Theos-Talk Archives (June 2006 Message tt00037)

Dear Friends, 
In  order to answer the question on our responsibility (or not)  with regard to the fate of present civilization, we may have to start by examining a previous, also uncomfortable query: 
 
?How much of  DIRECT KNOWLEDGE  we have about esoteric philosophy?? 
 
The importance of it is that only direct knowledge is the source of a lasting sense of  responsibility.  An accurate, heartfelt perception of things results in a sense of ethics and an active  intention to be useful. Perhaps it was to highlight the significance of this feeling of personal  acountabilitiy that Thomas Taylor,  the neoplatonist,  wrote a  few centuries ago: 
 
 A little learning is a dangerous thing. 
Drink  deep, or taste not the PLATONIC spring;
There shallow draughts  intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely, sobers us again. (1)  
 
Responsibility emerging from deep knowledge makes us be sober again ?  because it eventually  leads us into both inner and outer action.   
 
If students have a natural and spontaneous sense of duty to their sacred teachers and  to teachings of esoteric philosophy, then now may be the right time for a growing number of them to start  thinking,  in a calm and quiet way, about two questions:  
 
1)How can we evaluate the present moment of our civilization, from the viewpoint of the doctrine of the cycles? 
 
2)What is the relationship between the emergence of a new cycle and the growing difficulties facing so many countries in the first decade of 21st century?  


This should be seen with calm and care. 

Best regards,   Carlos Cardoso Aveline, from Brazil. 


NOTE: 


(1)  The Theosophist, Adyar, India,  Volume II, December 1880, p. 52. 


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