Book or Boob? Of course it is the boob. Who reads books these days? A flashed boob garners more attention than actual knowledge. That’s the current state of affairs these days. Continue reading “Book or Boob?”
Book or Boob?
The holy books quadrilogy
Throughout the mankind history, 3 major Abrahamic religions arose in the world. Almost two millenniums afterwards (in the year 1830), another “religious” book emerged in the US (the Book of Mormon).
It is funny how these 4 books can be likened to a funny quadrilogy book set.
- The Jewish adventures: old Jewish scrolls.
- Jewish Adventures II – The return of the Jews: the old and the new testament. Basically the modern day “Holy Bible”.
- Jewish Adventures III – The Revenge of Mohammed: That’s Holy Quran used by Muslims throughout the world.
- Jewish Adventures IV – Jesus in Space: The Book of Mormon, written by Joseph Smith
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The Ten Paramis
I learned about the paramis when I partook my first Vipassana meditation retreat. A parami is a good mental quality that one must practice and perfect in order to attain liberation.
The 10 paramis are as follows:
- Generosity, giving (dana): giving for the sake of giving.
- Morality (sila): lead a moral life and follow the 5 precepts
- Renunciation (nekkhamma): drop attachment to your personal belongs and lead a generous life. Give and volunteer whenever you can.
- Wisdom (panna): participate in wholesome learning. The ultimate knowledge and wisdom comes from within. Hence, practicing the insight meditation helps achieving true wisdom.
- Energy/Effort (viriya): conserve your energy and do wholesome activities. Work hard and earn your livelihood. Help others.
- Patience/Tolerance (khanti): replace anger and frustration with patience, forgiveness and compassion.
- Truthfulness (sacca): every action should come from a place of truthfulness. Prejudice blinds you from the truth.
- Determination (adhitthana): success does not come easily. Stay determined and remember that success begets success.
- Loving-kindness (metta): or self-less love. Practice loving without expecting anything in return.
- Equanimity (upekkha): nothing in life is permanent. Learn to recognize the impermanence and stay equanimous
May all beings be happy!
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- The Paramis
- Developing the 10 Paramis with Vipassana
- Seven Golden Keys for Good Health – An advice from Dr. Shinya
- How to be ready for your first 10 days Vipassana Course
- Metta Prayer and other quotes of wisdom – In the memory of Mr. S.N. Goenka
- This too shall pass
- The 5 precepts
- The Unexpected Guest
The meaning of the Chariot and charioteers in the Bhagavad Gita
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna imparts to Arjun various important spiritual lessons.
If you have not read the Gita, then it is a good an insightful read.
In this blog post, I want to explain to you the symbolism behind the chariot picture in which we see Arjun, Krishna and the 5 horses driving the chariot.
Continue reading “The meaning of the Chariot and charioteers in the Bhagavad Gita”
Saint Elias
This is Saint Elias (or Elijah). He is celebrated in my home country, Lebanon, on the 20th of July.
According to Wikipedia:
Elijah (Hebrew: אֱלִיָּהוּ, Eliyahu, meaning “My God is Yahu/Jah”) or Elias (/ɪˈlaɪ.əs/; Greek: Ηλίας Elías; Syriac: ܐܸܠܝܼܵܐ Elyāe; Arabic: إلياس or إليا, Ilyās or Ilyā) was a prophet and a miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible.
Haedong Yonggungsa Temple (해동 용궁사) – South Korea
He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one
This is a funny photoshopped picture I received through chain mail. It refers to Luke 22:36. However, it also reminds of me of the Matthew 10:34:
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
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7 dangers to human virtue – Gandhi
The 7 dangers to human virtue are:
- Wealth without work
- Pleasure with conscience
- Knowledge without character
- Business without ethics
- Science without humanity
- Religion without sacrifice
- Politics without Principle
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Postcards from Rishikesh, India – 2007
Ten years ago, in 2007, I went for a Dhyan Yatra in India with Isha Yoga. It was an interesting journey and one to remember. A dedicated article about this experience and trip will ensue sometime in the future.
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Ganesha – The obstacle remover
Time: The most precious commodity
It does not take a movie, or reading a book to realize that our most precious asset or commodity is time…
I ran into this viral video about the topic of time scarcity:
I loved the metaphor in that movie. Here’s the full transcript:
It carries over no balance from day to day.
Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to used during the day.
What would you do?
Draw out every cent, of course?
Each of us has such a bank, its name is time.
Every morning, it credits you 86,400 seconds.
Every night it writes off at a lost, whatever of this you failed to invest to a good purpose.
It carries over no balance. It allows no over draft.
Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day.
If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.
There is no drawing against ‘tomorrow.’
You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and health.
The clock is running.Make the most of today.
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Sarcastic Self-Help Youtubers
Five Ancient Lessons of the pencil
When Sri Gurudeva Srila Prabhupada ki jaya was walking today he felt his mind reach out over the blue sea to an island shimmering in the distance. When his mind returned it brought a story with it – a story of spiritual instruction. Strange are the ways of inspiration.
Sri Gurudeva Srila Prabhupada writes:
One day, the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich
I was browsing the internet and I found this nice photo and it got me thinking. I would like to use it as a launching pad to share some of my thoughts on the topic of the rich and the poor.
I come from Beirut, Lebanon, a third world country by all means. We have corrupt politicians, political seats handed down from father to son, the worst power and water infrastructure, etc. I wrote a short satirical pamphlet about my home country and published it on Amazon, check it out. The reason I mention my origin is that having lived in the 3rd world country and now I live in the US, I can compare and contrast about the human mentality. Continue reading “One day, the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich”
Keep your thoughts positive because they will shape your destiny
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi once said:
Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior.
Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits.
Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.
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You go girl!
Auroville – The universal town in Tamil Nadu, India
Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities.
Today Auroville is recognised as the first and only internationally endorsed ongoing experiment in human unity and transformation of consciousness, also concerned with – and practically researching into – sustainable living and the future cultural, environmental, social and spiritual needs of mankind.
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