Honesty inwards is the discipline needed to realize one's true needs, the needs that all we humans share.

Fire of Reconciliation in the Wider Middle East

Rene Wadlow*

         The fiery attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, leading to the death of the US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others and the burning of the US flag at the US Embassy in Cairo are symbolic of a fire of hate, mistrust, and violence that sweeps from Afghanistan through Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria to North Africa.

        …

“St. Anselm’s motto: ‘Faith Seeking Understanding.’ The Theosopher’s motto: ‘Understanding Seeking Faith.’ . . . since it is often hard to convince even oneself that such a psycho-meditating, analogy-crafting, intuition-judging epistemology can really be valid. . . .”—General Theosophy

I was deeply saddened to hear of the sudden death of my doctoral advisor and a dear mentor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Prof. Goodrick-Clarke was a solid academic who helped turn the study of Western Esoteric history into an accepted academic discipline. He paved the way for the future study of this discipline organizing the MA conferences at Exeter and they were always first rate. 

Nicholas' writings on the early Theosophical Society and his research on various Western Esoteric…

“Theosophical ambition: To be the best of those who do not receive their knowledge from someone proposed as better than themselves.”—General Theosophy

“Atheism may not simply be the disbelief in God; rather, it may actually be the God-like elevation of this disbelief.”—General Theosophy

“Spectacular worldly success which comes early in life may incline a person toward explanations involving fate, special destiny, or Divine favor; later worldly success may be more often attributed to will power, ambition, or personal habits. Little or no worldly success at either time, however, may just mean that a person has more leisure to reflect about better subjects.”…

As long as you go through life without clarity, you will have no idea of what you are missing. The secret is to learn how to listen and observe. By listening and observing the whole working of your mentality, you purge all thoughts from the face of the mind. Then you learn the art of being completely quiet. Do you see the meaning in all this? No one can teach you how to be silent. There is nothing for you to follow or imitate, which is what we are all hoping and desiring. Only in the power…

You must not think that when there is nothing in your mind, you will become a fool or act like an idiot. This is not true. If you can keep your mind calm and quiet for ten or fifteen minutes, a new world will dawn within you. This is the root of all spiritual progress. Right now you can make your mind calm and quiet for only a few seconds, or for a minute, but if you can maintain your calmness, poise and tranquillity for half an hour or even for fifteen minutes, I assure you that inside your…

You have known your entire life you are here to serve a greater purpose. What you do not know is exactly what that purpose is or what the driving force behind it is. Yet, ever since you were young, you have been aware of it.

Realizing that sense of purpose, feeling it, is the first moment the Navigator makes itself known to you. In its own way your Navigator is trying to reveal to you the nature of your being. How much it reveals to you depends on the choices you make.

For the…

The first sign of awakening is usually a growing reverence for life. You find you are immensely appreciative of being alive. Life itself is revealed as a wonder or a miracle. In your reverence for life you delightedly value the lives of others and of yourself. You perceive life as extremely precious, such an extraordinary phenomenon. You find it easy to conceive in your musings that incredibly great consciousness and energy is at work wherever there is life. With awe and enthusiasm you often…

Recently, I posted a photograph displaying an inspirational Lao Tzu quotation (namely, "If you are depressed, you are in the living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.") to a friend's Facebook page. (Tracking down the photo led me to a Facebook page dedicated to motivational quotations apparently for business people,…

“To keep silent is both the way of the very weak and the very strong.”—General Theosophy

EPILOGUE

T Subba Row (1856-‘90), as is well known and lamented too, lived for a very short span of life. His (theosophical) literary career can be said to have started on Sept. 14, 1881 (referring to his first article on “Twelve Signs” to The Theosophist, November); and ended sometime in 1888 (the last reported article “Occultism in Southern India” being ‘a summary of a discussion at Adyar Library, on 1^st December 1888). In a short period of about 7 years, he…

Professors from several universities are going to use a grant to research the influence of theosophy on artists and musicians. Here is the full article.

Taraka Raja Yoga -4

There is a considered opinion that the quintessence of TRY is embedded in SRI RAMA HRIDAYAM boxed in the first canto of Adyatma Ramayanam. Here Sri Rama interferes to give instruction direct to Hanuman who was being taught the transcendental nature by Sita. The instruction runs to 9 sloka-s (44-52). The gist of the verses is thus:

I shall teach you the true nature of Atma - Anatma and Paramatma[Logos, Individual soul, Pure…

How to Watch the Mars Curiosity Rover Landing

Taraka Raja Yoga -3

We may here look to the table correlating the various classifications.

  as per HPB              Vedanta         TRY

1. Rupa or Sthula sarira           Annamaya kosa

2.Prana, Life or Vital principle                                Sthulaopadhi

2Linga sarira, astral body      Pranamaya kosa

3.Kama Rupa, seat of animal

         Desires and passions    

4.Manas, Mind,…

“The realization that you are not your body is not so unusual; the realization that you are not the realization that you are not your body is more unusual.”—General Theosophy