One God Notes Archives
2016
One God Note #693. 2016/01/03.
Meet your own self. Be with your own self, listen to it, obey
it, cherish it, keep it in mind ceaselessly. You need no other guide. As long
as your urge for truth affects your daily life, all is well with you. Live your
life without hurting anybody. Harmlessness is a most powerful form of Yoga and
will take you speedily to your goal. This is what I call nisarga yoga, the Natural Yoga. It is the art of living in peace and harmony,
in friendliness and love. The fruit of it is happiness, uncaused and endless.
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981). I am That, P.173. Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj on 3 January 2016.
More on Nisargadatta Maharaj can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
One God Note #694. 2016/01/09.
Be a master everywhere and wherever you stand
is your true place.
Linji Yixuan (died 866 CE).
Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Linji_Yixuan on 10 January 2016.
More on Linji Yixuan can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linji_Yixuan
One God Note #695. 2016/01/17.
Right meditation (...) refers to stilling the
mind, so that it's less inclined to operate restlessly and, in doing so,
generate suffering. It's a settling process that traditionally is broken into
four successive stages: the letting go of desires; the attaining of peaceful,
inner calm (also called "one-pointedness" of mind); the refining of
this still cognitive frame of mind into one of pure awareness and well-being;
and finally, the achieving of a state of simple wakefulness and equanimity.
Jack Maguire. (2001). Essential Buddhism.
P.94-5.
More on meditation can
be found at: http://www.onegodsite.net/meditation.html
One God Note #696. 2016/01/24.
We could of course be saved from much suffering
if God interfered in human life and stopped us from falling into error or from
acting perversely and perpetrating cruelty. But the God of the Universe allows
freedom of development to his children. Having placed eternity in our hearts
and given us the urge to self-realization, having planted the seed of divinity
in our souls so that they have kinship with him, in whose image we were
created, God leaves to the individual power over his own life.
Lily Montagu (1873-1963, England), quoted in:
Michael Shire, The Jewish Prophet, P.104.
More on Lily Montagu can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Montagu
More on the meaning of suffering can be found
at: http://www.onegodsite.net/suffering.html
One God Note #697. 2016/01/31.
Treat the earth well (…). We do not inherit the
Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it
from our Children.
Aboriginal saying, retrieved from: http://www.indigenouspeople.net/ipl_final.html on 31 January 2016.
More on Aboriginal Peoples of Canada can be
found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_peoples_in_Canada
One God Note #698. 2016/02/07.
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and
the animals, despise riches,
give alms to
everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and
labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not
concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the
mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every
year of your life, reexamine all you have been told at school
or church or in any book, dismiss
whatever insults your own soul,
and your very flesh shall be a great poem and
have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its
lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.
Walt Whitman in Preface to Leaves of Grass, quoted in: Timothy V. Rasinski,
Lorraine Griffith Fluency Through Practice & Performance,
Shell Education, 01-Jul-2010, p. 137. Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Indulgence on 7 February 2016.
More on Walt Whitman can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman
One God Note #699. 2016/02/15.
Experience is valuable only when it has brought suffering and
when the suffering has left its mark upon both body and mind. Sleepless nights
and conflicts with reality make statesmen realists; how could these experiences
be usefully handed on to young idealists who expect to transform the universe
without effort? The counsels of Polonius are platitudes,
but the moment we start giving advice we are all like Polonius. For us those
platitudes are packed with meaning, memories, and visions. For our children, they
are abstract and boring. We should like to make a wise woman of a girl of
twenty; it is physiologically impossible. "The counsels of old age,"
said Vauvenargues, "are like a winter's sun which gives
light but no warmth."
Andre Maurois (1885-1967). The
Art of Family Life. Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Maurois#The_Art_of_Family_Life on 15 February 2016.
More on Andre Maurois can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Maurois
One God Note #700. 2016/02/21.
If the learned and
worldly-wise men of this age were to allow mankind to inhale the fragrance of
fellowship and love, every understanding heart would apprehend the meaning of
true liberty, and discover the secret of undisturbed peace and absolute
composure.
Baha’u’llah (1817-1892). Lawh-i-Maqsúd (Tablet
of Maqsúd) Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h on 21 February 2016.
More on Baha’u’llah can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h
One God Note #701. 2016/02/28.
When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will
understand that you are children of the living father. But if you do not know
yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you are poverty.
The Gospel of Thomas, 3.
More on The Gospel of Thomas can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas
One God Note #702. 2016/03/06.
