Theos-Talk Archives (November 1993 Message tl00032)

There is a view that everyone, being equally good, and ultimately
rooted in the divine, in going through their respective roles in life
and stages of personal development, can believe whatever they want.
Whatever anyone believes, from this standpoint, is equally true. This
form of belief is relativism.

I would have to reject this view, and say that there is a Truth, one
Truth, and it *can* be known, albeit progressively, bu degrees. Some--a
few--may come to know it. Most do not. This is not rejecting the
value of the lives of those who do not know, and it is not an arrogant
assumption of superiority on the part of those who have found an
approach to it.

If you see 50 people, and they all have their different beliefs, from
the standpoint of the personality, it may not be possible to know
what's right. Everything may seem just differing forms of personal
experience of life. Everyone has a role to play in life, and a
spiritual nature that has some affect on their lives.

Taking that standpoint, it may seem arbitrary to take a position, to say
these ideas and this philosophy is good, important, valuable, that the
other is not. But the ability to discriminate is an important step on
the way. And when we take a position, it is not an inflexible, rigid,
parroting of words that we have heard. The position is something that
is deeply rooted in a *knowing*, that is based upon a type of personal
experience derived from the association of the philosophy with our
spiritual natures. The ideas are living, growing, dynamic, and subject
to continual reexamination and development. They are not arbitrary
assertions of opinion, like "I say it's green" to someone else's
"I say it's red."

Working with the philosophy is a high form of spiritual training,
something that affects the highest parts of our natures. It produces
lasting changes within us. Regardless of our job, our activity in
life, be it a writer of books or a chemist that does routine lab work,
we can have the philosophy at the back of our minds, an presence that
serves to keep alive an awareness of the inner god.

We should seek after the higher, even though it may not be apparent
to most people. We should strive to step beyond the personal realm of
experience, to function in the impersonal, even though it is not a
common thing to do. It is not something to be denied because most people
will not feel a calling. Following it does not mean that we appreciate
any less the value and worth of other people, or the divinity that can
also be found in their hearts.

Regardless of the type of life that we live in the world, be it in
some speciality in the field of religion, philosophy, or science,
we can cultivate a part of ourselves that is apart from, above, that
goes beyond our merely personal existence. Following this calling, we
find our feet approaching a new, different, additional way to grow and
develop, a process called the Path.

There is no less love for others when we seek deeper truths. There can
be a bakti devotion, a unqualified love that may or may not need a
symbol to center upon. There *is* an awakened mind, awakened in a
sense that the person you meet on the street wouldn't understand. And
this mind is illuminated with the spirit. It is deeply rooted in the
fountain of knowledge of nature itself, Mahat, and has a "true north",
like a compass, that it always returns to.

I would say that if we look with open minds, and an unveiled
spiritual perception, that we will see, that we will sense and come
in touch with this fountain of knowledge, and it *will* take us beyond
the practical, common, everyday knowledge to be found in our western
world. Look to the light and you will know.

 Eldon Tucker (eldon@netcom.com)