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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy:
Worshipping by Wondering with Sankara Saranam
Three-Quarter Truths
New Perspectives for a New Society
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by Sankara Saranam |
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On Religion …
* Exceptionally successful religions are those that require the least exception from their followers for them to feel exceptional.
* It takes no talent to don phylacteries.
* Rejecting dogma takes some effort, but wholeheartedly embracing it ... now that takes devotion!
* It's a limited intellect that needs to reinterpret a Bible passage to justify doing the right thing; a limited heart that interprets to justify wrongdoing.
* The Hindus claim there are potentially as many gods as human beings. The problem is there are potentially as many devils too.
* Jesus Christ is not a "he," but an "it."
* What a preacher buys, the congregation will go out and sell.
* Some Jews like to pray in languages they don't speak for the same reason that some people like to listen to operas in languages they don't understand. It minimizes the embarrassment.
* Theology yields to philosophy, which yields to mortality, which yields to theology.
* Faith practically means faithfully deceiving oneself.
* The war is not between faith-based and evidence-based outlooks. It's between people who are willing to challenge their interpretation of the evidence and people who aren't.
* The struggle is not between serving God and serving money; that’s the fable. The rich instituted that God in order to protect their money.
* If it's written down, it can be abused.
* If Jesus Christ will abandon ninety-nine good sheep to search for a single stray, then he's going to hell.
* The Bible Belt needs to be unbuckled before it nooses the nation.
* When God is a generalization that talks to political leaders, war is brewing.
* Religion is the craft of referring to self-flattery as faith, on mass.
* A degree in religion is a degree in the history of bigotry. A degree in divinity is a degree in the bigotry of history.
* A little-known saying of Jesus: Those who use as little of their brains that can fit through the eye of a needle will never enter the Kingdom of God.
* Working toward God's greater glory is almost always immoral.
* A God distanced from humanity is the greatest ploy of the powerful.
* Martyrs and movie stars are famous for really very little.
* Reason: There is no God but thinking makes it so.
* Faith: There is no thinking but God makes it so.
* Siva is not the god of destruction, but deconstruction.
* The preacher's Lord is my shepherd; the preacher shall not want. I shall be eaten.
* The good Samaritan did good and was immortalized without ever hearing one Christian fable about good Samaritans.
* The truly faithful reject religion.
* Odd that so many Jews have not yet figured out that for there to be anti-Semitism, you first need Semitism.
* Forget the cancer gene, isolate the authoritarian gene!
* The fool’s profession of faith: "There is no god but my god."
* God is commonly fashioned to yield high dividends for the believer, which is why so much of the planet is broke.
* A man that can forgive sins will invent sins.
On Perspective …
* Children are imitators, unfortunately.
* Biographies are often hagiographies.
* Even in a desert, cemeteries are a waste of land.
* What an amazingly immaterial feat of science to discover a minor atmospheric detail of a distant planet, which its every inhabitant would surely know.
* Boil war down, and its residue is the lifestyle of the few.
* Reality is sparsely populated.
* Oxygen ages the body.
* It was a blind man who invented billboards.
* Details are often invented so someone can make a living.
* Neuroscientists are powerful fakirs. They effortlessly fly over the chasm separating sensory awareness from self awareness as if it's not even there.
* These days, the chief product of professors is professors.
* Every source of light gives off waste.
* Children are right. We are invisible when we conceal our eyes.
* Human beings may be the only animal that murders its own kind, but animals fight each other all the time, only without weapons. If they had weapons, animal murder rates would certainly rise. So it's no use glorifying animals or berating humans in this department. We are merely animals with weapons.
* It is easy to offend a racist.
* Shrinks are symptoms of their diagnoses.
* The view is often better when we’re sitting on the fence.
* Only the level-headed marry the people they proposed to.
* People choose the past of least resistance.
* With miracles, it's not "seeing is believing" but rather "believing is seeing."
* A book is deep when its surface suffices. A poem is superficial when its depth suffices.
* Poverty may be a source of crime, but excessive wealth is a source of poverty and crime.
* Half of knowledge is in knowing what to call things.
* Artists are those who would pay to do what they do, or at least be willing to have someone else pay.
On Practicalities …
* A deep sorrow is worth in inspiration any million pleasures.
* If you are healthy but are habitually concerned over your health, you're not healthy.
* In this world, God is more seeking truth than truth itself.
* Indignation can help in mastering technique.
* My late grandfather always told me that the more I learned, the more I’d earn. What he didn't tell me was that if I learned too much, I wouldn't be able to earn anything.
* People do not have favorite colors, but rather favorite associations.
* Noise pollution is the bell that ever tolls.
And Some Unsolicited Advice …
* Instead of drinking to world peace, abstain.
* Every person contributes to the overall self of humanity.
* Serve with enthusiasm, and enthusiasm will serve you.
* You can trust the majority on many things, but not on anything major.
* If you must write down your conversations with God, please spare us book II.
* Instead of lighting sixteen birthday candles, light seventy-two and let the youth blow out sixteen.
* If you want to commit suicide but don't want to become a statistic of suicide, conform.
* It is hard to turn your one thousand dollars into two because it is so easy to turn one billion into two.
* Never brag about who loves you, only about who hates you.
* Anyone obliged to another is not free, so it is best to be obliged to everyone.
* If you don't project high hopes onto your future, you may yet have one.
* It is imperative to reply to nonsense without showing off.
* In pointing out blame, the farthest we can go is our finger tips.
* If you want to be assured of failure in mastering the mind, become a psychologist.
* The maladjusted are our only hope, so long as they are not adjusted.
* Students of spirituality are smart to study psychology, stupid to earn a salary from it. |
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Sankara Saranam,
Ascetic, Mystic, Author, and Teacher
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Sankara Saranam is an ascetic, mystic, teacher, and author of the award-winning book "GOD WITHOUT RELIGION: Questioning Centuries of Accepted Truths" (with a foreword by Arun Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma). He is also founder of the Pranayama Institute, where he devotes his life to making pranayama techniques available worldwide at no cost.
Sankara is author of the award-winning book GOD WITHOUT RELIGION:Questioning Centuries of Accepted Truths with a foreword by Arun Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma. In God Without Religion, Sankara shows why organized religion has long been the cause of humanity’s worst wars and most acute suffering—then guides us beyond our divisive history into more expansive perceptions capable of creating a unified, peaceful future. Through a series of penetrating inquiries and practices, readers are invited to examine their beliefs, turn inward, and develop a direct understanding of God.
“It’s possible to enhance your spiritual well-being simply by being curious,” Saranam explains. “Unquestioningly accepting inherited beliefs about God promotes a narrow view of yourself and the world. To expand your perspective, worship by wondering. The more questions you ask, the more profound the answers will be, leading to deeper questions. Constantly challenging your conclusions and refining your knowledge of God promotes deep spiritual growth that takes into account the well-being of all of life.”
For more information and a flash movie about the book, please visit:
www.godwithoutreligion.
com.
Writer and researcher, world traveler and lecturer, Sankara also playsclassical guitar, composes music, and writes poetry. He currently resides in a log cabin in northern Georgia with his wife and their young son. Information about his speaking engagements and teachings can be found at The Pranayama Institute's Web sites:
www.pranayama.org
and
www.godwithoutreligion.
com.
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