Hi Nick and all,

I am coming from Slovenia, running the theosophical site Theosophy in Slovenia, joined the TS Adyar's Slovenia Section in 1992, left it five years later and few months ago regained the membership as an unattached member of the Canadian Theosophical Association.

Because of lot of work I am engaged in I am afraid that for some time I will not be so active member of your group as I would like to. Hope that will be excused!

Congratulations for your really systematically arranged website and for the creation of this group.

Warmest regards,
Anton (rman)

Anton,

Welcome to the Forum. I hope that you have time to look around, and respond to some of the threads that people have written.

Do you attend any study-groups in Slovenia?

Nick,

I will try, but as said …

No - I am translating the theosophical texts for many years and now putting them online.

There are four lodges of the TS in Slovenia which have their regular meetings and seminars, but they are pretty close and usually organizing public activities - lectures only when Mary Anderson pays them a visit and holds a talk.

Anton,

Is this your site?

http://teozofija.info/

Hi Nick,

I am sorry, I didn't visit the forum for some time.

Yes, teozofija.info is my site. Actually, I am now quite busy with the re-design and slight re-organization of it. And I would appreciate much if there are any comments and suggestions from your and from the part of forum members about the site.

Warmest regards,
Anton

Anton,

I just took a look at you site and am very impressed. You have a wide variety of sources and many good articles and books. Especially I liked the inclusion of AE (George Russell). He was a great writer, painter, mystic & practical theosophist.

Hi Nicholas,

Thank you very much for your appreciative words. Yes, I too find G. W. Russell as a really practical theosophist and it seems that this aspect of his understanding of theosophy reflects even more distinctive in a work of P. G. Bowen and H. K. Challoner.

Warmest regards,
Anton

Anton,

I have seen your site before, and it is on my list of Theosophical sites:

http://www3.igalaxy.net/~nick/theosophy/lessons23.htm

You are revising the site? That sounds like a lot of work. Good luck. I have experience writing HTML, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Hi Nick,

Yes, I have noticed that you have link to my site - I thank you very much for that.

And yes, I am re-designing the site. I would like to make it more clear and light, its code and visual appearance likewise. Its lot of work yes, but I feel it necessary at this point, for I would like to gradually include some other services for the visitors too, rearrange and add links, and so on.

Thank you very much for your offer for technical advice. In a week or two I will put a sample page on the site, so that the visitors could accustom themselves to new look, and I would be very grateful if you would express your opinion at that point.

Thanks again and warmest regards,
Anton

Anton,

I would be more than happy to give you feedback on your site. The first thing that jumps out at me about your site is that you have the English parts and the Slovenian (?) parts mixed togather. Would it be possible to put together an all-English part and an all-Solovenian part?

Hello Nick,

Thanks a lot! The idea behind the decision to have both languages together was to overcome the shortage of prepared Slovenian (yes, your spelling is the right one) documents and to achieve to certain extend complete although eclectic presentation of Theosophy.

And from the point of view of Slovenian reader this situation isn’t so disturbing; on the contrary, as the majority of population, especially young people, speak English, they are able in that way to complement the information and to get quite good overview of the Theosophy and of the Theosophical material available online.

Probably, from the standpoint of an English speaking visitor this arrangement isn’t the best one. I will take some time to consider what can be done to meet these expectations more fully.

But I decided that I will not enlarge the site with the English material too much, I rather offer it - that material which I manage to scan - to the webmasters who run the English sites. I hope namely that in near future I will get some collaborators who will help me to prepare more material of the Slovenian theosophical tradition and to possibly translate it into English.

So, in my case, the use of English language is the indispensable recognition of the facts that this is the language in which we communicate with and around the world, that the majority of the theosophical material was written in this language and that you, the theosophists from America, Canada, Australia, England, are leading in efforts to promote Theosophy over the internet

Thanks again and warmest regards,
Anton

Anton,

Now I am beginning to understand. It is not set up for English speakers, it is set up for Slovenian speakers. That explains why it is set up the way it is. If this set-up works for Slovenian speakers, then there is no need to change it.

