Thoughts sound good
They’re nicely cast
PRELUDE
Words,
words, I love all words.
They
open for me whole new worlds.
Words
can sound or just be silent,
Make
us vicious, and even violent.
They
can shock, and be daring,
They
can soothe, and be inspiring.
They can be lofty, they can be lovely,
They
can be uttered clearly and coolly.
Spoken
with anger, stated as rules
By
people wise, and even fools.
They
can be rich and be readable
They
can be powerful, and be punnable,
Words
are interesting, informative,
Imaginative,
instigative.
Words
can be crude or be colorful,
They
can be big and be beautiful,
Long
and separable,
Short
or laughable.
Lots
of fun from words I reap.
They're
really, really, really cheap.
For
dollars few one can hook
Thousands
of words in a big fat book.
I
while away lots of time
Constructing
lines that simply rhyme.
In
the pages to follow, see what I've done,
Read
them, recite them, you may have fun!
I.
BELIEF SYSTEMS
1.
FAITH
1. Faith is an
anchor: it keeps you on shore;
Doubt is a sail: it helps you explore.
2.Those who swear
that faith is true
Have their own faith in view.
3.If a person's heart
you wish to break
Try that person's faith to shake.
4.Wreck not a faith
that is deep,
If you can't offer ought else to keep.
5.They’re targets
oft of peoples' hate
Who a people’s faith do desecrate.
6.When pain and
sorrow afflict the mind
In faith can one solace find.
7.Faith can't cure
all physical ills;
But other needs it amply fills.
8.Gods above can't
subsist
If faith below doesn’t exist.
9.Faith isn’t
belief with no proof for it;
It’s belief with proof for the opposite.
10.Faith accepts
without asking for reason,
As one eats one's meal without thought of poison.
2. MYTHS
1.Not facts, but
values are what one finds
In the myths and tales of ancient minds.
2.Science's proofs
and obscure theories
Aren't as soothing as age-old stories.
3.Devils and spirits
are called by us
Bacteria, germs and viruses.
4.Myths and spooks of
ancient folks
Perhaps were their dreams and jokes.
5.Myths were stories
serious
To explain the world that's around us.
6.Who take
mythologies as really true,
Can get wild and combative too.
7.Myths are often
tales delightful:
Deep-felt visions, oft insightful.
8.The most ancient
gods in human history
Are filled with magic, myth and mystery.
9.We accept the God
of our kin and kith;
What others worship,
we call a myth.
10.Myths see the
world in terms too stark:
As good and bad, as light and dark.
3.
GOD CONCEPTS
1.Whether God is or
not a hypothesis,
God is joy and love and source of bliss.
2.The world has but a
single Boss
Who sets our life and gain and loss.
3.
God is not a spy in the sky,
Watching thoughts and deeds from up on high.
4.Music is one, but
tunes are countless.
Icons are many, but God is formless.
5.Fear not the God Who is above:
For God is only mercy and love.
6.Rain and thunder,
sun and sky
May be the only gods on high.
7.If a God there be,
He must embrace
Saints and sinners of every race.
8.God said, "Let
a Big Bang Blast!"
That's how the world, it came at last.
9.God thought, “Let
there be sound!”
Then said, “Let e.m. waves be all around.”
10.Is God a He or is
God a She?
Some think they know, but don’t ask me!
I.
BELIEF SYSTEMS
1.
FAITH
1.Faith
is an anchor: it keeps you on shore;
Doubt
is a sail: it helps you explore.
2.Those
who swear that faith is true
Have
their own faith in view.
3.If
a person's heart you wish to break
Try
that person's faith to shake.
4.Wreck
not a faith that is deep,
If
you can't offer ought else to keep.
5.They’re
targets oft of peoples' hate
Who
a people’s faith do desecrate.
6.When
pain and sorrow afflict the mind
In
faith can one solace find.
7.Faith
can't cure all physical ills;
But
other needs it amply fills.
8.Gods
above can't subsist
If
faith below doesn’t exist.
9.Faith
isn’t belief with no proof for it;
It’s
belief with proof for the opposite.
10.Faith
accepts without asking for reason,
As
one eats one's food without checking for poison.
2.
MYTHS
1.Not
facts, but values are what one finds
In
the myths and tales of ancient minds.
2.Science's
proofs and obscure theories
Aren't
as soothing as age-old stories.
3.Devils
and spirits are called by us
Bacteria,
germs and viruses.
4.Myths
and spooks of ancient folks
Perhaps
were their dreams and jokes.
5.Myths
were stories serious
To
explain the world that's around us.
6.Who
take mythologies as really true,
Can
get crazy and combative too.
7.Myths
are often tales delightful:
Deep-felt
visions, oft insightful.
8.The
most ancient gods in human history
Are
filled with magic, myth and mystery.
9.True
God belongs to our kin and kith;
What others pray to, we call a myth.
10.Myths
see the world in terms too stark:
As
good and bad, as light and dark.
3.
GOD CONCEPTS
1.Whether
God is or not a hypothesis,
God
is joy and love and source of bliss.
2.The
world has but a single Boss
Who
sets our life and gain and loss.
3.God is not a spy in the sky,
Watching
thoughts and deeds from up on high.
4.Music
is one, but tunes are countless.
Icons
are many, but God is formless.
5.Fear not the God Who is above:
For
God is only mercy and love.
6.Rain
and thunder, sun and sky
May
be the only gods on high.
7.If
a God there be, He must embrace
Saints
and sinners of every race.
8.God
said, "Let a Big Bang Blast!"
That's
how the world, it came at last.
9.God
said, “Let the world shine in many ways
With
matter, energy in time and space!,”
10.God
said, "E.M. waves, let there be,
Of
which a part humans can see!"
II.
RELIGION
1.
HISTORICAL
1.
Religions talk of heaven and hell
As where in future we all will dwell.
2.
No prophet's words are widely read
That warm admirers haven't spread.
3.
Religions begin to degenerate
When all they do is God venerate.
4.
Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Moses
Ate and slept like the rest of us.
5.
When they hunted and lived in caves
They had no priests or rites, or even graves.
6.
Pure truth in religion, if you wish to find
Keep all history out of
mind.
7.
Of gods and scriptures we find no trace
'Mong the early hunters of the human race.
8.
Reject not religions of the past.
Change and expand to make them last.
9.
Who authored
sacred scriptures’ pages
Were scientific theorists of bygone ages.
10.
There’s not a single faith indeed
That fought not with another sacred creed.
2.
NARROW
1.
Fanatics can be dangerous
If power they secure over
us.
2.
Religious groups are good, you'll find;
When not close to others of a different kind.
3.
For the true believer, this is the test:
He is sure his belief is the best.
4.
If some religious folks have power indeed,
They’ll dictate what one must and must not read.
5.
"God is great!" some loud exclaim;
Then fight and kill and also maim.
6.
Self-righteous fervor is a force indeed
That provokes wars as much as greed.
7.
Religious bigots are arrogant
And of history they're ignorant.
8.
Of modern science, they know not aught,
Who cling for ever to ancient thought.
9.
Religions have a role to play,
But on everything, should they have a say?
10.
Religion is narrow if it doesn't care
For the poor and the hungry who're out there.
3.
PRAYER
1.
How can asses that can only
bray
Know the joys of those who pray?
2.
Scriptures must only be read.
Dissect them, and they will be dead.
3.
Prayer in truth is an effort to find
A cosmic link for soul and mind.
