Adyar, 16 June 2013

Adyar, Sunday, 16 June 2013

This week, we were down with a severe cold, but have been working on an article, which seems to have to be written. We missed two days at work, but were not the only one taking sickness leave.

Not much news from this sick man, except, that the article might be finished by the end of this month.

We have been resting a lot, during the time of which there was one dream staying in our consciousness. It was about the bibliographic database with citations on theosophical subjects. Someone really urged us to go ahead with it.

 

We have been working on a presentation on two great philosophers Anaximander and Tung Zhong-zhu.

The study group stays a good evening event, socially as well as for study.

For the rest we are becoming more and more familiar with the local culture, which has its peculiarities.  

Saturday, the boss gave us a booklet with commentaries on the Bhabavat Gita to read on the plane. Our cold was completely over. The siesta does good, if it is not too short.

The beach walk was a lot cooler and remarkably social as many hikers said hello, on Saturday. There was a school class at the beach playing cricket and Frisbee with one of their teachers.

We went to the internet shop because the modem was not working well. It functioned in the shop and also at home again. Seized the opportunity to buy oranges and had some orange juice for vitamin C.

As picture we chose the panoramic view of HQ Hall of the International TS here at Adyar made last winter by Richard Dvorak. See : http://www.panoramicearth.com/7661

We also put the photo of the beach cleaning party during the School of the Wisdom 2012, because this morning at about half past six, there were more than one hundred people cleaning the beach and dunes. A wonderful sight of commitment by the citizens of Chennai.

And that is all for the time being.

Good bye,

Mr. Brooder

Adyar, 9 June 2013

Buddhist stupa at TS campus in Adyar

Adyar, Sunday, 09 June, 2013

This week we could do some reading in old Theosophists on the TS website. Most of the issues are not available on the site, which is a pity, because if they were, there would be a large public who could read all these old issues, which generally keep their actuality.

We started to make a systematic footnote scheme for the thesis. First we made an excel sheet, but that did not have enough functions, then a table in word, which was much too small. At last we started a database. This is the best solution, but needs our self-training on the job, which is a task without end. We have started though and that is the most important step if one wants to arrive at a chosen end.

When we make progress even if it is just a tiny little bit, we have a general feeling of satisfaction and well being, which does give the worker some courage to continue. Also the health is becoming better.

On Monday at half past 3 pm there was room cleaning again and this time with water mopping of the floor.

At the after dinner study group sometimes there are eleven participants. That gives rise to somewhat more lively discussions. The participants were talking also about their health and one remarked, that workers at TS in Adyar are cared for so they do not fall ill.

We have conversations with our co-resident at LBC about that we have no urge to leave this place.

In the beginning of the week, the walk to the beach was very hot, because there practically was no wind. Later there was almost tropical rain and it became cooler.

On Wednesday there was office cleaning at the work place and we had to stay on the balcony. Thus we could have a social exchange of information with the colleagues, which was nice.

We work from 9 am till about 2 pm. One day after work, we went to the bookshop to buy “A study in consciousness” by A. Besant.

Another day began very warm and sweaty with now and then clouds. At work everybody was about half an hour later. In the afternoon we did some reading in “A Study in Consciousness” by A. Besant. She starts with a very summary of the beginning of a Solar System, as explained by H. P. Blavatsky in the Secret Doctrine based on the Stanzas of Dzyhan, and goes further in the traces of C. W. Leadbeater’s teachings on the Holy Trinity.

One day around four pm there was heavy rain pouring down for about half an hour or so. That was really cool and it stayed so the rest of the day and evening.

For most of the participants of the study group it is very intense to hear, that we have to give up all our personal interests and only be concerned with the suffering and needs of others.

At the end of the week, we had to go out of the campus to buy shampoo and to pay for the Internet connection. We had an orange juice in the fruit juice shop and bought a watermelon in the fruit stand in Besant Nagar.

