The fruits of duties prescribed by religion are invisible, being attainable in the next world. The fruits, however, of Penance directed towards the soul are obtainable in this world.
Unconventional Thinking
The Greatest Creator
Time, Space, and the Universe
Humanity and Human Life
LIFE
Physical and Spiritual Healthcare
Revelations
Self-improvement and Self-cultivation
Life’s Wisdom
Preaching Tao
Celestial Cultivation
The Attainment of Buddhahood
The Nonmaterial World
Xuefeng Corpus
Chanyuan celestial Corpus
As a man Thinketh is a series of essays on the character of human thought and how it drives human behavior. It was written by James Allen in 1902. Despite over a century's difference its message is immutable. In fact I found it crucial to navigate today's hyper-connected, superficial and voyeuristic world.
Hope you learn something from it.
Unconventional Thinking
The Greatest Creator
Time, Space, and the Universe
Humanity and Human Life
LIFE
Physical and Spiritual Healthcare
Revelations
Self-improvement and Self-cultivation
Life’s Wisdom
Preaching Tao
Celestial Cultivation
The Attainment of Buddhahood
The Nonmaterial World
Xuefeng Corpus
Chanyuan celestial Corpus
As a man Thinketh is a series of essays on the character of human thought and how it drives human behavior. It was written by James Allen in 1902. Despite over a century's difference its message is immutable. In fact I found it crucial to navigate today's hyper-connected, superficial and voyeuristic world.
Hope you learn something from it.
Pinnacle of Success is the first chapter from my book, The Jetstream of Success.
For the full version, please purchase your copy from Amazon at: http://amzn.to/LAVgNX
We are earth’s creatures and earth is our home. Khalil Gibran’s words remind us to revel in the wondrous elements of earth, and she will do likewise. “"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."
Enjoy!
The Science Of Spirit is an inspirational book guaranteed to uplift you from even the darkest depression. With over 500 Axioms, it has the positive message you need to hear!
Basic Spiritual Primer 2 (Meditation upon Part or Whole?)Pardeep Sehgal
There is error in meditation upon Heaven, Sun, Air, Space, Water, Earth Etc.. as Part. Meditation upon Universal Self as Whole under the guidance of a Realized Teacher is the right way.
Pravritti: By acts, a living creature is destroyed. By knowledge, however, he becomes emancipated. Through acts one is forced to take rebirth, after death. Nivritti: Through knowledge, however, one becomes transformed into that which is Eternal, Unmanifest, and Immutable.
Seek to retire within yourself. For you cannot attend upon God and at the same time take delight in external things. A wonderful advice from 'Imitation of Christ', Books 3, 4.
Pinnacle of Success is the first chapter from my book, The Jetstream of Success.
For the full version, please purchase your copy from Amazon at: http://amzn.to/LAVgNX
We are earth’s creatures and earth is our home. Khalil Gibran’s words remind us to revel in the wondrous elements of earth, and she will do likewise. “"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."
Enjoy!
The Science Of Spirit is an inspirational book guaranteed to uplift you from even the darkest depression. With over 500 Axioms, it has the positive message you need to hear!
Basic Spiritual Primer 2 (Meditation upon Part or Whole?)Pardeep Sehgal
There is error in meditation upon Heaven, Sun, Air, Space, Water, Earth Etc.. as Part. Meditation upon Universal Self as Whole under the guidance of a Realized Teacher is the right way.
Pravritti: By acts, a living creature is destroyed. By knowledge, however, he becomes emancipated. Through acts one is forced to take rebirth, after death. Nivritti: Through knowledge, however, one becomes transformed into that which is Eternal, Unmanifest, and Immutable.
Seek to retire within yourself. For you cannot attend upon God and at the same time take delight in external things. A wonderful advice from 'Imitation of Christ', Books 3, 4.
Rudeness, suspicion, greed, adultery and fornication are some of the major root causes of the current situation of the world. We should pay heed to Rumi's advice.
Story of Báyazíd's — may God sanctify his spirit — saying, “Glory to me! How grand is my rank!” and the objection raised by his disciples, and how he gave them an answer to this, not by the way of speech but by the way of vision (immediate experience).
He who is not employed in merit or in sin, he who does not attend to Profit, or Virtue, or Desire, who is above all faults, who regards gold and a brick-bat with equal eyes, becomes liberated from pleasure and pain and the necessity of accomplishing his purposes.
Basic Spiritual Primer 3.2 (Illustrations of Threefold Nature)Pardeep Sehgal
Illustration of the Threefold Nature. Subtle vibrations of food influence mind, of water - prana, and of fat - speech. Middling part of food forms flesh, of water - blood, and of fat - marrow.
