I have never been to a theosophical meeting with so much technology: everybody is taking pictures with their own digital cameras. Live streaming and tv's at the back of the hall so everybody can see the speakers properly.

But the one feature of this congress that I think people most enjoy is the pool. It is large enough to take laps in and when it is hot - and it is hot - it is a relief to sit in the brieze by the water.

And sometimes conversations take place…

While we're listening to lectures on brotherhood, some people had some poignant remarks.

For instance, various suggestions were made to replace 'Dear Brothers and Sisters' with

1. Dear friends, monads, and countrymen, lend me your ears
2. Dear permanent atoms ...

Someone else thought that 'dear sister Jane' had a Catholic sound.

Then the insight that 'The last thing a theosophist needs is…

Honestly - I had hoped Dara would go into how biology and psychology have shown that compassion is as much built into us as competition is. She didn't. Her talk was based on a definition of science which covered mostly physics and parapsychology.

It was very interesting, however it was impossible to take notes on. Dara uses very long sentences and lots of quotes. This did not make a boring talk though: She talk slowly and clearly and really did very well on a topic that the TS…

This morning we had the lecture by Professor P. Krishna. His talk was inspiring. He talked about a lot that most of us have heard before: the interconnectedness of everything, ecology and how those isses are caused by people not realizing deeply enough that it's all us. This post is a combination of my notes from Krishna's talk and my own thoughts about the issues the TS is dealing with. It's loosely based also on my talks with individual theosophists at this congress.

What…

I was foolish enough not to take my laptop to the International Theosophical World Congress, so instead of posting this on my blog (of which I don't know the password), I'll post it here.

I thought Linda Oliveira's talk was, in the main, insightful. The title was - ominously - 'why do we belong to the Theosophical Society?'

She started out saying that the question was perhaps surprising, but added that it was a necessary question and a deep…

We had a members meeting in the Dutch TS (Aydar) at the end of May. It was spirited, but business like. That is: we discussed important issues, without scapegoating.

I thought I’d share the main issues. I am glad to see that the tabu on discussing these things is leading to important insights coming out – it’s the only way we can reframe the theosophical work in a way that’s relevant for humanity today. What follows is my current view on where we are and need to go.

So,…

New online

• Buddha on Good and Bad Karma (quotes and explanation) (11)

• Buddha quotes on…

As an exercise in PR, I’d like to profile a typical theosophist. Having such a profile might help us in attracting a few of those theosophists outside the TS that Blavatsky mentioned. That is: we should see this person in our minds when we:

• Create local and national programs (and avoid boring ones like this),
• Fill our magazines with new material
• and focus and give…