Theos-Talk Archives (July 1996 Message tl00023)

Tourists and Pilgrims (Reply to Alexis)                                         

Alexis:                                                                         

I think we have a basic disagreement over the purpose of the                    
spiritual in the world. I see it as leading everyone, over time,                
to the Path, to inner transformations that raise them above the                 
everyday life of the mundane world. I see our duty, as students                 
of the spiritual, to work on ourselves and to share whatever                    
we've been fortunate enought to have enter into our lives.                      

I'm not sure why you think that I consider myself so advanced,                  
nor why you read contempt into my words. Perhaps I'll need to                   
write more skillfully in the future, because I'm neither feeling                
nor intending to communicate such feelings.                                     

I'm also for sharing with everyone, to the extent that their                    
interest allows. I'm not for labelling someone as "ok" or "not                  
ok" and then using that to decide if they're entited to benefit                 
from Theosophy.                                                                 

There's no "disease" associated with the theosophical doctrines                 
-- rather the reverse. I find a connection through them with                    
healing, uplifting, informing, and nourishing processes within.                 
Perhaps you may find yourself sickened by the words and exoteric                
ideas used to convey the doctrines? If so, it could be that your                
reaction is to dirty wine bottles, not realizing the special                    
vintage held within?                                                            

I don't understand how you would think that anyone with even a                  
slight benefit from the spiritual wouldn't feel obligated to                    
share it somehow? This wanting to share is both a mission and a                 
duty and only grows stronger over time, and it not a sign of                    
disease or sickness, nor proof that one is deluded. No. It's a                  
natural result of filling one's life with spiritual contents and                
the natural desire to share that arises therefrom.                              

Your evaluation of my message leaves me puzzled. I make no                      
exclusive claim to the theosophical doctrines, and I speak of                   
thousands of approaches to the Path. I mention that the highest                 
responsibility that each of us faces is to tred the Path and to                 
share what treasures we find with others. How is that smug,                     
self-satisfied, and monstrously self-righteous?                                 

-- Eldon