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CENTRE NEWS - SPRING 2021

Mission Statement of the Theosophical Society

To serve humanity by cultivating an ever-deepening understanding and realization of the Ageless Wisdom, spiritual self-transformation, and the unity of all life. 

Mission Statement of the ITC 

To serve humanity as a spiritual study and retreat centre, inviting people to work on the process of inner transformation.

What is unique about the Centre?  (text under consideration of the ITC Council next June 2021)

The ITC has a unique atmosphere. As all its activities are related to the higher aspects of life, the Source of Wisdom and Love, it is thus connected with the finer spiritual energies. Visitors, when open and receptive to its potent stillness, can therefore be greatly helped and inspired. 

The ITC during Corona time (3)

It remains rather quiet at the ITC during the ongoing Corona waves. Only small-scale and therefore safe activities continue: meetings of the local Annie Besant Lodge, the Samyama Yoga School, and the masses of the Liberal Catholic Church (LCC). Taking the current situation as it is, the ITC is actively preparing for the future: we are not sitting on our hands here…


Conspirituality: a word, and a world, full of contradictions

Fortunately, the situation hereunder described is not being experienced at our Centre, but all over in the outside world surrounding us. We would like to share some thoughts with you. These days, thoughts about spirituality and conspiracy seem to go hand in hand, and some scientists are even using the term ‘conspirituality’. Several spiritually oriented people, also members of esoteric organisations, are attracted by the idea that Corona and vaccinations are part of one great conspiracy. The interesting thing is that both spirituality and conspiracy seem to have some elements in common: a total freedom of mind, the concept of interconnectedness, and the aspect of reasoning behind the visible world. There are however some crucial differences, and the house which is called spirituality appears to have many rooms. In the TS, spirituality means to be aware of the difference of being influenced by emotions (in theosophy called kama) or being inspired by wisdom (in theosophy called buddhi). Kama stands for emotions such as fears and desires coming from past experiences. Thoughts and emotions have more impact on our mind than we are aware of, for most people they even dominate the mind. Expressions like ‘My feeling or my intuition tells me’ often mainly refers to the influence of hidden emotions, and this could in fact be called the ‘conspiracy’ of our own mind... The higher faculty of intuitive thinking on the other hand (buddhi) can only emerge when our mind is completely still, such as in meditation, and this spiritual intuition implies inner transformation. This is what the TS is aiming at (see the Mission Statements above). Sure, there are always people with wrong intentions in the world but let us theosophists not be led by fear or by emotions. Spirituality implies the action of constantly being extremely watchful not to be influenced by ‘conspiracies’, neither from the inside, not from the outside world.  


News on our library (2)

In the last Centre News, we informed you about the integration of the library of Sangha Metta: we received over 500 excellent books on different aspects of Buddhism and meditation.

Moreover, these days we received the personal library of the editor of Reflection, the magazine of the Liberal Catholic Church in The Netherland: about religion and spirituality in the light of theosophy and gnosis. This collection on western spirituality is a very welcome addition to our library, which now holds over 8.600 titles! 


 The garden team: the work goes on

With spring emerging now, a garden team of twelve persons meets once each month. It is a great joy to work together in our large gardens. We will continue to bring in new plants, and there are plans to place a beehive, sowing special seeds and plants to attract the bees. One of the big projects now is to clear up the partly overgrown old tennis lawn, because there are plans to create a labyrinth there.

Star moss from this lawn received a new home in the Garden of Remembrance. During our work we disturbed a deer, that ran away just before our eyes; we even saw the whole family of five animals. Such a beauty and grace, a real and rare treat!


New activities 

As mentioned, we are preparing the ITC for the post-Corona time. In September we will start with an introduction weekend for new TS members and people who are seriously interested. This is a new initiative of coming together in a relaxed environment, getting to know each other and explore information about the work of the TS together. Later the year we will continue the planned sessions about the powers latent in humankind. More information about these programs will be published on our site as soon as possible. We are currently working on a new website, as both technology and the ways of communication have changed a lot over the last years. We are happy to announce that the renovation of the cloister between Lotus House and the Crystal buildings is planned to be ready before summer.  


A walk around the ITC

Many visitors like to make (meditative) walks around the ITC, but not really understanding the routes and features. We now prepared a leaflet of four pages to be printed as a booklet on one A4 sheet. So, we prepared a leaflet exploring these and referring to sites for additional information. We hope this will be of use open here


Support from Friends of the ITC

May we remind our Friends of their annual contribution? This would be much appreciated to help us to cover our financial losses by cancellations during Corona time as well...  


Important dates for your diary

 
Due to Corona, all programs have been cancelled. We will start again as soon as the situation is safe enough. Please follow the announcements at our website

A special project you might wish to support now: the gardens of the ITC!


Our garden volunteers are spending much time and effort to sustain the beauty of the Centre: the lawns, trees, plants, and flowers, fertilizing the poor sandy soil et cetera.

Special care is given to the Meditation Gardens and the renovated Garden of Remembrance. Your donations are more than welcome to be able to buy new plants to improve the biodiversity at the Centre.


Copyright © 2021, All rights reserved.

St. Michael's Foundation of the International Theosophical Centre
Valkeveenselaan 19 - 1411 GT Naarden - The Netherlands
Telephone +31-(0)35-6945121 - 
www.itc-naarden.org - Email: info@itc-naarden.org
KvK 41192395 - IBAN NL42 ABNA 0475 4536 46 - BIC/SWIFT ABNANL2A

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ITC · Valkeveenselaan 19 · Naarden, 1411 GT · Netherlands

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