The Mystery of Creation

There has been no mystery which has intrigued man’s mind more than that of Creation. How and even why did all of Being, the whole Cosmos, come into existence? Was it through spontaneous generation, or was it predetermined? If it was spontaneous, was there a previously created contributing substance? To cite chaos as the spring from which the Cosmos came forth simply precipitates the question as to whether chaos has a quality in itself. If it had, then what was its origins? 

If one accepts the alternative, that is, the predetermined cause, he enters the realm of teleology, or Mind as the motivating force of Creation. This assumes that Creation was a primary idea, an objective to be attained; that it was premeditated. 

This conception engenders the idea of an embodied mind residing in a thinking, reasoning entity. The only parallel we have for such a mental capacity is the human mind. Therefore, it is quite understandable that men would think of such an Infinite Mind as an attribute of a Supernatural Being. 

If such a being had the faculty of planning, formulating ideas, it must also have other attributes similar to those of mortals, such as the emotions, passions, and sentiments. Thus the notion of gods was born. 

At first these gods were thought of as apotheosized humans; in other words, mortals who had attained a divine status. Later, the gods were conceived as self-generated beings, and eventually the belief in a monotheistic Being, a sole God, was promulgated. The sole God, too was thought to have been self-generated, that nothing had preceded such a Deity. These notions aroused polemic theological and ontological discussion; in other words, they centred around the enigma of the phrase, “self-generation.” Did the term generation imply a Creation from a pre-existing “something” that was transmuted into a Deity? Or did it mean the God came into existence from a void, a condition of non-existence from a void, a condition of non-existence? Even if the latter view is accepted, there is the implication that this non-existence is a negative reality. Once again we return to the repetitious question of “Whence came that state or condition which is given the reality of a ‘Non-Existence’? If it is realized and if it is named, is it not, therefore, a “thing”? 

The Metaphysical Aspect

This brings us to another aspect of the subject – the metaphysical. Did the Cosmos pass through a nascent state, that is, did it necessarily have a beginning? This question involves the profound subject of causality. Are there actually such things as causes? Or are they but a percept, a mere abstract idea, of the human faculties? Aristotle, on his doctrine of causality, set forth four types of causes:
The material cause, of which something arises.
The formal cause, the pattern or essence which determines the creation of a thing.
The efficient cause, or the force or agent producing an effect.
The final cause, or purpose 

We will note that the first and third definitions imply a pre-existing condition; in other words, that something was, out of which something else came into existence. In fact, the third definition expounds that this pre-existing state, or force, brought a transition, a change in itself, which then was the effect. The fourth definition strongly suggests determinism, that is that all Being was self-designed to attain a particular ultimate state of condition. 

Is it not possible that attributing a cause to the Cosmos is due to man’s concept that for every positive state there is an opposite one of equal reality? More simply, that Non-Being exists also? That which is suggests non-existence as an opposite state out of which, it may be imagined, came the substance, the cause of that which has discernible reality. It is difficult to derive from common human experience the idea that there has never been a Primary Cause of All. 

As we look about us, we see what seems to constitute a series of specific causes by which things appear as the effects. However, what we observe as causes are in themselves but effects, too, of preceding changes. Due to our limited faculties of perception, we are unable to see an infinite number of apparent causes. We may presume that such do exist or think that there was an initial, that is, a First Cause, a beginning. In drawing on our experience with natural phenomena, we thus imagine that the Cosmos had some beginning. To theorize about such a beginning is only to return to the original perplexing question, “Whence did it come?” 

Ordinarily overlooked is an important doctrine in connection with the subject of Creation, and whether there was a beginning – namely, the doctrine of necessity. From a point of ratiocination, necessity is a state wherein a thing cannot be other than it is. Applying this doctrine to the question of the Cosmos and Creation, we must ask ourselves the question: “Was a beginning necessary?” In other words, could there have been anything other than the Cosmos? Nothing is only the negation of what is; it has no reality in itself. There can be nothing apart from what is. Since nothing is non-existence, all else then is by necessity – it must be. Being is positive, active; there is no absolute inertia. 

