Intro to The Academician Theosophical Site

I am the author of a Theosophical blog called The Academician Theosophical. I am not sure, if I am able to promote here, as there seems to be less of response from the Theosophy Nexus site. So, I have tried to find a readership base from theosophical thinkers, writers, academics, etc. I was the original writer of Circle of Asia, but moved that blog to the Academician. You can see the About page for the objective. I've studied Mythological Fables, Classics, etc., for a long time, and in that interest, I discovered Helena Blavatsky, which led me to the Modern Theosophy. However, I see aspects of her exposition that keep in line, or expand on the "Traditional" or Classical mould of Theosophies. So, I come from that perspective, however have laid out things on the blog to counteract misconceptions about Modern Theosophy; because misconceptions about Modern Theosophy in the public, has in my view, also consequentially hurt the study of Theosophy before her, and Study of Esotericism anyway. My work is independent, and I am not a member of any Theosophical Branch, but was at the American-Adyar Branch. So many ideas I am thinking and doing, based on my love of Mythology, and mysticism. I came to this site, because opinions here are very diverse, and wanted to find an audience, as I honestly do not know where to find theosophical proponents in the world today, amidst many different kinds of organisations.

For further look at the ideal and goal for publishing, see New Academicians.

I want to revive philosophy, and make public the theosophical approaches. I have yet to get to and honour some of the academics, but I will, and of theoreticians in the movement. Do not be dismayed by the political commentary; or the criticisms of contemporary theosophy. I really try to not stay so much in the Victorian era. Perhaps, you will like the blog. Thanks for adding me.

Good day.

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Comment by Rene Wadlow on July 21, 2016 at 5:11am

James Cousins (22 Jul 1873 – 20 Feb 1956): An Effort of Synthesis

BIOGRAPHIES, 18 July 2016

Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service

René Wadlow“A national culture is impossible without the individual creative artist; the individual artist is important and unintelligible safe in his relationship to his national culture.  Where either tries to do without the other, degeneracy ensues nationally and individually…The true artist is the true patriot, speaking the language of eternity but in the vernacular of his own time and place…Where art does not rise from authentic springs, but is piped from distances by subterranean ways, it becomes troubled, muddied, and at best only reaches a dull mediocrity.  But art that embodies the creative impulse of the universe, with high vision and deep emotion, in its own time and place and way, will by the force of its authenticity pass beyond these limits into universal appreciation.”
— James H. Cousins, A Study in Synthesis (Madras: Ganesh and Co. 1934)

James Cousins was the Irish poet who with A.E.(George Russell) and William Butler Yeats played a major role in the Irish literary revival in the 1890s-1900s. Later he went to India as literary editor for Annie Besant’s newspaper New India and then was one of the organisers of the State University of Travancore, where he headed the Department of Fine Arts and English Studies.  Thus he was in a privileged position to study the interaction between Western and Indian thought with a critical eye.  Cousins was much appreciated by the Indian philosopher and social activist Sri Aurobindo who was an attentive observer of Western evaluations of Indian culture.

Since Ireland was still a colony of Great Britain in his formative years, he could sympathise with the need of not being dominated by a foreign culture and yet using the instruments needed to be universal.  Ireland lived under a subtle form of colonialism rather than the Empire in Africa and India where domination was made more obvious by the distance from the center of power and the racial differences. He wrote in English and not the Gaelic (Celtic) which some Irish nationalists wanted to make a “national language” though it was understood by only a small minority.

His A Study in Synthesis is a rich and complex study of the ways in which intuition, emotion, cognition and action structure human life. He places great importance on the power of intuition as the way the individual feels the push and pressure of the Cosmos.  The eye of the Cosmos looks over the activities of the individual psyche.  As Cousins writes “From the total push and pressure of the Cosmos come the impulses of life that manifest themselves through desires (emotions) counsel (cognition) and works (action)…In other terms, the intuition flows through thoughts as truth, through feeling as beauty, through action as goodness.”   This framework Cousins translates into Indian terms as intuition which is nameless and before all — the Para-Brahman, or what in Chinese thought is the Tao.  It manifests itself  in the created world as cognition, symbolized as Shiva, the Lord of the Cosmic Dance, in the emotional world as Vishnu, and in the world of action as Brahma — the three aspects of the Hindu trinity. This synthesis of intuition, cognition, emotion and action gives us the philosophical experience, a mental response to reality, warmed by emotion and vivified by life.

James H. CousinsThe arts are the most direct representation of synthesis.  The arts are both an expression of a time and place and yet some deep aesthetic sense in each individual allows him to be moved by great art across the divides of time and place.  Thus a consideration of the arts is an appropriate form of dialogue out of which policy considerations can be drawn.

Art has never been just an individual achievement but has always had a social aspect.  The painting and sculpture of temple and church was to be contemplated by all.  Rulers and the wealthy have been patrons of the arts while often restricting creativity to their individual tastes.  Modern governments have followed the pattern and can play both positive and negative roles.  Today, the mass media can open doors to true creative experience as well as playing to the lowest mass attitudes.

Thus, we are at a time of particular importance for a world-wide discussion of the role of the arts, of the ways in which we can learn from each other.  We can discuss the ways in which art is related to spirit and the higher dimensions of being.  Rabindranath Tagore stressed that art is a means to satisfy the hunger of the soul for reality writing “Our soul has her hunger for this immediateness of realisation, whereby she is enabled to know herself.  The love, the contemplation, the vision that alone can satisfy this hunger finds its place in Literature, in Art.”

____________________________________

René Wadlow, a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and of its Task Force on the Middle East, is president and U.N. representative (Geneva) of the Association of World Citizens and editor of Transnational Perspectives. He is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.

 

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Comment by Dominique Johnson on June 10, 2016 at 12:47pm

Thank you M.K. Ramadoss for giving a good reply, and to welcome me. I am thankful also for Theosophy News occasionally sharing some articles over time.


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Comment by M K Ramadoss on June 7, 2016 at 1:40am

Welcome to theosophy.net. You will find very diverse students here and it is Independent of all organizations like its sister activities of Theosophy News on Facebook and Twitter (where your blogs are shared frequently.) This forum  is run by unpaid volunteers driven by their commitment to what theo-sophia can contribute to the world. 

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