truth_seeker

its kinda more formal, prayer that is

Wake up around 6am, think about dreams, etc, go to class at 8:30, leave school at 3:45pm , surf the web, study,meditate, pray, sleep

Giving blood can save lives, so I would say its good

our languages are from dualistic experience, can we such grasp the nature of God? Mayne its like 2 sides of a coin, like energy and matter, wave and particle

In handreading there are certain lines, called marriage lines, so if you have those , most astrologers would read them this way. But I dont believe in such things, as we do have karma, we can change it.

There is shurely life everywhere, not only life as we know it, but lifeforms we cant imagine, not depending on the same elements as we do. Also life based on energy etc.

Bodhidharma (also known as Pu Tai Ta Mo in Sanskrit and Daruma Daishi in Japanese) was an Enlightened Buddhist Master who is credited with reviving Buddhism in China and founding martial arts. Bodhidharma began his life as a royal prince in Southern India in the Sardilli family in 482 A.D. In the midst of his education and training to continue in his father's footsteps as king, Bodhidharma encountered the Buddha's teachings. He immediately saw the truth in Lord Buddha's words and decided to give up his esteemed position and inheritance to study with the famous Buddhist teacher Prajnatara. Bodhidharma rapidly progressed in his Buddhist studies, and in time, Prajnatara sent Bodhidharma to China, where Buddhism had begun to die out, to introduce the Sarvastivada sect Buddhist teachings to the Chinese. Bodhidharma arrived in China after a brutal trek over Tibet's Himalayan Mountains surviving both the extreme elements and treacherous bandits. Upon arrival in China, the Emperor Wu Ti, a devout Buddhist himself, requested an audience with Bodhidharma. During their initial meeting, Wu Ti asked Bodhidharma what merit he had achieved for all of his good deeds. Bodhidharma informed him that he had accrued none whatsoever. Bodhidharma was subsequently unable to convince Wu Ti of the value of the teachings he had brought from India. Bodhidharma then set out for Loyang, crossed the Tse River on a leaf, and climbed Bear's Ear Mountain in the Sung Mountain range where the Shaolin Temple was located. He meditated there in a small cave for nine years. Bodhidharma, in true Mahayana spirit, was moved to pity when he saw the terrible physical condition of the monks of the Shaolin Temple. The monks had practiced long-term meditation retreats, which made them spiritually strong but physically weak. He also noted that this meditation method caused sleepiness among the monks. Likening them to the young Shakyamuni, who almost died from practicing asceticism, he informed the monks that he would teach their bodies and their minds the Buddha's dharma through a two-part program of meditation and physical training. Bodhidharma created an exercise program for the monks which involved physical techniques that were efficient, strengthened the body, and eventually, could be used practically in self-defense. When Bodhidharma instituted these practices, his primary concern was to make the monks physically strong enough to withstand both their isolated lifestyle and the deceptively demanding training that meditation requires. It turned out that the techniques served a dual purpose as a very efficient fighting system, which evolved into a marital arts style called Gung Fu. Martial arts training helped the monks to defend themselves against invading warlords and bandits. Bodhidharma taught that martial arts should be used for self-defense, and never to hurt or injure needlessly. In fact, it is one of the oldest Shaolin axioms that "one who engages in combat has already lost the battle." Bodhidharma, a member of the Indian Kshatriya warrior class and a master of staff fighting, developed a system of 18 dynamic tension exercises. These movements found their way into print in 550 A.D. as the Yi Gin Ching, or Changing Muscle/Tendon Classic. We know this system today as the Lohan (Priest-Scholar) 18 Hand Movements, the basis of Chinese Temple Boxing and the Shaolin Arts. Some historians dispute the date, but legend states that Bodhidharma settled in the Shaolin Temple of Songshan in Hunan Province in 526 A.D. We do know the first Shaolin Temple of Songshan was built in 377 A.D. for Pan Jaco, "The First Buddha", by the order of Emperor Wei on the Shao Shik Peak of Sonn Mountain in Teng Fon Hsien, Hunan Province. The Temple was for religious training and meditation only. Martial arts training did not begin until the arrival of Bodhidharma in 526 A.D. Bodhidharma died in 539 A.D. at the Shaolin Temple at age 57. Bodhidharma was an extraordinary being who remains an example and an inspiration to practitioners today. He is the source of many miraculous stories of ferocity and dedication to the Way. One such legend states that Bodhidharma became frustrated once while meditating because he had fallen asleep. He was so upset that he cut off his eyelids to prevent this interruption in meditation from ever happening again. Yet another legend states that Bodhidharma meditated for so long that his arms and legs eventually fell off. This is a reminder of the true dedication and devotion necessary in meditation practice. The Bodhidharma doll was developed as a symbol of this dedication. In Japan and other parts of the world, when someone has a task they wish to complete, they purchase a red Bodhidharma doll that comes without pupils painted on the eyes. At the outset of the task one pupil is colored in, and upon completion, the other pupil is painted. The dolls and the evolution of martial arts and meditation, are a continuous reminder of Bodhidharma's impact on Buddhism and martial arts

