Theos-Talk Archives (December 1995 Message tl00110)

Jerry S:

> [writing to Bee]

>I used to wonder why after describing so many
>gods and goddesses in the literature theosophists were simply
>ignoring them. Finally I realized the reason is that gods and
>goddesses are not appealing to the intellect. The polytheism
>of theosophy is simply another intellectual doctrinal note in a
>long list of others. In magical schools and in religions we
>converse with these deities via either prayer or ritual. In
>theosophy we pretty much ignore them.

This is because Theosophy is presented in theosophical groups as
an intellectual study. There is no spiritual practice as part of
the package. We don't have meditation on deities taught because
that is a specific practice. We just learn about the inner workings
of the world but aren't given specific methods of training to
undertake.

>> [Bee]
>>There are lots of people who do not see knowledge as an intellectual study
>>to be their way of spiritual growth.

>I see this [study] as building the scaffolding so to speak to keep
>the mind on some kind of sanity track. The human mind requires a
>structure or pattern of some kind in order to make sense of one's
>experiences. ...

This structure is an important part of the personality. It can be based
upon a broad-based appreciation of the deep side of life or it can be
consumed with shopping coupon-clipping and Monday-night sports on TV.

The structure is not the direct experience of knowledge or understanding
but rather the "memory" of such neatly organized and stored away for
future reference. That "memory" is like a filter which both explains and
limits incoming ideas. It's like an OCR program making sense of the dots
on a scanned image attempting to pick out the text. It looks at the
dots and pulls them together. But there's a higher faculty of mind which
allows one to look at the page at a glance and read what is on it!

>There are formal conscious and informal unconscious
>rituals that we can conduct. If anyone thinks that they never do rituals
>then they are simply done unconscious as every psychologist knows.
>Most Buddhist meditations try to employ the body speech and mind
>together. Thus these yogic meditations are really rituals.

Yes. Rituals are an important part of live. Our five-year-old daughter
has rituals that are an important part of her daily schedule. One
involves giving everyone hugs and kisses before going to bed for the
night. Another is a "run up" where when I come home from work for the
night and I first enter the door she runs up to me and gives me a hug
and I pick her up. This is an important ritual that's very important to
her.

-- Eldon