Theos-Talk Archives (January 1997 Message tl00889)

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Hi there all of you.

I would like to specially thank you Eldon for your insight on this subject.
I can hear that you know the feeling of connecting with a group of real 
enthusiastic spiritual listeners.

Eldon: Yes, it's possible to share profound insights with people, using a              
language that they're familiar with. They can take their new                    
insights -- flashes of intuition -- and make sense of them in                   
their own ways.                                                                 


One thing I have experienced talking to "newbies" about spirituality and 
the Theosophical World-view is, that they really listen,  that is if you can 
manage to touch a core in their own life's experience. 

On the other hand I find it often most difficult to get anywhere near the 
OLD, all-knowing THEOSOPHISTS, that have figured it all out,  and only 
listen to you through or with their own ideas. For those you HAVE to 
use the jargon technical terms, and preferably quote volumes and 
pages, to get their attention - but there is still no real contact or 
communion there.

So, I like to try to make my theosophical guidance as unconventional 
and simple as possible. I rather use Ideas from the old scriptures, like 
Tao te Ching, The Prophet, Light on the Path, etc., anything simple 
and profound, but I don't like to quote them directly.

Eldon: A Christian might use biblical terminology to describe their                    
new understanding of emptiness. A agnostic scientist might use                  
entirely different ideas to explain and understand the same                     
insight.                                                                        
A Christian might use biblical terminology to describe their                    
new understanding of emptiness. A agnostic scientist might use                  
entirely different ideas to explain and understand the same                     
insight

One thing I like to do is to take extracts from the Sermon on the Mount 
and even the Lord's Prayer, and explain and discuss those from the 
Theosophical World-view. 

Many of the newcomers have been probing around in the New-Age 
circles searching for some meaning to life, and you can with success 
get to them through the terms and ideas that are common there. 

But you have to straighten out the most hideous misinterpretations and 
far reaching spiritual errors, that circle in those waters, WITHOUT ever 
condemning any of them. You just give your explanation and 
interpretation as you see it.


Eldon: The problem is that western thought may not provide a fertile                   
ground for these seeds to take root. The vocabulary, concepts,                  
logic, and view of life that someone holds is a container for                   
their insights. It's also a *filter*, adding a bias, allowing some              
insights to take root and others to be excluded and to die away.                

Exactly, but you can even bypass such filters if you surprise them 
with something, a new point of view, that is totally transcending their 
theories. 

I use the "Oneness", the unity of all life, taken from all possible 
aspects, mystically, environmentally, psychologically, scientifically, to 
make a basis for what I go into. I interlink unity with other 
subjects such as karma, reincarnation, insight, relations, prophesy, the 
path, and most importantly, all that goes on in our psyche.

And I use the ideas of Krishnamurti, Rohit Metha, Carl Jung, Dr. Bohm, 
Fritjof Kapra and the "horrendous" Ken Wilber, which by the way, 
opened a big hole in the clouds for me personally.

Eldon: The theosophical doctrines provide a language and a framework for               
understanding great insights. The language allows a richer,                     
deeper, more expressive understanding of the ancient wisdom. I'd                
say that it's as important to teach this *framework* as it is to                
share some of the insights that we've had along the way.                        

Of course it's almost impossible to convey anything profoundly spiritual 
without using some technical terms, Sanskrit or otherwise. More 
importantly you have also to take many common terms like love, 
emotions, feelings, etc. and "rethink" and "redefine" their meaning in 
the light of each subject. 

Often one has to bypass such jargon terms, that don't really mean 
anything to most people, and rephrase them in a different language. I 
suspect, for instance, that the term Karma has a "frozen and dead" 
meaning for most long term Theosophists! It has become a "jargon"-
term, which has no LIVING meaning in our life. We know all about it, 
but we don't have the clue how to use it, moment by moment in our 
everyday life! We are experts in arguing about its "real meaning", but it's  
all theoretical "head"-learning and very little "heart"-knowledge.


Eldon:... By letting people see the richness of ideas and                    
wonders found in Theosophy, you overcome the language barrier.                  
Some people may be turned away because of the terminology and the               
jargon, the technical language. You help people discover that                   
there's a goldmine behind the theosophical books.

Yes, that is exactly the point. You have also to promote discussion, so 
that you can learn from them. You have to make a common ground, or 
you won't get anywhere.


Einar before:
> To make it even more difficult, I like to take it from a profound             
> mystical aspect, which often is quite non-logical or paradoxical              
> in nature.                                                                    

Eldon: This is a good approach. What we're trying to impart is ultimately              
mystical in nature. The emphasis is on *insight* or new faculties               
of consciousness, which is what the mystical consists of.                       

>The use of non-logical and paradoxical techniques in teaching is                
important. We'd be trying to keep people from crystalizing in                   
their thinking, from getting trapped into ideas that are too                    
rigid. This stretching of the mind keeps it limber and flexible.                

And we have to keep it that way ourselves all our life, which is a very 
tricky business. 

Eldon: And in addition to keeping the intellect healthy, there's the                   
higher faculty of symbolic thought, of direct insight which does                
not rely on logic or rationality.                                               

>Insights from this higher faculty can be partially *described* in               
logical terms, but the description is different from the actual                 
experience. The difference is as wide as a clinical description                 
of "being in love" is from the actual life experience. 

This is just as spoken from my heart. This is maybe the most important 
aspect in our life and especially in our instructions and communications 
to others. 

My spiritual mentor and former GS in Iceland, who was an 
expert lecturer, taught me that one should never propagate a too rigid 
or too logical system, always keeping some open doors to the big 
questions and mysteries of life. He even advised to tear apart every 
main statement one would put forward, at the end of a talk or 
discussion, turning the whole thing upside-down, and leaving the 
listener hanging in the air - totally free from your thoughts.


Eldon: The point, I think, is to use a common language -- one that the                 
audience knows -- to express the philosophy. Once their interest                
is aroused, they can learn a more adept language for the mystery                
teachings -- the theosophical philosophy.                                       

>And there's a second point here too: whatever we learn needs to                 
come back to our everyday life. The ideas need to take root in our              
external life. There needs to be both a "reality check" of our                  
thinking with the external world, as well as a "potency check" of               
the ideas having the power to make things happen in our lives and               
the world.                                                                      

-- Eldon                                                                        


I take my hat off for that!

Love and light 

Einar.