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Spirit News Blog - spirituality
When I enter bookshops, I often see books discussing atheism.
As a spiritual seeker I don't have much interest in these books. Whether others believe in God or not is not of any concern. I rather like the quote of Thomas Jefferson:
"But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
Also, through practising meditation, one realises that there are many states of consciousness that can not be described and explained by reason. Therefore, to discuss the existence of God, through reason and the mind only, inevitably has to be unsatisfactory.
I have no interest in proving God's existence to others - I feel this is a fruitless and unnecessary task.
However, these are a few random thoughts, ideas and quotes on the subject of atheism
1. Humility
A liberated soul knows that he is not the doer. He knows and feels that he is a mere instrument for the higher power. It is this awareness that enables him to be a channel for divine light. A liberated soul does not deal with his own individual will and individual freedom; he seeks only to be a channel for the Divine Will.
"Because I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me." - Jesus Christ [1]
This humility is only possible when a person has subdued his ego. When our ego is predominant we feel that we are the doer. But, if we transcend the dominance of the ego, we learn true humility. This state of consciousness gives does not give us a sense of superiority, but oneness with others. Because of his sense of identification with others a liberated soul will never feel better than others.
"A real spiritual Master will never think that he is superior to anybody. He will feel that it is his bounden duty to be of service to the divinity, to the Supreme in humanity."
- Sri Chinmoy [2]
Traditionally science and spirituality have been at loggerheads. Science is concerned with man's material success, spirituality, on the other hand, is interested in man's inner realities. Is this conflict inevitable, or can the different arts of science and spirituality be complementary?
"Science has the capacity to show mankind the full development of the mental life. Spirituality has the capacity to show mankind the possibility and inevitability of the life beyond the mind, the supramental life."
- Sri Chinmoy [1]
Shaker Barn
"Heaven on Earth: Shaker Aesthetic Philosophy" by Sumangali Morhall
"Hands to work and hearts to God" so the Shaker work ethic went. The term 'Shaker' is best known as a style of furniture, but how did it evolve? Where did the Shakers come from, and why did they start to disappear after 100 years?
In modern Europe and America, craftspeople are still reviving not just the Shaker style, but in some cases the Shaker dedication to integrity. A form of aesthetic Chinese Whispers has inevitably crept in over the years, and one may now even buy such anomalies as Shaker jewellery boxes. The simple and beautiful style can arguably be applied to anything, but the philosophy behind the style makes it all the more interesting as an art form.
The first Shakers came from Manchester, England, in the late 18th Century. They began as a small group of Quakers, but developed their own doctrines, based largely on a strong sense of community and self-sufficiency. Community tasks were clearly defined and rotated so that anyone could be replaced on any job if unable to work on a particular day. The day started early and ended late, and was punctuated by regular prayer sessions.
Looking at my life
I see that only Love
Has been my soul’s companion
From deep inside
My soul cries out:
Do not wait, surrender
For the sake of Love.
- Rumi
Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam. It has its roots in the Qu’ran and the Islamic tradition, but at the same times encompasses the universal mysticism that we see in other spiritual traditions
Despite the difficulties of describing their experiences, the words of the Sufi Seers still tease, cajole and inspire us to look beyond the page and into our own hearts. For those who love words, it is necessary to have poetry, which can take us beyond the domain of the intellect. Hafiz beautifully describes the purpose of a poet.
“A poet is someone who can pour light into a cup, then raise it to nourish your beautiful parched, holy heart.”
The Ecstatic Poetry of the Sufi's at Poetseers.org
Photo by Unmesh Swanson Sri Chinmoy Centre galleries
The Secrets of Happiness by Jogyata Dallas
The quest for lasting happiness lies at the very heart of all human purpose and experience, though this much desired attainment is sought in many different ways. Among the ways that have proven successful a number of recurring themes are evident.
The perennial philosophies of our spiritual teachers urge self-perfecting, the inner way, while most of mankind is searching in the outer world – right person, right possessions, right place.
