129th INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION THE , ADYAR

Price Rs. 3 1 January 2016 Number 2

COMPASSION AS RADICAL LIVING Linda Oliveira (Summary of Public Lecture delivered on 31.12.2015)

In China not so long ago, a free-diver The radical unity of the ultimate essence with severe cramps was rescued by a of each constituent part of compounds beluga whale. This was an act of in Nature — from star to mineral atom compassion — a fitting introduction to . . . and whether applied to the spiritual, today’s subject. intellectual or physical worlds — this The word ‘radical’ is associated with unity is the one fundamental law in anything which goes against the grain Occult Science. of mainstream society. Two further ren- We have a sense of this single Reality derings are of particular relevance to deep within us. The need to experience this exploration: an inherent or funda- it plays out in different ways, such as mental part of the nature of someone the human longing for connection. or something; and that which is thorough However, a sense of Unity seems to be and intended to be completely cura- virtually invisible in the lives of many. tive, e.g., radical or extreme surgery. This results from the kinds of con- Two questions therefore arise: nections people choose to make. The What is our radical or fundamental microbiologist, Charles Birch, wrote nature? and about relationships. To him, relating Is there a sense in which human con- simply involved making connections, of sciousness actually requires radical which there are two types: surgery? • When railway carriages are connected, We are ultimately bound together the only difference the connection by a deep and unshakeable Unity — makes is that one carriage pulls the that Noumenal consciousness which other along. This is a mechanical embraces and nourishes each and kind of relationship, perhaps a relation- every one of us. Madame Blavatsky ship of convenience, with one carriage put it this way: having the power to determine exactly

1 January 2016 1 where the other moves. The car- karuna is one of the two qualities to be riage being pulled along is there- cultivated on the Bodhisattva Path, fore powerless. along with enlightened Wisdom (prajna). • He described the second main type Shantideva described the Awakening of connection using one word, and Mind, which results in a different one word only: compassion. This is an quality of consciousness and a spirit internal relationship, contrasting of boundless generosity. The chief strongly with the external way in feature of the Jain tradition is ahimsa, which two train carriages relate to which derives from respect for every- each other. Compassion therefore thing that has life. It is informed by a constitutes a very different order of compassionate view of sentient life relationship. forms and a wish to preserve them. The Birch commented: Voice of the Silence emphasises the twin When we fail to make connections qualities of Wisdom and Compassion. that are critical for our lives and the Each is needed in order for the other life of the world we become adrift like to flower fully. small rafts on the ocean. Krishnaji mentioned that until each It is therefore very necessary to of us has a deep sense of compassion, give serious consideration to a totally we shall have ‘mechanical, computer- different kind of life. For example, far like minds … and we shall miss the better than treating humans as means extraordinary depth and beauty, the to our own ends, is the great virtue of whole significance of life’. valuing others for themselves. For we What is our radical — that is, funda- each have intrinsic value. mental — nature as human beings? The theme of compassion has been Some may use the term Atman; some strongly emphasized in the Buddhist may think of it as Compassion fused and Jain traditions. In Theravada with Wisdom. Yet words fall short of Buddhism, it forms one of the four describing that which is essentially a sublime states or ‘divine abodes’: profound and deep experience. Human compassion (karuna) consciousness does require radical loving kindness (metta) surgery. But there is a catch: we have sympathetic joy (mudita) and to carry out the operation. The need to equanimity (upekkha) live compassion, to do compassion (to When one develops these, the ‘compassionate’), and not just talk Buddha counsels radiating them in all about it, is urgent. We need to be directions. Certain states of mind are radicalised in the best sense of the term, greatly beneficial to the world. The not in the sense in which this word has potency of compassionate thoughts can gained currency today. This implies be harnessed and directed outwards. living and breathing Unity. Are we up In the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, to the challenge? Y

2 Daily News Bulletin HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS OTHER KINGDOMS B. D. Tendulkar (Summary of Short Lecture delivered on 1.1.2016)

