RE: [bn-study] Life and Consciousness acting
Aug 08, 2003 07:01 AM
by dalval14
Friday, August 08, 2003
Dear M
You ask:: It is not conflicting to be true to one another and
search for truth at the
same time. Is it?
=====================
Ans DTB: Let me offer what I have learned from Theosophy:
If you look on all relatives, friends, compatriots, etc...as
members of the great human race of immortal MONADS, no matter
where they are born or what religion they adopt in this life,
then we can only be "true" to that immortal spiritual SOUL which
they are in essence.
As such, they and we, have always lived together for uncounted
aeons lives and have lived together in amity and also in
conflict, for many incarnations. As immortal Souls, we are all
brothers and sisters. The SOUL has no sex. The bond of common
Karma also ties us together or drives us apart. We determine
that by our choices.
To be "true to one another" we have to be true to the SPIRIT that
lives in each of us, as it exists uniformly all around us.
We are a great band of immortal Pilgrims, all trying to assist
each other to attain the highest and most noble of goals:
PERFECTION OF WISDOM.
If we are side we may see that no one sets out to win such a race
ahead of any one else. In fact we have Elder Brothers (Those who
have attained to WISDOM)are always present along within, and
among us We do not necessarily "see" them, but we can sense
their influence. It is They who support the THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT
and who continue daily and hourly to help and give all true
aspirants spiritual and virtuous encouragement.
Theosophy is Their message. We all need to study it carefully.
H P B was Their messenger. We owe her a vast gratitude and
respect.. Read her KEY TO THEOSOPHY, if you wish to grasp her
mind and friendship. There the presence of the Wise Ones is made
plain.
Honesty and truth, to remain so, have to be impartial and
universal. If we reserve special positions, because of birth or
friendship, to others, then we are being untrue to others. Merit
is always to be based on virtue only.
Of course our present day morality and ethics consider only the
personality of this life-time and we are unable to determine the
relationships between us and others in the past (as the long
interval between most rebirths, and the acquisition of a new
brain make memory of our past lives hazy and indistinct even in
those few cases where it survives (usually in children under the
age of 7).
Best wishes,
Dallas
==================
P S Look at this small article I hope you may enjoy it
AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?[PARA][PARA][PARA]Many students, in
their search for light, find divers problems presented to them
for solution; questions so puzzling from the contradictory
aspects which they present, that the true course is difficult of
attainment for those who seek Right Living.[PARA][PARA]One of
these questions, Is it our duty to interfere if we see a wrong
being done? arises.[PARA][PARA]The question of duty is one that
can be decided fully only by each individual himself. No code of
laws or table of rules unchanging and inflexible will be given,
under which all must act, or find duty.[PARA][PARA]We are so
ignorant or so newly acquainted with a portion of the Divine Will
that generally we are poorly fitted to declare decisively what is
wrong, or evil.[PARA]Each man is the law unto himself - the law
as to right and wrong, good and evil. No other individual may
violate the law of that man, any more than any other law, without
producing the inevitable result, the penalty of an infracted
law.[PARA]I dare not declare that any one thing or course is evil
in another. For me it may be evil. I am not wise enough to know
what it is for another. Only the Supreme knows, for He only can
read the heart, the mind, the soul of each. "Thou shalt not
judge," saith the sacred writing.[PARA][PARA]My duty is clear in
many places, but in the performing of it I may neither act as a
judge or hold animosity, anger, or disgust. [PARA][PARA]Were a
man to abuse an animal, surely I must interfere to prevent
suffering to the helpless, dumb and weak, for so we are ajoined.
This done, my duty lies in helping my brother, for he knew not
what he did.[PARA][PARA]My aim is to find Wisdom, and my duty, to
do away with ignorance wherever it is encountered. His act was
caused by ignorance. Were a man to abuse wife or child through
unwise use of wine or drug truly it is my duty to prevent
suffering or sorrow for either wife or child, and also to prevent
greater misery - perhaps murder. They are human beings, my
fellows. This done, my duty lies toward the man, not in
condemnation, but seeking the cause that makes him unwise, strive
to alleviate - if not free him from it. He also is my
brother.[PARA][PARA]If men steal, lie, cheat, betray the innocent
or are betrayed by the knowing , my duty lies in preventing for
others, if I may, sorrow and anguish, pain and want, misery,
suicide or bloodshed, which may be, for others the result of
these acts.[PARA]My duty lies in preventing effects such as these
from love for and a desire to help all men, not because men's
actions seem to me wrong or their courses evil. I know not the
causes of their actions, nor all the reasons why they are
permitted. How then may I say this or that man is evil, this or
that thing is wrong? The effects may to me seem evil, inasmuch as
such appears to be the result for others. Here my duty is to
prevent evil to other mortals in the way that seems most
wise.[PARA][PARA] Finally this is better that one
do[PARA][TAB] His own task as he may even though he fail,[PARA]
Than take tasks not his own, though they seem
-Song Celestial (Bhagavat-Gita) [PARA][PARA]He
who seeks "the small old path" has many duties to perform. His
duty to mankind, his family - nature - himself and his creator,
but duty here means something very different from that which is
conveyed by the time and lip-worn word, Duty. Our comprehension
of the term is generally based upon society's or man's selfish
interpretation. It is quite generally thought that duty means the
performance of a series of acts which others think I ought to
perform, whereas, it more truly means the performance of actions
by me which I know are good for others, or the wisest at the
moment.[PARA][PARA]It would be quite dangerous for me to take
upon myself the duty of another, either because he told me it was
good, or that it was duty. It would be dangerous for him and me
if I assumed that which he felt it was good to do, for that is
his duty, and cannot be mine. That which is given him to do I
cannot do for him. That which is given me to do no living thing
can do for me. If I attempt to do another's duty then I assume
that which belongs not to me, was not given me. I am a thief,
taking that which does not belong to me. My brother consenting
thereto becomes an idler, fails to comprehend the lesson, shifts
the responsibility, and between us we accomplish
nothing.[PARA][PARA]We are instructed to do good. That is duty.
