Foreign thank you all for being here we have had so far three wonderful presentations I think you probably have already gotten your your money’s worth so there is no pressure on me then I think but not really the presentations have been wonderful they all had some something in common that is this depth
But also they had something equality that was particular to each of the talks we had Rabbi rami’s joyful presentation along with the depth that it had I think Carl’s was also deep and centering peaceful pamelas was deep and also was committed to reality so I want to follow the same trying to
Keep the depth but offer a different quality so my talk will be deep and boring I’m sorry or deeply boring but no don’t laugh because you are make me making me fail already so but we will we will look at something that is serious all the talks approached something that is serious
But as we have been talking throughout the day we live in a world that is experiencing a divisiveness and a polarization that I don’t know that we have experienced in at least in recent history and well it’s interesting to me at least is that this seems to be something that
One of blavatsky’s teachers uh was seen that is it had become to to have begun to happen in 1882. we have this quote the the idea that the intellectual portions of mankind seem to be fast dividing into two classes between degrading Superstition and still more degrading brutal materialism
The white dove of Truth has hardly room where to rest her weary and welcome foot so this was in 1882 and in the history of the atherosophical society we have this testimony by the the founders that what they were asked by their teachers to do is to create an organization that can’t
Try to promote a an approach to spirituality conducive to bridge that divide that evidently had started long ago and this is what I want to share with you tonight what kind of approach the theosophical society proposes to try to bring us together I think it was evident in the three
Uh presentations today this this wonderful respect and nourishment from each other from the different traditions you know we all have a particular tradition with which we may identify more but the ability to recognize and to appreciate other people’s paths is essential and it’s what can bring peace to the world
So the theosophical society was founded to address this and this is one way of doing it there are many ways so I’m going to present what the founders thought could help now before we go there let’s see this quote from blavatsky one of the founders of the theosophical society she said
True spiritual Perfection and knowledge are nothing else but the complete identification of our finite selves with a great all if you read theosophical literature the first idea that comes up is this idea of unity that we are all essentially one although we express ourselves we manifest in a wide variety and diversity
Of forms moods qualities Etc but essentially We Are One and what blavatski is saying here the quote continues but she’s saying that true spiritual Perfection and knowledge can only happen when we are identified with the great all and she says it follows therefore that no spiritual progress at
All is possible except by and through the bulk of humanity it is only when the whole of humanity has attained happiness that the individual can hope to become permanently happy for the individual is an Inseparable part of the whole so if this is true this is very challenging because we have seen how
People are different they may have different opinions they may have different attitudes toward life toward other people and we may be tempted to disregard them and say they are lost they don’t matter let us all all of us who think in the same way let us come
Together and let us create our bubble our world and just disregard these people but according to this view it is just not possible to for Humanity to attain happiness while we are disregarding one part of humanity you know there are Wars around the world and we may think
Well I don’t care about this country or this culture and we may wish that this culture or country could be put down and just get rid of the problem and that then we are going to be happy and to grow Etc but again as long as one
Part of humanity is suffering is in conflict most of us don’t know what is going on in Africa in the Middle East with all the conflicts and we think we can ignore all of that but as long as there is one part of humanity that is still in
Trouble then we cannot be happy within the country we may think there are ignorant people if we are on one side of the political divide or we may think there are immoral people if we are on the other side but if we are going to be happy as a country
We have to care for all of the people for both sides so how do we do this this is the challenge and of course we can’t just transform Society in the theosophical view is a an evolutionary View and all this needs time we tend to judge
What happens in the world by the very Narrow Gauge of how long our bodies live which is a blink in the eye of Eternity yes blavatsky says but if we look at the trends from the last two 300 years in in all areas War uh inequality education um Health
Etc all the trends are going in there in the right direction not as a smooth line you know they are declining all these negative traits not as a smooth line we have you know we know how Humanity goes through Cycles but they are all going in the right direction
There are websites where you can get all the statistics non-governmental websites and at this age or in this age that there is so much anxiety it’s good to have a wider View to so that we have a little more confidence now this doesn’t mean things are right there is nothing to be fixed
Of course we can we need to improve far more than the conditions that we have today but we are moving in the right direction so this should be an encouragement for all of us and when we try to think of of how to approach the problems we need to think
Of everybody how this is going to impact a person that lives in the middle of a city or a person that me that lives in the middle of the country in a farm that is far away from hospitals or people or resources internet so we need to think
