Your Soul and Sustenance
When we think of nature and the sacred, several images come to mind: the first Christian
monks who fled to the Egyptian desert in the fourth and fifth centuries, Vedic sages
meditating upon truth and seeking union with the Divine in the deep forests of India, a
solitary Lakota crying for a vision upon a remote precipice in the Black Hills of South
Dakota, or the T’ang poet Han Shan writing Zen verses on scraps of bark and leaving them
along the path that climbs Cold Mountain.
All of these scenes, and others too numerous to mention, remind us that throughout the
centuries, and across many religious traditions, we have sought the presence of the Real
in the wilderness Landscapes. Deserts, forests, mountains, and oceans are all places
where the eye of the heart has opened and we have caught a glimpse of the beauty and the
majesty of the Divine. Immersed in the silence of the great forest cathedrals and
listening to the pure song of a mountain stream, we have come to know the inner man who
has always lived upon the threshold of Heaven. And it is not only through the large and
dramatic manifestations of nature that we have perceived the sacred: what wisdom did not
the Buddha transmit by silently holding up a simple flower to the venerable Kashyapa.
Why are we drawn into the heart of nature? Why do we feel uplifted and spiritually
renewed after spending time in some wild place far removed from the ordinary business of
men? There are many answers to these questions, ranging from the healthful benefits
associated with the exhilarating effects of fresh air and exercise to the pleasure of
sitting by an evening campfire and gazing at the stars.
There is another reason, however, and it is far more profound. In the opening pages of
this book, Frithj of Schuon speaks of “seeing God everywhere”. The “remembrance of God
in all things” and the “metaphysical transparency of phenomena” are other pertinent
expressions that Schuon uses to underline the immanence of God in the world. These words
remind us that it is not only through sacred books like the Bible, the Upanishads, and
the Quran that God reveals Himself to man. He also shows us the shining facets of His
Reality through the beauties of the natural world; and just as we learn something about
the nature of an artist through his art, we may discover the presence of the Creator in
His creation. Whether the Absolute was referred to as God, Brahman, Allah, Wakan Tanka,
Shunyamurti, Tao, or by some other Name, every branch of human society has, without
doubt, seen traces of the One in the many wonders of nature. This vision of the
immanence of God, which is most often associated with the mystical dimension of
religion, finds one of its greatest voices in the 12th century Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi,
whose metaphysical writings on the Oneness of Being and the Self-Disclosure of God are
among the most profound and comprehensive treatments of the subject in the history of
spiritual literature. As Toshihiko Izutsu explains in his article in this book, Ibn
‘Arabi’s cosmology teaches “that the very root of creation is the singleness of the
Absolute.” This subject is far too vast to be explored in our brief Preface; however, I
would point the interested reader to the many examples of the same doctrine which may be
discovered in the mystical literature of both Eastern and Western religious traditions,
including the visions of Hildegard of Bingen, the Canticle of Saint Francis, the
Kashmiri Shaivism of Abhinavagupta, the Taoism of Lao Tzu, the Kabbalah of Issac Luria,
the angelophany of Zoroastrianism, and the Hua-Yen Buddhism of Tu Shun. One of the most
beautiful articulations of the doctrine of the Oneness of Being is found among the
Lakota Indians of the American West. Their expression mitakuye oyasin (we are all
related) extends beyond tribal members to all living things. When the Onondaga Elder,
Oren Lyons, writes in his essay “Our Mother Earth” that, “the bears and the wolves and
the eagles are Indians” he is directly undermining the metaphysical Reality of the
fundamental unity and spiritual kinship of all creation. North American Native
Traditions, as well as all other forms of Shamanism, are founded upon the holiness of
creation which is directly based upon the idea of the immanence of God. If we understand
that creation is the sacred art of the Creator, what should be our role concerning the
surrounding world? And what must we do to fulfill that role? According to the Bible and
the Quran, the nature of man is theo-morphic; we are “made in the image of God.”
