Lucifer7, September 2007
Contents
New on Katinka Hesselink Net
Religious News
Short Quotes
Truth - Notes From Orpheus Lodge Meeting
Asceticism, H.S. Olcott
News: Religious intolerance (China, Egypt and The Netherlands)
Healing - The English Summer school July 2007
New on Katinka Hesselink Net
Coming Up
- Exclusive
interview with Michael Gomes: things you always wanted to know and even
a scoop. For those who don't know Michael Gomes: he's the most
knowledgeable theosophical historian inside the Theosophical Society
and an inspiring theosophical teacher. The interview was taken during
the English Theosophical Summer School at Oadby. I expect to have it
online before the next issue of Lucifer7.
- I've
been working on putting online those issues of the Canadian Theosophist
that Jake Jaqua digitalized. For the occasion I will also put up a new
central page where all material related to theosophy on my website is
referenced.
- The librarian of the English TS headquarters in London, Barry Thompson, gave a lecture on Tibetan Buddhism, the after death states and the Mahatma Letters.
I thought the material he presented relating to the after death states
in the Mahatma Letters was so good that I'm working with Barry Thompson
on putting that material online. I hope to have it online before the
next issue of Lucifer7.
Religious News
Short Quotes
Talbot Mundy, Queen Cleopatra
Strength of purpose has no part in obstinacy. Obstinacy clings to what it sees, denying what it sees not. Strength of purpose, daughter of imagination, can deny what seems to be, because it knows what is. Men speak to one another of protection, but what do they mean by it? I myself have treated many a
wound that might have been a mere scratch had its victim not worn armor. And the medicines of many a physician are a deadlier preventive of recovery than a disease itself. If a man's own soul protect him not, where shall he look for safety from the multitudes of dangers that beset him on every side? But if he hide within the glory of his own soul, how shall any dark destroyer find him?"
Heart of Rama, Lucknow. (Canadian Theosophist, 1935)
The greatest mistake made by present day Socialists, is that they envy
the drop of sea-spray possessed by the so-called wealthy, instead, of pitying
their burden.
N. Sri Ram, Thoughts For Aspirants, Second Series
When there is no gap between the knower and the known, between the subject that perceives and experiences, and its object, there is knowledge by identity, absolute and direct.
Spiritual Monopolies, Canadian Theosophist, Volume 24, #1 (1943)
It should not surprise us, in this age of business monopolies, that the
commercial world, the world of affairs, the only world of which many people
have any consciousness, that the general habit of mind should be extended
to the world of religion, so that the Christian Church members act as though
they had patent rights on Jesus, the Buddhists of some stripes wish to claim
the world for Buddha, the Mahometans [Muslims] hold their territory as sole agents
for The Prophet, and the Brahmins also claim exclusive privileges. Of course
it is little men who assert these rights, which, after all, only become tangible
in the collection of royalties.
Truth - Notes From Orpheus Lodge Meeting, September, 1922
Canadian Theosophist, Volume 26, #11 (1946)
The ordeal of discriminating Truth from untruth devolves upon those who
accept Theosophy, whether as individuals or as a body. It is this ordeal
which the T.S. as a body has failed in, together with most of its members
as individuals. In order to sustain successfully this ordeal two things
are essential. A deep and exacting Sincerity, - an inner honesty so
drastic and of such long life that it has become second nature, - and Intelligence.
This power of Intelligence implies the ability to bring the impartial critical
rationalistic faculty to bear coupled with Intuition, a Spiritual faculty
existing as more than a germ in only the very few. It is through the
passing of this ordeal that this Spiritual faculty of divining Truth is born.
Theosophical teachings are chiefly of value to the sincere Seeker for
Truth, for whom the main objective is Spiritual regeneration. From
the application of its principles he may evolve a science of wise living
which each individual can apply in his own life at the place in the scale
of being at which he finds himself. A wide knowledge of the basic principles
of Theosophy and of their practical application in the life of the individual
is by far the greatest need in the world today.