Here are a few pointers that work:
Start Within
A huge wealth of highly credible literature and teachings concur that happiness is first of all an inner accomplishment, not just a series of circumstances. Prayer, contemplation, quiet time, simply sitting with peaceful music, the practice of inner stillness, all help in developing understanding, balance, an inner harmony and poise. Happiness arises out of these practices like the fragrance of a flower.
Visualise Your Day
Take five minutes at the start of each day to visualize what you intend to accomplish – prepare the mind, your life energy, and burst into your day with vigour, intensity, calm resolve and joy. Every day we create our world with our mind – our moods, emotions, attitudes and consciousness. Train the mind and fill it with inspiration and positive energies, self-faith, the bright colours of your heart and soul.
By: Vidagdha Bennett
"Ultimately everything becomes boring," begins philosopher Sri Chinmoy in a poem from 1973. And who can deny it? The tedium of a long plane flight, of waiting in a queue, of following the same routine day after day, of seeing the same faces, all bring home to us the fact that we easily become bored not only with what we are doing but, essentially, with our own company. The solution, argues Sri Chinmoy, is not necessarily to change our outer circumstances but to radically change our inner attitude. He explains further:
"Every day the sun rises. Every morning we can look at the sun, if we are lucky enough to have a clear day. Although it is the same sun that is rising, every day we can see a new beauty inside the sun. Our mind is telling us that it is the same sun that we saw yesterday and the day before yesterday. But when the heart sees this same sun, there is tremendous joy, tremendous thrill, tremendous ecstasy.
Swami Satchindananda
Swami Satchidananda is a respected yoga teacher, who studied under the Spiritual Master Swami Sivananda. In this short extract Swami Satchidanada offers a spiritual approach to breaking bad habits
How can you trick your mind into breaking a bad habit?
How can you trick your baby so you can take away something that would hurt it? Suppose the baby is playing with something sharp. What kind of trick would you use? You would give her something nice to distract her.
In the same way, find some nice positive habits. Present them to the mind. Admire them “Oh, look how terrific this habit is. So useful. Something to be proud of.” Certainly your little baby mind will jump to grab it. As soon as it jumps for the good habit, take away the bad one.
Dilip Kuamar Roy was a rare combination of the a keen intellect and the devotion of a Bhakti. After a certain amount of deliberation, he forsook a materially prosperous life, to enter under the guidance of Spiritual Master, Sri Aurobindo. In his book “Sri Aurobindo Came to Me” He recalls with great humility and openness his joys and trials of being a spiritual aspirant. Dilip was a supreme singer and musician. His soul stirring songs transport the listener to a realm of heavenly delight, far beyond the domain of worldly thoughts. As Mahatma Gandhi said of him.
“I may make bold to claim that very few persons in India – or rather in the world – have a voice like his, so rich and sweet and intense.”
Live Your Life
Live your life that the fear of death
can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about his religion.
Respect others in their views
and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long
and of service to your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day
when you go over the great divide.
Despite the continued presence of religious fanaticism and bigotry in the word, the twentieth century has witnessed a significant growth in religious tolerance. The idea that different religions and spiritual traditions have a valid approach is more widespread than at any time. To a large extent up until the 19th Century a defining feature of religion was the idea of the one true religion, and through its adherence you were either saved or damned. There was little if any ecumenical tradition and views of other religions were often clouded in myth, superstition or even contempt.
However the ideal of religious harmony is however increasingly shared by many. A crucial event in shaping a more pluralistic, tolerant view of religions was the inaugural World Parliament of Religions in 1893.
Quotes from Swami Atmachaithanya
Start your day with love
Spend your day with love
Love everyone you meet
Show love and compassion to all
Love is the sole purpose of your being
And is the key to the inner vision of God.
God is always with us
But we are not always with God
That is why we suffer.
