Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00776)

Thank you Paul, Bill and Nige for your kind feedback. 

Erica


--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "kpauljohnson" 
<kpauljohnson@y...> wrote:
> Dear Erica,
> 
> This is IMO the best and truest post I've read on theos-talk in 
> YEARS. Theosophia is a knowing that is deeply empathetic, yet 
most 
> of what we see preached as Theosophy-opposed-to-non-Theosophy is 
> anything but.
> 
> The universalist vs. particularist battle is fought as you say 
> throughout religious history. At the moment I'm contemplating how 
> Quakerism changed from a unified movement that brought genuine 
> spiritual freedom into a fragmented movement in which people were 
> more concerned with hating their (heretical) fellow Quakers than 
> with loving their fellow humans.
> 
> Here's a link to a perspective that might offer some insight into 
> this kind of degeneration:
> 
> http://www.ezls.fb12.uni-siegen.de/mkroedel/paul_maclean.html
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Paul
> 
> 
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Erica Letzerich 
<eletzerich@y...> 
> wrote:
> > 
> > The Eyes of the Forgotten Children
> > 
> > "Strive to give back the Divine in yourselves to the Divine in 
the 
> All."
> > Plotinus
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Could divine wisdom or theosophy be a written system? Would that 
> not contradict the very meaning of the word theosophy? How could 
> intellectual knowledge which is superficial and absent of wisdom 
be 
> theosophy? Can we win in the battlefield of free thinking and do 
not 
> surrender to the creation of dogmas?
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > For so long humanity is in constant but silent battle that seems 
> to not have an end, and whose battlefield is within human mind. 
The 
> battle between dogmas and freethinking is one of the major causes 
of 
> conflicts. Two paths are unrolled: the path of those who lost in 
> the battlefield and are prisoners and generators of dogmas, and 
the 
> path of the freethinkers that are searching for the truth and do 
not 
> associated it to dead letter.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Within the theosophical circles we can see the reflexes of such 
> battle, and many have already surrendered to the powerful human 
> tendency to dogmatize: quarrels disagreements original teachings, 
> non original teachings, this is theosophy this is not theosophy 
etc. 
> Exactly like Christians, Buddhists, and every other religious 
> movement with intellectual division and conflicts. 
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Today the word theosophy is generally associated to a set of 
> doctrines based upon the genesis presented into the Secret 
Doctrine 
> of Blavatsky, and numerous have been the authors that have written 
> books in an attempt to simplify and explain the so called 
> theosophical system. Other interpretation common given for 
theosophy 
> is the ancient wisdom-tradition, and also the wisdom underlining 
> religion, philosophy and science or the perennial philosophy. A 
> third interpretation is that theosophy is pure altruism, the 
> realization of the oneness of life.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > The Greek word theosophy has two compounds: Theos (god) and 
> Sophia. In ancient Greece Sophia (wisdom) was one of Plato's four 
> cardinals Aretes (Virtues). According to Plato the spiritual 
> harmony of the soul where related to the four cardinal virtues, 
> which he considered expressions of the three basic energies of the 
> Soul. Wisdom was an inner condition that would be an expression of 
> one the three basic energies of the soul. 
> > 
> > Divine Wisdom or Theosophy is related to the energies of the 
soul, 
> consequently can be understood only from within, there are no 
words 
> in any language able to express the Divine Wisdom or theosophy. 
You 
> may learn by heart the whole system presented in the work of 
> Blavatsky and in the work of others, you may write, debate, teach, 
> and affirm this knowledge is theosophy. But you will be still 
> trapped by the intellect, consequently unable to know what 
theosophy 
> is. Theosophy - Divine Wisdom- ought to be a potential alive 
within 
> human nature, consequently theosophy can't be the lifeless letter, 
> expressed in any book or writing.
> > 
> > Theosophy is a deep awareness of the unity of life of someone 
> else's suffering that is also our suffering. It is compassion, 
> altruism and love. Can you teach love, compassion and altruism? 
You 
> may describe it, transform into words, but you will never be able 
to 
> make the other to experience it merely by intellectual 
discussions. 
> It is only the ability to experience it that will teach someone 
what 
> theosophy – Divine Wisdom- is. 
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Our great challenge in a world immersed in problems, where 
> violence increases, wars, millions of children die every year of 
> hunger is to try to realize theosophy from within and do not 
create 
> dogmas. But if one cannot realize theosophy from within, can still 
> be a fighter for freethinking and do not surrender to the battle. 
> Only the cultivation of an open mind, investigative and a pure 
heart 
> would irrigate the field making possible to flourish theosophy – 
> Divine Wisdom.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > If you cannot see the light in the eyes of the forgotten 
children, 
> because you cover it with the darkness of human indifference, you 
> don't know what theosophy is. And many that spread the darkness of 
> indifference think they know what theosophy is and that they are 
> able to discuss about theosophy. But they cannot see, as they 
cannot 
> see the light in the eyes of the forgotten children, which they 
are 
> simply generating dogmas, divisions, illusions, and that is not 
> theosophy. Theosophy is the ability to see the light in the eyes 
of 
> the forgotten children because their hopes, their dreams, their 
pain 
> and happiness are also our hopes our dreams our pain and happiness.
> > 
> > Erica Letzerich
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Erica Letzerich .'.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 		
> > ---------------------------------
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> > vote.yahoo.com - Register online to vote today!
> > 
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]