Theos-Talk Archives (December 1998 Message tt00138)

>> Perhaps the real question is HOW do we live to benefit
>> mankind? It has been shown, for example, that to give
>> "primitve" people more food encourages them to have
>> more children which perpetuates the food shortages. I
>> think we each have to adress this in our own way.
>
>
>By "primitive people" do you mean ourselves?; i.e. five-only sensed
>humanoids with a speck of Mind and a huge lump of personality?
>
>

No, actually I was referring to research conducted by
many expert ecologists who studied African populations
who were starving. When given food, these tribes would
simply have more children and the starving would begin
all over again. They concluded that just giving these
starving people food merely prolonged their agony. My
point is that "helping" other people is not always an
easy or straightforward thing to do. And sometimes it
backfires so that the helpee is worse off.


>Is not uniqueness often a sign of genius?
>

Well, she certainly was a genius. But in order to address
the second Objective, we need to know how she used
terminology.


>> How can one who lives in ignorance help others who live in ignorance?
>> Can the blind lead the blind, or will both fall into the ditch? This is
>> a great moral problem that Theosophy needs to address. Your
>> quotes are of little help and in some ways make the problem worse.
>
>The quotes are of HPB.  What is the "problem"?
>
>Best,
>Paul.


The problem is that Theosophists have their priorities wrong.
They think they need to help others first and then get occult
knowledge for themselves second. This is opposite the view
of the Bodhisattva teachings which all say that we need
knowledge and wisdom first in order to know how to help
others properly. There are, of course, exceptions and I am
speaking here in gross generalities, but I have seen where
trying to "help" without wisdom leads, and its more like control
and domination than real altruistic helping.

Jerry S.