Peace

 

Buddhism

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings Peace.

the Buddha

Christianity

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy and peace.

Galatians 5:22

Islam

And the servants of Allah . . . are those who walked on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say 'Peace'.

the Quran, [25:63]

Judaism

Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.

Job 22:21

Sikhism

The greatest comforts and lasting peace are obtained, when one eradicates selfishness from within.

Guru Gobind Singh

The Secret of Peace

Make your mind cling to God.  Let it do all things for God and leave the results, success or failure to God.  Let it leave the loss and the profit, the elation or the dejection to God.  That is the secret of Peace and Contentment.

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.”

- Robert Louis Stevenson

“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. They way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.”

-         Margaret Young

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

-         Zora Neale Hurston

“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.”

-         Helen Keller

“Bless a thing and it will bless you. Curse it and it will curse you…If you bless a situation, it has no power to hurt you, and even if it is troublesome for a time, it will gradually fade out, if you sincerely bless it.”

-         Emmet Fox

“My business is not to remake myself,

But make the absolute best of what God made.”

-         Robert Browning

“Anybody can observe the Sabbath but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.”

-         Alice Walker

“It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end.”

- Ursula K. LeGuin

Virginia’s Secret Santa

Around the Christmas season, thousands of letters addressed to Santa Claus arrive at Post Offices around the world. If St. Nick were to actually read all the letters, the more vital job of delivering the gifts might get a little delayed.

This story is not about a letter to Santa Claus, but a letter about him. In 1897, an eight-year old girl called Virginia O’Hanlon, asked her father whether Santa Claus actually existed, or was a mere myth, as her friends said. Her father deftly suggested that she mail her question to “The Sun”, a noted New York newspaper of that age. Virginia took her father at his word, and addressed her question to the editor of “The Sun”.

Her question and the response, ran in the Sept. 21, 1897 edition of the paper. It has since become the most reprinted editorial in history. Here’s a brief excerpt from it:

“…They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little…Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.”

The un-named editor who wrote the reply was Francis Pharcellus Church, who was the lead editorial writer of the paper, owned by his brother. Francis Church had been a war correspondent during the Civil War, a time that brought about so much privation to the country, and resulted in much bitterness within the ‘United’ States.He could have easily chosen to ignore a child’s innocent question, or deflected it as her father had. Instead he chose to instill faith and trust in the unseen, and consequently the letter has struck a chord with the world’s adults. 

To read the complete editorial go to http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/

The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson

I fled Him down the nights and down the days
I fled Him down the arches of the years
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the midst of tears
I hid from him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped and shot precipitated
Adown titanic glooms of chasme d hears
From those strong feet that followed, followed after
But with unhurrying chase and unperturbe d pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat, and a Voice beat,
More instant than the feet:
All things betray thee who betrayest me.

I pleaded, outlaw--wise by many a hearted casement,
curtained red, trellised with inter-twining charities,
For though I knew His love who followe d,
Yet was I sore adread, lest having Him,
I should have nought beside.
But if one little casement parted wide,
The gust of his approach would clash it to.
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.
Across the margent of the world I fled,
And troubled the gold gateways of the stars,
Smiting for shelter on their clange d bars,
Fretted to dulcet jars and silvern chatter
The pale ports of the moon.

I said to Dawn --- be sudden, to Eve --- be soon,
With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over
From this tremendous Lover.
Float thy vague veil about me lest He see.
I tempted all His servitors but to find
My own betrayal in their constancy,
In faith to Him, their fickleness to me,
Their traitorous trueness and their loyal deceit.
To all swift things for swiftness did I sue,
Clung to the whistling mane of every wind,
But whether they swept, smoothly fleet,
The long savannahs of the blue,
Or whether, thunder-driven,
They clanged His chariot thwart a heaven,
Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn of their feet,
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.
Still with unhurrying chase and unperturbed pace
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following feet, and a Voice above their beat:
Nought shelters thee who wilt not shelter Me.

I sought no more that after which I strayed
In face of Man or Maid.
But still within the little childrens' eyes
Seems something, something that replies,
They at least are for me, surely for me.
But just as their young eyes grew sudden fair,
With dawning answers there,
Their angel plucked them from me by the hair.
Come then, ye other children, Nature's
Share with me, said I, your delicate fellowship.
Let me greet you lip to lip,
Let me twine with you caresses,
Wantoning with our Lady Mother's vagrant tresses,
Banqueting with her in her wind walled palace,
Underneath her azured dai:s,
Quaffing, as your taintless way is,
From a chalice, lucent weeping out of the dayspring.

