spiritual quest….

 

 

or if you want something 'heavier'….

 

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." -Aesop

Pathways…….

It used to be said "all roads lead to Rome", though I am not sure that this was a vatican reference or a purely political reference to the Roman empire.

Nowadays it would seem that most, if not all, jihadist terrorism and extreme fundamentalist Islamic  distortions all seem to have a common pathway…….and a common destination. Time after time after time researches into the 'influences that have affected  so called 'Islamic' terrorists and/or terrorist movements' trace the same route. It seems that  many of these pathways lead to 'The Shadow of the Koran' and other writings from , Sayyid Qut'b.

It is, perhaps, worth noting that  "The ulema of Al-Azhar University school took the unusual step following his death of putting Sayyid Qutb on their index of heresy, declaring him a "deviant" (Al-Azhar - the chief centre of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world) – source Wikipaedia. Perhaps it would be allowed to mention that Al Quaeda is predominantly Sunni and yet, for example,  there are very strong identifiable links between Qut'b's works  and Osama bin Laden's declared aims.

I have previously mentioned, in this blog, that  Islam is not a unified faith but, as with many religions (particularly Christianity) is troubled by schism, dissension and often violent disagreement.

I mention this, at this time, for two reasons:

1. To be fair to the majority of peace-loving, tolerant and caring Muslims who populate this world.

2. To draw attention to the aspects of this internal Islamic struggle to cope with the transitions of the 20th and 21st centuries, which are creating massive strains upon old and out-dated standards of morality (as we also see in Catholicism)..

The old-tactic of 'creating a common enemy to unite a cause' is nowhere more visible than in the modern struggles of Islam. Check out Iraq. Check out Iran. Check out Yemen.

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BUT – before we support, in the name of 'religious freedoms' any modifications to our higher humane standards such as those espoused by Al Quaeda , Taleban or promoted under  the more extreme variations of Sharia law, we need to be very certain which faction we support. It is hard to have respect for actions which deny or contradict the lovingness of the One God or demean moral and humane standards that have evolved over thousands of years.

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The defence of tradition, which in centuries past served society, is not a road to travel down where that tradition no longer meets the higher moral, ethical or humane standards expressed within a society.

nursery knowingness

"Six months old and he can tell good from evil

Scientists have discovered that babies can start to make moral judgments by the age of six months and may be born with the ability to tell good from bad hard-wired into their brains.

Infants can even act as judge and jury in the nursery. Researchers who asked one-year-old babies to take away treats from a “naughty” puppet found they were sometimes also leaning over and smacking the figure on the head."

via

"The new research contradicts the theories of Freud and others that humans begin with a moral 'blank slate'"

Awareness, it would seem, is a permanent state of being.

the potentiality of 1

 

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Indeed, it is only when the individual joyfully surrenders that individuality for the benefit of humanity that his or her individuality can really be seen in it's true value. Offer not, upon the altar of humanity's needs, that which is of no value to yourself. For if you would love then love to your utmost, joyfully and willingly offering all that you are, as a celebration of all that you are.

gg

Spring is moving on…

 

I wonder, if we had to pay for all this beauty that surrounds our every day, in every way, what price would we put on it?

Imagine……..

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

T.E. Lawrence

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace                                                                    John Lennon

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Do as I say, not as I do

As I am very,very,very fond of saying in this blog  "when it comes to claims of spiritual motivation…… follow the money"

This applies whether it's the collections, the stipends, the guru donations, the Islamic 'charity' donations, etc. It particularly applies in the present crises over child abuse within religious institutions.

It is one thing for fine words and sermons about the shame and guilt, quite another thing when you 'follow the money trail'.

In New York it is quite amazing how the fine sermon words are lost within the maze of convoluted and contradictory action taken to immunise compensation claims from victims. You can see what I mean if you read this article HERE

It was well said by Christ "by their fruits you will know them".

How sad, how irreconcilably sad, to be seeing such self-destruction of a channel of faith on such a large scale.

the simplicity of love

“This is my simple religion.

There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy.

Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”

Dalai Lama quote

the confusion of discernment

"You see, this is what happens in our competitive and qualification-orientated society. We have to know where the other person is coming from, then we can form value-judgements about them. Not about the truths they may speak, write or show in their lives - but about them. Then we see that they are human too, maybe do things we don't approve of, so we dismiss the possible truths they speak simply because they are different from us or don't conform to our idea of correct behaviour"

gg

who? Us?

more 'petty gossip' ?????

For those of you who are not sure what it's all about:

 

more   HERE

NOTE: at 10 years of age the boy tried to KILL himself!!!

saved!!!

Sometimes, people care so much that their own lives don't seem to matter!

read more about this amazing story here

terminal sickness

so reads the headline in The Times (see more HERE)

For those not in the loop,"...if anyone offend against one of my little ones (children) it were better for him that a millstone be placed around his neck and he be cast into the sea". Jesus Christ (Luke 17). Note: this is not the judgement of the NYT or the media, nor of secular society.
I believe this includes errors of omission as well as commission.

