Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00991)

Drpsionic@aol.com wrote:
>
> Bee,
> As a metaphor for the study of human spiritual evolution, the root races are
> great.  As a literal reading human physical evolution, well, we need a lot
> more evidence.  Our big problem with them is what they have been used for,
> not by HPB, but by others and how this has tarnished both the study of
> evolution and the reputation of theosophy and theosophists.  Alex is
> particularly incensed by them, but he got shot at, at least figuratively and
> possibly literally during the civil rights movement in this country.
> Not having that kind of emotional connection, I see them as a more academic
> thing in a historic context,which is how I approach all of our literature, as
> products of the time they were written.  Our literalist (no perjorative
> intended) brethren view the concept as an exact description of how things
> work.
> When these different views meet, well that's why Theosophists argue so much.
>
> Chuck MTI, FTSA

I appreciate what you say. I do not take the teachings literally but as
mentioned in previous posts, I use them as pointers to what the people were
trying to say, using those particular words. I remember many years ago
deciding that I had to read Martin Buber's 'I and Thou'. I started and
couldn't understand a word of what I read on page one alone so I got a bit
miffed by that and figured that it might get better as it went on. So I kept
going and suddenly I was reading his thoughts and not his words and when I
had finished the book I kinda knew what he was trying to say but to quote any
part of it would have been impossible as the words themselves still meant
nothing to me. I tried to read just the words after that but they meant
nothing. I have long since realised that there is a greater reality that I
cannot really understand in my present state and so all I can do is touch it
with my intuition and assume that it will get clearer as I evolve myself into
a member of that reality. I have since that time used my intuition to read
with and so find difficulty in relating just what it was I understood, hence
my sometime resort to quotes that express some of what I am trying to say.



   Bee Brown
   Member TSNZ,Wanganui Branch.
   Theos Int & L