Theos-Talk Archives (November 1995 Message tl00013)

Coherence:<I'm running out of room but the following pages continue the general
drift
outlined above. It is because of the perceived difficulty of "Living the
Life" that one participant has said membership is dwindling. HPB provides
clear and ample instructions "tried and true practices to undertake." DUTY
CHARITY SELFLESSNESS are the real rules>

First you accuse Eldon of being condescending. Well I for
one find your long lists of scriptural quotes to be equally so. I can read
HPB too you know. Are you trying to show off or just practicing your
typing skills?

Second "living the life" is a lot more than a "perceived
difficulty" - it is hard as hell. Few can do it effectively. But I agree
that we should all try. But you don't just tell a new member to go live
the life. Go be a good girl scout and help old people cross streets
and then in your next life continue this way and seven lifetimes
on down the road you will be a Chela and have wisdom and etc.
This kind of stuff doesn't work on most people. It doesn't work on
me either. I reject the notion that I have to wait 07 lifetimes or even
one. I also reject the notion that if I am good I will obtain gnosis
or enlightenment or whatever you want to call it. Christianity
tells me that if I am good I will go to heaven. Theosophy tells
me that if I am good I will have a better life next time around.
I fail to see much difference in these two views and reject both.
Tantra on the other hand says that we can become an Adept
during this life. It then tells us what we have to *do* to obtain
our desired goal.

Third what Eldon is trying to say is that membership
is dwindling because new members perceive *there is nothing to do*
in theosophy. I had this perception myself. All I ever got in the way of
advice was to avoid yoga and magic because it was too dangerous.
Dion Fortune once wrote that theosophy was the theory and magic
was the practice. I happen to agree with her. HPB provides us with
excellent theoretical material. But if you want to *do* something
with it you have to go somewhere outside of any TS.

Fourth you do not need to join a TS or study HPB to practice
DUTY CHARITY and SELFLESSNESS. These are well understood
concepts and many good people practice them all over the world -
people who perhaps have never even heard of theosophy and others
who heard of it and didn't like it. In short these are nice qualities but
hardly worth joining an organization for. What Eldon and I have been
saying for awhile on theos-l is that theosophy needs some definition.
What is unique about it to separate it from everything else? So far
we on theos-l can't agree on what theosophy is or what it teaches
or what we are supposed to be standing for or very much else.
In a sense this is good. But it sure makes it hard to say just what
theosophy is. I would really like to think that theosophy is more than
a organized group of do-gooders. Jerry-HE suggests that theosophy
has a body of teachings or doctrines. Eldon and I both agree. We are
now trying to iron out what these teachings could be and how we do
this without them becoming dogmatic. Maybe you can help?

Jerry S.