Is the truth important?

Mohandas Gandhi once said:

The truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction.

It took me many years to understand what he meant. Would you agree that the truth is powerful or, on the other hand, not really that important?

Is any religion the "greatest"?

Although Gandhi was born a Hindu he was critical of institutional religion. He wrote the following about religion in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth:

Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty.

He then went on to say:

As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.

One of Gandhi's sources of inspiration came from Leo Tolstoy's Christian anarchist book The Kingdom of God Is Within You, which he described in his autobiography as having "overwhelmed me" and "left an abiding impression".

If Jesus were alive today...?

Jesus was a truly great man who displayed incredible kindness, wisdom and courage. Many doubt his gifts or are agnostic/atheist. I understand your skepticism.

Over the centuries the institutions that were set up to preach nonviolence, love and freedom have they themselves practiced war, greed and oppression (Crusades, Spanish Inquisition etc). They are now some of the richest institutions on the planet, owning vast assets, land and property with power over millions of people. Is this not hypocrisy?

So coming back to my question, if there is a God (I realize this a big IF for some of you) and there was a prophet alive today (again another big assumption, I know) then would he be happy with the way religion has unfolded or would he speak out against the institutions, in such a way, that he would make so many enemies they would conspire to kill him? Sound a familiar story?

In God we trust?

On the reverse of U.S. dollar bills are written the small words "In God we trust". If this is the case then why do we rely on government for our security and to protect us from evil? Or are these words as hollow as the fiat currency they are printed on?

Misguided Christians?

If Jesus urged us to love our enemies, then why do Christians George Bush and Tony Blair go to war against theirs?

Why are we feeding the Beast?

If you are a U.S. or U.K. tax payer you are funding the Iraq War and War on Terror whether you support these actions or not. Christian anarchists, such as Ammon Hennacy, ease their conscience by simply living below the income tax threshold; a form of tax resistance.

Death and Taxes from NWTRCC on Vimeo

Why did the Pope fear dying?

If Pope John Paul II was going to Heaven then why did he fear dying? If the Pope did not fear dying then why did he accept aggressive and invasive hospital treatment in his eighties? Surely you would only accept such treatment if you are desperate to cling to life. But then why would you cling to life if you're going to Heaven?

Here is a summary of the Pope's last days:

Feb 1, 2005: The Pope needs urgent hospital treatment after severe breathing problems due to flu but he is not in intensive care, the Vatican says. He returns home 10 days later.

Feb 24, 2005: He is rushed back to hospital after a relapse of earlier flu. Doctors performed a tracheotomy to ease his breathing, robbing him temporarily of his voice.

March 1, 2005: Pope starts speaking again.

March 13, 2005: Pope speaks directly to the Roman Catholic faithful for the first time since throat surgery. He returns to Vatican later that day.

March 24, 2005: A cardinal who stood in for the Pope at a Holy Thursday ceremony at the Vatican says the ailing Pontiff was "serenely abandoning" himself to God's will.

March 27, 2005: The ailing Pope appears at his window to bless the faithful on Easter Sunday but fails in his efforts to speak.

March 30, 2005: Vatican announces the Pope is being fed through a nasal tube in an effort to boost his strength and help his slow recovery from throat surgery.

March 31, 2005: Vatican says Pope is suffering from very high fever caused by a urinary infection, and receiving antibiotics.

April 2, 2005: Pope John Paul II dies aged 84 following heart failure.

Source: Reuters

Can you feel the Force?

This may sound like science fiction but can anyone actually feel the Force? The website A Path to Enlightenment explains it well.

Before I was blind and now I can see.

Where Is the Love?

Spot on lyrics by the The Black Eyed Peas, Where Is the Love? (recording finished on 03/03/03):

What's wrong with the world mama people living like they ain't got no mamas? I think the whole world's addicted to the drama, only attracted to things that'll bring trauma.

Overseas, yeah we trying to stop terrorism but we still got terrorists here living in the USA: the big CIA, the Bloods, the Crips and the KKK.

But if you only have love for your own race, then you only leave space to discriminate and to discriminate only generates hate, and when you hate then you're bound to get irate.

Yeh, badness is what you demonstrate and that's exactly how anger works and operates. Man, you got to have love just to set it straight, take control of your mind and meditate, let your soul gravitate to the love.

People killing, people dying, children hurt and you hear them crying. Can you practice what you preach and would you turn the other cheek?

Father, Father, Father help us, send us some guidance from above because people got me, got me questioning, where is the love?

It just ain't the same, always unchanged, new days are strange, is the world insane? If love and peace are so strong, why are there pieces of love that don't belong?

Nations dropping bombs, chemical gases filling lungs of little ones with ongoing suffering as the youth die young. So ask yourself is the loving really gone? So I could ask myself, really what is going wrong?

In this world that we living in, people keep on giving in, making wrong decisions, only visions of their dividends.

Not respecting each other, deny thy brother, a war is going on but the reason's undercover, the truth is kept secret, it's swept under the rug, if you never know truth then you never know love.

Where's the love yo? Come on? I don't know. Where's the truth yo? Come on? I don't know. Where's the love?

People killing, people dying, children hurt and you hear them crying. Can you practice what you preach and would you turn the other cheek?

Father, Father, Father help us, send us some guidance from above because people got me, got me questioning, where is the love?

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder, as I'm getting older, people get colder. Most of us only care about money making, selfishness got us following the wrong direction.

Wrong information always shown by the media, negative images are the main criteria, infecting the young minds faster than bacteria, kids want to act like what they see in the cinema.

Yo, whatever happened to the values of humanity? Whatever happened to the fairness in equality? Instead of spreading love we're spreading animosity, lack of understanding, leading us away from unity.

That's the reason why sometimes I'm feeling under, that's the reason why sometimes I'm feeling down, there's no wonder why sometimes I'm feeling under, got to keep my faith alive until love is found.

Now ask yourself where is the love? Where is the love? Where is the love? Where is the love?

Father, Father, Father help us, send us some guidance from above because people got me, got me questioning, where is the love?

One world, one world, we only got one world, one world. That's all we got, one world, one world.

And something's wrong with it, something's wrong with it, something's wrong with the world, world, world. Yeh, we only got one world, one world. That's all we got, one world, one world.

Do you see 33?

There is no such thing as experiencing a "coincidence" and everything on Earth is happening in a set order. Even if I take my own life I experienced fundamental changes at 3, 13, 23 and 33 years old, with the last one being the most uplifting i.e. finding enlightenment.

I am also guided to seeing the number 33 in many daily situations. Is there anyone else out there that sees 33?