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Friday, August 31, 2012

Memorable Passages-12: From WISDOM TO LIVE BY by Henry Gariepy

In this series, Memorable Passages, I am sharing with you some of the passages which have impressed me greatly.  

The following passage is one such wonderful and inspiring writing which I have enjoyed immensely and hope you will also enjoy and benefit by it.  I picked up this book just outside the Moore Market in Chennai for a very small sum.  Its subtitle is, 100 MEDITATIONS FROM PROVERBS, ECCLESIASTES AND THE SONG OF SONGS.  My immediate reaction on seeing the subtitle was, must be another book by some Christian clergy.  But once I started turning the pages, I realized I was holding in my hands a wonderful book which every spiritual seeker irrespective of his religion, should read and benefit by. 

This passage, I hope, will make the reader look for the book and read it entirely. Not just once, but again and again.  It is only a piece of the cake; why don't you try the full cake?  I have given my feelings within brackets in the passage itself, wherever I thought would be fit.

My grateful thanks to the author, Henry Gariepy, who is Editor-in-Chief of the national publications of  The Salvation Army and is a Colonel in The Salvation Army.  He has written many books.  (Ah, how much I would like to get and read them!).  My grateful thanks are to the publishers of this book, VICTOR BOOKS, a division of the Scripture Press Publications, Inc. 

Now, to the passage:

DARE  TO  DISCIPLINE

He who heeds discipline shows the way to life - Holy Bible, 10:17

The words discipline and disciple are closely related.  One cannot be a disciple without discipline.  Discipline is characterized by self-control, orderliness, efficiency, self-mastery.  These qualities are the hallmarks of the Christian life. (I substituted Spiritual life for Christian life).

Our text states that the one who heeds discipline becomes an example of the way to live.  Richard Foster commences his classic devotional book, Celebration of Discipline, with the statement, "Superficiality is the curse of the age."  The classical disciplines, he writes, "call us to move beyond surface living into the depths...They urge us to be the answer to a hollow world."  He laments, "Today there is an abysmal ignorance  of the most simple and practical aspects of nearly all the Classic Spiritual Disciplines." (I would very much like to get this book and read it.  Does not it sound fascinating?)

The concept of discipline is is uncommon in today's permissive society.  Self-indulgence is preferred to self-mastery, feasting to fasting, superfluity to simplicity, confusion to contemplation, self-seeking to self-giving.

The Book of Proverbs call us to discipline.  The word occurs almost as many times in Proverbs as in the rest of the Bible combined.  The royal teacher declares, "Whosoever loves discipline, loves knowledge"(12:1) and "He who ignores discipline, despises himself"(15:32).  He also urges, "Get wisdom, discipline and understanding"(23:23).  He is writing of the discipline that by training and knowledge, will develop mastery and character.

Richard Foster defines a disciplined person as one who does what needs to be done when it needs to be done.  This simple and yet incisive definition has the most practical applications for the Christian.  The disciplined person rises a half hour earlier to allow time for the priority of morning devotions.  The disciplined person resists watching television programs that would allow unholy scenes and thoughts to enter his mind.  The disciplined person avoids the enticing foods that would impair health.  The disciplined person makes the time and expends effort for a needed exercise regimen.  The disciplined person forgoes a luxury to avoid debt and is committed to a simple lifestyle.  The disciplined person sacrifices the pleasure of the moment for the greater benefit of the future.  The disciplined person has priorities in order and regulates life around them.  

Wisdom to live by has a prerequisite of discipline.  It is not a luxury for supersaints, but is the requirement for every believer......
---
I can go on quoting from this book.  Better, everyone who is impressed by the above passage tries to get a copy of the book and reads it.  What do you say?

My grateful thanks are to the author, Henry Gariepy and Victor Books, the publishers.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Quotes on Books-13: Franz Kafka

A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us - Franz Kafka

Write-up on Franz Kafka from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka

Full Text of  Works of Kafka from Project Gutenberg:

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka(Translated into English by David Wyllie):
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm

The Trial by Franz Kafka(Translated into English by David Wyllie):
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7849/pg7849.html


Grateful thanks to David Wyllie, Project Gutenberg and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Memorable Passages-11: From THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY by Will Durant

Human behavior, says Plato, flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. ... Desire has its  seat in the loins.  It is a bursting reservoir of energy, fundamentally sexual.  Emotion has its seat in the heart, in the flow and force of the blood;  it is the organic resonance of experience and desire.  Knowledge has its seat in the head; it is the eye of desire, and can become the pilot of the soul.

These powers and qualities are all in all men, but in diverse degrees....

And last are the few whose delight is in meditation and undrestanding; who yearn not for goods, nor for victory, but for knowledge; who leave both market and battlefield to lose themselves in the quiet clarity of secluded thought; whose will is a light rather than a fire, whose haven is not power but truth; these are the men of wisdom, who stand aside unused by the world.

