Practical Thoughts

Dear Reader, Last week I talked awhile on the topic of the magic of water, and this week it is the turn of sound. This article  about music caught my attention some time ago. It was then of some interest to me, but other topics took over my daily activity. And at that time the notion that the topic might be related to spiritual matters did not fully occur to me. But when I lately saw an article on the 'Hindu'/Buddhist AUM mantra, I woke up.  It would appear that when the AUM mantra is properly chanted, the frequency of the vibrations is measured at 432Hz, the level referred to as being harmonious in the stated article (above), and which is also said to be the harmonic vibrational frequency of everything in the universe.  A second scientific foundation for the mantra's benefits concerns brain research conducted by various scientists, the findings of which were very interesting. It would seem that in response to time-frequency analysis, irregular waveforms wer...

Dear Reader, Hello again. I think that, over many posts, I have tried to re-vivify the notion of the need for love in this world, as love is the natural expression of the Divine. But there are some that would say, "Where is this Divine Love? So much suffering goes on, children are slaughtered, maimed, abused and made hungry, and yet you call on us to believe in the unseeable who does not seem to care about what's going on!" This was the kind of argument returned by those who had witnessed the bloody futility of the Western Front in World War One, and it is not easy to answer - though there is a direct answer. But rather than trying to answer head-on, as it were, perhaps it is wise to open our eyes and look for evidence around us of Divine Love. This past week I was inspired - for some reason - to look more into the nature of water. I was not looking into this subject with any result in mind, but I felt that it is a topic worth knowing more about. Particularly as we depe...

Dear Reader , In my previous post I alluded - yet again - for the need for love in this world. A world that is being defoliated and its occupants (both humans and creatures of all kinds) being mercilessly harassed and pursued into horrors that are being suppressed from front-page news in order that the world's rich may carry on their games of taking out what they want and giving back very little. Amongst those horrors is the news that Botswana has lifted an embargo against wild animal hunting, which means that rapidly decreasing species like elephants and lions are to be relentlessly chased for sport. The question must be "why has Botswana done this?", and the only answer must be because the country has been promised investment if they were to do that. In May, the BBC indicated that sea level rise could be greater than expected , while in March, it was revealed that BP had Trump's ear and had successfully lobbied the Trump administration to roll back key cl...

Dear Reader, It is very apparent that the world is divided into so many compartments of thought, so the idea of attaining solutions that can gain common consensus seems to be a distant ideal. All we have to do is to look at what has happened in the British Parliament over Brexit to be able to accept that perspective! But we do know that the attempted "common solution" of capitalism and material progress has been found very wanting. In fact, by itself, it has failed. But maybe if we can imbue such a creed with acceptable human values then perhaps we can make progress? The Guardia n newspaper wrote, in 2010: Many thinkers have identified common strands in systems of thought and religions through the ages. In 1945 Aldous Huxley wrote of a perennial philosophy "that recognises a divine reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine reality; the ethic that pla...

Dear Reader, So, the UK has officially declared that Climate Change is an emergency. Trump must be choking on his coaldust! Of course, declaring it to be such is one thing; actually tackling the issue with fervent commitment, and getting other countries to also comply, is quite another matter. The world needs to recognise where we are at because the problem is a world problem. As a country, we cannot tackle it just by ourselves and hope to achieve worthwhile results, but not to make greater efforts would simply be a huge folly. As Albert Einstein once said: "...with every problem there's a solution [; it's] just a matter of  taking action". Einstein is entirely right. And what is so very important is that science is gradually coming to realise - at an increasing pace - that humans have an inner capacity to tackle so many issues that we did not know of. We are not meant to be here to idle away our time but to put ourselves about and, as Jesus is quote...

Dear Reader, Thirty years ago and more, shop assistants looked very strangely at me when I used to refuse a free carrier bag of any description. Now, many stores go overboard to stop giving you a carrier bag! 45 years ago I was putting leaflets into houses warning of changing conditions and the need to change our ways in respect of usage of resources, and the need to try being more self-sufficient. The trouble was I was overly conscious that the leaflets I was distributing were themselves made of valuable natural material, and that was very much in the days before re-cycling got underway. But there were some people around in Birmingham who were sympathetic to my cause, and one had already gone so far as to switch his vehicle over to hydrogen power. And not just to save money. There were a fair number of people around then (in the 1970s) that were aware of the problem of waste and a potential future of lack of resources. Indeed, an organisation called The Club Of Rome published po...

Dear Reader, As you may well know, I am not a conventional Christian, but over the years I have come to realise that all spiritual ways lead to the same end. That all routes lead to God, by whatever name you call the creator/maintainer of the Universe - and, indeed, the Omniverse. But Christianity possesses perhaps the greatest symbol to illustrate the intended purpose of life, and that is through the teachings and physical sacrifice of the Master Jesus. I will not repeat the whole story here, but you must all know it. It is about selflessness and sacrifice. It is the realisation that life is not what it seems. It is to realise that what is intended is the crucifixion of one's worldly self to resurrect as the true self. Jesus reveals that teaching, fully sacrificing his own life as an ultimate example. To clarify, the following is an extract from an article about Easter and the Message of Jesus, as written by a Catholic priest a few years ago: Immediately the husk of the ...

Dear Reader, To ponder on: People will become fed up with worldliness. They will have had enough of it and will realise that there is no point in being the way they are, because it brings them no real joy. The world is becoming weary, and there is no real joy unless we have turned around to seek reality. Strains and stresses are everywhere. If it's not Brexit that is causing chaos, then it's something else, and the "something else" includes topics that I would say are of greater magnitude in importance (such as climate change), yet they have been pushed onto the back burner. If you were to ask me, I'd say that Brexit (though an issue that has to be dealt with at some point) has been nothing but a huge distraction from more real issues. And if the main and underlying issues had been addressed, the topic of values with emphasis on love, the Brexit matter may have simply died a death as people would have come to see more about reality and not be hijacked ...

Dear Reader, Journalist Ian Birrell, in his lead article in the i newspaper yesterday about the plight of the Yazidis , begins his final paragraph with: As we stand on the cusp of Brexit, we need to ask ourselves profound questions about national values. We have sent a message to the world that we are tearing down bridges and building walls. We have corroded our reputation as a sensible international player, diminished our global standing and demeaned the mother of parliaments with this humiliating debacle. The key words (for the purpose of my article) are: "we need to ask ourselves profound questions about national values. " Of course, Ian Birrell is talking essentially of the subject of his topic (the Yezidis), but his final words broaden the conversation to include the role that the West has been playing around the world, and although we like to think that Britain's role is essentially humanitarian, it is we in the West (Britain included) that has largely ...

Dear Reader, A believer (or knower) of God will, without hesitation, seek help from the object of his adoration, particularly when in some danger.  There are countless times when God's  protection   has been sought, but there are some stories about this aspect that stand out in ordinary human experience. Two such stories follow, the first about an American Army unit at war: Over 100 years ago, during World War I, the 91st Infantry Brigade was preparing to enter combat in Europe. The Brigade Commander, a devout Christian, assembled his troops and gave each of them a little card on which was printed the 91st Psalm, the same number Psalm as their brigade. They agreed to recite that Psalm daily. After they had begun praying the Psalm, the 91st Brigade was engaged in three of the bloodiest battles of World War I — Chateau Thierry, Belle Wood and the Argonne. Other American units that fought in the same battles had up to 90 percent casualties, but the 91st Brigade did not...