Sep 28, 2008
Posted by arif in Spirituality | 0 comments
Why would anyone want anybody to read 50 spiritual classics?
1. If you’re ever plagued like questions like, Where have we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? This book would not answer your questions for, but instead would hold your hand and guide you to the direction where you can get a response.
2. Furthermore if you always mystified, by what great saints have been saying and wanted a simpler insights to their words, 50 Spiritual Classics, beautifully summarises books by Gandhi-ji, Carl Jung, Krishnamurthy and many others.
3. Or you have been intrigued by the genre of new-age spirituality books, that have become best sellers, but never got round to reading them, titles such as The Power of Now, The Celestine Prophecy and Conversations with God. This masterpiece summarises the deepest of books in the fewest of pages in the simplist of manners. And I’m not exaggerating.
Tom has taken these timeless classics, and very artfully summarised each into a few pages, explaining the contents of the book and what is the take-back for the reader. The layout of the book is also highly appealing as each chapter begins with an impactful quote from the book, a one-line summary what the book is about, followed by a summary of the book condensed to a few pages.
50 Spiritual Classics is definitely one of the best books I’ve read and probably will be reading in 2008. It’s through this masterpiece of Tom Butler Bowden, I was further intoduced to Imam Ghazzali’s Alchmy of Happiness, Autobiography of Malcolm X, Khalil Gibran’s the Prophet.
Allow me to leave a sprinkling of quotes from the book:
From the Summary of Road to Mecca by Muhammad Asad:
Asad adored Islam’s pared-down love of the Absolute, and the simplicity and beauty of the Koran, which did not require official interpretrs of its wisdom.
God the Absolute. He dwell in infinity and radiates into infinity – but because you are within His working, He is closer to you than the vein in your neck..”
From the Summary of Places that Scare you by Pema Chodron:
“The central question of a warrior’s training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear, but how we relate to discomfort.” We shape our lives around mental escape. We have a drink or a large meal or go shopping to get away from some uncomfortable thought or feeling in the present. This feeling may be as simple as boredom or mild anxiety, but in our willingness to experience it fully we lose an opportunity to really get to know ourselves. We may never become aware that we can get more relief from fully experiencing a feeling of discomfort than immediately trying to eliminate it.
“If only we could do everything right, we’d be able to find a safe, comfortable, and secure place to spend the rest of our lives.
From the Summary of Think on These Things by J Krishnamurthy:
“We all want to be famous people – and the moment we want to be something, we are no longer free”
“Happiness cannot be found, it is a by-product of meaning and occurs in the absence of fear. It does not result from achievement and ambition;
From the Summary of Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X:
I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.
He realised that his life’s real purpose had been to appreciate the onness of humankind before God, and his battles were againt the thinking that created false distinctions between one person and another.
Conclusion:
From Tom’s introduction of 50 Spiritual Classics:
There is a Persian proverb: “Seek truth in meditation, not in moldy books. Look in the sky to find the moon, not in the pond.” The commentaries that follow (ie the summaries in the book) are more of a look in the pond than a direct experience of the moon, but I hope they can provide some more motivation for you to gaze on the real thing.
Here’s the link to Tom’s website of 50 Spiritual classics. On this page you’ll have a list of all the 50 books that he’s summarised together with an excerpt of each summary.
Sep 26, 2008
Posted by arif in Reviews | 3 comments
I found this ad, really cute :-).
See this ad in hi-res here.
You may visit Ad blog Arabia, for more Ads released for the Middle East market.
Sep 22, 2008
Posted by arif in GTD and Productivity, General | 10 comments
I admit I had been quite a red bull addict. However it’s been at least 6 months or so since I’ve been totally clean. Sure, I may pick up a can occassionally, but by no means can go without one. What made me quit? Simple, I turned the can and had a look at the ingredients. If being so damn expensive, is not good enough to give it up, then look no further than the its contents:
Four reasons why you should stop drinking Red Bull.
1. Caffeine If you already drink tea/coffee Red Bull further adds to your caffeine intake. Sure Caffeine gives a nice high, makes you alert and stuff, but give it 20 to 40 minutes once that adrenalin charge runs out, it leaves you even more high & dry before gasping for yet another shot. What the worst part is, your body gets so addictive and immune that the earlier dose will not be sufficient and you need a stronger dose of caffeine next time round.
2. Loads of sucrose, sugar and caramel Red bull tastes sweet. I heard that an average coke can contains seven spoonfuls of sugar. SEVEN! Imagine, chowing down seven raw spoonfuls of sugar one after the other. I’m not sure exactly how much sugar and caramel Red Bull has, but I’m sure it’s not much different.
3. It’s got stuff like…D-pantothenol, insitol, and whantnotol in it.
Don’t know what those stuff are, but I have a rule, try never to swallow anything that I can’t spell.
4. Carbon dioxide. As if we’re not getting enough of CO2 from the streets of Bangalore already.
I guess I might be going too hard on this harmless soft drink. Afterall it’s got one heathy base ingredient…Water.
Still need help, quitting, check out this comic strip.
