Theos-Talk Archives (January 1995 Message tl00230)

Paul: "Gurdjieff distinguishes between the Law of Accident and
the Law of Fate."

Thanks for the interesting idea, Paul.  I suspect that these laws
refer to chaos and order, and as such represent the underlying
duality of manifestation.  We can approach the Law of Fate (order
or Kosmos) as much as possible, but never completely get free
from the Law of Accident (chaos).  The Chaos Factor cannot be
eliminated (and this is OK since it is required for growth).

Eldon: "There are many stages for errors to creep in, as we go
from the manuscript to typewritten, then to typeset text."

While this is true of old, we have largely overcome this problem
with computers.  The words of my latest books, for example, went
directly from my floppy disks to the publisher's minicomputer and
were typeset as I wrote them, so that all errors in the final
books were mine and not the publishers.  Of course, some errors
still manage to creep in (via the Chaos Factor), but not as many
as before.

Eldon: " ...the highest purpose of books is not to preserve the
literal, dead-letter expression of what the author said, in terms
of its outer form.  The highest purpose is to communicate the
ideas the author was expressing, in the clearest manner
possible."

I certainly will agree with this.  The feeling throughout the New
Age community is that books have replaced the guru in that people
today are more intelligent than the older generations, and can
learn from books faster and just as well as from a living guru or
teacher.  There is, I think, some truth to this.  The problem of
how a reader can distinguish between truth and falsehood from a
book can be countered by posing the same question when seeking a
guru.

By the way, we haven't heard anything from Brenda lately.  I hope
the flaming over CWL didn't drive her away.

Re: the issue of communication with an incoming monad.  My sister
(an avid Christian Scientist) has no children after over 20 years
of marriage without ever using birth control.  She tells me that
she "knows the truth" that neither she nor her husband want or
need children (she sends out thoughts that ward off incoming
monads).  This seems to work for her.

Re: Pornography is spiritual.  I side with Paul.

Re: Art.  Like beauty, art is in the eye of the beholder.

Jerry S.