You must be diligent/persevering/hard working. Lethargy and
laziness are bad. An Idle man is like a corpse; only those who work hard are
truly alive. To engage in work is the duty of everyone, whether rich or poor,
high or low, old or young, man or woman. You should not hesitate to do the
lowest kind of service, if it is needed. If a man of high position is prepared
to perform any service - even the lowest service-he sets an example for others.
By working hard, a man can achieve peace within himself and in the world around
him. If everyone works diligently and
with love, there will be peace throughout the world. (…)
Awake! Arise! Everybody must make a firm resolve. Men and women
from all over the world must take part. In other Yugas (times), only men took
part in revolutions and wars but now women are coming forward, so it is
necessary for them, too, to take part in this Revolution. Everybody must make
contacts on all sides of the world and unite together.
Haidakhan Babaji. The Teachings of Babaji. (29 June 1982, 22 March
1983.)
More on Haidakhan Babaji can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidakhan_Babaji
One God Note #703. 2016/03/13.
In (…) Buddhism, a bodhisattva repeatedly chooses to be reborn
rather than to enter nirvana. It's an act of compassion that he or she
continues until all sentient beings are saved.
Jack Maguire. (2001). Essential Buddhism. P.103.
More on the concept of “bodhisattva” can be
found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva
One God Note #704. 2016/03/20.
Some of you may know
that I am neither Christian nor Jewish nor Buddhist,
nor a conventionally religious person of any sort. I am a humanist,
which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any
expectation of rewards or punishments after I'm dead. My German-American ancestors, the
earliest of whom settled in our Middle West about the time of our Civil War,
called themselves "Freethinkers," which is the same sort of thing. My
great grandfather Clemens Vonnegut wrote, for example, "If what Jesus said was good,
what can it matter whether he was God or not?" I myself
have written, "If it weren't for
the message of mercy and pity in Jesus' Sermon on
the Mount, I wouldn't want to be a human being. I would just as soon be a rattlesnake."
Kurt
Vonnegut, in: God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999). Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Humanism on 20 March 2016.
More on Kurt Vonnegut can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut
One God Note #705. 2016/03/27.
Jesus
said, "The heavens and the earth will roll up in your presence, and whoever
is living from the living one will not see death."
Gospel
of Thomas, 111. Retrieved from: http://gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html on 27 March 2016.
More on the Gospel of Thomas can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas
One God Note #706. 2016/04/03.
When
a foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You must
regard the foreigner who lives with you as the native-born among you. You are
to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; I am
Yahweh your God.
Leviticus 19:33-34 Holman Christian Standard Bible. Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Refugee on 3 April 2016.
More on refugees can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee
One God Note #707. 2016/04/10.
Enthusiasm has great strength. There is no greater strength than
enthusiasm. There is nothing which is not attainable in this world for the
enthusiastic.
Ramayana, Book 4, Chapter 1, shloka 121. Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ramayana on 10 April 2016.
More on Ramayana can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana
More on Lord Rama can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama
One God Note #708. 2016/04/17.
It behoveth the
sovereigns of the world, may God assist them, or the ministers of the earth to
take counsel together and to adopt one of the existing languages or a new one
to be taught to children in schools throughout the world, and likewise one
script. Thus, the whole earth will come to be regarded as one country.
Baha’u’llah. Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h on 17 April 2016.
More on Baha’u’llah can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h
One God Note #709. 2016/04/24.
Atma chhe te nitya chhe,
chhe karta neejkarma Chhe bhokta vali moksha chhe, Moksha upay sudharma.
“Soul exists, it is eternal, it is doer of its karma, it is enjoyer
and sufferer of its karma, liberation exists and means to liberation exists;
all these constitute true religion.”
Shrimad Rajchandra (1867-1901). Atmasiddhi, 4.43 Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atma_Siddhi on 24 April 2016.
More on Shrimad Rajchandra
can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrimad_Rajchandra
More on Atmasiddhi can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atma_Siddhi
One God Note #710. 2016/05/01.
Surely you can change your world if you work at
it. (…) a world of which you are the only source and ground is fully within
your power to change. What is created can always be dissolved and re-created.
All will happen as you want it, provided you really want it. (…) All is due to
your having forgotten your own being. Having given reality to the picture on
the screen, you love its people and suffer for them and seek to save them. It
is just not so. You must begin with yourself. (…) You are the all-pervading,
eternal and infinitely creative awareness – consciousness. All else is local
and temporary. Don’t forget who you are. In the meantime
work to your heart’s content. Work and knowledge should go hand in hand.
Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981). I Am That. P.42-3.
More on Nisargadatta Maharaj can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
One God Note #711. 2016/05/08.
If this invisible germ of life in the grain of
wheat can thus pass unimpaired through three thousand resurrections, I shall
not doubt that my soul has power to clothe itself with a body suited to its new
existence when this earthly frame has crumbled into dust.
Speeches of William Jennings Bryan, vol. 2, p.
284 (1909). Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Spirit on 8 May 2016.
More on William Jennings Bryan can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jennings_Bryan
One God Note #712. 2016/05/15.
Health is the greatest gift, contentment is
the greatest wealth, a trusted friend is the best relative, Nibbana is the
greatest bliss.
Gautama Buddha, Dhammapada, (verse 202), translator: Narada Maha Thera. Retrieved
from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Family on 15 May 2016.
More on Gautama Buddha can
be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha
One God Note #713. 2016/05/22.
(Queen Elizabeth II) “is like a mother.
Nations like England need a mother.”
Lech Walesa, widely recognized as instrumental in overthrowing
communism in Poland and the Eastern Block, about Queen Elizabeth II during the
state visit in 1991. Retrieved from: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-05-12/features/9102120150_1_lech-walesa-poland-queen-elizabeth-ii on 22 May 2016.
More on Lech Walesa can
be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Wa%C5%82%C4%99sa
More on Queen Elizabeth II can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II
More on Victoria Day can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Day
One God Note #714. 2016/05/29.
Never before has man had such capacity to control
his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease,
to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this
the best generation of mankind in the history of the world—or to make it the
last.
John F. Kennedy, address before the General Assembly of the
United Nations, New York City, September 20, 1963. The Public Papers of
the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963, p. 696.
Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Environment on 29 May 2016.
More on John F. Kennedy can
be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy
More on World Environment Day can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Environment_Day
One God Note #715. 2016/06/05.
Ramadan is a time of spiritual reflection, improvement and
increased devotion and worship. Muslims are expected to put more effort into
following the teachings of Islam. The fast (sawm) begins at dawn and ends at
sunset. In addition to abstaining from eating and drinking, Muslims also
increase restraint, such as abstaining from sexual relations and generally
sinful speech and behavior. The act of fasting is said to redirect the heart
away from worldly activities, its purpose being to cleanse the soul by freeing
it from harmful impurities. Ramadan also teaches Muslims how to better practice
self-discipline, self-control, sacrifice, and empathy
for those who are less fortunate; thus encouraging
actions of generosity and compulsory charity (zakat).
Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan on 5 June 2016.
One God Note #716. 2016/06/12.
The brute facts: The number of American
families without fathers has grown from 10.3 percent in 1970 to 24.6 percent in
2013; that percentage has more or less been stable over the past few years, at
about a quarter of all families, with 17.5 million children currently fatherless
in the United States. At the same time, those who are fathers, those who stay
with their children, have taken on the role with an unprecedented intensity.
American fatherlessness is a national disaster and, according to the latest
research into its effects, more of a disaster than anybody could have imagined. (…)
Fatherlessness significantly affects suicide,
incarceration risk, and mental health. The new fatherhood is not merely a
lifestyle question. Fathers spending time with their children results in a
better, healthier, more educated, more stable, less criminal world. Exposure to
fathers is a public good.
Retrieved from: http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/news/a28987/manifesto-of-the-new-fatherhood-0614/ on 12 June 2016.
More on Father’s Day can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father%27s_Day
One God Note #717. 2016/06/19.
Comme le dit un vieil adage:
Rien n'est si beau que son pays;
Et de le chanter, c'est l'usage;
Le mien je chante à mes amis
L'étranger voit avec un
oeil d'envie
Du Saint-Laurent le majestueux cours;
À son aspect le Canadien s'écrie:
Ô Canada! mon pays! mes amours!
As the old proverb says:
Nothing is more beautiful than one's country;
And to sing it is the tradition;
And mine I sing to my friends
The stranger looks with an envious eye
Of the St. Lawrence the majestic course;
At its aspect the Canadian sings:
O Canada! my country! my love!
Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%94_Canada!_mon_pays,_mes_amours on 19 June 2016.
More on St. Jean Baptiste Day can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Jean-Baptiste_Day
One God Note #718. 2016/08/07.