Consequently, we have a sacred responsibility towards the creation because we are
providentially destined to serve as pontiff or vice-regent; we are created with a free
will and we are responsible to God for our treatment of the earth. Virtually all of our
ancestors realized that holiness is the defining characteristic of creation, and through
their reliance upon Mother Earth to provide them with the necessities of daily life,
they cultivated a deep and sustaining relationship with the natural world. They saw the
Hand of God touching everything and they understood that their existence, as well as the
existence of all other forms of life, was dependent upon the harmonious
inter-relationship of all living things. The very root of the word nature, which comes
from the Latin nascitura, means, “to give birth.” Our ancestors, who lived out of doors
in constant communion with the elements, understood concretely that nature is the
progenitor of life. And as the sacred source of life, nature was revered as a beloved
Mother. Today, many people are interested in whole foods and holistic medicine and this
is easily understood as a contemporary echo of the ancient belief in the
inter-relatedness of all things. Entering the portal of the 21st century, we are facing
one of the most serious problems in the history of man. The current environmental crisis
stems from our forgetfulness of who we are and what creation is. The causes of this
forgetfulness are many; however, in large part, it may be traced back to that point
where we lost touch with the sacred quality of nature and began to view the world as a
vast mechanism which could be best understood through the lens of physical science. This
world-view, which has many of its roots in the Renaissance, has brought us to a point
where we no longer understand the connection between the physical and the metaphysical.
We have forgotten that the physical cannot be separated from the metaphysical without
suffering potentially disastrous consequences. Assuming, as we do, an infinite supply of
natural resources, we exercise power over the earth and forget that with this power
comes our sacred responsibility to serve as shepherds of the creation. As Seyyed Hossein
Nasr, a world-renowned authority on Sufism and the Religio Perennis has repeatedly
pointed out in his many profound studies on religion and nature, as well as in his essay
in this book, the current environmental crisis is, in fact, a spiritual crisis.3 Dr.
Nasr writes, “The ultimate question for us, the ultimate challenge, is: who are we? What
are we doing here? And the response has always been that we are here, first of all, to
remember who we are; we are here to remember what the world is in its spiritual reality;
above all, we are here to remember God who is the source of both the world and
ourselves.”
As various forms of secularism gained ascendancy in the 20th century, so did their
underlying presuppositions—that nature is a purely quantitative phenomenon that can be
defined and measured by physics and mathematics. This perspective, which René Guénon
called the “reign of quantity” more than fifty years ago, created spiritual myopia
preventing us from seeing the presence of God in the world. As modern men, we are the
first collectivity in the history of humanity to fail to see the Reality of the Creator
in His creation and to draw the consequences of that vision. This blindness has spread
into nearly every aspect of human life, but nowhere is there more tangible evidence of
the greed and gross materialism that stems from this quantitative world-view than in our
exploitation of the earth. We have been lulled into a false sense of security by
scientism which tells us that all obstacles to future progress and prosperity may be
overcome in a test tube. And despite the positive efforts made by certain ecological
groups to reverse the disastrous consequences of numerous agendas based upon modern
science and the quantification of nature, most of these well-intentioned efforts have
not gone far enough. We are desperately in need of a deeper ecological vision founded
upon spiritual insight into the profound order of nature. Some 300 years before the
birth of Christ this ecological vision was summarized by the Chinese sage Chuang Tzu who
said, “Heaven and earth and I spring from the same root, and all things are one with
me.” The fundamental thesis of this book is that our continuing physical and spiritual
well-being is ultimately linked with our ability to “see God everywhere” and “remember
Him in all things.” From the non-theistic perspective of Buddhism, Tenzin Gyatso, His
Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama speaks in his article, “A Tibetan Buddhist Perspective on
Nature” about the principle of the interdependence of all things and the exchange
between human spirit and nature. He states that the “Buddhist literature mentions the
sanctity of the environment inspiring and blessing the practitioner and in turn the
practitioner’s spiritual realization blessing the environment.” This thesis is clearly
and beautifully articulated in the cosmology of Hua-Yen, which teaches that the entire
universe is like a net of dazzling jewels, infinitely complex and interdependent every
part of life is joined to every other part of life and each is reflected in the other.
This means that we cannot plunder the earth without robbing ourselves. We cannot deplete
natural resources without diminishing ourselves. To continue to live from generation to
generation we need to recognize and embrace this interdependence and we need to extend
our definition of the spiritual into the ecological Among the many ecological
perspectives which have been brought to bear upon the current environmental crisis, this
vision of the immanence of God in and its implicit understanding of the interdependence
of all things is the most radical because it points to the Origin of all that is. The
future of the earth may be determined by the degree to which we understand this vision,
which underlines the deepest relationship between nature and the sacred.