So it was done.
I in their delicate fellowship was one.
Drew the bolt of Nature's secrecies,
I knew all the swift importings on the wilful face of skies,
I knew how the clouds arise,
Spume d of the wild sea-snortings.
All that's born or dies,
Rose and drooped with,
Made them shapers of mine own moods, or wailful, or Divine.
With them joyed and was bereaven.
I was heavy with the Even,
when she lit her glimmering tapers round the day's dead sanctities.
I laughed in the morning's eyes.
I triumphed and I saddened with all weather,
Heaven and I wept together,
and its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine.
Against the red throb of its sunset heart,
I laid my own to beat
And share commingling heat.

But not by that, by that was eased my human smart.
In vain my tears were wet on Heaven's grey cheek.
For ah! we know what each other says,
these things and I; In sound I speak,
Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences.
Nature, poor step-dame, cannot slake my drouth.
Let her, if she would owe me
Drop yon blue-bosomed veil of sky
And show me the breasts o' her tenderness.
Never did any milk of hers once bless my thirsting mouth.
Nigh and nigh draws the chase, with unperturbe d pace
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
And past those noise d feet, a Voice comes yet more fleet:
Lo, nought contentst thee who content'st nought Me.

Naked, I wait thy Love's uplifted stroke. My harness, piece by piece,
thou'st hewn from me
And smitten me to my knee,
I am defenceless, utterly.
I slept methinks, and awoke.
And slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep.
In the rash lustihead of my young powers,
I shook the pillaring hours,
and pulled my life upon me.
Grimed with smears,
I stand amidst the dust o' the mounded years--
My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap.
My days have crackled and gone up in smoke,
Have puffed and burst like sunstarts on a stream.
Yeah, faileth now even dream the dreamer
and the lute, the lutanist.
Even the linked fantasies in whose blossomy twist,
I swung the Earth, a trinket at my wrist,
Have yielded, cords of all too weak account,
For Earth, with heavy grief so overplussed.
Ah! is thy Love indeed a weed,
albeit an Amaranthine weed,
Suffering no flowers except its own to mount?
Ah! must, Designer Infinite,
Ah! must thou char the wood 'ere thou canst limn with it ?
My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the dust.
And now my heart is as a broken fount,
Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever
From the dank thoughts that shiver upon the sighful branches of my
mind.

Such is. What is to be ?
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind ?
I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds,
Yet ever and anon, a trumpet sounds
From the hid battlements of Eternity.
Those shaken mists a space unsettle,
Then round the half-glimpse d turrets, slowly wash again.
But not 'ere Him who summoneth
I first have seen, enwound
With glooming robes purpureal; Cypress crowned.
His name I know, and what his trumpet saith.
Whether Man's Heart or Life it be that yield thee harvest,
Must thy harvest fields be dunged with rotten death ?

Now of that long pursuit,
Comes at hand the bruit.
That Voice is round me like a bursting Sea:
And is thy Earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest me.
Strange, piteous, futile thing;
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of Naught (He said).
And human love needs human meriting ---
How hast thou merited,
Of all Man's clotted clay, the dingiest clot.
Alack! Thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art.
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save me, save only me?
All which I took from thee, I did'st but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in my arms.
All which thy childs mistake fancies as lost,
I have stored for thee at Home.
Rise, clasp my hand, and come.
Halts by me that Footfall.
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
Ah, Fondest, Blindest, Weakest,
I am He whom thou seekest.
Thou dravest Love from thee who dravest Me.

Embraced by the Light by Betty J. Eadie

“Embraced by the Light” is the author’s first person-narrative of her near-death experience. “Near Death” is not an accurate term, since technically she was dead, probably, for a couple of hours.

On Nov. 18, 1973, 31-year-old mother of eight, Betty Jean Eadie, entered a hospital to undergo a partial hysterectomy. Because of ensuing complications, she died in the hospital. This book is her account on what she underwent following her death.

Ms. Eadie was born of Sotch-Irish and Sioux Indian parentage. Her parents’ separation led to her being placed in a religious boarding school, which derided her Native American heritage and fostered images of a wrathful, unforgiving deity. It did not however, kill her spiritual hunger, which sent her to various churches, but left her with a vague sense of unfulfilled yearning.

In her after-death experience, she speaks of the presence of guardian beings who have watched over her, of concepts of space-time different from what we experience on Earth, her meeting with Jesus Christ, and what he revealed to her about the secrets and laws behind creation:

“By understanding these laws we are better able to serve those around us. Whatever we become here in mortality is meaningless unless it is done for the benefit of others. Our gifts and talents are given to us to help us serve. And in serving others we grow spiritually.

Above all, I was shown that love is supreme. I saw that truly without love we are nothing. We are here to help each other, to care for each other, to understand, forgive, and serve one another.”

Ultimately, Ms. Eadie’s life is not so much about death, as about life.

The Essential Teachings of Ramana Maharshi

“Because people love mystery and not the truth, religions cater to them, eventually bringing them around to the Self. Whatever be the means adopted, you must at last return to the Self; so why not abide in the Self here and now?”

