School of the Wisdom

The state of our society is a projection of the state of human consciousness. It cannot change in any fundamental way unless we bring about a change in our consciousness. Our consciousness does not change through intellectual understanding or the changing of opinions and views. Knowledge and experience do not alter consciousness. Therefore time does not help to bring about the transformation of consciousness. How can the human consciousness come upon wisdom? In this session we shall explore these questions in depth and attempt to discover the truth for ourselves.

There are aspects of Theosophical doctrine which are highly technical and only of interest to the serious student of philosophy and metaphysics.  However a major portion of the teachings have direct relevance to human life in the twenty-first century. Their deeper meaning only becomes evident to the student after many steps have been taken into the hall of learning.  This session will seek to explore the vastness of Theosophy and its great significance for understanding the meaning of life and the mystery of human consciousness.

Theosophical teachings suggest that there are three schemes of evolution: physical, intellectual and spiritual. Consciousness and matter affect each other because they are two constituents of one whole. Spirit and matter, life and form are ever inseparable. This session will explore of the evolution of form and the unfoldment of consciousness in the light of Theosophy.

This session will explore four subjects:

• intelligence (sense of survival, significance of life, fear, desire and reasoning);
• evolution (animal brain, human brain, brain-mind, consciousness);
• structure and function of human brain and
• function and behaviour (average behaviour, perversions, creativity, thought, knowledge, superstition, religious life, transformation and mutation of brain cells).

Faculty

Being present here and now with total attention and awareness is the way to liberation from ignorance and suffering. The Buddha proclaimed this truth 2552 years ago and the importance and the reality of this teaching is being increasingly recognized. During these classes we will explore the relevance of such teaching for our lives.

This five-week session of the School of the Wisdom will be devoted to a study of the Bhagavad Gita, a classic of ancient wisdom and perhaps the single most important text to originate from India.

The participants are expected to have a copy of the Bhagavad Gita with translation. After a discussion of some of the key expressions, we will continue using them in Sanskrit without translation in order to develop an in-depth feeling for them. No prior knowledge of Sanskrit will be assumed.

One of the Elder Brethren who inspired the founding of the Theosophical Society wrote: ‘The chief object of the TS is not so much to gratify individual aspirations as to serve our fellow men’.  His teacher stated that ‘the Theosophical Society was chosen as the corner stone, the foundation of the future religions of  humanity’.

The same Teacher also said that ‘to be true, religion and philosophy must offer the solution of every problem’.

Theosophy – Divine Wisdom – is the ‘substratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies, taught and practised by a few elect, ever since man became a thinking being’ (HPB). There is an underlying unity in the different expositions of theosophy through the ages. The course will attempt a study of these.

The transforming power of yoga and meditation and their application in life is going to be explored with the help of Vedic texts, exposure to different meditative practices, and the latest medical imaging. This study will provide objective evidence for the neural and biological basis for meditation. It will establish meditation as the ground of creativity, happiness, and health, while the understanding of hypnosis will remove any bias against it.

H. P. Blavatsky hoped: 'The day is not far off when Science will show a better appreciation of the Wisdom of the ancients than it has hitherto done' (The Secret Doctrine, I, 586). The purpose of the course is to take advantage of the recent insights of modern science for a clear understanding of the principles of Theosophy. The approach will be so chosen as to enable even those participants who do not have specialized knowledge of science to take active interest in the course.