Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00795)

Chuck:

[writing to Michelle]

>I am hesitant to go into details about the practical application of
>theosophy.  It is different for everyone and what is right and proper and
>laudable to one may be absolutely yeechy for another.  I view it as something
>that cannot be taught in a class or preached about, but something that comes
>naturally with experience.

You're right that the practical application of Theosophy is different
for everyone. But the same is true of love, diet, sex, making money,
friendships, health and fitness, intellectual study, recreation, etc.
Everyone puts together an individual lifestyle.

But if someone was interested in something -- say a young, single person
with a strong interest in romantic love -- hearing various stories of
how it happens in real life would be immensely important. And talk
and discussion of the topic would be considerably interesting. For
someone with less interest in the subject, though, it would seem quite
boring, and a waste of time.

The same is true of "the practical application of Theosophy", which is
really our personal approach to the Path, and the requisite responsibility
to others, outlined in the Bodhisattva Vow. Our approaches to it may be
quite different. But for those with a profound interest in the subject,
it can be quite a marvelous, fascinating, attention-grabbing subject.

It's not in working in a soup kitchen, nor attending a political protest,
nor giving a lecture on meditation, or any particular thing. Our practical
application, I think, *is ourselves*. We need to "fall in love" with the
Path, to find greater sweetness in it that Sufi Mystics write of, to find
in it a greater wisdom than we've seen in any book, to be dazzled by its
allure, not an allure of illusion, of a mirage, but the allure of a long
lost, long forgotten recognition of our *home*.

With this, I'm not saying that we don't concentrate on doing good,
useful things in the world. And I'm not suggesting that one selfishly
focus one's attention and energies on personal self-perfection, in a
narrow, me-first, exclusive manner. Rather, I'm suggesting an approach
that *takes responsibility* for really *trying* to be and to live the
inner reality that we sometimes catch glimpses of in our higher moments.
The practical application, as I see it, is to *get serious* and take
those first steps that lead to the Temple Doors.

-- Eldon