Global Voice on Peace

On the auspicious occasion of 4th Lumbini-Kapilvastu Day, the Movement created this clip to spread Buddha’s peace message all over the world.   Participants:

Agni Frank Eickermann -Spiritual leader, USA
Venerable Samahita Thero, Sri Lanka
Miss Nepal Australia 2011 – Reecha Dhital
Miss Nepal Australia 2012 – Deepashree Shah
Mister Nepal Australia 2012 – Niraj Sharma
Ram Kumar Shrestha – Lumbini-Kapilvastu Day Movement Global Coordinator
Indu Nishani Nanayakkara, Sri Lanka

Einstein on Science and Religion

[Einstein is not only the Greatest Scientist, but also Great saint. We should not hesitate to claim this from his writes up.]

The Meaning of Life

This excerpt is taken from Einstein’s book The World as I See It, p. 1. It is the first essay in the book, and the shortest as well

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What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in putting it? I answer, the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.

Further Words on the Meaning of Life

The following excerpt is taken from Hoffman and Dukas, pp. 26 – 27.

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This excerpt is a letter written by Einstein in response to a 19-year-old Rutger’s University student, who had written to Einstein of his despair at seeing no visible purpose to life and no help from religion. In responding to this poignant cry for help, Einstein offered no easy solace, and this very fact must have heartened the student and lightened the lonely burden of his doubts.

Here is Einstein’s response. It was written in English and sent from Princeton on 3 December 1950, within days of receiving the letter:

The Use and Misuse of Gratitude

Without being able to bring more and more misusers into users it could be very hard to make the world wonderful.

By Deepak Chopra

Once a self-help term becomes shopworn, it needs to be refreshed. I think this is true of terms like faith, compassion, unconditional love and gratitude. Let me address the last one. How is gratitude a useful expression of spirituality? No one argues that it makes others feel good if you are grateful, but is that useful to their personal growth and yours? Many people find it much easier to give than to receive, for example, which makes it hard for them to feel grateful when they are on the receiving end of a gift, favor, appreciation or love. They look embarrassed and uncomfortable instead.

Until we get to the bottom of why gratitude is so hard, we cannot really understand what gratitude actually is. A few points need to be made.

1. You are genuinely grateful when your ego gets out of the way.
2. Real gratitude isn’t passing and temporary.
3. Gratitude takes openness and the willingness to set your ego aside.
4. No one is grateful for things they think they deserve. Therefore, gratitude is unearned, like grace.
5. When it is deeply felt, gratitude applies to everything, not simply to goodies that come your way.

These points focus on gratitude as a state where “I, me and mine” has been set aside. In a grateful state you are vulnerable, as the ego sees it. In reality, this feeling of openness must exist in order to receive grace, love, beauty and inspiration. More than one painter and composer has thanked God formally, knowing that there is a higher source — something beyond the isolated individual — that brings inspiration. There is a spiritual reason for such a sense of receiving from “on high,” and it doesn’t need to involve God or religion.

The Tango of Ego and Soul

Dr. Judith Rich, Speaker, trainer, writer, coach, creator of Rx For The Soul: http://www.judithrich.com

Our lives unfold between the shores of the conscious and the unconscious. The conscious mind, when unexamined, reflects the agenda of the Ego, and concerns itself with matters of survival. It experiences and interprets events through the lens of its limiting perceptions; mainly, fear, and attempts to exert its power and influence through the use of the Will, the Ego’s instrument.

When the conscious or objective mind is in service to the Ego it is concerned with appearances, safety, comfort and maintaining the illusion of control. The Ego-driven mind wants to know: “How do I look? What will others think of me? Am I right? Am I loved/ good enough? Am I safe? Am I in control? How can I avoid pain?”

On a distant shore in a faraway land, the unconscious or subjective mind resides. Both personal and impersonal agenda take up residency there. The subjective mind houses our personally repressed memories as well as the transpersonal agenda of the universe. One could say the entire universe is housed within each one of us and it is only a dream, insight, reflection or imagination away!