In “Christianity and the Survival of Creation” Wendell Berry reminds us that the Bible
is not “enough appreciated as an outdoor book.” He states that “it is a hypaethral book,
such as Thoreau talked about—a book open to the sky. It is the best-read and understood
outdoors, and the farther outdoors the better.” This is good advice. We should also
remember that our ancestors knew that nature is a holy book and that Heaven speaks to us
through the manifestations of the natural world. They knew that just as the many return
to the One, the One returns to the many. It is this spiritual vision that defines the
wisdom of the human state and to heal nature and ourselves we must reclaim this wisdom.
Every essay in this collection, each in its way, calls attention to the pressing urgency
of this necessity. And each short poem is meant to be a flower through which God wants
to be known. I would encourage every reader to take this book outdoors and read it under
the open sky. To appreciate and understand the message contained in these pages you
could do no better than to start by closing your eyes and feeling the sunlight on your
face. That sunlight, shining everywhere, is the signature of God.
Barry McDonald
July 2002
From the book ‘Seeing God Everywhere’
Our body is just an accumulation of the food we eat after it has been transformed and
assimilated. There is a certain intelligence, memory, and genetic code in the body that
determines what the food that we eat is converted into. For example, the same apple,
depending on who eats it, becomes part of the body of a woman, a man, or a cow.
Similarly, there is information about the food we consume. The way our food is
harvested, how far it has traveled, and how we are feeling while consuming the food, all
these aspects determine our mental and physical wellbeing.
One very important aspect of mindful food is how we are feeling when we are about to
consume food. We should spend a few moments to be thankful for the food that is about to
nourish us. It is of utmost significance that we generate feelings of gratitude towards
all the lives that contributed to bringing the food to our plate, including the life of
the food itself. This not only changes how our body handles the food but how the food
handles our body.
Another aspect of food is that it is essentially the fuel to the body and also the mind.
If we want to refuel our car, we go to the gas station and choose the appropriate fuel
for this particular machine, to achieve optimal performance. We could put kerosene into
our car and it would drive, but it may smoke and cough, and we may not be able to
accelerate as we want. This is the situation with most of us when it comes to our food
choices. To choose the appropriate fuel, we need to know what type of machine we are.
The ideal fuel for your body is what leaves you alert, agile, and active.
Eating properly is an important aspect of health. If we are interested in our wellbeing
and that of our children, we must ensure that the food you eat is fresh. In the yogic
culture, cooked food is consumed within 1.5 hours after it comes off the stove. If it’s
any later, inertia will set in. If we eat food that creates inertia in the system, we
will lose all our dynamism. There is also a correlation between the kind of food we eat
and the amount of sleep you need. Generally, doctors advise that everyone must sleep a
minimum of eight hours. If we sleep eight hours per night, it means we are sleeping
one-third of our life. The body needs restfulness, not sleep. One important factor of
how much sleep we need is what type of fuel we put into your system. If we put the wrong
fuel into your car, it will need a lot of services. Similarly, if we put the wrong fuel
into our system, it will need a lot of sleep.
In the yogic tradition, we always said you must eat what is furthest away from you,
genetically. In that sense, plant life is furthest away from us. If you must eat
non-vegetarian food, we advise the consumption of fish, because, among the animals, it
is furthest away from a human being, if you look at it from an evolutionary perspective.
As the first animal life on the planet is thought to have evolved in water, indicating
the fish.
After a century of saying the best thing to eat is meat, doctors in the West are slowly
shifting to a different view today. For some time now, they have been saying that beef
is the main cause for most of the cardiac ailments and cause of cancer in America. In
the yogic culture, it is said that if you eat foods with a complex genetic code, your
system will break down, one way or the other. So, do not make food some kind of
religion. If it is a question of survival, eat what is available. But when survival is
taken care of, there is a choice. When you have a choice, you must eat sensibly, which
is best for your system.
Tips:
-Try paying close attention to the taste of the food you are eating. Eat slowly,
carefully, and silently. Chew your food thoroughly. Try to notice every ingredient
within each mouthful of food. Mindfulness will help you to experience the true joy of
eating and will likewise draw your attention to the silent power contained within every
moment.
-You could experiment by yourself. One day, just eat fruits; another day, just eat raw
vegetables; yet another day, you cook the vegetables; then you eat fish, you eat meat –
try out everything. Pay attention to how your body feels. It will differ from one person
to another as our genes and other aspects of life also differ. With whichever kind of
food, we experience maximum levels of energy and alertness in our body that is what we
should eat to be healthy.
