Theos-Talk Archives (March 1999 Message tl00037)

I wrote:
 << 
> There is, of course, need for great discrimination, as all
> knowledge is not for those who are ethically known to be
> unworthy."  I mean to stress the idea of "ethically," 
because
> there is always the potential for a person to selfishly
abuse
> knowledge.  And if a teacher unwisely gives information, 
the
> moral burden descends on that "teacher" who so unwisely 
gives
> information to the "wrong" person.

Grigor writes:

> This miscontrues the nature of an esoteric teaching.  Secret in Sanskrit,
> ancient Persian, Tibetan, and Chinese is not merely witheld information.  It
> is a quality of being or of awareness that one cannot "possess" without being
> it.  Or, secret to surfing is not some information but the skilled ability to
> surf.  Nobody can get real secret without becoming qualified.  And process of
> becoming qualified makes it no longer secret to them for they have realized
> it.  True teacher merely assists in birth of potency latent in student.  To
> teach surfing, you have student develop their surfing skills.  In
> spirituality, higher states are ipso facto higher cognitive and ethical
> skills.  You can't get one without other anymore that you can get blue without
> getting a color or a square without getting a shape.  The real secrets are
> within oneself.  They emerge when one qualifies oneself.  A teacher has no
> role in judging whether one is qualified to receive secret.  Qualification and
> secret emerge together as one.  

I don't think I misunderstand the nature of esotheric 
teaching. The ethical question comes up very legitimately, 
in my oppinion, when the question of speeding up evolution 
comes up. The mahatma's choose to help people speed up 
their evolution if there was exactly that purity of motive 
that theosophists talk about at infinitum. 
As far as I am concerned theosophists are mistaken in 
thinking that we (as ordinary humans) also have that need 
to judge other peoples motives. If I have seemed to say the 
opposite, I am sorry. 

But again: I do think the Mahatma's have the duty and the 
right to judge motive, before they teach people to *surf*. 
And yes of course: they can only guide, we have to TRY as 
they often stressed. This is as true for surfing (which I 
am sure I could not easily learn in this incarnation ;-) ) 
as it is for occultism. I agree with that part of what you 
were saying. 

Katinka
----------------------
NHL Leeuwarden
hesse600@tem.nhl.nl