===================================================================== _|_|_| _|_|_| _|_|_| _|_|_| GRUPO DE ESTUDOS AVANCADOS ESPIRITAS _| _| _| _| _| Fundado em 15 outubro de 1992 _| _| _|_| _|_|_| _|_| _| _| _| _| _| _| Boletim semanal _|_|_| _|_|_| _| _| _|_|_| de distribuicao eletronica --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ano 05 - Numero 257 - 1997 09 de setembro de 1997 ===================================================================== |=========================| INDICE |============================| TEXTOS Spiritism Easily Explained by Allan Kardec (2.a Parte), trad. de Ademir L. Xavier Jr. and Carol de Macedo (Brasil) A Pronuncia do Esperanto, Carlos Iglesia (Brasil) Preg^o - En la komenco de la kunveno, La Evangelio Lau^ Spiritismo, Allan Kardec, trad. Ismael Gomes Braga, FEB (Brasil) PAINEL Nova Editora Espirita em Ilheus - Bahia, Djalma Argollo (Brasil) |====================================================================| ______________________________________________________________________ TEXTO ----- Spiritism Easily Explained by Allan Kardec (2.a Parte), trad. de Ademir L. Xavier Jr. and Carol de Macedo (Brasil) ______________________________________________________________________ (Based on the essay `O Espiritismo em sua mais simples expressao' by A. Kardec, 2nd ed., FEESP, 1989) Who are these spirits? What is their role in the Universe? What is their reason for communicating with the mortals? Such were the first questions demanding explanation. The spirits soon revealed that they were not apart from creation, but were instead the very souls of those who had lived on the earth or on other worlds. After having left their corporeal envelopes, they populate an fly through the space. There was no room for doubt when friends and relatives were recognized among them, furnishing proofs of their existence when interrogated. They came to demonstrate that death was only for their bodies, that their souls or spirits continue to live, that they are very near us, that they can see us very much like when they were alive. They kindly watch over those whom they loved and whose memories very much please them. In general we make a completely false idea of the spirits. They are not abstract or vague beings as many would imagine. Also they are not a glaring radiance or a spark, but are rather very real, having their own individuality and definite form. We can have a approximate idea of them according to the following explanation: There are three essential things in human beings: 1 - The soul or the spirit, the intelligent principle where the thoughts, will and moral sense are found. 2 - The body, the material envelope, weighty and rough. The body enables the spirit relate with the material world. 3 - The perispirit, the light fluidic envelope, which is the intermediary bound between the spirit and the body. When the exterior covering is threadbare and can no more work, the spirit get rid of it, like the fruit liberates itself from the shell or as one forsake a clothing which is no longer useful. That is what we call death. Therefore, death is simply the destruction of the crude shell of the spirit; only the body dies, not the spirit. During life, the spirit is somewhat limited by the material links of matter to which it is bounded. These limits can many times neutralize its faculties, and the body's death liberates it from such bounds setting it free (like the butterfly from its cocoon). But the spirit give up only the material body, keeping the perispirit which is a kind of ethereal body, vaporous and very subtle to us. It has the human form which seems to be the standard one. In its normal state, the perispirit is invisible, but the spirit can make certain changes upon it so as to render it temporarily visible or able to be touched, similar to what happens to condensed vapour. In this manner, the spirits can sometimes appear to us during apparitions. By using the perispirit, the spirit can act upon matter and produce the several phenomena of raps, movements, writing etc. Raps and movements are a way for the spirits to testify their presence and to call our attention, like a person may do to make others notice him. Some of them do not limit themselves to make moderate noises, but instead produce a row of breaking dishes, of opening and closing doors or disordered furniture. Through knocks and combined movements they are able to express their thoughts, but writing, which they prefer, offers them the most complete, convenient and fastest way. As they can make marks, so they also can lead the hands to drawn, write music or play a piece in a musical instrument. In few words, because they lack physical bodies, they use a medium to manifest themselves to the human in a sensible way. The spirits can also manifests themselves in several other ways, including