Mme. Blavatsky was among the earliest to attempt to bring to the West, some sense of ancient Eastern thought - this at a time when 'parlor tricks' and 'mediums' were all the rage. (That is - other than individual exchanges). She attempted to speak reasonably and deliberately about.. the invisible (whatever is or isn't there) - from as much of 'the scientific method' as might be possible, given that peer review is hardly posssible - of an individual experience (!) A healthy skepticism would have to suffice.

I don't know the reasoning for attributing the Good/Evil dichotomy within her model - but again, one has to consider the time in the US, the public mood - and what terms she thought might be close-enough metaphors to work with.

Anyway.. the Theosophical Society has passed the century mark. But as always - one can go nearer the source of the ideas presented, then as now. Just depends on the degree and urgency of interest. East/West is just another artificial dichotomy anyway -- either 'Truth' is the only monad (or we have to then invent anti-Truth and guarantee Good and Bad Angels dancing on those metaphorical pins).

As to prayer.. it's a tacit assumption locally, that it is about 'asking for stuff' from some One. Understandable that , but also possibly - limiting of horizons to a familiar model (?)

Hell - we can't even agree on an 'economic' model for the pedestrian daily moving around of things, from one place or pocket to another - even with such fancy jargon as velocity of money and others as Strange as a Quark.

Why should we imagine a useful 'explication' of All and Everything, in words: if we can't even figure out where/whether goods+money have anything much to do with 'real life'?

Enjoy the Safari,


A.

Maybe the over-simplifications (Good/Evil and such) she deemed about all the traffic would bear ~ the last '01 in America, but that doesn't excuse the er 'Indian culture' artifacts.

I suspect that those whose 'search' ended with Mme. B. weren't looking for much.. except party conversation.

BTW - any honest 'Sages' from thereabouts echo the same observation re the 'religious' practices tacked-on to the base ideas, and the omnipresent stealing. (which is hardly anything to do with any Important stuff - just homo-sap being normal)

Seen One Corp-Religion on any compass point: seen 'em -


Ashton

PS - Sometimes the $ part is.. mainly about supporting the 'project'. (Or even about, demonstrating our conditioned $-fascination via a brief experience of umm disdain?)

Gurdjieff (and Ouspensky) appeared here on a similar mission in '20s. There are still such schools around, but emphasis from the outset is about 'verifying' not memorizing stuff. I see those as a step some have found to be worth going through, depending.. but as Ever! caveat emptor
There Is No Free Truth\ufffd

[That's actually not far from one of Mr. G's main Points re "free" stuff]

A.