Prohibition of yoga to Muslims

Top Malaysian Islamic body prohibits yoga to Muslims

Sun, Nov 23 03:05 PM

Kuala Lumpur, Nov 23 (ANI): A top Malaysian Islamic body has reportedly issued an edict prohibiting the Muslims from practising yoga, with the view that elements of Hinduism in the ancient Indian exercise could "corrupt them".

National Fatwa Council (NFC) Chairman Abdul Shukor Husin said that many Muslims fail to understand that yoga's ultimate aim was to be one with a God of a different religion. He said that yoga, which originated in India, involves not just physical exercise but also includes spiritual elements, including chanting and worshipping, reported the Daily Times.

News of the yoga ban prompted activist Marina Mahathir to wonder what the council will ban next: "What next? Gyms? Most gyms have men and women together. Will that not be allowed any more?" she said.

Recently, the Council said that girls who act like boys violate Islamic tenets.

The government has also occasionally made similar conservative moves, banning the use of the word 'Allah' by non-Muslims earlier this year, saying it would confuse Muslims. (ANI)  source

The soul lives a thousand lives

EDITS | Saturday, November 22, 2008 | Email | Print |  The Pioneer The soul lives a thousand lives Mandakini Sankhdher Punarapi jananam punarapi maranam punarapi janani jathare shayanam... Here the Shankaracharya has stated the pathetic process of incarnation and reincarnation of the universe. To take birth is very painful, to live in the womb of mother in dirt and darkness, and to leave this samsara, to leave all near and dear ones is too sorrowful. That is why he says “Bhaj govindam … bhaj govindam mudhamate…”  How is a man reborn? It was first published in the 1970 July and August volumes of Prabuddha Bharata. The author, Swami Satprkashananda, was a senior monk of the Ramkrishna Order and the founder-head of the Vedanta Society of St Louis, USA. Reincarnation is not just a belief system but a definite science explaining our past and future lives. It even occurs regularly within our bodies during our own lifetime. Every seven years one’s body is rejuvenated completely. Right from the cells to the shape and size. Do we not grow from infancy to youth to middle age and then to old age? Yet the person I, the self within the body, remains the same. It never really grows old.  The Gita provides a beautiful and complete explanation of reincarnation. Not only Hinduism but all major religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam believe in the theory of reincarnation, expressing their ideas from time to time through their teachings. The idea of continued rebirth had first been taught in the west by Pythagoras who learned it from the ancient sages of India.  The world’s greatest thinkers have studied and expressed their convictions about this topic in very interesting ways. “I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, and that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead are in existence”, said Socrates. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The soul comes from within the human body, a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew… it passes into other habitations for the soul is immortal and the body is perishable.” Well known philosopher Leo Tolstoy thought that one’s present life was made up of thousands of dreams and that such a life was one of many such thousands of lives which one entered from the other more real life and then returned after death. And so life goes on endlessly, until one merges into the the last real life — the life of god.  source

Paul Mccain on Pope's remarks about Luther's understanding of fatih

The Bishop of Rome has stated, in the remarks reproduced below,
that "Luther's expression 'sola fide' [faith alone] is true." But please note how carefully nuanced the Pope's remarks are. He says Luther's statement is true "if." If what? If faith is understood to be our activity, as well as as the receiving instrument by which we are given salvation. This is the nothing other than the classic Roman Catholic error in regard to salvation by grace alone, through faith alone.

While I appreciate some aspects of the Pope's remarks, we still have, at the end of his remarks, a view of faith that is not the Biblical understanding of faith as "trust" but rather faith defined as woks of love, yes, works of love made possible only by God's grace, but nonetheless this is the view of faith Rome has always held since its formal dogmatization at the Council of Trent after the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Hence, the Pope concludes: "by love of God and neighbor, we can be truly just in the eyes of God." Read that carefully...by love of God and neighbor, we can be truly just in the eyes of God. Whose love? Our love, which is a fruit of faith, a good work. But Paul is clear: faith alone justifies. Forgiveness is given before we do works of love, for without forgiveness, there is no life, there is no salvation, there is no response from us. Salvation is entirely a result of God's love, not our love.

