In the last 8 blog posts in the ‘purpose quest series’, we explored how the pandemic impacted eight important pillars for purposeful living; spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, physical (health), financial, environmental and societal. Let’s explore the ninth pillar, the ‘temporal’ aspect in this blog post. As in the past eight blog posts let me attempt to describe my personal experience during the pandemic.
The word ‘Temporal’ has two broad applications; relating to worldly as opposed to spiritual affairs (secular) and relating to time. I use the word in relation to the use of time. The temporal aspect of purposeful relates to the use of limited time. The purposeful person attempts to utilise most of the time for purposeful activity, which requires letting go of non-purposeful activity.
The last eight weekly blog posts in the ‘purposeful quest’ series illustrated how my time was allocated to purposeful activity in spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, physical (health), financial, ecological and temporal areas. These activities took most of my waking time and there was rarely any time remaining for non-purposeful activity during the approximately 16 hours of waking time.
The sense I make from this reflection is that the pandemic gave me so much opportunities to be purposeful, that it left me with almost no time for non-purposeful activities. This way of life has kept me occupied in meaningful and energising activity, giving me inner success, happiness and peace. My purpose is to inspire others to live a purposeful life and I hope this series of blog posts will inspire you too to live a purposeful life and find Success happiness and peace.
As you listen to this beautiful song reflect on how you can use your heart, the hunter to fight off hatred and help find peace and happiness in your little world, thereby creating ripples to make this world a better place.
Lyrics
For all of the times that you’ve wondered why The world turned out this way And all of the times that you’ve asked yourself About the games that people play.
About the politics of hunger And the politics of need, How the politics of power Seem to be the politics of greed.
For all of the times that you’ve struggled in an effort To work your way back up stream, And all of the times you’ve held on to it, When most of us had lost the dream.
And for all of the ones who have walked with you, By your side or way back home, Maybe much more than any of us You know that no one is really alone.
Because the heart is still a hunter, It’s like a beacon in the night. Though the heart is just a lover, It’s never afraid to fight.
A picture that speaks of the notion of ‘Havingness’. The lady’s white dress and serene face show that she is totally in peace with herself. The background shows the abundance of the universe. The open arms depicts being open to welcome the the gifts of the universe. Havingness is an energy space we are capable of creating based on the notion and methods of ‘Releasing’ introduce by Lester Levenson.
If by Rudyard Kipling – narrated by Tom O’ Bedlam.
A poem that shows how the word ‘IF’ opens up possibilities in our mind.
I hope this could be useful in nourishing your soul with hope, aspiration, positivity and confidence to deal with the present and gear up for the future.
Please feel free to share this poem with others who can benefit and communicate with me if you would like to share your thoughts.
After having been a student and teacher of how to master ourselves by living a purposeful life and programming our own mind, for the past twenty five years and believing that this is one of the best methods available to help us live a happy and successful life, finding ‘Releasing’ (or did Releasing find me?) has opened possibilities I thought never existed.
Sometimes opportunities find us when we welcome them. And perhaps it was one such serendipitous moment when my guru Omar Khan, who helped me find purpose and live purposefully about 25-years ago, offered to conduct the ‘Releasing Discovery’ workshop. Releasing, also presented under the rubric of The Sedona Method (same methodology with a different presenter), has been hailed by people like Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, was showcased in the best-selling The Secret, has been the subject of numerous testimonials from leading authorities like Dr. David Hawkins, Michael Singer and others in terms of being an exemplar of “inside out” breakthroughs. Continue reading “Purposeful Living through Releasing – Purpose of Living – Part 32”→
Buddhist and Hindu Religious Leaders with Pope Francis at the inter-faith conference in Colombo Sri Lanka.
Pope Francis with the Sri Lankan muslims
Leader of Sri Lankan Hindu’s honoring Pope Francis at the inter-faith conference at Colombo Sri Lanka.
Religious leaders of various faiths at the inter-faith conference in Colombo Sri Lanka.
Pope Francis with Buddhist Monks at the inter-faith conference in Sri Lanka
Indian Prime Minister greeting the Pakistani Prime Minister at his inauguration citizen of a Buddhist country. The Mass by the pope was not only attended by the Buddhist but by members of other religions and many of them had mentioned to the media that this is one of the most significant days of their life. All this augurs well for inter-faith corporation and understanding that cam lead to peace, unity and reconciliation. The world has seen many efforts of unity by world leaders. citizen of a Buddhist country. The Mass by the pope was not only attended by the Buddhist but by members of other religions and many of them had mentioned to the media that this is one of the most significant days of their life. All this augurs well for inter-faith corporation and understanding that cam lead to peace, unity and reconciliation. The world has seen many efforts of unity by world leaders.
It was really heart warming to see the visions and hear the sound bites of the Inter-faith conference held in Colombo Sri Lanka as a part of the visit by His Holiness Pope Francis on the 1st day of his 3 day visit to Sri Lanka. The conference was led by some of the most senior leaders of Buddhism [followed by the majority of Sri Lankans], Hinduism, Islam and other Christian religions. It was attended by over 1000 members of the clergy of each of the religions. The ceremony included a welcome from a Catholic Bishop, a chant from a Buddhist Monk, blessings from Hindu and Muslim leaders, and an ecumenical Christian prayer led by the head of Sri Lanka’s Anglican church. Each speaker had a message that had peace, unity, reconciliation and respect for each other. Pope Francis said inter-faith work should not blur the lines between different religious convictions and he sought to reaffirm respect for each religion’s beliefs but to ground such respect in a full and forthright presentation of our respective convictions and that religion cannot be used for violent purposes. The Sri Lankan Muslim leader Ash-Sheikh M.F.M. Fazil said, “I will fail in my duties if I do not mention the attack, the killings, that took place in France, in Pakistan,” Fazil said; “Children were massacred and killed in the name of Islam. As we know very well, Islam has no relationship with regard to such practices and evil conduct and deeds,” he continued. “Islam promoted peace, love, and harmony.One of Sri Lanka’s senior Buddhist leaders Niyangoda Vijithasiri Thero who delivered a sermon mentioned all religions are important and used the metaphor of different treatment methods to cure the same disease.
