Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 02:26:43 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jeff Brotemarkle <jbrotema@mail.coin.missouri.edu>
To: "R. Thomas Cloud" <tcloud@mail.coin.missouri.edu>
Cc: "David D. Eisenstein" <deisenst@mail.coin.missouri.edu>,
    "Cheryl L. Hill" <cheryllhill@yahoo.com>,
    Brother Mark <br_mark@priory.org>
Subject: Truth or Consequences


On Wed, 5 Aug 1998, R. Thomas Cloud wrote:

> I'm sorry, but I have to say this. I think you guys REALLY  need to
> lighten up. Happiness is not found on the down side. I think you indulge
> yourselves, sometimes. So do I, so don't feel like the Lone  RANGER or
> anything. Try to find the LIGHT within, and feel good for a change.
>                                           much love
>                                              tom
> 
> On Wed, 5 Aug 1998, David D. Eisenstein wrote:
> 
> > Dear friends,
> > 
> > Please bear with me as I sort through hatreds and confusions ... and say
> > (or have said) things that may sting.
    ...
> > 
> 

     I used to think it my God-decreed duty, my duty to Truth, to search
for truth objectively, whether what I found prove pleasing to me or
displeasing.  I of course hoped what I found would be good news, but if it
wasn't I sorta felt it more becoming the truth seeker, me, to change my
negative opinion about what I found if I didn't like it & if I could
honestly change my opinion, rather than dishonestly find something I liked
that wasn't true. 
     I now believe ultimate truth to be more dynamic than that, that what
is ultimate truth today may not be tomorrow.  What we hold in our minds
today becomes the truth of tomorrow, so that the ultimate truths of today
can change, depending on current thought, tomorrow.  I now believe it to
be divinely decreed duty to hold in our minds the kind of universe we want
to live in so that our future will be lived in that universe.  If we
believe the universe to be ultimately unpleasant, this indicates a defect
in our thinking, not a static universe that can't be changed.  
     Of course I am talking in generalities here; there may be some
specific situations that are real bad; there may be some universes that
are better to live in than others, or better to live in than ours.
However none of this negates the general principle of dynamic universal
truths open to change by positive thought.  As Sri Yukteswar says,
correctly I believe, in _Autobiography of a Yogi_, "all things will
improve in future if you are making a spiritual effort now."  

                                   Jeff Brotemarkle
                                   jbrotema@mail.coin.missouri.edu