Energy and Change

If the Cosmos is by the necessity of its quality of Being, that does not imply that it is amorphous; that it has an innate quality. In its spectrum of energy, the Cosmos goes through myriad changes of expression which constitute the phenomenal world. However, no particular phenomenon is the absolute reality of the Cosmos, but only a representation of its eternal motion. 

Is there a ‘closed Cosmos’? Is there a continuous cycle of phenomena repeating itself through infinite time, thus being a limitation of the nature of its activity? Were the phenomena which are now discernible to man always as he perceives them, and will they always remain so? Or were they different in the vast span of time, and will they be necessarily other than they are now known to man? It is consistent to think of all natural phenomena as part of a subjacent force, a unified field in essence; but in its absolute quality the Cosmos is active, never static. 

The doctrine of necessity is also applicable to those terms we refer to as Mind and Order. The commonly associated attributes of mind are consciousness, memory, reason and will. The persistence of natural phenomena, their recurrence, their striving to be, corresponds to the attributes of consciousness. The repetition of such phenomena suggests determinism, or will. The amazing organization of nature implies a parallel to the faculty of intelligence and reason. Such a similarity, however, does not confirm that the Cosmos is innately a Mind. However, to know is to have a mental image of the thing perceived or conceived. Man would feel personally lost in the complexity of existence if he could not conceive the Cosmos by some intimate idea. Therefore, the concepts here considered are those, with various others, by which man has found “a unity with the One,” as the mystics say. Such ideas become the God of man’s heart as well as of his mind. If one is wrong in his conception, all must be; for which alone can be said to be the absolute image of the Cosmos?

- Author Unknown

Bodhidharma - Quotes

A sagacious student does not depend on his teachers words, but uses his own experience to find the truth. - Bodhidarma

The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances. - Bodhidharma

Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible. - Bodhidharma

To go from mortal to buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings. - Bodhidharma

To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity. - Bodhidharma

All know the way, but few actually walk it. - Bodhidharma

The Buddha is your real body, your original mind. This mind has no form or characteristics, no cause or effect, no tendons or bones. It's like space. You can't hold it. - Bodhidharma

Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and void of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn’t exist. - Bodhidharma

Once you stop clinging and let things be, you’ll be free. You’ll transform everything. And you’ll be at peace wherever you are. - Bodhidharma

Source: The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

Chakras

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This is How Powerful the Mind-Body Connection Really Is

Humorous Images / Memes

Spiritual - Quotes

A believer is a bird in a cage, a free-thinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wings. - Robert Ingersoll

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it. - Dogen

A rebirth out of spiritual adversity causes us to become new creatures. - James E. Faust

Accept yourself. Respect yourself. Allow your nature to take its own course. Don't force, don't repress. - Osho

Acquire inner peace and a multitude will find their salvation near you. - Catherine De Hueck Doherty

All spiritual practice is the art of shifting perspectives. - Teal

Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity. - Thomas Merton

As I make my slow pilgrimage through the world, a certain sense of beautiful mystery seems to gather and grow. - A. C. Benson

As I unclutter my life, I free myself to answer the callings of my soul. - Dr. Wayne Dyer

Attachment to spiritual things is … just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else. - Thomas Merton

Christianity

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Is the Theory of Evolution Acceptable

The strongest objection to the theory that man has descended from lower organisms comes from the fundamentalist religious sects. They consider that the evolution of the species is a directed contradiction of the biblical story of creation and that it also tends to degrade man. 

The biblical account in Genesis conceives of man as a spontaneous creation, that is, a creation that came into existence in the physical form in which he now appears. It also states that man is the image of his Creator, that he is the highest creation in reference to the faculties and attributes that he exhibits. If, of course, the Bible is to be taken literally as being the exact word of God and on those grounds no further facts can be considered, then one conclusively closes his mind to all other knowledge. 

