Due to the Coronavirus, and until further notice, all physical meetings for the New Moon and Full Moon are cancelled and will be replaced by live audio broadcasts via Zoom. Archives of the broadcasts will continue to be posted here. The Zoom broadcasts for New Moon and Full Moon will include a talk followed by a meditation. An email notice will be sent in advance of the meeting with all the information needed to link to the Zoom broadcast.
Meditation is the primary form of service for those following a spiritual path. It is a means of cooperation and alignment with hierarchical intent. The new moon period follows upon the cycle of out-breathing in the rhythmic cycles of the breath; it is a time of pause wherein together we can establish a soul-mind-brain alignment. During this period, we work in thought to concretize the ideas and impressions received at the time of the full moon period and undertake the sometimes difficult process of translating them into practical plans that can be of service in the world. The effect of this meditative effort is to enhance the many ways in which the “power of the one Life” and the “love of the one soul” are working out through all true servers everywhere.
Death unto Greater Life
The belief in some type of life after death is central to most all religious traditions since antiquity. Modern Science, yet unable to rise above its materialism, refuses to acknowledge that which religion and eastern philosophies have taught for millennia: that the human soul is immortal, that reincarnation is a fact, and that consciousness is in a continual and cyclic process of evolution.
Accepting these views—at least as hypothesis—would revolutionize the way humanity thinks of living and human relationship. Placing the temporality of the material world into right relationship with the immortality of the human soul underlies all spiritual work. Today, with death occurring on a larger scale than it has in some years, humanity is fast learning the lessons which this natural and inevitable process brings.
This meeting will discuss death from the perspective of the Ageless Wisdom as this philosophy is applied to human living. We will discuss the process of restitution—the dissolution of the bodies which occurs at the end of one cycle of the soul’s earthly experience—highlighting the fact of death as a process of at-onement. We will also discuss the practice of detachment and renunciation as a form of death which leads to liberation and life.
Questions for reflection:
1. What value does the grieving process (a deeply sacred act) have for one who seeks to remain detached and master of all environing conditions?
2. The Ageless Wisdom states that death is an illusion, yet also that it is a natural process and a means of liberation. How can we rectify this apparent paradox?
3. What effects is the large-scale death brought about by the pandemic having on human consciousness? Specifically, in your nation? In your community? In your own consciousness?
4. What are the implications of the widespread community experience of death having on religion and the religious spirit?
References:
• Alice A. Bailey, Esoteric Healing, “The Act of Restitution,” pp. 460-478.
• Juliana Cesano, “Life After Death: How Daily Living Shapes the After Death Experience.” Lecture given at the Theosophical Society of America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUXwuHoN22c
• Monadic Media, “Death and Dying Well.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bygr4AP-Qsg
• Geoffrey Hodson, “Reincarnation and Christianity.” https://www.theosophical.org/files/resources/articles/ReincarnationChristianity.pdf
