Theos-Talk Archives (January 2003 Message tt00454)

Agreed with 100% Zack

J

----- Original Message -----
From: "Zack Lansdowne" <zackl@sprynet.com>
To: <theos-talk@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2003 12:02 PM
Subject: Theos-World Re: Re: Standard of Truth?


>
> James,
>
> I like what you have written in your various recent messages, including
the
> following:
>
>
> >At the root of it, I think, is the love of form at the expense of
> >essence.
>
> >"Men are idolaters, and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or
> >throw themselves down before; they always did, they always will, and
> >if you don't make it of wood, you must make it of words."
> >(Oliver Wendell Holmes)
>
> >"We cannot let our angels go. We do not see that they only go out
> >that archangels may come in. We are idolaters of the old."
> >(Emerson)
>
>
> My sense is that progress on the spiritual journey occurs as we
> progressively relinquish what we had once relied on. So, for instance, if
> we are relying on a spiritual teacher to tell us what to do, sooner or
later
> we will have to leave that teacher; if we are relying on a set of books
> (whether the Bible, HPB's books, or AAB's books) to tell us what to think,
> sooner or later we will have to find our answers through our own inquiry
> rather than simply quote what someone else has written.
>
> Krishnamurti (in "Freedom from the Known") points out that we will even
have
> to give up the authority of our own past experiences: "Having realised
that
> we can depend on no outside authority in bringing about a total revolution
> within the structure of our own psyche, there is the immensely greater
> difficulty of rejecting our own inward authority, the authority of our own
> particular little experiences and accumulated opinions, knowledge, ideas
and
> ideals."
>
> What I do not understand in this ongoing verbal war between some followers
> of HPB and some followers of AAB is why there is a war at all. In both
> HPB's and AAB's writings, I have personally found some words to be
> inspiring, other words that I have disagreed with, other words that I have
> not understood, and still other words that I have found, for me, to be
> unimportant and a waste of my time. I am sure that there are areas of
> disagreement between HPB and AAB, but I have found many areas of
agreement.
> I am grateful that I have had access to both sets of writings. I agree
with
> both HPB and AAB when they say that truth (or Theosophy) is ineffable,
that
> all words are at best symbols of truth, but not the truth itself. So, why
> are we so fanatical about sets of words that, sooner or later, we will
> outgrow and relinquish?
>
>
> Zack Lansdowne
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>