Don't you think that Deepak Chopra's seven practices for peace is fantasy ?
464006
I have to somewhat agree with you.  With sincere apologies to Deepak Chopra I do believe the time for peace is no longer possible.\n\nThe mantra is very appealing and sounds like something I could follow in time, but society just can't handle that type of peace right now.  If a few million followed it we would still be where we are at now, with another religion/ practice to cause more controversy. \n\nVery good point though ;)
137174
Yes, it was not done by a magician and it is not what people tend to picture it to be. Some moron does not sit there and wave something in front of your face and tell you that you are getting very sleepy either :D\n\nI was in a nice room and I was asked to lay down and make myself comfortable. I was told to focus on something that was relaxing to me, there were pictures of nature, and there were flowers and nice things like that. WHile I was focusing I was told to breathe in and out slowly and deeply until every limb of my body was relaxed. then I was told to close my eyes and visualize myself to be wherever it is  I wanted to be. I was hypnotized to relieve mental stress. :)\nYou are basically so relaxed and you are filtering the bullcrap out of your mind so that you can tap into your subconcious. It is the coolest thing . The professional slowly talks you back to "reality" and you come out of feeling so calm and relaxed, it is awesome.  You would be amazed out how you can find the solutions to your problems. \n\nEveryone has their opinions of what it is like or how it feels, but I thought it was great.
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The most answers to a question I have seen by far is the one that Dr Deepak Chopra asked a couple of weeks ago in the philosophy section...in fact it was even featured in the main Yahoo home page!  I just looked it up and it had 26,760 answers and has been resolved by Dr. Chopra...The person got 16 thumbs up too.  I answered it but there were so many answers I never found mine!  LOL
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Yes, it's for real. \n\nI recently remembered a month ago my first past life recall. I remembered living in India as a woman from another country. I had studied many religions and spirituality. I ended up chosing Hinduism as my religion to study seriously on my spiritual path.\n\nWhile living in India, I studied under a woman guru named Parvati. I remembered this temple that had this giant monkey statue on the outside.\n\nI had to leave the ashram for a couple of days, Parvati was asking me some medicine-related questions if I was prepared and had them.\n\nOn the way travelling, I got horribly sick with a dreadful disease. It was smallpox. My entire body was mummified. A man carried me to the doctor's. It was not modern at all. Kind of primative. This was during WWI. He poured water on my body that was wrapped up in white cloth, I screamed like bloody h*ll. Blood seeped through the cloth. I was above watching the whole thing.\n\nI did not feel anything, but I felt a lot of compassion for my past self and for the horrible suffering she was going through. I felt it was so unnecessary. They also put me against the wall to circulate my blood. My eyes were covered up too. Parvati, my guru, came to visit me as she was given word that I was dying.\n\nMy last words spoken were "Brahman of all things". I had my mind focused on God when I died which is very important for your next life.\n\nThis life, I'm just a white girl from CA but I ended up feeling at home with Hinduism after studying spiritualy and religions for 17 years. I am picking up where I left off. Amma is now my Satguru in this life. She is helping me finish my journey to God-Realization in this life. I do eventually want to live the rest of my life in India in her ashram. This past life recall helped me understand who I am in this life by explaining how I ended up on this journey and plus that disease helped wipe clean some bad karma as I hardly have any more bad karma to deal with this life. It was quite insightful.\n\nThere is a very interesting site http://www.johnadams.net This guy Walter Semkiv, M.D. had some some research on many cases of past lives and wrote a book called "Return of the Revolutionaries" which I have read. It is fascinating to read and there were many stories of how people can to find out who they are in their past life and became shocked at how identical the looked like in their former life. It is a known fact that our Soul would retain very similiar facial features life after life. There are many examples on that website. Take a look!\n\nI also wrote two posts about past lives on my 360 blog, the first about the above recall and the second about how people look like their past lives:\n\nhttp://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-O50H77Iib6fVzcbXCb1eO_cIAk0-?cq=1&l=46&u=50&mx=111&lmt=5&p=263\n\nhttp://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-O50H77Iib6fVzcbXCb1eO_cIAk0-?cq=1&l=21&u=25&mx=111&lmt=5&p=356