The Lutheran Confessions explicitly, clearly and specifically reject
the Pope's view of faith, as for example:

"The adversaries are in no way moved by so many passages of Scripture, which clearly credit justification to faith. Indeed, Scripture denies this ability to works. Do they think that the same point is repeated often for no purpose? Do they think that these words fell thoughtlessly from the Holy Spirit? . . .  They say that these passages of Scripture (that speak of faith) ought to be received as referring to faith that has been formed (fides formata). This means they do not credit justification to faith in any way, but only to love. . . if faith receives forgiveness because of love, forgiveness of sins will always be uncertain, because we never love as much as we ought to. Indeed, we do not love unless our hearts are firmly convinced that forgiveness of sisn has been granted to us. . . We also say that love ought to follow faith . . . yet, we must not think that by confidence in this love, or because of this love, we receive forgiveness of sins and reconciliation, just as we do not receive forgiveness of sins because of other works that follow. But forgiveness is received by faith alone." (Apology of the Augsburg Confession IV. 110ff; Concordia, p. 100).

Pope Benedict explains St. Paul’s teaching on justification to thousands

Vatican City, Nov 19, 2008 / 11:10 am (CNA).- On Wednesday morning,
Pope Benedict XVI continued his weekly teachings on St. Paul while
speaking to the thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square. The Pontiff further explained the apostle's teaching that believers
are justified by faith in Christ and by the acts that flow out of love for him.

When Paul met the Risen One on the road to Damascus, the Pope began,
"he was a successful man: blameless as to righteousness under the
Law." Yet "the conversion of Damascus radically changed his life, and he began to consider all the gains of his honest religious career as 'rubbish' in the face of the sublimity of his knowledge of Jesus
Christ."

Turning to St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, Pope Benedict found
that "Paul understood that until then, what seemed to him a gain, in
reality, in front of God was a loss. He decided, therefore, to bet all his being on Jesus Christ." In other words, "The Risen Lord became the beginning and end of Paul's existence," the Pope taught.

With this understanding of Christ’s resurrection in mind, Pope
Benedict turned to the two possible ways of being made new in Christ.

"The Letter to the Philippians," the Pope said, "provides moving
testimony of Paul's shift from a justice founded on the Law and
achieved by observing certain prescribed actions, to a justice based
upon faith in Jesus Christ. ... It is because of this personal
experience of the relationship with Jesus Christ that Paul focuses his Gospel on a steadfast contrast between two alternative paths to
justice: one based on the works of the Law, the other founded on the
grace of faith in Christ."

In his Letter to the Galatians, Paul further explains that even Jews
who have believed in Christ Jesus have done so because it is through
faith in Christ and not by works of the law that they can be justified.  As St. Paul states, “by works of the law no one will be
justified."

Pope Benedict then addressed the interpretation of this passage by
Martin Luther, who translated it as “justified by faith alone.”

“Before returning to this point it is necessary to clarify which is
the 'Law' from which we have been freed and what are the works that do not justify us,” Benedict XVI said.

“In the community of Corinth,” the Holy Father explained, “there
already existed an opinion, that crops up again throughout history, to the effect that it is the moral law, and that hence Christian freedom means freedom from ethics. ... Obviously this is an incorrect interpretation. Christian freedom is not debauchery, ... it is not
freedom from doing good."

"For St. Paul, as for his contemporaries, the word Law meant the Torah in its entirety, ... which imposed ... a series of actions ranging from an ethical core to ritual observances ... and substantially defined the identity of the just man, ... such as circumcision, dietary laws, etc. ... All these precepts - expressive of a social, cultural and religious identity - were very important" in the Hellenistic age when polytheism was rife and Israel felt threatened in its identity and feared "the loss of faith in the One God and in His promises."

At the moment of his encounter with the Risen Lord, Paul understood
that "with Christ, the God of Israel, the one true God, became the God of all nations. The wall -so he says in the Letter to the Ephesians-between Israel and the pagans was no longer necessary: it is Christ who protects us against polytheism and all its deviations; it is Christ who unites us with and in the one God; it is Christ who
guarantees our true identity in the diversity of cultures. The wall is no longer necessary, our common identity in the diversity of cultures is Christ, and it is he who makes us just,” the Pope said.