Christanity has no base for violence, islam does. Mohammad led wars, and so did the sahabas ( his companions) . Jesus did not. Nor did his apostles. Jesus did not stone the adulteress, mohammad did. Christianity was seriously abused, the priests used the ignorance of the common people to get money and land and kept them stupid, the bible was not available in the peoples languages , only in latin, also mass was in this language only.

As for me , I would not attend some women only camp and the price is a bit high for 4 nights US $260 before August 13 US $280 after August 13

This is from http://www.sarbloh.info/htmls/sikh_nirmala.html

The real problem is that muslims rarely openly admit, that some of their brethren do wrong, like I was told how the CIA did 9-11 or the berg video is a fake. But then you get also those who are actually in favor of such things. Islam got some serious proplems.

Found this really interesting:

there is a difference between people who can tell you about yourself and those who see the future. Time is relative , so its not impossible to notice events that currently take form, but that does not mean it has to happen 100%

For me, I would not work in a liquor shop or a tabacco shop, or a meat shop, but if those items are not the main source of income in the shop, like in a supermarket, and I only handle them packed, no problem

Revelations are like russian dolls, with many layers. But science is system of belief too, they make models and hope to describe reality. If the bible says earth is the center, well for us it is, dont we say the sun is rising, yet its the earth that turns. Also we as spiritual beings influence the universe, which is seen in quatum physics, the observer changes the outcome of an experiment. Conciosness is the center of the multiverse in a way.

