Theos-Talk Archives (January 2002 Message tt00511)

Dear Larry,

Isn't it indeed? Impossible, even. The numbers are useful for one 
kind of analysis, and give us a certain perspective. Theosophy 
doesn't proseletyze, so the familiar missionary tacticts don't 
function among theosophical ranks. So we are left wondering, how 
do we attract members? From the esoteric point of view, we may 
be sure that those who have the karmic right to approach the path 
of study of occultism will be shown the way. Karma is not subject 
to our efforts to encourage or discourage. But, say a person has the 
karmic opportunity, and approaches theosophy via a list such as 
this one. Perhaps this person has some awareness of the 
teachings. He reads the posts here and what is his impression? If 
we members demonstrate our seriousness by our behavior, i.e. are 
courteous to each other, work for mutual understanding, offer 
assistance to seekers, avoid personal comments, particularly 
negative ones, and consistently seek to investigate the principles 
of the occult teaching, in order to illuminate them for ourselves and 
others, what might be his response? On the other hand, if he 
encounters bickering, name-calling, and worse, what might be his 
response? Isn't it possible that we function best by our example to 
encourage others to proceed to discover if thesosophy has 
something to offer to them? It seems at least likely that people who 
are attracted to esoteric study might be people who already in past 
incarnations had had some exposure. They might already 
understand the importance of the ethical side of occultism, and be 
discouraged by evidence that those who study theosophy do not 
seem to attempt to follow the teachings in this regard. Of course, 
no one is perfect. No one is going to reflect the higher all the time. 
But we learn from our failures, and have only to continue to try. 
Given postings on this list in the last few weeks, it seems pretty 
evident that we all have things to learn. Perhaps it would be 
beneficial for all, list members and potential students, if we agreed 
to disagree about that which we see differently, and put some effort 
into concentrating on the principles, not the personalities. 

Adelasie

On 30 Jan 02, at 5:32, Larry F Kolts wrote:

> Thanks, Adelasie. Yes, I suppose the big picture is best. It's just
> harder to do the tally that way.
> 
> Larry