Theosophy presents itself as a kind of universal esoteric wisdom, drawing heavily on Hindu and Buddhist language while reshaping it into a distinct system. Its primary authorities are modern texts such as Blavatsky’s *The Secret Doctrine* and claimed communications from “Masters” or Mahatmas, rather than the Vedas, Upaniṣads, Pāli Canon, or Mahāyāna sūtras that ground mainstream Hindu and Buddhist thought. These traditions do not recognize Theosophical writings or its Mahatmas as part of their own scriptural or lineage-based authority. Instead, Hinduism and Buddhism interpret their doctrines through long-standing commentarial traditions and specific schools, each with its own methods and aims.

Doctrinally, Theosophy is explicitly syncretic and universalist, seeking to integrate elements from Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Neoplatonism, and Western occultism into a single overarching philosophy. It emphasizes a progressive evolution of consciousness through reincarnation, often described in terms of multiple planes, bodies, and vast cycles involving planetary chains and root-races. While Hinduism and Buddhism also affirm karma and rebirth, their classical cosmologies do not include this particular scheme of root-races and planetary evolution, nor do they typically frame spiritual life as participation in such an elaborate racial or planetary drama. Their focus remains more on liberation from saṃsāra than on mapping cosmic stages of human evolution.

The understanding of self and ultimate goal marks another sharp contrast, especially with Buddhism. Theosophy teaches a higher, enduring Self or Monad that evolves through many lives and levels of existence, aiming at spiritual ascent and eventual union with the Divine, often coupled with ideals of universal brotherhood and service to humanity. Many Hindu schools affirm a true Self (Ātman/Brahman) and seek mokṣa, liberation from bondage through realization of that Self or God, devotion, knowledge, or right action, without adopting the specific Theosophical narrative of an endlessly evolving Monad. Buddhism, by contrast, centers on anattā/anātman, the denial of an eternal, unchanging self, and seeks nirvāṇa as the cessation of suffering and saṃsāra, not the perfection of a permanent soul progressing through hierarchies of planes.

In terms of spiritual authority and practice, Theosophy posits a hierarchy of advanced Masters guiding humanity’s evolution, a notion that differs from the traditional guru–disciple relationships of Hinduism and the monastic and teacher lineages of Buddhism. Theosophical life tends to emphasize study of esoteric doctrine, meditation, ethical living, and sometimes psychic or occult development, while often downplaying the dense ritual life of Hinduism—temple worship, pūjā, pilgrimage, and festivals—or the monastic discipline and established meditation systems of Buddhism. Hindu and Buddhist communities are deeply embedded in specific cultures, languages, and institutions, whereas Theosophy arose as a modern Western movement that reinterprets Asian ideas through a European esoteric and philosophical lens, using many of the same terms but placing them in a markedly different conceptual framework.