Theos-Talk Archives (January 2006 Message tt00099)

Hi Paul,

Happy New Year!

I can't resist:

> Of course it can be comfortable and ego-enhancing to claim to know
> better than the experts on the basis of psychic revelations or sacred
> texts. But that is not in the spirit of the theosophical enterprise
> as defined by the Founders, however much it might have become a
> prevalent attitude of Theosophists in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Comfortable and ego-enhancing it may be, or, contrarily, 
devastatingly humbling, but as I understand it, the founders of 
Theosophy enjoined erstwhile students to take nobody's word for 
anything, but to investigate according to their (the students') 
lights and arrive at conclusions that are satisfactory to them. My 
personal experience suggests that these personally arrived at 
conclusions are subject to adjustment, as the years roll by. But one 
has the comfort, with such conclusions, that they are one's own 
responsibility. It is not necessary that anyone else share them, nor 
is it necessary that one accept anyone else's conclusions. So much is 
not known that we might feel quite justified in pursuing our own 
investigations, as long as we maintain an open mind, as the next body 
of evidence marches down the road. 

All the best,
Adelasie