Theos-Talk Archives (October 1997 Message tt00057)

Perfection / Imperfection

Dear friends:

It is agreed that there are paradoxes.  But how can the
"imperfect" man dream of "perfection," unless there is somewhere
within him the capacity to understand PERFECTION ? If so, where
does that come from ? It is common among every person in the
world to dream of something that is ideal.

So, philosophically, and logically, we know we are in an
imperfect situation, and yet we also know that somewhere there is
harmony, idealism, altruism, and "perfection." some developed
that idea into paradise, nirvana, eden, moksha, the "never-never
land," etc...

Consider the following:

"When years ago, we first travelled over the East, exploring the
penetralia of its deserted sanctuaries, two saddening and
ever-recurring questions oppressed our thoughts: "Where, WHO,
WHAT is GOD? Who ever saw the Immortal SPIRIT of man so as to be
able to asure himself of man's immortality ?"

...we came into contact with certain men, endowed with such
mysterious powers and such profound knowledge that we may truly
designate them as the sages of the Orient.  To their instructions
we leant a ready ear.  They showed that by combining science with
religion, the existence of God and immortality of man's spirit
may be demonstrated like a problem of Euclid.  For the first time
we received the assurance that the Oriental philosophy has room
for no other faith than an absolute and immovable faith in the
omnipotence of man's own immortal self.

We were taught that this omnipotence comes from the kinship of
man's spirit with the Universal Soul -- God ! The latter, they
said, can never be demonstrated but by the former.

Man-spirit proves God-spirit, as the one drop of water proves a
source from which it must have come.  Tell one who has never seen
water, that there is an ocean of water, and he must accept it on
faith or reject it altogether.  But let one drop fall upon his
hand, and he then has the fact from which all the rest may be
inferred.  After that he could by degrees understand that a
boundless and fathomless ocean of water existed.  Blind faith
would no longer be necessary; he would have supplanted it with
knowledge."

HPB, Preface to ISIS UNVEILED, Vol I, p.  vi (6)

If we have a "universal vision" within our own capabilities, then
its nature as well as the limitations we live under ought both to
be considered so that an understanding of our curious position is
grasped.

We see our memories of the past we have experienced.  We read of
the discoveies IN NATURE over a large number of years by
exploreers and scienctists.  Presently, we are capable of chosing
and deciding our next steps.  We paint before our mind's eye the
possible future we desire -- ideas, attainments, possibilities --
and we either make them happen or we fail because we do not have
sufficient faith in our own capacities.  Why is this ?

I also would like to know   Dallas