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It is natural to wish to live a successful and meaningful life; to feel we managed to contribute, and make some difference, some impact on the world around us; to feel we fulfilled our life. To do so, it can be logical that one would seek to influence others, to be considered successful in their eyes, and someone worth learning from. It is certainly a means to impact others, to get positive attention. It could become a problem however, if we tend to mix means with aims, forgetting that one cannot replace the other. To be considered successful on the outer doesn’t stand for the quality of the inner and the actual.
If it were kosher to have a favorite philosopher, Lao Tzu would be the favorite of many. His teachings and aphorisms are intriguingly contemporary and personal. We live in times where even ethical behavior is characterized by moral outrage rather than moral values. Although people claim intellectual expertise on solving the problems of the world, solutions continue to evade us, in the absence of an ability to reflect and take responsibility through self-understanding. In such times, a man who simply states: “Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others, our manners”, is priceless in his worth.
Our recent times are characterized by a phenomenon due to which we may refer to it as a Post Truth Era. Not only are the differences between the real and unreal fewer, and less clear, but they are regarded as irrelevant. This seems to be yet another inevitable step downward in postmodernist thinking, and it deserves our attention and reflection as it seems to be yet another warning sign for what is yet to come. In a world so heavily bombarded by an overwhelming quantity of information and stimulation
Human Values are the noble, guiding principles that must shape our behaviour, attitude and interactions with others. Cultivating these values therefore, is crucial for fostering a harmonious and inclusive society. Culture, the rich tapestry of all the fine arts, as well as the philosophy that underlies customs and traditions, plays a significant role in nurturing and developing human values. To this end New Acropolis, in Mumbai, hosted a carefully curated selection of philosophy, film, music and dance on 10th June 2023, at the Chemould Prescott Road art gallery, to celebrate culture in its myriad forms.
Today organizations are under more pressure to perform than they have perhaps ever been before. There are pressures from all stakeholders who incessantly demand increasing profitability every year, while at the same time they grapple with challenges of limited resources, ever changing laws and regulations, open market competition, and most importantly, factors of human resources. And yet, the amendment to the Companies Act in India in 2013 requires certain businesses to spend 2% of their average three year profits on social causes.
As a logical consequence of the demands of our technological civilization, which is based on the quality and performance of its products, people have finally begun to look at the human being as the main factor in any model of civilization, whether technological or otherwise.
It is now increasingly understood and accepted that the greater a person’s sense of well-being when he or she is producing something, the greater will be the objective quality of the material product.
The word Samurai originally meant ‘those who serve’, although individuals of this elite warrior class in medieval Japan were also referred to as Bushi, or warrior. And Bushido was the code of morality which the Samurai were meant to follow, not just in battle, but also in day-to-day activity. Speaking of this code in his book Bushido: The Soul of Japan, which is widely considered to be an authority on the subject, Nitobe says that it was not written down anywhere, but had organically formed over centuries.
Amidst a series of mystical verses compiled in the Bhagavad Gita, this is one of the fundamental instructions that Krishna transmits to a distraught Arjuna, when faced with the prospect of killing his own cousins in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in order to reinstate dharma in the kingdom.
In most ancient civilizations – like in an important number of faiths – we find the idea of reincarnation, the process that follows physical death. Modern occidental cultures consider death as the opposite of life, and in logical consequence reject death. Death is considered an aim , a disaster, and today most of us are afraid of death. In ancient times,
Twenty–five centuries ago in Northern India, a man desolated by the quantum and pervasiveness of human suffering in the world, resolved to find a solution. His investigation led him to many masters, abundant knowledge and a plethora of techniques to investigate Truth and Reality, until finally on achieving enlightenment, he devoted the rest of his life to teaching people how to come out of misery.
The Buddha, who never claimed to be anything but human, began teaching, and several hundred years afterwards, his words were compiled into Dhammapada, meaning at the feet of Dharma,
There is an old Eastern saying which states: “The Past Time is the Present Time, as also the Future, which, though it has not come into existence, still is.” In the Eastern view of time, reality exists beyond the temporal realm and what we experience as separate stages are actually part of a simultaneous reality. This is an interesting concept, implying that the past still exists, the present is but a fleeting moment and the future already exists in the blueprint of nature. It would be one way of explaining the many instances of prophecy that have been recorded in history.
Traveling Beyond: Explorations with New Acropolis India, is active travel for the aspiring philosopher; to come closer to the rich human heritage of lands and cultures across the globe. The philosophical way encourages us to come closer to what lies “beyond” – the invisible causes of what we observe, such that we may recognize the underlying unity that links humanity.
Activist, Author, Academic. Environmentalist, Humanist, Visionary. Satish Kumar believes that the spiritual aspect of our ecosystem has been lost in modern environmental debates, and has been replaced by systemic violence; towards the land, animals, mankind, and even towards ourselves. He maintains that reverence for nature is the only thread that can mend and weave together the fabric of humanity.
A child’s journey to adulthood is often a mixed bag. It’s a time of learning and challenges. Skills and abilities are developed, as are likes and dislikes. He quickly learns the rules of the world that he lives in. And facing a new world for the first time, his simplest obstacles look like gigantic monsters. In these daunting encounters, heroes and their tales of magical and audacious adventures often play an important role. The “Super” men and women, become guardians, while dreams of magic lamps and genies make just about anything possible!
The word “unify” comes from the Latin unus and facere, “to make one”, that is, to bring together various different parts that are coherent with another, and combine them in such a way that we can achieve a harmonious and homogeneous unity. It is an act of coming closer together, of connection, which, if it did not exist, would mean that each of the parts or beings would follow different paths – something which is not wrong in itself – but it would cause them to be divided, disunited and opposed to one another. Without the gesture of unification, we would have to live in perpetual chaos, in which it would be very difficult to find meaning in existence and its changing circumstances.