Promise yourself.... To live in faith

To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them

To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.

To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

- Christian Larsen 

Have less and Enjoy more by Graham Hill

A radical viewpoint from Graham Hill, who writes in the New York Times, about living a simple life. The point he makes about de-cluttering our lives is not outrageous. Some of the drastic scaling down may sound. 

He talks about material stuff and how it ended up running his life, or a lot of it. He says 'The things I consumed ended up consuming me.' 

He queries aptly 'What exactly are we storing away in the boxes we cart from place to place?'  

'Intuitively, we know that the best stuff in life isn’t stuff at all, and that relationships, experiences and meaningful work are the staples of a happy life.' 

'After a certain point, material objects have a tendency to crowd out the emotional needs they are meant to support.Often, material objects take up mental as well as physical space.' 

He summarises 'I sleep better knowing I’m not using more resources than I need. I have less — and enjoy more. My space is small. My life is big.' 

Link to original article 

Levels of belief in God by Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins states the following levels of belief in God from 1-7: 

1-Strong Theist: I do not question the existence of God, I KNOW he exists.

2-De-facto Theist: I cannot know for certain but I strongly believe in God and I live my life on the assumption that he is there.

3-Weak Theist: I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.

4-Pure Agnostic: God’s existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.

5-Weak Atheist: I do not know whether God exists but I’m inclined to be skeptical.

6-De-facto Atheist: I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable and I live my life under the assumption that he is not there.

7-Strong Atheist: I am 100% sure that there is no God.

Noam Chomsky about the US and India

Noam Chomsky about the US 

• In the United States almost nobody knows anything about the outside world — people don’t know where France is. India would be some word that they might have heard in school in passing. It is a very insular society.
• One good thing about this country is that there is very little state repression, no censorship, so they can speak out what they can. On the other hand, the internalisation of doctrine here is just overwhelming, that is, with the intellectual community in the universities. 
• And it is partly a reflection of the freedom, I think. You get an impression that everything is free and open because there are debates that are visible: the Democrats are debating the Republicans, and the press does its share of condemning. 
• But what people don’t see — and the seeming openness of the debate conceals it — is that it is all within a very narrow framework. And you can’t go even a millimetre outside that framework. In fact, it is even taught in journalism schools here as the concept of ‘objectivity’ — that means describing honestly what’s going on inside that framework and if there is something outside, then no, that is subjective.

Noam Chomsy about India 

• What is really striking to me about India is the indifference of privileged sectors to the misery of others. People don’t look, they put themselves in a bubble and then don’t see it. 
• There is a lot of talk about how India is slated to be a major power, and I can’t believe it, with all its internal problems.