Religion

It is your organized religions that have made it clear through their most sacred scriptures that cruelty and killing is an acceptable response to human frailty and human differences. This goes against every human instinct, but organized religion has reorganized human thoughts. Some humans have even been turned against their own instinct for survival. And so people go around maiming and killing each other, because they've been told quite directly that this is what God does to them – and what God wants them to do to each other. - Neale Donald Walsch

Organised religions in general, in my opinion, are dying forms. They were all very important when we didn’t know why the sun moved, why weather changed, why hurricanes occurred, or volcanoes happened. Modern religion is the end trail of modern mythology. But there are people who interpret the Bible literally. - Bruce Willis

Organized religion has too often followed the road of other people's institutions. It has made adjustments, compromises, and surrenders to a materialistic civilization for the benefit of material security in spite of occasional twinges of conscience and moral protests. The result has been that today much of organized religion is materialistically solvent but spiritually bankrupt. - Saul Alinsky

Energy / Chi

Chi or Qi is the cosmic vital energy that enables beings to survive and links them to the universe as a whole.

Chi is the basic material of all that exists. It animates life and furnishes functional power of events. Qi is the root of the human body; its quality and movement determine human health. Qi can be discussed in terms of quantity, since having more means stronger metabolic function.

This, however, does not mean that health is a by-product of storing large quantities of qi. Rather, there is a normal or healthy amount of qi in every person, and health manifests in its balance and harmony, its moderation and smoothness of flow.

This flow is envisioned in the texts as a complex system of waterways with the ‘Ocean of Qi’ in the abdomen; rivers of qi flowing through the upper torso, arms, and legs; springs of qi reaching to the wrists and ankles; and wells of qi found in the fingers and toes. Even a small spot in this complex system can thus influence the whole, so that overall balance and smoothness are the general goal.

Human life is the accumulation of qi; death is its dispersal. After receiving a core potential of primordial qi at birth, people throughout life need to sustain it. They do so by drawing postnatal qi into the body from air and food, as well as from other people through sexual, emotional, and social interaction. But they also lose qi through breathing bad air, overburdening their bodies with food and drink, and getting involved in negative emotions and excessive sexual or social interactions.

- Livia Kohn, Health and Long Life: The Chinese Way

Atheist

As an atheist, I am angry that we live in a society in which the plain truth cannot be spoken without offending 90% of the population. - Sam Harris

Being an atheist is kind of like being the only sober person in the car and nobody will let you drive. - Unknown

For those who are born into atheism, it's a faith like any other. The only real atheist is an ex-believer. - Gabriel Lauber

Teachings of the Buddha

This is what convinced me Buddhism was for me. No blind faith, and no coercion. I listen to what was expounded, I think it through, and then I judge whether they are sensible, and then I decide whether to believe it or not.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. - The Buddha

As a wise man tests gold on a touch-stone, heating and cutting, so you, monks should test my words by practice, and not accept them simply due to the reverence to me. - The Buddha

If you judge by yourselves – these actions are not meritorious, these are wrong, these are despised by the wise and these are conducive to the prejudice and grief of him who commits them – then do shun them.
If you judge by yourselves – these actions are meritorious, these are right, these are praised by the wise, these are conducive to well-being for the happiness of him who performs them - then act accordingly. - The Buddha

Lotus Flower

The traditional Indian and Buddhist explanation of the glorious lotus flower is that it appears not to spring from the sordid earth but from the surface of the water and it is always unsullied and pure, no matter how impure the water. This symbolizes all first created objects arising from primordial chaos – confusion and darkness. In other words, from out the darkness came light, beauty, and form. No matter what one’s environment, the spiritual truth latent in one’s nature may blossom forth and remain uncontaminated if one turns toward the light. - Unknown

Meditation

Buddha was asked, “What have you gained from meditation?”
He replied, “Nothing! However, let me tell you what I have lost: anger, anxiety, depression, insecurity, fear of old age and death.” - Unknown

Spiritual

Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love. - Thomas Merton

Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving, and full of the desire to serve... Learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation. Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all. Cultivate vigour, patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride. Then, you will achieve your destiny. - Krishna

God

I think that if there were a God, there would be less evil on this earth. I believe that if evil exists here below, then either it was willed by God or it was beyond His powers to prevent it. Now I cannot bring myself to fear a God who is either spiteful or weak. I defy Him without fear and care not a fig for his thunderbolts. - Marquis de Sade

