Ashoka Newmedia

Life is very busy these days, we hardly get the time to sit in tranquility and peep deep in to our souls. Not only physically but also mentally we all grow tired. In this maddening crowd all you look is for inner peace and serenity. If this is what you feel then it is about time that you take a break from your mundane life and explore your inner spirituality. One of the best places in the world is India when it comes to spirituality,tour in India and find the inner peace that you have been looking for a long time. India is a country which has unity in diversity and diverse religions co-exist peacefully. Throughout India there are various important religious places. Hinduism,[..]

Being judgmental is being angry. Fear, the basis of anger, is always connected with the past or future. If you can look deeply within and find what it is that you fear, whether it is God, living up to some kind of ideal, fearing ideas different from yours, or people that are different from you, a different color, social status, or if you fear losing your house in these difficult economic times, or your partner to someone else, or your job, or your status, these are all fears that result in anger. An angry person is a fearful person, and a fearful person lives in the past and future. The problem with the past and future is that it is all fantasy, made up of nothing but thoughts and[..]

Penang, the Pearl of the Orient, is one of the Asia's loveliest islands which rich of its multi-cultural heritage and tradition of Asia. Penang is the second smallest of 13 states of Malaysia, and George Town is its capital. On 7 July 2008, Penang was declared as UNESCO World Heritage Sites of its multicultural living heritage. This multi-cultural tangible and intangible heritage is expressed in the great variety of religious buildings, languages, religious festivals, food and daily life which like a living museum. Georgetown has the largest number of pre-war shophouses and buildings of any South East Asian city such as early transitional style shophouse. The populations of Penang[..]

Guangzhou City served as a central port in the Marine Silk Road. Along with the development of trade in ancient China came the introduction of various religions. Christianity, Buddhism and Islam were introduced to China from this port. The Huaisheng Mosque is the first mosque to be erected in China in the 7th Century during the Tang Dynasty. The word Huaisheng translates to 'remember the sage'. The sage referred to is Prophet Mohammed. The mosque is spread over 2,966 square meters and contains six important elements the Wangyue Attic, the storehouse of Islamic Scriptures, the Stone Steles Pavillion, the Imam Hall and its most eye-catching feature is the Light Tower. The Light Tower was a[..]

There is a certain image about India - mystics and snake charmers, poverty, palanquin bearers, slums, child labourers, corruption, hot weather, religious fanaticism, tradition bound women, etc. Are these myths or realities about India? These myths about India may make great conversational topics but just how poverty and illiteracy are realities so are a thriving democracy and economic opportunities for the young. According to the recent eBook on the Myths About India, several of these myths have been shattered and change and optimism are in the air. Given below are some common socio-economic and cultural myths about India and the real picture of these myths. The myth about modern India[..]

India is often referred as the land of the festival. Through out the year various festivals are celebrated all over the country. Different types of people based on the religious, caste and cultural background exist in the country. Though there is so much of diversity, these people live in complete harmonious way. Being a secular country, India offers it's citizens freedom of practicing any religion and culture unless it creates communal disharmony. Festivals are one occasion which brings best out of Indians. During festivals they forget all enmities and open their arms to every visitors. These festivals are celebrated amidst much fanfare and on most occasion people from different[..]

The religion Islam does not believe in the concept of “original sin.” According to the teachings of Islam, people are born guiltless. They remain so until an individual himself or herself, commits a sinful deed. Islam is neither an ethnocentric nor a sacramental religion. The followers of this religion observe no sacraments. Anyone can become a Muslim by his/ her discretion. Introduction to Islam involves no sacramental ceremony, no involvement by any clergy, and no authentication by any organized body. All that a true Moslem needs to do is follow the teachings of Islam. These teachings are: Doctrine of God: Islam is a strictly monotheistic religion. The followers of Islam believe[..]

What do moms, grandmas, students, full-time employees, self-employed, singles, married, engaged, and divorced women all have in common? Stress! Studies show that women are more likely than men to experience anxiety, depression, and just feel generally stressed-out. This may be due to hormones, genetics, or because women feel they need to be and do everything for everyone. Keeping the house up, arranging the kids' hectic schedules, working, friends, husbands, church...women tend to have a huge collection of hats of which they wear several on any given day. And Christian women certainly aren't exempt. Many people think that Christians are supposed to have it all together. Ha! There are[..]

