The SFTS Lodge Journal provides information and inspiration from the Theosophical Society Lodge of San Francisco, which has been in existence since 1901. From time to time, in this space, we will post the minutes of selected Friday night talks (both from the current era and from a hundred years ago), as well as poems and essays by SFTS members.
Please visit the Theosophical Society in America, and the International Theosophical Society for more information.
Joe and Guin Miller was always surrounded by troubadours, dancers, divas, poets and musicians on the Walk and at the Lodge; the arts was an integral element of their milieu. Troubadour W. Blake Derby (a.k.a “Be Water” in those days) and diva Radha were among those beautiful beings who shared their artistic talents in the extraordinary circle that coalesced around the Millers, whether in the park or atop Nob Hill. Over the years, before and after Joe and Guin’s passing from physical form, Blake and Radha have given FREE concerts at the SFTS Lodge.
Most recently, Blake gave a solo performance in May 2010, previewing his latest and previously unheard song cycle, New Wine Old Bottle, and then in June 2011, Blake, Radha and friends debuted the music on their new CD, Rumi With A View.
Here is a link to the Amazon listing for “Rumi With A View, Part I” if you want to purchase some sublime music. You can get either individual songs or the whole CD.
But before you click on to Amazon, we’ve embedded a treasure from the Lodge’s “Basement Tapes,” crudely recorded, but beautiful like a shard of centuries old glass: the audio of Blake’s May 2009 solo concert …
Friday Evening Program for November 2011
11-04-2011 Joe Miller on Tibetan Yoga & Secret Doctrine, Parts 2 and 3 of 10 (Audio Recording)
11-11-2011 Measurement, Meaning and Mind — Jeff Curtis
11-18-2011 Founder’s Day Celebration: Reflections on the Lives and Contributions of H.P. Blavatsky, Henry S. Olcott and William Q. Judge
11-25-2011 NO MEETING – CLOSED FOR HOLIDAY – JOYOUS THANKSGIVING!
STAY TUNED FOR PROGRAM UPDATES!
Statue of Adi Shankara at his Samadhi Mandir in Kedarnath, India. Photo taken by Priyanath.
(Source: Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Adi_shankara.jpg)
Excerpts from Sri Sankara’s“Who Am I?”
I am the Lord of Lords. I am devoid of even a touch of jealousy or hatred. I am He that fulfills the desired object for those who are bent on realizing the goal …
I alone am the origin of the worlds. I am He that sports in the Upanishads. I am the flame of the submarine fire that will dry up the overflowing ocean of sorrow …
I am the seer. I am the host of seers. I am the act of creation and I myself am the created. I am prosperity, I am progress, I am satisfaction, I am the glow of the lamp of satisfaction …
I am the efficacy of herbs, I am the warp and woof of the world. I am the bee intoxicated with the fragrance of the bliss of Self emanating from the lotus of the sacred syllable Om.
I am Knowledge. I am the Known. I am the Knower. I am all the aids to Knowledge. I am the pure Soul-existence bereft of Knower, Knowledge and Known …
I am the oblation to the Gods and the oblation to the manes. I am devoid of the ideas of rejection or acceptance. I am Vishnu, I am Siva, I am Brahma, and I alone am their cause. — Thus Spake Sri Sankara
Friday Evening Program for October 2011
10-7-2011 More Terma of You Tube: Annie Besant, Steve Jobs, Wangari Maathai & Mahatma Gandhi
10-14-2011 Joy — Peggy Tahir
10-21-2011 Joe Miller on Tibetan Yoga & Secret Doctrine (Part 1 of 10)
10-28-2011 NO MEETING – CLOSED FOR HOLIDAY – HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
STAY TUNED FOR PROGRAM UPDATES!
Friday Evening Program for September 2011
9-2-2011 NO MEETING — LODGE CLOSED: Happy Labor Day in the U.S.A.!
9-9-2011 Terma of You Tube (Continued): White Buffalo Calf Woman, Amma’s Kitchen, Thich Nhat Han on Anger, and More! — Richard Power
9-16-2011 Hermit Potion #9 — Mary Kamadulski
9-23-2011 Hafiz — Jan Black
9-30-2011 The Ego Tunnel — J.R. Collier
STAY TUNED FOR PROGRAM UPDATES!
A stone sculpture of Laozi, located north of Quanzhou at the foot of Mount Qingyuan
Section #16, Tao-Te-Ching, Lao-Tzu (Translated by Ursula K. Le Guin)
Be completely empty.
Be perfectly serene.
The ten thousand things arise together;
in their arising is their return.
Now the flower,
and in their flowering
sink homeward,
returning to root.
The return to root
is peace.
Peace to accept what must be,
to know what endures.
In that knowledge is wisdom.
Without it, ruin, disorder.
To know what endures
is to be open-hearted,
magnanimous,
regal,
blessed,
following the Tao,
the way that endures forever.
The body comes to its ending,
but there is nothing to fear.
Available from Shambhala (http://www.shambhala.com
ISBN 978-1-57062-395-0
Friday Evening Program for July 2011
7-1-2011 NO MEETING — LODGE CLOSED: Happy Independence Day in the U.S.A.!