Sports have the power to change the world. It
has the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else
does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope,
where there was once only despair. It is more powerful than governments in
breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of
discrimination. Sports is the game of lovers.
Nelson
Mandela, Laureus World Sports Awards (2000). Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sports on 7 August 2016.
More on Nelson Mandela can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela
One God Note #719. 2016/08/21.
And
this shadowed earthly love
In the twilight of the grove,
Dance and song and soft caresses,
Meeting looks and tangled tresses,
Jayadev the same hath writ,
That ye might have gain of it,
Sagely its deep sense conceiving
And its inner light believing;
How that Love -- the mighty Master,
Lord of all the stars that cluster
In the sky, swiftest and slowest,
Lord of highest, Lord of lowest -
Manifests Himself to mortals,
Winning them towards the portals
Of his secret house, the gates
Of that bright paradise which waits
The wise in love. Ah, human creatures!
Even your fantasies are teachers.
Jayadeva,
translated by Edwin Arnold in:The Gita Govinda, Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Krishna_(Hindu_deity) on 21 August 2016.
More on Jayadeva can
be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayadeva
One God Note #720. 2016/08/28.
Kevala jnana is believed to be an intrinsic quality of all souls. This
quality is masked by karmic particles that surround the soul. Every soul has the
potential to obtain omniscience by shedding off these karmic particles. Jain
scriptures speak of twelve stages through which the soul achieves this goal. A
soul who has attained kevala jnana is called a kevalin. According to the Jains, only kevalins can comprehend objects in all aspects and
manifestations; others are only capable of partial knowledge.
Retrieved
from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevala_Jnana on 28 August 2016.
More on Jain ideals can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevala_Jnana
One God Note #721. 2016/09/11.
Do what thy manhood bids
thee do,
from none but self expect applause,
he noblest lives and
noblest dies who
makes and keeps his self made laws.
Sir Richard Francis
Burton. Retrieved from Fossil Mountain (Banff National
Park, Canada) on 13 August 2016.
More on Sir Richard Francis Burton can be found
at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton
One God Note #722. 2016/09/18.
To me there is no
season so lovely as the autumn. There is a gayety about the spring with which I
have no sympathy: its perpetual revival of leaf and bloom is too great a
contrast to the inner world, where so many feelings lie barren, and so many
hopes withered. There is an activity about it, from which the wearied spirits
shrink; and a joyousness, which but makes you turn more sadly upon yourself;
but about autumn there is a tender melancholy inexpressibly soothing; decay is
around, but such is in your own heart. There is a languor in the air which
encourages your own, and the poetry of memory is in every drooping flower and
falling leaf. The very magnificence of its Assyrian array is touched with the
light of imagination: even while you watch it, it passes away as your brightest
hopes have done before.
Letitia
Elizabeth Landon, Ethel Churchill (or The Two Brides) (1837), Vol. I, Chapter 11
More on Letitia Elizabeth Landon can be found
at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letitia_Elizabeth_Landon
One God Note #723. 2016/09/25.
There are three ways of being of the Mother of
which you can become aware when you enter into touch of oneness with the
Conscious Force that upholds us and the universe. Transcendent, the original
supreme Shakti, she stands above the worlds and links the creation to the ever
unmanifest mystery of the Supreme. Universal, the cosmic Mahashakti,
she creates all these beings and contains and enters, supports and conducts all
these million processes and forces. Individual, she embodies the power of these
two vaster ways of her existence, makes them living and near to us, and
mediates between the human personality and the divine Nature.
Sri Aurobindo, quoted in: Harvey, Andrew (Ed).
(2001). Teachings of the Hindu Mystics, P.121.
More on Sri Aurobindo can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo
More on Navaratri can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navratri
More on Mehragan can
be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehregan
One God Note #724. 2016/10/02.
"Seek HaShem
when He is to be found - these are the days between Rosh HaShanah
and Yom HaKippurim." (…) “Every person should
view himself all year as if he were half innocent and half guilty. And that is
the way he should look at the world as well, as if it were half innocent and
half guilty... as it says "The Righteous Person is the Foundation of the
World" - because his being righteous tipped the world for good, and saved
it."
Maimonides (1135-1208), retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Days_of_Repentance on 2 October 2016.
More on Maimonides can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides
One God Note #725. 2016/10/09.
I am grateful for what I am and have. My
thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with
nothing definite - only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am
ready to try this for the next ten thousand years, and exhaust it. How sweet to
think of! My extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that
there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O
how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can
drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.