I do not mind if I lose my soul for all eternity. If the kind of God exists Who would damn me for not working out a deal with Him, then that is unfortunate. I should not care to spend eternity in the company of such a person. - Mary McCarthy

Universe

In this interconnected universe, every improvement we make in our private world improves the world at large for everyone. We all float on the collective level of consciousness of mankind, so that any increment we add comes back to us. We all add to our common buoyancy by our efforts to benefit life. It is a scientific fact that what is good for you is good for me. - Dr. David Hawkins

We do not ‘come into’ this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean ‘waves,’ the Universe ‘peoples.’ Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of Nature, a unique action of the total Universe. - Alan Watts

In my youth, I regarded the universe as an open book, printed in the language of physical equations, whereas now it appears to me as a text written in invisible ink, of which in our rare moments of grace we are able to decipher a small fragment. - Arthur Koestler

Food for Thought

Buddhism

Excerpts from Buddhist texts.

Loving kindness

Do not forget to have loving-kindness for yourself. You are also a living being who deserves, who needs love and compassion. In fact, you can’t really love others until you learn to love yourself. That doesn’t mean being selfish and egotistical. It means being a friend to yourself, accepting yourself as you are with your faults and limitations, knowing that you can change and grow. - Unknown

Be aware of Impermanence

Everything is subject to change. What is born, must die. See this in things around you. Notice in your current experience how happiness, sadness, boredom, all come and go. Watch how the more you cling to something, the harder it is when it eventually has to disappear. - Unknown

Bible

The Old Testament is responsible for more atheism, agnosticism, disbelief – call it what you will – than any book ever written; it has emptied more churches than all the counterattractions of cinema, motor bicycle and golf course. - A. A. Milne

Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. - Isaac Asimov

Meditation

Meditation is not a matter of trying to achieve ecstasy, spiritual bliss, or tranquility, nor is it attempting to become a better person. It is simply the creation of a space in which we are able to expose and undo our neurotic games, our self-deceptions, our hidden fears and hopes. - Chogyam Trungpa

Meditation aspires to rediscover the Light by removing the layers of unwanted thoughts that are covering it. Once you free yourself from unwanted thoughts, there will be room to observe learn, reflect and accept. - Unknown

Meditation is a method to access the insight and wisdom which lie hidden in your Divine Nature. It is a form of spiritual training that will help you find harmony between body, and mind.- Unknown

Meditation tends to free a great deal of energy that is usually tied up in various kinds of mental and emotional tensions. When these tensions are released we have more energy available to live full and creative lives. - Unknown

I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle. - Kurt Vonnegut

Mysticism

To no longer resist the present is to see that there is nothing but the present - no beginning, no end, nothing behind it, nothing in front of it. When the past of memory and the future of anticipation are both seen to be present facts, then the slats to this present collapse. The boundaries around this moment fall into this moment, and then there is nothing but this moment, with nowhere else to go. - Ken Wilber

You are eternal Consciousness, currently in this wonderful physical body for the thrill and exhilaration of specific focus and creation. The physical being that you define as 'you' stands on the Leading Edge of thought, while Consciousness, which is really your Source, pours through you. And in those moments of inexpressible elation, those are the times when you are wide open and truly allowing your Source to express through you. - Unknown

Religion

All religions, with their gods, their demi-gods, and their prophets, their messiahs and their saints, were created by the prejudiced fancy of men who had not attained the full development and full possession of their faculties. - Mikhail Bakunin

As editor of the largest newspaper in West Virginia, I scan hundreds of reports daily and I am amazed by the frequency with which religion causes people to kill each other. It is a nearly universal pattern, undercutting the common assumption that religion makes people kind and tolerant. - James Haught

Before you speak to me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people; Before you tell me how much you love your God, show me in how much you love all his children; Before you preach to me of your passion for your faith, teach me about it through your compassion for your neighbours. - Cory Booker

Energy / Chi

Vital energy is always there. It runs through all of life. It connects our bodies with our minds and souls. It links us with other people, with our homes and nature, with the universe and with the highest spiritual power. - Unknown

If our heart is at peace, our whole body of energy is at peace. If our heart is righteous, our whole body of energy is righteous. - Zhang Dai

Pay attention to whom your energy increases and decreases around, because that’s the universe giving you a hint of who you should embrace or stray from. - Unknown

The smooth, balanced flow of chi – your life-force energy – is the single most important determinant to your health, vitality and happiness. - Bruce Frantzis

The wise who know the arcane art go into deep meditation, breathe in cosmic energy, and through constant practice, eventually acquire supernormal abilities. - Nei Jing

Discard all irrelevant thoughts, breathe in cosmic energy, so as to open your mental faculties. - Nei Jing

Atheism

All thinking men are atheists. - Ernest Hemingway

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. - Stephen Roberts

A man who parades his piety is one who, under an atheist king, would be an atheist. - Jean de La Bruyere

Buddhism

Excerpts from Buddhist texts.

