Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a Russian mystic best known for co-founding the Theosophical Society. Wikipedia says,
"Fundamentally, the underlying concept behind Blavatsky's Theosophy was that there was an 'ancient wisdom religion' which had once been found across the world, and which was known to various ancient figures, such as the Greek philosopher Plato and the ancient Hindu sages." (Wikipedia: Helena Blavatsky, 10.23.21 UTC 20:33)
The rest of this post is some quotes from Blavatsky.
Altruism
"The function of Theosophists is to open men's hearts and understandings to charity, justice and generosity, attributes which belong specifically to the human kingdom and are natural to man when he has developed the qualities of a human being." (Letter to the 1888 American Convention)
"Children should above all be taught self-reliance, love for all men, altruism, to think and reason for themselves... Aim at creating free men and women, free intellectually, free morally, unprejudiced in all respects and above all things, unselfish." (The Key to Theosophy, 1888)
"There is the karma of merit and the karma of demerit. Karma neither punishes or rewards, it is simply the one universal law which guides unerringly, and so to say, blindly all other laws productive of certain effects along the grooves of their respective causations." (The Theosophical Glossary, 1892)
"Buddha, 'The Enlightened'. The highest degree of knowledge. To become a Buddha one has to break through the bondage of sense and personality; to acquire a complete perception of the REAL SELF and learn not to separate it from all otherselves; to learn by experience the utter unreality of all phenomena of the visible Kosmos foremost of all..." (The Theosophical Glossary, 1892)
