THE PHILIPPINE THEOSOPHIST - 2021 2nd Quarter Issue

Brotherhood, Study, and Meditation

THE PHILIPPINE

Theosophist

A publication of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines Vol. XLIX, No. 2

April-June, 2021

THERE IS NO RELIGION HIGHER THAN TRUTH

INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS: Adyar, Chennai, India International President: Tim Boyd International Vice-President: Deepa Padhi International Secretary: Marja Artamaa International Treasurer: Nancy Secrest NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS: 1 Iba St., Quezon City, Philippines Tel: 8741-57-40 website: http://theosophy.ph email: philtheos@gmail.com National President: Chally P. Romero email: theosophilpres@gmail.com National Vice-President: Bebot Rodil email: bsrodil@gmail.com National Secretary: Rekha Nahar email: pothikrekha@gmail.com National Treasurer: Jean Lim email: jynlim2@gmail.com

The Philippine Theosophist is the official newsletter of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines.

Editorial Board: Layout Artist: Circulation:

Chally P. Romero Vic Hao Chin Jr. Joselito B. Cendaña Lea Mactal-May Monaliza Brocoy

CONTENTS 4

From the National President

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The Paradox of Self-Transformation

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Gems of the Path

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The Practice of Meditation

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Poetry

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Sacred Fire: Enkindling the Mystical Sense in Daily Life

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Zen and Christianity: Points of Convergence

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The Voice of the Silence: Bringing the Heart Doctrine to the West

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News and Events

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Directory of TSP Lodges and Study Groups

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Also from the TSP

GIVE a unique and special gift — a year’s subscription of the Theosophical Digest, a quarterly magazine containing original as well as selected articles condensed from some of the world’s leading publications on mysticism, religion, science, paranormal research, and many other subjects. Each issue gives insights on the higher life, character building, interpersonal relationships, holistic health, Eastern and Western philosophies, and others. The Theosophical Digest seeks not merely to inform, but to help serious seekers explore pathways to inner growth.

Also from the TSP

GET your digital copies of Peace Ideas, a quarterly publication of the Peace Center of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines. Peace Ideas seeks to disseminate workable ideas that promote lasting peace and universal brotherhood based on the Unity of All Life (or Oneness). It is designed to be an easy, enjoyable, and yet valuable, read for students, teachers, and people from all walks of life.

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he Theosophical Society is a worldwide interspiritual community bound together by the common embrace of universal brotherhood based on the Unity of All Life, and of the Society’s Objects which ultimately serve to help enable its members to wake up to this transcendent Reality – or awaken to theosophia – through study, meditation, and service, among other spiritual practices of the Ageless Wisdom, so that such enlightenment may lead to the fuller embodiment of divine love in our world. It welcomes seekers from all religions and spiritual traditions, as well as those who come from none.

Theosophy, in its primary meaning as theosophia or Divine Wisdom, is a transcendental state of consciousness, or “a state of consciousness in which the sage or mystic goes beyond his or her mind and gets a direct, supra-conceptual, perception of Truth,” as the TS-Adyar website puts it. Theosophy also refers to the body of teachings derived from the accumulated fruits of human spiritual experience through the ages which have their common fountainhead in theosophia or mystical consciousness.

The Mission Statement of the Theosophical Society is: To serve humanity by an ever-deepening understanding and realization of the Ageless Wisdom, spiritual self-transformation, and the Unity of All Life.

The Universal Invocation is a verse written in 1923 by then TS-Adyar president Annie Besant, that is recited during every TS international convention. Also called the Universal Prayer, it goes : O Hidden Life, vibrant in every atom; O Hidden Light, shining in every creature; O Hidden Love, embracing all in Oneness, May all who feel themselves as one with Thee, Know they are therefore one with every other.

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From the National President Chally P. Romero

A Safe Harbor When tempests and typhoons approach, boats and ocean-going vessels promptly seek the nearest safe harbor to take shelter from the buffeting winds and high waves. Usually, it is a cove or a pier with adequate breakwaters that provides shelter. Once ensconced, the ship drops anchor or is secured to a bollard in the harbor pier.

The pandemic quarantine/lockdown in Metro Manila is said to be one of the longest in the world as it has been a year as of March 2021 that the metropolis has been under that emergency measure.

It was in March last year that we initially learned we are facing the threat of a fast-spreading corona virus, and it was prudent of us to immediately decide to lock down the TSP headquarters for a month. Later, we would realize that the government-imposed quarantine lockdown would drag on and on indefinitely. At that time, I sought guidance from my senior Theosophist mentor on what we could do under the circumstances. This was his reply: . . Perhaps be messengers of hope. Perhaps find a way to popularize knowledge of theosophy, with a focus on the Divine Plan, karma and reincarnation, humanity in health and disease, the role of the inner constitution of the individual and its role in health and disease, healing angels, the importance of ceremonials in healing, the development of thought power and thought forms. All these are easily understood in the discussion in “Basic Theosophy” by Geoffrey Hodson and the various works of Annie Besant and CW Leadbeater. HPB talked about these too but she is more difficult to study (for the average member).

Anyway, we hunkered down and made the best of what the situation brought. As early as the following month (April 2020), we started our online Zoom joint lodge meetings which eventually morphed into regular weekly, international activities featuring presenters/speakers and participants from all over the globe. It was one of our youth members, Celeste Sasuman, who became our first presenter for our first online joint lodge meeting. As we prepared to celebrate the first-year anniversary of our online meetings last April, we again invited Celeste to do a presentation. But this time, she was now Mrs. Celeste Sasuman-Yangyang. Indeed, there is always hope!

Even love can be found during a severe pandemic like this!

But menacingly, the start of the second wave of the pandemic also occurred last April. I found myself having to write down the names of an ever-growing list of friends, relatives, colleagues and acquaintances who passed away, on a daily basis. No family was spared from grieving.

Despite our knowledge and understanding of the Ageless Wisdom which is our proverbial “safe 145th TS International Convention Core harbor” during times like this, anxious moments of grief and worry canPlanning sometimes seepGroup into our consciousness. But yes, the Ageless Wisdom can provide us a stable mooring from what seems to be a crazy, senseless world that we all live in. Crazy and senseless, for one would think that the pandemic should have united all of humanity; but alas, armed conflicts continue worldwide, family members continue to bicker, acts of discrimination abound, and so on and on. Unless one’s moorings is firmly anchored in the Ageless Wisdom and its serious practice which enables one to see into the emptiness of the phenomenal world, the pandemic may still get the better of any theosophist.

One thing certain about the pandemic situation, though, is that it is rich in opportunities for altruistic service. Yes, despite being on quarantine, one simply has to have the compassionate spirit and know how others are suffering to find ways to help and serve.

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The TOS Food Assistance Project and the Compassionate Community Pantry The lockdown has hit the marginalized and indigent people very hard. Daily wage earners simply go hungry when they are not able to go out and work for the day. And even when they are able to go out to work, they risk getting infected by the virus.

As I look back at the past year of quarantine, I realize that the TOS-Philippines was among the first action takers way back in April 2020 as it started distributing food packs to indigent members of society who were confined to their homes due to the Beneficiaries taking only what they need from a virtulockdown and practically starving to death. This al cornucopia of healthy vegetables, fruits, food packs, and other items in the Compassionate Community food assistance project was previously reported – eggs Pantry organized by the Satsang Lodge in Cebu City replete with photos – in social media chat groups.

It was only last April during the second wave of Covid-19 infections that the concept of “Community Pantry” came about. Inadequate government food assistance prompted a well-intentioned citizen in Quezon City to set up a table in a street corner and call it a community pantry. There, people were urged to: “Magbigay ayon sa kakayahan. Kumuha ayon sa pangangailangan (Donate/give according to what you can afford. Get according to what you need).” All of a sudden, people were dropping off various food donations, while other people took a few items that they needed.

While our TOS food-pack-distribution project continued in its quiet and humble way of serving the people, our Satsang Lodge in Cebu City initiated its so-called “Compassionate Community Pantry” project last April which is Organized tables laden with assorted vegetables, bread, still going strong to date, as it operates twice and other essential foodstuff and other items. Beneficiaries a week. Indeed, the Satsang Lodge exemplified observed social distancing and wore face masks and face the good use of the “community” aspect of the shields. Special Dunkin Donuts were also added to the pan- “Community Pantry” concept by tapping the try as a special treat for those with a sweet tooth. services of the barangay and residential village officials for safety and security purposes; and choosing the Chung Un Temple as a suitable venue for distribution, while its members and those of Brahma Kumaris and other spiritual/religious groups, corporate donors, and individual donors gave cash; foodstuffs, e.g., fruits and vegetables, eggs, sweet corn, rice/bread, coffee/chocolate drinks, (and even sweet toothsome Dunkin Donuts!); and other items such as face masks and toothbrushes.

TSP members have also set up community pantries in Talayan Village, QC; Caloocan City through the Golden Link Theosophical Lodge; and Iligan City, Mindanao through the Godea Lodge.

Despite the tempest that is this current pandemic, we theosophists who are anchored in the Ageless Wisdom are not just certain that this storm will pass but that the sun is always shining! Difficulties encourage change which propels our evolution in this world of time. But even through this process, all is always well in the timeless realm of the Real which is not separate from this very world! In the meantime, we keep approaching life with love and Some of the Satsang Lodge volunteer members ready compassion – never forgetting that we are all One – to serve at the Compassionate Community Pantry in as we keep moving on in our journey of awakening! Cebu City. You can see that their wide smiles were discernible even behind their face masks.

The Paradox of Self-Transformation

by TIM BOYD

In all of the spiritual traditions that I am aware, the process (of self-transformation) is depicted as steps along the path to enlightenment, illumination.

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The Philippine Theosophist

he Mission Statement of the Theosophical Society says that its mission, and by extension that of its individual members, is to cultivate three specific things: (1) a deepening understanding and realization of the Ageless Wisdom; (2) the unity of all life; and (3) spiritual self-transformation. Let us talk about the third one.

In the absence of some shift in the center of our awareness, a meaningful association with wisdom is difficult to impossible. Our normal approach tends to be self-centered. The things that we want for ourselves, who we believe ourselves to be, seem to be very fixed and static. Obviously, it is always in flux, but we feel much more comfortable with the seemingly solid identities we embrace. So self-transformation necessarily involves a conflict between this cherished sense of self and “reality.”