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It is the end of the church as we have known it and it's end has come from the abuse of authority within itself.
God's justice is not the same as man's justice.In denying respect to children in it's care the Church, or any institution, also denies itself self-respect. It is already too late, whatever actions or 'mea culpas' now follow will always be a reaction to the pressure from secular society and not be the result of pressures from within.The 'moral heights' have been surrendered, if indeed they were ever occupied by any religious institution,

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This institution is mortally wounded and no priest,nun,deacon, or member who truly has faith in Christ can,in my opinion, remain within this divided house. The words of Christ must surely be of greater import than the words of any so-called 'servant of The Master'.

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The bottom line is simply this – would you wish your child to be educated by or within the control environments of any institution like this?

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It is the WAY we deal with crisis that speaks about who we really are!

supramundane transcendence

"Religion — all religion, not just Catholicism — is supposed to be good for the soul, but everything I’ve written about here pollutes mine. You can’t take lessons in morality from people who disgust you."

India Knight,Timesonline

"el momento de la verdad"

"The moment of TRUTH" – see blog entry below

gimme, gimme, gimme…The Truth!

Whether it is Iran or the Vatican, a synogogue or an evangelical telecast, the thing that most 'representatives of religious orgs' don't really seem to grasp is that in the "internet/knowledge shared openly" world…..

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It is what you say and do NOW that is really defining who and what you are…

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What you, or someone in your religious tradition, did or said in the past belongs to that age.

Let your truth be clear and present in this moment. Let your lovingness illuminate this second. For truth is not a thought nor a belief system concept…

Truth is the reality in which we exist.

the 'signs' of the times

It would appear that, to date, no evidence concerning the sacrificing of the present Pope's 'moral authority' is more clear and damning than that of the Priest,reported directly to Cardinal Ratzinger, for his lifelong  sex abuse of deaf boys. Reports that were made even by Archbishops!

"But it is only one of thousands of cases forwarded over decades by bishops to the Vatican office called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led from 1981 to 2005 by Cardinal Ratzinger"(Laurie Godstein, NYT, see link below), who counselled secrecy on threat of excommunication

 

Recommended reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/world/europe/25vatican.html?pagewanted=1&hp

 

Now there are many, many beautiful believers who may feel that a justifiable prosecution of 'church officials' for their part in conspiring to pervert the course of justice (both spiritual and temporal) is an attack upon their faith. I implore such believers not to confuse their faith in God with a 'potential belief' in an institution.

uberrimae fidei

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I believe this is a latin terminology, most generally used in law, which simply means 'utmost good faith'.

The Catholic Church appears now to be learning what this actually means. It is learning the lesson the hard way: dramatically falling attendances, disastrously declining income, failure to enrol for the priesthood at anything like an adequate standard, in short – the Church is in a deepening crisis. The moral authority of the Papacy has been sacrificed upon the altar of 'protected abuse'. I cannot see a time when this authority will be regained. The axe has been laid to the root of this tree.

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But lets not be sectarian about this, other major religious institutions are also falling foul of the increased knowledge and 'self-determination' aspirations of the world population.

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Judaism has become severely incapacitated by the less than reasonable behaviour of the Jewish State, Israel. The saying 'do unto others as you wish they would do to you' has been replaced by 'do unto others as was done to us'. The parallels between the politics of the Jewish State and the Nazis of World War 2 have become a despicable irony.

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Iran's government does Islam no favours with it's reprehensible behaviour utilising religion as it's shield. Sharia law is generally perceived as being barbaric and not human. Nor do it's extremes speak to many people (with a choice to listen or ignore) of anything resembling a 'higher aspiration of the human spirit'. The Jihad movement's attempts to hijack Islam seem to be failing, yet there appears to be an undercurrent of progress and modernisation within Muslim populations that Islam has not yet grasped or seems incapable of responding to effectively. Alarmingly,for Islam, too many modern concepts of 'goodness' reveal the dysfunction of out-dated traditions.

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Utmost faith; blind, unquestioning addiction to the institution is irrevocably being eroded by that other word in the title – good.

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Mankind is progressing more rapidly in it's understandings and applicable definitions of 'good' than the religions. The moral high standards of the world society are applying judgements, theoretical and practical, to the behaviour of the high-powered and formerly unquestionably influential tenets of the religions.

If these religions are to survive the 21st century, they have to embrace a much larger definition of the word 'good'.

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As for me, I have faith in the utmost good which is erupting from the mass of humanity. I happen to believe that the One God is responsible for it. In that I have utmost good faith.

knockout words

“Impossible is not a fact; it’s an opinion,”

"If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it - then I can achieve it."
— Muhammad Ali (The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey)

good words stir the heart…….

Happiness keeps you Sweet, 
Trials keep you Strong,
Sorrows keep you Human,
Failures keep you Humble,
Success keeps you Glowing ,
But Only Friends Keep You Going!

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Someone has sent me an email with a lovely story in it about a little girl whose dog died….maybe I will put it on this blog. Anyway, on the email were also the above words…I don't know who wrote them, but maybe the words themselves are more important than the source.