This issue brings a selection of some of the best articles to pass over your desks and those of the Editors, and so comes with a warm thanks to all who contributed.

Don’t miss the short piece on Optimism below, nor the superbly illuminating second part of “Buddhist Meditation” that follows from May, a reprint from the ever-fresh Theosophical Movement magazine of Mumbai, India.

There the claim is made that when this system is practised and has become ”a firm foundation of one’s character, eleven advantages can be expected: One sleeps at ease, wakes up at ease, sees no bad dreams, he is dear to men, he is dear to ghosts, and is protected by the gods. Also, he is not affected by fire, poison and sword. He is able to concentrate his mind quickly, his features are serene, he dies un-bewildered, and even if he may not penetrate any further, he is one who goes up to Brahmaloka or Brahma’s world”

….  such are the effects of adopting such an outlook of “loving kindness”.

Sceptical about reincarnation? Then you may like to read an impartial review of the work of the late, most genial Dr Ian Stephenson by the then Editor of the Washington Post, on the meticulous way he documented evidences of recovered past-life memories in children…. on p 2.

There’s much more besides these gems, here is the index:

Optimism                    1
Reincarnation                      2
On Buddhist Meditation        3
Modern Universities Belong to Middle Ages         5
Eastern thinking puts no blame on a creator         7
Scholars seek to correct ‘mistakes’ in Bible            8
Correspondence                                                           11
Avaaz hits 10 Million!!!                           11
The Indigenous Grandmothers               11
Serbian man becomes ‘human magnet’   11
Wisdom in Action : “Speaking of Adepts”              12

                   ~  ~   ~ 

So we encourage our readers to a take a little time out, print off a hard copy, and settle into some contemplative reading…  and do pass it on to others when you’re finished.

Yours ever, The AQ Editors

Download the PDF

___________________________________

Optimism

The question of optimism in Theosophy should be examined.

It must be clarified that theosophy – as every true philosophy- is about happiness. Thus a natural optimism emerges from the perception that inner (not apparent) happiness or bliss is the natural result of life, when life is lived in a correct way.

The noble eightfold path is in fact the path to happiness or nirvana.

Theosophy can only be seen as the path of woe from the point of view of lower self, which is illusory.

True, suffering is part of life.  No doubt about that.  This is so because life implies illusions and therefore brings about pain and frustration for those vehicles or principles that move at the level of illusion.

Dukkha, pain or suffering , and more literally “insatisfaction” or affliction, is the first noble truth of Buddhism. 

This is so because it is the starting point of the path towards happiness, bliss, liberation, nirvana.

Therefore Optimism in theosophy does not deny probation or suffering. Just the opposite. It enables us to understand tests and frustration, and to learn from them.

True optimism does not distort facts in the vain hope to deny suffering or confirm one’s naïve expectations, pet illusions or vain attachments.

Optimism in theosophy consists in recognizing the fact that for each pain there is a lesson, and often more than one; and that these lessons can be learned in a conscious way, if one sincerely looks for the causes of suffering.

There is no naïve idealization in true Optimism.

Any lasting Optimism is based on Discernment.  Optimism is that confidence in Life that makes one live in peace amidst the perspective of natural disasters that may significantly reduce human population, with no exceptions granted to ourselves or our friends.

True optimism can appear to be severe because it is deep and therefore does not have to appear on the surface for everyone to see and supposedly applaud.

Optimism, or confidence in the Future, is a deep source of the feeling and of the understanding that sustain long-term self-sacrifice.  One needs to have true optimism to make a vow to dedicate one’s life to an ideal, and also to be loyal to such a vow, leaving aside any expectations for short-term and illusory results, including avoidance of personal pain.

Optimism in esoteric philosophy is therefore the ability to see and to get in harmony with the essence of Life, for essence is the territory of Law, and Law is both the vehicle and the source of bliss.

