The Society

Mini–interviews Maurits Campert

Details: Published: Friday, 19 April 2019 09:37

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

My name is Maurits Campert. I was born in 1947 in the small fisherman’s village of Scheveningen near The Hague although my father was born in Zeeland where my wife and I reside after our retirement. If I remember well, I joined the TS back in the nineties. Because in The Hague (where all spiritual currents are represented around the Peace Palace where vibrations seem to be special) all four TS ‘branches’ reside, I had the possibility to join one after the other in between our stays in France, Germany and again France. Being an independent searcher I found it very inspiring to make acquaintance with the different ‘views’. In France as off 1997 we did run a small Theosophical Information Centre in Siorac-in-Périgord for seven years.

Mini–interviews Swathi

Details: Published: Friday, 19 April 2019 09:36

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

I am Swathi, from: Bangalore (India) and I have been a members since December 2008 (But I have been associated with TS since 3 generations)

Mini–interviews Varsha Patel

Details: Published: Friday, 12 April 2019 09:37

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

My Name is Dr. Varsha Patel. I am from India in the state of Gujarat and I live in Ahmedabad city. I joined T.S in 2004-5.

Read more: Mini–interviews Varsha Patel

Editorial - A handful of random thoughts on Freedom

Details: Published: Wednesday, 26 December 2018 12:17

Jan Nicolaas Kind – Brazil

Thought – One

I vividly remember how my dear mother, in the early 1950’s when I was a child of 5 or 6, would hold and firmly squeeze my hand while walking across busy streets with traffic in the centre of Amsterdam. It was that sort of feeling you get as a child, that your mum wants to take care of you in a potentially dangerous situation. The squeezing I had instinctively taken for granted, but there was one particular street near the Royal Palace and Dam square, called the Raadhuisstraat (English: Town Hall street) where, if we went across there, the squeezing increased to an almost intolerable level. A few years later, I must have been around 7 or 8 years old, and after I had repeatedly asked my mother why the squeezing on that particular street always seemed to increase, she took the time – and had the courage – to tell me why.

Mini-Interviews Perry Coles

Details: Published: Monday, 17 December 2018 07:28

The Society MI 10 Perry Coles

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

My name is Perry Coles, I am from Perth Western Australia, and I joined the Theosophical Society in 1991.

Mini-Interviews Shikhar Agnihotri

Details: Published: Monday, 17 December 2018 07:25

The Society MI 8 Shikhar

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

My name is Shikhar Agnihotri. I live in Lucknow, India, a city which may be familiar to many members of the TS around the world due to Dr. I.K.Taimni, an eminent Theosophist, being from this city. I became a member of the TS in 2008.

Mini-Interviews Smitapragyan Patro

Details: Published: Monday, 17 December 2018 07:21

The Society MI 6 S

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

My name is Smitapragyan Patro. I am from Utkal Theosophical Federation, India. I have been a member of TS since 2006.

Mini–interviews Robert Béland

Details: Published: Monday, 17 December 2018 07:19

The Society MI 4 Robert Beland

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

My name is Robert Béland and I live in the province of Québec, Canada. I became a member of the Theosophical Society forty years ago.

Mini–interviews Nancy Blott

Details: Published: Monday, 17 December 2018 07:14

The Society MI 2 Nancy Blott

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

Nancy Blott, Oklahoma City, became a member the TSA 1986; Life Member-2016.

Read more: Mini–interviews Nancy Blott

The Mission of the Theosophical Society

Details: Published: Friday, 12 October 2018 13:32

Tim Boyd – India, USA

Tim Boyd 2

Tim Boyd, International President of the Theosophical Society - Adyar

Photo: © Richard Dvořák

At our most recent General Council meeting, a mission statement for the Theosophical Society (TS) was finalized. Although many statements have been made related to the mission and purpose of the TS, particularly by H. P. Blavatsky (HPB), in the 143-year history of the TS there has never been a formal mission statement.

In The Key to Theosophy, in a short section titled “The Abstract and The Concrete”, HPB addresses the subject of the relationship between Theosophy and the Theosophical Society. One of the things she says is that “Theosophy is divine nature, visible and invisible, and its Society human nature trying to ascend to its divine parent.”

Editorial - Greed is a disease

Details: Published: Thursday, 27 September 2018 04:41

Jan Nicolaas Kind – Brazil

Greed is a disease

The world’s most devastating illness today is greed. The greed virus has fully infected our behavior and even more lamentably, our thinking. Greed has influenced how we deal with others, the environment, politics, education, religion, our sexual conduct. Human beings are even willing to go to war because of greed; it has made us earthlings corrupt.

The Society A 2 ebenezer scrooge

In most dictionaries greed is described as follows: an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, food, or other possessions

On a website that didn’t mention the name of the author, I found this quote:

“Money and greed are powerful forces that become corrupting influences on people and their environment. As money is seen to equal power, the wealthy people therefore are seen to have more power, giving them more authority over the poor. This creates a separation in the different socio-economic classes, which ultimately creates inequality in a community. Because of this, greed comes into play, causing chaos as violence erupts in order for a person to obtain what they want. Corruption is seen as those who have higher authority are able to abuse their power and get away with it.”

Greed is one of seven basic character flaws or “dark” personality traits. We all have the potential for greedy tendencies, but in people with an especially strong fear of lack – deprivation – greed can become all-consuming.

Message to the participants of ITC 2018 in Berlin

Details: Published: Wednesday, 26 September 2018 04:41

Jan Nicolaas Kind – Brazil

Hello Berlin, hello fellow seekers,

From Brasilia greetings to all participants assembled in Berlin for ITC 2018. The theme for this gathering “What is a Life Worth Living?” is a true invitation for deliberations, dialogues and lots of intensive listening.

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Hand in hand, working together

Our spiritual quest, at times it looks more like a struggle, is not always an easy one. Our world in its current state challenges us. When there is much potential, light and hope for a better world, the counter, or dark forces at the same time become dangerously active, trying to eliminate the good, causing disharmony depression and conflict. We can observe that all around us, it is an occult law. We don’t have search for it, it is so visible: intolerance on many levels, while many of our sisters and brothers who, in spite of the so-called connections through smart phones and social media, are so terribly disconnected.

In order to make certain that Theosophists in years to come will still be able to shine light in the darkness, our commitment and trust are essential. It was often said that Theosophy is not a noun but that it is and will always s be a verb. ITC is working for the future and it is doing that here and now in Berlin, because the now is here, another time does not exist. It is the only true moment in which one can express life: the eternal active present.

ITC is on-going experiment, a work in progress of which all of you are a part. Theosophy as such cannot solve the issues the world is facing, but through Theosophy mankind is able to find keys to go inward and start the so much needed process of regeneration and self-realization.