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What is the Purpose of Theosophy???

Oct 09, 1997 05:52 PM
by Jerry Schueler


>> "Talk as much philosphy as you please, worship as many gods
>> as you like, observe all ceremonies, sing devoted praises
>> to any number of divine beings - liberation never comes,
>> even at the end of a hundred aeons, without the
>> realization of the Oneness of Self."
>
>	What makes you think that the purpose of the Theosophical Society has
>anything to do with spiritual advancement of any of the individual
>members?
>
>	Bart Lidofsky

First of all, the quote is exactly what I have been saying on theos-l
for years, and receiving lots of guff for. Bart, if you think for one
moment that people don't join up in order to develop spiritually, then 
you are beyond me giving any advise to. So, just what is the
"purpose" then? The spiritual advancement of the masses? And
just how do we do that unless we are already there first?  Is it
reading and study, which Sankara suggests gets us nowhere?
To what purpose do we read and ponder HPBs heavy books if
not to spiritual advance? And if helping others is our only motive,
then I would suggest we fold up our tents and let the Salvation
Army and the zillion other charities today do it for us. Our
purpose is not to preserve the basic Theosophical texts, which
any library could do as well as the TSs. Its to prepare the way
for the 6th Race, at least according to HPB. And what does
that mean, if not spiritual advancement?
	It could be that you have been in Theosophy so long,
that you are missing the forest for the trees, or mistaking the
spiritual advancement for the intellectual rewards. I don't know.
And when it all comes down to the bottom line, I can only
really speak for myself. So, as far as I am concerned, my own
personal purpose in the study of Theosophy and in being a
member of two TSs is my own spipritual advancement in order
to help others advance with me. Because, if I don't have the
"realization" that Shankara is talking about, then how the heck
do I go about helping others get it?  And if I try to help others
spiritual advance without knowing what I am doing, then I am
likely to do more harm than good. This is exactly what the
boddhisttva paradigm is all about--self-knowledge in order
to properly help others gain self-knowledge for themselves.
The 6th Race won't ever be able to manifest unless we, as its
nucleus, prepare for it. This means a lot of different things,
not least of which is preparing the physical human body to handle
the higher frequencies necessary for 6th Race monads. How do
we do this? By changing our own bodies so that they can do so, 
and by encouraging others as well, through mediation, yoga, magic,
or whatever available techniques we want to use. Trying to
get others to be compassionate is also a good technique to use.
But just helping others per se equates us with all of the other
charitable institutions in the world today, and I would like to 
think that the Theosophical Societies would have a slightly
broader picture or agenda to follow.

Jerry S.


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