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This one's a real hot potato.  And it's not something you hear \nso much from ancient religious institutions... rather, it's simply \nthe 'politically correct' way to talk about spirituality these days.\n\n   It tends to be expressed something like this: 'You've got your\ntruth, and I've got my truth.  You find a faith that works for\nyou, and I'll find a faith that works for me.'\n\n   Well here's my question:\n\n   How many conflicting versions of the truth can actually be true?\n\n   I'm not going to use this space to promote an agenda today -- or \nto push any specific claim of Ultimate Truth.  I'm just going to\nhighlight a very simple, logical reality that each of us, in our search\nfor Truth, must recognize.  Pardon me if I offend you, but I'm \ngoing to put it bluntly.\n\n   It's impossible for all religions to be true.\n\n   In other words, if Islam is essentially true, then Buddhism,\nHinduism and Christianity are not.  If Buddhism is essentially true, \nthen Islam, Christianity and Hinduism are not.  And so on.\n\n   How can I say such a thing?  Because if you *really* study these \nreligions, it will become clear that each makes bold, fundamental \nassertions about reality that are not compatible with the others.  \n\n   For example, Hinduism states that divinity is present in everything.\nChristianity, Judaism and Islam all assert that God is distinctly \nseparate from what he has created.  The implications of these different \nviews run very deep, and they are fundamentally incompatible.  It's \nlogically impossible for both views to be true.\n\n   So why bring this up, anyway?\n\n   Well first I have to make a confession.  I would *like* to believe \nthat all religions could be true.  I would personally *like* to believe \nthat all paths lead to God.  It feels good.  It's a kinder view of \nthe world.  It puts everyone on equal footing.  \n\n   But it just doesn't make sense.  \n\n   Truth is, by nature, exclusive.  There are always more wrong\nways to do just about anything than right ways.  There are always \nmore wrong answers to any given question than right ones.  \n\n   True?\n\n   And you know what?  This really raises the stakes.  It puts a \nreal sense of urgency in our search for truth, because it shows \nthat if we're not careful, we can fall for a half-truth.\n\n   On the other hand, if you diligently search, seek\nout the facts, and your spiritual journey brings you to\na place where the pieces fit in place - if everything makes\nlogical sense and it feels right in your heart - then you \nshould not hesitate to share your joy with others.\n\n   OK... now let's stop right now and make something very clear: \n\n   If we possess the truth, it doesn't give us the right to \nbe unkind to those who disagree.  It didn't give Bin Laden the \nright to declare Jihad, hijack airplanes and fly them into the \nWorld Trade Center.  It didn't give so-called 'Christians' the \nright to kill people in the Crusades.  It doesn't give us the \nright to be disrespectful or violent.\n\n   What it does give us is the right - and the confidence -\nto go out into the marketplace of ideas and *see* if our Truth\nstands up to hard scrutiny.\n\n   C.S. Lewis was talking about this very thing when he said, \n'You don't need to defend a Lion.  You just need to let him \nout of his cage.'\n\n   If you really do have the truth, then you have nothing to fear.  \nYou don't need to burn books or censor speech.  Truth is its \nown best defense.\n\n   In our modern, sophisticated culture, spirituality gets\nlocked up in a cage.  It's a taboo subject.  Discussions about \nreligion are not considered 'polite conversation.'  So nobody \ntalks about it.\n\n   The result?  People don't talk to each other.  They live in \nfear and isolation.  \n\n   Some folks harbor ideas and notions that make absolutely no
50223
When Swami Rama’s teacher told him to go to the West, he did not want to go initially. He wanted to stay in the Himalayas. But his teacher insisted, saying, "You have a mission to complete and a message to deliver. The message is ours [the Himalayan masters] and you are my instrument." \n\nSwami Rama asked, "What shall I teach to the students who wish to learn from me? Shall I convert them and teach the religions of India? Shall I ask them to follow the Indian culture?" \n\nHis teacher responded, "You foolish boy." \n\nSwami Rama asked, "Then tell me, what shall I teach them? The culture in the West is entirely different from ours. These two diverse ways of life seem to be quite apart. How can I deliver your message to the West?" \n\nHe answered, "Though these cultures live in the same world with the same purpose of life, they are each extreme. Both East and West are still doing experiments on the right ways of living. The message of the Himalayan masters is timeless and has nothing to do with the primitive concepts of East or West. Extremes will not help humanity to attain the higher step of civilization for which we all are striving. \n\n"Inner strength, cheerfulness and selfless service are the basic principles of life. It is immaterial whether one lives in the East or West. A human being should be a human being first. A real human being is a member of the cosmos. Geographical boundaries have no power to divide humanity. \n\n"To get freedom from all fears is the first message* of the Himalayan sages. The second message is to be aware of the reality within. Be spontaneous and let yourself become the instrument to teach pure spirituality without any religion and culture. All the spiritual practices should be verified scientifically if science has the capacity to do to."  \n\nIt seems Swami Rama has done a pretty good job of doing what he was asked to do.