Hi Nick,

Yes, the main concern was and still is to represent Theosophy to the Slovenian readers, but as this arrangement of the site attracted visitors from all over the word the ambition grew over into that that the site would become a good reference point for the English speaking visitors too. Hopefully the new design will meet these expectations more satisfactorily, but suggestions in this direction will be anyway more than welcomed.

Thanks and warmest regards,
Anton

Anton,

I am glad to see that you are attracting visitors from all over the world. However, if you wish to sevice these people, I recommend putting buttons (English button, Slovenian button, etc.) at the top of your page, with each button going to a different language-page. It will be a lot of work!

Perhaps the English button could take visitors to a small English-only page that explains what you are trying to do. That would be helpful.

Hi Nick,

Good idea! I am already experimenting a little. As I have now included the “Terms of Use” page the “flag-button” would lead from the main to this page in which I would include explanation about the use of languages. And I could include really small flags in front of texts too.

Thanks and warmest regards,
Anton

Anton,

A row of flags across the top is a great idea. Will you use the British flag or American flag for English...? Just put the word "English" under whichever flag you use, and it should be fine.

I have also seen web pages, where the first page is only the title and the flags. This cuts down on confusion.

Look at the small row of cute flag-buttons near the top of the Japan Forum:

http://www.jref.com/forum/

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the link. The USA/UK flag is very suitable. I already used it. You will be able to see the result in few days.

Warmest regards,
Anton

Actually I would advise splitting the site in two anyhow... Dutch people too are good at english, but they still prefer dutch material. It may be that in Slovenia the people that go online are so well educated that the english really isn't an issue, but hopefully Slovenia will be richer in the future and also moderately wealthy people (middle class) will go online: many of them will prefer Slovenian material. The ones that read both languages well will be smart enough to check out both sections of the website. That is my experience from having a bi-lingual site anyhow.

Sorry to respond so late.

Dear Katinka, Nick and all,

As said, there are some sample, re-designed, pages uploaded to the http:///www.teozofija.info web site following the link http://www.teozofija.info/Test_index.htm .

As you will see I used flags to indicate languages, created a link to Terms of Use page where a short explanation of their use is included and divided Slovenian and English documents into two columns.
There will be an additional vertical navigation bar included as a third column when those additional services or areas will be prepared. I tried to create a horizontal navigation bar in CSS but didn’t succeed to make it in such a way that it would match perfectly the page width as there are menus in Slovenian and English language present. I think that I should try to elaborate text styles sizes in relative values too.

But let me put for a moment these technical issues aside and express my best wishes to all of you for spiritually rich Christmas and successful New Year 2006, accompanied with a nice poem by George William Russell:

Om
By George William Russell

Faint grew the yellow buds of light
Far flickering beyond the snows,
As leaning o'er the shadowy white
Morn glimmered like a pale primrose.

Within an Indian vale below
A child said "Om" with tender heart,
Watching with loving eyes the glow
In dayshine fade and night depart.

The word which Brahma at his dawn
Outbreathes and endeth at his night;
Whose tide of sound so rolling on
Gives birth to orbs of golden light;

And beauty, wisdom, love, and youth,
By its enchantment, gathered grow
In age-long wandering to the truth
Through many a cycle's ebb and flow.

And here all lower life was stilled,
The child was lifted to the Wise:
A strange delight his spirit filled,
And Brahm looked from his shining eyes.


With cordial regards,
Anton

Hi Everyone!

I'm Eve. I live in the east of Hungary. Fisrt of all I have to apologize for my English. My English is not too good... But you will notice it soon. Don't be afraid of teaching me!
Well, I'm 26 years old, and I joined to the Society in 2004. I study molecular biology at the University of Debrecen. Now I'm a fifth year student. But I was and I am interested in everything related with the great questions of life. :)
I would like to get to know and talk with other members in English in a forum or in e-mails. So I would like to find someone(s), who has enough patience and time to talk with me about theosophy (and about anything), and to get to know each other by this. And of course I would also like to learn English.
So can you help me with this?

