One thing you can always be sure of in life is that people will have something to say. When it comes to romance, a lot has been said. Many have simply not said anything meaningful but, others have amazed the world with their sayings. For this reason, those sayings are often repeated to ensure that all people partake of the thoughtful and rather interesting sentiments about romance. The popular love sayings from people and even from God are called romance quotes. They will be quoted to bring beauty and depth. Everyone has an opinion about romance. There are those who appreciate it while others can be referred to as skeptics. Since I’m not one of the skeptics, I would rather focus on the good or wise romance quotes. You do not have to be famous to have a love quote. However, after you come up with a brilliant quote you can be very famous. Quotes have always marveled people and these particular ones serve many roles. First, they can be used for humor. Humor is one of the most interesting ways of expressing yourself. There are many love quotes that will leave you in stitches. Since life is about being happy, why not laugh away with such quotes.
Romance quotes are also educational. They might be very short but, have deep sited messages that are able to supply lots of wisdom to people. Most people who come up with quotes have a certain message to pass to society. Apart from wisdom, they are able to pass their experience. There is nothing more interesting than the real life experience of a person about romance. We all relate to it and gain a lot from it. Romance quotes are also just for leisure and fun. You will find lots of fun quotes that will just excite you. Quotes will be found in very many places. First, they do not have to be written, there are very many quotations that are just passed by word of mouth from person to person. They may even not know the origin of such quotes. In traditional African societies, quotes and sayings were mainly used to teach children who were growing up. Quotes about romance were well hidden in sayings and with critical look at many quotes, there was so much to learn about love and romance.
There are romance quotes that are pretty popular in society. Sayings ‘love is blind’ is commonly quoted by many. Another quote about romance will state that ‘fools rush in’. This means that it is only fools who rush into love. This is to depict the state of mind of two young lovers. People will call them fools but, in the end, they find out that love was too strong to let go. You can simply pick a quote from someone and make it your reference point. The good thing is that you can formulate your very own quotes. The bible has very many inspiring love quotes like ‘love covers a multitude of sin’, ‘love is kind’ and we could go on forever. If you are in a relationship or planning to be in one, you should have some quotes which you can refer to all the time.
Francis Githinji
http://www.articlesbase.com/quotes-articles/the-noble-purpose-of-romance-quotes-683755.html
December 31, 2008
To my Beloved Friends and Family,
Oh what a year it has been! I find myself ending 2008 exactly where I started it here in India. As I ride my bike around smelling the burning of trash and open sewers, swerving to miss cows in the road and beggars as well I often ask myself, “What am I doing here?” I am sure many of you also ask that same question, “What is he doing there?” I am not really sure if there is a logical answer to that question. One theory I have on the reason I choose to be here instead of Maui is that Maui represents outer external beauty, while India for me at least represents internal beauty. We can be in a place surrounded by all the beauty in the world, but if internally we aren’t feeling good then we will hardly even notice the beauty that surrounds us.
However, if our internal world, meaning our mental state and our dominant feelings and emotions are in a clear peaceful space then we can be riding down the streets of dirty, smelly, crowded place such as India and perceive it all as beautiful and feel wonderful. That has been the biggest lesson that this country has taught me.
When I first arrived in India in 2006 I could never understand how these people could possibly have smiles on their faces or how they could always be so loving and polite. They live in what most of us would consider squalor, there are WAY too many people here and compared to the West, they live pretty rough lives! However, after spending about 6 months total here, it all makes sense. They have inner peace and when you have inner peace, you can hold that smile and offer that kindness no matter what your outside world and surroundings seem to be. So what is the difference between them and us?
There are many for sure, but what I have found is their absolute belief and devotion to a higher source. Here they literally have hundreds of different deities that they offer devotion, praise and pure heart felt love for. Their lives are centered on this higher power that most of us would call God. Their God or Gods may look completely different from what we perceive God to be, but it doesn’t matter. I firmly have come to believe that there is such thing as God, but that God can look and act and be whoever or whatever you want it to be. I have also come to know through direct experience that this Divine source lives outside of us, but even more importantly this Divine Source is our purest essence and is deep inside our very being.
When I first came to India in 2006 to a place called Oneness University I was given my first or at least my most powerful direct experience with this Divine Source. It is hard to describe what that felt like other than I could physically feel the Divine source inside my chest. Imagine that feeling when you fall in love with somebody. We have all had this feeling; it’s a light joyous feeling and it feels like we have butterflies in our chest. It is so beautiful. When I had this direct experience with the Divine a huge shift occurred in my being. I felt full, like I needed nothing outside of myself to be happy. Until then I had always been looking for that special someone to love me, to make me happy and to complete me. While I found this many times, it was only temporary and then ended in despairing agony and heartbreak. For many of us we think we will be happy when this happens or that happens…but when it finally happens are we really happy? Maybe for a short time, but then it’s on to the next thing that will make us happy again. I have been there, you have been there, we have ALL been there!
All of a sudden, I no longer felt the need to look for anything to make me happy; I realized that longing feeling for happiness was completely gone. I was happy! I knew this Divine Source had always been there, I was just not aware of it before. It was like this source was enclosed in a glass box inside my heart and the glass was so dirty that the Divine Source was hidden from my awareness. What I experienced here in 2006 was a glass cleaning, now I was able to see and feel this profoundly loving aspect of myself. What a gift this was! I want to share this gift with everyone, because it greatly altered the course of my life in such an immense and tangible way. Since that day, I have felt completely and totally guided as if someone very wise, loving and intelligent was guiding my every step and every move.
In 2008 that loving guidance was more evident than ever and I am so grateful! So it doesn’t matter what your religion is or what you call your God or your Higher Self or Divine Source, just please be aware that it is there inside you. Find your own way to have a glass cleaning and find your own glass cleaner ; ) When you experience your Divine Essence you will know and you will have no doubt that what I say is true. It is beyond any words that are written in any book or religious text. The Divine is trying SOOOO hard to reach out to us, to love us, to guide us, to nurture us and to support us in every move that we make. All we have to do is make ourselves available to let the Divine reach us. You can do this in so many different ways, through prayer, mediation, singing, dancing, surfing, being in nature, falling in love or a thousand other ways! You can simply sit and focus on your breath that is one of the easiest ways to come into contact with the present moment, which is the most important quality of Divine Source. All techniques are simply that, just techniques or tools to help you clean your glass and experience what is already there inside you!
The main tool or technique that I have been blessed with is Deeksha or the Oneness Blessing. If you want more info on this let me know, but I am not here to preach to you. Just because Deeksha works for me doesn’t mean that it will work for you as we all resonate with different things. The reason that I love it besides the fact that it has literally transformed my life in almost every area is that it is beyond any religion or belief system. It simply enhances whatever belief system you already have. The experience of the Oneness Blessing is just that an actual experience, meaning that it is beyond words. It is one thing to describe a first kiss and quite another to experience a first kiss! It is one thing to read about God and quite another to experience her.
I will leave you with the most important teaching I have ever come across that has translated into a freedom in my everyday life that is beyond belief. I was taught to me as the Art of Suffering. We all suffer! It could be physical suffering or emotional suffering and the reasons that we suffer are infinite. There is a multi million dollar industry that could be called suffering management, if you don’t believe me go to your local Bookstore and look at the Self Help section. There are a multitude of books that tell you how to handle your suffering and many 10 step processes to fix this or that about yourself. However, what if there was a way to really get rid of your suffering for good? It seems preposterous, but I have had personal experience that it is true. My teachers say, that ANYTHING FULLY EXPERIENCED TURNS TO JOY!!
What this means is that even the so called negative emotions that we don’t like to feel such as hate, anger, shame, jealousy, worry, anxiety etc…if fully experienced actually turn into a joyful or peaceful feeling! When I first heard this, I thought it was total BS for a lack of an appropriate spiritual term. How is that even remotely possible? I was thinking I HAVE fully felt all of those emotions and they certainly do not feel anything like joy….
Then my teachers explained the following: Every emotion that we feel whether positive or negative translates to a physical sensation in the body. Using the earlier example when you first fall in love you physically feel butterflies in your stomach and a feeling of euphoria like you are on top of the world. If you are scared or angry you feel a tightening in your chest or a lump in your gut. These are very real and physical sensations.
We have no problem fully experiencing the positive emotions such as love, happiness peace etc…We naturally fully experience these emotions all the time and it does feel very joyful. To my surprise, I found that it wasn’t the actually emotions that felt good, but it was the fact that I was completely allowing without resistance what was occurring in that moment. When we experience the moment with no resistance our natural source and state comes bubbling out of us, which is joy, bliss, peace and calmness. However, when we start to feel any negative emotions we do anything we can to escape feeling it because it is too painful and we are afraid to let ourselves go and feel it. On top of that we are always told to stay positive and there is a stigma against people expressing negativity. This means that at any hint of negativity, we use several methods to escape from feeling emotion and the pain:
1. We tell ourselves its OK, even when we know it’s not.
2. We use philosophical sayings like, it’s just the way it is, life isn’t easy, it was meant to be that way, it will go away, it’s my karma, no pain no gain etc….
3. We blame others or we blame ourselves and get caught up in the drama of the story.
4. Finally when none of those help us to feel better we go to McDonalds i.e. overeat, smoke, drink excessively, do drugs, etc…These are the ultimate escapes because they actually change the physiology of the body and make us feel better physically, at least temporarily.
We have all done these types of things so no one is alone. It is great to feel better, however if we never fully experience these painful emotions they get physically stored in our body. These emotions are stored as an actual electric charge in our cells. Eventually they can cause blockages that lead to sickness or dis-ease if they are not released. You have also heard of “The Secret” and the Law of Attraction I am sure. These stored negative emotions are actually much more powerful attractors than any thought you could ever produce consciously. Having these negative charges will actually attract people and situations into your life that will once again give you the opportunity to fully feel that particular emotion over and over again until it you fully experience it and release it. Each time you feel the emotion and fail to release it, the charge can get stronger and stronger and the events become even more difficult and even more painful!!! Have you ever experienced this in your life? Do you wonder why you always date the same kind of person or why the same basic patterns happen over and over in your life? This is one of the main reasons why!!! Knowing this information is vital and will be life transforming.
So how do you fully experience a negative emotion???
1. When you start to feel the negative emotion notice where in your body you feel the physical discomfort…. normally in the chest or stomach.
2. Focus your full attention on that area of your body.
3. Your mind will try to take your focus off of experiencing the pain, by all of the things I listed above and more. Here is the good news…You can’t stop the mind from doing that, so don’t waste energy trying. Just let it be!
4. What you can do is be aware that the mind is trying to help you escape from the feeling. Becoming aware of what is really going on will stop the mind in its tracks. So instead of going into drama or blame or self-pity you simply say internally, “my mind is trying to escape.” This in effect is like putting up a roadblock. Once you have this awareness you will want to bring your full focus back to the physical sensation in the body.
5. This is a process that you might have to repeat over and over until all escape routes the mind can take are blocked off by your awareness. You might have to say, “my mind is escaping” every 5 seconds if that’s what it takes. Any distraction either internally or externally the mind will grab on to and try to run away with your attention. Blame is the easiest distraction. “It’s his fault or her fault or the companies fault or the Government’s fault”…. Be keenly aware that this is a distraction and will keep you in suffering.
6. You will eventually get to a point in which you feel the physical discomfort in the body, but there is no mind activity or very little. At this point simply focus all of your attention on and fully experiencing the sensation. At this point you could simply ask whoever or whatever you consider the Higher Power to be for you whether it’s God, Light, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, The Universe, Your Higher Self, Void, Nothingness, Higher Intelligence etc….to help you release this emotional charge from your body.
7. Then just relax and fully experience the physical sensations that occur.
8. You might experience a range of things at this point and they are all perfect for you. You may experience a deep peace, laughter, joyful tears, if the emotions are really deep and painful, your body may shake and jolt around. This is just the charge being physically released and it is a huge blessing to have this happen. Depending on the severity of the emotion you could experience intense physical pain during this process as well. If you simply face it and experience it in this moment it will save countless days, weeks and months in the future of continued suffering.
I have used this process in my life and it gives you a freedom that is indescribable. You can then face any situation, any feeling, and any emotion in life knowing that it will turn into a feeling of joy or peace! When you experience it one time you will have the faith that it works and magic will start to unfold in your life!
Obviously there is a time a place to go through this process. You will want to be alone in a quiet place with as little distraction as possible. When you are in the heat of an argument, or at work for example you have to do what you have to do in the moment to get through it and then find some quiet time later to go through this process. If you have any questions at anytime you can always e-mail me at wiser1215@aol.com.
I cannot think of a more powerful gift in life that I could give you all than this. It has been given to me and I cherish more than life itself! I love you all and am so grateful that you are in my life! Thank you Thank You Thank YOU!!!!!!!!!! May 2009 be a year of joy and freedom like you have never experienced before!
Love and Many Blessings,
Patrick
Patrick Wise
http://www.articlesbase.com/spirituality-articles/a-letter-to-friends-and-family-sharing-what-i-have-learned-about-how-to-end-suffering-in-our-lives-717947.html
Health insurance for self employed is a challenging product to find. The term health insurance is generally used to explain a form of insurance that pays medical expenses. Sometimes, it is use broadly to comprise insurance covering disability or long term nursing or custodial care requirements. It may provide by a governed sponsored insurance program and from private insurance companies. You can buy health insurance on a group basis or from private insurance companies.
A self employed person should take health insurance in order to get protected with every sort of health insurance problem. You never know when any problem will knock your door and at that time you may need lots of money. Having a health insurance will surely help you to get financial help at the time of illness. Nowadays, there are lots of health insurance providers in the market to select from. Health insurance for self-employed individuals is comparatively more expensive than other health insurance plans. The reason for higher price for self employed health insurance is that health insurance rates are inexpensive when the risk is pooled and distributed among a large group of people.
Even distribute of the risk is the chief contributing factor for the affordability of group health insurance plans, which is not possible with self-employed health insurance policies. However, since 2002, self-employed health insurance costs have become tax deductible at a rate of up to seventy percent. This decision of providing tax advantages is bound to provide much-awaited relief to self-employed people.
Health insurance for self employed offers policies that bring together the advantages of indemnity and managed care health insurance. This permits the self employed people to get a health insurance policy without compromising good cost and good care.
With the advancement in technology, one can now find health insurance for self employed online as well. If you are looking for self employed health insurance then why are you searching here and there? Search online and get free quotes so that you can compare these quotes and get the right one for you.
Arabian health insurance offers health insurance for self employed quotes as per your needs and budget. If you are looking for self employed health insurance, then Arabian Health Insurance is the one stop solution for you.
Ena Taylor
http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/why-a-self-employed-needs-health-insurance-727808.html
The following are some tips for guys on how to get girls, especially the precious exes, without losing your manhood.
1. To put it bluntly, don’t be a pain in the arse. Guys, you don’t own the girls that you like. Even if she’s already your girlfriend or an ex for that matter, you still don’t have the right to make the decisions for her and/or act as if she cannot live her life by herself. This tip on how to get girls is probably the best of all.
2. Another tip on how to get girls is to act as naturally as you can. Naturally doesn’t constitute weird mannerisms like farting out loud or burping noisily. A girl would come to love those quirks in the long run, once she sees how great your personality is. If you just met her then just act as normal as possible. The biggest disappointment for a girl is to realize that all you did is to step your best foot forward. If she’s your ex-girlfriend, on the other hand, then avoid performing and telling her that you’ve changed is you really haven’t. Ex-girlfriend can see right through you. If you’re really want to change then show her through your actions. And inform her that though it will need some time to fully convert your ways, you’re still willing to do so because of her.
3. Guys are easily drawn at physical appearances. When a gorgeous girl with a hot body walked into the room then you can bet that every male within the proximity would love to talk to her. Ironically, girls are more attracted to the aura of the man, not his physical appearance per se. Having said that, another tip on how to get girls is to be distinctive. Think about your greatest attribute or what trait your friends associate with you. If you’re the jolly one then be humorous but no to malicious jokes if you’re not that close with the girl. If you’re the silent type then be mysterious but not to an extent when you’ll be perceived as someone who’s conceited or worst, creepy. If you’re trying to win your ex-girlfriend then, be the man that she wants you to be without sacrificing your own self. Learn to avoid doing small things that she hates the most. It’s all about learning how to compromise.
4. One more tip on how to get girls is to be sensitive to her needs. This is more on the emotional needs rather than the physical or financial one. As you know, guys and girls don’t think the same way. As the current Ms. Universe titleist answered, guys tackle the problems in a straight line and girls love to pass through the curves and detours of the journey. Most of the time break ups are decided by the girl because she feels that his man is unresponsive, oblivious and insensitive. To win her back you have to prove that you’re not tactless, inconsiderate and obtuse. If you used to vex her all day then know when to stop.
These are just four tips on how to get girls. Ultimately, women only want their men to be loving and respectful because love is the foundation of the relationship and respect is the cement. Show your ex these two traits and be ready to give her a warm embrace sooner than you think.
John Purden
http://www.articlesbase.com/relationships-articles/how-to-get-girls-more-importantly-your-ex-681630.html
December 31, 2008
To my Beloved Friends and Family,
Oh what a year it has been! I find myself ending 2008 exactly where I started it here in India. As I ride my bike around smelling the burning of trash and open sewers, swerving to miss cows in the road and beggars as well I often ask myself, “What am I doing here?” I am sure many of you also ask that same question, “What is he doing there?” I am not really sure if there is a logical answer to that question. One theory I have on the reason I choose to be here instead of Maui is that Maui represents outer external beauty, while India for me at least represents internal beauty. We can be in a place surrounded by all the beauty in the world, but if internally we aren’t feeling good then we will hardly even notice the beauty that surrounds us.
However, if our internal world, meaning our mental state and our dominant feelings and emotions are in a clear peaceful space then we can be riding down the streets of dirty, smelly, crowded place such as India and perceive it all as beautiful and feel wonderful. That has been the biggest lesson that this country has taught me.
