the virtues of tolerance

"Have we become so intolerant that we refuse and fight differences, which are to humanity what seasons are to life?" 

the official Le Matin newspaper, considered the mouthpiece for the royal palace (Morocco)

Is it really someone else's fault….?

 

"Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes."
Eleanor Roosevelt

"In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility".
Eleanor Roosevelt

oh, by the way, that Pollen Path….

“Oh, beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty to the right of me, beauty to the left of me, beauty above me, beauty below me, I'm on the pollen path”   Navaho Indian traditional saying

more here

"when you reach that point of self-knowledge when all you can see, all around and within, is the magnificence, the awe-inspiring wonderment of the endless flow of beauty into your brain and senses – when you reach that point, Behold….. you touch the God within"   gg

(with acknowledgement to The Upanishads)

Kahlil Gibran…on Death

VIA

Respectfulness….

"To lose a friend through life circumstances that cause seperation, this is the way of life.

To lose a friend through sickness and death, this is a sadness only comforted by the memories of     the shared joys.

To lose a friend through debt, that is a 'greek tragedy'.

 Therefore, treasure the wonder of friendship whilst you may,

take the days of friendship as divine gifts, replete with untold blessings,

and if you would help your friend do not place upon them the heavy weight of gratitude, help     because it is your joy to help.

Yet in all these things, be sure to value and honour the greatest component of friendship which is not the lovingness, nor the generosity, nor the helping hand, nor the inspiring spirit…..the greatest component of friendship is respect"

gg

artificial cells

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.
Mohandas Gandhi

colour prejudice

"clearly, nature is prejudiced towards the creation of beauty in limitless permutations of colour and form"

gg

sand grains are mountains

"I tell everybody a little parable about the 'teaspoon brigades.' Imagine a big seesaw. One end of the seesaw is on the ground because it has a big basket half full of rocks in it. The other end of the seesaw is up in the air because it's got a basket one-quarter full of sand. Some of us have teaspoons, and we are trying to fill it up.

Most people are scoffing at us.

They say, 'People like you have been trying for thousands of years, but it is leaking out of that basket as fast as you are putting it in.' Our answer is that we are getting more people with teaspoons every day. And we believe that one of these days or years -- who knows -- that basket of sand is going to be so full that you are going to see that whole seesaw going zoop! in the other direction.

Then people are going to say, 'How did it happen so suddenly?'

And we answer, 'Us and our little teaspoons over thousands of years.'"   Pete Seeger

via

also from Pete Seeger

"Here's hoping enough of your dreams come true to keep you optimistic about the rest. We've got a big world to learn how to tie together. We've all got a lot to learn. And don't let your studies interfere with your education."

No celibacy law in Church

Hey Guys and gals – there is NO ban on Catholic Priests and Nuns getting married!

You don't believe me, huh?

Well, ok, today "The Vatican is expected to assert that bishops aren't its employees because they aren't paid by Rome, don't act on Rome's behalf and aren't controlled day-to-day by the pope". (via)

So if Bishops aren't 'employees' then I guess priests and nuns are not 'employees' either. Celibacy is, therefore, not a contractual term of employment since, the Vat states, there is no employment!.

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Readers may also wish to know that those oft quoted words "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive" was not the motto of Microsoft or Apple, nor were they words that originated with Glen Beck. It was actually "Sir Walter Scott , in Canto VI, Stanza 17 of "Marmion" (1808) an epic poem about the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513".(wiki. answers.com).

regression obsession

 

I have received an email notification for a program that 'records  your screen activities and plays them back like a movie to see what you did the whole day." It's a fair program and I can see it has uses when you have 'client-orientated work'.

But, you gotta admit, the general concept seems a little humorous.I mean, today is the 16th., so I can spend today looking at what I did yesterday 15th – and what I did yesterday (15th) was spend the day looking at what I did the day before (14th) – and what I did 14th was spend the day looking at what I did the day before (13th – no it wasn't a friday),…. and so on, ad infinitum!

Now, please forgive me for this, but my neurons and dendrites can't help relating the above to studies of the Bible, or The Koran, or The Ghita, or…. well, you get the idea. The main difference being, of course, that the majority of 'students' stick at the bits they like best and then keep 'replaying that program'.

Take, for example, the Judao/Christian obsession with sin and guilt. All of it premised upon the ancient story of Adam, Eve and that pesky snake. How many 'students' go beyond to the FIRST creation story in the Bible? You know, that one where the One God created everything (and condemned nothing)  and 'behold, it was very good'.

Still, who am I to question the record getting stuck on the gramophone player and repeating, repeating, repeating, repeating, repeating………..

I would rather be in the NOW listening to the voice of my heart. Since I am a part of the One God and can never, therefore, be apart from the One God – I'll listen for the whispers of lovingness that echo through me to the world around me.

Signs of the times…

'There will be signs and portents…..". Somehow I don't think religious texts like this quite meant this:

Yep! That's correct. This is a genuine sign in New Mexico,USA. (there are more such signs via

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/doug-lansky/9-signs-that-prove-god-ha_b_576596.html)

Now the question is, is this advertising hype or a true statement of beliefs?.

It's pretty much the same in all sects and denominations and most religious institutions: most forcefully expressed belief systems are forcefully expressed because the expressers are trying to convince themselves.

Hey, if the sign was really – no, I mean really – an expression of true belief then Christ must have been turning a blind eye to a lot of the fraudulent and abusive activities of some institutions. But then it is perhaps unfair to try and truly discern matters of truth and faith within the actions of discredited religious institutions.

Now, what was it he said about 'you have turned my Father's house into a den for thieves and robbers…." or something like that, huh?

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