The Millennium that Defined Earth
Philosophy
Explanation: When the second millennium began, people generally knew that the Earth was round, but few saw much of it beyond their local village. As the millennium progressed, humans mapped the continents, circumnavigated the globe, and determined the composition of the Earth. The Earth started as the center of everything, but became a planet placed in the Solar System, which became placed in a Galaxy, which became placed in the Local Group of Galaxies, which became placed in an expanse so vast we call it just the Universe. As millennium two ends people generally know what Earth looks like from afar, and how it is that all of humanity is confined to the surface of this fragile and watery globe.
1. The first thing one should do of the morning is to praise the Creator for your life and all of Creation. Asking Him for guidance through the day and thanking Him for providing another day for you. Recognizing Him as the only one true God.
2. Always keep fresh in your mind that everything has been created by God and deserves respect. Everything God has created has a purpose in life. We should honor these and treat them with kindness and generosity. Always assume that others are in need of something. Offer what you have to give.
3. When you find that you have more than you and your family need, then give the excess to someone who can use it.
4. When you say you are going to do something, or otherwise promise something, you are bound by your words. You can not break it without permission from the person you have told this to.
5. Practice silence. This shows self-control, true courage, patience, dignity, reverence and internal peace. And by practicing silence you can build these characteristics up through time.
6. Never overindulge or underindulge on anything. Do all things in moderation. And this includes boasting or attracting attention through your behavior. Eating, sleeping, working, learning and so on.
7. Know what helps you and what hurts you. Learn from your experiences and be open to new ones, remembering to live each day in itself, not worrying about tomorrow or living in the past but retaining the knowledge learned. Listen to advice and guidance offered by elders and friends. Listen with your heart and then follow up through prayer to the Creator for His guidance.
8. Always ask permission before doing anything that involves someone else, including all living things. Always give something back in return for things received, including a simple "thank you." Remember that a smile can be shared.
9. Beware of what is inside you and outside of you.
The following are all about respect and can be grouped together as one once it is understood what respect truly is:
10. Always, always, always show respect. From the youngest to the oldest, from the rocks to the trees, from all animals to all peoples.
11. Never stare at someone and drop your eyes in respect to an elder or teacher.
12. Always give a sign of greeting, even to strangers.
13. Never talk about someone in a harmful or critical way. Remember that what you say it will always come back to you one way or the other.
14. Never touch anything that is not yours without permission from the owner.
15. Respect the privacy of everyone. Never enter into their place or space without permission. Do not disturb anyone's quiet time or prayer time.
16. Never offer advice or ask questions of another without their permission.
17. Never interrupt.
18. When you are in someone's home, follow their customs out of respect.
19. Always treat other things held sacred by someone with respect even though you may not understand why.
20. Treat Mother Earth with respect. Protect Earth as well as all of Creation on her in all ways.
"Be kind to one another."
Another Man, almost 2000 years ago, uttered the following words to a large gathering of people on a hillside:
Mt:6:14: For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
Mt:6:15: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Mt:6:19: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mt:6:20: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Mt:6:21: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Mt:6:24: No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Mt:6:25: Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Mt:6:31: Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Mt:6:32: (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
Mt:6:33: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Mt:6:34: Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
(KJV)
Ascension is like a Translation ... it is the rising to heaven without
experiencing natural death ... one can experience partial ascension
everytime they have a truly lucid moment from beyond their limited self.
When we see someone else and look into their eyes and realize that we are looking at ourself ... we have ascended.
When we see all of our memories before us and realize that we played all of those roles and it was mind unfolding, we have ascended.
When we realize in the bottom of despair that what we are experiencing is all illusion and we stand up in the light knowing that all goodness is within and we must but only speak the word, we have ascended.
When we touched the hem of His garment and we are healed and realize the tassles were on our own robe, we have ascended.
When we realize the anger at someone is because of the hurt we experienced as a child and that it need never hurt us again, we have ascended.
When we touch the faces of those we love and we do not need their love in return because we have already received it, we have ascended.
When we know as we speak to others we are alone as ONE, we have ascended.
When we can discover God in a bee or a flower, in a tree or a river, we have ascended.
When our worst pain becomes a path which leads us to the light by providing us a shadow, we have ascended.
When our words become music which is a song in unision, we have ascended.
When the sun rises and the sun sets and we know it never left, we have ascended.
When the bird sings a song from your heart and you reach out and touch his soul with food, we have ascended.
When the male within us is female, and the female becomes male, we have ascended.
When as we touch we are touched, our Oneness reveals the Sun, we have ascended.
When we see that death is a door and a door is unfoldment, we have ascended.
When we sense God in someone's words, we discover God in ourselves and we have ascended.
and so it is.
~ Derek Lamar
67. Three Treasures
All the world says,
"I am important;
I am separate from all the world.
I am important because I am separate,
Were I the same, I could never be important."
Yet here are three treasures
That I cherish and commend to you:
The first is compassion,
By which one finds courage.
