Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00901)

Nov 27


Dear Steve:

As i see it:

As taught in the OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY we are dealing with the mental and
emotional scars left in KAMA-MAMAS. That is the personality may
overwhelm the Individuality with its self-centeredness -- unavoidable
is some cases.

Even if we say this as students of the great philosophy, as
theosophists, to one another we are not helping the individual.

We have to enter into their mental and emotional world and see if we
can help to change perspectives. This is to be done slowly.

An attempt to place interest outside of ones self is perhaps the
beginning.
Maybe that is why the "healing" pets have proved so valuable --
unstinting love.

No question but Karma has affected all who were there. Some have more
strength than others, and some can stand aside from their involvement
and try to adjust themselves according to what they know or see or
sense.

A knowledge of Karma and of reincarnation are great assists here, if
those can be presented and their logic encouraged. The very idea that
we are all IMMORTALS takes away some of the bitterness regarding the
way in which personalities are affected for this rest of this
life-time. The thing to be gently overcome is the profound injustices
and the great attachment to the present personality faults and
successes.

We have to become great psychologists using these ideas, and letting
others develop them if they are interested. But we cannot force them
on any one.

We have to take the attitude that we are cosmopolitans and that 1500
years ago when we all lived together there were different political
and religious conditions. But that may be discussed after one looks
at THE EPITOME OF THEOSOPHY (JUDGE), or the OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY
Sometimes those help.

Dal





-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Levey [mailto:levey_steven@hotmail.com]
Sent:	Wednesday, November 27, 2002 9:58 AM
To:	theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject:	Re: Theos-World RE: SUICIDE -- IS IT DANGEROUS ? -- tricky
situation for a theosophist

Dallas-Thanks for such a thorough response to the issue.

One further contribution to this issue, is to mention the fact that
in
our time, and especially regarding veterans of the Vietnam war, more
individuals have taken their own lives since the war than the 58,000
or so
who died during the Vietnam conflict.
I am manager of the Santa Barbara Vet center whiich is a counseling
center for combat vets, and the most common cause I see, it seems, for
these
suicides is a kind of confusion and guilt based in having to be put in
a
position to take other lives.
This, connected to the pain surrounding the fact that,
retrospectively,
they know that they should never have been in such a position. So, an
implied sense of necessity to kill to support the prevailing system,
together with the trauma of seeming to need to take other lives,
either in
protection of ones-self or to save another,
leaves an horrendous scar on the personal mind (post truamatic
stress).
This "scar" appears so indellable that one removes one's self in the
inability to remove the "scar". Many of these veterans were either
drafted
or felt, as Americans, that they were doing their duty, and enlisted.
C U T