Theos-Talk Archives (February 1998 Message tt00071)

>From Lorraine Christensen

After 25 years of membership in the T.S. I continue to work as best I
can for its three objects.  Re: the first object - Universal
Brotherhood - it is the hardest to live out for certain!   It is my
opinion that the T.S. does not carry  out brotherhood successfully
because so many of its members have trouble allowing for unity in
diversity.  We are not all the same.  Uniformity just won't work.
Every type of mind and heart needs to be fed.  There must be room for
the diverse personality and psychological types.  Some are more
scholarly in their approach, others more devotional/emotional; others
still are action oriented.  In our diversity, we are attracted to some
of the TS teachers more than others.  Some prefer HPB above all; others
gravitate to Judge or Besant; still others to even later TS writers.
Why can we not respect people for where they are at?  Why cannot we
show more goodwill and kindness towards each other?  Why cannot we
focus more on the good instead of spending so much time and energy in
faultfinding?  Why not be more generous in giving others the benefit of
the doubt?  Why is there so
much argumentativeness, one-upmanship and divisiveness?  Is it
ego?  Strongly opinionated and judgmental people
can drown out or put down others who may feel differently.  This can
cause frustration, even
woundedness and lead to even more divisiveness.  Lets practice more
charity and respect towards each other in the T.S. - and give each
other space and room to grow so that each of us can more easily fulfill
his or her own
theosophical destiny!  And lets be more positive and constructive in
our
dialogues.  Maybe then we can show an example of brotherhood to the
rest of the world.

Lorraine Christensen
henningc@quenet.com