Of everybody if we are going to be able to be happy as a whole so let’s see some of the proposals of the theosophical tradition um the we are going to explore this in integrative approach from to in three areas or or fields from the point of view of the
Perspective that the theosophical tradition proposes like in Buddhism they know the April Noble Path begins with Right View or in Hinduism we have for example in the viveca chudamani of shankaracharya discernment viveca um the the perception of Truth is the first step there are all these
Traditions that we may call them to use a western term Gnostic Traditions Gnostic in the sense of wisdom or knowledge true knowledge there are this Gnostic Traditions that propose the problem is that we don’t have the right View if we have the right view which is not just intellectual view but the right
Grasp understanding wisdom then all the problems can be solved so we will see what’s the perspective that um our tradition proposes then the integrative approach in connection to the different areas of development of a human being that are necessary to work toward this this Collective happiness
And then at the level of practices how do we get there so let us start with the first one this is a Crotona Library I lived in the Crotona Institute of theosophy I’ll show a couple of pictures only from Crotona so let’s see the perspective as you may be aware
There is a model for the theosophical society it’s taken from a Sanskrit verse in The Vedas it’s a little Rewritten but it’s a paraphrase in Sanskrit is satyat nasty parodharma which we translate normally as there is no religion higher than truth uh you can paraphrase this and say truth
Will always be Beyond any religion I would include here the theosophical society too not because it is a religion but we are not saying this in the sense of religions are not higher than truth but the TS is right there because actually Dharma has many meanings but in this in this meaning
It it means teaching spiritual teaching religious teaching so we could say that there is no spiritual teaching higher than truth or the other way that I think is clearer truth will always be Beyond any spiritual teaching be it philosophical Buddhist Christian Jewish truth per se cannot be captured by concept
When we begin to think of this we become aware that how we represent aspects of Truth is different from truth itself and therefore we can be far more flexible about the expression of truth because this is a problem we have Julie was asking Juliana was asking in the panel
About the uh the problem between Doctrine and practice and most of the the struggles between Traditions is when they look at how are you explaining God or or life you know what happens after death or what salvation is when we when we go to the concepts it’s easy to clash and for very
Little and subtle things because we see within each tradition there are all these splits and fights that only the people involved in that tradition understand how they are different you know for somebody from outside saying what are you discussing you know you are saying the same so
If we are rigid or we assume that words have or or can portray truth then we can we will fight in how we are going to kind of you know describe this but if we are aware that truth will always be Beyond not because of Any magical reason but because
Even all the thoughts that I have right now I have to choose a very small part and put it into words because we when we describe something in words that’s a very limited instrument to express something that is far faster and I’m talking about ideas imagine when we are
Talking about what the ultimate truth is obviously we are not going to be able to put it into words and yet we do need on the physical plane to use words so for example to try to approach this question of descriptions of Truth from or taking into account the idea
That words are limited what the theosophical society propose proposes is this is our second object to encourage the study of comparative religion philosophy and science so the idea is that when we are willing to look at things from different perspectives we begin to lose that narrowness that is
Natural when we know only one point of view so the idea is that let us appreciate that especially those things that are ultimate can be expressed in many different ways many of which seem paradoxical and we see for example in typically although each religion has its own again differences within but typically
In Buddhism they would describe the Ultimate Reality as empty emptiness for example in Hinduism they would use sometimes even the opposite Purna which is you know the completeness like in the gnostics the Christian gnostics the pleuroma the completeness the fullness so you have two religions one saying
That it’s empty one saying that is false and when you start examining the the reasons why they say one or the other if you have an open mind you can see that both they both have a point because we are talking about something that is not Material so from a certain
Perspective there is emptiness of everything that is known that is limited that is conditioned all that is is gone it’s not there this is part of the the beginnings of the mystical experience and uh you know levels of mystical experience that we all have access to the the realization that there
Is a state where um everything is gone and yet there is a sense of fullness there not something that is full of something else that emptiness is is full and you can feel it so you can see how different Traditions may choose to present the their Perceptions in different ways because
Since every way is conditioned every description has its light and its Darkness its shadow if I tell you that truth is empty that is great to get rid of the ego for example but some people find it completely uninspiring now if I tell you that truth is fullness
That may be inspiring for the ego fullness I’m going to get things but then the ego will be there always trying to get to wait for something to get so every explanation has its light and its shadow and then the different Traditions try to many times even to correct what was going on