Essay The Hindu devotees of Imam Hussain A case of cross-veneration by Yoginder Sikand One of the most important events in early Muslim history was the battle of Karbala fought in 680 CE in which Imam Hussain, grandson of the Prophet through his daughter Fat-ima and her husband Imam Ali, was slaughtered along with a small band of disciples in a bloody battle against Yazid, a tyrant who had usurped the Muslim caliphate. The slaughter of Ali is one of the pivotal events that led to a divide between the ‘mainstream’ Sunni and Shi’ite communities, with the latter ascrib-ing special importance to the family of Ali. This event occurred in the Islamic month of Muharram, and it is for this reason that this month is observed with great solemnity in many parts of the Muslim world. What is particularly striking about the observances of the month of Muharram in India is the prom-inent participation of Hindus in the rituals. This has been a feature of popular religion for centuries in large parts of India, and continues even today, albeit on a smaller scale. In towns and villages all over the country, Hindus join Muslims in lamenting the death of Hussain, by sponsoring or taking part in lamen-tation rituals and tazia processions. In Lucknow, seat of the Shia na-wabs of Awadh, prominent Hindu noblemen like Raja Tikait Rai and Raja Bilas Rai built Imambaras to house alams, standards represent-ing the Karbala event. The non-Muslim tribal Lambadi community in Andhra Pradesh have their own genre of Muharram lamentation songs in Telugu. Among certain Hindu castes in Rajasthan, the Karbala battle is recounted by staging plays in which the death of Imam Hussain is enacted, after which the women of the village come out in a procession, crying and cursing Yazid for his cruelty. This custom is known as pitna dalna. In large parts of north India, Hindus believe that if barren women slip under an alam moving in a procession they will be blessed with a child. Perhaps the most intriguing case of Hindu veneration of Imam Hus-sain is to be found among the small Hussaini Brahmin sect, located mostly in Punjab, also known as Dutts or Mohiyals. Unlike other Brahmin clans, the Hussaini Brah-mins have had a long martial trad-ition, which they trace back to the event of Karbala. They believe that an ancestor named Rahab traveled all the way from Punjab to Arabia and there developed close relations with Imam Hussain. In the battle of Karbala, Rahab fought in the army of the Imam against Yazid. His sons, too, joined him, and most of them were killed. The Imam, seeing Rahab’s love for him, bestowed upon him the title of sultan or king, and told him to go back to India. It is because of this close bond between their ancestor Rahab and Imam Hussain that the Hussaini Brah-mins got their name. After Rahab and those of his sons who survived the battle of Karbala reached India, they settled down in the western Punjab and gradually a community grew aro-und them. This sect, the Hussaini Brahmins, practised an intriguing blend of Islamic and Hindu prac-tices, because of which they were commonly known as ‘half Hindu, half Muslim’. A popular saying about the Hussainis has it thus: Wah Dutt Sultan, Hindu ka dharm Musalman ka iman, Adha Hindu adha Musalman (Oh! Dutt the king With the religion of the Hindu And the faith of the Muslim Half Hindu, half Muslim) Dutt = Hussaini Brahmin But there is also another version of how the Dutts of Punjab came to be known as Hussaini Brahmins. One of the wives of Imam Hussain, the Persian princess Shahr Banu, was the sister of Chandra Lekha or Mehr Banu, the wife of an Indian king called Chandragupta. When it became clear that Yazid was adamant on wiping out the Imam, the Imam’s son Ali ibn Hussain rushed off a letter to Chandragupta asking him for help against Yazid. When Chandragupta received the letter, he dispatched a large army to Iraq to assist the Imam. By the time they arrived, however, the Imam had been slain. In the town of Kufa, in present-day Iraq, they met with one Mukhtar Saqaffi, a disciple of the Imam, who arranged for them to stay in a special part of the town, which even today is known by the name of Dair-i-Hindiya or ‘the Indian quarter’. Some Dutt Brahmins, under the leadership of one Bhurya Dutt, got together with Mukhtar Saqaffi to avenge the death of the Imam. They stayed behind in Kufa, while the rest returned to India. Here they built up a community of their own, calling themselves Hussaini Brahmins, and although they did not convert to Islam they kept alive the memory of their links with Imam Hussain. The Hussaini Brahmins believe that Krishna had foretold the event of the Imam’s death at Karbala in the Gita. According to them, the Kalanki Purana, the last of eighteen Puranas, as well as the Atharva Veda, the fourth Veda, refer to Imam Hussain as the divine incarnation or avatar of the Kali Yug, the present age. They hold Imam Ali, Imam Hussain’s father, and son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet Muham-mad, in particular reverence, refer-ring to him with the honorific title of Om Murti. The Hussaini Brahmins, along with other Hindu devotees of the Muslim Imam, are today a rapidly vanishing community. The younger generation abandoning their an-cestral heritage, often now seen as embarrassingly deviant. No longer, it seems, can a comfortable limin-ality be sustained, and ambiguous identities seem crushed under the relentless pressure to conform to the logic of neatly demarcated ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ communities. And so, these and scores of other religious communities that once straddled the frontier between Hinduism and Islam seem destined for perdition, or else to folkloric curiosities that tell of a bygone age, when it was truly possible to be both Hindu as well as Muslim at the same time. http://www.himalmag.com/2002/may/profile.htm

lalleshvari I based my judgement not only on those lectures, which I heard long before you posted them here at http://shiasource.com/Lectures/Modarresi.a...leText=Lectures but on other articles of him as well. I was also not refering to any "imposed" dress, but equal opportunity in things like political leadership, from which he says , females are barred. I dont see dress as so important, its only superficial. How do you know it does not happen? Shurely there are many who become atheist, Christian, I know someone who became Hindu. It depends on the person of the seeker.

He´s sexist, and , if I remember right, against irfan.