The second is restraint,
By which one finds strength.
And the third is unimportance,
By which one finds influence.
Those who are fearless, but without compassion,
Powerful, but without restraint,
Or influential, yet important,
Cannot endure.
68. Compassion
Compassion is the finest weapon and best defense.
If you would establish harmony,
Compassion must surround you like a fortress.
Therefore,
A good soldier does not inspire fear;
A good fighter does not display aggression;
A good conqueror does not engage in battle;
A good leader does not exercise authority.
This is the value of unimportance;
This is how to win the cooperation of others;
This to how to build the same harmony that is in nature.
JUDGE NOT
The vile are ever prone to detect the faults of others, though they be as small as mustard seeds, and persistently shut their eyes against their own, though they be as large as Vilva fruit.
1.Hinduism. Garuda Purana 112
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment that you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye," when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
2.Christianity. Matthew 7.1-5
A man holding a basket of eggs does not dance on stones.
3.African Traditional Religions. Buji Proverb (Nigeria)
Easily seen are others' faults, hard indeed to see are one's own. Like chaff one winnows others' faults, but one's own one hides, as a crafty fowler conceals himself by camouflage.
He who sees others' faults is ever irritable--his corruptions grow. He is far from the destruction of the corruptions.
4.Buddhism. Dhammapada 252-53
Happy is the person who finds fault with himself instead of finding fault with others.
5.Islam. Hadith
If you want to criticize someone, first criticize yourself more than three times.
6.Unification Church. Sun Myung Moon, 9-30-69
Confucius said, "The gentleman calls attention to the good points in others; he does not call attention to their defects. The small man does just the reverse of this."
7.Confucianism. Analects 12.16
Confucius said, "The good man does not grieve that other people do not recognize his merits. His only anxiety is lest he should fail to recognize theirs."
8.Confucianism. Analects 1.16
Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; as it is written,
As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me
and every tongue shall confess to God.
So each of us shall give account of himself to God.
9.Christianity. Romans 14.10-12
Hadith: Cf. Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 12, p. 612. Analects 12.16: Cf. Analects 12.21, p. 631; Doctrine of the Mean 14, p. 590; Tao Te Ching 79, p. 850. Analects 1.16: Cf. Analects 15.20, pp. 589f.
He who treads the Path in earnest
Sees not the mistakes of the world;
If we find fault with others
We ourselves are also in the wrong.
When other people are in the wrong, we should ignore it,
For it is wrong for us to find fault.
By getting rid of this habit of fault-finding
We cut off a source of defilement.
When neither hatred nor love disturb our mind
Serenely we sleep.
10.Buddhism. Sutra of Hui Neng 2
Why should you try to mend
The failings of the world, sirs?
Correct your bodies first, each one of you!
Correct your minds first, each one!
Lord Shiva does not approve of
Those who shed crocodile tears
To their neighbor's grief.
11.Hinduism. Basavanna, Vachana 24
Censuring others and praising himself, concealing good qualities present in others and proclaiming noble qualities absent in himself, he causes them to have low status. Disparaging himself and praising others, proclaiming qualities which are present in others and not proclaiming those that are absent in himself, with humility and modesty he lifts them to high status. No obstacle should be created in the [spiritual] development of others.
12.Jainism. Tattvarthasutra 6.25-27
Do not judge thy comrade until thou hast stood in his place.
13.Judaism. Mishnah, Abot 2.5
Early in the morning [Jesus] came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."
14.Christianity. John 8.2-11
Sutra of Hui Neng 2: Cf. Tao Te Ching 79, p. 850. Abot 2.5: A saying of Hillel (lst. c. B.C.E.). John 8.2-11: According to tradition, Jesus wrote on the ground the sins of each accuser.
I do not distinguish by the eye,
but by the mind,
which is the proper judge of the man.
Seneca
It is the mind that makes the man,
and our vigour is in our immortal soul.
Ovid
Everything is mind,
and what a man thinks he becomes.
Buddha
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.
Bhagavad Gita (c. BC 400), Sanskrit poem
A man's what he thinks about all day long.
Emerson
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:
Proverbs 23:7
Were I so tall to reach the Pole,
Or grasp the Ocean with my span,
I must be measured by my soul:
The mind's the standard of the man.
Horæ Lyricæ, Book ii
In a pellucid ocean,
Bubbles arise and dissolve again.
Just so, thoughts are no
Different from ultimate reality,
So don’t find fault; remain at ease.
Whatever arises, whatever occurs,
Don’t grasp—release it on the spot.
Appearances, sounds, and objects
Are all one’s own mind;
There’s nothing except mind.
Buddha
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind
can envision the fact that you can do something,
you can do it-as long as you really believe 100 percent.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
The spirit is life;
the mind is the builder;
the physical is the result.
Edgar Cayce
The world without reflects the world within.
Michael Rawls
Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within.
There lies the power to persuade, there the life;
there, if one must speak out, the real man.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180), Roman Emperor
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