Theos-Talk Archives (December 2003 Message tt00387)

Dec 29 2003

Dear Steve:

Agreed as I too have had experience with "communes." 

Unless they are built and maintained strictly on principles they fail. 

Personalities develop frictions and then politics arise.  

Unity is in humanity as a whole. And as I see it, it is impersonal and
assiduous devotion to applying and spreading the philosophy of the
freedom lf the mind.  

Unity is in desiring to be united. But no personal methods can be used.
People must be left free to develop their own rules controls and
disciplines.

In the "Practical Section" of The KEY TO THEOSOPHY, HPB gives us the
best of guide-lines.

Best for 2004

Dal

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

Also consider this: (From a Master of Wisdom)


SOME WORDS ON DAILY LIFE

(Written by a Master of Wisdom)


IT is divine philosophy alone, the spiritual and psychic blending of man
with nature, which, by revealing the fundamental truths that lie hidden
under the objects of sense and perception, can promote a spirit of unity
and harmony in spite of the great diversities of conflicting creeds.
Theosophy, therefore, expects and demands from the Fellows of the
Society a great mutual toleration and charity for each other's
shortcomings, ungrudging mutual help in the search for truths in every
department of nature-moral and physical. And this ethical standard must
be unflinchingly applied to daily life.

"Theosophy should not represent merely a collection of moral verities, a
bundle of metaphysical ethics, epitomized in theoretical dissertations.
Theosophy must be made practical; and it has, therefore, to be
disencumbered of useless digressions, in the sense of desultory orations
and fine talk. Let every Theosophist only do his duty, that which he can
and ought to do, and very soon the sum of human misery, within and
around the areas of every Branch of your Society, will be found visibly
diminished. Forget SELF in working for others-and the task will become
an easy and a light one for you.

"Do not set your pride in the appreciation and acknowledgement of that
work by others. Why should any member of the Theosophical Society,
striving to become a Theosophist, put any value upon his neighbour's
good or bad opinion of himself and his work, so long as he himself knows
it to be useful and beneficent to other people? Human praise and
enthusiasm are short-lived at best; the laugh of the scoffer and
condemnation of the indifferent looker-on are sure to follow, and
generally to out-weigh, the admiring praise of the friendly. 

Do not despise the opinion of the world, nor provoke it uselessly to
unjust criticism. Remain rather as indifferent to the abuse as to the
praise of those who can never know you as you really are, and who ought,
therefore, to find you unmoved by either, and ever placing the approval
or condemnation of your own Inner Self higher than that of the
multitudes.

"Those of you who would know yourselves in the spirit of truth, learn to
live alone even amidst the great crowds which may some times surround
you. Seek communion and intercourse only with the God within your own
soul; heed only the praise or blame of that deity which can never be
separated from your true self, as it is verily that God itself: called
the HIGHER Consciousness. 

Put without delay your good intentions into practice, never leaving a
single one to remain only an intention-expecting, meanwhile, neither
reward nor even acknowledgement for the good you may have done. Reward
and acknowledgement are in yourself and in separable from you, as it is
your Inner Self alone which can appreciate them at their true degree and
value. 

For each one of you contains within the precincts of his inner
tabernacle the Supreme Court-prosecutor, defense, jury and judge-whose
sentence is the only one without appeal; since none can know you better
than you do yourself, when once you have learned to judge that Self by
the never wavering light of the inner divinity-your higher
Consciousness. Let, therefore, the masses, which can never know your
true selves, condemn your outer selves according to their own false
lights.

"The majority of the public Areopagus is generally composed of
self-appointed judges, who have never made a permanent deity of any idol
save their own personalities-their lower selves; for those who try in
their walk in life, to follow their inner light will never be found
judging, far less condemning, those weaker than themselves. What does it
matter, then, whether the former condemn or praise, whether they humble
you or exalt you on a pinnacle? They will never comprehend you one way
or the other. They may make an idol of you, so long as they imagine you
a faithful mirror of themselves on the pedestal or altar which they have
reared for you, and while you amuse or benefit them. You cannot expect
to be anything for them but a temporary fetish, succeeding another
fetish just overthrown, and followed in your turn by an other idol. 

Let, therefore, those who have created that idol destroy it whenever
they like, casting it down with as little cause as they had for setting
it up. Your Western Society can no more live with out its Khalif of an
hour than it can worship one for any longer period; and whenever it
breaks an idol and then besmears it with mud, it is not the model, but
the disfigured image created by its own foul fancy and which it has
endowed with its own vices, that Society dethrones and breaks.

"Theosophy can only find objective expression in an all-embracing code
of life, thoroughly impregnated with the spirit of mutual tolerance,
charity, and brotherly love, its Society, as a body, has a task before
it which, unless performed with the utmost discretion, will cause the
world of the indifferent and the selfish to rise up in arms against it. 

Theosophy has to fight intolerance, prejudice, ignorance, and
selfishness, hidden under the mantle of hypocrisy. It has to throw all
the light it can from the torch of Truth, with which its servants are
entrusted. It must do this without fear or hesitation, dreading neither
reproof nor condemnation. Theosophy, through its mouthpiece, the
Society, has to tell the TRUTH to the very face of LIE; to beard the
tiger in its den, without thought or fear of evil consequences, and to
set at defiance calumny and threats. 

