Theos-Talk Archives (December 2006 Message tt00467)

Friends, 

As each of us has seven principles of consciousness vibrating all 
the time  in two major groups --  the upper triad and the lower 
quaternary --  it is relatively easy to see that the search for 
truth is not a simple and straight-line,  mechanical operation. 

In fact, it needs some alchemy.  It ignites a complex inner change 
in each and all of the seven principles,  and not only in one or two 
of them.   

Higher triad and lower quaternary are perfectly distinguishable,of 
course;  but they are not separate, or separable in normal 
conditions.  

There must be challenges at the lower quaternary, if there is any 
new light at the higher triad. There must be tests, if there is any 
new knowledge really.    

That means that also in Theos-talk,  as a group of people united 
around theosophical ideas, we must have nice moments and non-nice 
moments. 

Light and shadow are part and parcel of the same process in life. 

As the opening of a 2005 TTM  article on the seven principles says: 

"It is very difficult to understand one's fellow men in a real way, 
and most difficult of all to know oneself. At all times man has felt 
the dual forces at work within himself, conflicting tendencies in 
his inner nature, which St. Paul expressed in the words: '...the 
good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I 
do.' (Romans, VII, 19)"

This I use to call "St. Paul's dilemma".  It is not exclusive to the 
New Testament, though. It is discussed by Plato in his 
Dialogue "Prothagoras",  and also in the "Bhagavad Gita". 

The article proceeds:  

"Can the theosophical teaching about the constitution of man and his 
inner nature help us to decipher the varied aspects of ourselves and 
of all those around us, and so understand better the motives that 
drive men to action? Let us try to answer this question in the light 
of Theosophy. It is impossible to study Man without keeping in mind 
the place he occupies in the scheme of cosmic manifestation as a 
whole."

See more at 

http://www.teosofia.com/Mumbai/7503man.html


Best regards,   Carlos.