Miracles are all around…..

British soldier Phil Packer was told a year ago that he would never walk again, but on Saturday he finished the London Marathon.

He completed the race 13 days after it started, walking on crutches for two miles a day -- the most his doctor would allow -- in order to raise money for charity.

Flanked by cheering soldiers and supporters, an obviously emotional Packer had defied medical opinion after his lower spine was badly injured in the aftermath of a rocket attack on his base in Basra, Iraq, in February 2008. Read full article »

and do you know this young guy from the film ‘Australia’ ?

The latest star of the film industry – capturing everyone’s heart with his amazing acting (his first acting role). But did you know that Brandon Walters (Nullah in the film) who is now 13 years old, fought with Leukaemia when he was 6 years old?

del.icio.us Tags: Australia,Nullah,Brandon Walters,Packer

Bodhisattva

The Sanskrit term Bodhisattva is the name given to anyone who, motivated by great compassion, has generated bodhichitta, which is a spontaneous wish to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. What makes someone a Bodhisattva is her or his dedication to the ultimate welfare of other beings, as expressed in the prayer:

If you are experiencing an unhappy time at the moment, check this out:

Happiness is not a destination to be reached but a journey of self-motivated experiencing and manifestation.

thks Kristine for the link

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Bless the internet :)

As readers of this blog will note over the many years that it has been running,I am not exactly unbiased when it comes to ‘religious lies,misrepresentations or downright manipulations”.

In the age of the Twitter,YouTube,SMS texting,blogging – you would think that ‘persons of supposed influence’ would have learnt the absurdity of lying.

Well, just to show how arrogant and disrespectful this can be,have at look at this video from ’MediaMatters’  about the blatant way in which FoxNews

‘misunderstands’ the value of accurate reporting:

Now that’s what they do with modern technology…….. imagine what ‘wrong motivated persons’ managed to do in times when people did not receive education,could not read or write…..

If this is what they do with video/tv reports…imagine what could have been done with linguistic/grammatic/translation alterations in some of the more famous religious ‘Holy Books’

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chaos theory in religion

I am always fascinated by the ability of the human mind to pole-vault the obvious in favour of the obnoxious.

Take, for example, the creation stories that are fundamental to Middle Eastern originated religions. In the first place ‘God creates…and it is good”

Then along comes another story,added later , which becomes a judgmentalists heaven, full of implications about human failings and such stuff.

And – amazingly – the obvious contradiction that ‘all is not good’, or the assumption that Man can defy God (thus creating a far lesser God), doesn’t seem to arise in the consciousness of  so-called ‘dedicated followers

Thus have such intellectual athletics developed and promoted the ‘chaos theory of religious understanding’.  This theory postulates that there can be no other truth in the universe beyond that which they themselves are willing to accept and promote.

gg

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“…as a man thinketh so he is…”

Coyle and Colvin describe dozens of experiments fleshing out this process. This research takes some of the magic out of great achievement. But it underlines a fact that is often neglected. Public discussion is smitten by genetics and what we’re “hard-wired” to do. And it’s true that genes place a leash on our capacities. But the brain is also phenomenally plastic. We construct ourselves through behaviour. As Coyle observes, it’s not who you are, it’s what you do.

an extract from another David Brooks NYT article which can be viewed HERE

Moderation speaks…

JAKARTA, Indonesia — From Pakistan to Gaza and Lebanon, militant Islamic movements have gained ground rapidly in recent years, fanning Western fears of a consolidation of radical Muslim governments. But here in the world’s most populous Muslim nation just the opposite is happening, with Islamic parties suffering a steep drop in popular support.

Altogether, the major Islamic parties suffered a drop in support from 38 percent in 2004 to less than 26 percent this year, according to the Indonesian Survey Institute

By NORIMITSU ONISHI

Published: April 24, 2009   NYT  full article HERE

Logos

“The power of language to reconcile is as great as its power to kill”

Roger Cohen, NYT columnist.

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The Starfish Equation

"An old man walking along the beach at dawn sees a young man picking up the star fish and throwing them out to sea. "Why are you doing that?" The old man inquired. The young man explained that the starfish had been stranded on the beech by a receding tide. And would soon die in the daytime sun. "But the beach goes on for miles," the old man said. "And there's so many! How can your effort make any difference?" The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and without hesitating threw it to safety in the sea. He looked up at the old man, smiled and said, "It will make a difference to that one."

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A story told by Sen Edward Kennedy and re-told by Pres.Barack Obama.

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the blog is mightier than the………………

You can read more HERE  in a article by Mark Penn (Wall Street Journal)

Did everyone think blogging was a ‘passing phase’, or just a hobby?

