Teachings

Life and religion have two aspects: timeless values and timely traditions.

The timeless values, or moral and spiritual values, are common to all traditions.

The timely traditions are customs, rituals, symbols, and practices which are appropriate to a certain time, place and situation. People have a tendency to get too attached, dependent or addicted to limited traditions. They will even kill each other in order to preserve and honor "their own" (gang, terrorist and fanatic behavior).

Our goal is to minimize fanatic behavior and maximize universal selfless behavior—"Learning to make the whole world our own." This can be done by promoting the "Ten Timeless Values of Life and Religions."

Ten Timeless Values of Life and Religions:

Stop, take a deep breath and just be.
Be thankful for something visible; something invisible. Feel the Oneness.
Be a trustee of the earth. Try to be honest and sincere.
Be non-violent, forgiving, peaceful - first to yourself. Then allow others "to be". To err is human.
Be thoughtful and committed about goals and learning.
Be patient, taking one step at a time to overcome obstacles.
Be intelligent and examine the opposite forces of life, change and how things work.
Be realistic. Do what you can and let go when it is time.
Be loving. Share and serve. Treat others as you want to be treated.
Be happy. Know that you are never alone. Practice finding deep joy in the present moment, whatever you are doing. Deep joy is forebearing.

Wisdom Quotes from Around the World

The Underlying Power is everything - it is in every bit of existence. What sorrow is there for the wise one who sees intimately the Unity of existence and knows all beings to be his or her own Self?

Isavasya Upanishad v. 1, 7

Let Us make humans in Our image, after our likeness.

Genesis 1:26

We sent you but for one purpose - as a mercy for all creatures.

Qu'ran 21:107

(These mysterious "We" forms have been interpreted as a creative energies or spirits and there is a feminine quality to them. When closely studied, all words for "God" have a plural all inclusive sense - male, female and beyond. Immanent and transcendent.)

By you alone, the Mother, this Universe is filled...you, the Devi, the 'Shining One'."

Devi Mahatmyam XI:6

She measures out fairly (meter, ma) to all her children everywhere. She protects and saves in life and death.

Wisdom of Maat of Egypt, Demeter or Damatiir of Greece,
Mari of the Basque, Mami of Babylon, Uma of India etc.

Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.

Tao Te Ching #13

The best yogi is one who looks on the pleasure and pain of all beings as he looks on them in himself or herself.

The Bhagavad Gita 6:32

The light of Truth (Sat - Being) has illumined me. Truth is in the plants. Truth is in the minerals.

Saying of Buddha

Love God; love your neighbor.

Leviticus 19:18

Who is your neighbor? Even the untouchables (Samaritans). Even the enemy.

Jesus, Luke 10:29ff

Who is your neighbor? Mother Earth; Father Sky. Sister Deer;Brother Eagle. The Trees our relatives. The Stars our Ancestors.

General Native American tradition

All belongs to Allah. I am only a trustee.

Saying of Muhammad. Found on documents of
land ownership in some Islamic countries

Although a person knows nothing of philosophy or God, he can reach the highest truth by pure unselfishness...Unselfishness is God.

Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol. I:86-87

If you want peace my child, look not to the fault of others. Look to your own faults. Learn to make the whole world your own.

Teachings of Sarada Devi pp. ix, 97, 111

God has made different religions for different minds, times and countries. Keep your own faith, but do not on that account hate other faiths. Each view is a path.

The Gospel of Ramakrishna pp.559, 223

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

Galileo, see the beautiful paperback book of
Hubble Telescope space images entitled
The Hand of God p.84, edited by Michael Reagan

What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to govern?

Stephen Hawking, Black Hole and Baby Universe
see The Hand of God p.72

Instead of picturing God as a medieval monarch on a marble throne, imagine God as the living awareness in the space between the atoms, "empty" space that makes up about 99.99 percent of the universe. Thinking of God that way gets us past some of the great theological divides of the past. Is God immanet or transcendent, internal or external, composed or compassionate? Like the question of whether the atom is wave or particle, the answer is: yes.

Tom Mahon, "The Spirit of Technology," see The Hand of God p.139

On the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space toward the stars and the planet from which I have come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, harmonious.

Edgar Mitchell, U.S. Astronaut

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.

Albert Einstein, see The Hand of God p. 92