With kind regards,
Eve

Hi, Eve, and welcome to the Forum.

Yes, you can practice English here. Please feel free to ask any questions about English grammar and vocabulary.

I am glad to hear that you are interested in questions about life. I feel that Theosophy gives answers that no other philosophy can give. Which questions about life have you been dealing with recently?

Hi, Nick,

Thanks for your quick answer.
I agree with you, that theosophy gives answers to those who has real questions and open mind.
Before I was admitted to the University, and I started study biology, I had read books on philosophy. But it was too difficult to me.
Nowadays I practice to be independent of other's opinion as far as it is possible.
It is very difficult to express what I want to say in another language...
From my childhood I couldn't belong to any group. I wanted to belong to everyone. Therefore I always want(ed) to be good enough for everyone and every groups.
But recently I have to give up this approach, and it's very difficult for me. And I don't know if it is necessary...

Actually one of the good things about theosophy is that you don't have to give up the feeling that you belong to everybody (your words). In more normal English - you should feel connected to everybody, and since it is good karma and wisdom that ultimately decides our fate, not what we believe in (according to theosophy and buddhism) - everybody has an equal chance at that, as long as they try to live right.

Do you know the Blavatsky Meditation Diagram? It teaches a visualisation that makes you feel the connection to everybody and everything. So please don't feel you should let that go. See:

Blavatsky Meditation diagram (modern theosophy)

Welcome Eve!

We are happy to have you here and will do what we can to help answer your questions.

You can help us by, for example, telling us about what sorts of religious or spiritual movements are practiced by Hungarians now.

This is no matter, that I feel connected to everybody. (thank you for the correct expression) Don't be afraid I don't want to give up it. I always feel that this is a gift and I always try to communicate it for everyone by my behavior. I always try to undertsand others, but perhaps sometimes I neglect myself and when I have to decide in a certain subject my first thought is that: "Whether what do they thing about this?"
I don't have to be good enough for others, I have to good enough for myself, I have to find in myself that what is the best for everyone.
And I know that I can't get on well with everyone but I can feel connected to everybody.
Still this is the "problem" that I have to face in most cases. :rolleyes:

Hi and welcome Eve,

Let me say something out of my personal experience. I believe that we whose mother’s language isn’t English have a unique opportunity for somehow different approach towards Theosophy. We can unite our endeavors to learn both English language and the Theosophy through the translation work and in that way become useful for someone else too. Translation process can really absorb our whole personality and help us to transcend different questions about ourselves which apparently seems so important. And it offer us the method - after all, isn’t the theosophy the translation of certain truths in our daily life?

And I fully agree that H.P.B.'s Meditation Diagram is a powerful tool for self-transformation.

Maybe, linking of these two creative processes is the winning combination.

Warmest regards,
Anton

Hi, Nicholas, and Everyone

I hope we can help each other.
Well, what do you know about this small country in the east of Europe? :D
Hungarians are very diverse. I think that others think of Hungary as a christian country. My city, Debrecen, the second largest city in Hungary, is called sometimes as the Calvinistic Rome.
But after the communism, in the last decades spiritual movements are increased here.
Before the world wars in 1905 theosophical movement began and in 1907 a theosophical organisation was established. It was getting larger, there was lodges, and active work.
During the II. world war and after during the communism the number of the membership dropped off. In the communism the Society was censored. A little group of theosophists reanimate the Hungarian Theosophical Society after the communism and started to organize meetings and lectures.
Now there is religious freedom, and all of the religions can be found here.
The number of the Society's membership is not too big. We established the first lodge last year, named Eastern Lodge.
And there is a lot of esoteric stream. More and more people turn to these. More and more people can be found in the theosophical lectures too.

