Theosophical Independence Vol. 7 - 3    May 2008

Learning From Experience

  Nature is unveiling the fruits of the invisible process of transformation. Plants and animals are accumulating nutrients from the air, water and earth, eliminating impurities and regenerating themselves. It is within the power of human beings to invisibly accumulate merit from their experience of the environment and grow in wisdom, compassion and strength. It all comes down to the mind, rather what the mind perceives to be true and ultimately real. Everything in the world of appearances is a real and potential agent of benefit or harm. Conditions make it so, but so do ideas and attitudes of mind.

  Pleasant conditions give rise to suffering if they are neglected, misused or abused. Suffering, in the form of persecution, illness, or obstructions, spontaneously gives rise to thoughts and desires for happiness that can become the seeds of future bliss. False perceptions of reality are the causes of suffering, and true perception brings peace of mind. False perceptions are true obstructions to happiness and must be eliminated, even more than unpleasant environmental conditions, which are not absolutely bad. Nothing motivates human beings more than suffering through unpleasant conditions to renounce ignorance and faults, or embrace compassion, discipline and the search for wisdom.

  What is ultimately real? Is it the harmful or beneficial agent? Is it the unpleasant or joyful experience felt? Is it the personal self that is attracted or repelled by the experience? They are relatively real as a result of the mind’s limited perception. However, neither the agent, or the experience, or the one who perceives itself separate from the agent or the experience, are ultimately real. That which appears to have a separate existence is the result of a false and limited perception of reality.

  Nothing has any separate, real existence. All is one and interconnected ultimately. Nothing that appears to have a beginning, middle and end has any real existence. Only that which eternally endures is ultimately real. The apparent agent of benefit or harm, the experience, and the personal self are temporary phenomena that have no ultimate, enduring, separate existence.

  How can we prove to ourselves that an agent of harm, sickness, or suffering has no ultimately real, enduring, separate existence? These agents are as beneficial to us as any teacher or friend.

1. They give us the opportunity and motivation to develop our minds.

2. They teach us that suffering comes from the consequences of a cause and that to avoid suffering we need to abandon                   all  negative causes.

3. They make us aware of our own faults, ignorance and weaknesses.

4. They give us the opportunity to renounce and let go of worries and expectations that bind the heart.

5. They give us the opportunity to practice charity and compassion to all beings.

How can we prove that an unpleasant experience has no ultimately real, enduring, separate existence, that they are also teachers and friends?

1. They give us the opportunity to cultivate faith and respect for the Teachers and the teachings.

2. They inspire us to work practically to benefit others who suffer.

3. They give us the opportunity to use the higher mind.

4. They give us the opportunity to pay off past debts and generate better causes for the future. 

  How can we prove that the lower personal self has no ultimately real, enduring, separate existence?

1. We can rise above it.  We can forget it.

2. We can gain a realization that we are the One Self that eternally endures in each and all.

  Human beings can take the good and bad from their environmental conditions, and with the right ideas and attitudes developed by meditating on the nature of reality, transform all experience into wisdom, compassion and strength.

QUOTES FROM ROBERT CROSBIE

  If it is remembered that the purpose of life is to learn and that it is all made up of learning, the ordinary duties of everyday existence are seen to be the means by which we learn many things.

  If one cannot do what he would like to do, he can always do what he can. No one can do more than this. And doing this, he does all. You see that clearly. So let us meet each moment and circumstance as it comes, putting all our energy into doing what should be done according to our best judgment at the moment, and living every moment free from doubt, fear, anxiety—joyful that we are alive, and that there is so much of life in us. Every possible circumstance has its Sattwic, Rajasic, and Tamasic quality, and as all experience affects only in accord with its metaphysical aspect, let us take the Sattwic of each and every one.

  As we endeavor, the oscillations will become less manifest.  ALL of the events of life give us opportunity to exercise the “power of steadfastness.”  So we should welcome everything—pleasant or otherwise—as a means of growth, for, as has been said many times, the purpose of life is to learn; it is all made up of learning.

  There is no use in distressing ourselves about what we do not know; we find knowledge springing up spontaneously within us as we do our best with what we see and know. It matters not whether that which we consider as “we” gains or loses, so long as what should be done is done as best we are able. ..... No learning is learning unless it leads to readjustment.

  True growth comes from regarding all things that come and go—some of them pleasant and some unpleasant— as the tides in the ocean of life of which one is the observer. Pleasure is necessary, as also is pain, for these are guide-marks and indicate the “effect” upon us by the varying tides. We are not these effects which are simply means of measuring the value of experiences and of learning how to put them to the best use. What is needed is freedom, and freedom comes from a resigning of all self-interest in results.

  No one can know anything for another. Each one has to know for himself. Each one has to do his own learning. The object of Theosophy is to teach man what he is, to show man what he is, and to present to him the necessity of his knowing for himself. No vicarious atonement, no vicarious transmission of knowledge, is possible. But the direction in which knowledge lies may be pointed out; the steps which will lead us in that direction may be shown, as can be done only by those who have passed that way before. It is exactly what is being done. It is the course of all Saviors of humanity

     “Theosophical Independence”  is produced monthly by Associates of The United Lodge of Theosophists in Philadelphia.  Comments, questions and contributions for publication may be sent to The United Lodge of Theosophists, 1917 Walnut Street,   Philadelphia, PA  19103.

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