Theos-Talk Archives (September 1993 Message tl00019)

Dear Group,

I am happy to be a new participant in this type of study group.
I have several comments on the material which has been written
here since August and have spent most of the day today reading
over the several pages of statements.  My name is Brenda Tucker
and I remember Gerald Schueler and Kim Titchnell from the
previous group.  I feel as if the old group may have been
resurrected as most of the messages near the end of its life
were from one or two people only and for that reason not
stimulating or rewarding enough.

When I first read Don DeGracia, I was very impressed with his
professionalism.  I felt very elevated at the thought of
becoming his acquaintance since he seemed so attentive to his
scientific training.  My husband mentioned that I worked for a
few years at the National Headquarters in Wheaton and while
there was fortunate enough to attend every seminar, panel
discussion and symposium, (or almost).  I heard people like
Marilyn Ferguson, Fritjof Capra, Renee Weber, and many other
Quest authors.  Sometimes I wish desperately to be back in the
fold with such notable thinkers.  I love Don's "school work"
because of where it could take him in the future.

Jerry and Don had stimulating conflicts, I'm sure, but something
in me was wondering why they couldn't put their uncertainty or
disagreements in more of a question form?  Instead of commenting
on what each other is saying in such a detailed manner, it is
possible to pose questions that will bring to light the
difficulty in understanding or to write material from a slightly
different point of view that isn't so to the picky.  I enjoy
heated discussions as much as the next person, but it could be
more of a challenge to try to keep the material flowing as if it
were a presentation and not just bits and pieces of difficult or
poorly chosen phrases here and there to comment on.

However, since the several discussions that followed between he
and Jerry, I wondered if his youth wasn't being exposed as he
didn't continue to strictly adhere to the scientific
professionalism that was apparent at first.  He had sounded like
a serious person with a future and not just a university
student, which is something I wish he could have continued as
(I was wondering if you, Don, were hoping to come to San Diego
in search of employment?  Also, what types of employment do you
have in mind after receiving a Master's Degree?  Do you ever
want to teach physics?)  I know Jerry is hard to keep at bay
sometimes, because he has so many wonderful ideas and isn't
afraid to communicate them or to thoroughly question someone
else's.

I'd like to update our cohort, Jerry, on my status since we last
corresponded.  I remember our last correspondence to be
concerning your original translation of THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
(Egyptian).  I was so surprised that anyone could attempt that
with some success that I very much wanted to investigate
hieroglyphics as you did, but am only now just beginning a book
called THE MUMMY by E. Wallis Budge.  Would this be a good place
to start?  Would you be able to recount to us here a little bit
of the history behind your attempting such a phenomenal work?
What was your first hint that the other translations were in
error or who do you know that was eager in the study of the
cultures and languages of that time?  Did you take any
university courses that stimulated a translation?  Do you know
Hebrew?  Please, any history would be helpful, because I believe
that since the last correspondence I have been pondering this
very thought-provoking attainment of yours and have only barely
started to see for myself if it might be possible for me or any
novice to uncover these profound secrets (or are the hieroglyphs
really commonplace?  They're just words.)

I worked at an engineering company for three to four months at
the beginning of this year and end of last year and believe me I
received an education.  I wish I could have worked there
permanently, I suppose, because their heads were always on their
jobs and didn't wander or stray from presenting the best image
they could.

I've recently (last week) been meditating on the phrase, "You
are the path." for the purpose of directing my more mundane
existence into proper channels.  I frequently recall this little
mantra to mind as the path is very important to me and my life
is dedicated to this experiment of "powers, service, and an
inner government."   As a theosophist I want to stimulate the
people here to go on to be better people and to do work in
harmony with the Great Plan and The Theosophical Society.  I did
feel that my being in the peacenet group was a starting point
for my going on to having a live study center in my home.  There
were six of us meeting twice a month as I believe I mentioned
before signing off for the last time.  We have successfully
completed FUNDAMENTALS OF THE ESOTERIC PHILOSOPHY by G.
dePurucker with one of the original members and have since met,
through Michael Meyer, a serious student of the occult who lives
within only a mile of our home in L.A.  Unfortunately we are
there only on weekends and in a San Diego apartment during the
week.  This student has blessed our group significantly since
getting in touch with her in May or June.  She has been asked to
give a series of classes at the LACTS (Los Angeles Center for
Theosophic Studies) and is continuing to dive into the reading
material, contact other theosophists on a national level, and
reorganize her life along the goals of studying with
theosophists.  This has been my only experience of this nature
and so to the seasoned veterans of study center management, may
seem like nothing, but I recognize it as a first step and
contribute some of the success to my work on an electronic
bulletin like this one.

We aren't members of a study group here in San Diego.  Perhaps
we're too new in the area or are here so temporarily it wouldn't
be possible, but even as a member of the continuing "off the
record" study center at our house, I want to see something
improved come out of it.  Michael's and our mutual acquaintance
has been involved in organizing a new group other than the
informal group at our house and I want to know more about what
qualities are attractive to new members and what qualities are
necessary for "formal" groups.  Does anyone else have this
preoccupation with elections and leadership that I've recently
encountered?  Even in reading this material, I'm thinking who
would be the best person to lead us?  Who would I vote for or
nominate in an election?

