There is a very good video offering snapshots of Lord Buddha’s life here at Roam Resort. The video captures the essence of Buddha’s life, with great simplicity. The flute music of Sri Chinmoy provides an appropriate backdrop to the life of Buddha. When I think of the Buddha, the first thing that springs to mind are Peace and Nirvana. These are hard to put into words, which is why it is good to leave somethings unsaid.

Sri Chinmoy wrote a beautiful play about the life of Lord Buddha at Sri Chinmoy Library. In his introduction to the play Sri Chinmoy wrote:

For centuries the light of the Buddha has shone as a beacon beckoning men from across the sea of darkness. Like lost children, millions of seekers have reached out to the light with their heart’s inmost cry, and the Buddha has shown them the Way. The world stood before the Buddha with it’s ignorance, and the Buddha, the Enlightened One, gave man Truth. The world offered its age old suffering to the Buddha’s heart and the Buddha, Lord of Compassion, showed man the Dharma.

Thanks to Pong of Roam Resort for sharing this

Photo credit: Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries

I wrote an article for Pick the Brain about effective self criticism.

The inspiration for the article was this quote by Sri Chinmoy:

Not self-contempt

But self-improvement

Has to be our continuous choice.

Sometimes articles are difficult to write, sometimes they come quickly, this was relatively easy to write.

Sometimes, its hard to be honest with yourself and criticise your own motives. Our ego likes us to think we are always good.

Photo by Tejvan August, 2007

The wise are wary of words,
which corrupt rather than cure.
They know
verbosity
is the obesity of the ego,
the symptom of ignorance.

- The Tao Te Ching

The idea of religious unity has strikes a chord with many people. I think that one of the great advances of the past century is that people have become more aware, tolerant and accepting of different faiths. True, there is still a long way to go. But, I feel that people are no longer inspired by the idea of only one path being correct. Sri Chinmoy has done much to try and promote the ideal of the underlying unity of the different world religions.

“No religion is absolutely perfect. Yet not only do we fight for religion, but also are we often willing to sacrifice our lives for it. And what we hopelessly fail to do is to live it. A true religion is that which has no caste, no creed, no colour. It is but an all-uniting and all-pervading embrace.”

Religion should not be a means to divide a separate people. It should be a vehicle to bring people together. As Sri Chinmoy suggests:

Man-made religions find fault with one another, whereas God-made religion is eternally a oneness-song — God-manifestation through human aspiration on earth.”

One of the great exponents of Religious Unity was the Hindu Yogi, Swami Vivekananda. This is an audio recording of his opening speech given at the World Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1894.

• Interfaith and Religious tolerance at Sri Chinmoy Centre
• Article on the Difference between Spirituality and Religion

Photo: Sri Chinmoy at World Parliament of Religions, Barcelona 2004
sri chinmoy