In numerous ways, it is shown by science by means of empirical knowledge that the Bible is a collection of legends, historical facts, and personal revelations. The Bible can be refuted in part, especially when one realizes that those who contributed to it lacked much of the knowledge available today. 

In the still popular King James version of the Bible, at the beginning of the opening chapter of Genesis, there usually appears the date 4000 B.C. as the time of creation. This date is easily refuted scientifically by geology, astronomy, archaeology, and Egyptology. It is known from the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphs and cuneiform tablets that there were well-established cultures that had been in existence for centuries at the time the Bible states as the beginning of creation. 

Geologists, by means of the so-called earth clock (the ages of the earth revealed in its strata), disclose that this globe has been in existence for millions of years. Radioactive carbon in objects can be recorded in such a manner as to establish their age accurately. This latest method of physical science has confirmed estimates that archaeologists have given to artefacts that far antedate the creation date set forth in the Bible. 

The modern space age and its space probes and explorations have put to a severe test the literal interpretations of the Bible. Science is not resorting to heterodoxy or heresy; it is, rather, impartially searching for truth. If it is established that life exists on other celestial bodies and not exclusively on earth and if other reigns equal to or superior in intelligence to man are found, this will then make erroneous the statement that the earth alone was selected as the habitat of an especially created being – man. It must be realized that the early prophets and contributors to the Old Testament accounts did not conceive of heavenly bodies as being other worlds. In fact, most of them were of the opinion that cosmologically the earth is the principal body in the universe. 

At the time when Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), astronomer, promulgated his idea that the sun and not earth was the centre of our universe, he became the victim of attack by the theologians. They accused him of detracting from the divine eminence and importance of man. Man was God’s chosen creation, they said, citing the Bible. The earth was created solely for him. 

Consequently, if the earth were not the centre of the universe and if it held a subordinate position, man’s status would thus be inferior, also. Copernicus himself wrote, “In the centre of everything rules the sun; for who in this most beautiful temple could place this luminary at another or better place where it can light up the whole at once? – in fact, the sun setting in a royal throne guides the family of stars surrounding him … the earth conceives by the sun, through him becomes pregnant with annual fruits.” 

Today, nearly five centuries after Copernicus, truth is again in conflict with religious orthodoxy. Even a high school student in his studies has the evolutionary process in nature demonstrated to him. Breeders of cattle and poultry know the mutations that result by special breeding; in fact, they depend on such for the improvement of their stock. The horticulturist and even the amateur gardener can discern the variations caused in plant growth and form by environmental effects. 

What seems to strike particularly at the human ego and dignity is the belief that organic evolution in relation to man means that “he comes from a monkey.” Most of those who acrimoniously inveigh against the theory of evolution have never read any of Darwin’s works or any other textbooks on the subject. Their opinion is that evolution is atheistically designed to attack their faith. 

Charles Darwin has not declared in his works that man is a direct descendent of any particular primate. His postulations and researches present the idea that there is “a tree of genealogical descent” and that there are related forms branching off from common parents. Simply put, he meant that life came originally from simpler common forms. In the passing of time, these common forms as parents had many branches from their original stock. These branches or their variations account for the different species due to natural selection and environmental factors. 

In his renowned work, The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin states that these variations account for different organisms as the result of competition for restricted food. Those with favourable variations survive and produce their kind. Man was not created as he is, but various factors in his existence, in his gradual survival, have brought about his organic structure. Further, the impact of present conditions will gradually make other changes in him. Man’s hands, for example, were not spontaneously given to him as they are, but their prehensile quality was developed with his need to cope with his environment. 

In his works, Darwin shows that the embryological development of the individual “tended to follow roughly the evolutionary development of their races revealed by fossil remains.” That is to say, the human embryo goes through changes which can be observed and which correspond to earlier forms of organisms whose fossilized remains have been found. This indicates that man preserves in himself the early forms of living organisms through which his physical being passed until he reached his present highest stage of development. 

