Category Archives: Articles

Jogging in Nature Twice as Good for Mental Health as Trip to Gym

 

Researchers found that anything from a stroll in the park to a run through woodland can have a positive effect on people suffering from depression and anxiety.

The study also showed that the positive effect on people’s mental health was 50 per cent more than they might expect from going to the gym.

The researchers at Glasgow University looked at natural and non-natural environments for physical activity, including walking, running and cycling, and found that being around trees and grass lowered brain stress levels.

The study, led by Prof Richard Mitchell, polled nearly 2000 physically active people in the 2008 Scottish Health Survey.

Only activities carried out in a natural environment outdoors were found to be associated with a lower risk of poor mental health.

FULL ARTICLE


Beauty Will Save the World

Beauty Will Save the World

By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Himalayan MountainsLike that bewildered savage who has picked up a strange object… perhaps something thrown up by the sea, perhaps disinterred from the sands or dropped from the heavens…an object intricate in its convolutions, which shines first with a dull glow and then with a bright shaft of light…who keeps turning it over and over in his hands in an effort to find some way of putting it to use, seeking some humble function for it, which is within his limited grasp, never conceiving of a higher purpose…

So we, too, holding art in our hands vaingloriously considering ourselves to be its master, undertake brazenly to give it direction, to renovate it, reform it, to issue manifestos about it, to sell it for money. We use it to play up to those who possess power. We employ it at times for amusement—even in music-hall songs and night clubs—and also at times, grabbing hold of it however we can, for transient and limited political and social needs. But art is not desecrated by our carryings-on. It does not lose sight of its own origins because of them. And each time and in each mode of use it sheds on us a portion of its secret inner light.

But can we embrace all that light? Who is there so bold as to proclaim that he has defined art? That he has enumerated all its facets? Yet perhaps in ages past someone did comprehend and define it for us, but we grew impatient: we listened in passing and paid no heed and discarded it immediately in our eternal haste to replace even the very best with something else just because it is new! And then later on, when what is old is restated, we forgot that we heard it before.

One artist imagines himself the creator of an independent spiritual world and takes on his shoulders the act of creating that world and its population, assuming total responsibility for it—but he stumbles and breaks down because there is no mortal genius capable of bearing such a load; just like man, who once declared himself the center of all existence but was incapable of creating a balanced spiritual system. And then, when failure occurs, it is all blamed on the external disharmony of the world, on the complexity of the shattered contemporary soul, or the stupidity of the public.

Another artist realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works away gladly as a small apprentice beneath God’s heaven, even though his responsibility for everything he draws or writes and for the souls which perceives it is all the more strict. But still: it was not he who created this world, nor is it he who provides it with direction, and he has no doubts of its foundations. The artist is only given to sense more keenly than others the harmony of the world and all the beauty and savagery of man’s contribution to it—and to communicate this poignantly to people. And even in the midst of failure and down at the lowest depths of existence—in poverty, prison, illness—the sensation of a stable harmony will never leave him.

However, all the irrationality of art, its blinding twists and turns, its unpredictable discoveries, its soul-shaking impact on people are too magical to be contained within the world-outlook of an artist, in his conception or in the work of his unworthy fingers.

Archaeologists have not yet discovered any stage of human existence without art. Even in the half-light before the dawn of humanity we received this gift from Hands we did not manage to discern. Nor have we managed to ask: Why was this gift given to us and what are we to do with it?

And all those prophets who are predicting that art is disintegrating, that it has used up all its forms, that it is dying, are mistaken. We are the ones who shall die. And art will remain. The question is whether before we perish we shall understand all its aspects and all its ends.

Not all can be given names. Some of them go beyond words. Art opens even the chilled, darkened heart to high spiritual experience. Through the instrumentality of art we are sometimes sent—vaguely, briefly—insights which logical processes of thought cannot attain.

Like the tiny mirror of the fairy tale: you look into it and see—not yourself—but for one fleeting moment the Unattainable to which you cannot leap or fly. And the heart aches…

Dostoyevsky once let drop the enigmatic phrase: “Beauty will save the world.” What does this mean? For a long time it used to seem to me that this was a mere phrase. Just how could such a thing be possible? When had it ever happened in the bloodthirsty course of history that beauty had saved anyone from anything? Beauty had provided embellishment certainly, given uplift—but whom had it ever saved?

However, there is a special quality in the essence of beauty, a special quality in the status of art: the conviction carried by a genuine work of art is absolutely indisputable and tames even the strongly opposed heart. One can construct a political speech, an assertive journalistic polemic, a program for organizing society, a philosophical system, so that in appearance it is smooth, well structured, and yet it is built upon a mistake, a lie; and the hidden element, the distortion, will not immediately become visible. And a speech, or a journalistic essay, or a program in rebuttal, or a different philosophical structure can be counterposed to the first—and it will seem just as well constructed and as smooth, and everything will seem to fit. And therefore one has faith in them—yet one has no faith.

