Theos-Talk Archives (November 1995 Message tl00119)

<My stand on
<magic and ethics for examples don't make me real popular.
<
< Jerry S.
<Liesel:
<That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard of. Your magic seems to
<me to be white & what's wrong with your ethics?

I appreciate your intent but most theosophists make no
distinction between black and white magic.

As to ethics my problem may be one of not having enough
patience. As I have said before I believe that the first step on the
spiritual Path is the development of ethics and morals. However
if done properly ethics always tends to skew your worldview towards
a black and white picture. In other words people with strong ethics
tend to see everything in the world as either good white or bad
black. They condemn others quickly and are usually very
judgemental. Now the second step on the Path is the development
and cultivation of compassion. Compassion once developed
tends to skew your worldview towards shades of grey. In other
words your nice comfortable world of good and bad is challenged
and you start to see possibilities of greyness. After awhile the
black and white blends into shades of grey everywhere. Why?
Because everyone acts with motivation and purpose. Murderers
and rapists do so out of disfunction. They were raised in
disfunctional families whose parents probably also came from
disfunctional families and so on. Anyway somewhere along
step 02 you begin to develop compassion not only for the victims
but also for the criminals. They also suffer. Once compassion
reaches out to everyone equally then sharp distinctions of good
and evil tend to dissolve into greyness. Absolutely no one is totally
good or totally evil. We are all grey which is to say somewhere in
between. So when I hear theosophists say things that are clearly
coming from a black and white worldview I tend to get irritated
with them and say things that get me into trouble. I prefer to think
that theosophists are or should be already well along step 2.
I need to work more on my patience.

Thanks for the word "Kastengeist". Although I am from German
heritage on both sides I have never learned the language.

Jerry S.