Theos-Talk Archives (December 1999 Message tl00034)

Hello Alan,

I took your recommendation and stopped by your site where I tapped into
Theosophy Unvisited.   It would seem that nothing has changed since 1930, which
makes the points made by MKR become even more meaningful.  His focus may also
prove helpful to Randy, if I can be forgiven if this sounds like theobabble.  My
take on all that is that the intolerance is not so much for his content but in
the way he delivers his message.  The great thing about writing is that if gives
you the opportunity to rethink your message, and unless he is trying to be
deliberately provocative (and there are some who try to be) perhaps he would
receive a kinder reception if he would put himself in the shoes of the intended
recipient.  (Randy, this is just an observation, not an invitation to debate)

Anyhow, I enjoyed the visit to your site, and will look forward to more.  J.J.
van der Leeuw's lecture on "The Conflict in Theosophy" proved to be the teacher
appearing when the student is ready, and especially pertinent with all the
conflict lately on the list.  I pulled out a couple of paragraphs that I thought
were timely.

"We show the truth of this each time we speak, as we so often do, of the
"outside world". The words imply that we ourselves are inside something.
Inside what? Inside something that keeps that "outside world" outside that same
something! Inside a barrier which we have erected around us and
by means of which we have shut out those who think differently. That barrier of
elaborate beliefs and doctrines has so efficiently shut out the
dreaded "outside world" that no fresh air from that world has succeeded in
penetrating its inner fastnesses, and the Society has breathed for fifty
years nothing but the atmosphere of its own thoughts and beliefs. At its
meetings it was always theosophists who told other theosophists about the
theosophical doctrines which they all knew already. The one thing that was
prevented unanimously was the introduction of foreign ideas which might
challenge or doubt the established doctrines. This exclusion of the outside
world has been most manifest in the lodge life. It was in the snug and stuffy
intimacy of lodge life that theosophical orthodoxy could breed; there, in a
small circle of mediocre minds, all thinking and believing alike, a warm
brotherliness could arise, uniting all in the delightful certainty of possessing
the esoteric truth while the outside world lived on in darkness.

On my last lecture tour I visited a lodge, the president of which told me that
his lodge was "just one happy family." This roused my misgivings, for I
know what such happy families are like. Then he continued saying that a few
years back there had been a member who was always questioning and
challenging everything, causing disturbance at their otherwise harmonious
meetings. But now that member had left their lodge, and all was harmony
again. He meant, of course, that the blissful drowsiness of their intellectual
slumbers which had for a while been disturbed by the one member who
happened to be alive had been re-established."

Well, Alan, thanks again.

Maureen

"ambain" <ambain@ambain.screaming.net> on 12/02/99 08:40:26 PM

Please respond to "Theosophy Study List" <theos-l@list.vnet.net>

 To:      "Theosophy Study List" <theos-l@list.vnet.net>

 cc:      (bcc: Maureen T Fitzgerald/HLIFE)

 Subject: Re: theos-l digest: December 01, 1999-to all

----- Original Message -----
> Date: Thursday, December 02, 1999 3:15 PM
> From: Maureen T Fitzgerald <Maureen.Fitzgerald@hartfordlife.com>
> Subject: Re: theos-l digest: December 01, 1999-to all

> Good morning,
>
> Could anyone help me to determine if I joined this list in error?

Sometimes I think we all did!  I see you have bookmarked Blavatsky Net,
which is a GOOD THING.

You will find other links on my "Simply Occult" website

http://www.soft.net.uk/ambain/

as well as some of the controversial, non party line material.  Could be
worth a bookmark or a blackmark ... please drop by and see what you
think!

On this list we often go off at a tangent, and sometimes get bogged down
in seeming trivialities.  In general, though, most of the longer term
subscribers are well informed on theosophical matters, which can mean
that we may not discuss what you are hoping to read, as we all know that
most of the others are familiar with it all anyway.

Soooo ... please hang around, and do the decent thing - ask the
questions you are not expected to, and *never* seek to "conform" or be
"politically correct."

Sincerely,

Alan Bain

http://www.soft.net.uk/ambain/
ambain@ambain.screaming.net

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