Theos-Talk Archives (September 1994 Message tl00046)

Thursday afternoon.  From Nancy.

THANKS LEWIS,

I really like what you wrote about karma:

If you accept the idea of a benign universe wouldn't it make
sense that the stronger/older/wiser would carry a heavier load?
Doesn't the parent shield the child, as much as possible, until
it reaches adulthood and assumes the burden of responsibility?
"Mine" and "yours" are our share.

To my way of thinking, your illustration also complements the
idea that consciously choosing a spiritual path "speeds up karma"
(materialistic phrase tho it is, it DOES convey).  Spiritual
practices must be one of the ways we signal the U we're ready for
a heavier load.

There is a sacrificial aspect to this that also appeals to me,
tho it comes dangerously close to the "Jesus died for our sins"
syndrome.  It seems valid to me, that we CAN help others by our
compassion and willingness to consciously share the load.

Re: your suggestion that maybe being bad is better than being
lukewarm or mediocre, I offer this story I read in SUNRISE:

One day a Hasid came to Rabbi Wolf and complained about some
people who were in the habit of playing at cards all night long.

"Good," said the rabbi.  "All people want to serve God but many
don't know how.  Those people learn to keep awake and stick to
their activity.  Once they have reached a high degree of perfec-
tion in this, all they have to do is 'turn-around' -- and what
great servants of God they will make!"

TO FRANK

I've read about the phenomenon that occurs after the brain stem
is cut (they do this for epileptics sometimes I believe.) I read
Goleman's book, Vital Lies, Simple Truths, years ago...had no
idea who he was but loved his perspective.

Following along your thought that the verbal part of the brain
"makes up something that has logical consistency and sounds good"
it seems to me that we do that a lot.

We are constantly receiving intuitive, emotional, and psychic
information which is outside our arena of awareness.  We then
rationalize AFTER THE FACT in order to make sense of the
information.  For example, I feel bad because ...  or I called
you today because...  or I just thought I'd buy this because ...
and try to logically explain away (and so don't try to notice)
the immense amount of non-rational info we receive.  We live in
an organic non-linear Universe but my rational mind keeps wanting
to make logical and sequential sense of it, so I/we are often too
willing to explain away the magic.

Re the Witness as Atman.  I understand Atman to be a universal
principle.  What do you think about it being the Atman of Manas?

TO ELDON

Thanks for the hello.  No, I'm not restricted in any way about
what I post on the Net, but I am rather shy to jump in with all
you heavy thinkers lurking about.  I'm not comfortable with the
idea of posting articles -- I feel pompous giving my opinion
gratuitously.  Besides, I always have more questions than
answers.

For example, I enjoyed your paragraph on the Shadow, and you may
be right that it is not a

>being in its own right

yet what I have noticed is that deep disease processes also seem
to act very much like beings, they move around and actively avoid
being expelled.  Do you suppose there is some inbetween state
that looks and acts like an entity, but isn't?

Nancy.