Now just as effective individual action implies that desire, though warmed with emotion, is guided by knowledge, so in the perfect state, the individual forces would produce but they would not rule; the military forces would protect but they would not rule; the forces of knowledge and science and philosophy would be nourished and protected, and they would rule.  Unguided by knowledge, the people are a multitude without order; like desires in disarray: the people need the guidance of philosophers as desires need the enlightenment of knowledge.  "Ruin comes when the trader, whose heart, is lifted up by wealth, becomes ruler";  or when the general uses his army to establish a military dictatorship.  The producer is at his best in the economic field, the warrior is at his best in battle; they are both at their worst in public office; and in their crude hands politics submerges statesmanship.  For statesmanship is a science and an art; one must have lived for it and been long prepared.  Only a philosopher-king is fit to guide a nation.  "Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and wisdom and political leadership meet in the same man, ... cities will never cease from ill, nor the human race".   This is the keystone of the arch of Plator's thought.

- From THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY by WILL DURANT (The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers)
Chapter I : PLATO
Section VI : THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM  - Pages 22-23

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Quotes on Books-12: Thomas Jefferson

Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital - Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence, 3rd President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia and a figure of world historical significance.

Writer-up on Thomas Jefferson from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

University of Virginia's collections related to Thomas Jefferson:
http://guides.lib.virginia.edu/content.php?pid=77323&sid=572858

Grateful thanks to the University of Viriginia and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Quotes on Books-11: Maya Angelou

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him - Maya Angelou, American Author and Poet

Write-up on Maya Angelou from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou

Grateful thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Monday, August 6, 2012

Quotes on Books-10: Arnold Lobel

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.


Arnold Lobel, American Author of Children's Books


Biographical sketch of Arnold Lobel from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Lobel


Grateful thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Book News-34: A Novel without Verbs!

French author Michel Thaler has published a 233-page novel, ‘THE NOWHERE TRAIN’. It has no verbs. He considers verbs as weeds in a field of flowers!


More on the book from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Train_de_Nulle_Part


Grateful thanks to Michel Thaler and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Sunday, August 5, 2012

Quotes on Books-9: Confucius

You cannot open a book without learning something - Confucius

Biographical sketch of Confucius from Wikipedia:

Full Text of CONFUCIAN DIALECTS:

Grateful thanks to Project Gutenberg and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Book of the day-15: Deepak Chopra's bestselling book: Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul




Deepak Chopra interviewed by Alan Seinfeld
Uploaded by newrealities on Oct 15, 2009
12,874 views
Now at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307452336?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwnewrealtie-20&...


Deepak Chopra has been a frequent guest of Alan Steinfeld's New Realities http://www.NewRealities.com Here he discusses his most recent book & soon to be bestseller Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul.


Grateful thanks to Dr Deepak Chopra, Alan Seinfeld, NewRealities and YouTube.

Book News-33: A Book Written with an Eyelid!



For Jean-Dominique Bauby, December 8, 1995, was a black day.  He had a stroke that put him into a coma.  When he woke up, after twenty days, only some movement in his head and eyes remained.  But, Bauby would not give up.  He started writing a book.  An assistant would read out letters from the alphabet and Bauby would blink his left eyelid to show his choice.  Every word took about 200,000 blinks.  The book, 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' became an instant hit....

Excerpt from "Books that shaped the World" in the MANORAMA TELL ME WHY series, March 2012, Vol.6, No.6, Price Rs.20/-.  98 colorful pages, all information packed. (A very very interesting and useful book, which I strongly recommend to every booklover).

More about "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' from Wikipedia:

A brief biographical sketch of Bauby, who was Editor-in-Chief of Elle before the stroke:

Grateful thanks to M.M.Publications Ltd, Kottayam, Kerala, India and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Quotes on Books-8: Ray Bradbury

I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories - Ray Bradbury


Biographical sketch of Ray Bradbury, the master science-fiction writer from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury


About The Stories of Ray Bradbury from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stories_of_Ray_Bradbury


Ray Bradbury Obituary from The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/06/ray-bradbury


"A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury:
http://www.lasalle.edu/~didio/courses/hon462/hon462_assets/sound_of_thunder.htm


"The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury:
http://mikejmoran.typepad.com/files/pedestrian-by-bradbury-1.pdf


About Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451 from Wikipedia:
(The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and firemen burn any house that contains them!)(A dystopia is the idea of a society, generally of a speculative future, characterized by negative, anti-utopian elements, varying from environmental to political and social issues.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451


About "DYSTOPIA" from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia


Grateful thanks to The Guardian, www.laselle.edu, mikejmoran.typepad.com and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.