Professor : You are a believer in God, aren’t you, son ?
Student : Yes, sir.
Professor: So, you believe in GOD ?
Student : Absolutely, sir.
Professor : Is GOD good ?
Student : Sure.
Professor: Is GOD all powerful ?
Student : Yes.
Professor: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to GOD to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But GOD didn’t. How is this GOD good then? Hmm?
(Student was silent.)
Professor: You can’t answer, can you ? Let’s start again, young fella. Is GOD good?
Student : Yes.
Professor: Is satan good ?
Student : No.
Professor: Where does satan come from ?
Student : From … GOD …
Professor: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
Student : Yes.
Professor: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it ? And GOD did make everything. Correct?
Student : Yes.
Professor: So who created evil ?
(Student did not answer.)
Professor: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t they?
Student : Yes, sir.
Professor: So, who created them ?
(Student had no answer.)
Professor: Science says you have 5 Senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son, have you ever seen GOD?
Student : No, sir.
Professor: Tell us if you have ever heard your GOD?
Student : No , sir.
Professor: Have you ever felt your GOD, tasted your GOD, smelt your GOD? Have you ever had any sensory perception of GOD for that matter?
Student : No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t.
Professor: Yet you still believe in Him?
Student : Yes.
Professor : According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student : Nothing. I only have my faith.
Professor: Yes, faith. And that is the problem Science has.
Student : Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
Professor: Yes.
Student : And is there such a thing as cold?
Professor: Yes.
Student : No, sir. There isn’t.
(The lecture theater became very quiet with this turn of events.)
Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.
(There was pin-drop silence in the lecture theater.)
Student : What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
Professor: Yes. What is night if there isn’t darkness?
Student : You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light. But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it is, well you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?
Professor: So what is the point you are making, young man ?
Student : Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
Professor: Flawed ? Can you explain how?
Student : Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good GOD and a bad GOD. You are viewing the concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing.
Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?
Professor: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.
Student : Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shook his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument was going.)
Student : Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor. Are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?
(The class was in uproar.)
Student : Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain?
(The class broke out into laughter. )
Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
(The room was silent. The Professor stared at the student, his face unfathomable.)
Professor: I guess you’ll have to take them on faith, son.
Student : That is it sir … Exactly ! The link between man & GOD is FAITH. That is all that keeps things alive and moving.
Life with all its complexities and contrasts creates a necessity to chalk out ways to make young impressionable minds better equipped to handle its exigencies. Holistic education is so much about grounding in connectedness as much as it is about intuitive understanding that, harmony in the mind body connection is a way of life and living.
An education in empathic behavior becomes paramount in a materialistic world. A lot of misconception about empathy needs clarification.
Empathy is seeing with another, listening to another acknowledging them as they are, in a nonjudgmental space and being with another sensing the feelings and caring to reach out with support through words action and deeds …
Empathy can be sensed in a touch a nod or a smile or in the simplicity of silence, doing nothing but just being there ….
Empathy is a sharing, a feeling, a bonding, a being, a seeing, a sensing, a trusting and believing in hope, in faith, in life and grace.
Empathy is about caring, as a way of being. Empathy is not always about bearing the suffering and sensing another’s pain or being in a state of sorrow or pain. There can arise great empathy when dancing together or in a classroom environment where the teacher feels one with the student’s frame of mind and speaks to address that … or hearing or performing a song or play together with unbridled sense of bonding and enthusiasm. This empathy can be reflected time and time again in striving to consciously stay aware of the mutually creative fulfillment it brings to our lives. Positive benefits of empathy can become a mirror to gradually inducing greater empathic behavior in our lives towards ourselves and others.
Our movements have the power to change our moods, as much as our thoughts can bring a change in our way of being. It doesn’t matter who believes in your empathic way of life, what matters is you believe in it yourself. And that is the first step in making a positive difference. When there is an empathy in action, it is mirrored in our minds to create, generate loving and caring thoughts as a response to the action.
Every empathic thought finds its way into expression thoughts words or deeds creatively. With increasing empathic thought and action there is unknowingly a connectedness, valuing the interdependence in this web of life and living as a way of being.
‘My first intentional practice of Tai Chi began years ago on a rainy day in the month of June. The sweet cadence of the rain in all it’s rhythmic glory, the cleansing nature of the rain was just as wonderfully comforting as much as the experience of Tai Chi, with its movement in stillness and the stillness of its movements.
As I tried to move in unison with breath and learned to direct the momentum for the movements from the central core of the body to the outward, I could draw the parallels of the simple yet profound principles of Tai chi giving a lifetime’s guidance.
A life lived in the middle path gives one equanimity to see beyond the obvious. To envision the duality of existence enough to understand joy and sorrow, are not something eternal. Life becomes simple and just as easy to live as we make it , letting go of excesses of any kind, which ultimately works towards healing oneself from within.
It only adds to the fact that this moderation makes you want to work at building progressively, instead of pushing the boundaries and stretching beyond your abilities to the point of probably injuring yourself and giving up altogether.
The rain’s rhythmic tapping on my open window sill, the occasional bursts of cool breeze surrounding me now and then was in tune with my learning to release and melt away the accumulated stresses through conscious gentle outward movements . I felt a few varied sensations coming to me vying for attention, but as soon as my focus returned to simply witness the flow of breath in the movements the very same sensations completely vanished.
It was so peaceful to end the practice with breath awareness and mindful movements that I must add that like everything else in life, Tai Chi must be ideally learned under the guidance of a good teacher to experience the gamut of life enriching experiences it surely has to offer.
As I completed my practice for the moment , suddenly there was thunder and lightning signifying the release of feel good endorphins and hopefully parting with some of the tensions within me. This is after all the essence of Tai chi , to be one with Nature and learn to nurture it .
A humble dedication to Tai Chi form and the powers of the supreme in and around us.
The words below are a testament of our limitless possibilities of thoughts occurring in the flow.
Each stanza is simply my comment for a comment to my post
But interestingly they combined in the creative possibilities.
Infinite is the potential in the possibilities. And possibilities, to be explored Are awaiting our awarenes To be expansive and inclusive To be acknowledged and accepting . To reach beyond the dimensions Of the known to the unknown…
So much creativity in possibilities After all Creativity is a spiritual journey In surrender to the unknown In acceptance of inspiration Invoke the divinity in the flow.
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