Prologue:

This article I have written is only a small endeavour to try to reflect and share a tiny fraction of my own beliefs, humble opinions and experiences of life. It is not intended to try to reveal or impose any forms of "supreme truths" to answer the questions people have regarding life in general, since for those to be adequately answered, it essentially depends on each one to find it's own.

I share these thoughts, views, beliefs and feelings of mine, as a way to promote a philosophical debate and especially to inspire and encourage people to go explore in a quest for a never-ending search designed for the purpose as to achieve an enrichment and growth to enhance spiritual developments. This as a way to provide sufficient wisdom for a sunshine to emerge from the cloudiness and uncertainty of everyone's journey and odyssey in this life. Thus providing the indispensable spiritual and emotional tools to prevail over all adversities in life, tools such as the wisdom, moral integrity and hope, that we require in order to improve ourselves, and the world.

However, and as much I would like to accomplish, I cannot cover all the aspects and its extents that this issue addresses, due to the fact that this is a very complex subject. So I will try to strive to harness the most fundamental points of the topic and to exhibit it in writing.

For the most part, this article is focused essentially in discussing the "System of Beliefs" that we all have, but that not all share. The word "Belief" is a very deep one, going greatly beyond the plain material aspects of life and plunging into the depths of the spiritual realm, representing many powerful meanings, such as faith, convictions, principles, ideals and other philosophical/spiritual profound knowledge and maturity that people acquire along their life experience, within the choices each one makes in the course of their life's.

I hope my thoughts, views and experiences in life described in this article may give you some inspiration on a search for such valuable and useful insights on how to life live to the fullest, always by means of the most suitable and honourable ways.

When reading, read with an open heart and a flowing spirit…

"When we travel to the other world, we realise that what really matters, is not the amount of material possessions we leave behind, but only how much we have learned, what we have given in our journey, and the legacy we have built for future generations"
Paulo

"System of Beliefs": what it is and what it represents?

The answer is not a simple one, since as I have stated before, this is a very complex theme that involves many levels of spirituality. However for this article I will still try to simplify it, and say that beliefs are on the whole, the essential core of the formation of our own spiritual and emotional essence. A "System of Beliefs" is what represents our soul, our heart and ourselves as sentient entities before the world.

We all have our own beliefs, whatever they might be. Similar or different, weak or strong, superficial or profound, correct or wrong, positive or negative. And this is where each one's issues and choices of life can get tricky, delicate and problematic, since for example, there are many people that fight for their believes with a closed mind and heart, while assuming their believes are the right ones, when in fact, in the light of the moral believes that for example, Jesus taught us, they may not be.

Everyone is entitled to have their own beliefs, no matter how absurd and wrong they may appear to be, because many times it can be just a simple matter of opinion. But, there is a crucial difference between believing in what you believe, and practicing what you believe. Remember that, you have the right to be free as long as your freedom does not interfere with other people freedom. Believing in something does not give you the right to attack the freedom of other living beings.

As an example, we can say that a racist person has it's own believes, which we can say that are very immoral and wrong. But even so, knowing that those believes are absolutely wrong and dangerous, we cannot obligate a change in the person unless that person desires to, or is willing to be changed into another type of spiritual perspectives of life in society. We can merely try to inform, educate, advice and provide guidance to the person to demonstrate other possible paths to be followed in life, and that there are healthier things to believe and choices to make, which are stronger and more powerful in spiritual terms. However, we don't have the right to "brainwash" the person in cause to force that person to believe in what we believe, that would be erroneous to do so.

It is up to each one of us to choose our own beliefs and to make our own choices in life, either being positive or negative ones. This is a moral and spiritual freedom that everyone is entitled to have. However absurdity it may seem to be, restricting those freedoms even to people with doubtful or dangerous beliefs, using the same tactics that they use to achieve their selfish goals, would be to go against our own beliefs and while using the same tactics as them, we would turn out to be no better than them. Fire cannot be effectively fought with fire, but with water.

