Theos-Talk Archives (June 1998 Message tt00324)

Dear Dallas:
I know this was directed at another, but I would like to comment...
For the first time since reading you I felt you the person.  Perhaps
part of this is a female thing, wanting emotional connection, wanting
something to touch the soul, by which text quotes just don't cut it.

> right about lots of reading, etc ... and I will say ia very "spotty" mind that remembers some things and
> forgets others.

I figured you had some computerized books so that you could punch in key
words and up pops the appropriate quote.  If you are quoting from
memory, well, what can I say.

> Sorry that the "quotes" are bothersome -- not intended.  Ideas in
> well spoken words are I think important. Source doesn't matter
> (to me).
The quotes are only bothersome when quotes are presented as the be all
and end all.  Like mankind cannot live by quotes alone.

> To me Theosophy is not only the current of thought today, but the
> result of past thinking.  Like mathematics you and I are solving
> current problems with a wisdom drawn from Euclid, Pythagoras of
> Plate --- etc..What do you think of the work done by Penrose,
> Margulis, Hawking, and Bohm, Einstein, etc., etc., who are
> pretty much in the forefront of scientific thought ?  Isn't it a
> unity of past and present made "real" and "creative ?"

Well said.  Our difference seems to be that, having read and understood
(or not) the recorded thoughts of others, I believe it is our task to
assimilate those thoughts with our experiences and present the result as
something come from ourselves.  So my ideal debate is something like...
"Trees speak to us of ancient wisdom.  I have experienced this when etc
etc, and others have told me that they have experienced etc etc.  I am
reminded of SoandSo's account in SuchandSuch book (pages xx) recounting
similar experiences with various differences pertinent to the time of
that writing."

It would be sightly different when discussing say Bohr's theory of
atomic structure, but not so much that rote learning and quoting would
be the only way.

The frustration occurs when someone quotes a book, as those of some
years back did with the Bible, and says this is so.  Until one has
experienced at least some of the content of the quote, all it is is
someone else's words.
I wish you continued good health and much more writing in your own
special style.
Annette