Something happens

image from Incomedia. Text  gg

the mould of experience

Salvador Dale 'The persistence of memory'

Experience is a 'time frame scenario'. The ability to extrapolate meaningful data from such a 'time frame scenario' is not dependent upon age, but upon flexibility, open-mindedness and the willingness to look as objectively as possible at 'experience'.

gg

Sheltering wings

mighty oaks from little acorns grow

 

colour prejudice……

http://lo-velifemus-ic.tumblr.com/

Steve Jobs quote

"[Y]ou can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
-- Stanford University commencement address, June 2005.

A remarkable man.A remarkable people.

"Kindness is our greatest asset".

An excerpt from the speech given by Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, at the Norwegian National Remembrance Day ceremony 21st August 2011 – in loving memory of all who died on 22nd July 2011

you can read his full speech, in English, here

Freedom….01010101

The voice of true life

"It was better that I died trying than that I did not attempt to save her"

Eirik Høie Mortensen (16) who swam in the cold waters off Utoya island holding up two other young people, one of which had been shot whom he held for 65 minutes and the other cramped and near drowning whom he also held for 20 minutes. All three survived. Eirik does not consider himself a hero but only feels he did what was right to do.

I wonder what kind of world we could have if we could only have some of this young man's sacrificial and determined compassion.

 

Full story in Norwegian here:

http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/08/01/nyheter/utoya/terror/innenriks/terrorisme/17519239/

22711

Bano Abobakar Rashid

                                                             Bano Abobakar Rashid

                                                                     In Memoriam

The mechanisms of the spirit-001

 

When we are able to look beyond the pain and grief of the tragedy at Utoya, to take a transcendental spiritual view, we see that all those at the island had some common motivation and inspiration.

They were there, in their compassionate lovingness, because they had the desire to improve Norway, improve the world. To use part or all of their life to make it a better place, create a greater sense of brotherhood and sisterhood, and felt that politics was a pathway to achieve this desire. They wanted to show us the value of every human being for that is what a desire to make the world better means.

When we look at the reactions in Norway and the world in these last 6 days, who amongst us is not left with the deep sense that they have changed Norway and the world?

As Ghandi, Mandella and many more have done with their lives.

As Islam Kardekov did in Beslan.

As Christ did.As the Buddha did. As Mohammed did.

"You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?" Kahlil Gibran

We do not know their soul's agenda. But we can know something of their lovingness that caused them to be in that place at that time.

gg

in deep sorrow

Nelson Mandela words

Nelson Mandela 93

to be or not to be………

"I have found there is a place in myself that I can enter……..and there I find outbreaks of happiness for no reason.

I had never been there before and did not even know that place existed"

Bjorn Brunstad.

shape shifting

 

 

Mary Pickford

Life requires

Carpe Diem – changing the world

PLEEEEEZ…read her blog…you'll never be the same again afterwards

http://alicepyne.blogspot.com/

interdependency the key to survival

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13616778

the power of love-001

"After the Farhud, life changed drastically for the city's Jews. Up to that point Haddad had had many Muslim friends.

"Suddenly I changed my attitude. I didn't feel any more Iraqi. I felt I'm a Jew and I vowed that I wanted to kill an Arab," he says.

One day, swimming in the River Tigris, he encountered a drowning man, and instinctively helped him to the shore.

"When I came home I was shook up. Not because I saved the guy but because I didn't follow my vow to kill an Arab. And when I went to see the rabbi, he said, 'You can't make a vow to kill. You can only make a vow to help.'

"That's what stimulated me to go into medicine, actually. I knew that I want to save lives, not to kill people."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13610702

try it…….

The discomfort of happiness

The mind is so used to trying to solve problems that to actually not have a problem, to just sit and be okay with what is exactly as it is, feels weird and uncomfortable to it... so it looks for (and always manages to find, have you noticed?) something to worry about just to give it something "to do."

Benjamin Smythe

re-ligio – linking back – to the real self.

"There are many in this world who have devoted much energy and time to the study of religion, comparative religion and even philosophy. They are immersed in the nuances of academia and are walking libraries of centuries of other people's thoughts. This is their pleasure.

There are others who have very simply studied love and have reached an awareness of what unconditional love actually is. Usually, but not exclusively, this dawning of awareness of their inner loving self has been signposted by the actions of some small child. For these, love is not simply their joy, it is the meaning of their life and it manifests in tolerance, kindness, compassion."

gg

…..?……?…….?..any answer?

the extraordinary magnificence of beauty – 001

the irrationality of subjectivity

"Everyone is a prisoner of his own experience. No one can eliminate prejudices--just recognize them."

