Theos-Talk Archives (November 2001 Message tt00041)

|-----Original Message-----
|From: Eldon B Tucker [mailto:eldon@theosophy.com] 
|Sent: Saturday, 3 November 2001 1:03 AM
|To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
|Subject: Theos-World relative freedoms and mutual love
|
|
|At 04:00 PM 11/2/01 +1030, you wrote:
|
|>|-----Original Message-----
|>|From: Eldon B Tucker [mailto:eldon@theosophy.com]
|>|Sent: Friday, 2 November 2001 3:36 PM
|>|To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
|>|Subject: RE: Theos-World human rights
|>|
|>|Even though selected freedoms are disallowed, in
|>|balance, I think things are fairly good. Depending
|>|upon someone's interests and background, they may
|>|or may not agree with me. But I think most people
|>|would prefer life here to life in some other large
|>|state like China or Russia.
|>
|>Yes but the fundamental freedom to decide what goes into your body is 
|>worth more than any otherlaw on the planet.
|>
|>Have you done a poll on peoples living preferences?
|>
|>If you are free tomove and to talk to people and have gatherings what 
|>more do you need?
|>
|>Fun is in company.
|>
|>I've read many tales of the great comraderie built up by people in 
|>countries you see as bad.
|>
|>Then you see all the hollywood films about the life of the US. It's 
|>only good for those on high incomes in safe neighbourhoods with good 
|>lawyers. For the minorites and the thousands in jail for drug 
|offences 
|>it's more draconian than any orwelliam nightmare.
|>
|>Rose coloured glasses baby
|
|I'd still expect that every class of society
|in America would be better off than in most
|if not all other countries. Even those jailed
|for drug offenses. Picture what things would
|be like in a Turkish prison, or in a country
|with a death sentence that comes fairly swiftly
|after conviction.
|
|We're comparing two different things here,
|I think. There's life in America versus life
|in another country. And there's the relative
|quality of life in different segments of
|American society.
|
|In the first case, we might wonder how other
|nations could be helped economically and helped
|give their citizens more freedom.
|
|In the second case, we might wonder how we
|could increase education and opportunity, and
|eliminate unfairness, prejudice, and intolerance
|between different segments of American society.
|
|With all this discussion, how do we find a
|theosophical connection? I'd say that when
|we find ourselves thinking in terms of
|traditional political slogans, that we try to
|deepen our understanding and tolerance of others,
|moving on to use our own, original words, rather
|than those we're used to hearing others say.
|
|This comes back to the philosophical importance
|of thinking things through freshly every time,
|rather than just repeating what we're heard and
|said many times before.
|
|The other point which you start to make, which
|could be carried a bit further, is that the
|mutual love and companionship of friends and
|family is a bigger treasure than economic wealth
|and political freedom. If lacking, one could lead
|a rich, free, but soulless and unloved life. If
|present, one could live on a rice farm in China
|in total poverty and without a book to read, yet
|have a happy life.
|
|-- Eldon
|

I think though that if we talk about quality of life - in the sense you
have above - then are we not talking about a relative level of material
comfort? A subtle point I've been slowly trying to make over the years
is that those brought up in this materialism - even though the encounter
theosophy and the doctrines of anti-materialism - really don't do
anything about it. Look I'm just as Hypocritical. I didn't come to
theosophy until after I married and had my first child so for me the
responsibility of raising a family outweighed what I knew was the
ultiimately right thing to do if one is honest in persuing the spiritual
path - that is sell all worldy possesions and become a roving ascetic -
meditating and helping others as I can. So I sponsor a child in africa -
I never try to make money from other people (ie a profit over costs) - I
give away my artistic works at no charge - and I try to give a voice to
those who are otherwise silent. The masses who don't have internet
access and cannot influence opinion. 

My point I suppose is this : You can take the theosophist out of America
, but you can't take America out of the theosophist. Virtually all yank
theosophists have had the same response to the WTC911 - when the correct
response would be like Richard Gere's or the Dalai Llamas - these are
the voices of compassion. All I hear is 'revenge' and so-called
'justice'. Is that really theosophy? Go on justify your 'correct
insight'.....

Namaste

Nos