Theos-Talk Archives (December 1997 Message tt00100)

Nicholas:
>>However, according to the SD (vol. 2, 300-01, for example) the human life
>>wave passed through the descending arc, where matter dominated spirit,
>>many millions of years ago.

Mark K:
>Maybe we've rounded the corner, so to speak, and have started on
>the long climb up, especially since we are now well into the fifth root
>race and beginning to respond to ascending impulses, but by and large,
>we are still very much in the thick. We are by no means, as a race, "out
>of it yet." Maybe you don't share my opinion, that's OK with me.

N:
I did not say we are free or even approaching freedom from self
cherishing, only that it will not go away without our efforts to remove
it. By the way, what is your opinion based on?
>>So selfishness now is very much a retrogressive energy. A rebel against
>>Nature as HPB put it.

M:
>I disagree. It may be a current opposed to the goal and intent of
>evolution, ultimately, but for the time being, it's in, through and all
>around us if we are only honest with ourselves. It is Natural that it be
>so. I want to stress the fact that I believe it is psychologically
>healthier to understand the cause of "selfishness" and "ego,"
>(theosophically speaking) etc., than to react with fear and
>self-loathing against it.

N:
Understanding the cause of suffering is only part of the equation.  Buddha
(for example) also taught a path to cure the illness or remove the cause
-- a path requiring more than loathing.  But if one is comfortable or
accepting of a major vice I do not see how or why one would do anything
about it.

>From the SD 2, 110: "In sober truth, vice and wickedness are an
*abnormal, unnatural* manifestation, at this period of our human
evolution -- at least they ought to be so. The fact that mankind was
never more selfish and vicious than it is now... is an additional proof
of the exceptional nature of the phenomenon."

Best,

--
Nicholas <> am455@lafn.org <> Los Angeles