Theos-Talk Archives (June 2006 Message tt00035)

Dear Friends,

Do theosophists have anything to do with the present crisis of human civilization? 

 In  this hectic beginning of the 21st century, sincere theosophists may ask themselves what is their responsibility with regard to the bulk of  human karma.  

As students of esoteric philosophy, they are the  outer guardians of a sacred wisdom both ancient and modern.  It is supposed that they do not study it solely for their own individual benefit ?  for,  if they do so, failure is unavoidable from the start.  In order to understand  sacred wisdom,  your goal must be benefitting mankind, and even this is not enough. HPB also taught that philosophical knowledge must be a living and creative process tested in daily life. You can?t achieve great wisdom simply by repeating ideas contained in the best books available.  
But if we have some degree of   true altruism and a willingness to act ?  we may be entitled  to face, in these days, an uncomfortable question: 
?As our civilization confronts great and growing dangers and challenges of various kinds, in what sense should we feel responsible for its future? What is our actual  responsibility??    
To answer such a question is no simple task.  Yet there  is at least one thing about which we can be sure: crises and opportunities are all around us. Each evening  they are in the news.  They are  presented to us as part of  our favourite TV shows. All over Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas,  floods,  forest fires, droughts, hurricanes and other similar events seem to prepare a global climatic change which can have drastic effects over the fate of our civilization.   These hundreds of climatic events are shown by the media as if they were merely  isolated facts,  now happening by some strange sort of  coincidence.  
This is not true.    
It is also not a coincidence that the signs of ethical and social decay in our civilization ?  including poverty, war and terrorist attacks  ?  run in parallel to deforestation, environmental  pollution and climatic changes.  Spirit and matter evolve together.  Each time in History when man?s greed  made him destroy  his natural environment, he himself had to pay the price for it.  

Theosophy and Universal Brotherhood are the answer. 


Best regards,   Carlos  Cardoso Aveline  


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