Theos-Talk Archives (April 2002 Message tt00245)

Saturday, April 20, 2002


Re: Learning -- Simplicity and Duplicity

Dear Mauri and Friends:


Everything is EXOTERIC the moment it is printed, spoken and made
public.

The ESOTERIC is forever unspoken and unwritten. It is the WISDOM
and the proven Knowledge you and every one of us has buried in
the center of our CONSCIOUSNESS.

The whole difference between the two is the difference between
perfection and wisdom and ignorance and selfishness. This
creates the duality of the Mind which in us humans, is placed
midway between selfish ignorance and active vice, and wisdom or
brotherly regard and care for others.

But this does not mean that my "esotericism" is always identical
with yours. Our "rays" of the ONE SPIRIT [the ATMA or THE HIGHER
SELF], which animate our "Personalities" of this moment, may be
true BROTHERS, but the forms we have created by our living and
choosing in this confused and bitter world, may have made errors
in this life, or past ones, and consequently we now suffer with
ignorance, selfishness, indecision, and almost a pathological
fear of that which is virtuous and true. We have in many cases
dulled our power to perceive and to select the most beneficent
course of behaviour. Doubt, skepticism and speculations ride on
our shoulder like a decrepit crow, and fill our ears with their
dismal cawing of fear and selfishness.

There are some ideas and concepts that we hold in common -- all
over the world and regardless of language or culture, or level of
formal education. Those ought to be discovered and verified.

Someone said that the words kill and the spirit gives light and
life -- as I see that it is implicit in MEANING. The words are
the EXOTERIC. The meaning is always inner, and hence ESOTERIC.

The esoteric inner voice of intuition speaks to us of an ideal
world where justice and virtue reign. The harsh cawing of the
crow of death and selfish purposelessness echoes and drowns out
the voice of constructive and wise futurity for all.

A dictionary defines words. The SPIRIT in a MAN or a WOMAN --
chooses and adopts words to convey their meaning -- as I try to
do here, in the broadest and most universal and impersonal way I
know .

The recipient has to choose the right code to decipher the
original meaning. In doing this the recipient can lose himself
in a maze of doubt, suspicion and speculation. Or can grant to
the sender a motive of harmless exchange and the assistance of a
friend who also desires, in a mutual search, for evidences of
wisdom, immutable principles and agreement.

The name given to our CONSCIOUSNESS is unimportant. It is like
the ABSOLUTE. It is there and therefore we are able to think and
feel and desire and act and write -- on this our plane of gross
physical stuff. We also act on the plane os sensation and
feeling. We also act on the plane of creative thought. We
constantly add to the memory tablets we are endowed with: a
record of the efforts we put out, and the responses we receive.
The search for truth and understanding is innate to every one of
us. At the Monadic level all this is shared.

If we wish to use and become proficient in Theosophy (or
Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, Electricity and
Magnetism, Biology, Medicine, Pharmacy, etc...) we have to learn
how to read and how to speak the specialized languages of those
department of Science or of any other kind of learning (say, in
the Arts, of Music, Sculpture, Architecture, Painting, Color
matching, Drawing, Poetry, Writing styles, etc... )

These forms, rules, descriptions, critics, and word-ideas are, no
doubt, restrictive in some sense, yet overall, the language of
the country used for general communication includes these
specialized forms of description. But if one has not studied
logic and philosophy, it is most difficult to converse about the
basis for Theosophy, or any of the many Theologies, present and
past, that seem to enfold men's minds. The primary question is
WHAT IS TRUTH ? Can it be discovered? How?

Did you notice that I printed and circulated one of H P B's
articles on this? Then I followed it up by her THE FALL OF
IDEALS.

So if you wish to talk Theosophy, then you, and all of us, ought
to be at least somewhat proficient in its language, content, and
its logic and tenets. Speculation is like clouds -- amorphous
and vaporous, ever changing. Truth is like the rain that
nourishes the plants and the fields and makes life possible on
land.