Pope Benedict then offered the interesting insight that “Being just
simply means being with Christ, being in Christ, that is all. The
other precepts are no longer necessary. Luther's expression 'sola
fide' is true, if faith is not against charity, against love. To
believe is to see Christ, to trust in Christ, to become attached to
Christ, to conform to Christ, to his life."

"Paul knows that in the twofold love of God and neighbor the Law is
present and fulfilled. So in communion with Christ, in faith, which
creates charity, the Law is realized. We become just by entering into  communion with Christ, who is love. We will see the same thing in the Gospel of next Sunday, the Solemnity of Christ the King. Love is the only criteria of the Gospel of the judge," the Pope explained.

In closing, the Pope invited the faithful to "ask the Lord to help us believe, to truly believe, so belief becomes life, unity with Christ, a transformation of our lives. And so, transformed by his love, by
love of God and neighbor, we can be truly just in the eyes of God."   courtesy

Obama's Spirtuality

Obama has spoken frequently about the importance of his Christian faith. In his 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope," he wrote that "the historically black church offered me a second insight: that faith doesn't mean that you don't have doubts, or that you relinquish your hold on this world. ... You needed to come to church precisely because you were of this world, not apart from it."

Despite those words, Obama has attended church sparingly in the past several months. Since winning the election, he has spent Sunday mornings at the gym. Many Washington-area churches hope that will change after he is inaugurated.

At Metropolitan AME Church, a historic, predominantly black congregation six blocks from the White House, senior pastor Ronald Braxton says parishioners have been buzzing about the possibility that the incoming president, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, — 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha — might attend services with them.

Braxton said it would be good if Obama resumed worshipping at a congregation rooted in the black community.

"He's familiar with African-American worship traditions," Braxton said, referring to Obama's membership at Wright's church in Chicago. "Metropolitan AME would be a wise a choice and a safe haven in which to worship."

Metropolitan AME has about 2,000 members, including former Clinton administration insider Vernon Jordan and former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, Braxton said. The church has a long history as well — Frederick Douglass worshipped and was eulogized there. Bill Clinton attended inaugural prayer services there in 1993 and 1997.

Braxton said the AME denominational leadership is interested in where the Obamas will worship, and is developing plans to extend a formal invitation.

Church member Michael Horton said the congregation could provide the Obamas a base of moral support.

"Our current congregation is full of 'agents-for-change,'" he said, playing on one of Obama's campaign themes. "I believe there is no better place for the Obamas to worship and feel comfortable."  more

Archbishop Rowan Williams visits Balaji temple in Birmingham

November 18, 2008

London (PTI): The top bishop in Britain has visited Europe's largest Hindu temple in the country to celebrate the growing "friendship" between the Hindus and Christian communities in the UK. 
The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who visited the Shri Venkateswara (Balaji) temple in Tividale in the suburbs of Birmingham in west central England, said he accepted the invitation by the trustees of the temple as "a sign of the celebration of friendship and the facing of challenges with hope." 
India's High Commissioner to the UK Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, leading NRI entrepreneurs S P Hinduja and G P Hinduja, Chairman and President respectively of the Hinduja Group, leading NRI Hotelier Joginder Sangar were among the select gathering present on the occasion. 
Underscoring the temple's multi-religious approach, Archbishop Williams inaugurated a "Christian Hill" -  to praise Jesus and to pray to Christian God.
A plaque on the hill read: "Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself." Williams also planted an olive sapling - a symbol of peace - on the hill. 
The Balaji temple was built in the traditional Indian Dravidian style. The overall plan for the temple complex includes a number of shrines and a community centre with vaulted horse-shoe form of roof reflecting the Buddhist style of architecture. 
The temple complex includes the creation of seven hills as a respect for major faiths and in friendship to faith communities in the United Kingdom. courtesy 

I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr.

I Have a Dream

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering his speech at the DC Civil Rights March.

This article is about the speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.. For other uses, see I Have a Dream (disambiguation).

