Theos-Talk Archives (August 1996 Message tl00472)

Is anyone still reading VOS.  I guess the back to school karma and Virgo time of
the year has more to do with practical communication than theosopy.  However, I
still pick it up and work and reread pasages etc.

The first page has the interesting injuction:  "The Mind is the Slayer of the
Real.  Let the Disciple slay the Slayer." - HPB

All that capitalization implies personification or divinity or both.  The
thought producer is linked to the senses.  The Disciple (or the divine part of
the student) must link with the Silent Speaker (more capitializations) in order
to hear the Voice of the Silence.

"Kill thy desires ... strangle thy sins ... kill in thyself all memory of past
experiences." - HPB

Isn't this a little violent?  This self-abuse and flagellation of the products
of consciousness can be seen in poetic or allegorcial, yet it still seems a
little morbid to the modern mind.  The modern view is to sit down with your
desires and sins and have a nice chat.  They are only archetypes and like
members of a dysfuctional family can "recover" and enter into more harmonious
relationships.  Is this ascetism necessary?  I hate to harp on the theme of
misguided purity, but hating your sins? Hate seems to breed hate and focusing on
sins would only make them have more power, in today's lingo.   Transform the
base into gold maybe as in the alchemical mode.  Couldn't these senses and sins
be harnassed for some higher purpose/

I think she probably has somthing more subtle in mind of course, but she does
insist on KILL, KILL, KILL past hope of resurrection all our little human
frailites etc.  What an order!   I can't go through with it!  I am glad I have
seven lives to go.  (Cheshire grin:)

Namaste
Keith Price