through vision and audition. Certain people called hearing mediums, have the capacity to listen to spirits and they can, therefore, talk to them. Others, the seeing mediums can see them. The spirits which generally manifest themselves visually appear in the same way as when they were alive, although in a vaporous way. On other occasions, this form is so similar to a living being that it appears to be almost a complete delusion. They haven sometimes been taken to be flesh and blood humans which people talked to and shook hands without even suspecting they were spirits, except for their later sudden disappearance. The permanent and general capacity to see spirits is rare, but individual apparitions specially at the moment of death, are very common. The released spirit seems to hurry to see its relatives and friends again, as if it wished to show them that it has just left the earth but wants to tell them it is still alive. By gathering individual recollection, many authentic but until then unnoticed facts can be considered as having happened not only at night during sleep, but during the day in the most complete state of wakefulness. In the past, these facts were considered as marvellous and supernatural and were placed in the domain of wizardry and witchcraft. Today, however, the incredulous attribute them to imagination and we, since the spiritist science has given us the key, know how to produce them and that they do not leave from the normal phenomenological order. We also believe that the spirits, just because they are spirits, should not be understood to have supreme knowledge and wisdom; this is a mistaken understanding that experience did not delay to prove. Among the spirit communications, there are those which are rich in sublime profundity, eloquence, wisdom and morals and reflect only good and benevolence. Others, however, are extremely vulgar, futile, trivial and even rough. Through these messages the spirits reveal their most perverted instincts. It is clear that they can not come from the same source and that, if there are good spirits, there are also bad ones. Since the spirits are only the very souls of the human, they can not turn into perfect beings after leaving their bodies. They keep the imperfections of their corporeal lives until final improvement. Therefore, in their messages, we see all degrees of goodness and badness, of wisdom and ignorance. The spirits are generally happy to communicate and are very satisfied to know that they were not forgotten. They gladly describe their impressions after leaving the earth, their new situation, the origin of their happiness and suffering in their new world. Some are happy, others are unhappy, suffering terrible torments according to the way in which they lived and the good or bad use they made of their lives. By watching them in all phases of their new lives, paying attention to the positions they occupied on earth, their types of death, their characters and behaviours as human beings, we can come to a sufficiently accurate, if not complete, knowledge of the invisible world. Such knowledge enables us the explanation of our future state and to foresee the happy or sad destiny that waits for us there. The instructions given by high level spirit regarding every subject of interest to humankind and their answers regarding the proposed questions were carefully gathered and organized. Together they constitute a whole science, a moral and philosophical doctrine called Spiritism. Spiritism is, therefore, the doctrine founded upon the existence, manifestations and teachings of the spirits. This doctrine is fully exposed in The Spirit's Book with regard to its philosophical aspect. Its practical and experimental aspect is contained in The Medium's Book, while the moral aspect is contained in The Gospel according to Spiritism. Through the analysis we make here, one can access the variety, extension and importance of the subjects covered by the doctrine. As we have seen, Spiritism had its beginning in the common phenomena of the turning tables. But since facts speak more to the eyes than to the intellect, giving rise more to curiosity than to feelings, the interest in the them disappears with curiosity in face of the lack of any sensible explanation. The situation changed when a theory came to explain cause, when it was realized that an entire moral doctrine sprang from those dancing tables with which so many had such a happy time for a short while. This doctrine speaks to the soul; it dissipates the distress of doubts and satisfies the desire for a complete explanation of the future of mankind that was previously left in the vacuum. Serious people received the new teachings as a helpful doctrine and, since then, instead of declining, it quickly spread. Within a few years it encountered support