Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00105)

Eldon:<The process of spiritual development is something useful
 to discuss. How do we become selfless, how do we forget
ourselves and rise about the pettiness of the personality?>

This brings up a point that I think needs to be
discussed. All too often theosophists tend to equate
spirituality with selflessness. While it is certainly true
that to be spiritual, one must be relatively selfless, I
feel the need to mention here that the reverse it simply not
true - to be selfless does not make you spiritual. Lots of
selfless folks can be found in mental hospitals who are not
terribly spiritual. Someone with amnesia can be selfless.
Selflessness is not enough. You also need gnosis. Buddhism,
for example, insists that you need both means selflessness/
compassion) and wisdom (gnosis). The quest for gnosis
alone is also not enough, and is a pretty sure road to
psychism. A truly spiritual person, to my way of thinking,
is a balanced person. And Eldon does, in fact, add later,
that we need "to do wise things to realize wisdom."

Eldon:<I am also curious how William Q. Judge is perceived by
students on this board>

Although I am no longer a student per se (except
in the sense that we are all students in some stage of growth),
I would agree with your own assessment of Judge.

Eldon:<The biggest ill effect of psychic development is the
state of passivity that it often requires.>

I have no idea what the heck you are talking about
here??? What passivity? Do you mean yogic positions such
as the lotus, in which the physical body is passive? Do
you mean the passivity of the human mind when thoughts are
stopped in samadhi? In magic rituals, just as one example,
the magician uses his/her body, speech, and mind all
together and is hardly passive. Buddhist meditations are
usually geared to stimulating and directing the body, speech,
and mind as well (considered the three main parts of any
true spiritual practice). Can you can clarify this?

David:<So what is the point of trying to contact beings who
are not very far removed >from ourselves, or even not as
knowledgable as ourselves. Death does not impart great