Theos-Talk Archives (November 1996 Message tl00154)

MK Ramadoss writes-->
The last thing that was in my mind when I wrote the msg was to insult you. If
it is viewed  by you as an insult, then you have my total unconditional full
and complete apology.

Richard Ihle writes-->
MK Ramadoss, you are my kind of theosophist!

Let me quote myself:  "The simple act of making an apology instantly creates
an ego-formation which doesn't owe one."

Personally, whenever I discover that I have inadvertently offended someone, I
just try to face the music and regard it as yet another example of my
imperfect adepthood--i.e., that a widened perspective upon and better insight
into my audience should have been able to predict it, etc.

Thus, like you, I try to freely apologize.  I think we are in complete
agreement that there is no big deal about it.  Furthermore, it may seem like
I am only apologizing to another person; however, it also gives me the
opportunity to apologize to a "better version" of myself--for I know that I
probably gave the ~unintentional~ offense because I had temporarily unleashed
some desire-mental or mental ego-formation and let it do what it could to
show its superiority to all other ego-formations of the same nature.  In
short, at the least I was guilty of not continuously maintaining the
"Once-Removed Vantage."

~Mindful~ offence-giving is a different story, of course, and perhaps it is
for discussion at another time (it may relate to JRC's idea of "having a
little bit of a [psychogenetic] mission on this list."

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that your theosophical stock went ~way
up~ for me when I saw how easy it was for you to apologize.  It suggested to
me that you may be egoically so well-grounded in something Higher that you
are able to effortlessly apologize--rightly or wrongly--for a idea-clad
ego-stranger which had formed, passed away, and thus is not regarded as the
real You anyway.

The only problem I can see in my sharing this psychogenetic perspective is
that I may have inadvertently put Alan in a bind:  in order to match your
apotheosis, I wonder if he now has to quickly say he is no longer the
"person" who needed the apology. . . .

In any case, MK Ramadoss, you are my kind of theosophist!  (But so is Brother
Alan, of course.)

Godspeed,

Richard Ihle