Asceticism [a few quotes from this article]
"Nobody even dreams how hard is the task of self-conquest, the subjugation of passion and appetite, the liberation of the flesh-prisoned Higher Self, until he has tried. Every such struggle is a tragedy, full of the most painful interest, and provocation of sympathy in the hearts of "good men and angels". That is what Jesus meant when he said there was more joy in heaven over one sinner that repented than over ninety and nine just men that needed no repentance. And yet how bitterly uncharitable is the world- the world of concealed sinners and respectable, undetected hypocrites, usually- over the failure of a poor soul to scale the spiritual mountains in consequence of lack of reserved power of will at a critical moment. How these undetected ones patronizingly condemn the vanquished, who at least have done what many of them have not, made a brave fight for the divine prize. How they strut about in fancied impregnability, like the street-praying Pharisee of Jerusalem, thanking fortune that their private sins are still hidden, and redoubling their prayers, postures, canting moralities, and asceticism in diet, to deceive their neighbour and themselves!
And the devil did grin, for his darling sin
Is pride that apes humility.
Shakespeare made a man like that say:
And thus I clothe my villainy with old odd ends, stol'n out of holy writ, and seem a saint when most I play the devil"
"I got a stinging reproach once in Bombay from a Master, when I hesitated to admit to membership an earnest man who had been persecuted, even sent to prison, by Christian bigots, on a pretext. I was bidden to look through my whole body of colleagues and see how, despite their wealth of good intention, nine-tenths of them were secret sinners through weak moral fibres. It was a life lesson to me, and ever since then I have abstained from thinking the worse of my associates, many no weaker or more imperfect than myself, who if they could not climb the mountain were at least, like myself, earnestly struggling and stumbling onward. Years ago- when we first came to Bombay,- I was told by H.P.B. that several of the Mahatmas, being met together, cause to drift by them in the astral light the psychical reflections of the then Indian members of the Theosophical Society. She asked me to guess which one's image was brightest. I mentioned a young Parsi of Bombay, then a pre-eminently active and devoted member. She said, laughing, that on the contrary he was not bright at all, the morally brightest being a poor Bengali gentleman who had become a drunkard. The Parsi afterwards deserted us and became an active opponent, the Bengali reformed and is now a pious ascetic! She explained then that many vicious habits and sensual gratifications often affect the physical self, without leaving deep permanent scars on the inner-self. In such cases the spiritual nature is so vigorous as to throw off these external blotches after a brief struggle."
"But if encouraged and persisted in, evil habits at last overcome the soul's resisting power, and the whole man becomes corrupted. Some tantrikas, Indian and European, have preached the accursed doctrine that the occult postulant can best kill out desire by gratifying and exhausting it. To deliberately gratify lust, or pride, or avarice, or ambition, or hatred, or anger- all equally perilous to the psychic- is quite another matter from falling now and then, through no pre-arrangement and simply because of moral weakness in a particular crisis, into one of those sins. From the latter, recovery is always possible, and may be comparatively easy where the average moral fibre is strong; but deliberate vicious indulgence leads inevitably to moral degradation and a fall into the depths."
News: Religious intolerance (China, Egypt and The Netherlands)
This
is one of those months when too much happens. Some of the things I will
cover below are so out there, that I have had doubts about whether it
should be covered at all. But I guess it has to, since religious
intolerance is growing all over the world. Religions represent a lot of
what people hold dear: their identities, their dreams, their hopes,
their fears.
In Egypt one has to give one's religion when
applying for documents like birth certificates and passports. Only
three religions are allowed: Muslim, Christian and Jew. Legally, people
who aren't one of those religions don't exist. The Dutch newspaper that
covered this story, focused mainly on the Baha'i. On the old
handwritten documents papers, government workers would sometimes just
leave open the 'religion' field. With electronically generated identity
cards becoming mandatory, Baha'i's are left with quite a quandary. The
default way to fill in the form means being registered as Muslim. But
if fundamentalist Muslims find that out, they feel the right to assault
people for being untrue to their faith (the Islam). Living without an
identity cards leaves kids without education, vaccination and parents
without the ability to buy a house.
Over to China. The Chinese Government has once again shown that it
isn't interested in freedom of religion by stating that Tibetan monks
can only reincarnate with permission of the government. The political
aspect of this is clearly that they want a say in who will be seen as
the next Dalai Lama.
