Theos-Talk Archives (November 1996 Message tl00011)

On Fri, 1 Nov 1996, Art House wrote:

> How do you reconcile the value that you find in the contents of the
> literature with the admitted facts of the early deceptions, hoaxes and
> personal power struggles of the founders that were purported to
> authenticate and validate them and their source in the "Brotherhood of
> Masters"?

IMO, this is a self-defeating inquiry. Books are just black characters
printed on white paper that do not carry with themselves any inherent
value--it is the reader who reads out information and translates it
into supposed values and truths. As to the "objective reality,"
interpretation of the so called facts depends on one's cultural, racial,
etc. background, the level of evolutionary development attained, and so
on. In general, what is known as facts are difficult to untangle
conglomerates of sensory data, opinions, emotional reactions, social
conditioning, built-in structures of our thought, etc.,--so the so called
"admitted facts" (even though they may have been "admitted" by the major
theosophical players themselves) may not be what we think them to be.

All that is hopelessly confusing unless you are ready to rely on
something of a different nature. The only reliable vantage point seems to
be one's own higher self, and there is enough personal evidence
supporting it. In the light of the higher self, some 'facts' and seeming
contradictions simply disappear, while surviving ones acquire a new meaning,
more fluid and reconciliatory.

Why don't you ask your own Self about it rather than posting a question
to the discussion list? If you are serious, do you believe that answers
to existential questions like questions about truth, authority, etc. can
come from the outside? Even if you receive some good (in your opinion)
answers, do you think you will be ready to wholeheartedly accept them
with no further doubts and suspicions likely to emerge in a short time?