After that in very sweaty condition, we managed to do just a little bit of study. During the day we also manage to do sometimes meditation with attention to the breath and concentration on the nose tip as advised by the Buddha. One does not look cross eyed at the nose, but it is with the attention of the mind that one remains at the nose tip. We have to tell one of the study group members about this, because this member complained about headaches caused by looking cross eyed at the nose tip.

Friday at 5 pm we went for a bath in the ocean again, which was a greater success that we expected, because without throwing us over the ocean let us calmly progress into the deeper water and we could have a real swim for the first time. The water current to the North was not too strong and by swimming against it with not too much force, we managed to come ashore some twenty meters upstream. The danger was therefore not too big, that day. The water comes very high on the beach, so we thought that it might be the New Moon.

Friday evening, after the study, together with our commensal volunteer worker here, who will start on Monday to work as teacher in the Olcott School, we ate the whole watermelon of two Kg . It was a nice evening.

Only half a workday on Saturday, so the workweek is not that old fashioned here. When we were at primary school, our father had to work on Saturdays morning and afternoon, but we went to school only in the morning, just like on Wednesdays.

We started editing our article on a certain religion, which is not so well known, but called a theosophical religion.

The citations, footnotes, bibliographies for our thesis and publication are beginning to form a real nightmare. Still we seem to be pushed with determination in the direction of establishing an integrated database for notes, citations and bibliographies. The problem is to find a suitable piece of software, which is user friendly enough for our uninitiated mind. We have tried several library databases for foot- or end notes and bibliographies. The one from Wiki seems to be OK.

The weather is not too hot and with the doors and windows closed, we can keep the room cool enough to continue working on our studies. This is also because of the rain from the last few days. Saturday we saw the water flow steadily into the ocean, but on Sunday evening the sandbank was blocking the river again.

We have worked on an article practically the whole Sunday, except for the meals and the morning and evening walks to the beach. So much, that we forgot to ask our mate at the dormitory if we could play a game of chess again. Anyhow, he has his first working day tomorrow, so he was probably busy with his preparation.

Laundryman, who did not come this week is now promised to come on Monday. Hopefully we shall have clean clothes, before we leave on holiday. This sounds strange, because life begins more and more to feel like one long holyday.

Good bye,

Mr Brooder

Adyar, Sunday, 2 June 2013

Adyar River streaming into the Ocean

Adyar, Sunday, June 02, 2013

From 9 am till 2 pm we were working every day this week with great satisfaction. In between we had lunch from 11.30 till 12 am. Some days, after 2 pm we managed to get the laundry man to do his job.

In the afternoon we do reading and some days at 4 pm we go out on the bicycle to buy things like batteries for the torch and a new keyboard for our laptop PC, which is functioning perfectly now. On the way back we usually stop at the fruit stall and buy a water melon, a Kg of green oranges for pressing juice, or a papaya.

After dinner we have a shower and go to the study group. The group reads the text of “The voice of the Silence” by H. P. Blavatsky and most of the participants give their comments. This study in the evening continues with five to seven people and lasts sometimes about half an hour longer than the 45 minutes originally planned. It gives a good general basis for exchange of ideas on the spiritual path, which all present are trying to find.

We made a draft contract and draft letters necessary for the visa of the volunteer, who was here for many years in the recent past and wants to come and work again at International TS Headquarters, this summer.

It was much cooler this week. The Adyar River was streaming vehemently into the sea through the canal which had been dug out in the sand bank by a bulldozer dragging machine. There has been a little bit of rainfall during one or two nights and days.

One day we saw, that there was a dragging machine in the middle of the river busy to deepen the bed of the river in order to have more water flow out so it cannot stagnate and form breeding places for mosquitoes.

We filmed the river streaming through the sandbank, while three boys were swimming in it. They even went back into the water, when they saw that we were filming with our cellphone and tried to behave as real movie stars.

We keep waking up before the alarm clock goes off.

