Theos-Talk Archives (August 1998 Message tt00043)

It's hard not to notice, upon returning to this list after being
away for a time, that there's a continuing presence, in
Theosophical discourse, of expressions of emphatic disrespect for
others with different views.  It's taken considerable work on my
part not to take that personally, since I've been so publicly and
voluminously disrespected by various people.  (And no, disputing
one's books is not in itself disrespect.)  For example, in the
last couple days, David Green has "dissed" me as a disputable
author, Govert as irrational and uninformed, and implicitly all
Theosophists and others who don't buy into his particular
interpretation of HPB and Theosophy.  In Jake's review, he is
very emphatic in expressing disrespect for EC Prophet, channelers
in general, and their followers.  Not to mention the many others
who have in times past dissed various people on and off this list.

Meanwhile, the ratio of dissing to normal respectful conversation
on netsfg, the Cayce online community, is 1/100 at worst.  And
being in such an environment on a daily basis makes it that much
more evident that something is rotten in Theosophical discourse
generally, in the way people think it is OK to talk to and about
others.  This presumably goes back to the model of some of
HPB's articles and letters, and some Mahatma letters, which have a
very large element of dissing.  By comparison, the Cayce readings
are consistently and profoundly respectful of everyone, including
some people with bizarre beliefs.  These tones of discourse
become models of how later followers communicate, IMO.

I'd like, therefore, to ask David and Jake, Dallas if he's still
reading, and anyone else who might recognize himself as a
consistent disser, some questions.  How does it feel when you are
in the mode of emphatic disrespect for others' views?  How does
it feel to express this?  How does that state of mind relate to
what you experience in meditation or other spiritual practice?
How do the writings you regard as sacred orient you to the
legitimacy of dissing people with differing views?

As Cayce said, "That one cannot endure within itself it finds as
a fault in others."  This suggests that those Theosophists who
devote a large share of attention to dissing others for being
irrational, for believing in unsupportable and "crazy" things,
for being "crackpots" (a word Jake once applied to me in a
review), are in fact filled with fear that they themselves are
doing the same thing.  There's some kind of internal division
going on here and the shadow gets projected onto others.  Which
suggests that a means to healing the split will be to own just
how much irrationality and craziness and unsupportability might
be present in one's own belief system, in all belief systems; to
accept one's own fallibility and that of others, and to abandon
one's focus on Perfected Beings and Authoritative Scriptures.

This advice from one who's been there, done that, and feels
ashamed of the way I would in the past have talked to a follower
of ECP.  Hope that Govert understands that while I haven't a
grain of faith in any of the alleged Masters of ECP and their
agents in the Ballard/Prophet lineage, I do respect him and his
belief.

Namaste.
Paul