Being Truly Human October 1991 Newsletter

From the Editor

Phiroz reached his 90th year on 1st October (i.e. he was 89). This year a birthday party was not held, but he must have received literally scores and scores of cards, which are now adorning his dining room!

All members send congratulations, love and best wishes to Phiroz on his anniversary.

From the Editor

The Summer School, our first for many years, will take place at Cuddesdon House, Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, from the 18th to 22nd June 1992.

Cuddesdon House, formerly the Palace of the Bishop of Oxford, is a Christian centre which welcomes students from all religions. The house is modern and comfortable, standing in four acres of ground in very pretty countryside six miles from Oxford. Sadly Phiroz will not be able to join us, but we are hoping to have one or two outside speakers to talk to us. More details and application forms will be in the next Newsletter.

From the Editor

Starting Wednesday 30th October, 47 Lillian Road will be open every Wednesday from 2:30pm until the 18th December 1991, and then from 1st January to 15th January 1992. All members will be most welcome to come along, consult the library, listen to a tape, have a cup of tea etc. But please ring first in case of some unforeseen circumstance. The house is also open by arrangement at other times.

Our next Open Day will be on Saturday 30th November, from 11:00am until after tea. Please bring your own lunch to share.

By Michael Piggott

Was it Krishnamurti who said “truth is a pathless land” and Phiroz Mehta that remarked “where the religious life is concerned there are no maps”?

From birth our lives take many twists and turns and as we round each bend so new insights and new horizons open before us.

It was a letter from a stranger, regarding the Trust, and expressing an interest in meditation that caused The Heart of Religion to be taken from the shelf. As the book was opened at chapter 21, there, as if it were for the first time, was the heading ‘Meditation: The Heart of Religion’. When one quickens to the journey how greedy one can become, consuming great tracts of text in search of an illusionary goal. But not this time, the first sentence was both the beginning and the end:

To wing the uncharted flight in the trackless open! …

It was some weeks later, whilst talking to a friend on the telephone, that a student of psychology was mentioned. Again a silent stirring and now it was No Boundary by Ken Wilber that lay open at Chapter four, ‘No-Boundary Awareness’. The chapter seemed to follow seamlessly all that had gone before, from:

Thus the inescapable conclusion starts to dawn on us: “There is no separate self apart from the world” to “When we realize there is no part, we fall into the Whole”.

For many years, a good and uncommon friend has shone as the sun. An illuminator, shedding light upon the path, that our footsteps might be true and sure.

Perhaps we are all illuminators, providing light of infinite levels of intensity as necessary to each other as the air we breath.

May we journey together in harmony.

By Phiroz Mehta

If anyone makes Heaven, Beauty and Happiness for his fellow human beings, he is likely to enjoy the same, at least partly, in his own life.

By Jehanne Mehta

I am not any thing you give a name to,
There is nothing I am bound to do;
I stand within the circle of my freedom;
There is nowhere I am bound to go;

But if you should wish to circumscribe me,
Bend your thinking round into an O,
Stretching the finest skin across it,
Tightened like the drawn string on a bow.

I am nothing but an instrument of hearing,
A membrane, taut as ever any drum,
All senses fused together to make one.

Strike me with your name and with your beauty;
Vibrating with your pain and with your love,
I shall pierce the very stars with song.

From the Bhagavad Gītā, translated by Juan Mascaro

I am the beginning and the middle and the end of all that is. Of all knowledge I am the knowledge of the Soul. Of the many paths of reason I am the one that leads to Truth.

Of sounds I am the first sound, A; of compounds I am co-ordination. I am time, never-ending time. I am the Creator who sees all.

I am death that carries off all things, and I am the source of things to come. Of feminine nouns I am Fame and Prosperity: Speech, Memory and Intelligence; Constancy and patient Forgiveness.

I am the Brihat songs of all songs in the Vedas, I am the Gayatri of all measures in verse. Of months I am the first of the year, and of the seasons the season of flowers.

I am the cleverness in the gambler’s dice. I am the beauty of all things beautiful. I am victory and struggle for victory. I am the goodness of those who are good.

Of the children of Vrishni I am Krishna; and of the sons of Pandu I am Arjuna. Among seers in silence I am Vyasa: and among poets the poet Usana.

I am the sceptre of the rulers of men; and I am the wise policy of those who seek victory. I am the silence of hidden mysteries; and I am the knowledge of those who know.

And know, Arjuna, that I am the seed of all things that are; and that no being that moves or moves not can ever be without me. There is no end of my divine greatness, Arjuna. What I have spoken here to thee shows only a small part of my Infinity. Know thou that whatever is beautiful and good, whatever has glory and power is only a portion of my own radiance.

But of what help is it to thee to know this diversity?

Know that with one single fraction of my Being I pervade and support the Universe, and know that I am.

By Paul Marshall

Our planet is a beautiful place,
Soon to be destroyed by the human race,
The beautiful trees! Oh what a shame!
They’re being destroyed by acid rain.
For every false move we make today,
One plant or creature will surely pay.

There’s a hole in the ozone layer,
So the sun shines through and lets in the glare.
The oil slick laps against the shore,
Smothering birds which can fly no more.
Beautiful fish in polluted water,
will slowly die in the dreadful slaughter.

So the whole wide world must now unite,
In order to put all these things right.
There is no time for hesitation.
Let’s join together in co-operation.
People must help in every nation,
And admit we’ve messed up God’s creation.
World pollution is a question mark.
Unless we help, the future is dark.
And if the world did come to an end,
Nothing would live: no beauty; no friend.

By Phiroz Mehta

Many people shy away from religion because they feel that to be religious means to be solemn, to shun the legitimate joys of everyday life, to spend one’s life praying and fasting; in short, to be miserable.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Religious living simply means living the daily secular life virtuously. It can well include prayer and worship, for these are spontaneous expressions of man’s tenderly growing awareness of Transcendence, and of the fact that he is primarily a religious being and only secondarily everything else. Zarathushtra as a man of action and as a Prophet of God was a very practical man with sound psychological insight. He well knew that men will of course run away from a misery agent, but incline favourably towards a happiness bringer. So he affirmed that not only God but also this physical world is good. Thus one of the outstanding features of Zarathushtrian religion is its joyousness.

Zarathushtra says:

O far-seeing Lord of Life, reveal to me for my joy your priceless gifts of Khshathra which are the blessings of Vohu Manah.

Ys. 33.13

Tell me truly, O Ahura for whom didst Thou fashion this joy­giving Earth?

Ys. 44.6

Tell me truly, O Ahura. How may I walk in beatific joy with you, in full companionship?

Ys. 44.17

Of this (Holy) Spirit, Thou art indeed the Holy Father; Thou didst create this Earth for our joy.

Ys. 47.3

By Leo Tolstoy

Two men were going together along the road and each one carried his own load on his shoulders. One man carried his not taking it off the whole way, but the other kept on stopping, taking off his load and sitting down to rest. But each time he had again to lift up the load and again to hoist it onto his shoulders. And the one who took off his burden was much more tired than the one who, without taking it off, carried his.