It is vain to affirm that which the heart does not confirm. In contrast, a work of art bears within itself its own confirmation: concepts which are manufactured out of whole cloth or overstrained will not stand up to being tested in images, will somehow fall apart and turn out to be sickly and pallid and convincing to no one. Works steeped in truth and presenting it to us vividly alive will take hold of us, will attract us to themselves with great power- and no one, ever, even in a later age, will presume to negate them. And so perhaps that old trinity of Truth and Good and Beauty is not just the formal outworn formula it used to seem to us during our heady, materialistic youth. If the crests of these three trees join together, as the investigators and explorers used to affirm, and if the too obvious, too straight branches of Truth and Good are crushed or amputated and cannot reach the light—yet perhaps the whimsical, unpredictable, unexpected branches of Beauty will make their way through and soar up to that very place and in this way perform the work of all three.

And in that case it was not a slip of the tongue for Dostoyevsky to say that “Beauty will save the world,” but a prophecy. After all, he was given the gift of seeing much, he was extraordinarily illumined.

And consequently perhaps art, literature, can in actual fact help the world of today.

 

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn is the author of major works of fiction such as Cancer Ward and The First Circle, and of several works of history, above all the volumes of the Gulag Archipelago.

Excerpted from Beauty Will Save the World: The Nobel Lecture on Literature by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Copyright © 1970 by the Nobel Foundation. Reprinted by permission of the Nobel Foundation.


Becoming a Follower of Sanatana Dharma

Follow Sanatana DharmaWe live in an age in which people have found it increasingly challenging to express the life-giving principles of spirituality and religion with as much seriousness, enthusiasm and dedication as was once the case. All around us, we witness on a daily basis all the destructive ravages that materialism, consumerism, greed, anger, lust and self-centeredness have forced upon our once saner world. Much of the war, poverty, sense of depression and meaningless, and social ills that are rampant today are directly due to the clear failures of atheism and an unsatisfying lifestyle dedicated to the pursuit of material acquisitions to the detriment of our inner spiritual growth. We have substituted television for meditation, emailing for prayer, texting for real communication, the Internet for community, and sports for spirituality. Given all the daily challenges that we find ourselves facing today, it is understandable that some of us might find ourselves asking the question: “Why should I be a follower of Sanatana Dharma?”

What precisely does Sanatana Dharma have to offer us? How can this ancient, spiritual world-view and culture help us as individuals, help our family, and help to bring about a much better world?

The truth is there are many reasons why Sanatana Dharma (sometimes mistakenly referred to as “Hinduism”) offers us the best way to find the happiness, peace and prosperity that we’re all seeking. This small article will only offer a very small number of these many benefits of the Dharmic way of life. For more in-depth information, however, visit Dharmacentral.com, the largest and most authoritative source of information on Sanatana Dharma available on the Internet today. In addition, take the time to read the other informative articles available here.

Sanatana Dharma is the most ancient and respected religion in the world. Due to the spiritual peace, personal empowerment, overall health and satisfying lifestyle it offers its followers, Sanatana Dharma has survived intact for over 5000 years. It has survived – when many other religions didn’t – because its teachings are time honored and true. Its lasting influence can be seen in the very name of our tradition, “Sanatana Dharma”, or The Eternal Natural Way.

Dharmic ideas, philosophy, spirituality, and art have influenced more people in world history than any other religion on earth. Among those in the West who have been highly influenced by the teachings of Sanatana Dharma are: Schopenhauer, Herman Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Mark Twain, Romain Rolland, Einstein, Aldous Huxley, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Christopher Isherwood, J.D. Salinger, Arlo Guthrie, George Harrison, movie director David Lynch, and actresses Julia Roberts and Heather Graham, among the many thousands of other well-known writers, intellectuals, scientists, celebrities and artists who have incorporated aspects of Sanatana Dharma into their lives. Even today, tens of millions of Americans, Europeans, famous celebrities, scientists and scholars find spiritual solace and intellectual assurance in the amazing teachings of Dharma.

Sanatana Dharma is the most tolerant, peaceful, and non-fanatical religion in the world today. Unlike many other religions, Sanatana Dharma isn’t based on blind belief, dogma, closed-mindedness or fanaticism. Rather, it is based upon your own intelligent discernment in searching for Truth, your personal experience with God, the guidance of the Vedic scriptures (the most ancient collection of writings in human history), the living example of hundreds of generations of liberated yogis and sages who traversed the path before us, and respect for you as a free person and an intelligent seeker.