When I first arrived in India in 2006 I could never understand how these people could possibly have smiles on their faces or how they could always be so loving and polite. They live in what most of us would consider squalor, there are WAY too many people here and compared to the West, they live pretty rough lives! However, after spending about 6 months total here, it all makes sense. They have inner peace and when you have inner peace, you can hold that smile and offer that kindness no matter what your outside world and surroundings seem to be. So what is the difference between them and us?
There are many for sure, but what I have found is their absolute belief and devotion to a higher source. Here they literally have hundreds of different deities that they offer devotion, praise and pure heart felt love for. Their lives are centered on this higher power that most of us would call God. Their God or Gods may look completely different from what we perceive God to be, but it doesn’t matter. I firmly have come to believe that there is such thing as God, but that God can look and act and be whoever or whatever you want it to be. I have also come to know through direct experience that this Divine source lives outside of us, but even more importantly this Divine Source is our purest essence and is deep inside our very being.
When I first came to India in 2006 to a place called Oneness University I was given my first or at least my most powerful direct experience with this Divine Source. It is hard to describe what that felt like other than I could physically feel the Divine source inside my chest. Imagine that feeling when you fall in love with somebody. We have all had this feeling; it’s a light joyous feeling and it feels like we have butterflies in our chest. It is so beautiful. When I had this direct experience with the Divine a huge shift occurred in my being. I felt full, like I needed nothing outside of myself to be happy. Until then I had always been looking for that special someone to love me, to make me happy and to complete me. While I found this many times, it was only temporary and then ended in despairing agony and heartbreak. For many of us we think we will be happy when this happens or that happens…but when it finally happens are we really happy? Maybe for a short time, but then it’s on to the next thing that will make us happy again. I have been there, you have been there, we have ALL been there!
All of a sudden, I no longer felt the need to look for anything to make me happy; I realized that longing feeling for happiness was completely gone. I was happy! I knew this Divine Source had always been there, I was just not aware of it before. It was like this source was enclosed in a glass box inside my heart and the glass was so dirty that the Divine Source was hidden from my awareness. What I experienced here in 2006 was a glass cleaning, now I was able to see and feel this profoundly loving aspect of myself. What a gift this was! I want to share this gift with everyone, because it greatly altered the course of my life in such an immense and tangible way. Since that day, I have felt completely and totally guided as if someone very wise, loving and intelligent was guiding my every step and every move.
In 2008 that loving guidance was more evident than ever and I am so grateful! So it doesn’t matter what your religion is or what you call your God or your Higher Self or Divine Source, just please be aware that it is there inside you. Find your own way to have a glass cleaning and find your own glass cleaner ; ) When you experience your Divine Essence you will know and you will have no doubt that what I say is true. It is beyond any words that are written in any book or religious text. The Divine is trying SOOOO hard to reach out to us, to love us, to guide us, to nurture us and to support us in every move that we make. All we have to do is make ourselves available to let the Divine reach us. You can do this in so many different ways, through prayer, mediation, singing, dancing, surfing, being in nature, falling in love or a thousand other ways! You can simply sit and focus on your breath that is one of the easiest ways to come into contact with the present moment, which is the most important quality of Divine Source. All techniques are simply that, just techniques or tools to help you clean your glass and experience what is already there inside you!
The main tool or technique that I have been blessed with is Deeksha or the Oneness Blessing. If you want more info on this let me know, but I am not here to preach to you. Just because Deeksha works for me doesn’t mean that it will work for you as we all resonate with different things. The reason that I love it besides the fact that it has literally transformed my life in almost every area is that it is beyond any religion or belief system. It simply enhances whatever belief system you already have. The experience of the Oneness Blessing is just that an actual experience, meaning that it is beyond words. It is one thing to describe a first kiss and quite another to experience a first kiss! It is one thing to read about God and quite another to experience her.
I will leave you with the most important teaching I have ever come across that has translated into a freedom in my everyday life that is beyond belief. I was taught to me as the Art of Suffering. We all suffer! It could be physical suffering or emotional suffering and the reasons that we suffer are infinite. There is a multi million dollar industry that could be called suffering management, if you don’t believe me go to your local Bookstore and look at the Self Help section. There are a multitude of books that tell you how to handle your suffering and many 10 step processes to fix this or that about yourself. However, what if there was a way to really get rid of your suffering for good? It seems preposterous, but I have had personal experience that it is true. My teachers say, that ANYTHING FULLY EXPERIENCED TURNS TO JOY!!
What this means is that even the so called negative emotions that we don’t like to feel such as hate, anger, shame, jealousy, worry, anxiety etc…if fully experienced actually turn into a joyful or peaceful feeling! When I first heard this, I thought it was total BS for a lack of an appropriate spiritual term. How is that even remotely possible? I was thinking I HAVE fully felt all of those emotions and they certainly do not feel anything like joy….
Then my teachers explained the following: Every emotion that we feel whether positive or negative translates to a physical sensation in the body. Using the earlier example when you first fall in love you physically feel butterflies in your stomach and a feeling of euphoria like you are on top of the world. If you are scared or angry you feel a tightening in your chest or a lump in your gut. These are very real and physical sensations.
We have no problem fully experiencing the positive emotions such as love, happiness peace etc…We naturally fully experience these emotions all the time and it does feel very joyful. To my surprise, I found that it wasn’t the actually emotions that felt good, but it was the fact that I was completely allowing without resistance what was occurring in that moment. When we experience the moment with no resistance our natural source and state comes bubbling out of us, which is joy, bliss, peace and calmness. However, when we start to feel any negative emotions we do anything we can to escape feeling it because it is too painful and we are afraid to let ourselves go and feel it. On top of that we are always told to stay positive and there is a stigma against people expressing negativity. This means that at any hint of negativity, we use several methods to escape from feeling emotion and the pain:
1. We tell ourselves its OK, even when we know it’s not.
2. We use philosophical sayings like, it’s just the way it is, life isn’t easy, it was meant to be that way, it will go away, it’s my karma, no pain no gain etc….
3. We blame others or we blame ourselves and get caught up in the drama of the story.
4. Finally when none of those help us to feel better we go to McDonalds i.e. overeat, smoke, drink excessively, do drugs, etc…These are the ultimate escapes because they actually change the physiology of the body and make us feel better physically, at least temporarily.
We have all done these types of things so no one is alone. It is great to feel better, however if we never fully experience these painful emotions they get physically stored in our body. These emotions are stored as an actual electric charge in our cells. Eventually they can cause blockages that lead to sickness or dis-ease if they are not released. You have also heard of “The Secret” and the Law of Attraction I am sure. These stored negative emotions are actually much more powerful attractors than any thought you could ever produce consciously. Having these negative charges will actually attract people and situations into your life that will once again give you the opportunity to fully feel that particular emotion over and over again until it you fully experience it and release it. Each time you feel the emotion and fail to release it, the charge can get stronger and stronger and the events become even more difficult and even more painful!!! Have you ever experienced this in your life? Do you wonder why you always date the same kind of person or why the same basic patterns happen over and over in your life? This is one of the main reasons why!!! Knowing this information is vital and will be life transforming.
So how do you fully experience a negative emotion???
1. When you start to feel the negative emotion notice where in your body you feel the physical discomfort…. normally in the chest or stomach.
2. Focus your full attention on that area of your body.
3. Your mind will try to take your focus off of experiencing the pain, by all of the things I listed above and more. Here is the good news…You can’t stop the mind from doing that, so don’t waste energy trying. Just let it be!
4. What you can do is be aware that the mind is trying to help you escape from the feeling. Becoming aware of what is really going on will stop the mind in its tracks. So instead of going into drama or blame or self-pity you simply say internally, “my mind is trying to escape.” This in effect is like putting up a roadblock. Once you have this awareness you will want to bring your full focus back to the physical sensation in the body.
5. This is a process that you might have to repeat over and over until all escape routes the mind can take are blocked off by your awareness. You might have to say, “my mind is escaping” every 5 seconds if that’s what it takes. Any distraction either internally or externally the mind will grab on to and try to run away with your attention. Blame is the easiest distraction. “It’s his fault or her fault or the companies fault or the Government’s fault”…. Be keenly aware that this is a distraction and will keep you in suffering.
6. You will eventually get to a point in which you feel the physical discomfort in the body, but there is no mind activity or very little. At this point simply focus all of your attention on and fully experiencing the sensation. At this point you could simply ask whoever or whatever you consider the Higher Power to be for you whether it’s God, Light, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, The Universe, Your Higher Self, Void, Nothingness, Higher Intelligence etc….to help you release this emotional charge from your body.
7. Then just relax and fully experience the physical sensations that occur.
8. You might experience a range of things at this point and they are all perfect for you. You may experience a deep peace, laughter, joyful tears, if the emotions are really deep and painful, your body may shake and jolt around. This is just the charge being physically released and it is a huge blessing to have this happen. Depending on the severity of the emotion you could experience intense physical pain during this process as well. If you simply face it and experience it in this moment it will save countless days, weeks and months in the future of continued suffering.