We made a phone call to a friend in Europe of about three minutes for some Rs 26, which is not expensive at all as changed in US currency it is $ 0.50.

Skype worked finally, because we tried the connection at a later time. The family was at the dinner table and we could join in for a few minutes.

Once a week before dinner, we go for a swim in the ocean. That sometimes is a rather rough but good exercise. When I paid the bill of the dormitory just before supper, we could inform the manager, who was interested in our swimming escapade that one of the first times we went swimming, we had a painful shoulder before, but that after the natural movements in the strong waves our shoulder was completely without pain and had come back to normal.

Sunday was a real day of rest with even a rain shower at the end of the day. We played a few games of chess with one of the volunteers staying here in the same dormitory and did some reading afterwards.

The research for our study is showing a “mère à boire” (an ocean to drink) as our professor said to us 42 years ago, when we were about to make our first thesis on the Entry of England into the European Common Market.

Wikipedia nowadays really is one of the best sources with good texts and a wealth of references.

PC and Internet are very useful, but a pest if we are under siege by commercial sites and services. We managed finally to change our password for Facebook. One commercial site was able to get publicity in our Facebook timeline from a guy with over five thousand friends.

The beach walk in the afternoon was very quiet, today, as the rain had just stopped.

That was all for the week from,

Mr Brooder

Adyar, 26 May 2013

Campus road at TS Adyar

Adyar, Sunday, 26 May 2013

This week, we followed the normal daily program. For Monday this does not include afternoon study in the Library and for the weekend there is no evening study group, while the Sunday is not a work day. Wesak Festival was at the full moon, this week, so Friday was a holiday.

We did some further reading in the French book on the so called Christian Theosophist "Von Baader" (1765-1841). Very interesting, as this Roman Catholic theologian, openly speaks about “Self-manifestation of the I in relation to the you as Love which maintains us Its luxurious expression, being nothing else than the image or figure projected by the movement of love …. impressing Itself in itself” and “The original manifestation is also and just as well mediation of Self”. It sounds almost as if we were reading a text written by H. P. Blavatsky. We shall have to go into this more deeply, but the discovery was too much for us not to mention it in the blog.

The social gathering in the evenings around the study of “The Voice of the Silence” was this week with five to nine participants. The participants are preparing an excursion together to the South-East-Asian-Convention of the TS in Bali, in the beginning of November this year.

So everything is going pretty well. The work, the study, the housing situation are strange and hectic, but despite high summer temperatures the whole situation remains tolerable. The registration of the Employment Visa was done in the time of one Wednesday morning only.

We begin to wake up at about five am, so there is time for meditation and studies before we make our the walk to the beach and have breakfast.

The weather is very hot, but our body can cope rather well with it. One very hot day at half past five pm we were the first at the gate to the beach, which still had to be opened by the watchman. By half past six, it was less warm and there were more walkers going in the direction of the beach.

Friday morning we went to the librarian to order some books, to which references were made In the 25^th Anniversary Bulletin of the Adyar Library of 2010-2011on the subjects of "consciousness" and "Neo-platonism".

The keyboard of our PC has malfunctioned for two days and has to be repaired. The computer specialist working for the TS found the cause and he will solve the problem.

Some ten years ago, the a number of international workers staying here was about 18. Now there are between 2 and 6. Much has to do with the visa policy of the Indian government.

The weather is hot and humid and the windows of our room have to be shut in the morning before the sun rises. This week the waves in the ocean were tumultuous with white tops all over as far out in the sea as one could see. After our swim on Friday, we have decided not to go for a swim until the sea calms down. For the moment, were are very happy with the prospect that the next swimming exercise would be in less troubled water.

On Sunday, we played a game of chess in the morning and did some study. Lunch was at the home of a family, to which we had been invited earlier this week. Being in a normal family house made the experience at the TS become of more value, because at the TS campus everything is organized in such a way, that one can work and study very effectively. Living a celebratory life and thus being able to study and meditate is to be considered a great privilege. Still it was very nice to be with the family for a change.