4.
The joys and thrills of God's embrace
Are beyond those who have no grace.
5.
Prayer isn't to solve problems fast,
But to merge oneself with the cosmos vast.
6.
When all is well, and there's nothing to fear,
Not many pray for God to be near.
7.
When it's hard for one with life to cope,
Who prays to God gets some hope.
8.
When we’re alone with danger around,
Then can the value of prayer be found.
9.
Prayer to God needn't always be
A meek, beseeching, helpless plea.
10.
Prayer is a one-way mode to converse
With the substratum of the universe.
4.
MYSTICISM
1.
From molecules came life and love:
This, wondrous more than Heaven above!
2.
Knowledge of a star’s essence
Robs us not of a mystic sense.
3.
Ecstasy is
the orgasmic joy
That mystics get with the cosmic toy.
4.
Reason
brings to mind some light,
Mystic merger brings delight.
5.
Not all mystics are just fakes,
Though muddled minds may make mistakes.
6.
Science’s
truths can all be bared;
Mystic's joy can't be shared.
7.
Mystics do some truths proclaim;
But not all mystics say the same.
8.
Science without a mystic feeling
Is like medicine without too much healing.
9.
Mystic
feeling is like passing greeting:
Deep-felt, but it's all too fleeting.
10.
Mystic joy without God or creed
Is like morality without laws, indeed.
5.
SPECIFIC RELIGIONS
1.Hindus
say there's many a way
To
search for God, and to pray.
2.The
Judaic faith has this to say:
They're
true to God who His laws obey!
3.The
message of Christ is short indeed:
Be
kind and helpful to those in need.
4.They
call themselves devout Jains
Whose
religion feels for creatures’ pains.
5.The
Buddha's wisdom may be seen
In
his simple rule of the Golden Mean.
6.God
is great, Islam has said;
His
sole messenger: Prophet Mohammed.
7.The
Sikhs say inner peace to find
We
must follow the Master, keep God in mind.
8.Respect
land and trees, rain and dew:
This
is religion enough in Amerindian's view.
9.Chinese
wisdom, it would seem
Is
to be with Nature, follow the stream.
10.Be
good and kind, take rational ways:
This
is all that matters, the humanist says.
III.
CULTURE
1.
ART
1.
Art is statement of a deep-felt truth,
That also happens to please and soothe.
2.
It's humans who make and evaluate
A work of art as bad or great.
3.
Music isn't just note and beat;
But sound that's soothing and also sweet.
4.
Stories that are widely read
Are harmless lies, all nicely said.
5.
A beautiful face is a thing of joy:
Of man or woman, of girl or boy.
6.
People enjoy plays cause they partake
Of dialogues they can't themselves make.
7.
The power of words is what is seen
In a poet's painting of a scene.
8.
No art, no science, no dance, no song,
If one hasn't has food for way too long.
9.
By oneself one makes a work of art
A scientist's work, of the whole is part.
10.
Meaning behind truth by art is shown;
Truth behind facts by science is known.
2.
BOOKS
1.
Speech and actions fade away;
But written words for long will stay.
2.
Books that gather dust in dark
May also light a sudden spark.
3.
Books and logic, we do not need.
The poor and hungry to clothe and feed.
4.
A stranger is like a book unread.
Dull or lively, it can't be said.
5.
Humans are the only creatures
That write and read literatures.
6.
Deeds of saints through
books and sounds
Grow in time by leaps and bounds.
7.
Repeating just what books have said
Is like paying homage to people dead.
8.
Some books belong to every nation:
They’ve changed the face of civilization.
9.
Humans are more than atoms the way
A book is more than words, I'll say.
10.
To know the thoughts of a brilliant mind,
Read
a book it wrote, if you can find.
3.
MORALITY
1.
Moral codes aren't meant to find
Knowledge to light up the mind.
2.
Comfort, control, come from wealth.
But wealth unshared is but stealth.
3.
One can’t with logic justify
How love and kindness sanctify.
4.
Ought in excess, even of laughter
Brings pain or gloom not long after.
5.
An extremist stand, on whatever cause,
Will likely cause some pain or loss.
6.
Conscious hurting of another life
Is an evil sharp as any knife.
7.
Sex and love are not the same;
With love goes never blame or shame.
8.
Pleasures are for only you;
Joys, for sharing with others too.
9.
Those who deal in deadly drugs
Are viler than the vilest thugs.
10.
The simplest moral rule is one:
Willful harm must ever be done.
5.
WORDS AND LANGUAGE
1.
Play on sounds, if you can afford;
The pun is mightier than the word.
2.
The Chinese tongue is hard for you?
Yet millions speak it,
and children too.
3.
Another language beyond your own
Opens the mind to
worlds unknown.
4.
People holding different views,
Don’t mean the same
by the words they use.
5.
What to Romans it was simply sex,
To the Greeks the same was in fact hex.
6.
The fiery word can arouse a mob
To peace or war, to
save or rob.
7.
Though to the bard we’re much beholden,
Yes speech is silver, eloquence golden.
8.
Vibrations in air, when ought we say,
Thoughts and meanings do convey.
9.
Sounds from
the mouth have of course
Could even change history’s course.
10.
Like beauty from the sculptor's stone
The poet makes beauty from words alone.
IV.
GROUPS
1.
CRIME AND PUNSHMENT
1.
Pity the man who once had fame;
Which, having lost, now lives in shame.
2.
Punishment follows not the crime;
Save when one is
caught in time.
3.
Some say it’s murder weird and wild
When a woman wants to abort her child.
4.
Lawyers’ wits are what decide
The outcome when a case is tried.
5.
Equal justice for must be done:
Not penalty same for everyone.
6.
If no one steals and no one
robs,
Police and lawyers will be out of jobs.
7.
Crimes are caused no doubt by roots,
As much as roots lead to rotten fruits.
8.
The lawyer who can better argue
Shows the Truth, in a jury’s view.
9.
Society gets into a sorry state
When the crime-prone
in government permeate.
10.
Cut off the channel for the flow of semen,
Of men who rape
helpless women.
2.
ECONOMICS
1.
Laboring folks are choked to death
By the unchecked greed of some for wealth.
2.
The wealth of nations does arise
From capital and free
enterprise.
3.
More pitiful than lack of sense
Is economic dependence.
4.
Money is power, but also a tool.
May be wisely used, or like a fool.
5.
The science known as economics
Can be serious stuff
or just some tricks.
6.
An idea or thing can easily sell
If it's packaged and
presented well.
7.
Of what good
is a whole pot of gold
If you can’t of it get a hold?
8.
We often pour milk down the sink
When starving children have naught to drink.
9.
We need a
system that erases
Hungry looks on all people's faces.
10.
Economics is concerned more with wealth
Than happiness, fairness or moral health.
3.
HISTORY
1.
History isn't a list of dates;
But a peoples' fortunes and their fates.
2.
There have been horrors in the past;
Their effects mustn't
be made to last.
3.
The ancients didn't through telescopes peek,
That's why we have a seven day week.
4.
The greater a people's achievements
The shabbier their alien encroachments.
5.
When it comes to past acts of shame,
Most races and people are the same.
6.
Greater the good a culture has brought
Worse the evil that it has wrought.
7.
All people’s history oft speaks loud
Of greats of whom they feel proud.
8.
When one's recent laurels aren't so vast,
One tends to extol the distant past.
9.
Civilization often springs
From obsession with way-out things.
10.
