Theos-Talk Archives (October 1995 Message tl00479)

Hi to JHE,
Thanks, Jerry, for the very informative post. I won't use the reply button
because it would make the whole thing too long. You ask what we are doing to
keep a high level of discussion going. One thing is to stick to Theosophical
related things as perceived by the few of us who take the trouble to
organise something. There are 'new age' ideas that would not be in keeping
with what we believe Theosophy is about. One has to be careful about making
judgements in this area but I think Theosophists have a general line on
which they agree.
Our SD study group consists of the whole 3 of us and has done so for the
past 18 months. Before that we had another couple of members who found it
too hard and pulled out. We all take turns to read aloud and so come to
grips with the language HPB uses. One of us is our librarian, a learned,
intelligent astrologer who has read the SD before and has a working
knowledge of the Indian words as she spent a couple of years there. We meet
every Monday night and we are enjoying it.
Our membership is mostly elderly so it is hard to instigate changes and I
have learned a lot about setting change in motion slowly so that the members
come around in the end. Getting them to sell the house we have been in since
1926 has been slow and we have had to tread carefully. It is nearly an
accomplished fact now and most of them have accepted it. There are so few of
us that are really active that it is constant hard work to keep the interest
going. We hope the move and new premises will get a new energy going that
will encourage more people to take an interest in us. We have just had our
AGM and I am president again and I have persuaded to two youngest women to
be vice-presidents so I hope they will get enthusiastic and give a new
impetus to our endevours. Theosophists can be an ornery lot so we have a jar
with bits of paper on which members have written questions for discussion
topics and when we really have nothing else to offer we get out the jar and
have a good airing of opinions. It gets quite vocal at times but in a nice way.
Thank you for the explanation of lemniscate. I will take it to study class
next week.
I will pass on your recomendation re SD edition to our librarian.
You ask how our group is organised. As you can see from above, really not at
all. There is only the 3 of us who are interested in studying SD, the rest
would rather not strain their brain. They will say so quite openly. They
rely on HQ to send lecturers and maon a bit if not enough come but would
rather not get involved themselves. I am sort of working on that behind the
scenes and one day they will realise that they are doing something towards
Theosophy.
I appreciate what you say re classical education. Things have changed. Did
you read the quote the dePurucker made from Disraeli? "the Victorians talk
of progress because by the aid of a few mechanical inventions they have
succeeded in establishing a society which mistakes comfort for
civilization." How true.
I reckon this is long enough now so I will buzz off.
Regards, Bee