In this course, college-level writing is expected. Your writing should have three strengths: (1) grammatical sentence structure; (2) ideas supported by evidence from the text; (3) coherent argument presented in paragraph structure.
I. GRAMMATICAL SENTENCES
Grammatical sentence structure is crucial in expressing your ideas. Being grammatical not only commands the reader’s respect, but it helps you make your thinking clear. There is nothing more frustrating than having a profound idea and not being able to express it!
(A) INCOMPLETE SENTENCES
A complete grammatical sentence does not have to be long: but it has to have a SUBJECT AND A VERB. The subject and verb of the sentence must be in the MAIN CLAUSE, which is the central statement. There are also subjects and verbs in subordinate clauses, but they are not the subject and verb of the sentence.
EXAMPLE: “Although the hero of the poem made up his own mind.”
This is not a sentence. It is a subordinate clause that must be attached to a main clause. When you start a statement with words like ALTHOUGH, BECAUSE, IF, you make your statement a subordinate clause, and it must be attached to a main clause.
There are two ways to make our example a complete sentence: (1) Simply remove the relative adverb, ALTHOUGH. Now you have a sentence which stands by itself. Its subject is “hero” and its verb is “made.” The sentence is:
“The hero of the poem made up his own mind.”
The second way to make this sentence grammatical is making it a subordinate clause in a longer sentence:
“Although the hero of the poem made up his own mind, the Spirit inspired him.”
Now the subject of the sentence (the main clause) is “Spirit” and the verb is “inspired.”
(B) RUN-ON SENTENCES
The second common mistake in writing is the run-on sentence. This does not refer to a long sentence that just runs on and on! It is a grammatical term for two or more sentences that are run together as if they were one. They might be very short! The easiest way to correct a run-on is to turn it into two sentences, separated by a period (not a comma!)
EXAMPLE: “I really didn’t enjoy studying this religion it was boring.”
How would your make this run-on sentence grammatical? There are several ways. Here are some correct ways to express the same idea:
“I really didn’t enjoy studying this religion. It was boring.”
“I really didn’t enjoy studying this religion because it was boring.”
“I really didn’t enjoy studying this religion: it was boring.”
The simplest way is to divide the run-on into two separate sentences with a period. In the second example, the second statement became a subordinate clause, using the word BECAUSE. In the third case, a colon was used. A colon can be used when the second statement is directly related to the first one.
II. EVIDENCE & ARGUMENT
The first part of your post should deal with the subject matter of the forum. You should give careful definition of key terms and specific evidence from the text. Demonstrate that you have done the reading! Don’t be vague. In religious texts, the wisdom is in the details. When you polish a short quote or specific image with careful attention, it will shine with wisdom.
After commenting on details of the text, you can relate the subject to your own experience. Share your life’s journey and your deepest conviction. But still, support your opinions with evidence, clear explanation of WHY you believe what you believe.
III. PARAGRAPHS
A paragraph is a “block” of thinking that stays on one topic. When you change to a different topic, start a new paragraph. Each paragraph begins with a topic sentence. This sentence states an idea that will be supported in the rest of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph consists of argument and evidence supporting the topic sentence. The paragraph should not stray into other topics.
I hope this brief review of grammatical writing helps you. If you want more help, please consult the college website and you will find writing tools.
'Amazing Grace': Judy Collins & Harlem Boys Choir
(Click Pic to Listen)
St. Francis
"What we are looking for is what is looking." ~Francis of Assisi
Rumi: 'Great Mystery' (click)
Lord's Prayer in Aramaic, the Language Jesus Spoke
Click Pic to Listen
"Develop the heart. Too much energy in your country is spent developing the mind instead of the heart." ~the Dalai Lama
"How can you be alive when only your body is here but your mind still wanders in the past or future? You are not really alive. You are not available to you. You are not available to your beloved. So come home to yourself in the here and the now. Become fully alive, and your true presence profits your beloved." (Thich Nhat Hanh)
"Divine Love, the heart of hearts, abounds in every grain of being, from atom's gleam to starry sky, darkest pain to brightest joy. Ceaseless love kindles life: a royal promise sealed with the kiss of peace." ~St. Hildegard of Bingen, 13th C., 'Symphonia' (mandala: her own artwork)
Kabir, Sikh Saint of India
"I feverishly searched for God everywhere, but I could not find Him anywhere. The moment I relaxed and reposed in my Self, God came after me calling, ‘Kabir! Kabir!’"