As the President’s message proclaims, doms and the existence of the one ‘responsibility assumes compassion’. life underlying the whole of Nature, Thus human beings are assumed to comprising all kingdoms. The human have compassion for all other living kingdom is unique, but neither su- beings also. At the present stage of preme to nor independent of the rest. human evolution, however, the bond This uniqueness can be attributed of compassion, linking the human to its potential to rise to the highest kingdom with all other kingdoms of level of consciousness and its capacity Nature is almost missing. The Voice of to work in collaboration with Nature to the Silence says, ‘Help Nature and hasten the process of evolution — not work on with her; . . . unsullied by the only of human evolution, but of all hand of matter she shows her treasures other sub-human kingdoms. Humanity only to the eye of Spirit — the eye which has benefited in abundance from them, never closes, the eye for which there is and owes gratitude to them. This gives no veil in all her kingdoms.’ Obviously rise to our duty and responsibility humanity is expected to shift the focus towards other kingdoms. of consciousness from the land of In our arrogance of supremacy and matter to the eye of Spirit to strengthen self-centredness we have become blind our bond of unity with other kingdoms. to our responsibility and causing harm Strengthening of this bond alone will and violence to them. It is high time develop a sense of responsibility to- that we develop sympathy and com- wards other kingdoms. passion towards these our younger Let us not presume, as we often do, brothers and perform our duty to them that the human kingdom is supreme as their elder brethren. Then we may and other kingdoms exist only for its realize that life is Universal in character benefit. This only exhibits human arro- and all animate beings and inanimate gance arising out of human insensitivity things are expressions of the one life to interdependence of various king- in different forms.

Y

______Number of delegates registered Thursday, 31 December: 890

1 January 2016 3 OPENING OF THE CONVENTION About 890 delegates are attending the 140th International Convention on the opening day.

The Convention was inaugurated at 8.00 am on 31 December beginning with an invocation by the students of the Olcott Memorial Higher Secondary School followed by the lighting of the lamp (kuthuvilakku, a tall brass lamp with five wicks) by the President and others, Prayers of the Religions, and the Universal Prayer led by the President, Mr Tim Boyd. The International Secretary, Ms Marja Artamaa, read out greetings received from overseas. The General Secretary of the Indian Section, Mr S. Sundaram, conveyed greetings from different parts of the Indian Section. General Secretaries and representatives of Regional Associations gave greetings of their members, as listed below:

General Secretaries: Mr Narendra Shah East and Central Africa Mrs Linda Oliveira Australia Mrs Sabine Van Osta Belgium Mr Marcos L. B. de Resende Brazil Mrs Jenny Baker England Mrs Manuela Kaulich Germany Mr S. Sundaram India Mr Wim Leys Netherlands Mr John Vorstermans New Zealand Mrs. Angels Torra Buron Spain Ms Mirva Jaatinen Finland Mr Antonio Girardi Italy Mr Jack Hartmann South Africa Representatives: Mrs Tran-Thi-Kim-Dieu European Federation and France Mrs Nancy Secrest TOS International Mr Abraham Oron Israel Ms Birgitta Skaerbo Sweden Mr Branko Staric Slovenia Mr Domen Kocevar Fellows at Large to Adyar Mrs Isis de Resende Brazil Mr B. L. Bhattacharya Bangladesh Mr Isaac Jauli Mexico Ms Laura Rodrigues Argentina Ms Carol Nicholson Krotona Institute, USA

4 Daily News Bulletin Ms Nancy Secrest Theosophical Order of Service Ms Nilda Venegas Cuba Mr Robert Beland Canada The President welcomed the gathering and delivered the Presidential Address speaking on the significance of the theme of the Convention, 'Compassion and Universal Responsibility', and gave a comprehensive report about the work of the Society around the world, and declared the Convention opened. Y AROUND THE WORLD

