Theos-Talk Archives (September 2001 Message tt00037)

Friday, September 07, 2001

Dear Fadi:

Many thanks for the explanation.

I am not a student of Kabala or Hebrew. I had heard through
Theosophy of the addition of the vowel (?) points and it says
there that the words became "fixed.´ I assumed that was an
attempt to create an orthodoxy by materializing the meanings.

I did not know the Arabic script had also been "dotted." I have
always had so far to rely on translations of the Koran, and since
I did not know the original, I looked at several, so as to
compare the versions.

As to vowels I am familiar with the following variants: I will
use the English letters to try to express those: There may be
some overlap as shades of pronunciation can be expressed using
several combinations. (I do not known the modern phonetic code,
so will not attempt to use that. If I used French, I would put
them in a slightly different way of course:


A	= a, ah, aa, am, aou


E	= eh, uh, ee,


I	= ih, ee, ai,


O	= oh,	oou, aou,


U	= uh, ou, um, you,


Y	= yuh, yea, yoh, yau,

And so on.

But that is only interesting, and of significance to scholars,
rather than to philosophers who seek behind words and phrases for
the meanings that words and sentences convey.

As to your familiarizing yourself with Theosophy, After reading
(studying the ideas) in the KEY TO THEOSOPHY (HPB), you might
look at ISIS UNVEILED .

ISIS UNVEILED (1877) was Mme. Blavatsky's first book and is
designed to remind the West of the unseen, unknown and hidden
laws and rules of Nature. It was something the developing
Science in the West was overlooking under the general idea that
folk-lore, mythology, theogony, was all "superstition" and had no
deep or continuous meaning. What it does is to illustrate these
hidden aspects of Nature and show how they fit into and support
the physical side of things, as for instance mathematics supports
chemistry, physics, engineering astro-physics, biology, etc...

Without mathematics the values of substances and materials could
not be related accurately in terms of eight, measure, pressure,
inter-action, heat, movement, electrical and magnetic affinities,
etc.. and finally engineering and invention which have provided
us with so many mechanical contrivances -- but have not provided
us with the ethical or moral increments of meaning so necessary
to make all applications beneficial rather than the arms of
warfare and abuse of humans by other humans with greater
knowledge of material applications.

What then has Theosophy provided:

The idea of an electro-magnetic base (astral matter) of forces
powers and energies on which the physical molecules and
structures are arranged. This is "invisible Nature." It is
deemed to be longer lasting and have greater potency than the
physical, visible and tangible side. Being invisible it is not
usually seen by the average person to exist.

Justice, the return of psychic and mental impressions generated
respectively by desire and thought to those who originate them.
Using the Sanskrit term KARMA, (meaning action and reaction) this
idea is said to be a basic one in nature and to apply uniformly
everywhere. It applies to humans who have free-choice, thought,
virtue as guide ideas or tools to use for their own progress.

Thus, Theosophy considers that Law and Laws rule all things.
There is reciprocity, harmony, response, and inevitable response
from every being in nature, from the atom to the Sun.

The effect of this concept is to view Religions and Philosophies
as originally the expressions of these truths, and it is those
who have sustained and maintained them after the death of the
Prophet or reformer who have unfortunately made them rigid and
dogmatic.

The evolution of Man is the evolution and use of the thinking
mind. The brain is an instrument of matter sensitive to thought,
will and feeling (emotion). It says that the whole of nature
shows to the student adequate evidence to demonstrate that
evolution is implicit in the existence and development of all
beings. Not from the physical point of view but from the
spiritual, psychic and astral bases -- of which the physical is
the final expression.

Man is a combination of three aspects of nature: 1. The SPIRIT
(or wisdom of God), 2. the Mind or the ability of independent
thought and feeling , And, 3. the physical material of which all
"visible, tangible" forms consist.

Intelligence, awareness and consciousness are said to be
universal and the evidence drawn from Nature shows they interact
everywhere.

Therefore in the human kingdom one finds evidence of all levels
of intelligence, from the "savage" and the "ignorant" to the Sage
and the Prophet.

Spirit pervades the World and the Universe and it gives "matter"
the innate urge to learn, improve and practice virtue (acting
according to Law).

After ISIS UNVEILED followed many articles that further
illustrated and explained these ideas.
(1879 - 1891)

In 1888 The SECRET DOCTRINE was published which served to draw
together the scattered idea and unify them under the two great
schemes in nature: The Re-creation of the physical universe
after a long period of rest, and 2, the evolution of man up o the
present.

The final publication the VOICE OF THE SILENCE was written to
indicate the path of universal virtue that lead a man if he
adopts it to the level of a Sage, or Prophet.

I hope this may prove of some use to your consideration.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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






-----Original Message-----
From: F--i M-----r
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 2:24 PM
To:
Subject: RE: The Seven Fold Constitution and Judaism

Dear Dallas,

Thank you for sharing your point of view, and I can't but agree
with
you in what you said.

As for reading about Theosophy, I have already started reading
"The
Key to Theosophy. I also have in mind to read "Secret Doctrine"
afterwards, but I'm not sure when I'll finish, because I won't
have
enough time and this is why I joined the list, to learn about
Theosophy little-by-little and in a steady pace (almost).

Thank you all for the discussions.

In what concerns dotting, I would like to add something. You
mentioned
the dotting of the Hebrew scriptures, to my knowledgs dots in
Hebrew
serve a different purpose that those in Arabic. According to what
I
have been told they are similar to something we call "movements"
in
Arabic. These are signs that can be added to letters to convey
the
way they should be pronounced. These are four basic signs. If you
have
the letter 'f' for example the first three would give you 'fa',
'fo'
and 'fi', while the fourth would emphasize that the letter is a
silent
one 'f' only. These movements *can* change the intended meaning,
but
in general you should be able to infer them from context. In
written
Arabic they are almost never used, unless the meaning would not
be
clear.

Hope this was helpful.

Fadi

On Tue, Sep 04, 2001 at 05:09:42PM -0700, Dallas TenBroeck wrote:
> Dear Fadi:
>
> I understood your objective. I am familiar with some aspects
of
> Islam and the Koran as I spent over 35 years in India and have
> some very old and good friends who are Muslims. I also have
> traveled in many Asian countries where Islam is practised, and
I
> can say that I have uniformly received the kindest treatment.
>
> I am also eager to learn and extend the frontiers of my
> understanding. We are akin in this.
>
> I think that the "true Path" is walked by all sincere persons
of
> any age, nation, faith, etc... and that there is a universal
> ethical basis for all of us.
>
CUT