Generally, when we consider what it means to transform, we think in terms of change, but we also think in terms of a process that leads to that change. Spiritual self-transformation is not just shifting personal habits, but we like to have the security and stability of a clearly delineated process. So in all of the spiritual traditions of which I am aware, the process is depicted as steps along the path to enlightenment, illumination, or self-transformation.

Pick your tradition and there are specific steps that are enumerated. Yoga has its Eight Limbs. Tibetan Buddhism speaks about the graded path to enlightenment, the Lam Rim. Catholic Christianity has the Stations of the Cross. In a theosophical approach, the practice we emphasize is “study, meditation, and service.” These are processes that we engage in with the assumption that they ultimately lead to self-transformation; that if we properly approach our study and our meditation, if we exert ourselves in compassionate conscious activity for others, at the end of that process the experience of illumination awaits us. Maybe it works that way; or maybe it does not.

This process of self-transformation does have its steps, but self-transformation itself is something very different. There is not a certain number of correct books, or of hours in meditation that results in the experience of transformation. In and of itself, transformation occurs as a very specific event. It is perhaps related to our study; perhaps not. Perhaps it

is something related to a state of accumulated holiness or purity, and then again perhaps it is not.

We can say that there are people who had the experience of illumination or self- transformation. People such as Ramana Maharshi, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, and others led spiritual lives. They did the practice, the study, and it resulted in an experience that they then tried to teach. They spent a lifetime teaching, and everyone around them spent a lifetime listening. Very few actually had an experience of what these Teachers described. There are people with no particular signs of holiness who also had the experience of self-transformation.

Edgar Mitchell, who was an astronaut in the American space program, is one of the ones who walked on the Moon. He was a trained engineer and had no particular spiritual background or training. When he was coming back to Earth in the spaceship, he was looking out the window and seeing the planet beneath him. It was blue and perfect; he could not distinguish any lines between countries. In that moment he had the experience he described as “cosmic consciousness”. It changed him forever.

When he got back to Earth, he spent the rest of his life using the tools of his scientific temperament and training to broaden an understanding of the effects of consciousness in the world.

There is a song that is one of the most, if not the most, widely known songs in the English language, called “Amazing Grace.” It is beautiful and talks about an experience of illumination that occurred to its author. His name was

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John Newton and lived in the 18th to 19th centuries. It starts: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, / That saved a wretch like me. / I once was lost, but now am found, / Was blind, but now, I see.” There are other verses, but it describes the moment when an experience of illumination descended upon him.

At the time he wrote the song, he was a preacher, a minister in the Church of England, but the man he was when this enlightenment occurred was a very different one.

They say that “every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” This man was a saintly preacher when he wrote the song, but the song is about an experience he had when he was actively engaged in the slave trade.

Newton was buying and selling African people and shipping them across the Atlantic Ocean for use in the Americas. It was while fully engaged in this clearly unholy activity that this “Amazing Grace” descended upon him. It was not the result of any conscious spiritual process. It was an event that had its roots in something unseen to us. Self-transformation has a process that we engage in, but the actual experience is something utterly different.

Obviously, the two have some relationship, but we make a mistake if we pretend to understand it.

When the Buddha had his enlightenment he returned and gave his first sermon to the five people who had been with him when he was seeking through ascetic practices. As

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The people who have had the experience . . . declare that this liberation of the universal consciousness from the limitations of personality is the goal of the human stage. he spoke, one of them, hearing the very first words that He said, experienced enlightenment. The person who was with him the longest, his beloved disciple and attendant, Ananda, was with him for 45 years. He saw people come, meet the Buddha briefly, and have the experience of enlightenment; others came and studied with him, listened to his teachings for years, then had the experience of enlightenment, but Ananda never had it. He was with the Buddha every day for all those years, doing the practice and the study.

After the Buddha died, his disciples were trying to put together all the teachings he had given during his life. Because Ananda had heard all of them, he was going to be the main person to recite the various teachings, yet he was reciting them without any enlightenment of his own. But immediately before sharing his memories of the Buddha’s teachings, Ananda finally had his experience of enlightenment.

The people who have had the experience, recognize the event of self-transformation as the pinnacle of human potential, and declare that this liberation of the universal consciousness from the limitations of personality is the goal of the human stage. Those who have had this experience, or even lesser degrees of it, spend a lifetime helping others to cultivate that same awareness. Every one of them says that it is impossible to describe. Processes can be taught, learned, and practiced, but the experi- ence is unspeakable.

Within each of us a divine seed is said to be planted — an embryonic life encased in a shell. The encasing agency nourishes and protects the life, but also confines and limits its expression. Just like a seed is planted in soil, the soil in which the divine seed is planted is the human personality. Accordingly, the process we describe as the spiritual life can be equated to the process that is undergone by a

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Gems of the Path Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.

WENDELL BERRY

gardener.

Once we become aware of this life-giving potency within us, and we have some awareness of its potential for expression and life, then we start to learn about what we can do to make it grow. That is what a gardener does. He studies, observes, watches, and then adjusts the conditions to suit the needs of the seed. With us, we call it study, meditation, and service. These are the things that dissolve the encasement that hides the life. We dissolve the firm, fixed identities that we have cultivated and cling to, and with that dissolution the opportunity arises for the life to grow beyond the encasing shell. The gardener knows how to create conditions, but knows nothing about the life itself. He cannot explain it or control it. All he can do is create conditions, and if they are right, then from his lesser knowledge, a greater life can make itself known.

Jiddu Krishnamurti, in speaking about the self-transformative experience, uses Biblical language, saying: “It comes upon you like a thief in the night.” This is a beautiful way of expressing it. It goes beyond any explanation that could be given. When we think about a thief in the night, what comes to mind? We are asleep in our bed; it is dark; it is quiet, and without our knowing it someone comes into our home with the sole purpose of taking from us all that we hold valuable or dear to us.

What are the things most valuable to us? Of course, material possessions, but also our name, reputation, position, all of the different identities that have come to be so sacred to us. Like a thief in the night, the importance of these things is stripped away. And from that divine theft, something else is revealed — a presence, a power, a vision long obscured.

There is the expression that: “Self-transformation is an accident, but spiritual practice makes us accident-prone.” We do not control the event, when, or if it occurs, but when we commit to a practice it makes it much more likely that we are in the vicinity where this activity takes place. The sun does not shine on us unless we come outside.

These are just a few thoughts that we can extend as our Tim Boyd is the International President of the Theosophical Society in Adyar.

There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.

JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI Yet, the Universe is real enough to the conscious beings in it, which are as unreal as it is itself.

HELENA P. BLAVATSKY

There is no wisdom without love.

N. SRI RAM

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others PEMA CHODRON

The end of all knowledge should be service to others. CESAR CHAVEZ The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love. SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.

HILDEGARD OF BINGEN

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The Practice of Meditation

by VICENTE HAO CHIN JR.

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he Purposes of Meditation. There are two purposes of meditation:: a. To have tranquillity in daily life. b. To attain self-transcendence or the spiritual life.

Before we can attain the second one, we must first attain daily tranquility, which means having inner peace amid all the duties, pressures, and problems in life. That is the reason why many corporations are sending their executives to meditation training even if they are not interested in spiritual life. The purpose is to make them less stressed at work and be more effective in life.

In choosing the meditation method that we can adopt with confidence, we need to familiarize ourselves with two things: (1) The levels of human consciousness; and (2) the study of time-tested methods in meditation that have been used for thousands of years that have proven to be effective in attaining serenity and transcendence.

2. The Levels of Human Consciousness.

Understanding the levels of human consciousness is essential to the appreciation of the purposes and processes of meditation. The lower levels are known to everyone, while the higher ones are validated by the collective experiences of mystics of many cultures through the centuries. Thus, this knowledge is not based on particular dogmas of religions, although spiritual traditions affirm them.

Universal Consciousness: The state achieved by a few; Union in Christianity, Nirvana in Buddhism, and Fanah in Islam.

Spiritual Consciousness: Known and validated since ancient times. Now part of scientific exploration.

Mental/Emotional/Physical: These three levels are within the experience of the average person.

• The existence of transpersonal consciousness or spiritual consciousness is now part of scientific studies in psychology (transpersonal psychology).

• The highest level is the Universal Consciousness or Âtma. Its attainment leads to the cessation of the personal ego.

The self melts away, and there is a consciousness of universality or non-duality. The mind has two levels: concrete and abstract. The concrete mind thinks with colors, shapes, or words. But the abstract or subtle mind thinks without images. It understands concepts or essences without having to use pictures.

These two levels are the arena of meditation.

On the physical level, there is also a division: the dense part and the ethereal part, including prana. These are relevant to meditation because they are sources of disturbance.

The division between the lower and higher mind is the crucial dividing line between what we may call the higher self and the lower self, also called the individuality and the person-

ality. The three upper levels — the higher mental, spiritual and universal consciousness — are symbolized by an upright triangle, while an inverted triangle represents the lower mind, emotional and physical levels.

These two are the higher and lower nature of a human being. The higher self is not fully developed in an average human being. On the other hand, the lower self is highly active, but is usually filled with conditionings or habits that conflict with one’s higher self. But when the lower self is purified and cleansed of conditionings that are incongruent to one’s higher principles, then it can blend very well with the higher nature. This fusion is symbolized by the interlaced triangles or the six-pointed star, the symbol of the integrated human being. Thus, the practice of meditation consists of not only awareness of our mind, but also the retraining of our lower self as well as the progressive awakening of our higher faculties.

3. Time-Tested Methods. Another factor in choosing a method of meditation that will be effective is to study the various approaches that have been tried over the centuries. This is a part of the study of comparative mysticism. The best known methods are those of yoga, Zen Buddhism, Theravada methods, Transcendental Meditation (TM), and Christian contemplative practices. Many researchers have scientifically tested these techniques for their effect on stress, calmness, the capacity to focus, brain wave production, and so on.

But more important is the role of meditation in nurturing and deepening spiritual consciousness among dedicated practitioners.

Among these methods, those in the East have the most extensive accumulated experiences and insights.

