Theos-Talk Archives (July 1998 Message tt00161)

>Tony wrote:
>
> >Don't you feel it could be through suffering that we come to spiritual
> >philosophy?

>Kym wrote:
> No, actually I don't.
>
> First, my simplest reason:  Animals.  I have a dog who has never
> suffered -
> now she may think she has suffered because I delayed four minutes one time
> giving her a treat - but in the context of suffering we are talking about
> here, she has never known anguish.  Yet, she is the most gentle and loving
> being I know.  Gentle with all creatures, young and old.  She
> responds to my
> joy with her own joy and she responds to my sadness with her own sadness.
> Why should a creature such as she have to incarnate into humandom?

Law; Cyclic Law.  Monad using the form of animal progresses (awkward
expression) onward and upward.  Contact with the human kingdom for animals
is, perchance, a glimpse of its own next and higher state.

> Which brings me to my next reason why I wonder about the value of
> suffering:

The personality getting knocked off it's perch goes "Ouch!".  It is the
beginning of wisdom.

What is suffering?  What is its cause?

SD I, 643:

"It is not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we, who
reward or punish ourselves according to whether we work with, through and
along with nature, abiding by the laws on which that Harmony depends, or -
break them."

SD I, 643/644:

" But verily there is not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen day, or
a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our own doing in this or in
another life."

> What difference does consciousness make?

The (potential) difference between spiritual, immortal, Individuality
(pivoted in the fire of Manas/Mind) and unconscious, automaton-like,
repetitive existence throughout eternal ages.  Which would you prefer?

>Theosophy says "All are One."
> That our evolution has to do with recognizing our relationship to the
> Divine.  Each of us look forward to the time when it is said "It is
> finished" and we then turn to help others who are still in progress.

Should we be looking to "turning to help" others first?  When is it ever
"finished"?

Best wishes,
Paul.