Theos-Talk Archives (September 1996 Message tl00165)

Alan:

[writing to Ann]

>>Why bother with an intermediary when you
>>could have intimate contact with your very own higher self/soul?  My methodology
>>is to be the hands, eyes and ears of the Soul, manifesting itself on the earth
>>through my personality.
>
>Hear Hear!  Amen!  Bravo!

I'd agree that we certainly cannot have a proxy to do things for us. We can't
have someone else raise themselves then give us the fruits of their efforts on
a silver platter, without working up any sweat of our own.

The Catholic model of requiring a "priest" to understand what God wants and tell
us poor souls, unable to find out ourselves, is being supersede by the Protestant
model of "knowing God" ourselves. Substitute the words "Master" for "priest" and
"spiritual truths" for "God", and we get the theosophical situation.

No one can do things for us. But this does not mean that coaches, teachers, and
the moral support of fellow students, our sangha, are not invaluable in treading
the Path. A good teacher does not give a student pat answers, and expect rote
memorization. A good teacher teaches the student to thing for himself, or for
herself, and *brings out the innate capabilities in the student*. This is what
a bona fide Guru can do, or a Master, and it's really, I think, the polar opposite
from the effect of someone like a Catholic Priest, someone simply telling someone
things and powerless to inspire their lives nor evoke in them some genuine self
exertion and spiritual growth.

-- Eldon