In addition to having very rational and fulfilling religious principles, Sanatana Dharma is also a very practical path that offers us real tools for having more peace and joy in our lives. The Yoga, meditation, prayer and ritual practices of Sanatana Dharma have been scientifically proven in thousands of academic research studies to reduce stress, depression, anxiety, nightmares, and many other illnesses. These Dharmic practices have produced multiple millions of enlightened beings throughout world history, and have been proven to be just as relevant and effective in our own modern age. It is for this reason that hundreds of millions of the world’s inhabitants practice meditational techniques today, almost all of which can be ultimately traced back directly to the tradition of Sanatana Dharma.

The Dharmic diet of lacto-vegetarianism (a diet free of meat, fish and eggs…but in which milk products are fine) has been shown by the entire medical community to be the healthiest and most nutritious diet in the world. The traditional Dharmic medical system of Ayurveda is now being studied in many of the top medical colleges in the world as a safe, natural and highly effective sister-modality to contemporary allopathic medicine. And Yoga, the Dharmic path of self-realization, is now practiced by hundreds of millions of people outside of India for optimal health, stress-reduction, clarity of mind, as well as to experience the direct reality of their true spiritual selves. In American alone, about 20 million people practice Yoga on a regular basis. The reason why so many millions of intelligent, educated, health-conscious and spiritually-inclined people practice Yoga is very simple: They’ve seen that it works!

Of all the many reasons why you should be a Dharmi, however, the most important one is because it is through Sanatana Dharma that you can have a personal and vividly transformative experience of God. The ultimate goal of Sanatana Dharma is to experience God’s presence in a radically personal and real way. When God is placed in the center of your personal life and your family life, there is no challenge, no problem, no illness, and no difficulty that you cannot face with courage and contentment. Sanatana Dharma is the most direct path there is for knowing God’s love and grace in your life.

Sanatana Dharma is a religious path that is open to all human beings, regardless of your race, nationality, ethnicity, previous religious background or language. Sanatana Dharma is not “Eastern”, “Indian”, or “Asian”. It transcends all nationalities and ethnicities. All that is required to achieve the maximum benefit that this dynamic path has to offer you is sincerity, humility, an openness to guidance and growth, and your own eagerness to know the Truth. Sanatana Dharma is open to all.

If you find the teachings, lifestyle and practice of Sanatana Dharma to be the answer to your spiritual search, the members of International Sanatana Dharma Society (ISDS) welcome you to embrace this spiritual heritage with joy and renewed vigor. Sanatana Dharma is God’s gift to you and to our suffering world.

For much more information on how you can deepen your understanding of Dharma and begin your exciting journey on this spiritual path today, please visit:

http://www.dharmacentral.com/dharmainfo.php
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In Defense of Reality

In Defense of Reality
By Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

When did we lose the final memory of our sustaining Reality? At what point did we relinquish our understanding of the Eternal Natural Way? When did we lose our precious connection to Dharma?

Washington CriesWas it when all the ancient sacred temples of the past became the archeological ruins of today? Was it when the medicinal arts, consisting of healing herbs and plants, was replaced by the synthetic poisons we now call pharmaceuticals? Was it when animals went from being our beloved companions to becoming our tortured food? Was it when good conduct and ethical behavior ceased to be a universal value and became, instead, merely a matter of subjective opinion? Was it when nature was no longer seen as a manifestation of God’s loving abundance, but instead seen as a lifeless commodity? Was it when the gods ceased to be beings whom we could speak with face-to-face, and instead became the subject of “myth”? Was it when the bliss of love was replaced by the orgiastic carnival of lust? Was it when works of art stopped being manifestations of beauty and meaning, and became instead exhibitions of narcissistic psychosis on canvas? Was it when we lost the innate human ability to use philosophical discernment and reason, and instead began using our amorphous feelings to make important life decisions? Was it when we sacrificed natural diversity, hierarchy, social sophistication, qualitative depth and personhood upon the altar of artificially imposed conformity and radical egalitarianism? Was it when we abandoned our innate necessity for the expansiveness of freedom and liberty, and submitted instead to the ever-intrusive shackles of the welfare state? Was it when the study of the history of religion eclipsed the impetus to make religious history? Was is when we began to worship dog more than we worship God? Was it when the uninformed opinions of worthless celebrities became more authoritative sources of truth for us than the sacred teachings of the liberated sages? Was it when we merely settled for mediocrity, rather than strove for the very greatest that the cosmos has to offer? When did Reality recede from our vision, and reality television take its place?

We can once again reestablish our cherished connection with Dharma, with a way of living that leads to health, joy, abundance, meaning and spiritual fulfillment for ourselves and for all sentient beings. We can heal ourselves and our Earth by once again relearning and reclaiming the Eternal Natural Way. Begin now.

ARTICLE HERE