THE HEART OF UNDERSTANDING by THICH NHAT HANH
“If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. If we look even more deeply, we can see the sunshine, the logger who cut the tree, the wheat that became his bread, and the logger’s father and mother. Without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist. In fact, we cannot point to one thing that is not here- time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat, the mind. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. So we can say that the cloud and the paper ‘inter-are.’ We cannot just be by ourselves alone; we have to inter-be with every other thing.”
In common language this ‘inter-are’ is known as inter-dependence. When human beings understand this concept and accept it then unconditional love follows. Everyone is a part of everything and loving yourself will mean loving everything and so love will flow. I am the cloud, I am the paper and I am the tree, I am all one and I am all three!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
OPENTRUTHBOX
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
All this control by the lover asking the love ones to change and vice versa causes the breakdown in relationships. Everything becomes a power game and love is lost. What is the answer to this, unconditional love? It is total acceptance without requiring any change, accepting each person as unique and different from us. You are perfect and I love you for what you are. Man’s conditional love has ruined the world the environment and all God’s beautiful gifts to make them perfect to suit human needs. In unconditional love the total acceptance without any change is what we have to accept. When you do this you start loving unconditionally.
All this control by the lover asking the love ones to change and vice versa causes the breakdown in relationships. Everything becomes a power game and love is lost. What is the answer to this, unconditional love? It is total acceptance without requiring any change, accepting each person as unique and different from us. You are perfect and I love you for what you are. Man’s conditional love has ruined the world the environment and all God’s beautiful gifts to make them perfect to suit human needs. In unconditional love the total acceptance without any change is what we have to accept. When you do this you start loving unconditionally.
OPENTRUTHBOX
WHAT IS LOVE?
When you truly love someone, you become one with them. ? You want to share everything with them. Love and light operates on the basis of Loving and Sharing. Lovi ng and Caring to cover all of mankind .
But most people confuse liking and love. Because of this their love becomes conditional. Most human practice conditional love at all times. This kind of love is the same emotion as liking a person and comes from the ego. As we all know the ego is very controlling and negative. Because of this habit of the ego we forget love and start controlling the loved one. The belief of humans is I AM PERFECT, that is why I want to change you and to make you perfect just like me otherwise I cannot love you. The lover and the loved ones both believe this and in the battle of changing each other slowly start hating each other, then the love is lost. Indifference and hate, take the place of love.
THIS IS CONDITIONAL LOVE.
When you truly love someone, you become one with them. ? You want to share everything with them. Love and light operates on the basis of Loving and Sharing. Lovi ng and Caring to cover all of mankind .
But most people confuse liking and love. Because of this their love becomes conditional. Most human practice conditional love at all times. This kind of love is the same emotion as liking a person and comes from the ego. As we all know the ego is very controlling and negative. Because of this habit of the ego we forget love and start controlling the loved one. The belief of humans is I AM PERFECT, that is why I want to change you and to make you perfect just like me otherwise I cannot love you. The lover and the loved ones both believe this and in the battle of changing each other slowly start hating each other, then the love is lost. Indifference and hate, take the place of love.
THIS IS CONDITIONAL LOVE.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Gmail - Inbox (48) - opentruthbox@gmail.com
ACTING WITH LOVE
He who wants to good knocks at the gates of heaven.
He who wants to love finds the gates open.
Acting outwardly or acting within we have to remember that in every relationship in every movement do you want to act out of love ? or do you want to act from a motive.
That is the question ?
He who wants to good knocks at the gates of heaven.
He who wants to love finds the gates open.
Acting outwardly or acting within we have to remember that in every relationship in every movement do you want to act out of love ? or do you want to act from a motive.
That is the question ?
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
OPENTRUTHBOX
OPENTRUTHBOX
One is watching the american elections with bated breath to see whether woman will win the election this will be a great triumph for women kind, because in the west for the first time a women will be head our country.
