Theos-Talk Archives (January 1997 Message tl00903)

Einar Adalsteinsson & ASB <annasb@ismennt.is> wrote:

> 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.

I have experienced that also - not in theosophy specifically. Many people
around my age (42) are already jaded. If you give them something new to think
about, it's "Been there. Done that." or "What good is that going to do?"
They pidgeon-hole what you say into an ossified set of beliefs. Sigh.
I hope that's not a mirror of what I'm like. Or I hope I don't become like
that.

> 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.

> 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. 

Ann Ree Colton had a wonderful exposition of the Sermon on the Mount. I'll
have to locate it, but I remember the gist of her words on "Blessed are the
poor in spirit." We all surrendered something of the spirit when we entered
this heavy world of gross matter. The klosha veils obscuring our eternal
origins mean that we have to struggle in this world and through struggle to
give birth to a kind of consciousness not otherwise possible.  In this
struggle for consciousness we are ultimately "blessed" for we move beyond
the stage where we suck at the breasts of divinity, but become gods.