Theos-Talk Archives (July 1999 Message tt00061)

July 20th 1999

Dear Clint:

There are some good questions that you have asked.  May I use
your writing to interject some comments below?

Dallas
dalval@nwc.net 

===========================

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-theos-talk@pippin.imagiware.com
[mailto:owner-theos-talk@pippin.imagiware.com]On Behalf Of clint
mccray
Sent: Sunday, July 18, 1999 9:35 PM
To: theos-talk@theosophy.com
Subject: Theos-World things seem hopeless


hello,

i've read the key, and some other religious writings.

===========================

Dallas:
DO YOU MEAN THE: "KEY TO THEOSOPHY" by Mme. Blavatsky?  I would
call it philosophical rather than "religious."  It does not
compel anyone to "believe' anything. It does present a different
view of the workings of Nature all around us.  It gives it a
dimension of which we have been largely unaware.  It explains the
pilgrimage of man's evolution, and the inter-related character of
all our surroundings.  But it does not demand faith or credulity.
It does demand a lot of thought and an attempt to disprove it is
helpful in this approach.

=========================


i just watched the movie The Blair Witch Project.  Crazy movie. A
true
story, documentary in which these students went into a haunted
wood to
film sites of known ritual killings for a class project.  the
girl in
charge was a fanatic about always taping what was happening.  i
have
not done my research fully, but am convinced the sequences were
real.
The three students bodies have never been found, the footage
shown was
unbelievably realistic.  Nothing gruesome, just the emotional
torment
experienced by the three as they get find piles of stones, get
lost,
run out of food, and discover they are being hunted nightly/daily
by
some unknown force.  Satanic pranksters/killers haunt them and
take one
by the fifth day out, leaving some body part wrapped in an ever
recurring bundle of twigs.
They are continually finding areas in the wood seemingly
forbidden and
filled with twig figures in the shape of the man making five
points.
In the end the last scene they end up in this horrifying house
with
bloody handprints on the walls (child size) and strange symbols
The
house is totally thrashed and three stories with a basement.  The
missing friend is screaming downstairs and as each of the
remaining two
enter their cameras pan the room and end up falling to the
ground.
I am so upset realizing not only could what I have seen been
real, but
that there are thousands of these unholy murders going on yearly
in the
world.  I am wondering what is the motivation to torment and kill
the
innocent.  Why does this happen on the planet I live on?  Who are
these
people who believe it is the right thing to do?  How can anyone
be
motivated by "evil"?  What is this thing called evil.  To answer
the
Kama Rupa seems weak and undefined, unless to murder and
maliciously
torture and hurt is the natural way of the animal, and I don't
see that
in nature.  To say that it is simply a selfish motivation for
power or
a sense of power also seems unstable.  Are these people insane,
is that
the only acceptable explanation.  If not, what could their souls
possibly gain from such malintent?

-------------------------------------------

Dallas:

WHILE I HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE YOUR DESCRIPTION IS VERY
GRAPHIC.  The horrors shown there serve to awaken people who like
you, ask how and why.

Those 2 questions are the beginning of the organization of
wisdom -- of things that we can make into certainties, when we
get the answers.  Let us first admit that the movie is a movie
and that the whole horror scenes were filmed without any of the
things actually happening.  They are designed to impress the
viewer, but the actors are not involved in the actual horrors
that audience was horrified to see.  They make their money
acting.  That's all.

Why do people go to horror movies?  I do not know,  But the
answer must lie in something they desire to experience.  It is
related to how one desires to "feel" about things.  It is related
to what we call "excitement."   It has nothing to do with the
MIND or with thinking.  It has everything to do with rashness and
daring and "leaps of faith" into the "unknown," no matter what
happens.  Note that the TV and the movie screen show us images of
situations in which the actors usually escape and the "evil ones"
usually are ultimately killed or caused to disappear.  Is that
true or is it wishful feeling?  Is anything resolved or
explained?  is some unknown Law of nature now clearer to you, or
are  you a mystified as before you ever when into the theatre?
What is the ACTUAL GAIN MADE ?  Was the time spent useful and
valuable to you in the ultimate sense ?  Of course you were
entertained and amused and your senses stimulated.  HOW MUCH WAS
TRUE ?

Let it be clear that "evil" usually, if not invariably, tries to
conceal itself in darkness and obscurity.  It hides away from the
light of day and exposure to others' judgments.  Evil always
tries to hide behind, or appear to be "good."   WHY IS THAT ?
WHY IS THERE AN INHERENT AND A BASIC AGREEMENT THAT THE EVIL IS
ALWAYS WRONG.  If so, why is anyone attracted to witnessing evil
in action?  WHAT IN US IMPELS THAT CURIOSITY ?  Is it essential
for our living?  And, if we are able to see that this is really a
sick situation, then, the only way to eliminate evil is to find
its residence in our own selves, and see if truly there is
anything valuable there.  And if indeed it is not so, avoid any
contact or repetition until we have a sound basis of
understanding, so that we can look on such things and be detached
from them and their effects.  Such a strong statement I can
appreciate will not be leasing to many to read and reflect on.
Theosophy deals with actualities and the hidden forces that lie
behind thoughts, feelings and all things the happen in the world.
If you can find a copy of ISIS UNVEILED you will be able to read
about a catalog of such marginal things that have occurred in all
parts of the world in the past.