Body's Pre-Image and Five Elements (CH 15, P2, Garuda Puran)Pardeep Sehgal
A treatise on 'self' and 'not-self'. By wilful drawing of life force by attention to outside world and its activities, we deprive our inner organs of their share of life force which shows up as disease.
These thirteen vices are regarded as very powerful foes of all creatures. These approach and tempt men from every side. From these proceed all kinds of grief. From these proceed all kinds of sin. Every mortal should always know of their origin, of the objects upon which they rest, and of the means of their destruction.
Brahmacharya (Celibacy) Quotes (Sri R Paramahansa)Pardeep Sehgal
A man practicing unbroken brahmacharya for twelve years develops a special power. He grows a new inner nerve called the nerve of memory. Through that nerve he remembers all, he understands all. When a man succeeds in the conservation of his sexual energy, his intellect reflects the image of Brahman. The man who carries this image of Brahman in his heart is able to accomplish everything – he will succeed wonderfully in whatever action he engages himself.
Right of Justice and Judgement was not given to souls. It is the sole prerogative of God for which He created His Karmic Law.
His Karmic Law works on the principle of Upliftment of soul. If we are keen to realize our Father then we must stop judging others and also stop seeking justice for wrong done to us.
When we will forgive others, God will forgive our trespasses to His Law.
To raise up the physical to the spiritual is Brahmacharya, for by the meeting of the two the energy which starts from one and produces the other is enhanced and fulfills itself. This is the metaphysical theory. The application depends on a right understanding of the physical and psychological conformation of the human receptacle of energy.
For those who are interested in self-realization and subsequently God-realization.
We have four-petal control console at forehead - manas, chitta, buddhi, and ahankar. Manas is connected to 5-input senses - ears (sound), eyes (sight), nose (smell), tongue (taste), and skin (touch).
Chitta is the conscious faculty of mind and it provides input from our past experience in previous lives also known as sanskars. Manas and Chitta operate in tandem.
Seat of buddhi is independent and it is intellect as acquired knowledge acquired from outside through 5-input senses and it is intuition as input from soul as real knowledge.
Ahankar is ego which is my 'I' and it authorizes all actions through 5-output senses - speech, hands (manual skill), feet (locomotion), sacral (genital organs), and coccyx (rectal organ).
For success in meditation we have to check externalization of mind and also output activity.
2From On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for L.docxnovabroom
2
From On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life, by Friedrich Nietzsche (1874)
Section 1:
CONSIDER the herds that are feeding yonder: they know not the meaning of yesterday or to-day; they graze and ruminate, move or rest, from morning to night, from day to day, taken up with their little loves and hates, at the mercy of the moment, feeling neither melancholy nor satiety. Man cannot see them without regret, for even in the pride of his humanity he looks enviously on the beast's happiness. He wishes simply to live without satiety or pain, like the beast; yet it is all in vain, for he will not change places with it. He may ask the beast—"Why do you look at me and not speak to me of your happiness?" The beast wants to answer—"Because I always forget what I wished to say": but he forgets this answer too, and is silent; and the man is left to wonder.
He wonders also about himself, that he cannot learn to forget, but hangs on the past: however far or fast he run, that chain runs with him. It is matter for wonder: the moment, that is here and gone, that was nothing before and nothing after, returns like a spectre to trouble the quiet of a later moment. A leaf is continually dropping out of the volume of time and fluttering away and suddenly it flutters back into the man's lap. Then he says, "I remember . . . ," and envies the beast, that forgets at once, and sees every moment really die, sink into night and mist, extinguished for ever. The beast lives unhistorically; for it "goes into" the present, like a number, without leaving any curious remainder. It cannot dissimulate, it conceals nothing; at every moment it seems what it actually is, and thus can be nothing that is not honest. But man is always resisting the great and continually increasing weight of the past; it presses him down, and bows his shoulders; he travels with a dark invisible burden that he can plausibly disown, and is only too glad to disown in converse with his fellows—in order to excite their envy. And so it hurts him, like the thought of a lost Paradise, to see a herd grazing, or, nearer still, a child, that has nothing yet of the past to disown, and plays in a happy blindness between the walls of the past and the future. And yet its play must be disturbed, and only too soon will it be summoned from its little kingdom of oblivion. Then it learns to understand the words "once upon a time," the "open sesame" that lets in battle, suffering and weariness on mankind, and reminds them what their existence really is, an imperfect tense that never becomes a present. And when death brings at last the desired forgetfulness, it abolishes life and being together, and sets the seal on the knowledge that "being" is merely a continual "has been," a thing that lives by denying and destroying and contradicting itself.
If happiness and the chase for new happiness keep alive in any sense the will to live, no philosophy has perhaps more truth than the cynic's: for the beast's happine.
