Lawrence R. Spencer's Blog, page 553
June 23, 2013
WELL ADJUSTED
"Jiddu Krishnamurti was born on 11 May 1895 in Madanapalle, a small town in south India. He and his brother were adopted in their youth by Dr Annie Besant, then president of the Theosophical Society. Dr Besant and others proclaimed that Krishnamurti was to be a world teacher whose coming the Theosophists had predicted. To prepare the world for this coming, a world-wide organization called the Order of the Star in the East was formed and the young Krishnamurti was made its head.
In 1929, however, Krishnamurti renounced the role that he was expected to play, dissolved the Order with its huge following, and returned all the money and property that had been donated for this work. From then, for nearly sixty years until his death on 17 February 1986, he travelled throughout the world talking to large audiences and to individuals about the need for a radical change in mankind.
Krishnamurti is regarded globally as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. He did not expound any philosophy or religion, but rather talked of the things that concern all of us in our everyday lives, of the problems of living in modern society with its violence and corruption, of the individual's search for security and happiness, and the need for mankind to free itself from inner burdens of fear, anger, hurt, and sorrow. He explained with great precision the subtle workings of the human mind, and pointed to the need for bringing to our daily life a deeply meditative and spiritual quality.
Krishnamurti belonged to no religious organization, sect or country, nor did he subscribe to any school of political or ideological thought. On the contrary, he maintained that these are the very factors that divide human beings and bring about conflict and war. He reminded his listeners again and again that we are all human beings first and not Hindus, Muslims or Christians, that we are like the rest of humanity and are not different from one another. He asked that we tread lightly on this Earth without destroying ourselves or the environment. He communicated to his listeners a deep sense of respect for nature. His teachings transcend man-made belief systems, nationalistic sentiment and sectarianism. At the same time, they give new meaning and direction to mankind's search for truth. His teaching, besides being relevant to the modern age, is timeless and universal." -- http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/
June 21, 2013
TRANSCENDENCE
TRANSCENDENCE:
a Solitary Climb
from Decadence
toward The Sublime.
Religions all say
Their Path is well Known.
But how do they know The Way?
At Death, You must Ascend Alone.
_______________
Lawrence R. Spencer. 2013
June 20, 2013
June 19, 2013
BEING YOU
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi or Bapu (Father of Nation), was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world.
The son of a senior government official, Gandhi was born and raised in a Bania community in coastal Gujarat, and trained in law in London. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, and above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from British domination.
In London he committed himself to truthfulness, temperance, chastity, and vegetarianism. His return to India to work as a lawyer was a failure, so he went to South Africa for a quarter century, where he absorbed ideas from many sources, most of them non-Indian. He was exposed to Jain ideas through his mother who, was in contact with Jain monks. Themes from Jainism that Gandhi absorbed included asceticism; compassion for all forms of life; the importance of vows for self-discipline; vegetarianism; fasting for self-purification; mutual tolerance among people of different creeds; and "syadvad", the idea that all views of truth are partial.
Gandhi strongly favored the emancipation of women, and he went so far as to say that "the women have come to look upon me as one of themselves." He opposed purdah, child marriage, untouchability, and the extreme oppression of Hindu widows, up to and including sati. He especially recruited women to participate in the salt tax campaigns and the boycott of foreign products. Gandhi's success in enlisting women in his campaigns, including the salt tax campaign, anti-untouchability campaign and the peasant movement, gave many women a new self-confidence and dignity in the mainstream of Indian public life.
In his last year, unhappy at the partition of India, Gandhi worked to stop the carnage between Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs that raged in the border area between India and Pakistan. He was assassinated on 30 January 1948.
Gandhi's philosophy was not theoretical but one of pragmatism, that is, practicing his principles in the moment. Asked to give a message to the people, he would respond, "My life is my message."
June 18, 2013
June 17, 2013
June 16, 2013
PERCEPTION
"Perception is the power in discovery that discovery that there is something else here....outside our knowledge, boundaries or known experiences."
Ken Allan Dronsfield, 2013
June 15, 2013
LOVE IS SOMETHING
"Love is something you and I must have.
We must have it because Our Spirit feeds upon it.
We must have it because without it We become weak and faint.
Without Love Our Self-esteem weakens.
Without it Our courage fails.
Without Love We can no longer look confidently at the world.
We turn inward and begin to feed upon Our Own personalities,
and little by little We destroy Our Selves.
With it We are Creative.
With it, and with it alone, We are able to sacrifice for Others."
Chief Dan George
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Chief Dan George, OC (July 24, 1899 – September 23, 1981) was a chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, a Coast Salish band located on Burrard Inlet in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was also an author, poet, and an Academy Award-nominated actor. His best-known written work was "My Heart Soars. Born as Geswanouth Slahoot in North Vancouver,his English name was originally Dan Slaholt. The surname was changed to George when he entered a residential school at age 5. He worked at a number of different jobs, including as a longshoreman, construction worker, and school bus driver,and was band chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation from 1951–63.
June 14, 2013
SACRED WOMEN
I recently discovered that my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandmother is Molly Brandt (1735 - 1796), the sister of a Mohawk Indian Chief.
I am honored to consider myself, at least in small part physically, and as a Spiritual Being, a Native of American.
Here is an article about her on Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Brant
