Coaxing the Bell to Ring

Deer Park Monastery bell in Escondido, California

With body speech and mind in perfect oneness

I send my heart along with the sound of the bell

May the hearers awaken from forgetfulness

And transcend the path of anxiety and sorrow

- Thich Nhat Hanh translation of Buddhist poem.

Dalai Lama Quotes

The more adept we become at cultivating an altruistic attitude, the happier we will feel and the more comfortable will be the atmosphere around us. But if our emotions fluctuate wildly and we easily give in to hatred and jealousy, even our friends will avoid us. So even for people with no spiritual beliefs, it is important to have a peaceful mind.


Human beings are not intrinsically selfish, which isolates us from others. We are essentially social animals who depend on others to meet our needs. We achieve happiness, prosperity and progress through social interaction. Therefore, having a kind and helpful attitude contributes to our own and others' happiness.


Love, kindness, compassion and tolerance are qualities common to all the great religions, and whether or not we follow any particular religious tradition, the benefits of love and kindness are obvious to anyone.


It is time to develop a big ‘US’, rather than the old ‘us and them’ that lets us to exploit and bully others on a personal level, and on an international level to wage war. The East must see the West as part of ‘US’ and the North must come to feel that the South is part of ‘US’. We should include the entire world in our concern, wishing all humanity well. If we can do that there will be no room for hatred, thinking of others as enemies. And we will achieve this through education, not through prayer.


Spirituality concerns our own motivation, while secular activity implies working in the world. Because motivation pervades all action, it is important that we have a positive motivation. Whatever we are involved in, whether it's politics, education, medicine, law, engineering, science, business or industry, the nature of our motivation determines the character of our work.


Study and practice are both very important, but they must go hand in hand. Faith without knowledge is not sufficient. Faith needs to be supported by reason. However intellectual understanding that is not applied in practice is also of little use. Whatever we learn from study we need to apply sincerely in our daily lives.

Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions | Video on TED.com

Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions | Video on TED.com:

"Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can -- and should -- be an authority on moral issues, shaping human values and setting out what constitutes a good life."

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Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions | Video on TED.com

Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions | Video on TED.com:

"Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can -- and should -- be an authority on moral issues, shaping human values and setting out what constitutes a good life."

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The Eternal Now

Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.

- Mother Teresa

AC Grayling

AC Grayling:

Anthony Grayling MA, DPhil (Oxon) FRSL, FRSA is Master of the New College of the Humanities, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. Until 2011 he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has written and edited over twenty books on philosophy and other subjects; among his most recent are "The Good Book", "Ideas That Matter", "Liberty in the Age of Terror" and "To Set Prometheus Free". 

For several years he wrote the "Last Word" column for the Guardian newspaper and now writes a column for the Times. He is a frequent contributor to the Literary Review, Observer, Independent on Sunday, Times Literary Supplement, Index on Censorship and New Statesman, and is an equally frequent broadcaster on BBC Radios 4, 3 and the World Service. He writes the "Thinking Read" column for the Barnes and Noble Review in New York, is the Editor of Online Review London, and a Contributing Editor of Prospect magazine.

In addition he sits on the editorial boards of several academic journals, and for nearly ten years was the Honorary Secretary of the principal British philosophical association, the Aristotelian Society. He is a past chairman of June Fourth, a human rights group concerned with China, and is a representative to the UN Human Rights Council for the International Humanist and Ethical Union. He is a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, the Patron of the United Kingdom Armed Forces Humanist Association, a patron of Dignity in Dying, and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.


Anthony Grayl...




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Charlie Rose - A conversation with literary scholar Harold Bloom

Charlie Rose - A conversation with literary scholar Harold Bloom:



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Sufism

Sufism is the spiritual path followed by the Sufi mystic, also known as a dervish, to pursue ultimate truth and nearness to God. It is considered to be the inner, mystical dimension of Islam and is concerned with the annihilation of one's ego and self-centeredness into an ever-deepening consciousness of God.

Being an inner process it is widely regarded than Sufism cannot be learned merely through books and so students are instructed though direct, personal experience. Sufi practices are directed to the goal of overcoming worldly desires and carnal pleasures in order to attain the higher spiritual satisfactions of living and a growing awareness of the infinite Divine presence.

Self-mastery is attained through the technique of self-forgetfulness. Sufism teaches to place others ahead of one's self and to strive first to know, then to live the divine will, above our personal desires. Service to the poor and less fortunate is considered a sacred duty to the dervish.

Finally Sufism is about heart-connection to the Divine and about true love. The Sufi who has attained high levels is one who is full of joy and ecstatic delight, this can be seen and felt as the Whirling Dervishes spin for love of the Creator and for love of all creation.


Source:
http://www.sufiforamonth.com/about/about-sufism.html