Theos-Talk Archives (May 1997 Message tl00533)

Tom Robertson wrote:
>
> More than 20 years ago, I went many times to a seminar given by a man who
> worked with youth, and, in commenting on St. Augustine's "love God, and
> do as you please," which echoes Krishnamurti, he said that that was
> "devastating" advice to them, as it would be too likely interpreted as a
> license for self-indulgence.  Self-indulgence _is_ what is natural for
> those who haven't reached a certain stage of maturity.  There may be
> more danger in the psychobabble that discourages suppression of desires
> than there is in unfulfilled needs.

	A certain degree of maturity is required to understand what St.
Augustine meant. There is only a problem if you look at the statement
from a dualist point of view. If you look at it from a monist point of
view, it is extrememly sensible. Remember what the Mahatmas say about
INTENT. The part of the phrase, "love God" is not just a platitude, it
is an absolutely necessary part of the formula. If you truly love God,
then your intent will always be proper, and therefore you can do what
you please. It is only when one separates one's heart from one's actions
that this fails to work.

	Aleister Crowley was similarly misunderstood when he came up with the
more Theosophical formula, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the
Law." On reading his works, it is clear that what he calls "will" or
"Thelema" is what Theosophists call "Atma".

	When one approaches the state of the Mahatmas, then karma ceases to be
an abstract concept, and becomes concrete. Under such conditions, it
would be ridiculous to perform any action or inaction that comes back to
you (the Mahatmas say "impossible", but I believe that was in the
figurative sense; for example, if one was blind and deaf, and had no
guidance, then every time one crossed the street, one would be in danger
of being hit by a motor vehicle. Being able to see and hear, we can, as
long as we are being even minimally mindful, avoid such collisions. It
is not physically impossible for us to get into an accident if the
vehicles are being controlled lawfully, but it is extremely unlikely).

	Going back to the subject of the thread, the desire for sex in humans
is high. But if the sex is offered in the middle of a busy highway, I
daresay any of us would overcome the urge. Since sex so easily leads to
the creation of personal karma, one could see that for someone for whom
karma is a physical aspect of reality, it would be generally avoided.
But that is not always necessarily the case.

	Finally, we must remember that for even the highest adepts, they must
maintain some level of human weakness to be able to generate enough
personal karma to stay on this plane. And what WAS in Moria's pipe?

	Bart Lidofsky