7-8-2011 The Paradox of Practicing Peace: Integrating Philosophy, Religion, Poetry, Healthcare and Martial Arts — Jay Dizon
7-15-2011 Tao Te Ching – Comparative Study of Five More Sections in Nine Different Translations — Richard Power
7-22-2011 Sukhavati — Joseph Campbell (Video Presentation)
7-29-2011 In Search of Magic — Mary Kamadulski
8-5-2011 A Visit with the Crystal Skulls — Solange Arbesu-Sala
8-12-2011 Some Thoughts on Being, Becoming and Meaning — Jeff Curtis
8-19-2011 The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra in One Hour — Richard Power
8-26-2011 The Dalai Lama Visits Theosophical Society in America HQ: An Eyewitness Account — David Thompson
9-2-2011 NO MEETING — LODGE CLOSED: Happy Labor Day Weekend!
STAY TUNED FOR PROGRAM UPDATES!
SPECIAL EVENT: SUNDAY, JUNE 19TH, at 4 p.m., our beloved friends and fellow S.F.T.S. Lodge member W. Blake Derby, with Radha, performing their extraordinary music from their new DVD “Rumi with A View” — don’t miss this great live performance. It’s the ONLY San Francisco date on their tour.
Friday Evening Program for June 2011
6-3-2011 More Thoughts on Consciousness & the Universe — Jeff Curtis
6-10-2011 Tao Te Ching – Comparative Study of Five Sections in Nine Different Translations — Richard Power
6-17-2011 NO MEETING — (NOTE: see SPECIAL EVENT ON SUNDAY, JUNE 19TH, W. Blake Derby with Radha performing “Rumi with A View”)
6-24-2011 Mahamudra and the Way of Transformation — J.R. Collier
Friday Evening Program for April and May 2011
4-1-2011 H.P. Blavatsky on the Key to Theosophy — Mary Kamadulski
4-8-2011 W.Y. Evans-Wentz’ Notes on Tibetan Book of Great Liberation — Richard Power
4-15-2011 Living Theosophy, Parts I & II — Pablo Sender (TSA Video Presentation)
4-22-2011 Conversations in Theosophy — TBA
4-29-2011 Envisioning a Day in the Life with Synchronicity — Sky Nelson
5-6-2011 White Lotus Day Celebration
5-13-2011 Dyzan, Dhyana, Dzogchen, Chan, Seon, Zen … & the Essentials of Mahamudra — Richard Power
5-20-2011 One Child At A Time, Inc. Update – Ayni (Peru) — Bob Squeri
5-27-2011 NO MEETING – MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
LENTEN MEDITATION: The Lodge’s ongoing Lenten practice will continue this year, starting Ash Wednesday, 3-9-11 through Good Friday, 4-22-11. We will be reading aloud the Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation on Ash Wednesday at 6:30 am, and then subsequently on Fridays only at 6:30 a.m. up to and through Good Friday. We will be reading aloud the Diamond Sutra on Friday evenings, at 6:30 p.m., up to and through Good Friday, 4-22-11. We invite you to join us for this deep meditative experience, and encourage you to read these powerful Sutras aloud in your own space during the other days of the week throughout the Lenten season.
Source for Image: Wikipedia Commons
Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly (or a butterfly dreaming of Zhuangzi)
Alan Watts on the Wisdom of the Body:
“Because I speak of the wisdom of the body, and of the necessity for recognizing that we are material, this is not to be taken as a philosophy of ‘materialism’ in the accepted sense. I am not asserting that the ultimate reality is matter. Matter is a word, a noise, which refers to the forms and patterns taken by a process. We do not know what this process is, because it is not a “what” — that is, a thing definable by some fixed concept or measure. If we want to keep the old language, still using such terms as “spiritual” and “material,” the spiritual must mean “the indefinable,” that which, because it is living, must ever escape the framework of any fixed form. Matter is spirit named.
After all of this, the brain deserves a word for itself! For the brain, including its reasoning and calculating centers, is a part and product of the body. It is as natural as the heart and stomach, and rightly used, is anything but an enemy of man. But to be used rightly, it must be put in its place, for the brain is made for man, not man for the brain. In other words, the function of the brain is to serve the present and the real, not to send man chasing wildly after the phantom of the future.” — Alan Watts, Excertped from Wisdom of Insecurity
2-4-2011 H.P. Blavatsky on the Key to Theosophy — Mary Kamadulski
2-11-2011 Diamond Sutra – “Even Only Four Lines” — Richard Power
2-18-2011 Why I Am A Theosophist — Dan Noga (TSA Video Presentation)
2-25-2011 More Thoughts on Consciousness — Jeff Curtis
3-4-2011 Know Ye Not That Ye Are Gods, Part II: The Message of Spiritual Liberty — J.R. Collier
3-11-2011 The Mahatmas & Their Letters — Steve Schweizer (TSA Video Presentation)
3-18-2011 Conversations in Theosophy (TBA)
3-25-2011 Between Shadow & Night (A Book Report) — David Thompson
LENTEN MEDITATION: The Lodge’s ongoing Lenten practice will continue this year, starting Ash Wednesday, 3-9-11 through Good Friday, 4-22-11. We will be reading aloud the Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation on Ash Wednesday at 6:30 am, and then subsequently on Fridays only at 6:30 a.m. up to and through Good Friday. We will be reading aloud the Diamond Sutra on Friday evenings, at 6:30 p.m., up to and through Good Friday, 4-22-11. We invite you to join us for this deep meditative experience, and encourage you to read these powerful Sutras aloud in your own space during the other days of the week throughout the Lenten season.
