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.

Many sages in India have stressed the importance of discernment between Self and non-Self, and they have said that the major characteristic of a basic human ignorance is the blurring of this distinction.  What is the Self?  How can we approach the understanding of the Self? How do we distinguish this from the usual many manifestations of self?  The Upanishads regard the aim of human existence to be Self-realization and they present a model of a free, bold and non-sectarian inquiry into the nature of the Self.

N. Sri Ram compared humanity to ‘an ancient plant that has seen many seasons.  It is preparing for a new flowering, which will not be a reproduction of the old, but the flowering of a new species evolved from the old.’ This course aims at a serious study of selections from Sri Ram’s writings on the nature and scope of human transformation.

Recommended Reading

The following books by N. Sri Ram:

The statement ‘That Thou Art’, from the Chandogya Upanishad, points to a dimension of our existence that is free from all limitations and negative energy. The Vedanta tradition offers insights into inner change that are comparable to waking up from a long dream. The non-dual teachings of this system give us a vision of oneness of the universe which can eliminate unrest and insecurity and promote love and compassion.

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.