All these meditation practices have stages that serve specific purposes in bringing about tranquility. The best classification is found in the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali written more than two thousand years ago and which remains a standard meditation guide today. It identifies two phases of the practices that are essential: concentration (dhârana) and meditation (dhyna). These methods were adopted in Buddhism and became Ch’an Buddhism in China and Zen Buddhism in Japan.

Most of them use mantras, names, or counting of breath. In the Theosophical Society, we avoid methods that are associated with any religious tradition; hence the best is to use the counting method.

4. The Practice of Meditation. The two levels of the mind are the levels where we

More important is the role of meditation in nurturing and deepening spiritual consciousness among dedicated practitioners. practice meditation. There are, therefore, two essential stages in meditation practice. The first is the taming of the lower mind, and the

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second is the sustenance of awareness of the higher mind when the lower mind is no longer noisy. The first stage of meditation is concentration, and the higher step is meditation itself. In the practice of meditation, therefore, we have to undergo two stages of proficiency.

To practice this, we must do some preparations for a few minutes.

• The body must be relaxed. This is done consciously by being aware of any part of the body

There are, therefore, two essential stages in meditation practice. The first is the taming of the lower mind, and the second is the sustenance of awareness of the higher mind. that may be uncomfortable or tense.

• When the body is fully relaxed, then we will notice that the emotions also become quiet and peaceful.

• Next, we must be aware of our thoughts.

We do not reject them. We also do not entertain them. Just be mindful that they are coming and going.

• After being aware of our thoughts, we will notice that our consciousness has a space. We cannot determine its boundaries, but this space contains all thoughts, memories, images, ideas, perceptions.

4. Stage 1: Disciplining the Lower Mind When we start the practice of meditation, we must first tame the noisy habits of the lower mind, like the taming of a wild horse. It is simple and quite natural. First, we become aware of our natural cycle of breathing.

• Then as we breathe in, we mentally say “one.”

• As we breathe out, we mentally say “two.”

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(You can change the “one” and “two” to whatever you wish, such as a mantra or a name you revere. It is not important. This is just an object for us to focus on. Later we will not need the counting or the mantra.) For those who find they have difficulty in maintaining “one” and “two” because they keep on getting carried away by thoughts, you can use another way: • When you breathe in, mentally say “one.”

• When you breathe out, say “two.”

• Breathing in, say “one.”

• Breathing out, say “two.”

• Keep on counting up to 50 when you are breathing out.

• If you forget what number you are in, then just go back to “one.”

Do this exercise for at least 20 minutes each day.

One of the significant effects of this practice is that it gradually develops a substratum of consciousness, which we may call “peripheral awareness.” While we are engaged in anything in daily life, there is an awareness in the background of our mind that makes us aware of things that we have not noticed before.

For example, previously, when we get angry, our consciousness is fully absorbed in anger.

We are carried away by it, and we may express the anger in destructive ways. When the peripheral awareness is developed, however, something is added. We may still get angry, but this time we are aware that we are angry, including tension in the body, heat around the ears, strong heartbeat, and so forth. When we are aware, we are no longer hijacked by the emotion. We have the option to watch and become calmer. This peripheral aware- ness grows and becomes more permanent as we continually practice meditation. It is the link between meditative awareness and daily life.

5. Stage 2: Meditation Proper. When we have practiced the taming process with breath-

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ing and counting, we will notice that after a few weeks, the mind will become calmer and quieter. During meditation, stray thoughts do not pop up anymore, even when we no longer do the counting. Note that the counting of breath is just a tool, not meditation itself.

H. P. Blavatsky wrote that counting breaths will not bring us absolute tranquility. This is evidently true, and it will have to be dropped at some point in the practice. But it is a useful time-tested tool to quiet the monkey mind at the beginning.

When the noisy habits of the mind have ceased, we enter into the second stage of the practice, which is awareness of our mind without trying to tame it. There is no longer any counting, and we are aware of the space of consciousness, especially the subtle thoughts that are formless. This is meditation proper, or dhyana. Dhyana, said the Yoga Sutras, is the uninterrupted flow of thought on an object chosen (III, 2). The critical element in this stage is sustained awareness. There will now emerge many kinds of thoughts from the subconsciousness and the subtle level. We notice them but do not identify with them. It is during this stage that we must seriously attend to the inner and outer conflicts that we have: our habits, attitudes, values, relationships, attachment, ethics, and so on. When these are not integrated, then we will continue to bebothered by them.

These disturbances come from the activities, concerns, and preoccupations of our daily life.

We will discover that success in the practice of meditation involves our entire life process, not just sitting down for 30 minutes. We must review our whole life philosophy and our values in life and remove contradictions in our behavior, habits, livelihood, attitudes, and so on.

6. Integration with the Personality and Daily Life. As mentioned above, the condi-

We will discover that success in the practice of meditation involves our entire life process. tionings of the personality must be retrained so that there will be no conflict between the higher and lower nature. The realizations or perceptions of the higher self become the principles which we would like to live by. We want them to become the guiding truths in our life. This recognition or affirmation is our higher will, which is different from the desires or habits that we have acquired while we were growing up.

This stage will accentuate the life-long conflict between the higher and lower nature, the battle between Will and desire. For most people, it is the desire that wins. But for people aspiring for maturity and the spiritual life, the Will must reign supreme. H. P. Blavatsky wrote that the duty of every theosophist is “to control and conquer, through the Higher, the lower self” (The Key to Theosophy, Sec. 12).

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Meditation strengthens the inner Will because the higher values become clearer to oneself in moments of silence. At the same time, when one becomes aware of the urges and manifestations of the lower personality, the energies of the emotions get released and start dissipating, thus weakening those habits.

When this higher nature becomes dominant, then it will be the primary factor that leads to the attainment of our highest destiny, which is Self-realization.

Hence in the practice of meditation, we must not neglect to re-educate our lower triangle or personality so that it becomes obedient to the higher will. This is not easy, especially when one grows older, and the habits have been deeply ingrained already.

7. Ending the Meditation. In concluding the meditation, end gradually with a transition toward regular activity, such as in the following manner: • Continue to be aware of the space of the consciousness; • Then be mindful of the sounds around us; • Be mindful of our body and feelings; • Open the eyes and be aware of the surroundings, but still aware of the inner space; • When we are about to move parts of our body, be conscious that we are about to move and be aw are when we move them.

8. Stage 3: The Higher Stages. When our meditation practice has deepened enough, then we will note that we begin to be in touch with a higher level of consciousness, which we call Buddhi in Theosophy. It is the faculty of intuitive perception, prajna in yoga and Buddhism, or contemplative consciousness in Christianity.

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When our meditation practice has deepened enough, then we will note that we begin to be in touch with a higher level of consciousness, which we call Buddhi . . . the faculty of intuitive perception, prajna in yoga and Buddhism, or the contemplative consciousness in Christianity.

This faculty enables us to see the deeper essence of things. In time, the higher mind will be influenced by this spiritual faculty, making it more intuitive. Madame Blavatsky calls such a mind manas-taijasi or the Radiant Mind, the mind illuminated by the Buddhi. A practice that is relevant to this stage is the “Diagram of Meditation” given by Blavatsky to her pupils.

After years of practice, we may find that we are ready to enter into a deeper stage of meditation, which is the awareness of the ego or self. Who is this meditator? Who am I? Who is this thinker? Where do these thoughts come from? There is a famous enlightened yogi, Ramana Maharshi, of South India, who taught a deep meditation method called vichâra, which means “self-inquiry.” It just continues to ask, “Who am I?” This is one of the deepest levels of meditation, but it requires that one is already able to quieten the mind, on both the higher and lower levels.

9. Summary. The Theosophical Society must actively promote the regular practice of meditation not only to its members but also to the general public. It can be done weekly for 1-1/2 hours. The meditation practice can be done in 20-25 minutes, followed by a talk on aspects of meditation, plus, if desired, a question-andanswer period.

Meditation is an essential practice for everyone, regardless of whether one is interested in spirituality or not. By being inwardly aware and developing self-mastery, meditation redirects one’s life destiny. It is the key to true inner peace, social peace, wisdom, and spirituality.

Vicente Hao Chin Jr. is the founding President of Golden Link College and a past President of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines.

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by JOSELITO B. CENDAÑA

Stolen Amulet The maze exists in open space Without walls or words or roof from the moon.

Nothing’s hidden from wind’s mercy.

Firm on the ground are stone blocks To guide each careful step.

Watch the leaf fall with weight of light.

Meander with me slowly, Soundless without a map to remember.

The stolen amulet without a quest Seeking love at first sight.

Postponed Flight

P O E T R Y

Stranger than Kathmandu More mysterious than Thimpu It doesn’t matter.

Just give me a window seat From where I am cultivated.

Mushrooms and cumulos clouds Give me a sound excuse.

To fold mountains into origami Assign water-dragons to guard The facework of streams and rivers Where desire drains into delta.

Allow me to track down The sources of hurt and pain To interrogate shadows That slay the mind.

I’m the one Without a book to read Without a compelling reason To talk with someone.

Inside pressurized cabin, Sooner or later I’ll uncover Ardent reasons why guilt Tends to sleep with shame.

Stranded, I keep lonely in the crowd Waiting for a schedule To rise from the dead I’m the one willing to be.

Or why honor demands To be defended by aggression My imagination, believe me, Longs desperately to go home.

Diverted to another destination

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Jose Victor Peñaranda was the previous vice president of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines.

Direct knowing (is) the highest form of knowledge . . . when the distinction between the knower and the known disappears and they become identically One in mystical union

Sacred Fire: Enkindling the Mystical Sense in Daily Life

by FERDINAND ARTHUR P. YULO

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he Moth and the Flame. There is a fable from the Sufi tradition which speaks of the profundity of our transformational union with that Supreme Reality which is the sole object and utmost yearning of our hearts: One night, the moths gathered together, tormented by the desire to unite themselves with the candle. All of them said: “We must find one who can give us some news of that for which we seek so earnestly.” One of the moths went to a candle afar and investigated the light of the candle. He came back and told the others what he had seen, and began to describe the candle as intelligently as he could. But the wise moth, who was chief of their assembly, observed: “He has no real information to give us of the candle.” Another moth went off to the candle. He passed close to the light and drew near to it.

