Bodhi's Blogs

For me, Jesus is here real and present already among us by virtue of his bodily resurrection and as i see him everyday among all the people i meet, especially in the eyes of a child, a smile that comes straight from the heart, an innocent gaze of wonder, and the least of my brethren. I am no longer surprised of news of Jesus coming again for the 3rd time because he is already here. There are now more than 200 false predictions of Jesus' coming again and in my country there are two instances where the whole congregation committed mass suicide when their predictions did not come true. They had so little faith to believe that Jesus is already here and now. I can mention one in the United States in Guyana where the whole congregation also committed mass suicide for the same reason. In South Korea, the congregation sued their pastor who was able to collect all their riches for the same reason. There are also contrived fears of a coming Armageddon when in fact if we look closely and truthfully at ourselves, we are the ones destroying the environment, creating wars, drowning in apathy and indifference at global poverty, not speaking against nuclear and biological arms production, and blaming them all on God saying that Armageddon is here. We are in fact creating our own Armageddon and scapegoating on God for all the evil things that we are doing. If we live right and do right then Christ lives in us. No amount of prediction would really matter because Christ is already here. There would be no fear, no hopelessness, no frantic fanaticism, but there would be only pure and selfless love and peace and courage growing in our hearts. Peace!:smile:

Sometimes i am just a solitary bird searching for myself in the skies...
Sometimes i am an ant wanting to have a place in this great vastness...
At times i find myself helplessly scavenging for truth among the lies
Yet i cannot help but be a lonely soul believing in humanity's greatness.

I care not for your temples and your creeds,
I care not for your words more than your deeds,
I anguish for religion's secret pride in owning heaven
While hunger,war, and suffering in all the world happen.

All i want is for you to look into my eyes and you will see
The poverty and longing for a people that is free
No class, no color, no race, no religion, no ideology
Can really destroy the inextricable bonds of our common humanity.

The curious thing about religion is that once an idea or a philosophy becomes a religion, the spirit becomes harder to grasp. Religion is the bodily manifestation of spirit but is not the spirit. That is why religion becomes a pitfall, it becomes a veil to the real truth, it becomes a blinder. Because of its strong social power over people, religion can now be used and abused. We must remember that religion is a path but not the goal. A religion is not The Single Absolute path for there are many paths leading to the goal as there are many religions leading to God. We cannot mistake the path for the goal otherwise we will get lost. We cannot shun other paths otherwise we will only have religious wars as human history attests. The path cannot define the goal for that would be too presumptuous for religion to define God in its own terms only, otherwise we would be making God into our own image. Religion is not God but is only a way to God. To turn religion into a God is the easiest way to disguised idolatry. To define God via a single religion is the nearest thing to blasphemy for how can human religion define God. How can we put the vast sea of divinity into a single human cup of ignorance?

Hindu philosophy has a different perspective on health that it is intimately linked with spirituality. It considers the body, heart, and mind as vehicles for the spirit. Thus one identifies not with the body, nor with one's emotions nor with one's thoughts. Yet at the same time it considers the body, emotions, and mind as important so that it these "vehicles" should be in tip top shape for the spirit to use them and perform the duties of the spirit. I consider this as a superior perspective in such that the body will be taken cared of not as vanity would have it but for higher purposes. Also it considers the body for what really is, that it is going to die. But before it does, it should have helped strengthen the spirit to a high level already. Second is that it considers emotions as integrated to health and to spirit and that emotions are erratic and can only be put into the higher service of the spirit. Third it considers the mind as having an effect on physical health, emotions, and spirit. As a vehicle, the mind should be honed and trained and sharpened not as an end in itself but again in order to serve the higher designs of the spirit. Thus one becomes an aware soul that fully develops mind, body, spirit and emotions so that these "vehicles" no longer become the master but become tools for higher spiritual development. On the other hand, dominant science would segregate body, mind, and emotions and treat them separately...:artist: