Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00987)

At 01:24 PM 5/17/96 -0400, you wrote:
>In message <2.2.32.19960517063051.0069108c@mail.deltanet.com>, "Eldon B.
>Tucker" <eldon@theosophy.com> writes (quoting Alexis)
>>>And I can't help but grit my teeth every time I
>>>read G de P calling an animal a "beast." Most animals
>>>are more loving and forgiving than humans are.

Alexis notes: I wish that I had said this but I didn't I think it was either
John Crocker or Richard Ihle, and I commend them for it. I certainly concur.
>>
>>But I don't think "beast" was meant to indicate savage,
>>cruel, monstrous. It meant more "in the wild" or
>>uncultured, or uncivilized in human terms.

Unfortunately Eldon means "uncivilized" and "uncultured" in Western European
terms. To call any human being a "Beast" is totally unforgivable in any
context. It is being condemnatorily judgemental in the absolutely worst
sense of the concept. In a way, Eldon has made GdeP's comment worse by
spin-doctoring it.
>
>Maybe not, but this is not how very many people understand the word
>*today*.  Once again we are faced with not just the problem, but the
>*fact* that the time to update the language and terminology is long
>overdue.  Like Alexis, I grit my teeth in such examples; in others I
>feel very sad.

Actually, I mostly get mad. But then I'm Russian and that's our usual reaction.
>
>As you point out earlier on in your posting, once we get *behind* the
>actual words, the teaching is often powerful and noble.  However, it is
>the words that people meet first.  If their understanding of the words
>is different, their interpretation will be different, and the original
>underlying teaching will *not be there for them*.  And so the
>theosophical teachings find smaller and smaller audiences.

Actually, as regards "races" the teaching behind the words is as ignoble as
the words themselves. This is so because it's wrong, wrong, wrong!
I think though that "Theosophy is finding smaller and smaller audiences"
because that is it's desire.
>
>Alan
>---------
>THEOSOPHY INTERNATIONAL:
>Ancient Wisdom for a New Age
>TI@nellie2.demon.co.uk
>http://www.garlic.com/~rdon/TI.html
>
alexis>