Theos-Talk Archives (November 1994 Message tl00064)

To All,

The last time I wrote to Theos-l I was struggling with the road
of negation depicted in fragment one of the Silence.  Paul
Johnson gave some subsequent good advice to try to look at a
thesis , anti-thesis, synthesis paradigm.  Taking this to heart
has helped.  It goes to show that the entirety of texts need to
be understood before the pieces make any sense.  Hard to do when
you are in a rush to understand.  A rush is exactly what he
Silence doesn't propose in any of its parts.

So to look at my experience through Silence, I see that I was
being dominated by an instinctuality.  When I thought about it it
was that I thought that I couldn't trust my mind, or whatever
guides it, to work through the Silence slowly.  I felt I had
better get through this now - I may give up - or begin chasing
some other intellectual shillobeth.  In the context of my whole
life I see that I do that because of a fear of death.  I had
better get all that I need before I die.  This is an example of
the sensate terrestrial consciousness that the Silence speaks of.
I was confusing the lust of learning to the light of
consciousness.

     If thou would'st cross the first hall safely, let not thy
     mind mistake the fires of lust that burns therein for the
     Sunlight.  p 6.

I was doing exactly that the Silence warned about.


There was a wonderful warning in the material, written in such
poetic language,

     Behold, the Hosts of Souls.  Watch how they hover o'er the
     stormy sea of human life, and how exhausted, bleeding,
     brokened winged, they drop one after another on the swelling
     waves.  Tossed by the fierce winds, chased by the gale, they
     drift into eddies and disappear within the great vortex.
     p.8


This warning passage reminded me of the results of my lower
consciousness and brought to mind another image that in the
Christmas Carol of Scrooge.  "Mankind is my business", was
Marley's confession on his death bed.  Marley went on to join the
souls of those who lived "unconsciously" not aiding or helping
the destitute.  Arthur Patterson confesses, "Consciousness was my
business", when he is confronted by how automatic and unthinking
his responses are.  I want my spirit to matter more than just
becoming a part of a drifting vortex of unconsciousness.  Thus my
need for the Silence to remind me.

Part of preserving consciousness has to do with allowing myself
to experience pain.  The Silence sees pain as a pedogogue, a
teacher of the spiritual way.  It states:

     Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like the
     lotus bears its heart to drink the morning sun.  Let not the
     fierce Sun dry one tear of pain before thyself hast wiped it
     from the sufferers eye.  p.  13

This is not pain avoiding or world negating.  I had somehow
misunderstood the Silence upon first reading.  I think that the
work is not advocating senselessness but that enlightened
consciousness is to replace illusion even in dealing with earthly
things.  This is much more along the line of the social justice
themes I see running through some of the posting by say Jerry in
the theos-l group.  I think I am starting to understand even
though I have't the theosophical language down yet.

Under the Mercy,

Arthur Patterson

Winnipeg, MB
Canada R3E 1Y5
1-204-774-5301