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Re: Theos-World On changing headers, toxicity, etc.

Nov 13, 2004 12:30 PM
by Jerry Hejka-Ekins


Hello Bill,
Thanks for your comments. See some responses below:

Bill Meredith wrote:

Hi Jerry, I have been following your discussion with interest. I have had
similar discussions with Dallas in the past -- one quite recently. I see
your points and I understand your view that "the future of Theosophy
depends upon this kind of dialoguing." You asked if others might chime in,
so I wish to offer these observations.

Sometimes people are talking about different world-views even though each is
prone to label his/her particular view Theosophy with a capital T or in
Dallas's case THEOSOPHY with all capital letters.

Yes, and in my case I was a bit slow on the uptake. It wasn't until after Dallas stated that he defines THEOSOPHY as synonymous with TRUTH, that he was talking in terms of a divine universal, while I was discussing the texts.
In my opinion, some students may have fallen in love with a particular
rendition of Theosophy. In such cases, one's thought processes become like
the well-worn grooves in a phonographic record that lead logically and
inevitably to the certainty one chose in the beginning. A lover's mindset
is developed over time. One becomes deaf to the small "scratches" and minor
"skips" in the object of one's adoration. Anyone else who notices the flaws,
becomes at once out of touch with "reality," and more importantly, not
harmonious with the words and music flowing logically and inevitably
through the lover's phonographic mind.

Yes, well said. I've noticed that when someone talks to me about Theosophical teachings, by the time they get to the third sentence I have already identified which Theosophical organization they have dedicated themselves to. Of course, names live Purucker, Crosbie and Besant are giveaways, but also so are phrases like, "Original Teachings", "Jesus the Avatar", "Guruparampara", and "Nirvanic Plane." Students have a way of becoming text bound and falling into jargons, which, as you are saying, are repeated until they lose touch with the meanings.
The machinery can be bumped, but the jiggle seems only momentary before the
diamond point settles into that well-traveled path again.

Great metaphor!

In my discussions with various lovers of Theosophy I find that they
"present" similar to lovers of Jesus or lovers of Nature or lovers of
NASCAR. I have at times been able to embrace the thought processes of such
lovers to satisfy my own desire to see the world from their view. In so
doing I have felt myself on a roller coaster ride of thought that while
exhilarating the first few times around the course quickly begins to settle
into a repetitive cycle that winds in grooves round and round to the same
logical and inevitable certainty again and again and again.


Yes, and what can we do to help people to free themselves from their "groovy" prison (pun intended), so that they can begin to use the information as a means to expand their understanding? On the other hand, perhaps some people are so comfortable in their prisons that it might be an act of cruelty to try to push them out into the open air. --j





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