Theos-Talk Archives (February 2005 Message tt00721)

Hallo Dallas and all,

My views are inserted in the below using ***.



Ps: Watch my next email on "Confrontation".

from
M. Sufilight

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "W.Dallas TenBroeck" <dalval14@earthlink.net>
To: "Theosophy Study List" <theos-l@list.vnet.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 3:09 PM
Subject: RE: Communicating Theosophy


Feb 23 2005

Re Communicating Theosophy

Dear Friends:

All I wished to point to is that THEOSOPHY has valuable definitions and it
is so easy for all of us to diverge into our own opinions.
***
Okay Dallas.
But, I thought, that we would do better to mainly express our own
formulations and designs in life,
and not mainly some artificial ones from a past century.
***


I for myself, I try to avoid this by using QUOTES from the writings of the
original "teachings." There has been so much added after those were
recorded that many are unsure as to what THEOSOPHY really says.
***
Yes. I agree upon that, when it is spiritually proper.
And here it is, that the individuals level of wisdom and compassion makes
itself felt.
By always quoting you are not doing the same as for instance HPB or the
Mahatmas did.
So I just simply suggest that we live our lifes as Mahatmas and not as
intellectuals and scholars.
But, I think you have a different idea baout it all.
***


[I used the
word 'scholarship' only to indicate the need to back up anything one said
about THEOSOPHY with a respected or primary source ALL COULD REFER TO.]
***
Yes. I think we have to be careful about when this "need" you talk about
creps forward
and becomes a undetected "Want" or "Desire" on our own part.
In fact we say we want to learn, but some of us - we often want to learn in
a manner,
which we find to be the proper one - even if it is not so.
***


Using the quotes is a way of redirecting us all to those foci.

It also urges us to study them for their inherent accuracy and expression
concerning facts in Nature.

This does not curtail our individual speculations or thought, but gives us a
pivot around which to cause them to revolve.
***
Forgive me for being somewhat blunt.
What I understand,- that you call study is just the version of study, which
you are accustomed to use.
This is the version where quoting old texts is so ever important, that you
almost can't live without it.
It is here contrast gets important.
**


It is probably for this reason that HPB says that all her writing urge us
towards the TRUTH but that it can not be expressed in any form, it has to
spring up from within each of us as our understanding. [Perhaps this is
what the discussion chairperson tried to instill in the group -- the making
sure of one's basis. But even this can be driven into the ground. I also
believe we all have to try and learn how to think -- and that is another
difficult point, as our individual paths may follow different priorities.
In the end, they have to converge. [ "The 6 'darshanas,' or view-points, are
equidistant from the 7th the "synthesizer" in the center."]
***
If I understand this correctly - I agree with you.
***


But even then it cannot be materialized, as additional thinking, and free
exchanges between co-students, always urges to further extend our purview,
and refine our grasp of the fundamentals. We cannot afford to "take a rest"
once we have begun this study and self-refinement. [This is how I understand
the "Learning how to Learn."]
***
Perhaps. What I understand is the following:
"The bitter truth is that before man can know his own inadequacy, or the
competence of another man or institution, he must first learn something
which
will enable him to perceive both. Note well that his perception itself is a
product of right study; not of instinct or emotional attraction to the
individual, nor yet of desiring to 'go it alone'. This is 'Learning How To
Learn."

So how do we study?
That is the question.
And I will refuse to limit myself, just because a member at this place
demands or begs that I do so
without clearly leading me in a direction that clarifies such a wish.
I prefer Wisdom and Divine Wisdom rather than Scholarship.

Watch my next email on "Confrontation".

from
M. Sufilight with peace and love...
*********************



I hope this makes clearer what I wished to say.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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