Theos-Talk Archives (July 1999 Message tt00070)

July 22

Dear Andrew and Clint:

I am finding that which you are posting to be most interesting.
Thank you.  May I add a few thoughts?

It seems to me that one might say:

To be in despair, or to be pessimistic, implies that for the time
being we are not considering optimism.  We are exaggerating only
one side of life (which is 3-fold--"good," "bad," and "neutral" -
or a balance between those two).  It  seems to me that the
neutral position is the best, even if it is the most difficult to
get at -- it has the virtue of letting us weigh alternatives so
we can make better judgments.  It just demands a little more
effort, but when used, I think it gives greater stability and
safety for our future.

Pessimism has a tendency to reduce our thoughts and actions to a
stasis, where we do nothing because we construct for ourselves no
reasonable future.  The power to think is always there.  We are
always there.  The "Future" is deliberately darkened by our
selecting thoughts that are of the negative.  Of course we arrive
at a blank wall so far as the future is concerned, because we
will be denying it.  Some then consider suicide as a logical
alternative to a frustrating view of life in their immediate
future. But that is NOT SO.  Consider:

But no negative ever exists without a positive as contrast.

And neither negative, nor positive can be understood unless some
medial position of "balance" is adopted, so that both can be
seen.  It is the MIND that gives us this vision.  Without this
(which is position of the unaffected MIND, detached and
impartial)  we can neither see pessimism nor optimism, nor any
mixture of those two extremes, and we certainly cannot rate them.

What does reality here and now show us?  It shows that primarily
WE ARE MIND BEINGS.  WE THINK.  And, in spite of those contrasts,
and such constructs that we may make, mentally,  because we feel
(not THINK, but FEEL) there is nothing to hold a measure of
balance, as well as help us to consider any alternative potential
for the future in front of us and everyone else.  Yet there is
always IS such a contrast.  And a "balance" can be attained if we
really desire to find it.

Why not use those tools and say:  Here I am.  I exist.  I am in a
Universe.  It exists.  Together as time passes and as events
arrive and disappear, we are going somewhere.  So really we are
three  things living and interacting together:  WE.  The
Universe.  And, our on-going relation.  And it is within our
power to make of the 3rd a joyful thing.

What can that future be?  On one side we have destruction and on
the other we have construction.

But does not our very existence show that the Power of
CONSTRUCTION outweighs that of destruction?  In other words we
would not be here at all if the power of destruction was the only
power.  Nothing would be here, so we would have nothing to worry
about at all.

I would say at that point that if CONSTRUCTION outweighs
destruction, there is a meaning, a motive, a power and purpose
behind our living, and the Universe being here at all.  Can we
find that ?

If you think of it from the point of view of this life only, of
the personality we live in, and which is   now active  (:WE" --
ARE DIFFERENT FROM THE --  "PERSONALITY" -- ) because we can see
it changing all the time.  It is a "tool."  Our Mind is also a
"tool."  So are our "feelings," even though they are very strong.
WE USE THEM ,AND SHAPE THEM, AND DIRECT THEM.

Now if we start from there, we begin to say:  Who am I?  What are
my powers?  Are there others like me?  What are they doing?  Why
are they doing that?  -- so, we can transform ourselves into an
OBSERVER for a while.  But what is the propose of that?  Simply
to get to know who we are and why we are in the condition we are?

Optimism when exaggerated leads to excessive activity;  and has
this anything to do with our future?  Yes and No.  We have come
to the Present because of choices we made in the past.  Our
future will be determined by the choices we make now.  Can we
determine for ourselves a reason and a purpose of existing?  Can
we Imagine ?  (That is one of the powers of the mind, and is in
contrast to "memory," which is another power.)

I am writing this because there is so much that we still do not
know about ourselves.  And also because, to me, the adventure of
constantly being able to find something new and challenging is
one of the greatest incentives.  There are other incentives, of
course, and some are not so nice.

Then, with such ignorance, how can be decide about pessimism or
optimism?  WE have to learn a lot more to be sure.

So the way would be , (as I guess, and hope) by studying and
learning about ourselves and our  present situation, and then,
extending that by inquiring into our future.

Let us assume we think that everything is very dark and
indistinct, and we can see only a hopelessness in front of us.
Is this true?  Then why do not others also agree to that
conclusion?  Is our depression only ours?  Why did we not have it
many years ago?  Why has it jumped on us now?  We ought to be
able to answer these questions, honestly, so that we get a real
handle on the problem.  I have noticed that one of the
difficulties is that we seem to give up the power of thinking
constructively, and it seems as though we were being overwhelmed
with a fog.  But, once that we are able to notice that, the fog
begins to lift, and we see glimmers of something other than
despair.  The light of hope is seen to shine after all, and it
takes a bit more effort to turn the corner and find some bright
future thing we can work on.

