The Art of Tolerance

From a temple display in Thailand: L. to R.: White Tara, Buddhist Bodhisattva of Compassion; Guan Shi Yin, Daoist Bodhisattva of Compassion; Jesus Christ; Virgin Mary


The Art of Tolerance
excerpts from an essay by Wilfred A. Peterson

Tolerance is warm. It reaches out the hand of friendship in spite of all differences.

Tolerance is understanding.

Tolerance is deep. It creates a foundation of faith in humanity underneath disagreements, thus preventing prejudice and resentment. It may reject the argument, but it always respects the man....

Tolerance refuses to hate....

Tolerance is sympathetic. It looks through mental barriers into the human heart....

Tolerance does not look down on others, it looks up to them....

Tolerance towers above differences. It is bigger than race, color, creed, or politics.

Visual Evidence of the Power of Prayer, Gratitude and Appreciation

The article below is reprinted from the pages of Dr. Joseph Mercola at Mercola.com.

Every spiritual tradition includes some form of prayer, and this is a marvelous testimony to the power of prayer.

Considering that the various cells in your body are comprised of between 65% and 90% water, you can easily see how hurtful thoughts and emotions can be harmful to your mind and body, and how your prayers can be healing.

Enjoy!

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Dr. Masaru Emoto, a visionary researcher from Japan received certification from the Open International University as a Doctor of Alternative Medicine. Subsequently he was introduced to the concept of micro cluster water in the US and Magnetic Resonance Analysis technology. The quest thus began to discover the mystery of water.

Continuing in this stream of awareness, Dr Emoto began to study the impact of altering water by various factors of vibration and consciousness. He studied water that had been altered by music - healing music, classical music, heavy metal music - and so forth.

And the crystalline pictures reveal how water responds to these influences ... into complex arrangements of crystalline beauty. This begins to reveal that water is alive - it is conscious and responds to applied force by a rearrangement of its inner crystalline properties.

Inspired by these revelations, he decided to study the impact of human consciousness on water and its crystalline order.

Through repeatable experiments Dr. Emoto demonstrated that human thoughts and emotions can alter the molecular structure of water. Now, for the first time, there is physical evidence that the power of our thoughts can change the world within and around us.

He found that water that had been consciously altered by the simple imprinting of a word of intent upon the water would change. Water that was imprinted by love, gratitude, and appreciation, responded by the development of complex beauty, and water that was mistreated by negative intentions became disordered and lost its magnificent patterning. In fact, it often took on grotesque forms of resonance.

He experimented first with water from a pure source in Japan. The picture revealed a beautiful crystalline form. (Photo 1) He then did the same thing with water from a nearby polluted river. The result was a muddy, smeared pattern with very little structure. (Photo 2) He then asked a priest from a temple to offer a prayer to the polluted water sample and repeated the experiment out of curiosity. To his surprise, another beautiful crystalline structure appeared. (Photo 3)

This experiment was repeated many times over with the same result. The researcher then exposed water samples to different types of music. Classical music always reflected beautiful patterns, (photo 4) whereas heavy metal or rock and roll created distorted, formless, smudged images, (photo 5) as if these types of music had destroyed the delicate equilibrium of the molecules.

He continued experimenting, this time by writing words on pieces of paper and taping them to a clear glass container to see if anything happened.

He tried using positive words like "Love" and "Thank you" (photo 6) and every time noticed a beautiful and delicate crystalline pattern. He tried "You Make Me Sick. I Will Kill You" (photo 7) and each time observed distorted, frightening, muddied patterns. He even experimented with names like "Gandhi" "Mother Teresa" (photo 8) and "Hitler" (photo 9) and the same kind of results occurred.

After much experimentation, Dr. Emoto discovered that the most powerful combination of thoughts in terms of capacity to transform was that of "Love and Gratitude." (Photo 10)

What makes this discovery so amazing is that we live on a planet covered by more water than landmass, and that the human body is largely composed of water. So if we have the power to change the structure of the medium we are made of by simply producing positive though patterns, we can restore not only our own health but that of everyone around us, and even the planet itself, with our every thought.

Think about what giving thanks and praying before a meal can do to your health. I used to believe that it was a good way to stop the mental business of the day and put myself into a more receptive space. Now I know that even the food I am about to eat will also be transformed.

Article compiled from 3 Web sites:

GodsDirectContact.org

CoCreach Resources

The Spirit of Maat

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If you would like to see more, Dr Emoto's ground-breaking work was featured in the movie
What the Bleep!? - Down the Rabbit Hole (Three-Disc Special Edition)

He also has several marvelous books available. One of the best and most popular is The Hidden Messages in Water

What is not religion?

Photo of a Diwali Puja taken during a Hindu prayer ceremony on the eve of Diwali by Deepak Gupta

The following is an excerpt from chapter four of the book Think on These Things by Jiddu Krishanmurti who, at the time, was speaking to a group of school children in India. They asked some tough, penetrating questions, and Krishnamurti gave them some simple yet profound and enlightened answers.

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Questioner: Is not the worship of God true religion?

Krishnamurti: First of all, let us find out what is not religion. Isn't that the right approach? If we can understand what is not religion, then perhaps we shall begin to perceive something else. It is like cleaning a dirty window - one begins to see through it very clearly. So let us see if we can understand and sweep out of our minds that which is not religion; don't let us say, "I will think about it" and just play around with words. Perhaps you can do it, but most of the older people are already caught; they are comfortably established in that which is not religion and they do not want to be disturbed.

So, what is not religion? Have you ever thought about it? You have been told over and over again what religion is supposed to be - belief in God and a dozen other things - but nobody has asked you to find out what is not religion; and now you and I are going to find out for ourselves.

In listening to me, or to anyone else, do not merely accept what is said, but listen to discern the truth of the matter. If once you perceive for yourself what is not religion, then throughout your life no priest or book can deceive you, no sense of fear will create an illusion which you may believe and follow. To find out what is not religion you have to begin on the everyday level, and then you can climb. To go far you must begin near, and the nearest step is the most important one. So what is not religion? Are ceremonies religion? Doing puja over and over again - is that religion?

True education is to learn how to think, not what to think. If you know how to think, if you really have that capacity, then you are a free human being - free of dogmas, superstitions ceremonies - and therefore you can find out what religion is.

Ceremonies are obviously not religion, because in performing ceremonies you are merely repeating a formula which has been handed down to you. You may find a certain pleasure in performing ceremonies, just as others do in smoking or drinking; but is that religion? In performing ceremonies you are doing something about which you know nothing. Your father and your grandfather do it, therefore you do it, and if you don't they will scold you. That is not religion, is it?

And what is in a temple? A graven image fashioned by a human being according to his own imagination. The image may be a symbol, but it is still only an image, it is not the real thing. A symbol, a word, is not the thing it represents. The word 'door' is not the door, is it? The word is not the thing. We go to the temple to worship - what? An image which is supposed to be a symbol; but the symbol is not the real thing. So why go to it?

These are facts; I am not condemning; and, since they are facts, why bother about who goes to the temple, whether it be the touchable or the untouchable, the brahman or the non-brahman? Who cares? You see, the older people have made the symbol into a religion for which they are willing to quarrel, fight, slaughter; but God is not there. God is never in a symbol. So the worship of a symbol or of an image is not religion.

And is belief religion? This is more complex. We began near, and now we are going a little bit farther.

Is belief religion? The Christians believe in one way, the Hindus in another, the Moslems in another, the Buddhists in still another, and they all consider themselves very religious people; they all have their temples, gods, symbols, beliefs. And is that religion? Is it religion when you believe in God, in Rama, Sita, Ishwara, and all that kind of thing? How do you get such a belief? You believe because your father and your grandfather believe; or having read what some teacher like Shankara or Buddha is supposed to have said, you believe it and say it is true. Most of you just believe what the Gita says, therefore you don't examine it clearly and simply as you would any other book; you don't try to find out what is true.

We have seen that ceremonies are not religion that going to a temple is not religion, and that belief is not religion. Belief divides people. The Christians have beliefs and so are divided both from those of other beliefs and among themselves; the Hindus are everlastingly full of enmity because they believe themselves to be brahmans or non-brahmans, this or that. So belief brings enmity, division, destruction, and that is obviously not religion.

Then what is religion? If you have wiped the window clean - which means that you have actually stopped performing ceremonies, given up all beliefs, ceased to follow any leader or guru - then your mind, like the window, is clean, polished, and you can see out of it very clearly. When the mind is swept clean of image of ritual, of belief, of symbol, of all words, mantrams and repetitions, and of all fear, then what you see will be the real, the timeless, the everlasting, which may be called God; but this requires enormous insight, understanding, patience, and it is only for those who really inquire into what is religion and pursue it day after day to the end. Only such people will know what is true religion. The rest are merely mouthing words, and all their ornaments and bodily decorations, their pujas and ringing of bells - all that is just superstition without any significance. It is only when the mind is in revolt against all so-called religion that it finds the real.

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About the Author

J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986) was a renowned spiritual teacher whose lectures and writings have inspired thousands. His works include On Mind and Thought, On Nature and the Environment, On Relationship, On Living and Dying, On Love and Lonliness, On Fear, and On Freedom.

(Think On These Things is an excellent first-read for people interested in Krishnamurti's inspirational insights. I own and have read many of his thought-provoking books. ~Michelle~)

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