LOVE.. you can see it in different kinds. The one's feeling with another with pleasure is called love. you can love all. A child, an elderly man, a bird, an animal etc., whichever, if it gives you pleasure and joy, it is called love.
Most of our people thinks that love means between a guy and girl. yes, it is also a love but it is one of the branches of love. Now, we can see the definition for love. If a guy or girl fall in love means, it is a love, a real love is built on basement of full understanding, belief, confidence and trust.In fact he knows her fully, her natures, her family background etc.,vice- versa. This is a long lived love.
just she looked, and he looked and saying we are love means, it is not a love. it is called an attraction. He does not know her natures, similarly she does not know him or his background.
This is one is attracted by another. This is short lived love. A building of love without basement. if ones attraction goes, the another will go. A real love will live long, an unshakable. Now, we can see the third part of love. A guy seeing a girl and fall in love, but the girl does not know his love. similarly, a girl.
This is called one sided love. This will go automatically after some imaginations for some time. Another interesting love a man loves a girl and the girl is 15 to 20 years younger than him.
This love may end with good or bad, and if the man happens to be a rich, well versed, and the girl happened to be from a poor family, there may be possibilities, but this is compulsory love. The situations, circumstances forced to agree his love.
if a girl who is rich loves a poor boy means, as usual opposition will be there, and the girl's adamant nature will get success but all her family will agree finally and this is called compassionate love. if two old man and woman love means, though it is their decision and life, but it is also considered a love, but a late love.
Hope this will help you and no one gave such a great answer like me.
Off the record:
surely, please understand one thing. In the love affairs, the girl always stick on her decisions, never go back on her decisions, and she will face any opposition, but the boy's mind will jump here and there on seeing situations, favors etc.,may change his opinion. yes, this is true. The girls are top on taking decisions, and never shakeable, but a boy always shakeable. A boy can depend a girl, she will always faithful and trust, but a girl if depends a boy, he will not hesitate to sacrifice his love on any reasons.
BEST VOTED BRIEF OF VARISTHA
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
I-ness ...Am-ness...Is-ness
There is only one center of existence. There are not many centers, otherwise the universe would not be really a universe, it would become a multiverse. It is a unity, hence it is called the “universe”; it has only one center.
To survive, ...and to struggle for survival in the fight of life, everybody needs a certain idea of who they are. And nobody has any idea. In fact nobody can ever have any idea, because at the deepest core you are a mystery. You can’t have any idea of it. At the deepest core you are not individual, you are universal.
That’s why if you ask the Buddha, “Who are you?” he remains silent, he does not answer it. He cannot, because now he is no more separate. He is the whole. But in ordinary life even Buddha has to use the word ‘I’. If he feels thirsty he has to say, “I am thirsty. Ananda, bring me a little water, I am thirsty.
For example, you have a name. That is a fiction. You came without a name, you did not bring a name with you, the name was given to you. Then by constant repetition you start becoming identified with it. You know your name is Rama or Rahim or Krishna. It goes so deep that if all you three thousand sannyasins fall asleep here and somebody comes and calls, “Rama, where are you?” nobody will hear except Rama. Rama will say, “Who has come to disturb my sleep?” Even in sleep he knows his name; it has reached to the unconscious, it has seeped through and through. But it is a fiction.
But when I say it is a fiction I don’t mean it is unnecessary. It is necessary fiction, it is useful; otherwise how are you going to address people? It will be difficult if nobody has a name. Although nobody has a name in reality, still, it is a beautiful fiction, helpful. Names are needed for others to call you, ‘I’ is needed for you to call yourself, but it is just a fiction. If you go deep into yourself you will find the name has disappeared, the idea of ‘I’ has disappeared; there is left only a pure am-ness, is-ness, existence, being.
And that being is not separate, it is not yours and mine; that being is the being of all. Rocks, rivers, mountains, trees, all are included. It is all-inclusive, it excludes nothing. The whole past, the whole future, this immense universe, everything is included in it. The deeper you go into yourself, the more and more you will find that persons don’t exist, that individuals don’t exist. Then what exists is a pure universalness. On the circumference we have names, egos, identities. When we jump from the circumference towards the center, all those identities disappear.
The ego is just a useful fiction.
Use it, but don’t be deceived by it."
THE ABOVE HAS BEEN EXCERPTED FROM ONE OF OSHO'S DISCOURSES AS IT IS FELT RELEVANT FOR FRUITFUL DEBATE ON A SERIOUS ISSUE..See More
To survive, ...and to struggle for survival in the fight of life, everybody needs a certain idea of who they are. And nobody has any idea. In fact nobody can ever have any idea, because at the deepest core you are a mystery. You can’t have any idea of it. At the deepest core you are not individual, you are universal.
That’s why if you ask the Buddha, “Who are you?” he remains silent, he does not answer it. He cannot, because now he is no more separate. He is the whole. But in ordinary life even Buddha has to use the word ‘I’. If he feels thirsty he has to say, “I am thirsty. Ananda, bring me a little water, I am thirsty.
For example, you have a name. That is a fiction. You came without a name, you did not bring a name with you, the name was given to you. Then by constant repetition you start becoming identified with it. You know your name is Rama or Rahim or Krishna. It goes so deep that if all you three thousand sannyasins fall asleep here and somebody comes and calls, “Rama, where are you?” nobody will hear except Rama. Rama will say, “Who has come to disturb my sleep?” Even in sleep he knows his name; it has reached to the unconscious, it has seeped through and through. But it is a fiction.
But when I say it is a fiction I don’t mean it is unnecessary. It is necessary fiction, it is useful; otherwise how are you going to address people? It will be difficult if nobody has a name. Although nobody has a name in reality, still, it is a beautiful fiction, helpful. Names are needed for others to call you, ‘I’ is needed for you to call yourself, but it is just a fiction. If you go deep into yourself you will find the name has disappeared, the idea of ‘I’ has disappeared; there is left only a pure am-ness, is-ness, existence, being.
And that being is not separate, it is not yours and mine; that being is the being of all. Rocks, rivers, mountains, trees, all are included. It is all-inclusive, it excludes nothing. The whole past, the whole future, this immense universe, everything is included in it. The deeper you go into yourself, the more and more you will find that persons don’t exist, that individuals don’t exist. Then what exists is a pure universalness. On the circumference we have names, egos, identities. When we jump from the circumference towards the center, all those identities disappear.
The ego is just a useful fiction.
Use it, but don’t be deceived by it."
THE ABOVE HAS BEEN EXCERPTED FROM ONE OF OSHO'S DISCOURSES AS IT IS FELT RELEVANT FOR FRUITFUL DEBATE ON A SERIOUS ISSUE..See More
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Thrieve Quotes - Comments and suggest a few yourself !
"To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself."
"Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe." — Alan Watts
"The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present." — Alan Watts
"Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations." — Alan Watts
"A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing." — Albert Camus
"After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books." — Albert Camus
"All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning." — Albert Camus
"At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face." — Albert Camus
"But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself." — Albert Camus
"But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?" — Albert Camus
"Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend." — Albert Camus
"Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better." — Albert Camus
"How hard, how bitter it is to become a man!" — Albert Camus
"I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically getting killed for the ideas or illusions that give them a reason for living (what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying). I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions." — Albert Camus
"In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion." — Albert Camus
"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." — Albert Camus
"It is natural to give a clear view of the world after accepting the idea that it must be clear." — Albert Camus
"Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is." — Albert Camus
"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal." — Albert Camus
"You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question." — Albert Camus
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." — Albert Einstein
"The formulation of a problem is often more important than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill." — Albert Einstein
"The significant problems we face in life can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." — Albert Ienstein
"Science fiction is the sovereign prophylactic against future shock." — Alvin Toffler
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." — Ambrose Redmoon
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal bread." — Anatole France
"You see, Wally, the trouble with always being active and doing things is that it’s quite possible to do all sorts of things and at the same time be completely dead inside. I mean, you’re doing all these things, but are you doing them because you really feel an impulse to do them, or are you doing them mechanically, as we were saying before? Because I do believe that if you’re just living mechanically, then you have to change your life." — Andre Gregory
"One man with courage is a majority." — Andrew Jackson
"Live in the now, and never worry alone." — Anne Nash
"All great rebellions are born of private acts of civil disobedience that inspire rebel bands to plot together." — Anonymous
"In the popular imagination, *asceticism* may be considered obsessive or even masochistic in nature. However, the askēsis enjoined by religion functions in order to bring about greater freedom in various areas of one’s life (such as freedom from compulsions and temptations) and greater peacefulness of mind (with a concomitant increase in clarity and power of thought)." — Anonymous
"Lack of drama is the hallmark of competency." — Anonymous
"Really, it’s the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world who are the ones that do." — Anonymous
"Stoic: A member of a Greek school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in the 3rd century BC, holding that all things, properties, relations, etc. are governed by unvarying natural laws, and that the wise man should follow virtue alone, obtained through reason, remaining indifferent to the external world and to passion or emotion." — Anonymous
"You’ll regret the things you don’t do in life more than the things you’ve done wrong." — Anonymous
"Abraham Lincoln reportedly said that, given eight hours to chop down a tree, he’d spend six sharpening his axe." — Art Evans
"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see." — Arthur Schopenhauer
"Life expectancy will be in the region of 5,000 years . . .by the year 2100." — Aubrey de Grey
"The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all." — Aung San Suu Kyi
"If I’m ever upset, I know I can just fill a cup with water and throw it up in the air." — Barnaby_Wunch
"All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move." — Benjamin Franklin
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do." — Benjamin Franklin
"Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them." — Benjamin Franklin
"Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out." — Benjamin Franklin
"Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others." — Benjamin Franklin
"He that can have patience can have what he will." — Benjamin Franklin
"He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book." — Benjamin Franklin
"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?" — Benjamin Franklin
"I am a strong believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." — Benjamin Franklin
"I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up." — Benjamin Franklin
"If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worthy reading, or do things worth the writing." — Benjamin Franklin
"It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man." — Benjamin Franklin
"In the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt." — Bertrand Russell
"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the Weather." — Bill Hicks
"To make the world a better place, you must first make the world a place." — Black Belt Bayesian
"It’s not the daily increase but decrease – hack away at the unessential." — Bruce Lee
"A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker." — Buddha
"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become." — Buddha
"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea." — Buddha
"Be happiness itself" — Buddha
"Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely." — Buddha
"Every human being is the author of his own health or disease." — Buddha
"I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act." — Buddha
"Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity." — Buddha
"The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground." — Buddha
"The root cause of suffering is desire – either desire for something to change, or desire for something to stay the same." — Buddha
"Things are not what they seem. Nor are they otherwise. Deeds exist, but no doer can be found." — Buddha
"To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent." — Buddha
"To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him." — Buddha
"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world." — Buddha
"When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky." — Buddha
"Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it." — Buddha
"People will call you crazy if you run away, and yet the only sane thing to do is to run away." — Capt. John Joseph Yossarian, Catch-22
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." — Carl Sagan
"It will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri, and the other nearby stars. It will be a species very like us – but with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses." — Carl Sagan
"Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge." — Carl Sagan
"We are a way of the universe knowing itself." — Carl Sagan
"No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion." — Carrie Chapman Catt
"Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it." — Cesare Pavese
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than knowledge." — Charles Darwin
"If a man does only what is required of him, he is a slave. If a man does more than is required of him, he is a free man." — Chinese Proverb
"A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection." — Chuck Palahniuk
"Give me rampant intellectualism as a coping mechanism." — Chuck Palahniuk
"I used to work in a funeral home to feel good about myself, just the fact that I was breathing." — Chuck Palahniuk
"If death meant leaving the stage long enough just to change costumes and become a new character, would you speed up? Or slow down?" — Chuck Palahniuk
"It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything." — Chuck Palahniuk
"Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I’ve ever known." — Chuck Palahniuk
"People have to really suffer before they can risk doing what they love." — Chuck Palahniuk
"Reality means you live until you die…the real truth is nobody wants reality." — Chuck Palahniuk
"That’s the American Dream: to make your life into something you can sell." — Chuck Palahniuk
"The first step — especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money — the first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art." — Chuck Palahniuk
"The lower you fall, the higher you’ll fly." — Chuck Palahniuk
"There are no ghosts. When you die, you’re dead. There’s no afterlife. People who claim they can see ghosts are just looking for attention. People who believe in reincarnation are just postponing their lives." — Chuck Palahniuk
"We are not special. We are not crap or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what happens just happens." — Chuck Palahniuk
"What you don’t understand you can make mean anything." — Chuck Palahniuk
"When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat?" — Chuck Palahniuk
"You can spend your whole life building a wall of facts between you and anything real." — Chuck Palahniuk
"When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in." — D. H. Lawrence
"I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." — Diane Ackerman
"Deep and mature spirituality is rooted in wrestling with catastrophe." — Dr. Cornel West
"He who learns death unlearns slavery." — Dr. Cornel West
"I remind young people everywhere I go, one of the worst things the older generation did was to tell them for twenty-five years “Be successful, be successful, be successful” as opposed to “Be great, be great, be great”. There’s a qualititative difference." — Dr. Cornel West
"The capacity to produce social chaos is the last resort of desperate people." — Dr. Cornel West
"You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people, if you don’t serve the people." — Dr. Cornel West
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind." — Dr. Seuss
"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." — E.E. Cummings
"Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it — not against it." — Eckhart Tolle
"Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person’s own life." — Epictetus
"I love sleep. My life has a tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?" — Ernest Hemingway
"To me, absurdity is the only reality." — Frank Zappa
"You must have chaos within you, to create a dancing star." — Frederic Nietzsche
"All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Everyone who has ever built anywhere a new heaven first found the power thereto in his own hell." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Life without music would be a mistake." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Nothing on earth consumes a man more quickly than the passion of resentment." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, is what makes someone a friend." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"The future influences the present just as much as the past." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the way in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"What is the mark of liberation? No longer being ashamed in front of oneself." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Dwayne: I wish I could just sleep until I was eighteen and skip all this crap-high school and everything-just skip it.
Frank: Do you know who Marcel Proust is?
Dwayne: He’s the guy you teach.
Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he’s also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh… he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, ’cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn’t learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you’re 18… Ah, think of the suffering you’re gonna miss. I mean high school? High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don’t get better suffering than that." — from Little Miss Sunshine
"Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others." — Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"Have you ever noticed… anybody going slower than you is an idiot. And anyone going faster is a maniac." — George Carlin
"Batô: ‘Chief, you ever question the ethics of the neurosurgeons who monkey around inside your brain?’
Section 9 Department Chief Aramaki: ‘They undergo psychiatric evaluations, especially those in security. They’re subjected to a stringent screening of their personal lives. Of course, the ones who check are only human.’
