Theos-Talk Archives (August 1994 Message tl00173)

This is by Eldon Tucker.

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Daniel Hampton:

    In your last posting I read two things that you are
looking for: answers for the mind and warmth for the heart.
    The process of inner growth is described in different
ways. On one hand, it is said that the growth must come from
with. On the other hand, we have the analogy of fire, where it
is much easier to get started from someone else's fire than to
start a flame from nothing. The first view says that you
initiate the changes from within. The second view suggests
that the changes can much more quickly be engendered from
others, from people that already have the qualities you seek
after.
    If you want to become a great musician, do you buy a
piano, read books on music, and practice on your own? Or do
you take lessons from accomplished pianists, and possibly
enroll in some great musical school like Juliard and learn
from the best musical minds that our society has to offer?
    The bigger question regards the Mysteries. If you want to
learn about the occult truths, the hidden knowledge that is
not publicly available, knowledge that deals with other planes
of existence, the nature of consciousness, and the mysteries
of our inner growth, what do you do? Read a book and practice
on your own? Or seek out others to "help light your fire?"
    It is fairly easy to find churches or fraternal societies
that provide lots of warmth and personal love. The feeling is
often limited, though, to fellow members. It's more often "we
love and care about ourselves" than "we care about our fellow
man as much as for ourselves."
    I would say that we take our love with us, that the love
originates from our feeling of connectedness with others. The
type of love that originates from caring for someone because
he has been so nice, so unselfish, so generous with you,
though, is a ephemeral, a surface, a non-lasting type of love.
The deeper kind of love is not passionate, not romantic, not
resulting from a pleasurable give-and-take with another. The
deeper love is based upon truly caring for the other as much
as for yourself, because seeing that person as equal in the
deepest possible sense. It is more a sense of "family" love,
a kind that is always there, throughout good and bad, that is
rock-solid because coming from deep within, rather than tied
to passing  moods and fancies.
    It is possible to find and become rooted in this deeper
love, and to make it an integral part of our lives. And then
we are nourished, and do not need to seek out fraternal
organizations because of our neediness. We seek out things
that interest and engage us, things that allow us to *express*
what is within, rather than things that fulfill our needs,
things that satisfy a sense of hunger or neediness in life.
    When we say that Theosophy is a religious philosophy,
that means that it properly has both a religious and a
philosophical side. The religious side deals with deeply-felt
spiritual needs, and addresses our place in life, our feeling
of belonging and purpose and rootedness in the Mystery of
Being. Theosophy has a religious side, but does not provide an
organized religion. There are no priests, no creed, no code of
behavior, no list of ethical rules to adhere to. We are
provided with the raw materials that a religion is made of,
but not given a completely-formed religion to join. We have
either a "do it yourself" religion, or use some of the
religious materials to modify and enhance our existing
religion.
    When we speak of the philosophical side to Theosophy, we
are dealing with pure philosophy. The word literally means
"the love of wisdom." And we are seeking wisdom out of a
genuine love of it for its own sake, as well as for the
benefit that it has in our lives and the lives of others that
we are able to share it with. A wise man--someone truly wise
and not just a pretender--is happy with life, for there is
understanding, peace, and purpose, and he sees and appreciates
it. There are beauties to life that we remain blind to, for
our lack of Wisdom, and no one but ourselves keeps us from
beholding them.
    An approach to wisdom is to first attain knowledge, then
to incorporate it into our lives. This is where we most often
fall short. We gather ideas, information, theories about
things, but never make them part of our experience. Reading a
book on dieting does not lose us any weight, unless we try to
apply the concepts learned. Studying the theory of music does
not make us accomplished pianists; it is the application of
that theory in daily practice, that makes it truly real. And
the same is true with the theosophical philosophy. The ideas
are but theories, without any impact on our lives, without the
actual application, the daily practice, that makes them living
realities for us.