Do no harm!

Christianity – “All things whatsoever you would that man should do to you, do you so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” Mathew 7, (12)
Buddhism – “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” (Udana-Varga 5, 8)
Confucianism – “Is there no maxim which ought to be acted upon throughout one’s whole life? Surely, it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you.” (Analects 15, 23)
Hinduism – “This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.” (Mahabharata 5, 1517)
Islam – “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” (Sunnah)
Judaism – “What is hateful to you; do not to your fellowman. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.” (Talmud, Shabbat 3 id)
Taoism – “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.” (Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien)
Zoroastrianism – “That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good itself.” (Dadisten-I-dink, 94, 5)
Treating others the way we want to be treated ensures that this can help our soul to reach spiritual maturity. We must teat the other sentient being as though we are that being. What treatment can you expect from a worm you are about to step on, or a tree that is about to be cut down? Instead, view that other being as though you are it, and then treat it the way you expect to be treated from that standpoint. We lay out the events along our own journey to spiritual completeness through the practice of our humanness.
More and more, especially in the Western world, people are becoming dependant on others for one or another thing. A person may blame his therapist for the lack of progress, another may blame his lawmakers for the way their decisions have affected his life directly or indirectly. Another may blame his childhood and his parents by seeing them as the contributors to the flaws in his character today. A criminal may blame the justice system for not providing enough comfort while in prison; the list goes on. In fact, we are responsible for all of our emotions, thoughts and behaviors. Yes, we do not live an isolated life and come in contact with others all of the time, but eventually we are the ones that are fully responsible for our own moral and spiritual attitude. In the New Testament, we read that Jesus healed a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. After he was healed, Jesus instructed him “Listen, you are well now; so stop sinning or something worse may happen to you” John 5-14. This example shows us that we ourselves can hurt our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being through the nature of our actions.
A person that is spiritually mature realizes that no one is to blame for the unpleasant events in his life. Such a person acknowledges that everything in nature is connected and that sooner or later as the popular layman’s saying goes: “What goes around comes around.” The law of cause and affect does not apply only to our actions towards others, but it holds true regarding our thoughts, feelings, and behavior in general.

Excerpt from: Guru in Jeans: Inward Journey to Psychospiritual Awakening.

The Law of Attraction or Hard Work?

The Power of Intention Part I
I don’t watch a whole lot of TV and generally won’t watch reality shows. This weekend though my hubby called me over to see a reality show about the “house wives of Atlanta” I watched it very briefly. The questions that popped up in my mind were “why there is a reality show about millionaire house wives (the average women do not really identify with them) and (why are these wealthy women in a show?) It’s not like they need the money. I was not surprised to see that they cared about fashion, brand names and other frivol ties. That is fine of course since they can afford whatever they want (or at least the money they’ve got from where ever were allowing them to lead a certain life style)
Now some of you may say “what about the law of attraction”? What about it?

The law of attraction does not work by wishing and waiting. If someone wants something in life, whether it is wealth, love, respect, kids etc, one has to work towards that. In the example of the house wives – well they worked through it trough marriage and what not. To elaborate on the law of attraction- that really is not a new concept. It did not start with The Secret, or with Ask and it is Given, it did not even start with Wayne Dyer’s the power of intention. Some of you may have come upon this concept from Wattles writing grow rich, Jose Sylva’s Method,…..A Bulgarian spiritual teacher by the name of Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov also mentioned this in his writings as the Law of Correspondence or the Boomerang Effect. There are of course others before him that did so as well and the list can go on.

If you want to get something or achieve something you’ve got to set goals for yourself and pursue them. I believe that whatever you focus on you draw that to you. If you focus on misery, you get bogged down. If you focus on love, you’re more loving towards others and they at times return your love. You get the idea. I suggest you take with a grain of salt who teaches you that wishes just manifest. There are certain things that just don’t. There is not going to be snow in the desert no matter how long someone there intends for that (unless you’re considering the Saudi Arabian man-made ski resort) Intention and manifestation are not magic. You get results out of your attempts. I am very weary of teachers who proclaim other wise. I will talk more about it in another post.