Download the PDF

• new play about the three founders of the TS in 1875 (extract below from page 1)
• Root Causes ”The Error of Violence” on p 3
• Experiences of a Chela on p 5
• Franklin on Humility & the Virtues p 7
• B.P.Wadia and the early ULT p 8… and don’t miss
• the book review of  the excellent “Is there no other way? – The search for a nonviolent future” p 11

on the founding of the TS –

opens with Narrator, H.P.Blavatsky and Col H.S.Olcott

 extract from Part 1:

 Narrator: … but first, there’s someone else I want to introduce to you all.    So if you’d take a seat.   Colonel, I would like to call forward (raises voice) Mr. William Quan Judge!

          (HSO sits next to HPB as WQJ comes forward, bows to HPB, shakes hands with HSO and turns to face the audience)

         Mr. Judge, we think of you now as the third member of the theosophical ‘trinity’, but am I not right in saying that your doctor many years ago would not have believed such a career as yours would be possible.

  WQJ: He pronounced me dead.

 Narr: Could you elaborate a little, please?

 WQJ:  Not really. I was dead. The doctor had said to my parents who were at the bedside: “I’m deeply sorry, but your son is dead”.

 Narr: (pause) I suspect that everyone in this room feels there’s something more you have to tell us.

WQJ: Well, you can imagine my parents’ surprise when I not only opened my eyes but then started to tell them of having been somewhere else. 

Narr: And in the following months this visiting “somewhere else” continued each time you slept?

WQJ: My mother was a strict Methodist and hated any talk about mysticism and things like reincarnation or the religions of the East.

Narr: And your dreams were of places in the East?

WQJ: Yes, in India. But they weren’t dreams. I was there  – as a boy – a boy of noble birth. Then - (pause)

Narr: Yes?

WQJ: Then he – or rather I – that is, the I in India, died too (pause) Well, actually he didn’t die but he became one with me; or I became one with him. (turns to HPB) Please, Madame, can you explain this better?

HPB: Use your intuition, Judge, and try to understand.

WQJ: To this day I’m not really sure why it was but when I recovered after that near death in Ireland, I found I had an intense interest in books on occultism, and mesmerism and such like. Poor Mother. She felt she’d brought some sort of changeling into the world. And it was doubly “poor Mother” as she exhausted herself giving birth to seven children.

HSO: Didn’t you tell me she died soon after that seventh birth?

WQJ: (pause) Yes. (pause) Father decided that perhaps we’d have a better life in America, so to the United States we came.

————–from Part 4: —————

 HPB: (still writing) That One religion of Nature from which every dogma has grown and – and become sadly materialised, (pretends to gather up papers, stands up, kisses WQJ and follows HSO, waving as she goes)

         (pause)

 Narr: Our revels now are – almost – ended. To round off the story of the formation of our Society this evening, I would like to ask Mr Judge if he would care to say a few closing words – Mr Judge.

 WQJ: (to Narr.) Thank you, Mr – er – thank you. (faces audience)

 Brothers and Sisters, it is surely unnecessary to say to you – members of the T.S. as you all are – that this Society must not fail. It will not fail. As you’ve just heard, we are entering a New Cycle with all the opportunities that it offers!

  Humanity has a choice; it can either move further down that road to where its goals are wealth, possessions and selfish gratification, or up towards a Golden Age of compassionate love and the true joy that comes from an awareness that none of us are separate but integral parts of the whole of Nature.

We have been assured by The Masters that in this task, as long as The Theosophical Society exists, the link between them and ourselves will be maintained.

So, though many attempts will be made to break our resolve through slander, malice and deliberate distortions of what we are attempting to teach -and, more importantly, to show by the way we live – it is only indifference that can seriously weaken our cause.

To study what The Masters have given us is a privilege. What individually you do with that privilege is up to you.

Remember, when we have gone on, you will be the Society’s advocates; you will be its emissaries. And remember too that wonderful phrase - our “Inner Abiding Presence”. Draw comfort from the thought of its existence, or – dare I say – from its realisation.

Therefore, dear friends, whatever your achievements or failures; whenever come your times of happiness or sorrow; wherever you go, may your Inner Abiding Presence always guide you.  (puts hands together)  Namaste.

              (turns to Narr:) Namaste.

              Narr: Namaste.

THE END

 Permission to reprint these extracts were kindly given by the author, Alan Hughes, from the Adyar TS in London UK.

The full text will be reprinted in the May Supplement.

 [...]

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING COMPLETE ISSUE