Theos-Talk Archives (April 2010 Message tt00111)

Good list of recommendations.

Internet is revolutionizing publishing industry. We have on-demand printing
with no inventory buildup and associated costs. Much like many freeware
software, people who download and use any theosophical material are bound to
send in contributions small and large. Take for example two of the
publications of much interest and value - Judge Case Publication by the
Canadian Theosophical Group and the commentary on Mahatma Letters from
Quest. Who are the people who are likely to read them. Not the lay man and
woman from the street. Only theosophists who have a deep commitment are
likely to read them. Would it not be in the interests of theosophical
movement that theosophists around the world, especially in the third world
countries, are encouraged to download a pdf file and read them?

One needs to keep up with the leading edge developments in the Internet
culture to make the best use of Internet for the furtherance of the objects
of TS. Unfortunately, too many very old people who grew up in pre-Internet
age seem to tend to influence the decisions regarding publications and it is
going to be very difficult to make them think in Internet culture which is
very foreign to them. Take for example, how often any of the well known
theosophists have visited this list and engaged with other theosophists.

It looks like we have to wait for the Internet geeks to succeed current very
old leaders and very old theosophists (Wisdom may be Ancient, but modern
technology should be used to disseminate it and obsolete oldish
methodologies no longer work as evidenced by the pitiful membership growth
in the West) before we see TS in the leading edge of using Internet for the
dissemination of theosophy.

Let us all hope and pray that wisdom of the gods will soon dawn on the
decision makers. Let us also invite all the meditators meditate on this
topic so that the power of thought will bring about some good ideas to use
Internet.

MKR

There is no religion higher than truth

Tag: theosophy, Internet use
On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 6:53 PM, Frank Reitemeyer
<ringding2010@t-online.de>wrote:

>
>
> Dear mkr and all,
>
> I wait to see since longer the publication of at least these books, either
> in paper form, as ebook, as pdf or online:
>
> 1. The Letters of HPB, four volumes, including comments by John Cooper,
> without the changings of the Algeos, from the microfilms in possession of
> Gregory Tillett
> 2. The Mahatma Letters facsimile color editon, announced ten years ago
> 3. The Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge, including the new found
> transaction
> 4. de Purucker's final verbatim ready-to-print manuscript of his
> Theosophical Encyclopedia, stolen from Emmett Small's house, without the
> changings of Mrs Knoche
> 5. Katherine Tingley's Peace Congress addresses
> 6. de Purucker's and Tingley's Germany lectures
> 7. the life of several adepts in history by HPB, which is not included in
> the re-arrangement of the SD
>
> I was glad to find Judge's Working Glossary online.
>
> Frank
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: MKR
> To: theos-talk
> Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 12:55 AM
> Subject: Theos-World Theosophical Publications and Internet
>
> All of us, theosophists world-wide are interested in propagating and
> broadcasting theosophical literature world-wide so that any one interested
> will get the message and information. Traditionally, such dissemination
> took
> place through printed medium. Till Internet became available, print medium
> is the only one that was widely used.
>
> Times have changed now. Internet proved itself to be a very cost effective
> and fast medium of distributing information. At the same time, much new
> printed material is becoming available. Due escalation of costs of
> producing
> the hard copy publications, the prices have risen up. For those in the
> third-world and developing countries, this increased cost is a barrier for
> many to access printed material.
>
> We have an irony here. Most publications are created using a Wordprocessor
> and hence the works are readily available in electronic form long before
> they are available in hard copy. Even though, such electronic copies can be
> quickly made available on Internet at a negligible cost, great amount of
> effort is spent by going thru the hard copy publishing route, which defeats
> the basic purpose of theosophical publications, which is to make
> theosophical material available to as many people as possible in the world,
> so that we can hope we will have a better world in the future.
>
> The need to quickly make new theosophical publications available to
> existing
> and potential members is urgent. A look at the membership statistics speaks
> for itself. Membership in India is showing a steady growth whereas in other
> countries the trend is pitiful; either frozen or shrinking. No leader wants
> to talk about this hot potato.
>
> In the past several years, we have seen new publications; some of them very
> valuable for their research and some of them are quite expensive. So
> adopting the policy of wanting to make a buck by selling the hard copy
> books, we are preventing valuable material from reaching many in the third
> world countries. It is time to review the publication policy. Do we want to
> continue to make a few bucks or do we want to speedup dissemination of
> theosophical information using Internet, so as to help interested parties
> quicly access the information on Internet and help propagate theosophy.
>
> Something for all of us to think. Those regular meditators may want to
> meditate on this issue and may be we will see a day when information will
> be
> available on Internet months before they are available in hard copy.
>
> MKR
>
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>
>  
>


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