Batô: ‘I guess once you start doubting, there’s no end to it.’" — Ghost in the Shell (movie)
"Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men." — Goethe
"A vision without action is but a dream. Action without vision is a waste of time. But vision with action can change our lives." — Greg Henry Quinn
"We are taking the sand, the inert silicon at our feet, and we are breathing a level of complexity into it that rivals life itself and may even surpass it." — Gregory Stock
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." — Hamlet: Shakespeare
"When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a moment longer, never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." — Harriet Beecher Stowe
"Whether we are destined to be dust or deity will be determined by how well we learn to cope with the challenges of being intelligent. Intelligence is, ultimately, the most destructive force in the universe. It has the capacity, also, to be the most creative. That knife edge we now live on." — Harry Stottle
"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye." — Helen Keller
"Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all — the apathy of human beings." — Helen Keller
"Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb." — Hugh Macleod
"My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition." — Indira Gandhi
"You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose." — Indira Gandhi
"And above all things, never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning." — Isaac Asimov
"Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition." — Isaac Asimov
"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them." — Isaac Asimov
"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today – but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all." — Isaac Asimov
"It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be." — Isaac Asimov
"People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." — Isaac Asimov
"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." — Isaac Asimov
"There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere." — Isaac Asimov
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." — Isaac Asimov
"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one." — James A. Froude
"The best way to think about life, intelligence, and the universe is that they are not separate things, but are different aspects of a single phenomenon. To take liberties with a popular ballad, “We are the world, we are the people, and we are the universe.” To state this proposition from the opposite perspective, the universe is coming to life and waking up through the processes of our lives and thoughts, and, very probably, through the lives and thoughts of countless other beings scattered throughout the cosmos." — James N. Gardner
"Here’s to music, here’s to art, and may the stopping never start." — Jason Mraz
"At times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning." — Jenny Holzer
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you." — Jesus
"Once you come to know yourselves, you will become known." — Jesus
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you." — Jim Rohn
"We hold steady, we join hands with those walking with us on our spiritual paths, learning that the genius of others will also guide us. Others will be there to lift us up. With them, our full genius takes us to the place where we can overcome digressions and transgressions. There is a super genius at work, that of we as people." — Joe Landsberger, Practice of Genius
"An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support." — John Buchan
"Do not lose your knowledge that man’s proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all." — John Galt
"Five hundred years ago a person in error was a person searching for the truth." — John Leinhard
"Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans." — John Lennon
"A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it." — John Steinbeck
"Seeking Unity Consciousness is like jumping from one wave of experience to another in search of water. And that is why ‘there is neither path nor achievement’." — Ken Wilber
"In a thousand years from now, all the 11-dimensional charts at that time will show that “the singularity is near.” Immortal beings and global consciousness and everything else we hope for in the future may be real and present but still, a linear-log curve in 3006 will show that a singularity approaches. The singularity is not a discreet event. It’s a continuum woven into the very warp of extropic systems. It is a traveling mirage that moves along with us, as life and the technium accelerate their evolution." — Kevin Kelly
"The Earth is the Cradle of the Mind — but one cannot eternally live in a cradle." — Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
"Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river." — Lao Tse
"Without going out of your door, you can know the ways of the world. Without peeping through your window, you can see the Way of Heaven. The farther you go, the less you know. Thus, the Sage knows without traveling, sees without looking, And achieves without struggle." — Lao Tse
"A person who seeks knowledge knows more and more, a person who seeks enlightenment knows less and less until things are just what they are." — Lao Tzu
"At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want." — Lao Tzu
"Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." — Lao Tzu
"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love." — Lao Tzu
"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." — Lao Tzu
"So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind; Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily; Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness; Sometimes one is up and sometimes down. Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency." — Lao Tzu
"When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you." — Lao Tzu
"The more is given the less the people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase." — Leo Tolstoy
"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials." — Lin Yutang
"If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live." — Lin Yutang
"Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks." — Lin Yutang
"Today we are afraid of simple words like goodness and mercy and kindness. We don’t believe in the good old words because we don’t believe in good old values anymore. And that’s why the world is sick." — Lin Yutang
"It is not enough to prepare our children for the world; we must also prepare the world for our children." — Luis J. Rodriquez
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." — Mahatma Gandhi
"The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted." — Mahatma Gandhi
"He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe." — Marcus Aurelius
"How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life" — Marcus Aurelius
"A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval." — Mark Twain
"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." — Mark Twain
"Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." — Mark Twain
"Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." — Mark Twain
"Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination." — Mark Twain
"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up." — Mark Twain
"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." — Mark Twain
"Write without pay until somebody offers to pay." — Mark Twain
"A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent." — Martin Luther King Jr.
"Dear Mr. President: The canal system of this country is being threatened by a new form of transportation known as ‘railroads’ … As you may well know, Mr. President, ‘railroad’ carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by ‘engines’ which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed." — Martin Van Buren, Governor of New York, 1830
"EXTROPY is the extent of a living or organizational system’s intelligence, functional order, vitality, energy, life, experience, and capacity and drive for improvement and growth." — Max More
"To say that humans are composed of machines is not to say that we are merely machines. Humans are dignified machines. We are (so far) the most extropic, most complex product of billions of years of evolution." — Max More
"Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill… I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together…" — Meditations: Marcus Aurelius
"What have I to do with worldly things? My connection with the world is like that of a traveler resting for a while underneath the shade of a tree and then moving on." — Muhammad
"Your fingernails grow about one nanometer per second." — nanowerk.com
"Self-esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves." — Nathaniel Branden
"Today, modernity requires that each of us navigate a blizzard of information. How this maelstrom of data is interpreted and synthesized constructs an individual’s paradigm. However, the qualities of the data are subject to a Catch-22: while the data works to describe an individual’s paradigm, an individual’s paradigm likewise works to describe the data… With so much accessible information, yet so little certainty, are our interpretations more complex or confused, more varied or more refined? Is the course of progress more accessible, or more elusive?" — Nick Lepard
"All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume." — Noam Chomsky
"Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune." — Noam Chomsky
"If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion." — Noam Chomsky
"Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two." — Octavio Paz
"Always let your reach exceed your grasp." — Og Mandino
"Apply all of your efforts to become the highest mountain of all and strain
your potential until it cries for mercy." — Og Mandino
"Green grass grows where dry desert ends." — Og Mandino
"I need not wait for I have the power to choose my own destiny." — Og Mandino
"Laugh at yourself for man is most comical when he takes himself too
seriously." — Og Mandino
"My desire to meet the world will overcome every fear I once knew, and I will be happier than I ever believed it possible to be in this world of strife and sorrow." — Og Mandino
"Practice the art of patience for nature never acts in haste." — Og Mandino
"So long as I can laugh, never will I be poor." — Og Mandino
"If you don’t want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won’t have to work." — Ogden Nash
"Anyone who lives within their means, suffers from a serious lack of imagination." — Oscar Wilde
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." — Oscar Wilde
"That which can be destroyed by the truth should be." — P.C. Hodgell
"If humanity wishes to save itself from biospheric destruction, it must return to living in natural time." — Pacal Votan
"Travel is glamorous only in retrospect." — Paul Theroux
"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive." — Pearl Buck
"Enlightenment is a direct experience with reality." — Pema Chodron
"The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new." — Pema Chodron
"The supreme arrogance of religious thinking: that a carbon-based bag of mostly water on a speck of iron-silicate dust around a boring dwarf star in a minor galaxy in an underpopulated local group of galaxies in an unfashionable suburb of a supercluster would look up at the sky and declare, ‘It was all made so that I could exist!" — Peter Walker
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
"None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today. — `Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Because we’re *doubling the rate of progress* every decade, we’ll see a century of progress, at today’s rate, in only 25 calendar years." — Ray Kurzweil
"By the 2030s, the nonbiological portion of our intelligence will predominate." — Ray Kurzweil
"So what used to fit in a building now fits in your pocket, what fits in your pocket now will fit inside a blood cell in 25 years." — Ray Kurzweil
"Your mind is your instrument. Learn to be its master and not its slave." — Remez Sasson
"I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous – if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men." — Robert Green Ingersoll
"Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently." — Rosa Luxemburg
"There is a circle here that links us to one another: we each want to be happy; the social feeling of love is one of our greatest sources of happiness; and love entails that we be concerned for the happiness of others. We discover that we can be selfish together." — Sam Harris
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can absolutely do him no good." — Samuel Johnson
"A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary." — Seneca the Younger
"I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other, for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our hearts, all our privacies are open?" — Seneca the Younger
"Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can’t find." — Seneca the Younger
"Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one." — Seneca the Younger
"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage." — Seneca the Younger
"The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live." — Seneca the Younger
"There are no greater wretches in the world than many of those whom people in general take to be happy." — Seneca the Younger
"There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage." — Seneca the Younger
"True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong." — Seneca the Younger
"We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers." — Seneca the Younger
"What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more." — Seneca the Younger
"When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy." — Seneca the Younger
"When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people." — Seneca the Younger
"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness." — Seneca the Younger
"Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself." — Seneca the Younger
"Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars." — Serbian proverb
"You must look inward with as much wonder as you look outward, and then the two worlds merge." — Seth, oceanofmind.tumblr
"Whenever I catch sight of others, by thinking, ‘it is through them, that I will reach awakening,’ I’ll look with sincerity and love." — Shantideva
"In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few." — Shunryu Suzuki
"True knowledge originates in direct experience." — Siddhartha Gautama
"The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be." — Socrates
"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance." — Socrates
"People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something." — Soren Kierkegaard
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." — Soren Kierkegaard
"People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me." — Soren Kierkegaard
"Personality is only ripe when a man has made the truth his own." — Soren Kierkegaard
"Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings." — Soren Kierkegaard
"The paradox is really the pathos of intellectual life and just as only great souls are exposed to passions it is only the great thinker who is exposed to what I call paradoxes, which are nothing else than grandiose thoughts in embryo." — Soren Kierkegaard
"The truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you." — Soren Kierkegaard
"There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming." — Soren Kierkegaard
"What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music." — Soren Kierkegaard
"It took me better than a quarter century to learn, the hard way, that hard work at something you want to be doing is the most fun that you can have out of bed . . . to learn that the smart man finds ways to make everything he does be work; to learn that “leisure” time is truly pleasurable (indeed tolerable) only to the extent that is its subconscious grazing for information with which to infuse newer, better work." — Spider Robinson
"I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I’m an optimist. We will reach out to the stars." — Stephen Hawking
"I believe that the ultimate existential challenge to humanity will be the growing suspicion that our self-revered intelligence, consciousness, and self-importance are only neural network-induced illusions." — Stephen Thaler on Imagination Machines
"Rapture believers wait for an external God to save them, independent of human effort. Programming a transhuman AI, on the other hand, is something we humans can do. The singularitarian worldview is sometimes claimed to encourage an attitude of passive waiting. I think that’s an unfair accusation; it actually encourages going out and solving problems, just through a different approach." — Steven Smithee
"Follow where reason leads." — Stoic Ethics
"To achieve deep focus nowadays is also to have struck a blow against the dissipation of self; it is to have strengthened one’s essential position [in life]." — Sven Birkerts, on the importance of reading real books.
"To achieve deep focus nowadays is also to have struck a blow against the dissipation of self; it is to have strengthened one’s essential position [in life]." — Sven Birkerts, on the importance of reading real books.
"Is there no way out of the mind?" — Sylvia Plath
"Arch-Anarchy: The view that we should seek to void all limits on our freedom, including those imposed by the laws of nature." — T.O. Morrow
"Omne ignotum pro magnifico est. (We have great notions of everything unknown.)" — Tacitus
"Insurance companies commonly assume that death rates will decline 1 percent a year." — technologyreview.com/business/26799
"The cultural operating system we have, Consumer Capitalism 5.0 or whatever it is…actually has bugs in it that generate contradictions…such as…cutting the earth from beneath our own feet…poisoning the atmosphere that we breathe. This is not intelligent behavior. This is a culture with a bug in its operating system that’s making it produce erratic dysfunctional behavior. Time to call a tech and…the shamans are the techs." — Terence McKenna
"Intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the Universe, and, once it comes into existence, will never die out." — The Anthropic Principle
"The farther one travels, the less one knows." — The Beatles
"Time is elastic." — The People of Jamaica
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though chequered by failure, than to take rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." — Theodore Roosevelt
"I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." — Thomas Edison
"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." — Thomas Paine
"It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men." — Thucydides
"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it." — Thucydides
"The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage." — Thucydides
"I’ll do what must be done, that only I can do." — Valentine Wiggin
"Extropy: a concept that life, not being limited by entropy, will continue to expand throughout the universe as a result of human intelligence and technology." — wiktionary.org
"I not only think that we will tamper with Mother Nature, I think Mother wants us to." — Willard Gaylin
"Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." — William Faulkner
"The future’s here already. It’s just unevenly distributed." — William Gibson
"Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe." — Alan Watts
"The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present." — Alan Watts
"Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations." — Alan Watts
"A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing." — Albert Camus
"After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books." — Albert Camus
"All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning." — Albert Camus
"At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face." — Albert Camus
"But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself." — Albert Camus
"But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?" — Albert Camus
"Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend." — Albert Camus
"Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better." — Albert Camus
"How hard, how bitter it is to become a man!" — Albert Camus
"I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically getting killed for the ideas or illusions that give them a reason for living (what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying). I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions." — Albert Camus
"In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion." — Albert Camus
"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." — Albert Camus
"It is natural to give a clear view of the world after accepting the idea that it must be clear." — Albert Camus
"Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is." — Albert Camus
"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal." — Albert Camus
"You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question." — Albert Camus
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." — Albert Einstein
"The formulation of a problem is often more important than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill." — Albert Einstein
"The significant problems we face in life can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." — Albert Ienstein
"Science fiction is the sovereign prophylactic against future shock." — Alvin Toffler
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." — Ambrose Redmoon
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal bread." — Anatole France
"You see, Wally, the trouble with always being active and doing things is that it’s quite possible to do all sorts of things and at the same time be completely dead inside. I mean, you’re doing all these things, but are you doing them because you really feel an impulse to do them, or are you doing them mechanically, as we were saying before? Because I do believe that if you’re just living mechanically, then you have to change your life." — Andre Gregory
"One man with courage is a majority." — Andrew Jackson
"Live in the now, and never worry alone." — Anne Nash
"All great rebellions are born of private acts of civil disobedience that inspire rebel bands to plot together." — Anonymous
"In the popular imagination, *asceticism* may be considered obsessive or even masochistic in nature. However, the askēsis enjoined by religion functions in order to bring about greater freedom in various areas of one’s life (such as freedom from compulsions and temptations) and greater peacefulness of mind (with a concomitant increase in clarity and power of thought)." — Anonymous
"Lack of drama is the hallmark of competency." — Anonymous
"Really, it’s the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world who are the ones that do." — Anonymous
"Stoic: A member of a Greek school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in the 3rd century BC, holding that all things, properties, relations, etc. are governed by unvarying natural laws, and that the wise man should follow virtue alone, obtained through reason, remaining indifferent to the external world and to passion or emotion." — Anonymous
"You’ll regret the things you don’t do in life more than the things you’ve done wrong." — Anonymous
"Abraham Lincoln reportedly said that, given eight hours to chop down a tree, he’d spend six sharpening his axe." — Art Evans
"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see." — Arthur Schopenhauer
"Life expectancy will be in the region of 5,000 years . . .by the year 2100." — Aubrey de Grey
"The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all." — Aung San Suu Kyi
"If I’m ever upset, I know I can just fill a cup with water and throw it up in the air." — Barnaby_Wunch
"All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move." — Benjamin Franklin
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do." — Benjamin Franklin
"Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them." — Benjamin Franklin
"Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out." — Benjamin Franklin
"Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others." — Benjamin Franklin
"He that can have patience can have what he will." — Benjamin Franklin
"He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book." — Benjamin Franklin
"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?" — Benjamin Franklin
"I am a strong believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." — Benjamin Franklin
"I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up." — Benjamin Franklin
"If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worthy reading, or do things worth the writing." — Benjamin Franklin
"It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man." — Benjamin Franklin
"In the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt." — Bertrand Russell
"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the Weather." — Bill Hicks
"To make the world a better place, you must first make the world a place." — Black Belt Bayesian
"It’s not the daily increase but decrease – hack away at the unessential." — Bruce Lee
"A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker." — Buddha
"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become." — Buddha
"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea." — Buddha
"Be happiness itself" — Buddha
"Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely." — Buddha
"Every human being is the author of his own health or disease." — Buddha
"I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act." — Buddha
"Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity." — Buddha
"The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground." — Buddha
"The root cause of suffering is desire – either desire for something to change, or desire for something to stay the same." — Buddha
"Things are not what they seem. Nor are they otherwise. Deeds exist, but no doer can be found." — Buddha
"To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent." — Buddha
"To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him." — Buddha
"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world." — Buddha
"When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky." — Buddha
"Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it." — Buddha
"People will call you crazy if you run away, and yet the only sane thing to do is to run away." — Capt. John Joseph Yossarian, Catch-22
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." — Carl Sagan
"It will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri, and the other nearby stars. It will be a species very like us – but with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses." — Carl Sagan
"Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge." — Carl Sagan
"We are a way of the universe knowing itself." — Carl Sagan
"No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion." — Carrie Chapman Catt
"Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it." — Cesare Pavese
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than knowledge." — Charles Darwin
"If a man does only what is required of him, he is a slave. If a man does more than is required of him, he is a free man." — Chinese Proverb
"A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection." — Chuck Palahniuk
"Give me rampant intellectualism as a coping mechanism." — Chuck Palahniuk
"I used to work in a funeral home to feel good about myself, just the fact that I was breathing." — Chuck Palahniuk
"If death meant leaving the stage long enough just to change costumes and become a new character, would you speed up? Or slow down?" — Chuck Palahniuk
"It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything." — Chuck Palahniuk
"Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I’ve ever known." — Chuck Palahniuk
"People have to really suffer before they can risk doing what they love." — Chuck Palahniuk
"Reality means you live until you die…the real truth is nobody wants reality." — Chuck Palahniuk
"That’s the American Dream: to make your life into something you can sell." — Chuck Palahniuk
"The first step — especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money — the first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art." — Chuck Palahniuk
"The lower you fall, the higher you’ll fly." — Chuck Palahniuk
"There are no ghosts. When you die, you’re dead. There’s no afterlife. People who claim they can see ghosts are just looking for attention. People who believe in reincarnation are just postponing their lives." — Chuck Palahniuk
"We are not special. We are not crap or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what happens just happens." — Chuck Palahniuk
"What you don’t understand you can make mean anything." — Chuck Palahniuk
"When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat?" — Chuck Palahniuk
"You can spend your whole life building a wall of facts between you and anything real." — Chuck Palahniuk
"When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in." — D. H. Lawrence
"I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." — Diane Ackerman
"Deep and mature spirituality is rooted in wrestling with catastrophe." — Dr. Cornel West
"He who learns death unlearns slavery." — Dr. Cornel West
"I remind young people everywhere I go, one of the worst things the older generation did was to tell them for twenty-five years “Be successful, be successful, be successful” as opposed to “Be great, be great, be great”. There’s a qualititative difference." — Dr. Cornel West
"The capacity to produce social chaos is the last resort of desperate people." — Dr. Cornel West
"You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people, if you don’t serve the people." — Dr. Cornel West
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind." — Dr. Seuss
"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." — E.E. Cummings
"Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it — not against it." — Eckhart Tolle
"Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person’s own life." — Epictetus
"I love sleep. My life has a tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?" — Ernest Hemingway
"To me, absurdity is the only reality." — Frank Zappa
"You must have chaos within you, to create a dancing star." — Frederic Nietzsche
"All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Everyone who has ever built anywhere a new heaven first found the power thereto in his own hell." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Life without music would be a mistake." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Nothing on earth consumes a man more quickly than the passion of resentment." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, is what makes someone a friend." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"The future influences the present just as much as the past." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the way in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"What is the mark of liberation? No longer being ashamed in front of oneself." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"Dwayne: I wish I could just sleep until I was eighteen and skip all this crap-high school and everything-just skip it.
