Theos-Talk Archives (December 2004 Message tt00257)

Dec 20 2004

Thanks Pedro:

Great research.

Apparently we invent new words and definitions for old phenomena as we go
along. Well are we any the wiser with these new "port-manteau" words? Or
have we hidden the baby deeper under the wraps? That is one reason why I
like to get to basics, clear and simple. We ought to insist on keeping
things where the average man and woman can understand and follow along
mentally..

Thanks and best wishes of 2005

Dallas
 
=====================================

-----Original Message-----
From: prmoliveira 
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 3:35 AM
To: 

Subject: Re: Communicating Theosophy to Others.



--- Jerry Hejka-Ekins wrote:


You [Dallas] wrote:
 
I have an intense dislike for "buzz" words like "post modern, 
modernist" etc... which signify nothing at all. That is all to me, pseudo-
intellectual. 

I try to deal with facts and truths, and care little for opinions 
and "buzz words." .......


Just an aside, if I may:

HPB may have introduced a "post-modern" concept in her works when she 
used the word *nastika*. One of the references to it is this: "The 
Secret Doctrine teaches no Atheism, except in the Hindu sense of the 
word nastika, or the rejection of idols, including every 
anthropomorphic god. In this sense every Occultist is a Nastika." 
(SD I, Summing Up)

The literal meaning of the word is: "atheistical, infidel; an atheist 
or unbeliever; disbelief, atheism. When combined with the word 
*Karmanam* it means "denying the consequence of works".

The Online Etimology Dictionary (thanks, Bart) says that 
postmodernism is defined by Terry Eagleton as "the contemporary 
movement of thought which rejects ... the possibility of objective 
knowledge" and is therefore "skeptical of truth, unity, and 
progress." 

Another view comes from the Wikipedia: "Jean-François Lyotard 
famously described postmodernism as an "incredulity toward 
metanarratives" (Lyotard, 1984). Postmodernism attacks the notions of 
monolithic universals and encourages fractured, fluid and multiple 
perspectives and is marked by an increasing importance in the ideas 
from the Sociology of knowledge."

In other words, the postmodern mind rejects belief, monolithic 
ideologies, knowledge born of arrogance, questions everything, is 
skeptical of any form of fundamentalism and maintains that no 
dicourse can ever fully represent reality.

Yeap, HPB was probably a postmodern sphynx!


Pedro