Theos-Talk Archives (August 2001 Message tt00178)

08/18/2001 3:07 AM

Re: El KORAN


Dear Peter:


It is time, then, for us to secure a copy of the Koran and find
out what it contains.

There are many excellent injunctions in it, and some very
confusing ones, also.

If we look into its history we will also find that it has been
"revised" several times. By various authorities and therefore the
present versions may well prove not to exactly mirror the intent
of Muhammed in his original declarations. I believe Marmaduke
Picktall (spelling ?) in his introduction gives also the history
of these changes and revisions. [ I think that the OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS originally published this version.]

English translations will be found to vary depending on the slant
(or bias) of the translator. One really ought to become a
scholar in Arabic to be able to get at the meaning in the
original. It is interesting to note that in the earlier
centuries of our era a number of great scholars, physicians and
scientists in Islam were responsible for providing early Europe
with such a basis as alchemy.

But contrasted with that you have the invasion of Egypt by Omar
who was instrumental in destroying most of their temple literary
treasures. The same was done in India by the Mogul Emperor
Aurangzeb as he swept down from the Punjab ( Agra, Delhi) to
conquer the peninsula as far south as Mysore and Madras. Thus
great and ancient temples were deliberately defaced. But
tradition also teaches that the Hindu Brahmins and scholars
secreted their treasures and MSS deep in impenetrable caves.

The recent actions of the Afghan Taliban in Bamian illustrate
these fits of fanaticism that periodically overwhelm a religious
state. But then our European history revels something similar in
regard to the Church and caused eventually the Reformation and
the Renaissance.

So like the Bible, Islamic scholars have to get back to the
ORIGINALS in order to secure a clearer view of what the prophet
said and intended. Very often the declarations were made a
moments of crisis or historical stress and possibly relate to
those as a context to be taken into account.

Theosophy teaches us to consider and study ALL religions so as to
understand the golden thread of fact and truth that runs through
them all.

Best wishes,

Dallas

PS

One wonders just how effective are these general polls.
Nominally people are classified by race, color, heredity,
religion and education -- but none of these are so fine tuned as
to actually tell us exactly what that individual is really like.
They are like a spoon sampling the soup. They don't tell us
enough.

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Merriott [mailto:nous@btinternet.com]
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2001 10:58 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: Theos-World Theosophy/Theosophists -Something to
consider

Dear Doss,

Interesting what you say about Krishnamurti. There are also
plenty of books
of his on the shelves here in England. Probably only outnumbered
by the
amount of books on Buddhism. I think many people are looking for
a way to
relate to their daily lives and feel metaphysics do not help in
this
approach.

On a related note, there has been an in-depth documentary series
about Islam
on BBC television over the last week. Two of the interesting
statistics
that emerged are:

1) by the year 2010 Islam will be the second largest religion in
the USA.
2) by the year 2015 a third of the world's population will belong
to the
Islamic religion.

regards,

...Peter

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ramadoss@infohwy.com [mailto:ramadoss@infohwy.com]
> Sent: 15 August 2001 15:04
> To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com; theos-l@list.vnet.net
> Subject: Theos-World Theosophy/Theosophists -Something to
consider
>
>
> At 02:50 AM 8/13/01 -0700, Katinka Hesselink wrote:
> >In 1882 HPB's Master Morya wrote:
> >
> > >> A constant sense of abject dependence upon a Deity which
> >he regards as the sole source of power makes a man lose all
> >self-reliance and the spurs to activity and initiative.
> >Having begun by creating a father and guide unto himself,
> >he becomes like a boy and remains so to his old age,
> >expecting to be led by the hand on the smallest as well as
> >the greatest events of life... The Founders (31) prayed to
> >no Deity in beginning the Theosophical Society, nor asked
> >his help since. Are we expected to become ... nursing
> >mothers...? Did we help the Founders? No; they were helped
> >by the inspiration of self-reliance, and sustained by their
> >reverence for the rights of man, and their love for a
> >country [India]... Your sins? The greatest of them is your
> >fathering upon your God the task of purging you of them.
> >This is no creditable piety, but an indolent and selfish
> >weakness. Though vanity would whisper to the contrary,
> >heed only your common sense. >>{Letters From the Masters of
> >the Wisdom, First Series, 107.}
>
> When one looks at what Krishnamurti has been talked about over
60 years,
> one wonders if he is not talking about the same thing discussed
above.
>
> It appears to me, that too much emphasis on the minutiae
details
> about the
> constitution of man and universe and their past and future and
the
> "occult" training based on the hierarchical top-down approach
> where at the
> grass roots level one may find "a slumbering army of
churchgoers" could
> have been causing the lack of growth of interest among the
public
> in theosophy.
>
> It appears that Krishnamurti's books and videos and audios are
> catching the
> interest of the public in an undramatic way as seen by two
symptoms.
> One, in every large book store one finds the ratio of
> Krishnamurti's books
> to that of theosophy about 10:1 and secondly, the success that
> Krishnamurti
> Foundation is having in their annual fundraising. I just
noticed that for
> the current year, the Krishnamurti Foundation in America has a
goal of
> annual fund raising of $500,000 of which they already have met
> $450,000 by
> the side of which the annual fund raising target of TS in
America looks
> very small.
>
> It may be time to re-examine if the overall emphasis of
theosophy
> needs to
> be reevaluated with no preconceived biases and let the chips
fall where
> they may.
>
> My 0.02
>
> mkr
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>




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