One is watching the american elections with bated breath to see whether woman will win the election this will be a great triumph for women kind, because in the west for the first time a women will be head our country.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The Fallen Angel
Technology has advanced, but human nature is stuck in its old mold.
One day, I was listening to a talk on Vedic discoveries, which focused on the fact that whatever is happening today was already in Vedic literature. In others words, nothing is new in the thought process of man, but that which is already known. And nothing is new in the attitude of man, but that which is already there.
All modern technology was already written about and anticipated in the Vedas. Our speaker told us facts about science, mathematics, medicine and many discoveries. He also related a very interesting incident, which brought about the status of women at that time, which continues to be, at this time, as it has never changed.
He told us that one of the Mogul kings visited the famous universities of Nalanda and Txila. At these places he found many modern inventions, and one of them which fascinated him was running hot water. He ordered big tubs of water to be filled up, and into them was put incense, perfumes, rose petals and scented oils, all to make the bodies of his women attractive, sweet smelling and for arousing desire.
All the great scientists, philosophers and thoughtful men present at the universities left in disgust, at the wasteful way this discovery of plumbing and hot water was being used. None of them cared for the way a woman's body was being used, nor for the gender bias.
Today, we have the luxury of hot baths, cold baths, jacuzzis, steam baths and so on, but the gender bias continues, and the female is still a sex object. From the time the female child is born, maybe she brings in her genes the fact that her role in life is to serve men. She leaves her home, her people, to follow her husband, and has to fit in with his way of life, his needs, his family, his name, his style of living.
But with it, her body, which belongs to her, is also his. Without an attractive body, she may lose a husband! Even in this century today, though we have been to the moon, the woman is still stuck in this role.
There is a philosophy that in a country where there is no mother goddess for the people to worship, where there are no female gods, the woman's divinity at home is neither understood nor respected. She becomes a partner in man's greedy ambitions, in his lust, his desire for more. And the society loses its center and the knowledge that the people in that society are in the image of God.
In societies where the mother goddess is worshipped, the divinity is brought into the home by the female, there is less aggression and more peace, and man can realize that he may be made in the image of God and live up to it.
It is also said that a time will come when the divinity of the woman will be recognized. And when that is recognized, man's image will be recognized and lived by, as if man is really the son of God.
In both Eastern and Western societies, we do not recognize the divinity of the female, so there is gender bias. In all societies, the woman has been regaled to a role of a play thing for man, and because of that, dispensable. In Indian societies, even today, there is female foeticide, female infanticide, dowry debts, all because the woman is regarded as a useless tool or at best, a tool.
I once worked with a man, I dare not say from which country or culture, or anything, but his opinion of women, spoken loudly and clearly in a roomful of women was, "A woman is like an old shoe. She can be discarded whenever the man has no need of her." Nobody boycotted this man. Nobody pilloried this man. A lot of women still pandered to him with their false smiles, and he polluted the whole environment with his low thoughts. Did he not have a mother?
Was she an old shoe to be thrown out when there was no need for her? Does this happen to the mothers of all men or just some men?
With technology, we are proud that we are a 22nd century society, but we are still living in the darkness of Hades, I won't even say the Stone Age.
Note: these postings were inspired by the School of Ancient Wisdom.
One day, I was listening to a talk on Vedic discoveries, which focused on the fact that whatever is happening today was already in Vedic literature. In others words, nothing is new in the thought process of man, but that which is already known. And nothing is new in the attitude of man, but that which is already there.
All modern technology was already written about and anticipated in the Vedas. Our speaker told us facts about science, mathematics, medicine and many discoveries. He also related a very interesting incident, which brought about the status of women at that time, which continues to be, at this time, as it has never changed.
He told us that one of the Mogul kings visited the famous universities of Nalanda and Txila. At these places he found many modern inventions, and one of them which fascinated him was running hot water. He ordered big tubs of water to be filled up, and into them was put incense, perfumes, rose petals and scented oils, all to make the bodies of his women attractive, sweet smelling and for arousing desire.
