Theos-Talk Archives (December 1997 Message tt00135)

Nicholas Weeks wrote:
>
> 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?

Good, because it wouldn't be true. It won't really ever 'go away' unless
we love it away.
My opinion is based on personal liberty. What an odd question?

> M:
> >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.

I don't recall the Noble Eightfold Path saying anything about "Right
Loathing!"
As for motivation to overcome comfortable "vices", I'll bet your karma
will take care of that, as will mine. "Save from suffering, save from
harm, Boddhisattva, come!"

> >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.

"... at least they ought to be so." Just about says it all.

Mark

If only we knew the cause of our ignorance.

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