In doing good all that we do is covered, that for which we are
here is being accomplished and that is - duty. We are enjoined to
do good where it is safe. Not safe for ourselves, but safe for
the objects toward which our duty points. Often we behold beings
suffering great wrong. Our emotions prompt us to rush forward and
in some way prevent the continuance of it. Still the wise man
knows it is not safe. Were he to do so his efforts would only
arouse the antagonism and passions of superior numbers, whose
unrestrained and ungoverned wills would culminate in the
perpetration of greater wrongs upon the one who already suffers.
It is safe to do good, or my duty, after I find how to do it in
the way that will not create evil, harm others or beget greater
evils.[PARA][PARA]For him who seeks the upward way there is no
duty - for nothing is a duty. He has learned that the word
conveys an erroneous meaning when applied to the doings of the
Seeker. It implies the performance of that which savors of a
task, or a certain required or demanded act necessary before
progress is made or other deeds be performed. Of duty, there is
none such as this.[PARA][PARA]He learns to do good and that which
appears the wisest at the time, forgetting self so fully that he
only knows his doing good to others - forgetting self so far that
he forgets to think whether he is doing his duty or not -
entering Nirvana to this extent that he does not remember that he
is doing his duty. That for him is duty.[PARA]"Resist not evil,"
saith one of the Wise. He who said this knew full well his duty,
and desired to convey to us knowledge. That he did not mean men
to sit idly by while ignorance let slip the dogs of pain,
anguish, suffering, want and murder, is surely true. That he did
not mean men to kneel in puerile simulation of holiness by the
roadside, while their fellow men suffer torture, wrong or abuse,
is still more true. That he did not intend a man to sit silently
a looker-on while that which is called evil worked its will upon
others when by the lifting of a finger, perhaps, its intentions
might be thwarted and annulled - is truth itself. These all would
be neglect of a portion of the whole duty of man. He who taught
that men should "resist not evil" desired them only to forget
themselves. Men think that all things which are disagreeable to
them, are evil. By resistance he meant complaint, anger and
objection to or against the inevitable, disagreeable or sorrowful
things of life, that come to self, and he did not mean man to go
forth in the guise of a martyr, hugging these same penalties to
his bosom while he proclaims himself thereby the possessor of the
magic pass word (which he will never own and which is never
uttered in that way): I have Suffered.[PARA][PARA]If men revile,
persecute or wrong one, why resist? Perhaps it is evil, but so
long as it affects one's-self only, it is no great matter. If
want, sorrow or pain come to one why resist or cry out? In the
resistance or war against them we create greater evils. Coming to
one's-self, they should have little weight, while at the same
time they carry invaluable lessons in their hands. Rightly
studied they cause one to forget himself in the desire to assist
others when similarly placed, and the Lotus of duty - or love for
man - to bloom out of the Nile mire of life. Resist not evil, for
it is inseparable from life. It is our duty to live, and accept
uncomplainingly, all of life. Resist not evil, but rather learn
of it all the good which in reality it only veils.
[PARA][PARA]Seek in it, as well as in the gleaming good, for the
Mystery, and there will come forth from both the self-same form
upon whose forehead is written "Duty," which being interpreted,
meaneth efforts for the good of all other men, and over whose
heart is written: "I am my brother's keeper."[PARA][PARA][PARA]
================================================
-----Original Message-----
From: Munise
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2003 6:41 AM
To: dalval14@earthlink.net
Subject: RE: [bn-study] Life and Consciousness acting
Dear Dallas,
It is not conflicting to be true to one another and search for
truth at the
same time. Is it?
Wishing all the best
Munise
[Back to Top]
Theosophy World:
Dedicated to the Theosophical Philosophy and its Practical Application