Instead of this being shocking and detracting from the status of man, it actually indicates that man may not yet have reached zenith of attainment. There is the potentiality of still further development, which is a yet greater tribute to cosmic law and phenomena. We think that Charles Darwin beautifully expressed this thought in the following words: “Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having risen, in stead of his being placed there originally, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant future.” 

Organically, man is an animal. To try to separate physically or to distinguish the organic functions of man from other animals is an absurdity. The cells of the human have the same basic function, such as irritability, metabolism, reproduction, and excretion, as living cells in other forms of lower life. It is the physical vehicle of man which the evolutionary theory states is a product of evolution and continues to be. 

What reflection does this have upon the religious, the mystical, and philosophical conception that man is “a living soul”? Theology contends from its hagiography, its collection of sacred writings, that man alone has soul. From one point of view only can this postulation be supported. Man, at least, as the most intelligent being on Earth, has the most highly developed self-consciousness. 

It is this consciousness of his emotional and psychic nature that causes him to conceive that entity of his personality which he calls soul. He terms it divine, and it is divine if we designate all cosmic forces as being of a divine nature. It is erroneous to say that man alone has a soul. If, as previously stated, beings having a self-consciousness equivalent to man are found in the future to exist in the greater universe; then, certainly, they would have the equal right to claim such an entity as soul. 

Until man became Homo sapiens, a rational highly developed self-conscious being, he had only the essence of soul but no conception of it. In the lower animals, there is that same vital force and consciousness, which gradually evolved in man to its own awareness and designates itself soul. Those who fear that the theory of evolution demands the status of man will perhaps learn before another century has passed that there are many other factors that strike at mans egotistic conception of being “the central object of all creation.” 

- Ralph M Lewis 

Bodhidharma

Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to Chinese legend, he also began the physical training of the monks of Shaolin Monastery that led to the creation of Shaolin Kung Fu.

Bodhidharma's teachings and practice centered on meditation and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. The Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952) identifies Bodhidharma as the 28th Patriarch of Buddhism in an uninterrupted line that extends all the way back to the Gautama Buddha himself.

Source: Wikipedia

. . . the fools of this world prefer to look for sages far away. They don't believe that the wisdom of their own mind is the sage . . . the sutras say, "Mind is the teaching." But people of no understanding don't believe in their own mind or that by understanding this teaching they can become a sage. They prefer to look for distant knowledge and long for things in space, buddha-images, light, incense, and colors. They fall prey to falsehood and lose their minds to insanity. - Bodhidharma

Source: The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

Chakras

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How Your Chakras are Related to and Affected by the Foods You Eat

Food for Thought

Monotheism: The Great Unmentionable Evil
The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism. From a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved - Judaism, Christianity, Islam. These are sky-god regions. They are, literally, patriarchal - God is the Omnipotent Father - hence the loathing of women for 2,000 year in those countries afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly male delegates. the sky-god is a jealous god, of course. He requires total obedience from everyone on earth, as he is in place not for just one tribe but for all creation. Those who would reject him must be converted or killed for their own good. Ultimately, totalitarianism is the only sort of politics that can truly serve the sky-god's purpose. - Gore Vidal

Spiritual - Quotes

You are a vibrational transmitter, and you are broadcasting your signal in every moment of your existence. - Abraham

The stillness of the body, the silence of speech, and the spacious awareness of mind are the three doors to enlightenment. - Adyashanti

The deity is within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived, not taught. - Hermann Hesse

Do not ask me where I am going, as I travel in this limitless world, where every step I take is my home. - Dogen

The whole world is you, yet you keep thinking there is something else. - Hsueh Feng

Every action of your life touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity. - Edwin Hubbel Chapin

Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify. - Henry David Thoreau

Every explicit duality is an implicit unity. - Alan Watts

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. - John Muir

When the ego is lost, limit is lost. You become infinite, kind, beautiful. - Unknown

Religion

True religion is a life unfolded within, not something forced on us from abroad. - William E. Channing