Henry David Thoreau in: Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo
Emerson Letters to Various Persons, Ticknor and Fields, 1865, p. 145
More on Henry David Thoreau can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau
One God Note #726. 2016/10/16.
Fasting possesses great power. If practiced
with the right intention, it makes one a friend of God.
Tertullian, Works by Tertullian, On Fasting.
More on Karva Chauth
can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karva_Chauth
More on Tertulian can
be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertullian
One God Note #727. 2016/10/23.
He made ten lights spring forth from Him, and
which shed everywhere the light of a brilliant day. The Ancient One, the most
Hidden of the hidden, is a high beacon, and we know Him only by His lights,
which illuminate our eyes so abundantly. His Holy Name is no other thing than
these lights.
Zohar. Quoted after: Miriam Bokser
Caravella, The Holy Name. P.31.
More on Zohar can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zohar
More on Diwali can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali
One God Note #728. 2016/10/30.
I will first make an offering and send a voice
to the Spirit of the World, that it may help me to be true. I fill this sacred
pipe with the bark of the red willow; but before we smoke it, you must see how
it is made and what it means. These four ribbons hanging here on the stem are
the four quarters of the world. The black one is for the west where the thunder
beings live to send us rain; the white is for the north, whence comes the great
white cleansing wind; the red one for the east, whence springs the light and
where morning star lives to give men wisdom; the yellow for the south, whence
come summers and the power to grow.
But these four spirits are only one Spirit after
all, and this eagle feather here is for that One, which is like a father, and
also it is for the thoughts of men should rise high as eagles do. Is not the
sky a father and earth the mother, and are not all living things with feet or
wings or roots their children? And this hide upon the mouthpiece here, which
should be bison hide, is for the earth, from whence we came and at whose breast
we suck as babies all our lives, along the animals and birds and trees and
grasses. And because it means all this, and more than any man can understand,
the pipe is holy. (…)
Now I light the pipe, and after I have offered
it to the powers that are one Power, and send forth a voice to them, we shall
smoke together. Offering the mouthpiece first of all to the One above – so – I
send a voice: (…)
Hear me, four quarters of the world – a relative
I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is!
(…)
This is my prayer; hear me! The voice I have
sent is weak, yet with earnestness I have sent it. Hear me!
It is finished. Hetchetu
aloh!
Now, my friend, let us smoke together so that
there may be only good between us.
Black Elk, a warrior and medicine man of the
Oglala Sioux. [In]: Neihardt JG. (1972) Black Elk
Speaks. Pocket Books, Richmond Hill, ON.
More on Black Elk can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Elk
More on NNAHM can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_Indian_Heritage_Month
One God Note #729. 2016/11/06.
A demagogue (…) is a leader in
a democracy who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among
the common people, whipping up the passions of the crowd and
shutting down reasoned deliberation. Demagogues have usually
advocated immediate, violent action to address a national crisis while accusing
moderate and thoughtful opponents of weakness or disloyalty. Demagogues violate
established rules of political conduct; most who were elected to high office
changed their democracy into some form of dictatorship.
Demagogues
have appeared in democracies since ancient Athens. They exploit a
fundamental weakness in democracy: because ultimate power is held by the
people, nothing stops the people from giving that power to someone who appeals
to the lowest common denominator of a large segment of the population.
Below are described a number of recurring
techniques that are reported among demagogues from many different times and
places.
Scapegoating:
(…)
blaming the in-group's troubles on an out-group, usually of a
different ethnicity, religion, or social class.
Fearmongering:
(…) evoking
fear in their audiences, to stir them to action and prevent deliberation.
Lying:
(…)
choosing words for their effect on their audience's emotions, usually without
regard for factual truth or the real severity of the danger.
Emotional oratory and personal magnetism:
(…)
moving audiences to great emotional depths and heights during a speech.
Accusing opponents of weakness and disloyalty:
(…)
advocating brutality in order to demonstrate strength, and arguing that
compassion was a sign of weakness that would only be exploited by enemies.
Violence and physical intimidation:
(…)
encouraging supporters to violently intimidate opponents, both to solidify
loyalty among their supporters and to discourage or physically prevent people
from speaking out or voting against them.
Personal insults and ridicule:
(…)
ridiculing or insulting opponents as a simple way to shut down reasoned
deliberation of competing ideas, especially with an unsophisticated audience.