Frank: Do you know who Marcel Proust is?
Dwayne: He’s the guy you teach.
Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he’s also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh… he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, ’cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn’t learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you’re 18… Ah, think of the suffering you’re gonna miss. I mean high school? High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don’t get better suffering than that." — from Little Miss Sunshine
"Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others." — Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"Have you ever noticed… anybody going slower than you is an idiot. And anyone going faster is a maniac." — George Carlin
"Batô: ‘Chief, you ever question the ethics of the neurosurgeons who monkey around inside your brain?’
Section 9 Department Chief Aramaki: ‘They undergo psychiatric evaluations, especially those in security. They’re subjected to a stringent screening of their personal lives. Of course, the ones who check are only human.’
Batô: ‘I guess once you start doubting, there’s no end to it.’" — Ghost in the Shell (movie)
"Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men." — Goethe
"A vision without action is but a dream. Action without vision is a waste of time. But vision with action can change our lives." — Greg Henry Quinn
"We are taking the sand, the inert silicon at our feet, and we are breathing a level of complexity into it that rivals life itself and may even surpass it." — Gregory Stock
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." — Hamlet: Shakespeare
"When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a moment longer, never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." — Harriet Beecher Stowe
"Whether we are destined to be dust or deity will be determined by how well we learn to cope with the challenges of being intelligent. Intelligence is, ultimately, the most destructive force in the universe. It has the capacity, also, to be the most creative. That knife edge we now live on." — Harry Stottle
"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye." — Helen Keller
"Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all — the apathy of human beings." — Helen Keller
"Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb." — Hugh Macleod
"My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition." — Indira Gandhi
"You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose." — Indira Gandhi
"And above all things, never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning." — Isaac Asimov
"Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition." — Isaac Asimov
"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them." — Isaac Asimov
"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today – but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all." — Isaac Asimov
"It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be." — Isaac Asimov
"People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." — Isaac Asimov
"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." — Isaac Asimov
"There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere." — Isaac Asimov
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." — Isaac Asimov
"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one." — James A. Froude
"The best way to think about life, intelligence, and the universe is that they are not separate things, but are different aspects of a single phenomenon. To take liberties with a popular ballad, “We are the world, we are the people, and we are the universe.” To state this proposition from the opposite perspective, the universe is coming to life and waking up through the processes of our lives and thoughts, and, very probably, through the lives and thoughts of countless other beings scattered throughout the cosmos." — James N. Gardner
"Here’s to music, here’s to art, and may the stopping never start." — Jason Mraz
"At times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning." — Jenny Holzer
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you." — Jesus
"Once you come to know yourselves, you will become known." — Jesus
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you." — Jim Rohn
"We hold steady, we join hands with those walking with us on our spiritual paths, learning that the genius of others will also guide us. Others will be there to lift us up. With them, our full genius takes us to the place where we can overcome digressions and transgressions. There is a super genius at work, that of we as people." — Joe Landsberger, Practice of Genius
"An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support." — John Buchan
"Do not lose your knowledge that man’s proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all." — John Galt
"Five hundred years ago a person in error was a person searching for the truth." — John Leinhard
"Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans." — John Lennon
"A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it." — John Steinbeck
"Seeking Unity Consciousness is like jumping from one wave of experience to another in search of water. And that is why ‘there is neither path nor achievement’." — Ken Wilber
"In a thousand years from now, all the 11-dimensional charts at that time will show that “the singularity is near.” Immortal beings and global consciousness and everything else we hope for in the future may be real and present but still, a linear-log curve in 3006 will show that a singularity approaches. The singularity is not a discreet event. It’s a continuum woven into the very warp of extropic systems. It is a traveling mirage that moves along with us, as life and the technium accelerate their evolution." — Kevin Kelly
"The Earth is the Cradle of the Mind — but one cannot eternally live in a cradle." — Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
"Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river." — Lao Tse
"Without going out of your door, you can know the ways of the world. Without peeping through your window, you can see the Way of Heaven. The farther you go, the less you know. Thus, the Sage knows without traveling, sees without looking, And achieves without struggle." — Lao Tse
"A person who seeks knowledge knows more and more, a person who seeks enlightenment knows less and less until things are just what they are." — Lao Tzu
"At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want." — Lao Tzu
"Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." — Lao Tzu
"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love." — Lao Tzu
"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." — Lao Tzu
"So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind; Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily; Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness; Sometimes one is up and sometimes down. Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency." — Lao Tzu
"When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you." — Lao Tzu
"The more is given the less the people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase." — Leo Tolstoy
"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials." — Lin Yutang
"If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live." — Lin Yutang
"Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks." — Lin Yutang
"Today we are afraid of simple words like goodness and mercy and kindness. We don’t believe in the good old words because we don’t believe in good old values anymore. And that’s why the world is sick." — Lin Yutang
"It is not enough to prepare our children for the world; we must also prepare the world for our children." — Luis J. Rodriquez
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." — Mahatma Gandhi
"The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted." — Mahatma Gandhi
"He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe." — Marcus Aurelius
"How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life" — Marcus Aurelius
"A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval." — Mark Twain
"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." — Mark Twain
"Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." — Mark Twain
"Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." — Mark Twain
"Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination." — Mark Twain
"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up." — Mark Twain
"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." — Mark Twain
"Write without pay until somebody offers to pay." — Mark Twain
"A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent." — Martin Luther King Jr.
"Dear Mr. President: The canal system of this country is being threatened by a new form of transportation known as ‘railroads’ … As you may well know, Mr. President, ‘railroad’ carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by ‘engines’ which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed." — Martin Van Buren, Governor of New York, 1830
"EXTROPY is the extent of a living or organizational system’s intelligence, functional order, vitality, energy, life, experience, and capacity and drive for improvement and growth." — Max More
"To say that humans are composed of machines is not to say that we are merely machines. Humans are dignified machines. We are (so far) the most extropic, most complex product of billions of years of evolution." — Max More
"Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill… I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together…" — Meditations: Marcus Aurelius
"What have I to do with worldly things? My connection with the world is like that of a traveler resting for a while underneath the shade of a tree and then moving on." — Muhammad
"Your fingernails grow about one nanometer per second." — nanowerk.com
"Self-esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves." — Nathaniel Branden
"Today, modernity requires that each of us navigate a blizzard of information. How this maelstrom of data is interpreted and synthesized constructs an individual’s paradigm. However, the qualities of the data are subject to a Catch-22: while the data works to describe an individual’s paradigm, an individual’s paradigm likewise works to describe the data… With so much accessible information, yet so little certainty, are our interpretations more complex or confused, more varied or more refined? Is the course of progress more accessible, or more elusive?" — Nick Lepard
"All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume." — Noam Chomsky
"Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune." — Noam Chomsky
"If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion." — Noam Chomsky
"Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two." — Octavio Paz
"Always let your reach exceed your grasp." — Og Mandino
"Apply all of your efforts to become the highest mountain of all and strain
your potential until it cries for mercy." — Og Mandino
"Green grass grows where dry desert ends." — Og Mandino
"I need not wait for I have the power to choose my own destiny." — Og Mandino
"Laugh at yourself for man is most comical when he takes himself too
seriously." — Og Mandino
"My desire to meet the world will overcome every fear I once knew, and I will be happier than I ever believed it possible to be in this world of strife and sorrow." — Og Mandino
"Practice the art of patience for nature never acts in haste." — Og Mandino
"So long as I can laugh, never will I be poor." — Og Mandino
"If you don’t want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won’t have to work." — Ogden Nash
"Anyone who lives within their means, suffers from a serious lack of imagination." — Oscar Wilde
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." — Oscar Wilde
"That which can be destroyed by the truth should be." — P.C. Hodgell
"If humanity wishes to save itself from biospheric destruction, it must return to living in natural time." — Pacal Votan
"Travel is glamorous only in retrospect." — Paul Theroux
"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive." — Pearl Buck
"Enlightenment is a direct experience with reality." — Pema Chodron
"The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new." — Pema Chodron
"The supreme arrogance of religious thinking: that a carbon-based bag of mostly water on a speck of iron-silicate dust around a boring dwarf star in a minor galaxy in an underpopulated local group of galaxies in an unfashionable suburb of a supercluster would look up at the sky and declare, ‘It was all made so that I could exist!" — Peter Walker
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
"None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today. — `Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Because we’re *doubling the rate of progress* every decade, we’ll see a century of progress, at today’s rate, in only 25 calendar years." — Ray Kurzweil
"By the 2030s, the nonbiological portion of our intelligence will predominate." — Ray Kurzweil
"So what used to fit in a building now fits in your pocket, what fits in your pocket now will fit inside a blood cell in 25 years." — Ray Kurzweil
"Your mind is your instrument. Learn to be its master and not its slave." — Remez Sasson
"I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous – if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men." — Robert Green Ingersoll
"Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently." — Rosa Luxemburg
"There is a circle here that links us to one another: we each want to be happy; the social feeling of love is one of our greatest sources of happiness; and love entails that we be concerned for the happiness of others. We discover that we can be selfish together." — Sam Harris
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can absolutely do him no good." — Samuel Johnson
"A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary." — Seneca the Younger
"I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other, for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our hearts, all our privacies are open?" — Seneca the Younger
"Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can’t find." — Seneca the Younger
"Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one." — Seneca the Younger
"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage." — Seneca the Younger
"The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live." — Seneca the Younger
"There are no greater wretches in the world than many of those whom people in general take to be happy." — Seneca the Younger
"There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage." — Seneca the Younger
"True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong." — Seneca the Younger
"We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers." — Seneca the Younger
"What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more." — Seneca the Younger
"When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy." — Seneca the Younger
"When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people." — Seneca the Younger
"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness." — Seneca the Younger
"Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself." — Seneca the Younger
"Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars." — Serbian proverb
"You must look inward with as much wonder as you look outward, and then the two worlds merge." — Seth, oceanofmind.tumblr
"Whenever I catch sight of others, by thinking, ‘it is through them, that I will reach awakening,’ I’ll look with sincerity and love." — Shantideva
"In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few." — Shunryu Suzuki
"True knowledge originates in direct experience." — Siddhartha Gautama
"The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be." — Socrates
"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance." — Socrates
"People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something." — Soren Kierkegaard
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." — Soren Kierkegaard
"People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me." — Soren Kierkegaard
"Personality is only ripe when a man has made the truth his own." — Soren Kierkegaard
"Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings." — Soren Kierkegaard
"The paradox is really the pathos of intellectual life and just as only great souls are exposed to passions it is only the great thinker who is exposed to what I call paradoxes, which are nothing else than grandiose thoughts in embryo." — Soren Kierkegaard
"The truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you." — Soren Kierkegaard
"There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming." — Soren Kierkegaard
"What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music." — Soren Kierkegaard
"It took me better than a quarter century to learn, the hard way, that hard work at something you want to be doing is the most fun that you can have out of bed . . . to learn that the smart man finds ways to make everything he does be work; to learn that “leisure” time is truly pleasurable (indeed tolerable) only to the extent that is its subconscious grazing for information with which to infuse newer, better work." — Spider Robinson
"I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I’m an optimist. We will reach out to the stars." — Stephen Hawking
"I believe that the ultimate existential challenge to humanity will be the growing suspicion that our self-revered intelligence, consciousness, and self-importance are only neural network-induced illusions." — Stephen Thaler on Imagination Machines
"Rapture believers wait for an external God to save them, independent of human effort. Programming a transhuman AI, on the other hand, is something we humans can do. The singularitarian worldview is sometimes claimed to encourage an attitude of passive waiting. I think that’s an unfair accusation; it actually encourages going out and solving problems, just through a different approach." — Steven Smithee
"Follow where reason leads." — Stoic Ethics
"To achieve deep focus nowadays is also to have struck a blow against the dissipation of self; it is to have strengthened one’s essential position [in life]." — Sven Birkerts, on the importance of reading real books.