world-wide, especially among enlightened people. The number of supporters increases daily and one can say that today Spiritism has obtained its "right of citizenship". It is founded on bases which challenge the effort of its opponents who are more or less interested in its denial. The proof is that the attacks and criticisms could not delay its march for even a moment. Its opponents could never explain this simple fact. For the Spiritists, if it continues to propagate in spite of its criticism, it is because Spiritism is good and the way of its reasoning is better than of its opponents. Spiritism, however, is not a modern discovery. The facts and principles upon which it is based were lost in the night of the times, since one can find its tracks in the beliefs of all people, in all religions and in the majority of sacred and profane writers. But such facts neither were properly considered nor their consequences completely deduced, they were instead interpreted according to the superstitious ideas of the ignorant. In fact, Spiritism is founded on the existence of the spirits. As the spirits are only the souls of people and since there were always people, Spiritism could not have invented or created the spirits. If the souls or spirits can manifest themselves to the living, this is a natural fact that, therefore, has always been so since the beginning of time. Therefore in any place or time one can find proofs of such intense manifestations, especially in the Biblical texts. The logical explanation of the facts, the more complete knowledge of the spirit nature, of their role and way of action, the revelation of our future state and finally the gathering of these facts into a scientific and doctrinal body are, however, modern. The ancient knew its principles, while modern man knows its details. In past times the study of these phenomena was a privilege within certain castes and were revealed only to their initiates. In the middle ages, those who ostensibly dealt with them were considered warlocks and were therefore burned at the stakes. But today, there is no longer any mystery, no one burns anyone, everything happens clearly and everyone is free to learn and practice Spiritism, since there are mediums everywhere. The very doctrine that the spirits teach today is not new. It can be found in fragments of the greatest philosophers from India, Egypt and Greece, and entirely in the teachings of Christ. That is then the goal of Spiritism ? It came to give new testimonies, to point out, using facts, unknown or not well understood truths and to re-establish, in its true sense, misinterpreted ones. Spiritism teaches nothing new, that is true. But is it not valuable to show, in an obvious and irrefutable way, the existence of the soul, its survival over body's death, its immortality, its future punishments and rewards ? How many believe in such things, but only with weak and hidden thoughts, silently wondering: "And if it were not so?" How many people were brought to discredit because they were given a future which their minds could not rationally accept? Is it not admirable, then, if the weak believer could say: "Now I am sure!", that the blind could see the light ? By facts and logic Spiritism dissipates distressing doubts and brings back faith to those who had lost it. It unfolds the existence of the invisible world which is around us and in which we unsuspectingly live. Through the example of the dead, Spiritism shows us our happy or sad future condition. It explains the cause of earthly sufferings and shows us a way to soften them. Its propagation will have as an inevitable effect the destruction of materialist doctrines which can no longer resist to its evidence. Human beings, convinced of the greatness and importance of their future, eternal life, draw a parallel between it and the indefiniteness of the terrestrial life which is so short. By their thoughts they elevate themselves above ungenerous human values, and realize the cause and reason for their sufferings, which are thereupon viewed by them with meekness and endurance because they understand they are a way for their improvement. The example of those who come from the beyond to describe their joys and pains, demonstrating the reality of the future life shows, at the same time, that God's justice leaves no wickedness without punishment and no virtue without reward. Finally, we also add that the communication of our dear departed ones brings us a sweet consolation, showing not only that they continue to live but also that they are less far from us than if they were in a foreign land. Briefly stating, Spiritism softens the distress of life's sadnesses, calms the despair and agitations of the soul, dissipates the uncertainties and fears of the future and eliminates suicidal feelings. At the same time it brings happiness to