Theos-Talk Archives (October 1999 Message tl00208)

Your response was wonderful.

At 03:59 PM 10/13/1999 +0200, hesse600 wrote:
>> It is only by a select group of brave souls, a handful of
determined men and women hungry for genuine spiritual
development and the acquirement of soul-wisdom, that the
Theosophical Society at large can be brought back to its
original lines.>

Don't we have such a group here on the Internet? with no financial, ethnic
or other axes to grind and attitudes more reflecting the First Object --
without discrimination of any kind? Of course 100 years ago there was no
Internet so HPB was addressing the needs of that time, IMHO.

Also we have to keep in mind that great achievements were made by
individuals and not groups or masses.

>Now, believing as I do, that individuals in a group can
change a group, not only by their actions (though action
at the proper time is neccessary), but also by their
*aura's* or *atmosphere* or *thought-forms*, I see nothing
wrong with HPB's objective. THe problem comes in when
people today seem to think that not only was the ES created
to save the TS, but that today it is still the lifeline of
the TS. So that, no TS-member is taken seriously by some,
untill they have become not only active, but also
ES-members. In fact, some seem to think that one cannot be
devoted to *The Life* without being an ES-member.<

Fools are they who think so!

Olcott himself who had personal contact with the Founders and the
Brotherhood was not a member of ES.

>
THis prejudice is so strong that one cannot understand
TS-politics, without understanding the place of the ES.
Almost all national presidents (also called general
secretary's) are ES-members. <

>My original approach to the ES was much different. I had
read about it in the Key to THeosophy, and wanted to join,
vowing myself (inwardly) to the service of humanity, I was
determined that this was a place to meet soul's who were
similarly inclined. But then I found I could not join,
because I was too young and had not been a member long
enough. I started thinking out the posibilities.
If the ES had all the knowledge and insight to offer me and
others that is implicite in all the talk about it, then I
was being refused entrance and refused bread on very
superficial reasons. That could not be right. How can one
refuse spiritual knowledge to someone merely because they
are only 20 years old? I could not reconcile that with Love
and Wisdom. Because, most of us believing in reincarnation,
physical age should not be such an issue. This started me
off, then I found out about all the other rules that are
strictly enforced, and now I have stopped taking the ES
seriously as an esoteric school. I have decided it is not
for me, and the whole mystiek around it, appals me. >

Have you read Ernest Wood's book "Is This Theosophy?"

In it he describes how he joined the ES and was given some practical
instructions on meditation and how he found that his own method which he
was using for a long time (based on his reading books) was working better
for him. He also mentions that what is secret is the practical techniques,
the details of which of course he did not discuss.

I also heard of an instance when two members who were single at that time
decided to live together and one of the other members spied on them and
reported their action and seems to have been told to leave and they left
for good.

Probably if you had joined, you may not be posting any messages here!!!!

>
My dislike for the ES is therefore in direct proportion to
the pretentions at wisdom, and the lack of flexibility in
the way the rules are applied.
In HPB's days the rules were meant as advice. When one
broke a rule, one was responsible to one's own
consciousness. All this is gone. Recently in Brasil a man
was expelled from the ES because of his sexual orientation. >

Again may be someone spied on the sexual orientation?

>
I wish for an ES with more flexibility and less pretention,
and then it might even be a blessing to the TS. As it is,
it drags the TS down, as far as I'm concerned. Is it karma
that it was meant to save the TS (and perhaps did?) and now
it is a milestone around the TS's neck?>

You may be on target on your assessment.

mkr