How do you know, you are blessed

If you woke up this morning
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
million who won't survive the week.

If you have never experienced   the danger of battle,

the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.

 

If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.

 

 

If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.

 

If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

 

If your parents are still married and alive,
you are very rare,
especially in the Western world.

 

If you hold up your head with a smile
on your face and are truly thankful,
you are blessed because the majority can,
but most do not.

 

 

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them
or even touch them on the shoulder,
you are blessed because you can
offer God's healing touch.

 

If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
that cannot read anything at all.

 

You are so blessed in ways
you may never even know.

[Source: God bless that person who sent us this by email, and we thought of sharing with you]

Bring your own grocery bags - Green think (thing).

In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags were not good for the environment.   Think again, who was green back then and now who is not thinking green.  Is this what you call progress?

1. Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized, and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly.  Therefore, they really were recycled. 
2. We walked up stairs, because we did not have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and did not climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. 
3. Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind.  We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes.  Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.  
4. Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house, not a TV in every room.   The TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not extra large size.
5. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we did not have electric machines to do everything for us. 
6. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.   By the way, plastic is indestructible. 
7. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol (gas) just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power.  We exercised by working so we did not need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.  Don’t you think it is funny and stupid, that we save sweat by machine, and ask machine to sweat us.
8. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. 
9. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. 
10. Back then, people took the bus (or tram) and kids rode their cycles to school or walked instead of motorized vehicle that pollutes the air.
11. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. 
12. We did not need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 KM (miles) out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.  (Were there so many pizza joint?). 

Let us really think green and put some action to save the planet Earth.  It is the only one.  Please share this with others, will you?

Learn practical Preksha Meditation 7 days residential camp

प्रेक्षा ध्यान शिबिर 


Date: July 31, 2011 to August 6, 2011.  Venue: Jain Vishva Bharati, Ladnun, Rajasthan, India

Progress in the direction of Emotional well being, Spiritual development with Preksha meditation's Scientific outlook by attending the camp organized under the direction of highly experienced Preksha expert Prof. Muni Mahendra Kumar.

Some highlights:

• Special discourse on Preksha Meditation philosophy.
• Preksha therapy for emotional well being.
• Get solution for your queries from expert ascetic.
• Language medium in camp - Hindi
• Good residential facility including lodging and food.

For detail please contact:
Mr.  Jeetmal Gugliya.  Phone: +91-96672 80609, +91-15812 22119
E-mail: jainvishvabharati@yahoo.com