Theos-Talk Archives (November 1997 Message tt00001)

At 08:52 PM 11/1/97 GMT, you wrote:
>On Wed, 29 Oct 1997 14:46:52 -0600, you wrote:
>
>>Thanks for using NetForward!
>>http://www.netforward.com
>>v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
>>
>>At 10:12 AM 10/29/97 -0700, Bjorn Roxendal wrote:
>>
>>>"Theosophy" seems to benefit some students spiritual evolution but tend
>>>to slow others down.
>>
>>It would be impossible to measure the spiritual evolution either internally
>>or externally. What looks like slowing down may indeed be a period when
>>greatest progress was made. Also a lot of things that happen can only be
>>better understood and evaluated several years after the happening. Just my
0.02.
>
>>mkr
>That is what I find now. I have been getting annoyed with myself
>because I cannot remember things from all the heaps of books I have
>read over the past 25 or so years and when I want to reply to
>something here I get frustrated as I cannot find the place where I
>read about it. On pondering this, I realised that the reading bypassed
>the memory and seems to go to the understanding as when I look back, I
>am a diffeent person than I was even 10 years ago. I feel that the
>knowledge I have gained from my study has caused this change so I
>guess I won't moan if my memory fails me, as long as the bit that
>matters keeps growing for the better.
>Bee

The question of memory recall is a very interesting one. I had a friend who,
when he was in the mid prime of his life could recall hundreds of telephone
numbers of those with whom he dealt with in business. Later when he was in
late 50s he had a heart bypass and he semi-retired. One of the things he
noticed after he retired, was that he no longer remembered the hundreds
telephone numbers as he used. Getting worried about something wrong with his
brain, he went to a Neurologist who ran several tests and told him that
nothing is wrong with him. The reason for his "bad" memory regarding phone
numbers was that they are no longer of much importance to him so they became
low priority items for him to remember. I have also seen somewhat similar
phenomenon. I have tended to remember very well somethings someone said or
did to insult or harm you (even though in itself they were trivial) and have
a tendency to forget many other major things in life. I guess it may have to
do with some kind of internal prioritization of items to be remembered.

This brings to focus another point. It is said that the ideal action is one
in which one does not anticipate or expect any reward, and I believe such an
action does not create Karma -- good or bad. When such an act is performed,
we also tend to forget them and the recipient of the deed. Also when such an
act is performed, we do not burden our brains/memory unnecessarily. Again,
when a next action is performed, since the memory of previous action is not
there, the next action is not colored or modified by the results of the
previous action and as such the next action becomes creative and new and
perhaps the best action. When you get into such a cycle of action, one
becomes efficient in action, which is called Yoga -- efficiency in action.
Just my 0.02.