Theos-Talk Archives (July 1996 Message tl00222)

Hi Chuck --

A couple of days ago you wrote,
>I have a real problem with things that get practiced for thousands of years.
> They tend to get just a bit ossified.  

No kidding. :)  But its the FORM that can become inadequate, not the
original impulse. The trick (I think) is to recognize what is/was valid
separate from all the would-be commentators in the world.  To some extent, I
think we can see this in the tendency of some modern theosophy students to
discount everything after 1890, more or less, in an attempt to skip over
some of the many sidetracks...  
Who can count the various schools of Buddhism?  One can spend a lifetime
making a scholastic study of them, and that's no doubt useful, but all of
the "thousands of years of commentary and ossification" doesn't really
detract from the message of the Buddha.  Does it?  And IMO, reading the
Sermon on the Mount gives all one really needs to know about Christianity...
and all of the nonsense of the last 2,000 years doesn't mean squat, really.
In the case of Raja Yoga, since it's based anyway upon personal experience
of the integration of the personality with the Soul, the only real question
is whether or not the text of Patanjali as we have it is an accurate
rendition (or so it seems to me).
  
[clip]

>In any event, it may be that I have lived long enough to have heard too many
>scare stories about everything from mastrubation to cholesterol and I am the
>sort of person who just naturally rejects warnings out of hand.  I am a risk
>taker.  And I have found that a damned good way to live.  Sure something can
>go wrong and I might get killed, but what the hell, I'll be back and that
>cavalier attitude towards life carries over into my spiritual practice as
>well.  It gives me the freedom to pursue things that make angels nervous and
>the older I get the more I am convinced that the pursuit is perhaps more
>important than the goal.
>I don't know if any of this rambling answers your questions, but it was a
>try.
>Chuck the Heretic

I can't think of the guy's name, but reading your post reminded me of a
famous businessman who returned to give the commencement speech at his alma
mater and shocked the establishment by telling the graduating students,
"There are those who will tell you not to burn your candle at both ends.  I
say, HELL! Break it in the middle and burn it four ways!"

Which has always seemed a good idea to me.  Anything beats being merely a
bookworm, and some pretty heavy hitters have spoken about taking the Kingdom
of Heaven by force... but meditation seems to be the key to effecting change. 

Jim