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Islamic decay,Holocaust,tolerance

“The creative output of the twenty or thirty million Muslims of the Abbasid era [750-1258] dwarfs the output of the nearly one-and-a-half billion Muslims of the modern era.” Per head, the income of the wealthiest Muslim country (the United Arab Emirates) is 200 times that of the poorest (Somalia)”

Ali Allawi’s new book is ‘

an “attempt to understand the factors behind the decay of the spirit of Islam”

read more HERE

Let us also remember that today is HOLOCAUST Remembrance Day….lest we forget.

and just in case some readers object (?!?) to these two items being in the same posting, just check out what religious co-operation,tolerance and understanding really is about:

“Sweden has a law, in force since 2001, covering the practice of circumcision on boys up to 18-years-old. The procedure should normally be conducted with pain relievers by a doctor, nurse or private person holding a special licence from the health and welfare board.
Stockholm County Council does not currently offer the operation within the public healthcare system and parents are referred to private clinics where demand is high, reports Dagens Nyheter.
The newspaper reports that since the man lost his licence there are no longer any people within the Muslim community who are licensed to carry out the practice.
Many Muslims therefore approach Jewish practitioners to circumcise their male offspring.”

progressive momentum

“We must learn from history. But we can't be trapped by it."

Pres. Barack Obama

elastic band philosophy

The End of Philosophy

 

By DAVID BROOKS

Published: April 6, 2009

Socrates talked. The assumption behind his approach to philosophy, and the approaches of millions of people since, is that moral thinking is mostly a matter of reason and deliberation: Think through moral problems. Find a just principle. Apply it.

David Brooks

One problem with this kind of approach to morality, as Michael Gazzaniga writes in his 2008 book, “Human,” is that “it has been hard to find any correlation between moral reasoning and proactive moral behavior, such as helping other people. In fact, in most studies, none has been found.”

Full article HERE

An interesting article for those who feel their 'intellect' rules their life and 'judgement making processes'

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There is nothing HID; that shall not be known

Luke 12.2

The founder of a Roman Catholic religious order that ran retreat centers for troubled priests warned American bishops in forceful letters dating back to 1952 that pedophiles should be removed from the priesthood because they could not be cured.

The Rev. Gerald M. C. Fitzgerald, founder of the order, Servants of the Paraclete, delivered the same advice in person to Vatican officials in Rome in 1962 and to Pope Paul VI a year later, according to the letters, which were unsealed by a judge in the course of litigation against the church.

The documents contradict the most consistent defense given by bishops about the sexual abuse scandal: that they were unaware until recently that offenders could not be rehabilitated and returned ‘ to the ministry.

full article here

So there we have it! ‘Big tobacco’ said smoking was not harmful to health.

’Big religion said ……..’ehem, we didn’t know*

Ah well, business is business, huh?

I wonder if there are any millstone manufacturers out there willing to talk discounts? Oh, stupid of me, in the supply/demand equation you don’t discount when demand is high do you?

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‘Broken hearts do mend’

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read more here

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sow the seeds.....

A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness.

Leo F. Buscaglia

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Transcending tragedy

The jet crashed into Dong Yun Yoon's house, killing his wife, his two young children and his mother-in-law. An unoccupied house was also destroyed.

Days after the incident, Yoon said he did not blame the pilot.

"Please pray for him not to suffer from this accident," Yoon said. "I don't blame him. I don't have any hard feelings. I know he did everything he could".

Full story HERE

Sometimes the loving ability of the human spirit to overcome even the harshest tragedies,or show compassion when you are the one that is really suffering, sometimes.......it is a statement of the highest manifestation of lovingness

Morals: the one thing markets don't make

No amount of regulation will restore our sense of honour and shame. Economics needs ethics

Markets need morals, and morals are not made by markets.

They are made by schools, the media, custom, tradition, religious leaders, moral role models and the influence of people. But when religion loses its voice and the media worship success, when right and wrong become relativised and morality is condemned as “judgmental”, when people lose all sense of honour and shame and there is nothing they won't do if they can get away with it, no regulation will save us. People will outwit the regulators, as they did by the securitisation of risk so no one knew who owed what to whom.

The big question is: how do we learn to be moral again? Markets were made to serve us; we were not made to serve markets. Economics needs ethics. Markets do not survive by market forces alone. They depend on respect for the people affected by our decisions. Lose that and we lose not just money and jobs but something more significant still: freedom, trust and decency, the things that have a value, not a price.

FULL Timesonline article

Sir Jonathan Sacks is the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

50 years - and still no condemnation