The Buddha does not attempt to solve all the ethical and philosophical problems that perplex mankind. He is chiefly concerned with one practical and specific problem; that of Suffering and its destruction. All side issues are completely ignored. - Unknown

When the senses touch sense objects and the thoughts touch thought objects, the fires of lust and desire are kindled. Your ears hear praises of yourselves and then your thoughts think of self-importance and you are fearful lest you lose the self-importance. You forget that this self is not the true self of you which is universal and deathless. - Unknown

When we are thinking generously, we give allowance to the inconsiderate, the unkind, the selfish and mean people in the world. Thereupon, we become generous in our speech; to speak well of others behind their backs, to rejoice in their success, to understand their errors, then our deeds become generous too. - Unknown

A Parable

            A monk decides to meditate alone, away from his monastery. He takes his boat out to the middle of the lake, moors it there, closes his eyes and begins his meditation.
            After a few hours of undisturbed silence, he suddenly feels the bump of another boat colliding with his own. With his eyes still closed, he senses his anger rising, and by the time he opens his eyes, he is ready to scream at the boatman who dared disturb his meditation.
            But when he opens his eyes, he sees it’s an empty boat that had probably got untethered and floated to the middle of the lake.
            At that moment, the monk achieves self-realization, and understands that the anger is within him; it merely needs the bump of an external object to provoke it out of him.
            From then on, whenever he comes across someone who irritates him or provokes him to anger, he reminds himself, “The other person is merely an empty boat. The anger is within me.”

Meditation

Don't think that only sitting with the eyes closed is practice. Steady practice is keeping mindful in every posture, whether sitting walking, standing or lying down. When coming out of sitting, don't think that you're coming out of meditation, but that you are only changing postures. If you reflect in this way, you will have peace. Wherever you are, you will have this attitude of practice with you constantly. You will have a steady awareness within yourself. - Unknown

Meditation practice is like piano scales, basketball drills, ballroom dance class. Practice requires discipline; it can be tedious; it is necessary. After you have practiced enough, you become more skilled at the art form itself. You do not practice to become a great scale player or drill champion. You practice to become a musician or athlete. Likewise, one does not practice meditation to become a great meditator. We meditate to wake up and live, to become skilled at the art of living. - Elizabeth Lesser

One practice I rely on all the time is basic meditation which allows me to strip away the noise. It’s like the old-fashioned dial on the radio, where you were getting static and then you found that clear, sweet spot on the dial, where the music would come through. That's what meditation is for me. Dialling out the static, the noise, the anxiety, the fear, and coming into a place that's deep and quiet. It's like dropping into a well of inspiration and wisdom. - Elizabeth Lesdser

Spirituality

Spirituality does not come from religion. It comes from the soul. Unknown

Spirituality exists wherever we struggle with the issue of how our lives fit into the greater cosmic scheme of things. This is true even when our questions never give way to specific answers or give rise to specific practices such as prayer or meditation. We encounter spiritual issues every time we wonder where the universe comes from, why we are here, or what happens when we die. We also become spiritual when we become moved by values such as beauty, love, or creativity that seem to reveal a meaning or power beyond our visible world. An idea or practice is ‘spiritual’ when it reveals our personal desire to establish a felt-relationship with the deepest meanings or powers governing life. - Robert C. Fuller

God

For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. - Charles Bukowski

If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses? If grace does everything for them, what reason would he have for recompensing them? If he is all-powerful, how offend him, how resist him? If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable? If he is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his decrees? If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? If he has spoken, why is the universe not convinced? If the knowledge of a God is the most necessary, why is it not the most evident and the clearest? - Percy Bysshe Shelley

Universe

I know that much of the structure and plan of the universe is beyond my understanding and not at all similar to anything of our earthly world that I have experienced so far. I marvel at the intellect and attention to detail, the precision manifested by the workings of this great and often unseen force of which we are all a part. - Rosemary Altea

It doesn't seem to me that this fantastically marvellous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil – which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama. - Richard Feyman

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning. - C.S. Lewis

Yin and Yang

Yin Yang is the principle of natural and complementary forces, patterns and things that depend on one another and do not make sense on their own.