2239. There are Those Who have been living in Unity wit.docxShiraPrater50
22
39. There are Those Who have been living in Unity
with Tao since ancient times. Thanks to Them, the sky is
pure and the earth is stable, nature is gentle and rivers
are full of water, valleys are covered with flowers, all
living beings multiply, and the heroes of the spiritual
Path are paragons of virtue. All this is provided by Those
Who Have Achieved the Unity!
If They did not help, then the sky would cease to be
pure and the earth would crack all over, nature would
cease giving its beauty to all the living, valleys would
stop blooming and turn into deserts, all living beings
would stop multiplying and disappear, and the heroes of
the spiritual Path would not be paragons of virtue and
would be ridiculed and banished…
People are a base for their rulers. Therefore, those
earthly rulers who elevate themselves do not have a
strong base. This happens because they do not consider
people as their base. It is their mistake.
If you disassemble the chariot that you ride, what
would you be left with?
Do not regard yourself as precious jasper! Be simple,
like a common stone!
40. The interaction of opposites is the sphere of
Tao’s activity.
The Highest Subtlety is one of the most important
qualities of Tao. It is opposed by the coarse qualities of
evil people.
All the development of incarnate beings happens
with the interaction of these opposites.
However, the world of matter itself originated from
the Subtlest Source…
41. The wise, having learned about Tao, aspire to
self-realization in It.
23
The unwise, having learned about Tao, sometimes
remember about It and sometimes forget about It.
Foolish people, having learned about Tao, ridicule It.
They regard Those Who have cognized Tao as insane…
They regard the wisdom as insanity…, the higher justice
as vice…, the righteousness as depravity…, the great
truth as falsity…
Yes, the great square has no corners, the great sound
cannot be heard, the great image cannot be seen…
Yes, Tao is hidden from idle looks. It leads only those
to Perfection who are worthy of it!
42. Once, One came out from Tao. He took with Him-
self Two others. Those Two took Three others. And They
all began to create various forms of life on the planet.
22
All creatures are subdivided into pairs of opposites —
yin and yang — and are filled with chi. All further devel-
opment comes from their interactions.
Everyone is afraid of loneliness and views it as suffer-
ing. This concerns earthly rulers as well.
They care only about themselves and refuse to help
others.
However, the correct decision is to dedicate oneself
to caring about others, thereby forgetting about oneself.
Wise spiritual seekers who dedicate their lives to the
good of all will not be conquered by death. I prefer these
words to all the other precepts of all the sages!
Those Who have attained Tao are merged into One in
It.
22
Lao Tse tells here ...
2239. There are Those Who have been living in Unity wit.docxtarifarmarie
22
39. There are Those Who have been living in Unity
with Tao since ancient times. Thanks to Them, the sky is
pure and the earth is stable, nature is gentle and rivers
are full of water, valleys are covered with flowers, all
living beings multiply, and the heroes of the spiritual
Path are paragons of virtue. All this is provided by Those
Who Have Achieved the Unity!
If They did not help, then the sky would cease to be
pure and the earth would crack all over, nature would
cease giving its beauty to all the living, valleys would
stop blooming and turn into deserts, all living beings
would stop multiplying and disappear, and the heroes of
the spiritual Path would not be paragons of virtue and
would be ridiculed and banished…
People are a base for their rulers. Therefore, those
earthly rulers who elevate themselves do not have a
strong base. This happens because they do not consider
people as their base. It is their mistake.
If you disassemble the chariot that you ride, what
would you be left with?
Do not regard yourself as precious jasper! Be simple,
like a common stone!
40. The interaction of opposites is the sphere of
Tao’s activity.
The Highest Subtlety is one of the most important
qualities of Tao. It is opposed by the coarse qualities of
evil people.
All the development of incarnate beings happens
with the interaction of these opposites.
However, the world of matter itself originated from
the Subtlest Source…
41. The wise, having learned about Tao, aspire to
self-realization in It.
23
The unwise, having learned about Tao, sometimes
remember about It and sometimes forget about It.
Foolish people, having learned about Tao, ridicule It.
They regard Those Who have cognized Tao as insane…
They regard the wisdom as insanity…, the higher justice
as vice…, the righteousness as depravity…, the great
truth as falsity…
Yes, the great square has no corners, the great sound
cannot be heard, the great image cannot be seen…
Yes, Tao is hidden from idle looks. It leads only those
to Perfection who are worthy of it!
42. Once, One came out from Tao. He took with Him-
self Two others. Those Two took Three others. And They
all began to create various forms of life on the planet.
22
All creatures are subdivided into pairs of opposites —
yin and yang — and are filled with chi. All further devel-
opment comes from their interactions.
Everyone is afraid of loneliness and views it as suffer-
ing. This concerns earthly rulers as well.
They care only about themselves and refuse to help
others.
However, the correct decision is to dedicate oneself
to caring about others, thereby forgetting about oneself.
