Theos-Talk Archives (August 1996 Message tl00475)

In message <960826060822_74024.3352_BHT82-2@CompuServe.COM>, Keith Price
<74024.3352@compuserve.com> writes
>"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.

I think I'll buy Ann's interpretation on all this, in a general sense.
This "kill and control" mentality is typical of asceticism generally.
If we are to kill all memory of past experiences, then what is the point
of going deeply into the question of reincarnation, for example?

"Strangle thy sins" - this seems to give "sins" a kind of objective
existence of their own.  But the word(s) from scripture which have been
rendered "sin" and then redefined by dogmatic theology mean nothing more
than "missing the target" or "getting it wrong."  You can break the
arrow, and you can destroy the target, but you can't strangle the aim -
you can only try to correct it.  So let's mend, not strangle.

"Kill thy desires" - makes no sense at all,  for if you want to do this,
you must set up a desire to kill your desires, which is absurd!

Alan
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