I like to take my nephew, Jakey on adventures. Our mission is to discover something new. The adventures are getting increasingly exciting now that he’s eight. When he was two, the big discovery would be a cigar butt or a discarded sock. Now, we take off on Razor Scooter adventures. On the 4th of July, in Ojai, we headed off on the bike trails. We like to just keep going until we find something worth investigating. So we scooted until we came upon a sign which read: Krotona School of Theosophy. Our mission was now to discover the meaning of Theosophy, develop a deeper understanding of all of the world’s beliefs and snoop around until we were asked to leave.
So we followed the signs, climbing higher and higher and higher. This place was really tucked away. No one was stopping us. I told Jakey that when it comes to exploring, as long as you know you’re not hurting anybody, it is better to venture forth first and ask permission later… until someone starts shooting at you. But they didn’t shoot and we kept climbing.
We reached the top and discovered a beautiful vista, a school, a library, bungalows, a garden, fountains… no actual people with whom we could discuss the basic tenants of Theosophy. But we found brochures. And in the absence of actual Theosophists, brochures would do.
Here is what we learned. The Theosophical Society is concerned with: 1) The unity of all people; 2) The study of comparative religion, philosophy and science; and 3) The investigation of unexplained laws of nature and our latent powers. Theosophy holds that we are all one with each other and with life in the universe. We can not either harm or help another without harming or helping ourselves. We are all one.
This could explain why no one shot at us. So, I helped Jakey understand their belief that everything we do has a cause and effect relationship with the universe. Therefore, it would naturally follow that since we had climbed up this long, steep, curving, perfectly paved road, we would now get to scooter down it.
Thus we embarked on the most excellent scooter ride of our lives. Jakey led the way, helmet securely in place, laughing and screaming with joy the entire ride down. I followed behind, hearing the rushing whir of my scooter wheels and the peels of delight floating back to me from my nephew, telling me that he would remember this forever and that my sister must never know quite how fast we were going.
It was perfectly awesome. The laws of nature, karma, gravity, all colliding in a glorious rush down a perfectly paved, private road in Ojai. The day was capped by fireworks over the High School, which were too loud for Jakey.
But remember, he’s only eight and according to our newly discovered teachings of Theosophy: Our goal is to complete the cosmic cycle of manifestation with full conscious realization of ourselves, no longer polarized between consciousness and matter or divided into self and other, but unified within and united with all other beings through our common Source… which I interpret to mean: little kids should watch fireworks from inside the car with the windows up.
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