A child asked Bawa Muhaiyaddeen...

A child asked Bawa Muhaiyadeen, "What should I say when people in school ask me what religion I am?"

Bawa replied:


"Tell them them you're a Christian because you believe in Jesus.

Tell them you are a Jew because you believe in all the prophets including Moses.

Tell them you're a Muslim because you believe in Muhammad as a Prophet.

Tell them you're a Sufi because you believe in the universal teaching of God's Love.

You're really none of those, but you're all of those in that you believe in God.

And once you believe in God, there is no religion.  Once you divide yourself off into religion, you are separated from your fellow man."

If there is to be peace....

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If there is to be peace in the world,

There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,

There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,

There must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors,

There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,

There must be peace in the heart.

chinese philospher - lao-tse - 6th century bce

The warrior is not someone who fights...

“Warriors are not what you think of as warriors. 

 The warrior is not someone who fights,
for no one has the right to take another life. 

 The warrior, for us, is the one
who sacrifices himself for the good of others. 

 His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless,
those who cannot provide for themselves,

 and above all, the children, the future of humanity.” 

 ~ Sitting Bull ~

Be still and know that I am God

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD

PSALM 46:10

A score of years ago a friend placed in my hand a little book which became one of the turning points of my life. It was called True peace... It had but one thought ... that God was waiting in the depths of my being to talk to me if only I would get still enough to hear his voice. I thought this would be a very easy matter, and so I began to get still. But I had no sooner commenced than a perfect pandemonium of voices reached my ears, a thousand clamouring notes from without and within, until I could hear nothing but their noise and din. Some of them were my own voice, some were my own questions, some of them were my very prayers. Others were the suggestions of the tempter, and the voices of the world's turmoil. Never before did there seem so many things to be done, to be said, to be thought; and in every direction I was pushed and pulled, and greeted with noisy acclamations of unspeakable unrest. It seemed necessary for me to listen to some of them, and to answer some of them, but God said, 'Be still, and know that I am God'. Then came the conflict of thoughts for the morrow, and its duties and cares; but God said 'Be still'. And as I listened, and slowly learned to obey, and shut my ears to every sound, I found, after a while, that when the other voices ceased, or I ceased to hear them, there was a still, small voice in the depths of my being that began to speak with an inexpressible tenderness, power and comfort. 

-- John Southall --

The fragrance of virtue...

The fragrance of sandalwood and rosebay does not travel far. 

But the fragrance of virtue rises to the heavens.

~Buddha~

The Religion of Love

My heart has become a receptacle of every form;

it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,

and a temple for idols, and pilgrims' kaba,

and the tablets of the torah, and the book of the Koran.

I follow the religion of love, whichever way its camels take.

For this is my religion and my faith."

- Ibn Arabi -

This is what you shall do....

"This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body." Walt Whitman