Theos-Talk Archives (August 1998 Message tt00361)

 Brant Jackson writes:

>Dallas:
>    You set forth at very detailed list of concepts taught in modern Theosophy
>which it offers to the public in plain language for the first time.   I agree
>that we have gotten much more detail from the S.D. and other Theosophical
>works than from the "fragments of an ancient faith", but that is the nature of
>secret organizations.
>	I personally like Barborka's The Divine Plan, a study guide to the S.D.,  for
>the way its organizes and presents these doctrines, starting with the
>fundamental propositions, in a gradual and sequential pattern.  Given the fact
>that the church no longer has the power to burn us at the stake for heresy,
>public disclosure is now both possible and necessary.
>	But I happen to think that Theosophy must be more than study and memorization
>of facts.  It must be more than a mere body of esoteric knowledge.  There is
>too much in its literature that stresses that personal self-transformation
>through a process of union, [the Path?] is necessary to really understand
>[through experience?] the occult truths contained in the S.D.    IMHO, the
>mystery schools probably taught the process necessary to understand the
>knowledge, always a subjective process depending on the development of the
>seeker, as well as the knowledge itself.   Are we doing this today?

An interesting point you make. As tourists we are at different stages in our
efforts to find the Path.  Studying/meditating the SD (as is going or not
going to work for example),is all part of climbing the mountain path, and
all that that entails.  It offers balanced growth.  To develop one aspect at
the expense of others causes pain.  It is important to appreciate that we
have thousands + + + lives, therefore it might be someone's lot to study in
this life, another aspect in another.  In the Introductory to the SD (xix)
when speaking of two Europeans and Col. Olcott: "As permitted, Colonel
Olcott has given out some of this teaching in various ways; if the other two
have not, it has been simply because they were not allowed: the time for
public work having not yet come."
Part of practical theosophy is studying/meditating the Theosophical
teachings.  It is possible to be "part" of that, and that effects our lives,
and the lives of those around us.  Just some understanding of karma and
reincarnation can have a huge effect, but linked in to the other teachings:
races, rounds, giant stone Buddhas in Afghanistan of various hights, etc.,
make it all mean a lot more.  4th round/5th race - developing/forming that
aspect of MANAS and so on.
On theos-talk we tend to see just that theos-talk aspect.

Tony