With his wings, he touched the flames of that which he desired, but the heat of the candle drove him back and he was repulsed. He also returned, and revealed something of the mystery, explaining a little of what union with the candle meant. But the wise moth said to him: “Thine explanation is of no more real worth than that of thy comrade.” A third moth rose up and flew towards the candle, intoxicated

with Love, and hurled himself violently into the flame of the candle. He threw himself forward while stretching out his antennae toward the flame. As he entered completely into its embrace, his members became red like the flame itself. When the wise moth saw from afar that the candle had identified the moth with itself, and had given to it its own light, he said: “This moth has accomplished his desire; but he alone comprehends that to which he has attained.

None other knows it, and that is all.”

The lesson from the fable is clear enough.

Mystical union is the ultimate consummation of the seeker and the Sought. Unlike the first moth that saw the candle flame from afar and described it in words and the second one that went near it but was repelled by the intense heat, it was the third moth, intoxicated with Love, that attained “Absolute Knowledge” by hurling itself into the flame’s embrace.

Through this sacrificial act of total self-surrender, it finally became what it truly yearned for. In Sufism, this annihilation unto Divine Essence is called Fana. For our deepest yearnings can only be satisfied by our Supreme Beloved. St. Augustine of Hippo in Book I of his Confessions beautifully articulates this form of

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anxious longing: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” The case of the third moth was a direct “knowing” by “becoming” – the highest form of knowledge which is “knowledge by identity” when the distinction between the knower and the known disappears and they become identically One in mystical union. As the great Rhineland mystic Meister Eckhart said: “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love.” The Lord Christ, expressed the nature of this ultimate Oneness when he said: “I and my Father are One” (Jn. 10: 30) and “no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Mt. 11: 27).

Absolute truth, transcendental wisdom and spiritual realization can never be gained through the aid of descriptive words or human language alone nor by mere intellectual comprehension of theories and ideas. Concepts about “God” and other metaphysical truths merely “inform” but direct experience of the Supreme Reality itself transforms the seeker in Union, Transcendence and Integration.

This is the essence of mystical experiences, or what is now referred to in NDE studies and Transpersonal Psychology as “Spiritually Transformative Experiences” (STEs), which are experiences of what we can metaphorically call the “sacred fire” as it transforms everyone it touches — for “our God is a consuming Fire” (Hebrews 12: 29).

The Sacred Fire. Fire has always been a prototypical symbol of the Divine or the Numinous for it is the sacred element of Power, Energy, Creation, Purification and Transformation. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus even considered fire as the arche, the fundamental element of the universe and the early Church Fathers spoke of the Holy Trinity in terms of “Sun” or “Fire” (Father), “Light” (Son) and “Heat” (Holy Spirit). Indeed, fire occupies a revered place in the myths, belief systems, symbolisms and practices of the world’s religions, philosophies and spiritual traditions: the Greek mythology of Prometheus stealing fire from the gods for the benefit of mortal beings; the pre-Socratic philosophers as Heraclitus who proposed fire as the fundamental sub-

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As the great Rhineland mystic Meister Eckhart said: “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love.” stance of the cosmos; Paracelsus’ elementals of fire called “salamanders”; the revered chemical element of sulfur associated with fire in alchemy; the Vedic fire deity Agni embodying the three forms of fire, lightning and sun (Surya); the Egyptian Sun-God “RA” and the other “firegods,” fire rituals and fire worship of “pagan” Man; the so called “Holy Fire” of Orthodox Christianity that occurs every year at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Holy Saturday; the Paschal Candle being solemnly lit in Church on Easter Sunday commemorating the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Christ; the “Sun of God” as Light of the World(s), and so forth.

But fire is also the nature of mysticism itself where mystics directly encounter, merge with, and are totally transformed by the Sacred Transcendent in ways that are intense, life-changing and enduring. Persons from every time and clime, religion and spiritual tradition, have experienced the Fiery Presence of the Sacred. Some notable examples are Moses encountering God in the Burning Bush of the wilderness; Peter, James and John at Mount Tabor experiencing the transfiguration of Jesus The Christ; Paul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus and John the apostle in Mount Patmos; Muhammad receiving revelations from the angel Gabriel in the mountain cave of Hira; prince Arjuna beholding the effulgence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in Krishna; Paramahansa Yogananda when he was conferred shaktipat by his guru Sri Yukteswar which Yogananda described as: . . . the divine dispersion of rays poured from an Eternal Source, blazing into galaxies, transfigured with ineffable auras. Again and again, I saw the creative beams condense into constellations, then resolve into sheets of transparent flame. By rhythmic reversion, sextillion worlds passed into diaphanous luster; fire became firmament.

Worth mentioning are also the “mystical ec-

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This is the essence of mystical experiences . . . which are experiences of what we can metaphorically call the “sacred fire” as it transforms everyone it touches -- for “our God is a consuming Fire” (Hebrews 12: 29). stasies” of St. Teresa of Avila during which she had a vision of an angel piercing her heart with a flaming arrow: I saw in his (an angel’s) hand a long spear of gold and at the iron’s point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. St. Catherine of Sienna also portrays one of her mystical experiences thus: Truly the soul’s being united with and transformed into him (God) is like fire consuming the dampness in logs. Once the logs are heated through and through, the fire burns and changes them into itself.

The mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal also had a “spiritually transformative experience” (STE) when he was a young man.

He never mentioned about this experience when he was alive but when he departed from this life as an old man, there was found sewn in the helm of his goblet a piece of paper which read: The year of grace 1654, Monday the 23rd of November, St. Clement’s day . . . from about half past 10 in the evening to about half an hour after midnight, FIRE! God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob . . . Not the God of philosophers and scholars . . . Absolute certainty beyond reason . . . Joy, peace, forgetfulness of the world and everything but God . . . The world has not known Thee but I have known Thee . . . Joy! Joy! Joy! Tears of Joy. One can only imagine what really happened to him when he wrote those words but nevertheless his was definitely a blazing union with and knowledge of the Supreme Being.

Various religions and thinkers have described, in different ways, the nature of these exalted states of consciousness as an indelible hallmark of the mystical experience but all of

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them speak of the same inexplicable Sublimity and Non-Dual Reality. In Raja Yoga and Advaita Vedanta, it is “samadhi” or Self-realization (atma-vidya) or tat-tvam asi (“That Thou Art”), in Mahayana Buddhism buddha-dhātu (a realization of one’s own “budhha nature”) or vipassana (deep insight into the nature of reality-as-it-is), in Zen Buddhism satori (a flash of sudden understanding, insight or awareness) or kensho (realizing the non-duality of observer and observed), in Contemplative Christianity “Prayer of Transforming Union” or “Spiritual Marriage” as when the Carmelite mystic John of the Cross said “spiritual marriage is nothing else than a transformation into God” or what the “Angelic Doctor” Thomas Aquinas called vi-

sio beatifica (beatific vision). Furthermore, the ancient Greeks also called it sophia (Wisdom), the Neoplatonists henosis (mystical oneness), the Gnostics gnosis (mystical enlightenment or spiritual knowledge), Richard Bucke “cosmic consciousness,” William James “religious experience,” Albert Einstein “religious feeling,” Sigmund Freud “oceanic feeling,” Carl Jung “individuation,” Abraham Maslow “peak experience” or “self-transcendence,” Roberto Assagioli “psycho-synthesis,” G.I Gurdjieff “objective consciousness,” Thomas Merton “transcendental unconscious,” Stanislav Grof “transpersonal experience,” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi “flow,” and so forth.

Mysticism: The Nature of the Numinous. In her book Practical Mysticism, Evelyn Underhill defined the unitive character of all mystical experiences: Mysticism is the art of union with Reality.

The mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or less degree; or who aims at

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and believes in such attainment.

In Mysticism: A Study On The Nature And Development Of Spiritual Consciousness, she again says: Mysticism in its pure form is the science of ultimates, the science of union with The Absolute and nothing else, and that the mystic is the person who attains to this union not the person who talks about it. Not to know ABOUT but TO BE is the mark of the real initiate.

Mystical experiences therefore belong to the domain of the Sacred Transcendent — that which triggers transformational encounters with “something greater than ourselves” evoking a sense of the sublime. It is the Great Mystery Unveiled that arouses awe, wonder and reverence for the charm of existence, the grandeur of the universe and the supremacy of the Divine. As comparative religion scholar Frithjof Schuon in Understanding Islam said: That is sacred which in the first place is attached to the transcendent order, secondly possesses the character of absolute certainty, and thirdly, eludes the comprehension of the ordinary human mind . . . The sacred is the presence of the center in the periphery . . . The sacred introduces a quality of the absolute into relativities and confers on perishable things a texture of eternity.

The Sacred Transcendent is therefore synonymous with what has also been called “The Numinous” (i.e the mystical, the supernatural, etc.) which, according to German theologian Rudolf Otto in his book The Idea Of The Holy, is at the heart of the world’s religions and spiritual traditions. He called this Supreme Reality Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans or the “fearful and fascinating mystery” that brings about the “Numinous Experience” of which the following are its attributes: (1) “Awe“- fullness, (2) Overpow-

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“ Mysticism

is the art of union with Reality. The mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or less degree; or who aims at or believes in such attainment.” — Evelyn Underhill eringness, (3) Energy or Urgency, (4) “Wholly Other,” and (5) Fascination. It is this Mysterium Tremendum that mystics experience when they encounter the Sacred Transcendent (or “God” by whatever name). William James, the Father of Western Psychology, also classifies the following characteristics of the mystical experience: (1) Ineffability: The core experience exceeds the intellect, defies verbal expression, and cannot therefore be adequately described, imparted or transferred to others; (2) Noetic Quality: Mystical experiences are not mere feelings but also insights and participations in a nonintellectual and non-discursive knowledge. A state of absolute knowing and utter certainty of a profound insight carrying the burden of authority that prompts the person to declare within the soul “I Know This!” (the AHA Experience); (3) Transiency: Mystical experiences are limited in time and can only imperfectly be reproduced by memory. Spiritual writers commenting on this particular characteristic unanimously describe it thus: “like a flash,” “like a momentary thing,” “it lasted only for a very brief period of time,” “not sustained over weeks or months,” etc. The actual mystical experience is fleeting and only the “afterglow” remains; (4) Passivity: The experience is like being grasped or held by a Superior Power beyond one’s volitional control, (5) Unity Consciousness: The overwhelming awareness of the oneness of life and of everything, (6) Sense of timelessness: In sublime spiritual experiences, the parameters of 3-dimensional space and linear time disappear leaving the mystic completely unaware of the “arrow of time.” There simply is no “past,” “present” and “future.” The only reality that remains is the Eternal Now of “duration-less time,”; (7) Loss of the personal “self”: In the highest state of mystical consciousness, the limited, self-referential “I” or ego ceases to exist. A dissolution of one’s self-made personality (“lower self”) into the (continued on p. 28)

Zen and Christianity: Points of Convergence O

by MATTHEW AGUAS

urs is the wealthiest and the most technologically advanced society since the dawn of civilization. Yet, despite the abundance of our material possessions, and the plethora of gadgets and devices we have, we live in a time where many people are unhappy. Driven by a hunger for meaning, many have turned to the East, among them many Christians — including priests, nuns, seminarians, and pastors. They have sat at the feet of gurus, swamis and roshis in search of enlightenment and wisdom. Fr. H. M. Enomiya-Lasalle puts it this way:

Yoga and Zen without jeopardizing their own religion.

