SFTS Lodge Dharma Message for September 2018: "It is false to speak of realisation ..."

Above an altar on a high hill. San Francisco, August 2018.

 

 

 

"It is false to speak of realisation. What is there to realise? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long samskaras [innate tendencies] which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone." -- Ramana Maharshi, Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Edited by David Godman (1989).

SFTS Lodge Calendar of Events: September 2018

[NOTE: Starting on September 9th, 2018, the Lodge Library opens at 6 p.m. and our weekly Lodge meeting begins at 7:00 p.m.]

 

Friday, September 9th

Lodge Video Night: Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds (Part IV) - Beyond Thinking

 

Friday, September 14th

Conversations in Theosophy 

 

Friday, September 21st

Extended Library Hours 6-8 P.M. No Formal Meeting. 

Join Us. Browse the Collection. Sip Tea.

 

Friday, September 28th

Conversations in Theosophy

Joe Miller on Love (1/24/88)

An extraordinary talk captured on film by David Thompson.

Visit the Lodge's You Tube Channel for several more videos of the legendary American sage Joe Miller and other rare digital artifacts of this circle's rich mystical heritage.

Dharma Message August 2018

"Thoughts are the play of pure awareness. They arise within it and dissolve back into it. To recognize pure awareness as where your thoughts come from is to recognize that your thoughts have never come into existence, remained or ceased. At that point, thoughts can no longer trouble your mind. When you run after your thoughts you are like a dog chasing a stick, every time the stick is thrown you after it. But if, instead, you look at where your thoughts are coming from, you will see that each thought arises and dissolves within the space of that awareness, without engendering other thoughts. Be like a lion, who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once." -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Excerpted from His Commentary on Padampa Sangye's Hundred Verses of Advice included in Collected Works of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Vol. II (2010). San Francisco Theosophical Society Lodge, August 2018.

Theosophy, the Wisdom of Love

White Lotus Day, SFTS Lodge, May 2016

"Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou has become
that Path itself." -- H.P. Blavatsky, Voice of the Silence

SFTS Lodge Calendar of Events: August 2018

Friday, August 3rd

• Extended Library Hours 7-9 P.M. No Formal Meeting. (Join Us. Browse the Collection. Sip Tea.)

Friday, August 10th

• Cesar Love presents "Baseball and Astrology (Continued): New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox"(Third and Final Presentation in A Fascinating Triptych)

Friday, August 17th

• Lodge Video Night: Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds (Part III) - The Serpent and the Lotus

Friday, August 24th 

• Conversations in Theosophy

Friday, August 31st

• NO MEETING – CLOSED FOR LABOR DAY BREAK – ENJOY THE SUMMER

Lodge Caravan Event: COMPASSIONS, An MPOWERANCE Performance (7/22/18)

On rare occasions, the San Francisco Lodge of the Theosophical Society declares a Lodge Caravan Night and forgoes our regular venue to gather in support of some important event in the arts, science and humanities. And so, on Friday June 22nd, 2018, the SFTS Lodge Caravan will journey to NOHspace Theatre, 2840 Mariposa St. in San Francisco to attend “COMPASSIONS” an MPOWERDANCE performance. Tickets are available via Eventbrite (see the link below).

Join us! Here are the details –

COMPASSIONS

The heart must dare to be bold.

COMPASSIONS is a culmination of recent works created and performed by Mary Power, showing original dance, paintings, song, short dance films, and art installation “MotherPeaceMotherWar”.
Guest Artists and collaborators include dance by Elaine Santos, masks by Bart Frescura, and Richard Power reading from his latest book, “I the Dragon.”

Showtimes: 7-8:30 pm Fri., Sat., Sun. (June 22, 23, 24)

“All these moments and actions have their inner justification. Taken as a whole they reflect the feelings, the passion, or the state which we describe by the use of the one word love…Every passion is a complex of things experienced emotionally, it’s the sum total of a variety of different feelings, experiences, states. All these component parts are not only numerous and varied but they are also often contradictory. In love there is often hatred and scorn, and admiration, and indifference, and ecstasy, and prostration, and embarrassment, and brazenness, [addiction and betrayal].” — An Actor’s Handbook by Constantin Stanislavski

To purchase tickets for Compassions, click on this link to Eventbrite.