I have used this process in my life and it gives you a freedom that is indescribable. You can then face any situation, any feeling, and any emotion in life knowing that it will turn into a feeling of joy or peace! When you experience it one time you will have the faith that it works and magic will start to unfold in your life!
Obviously there is a time a place to go through this process. You will want to be alone in a quiet place with as little distraction as possible. When you are in the heat of an argument, or at work for example you have to do what you have to do in the moment to get through it and then find some quiet time later to go through this process. If you have any questions at anytime you can always e-mail me at wiser1215@aol.com.
I cannot think of a more powerful gift in life that I could give you all than this. It has been given to me and I cherish more than life itself! I love you all and am so grateful that you are in my life! Thank you Thank You Thank YOU!!!!!!!!!! May 2009 be a year of joy and freedom like you have never experienced before!
Love and Many Blessings,
Patrick
Patrick Wise
http://www.articlesbase.com/spirituality-articles/a-letter-to-friends-and-family-sharing-what-i-have-learned-about-how-to-end-suffering-in-our-lives-717947.html
Is there any clear and applied theory of pluralism at all?
Studying different perceptions regarding the concept of pluralism in general and religious pluralism in particular reveal the undesirable fact that such theories and views are not applicable enough as far as the co existence of different cultures and religions at a global level are concerned. In other word, pluralism should not imply an inclusive perception excluding other views. In this respect contradiction arises as soon as almost all the views on pluralism including religious one presuppose that all paths of intellect leads to the same truth. Such a perception of pluralism sacrificing truth as the essence of all schools of though prescribes a relative version of truth and is considered as a monopolized school of thought. Consequently, it is inherently the opposite of plural perceptions of truth.
There are some authorities that like all other people act and think not according to their own criteria but according to what those authorities almost always prescribe for them. These authorities may appear either in a Meta-paradigm context such as philosophy, religion, science, or even mysticism or in a micro context such as policy, education, economy, or any other social institution. They usually introduce themselves as the source of prosperity and as the sole reliable path that is able to lead people to ultimate truth. Their final step as a result is homogenizing all cultures and developing a global but favorable culture established of course based on their own criteria. There are other authorities on the other hand that believe in a hetero version of global culture in which all cultures and sub cultures are not to be homogeneous but heterogeneous and pluralistic in nature. Rolf.E Brurer in this respect advocates:
“Communication is precisely what is required. A dialogue between cultures is the only way to avoid a battle of cultures. Such a dialogue can take place only on a foundation of tolerance. There must be a willing on all sides to abide by rules acceptable to all, however different the interests and cultural characteristics of the parties involved .We must be able to endure the inherent tension in these relations in order to ensure that the world can become an open and civil society”.
The adherents of such a perception of pluralism advocate that a global culture is not to put freedom and free will of humans at risk through complicated manipulations of social systems. They emphasize that world should take step in a favorite atmosphere in which a peaceful co-existence is already guaranteed for all cultures all around the world. As a consequence they advocate the dominance of different worldviews as many as the number of existing cultures.
How ever as soon as the advocates of these two different views decide to materialize their dreams, they face the problem of mutual understanding. How is it possible for one culture to homogenize different and even opposite ways of thinking and acting and how is it possible for a specific culture to globalize its so called favorite criteria if neither does it understand other cultures nor other cultures do understand the prescriptions and presuppositions of that culture?
Therefore, as far as the inapplicability of such theories is concerned, co-existence of heterogeneous and pluralistic cultures turns out to be impossible; instead the possibility of conflict, violence and intolerance increases. At this time the third authorities emerge both in theory and in practice. In their view clash of cultures appears to be the inevitable choice in such a false pluralistic world. They believe the geographical borders through modern communication have been removed and all cultures at the present time breathe in the same atmosphere and if they avoid getting homogenized (first view) or if they stop learning to tolerate with each other (the latter view) effectively, conflict, violence, clash and even wars are inevitable.
What is the remedy?
As soon as the discussions of inter-cultural relations or the dialogue of religions and any topic on bilateral understanding commence, tolerance turns out to be the only solution. However in my view real problem starts while people from different cultures and worldviews define their paths toward tolerance. We believe this is the false version of tolerance as we believed already there are some false definitions of pluralism. As the first lesson, tolerance dose not mean inviting others to cease walking in their path, neither does it mean to teach them any thing in contrast with their beliefs.
As F. J. Kinsman puts it: “To tolerate everything is to teach nothing”. To tolerate with beliefs and principles of other people, it is a must to forget all your own principles and beliefs. In this respect Herbert Samuel2 believes:” It is easy to be tolerant of the principles of other people if you have none of your own”. If we examine the educational systems of different cultures, we may arrive at such a disappointing conclusion that “tolerance” has no serious place in designing, implementing, and assessing components of any school curriculum all around the world. Nonetheless, Helen Keller3 says: “The highest result of education is tolerance”. Moreover Carl Gustav Jung believes: “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves”.
However; if tolerance is the key to mutual understanding as the corner stone of inter cultural co existence and if to be tolerant is to avoid being entrapped into self worldview while approaching other worldviews and cultures, one need to respond four vital and inevitable questions:
1) Are we required to give up our beliefs forever while we start practicing tolerance?
2) What worldview will be dominant over our thought while we try to practice tolerance?
3) What are the presuppositions and prescriptions of that worldview that are not to be in contradiction with any worldview all around the world?
4) How can we produce such a flexible position in our minds?
Responding these four questions, specially the third one, we present our view on pluralism in general and religious pluralism in particular. Before going to these questions, I present the capacity of Islam as revealed in holy book (Quran) and instructive narrations (Hadith) of Islamic pioneers (Imams).
A case study from Islamic culture and worldview
To approve our claims in this paper, we employed also some instances from Islamic culture in where we are living to show its potentiality toward mutual understanding. It is self evident that all cultures in the world may have enough space and potentiality to let them practice mutual understanding and tolerance. Imam Ali Believes: “Give up whatever you are proud of to start dialogue and mutual understanding”. Moreover Holy Quran in surreh49, verse13invites all people all around the world to mutual understanding without expecting them necessarily to practice only one faith or to origin from a specific nation:
“O you men! Surely we have created you of a mail and a female, and made you tribes and families that you may know each other; surely the most honorable of you with Allah is the one among you most careful of (his duty); surly Allah is knowing, aware”.
To collect some data as a sign of necessity of mutual understanding in Islam, We also identified more verses in Quran and some Hadith or famous quotations as important building blocks of Islamic epistemology. Quran in section (surreh) 3, verse 64 invites all religions and faiths to understand each other and in fact warns the current mutual understanding of people is wrong and lead different nations to conflict and wars:
“O followers of the book! Why do you dispute about Ibrahim, when the tavrat (Old Testament) and the Injeel (New Testament) were not revealed till after him; do you not then understand”?
1) Pluralism Is a Better Search for Truth
As tolerance never do mean relinquishing your own worldview, pluralism can be considered as a better endeavor in the journey of truth, while the truth itself is not expected to be necessarily acquired in any journey. Though there is obviously a difference between attitude change and mutual understanding, mostly people try to change attitudes or views of one another based on their meta-beliefs of their worldviews, while they are to co exist culturally and religiously. They are in fact involved in activities such as propaganda, thought manipulation, inculcation or any related issue but as far as tolerance is concerned, they have nothing to do with inter faith dialogue or pluralism.
That is to say in such affairs no matter we are right or wrong, we try to convince others to adapt a different way of thinking and acting. At the same time invite them to give up their views, so such a process cannot be assumed as tolerance. Such activities are too poisonous to practice tolerance through which. As soon as we get in a tolerant position, not only do we keep our own views but we are required to identify & respect others views whatever they are as the first step. In this sense if you are a member of society that is in majority you need to practice respecting all other minority groups and at the same time if you are in minority you are required to be courageous enough to keep your own ideas and also respecting others. Ralph W. Stockman advocates this view, he says: “The test of tolerance comes when we are in a majority; the test of courage comes when we are in a minority”. Friedemann Schulz von Thun (2002) believes:
“To understand does not mean to agree. Some people fear that if they try gently and lovingly to understand the other points of view, they create the (false) impression that they are subscribing to the equation “to understand=to have sympathy for=to approve of.” It is important to know that values and virtues can affect human co-existence constructively only if they are counterbalanced by opposite but related qualities. For example: tolerance without courageous confrontation degenerates into timid leniency; conversely, confrontation without tolerance grows into aggressive contempt”.
The second and the most important step in this stage include the certainty that knowledge acquisition of truth is a difficult job but an obligation. Such a belief motivates us to search for truth permanently. In the holy Quran Believers are required to acquire knowledge in china metaphorically as a distant place. This idea though helps us to search for truth continuously and although believers are thought to respect all other religions, it prescribes that truth is absolute and finally people are expected to surrender to it through God s will. Such a definition of pluralism never do sacrifices truth and never decline its essence as a relative entity, but require people to change their paths consciously while they experience the journey of truth so that to believe in the divine revelation as the only truth.