At the time that the teacher was giving the teachings so it is important I think this second object of the society is very important so that we develop a flexibility of Consciousness so that we can really try to look at the truth in any presentation that is serious and
We only each of us can determine whether something is serious or not but I would say even a wrong idea is just a right idea that is either misapplied or taken too far or misinterpreted let’s say today the this the idea of conversion came up you know going out
And convert other people to our beliefs our views our ways obviously the philosophical Society is completely um I wouldn’t see it say against it if that’s your way it’s your ways but that’s not how we think it’s healthy to do it uh however if you look at conversion the
Concept of conversion you can see that there is a truth there what is conversion per se well you is your desire to help other people to achieve spiritual realization whatever concept you have of what that is and that’s a great desire to have now if we are not wise
We may do it in a way that is unhealthy that is counterproductive that is violent but you can see how there is something true there so instead of just fighting the ideas as being wrong you can try to work with the other person to kind of purify the idea refine it to see
What can be the weaknesses of that idea and of course you you can do that only if you do the same with your own tradition if you don’t know how to do it with your own tradition that is the one that you have some you know some handle
On then you won’t be able to do it with others but the idea here is that it is always healthy to try to have this this open mind not a mind that is not Discerning but an open mind ready to examine and to separate what is true and
What is false and of course what is true and false you know from your perspective you we we need to know that our perception is always Limited so that is one aspect but also the other aspect the comparative study not only within religion and spirituality but also philosophy and Science and what what
This is encouraging us to do is to have a view of the world that can be rational for example that can be empirical we see or I seem to see a lot in this spiritual environment people who seem to lose grasp of the reality so that’s a danger of
A spiritual attitude because if we realize everything is possible nothing is defined Etc well it’s easy to take it too far and then as one of my teachers said the exaggeration of good is evil or the exaggeration of good is so when we take something too far then we start missing the mark
So the idea is can we have a a view of the world that is empirical even in spirituality if we want to have a view that is empirical that doesn’t need to practice of course we need to learn theory you know in any science that you study or any any field
You first need to know the theory and sometimes the theory seems to be you don’t you don’t understand why they are making you study that but then when you start applying that you realize oh this is important for this and for that so if you have an empirical approach to life
Then you want to try to verify the spiritual teachings to the degree that is possible for you right now and assume progress in your in your growth a broad broader field of spiritual teachings fall within the your your purview let’s say and direct experience now also we need the philosophy in the
Sense that we may become materialistic if we only rely on what is tangible what is empirical so we need a more metaphysical view of life also this is blavatsky would talk many times about the the platonic approach from the universals to the particulars understand the universal laws and seeing how those
Laws rule the particular things in the world and then the more Aristotelian point of view that is the one that science uses you start with what is perceivable and then you try to draw uh or or to to perceive and understand the universal aspects that are behind the phenomena so the philos the
Philosophical approach to life is you know be empirical but at the same time don’t let your your inquiry your perception be reduced to what the five senses can bring so work also with all these wonderful teachings metaphysical and and you know metaphysical in the sense of those
Teachings that talk about the root of the things that we see and perceive with our senses but that also is not enough because you may become just intellectual with science and philosophy you may become just intellectual so the religion aspect is also necessary so that our work we do
This so that there is a Spiritual Development which the spiritual qualities are love and compassion and we are not talking about psychic faculties which they may be very helpful in a wise person and dangerous in a person that is not wise but religion in the sense of spirituality is what
Gives the framework why we are trying to understand life and from what point of view or you know with what intention it’s not just to become a scholar so this object is proposing to theosophists to have this approach to life to themselves to their teachings or to the different teachings
And that’s very integrative in the sense that then one aspect balances out the other and we don’t go to any extremes and this is what blavatsky tried to do in the secret Doctrine for example the the subtitle of the secret Doctrine which is one of the main books of
Blavatski is the synthesis of science religion and philosophy so she tried to show a point of view that integrates these three Avenues of knowledge let’s say now she uses synthesis there sometimes people say that theosophy is a syncretism syncretism means just bring different elements together together and
Just create a kind of Frankenstein you know that has some life but a synthesis is something different if you just put together atoms or molecules of oxygen and and hydrogen you don’t have water you just have gases they are mixed but if you can synthesize that’s the technical word
And you can bring together and meld these these molecules then you have something that is fundamentally different which is water fundamentally different from the gases so the synthesis brings up something fundamentally different and that’s what in in the philosophical literature is trying to do it’s not just to present a
