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Culture and Spirituality Nobody can Make |
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"Again must ye understand the soul as the Kingdom of God. For the soul is of like nature with divinity. All that was here spoken of God's Kingdom, so far as God Himself is this Kingdom, may be truly said in like manner of the soul. 'God is Himself blessed in the soul!" -Eckehart -German Dominican monk. The spirit part of the mind is sensitive to the objects that belong to the Kingdom of God- the objects of culture.
"Mankind errs here-Bhagavad Gita (India)
By folly, darkening knowledge. But for whom
That darkness of the soul is chased by light,
Splendid and clear shines manifest the Truth
As if a Sun of Wisdom sprang to shed
Its beam of dawn. Him meditating still,
Him seeking, with Him blended, stayed on Him,
The souls illuminated take that road
Which hath no turning back- their sins flung off
By the strength of faith."
Though the prophets tried to correct their contemporaries the religions that took shape after them became parochial due to the influence of the ignorant ones.
"As the Atman is pure consciousness, it undergoes no change. It remains as the eternal witness of all changes. In itself it is the knower. The intellect is the object of its knowledge. The Atman as such at no time an object of knowledge."
"As the Atman is the object of supreme love, it follows that happiness is inherent in the Atman. Bliss is not only natural to the Atman; it is also its distinctive feature."
"There is a limit to the love of the various things that confer happiness upon a person; but the love of the Atman knows no limitation."
"Supreme bliss is inherent in the Atman, for it is said to be the dearest of all. Whoever substitutes for the Atman anything else as the object of his quest after happiness merely pursues pain."
'Tao Te Ching', ('The Writings of Chuangtze') says of these transcending values. "Man's proper Truth is what he has received from Heaven, operating spontaneously, and unchangeable. Therefore, the sages take their law from Heaven, and prize their Truth, without submitting to the restrictions of custom. The stupid do the reverse of this. They are unable to take their law from Heaven, and are influenced by other men; they do not know how to prize the proper Truth, but are under the dominion of ordinary things, and change accordingly to the customs (around them)."
"I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such beings as crawl on earth. I want, if I don't give you a shock, to realize identity with even the crawling things upon the earth, because we claim common descent from the same God, and that being so, all life in whatever form it appears must be essentially one."
"If God who is indefinable can be at all defined, then I should say that God is Truth. It is impossible to reach Him, that is Truth, except through Love."
International environmental organization, founded 1971, seeks to promote environmental awareness, and fights to end environmental abuse through non-violent confrontations with governments and companies.
Narmada The construction of large dams on the River Narmada in central India, and its impact on millions of people living in the river valley has become one of the most important social issues in contemporary India. "If the vast majority of our population is to be fed and clothed, then a balanced vision with our own priorities in place of the Western models is a must. There is no other way but to redefine 'modernity' and the goals of development, to widen it to a sustainable, just society based on harmonious, non-exploitative relationships between human beings, and between people and nature." - Medha Patkar. Medha Patkar is a graduate in Social Sciences who moved to live among the tribals of the Narmada Valley in the mid-1980s, and alerted them to the fate which awaited them with the dams being constructed across the river. In a great confrontation between Narmada supporters and pro-dam forces in 1991, her 21-day fast brought her close to death.
Ecofeminism at Erratic Impact's Philosophy Research Base When Nature became the victim of all modern developments, a lot of women activists came forward to protect the rights of Nature, and people living by belonging to Nature. Now they are all grouped as ecofeminists that include social ecologists.
Chipko Movement (India) The forests of hill and mountain areas, provide sustenance because of their direct provision of food, fuel and fodder, and because of their role in stabilizing soil and water resources. Indian villagers sought to protect their livelihoods through the Gandhian method of non-violent resistance. The villagers, mainly women hug the trees, saving them by interposing their bodies between them and the wood-cutters' axes. Its leaders and activists are primarily village women. Prominent Chipko figures include: Sunderlal Bahuguna, a Gandhian activist and philosopher, who coined the Chipko slogan: 'ecology is permanent economy'.
The Nature Conservancy The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. The Nature Conservancy, founded in 1951, is the world's leading private, international conservation group. They preserve habitats and species by saving the lands and waters that they need to survive.
Masanobu Fukuoka taught the world Natural Farming that relies upon Nature's way of maintaining plant-life. His demonstration of Naure's way came as a revelation when industrialized farmers were destroying plants and fields with chemical fertilizers. His book 'One Straw Revolution' became the bible of Natural Farming. The industrial revolution of agriculture has alienated the farmers from life in Nature. According to him the ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings. He is even on the mission of greening the desert.
The seed companies have destroyed the bio-diversity in Nature. And governments have sold to them the ownership of Nature's genes. Now the seed companies are going to own human seeds also. Finally the whole world will be owned by some puppet of money.
Percy Schmeiser - A long time farmer served as Mayor of the Town of Bruno (Canada) from 1966-1983, and as a MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) for the Watrous constituency in the Provincial Legislature from 1967-71. Now he is fighting with a corporation that says winds and bees have no right to pollinate, and the farmers have no right to produce seeds. This is the right example of vulturous corporations strangulating the system of Nature for profit.
EMANZIPATION HUMANUM Dr.Wolfgang Fischer is concerned with the emancipation of humanity that is consistently getting degraded by many social systems that people think normal. He experienced that a blind obedience to what seems normal does not agree with the true human identity. He and his wife Isabel are committed to the vision of a world of social justice that will ensure a more humane life for everyone, and also ecological sustainability.
The following two studies show that what is normal is not really normal. All who are dissatisfied with the present expression of the society are urged to join Pure Reason, the expression of the soul that has been consistently lynched and kept down by the manipulators of social consciousness.
Meaning - The Secret of Being Alive Cliff Havener firmly believes that Purpose, Meaning, Creativity, Spirit are the things that make us feel alive. Living without them is a mechanical imitation of life. What many call "normal" actually separate us from our deepest authenticity. There are many who challenge the "normal" and yet they feel like outcasts because of the violent opposition they encounter from most of the people in their immediate environment.
The Cultural Creatives In this landmark book, sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson who originally coined the term, "Cultural Creatives", draw upon thirteen years of survey research studies on more than 100,000 Americans, plus more than 100 focus groups and dozens of in-depth interviews. According to them the Cultural Creatives care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, and social justice, about self-actualization, spirituality, and self-expression. Once they realize their numbers, their impact on America promises to be enormous, shaping a new agenda for the twenty-first century. But all these aspects of life disappear from life due to the governance of nations slipping into the hands of traders.
Culture is essentially the expression of the never-ending mind guided by Pure Reason.
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