Theos-Talk Archives (August 1997 Message tl00069)

Jerry wrote:

> Subject: Qabala vs Theosophy
> 
>  >As I am
> >slowly becoming familiar with the Kabbalistic writtings and
> >commentaries, Kabbalah shows itself to be the best form in which to
> >propose theosophy.
> 
> I am very uncertain as to what you mean here, but it sounds like
> the Qabala is somehow a foundation for theosophy. 

Kabbalah contains a theosophy which means it speculates on the divine
nature seeking divine wisdom superior to empirical knowledge.

> HPB was familiar with the Qabala, and
> yet gave us her own theosophical model anyway (which today's
> theosophists ignore because they don't understand it).

HPB was only vaugely familiar with Kabbalah, although, she gave strong
endorsements for the pursuit of kabbalistic theosophy even though her
particular brand of theosophy was much more pantheistic having strong
ties to Hinduism.

>My main point here is that you won't
> find "truth" in any of these things--they are all just models of
> reality, and some models apply better to some people than others.

Kabbalah is a model of theosophy which would be ultimate reality. Models
are excellent tools for exploration of systematic knowledge, and in this
case the model has magical properties and purposes.

> Thus all have a ring of truth, but we have to remember that they
> are human-mind inventions to help us come to grips with
> the infinite and eternal.

The discovery that the "Tree of Life" is a fractal geometry makes less
likely the assertion that the Tree or even the Decalogue are human
inventions, although, it does not eliminate that possibility. 

> Subject: Sickly-Sweet Ethics Defined
> 
> >I've been following this thread with fascination. IMHO, ethics stem from
> >compassion and compassion stems from the quality of love. 
> 
> I agree with you that we have a downward flow in the order of Love->
> Compassion->Ethics.  HPB, Judge, and many others suggest that by
> forcing ethics, we will be able to rise to compassion, and then to love as
> you have defined it. 

Ethics stem from self knowledge. Western tradition recommends that one
seek self knowledge in order to love completely.

> ------------------------------

> Subject: Magick

> 
> >The only thing that we truly posess is our 'sense' of things. Our senses
> >and the memory of our senses is the self; we can not posess any thing
> >else.
> 
> Very true Vincent, but what what we can do, is to change our "sense"
> of things to whatever we want, which is pretty much the definition of
> magick.

Authentic magick modifies the environment which in turn gives one new
sensory experiences.

> >Ethics are simply rules of thumb for preserving the
> >'integrity' of the soul, enhancing beauty of being, and peaking the
> >pleasurable life experience.
> 
> Vincent, are cats ethical?  Are dogs?  Are elephants?  Why is it
> that only human beings feel this desperate need to be ethical all
> the time?  

Blavatsky put a great deal of emphasis on "self consciousness". Humans
are capable of a very high degree of self knowledge much more than is
found in animals such as Coco the gorilla who has been taught language,
and has become deluded that she is a human being. As we can see in the
case of this gorilla self knowledge can be very problematical as well as
being the key to spiritual attainment. If we look deeply into the origin
of ethics we find the relationships among the parts of the soul that
ethics preserve. To realize that we are built of soul components that
function together to produce harmony means that are are necessarily
forbidden knowledges and actions. This would be simply reflected in the
SOPs that we use for our machines; if that dosen't seem to trivial.

>Could it be that only human beings have a developed
> manas, and the fact that "mind is the slayer of the real?"
> 
> Jerry S.

This is a case where I find that Kabbalah provides valuable insight.
Many or most think of the mind in terms of logic or Binah consciousness.
What most don't realize is that logic is only one of our simplest
systems of reasoning. Very little can be put into logical form; logic
must be imposable on a problem if logic is to apply. Most of our able
consciousness is concerned with the discrimination of patterns which
requires much higher mathematical functions than the simple binary
functions of logic.

In short very few experience wisdom, the Chokma. So they are given over
to minds that 'kill'; thinking that there deductions can demonstrate
everything that exists not realizing that they are imposing a simple
minded 'system' on their limited experience of a vast and beautiful
cosmos where logic is only ugly little part.

Later....

Vincent
-- 

vincent@dmv.com

http://home.dmv.com/~vincent/