In the other hand some people may argue that whatever someone beliefs, that for that person point of view in life, it is the right thing, the right beliefs... I would respond saying that what ever beliefs it may be, if it involves hatred, selfishness, vengeance, or any other harmful, negative and destructive feelings, then it can never be the right beliefs. Does anyone really believe that harming other people, animal life, and/or Nature can ever be a righteous believe?!

No, self-destructive beliefs can never be right, only those ones that come deep from within, and which origins are overflowing with compassionated constructive love.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Mahatma Ghandi

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
Marie Curie

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly."
Henri Bergson

What do people believe?

There are billions of people worldwide, and every single individual have their own different opinions and beliefs. Obviously that there are "groups of beliefs", and what I indicate with this is that what one beliefs, may be for the most part shared by many thousands, or even millions of people. The best example of this is Religion, with "groups of beliefs" as for example the Christians, Muslins, Buddhists or Jews. Other examples are the ecologists versus the entrepreneurs/companies, the Human Rights organizations versus dictators, citizens versus the politicians… and so on.

Unfortunately most people in the world "believe" in things as having those very common shallow and superficial goals, to try to earn as much money as possible, and to gain more power and influence. I don't consider this to be true beliefs, but pure selfish interests from people that severely lack an immense degree of spiritual depth. Sadly the kind of people which main goals in life are these, have very fragile and "malleable" beliefs, which will change in order to fulfil their own desires and objectives. The results of this implication is that, one day they will say one thing, and literally say another different one in the next day. People like these have lost track of their own paths and are blinded, or have chosen to conceal their own spiritual side from themselves. This is a very treacherous move to do, since they will not be able to see other choices in life that could bring truthful happiness, in other forms other than the ones they choose every day, which gives them the illusion of seeking, fighting and reaching for a "everlasting happiness", when in reality its merely a superficial and shallow happiness that quickly fades away. Therefore making these individuals hard to change, not because they don't assume that what they might do and believe is wrong, because in fact most are fully aware that what they do is incorrect, but because they have chosen not to have beliefs, to simply gain access to effortless ways to improve their lives. It's selfishness, pure and simple.

Of course not all people see wealth as the most important role in their life's, there are other individuals who do have strong beliefs, and that they will stand and fight for them no matter what is the subsequent outcome of their actions. However this does not means that all of those people believe in the right things and do things in the right ways. There are many who don't, and we can take the examples of radical fundamentalists, which can go from "simple" priests, until well-known terrorists. These are people who are in certain ways spiritually strong, with beliefs that normally cannot be changed at all, due to the strength and depth that the person in cause has on what he/she feels about certain issues, either in a political, religious, cultural or economical level. This also happens because these people are normally misinformed and sometimes even completely ignorant about the knowledge and reality of the world society, only having very limited and stricter information which was previously selected and introduced into their minds.

We can use another example: The one of many Muslims worldwide being incorrectly informed about the writings of the Koran book, the sacred book that contains the teachings of the Muslim religion. The majority of the Muslim population have good intentions and a kindred heart, but even so many Muslim leaders take advantage of such and spread lies about the Koran to the rest of the Muslim population, most especially on some countries, as for example: affirming that the book says that violence is acceptable and should be used against the "infidels"; that women don't have the same rights as men, cannot vote, cannot go to school; that women have to use clothes to hide their body; and so on... these are lies told to influence some parts, or sectors of the Muslim population into following certain rules that only beneficiates men, but most especially some Muslim leaders and the ones that wish to employ a "jihad" (holy war) to battle and destroy the western civilization. This is basically the equivalent of a massive brainwash. In these cases it's necessary demystify the lies and to improve relationships between "westerners" (Christians) and muslins, as well as educating the muslins into what the real Koran teachings are, which totally disapproves "jihads" and discrimination against women. The fact is that the Koran book is in many ways amazingly similar to the Bible.

Trough information and education it is achievable to input awareness and understanding, and slowly transform mentalities and "Systems of Beliefs".