By: Swami Atmachaithanya
From: Atmachaithanya.org
Via: Inspirations and Creative Thoughts - blog of Sadiq
Photo by Pranlobha Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
Many spiritual seekers in the past have felt that suffering and spiritual progress are inexorably linked. There are numerous examples of great saints who went through tremendous physical suffering during their life. For example St Teresa of Avila, St Francis of Assisi and many others suffered with painful illnesses throughout their life. In the Mahabharata we come across Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas. She used to pray to Lord Krishna that she would always suffer so that she would be inclined to always think of him. When she was happy she said she would forget about Sri Krishna.
It seems a paradox that a God who embodies infinite love, and inner ecstasy should require a seeker to suffer in order to realise him.
Pilgrimage to Aladja Monastery Varna, Bulgaria by: Dr Vidagdha Bennett.
Aldja monastery
In 1928, just north of Varna, in a vast and hilly tract of forest, a most remarkable discovery was made. There, in a steep rock face that rises parallel to the Black Sea coastline, a series of interconnecting caves and indentations had been scalloped out of the white limestone.
The topmost tier, some forty metres above the ground, held a small, enclosed chapel, its walls and ceiling covered with frescoes of great vibrancy and intensity. The middle tier contained what had clearly been monks’ cells, while traces of a common kitchen and even a burial crypt were on the lowest level.
It was speculated that a small order of Christian monks belonging to the hesychastic tradition, had sought refuge here during the Ottoman occupation of Bulgaria in the 13th and 14th centuries, although the caves themselves were thought to have been sculpted as early as the 4th century BC.
Sri Krishna
"God is proud of His Divinity in Sri Krishna.
Man is proud of his humanity in Sri Krishna.
Sri Krishna is the beloved Boatman who untiringly plies His Boat of Consciousness
between India's unparalleled history and Her unrivalled spirituality.
The Gita is Sri Krishna's Heart, His Vision-in-Fulfilment.
The Gita is humanity's breath, its journey towards Immortality.
Sri Krishna's Flute stirs the Universal Consciousness.
Sri Krishna's Gita enchants the Transcendental Consciousness.
Sri Krishna plays on His Flute. We hear. We do something more.
We barter our body's dust with His Soul's Plenitude.
Sri Krishna is the shoreless ocean of Bliss.
But as soon as I sincerely dedicate myself to Him,
He presents me with His own Boat and takes me to the boundless Shore,
the Golden All."
A Tribute to Hinduism was started in 1996 by Sushama Londhe, an Indian-American who came to the U.S. and became interested in learning about the religious traditions of Hinduism. Over the past 10 years the site has done a very good job in presenting Hinduism in a good non sectarian light.
Many misconceptions about Hinduism abound. But at the heart of Hinduism are the sacred scriptures of the Vedas and Upanishads. Hinduism has also continually been reinvigorated by a succession of Saints, sages and Avatars.
The site has recently been renamed to Hindusisdom.info
"I believe that everyone who wants to love unconditionally is a mystic. All children are born mystics, and if you were once a child, you were once a mystic. Christian mysticism is following the example of Christ as he followed the Father. And mysticism is not by any means restricted to Christianity: the Bible says, “everyone who loves is begotten of God, and knows God.” (1 Jn. 4.7) God speaks in various ways, in every time and every place to "whosoever will."
From: Christian Mystics
Ramana Maharshi
Happiness of Being is a new website developed by Michael James and dedicated to the great Spiritual Master Ramana Maharshi .
"Happiness lies deep within us, in the very core of our being. Happiness does not exist in any external object, but only in us, who are the consciousness that experiences happiness. Though we seem to derive happiness from external objects or experiences, the happiness that we thus enjoy in fact arises from within us."
- From: Happiness of Being website
Sri Krishna
Here is a play recently performed for Sri Chinmoy and his students. Its aim is to illustrate how misunderstandings between religions are an ancient challenge for humanity, but as Sri Chinmoy teaches, there is hope for the oneness of all humanity, and that historical figures such as Sri Krishna, Mirabai and Akbar The Great can inspire us and show is the way.
