Theos-Talk Archives (August 1996 Message tl00474)

Keith:

>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. . .

My interpretation here is that the Mind divides and categorizes, separating and
labeling people, plants, animals.  Next comes "I like that one better" or
"person was nice to me" and "my ethnic group is better than them".  Mind hides
or obscures the intutitional vision that sees everything as expression of the
One, each unique and valueable in their own way.

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

Your past experiences color the way you look at things today.  One has to get
beyond that conditioning to see things as they really are.  My interpretation
here is that she is talking about clearing out the emotional/astral fog that has
accumulated over lifetimes.

Desire needs to be transmuted to service.  Strangle thy sins - sounds like a
nineteenth century way of saying "Clean up your act!"

>Is this ascetism necessary?

Sometimes abstaining or getting away from things (like on a retreat) makes you
appreciate them better and leads to right use.  Bad habits can perpetuate
themselves just out of habit.  Time for a break!

>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:)

IMHO, HPB had a strong personality and that may be the way she saw or expressed
it.

 From my viewpoint, when you ready to give up the personality to the soul, it
won't seem lilke that.  It's just a natural giving up to the higher forces.
There is no violent sacrifice when you are doing something out of pure love.

-Ann E. Bermingham