Theos-Talk Archives (February 2002 Message tt00116)

Dear Paul,

As you and I come from different points of view, it may be difficult 
to arrive at a mutual understanding of this subject. I can only 
represent what I believe or know to be true, based on my own 
experience viewed according to the theosophical principles by 
which I endeavor to conduct my life. You, on the other hand, have 
different ways of arriving at your position in regard to this subject, 
which, by the way, I respect as yours and right for you. 

What life has taught me so far is that I am responsible for what 
happens to me. Nobody can do anything to me that I don't deserve. 
Nothing happens to me that I am not responsible for. If someone 
accuses me of something, even something that I know myself to 
be innocent of, what is important is not why that person has 
accused me, or what is wrong with that person, (which I do not 
believe I have any right or ability to do anyway) but what do I need 
to learn from this event. Now, this is the ideal I aspire to, in my 
quest for self-responsibility, and I would be foolish indeed if I said 
that I am perfect in this respect. I am not. I am learning, I make 
mistakes all the time, but I am trying, and I can at least see that 
there is an ideal to aspire to. 

I really can't speak as to what you should do, or how you should 
conduct yourself. That is your business, and I can only assume 
that you are doing what you should be doing to realize your own 
potential. I didn't realize, when I began our last series of messages, 
that you are not a theosophist and that you probably don't have the 
same foundation from which to view experience as I do. If I had 
realized it, I wouldn't have said some of the things I said then. I 
assumed that we had a common basis, and now I know I was 
mistaken. 

Adelasie