Fortunately, there are still significant amounts of people all over the world, from all colour, races and spiritual backgrounds, that possess the insight to reach for the right moral beliefs in order to fight the right battles, using the right ways…

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own."
Benjamin Disraeli

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."
Abraham Maslow

How strong are your Beliefs, and how far would you go to defend them?

This is a very essential and vital question that everyone has to make themselves sometime in their lives, even if they do not wish to do so. The answer lies in the choices we make and consequently destiny of each one's life. Meaning that, the answer you can only find it when analysing your Heart and Soul for all the potential values, strengths, ethics, moral and righteous of your beliefs. Only by doing this will you achieve in reaching into most of the answers you seek, while the rest of them you will find along your life's journey, if you pay attention and if you know what your looking for.

Now, if you were sure that what you believed was absolutely right, would you sometime in the future ever betray your beliefs just because it could signify to travel trough an easier path for you, as a way to avoid prolonged anguish? Do you believe that there are no beliefs that can deserve so much pain? Or you believe that something you strongly believe deserves to be "fought" until the end, no matter how much you may suffer?

How far can you stretch the threshold between "Beliefs versus Suffering"? Many times a very problematic key question, this is where the border is laid between the weak beliefs and strong ones, between the cowards and the braves, between the truthful and the dishonest ones.

"A 'No' spoken from deepest conviction is better and greater than a 'Yes' merely expressed to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble."
Mahatma Gandhi

How much suffering can you endure to stand for your Beliefs?

This is not a question to be kindly engaged and quickly answered. There is no doubt a grand assurance that in order for you to stand firm into defending your beliefs, that someday, somehow, somewhere, you will have to experience a certain degree of suffering. The amount of pain you will have to face and that you can endure during your life journey, depends entirely on how much prepared your spirit is, how mature and determinate you are, and of how strong and deep your beliefs are inside of you. If sometime in your life you choose to renounce to your beliefs because you feel that you are suffering too much and that you are not able to move until the finish line and triumph, then there is no point excusing yourself by appointing someone or something else, as the blaming factor for your own surrendering. Fact is, that it is up to you and you alone, to stand for what you believe, by proving it with your words and actions. The right battles are always harder to trail then the wrong ones, but the value of the experience and gains in that path, is unbelievably so much higher.

So, how can we ever be able to face the pain, anguish and to prevail over all the adversities that will come in our life journey? You will have to recognize and understand that suffering can many times be equivalent to maturing, to spiritual development and growth, that is, if we wish to do so and known how. The crucial part is to have sufficient wisdom and insight to see beyond the pain, and into the healing and learning procedure. Nevertheless, the pain, anger, hate and other negative emotions can severely obscure the gateway to freedom, so for your and everyone's sake, you must get ride of them as soon as possible.

People of truthful, honourable and strong beliefs have to be aware of individuals, which may consciently or inconsciently be trying to corrupt uncorrupted people. We all know the saying "Everyone has its price", reflecting on how strong selfishness is and how low and weak the moral principles and values are, and have fallen worldwide. Yes, very sadly this saying is true, for probably more than 99% of the people in the world. From those people, some may quickly fall and betray their beliefs, while others may require much more pressure, but the overwhelming majority of the people have a breaking point that normally is reachable. Also, when saying that everybody has its price, it does not mean it is relative only to money or material acquisitions. Spiritual corruption can come in many ways and forms, even if disguised catching us by "surprise". A "simple" lie is already a spiritual corruption.

It is true that some times people may surrender and betray their beliefs due to being under extreme circumstances. There are times in our lives that can put us in such high pressures that those events can spiritually break us down, make us hurt too much, obscure our insight, and distort our way of thinking, making us very vulnerable to the pressures to take certain decisions that may be very important to us and/or other people. Only the strongest beliefs and strongest people can endure these pressures, see beyond the pain and make the right decisions.

