Theos-Talk Archives (June 1997 Message tl00614)

Hi there.
We have just started our TS Summer School here in Iceland, and at the inauguration this evening the new National President Mr. Jon Arnalds discussed some points about the TS and its work. Maybe it could be interesting for you to get a glimpse of the attitude that lead the section to its peak of over 600 members out of a quarter of a million inhabitants.
This is of course just a glimpse, but there is more if you contact me for further material.

Let's then look at some points by Sigvaldi Hjalmarsson:
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The choice of TS-agenda.
The Theosophical Society is unique in the sense that its foundation is based on questions, not answers.
Those who join it unite on seeking, not something that already has been found. When the Society is thus defined it happens that attentive people ask: How is it possible to ensure that the work in such a society is incisive and not fumbling, how does one choose agenda for meetings and study? One may point out that a question tells much more about interest than does answers. A question is always initiative or aggressive. An answer is something finished. Question initiates seeking, answer leads mostly towards dullness. In one way the above question is justifyable, namely in that people are not used to think about activity which is not committing or restraining, but totally free. Most societies or groups attract people because they think they know, not because they stand utterly perplexed against powerful questions. At least this is a fact in most political parties and religious groups.

But choosing agenda for the Theosophical Society is not a complicated matter. The Objects are the road-signs. To study and compare religions, philosphies, and sciences, and investigate unexplained laws of nature and latent powers in man. If we then mix the first object on brotherhood of man (woman) with this, then the agenda becomes truly visible. Everything that concerns the communion of mankind between themselves, and towards another life-forms, is looked upon as important matter for investigation, especially because such communion seems to be so extremely difficult...

Perhaps it is not enough to study the human subject theoretically but also how it can be applied in real life. Perhaps it is not enough to try to find new answers to old questions, perhaps one has to make an effort to find totally new questions. That is where we turn to the mystical and esoteric subjects. They are exactly about trying to find totally new questions, to seek in totally new places, different directions, another dimensions of experiences.

The mystical teachings throughout the ages have been an important part in the studies of Theosophical members. One asks if man necessarily has to be as he is, Isn't it possible to change man, since it seems to be impossible to change his conditions? There are men and women that seem to be different, not only better than most people, but much nobler than us, because they experience the self-awareness "to be" , much clearer and in fact totally different from our experience. Human problems don't seem to affect them and it is like the totality of all human experiences are active through them.
(From Mundilf.2.2.)

Love and light,
Einar Adalsteinsson