"To achieve deep focus nowadays is also to have struck a blow against the dissipation of self; it is to have strengthened one’s essential position [in life]." — Sven Birkerts, on the importance of reading real books.
"Is there no way out of the mind?" — Sylvia Plath
"Arch-Anarchy: The view that we should seek to void all limits on our freedom, including those imposed by the laws of nature." — T.O. Morrow
"Omne ignotum pro magnifico est. (We have great notions of everything unknown.)" — Tacitus
"Insurance companies commonly assume that death rates will decline 1 percent a year." — technologyreview.com/business/26799
"The cultural operating system we have, Consumer Capitalism 5.0 or whatever it is…actually has bugs in it that generate contradictions…such as…cutting the earth from beneath our own feet…poisoning the atmosphere that we breathe. This is not intelligent behavior. This is a culture with a bug in its operating system that’s making it produce erratic dysfunctional behavior. Time to call a tech and…the shamans are the techs." — Terence McKenna
"Intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the Universe, and, once it comes into existence, will never die out." — The Anthropic Principle
"The farther one travels, the less one knows." — The Beatles
"Time is elastic." — The People of Jamaica
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though chequered by failure, than to take rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." — Theodore Roosevelt
"I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." — Thomas Edison
"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." — Thomas Paine
"It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men." — Thucydides
"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it." — Thucydides
"The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage." — Thucydides
"I’ll do what must be done, that only I can do." — Valentine Wiggin
"Extropy: a concept that life, not being limited by entropy, will continue to expand throughout the universe as a result of human intelligence and technology." — wiktionary.org
"I not only think that we will tamper with Mother Nature, I think Mother wants us to." — Willard Gaylin
"Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." — William Faulkner
"The future’s here already. It’s just unevenly distributed." — William Gibson
How To Manage Oneself by A.K. Krishna Nambiar
It is interesting and useful to know about the functioning of our body. It is also equally interesting to know that our heart is said to be the seat of ‘Jivatma’ or the individual self which is the basis of every life. The Physical Science reveals that the purifying process of our blood and pumping of the pure blood to every part of our body which is absolutely needed for its survival is taking place every moment without any interruption. We breathe in air through our nostrils or mouth and the oxygen which is needed to purify the blood is used and the impure air or carbon dioxide is thrown out through our nostrils or mouth at least once in every second. This process goes on even while we are sleeping; it happens by the grace of Mother Nature.
At the same time, it is also our spiritual understanding that the power which is making this process working within is a spark of spirituality, which is called Soul or Atma or self. There is no death for this spark and it cannot be destroyed by any means. It exercised Its own free will to come in a body and leave the same. When It comes in a body, we call it birth and when It leaves the body we call death. When It continues to remain in a body It helps the growth of it. When It leaves the abode it causes the body to degenerate. Therefore the Soul or Atma or Self is the real sustainer of this physical body. After It leaves the body It goes back to its source. This body which is made of five elements, namely Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space goes back to its source, i.e., the subtle elements known as ‘Tanmatras’, under Natural Law.
In order to make progress in spiritual life, one of the techniques used by spiritual aspirants is ‘Pranayama’ or breath control. In this process, breathing is regulated to purify the heart. The heart becomes an important centre of this purificatory process. Through this method purification of the heart is obtained gradually.
In order to empty impurities from the heart, desires for sensual pleasures, all impurities such as lust, greed, anger, fear are thrown out along with the outgoing breath. Truth, Non-injury, continence, absence of a tendency to grab others’ wealth, contentment etc., are taken in along with inward breath which helps a practitioner to maintain smooth functioning of his heart.
In order to make progress in spiritual life, the spiritual aspirant makes his deity sit in his heart which is made pure by doing certain purificatory process such as repeating the name of his favourite deity seated in the heart and concentrating and meditating on It. This enables him to expand his spiritual thought originated from the heart, the seat of self, in absolute purity. This helps an individual to integrate his thoughts, words and actions to enable him to make further and further progress till he attains the goal of realising spirituality.
There are two important things in this life. One thing is this body. The other one is the soul or Atma or Self, which is the Deathless source of life in every body. Now every individual who has a physical form on which his or her entire personality depends, should keep this form in a healthy condition so long as the self remains within the individual form, so that it can be used for further progress in spiritual life. Therefore, one should know the art of managing the above-mentioned two aspects in life so that individual life becomes healthy and happy.
Why is this management of oneself needed? Nowadays, professionals who are well-versed in their own subject are seeking an additional qualification in management. A scientist feels that he should possess the knowledge of managing his own work and so is the case with a Medical Doctor, who wants to know how to manage a hospital, or an engineer who wants to manage an Industrial establishment or an Administrator who wants to manage an Office. Therefore Management studies are made popular in all the universities to raise all-round efficiency in many professions, carried out in a fiercely competitive world.
It is proved beyond doubt that better management either of government of any country or a business establishment or an Industrial establishment or a spiritual establishment or an individual’s own house brings on better efficiency which ultimately brings in the progress of a country and the well-being of living beings at large. When we consider the problems and techniques of management, it is always done by human beings and it is man that remains as the backbone ofthis process. Therefore the management of human beings is not only important, but also a necessity for a better life.
In order to manage an industrial, business or any other establishment, the activities reorganised under various heads like Personnel, Works, Sales, Accounts etc. But these activities are managed by Man, Money, Material, Marketing and Management. This ensures efficiency, discipline and progress in any business concern. Where it is not properly managed, the progress is always retarded. In Spiritual Establishments also, the activities are regulated under Service, Devotion, Self-discipline, Dedication, Publishing and Study of Scriptures and Practice of Yoga Exercises and Meditation. In all such activities, their management is placed under the charge of well-qualified persons. This leads to better production or Service by any establishment to ensure economic as well as total Well-being of man and to know how to manage oneself and to make men happy. Swami Sivananda, the Founder-President of the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh, taught a unique and modern method of management under SERVE, LOVE, GIVE, PURIFY, MEDITATE, REALISE, ‘BE GOOD, DO GOOD,’ in order to attain the betterment of the entire living beings and realization of God Almighty by human beings. The Rig Veda Says: “Ekam sat viprah bahudha vadanti” (The One truth is named by the wise in many ways). He is that which is in everybody and in everything in this Universe: this one God manages everybody and everything individually. He manages the microcosm and macrocosm through the Universal Divine Mother Nature and provides us with water, air, fire and space and everything useful for the survival of living beings, in this Universe.
The first one word ‘SERVE’ contains the entire philosophy of action which is known as ‘Karma Yoga’ as mentioned in various Scriptures, the essence of which is ‘Yogah karmasu kausalam’—Bh. Gita-Chapter II-50 or ‘Skill in action is Yoga’; and ‘Karmanyevadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana’—Bh. Gita-Chapter II-47 or ‘You are only to perform your duty well without thinking of the fruits thereof’. All the good work done by many noble people, saints and sages in this world have been done only in this spirit. The Great Saint Vasishtha asked Sri Rama to do his duties well in a spirit of ‘Purushartha’ or personal effort. Nobody can prosper in this world without properly serving oneself or others. When a man recognises that that which is in him is also in everybody else in this world, it becomes easy for him to really understand the spirit of ‘SERVE’.
The next word is ‘LOVE’. Everybody in this world owes allegiance to Love as we come into existence on account of the Love of God. Love thy neighbour as thyself is a quotation from the Bible. Because God loves us, He has provided everything essential for our survival in this world. This is done in a spirit of Love only and therefore we are to love God, as well as His Creations. Solid, Liquid, Light, Air and Space which are needed for keeping our life to continue are always there in this universe to meet our requirements. There is no lust in pure Love which we get from God, our Creator; we are to learn to love everybody alike. When we cultivate ‘SERVE’ and ‘LOVE’ in its true spirit, we become part and parcel of a society where do good and be good alone govern the social quality cultivated by each member of such a society. In this manner the entire humanity can become happy.
‘GIVE’ means sharing what one has with others who are in need of it. It should be done within one’s means, without expecting anything in return. When charity is done in this spirit, purification of mind comes to oneself easily. A pure mind alone can do meditation on God who is actually keeping us alive, living within one’s heart as the Self. We are bound to realise God in and through meditation in daily life which is made pure by serving and loving others, thus observing ‘Be good and do good’. Therefore what Swami Sivananda asked everyone of us through his spiritual instructions, conveyed in a few words, namely, SERVE, LOVE, GIVE, PURIFY, MEDITATE, REALISE, BE GOOD and DO GOOD is Yoga in itself. Swami Sivananda’s aim was to make the entire humanity healthy, happy and prosperous in life in and through cultivation of spiritual values of life to realise God in this very life.
Life Activity Nexus
In this process, life and activities are to be considered complementary and never contradictory. Better and integrated management of any institution or oneself is truly possible only in this spirit. How could one attain management of oneself? It is the co-ordination of various aspects that build lasting and better results as quickly as possible. And at the same time it remains a continuing process till one becomes sure that a perfect and well-integrated management of oneself has been attained. In fact, when these remain so, there is no contradiction in thought, word and action; there develops a dynamic force within one capable of directing an integrated personality to any problem entirely, to find a satisfactory solution to any problem without the least difficulty.
Let us now examine the various aspects that need attention in life. Every living being has a body and as such proper care of the physical self is the first necessity. Next one is how one makes use when he comes in contact with other bodies. It is what governs the social aspect of one’s self. The emotional aspect governs feelings like love, devotion etc. The ethical aspects decide the behavioural norms, towards other beings. The intellectual aspect helps to increase the power to discriminate what is good and what is bad. Finally the spiritual aspect generates awareness of happiness and peace not only in oneself, but also in all other fellow-beings.
The Physical Basis
Every one of us should try to possess a healthy body. Food, exercise and rest play an important role in maintaining a healthy body. Taste, place and time determine the food requirements. There are some who like the taste of vegetarian food. In a place like Kashmir or the North Pole, the requirement of food is different from that of a place like Rajasthan or Central Africa. A young boy has to have less food than a grown-up man and the requirement changes from time to time according to winter or summer. However one thing is common to all, i.e., moderation in food habits. Over-eating and under-eating are the causes of ill-health in most cases. If one eats only when one is hungry and drinks only when one is thirsty, one can retain a good physique. The solid food should be pure and must be properly chewed before it goes into the stomach. What one eats is more important than what quantity he eats. The food should be wholesome and should contain protein, fat and carbohydrates in adequate proportion. Under normal circumstances the intake of solid food should be limited to half the stomach and the liquid one to one-fourth of it. The water one drinks should be pure. If the water happens to be impure, it should be properly boiled before it is drunk. After a full meal, one should have the feeling that he has left one-fourth of the stomach empty for proper ventilation. This must make one feel at ease after a full meal, taken peacefully.
Proper exercise for the body is essential to maintain its health. It should be done intelligently according to one’s own convenience and time at one’s disposal either in his own house or in a playground in moderation. There are some people who prefer Yogic exercise for half-an hour a day. Many others play games like tennis, cricket, hockey, football etc., for two or three hours every day. Though all these are good, it becomes harmful to oneself when he neglects to do it regularly. Over exercise produces fatigue while under exercise causes laziness, if not dullness. Moderation makes the body healthy and mind alert.
Rest is an art in itself. One should know how to relax. It is not only a state in which one remains sleeping doing nothing, but also the way in which it is done that matters. An hour of sound sleep is far better than hours spent in bed in a disturbed half-sleep. The state of the mind when relaxed also matters a lot since it determines the quality of the rest that one enjoys. If the mind is free from causes of worry while at rest, one is capable of being completely relaxed. It is possible to do so by thorough tuning it with sublime thoughts generated by repeating the names of Gods in one’s own Faith. For that matter ‘Savasana’ is the best pose for physical and mental relaxation. Lie supine on a soft blanket or carpet. Stretch the legs straight keeping the hands closed while the toes remain separated. Keep the hands on both sides of the body. Close the eyes and relax all organs, muscles, nerves etc. Breathe slowly. Now repeat any prayer or name of your personal god according to your faith. Do it mentally. Do not sleep in this pose, but meditate or concentrate gently with a feeling of purity, spiritual or self awareness.
Be Other Centred
Social quality is inherent in every being. Awareness of the fact that man is not only living for the good of himself, but also for the good of others is essential to make the good out of this concept of life. Needless to stress that that is one way to make the best of oneself. It is only a man with such an attitude who can help others. It is practice oriented. The lives of many industrialists, businessman, philanthropists, saints etc., prove that the highest form of social quality is to work for the betterment of others without expecting anything in return. Recently in our own country Mother Theresa demonstrated the use of the social aspect by looking after many people who were dying in the streets of our big cities for want of food and medical attention. This is still fresh in our memory and every individual can emulate this example of selfless service within his own capacity.
There cannot be anyone without emotion. The feeling generated in oneself is emotion. Feelings are generated when one comes into contact with objects and subjects. Feeling of love towards fellow beings is inherent in everyone. The feeling to adore something (God in most cases) is also ingrained in man. Anything that is emotional in man can be improved upon or altered by oneself. Surroundings, circumstances and contacts help to improve the emotive aspect. Emotions can be discriminated and controlled before being acted upon for the overall improvement in one’s personality. The experience of one’s self makes the emotion subside in knowledge and integrate the emotive and intellectual aspects in one’s self.
Moral Values
The ethical aspect regulates the behaviour in oneself. Where this quality is absent, one’s behaviour causes disturbance in society. To maintain the necessary rhythm in the proper functioning of society, proper attention to this fundamental aspect is necessary. Laws of ethics have been formulated by man for the good of society as a well-organised group of men and every member of it owes a certain responsibility towards it. It may vary from place to place and group to group. But wherever it is disregarded or violated confusion is bound to prevail.
What Is Intelligence?
Intelligence is the quality of a higher mind. It is steadily acquired by the conscientious integration of theory and practice. A really intelligent man uses this quality and overcomes all disturbances which cause unhappiness in life or in his social ramifications. The ability to discriminate is the means employed by the intelligent man to triumph over his difficulties. For that matter a knowledgeable and well-experienced man is an asset to any institution or establishment, since he is able to arrive at a decision that may do good to him as well as to others. When other qualities are neglected, intelligence gets perverted and does the individual more harm than good. It therefore goes without saying that intelligence has to be integrated with other qualities. A truly intelligent mind is capable of deciding what is good and what is bad for itself as well as for society at large with a correct analysis of the pros and cons behind every question.
