Theos-Talk Archives (October 1997 Message tl00292)

In message <UPMAIL13.199710191518350726@classic.msn.com>, JOSEPH PRICE
<JKEITHPRICE@classic.msn.com> writes
>I think as humans with highest spirit in lowest matter, we are torn between 
>alligence to group norms and the indiviual path.  This seems to be the essence 
>of most discussions about "why can't we all just be friends?".
>
>What have you learned from your readings or life experience?

That the "individual path" appears to follow a process which is
essentially the same for all of us - it is, if you will, a law. If this
is indeed so (as I suspect it is) them Krishnamurti was right to say
that truth is a pathles land, for if all paths follow essentially the
same route (cf. "all roads lead to Rome" as an analogy) then there is no
path at all, only a process  ("evolution" if you like) to which we are
all subject.

And ... if, as also appears to be the case, the highest spirit at the
individual level is part of and integrally connected with spirit per se,
then so is individual matter connected with matter per se.  We are all,
in truth, parts of an essential Unity of Being.

"Group norms" seem to be designed as a means of avoiding these issues in
order to claim some kind of "special-ness" for the members of the group,
whether societal, or devised (as in organisations such as TS) and by so
doing to *exclude* those who do not "fit" the norm.  under *these*
circumstances, of course we can't all be friends, and if the group norm
is (as is almost ivariably the case)## of a hierarchical nature, then
there is not even equality withing the group, so that rivalries (and
thus enmities) are bound to arise within it, so that even as an
*insider* we can't all be friends.

## [Except in Theosophy International] :-)

Alan