those who believe in it. This is the secret of its fast propagation. (continua no boletim 262) __________________________________________________________________ TEXTO ----- A Pronuncia do Esperanto, Carlos Iglesia (Brasil) _____________________________________________________________________ Como ja' foi dito em artigo anterior, a pronuncia do Esperanto e' rigorosamente fonetica: Cada letra tem um unico som e cada som e'representado sempre pela mesma letra. Consequencia disso e' que uma pessoa, com os conhecimentos basicos da lingua, pode pronunciar qualquer palavra lida, mesmo que nunca a tenha ouvido antes, ou escrever qualquer palavra ouvida sem nunca te-la visto escrita antes. O aprendizado do Esperanto pode comecar pelo seu alfabeto, pois o seu conhecimento e o de sua pronuncia nao atrapalha o aprendizado posterior da pronuncia das palavras. O alfabeto contem 28 letras, onde cinco sao vogais e as outras 23 consoantes. Cabe aqui uma observacao: E' dificil descrever a pronuncia de uma lingua simplesmente fazendo comparacoes com outra, principalmente devido a existencia de variantes regionais e nacionais. No caso do portugues, devido a nossas limitacoes, consideraremos a pronuncia ensinada nas escolas brasileiras. As cinco vogais sao a, e, i, o, u com pronuncia equivalente a a, e^, i, o^, u' no portugues. Quanto as consoantes podemos agrupa-las em: Cada vogal conta como uma silaba, em uma palavra existem tantas silabas quanto sao as vogais. Por exemplo, familio tem 4 silabas: fa - mi - li - o. O acento tonico da palavra e' _sempre_ na penultima silaba: familio se pronuncia como fami_li_o Em Esperanto nao existe acentuacao grafica das vogais, os acentos ^ representados neste documento sao simplesmente um artificio para representar letras que nao existem no alfabeto ingles (ANSI) utilizado pelos computadores. 1.o) U^ e J Estas consoantes tem pronuncia equivalente as vogais U e I (breve) da lingua portuguesa e sao utilizadas na formacao de ditongos. Deve-se reparar que no Esperanto nao se "omitem" sons de letras, todas sao pronunciadas. Por exemplo, o ditongo aj se pronuncia como o 'ai' da palavra pai. 2.o) b, d, f, k, l, m, n, p, t, v, z Estas consoantes sao pronunciadas da mesma maneira que no portugues. 3.o) c, c^, g, g^, h, h^, r, s, s^, u^ Estas consoantes correspondem a sons que necessitam de uma explicacao adicional: c soa como ts, como no nome Lao-Tse' c^ soa como tch, como na palavra tcheco g soa como o g da palavra gato h soa como o 'h' ingles, aspirado como na palavra house h^ soa como o 'rr' de carro ou 'j' castelhano, como em 'Juan' j^ soa como j, como na palavra jovem r soa como r, como na palavra aro (brando, sem arrastar o r) s soa como s, como na palavra gas (pronunciar sibilante) s^ soa como x, como na palavra xadrez ou 'sh' do ingles 'ship' Importante frisar que, em termos de pronuncia, nao existem consoantes duplas. Quando duas consoantes se juntam em palavras compostas, devem ser pronunciadas distintamente, como se estivessem separadas. Por exemplo: mallonga = mal + longa. Para soletrar uma palavra, ou para ler o alfabeto, acrescenta-se um 'o' ao final das consoantes. Assim o alfabeto se leria: a, bo, co, c^o, ... E a palavra vorto se soletraria: vo - o - ro - to - a Se diz que Zamenhof aconselhava como modelo de pronuncia, quando outro recurso de estudo nao estivesse disponivel, a lingua italiana. Principalmente a pronuncia das vogais e a entonacao geral da lingua. Segue como um exercicio de leitura uma prece bastante conhecida, a prece de abertura de reunioes espiritas apresentada no Evangelho Segundo o Espiritismo, cap. XXVIII, traduzida do frances por Ismael Gomes Braga (La Evangelio Lau^ Spiritismo, editado pela FEB). Bibliografia: - O que e' Esperanto, Izabel C. O. Santiago, Colecao Primeiros Passos, Ed. Brasiliense - Novo dicionario Esperanto-Portugues, Allan Kardec Afonso Costa, FEB - Teach Yourself Esperanto, John Cresswell and John Hartley, Teach Yourself Books, NTC Publishing Group - Esperanto Dictionary, J. C. Wells, Teach Yourself Books, NTC Publishing Group. _____________________________________________________________________ TEXTO ----- Preg^o - En la komenco de la kunveno ____________________________________________________________________ (La Evangelio Lau^ Spiritismo, Allan Kardec, trad. Ismael Gomes Braga, FEB) Ni petegas Vin, Sinjoro Dio C^iopova, sendi al ni bonajn Spiritojn por nin helpi, forigi tiujn, kuij povus nin konduki al eraro, kaj doni al ni la lumon necesan por distingi la veron de la trompo. Forpus^u ankau^ la malicajn Spiritojn, enkarnig^intajn au^ elkarnig^intajn, kiuj provus j^eti la malkonkordon inter ni kay deturni nin de la karito kay de l' amo al la proksimulo. Se kelkay el ili volus enveni tien c^i, zorgu, ke ili en la koron de neniu el ni trovu eniron. Bonaj Spiritoj, kiuj bonvoleme venas instrui