Theosophical Society in England & Wales

The Mystic Potency of Om - a zoom talk by Terri King
Sunday 23rd June – 6pm UK Time

HP Blavatsky described OM as “All that is, and all that can be” Google tells us that: “In the Upanishads, Om is described as the source of all knowledge, sound, and vibration and a signifier of the Divine and Absolute Reality”

In this talk, Terri will explore a number of statements which have been made on the intrinsic nature of Om and discover its mystical potency on our lives here on Earth.

erri has been an active member of the Theosophical Society for nearly fifteen years, and has completed both the Foundation Diploma Course and the Advanced Diploma Course in Theosophy. She has participated in many Summer School and Weekend events run by the Society, as well as a number of Study Groups which look in depth at selected spiritual topics. Many of you will see that Terri has recently started contributing talks on the Sunday Night Live forum on subjects which inspire her.

Open to All

Please register HERE: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUucuytqjktEtQtz1Cs1D5bxcMZZtCgo9rH

If you wish to register as an Associate of the Theosophical Society in England, Visit https://theosophicalsociety.org.uk/joinus or email [email protected]

Become an Associate for £10, and join all forthcoming TSE Zoom events for one year

You can download the PDF here:https://theosophicalsociety.org.uk/Events/Programme%20Booklet%20Web.pdf
or view it online here: https://theosophicalsociety.org.uk/summer-school-2024

It is time to register for this year’s exciting Summer School at a lovely new venue in Derbyshire. Details are on the TSEW website where you will find an application form. For any queries, please contact either Andrea, the Summer School registrar [email protected].

Summer School 2024

2nd to 6th SEPTEMBER
The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire

THE MYSTERY OF LIFE AND DEATH.

Four days of inspiring lectures, Study Groups, Workshops,
Chi Kung and Meditations.

The Blavatsky Lecture will be given by Petra Meyer
'Eternal Duration and Moments in Time'

Other Speakers include: Gary Kidgell, Elizabeth Crofts, Wayne Gatfield, Pam Evans and National President Jenny Baker.

Through the Ages

In May 1880 Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland’s friend, Lady Caithness, gave them a book her son, the Duke of Medina Pomar, had written several years previously when little more than a boy. The book, which was entitled “Through the Ages”, was a novel based on the theme of reincarnation and tracing the progress of a Soul seeking perfection over a series of earth lives through undergoing the whole gamut of human experience. In the night, following receipt of the gift, Anna Kingsford was given the first eight verses of a poem, echoing the theme of the book, but concerning her own former lives which are portrayed as spanning aeons of time as she passes through the kingdoms of nature before reaching the human kingdom. It was not until some years later that she was given the remaining verses which continue the theme of reincarnation and deal with her lives in human form. In these her progress continues apace until the dawning of the perfect day and perfection is attained. The whole poem, entitled “Through the Ages” in honour of the work that prompted it, is to be found in “Dreams and Dream-Stories”, a fascinating collection of Anna Kingsford’s dreams.

An interesting feature of Anna Kingsford’s poem is that it shows her as retaining the same tincture of soul through all the changes of form and condition she undergoes, for instance: “...A cloud across a sunset sky, /A cactus flower of scarlet dye, /A bird with throat and wings of flame...” This soul tincture in Anna Kingsford’s case was the red, as indicated by the predominant colour of her aura.

The corresponding soul tincture in Edward Maitland’s case was the blue/violet. Blended, they make the royal purple. Thus, these two combined the two extremes of the prism which comprise between them all the Seven Spirits of God. As was revealed to them, Anna Kingsford’s soul tincture was the “blood-red ray of the innermost sphere”, the sphere of the “first of the Gods”, in which “Love and Wisdom are one”, and Edward Maitland’s soul tincture was the violet of the outermost sphere, that of the “last of the Gods”, the “Spirit of the Fear of the Lord”, that is, of Reverence and Humility. The First Edition of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland’s major work, “The Perfect Way”, was, according to Edward Maitland, “bound in the nearest colour to purple that was to be had, namely, a “peacock-blue”, in order – while including the Seven Spirits of God – to combine our own colours, the red and the blue.” The inference to be drawn from this is that in “The Perfect Way” we have the resultant of the combined talents of two very different, but complementary, personalities, the one endowed with genius of a very high order and the other with maturity and rich understanding.

Brian McAllister

Brian’s simplified and abridged version of The Perfect Way (“The Essence of The Perfect Way”) may be ordered from [email protected] at the special price of only £15. It is a very high quality and beautifully bound hardback that provides a gentle introduction to the spiritual treasures of The Perfect Way.

It is time to register for this year’s exciting Summer School at a lovely new venue in Derbyshire. Details are on the TSEW website where you will find an application form. For any queries, please contact either Andrea, the Summer School registrar [email protected].

Summer School 2024

2nd to 6th SEPTEMBER
The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire

THE MYSTERY OF LIFE AND DEATH.

Four days of inspiring lectures, Study Groups, Workshops,
Chi Kung and Meditations.

The Blavatsky Lecture will be given by Petra Meyer
'Eternal Duration and Moments in Time'

Other Speakers include: Gary Kidgell, Elizabeth Crofts, Wayne Gatfield, Pam Evans and National President Jenny Baker.

