THE CUCUMBER

WHAT A LITTLE GEM THE CUCUMBER IS. I WILL LOOK AT IT DIFFERENTLY NOW.      1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc. 2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours. 3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance. 4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area. 5 Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!! 6.. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!! 7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation. 8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don't have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water. 9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone! 10. Stressed out and don't have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams. 11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don't have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath. 12. Looking for a 'green' way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but is won't leave streaks and won't harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean. 13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!! Pass this along to everybody you know who is looking for better and safer ways to solve life's everyday problems..

THE GOLDEN RULE: LET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH

 

        African Traditional Religions One going to take a
pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it
on himself to feel how it hurts. Yoruba Proverb
(Nigeria)

        Bahá'í Faith And if thine eyes be turned
towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that
which thou choosest for thyself. Epistle to the Son of
the Wolf, 30

        Buddhist Faith Hurt not others with that which
pains yourself. Udana-Varga

        Christian Faith All things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for
this is the law and the prophets. The Gospel of
Matthew Matt 7:12, Luke 6:31

        Hindu Faith This is the sum of duty: do naught to
others which if done to thee would cause thee pain.
The Mahabharata

        Jewish Faith What is hateful to you, do not to
your fellow men. That is the entire Law; all the rest is
commentary. The Talmud

        Muslim Faith No one of you is a believer until he
desires for his brother that which he desires for
himself. Hadith

        Islam Not one of you is a believer until he loves
for his brother what he loves for himself. Forty
Hadith of an-Nawawi 13

        Do not do unto others what angers you if done to
you by others. Isocrates 436-338 BCE

        An it harm none, do what thou wilt. Wiccan Rede

        some other information from various sources:
Tzu-kung asked, 'Is there a single word which can be
a guide to conduct throughout one's life?' The
Master said, 'It is perhaps the word shu. Do not
impose on others what you yourself do not desire.'
Analects, 15.24

        Refraining from doing what we blame in others.
By Thales Diogenes Laertius, vol I, page 39

        Christianity: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. There is more to it than that In the book of
Matthew, Chapter 7 verse 12, and says Therefore all
things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,
do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the
prophets. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

        Teacher, which is the great commandment in the
law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind. This is the great and first
commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love
your neighbor as yourself. Christianity. Bible, Matthew
22.36-40

        Buddhism. Sutta Nipata 705 One who you think
should be hit is none else but you. One who you think
should be governed is none else but you. One who you
think should be tortured is none else but you. One
who you think should be enslaved is none else but you.
One who you think should be killed is none else but
you. A sage is ingenuous and leads his life after
comprehending the parity of the killed and the killer.
Therefore, neither does he cause violence to others
nor does he make others do so.

        Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Leviticus 19.18
Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to
them. Christianity. Bible, Matthew 7.12

        Tsekung asked, Is there one word that can
serve as a principle of conduct for life? Confucius
replied, It is the word shu--reciprocity: Do not do to
others what you do not want them to do to you.
Confucianism. Analects 15.23

        A man should wander about treating all
creatures as he himself would be treated. Jainism.
Sutrakritanga 1.11.33

        Try your best to treat others as you would wish
to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is
the shortest way to benevolence. Confucianism.
Mencius VII.A.4

        Hinduism One should not behave towards others
in a way which is disagreeable to oneself. This is the
essence of morality. All other activities are due to
selfish desire. Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva113.8

        Leviticus 19.18: Quoted by Jesus in Matthew
22.36-40. Mencius VII.A.4 and Analects 15.23: Cf.
Analects 6.28.2, p. 975. Comparing oneself to others
in such terms as Just as I am so are they, just as
they are so am I, he should neither kill nor cause
others to kill.

