Charles Cosimano's Posts - Theosophy.Net2024-03-28T12:51:21ZCharles Cosimanohttps://theosophy.net/profile/CharlesCosimanohttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2985082125?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://theosophy.net/profiles/blog/feed?user=3d2l3t1ip2w8x&xn_auth=noThe Time Has Cometag:theosophy.net,2010-10-04:3055387:BlogPost:315212010-10-04T08:00:00.000ZCharles Cosimanohttps://theosophy.net/profile/CharlesCosimano
<p>To say goodbye.</p>
<p></p>
<p>No, not to Theosophy, not by any means. But to the Adyar Society and probably to all organized Theosophy as well.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Over a year ago I saw a face of the society that I hoped that I would never see. And having seen it resolved to give myself another year to see if things would improve. They have not. All I see is infighting and nonsense about elections and finances and now the damned beach at Adyar. It fills me with horror.</p>
<p></p>
<p>When I was…</p>
<p>To say goodbye.</p>
<p></p>
<p>No, not to Theosophy, not by any means. But to the Adyar Society and probably to all organized Theosophy as well.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Over a year ago I saw a face of the society that I hoped that I would never see. And having seen it resolved to give myself another year to see if things would improve. They have not. All I see is infighting and nonsense about elections and finances and now the damned beach at Adyar. It fills me with horror.</p>
<p></p>
<p>When I was living down near Chicago, I spent a lot of time at Olcott. I knew the staff and the officers of the Society. They were my friends, for the most part. I had some of the happiest days of my life there. And, some of the most poignant, like the day that Dora Kunz tried to console me after the death of my grandmother. Theosophists do not handle death well, we dont' quite know how to approach it. I mention my grandmother because when she learned that I had joined the TS, she was overjoyed. I never quite knew why.</p>
<p></p>
<p>But life changes. Life goes on. Life ends and now the only thing that I see in the Quest is the roll of the dead, as friend after friend from those days goes on to whatever awaits us all. I grow tired of mourning. I grow tired of nostalgia for a time in my life that is gone and will never come again.</p>
<p></p>
<p>But knowing those people caused me to make excuses for their bad behaviour at times, to justify things that I should not have. Good people have been hurt, good people have been driven away. And now it is time for me to leave as well. I have decided not to renew my membership after 30 plus years. It is hard to believe that I am leaving behind something that has been a part of me most of my adult life. But the sad truth is that the dream I had when I joined is long dead. And when a dream dies, there is nothing to be done but to get a new one.</p>
<p></p>
<p>People have wondered at my silence these last months. I had nothing to say. There was nothing to talk about. I had to take time, to be sure of my decision. And having made it, having crossed that Rubicon, I look back in sadness at what is lost, and what might have been. And then I will look back no more. I doubt that I will be missed much. I was more of a burden than a blessing, the ne'er-do-well nephew that the family rather wished would go off to the colonies or something. Perhaps they will breathe a sigh of relief at my departure, taking my heresies with me.</p>
<p></p>
<p>No doubt many will.</p>
<p></p>
<p>But make no mistake. I am still a Theosophist, albeit an extemely heretical one.</p>A bit of hidden Theosophical Historytag:theosophy.net,2009-11-21:3055387:BlogPost:215152009-11-21T16:58:06.000ZCharles Cosimanohttps://theosophy.net/profile/CharlesCosimano
From the Akashic DVD series, Madame Blavatsky, the Unknown Years.<br />
<br />
While it is well known that HPB had a long-running feud with the spiritualist A. O. Hume, relatively few know the roots of the feud.<br />
<br />
It all began one afternoon when Madame Blavatsky was paying a visit to Mr. Hume. They were in the library on the second floor of his house and she sat in an antique chair near the door. Unfortunately the combination of the immense gravity of her person and the age of the chair combined to cause…
From the Akashic DVD series, Madame Blavatsky, the Unknown Years.<br />
<br />
While it is well known that HPB had a long-running feud with the spiritualist A. O. Hume, relatively few know the roots of the feud.<br />
<br />
It all began one afternoon when Madame Blavatsky was paying a visit to Mr. Hume. They were in the library on the second floor of his house and she sat in an antique chair near the door. Unfortunately the combination of the immense gravity of her person and the age of the chair combined to cause the chair to break under her, causing Madame Blavatsky to roll down the stairs, roll through the hall of the dwelling, roll out of the front door, down the stairs, in the process crushing to death the three ladies of the evening who were coming to give Mr. Hume his weekly massage therapy, and finally ending up-ended in an open manhole, her bloomered legs waving in the air, so shocking one of the local clergy that he ran around in circles screaming something unintelligble but people were used to him doing that and merely assumed that he was practicing his next Sunday's sermon.<br />
<br />
And she was stuck there. In fact, she was so completely jammed into that manhole that two teams of draft horses could not dislodge her. Ultimately, in desparation, they borrowed a compressed air machine from Mr. Keely and managed to create such a high air pressure underground that Madame Blavatsky popped loose like a champagne cork, flew fifty feet into the air and came down the shrubbery outside of the local lodge building of the Mystic Knights Who Say Ni.<br />
<br />
The two never forgave each other for that incident.Silliest Quest Article Title Awardtag:theosophy.net,2009-10-01:3055387:BlogPost:196422009-10-01T02:45:52.000ZCharles Cosimanohttps://theosophy.net/profile/CharlesCosimano
And this issues Silliest Quest Article Title Award goes to:<br />
<br />
"How Death Changes Life:..."<br />
<br />
Yes, death really does change one's life experience, there is no doubt about that and the change is often permanent.