You have read the KEY TO THEOSOPHY (HPB) -- I don't know how
many times, or even if after 2 years you refer to it, its INDEX,
or remember what it said. I use it almost every day. And I
think about what it says and continually ask myself: Is it true?
Is it accurate? does it cover the ground I (or someone else)
desires to know about? Then I try to use its explanations or
develop new ways of thinking, expressing and writing, based on
those FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS, that to me seem to serve as a solid and
permanent basis. Have you read anything of The SECRET DOCTRINE ?
Or of ISIS UNVEILED ? There is much there in the way of
information that will be found useful, I think.

It troubles me not at all that some think I am a "stick in the
mud." Am I not quite aware of the present? Can I not see
analogies with the past? Do you or others worry over the fact
that I might be a dinosaur in thought and expression ? What
does it matter? Either what is offered is reasonable and true or
it is not. I know what troubles many -- they desire to be
thought of as "advanced," as "up to the date with the latest
"key" words. But I say, have they grasped the fact we are all
"dinosaurs" and that our immortality merely brings us again and
again into proximity so we can work and thin together ? Is
"fundamentalism" bad ? Does it "date" us? Or does it say:
Perhaps the writer knows something of that which THEOSOPHY
teaches ? Perhaps it is worth spending time investigating.

So in every system there is always a root-base. If you wish to
call it ESOTERIC then do so. It was always there, and in this
lifetime, we can make it useful and available and automatic to
our minds as a point of reference. But, since Theosophy is an
expression of the history and the development of Man and his
environment-- extending to the Earth and to Kosmos, it may
possibly hold some facts and clues as to the actuality of past
events. Not speculatively, but as the actual eye-witness
accounts by immortal Men who have developed their Spiritual and
divine Wisdom and eyes.

For instance, the most advanced physicist or astro-physicist who
plots and forecasts the optimum movement of a space ship, or
analyses the force inherent in an atom, or a sub-atomic particle,
uses the basic adding, subtracting, multiplication and division
which we all first heard of and learned in elementary
education -- all over the word. Does that put everybody out of
date? No these tools are basic. What about gravity? Does it
not always work? What about water? At these common temperatures
does it not, as a liquid always wet ? What about biochemistry
and food, do we not depend on the nourishment that we secure from
plants, animals, etc... ? What about medicine, do we not depend
on the vast lore of the doctors to keep us healthy and to cure us
of diseases? Are these the practice of LAW or not ? Why should
Law suddenly vanish when it becomes a matter of human choice and
cooperation ? What creates the difference between vice and
virtue? Who and how was that cleavage determined?

Theosophy is a record made by advanced students of MINDS that
KNOW THEMSELVES right to the core of wisdom -- which is innate --
not "outside" of us. They have achieved conscious immortality.
We have head of that, and wonder if we can do so also. How do we
assure ourselves of the truth or th falsity of such a claim ?
What is the real nature of our INTELLIGENCE? When did it begin?
when will if end ?

Now about "inspirational thought." Consider that the Universe
runs by the most economical and simplest methods possible, taking
into account the vast numbers and differences of individual
INTELLIGENCES, and their education and development. It is said
that in these uncountable hordes of Intelligences not one is
unnecessary, nor will any one be ever totally eliminated. The
Law of Karma which is the immediate tendency to restore balance
and equity provides that "inspiration." It operates from the
largest t the smallest aspect of manifested life and shows an
unerring tendency to provide experience that leads the
INTELLIGENCE to excellence, to a Perfection that is only
represented by UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM -- the Goal is said
to be SUBLIME PERFECTION in all things.

The tendency of the embodied mind is to view everything in terms
of selfishness and its selfish limitations -- bound by the
ignorance that surrounds it. It makes vast and fruitless
attempts to rationalize selfishness, isolation and evil doing.
We are all burdened with this,. Our civilization is tainted with
it. Hypocrisy and dissimulation reign. Therefore when someone
says: NO, there is order. No, there is a purpose to living.
No, there is something better than aimless living for selfish
pleasure. Yes, there is a realm of reasonable understanding.
Yes, we can discover the way in which the ideal supportive
quality of Nature works. Yes, the immortal part of us survives
the cataclysm represented by "death." It causes a great deal of
trouble to those who desire to keep the condition of the world as
it is. It causes a search an unrest and perhaps a change in our
life's objectives and way of living. Is this reasonable?

