Theos-Talk Archives (May 1999 Message tl00032)

Hi all,
 There has been a discussion on ULTese on this list. 
Someone asked me what I found interesting about it. He 
wondered how the study of ULTese would help the spiritual 
growth of me, or the other listmembers or of the ULT 
itself. About the second two, I don't know much, but I do 
know this: it helps me in my study of human nature.
 I have always been an interested and fascinated 
people-watcher. I have never quite gotten around to 
understanding this strange species, but I do try. Studying 
theosophy in general adds a lot to the puzzle, and seems to 
help in solving it. But in that study (of people) theosophy 
also becomes a factor. Theosophy: its ideals of altruism, 
freedom of thought and also its *doctrines* have had a 
profound impact on the world in the past century. More 
directly theosophy (just for the occasion defined as above) 
has been an influance on people who have tried to build 
organisations according to its principles. Some of those 
organisations are based on the idea of freedom first. 
Others are based on the value of the *doctrines* first. 
Others are mix of these two. The ULT is quite an original 
player in this field. They take the idea of anonimity to 
the extreme. They take the idea of teachings before the 
person to the extreme. Also of all the organisations with 
studygroups in physical space (I mean all 
non-internet-organisations), it is the one who has tried to 
keep the weight of the organisation itself as small as 
possible. I view it as an interesting experiment. And, as I 
am profoundly convinced of the value of diversity, I also 
value its originality. 
 So, all in all, I am very interested in all that can be 
found on how theosophy is tried to be put into practice. If 
something like ULTese comes from people genuinely trying to 
do what they thought H.P.Blavatsky would have wanted them 
to do, then I am genuinely interested in how it works. 
 Again: studying human nature and the interaction of human 
nature with theosophy is interesting to me, so in the same 
wise, ULTese is for me interesting. And I would like to 
close with something H.P.Blavatsky said, though I do not 
have the exact quotation: she said she critisized people in 
the hope of being critisized herself, because that is one 
of the easiest ways of discovering your weaknesses. So if 
the ULT is flexible enough to know how to reflect on its 
own functioning, it will probably learn something from our 
discussion of ULTese. Of course it is very likely that they 
do not learn what the writer of the ULTese-dictionary wants 
them to learn, but something completely different. But that 
is their business, not mine, nor is it the business of the 
writer of the ULTese-dictionary to be, since he is not a 
member of their organisation it seems and in that sense I 
can sympathise with the person who feels we should just 
leave them to do what they do. 

Katinka Hesselink 
 (formarly known as Katinka; I do not really believe in 
anonimity to the extreme... ;-)   )
----------------------
NHL Leeuwarden
hesse600@tem.nhl.nl