Ideas die, however great
If there’s no one them to propagate.
4.
NEWS MEDIA
1.
News is not a fairy tale,
But gossip on a larger scale.
2.
The views you think are yours indeed
Come from TV, papers, and things your read.
3.
Once news was simply what happened;
Now it also tells us to what secret end.
4.
Time, once come, can't again be seen
Unless it’s the news magazine.
5.
If in ancient times they'd had TV,
Christ and Buddha we
still could see.
6.
News is not meant a story to tell,
But a commodity that they can sell.
7.
Crime and violence make the news,
And the journalists’ private views.
8.
During a day how many times
Do we read and hear of terrible crimes!
9.
Let there be
a week when we don’t report
Violence, crimes and what’s fit for court.
10.
Anchormen think the world can’t survive
If they show up not on TV live.
5.
PEOPLES
1.
On a race or nation if a statement is strong,
Most likely it's funny or just plain wrong.
2.
You may be right, yet make not a case
To speak too low of another race.
3.
Apartheid was heinous crime
'Cause 'twas out of tune with its Time.
4.
Powerless rage of a mindless band
Oft burns the flag of another land.
5.
Blessed the land which does not swing
To the left or right
extreme wing.
6.
To change a group's or a people's ingrained way
Within their system one must stay.
7.
Race and religion, more than mind,
Can a people closely bind.
8.
A successful people is often bound
By common purpose and values sound.
9.
The
cultures of the world, I say,
Are like flowers in a big bouquet.
10.
East is East, and West is West;
What's yet to come can
be the best.
6.
POLITICS
1.
They're fools, not traitors, who to spurn
Their country, its flags do burn.
2.
Free thought comes to a deadly stop
When fanatics reach a nation's top.
3.
Once a year, all nations should
Speak of their foes what’s only good.
4.
With freedom's mighty magic chain
We can climb up and also go down the drain.
5.
Communism has failed indeed;
Capitalism has to yet succeed.
6.
Cursed is the wretched land
Where power changes not from
hand to hand.
7.
Democracy is not all that neat
When people don't have much to eat.
8.
There's more in common than seem it might
'Tween the extreme left and the extreme right.
9.
Tyrants cannot hold their sway
If dumb soldiers do not them obey.
10.
Politics is a dirty game,
But some have to play
it, all the same.
7.
SOCIETY
1.
A healthy society must people link
Who don't the same way always think.
3.
Society will to ruin come
If duty-free, all
become.
4.
When values aren't to children taught
Society will surely begin to rot.
5.
Ordered society is attained
When human instincts are restrained.
6.
If each one cares for another one
Society’s chores will all be done.
7.
Some who try to society change
Have their own problems rather strange.
8.
A society which clings to values old
Is like a slave who's to ancients sold.
9.
A society needs some leaders great
Whom the young will want to emulate.
10.
A society is more than a
people-group,
More than chunks and
salt there is to soup.
8.
MEETINGS
1.
We are frank
and open when with friends
But with strangers all the frankness ends.
2.
A single person can get things done
Faster than a committee, with much less fun.
3.
A party is where many people meet
To gossip, pretend, hors d’oeuvres eat.
4.
In groups where people laugh and joke
There’s often a mean, and sulky bloke.
5.
When people
gather to worship and pray
One should not think of a joke to say.
6.
When an army-officer takes one to task,
About his health and family he doesn't ask.
7.
The respect that people for a leader express
Oft depends on his distance and also his dress.
8.
With strangers we see in a plane or train
Oft a distance we maintain.
9.
In every meeting that you attend
You’ll meet or make a passing
friend.
10.
Is there a meeting where people will dare
To
show up just in an underwear?
V.
MIND AND SCIENCE
1.
LOGIC AND THOUGHT
1.
The mind is for play; its antics are toys.
The heart is for love: the fount of all joys.
2.
Locks can't break, nor probing seep
Into the secret thoughts that people keep.
3.
Thought is beyond touch or sight;
Its speed far more than that of light.
4.
We know lots of things, but never can find
What’s going on in
another’s mind.
5.
Logic can expose stupidity;
Yet can’t prove its own validity.
6.
Trying to prove that logic
is great
Is like giving oneself a certificate.
7.
Arguments are just for fun;
Truth isn't oft with the one who won.
8.
Even if logic can atheism prove:
From head to heart God can move.
9.
More wondrous than stars and electric trains
Are complex systems known as brains.
10.
New ideas flow from the human brain
When a break there is in the logic chain.
2.
MEDICINE AND PHYSICIANS
1.
Cure for body’s ills is medicine;
It’s not redemption from moral sin.
2.
Aspirin relieves the pain, it’s true,
Of good and of bad people too.
3.
For body’s health from
sickness, medication;
For peace of mind and saneness, meditation.
4.
Which is stronger: matter or mind?
See effects of medicines, and you can find.
5.
Alter-medicine is a good deal more
Than what is found in
ancient lore.
6.
Love and caring also can
Lessen the pain of an ailing man.
7.
Doctors, when they cure a man
Change God's plan for his lifespan.
8.
A doctor treating with a
medicine
Is like a mechanic repairing an engine.
9.
When doctors
try to save a life,
They're engaged with God in a bitter strife.
10.
Medicines may even improve your health.
But the ultimate cure for birth is death.
3.
PHYSICS
1.
Phenomena in the world around
Are energy changes that abound.
2.
Force moves bodies: is a very wrong notion;
Force causes only change in motion.
3.
Light reveals to us many a scene;
But light itself can never be seen.
4.
A perfect engine there never can be:
In physics they call this the SLT.
5.
The universe is just one unit
'Cause of the weakest force that's in it.
6.
Space-time and matter’s mystery
Were born from broken
symmetry.
7.
If gloom and doom you wish to find
Get astrophysics in your mind.
8.
With finite
facts found from the earth
We still can talk of cosmic birth.
9.
When all the fields are unified,
There still will be things unverified.
10.
Space and time, young
Einstein found
Are each to the other for ever bound.
4.
SCIENCE
1.
Science is not wheels and springs;
It's search for the how and why of things.
2.
When and how the world began
Can but be guessed by the mind of Man.
3.
Curiosity may kill the cat,
But there’s no science without that.
4.
For the
puzzles plaguing the human mind
Science tries coherent answers
to find.
5.
The sun and moon we all have seen;
Yet, to know them well, so few are keen.
6.
Science isn’t just eating the cake;
It's how the cake we manage to make.
7.
The grandest notions of science's great
Have been revised: That's their fate.
8.
Tomorrow's finding may throw away
A science's doctrine of today.
9.
Do we try in vain to all explain
Bad and good and joy and pain?
10.
To enjoy science's fruits, they also try
Who know naught of science, or science decry.
5.
SOME RESULTS OF SCIENCE
1.
The sun will be dark some distant day.
No life will be here, so they say.
2.
The atoms in what today is you,
Were elsewhere once, will leave you too.
3.
Green plants spring from light and mud;
And make our body's bright red blood.
4.
Computers do not new things make,
For pure logic cannot make mistake.
5.
Coal and gas burn only when
There's around some oxygen.
6.
The world looks the way it does
Because of the scale of each of us.
7.
The air we breathe, this we can tell:
Has been through others as well.
8.
The ancients thought that it was so:
But Man wasn’t made in toto.
9.
The forms
and names of a constellation
Are products of human imagination.
10.
All the energy of stars and sun
Come from solar nuclear fusion.