Sri Lanka’s newly elected president, Maithripala Sirisena, was at the airport to welcome the pontiff and in his welcome speech mentioned that he is blessed to have the Holy father visit soon after his elections and requested for his prayers. This is significant coming from a Buddhist, the 1st citizen of a Buddhist country.
The Mass by the pope was not only attended by the Buddhist but by members of other religions and many of them had mentioned to the media that this is one of the most significant days of their life. All this augurs well for inter-faith corporation and understanding that can lead to peace, unity and reconciliation. The world has seen many efforts of unity by world leaders.
His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide, with his brother Pope Francis together with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
In December 2014 President Barack Obama went in to a peace deal with Cuba with a symbolic prisoner exchange and anticipated reforms by Cuba and lifting of embargos by the USA. In January 2015 all political parties in Sri Lanka united to appoint a President known for his virtues and to form a government that will reform the political culture in Sri Lanka. A few days ago most world leaders gathered in Paris to show solidarity after the attacks in Paris. It was significant that both the leaders of Israel and Palestine were a part of the world leaders who had locked hands together in solidarity. In the backdrop of the various conflicts, terrorism and armed conflicts going on around the world, these are efforts to find love, peace, truth, justice, reconciliation, unity, progress and happiness to make our efforts to finding love, peace, truth, justice, reconciliation, unity, progress and happiness to make our world a better place.
Leaders of the SAARC countries at the inauguration of the Indian Prime Minister.
US and Cuban Presidents – Historic Hand Shake.
Pope Francis with leaders of various faiths.
Leaders of Sri Lanka’s political parties that has joint together to create a positive political culture and successful nation.
It was late night last Wednesday; I was doing some work on my laptop. After finishing off one task I just logged in to Facebook and saw a photo of the white smoke coming out of the Vatican with a comment ‘We have a Pope’
I immediately switched on the TV and was thrilled to see the live broadcast and the new Pope was about to make his first appearance. I was pleasantly surprised to hear than the new Pope was from South America, I was thrilled to hear that he had chosen the name Francis which is also the name of my late dad. It was mentioned he lived a simple life and had given up his official residence and car back in Argentina and rode the bus with the others and used the opportunity to connect with the masses.
As he walked on to the balcony and looked at the crowd it was easy to see how humble the new Pope was. He was also confident and looked like a man ready for a mission. What a mission it is going to be, given the challenges facing the Catholic Church.
In one of his first sermons he mentioned that we should be ready to repent, accept our faults and ask for forgiveness from those we have harmed.
Meeting the press for the first time Pope Francis was relaxed, confident and full of humour. He told that the name Francis was chosen when the cardinal next to him embraced him and told him ‘don’t forget the poor’ as soon as he was elected. He then named himself after St Francis of Assisi who devoted his life for the poor, who was known to be committed to peace and who was known to be a reformist of the catholic church.
The event of the election of Pope Francis also created new social media records with over 1.2 billion tweets from all over the world sent out, in relation to this event. This shows that people around the world, specially the young are touched by his election and are filled with hope for a better tomorrow. Pope Francis is known as the Techie Pope as he has his twitter account @pontifex. His holiness who already has 1.9 million Twitter followers sent out just 1 tweet: Dear Friends, I thank you from my heart and I ask you to continue to pray for me.
Everything about Pope Francis in this blog that I was fortunate to experience gives me the feeling that he is an Epitaph of Humility and gives me hope that he will be able to bring diverse groups of people, not only the various denominations of Christians, but also various religious groups together so that we can a live in a united, respectful and peaceful world.
A picture of the Olympic Logo on the Tower Bridge taken from the London Bridge during my visit before the Olympics.
The 2012 Olympics that just concluded was one of the greatest manifestations of possibility that I had experienced.
My family and I were in the UK just before and during the opening ceremony that made us fortunate enough to feel the energy in the country this great spectacle was taking place. We were not able to witness any sporting events at venues at circumstances required us to return end of July, but we were fortunate to be able to witness this great spectacle on TV and the internet.
The first possibility that was manifested was the participation of almost all the countries of the world, 204 in total and every country having both male and female sportsman. All sports had a women’s version as well resulting in some teams such as USA having more women Olympians. What a great equalizer.
It was amazing to see conservative countries such as Saudi Arabia who do not permit women to drive, having women participating. I was fortunate to switch on the TV to see the women’s 800 m heat where Saudi Arabia’s Sarah Attar was running. Although she came last, she got the biggest applause to show that this was a victory for humanity.
World records were many manifesting that there is no end to improving human performance and endurance. Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight, Carmelita Jeter of the USA 4x100m relay team establishing a new world record at 40.82 destroying the 27-year old record and Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake, Usain Bolt of Jamaican 4×100 relay team establishing a new world record at 36.84 will remain in our memories for ever. These amazing human beings showed that we can be individuals stars and teams at the same time.
Ranjan De Silva 