More Edi Bilimoria about the Theosophical Work

Edi Bilimoria sent me two slideshows. Here’s the best stuff from the second slide show he made for the Theosophical World Congress in Rome 2010. European School of Theosophy in Venice 2010.

THE BALANCE BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE/EXPERIENCE

CAN BROTHERHOOD BE LEGISLATED?

WHAT IS THE PLACE OF RULES?

Do Dogs Wag Their Tails or Tails Wag their Dogs?

EFFICIENT METHODS OF WORKING AND THE CORRECT USE OF ENERGY

INDISPENSABLE QUALIFICATIONS AND QUALITIES OF A THEOSOPHICAL WORKER

NETWORKING

THE MOUNTAIN RANGE OF THEOSOPHY

A WARNING – THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES

ARE WE EAGLES OR ARE WE PARROTS?

Rule to follow is:

If you know nothing, say nothing
and if you know just a little, say even less

So the first step in rising to your potential greatness is humbly to acknowledge your actual weaknes

IMPLEMENTING THEOSOPHY MEANS- USING THEOSOPHY AS AN ‘IMPLEMENT’

How do we do this?

This has all to do with a BALANCE between:

theoretical study; and practice / experiential approach; plus

Knowing where you are heading, i.e. your goal

Toooo much theory results in useless argument, conflict and division; but

Toooo much ‘experiential’ results in self-centred over-indulgence

Our theosophical literature (classical) is very heavily weighted towards the theoretical

It needs the wisdom of sages of equal status to correct the imbalances

[Showing pictures of disasters]

LESSONS LEARNT

THE DIAGNOSIS

1. Safety CANNOT be legislated.

Safety cannot be achieved by prescriptive procedures –  however faithfully and fully these are followed.

. There were hundreds of procedures, guidelines, theoretical formulae and algorithms;  yet they all FAILED.

THE PROGNOSIS

. Safety must be the overarching GOAL and VISION of a commercial enterprise.  An oil company must have a GOAL SETTING APPROACH AND  NOT A PRESCRIPTIVE APPROACH TO SAFETY.

. Safety is the full responsibility of EACH AND EVERY ONE involved in the enterprise.  It CANNOT be left just to senior management or the safety department.

. There has to be a genuine culture of ‘safety first’ –  not an attitude of ‘let’s have the minimum safety just to avoid the litigation’.

. Everyone involved – partners, contractors, workers must have a similar ‘safety comes first’ attitude

NO NATIONAL PRESIDENT CAN LEGISLATE BROTHERHOOD

It is incumbent on each one of us. We need a brotherhood culture equivalent to the safety culture in the oil industry.

Loads of banal rules merely throw a spanner in the works and achieves no more unity than a load of rules achieved safety on Piper.

Guidance is not the same as rules.

A rule says “thou shall” and “thou shall not”. Guidance provides a channel for the flow of information and communication.

e.g. an Altimeter to a glider pilot is a guide and not a law.

The number of rules is directly proportional to the degree of fragmentation and lack of self-responsibility amongst members

Unity or brotherhood cannot be acquired by legislation. Political wrangling cannot be dissolved by rules. Need personal self-administration

One unethical act nay ruin a lifetime of good work

(In court one lie can overturn 99 truths and you are called a liar not an honest man)

The golden rule in opera is: MUSIC first > then characterization > and production

The Theosophical approach surely is: THEOSOPHY first > then The Theosophical Society > and admin, finance, etc.

The INTERNAL ATTITUDE must determines the Outer Structures. Software determines hardware.

The correct ATTITUDE will call in the right amount of money.

Bean counting economics must be SUBSERVIENT to attitude.

Money problems are not fundamentally solved by economic considerations alone.

You can’t say: “Lets gets the finances right; and then we’ll be good Theosophists with it.”

No sage ever talked about economics. They knew that Man’s Nature was the problem to be healed

Efficient Methods of Working and the Correct use of Energy

Who is Chosen, and Why

It is our law to approach every such one even if there be but  the feeblest glimmer of the true ‘Tathagata’ [buddhic] light within him.
KH Letter No. XLV

• Quantitative and Qualitative Uses of Energy
• Motives and Agendas
• Ends and Means
• The Experimental Attitude
• Planning
• Training
• Learning Methods

Indispensable Qualifications and Qualities of a Theosophical Worker

• Initiative
• Striving after Perfection
• Tolerance and Cooperation
• Acquiring knowledge
• Becoming a specialist
• Awakening and unfolding our Inner Faculties

CARDINAL RULES FOR THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY TO NETWORK WITH PARALLEL GROUPS

1. The Theosophical Society should feel genuine rapport towards the aims, and methods of working of groups with whom it chooses to network.
2. Parallel groups must – reciprocally – feel a genuine warmth and empathy towards the aims and ideals of The Theosophical Society and not:
   • use The Theosophical Society as a fertile field from which to pinch members for themselves;
     or
   • try to proselytize our members and denigrate our Society.
3. Other groups must not be led by just one person which smacks more of guru-worship than egalitarian spiritual inquiry.

NOTE WELL:
Parallel Groups can:

1. either Enrich us
2. or Rob us by scattering our ENERGY

Those who ignore HPB do Theosophy a disservice

Those who stick exclusively to HPB do both HPB and Theosophy a disservice

To put HPB on the world map will always end in failure

If you are so keen to put HPB on the map, first put THEOSOPHY on the map via HPB and others who can express it for the West and in a Western idiom

We do not say www.HPB.com/Theosophy

But rather www.Theosophy.com/HPB/others…

NOTE WELL

I have observed that the amount of back-stabbing and skulduggery in an organization is directly proportional to the nobility of its ideals.

Chairman of British Telecom

A WARNING

There is a strange law in Occultism which has been proven by thousands of years of experience; nor has it failed to demonstrate itself, almost in every case, during the years that the Theosophical Society has been in existence.

As soon as anyone pledges himself as a “Probationer”, certain Occult effects ensue. Of these the first is the throwing outward of everything latent in the nature of the man; his faults, habits, qualities or subdued desires, whether good, bad or indifferent.

For instance, if a man be … ambitious, those vices are sure to break out, even if he has hitherto successfully concealed and repressed them [e.g. power hunger turns into megalomania – example to follow]. On the other hand, if he has any virtue hitherto latent and concealed in him, it will work its way out as irrepressibly as the rest.

This is an immutable law in the domain of the Occult.

The ancient occult axiom, “Know Thyself,” must be familiar to every student.

From The Secret Doctrine, Vol.5, Paper 1.

The menacing destiny of the Theosophical Society

Pushed by malevolent hands, the Society needs every man and woman strongin the cause of truth.

Mahatma Lettter to CWL 1884

Hitherto secret knowledge having now been made publicly available, the Master warns

“If … notwithstanding the proofs given, it [the world] still refuses yielding to evidence, then we will at the End of this cycle retire into solitude and our kingdom of silence once more.”

The future of the Theosophical Society will depend on the degree of selflesness, earnestness, devotion and amount of knowledge and wisdom possessed by our members if the Society is not to land up like a beached whale.

HPB paraphrased