THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO MESSAGES

AT RIBADISO / KM 39,5

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.”