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The Secret of Divine Wisdom

“It is human affliction and not pleasure which contains the secret of the divine wisdom. In general, we must not wish for the disappearance of any of our troubles, but grace to transform them. For men of courage, sufferings are often a test of endurance and of strength of soul. ” The French philosopher and social activist  Simone Weil (1909-1943) who lived in the midst of the world wars in Europe was described by many as a saint-like personality. Learned in ancient Greek, Latin and Sanskrit, she…

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How Laughter Creates Intimacy

  Laughter is the closest distance between two people.  –Victor Hugo “The sound of laughter is universal” state linguists and psychologists. Humans are born with the instinct of laughter. It’s part of the social contract. When one laughs, the other gets the urge to laugh too.  Having asked the question “what makes people laugh ? ”, the philosophers of ancient Greece said that one laughs at his own past self, as well as at the sense of superiority they felt over others in the face of adversities…

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Where Science and Spirituality Meet

  God is very subtle, but he is not malicious. –Einstein Nobel winning Professor of Physics Charles H. Townes (1915-2015) explains why he believes that science and religion may ultimately converge : Some consider science and religion as fundamentally different domains in their techniques and rendering a just direct confrontation between the two impossible. Others find refuge in one of the two fields and consider the other as contingent or even harmful. To me science and religion are both universal, and very similar. The goal of science…

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The Eternal Love of Cupid and Psyche

    Once upon a time, a king had three daughters. The beauty of the youngest, Psyche, ψυχή was beyond description. The fame of her beauty was spread all around that people from other countries would come to see her, and were fascinated by what they saw. In her praise, they sang odes to her and surrendered her with chaplets. So much so that even the altars of Venus were abandoned. Offended by the growing exaltation of a young mortal, Venus exclaimed : “ She shall not…

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The Ones Who Will Be Saved

  The renowned neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik links the present Covid crisis with the race for the performance of our globalized societies. He attributes the differences in individual reactions to crisis to the fact that people confronting it are not in equal terms and conditions. He lucidly explains the differing human condition :  Those who grew up in a stable and reassuring family, who have a good network of friends, those who have learned to communicate by telephone, will read, write, get back on the guitar, invent rituals,…

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Coding Universal Ethics

    “We should not be confident in our ability to keep a super intelligent genie locked up in his bottle forever. Sooner or later it will be out…The answer is to figure out how to create the superintelligent A.I. such that even if –when –it escapes, it would still be safe because it would be on our side and share our values.”   – Nick Bostrom   It was in the 1940s when Alan Turing (1912-1954), the computer scientist, mathematician, cryptanalyst and philosopher, defined artificial intelligence (A.I.)…

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Creation Myths and the Dawning of the Universe

  Many myths about creation reached us from ancient Sumerians up to the present day, preserved on reliefs, stone tablets, pictures and epic legends.   According to what was written in Sumer (3000 BC) and the epic of Gilgamesh, which is one of the oldest sources, the universe and God existed since the beginning of time. The God of wisdom Enki created the rivers Tigris and the Euphrates, thus created the waterbeds, and made the water flow from the mountains to these rivers. Then he created fish…

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Age-old Remedies for Well-Being

600 years after the foundations of science set by Hippocrates (400 BC), the erudite shift in medicine was built up by the pioneers of Islamic medicine spreading from Alexandria to Edessa (Urfa in modern Turkey) and Athens. In the 10th century, the physicians could diagnose and treat various maladies from smallpox to removing cataracts, from relieving pain to setting fractures and to incisions to lifesaving surgical operations.  Learned in zoology and pharmacology, they were able to produce the essential medicines. The breadth of their medical practice reached…

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An Astrophysicist’s Flirt with the Universe

Marcelo Gleiser, an astrophysicist and philosopher exploring the origins of the cosmos and creation accentuates humanity’s perpetual struggle to understand its place in the universe : We are naturally driven to make sense of the world and our place in it. Advances in math, technology, computers, all have revealed deeper mysteries, and the true vastness of space and time. Yet there are so many questions we still have no clue about. Because nature is smarter than we are, we’re always playing the game of catch-up. The more…

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The Solidarity of Collective Trauma

Boris Cyrulnik, the eminent neuropsychiatrist known for his work on resilience explains how societies can resist the present crisis of epidemic in the world: We have to adapt to this invisible aggression. Human evolution takes place only in crises. After this crisis, the family and the couple will once again become havens of peace. Crises are very common in the human condition. We have already known many epidemics who have forced cultural revolutions. With each epidemic, or natural disaster, there has been a cultural change. After the…

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Wonders of Solitude

  Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn.   –David Whyte   “ One wonders only when he is alone, and seeks the truth,”  said Einstein. The great thinker and ploymath Goethe,  discovered that creative inspiration came only when he was alone.  Winnicott, the pediatrician and psychologists, defines “the capacity to stay on his own” as a crucial indicator of child development. H.D. Thoreau, the notable American philosopher and nature lover proclaimed that he made his spiritual discoveries during his walks in…

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Inner Guide and the Imperious Self

If our celestial soul is shrouded in the dark smoke produced by the imperious self, our soul will cease to reflect the divine spark within it. – Ostad Elahi   Do you ever find yourself caught between opposing ideas when you are about to make a decision? For example, you plan to finish your work in good time, and yet switch your mind to watch a television program that you like. Meanwhile, you find yourself saying that it will not be the end of the world if…

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Longings of the Human Heart

  But already my desire and my will Were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed, By the love which moves the sun and the other stars. in his timeless Divine Comedy, Dante described the euphoric state of love as the gravitational force which moves the solar systems and which holds the universe together. Simone Weil (1909-1943), the renowned French philosopher, teacher and activist with outstanding intellectual gifts and mystical devotion said : Two forces rule the universe: Light and gravity.  She described the soul’s…

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A Life Truly Lived

“ Love is really the only thing we can possess, keep with us and take with us when we depart. ”   Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross (1926-2004), in her pioneering work with patients nearing the end of their lives in palliative care, interviewed them on their feelings about life and death, and how they measure the life they lived.  The results of her work show that the patients unanimously expressed their emotional state as a “yearning for love, ” a shield needed against the fear of death. Secondly,…

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