Issue 32 – September 2014 [Go to TOS website]
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Issue 32 – September 2014 [Go to TOS website] |
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Contents
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Dear fellow-members of the TS and TOS around the world, We hope you are enjoying keeping in touch with what is happening in the TOS internationally. Our electronic newsletter aims to bring you information to inspire your service work within or outside the TOS and to help you get to know TOS members outside your own country. In addition to news about outstanding service to individuals and communities, this edition has a focus on animal welfare concerns, with inspiring stories about how we can serve and protect our younger brothers. Let’s keep in touch and continue to share our experiences. Please consider sending photographs of your TOS activities and news items that might be of interest to fellow TOS members. We would welcome your contributions by email to the editors at tosinternational@gmail.com Remember that the newsletter is designed to be read while you are connected to the internet.
With best wishes in putting theosophical principles into action, Carolyn, Diana and Geoffrey
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The editorial team (L. to R.) Diana Dunningham Chapotin is the International Secretary of the TOS. Geoffrey Harrod is the International TOS Webmaster. Carolyn Harrod is the past National Coordinator of the TOS in Australia.
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“What act of service could be more far-reaching than the careful regulation of the quality of the thoughts we think and the emotions we encourage in ourselves? This is the ongoing contribution to the stream of life that flows through us all. From moment to moment we choose the quality of our sharing. Will it be a muddied current of confused emotion and thought, or a brightened stream of blessing?”
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Developments from the international working conferencesA five year international plan was developed at the 2007 conference and in 2013 another conference was held in the same location to review and update the plan. (There are surely no more professional and obliging hosts than the staff and volunteers at the National Centre of the TS in America – the TOS is deeply grateful to them.) The updated plan was published in March this year (e-news 30) and can be consulted here. At the 2013 conference, delegates drafted their own national plans drawing ideas from the sharing at international level. It is interesting to see how each is adapted to local circumstances. One such example is the national plan and July 2014 update of the TOS in America. Read more... |
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‘Hall Of Fame’ art exhibition in Bhubaneswar, India – a report from TOS group leader, Deepa PadhiLate last April, the work of Dr Satyakam Das, a talented young handicapped artist, was featured by the TOS in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, at an art exhibition organised in collaboration with RAKA ART Foundation. A little over ten years ago, Satyakam had everything going for him. Aged 24, he was a fine army doctor in Pune, married and blessed with a child. He was an excellent singer, an enthusiastic sportsman and keen amateur artist. Life appeared perfect but then a traffic accident in May 2004 left him with multiple injuries which occasioned two long years in the hospital. His wife and son withdrew, leaving his family plunged in an ocean of grief. Satyakam, affectionately known as Raja, decided to rebuild his shattered life and faith saw him through. Lying on his bed paralysed in three limbs, he started drawing with his left hand. He has now made sketches in pencil and charcoal of over a hundred famous people including Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Rabindranath Tagore, Abraham Lincoln, Einstein and many others. Read more...
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Of irresistible
dogs, precious fish and trusting foxes:
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A cosy place for little paws: ArgentinaThe TOS in Portugal is not the only group supporting an animal refuge. The TOS in Rosario, Argentina is not just supporting one: Marcela Riaudo, the local coordinator of the TOS in that city, has actually started a shelter herself with the full support of her fellow members. Forty dogs and four cats are now living together peaceably at “Little Paws under a Roof”. It all started when Marcela opened a dog grooming salon as a way of earning her living. After a time she added a pet minding service but before long she and her associates couldn’t resist looking after dogs and cats they found in the streets as well: hurt, sick, battered, abandoned or lost.
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Shocking exposé of the leather industryA heartfelt message from Julie Cunningham, the National Secretary of the Theosophical Society (Adyar) in Wales, has drawn our attention to alarming information about the leather industry provided by the association People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). “Skin is not just a by-product of the meat industry,” we learn, “it is the most economically important co-product. Many people shun and refuse to wear fur because of the gruesome ways in which animals suffer and are killed for their skin. But what about leather? Most consumers are not aware of the cruelty to animals involved in the leather industry or of the detrimental effects of its production on the environment.” “As part of the human race we share karma,” writes Julie Cunningham, “and if we buy the goods, we reinforce our connection to the cruelty and therefore must have a larger share in the karma.” Read more...
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Lessons of love and service from the animal kingdomDogs aren't only
the human's best friends. Pictured here on the cover of the latest For the
Love of Life, journal of the TOS in the USA, are Tarra, the elephant, and
her friend and constant companion, Bella. If you want to know how this
unlikely pair became friends, This issue focuses on animals and the lessons of love and service we can learn from them. 28 pages of beautiful stories and theosophical insights edited by Ananya Sri Ram Rajan.
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TOS news from around the worldIn this issue you’ll find news from the TOS in Peru about a project in their community and an update from the TOS in America about their project to provide gifts to the community of the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. From the TOS in Spain and the TOS in Assam, India, we have a report on their highly successful annual TOS gathering. There’s also news about fundraising activities organised by the TOS in Italy and TOS groups in Australia to support two international education initiatives – the extension of the curriculum at the Olcott Memorial School, Adyar, and the provision of basic literacy teaching in the home-schools run by the TOS in Pakistan. Read more...
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What’s new on the International TOS website?In our Latest News we bring an update on our fellow Theosophists in Ukraine who say they greatly appreciate our loving thoughts and messages of concern in the face of the continuing military tension in eastern regions of the country. Ukrainian citizens are divided in their sympathies on the political situation. TOS members have decided not to discuss this whole political question at their meetings but instead to seek together to give aid to the victims of both sides. The new Featured Article is the third of the talks on Service as Sacred Labour, given by a panel of speakers at the International TOS Conference in July 2013. In her talk, Cynthia Trasi shares her realisation that to be a true Theosophist is to live a life of service, a life of Sacred Labour. She tells us about Clara Codd’s advice that, like apprentices, we should study and watch the technique of great souls and suggests various sources of inspiration. Our Featured Project describes an initiative of the TOS in America who launched an Animal Healing Network last year devoted to providing daily healing meditation for sick or terminally ill pets and their human companions. Serving as a complement to the TOS Healing Network for humans, these healing meditations call upon the angelic hosts to send loving, healing power over time and distance to the suffering animal to comfort and protect until health returns or the soul departs the body. You’ll also find additions to the TOS photo gallery and
the expanded Inspiration section. |
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