nin, faru nin obeemaj al via konsiloj; deturnu de ni c^ian penson pri egoismo, fiero, envio kay j^aluzo; inspiru al ni indulgemon kaj bonvolemon por niaj similuloj, c^eestantaj au^ forestantaj, amikaj au^ malamikaj; ebligu fine, ke per la sentoj, kiuj animas nin, ni rekonu vian superan influon. Donu al la mediumoj, kiujn vi elektos, por transdoni al ni viajn instruojn, la konscion pri la sankteco de la komisio al ili konfidota kaj pri la graveco de la ago, kiun ili estos plenumontaj, por ke ili havu la fervoron ka piecon necesajn. Se en la kunveno estas personoj altiritaj de alia sento, ol la bono, malfermu ilian okulojn kay pardonu al ili, kiel ni pardonas ilin, se ili venas kun malicaj intencoj. Ni petas speciale la Spiriton de N..., nia spirita gvidanto, ke li helpu kay prigardu nin. _____________________________________________________________________ PAINEL ------ Nova Editora Espirita em Ilheus - Bahia, Djalma Argollo (Brasil) _____________________________________________________________________ Aos Irmaos que participam do GEAE: Estruturamos aqui, na cidade de Ilheus, Estado da Bahia, a LOGOS - LIVRARIA, EDITORA E DISTRIBUIDORA., a qual ja' publicou dois livros de nossa autoria: A Trajetoria Evolutiva do Espirito Um estudo sobre a evolucao da religiao e da crenca na continuidade da consciencia apos a morte, e o desenvolvimento das noticias mediunicas a respeito do fenomeno da desencarnacao, o mundo espiritual, e a reencarnacao. Contem, tambem, estudos sobre a morte dos animais e a estada deles no plano invisivel, transplante de orgaos, cremacao, suicidio, etc. Evangelho Conforme Mateus Traducao do texto grego - tendo o "The Greek New Testament", editado por Kurt Aland et al., como livro basico; alem de estudos comparativos com outras edicoes gregas, como o "Textus receptus", e latinas, como a de Sao Jeronimo, e traducoes de diversas denominacoes religiosas, tanto em portugues, com em ingles, italiano, frances, espanhol e esperanto - onde se procura, pela analise etimologica de termos e expressoes utilizadas consuetudinariamente pela ortodoxia crista, estabelecer o sentido correto de passagens que tem servido para consubstanciar os dogmas tradicionais. Isto e' realizado em Comentarios a cada capitulo, pela transliteracao dos referidos termos e expressoes, juntamente com os diversos sentidos que tambem possuem, e cuja utilizacao daria uma melhor compreensao de varias afirmacoes do Cristo. Naturalmente, existe todo um conjunto de analises `a luz dos ensinos espiritas, de episodios e afirmacoes contidas no Evangelho. Temos ja' no prelo uma nova edicao do livro: "Ensina-nos a Orar...": teoria e pratica da oracao. A primeira edicao deste foi feita pela Federacao Espirita do Ceara - FEEC, estando esgotada. Dentro de mais quinze dias estara a disposicao dos leitores. E, em editoracao, esta': O Reflexo do Cristo: episodios da vida de Francisco de Assis. O qual, como o nome indica, trata do notavel discipulo do Mestre, que luziu em pleno descalabro cristao da Segunda Idade Media. Os proventos oriundos de direitos autorais dos livros sao destinados `a Fundacao Edelweiss, da Cidade de Ilheus, a qual esta estruturando o "Complexo Educacional Mnemio Tulio", um instituto de educacao, que ira' do Pre'-Primario ao Segundo Grau Completo (este profissionalizante), moldado de acordo com uma Filosofia e uma Pedagogia Espiritas, para dar a criancas carentes, nao apenas a ilustracao curricular, mas ajuda-los a desenvolver seus potenciais nas diversas areas vocacionais que tragam consigo. Quem deseje maiores informacoes sobre a Fundacao Edelweiss, ou solicitar as publicacoes da LOGOS, pode se dirigir a Rua 4, Qd. L, Lote 13 - Jardim Pontal - Ilheus - Bahia - Cep.: 45650.000; Tel,: (073)2313893. Ou escrever para o e-mail: logos@bitsnet.com.br. Com votos de muita paz, somos o irmao em Cristo, Djalma Motta Argollo .--- .-- .--. .-- / -, /- /__/ /- `--' `-- / / `-- GRUPO DE ESTUDOS AVANCADOS ESPIRITAS ...----------------------'''''--''--'''''''--'''''''''--'''''''''------. | . Boletim semanal de distribuicao eletronica | | . Homepage "The Spiritism Web" com informacoes espiritas em | | geral: livros eletronicos, periodicos, boletins e inscricao | | inscricao no GEAE, etc e sobre o movimento espirita mundial: | | instituicoes, eventos, paginas espiritas na internet, etc. | | | | Conselho Editorial: | | - Carlos A. Iglesia Bernardo (Sao Paulo - SP, Brasil) | | - Jose Cid (Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brasil)| | - Raul Franzolin Neto (Pirassununga - SP, Brasil) | | - Sergio A. A. Freitas (Lisboa, Portugal) | | | | Inscricoes: enviar nome, email, profissao e endereco completo para| | Email: dgeae@kholosso.di.fct.unl.pt | | Homepage: http://zen.di.fct.unl.pt/~saf/geae.html | | (The Spiritism Web) | `--------------------------------------------------------------------`