Do Buddhists believe in God or gods? Buddhism is always considered unique and special among religions because its practitioners don't believe in a creator god, or at least, they don't rely on him for their salvation. According to the Pali Canon, the most ancient of Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha didn't reject the existence of gods, but he considered them to be subject to change and death. He said that to invoke their aid or influence was useless. The truths of Buddhism are not dependent on the gods, and attempts to use their influence are deprecated as vulgar practices. So, belief in gods is not essential in Buddhism, they can't help you to achieve Nirvana. In fact, early Buddhists[..]

Parenting from the heart is a sacred and rewarding journey. You can establish a higher level of connection with your children through the celebration and exploration of your heart relationship. When our own spirit recognizes the internal glow of our children, we can utilize this bond for living a life of peace, love, and balance. These nine elements are meant to be the philosophical starting point for you to see all life with greater significance and begin to parent from the heart. • Honor: Living a life of honor is to demonstrate truth, honesty, and integrity in your actions and beliefs. We often relate to the concept of honor when making a pledge to our country or taking a matrimonial[..]

Japanese garden design is about as hard to understand to Westerners as the Japanese language is. The relationship to the rich and ancient eastern culture adds to this difficulty. The practice is not just a style of landscaping. Rather, it a statement that delivers a specific meaning. Adding further to its complexity is the influence of fengshui and its borrowings from Buddhism and Chinese culture. The intention of Japanese garden design is to use nature to make a statement. The main element is symbology, most of which is influenced by Shintoism and Buddhism, which is where the gods inhabit nature. This adds even more its cultural complexity making hard for us to understand. Since the[..]

Since ages, India is a land of religious and spiritual importance where innumerous deities, gods and goddesses are worshipped with complete devotion and faith. Four major religions of the world originated in India - Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism while Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism arrived later on in India and shaped the variegated culture of the country. India is also famous for its spiritual growth and is the homeland of Rishis, Munis, Saints and Faqirs. All this has made India on of the most sought after destination for religious and spiritual tourism. To provide the tourists with the religious essence and feel of India there are many India tour packages[..]

Have you ever dreamt of winning an all-expense paid trip to Italy, Israel, or even the beautiful islands of Hawaii? If yes, then now is the time to start turning your dreams into reality! Perillo Tours, headed by Steve Perillo, is a top-notch American travel agency that provides travel and tourism packages to these exotic locales. They have been organizing enjoyable tours and vacations to top tourist destinations, such as Italy, Israel, and Hawaii for many years. The Perillo Perks Program was launched in 2004 to provide perks and prizes to participants of their instant game online or to those who book tours with Perillo Tours. To become a member of the Perillo Perks Program, these[..]

Caribbean Vacation, The Caribbean islands are some of the most popular tourist spots in the world. Every year, millions of people visit the islands, either by plane or ship. Click Link Below Caribbean Deals $$$ CLICK HERE: Caribbean Deals $$$ Cruises in particular are almost always included in cheap Caribbean vacation packages, as cruising gives tourists a chance to visit many of the islands in just a matter of days. If you want to go on a romantic beach vacation, or simply want to visit one (or many) of the islands, you can find some amazing discounts online. Many of the packages are geared toward a particular interest. For instance, if you want to learn how to surf and snorkel, you[..]

New Delhi: Leisure Hotels announces it’s Christmas & New Year Celebrations Packages with a promise of a life-size merriment for those who wish to escape the humdrum of city life. Not only this, special discounts on hospitality & spa therapies, free safaris & boat rides, DJ nights and gala dinner on 24th and 31st, fun-games, cultural performances and much more mark the festivities that Leisure Hotels has on offer. Here are three best options to drive away from Delhi. The Light House, Goa The Light House, Goa is a villa style luxury cottage overlooking the stunning and azure Indian Ocean. It embraces the mystique of Goa, with all its bewildering natural charm, beauty and[..]

Very few of us never have contact with the outside world or other people, and as a result, there is a relationship that is created whenever we interact with someone else. As time goes on, that relationship can remain stagnant, or as in the case of a love or dating relationship, that relationship can grow and flourish. But the real key to any meaningful relationship is effective communication between two people. That statement is every bit as true for interpersonal relationships as it is for business relationships, and also for the marital relationship between a husband and wife. Effective communications cannot be stressed enough, especially in a marriage relationship. In today’s[..]

On a tour to the Valley of Flowers you are sure to explore Mother Nature at its best. This exotic valley is spread over 87.5 sq. km in the interior region of Garhwal Himalayas which lies in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Valley of Flowers astonishes its visitors by the variety of colorful flowers spread all over its terrain. With butterflies hovering over these flowers tourists do get amazed by the scenic beauty of this place. Some of these flowers are rare and are used in medicines also. The major hitch with this place is the snow which covers this valley for major part of the year except for a few months from June to October. Major Tourist Attractions in the Valley of Flowers[..]