Bhagavan Shri Ramana Maharishi was born Venkatraman Iyer in 1879 in a small village in South India. For the early part of his life, he lived an unremarkable life till he left home at the age of sixteen to live as an ascetic in the hills of Arunachala. Neither building ashrams, nor assiduously collecting followers, the silent sage of Arunachala was nevertheless a lodestone attracting devotees and seekers from all walks of life.

‘The Essential Teachings of Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi’ is a compilation of Bhagavan Ramana’s aphorisms. Endowed with the grandeur of the Divine and stark as the naked truth, each of these pithy sayings is worthy of being called a ‘Mahavakya’. They invite contemplation, inspire joy, and urge the Seeker to stay true to the path till the goal reveals itself.

“There is no greater mystery than this: Being reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality. We think that there is something hiding Reality and that it must be destroyed before the truth is gained. This is clearly ridiculous. A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. What you realize on the day you laugh is also here and now.”

Amen To That

“There is one thing more exasperating than a wife who can cook and won't, and that's a wife who can't cook and will.” 

-         Robert Frost

“Chemicals, n:  Noxious substances from which modern foods are made.” 

- Author Unknown

 

“He that eats till he is sick must fast till he is well.” 

- English Proverb

“My soul is dark with stormy riot,
Directly traceable to diet.”
- Samuel Hoffenstein

“Mosquitoes remind us that we are not as high up on the food chain as we think.”

- Tom Wilson

“If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end, not produce food either.”

- Joseph Wood Krutch, Naturalist

“More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.”

- John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist

“Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you, and be silent.”

- Epitectus

A Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Prayer

Native American Prayer Song

Thanksgiving Address

GREETINGS TO THE NATURAL WORLD!

Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People.

Now our minds are one.

We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of time. To our Mother, we send greetings and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

We give thanks to all the Waters of the world for quenching our thirst and providing us with strength. Water is life. We know its power in many forms - waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to the spirit of water.

Now our minds are one.

We turn our minds to all the Fish life in the water. They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water. They also give themselves to us as food. We are grateful that we can still find pure water. So, we turn now to the Fish and send our greetings and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn toward the vast fields of Plant life. As far as the eye can see, the Plants grow, working many wonders. They sustain many life forms. With our minds gathered together, we give thanks and look forward to seeing Plant life for many generations to come.

Now our minds are one.

With one mind, we turn to honor and thank all the Food Plants we harvest from the garden. Since the beginning of time, the grains, vegetables, beans and berries have helped the people survive. Many other living things draw strength from them too. We gather all the Plant Foods together as one and send them a greeting and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to all the Medicine herbs of the world. From the beginning, they were instructed to take away sickness. They are always waiting and ready to heal us. We are happy there are still among us those special few who remember how to use these plants for healing. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to the Medicines and to the keepers of the Medicines.

Now our minds are one.

We gather our minds together to send greetings and thanks to all the Animal life in the world. They have many things to teach us as people. We see them near our homes and in the deep forests. We are glad they are still here and we hope that it will always be so.

Now our minds are one.

We now turn our thoughts to the Trees. The Earth has many families of Trees who have their own instructions and uses. Some provide us with shelter and shade, others with fruit, beauty and other useful things. Many peoples of the world use a Tree as a symbol of peace and strength. With one mind, we greet and thank the Tree life.

Now our minds are one.

We put our minds together as one and thank all the Birds who move and fly about over our heads. The Creator gave them beautiful songs. Each day they remind us to enjoy and appreciate life. The Eagle was chosen to be their leader. To all the Birds - from the smallest to the largest - we send our joyful greetings and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

We are all thankful to the powers we know as the Four Winds. We hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe. They help to bring the change of seasons. From the four directions they come, bringing us messages and giving us strength. With one mind, we send our greetings and thanks to the Four Winds.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to the west where our Grandfathers, the Thunder Beings, live. With lightning and thundering voices, they bring with them the water that renews life. We bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to our Grandfathers, the Thunderers.

Now our minds are one.

We now send greetings and thanks to our eldest Brother, the Sun. Each day without fail he travels the sky from east to west, bringing the light of a new day. He is the source of all the fires of life. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to our Brother, the Sun.

Now our minds are one.

We put our minds together and give thanks to our oldest grandmother, the Moon, who lights the night-time sky. She is the leader of women all over the world, and she governs the movement of the ocean tides. By her changing face we measure time, and it is the Moon who watches over the arrival of children here on Earth. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to our Grandmother, the Moon.

Now our minds are one.

We give thanks to the Stars who are spread across the sky like jewelry. We see them in the night, helping the Moon to light the darkness and bringing dew to the gardens and growing things. When we travel at night, they guide us home. With our minds gathered together as one, we send greetings and thanks to all the Stars.

Now our minds are one.

