Being in Nature Archives - Page 19 of 20 - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
7
archive,paged,category,category-being-in-nature,category-7,paged-19,category-paged-19,ajax_fade,page_not_loaded,,select-theme-ver-2.1,vertical_menu_enabled, vertical_menu_width_290,side_menu_slide_from_right,wpb-js-composer js-comp-ver-6.9.0,vc_responsive
 

Being in Nature

Lessons Learnt III: The Bhagavad Gita

Posted on September 17, 2010
in Being in Nature, Reading
2 Comments

Lessons Learnt III: Bhagavad Gita With The Bhagavad Gita we have completed reading scriptures of the three major world religions namely Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism. Many of the teachings of the Tao te-Ching (Lessons Learnt, August 14, 2009), the Dhammapada (Lessons Learnt II, January 8, 2010) and the Bhagavad Gita overlap. Teachings such as the presence of the divine within, finiteness and impermanence of life, the significance of stillness, silence and solitude in daily practice and the ability of each and everyone of us to have spiritual experience are common to these three religions. The Tao te-Ching and the Dhammapada recommend and the Gita warns that life is dreary, if not meaningless, for those of us who do not follow a spiritual path. The Bhagavad Gita teaches that human character is an...

Read More

Jung’s “Self,” Hindu Atman and Buddhist Anatta

Posted on August 27, 2010
in Being in Nature
1 Comment

THE "SELF" IN CARL JUNG, ATMAN IN THE GITA AND ANATTA IN THE DHAMMAPADA The noted psychoanalyst Carl Jung has contemporized the concepts of soul and spirit with his theories of the "Self." His work on individuation and the "Self" have amazing parallels with atman of the Gita and anatta of the Dhammapada. Jung studied the working of the human mind with meticulous detail and declared that the majority of us do not have complete knowledge of our mind. Workings of the human psyche, (conscious and unconscious mind) is as complex as the workings of our body. When we say 'I know-myself' we mean we know our conscious (ego) self only; we do not know our unconscious. The ego is only a small part of the psyche. The unconscious mind...

Read More

Thinkers and Scholars on the Bhagavad Gita

Posted on April 23, 2010
in Being in Nature
4 Comments

American thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), and Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) had one thing in common; they were impressed by the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. The Hindu scripture provided them with a new set of religious concepts that express spiritual energy. With the teachings of the Gita they were able to critique rationalism and materialism of the earlier centuries that so many of their contemporaries believed in. Emerson wanted individuals to become "Man thinking" rather than "Mere thinkers, or still worse the parrot of other men's thinking." He wanted his fellow countrymen to investigate their minds and to study the mind of the past through literature. By 1845 he had read Gita. In his Journal he writes, I owed-my friend and I owed-a...

Read More

Writing as a Spiritual Journey

Posted on March 12, 2010
in Being in Nature
1 Comment

Writing as a Spiritual Journey: A Workshop The Northland Public Library is sponsoring my twelve-session workshop "Writing as a Spiritual Journey." Through personal experience I know that the process of turning traumatic events and intense emotions into words and sentences has healing power. In this workshop you will turn your thoughts and feelings into words that would have beneficial affects. For the first few sessions you will write down your experiences. You'll jot and you'll scribble and you will dig deeper within yourselves. From your heart-minds you will drag onto a notebook emotions that are difficult to talk about or too painful to discuss and are dormant in the basement of your mind. This technique will lighten your heart and clarify you mind. For the next six sessions or so during the...

Read More

A Few Words of Counsel

Posted on February 12, 2010
in Being in Nature
0 Comments

The venue of the Bhagavad Gita jolts its reader into wakefulness by making its site the field of blood, devastation and death. The horrific setting demonstrates that even under the most horrible circumstances the one with sharp mind, pure intentions and willingness to understand can cross to the other shore. One of the "hidden" teachings of the Gita that has affected me deeply is that the "Great Man" (God) without is, what Carl G. Jung calls, the Self within-the organizing source of our psychic system. And I realize that with pure intention I too would be able to make link with my "inner companion" and ultimately with the God within, (Atman). In the beginning chapters of the Gita, Arjuna is a virtuous man and an intellectual. He is well versed...