Christian Contemplation and Zazen.

Most Christians think only of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words. But this is only one way of praying. Prayer that goes beyond thought is referred to in Christian spirituality as contemplation or contemplative prayer. Contemplation is the opening of mind and heart — our whole being — to “God,” the Ultimate Mystery, the Absolute, beyond thoughts, words, and emotions. Such a form of prayer dates back to at least the 3rd century,

Since the time of Marco Polo, Europeans of every generation have become intrigued with the Far East. Many of them, despite the danger and difficulties of the trip, have ventured to go there. It is only recently, however, that Westerners have traveled to the East to seek solutions to their religious problems. Christians, too, have been part of this group. Their pilgrimage has had as its purpose the learning of ways of Oriental meditation such as Yoga and Zen and the integration of this in their spiritual life.

Every religion has as its general direction some kind of “ultimate” or “last reality.” This goal is sometimes called “God” or “Absolute” or even “Nothing” or “Without Name.” In the words of Teilhard de Chardin, “All things that rise must converge.” Christians have found and are continuing to find that they can attempt

among the Desert Fathers. One of the earliest expressions of contemplative prayer is found in the 4th-century work of St. Gregory of Nyssa, entitled The Lord’s Prayer. He writes: Then I would leave behind the earth altogether and traverse all the middle air; I would reach the beautiful ether, come to the stars and behold all their orderly array. But not even there would I stop short, but, passing beyond them, would become a stranger to all that moves and changes, and apprehend the stable Nature, the immovable Power which exists in its own right, guiding and keeping in being all things, for all depend on the ineffable will of the Divine Wisdom. So first my mind must become detached from everything subject to flux and change and tranquilly rest in motionless repose, so as to be rendered akin to Him who is

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perfectly unchangeable; and then it may address Him by this most familiar name and say: “Father.”

Similar passages can be found in the works of the great Christian contemplatives and mystics, like Meister Eckhart, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.

Meditation, also known as contemplative prayer, is the prayer of silence, the place where direct contact with the Divine can occur, once the never ceasing activity of the mind has been stilled. In meditation we go beyond words, thoughts, and images into the “presence of God within,” to put it in Christian parlance.

It doesn’t take much to realize how similar these passages are to the teachings of Zen Masters on zazen. In the Fukanzazengi, Zen Master Dogen writes: Now sit steadfastly and think not-thinking.

How do you think not-thinking? Beyond thinking. This is the essential art of zazen.

In this teaching lies the heart of zazen. This simply means not to be caught by thought, neither chasing after it nor resisting it. In other words, when thoughts come, let them come and let them go.

Because of the striking parallels between zazen and contemplative prayer, many Christians have found that zazen is one way of deepening the practice of contemplative prayer. To my mind, this is what Fr. William Johnston, Jesuit missionary in Japan and pioneer in the Zen-Christian dialogue, discovered during his first sesshin. This is a description of his experience: ”How are you getting on?”

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Every religion has as its general direction some kind of “ultimate” or “last reality.”

This goal is sometimes called “God” or “Absolute” or even “Nothing” or “Without Name.”

“My legs are aching so much that I can scarcely bear it any longer.”

“Stretch them out! Stretch them out! I’ll tell the young man in the meditation hall not to bother you. If the thing is too painful, you’ll simply give it up. And I don’t want you to give it up, I want you to continue. So don’t overdo it. But tell me, what about your Zen? What are you doing?”

“I’m doing what you, I suppose, would call ‘gedo Zen.’”

“Very good! Very good! Many Christians do that. But what precisely do you mean by ‘gedo Zen?’” “I mean I am sitting silently in the presence of God without words or thoughts or images or ideas.”

“Your God is everywhere?”

“Yes.” “And you are wrapped around in God?” “Yes.” “And you experience this?”

“Yes.” “Very good! Very good! Continue this way.

Just keep on. And eventually you will find that God will disappear and only Johnston San will remain.”

This remark shocked me. It sounded like a denial of all that I considered sacred, of all that

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Meditation, also known as contemplative prayer, is the prayer of silence, the place where direct contact with the Divine can occur, once the never ceasing activity of the mind has been stilled. lay at the very center of my so-called Zen. One should not, I suppose, contradict the roshi, but nevertheless I did so. Recalling the teaching of The Cloud of Unknowing that there are mystical moments when self totally disappears and only God remains, I said with a smile, “God will not disappear.” But Johnston might well disappear and only God be left.”

“Yes, yes,” he answered smilingly. “It’s the same thing. That is what I mean.”

Afterward, reflecting on the whole matter and discussing it with my friends, I came to the conclusion that his words didn’t necessarily deny the existence of God at all. Underlying them is a denial of dualism and an approach to God which is different from that of the traditional West. Now I maintain that this way of speaking throws light on the very notion of God, helping Western Christians to purify and clarify their ideas.

Koans and the Bible. Koans are stories, usually of encounter-dialogues between the great Zen Masters and their disciples. Often couched in paradoxical language, they appear nonsensical to most people. However, for those who have realized their import, koans point to the awake world that the Buddha, the Patriarchs and the great Zen Masters experienced.

Some examples of koans assigned by Zen Masters to their students are: “Mu,” “What was the shape of your original face before your parents were born,”: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

To think that Zen Masters expect their students to come up with conceptual answers to these koans is to miss the point. What then do Zen Masters want from their students who sit with these koans? A contemporary Zen teacher, John Daido Loori, puts it this way: In order to see into a koan we must go beyond the words and ideas that describe reality and directly and intimately experience reality itself. The answer to a koan is not a fixed piece

of information. It is one’s own intimate and direct experience of the universe and its infinite facets. It is a state of consciousness.

To put it simply, working with koans is not about coming up with intellectual concepts; it is about direct experience of Reality without the mediation of thoughts, ideas or images.

Such an experience is referred to as kensho, which literally means “seeing into one’s true nature.”

Is there any equivalent to koans in Christianity? Personally, I’d like to think that the book par excellence of koans in Christianity is the Bible. I also consider the authors of the New Testament, especially St. John and St. Paul, as great koan-makers. And my intuitions were confirmed by Fr. Heinrich Dumoulin, who is well known for his scholarly books on the history of Zen Buddhism. He writes: The Irish Jesuit William Johnston first, as far as I know, discovered the Christian koan. He saw difficulty, if not danger, for the Christian practitioner in the Zen koan, since it leads deep into the “Buddhist cosmos”: “The person who solves the koans one by one . . . can fairly claim to have imbibed the essentials of Buddhism, to have seen into the essence of things, and be living the life of the Buddha.”

This insight aroused disquiet among Christian meditation leaders, even though for the most part practitioners fully absorbed in their koan

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scarcely notice the predominantly Buddhist content of the examples.

Johnston’s reflections were intensified by the sense that the Christian tradition, too, must embody this movement from the concentrated anxiety and contradiction of human existence to a spiritually satisfying solution. The natural place to look was the biblical heritage. “I see it [the koan] as a help to the understanding of our Christian Scriptures and as a guide to meditation based upon biblical paradox.’ He finds Paul, especially, to be “one of the great koan-masters of all time.” The Bible indeed offers an abundance of koan material.

Consider these biblically-based koans: “The Father and I are one,” “I am the vine; you are the branches,” “You are the Body of Christ.”

There is a place for academic study and intellectual discussion in our reading of the Bible. But that is not what the authors of the New Testament were concerned about. The words of Scripture, to borrow a phrase from a Zen saying, are just “fingers pointing to the moon.” What they want for us is to go beyond the words, and experience the Reality that the words are pointing to. And to do so is to come to enlightenment. No wonder a Buddhist monk once remarked that Christians would get enlightenment if only they knew how to read their own Scriptures.

God and Enlightenment. The Buddha says: “Verily, there is the unborn, the unarisen, the unmade, the uncomposed. Were it not for this unborn, unarisen, unmade, uncom-

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To put it simply, working with koans is not about coming up with intellectual concepts; it is about direct experience of Reality without the mediation of thoughts, ideas or images. posed, escape from this world of the born, the arisen, the made, the composed would not be possible.”

As a Christian, I could easily interpret these words as referring to God. But the Zen Buddhist will deny the existence of such a God and he will say that there is nothing resembling God in his meditation. This is not surprising, since Buddhism is basically a non-theistic spiritual tradition.

Fortunately, Zen Buddhism is more of a spiritual practice than a philosophy or religion. So, for Christians who want to engage in Zen practice, there is no need to let go of what is at the heart of Christian faith, that is, the belief in God. In fact, Thomas Merton says: Is it therefore possible to say that both Christians and Buddhists can equally well practice Zen? Yes, if by Zen we mean precisely the quest for direct and pure experience on a metaphysical level, liberated from verbal formulas and linguistic preconceptions.

Zen Buddhism is essentially an experientially-oriented practice, centered on enlightenment. And nowadays, many Christians are engaged in Zen practice to be enlightened, to partake of the Buddha’s enlightenment experience when he sat under the Bo tree.

