile, people are *still* arguing over Heraclitus. So you've got something new, something not many people speak about (even over long periods), without any negative connotations it'd have today, with an immediate presentation that's pretty alien to you no matter how much you'll be able to draw lines once you actually look at it. I think the theosophical society might have been the last gasp of that sort of thing, but I'm not frankly up to date on any modern scholarship on the history of the studies.
>>25374643Indians are ancient Greeks. The Greeks we know know were wiped out by Turks.
>>25374534>>25374536I'm not even a Blavatsky follower but you Guenontards are annoying beyond belief.
>>25376171I am sorry you feel this way, thank you for sharing your concerns, have a good evening and/or day.
