Theos-Talk Archives (August 2006 Message tt00170)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, leonmaurer@... wrote:

> The only way that a better future for humanity can come about, 
aside from 
> turning everyone into theosophical altruists, is to allow this 
present world to 
> destroy itself by devoting its resources to futile travel to the 
outer planets 
> along with development of more and more expendable weapons of war 
for the sake 
> of selfish gains -- rather than toward the correction of the 
ecological 
> pollution problems that are causing this world to ultimately self-
destruct.   
> 
> The vicious cycles brought on by short sighted and ruthless 
thinkers like 
> Chuck and those presently governing the world and 
its "globalization" and 
> "exploration" for the sake of personal and corporate profit, can 
only push us deeper 
> into the quagmire of ultimate collapse of our present 
civilization.   The only 
> things that space travel can lead to are better and more 
destructive weapons 
> of war.   
> 
> But, maybe its all for the best, and the next 6th wave to arise 
out of the 
> ashes of the present 5th, will learn from our mistakes and the 
blunders of our 
> leaders -- who would love to personally own and rule everyone and 
everything -- 
> including lunar and martian real estate. ;-)


Dear Leon,

Admittedly, I have read only a minor portion of all that HPB wrote. 
But if there is a recurring keynote in that minor portion which I 
read from her teachings, I would venture to say that it is her 
absolute certainty that the power of Altruism, once released in the 
human heart and mind, can change the world forever. Why? Probably 
the answer lies with Dante's 'Divine Comedy', Canto XXXIII:

Here vigour fail'd the towering fantasy:
But yet the will roll'd onward, like a wheel
In even motion, by the love impell'd,
That moves the sun in heaven and all the stars.

Even in that sombre passage in the Mahatma Letters, quoted below, 
they affirm their determination to continue their philanthropic work 
for humanity, no matter what:

If, for generations we have "shut out the world from the Knowledge 
of our Knowledge," it is on account of its absolute unfitness; and 
if, notwithstanding proofs given, it still refuses yielding to 
evidence, then will we at the End of this cycle retire into solitude 
and our kingdom of silence once more.... We have offered to exhume 
the primeval strata of man's being, his basic nature, and lay bare 
the wonderful complications of his inner Self — something never to 
be achieved by physiology or even psychology in its ultimate 
expression — and demonstrate it scientifically. It matters not to 
them, if the excavations be so deep, the rocks so rough and sharp, 
that in diving into that, to them, fathomless ocean, most of us 
perish in the dangerous exploration; for it is we who were the 
divers and the pioneers, and the men of science have but to reap 
where we have sown. It is our mission to plunge and bring the pearls 
of Truth to the surface; theirs — to clean and set them into 
scientific jewels. And, if they refuse to touch the ill-shapen 
oyster-shell, insisting that there is [not], nor cannot be any 
precious pearl inside it, then shall we once more wash our hands of 
any responsibility before human-kind. For countless generations hath 
the adept builded a fane of imperishable rocks, a giant's Tower of 
INFINITE THOUGHT, wherein the Titan dwelt, and will yet, if need be, 
dwell alone, emerging from it but at the end of every cycle, to 
invite the elect of mankind to co-operate with him and help in his 
turn enlighten superstitious man. And we will go on in that 
periodical work of ours; we will not allow ourselves to be baffled 
in our philanthropic attempts until that day when the foundations of 
a new continent of thought are so firmly built that no amount of 
opposition and ignorant malice guided by the Brethren of the Shadow 
will be found to prevail. (Letter 18, chronological sequence)

If those who know never lose hope about the future of the world, 
should we?

Pedro