An argument can be made that the enlightenment experience can be interpreted as “an experience of God.” By contrast, Christian theology since the Middle Ages has become over-analytical and too rational, leaving no room for paradox and mystery. This has resulted in a Christianity that is too intellectual, legalistic, formal and rigid – and for the most part irrelevant to the contemporary person. What the 21st century man or woman wants is a direct encounter with God. And Zen practice, for many Christians, has been a way to directly experience the Divine. (continued on p. 28)

Among the many works of HPB, The Voice of the Silence was unique in its appeal to the heart and spirit of humanity

The Voice of the Silence: Bringing the Heart Doctrine to the West

by NANCY REIGLE

A

mong the many works that Madame Blavatsky brought before the public, The Voice of the Silence was unique in its appeal to the heart and spirit of humanity. Throughout, it repeatedly demands the greatest compassion that one is capable of.

According to Blavatsky, The Voice of the Silence comes from “The Book of the Golden Precepts” which “forms part of the same series as that from which the ‘Stanzas’ of the Book of Dzyan were taken, on which the Secret Doctrine is based.” She says that The Book of the Golden Precepts “contains about 90 distinct little treatises,” 39 of which she had memorized. Three of these she translated into English for us in The Voice of the Silence, which we know as the “Three Fragments.” One can surmise that she studied these treatises under the tutelage of her Adept teachers during her stay in Little Tibet and Tibet proper which she makes reference to in her writings.

Boris de Zirkoff, in preparing an edition of The Voice of the Silence, yet unpublished, wrote an informative Introductory titled “How The Voice of the Silence Was Written,” which has been published in two places. Here he cites some interesting accounts given by several people who visited H.P.B. at some point during her writing of The Voice of the Silence, much of

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which took place in Fontainebleau, France during July of 1889. Several visitors were asked by Blavatsky to read portions of The Voice of the Silence while the manuscript was in progress, and they all had a similar reaction: they were deeply moved by the beauty and depth of compassion this work evoked.5 When asked by H.P.B. what he thought of it, G. R. S. Mead said, “it was the grandest thing in all our theo- sophical literature.”

In their Foreword to the Peking edition of The Voice of the Silence, Alice Cleather and Basil Crump convey the Panchen Lama’s endorsement of this work as the “only true exposition in English of the Heart Doctrine of the Mahayana and its noble ideal of self-sacrifice for humanity.”

What is the Heart Doctrine spoken of by the Panchen Lama? In The Voice of the Silence, H.P.B. distinguishes between the Head Doctrine and the Heart Doctrine in Fragment Two titled “The Two Paths” where she says: Learn above all to separate Head-learning from Soul-Wisdom, the “Eye” from the “Heart” doctrine. Even ignorance is better than Head-learning with no Soul-wisdom to illuminate and guide it.”

“Great Sifter” is the name of the “Heart Doctrine,” O disciple. True knowledge is the flour, false learning is the husk.

And again: The Dharma of the “Eye” is the embodiment of the external, and the nonexisting. The Dharma of the “Heart” is the embodiment of Bodhi (True, divine Wisdom), the Permanent and Everlasting.

In Mahåyåna Buddhism, the tradition of which the Panchen Lama is a major representative in Tibet, the Heart Doctrine is extremely well-developed. Here we find it in the teaching of the Bodhisattva and the Bodhisattva Path; that is, the Bodhisattva — a spiritual being dedicated to alleviating the suffering of humanity; and the Bodhisattva Path — the course of action tread by a Bodhisattva to eliminate this suffering.

In fact, within the Mahåyåna tradition there is an entire lineage which emphasizes the culture and development of a Bodhisattva. This “compassion lineage” was inspired by the writings of Maitreya. This is complemented by a corresponding “wisdom lineage” inspired by

The Dharma of the “Eye” is the embodiment of the external, and the nonexisting. The Dharma of the “Heart” is the embodiment of Bodhi (True, divine Wisdom), the Permanent and Everlasting.

Manjusrî in which the philosophical writings of Nagarjuna are prominent. These two lineages of wisdom and compassion are not intended to be developed in isolation from one another, but instead function as complementary parts of a unified whole.

These two lineages have together produced entire treatises delineating 1) the course of action of a Bodhisattva, and 2) the stages of the Bodhisattva Path. Among these, the most popular and widely read is a Sanskrit work known as the Bodhicaryavatara. Its title literally means “Entrance into the Conduct of the Bodhisattva,” or “A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life.” It was written by Santideva, a Buddhist monk who lived in India during the 8th century.

So here in Mahayana Buddhism, we find works that serve as guides for our own training in the same noble ethics and compassion that H.P.B. urged us to practice in The Voice.

As Blavatsky says, “Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself.” Although there are differences in style and genre between The Voice of the Silence and the Bodhicaryavatara, they are similar in that they each serve the same function in their promotion of altruism. For comparison, let us look at some passages from each.

The Voice: Help Nature and work on with her; and Nature will regard thee as one of her creators and make obei- sance. (p. 14) Bodhicaryavatara: Wherever the heart’s desire of those who perform virtue goes, there its own merits honor it with an offering of its results. VII.42.

The Voice: Give light and comfort to the toiling pilgrim, and seek out him who knows still less than thou; who in his wretched desolation sits starving for the bread of Wisdom and the bread which feeds the shadow, without a Teacher, hope or consolation, and — let him hear the Law. (p. 37)

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Bodhicaryavatara: May I be a protector for those who are without protectors, a guide for travelers, and a boat, a bridge, and a ship for those who wish to cross over. May I be a lamp for those who seek light, a bed for those who seek rest, and may I be a servant for all beings who desire a servant. III.17–18.

The Voice: And then, O thou pursuer of the truth, thy Mind-Soul will become as a mad elephant, that rages in the jungle. Beware, lest in forgetting SELF, thy Soul lose o’er its trembling mind control, and forfeit thus the due fruition of its conquests. (p. 62) Bodhicaryavatara: Untamed, mad elephants do not inflict as much harm in this world as does the unleashed elephant of the mind in the Avici hell and the like.

But if the elephant of the mind is completely restrained by the rope of mindfulness, then all perils vanish and complete well-being is obtained. V.2–3.

The Voice: The fearless warrior, his precious life-blood oozing from his wide and gaping wounds, will still attack the foe Act then, all ye who fail and suffer, act like him; and from the stronghold of your Soul, chase all your foes away — ambition, anger, hatred, e’en to the shadow of desire (p. 63) Bodhicaryåvatåra: Let my entrails ooze out and my head fall off, but by no means shall I bow down to my enemies, the mental afflictions (such as ambition, anger, and hatred). IV.44.

The Voice: Now bend thy head and listen

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well, O Bodhisattva—Compassion speaks and saith: “Can there be bliss when all that lives must suffer? Shalt thou be saved and hear the whole world cry?” (p. 71) Bodhicaryavatara: When fear and suffering are equally abhorent to others and myself, then what is so special about me that I protect myself but not others? VIII.96.

Now we have seen some of the similarities and differences in presentation between these two works. Because The Voice of the Silence is filled with references to the self-sacrificing

As Blavatsky says, “Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself.” nature of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, as well as to the Påramitås, its Mahåyåna Buddhist character was easily recognized.

In The Voice of the Silence, H.P.B. takes the spiritual seeker through the Three Halls of the Probationary Path; the choice between the Two Paths — Open and Secret, the Secret being the path of the highest altruism of a Bodhisattva; and then on through the Seven Portals, which are the Paramitas or Perfections of Mahayana Buddhism.

The Bodhicaryavatara extols the virtues of Bodhicitta, which is the altruistic intention to become enlightened in order to benefit all sentient beings, encourages the spiritually-minded

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person to take up the path of unselfish service to others, and warns of the dangers in turning back once one has set out. Four of the Påramitas are each represented by a chapter in this work: Khanti, Virya, Dhyana, and Prajna, by chapters 6-9, respectively. Throughout, the Paramitås or Perfections are cited as virtues to be cultivated, in the same way as the Seven Portals of The Voice are the gateways of virtue leading to the path of highest altruism and compassion. As H.P.B. says: To live to benefit mankind is the first step. To practice the six glorious virtues is the second.

The Bodhicaryåvatåra, representative of the Heart Doctrine, has enjoyed a long history of popularity dating back to the 8th century when it was composed. Soon after, it was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan and continues to the present day in an unbroken tradition. Its popularity flourishes today as it is promoted by H. H. The 14th Dalai Lama in public teachings, and new translations of it are produced.

In comparison with its Mahåyåna Buddhist counterpart, The Voice of the Silence has a relatively short public history, beginning in 1889. After it was published, Blavatsky said in a letter to her sister: “The Voice of the Silence, tiny book though it is, is simply becoming the Theosophists’ bible.”

By the 1960s the editor of the Buddhist magazine The Middle Way had commented that The Voice of the Silence was such an exquisite work, why hadn’t the Buddhist community embraced it?

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Unlike the Bodhicaryåvatåra, a text whose Sanskrit original has a 1200-year unbroken tradition, we don’t have an original language manuscript for The Voice of the Silence. It has come to us as a translation of a “secret” work, unknown to the public. It is no doubt true that if such an original of The Voice did exist, The Voice of the Silence would reach a much greater audience, just as the Bodhicaryåvatåra does.

Blavatsky said in a letter to her sister: “The Voice of the Silence, tiny book though it is, is simply becoming the Theosophists’ bible.”

Although the Bodhicaryåvatåra has this longstanding tradition, and The Voice doesn’t, it was The Voice of the Silence that first brought the Heart Doctrine to the English-speaking Western public. We know that The Voice of the Silence was originally published in 1889. At about the same time, the original Sanskrit text of the Bodhicaryåvatåra was also first published. The first English translation of the Bodhicaryåvatåra was published in 1909, though somewhat abridged.

Since 1970, when the first complete English translation of it was published, interest in the Bodhicaryåvatåra has greatly increased in the West.

In contrast, The Voice of the Silence has not received widespread public interest. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that we have no original language manuscript for The Voice.

Having one, The Voice of the Silence would gain the acceptance of scholars, and thereby the widespread attention of the public.

In the meantime, it is only those who have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the heart to respond that can truly appreciate The Voice of the Silence and its sublime message of compassion. And for that, we are deeply indebted to Madame Blavatsky who first brought us that treasure of the Heart Doctrine which we know as The Voice of the Silence.

Nancy Reigle, together with her husband David, has been a student of Theosophy since 1973 and has co-authored many books about theosophical subjects after her sojourn in India.

