33 years ago in a parking garage in Caracas, Dr. José Antonio Abreu gathered together 11 children to play music. El Sistema was born. It now teaches music to 300,000 of Venezuela’s poorest children, demonstrating the power of ensemble music to dramatically change the life trajectory of hundreds of thousands of a nation’s youth … Read the rest >
“By dint of having lived one day at a time without ever having had the strength of character to decide at which moment I would devote myself to something completely, one arrives at the end of one’s life having done nothing.
The world, which promises small and passing things, is served with great eagerness: I promise great and eternal things and the hearts of men grow dull. Who is there that serves and obeys Me in all things with as great care as that with which the world and its masters are served?
For a … Read the rest >
Swami Ramdas and Mataji Krishnabai
Surrender to God
The aim of all religions is to point out the path that leads to perfect freedom, peace, and joy. This blessed state can be realized only by the eradication of the ego-sense through surrender to God.
Divine life should flow through us, divine love should dwell … Read the rest >
Yoga is the path by traversing which the individual soul realizes its real nature of immortality, omnipresence, peace, and bliss. The essential condition for the attainment of this supreme goal is the complete absence of the ego-sense. Self-control and self-discipline are the means. Yoga also signifies union with and absorption in the immortal Reality. … Read the rest >
A human being’s attention is the most precious treasure he possesses. Its purpose, force, and importance in life may not be very obvious, since through long, habitual, and instinctive use it is generally taken too much for granted. (…)
On the higher planes of life, the human being’s attention plays a particularly vital role … Read the rest >
The Sanskrit word for mindfulness is « Smirti », in Pali it’s « Sati », and in Tibetan « Drenpa » . Significantly, they all mean “to remember”. It’s what the Catholics call “being in a state of recollection”. And it’s extremely difficult.
If we can be aware for a few minutes that’s already … Read the rest >
‘The path which I travelled and which 1 have described in my narrative was a very hard and stony one. This fact should not discourage anyone else, however, for each individual is different. Nowadays it is no longer necessary for anybody who wishes to experience their own being and God within that being to … Read the rest >
“All things by immortal power,
Near and Far
Hiddenly
To each other linked are,
That thou canst not stir a flower
Without troubling of a star.”
In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions; where a small change at one place in a nonlinear system can result … Read the rest >
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. —
“How strange is the … Read the rest >