We gather our minds to greet and thank the enlightened Teachers who have come to help throughout the ages. When we forget how to live in harmony, they remind us of the way we were instructed to live as people. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to these caring Teachers.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn our thoughts to the Creator, or Great Spirit, and send greetings and thanks for the gifts of Creation. Everything we need to live a good life is here on this Mother Earth. For all the love that is still around us, we gather our minds together as one and send our choicest words of greetings and thanks to the Creator.

Now our minds are one.

We have now arrived at the place where we end our words. Of all the things we have named, it was not our intention to leave anything out. If something was forgotten, we leave it to each individual to send such greetings and thanks in their own way.

Now our minds are one.

Mealtime Prayers

Buddhism:

We reflect on the effort that brought us this food and consider how it comes to us.

We reflect on our virtue and practice and whether we are worthy of this offering.

We regard greed as the obstacle to freedom of mind.

We regard this meal as medicine to sustain our life.

For the sake of enlightenment we now receive this food.

Verse of Five Contemplations, Japanese Soto Zen School of Buddhism

Christianity:

Oh Lord
We thank you for your loving provision
We thank you for this food and ask you to bless it
May we never be forget those who have want and are in need
May our eyes and our hearts be alert and our hands be open to give from the abundance you have given us. Amen

Hinduism:

The process of offering is Brahman, the oblation is Brahman, the instrument of offering is Brahman, the fire to which the offering is made is also Brahman.  For such a one who abides in Brahman, by him alone Brahman is reached.

Bhagavad Gita

Islam:

All praise is due to Allah who gave us food and drink.

Judaism:

Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the tree."

Tree of Life

I read a story once about a man who was surveying some land he had recently acquired. A barbed wire fence ran all around the boundary of the property. Two trees happened to be growing along the line. Apparently it was thought expedient to thread the sharp wire through the trunk of the trees, rather than go around them. The man observed that one of the trees had grown twisted and deformed, as if it had writhed in agony at having the wire run though it. The other had grown tall and straight, serenely unaffected by the experience. The man wondered what it was in Nature that could bring about such different reactions in similar organisms.

That story was very much on my mind as I read about Kalyana Raman Srinivasan. His father died when the boy was fifteen. Abruptly the family of five was plunged into poverty. Though Kal Raman’s mother was urged by her relatives to put her teenaged sons to work to augment the family’s meager income, the undaunted mother insisted that her children pursue their education. Raman remembers selling the plates to buy rice, and studying under the streetlights for lack of electricity. But having graduated from school, this academically gifted student secured admission into both Engineering and Medical colleges in the highly competitive world of India’s professional colleges.

His challenges didn’t end there however. While in university, he often had to go hungry, when he couldn’t afford to pay the fees for the college mess. When he sat for his final semester exams, he hadn’t eaten for a day and a half. The hard days are behind Raman now. Once he had completed his education, his rise was meteoric. Today, he is the CEO of GlobalScholar.com, a company that offers online tutoring programs.

His is an inspiring story in more ways than one. Kal Raman has adopted all the orphanages around his village, providing education to some 2,000 children, some of whom are handicapped. In his words, “I do not do this as charity; it’s my responsibility. I am giving something back to the society that fed me, taught me, took care of me and gave me hope.”

Food for Thought

The body and the mind are closely inter-related, and both derive sustenance from food. Therefore, food has considerable impact on the character and destiny of the individual. As the food, so the mind; as the mind, so the thought; as the thought, so the act. All that is perceived by the senses constitute 'food'. For the Sadhaka (spiritual aspirant), the intake must always be Sathwic, i.e., pure and moderate. The sounds, the sights, the impressions, the ideas, the lessons, the contacts - all must promote reverence, humility, balance, equanimity and simplicity. It is only the Sathwic 'food' that will keep the mind on an even keel, fully concentrated on the Atma on which one must contemplate in order to attain peace. 

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Friend & Foe

“Opposition is not necessarily enmity; it is merely misused and made an occasion for enmity.”  
-  Sigmund Freud

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”

- Walter Winchell

“We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.”
- Aesop

“Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.”

- Albert Camus

“Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes.”
- Antisthenes

“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.”

- Abraham Lincoln

“Though all things do to harm him what they can,
  No greater en'my to himself than man.”
- William Alexander, Earl of Stirling

“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.”

- Anonymous

Christian the Lion

Friendship leaves an indelible impression on our hearts, even when it is experienced second-hand, even when it is among the unlikeliest of friends.

In London, in 1969, two young men, John Rendall and Ace Berg, saw a lonely little lion cub in a cage, in the exotic animals department of Harrods. They decided to bring him home, and for about a year, he lived the life of an urban cat in the basement of Rendall’s flat in Chelsea. The lion, now named Christian, would occasionally take his exercise in the grounds of a local church.