Malunkyaputra (from The Dhammapada, by Eknath Easwaran, pg 39ff) The Buddha’s penetrating insight attracted many intellectuals, one of whom, Malunkyaputra, grew more and more frustrated as the Buddha failed to settle certain basic metaphysical questions. Finally he went to the Buddha in exasperation and confronted him with the following list: “Blessed One, there are theories which you have left unexplained and set aside unanswered: whether the world is eternal or not eternal; whether it is finite or infinite; whether the soul and the body are the same or different; whether a person who has attained nirvana exists after death or does not; or whether perhaps he both exists and does not exist, or neither exists nor does not. The fact that the Blessed One has not explained these matters neither pleases me nor suits me, I will give up spiritual disciplines and return to the life of a layman.†“Malunkyaputra,†the Buddha replied gently, “when you took to the spiritual life, did I ever promise you I would answer these questions?†Malunkyaputra was probably already sorry for his outburst, but it was too late. “No Blessed One, you never did.†“Why do you think that is?†“Blessed One, I haven’t the slightest idea!†“Suppose, Malunkyaputra, that a man has been wounded by a poisoned arrow, and his friends and family are about to call a doctor. ‘Wait!’ he says. ‘I will not let this arrow be removed until I have learned the caste of the man who shot me. I have to know how tall he is, what family he comes from, where they live, what kind of wood his bow is made from, what fletcher made his arrows. When I know these things, you can proceed to take the arrow out and give an antidote for the poison.’ What would you think of such a man?†“He would be a fool, Blessed One,†replied Malunkyaputra shamefacedly. “His questions have nothing to do with getting the arrow out, and he would die before they were answered.†“Similarly, Malunkyaputra, I do not teach whether the world is eternal or not eternal; whether it is finite or infinite, whether the soul and the body are the same or different, whether a person who has attained nirvana exists after death or does not, or whether perhaps he both exists and does not exist, or neither exists nor does not. I teach how to remove the arrow: the truth of suffering, it’s origin, it’s end, and the noble eightfold path.â€

Where did I say anything about sects in my post? And wahabi are not accepted by all sunni. And shurely Islam does not advocate equal opportunity. Or equal participation in religion.

Imam Ali to his friend: O Kumayl ! Those who amass wealth, though alive, are dead to realities of life, and those who achieve know- ledge, will remain alive through their knowledge and wisdom even after their death, though their faces may disappear from the community of living beings, yet their ideas, the knowledge which they had left behind and their memory, will remain in the minds of people". ... .....But this earth will never be without those persons who will prove the universality of truth as disclosed by Allah, they may be well-known persons, openly and fearlessly declaring the things revealed to them or they may, under fear of harm, injury or deaths hide themselves from the public gaze and may carry on their mission privately so that the reasons proving the reality of truth as preached by religion and as demonstrated by His Prophet may not totally disappear. How many are they and where could they be found? I swear by Allah that they are very few in number but their worth and their ranks before Allah are very high. Through them Allah preserves His Guidance so that they, while departing, may hand over these truths to persons like themselves. The knowledge which they have acquired has made them see the realities and visualize the truth and has instilled into them the spirit of faith and trust. The duties which were decreed as hard and unbearable by them. They feel happy in the company and association of things which frighten the ignorant and uneducated. They live in this world like everybody else but their souls soar to the heights of Divine Eminence. They are media of Allah on this earth and they invite people towards Him. How I love to meet them O Kumayl ! I have told you all that I have to say, you can go back to your place whenever you like".

Here is the artist, Mahmoud Farshchian, whose pics are in the Imam Ali thread. http://www.farshchian.org/images/picpage.htm