6.
TECHNOLOGY
1.
Technology turns evil indeed
When it stirs up the base human greed.
2.
Technology is an
unwitting sin;
It has put us in the mess we’re in.
3.
When first
we had science's taste
No one knew of nuclear waste!
4.
Technology isn't a blessing pure;
For many ailments it's both cause and cure.
5.
Industry moves things so fast
Life may become a thing of the past.
6.
When a great invention has been made,
It causes newer ones and jobs and trade.
7.
What once a luxury was indeed,
Soon becomes a thing of need.
8.
Technology is much like sin;
Enjoyable, but it'll do you in.
9.
Machines do their jobs so well
Because they have no stories to tell.
10.
We should all great respect feel
For
the one who made the world's first wheel.
VI.
RELATIONSHIPS
1.
LOVE
1.
Love is great and knowledge good.
But
please choose love, if choose you should.
2.
With the ones we like, we’re always glad;
Sans
the ones we love, we become sad.
3.
Acts of love and a heart-felt vote
Do
not wait for a thank-you note.
4.
If love without marriage, is disdainful,
Marriage without love
can be truly painful.
5.
A house is made of brick and wood.
A home is made with
love and food.
6.
Love is grand, love is lofty;
Even if it just be
biochemistry.
7.
Love since times very, very ancient
Has
often been rather transient.
8.
Who loves the same one till age eighty
May be happier than
with variety.
9.
Who declare, “I can’t live without you!”
Do survive, when
they’re forced to.
10.
Love eternal is a grand illusion
That’s fed by blind
or mindless passion.
2.
MARRIAGE
1.
A wedding is a formal break,
When leave of parents,
children take.
2.
A married woman who keeps her name
Has a man’s name
just the same.
3.
The bride and groom who match today
From each other may
drift away.
4.
All creatures mate to propagate
Humans mate ‘cause
sex is great.
5.
Marry not just for caste and creed
Don't think of humans
as animal breed.
6.
They tell the world, when they wed,
That one with th'other
will now go to bed.
7.
On the wedding day of your little one
Another family unit
has just begun.
8.
Even those with firm marital bond
May of another become
rather fond.
9.
Love in marriage should such bond make
That, weak or strong,
it’ll never break.
10.
Love is a tree: it grows and it flowers;
Marriage its soil, its
sunshine and showers.
3.
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
1.
The best your child for you can do
Is to go in life farther than you.
2.
The young should first learn to read.
This must be their foremost need.
3.
Guide the young their way to find
With caring heart and thinking mind.
4.
To have children, some refuse;
When old, others’ children they have to use.
5.
If mom and dad get sick and old
Love for them turns weak and cold.
6.
When kids are gone, we are alone
Only if we haven’t a life of our own.
7.
Guide your
young with love and trust.
When they are grown, leave they must.
8.
If, when young, one quits one’s school,
Later in life, one
feels like a fool.
9.
After an age, parenting must end;
Child should become the parents' friend.
10.
All loves may shift from one to another,
But mother’s love for child, it will never wither.
VII.
ASPECTS OF LIVING
1.
EXPERIENCES
1.
The pain that seems for ever to last
Will some day become of the past.
2.
Pleasure is sin only when
It causes pain in someone.
3.
Neither intense pleasure nor constant pain,
The body can for long sustain.
4.
Joys and sorrows, great and small
Will melt some day beyond recall.
5.
Tears come when glad or sad;
But laughter never when things are bad.
6.
Don't try one's grief to understand;
Just give a caring, friendly hand.
7.
Rejoice this day the best you can;
Things may turn not as morrow's plan.
8.
Joy and sorrow to the mind are bound:
Pleasure and pain in the body found.
9.
Lust is heightened fantasies
Of
thrills with bodies one only sees.
10.
What we like to do, we do with pleasure;
What
we have to do, under pressure.
2.
FOOD AND EATING
1.
Food is now what makes you fat,
But overeating: Don't forget
that.
2.
A rule for losing weight might say:
The mouth be shut for many a day.
3.
Both are
white and both feel grainy
One’s for soup, the other for tea.
4.
Fasting is when we eat the least;
Eating much becomes a feast.
5.
Eating is a supreme pleasure
If done in its proper measure.
6.
Eat you may
on your own,
But feast you can't, all alone.
7.
There’s more to eating than nourishment:
It should also be an enjoyment.
8.
Sharing
foods without conversation
Is like dancing alone in isolation.
9.
Each time we eat, let’s also know
That it’s the farmers who cause foods to grow.
10.
The energy in the food, though not the fun,
Has
come to us from the distant sun.
3.
GUIDELINES
1.
Life isn’t long: take it but lightly.
Our needs are strong: work not too slightly.
2.
When gift or kindness comes your way
"You shouldn't have," one mustn’t say.
3.
Quench a quarrel before it grows;
Before it turns to words and blows.
4.
Care not
what your neighbors say
Of how you spend your night
or day.
5.
Heartily give to one and all
Counsel and help if on you they call.
6.
Advice none on why or whom
They should take as bride or groom.
7.
Don’t try to rid the world of all its weeds,
Attend to just one person's needs.
8.
Avert the bad, if it's not too late;
If it has happened, call it fate.
9.
Wish one and all from all your heart
Happiness of every sort.
10.
If your choice is between reason and good,
Reason it out, but choose the good.
4.
HUMAN BEINGS
1.
We can be noble, we can be mean,
Most often we're somewhere in between.
2.
Reason and morals are cast to dust
When one is blinded by the fire of lust.
3.
Naught we know can the cosmos span
Save the measuring mind of puny Man.
4.
For fast and swift orgasmic pleasure
People have lost their name and treasure.
5.
No one is always good or bad;
No one for ever is glad or sad.
6.
The body's beauty is just outside;
There's blood and flesh and filth inside.
7.
We have affected the world indeed,
With thought and word and drastic deed.
8.
We are the only earthly creature
That talks of past and thinks of future.
9.
Those who are great and good in fame
May not at home be quite the same.
10.
Some are poor and some are wealthy;
Fortunate
those who just are healthy.
5.
LIFE
1.
There's more to life than food
and drink:
It's a scope to build, a chance to think.
2.
Life isn’t just for one’s own living:
It’s also for loving, for sharing and giving.
3.
Who predict the course of life by star
Oft
know not what the stars really are.
4.
Time creeps slow from future to past;
But look behind: it's slipped by fast.
5.
The world is ruled by physical laws.
But
the course of life, it's chance that draws.
6.
Take not life too seriously
Nor treat it rather frivolously.
7.
Life is precious, there’s much to do.
Care
for and respect other lives too.
8.
On Time's endless, evolving line
We
are but dots invisibly fine.
9.
Between the stretches of future and past,
Only a moment do we really last.
10.
Life is for laughing, loving, and crying,
Some reflecting, and then just dying.
6.
RULES FOR LIVING
1.
Those who're richer, envy them not;
Share with the poorer whatever you've got.
2.
Hurting none in body or mind
Is the noblest law that you can find.
3.
Let ire and hateful attitude
Be allowed only in solitude.
4.
Do good to some, to all be kind;
Even if searching, no God you find.
5.
When you are right and also strong,
Help the weak, and correct the wrong.
6.
If a hurt results that you did not will,
Feel no guilt, but be helpful still.
7.
Expect not, but always say
"Thanks" to someone every day.
8.
Smile at someone every day,
And to someone kind words say.
9.