All the great scientists, philosophers and thoughtful men present at the universities left in disgust, at the wasteful way this discovery of plumbing and hot water was being used. None of them cared for the way a woman's body was being used, nor for the gender bias.
Today, we have the luxury of hot baths, cold baths, jacuzzis, steam baths and so on, but the gender bias continues, and the female is still a sex object. From the time the female child is born, maybe she brings in her genes the fact that her role in life is to serve men. She leaves her home, her people, to follow her husband, and has to fit in with his way of life, his needs, his family, his name, his style of living.
But with it, her body, which belongs to her, is also his. Without an attractive body, she may lose a husband! Even in this century today, though we have been to the moon, the woman is still stuck in this role.
There is a philosophy that in a country where there is no mother goddess for the people to worship, where there are no female gods, the woman's divinity at home is neither understood nor respected. She becomes a partner in man's greedy ambitions, in his lust, his desire for more. And the society loses its center and the knowledge that the people in that society are in the image of God.
In societies where the mother goddess is worshipped, the divinity is brought into the home by the female, there is less aggression and more peace, and man can realize that he may be made in the image of God and live up to it.
It is also said that a time will come when the divinity of the woman will be recognized. And when that is recognized, man's image will be recognized and lived by, as if man is really the son of God.
In both Eastern and Western societies, we do not recognize the divinity of the female, so there is gender bias. In all societies, the woman has been regaled to a role of a play thing for man, and because of that, dispensable. In Indian societies, even today, there is female foeticide, female infanticide, dowry debts, all because the woman is regarded as a useless tool or at best, a tool.
I once worked with a man, I dare not say from which country or culture, or anything, but his opinion of women, spoken loudly and clearly in a roomful of women was, "A woman is like an old shoe. She can be discarded whenever the man has no need of her." Nobody boycotted this man. Nobody pilloried this man. A lot of women still pandered to him with their false smiles, and he polluted the whole environment with his low thoughts. Did he not have a mother?
Was she an old shoe to be thrown out when there was no need for her? Does this happen to the mothers of all men or just some men?
With technology, we are proud that we are a 22nd century society, but we are still living in the darkness of Hades, I won't even say the Stone Age.
Note: these postings were inspired by the School of Ancient Wisdom.
Parenting Or Teachers as Surrogate Parents; And Schools as Mini-Societies
I continue writing from the ideas I have put down in the earlier postings. Please note let my last sentence, "you are Divine." Parents and teachers, society leaders, all those in power. please remember, that you were born in the image of God, and you are Divine. In our divinity, we should remember our responsbility to the Universe. We should remember that our thought patterns are going to create the Universe, therefore, what sort of Universe do we want?
Very often, al the leaders today come from a sense of fear and inadequacy. Very often, we parents forget that to a small child, we may be in the shape of a large god, that to a small child in a classroom, the teacher too, may be in the shape of a god and the child is more than willing to believe what the teacher and the parents' say.
The public is more than willing to listen what the leaders say, and follow in ttheir set of values and needs, for goodness in the country, environment, so on. In the home and in school and society, we are the ones (as parents, teachers etc.) who have no faith in our values, who have no faith in our pure desires, and forget we are Divine.
We teach our children in school and at home to live without values, to live without direction, because we have no faith in our capabilities to lead, direct, be examples and to contribute our purity to the Universe. Please note the word Purity or Divinity. To put all the qualities to make a better world, we sacrifice everything on the alter of greed, ambition, finishing the syllabus, worrying about the children's school marks, making laws to tie up the common man, to pay taxes, to take punishments, instead of understanding that parents, teachers, leaders all have the power to make a better world, if they do so believe in a better world. But we give it all up for more money, for greed.
Let me give you Example One, which is teachers won't teach in the classroom, but will take on a lot of private tuitions, start their own coaching classes and in the classroom do indifferent and quick work, in the name of completing the syllabus.