Wise spiritual seekers who dedicate their lives to the
good of all will not be conquered by death. I prefer these
words to all the other precepts of all the sages!
Those Who have attained Tao are merged into One in
It.
22
Lao Tse tells here.
YV BKII CH13 On Equanimity (The First Guard at the Door of Liberation) Pardeep Sehgal
By being unmindful of worldly affairs and regardless of all its excitements, the soul is filled with a joy resembling the ambrosial waters in the moon.
He who ceases to act his magical parts (in this playground of the earth) and desists from following his inclinations and childish pranks, shines forth in his spiritual light. Such are the powers gained from spiritual knowledge, and by no other means whatever.
Therefore a man should employ his reasoning powers during life to try to seek and know and adore the Supreme Soul. Lack of dignity, inextricable difficulties, and baseness and degeneracy are all the offspring of ignorance.
To liberate oneself from the miseries of the world, one must know the true nature of the soul, both from his teacher and the evidence of the scriptures, and also from friends like ourselves.
Ignorance is the spring of misery. Through ignorance one suffers afflictions and incurs great danger. Ignorance has its origin in covetousness. As covetousness grows, ignorance also grows. Ignorance exists there where covetousness exists.
Current COVID virus is a direct attack on the vital Link necessary for transfer of Energy to Form. Our willful engagement in the Greed-Deceit group of negative attributes at Shanks has given birth to this virus.
Life is going to be different post Corona. It is a message to the entire world that we must limit performance of our activity which is based on the Greed-Deceit group of negative attributes.
Disclaimer: This is the opinion of the writer. All are welcome to make further studies in this direction.
Brother, there are three evils most formidable of all: lust, anger and greed. The weapons of greed are desire and hypocrisy, of lust naught but woman; while anger’s weapon is harsh speech: so declare the great sages after deep thought. Woman is God's wonderful creation but to lust after her is not desirable.
Ansuya to Sita on Wifely Virtues from the Epic 'Ramayana' by Tulsi Das Ji. • The woman who deceives her husband and loves a paramour is cast for a hundred cycles into the worst hell known as Raurava. Who is as depraved as the woman who for the sake of a moment’s pleasure reckons not the torment that shall endure for a thousand million births?
Lord Mahadev - Uma discourse on Women's Duties from the Epic 'Mahabharata'. Uma concludes: 'Maheshwara, I do not desire Heaven itself if thou art not satisfied with me'.
No man even in anger, should do anything that is disagreeable to his wife, seeing that happiness, joy and virtue, - everything depends on the wife. A wonderful discourse from the Epic 'Mahabharata'.
Due to their natural disposition women cannot be regarded as offenders. It is the men who should be stained with guilt of any wrongdoing to women. A wonderful discourse from the Epic 'Mahabharata'.
Celibacy 4 - Right Company and Firm DecisionPardeep Sehgal
The sexual impulse has been there for countless lives, and you never know when it will rise again. Therefore, it is important to remain in the right company. If you go out of right company, because of the existing impulse, sexuality will start to sprout all over again.
What is nischaya (determined decision)? Nischaya means, no matter how powerful an army of worldly difficulties arises with attacks, you would not back off.
What is nischaya? It is to stop all other thoughts and come onto only one thought. If you make a firm decision, all the evidences will come together and make it happen. If your decision is not firm then the evidences will not come together and your goal will not be accomplished.
True understanding is one that produces results. All other understanding is unfruitful.
Mind, intellect, chit and ego should remain in brahmacharya. And if mind, intellect, chit and ego turn towards brahmacharya, then the external sexuality will shed off automatically.
The illusion of sex is such that it will sink all, even the one who thinks that he has no attachment to anything in the world. This illusion of sex has sunk great sages and masters from tremendous spiritual heights.
Celibacy 2 - Means of Attaining BrahamacharyaPardeep Sehgal
In sexuality, the more a person enjoys it, the more he has a burning desire for it. By not getting involved in the sexual act, one may become uneasy and unsettled for a month or two. But it is not possible for a person enjoying sex to get rid of the desire for it.
In case of excessive intake of ice cream the vomiting is the inhibitor and the act was from outside. But in case of sex the motivation for act is from within. Sex is in the mind and it derives its power from Ignorance (Illusion, Maya) whose charge does not diminish. Repeated indulgence in sex does not appease one’s hunger for its enjoyment.
The research of the scriptures done by people in our country, has led to the discovery that the path of brahmacharya is the best inhibitor to control the desire of sex pleasure.
Celibacy 1 - The Detailed Analysis of SexualityPardeep Sehgal
Brahmacharya means control of the Veerya. The vital force or Veerya is preserved only by one who is established in the practice of Brahmacharya. The vital fluid or semen is lost and wasted during sexual indulgence.
