Theos-Talk Archives (December 1995 Message tl00458)

To Alan our Grand Poobah -: members of TI and the rest of the
Cyber-Theosophists on the theos-l list:
Greetings ...
Having been of late making a considerable amount of noise about what
TSA HQ has been doing and not doing it is certainly my responsibility
to come up with suggestions for alternatives though I must admit I doubt
they'll be listened to - which I'll do in a post soon ... BUT! as I was
thinking this over I happened to also have a conversation with a
neighbor who began asking me a bit about Theosophy and I found myself
coming to the same conclusion I had several times before and that I've
heard others on the list speak to: That there is very little
introductory material that's any good. [And this is one of the things
that disturbs me about HQ ... all the time and money spent fighting about
by-laws suing Lodges ... yet somehow after more than a *century* our
organization has *yet* to produce introductory literature written in an
inviting tone...].
So! While I don't have all that much time I've decided to take a
shot at writing a decent Introduction to Theosophy ... defining the
parameters of conceptual complexity and vocabulary for the following
audience: Teens to 20's in age a High School education or equivilent
reading skills and no knowledge of spiritual or religious concepts
beyond those of mainstream exoteric religion.
[As simplistic as this sounds it has long been my belief that a
significant reason for low mewmbership may come from the fact that
Theosophy resembles an enormous and beautiful temple full of ornate art
and brilliant stained-glass windows ... but somebody forgot to put any
*doors* on the thing when it was being built. We have a body of very
intense and highly intellectual literature but have failed to build the
series of graduated conceptual steps needed to make it accessable to any
but a very few - like a university that only teaches doctoral level
courses expects students to enroll already having mastered the
undergraduate level ... but not noticing that there *is* no undergraduate
level teaching *anywhere* in the subjects they are teaching ...].
SO! I'm wondering whether Theosophy International might care to
help out with this little endeavor as its first group project for global
Theosophy I'd like it to be something that could used in many different
countries ... would anyone mind if I periodically posted Chapters as
they are written and they'll be short and simple on the list for
comment suggestions etc.? Should I maybe use another of the theos-
lists? How about other non-TI theos-l members ... care to participate?
[And I'm certainly amenable to not involving the list at all if
that is what people prefer ... but it has occured to me that we have a
*tremendous* amount of knowledge scattered among the members of the list
and as important and much rarer a diversity of views from almost every
current perspective and a number of different nations ... and I thought
maybe this might be one means of precipitating a bit of it into service -
in an area where Theosophy clearly needs to be served ...]

SO! Any comments from TI members? From non-TI list members? From
people who think I'm a dufus and will get it all wrong -:?
And as I now take to sketching the chapters & structure tell
me especially those who have previously mentioned their desire to have
a book they could refer people to .. ... what general topics would you
consider to be absolute *essentials* for an introductory book?
Toodles -JRC