Beginning this year with the Indo- The 92nd South India Theosophical Pacific region, the Indian Section Conference was inaugurated by Mr reports no change in their membership, Boyd at Adyar in April on HPB’s The still at 11,327. The North India Study Voice of the Silence. Mr S. Sundaram, Camp was held at their Varanasi head- General Secretary of the Indian Section, quarters in October 2014. The study welcomed the gathering and Dr Satapathy was on the late international President gave the concluding address. Several Mrs Radha Burnier’s contributions and distin-guished members also spoke on approach to Theosophy, directed by various topics related to HPB’s book. Mr P. K. Jayaswal, National Lecturer. In May the Section organized four events The international President, Mr Tim at the Himalayan Study Centre in Boyd, first visit to the Indian Section Bhowali: a study camp on Clara Codd’s headquarters coincided with this event, The Way of the Disciple, directed by Mr and he gave a public lecture on ‘The Jayaswal; a Workers’ Training Camp; Ever-Present Future’ on 29 October. a camp for the Uttarakhand Region; and A two-day seminar on ‘Education in the a study camp on At the Feet of the Light of Theosophy and Present Day Master by Alcyone (J. Krishnamurti), Challenges’ was organized by the organized by the Marathi Theosophical Section in March 2015. It was based Federation and conducted by Prof. on Dr Besant’s Adyar Pamphlet no. C. A. Shinde, National Lecturer. A study 16, Education in the Light of Theosophy. camp on ‘Virtues’ was organized in The international Vice-President, Bhowali in October 2014 by the Dr Chittaranjan Satapathy, spoke at Karnataka Federation and study of The this seminar on ‘Educating the Poor Secret Doctrine was directed by its and the Contribution of the Olcott President, Mr B. V. Thippeswamy in Education Society’. A three-day study April. A special session of the School camp was also held in March by Prof. of the Wisdom was organized by the R. C. Tampi, based on Ms Joy Mills’ international headquarters this year for The Human Journey — Quest for Self- the first time in Bhowali, attended by Transformation. participants from the USA, Brazil,

1 January 2016 5 Spain, Australia, and India in Sep- Philosophy in its Eastern and Western tember, and was based on Shirley Traditions; commenced publication of Nicholson’s Ancient Wisdom — Modern their redesigned national magazine; Insight. Dr Satapathy inaugurated the had an active schedule of National course and Prof. Tampi directed it. Speakers around the Section, and Apart from visiting the Section also a successful tour of the Section headquarters in Varanasi, Mr Boyd by International Lecturer Mr Vicente also visited the Utkal Theosophical Hao Chin Jr, who conducted a Self- Federation in Bhubaneswar, the Bengal Transformation seminar at the Canyon- Theosophical Federation in Kolkata, leigh Centre in . The and the Karnataka Theosophical placement of the new national website Federation in Bangalore, where he online earlier this year, and an active delivered public talks. Dr Satapathy programme of activities in Lodges, visited Bhubaneswar during the East Branches, and Study Centres were Zone Theosophical Conference and other accomplishments. delivered a talk on Theosophy and The New Zealand Section held its Altruism. He also addressed various national Convention in Napier last theosophical gatherings during his January with guest speakers Mr Vicente visits to the Tamil, Assam, and Delhi Hao Chin Jr, from the Philippines, and Theosophical Federations, and con- Mr Barry Bowden from Australia on ‘The ducted study camps in Guwahati and Way Forward for Humanity: Achieving Delhi. The Section’s journal, The Indian Universal Brotherhood’. A ‘Process of Theosophist, was published every Self-Transformation’ seminar was also month with an average monthly held in Napier, facilitated by Mr Hao circulation of 3,200. A special number Chin and others. Around 30 people of the journal on Dr Radha Burnier attended this 3-day event. The School was brought out in November. of Theosophy was held for four days Mrs Linda Oliveira, National President at the HPB Lodge in Auckland with of the TS in Australia, reports that they Ms Dorothy Bell from Australia, on had a successful annual Convention ‘Theosophical World View — Window with keynote speakers and longtime TS of a New Mind’. The Central Region held mem-bers Drs Victor and Olga Gostin. two events: a weekend seminar held Their Section’s annual School of Theo- at Palmerston North on ‘Theosophy sophy was held at the Springbrook Foundations’ facilitated by the National Centre in Queensland on ‘Discovering President, Mr John Vorstermans, and Buddhist Wisdom: Philosophy and an event held at Wellington entitled Practice’. They also received the award ‘The Wisdom of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras’, of the first annual prize to Studies in a study and meditation retreat. The Religion at the University of Queens- Section membership went down by 28, land, for research into the Perennial from 704 to 676. Y

