by Mike C
(USA)
POD 1
The Knowledge of Reality
Chapters 1.1 thru 1.3
Questions 1-4 Completed
Questions 5-9 Incomplete
1) Why cannot science decide what "conflicts with the laws of nature"?
Because science requires objective physical evidence which is not always possible to produce, due to different levels of reality.
"There are plenty of authorities in theology, philosophy, and science, who will pass judgments on everything and make dogmatic assertions about matters which they have not even examined. They know a priori that “this” cannot be true, because it conflicts with what they read in their paper pope or “conflicts with the laws of nature”; as if their paper pope had solved the problem of existence for them, amounted to a world-view that explains reality and solves the basic problems of knowledge! As if science could decide what “conflicts with the laws of nature” and what does not, when it has not explored even one per cent of them!" (HTL)
2) Why will esoterics be just a working hypothesis for most people?
Because of where most of mankind is located on the developmental scale.
3. Why are systems necessary to thinking?
"System is thought’s way of orienting itself. Facts are largely useless until reason can fit them into their correct contexts (historical, logical, psychological, or causal ones). All rational thinking is based on principles and systems. Every thinking man has made his own system, whether he knows it or not. Systems afford a correct apprehension of ground and consequence of thinking, as well as of cause and effect of objective realities. The quality of the system shows the individual’s level of development, his ability of judgement, and his knowledge of facts. Most people’s systems are the belief systems of emotional thinking which no facts can upset. Thereby the individual has reached his point of maturity, the limit of his receptivity, being captive in the prison of his own thoughts." (HTL)
4. What function does remembrance anew have for our knowledge?
"Many people find esoterics self-evident the moment they first come into contact with it. This is because knowledge, as Platon maintained, is remembrance anew. Everything which we are able immediately to grasp, comprehend, understand, we have assimilated in previous incarnations. Also qualities and abilities once acquired remain latently, until they are given opportunities to develop in some new incarnation. Understanding of the old remains as well as the turn for skills. One of many examples of this is the genius, an otherwise incomprehensible phenomenon." (HTL)
5. In what can the inestimable value of the esoteric knowledge be seen?
"It frees from the superstitions and spurious knowledge of ignorance, from illusions and fictions (conceptions without correspondences in reality). Another is that it entails a complete revaluation of all the values of life as a necessary consequence of knowing the meaning and goal of life." (HTL)