Parents at home are too busy having a good time because they work hard and relax for fun, earning riches to satisfy the greed of their children, to compete with their neighbors and to fulfill their own unfulfilled ambitions. Many parents who have not achieved academically push and push their children to be toppers, not remembering the happiness of the child. Society leaders and state leaders again forget their Divine power, and sacrifice it in mundane projects, giving the public enough loopholes to lie and cheat and evade the law. The Divinity that has been given to them is lost and reduced to something that is mundane and ordinary.
I think the biggest loss is to the parents today, and I say this especially of parents in India, where the lure of the west and the greed for foreign earnings has pushed them to send their children abroad for higher studies. The Western cities and the Western society are so alien to a lot of the Indian Boys and Girls who go from small towns, protected homes and societies, to live in this vast, cold, alien, uncaring environment. The child is an environment of loneliness, and the old parent who has lost the caring of a son or daughter is also in the lost environment of loneliness.
Very often, al the leaders today come from a sense of fear and inadequacy. Very often, we parents forget that to a small child, we may be in the shape of a large god, that to a small child in a classroom, the teacher too, may be in the shape of a god and the child is more than willing to believe what the teacher and the parents' say.
The public is more than willing to listen what the leaders say, and follow in ttheir set of values and needs, for goodness in the country, environment, so on. In the home and in school and society, we are the ones (as parents, teachers etc.) who have no faith in our values, who have no faith in our pure desires, and forget we are Divine.
We teach our children in school and at home to live without values, to live without direction, because we have no faith in our capabilities to lead, direct, be examples and to contribute our purity to the Universe. Please note the word Purity or Divinity. To put all the qualities to make a better world, we sacrifice everything on the alter of greed, ambition, finishing the syllabus, worrying about the children's school marks, making laws to tie up the common man, to pay taxes, to take punishments, instead of understanding that parents, teachers, leaders all have the power to make a better world, if they do so believe in a better world. But we give it all up for more money, for greed.
Let me give you Example One, which is teachers won't teach in the classroom, but will take on a lot of private tuitions, start their own coaching classes and in the classroom do indifferent and quick work, in the name of completing the syllabus.
Parents at home are too busy having a good time because they work hard and relax for fun, earning riches to satisfy the greed of their children, to compete with their neighbors and to fulfill their own unfulfilled ambitions. Many parents who have not achieved academically push and push their children to be toppers, not remembering the happiness of the child. Society leaders and state leaders again forget their Divine power, and sacrifice it in mundane projects, giving the public enough loopholes to lie and cheat and evade the law. The Divinity that has been given to them is lost and reduced to something that is mundane and ordinary.
I think the biggest loss is to the parents today, and I say this especially of parents in India, where the lure of the west and the greed for foreign earnings has pushed them to send their children abroad for higher studies. The Western cities and the Western society are so alien to a lot of the Indian Boys and Girls who go from small towns, protected homes and societies, to live in this vast, cold, alien, uncaring environment. The child is an environment of loneliness, and the old parent who has lost the caring of a son or daughter is also in the lost environment of loneliness.
Where I live, I see many homes which are huge villas, but in them, lives an old man, a mangy dog and a dim light. In the next villa, lives an old woman, a mangy dog and a dim light, and so on.
The men and women in these areas, sit at home, guarding their property, and hoping for a day when their children will use this inheritance.
But the children are already using this inheritance of lack of values.
One day, the villas will be pulled down and from the naked soil maybe the phoneix shall rise!
And, from the valueless mind, too, there will be a burn out of negative values, because nature pushes you onto the right path. And with this natural burnout, the phoenix shall rise.
The men and women in these areas, sit at home, guarding their property, and hoping for a day when their children will use this inheritance.
But the children are already using this inheritance of lack of values.
One day, the villas will be pulled down and from the naked soil maybe the phoneix shall rise!
And, from the valueless mind, too, there will be a burn out of negative values, because nature pushes you onto the right path. And with this natural burnout, the phoenix shall rise.
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