1. FOOD FOR THOUGHT
2.
THERE IS FAST FOOD, BUT THERE IS NO
FAST WISDOM.
3. TO GRASP CERTAIN IDEAS, WE HAVE TO
BE READY FOR THEM.
4. WE REGARD OURSELVES AT THE HEAD OF
CREATION, BUT POLLUTE IT AND ARE CLOSE TO DESTROYING IT.
5. TO GUARANTEE
MANKIND’S SURVIVAL WE HAVE TO DISCOVER WHY WE HAVE CONFLICTS WITH EACH OTHER
AND WITH OUR ENVIRONMENT.
6.TO BE ABLE TO SOLVE A
PROBLEM, WE FIRST HAVE TO ACCEPT THAT WE HAVE A PROBLEM.
7.IMITATING THE
BEHAVIOUR OF THE OSTRICH IS NOT THE BEST WAY OF DEALING WITH DANGER SITUATIONS.
8.THE ULTIMATE CAUSE OF
OUR CONFLICTS IS A BAD UNDERSTANDING OF OURSELVES AND THE FORCES THAT GOVERN
THE UNIVERSE.
9.A BAD UNDERSTANDING
OF REALITY DIVIDES PEOPLE. A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF REALITY BRINGS PEOPLE BACK
TOGETHER.
10. A GOOD PERCEPTION OF REALITY ENABLES US TO SEE ALL
CAUSES AND ALL CONSECUENCES
OF OUR BEHAVIOUR
11.HISTORY REPEATS
ITSELF WHEN WE DO NOT LEARN EVERYTHING THERE IS TO LEARN FROM OUR EXPERIENCES.
12. WHAT ALTERS OUR PERCEPTION OF REALITY? WHAT MAKES US
FOCUS SO MUCH ON CERTAIN
ASPECTS THAT WE IGNORE
OTHERS?
13.A HEALTHY BODY AND
MIND REQUIRE A HEALTHY DIET. DRUGS ARE LIKE MEDICINE. INSTEAD OF
TAKING THEM, WE SHOULD
ASK WHAT MAKES US SICK.
14. MORE PHILOSOPHY ON KM 32
AT TABERNA VELLA/ KM 32
TRAVEL BROADENS OUR MIND
-Not all those who wander are lost. Tolkien
-The world is a book and those who don’t travel only
read one page. Saint Augustine
-The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single
step. Lao Tse
-A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent
on arriving. Lao Tse
-Travel is fatal for prejudice and narrow-mindedness.
Mark Twain
-It is good to have an end to journey toward but it is
the journey that matters in the end. Ernest Hemingway
-Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place
you occupy in the world. Flaubert
-We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters
of the earth. John Lubbock
ARE YOU A SEEKER?
-Do you question own ideas (beliefs) as much as you do other people’s
ideas (beliefs)?
-Has religion had a positive or negative influence on our society?
-Is science bringing us salvation or self-destruction?
-Have perhaps all religions and philosophies safeguarded important
values?
-Do you believe in God because your parents do, or do you not believe in
God because your friends do not?
-Would you be an atheist if you lived in a communist country and a
Buddhist if you lived in a Buddhist country?
-Are heaven and hell (purgatory, reincarnation, etc.) only for people
who believe in them?
-If the founders of our religions came back, would they recognize their
work?
-Imagine Jesus came back. Would he be a
Baptist, a Catholic, a Greek Orthodox...?
SEEKERS & HARMONY
1: Seekers long for a better comprehension.
They question themselves as much as others,
and religion as much as science.
2: “Of all the communities available, the society
of the true seekers is the only one I want to
devote myself to.” Albert Einstein.
3: Both believers and cynics are more interested
in justifying themselves and demonstrating
their ideas are right than in seeking the truth.
4: There is nothing wrong with religion or science,
but with what we think they are; with how we
interpret religion and science.
5: Science studies the world we live in; religion (lt.
re-legere: re-read) studies ‘sacred books’ (books
that hold secrets) about the world we live in.
6: The most important lesson we have to learn is
that a society that doesn’t live in harmony is
bound to destroy itself.
7: Genesis recognizes this reality: 10 generations
after putting an end to harmony, a catastrophe
almost put an end to humanity.
8: A problem that
appears to have no solution
causes too much
stress, and people therefore
ignore reality.
9: To avoid our
self-destruction, we have to ask
why we have conflicts
or what the Forbidden
Fruit refers to.
10: Bible scholars
ignore what Genesis is about
because they do not
ask all the important ques-
tions
this book encourages the reader to ask.
11: It is only now,
that we are able to destroy our-selves,
that we can
understand the ultimate
cause and effect of
not living in harmony.
12:
We have conflicts with other people and with our
environment
because of an incomplete understanding,
arising
from a bad perception of reality.
13: A bad
understanding of reality (not seeing all
causes and effects)
divides people. A good
understanding of
reality unites them again.
14: All philosophies
and religions have safeguarded
important ideas that
help us to understand ourselves
and the forces that
govern the universe.
ALBERT EINSTEIN QUOTES:
• “We are all ignorant, but not all ignorant of the
same things.”
• “Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of
truth.”
• “I know not with what weapons World War III will be
fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
• “I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat
guilty conscience.”
• “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the
chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian
diet.”
• “I have no special talents. I am only passionately
curious.”
• “A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or
are the others crazy?”
• “Without deep reflection one knows from daily life
that one exists for other people.”
• “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
• “Everyone should be respected as an individual, but
no one idolized.”
• “Common sense is the
collection of prejudices acquired by age 18.”
• “I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice.”
• “Science without religion is lame. Religion without
science is blind.”
• “If people are good only because they fear
punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.”
• “It was the experience of mystery - even if mixed
with fear - that engendered religion.”
• “The further the spiritual evolution of mankind
advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity
does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith,
but through striving after rational knowledge.”
• “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be
achieved by understanding.”
• “It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of
war is nothing but an act of murder.”
• “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because
of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything
about it.”
• “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not
be called research, would it?”
• “Scientific research can reduce superstition by
encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect. “
• “Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
• “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but
imagination.”
•“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard
old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real
advance in science.”
• “The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
• “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t
understand it well enough.”
• “Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent
them.”
• “The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
• “No amount of experimentation can ever prove me
right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.”
• “Of all the communities available to us, there is
not one I would want to devote myself to except for the society of the true seekers,
which has very few living members at any one time.”