However, as he grew larger, even though he was still friendly, it became apparent that he should be returned to the wild. Rendall and Berg made contact with the conservationist, George Adamson, and it was decided to move Christian to a lion preserve in Africa.

Rendall and Berg maintained contact with Adamson to keep tabs on Christian’s new life. In 1974, the conservationist told them that the lion had finally adapted to the Wild. He was the leader of his pride and had a litter of cubs. Though advised by Adamson not to bother, Rendall and Berg nevertheless decided to make a trip to see Christian, and to say a final goodbye. Go to the following link to watch a clip of that unforgettable reunion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNv2A4Kfx4k&feature=related

Shinto Prayer for Peace

Although the people living

across the ocean
surrounding us, I believe,
are all our brothers and sisters,
why are there constant troubles in
this world?
Why do winds and waves rise in the
ocean surrounding us?
I only earnestly wish that the wind will
soon puff away all the clouds which are
hanging over the tops of the mountains.

Forgiveness

Buddhism:

“To understand everything is to forgive everything.”

the Buddha

Christianity:

“Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand. To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.”

St. Francis of Assisi

Hinduism:

"The forgiving acquire honors here, and a state of blessedness hereafter. Those men that ever conquer their wrath by forgiveness obtain the higher regions. Therefore has it been said that forgiveness is the highest virtue."

the Mahabharatha

Islam:

“Those who pardon and maintain righteousness are rewarded by God. He does not love the unjust”

Qur’an 42:40

Judaism:

“Who takes vengeance or bears a grudge acts like one who, having cut one hand while handling a knife, avenges himself by stabbing the other hand.”

Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim 9.4

 Sikhism:

“To practice forgiveness is fasting, good conduct and contentment”

  

Guru Arjan Dev

The Celestine Prophecy – an Adventure by James Redfield

Published in 1993, James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy condenses some of the ideals of the New Age Movement. While we’re on the topic, a word about ‘New Age’ - this term was used as early as 1809 by the mystic English Poet, William Blake. The ideology behind the movement is believed to have had its inception as early as the 1600s. So, perhaps it’s time to coin a more fitting label to describe this philosophy that draws inspiration from many ancient spiritual traditions, and finds common ground among practitioners of different faiths.

The story begins with the unnamed Narrator meeting with an old friend, about a mysterious Peruvian manuscript containing Nine Insights, the sequential realization of which will lead to the spiritual transformation of humanity. On the trail of these insights, the Narrator sets off for Peru, and comes across sudden perils, unexpected friends/guides, and an awakening awareness.

The book touches upon many issues fundamental in spirituality – an awareness of the role of destiny in lives, the realization that each individual is part of a grander design, and, that oneness with the Universe is inseparable from Love. These beliefs are not new, in the same way that Truth is not new, and is ever worth re-telling.

The author shares other insights with regard to diet, environment, parenting, intuition, and power plays within human relationships. Interestingly, each particular insight is relayed to him through a messenger who might be considered most apt to talk on the subject. Most of them are academics. Two of them are priests, and one is the mother of a small child.

 Like, Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, the book takes the form of a parable, a modern fantasy adventure with a hero in search of his own personal Holy Grail. The Nine Insights are interspersed over nine chapters, with no bold font or italics to cue in the inattentive reader. Though the style is light and undemanding, the writer needs to be lauded for whetting our curiosity, and allowing the narrative to gradually draw us in, enveloping us in the unfolding tale.

I Am My Own Witness

When a plane flies across the sky, it leaves no mark on it, no streak that lasts, no furrow or pothole that interferes with further traffic. So too, witness all the feelings and emotions as they cross your mind, but, do not allow them to make an impression on you. This can be done by inquiry, by quiet reasoning within oneself, more than by listening to lectures or study of books.

God's Gifts

“When I asked God for Strength,

he gave me difficult situations to face.

When I asked God for Brain and Brawn,

he gave me puzzles in life to solve.

When I asked God for Happiness,

he showed me some unhappy people.

When I asked God for Wealth,

he showed me how to work hard.

When I asked God for Favors,

he showed me opportunities to work hard.

When I asked God for Peace,

he showed me how to help others.

God gave me nothing I wanted,

He gave me everything I needed.”

- Swami Vivekananda

From Burma with Love

In December 2004, some fishermen off the coast of Tamil Nadu, India, spied something floating on the sea, glinting  in the sunlight. Curious, some of them went to investigate and returned with a make-shift bamboo raft, festooned with silver foil flowers, and carrying a small metal icon. There was nothing to identify it, except a few vases, some candles, and a maroon monk’s robe with ‘Burma’ sewn on it.

These simple fisherfolk of Meyurkuppam, were unable to recognise the 5 inch idol for what it was – a Jalagupta Buddha, revered in Burma. The Burmese embassy, alerted to its presence, sent a representative to verify the rumour that it was a valuable antique. That rumour proved false. It was only a ‘commonplace modern statuette’. Not so to the people of Meyurkuppam. This incident just happened to co-incide with the Asian Tsuanami - a time when thousands of lives were lost in the coastal areas of South India. Oddly though, all the 980 inhabitants of Meyurkuppam, most of them fishermen and their families, escaped intact.

