Theos-Talk Archives (October 1993 Message tl00047)

There is so much to follow up on that I could write something everyday
for a week and have more to write!

----

Jerry S.:

I'd hate to see you leave us because of costs. You might look into
'delphi', which has a $20/month plan for 20 hours of connect time,
with just a $3/month surcharge for internet access. It could put a
price cap on participating in 'theos-l' even when the "current in
the thought channel" steps up its flow.

I have some more ideas to discuss regarding visiting the globes,
and hope to have time to write them today.

----

Nancy C.:

As a matter of personality development, "bottup up" is ok as an
approach. It is good to cultivate the personality, to pay attention to
it and see that it is properly tended to, like a well-kept garden.

More important that the personality, though, is the process of
evolution, of learning to center the consciousness higher within.
Doing so does not preclude the use of the lower principles, working
with them, just changing the center of consciousness out of which all
activity and experience arises.

Psychic powers are premature for our subrace, and carry with them
both good and bad. We appreciate the good but may not be properly
trained to deal with the bad. They may naturally occur at a certain
stage of development, but perhaps even then they would be turned off
when we are functioning in the globe D personality.

There's an interesting quote in "The Mahatma Letters" to the effect
that a Mahatma is not such, when in the personality, unless the
personality is put aside and he is specially functioning in that part
of his being. The upadhi for our human consciousness, built of fourth
round materials, is not sufficient for outward functioning as a fifth
rounder. The Mahatma is such when functioning *inward*, apart from
the personality, and that is how he is able to progress ahead of
the outer evolution of humanity.

It is possible to race ahead of humanity in the bosum of the higher
Triad, in the individuality, and it is not necessary that the
personality have physical characteristics of future races, including
future types of sense perception.

I would not say that a "top down" approach would mean that you
work on the top things first and the lower come later, as a progression.
And I wouldn't exactly say that you simply pay attention to the higher
and the lower will of its own accord automatically take care of itself.
All parts of our live and development need to be given attention and
managed. You diet when necessary; you meditate to calm the mind; you
cultivate the right sort of feelings for the people you encounter in
life. Every principle needs attention.

The question is where is the seat of consciousness? Where is the
focus? What is the primary motivator? Where is the high-water mark of
self-consciousness? We've evolved forth the seven principles in the
quest of self-consciousness, reached as far as we can with the
physical, and started the upward climb, returning with a special
treasure, the sense of self-consciousness. It has reached as high as
our current seat of consciousness, kama-manas for the human kingdom.
It will eventually, in future kingdoms, reach atman and be withdrawn
into one's unmanifest being, to become an brightening of ones
self-essence, one's swabhava.

Psychic powers are an extension of an attribute of the personality.
They are a way of experience manifested existance which we have
acquired and brought to self-consciousness much earlier in our
evolution, in much earlier kingdoms. They will come naturally in
future subraces, but there need be no hurry to acquire them. We
out run the human lifewave and advance on the Path in a higher part
of our nature, which is not tied to the vital-astral-physical monad.
We could cultivate them, but why bother?

People will be drawn to the theosophical teachings out of an innate
hunger for something more, something that they find is satisfied by
what they find. Wonders and phenomena attract people from a different
sort of motivation, people who may not be at a point in life of being
ready for exposure to the Mysteries, and these people will likely move
on to something more like spiritualism. Psychic wonders are not needed
to create in other people an attraction to the Esoteric Philosophy.

We offer a philosophy that is *special*, and its value is found by
diving into its study, not by it's providing better instructions or
information on psychic cultivation. We don't offer wonders, so wonder
seekers will not stay long with us.

I would say to let the psychic capabilities lay dormant until the
sixth or seven major races, when then will be the appropriate senses
provided to us. Look to the sense of mystery and seek a higher form
of experiencing what it is to be alive, something not to be sensed,
something not to be felt, something not to be thought, but rather
something different, something we sense as missing but dearly wanted,
something we know is a part of our consciousness but which we just
can't yet find...

                                 Eldon Tucker
                                 eldon@netcom.com