Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00476)

Eldon,
Your points are well taken, as usual.  What I am most concerned with is the
human tendency to impose things, ideas, actions, etc. on others whether they
are ready for them or not.  I know at times I seem like an arrogant, self
assured SOB who does not believe that he can be wrong, but I have made enough
mistakes in my life that I am hesitant about assuming that any position I
take is automatically the right one.  And the  thought of my fellow
theosophists acting as if they are totally certain because they have a
particular interpretation of the writings makes me very nervous.
What I argue for is patience and the willingness to examine ideas and beliefs
without becoming married to them.  And while I have an actual tremendous
respect for the SD, I cannot believe that it is the final word on the ways
things work.  In a very real sense, I see Theosophy as a transcending the
written teachings, using them as a starting point but the real process is
something that occurs in the individual Theosophist and is far more
mysterious.  It is, in a very real sense, something that cannot be expressed
in words, merely experienced and that experience is the true goal of
Theosophy.
The study of the writings has a place.  We would be immeasureably the poorer
without them, but there is something more and I hope that we do not get so
caught up in the writings that we miss it, just as it is important to not be
so concerned about playing the notes that one misses the music.
The TS, in its various manifestations, spends almost all its time working on
the head.  It should begin working on the heart as well.

Chuck the Barbarian MTI, FTSA, M G of 5
Heretic
Troublemaker