“Apart from those things you identify as your life-duties, all other decisions can be made just by asking yourself the question, ‘Will it lead toward more seriousness or toward better play?’ As a child you knew which answer you were looking for. . . .”—General Theosophy

“Aspirants of the past had to dig through a mountain of ignorance to find a few scraps of useful knowledge; aspirants of the present have to dig through a mountain of knowledge to find a few scraps of useful knowledge.” —General Theosophy

"It is probably best not to bother discussing death with anyone too scientific to even entertain a doubt about its finality."—General Theosophy

Captain Theosophy (Part One: Meeting Your Personal Genie/Genius) by Richard Ihle

"There's a man in the funny papers we all know. . . ."

Some people started to call me "Captain Theosophy.". . .

Initially, this was almost certainly because it was the title of an article I had written for the old THE AMERICAN THEOSOPHIST magazine. In those days I guess I did sometimes seem sort of like a cartoonish superhero—not only because of my…

[10-20-18 Just an informal email exchanged with an old friend who had encountered some negative personal information about the Eastern teacher Swami Rama.]

Hi, Jeff—Windstorm day in my locale today.

Thus, I probably should add to the gale:

Thank you for your thoughts on Swami Rama. Good and maybe not-so-good in everyone as usual, I suppose. Perhaps there is even the chance that, despite considerable devotee-testimony to the contrary, Swami might have…

Thought of the day on: Mental parallax

Perceptions vary from person to person based upon past experiences and assimilated knowledge, coloured by the texture of our mind. A prejudiced mind will see things quite differently as compared to a free flowing, unfettered spirit.

Suspending judgment altogether however seems to be a far fetched notion, since our memory automatically recalls stored information it considers applicable to the…

“Theosophy, as ‘personal religion,’ begins with the realization that no one, past or present, can know more about fundamentally unknowable subjects than you yourself.”—General Theosophy

"Seek the sage who knows life well enough not to bother signing his or her name to whatever he or she knows."—General Theosophy

"Modern science might convince you that you are a biochemical machine; Theosophy, that you are in the machine."—General Theosophy

“It is often easier to weather the storm than the storm warning.”—General Theosophy

“An accident is often just a lower state of mindfulness trying to wake up a higher one.”—General Theosophy

“Youth is the search for your own exceptional attributes; old age is the search for your own possible exceptions to the rule.”—General Theosophy

“Old age can only exist if you blame it for something.”—General Theosophy

“If you have detailed beliefs rather than just intuitive inklings about transcendental subjects like karma and reincarnation, you may have traded religion for philosophy.”—General Theosophy

“The first step in meditation is to stop taking steps.”—General Theosophy