humanity

The Native Americans had a very profound statement that says that no tree has branches so foolish enough to fight amongst them self.

We are all connected and our thoughts, decisions and actions have the possibility to affect more people than we can imagine.

We, therefore, have a responsibility to ensure that the affects of our thoughts, decisions and actions will benefit other people and make their lives easier.

Ubuntu is a traditional African philosophy that simply means I am because you are.

What this philosophy teaches us is that there is a common bond between us all and that it is through others that we discover ourselves.

The South African Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said this about people who live according to Ubuntu:

“They know that they are diminished when others are humiliated, diminished when others are oppressed, diminished when others are treated as if they were less than who they are.”

Whenever St. Francis of Assisi spoke about his body, he always spoke about it in the third person.

In stead of saying I’m tired or I’m sick, he would always say it’s tired or it’s sick.

St. Francis of Assisi understood the true nature of our existence.

In a world where we are so over-whelmed with the way our bodies look, we can all learn from St. Francis of Assisi. It is, after all, merely a shell.

What would this world be like if people spent as much time beautifying their souls as they do their bodies? How many more St. Francis of Assisi’s would there be amongst us today?

There is an Ancient Indian saying that when you love, you should love like the Sun.

Upon reflection, one realises the true wisdom of this advice.

When the sun shines, it does not spread its rays on some whilst ignoring others. It spreads its heat evenly, depriving nobody.

Similarly, in order to love, one cannot judge who is worthy of love and who is not worthy. One must love like the Sun, spreading it to everywhere and evenly.

The most compassionate human beings have fully accepted this concept. Buddha once said that we should love every living creature as if it were his only child.

We are all born on two levels. The first is the physical level and the second is the spiritual level.

On the physical level, we see everything as scarce. Time is scarce, money is scarce, life is too short and the risks are always too high.

On the spiritual level, we see everything as abundant. Life is long enough to achieve our dreams and we have more than enough to achieve them.

In essence, we sometimes view the world through the physical level and focus on what we do have.

Have you ever considered how vast the universe is? Have you ever imagined how far it stretches and how deep it lies?

Furthermore, have you ever considered what a small speck of dust we really are in terms of the greater picture that exists.

It is in this comparison that a great miracle lies. Human Beings, despite their total insignificance, have the capability and the vision to search for great answers about the very nature of the universe and life itself.

This factor is one that amazes me fully. Whereas our bodies are bound by time and space, our mind is free to wonder and to question. More importantly, it has the ability to answer these perplexing questions.

By choosing the right word, we can effectively communicate our needs, goals, fears and problems.

The problem is that most people have a vocabulary of a few thousand words.

When one considers that in the English Language there are between one and half to one and three quarter million words, we can see that there is a problem here.

Most adults know only 2 per cent of the language.

Take some time to look up three new words in the dictionary.

We live in very fortunate times. Many of the necessities that our fore-fathers lived without are available to us at the turn of a tap or at a flick of a switch.

In these fortunate times, it is very easy to forget how generations before us lived their lives.

The French Aristocracy, for example, lived very different lives to us. When the Royal Family dined, it was regarded as a social occasion of significance.

It was around these dining arrangements that people of significance from all over France would come and discuss important things.

The self-help author, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, once made a very interesting point.

One day, he was walking in Hawaii when a person approached him rather angrily for entering his land.

Wayne pondered this meeting. He wondered what he had done to 'attract' such hospitality from this young man.

After meditating on this incident, Wayne came to the conclusion that they were both on different spiritual paths.

Whereas Wayne was on a well-developed path and life was challenging him with greater questions, the young man was just starting his spiritual journey and thus life was asking him simpler questions.

In the Merchant of Venice, Shylock's famous speech focuses on how human beings are connected on a physical level.

He proclaims that he has arms, legs, eyes, hands and a similar body to everyone else.

This is what Shylock uses to prove his right to be treated fairly and equally.

The truth, however, is that we are not connected on a physical level.

One person cannot sit opposite another and control the movement of the other person's hand or leg without physically moving it.