Having organic food regularly delivers a 3-way of health benefits.
Rich Nutrients
Naturally Harvested
Restoring Mindset
The word ‘mindfulness’ is a state
of awareness without
judgment — awareness about both the long and short-term effects of your everyday choices
and decisions.
To put it simply, mindful living is a life where we are impartial observers making
conscious decisions of
every little thing we do from moment to moment. It is a life that gives us insight into
the bigger picture
of life which naturally allows us to be more accepting, grateful, patient, and
compassionate no matter what
circumstance we are in.
‘Mindfulness, called wise attention, helps us see what
we’re
adding to our experiences’– Sharon Salzberg
‘This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in
the here and now. And instead of calling it to work, realize it is a play’– Alan Watts.
Mindful living is not a destination, it is rather a journey that allows us to slowly but
surely blossom our inborn potentials. Being mindful can open a path to the best possible
long-term outcome in every situation. It is the ability to stay present at the moment
without allowing the mind to get side-tracked. It’s somewhat a state of heightened
sensory awareness where you are no longer at the mercy of your habitual thought
patterns. You are instead able to see things more clearly and consciously and maximizes
the effects of everyday choices and decisions.
Tips:
Several times throughout the day take some time to consciously experience your
environment. Stop and smell your surroundings. Experience each scent as if it was for
the very first time. Listen to the sounds of your environment. What specific sounds do
you hear? Maybe you hear the ticking of a clock, the traffic from the street, people
speaking, the chirping of a bird, the rustle of the wind blowing through the trees, or a
faint piece of music playing in the distance. No matter what it is you smell or hear,
fully experience it and be there with it at the moment. Let nothing else distract you.
Instead, just allow these smells and sounds to captivate your entire being right here,
right now, for moments at a time.
Aspects of mindful living
⸎ Breathing - Control over the body, Feel every breath.
⸎ Yoga - Basic method of healing
⸎ Meditation - Control over stress, Improve will power
⸎ Belief System - Control on the mind, More proactive
⸎ Pray – Connection, Peace
⸎ Compassion – Basic Morality, Empathy
Breath is life! It is not just the exchange of
oxygen and carbon dioxide in our body but the very vital life energies that we are.
Not only does breath give us life, but the very way we breathe determines the way we
live.
“When the breath wanders, the mind is unsteady, but when the breath is still, so is the
mind still”– Hatha Yoga Pradipika
It is truly astonishing how little attention we pay to the importance of proper
breathing in daily life. When we are born, it is in our instinct to take deep
breaths but as we grow older our breath tends to become more and shallower, never
reaching the abdomen as it used to when we were carefree children. If we pay enough
attention, we can notice that when we are angry, peaceful, happy, or sad, our breath
goes through subtle changes. Whichever way you breathe, that is the way you think.
Whichever way you think, that is the way you breathe. Whichever, way we think, is the
way our lives are going to be? Therefore, breath is the most important and powerful
factor to maneuver our lives the very way we want it. As you breathe consciously,
you become aware of your life forces - in that awareness, you discover joy, positive
emotions, and all the mindless thinking just dissolves. Giving attention to how we
breathe can make a big difference in our mental and physical health.
Tips:
“If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to
learn how to breathe correctly”– Andrew Weil
Conscious breathing demands you to be in the present and when you are mindful of the
present, you aren’t loaded with thoughts of the past and future. ‘Just breathe’ are
two magical words that you can always remember and practice. It will lead to a
balanced mind that swims in the realm of peace, truth, and serenity. The conscious
act of breathing involves sitting up straight, inhaling oxygen deeply, holding your
breath for 3-4 seconds, and then exhaling slowly, till you can’t feel any sensation near
your nose. If you sit with your spine erect, your organs will have the maximum
possible comfort and improve breathing. Just following this simple technique brings
a great number of positive changes in your body, mind, and soul. It leads to a burst
of energy as a million cells get rejuvenated which were starving due to unconscious
breathing. Conscious breathing also helps in reducing stress levels, blood pressure,
muscular tension, and much more.
Try to mindfully breathe, slowly and gently like this as much as you can throughout the
day.
Did you remember to take deep breaths?
Change your context. “The quality of our lives changes and transforms not because we
change the content of our lives, but only because we change the context of our
lives.”
