What marriage actually does to people May 30, 2011

image by axinia

Despite the growing anti-marriage tendencies in the society and general crisis of this institution, the sacredness of marriage keeps attracting people of all cultures. There are several reasons I can think of in that respect, the reasons I described already in “Marriage: made in heaven”. This time I want to share with you one more reason, which is obviously not that well-known, althout so obvious.

In a marriage people become (blood)relatives! – not only that they become officially recognised as a couple, but they start being seen as people naturally RELATED to each other. In Russian there is a special word for it, “rodnoy” which means somebody who is of your own blood. This word is often being used also in relevance to husband or wife. I am sure there should be some similar terms also in other languages. In English this phenomenon is reflected though the -in law title of the relatives. Thus, after getting married two families become literary one, become brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers to each other.

It look so simple but it fact, any marriage makes strangers to relatives who feel very connected with each other! This relationship is fixed, and you should live with that and work it out if something is not perfect. That is a very wise way to bring people together, to cement the society.

Today with the rise of individualism on one side and with the crisis of marriage as institution on the other side I feel that these two factors are somehow connected… The security and peace that a happy family gives to its members has an impact on so many other aspects of the human life.

LOVE; axinia

The Gandhi Rap – be the change u want to see May 26, 2011

Chosen above all women of creation

Mother Mary in Sufism

O Maryam! Verily, Allah has chosen you, sanctified you and chosen you above all the women of creation.
– The Quran 3:42

So her Lord accepted her with good acceptance. He made her becomecomplete in a good manner and put her under the care of Zachariya.Every time he entered al-Mihrab to visit her, he found her supplied with sustenance.

He said: ‘O Maryam! From where have you got this?’

She said: ‘This is from Allah. Verily, Allah provides sustenance who He wills, without limit.’
– The Quran 3:37

“O Fatimah! You are the highest of the women of the people of Paradise, excepting only the Virgin Mary, daughter of Imran.” – Saying of Prophet Muhammad (s) addressing his beloved daughter Fatimah

In Islam, Mother Mary is known by her exalted titles such as The Virgin, The Purified, The Exalted, Mother of Jesus (upon him be perfect peace), Keeper of Chastity, Mystic, Female Exemplar, Maternal Heroine, Queen of the Saints.

So great was the Prophet’s own respect for Sayyidatna Maryam that upon returning in conquest to Mecca, he ordered that all of the images and imaginary idols of the Ka’bah be destroyed, excepting only two icons: one of an old man, said to be Abraham (a), and another of the Virgin and Child, which he protected with his own hands.

An interesting Mahatma Gandhi saying May 20, 2011

“To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the
meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any
field of life.

That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say
without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing
to do with politics do not know what religion means.”

– Mahatma Gandiji, autobiography.

I find it very interesting, especially in connection with my earlier post on Daneel Andreev’s quote about love to evil which is only a highly enlightened soul is able to: “In the distant future even more spiritual possibilities will arise. Even love for demons will become viable and necessary. History has already seen some saints who grew to such a love. ”

LOVE, axinia

Видел Бога! Я не вру! May 18, 2011

– Видел Бога! Я не вру!
– Где!? На небесах?
– Нет, у мамы по утру
Бог сиял в глазах!
Мама встала на заре,
Воду принесла
Из колодца во дворе
И ко мне вошла.
Я совсем уже не спал
И увидеть смог,
Как в глазах ее сиял
Бесконечный Бог!

(автор неизвестен)

The new age of Love May 16, 2011

image by axinia

“A reversion to love in an extremely narrow sense is clearly evident in modern secular teachings: love for one’s nation, for its allies and friends abroad, and for one’s family and friends. But that is a purely temporary phenomenon occasioned by the nature of the secular age as a whole, with its crudely self-centered morality, and it will last only as long as the whole secular stage of development itself lasts.

 The next religious age will be a new age for the very reason that it will proclaim and strive to put into practice love for all humanity, for all the realms of nature, and for all the hierarchies of ascent.