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The Sacred Fire: Enkindling . . . (continued from p. 19) vast ocean of the Infinite and a life- changing rediscovery, “remembering” and actualization of one’s Eternal Identity (“Higher Self”); a union of the soul with the Divine, a “fading away,” a “passing away,” a “melting into,” a “divine homecoming,” etc. As a divine spark from the Primordial Flame, the mystic soul no longer identifies itself with the superficialities of the mind-based ego – the source of false self-images and narcissistic behavior – but rather finds true selfhood and immutable existence from its Divine Origin.

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we mystics speak the same language.”

Recovering the Mystical Sense. Many people do not consider themselves “mystics” perhaps because they still erroneously regard mysticism as the sole privilege of saints, yogis, adepts and highly “spiritual persons.” And yet, it cannot be denied that many of us have had Spiritually Transformative Experiences (STEs), an in-breaking of Heaven on earth in the altar of the Timeless Moment. Mysticism is for everyone because within every human heart resides an innate propensity for childlike awe, wonder and contemplation that lead to sublime union with the Divine.

I would like to share a strange experience I

I “melted” into the boundless space of cosmic union wherein the experience of “I am the universe and the universe is I” became extremely real. All is indeed One . . . One Life . . . One Breath.

Everything converges into “universal mysticism.” Imagine an upward pointed triangle.

The lowest portion is a straight horizontal line, the base, which represents the various EXO-teric (external) doctrines, practices, cultures and faith-expressions of the religions (which clearly differentiate them from each other) but at the triangle’s peak is a Converging Point of the ESO-teric domain – the pinnacle of the interiorly unifying mystical experience where all philosophies, theologies and religions are ONE. Mystics, regardless of race, creed, sex, caste, color, belief and tribe, become common citizens of the same territory of the sublime spiritual experience. The egalitarian land of mysticism is the common ground, the heart and soul of the religions and spiritual-philosophical systems of the world. In this homeland, it matters not whether one worships in a church, a temple, a mosque, an ashram, a forest, a mountain or even in a laboratory as a scientist bemused by the Inexplicable and Ultimate First Cause. As theoretical physicist Fritjof Capra, in his bestselling book The Tao of Physics said: “The mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusion; one starting from the inner realm, the other from the outer world.” For unbeknownst to the scientist “materialistic physical science is honeycombed with metaphysics” (HP Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Volume II). Thomas Merton rightly said: “Where the theologians argue and debate,

had many years ago which demonstrate that all of us are “born mystics.” Like unpredictable lightning, mystical experiences or what I fondly call “divine moments” can “strike” us at any time, in any place, in any way as long as we remain totally receptive to the Sacred Dimension usually disguising itself in the mundane.

One quiet afternoon as I was standing at the backyard of our house, watching clouds drift by upon the azure sky, hearing twilight crickets nearby and the melodious sound of chirping birds from afar, seeing the wondrous sight of verdant vegetation around me, I found myself becoming intensely aware of my breathing.

Time stood still as I experienced the timelessness of speechless awe and reverence for the sacred aliveness of nature. It was as if everything around me – soil, stones, insects, plants, trees, air, etc. – suddenly became vibrant with Effervescent Life as I felt my body “breathing” along with them. Immense peace and bliss filled me to the brim. A divine revelation! A

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supreme realization! The Universal Breeze that sustains sacred life in nature is the same Life-Breath that flows through my nostrils and lungs, nurturing every cell of “my body,” allowing the vigorous rhythm of my every heartbeat, supplying the nutritive oxygen in the bloodstream of my veins, keeping me alive.

Precious prana whirling and flowing all around and within me. I already knew this from a conceptual level since before but this time it was different. Intellectuality gave way to Visceral Certainty through the direct experience of a living and “breathing” Cosmic Unity. It was not an Epistemic Knowledge (comprehending merely by subjective means) but an Ontological Knowledge itself (silent illumination according to Reality-As-It-Is). I began feeling the familiar boundaries of my skin and human form disappear as I “dissolved into” and became co-extensive with the sentient space (akasha) all around me. I “melted” into the boundless space of cosmic union wherein the experience of “I am the universe and the universe is I” became extremely real. All is indeed One . . .

One Life . . . One Breath . . . One Uni-Verse (One Celestial Song). Alas! All these years I have been thinking and feeling myself only as a skin-encapsulated ego looking outward through the aperture of the eyelids, distanced from a strange world around me which is not “me.” I have been taking the “trivialities of nature” such as the breath for granted and yet here I am standing in this backyard alone seemingly “isolated” yet in perfect at-one-ment with everything and everyone, everywhere through the simple yet profound movement of breathing. Only now have I felt this Divine Unity so vividly. I am breathing with the ever-expanding and living cosmos. In a very real sense, it felt as though my lungs and the lungs of the universe became One Respiratory System of the Great Breath (“God” or Supreme LIFE itself) inhaling and exhaling in rhythmic unison. What made this more chillingly mysterious and awe-inspiring was that a revelation and consciousness-shifting experience was ecstatically taking place within me like blazing

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fire and yet everything around me, in Sacred Stillness, still seemed deceptively “ordinary” by every external appearance. I remember the French mystic Frédéric Lionel who similarly described the experience when he said: The body, the earth, the stars, the galaxies melted into a big unity – and I was a part of this unity. Unlimited and timeless, my consciousness hovered in a pulsating eternity.

Or Lama Anagarika Govinda who, in his Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, also said: To the enlightened man whose consciousness embraces the universe, to him the universe becomes his body.

Despite years of perceptual conditioning, let us therefore never consider anything as “familiar” and “ordinary” (for nothing is). We have lost the sense of the Sublime because we have concurrently ignored what it means to be a child once again fascinated by the humdrum line of crawling ants or the waiflike flight of a butterfly.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Jewish theologian and philosopher, suggested how we could restore this “lost sense” when he said: Awareness of the Divine begins with wonder.

What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder. We lack a will to wonder. We ought to stand still and behold; behold not only in order to explain, to fit what we see into our emotions but behold in order to stand face to face with the beauty and grandeur of the universe.

Radical amazement is the beginning of authentic religious feeling. We need to cultivate a sense of the sublime. The world in its grandeur is full of a spiritual radiance.

Like the moth enthralled by the candle flame from afar and merged wholly with IT, we too can behold the Sacred Fire in our midst and, enchanted by ITS irresistible charm, willingly hurl ourselves toward the Divine Center of all our yearnings in fervent Love and perfect Union.

Ferdinand Arthur P. Yulo is the President of the Bacolod Lodge of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines..

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Zen and Christianity: Points of . . (continued from p. 23)

BACK STORY BEHIND THE ARTICLE, “ZEN AND CHRISTIANITY” Unbeknownst to many of us, the reflections and insights of the article, “Zen and Christianity: Points of Convergence” was born out of many years of struggle in reconciling my Christian faith with my Zen practice. At the suggestion of my Zen teacher, Sr. Sonia Punzalan Roshi who used to grace the Zen meditation sessions conducted at the TSP HQ before the pandemic, I am writing a short autobiographical account of my Zen journey to properly situate what I’ve written in my said article.

It all started when I was 14 years old, while praying with my family. Up to that time, I was just an ordinary teenager, not a particularly religious or spiritual person. All of a sudden, on that fateful night, I was overwhelmed by an unconditional and boundless love, which left me with copious tears of joy. I took that as an encounter with the ever-pervading and infinite love of “God.” That started me on the spiritual journey.

Fast forward to 5 or 6 years later. By a series of fortuitous events – first, by reading Thomas Merton’s “Zen and the Birds of Appetite,” and, secondly, by becoming a Zen student of Sr. Elaine Macinnes Roshi – I started Zen practice when I was a college student. I was fortunate to start Zen practice at such a young age. But my Zen journey was full of ups and downs, as I navigated through the challenges of life; first, as a university student; then, as a young professional trying to establish myself in my career.

For the next 21 years, I was practicing mostly by myself, until I realized that I probably

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needed to go to a sesshin to jumpstart my Zen practice. Fortunately, an invitation to attend a sesshin fell on my desk. It was a one-week sesshin to be conducted by Sr. Sonia in March of 1999.

The long and short of it is during that sesshin, I had an experience of our True Self, which was confirmed 7 months later by Kubota Jiun Roshi as a kensho experience. I have written about this experience elsewhere. Part of it reads:

In a flash, the world, as I knew it, collapsed! Time stood still, and space disappeared! There was no time and space, no I and you, no inside and outside!

By the 4th day, I was achieving a certain level of stillness and depth during our meditation sessions. During our morning break, as I was holding a piece of biscuit in the dining room, something extraordinary happened to me.

In a flash, the world, as I knew it, collapsed!

Time stood still, and space disappeared! There was no time and space, no I and you, no inside and outside! I had a glimpse of the world of Zen. I could only describe it as a thunder-and-lightning realization that the universe is a palpable Whole!

Touching a piece of biscuit, Heaven and earth are recreated.

Sipping a cup of coffee, Whole rivers are swallowed in one gulp.

Emptied of notions of self and other, In a flash, the True Self revealed!

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I have to admit that it was such a wondrous experience, which left me astonished, as I wasn’t expecting it at all. But I also began to have some questions.

For one thing, I started to compare my Christian experience of God’s presence and love with the Zen experience of the Oneness and Wholeness of our True Self. The former had a personal flavor, while the latter was nonpersonal. But both experiences were quite powerful. Which was true, I asked myself? Am I intellectually dishonest in remaining as a Christian after I had my Zen experience? Should I now renounce my Christian faith to become a Zen Buddhist?

The struggle to reconcile these experiences has become a metaphor of my struggle to reconcile my Christian faith with my Zen practice.

The first thing I did was try to resolve my dilemma intellectually. I read books, mostly theological and philosophical in nature, and one author, James Arraj, a Christian theologian and Zen practitioner, was really a big help. We corresponded through email for a year. He was patient and kind enough to respond to my queries. In short, his books and our email conversations allayed my fears, especially the fear of compromising my intellectual integrity, as I felt at that time I should choose to be either a Christian or a Zen Buddhist. He showed me on the theological and philosophical level that is possible to remain a Christian while being engaged in Zen practice. But that was only the start.

