Theos-Talk Archives (April 1999 Message tt00086)

>>What I would doubt is that either of us could  find a qoute from HPB's
works to support this view, or evidence from other spiritual traditions,
that all the worlds mystics, occultists, yogas etc believe that 
"imagination" is the ONLY way.>>

Peter, you touch here on a very important issue. What exactly
is the "way?"  Are there many ways, or just one, or is it that
there are lots of ways that all tend to have similar ingredients?
I think that the latter is probably closest to the truth.

Probably the singlemost accepted tried and true method
used everywhere throughout history is meditation. Good
actions aren't enough albeit they are an essential first
step. Virtually all meditation, especially yogic meditation,
uses directed active imagination one way or another.
Even the yogic meditation of no-thoughts is imaginative.
One of the most effective meditation teachniques is
to visualize thoughts flowing one after another like
clouds across an open sky, and then looking in between
any two. How can anyone meditate without imagining
something?

If you have any better idea of what the "way" is (and
altruism is indeed a valid way up to a point, but it only
goes so far) then please tell me.  According to Tibetan
Buddhism (and I agree with you that HPB is relatively
silent, talking mostly about the sutra path of altruism
which is the preferred way to start the Path, and so I
can't quote her here) the way requires both wisdom
and means, both emptiness and bliss. Essentially
this means that we need both actions and insight,
and that just having one or the other is insufficient.

Jerry S.

                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                        
           

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