 Edward R. Murrow

"It is in this recognition that we disempower them  - and empower our lovingness"

gg

Protecting the earth

Interesting video that helps us understand exactly what we can EFFECTIVELY do to help…

 

Easter Sunday morning

The really great thing about this time of the year is the way in which beauty is tantalizingly revealed a little at a time.

A journey into beauty and magnificence should not be an F1 race, but a gradual ascent into ecstasy.

gg

Maya Angelou – 01

Remembrance - Tsunami

The devastation continues to have a profound effect upon our hearts. Further news that another powerful earthquake shook the area in the past few hours reminds us of the trauma born by so many in the area.

Our thoughts are with you – and our hearts weep with yours.

He ain't heavy, he's my brother

While we are talking of miracles….

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
Nelson Mandela

and the poem that has been his inspiration

In Memoriam: Miki Endo

This post is in memory and tribute to a very special young Japanese woman – but is also a recognition that so many in Japan in recent weeks have given much of themselves for the benefit of others.

You may read Miki Endo's  moving and life-saving story HERE

or you can also watch a YouTube short documentary that tells her heroic story HERE

Sometimes, being true to our inner self costs us everything and it is only in that moment that we have fully defined who we are in spirit.

the benefit of experience…….

It has been my life experience that the people who are, arguably, the most spiritual are the ones who do not think that they are. In fact, they hardly think about 'spirituality' at all.

They just do. They don't pontificate, think, study, –they just take action - and their hearts are rivers of kindness and compassion

gg

into the light

 

gg

Discernment

"A man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility".-- D. L. Moody

 

"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do".. --  John Ruskin

 

"There are many in religion and/or philosophy who are experts with the words. They have minds that can encompass innumerable definitions provided by yet more such experts.. It is a great sadness when one comes across such as these whose minds have great knowledge yet whose hearts never practised the language of the Spirit, it's dialects of humility and truthfulness, it's rhythm of lovingness". gg

We all have in common…

that our bodies consist of between 55-78% …..WATER

shed another tear or two…

……………… and  rarely, but sometimes, our tears become tears of joy

via

we weep with Japan

via

Around the world a surge of compassion, stronger than any tsunami, reaches out to the peoples of Japan.

There is hardly a human being anywhere who upon seeing these images does not shed a tear in their heart.

gg

the heart of a man on Women's Day

for their devotion, practicality, friendship, dedication, emotional stamina, compassion, ingenuity, intelligence, creativity,inner beauty and, of course, their limitless love - A BIG THANK YOU to all the women whose lives have touched my life

the science of faith

"Suppose you took scrabble sets, or any word game sets, blocks with letters containing every language on Earth and you heap them together, and then you took a scoop and you scooped into that heap, and you flung it out on the lawn there and the letters fell into a line which contained the words, 'to be or not to be that is the question,' that is roughly the odds of an RNA molecule appearing on the Earth." (Dr. Robert Shapiro, Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Chemistry at New York University)

image via worldofmolecules.com

"Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to understanding the real struggle between Science and the Supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community of unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to naturalism ... for we cannot allow a Divine foot in the door." (Richard Lewontin, Geneticist)

blog entry inspired by "A reasonable argument for God's existence"

the soul's alphabet….part 2

love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love

part 1 can be found here

ain't it so

unless you are as a little child….

image courtesy of www.ragnhild-monsen.com

Consider this: since we are all individual then our perceptions, concepts, experiences are equally all individual. They are as individual as a snowflake in a blizzard of living.

This being so, how absurd it is of us to think we can 'understand' another person.

We may remember that as young children playing together we could empathise with another's joy, or another's pain. If we really understand ourself, then we treasure this blessing throughout life - our ability to empathise.

I am not required to understand you, nor you I. What love does require of us is that we so choreograph our empathy that we may accept the beauty of each other as we dance the melody of life. If we look through those childhood empathatic eyes, we will see the miracle of each other.

And in just the same way the snowstorm surrounds us with countless millions of individually beautiful miracles if we will look, so we are surrounded by the vast and staggeringly beautiful landscape of humanity.

gg

et tu Brute

“Friendship is not something that you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, then you really haven’t learned anything.”

The road

“It is an immense journey from a culture of victimhood to one of self-empowerment, from a culture of conspiracy to one of construction. It is a long road from rage to responsibility, from humiliation to action”.

 

Roger Cohen

The Physics of Oneness

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Albert Einstein

no greater love……

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