View: Play of Mirabai and Akbar
Script by Sumangali Morhall
"When God fulfils your desire, you are all gratitude. When God does not fulfil your desire, if you can become all gratitude to Him, then God Himself is bound to come to you, not only to replace and fulfil your desire, but to give you what He has and what He is: Infinitude."
The Awakening Age
O ye who travel the meridian line,
May the vision of a new world within you shine.
May eyes that have lived with poverty's rage,
See through to the glory of the awakening age.
For we are all richly linked in hope,
Woven in history, like a mountain rope.
Together we can ascend to a new height,
Guided by our heart's clearest light.
When perceptions are changed there's much to gain,
A flowering of truth instead of pain.
There's more to a people than their poverty;
There's their work, wisdom, and creativity.
Along the line may our lives rhyme,
To make a loving harvest of space and time.
Copyright Ben Okri, 1999
By: Ben Okri
More Poems of Ben Okri
Photo by Phoolanjaya Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
An African Elegy
We are the miracles that God made
To taste the bitter fruit of Time.
We are precious.
And one day our suffering
Will turn into the wonders of the earth.
There are things that burn me now
Which turn golden when I am happy.
Do you see the mystery of our pain?
That we bear the poverty
And are able to sing and dream sweet things.
And that we never curse the air when it is warm
Or the fruit when it tastes so good
Or the lights that bounce gently on the waters?
We bless the things even in our pain.
We bless them in silence.
That is why our music is so sweet.
It makes the air remember.
There are secret miracles at work
That only Time will bring forth.
I too have heard the dead singing.
And they tell me that
This life is good
They tell me to live it gently
With fire, and always with hope.
There is wonder here
And there is surprise
In everything the unseen moves.
The ocean is full of songs.
The sky is not an enemy.
Destiny is our friend.
By: Ben Okri
Photo by Phoolanjaya Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
Love
What is Love?
It is something that has
Infinite possibilities
To enlarge and expand.
Love is the inner bond,
the inner connection, the inner link between man and God,
between the finite and the infinite.
We always have to approach God through love.
Without love, we cannot become one with God.
What is love?
If love means possessing someone or something then that is not real love;
that is not pure love.
If love means giving and becoming one with everything,
with humanity and divinity, then that is real love.
Real love is our total oneness with the object loved and with the possessor of love.
Who is the possessor of love? God
By: Sri Chinmoy
From: Quotes on Love
Photo by Ranjit Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
Cosmic Consciousness
I have wrapped the wide world in my wider self
And Time and Space my spirit's seeing are.
I am the god and demon, ghost and elf,
I am the wind's speed and the blazing star.
All Nature is the nursling of my care,
I am its struggle and the eternal rest;
The world's joy thrilling runs through me, I bear
The sorrow of millions in my lonely breast.
I have learned a close identity with all,
Yet am by nothing bound that I become;
Carrying in me the universe's call
I mount to my imperishable home.
I pass beyond Time and life on measureless wings,
Yet still am one with born and unborn things.
By: Sri Aurobindo
Photo By: Phoolanjaya from: Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
Thought of the Day by Sanjaya Spettigue.
In this episode of "Thought Of The Day", Sanjaya Spettigue reflects on the legacy and contribution of George Harrison, one of the Beatles, whose genuine interest in Eastern philosophy influenced a whole generation.
- Listen Now
- Thought of the Day is hosted at Radio Sri Chinmoy
Because I could not stop for Death
by: Emily Dickinson
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labour, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
By: Emily Dickinson.
Photo by Unmesh Swanson Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
young boy buddha from nepal
Quite an interesting story, a little outdated now but still worth mentioning.
A young boy by the name of Ram Bomjan decided to meditate under a tree continuously for several months. His followers claimed that during this time he didn't take any food or water. When his activities were observed by a Nepalese government team who gained permission to observe the boy continually for 48 hours. They found that to their amazement, he did remain rigid and focused in meditation.
Back in March he disappeared, perhaps because of all the interest he was receiving. Many locals believe he has gone to meditate in peace away from the glare of the media spotlight.