Sufis of Islam
'Whirling Dervishes of Rumi,' beautiful short film
Navaho World
"Everything intermeshed, from the mood of a man, to the flight of the corn beetle, to the music of the wind. It was the Navajo philosophy, this concept of interwoven harmony, and it was bred into the bone..." ~Tony Hillerman, 'Listening Woman'
Self-Knowledge
"If the soul attend for a moment to its own infinity, then and there is silence." (Thoreau). "Consciousness, fully awake to itself, is the light of God." (Maharishi)
"See that your chief study be about your heart... for the true spirit of prayer is no other than God's own Spirit dwelling in the heart. And as this spirit comes from God, so doth it naturally tend to God in holy breathings." ~Jonathan Edwards, 1734
"When you allow yourself to be embraced by the collective energy of mindfulness and peace, the energy of the Sangha, your feel your suffering beginning to transform... If we know how to allow the collective energy of mindfulness to embrace our suffering, we are like a drop of water flowing in a river. We just allow ourselves to be embraced. And that is the greatest gift that the Sangha can make. ~Thich Naht Hahn
"The roots of all living things are tied together. Deep in the ground of being, they tangle and embrace. If we look deeply, we find that we do not have a separate self-identity, a self that does not include sun, wind, earth, water, creatures, plants, and one another." ~Joan Halifax (American Buddhist)
Vajrayogini & Chakrasamvara: divine Buddhic embodiments of Compassion & Wisdom
"By day I praised you, and never knew it. By night I stayed with you, and never knew it. I always thought that I was me; but no, I was you and never knew it" ~Rumi
“At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.” ~Black Elk
"When you’re blind to your own nature, the Buddha is an ordinary being. When you’re aware of your own nature, an ordinary being is the Buddha." ~Zen Master Huineng
سبحان الله
"There is a polish for everything that takes away rust; and the polish for the heart is the remembrance of Beloved."
The Jesus Prayer
Click to hear chant by Ukrainian Orthodox Sisters
"The planet does not need more 'successful people'. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds. It needs people to live well in their places. It needs people with moral courage willing to join the struggle to make the world habitable and humane." ~Dalai Lama
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you" ~Mother Theresa
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." ~Albert Einstein
"We know that every moment is a moment of grace." ~Eli Wiesel, survivor, Auschwitz, Buchenwald
"The soul of one who serves the God within always swims in joy, always keeps a holiday, is always in a palace of jubilation, ever singing with fresh ardor and fresh pleasure a new song of joy and love." ~St. John of the Cross
"From a single pair of a man and a woman We made you into nations and tribes so that you may know and learn from each other (not so that you may despise and fight each other)." Qur'an 49:13
Alan Watts: Click to Listen
"That paper cup is the brilliant light of the cosmos."
"As a bead of water does not adhere to a lotus leaf, so the wise one does not cling to what is seen, heard, or sensed." ~Buddha, Jara Sutta Nipata
Ancient text, 'Yogavashta,' and time lapse video (clik)
❝There are beings in this universe whose winking is of the duration of an epoch. Space and time have no fixed span, both are appearances, both imagination. Because the substratum is real; space too appears very real. Giving illusions of separateness between elements within itself. Time too arose as a notion (another dimension). Time is threaded and animated by the power of this reality. It is the finite space of individual consciousness that creates the divisions in time. ❞ ~ Yoga Vashishta
"Meditation could be said to be the Art of Simplicity: simply sitting, simply breathing and simply being." ~Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
“Our Savior is our true Mother in whom we are endlessly born and out of whom we shall never come.” ― Julian of Norwich, b.1382
TM (click for video)
The David Lynch Foundation
"Good People, most royal greening verdancy, rooted in the sun, you shine with radiant light. In this circle of earthly existence, your shining surpasses understanding. God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery." ~Hildegard of Bingen, 11th C.
the real source of violence: krishmamurti
Click to enlarge...
"In humility is the greatest freedom. As long as you have to defend the imaginary self that you think is important, you lose your peace of heart. As soon as you compare that shadow with the shadows of other people, you lose all joy." ~Thomas Merton
Louis Schwartzberg 'Ted' talk (click flower)
"Let everyone you meet on this day be blessed by you, just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch, just by your presence. Let the gratefulness overflow into blessings all around you. Then it will be a really good day."
