Theos-Talk Archives (November 1993 Message tl00089)

A lot has been written about the esoteric, the occult, the hidden side
to life. There are many, many books to be found on the subject, with
every possible imaginable description of it. And there are a large
number of groups promicing to give us esoteric teachings.

The word *esoteric*, though, refers to something that is not apparent,
not readily knowable, not easy to learn or communicate. And this can
be for many reasons.

The first reason is that the key to understanding a truth has not been
given, so we have the literal words, the exoteric husk, the outer form
of the idea, but not the right idea, the right teaching, the right
manner of interpreting it, that we can use to unlock its real meaning.

Even were someone to explain things to us, though, there are truths
that we may not be ready for. There is knowledge that relates to
something above and beyond our everyday world. There are things that
we simply cannot learn in the ordinary way.

The esoteric is not acquired by membership in any self-professed
esoteric school. There may be organizations that are associated with
theosophical societies, and they train us to be better Theosophists,
but they make it clear that they are preliminary training grounds,
and not the actual schools directly overseen by the Masters. This is
okay, since there is no pretense here, they effectively state that
they are *pre-esoteric* organizations. But other organizations may
claim to have the Masters directly heading them, and to be giving
teachings to anyone who cares to join and profess their beliefs.
These are *not* esoteric, but are just, in effect, New Age churches
with their congregations.

The estoeric does not come by correspondence course. It does not come
by becoming a priest or bishop in some church. It does not come by
the practice of paranormal powers, nor faith healing. It is not from
any normal activity of the personality.

The esoteric refers to a wisdom that goes beyond the personality, and
seeing the astral light does not make one any closer. We are not any
closer from seeing astral writing, than from taking a book home from
the library to read, or talking to a friend on the phone. Astral travel
and psychic visions are not a sign of spiritual development, and confer
no esoteric knowledge. The esoteric is not an extrapolation of anything
in the personality, it is something different, a different direction
to experience.

To penetrate the esoteric, it is not what you'd think. It is not just
something more of anything that you'd currently know. It is something
*different,* really diferent, yet simple at the same time.

If we look for it and see nothing, we must look again, and look yet
again, with genuine expectation, and it will eventually appear to us.
In trying to be esotericists, we seek to see through the surface, the
skin of life, to deeper levels. But this deeper is not in terms of
the senses, it is not seeking to see auras or produce psychic
phenomena. It is deeper in a different way that we'd think, and not
knowing how or where to look, it may simply escape us.

It does not mean anything to just say the word *esoteric*, to use it
and give it whatever meaning we might like. That does not really help
us in our search for the actual esoteric side to life. We do not learn
it by becoming familiar with the words in a metaphysical book on the
subject. The *apparent* meaning of the words in theosophical books on
the hidden side of life do not directly reveal it to us.

A realization of the estoeric may not be possible to fullyl hold in the
mind without stilling the personality, and possibly paralyzing the
mind, or at least quieting it, holding it very still, making it the
least distraction to where we go within ourselves.

The esoteric relates to things removed from what is possible to know
and experience in humanity in this race and time, from what can exist
in our Globe D world at the present. It involves experiences that are
removed from us, removed in either time, dealing with future races,
or space, dealing with the experiences of the other globes or of the
Outer Rounds.

An esoterisist is someone who has a certain penetrating vision into
the inner workings of life, that allow him to see, know, and be
something greater, something bigger, something better that life would
otherwise allow. And this person could act to influence others, in
the sense of being a teacher or guru to them, to awaken their ability
to delve into the esoteric as well. Katherine Tingley, who succeeded
W.Q. Judge and H.P. Blavatsky, was considered by her students to be
one, to be a great esoterisist.

The esoteric involves a shift of the normal frame of reference, the
paradigm of life that we operate with, shifting away from the view that
we are a human personality, to something else within ourselves.
We do not end up feeling better than anyone else, but rather are
enfilled with something that can't really be talked about.

We can look about us and see the vast sea of humanity, and appreciate
their value as people. We watch the experiences that they have and
share in their happinesses and sorrows. We continue to work for the
common benefit of all. We do not lose our brotherly love and
appreciation for our fellow man.

But there are levels to life, and it is possible to feel the call of
the next one, the call of a higher level that we have been living in.
Feeling the call of something higher is not a rejection, not a
devaluing of our fellows, it is not an elitism. It does not make us
spiritual snobs. Any such feeling would betray the experiencer to be
a pretender to the estoeric.

When someone acts out of wanting to be better than others, acting out
of a comparison to others, a wanting to push others aside, then he is
motivated by selfishness and still centered in his personality.

The call of a higher beauty, a higher truth, a higher perspective on
life, is a growth, an expansion, an unfolding. It is not a pushing
away from something, not motivated by a rejection of the previous life
nor a feeling of superiority to what one was before.

There may be a sense of saddness in seeing people mislead, but we
realize that all experience is self-initiated, and a time will come
when others will ripen and ready the proper readiness on their own.
We can encourage, assist, and provide resources for the others to draw
upon, but cannot make them to be ready nor taken the steps for them.

We may feel that we want to protect others, seeing the vast array of
pretenders to esoteric truths about us. But it is best to simply
ignore them and leave them alone. There is no value in attacking, in
denouncing, in trying to point out the errors of a group to its
followers. Someone does not change their mind and see their errors
because we've simply pointed them out and said that the ideas are
wrong! It does not matter how clearly we expose certain errors, or
point them out. Until someone is ready to give up an idea for something
better, they will not be receptive.

We, too, much reach the proper state of readiness before we can
approach the esoteric.We cannot expect someone to simply tell us
something, to have us do some technique, to give us a book to read or
a meditation to perform, and we will thereby experience the esoteric.

The esoteric is a new, a different experience of things, hidden from
our ordinary consciousness. We have to give the proper knock, and the
door to it will open. But we also have to be ready, to be prepared,
to have cultivated our inner lives.

Consider the Path. We are told that we are not ready for it until we
want it as much as a man wants air, as his head is held under water.
This analogy is true, to a point, but we cannot sustain that level of
desire, and the desire is not one of passion, as experienced in the
personality. A closer analogy to the necessary feeling is that had by a
man who has lost his legs in an accident, and wants them back. There
is a sense of something close, familiar, an active part of life of his
that has been cut off from him, and he wants it very much!

While this *wanting* is experienced in a certain part of ourselves,
another part experiences great peace. We simply contemplate the true and
beautiful in life. We dewell on, express, and share the good that we
find. We force and impose nothing on others. We stay away from the ugly,
malformed ideas, and do not seek them out to do battle. And we popluate
the earth with ideas and sentiments of the highest beauty, leaving the
rest behind.

We must look for the esoteric in a *different* way, a way that may
seem mysterious or to simply not exist, until we are ready. And we
work on our spiritual nature, our higher side. We grow and unfold and
someday we'll look about us and see something truly wonderful!

                           Eldon Tucker (eldon@netcom.com)