Theos-Talk Archives (July 1999 Message tt00059)

--- Andrew Basler <nephesh@hotmail.com> wrote:

> >
> 
> Because  the World is not created by an "all wise,
> powerful and love-ful" 
> Creator, there is no God or Gods who are potent
> enough to counteract all the 
> suffering created by ignorant beings.
> 
> >
> 
> Injustice and suffering exist only in the
> consciousness of those who 
> experience them, as long as one considers oneself to
> have a definite form 
> and identify with it; if the form is transcended,
> one knows the One Self to 
> be eternal. The trouble now is due to your seeing
> the world outside yourself 
> and thinking there is pain in it. But both the world
> and the pain are within 
> you and are no more real than the individual who
> sees them.
> 
Blavatsky stated in the key that life on the whole, for most, is
sorrow.  She also stated that to us this life, each individual
incarnation seems an eternity.  And finally, that this is the
punishment interval of the soul's cycle, devachan being the restful and
good time.

Are you telling me that the goal is to completely disassociate with
pain, with select feelings?  To tell myself this is some grand
illusion, and I need not be troubled by my neighbor's plight, nor my
own?  When HPB herself said we are meant to suffer in this nighttime of
the soul.  Do the greater mystics let go of feeling altogether?  How
can there be compassion without involvement, empathy without pain? 
This relates to some of the things you say next.

> Compassion acts as a means of making us feel love
> for the time being. But it 
> becomes unpleasant if instead of identifying our
> mind with our 
> love-sensation, we get swept up in the sufferings of
> the person towards whom 
> we are feeling compassionate. When a child breaks
> one of its toys and set up 
> ear-splitting cries, we don't immediately feel
> inclined to start crying too. 
> We smile and pet the child and hug it a little, and
> there the matter ends. 
> It is also not true compassion if we cannot give to
> the inflictor of 
> suffering an understanding as perfect as the
> sympathy which we give to the 
> sufferer.
> 
> Nature is destitute of goodness or malice; she
> follows only immutable laws 
> when she either gives life and joy, or sends
> suffering and death, and 
> destroys what she has created. There is no use to
> complain of her actions or 
> those of Masters who are her co-workers, we can only
> partially understand 
> their actions and the working of Karma .
> 
I am not complaining, just trying to make sense of it all, I know there
is no one to blame, I just want some direction, I just want to know
what the heck I'm supposed to do in this crazy world!

> An advice from Santideva in Bodhicaryavatara may
> give some consolation.
> 
> "My joy will not be disturbed, even by the
> occurrence of the most 
> frustrating event, Even if I become frustrated, my
> desire will not be 
> fulfilled, and my virtue will decline.
> 
> If  there is a remedy, then why be unhappy? If there
> is no remedy, then what 
> is the use of unhappiness."
> 
> Krishna's discourse to Arjuna is also of the same
> sentiment.
> 
> "Whence this lifeless dejection, Arjuna, in this
> hour, the hour of trial? 
> Strong men know not despair, Arjuna, for this wins
> neither heaven nor 
> earth....
> 
> Thy tears are for those beyond tears; and are thy
> words words of wisdom? The 
> wise grieve not for those who live; and they grieve
> not for those who die 
> -for life and death shall pass away.
> 
> Because we all have been for all time: I, and you,
> and those kings of men. 
> And we all shall be for all time, we all for ever
> and ever....
> 
> The unreal never is: the Real never is not. This
> truth indeed has been seen 
> by those who can see the true."
> 
> -Andrew
> 
Man, I thoroughly enjoy the quotes, it shows thought and contemplative
reply.
> 
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