From food comes juice or chyle; from chyle comes blood and flesh; from flesh comes fat; from fat comes bones; from bones come marrow. Lastly, from marrow comes semen.
The Veerya comes out of the very marrow concealed in the bones. It is found in a subtle state in all the cells of the body. Mark here how precious the semen is! It is the last essence of food. It is the essence of essences.
In Yoga Shastra it is stated: "The falling of semen brings death; the preservation of it gives life." 'The nemesis of reproduction is death. The sexual act is essentially katabolic (or a movement towards death) in the male, and in parturition of the offspring it is katabolic for the female.'
"The future is for the nations who are chaste". Tom Mann
Listen! Rama, I am now telling you the secret of accomplishment. Of all the requisites for wisdom, Divine Grace is the most important. He who has entirely surrendered himself to the Goddess (Pure Consciousness by devotion through a true Guru) is sure to gain wisdom readily. Rama! This is the best of all the methods.
This method does not require other aids to reinforce its efficiency, as other methods do for accomplishing the end. This is hard for those whose minds are directed outward; and it is easy, sure and quick for devotees engrossed in the Goddess of the Self to the exclusion of all else.
My concrete form is the eternal couple - the Supreme Lord and Energy - always in undivided union and abiding as the eternal consciousness pervading the three phenomenal states of waking, dream and sleep, and reclining on the cot whose four legs are Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Protector), Siva (the Destroyer) and Isvara (Disappearance) and whose surface is Sadasiva (Grace) which is contained in the mansion known as 'fulfilment of purpose' enclosed by the garden of 'Kadamba' trees in the jewel island situated in the wide ocean of nectar surrounding the cosmos and extending beyond.
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Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Isvara, Sadasiva, Ganesa, Skanda, the gods of the eight quarters, their energies, other gods, celestials, serpents and other superhuman beings are all manifestations of myself. However, people do not know ME because their intellect is shrouded in ignorance.
I grant boons to those who worship ME. There is no one besides ME worthy of worship or capable of fulfilling all desires.
ADS6 - Different States of the Wise (Jnanis)Pardeep Sehgal
What kind of effort can avail to disclose the eternally self-resplendent consciousness?
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• Being coated with a thick crust of infinite vasanas (dispositions), it is not easily perceived.
• The incrustation must first be soaked in the running stream of mind control and carefully scraped off with the sharp chisel of investigation.
• Then one must turn the closed urn of crystal quartz - namely, the mind cleaned in the aforesaid manner - on the grinding wheel of alertness and finally open the lid with the lever of discrimination.
• Lo! The gem enclosed within is now reached and that is all!
Intellects are the cumulative effects of the predispositions acquired by karma. Effort is necessary so long as the predispositions continue to sway the intellect
Diversity is visible only in space, and this space is in the Self, which in turn projects it at the moment when differentiation starts although it is not then clear. Rama! Look within.
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• What you perceive as space within is the expanse wherein all creatures exist, and it forms their ‘Self’ or consciousness.
• What they look upon as space is your ‘Self’.
• Thus, the ‘Self’ in one is space in another, and vice versa.
• The same thing cannot differ in its nature.
• Therefore there is no difference between space and ‘Self’ - which is full and perfect Bliss-Consciousness.
The strongest fetter is the certainty that one is bound. It is as false as the fearful hallucinations of a frightened child. Even the best of men cannot find release by any amount of efforts unless his sense of bondage is destroyed.
An aspirant for wisdom first turns away from the pleasures of life and absorbs himself in the search for knowledge, which he learns from a master. This is hearsay knowledge.
In order to experience it, he ponders over it and clears his doubts. Then he applies the knowledge to himself and tries to feel his immortal being transcending the body, mind, etc., he succeeds in feeling his Self within.
Later he remembers the teaching imparted by his Guru that the Self being unqualified, cannot be differentiated from God and experiences his unity with the Universal Self. This is in short the course of wisdom and liberation.
If you infer its eternal light, then closely investigate whether the light is of itself or not. Everybody fails in this investigation however learned and proficient he may be, because his mind is not bent inward but restlessly moves outward.
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• As long as thoughts crop up, so long has the turning inward of the mind not been accomplished.
• As long as the mind is not inward, so long the Self cannot be realised.
• Turning inward means absence of desire.
• How can the mind be fixed within if desires are not given up?
Therefore become dispassionate and inhere as the Self. Such inherence is spontaneous (no effort is needed to inhere as the Self). It is realised after thoughts are eliminated and investigation ceases.
ADS2 - Cosmic Intelligence and Reality of the UniversePardeep Sehgal
All that is seen has an origin and there must therefore be an antecedent cause for it.
If a thing can appear without a cause there is no relation between cause and effect, and there can be no harmony in the world. A potter's work may lead to a weaver's products, and vice versa, which is absurd. Each occurrence must have a cause for it; that is the rule.