The spiritual aspect is the final one. All of us are essentially spiritual. The presence of that Power which exists in oneself, but which is unknown, is the spiritual aspect in man. When all other qualities are fully developed and man is completely satisfied with himself, he becomes aware of the ESSENCE which is inherent in him.
In order to attain this, one has to direct all other attendant qualities to work simultaneously towards this. A man possesses a healthy physique. He is well-set socially and ethically. He has integrated his intellect and emotions and is quite capable of arriving at just and proper decisions relating to his work. Notwithstanding such attainments something that lurks within craves for fulfilment. It is here that he finds refuge in the spiritual aspect and tries to direct all other qualities towards the spirit within him. True happiness descends on him only when he becomes conscious of the spirit within.
In order to develop this awareness of oneself Nature has provided man with another aspect of this life, known in common parlance as the mind. This mind is always struggling within us to know as to what is oneself as also on what basis it has been set in this universe. This is because man has by his own effort garnered the knowledge that his physique has been structured out of the five elements, i.e., earth (solid), water, (liquid), fire (gas), air (oxygen), space-mind and the self. It works harmoniously in and through the inbuilt provided for all by Nature. He also observes even with his naked eyes that the whole universe is also working harmoniously on a bigger scale employing the very stuff, i.e., Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Cosmic space and an overself or unmanifested Spirituality. Individually it is termed as the microcosm where the Atma or Self is the basis. The manifested Universe is a natural Product and functions under the fundamental laws formulated by Nature. The unmanifested spirituality remains unaffected by changes taking place in this universe under the laws of physics.
It may therefore be observe that the unmanifested Spirituality never changes, but ever remains in Cosmic consciousness. Under Natural Laws, it is possible for an individual to realise, both the Self and the Unmanifested spirituality using the mind in its conscious state and Cosmic consciousness, respectively, step by step; one after the other. This is because while oneself remains in the consciousness of an individual, the unmanifested spirituality remains in Cosmic Consciousness, as one without a second for all and at all times.
It is therefore obvious that in case an individual wants to realise his own Self, he should seek Him in his heart as Self or with a feeling that God in the form of his personal deity is seated therein and that he must concentrate and meditate on Him. However God abides only where Purity abides. Hence a seeker after Self should ensure that his body, heart and mind are pure. It is through the practice of a daily purificatory process as laid down for us by our Saints and Sages that one can purify oneself.
We were all born at a particular time and are growing in every moment in time. We are also very well aware that we shall all end at a particular time. Hence, each individual in point, is time only since each life-span remains within a particular or appointed time only. This happens to every living being on earth. When a body ceases to perform its vital functions, we term it as death. As death seizes us, our body made up of five elements returns to its source, referred to as ‘Tanmatras’. The Self or soul or Atma which entered into our body when our mother conceived us returns to its spiritual source. And Modern Science also tells us that nothing in this world gets destroyed completely; it only gets transformed into a subtle form, invisible to the naked eyes.
Death is a backward movement towards the Deathless source of our life known as Atma and Tanmatras. This Atma can never be destroyed in any way, (Bhagavad Gita. ch. II-23, 24). A personal effort to remain in tune with this backward movement towards the Deathless source of life, while an individual is alive is called spiritual life. There are various methods and techniques to maintain this spiritual course and they vary from individual to individual. But all are complementary and help a Spiritual Practitioner to develop and maintain his concentration on a single point and thus meditate on the Self within. In this way when the self-surrender is attained by the Grace of the Guru or God, one attains the State which can be referred to as ‘Spirit over Matter’. This is what Patanjali Maharshi in his Yoga Sutra refers to as ‘Pratiprasava’ (backward movement) Patanjali Yoga Sutra Ch. IV. 4. This expands in an earnest seeker after truth and expands in life-space. This experience, i.e. ‘Spirit over Matter’ expands, spreads into higher realms slowly, but steadily even as ‘nimisha’ expands into a second, second into minute and minute into hour, thus passing on with expansion from hour into day, day into fortnight, fortnight into month, month into a year, year into a century, century in Yuga, Yuga in Kalpa. And Kalpa expands in the Cosmic form of God, that is Space. The whole Universe consisting of Suns, Moons, Stars, Planets, animate and inanimate things are created and contained in space, by the will of God. This Self is to be abjectly surrendered at the Lotus feet of the Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent God.
It then assumes a completed integrated state of Universal Pure, Natural, Expanded, Spiritual Awareness in Chittakasa or mind-space wherein Spirit and matter are integrated in Love. Even so do father and mother, husband and wife, Siva and Sakti, Narayana and Lakshmi, Brahma and Saraswati, Rama and Sita, Radha and Krishna, Father in Heaven and His son, Allah and His creations, Subramanya and Valli and so on—examples can be multiplied, but not necessary a never-ended stream, all integrated by love. The thinking that continuously permeate through our brain when alert and the feelings that crowd our heart-it goes without saying are also, for that matter closely integrated, in Love. As has already been stated earlier, this awareness develops in the seeker after Truth by the grace of his Guru or God, causing him to see and feel everything manifesting as Cosmic Love.
In this state of mind-space or Chittakasa, one’s pure mind comprehends the truth conveyed in the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter X-20; Lord Krishna tells Gudakesha or Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra that He as the Self is present in all the elements and the very same Self is the beginning, the middle and the end of all elements in this Universe.
As such, one feels Lord Krishna’s presence in everything and everywhere in this set up in and through one’s own self and sing ‘Sarvam Krishnamayam Pasyantam’ ‘Krishna Krishna’ iti Sada japantam’. In this way one feels the presence of Krishna everywhere; hence he sings mentally ‘Krishna, Krishna’ at all times even when he is fast asleep. This becomes possible for a Spiritual Practitioner only when he acquires a mind and a heart, absolutely pure or free from any blemish, one like the ‘Gudakesha’ with perfect control over his mind even when he is asleep.
Similarly, devotees of their own personal deities can install it in their pure heart and sing ‘Sarvam Sri Guru-mayam Pasyantam, Sri Guru . . . Sri Guru iti Sada japantam’ or ‘Sarvam Rama-mayam Pasyantam, Rama, Rama iti Sada japantam’ or ‘Sarvam Siva-mayam Pasyantam Siva, Siva iti Sada japantam’ or ‘Sarvam Sakti-mayam Pasyantam, Sakti, Sakti iti Sada Japantam’ or ‘Sarvam Subramanya-mayam Pasyantam, Subramanya, Subramanya iti Sada Japantam’ or ‘Sarvam Surya-mayam Pasyantam, Surya, Surya iti Sada Japantam,’ thus one is completely free to worship any God or Goddess in his spiritual path as the Ultimate Reality or Spirituality that created this Universe under Its Free Will. The spark of this Free Will alone will make us worship Him as our own Self. Under the Natural Law there are three qualities inherent in every human being. These three qualities are Sattva (Purity), Rajas (Activity) and Tamas (Inertia). Every individual is prompted to act when he is under the influence of one of these qualities predominant in him. In this way evolution of every human being takes place under an impartial Law which guarantees just and proper reward for an individual’s actions under the Law of Nature. Thus good actions lead to good results and bad actions to bad results to the doer concerned. When one undertakes a Spiritual Venture that is intuitional in character, one has to pass through five different states of the mind. The first state is the awakened one or the conscious state. Next is the Dream or sub-conscious state. When we are awake we see everything around us limited by the power of our sense organs, while as we dream, we gravitate between the awakened and the dream states, since we do not dream when we are either in the awakened or in the ‘deep-sleep state’ which is the third state the mind passes through a state in which we are not normally aware of anything that happens around us. In order to pass beyond this state one has to have complete control over one’s ‘deep sleep state’ like ‘Gudakesa’. Such a state is the ‘Turiya’ or the ‘state transcendental’ or the ‘Serene and Blessed state’ that the Mystic Poets and Saints like Sri Aurobindo are reported to have experienced. It is the Natural Law that controls the entry into the ‘Turiya State’. This entry is possible only to one who has completely purified the mind. ‘Turiya is absolutely intuitional’ and can be experienced only in meditation or sequestered contemplation. The fifth state is ‘Turiyatita’. The great Saints and Sages remained in ‘Turiyatita’ when they attained a mindless-space (Chidakasa) in Cosmic Consciousness. Here the Self or the one ceases to function since the ‘mind-space’ transforms itself into mindless-space in unmitigated Spirituality, that never manifests itself. In this state, there is no question of return to the oneself, since it becomes one with the source by the Grace of Unmanifested spirituality.
Attainment of the capacity to manage oneself is therefore not a negative approach, but an entirely positive one. It enables a person to develop an ‘integrated personality’ which in its turn helps the dynamic and scientifically-oriented man of the present-day to acquire the spiritual wisdom—the sine qua non for harmonious personality, a relaxed heart and an enlightened soul in the midst of all the pleasures and pains brought about by science in a sweating, struggling and fiercely competitive world. To conclude, such an integrated personality is necessary not only for the individual, but also for all living beings moving around him. ‘Let the entire world be happy; even so shall I be happy.’
At the same time, it is also our spiritual understanding that the power which is making this process working within is a spark of spirituality, which is called Soul or Atma or self. There is no death for this spark and it cannot be destroyed by any means. It exercised Its own free will to come in a body and leave the same. When It comes in a body, we call it birth and when It leaves the body we call death. When It continues to remain in a body It helps the growth of it. When It leaves the abode it causes the body to degenerate. Therefore the Soul or Atma or Self is the real sustainer of this physical body. After It leaves the body It goes back to its source. This body which is made of five elements, namely Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space goes back to its source, i.e., the subtle elements known as ‘Tanmatras’, under Natural Law.
In order to make progress in spiritual life, one of the techniques used by spiritual aspirants is ‘Pranayama’ or breath control. In this process, breathing is regulated to purify the heart. The heart becomes an important centre of this purificatory process. Through this method purification of the heart is obtained gradually.
In order to empty impurities from the heart, desires for sensual pleasures, all impurities such as lust, greed, anger, fear are thrown out along with the outgoing breath. Truth, Non-injury, continence, absence of a tendency to grab others’ wealth, contentment etc., are taken in along with inward breath which helps a practitioner to maintain smooth functioning of his heart.
In order to make progress in spiritual life, the spiritual aspirant makes his deity sit in his heart which is made pure by doing certain purificatory process such as repeating the name of his favourite deity seated in the heart and concentrating and meditating on It. This enables him to expand his spiritual thought originated from the heart, the seat of self, in absolute purity. This helps an individual to integrate his thoughts, words and actions to enable him to make further and further progress till he attains the goal of realising spirituality.
There are two important things in this life. One thing is this body. The other one is the soul or Atma or Self, which is the Deathless source of life in every body. Now every individual who has a physical form on which his or her entire personality depends, should keep this form in a healthy condition so long as the self remains within the individual form, so that it can be used for further progress in spiritual life. Therefore, one should know the art of managing the above-mentioned two aspects in life so that individual life becomes healthy and happy.
Why is this management of oneself needed? Nowadays, professionals who are well-versed in their own subject are seeking an additional qualification in management. A scientist feels that he should possess the knowledge of managing his own work and so is the case with a Medical Doctor, who wants to know how to manage a hospital, or an engineer who wants to manage an Industrial establishment or an Administrator who wants to manage an Office. Therefore Management studies are made popular in all the universities to raise all-round efficiency in many professions, carried out in a fiercely competitive world.
It is proved beyond doubt that better management either of government of any country or a business establishment or an Industrial establishment or a spiritual establishment or an individual’s own house brings on better efficiency which ultimately brings in the progress of a country and the well-being of living beings at large. When we consider the problems and techniques of management, it is always done by human beings and it is man that remains as the backbone ofthis process. Therefore the management of human beings is not only important, but also a necessity for a better life.
In order to manage an industrial, business or any other establishment, the activities reorganised under various heads like Personnel, Works, Sales, Accounts etc. But these activities are managed by Man, Money, Material, Marketing and Management. This ensures efficiency, discipline and progress in any business concern. Where it is not properly managed, the progress is always retarded. In Spiritual Establishments also, the activities are regulated under Service, Devotion, Self-discipline, Dedication, Publishing and Study of Scriptures and Practice of Yoga Exercises and Meditation. In all such activities, their management is placed under the charge of well-qualified persons. This leads to better production or Service by any establishment to ensure economic as well as total Well-being of man and to know how to manage oneself and to make men happy. Swami Sivananda, the Founder-President of the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh, taught a unique and modern method of management under SERVE, LOVE, GIVE, PURIFY, MEDITATE, REALISE, ‘BE GOOD, DO GOOD,’ in order to attain the betterment of the entire living beings and realization of God Almighty by human beings. The Rig Veda Says: “Ekam sat viprah bahudha vadanti” (The One truth is named by the wise in many ways). He is that which is in everybody and in everything in this Universe: this one God manages everybody and everything individually. He manages the microcosm and macrocosm through the Universal Divine Mother Nature and provides us with water, air, fire and space and everything useful for the survival of living beings, in this Universe.
The first one word ‘SERVE’ contains the entire philosophy of action which is known as ‘Karma Yoga’ as mentioned in various Scriptures, the essence of which is ‘Yogah karmasu kausalam’—Bh. Gita-Chapter II-50 or ‘Skill in action is Yoga’; and ‘Karmanyevadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana’—Bh. Gita-Chapter II-47 or ‘You are only to perform your duty well without thinking of the fruits thereof’. All the good work done by many noble people, saints and sages in this world have been done only in this spirit. The Great Saint Vasishtha asked Sri Rama to do his duties well in a spirit of ‘Purushartha’ or personal effort. Nobody can prosper in this world without properly serving oneself or others. When a man recognises that that which is in him is also in everybody else in this world, it becomes easy for him to really understand the spirit of ‘SERVE’.
The next word is ‘LOVE’. Everybody in this world owes allegiance to Love as we come into existence on account of the Love of God. Love thy neighbour as thyself is a quotation from the Bible. Because God loves us, He has provided everything essential for our survival in this world. This is done in a spirit of Love only and therefore we are to love God, as well as His Creations. Solid, Liquid, Light, Air and Space which are needed for keeping our life to continue are always there in this universe to meet our requirements. There is no lust in pure Love which we get from God, our Creator; we are to learn to love everybody alike. When we cultivate ‘SERVE’ and ‘LOVE’ in its true spirit, we become part and parcel of a society where do good and be good alone govern the social quality cultivated by each member of such a society. In this manner the entire humanity can become happy.
‘GIVE’ means sharing what one has with others who are in need of it. It should be done within one’s means, without expecting anything in return. When charity is done in this spirit, purification of mind comes to oneself easily. A pure mind alone can do meditation on God who is actually keeping us alive, living within one’s heart as the Self. We are bound to realise God in and through meditation in daily life which is made pure by serving and loving others, thus observing ‘Be good and do good’. Therefore what Swami Sivananda asked everyone of us through his spiritual instructions, conveyed in a few words, namely, SERVE, LOVE, GIVE, PURIFY, MEDITATE, REALISE, BE GOOD and DO GOOD is Yoga in itself. Swami Sivananda’s aim was to make the entire humanity healthy, happy and prosperous in life in and through cultivation of spiritual values of life to realise God in this very life.
