Dear fellow members of the TS and TOS around the world,

We hope you’ll find this sixth edition of our international TOS electronic newsletter interesting and helpful in keeping you in touch with other TOS groups and issues related to our TOS areas of service.

In this issue we recognise the passing of Dr C.V. Agarwal, a beloved and dedicated Indian TOS member and celebrate the success of the Golden Link College in the Philippines. You’ll also find information about a simple way of increasing your support for the College. You’ll get to know a little more about the TOS in Italy, read about TOS activities in Wales, India and Australia, learn about current social and animal welfare issues and find some information about the benefits of teaching ‘mindfulness’ to children. Be inspired to truly listen by another short article by Mirabai Bush and consider the implications of the thought-provoking slide-show about our attachment to bottled water.

Remember that the newsletter is designed to be read while you are connected to the internet.

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, either through your National TOS Director/President/Coordinator/Correspondent or directly to the editors at: carolyn.tosinternational@gmail.com

The TOS recognises the passing of Dr C.V. Agarwal

The TOS honours Dr C.V. Agarwal who passed away in mid-June this year at the age of 82 after a life of richly varied service. Dr Agarwal was one of the TOS’s most dynamic animal welfare workers.   Read more

Golden Link School in the Philippines becomes a college

The Golden Link School is now renamed Golden Link College with the opening of its college department and first intake of college students.
   Read more

Still time to take advantage of the Kern Foundation’s offer and support the Golden Link College

Following the enormous success of last year’s fundraising project, the Kern Foundation has offered up to US$20,000 to match donations received by December 2009 to the Golden Link College.
   Read more

Getting to know the Italian TOS

Sharing the view that no theosophical path exists without service to humanity in the spirit of universal brotherhood, the TS appreciates and supports the TOS’s initiatives. In fact the two teams work in close collaboration.   Read more

TOS news from around the world

Find out about recent TOS activities in Wales, Delhi in India and Australia.   Read more

What’s new on the International TOS website?

Can the TS and TOS help in conflict resolution? In the new Featured Article, Vicente Hao Chin, Jr talks about what the members of the TOS in the Philippines are doing to contribute constructively to the reduction of violence in society. The TOS in Tanzania shares its work in supporting the Heart Babies Project in the new Featured Project. In the Recent News section we congratulate the Golden Link School in the Philippines on becoming a College with its first intake of students enrolled in Bachelor of Education programmes. There are also additions to the TOS photo gallery and the Inspiration section.   Go to http://international.theoservice.org

Exploring Theosophy and living in the 21st C at the School of the Wisdom

Colin Price, former General Secretary of the English Section of the TS, is conducting a school from 5 January to 4 February 2010, entitled Theosophy and its Practical Implications.  Read more

Listen!

Once we begin to understand the path of action, we still have many practical steps to take in finding our way into appropriate service. Here is a guide into the world of service.  This essay is the second in a series by Mirabai Bush that provides a guide for compassion in action.   Read more

Teaching children to relax

Have you ever considered promoting the benefits of relaxed mindfulness for children or offering workshops for members’ families on this topic?   Read more

Animal welfare in the news – the ethics of breeding pain-free farm animals

Recent developments in genetic engineering have raised the ethical question of whether or not scientists should go down the path of developing pain-free farm animals.  Read more

UN International Days

For information on UN International Days from October 2009 to January 2010. 

Climate change, people and poverty

Shifting seasons are destroying harvests and causing widespread hunger – but this is just one of the multiple climate change impacts taking their toll on the world’s poorest people. In July 2009, Oxfam published their report, Suffering the Science: Climate Change, People and Poverty. The report warns that without immediate action 50 years of development gains in poor countries will be permanently lost. Climate-related hunger could be the defining human tragedy of this century.  Read more

Appeal to help women’s cooperative

The TOS in Chennai is appealing for donations to buy a winch for one of the women’s cooperatives making recycled paper. Read more

Do you commonly drink bottled water?

Our almost automatic purchasing of bottled water has become an environmental challenge. Did you know that in the USA alone, over 28,000,000,000 plastic bottles of water are bought every year… and 86% of those plastic bottles end up in the garbage. Here’s an environmental message to raise awareness and hopefully cause us to stop and think the next time our hand reaches for the plastic bottle on the shop shelf.  
Watch this slide show

Would you like to receive this on-line newsletter automatically?

a)     To sign up, you only have to send a message to tos.intouch@gmail.com with
‘Subscribe TOS e-newsletter’ in the subject line, and please give your full name and the country where you live, and any other information you like such as TS or TS group you are involved with.

        You will then be put on the mailing list permanently or until you unsubscribe.  Some people send us ‘Subscribe TOS e-newsletter’ several times.  While flattering, this causes us extra work as we end up with multiple entries for the same person.  The confusion arises perhaps when general comments are sent in under the heading ‘Subscribe’. Your comments are most welcome but please don’t use ‘Subscribe’ as the message subject as it will be treated as another subscription.

b)     If you do not want to receive future newsletters you can easily unsubscribe. All that is needed is a blank message to tos.intouch@gmail.com with ‘UNSUBSCRIBE TOS e-newsletter’ in the subject line. Your address will then be removed from the mailing list.

With best wishes,

Carolyn and Diana

Diana Dunningham Chapotin is the International Secretary of the TOS and Carolyn Harrod is the National Coordinator of the TOS in Australia. 

When you volunteer to clean the kitchen or scrub the pots, if you practise as a bodhisattva, you will have great joy and happiness while doing so. But if you have the feeling, ‘I am doing a lot, and others are not contributing their fair share’, you will suffer, because your practice is based on form …
  - Thich Nhat Hanh, Cultivating the Mind of Love

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