Then
The Netherlands. Given our constitutional freedom of religion, and the
general trust with which the Dutch still regard their government (well,
relatively speaking that is) - the following story is more like a comic
interlude, but a very sad one. The current most vocal proponent of
anti-Islam views in the Netherlands is Geert Wilders. He recently made
international headlines in a way that made me think he had lost his
mind. He wants to ban the Quran. There is only one banned book in the
Netherlands: 'Mein Kampf' by Adolf Hitler. According to Wilders the
Quran is as bad as that. He also wants to change the constitution, to
get rid of the freedom of religion. Banning the Quran would have that
effect also. If Mosques can't carry the Quran, Muslims are effectively
banned from exercising their weekly prayers. To change the constitution
the parliament would have to get a very large majority in favour of
this. There isn't a majority at all, so the Dutch news reports today. Most parties believe
in freedom of religion and changing the constitution like
this would go against all kinds of international and EU laws.
Theosophists
have stood for freedom of religion from the time Olcott and Blavatsky
landed in India. Olcott in particular fought for freedom of religion
for the Buddhists in Ceylon. He made sure they could marry according to
their own faiths, have their own Buddhist schools and Buddhist
religious holidays. All this when Ceylon (currently Sri Lanka) was
still part of the British Empire. The Quran doesn't contain more
politically incorrect material than the Bible does, so banning that
book would open the door to banning all kinds of things that are dear
to some and offensive to others. Religions cannot be forced on people.
Conversion is a very personal process that governments should not
interfere with unless the general good is at stake. Governments need to
make sure that Muslim terrorism doesn't grow, but they should not
alienate Muslims in general. Most Muslims are just ordinary people
with jobs, kids and mortgages. The same is true for Tibetan Lama's, and
Baha'i's, and people of other religions. As long as criminal law isn't
broken, governments should stay out of people's right to decide for
themselves what to believe and how to live.
Sources
Healing - The English Summer school July 2007
I
have just returned from the English Summer school of the Theosophical
Society Adyar at Leicester University Grounds. The Highpoint of the
week was Michael Gomes in the Blavatsky Lecture. There were a hundred
people there, which is not at all bad for a theosophical lecturer.
Michael Gomes is turning into quite the theosophical celebrity. He's
very good on the stage, keeping us awake and entertained. He's also
well grounded in theosophical history which is what this lecture was
about, as well as in practical theosophy: the subject of his public
lecture on Wednesday. It has to be said: he did a superb job in his
Blavatsky lecture on Olcott and Healing. It had material on healing in
the 19th century that I haven't seen before and on Olcott's
earlier interests in the subject. Much of it was the result of looking
up the references to books on healing that Olcott referenced in his Old
Diary Leaves - something most people would never even dream of doing.
The workshops he did in the second half of the week were the best
attended with I think 50 people there the time he did a walking
meditation. Quite a sight: 50 people walking slowly in a line from the
lecture-building snaking their way to the lovely park. I didn't attend
that workshop, but didn't hear too many complaints.
The
week was very full with lectures that struck me and a few that
frankly didn't do much for me. For this review I'll just ignore the
latter, because the whole thing was good mainly because of the variety.
As for workshops - there were too many to mention (which was great, but
I obviously didn't attend all of them). There was (hatha) yoga in the
mornings, yoga nidra and pranayama yoga. I did the hatha yoga and the
pranayama yoga - which was weird because this week I somehow developed
a difficulty in breathing during this sort of exercise. I'm pretty sure
it was me, not the exercises. There were workshops on kinesiology,
reflexology, shiatsu and Edgar Cayce remedies. I attended the
kinesiology and got diagnosed with a B-complex deficiency. Dana
Eaton gave me a B-vitamin shot through no physical means. Not being
sure she was successful, I decided to
make sure I got enough yogurt during the means of the rest of the week.
In the reflexology workshop we did a massage of each other's feet and I
slept very well that night. Reflexology is to do with massaging the
feet and through the meridians
there diagnosing and treating problems in the upper body.
