The Society

Editorial

Details

Published: Thursday, 29 September 2011 03:02

Jan Nicolaas Kind – Brazil

Jan Nicolaas Kind

Nowadays life is hardly possible without computers and it is an increasingly virtual environment that we are creating. We can become a virtual member of an organization, we meet virtual friends on Facebook or other social Networking sites, and we can read EBooks on a PC or tablet. We can visit virtual libraries and virtually take books from a shelf, and we can even enter virtual meditation rooms if we choose to do so.

Read more: Editorial

Helping our Neighbor and Promoting Theosophy – Part three

Details

Published: Sunday, 25 September 2011 22:27

An experiment of the Theosophical Society in Israel in offering some Theosophical principles to the public in simplified and practical form.

Lesson 3 (out of 5 Lessons)

How We Create the Difficulties in Our Lives

Thoughts and emotions are the basis for all our actions and deeds – "The final result begins with a thought.”

Everything we create is created first in our thoughts. Thought is the drawing board for planning a house and without it we couldn't even raise our arm. All the creations we see around us (table, airplanes, houses, paintings) are all the result of thought.

Read more: Helping our Neighbor and Promoting Theosophy – Part three

World War II Project

Details

Published: Sunday, 25 September 2011 21:16

Message from Janet Kerschner – TSA Archivist

Janet Kerschner

Help me collect material for a book about the Theosophical Society and World War II. My particular interest is to show how Theosophists faced the realities of wartime, both on the home front and in combat. The international TS and national Sections embraced the Allied cause in what was considered to be a just war or a karmic necessity. Theosophists served in every branch of the American armed forces, and civilians provided massive support. Members in Europe and Java were persecuted and interned in concentration camps. During the postwar years, members in Europe received huge assistance from fellow Theosophists. I want to show both the uniqueness of Theosophists and their ordinary-mainstream-patriotic qualities. These are questions to ask Theosophists who experienced the war:
•    Were you a Theosophist before WWII? How about your family and friends?
•    How did you spend the war years?
•    Did you become a Theosophist, or did your understanding of Theosophy grow, due to the war?
•    Can you relate any stories that illustrate the Three Objects during the war - brotherhood, understanding of other religions, supernormal experiences?
•    Did you keep in touch with other Theosophists during the war, and what were their stories?
•    Do you know people who tried to maintain a vegetarian diet?
•    Do you know of Theosophists who were pacifists?
•    If on the home front, did you support the TOS and groups like Red Cross in projects to support servicemen, refugees,   and others in need?
•    If in combat, did you carry any Theosophical writings that helped to sustain you?
•    What was the effect of the war on your lodge or study group?
•    What happened to you in the postwar years?

Leaflets distributed by the TS among service men and women during WW II

C. Jinarajadasa in London in 1943

I would love to see photographs, correspondence, works of art and poetry, personal memoirs, newspaper clippings, and lodge papers that would help to illustrate the wartime realities of Theosophists.

Thank you for your help! Thanks also to the Kern Foundation for supporting this project.

Janet Kerschner,
(+) 630-668-1571 ext 353

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mini –interviews July August 2011

Details

Published: Saturday, 09 July 2011 01:18

Opinions and ideas expressed in the mini-interviews are exclusively of those who are being interviewed. They don’t necessarily represent the ideas and opinions of the compilers of Theosophy Forward.

The responses of the interviewees are not edited for content. Some contributors give short answers to the questions while others touch upon the subject more elaborately.

Doreen Domb

1.    What’s your name, where are you from and how long have you been a member of the TS?

My name is Doreen Domb. Originally, I am from western New York State; I have resided in California for 32 years (about 22 years in Los Angeles area, and currently, nearly 10 years in the Sierra Nevada foothills (Grass Valley) of Northern California.  Initially, I became a member-at-large - relative to the TS Adyar - while I was living in Sedona, Arizona during the mid-1980s. [LOGISTICS NOTE: Prior to first settling in California, I had lived and worked at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Northern Arizona, during spring-summer 1979.  Bypassing a very long story, I found myself living in Los Angeles by late summer 1979. I returned to Arizona in May 1985 - this time, Sedona - and became acquainted with a newly established local TS group in early 1986. I then became a TS Adyar member at the national level. I returned to Los Angeles in Spring 1986.] Back in Los Angeles once more, I set about searching for a locally established group in the area.  I was *fortunate to have discovered Los Angeles Lodge (TS Adyar affiliate) that – if memory correctly serves - William Judge had founded back in 1894. L.A. Lodge was later renamed the Los Angeles Center for Theosophic Studies (LACTS).  By late 1986/early 1987, I had become a local TS member as well as maintaining my national affiliation. I was quite active in LACTS, which encompassed study group participation, teaching some classes, and being an officer (Vice President; Publicity Director) during my 10 years or so with the L.A. group.     

*In hindsight, I realized that a Theosophical group particularly based in the source teachings/ teachers (HPB, the Mahatmas, Judge) was something for which I’d been searching for quite some time.

Read more: Mini –interviews July August 2011