Theos-Talk Archives (September 1993 Message tl00037)

I just received Eldon's letter which preceeded some of my points.
Sending this anyway. (John Mead)
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Hi -

I wish to welcome all of our newcomers to the Theos-l discussion list.
For those who have just joined,  I want to emphasis that
the list is here to serve the entire community of Theosophists
and not any specific organization.  When at Krotona earlier
this year, Michael Meyers aptly pointed out that the Theosophical
Movement moves with or without any specific organization. Hopefully,
this list serves the Theosophical movement.  Blavatsky new this
well.  There can be *no* "Doctrine", since to create a "Doctrine"
is to form a Dogma, doomed to inaccuracies and the ultimate
transgression of Truth. (I'm sure someone can find a quote
from her that must be relevent here).

Regarding the Theos.hlp file (executes under Windows, and written
by Don DeGracia),  it was never intended to be an "all-encompassing"
introduction to theosophy.  Don wrote it in his spare time, and it
certainly serves well as an example of what can be provided for
the Net-hoppers perusal.  I think Don would be willing to add any
reasonable areas (left) uncovered.  Of course it *is* his work and
he can choose to do anything he likes with it! :-)
It would be nice to create several other ones, perhaps focussing
on specific topics e.g. History of various Theosophical groups; or
Theosophy & X  ( where  X is any member of the set {Occultism;
Mysticism; Science; Math; Computers; Arts; Hinduism; Buddhism;
Christianity;...  etc.}.

Eldon has kindly offered Internet disk-space and provided
a location where documents and archives may be placed for
unlimited network access (i.e. general public).  I would like
to see Don's work placed there with (or without) further revision.
(Don has final say on this -- it is his work).  I'm sure Don
is more than willing to do this.

The Historical postings are great,  and I would like to see the separate
articles and Historys collected into a single file for the Library.
Eldon - could you volunteer as informal Librarian?? You seem to have
been doing this anyway !  I thank you!

I really appreciate the support and Help EVERYONE has given on creating
this Internet forum.

We are over 20 people now,  and growing rapidly.  I am *excited* at
meeting people from the various organizations.  I would like to
reiterate that there is (planned) to be an Ecumenical Theosophical
gathering at Krotona this spring.  Michael Meyers can be contacted for
this.

I should add that the listserv program interprets messages sent to *it*.
Hence, if you send a message to listserv@char.vnet.net containing
the single word "Help" on the first line, it will send you a summary
of commands.  The "Review Theos-l" command is particularly helpful
as it returns a list of current members to Theos-l and their e-mail
addresses.  We have no concealed users (and I doubt that we ever
will).

I forget, but someone asked if anyone had attended the Parliament
in Chicago..  My wife Louise and I attended both the Parliament and
also the Theosophical Society in America's Summer Convention.  We
enjoyed them both immensely.  I was rather surprised that there
was so much Unity at the Parliament.  I was dissapointed that the few
instances where it was mentioned in the Press, they seemed to focus
on the couple of inevitable discords.  All in All, we had an excellent
document signed by everyone (only a couple of fundamentalist groups
withheld).  I have not mentioned our trip much, because I got the
impression that the couple of letters we sent out were rather trivial
and dull. :-)   imagine that!  old stagnent religious groups and
organizations steeped and aged in their own unchanging ceremonies
and traditions. What could be naive and boring about that?
I did pick up a couple of classic "comic-book" info-packets explaining
how the Catholic Church is selling salvation and practicing black-magic
making religious cookies (wafers) of salvation.  And..
The World Parliament of Religions is a front for the
Masonic/Catholic/Buddhist/Hindu/UnitedNations etc. conspiracy (predicted
in the  Book of revelations) towards a world government lead by that
great Satan of Peace/Light/&Love.  Tony Lysy was continually running
to-and-fro with a cart (mental-cart) of fire-extinguishers.  Maybe
these brochures got stuffed into someone's Holy-HandGrenade
           "*WARNING* please Bless *first*, before striking"
sigh....

The incedible sight was the closing ceremony.
Everyone actually enjoyed the diversity of cultures that they
experienced!

We had Christians in the Meditation rooms,  and
*Buddhists/Hindus/&Monks* dancing to a Black Gospel-Choir (a drug-free
bunch of Black inner-city kids who believe you should Love
one-another!). Why didn't they put THAT on the evening news???

I guess I'm rambling on now.

It is very nice to have a place where I can talk to other
Theosophists at any time of day or night.  I'm glad to meet ALL of you
here!!

Peace --

John Mead
jem@char.vnet.net  or 76220.131 (@Compuserve.com)
(Theosophical Society in America; Charlotte Study Group)

(Don't forget --  *We* are a part of the Theosophical Movement.
I hope that our respective organizations can meet in Krotona
and experience this end-of-the-century "push" from the Masters
(whoever they are, and whether or not they exist!)

p.s.  I smoke a (tobacco) Pipe,  and my favorite Blend is VERY heavily
laced with (Black) Turkish Latakia.  I knew there was *some*
reason why I liked that old woman...
(The Esoteric School doctrine at Krotona would not allow her to
live there.  just an observation I often ponder when I feel unwelcomed).