And this issues Silliest Quest Article Title Award goes to:<br />
<br />
"How Death Changes Life:..."<br />
<br />
Yes, death really does change one's life experience, there is no doubt about that and the change is often permanent.Welcome to Helltag:theosophy.net,2009-08-25:3055387:BlogPost:183212009-08-25T16:01:59.000ZCharles Cosimanohttps://theosophy.net/profile/CharlesCosimano
Once upon a time in Tibet there was a lama and a Christian missionary. And every day they ran into each other on a ledge going down to the town and every day they argued. Well, one day they argued so forcefully that the ledge gave way.<br />
<br />
And they both woke up in Hell and standing over them was a devil with their room assignments.<br />
<br />
The lama looked at the devil and said, "I am Guru Rimpoche. I have been a monk since I was three, studied the works of the Buddha all my life and have never wandered…
Once upon a time in Tibet there was a lama and a Christian missionary. And every day they ran into each other on a ledge going down to the town and every day they argued. Well, one day they argued so forcefully that the ledge gave way.<br />
<br />
And they both woke up in Hell and standing over them was a devil with their room assignments.<br />
<br />
The lama looked at the devil and said, "I am Guru Rimpoche. I have been a monk since I was three, studied the works of the Buddha all my life and have never wandered from the Eight-fold Path or done any other unholy thing. What am I doing in this place?"<br />
<br />
"You aren't a Christian," the devil answered. At which point the missionary jumped to his feet and shouted, as missionaries who find themselves in Hell are wont to do, "I was saved at five! I graduated from Wheaton College and I have spent the last twenty five years of my life in Tibet ministering to the heathen, this heathen over here in particular! What, you should pardon the expression, the Hell, am I doing here?"<br />
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"You're an enemy of the Dharma," was the devils quiet reply as he looked at his lists.<br />
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At this point the lama grabbed the devil by the horns and the missionary, agreeing for the first time in his life with the lama, grabbed the devil by the tail and both started beating on the poor spirit with their fists as well as with his laptop.<br />
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"Stop it! Stop it!" the devil shouted. "It won't do you any good. Neither of you are Scientologists!""There is No Religion Higher than Truth."tag:theosophy.net,2009-07-25:3055387:BlogPost:163412009-07-25T16:58:18.000ZCharles Cosimanohttps://theosophy.net/profile/CharlesCosimano
We see the line all the time. We hear it parroted all the time. But what does it really mean?<br />
<br />
Is there any truth in religion at all to be higher than? Are religion and truth mutually exclusive qualities? Is religion a senseless bondage to myth and tradition, none of it of any value other than to the priests and preachers who profit from human ignorance and fear?<br />
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And what is truth in the first place? How would we know it if we fell over it and would it matter if we did?<br />
<br />
And in the end, would…
We see the line all the time. We hear it parroted all the time. But what does it really mean?<br />
<br />
Is there any truth in religion at all to be higher than? Are religion and truth mutually exclusive qualities? Is religion a senseless bondage to myth and tradition, none of it of any value other than to the priests and preachers who profit from human ignorance and fear?<br />
<br />
And what is truth in the first place? How would we know it if we fell over it and would it matter if we did?<br />
<br />
And in the end, would it not simply make more sense to say it is all stuff and nonsense and not waste one's life worrying about any of it?<br />
<br />
Just a few ideas to make the day interesting.If only someone had had a pie handytag:theosophy.net,2009-06-22:3055387:BlogPost:141242009-06-22T01:39:40.000ZCharles Cosimanohttps://theosophy.net/profile/CharlesCosimano
One of my favorite things to do in the Olcott Library was to just pull an issue of the old Theosophist off the shelves and start reading. Well, as luck would have it, one afternoon I pulled one of the 1925 volumes and was reading what is the most bizarre collection of eccentric behavior in the history of a bizarre and eccentric period in the history of Theosophy, namely the transactions of the Star Camp at Ommen.<br />
<br />
It defies description. How they managed to fit so many credulous fools into one…
One of my favorite things to do in the Olcott Library was to just pull an issue of the old Theosophist off the shelves and start reading. Well, as luck would have it, one afternoon I pulled one of the 1925 volumes and was reading what is the most bizarre collection of eccentric behavior in the history of a bizarre and eccentric period in the history of Theosophy, namely the transactions of the Star Camp at Ommen.<br />
<br />
