Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality by Gary Lachman, reviewed by BL Kennedy

 Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality

Gary Lachman

Penguin Books

New York, NY

331 pgs

ISBN: 978-1-58542-863-2

$16.95

Yet the real trouble HPB’s death had started had little to do with the disposal of her rupa, or physical body. As happens with practically all occult groups and societies once their leader dies, Blavatsky’s passing triggered a contest among the theosophical higher-ups to assume her place in the hierarchy.

Historians will often look at the past with some type of photographic vision. But, in truth, few of them will acknowledge the true origin of the Spiritualist movement in the latter half of the nineteenth century as Madame Blavatsky. This new biography by Gary Lachman is a must read for anybody interested in that particular time in American and world history. Whether you love her writings or feel that she’s Aliester Crowley in drag, no matter what you think, no one going to try to change your view, certainly not Lachman. Blavatsky and her theosophy movement simply caught on like wildfire through Europe and the Americas. She is a very important figure in terms of her influence on the occult world of the late 1800s.

Gratitude: Louie Schwartzberg at TEDxSF by TEDxTalks

Gratitude: Louie Schwartzberg at TEDxSF by TEDxTalks Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer whose notable career spans more than three decades providing breathtaking imagery for feature films, television shows, documentaries and commercials. This piece includes his short film on Gratitude and Happiness. Brother David Steindl-Rast's spoken words, Gary Malkin's musical compositions and Louie's cinematography make this a stunningly beautiful piece, reminding us of the precious gift of life, and the beauty all around us. As a visual artist, Louie has created some of the most iconic and memorable film moments of our time. He is an innovator in the world of time-lapse, nature, aerial and "slice-of-life" photography - the only cinematographer in the world who has literally been shooting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week continuously for more than 30 years. Louie was recognized as one of the top 70 Cinematographers for the On Film Kodak Salute Series. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Louie is credited by many with pioneering the contemporary stock footage industry by founding Energy Film Library, a global company with a network of 12 foreign offices, which was acquired by Getty Images in 1997. Motion picture clients of his cinematic artistry include Sex in the City, The Bourne Ultimatum, Die Hard 4, Syriana, Crash, Men in Black and classics such as American Beauty, Koyaanisqatsi and E.T. among others. Louie went on to found BlackLight Films, a creative production company specializing in producing original theatrical feature, large format films, HD and TV programming. In 2004, BlackLight Films completed production of the theatrical feature film, America's Heart &Soul, distributed theatrically by Walt Disney Pictures. In 2006, BlackLight Films completed a series of HD shorts, Louie Films, for the launch of Buena Vista Home Entertainment's Blu-Ray DVD releases. In 2007, the company produced a 1-hour special, Chasing the Light, which aired nationally on PBS. Past projects include the 35mm film Seasons of the Vine for Disney's California Adventure Theme Park and a 26-half hour series, America!, for The Hallmark Channel. Louie has won two Clio Awards for Best Environmental Broadcast Spot, an Emmy nomination for Best Cinematography for the Discovery Channel Special, Oceans of Air, and the Heartland Film Festival's Truly Moving Picture Award for Walt Disney Pictures' feature film release America's Heart & Soul. Louie completed production on a feature length nature documentary, Wings of Life, to be theatrically released worldwide, under Walt Disney Pictures' new production banner, Disneynature. The film was released in France (March 2011) under the title Pollen and won the Roscar Award for Best Cinematography at the 2011 Wild Talk Africa Film Festival. Louie spoke at the TED 2011 conference in Long Beach, CA and has been a regular presenter at the annual Bioneers Conference in San Francisco. Currently, Louie is in production with National Geographic to produce Hidden Worlds, a 3D Imax film. event video by: http://repertoireproductions.com/

The Gift of Life by Mystical K

You have made a beautiful expression of how to follow the path away from

disappointment and resentment, to move forward toward the ultimate inward realization of

our greater human purpose, which is to give personal thanks and to have a daily, ongoing,

deep and abiding gratitude, for the simple gift of your life. The depth of your understanding

is realized when the beauty of your love is directed toward our fellow travelers in this frame

of space/time and away from your own suffering.

We are each tossed, bruised and torn by our experience of the common human

condition. What sets apart those who are awakened from those who continue to wallow in

their own self-pity is, your empathy and your realization of our shared participation in the

pain and suffering of others.

Our culture teaches us that suffering and hardship have to be battled in the same way

as one would fight a war. And, those who are lost wandering in the pain of life’s bad luck

have lost that battle and are forever banished from the pleasures of a simple life. The eternal

external battle of “good versus evil,” has many casualties. The accumulated guilt and shame

are but a cloak which, can be taken off, at any time and discarded. For this holy war and the

competition of our society is external, a mere trapping of our modern culture; and, an

impediment which separates us from our own beautiful selves.

We each fight a personal battle against our fears, our desires and the consequences of

the expression of our ego. But, behind the individual personal struggle lies a higher

consciousness and ability to accept a personal realization of the timeless wonder and beauty

of this gift of life. Or, as Joseph Campbell said: “Follow your bliss and the universe will

open doors where there were only walls.” Joyfully participate in the sorrows of your life, for

it may be your only chance, in this eternity of space/time to transcend to the ultimate unity of

shared love and our shared joy of being allowed to exist as mere droplets in the ocean of this

interconnected universe.