Consciously relieve yourself of tension. “If you create any tension in the body or the
mind, you will slowly work against yourself. If your body is tense, your mind will
be tense. If your mind is tense, your body will be tense. Don’t turn your energies
against you!”
Manage yourself, not your stress. “Stress is your inability to manage your body, mind,
and energies. If your mind took instructions from you, would you keep it stressful
or blissful? What’s your choice? Isn’t it Blissful?”
Anything and everything that brings us to a state
of union with existence is yoga; the very fundamentals of the brain’s activity, inner
chemistry, and genetic predispositions can be changed by practicing certain systems of
yoga. According to modern science, it is now proven beyond any doubt that the whole
existence is just one energy manifesting itself into various forms which is a living
reality for us and we begin to experience everything as one, then we are in yoga. Yoga
predates all religions, making it a tool for people of any faith to practice it and reap
its benefits.
Yoga can be transmitted on many different levels such as, physical and mental wellbeing
which includes health and other aspects. Yoga can be practiced just to get rid of our
backache, get better mental focus, peace of mind, and happiness in our life, as a way of
climbing up to the highest possibility within ourselves.
We should know the joy of being truly well, not just physical wellbeing, but to know and
exude wellbeing in all dimensions of your existence.” –Sadhguru
Did you know?
If you stick to the classical form of yoga, over a while, your breath will become slow.
There are very poetic expressions for this like if it becomes 11 per minute, you
understand the language of every animal and bird around you; if it becomes 9, and you
understand the very language that the Earth is speaking. If it becomes 7, you know
everything worth knowing in existence. That means your body becomes so stable that there
is no static, no crackle – it just perceives everything.
Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment
awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment,
through a gentle, nurturing lens.
Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and
feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or
“wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our
thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the
past or imagining the future. Though it has its roots in Buddhist meditation, a secular
practice of mindfulness has entered the American mainstream in recent years, in part
through the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
program, which he launched at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979.
Since that time, thousands of studies have documented the physical and mental health
benefits of mindfulness in general and MBSR in particular, inspiring countless programs
to adapt the MBSR model for schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans’ centers, and beyond.
Mindful meditation is a mental training practice that teaches you to slow down racing
thoughts, let go of negativity, and calm both your mind and body.
Mindfulness has its origins in Buddhist and Hindu teachings, from which the concept
“sati” was roughly translated to “mindfulness.” The practice was popularized in the West
through the work of Jon-Kabat Zinn. Zinn created Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to
treat pain, anxiety, and stress, and he ultimately brought mindfulness into mainstream
clinical practice.
The cultivation of mindfulness has roots in Buddhism, but most religions include some
type of prayer or meditation technique that helps shift your thoughts away from your
usual preoccupations toward an appreciation of the moment and a larger perspective on
life.
Professor emeritus Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder and former director of the Stress Reduction
Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, helped to bring the practice
of mindfulness meditation into mainstream medicine and demonstrated that practicing
mindfulness can bring improvements in both physical and psychological symptoms as well
as positive changes in health, attitudes, and behaviors.
Mindfulness improves well-being: Increasing your capacity for mindfulness supports many
attitudes that contribute to a satisfying life. Being mindful makes it easier to savor
the pleasures in life as they occur, helps you become fully engaged in activities, and
creates a greater capacity to deal with adverse events. By focusing on the here and now,
many people who practice mindfulness find that they are less likely to get caught up in
worries about the future or regrets over the past, are less preoccupied with concerns
about success and self-esteem and are better able to form deep connections with
others.
Mindfulness improves physical health: If greater well-being isn’t enough of an
incentive, scientists have discovered that mindfulness techniques help improve physical
health in several ways. Mindfulness can: help relieve stress, treat heart disease, lower
blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, improve sleep, and alleviate gastrointestinal
difficulties.
Mindfulness improves mental health: In recent years, psychotherapists have turned to
mindfulness meditation as an important element in the treatment of several problems,
including depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, couples’ conflicts, anxiety
disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Tips
Several times a day, draw your attention to your breath, body, and mind. Begin by taking
a few deep breaths, close your eyes, then tune-in to your body. Feel your lungs
expanding and contracting as you breathe in and out. Now listen to the ticking of your
heart, and feel the blood rushing through your veins. Be there in the moment with just
“yourself”, and fully experience and appreciate who you are right here, right now
without any other thoughts, distractions, or judgment.