As we go back to talk about the material aspects and ways of living, we can say that in this world, the fight to earn money and power at all costs, can be so terrible and devastating, that there are even people that may sell their souls for a few Euros, others for a few million Euros, while others would prefer power or other type of material goods. Some would not only sell their soul to achieve their objectives, but as well sell their friends, wife's or even other family members like the parents, son or daughters. If you believe this to be the most shocking thing someone can do, then think again, because there are many individuals, most especially politicians and shareholders/owners of enterprises who would not mind and care to destroy whole countries and kill whole civilizations just to manage to achieve their horrendous goals, sometimes using phoney excuses as fighting terrorism that they themselves promote and use, as a way to conceal the truth. I really find it impossible to exactly understand how those people can be so selfish and go so low, to be able to perform such terrifying acts of insanity. There is so much more that can be said about such issues, but the dirt that Humanity can produce is far too vast and too excruciating to be desiccated in this article.

However, for the very tiny number of people that would not allow themselves to be "sold" and commit a variety of awful acts, and that will continue fighting for their beliefs, will have to face a different type of strikes from individuals with very dubious moral, or even extreme lack of it. The attacks can come in many forms, being one of them the slander, the manipulations, the insults, the lies, the threats. What I mean by this is that those individuals can envy us so much for how strong honour and moral values we have, and which reflects in our daily life, that they will wish to hurt us by lying to other people about our life, therefore to destroy our honour and credibility upon others, in order to manipulate opinions and views, to destroy friendships, concluding to manage to isolate and weaken the targeted person. This is a very evil action and can create great implications in the life of someone which honour is under attack, and as well which life is threaten. Loosing friends and love ones can sometimes be a very dramatic experience, and even when you know that you have your conscience clean and are fully innocent, working to regain credibility wished-for the ones you care the most, can be a very exhaustive and prolonged effort. Amazingly, for many people it is easier to listen and accept a lie then a truth. It is very important for friends and love ones to be able to trust in each other, for if the trust is not unconditional and truthful, one simple lie told by someone else with evil intentions can severely damage the relationship or even destroy it completely. To destroy something it requires mere seconds, to rebuild it may require months or even years.

A few clear examples of very important people that went through most of the experiences said above, are individuals like Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Madre Teresa and Mahatma Ghandi, all of them with very high and admirable moral standards, and which paid with their lives the price for fighting for their beliefs. They have made the ultimate sacrifice: they lived their lives not for themselves but for others, and given their life for the causes and people they defended. There is no bigger demonstration of unconditional and true love than this… Fortunately these aren't isolated cases, there are many other examples worldwide.

I, myself, have as well been under this type of agonizing attacks and experiences for far too many times, for I never backed up or given up on the beliefs I have. So to try to defeat me, those strategies were the only ones wicked individuals could use against me. But in the end, I was the only true winner, for my honour and truthfulness still prevails within me. In my way of doing things, I always prefer to try to choose the most correct and honest path, even if it means telling some truths that may hurt others and/or myself. I have always told the truth to myself and to others, and due to such choices, I have many times gone trough the aftershock of having to deal with the consequences of being courageous enough to tell the truth, which some times is not what someone prefers to listen, and which may be misinterpreted and get a response in the wrong way, that can have strong repercussions that may "breed" many anguish feelings.

As I have said, I have many times suffered deeply whenever I maintained my loyalty to my principles, to my beliefs, and to who ever was my family, friends, known ones or a female companion. However, no matter how it may have affected my relationships and my life in the past, no matter what I have lost, no matter how much excruciating pain I have felt during all this years, and believe me that I have went trough hellish periods… still, I never regret to have always told the truth, for I am very proud of myself to not have betrayed or weaken my beliefs, but to only made them stronger, more righteous and honourable. For me, to betray my beliefs is to loose myself and to loose my honour… and to loose my beliefs and my honour, is the same as to embrace death.

A person honour should not only be defined for his words, but especially for his actions and for how firm someone can stand strong with its beliefs, even against the strongest winds.

"You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul."
Mahatma Ghandi

"Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man."
Mahatma Ghandi

"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
Thomas Edison

Betraying your beliefs: Lying to others and to yourself.