Conglomeration of different facts is just to say how do you look at life how do you understand life yourself Humanity when you bring all these points of view together and you can integrate them and the fact that the The View that theosophical teachings present are neither of these is that scientists
Don’t regard theosophy as science philosophers don’t regard theosophies philosophy and of course most religious people don’t regard it as a religion you know it’s uh for science there is too much woo-woo you know spiritual stuff for philosophers there is two too many claims of a direct perception mystical perception so that’s not philosophy
Philosophy comes from the mind you know at least in modern philosophy Plato would say something very different and religion of course theosophy is too rational to bent on explaining things you know you you need faith and that’s it of course I’m characterizing in very general ways this but anyway so at the
Level of the doctrine what the theosophical tradition proposes is to learn to look at the world with this uh with intellectual honesty with intellectual humility with a mind that is that is willing to see the best in the different points of view without ignoring the the wrong things you know
Uh the the concept of jihad that today you know produces so much reaction in many people of course we can recognize is being used in the wrong way but can we have the you know the the good heart to look at Islam in this case and see what the original intention of this
Teaching is and can we recognize the value of this teaching while acknowledging that of course it’s being misused but then any tradition can be misused we are seeing today how many wonderful Christian teachings are being misused and we can say the same of any tradition so the idea is can we have
This open mind this warm heart to uh to be able to appreciate all the different different points of view and to have this flexibility um to to be able to integrate the different views if most religious people were like the speakers that we had today there would be no religious problem
Because you see they belong to their tradition but at the same time they come borrow from each other not because their tradition doesn’t have it but because oh this is nicely expressed in this way why can’t I borrow it and share and share and and they kept doing that with each
Other and with other Traditions so you know this is to miss evidently this is the path to peace at the level of the different religions then we can include the philosophical views and the scientific View so let’s go then to the second point the areas of development
By this I mean what should we develop as as human beings you know we have in in our Western secular tradition the especially among the educated class the mind is the highest thing so you have to be intellectual smart intelligent the Mind rules everything emotions are normally seen as something
That is worthless in spiritual Traditions many times especially in the in the West in the East not so much in the west but the physical body for example is dismissed this is just illusion just a veil it you know it’s a veil on the on the soul Etc
But in the philosophical approach the idea is that as human beings all these different levels are important and necessary in order to have a sane healthy and and enlightened um attitude regarding life and ourselves and others so for example we have this quote from an early member who was a
Disciple of one of blavatski’s teachers he says the prescribed course of self-discipline is a course of moral mental and physical development carried on in parallel lines one being useless without the other the physical nature must be rendered more ethereal and sensitive the mental more penetrating and profound the moral more self-denine and philosophical
So the idea is that you see there is no mention of the spiritual nature because the spiritual nature is the divine within us is the spiritual nature per se is beyond Evolution Beyond development because it’s perfect from the very beginning but part of at least how the theosophical tradition looks at this is
That part of the idea is to learn to manifest to make manifest the the divine through all these different aspects of a human being to bring Heaven to Earth in that sense so we need to work on all the different aspects so that the Divine can express without distortion
So I’ll give you just quickly a few quotes illustrating this for example Annie besan says the inner self cannot do effective work on the physical plane if the instrument which is the body is injured spoiled blunted or stunted by any habit which injures physical life the next one from blavatsky the power to
Know does not come from book study nor from Mere philosophy but mostly from the actual practice of altruism indeed word and thought for that practice purifies the covers of the soul and permits that light to shine down into the brain mind so again the more the moral development
Is important because it purifies our nature so that the Divine can express through us and then one from Jeffrey Hudson another important philosophist every erroneous concept and conclusion Blends mental perceptions be clouds the clarity and reduces the capacity for intelligence and understanding clear thinking utterly impersonal and strictly logical
This is essential to the development of implicit insight into first truths or wisdom so here again it’s not that truth can be grasped by the Mind by mere mental activity but if a perception of Truth is going to come to us we need a mind that is clear
That is not distorted that is able to see things as they are that is able that is a good receptacle for whatever aspect of Truth we can perceive and again always remember that because we are conditioned we can only perceive conditioned aspects of Truth
Truth per se is beyond all of us and for this reason also in normally in the philosophical tradition the different religions are seen as the manifestations of different aspects of truth that are not to be dismissed your your own personality that has its own conditioning May resonate better with a