These may be masculine and feminine, but they could be darkness and light (which is closer to the original meaning of the dark and light sides of a hill), wet and dry or action and inaction.

These are opposites that fit together seamlessly and work in perfect harmony. You can see this by looking at the yin yang symbol.

The yin yang concept is not the same as Western dualism, because the two opposites are not at war, but in harmony.

This can be seen very clearly in the symbol: the dark area contains a spot of light, and vice versa, and the two opposites are intertwined and bound together within the unifying circle.

Yin and yang are not static, the balance ebbs and flows between them - this is implied in the flowing curve where they meet.

- Taken BBC website Concepts Within Taoism

The Four Qualities of Love Taught by the Buddha

The teachings on love given by the Buddha are clear, scientific, and applicable… Love, compassion, joy, and equanimity are the very nature of an enlightened person. They are the four aspects of true love within ourselves and within everyone and everything. -Thich Nhat Hanh

https://creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2015/02/15/the-four-qualities-of-love-by-thich-nhat-hanh/

Humour

I have lived with several Zen masters – all of them cats. - Eckhart Tolle

Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair colour. - Don Hirschberg

In heaven, all the interesting people are missing. - Friedrich Nietzsche

After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands. - Friedrich Nietzsche

People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them. - Dave Barry

To me there's no real difference between a fortune teller or a fortune cookie and any of the organized religions. They're all equally valid or invalid, really. And equally helpful. - Woody Allen

Meditation

{While meditating} I sit quietly and rest in the nature of mind; I don't question or doubt whether I am in the "correct" state or not. There is no effort, only rich understanding, wakefulness, and unshakable certainty. When I am in the nature of mind, the ordinary mind is no longer there. There is no need to sustain or confirm a sense of being: I simply am. - Sogyal Rinpoche

In meditation, one returns to one’s breath. So you see your thinking arising and you just let it go. You don’t push it away, you don’t prevent it; you don’t hold it, you return to your breath. Return to your breathing. Then over time, you get to see that your thinking has no substance. Good thinking, bad thinking, has no substance. Then it can’t control you. - Venerable Hyon Gak

Just go into the room, open the doors and windows, sit in the center of the room and see who comes to visit. You will witness all kinds of scenes and actors, all kinds of temptations and stories, everything imaginable. Your only job is to stay in your seat. You will see it all arise and pass, and out of this, wisdom and understanding will come. - Ajahn Chah

Mysticism

            We can never know how greatly an individual may have changed the course of his life. We cannot know the extent of his suffering, struggling, and battling against odds that we might consider insurmountable. We can never know what he may be sacrificing. We cannot know what the Cosmic is directing him to do.
            Let each of us make sure that he is doing what the Master Within has pointed out for him to do. Let each live according to his own Light, doing what he feels the divine urge to do even thought it be menial or casual work, seemingly unimportant and unrelated. There will be no time to note whether others are living the life as we think they should. - Unknown

Religion

Does religion fill a much needed gap? It is often said that there is a God-shaped gap in the brain which needs to be filled: we have a psychological need for God – imaginary friend, father, big brother, confessor, confidant – and the need has to be satisfied whether God really exists or not. But could it be that God clutters up a gap that we'd be better off filling with something else? Science, perhaps? Art? Human friendship? Humanism? Love of this life in the real world, giving no credence to other lives beyond the grave? - Richard Dawkins

Consider the long history of the activities inspired by moral fervour: human sacrifices, persecutions of heretics, witch-hunts, pogroms leading up to wholesale extermination by poison gases ... Are these abominations, and the ethical doctrines by which they are prompted, really evidence of an intelligent Creator? And can we really wish that the men who practised them should live for ever? The world in which we live can be understood as a result of muddle and accident; but if it is the outcome of a deliberate purpose, the purpose must have been that of a fiend. For my part, I find accident a less painful and more plausible hypothesis. - Bertrand Russell

Energy

Energy fills every part of the infinite cosmos, and acts as a universal medium connecting everything. - Zhang Dai

Energy is the currency of the universe. - Emily Marcoutian

Every change of condition in matter is brought about by the action of energy on it. - Dolbear

The source of life, of birth and change is chi; everything under heaven and earth obeys this law. Chi in the periphery envelops the cosmos; chi in the interior activates all. - Nei Jing

Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics. - Albert Einstein

The physical body is actually a body of energy. - Mencius