Theos-Talk Archives (April 1998 Message tt00423)

Bjorn:
<snip>
>Shortly thereafter I left the TM movement and continued experimenting with
>other
>teachings and Gurus. One lesson to be learned here may be that though the
>teacher be "false" some students may benefit. I certainly did by having a
>realization of cosmic consciousness. Likewise I understand that Thoa and others
>who study Krishnamurti may derive considerable benefit therefrom,
>although, IMO,
>the teacher is "false" (not representing the vibration of truth). Today I would
>not recommend anyone to become a student of Maharishi's (or K), since I
>see that
>there is great risk in doing so. Once you accept somebody as a bona fide
>spiritual teacher you may end up going where he has gone, almost by definition.
>If he/she has gone to the wrong place, you may eventually join him/her at that
>place. We are assimilating the teacher's realization, not only learning from
>him/her theoretically.

I don't see "true" or "false" teachers. To me, the whole world is my
teacher. Everyone has something of value to offer.

>After some experiences with eastern "gurus" I entered into a phase when I was
>reading and accumulating a lot of esoteric information. Everything seemed "new"
>to me, yet it also seemed like I was reawakening knowledge that was already
>within me. It was quite stimulating and gave me many "highs", sometimes
>sustained for days or more.

I too experienced this. I also realize that it is important to get
grounded and relate from my heart. You cannot truly relate from your heart
when you do not have a connection with others. This is done by the
old-fashioned method of sympathizing, empathizing, looking into people's
eyes, read their facial and body expression, catching their vibrations,
listen to what they are saying and meaning, looking at all living things
with compassion, and enjoying the day in gratitude. If we can combine
spiritual highs with compassion and understanding, then I think we
accomplished a lot.

<snip>
>By not falling for
>the temptation of getting into myriad details of the heaven world, and
>thousands
>of other pieces of information he deprived his followers of distractions and
>excuses for not doing the work that will lead them to liberation. This all
>has a
>tremendous appeal to me.
>
>When studying theosophy and other metaphysical literature it easy to get caught
>up in the fascination of knowing and understanding more and more - endlessly.
>Time that could be spent on *getting there* is instead spent on collecting more
>and more information. Admittedly, the gathering of esoteric knowledge has
>value,
>but beyond a point it tends to become an end in itself rather than a tool for
>the soul to evolve.

Agree!!! That, I think, was what Krisnamurti had a problem with, also.

>This brings me to where I see the value and the mission of Besant, Leadbeater
>and others. HPB provided almost encyclopedical information in her Isis Unveiled
>and the SD. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with that, on the
>contrary, she did the job she was asked to do, which was to provide a great
>service to civilization, as well as individual seekers, by compiling and
>publishing this information. But I believe that Besant and Leadbeater, among
>others, had a slightly different mission - to present theosophical information
>not primarily for the purpose of providing practical guidelines for the
>spiritual seeker. They were, of course, all imperfect (HPB included), and some
>of what was presented does not fit the criteria of quality and meaningfulness,
>but, on the whole, I think Besant and CWL did there job, also. Their
>mission was
>not that of HPB's and should not be judged on the basis of being identical with
>hers.
>
>To me, as well as for many others, the theosophical teachings as presented by
>Besant and CWL are more practically useful than those of HPB, although I
>realize that B and CWL never would have been able to do their part unless HPB
>first had done hers.
>
>And, I would like to take this a step further. What the Ballards, Innocente and
>the Prophets have done, is not so much to build on what was given through HPB,
>but to carry on a work of a more practical nature. The masters seldom
>rest. They
>sent forth world teachers such as Jesus and Buddha - teachers that initiated
>spiritual impulses that in many important aspects seem contradictory, but in a
>deeper sense are in total harmony. As I have said before, I think Theosophy as
>given through HPB only is one release in an ongoing series of spiritual
>releases, designed to meet the evolving needs of the an evolving mankind.
>
All teachers, even the ones you considered "false," you've learned
something from.

Thoa :o)