Have you ever somehow lied to yourself and to others? Chances are that, yes, you have, maybe many times, in many different forms, with many different results.
From my own life experience, unfortunately I have discovered that almost no one in the world is capable of being 100% honest and truthful all the times, with themselves and most especially with others in their interpersonal relationships. And that even when you seem to know someone, even when you believe that that person is very honourable, worthy, honest and you fully trust in him/her … even those people are capable of lying, even if they wrongly assume that they "truly believe" that they are doing the "right" thing. But the question that I put now is: the "right" thing for whom? Not the person is question that is affected, that is an assured certainty.

It seems that practically everyone in the world lies in both of those aspects (to themselves and others), no matter how "small" the lies may be, and as well don't forget that hiding relevant things from others is also lying. I on the other hand believe in the full truth, and nothing but the truth, no matter how pleasant or unpleasant it may be. Lies are never the right answer to solve problems, and honesty is always the best policy to be followed. Remember that, the more lies you tell, the easier it will be to tell other lies.

It is a known that people change along the times, it's a fact of evolution, but the key question in this is… to change into what, into whom? As time passes by and as we grow from babies into elders, we will live and experiment an enormous amount of different experiences and realities. As we pass by the several stages of our life, we will learn new things and directly or indirectly change ourselves, maybe acquire new tastes, a new kind of thoughts and opinions about certain things, but what should always remain "hard as rock", are the core beliefs we possess in our soul. If we are certain they are righteous, then they should not change no matter the adversities and consequently anguish we may have to go by to defend them.

Many times I have already witness the transformation of people making changes, either from good to bad ones, as well from bad to good ones. Also, by observing a few people I have personally met, and as amazingly as it might seem, I was astonished to have learned the hard way, trough deception and betrayal, that even those people that we truly believe to be the most truthful, sincere and honourable ones, can as well transform themselves so greatly and deeply, by surrendering themselves to their dark side, that they will radically change completely and betray their "ancient beliefs", becoming very dishonest, corrupt and deceitful people, being able to easily lie and play with other people, to achieve their immoral selfish goals. These are people who in the beginning may have seemed to have had great ideals and beliefs, but that were not strong enough to stand firm for them while fighting adversities, and allowed themselves to change with the worst negative approach. This only proves that everyone has the potential for good and bad, in the choices in life, and that only the strongest, sincere and most righteous beliefs will manage to surpass and make it impossible for a person to spiritual corrupt him/herself this deeply.

But for now let's move to a "lighter" subject, where I will tell you to ask yourself this question: If you knew something relevant that could hurt a friend or a known person of yours, would you believe that hiding and keeping that information as a secret would be the best way to deal with things, to avoid hurting your friend? Or would you rather be loyal and honest to him/her even knowing that he/she would hurt?
As I keep saying, my answer is, that no matter what, always be honest. You will only show and give proofs to be a true friend when you are always honest, in the good and in the bad times, and not when you keep secrets and lie. Note that being a good trustworthy friend is not to only provide bliss to make someone feel happy, but as well to teach and educate your friend whenever he/she needs, even if it will involve a great agony, but which can consequently allow a greater development and connection of relationships and a more mature spiritual growth.

You can as well imagine the situation like this: If you are always honest with someone else, even with unpleasant issues, in the beginning the relationship between the two people may "tremble" a little, but as time passes by the trust will increase and consequently the whole relationship will have stronger bonds. In the other perspective, if you choose to lie/hide things, then your relationship may be good for a certain time, but when the other person discovers that you have kept things from him/her, and lied, then the shock and disappointment can be so high, that it will at minimum destroy the trust between the two, and most likely the entire relationship. So don't be afraid of the truth, but of the lies.

So which choice would you make? A temporary artificial happiness and deceptive relationship, or a commitment for a truthful and long lasting friendship/relationship?

You should understand that the most important things in life, are normally the "simple" ones, and on the whole I especially prefer to refer the friendship and love connections we set up for our lives. As most people know, the Human Being is not by nature a lonely being, and cannot find true happiness while being alone and unable to connect with other people. So we need to connect to others, but doing so in a honourable way to build a deep, honest and strong connection with friends, family and love ones.

