Theos-Talk Archives (May 1998 Message tt00093)

Paul,

I find your comments really interesting and significant. I have some familiarity
with the Summit Lighthouse, an organization you probably have heard about. The
media picture of this organization is absurdely distorted, but your comments
highlight issues that have become crucial to the life and expansion of the SL.
What you write about the Theosophical "attitude" is a fair description of what
has been the prevailing spiritual climate in the SL (although the positive
aspects are left out, which makes it "unfair" in a larger sense). The SL is now
attempting a transition from what you describe as the Theosophical model to
something very much more like the ARE model. There is much more emphasis on
openness, tolerance and acceptance then there has been. The SL has always had a
"practical" rather than "theoretical" focus, but this is now emphasized even
further in a way that relates to daily life and challenges.

Too many negative messages and fear messages, implicit or explicit, will  sap
the vitality out of any organization. I think "exploration" will have to be a
slogan for any spiritual organization that want to play a major part in raising
planetary consciousness in our time.

Bjorn

K. Paul Johnson wrote:

> Now, to restate the thesis.  In my observation, although
> there are sometimes statements in the Theosophical literature
> that encourage the Third Object, i.e. that encourage people to
> explore psychic phenomena, spiritual growth techniques, etc.,
> these are outweighed by the negative messages that are found in
> the same body of literature.  Fear messages prevail over hope
> messages.  Messages about the rarity of true Masters and how
> everyone else is on the wrong track are often implicit, but they
> are very strong.  My experience of the ARE is very different.  No
> subtle fear messages, although there are warnings about
> discarnate influences and kundalini.  The "explore freely"
> messages outweigh the caution messages by a very large margin.
> An examination of Venture Inward (just the name tells a lot), the
> ARE's magazine, and The Quest or Sunrise will show an
> overwhelming preponderance of practical emphasis in ARE and
> theoretical emphasis in Theosophy.
>
> Perhaps that's why I keep one foot in either camp, but I must say
> that the ARE (which has never divided into competing sects) feels
> like a much healthier environment nowadays than the Theosophical
> movement does.  Of course there's a subjective element in that
> evaluation, but there are also objective measures that could be
> applied.
>
> Namaste,
> Paul
>
>

--
Bjorn


* To UNSUBSCRIBE and for other KOF list commands:
  http://www.alpinet.net/~roxendal/KOF/commands.html

* Report KOF list problems to
  kof-request@list.iex.net or roxendal@alpinet.net