Mystical K

HOW TO STOP THE BOMBING by Gary Zukav

The great sadness that enveloped the people of Boston and the participants in the Boston Marathon is the same great sadness that envelopes people everywhere in our global village.  The two bombs that exploded in Boston, USA, killed three people and injured 176; the bomb that exploded on that same day in Mogadishu, Somalia, killed twenty people and injured more; and the twenty bombs that exploded on that same day across Iraq in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tikrit, and three other cities killed 37 people and injured 140.  One week earlier a bomb that exploded in rural Afghanistan killed 5 people, and on that same day an American airstrike - another bomb - killed 10 children.  All of these bombings had the same cause, created the same effect, and forced the same question upon us.

The cause of these bombings was the pain of powerlessness, of feeling vulnerable and not being able to do anything about it, the pain of helplessness and hopelessness, the desperate need to feel superior, righteous, and powerful for at least a moment.  It is a pain so deep and terrible that we push love aside without thought or regret in order to avoid it and shatter lives and bodies with satisfaction.  Who among us has not felt the depths of this terrible pain and the magnetic attraction of anything that can mask it from us? 

The effect of these bombings is violence and destruction - emotional violence and destruction between family members, neighbors, and friends, and physical violence and destruction as well between nations and groups.  Who among us is safe from it?

The question that these bombings force upon us is: Why should I not seek vengeance?  Why should I not tear out the hearts of those who have torn out mine?  Why should I stand for love while others stand for violence and death?  Why should I respond with compassion to those who have none?  

Two different understandings of power now present themselves to humankind.  The first is the understanding of power as the ability to manipulate and control, the alignment of yourself with your time-bound personality, its five-sensory limitations, and its self-focused wants.  This kind of power is the obsolete remnant of a dying human consciousness.  The second is the understanding of power as the alignment of yourself with your immortal, timeless soul and its intentions - humbleness, forgiveness, clarity, and love - and the world that it longs to create of harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for Life.  This kind of power is now necessary for human evolution.  Love is the energy of the soul.  Fear is the energy of the personality.  You must choose between them moment by moment.

Now is the time to choose love instead of fear, soul instead of personality - now while the smoke is still settling over the finish line at the Boston Marathon, now while the wailing of Afghani mothers for their dead children still hangs in the air, now while innocents still suffer in Guantanamo and prisons around the world, now as you awaken to your ability and responsibility to transform the perception upon our planet of life as a cheap commodity into the perception of Life as precious, Life as pervading everything that is.

Now is the time to feel the pain and suffering of all the terrible, horrible, unfathomable experiences of our history - slavery, holocaust, massacres of Native peoples - and use them to cultivate within ourselves the compassion and wisdom that call to us now, that always call to us now, and act accordingly. 

That is how to stop the bombing. 

A SCIENTIST’S CASE FOR THE AFTERLIFE

Thousands of people have had near-death experiences, but scientists have argued that they are impossible. Dr. Eben Alexander was one of those scientists. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander knew that NDEs feel real, but are simply fantasies produced by brains under extreme stress. 

Then, Dr. Alexander’s own brain was attacked by a rare illness. The part of the brain that controls thought and emotion—and in essence makes us human—shut down completely. For seven days he lay in a coma. Then, as his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes popped open. He had come back. 

Alexander’s recovery is a medical miracle. But the real miracle of his story lies elsewhere. While his body lay in coma, Alexander journeyed beyond this world and encountered an angelic being who guided him into the deepest realms of super-physical existence. There he met, and spoke with, the Divine source of the universe itself. 

Alexander’s story is not a fantasy. Before he underwent his journey, he could not reconcile his knowledge of neuroscience with any belief in heaven, God, or the soul. Today Alexander is a doctor who believes that true health can be achieved only when we realize that God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition. 

This story would be remarkable no matter who it happened to. That it happened to Dr. Alexander makes it revolutionary. No scientist or person of faith will be able to ignore it. Reading it will change your life.

The Wisdom of Rumi, Sufi Mystic

The general theme of Rumi's thought, like that of other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, is essentially that of the concept of tawhid — union with his beloved (the primal root) from which/whom he has been cut off and become aloof — and his longing and desire to restore it.


Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dance as a path for reaching God. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected. It was from these ideas that the practice of whirling Dervishes developed into a ritual form. His teachings became the base for the order of the Mevlevi which his son Sultan Walad organized. Rumi encouraged Sama, listening to music and turning or doing the sacred dance. In the Mevlevi tradition, samāʿ represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love to the Perfect One. In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes and nations.
In other verses in the Masnavi, Rumi describes in detail the universal message of love:

The lover’s cause is separate from all other causes
Love is the astrolabe of God's mysteries.

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
― Rumi

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?”
― Rumi

“What you seek is seeking you.”
― Rumi

Rumi Video Poetry

April Fools Day with Gene Keller

Gene of El Paso, a local singer/songwriter legend, gives a special April Fools performance in the Unitarian sanctuary. Here are 3 songs from that performance.