Theos-Talk Archives (June 2004 Message tt00039)

Hi,

I'm reminded of what Alcyone wrote in At the Feet of the Master:

>> However wise you may be already, on this Path you have much to 
learn; so much that here also there must be discrimination, and you 
must think carefully what is worth learning. All knowledge is useful, 
and one day you will have all knowledge; but while you have only 
part, take care that it is the most useful part. >>

Knowledge always comes merely in part. We know details, a few broad 
strokes, but mental knowledge is always partial. It's only intuition 
and real knowledge that can be complete. On the other hand, 
paradoxically, it is usually true that details won't come into our 
mind well, unless we already know a lot... 

Katinka
--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "prmoliveira" <prmoliveira@y...> 
wrote:
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, leonmaurer@a... wrote:
> 
> > I hope you take all this non personally, and if you have any 
> comments, or 
> > wish to further discuss these ideas (coming from HPB, WQJ, 
myself, 
> or others) -- 
> > please refer to the points made, or the ideas themselves, and not 
> to the one's 
> > who present them.
> 
> 
> Your posting places an importance on both knowledge and thought 
that 
> does not seem to be present in HPB's writings, imo. I am including 
a 
> few quotes from the Bowen Notes which are indicative that knowledge 
> and thought are viewed by HPB as means to an end in the search for 
> Truth. Theosophy, after all, did not begin in 1888 when "The Secret 
> Doctrine" was published. As HPB suggested again and again 
throughout 
> her writings, Theosophy is a timeless inquiry into Truth, which is 
> both immemorial and universal, it is a living Wisdom. 
> 
> "She talked a good deal about the "Fundamental Principle." She 
says: 
> If one imagines that one is going to get a satisfactory picture of 
> the constitution of the Universe from the S.D. one will get only 
> confusion from its study. It is not meant to give any such final 
> verdict on existence, but to LEAD TOWARDS THE TRUTH. She repeated 
> this latter expression many times. 
> 
> It is worse than useless going to those whom we imagine to be 
> advanced students (she said) and asking them to give us 
> an "interpretation" of the S.D. They cannot do it. If they try, all 
> they give are cut and dried exoteric renderings which do not 
> remotely resemble the Truth. To accept such interpretation means 
> anchoring ourselves to fixed ideas, whereas Truth lies beyond any 
> ideas we can formulate or express. Exoteric interpretations are all 
> very well, and she does not condemn them so long as they are taken 
> as pointers for beginners, and are not accepted by them as anything 
> more. Many persons who are in, or who will in the future be in the 
> T.S. are of course potentially incapable of any advance beyond the 
> range of a common exoteric conception. But there are, and will be 
> others, and for them she sets out the following and true way of 
> approach to the S.D.
> 
> This mode of thinking (she says) is what the Indians call Jnana 
> Yoga. As one progresses in Jnana Yoga one finds conceptions arising 
> which though one is conscious of them, one cannot express nor yet 
> formulate into any sort of mental picture. As time goes on these 
> conceptions will form into mental pictures. This is a time to be on 
> guard and refuse to be deluded with the idea that the new found and 
> wonderful picture must represent reality. It does not. As one works 
> on one finds the once admired picture growing dull and 
unsatisfying, 
> and finally fading out or being thrown away. This is another danger 
> point, because for the moment one is left in a void without any 
> conception to support one, and one may be tempted to revive the 
cast-
> off picture for want of a better to cling to. The true student 
will, 
> however, work on unconcerned, and presently further formless gleams 
> come, which again in time give rise to a larger and more beautiful 
> picture than the last. But the learner will now know that no 
picture 
> will ever represent the Truth. This last splendid picture will grow 
> dull and fade like the others. And so the process goes on, until at 
> last the mind and its pictures are transcended and the learner 
> enters and dwells in the World of NO FORM, but of which all forms 
> are narrowed reflections."
> 
> Let me repeat her statement: "But the learner will now know that no 
> picture will ever represent the Truth." This seems to indicate the 
> implicit insufficiency of the thought-centred mind as a real 
> instrument of inquiry and insight. It reminds me of the passage 
> in "The Voice of the Silence":
> 
> "Having become indifferent to objects of perception, the pupil must 
> seek out the rajah of the senses, the Thought-Producer, he who 
> awakes illusion. 
> 
> The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real. 
> Let the Disciple slay the Slayer."
> 
> This does not mean that intellectual effort, reflection, hard study 
> and pondering are necessarily useless. Perhaps real theosophical 
> study generates a mind that is truly free from the tyranny of 
> categories. Incidentally, the word 'category' seem to come from the 
> Greek "categorem", 'accusation'. Both Aristotle and Kant taught, 
> perhaps correctly, suggested that there is no logical thinking 
> without the use of categories. They are no doubt necessary, but a 
> mind that allows itself to be constantly bound by categories may be 
> only superimposing its own contents on reality. It may never know 
> that which is numinous, complete and free, i.e. Theosophy in its 
> essential nature.
> 
> 
> Pedro