Theos-Talk Archives (July 1996 Message tt00032)

Eldon> [...]

>We become a force for good in the world because that is
>what we are, what we are interested in doing, what is the content
>of our minds and hearts. This is not because we've been acting
>with the thought: "I do these unselfish things that I don't
>particularly like because I know they are good for me to do and
>I'm *trying* to be a better person." Not that, but rather because
>we're acting like someone in love, where that love is a power that
>sweeps through our lives changing us. It's the opposite of someone
>not in love, but pretending to be in love with the thought of "I'm
>supposed to". In a sense, we're talking about igniting and setting
>ablaze deeply-seated spiritual energies and passions in our lives.

If the great love for humanity that is needed is not real to us,
then we must TRY (as the Brothers encourage) to develop it.  This
need not be hypocrisy, for the source of the effort, the
aspiration comes from our True Nature of compassion absolute.
Mahayana Buddhism recognizes this problem and devotes much effort
in becoming a compassionate person by simulating or using images
of the goal.  These are real sparks of the One Flame.

> [...] We come to a point where, as Rodolfo says, we have to
> transform ourselves, or fail.  We reach a turning point in our
> personal progress, and can either take new steps in our lives,
> and flower in new and different ways, a kind of personal
> initiation, or we can fail.  What happens when we fail? We
> backslide.  The Teachings lose their magic and power.  It is not
> a dramatic crisis of meaning, where it all falls apart in our
> lives.  Rather, it is a slow fade, a gradual decline, as we lose
> interest in the Philosophy and the Path, and drift back into some
> other belief system.

Failure is not being unaware of our progress or being aware of
spiritual deadness in our life.  Failure is taking this to be
failure, rather than a cyclic period of an ebbing tide in our
theosophic awareness.