In the afternoon there was again time for reading and we even started to work on a publication. We finally put the reference for a footnote on a certain subject in the PC and even began to make out the lists of books consulted and bibliographies.

It is good to be working and studying here at the TS in Adyar. If it were not for the considerable number of good and hard working people of the TS here and elsewhere in the world, this would not be possible.

And that was all for this week from,

Mr Brooder

Adyar, 19 May 2013

Adyar Beach

Adyar, Sunday, May 19, 2013

This week all our personal belongings were finally collected in our room. All the documents for the visa registration have been drafted. We have a bicycle and can make our own tea. We can consult our e-mail and bank account on the Internet. The meals in the restaurant are of good standard and sometimes even with products like tofu, which are a must for the vegan diet. After having spoken with the President of the TS on Monday morning, all is fine and now the work can begin. 

One night there was a tropical storm somewhere in the region. We had to get out of bed and shut most of the windows. The next few days temperature was somewhat lower than the 35° C on the day of our arrival.

We had a good conversation with the International Secretary about our housing situation, our responsibilities to our family members at home and to our national section in Europe. We have to get out of our national and supranational dress and put on the international garment coming with the function at the headquarters of a truly international organization.

We have been occupied whole days with administrative matters and finally we got print outs of all the necessary documents for the visa registration at the Immigration Bureau next Wednesday.

The heat is just bearable. Riding on the bicycle we could praise ourselves very fortunate to feel really at home in the beautiful natural surroundings of the TS estate here in Adyar. It is just the same feeling as when one comes back home from a long travel to far away countries and continents and finally realizes, that there is no place as beautiful as home.

Some evenings we have a chess game and lessons, so the next time we shall be playing chess with the grandchildren, we shall be able to give them the right instructions about the rules.

In the afternoon we do some reading in the library, where the atmosphere is just fine for reading and study.

We went shopping on the bicycle and for repair of the nose support of our spectacles, which repair was done in ten minutes and for a very low price by the optician, who is the next door neighbor of the TS.

Morning and evening walks to the beach continue and are relaxing to the mind with the wide ocean views and many impressive rolling waves bursting continuously into white curls of foam hurrying restlessly to the coast.

We met with the new secretary of the President, who invited us to come to the daily, Monday to Friday, study group from 7.15 to 8 pm. After dinner, this study group is a good social experience.

It is too warm for tea, so we make our own freshly pressed orange juice with the newly acquired citrus press. When we go shopping at the end of the afternoon, the watermelon juice in the fruit juice shop is also a most welcome refreshment.

Real work has started and we find that most of the book keeping is manual and that for the accounting a software program is used.

Slowly does it and we have still almost five years to go, we said to the colleagues, when they asked if we wanted to see many things at the same time.

The days are becoming too short to do all there is to do. The work is very satisfactory and is beginning to take some shape.

Yesterday at 5 p.m. we went to the beach for our first swim. This was a great success, although the waves were so high, that we did not dare to go deeper in the see than up to our knees, and even then we were still being overthrown by the bigger waves. All together a joyful experience with reminiscences from past summers and tropical years.

At the beach we met with another swimmer, who was very enthusiastic and said that the waves and cleanness of the sea varied from day to day. Today we saw him diving through the waves and take a real swim between the first two rows of waves, where the undercurrent apparently is not too strong at this time of the year.

Sunday was a day of rest with a little bit of study in a book on so-called “Christian Theosophy”  by Emmanuel Tourpe, professor in philosophy at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Brussels and Director at the Belgian Radio (BRT). Title of the book is “L’audace Théosophique de Baader”. Franz von Baader (1765-1841) appears to have found a good source for his rather chaotic approach of Theosophy in the teachings of the German Christian Protestant and Theosophist, Jacob Boehme (1575-1624).