The universe must have a Creator, and He must be an intelligent principle, but He cannot be of any known type because of the vastness of the creation. His power is past understanding and is dealt with in the Scriptures, whose authority is incontrovertible.
This whole universe consisting of the mobile and the immobile, arises from, abides in, and resolves into Him. This is the final and well-known conclusion of the Scriptures; and the Scriptures never err. The guide by which one can apprehend the metaphysical and transcendental matters is Scripture alone.
ADS1 - The Story of Hemalekha and HemachudaPardeep Sehgal
Investigation is the root-cause of all, and it is the first step to the supreme reward of indescribable bliss. How can anyone gain security without proper investigation? A deliberating man always shines over others. Brahma is great because of deliberation; Vishnu is worshipped because of it.
Association with the Wise Must Precede "Vichara" – Deliberation – Self-Enquiry. A man undoubtedly reaps the fruits of his company. I shall relate to you a story to illustrate this:
"There was once a king of Dasarna by name Muktachuda. He had two sons: Hemachuda and Manichuda. They were comely, well-behaved and well-learned. At one time they led a hunting party, consisting of a great retinue of men and warriors, into a deep forest which was infested with tigers, lions and other wild animals…
Fie on human beings who appraise the foulest part of the body as the most delightful. If one should see beauty in that body-part which is wet with impure excretions, where will not man see beauty? Tell me!
The Chakra System in our body - A Portal to Interdimensional Consciousness.pptxBharat Technology
each chakra is studied in greater detail, several steps have been included to
strengthen your personal intention to open each chakra more fully. These are designed
to draw forth the highest benefit for your spiritual growth.
What Should be the Christian View of Anime?Joe Muraguri
We will learn what Anime is and see what a Christian should consider before watching anime movies? We will also learn a little bit of Shintoism religion and hentai (the craze of internet pornography today).
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian exile.
Lesson 9 - Resisting Temptation Along the Way.pptxCelso Napoleon
Lesson 9 - Resisting Temptation Along the Way
SBs – Sunday Bible School
Adult Bible Lessons 2nd quarter 2024 CPAD
MAGAZINE: THE CAREER THAT IS PROPOSED TO US: The Path of Salvation, Holiness and Perseverance to Reach Heaven
Commentator: Pastor Osiel Gomes
Presentation: Missionary Celso Napoleon
Renewed in Grace
Homily: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Sunday 2024.docxJames Knipper
Countless volumes have been written trying to explain the mystery of three persons in one true God, leaving us to resort to metaphors such as the three-leaf clover to try to comprehend the Divinity. Many of us grew up with the quintessential pyramidal Trinity structure of God at the top and Son and Spirit in opposite corners. But what if we looked at this ‘mystery’ from a different perspective? What if we shifted our language of God as a being towards the concept of God as love? What if we focused more on the relationship within the Trinity versus the persons of the Trinity? What if stopped looking at God as a noun…and instead considered God as a verb? Check it out…
In Jude 17-23 Jude shifts from piling up examples of false teachers from the Old Testament to a series of practical exhortations that flow from apostolic instruction. He preserves for us what may well have been part of the apostolic catechism for the first generation of Christ-followers. In these instructions Jude exhorts the believer to deal with 3 different groups of people: scoffers who are "devoid of the Spirit", believers who have come under the influence of scoffers and believers who are so entrenched in false teaching that they need rescue and pose some real spiritual risk for the rescuer. In all of this Jude emphasizes Jesus' call to rescue straying sheep, leaving the 99 safely behind and pursuing the 1.
The Good News, newsletter for June 2024 is hereNoHo FUMC
Our monthly newsletter is available to read online. We hope you will join us each Sunday in person for our worship service. Make sure to subscribe and follow us on YouTube and social media.
The PBHP DYC ~ Reflections on The Dhamma (English).pptxOH TEIK BIN
A PowerPoint Presentation based on the Dhamma Reflections for the PBHP DYC for the years 1993 – 2012. To motivate and inspire DYC members to keep on practicing the Dhamma and to do the meritorious deed of Dhammaduta work.
The texts are in English.
For the Video with audio narration, comments and texts in English, please check out the Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF2g_43NEa0
1. Grief
(From: The Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section CLXXIV)
Bhishma said:
• 'Religion hath many doors. The observance of (the duties prescribed by)
religion can never be futile. Duties have been laid down with respect to every
mode of life. (The fruits of those duties are invisible, being attainable in the
next world.)
• The fruits, however, of Penance directed towards the soul are obtainable in
this world. Whatever be the object to which one devotes oneself, that object, O
Bharata, and nothing else, appears to one as the highest of acquisitions fraught
with the greatest of blessings.
