Spiritual and religious Nings

One of the great things about the Internet is that we now have the opportunity to share thoughts and ideas with people from all over the world, with all kinds of backgrounds. This is also a great opportunity for dialog between the various religions.

Theosophy and the Theosophical Society

The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875 at a time when the West was just becoming seriously aware of the existence of religions and people elsewhere. Intelligent people could no longer classify Islam as devilish for instance, or Hinduism as barbaric. But what then? The serious study of religion was started at universities - the first professor of comparative religion got his post in 1875.

Karma and reincarnation facts - about good and evil

Karma and reincarnation are related beliefs that have been popular in India and surrounding countries for a very long time.

Karma means action. The idea is, at it's simplest, that good is rewarded and evil punished. Or more practically put: selfishness is punished and unselfishness rewarded. The Dalai Lama puts it even more radically: From the perspective of karma it is selfish to help others, because that will be rewarded.

Belief in karma means that reincarnation follows logically: otherwise the actions done just before death would not have their logical result.

Hindu spirituality - Upanishads and Vedas

Theosophists have been interested in the ancient spirituality of India from day one. Blavatsky wrote positively about the Vedas and Upanishads and popular translations in many languages of these classics have been done and/or published by theosophists since. Blavatsky even started her Secret Doctrine with a quote from the Rig Veda.