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another. - Jonathan Swift

All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few. - Stendhal 

All religion's dangerous... if taken too far. - David Tyrel

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. - Blaise Pascal

Churches

Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest. - Emile Zola

Most of us spend the first six days of the week sowing wild oats, then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure. - Fred Allen

The church is only a secular institution in which the half-educated speak to the half-converted. - William Ralph Inge

The Origin of the World

The Beginning of All Things

Modern man is often reluctant to accept that his remote ancestors were endowed with keen intelligence and acute powers of observation. As a consequence, we tend to dismiss as mere nonsense accounts that have come down to us regarding the beginning of all things. Therefore, like wayward children who refuse to acknowledge the legacy of wisdom accumulated by our parents we often find ourselves adrift upon a sea of uncertainty. But the laws which operate within the human psyche continue to function, undisturbed by our periodic ignorance of their existence. 

The axiom of modern science which states that ‘matter can neither be created nor destroyed’ - matter is immortal. And since immortality is an attribute of God and the Cosmic, then matter is ‘the oldest of all things.’ Further, modern theories accounting for the origin and evolution of our solar system, and presumably the entire physical universe as well, are based on the existence of a sort of cosmic ‘plasma.’ Plasma is a state of matter that is neither gas, liquid, nor solid, but a sort of fourth, ‘fluid,’ state in which there are only free electrons and free atomic nuclei. From this ‘plasma’ the ions, atoms, and molecules that compose our physical universe are born. 

The Big Bang 

The most widely accepted theory accounting for the origin or creation of our physical universe is that referred to as the Big Bang Theory. According to this theory, the universe began in a giant explosion. Current estimates suggest that 20,000 million light years have elapsed since the Big Bang occurred. Because of the original explosion, our universe continues to expand and, according to some scientist, will continue to do so until it ‘runs down’ much as does a wound spring in a clock. However, this theory does not attempt to account for how our universe ‘wound up’ in the first place. 

A second theory holds that ‘there has never been a beginning.’ Instead of a single instance of creation, the proponents of this theory envision a universe in which new matter continually comes into being to fill the space created by the observed expansion of the universe. According to this theory, the appearance of the universe remains reasonably constant from age to age. However, most scientific observations indicate that the appearance of the universe constantly changes. 

An intriguing variant of the Big Bang is the theory of the Oscillating Universe. According to this theory, the universe is continually blowing up and contracting in cycles. An oscillating universe would have neither beginning nor end, but would go through cycles of expansion and contraction. Presumably it would ‘come into’ and ‘go out of’ existence in a rhythmic manner. 

In the face of the rejection of ancient knowledge by many people today, we need to account for the unmistakable correspondence, existing between ancient and modern view. Many people today also dismiss the idea of psyche or soul. Could the correspondence between ancient myths and modern science be in some way relate to the nature of psyche or soul? 

Our present level of understanding owes much to the knowledge gleaned by those brave men and women of past ages who dared to harness the creative power that ensouls our universe and characterizes the human psyche. As we stand in awe of this creative force, we may seek comfort in the wisdom of the ancients who assure us that true knowledge is always rediscovered. Our spiritual ancestors discovered that the laws and principles which operate in our world and within the psyche are eternal and ageless. They also sensed that the secret to experiencing creation involves a turning within. Ancient myths and legends down through the ages point to the maxim: “know thyself.” Through meditation we can each discover whether creation is a chance occurrence of the past, or whether creation is eternally present. Through meditation each of us can come to witness creation. 

- Source and Author Unknown

Buddhism

Like the Buddha.. we should look around us and be observant because everything in the world is ready to teach us. With even a little intuitive wisdom, we will then be able to see clearly through the ways of the world. We will come to understand that everything in the world is a teacher. Trees and vines, for example, can all reveal the true nature of reality. With wisdom there is no need to question anyone, no need to study. We can learn from nature enough to be enlightened... because everything follows the way of truth. It does not diverge from truth. - Ajahn Chah

Chakras

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How to Connect to Your Higher Self

Article taken from "Collective Evolution"

Truth

If you look for the truth outside yourself, 
It gets farther and farther away. 
Today walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step.
It is the same as me, yet "I" am not it. 
Only if you understand it in this way 
Will you merge with the way things are.