Folksy posturing:
(…)
appearing to be down-to-Earth, ordinary citizens just like the people whose
votes they sought.
Gross oversimplification:
(…)
treating a complex problem, which requires patient reasoning and analysis to
sort out, as if it results from one simple cause or can be
solved by one simple cure.
Attacking the news media:
(…)
calling for violence against newspapers who oppose them, claiming that the
press is secretly in the service of moneyed interests or foreign powers, or
claiming that leading newspapers are simply personally out to get them.
Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogue on 6 November 2016.
More on “demagogue” can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogue
More on “narcissistic leadership” can be found
at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_leadership
One God Note #730. 2016/11/13.
It is said that during his pilgrimage to the
holy shrine in Mecca, Guru Nanak, who had undergone an arduous journey, fell
asleep no sooner than he arrived at his destination. Heedless, he was fast
asleep with his feet towards the sacred Kaaba when the security guard while
taking his round during the night was scandalised and
shouted: “Who is it sleeping with his feet towards the House of God?” Guru
Nanak, who was greatly exhausted and was still in his slumber, replied:
“Brother, I am much too tired, pray turn my feet in the direction where God is
not.” Hearing this the security guard who had already picked Guru Nanak’s feet
to correct them found himself in a whirl—where God is not! Where God is not!!
Where God is not!!! He was awakened as if. He had lifted Guru Nanak’s legs to
turn them around; instead his head fell on his feet and it is said he washed them
with his tears.
Retrieved from: https://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article172.html on 13 November 2016.
More on Guru Nanak can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Nanak
One God Note #731. 2016/11/20.
Giving thanks for abundance
is sweeter than the abundance itself:
Should one who is absorbed with the Generous One
be distracted by the gift?
Thankfulness is the soul of beneficence;
abundance is but the husk,
for thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.
Abundance yields heedlessness;
thankfulness brings alertness:
hunt for bounty with the net of gratitude.
Rumi, Mathnawi III,
2895-2897, quoted in: Kabir Helminski, editor:
"The Rumi Collection," Shambhala, Boston & London, 2000, P. 59
More on Rumi can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi
One God Note #732. 2016/11/27.
We embitter the heart with the poison of evil
thoughts when we are led by forgetfulness to long neglect of inner attention
and the Jesus Prayer. But we sweeten it with the sense of blessed delight when
in intense desire for God we practise this attention
and prayer resolutely, keenly and diligently in the mind's workshop. Then we
are eager to pursue stillness of heart simply for the sweetness and delight it
produces in the soul.
St. Hesyhios the
Priest, quoted in: The Philokalia, Vol. I., P.183.
More on St. Hesyhios
the Priest can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychius_of_Sinai
More on Philokalia can
be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philokalia
More quotations on the subject of longing for
God/Messiah: http://www.onegodsite.net/longingforgod.html
One God Note #733. 2016/12/04.
If you want to awaken all of humanity, then
awaken all of yourself. (...) truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that
of your own self-transformation.
Hua Hu Ching, quoted after: Novak Philip, The
World's Wisdom. P.170.
More on Hua Hu Ching can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huahujing
More quotation on the subject of “awakening:” http://www.onegodsite.net/awakenings.html
One God Note #734. 2016/12/11.
"If the mountain won't come to Muhammad,
then Muhammad must go to the mountain."
Retrieved from: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_the_mountain_won't_come_to_Muhammad on 11 Dec 2016.
More on International Mountain Day can be found
at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Day#International_Mountain_Day
More on Mawlid ab-Nabiy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mawlid
One God Note #735. 2016/12/18.
With all his giving, God is trying only to
prepare us for the gift that he himself is; and all his works -- all that he
ever did on earth or in heaven -- he did for the sake of this one more: to
perfect our happiness. Therefore, I say that we must learn to look through
every gift and every event to God and never be content with the thing itself.
There is no stopping place in this life -- no, nor was there ever one for any
man, no matter how far along his way he'd gone. This above all, then, be ready
at all times for the gifts of God and always for new ones.
Raymond Blakney (Trans.)(1941). "Meister Eckhart, a Modern Translation.”
NY: Harper & Row, p 32. Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by Gary Horn
ghorn@qwest.com
More on Meister Eckhart can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meister_Eckhart
One God Note #736. 2016/12/25.
(…) "Look, I am making
everything new!" (…)
Revelation 21:5.
More on the Book of Revelation can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Revelation