Certain presentation of Truth with a certain um you know approach to truth and that is fine you know we can all have preferences because again we are conditioned so something will you know uh be more more uh susceptible to to be helpful to us than something else but
That doesn’t mean that we can just disregard the rest so the idea is that all religions are bringing an aspect of Truth or several with emphasis on different uh different you know dimensions of Truth and that that’s why it’s they are all important in humanity of course religions as a spiritual
Endeavor the the word religion means to unite to bring back together really guarded from the Latin religions as institutions we have seen in the talks earlier they are a problem this is what made one of blavatsky’s teachers to say two-thirds of the suffering in humanity is due to religion
Two-thirds of the suffering Humanity due to religion for several reasons this is a whole other concept but you know the the living in fear the divisiveness that it produces the you know there are many many ways in which religion without even noticing it may be affecting us and
Producing some kind some condition that leads us into suffering but religion as as the spiritual Endeavor is important so what this is proposing to us is that if we are going to be healthy individuals we have to attend to all the different areas of our our individuality
We can’t in general you know we can’t be healthy spiritually if we are torturing the body um of course torturing the body you can produce some psychic phenomena and many religions or or people in in different religions have discovered that if you put the body uh to great stress
You start developing psychic perceptions Etc but the psychic is not the spiritual and often an extreme um you know asceticism leads to an unbalanced state of mind and emotions we cannot also repress the emotions emotions are important otherwise we wouldn’t have emotions so we need to
Learn how to work with the emotions in a way that that helps the expression of the the spiritual and we need a clear mind many times there are great nice people that just have wrong ideas or wrong views that lead them into cruel actions simply because they are not perceiving correctly
So we need to have a sound mind we need to have a clear mind of course we can put too much emphasis on any of these and just become slaves of the body and then all our spirituality is about the body and feeding it well and doing right
Exercises and that is good but if that’s all our spirituality is not enough and same with emotions we may go to a spiritual organization because it makes us feel good but then when we leave we’re in the same place that we were before we don’t understand better how to
Deal with life with people with us or we can have organizations that is just intellectual philosophical ideas which again don’t touch our real life so the proposal is to work on all the aspects of ourselves and then we start generating this spiritual health and when we are healthy physical emotionally mentally we express
The spiritual in our relationship with others I think that you know I saw this in in South America this polarization that experiencing right here now um in South America for a long time and partly and I’m not you know I I don’t know about anything this is just my observation of
Human human but I when some people don’t have enough or have too much stress or are neglected uh they fall into into an unhealthy emotional and mental state and that’s very easily related and I’ve seen the 80s you know of course I I wasn’t here but perhaps if the
Distribution of wealth was better there weren’t so many people in need and maybe you know this polarization wasn’t they are so prominently But as time passes and the distribute wealth is so unfair and you start generating a population that is under so much stress then you can very easily twist that suffering
Assign them causes that that are good for you politically at the level of power and produce chaos so here again if we are going to be happy we have to take care of everybody how do we take care of everybody and this is part also
With ourselves if we want to be happy we need to take care of all the different aspects of ourselves let any of them and the last point at the level of practice because um well let me read this quote and then I’ll comment a little on this this is
From a book called light on the path that says seek out the way seek it not by any one road to each temperament there is one road which seems the most desirable but the way is not found by devotion Alone by religious contemplation Alone by Ardent progress by self-sacrificing labor
By studious observation of life not alone can take the disciple more than one step onwards all steps are necessary to make up the ladder so because of this idea that we need to develop all the different aspects of our being in a in a harmonious way and not
Over develop one and neglect the other then the the approach to the practice is quite holistic and integrative we talk very often about study meditation and service and of course there are more things that are proposed in theosophical literature these are like archetypes you know to study to to nourish this right
Understanding meditation to have uh to transform that understanding into a lived experience and service to express that wisdom and that love and that compassion I have talked about this in in our our previous convention when we were together so I’m not going to go uh
You know to look at this in detail also the previous speakers have talked about this uh starting with Doug at night about this service but let me to finish the presentation let me show you a way to interpret the three objects of the theosophical society this is what what
The organization proposes to its members as things that we need to or that are proposed to be developed the language is you know a language that was was produced in the 19th century so there is some gendered language there there is always discussion whether we should change the uh the language the problem