Trim the trees and cut the grass
But in the home let love not pass.
10.
You may for yourself much expect:
Remember to always others respect.
VIII.
THE WORLD AROUND
1.
EARTH
1.
The tiny earth that seems but naught
Is home for life and art and human thought.
2.
I know not what our planet gains
From all the life that it sustains.
3.
Who can imagine a lifeless earth
Sans pain and joy, sans death and birth?
4.
The earth is a stupendous place indeed
On which billions thrive and daily feed.
5.
We can't destroy the land and sea.
When we are gone, they still will be.
6.
Earth is the only home that a human has:
Amidst stars and all th’interstellar gas.
7.
To sustain life many things are there:
Like land and water, light and air.
8.
Unique is earth, not in size or mass:
But because of water and a
cloak of gas.
9.
Mars too cold, Venus too hot,
But earth is right for life and human thought.
10.
Jupiter’s too big, Pluto too dark
Earth is right for Life’s bright spark.
2.
NATURE
1.
Nature is just, Nature is blind.
It turns into God when it's also kind.
2.
Birds and beasts and fowl and fish
Know naught of stars, nor make a wish.
3.
If trees talked and we understood,
We wouldn’t chop and burn their wood.
4.
Stars are small, the sun does rise;
These, in fact, are Nature's lies.
5.
Systems that have pleasure and pain
Cannot stable for long remain.
6.
Fruits and flowers may grow and bloom
When we all have passed our day of doom.
7.
At Nature's beauty, if no one looks,
Is wasteful as unopened books.
8.
Human beings everywhere
With joy at rainbows always stare.
9.
From colors do wonders come to pass,
Like the bright red sun and lush green grass!
10.
The seasons and the lunar phases,
Are Nature’s breathing and making faces.
3.
PEACE
1.
Peace, not war, will be the fashion
When the motive force is pure compassion.
2.
It's not yet peace when guns don't kill,
If nations live in distrust still.
3.
While hunger, ill-health their tolls do take,
Bombs and arms we still do make.
4.
The world will be a beautiful place
If we respect every creed and race.
5.
It's through love, rather than hate
That we can better mankind's future fate.
6.
Let's think about the distant stars
‘stead of making all our hurtful wars.
7.
‘Tis not by force and armèd might
That victory comes in every fight.
8.
When a nation needs food and schools;
Tanks
and bombs are bought by fools.
9.
In places of worship that abound
One
must search for kinship with all around.
10.
Not war, but peace, in our hearts we feel,
Unless
we happen in weapons to deal.
4.
UNIVERSE
1.
How come there is a world out there,
And I, of it, become aware?
2.
Nowhere in the Cosmos do we find
Anything like the human mind.
3.
Though stars may waves radiate,
Thoughts from them don't emanate.
4.
Novas, stars, like fish and trees
Don’t seem to know our species.
5.
Near distant stars we yet may find
Life of another form and kind.
6.
Silent stars are far and bright;
They care not a whit for the human plight.
7.
No final goal the world has willed:
Each moment is a task fulfilled.
8.
Forms and shapes on the heavenly scene
Have been by human beings seen.
9.
Frightened, pious they once became
When to the skies a comet came.
10.
In the limitless stretch of space and time
Only
the human mind can think and rhyme.
5.
WHOLENESS
1.
None of us is fully free,
We're all parts of a cosmic tree.
2.
There is no tight and opaque wall:
We live in a web, connecting all.
3.
Every plant and every creature
Has a role to play in the world of Nature.
4.
Mystics claim they've found at last
The Oneness in the Cosmos vast.
5.
A spark from the Grand Cosmic Whole
Shines in every human soul.
6.
Even the sun so far away,
On distant Pluto holds its sway.
7.
There's not a spot in the cosmos vast
Where EM waves have not been cast.
8.
Not just for us that the world is there;
It's for all of us to share.
9.
We are like leaves on a sturdy tree
Whose roots lie deep in mystery.
10.
Through matter, energy
we all are bound,
And
through ideas, traditions, all around.
IX.
GENERAL REFLECTIONS
1.
CHANGE
1.
Lives and seasons come and go
All this is part of the cosmic show.
2.
Every change
is caused by a change
And itself caused another change.
3.
The world evolves when changes come;
Yet, some people's views don't new become.
4.
Time makes changes, it would seem.
But it's change that causes time to stream.
5.
To see the world as time flows back
Just run a movie on the reverse track.
6.
No Man-made rule or authority
Is meant for all eternity.
7.
Too many changes may ruin a nation,
Too few can cause just stagnation.
8.
Who their habits suddenly change
Appear to us as rather strange.
9.
Not every change does progress make
But every progress some change does take.
10.
All kinds of changes are possible
Most of them, irreversible.
2.
IRONIES
1.
Faiths that say that God is One
Fight among them, all said and done
2.
The sun that gives us life and breath,
If
too close it is, will spell our death.
3.
The blood by
Aspirin is made thinner,
Whether
of saint or of
sinner.
4.
God, they say, is everywhere,
Yet
churches, temples and mosques are there.
5.
"Kill Rushdie!" He made that ugly sound.
Now
he too has gone underground.
6.
That land has been by hatred torn
Where the Prince of Peace, they say, was born.
7.
Shadows of all by the sun are thrown;
But
not a shadow of its own.
8.
Astrology has failed again and again,
But credibility, it does retain.
9.
Science has awakened the human mind,
But its impacts on thinking hard to find.
10.
“Love, be kind!” all religions state:
Yet religious people fight and hate.
3.
HUMAN CONDITION
1.
Life is but a bumbling blast
From unseen future to changeless past.
2.
There’s something wrong, something bad
If
one can’t be happy or even sad.
3.
Life is for
crying and for laughter,
Who
knows what comes in the hereafter.
4.
In human
life, this much is plain:
One cannot take on another’s pain.
5.
When people fight to get some food
They can't be in a romantic mood.
6.
The urge to eat keeps each
alive;
That for sex makes the species thrive.
7.
If humans had just fingers three,
Our counting mode would different be.
8.
Not always smooth, life presents instead
Conflicts between heart and head.
9.
So many
things are not our choice:
Like parents, birthday, and our voice.
10.
Intrinsic worth is not in the face,
Nor in one’s faith, height or race.
4.
OLD AGE
1.
It's sad when folks of a certain age
Are treated just like old garbage.
2.
Retirement is the boss-less chance
To read and write and play and dance.
3.
Old age doesn’t mean the day is done:
Just time to give up physical fun.
4.
When
mind is gone and body spent,
What use is it to death prevent?
5.
Old age is bad when there’s none to care,
One is alone, no friends are there.
6.
Don’t worry about your aging face:
It’ll
all be gone without a trace.
7.
In old age
bring a child some joy:
With songs and stories, or just a toy.
8.
In retirement, teach someone to read:
Answer to someone else’s need.
9.
Lucky are the old who are wealthy;
And blessed the old who are healthy.
10.
Lose not zest for life, even when old.
That happens only when the body is cold.
5.
TRUTH
1.
Fact is what there seems to be;
Truth is how it seems to me.
2.
Truth is not a thing you own,
It is a view of a precious stone.
3.
Things aren’t always false or true;
Much may be there half way through.
4.
To claim I alone the Truth
do hold
Is being more silly than being bold.
5.
If you possess the Ultimate Truth
You’ll have at ninety every tooth.
6.
How can one with a finite mind
Infinite Truth ever find?