In the distant future even more spiritual possibilities will arise. Even love for demons will become viable and necessary. History has already seen some saints who grew to such a love. But to get ahead of oneself and cultivate in one’s soul a love for the sworn enemies of God and of all living beings, when one is not yet free of temptation and when one’s love does not yet embrace even the whole of humanity and the animal world, would jeopardize the ascending path of one’s own soul. Demons are only waiting for someone to pity them. But they are not waiting because they need pity (they are consumed with pride and despise human pity), but because it is only one step from pity for demons to doubt in their evil ways, and a stone’s throw away from such doubt to the temptation to reject God and rebel. To do so would consign the soul to harsh retribution and the generation of gavvakh, radiations of suffering, in just those quantities that demons dream about to replenish their energy.

Remember the Importance of Humility May 10, 2011

image by axinia

“I got this insight when I was asked to teach a class on humility at Harvard College. I asked all the students to describe the most humble person they knew. One characteristic of these humble people stood out: They had a high level of self-esteem. They knew who they were, and they felt good about who they were. We also decided that humility was defined not by self-deprecating behavior or attitudes but by the esteem with which you regard others. Good behavior flows naturally from that kind of humility. For example, you would never steal from someone, because you respect that person too much. You’d never lie to someone, either.
It’s crucial to take a sense of humility into the world. By the time you make it to a top graduate school, almost all your learning has come from people who are smarter and more experienced than you: parents, teachers, bosses. But once you’ve finished at Harvard Business School or any other top academic institution, the vast majority of people you’ll interact with on a day-to-day basis may not be smarter than you. And if your attitude is that only smarter people have something to teach you, your learning opportunities will be very limited. But if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited.

Generally, you can be humble only if you feel really good about yourself—and you want to help those around you feel really good about themselves, too. When we see people acting in an abusive, arrogant, or demeaning manner toward others, their behavior almost always is a symptom of their lack of self-esteem. They need to put someone else down to feel good about themselves.”

Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business Professor and author

Today is the 150th birthday anniversary of Tagore May 6, 2011

   
‘…While God waits for his temple to be built of love, men bring stones..”

Where the mind is without fear

Where the mind is without fear
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

Rabindranath Tagore, an Indian renaissance man

Tagore was not only a creative genius, he was a great man and friend to many. For instance, he was also a good friend from childhood to the great Indian Physicist, Bose. He was educated and quite knowledgeable of Western culture, especially Western poetry and Science. This made him a remarkable person, one of the first of our planet to combine East and West, and ancient and modern knowledge.

Tagore had a good grasp of modern – post-Newtonian – physics, and was well able to hold his own in a debate with Einstein in 1930 on the newly emerging principles of quantum mechanics and chaos. His meetings and tape recorded conversations with his contemporaries such Albert Einstein and H.G. Wells, stand as cultural landmarks, and show the brilliance of this great man.

Although Tagore is a superb representative of his country – India – the man who wrote its national anthem – his life and works go far beyond his country.

He is truly a man of the whole Earth, a product of the best of both traditional Indian, and modern Western cultures.

The power of attention May 5, 2011

image by axinia

Attention is being officially defined as the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things. When we say: “Be attentive!”, it means one should fully concentrate on the subject or action one is busy with. This is the worldly meaning of attention.

Attention has also a spiritual meaning and function. It has a spiritual nature, quality which differs from its worldly character in the art how it works and the results it gives.

Attention, when enlightened, becomes much more than just a concentration.

First of all, it is not only the mind which is attentive, not only all 5 senses but also the spiritual perception (call it the 6th sense, the vibrations, the energy one feels), which is more subtle and often more informative.

Secondly, spiritual attention is not a mere concentration on one thing – just the opposite, it encompasses the totality, the whole, taking into consideration many things related to the subject. One can describe it as a mega-pump which sucks everything related…

Thirdly, the enlightened spiritual attention works on the “surrender” principle. It is not that you desire something a lot and then concentrate the power of desire on a subject. No! You put your attention on something you wish could happen, but then immediately you loosen it, detach yourself from it. Just keep your attention of the spiritual power and let it do the job.

Last but not least – such attention is extremely powerful, and it works in two ways: either you put your attention on the subject/object and it startes working with amazing and almost immediate results, or it makes an impact because if you have a good attention you are in the flow and automatically your attention goes to the right thing which brings amazing results.

The other day I had 2 amusing examples of how it works, little worldly things but still…