Theos-Talk Archives (November 1994 Message tl00095)

Martin Euser,

ME> Regarding your remark about discussing patterns and meanings
 emerging from geometric relationships, I would say, yes, it's a
 very intuitive study. I guess Murray is interested to join that
 type of study & discussion. The start of that could be on this
 list, maybe leading to private E-mail discussions.

     Ok

ME> Regarding correspondences and loka-tala poles: the whole
 point is to recognize how some of the deductive principles we
 know (7 jewels & related) apply analogically to the macro vs
 micro worlds. In sacred geometry there are some starting points
 for that too.

     I think I follow what you are saying.  There are also false
analogies, so we will have to be careful.

ME> I don't have the collected writings of HPB, but I assume the
 oral teachings of HPB to include ~Instruction IV~. I have this
 material in the edition of SD 'III' from Annie Besant (Adyar
 edition).

     Besant made a lot of changes in this material--no doubt in
good faith, but not necessarily well advised ones.  Volume twelve
of the ~Collected Writings~ is more reliable, and I suggest would
be a good investment.  You know, of course, that the instructions
in Volume III were never intended to be part of HPB's proposed
third volume.

ME> About deeper teachings behind correspondences: you say you
 try to draw them out. So, do I want to try.

     Great!

ME> BTW, I received your E-mail.

     Good. I'm on the edge of my seat.

Liesel,

LD> Re your quote about "distributive karma". I agree, but
 wouldn't you say that, since what happens to one affects all,
 the obligation to try to mitigate a situation in a foreign
 country is not only a moral one, except if you call self
 preservation "moral", it's also imperative.

     Yes, but keep in mind how deep distributive karma runs.
Every time we go shopping, use an automobile, heat our home, etc.
we are participating in the system.  As I will trying to get
across before--though the system inherently corrupt, we all
benefit from it.  I think change is possible, but it will take a
major educational effort of the general population, and a
commitment of the majority to start operating upon a very
different level than they are now.  I'm not suggesting that we
give up automobiles, food, cars etc., but we need to be aware of
the problems and act with greater sensitivity.

     Regarding your experiences with violence, you are not alone.
Poverty is steadily growing in this country as the wealth is
being concentrated among the few.  For ten years, we lived in
Venice (California), which was said to have one of the heaviest
concentrations of homeless people and drug dealers in the
country.  People lived under our bedroom window day and night.  I
saw women with small children living in spaces between the
buildings.  The smell of urine was everywhere.  Robberies, rapes,
maimings were daily occurrences.  Murders were occasional.
Though we were very careful, my wife still had a close call or
two.  I remember getting up in the morning for work, and finding
people laying unconscious on the sidewalk in front and near our
house with some regularity.  Drugs were also sold daily in front
of our house.  On several occasions I had arguments with the
dealers who didn't want me to park in front of my own house.
"This is a drug zone" they would tell me.  I told them that I
live here, and they would just have to put up with me.  They
usually did, but occasionally vandalized my car to make their
point.  A neighbor used to call the police every hour or so to
come out and arrest the pushers.  The police would send out a
well marked patrol car to the neighborhood, and the pushers would
disappear into the shadows until the car passed, then continued
their business.  Our neighbor would call again, and the police
would tell him that they had just sent a patrol car out and saw
nothing.
     I remember when President Bush started his famous war on
drugs campaign.  He toured the drug ridden neighborhoods--I guess
so that he could say that he knew what he was talking about.  Our
neighborhood was chosen to be one of the places he was to "tour."
About a week before he was to drive through, the police came in
and picked up all of the homeless, putting them into shelters,
and jailed or drove the drug dealers to another neighborhood
(security precautions no doubt).  Someone also painted a "no
drugs" graffiti on the street.  For a few days, the neighborhood
was really nice.  No drug pushers, no homeless, no litter--it was
perhaps the safest neighborhood in the country to live.  Within
days after Bush made his tour, the homeless and the pushers
returned, and it was business as usual.
     By they way, you may wonder why we chose to live in such a
horrible neighborhood.  It was the cheapest neighborhood that one
could live in that was still only a block from the ocean.  We
could see the ocean from our second story window.  My wife came
from the mid west, and naively wanted to live there because she
never lived near the Ocean before.  She wanted the experience.
Further, I sensed that the neighborhood was underpriced, and that
it was a matter of time before it would be cleaned up, so we
eventually bought the house we were living in.  My hunch was
right.  We sold the property and made a fifty percent profit in
five years.  Two years ago we visited the neighborhood.  The city
was finally beginning to clean the place up, as the neighborhood
was beginning to be populated with a critical mass of wealthy
investors.  Give it ten years, and it should become one of the
most expensive and exclusive places in the country to live.

Jerry Hejka-Ekins