Theos-Talk Archives (October 1997 Message tt00051)

> Thinking along these lines, I came to the conclusion that the
> mind is a "tool," or an "instrument" which the "I" in me (perhaps
> the Real Man or EGO) can direct, using desire and will.
>
> "Desires" are either necessities, or they are "fancies," that can
> come and go.

Hi Dallas,

Yes, the mind is a "tool", a very efficient tool for intelectual
activity, but very deceiving when we use it in our "search for
Truth"; and the reason is, because the mind is conditioned.
Desires is what keep us coming back again and again, but our
conditionings keep us in the dark.  It doesn't matter how much we
try to control desires.  If we can't see the truth of our
situation because of our own conditioning, I doubt that we will
be able to control them.

The number ONE priority (in my opinion) is "to free our mind of
all conditionings".  Without achieving that we cannot even study
theosophy.  We may be reading "The Secret Doctrine", "Voice of
the Silence", even memorizing slokas...  But that is not
theosophy.  Theosophy requires a clear mind, able to reflect.
Even the name tells you: "Wisdom of the gods".  How are we going
to attain "divine wisdom" if we are starting with an imperfect
tool.

We all like to tell friends about the "freedom of thought and
action" that we enjoy in the Theosophical Society.  Some of us
feel that that freedom represents that we can all have our own
opinions and everybody else is supposed to respect it.  I don't
agree with that definition at all! To me it means that we all
have the responsibility to do a serious search for Truth using
the correct means.  I am not talking about developing opinions
here.  Right now I don't take any opinions seriously, even my
own.  The only thing that matters is to have an open (clear,
non-conditioned) mind.  The interesting thing about this (and I
didn't know it) is that once the mind is cleared of all its
conditionings, it changes.  It is transformed, a process begins,
and it does not ever go back to its old ways.

If you don't mind...  please, go to the Krishnamurti Foundation
web page and read 2 paragraphs.  That is all there is on that web
page.

 http://www.rain.org/~kfa/

My best wishes to you and everybody else on this list.

Rudy Don