If it’s a miracle, the villagers know who to thank. They believe their ‘Buddha Swami’ (Lord Buddha) has protected them, and they pay him the same homage as their other gods. The fishermens’ families offer him daily prayers, and the Burmese generals have apparently agreed to fund a temple. 

“This is part of a wondrous cycle,” said Phra Vivek, a Bangkok monk. “Buddhism arrived in the river deltas of South-east Asia in the third century when the Indian emperor Ashoka sent missionaries to the Golden Land. Now the ocean has carried Buddhism back to its source.”

The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran was a Lebanese American writer and artist. His most well known work is “The Prophet”, a collection of mystical poetic essays published in 1923.

The book begins with the Seer, Al Mustafa, ‘the Chosen and the Beloved’, waiting for the ship that will carry him back to his homeland. While he waits, the people of the town of Orphalese, gather around; and beseech him for his parting words.

The book takes the form of a series of discourses imparted by the Prophet to the townspeople. He speaks of Love, Marriage, Food, Shelter, Friendship, Religion, and Death among other topics. Here are a few examples:

On Children: “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself…You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.”

Of Freedom: “…I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff…you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to seek freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.”

Of Pain: “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”

Of Beauty: “…beauty is life when life unveils her holy face. But you are life and you are the veil.”

Of Self-Knowledge: “…the soul walks upon all paths…[it] unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.”

Gibran’s writing too gives us a glimpse of a soul that has walked upon all paths. Born into a predominantly Muslim nation, as part of the minority Christian community, he yet seems to have embraced the sacred essence of the world’s faiths. The author’s original works of art illustrates the sonorous language of this book.

Hymns of Guru Nanak

(from “Songs of the Gurus” by Khushwant Singh)

1.

By Him are all forms created,

By Him infused with life and blessed,

By him are some to excellence elated,

Others born lowly and depressed.

By His writ some have pleasure, others pain;

By His grace some are saved,

Others doomed to die, relive, and die again.

His will encompasseth all, there be none beside.

O Nanak, he who knows, hath no ego and no pride.

2.

Who has the power to praise His might?

Who has the measure of His bounty?

Of his portents who has the sight?

Who can value His virtue, His deeds, His charity?

Who has the knowledge of his wisdom,

Of his deep impenetrable thought?

How worship Him who creates life,

Then destroys,

And having destroyed doth recreate?

How worship him who appeareth far

Yet is ever present and proximate.

There is no end to his description,

Though the speakers and their speeches be legion.

He the Giver ever giveth,

We who receive grow weary,

On his bounty humanity liveth

From primal age to posterity.

3.

God is the Master, God is Truth,

His name spelleth love divine,

His Creatures ever cry: ‘O give, O give,’

He the bounteous doth never decline.

What then in offering shall we bring

That we may see his court above?

What then shall we say in speech

That hearing may evoke his love?

In the ambrosial hours of fragrant dawn

On truth and greatness ponder in meditation,

Though action determine how thou be born,

Through grace alone cometh salvation.

O Nanak, this need we know alone,

That God and Truth are two in one.

Mind

Baha’i

"If religious belief & doctrine is at variance with reason, it proceeds from the limited mind of man & not from God..."

Abdu'l-Baha

Buddhism:

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”

The Buddha

Christianity:

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

The Bible, Romans 12:2

Hinduism:

“There is something beyond our mind which abides in silence within our mind. It is the Supreme Mystery beyond thought. Let one's mind and one's subtle body rest upon that and not rest on anything else.”

Maitri Upanishad

Sikhism:

Within the cave (of the mind) is an inexhaustible Treasure.

Within it resides the unknowable, infinite, He…

Who Himself is Manifest, Unmanifest.

The Law of the Cosmos

Every being has its own Dharma or innate specialty or individuality or special characteristics. This rule applies equally to blades of grass and the stars. The cosmos is not one continuous flux; it progresses persistently towards achieving a totality in the qualities and circumstances. But if you are too immersed in the all-pervasive delusion, you cannot elevate yourself. When in delusion, you are not aware of the path of peace and harmony in the world. You will also not be able to hold on to the good and avoid the bad, and establish yourself in the righteous path. However, you can transform yourself from the present status through self-effort and discrimination. The moral forces permeating the cosmos will certainly promote your achievement!

The Truth

Buddhism:

Be lamps unto yourselves.

Be refuges unto yourselves.

Take yourself no external refuge.

Hold fast to the truth as a lamp.

