Words For Reflection

Reflections from a participant in the Mindful Tech Challenge.

Let's look at a few reflections on maintaining the positive, staying on the path to making the world better. Samik Raha keeps a small article about Rev. Thomas Merton's thoughts at meeting the Dalai Lama in 1968. That meeting was shortly before Rev. Merton died at the age of 53.

Rev. Morton talked about the temptation to work too hard, get involved in too much, by any activist, or passionate person seeking change. I suppose that in this age of instant information, his words apply even more, and beyond that to those in the work world, who have trouble setting aside the devices of connectivity, to have moments or minutes to themselves, to reflect.



According to Thomas Merton, "To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence."

He added, "The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his (or her) work....It destroys the fruitfulness of his (or her) work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful." He also said that "The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence."

Do you want to know about how Gandhi became known as Mahatma? On March 6, 1915, Gandhi met Rabindrinath Tagore, the 1913 Nobel Laureate. Gandhi had brought some of the boys from his school to visit Mr. Tagore's community in Santinetkan, where the poet had a school for children.

Mr. Tagore stated, "With Gandhiji's call, India blossomed forth to new greatness, just as once before, in earlier times, when Buddha proclaimed the truth, of fellow feeling and compassion among all living creatures. Gandhiji stopped at the threshold of huts of thousands of dispossessed, like one of their own. He spoke in their own language. Here was the living truth at last, not quotations from a book. For this, Mahatma - the name given to him by the people of India - is his real name." At the same time, Mr. Gandhi called Mr. Tagore Gurudev, or "The Great Sentinel".

Thoughts from the Dalai Lama.

You can sense the great respect between these two men in the words that they exchanged. But even more, when Mr. Tagore was talking about Gandhiji, the most important impression is that Mr. Gandhi acted those words. Words and actions go together, the actions lending credence to the words. To know such people must have been really inspiring!

A teacher has made a commitment to his students by being the change.

Thanks for information from this article on https://www.servicespace.org/blog/view.php?id=19673ServiceSpace: https://www.servicespace.org/blog/view.php?id=19673; and this article from My Life Is My Message: http://www.servicespace.org/about/gandhi/?nid=40.

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