Theos-Talk Archives (October 1993 Message tl00009)

This is a very special time for me because I feel that this is an
especially rare opportunity to get to know people whom I may or may not
be in future contact with.  When you don't have physical contact, it is
possible to miss certain idiosyncracies and facets of people's
characters.

Jerry and April (his PhD wife) always seemed like the "busy professor"
when I knew them at the L.A.  lodge, and before that by brief contact
during a national convention/summer school, they seemed kind of like
liberals or freaks from L.A.  I never was able to really listen to
Jerry talk before because he was always busy with his lodge work and it
was really only about 6 or 8 times that we really attended lodge at the
same time before April landed her teaching position and they moved
away.  April and Jerry and the L.A.  lodge produced a video that is
available through LACTS for about $20, if anyone is interested.

Anyway, it's very special to be impressed by people and then to someday
be drawn closer to them by karma or whatever.  I never had much contact
with, even after months of membership, the working of Jerry H-E's mind.
I am mysteriously awed to find myself on equal footing with the group
just because we all began working together about the same time, but I,
for one, can really get a glimpse of somebody's inner self here and
this I only aspired to with Jerry before.

When I met Eldon he was looking for a wife and we somehow "fit" so the
circumstances developed so much more rapidly with him.  I remembered
his name only as an author of a few articles printed in the AT in 1975
or 1976 when I first joined.

Anyway, Jerry, this is a real privilege for me to try to conceptualize
as you do and for me not to be too radically shocked or disappointed by
our interactions.  You are easier than I thought to get along with.

My career goals were originally to attain a PhD in psychology and work
in the field of psychotherapy, but I met theosophy and had to follow
that path and lose the other.  It was probably a superficial career
goal anyway or just something to do with a friend.

I enjoy reading all of the comments here on the network about once a
week, so unfortunately it appears as if I'm only responding to a few of
the many good questions and statements without really covering as many
aspects of the work as I'd like to.

I'm convinced that John Mead may be a valuable source of light and love
and wish that "as lodge work goes" he would take the lead from time to
time and present material like that which he did on the Vedas' creation
story.

While some people are responding to what is written, other people can
be initiating topics and, by the way, we can control our thoughts to be
completely one (responding) or the other (initiating) just as an
exercise.  This is something I learned when Radha Burnier was speaking
at Olcott.  (This is a nickname for the national headquarters and a
shortened name for the library there.)

I'd also be very pleased to tell you my background with 1) experience
in full-moon meditation (Alice Bailey style), leading to 2) Zen
acquaintances, and 3) visits at the Farm of Stephen Gaskin in
Tennessee.  These experiences took place prior to my working at Olcott
and being in the E.S.  for about three years.  I am also a co-mason and
still continue with this.  After leaving Olcott I was close enough to
attend the "I Am Temple" in Chicago and be a student there for about
two years.  Then through almost a complete isolation from people other
than Muslims, I learned much that I greatly value about Islam, the
Koran, and the Middle East (tradition and racial inclinations).  During
this time I also became acquainted with a First Baptist church and was
quite happy there.

I wrote something on Peacenet over a year ago about the difficulty I
was having with all of the references to mythology that I was finding
in Quest especially, but also the emphasis placed on mythology in
general by people giving theosophical seminars and writing books
published by Quest.  By voicing this dilemma that was tearing at my
heart at a Durga Puja celebration of the local Vedanta Society, I
received a very welcome comment by their founder and teacher, Narayan.

First, though, because Jerry S.  set the scene so beautifully for the
retelling of this experience, I should comment a bit more on the
Islamic tradition.  The Koran contains many Christian teachings.
Mohammed loved Jesus and Mary and both are frequently written about in
the Koran.  St.  Germain loved Jesus, too, and included him on an equal
basis in the founding of the I Am Temple in the 1940s.  While many
people view St.  Germain's work as predominant, in reference to the St.
Germain Foundation, for instance, Jesus is very much alive and a
participant in both the life and work of Mohammed, who faced religious
persecution because of his fantastic claims to receiving The Koran from
God and the Angel Gabriel, and in the life and work of St.  Germain,
who had many past lives which are written about today, including one as
St.  Alban, a Roman soldier converted to Christianity by a monk whose
life he had spared and who upon profession his new found faith to his
former comrades, swiftly loses his head to a sword.

In any event, theosophy is nice, but it certainly didn't do the job I
needed in life.  How can we make it more open to other traditions?
Although there is some emphasis on Islam and Buddhism currently, there
is not as much as I would like.  The number of Muslims in the movement
are too few to expect to ever be able to meet and talk to one at T.S.
functions, let alone associate with one or more.  Usually, and it is
fascinating, you'll meet children of theosophists.  Wow, what a breed!

I need to check my reins here and return to the mythology dilemma.
Muslim friends especially like to teach the tenants of their faith as
religious people are apt to do, but it was so obvious a tenant that it
slapped me in the face.  Primarily, this tenant would benefit a needy
infidel by bringing him under the doctrine of one God.  This is of
primary importance! Teach that there is one God.  So here we have a
beautiful and powerful Islamic teaching that even in Christianity gets
lost.  The missionaries at my door wanted me to learn, "The wages of
sin is death." and Jesus died to save us from sin and therefore death.
(This is the basic teaching of the Resurrection or Ascension, a very
important I AM teaching, as well.)

Because of my Islamic leanings, I am sure, I was too overcome by
mythology.  Being back in the theosophical fold, I needed a new
emphasis.  Well, Narayan said just the right thing to settle all my
jitters.  He said the battle that is raging in you is only present at
the level of the mind.  Of course, if I would have kept up my
meditations regularly, this wouldn't have needed emphasis.

In meditation, go beyond the mind and experience unity, the Supreme.

Jerry S.  just about says the same thing by his dualism having a mental
aspect that can be transcended.

Brenda

P.S.  Durga Puja is a popular Hindu festival performed once a year in
celebration of the sneaky devil being caught hiding in a cow and tossed
in the sea.  The entire build up to the final capture is that the devil
outfoxes his pursuers several times until day's end.  This celebration
has rid the community of an unwanted presence.

P.S.S.  I missed commenting on Karma, but was wondering if you had ever
seen Gina Cerminara's book, MANY MANSIONS.  It is about Edgar Cayce's
remarkable method of healing and his past life readings involving
Karmic debts