You write:
“Also one of the most influential Theosophical pupils of Mme. Blavatsky worldwide after her death, C.W. Leadbeater, called himself a Buddhist (though he wrote more on Christian ritual) and did a great amount of work together with Olcott for Sri Lankan Buddhism.”
C.W.L. had been a pupil of H.P.B. for some time, but he was surely not the most influential one in the sense of promulgating and teaching Theosophy according to the teachings of H.P.B. and WQJ. after their death.
Even if you do not explicitly mention it, this sentence gives the impression that C.W.L. had really taught genuine Theosophy. But he, together with A. Besant were spreading entirely different ideas than Theosophy, being psychical instead of spiritual. It seems that your statement lets H.P.B. down towards psychism and lift up CWL towards spiritualism. This is not so. We all know what happened after the death of W.Q.J. in 1896, very clearly explained in an article in the Theosophy Magazine for October 1928 and elsewhere. I am going to quote some sentences of the article:
“For 30 years – a full generation of adult humanity – theosophy has largely been identified with them (A. Besant and C.W. Leadbeater) by themselves, by their followers, by the public at large. They have very largely replaced, whether from the standpoint of teaching or of example, the writings and the influence of H.P. Blavatsky and Wm. Q. Judge. The nature and extent of the substitution is unknown to most members and they will never learn of it from those who have exploited them. In the thirty years Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater have exercised undisputed sway over the theosophical destinies of those who have trusted them, they have put afloat an endless succession of books and other literature. It requires no Solon or Solomon to appraise the mental and moral value of their writings. The simplest-minded Theosophist has only to compare the Besant-Leadbeater-writings with the philosophical, ethical, mentally and morally educative value of the writings of Madame Blavatsky and Mr. Judge to know for himself the gulf between the pretender and the genuine practitioner of Occultism, between the true and the false Teacher of the Ancient Wisdom-Religion.
“Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater have spawned and sponsored a long, long list of activities, chief among them the Order of the Star, Co-Masonry, the Liberal Catholic Church, and, last in order of degradation and absurdity, the cult of the “World Teacher”! Already (1928) Mr. Krishnamurti is persona non grata to Mr. Leadbeater and his Liberal Catholic Church, whom the “World Teacher” repudiates, as he repudiates Mrs. Besant’s Theosophy and Mrs. Besant’s Masters, and as he repudiates her “World Mother.” …………………