Is that the society is international and words that are a problem in one language are not a problem in another language like brother Brotherhood is not a problem in in Spanish that is like fraternity you know fraternidad and like that you know when you start looking at this it’s really messy so
Rather than go with the Winds of the time normally the idea was let us keep it like that and explain the meaning you know and but anyway so the first object that says to form a nucleus of the universal Brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race Creed sex cast or color
This this has a more superficial meaning that is let us create an organization where people from all walks of life can come together and we can work together Etc but in all philosophical literature you see that there is a deeper meaning because if we are really going to
Have to be a nucleus and the idea of a nucleus is because we cannot go out and convert other people so our aspiration is not to turn all Humanity into a perfect reflection of the universal Brotherhood let us start with those who want to try this and then that will grow naturally
But for this we need a mystical perception what this object is asking the members of the society is begin to nourish a mystical attitude in you the one that is trying to look at the unity the universality behind all the differences so if you are working with this object
You are trying to look past the differences to that which is in common to others and that’s a mystical perception this is what all Mystics perceive in different degrees of depth and Clarity so the first object is proposing the members incorporate that Mystic element in your life
Then we have this the second object that says we we talked about that to encourage the study of comparative religion philosophy and science this is not to produce a scholar but to generate that sense of wisdom that we talked about and this is like you know
If we use archetypes this would be like the archetype of the sage the the wise person so this object is proposing uh work on on trying to develop this wisdom this ability to to bring the different points of view together to see what is valuable in everything so try to be a
Wise person in life try to be a person that that can be a a unitive force in your community and then the third object that talks about the uh to investigate and explain laws of nature and the power latent the powerslating in man in the US we say in human beings this is
Like the official uh definition or or wording but investigate the Unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in human beings and this is why we could we could call the yogi or in theosophy we call it the occultist the word occult today is used in different ways I mean
Blabatsky was the first person to write to use this word occult in English I think originally came from French and blavatsuki was the first one in bringing that word in English and what she meant is more or less what we may think today of as a a yogi as this enlightened being
That has actualized all the potentialities in him or her um and that is you know that has uh love and compassion power and will and and and abilities to help Humanity beyond what we have at our disposal so the idea of the third object is begin to look within yourself what are your
Potentialities that you may not be using uh can you educate stimulate all these aspects that will allow you to help others in a more effective way and you know we can start with the the external aspects we have many times either money or time or intelligence that we normally
Don’t pay attention to and some people realize wait I can do a lot of good with with some of this then you can develop a sense of of wisdom understanding to help those who are in distress or compassion and love to support those who are in distress and there are then of course
There are deeper and deeper um potentialities in all human beings that we can use for the service of humanity so this third object is saying bring that aspect also into your life start working with this and this is also very integrative the the idea why I’m
Bringing this is that when we look at the practices you know normally you won’t find in philosophical literature just chantis Mantra or this prayer or use this posture or or something you know that is that that is very simple to explain which may be very effective but
In the theosophical view you know that’s one part we need more and we need a diversity of practices we will naturally be inclined to Sun more than others but you know the advice is don’t don’t grow in a too lopsided way you know try to keep an eye on all the different aspects
All right so that’s more or less what I wanted to present um I believe that with with this Foundation this is a way to stimulate inhumanity uh something that can bring us together that can makes us healthy can makes us um you know comfortable with with being
And that can bring us together and hopefully as generations and after Generations go by this becomes more and more common in humanity thank you [Applause] thanks Pablo for a good talk um in regards to the third object that we were just looking at can you just speak a little bit about the The
Unexplained laws of nature and the difference between um the psychic powers and what a spiritual power would be and historically what the TS meant by the third object and perhaps a little bit about what what you find important about it as opposed to what someone else might
So you want me to give three lectures well I can say something briefly there is a a lecture that I did on the latent powers in human beings that is just it came just a few weeks ago live in on the YouTube channel um and the The Unexplained laws of
Nature and all this is you know the part of the idea is let us learn to interpret life from the occult perspective what do I mean by that from the hidden perspective so when the the speakers were talking about that when we see a human being do we see just what
Comes through our senses or are we trying to look at the Divine spark that is expressing through that body when something happens in our lives do we think of that something challenging for example do we think of that as you know something that is unfair or that I just
