Medley

Friendship

Details: Published: Monday, 09 September 2013 19:46

David Bruce – USA

[As a young child, David Bruce learned about Theosophy from his mother, Vera Bruce. In 2003 he joined the staff of the Theosophical Society in America where he worked as the director of education until 2010, at which time he assumed the responsibilities of national secretary, a position he holds to this day.]

Aristotle, Facebook, and Friendship

I’ll begin with a question: “Who doesn’t need friends?” To pose that question is to beg the obvious, because the need for friendship is so deeply ingrained in human nature. The young need friends . . . and so do the elderly. The poor need friends . . . as do the prosperous. Ordinary people need friends . . . and so do celebrities. People in positions of power need friends . . . as do the rest of us. So, to rephrase the original question: Who needs friends? The answer, of course, is everybody.

It may be said that a life of wealth without friends would be a sad and lonely existence; but a life filled with the laughter and love of dear friends would be a life that is rich indeed. Throughout the ages, this has been one of those enduring truths of human existence. But what exactly is friendship? And who can define it? Ask ten people and you will likely get ten definitions, similar perhaps, but not identical. Even Plato, in his dialogue on friendship, Lysis, does not provide us with a conclusive definition.

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Reflections on the meaning of life

Details: Published: Friday, 28 June 2013 01:24

With Professor P. Krishna from India

Questions

• Generally the big questions about life arise out of grief, illness, death and seldom during happy moments– which we all chase. What is happiness for you?

Happiness is a by-product of right living, which in turn requires wisdom. Theosophy literally means the quest for wisdom, which is the same as the quest for truth since the perception of truth ends illusion. The perception of what is true and what is false is self-knowledge which is the key to wisdom and therefore to happiness. Only then is happiness not dependant on circumstances.

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Can Meditation Make You a More Compassionate Person?

Details: Published: Friday, 28 June 2013 01:18

Scientists have mostly focused on the benefits of meditation for the brain and the body, but a recent study by Northeastern University's David DeSteno, published in Psychological Science, takes a look at what impacts meditation has on interpersonal harmony and compassion.

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Focus

Details: Published: Friday, 28 June 2013 00:55

Leo Babauta – USA

A simplicity manifesto in the Age of Distraction

Part three

The beauty of disconnection

“Without great solitude no serious work is possible.”
Pablo Picasso

There are days when I wake up and refuse to turn on the Internet, and sit still with my cup of coffee in the hush that fills the hours just before dawn. I’ll listen to the quiet. I’ll reflect on life. I’ll lose myself in a novel. Some days I’ll sit down and write, just my thoughts and the quiet and the gentle tapping of the keyboard. And it's beautiful!

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Abortion and the Reincarnation of the Soul

Details: Published: Friday, 28 June 2013 00:14

James Colbert – USA

The place was a bank building. It had a meeting room on the second floor, a room of the kind some banks make available to nonprofit or spiritual groups for their meetings. The location was Laguna Beach, nesting along the California coast. The meeting was a Theosophical one. The topic was abortion. The tone was decidedly against abortion. Fifty people were in the audience. After the presentation, a young woman came up. I had given the talk.

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Our Closeness is This

Details: Published: Saturday, 23 February 2013 13:19

Tim Boyd – USA

[This article was the "Viewpoint" for the Quest magazine in Fall 2012.]

There is a principle that functions as a sort of touchstone for many of us. It is an understanding that we are intimately connected in some way to a greater life – an abiding presence that, when allowed, informs our awareness in profound ways, heightening our understanding and quieting our obsessive thinking process. A great deal of what constitutes our “spiritual life” is involved in creating conditions for a fuller experience of this inner richness. To call this experience addictive would inaccurate, but, once experienced, everything else seems to pale in comparison.

Closeness

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A Hawaiian Story

Details

Published: Saturday, 23 February 2013 13:14

Making a difference [courtesy of Robert Zuk]

Once upon a time, there was a wise kupuna (elder), who went to the sea to contemplate. One day while walking along the shore, the kupuna looked down the beach, and saw a gracefully dancing human figure. The kupuna wondered out loud, "who would so joyfully greet this day with hula?" and began to walk faster to catch up. Getting closer the kupuna saw that the dancer was a keiki (child), who was not dancing at all. The keiki was reaching down to the sand to pick up something, and was gently throwing it into the sea. The kupuna called out to the keiki, "Aloha! What are you doing?" The keiki paused, looked up and replied, "Throwing starfish into the sea." Surprised, the kupuna sputtered, "I guess I should have asked, "Why are you throwing starfish into the sea?" The keiki smiled brightly, pointed upward and, with exquisite simplicity, replied "The sun is up, the tide is going out, if I don't throw them in they will die." "But don't you realize," asked the kupuna, "that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it? You can't possibly make a difference!" The keiki listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it gently into the sea, just beyond the breaking waves, and exuberantly declared, "It made a difference for that one." -- Ka Hôkû Kai

Principles of the Ancient Wisdom and the Spiritual Path

Details

Published: Friday, 22 February 2013 01:50

Gary Kidgell – Scotland

The classical teachings of Ancient Wisdom describe humanity as the Fourth kingdom of nature, being preceded by the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms. When we tread the spiritual path we are seeking entry to what is referred to as the Fifth Kingdom of Souls where spiritual masters reside. We are endeavouring here to attain a considerably higher form of consciousness and level of being. This process relates not only to us developing a far greater degree of sensitivity, perception and understanding of the world around us, but also that life and our relationship to other beings and the universe is seen from an entirely different perspective. This may only occur through a metamorphosis of our consciousness.

The famous Hermetic axiom of ‘As Above So Below’ relates to the fact that the divine life, which pervades our entire universe, tends to display similar qualities in the various forms which it activates and expresses itself through. We therefore witness analogies in the lower kingdoms of nature which represent the archetypal process of spiritual transformation.

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More Articles ...

Focus

Changing Perspectives and Converging Values (plus a response by Edi Bilimoria)

Focus

Conflict Prevention

Developments in Theosophy-Science extract

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