"This Week"
by the
Bahrain Meditation Centre

10^th December, 2005

Renaissance

After centuries of false notions, the ideal of human power and potentiality was reborn in a period known as the renaissance. The dramatic transformation of worldview from the medieval era went hand in hand with a number of discoveries, innovations and inventions. The world was no longer flat and men and women were encouraged to broaden their thinking and create an open outlook. As we reflect on world history we know that periods of Renaissance were essentially periods wherein our right of freedom to think and express broke through old moulds of thinking and behaviour.

The "Information Age" has placed at our finger tips the ability to find out what is happening anywhere in the world, how to bake a cake or assemble a car; the history and meaning of words; the meaning of life; ready access to complex theories from our greatest scholars to those of our new thinkers. It provides us with art, history, everything imaginable and in every form possible, and even a 'DIY' guide to achieve enlightenment. But in this WEB of information we are yet to find our OWN truth and, further, find the time to live it! During the Renaissance, individuals with a medieval mind-set were left behind. Now in the Information and Communication Age, "medieval" thinkers are threatened with extinction.

Renaissance comes from the combination of the French verb renâitre, meaning "to revive" and the noun naissance, meaning birth. And so after generations of knowledge and information, more of us are answering an inner call to rediscover, re-turn, re-vive, re-new our lives. Old paradigms are crumbling and new ones are being rapidly constructed in their place. The message is loud and clear, change or else the world will surely change you.

This 'spiritual' Renaissance asks us all to begin an inner journey, one where we take time to absorb all that history tells us about ourselves, and to discover and honor the leader within. Leonardo Da Vinci, the Renaissance pioneer, taught us 'curiosita' – an insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for discovery and learning. He taught us to question profusely and to change the form of questioning from time to time. For example, instead of asking how we can get to water, he said ask how we can get water to come to us. This was the start of the underwater pipeline.

This week let us question old attitudes and archetypes and turn a new page. The Renaissance that is dawning today is to seek the secret key to this happiness. This spiritual awakening is taking many out of the "box" and into the sphere of an open-hearted search to feel God's love in their life. It will be the time where the African saying "it takes a village to raise a child" becomes a reality as each of us lives by values.

Om Shanti
(I am a peaceful soul)

 Tel: +973-17-712 545, meditate@batelco.com.bh, www.bahrainmeditationcentre.org
Bahrain Meditation Centre is administered by B.K.W.S.U. (visit: www.bkwsu.org.uk)