Theos-Talk Archives (January 2002 Message tt00295)

<<<Please forgive the delay. I have been out of town.>>>

You are forgiven, Adelasie.

<< I think this quote is mine, and perhaps I could clarify my meaning a bit. Theosophy is not a belief system, because it does not teach us to simply 
"believe" what we are told. It teaches us to investigate what we are told. Wisdom comes from experience. >>>>

I learned this exact saame message in Christian Science many many years ago. Christian Scientists are avid in their belief system BECAUSE they can demonstrate it in their lives. The same can be said for Christian fundamentalists, and I have several in my family who demonstrate the living presence of Jesus in their daily lives, and so on and on. Theosophy is no different.


<<<We can believe whatever we like, but if we take one of the basic principles of theosophical 
teaching, the unity of all life, for instance, and devote our attention to discovering how it manifests in our experience and observation, we might come to the point where we "know" it to be a reality.>>>

We can never ever KNOW anything at all. I am speaking here from the viewpoint of occult psychology. All we can ever hope to know is what we actually experience and what we hear from the experiences of others. Even modern physics avoids "facts" and "laws" nowdays, prefering "theories" which is, in point of fact, a more accurate phraseology. Knowledge is manas, wisdom is atma-buddhi. In fact, Qabalism teaches us that the eleventh Sephiroth is Daath, which means knowledge, and locates it in the Great Outer Abyss.

What Theosophists do, and any one else for that matter, is believe that they know. We have faith in Blavatsky, and we can demonstrate to some degree the truth of her teachings, and then we think that we know facts and laws etc, whereas all we can ever hope to know is what we experience and what others tell us that they experience. There is absolutely no way to KNOW if these experiences are accurate, and I say this because I know from my own personal experience that experience changes, that worldviews mature and expand, that "facts" change, that "knowledge" matures, that "laws" are relative. So, the only thing that we can really know is that knowledge itelf is relative.


<<< We will have gone beyond simple belief,>>>

Ah, but here is your problem, Adelasie, faith is never "simple." Faith can move mountains. Our entire universe and our human world is all based and cemented together by faith. Faith is an extremely powerful force, and it is really all we have, and when coupled with imagination, is all we ever really need. Faith is the bedrock of life, and imagination is the bedrock of evolution and development.


<<< into the realm of making a connection between our lower understanding and our higher knowing.>>>>

I have been there, and I can tell you right now that "higher knowing" isn't what its cracked up to be. It just a higher faith. But if you don't want to listen to me, then thats OK, one day you will see this for yourself.


<<< When we do this sincerely, we also begin to be motivated to behave in the light of what we have discovered, and we manifest that essential unity in our daily lives.>>>

True. But this has nothing to do with "knowledge" over faith.


<<<We do not need to convince others of what we "believe," because we realize that they too are on the path to true knowledge, and that they too are searching for the level of "knowing" that which is true.>>>

Let me be the first to tell you this secret truth: the Path to True Knowledge is a manas game that has no existence whatsoever. There is no True Knowledge. Your true knowledge is just as valid as mine, in the final outcome. But I agree that one must tread a Path and search honestly and hard, and expend much effort, in order to finally realize this secret truth. Having said that, I can also say that some paths lead to suffering, while other paths lead to pleasure, and yet other paths lead to compassion and caring and helping. It is up to each of us to pick our own path, but there is "true knowledge" in all of them, and also in none of them. This secret truth is dangerous, and I probably shouldn't be giving it out here, but what the heck. Anyway, my point here is that we should be treading the Path to Wisdom, which is a valid Path, not the Path to True Knowledge, which is an illusion.


<<<We recognize others who have found their own inner connection with universal truth by their 
behavior.>>>

No, they may have found a connection to what they perceive as universal truth, and they may have found a connection to a relative inner truth, or simply have expanding their worldview. But there is no "universal truth" to point to, anywhere you want to point. There is no "universal knowledge" for us to acquire. These are manas games that our human mind likes to play. Blavatsky herself tells us that there are no universals or ultimates anywhere.

Hope this helps. My apologies if it confuses.

Jerry S.
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