The Story of Team Hoyt

THE child who learns caring and compassion for others enhances not just her own life experience but all others around her.

If true, this suggests that the acquisition of a higher moral state could eventually change the world.

An example of this quintessential spiritual state is found in The Key to Theosophy, where Mme. Blavatsky insists that “altruism is an integral part of self-development.”

If a selfish, self-serving worldview were in fact the prevailing sentiment, then no one would ever care about starving children, the sick or elderly, or animal abuse. For such, helping to heal a stressed planet, homelessness, and poverty, would not be on their to-do list.

If life is ultimately purposeless, because we are “nothing but a pack of neurons” in the brain—then altruism would hold little importance for us. Only what we can grab for ourselves ‘now’ has any meaning.

Man in the Red Bandana

SOCIAL scientists have often wondered if humans by nature are altruistic. Continuing studies show that, indeed, we are.

Those who are selfish, egotistic or abusive, Theosophy says, are breaking a primal law ruling all life – Universal Compassion.

Compassion is regarded as the ultimate power in occult philosophy by Eastern Masters. The Voice of the Silence, calls it “the Law of Laws”

This Law is described in the Voice as: “the light of everlasting Right, an fitness of all things, the law of love eternal.” It is a spiritual directive to every soul to always act for the benefit of others.

The esoteric tradition teaches that Gautama Buddha became the greatest teacher because he epitomized universal compassion. There is none higher that Buddha, and several of his Arhats, says the Voice: “On account of the great renunciation and sacrifice to mankind there is none [higher] known.”

The Voice of the Silence also teaches that each of us is a Buddha, if we choose to express that innate spiritual power, which is our heritage. Thus: “having sought him out, look inward: thou art Buddha,” says the doctrine.

Yet there are still those who champion the self-centered theory, as did the mid 19th century philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill. 

Science writer Elizabeth Svoboda, author of a new book – What Makes a Hero?: The Surprising Science of Selflessness – notes that Mill described man as a creature that “does that by which he may obtain the greatest amount of necessaries, conveniences and luxuries, with the smallest quantity of labor and physical self-denial.”

“Children should above all be taught self-reliance, love for all men, altruism, mutual charity, and more than anything else,” H. P. Blavatsky wrote, “to think and reason for themselves” (The Key to Theosophy 271). Further she insisted: “We should aim at creating free men and women, free intellectually, free morally, unprejudiced in all respects, and above all things, unselfish. And we believe that much if not all of this could be obtained by proper and truly theosophical education.”

Synesthesia – a Different Way of Knowing

THIS is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A thirty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, 

Tammet is one of fewer than a hundred “prodigious savants” according to Dr. Darold Treffert, the world’s leading researcher in the study of savant syndrome. (Wikipedia)

He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. Tammet holds the European record for reciting pi from memory to 22,514 digits in five hours and nine minutes on 14 March 2004.

Tammet has reportedly learned ten languages, including Romanian, Gaelic, Welsh, and Icelandic that he learned in a week for a TV documentary.

He also met with the world famous  “megasavant,” Kim Peek (November 11, 1951 – December 19, 2009), the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film ‘Rain Man’.

This the complete original 47 min. documentary which also follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in others.