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I agree.  You have only to look around to see that there is some kind of energy flowing through us - some kind of "magical" spark that makes this existence run. \n\nI think "commercial brands" is a very apt description.  I often say that I think each of the world's religions is largely the same story (the same essence or base) told in different "languages", as it were, and for different cultures - using local health concerns, local characters, etc. to make the story understandable to do the planet's diverse population.\n\nEach religion is lovely in it's own way - it's a shame so many of us can't just be happy in our own knowledge and be happy in our similarlities and let people live their lives as they see fit.
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i do believe that it is posible but it requires intence meditation, but what kind i am not sure of.
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This was featured in a lot of papers. It seems he is seeking life coaching from a 'mystic guru' and each symbol means something different. It is something for him to concentrate on and receive wisdom thereby apparently.
31119
i like the first answer. It sounds like they are commenting on how we are trained to hear religious dontorine and how people see it as this magic that will cure our lives in an instant,like a spell. Maybe what they are saying is that we need to break free from this pavlovian response to life and to view reality in the moment. that's my understanding. It's very poectic. Thank for the good question!
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Yes, I'v read all the classics of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Taoism, etc. etc. etc. Some very nice stuff in there. Most of it is lost on the average American or European reader, owing to translation and differences in fundamental worldviews. Quite frankly, you are no scholar. You are a new age looney who has read some yoga manuals and arrogantly thinks he knows as much as Patanjali (who did not, by any stretch of the imagination, live 3000 years B.C. and he's the closest to an "inventor" of yoga as you will find). Your pettiness, antagonism, and self-righteous attitude are utterly deplorable and would be frowned upon by all the great thinkers whose works you bastardize in your frilly new age syncretism. \n\nAnd you clearly have only an extremely superficial and inadequate understanding of Pauline theology.
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Just because it is forbidden by any faith, it doesn't mean the philosophy/ concept is not true. The church used to insist the world was flat and that if you travel too far, you fall over the edge. Anyone else stating any different would be put to death or tortured.\n\nPeople are not closed minded, these seem to be because they are intellectuals and want to have at least SOME proof before saying YES to it. I think that is very healthy, to be able to question and query before believing. \n\nEven in non-religious environments, people want proof, those who follow blindly... well... if it works for them good I guess... Like the weapons of mass destruction issue, the world was seperated into the ones who will ONLY believe if they see proof and of course the sheep-like ones, who just say yes... because big brother said so.\n\nAs for the Cows in India, before debasing the belief system of any culture or faith, I think we should first check out why that culture believe it to be such... otherwise it only shows ignorance, The Indians hold very deep symbolic meaning to the cow, and its connection to the creator. Check it out before pointing, ridiculing and laughing...\n\nLoud doesnt make it right nor wise.
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yes. you should read mary k. baxter's book on the divine revelations of the spiritual realm. she has visions of angels and demons and their role on earth. \n\nThere was a true situation where there were 2 men that took a kindergarten classroom hostage with 30 kids and 2 teachers. The men had bombs strapped on them and when the bomb went off, the 2 men died and the innocent people/kids were unharmed even though it blew up everything in the room. When the kids were interviewed, each one described the person/angel they saw and some were grandparents they've never met. \n\nMan, I have goosebumps. Praise God for the protection that He provides!
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It is like most other ancient books – a mingling of falsehood and truth, of philosophy and folly – all written by men, and most of the men only partially civilized. Some of its laws are good – some infinitely barbarous. None of the miracles related were performed. . . . Take out the absurdities, the miracles, all that pertains to the supernatural – all the cruel and barbaric laws – and to the remainder I have no objection. Neither would I have for it any great admiration.
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Hindu/Buddhist Meditations are great gifts of the Universe to understand the Truth.  Truth which can not be understood from books or from Bishops.\n\nI am myself a serious meditator and have had mysterious visions and psychic powers with these meditations.\n\nTheTruth is not in Books...the Truth is what I have seen and experienced...rest all is prejudice, imagination and hope!!
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OMG YES!! Just because it is a spiritual book does not mean that the stories in them are supposed to be taken literally...symbolism people! Good question.
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In Comparision with the Spritual Creation, the Vedic scriptures does discribe this Material Universe to be as good as a Stool Pit. \nWe have indeed put our head in this Pit, and we still think that this is a place of enjoyment, and this miserable existance is a way of life.