Theos-Talk Archives (September 1993 Message tl00065)

There are still some basic assumptions that are being made that I would
like to question.

Every person has an individual path to the spiritual. Over a large
number of lifetimes, most paths will lead to the same source. Only a
few will lead to eventual avichi and destruction.

But a person unaided, sustained solely by individual initiative, will
have trouble keeping up with humanity, and will eventually drop out.
Aided by ones fellows, an individual can, with effort, stay in the
school of humanity. And aided by the Mahatmas, one can run ahead and
learn things that are unknown and unknowable to the rest.

The theosophical teachings are not a direct expression of the ultimate
unknowable behind things, but rather of a knowledge that is but one
level removed from what we can, in embodied personalities, directly
understand. It involves understanding and learning and experience that
falls outside the current sweep of the human lifewave as we know it
here on globe D, the earth. There may not be the facility for direct
understanding of them, the portion that has been hinted at, until
the next Round.

Using mathematics as an example, I see it inherit in all things,
everywhere, throughout life. But if I wanted to be trained in it, I
would read books on it and want training from skilled mathematicians.
I would not read a book on poetry, auto mechanics, or vegetarian
cooking, even though there might be a stray reference to a mathematical
idea in them; I would want to read direct math source books.

There are those who know, and those who know not, and it is not just a
matter of different points of view. There are sources of higher
learning and they can be found in some places but not in others, even
though the spiritual principles and truths that they teach can be seen
at work throughout life.

If you were looking for gold, you'd start digging when you found a vein
of in the mountainside, and not arbitrarily pick granite or limestone
because all have the ultimate principle of "goldness" to them. It
might be called "exclusive" to say that you're mining for gold at this
spot and not another. Saying that gold is not found everywhere, and
that there is riches in the mine you are working, is not being
"exclusive", though, because it does not denying the presence of gold
elsewhere.

The idea is that the teachings and deeper spiritual truths do not have
a homogeneous distribution. They are not found everywhere, equally.
Where and how they can be found are subject to the same limitations as
are anything about us in the manifest physical world.

There are experiences that await humanity at distant ages in the future,
on this and other planes of existence. One way to approach them is in
contemplation of the theosophical teachings. It is not an exclusive way,
but the ways are scarce and hidden, and at least Theosophy is known
about publically, which qualifies it as one of the lessor Mysteries.

I'm full of appreciation for and admire the work that people are doing
to better their lives, and the lives of others. And I don't see any
problem to the fact that much of Theosophy is not more widely taught.
It refers to truths about which HPB's teachers said "come to us" or
what was said would sound like "insane gibberish"! The core of Theosophy
is not what we will be using in our public work, in reaching out to
help others. What we will share are the basic, simple, universal truths,
and they will enoble and bring comfort to people! But there is also
something special to Theosophy that is very rare, and merits the most
concerted study and attention.

                           Eldon Tucker
                           eldon@netcom.com