Theos-Talk Archives (January 1995 Message tl00100)

Dear friends,

With respect to the T.S.  motto (or what ever you want to call
it) that was quoted and paraphrased here recently: There is no
religion higher than truth.  I have always thought that it was a
beautiful phrase that hinted at the underlying philosophy of our
organization without giving ideas of some type of dogma.  I never
took the word "truth" literally in the phrase ...

It seems that now there are people who are hinting that their
"truth" is better than someone elses "truth." My simple question
is who decides who has the bigger and better "truth" and who gets
to wield it over the others?

Upon leaving Krotona after a week of study a while back, I was
told that I was responsible for making sure that my quarters were
clean.  So I happily went about the chores until I came to sweep-
ing the porch.  Here I noticed a number of spiders who had spun
webs in the corners of the ceiling area.  Suddenly I found myself
in a quandary.  Here I was at a T.S.  facility where I had to de-
cide if it was correct to kill another life-form.

Being pretty much "an egg" in these subjects I went to a higher,
more knowledgeable source for a solution -- I asked Joy Mills
what I should do.  Now I can't quote her -- I don't remember the
words exactly -- but she told me something to the effect of:
apologize to the spider, explain to it that its karma put it in
the wrong place, and sweep it out of the way.

Now I know that there is a big difference between a self-
conscious (conscious of itself) human being and a non-self-
conscious (not conscious of itself) spider ...  but, at this
point in my current incarnation, with what few seeming facts that
I have at my disposal from science and the T.S., I can't see much
difference in protoplasm, a blade of grass, a flower, a tree, a
spider, a cat, a dog, a cow, an elephant, or a non-self-conscious
human becoming.

Until someone can prove to me beyond a shadow of a doubt the
exact time that the monad, or soul, or spirit, or whatever you
want to call it, attaches itself to the physical being, I refuse
to commit to one side of the abortion debate or the other.  No
one has the "truth" that can convince me yet.  However, with the
lack of differences that I perceive (above) and based on a strong
intuition that I have been paying a lot of attention to recently,
I'll have to admit that the pro-choice people make a lot more
sense than the pro-life people -- even here in our little elec-
tronic circle of theosophy.  But even so, my thoughts are not the
"truth" -- just my $0.02 worth.

Now I sincerely hope that I am not fanning the flames -- it gets
hot enough on other lists I belong to -- and I certainly don't
want to be accused of continuing a flame war.  But unless someone
has an absolute, all-powerful "truth" that they can prove beyond
a shadow of a doubt to all concerned (as Jerry H-E appears to
have in the CWL furnace), then it seems to me that, in the
interest of universal siblinghood, we all try to be a little more
tolerant of other peoples belief systems.

Peace and love to all.  May you grok in fullness ...

|William A. (Bill) Parrette|4000 Executive Pk. Dr., #310
|bill@[Zeus.]itdc.edu      |Cincinnati, OH 45241-4007
|** I do not speak for ITDC--all opinions are my own **
 513-733-4747