2) Temporary but arbitrary worldview not imposed and relative truth
To co exist peacefully; temporary worldview must be dominant to guarantee the real required tolerance. However; the erroneous definitions of pluralism prescribe one relative version of truth excluding all other versions under the pretext of respecting opponent ideas. One may ask how it is possible to establish a system of meaning construction without relying on specific meta-beliefs crystallized in our worldview.
If we believe our thoughts and behaviors are based on our worldview, and if we are to put aside temporarily our own worldview while trying tolerance, then we not only may experience a gap but we may be too uncertain to even utter a word let alone understanding others. How ever, we should know this temporary uncertainty is the next vital necessary step to start understanding others. We cannot achieve such a position unless we build a worldview void of any bios presuppositions for a few seconds. It is at this stage that we both recognize the importance of education and what is needed to be included in the schools curriculum. Its worth repeating Helen Keller quotation, she says: “The highest result of education is “tolerance”.
At the third stage we need to decode the worldview dominated over the culture and its member(s) to whom we are considered as the audience. At this stage we are not hearing some sounds while others are talking but we listen to what they say. By listening we mean the ability to identify worldview components of others and its related building blocks. To progress our understanding of others through this temporary worldview, we respond to universal questions of our worldview transitionally based on the building blocks and meta- beliefs of the sources to which we are audience. This is the time we get out from our one-way street and start communicating and traveling to a new universe of different ideas.
3) Capacity to understand any epistemology without a specific epistemology
Though temporary worldview is void of any permanent prescriptions and presuppositions, it helps us try different and even opponent epistemologies. To answer the third question, we believe a temporary worldview is potentially the transitional parking place of all presuppositions running all around the world and is void of any permanent belief of that kind. However the very principle indicating the fact that every culture and worldview in general and every individual in particular may enjoy some permanent beliefs that must be respected and identified is the sole permanent presupposition of such a worldview. This is the only worldview in the world that is void of any ideology, and any self oriented evaluation system. John Locke believes:
“Till a man can judge whether they be truths or not, his UNDERSTANDING is but little improved, and thus men of much reading, though greatly learned, but may be little knowing”.
Therefore, it is also the only worldview in where all the cultures and all the worldviews, including their permanent beliefs, prescriptions, and presuppositions can co-exist. In short it is the only position in which one finds enough potentiality, reliability, and possibility for mutual understanding and true dialogue of cultures and religions. However; as it is said earlier, it neither does mean giving up our fundamental principals nor is it considered surrendering to the perception of relative truth. It is just a safe journey respecting other beliefs and experiencing real tolerance and pluralism while searching absolute truth.
4) Education through principals of Guardianship (Vellayat)
We need a temporary & universal worldview oriented education to bring about such an applied version of pluralism. As far as my ten years study on the subject is concerned, the only concept that can guarantee a wide range of possibilities for acquiring knowledge and truth is the concept of guardianship or Vellayat. Vellayat never does include a relative version of truth, yet it is a divine concept that includes all methods of knowledge acquisition in all schools of thought.
There is a poem in Persian saying: What ever goodness is there for the good, you have all within you. That is to say Vellayat includes not only revelation, but experience, reason, mystic experiences and any other possible methodology for intellect, ultimate reality and absolute truth. More over; it offers an extra ordinary capacity to employ a transitional worldview trying all schools of thought though leading the believers to an absolute perception of truth consciously and willingly.
To answer the fourth question and to produce such a flexible position in our minds, however, we must experience a revolutionary reform in the current school curriculum. Through a global and systematic education we let all people in general and school students in particular learn a few vital lessons:
1) What are the shared questions of all worldviews all around the world?
2) How people find local answers to their universal questions?
3) What are building Blocks of live worldviews and cultures?
These three questions turn out to be suitable topics to help people decode other worldviews and also learn their own worldview through education. How ever, they are pre requisite section that prepares people with enough land in their worldview from which they are to take off. Another education is needed to helps people how to get out from their own worldview and how to stand in a temporary position that makes them able to feel other worldviews. That is to say they need a lesson to be courageous enough to leave their lovely home for a short while.
Conclusion
In summary, I believe mostly perceptions on religious pluralism are erroneous as far as they victimize the essence of truth. Though we believe in religious pluralism as an intellectual endeavor approaching the process of conflict resolution, I maintain an epistemological focus that is ignored in almost all the theories probing the concept of pluralism in general and the idea of religious pluralism in particular. The possibility of mutual understanding as a result is advocated through resorting to a secure and safe perception of truth. We tried to offer an applied perception of pluralism in general and religious pluralism in particular. More over; we posed 4 questions to organize our thought for introducing concepts such as transitional worldview, tolerance, truth, mutual understanding, and other operational definitions for the related key words’. The whole paper focused on introducing a new style in the process of conflict resolution though the key word is rarely used. Finally a key concept such as guardianship (Vellayat) has been introduced as the intellectual endeavor to bring about tolerance and pluralism as far as inter faith dialogue and inter cultural relations is concerned.
End notes
[1] Associate professor and the member of scientific board at institute for Islamic thought and culture
2 British Liberal Statesman, Philosophical Writer, (1870-1963)
3 1880-1968, American Blind/Deaf Author, Lecturer, Amorist
4A
Bibliography
1- Naderi, Culture Recognition, Arsh Pajouh, Tehran, 2004, ch, 3 p
2- Abolghasemi & Naderi, Is Hope Culture Bound, Interdisciplinary net, Oxford Shire, ?2007
3- Fridemann Schulz Von Thun, Lets Talk, Ways towards Mutual Understanding, Alfred Herrhausen Society, 2002, p84.
4- Wolfgang Schauble, An order which binds us, Alfred Herrhausen Society for International Talk,2002,p166
5- Rolf-E.Breuer, Freedom s Twin, Alfred Herrhausen Society for International Talk,2002,p11
6- Mahmud Zakzouk, Islam: source of Tolerance, Alfred Herrhausen Society for International Talk,2002, p233
7- Muhammad Ali, A message of Peace, Alfred Herrhausen Society for International Talk,2002, p273
8- Bassam Tibi, A Plea For A Reform Islam, A Euro- Islamic Vision, Alfred Herrhausen Society for International Talk,2002, p238
9- Holy Quran of Muslims, M.H. Shakhir Translation, Hujurat(The chambers) , verse 13
10- Holy Quran of Muslims, M.H. Shakhir Translation, Alay Imran (The Family of Imran), Verse 64
11- James W. Sire, Discipleship of the Mind, (IVP, 1990)
12- Aerts, D., Apostel L., De Moor B., Hellemans S., Maex E., Van Belle H., Van Der Veken J., Worldviews: From Fragmentation to Integration, VUB Press, Brussels, 1994.
13- Funk Ken, What Is Worldview, Oregon State University, 2001.
14- Imam Ali, Nahjolbalagheh,
siavosh
http://www.articlesbase.com/culture-articles/interfaith-dialogue-religious-pluralism-conflict-resolution-700101.html
Opportunities for success and prosperity are abundant all around us. There literally everywhere you look. But I guess it all depends on how you look at them and what you are looking for.
In today’s society it seems that people are leaning toward thinking that the world owes them some kind of great endowment or gift in the way of abundance and/or riches. Or maybe they think the government is supposed to step in and give them something for nothing since no one else will.
It’s important that you understand that successful people are not born that way, they make things that way. There are so many successful people in the world today that started at the bottom and made it to the top. Not through whining about their situations or surroundings, but by pulling themselves up by the boot straps and making things happen that would never have been possible except through persistence, perseverance and honest effort.
While there are thousands of people to consider, let’s take a look at Condoleezza Rice for example. She was born in 1954 and grew up in the deep south of Birmingham, Alabama under very adverse and unfair times of segregation. Rice would not accept no for an answer when confronted by the popular mind-set of the time.
Her parents taught her that an education would provide her protection against things like poverty and prejudice. She was going to college by the age of 15 and graduated at the tender young age of 19 from the University of Denver with a degree in political science. And now she’s the Secretary of State of the United States of America.
Now don’t get me wrong, this is not a promotion or endorsement for Condi Rice or any of her political views, but it just goes to show you that if you put your mind to something and never give up and never take societies answer for what it thinks you should be, you can pretty much accomplish anything.
Still don’t believe me? Well just take a look at our 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama.
Nothing in life is free. Success in anything takes hard work and consistent focus combined with an end goal in order to bring about the things you want. Nothing from nothing still leaves nothing no matter how you slice it. If you put nothing into your life, you will get nothing back in return. If you decide to take the low road then you will get low road results. This is a law of nature that cannot and will not ever be changed.
As you go through life and find yourself feeling down and out or perhaps feeling like life has dealt you a bad hand, all you need to do is look around because I can guarantee you that someone is in a worse situation or circumstance than you are.
People with so called handicaps are the people you should focus on when you feel like your life isn’t going the way you think it should. Why? Because they don’t take anything for granted. They are no mountains they can’t climb and nothing will get in their way of accomplishing anything and everything they set out to do. They don’t take no for an answer and their perseverance is unwavering.
If people today would quit blaming everyone else for their short comings and down falls and take responsibility for their own actions and behavior, we would have a lot more successful men and women in our society, not to mention setting a good example for our children and grandchildren and the future of our country.
