Theosophist /* */ var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src="http://theosophist.wordpress.com//" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var wpcomPageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-52447-2");wpcomPageTracker._setDomainName("wordpress.com");wpcomPageTracker._initData();wpcomPageTracker._trackPageview(); #headerimage { background: url(http://s.wordpress.com/wp-content/themes/pub/mistylook/img/misty.jpg) no-repeat;}.recentcomments a{display:inline !important;padding: 0 !important;margin: 0 !important;}table.recentcommentsavatar img.avatar { border: 0px; margin:0; }table.recentcommentsavatar a {border: 0px !important; background-color: transparent !important}td.recentcommentsavatartop {padding:0px 0px 1px 0px; margin: 0px; }td.recentcommentsavatarend {padding:0px 0px 1px 0px; margin:0px; }td.recentcommentstexttop { border: none !important; padding:0px 0px 0px 10px;}td.recentcommentstextend { border: none !important; padding:0px 0px 2px 10px;}/**/ Home sights & soundsthe pilgrims Theosophistvoices from the path Feed on Posts Comments Artificial Intelligence and Theosopy August 14, 2008 by dnoga322  The popular Matrix movie trilogy depicts a futuristic dystopia in which humanity is enslaved by intelligent machines, used as a power source while they live out virtual lives in a computer-generated world similar to the “real” world just pre-dating the takeover of the machines. What is not explored in great depth in the movies themselves is the back-story: How things ended up that way.A series of animated shorts, entitled The Animatrix, explored some of the peripheral stories surrounding the series. Two of the chapters are devoted to developing the storyline that leads up to the situation depicted in the movies. It begins when humanity succeeds in the creation of artificial intelligence. Soon, intelligent, anthropomorphic machines are doing almost all of humanity’s “dirty work,” and humanity falls into a state of vain decadence. One day, a robot with the designation B1-66ER is threatened by its owner with deactivation, and in response, kills both the owner and the mechanic instructed to deactivate it. B1-66ER is arrested and put on trial. The robot claims that it acted in self-defense, stating that it “simply did not want to die.”Those who are interested can explore the story in greater detail here, but I’d like to look at the case of B1-66ER in a Theosophical light. Continue Reading » Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged incarnation, monad, artificial intelligence, consciousness | 11 Comments » Transcending the self… serving humanity August 5, 2008 by katinkaspiritual Never content to not understand anything related to theosophy - I looked up this phenomonoly (hope I spelled that correctly) Govert and Chris talk so much about, without ever explaining it.  Anyhow - I still don’t really understand Govert’s posts on the subject, but I did read some interesting bits on self transcendence last night. They go a bit beyond ‘Expanding our centre of cosciousness‘ into a terrain I’m not personally familiar with - the centre disappears totally. This is something Krishnamurti did talk about, but to me - there always is a centre. Continue Reading » Posted in Philosophy, Theosophy | Tagged atma, higher self, phenomonology, spiritual growth, transcendence, vedanta | 13 Comments » Blavatsky C.W. online (again) July 21, 2008 by katinkaspiritual  The policy of this blog is to not have too many posts that consist of merely dropping a link. I’m going to break that policy today because I’ve picked up where the deceased Ton den Hartog left off: put the Blavatsky Collected Writings on my website, with the permission of the Wheaton Headquarters obviously.So without further ado: The H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Posted in Occultism, Philosophy, Religion, Science, Theosophy | Tagged Blavatsky, h.p. blavatsky, hpb, theosophical classics, Theosophy | 1 Comment » We’re growing! July 12, 2008 by Chris Just a quick note: With over 6,000 hits, we recently made WordPress’ list of Top 100 Growing Blogs!This is a community effort, so thanks to everyone for checking in and adding comments. Please keep doing so. Check out the archives, click on tags and do searches. There are already a great number of posts that had sparked fantastic discussions that got lost as new posts gained attention.Please spread the word by linking to us on your own sites or the sites you frequent. And remember, I am always looking for more theosophists to become authors, particularly ones who are active at theosophical centers or camps. The more perspectives the better!Thanks again to all! Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment » What is and isn’t t(T)heosophy? July 12, 2008 by Chris   I’m curious what others think does and does not constitute theosophy. Continue Reading » Posted in Theosophy | Tagged Theosophy | 11 Comments » best wishes to Govert July 4, 2008 by Chris  The philosopher in actionAs you may know, our dear friend Govert Schuller is taking a sabbatical at Far Horizons and will be largely incommunicado for the next three months. I have worked, studied, taught, drank, argued, eaten, walked and talked, talked and talked with Govert for many years now, and though I know these summer months will pass by rapidly, I will miss him dearly. Continue Reading » Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments » The friends of Mary - about speaking the truth June 28, 2008 by katinkaspiritual There is something magical about truth.I lied to my grandmother the other day. She had noted that her son’s girlfriend (let’s call her Mary) knew a lot of people where she was staying. My grandmother thought that was a bit odd. I told her we had arranged for Mary’s friends to take care of her. That was a nice thought, my grandmother said. Continue Reading » Posted in Theosophy | Tagged Krishnamurti, lies, lying, truth | 5 Comments » The Seven Theosophical Principles: An Initial Experiential Grounding in Reflective Experience June 26, 2008 by Govert This small essay is an initial attempt to bring to language the “lived, first-personal, experiential characteristics” of the 7 Theosophical principles of our being based on the idea that these are “subjective, introspectivley available features.” (1) Continue Reading » Posted in Theosophy | Tagged phenomenology, Theosophy | 7 Comments » Theosophical Pecha Kucha June 26, 2008 by Chris  We’re on for October 2nd, 2008! Continue Reading » Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments » Beyond Global Warming: Consciousness as the Ultimate Cause of Earth Changes June 13, 2008 by Govert The following article is by a good friend of mine, Steve Larsen, and addresses the global warming phenomenon from a consciousness perspective that is quite Theosophical, if not, entirely so, and therefore is a great example of applying the truths of the Wisdom Tradition to current affairs. Govert Continue Reading » Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments » The division between a Higher and a lower Self, an idea. June 12, 2008 by Pablo In a previous comment Chris asked about the theosophical model of the human constitution, which proposes the existence of a Higher and a lower self, and the statement by Krishnamurti that such a separation is “an idea, not a fact”.In this kind of subjects, the focus of Krishnamurti and Theosophy differs—but only the focus, not the essential teaching, as I’m going to illustrate below. Continue Reading » Posted in Theosophy | Tagged Krishnamurti, Theosophy | 7 Comments » Betsy’s Guts June 10, 2008 by Chris  Caterpillars are cute. Typically, a creature with that many legs tends more to the creepy. Perhaps it is its furr(zz)iness that provokes ‘awws’ rather than ‘ewws’ and rescue rather than squashing, but equally compelling may be our our optimistic identification with this earth bound crawler’s destiny with the sky, its inevitable transformation into a higher form of life. After all, stick a pair of wings on the ugliest person and all of sudden they’re an angel. Continue Reading » Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged nature | 13 Comments » Are you being served? June 9, 2008 by Chris I’m an unrepentant intellectual. I smile conspiratorially when I hear people critique Joseph Campbell for his claim that ‘underlining passages in books’ was his spiritual practice, and there are few things that inspire me like a well-phrased idea, polemics as play.I felt the prickly parts of me bristle yesterday when Juliana Cesano told Govert Schuller and I that some of the issues we struggle with would disappear if we thought in terms of how we were being of service to others. And by ‘others’ she didn’t mean some phenomenological designation of radical alterity. She meant actual people. I’m quite facile with the idea of people, and could give a long treatise on how each individual is a realization of the divine that needs to be embraced in its fundamental, wondrous and utterly unique instantiation of ultimate Spirit. Actual people though? Well, I do like a few of them . . .There could be a lot of debate on how to best be of service to others. And on another day that will be well worth exploring. For now though, I just want to raise the question: What changes when we think in terms of how we are being of service to others? Do you feel any conflict between what drives you and a call to service? Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged service | 10 Comments » Saturn symbolized in the Baghavad Gita and Buddhist wheel of life tankas? June 4, 2008 by latebrake A bit ago I joined a yahoo group for astrology out of India/Bangladesh. For the most part this forum is dedicated to persons writing in and asking for advice to deal with life situations. Much of it is devoted to Saturn, generally addressing Saturn by the name Shani or Lord Shani. Occasionally other names are used, one being Krishna. I looked at other websites and occasionally the names Krishna and Yhamma were used. I found this interesting because I have heard of Saturn being called “The Initiator.” Continue Reading » Posted in Occultism, Religion | Tagged Krishna, astrology, Saturn | 1 Comment » Expanding Our Centre of Consciousness May 27, 2008 by Pablo In the last issue of The Theosophist ( May 2008 ) there is an article of mine. In it I examine this topic from a psychological point of view, as presented by J. Krishnamurti, and an Occultist approach according to the writings of some theosophical leaders.You can find the article on my website, or click hereMy thesis is that these two approaches are complementary. What do you think? Posted in Occultism, Theosophy | Tagged Blavatsky, Krishnamurti, Theosophy | 11 Comments » theosophists having fun?! / Barbara Maria Stafford May 26, 2008 by Chris  We theosophists appear to be an earnest bunch. I suppose a deep and abiding concern for spiritual evolution can lend one an air of seriousness. However, we’re also a community bound by laughter, joy . . . and bubbles. Continue Reading » Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged theosophical society | 8 Comments » “Truth is a Pathless Land” May 23, 2008 by Pablo This is one of Krishnamurti’s statements purported to be against Theosophy, because the Theosophical literature frequently speaks about “the Path”. But the seemingly clash between concepts, I believe, is due to an imperfect understanding of both Krishnamurti’s and Theosophical teachings. Continue Reading » Posted in Theosophy | Tagged Krishnamurti, Theosophy | 1 Comment » someone i would like to meet May 19, 2008 by latebrake Though HPB is generally linked with the east in most of our minds, i have always thought it interesting that she disappeared into Turkey and resurfaced in Egypt. In the between, i believe she was said to be living in Lebanon, amongst some of the Druze. The Druze also get one mention in the Mahatma letters, in which KH refers to being invited by his “Druze brethren” to assist in emergency in Egypt. I sometimes wonder if there is not more of a link to Islamic thought and culture to the TS than one hears about.Here is a contemporary that I think is pretty dang amazing.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seyyed_Hossein_Nasr Posted in Religion | Tagged Islam | 1 Comment » Theosophy & Krishnamurti May 18, 2008 by Chris  An important and unsettled question in modern Theosophy is its relationship to the teachings of Krishnamurti, a topic that several contributors here have already written extensively about. Continue Reading » Posted in Theosophy | Tagged Krishnamurti, Theosophy | 42 Comments » Pleasure vs. Enjoinment May 15, 2008 by Pablo We have been exploring different aspects of happiness, pleasure, suffering, etc., and I’d like to offer another perspective. Continue Reading » Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments » Older Posts » Top Posts best wishes to GovertArtificial Intelligence and TheosopyPope John Paul II meditating on the Tarot?Saturn symbolized in the Baghavad Gita and Buddhist wheel of life tankas?The division between a Higher and a lower Self, an idea.The Seven Theosophical Principles: An Initial Experiential Grounding in Reflective ExperienceTranscending the self... serving humanityeveryday ecstasy II Recent Posts Artificial Intelligence and Theosopy Transcending the self… serving humanity Blavatsky C.W. online (again) We’re growing! What is and isn’t t(T)heosophy? 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BlogT.S. in AmericaTheosophical GlossaryTheosophical Order of ServiceTheosophy ForumTheosophy wikiUnited Lodge of Theosophists Authors  Chris  Govert  Pablo katinkaspiritual latebrake  mitdyob dnoga322 Archives August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 Blog Stats 7,905 hits Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Mistylook by Sadish._qmeta="qc:adt=0;bti=Theosophist;lan=en";_qacct="p-18-mFEk4J448M";quantserve(); st_go({'blog':'3037930','v':'wpcom','post':'0','subd':'theosophist'});ex_go({'crypt':'D6%7C%2CY1mqtiRa%3DV%26%7CQbTtZOw5UrDNB%7E-74%2F%2CVpJ8DhnBaMP%7E%5DdaS-%2CVfiejnzmxp%26IK_norx-8RPOwq%5Dj%2BK%2C%3Dq%7C%2Bi%26PWnQvAlT%2B%3D6-zJoA%2BA1jZ%2B%26rw3P%2B3Vo%257pE5-aJrKw.t%5Bei%3Dt9KUQ2LfSMYM%25KtB%25Wr%3F56T6z855'});addLoadEvent(function(){linktracker_init(3037930,0);}); |
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