It was a great pleasure to watch the opening of the 10th World Congress in Rome even though my local time was 3.00am. It took a long time.



Starting with Prayers of All Religions, opening/ welcoming talk by the GS of Italy followed by reading of greeting messages received from individuals from around the world, then followed by personal greetings from General Secretaries or their representatives and finally we had the Opening talk by… Continue

Unique Opportunity in the 10th World Congress - A view



In ten days, the 10th World Congress is scheduled at Rome. Many leaders

from the West will be attending it. In the aftermath of the

International Election and the follow-up cleavage displayed by the

theosophical leaders, the future growth of TS in the West is going to

depend on the level of reconciliation that takes place among the

leaders.… Continue

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,…

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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…

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Google Earth program allows one to have a satellite view of any location in the world and can zoom in to have a closer look. Important landmarks such as cities are also shown on the view. Users have uploaded photos of places of interest and they also can be zoomed in and seen.



Theosophists may be interested in looking at Tibet and neighboring countries such as China, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal and India. In the region, there are some stunning photos of monasteries perched… Continue

An interesting news item in the Hindu Newspaper. The link is:

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Chennai/article402968.ece?homepage=true

New Religion Could End All Human Suffering

(excerpted from Sun, 4/5/2010)



HENRY Steel Olcott was a Civil War colonel who played a key role in the investigation into the brutal assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.



One of America's greatest visionaries, he was also the first person of European descent to officially convert to Buddhism and the founder of the Theosophical Society, which was at the forefront of the Spiritualist movement in the U.S.



He…

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I don't often laugh when opening The Theosophist. In fact, I had not looked at the issues of various theosophical magazines lying around my house for months. But the spirit of boredom made me open them one by one. Most didn't help me overcome my boredom. So I did not read much. But the table of contents of the October Issue of The Theosophist (2009) had me laughing out loud.



Why? Well, first off - the variety of spellings used. Colin Price (from the UK) had as his title 'Theosophy… Continue

There is a new article on Internet, titled - 'My First Flight', in

which C. W. Leadbeater describes his first flight, which took place

between Brisbane and Toowoomba in Queensalnd, Australia, in 1928. He

makes some interesting observations on the nature-spirits of the air,

some of which he had not seen before!



Also, this is the first time I have seen anyone writing about

observing entities while on airplane flight. All theosophists know

that the entire… Continue

I was very fortunate to find the light-weaver website created by Duane Carpenter, a theosophist. The stunning website speaks for itself what is possible in the hands of a talented artist. It also it contains links to a lot of information. You visit and enjoy the site

The comments on my latest blogpost about theosophical popquizes went a bit off topic. So I thought I'd start a new blogpost discussing the issue.



I've written about this before, so I'll start by quoting myself a few times. Let's start with my first attempt at discussing this:



I still do appreciate Krishnamurti's teachings as valid on the path for many, but aspects of it just don't work… Continue

Many readers have inquired where Joseph Ross’ books on Krotona and other
titles can be purchased. I am given to understand that soon, one would be
able to purchased them on-line.

In the interim, anyone interested in purchasing them can contact the author
directly at:

JEUGENER_AT_PACBELL.NET - Replace [AT] by the symbol in the email address.

MKR

Dan Brown, whose book Da Vinci Code is a very popular one has written a new book The Lost Symbol. A recent comment on this might interest many theosophists. Here are some quotes:

+++





Freemasons await Dan Brown novel `The Lost Symbol'



Brown goes out of his way in "The Lost Symbol" to present the lodge as essentially benign and misunderstood. Masons are praised for their religious tolerance and their elaborate rituals are seen as no more unusual than those of… Continue

If the TS is going to move forward into the 21st century in a way that is of use to humanity, we’re going to have to face some real issues, instead of getting side tracked into personal complaints.



Real issues we’re facing:



* how to build community online in a way that is productive and helps people grow spiritually

* how to build community offline: help our lodges grow and be places of real study and a meeting place for people of diverse cultural and religious… Continue

STATEMENT OF BRASILIA*



At the First Spanish-Portuguese Seminar on Theosophy, held on July 15-19,

2009 in the city of Brasilia, Brazil, 220 members of the Theosophical

Society from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Spain,

the USA, Greece, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay,

unanimously approved the following



DECLARATION



The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875, at a time when slavery… Continue