The Voice of the Silence: Being an Extract from the Book of the Golden Precepts by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky List price    $11.95     usually ships within 24 hours during weekdays Details: Publisher: Theosophical Publishing House Pub. Date: February, 1992 Format: paperback, 122pp ISBN: 9780835606806

A facsimile reprint of the 1889 edition; appears exactly the way Blavatsky wrote it. In this small but powerful book, Madame Blavatsky clarifies the difference between the two paths of spiritual attainment. The one pursued by those seeking truth for their own enlightenment, the other followed by those whose sole aspiration for self-knowledge is prompted by compassionate concern for the well being of all mankind.

Includes an index and introduction by Boris de Zirkoff, a leading expert of Madame Helena P. Blavatsky's works.

Critics:

Dedicated to the Few
After Madame Blavatsky reintroduced the esoteric, perennial, spiritual wisdom back into mainstream western consciousness, she realized that there were two very different types of seekers who would make use of such knowledge. There were those who would seek it for personal power and selfish benefit, and those who would seek it to attempt to educate and liberate all of humanity. The difference between these paths was transcendence of the personal ego to reach the realm of the Higher Self. This book was an attempt to see that her gift of esoteric knowledge would not be passed unquestioned and unchallenged to those who were not fit to receive it.

The first thing that strikes the reader familiar with Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine is the Buddhist emphasis of this volume. While it is based on the same archaic sources as the other works (some of which are pre-Buddhist in origin) it is the true Buddhist path of the heart that clearly shines through again and again. In fact, you have the admonishment: "But even ignorance is better than Head-learning, with no Soul-wisdom to illuminate and guide it." The Soul-wisdom is clearly present here on every page. This depth of understanding of the highest form of Buddhist thought is indeed remarkable for a book written in the 1880's by a westerner. In writing this book the Madame ensured that the spirit of true enlightenment would forever be welded to the Theosophical movement.

This particular edition is a verbatim copy of the original 1889. As carefully as Madame Blavatsky chose her words, it would be unthinkable to edit them to be more "accessible" to a modern audience. If the reader has difficulty with the technical Sanskrit terms there are detailed glossaries included in all three sections. - Stan Curtis "Oakshama" (standraft at sbcglobal.net)

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was born on August 12, 1831, at Dnepropetrovsk (Ekaterinoslav), Ukraine, daughter of Colonel Peter Alexeyevich von Hahn and novelist Helena Andreyevna (née de Fadeyev). In 1849 she married N. V. Blavatsky, and shortly thereafter began more than 20 years of extensive travel, bringing her into contact with mystic traditions the world over.
In 1873 Blavatsky arrived in New York from Paris where, impelled by her teachers, she began her work. At first she attempted to interest the Spiritualists in the philosophy behind phenomena but they resented her refusal to accept their standard explanations. In July 1875 she was urged "to establish a philosophico-religious society," and in the Fall of the same year she became the principal founder, along with H. S. Olcott and W. Q. Judge, of The Theosophical Society. She devoted the rest of her life to its humanitarian and educational objectives.
About the time the Society began, she started to write her first major work, Isis Unveiled, and after its publication in 1878 she and H. S. Olcott left for India. There they worked to re-establish Oriental philosophical and religious ideas, largely through the pages of The Theosophist, a magazine which Blavatsky founded and edited.
In 1884, while Blavatsky was traveling in Europe, disgruntled TS employees in India went to the missionaries with forged documents, bringing charges of fraud against her. The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) then sent Richard Hodgson to investigate the charges, and subsequently published an unfavorable report. (In 1986 the SPR published an analysis of the Hodgson Report by Dr. Vernon Harrison, an SPR member expert in forgery and handwriting analysis, who concluded that the Hodgson Report was biased, unscientific, and completely unconvincing.)

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