A prayer for animals

Hear our humble prayer,
o God, for our friends
the animals,
especially for animals who are suffering :
for any that are hunted or lost,
or deserted
or frightened
or hungry,
for all that must be put to death.
We entreat for them
all thy mercy and pity.
And for those who deal with them
we ask a heart of compassion,
and gentle hands
and kindly words.
Make us, ourselves,
to be true friends to animals
and so to share
the blessings of the Merciful.

Albert Schweitzer

- My e-mail addresses :
pintura@juanbielsa.com
jnbielsa@yahoo.es

- My website in English :
www.poeticpainting.com

James Allen: "Our mind is like a garden"

James Allen
Author of "As a man thinketh".
James Allen was born in Leicester, England,
on November 28, 1864.

A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.

Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful and pure thoughts.

By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands with ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought forces and mind elements operate in the shaping of his character, circumstances and destiny.

James Allen ("As a man thinketh")

- My e-mail addresses :
pintura@juanbielsa.com
jnbielsa@yahoo.es

- My website in English :
www.poeticpainting.com

Happiness and will power

Books can be dangerous also
Some books can have a negative impact in our lives.
I liked this book in my adolescence,
but it turned to be harmful.

In my childhood, I was very, very happy.

It would be hard to imagine a more satisfactory childhood.

But, afterwards... in my adolescence I was unhappy. Why? Being hypersensitive by nature, maybe I did not integrate properly reason. Besides, I was developing at that time a negative approach to many things.

I've always been an avid reader. I read in my adolescence books and more books, many of them were not positive for me.

Time passed. It was hard to find new beliefs, new hopes, a new faith, new friends, new books... and it took some years to become a positive person. It took a lot of effort and reflection.

Incredibly, I became a very happy person again. The last twenty years have been a blessing for me. I've even accomplished in that time the most beautiful dreams of my life.

And now, what? Will I be happy in the future? And you? We don't know. Nobody knows future. But one thing I can say. I'll strive to develop will power. All my efforts will be directed to accomplish this purpose. I would like to strive every hour, day, week, month, every year of my life, to acquire a gigantic will power.

I think I have great qualities, as everyone, but my weak point has always been will power. I have an extraordinary intuition, I know perfectly what is best for me, I'm very cultivated. But... I've been all my life hypersensitive (and always will be), and so I'm easily influenced by circumstances. I NEED to develop will power.

My senses, my energy... will have beautiful fields and gardens, but... there will be also fences all around, there will be absolutely clear limits, sacred limitis, wonderful limits. Even limits in apparently unimportant things.

We battle daily with so many distractions, so many temptations... We must be on our guard, or else we can lose our way, we can cease playing our game and start playing unpleasant ones.

We all know; our economy is in crisis. We even talk of recession, another 1929... Even capitalism needs control, even capitalism needs a clearcut set of rules, sacred ones, which nobody would be allowed to break. If we want a strong economy, we need all that, fences around businesses; we need freedom but also fences and fair play. All game needs rules established in a spirit of justice. If a game has no rules, then this game has no sense, only cheaters will make money, and ultimately the game will finish badly.

Life without clearcut rules ends in disaster.

Happiness, happiness... With amorous controls, with will power, compassion and wisdom, happiness will always be possible and at hand, will always be in our heart, ready to blossom.

Juan Bielsa

 

- My e-mail addresses :
pintura@juanbielsa.com
jnbielsa@yahoo.es

- My website in English :
www.poeticpainting.com

Maat: order, balance, justice

Maat
Egyptian Goddess
representing cosmic order, balance and justice

In ancient Egypt, goddess Maat symbolized cosmic order, equilibrium, justice.

The Egyptians knew by experience that our lives are always in a precarious equilibrium. Egypt’s blood has always been the Nile. And the Nile in the past was unpredictable. A subtle change in the regularity of the river could mean famine or inundation.

So, in the religion of ancient Egypt we find always an eternal fight between Order (Maat) and Chaos or disorder (Seth). All the efforts were made to keep chaos at bay.

In our lives we can see this eternal fight as well.

Please, when you are living a life in good health and you love your family, consider yourself very fortunate. Enjoy: you are lucky, my friend. Enjoy the little, wonderful things you have. Please, appreciate the seemingly unimportant joys of life: a simple smile from your loved ones, a sunset, reading a good book, watching a good movie, seeing your pet happy...

The equilibrium in our lives is very, very delicate, very fragile.

The smallest change in the existing status quo can cause havoc. Sure, that change can also bring prosperity, good things and opportunities, but can bring havoc as well. We must stay alert in a balanced way.

I think we must, as the Ancient Egyptians did, be watching carefully our lives to keep balance and order. Life is change, and change is inevitable, always has been that way and always will be. Nevertheless, I think we must try to keep chaos at bay, if possible. Yes, we must stay alert in a balanced, not obsessed way.

One day, our economy seems to do pretty well... But, if some apparently unimportant things are out of order and balance, if we are not in constant vigilance, some other day we can find ourselves indebted and without a solution. Recession...

In our lives apparently all is well, maybe we live a bit out of control... But, in an unexpected moment, there is a little, very little, and subtle, change (in our health, in our relations, in the economy...) and then, suddenly, all is out of balance. What happened? Our life will never will be the same. We must strive to find another point of equilibrum.

We don’t pay too much attention to global warming and to our environment. But chaos is operating without a pause. Still we don’t pay too much attention to that. The sun arises every morning and the weather is wonderful, all seems to be okay. But some day we are aware that something important is changing, something remarkable in a negative way. We try to live as if nothing has happened, but something has happened. Our lives will never be the same. Still we try to live normally. Things will change, little by little. The future generations will have to pay the price.

Our civilisation is out of balance.

Ancient Egyptians were very concerned trying to keep chaos at bay and keep the Universe in balance. And they built the most enduring civilisation in antiquity...

I think it would be a good thing for all of us trying to be much more vigilant than we are, as Buddha or Jesus taught. The slightiest carelness can cause disaster. We can slightly neglect some important things, without paying too much attention, and there we go, in some unexpected moment our lives will never be the same if some negative (very little, apparently insignificant) change happens. We’ve lost in a moment balance, peace and happiness. Then, we will try to restore the previous status quo, we even can improve the past conditions, if we have another chance... But, never will be easy, to say the least. It will take a lot of effort and vigilance to try to find equal or better circumstances. Even some negative changes will be definitive; they will stay with us forever.

Yes, it is wonderful going for a walk in a sunny day, is wonderful a word of love, an old book, our favourite movie on TV, wonderful a good, healthy meal, wonderful to enjoy little things, appreciate what we have now, before is too late, before things will be utterly different.

Juan Bielsa

 

- My e-mail addresses :
pintura@juanbielsa.com
jnbielsa@yahoo.es

- My website in English :
www.poeticpainting.com