While I don’t mean to sound like I am preaching, there are little laws of nature or maybe sayings that have been with us since the beginning of time and they are not to be ignored or taken lightly in any way, shape or form.
The one that sticks in my head that my daddy told me many years ago was: ‘What goes around comes around.’ All through out my life I have found this to be true without fail. Trust me on this one, it has always been true and always will be true.
Life will treat you the way you treat it and yes, you will reap what you sow.
Paul Barksdale
http://www.articlesbase.com/motivational-articles/opportunities-success-and-your-future-749585.html
The new year is coming, and perhaps you are wondering what to say to your other half on Valentine’s day, 2009. There are literally thousands and thousands of romantic sayings that you can communicate to your partner. They come in many different styles. Your challenge, is to choose something that suits your personality. Here are some common romantic saying styles.
Poetic style.
This is the most commonly seen, and perhaps the most popular style. You will find all sorts of romantic sayings written by past and present poets. Rhymes and verses just make romantic sayings sound more beautiful. That’s just what comes out of using words in a poetic manner. You can consider adopting this style if you have an interest in poems. Make sure you know something about the poet just in case your lover asks you where you got your inspiration from!
Popular media style.
This is also another hugely popular style. Popular media style means your romantic saying will be similar to what you usually come across in movies, TV shows, magazines, or even fiction story books. The characteristics of popular media style is that the writing is simple, straight forward, and at times a little bit airy. Airy in the sense that it doesn’t really sound practical. But that’s okay for romantic sayings. They are meant to be music to the ears, so they don’t have to be a hundred percent realistic.
Teenage style.
This style is clearly not for every one. But it can certainly bring back happy memories. For example, if you have known your lover since your were teenagers, perhaps this style may work. The key to writing romantic sayings in this style is to keep the theme around loyalty.
Ancient style.
There are so many examples of ancient romantic sayings on the Internet. For instance, you can find romantic greek sayings, romantic roman sayings, and so on. These are mostly written by poets, philosophers, artists, and politicians. Some of the sayings are really beautiful. You will be missing out if you don’t look them up.
Philosophical style.
Be a little careful with this style. Not everyone can appreciate philosophical romantic sayings. Usually, such sayings imply something about the meaning of life or about the meaning of relationships. They are profound, so not everyone welcome them. So if your lover doesn’t know how to appreciate philosophy, keep the sayings to yourself.
As you can see, there are many types of romantic sayings to choose from. Ask yourself if you know your lover well enough to be able to choose a style that you know will work. Of course, you should never choose something that is not congruent with who you are. For example, if you have never been interested in poems, don’t frighten your lover by spouting poetic romantic sayings all of the sudden. They may come out more like romantic ramblings instead. And that will cost you to lose some points.
Gen Wright
http://www.articlesbase.com/dating-articles/impress-your-valentine-with-romantic-sayings-in-2009-695599.html
Arundhati Roy: Mumbai was not India’s 9/11
http://www.guardian .co.uk/world/ 2008/dec/ 12/mumbai- arundhati- roy
The Mumbai attacks have been dubbed ‘India’s 9/11′, and there are calls for a 9/11-style response, including an attack on Pakistan. Instead, the country must fight terrorism with justice, or face civil war.
We’ve forfeited the rights to our own tragedies. As the carnage in Mumbai raged on, day after horrible day, our 24-hour news channels informed us that we were watching "India’s 9/11". Like actors in a Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood film, we’re expected to play our parts and say our lines, even though we know it’s all been said and done before.
As tension in the region builds, US Senator John McCain has warned Pakistan that if it didn’t act fast to arrest the "Bad Guys" he had personal information that India would launch air strikes on "terrorist camps" in Pakistan and that Washington could do nothing because Mumbai was India’s 9/11.
But November isn’t September, 2008 isn’t 2001, Pakistan isn’t Afghanistan and India isn’t America. So perhaps we should reclaim our tragedy and pick through the debris with our own brains and our own broken hearts so that we can arrive at our own conclusions.
It’s odd how in the last week of November thousands of people in Kashmir supervised by thousands of Indian troops lined up to cast their vote, while the richest quarters of India’s richest city ended up looking like war-torn Kupwara – one of Kashmir’s most ravaged districts.
The Mumbai attacks are only the most recent of a spate of terrorist attacks on Indian towns and cities this year. Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur and Malegaon have all seen serial bomb blasts in which hundreds of ordinary people have been killed and wounded. If the police are right about the people they have arrested as suspects, both Hindu and Muslim, all Indian nationals, it obviously indicates that something’s going very badly wrong in this country.
If you were watching television you may not have heard that ordinary people too died in Mumbai. They were mowed down in a busy railway station and a public hospital. The terrorists did not distinguish between poor and rich. They killed both with equal cold-bloodedness. The Indian media, however, was transfixed by the rising tide of horror that breached the glittering barricades of India Shining and spread its stench in the marbled lobbies and crystal ballrooms of two incredibly luxurious hotels and a small Jewish centre.
We’re told one of these hotels is an icon of the city of Mumbai. That’s absolutely true. It’s an icon of the easy, obscene injustice that ordinary Indians endure every day. On a day when the newspapers were full of moving obituaries by beautiful people about the hotel rooms they had stayed in, the gourmet restaurants they loved (ironically one was called Kandahar), and the staff who served them, a small box on the top left-hand corner in the inner pages of a national newspaper (sponsored by a pizza company I think) said "Hungry, kya?" (Hungry eh?). It then, with the best of intentions I’m sure, informed its readers that on the international hunger index, India ranked below Sudan and Somalia. But of course this isn’t that war. That one’s still being fought in the Dalit bastis of our villages, on the banks of the Narmada and the Koel Karo rivers; in the rubber estate in Chengara; in the villages of Nandigram, Singur, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Lalgarh in West Bengal and the slums and shantytowns of our gigantic cities.
That war isn’t on TV. Yet. So maybe, like everyone else, we should deal with the one that is.
There is a fierce, unforgiving fault-line that runs through the contemporary discourse on terrorism. On one side (let’s call it Side A) are those who see terrorism, especially "Islamist" terrorism, as a hateful, insane scourge that spins on its own axis, in its own orbit and has nothing to do with the world around it, nothing to do with history, geography or economics. Therefore, Side A says, to try and place it in a political context, or even try to understand it, amounts to justifying it and is a crime in itself.
Side B believes that though nothing can ever excuse or justify terrorism, it exists in a particular time, place and political context, and to refuse to see that will only aggravate the problem and put more and more people in harm’s way. Which is a crime in itself.
The sayings of Hafiz Saeed, who founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure) in 1990 and who belongs to the hardline Salafi tradition of Islam, certainly bolsters the case of Side A. Hafiz Saeed approves of suicide bombing, hates Jews, Shias and Democracy and believes that jihad should be waged until Islam, his Islam, rules the world. Among the things he said are: "There cannot be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy."
And: "India has shown us this path. We would like to give India a tit-for-tat response and reciprocate in the same way by killing the Hindus, just like it is killing the Muslims in Kashmir."
But where would Side A accommodate the sayings of Babu Bajrangi of Ahmedabad, India, who sees himself as a democrat, not a terrorist? He was one of the major lynchpins of the 2002 Gujarat genocide and has said (on camera): "We didn’t spare a single Muslim shop, we set everything on fire … we hacked, burned, set on fire … we believe in setting them on fire because these bastards don’t want to be cremated, they’re afraid of it … I have just one last wish … let me be sentenced to death … I don’t care if I’m hanged … just give me two days before my hanging and I will go and have a field day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs [seven or eight hundred thousand] of these people stay … I will finish them off … let a few more of them die … at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die."
And where, in Side A’s scheme of things, would we place the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh bible, We, or, Our Nationhood Defined by MS Golwalkar, who became head of the RSS in 1944. It says: "Ever since that evil day, when Moslems first landed in Hindustan, right up to the present moment, the Hindu Nation has been gallantly fighting on to take on these despoilers. The Race Spirit has been awakening."
Or: "To keep up the purity of its race and culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races – the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here … a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by."
(Of course Muslims are not the only people in the gun sights of the Hindu right. Dalits have been consistently targeted. Recently in Kandhamal in Orissa, Christians were the target of two and a half months of violence which left more than 40 dead. Forty thousand people have been driven from their homes, half of who now live in refugee camps.)
All these years Hafiz Saeed has lived the life of a respectable man in Lahore as the head of the Jamaat-ud Daawa, which many believe is a front organization for the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He continues to recruit young boys for his own bigoted jehad with his twisted, fiery sermons. On December 11 the UN imposed sanctions on the Jammat-ud-Daawa. The Pakistani government succumbed to international pressure and put Hafiz Saeed under house arrest. Babu Bajrangi, however, is out on bail and lives the life of a respectable man in Gujarat. A couple of years after the genocide he left the VHP to join the Shiv Sena. Narendra Modi, Bajrangi’s former mentor, is still the chief minister of Gujarat. So the man who presided over the Gujarat genocide was re-elected twice, and is deeply respected by India’s biggest corporate houses, Reliance and Tata.