- Tung-Shan 

Spiritual - Quotes

Quantum intuition explained
Everything is Energy. Energy connects everything. Energy carries information. The past, present and future all exist simultaneously. Therefore, as energetic beings, we have access to the past, present and future at any point in time via energy. It all connects. - Unknown

The world is nothing but a dance of shadows, a line drawn between darkness and light, joy and oppression, time and eternity. Learn to read this subtle line, for it tells all the secrets of creation. - Fakhruddin Araqi

What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else. - Joseph Campbell 

Your work is not to drag the world kicking and screaming into a new awareness. Your job is to simply do your work … sacredly, secretly, and silently ... and those with ‘eyes to see and ears to hear’, will respond. - The Ardurians

Christianity - Meme/Images

Images / Memes

Reincarnation

Article taken from the site "Wake up World"

Compelling Evidence (and maybe even proof) of Reincarnation

by Makia Freeman

https://wakeup-world.com/2017/02/18/compelling-evidence-and-maybe-even-proof-of-reincarnation/

Twenty Stumbling Blocks on the Path to Enlightenment

It is hard for a poor man to be generous.
It is hard for a rich man to learn the way to enlightenment.
It is hard to seek enlightenment at the cost of self-sacrifice.
It is hard to see the Buddha-world in the present world.
It is hard to hear the Buddha’s teaching in the turmoil of this world.
It is hard to keep the mind pure against the instincts of the body.
It is hard for a strong man not to use his strength to gratify his desire.
It is hard not to get angry when one is insulted.
It is hard not to desire that which is beautiful and attractive.
It is hard to remain innocent when tempted by sudden circumstances.
It is hard to apply oneself to study.
It is hard not to look down on a beginner.
If successful, it is hard to keep humble.
It is hard to get a good friend.
It is hard to endure discipline to make oneself a faithful practicing Buddhist.
It is hard not to be disturbed and upset by the external conditions surrounding us.
It is hard to teach others by being mindful of nature.
It is hard to attain a peaceful mind.
It is hard not to get into arguments about religion.
It is hard to find and practice a good method.

Awakening to Awareness of Our Life Force

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Awakening to Awareness of Our Life Force

Humorous Images/Meme

To assert that the Earth revolves around the Sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine, 1633

Spiritual - Quotes

The ground we walk on, the plants and creatures, the clouds above constantly dissolving into new formations - each gift of nature possessing its own radiant energy, bound together by cosmic harmony. - Ruth Bernhard

The possibility of stepping into a higher plane is quite real for everyone. It requires no force or effort or sacrifice. It involves little more than changing our ideas about what is normal. - Deepak Chopra

The substance is One under different names, and everyone is seeking the same substance; only climate, temperament, and name create differences.  Let each man follow his own path. - Sri Ramakrishna

The essence of spiritual practice is your attitude toward others. When you have a pure, sincere motivation, then you have right attitude toward others based on kindness, compassion, love and respect. - Dali Lama

Walking a spiritual path without initiation is like going on a journey at night through a dense forest full of wild animals. It is wise to bring a lamp with you. The light of knowledge is this lamp. - Unknown

When we speak of Nature it is wrong to forget that we are ourselves a part of Nature. We ought to view ourselves with the same curiosity and openness with which we study a tree, the sky or a thought, because we too are linked to the entire Universe. - Henri Maisse

At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it. Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free. - Thich Nhat Hanh

Only as we begin to open to others in love can our isolated ego be transformed. An awareness of our interdependence with other human beings and with all of life provides the environment in which the seed of our souls can flourish. - Kabir Helminski

The only way you will ever awaken is through silence, not through analysation of facts. Not by sorting out good and bad, but through simple silence, letting go. Letting go of all thoughts, all the hurts, all the dogmas and concepts. Letting go of these things daily. - Robert Adam