Sri Ramana maintained that the individual self is nothing more than an ever-changing thought or idea.
This thought he called the ‘I’-thought.
The mind, which is but a bundle of thoughts, is an illusion that is generated when the rising ‘I’-thought identifies itself with the body and imagines that he or she is an individual person.

This illusion, that the ‘I’ is the mind-body complex, is then sustained by the perpetual stream of thoughts that the mind generates. The ‘I’-thought identifies with all of these thoughts and thus is sustained and maintained by the illusion that the individual self or the mind is a continuous and real entity.
The mind lives by dividing, distinguishing and discriminating.
It creates knowing subjects distinct from known objects and yet, all it creates are nothing but illusions.

In the waking state, the mind functions due to the reflection of Consciousness in it. The same holds true with regard to the dream state.
In the deep sleep state, there is no definite knowledge of objects because the mind is not functioning. Only Consciousness is present in the deep sleep state and this is demonstrated by an individual’s exclamation upon waking,
“I slept so well that I do not remember
anything last night.”

Sri Ramana declared that a person can reverse this process by depriving the ‘I’-thought of all thoughts and perceptions that it normally identifies with.
If one can break this false connection between the ‘I’-thought and all the thoughts that it identifies with, then the ‘I’-thought itself will subside and eventually disappear.

Sri Ramana said that the ‘I’-thought originates from what he called the Heart.
He said,
“That from which all thoughts of embodied beings issue forth is called the Heart. All descriptions of it are only mental concepts.”
(Ganapati Muni, Sri Ramana Gita, ch.5, v.2.)

“Search for the source of the ‘I’-thought. That is all that one has to do. The universe exists on account of the ‘I’-thought. If that ends there is an end to misery also. The false ‘I’ will end only when its source is sought.”
(Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, §222 & §347)

The fact is that the mind is only a bundle of thoughts.
How can you extinguish it by the thought of doing so or by a desire?
Your thoughts and desires are part and parcel of the mind. The mind is simply fattened by new thoughts rising up. Therefore it is foolish to attempt to kill the mind by means of the mind. The only way of doing it is to find its source and hold on to it. The mind will then fade away of its own accord.

If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into its source, its mental habits or tendencies (vasana) become extinct. The light of the Self, Consciousness, falls on these mental habits and produces the phenomenon of reflection that individuals interpret as thoughts, as the mind. Thus, when mental habits become extinct, the mind also becomes extinct as it is absorbed into the light of the Self.

The mind is like a river that ceaselessly flows in the bed of the body.
How can an ever-fluctuating mind make itself steady?
It cannot.
It is the very nature of thoughts to roam. Thus, one must go beyond the mind. One should not think of changing the mind – it already is changing all the time.
The mind covers the Self like the clouds that obscures the sun. The mind with its thoughts, is like a thief. One must constantly watch it, not because you want anything from it, but because you don’t want it to steal attention away from what is real, Consciousness.

It is not enough to declare that one is not one’s body or one’s mind. That is still a thought within the mind. Deciding that one is not the mind is an activity of the mind. Experiencing anything is still an experience of the mind. One must pursue the quest to its logical conclusion.
Seek the source of thoughts. Eventually the ‘I’-thought will go back to its source and become extinct.
Thus, the Upanisadic saying,
“Whence words return along with the mind, not attaining it.”
(Taittiriya Upanisad, 2.4.1. yato vaco nivartante aprapya manasa saha.)

Sri Ramana said that an enquiry into the source of the ‘I’-thought will render all one’s habitual tendencies (vasana) extinct. Thus arises a question, if all one’s vasanas are destroyed, why is the mind’s dissolution then necessary?
In other words, isn’t the mind nothing other than the entire collection of its vasanas? The response is that the life of the lower self forms one type of bo***ge, i.e., vasanas cause misery directly, but another type of bo***ge, i.e., the mere sense of duality, remains in the mind. Thus, not only vasanas, but also the mind must be dissolved.

Secondly, when the mind is dissolved, the effects of all accumulated past actions (prarabdha karma) are also dissolved. When the mind is dissolved, the recurrence of any vasana whatsoever is also stopped forever.

Yoga in "The Voice of the Silence"
Pablo Sender

April 17 Wednesday
10:00 am – noon PT / On-site and Zoom
Session $15

Krotona Institute of Theosophy, 46 Krotona St., Ojai CA 93023
• 805 646-1139 • [email protected] • krotonainstitute.org

In this presentation we will explore the spiritual practice presented in the First Fragment of The Voice of the Silence. This Theosophical classic, published by Blavatsky in 1889, describes a meditative approach that includes elements of the system known as nāda-yoga, which describes a path of union with the Self by meditating on the inner sound.

Pablo Sender, PhD, has been a member of the Theosophical Society since 1996. He has lived and worked at the international headquarters of the TS in Adyar, India, at the national center of the TS in America, and is currently residing in the Krotona Institute of Theosophy in Ojai, California. He has presented programs and retreats in India, Europe, Oceania, and the three Americas. He writes for many Theosophical journals and is the author of The Evolution of the Higher Consciousness. www.pablosender.com

Krotona is a non-profit organization dedicated to deepening understanding and realization of the Ageless Wisdom, spiritual Self-transformation, and the Unity of all Life.