By Katinka - Spirituality | September 28th, 2009 I said in my blogpost about whether Buddhism was the best world religion (let alone win an award) that I was halfway a Buddhist myself. I got a question about that: what do I mean?
A real Buddhist, in my view, and in the traditional Asian view, is someone who has taken refuge. That is, in [...]
By Katinka - Spirituality | September 1st, 2009 The relationship between karma and disease is a controversial one. There is the common sense view that since disease is unwelcome, it ‘must be’ bad karma. On the other hand there is a long tradition of theosophical thought saying that bad karma doesn’t exist. I was reading up on a related topic this summer and [...]
By Katinka - Spirituality | July 24th, 2009 There’s a rumor going about a lot of blogs that Buddhism wins the best religion of the world reward. Unfortunately it’s only blogs that are reporting this. No ordinary news sources, nor can I find the ‘Icarus’ foundation that is said to have given the award because:
“It wasn’t a surprise to me that Buddhism won [...]
By Katinka - Spirituality | June 15th, 2009 This is a true story that someone emailed me because it reminded them of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s story. That is: someone raised to be a teacher, steps outside the tradition that he was brought up in to do something totally different. Lama Osel was born to Spanish parents, but brought up as the reincarnation of Thubten [...]
By Katinka - Spirituality | 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 [...]
By Katinka - Spirituality | 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 [...]
By Katinka - Spirituality | 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 [...]
By Katinka - Spirituality | March 10th, 2009 It is a good blogging tradition to pay attention to important dates. Today it is 50 years since His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet, because it was being occupied by Chinese forces. I’m not going to go into the whole story here. Follow the links in this post for more details.
Got Enlightenment? – [...]
By Katinka - Spirituality | 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 [...]
By Katinka - Spirituality | February 2nd, 2009 Auch. That was way too long a title.
Anyhow, I was thinking about some of the responses to my post about the difference between religion and spirituality (and how little difference there is). While I don’t agree with Jan Peter for instance – spirituality is more than something emotional – I do think I know what [...]