7.
Truth is an image, in mind is formed
By what and how we are informed.
8.
The truth that we by thinking find
Is
a concoction of the human mind.
9.
Who claims all truth, isn’t an ass:
He
can be vicious, if power he has.
10.
We'll never know what It's all about;
It cannot ever be here found out.
6.
WISHES AND PRAYERS
1.
May the food we eat be well prepared!
May the joys of life with friends be shared!
2.
May hateful thoughts that mar our lives
Be shunned no matter what arrives.
3.
As a body
needs a soul for fun.
May our home have bodies more than one.
4.
No matter how much we think or know,
Let’s always to others respect show.
5.
No matter what our cause or creed,
Let not hate or rage move us to deed.
6.
Let’s be good and kind ‘cause it's swell,
Not because there’s heaven or hell.
7.
Let’s pray
for the good, and hardships face,
For everyone of the human race.
8.
Let's do each day an act that is kind
To anyone whom we happen to find.
9.
Let’s remember there is nothing gained
If another human is in some way pained.
10.
Let’s do our part to
make come true
All
our prayers and wishes too.
7.
DEATH
1.
Death is the last and mute retreat
From work and care and drink and eat.
2.
King or saint, bird or fly,
All earthly creatures must some day die.
3.
The one who is dead and forever gone
Cares not for those who continue on.
4.
We can't recall our days in womb;
Nor hear the wails on our way to tomb.
5.
When death arrives, we all do wail
Though we know it is of no avail.
6.
Where are the smiles, and where the sighs
When one at last lies down and dies?
7.
The departed do not care a hoot
If all their wealth one tries to loot.
8.
May whatever we leave behind
Include words and actions that are kind.
9.
We stand up to walk, sit down to eat;
We lie down at last our Maker to meet.
10
Is death a trip to heaven or hell,
Or the end of all? None can tell.
X.
QUESTIONS
1.
GENERAL QUESTIONS
1.
If fish could sing and dance for us,
Would we catch and fry and eat them thus?
2.
Is it real or just a dream,
This conscious flicker on the eternal stream?
3.
Little babes that laugh and play,
What gods and angels worship they?
4.
Why were miracles, like some crimes,
Much more common in ancient times?
5.
If Venusian clouds filled our air,
Would we have known that stars are there?
6.
A belief may be mindless, even blind.
If it harms no one, should one mind?
7.
Do flowers blossom, do birds coo
To give some joy to me and you?
8.
Why should the rich we respect
If one can’t from them ought expect?
9.
If Soviet missiles on the U.S. rain,
Whence will they get their jeans and grain?
10.
Is matter in motion the only thing
That
makes us dance and love and sing?
2.
HISTORICAL
1.
If racists hadn't done their thing,
Would the Nobel Prize have gone to King?
2.
If heaven had not Hitler sent
Would Ike have become President?
3.
If Chinese Reds bring their might to bear,
Would the world become a Chinaman's Square?
4.
If the English hadn't crossed the sea
Would India now be growing tea?
5.
If spices didn't in East abound,
Would there be Mayans still around?
6.
If no cassette tapes were in gay Paree,
Would Iran’s history different be?
7.
If the
Prophet had not had a sign,
Would there be peace in Palestine?
8.
If Muslims
hadn’t gone on and on
Would there be now a Pakistan?
9.
If the Moors had not to Europe come
Would Europe have the decimal system?
10.
If the West had not to Arabia come
Would Arabs have petroleum?
3.
IRREVERENTIAL
1.
If up in China Moses grew,
Would God have spoken in Hebrew?
2.
If the Vedas were in Iceland sung,
Would Sanskrit be a sacred tongue?
3.
During the eons when Man wasn't there,
Who prayed to God, who asked Him to care?
4.
If God made Man in His image
Why does he grow so wrinkled with age?
5.
If the Turin shroud is of Christ,
Does that make Him a greater Light?
6.
Why then did God wait so long
To include Man in his glorious song?
7.
Can a just almighty God on high
Let hungry children starve and die?
8.
Wouldn’t heaven and hell empty be
If monkeys had n'er come down from tree?*
9.
How can the world be a divine plan
When it includes things like the Ku Klux Klan?
10.
Should hell and heaven be brought to mind
To
eschew bad, be good and kind?
XI.
MISCELLANEOUS
1.
Powerless rage of a mindless band
Oft
burn the flag of another land.
2.
Saying good of a race won’t hurt you
Even
if it’s not entirely true.
3.
Rabbi, priest, Imam and Pope
Bring not peace, but lots of hope.
4.
There's no God, did the Buddha say;
So they made him God, when he passed away.
5.
Those in power make or mar
The institutions where they are.
6.
Unseen forces affect us too
In things we think we alone do.
7.
Great may moral precepts sound;
But they also tell that sins abound.
8.
When a teacher calls a question swell,
It means he knows its answer well.
9.
In the state
of sleep, the short and tall,
Are equals as are kings and all.
10.
What a human brain to a human tells
Would change, if made of something else.
Explanations
and Notes
I.2.3.
In the ancient world view diseases were caused by the devil or evil spirits
which were invisible. Today we attribute diseases to bacteria and viruses which
too are beyond direct perception.
I.3.1.
The great physicist mathematician Pierre Simone de Laplace referred to God as a
hypothesis he did not need to account for the motion of celestial bodies.
I.3.4.
Music: difficult to conceive in the abstract, but very meaningful and satisfying
in one of its countless expressions as
songs and symphonies. The same is true of the mythological representations of
the divine in some religions.
I.3.8.
This would be the modern version of the Book of Genesis. Even if we accept the
(current) scientific view that the world began with a Big Bang, one may
attribute it to the Will of God.
I.3.9.
Before He could say “Let there be Light,” God must have created sound. Also,
light is only a narrow band of the more sweeping electro-magnetic spectrum.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
II.1.2.
Many wise men and women over the ages have spoken and preached. But not all of
them have had enthusiastic, energetic, and capable followers and admirers. Only
those who have been fortunate in this respect, are remembered by future
generations.
II.1.6.
The historical study of any religion reveals its contextual significance, and
often tends to shake one’s faith in the absoluteness of the religion.
II.1.9.
The authors of the sacred texts of ancient times were undoubtedly among the most
brilliant and awakened minds of the human family. Their insights and
interpretations were based on current knowledge and understanding. If they were
to come back to life, they will most likely want to offer re-editions of their
works, based on more recent findings. Smaller minds of later generations, not
recognizing this, and believing they are paying homage to ancient masters,
repeats and embraces literally everything uttered by those extraordinary people.
II.2.2.
The question is often asked, “Have religions done good or bad to the human
family.” When we examine the matter closely, we find that as long as the
members of a religious community holding the same set of beliefs function
together, they derive much spiritual enrichment and communal joy. However, when
they encounter people of a different faith, their behavior tends to become less
charitable, more arrogant, and often downright combative. One’s level of
spiritual enlightenment may be measured in terms of one’s reaction upon
encountering people of a different religious persuasion.
II.2.6.
Karl Marx propagated the view that all religions are provoked by economic
factors. Not necessarily. Often people have to war for religious reasons: to
convert heathen to the “right religion,” or to recover a piece of land from
people of heretical beliefs.
II.2.9.
There is no doubt that religions have a very important role to play in all
societies. But much confusion and trouble can arise if religion transgresses its
role and responsibility and encroaches into other domains, in particular,
science and politics.
II.3.2.