It defies description. How they managed to fit so many credulous fools into one location at the same time is one of the great mysteries and the high, or rather low point of the entire excercise came when poor, crazy Rukmini Devi got up before the assembled multitudes and said, and I kid you not, "Even though I stand before you as an Arhat..."<br />
<br />
And she was not kidding. She went to her death still thinking that she was an Arhat.<br />
<br />
I stopped reading and closed the volume unable to digest what I had just read. And then the image of something that had happened about ten years earlier appeared in my mind, when a supposed guru was hit in the face with a pie. I smiled and wished, oh so fervently wished, that someone in that mass of humanity had been similarly equipped. Just think how Theosophy would have been improved if, every time, one of its--er--leaders had spouted nonsense someone would have been there to hit the person in face with a cream pie.<br />
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Of course poor Annie Besant might have gained so much weight that the would have had to weigh her by dumping her into a swimming pool and measuring the displaced water...A culture of dependencytag:theosophy.net,2009-06-20:3055387:BlogPost:140042009-06-20T16:35:05.000ZCharles Cosimanohttps://theosophy.net/profile/CharlesCosimano
Where did we go wrong? When did the Theosophical Society make the wrong turn? I am inclined to think that the roots of the problem came at the very beginning, with the Masters.<br />
<br />
Theosophists were not intended to be followers, respecters of doctrine, dogma, persons or authority. But the moment our beloved Countess Blavatskya said, "The Master said..." the groundwork was laid. People were unwilling to act or speak on their own, they needed the imagined approval of something outside of themselves.…
Where did we go wrong? When did the Theosophical Society make the wrong turn? I am inclined to think that the roots of the problem came at the very beginning, with the Masters.<br />
<br />
Theosophists were not intended to be followers, respecters of doctrine, dogma, persons or authority. But the moment our beloved Countess Blavatskya said, "The Master said..." the groundwork was laid. People were unwilling to act or speak on their own, they needed the imagined approval of something outside of themselves. And others, followers, were willing to surrender their independence to that something.<br />
<br />
From the Masters, it went to their mouthpieces, Annie and the Bishop and thence it would go to The World Teacher. And no one bothered to ask, "Why would anyone need a World Teacher in the first place?"<br />
<br />
When that fell apart, it devolved to the society politicians. And one must ask why it would matter what Radha says or does? Who cares who is International President when all that really means is that the finances are cooked and lawn at Adyar gets mowed once a year? And the other societies are no better, scrunching everything into their interpretation of Blavatsky and Judge, again, authority and doctrine and dogma.<br />
<br />
And the whole reason for the exercise is lost in the shuffle.<br />
<br />
It is time to cut the past loose, throw the fake sanskrit over the side of the lifeboat along with the nonsense that has accrued over time. We know a hell of a lot more about how the universe works now than they did in HPB's time. The world is not the same as when Annie and the Bishop were boring people to death with their lunatic ravings. And George Arundale's hero, Adolf Hitler, lost, for which fact we are all grateful.<br />
<br />
Surely by now we have learned the lesson that when authority speaks it is always wrong and to even listen to it leads only to damnation. It does not matter what the Masters said. It does not matter what the Buddha said. Their words are of the same value as the latest babble from Radha. Let us carve a new path and recognize that the only truth that matters is the one found in our own souls, in our own being. And let us build a new Theosophy, one that exists to help each to find that inner reality without the baggage of a world that no longer exists and the politics and control games that have gone along with it.Maybe it is time to gotag:theosophy.net,2009-06-20:3055387:BlogPost:139762009-06-20T06:03:32.000ZCharles Cosimanohttps://theosophy.net/profile/CharlesCosimano
I've been a member of the Adyar TS for over 30 years. I've seen it have its scandals and I've seen the good side of it as well. Tonight I am thinking that maybe it is time for me to leave. I am tired of the political haranguing. I am tired of the hypocrisy and now, having seen the face of what it is attracting in new members, I think that perhaps there is no longer a place for me in it or perhaps there are just people I do not want to be in the same place with.<br />
<br />
Maybe it is time for another…
I've been a member of the Adyar TS for over 30 years. I've seen it have its scandals and I've seen the good side of it as well. Tonight I am thinking that maybe it is time for me to leave. I am tired of the political haranguing. I am tired of the hypocrisy and now, having seen the face of what it is attracting in new members, I think that perhaps there is no longer a place for me in it or perhaps there are just people I do not want to be in the same place with.<br />
