Service Projects for all Humanity

An International Online Service Community, by TOS-USA

Patrice Chaplin: City of Secrets (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2007, 336pp.)
A book review by Rene Wadlow

Patrice Chaplin is a writer of books and films, and her presentation of the hidden aspects of Gerona, an old Catalan city near Barcelona, has all the characteristics of a film script: short chapters, lively dialogue, and memorable scenes where the action takes place. Catalonia is divided between Spain and France, but there is a cultural unity to Catalan culture, and people have passed across the State frontiers when political events created the need: Spanish Republicans as the Civil War ended in 1939 moved into France; refugees from France and beyond crossed into Spain in the early 1940s as Nazi armies advanced; and anti-Franco activists moved back and forth to France in the 1950s.  read more »

The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed in Resolution A/61/L22, the year 2009 as the International Year of Reconciliation “recognizing that reconciliation processes are particularly necessary and urgent in countries and regions of the world which have suffered or are suffering situations of conflict that have affected and divided societies in their various internal, national, and international facets.” The Resolution was introduced by Nicaragua’s representative who stated that “reconciliation between those estranged by conflicts was the only way to confront today’s challenges and heal wherever fraternity and justice were absent from human relations.”  read more »

The Theosophical Order of Service (USA) has been working to improve living conditions on the Reservations for quite some time.  We have provided varying amounts of aid to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota and the Hualapai in northern Arizona.  Recently we have added the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Eastern Arizona.  We should be able to do more for San Carlos than for the others, because it is closer for us.  read more »

This year, some members of the NY Theosophical Society in NYC have begun collecting items to send to Haiti to help the poor in that country.  A friend of our Lodge goes to Haiti every December, bringing whatever she can to help alleviate the suffering and try to bring a little joy in the lives of the people there.  We have begun collecting toiletries, gently used summer clothing, home supplies and school supplies.  We are hoping to find other contacts to expand this project.

Richard Power, Editor, Wheaton, IL
Quest Books, 2007, 155pp.

This is a good book with a misleading title. These are unpublished lectures by Lama Govinda given at the Human Dimensions Institute in upstate New York to a largely Western audience but not published. The lectures were hardly “lost” but are a welcome addition to his published books such as the well-known The Way of the White Cloud and his more technical writings such as Psychological Attitudes of Early Buddhist Philosophy and Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism. Secondly, Lama Govinda is not a Tibetan Master but a German scholar of Buddhism, born as Ernst Lothar Hoffman.  read more »

I am Rudradevananda, have been working as a Yoga teacher and other relief work since 18 Years. Our Organization sent me to Orissa last year. While working here I found that because of sickle cell many family are suffering. While working in Sambalpur, Orissa, I went to one family, their eldest daughter had sickle cell and two children died. I went to another family village Gargadbahal, Sambalpur Orissa.  There four children died. Then I thought that I must help these people. I studied many books. I went to internet and studied about sickle cell. 

Finally I got contact with Lloyd Standish. He was very happy to know that I am very interest about this service. First he send me two bottle of carao. I gave to first patient Swrnamayee. She got improvement. When I saw the improvement I was very happy.  read more »

I do daily perceive that while everything around me is ever changing, ever dying, there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and re-creates. That informing power or spirit is God. I see it as purely benevolent, for I can see in the midst of death, life persists. In the midst of untruth, truth persists. In the midst of darkness, light persists. Hence I gather that God is life, God is light, God is love. God is the supreme good.  - Mahatma Gandhi

by Kathryn Tidrick (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006, 379pp.)
A Book Review by Rene Wadlow  read more »

(Editor's Note: October 16 is World Food Day.)
PRESS RELEASE:  Source: http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=38147&lang=en
provided by Diana D.C.

On 7-8 October 2008, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the United Nations marked the anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights which assures everyone’s entitlement "to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food".  read more »

by Gary Lachman, Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2008, 261pp
Book Review by Rene Wadlow
 read more »

I envision an international ideal of service awakening in an emerging class of people who are best called evolutionaries. I see them as soldiers, as youth, and as those who have soldier spirit within them. I see them come together in the name of people and planet to create a new environment of support for the positive growth of humankind and the living earth mother. Their mission is to protect the possible and to nurture the potential. They are the evolutionary guardians who focus their loving protection and affirm their allegiance to people and planet for their own good and for the good of those they serve. They are pioneers, not palace guards. - Jim Chanon, First Earth Battalion  read more »

BATTERY RECYCLING PROGRAM (THINK GREEN!)
Sponsored by
Theosophical Order of Service/USA

In an effort to increase environmental awareness, the Theosophical Order of Service /USA invites you to participate in our battery recycling program. Household batteries may be small and look harmless but these batteries can release toxic chemicals into the environment when thrown out with domestic waste that ends up in the landfill. This project provides a way for concerned citizens to safely dispose of used household batteries.  read more »

Dear Friends,

As you may recall, I wrote to you in June about ten young people held in prison in Austria since mid-May suspected of belonging to a Mafia-like organization supposedly perpetrating crimes in defense of animals.

I thought you might like to know that one of them was released in August and all the rest at the beginning of September. The media more or less ignored them for the more than three months they were in prison but now the journalists can’t get enough of them! One of them, Martin Balluch, has been invited by the Green Party to be one of its candidates in the forthcoming Austrian elections. He has been on TV and radio non-stop. He lost 20 kilos (around 40 pounds) in jail but his fire is returning. The affair is not over, however: the investigations are still going ahead and it could still come to a trial. No evidence linking the ten to any crimes has been found, even after 18 months of police surveillance but the accusation that the ten belong to a criminal organization has not been dropped. Human rights groups are therefore monitoring the situation closely. In the meantime, the ten are trying to pick up their lives and jobs….  read more »

People should consider eating less meat as a way of combating global warming, says the UN's top climate scientist. Rajendra Pachauri, who chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), will make the call at a speech in London on Monday evening. UN figures suggest that meat production puts more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than transport.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7600005.stm

Life Source Teams with TOS for Blood Drive The Theosophical Order of Service will host a Life Source blood drive on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Theosophical Society campus. For more information about Life Source and donating blood, visit www.lifesource.org.