When a writing is considered sacred, it must not be critically analyzed if one
does not wish to affect one’s implicitly reverential attitude towards it. The
effect of analysis will be to engender a different (and not necessarily less
respectful) feeling towards sacred writings, but it will no longer be one of
deeply felt (non-rational) reverence. Yet, theologians do this all the time.
II.4.4.
The principal teaching of the Jain religion is ahimsa: no injury (to any living
creature).
II.4.5.
The Buddha (Enlightened One) taught for spiritual advancement one must avoid the
extremes of constant indulgence of physical pleasure and ascetic
self-mortification for God realization.
II.4.6.
The oft-repeated credo of Islam is: La ilaha il-Allah, Muhammad-un Rasulu-llah:
There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet.
II.4.7.
The word sikh connotes a disciple. Sikhism preaches implicit reverence for the
ten Gurus (founding-masters of the religion), and frequent repetition (japa) of
the Lord’s name.
II.4.8.
Native-American religious spirit is expressed in respect and regard for the
physical environment which enables us to survive on the planet.
II.4.9.
Ultimate wisdom, some Chinese philosophers have said, consists in being
at peace with oneself and in harmony with the world, and this is achieved
by being one with Nature.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
III.1.6.
What makes a play enjoyable and successful is good dialogue. The conversation of
most people, even when interesting, is not often witty and clever. A good
playwright accomplishes this with his/her humor and skill with words.
III.6.9.
An important difference between an artistic creation and a scientific discovery
is that the former can result from the efforts of a single individual, whereas
the latter is invariably linked to the work of other scientists.
III.1.10.
Take a single truth on any subject: Nature, the human condition, a flower,
whatever, and there can be a thousand different artistic visions of it. On the
other hand, science encapsulated the fundamental truth underlying a myriad
phenomena that we see. In other words, art particularizes a general truth, and
science generalizes particular facts.
III.2.6.
Many saints and sages have decried the use of books and knowledge. But their
names and thoughts would have been long forgotten if scholars did not write
books about them.
III.2.
7. Many well-meaning, but unoriginal, scholars simply repeat with great respect
and reverence what other writers and thinkers have said. This is merely saluting
those who are no more.
III.3.3.
People have tried to justify certain fundamental moral principles by reasoning
and argumentation. This is a wasteful exercise because such logically derived
systems can always be challenged. Morality springs from the inner core of
evolved human beings. While professors of ethics may discuss it in courses and
books, the practitioners does not need any more justification for being good and
kind than a person of faith needs a scientific proof for the existence of God.
III.4.2.
One of the myths entertained by non-scientists is that scientific understanding
of nature deprives us of aesthetic and mystical experience. This is not quite
true.
III.4.3.
Some mystics have compared spiritual bliss to sexual delight magnified a hundred
fold.
I.4.6.
It is possible to communicate the findings of science through words and
formulas. But it is impossible to communicate the intense joy that mystics claim
to experience.
III.4.7.
An important distinction between the statements of mystics and those of
scientists is that mystical revelations are culture dependent: A Christian
mystic will never report having a vision of Kali or Vishnu, nor a Buddhist have
a vision of Virgin Mary.
III.4.10.
Not impossible but not very common either, at least in the normally accepted
sense of mystic experience.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
III.
5.1. Recall: The pen is mightier than the sword.
III.5.4.
Many controversies may be avoided if people clearly define the terms they use.
III.5.5.
The Latin word for six is sex. The Greek word for six is hex.
III.5.9.
Speeches by inspiring orators, as illustrated in Mark Anthony’s speech in
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar; or pronouncements of spiritual leaders, like
Sermon on the Mount, have indeed
affected the course human history.
-------------------------------------------------------------------IV.1.5.
For example, throwing someone into prison for a year may be the punishment for a
crime. But the impact will be different if the offender is a common criminal or
a former governor of a state.
IV.1.8.
People who live through life without doing a spot of work are indeed parasites
on society.
IV.1.9.
One of the ironies of human civilization is that although we grow and waste vast
quantities of food, there are still hungry people in our world. It is amazing,
and certainly deplorable, that we as a species have not been able to come up
with a global economic system under which no human being will b hungry.
IV.2.3.
The Babylonians recognized only seven bodies in the sky that seemed to move
differently than the stars: the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus,
and Saturn. To each of these, they consecrated a day. This is the origin of our
seven-day week. If they already had powerful telescopes, they would have noticed
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto too, and we would have ended up with a ten day week!
IV.2.5.
Practically all cultures in human history have committed acts of which they
ought to be ashamed.
IV.2.7.
No matter what, no national history is without names and deeds of which a people
are proud. Indeed, this is a necessary condition for any history. If there are
no obvious records of great personages in the history of a people, one ought to
invent some. This may have been the motivating force for mythology and
pseudo-history wherein great achievements are attributed to legendary figures.
IV.4.3.
In our times news is much more than what happened: It also includes for what
reason it happened.
IV.5.3.
The major crime of apartheid in South Africa was not, as was generally believed,
the unjust and inhuman treatment of a section of its population, because this
(criminal though it was) has been practiced in many other nations of the world,
including the ones that were (rightly) condemning the South African government.
The major crime was that even after most other nations had rejected such a
policy from their laws, as being immoral and unbecoming of our times, South
Africa continued.
IV.5.10.
There is so much communication, cross-fertilization, and intermingling going on
in our times that during the impending century, all the unpleasant barriers of
East and West may crumble down, and some of the best human potentials may come
to full expression.
IV.8.7.
For example, if you see the Pope in a swimming costume relaxing near you
at the beach, you are likely to show him far less formal respect than when you
see him in the balcony of the Vatican.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
V.1.5.
Proving the validity of logic assumes its validity; hence it is begging the
question.
V.1.7.
The validity of this statement is seen frequently in courts of law.
V.1.8.
Faith in God is not established by logical proofs, but by inner convictions
which transcend rationality.
V.1.10.
Human brains are capable of functioning “illogically” and
“irrationally.” It is this capacity that enables them to imagine, fantasize,
and create, because in all these instances the mind goes beyond or away
from what pure rational thinking would allow.
V.2.5.
Alternative medicine is not all based on ancient medical systems. Ancient
medical treatises seriously wrong concepts and medications. Alternative medicine
includes much of modern medicine in terms of understanding the nature and
functions of the human body, let alone the pharmaceutical components.
V.3.1.
Everything that occurs in the physical involves a transformation or transfer of
energy.
V.3.2.
One of the gross misconceptions of ancient science which persists to this day is
that force is responsible for motion. The break from ancient physics occurred
when it was realized that force causes acceleration (change in motion), not
velocity (motion).
V.3.3.
When light travels from one body to another, we cannot “see” that light. At
night, for example, space is flooded sun light. Only that portion of it which is
reflected back to our eyes from the moon and some planets affect us.
V.3.4.
The so-called Second Law of Thermodynamics (SLT) states that a one hundred per
cent efficient engine is impossible even in principle.
V.3.5.
There are four fundamental forces in the physical world of considerably varying
strengths. The weakest of these is gravitation. The solar system, our own
galaxy, and all the galaxies, are held to one another because of gravitation. If
gravitation weren’t there, the various components of the universe would
disperse away.
V.3.6.
According to current physical theories, the four fundamental forces in the
universe, and hence all matter as we know it, came into existence because of
something called symmetry breaking.
V.3.7.