• When one reflects properly (one's heart being purified by such reflection), one
comes to know that the things of this world are as valueless as straw. Without
doubt, one is then freed from attachment in respect of those things.
• When the world, O Yudhishthira, which is full of defects, is so constituted,
every man of intelligence should strive for the attainment of the emancipation
of his soul.'
Yudhishthira said:
• 'Tell me, O grandsire, by what frame of soul should one kill one's grief when
one loses one's wealth, or when one's wife, or son, or sire, dies.'
Bhishma said:
• 'When one's wealth is lost, or one's wife or son or sire is dead, one certainly says
to oneself 'Alas, this is a great sorrow!' But then one should, by the aid of
reflection, seek to kill that sorrow.
In this connection is cited the old story of the speech that a regenerate friend of his,
coming to Senajit's court, made to that king. Beholding the monarch agitated with
grief and burning with sorrow on account of the death of his son, the Brahmana
addressed that ruler of very cheerless heart and said these words:
• 'Why art thou stupefied? Thou art without any intelligence. Thyself an object of
grief, why dost thou grieve (for others)? A few days hence others will grieve for
thee, and in their turn they will be grieved for by others.
• Thyself, myself, and others who wait upon thee, O king, shall all go to that
place whence all of us have come.'
2. Senajit said:
• 'What is that intelligence, what is that penance, O learned Brahmana, what is
that concentration of mind, O thou that hast wealth of asceticism, what is that
knowledge, and what is that learning, by acquiring which thou dost not yield
to sorrow?'
The Brahmana said:
• 'Behold, all creatures, -- the superior, the middling, and the inferior, -- in
consequence of their respective acts, are entangled in grief.
• I do not regard even my own self to be mine. On the other hand, I regard the
whole world to be mine. I again think that all this (which I see) is as much
mine as it belongs to others. Grief cannot approach me in consequence of this
thought. Having acquired such an understanding, I do not yield either to joy
or to grief.
• As two pieces of wood floating on the ocean come together at one time and are
again separated, even such is the union of (living) creatures in this world. Sons,
grandsons, kinsmen, relatives are all of this kind. One should never feel
affection for them, for separation with them is certain.
• Thy son came from an invisible region. He has departed and become invisible.
He did not know thee. Thou didst not know him. Who art thou and for whom
dost thou grieve?
• Grieve arises from the disease constituted by desire. Happiness again results
from the disease of desire being cured. From joy also springs sorrow, and hence
sorrow arises repeatedly. Sorrow comes after joy and joy after sorrow. The joys
and sorrows of human beings are revolving on a wheel. After happiness
sorrow has come to thee. Thou shalt again have happiness. No one suffers
sorrow forever, and no one enjoys happiness forever. The body is the refuge of
both sorrow and happiness.
• Whatever acts an embodied creature does with the aid of his body, the
consequence thereof he has to suffer in that body. Life springs with the
springing of the body into existence. The two exist together, and the two perish
together.
• Men of un-cleansed souls, wedded to worldly things by various bonds, meet
with destruction like embankments of sand in water. Woes of diverse kinds,
born of ignorance, act like pressers of oil-seeds, for assailing all creatures in
consequence of their attachments. These press them like oil-seeds in the oil-
making machine represented by the round of rebirths (to which they are subject).
3. • Man, for the sake of his wife (and others), commits numerous evil acts, but
suffers singly diverse kinds of misery both in this and the next world. All men,
attached to children and wives and kinsmen and relatives, sink in the miry sea of
grief like wild elephants, when destitute of strength, sinking in a miry slough.
• Indeed. O lord, upon loss of wealth or son or kinsmen or relatives, man suffers
great distress, which resembles as regards its power of burning, a forest
conflagration.
• All this, viz., joy and grief, existence and non-existence, is dependent upon
destiny. One having friends as one destitute of friends, one having foes as one
destitute of foes, one having wisdom as one destitute of wisdom, each and every
one amongst these, obtains happiness through destiny. Friends are not the
cause of one's happiness. Foes are not the cause of one's misery.
Wisdom is not competent to bring an accession of wealth; nor is wealth competent to
bring an accession of happiness. Intelligence is not the cause of wealth, nor is
stupidity the cause of penury.
• He only that is possessed of wisdom, and none else, understands the order of the
world. Amongst the intelligent, the heroic, the foolish, the cowardly, the
idiotic, the learned, the weak, or the strong, happiness comes to him for whom
it is ordained. Among the calf, the cowherd that owns her, and the thief, the cow
indeed belongs to him who drinks her milk.
• They whose understanding is absolutely dormant, and they who have attained
to that state of the mind which lies beyond the sphere of the intellect, succeed
in enjoying happiness. Only they that are between the two classes, suffer
misery.