Only by much searching and mining are gold and diamonds obtained, and man can find every truth connected with his being if he will dig deep into the mine of his soul. - James Allen

Religion - Quotes

Good people can do good and bad people can do evil. But for good people to do evil – that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg

An immoral character, glossed with religious pretension, is like a rotten egg with an Easter colouring. - Lewis F. Korns

Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but – live for it. - Charles Caleb Colton

No religion is better than an unnatural one. - William Penn

Religion is legalized madness. - Arthur Janov

Churches - Quotes

The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church. - Ferdinand Magellan

Why did men worship in churches, locking themselves away in the dark, when the world lay beyond its doors in all its real glory? - Charles de Lint

Some go to church to see and be seen, some go there to say they have been, some go there to sleep and nod, But, few go there to worship God. - Proverb

The Origin of the World

  An article from National Geographic 

The emergence of life on Earth is on a short list of the biggest unknowns in Science. Did life begin in a small, warm pond at the edge of a primordial sea, as Charles Darwin speculated? Or deep beneath that sea, around one of the burbling hydrothermal vents first seen in the 1970s? and never mind the where: What was it, this initial germ of life? Was it a cell? A replicating molecule? 

One of the most intriguing theories says that the answer to the mystery is right inside us. Biologist Harold Morowitz of George Mason University argues that our metabolism – the chemical reactions that allow cells to turn energy and atoms into biologically useful molecules – provides a long fossil record of Earth life. Morowitz and collaborator Eric Smith of the Santa Fe Institute believe that a central set of chemical reactions has been in place since life’s earliest moments about four billion years ago. These reactions involve just 11 small carbon molecules, such as citric and acetic acids - very ordinary stuff that would have been abundant on the young Earth. 

Those 11 molecules could have played a role in other chemical reactions that led to the development of such biomolecules as amino acids lipids, sugars, and eventually some kind of genetic molecule such as RNA. In other words, metabolism came first – before cells, before replication, before life as we commonly think of it. 

This is probably not what opponents of the teaching of evolution want to hear, but it seems that a kind of molecular natural selection applies event to the world of geochemistry. Some types of molecular chains outcompeted other molecular chains for the plant’s resources, and gradually they led to the kind of molecules that life depends upon – all this before the first living thing oozed forth. Many scientists say life wasn’t a freak accident at all, but the likely outcome of the interaction of the molecules and minerals of the Earth. “Life is an elaboration of something very simple.” Says Smith, “it looks easy and inevitable.’ 

Earth scientist Robert Hazen’s new book, Ge*ne*sis, says that many theories about the origin of life involve the principle of “emergence.” From simple beginnings, complexity can emerge. A classic example of emergence is in your brain. Individual neurons don’t think, but collectively they produce the emergent phenomenon we call consciousness. Says Morowitz, “the unfolding of life involves many emergences.” 

All this is sure to be a matter of contentious debate for a long time. But ours would not be so interesting a world if its ultimate secrets were easily discovered. It took us four billion years to evolve to a point where we could even begin the search. 

- Article by Joel Achenbach 

Who Am I?

Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle. - Lewis Carroll

Am I this Body of Flesh, Bone and Blood? Am I the Mind, Thoughts and the Feelings which distinguish me from the other persons?

Pursue the enquiry “Who am I”, relentlessly. Analyse your entire personality. Try to find out where the “I” thought begins. Go on with your meditations. Keep turning your attention within. One day, the wheel of thought will slow down and an intuition will mysteriously arise. Follow that intuition, let your thinking stop, and it will eventually lead you to the goal.

