Katinka Hesselink's blog

Who is Katinka Hesselink?

I'm a webdesigner, a Dutch citizen (that's in Europe), a theosophist, into religion and spirituality in general. That is: Christianity, Buddhism, Wicca and Paganism, Taoism, Sufism and Islam, Yoga and Hinduism and whatever else comes to mind. 

I love fantasy fiction,like Harry Potter for instance. 

Honestly - this is not my main blog. My main blog is All Considering. On here I just collect some of my favorite links - usually from my own stuff on the various places I'm active online.

This post is the easiest way I can find to show off the categories I've created on this blog:

Martin Meredith: The State of Africa

Martin Meredith: The State of Africa

http://www.squidoo.com/africa-meredith

A thorough historical, economical and political look at all the nations of Africa over the past 50 odd years. From dictators to AIDS/HIV, from disappointed hopes to fears of the future... realistic, scary and insightful. You'll learn how hunger is the result of bad politics, not just climate. How wrapped up poor beginnings are with misuse of power and lack of accountability. Thoroughly human this book doesn't stay on the surface of politics, but makes the realities of war, chaos and international support gone wrong come home. Martin Meredith has written a few biographies before coming out with this book and it shows: 'The State of Africa' reads as a sad biography of several of the main characters of Africa's independence. Enlivened with pictures of these prominent and infamous men, we really get a glimpse into another world. A world in which might is not checked and government is more evil than is easily imagined in the West.

The Lives of Sri Aurobindo

The Lives of Sri Aurobindo

http://www.squidoo.com/sri-aurobindo

Reviewed in the West as the only decent biography of Sri Aurobindo Goshe, from politician, to poet and guru. This guy lived a fascinating life and Peter Heehs describes as many aspects of it as the Sri Aurobindo archives can help enlighten us on. In India this is a controversial book. It's even been banned in Orissa. The ban is due to the book not putting everything Sri Aurobindo did in a starry light. It deigns to suggest psychological motives, finding them in the plays Aurobindo wrote as well as his letters. From a Western perspective, the suggestion that the man had personal motives as well as spiritual ones, doesn't detract from his stature. However, many Indian devotees perceive them as an insult to his name. It's called 'Freudian Psychoanalys' by some - when there really isn't a word of Freudian psychology in the whole book. I'm hoping to go the Sri Aurobindo Ashram for a few months next year, and thought I'd read up on their tradition. So I ordered three books - this biography, a book featuring the teachings of The Mother and a similar book about Aurobindo's spiritual teachings. I just love biographies: they transport one back in time into the life of people who generally led interesting and admirable lives. Sri Aurobindo's life is perhaps everything in the extreme. He lived the first years of his life in India, moved to England because his father wanted a good education for him and his brothers - and then lived their with his brothers taking care of themselves. Though Aurobindo was the third of the three brothers, his scholarship money ended up taking care of the three of them when they went to college. He was a brilliant scholar. However, he avoided his father's wish of joining the Indian Civil Service (the British government controlled Indian Civil Service) by refusing to take riding lessons. Yes - this was a different time: it was considered essential that the people in charge of India's administration be able to ride a horse. Aurobindo avoided direct ...

Unfinished Autobiography by Alice A. Bailey

Unfinished Autobiography by Alice A. Bailey

http://www.squidoo.com/bailey-autobio...

I'm not really into Alice Bailey's work, nor into that of 'The Tibetan', but this autobiography is great. Funny, full of self knowledge and simply fascinating from the point of view of esoteric history. Alice Bailey was born and raised in England in 1880. She lived through both world wars and lived the transition from riches to poverty - from life with servants at every step, to doing your own laundry. She was a missionary, an abused wife, a divorcée when that was still unusual, and then a spiritual teacher in her own right - helped by the love of her life and second husband. This is an Unfinished autobiography. The manuscript was still being worked on by the author and her editors when she passed in 1949. As such it does have a slightly rough style - repetitions here and there on points Bailey clearly felt strongly. When I put on my historians hat, I'm most annoyed at her inconsistent naming of people. Sometimes they're left anonymous, sometimes they're named. When a name is given, it's very often not on the first mention of them. She says she was taught by three personal students of Blavatsky's, but she names only one. We're left to guess about the other two and I suppose the only way to find out their names is to go through Theosophical Society's records and the magazine of the Arcane School. Why does it matter? It's not very likely that Bailey would find three personal students of Blavatsky's in the USA. Blavatsky didn't really have that many personal students. On the other hand, she did have a huge correspondence. Each of those people might feel themselves to be a 'personal student' of Blavatsky's. However, I think it's pretty clear it means less than the phrase suggests. And to base on that the claim, which Bailey makes in this book, that she's closer to Blavatsky's real teachings than her critics would allow, is rather stretching things. The main reason I bought this book is that it gives an uncensored look at the Theosophical Society in the first half of ...

The Wisdom of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, Ravi Ravindra

The Wisdom of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, Ravi Ravindra

http://www.squidoo.com/yoga-sutras-ra...

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Out of this World: Otherworldly Journeys from Gilgamesh to Albert Einstein

Out of this World: Otherworldly Journeys from Gilgamesh to Albert Einstein

http://www.squidoo.com/gilgamesh-eins...

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Buddhist Goddesses Art by Romio Shrestha

Buddhist Goddesses Art by Romio Shrestha

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Best books on Buddhism

http://hubpages.com/hub/books-buddhism

You might want to digest this book slowly, a few pages at a time. Although Zen teacher Steve Hagen has a knack for putting the philosophy of Buddhism in a "plain and simple" package, it may take a while to sink in. There is so much there. Seeing reality, realizing the wisdom of the self, breaking free of dualistic thinking--this is pretty heady stuff. Thankfully, Hagen passes it along in the form of examples from life, psychological tidbits, and stories from Buddhist teachers past and present. And when it clicks in, it can be life-transforming. Hagen explains this shift in outlook and how the fundamental way we look at the world affects everything we do. As an outline, Hagen follows the basic teachings of the Buddha, and we see that, rather than dogmatic truths, they are reminders for us as we reconsider the life we have taken for granted for so long. As it turns out, Buddhism is life, plain and simple. --Brian Bruya

Help with Kundalini - books

http://www.squidoo.com/kundalini-books

When the Dutch TS had a weekend about spirituality and evolution early 2010, Prof. Dr. Hans Gerding handed out a bibliography. On this list of books, there was a whole list of books about Kundalini. Because the Internet is my archive, I thought I'd share those books here.

Best Dalai Lama Books

In honour of 50 years of exile from Tibet I made this selection of the top books by His Holiness.

Best Dalai Lama Books

The Dalai Lama is that unique mix of a spiritual teacher and a political leader. Unlike the Pope he is virtually uncontested as a spiritual inspiration. His continuing attempts at peaceful dialog with the Chinese government is amazing. His attempts at finding a meeting ground between Buddhist philosophy and practice and scientific research is inspiring. What follows are the best books he's written - though in most cases he had a co-writer.