You can begin to understand why an appeal to man's better nature,
to altruism, to equity, to brotherhood causes resentment. Yet,
as an example, look over the legal system of most countries. It
emphasizes the intangible but potent presence of brotherhood and
honesty as a basis for communal life and dealings. Why ?

As to judging. There are criteria that are common to all of us.
We know sincerity, honesty, friendliness, generosity,
brotherhood, and the existence and practice of virtues whenever
they manifest. And we instinctively detect the reverse. We are
not obliged the "judge" the individual, but the acts and words
used, are subject to judgment . There is no reason why the
evident manifestation of motive cannot be judged. And concerning
other individuals who are our co-eternals and brothers in fact,
we can only say that they have erred in a temporary way, because
they are as yet unaware of the fact that Nature sees all and does
not let them "get away with it." Even Theology posits GOD as
omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. It is a god idea to find
out exactly what those attributes imply. Man is essentially a
THINKER and not an emoter. emotions like instincts are an animal
stage attribute, but Man is a THINKER and the limits of thought
cannot be measured.

Who would voluntarily do injury to himself? But we somehow have
been misled into thinking that if we injure others we might and
some can escape retribution. This is what Theosophy draws our
primary attention to.

It is the practice of equity and virtue by voluntary choice ALL
THE TIME. Because in that direction lies wisdom and sublime
Perfection for his MIND.

Bet wishes,

Dallas

-----Original Message-----
From: Mauri [mailto:mhart@idirect.ca]
Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2002 9:00 AM
To: Theosophy Study List
Subject: re Dallas's "adequate studies," and . . . ?

Dallas wrote, (in part): <<Whatever one desires to KNOW has to
be
adequately studied.>>

Dallas, I'm under the impression that "in Theosophy" there's a
kind of
"essential knowing" (re such as "buddhi," "atma") that can not
reveal
itself by way of any kind of exoteric study and (as per my
impression)
that the "Theosophical, exoteric texts" have been offered as no
more
than a kind of road map that, (while often managing to provoke
various
exoteric views no end, apparently), is, "more realistically," a
very
secretive, coded form of "esoteric revelation" that, in some
cases,
might be helpful to some people in terms of the "Theosophical
modeling"
aspects, and that, if such texts are interpreted "more
esoterically,"
then they might have something to offer some people who have
"already
figured out a few basic things". . .

So, in other words, as I tend to see it, while Theosophical texts
may be
seen as "inspirational," in some ways, somewhat "generally
speaking"
(and creatively/interpretively and "intentionally used" as such),
I
don't see how they can, no matter how extensively they may be
studied,
have any kind of direct bearing on those original, evaluative
tendencies that can not be simplistically/exoterically acquired
nor
saved nor memorized, (like money, for example, that can be
accounted
for, and saved in a bank).

But, on the other hand, if a person "finds the texts
inspirational" in
ways that might lead to a cultivation of a certain kind of "more
self-devised, balanced evaluativeness" (as opposed to the
following of
"more standard conventions, regardless"), then, possibly, the
studies of
such texts might tend to lead toward, if somewhat indirectly, (as
when
reading between the lines), tend to lead toward, say, more/some
"inspirational thoughts" . . . at least, maybe, in some cases . .
. ?
Which kinds of thoughts and inspirations, in turn, in some cases,
might
lead toward a kind of bringing into prominence of "things that
one
already knew, in a basic sense, but had not paid much attention
to,
until then." Not that we don't all like to think of ourselves as
"already knowing, in some sense" (which kind of "human tendency"
might
be "justifiably" seen to be in keeping with a "good point,"
possibly . .
. ) . . . And I'm certainly in no position to "realistically
judge"
anybody's "human tendencies" or "Paths." So all I can think of
saying,
after all that, might be something like: Best wishes, Dallas,
with your
"adequate studies."

Speculatively,
Mauri