The sense of “I” pertains to the “person”, the “body” and the “mind”. When a man knows his true self for the first time, something else arrives from the depths of his being and takes possession of him. That something is behind the mind. It is infinite, divine, eternal. It is believed that when a man dies, his character, desires, thoughts and will continue to exist until they enter a body of flesh once more and come among us in the form of a newborn baby. The good and evil actions committed in the former birth will be suitable rewarded or punished in the present or even in the future births. This is how we explained fate. The destiny of every person must be fulfilled. Man cannot escape from their self-earned fate. The ‘cause and effect returns to men the good or evil fruits of their thoughts and deeds in earlier bodies.

Thoughts are real things on their own plane and they attach themselves, for shorter or longer periods, to whatever we consistently use. Man possesses a subtler body than the physical, and in this subtler body there exist centers of activity. Through these centers he own discern, invisible force, for whom, when they are energized; they bestow physic and spiritual right.

What is Soul?

Briefly stated, the soul is the abiding, separate, constantly existing and indestructible entity which is generally believed to be found in man from the moment of his birth up to the time of his death, and to exist after his death in some other place.

Nature of Life

Life is merely a phenomenon or rather, a series of phenomena, produced by the law of cause and effect. And individual existence is to be looked upon not as something permanent but as a succession of changes as something that is always passing away.

Continuity of Life

As long as the causes of life persist – the sense of separateness, the craving for existence – so long will life continue. Remove the cause of life, and life is not continued. The continuity of life is like a flame of a lamp. The light appears to come from the lamp throughout the night; yet every instant oil and wick and lamp-holder and the air that feeds the flame are constantly changing. It is the same, yet not the same.

Death

Death comes about either by the lapse of his natural term of life or by the exhaustion of the karma that give him birth in this life or by both these causes or even by some strong extraneous karma, for there is such a thing as Akalalarama, untimely, sudden death. A lamp may go out with the exhaustion of oil or wick or both or by a sudden gust of wind.

If at death the craving for life has not been completely destroyed then this craving gathers fresh life, body and mind. The result is a new individual, new in a sense. There is nothing that passes from one life to another. It is the karma produced by us in our previous lives and in this life that brings about the new life. The new body and mind is merely the result of past lives so our next life is the product of that karma plus the karma of the present life.

Death Explains

It is essential that we fully understand DEATH, for by understanding this, we comprehend the mystery of life. By taking a closer look at life and death you will realize that both are ends of the same process and by understanding one, the depth of the other would be just as easily understood.

In fact, the most intensive contemplation of death will soften the hardest of hearts and pull down the barriers of caste, creed, race, pride and hatred for all of us are subject to the common destiny of death. Pride by birth, position, health and power, all must give way to inevitable death. This contemplation would destroy all love for sense-pleasure and gives balance and a healthy sense of proportion to misguided senses of values. Truly this reflection would give strength, steadiness and direction to the erratic human mind which is constantly wandering without an aim.

The average person would have no love to contemplate on this being distasteful. But, we should learn to value the necessity to face facts since safety lies in the truth. Thus, the sooner, we know where we are heading, the faster for us to take the necessary steps for our betterment.

Law of Impermanence

Nothing in this world is stable or static. Nothing in this world can arrest the ceaseless passage of time and nothing survives time. In fact, everything, mental or physical is transitory and changing.

It is because there is change, there is growth and growth leads to decay and therefore death. This is the law that makes the strength and freshness of youth give way to the decay and weakness of old age.

Think of anything and you will find it in a condition of change. The Law of Change can be made to operate to the highest benefit for any person. By analyzing the Law of Change in respect of one’s own body and mind one acquires also a familiarity with change that death will not appear fearful and unnatural. It will appear as one more example to the process of change to which one is subject to since birth.

In conclusion

Looking at ourselves in this manner, we soon realize that this is an illusion and that we are nothing but a bundle of various elements of matter and mind, that this will keep moving on and on ceaselessly. Look backwards through time and we see the darkness of illusion we have travelled through in the past and looking forward through time we see the uncertainty of illusion we have to travel through in the future. This is one of the ways to understand the real nature of life and the universe.

- Source Unknown

"Who am I?" is not really a question because it has no answer to it; it is unanswerable.  It is a device, not a question. - Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh