Bounteous Earth

How blessed we are to have Nature’s bounty ─
The rolling seas, the boundless sky, the Earth
Which provides us with food and shelter
And yields untold riches for use by Man.

No need to ask; no need to beg or grovel or plead.
The bounteous Earth just gives and gives and gives.
Yet, if we do not have respect for the Earth
And use and destroy in the name of greed
Mother Earth unleashes her fury.

The crux is in the balance ─ the ability to take
With respect, to make amends when we can,
To know that Earth’s gifts are irreplaceable,
To acknowledge our puniness in the face of Might.

We know too well the dangers and horrors
Of vengeful Earth, the unruly consequence
Of Man’s pride, greed and arrogance.
We need to find a different way.

With respect for Mother Earth and all Her gifts
We can live in harmony with the Earth
And with all the creatures She upholds.
God grant that we change our wasteful ways.

Melody Anderson

(Photograph: geekphilosopher.com)

Add comment July 19th, 2007

Four-week Meditation Course at Paddington

Sydney:  A four-week course in Sahaja Yoga meditation will be held, free of charge, commencing on Wednesday 18 July 2007. It will be held on four Wednesdays, 18 July until 8 August, 7.30 pm - 8.45 pm.  This course is a sequel to the highly successful meeting held at the Paddington Public School last Saturday evening. At this meeting, many people experienced for the first time the joy and peace of mind that comes from true meditation.  You are welcome to join us.

The venue for this follow-up course will again be Hall Block C at the rear of the Paddington Public School, corner of Oxford and Elizabeth Streets, Paddington (Sydney, NSW).  Parking is available via the Elizabeth Street entrance. 

This four-week meditation course will provide information and simple, practical techniques for finding balance in life, meditating at home, keeping in balance and reducing stress. The course is suitable for beginners or experienced meditators, and you can join the course at any time. No postures or special clothing are required, and chairs are provided. The course is free of charge.

Add comment July 18th, 2007

Baraka

When I first experienced … this movie at the Gothenburg Film Festival 1994, I was truly amazed. Never before - or since - have I had such an over-all, explain-it-all feeling after a show. Ron Fricke has made a documentary about the World today for a day, starting at dawn with monkeys in hot springs in Japan, and the morning rituals of various religions. This is followed by the awakening of the human race, both in the big cities and in the country side. Brilliantly edited, the film follows every aspect of human daily life combined with the general changes of the planet itself and all the ecological systems upon it. The over-all glue of the story are the various religious rituals. The only time giver, except for the turning of the sun, are the praying times and times of worship … around the globe. The Gaia idea (that the Earth is a whole being, a unit, a living organism) is detectable in the film, both in the way all the different cultures shown are found to be very similar to one another, and in the way the speeded-up people at side walks and zebra crossings look very much like the stream of blood in the veins of an organism.

Source: jcnteach from Gothenburg, Sweden

(Photograph: bigfoto.com) 

1 comment July 15th, 2007

Ode to the Conch

O Conch,
You form of perfection
Who could imitate you?
Only inside us
There is an echo
Of that spiral form
Sounding forth that OM,
Winding through our lives
In this unwitting world
Which has forgotten
That note of quietude
Or the power of your song
Born in the dawn of creation when
Lord Siva
Gently pushed His Shakti forth
And in Her whirling dance
The Innocence was formed
On your long winding note.
We now can hear again
That pure untempered sound.
And can imagine how
When Durga raised you to Her lips
And blew divine breath through you
What dismay you brought Her foes then
In that swelling roar of sound.
Having no hollow within themselves
They could not bear it.
And now we widen chambers in our hearts
In stillness to receive and send
Your golden caul of sound
Throughout the universe
At perfect pitch of praise.

LV

(Photograph: lucylearns.com)

Add comment July 14th, 2007