Light for life : spiritual insights for the coDelhi : Indian Aontemporary world

What is life? How can we love? Why do we live, love and die? Can we be true to our own selves? Do we necessarily make compromises in living? How does God accompany us in our life journey? What is the role of spiritual depth in encountering our lives in its intensity? Can non-believers live spiritual and authentic lives? How does faith in God help us relate to fellow human beings better? These are some of the issues we take up in this book, meant to encourage us to live genuinely and authentically? In this way these are spiritual inputs for contemporary men and women. As we know, life is a series of experiences contributing to our own self-understanding. This helps us to embrace the whole of reality gradually. The light that comes to us helps us to live our lives more deeply and fully. Thus the enlightened people were those who lived their ambiguous lives deeply and fully. They embraced the pain and found it deeply satisfying and painful. They rejoiced in everything including in suffering and pain. Thus, to be alive is to be open to the tragic and ecstatic dimensions of our day to day life. Such an experience, even in its bitterness, will enlighten us. The light that emerges from life is symbolically seen as leading to our own fullness. These articles try to convey this sense of a committed and concerned spirituality that does justice to living together. This book contains 70 essays on leading a genuine and spiritual life, which is all inclusive and open to others. Part I The Spiritual adventure 1. Making a Move Towards Newness ... 3 2. The Happy Wisdom of the Elderly ... 6 3. The Galaxy as a Spiritual Adventure ... 9 4. Moving towards Mysticism ... 12 5. It’s Time to Start All over Again ... 15 6. Growing Towards Spiritual Resurgence ... 18 Part II Yearning of the Divine 7. Letting God Live in Us and Grow in Us ... 23 8. The Cosmic God Must Lead to a Personal God ... 26 9. The Miracle of Miracles ... 29 10. The Silence of and the Silencing of God ... 32 11. Believers of the World Set to Rise ... 35 12. The Great Awakening ... 38 Part III Experiencing the Divine 13. Promoting Religious Literacy ... 43 14. Growing a Big Soul ... 46 15. God Is No Thing ... 49 16. Complex Societies Create Bigger Gods ... 52 17. Only Good Religion Can Defeat the Bad ... 56 18. Resurrection: God on the Hook ... 59 19. Interspirituality and the Quest for Life ... 62 20. Islam and Society ... 65 21. King Abdullah: Promoting Peace and Harmony ... 68 Part IV Social Commitment 22. Seeing the Best in the Other ... 75 23. Being Social may Help You Live Long ... 78 24. Between Introverts and Extroverts ... 81 25. Expressing Our Feeling of Sadness ... 84 26. Where Knowledge is Priceless ... 87 27. Public Philosophy and Public Welfare ... 90 28. Non-violence as the Best War Strategy ... 93 29. Spiritual People Are More Liberal ... 96 Part V realising Human Values 30. Promoting Peace through Psychology ... 101 31. Can We Pop a Pill for Compassion? ... 104 32. The Rewards of Attentiveness ... 107 33. How Do We Explain Pain and Passion? ... 110 34. Bored out of Your Wits? Get Creative ... 113 35. Human Brain and Core-Values ... 116 36. Prompting Generosity in a Child ... 119 37. Only Unconditional Love can Bring Change ... 122 38. Our Mood Effects our Walking Style ... 125 39. Finding the Missing Child of Christmas ... 128 40. The Transforming Qualities of Love ... 131 Part VI Living Creatively 41. No Better Substitute to Human Touch ... 137 42. Understanding the Game of Life ... 140 43. Charity with Clarity of Purpose ... 143 44. Rhythms of Prehistorical Sleep ... 146 45. Letting Time Breathe in Our Lives ... 149 46. Wired to Save Energy ... 152 47. Children, Religion and Altruism ... 155 48. Making Decisions Collectively ... 158 49. The Downside of Being an Expert ... 161 50. More Real than the Real ... 164 51 Start Meditating to Preserve Grey Matter ... 167 Part VII Light and Shadows 52. The Choice between Best and Worst is Ours ... 173 53. Anxiety and the Sixth Sense Theory ... 176 54. Imperfection Makes Us More Human ... 179 55. All about Pain and Empathy ... 182 56. Anticipation of Temptation ... 185 Part VIII Psychological Depth of Being 57. Five Personalities ... 191 58. Tracking our Personality ... 194 59. The Conservative and Liberal Values ... 197 60. Fading of Memories ... 200 61. Digital Addiction Causes Depression ... 203 62. Religious Insights on Mental Well-Being ... 206 63. Religious and Mental Well-Being ... 209 Part IX Learning from Life 64. Truths of Existence ... 215 65. Deeds than Words ... 218 66. Leaves, Branches and Roots ... 221 67. The Universal Force of Love ... 224 68. Approaching Suffering Together ... 227 69. Criticism and Cynicism ... 230 70. The Newness of Life ... 233 Epilogue ... 236 Bibliography ... 238 lightforlifeFront.pdf (p.1) 1 Light for Life-2.3.2020 (1).pdf (p.2-267) 2 lightforlifeback.pdf (p.268) 268