Look around you.  This is a cooperative Universe.  You could not
be here unless the whole Universe agreed to provide you with a
body in which you could dwell, feel, think and experience your
feelings through.  How did you get it?  Parents?  What about
yourself.  Who ARE YOU ?  Asking. and, seeking to find out this
one fact, is the whole secret of any true human progress.

Very few pursue this search far.  Only the most daring do that.
Others are even more frightened to discover WHO THEY ARE, than
any "horror" move can make them.  Is this true?  That is
something we can each prove for ourselves.  If you want to be
truly a discoverer and rash, then join the discovery club, become
a theosophical seeker.  Record your study and your observations
and share them with others who are also seeking.

If you seek adventure and excitement then start studying and
using Theosophy.  You will find that like in all good adventures
which have successful and useful outcomes that you have to take
stock of your abilities as well as your ignorances and faults.
Only an intelligent and very attentive person can succeed.  Are
you one of those?  Take the KEY TO THEOSOPHY -- a basic text book
that describes us and our present situation from the INSIDE.  Use
the information that you can get from it to look at yourself as
you are.  No excuses.  Good, and bad, Take stock and decide what
you are going to make of the life that faces you in the future.
If you do this, you will have found a bit more knowledge than the
average man has to go by.

The next question is:  Having gone and experienced, this movie,
what real value is there in that?  You and others have burdened
your memory with impressions that will take a long time in fading
out.  They are retained because they show an exaggeration of
pain, suffering, torture and of unknown powerful forces that
either exist or can be released in specified areas.  Obviously
there are areas that are free of those forces and situations.
That is important if one desires to retain one's mental and
emotional balance, one has to discover where the TRUE, the REAL
MAN is inside of each one of us.  First great idea is that it is
an IMMORTAL and cannot be killed.  The body can be tortured and
destroyed, but the SPIRIT IN MAN (his eternal Soul) is immortal
and will reincarnate.

The next idea is that the whole Universe and our world is run by
just and fair laws.  No one is able to hide or escape from that
ONE LAW  Prayers and remorse do not do any good.  Each of us
reaps under the Law of Karma exactly what we put into living.  WE
ARE THE ONES WHO SHAPE OUR DESTINY.  If we have accidents good or
bad this life-time, it is we who in the past started the causes
that bring them to us.

===============================================


      I understand this is a site to submit for publication, but
this is
the only place I know to post questions to someone on a more
informed
level than myself about such things.

      No one seems to care about the true dilemnas in humanity.
No one
I talk to thinks of these sort of things and I am feeling very
alone,
trying to put the answers together.  Is Humankind just a complete
mess,
all of us insane on some level or another...all of us trying to
prove
to ourselves we have purpose, power, knowledge.  While in reality
only
animals endowed with enough intelligence to hurt more capably.
Does
reason only serve to justify our own behavior in the end?

====================================

IF THERE IS A CAPACITY TO HURT, THERE IS AN EQUAL STRONG URGE TO
HELP AND TO PROTECT IN ALL OF US.  WHY IS THAT SO ?

HURTING, PAIN AND DEATH ARE DESTRUCTIVE.  THE ABILITY TO LEARN IS
REDUCED OR DESTROYED.  WHO OR WHAT PROFITS FROM SUCH A STATE ?
DO YOU ?

=====================================


      The Key seemed to put together a lot of strings for me, and
help
me understand, but the actuality of the darkness in
humanity...mindless
wars, people starving with plenty of food at hand, ritualistic
killings, the masses' apathy toward suffering, my own apathy and
sense
powerlessness...my own anger and hurtful feelings toward
others...Things seem Hopeless...

omeone please respond, and if you don't have a good answer why
people are so horrible, I understand, but don't pretend that you
do


====================================

WE TRY NOT TO PRETEND TO BE ANYTHING.  WE ARE ALL STUDENTS IN
THIS GREAT SCHOOL OF LIFE.  LOOK AGAIN AT THE "KEY TO THEOSOPHY"
WHAT ARE ITS MAIN POINTS ?

WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT PAIN AND SUFFERING?  IF YOU CAN ASSEMBLE
THOSE TOGETHER AND LET US HERE  SEE WHAT YOU HAVE GOT, THEN WE
CAN WORK ON THIS TOGETHER.  THERE ARE MANY QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED
AND PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED.  BUT WE HAVE TO USE THE SAME TOOLS WE
BOTH HAVE.  THE MIND.

NO EGO-MONAD IS AHEAD OF ANY OTHER IN TERMS OF TIME, BUT SOME
HAVE MORE EXPERIENCE AND THEIR DUTY IS TO ASSIST OTHERS TO ATTAIN
THE LEVELS THAT THEY HAVE ARRIVED AT.  A STUDY OF CONSTRUCTIVE
CARE IS FAR BETTER IN MY ESTEEM THAT A STUDY IN SORROW AND PAIN.

BEST WISHES TO YOU

Dallas


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