Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00338)

Hi Terri. If you don't like my behavior, you need to give a few examples from my emails. If you cannot do this, if you are too lazy or whatever, then you are just pouring from the empty into the void. Maybe if you stick more to ideas and don't leave a lot of drivel, such as ten messages in one day with basically no content (though I did like the pineapple message), these harsh responses from Wry will not be as forthcoming in the future. You have little sense of proportion. It looks like you haven't been on this list since last May, and only then for a few days, when you also left a spate of messages. If you just stick to ideas, everything will be o.k.

Did you ever hear of enquiry? I will enquire with anyone. as that is a cleansing and exciting experience. You are not responding to some of my points. What do you think about what I responded to you about holding up mirrors? This isn't a contest about who is right. Maybe I am wrong, and I can learn something from you, which would be joyful. For example, do you really think that you can hold up a mirror and someone will learn something essential in such a way that it changes an inner dynamic that is intricately complex and based on a movement away from pain toward pleasure? Have you been successful with this? Can you give some examples? As previously stated, I have tried this, as have most people, many times. (I am not always harsh and can be very gentle at holding up a mirror or anything else, though I acknowledge I have been cutting grease on here.) And there is another problem about holding up mirrors besides building up resistance: the mirror holder is subjective. It is a form of selection ( i.e.analysis), which is based on the conditioned mind, and there is always a distortion, as, at the very least, the mirror holder is selecting which details, or even which mode, of the person to reflect, but usually it is much, much murkier than this.

Your talk of sleeping and waking is silly. This is the problem with the work of P.D. Ouspensky and the cheap, fourth-way groups that have sprung up out of his over-intellectualization of Gurdjieff's ideas. When you sign your message "dream on," this implies that you yourself are not dreaming. I deliberately chose to create a certain affect when I made my messages of the last few days. It was intentional, and I continue to think it was good. This does not mean I was "asleep" or "awake," which is vague, very subjective terminology. Do you understand?

It is hard to sort it all out, but if we stick to ideas, there is a better chance of doing so then if we mechanically small talk. Would you not agree? It is a matter of discrimination, telling the difference between one thing and another and then breaking these two things apart and combining them with other sets and designing. To understand how to do this would be wisdom. When (if) you ever wake up, you will be breaking things apart, not lumping things together. Everything is already glued together. Do you understand this, Terrie? And how do we know how and what to break apart? It is by impartially studying the whole with a focus on oneself as an object. In this way what is upside down can be turned right-side up. But if a part of your "self", as you have called it, studies yourself, it is subjective, and the whole endeavor, no matter how well intended, is a waste, though maybe someone who has the right kind of knowledge can grow a rose out of this smelly medium .

This is not the office or a cocktail party or a family gathering with Aunt Joan and Uncle Jeb and their various and sundry offspring. It is not a stage on which to play cartoon characters and pretend it is a form of conscious acting. It is an email group to discuss theosophy, and this is an appropriate venue to break things apart and try to create a certain atmosphere. I believe we all should be doing this. If you do not like my work, show me a better way to do things in such a manner that I can understand. .At least you have been helping me make some good messages out here, so, in the future, I will consider you on my team. Wry



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