Theos-Talk Archives (August 2002 Message tt00157)

Aug 15 2002

Dear Wes:

What you write is A !

However this "Brian" is a continuation of Brigitte -- as
Caldwell has determined and traced his E-mail address to the
identical site.

So outside of ridiculous arguments and splatters of
misquotes and slander I'm afraid little will come of this,.
But as usual the whole chat-group will be jarred.

Dal

PS


1.	The GET-TOGETHER was great on Sunday A.M.

2.	Anything before our meeting Sunday ? Phone ?

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Wes Amerman [mailto:amerman@theosophy.net]
Sent:	Wednesday, August 14, 2002 6:47 AM
To:	theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject:	Theos-World RE: Secret Doctrine/Evolution

Dear Brian,

On 8/13/02 you wrote:
<PS Do not expect any reasonable reply by Theosophists to
the issues brought
up in the above.>

So far, you don't seem to think others have said anything
"reasonable" about
the theosophical view of evolution, so you will probably not
consider this
to be any better, but I'll take the risk and try anyway in
the limited time
I have.

Bart has already pointed out that Blavatsky uses the term
"race" in more
than one sense, an idea to which you have not yet responded.
Yet, this is
critical since she tried to show the shortcomings of the
19th Century view
of evolution, and to pioneer the concept of an evolution of
consciousness,
not just of form and matter. To accomplish this, she used
any and every
tool available, including the Renaissance analogy of the
"great chain of
being." What she was driving at was not just a
hierarchical structure, but
what Joseph Wood Krutch in the mid-Twentieth Century, and
many others since,
called "the great web of life." The idea of an interrelated
network of
consciousness was almost entirely foreign to the scientists
of her day, and
their fundamental premise -- that matter produces
consciousness -- also
appears to be yours. The theosophical world-view is that
consciousness and
the "needs" of consciousness produce the necessary forms for
expression --
in the words of one modern scientist, whose name I cannot
remember,
"consciousness came first." And, despite your attempt to
disconnect these
ideas from "any" Eastern system of thought, these are
preeminently Buddhist,
and more properly, Tibetan Buddhist concepts.

I do agree with you in one respect, and that is that if we
take the "chain
of life" idea too literally, it becomes easy to start
"ranking" human beings
into "higher" and "lower" groups. Blavatsky was well aware
of the danger,
and she argued in "The Secret Doctrine" (volume 2, page
425) "...the reason
given for dividing humanity into "superior" and "inferior"
races falls to
the ground and becomes a fallacy." Any serious inquiry into
Blavatsky's
views on this subject should include time spent reading this
section of the
SD.

You are of course entitled to your opinion that "Blavatsky
didn't know any
better," on this or any other point. However, anyone who
does not sense
that there are "deeper" dimensions to life and
consciousness, who has no
sense of an inner or spiritual life is probably wasting
his/her time on this
board.

Best Regards,
Wes




Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/