(part 2)

<I've thought a lot along these types of lines.  At one point I
<was actually trying to construct a mathematical model of human
<consciousness based on quantum mechanical concepts.  It
<entailed making a fractal Hilbert space (believe it or not!).
<I needed to use transfinite numbers though.  The model fell
<apart when I realized that you could not map the real numbers
<to the class of transfinite numbers called "aleph knot".

<However, that was many years ago.  I've since abandoned such
<attempts.  Since then I've come to the opinion that, hell, why
<do we need to model these things (i.e. our human psychology)?
<I mean we *do* *experience* them!  It comes to the simple
<question, "What's the point?"  I mean, let's say we construct a
<mathematical formalism that represents complex human
<psychological behaviors such as love (or more generally,
<emotion), memory, cognition, etc.  Well, so what?  Does
<learning this formalism make us any better as individual
<people?  Will I be kinder, more tolerant?  Or will I, as is
<usually the case, become self-righteous and think I am better
<than people because I have this complex and obtuse
<understanding of human behavior.  See, it's only a hairline
<away to becoming a fanatic and I no longer like to tread this
<hairline.

<As I've told others, anything you wish to know, any process in
<all of Nature, is within your grasp of understanding.

This is where I became convinced again that "You are the path.",
but I was strangely disappointed at the same time.  Maybe
because it's been said "the path is a razor's edge."

<You don't need fancy machines or obtuse mathematics.  These are
<mere overlays that, more often than not, blind us from seeing
<the simple truth of things.  But any knowledge you could desire
<is within you already.  You want to know how the brain works?
<You want to know what the essence of consciousness is?  You
<want to know if there is life after death?  Do you want to know
<about the world of subatomic particles or the vast worlds of the
<stars and galaxies?  It's all in you already.  All you have to
<do is learn to tap into it.

<As I keep telling Gerald, the yogis are correct.  Their
<teachings lead to this knowledge.  Their teachings show you how
<to bring this knowledge into your individual consciousness.
<And then, if you feel like making a machine or a mathematical
<theory, well then, go for it.  You can do that too.  But to
<expect a machine or theory to reveal to us anything but the
<most limited truths is to be delusioned or to have a totally
<inadequate understanding of yourself as a being.

Don, I believe you need to know the answers to these questions
as part of your chosen occupation and life's work.  I just need
answers to: "How can I work more productively in a study center?
What is the purpose of the study center?  What is the motive
behind each person's becoming a member in a study center?  What
situations might arise due to the attracting of many, many,
types of individuals, some serious and some just passing
through? and other questions like these.

Three other comments:  1)  I sincerely and adamantly believe
that so many, many, things act as signposts to the ancient
wisdom; that they merely behave as a beckoning to the road of
self-discovery.  Mythology, as much as I can't appreciate it in
its vastness, is there, is studied, and exists, I strongly
believe, to lead others to the path.  This group is to lead
others to the path.  Every other purpose that any human being
could assign, believe, theorize, or state is just the ridiculous
"human creation".  It is our thoughts which make of machines and
ideas nothing more than "human creation".  If we try to look at
their divine purpose, I know they are here, too, as part of a
vast plan of creation; not as a result of "human creation", but
as something beyond our human limitations.

2) It is you people that make this a worthwhile activity and by
studying with you and getting to know you, many wonderful things
can result.  I hope I can at least thank the last group for
blessing us enough to have a physical plane study center.  I may
like or not like your ideas, but if there is some way of
blessing you with our walking along the same road for awhile as
I believe you bless my life, that is what my object is.  I may
learn things from each of you that aren't even mentioned in
these pages and pages of text, subtle things, forms of
assistance.

3) A good study center not only has to lead others to the truth
or the path, but in my mind it has to serve as a vehicle for the
masters work on earth.  As much as we endeavor to present
theosophy to others, so to do the masters (I believe) endeavor
to extend their superior activities into our realms.
Channelling up and channelling down, I guess.

I heard a lecture on quarks by Steven Phillips while staying at
Olcott (which is what we call the National Headquarters) and I
was so thrilled at being able to study this which was
entertaining the great minds of the world.  I feel a
responsibility to at least acquaint myself with new things and I
can't thank people enough for the information on Chaos theory.
My husband has given a seminar on Fractals, so I learned about
it from him, but how many people still need to become better
acquainted just to feel whole.  The same is true of past ages,
the existence of other souls, and all new scientific findings
and creations.  If I exclude them from my life, am I
participating holisticly?  Is holism necessary for the path?

I also would like to refer back to the Vedic poem where sound is
instrumental in creation.  This was described by John Mead.
Somehow there has to be a key in this material about our
earliest beginnings and how creation took place.  If we can
dwell on the variables of creation, we may come to know where we
have been in the past and where we are going in the future.  I
might also add that I'm a little worried about only having seven
years left for the last quarter of a century.  I joined The
Theosophical Society in 1975 and without that energy that is
being released to the world in the last quarter of a century, I
might not be able to appreciate the finer things that theosophy
evokes from me.  Does anyone else have misgivings about
themselves and life in general seven years from now?

I have a few more comments that I would like to write down about
randomness and determinism, or faith vs. blind belief, but I
need a little more time to prepare it, so I'll end here for
today.

Thanks for being here.  You never know who might come along.

Brenda Tucker