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The Christmas / New Year / Winter Solstice season is traditionally a time for gathering around the fire with family and friends, celebrating the successful negotiation of another year and re-charging one’s batteries ready for the new chapter of adventure and challenge that is about to begin. Much as Dicken’s Scrooge is forced to do, it is also a time for looking back and planning ahead.
Reminiscence can either be positive or negative, depending on how we frame it. We may mourn the loss of loved ones no longer here to share the spirit of the season, or we may remember with pleasure and thanks the many happy times we did share while resolving to share with our companions of this season some equally good experiences. Continue reading Looking Back, Looking Forward »
The Nature of Reality
For centuries the scientific viewpoint held that the destiny of the universe was fixed at its origin, ie what’s now known as the Big Bang. Everything that came after, including the minutiae of human experience, was determined by physical laws of cause and effect applied to its initial conditions.
Current scientific thinking, based on quantum physics, modifies the above. Instead of being a deterministic system the universe, at the sub-atomic level, contains an inherent, random, indeterminacy. Thus, even with complete knowledge of its starting conditions, the universe rapidly becomes unpredictable. However, it is still viewed as a purposeless system, with human beings as accidental, random, automata. Continue reading The Tangled Web of Destiny, Karma and Free Will »
By Lt. Col RK Langar
Freedom is the object of human life. We all love freedom of whatever kind it may be. At our average state of consciousness we do not like to be tied down – not even to the law of land. But how do we define freedom. Does freedom has the same meaning for an enlightened and an unenlightened person. There are some of the questions which we have to answer while discussing freedom. An ignorant person feels that he is ever free to act the way he wants without bothering whether his actions could prove harmful to others. On the other land for a wise person freedom means freedom from ignorance when his actions are based on knowledge. For a man of wisdom it is not freedom for anything but freedom in the midst of everything. Continue reading Freedom is life »
by Lt Col RK Langar
Effortless living is an inward living. Effortless living means living purposefully and mindfully, without any stress. Effortless living is only possible when we put in plenty of effort to make our living a useful event. Self effort must precede effortless living. It is only through our right understanding and self effort that we can turn stressful living into a stress free living. Today we have to struggle a great deal for our existence mainly because we have enlisted wrong priorities in our life. We are surrounded by gadgets and products which instead of empowering ourselves leave us with a feeling of deprivation even though they give us some comfort. In the present society we have worldly successful people who are not happy, then we have happy people but they are not successful in the worldly matters, then there are majority of people who are neither happy nor successful. There are very few people who are both happy and successful in the true sense. These are the people who are both happy and successful from inside. These are the people who understand the purpose of life and they are also the ones who live effortlessly. Majority of us are spending majority of our time in chasing what we want which distances ourselves from both success and happiness. First and foremost there is a need for us to close the gap between what I want and what I have. God has given us so much unasked which so many like us do not have. If we keep a count of what we have we should feel contented with it. The equation more money equals more happiness does not hold good. Continue reading Effortless living – what does it mean? »
By Lt. Col. RK Langar
The dictionary defines patriotism as love for one’s own country with an earnest desire to contribute towards the welfare of countrymen. But when we study patriotism in the light of Indian Spiritual thought that the world is one family, then patriotism takes a bigger form and gives a meaning in a larger since in that patriotism would not just mean just love for your own country. Patriotism would now mean love for the entire humanity and living in the world and contributing towards the welfare of all and not only our countrymen. When you love the entire humanity this also means love for your country as the world includes your own motherland as well. Continue reading Patriotism in an Indian Context »
By Lt Col R K Langar
No one meaning of success is same for two different people. For a sportsman success means winning a medal. For a worldly man success means doing well in his job or business which secures comforts and luxuries for him. For a writer success means his writings are appreciated by one and all, for a student success means securing a high grade in exams and for a housewife success means looking after the needs of all members of family but commanding their respects. Continue reading What does success mean to different people? »
First published in 1999, Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now has become an international bestseller. Written as a series of questions and answers, it presents a radical analysis of humanity’s current state and offers a revolutionary route back from unhappiness to enlightenment, which this article attempts to give the merest flavor of. If you read just one Spiritual book in your life, The Power of Now is a very strong contender to be that book. Continue reading Understanding The Power of Now »
From the vast collective literary output of mankind very few works are worthy of the epithet classic. Robert Pirsig’s 1974 semi-autobiographical(?) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) is one of the few – a true modern classic.
Essentially ZMM consists of three distinct but interwoven stories. Superficially it is a travelogue, about a man – the un-named narrator – motorcycling across the United States with his somewhat troubled son, Chris; for the first part of the journey they are joined by friends, the couple John and Sylvia Sutherland. It is also the story of a man haunted by a “ghost”, that turns out to be his former self. Finally, as suggested by the subtitle, An Inquiry Into Values, ZMM is a discussion on philosophy inspired by the cultural upheaval of the time (epitomized by the counter-culture and hippie scenes) concluding that a re-discovery of quality is the key to the re-harmonization of an increasingly dichotomous society. Continue reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance »
Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t. Richard Bach
Purpose and Goals
Life can be likened to a journey, with its purpose corresponding to the destination. The sense of purpose is so essential that without it we’d struggle to climb out of bed in the morning, for without purpose there’d be no reason. But our purpose is way more complex than getting to New York Grand Central. Continue reading Goal Setting and Purpose »
The history of mankind makes for depressing reading. It is a story of recurrent conflict between different groupings with the mightier invariably exploiting or eliminating his less able neighbor. Looking around the world, wars continue to rage; the only difference is that the means of destruction have grown exponentially more horrific.
It takes no great leap of imagination to view mankind simply as clothed animals, and indeed whenever any account of particular depravity comes to light it is common to hear the perpetrators described as animals. But this is an insult to the animal kingdom, which though often savage, acts only from the instinctive drive for survival; ie bears kill to eat, men kill for fun. Continue reading When Will We Ever Learn? »
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Understanding The Power of Now
First published in 1999, Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now has become an international bestseller. Written as a series of questions and answers, it presents a radical analysis of humanity’s current state and offers a revolutionary route back from unhappiness to enlightenment, which this article attempts to give the merest flavor of. If you read just one Spiritual book in your life, The Power of Now is a very strong contender to be that book. Continue reading Understanding The Power of Now »