Hold fast to the truth as a refuge.

the Buddha

Christianity:

And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

John 8:32

Hinduism:

I am boundless space,

The world is a clay pot,

This is the truth,

There is nothing to accept,

Nothing to reject,

Nothing to dissolve.

Ashtavakra Gita; 6:1

Sikhism:

We know the Truth when the heart is True,

We know the Truth, when we love the Truth.

We know the Truth, when our Soul knows the Way.

Guru Nanak

Taoism:

As you return to Oneness, do not think of it or be in awe of it. This is just another way of separating from it. Simply merge into truth, and allow it to surround you.

Lao Tzu

The Hidden Words (an excerpt) by Baha’u’llah (from Shoghi Effendi’s translation)

HE IS THE GLORY OF GLORIES

This is that which hath descended from the realm of glory, uttered by the tongue of power and might, and revealed unto the Prophets of old. We have taken the inner essence thereof and clothed it in the garment of brevity, as a token of grace unto the righteous, that they may stand faithful unto the Covenant of God, may fulfill in their lives His trust, and in the realm of spirit obtain the gem of Divine virtue.

1. O SON OF SPIRIT!

My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.

2. O SON OF SPIRIT!

The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.

3. O SON OF MAN!

Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.

4. O SON OF MAN!

I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life.

5. O SON OF BEING!

Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.

6. O SON OF BEING!

Thy Paradise is My love; thy heavenly home, reunion with Me. Enter therein and tarry not. This is that which hath been destined for thee in Our kingdom above and Our exalted dominion.

7. O SON OF MAN!

If thou lovest Me, turn away from thyself; and if thou seekest My pleasure, regard not thine own; that thou mayest die in Me and I may eternally live in thee.

8. O SON OF SPIRIT!

There is no peace for thee save by renouncing thyself and turning unto Me; for it behooveth thee to glory in My name, not in thine own; to put thy trust in Me and not in thyself, since I desire to be loved alone and above all that is.

9. O SON OF BEING!

My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure, and he that turneth away shall surely stray and perish.

10. O SON OF UTTERANCE!

Thou art My stronghold; enter therein that thou mayest abide in safety. My love is in thee, know it, that thou mayest find Me near unto thee.

11. O SON OF BEING!

Thou art My lamp and My light is in thee. Get thou from it thy radiance and seek none other than Me. For I have created thee rich and have bountifully shed My favor upon thee.

12. O SON OF BEING!

With the hands of power I made thee and with the fingers of strength I created thee; and within thee have I placed the essence of My light. Be thou content with it and seek naught else, for My work is perfect and My command is binding. Question it not, nor have a doubt thereof.

The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”


- Albert Einstein

“Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.”

- Niels Bohr

These two giants of Modern Science discovered the conundrum that inspires spiritual seekers to discover a greater Reality than can be discerned through our intellectual equipment.

The author of ‘The Tao of Physics’, Fritjof Capra, himself a physicist, had an epiphany on a beach where he was able to experience his entire environment as a dance of vibrating molecules and atoms. This led him to explore the parallels between the different philosophies of Eastern Mysticism and Physics - “the endeavor of seeing the essential nature of all things”.

The author avers that the underlying unity of all things, though it is chiefly considered an Eastern belief, has also manifested itself in Western Philosophy, only to be discarded in favor of a dualistic approach that attempts to distinguish between Matter and Spirit, Individual and Universe.

This book reveals the harmony between the intuitive wisdom of the East, and the empirical findings of Science. The wisdom expounded in Eastern Philosophies is one that is beyond both sensory perception and intellectual cognition. However, Science in its relentless pursuit of Knowledge has reached an approximation of the great truths in its own way. Its boundaries are being pushed ever farther to accommodate ‘new’ findings.

Fritjof Capra compromises neither his spiritual inclinations nor his scientific training. The latest findings of particle physics affirm that all measurements of space and time are relative; that ‘solid matter’ is in fact, a continuous dance of energy – a process of endless creation and destruction; that matter is inherently inseparable from force, both being “different aspects of the same phenomena”; and, that there is an interconnection between all matter, that the properties of one part are determined by those of all the others.

This is in harmony with the Spiritual understanding of Brahman/Dharmakaya/Tao – different names for the same underlying Universal principle that is indivisible, all pervasive, and beyond Time, Space, Matter, Energy, and Consciousness.

“…space is nothing but a mode of particularization and it has no real existence of its own…Space exists only in relation to our particularizing consciousness.”

“…space and time co-ordinates are only the elements of a language that is used by an observer to describe his environment.”

Can you guess which of the two statements above was made by a mystic, and which by a physicist?

Ties of the Heart

One afternoon, on a late summer day in 1989, two teenagers, Christopher Astle and Emily Yanich, discovered an abandoned newborn. They took the baby to Emily’s home where her stepfather called the police. The authorities briskly stepped in, and assumed custody of the baby girl who was later adopted.