Dogen Zenji talks about genjokoans. Genjokoans are koans that arise from the personal circumstances of one’s life. My struggle to reconcile my Christian faith with my Zen practice has become my genjokoan for many years. And just like koans assigned to us by our Zen teachers, genjokoans are resolved by

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Although intellectual study and academic discussion has its place and could be of some help, in the end, it is only by confronting such dilemmas in an experiential manner that we can find a satisfactory resolution to life’s struggles. holding together the polarities, contradictions and paradoxes of life in one’s hara. Although intellectual study and academic discussion has its place and could be of some help, in the end, it is only by confronting such dilemmas in an experiential manner that we can find a satisfactory resolution to life’s struggles.

Probably this is also what the mathematician, G. Spencer Brown, meant when he wrote: To arrive at the simplest truth . . . requires years of contemplation. Not activity. Not reasoning. Not calculating. Not busy behavior of any kind. Not reading. Not talking. Not making an effort. Not thinking. Simply bearing in mind what it is one needs to know.

In the end, what I finally realized, after many years of struggle, is that the 2 most significant spiritual experiences of my life are just different facets of the same experience. Like the 2 sides of the same coin, they’re just 2 aspects of the same reality. Indeed, they’re One! Matthew Aguas is a senior member of the Bahay Dalangin Zen sangha whose kensho (awakening experience) has been acknowledged by Zen roshis.

He is also a supporter of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines and a natural theosophist.

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April-June, 2021

Online Celebration of White Lotus Day

The Indo-Pacific Federation of the Theosophical Society hosted a White Lotus Day celebration last May 8, 2021 via Zoom teleconferencing. The program started at 11:30 am Manila/Singapore/ Malaysia time. The program included readings from the Bhagavad Gita and Light of Asia, poetry readings in Bahasa with translations, singing excerpts of the Gita in Sanskrit, message/reflections, singing of “That’s What Friends are For,” and a closing dance benediction, among others.

TSP Members Start Community Pantry

A community pantry was started recently by two female TSP members, and another lady, in Talayan Village, Quezon City. No organization was announced but the distribution was orderly 150 tickets were given to selected families in an indigent community who were asked to come in batches of 50, It was coordinated with the barangay captain who helped identify volunteers. The donors brought Php 5,000 worth of vegetables from a supplier who did not accept the payment.

Distinguished April Lodge Meeting Speakers

The TSP continued to conduct online lodge meetings using Zoom through April. Among the distinguished speakers featured during the month included TS International Vice President Deepa Padhi who gave a talk entitled “Helping Women Discover Their Wings” and General Secretary of TS Greece Alex Bousoulengas who gave a talk entitled “The Approach of the Spiritual Hierarchy to Humanity.” Celestine Lodge president Celeste Yangyang also gave a talk.

The TOS Holds Women’s Month Symposium

As a way of celebrating Women’s Month, the Theosophical Order of Service (TOS) in the Philippines conducted an online symposium last March 28 to discuss the role of women in social issues.

The panelists of the symposium which was held using Zoom were Bebot Rodil and Trish Ealdama. Rodil gave a talk entitled “Women and the Problems of the World: A Process of Raising Consciousness” while Ealdama gave a talk entitled “Silent Heroes.”

Joint Lodge Meeting Speakers for May Lined Up

The TSP continues to feature distinguished joint lodge meeting speakers for the month of May. TSP President Chally Romero and TSP Bacolod Lodge president Ferdinand Yulo already gave their talks last May 1 and 8, respectively. The distinguished speakers for the coming Saturdays will include Selangor Lodge-Malaysia Secretary Renuka Balasubramaniam, School of Applied Wisdom, Leeds founder Tim Wyatt, and TS English Section National President Jenny Baker.

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Directory of TSP Lodges and Study Groups Provincial Areas Amor Study Group Coordinator: Michael C. Andrade Meeting: Weekends 2:00 p.m.

Venue: Sabino Residence c/o Bro. Joyce Cary Sabino, Damula-an, Albuera, Leyte Tel.: (Cel.) 0916-5427153 Bacolod Lodge President: Ferdinand Arthur P. Yulo Meeting: Every 1st and 3rd Sunday Venue: 82 St. Ignatius Avenue, Doña Juliana Heights, Bacolod City Tel.: 0919-3271473 Bataan Study Group Coordinator: Norve Cruz Meeting: Every 2nd and 4th Sunday Venue: East Calaguiman, Samal, Bataan Tel.: (Cel.) 0917-5762407; 0929-7256762 Bohol Lodge President: Ludwig Quirog Meeting: Every Thursday 6:00 p.m.

Venue: Cora Ponteres residence, 120 P. Garcia Avenue, Mansasa District, 6300 Tagbilaran City Cebu Lodge President: Lovorn Ang Meeting: Every Saturday 6:30 p.m Venue: 2nd Floor, Pan de Malunggay, Juana Osmena St., Cebu City Tel: (Cel) 0943-5202891 Celestine Lodge President: Celeste Sasuman Meeting: Every Sunday 2:00 p.m.

Venue: Abalayan Subd., San Jose 8002 Digos City

Tel.: Res. - (082) 553-2839/ Off. - (082) 2911021 Godea Lodge President: Anita Sescon Meeting: Every Saturday 7:00 p.m.

Venue: No. 3-A Concepcion Apt. San Miguel Village, Pala-o, 9200 Iligan City Tel.: (063) 351-7081, 223-0126 Email: bbtrodil@yahoo.com Iloilo Lodge c/o Lisa Montero, Lily Que Meeting: Every 1st and 3rd Sunday, 6:00 p.m.

Venue: Au Wong residence, Diversion Road, Manduriao, Iloilo City Tel.: (033) 320-3950; (Cel.) 0919-8592504/ 0919-3027998 Maharlika Lodge President: Dionisio S. Cervantes Meeting: Every 2nd and 4th Thursday Venue: Josie B.D. Cartago residence, Road 4, Dona Vicenta Village, Davao City (near Ponce Suites Gallery Hotel) Tel.: (Cel.) 0923-5714743/ 09255120523/ 0917-7211130 Muñoz Lodge President: Clemente Madarang Meeting: Every Sunday 1:30 p.m.

Venue: Purok Curva, Bgy. Bantug, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija Tel.: (Cel.) 0908-2889821 Ormoc Lodge President: Arnulfo Lumangtad

Meeting: Every Sunday 5:00 p.m.

Venue: District 4, Aviles St. corner Juan Luna St., Anilao Riverside Ormoc City Tel.: (Cel.) 0905-5036527/0928-9509412 Palompon Study Group Coordinator: Arnold A. Arapoc Meeting: Saturday 3:00 p.m.

Venue: 635 Lopez Street, Bgy. Guiwan 2, Palompon, Leyte Tel.: (Cel.) 0926-2213388 Satsang Lodge President: Dr. Mary Anne Cabrera Meeting: once a month, always on a Thursday, 6:00 p.m.

Venue: Cafe Georg, Banilad or Persian Palate, Mango Square, Mango Ave., Cebu City Tel.: (032) 253-7098 Toril Study Group Coordinator: Jun Aling Meeting: Every Saturday 4:00 p.m.

Venue: Blk 5, Macleod, Daliao Toril, 8025 Davao City Urdaneta Study Group Coordinator: Ramil San Juan Venue: Blk 3, Lot 21 Doña Loleng Urdaneta, Pangasinan H.E.A.R.T.S. Lodge Venue: Blk 74, lot 25, Kauai st., South Pacific Golf and Leisure Estates, Bgy Sto. Nino, Catalunan Pequeno, Davao City, Davao del Sur, 8000.

Tel: Contact Dra. Anjeli Sta. Teresa at Cel. No. 09166248538.

Metro Manila Area Golden Link Theosophical Lodge President: Bebie Jane S. Dignos Meeting: Every 2nd and 4th Saturday, 4:00 p.m.

Venue: Conference Room, 2nd floor, Main Building, Golden Link College, Camarin, North Caloocan City Tel.: (Cel.) 0918-9146901 Logos Lodge President: Bert Cabrera Meeting: Every 1st and 3rd Saturday, 3:00 p.m.

Venue: Unit 304 Page 1 Building, Acacia Ave., Madrigal Business Park, Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila Tel.: (Cel.) 0917-9451758 Manila Lodge President: Mona Brocoy Meeting: 1st and 3rd Sunday, 11:30 a.m.

Venue: TSP National Headquarters 1 Iba St. cor. P. Florentino St, Quezon City Tel.: 87415740; (Cel.) 0927-4034983

Pranava Lodge President: Christopher See Meeting: Every 2nd and 4th Sunday, 11:00 a.m.

Venue: TSP National Headquarters 1 Iba St., cor. P. Florentino St., Quezon City, 1114 Metro Manila Tel.: 0917-5731901; 0922-8494395 Email: Aristaeus777@yahoo.com Rizaliana Lodge Meeting: Every Saturday 6:00 p.m.

Venue: TSP National Headquarters 1 Iba St., cor. P. Florentino St., Quezon City, 1114 Metro Manila Tel.: 741-57-40 Soliman Lodge & Raja Lodge President: Dr. Preciosa Soliven Meeting: Every 2nd and 4th Sunday, 1:30 p.m.

Venue: Room 601 or Rooms 704-705, Operation Brotherhood (OB) Montessori School, 3 Eisenhower St., Greenhills, San Juan,

Metro Manila Tel.: (Cel.) 0917 945 1758 (text only) Theosophical Research and Study Group Meeting: Sunday 6pm; inquiries Venue: TSP National Headquarters 1 Iba St. cor. P. Florentino St., Quezon City, 1114 Metro Manila Tel.: 741-57-40/09178987794 Email: president@ts-pandacan.org Vidya Lodge President: Maria Flor Garcia Meeting: Every 1st and 3rd Thursday, 6:30 p.m.

Venue: TSP National Headquarters Tel.: 8741-5740

The Theosophical Society The Theosophical Society was formed at New York on November 17, 1875, and incorporated in Chennai (Madras), India, on April 3, 1905.

Its three declared Objects are: • To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color.

• To encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy and Science.

• To investigate unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.

“Theosophy is the shoreless ocean of universal truth, love and wisdom reflecting its radiance on the earth, while the Theosophical Society is only a visible bubble on that reflection. Theosophy is divine nature, visible and invisible, and its Society human nature trying to ascend to its divine parent.”

H. P. BLAVATSKY (The Key to Theosophy)

The Theosophical Society in the Philippines 1 Iba St., Quezon City, Philippines

TO: