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Brotherhood and Service - Tim Boyd
Brotherhood and Service - Tim Boyd
Download handout
Brotherhood and Service Notes
Read through the handout together to begin.
Discussion questions
1- Tim Boyd placed a significant emphasis on the importance of regular meditation and its connection to Brotherhood and Service. To those who have adopted a regular meditation practice, please share briefly with others how you think this practice has affected your day to day life.
2- The more you act from your Higher Self rather than your lower self the more you will likely be feeling, intuiting Unity. So how do we increase our awareness of Lower Self versus Higher Self motives and consciousness?
2a- What are some qualities likely to be present when one is acting from the lower self?
2b- What are some qualities likely to be present when one is acting from the higher self?
3a- How often are you conscious of the Theosophical assertion that thoughts are matter, objects, tangible things?
3b- If you have made being mindful of thoughts as material objects, tangibly affecting others as well as yourself, a consistent part of your awareness/practice, how do you think it has affected the nature of your thought patterns?
3c- If you have not yet made being mindful of thoughts as material objects, tangibly affecting others as well as yourself, a consistent part of your awareness/practice, how do you think it would affect the nature of your thought patterns?
4- Our thought patterns determine the nature of our lives. How do we affect the nature and quality of our thoughts and thought patterns?
5- Our group agreed during this class that history will likely laugh at us for our treatment of animals and for the way we so readily take in toxins (alcohol and cigarettes for example)
5a- Do you agree? Why or why not?
5b- Are there any other largely accepted patterns of humanity that you think history will likely “laugh at”?
6a- How would you define brotherhood?
6b- How do you define family?
6c- How do you define service?
7- For various reasons, not everyone has the resources, time, or opportunities to participate in organized forms of Service. What would you recommend to people who still desire to have a deeper connection to service but do not have the time or resources?
8- Some believe that the greatest service we can offer the world is having our own thoughts and emotions in order, in sync with the Divine, with our Higher Self. Think of a situation, a day or a moment in your life in which you feel you had your thought and emotions “in order” and thusly had an almost unconscious positive affect (energetic) on your environment. Share the experience with the group.
9- Blavatsky asserted that the human being is both the highest spirit and the lowest matter—linked by mind. Can you link this observation by Blavatsky to Brotherhood and Service? How?
Proposed activities
1- Imagine your all-time favorite spiritual teacher. Write an imaginary 10 minute summary of the day’s world and local news in the voice of and from the wise perspective of your all-time favorite spiritual teacher. This may affect the content of the news; or, it may mean that the spiritual teacher is careful to use each story as a teaching example of Brotherhood and/or Service, etc. Or there may be other results of having this spiritual teacher control and coordinate the news.
2- Share your 10 minute summaries of the daily news as given by your all-time favorite spiritual teacher.
3- How do you think our approach to local and global community would be affected if indeed the news were coordinated and written by any of these great spiritual teachers, always taking the opportunity to give a teaching on Brotherhood and/or Service?
4- Obviously, CNN or CBS are not likely to name the Dalai Lama or someone similar, the directing head of their news organization in the near future; however, an exercise like this helps us to viscerally experience the way the news of the day, and the way it is presented, can affect us. So, what would you recommend people keep in mind when they are receiving the news of the day especially if they hold Brotherhood and Service in high value?
Related Resources
Books
Agni Yoga Society, Brotherhood, 144 AYS B
Ardagh, Arjuna, The Translucent Revolution: How People Just like You are Waking Up and Changing the World, 158.1 ARD TR
Dass, Ram, Compassion in Action: Setting out on the Path of Service, 155.232 RAM CA
Gullo, Jean, Living the Wisdom: A Guide to Social Transformation, T G945 LW
Kirthisinghe, Buddhadasa P., Colonel Olcott: His Service to Buddhism, T OL1 CO
Krishnamurti, J. (Jiddu), Education as Service, T K897 ES
Hodson, Geoffrey, The Brotherhood of Angels and of Men, T H669 BAM 1973
Narayan, Surendra, Annie Besant on the Brotherhood of Religions, T N164 ABBR
Rajan, Ananya S., The Theosophical Order of Service: 2007 Commemorative Issue, T343 TOS
Shultz, Karen, A Theosophical Guide for Parents, 370.1 PTRG TGFP
Stead, W. T. (William Thomas), If Christ Came to Chicago!: A Plea for the Union of all Who Love in the Service of all Who Suffer, 977.311 STE ICCC
Audio recordings
(AR: audiocassette)
Voirol, Jim, The Search for Sister-Brotherhood, AR 4788
Zahara, Helen, Is Brotherhood Possible: Symposium, AR 0305
Videorecordings
(DVD: Digital Video Disc)
Dunningham-Chapotin, Diana, Service Around the World, DVD 0155
Download handout
Brotherhood and Service Notes
Read through the handout together to begin.
Discussion questions
1- Tim Boyd placed a significant emphasis on the importance of regular meditation and its connection to Brotherhood and Service. To those who have adopted a regular meditation practice, please share briefly with others how you think this practice has affected your day to day life.
2- The more you act from your Higher Self rather than your lower self the more you will likely be feeling, intuiting Unity. So how do we increase our awareness of Lower Self versus Higher Self motives and consciousness?
2a- What are some qualities likely to be present when one is acting from the lower self?
2b- What are some qualities likely to be present when one is acting from the higher self?
3a- How often are you conscious of the Theosophical assertion that thoughts are matter, objects, tangible things?
3b- If you have made being mindful of thoughts as material objects, tangibly affecting others as well as yourself, a consistent part of your awareness/practice, how do you think it has affected the nature of your thought patterns?
3c- If you have not yet made being mindful of thoughts as material objects, tangibly affecting others as well as yourself, a consistent part of your awareness/practice, how do you think it would affect the nature of your thought patterns?
4- Our thought patterns determine the nature of our lives. How do we affect the nature and quality of our thoughts and thought patterns?
5- Our group agreed during this class that history will likely laugh at us for our treatment of animals and for the way we so readily take in toxins (alcohol and cigarettes for example)
5a- Do you agree? Why or why not?
5b- Are there any other largely accepted patterns of humanity that you think history will likely “laugh at”?
6a- How would you define brotherhood?
6b- How do you define family?
6c- How do you define service?
7- For various reasons, not everyone has the resources, time, or opportunities to participate in organized forms of Service. What would you recommend to people who still desire to have a deeper connection to service but do not have the time or resources?
8- Some believe that the greatest service we can offer the world is having our own thoughts and emotions in order, in sync with the Divine, with our Higher Self. Think of a situation, a day or a moment in your life in which you feel you had your thought and emotions “in order” and thusly had an almost unconscious positive affect (energetic) on your environment. Share the experience with the group.
9- Blavatsky asserted that the human being is both the highest spirit and the lowest matter—linked by mind. Can you link this observation by Blavatsky to Brotherhood and Service? How?
Proposed activities
1- Imagine your all-time favorite spiritual teacher. Write an imaginary 10 minute summary of the day’s world and local news in the voice of and from the wise perspective of your all-time favorite spiritual teacher. This may affect the content of the news; or, it may mean that the spiritual teacher is careful to use each story as a teaching example of Brotherhood and/or Service, etc. Or there may be other results of having this spiritual teacher control and coordinate the news.
2- Share your 10 minute summaries of the daily news as given by your all-time favorite spiritual teacher.
3- How do you think our approach to local and global community would be affected if indeed the news were coordinated and written by any of these great spiritual teachers, always taking the opportunity to give a teaching on Brotherhood and/or Service?
4- Obviously, CNN or CBS are not likely to name the Dalai Lama or someone similar, the directing head of their news organization in the near future; however, an exercise like this helps us to viscerally experience the way the news of the day, and the way it is presented, can affect us. So, what would you recommend people keep in mind when they are receiving the news of the day especially if they hold Brotherhood and Service in high value?
Related Resources
Books
Agni Yoga Society, Brotherhood, 144 AYS B
Ardagh, Arjuna, The Translucent Revolution: How People Just like You are Waking Up and Changing the World, 158.1 ARD TR
Dass, Ram, Compassion in Action: Setting out on the Path of Service, 155.232 RAM CA
Gullo, Jean, Living the Wisdom: A Guide to Social Transformation, T G945 LW
Kirthisinghe, Buddhadasa P., Colonel Olcott: His Service to Buddhism, T OL1 CO
Krishnamurti, J. (Jiddu), Education as Service, T K897 ES
Hodson, Geoffrey, The Brotherhood of Angels and of Men, T H669 BAM 1973
Narayan, Surendra, Annie Besant on the Brotherhood of Religions, T N164 ABBR
Rajan, Ananya S., The Theosophical Order of Service: 2007 Commemorative Issue, T343 TOS
Shultz, Karen, A Theosophical Guide for Parents, 370.1 PTRG TGFP
Stead, W. T. (William Thomas), If Christ Came to Chicago!: A Plea for the Union of all Who Love in the Service of all Who Suffer, 977.311 STE ICCC
Audio recordings
(AR: audiocassette)
Voirol, Jim, The Search for Sister-Brotherhood, AR 4788
Zahara, Helen, Is Brotherhood Possible: Symposium, AR 0305
Videorecordings
(DVD: Digital Video Disc)
Dunningham-Chapotin, Diana, Service Around the World, DVD 0155
Tags: boyd, brotherhood, service
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