Theos-Talk Archives (October 1993 Message tl00063)

This is from Brenda Tucker.

What prompts people to write books?  Is it that they have a way of
explaining something that is difficult to understand?  Is it that
they wish to realign many paths into one path?  Is it that there
is an inner voice prompting them with information and requesting
that they get the information out and into the hands of those who
are eager and ready to receive it?

If you look at the tenants of theosophy as they were written by
the early participants in the movement, you may notice
discrepencies.  Do you feel that discrepencies shouldn't exist?
Do you feel that one method is not really helpful to people, but
instead that it is harmful to believe and practice along certain
chosen lines of thought?

For some reason people read two authors and became unhappy with
one of them.  People have looked at the historical setting of
theosophy and said I have to take sides, I have to choose one way
or the other, and I have to discuss my understanding of the
differences so that other people may choose to do what I have
done.

What do you think the third object of the society was written for?
Isn't it blatant to condemn to a destiny of defeat an object that
you once signed as being something you supported.  If members of
The Theosophical Society can say to each other, "Don't study the
powers because psychic powers were meant for the earlier races."
then wouldn't it follow that they would also be free to disavow
some portion of the other two objects as well?  When I joined The
Theosophical Society I was fully aware of the risks involved in
stating my ideals alongside those of the many, many, people who
had knowledge of the path of occultism.  I believed that powers
would be a part of the life I was seeking and I chose not to try
to shun powers that might unfold within me as a result of my
meditations or thought-processes, but to join a group that would
quite possibly be experiencing some of the same karma that I was
intent on experiencing in working towards liberation from rebirth.

My ideals were constantly being expanded from my reading in many
different areas.  When an idea struck me as being true, that
didn't necessarily mean it struck other people as being true.  One
important and awesome thought early in study was that you might be
better off, more noble or more true to your self if you gave up
liberation in order to continue serving humanity and by that the
progress of the other human souls might be ensured.

When you read ideas and feel them to be true, is it through some
duty that you feel you must expound your critique of true and
false in this area to others?  Couldn't it do more harm than good
to support some at the expense of the others?  How do you know you
are right?  I felt that the early writers in theosophy were
writing about their firsthand experiences and H.P.B. wrote what she
was told to write by masters.  Isn't this something different than an
analysis that appeals to you?  By stating your own opinions how do
you know you aren't harming the real truth in the literature that
is there for all to read and recognize in their own personal time
and way.

Wasn't the development of powers in Besant and Leadbeater meant
to serve as a sign for all of us who followed that we are capable of
handling this great descent of consciousness?  How can we grow to
handle the world around us better, if we don't use every possible
resource available to us?

Through all of my testing of what I believe to be true, the
supreme test is still ahead.  There will never be an end to the
testing until the day I can say I have reached the realm of adepts
and we are working for the manifestation of the divine plan and I
have taken the initiation which allows for consciousness to
continue in the inner realms without need for birth, karma,
forgotten pasts and a subsequent growth in knowledge.  Meanwhile
there is a certain contentment in finding purpose through the
theosohpical teachings and in ordering my life as best I see it to
the ending of sorrow and the fulfillment of the Divine Plan.

I am so thankful for the teachings on silence so that I can't be
condemned for choosing to love and work along with those who can
find it in their hearts to welcome others as fellow seekers and
fellow students.  How can we write in a way that welcomes all
honest thought and endeavor, respectfully, lovingly,
encouragingly?

Our forefathers may have gone through more personal hells than
we know of in order to make this kind of movement possible, and
I can't ever get enough of "God love them for that."  What can I
do to assist and not become too self-assured of my own place in
the scheme of things?  I don't pretend to have gained for humanity
resources that will expand the currently available theosophical works,
but I do know there's still a place in every human heart for the truths
they are hungry for.  FEED THE HUNGRY with those much loved
and respected truths.

I agree with Leonard.  What do we all want to study?