TS WORLD CONGRESS IN ROME  10-15 JULY  2010

Report by TOS International Secretary, Diana Dunningham Chapotin  

2 - The Congress opening, with participants from at least 34 countries, was impressive.

After the prayers of the religions and the host General Secretary’s words of welcome, a representative of Grand Orient Freemasonry in Italy presented greetings.  He talked about the fair social order and human rights that Masons and Theosophists believe in and of the persecution of people who affirm truths others are not yet ready to accept.  “Brotherhood means responsibility toward our hopes.” he said.  He was followed by a Lama representing the Italian Buddhist community.  The Lama urged us to commit ourselves to making the world a better place.  “Thank you for inviting me when I am nobody!” he said.  “I have no country so all I can do is work for humanity as a whole, work for peace in all countries.”  After greetings were presented from all over the world, Radha addressed us, speaking also about brotherhood in relation to social issues.  She questioned the policy of trying to bring about peace through war, for example, and suggested that instead of paying selective attention to what is important to us personally, we need to be aware of all that is happening around us, to all the rest of life, to all creatures. 

I was surprised that the Freemasons and Buddhists were invited to speak to us even before the individual and Section greetings were delivered, and delighted at the outreach to the community this represented.  It reminded me that when I took on the job of International Secretary of the TOS (too many years ago), the only advice Radha gave was to network as much as possible with like-minded groups…

I won’t summarise every talk given at the Congress here, don’t worry!  Almost all the talks will certainly be published anyway.  Most have already been translated into several languages. I would like at least to draw attention to a service-related talk or two, though, such as Mr S. Sundaram’s Love and Service – Twin Stars of Brotherhood.  I knew Brother Sundaram was an active TOS supporter but during his talk I learned that he has written at least two books directly connected to the theme of brotherhood: Emerging Harijan Elite: a Study of Their Identity, and War and Violence.  Do we have an insufficiently tapped source of knowledge and practical wisdom in Brother Sundaram?!  

S. Sundaram, General Secretary of the TS in India.   His talk was certainly inspiring and I hope that our webmaster, Geoffrey Harrod, will reproduce it on our website when it is available.  One or two of the three talks given at the congress TOS session will be published there too.  Tim Boyd, President of the TOS in America, Vicente Hao Chin, Jr, President of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines, and Diana Dunningham Chapotin, TOS International Secretary, spoke on the theme, Service as a road to awareness.

After the TOS session a group photo was taken, but not all TOS workers at the Congress were present.

Most of the lectures at the Congress focused on the need to develop a sense of brotherhood. They were of high quality but somehow I wish that we could have spent less time listening to talks about the need for brotherhood and more in concrete practical exercises designed to help develop it in ourselves.  “Exercises for learning to be brotherly?” I hear you exclaim.  Well, yes!  Why can’t we have meditation lessons, conflict resolution workshops, and debates on the application of Theosophy to crucial social issues?  Why can’t we have 'best practice' exchanges so that news of the most successful projects for making Theosophy known in our communities can be shared?  Why do we prefer to limit ourselves to lecturing each other about the need to be brotherly?  Are we perhaps preaching to the converted, as one Congress participant asked? 

Betty Bland gave a workshop entitled Forgiveness and Interconnectedness.  I would love to have attended it because I’m sure it was practically oriented. Unfortunately I had duties elsewhere and was unable to attend any of the small group work.  I understand that the other two workshops (conducted by Marja Artamaa of Finland and Marie Harkness of Ireland) were participatory as well.

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