Astrophysics informs us that eventually (a few billion years from now) out sun
would have died, the earth would be orbiting in darkness, and, of course, there
would be no life on any planet in the solar system.
And the same would happen to every star and in every planetary system.
V.3.9.
It is naïve to think (as some cock-sure physicists do) that once all the
fundamental fields are brought under a Grand Unified Theory, that would be the
Theory of Everything, and then there will be nothing more left in the world to
be explained!
V.3.10.
According the famous Theory of Relativity (of Einstein), space and time are not
(as used to be thought) separate and independent categories, but are
intrinsically intertwined into the space-time continuum.
V.4.4.
A common misconception is that science is the exploitation of nature for
practical purposes. Science is merely an effort to understand and explain every
aspect of the world around us.
V.4..7
In historical terms, few scientific theories last for ever. At the very least,
they get modified and improved upon. At worst, they are rejected on the basis of
later findings and insights.
V.3.10.
Even the virulent critics of science, and philosophers who claim science does
not reveal the Truth, continue to benefit from the fruits of science. No
alternate mode of understanding the world has as yet produced anything whose
practical value is greater than that based on science.
V.4.2.
Ultimately our bodies are of made up of atoms. These enter the body through the
food we eat and the air we breathe. They were once elsewhere on the planet. When
we die, these atoms go back to the environment.
V.4.4.
The difference between scientific and non-scientific explanations of phenomena
lies in the coherence and consistency between theory and observation.
V.5.4.
See V.1.10.
V.5.5
It is sometimes stated that we get our energy from oil, gas, coal, etc. This is
only partially true. We cannot get eany energy from them if there is no oxygen.
V.5.10.
When the nuclei of atoms merge with one another (fuse together), some matter
disappears and vast amounts of energy are liberated. This process is
continuously occurring in the core of our sun and other stars and is responsible
for their light and heat.
V.6.7.
For example, today it is impossible to be without the telephone system in New
York, or computers in the country. These have become necessities. Yet, for long
centuries we have lived without these.
VI.3.4.
Some people refuse to have children because they are bothersome, and impose a
responsibility. They think they can live without children.
However, when such people grow old the need the help of much younger
people who have been brought up by other parents.
VIII.2.4.
Nature creates many illusions, of which the size of stars and the rising and
setting of the sun are but two examples.
VIII.2.5.
This could well be a reason why very creature has to die.
VIII.5.6.
The planet Pluto is some two billion miles from the sun. Yet it moves in its
orbit in perfect accordance with the force of gravitation exerted on it by the
sun.
VIII.5.7.
Electromagnetic waves are known to pervade every nook and corner of physical
space.
IX.1.3.
All impressions of time flow result from changes occurring in the physical
world. In effect, there will be no flow of time if things never changed.
IX.1.10.
Changes are of two kinds: reversible and irreversible. The latter kinds result
in the arrow of time, because such changes occur only along a single direction.
The motion of a pendulum in a vacuum is an example of reversible changes. There
is no arrow of time in this case. If we take a movie of a swinging pendulum and
project it on a screen one canot say if it is running forwards or backwards.
This will not be so with an irreversible change.
IX.2.1.
If Japan had not attacked Pearl Habor, the U.S. would not have declared war on
Japan, and Japan would not have lost the war, and been economically reinstated
by American aid.
IX.2.4.
If God is everywhere, why do we need special places for worship?
IX.2.7.
Eclipses are caused by the moon’s or the earth’s shadow due to the sun. But
there can be no shadow of the sun.
IX.2.9.
Even though Science has exploded many ancient superstitions, these continue to
have great influence on the minds of many people even in this day and age.
X.1.1
The Reverend Martin Luther King received the Nobel Prize for Peace because of
his non-violent fight against the racists of the South in the United States.
X.1.3.
This refers to the ruthless quelling of a student movement by students in
Tianaman Square in Pejing.
X.1.4.
Tea was transplanted from China in India by the British.
X.1.5.
It was in his attempt to find a route to the lands of the spices in the East
that Christopher Columbus discovered the continent
of the Aztecs and the Mayans who cultures were eventually decimated Europeans.
X.1.6.
It was from Paris that the Ayatollah Khomeni made his revolution-instigating
cassette tapes which were smuggled into and widely distributed all over Iran,
leading to the overthrow of the Shah.
X.1.7.
The Prophet Mohammed once reported that he had a dream to the effect that he was
received in Jerusalem where a magical horse called Buraq took him to Heaven and
back to the Wailing Wall. This is the basis on which Jerusalem became a holy
place for Muslims.
X.1.8.
Islamic imperialism spread far and wide. When it reached India, millions of
Hindus were converted over the centuries. Eventually, when the British left
India, the Muslim population (or at least some its leaders) insisted on getting
a separate Muslim nation for themselves. This is the origin of Pakistan.
X.1.9.
Arab scholars translated Hindu books on mathematics (which contained the decimal
system), and these permeated into Southern Spain which was occupied by the
Moors. Thence the decimal system spread to other European countries.
X.1.10.
The first successful oil drilling was achieved by E. L. Drake in Titusville, PA,
in 1859; thence it spread all over the world, reaching exploitative dimensions
when it spread to Saudi Arabia.
X.2.5.
The atmosphere of Venus is made up of very thick clouds of carbon dioxide
through which light cannot penetrate.
X.2.6.
Beliefs, right or wrong, are of two
kinds: those that are harmful to oneself or others (like beliefs of race
superiority), and those that are quite harmless (that we will go to heaven after
death).
X.2.9.
These lines were written during the Cold War, during which time the USSA was
importing grains from the U.S.
X.2.10.
The philosopher René Descartes said that the whole world is nothing but matière
en mouvement (matter in motion). This was considered for long to be the only
ultimate and essential truth about the physical universe.
X.3.5.
In the 1970s there was some scientific/religious controversy as to whether a
certain shroud found in Turin was in deed the one used by Christ.
X.3.6.
According to current scientific reckoning the universe came into being more than
twelve billion years ago, and human beings barely three million years ago.
X.3.7.
Perhaps one (theological, but to most people unacceptable) answer to this
question could be that while God is merciful and kind and full of love, God is
not all-powerful. There is also a merciless, unkind, and hateful
principle operating in the universe (not all-powerful either), and it
takes directs the course of our lives sometimes.
X.3.8.
If indeed Homo Sapiens evolved from apes, and there is heaven and hell, then
this question becomes very relevant.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------XI.4
The Buddha asked his disciples not to worry about God, but simply to live
righteously and with compassion. But after his death temples were built for him,
and he has been worshipped over the ages as a God by millions of people.
XI.5.
Most often even the most worthwhile institutions in the world (universities,
churches, parliaments, industries) are made great or
rotten by the kinds of people who occupy positions of authority there.
XI.6.
We tend to think we alone accomplish this or that. In fact, however, there are a
great many unperceived factors that aid or hinder what we do: absence of an
earthquake, tolerable weather conditions, good health, emotional stability from
relationships, etc.
XI.7.
The enunciation of an ethical principle to a group implies that many in the
group did not adhere to it. For example, one would not say, “Thou shalt not
spit on the floor” to opera goers, but one may say, “Thou shalt not speak to
each other” in a movie theater.
XI.8.
Teachers usually describe a question from a student in class as: good (if the
teacher was about to answer it anyway); great or swell (if the teacher knows the
answer himself); and very interesting (if he does not know the answer, in which
case he asks the students to think about it before coming to class the next day.