Well, I wonder where you live, and what you do.
I would be happy to read about your places, and interests.

Dear Anton,

Thank you for your words. I agree with you. It is a special possibility for me and for others to translate. This is one of the reason I would like to communicate others in English. Most of the theosophical works in Hungary can be read in English. And many of us don't speak this language. And those (included me) who speak it in some degree, still it's very difficult to understand the theosophical language in English.
With my knownlegde of English I have to be careful if I would like to tell the same in Hungarian. Sometimes it would be very helpful to discuss with somebody whose mother's language is English.

Warmest regards,

Eve

Eve,

Please take a look at my personal blurb:

http://s14.invisionfree.com/Theosophy/index.php?showtopic=21

You said,

[For] " ... those (included me) who speak [English] in some degree, still it's very difficult to understand the theosophical language in English.... Sometimes it would be very helpful to discuss with somebody whose mother's language is English."

--> Yes, we can have many Theosophical discussions in English. Are there any Theosophical vocabulary or concepts that you find difficult? What new Theosophical vocabulary or concepts have you learned recently?

Hi, Nick,

Wow, so you can fly. Me too... in my dreams... :D
You certainly know those biplanes. I really like them.

Well Theosophical vocabulary or concepts...
I have no too much self-confidence with my English to start to translate a book yet. But I read The Theosophist. Sometimes there are some easy article (easy to translate and share others), mostly these are about current practical things. For example questions and answers... It follows that my questions are not too difficult yet. But later it may be...

Well, you might help me with this:
This is a letter from N. Sri Ram and it was published in june 2003. (I copy here only the first part of it.)
-----------------------------------------------
Some Words of Advice
N. Sri Ram
1958

I received a letter from you some time ago in which you said that you are feeling ’sad and melancholy’ at your apparent failure. You also related the judgement which was passed on you ’on the other side’ which you say you *brought through*. I would like to say with regard to this, that such dream impressions are not entirely to be trusted. It may be the case that because you have a deeply subconscious fear of failure you constructed the scene during sleep and then *brought it through*. There is really no reason for the fear of failure exept that one wants to succeed.
-------------------------------------------------

My question is about the words marked with star. - "bring through"
Can I say it in other words that he *remembered* that dream or something else like this?
I have asked it from my ex-english teacher, but she was very ambiguous about this and my big big dictionary is also not too clever in this question.

I have other questions, but I have no too much time.

Thank you for your help.

Antares,

Yes, it means that he remembered that dream, or more correctly, he remembered the information that was transmitted via the dream.

I am glad to see that you are asking questions. Feel free to ask more, especially about Theosophical vocabulary. There are many words in Theosophy that are confusing.

By the way, I speak Japanese as a second language. When I was an intermediate Japanese speaker, I wrote a book in Japanese. It was a lot of hard work! But I learned a lot of Japanese by doing it. Maybe you could learn a lot of English by writing a book in English. (A book about Theosophy, of course....)

By the way number two, I fly an airplane called the Caravan. Here are some photos.
http://www.caravanpilots.com/photos.htm

Hi, Nick,

Thank you, for your answer.
I haven't got too much time nowadays I am preparing for my exams.

I have seen the photos of the planes. :rolleyes:
It's very interesting and exciting. There is a little airfield next to my town. (You are welcome there. :D )
I go there to see sunset frequently. Sometimes I can see there small planes, biplanes, sailplanes... My soul is on the wing with them. It can be a very expanding experience...

To write a book? In english? About Theosophy? It is a really new idea... :huh:
Isn't there enough books in English? :D
What have you written about in Japanese? Maybe a book on Theosophy? And what was the topic?

Antares,

I wrote a book in Japanese called, Ame Futo Shimpan Hitsu Doku Sho, which means how to referee American Fotoball! (Yes, there is American football in Japan....)

No, there are not enough Theosophical books! A lot of Theosophical concepts need explanation, and the more we explain, the better.