During
the study groups I chose to attend the 'astrology for the 21st century'
workshop with Ted Capstick. He's a very good esoteric astrologer. This
means that he's into the astrology that has been developed from the
work of Alice Bailey. People were impressed with the accuracy of his
reading of their lives from reading their charts. He looked at people's
charts for free and even did progressions to look at present and future
problems. He hardly had a moment to himself all week. It all looked to
me to be very useful to the people who did get their chart done. Being (as I thought at the time)
at a relatively calm period in my life myself, I didn't take the
opportunity - perhaps I should have...
Professor Ram Gokal lectured on the general
theme of spirituality and health. His main point was that our thoughts
influence our health and that we have to take responsibility for our
health. He went into the law of attraction and is clearly influenced by
what is currently referred to as 'the secret'. He drew quite a
crowd on Monday morning and his workshop on pranayama yoga was well
attended. For me personally his lecture was a stark contrast to the
informal talk a few of us heard on Tibetan Healing on Tuesday. In that
workshop the power of the mind was also stressed, but the conclusion
was mainly that we need to work on ourselves to get rid of anger,
desire and closed minds. On Monday evening there was a slide show on
the work Dr. Trevor Ford had done in the Grand Canyon researching old
stone layers visible there. Robert Woolley did a presentation on
Tuesday on Sacred Gardens as Therapy. He showed us his own experiments
in the area of creating a sacred garden using symbolism in the design.
The result obviously had more to do with getting to know the energies
and healing one's spirit, rather than one's body.
One of
the highlights for me personally was the lecture Barry Thompson, the
librarian of the London headquarters and one of the younger members,
gave on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. He contrasted the work by
Blavatsky on the after death states with that done by C.W. Leadbeater.
Then he went on to look at the Tibetan Book of the Dead. I hope to
publish more on that on my website - stay tuned. When most people were
attending the workshop by Michael Gomes, I went to the one by Hugh
Agnew. He had a whole folder prepared for us and as we discussed
various themes we went back and forth reading his prepared quotes -
which included material that he wrote himself as well as spiritual
stories, Blavatsky quotes and more. We were a small group, but the
conversations were very good and some of the material Hugh collected
will come back on this website in one form or another.
On
Thursday Susan Bayliss gave a talk on 'The Healing Power of Thought'.
It was mainly a summing up of some of the healing methods she uses
herself, like stones. The best part were the paintings she had made of
her own observations of the aura. Most of it was old stuff for people
familiar with the work by C.W. Leadbeater, but it was good to see how
real it all was to her. I was struck with her picture of the result on
the deeper planes of negative thoughts. She showed what she saw when
someone a friend of hers had a quarrel with someone else. That someone
was outside in the car and Susan saw black and red arrows go to her
friend and later found out that they had in fact been quarreling. To me
it was a good reminder of the fact that our thoughts, especially when
charged with emotion, can have tremendous effect on people - whether
present or not.
Thursday night I was part of a play that
Alan Hughes had created for the school on The Wonderful Story of the
Mahatma Letters. I played Patience Sinnett and had the closing lines.
Colyn Price played my husband: A.P. Sinnett. Michael Gomes was A.O.
Hume and Cornelia Price was A.P. Blavatsky. It was good fun.
On
Friday Chaganti V.K. Maithreya, for whom this was the last lecture in a
series, showed us a video on the TOS work after the Tsunami in
India. His lecture accompanying that was mainly on the importance of
yama and niyama (good behavior mainly) for yoga.
I think
all present will agree that we had a great week. The atmosphere was
happy, even playful, because Michael Gomes joked with everyone he met.
This set the tone of the whole summer school. The program had
something for everybody - and because there was also practical work
(workshops) our minds didn't come out quite as overloaded as they
usually do after a theosophical school. There was not just a good
balance between practical and theoretical, but also a good balance
between Blavatskyan theosophy and other lines of spirituality. This
school showed, in my opinion, how good a theosophical week can be.
There is tremendous potential for inspiration and learning in the
combination of various perspectives. That potential certainly came out
in this school.
Previous
issues of Lucifer7 can be found at the online index of
Lucifer7
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