Theos-Talk Archives (May 1997 Message tl00184)

liesel@dreamscape.com (liesel f. deutsch) wrote:

> 3. what suggestions do you have for activties, Thoa? I know workshops. Would
> you have people get up and say "I have this & this problem" and then
> everyone in the group gets together and tries to suggest different ways to
> change their Karma? What other ways do you know?

I'll butt in here with a long and garrulous digression way off the subject
(Oops! Excuse me, Thoa, didn't mean to step on your toes like that. These
clumsy white men ... ;)

Having had some experience in groups, I would only caution that the atmosphere
in a spiritual group be caring, but impersonal. Or if you like, Personal with
the capital P. It is a very exacting thing working with the karma of
another. You can get pulled in to the other's karma in such a way that it
harms both you and the one you would help. This doesn't mean that the caring
is not intense or that you are not changed yourself, but that you respect the
other's volition and their need to learn possibly from taking quite a fall.

Consequences of being over-personalized: feels great at first (or maybe it
feels icky), expectations become unrealistic, attached strings become evident,
disappointments set in, irritations develop into separateness.

In every group there is at least one Judas mentality of politicized
expectations. Not infrequently a portion of that mentality is in each
member. A personal agenda is pushed, possibly dressed in some noble garb. He
or she is used to test members true intents. HPB called it the dweller action.

I don't know what Judas's expectations were of Jesus, but they seemed to be
for a worldly or political kind of victory for his oppressed people. Jesus
had to remind him, "My kingdom is not of this world."