Theos-Talk Archives (October 1993 Message tl00101)

Nancy:

I would say that spiritual development can progress to quite an
advanced stage without any paranormal powers, paranormal in the
sense of extended senses, consciously leaving one's body, or most
of what we'd call psychic or occult powers.

The desire for phenomena or other-worldly experiences is an
obstacle to progress. I agree that we have to be careful how we
talk about psychism to people without a background of theosophical
study. When something is taken away, like a false sense of power
and an illusory feeling of being more advanced than others, which
psychic powers provide, something else needs to be given in return.

Until and unless someone can be brought to see the wisdom
teachings behind the words of the theosophical books, there is
not something better to give up the desire for powers for. And
we, in promoting Theosophy, do not bring someone else to a
realization, it is something that is arrived at by self-effort,
by individual study, by self-realization. What we can provide is
hints, seeds of grand ideas, a nurturing environment for study and
contemplation.

Other senses and powers will happen in due course, but they are
a byproduct of our training and development, not something we
specifically set out to develope. The powers that we do seek, and
try to develope, I'd say, are the power of wisdom, of love, of
the greater virtues, the power to brighten the lives of others,
the power to set the atmosphere of the world around us to something
glad, and bright, and noble. When we train ourselves to radiate
the higher light of the sun, the moonlight of psychic capabilities
will appear at times, but only as an incidental effect that
is periodic in its appearance.

We have made ourselves. We are the results, the karmic web of
consequences that we have spun over countless eternities. A
significant part of the karma, which makes us what we are, is
the element of motivation, intent, of what we are striving for
and trying to accomplish.

When we approach Theosophy and the spiritual, where are we focused?
Where is our primary motivation? What part of our inner nature are
we directing our consciousness into? Where are we working to
establish the new set of consciousness in? Hopefully the highest.
Hopefully in the Higher Triad, the part of us that transcends the
personality. Hopefully we are continuing our unfoldment of manas
and at the same time working on something still higher, the buddhic
consciousness.

What are the true powers that we should be developing? I'd say
first, true wisdom, the power to understand life and live it
properly because of an insight into one's deep interconnectedness
with everything else. I'd say genuine love, the power to care
about others as though they were ourselves, where we live the
golden rule because we are functioning in that level of
consciousness where we *know* that the other is ourselves.
And I'd say pure action, the power to freely live life in accord
with our real inner nature, our swabhava, without any karma being
held back and with the personality acting as a clean channel for
what we would accomplish, rather than distorting and blocking
our true impulses.

The challenge that we all face is transcending the personality,
to make it a responsive instrument to us, as we center ourselves
higher within. Anything that enobles, that takes us above and
beyond our personal selves, is good. Anything that grossens the
consciousness, that strengthens the bonds to the personal self,
should be avoided.

If we could just aim our sights at the highest, and hold them
steady, and not let up, we could make incredible progress, and
the world would be such a better place! Why settle for something
less than that?

                                 Eldon Tucker
                                 eldon@netcom.com