Prayer of St. Francis (clik)
"Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe, a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble... Life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny- only Being." (Albert Einstein)
'Say Yes To What Is': Brilliant Eckhart Tolle Talk (clic pic to hear)
Intellect & Mind in Indian Philosophy
"The pure intuitive intellect is not caught up in the emotional turbulence of the mind. Otherwise the intellect gets coloured by the emotion and becomes like muddy water. Then it is unable to reflect the Self. Karma does not afflict the pure intellect. Liberation is purifying the intellect. The Sanskrit word for intellect is Buddhi and one who is liberated is Buddha." ~Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Mrityunjaya Mantra: Great Healing Chant of Hinduism (clik to hear)
Statue of Lord Shiva, the cosmic dancer, at the plaza of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. The plaque reads: "O Omnipresent, the embodiment of all virtues, the creator of this cosmic universe, the king of dancers, who dances the Ananda Tandava in the twilight, I salute thee."
'O Sacred Head'
from Bach's St.Matthew Passion, painting by Rembrandt (clic to hear)
"Renunciation does not mean outward divestment of clothes or abandonment of home, or leaving the world. No, one who truly renounces actually merges in the world and expands his love to embrace All. It would be more correct to describe the attitude of the devotee as universal love than as abandoning home to don the ochre robe." ~Ramana Maharsh, 20th C. Indian saint
Ajna Chakra, Forehead
"This is the two-petalled lotus. The petals are Shakti and Shiva. The yantra is between our two eyebrows. This chakra is opened by the Hrim seed mantra. The aura streams from this chakra to all the other chakras. That is why we put sandal paste, kum kum, and vibhuti to this place. It is such a powerful place! Through the Ajna chakra you experience your fourth body, a huge body, expanding from mother earth to the cosmos. We have three bodies, physical, mental and intellectual. But in our Ajna chakra we experience our fourth body, our eternal body. This is the immortal body. When this chakra opens you experience the light of lights, the divine consciousness, the whole cosmos opens to us. Then you don't just experience the light. You ARE the light." ~Sri Karunamayi
"The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new." ~Pema Chodron
"Live life in a state of radical amazement... Get up every morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted." (Rabbi Abraham Heschel)
Ammaji: She is a living Indian Saint & Guru
“God is compassion. God waits at the door of every heart. He is an uninvited guest everywhere, because whether you call or not, God is there. Whether you are a believer or a nonbeliever, God is within you uninvited. Behind every form, God is hiding. He beautifies things and makes them what they are. He is the hidden formula of life. But He won’t reveal Himself to you. You won’t feel God unless you call Him. Prayer is the invitation. You must invoke Him through prayer and meditation. Chanting, singing and repeating the mantra are invitations, asking God to reveal Himself.” ~ Amma
"Every cell in our body has the capacity to hold infinity. Let us tap the full potential that nature has bestowed on us, the potential to hold infinity in every cell of the body. For that, we must practice meditation regularly. Then our physiology undergoes a change and every cell in the body is filled with prana - life force. As the level of prana in the body rises, we bubble with joy." ~Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
"God is not a Christian. God is not a Jew, a Muslim or a Hindu. All of those are human systems that humans have created to help us walk into the Mystery of God. I honor my tradition, I walk THROUGH my tradition: My tradition does not define God: it only points me to God." ~Bishop J. S. Spong
The Gift of Tears
"The inner fruit ripens only with the shedding of tears. When you reach the place of tears, then know that your spirit has come out from the prison of the old world and has set foot upon the path to the new age. Then your spirit begins to breathe the wondrousl air which is there, and you shed tears. Now the moment for the birth of the spiritual child is at hand. The travail of childbirth becomes intense. Grace, the mother of us all, gives mystical birth to the soul, God's image. And when the time for this birth arrives, the intellect senses the other world as a faint perfume, or as the life-breath which a newborn child receives into its body. Hardly able to endure it, our flesh is overcome by a weeping mingled with joy." ~Isaac of Ninevah, 7th C. Orthodox Saint
To be a spiritual warrior, one must have a broken heart; without a broken heart and the sense of tenderness and vulnerability, your warriorship is untrustworthy. ~Chögyam Trungpa
“All of you are perfect just as you are and you could use a little improve- ment.” ~Zen Master Suzuki Roshi
Science and Creation
Can a scientist believe in God? Click Picture for video.
Dipak Chopra, Heart (clik)
"70% of the heart cells are neurons, so while the heart pumps blood it also secretes the molecules of emotion. Your heart is structurally different in different states of consciousness."