Taken in by others, but not forgotten by the two young people who had played such an unexpected and crucial role in the baby’s life. Emily would cry when recounting the story to others, and the two of them remained friends. Over the years, Chris and Emily moved, married other people, and had their own families, but they nevertheless stayed in touch, bound by their rescue of the baby. They would call each other every year on Sept. 6th - the day they had found the abandoned child.

They were not the only ones who remembered. Twenty years later, on Dec. 2nd, both of them received a Facebook message from a college student named Mia Fleming – Were they the same Chris and Emily who had found a baby left outside a stranger’s door? If so, she just wanted to say thanks.

Mia, ever since she had learned the story of her birth had never forgotten them, and had been trying to track them down for several years before she was finally successful. She says, “I didn’t know how they would feel.”

Chris and Emily know exactly how they feel. Emily says, “It's like a miracle… My heart is filled now. There was always a little spot missing.” Chris says, “It's the best Christmas present I have ever gotten.”

Not all relationships can be easily named, and ultimately, kinship is a matter of the heart not merely the ties of blood.


Source: The Washington Post, Thursday, December 17, 2009

Humor

When humor goes, there goes civilization.
- Erma Bombeck

“There is hope for the future because God has a sense of humor and we are funny to God.”
- Bill Cosby

“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.”
- Henry Ward Beecher

“Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.”
- E.B. White

“Humor is reason gone mad.”
- Groucho Marx

“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”
- William James

“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”
- Mohandas K. Gandhi

The Truth Shall Set You Free

The first step in spirituality is: Practicing silence. Then, you can more easily recognize the galloping of the mind behind worldly happiness. Restrain its movements; turn it inside, into the calm lake of bliss that lies deep in the heart! Get over fear; by establishing your mind in the One, for fear can arise only when there is another. An inquirer from the United States asked me recently, 'How can faith become firm?' I answered, 'When the Truth is known, faith is rendered firm.' When the truth is known that it is a rope, faith in its harmlessness is made firm, and fear that it is a snake disappears. Let people know the Truth; they will then grow in faith and the faith will endow them with great energy and enthusiasm. The rest will follow, and Dharma (righteousness) can flourish in this world.

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

A Touch of Nature

“One Touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”
- William Shakespeare

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge.”
- Thomas Edison

“It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.”
- Rachel Carson

“When the well's dry, we know the worth of water.”
-Benjamin Franklin

“There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use.”
- Mother Teresa

“We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do.”
- Barbara Ward

A Dream of Service

In 1984, at the age of five, a young girl named, Nasreen, started attending one of the first schools to open up in the north of Pakistan, a region where women were traditionally denied the opportunity to learn reading and writing. Excelling at her classes, she distinguished herself as one of the smartest students in the school, until 1992, when her mother’s death and father’s remarriage brought her studies to an abrupt halt.

Despite her heavy workload and harassment at home, Nasreen studied relentlessly. Her hard work earned her the equivalent of a high school degree at the age of fifteen, and an annual scholarship from the Central Asia Institute, that would enable her to fulfill her dream of obtaining her rural medical assistant degree.

By this point, Nasreen was engaged, and her mother-in-law strenuously resisted the idea of being deprived of Nasreen’s labor at home. The council of elders who decided all matters of local importance, upheld the mother-in-law’s objections, and forbade Nasreen from accepting the scholarship.

For the next ten years, Nasreen toiled at home and in her family’s fields, gave birth to three babies, suffered two miscarriages, all without any medical attendance. During her brief moments of respite, she kept her heath-care dream alive by seeking out and caring for the sick, the elderly, and the dying within her community.

In the summer of 2007, the leadership of the council changed, and they decided to set aside their opposition to Nasreen’s pursuing her vocation. Today, Nasreen Baig is continuing her schooling in order to obtain her OB-GYN nursing degree, and hopes to begin providing medical care that the Wakhan region, one of the most isolated and forbidding places on earth so desperately needs.

Nasreen harbors no bitterness. “Allah taught me the lesson of patience while also giving me the tools to truly understand what it means to live in poverty,” she says. “I do not regret the wait.”

A Cinderella Story? Yes, but a different kind of dream, and a different kind of heroine.

From Greg Mortenson’s “Stones into Schools”

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

Joy

Buddhism

Live in Joy, In love,
Even among those who hate.

Live in joy, In health,
Even among the afflicted.

Live in joy, In peace,
Even among the troubled.

Look within. Be still.
Free from fear and attachment,
Know the sweet joy of living in the way.

from the Dhammapada

Christianity

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy and peace.

from Galatians 5:22

Hinduism

The one who loves all intensely begins perceiving in all living beings a part of himself…
He becomes a lover of all, a part and parcel of the Universal Joy.
He flows with the stream of happiness, and is enriched by each soul.

from the Yajur Veda

Sufism

Patience is the key to joy.

Rumi