6 Daily News Bulletin PAINTINGS BY FLORENCE FULLER

Florence Fuller, an Australian artist, membership doubled. Besant visited was highly regarded during her active Fuller’s studio and admired her early career as a portrait and landscape portraits of Olcott and Blavatsky painter. At the peak of her career she (now in the Lodge) and invited turned to devote her art to the service her to Adyar. of the Theosophical Society. The timing of Fuller’s arrival could An exhibition of paintings by Florence not have been better. Fullers’s stay in Fuller is the highlight of the collection Adyar from 1908 to 1911 coincided in the Adyar Museum during the Con- with an extraoridinary period in the vention. Her portraits of J. Krishnamurti, history of the Society, and Fuller was , J. I. Wedgewood and at the heart of all the activity. Fuller some miniatures are on display. had a small studio built for her, still Florence Fuller was born in Port called the Fuller Bungalow. Elizabeth, South Africa in 1867 and Fuller’s personal search for the migrated as a child to , higher, true self was played out on a Australia, with her family. There she dramatic scale in the River Bungalow’s trained with her uncle Robert Hawker octagonal room on a daily basis. As Dowling and teacher Leadbeater conducted the research and studied at the National Gallery of into Krishnamurti’s past lives. Fuller’s Victoria Art School, becoming a profes- practical experience in Adyar enacted sional artist in the 1880s. what she had before only read about; Fuller joined the Theosophical that the human subject was articulated Society on 29 May 1905 in Perth, around a spiritual core, that the following C.W. Leadbeater’s tour. the physical envelope was ephemeral and same week as , a even personality was temporary, She feminist and social activist. Together learnt that on the subtler level she was they shaped the growing Perth Lodge connected with people of other races into the powerful force it would become and genders and even with all creation. in the twenties. Fuller was Secretary, Fuller’s official position, while in Treasurer and Librarian of the small Adyar, was Recording Secretary. Her Lodge and lent her studios for Lodge main project, however, was the ambi- meetings. In 1906 she wrote a short tious task of painting portraits of the essay which drew on Blavatsky’s Founders, significant members of the writings, urging her fellow Theosophists Adyar household and the Masters. to put aside the physical body and its In the Theosophical Society Fuller needs, to realize that the lower personal found the patron she had been trained self is fleeting and to seek out the to expect. Her portraits were placed highest and truest self. In winter 1908 in meeting rooms and museums Annie Besant toured Australia and and published with inspirational

1 January 2016 7 quotations by the Founders. This gaze reveals much about the person project was diligently undertaken and that Fuller knew. But both Besant and pleasure in her progress reported in Leadbeater taught that personality was the Society’s journals. as evanescent as the physical from. Fuller’s portrait of Colonel Henry Beautiful as this portrait is, it does not Steel Olcott in the Perth Lodge of the represent the‘hidden life within’ that TS, was painted before her arrival in Fuller came to Adyar to find. Adyar. In this painting we can see Fuller’s return to London in 1911, something of Fuller’s academic reper- in time to march behind Annie Besant toire. Olcott had died in 1907 obliging in what has been described as the last Fuller to work from a photograph. In this of the great suffragette marches for work Olcott is portrayed as founding the Coronation of George V, was also father and sage of the Theosophical a period of coming to terms with the Society. The high forehead clearly reality of earning one’s living through denotes intelligence, and the snowy portraiture. beard, wisdom. In her portrait of Annie Fuller returned to with Lead- Besant painted in 1918, on display at beater in 1916 where she undertook the Adyar Museum, Fuller has opened a number of teaching positions, lec- herself to a psychological reading of the turing and writing in Theosophical sitter. She has described Besant as an circles. Fuller remained within the intellectual and organizational giant. Theosophical community until, in- Would Fuller have described this work creasingly vulnerable to poverty and as having captured the hidden life ill health, she was committed, at sixty, within? The personality of the sitter has to a hospital. been captured — Besant’s penetrating (From The Theosophist, March 2004)

Y

To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms, this is at the centre of true religiousness. Albert Einstein

Y

Printed at the Vasanta Press, The Theosophical Society, Adyar, Chennai 600 020, India

8 Daily News Bulletin