Like R. Guenon (1886-1951) in “Le Théosophisme, histoire d’une pseudo religio”, E. Tourpe (1970-  ) speaks about the ideas of the Theosophical Society as “Theosophism” and calls the Theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky (1831-1891)  “Anti-Christian Orientalism” while considering the teachings of Jacob Boehme to be part of what he calls the “Traditional Theosophy” which according to him has a Judeo-Christian basis. All very Catholic, but still is it not to be mistaken that, as a Roman Catholic theologian, he is making a study of those Theosophical ideas, which were ventilated in Europe in the XVI century AD.

With these kind of studies at hand, our stay at Adyar will be much too short. Anyhow, our most important work is at the headquarters of the TS and the study activity is but a collateral action in the margin.

This was our first full weekly blog.

Another one comes next Sunday.

Bye for now,

Mr. Brooder

Adyar, Monday 13 May 2013

Picture of Adyar River taken from the roof of LBC in the year 2009

Adyar, Monday 13 May 2013,

Last Thursday at about 5 pm, we came back in Adyar after a journey of 21 hours. We were welcomed by a delegation of five of the household and kitchen staff. All with smiling faces and happy feelings of recognition, which continued during the next days.

There are no major tensions and another foreign worker, who has come to live and work here, was also present at our arrival. He said he is very satisfied with the spiritual atmosphere of the place. One of our friends, as by coincidence, passed by at the dormitory, just as we arrived there with the pre-paid taxi from the airport.

The weather is very hot and transpiration is running from the head. Last night it was a little bit cooler and a rainstorm made us get up to shut some of the windows.

Telephone and Internet connections are still working without much to do.

We can make our walk to the beach every day in the morning and in the evening just before breakfast and dinner. Yesterday evening, at the beach there was one person taking a bath in the sea. He explained, that now that the current had changed and the water from the Adyar River would stream up along the coast to the north, one could swim in the sea at the beach south of the river.

We discussed the subject with the other foreigner, who had also met the swimmer and decided that we should follow this example.

For the rest we are mainly occupied with the formalities for visa registration at the Indian immigration service.

That's all for now,

Mr. Brooder

Adyar, 6 January 2013

Puja at the new Vocational Training Centre of the Theosophical Society, Damodar Gardens, Adyar

 

Adyar, Sunday 6 January 2013,

At the beginning of the year, we saw the President and asked for the permission to stay at the compound. The Secretary promised to try and get the signature the same day. The banks were not distributing banknotes with their ATM’s. A local took us in his car to different places and even to a shop with biologically cultivated vegetables, nuts, beans etc. There we bought delicious cashew nuts.

The boss agreed to make a work plan and we have started on it. He signed the other three letters, which are needed for the employment visa. The clause of free boarding was taken out.

There were only Russian and German speaking people at the dinner table. A photographer showed his pictures of two different schools for the underprivileged.

We were very busy with the work for the section and our stay here in Adyar plus the preparation of different presentations. Also much time is given to the social life here at the dormitories. First arrivals for the School of the Wisdom of January/February are expected on Monday 7 January. There are said to be fifty inscriptions.

This week the news came, that the English language teacher from the USA has obtained an employment visa for one year. This gives hope to also get our same visa in due course. For the time being our student visa has not been registered, as the TS is not a recognized educational institution.

We spoke with the Librarian/Editor about publishing in the form of a syllabus the lectures, which he held at the School of the Wisdom. He gave his new library e-mail address, to which we should send the pictures, the paper and the article, which we made at the School of the Wisdom, last November/December.

Saturday evening, we went to a TS Lodge meeting in Chennai town to listen to a lecture on “What is Mysticism?” The traveling time took twice as long as the lecture itself. The experience was a revealing one. Our taxi driver came with another chauffeur, because he had injured his legs two days before on the Tiruvalamalai mountain, where he had fallen 20 feet and luckily survived with only minor injuries.

Today, there was a Puja for the inauguration of the New Vocational Training Centre of the Theosophical Society in Damodar Gardens.

That’s all for this week,

Mr. Brooder