Sep 12, 2008
Posted by arif in Spirituality | 11 comments
photo credit: Schrollum
One of my all time favourite email forwards are these 20 Spiritual one-liners that Nahida sent across. Infact, I’ve taken a printout of these and have placed them in my Tickler File. Every now and then, the printout shows up as I process my Tickler File and I get the same effect as reading it the first time.
I’ve blogged earlier about Nahida and the selected email forwards she sends across, I’m not sure how many of you added yourself to Nahida’s mailing list, but I’m really glad I’m on it. If you’re keen, you can email her at nahida.sunil@gmail.com. and she’ll be more than happy to include you in. (There Nahida, I’ve said it, now I hope my cash is in the mail :-).
Okey dokey, Here are the 20 Spiritual one-liners:
1. Faith is the ability to not panic.
2. If you worry, you didn’t pray. If you prayed, don’t worry.
3. As a child of God, prayer is kinda like calling home every day.
4. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.
5. When we get tangled up in our problems, be still. God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.
6. Do the math. Count your blessings.
7. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.
8. Dear God: I have a problem. It’s me. (Arif’s note: Uff, now that’s Deep!)
9. Silence is often misinterpreted, but never misquoted.
10. Laugh every day – it’s like inner jogging.
11. The most important things in your home are the people.
12. Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional.
13. There is no key to happiness. The door is always open. Come on in.
14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.
15. He who dies with the most toys is still dead.
16. We do not remember days but moments. Life moves too fast so enjoy your precious moments.
17. Nothing is real to you until you experience it; otherwise it’s just hearsay.
18. It’s all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are done. (< ---That's my favourite no1.)
19. Surviving and living your life successfully requires courage. The goals and it only makes progress when it sticks out its neck.
20. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. No matter the storm, when you are with God, there’s always a rainbow waiting. (< ---That's my favourite no2.)
Sep 6, 2008
Posted by arif in GTD and Productivity, Spirituality | 10 comments
Have you ever come across a quote, an inspiring saying or a Hadith, that you liked so very much you just had to take a printout and stick it up somewhere that you could see it everyday. Infact you may have a couple of these either around your office desk, or home, maybe in your car. If you haven’t done it yourself, you certainly know friends who have this quirky little habit.
I have done this a couple of times in the past too. And sure the first couple of times I read the quote, it does charge me up to either work harder, or be focused or more caring, loving etc. However, after a week or so, if I happen to read the quote, it makes no difference to me. Give it a fortnight, that quote becomes invisible. I don’t even look at the side where I’ve got that quote up. Infact even if I did, I would probably see right through it. There’s a psychological reason that if anything is seen or told at too often, one becomes completely immune to it. The technical term for this is: nagging. So what do you do to get the same impact again and again? So how can you see and read this advice regularly enough that it encourages you but not so often that it stops having an effect on you.
David Allen has this slick web-application called an Intention Journal, to help you do just that. Sadly it’s not free and you have to be a member of GTD-Connect to use it. However if you are a Microsoft Outlook user, you can setup your own personal Intention Journal.
7 Easy steps to setup your own personal Intention Journal:
1. Go to the Tasks Module of your Outlook, by clicking on Go->Tasks (or shortcut Crtl+F4)
2. Create a New Task, by clicking Crtl+N
3. Type into the Subject, the topic of the Quote
4. Copy & Paste or Type into the notes Section of the New Task Window, the entire quote
5. Click on Recurrence on the New Task Window. Or press Alt, H, E.
6. Choose how often would you like to see this quote, then click Okay. I generally would like to see my quotes to an obscure number like every 43 or 54 days or so. That makes it really random, thereby giving me the maximum impact each time I see the quote, as I would never be expecting it.
7. Save and Close, and you’re done! Now every so often you will have your selected quote show up as a daily task on your Outlook screen. I look at my daily tasks almost first thing every day, however if you would want it to pop-up, then just put an alarm/reminder too.
Here are a few quotes that I currently have randomly spread across in my Outlook Intention Journal:
On Ascetism:
Asceticism does not mean that you should own nothing. It means nothing should own you. – Imam Ali
On Valuing one’s youth:
”Oh. Soldier. Value your youth and worship God. The pleasure of worship is in your youth. When you get old, your heart will want to worship, but you will not have the health and strength to do so.” – Imam Khomenie
The Illusion:
You Are Nor Veiled From Allah By The Existence Of Something That exists with Him since there is nothing which exists with Him. You are veiled from Him by the illusion that something exists with Him. – Shaykh Abdal Qadir Gilani.
Charity:
Stop giving charity only after you either run out of money or run out of breath.
Desire & Expectation:
Truly, The Thing I Fear Most For My Community Is Illusionary desire and excessive expectation, for desire bars one from the truth and expectation makes one love the world.
Definition of Regret:
”What is regret but that we were not more fully present in a situation, or to be more ‘there’ in a relationship that we have now lost?” – from Tom Butler Bowden’s summary of, Eckhart Tolle’s, Power of Now in 50 spiritual classics.
On Work:
’Through work you express your love for those whoever will benefit from it, and satisfy your own need to create. Those who enjoy their work know that it is a secret to fulfillment, that we can be saved through what we do.” Khalil Jibran
If you liked this post, you may further benefit from the post: How I use my Tickler file to remind me of all the important and unimportant things in my life.