Our beliefs are the guiding principles that give
meaning and direction to our life. They filter our perceptions of the world. When we
freely choose to believe something is true, a command is delivered to our spiritual
heart (mind) telling us how to represent what we have come to believe to be true. Then
the process has been accomplished with Divine Grace, our belief can become our most
effective force for creating the positive and good in our lives...
Pray
“Always pro to have eyes that see the best in people, a heart that forgives the worst, a
mind that forgets the bad, and a soul that never loses faith in God.”
“God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.” Mother
Teresa.
“Prayer and the seed of faith are similar. Both have nothing within, but have the
potential of creating everything.” Sirshree
“Islam suggests living with divinely-ordained nature, not opposed to it.”
Prayer, an act of communication by humans with the sacred or holy—God, the gods, the
transcendent realm, or supernatural powers. Found in all religions at all times, prayer
may be a corporate or personal act utilizing various forms and techniques.
The necessity for prayer has been taught at all times by all religions, and forms of
prayer have been given to their followers. People hold different opinions about prayer.
Some maintain that as God knows all their wants, why should they pray? Others wonder if
it is alright to pray when God knows what is best for them. Others say that praise is
the only prayer, while some even claim that they are God so that for them there is no
necessity for prayer. Regarding the latter class of people, it may be said that all the
masters and holy ones have taught not only the necessity of prayer, but their own lives
have been lives of continual prayer. The following little story gives us an illustration
of this.
Abdul Qadir Jilani, a great Sufi saint, was one day engaged in prayer, when in a vision,
he saw the semblance of an angel, who addressed him saying, 'O thou who hast prayed
continuously all thy life, to the God sends the good tidings that no more prayers are
required of thee.' The saint, recognizing the tempter, replied, 'Begone, thou wicked
one, I recognize thee despite thy angelic disguise: thou art a devil come to tempt me.
All the holy ones have passed their lives in prayer, and how can I deem myself worthy to
be exempt from it?' On hearing these words the evil one vanished.
To those who ask, 'Is it right to pray for our wants?' it may be said that man has
always sought to express himself. If for instance, he has conceived some scheme or plan
that he wants to carry out, as a rule, he seeks out a capable and trusted friend whose
advice he values, to whom he can confide his ideas. Or, if he is in trouble or distress,
he goes to a loving and kind friend for sympathy. In both cases, he shows his
limitation. If a man with his sense of justice judges himself worthy of that for which
he prays, then he is amply justified, regardless of the opinion of the world as to its
rightness, and he attracts the answer to his prayer. If a man has agreed to work for a
certain sum of money and knows he has worked well and earned it, he feels justified in
claiming his money. And so it is with prayer when a man knows he deserves that for which
he prays.
Before praying for the mercy of God, man must first learn to recognize God in all around
him, in the care and protection he receives from all. God's mercy shows its hands and
eyes everywhere in nature, so man must try to imitate it in his own life. He will then
attract to himself the mercy of God.
If our actions are harsh, we naturally attract the wrath of God. To the class of people
who claim that they are God, the answer may be given in the words of the Urdu poet, who
says, 'Man is not God, but man is not apart from God.' One drop cannot call itself the
ocean, yet the drop is part of the ocean. Those who lay claim to this should bear
witness to it in their lives, and if they can do this, then they will keep silent and
not speak one word about it in the presence of others.
There is a necessity for praise in prayer, the praise of the beauty of God, for man must
learn to recognize and praise the beauty of God as manifested in all His creation. In
this way, he impresses beauty on his soul, and he can manifest it in himself, and he
becomes the friend of all and is without prejudice. For this reason, the Sufi cultivates
his heart. The emblem of the Sufi is a heart between two wings, meaning that when the
heart is cultivated man can soar up into the heights of heaven.
When a man is on the lower planes, he sees things as tall, short, beautiful, or ugly.
But if he ascends in an airplane and looks down from above, things appear uniform and
the same. So it is when a man has raised himself to the higher planes: all things are
the same to him, he only sees the One.