I wrote a book, Lessons in Theosphy; a Besant/Leadbeater Perspective. It was a lot of fun trying to tie all the different ideas together in one book.

What is your favorite Theosophy book?

Nick,

Do you play football?

Explanations are important. I investigate Theosophical literature for two years. It is not a too long term. I think I have learnt a lot, and I have recognized a lot of similarity between the Theosophical teachings and my inward aims. It is nice. But it is little yet. But no doubt it can be very useful to write in English.

Your book seems very comprehensive. I think it will be helpful for me.

I think I haven’t got a favourite book. Nowadays I read about Christianity and Theosophy. And the Hungarian Society’s last presidental representative has wrote a book by his lectures. It is also a comprehensive book. There are many chapters like lectures about many topics raised in Theosophy.
If I have a favourite it is the ’At the feet of the Master’. It is simply and clear.

Antares,

No, I do not play American football, but I was a referee for many years.

You said,

"I have recognized a lot of similarity between the Theosophical teachings and my inward aims."

--> Which Theosophical concepts fit your belief system the best? Reincarnation? Karma? The origins of the universe? I believe in reincarnation and karma, and, as I read more about the Theosophical teachings on the origins of the universe, the more they make sense to me.

"And the Hungarian Society’s last presidental representative has wrote a book by his lectures."

--> Has he published it? Is it on the internet?

"If I have a favourite it is the ’At the feet of the Master’. It is simply and clear."

--> I like it too. I say that there are two kinds of Theosphical books -- books of information and books on how to live our lives better. I feel that too many Theosophists read books of the first type, and not enough of the second type. ’At the feet of the Master’ is perhaps the best example of the second type -- and it is still one of the best-selling Theosophical books of all time.

Nick,

American football is a little bit strange for me.
Soccer is called as ’football’ in Hungary (I know it is not the same.). My father is a soccer fun. Once in my life, when I was a child I went to a soccer match with him. During all the time I observed the ants how they carried away the crumb they found below the seats. :)
I only know well about these games that no one is fond of the referee. :D

The ’Universal Brotherhood’ fits my belief system the best. There is/was no distinction in my mind. This was the main power of my searching. And certainly I tried and try to explain and insert into „my world” all the things I find in life. Theosophical concepts have enlightened the main questions. A complete world begins to take shape…

His book was published after his death in hungarian. The title in english is ’Theosophical Panorama” (By Laszlo Reicher). It contains 47 lectures. It is not on the net.

May I ask you that which books or subjects, namely, do belong to the first and the second type according to your conception? I know it is really relative, and there is no sharp line between the two.

(Sorry I’ve made a mistake simply is SIMPLE in my last reply.)

Antares,

Being a referee is fun. You just have to be able to run fast!

I see two types of Theosophical books -- instructional and devotional. Here are a few examples.


Instructional


Leadbeater, Charles, A Textbook of Theosophy (Online)
http://www.theosophical.ca/TextBookTheos.htm

Leadbeater, Charles, A Textbook of Theosophy (Hardcopy)
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=174



Powell, A.E., The Astral Body (online)
http://www.theosophical.ca/AstralBodyByPowell-A.htm

Powell, A.E., The Astral Body (hardcopy)
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=128


Devotional


Krishnamurti (Alcyone), Jiddu, At the Feet of the Master (Online)
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/other/alcyone.htm

Krishnamurti (Alcyone), Jiddu, At the Feet of the Master (Hardcopy)
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=5



Besant, Annie, The Path of Discipleship (online)
http://www.anandgholap.net/Path_Of_Discipleship-AB.htm

Besant, Annie, The Path of Discipleship (hardcopy)
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=73


The first two books, which I have identified as "instructional," are more the type that give information and teach Theosophical concepts. The second two books are more "devotional," in that they give specific advice on how we should live our lives, and make faster progress on the Path. (And, making faster progress on the Path is what Theosophy is all about, isn't it...?)

Tell me if you can see this distinction between the two types of books.