Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00355)

<I guess with CWL we are caught in a double bind. To completely
avoid the horrifying aspects of his life is to allow his admirers to
intimidate us into silence. But to wallow in them is to give
ammunition to those who would wish to deflect attention from CWL to
those who point out his flaws.>


Hi Paul, its been awhile. Good to hear your perspective as always.

I think you have hit upon an interesting concept here. The question really 
seems to be, "On what shall I place my attentions (focus)?" I can choose 
for myself or allow others to choose for me.

To the extent that the discussions of CWL's alleged pedophilia are 
distracting some folks from attending (giving attention) to those other 
things that they may have pledged their focus towards, such discussions can 
be detri-mental. I am probably one such person, however, having allowed my 
attention to be temporarily diverted by this discussion, some thoughts do 
come to my mind, generally in the form of questions.

The assumption here seems to be that sleeping with persons under age 18 is 
immoral. Theosophically one might ask from where does this assumption 
arise? Does the theosophical teaching have a moral component?Is it written 
in the literature? If so does the literature address sleeping with persons 
in any meaningful contest, i.e. physical age vs. mental age vs. emotional 
age etc.? Is the issue age or same-sex or both? Shall we rely upon the 
literature as our authority in this area? On what do we base our conclusion 
that CWL was flawed? An inner voice? An outer rule? A recognition of 
similarity or difference to our own selves?

As you acknowledge in your conclusion above, there are those who do follow 
their desire is to point out the "flaws" of others. If one recognizes in 
oneself such a desire, one might ask from where and for what purpose does 
this desire arise? Do we point out CWL's flaws to help CWL? I should think 
not at this late hour. Do we point out CWL's flaws to help others? Perhaps 
that is our intention, but could we not be more sure of our selfless motives 
if we chose instead to point out our own flaws in an effort to help others? 
I can only acknowledge for myself that the latter choice strikes me as 
being a more theosophical approach.

Any attempt to answer ethical questions for another only raises a whole new 
set of questions for me: "Where does the desire to answer questions for 
others arise and for what purpose does it manifest in me? In the end, it 
satisfies me to pursue self-knowledge more than more information about CWL. 
Whether he was a pervert or not is only useful to me as one of many measures 
that I might select to define whether I am a pervert or not -- for being 
immortal, could I not have been just such a person in a previous 
incarnation? Is it that aroma wafting out of my own past that I recognize 
as the "flaws" in CWL?

On what shall I place my attentions today?


warm regards,


bill





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