Man is perfectly justified and right in praying for all his desires, and there is
nothing that God is not able and willing to grant. But a man should distinguish between
what is transitory and what is lasting, what is worthwhile for his benefit, and what is
worthless. The beauty of personality, devotion, love, are all desirable, but not those
things that are transitory and unsatisfying. Some people have reached the stage at which
they are beyond all desires, both earthly and heavenly, but they continue to pray,
because prayer brings them still closer to God in their limitation, and they expand from
the state of limitation to the state of unlimited being. This is the highest meaning of
prayer.
A man who does not believe in prayer, in times of illness seeks a doctor, for no one is
self -sufficient. In life, everyone needs kindness, sympathy, and the help of others,
however rich or mighty he may be, and this explains the need for prayer. What man cannot
do, God can do, and what is done through man, is also done by the command of God. 'Not
even the weight of one atom is concealed from the Lord,' says the Quran.
There is a story that illustrates the need for prayer. A king was once hunting in the
forest when he was overtaken by a storm and had to take refuge in the hut of a peasant.
The peasant set before the king a simple meal, which he partook of with gratitude. On
his departure, he asked the peasant if there was any service that he could render him.
The man, not knowing that it was a king who was speaking to him, replied that his needs
were simple and that he had all that he required. The king then drew off a ring from his
finger, and gave it to the peasant, saying, 'Take this ring, and if ever you require
anything, bring it to the city and show it to some official, and ask for me.'
Some months later bad times came and famine was rife in the land. The peasant was near
starvation when he thought of the ring. He set out for the city, and on arrival there,
showed it to an official, who immediately conducted him to the king's presence. When he
arrived he found the king on his knees in prayer. When the king had finished, he rose
from his knees and asked the peasant what he could do for him.
The man, who was surprised to find that his friend was the king, and still more
surprised to find him on his knees, asked him why he was in that posture. The king
replied that he was praying to Allah. The peasant asked, 'Who is Allah?' The king
replied, 'One even higher than myself, the King of kings, and I am asking Him for my own
needs and those of my people.
The peasant on hearing these words said, 'If you, the king, have to pray to somebody
above you, then why should I not ask Him direct, and not trouble you?' This story
teaches us that every seeming source is a limited one when compared with the real
Source, the God whose dominion is overall. Prayer has been described in its sublimity as
“an intimate friendship, a frequent conversation held alone with the Beloved” by St.
Teresa of Avila, a 16th-century Spanish mystic. Prayer is a significant and universal
aspect of religion, whether of primitive peoples or of modern mystics, that expresses
the broad range of religious feelings and attitudes that command human relations with
the sacred or holy.
During the 19th century, when various evolutionary theories were in vogue, prayer was
viewed as a stage in the development of religion from a magical to a “higher” stage.
Such theories, which saw in prayer no more than a development of magic or incantation,
failed to recognize the strictly personal characteristics of prayer.
Though some scholars, such as Costa Guimaraens, a French psychologist in the early 20th
century, have attempted to trace prayer back to a biological need, the attempt, on the
whole, has been unsuccessful. If sometimes—especially with exceptional subjects or those
with fragile nervous systems—the act of prayer is accompanied by corporal phenomena
(e.g., bleeding, shaking), such phenomena can accompany it without having provoked it
and without explaining its deep inspiration. To analyze normal prayer psychologically,
it is especially important to choose normal subjects. Affective sources such as fear,
joy, and sadness doubtless play a role in prayer. Such affectations are expressed in
prayers recorded in various religions and particularly in the book of Psalms in the
Bible, but they do not explain the recourse to prayer itself, which is explained by a
motivation deeper than effective elements. The cause and occasion of prayer must not be
confused.
Moral sentiments also are integrating elements, but they are accidental to the
development of prayer; virtue is not necessarily expressed in the act of praying,
because there exist atheists of incontestable morality. Morality is more a consequence
than a cause of prayer; and it follows more than it prepares for the development of the
religious person.
The psychological explanation has the advantage of probing the subconscious, of
describing the various forces that act within the psyche, but the emergence of the
subconscious in the act of prayer is not the essence of prayer, since it minimizes the
role of intelligence and the will. Among what are called the higher religions (e.g.,
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism), divine action, which is the object of
the human action of prayer, violates neither human consciousness nor human freedom.
Compassion — “to suffer together.” Among emotion
researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with
another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.
Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related.
While empathy refers more generally to our ability to take the perspective of and feel
the emotions of another person, compassion is when those feelings and thoughts include
the desire to help. Altruism, in turn, is the kind, selfless behavior often prompted by
feelings of compassion, though one can feel compassion without acting on it, and
altruism isn’t always motivated by compassion.