Or, look at it in still another way:  Do we also have the ability
to reverse this?  Suppose we were to change our imagination and
say to ourselves:  Let me make up a view of the best kind of
future I would like to have?  How would we frame it.

For the time being, we can resolve strongly that  we will refuse
to have anything to do further with the dark and pessimistic
thoughts.  They are then deliberately set aside for later
consideration.  Now we are going to make in our imagination, or
fancy, an ideal picture of what we could be, of the kind of world
and environment we would like to be in, of the family and friends
we would like to enjoy, etc...  See if such an exercise helps.

You write of the Adepts as though they retired from the World and
abandoned it.  Then you have not read THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE
to the end.  There you will see that with the knowledge and power
that is obtainable, because they and we are in our essence from
the same ONE ROOT (SPIRIT) each of us is the same.  The Adepts,
Mahatmas, Buddhas, etc. have more experience, and have been able
to pas through the trials and difficulties that we are now
surrounded with.  In a way we can say they have purified their
feeling-nature and clarified their thinking (mind-nature).  There
is always, for those who "graduate," the avenue of assistance and
service to others who are less wise than they are.  Can we not
join that band?  Why should we assume that they have not?  Do the
parents turn away from their infants, usually, and abandon them?
If such happens, then they are certainly not rated as good
parents.  It was those same Sages and Wise Ones who when infant
humanity acquires from them the gift of the mind, who taught us
all we know at that time.  We cannot forget the idea that we are
immortals, and that we live many lives, and that many of those
lives have passed since, some, 18 million years ago, the light of
MIND WAS LIT IN US.

Sentimentality is a feeling, and needs to be reinforced (or
rather transformed) into compassion by knowledge of how and when
to of assistance.

We have to learn to see that if there is any hurt and sorrow, it
is we who have in the past created that.  "The hands that smite
us are our own."  Nature in putting us into "bad circumstances,
or subjecting us to accidents," may be trying to get us to think
our way out of those.  If we learn to find those answers, then we
will pass beyond the necessity of further pain and suffering.
Our actions, being well thought out, will no longer bring "bad
karma" to us.

The basic idea that we are immortal being at the center of
ourselves is important, because it is the doctrine of Hope.  We
will always have in the future the opportunities to change our
situation and, our "attitude of mind" is one that we can change
right now.  Reincarnation is the process.

The " eternally living atoms and molecules" of matter and Nature,
that we used in earlier lives are stamped with "our" impress of
thought and feeling.  It is they that impelled by the laws of
attraction, always come back to us, and help build up our present
bodies.  It is they who bring when they come, the impression of
how we used them then.  It is through them that we receive our
Karma.

This is only a brief survey of the ideas that Theosophy presents
on this important and living subject.  I am sure thee are more
questions that will emerge.  Do lets share them.

Best wishes,

Dallas
dalval@nwc.net 

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

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-theos-talk@pippin.imagiware.com
[mailto:owner-theos-talk@pippin.imagiware.com]On Behalf Of Andrew
Basler
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 1999 7:11 AM
To: theos-talk@theosophy.com
Subject: Re: Theos-World things seem hopeless


clint mccray wrote:

>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?

Suffering inherent in the phenomenal world is a fact, cessation
of this
suffering is another fact. The first is transient and due to our
ignorantly
seeking security and happiness in the impermanent and acting as
if we had
already found it.

The goal is to realize the Truth for the benefit of humanity.
When we
succeed in identifying our consciousness with higher Self,
permanent love
consciousness and knowledge of things mundane and supra-mundane
will be
natural accompaniments.

The Adept is indeed dead to the world; he is oblivious of its
pleasures,
careless of its miseries, in so far as sentimentalism goes, for
the stern
sense of Duty never leaves him blind to its very existence. In
words of one
of HPB's teachers: "It is . . . the business of 'magic' to
humanise our
natures with compassion for the whole mankind as all living
beings, instead
of concentrating and limiting our affections to one predilected
race.....human and purely individual personal feelings --
blood-ties and
friendship, patriotism and race predilection -- all will give
away, to
become blended into one universal feeling, the only true and
holy, the only
unselfish and Eternal one -- Love, an Immense Love for
humanity -- as a
Whole"

>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!
>

Your concern of what appears to you as unreasonable suffering of
others is
noble and there is nothing wrong with inquiring of its cause
provided you do
not allow it to corrupt you with negative emotion or cause you to
be
entrapped in discursive thought. Cheerfulness is one of the
indispensable
qualifications for those who desire to be able to help others.
What is the
use of a doctor if he fainted or wept at the sight of an
accident?

Best wishes,

-Andrew

		SNIP
______________________________________________________


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