Theos-Talk Archives (November 1995 Message tl00442)

RI:
>Of the things about organized Theosophy which have caused me to shake my
>head over the years few have produced a wider arc than this: that it begins
>by calling to the Master-Wisdom in each of us and that it ends by reducing us
>to the status of lowly students in a study hall.

Interesting dichotomy isn't it?

> We are considered
>to be on our best best behavior when we simply "study"; on our worst when we
>speak from personal authority.

Only the historians among us will be able to figure out how
this sad pass came to be. But JRC had a good point when he said that
this is a major reason for losing so many good TS members a short
list of the most famous has already been posted. There is a fear
almost a paranoia about personal experience within the theosophical
community probably going all the way back to CWL. And this in
spite of the work by Dora Kunz and others--which many theosophists
find appalling simply because these folks dare to present information
that HPB never wrote about.

>No we all showed up as theosophers but were willing to call ourselves
>"theosophists" as long as we thought that term included our own spiritual
>advancement and the unique perspectives and articulations which necessarily
>flow from it. If we find however that we are more and more being
>"screened" for orthodoxy and "graded" for book-knowledge *theosophers* some
>of us shall be again until things change.

This is one reason why I have preferred to remain a member at large.

>In the meantime let us leave the atmosphere of the study hall and meet as
>kings and queens or not at all. . . .
>I like Paul's attitude actually.

Me too your Highness.

Jerry S.