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Katinka - Spirituality
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November 18th, 2009
Yoga is generally sold online and off as a great stress reliever. I can vouch for that: with the right teacher, yoga can be very healthy emotionally. I’ve often come away from a yoga class with a great big smile on my face that was certainly not there before.
However, last week when I was preparing [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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May 8th, 2009
On May 8th theosophists all over the world, whatever theosophical organization they belong to, commemorate Blavatsky’s passing on May 8th 1891. This day is called White Lotusday. Traditionally quotes from three texts are read: The Bhagavad Gita, The Voice of the Silence and Light of Asia. So here goes from chapter ten of the Bhagavad [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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April 13th, 2009
Work as those work who are ambitious. Respect life as those do who desire it.
Be happy as those are who live for happiness.
Mabel Collins, Light on the path, part 1 (4)
This quote must be a bit puzzling for those who think ambition itself is a spiritual virtue. Light on the Path is one of the [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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March 27th, 2009
Desire has a bad name in certain spiritual circles – but in others it’s hailed as the fundamental source of all spiritual growth. In that debate I’ve always stood in the first group, but from reading I.K. Taimni’s ‘The Science of Yoga’ (a commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali), I see that it’s really [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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March 18th, 2009
Michael asked me on my Dutch blog:
What’s the difference between personal and spiritual growth anyhow? I think self knowledge is perhaps the only spiritual or personal growth there is, isn’t it?
It’s a very good question. Depending on ones spiritual background, one can go into this very deeply, or just skimp the surface. Ken Wilber has [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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March 11th, 2009
Today I got a Jnana Yoga question from Roy:
“How can Bliss be part of the essence of Brahman? The ego seeks bliss, i.e. to feel good (at minimum a feeling of well being), even at the expense of truth. Doesn’t the concept of Bliss being part of the essence of Brahman ultimately fulfill the ego? [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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February 10th, 2009
Generosity is, for once, a classic virtue. In Islam it’s called Zakat: the duty to give a percentage of your possessions to the poor.
Generosity is linked to another classic virtue: detachment. In both Hinduism and Buddhism attachment to stuff, money and status is seen as a problem. Letting go of that in the form of [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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January 30th, 2009
Since we’ve been studying the yoga suttras in the The Hague lodge of the Theosophical Society (inspiring meetings), I thought I’d look up what H.P. Blavatsky has to say about the subject. Unfortunately I find she’s so busy debunking misconceptions rampant in her time, she finds little room to talk about the real thing.
Some of [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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January 23rd, 2009
Last week I explained how theosophists look at consciousness: how it is mapped. In doing so I almost completely ignored the biological basis of life. The phenomena I want to map today are considered by the sciences of biology and medicine as aspects of the body – to the extent that is that these [...]
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Katinka - Spirituality
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January 16th, 2009
[Warning: a lot of technical language in this piece.]
My usual Friday piece about Blavatsky is based on The Key to Theosophy. ‘The Key’, as theosophists call this book, is the one book by Blavatsky with a traditional linear setup. In other words: the ordering of the subjects is like you would expect in an introductory [...]