A person has to be honest to himself/herself and to others all the times. The betrayals and breaking of the trust between friends and especially between a couple (married or not) can be a very painful and destructive emotional/spiritual experience, sometimes even affecting the whole essence of someone, which in this cases can easily tear up the spirit and destroy a person from inside out. The effects of lying and betraying someone, should never, but ever, be underestimated. You can never know for sure of how dreadful your actions are and how dangerously you may hit someone when they find out that they were lied and betrayed by someone that was supposedly to be someone he/she would trust with all his/her heart. If you consider yourself a true friend, them never allow yourself to lie to your friends, no matter what the consequences for yourself and him/her. There are no small lies, there are just lies, pure and simple.

When a connection of trust (friendship or love) between two people is broken, it can inevitably cause a domino effect and destroy the whole relationship, it may even "promote" hate that is born from the extreme levels of pain someone feels, and it may require a colossal amount of work and sacrifice into rebuilding a newer or renewed connection. Sometimes it may even seem impossible to be rebuilt, but I don't believe in this, I do believe that everything is possible to be rebuilt. However, for it to be possible, it depends sonly on both people to make it work, on the side that was hurt, to be able to forgive, and above all on the side that betrayed and lied, to find some left inner strength and wisdom to admit their errors, ask for forgiveness, and to honestly try to change and show/prove that he/she deeply regrets his/her actions and that deserves a second chance. These are a vital, crucial part of the whole forgiving, healing and rebuilding scheme, there is no other way around to rebuild broken connections.

Even when this type of situations happens, and which can bear "hate" if the hit was too extreme, even so it does not means that the old friendship or love connection and feelings are no longer present. Normally they are still there, especially if the connection was a very deep one (which can as well increase much more the level of anguish and hate), but some times the trauma may have been too big and the feelings may have been buried too deep and laid dormant to even be able to be sensed and understood by the person in cause. This person may feel so hurt, so much pain, that he/she will unconsciently transform its friendship or love for someone, into hate, while entering in a denial state and trying to find all the possible excuses, even if false ones, to try to justify those negative emotions as a strategic and radical measure to make it easier to disconnect him/herself from the other side/person. This however is a horrible choice to make, and will not decrease the level of pain, but increase it much more and just lead into more difficulties. So, for all this motives and many more, you cannot allow yourself to build any type of walls of distance, coldness and much less of hate, which is a major critical error that is very dangerous for both people and in particular for the person transmitting the hate emotions, for those negative emotions will detour your deep and positive feelings while only allow to show the superficial ones, the anger and the hate, and at the long run it may severely damage and change your whole psyche/soul.

We all have our own good and bad sides since one cannot exist without the other, we all feel love and hate, we all have good and bad things to show and give, we all make mistakes… but the important thing is to learn from those mistakes and from each other, to change, to ask for forgiveness… and to never, but ever, give up on trying to live a righteous life, for ourselves and for others.

So do not forget: To destroy hate is critical, to forgive is fundamental, and to learn from mistakes and change is mandatory. Nothing is impossible, for true love can forgive it all, and forgiveness can rebuild it all.

"Hatred ever kills, love never dies; such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred."
Mahatma Ghandi

"Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world."
Mahatma Ghandi

What paths do we have in life, and what choices should we make?

We have the freedom to make all the choices we wish to make, either them being very positive or very negative. The choices in life we make determine the type of person we are, and what our present and future paths will be. Of course the choices we make will not only affect us but as well many people around us, and that is another strong and compelling reason to meditate and to be sure that whatever we choose to do, that at least it will not negatively affect other people.

We can choose to live a life based on selfishness, or one based on love, on improving and changing ourselves and the world into a better state than the one it is at the present moment. For that to be achievable, you need to know that love is always the right answer, the right path to be followed, hate is always the most destructive and worst answer. Choices based on true love cannot be wrong, while choices based on hate will always lead into wrong roads.