Read More

The Bhagavad Gita: An Introduction

Posted on January 29, 2010
in Being in Nature, Reading
0 Comments

The Bhagavad-Gita, the "Song of the Lord," is a poem in the form of a dialogue. Although considered an independent sacred text it is part of the sixth book of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. The dialogue is between the warrior prince Arjuna and Krishna. Krishna is an incarnation of the cosmic power that has descended to the earth to restore order in times of chaos. He is Arjuna's charioteer, friend and teacher. At the beginning of the text Arjuna, the warrior prince, is endowed with physical prowess and intellectual tenacity. By the end, Krishna makes him aware of his Self, a spiritual heart. The dialogue takes place on a battlefield. The war that is about to begin is between two sets of cousins: five sons of Pandu, Pandavas and one...

Read More

Lessons Learnt II: Dhammapada

Posted on January 8, 2010
in Being in Nature, Reading
1 Comment

Lessons Learnt II: Dhammapada What we think, say or do have consequences. Sooner or later they come back to us. It may take years before we see the results of our thoughts, words and actions but they do come back--both good and bad. What we are today is the result of the choices we have made. 1. Observing Life's Impermanence The First Noble Truth, as taught by the Buddha, is that life is suffering, it is impermanent. Happiness and sorrow follow one another like shadow follows the body. The aim of human life is not so much the worldly happiness but the end of all suffering. We suffer because we thirst (in Sanskrit, trishna) for possessions, people and places. We constantly try to satisfy our cravings. It is fine to...

Read More

Wishing You All A Warm Holiday Season!

Posted on December 11, 2009
in Being in Nature
2 Comments

Dear Readers, We have concluded reading the Buddhist text Dhammapada. Did you enjoy reading it as much as the Taoist text Tao Te-Ching? More? Less? Was any one chapter in particular your favorite? Starting from January, 2010 I will post "Readings" from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad-Gita. The text recounts the tale of Arjuna, a prince. The setting is a battlefield. As a warrior it is Arjuna's duty to fight. The epic war is about to begin. As Arjuna (with his four brothers and their armies) confronts the armies of his rival cousins he is faced with this moral dilemma, how can I kill my kith and kin? What is the meaning of war? What is its purpose? His duty conflicts with his thoughts. Then his charioteer, the god Krishna, intercedes....

Read More

Is Silence Sacred?

Posted on November 7, 2009
in Being in Nature
3 Comments

A decade or two ago, whatever little time we use to have to ourselves, walking, driving, shopping, biking, gardening or any other such activity seems to have been replaced by the hurly-burly of cell-phones, speakerphones, texting and twittering. Experiencing silence has become remote, even counter culture. We have become a culture of din and distraction in which it has become increasingly hard to find time to be by ourselves. In doing so we have lost a precious gift. Since time immemorial mystics and ascetics have experienced sublime in silence. In silence they discovered mystery that was greater than them. When they sat with themselves they paid attention to themselves. Similarly, when we sit by ourselves regularly we become aware of ourselves. We realize how important it is that we cultivate our...

Read More

Four Phases of Life

Posted on September 4, 2009
in Being in Nature
0 Comments

Four Stages of Life in Ancient India Depending on what kind of person you are and what stage of life you are in, Hindus believe that your life parallels a day in your life. Morning, afternoon, evening and night:as are your days, so is your life. An ideal life, Hindus say, is hundred years and it passes through four phases, each a quarter of a century long. Each phase has its demands and expects certain behavior. From the time you are born to the time you are in your mid twenties the focus of your life is being a student. Your primary responsibility is to get educated, to learn. At this stage your only obligation is to pay attention to what the teacher says or shows. Good study habits are...

Read More