Theos-Talk Archives (April 1996 Message tl00622)

In a message dated 96-04-13 07:47:26 EDT, you write:

>materialistic
>determinism views the cosmos as a closed system.  In such a system, there is
>no leeway for action and the view of Karma as expressed in the Key to
>Theosophy is a perfect example of such a cosmology.

This is a fascinating concept and one that I have held for some time.   What
I need to understand is if you mention this as a radical concept, because it
seems obvious to me. (i.e. there can be nothing "outside of" the cosmos.)

> So we have a problem in interpreting the thought of HPB, because she seems
>to be advocating two mutually exclusive concepts, a universe where
everything
>is tightly close, in which case a strict behavioral code is essential to
>spiritual progress on one hand (which would make the good Victorians in
their
>red flannel waistcoats very happy) and a system of duality in which matter
is
>temporary and the despised creation of the demiurge, existing to be either
>put down or outraged as the path to spiritual liberation.

I don't see the two as mutually exclusive.  My read on this is that the
universe is a closed system, and matter the temporary appearance of "spirit"
as such.  The role of consciousness is to recognize that matter is only the
temporary appearance of itself and to overcome the delusion by the
recognition, accomplished by looking to the end of the spectrum that is
spirit and not to the end that is matter.

> If we assume that
>HPB was a genuine mystic and, as she has also been interpreted, a genuine
>magician, she was capable of soaring in her spirit far beyond the reaches of
>her physical self  and such illumination would have put her in a position to
>see that the actions of a single lifetime count for nothing in the great
>scheme of existence.  It is simply too short.

You can't say that a single lifetime accounts for nothing.  Its like sorting
and folding clean socks out of the dryer--one sock means nothing, but one by
one, they all get folded.  Or grains of sand--each one means little, but add
them up and you have a beach or a desert.  Each life serves its purpose and
adds to the sum.  The loss of one life does not significantly alter the final
outcome because of the quantity, but the loss of too many and the beach is
gone.

Thanks for the thought-provoking comments.

Greg H