Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00257)

Liesel: "Seems to me that the Teaching must also be presented in a form that
can be understood and worked with by the generation & the culture of the
people reading it in the present, whenever that present is. I think that,
since mankind evolves, & the Universe evolves, the Teaching must as well."

I partially agree and partially disagree. I agree that the presentation of
the teaching need to be in the language of the people, accessible and
understandable. And I agree that that's our job, to keep the teaching
available in that way.

But I don't agree that the Teaching evolves. If Theosophy is truly "truth"
based on facts in nature, then it simply IS and does not change. However the
PRESENTATION of those truths may vary from culture to culture, time to time.

I don't ever think we will outgrow the original stuff taught by HPB and
William Q. Judge, but I do think their written English will differ more and
more from the spoken and written vernacular as the decades, and centuries go
by.

The question is: how do we keep ourselves based firmly on the tradition
handed down to us -- that tradition of eternal truths -- while keeping it
current, at the same time avoiding the pitfall of "pandering" to popular
prejudices, like and dislikes, thus altering or losing the essential truths.

It seems to me the only way to prevent this decay is to really KNOW and
MASTER the original stuff, and be able to rephrase it in our OWN WORDS at any
time, differently for every audience (scientists, scholars, Christians,
Buddhists, housewives, business people, farmers, kids, etc.) Learning the
original stuff well also allows one to spot other people's interpretations
and see of they are on track or not.

Just my opinion, which I know wasn't asked for.

Rich