Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00431)

Art:

>Of course this discussion is as open to others as it is to Daniel.

Anything posted should be considered "fair game" for discussion. Otherwise
we have one or two people preaching at us, and find ourselves disallowed
from making our own comments on what is said.

>Personally I am not convinced that Daniel can or will hear what I am saying
>at all.

He knows what he is trying to say. It's up to him to decide to listen
to us or not. If he can sense the holy or spiritual in wht we say, he
may listen, if not blinded by the words he feels necessary to clothe
things in.

>I wouldn't mind others joining the dialogue, not so much to refute
>Daniel, but, to take seriously the issues he brings up.

I'm still waiting for him to get into issues. Most of what I've seen
are authoritative statements with biblical quotes given in an attempt
to justify them. I'd like to see him state some of his own ideas, in
his own words, and explain why he considers them useful.

>Then again this
>may not be the place for this sort of discussion. It might be through.
>Since the issues Daniel raises are of the spiritual nature and Theosophy
>claims to be the underpinning of the traditions it would be good to hear
>from the Theosophical perspective a response to our discussions.

It can be fun in a sense to respond to his assertions with some of our
one. This is in a good natured way, where we are descriptive of our
differing beliefs, and not in a mean-spirited way of attaching each other
for being different.

It will only become a problem if the discussion gets too circular, where
we continue to repeat and repeat the same things, with nothing new
said at each iteration of the conversion. When nothing new gets to be
said, that we've come to an end to dialog and need to move on.

>If however
>there are some who are offended or feel that this discussion is not in
>keeping with our goals I would be glad to accomodate and shift topics.

The offense that we take to beliefs we don't like is not unique to
Daniel's comments, but is equally true of other things that have been
said. It's a spiritual practice for us to work on not feeling a sense
of offense at ideas that we don't like.

I don't think that the discussions with Daniel will come to an end
because of some of us feeling any sense of offense. They will
end because there is nothing new for him or us to say to each other,
because our discusssions have gotten too repetitive. Or they can
continue and be productive because Daniel takes the courageous step
to speak with his own tongue, to clothe his thoughts in his own
words, and speak as a philosopher rather than simply parrot the
authoritative words of another.

-- Eldon