"I Have A Dream" is the popular name given to the historic public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., when he spoke of his desire for a future where blacks and whites among others would coexist harmoniously as equals. King's delivery of the speech on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters, the speech is often considered to be one of the greatest and most notable speeches in history and was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.^[1] According to U.S. Representative John Lewis, who also spoke that day as the President of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, "Dr. King had the power, the ability and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a modern day pulpit. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations."^[2]

At the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme of "I have a dream", possibly prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry, "Tell them about the dream, Martin!".^[3] He had delivered a speech incorporating some of the same sections in Detroit in June 1963, when he marched on Woodward Avenue with Walter Reuther and the Reverend C. L. Franklin, and had rehearsed other parts.^[4]  more

Something good is happening in the Muslim world.

Don’t give in to pretenders

Sadia Dehlvi

Something good is happening in the Muslim world. A man with a half-Muslim parentage will soon take oath as the American President. The Malegaon blasts are being fairly investigated. Recently, Muslim scholars, activists and clerics got together and issued fatwas delinking Islam with terror. An 18-coach Sheikh-ul-Hind Express from Deoband carrying 2,000 clerics set out on a journey with a message of peace and integration. Some 6,000 clerics from 21 states met in Hyderabad to issue more fatwas against terror activities. From shock and denial modes, the Indian Muslim community has begun to introspect and take positive steps.

Now, a collective body of Muslim clerics has taken another commendable step by denouncing televangelist Zakir Naik’s speeches and demanding a ban on them. Popular Muslim resentment against Naik became evident last December when he used the phrase, “May God be pleased with him”, for Yezid, the debauch ruler and murderer of Imam Hussain; the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson who was martyred at the battle of Kerbala. Throughout Islamic history, these particular words have been used only for the Prophet’s trusted companions. Anger has now peaked with Naik declaring that praying to Prophet Mohammed and seeking his intercession with God is heresy.

I have been particularly disturbed by the growing popularity of Naik, founder of Peace TV and president of the Islamic Research Foundation. Naik is not an Islamic scholar or a cleric and can best be described as a preacher famous for his computer-like memory of almost all religious scriptures like the Bible, the Vedas and the Quran.

A doctor by training and inspired by the late India-born South African evangelist Sheikh Ahmed Deedat, Naik loves to debate with Hindus on the Vedas, with Jains about vegetarianism and atheists on religion and science. In the garb of inter-faith dialogues, he not only runs down all major religions, but also rubbishes as haraam (sinful) all Muslim devotional aspects that differ from his viewpoint.

In the subcontinent, Islam is the legacy of the Sufis who gave us traditions of syncretism and communal harmony. By condemning Sufi followers as “grave worshippers”, Salafi and Wahabi ideology-inspired speakers such as Naik reject an entire historical body of Islamic scholarship, jurisprudence and almost 80 per cent of Islamic literature. Naik is on record saying, “If Osama bin Laden is terrorising America or the enemies of Islam, every Muslim should become a terrorist.” Excerpts of this video are circulating on the internet, damaging the already wounded perception of Islam and its followers. read it all

Contours of Spirituality Today

Emerging Spirituality

Outline

Spirit -  ruach, pneuma, spiritus, wind, breath, that which gives life, that which moves life

ataman - that which is not darkness - thama (a-tma ), True self that is not bound by ignorance

naturalist spirituality, creation spirituality, evolutionsit spirituality,  creationist spirituality - pantheism, panethism, deism

Dualist Sprituality, Platonist, neoplatonist, Gnostic Spirituality, graded spirituality, clergy and laity, redeemed and unredeemed., natural and spiritual

Demonic and false Spirituality Luke 9:54-56,  1 John 4:1-3 Spirit of anti-Christ

Incarnational spirituality - Johnannie, I and the father are one, You are in me Ima in you , Tattvamaisi, Aham brahmam asi

Monastic spirituality, eremitic (hermit), desert, separation from the world

Mystic Spirituality contemplative spirituality

Sacramental spirituality

Other worldy spirituality :heaven and earth, rupture

Charismatic, liberation spirituality

 Indian Christian Spirituality

Self-sacrifice - KC Sen

Combat/resistance spirituality, people's movement  (Solidarity) -  MM Thomas

rainbow spirituality, pluralistic, inclusive spirituality

Ashram Spirituality - P. Chenchia

Postplutralist, postfoundationalist spirituality

 

Christian Spirituality site

Christian Spirituality site