Want to escape from or can I understand that at least in the philosophical view there is an order to the things that happen which has an educational purpose and therefore as difficult as something may be it has an and there is a purpose there for spiritual growth if we can take it
In the right way and if we can’t if we are lucky enough to have people around that can help us take it in the right way so can we look at life from that perspective and not just from the perspective of what I like or I don’t like Etc
Um also we are going through a period of you know unrest well in the philosophical tradition there is the idea that we grow through cycles and there are Cycles where there is expansion and cooperation and happiness and then there are Cycles where there is strife and Division and then from all
That suffering we learn and then we enter a new cycle of growth and that’s how we grow so can we interpret reality in that way so that we are not so anxious and and so afraid so these are a few examples uh one of the the purposes of philosophical literature that has so
Much explanation of you know the cosmos and all that is to provide us a way to be able to relate to life in a different way so that’s all part of the third object and then the part of the the latent Powers you can watch the other
Video just because we don’t have time thank you anyone else I wanted to ask if um if the three objects uh the goals of societies and systems are are there individuals that you can identify that might be good exemplars of all having lived and expressed these three objects yeah
Yeah we try not to do that I mean how do you think you know part of the theosophical tradition is we try not to invest personalities with a particular official role you know I’m talking here I’m being a speaker for the time being but I’m no guru or priest or anything
I’m just a student and you know that’s part of trying to remove the those goals is part of what the theosophical tradition tries to again as everything it has its light and its shadow you know and it’s great from certain points of view it brings some weaknesses to the
Society from other points of view but then any decision you make have those two possibilities so organizations religions they choose what aspects to emphasize so we are we actively try not to say this in the visual is a true philosophist or this kind no we are all
Students and we all aspire to be theosophists but that is left unsaid Pablo can you hear me yeah do we have reason to be hopeful have there been periods in history where we’ve gotten say nudges uh boosts and help for a particular reasons that put us in a say a more Progressive Place
Spiritually and um scientifically or whatever and you know help us maybe not see things like the World scenes or the country seems quite broken now um is there from your understanding in history and now reason to be optimistic yeah I’m I’m not you know I don’t like
The idea of being optimistic because I think we need to develop the ability to see things as they are and neither to try to interpret them better than they are nor worse than they are so but hopeful and unconditionally hopeful I have no I personally and I may
Be wrong but personally I have no doubt that everything works out to continue to grow because yes there are many things happening in the country that a large part of the pop of its population is not happy about but are these things things new how were we living a hundred years ago
50 years ago it’s just that now all these things are coming to the surface and also there is a part of the population that consciously recognizes this is not right many of these things were happening all along but people didn’t find out they didn’t realize this is so bad so a lot
Of the trouble that we have today in my humble view again I’m not you know a political scientist or anything like that but I I am interested in this I keep up with the news and all that and I try to understand human nature and to me
The trouble is a is a great sign it’s a sign of at least one part of the population saying this is not acceptable any longer and naturally it will produce a reaction and I I you know I’m sad for all the suffering that this is producing
But you know in human animation used to say you have two ways to grow either through wisdom or through suffering because if we are not wise suffering teaches us teaches us what we shouldn’t do where we we end up if we take this path and then that’s when we decide to
Go in a different direction many people around the world took democracy for granted and where you know not really involved we’re complacent and then when you you feel that you are about to lose something you start valuing it and that’s how we grow if you if you look at Human Nature
Um you know I’ve been listening and reading a lot about history and unfortunately the great breakthroughs came always after some crisis Wars or pandemics or things like that because again we as collectively we cannot yet learn by wisdom so suffering is a friend not a friend that we have to to
Stimulate or anything we have to try to help reduce the suffering to the degree that that’s possible but from the theosophical perspective all this inevitably leads us to truth because error because error is not true is transient cannot cannot only truth is eternal so whatever that is not aligned
With truth sooner or later will fall now if we are wiser we can go through this with less suffering if we are not wise we will have to go with more suffering but I have no doubt that all this will help us grow as Humanity okay Stephen do we have any questions online
Thank you Steve yes we have a couple questions from our online attendees uh Pablo first question is about the second object the study of comparative religion philosophy and science is quite voluminous what encouragement or recommendation would you have for a mature novice who is just starting to put all this together
Yes we don’t expect that all people will have the time and the inclination to study all religions philosophies and Sciences that’s why when I was interpreting this I was saying that the main aim of the that object is to encourage in in us the attitude of a