While cynics may dismiss compassion as touchy-feely or irrational, scientists have
started to map the biological basis of compassion, suggesting its deep evolutionary
purpose. This research has shown that when we feel compassion, our heart rate slows
down, we secrete the “bonding hormone” oxytocin, and regions of the brain linked to
empathy, caregiving, and feelings of pleasure light up, which often results in our
wanting to approach and care for other people.
The key difference between love and compassion is that love is a deep feeling of
affection and attachment towards someone whereas compassion is a sympathetic pity and
concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. Love and compassion are two
positive feelings that help to make the world a better place. We feel compassion for
people who are in unfortunate situations (poverty, sickness, etc.) and we feel the
desire to help them. Love, however, is an emotion we feel for someone close to us.
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
―Mother Teresa
“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his beauty or perceive a sense
of his worth until it has been reflected to him in the mirror of another loving, caring
human being.” ― John Joseph Powell
“The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.” ― John Green
Compassion is empathy and caring in action. Being open to others enables us to face
tough times with creativity and resilience. Empathy enables us to connect with people.
It helps us get things done, and to deal with power stress and the sacrifices inherent
in leadership.
Compassion gives us the ability to understand someone else's situation and the desire to
take action to improve their lives. ... For people who are dependent on others for help
and support, compassion is often the most important factor in allowing them to lead
fulfilling lives.
Compassion is the most powerful force in the world. It can defeat indifference,
intolerance, and injustice. It can replace judgment with acceptance because it makes no
distinction between age, ethnicity, gender, or disability. It freely embraces the rich
diversity of humanity by treating everyone as equals. It benefits both those who receive
it and those who share it. Every person on earth desires it, and every human being
deserves it.
A single act of compassion can change a person’s life forever.
Compassion is the bond that unites all of humanity.
We each have an endless supply of compassion, and it costs us nothing to share it.
We can create a meaningful difference in the world simply by performing one simple act
of compassion after another.
Compassion is the greatest gift one human being can share with another.
It is impossible to know how many wells can come from a single act of compassion.
Self-compassion is a process of self-kindness and accepting suffering as a quality of
being human.
Human has sacrificed its natural resources for
economic development from the dawn of human
civilization to the modern world. In the evolutionary period of agriculture, people used
the
practice of slash and burn cultivation or shifting cultivation, which is still prevalent
in the
tribal regions in the world. There was a culture of pray before seed sowing and harvest
as a
thanksgiving to God in ancient times. Starting with a tiny seed planted in the hopes,
dreams,
and faithful prayers it’s beginning to come to fruition with the belief “sow where you
want Him
to bless you”.
Through mindful farming, we reveal innovative ways in which we implement natural farming
practices to build a healthy generation for the future. In other words, we combine
mindfulness,
meditation, yoga, natural beliefs, organic farming into a healing system of natural
transformation.
Siir grew organically out of a passion for sharing mindfullness with
people and
seeing its ppower to empower them to fall in love with life again.
Control over body, Feel every breath.
Basic method of healing .
Control over stress,Improve will power.
Control on mind, More proactive.
Connection, Peace
Basic Morality, Empathy
'We are what we eat'- Hippocrates
Mindful living starts with mindful eating. Mindful eating is developing an awareness of what
we eat, how we eat, where our food comes from, and what it does to us, and our entire
eco-system. Our food is directly connected to our mental and physical health.
Let's go beyond in quest of
Siir means the ‘secret of the heart that connects us to the divine’. A secret that takes one through an intense and rich journey of experiences unfolding through time. Siir is a platform that grew out of the passion to share the fundamentals of a mindful lifestyle to nurture and blossom the inborn potential in every being. In a hectic pace of life, allow us to weave joy and beauty into your life.
Starting the morning with meditation is a great way to start the day on the right foot. We reserve 35 minutes in the morning for our meditation. We would just breathe and keep counting our breaths. Meanwhile, we keep listening to mindful music for better effect. We believe that it includes positive affirmations to help energize and motivate us to face any challenges ahead in a day and surely reflects on our success.
Human has sacrificed its natural resources for economic development from the dawn of human civilization to the modern world. In the evolutionary period of agriculture, people used the practice of slash and burn cultivation or shifting cultivation, which is still prevalent in the tribal regions in the world.