Theos-Talk Archives (February 1995 Message tl00194)

Hi, you-all

Dewey & Donald, I'm with you.  I too would like to see us form a
study group on e-mail.  Long time ago, I took my Basic Theosophy
from Wheaton via snail mail, & I too found that my lessons were
super.  I learned a lot.  I also had a super teacher, John Algeo.
At the end of my course, he was in England for a while, but he
kept it up, till I'd finished my lessons.  At that time, we used
"The Basic Ideas of Occult Wisdom" by Anna Kennedy Winner as a
manual.  The nice thing about that book is that it has a pamphlet
with questions as a review for each chapter.  The book is a
little outmoded by now, I think, & it seems Shirley Nicholson's
"Ancient Wisdom, Modern Insight" is more current.  I've read in
places that Wheaton is using that as a course of study manual
nowadays, but I don't think it has a pamphlet with useful
questions to answer that goes with it..

Don D.  glad you volunteered to help.  I did too, & I think, from
what JEM wrote, Lewis did too, but I missed his post.  So far, no
one except John Mead is in charge.  I think we're evolving what
we'd like to do.  What kind of ideas do you have, and what could
you help with?

What I'd like to see happen is that we take 1 book, such as
Shirley's as a base, & that we then have a teacher from each
Theosophical "sect" to teach on the same topic.  Say we decide on
Shirley's first item, The One - unity in diversity.  Someone from
Adyar will present it from Shirley's book, someone from ULT will
do it from HPB's writing, someone from Point Loma will give a
DePurucker version, if we have people from Pasadena & Alice
Bailey we can include them in.  In other words, we'll look at the
idea of "The One", in some detail, from all Theosophical version
that are available.

The problem with this method is, that we can't download the books
from any place on line, for every one to study from.  I
understand that this would take something called a scanner, & no
one has one, I don't think.  So it would mean that the teacher
from Point Loma would have to get his/her material together &
write it up on the e-mail.  The other members of the group would
ask questions to be answered, & that could be done either in
conference form, on a certain day, between the hours of ? to ?,
or John M.  could set up another department like Theos-buds, &
people could read what's there & write comments & questions about
what's there, whenever they get to it.  Only the teachers would
have to put in their lessons on a certain (loose) schedule, and
then answer the questions fairly promptly as the come in.

That's what I'd like to propose we do.  It would make theos-l
unique, & truly representative of all the diverse Theosophical
beliefs.  It would represent a big bridge towards all of us being
able to work together.  Besides, I would bet my bottom boots on
that participants would find that they like a piece of "The One"
according to one sect, & a piece of "Karma " better from another
sect's writer.  I bet we'd also find that sometimes what 1 writer
says will be very similar to what another one has to say.  At the
end all study group members would be familiar with the writings &
ideas of all the groups, & not like now think of the unfamiliar
ones as strange monsters.

I'd like to know what everyone who's interested in a study group
thinks of this idea.  & I'd like to hear what ideas everyone has,
as to what we want to do.

Liesel