As an Association, it has not only the right, but the duty to uncloak
vice and do its best to redress wrongs, whether through the voice of its
chosen lecturers or the printed word of its journals and
publications-making its accusations, however, as impersonal as possible.
But its Fellows, or Members have individually no such right, Its
followers have, first of all, to set the example of a firmly outlined
and as firmly applied morality, before they obtain the right to point
out, even in a spirit of kindness, the absence of a like ethic unity and
singleness of purpose in other associations or individuals. 

No Theosophist should blame a brother, whether within or outside of the
association; neither may he throw a slur upon another's actions or
denounce him, lest he himself lose the right to be considered a
Theosophist. For, as such, he has to turn away his gaze from the
imperfections of his neighbour, and centre rather his attention upon his
own shortcomings, in order to correct them and become wiser. Let him not
show the disparity between claim and action in another, but, whether in
the case of a brother, a neighbor, or simply a fellow man, let him
rather ever help one weaker than himself on the arduous walk of life.

"The problems of true Theosophy and its great mission are, first, the
working out of clear unequivocal conceptions of ethic ideas and duties,
such as shall best and most fully satisfy the right and altruistic
feelings in men; and, second, the modeling of these conceptions for
their adaptation into such forms of daily life, as shall offer a field
where they may be applied with most equitableness.

"Such is the common work placed before all who are willing to act on
these principles. It is a laborious task, and will require strenuous and
persevering exertion; but it must lead you insensibly to progress, and
leave you no room for any selfish aspirations outside the limits traced.
. . . 

Do not indulge personally in unbrotherly comparison between the task
accomplished by yourself and the work left undone by your neighbours or
brothers. In the fields of Theosophy none is held to weed out a larger
plot of ground than his strength and capacity will permit him. Do not be
too severe on the merits or demerits of one who seeks admission among
your ranks, as the truth about the actual state of the inner man can
only be known to Karma, and can be dealt with justly by that all-seeing
Law alone. Even the simple presence amidst you of a well-intentioned and
sympathizing individual may help you magnetically. .

You are the free volunteer workers on the fields of Truth, and as such
must leave no obstruction on the paths leading to that field."

* * * * *

"The degree of success or failure are the landmarks the Masters have to
follow, as they will constitute the barriers placed with your own hands
between yourselves and those whom you have asked to be your teachers.
The nearer your approach to the goal contemplated-the shorter the
distance between the student and the Master."

HPB published this in "Lucifer," January, 1888


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


-----Original Message-----
From: stevenlevey@bellsouth.net [mailto:stevenlevey@bellsouth.net] 
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2003 8:04 AM
To: study@blavatsky.net
Subject: [bn-study] Re: Theosophical Movement


Dallas- I feel your point is well taken
regarding the community of man as the one
to which we aught to belong. 

Some have experience
with a community of Theosophical students.
This student has, and from my experience,
the inclusivity became, or perhaps immediately
was, an exclusivity in practice. So, my thoughts
are, to patiently learn that the greater
community of, most likely, individuals
who have never heard of Theosophy, is that
community which needs the assistance and
our allegiance. Obviously it is much more
difficult to converse in Theosophical terminology
and subject matter with those unaquainted with it.
As daunting as it is we need to learn to turn our
Sanskrit into English, and our over complex ideas
into more palatable thought. 

Also, the word "commune" is often attached to
the communities in question and, historically
they have a poor track record as continueing
viable groups. I suppose there is no reason
why one couldn't work. It is just that they
tend to lack the flexibility required to allow
for the variabilites of thought which combates 
dogmatisim. And it is that which kills Theosophy.

Steve
> 

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

> From: "Dallas TenBroeck" <dalval14@earthlink.net>
> Date: 2003/12/28 Sun AM 11:17:53 GMT
> To: study@blavatsky.net
> Subject: [bn-study] Re: Theosophical Movement
> 
> Dec 27, 2003
> 
> Re Community morals and practical living as brothers and
> sisters.
> 
> 
> Dear Friend:
> 
> All communities that are based on, and where the associates or members
> apply BROTHERHOOD as a basis for living together -- or, hopefully, the
> rest of the world, are following in some way or another the
THEOSOPHICAL
> ideal.
> 
> It starts with our outlook towards life and ourselves as one who is
> indissolubly a part of the world community -- not just humanity, but
of
> every being that lives and participates in interactive cooperative
> support.  
> 
> This is not spelled out clearly in educational curricula. But, it
> starts with the deathless, ever moving intelligence of the "atom," and
> from there pursues a steady growing till the independence of a Mind"
is
> reached as an important "moment of choice" for each Individual
thinker.
> 
> 
> One ought to consider the growth of the mind as well as the changes in
a
> physical form as an index of change in intelligence and a growth of
> communal responsibility -- as may be enclosed in the word-idea of
> "brotherhood." 
> 
> Communities are made up of individuals. The Individual assists and
> inevitably helps frame the community in all cases. Brotherhood is an
> inner attitude of mind and of emotions controlled by the mind set on
> acting and being an IMMORTAL -- temporarily resident in a mortal form
> or body. 
> 
> CUT