Theos-Talk Archives (April 1996 Message tl00288)

Hi, Alex!

At 17:45 1996/04/11 -0500, you wrote:
>I have this question: Considering what both Radha and The TSA adminsitration
>seems to be up to, aren't "the kind of people we want to attract" gong to be
>feeling pretty damn restricted? As youknow better than most the regular T.S.
>Groups, all three of the poor dying things, are terribly restrictive in so
>many ways. As a Carnivore you're well aware of one of the ways. Where in the
>By-Laws does it say you have to be a vegetarian to be a theosophist? But
>many folks act as if it were true.  As to the two ES sections (Adyar's and
>the ULT's) nuff said.

Everyone seems to be talking about TI as a "container", something that a
member fits "inside of" or excludes the offended.  I don't see it that way
at all.  Should not the TI be a source of Theosophical information, possibly
Theosophical values, and maybe a provider of signposts on the way?  In that
way, it frees its members to search and to grow but does not "contain" them.
Membership means only that one has accepted the requirements for membership
but should not restrict anyone in any way.  One should always be free to
make one's own errors and to learn from them.  One should be free to search
any path one wishes, even CWL's if one has a hankering for mythopoeia.

It seems to me the point of the three objects is that one must become free
to search and actually search.  Beyond that there is no dogma to wrap
oneself in.  Why should a prospective member then want to be wrapped in the
TI?  The grand argument about what "freedom" is meant by the word "freedom"
seems pointless to me.  Let each member take whatever meaning s/he walks in
with and fly with it.  If it is "restrictive", said member will either drop
out or break through the limits.  That is up to the individual, not the TI,
imho.

Take care,

==<<Bob Holmstrom>>==  <rholmstrom@voyageur.ca>