Service Projects for all Humanity

The United Nations General Assembly in Resolution A/RES/64/136 has designated 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives in order to highlight the large role that cooperatives can play in ecologically-sound development and poverty reduction.  As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said “Cooperatives are a reminder to the international community that it is possible to pursue both economic viability and social responsibility.” Read more »

by David Edmund Moody
Weaton: Quest Books, 2011, 260pp
book reveiw by Rene Wadlow

The function of education is to give the student abundant knowledge in the various fields of human endeavour and at the same time to free his mind from all tradition so that he is able to investigate, to find out, to discover. Otherwise the mind becomes mechanical, burdened with the machinery of knowledge. Unless it is constantly freeing itself from the accumulations of tradition, the mind is incapable of discovering the Supreme, that which is eternal, but it must obviously acquire expanding knowledge and information so that it is capable of dealing with the things that man needs and must produce. So knowledge, which is the cultivation of memory, is useful and necessary at a certain level, but at another level it becomes a detriment. To recognize the distinction — to see where knowledge is destructive and has to be put aside, and where it is essential and to be allowed to function with as much amplitude as possible — is the beginning of intelligence. J. Krishnamurti in This Matter of Culture (1964)

How to put the insights of J. Krishnamurti into practice in the framework of a primary through secondary private school in California is the theme of this fascinating account by the former director of the school, David Moody. Read more »

We think of the Theosophical Society as being dedicated to study, meditation and service. The Theosophical Order of Service is the service arm of the Theosophical Society. The motto of the TOS is – A union of those who love for the service of all who suffer. The TOS operates nationally in many TS countries. The national TOS groups then work together internationally. So that the warm hearts and helping hands of theosophists circle the globe. Read more »

by Rene Wadlow*

Groves were planted to console at noon
The pensive wanderer in their shades. At eve
The moonbeams, sliding softly in between
The sleeping leaves, is all the light he wants
For meditation Elishe Noyce

The United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 61/193 has proclaimed 2011 as the International Year of Forests “recognizing that forests and sustainable forest management can contribute significantly to sustainable development, poverty eradication and the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.” Read more »

One of a series of Cultural Bridgebuilding articles by Rene Wadlow

Only if thou hast wings shall the future welcome thee

Ondra Lysohorsky is far more profoundly the poet of all mankind and a practical, maturing, struggling and suffering humanity because he had bound himself to that region where he was born.  He had chosen to create in the dialect of his native province of Lachia in what was later Czechoslovakia. Just as Frederic Mistral did for Provencal, Lysohorsky has raised up Lachian to the flexibility of a literary language. Read more »

One of a series of Cultural Bridgebuilding articles by Rene Wadlow.

Jean Giono was born and died in Manosque, a town in the mountains above Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. Although he lived all his life in Manosque (except for his military service in World War I) he was a bridge builder to the world of the spirit of the classic Greek gods.  He is often considered a regionalist writer, but, in fact, he uses the background of the region to deal with broader, cosmic issues. Read more »

In this engaging 2 hour talk, John Robbins, founder of Earthsave organization, explains why modern civilization's production of meat is THE most environmentally-destructive human activity.  This information is presented in his famous book, Diet for a New America.

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