Sometimes the choices we make can be so terrible that they will hunt us for the rest of our lives. In certain situations it may even seem to be impossible to correct the wrong choices we have made, if for example the affected person dies. But even in those cases, even if we cant really "go back" in time and correct the evil we have done, and to ask for forgiveness to the people we have made suffer… even then it is our duty to assume responsibilities for our actions, to do our best to learn from the mistakes made and to have the strength to admit them to whoever we may have directly or indirectly hit, and to face the consequences of our actions. However, many are the people that acknowledge to themselves that they have made great errors, and even so are not capable of admitting it and to ask for forgiveness, because they can be too proud, weak, scared or shameful to do so. Other people may even recognize that their errors were so cruel and gigantic, and maybe even "deeply regret" them, but that they may not be able to accept this, and that in order to cope and deal with it, they unconsciently prefer to deny it to themselves and especially others, inventing and manipulating things to try to find an impossible moral justification in what they have done or do, for themselves and to others, to not feel the anguish of being guilty of having done so much harm to someone else. So these people prefer to build and keep an illusion of being the rightful ones, when deep inside they know the full truth of their horrifying actions. These are people who have lost themselves in their paths and that seriously require a profound spiritual examination deep inside their souls to change their erroneous ways.

Keep in mind that, when you make a mistake, admitting it and asking for forgiveness is not a sign of weakness, but one of strength. Maintaining rage, anger and hate inside for someone is not the way to do things, but rebuilding lost or damaged relationships is. All the people in the world make mistakes, no matter how small they are, we are only human, the important is to be humble enough to admit your errors, to learn from them, to change yourself and to not repeat them. As I have said before, but that I prefer to emphasize, is that admitting the errors, changing and forgiving them are fundamental keys to the whole healing and rebuilding process, either in the personal as well for the interpersonal sense.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead

"We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable."
Alexander Solzhenitsyn

"Coward is not the one who cries out of love, but the one who does not loves with the fear of crying."
Unknown author

The Universe and "Mother Nature": The inherit spirituality.

Don't admire yourself for seeing such topic covered in this article. "Mother Nature" is also a very important key factor for the whole physical, and as well for the spiritual world. Life was born in the Universe, and "Mother Nature" has given us that life with all the consequential potentials that we have had since the dawn of time. Physical life was born, and with it, in due time came as well the sentient beings, and with them came such abstract philosophical concepts and knowledge, as thoughts, feelings, instinct and intelligence, which brought us Spirituality. Trough intelligence Mankind has developed and enhanced the abstract spiritual concepts, and from that new spirituality Mankind improved its own intelligence and knowledge. Both are interlinked and cannot be separated. What one does directly affects the other.

This way, we can say that not only "Mother Nature" helped in our physical evolution trough times, but as well in the spiritual evolution. It has been a very long and difficult path since we have started to increase our own awareness about the Universe and its mysteries, in a spiritual point of view. As we travel trough our journey in life, if we keep alive our quest for spiritual enlightenment, we will inevitably expand our views and our knowledge about the Universe, thus rising more closely to develop ourselves into an enhanced spiritual entity. Nonetheless, we still have too much to learn, for "Mother Nature" has too much to teach us. As someone has said: "I only know, that I know nothing".

The respect and protection of "Mother Nature" in our planet is crucial, vital for our own survival and the survival of all living beings, animal or vegetable. We cannot separate or damage the "chain of life", in the expectation that no harm will come to us. If we do so, sooner or later we will all suffer the consequences from the damage we have done to "Mother Nature", and inevitably to ourselves. To destroy Earth is to destroy ourselves.

As the significance of the words "Mother Nature" implies, we have to learn to respect and protect our "Mother", to abide by its own rules of life, so we do not destroy that same life we value so much.

"We do not inherit the earth from our fathers. We borrow it from our children."
David Bower

"The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it."
Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth… We did not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
Chief Seattle, 1854

My own Beliefs, and how important they are to me.

I consider myself to be a complex person, due to having a great spiritual depth, including a good understanding and awareness of many issues happening worldwide in an historical and present sense. However my "System of Beliefs" is quite simple and direct, since what I believe can be resumed in few words. Those words are mostly based on: truthfulness, honesty, loyalty, ideals, compassion, empathy, kindness, among others…

I am very fervent and passionate person, when defending the core of my beliefs, since I do strongly believe that what I am "fighting" for is the right battle to be fought. Many people have become very surprised with all the passion I show when I defend these issues that are so important and cherished by me. Some have told me that for this they have gained a great respect toward me and showed the wish to be so passionate about their beliefs as I am about mine. While others have had the opposite reaction, and have even told me how big of a fool and idiot they think I am for striving so much and so hard for such beliefs. But this is not something I allow myself to get hit by, for I don't have my beliefs fundamented in what others feel and think, but on what I myself believe. I only change my own beliefs if I come across another believe and reality that I view as a better one or an improvement of the ones I actually contain.

My main goals in life are in order to work on behalf of the protection of Human Rights, Animal Rights and Nature in general. These are my main life guidelines, and I consider these to be fundamental to promote hope and build a better world, for all life, for all sentient beings, Humans or Animals. Selfishness and egocentrism are two major faults of human character that have devastating consequences upon the world, and to make a serious change in mentalities and ways of living is crucial.

We are the ones that have to care for one another, or else, who will?! We have to be the ones to create the future, or else who will?! I believe that our love for People and Nature, altruism and spirit of sacrifice are the only things capable of saving our world, our lives, our souls. Don't underestimate the impact your struggle may have on the world.

As I keep saying and emphasizing, one of the things I deeply believe, is to never hide things or lie, and to always be fully honest and truthful to yourself and other people. I have already made many choices where I was too honest and frontal, and that that honesty has only developed terrible anguishes to me and others, making me suffer and loose people that were dear to me. People can ask, if it was worthy it telling the truth and suffering due to it?! I can only say that no matter how painful the experiences were, that even so I was fully truthful and followed my heart and my beliefs… so it is not a question of if it was worth it, but of doing what was right, that is the fundamental role to do in life… and that I have done. It is my opinion that only the true courageous people are able to always tell the truth, and that cowards will try to hide themselves behind a wall of lies and illusions to trick other people and to gain from it. I have always said: "I rather live unhappy with the truth than to live happy with a lie."

I can sacrifice my life for my beliefs, but I cannot sacrifice my beliefs for my life. If sometime in our lives we have to make such choice and die while defending our beliefs, then I will say that it is in dying, that we are truly born, for we died while defending what is really important. This is not radicalism, since it is obvious I also fully agreed that life is important, and it is to defend life in all forms that I struggle for, but there are some things that are more important than worrying about your own life, sacrificing yourself for the behalf of other living beings…

So seek and find your own beliefs, try to find your own path and to live a righteous life, and if you do strongly believe you are following the right path and making the right decisions, for yourself and others, then never despair when you go trough some harsh road.

To finish this article, I would like to state and emphasize that, my writings and the organization InfoNature.Org that I have founded, are my legacy to the present and future generations, as a deep message of love, faith and hope, that is born from a maturing soul, as a way to do my part in improving the world. Let us all learn and work together, to make this world we call home, a better place for Mankind and Nature, for that is the true fundamental reason to why we live.

NO MATTER HOW HARD THE ADVERSITIES ARE IN LIFE, KEEP IN MIND:
"SEMPER FIDELIS", UNTIL THE END

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred let me spread love;
where there is injury, let me spread pardon;
where there is discord, let me spread harmony;
where there is error, let me spread truth;
where there is doubt, let me spread faith;
where there is despair, let me spread hope;
where there is darkness, let me spread light;
where there is sadness, let me spread joy.
Lord, may I not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. Because it is in giving that we receive, in pardoning that we are pardoned. Amen."
ST. Francis of Assisi - Madre Teresa Calcutta

By Paulo (Year 2004)