Life Activity Nexus
In this process, life and activities are to be considered complementary and never contradictory. Better and integrated management of any institution or oneself is truly possible only in this spirit. How could one attain management of oneself? It is the co-ordination of various aspects that build lasting and better results as quickly as possible. And at the same time it remains a continuing process till one becomes sure that a perfect and well-integrated management of oneself has been attained. In fact, when these remain so, there is no contradiction in thought, word and action; there develops a dynamic force within one capable of directing an integrated personality to any problem entirely, to find a satisfactory solution to any problem without the least difficulty.
Let us now examine the various aspects that need attention in life. Every living being has a body and as such proper care of the physical self is the first necessity. Next one is how one makes use when he comes in contact with other bodies. It is what governs the social aspect of one’s self. The emotional aspect governs feelings like love, devotion etc. The ethical aspects decide the behavioural norms, towards other beings. The intellectual aspect helps to increase the power to discriminate what is good and what is bad. Finally the spiritual aspect generates awareness of happiness and peace not only in oneself, but also in all other fellow-beings.
The Physical Basis
Every one of us should try to possess a healthy body. Food, exercise and rest play an important role in maintaining a healthy body. Taste, place and time determine the food requirements. There are some who like the taste of vegetarian food. In a place like Kashmir or the North Pole, the requirement of food is different from that of a place like Rajasthan or Central Africa. A young boy has to have less food than a grown-up man and the requirement changes from time to time according to winter or summer. However one thing is common to all, i.e., moderation in food habits. Over-eating and under-eating are the causes of ill-health in most cases. If one eats only when one is hungry and drinks only when one is thirsty, one can retain a good physique. The solid food should be pure and must be properly chewed before it goes into the stomach. What one eats is more important than what quantity he eats. The food should be wholesome and should contain protein, fat and carbohydrates in adequate proportion. Under normal circumstances the intake of solid food should be limited to half the stomach and the liquid one to one-fourth of it. The water one drinks should be pure. If the water happens to be impure, it should be properly boiled before it is drunk. After a full meal, one should have the feeling that he has left one-fourth of the stomach empty for proper ventilation. This must make one feel at ease after a full meal, taken peacefully.
Proper exercise for the body is essential to maintain its health. It should be done intelligently according to one’s own convenience and time at one’s disposal either in his own house or in a playground in moderation. There are some people who prefer Yogic exercise for half-an hour a day. Many others play games like tennis, cricket, hockey, football etc., for two or three hours every day. Though all these are good, it becomes harmful to oneself when he neglects to do it regularly. Over exercise produces fatigue while under exercise causes laziness, if not dullness. Moderation makes the body healthy and mind alert.
Rest is an art in itself. One should know how to relax. It is not only a state in which one remains sleeping doing nothing, but also the way in which it is done that matters. An hour of sound sleep is far better than hours spent in bed in a disturbed half-sleep. The state of the mind when relaxed also matters a lot since it determines the quality of the rest that one enjoys. If the mind is free from causes of worry while at rest, one is capable of being completely relaxed. It is possible to do so by thorough tuning it with sublime thoughts generated by repeating the names of Gods in one’s own Faith. For that matter ‘Savasana’ is the best pose for physical and mental relaxation. Lie supine on a soft blanket or carpet. Stretch the legs straight keeping the hands closed while the toes remain separated. Keep the hands on both sides of the body. Close the eyes and relax all organs, muscles, nerves etc. Breathe slowly. Now repeat any prayer or name of your personal god according to your faith. Do it mentally. Do not sleep in this pose, but meditate or concentrate gently with a feeling of purity, spiritual or self awareness.
Be Other Centred
Social quality is inherent in every being. Awareness of the fact that man is not only living for the good of himself, but also for the good of others is essential to make the good out of this concept of life. Needless to stress that that is one way to make the best of oneself. It is only a man with such an attitude who can help others. It is practice oriented. The lives of many industrialists, businessman, philanthropists, saints etc., prove that the highest form of social quality is to work for the betterment of others without expecting anything in return. Recently in our own country Mother Theresa demonstrated the use of the social aspect by looking after many people who were dying in the streets of our big cities for want of food and medical attention. This is still fresh in our memory and every individual can emulate this example of selfless service within his own capacity.
There cannot be anyone without emotion. The feeling generated in oneself is emotion. Feelings are generated when one comes into contact with objects and subjects. Feeling of love towards fellow beings is inherent in everyone. The feeling to adore something (God in most cases) is also ingrained in man. Anything that is emotional in man can be improved upon or altered by oneself. Surroundings, circumstances and contacts help to improve the emotive aspect. Emotions can be discriminated and controlled before being acted upon for the overall improvement in one’s personality. The experience of one’s self makes the emotion subside in knowledge and integrate the emotive and intellectual aspects in one’s self.
Moral Values
The ethical aspect regulates the behaviour in oneself. Where this quality is absent, one’s behaviour causes disturbance in society. To maintain the necessary rhythm in the proper functioning of society, proper attention to this fundamental aspect is necessary. Laws of ethics have been formulated by man for the good of society as a well-organised group of men and every member of it owes a certain responsibility towards it. It may vary from place to place and group to group. But wherever it is disregarded or violated confusion is bound to prevail.
What Is Intelligence?
Intelligence is the quality of a higher mind. It is steadily acquired by the conscientious integration of theory and practice. A really intelligent man uses this quality and overcomes all disturbances which cause unhappiness in life or in his social ramifications. The ability to discriminate is the means employed by the intelligent man to triumph over his difficulties. For that matter a knowledgeable and well-experienced man is an asset to any institution or establishment, since he is able to arrive at a decision that may do good to him as well as to others. When other qualities are neglected, intelligence gets perverted and does the individual more harm than good. It therefore goes without saying that intelligence has to be integrated with other qualities. A truly intelligent mind is capable of deciding what is good and what is bad for itself as well as for society at large with a correct analysis of the pros and cons behind every question.
The spiritual aspect is the final one. All of us are essentially spiritual. The presence of that Power which exists in oneself, but which is unknown, is the spiritual aspect in man. When all other qualities are fully developed and man is completely satisfied with himself, he becomes aware of the ESSENCE which is inherent in him.
In order to attain this, one has to direct all other attendant qualities to work simultaneously towards this. A man possesses a healthy physique. He is well-set socially and ethically. He has integrated his intellect and emotions and is quite capable of arriving at just and proper decisions relating to his work. Notwithstanding such attainments something that lurks within craves for fulfilment. It is here that he finds refuge in the spiritual aspect and tries to direct all other qualities towards the spirit within him. True happiness descends on him only when he becomes conscious of the spirit within.
In order to develop this awareness of oneself Nature has provided man with another aspect of this life, known in common parlance as the mind. This mind is always struggling within us to know as to what is oneself as also on what basis it has been set in this universe. This is because man has by his own effort garnered the knowledge that his physique has been structured out of the five elements, i.e., earth (solid), water, (liquid), fire (gas), air (oxygen), space-mind and the self. It works harmoniously in and through the inbuilt provided for all by Nature. He also observes even with his naked eyes that the whole universe is also working harmoniously on a bigger scale employing the very stuff, i.e., Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Cosmic space and an overself or unmanifested Spirituality. Individually it is termed as the microcosm where the Atma or Self is the basis. The manifested Universe is a natural Product and functions under the fundamental laws formulated by Nature. The unmanifested spirituality remains unaffected by changes taking place in this universe under the laws of physics.
It may therefore be observe that the unmanifested Spirituality never changes, but ever remains in Cosmic consciousness. Under Natural Laws, it is possible for an individual to realise, both the Self and the Unmanifested spirituality using the mind in its conscious state and Cosmic consciousness, respectively, step by step; one after the other. This is because while oneself remains in the consciousness of an individual, the unmanifested spirituality remains in Cosmic Consciousness, as one without a second for all and at all times.
It is therefore obvious that in case an individual wants to realise his own Self, he should seek Him in his heart as Self or with a feeling that God in the form of his personal deity is seated therein and that he must concentrate and meditate on Him. However God abides only where Purity abides. Hence a seeker after Self should ensure that his body, heart and mind are pure. It is through the practice of a daily purificatory process as laid down for us by our Saints and Sages that one can purify oneself.
We were all born at a particular time and are growing in every moment in time. We are also very well aware that we shall all end at a particular time. Hence, each individual in point, is time only since each life-span remains within a particular or appointed time only. This happens to every living being on earth. When a body ceases to perform its vital functions, we term it as death. As death seizes us, our body made up of five elements returns to its source, referred to as ‘Tanmatras’. The Self or soul or Atma which entered into our body when our mother conceived us returns to its spiritual source. And Modern Science also tells us that nothing in this world gets destroyed completely; it only gets transformed into a subtle form, invisible to the naked eyes.
Death is a backward movement towards the Deathless source of our life known as Atma and Tanmatras. This Atma can never be destroyed in any way, (Bhagavad Gita. ch. II-23, 24). A personal effort to remain in tune with this backward movement towards the Deathless source of life, while an individual is alive is called spiritual life. There are various methods and techniques to maintain this spiritual course and they vary from individual to individual. But all are complementary and help a Spiritual Practitioner to develop and maintain his concentration on a single point and thus meditate on the Self within. In this way when the self-surrender is attained by the Grace of the Guru or God, one attains the State which can be referred to as ‘Spirit over Matter’. This is what Patanjali Maharshi in his Yoga Sutra refers to as ‘Pratiprasava’ (backward movement) Patanjali Yoga Sutra Ch. IV. 4. This expands in an earnest seeker after truth and expands in life-space. This experience, i.e. ‘Spirit over Matter’ expands, spreads into higher realms slowly, but steadily even as ‘nimisha’ expands into a second, second into minute and minute into hour, thus passing on with expansion from hour into day, day into fortnight, fortnight into month, month into a year, year into a century, century in Yuga, Yuga in Kalpa. And Kalpa expands in the Cosmic form of God, that is Space. The whole Universe consisting of Suns, Moons, Stars, Planets, animate and inanimate things are created and contained in space, by the will of God. This Self is to be abjectly surrendered at the Lotus feet of the Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent God.
It then assumes a completed integrated state of Universal Pure, Natural, Expanded, Spiritual Awareness in Chittakasa or mind-space wherein Spirit and matter are integrated in Love. Even so do father and mother, husband and wife, Siva and Sakti, Narayana and Lakshmi, Brahma and Saraswati, Rama and Sita, Radha and Krishna, Father in Heaven and His son, Allah and His creations, Subramanya and Valli and so on—examples can be multiplied, but not necessary a never-ended stream, all integrated by love. The thinking that continuously permeate through our brain when alert and the feelings that crowd our heart-it goes without saying are also, for that matter closely integrated, in Love. As has already been stated earlier, this awareness develops in the seeker after Truth by the grace of his Guru or God, causing him to see and feel everything manifesting as Cosmic Love.
In this state of mind-space or Chittakasa, one’s pure mind comprehends the truth conveyed in the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter X-20; Lord Krishna tells Gudakesha or Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra that He as the Self is present in all the elements and the very same Self is the beginning, the middle and the end of all elements in this Universe.
As such, one feels Lord Krishna’s presence in everything and everywhere in this set up in and through one’s own self and sing ‘Sarvam Krishnamayam Pasyantam’ ‘Krishna Krishna’ iti Sada japantam’. In this way one feels the presence of Krishna everywhere; hence he sings mentally ‘Krishna, Krishna’ at all times even when he is fast asleep. This becomes possible for a Spiritual Practitioner only when he acquires a mind and a heart, absolutely pure or free from any blemish, one like the ‘Gudakesha’ with perfect control over his mind even when he is asleep.
Similarly, devotees of their own personal deities can install it in their pure heart and sing ‘Sarvam Sri Guru-mayam Pasyantam, Sri Guru . . . Sri Guru iti Sada japantam’ or ‘Sarvam Rama-mayam Pasyantam, Rama, Rama iti Sada japantam’ or ‘Sarvam Siva-mayam Pasyantam Siva, Siva iti Sada japantam’ or ‘Sarvam Sakti-mayam Pasyantam, Sakti, Sakti iti Sada Japantam’ or ‘Sarvam Subramanya-mayam Pasyantam, Subramanya, Subramanya iti Sada Japantam’ or ‘Sarvam Surya-mayam Pasyantam, Surya, Surya iti Sada Japantam,’ thus one is completely free to worship any God or Goddess in his spiritual path as the Ultimate Reality or Spirituality that created this Universe under Its Free Will. The spark of this Free Will alone will make us worship Him as our own Self. Under the Natural Law there are three qualities inherent in every human being. These three qualities are Sattva (Purity), Rajas (Activity) and Tamas (Inertia). Every individual is prompted to act when he is under the influence of one of these qualities predominant in him. In this way evolution of every human being takes place under an impartial Law which guarantees just and proper reward for an individual’s actions under the Law of Nature. Thus good actions lead to good results and bad actions to bad results to the doer concerned. When one undertakes a Spiritual Venture that is intuitional in character, one has to pass through five different states of the mind. The first state is the awakened one or the conscious state. Next is the Dream or sub-conscious state. When we are awake we see everything around us limited by the power of our sense organs, while as we dream, we gravitate between the awakened and the dream states, since we do not dream when we are either in the awakened or in the ‘deep-sleep state’ which is the third state the mind passes through a state in which we are not normally aware of anything that happens around us. In order to pass beyond this state one has to have complete control over one’s ‘deep sleep state’ like ‘Gudakesa’. Such a state is the ‘Turiya’ or the ‘state transcendental’ or the ‘Serene and Blessed state’ that the Mystic Poets and Saints like Sri Aurobindo are reported to have experienced. It is the Natural Law that controls the entry into the ‘Turiya State’. This entry is possible only to one who has completely purified the mind. ‘Turiya is absolutely intuitional’ and can be experienced only in meditation or sequestered contemplation. The fifth state is ‘Turiyatita’. The great Saints and Sages remained in ‘Turiyatita’ when they attained a mindless-space (Chidakasa) in Cosmic Consciousness. Here the Self or the one ceases to function since the ‘mind-space’ transforms itself into mindless-space in unmitigated Spirituality, that never manifests itself. In this state, there is no question of return to the oneself, since it becomes one with the source by the Grace of Unmanifested spirituality.
Attainment of the capacity to manage oneself is therefore not a negative approach, but an entirely positive one. It enables a person to develop an ‘integrated personality’ which in its turn helps the dynamic and scientifically-oriented man of the present-day to acquire the spiritual wisdom—the sine qua non for harmonious personality, a relaxed heart and an enlightened soul in the midst of all the pleasures and pains brought about by science in a sweating, struggling and fiercely competitive world. To conclude, such an integrated personality is necessary not only for the individual, but also for all living beings moving around him. ‘Let the entire world be happy; even so shall I be happy.’
The Effects of Emotions of Love On Health
The Effects of Emotions on Health
Emotions have a huge affect on the internal workings of your body. You would think that feelings such as sadness and love are emotions that you conjure up in your mind but they actually have an effect on you're whole way of existing. From everything ranging to your interpersonal skills to your molecular make up love and hate change you. Let us say that you find someone attractive and you and that person have been getting along great.
Every time you see them your pupil's dilate as you attempt to focus on their every feature. They are associated with your positive emotions and your mind wants to know what it can about them so it kicks into overtime from the sight of them. However, what you might not be aware of is that when you love someone and have yet to have them these emotions can be overbearing. Your mind not only works triple time but your body starts to change to.