        Jainism. Acarangasutra 5.101-2 The Ariyan
disciple thus reflects, Here am I, fond of my life, not
wanting to die, fond of pleasure and averse from pain.
Suppose someone should rob me of my life... it would
not be a thing pleasing and delightful to me. If I, in
my turn, should rob of his life one fond of his life, not
wanting to die, one fond of pleasure and averse from
pain, it would not be a thing pleasing or delightful to
him. For a state that is not pleasant or delightful to
me must also be to him also; and a state that is not
pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that
upon another? As a result of such reflection he
himself abstains from taking the life of creatures and
he encourages others so to abstain, and speaks in
praise of so abstaining. Buddhism. Samyutta Nikaya
v.353

        A certain heathen came to Shammai and said to
him, Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach
me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.
Thereupon he repulsed him with the rod which was in
his hand. When he went to Hillel, he said to him, What
is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is
the whole Torah; all the rest of it is commentary; go
and learn. Judaism. Talmud, Shabbat 31a

        Zoroastrian Faith Whatever is disagreeable to
yourself do not do unto others. Shayast-na-Shayast
13:29

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Living Waters 

Living Waters

This servant appealeth to every diligent and enterprising soul to exert his utmost endeavour and arise to rehabilitate the conditions in all regions and to quicken the dead with the living waters of wisdom and utterance, by virtue of the love he cherisheth for God, the One, the Peerless, the Almighty, the Beneficent. (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 172)

As I mentioned in a previous post, October 15th is Blog Action Day and the focus this year is on the importance of clean water. You may already be familiar with many of the outrageous statisticsrelated yet another crisis of a world that seems to have lost its mind. If not, here are a few:
884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eightof the world's population. (WHO/UNICEF)

2.6 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, this is almost two fifths of the world's population. (WHO/UNICEF)

1.4 million children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation - 4,000 child deaths a day or one child every 20 seconds. This equates to 160 infant school classrooms lost every single day to an entirely preventable public health crisis. (WHO/WaterAid)

Thinking about this issue of clean water, I can't help but consider it a kind of metaphor for a collapsing civilization panting after the living waters of the spirit, choking on the dust of materialism's undelivered promises of universal prosperity and progress. This crisis, like so many others, reflects the inevitable consequences of a human race divided against itself, as yet only dimly conscious of its oneness and failing to come to grips with the fundamental transformation of the social order that such consciousness ultimately demands.

Let there be no mistake. The principle of the Oneness of Mankind -- the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh revolve-- is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not to be merely identified with a reawakening of the spirit of brotherhood and good-will among men, nor does it aim solely at the fostering of harmonious cooperation among individual peoples and nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family...It implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced...It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world -- a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units. (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 42)

Achieving access to clean water for all, like virtually every other challenge facing humanity today, will require more than the mechanics of international development, the advocacy and generosity of well-meaning people, or even that rarely discovered gem of heavenly statesmanship. It will require that very phenomenon whose necessity is so frequently acknowledged and yet is so quickly sacrificed when it conflicts with the dictates of personal ambition, partisanship, or prejudice: unity. Baha'u'llah put it this way:

"My object is none other than the betterment of the world and the tranquillity of its peoples. The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established." (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 286)


SOURCE -BAHAI THOUGHTS

Toronto from Sam Javanrouh on Vimeo.

Annual Blog Action Day 15 th October

 This year's focus will be on water. Here are some facts about the current global clean water crisis that are worth pondering deeply:

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1. Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Unclean drinking water can incubate some pretty scary diseases, like E. coli, salmonella, cholera and hepatitis A. Given that bouquet of bacteria, it's no surprise that water, or rather lack thereof, causes 42,000 deaths each week.
2. More people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet. Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets. This means that sewage spills into rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and causing disease.
3. Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water. They do this while carrying cisterns weighing around 40 pounds when filled in order to gather water that, in many cases, is still polluted. Aside from putting a great deal of strain on their bodies, walking such long distances keeps children out of school and women away from other endeavors that can help improve the quality of life in their communities.
4. It takes 6.3 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger. That 6.3 gallons covers everything from watering the wheat for the bun and providing water for the cow to cooking the patty and baking the bun. And that's just one meal! It would take over 184 billion gallons of water to make just one hamburger for every person in the United States.
5. The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world. From showering and washing our hands to watering our lawns and washing our cars, Americans use a lot of water. To put things into perspective, the average five-minute shower will use about 10 gallons of water. Now imagine using that same amount to bathe, wash your clothes, cook your meals and quench your thirst.

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