Scientist of a philosopher and of a religious person then in your individual path you will find that there are certain subjects that you may be interested in and it’s very helpful to start learning different perspectives to help you with that the theosophical society organizes this kind of programs where you have the
Opportunity to see from practitioners in different Traditions how they see something for example so that’s why we we have programs on the different Traditions to help the the public in general to learn at least to some extent you know how much you can learn from whatever match you can learn from a
Lecture or a course but to start getting connected to different ways of looking at something and then there are some students that really like that and they go deeper and they know several traditions and others that don’t but that is not not necessary as long as you can develop that that more embracing
Point of view more open attitude more flexible you know understanding I think that’s good enough the next one is about artificial intelligence and specifically in AI development there’s something called emerged Behavior which is some activity that’s not pre-programmed or predicted by AI units do you think this presents a
Danger for human evolution what should Humanity’s role be in this matter should we observe or should we be trying to counteract this trend for the sake of humanity oh I forgot the crystal ball in my room but but this is a question that I wonder a
Lot so by this I mean I can give you my impression of course I don’t know but something that is interesting that’s why I like history because this is not the first time that we go through any of these so I was listening to a podcast and they were talking about the
Relationship of humanity with technology and when the tractor was invented let’s say and produced that produced a real shock in in many people who were farmers there was a large proportion of farmers who were using horses and they were really saying that the end of the world was near
And there was a lot of Financial and economical unrest and you know difficulties and this happened almost with any piece of technology that was disruptive to some extent so my my personal impression is that if artificial intelligence is not as intelligent as we think it is I think
And there are people who know about this that have that opinion you know I’m not in the field but um I think that of course there are dangers that people are going to be replaced by this technology as as was the case with all technology there is a danger that
This technology is going to be used by Bad actors as was the case with all technology with social media with internet with computers etc all those dangers are real now the idea that AI may be a threat to humanity kind of Terminator kind of I don’t know I don’t
Think that that right now we we we should worry about that now that doesn’t mean we should not be working hard on putting moral a moral compass in AI Etc but personally I think the the reaction is mostly fear to technologies that are disruptive and I know that there are several you know
People heads of companies that are um you know publishing These Warnings I doubt their intentions you know there is there are many intentions that may not be the one that seem to be there that you know that may be motivating this for once for example the the companies that have already developed uh
Ai and are asking for regulations that’s a typical way to keep the you know the all the competition down the ones that are trying to develop new you already have it you put regulations you stop the competition so that may be part of the the motivation so things are very
Complex and I don’t know the right answer but personally if you ask me personally I’m not worried about AI in that way I think it can be a wonderful uh tool it has helped my work wonderfully I use all the artificial technology intelligence that is how they
Are and it has been wonderful for my work but I recognize that it can be for Evil 2 but yeah I know I uh so far we what we see I don’t think there is a those kind of dangers but we should be proactively working on put you know
Putting guard rails on the technology very good thank you Pablo uh next we have a similar question about cloning do you think cloning is the right direction for Humanity to take and what should our role be in either just observing it supporting it or allowing it to develop
In its own way and did the Masters ever express any attitude towards cloning yeah I suppose you mean cloning of mammals for example or animals I mean cloning I I’m a microbiologist and worked in molecular biology and we constantly cloned bacteria and things like that but when we come to more
Complex organisms you know that may be a little more complex uh or as a problem I I would not try too manipulate you know higher organism higher in the sense of biology organisms in cloning organisms but again there is a one of the the letters from from what glavaski
Called mahadmasat are this group of enlightened beings that trained her one of the one of them says that in toward the end of human evolution within the cycles that are proposed in the philosophical tradition scientists we have learned to inject life in in dead organisms just like the Frankenstein kind of thing
So we never know what what um what is part of the natural development in the knowledge of humanity again I I wouldn’t go in the direction of cloning human beings because we don’t know what happens with the soul you know the the soul would a soul incarnate and
When we talk about cloning we are not talking about creating a fresh human being full you know fully grown when you clone you clone an embryo so it’s not as drastic as some people imagine but you are replicating an embryo that was not produced by an egg and a sperm for example
Um so that embryo that begins to develop would a soul anchor itself you know with that embryo so that the Clone would be a full human being or not that we don’t know but so I wouldn’t go that direction but it may not be all that bad you know
These things are super complex I I want to keep you know a rational approach in the sense that we don’t know what we don’t know foreign
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