Even your very cells react to this live. When you are in love your cells band together and produce a milky substance between them (no one knows what this is). Therefore, your body changes quickly with the emotion of love. You feel strong, proud and able to conquer the world. When you feel sad your cells run away from each other and move very fast. It is almost as though they don't like each other. Thus you feel sad, weak and worthless. You don't have the strength get out of bed let alone do something productive. Four Main Changes with Emotions:
Psychological: Your feelings of longing and love affect your mind and the way you think. When you are in love you want to go out there and conquer the world. You long for that person and take actions you normally wouldn't do. Your psychological feelings create passion where rationality doesn't always work.
Metabolic: When you're in love your heart races faster, your blood starts moving and you begin to have clouded judgment. This is in part due to the strong emotions. There is only a slight difference between love and fear.
Both of these emotions can create major reactions in your ability physically handle the situation.
Emotions have a huge affect on the internal workings of your body. You would think that feelings such as sadness and love are emotions that you conjure up in your mind but they actually have an effect on you're whole way of existing. From everything ranging to your interpersonal skills to your molecular make up love and hate change you. Let us say that you find someone attractive and you and that person have been getting along great.
Every time you see them your pupil's dilate as you attempt to focus on their every feature. They are associated with your positive emotions and your mind wants to know what it can about them so it kicks into overtime from the sight of them. However, what you might not be aware of is that when you love someone and have yet to have them these emotions can be overbearing. Your mind not only works triple time but your body starts to change to.
Even your very cells react to this live. When you are in love your cells band together and produce a milky substance between them (no one knows what this is). Therefore, your body changes quickly with the emotion of love. You feel strong, proud and able to conquer the world. When you feel sad your cells run away from each other and move very fast. It is almost as though they don't like each other. Thus you feel sad, weak and worthless. You don't have the strength get out of bed let alone do something productive. Four Main Changes with Emotions:
Psychological: Your feelings of longing and love affect your mind and the way you think. When you are in love you want to go out there and conquer the world. You long for that person and take actions you normally wouldn't do. Your psychological feelings create passion where rationality doesn't always work.
Metabolic: When you're in love your heart races faster, your blood starts moving and you begin to have clouded judgment. This is in part due to the strong emotions. There is only a slight difference between love and fear.
Both of these emotions can create major reactions in your ability physically handle the situation.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Respect In Marriage
Respect can sometimes be an old-fashioned word, at times it can be downright annoying because it seems to be the one ingredient that’s been minced, sliced, grated and chopped many times over, especially in relationship and marriage manuals and how-to books.
There’s respect for one’s parents, for society’s traditions, for your neighbor, for other races. And then there’s respect at the workplace, respect for the opinions of your co-workers and respect for a particular culture’s system of values, no matter how these values seem so alien from our own. The frequency with which we talk and analyze respect shows that while it may be an old-fashioned virtue, it still lies at the core of our ability to achieve success and happiness. Not to mention our acceptance, social or otherwise, by others.
Respect begets respect. Respect in marriage is the key to fulfilling relationships and well-bred, considerate children. It may sound rather repetitious and stale, but when there’s respect in a marriage, the integrity of marriage as an institution remains intact. What society needs is the dignity of every man and woman and child multiplied a million times over. If people respected each other and the property of their neighbors, there wouldn’t be any crime. And we would even dare say that if there was respect in marriage, there probably wouldn’t be any divorce.
Oops…maybe we’re stretching that a little, but if we can detect the lack of respect during the courtship stage, we would certainly not commit to a lifetime commitment of married life. So if we refrain from getting into a marriage where you suspect the respect ingredient will be blatantly missing, then there wouldn’t be a compelling need to talk about avoiding divorce since there won’t be a marriage devoid of respect in the first place.
Respect in Marriage - Recognize the Clues
If we were asked to give respect a proper definition, we’d be at a loss for words, only because we don’t have the standard dictionary definition off the top of our heads, but our gut feeling is that we can usually tell when when we are NOT getting any respect. This is why in any relationship, the element of respect should rank high in our decision to marry someone or not.
There are signs, but recognizing them can’t be taught. You just feel it or you don’t. So if you think that you’re not getting it, you don’t dare make any kind of commitment - even if you loved that someone. Because for marriage to survive and withstand the test of time and nerves, you need both love and respect. They go together like a horse and carriage. A marriage will crumble without BOTH.
Respect manifests itself in many ways. It’s in the little things your partner says casually and the little gestures that will tell whether or not there will be respect in marriage.
Here’s a possible checklist of things your antenna should be catching. And if you’re honest with yourself and want true happiness, you won’t make excuses for your beloved’s transgressions, even if he or she is the greatest-looking gal or lad around. Being beautiful does not give anyone the right to be disrespectful of others:
Here goes –
• When talking about family, do you feel your partner deeply respects them and thinks the world of them? Or does your partner tend to air dirty linen much too frequently, revealing intimate details about family members that ought not to be revealed?
• Does your partner arrive punctually for dates and appointments with you, or is there a habitual tardiness accompanied by lame excuses?
• Does your partner make fun of you in public, disregards your opinion and dismisses you as though you were not around when he/she is with friends?
• Does your partner make all decisions on his own without asking you for yours, especially in matters that involve the two of you?
• Does your partner go out of his/her way to please you and say things that make you feel good?
• Does your partner remember birthdays, special occasions, and does something special for you?
• Does your partner recognize your strengths and limitations and offers encouragement instead of belittling you?
• Does your partner show respect for your parents and family?
• Does your partner pry into your personal life too much and asks you embarrassing questions that you’d rather not answer?
No doubt there are a host of other signs (or omens) that will tell you whether you’re going to be enjoying respect or craving for it. You don’t want to have to ask for it, respect is something that should come naturally.
If you feel you don’t get enough of it, and you still go ahead with the marriage, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Many people think marriage would correct a person’s faults. Marriage, being a noble state to be in, unfortunately is not a rehabilitation center. Neither is it a correctional facility. If your partner says things or engages in behavior that puts a big question mark in your mind, don’t expect marriage to relieve the symptoms. It is not a cure for diseases like disrespect.
Respect in Marriage - Keep Love Map Handy
A researcher by the name of John Gottman introduced the concept of love maps for nurturing love and respect in marriage. A love map, he says, is that part of our brain that stores essential data about the special qualities of our spouse that we especially want to remember – joys, fears, dreams, preoccupations – even things like what brand cereal he/she eats in the morning.
Gottman says these love maps are important for one simple reason: they make marriages stronger. Storing love maps in our memory will guide our relationship towards our spouses: they serve as the navigational tools or parameters we need to follow to bring about a sense of wellness to the marriage, and to help reduce the daily stresses.
Gottman almost likens it to transporting ourselves into the psyche of our loved one. To apply his theory, he urges couples to play “love map 20 questions” where man and woman take turns asking about each other’s hot buttons.
And by engaging in this game regularly – say once a month or once every two months – there is no need for us to second guess our spouse and possibly commit an error or two because we forgot that “she takes her mother to the hairdresse every first Friday of the month” or that “he thinks the world of his Uncle Benny and so has to go out of town to see him on special occasions.”
The next time a married couple wonders, “where do we go from here”, those love maps will come in handy.
There’s respect for one’s parents, for society’s traditions, for your neighbor, for other races. And then there’s respect at the workplace, respect for the opinions of your co-workers and respect for a particular culture’s system of values, no matter how these values seem so alien from our own. The frequency with which we talk and analyze respect shows that while it may be an old-fashioned virtue, it still lies at the core of our ability to achieve success and happiness. Not to mention our acceptance, social or otherwise, by others.
Respect begets respect. Respect in marriage is the key to fulfilling relationships and well-bred, considerate children. It may sound rather repetitious and stale, but when there’s respect in a marriage, the integrity of marriage as an institution remains intact. What society needs is the dignity of every man and woman and child multiplied a million times over. If people respected each other and the property of their neighbors, there wouldn’t be any crime. And we would even dare say that if there was respect in marriage, there probably wouldn’t be any divorce.
Oops…maybe we’re stretching that a little, but if we can detect the lack of respect during the courtship stage, we would certainly not commit to a lifetime commitment of married life. So if we refrain from getting into a marriage where you suspect the respect ingredient will be blatantly missing, then there wouldn’t be a compelling need to talk about avoiding divorce since there won’t be a marriage devoid of respect in the first place.
Respect in Marriage - Recognize the Clues
If we were asked to give respect a proper definition, we’d be at a loss for words, only because we don’t have the standard dictionary definition off the top of our heads, but our gut feeling is that we can usually tell when when we are NOT getting any respect. This is why in any relationship, the element of respect should rank high in our decision to marry someone or not.
There are signs, but recognizing them can’t be taught. You just feel it or you don’t. So if you think that you’re not getting it, you don’t dare make any kind of commitment - even if you loved that someone. Because for marriage to survive and withstand the test of time and nerves, you need both love and respect. They go together like a horse and carriage. A marriage will crumble without BOTH.
Respect manifests itself in many ways. It’s in the little things your partner says casually and the little gestures that will tell whether or not there will be respect in marriage.
Here’s a possible checklist of things your antenna should be catching. And if you’re honest with yourself and want true happiness, you won’t make excuses for your beloved’s transgressions, even if he or she is the greatest-looking gal or lad around. Being beautiful does not give anyone the right to be disrespectful of others:
Here goes –
• When talking about family, do you feel your partner deeply respects them and thinks the world of them? Or does your partner tend to air dirty linen much too frequently, revealing intimate details about family members that ought not to be revealed?
• Does your partner arrive punctually for dates and appointments with you, or is there a habitual tardiness accompanied by lame excuses?
• Does your partner make fun of you in public, disregards your opinion and dismisses you as though you were not around when he/she is with friends?
• Does your partner make all decisions on his own without asking you for yours, especially in matters that involve the two of you?
• Does your partner go out of his/her way to please you and say things that make you feel good?
• Does your partner remember birthdays, special occasions, and does something special for you?
• Does your partner recognize your strengths and limitations and offers encouragement instead of belittling you?
• Does your partner show respect for your parents and family?
• Does your partner pry into your personal life too much and asks you embarrassing questions that you’d rather not answer?
No doubt there are a host of other signs (or omens) that will tell you whether you’re going to be enjoying respect or craving for it. You don’t want to have to ask for it, respect is something that should come naturally.
If you feel you don’t get enough of it, and you still go ahead with the marriage, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Many people think marriage would correct a person’s faults. Marriage, being a noble state to be in, unfortunately is not a rehabilitation center. Neither is it a correctional facility. If your partner says things or engages in behavior that puts a big question mark in your mind, don’t expect marriage to relieve the symptoms. It is not a cure for diseases like disrespect.
Respect in Marriage - Keep Love Map Handy
A researcher by the name of John Gottman introduced the concept of love maps for nurturing love and respect in marriage. A love map, he says, is that part of our brain that stores essential data about the special qualities of our spouse that we especially want to remember – joys, fears, dreams, preoccupations – even things like what brand cereal he/she eats in the morning.
Gottman says these love maps are important for one simple reason: they make marriages stronger. Storing love maps in our memory will guide our relationship towards our spouses: they serve as the navigational tools or parameters we need to follow to bring about a sense of wellness to the marriage, and to help reduce the daily stresses.
Gottman almost likens it to transporting ourselves into the psyche of our loved one. To apply his theory, he urges couples to play “love map 20 questions” where man and woman take turns asking about each other’s hot buttons.
And by engaging in this game regularly – say once a month or once every two months – there is no need for us to second guess our spouse and possibly commit an error or two because we forgot that “she takes her mother to the hairdresse every first Friday of the month” or that “he thinks the world of his Uncle Benny and so has to go out of town to see him on special occasions.”
The next time a married couple wonders, “where do we go from here”, those love maps will come in handy.
English Translastion of Hindu's Universal Aarti "Om Jai Jagdish Hare"
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Mighty Lord of the whole Universe
All Thy devotees' agonies
All Thy devotees' sorrows
Instantly Thou banisheth
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
He who's immersed in devotion
He reaps the fruits of Thy love
Lord, he reaps the fruits of Thy love
Floating in a cloud of comforts
Floating in a cloud of comforts
Free from all the worldly problems
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Thou art Mother and Father
At Thy feet I seek eternal truth
Lord, at Thy feet I seek eternal truth
There's none other than Thee, Lord
There's none other than Thee, Lord
Guardian of all our hopes
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Thou art Godly perfection
Omnipotent Master of all
Lord, omnipotent Master of all
My destiny's in Thy Hand
My destiny's in Thy Hand
Supreme Soul of all Creation
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Thou art an ocean of mercy
Gracious protector of all
Lord, gracious protector of all
I'm Thy humble devotee
I'm Thy humble devotee
Grant me Thy divine grace
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Thou art beyond all perception
Formless and yet multiform
Lord, formless and yet multiform
Grant me a glimpse of Thyself
Grant me a glimpse of Thyself
Guide me along the path to Thee
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Friend of the helpless and feeble
Benevolent saviour of all
Lord, benevolent saviour of all
Offer me Thy hand of compassion
Offer me Thy hand of compassion
I seek refuge at Thy feet
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Surmounting the earthly desires
Free from the sins of this life
Lord, free from the sins of this life
Undivided faith and devotion
Undivided faith and devotion
In eternal service unto Thee
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Mighty Lord of the whole Universe
All Thy devotees' agonies
All Thy devotees' sorrows
Instantly Thou banisheth
Om Jai Jagdish Hare is a Hindu bhajan (devotional song), composed in or near the 1870s by Pandit Shardha Ram Phillauri in Punjab, India. Even though it is in Hindi, it is universally used by Hindus around the world speaking any of the numerous Indian languages, or belonging to any one of many sects.
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Mighty Lord of the whole Universe
All Thy devotees' agonies
All Thy devotees' sorrows
Instantly Thou banisheth
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
He who's immersed in devotion
He reaps the fruits of Thy love
Lord, he reaps the fruits of Thy love
Floating in a cloud of comforts
Floating in a cloud of comforts
Free from all the worldly problems
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Thou art Mother and Father
At Thy feet I seek eternal truth
Lord, at Thy feet I seek eternal truth
There's none other than Thee, Lord
There's none other than Thee, Lord
Guardian of all our hopes
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Thou art Godly perfection
Omnipotent Master of all
Lord, omnipotent Master of all
My destiny's in Thy Hand
My destiny's in Thy Hand
Supreme Soul of all Creation
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Thou art an ocean of mercy
Gracious protector of all
Lord, gracious protector of all
I'm Thy humble devotee
I'm Thy humble devotee
Grant me Thy divine grace
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Thou art beyond all perception
Formless and yet multiform
Lord, formless and yet multiform
Grant me a glimpse of Thyself
Grant me a glimpse of Thyself
Guide me along the path to Thee
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Friend of the helpless and feeble
Benevolent saviour of all
Lord, benevolent saviour of all
Offer me Thy hand of compassion
Offer me Thy hand of compassion
I seek refuge at Thy feet
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Surmounting the earthly desires
Free from the sins of this life
Lord, free from the sins of this life
Undivided faith and devotion
Undivided faith and devotion
In eternal service unto Thee
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Mighty Lord of the whole Universe
All Thy devotees' agonies
All Thy devotees' sorrows
Instantly Thou banisheth
Om Jai Jagdish Hare is a Hindu bhajan (devotional song), composed in or near the 1870s by Pandit Shardha Ram Phillauri in Punjab, India. Even though it is in Hindi, it is universally used by Hindus around the world speaking any of the numerous Indian languages, or belonging to any one of many sects.
