The Bhagavad Gita is perhaps the single most important text to originate from India. People with a variety of interests -- from the sanyasi-s who have renounced all worldly concerns to the politicians -- have sought wisdom and guidance from this great text. In this Course, our effort will be to derive lessons from the Bhagavad Gita relevant to our daily lives. How can we be engaged in the world while at the same time being true to our spiritual life?

The Science of Life while enabling us to feel `being' and not `becoming', involves the principle of letting go. It asks to avoid the distinctions based on race, creed, sex, caste and colour for bringing in harmonious relationships. Its fundamental basis is rootedness in the One Reality.

Topics for study will include

The Secret Doctrine, the magnum opus of Madame Blavatsky, is a comprehensive survey of the origin of the cosmos and the prehistory of humanity. This synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy in the light of the Ancient Wisdom, deals with the unity of existence, periodicity of manifestation and the identity of all souls with the Universal Oversoul, and man's obligatory pilgrimage in accordance with cyclic and karmic laws.

Theosophy is often criticized as a syncretism because it is difficult to be defined. The sessions of the School of the Wisdom will prove that Theosophy is a science based on a foundation and proven by experimentation.  The two series of courses include:
For the first week: A presentation of the concepts of Spirit, Matter, and Consciousness, an exploration into the capacities of Mind such as Intuition and Intelligence, resulting in Universal Ethics, Meditation and Silence;

The course covers an approach to self-transformation that serves as a foundation for an integrated and effective life, as well as an essential preparation for living the spiritual life. It includes exercises in self-awareness and a detailed study of meditation. Other facets of the course are, approaches to daily awareness, the exploration of transcendence, nurturing essential life-skills, probing into the nature of intuition, and the integration of impersonal values into our lives.

Topics for study will include

• Consciousness — its nature, involution, obscuration, fusion, expansion, release, and its four States;
• Ideation — cosmic, divine and individual;
• The Mind — its nature, mental perception, the ‘I’ and its attenuation;
• Matter — gunas, bhuta, indriyas, tanmatras;
• The relationship of Life and Consciousness; and
• Samadhi.

Recommended reading

The Science of Yoga by I. K. Taimni, and

Glimpses into the Psychology of Yoga by  I. K. Taimni

This is the 125th year of publication of H. P. Blavatsky’s priceless book on mysticism, The Voice of the Silence. She hoped that it would answer the need of ‘the few real mystics in the Theosophical Society’. The course will be an attempt to bring home to the participants some of the mystical meanings and experiences conveyed by this mystical treatise in poetic prose with its profound appeal to the heart and intuition.

Om, namah Shivaya! In this course we will try to understand the inner meanings behind the functioning and manifestations of the creative energies of transformation in the images and descriptions of Shiva over the centuries. There is a somewhat cliché association of Shiva with destruction and He is often labeled the Destroyer. To be sure, the destruction of an attachment to a given level is necessary for any serious transformation to a new level, but Shiva is constantly engaged in regeneration and transformation.

Faculty

The Venerable Olande Ananda, a Theravada Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka, is a resident meditation teacher at the Pagoda Meditation Centre. A patron of the Sri Lanka Besant Lodge, he is a member of the Buddha’s Light International Association, the International Network of Engaged Buddhists and the Network of Western Buddhist Teachers. He teaches Buddhist meditation all over the world since 1979.