MMT is an exciting new development in which mindfulness is applied directly to difficult emotional states such as phobias, anxiety, anger and other forms of emotional reactivity. Personal relationships provide one of the greatest challenges in life and most of us will experience difficulties with patterns of habitual reactivity that are triggered by our partner. Our buttons get pushed and we become angry or upset. This dynamic is based on learned habitual reactivity in which both the perpetrator and victim are compelled to react. You may say something knowing that it will cause offense, but unable to stop yourself from saying it. The victim feels compelled to react by taking offense and[..]

The elaboration of marvelous episodes is regarded in India as a legitimate form of literary art, no more blamable than dramatization, and in sacred writings it flourishes unchecked. In Hinduism, as in Buddhism, there is not wanting a feeling that the soul is weary of the crowd of deities who demand sacrifices and promise happiness, and on the serener heights of philosophy gods have little place. Still most forms of Hinduism cannot like Buddhism be detached from the gods, and no extravagance is too improbable to be included in the legends about them. The extravagance is the more startling because their exploits form part of quasi-historical narratives. Râma and Krishna seem to be[..]

When you come to Buddhism you have to be prepared for some significant surprises. Many aspects of Buddhism may seem familiar to you: - Buddhists tell a story about the founder of their tradition, as Christians and Muslims. His name was Siddharta Gautama, he lived in Northern India around the year 500 B.C. He was known to his followers as the Buddha, or the awakened one. - Like Jesus and Muhammad he developed a very distinctive response to the religious problems of his day. He started a religious movement that now is expanded throughout the world, from South East Asia across Northern Asia, and in the last hundred years or so, in Europe and North America. - You might ask yourselves how the[..]

As any other religion in the world, Buddhism has different sects with different beliefs and practices. We'll start with the most popular branch of Buddhism known as Mahayana. "Mahayana" is the name given to a movement which in its various phases may be regarded as a philosophical school, a sect and a church, and though it is not always easy to define its relationship to other schools and sects it certainly became a prominent aspect of Buddhism in India about the beginning of our era besides achieving enduring triumphs in the Far East. The word signifies Great Vehicle or Carriage, that is a means of conveyance to salvation, and is contrasted with Hinayana, the Little Vehicle, a name[..]

The experience of Nirvana is not just limited to the moment of the Buddha's passing. It isn't just the moment where his personality ceases to exist. The Buddha also experienced Nirvana at the moment of his awakening, when he knew that he was no longer bound by ignorance and desire. When we understand this concept this way we can see that Nirvana isn't just the cessation of life. The Buddha lived for forty years between that first moment of his Nirvana and his Parinirvana, his passing. Nirvana is a quality of mind or state of being that characterizes the Buddha's life for that whole forty years period between his awakening and his passing. That period represents the ultimate achievement[..]

Yes, there are Buddhist nuns. They are called bhikkhunis. Nuns were an important part of the early Buddhist community. The monastic practice of women continues to be significant in the Buddhist community today. We may have some problems with the story about the origin of this community of nuns because of our presuppositions, but let's look at it anyway with an open mind. The Buddha's aunt, Mahapajapati, asked him if he will be willing to ordain her as a nun. Until this time, only men were accepted into his monastic organization. The Buddha refused. She pressed him again and again. He finally agreed to do it, but with a couple of restrictive stipulations. One was that the nuns would have[..]

Meditation is one of the great skills everybody should learn as it helps you in developing a more effective mind and to help keep you at a state of calm. If you are serious about meditation having a room dedicated to the practice does one of two things. The room will after periods of time bring about a sense of calm as soon as you walk into the room because of the association between the room and peace. The meditation room will also encourage you and remind you to stick with the practice. All too often people start out on the meditation journey only to abandon the practice a few months in because they are feeling great. The downside to this is that if you do not continue practicing[..]

When life gets tough what do you do? Do you run away and hide, wishing that you could just make everything just vanish? Do you try to blame someone else and avoid problems? Or do you face the problem and turn it into a positive? Everyone handles things in life differently and this is totally normal, but sometimes you could be putting your emotional and spiritual well-being in danger if you don't know how to handle things effectively. This can then lead to illness and the continuation of bad memories and experiences and you feel powerless against your emotions. One way that you can learn how to live a more productive and positive life is to use mediation to help you. Many people who[..]