Jesus through Sikh eyes by Nikky Singh My earliest memories are etched with the physical beauty of Jesus Christ. His blond hair and blue eyes were so different from all the people that I knew in India. I attended a convent school where we recited "Our Father" during the morning assembly, and we took courses on Moral Science. Most of all I loved going into the Convent where we sang psalms and collected beautiful images of Christ, and of Our Lady of Fatima, after whom my school was named. At home of course it was a different matter. It was a Sikh household in which the centre of life was the Guru Granth. The holy book is regarded as the divine revelation and utmost respect is paid to it. As children we'd help our parents dress the Book in silks and brocades. It was put on a pedestal while we sat on the floor in front. We recited its passionate poetry patterned on the raga system of ancient India. At home we heard bout the life of the Ten Sikh Gurus who did not look like Jesus Christ. And yet life was not schizophrenic, for the two worlds with their different languages, different histories, different images and different styles of worship co-existed colourfully. Together they became an essential part of my psyche. The "question" of identity never came up: just as I knew my name, I knew I was a Sikh. But that did not stop me from participating excitedly in the religious space created by my Catholic teachers: it was mysterious and enchanting in its own way. I can still feel the fervour with which I would sing "The Lord is my shepherd nothing shall I fear" - in spite of my desperately poor musical talents! But when I came to finish High school in America, I saw Christ pervading the fabric of western society and my own tradition extremely distant. As the only "brown" student in an all "white" girls' school, I became more conscious about my identity. I recall reading Walt Whitman's "Passage to India," and beginning my journey home. This American poet, who viewed himself in the role of Christ, impelled me to explore my Sikh heritage. Ironically then, the more I grew up in a Christian environment, the more consciously Sikh I became with the result that Jesus of my childhood imagination got blurry and lost. Growing up in postcolonial Punjab, I did not think very deeply about the Sikh Gurus, and now that I am living in this part of the world, I must admit that I didn't think very seriously about Christ. So to look at Christ from a Sikh perspective today is indeed an interesting and challenging assignment. As I try to do so the figure of Jesus from the multidimensional world of my childhood resurfaces - giving me much joy and enrichment. Who is Jesus Christ? I see him as a wonderful parallel with the person of Nanak, the first Sikh Guru. There is no direct connection between Christ and the Sikh Gurus. They do not intersect each other. The two form separate and distinct temporal and spatial points in our history, but when we look closely at them, they illuminate each other. By looking at them as parallel phenomena, we not only learn more about the founders of Christianity and Sikhism, but we also get a better sense of ourselves, of our neighbours, and of the world we live in. Both Christ and Nanak are remembered in almost identical ways. Churches resound with hymns like "Christ is the light of the world," and Sikh Gurdwaras with "satgur nanak pragatia miti dhundh jag chanan hoia -- as Nanak appeared, mist and darkness disappeared into light." The powerful and substanceless light used across cultures and across centuries reveals the common patterns of our human imagination. Jesus and Nanak ushered a way of life that was illuminating and liberating. It is interesting that both claimed they had no control over their speech. Spontaneously, effortlessly, they revealed what they were endowed with. According to the gospel of John: "I do not speak of my own accord... what the Father has told me is what I speak" And Guru Nanak, "haun bol na janda mai kahia sabhu hukmao jio - I don't know how to speak, I utter what you command me." In each case, then, the Divine is the Voice. Their message too bears a striking resemblance. Against ceremonial rituals and orthodox formalities, both Jesus and Nanak directed their followers to the human condition. For them cleanliness did not reside in external codes and behavior; it was an inner attitude towards life and living. Just as Christ denounced the superiority of all those who walked about in long robes, Nanak denounced those who wore loincloths and smeared themselves with ashes. Most importantly, both Jesus and Nanak showed us the path of love. In the Gospels Jesus says, "The greatest commandment of all is this - love your God with all your soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself." In the same vein, the Sikh Gurus applauded love as the supreme virtue, "sunia mania, manu kita bhau." Bhau or love is passionate and takes lovers to those depths of richness and fullness where there is freedom from all kinds of prejudices and limitations. But we need to put their words in practice. Love for the Divine would open and expand us towards our families and neighbours; it would enable us to cast aside racism, sexism, and classism so prevalent in our contemporary society. We need to remember their message of love for all our "neighbours" - high and low, black and white, men and women too. In fact Christ revealed himself first to Mary. Throughout his ministry, he healed and helped women, and reminds us of "mother's joy" that a human being has been born into the world. The Mother is an important figure in Sikh scripture, for the transcendent One is both father and mother, and Guru Nanak repeatedly points to the womb in which we are first lodged. Mother's body and joy, and the earth, our common matrix to which we all equally belong, are celebrated throughout the sacred scripture of the Sikhs. But of course, memory is selective and the patriarchs with their access to the words of Christ and Nanak have remembered, interpreted, and kept them for themselves. It is important that each of us begins to see the Christian and Sikh scriptures from our own eyes and experience their rich legacy. So, who is Jesus Christ for me, a Sikh? In my mind he is an enlightener, and though I may not see him as one of the Ten Sikh Gurus, he is a distinct and vital parallel who continues to play a very significant role in my life as a Sikh. In a way, I trace my happiness and at-homeness in contemporary America because he opened me up to another mode of spirituality at a very young age. He did not take anything away from my being a Sikh. In