Theos-Talk Archives (November 1994 Message tl00072)

To Theos-l


LD> I still wish we could think up some ways to counteract
 unethical business practices. I'm not working anymore. I can't
 lose my income. I've done a few small things in my time. One of
 them is trying to practice our belief in universal brotherhood.
 What bothers me is that this warps our whole way of life, almost
 all over the world. That means that it has an "unwholesome"
 influence on the world's Karma.

Jerry> Yes.  We have to the end of the century to get our act
together says HPB if I understand her right.  Corporate
corruption is world wide and American Corporations became the
role models for the creation of much of it.  The sticky wicket is
that there is a payoff in supporting the corruption--E.g.  a job
with cost of living raises if you keep your mouth shut and play
the game.  When wage earning is the only way one knows how to
survive, this becomes a strong incentive to deny or minimize what
is going on.

Art 1> Boy did I ever learn how deceptive that is.  When I was in
the ministry I tried to be pretty straight with what I believed.
I did this, I thought, in front of my colleagues.  When I left
the ministry and no longer relied on the job to either save or
pay me I found that I was more clanestine than I had imagined
myself to be.  For instance, I say things to people now that I
just would never say when I had the mantel and the morgage of my
last job.  I say things in public about the literary criticism of
the holy books that I would never have done when I was considered
a respresentitive.  I notice that people do this in all jobs.  I
found that religion and university settings seem worse than even
business because there is such a feigning of liberal values but
the same old power distributions continue and the persona
gesturing is revolting when you have step out of it all.  I felt
ashamed in many ways of what I have become while functioning as a
representitive person rather than as a soul.

Arthur Patterson,

      <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.>

Jerry> Interesting how different interpretations can come from
any one quote.  Interpretations are very influenced by the
context by which we view them.  My interpretation for this
warning is that the emotional/physical nature is still very much
alive, and we must learn to distinguish this from our spiritual
nature.

Arthur 2> I see what you mean HPB is making a distinction between
the sensing sort of thought that is rooted in the instincts and a
more spiritual thought process.  What I heard was that even our
ideational musing can be characterized by this instinctuality and
even feign as spiritual thoughts.  I think that it takes
something, I am not entirely sure what yet, to differentiate
between thoughts that are rooted in instinctuality, with its
lower motivations, and thoughts that are inspired by higher
centers of consciousness.  I am getting the idea that it takes a
great deal of training to learn the difference.  Any ideas on
where that training begins?

      <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>

 Jerry>This is my favorite sloka.  Service to humanity--an
 altruistic life is a duty.  It may be the karma of our neighbor
 to fall into the gutter, but it is our karma to pull him out.

Art 4> You are avoiding the passivity of the average Eastern
approach.  I appreciate that perspective.  People misuse Karma
concepts to hold to the status quo.  I see this in a lot of New
Age settings.  I really think it can be used as a form of nazism
since it keeps people in their place through ideology and yet
appears deceptively spiritual while doing so.

Just a personal note.  I am getting a new Mac today and it may be
a while till I figure out how to do some basics, I may not get
back as swiftly as I like to.  Hoping not to get caught in the
net of the material world but I am certainly looking forward to
the new potentials.

PS.  Does any one have an e-mail address for Quest Magazine of
the Theosophical Society in Wheaton?

Under the Mercy,

Arthur Patterson

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