Suhel Seth, a TV impresario and corporate spokesperson, recently said: "Modi is God." The policemen who supervised and sometimes even assisted the rampaging Hindu mobs in Gujarat have been rewarded and promoted. The RSS has 45,000 branches, its own range of charities and 7 million volunteers preaching its doctrine of hate across India. They include Narendra Modi, but also former prime minister AB Vajpayee, current leader of the opposition LK Advani, and a host of other senior politicians, bureaucrats and police and intelligence officers.
If that’s not enough to complicate our picture of secular democracy, we should place on record that there are plenty of Muslim organisations within India preaching their own narrow bigotry.
So, on balance, if I had to choose between Side A and Side B, I’d pick Side B. We need context. Always.
In this nuclear subcontinent that context is partition. The Radcliffe Line, which separated India and Pakistan and tore through states, districts, villages, fields, communities, water systems, homes and families, was drawn virtually overnight. It was Britain’s final, parting kick to us. Partition triggered the massacre of more than a million people and the largest migration of a human population in contemporary history. Eight million people, Hindus fleeing the new Pakistan, Muslims fleeing the new kind of India left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Each of those people carries and passes down a story of unimaginable pain, hate, horror but yearning too. That wound, those torn but still unsevered muscles, that blood and those splintered bones still lock us together in a close embrace of hatred, terrifying familiarity but also love. It has left Kashmir trapped in a nightmare from which it can’t seem to emerge, a nightmare that has claimed more than 60,000 lives. Pakistan, the Land of the Pure, became an Islamic Republic, and then, very quickly a corrupt, violent military state, openly intolerant of other faiths. India on the other hand declared herself an inclusive, secular democracy. It was a magnificent undertaking, but Babu Bajrangi’s predecessors had been hard at work since the 1920s, dripping poison into India’s bloodstream, undermining that idea of India even before it was born.
By 1990 they were ready to make a bid for power. In 1992 Hindu mobs exhorted by LK Advani stormed the Babri Masjid and demolished it. By 1998 the BJP was in power at the centre. The US war on terror put the wind in their sails. It allowed them to do exactly as they pleased, even to commit genocide and then present their fascism as a legitimate form of chaotic democracy. This happened at a time when India had opened its huge market to international finance and it was in the interests of international corporations and the media houses they owned to project it as a country that could do no wrong. That gave Hindu nationalists all the impetus and the impunity they needed.
This, then, is the larger historical context of terrorism in the subcontinent and of the Mumbai attacks. It shouldn’t surprise us that Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba is from Shimla (India) and LK Advani of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh is from Sindh (Pakistan).
In much the same way as it did after the 2001 parliament attack, the 2002 burning of the Sabarmati Express and the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express, the government of India announced that it has "incontrovertible" evidence that the Lashkar-e-Taiba backed by Pakistan’s ISI was behind the Mumbai strikes. The Lashkar has denied involvement, but remains the prime accused. According to the police and intelligence agencies the Lashkar operates in India through an organisation called the Indian Mujahideen. Two Indian nationals, Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmed, a Special Police Officer working for the Jammu and Kashmir police, and Tausif Rehman, a resident of Kolkata in West Bengal, have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks.
So already the neat accusation against Pakistan is getting a little messy. Almost always, when these stories unspool, they reveal a complicated global network of foot soldiers, trainers, recruiters, middlemen and undercover intelligence and counter-intelligenc e operatives working not just on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, but in several countries simultaneously. In today’s world, trying to pin down the provenance of a terrorist strike and isolate it within the borders of a single nation state is very much like trying to pin down the provenance of corporate money. It’s almost impossible.
In circumstances like these, air strikes to "take out" terrorist camps may take out the camps, but certainly will not "take out" the terrorists. Neither will war. (Also, in our bid for the moral high ground, let’s try not to forget that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the LTTE of neighbouring Sri Lanka, one of the world’s most deadly terrorist groups, were trained by the Indian army.)
Thanks largely to the part it was forced to play as America’s ally first in its war in support of the Afghan Islamists and then in its war against them, Pakistan, whose territory is reeling under these contradictions, is careening towards civil war. As recruiting agents for America’s jihad against the Soviet Union, it was the job of the Pakistan army and the ISI to nurture and channel funds to Islamic fundamentalist organizations. Having wired up these Frankensteins and released them into the world, the US expected it could rein them in like pet mastiffs whenever it wanted to.
Certainly it did not expect them to come calling in heart of the Homeland on September 11. So once again, Afghanistan had to be violently remade. Now the debris of a re-ravaged Afghanistan has washed up on Pakistan’s borders. Nobody, least of all the Pakistan government, denies that it is presiding over a country that is threatening to implode. The terrorist training camps, the fire-breathing mullahs and the maniacs who believe that Islam will, or should, rule the world is mostly the detritus of two Afghan wars. Their ire rains down on the Pakistan government and Pakistani civilians as much, if not more than it does on India.
If at this point India decides to go to war perhaps the descent of the whole region into chaos will be complete. The debris of a bankrupt, destroyed Pakistan will wash up on India’s shores, endangering us as never before. If Pakistan collapses, we can look forward to having millions of "non-state actors" with an arsenal of nuclear weapons at their disposal as neighbours. It’s hard to understand why those who steer India’s ship are so keen to replicate Pakistan’s mistakes and call damnation upon this country by inviting the United States to further meddle clumsily and dangerously in our extremely complicated affairs. A superpower never has allies. It only has agents.
On the plus side, the advantage of going to war is that it’s the best way for India to avoid facing up to the serious trouble building on our home front. The Mumbai attacks were broadcast live (and exclusive!) on all or most of our 67 24-hour news channels and god knows how many international ones. TV anchors in their studios and journalists at "ground zero" kept up an endless stream of excited commentary. Over three days and three nights we watched in disbelief as a small group of very young men armed with guns and gadgets exposed the powerlessness of the police, the elite National Security Guard and the marine commandos of this supposedly mighty, nuclear-powered nation.
While they did this they indiscriminately massacred unarmed people, in railway stations, hospitals and luxury hotels, unmindful of their class, caste, religion or nationality. (Part of the helplessness of the security forces had to do with having to worry about hostages. In other situations, in Kashmir for example, their tactics are not so sensitive. Whole buildings are blown up. Human shields are used. The U.S and Israeli armies don’t hesitate to send cruise missiles into buildings and drop daisy cutters on wedding parties in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. ) But this was different. And it was on TV.
The boy-terrorists’ nonchalant willingness to kill – and be killed – mesmerised their international audience. They delivered something different from the usual diet of suicide bombings and missile attacks that people have grown inured to on the news. Here was something new. Die Hard 25. The gruesome performance went on and on. TV ratings soared. Ask any television magnate or corporate advertiser who measures broadcast time in seconds, not minutes, what that’s worth.
Eventually the killers died and died hard, all but one. (Perhaps, in the chaos, some escaped. We may never know.) Throughout the standoff the terrorists made no demands and expressed no desire to negotiate. Their purpose was to kill people and inflict as much damage as they could before they were killed themselves. They left us completely bewildered. When we say "nothing can justify terrorism", what most of us mean is that nothing can justify the taking of human life. We say this because we respect life, because we think it’s precious. So what are we to make of those who care nothing for life, not even their own? The truth is that we have no idea what to make of them, because we can sense that even before they’ve died, they’ve journeyed to another world where we cannot reach them.
One TV channel (India TV) broadcast a phone conversation with one of the attackers, who called himself Imran Babar. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the conversation, but the things he talked about were the things contained in the "terror emails" that were sent out before several other bomb attacks in India. Things we don’t want to talk about any more: the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the genocidal slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, the brutal repression in Kashmir. "You’re surrounded," the anchor told him. "You are definitely going to die. Why don’t you surrender?"
"We die every day," he replied in a strange, mechanical way. "It’s better to live one day as a lion and then die this way." He didn’t seem to want to change the world. He just seemed to want to take it down with him.
If the men were indeed members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, why didn’t it matter to them that a large number of their victims were Muslim, or that their action was likely to result in a severe backlash against the Muslim community in India whose rights they claim to be fighting for? Terrorism is a heartless ideology, and like most ideologies that have their eye on the Big Picture, individuals don’t figure in their calculations except as collateral damage. It has always been a part of and often even the aim of terrorist strategy to exacerbate a bad situation in order to expose hidden faultlines. The blood of "martyrs" irrigates terrorism. Hindu terrorists need dead Hindus, Communist terrorists need dead proletarians, Islamist terrorists need dead Muslims. The dead become the demonstration, the proof of victimhood, which is central to the project. A single act of terrorism is not in itself meant to achieve military victory; at best it is meant to be a catalyst that triggers something else, something much larger than itself, a tectonic shift, a realignment. The act itself is theatre, spectacle and symbolism, and today, the stage on which it pirouettes and performs its acts of bestiality is Live TV. Even as the attack was being condemned by TV anchors, the effectiveness of the terror strikes were being magnified a thousandfold by TV broadcasts.
