Medley

Jan Nicolaas Kind – Brazil

Giordano Bruno

When we look at today’s world we cannot but come to the conclusion that religion, or rather, that what one refers to as ‘religion’, has caused, and is still causing immense tragedies, disgraceful behavior and confusion. Unfortunately, humans, labeled as ‘the thinkers’, most definitely have the greatest difficulties in thinking and therefore in understanding themselves, their fellow-thinkers, and the most elementary concepts that are needed to live a true religious life.

Out-of-body experiences, such as near-death experiences, can have a "transformative" effect on people's ability to experience empathy and connect with others, a scientific paper from University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers explains.

Andrew Rooke – Australia

Over 200,000 people died today and 200,000 will die tomorrow. (1) Sooner or later, we will be amongst them. Spirituality teaches us that death is not to be feared. It is a great teacher from whom we can learn much about the secrets of life. Many spiritual traditions recommend that we can learn a lot by actively contemplating the inevitability of death. This is a challenging but rewarding spiritual practice. It forces us to go beyond any superficial ideas we may have about spirituality, which are inadequate before the enormity of death, and to find something real.

A speech by Yrjö Kallinen in Helsinki on the 18th of May 1935.

Yrjö Kallinen (1886–1976) was a Theosophist, a staunch advocate of peace and non-violence and Finland's only pacifist Minister of Defense from 1946 to 1948. Despite his pacifism and non-partisanship, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death in the Finnish Civil War in 1918. However, he made such a powerful and moving speech before the firing squad that he was pardoned on the spot. His words of compassion from nearly a century ago will hopefully shed some light on the darkness of the present.

Kenneth Small – USA

Gradually discover how to harmoniously release our inner hostages of latent harmful emotions

Modes of Inner Peace: Aphorisms, Insights and a Story

Introduction

During our daily activity how aware are we in our mundane communications and interactions of being truly present? Driving the roadways, shopping at the grocery store, riding the transit, at a restaurant, with family and friends… how truly present are we or how often are we habituated with our attention distracted and somewhere else? How often do we fill in the ‘gap of preoccupied distractions’ with fear, self-loathing, anxiety, prejudice or anger…? How often do we justify these emotions when a convenient target or trigger to hang them on comes by? … whether personal, family or group based. How may we engage in filling in this gap with wonderment, compassion and (as the popular saying goes) genuine ‘random acts of kindness’? And… the nitty gritty, how may we discover genuine inner peace and tranquility, which may even gradually, when skillfully and harmoniously harnessed, release our inner hostages of latent harmful emotions that feed collective violence and war?

Ralph Waldo Emerson – USA

The author, May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882

And so I think that the last lesson of life, the choral song which rises from all elements and all angels, is a voluntary obedience, a necessitated freedom. Man is made of the same atoms as the world is, he shares the same impressions, predispositions and destiny. When his mind is illuminated, when his heart is kind, he throws himself joyfully into the sublime order and does, with knowledge, what the stones do by structure.

Gale crater

NASA's Curiosity rover, currently exploring Gale crater on Mars, is providing new details about how the ancient Martian climate went from potentially suitable for life -- with evidence for widespread liquid water on the surface -- to a surface that is inhospitable to terrestrial life as we know it.