fact, Jesus Christ concretised the message of Guru Nanak: "Countless are the ways of meditation, and countless are the avenues of love." (Japji, 17). Jesus has been a wonderful mirror who in his unique form and vocabulary promoted my self-understanding. The image of Christ imbedded in my childhood has made the verses of the Gurus alive for me. I can see and feel what Guru Nanak meant: "Accept all humans as your equals, and let them be your only sect" (Japji 28), or Guru Gobind Singh: " manas ki jat sabhe eke paihcanbo - recognise the single caste of humanity." However, it also complicates the situation. Coming from the pluralist tradition of Sikhism where the holy book contains not only the verses of the Sikh Gurus but also of Hindu and Muslim saints, and where the Ultimate is received in a variety of perceptions and relationships, I do have problems with the exclusivism of Jesus. The Sikh Gurus reiterate that Allah and Ram are the same, so is the Muslim Mosque and the Hindu Temple. Emerging historically and geographically between the eastern tradition of Hinduism and the western faith of Islam, Sikhism whole-heartedly accepts both eastern and western perceptions of the Divine, and their various modes of worship. But when Christ alone is declared the Omega Point, or Baptism the exclusive way to the Kingdom of God, then where do I stand? As a Sikh I have no place. Personally, I find it hard to understand how the God of Genesis becomes the biological father of Christ in the Gospels. According to Genesis, God creates the earth, animals, Adam and Eve - but he remains distant and far away. How can this totally transcendent God become the Father of Christ? How can he beget Jesus? Now Guru Nanak is not viewed as an incarnation of the Divine; rather, he is an enlightener whose inspired poetry becomes the embodiment of the Transcendent One. I guess the issue of incarnation really troubles me as a Sikh. Creation in Christianity is modelled on a distant artist, more in the sense of a commander-in-chief, rather than on the biological mother who actually bodies forth her offspring. The Virgin Birth of Christ sends negative messages about our bodies, our world, and of our selves. Now that I think of it, saying "Our Father" in a language that was not my mother tongue did not make me any less committed to Sikhism. But it has left an indelible paternal figure in my imagination, which - in spite of all my Sikh and feminist mental footnotes - still dominates. I sometimes wonder how my world would have been shaped had I attended a Hindu school and visited goddess' Kali's temple which was close to my home! In postcolonial Sikh society it was safe and secure to go to Convent schools and even attend Catholic services because it was all very "distant." But the Hindu tradition so close geographically, historically, anthropologically, and psychologically, was all too dangerous and threatening. I find similar fears and phobias now circulating in our contemporary western society. As our world is getting to be a smaller and smaller place we are getting more and more afraid of losing our self, of losing our "identity." So instead of opening ourselves up and appreciating others, we are becoming more narrow and insular. Our tunnel vision makes us grope in darkness. How can we remain afraid and threatened by each other's religions? It is not a matter of simple tolerance, and it is not simply mastering facts and figures about other religious traditions, and it is certainly not about converting and conversions from one faith to another. As Jesus resurfaces in my mind, I realise the beauty and power of his personality for me, and I realise the urgency of breaking our narrow mental walls. Just as he entered the imagination of us Sikhs in far away India, Sikhs and others have to enter into the imagination of people here in the West. We have to see the "light" that Jesus and Nanak ushered in for us. So many Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Africans, Middle-easterners have made their homes here, but how little we know about each other's spiritual worldviews! We may sit in the same classroom, work in the same office, and fly in the same planes, but we remain segregated at a fundamental level. During the first waves of migrations, the racial policies pretty much forced into homogenising matters, and in recent waves, sacred spaces and sacred times are confined to ethnic ghettos and left to their individual communities. The result? We are impoverished. We have lost out on the extremely rich arabesques of images, languages, metaphysics, rituals, music, and poetry and many other wonderful resources of our global society. Sadly, even after century and a half, we are far from fulfilling Walt Whitman's exhortation: Lo, soul, seest thou not God's purpose from the first? The earth to be spann'd, connected by network The races, neighbours, to marry and be given in marriage, The oceans to be cross'd, the distant brought near, The lands to be welded together. [Passage to India!] We may have triumphed in producing physical and technological networks, but we have failed in creating mental and spiritual links. We need to "weld together." We need to experience the fullness of humanity and the transcendence of the Divine. Together, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Jains, men and women, we should relish the plurality and diversity of our human culture. It is more than a coincidence that Christians and Sikhs celebrate the birth of their communities on the first day of spring - called Easter in northern Europe and Baisakhi in India. Our joint celebration of the annual renewal of life carries on the legacy of Jesus Christ and Guru Nanak.

Nahj al-Balagha (Sermons, Letters, Sayings of Imam Ali) http://al-islam.org/nahj/

some zen stories Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning. One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in. The monk saved the scorpion and was again stung. The other monk asked him, "Friend, why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know it's nature is to sting?" "Because," the monk replied, "to save it is my nature." A Zen Master lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening, while he was away, a thief sneaked into the hut only to find there was nothing in it to steal. The Zen Master returned and found him. "You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty handed. Please take my clothes as a gift." The thief was bewildered, but he took the clothes and ran away. The Master sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, " I wish I could give him this beautiful moon."