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Sunday, December 12, 2010
What is Desire ? How Does It Arise ? Should One Try To Conquer It ?
For most of us, the major part of our lives are centered around desires which provide the main impelling force. We are so habituated that we take this as very natural and do not ever think twice about it. In modern times we even go to the extent of affirming that the satisfaction of our desires is necessary and indispensable.
On the other hand all spiritual paths insist on the importance of overcoming desire. And we ourselves become conscious of the suffering and hollowness which inevitably accompanies desire when we make an effort at a greater self-awareness and self-mastery. This is an issue which confronts not only spiritual seekers but all those who aspire to rise above the existing dualities of pleasure and pain and lead a higher life.
Here the Mother explains in a very simple and practical manner the origin of desire, the bitter taste it brings and the joy one experiences when one conquers it.
Question 1: Where does desire come from?
"The Buddha said that it comes from ignorance. It is more or less that. It is something in the being which fancies that it needs something else in order to be satisfied. And the proof that it is ignorance is that when one has satisfied it, one no longer cares for it, at least ninety-nine and a half times out of a hundred. I believe, right as its origin it is an obscure need for growth, as in the lowest forms of life love is changed into the need to swallow, absorb, become joined with another thing. This is the most primitive form of love in the lowest forms of life, it is to take and absorb. Well, the need to take is desire. So perhaps if we went back far enough into the last depths of the inconscience, we could say that the origin of desire is love. It is love in its obscurest and most unconscious form. It is a need to become joined with something, an attraction, a need to take, you see.
Nothing Pleasant in Desiring anything
Take for instance… you see something which is - which seems to you or is - very beautiful, very harmonious, very pleasant; if you have the true consciousness, you experience this joy of seeing, of being in a conscious contact with something very beautiful, very harmonious, and then that's all. It stops there. You have the joy of it - that such a thing exists, you see. And this is quite common among artists who have a sense of beauty. For example, an artist may see a beautiful creature and have the joy of observing the beauty, grace, harmony of movement and all that, and that's all. It stops there. He is perfectly happy, perfectly satisfied, because he has seen something beautiful. An ordinary consciousness, altogether ordinary, dull like all ordinary consciousness - as soon as it sees something beautiful, whether it be an object or a person, hop! "I want it!" It is deplorable, you know. And into the bargain it doesn't even have the joy of the beauty, because it has the anguish of desire. It misses that and has nothing in exchange, because there is nothing pleasant in desiring anything. It only puts you in an unpleasant state, that's all.
Joy in overcoming a Desire
The Buddha has said that there is a greater joy in overcoming a desire than in satisfying it. It is an experience everybody can have and one that is truly very interesting, very interesting.
There was someone who was invited - it happened in Paris - invited to a first-night (a first-night means a first performance) of an opera of Massenet's. I think… I don't remember now whose it was. The subject was fine, the play was fine, and the music not displeasing; it was the first time and this person was invited to the box of the Minister of Fine Arts who always has a box for all the first nights at the government theatres. This Minister of Fine Arts was a simple person, an old countryside man, who had not lived much in Paris, who was quite new in his ministry and took a truly childlike joy in seeing new things. Yet he was a polite man and as he had invited a lady he gave her the front seat and himself sat at the back. But he felt very unhappy because he could not see everything. He leaned forward like this, trying to see something without showing it too much. Now, the lady who was in front noticed this. She too was very interested and was finding it very fine, and it was not that she did not like it, she liked it very much and was enjoying the show; but she saw how very unhappy that poor minister looked, not being able to see. So quite casually, you see, she pushed back her chair, went back a little, as though she was thinking of something else, and drew back so well that he came forward and could now see the whole scene. Well, this person, when she drew back and gave up all desire to see the show, was filled with a sense of inner joy, a liberation from all attachment to things and a kind of peace, content to have done something for somebody instead of having satisfied herself, to the extent that the evening brought her infinitely greater pleasure than if she had listened to the opera. This is a true experience, it is not a little story read in a book, and it was precisely at the time this person was studying Buddhist discipline, and it was in conformity with the saying of the Buddha that she tried this experiment.
And truly this was so concrete an experience, you know, so real that… ah, two seconds later, you see, the play, the music, the actors, the scene, the pictures and all that were gone like absolutely secondary things, completely unimportant, while this joy of having mastered something in oneself and done something not simply selfish, this joy filled all the being with an incomparable serenity - a delightful experience… Well, it is not just an individual, personal experience. All those who want to try can have it.
The Bitterness in a Desire
There is a kind of inner communion with the psychic being which takes place when one willingly gives up a desire, and because of this one feels a much greater joy than if he had satisfied his desire. Besides, most usually, almost without exception, when one satisfies a desire it always leaves a kind of bitter taste somwhere.
There is not one satisfied desire which does not give a kind of bitterness; as when one has eaten too sugary a sweet it fills your mouth with bitterness. It is like that. You must try sincerely. Naturally you must not pretend to give up desire and keep it in a corner, because then one becomes very unhappy. You must do it sincerely.
Question 2: Is desire contagious?
Ah, yes, very contagious, my child. It is even much more contagious than illness. If someone next to you has a desire, immediately it enters you; and in fact it is mainly in this way that it is caught. It passes from one to another… Terribly contagious, in such a powerful way that one is not even aware that it is a contagion. Suddenly one feels something springing up in oneself; someone has gently put it inside. Of course, one could say, "Why aren't people with desires quarantined?" Then we should have to quarantine everybody."
On the other hand all spiritual paths insist on the importance of overcoming desire. And we ourselves become conscious of the suffering and hollowness which inevitably accompanies desire when we make an effort at a greater self-awareness and self-mastery. This is an issue which confronts not only spiritual seekers but all those who aspire to rise above the existing dualities of pleasure and pain and lead a higher life.
Here the Mother explains in a very simple and practical manner the origin of desire, the bitter taste it brings and the joy one experiences when one conquers it.
Question 1: Where does desire come from?
"The Buddha said that it comes from ignorance. It is more or less that. It is something in the being which fancies that it needs something else in order to be satisfied. And the proof that it is ignorance is that when one has satisfied it, one no longer cares for it, at least ninety-nine and a half times out of a hundred. I believe, right as its origin it is an obscure need for growth, as in the lowest forms of life love is changed into the need to swallow, absorb, become joined with another thing. This is the most primitive form of love in the lowest forms of life, it is to take and absorb. Well, the need to take is desire. So perhaps if we went back far enough into the last depths of the inconscience, we could say that the origin of desire is love. It is love in its obscurest and most unconscious form. It is a need to become joined with something, an attraction, a need to take, you see.
Nothing Pleasant in Desiring anything
Take for instance… you see something which is - which seems to you or is - very beautiful, very harmonious, very pleasant; if you have the true consciousness, you experience this joy of seeing, of being in a conscious contact with something very beautiful, very harmonious, and then that's all. It stops there. You have the joy of it - that such a thing exists, you see. And this is quite common among artists who have a sense of beauty. For example, an artist may see a beautiful creature and have the joy of observing the beauty, grace, harmony of movement and all that, and that's all. It stops there. He is perfectly happy, perfectly satisfied, because he has seen something beautiful. An ordinary consciousness, altogether ordinary, dull like all ordinary consciousness - as soon as it sees something beautiful, whether it be an object or a person, hop! "I want it!" It is deplorable, you know. And into the bargain it doesn't even have the joy of the beauty, because it has the anguish of desire. It misses that and has nothing in exchange, because there is nothing pleasant in desiring anything. It only puts you in an unpleasant state, that's all.
Joy in overcoming a Desire
The Buddha has said that there is a greater joy in overcoming a desire than in satisfying it. It is an experience everybody can have and one that is truly very interesting, very interesting.
There was someone who was invited - it happened in Paris - invited to a first-night (a first-night means a first performance) of an opera of Massenet's. I think… I don't remember now whose it was. The subject was fine, the play was fine, and the music not displeasing; it was the first time and this person was invited to the box of the Minister of Fine Arts who always has a box for all the first nights at the government theatres. This Minister of Fine Arts was a simple person, an old countryside man, who had not lived much in Paris, who was quite new in his ministry and took a truly childlike joy in seeing new things. Yet he was a polite man and as he had invited a lady he gave her the front seat and himself sat at the back. But he felt very unhappy because he could not see everything. He leaned forward like this, trying to see something without showing it too much. Now, the lady who was in front noticed this. She too was very interested and was finding it very fine, and it was not that she did not like it, she liked it very much and was enjoying the show; but she saw how very unhappy that poor minister looked, not being able to see. So quite casually, you see, she pushed back her chair, went back a little, as though she was thinking of something else, and drew back so well that he came forward and could now see the whole scene. Well, this person, when she drew back and gave up all desire to see the show, was filled with a sense of inner joy, a liberation from all attachment to things and a kind of peace, content to have done something for somebody instead of having satisfied herself, to the extent that the evening brought her infinitely greater pleasure than if she had listened to the opera. This is a true experience, it is not a little story read in a book, and it was precisely at the time this person was studying Buddhist discipline, and it was in conformity with the saying of the Buddha that she tried this experiment.
And truly this was so concrete an experience, you know, so real that… ah, two seconds later, you see, the play, the music, the actors, the scene, the pictures and all that were gone like absolutely secondary things, completely unimportant, while this joy of having mastered something in oneself and done something not simply selfish, this joy filled all the being with an incomparable serenity - a delightful experience… Well, it is not just an individual, personal experience. All those who want to try can have it.
The Bitterness in a Desire
There is a kind of inner communion with the psychic being which takes place when one willingly gives up a desire, and because of this one feels a much greater joy than if he had satisfied his desire. Besides, most usually, almost without exception, when one satisfies a desire it always leaves a kind of bitter taste somwhere.
There is not one satisfied desire which does not give a kind of bitterness; as when one has eaten too sugary a sweet it fills your mouth with bitterness. It is like that. You must try sincerely. Naturally you must not pretend to give up desire and keep it in a corner, because then one becomes very unhappy. You must do it sincerely.
Question 2: Is desire contagious?
Ah, yes, very contagious, my child. It is even much more contagious than illness. If someone next to you has a desire, immediately it enters you; and in fact it is mainly in this way that it is caught. It passes from one to another… Terribly contagious, in such a powerful way that one is not even aware that it is a contagion. Suddenly one feels something springing up in oneself; someone has gently put it inside. Of course, one could say, "Why aren't people with desires quarantined?" Then we should have to quarantine everybody."
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Scientific Research Into The Chakras
There are few involved in the investigation of the Chakras. Below are some of the better know researchers who have attempted to prove their existence, although as you can see, this list is by no means exhaustive.
Dr Hiroshi Motoyama
"…We may define the chakra as an energy centre which spins like a wheel and opens like a flower. Metaphysical concepts, however, do not belong purely to the world of spiritual experience; scientific enquiry has in many cases confirmed age-old beliefs.
Dr Hiroshi Motoyama bridges the world of the scientific and the spiritual with dual authority. He is both a scientist and a Shinto priest. Motoyama is the founder of the International Association for Religion and Parapsychology. In 1974 he was recognised by UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] as one of the world's ten foremost parapsychologists. He is especially interested to verify scientifically the claims put forward by proponents of spiritual practices. Several significant experiments have been conducted under his auspices.
He has specifically developed a Chakra Instrument which is designed to detect minute electrical, magnetic and optical changes which occur in the immediate environment of the experimental subject. In a typical experimental situation, the subject sat in an electrostatically secure room which was internally lined with aluminium sheeting and shielded by lead sheeting embedded in the walls. A round copper electrode and photo-electric cell were placed in front of the body, level with the location of a supposed chakra. During one test on the centres of the stomach and heart, the subject was monitored for a period of three minutes at each of the two locations. Separate readings were taken one minute before a state of concentration, during concentration, and one minute after concentration.
Curiously, when an advanced yoga practitioner was tested, the two centres gave quite different results. The stomach centre showed no change in measurable activity during the three-minute monitoring period. However, the heart centre showed a considerable intensification of measurable activity during the period of concentration. This difference corresponded to the subject's regular spiritual practice. He regularly meditated on the heart centre during meditation. The subject did not as a rule use the solar plexus chakra as a focal point for meditation as he suffered from a serious digestive disorder.
When working with another subject, Motoyama found that the increased activity of the heart chakra was sufficient to produce a measurable effect which was detected by the photo-electric cell. In other words the activity of the heart chakra was enough to produce a weak but measurable physical light. Moreover the subject was asked to press a button whenever she thought that she experienced the emission of psi-energy. The subjective feelings corresponded to the objectively measured periods of activity. It was experiments like these which were conducted with 100 subjects which led Motoyama to conclude 'that mental concentration on a chakra activates it' [Motoyama, The Theories of the Chakras, p.274]."
Dr Hiroshi Motoyama
"…We may define the chakra as an energy centre which spins like a wheel and opens like a flower. Metaphysical concepts, however, do not belong purely to the world of spiritual experience; scientific enquiry has in many cases confirmed age-old beliefs.
Dr Hiroshi Motoyama bridges the world of the scientific and the spiritual with dual authority. He is both a scientist and a Shinto priest. Motoyama is the founder of the International Association for Religion and Parapsychology. In 1974 he was recognised by UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] as one of the world's ten foremost parapsychologists. He is especially interested to verify scientifically the claims put forward by proponents of spiritual practices. Several significant experiments have been conducted under his auspices.
He has specifically developed a Chakra Instrument which is designed to detect minute electrical, magnetic and optical changes which occur in the immediate environment of the experimental subject. In a typical experimental situation, the subject sat in an electrostatically secure room which was internally lined with aluminium sheeting and shielded by lead sheeting embedded in the walls. A round copper electrode and photo-electric cell were placed in front of the body, level with the location of a supposed chakra. During one test on the centres of the stomach and heart, the subject was monitored for a period of three minutes at each of the two locations. Separate readings were taken one minute before a state of concentration, during concentration, and one minute after concentration.
Curiously, when an advanced yoga practitioner was tested, the two centres gave quite different results. The stomach centre showed no change in measurable activity during the three-minute monitoring period. However, the heart centre showed a considerable intensification of measurable activity during the period of concentration. This difference corresponded to the subject's regular spiritual practice. He regularly meditated on the heart centre during meditation. The subject did not as a rule use the solar plexus chakra as a focal point for meditation as he suffered from a serious digestive disorder.
When working with another subject, Motoyama found that the increased activity of the heart chakra was sufficient to produce a measurable effect which was detected by the photo-electric cell. In other words the activity of the heart chakra was enough to produce a weak but measurable physical light. Moreover the subject was asked to press a button whenever she thought that she experienced the emission of psi-energy. The subjective feelings corresponded to the objectively measured periods of activity. It was experiments like these which were conducted with 100 subjects which led Motoyama to conclude 'that mental concentration on a chakra activates it' [Motoyama, The Theories of the Chakras, p.274]."
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