The earlier forms of Buddhist ceremonials are of the synagogue type (though in no way derived from Jewish sources) for, though there is no prayer, they consist chiefly of confession, preaching and reading the scriptures. But this puritanic severity could not be popular and the veneration of images and relics was soon added to the ritual. The former was adopted by Buddhism earlier than by the Brahmans. The latter, though a conspicuous feature of Buddhism in all lands, is almost unknown to Hinduism. In their later developments Buddhist and Christian ceremonies show an extraordinary resemblance due in my opinion chiefly to convergence, though I do not entirely exclude mutual influence. Both[..]

If you’re new to lucid dreams and OBEs and you’re wondering what to do first, well here it is. Here is the big secret that I wish I had known when I first got started with lucid dreams and OBEs. You’re about to find out why sleep paralysis is the holy grail for new OBEers because it’s how you can access your subconscious without having to practice using any visualizations at all. If you've ever woken up in the morning and found that you couldn't move or make a sound for a few minutes, you've had sleep paralysis. This used to happen to me and I had no idea why or what it was. But as it turns out, this was the trick that opened the door to frequent OBEs for me after having insomnia[..]

We explored the significance of Deep Zen Meditation to cultures around the world and how the meditative state may be a natural process. Where can we meditate? I've been in homes where special rooms are dedicated to meditation. They are dark, have a mat on the floor, are sound proofed, and have special music piped into the room. It's a wonderful place to meditate, but it's fun to figure out other places to meditate. As you become more proficient at Deep Zen Meditation, more places become possible meditation locations. Let's use our imagination and explore some of the possibilities. First let me say, there are some places that meditation could be tempting, but I recommend against it. For[..]

Meditation can be practiced in many ways and there are several meditation exercises available for people with different objectives. For people who are body-oriented, there various physical forms of exercise can be used to get in touch with the inner self. For the heart-oriented, prayer is considered the best form of attunement; for the intellect-oriented, meditation is their path to enlightenment. All types of meditations follow the same pattern where they begin with transforming the body, then move through the heart, next they arrive at the mind and then they go beyond. Meditation exercises are designed for reducing stress, building self-confidence and self-esteem, and maintaining good[..]

Mediation has been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It's appeared in many different forms, across all kinds of traditions and cultures. That means that there are lots of different ways to incorporate the benefits of meditation into your life. A little discipline can help you feel more relaxed, reduce stress, and even help you concentrate and feel more peaceful. Meditation has long been a method used for spiritual growth, and it's not really a surprise. This discipline can really help you with your self improvement and personal development. Let's look at it in more depth. Every one of us could benefit from a break. Our day to day activities are full of stress, anxiety, and[..]

The Mind Journey Begins With A Step In The Forest Years ago, well before I had ever heard of "The Law Of Attraction," I was a backpacking traveler wandering the earth in search of - well - in search of adventure and experience. I was never into recreational drugs; but I was definitely interested in pleasant mind experiences. In India, droves of traveling folks headed to popular meditation centers and ashrams that accepted foreigners. This was not what I was looking for. I headed to Sri Lanka, and found a Buddhist retreat hidden away near a fairly small town, not too very far from Colombo. I was the only westerner there. Once, a younger student came to fetch me for supper. We were both[..]

Have you heard of the many benefits of meditating regularly? Meditation methods can give us many physical and psychological benefits. They can clear our thinking and reduce stress. If you have been practicing meditation methods for some time, you can use it to think creatively about issues or problems which you are dealing with. This is an extremely helpful thing to be able to do. If you are interested in starting a meditation practice, you may want to look at some of the different methods that have been used around the world. You will find that you may progress from an easier method through to more advanced and challenging methods as you become more experienced. By starting with some of[..]

Heb. 10:26-27 "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries." (NKJV) These verses have probably caused Christians about as much anguish as any you will find in the pages of the New Testament. Make no mistake about it the verses are directed at Christians as is the whole book of Hebrews. Each one of us knows we are guilty of having committed willful sin and this passage troubles us. When we read the verses in the larger context of verses 24 through 31 it is very easy to become fearful and feel it is hopeless,[..]

Today, many people are now looking for ways to get rid of stress effectively and give them that extra energy that they need in order for them to get through another day's hectic lifestyle and still have that extra energy to spend time with your family and friends. Many people today aren't really depending on technology to get them that extra energy that they need. But, they do look for it in the past. Meditation is one of the methods that are constantly growing in popularity among people today. You have to consider that meditation, particularly Buddhist meditation, have originated for centuries and up until today, this Buddhist technique have proven itself to be very effective. In fact,[..]