Through the endless hours of analysis and the endless op-ed essays, in India at least there has been very little mention of the elephants in the room: Kashmir, Gujarat and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Instead we had retired diplomats and strategic experts debate the pros and cons of a war against Pakistan. We had the rich threatening not to pay their taxes unless their security was guaranteed (is it alright for the poor to remain unprotected? ). We had people suggest that the government step down and each state in India be handed over to a separate corporation. We had the death of former prime minster VP Singh, the hero of Dalits and lower castes and villain of Upper caste Hindus pass without a mention.
We had Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City and co-writer of the Bollywood film Mission Kashmir, give us his version of George Bush’s famous "Why they hate us" speech. His analysis of why religious bigots, both Hindu and Muslim hate Mumbai: "Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness." His prescription: "The best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever." Didn’t George Bush ask Americans to go out and shop after 9/11? Ah yes. 9/11, the day we can’t seem to get away from.
Though one chapter of horror in Mumbai has ended, another might have just begun. Day after day, a powerful, vociferous section of the Indian elite, goaded by marauding TV anchors who make Fox News look almost radical and leftwing, have taken to mindlessly attacking politicians, all politicians, glorifying the police and the army and virtually asking for a police state. It isn’t surprising that those who have grown plump on the pickings of democracy (such as it is) should now be calling for a police state. The era of "pickings" is long gone. We’re now in the era of Grabbing by Force, and democracy has a terrible habit of getting in the way.
Dangerous, stupid television flashcards like the Police are Good Politicians are Bad/Chief Executives are Good Chief Ministers are Bad/Army is Good Government is Bad/ India is Good Pakistan is Bad are being bandied about by TV channels that have already whipped their viewers into a state of almost uncontrollable hysteria.
Tragically, this regression into intellectual infancy comes at a time when people in India were beginning to see that in the business of terrorism, victims and perpetrators sometimes exchange roles. It’s an understanding that the people of Kashmir, given their dreadful experiences of the last 20 years, have honed to an exquisite art. On the mainland we’re still learning. (If Kashmir won’t willingly integrate into India, it’s beginning to look as though India will integrate/disintegr ate into Kashmir.)
It was after the 2001 parliament attack that the first serious questions began to be raised. A campaign by a group of lawyers and activists exposed how innocent people had been framed by the police and the press, how evidence was fabricated, how witnesses lied, how due process had been criminally violated at every stage of the investigation. Eventually the courts acquitted two out of the four accused, including SAR Geelani, the man whom the police claimed was the mastermind of the operation. A third, Showkat Guru, was acquitted of all the charges brought against him but was then convicted for a fresh, comparatively minor offence. The supreme court upheld the death sentence of another of the accused, Mohammad Afzal. In its judgment the court acknowledged there was no proof that Mohammed Afzal belonged to any terrorist group, but went on to say, quite shockingly, "The collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender." Even today we don’t really know who the terrorists that attacked the Indian parliament were and who they worked for.
More recently, on September 19 this year, we had the controversial "encounter" at Batla House in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, where the Special Cell of the Delhi police gunned down two Muslim students in their rented flat under seriously questionable circumstances, claiming that they were responsible for serial bombings in Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad in 2008. An assistant commissioner of Police, Mohan Chand Sharma, who played a key role in the parliament attack investigation, lost his life as well. He was one of India’s many "encounter specialists" known and rewarded for having summarily executed several "terrorists" . There was an outcry against the Special Cell from a spectrum of people, ranging from eyewitnesses in the local community to senior Congress Party leaders, students, journalists, lawyers, academics and activists all of whom demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident. In response, the BJP and LK Advani lauded Mohan Chand Sharma as a "Braveheart" and launched a concerted campaign in which they targeted those who had dared to question the integrity of the police, saying it was "suicidal" and calling them "anti-national" . Of course there has been no inquiry.
Only days after the Batla House event, another story about "terrorists" surfaced in the news. In a report submitted to a sessions court, the CBI said that a team from Delhi’s Special Cell (the same team that led the Batla House encounter, including Mohan Chand Sharma) had abducted two innocent men, Irshad Ali and Moarif Qamar, in December 2005, planted 2kg of RDX and two pistols on them and then arrested them as "terrorists" who belonged to Al Badr (which operates out of Kashmir). Ali and Qamar who have spent years in jail, are only two examples out of hundreds of Muslims who have been similarly jailed, tortured and even killed on false charges.
This pattern changed in October 2008 when Maharashtra’ s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that was investigating the September 2008 Malegaon blasts arrested a Hindu preacher Sadhvi Pragya, a self-styled God man Swami Dayanand Pande and Lt Col Purohit, a serving officer of the Indian Army. All the arrested belong to Hindu Nationalist organizations including a Hindu Supremacist group called Abhinav Bharat. The Shiv Sena, the BJP and the RSS condemned the Maharashtra ATS, and vilified its chief, Hemant Karkare, claiming he was part of a political conspiracy and declaring that "Hindus could not be terrorists". LK Advani changed his mind about his policy on the police and made rabble rousing speeches to huge gatherings in which he denounced the ATS for daring to cast aspersions on holy men and women.
On the November 25 newspapers reported that the ATS was investigating the high profile VHP Chief Pravin Togadia’s possible role in the Malegaon blasts. The next day, in an extraordinary twist of fate, Hemant Karkare was killed in the Mumbai Attacks. The chances are that the new chief whoever he is, will find it hard to withstand the political pressure that is bound to be brought on him over the Malegaon investigation.
While the Sangh Parivar does not seem to have come to a final decision over whether or not it is anti-national and suicidal to question the police, Arnab Goswami, anchorperson of Times Now television, has stepped up to the plate. He has taken to naming, demonising and openly heckling people who have dared to question the integrity of the police and armed forces. My name and the name of the well-known lawyer Prashant Bhushan have come up several times. At one point, while interviewing a former police officer, Arnab Goswami turned to camera: "Arundhati Roy and Prashant Bhushan," he said, "I hope you are watching this. We think you are disgusting." For a TV anchor to do this in an atmosphere as charged and as frenzied as the one that prevails today, amounts to incitement as well as threat, and would probably in different circumstances have cost a journalist his or her job.
So according to a man aspiring to be the next prime minister of India, and another who is the public face of a mainstream TV channel, citizens have no right to raise questions about the police. This in a country with a shadowy history of suspicious terror attacks, murky investigations, and fake "encounters" . This in a country that boasts of the highest number of custodial deaths in the world and yet refuses to ratify the International Covenant on Torture. A country where the ones who make it to torture chambers are the lucky ones because at least they’ve escaped being "encountered" by our Encounter Specialists. A country where the line between the Underworld and the Encounter Specialists virtually does not exist.
How should those of us whose hearts have been sickened by the knowledge of all of this view the Mumbai attacks, and what are we to do about them? There are those who point out that US strategy has been successful inasmuch as the United States has not suffered a major attack on its home ground since 9/11. However, some would say that what America is suffering now is far worse. If the idea behind the 9/11 terror attacks was to goad America into showing its true colors, what greater success could the terrorists have asked for? The US army is bogged down in two unwinnable wars, which have made the United States the most hated country in the world. Those wars have contributed greatly to the unraveling of the American economy and who knows, perhaps eventually the American empire. (Could it be that battered, bombed Afghanistan, the graveyard of the Soviet Union, will be the undoing of this one too?) Hundreds of thousands people including thousands of American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. The frequency of terrorist strikes on U.S allies/agents (including India) and U.S interests in the rest of the world has increased dramatically since 9/11. George Bush, the man who led the US response to 9/11 is a despised figure not just internationally, but also by his own people. Who can possibly claim that the United States is winning the war on terror?
Homeland Security has cost the US government billions of dollars. Few countries, certainly not India, can afford that sort of price tag. But even if we could, the fact is that this vast homeland of ours cannot be secured or policed in the way the United States has been. It’s not that kind of homeland. We have a hostile nuclear weapons state that is slowly spinning out of control as a neighbour, we have a military occupation in Kashmir and a shamefully persecuted, impoverished minority of more than 150 million Muslims who are being targeted as a community and pushed to the wall, whose young see no justice on the horizon, and who, were they to totally lose hope and radicalise, end up as a threat not just to India, but to the whole world. If ten men can hold off the NSG commandos, and the police for three days, and if it takes half a million soldiers to hold down the Kashmir valley, do the math. What kind of Homeland Security can secure India?
Nor for that matter will any other quick fix. Anti-terrorism laws are not meant for terrorists; they’re for people that governments don’t like. That’s why they have a conviction rate of less than 2%. They’re just a means of putting inconvenient people away without bail for a long time and eventually letting them go. Terrorists like those who attacked Mumbai are hardly likely to be deterred by the prospect of being refused bail or being sentenced to death. It’s what they want.
What we’re experiencing now is blowback, the cumulative result of decades of quick fixes and dirty deeds. The carpet’s squelching under our feet.
The only way to contain (it would be naïve to say end) terrorism is to look at the monster in the mirror. We’re standing at a fork in the road. One sign says Justice, the other Civil War. There’s no third sign and there’s no going back. Choose.
MUHAMMAD SHAKEER KS
http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/arundhati-roy-mumbai-was-not-indias-911-711720.html