1. What’s your name, where are you from and how long have you been a member of the TS?
My name is Hans van Aurich. I am a member of the Theosophical Society (Adyar) since 1985. At the same time I became member of the The Hague Lodge of the Dutch Section.
What’s your name, where are you from and how long have you been a member of the TS?
My name is Cees Slob and during half of my present incarnation I have been a member of the TS Point Loma Blavatsky House and still am.
1. What’s your name, where are you from and how long have you been a member of the TS?
I’m Jeff Soule from Washington, DC in the United States and have been a member of the American section for 5 years. I have been exploring esoteric philosophy for far longer.
Editorial
Jan Nicolaas Kind – Brazil
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose”
(Lyndon B. Johnson)
Last January, after the names of the two candidates for the position of the international presidency for the Theosophical Society, Adyar, were announced — Tim Boyd and C. V. K. Maithreya — in the capacity of editor-in-chief of the website Theosophy Forward, I wrote an open letter to all General Secretaries and other office bearers:
“On Saturday January 11 the names of the candidates running for the position of International President of the T.S. Adyar were published. Tim Boyd and Chaganti V. K. Maithreya are on the ballot. The T.S. Adyar is in a fortunate position now to have two candidates of this caliber. This is truly a historical occasion, and the next months are going to be decisive for the T.S. Adyar and Theosophy. Both candidates will play an important role, no matter who the winner ultimately will be. Knowing them rather well, I want to make use of this opportunity to share with you that I’m confident that the candidates won’t become opponents in the negative sense of the word. It’s clear that both of them have pros but also cons, both of them have excellent qualities that can certainly benefit our beloved Society; those qualities have to be utilized to the fullest extent.
“We need to be aware, however, of the lessons to be learnt from the previous election. Read this article: https://staging.theosophyforward.com/index.php/the-society/888-adyar-mon-amour.html
“We can all positively contribute to what lies before us. These elections do not concern only the two contenders. We’re all in this together, so we must all pull our weight. Erroneously downgraded by some, the importance of what happens on the Internet should never be underestimated. In this day and age websites and blogs play vital roles in daily lives, and extra caution is needed at all times; recently revolutions have started and governments have fallen due to the impact of what happens in cyberspace. Obviously transparency is a must, but one needs to be discriminative in separating the sense from the nonsense. I call on all to send both Tim and Maithreya your good thoughts, wishing them Strength, Light, and Wisdom.”
That was my letter in January and many things have happened since then. Tim Boyd was officially elected international president of the Theosophical Society, Adyar, a result announced on April 27. The Theosophical Society, Adyar indeed was fortunate to have had two men of such caliber running.
About the time the names of the candidates were announced, speculations, sickening assumptions, and offensive accusations started to surface as well. The dismay was, and still is, concentrated around what is labelled as the ”Policy of Silence.” We are told, as we were in 2008, that there are conspiracies, deals made behind closed doors, the Theosophical “Cosa Nostra” has struck once more.
Opinions and ideas expressed in the mini-interviews are exclusively of those who are being interviewed. They don’t necessarily represent the ideas and opinions of the compilers of Theosophy Forward.
The responses of the interviewees are not edited for content. Some contributors give short answers to the questions while others touch upon the subject more elaborately.
Jan Nicolaas Kind – Brazil
Sometimes, often unexpectedly, you meet people who make a lasting impression. John Drais was such a person. I met him for the first time in Julian during the ITC (International Theosophy Conferences Inc.) in 2011 and one year later, in 2012, at Olcott – Wheaton during the annual ITC event there. In Julian when I was shooting photos for the Julian photo gallery I “caught” him in between two talks sleeping in the grass under a big tree with a huge black hat covering his head and in Wheaton we had to chance to talk. He was soft-spoken, kind, had a good sense of humor and I was impressed when he explained more about the projects he was involved in. His profound knowledge of H. P. B.’s writings was impressive and his love for Theosophy was evident. Last January, through a friend in Holland, I heard that he had fallen seriously ill and not long after that that he had passed away. I am sorry in a way that I didn’t have the chance to get to know him better. I am sure there will be other opportunities in lives to come, so who knows. In the meantime I wish his partner in life Monica and all those good people active in the Paracelsian Order strength and wisdom. Although his passing was in January, I feel it is very appropriate to publish this obituary to honor this wonderful human being, celebrating his life.
On January 15, 2014 Rt. Rev. John H. Drais passed away in Dulzura, CA
James LeFevour – USA
Mentor
To hear Tim Boyd tell it, it just sounds like stories from his youth, but at the age of nineteen he met and befriended a profound person in Chicago who would become his teacher for decades. Theosophy idealizes people like the person Tim describes, people who give everything they have to the cause of bettering the world and benefiting the people in it, yet we seldom hear their names. You will not find Bill Lawrence’s story written in Theosophical archives, yet he was a true Theosophist by any definition.
Trân-Thi-Kim-Diêu – France
[The author is Chairperson of the European Federation and General Secretary of the French Section of the Theosophical Society. She has a deep concern for Theosophy and its future].
Trân-Thi-Kim-Diêu
Every true spiritual teaching comprises three aspects: theory, which expounds its fundamental verities; practice, which experiments with these verities; and the testimony of the genuineness of the experimentation by those who practice.
Opinions and ideas expressed in the mini-interviews are exclusively of those who are being interviewed. They don’t necessarily represent the ideas and opinions of the compilers of Theosophy Forward.
The responses of the interviewees are not edited for content. Some contributors give short answers to the questions while others touch upon the subject more elaborately.
Editorial
The Theosophical Society, Adyar, is going through an important transitional period. After the passing of Radha Burnier, for 33 years its international president last October, a successor needs to be chosen. With her death, an era came to an end. International presidents like Henry Olcott, Annie Besant, and more recently C. Jinerajadasa or N. Sri Ram will not appear again. The twenty-first century typically requires another type of leadership.
The election process which started earlier this year so far has been quiet and no skirmishes have taken place. Some well-meaning Adyar members have difficulties accepting the fact that both candidates — C. V. K. Maithreya and Tim Boyd — chose not to respond to various questionnaires they were presented with, and have not extensively appeared on the Internet, presenting their ideas and vision for the future.
Opinions and ideas expressed in the mini-interviews are exclusively of those who are being interviewed. They don’t necessarily represent the ideas and opinions of the compilers of Theosophy Forward.
The responses of the interviewees are not edited for content. Some contributors give short answers to the questions while others touch upon the subject more elaborately.
Jan Nicolaas Kind – Brazil
[In part, this article was previously published in Theosophy Forward, March 2012]
Readers of Theosophy Forward were recently invited to share thoughts regarding the succession of leadership in the Theosophical Society Adyar. Reactions were marginal or insignificant, almost as if the writers feared even to consider this subject.
The third quarter issue of Theosophy Forward contained an article entitled “Theosophical Leadership.” In the introduction to that article, among other things, I wrote:
“Before long, at the latest in 2015, once more an International President will have to be chosen, and it is quite possible that this time more than one candidate will be on the ballot. But having learned from the 2008 debacle, and looking forward to the future, even if there should be only one candidate, it is a good exercise to ponder the subject of Theosophical leadership. What are the requirements and challenges for a modern leadership that will enable the largest Theosophical organization to find its rightful place in the world, serving humanity? Who could be suitable candidates? And how should members prepare themselves for that inevitable election looming on the horizon?”