Theos-Talk Archives (October 1995 Message tl00483)

Ann,

JHE:
>One class we began in
>1980 in Los Angeles just finished reading the SD from cover to
>cover and have started over. So it took them fifteen years to
>get through the book, meeting on a twice a month schedule for
>most of it.

AEB
I'm very interested as to what the students got out of their
15-year study. In what ways did they feel they had grown?

JHE
 Probably everyone will have a different answer. It wasn't
until I worked my way through the SD that I began to feel that I
had a real grasp of the ideas. Every time I go through the book,
I feel that I understanding deepens. For me, it is a book that I
can go back to again and again through my entire life and still
not exhaust what it has to teach. It is kind of an initiation.
However, for this particular class, though I started it in 1980,
we left in 1990, so we didn't finish it. In fact, I believe that
only one person stayed for the entire fifteen years. On the
other hand, most of those who finished (about eight I think) were
there for 8 to 10 years of it. It was a great class of real
devoted students. I think this class, more than anything else,
really held the Lodge together.

JHE
>For us students of theosophy, we are getting an education that
>is broader than anything that is offered in the universities
>today. But our education does not prepare us for it, so the
>study of HPB's writings are more difficult now then they were
>100 years ago.

AEB
Nowadays, we're too busy learning how to drive cars, work ATMs
and computers. Not mention the lure of the American dribble box,
the television.

My husband always talks about the way people in his youth (50's)
used to claim that technology was going to free up our time.
Seems we're busier than ever trying to keep up with it.

JHE
 I remember. The 60's were more fun though. Too much
tension in the 50's. Everyone was worried about communists--or
being accused of being one.

Best
Jerry HE