<br />
Maybe it is time for another schism, a new Theosophical Society, one that can start afresh, holding true to the vision of the founders without the baggage that has accumulated over time, one that can jettision the jargon and fake sanskrit, one capable of dealing with the world as it is, not some Leadbeaterian fantasyland.<br />
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All I know is that tonight Theosophy is not fun any more and I am going to do something about it. Just what--I have no idea. But right now I am ready to go to war.Darkening the imagetag:theosophy.net,2009-06-10:3055387:BlogPost:130622009-06-10T00:58:52.000ZCharles Cosimanohttps://theosophy.net/profile/CharlesCosimano
Ok, did that get your attention?<br />
<br />
We hear it over and over again, "Why aren't more people interested in Theosophy?" And we all have the same answers that we give over and over again, but I think it can be put rather simply. Theosophy comes across as spiritual prune juice. It's boring!<br />
<br />
Well, that is not exactly true. Theosophy can be anything but boring but Theosophists can be deadly bores. It does not mean that they are not nice people and fun to be around, after all, look at me, but let us be…
Ok, did that get your attention?<br />
<br />
We hear it over and over again, "Why aren't more people interested in Theosophy?" And we all have the same answers that we give over and over again, but I think it can be put rather simply. Theosophy comes across as spiritual prune juice. It's boring!<br />
<br />
Well, that is not exactly true. Theosophy can be anything but boring but Theosophists can be deadly bores. It does not mean that they are not nice people and fun to be around, after all, look at me, but let us be honest and realize that rounds and chains really do not hold much interest even for the most dedicated of us and no one is going to be around to see the end of the Manvantara so who cares?<br />
<br />
Even our cherished Three Objects are really dated. I mean, outside of the Westboro Baptist Church and some gathering of the Taliban, you are not going to find many people who would even think of disagreeing with them.<br />
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We need to be more interesting but at the same we really need to get rid of the 19th century do-gooderism that still permeates our stuff. Let us be honest, no one gives a damn about crazy old Annie Besant and her damned match girls. What we need are more dugpas and fewer mahatmas. In short, we need to stop fighting the battles of 1890.<br />
We need to emphasize the darker strain of Theosophy, not in the spiritual sense, but in the way Theosophy related and relates to the broader world. (And I use the word darker in a very specific way here so please bear with me.)<br />
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We do not like established order and we really hate the idea of spiritual authority. Theosophists, whether they admit it or not, tend to be bull-headed spiritual anarchists. That is why we fight among ourselves so much. No Theosophist worth his membership dues is going to let someone else tell him how to think. Now, in a world where there is a Westboro Baptist Church and the Taliban, spiritual anarchy is something that can be very unattractive to people we do not like but very attractive to people who not like them, to people who really value their spiritual autonomy.<br />
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So, with all due humor, let us be the Great Conspiracy. Let us be the enemies of the enemies of human freedom. Let us be the villains in the fundamentalists' dramas because the villain gets all the good lines. Let us be the underground of thoughtcrime, the doubleplus ungood badthinkers, Let us charge in where their angels dare not look much less tread.<br />
<br />
We'll shock people. We'll scare the living daylights out of people, including some of our own people. But we will show that Theosophy is not boring nonsense.A bit of funtag:theosophy.net,2009-06-05:3055387:BlogPost:127612009-06-05T04:53:39.000ZCharles Cosimanohttps://theosophy.net/profile/CharlesCosimano
Seeing as how our fundamentalist Christian friends keep mixing us up with the Alice Bailey folks and think we are here to herald the coming of the AntiChrist and Robert Mueller, I think we should not let them be disappointed. Therefore I propose that we move the headquarters of the Illuminati to the Olcott Library with the World Control Center to be located in the basement just off the dining room.
Seeing as how our fundamentalist Christian friends keep mixing us up with the Alice Bailey folks and think we are here to herald the coming of the AntiChrist and Robert Mueller, I think we should not let them be disappointed. Therefore I propose that we move the headquarters of the Illuminati to the Olcott Library with the World Control Center to be located in the basement just off the dining room.