• They that are possessed of wisdom delight in the two extremes but not in the
states that are intermediate. The sages have said that the attainment of any of
these two extremes constitutes happiness. Misery consists in the states that are
intermediate between the two.
• They who have succeeded in attaining to real felicity (which Samadhi can
bring), and who have become free from the pleasures and pains of this world,
and who are destitute of envy, are never agitated by either the accession of
wealth or its loss.
• They who have not succeeded in acquiring that intelligence which leads to real
felicity, but who have transcended folly and ignorance (by the help of
knowledge of the scriptures), give way to excessive joy and excessive misery.
4. • Men destitute of all notions of right or wrong, insensate with pride and with
success over others, yield to transports of delight like the gods in heaven.
• Happiness must end in misery. Idleness is misery; while cleverness (in action) is
the cause of happiness. Affluence and prosperity dwell in one possessed of
cleverness, but not in one that is idle. Be it happiness or be it misery, be it
agreeable or be it disagreeable, what comes to one should be enjoyed or
endured with an unconquered heart.
• Every day a thousand occasions for sorrow, and hundred occasions for fear
assail the man of ignorance and folly but not the man that is possessed of
wisdom. Sorrow can never touch the man that is possessed of intelligence that
has acquired wisdom that is mindful of listening to the instructions of his betters,
that is destitute of envy, and that is self-restrained.
• Relying upon such an understanding, and protecting his heart (from the
influences of desire and the passions), the man of wisdom should conduct
himself here. Indeed, sorrow is unable to touch him who is conversant with
that Supreme Self from which everything springs and unto which everything
disappears.
The very root of that for which grief, or heartburning, or sorrow is felt or for which
one is impelled to exertion, should, even if it be a part of one's body, be cast off. That
object, whatever it may be in respect of which the idea of meum is cherished, becomes a
source of grief and heart-burning.
• Whatever objects, amongst things that are desired, are cast off become sources of
happiness. The man that pursues objects of desire meets with destruction in
course of the pursuit. Neither the happiness that is derived from a gratification
of the senses nor that great felicity which one may enjoy in heaven,
approaches to even a sixteenth part of the felicity which arises from the
destruction of all desires.
• The acts of a former life, right or wrong, visit, in their consequences, the wise
and the foolish, the brave and the timid. It is even thus that joy and sorrow, the
agreeable and the disagreeable, continually revolve (as on a wheel) among living
creatures. Relying upon such an understanding, the man of intelligence and
wisdom lives at ease.
• A person should disregard all his desires, and never allow his wrath to get the
better of him. This wrath springs in the heart and grows there into vigour and
luxuriance. This wrath that dwells in the bodies of men and is born in their
minds is spoken of by the wise as Death.
5. • When a person succeeds in withdrawing all his desires like a tortoise
withdrawing all its limbs, then his soul, which is self-luminous, succeeds in
looking into itself.
• That object, whatever it may be, in respect of which the idea of meum is
cherished, becomes a source of grief and heart-burning. When a person himself
feels no fear, and is feared by no one, when he cherishes no desire and no
aversion, he is then said to attain to the state of Brahman.
• Casting off truth and falsehood, grief and joy, fear and courage, the agreeable
and the disagreeable, thou mayst become of tranquil soul. When a person
abstains from doing wrong to any creature, in thought, word, or deed, he is
then said to attain to a state of Brahman.
• True happiness is his who can cast off that thirst which is incapable of being
cast off by the misguided, which does not decay with decrepitude, and which
is regarded as a fatal disease.
In this connection, O king, are heard the verses sung by Pingala about the manner in
which she had acquired eternal merit even at a time that had been very unfavourable.
A fallen woman of the name of Pingala, having repaired to the place of assignation, was
denied the company of her lover through an accident. At that time of great misery, she
succeeded in acquiring tranquility of soul.' Pingala said:
• 'Alas, I have for many long years lived, all the while overcome by frenzy, by the
side of that Dear Self in whom there is nothing but tranquility. Death has been at
my door. Before this, I did not; however approach that Essence of Purity. I shall
cover this house of one column and nine doors (by means of true Knowledge).
• What woman is there that regards that Supreme Soul as her dear lord, even
when He comes near? I am now awake. I have been roused from the sleep of
ignorance. I am no longer influenced by desire. Human lovers, who are really
the embodied forms of hell, shall no longer deceive me by approaching me
lustfully.
• Evil produces good through the destiny or the acts of a former life. Roused
(from the sleep of ignorance), I have cast off all desire for worldly objects. I
have acquired a complete mastery over my senses. One freed from desire and
hope sleeps in felicity. Freedom from every hope and desire is felicity. Having
driven off desire and hope, Pingala sleeps in felicity.'
Convinced with these and other words uttered by the learned Brahmana, king Senajit
(casting off his grief), experienced delight and became very happy.