Theos-Talk Archives (July 2004 Message tt00167)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Koshek Swaminathan" 
<arasophia@y...> wrote:

> I too also have a problem with "belief"

> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Dallas TenBroeck" 
<dalval14@e...> 
> wrote:
> > July 9 2004

> I have trouble with "belief." 

> Over the tears things and opinions have changed radically, so that 
> view
> taught to me when I was in school are supplanted by more refined 
> ones. But
> since I started my familiarity with Theosophy and its philosophy at 
> about
> the same time, and compared those with standard scientific views I 
> find that
> the Theosophical one have stood the test of time.

Dear Dallas and Koshek,

It seems that in your replies you are partially addressing Bart's 
statement, reproduced below, as I did not mentioned the question of 
belief at all in my posting.

As Ianthe Hoskins said, "belief is the tomb of Truth." Can anyone 
prove that theosophical teachings are true? Or, for that matter, any 
teaching of the Perennial Philosophy? And isn't one of the challenges 
in Theosophy for us to take its teachings as working hipothesis and 
through constant listening, reflection and meditation come to our own 
non-mediated understanding of the reality the are pointing to?

If Theosophy is a living wisdom and not a mere collection of second-
hand ideas, no amount of dogmatism, fundamentalism and intellectual 
arrogance can justify it in the eyes of the world.

Pedro 


> > > The problem is that, if you base your belief in the 
> > > concepts that have been promulgated in Blavatsky's
> > > works 
> > > and the Mahatma letters on the genuity of the
> > > phenomena, 
> > > then any fakery in the latter implies falsehood of
> > > the 
> > > former. Except that gets one into a conundrum, as
> > > the
> > > former emphasize that acceptance of the concepts 
> > > should NOT be based on the authority of the writers,
> > > but 
> > > on their own merits.