"I was sad one day and went for a walk; I sat in a field. A rabbit noticed my condition and came near. It often does not take more than that to help: just to be close to creatures who are so full of knowing, so full of love that they don't chat, they just gaze with their marvelous understanding." (St. John of the Cross)
Your heart is a center of wisdom & radiance
"The heart’s electromagnetic field, by far the most powerful rhythmic field produced by the body, not only envelopes each cell of the body but extends in all directions into the space around us. IHM Research suggests that the heart's field is an important carrier of information." (Institute of Heart Math, clik pik for video)
Creation through the Word
Cosmic Sound - Clik Pic
"Silence is the communion of a conscious soul with itself. If the soul attend for a moment to its own infinity, then and there is silence. If with closed ears and eyes I consult consciousness for a moment, immediately are all walls and barriers dissipated." (Henry David Thoreau)
"Whatever liberates our spirit without giving us self-control is disastrous." ~Goethe
Muslim Law & Human Rights
Clik pic for video
Clik to Hear Jewish Chant in Yoga Kirtan Style
"The beauty of the Talmud is that it teaches us to see the other side, to believe & to question at the same time. The Talmud has kept us sane by showing us that there are contradictions in the world that we cannot solve. We must learn to live with them." (Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz)
India's Influence on the West
For centuries great Western philosophers & scientists have appreciated the Vedic wisdom of India. Click picture for film.
Buddhism, the Dalai Lama
"Even though your opponents appear to be harming you, their destructive activity will damage only themselves. To check your own selfish impulse to retaliate, recall your desire to practice compassion & assume responsibility for helping prevent the other person from suffering the consequences of his or her acts."
Click to hear imam rauf
"Once we define as evil those who counter us, we lose the moral high ground & begin to descend a slippery ethical slope. Sufis teach that we first must battle & destroy the evil in ourselves by shining upon it the Good within; & then we learn to battle the evil in others by helping their higher selves gain control of their lower selves. To battle the evil in others by responding in kind & exhibiting equally violent behavior is to flout the very ethic of our religious traditions." (Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Cordoba Project, NYC)
"When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I'm speaking of that force which all the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu Muslim Christian Jewish Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: 'Let us love one another. For God is love.'" (M. L. King)
Salve Regina
Click Pic to Listen: Roman Catholic Gregorian Chant
'What Am I?' -Rumi (Click Picture to Listen)
"One of the marvels of the world: the sight of a soul sitting in prison with the key in its hand." (Rumi)
Sufi Wisdom
"The birds must cross seven valleys in order to find the Simorgh: Talab (Yearning), Ishq (Love), Marifat (Gnosis), Istighnah (Detachment), Tawheed (Unity), Hayrat (Bewilderment) & finally Fana (Selflessness Oblivion in God)." ~Attar, Conference of the Birds
Yoga: Surya Namaskar
Clik for Video
Devi Prayer, Names of the Mother
"Ants try to grasp the moon, we the goddess." ~Ramprasad (Clik pic)
Hebrew Kirtan
'Lak Dodi,' Remember the Sabbath
Peace Is Every Step: click pic to hear
"According to the Buddha's teachings, the most basic condition for happiness is freedom. Here we do not mean political freedom, but freedom from the mental formations of anger, despair, jealousy and delusion." (Thich Naht Hanh)
Islamic Sufis
"If the Muslims, Jews, Christians, and the people of any other religion knew their religion well, there would only be one religion, the religion of love, and peace and mercy." (Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id al-Jamal)
"Thoughts can never be complete, only silence is complete. The mind is full of its own noise, it cannot hear the music of existence. Silence is the secret music." (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Clic pic for site)
Paul Thorn, 'You Might Be Wrong' (clik)
Prayer of Compassion
Samuel Barber's 'Agnus Dei', King's College Choir (Adaggio for Strings)
"Communication on the deepest level is possible. And the deepest level of communication is not communication but communion. It is wordless, it is beyond words, beyond speech, beyond concept." (Thomas Merton, Catholic monk who studied Eastern philosophy)
Baha'i: Religion of Unity
Click Pic to Watch Film
Radha's Love for Krishna
Clik pic to hear chant
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is the opinion of many. Do not believe in anything because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find anything that agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." (Buddha, 'Dhammapada')
'Medicine Buddha'
Tibetan Healing Mantra: the healing energy of the Buddha is symbolized by his blue form (clik pic to hear)
Hildegard of Bingen (12th C)
Click Pic to Listen (Hildegard was a Christian mystic, composer & mandala artist of the Rhine valley, Germany
Message from Amma Karunamai (clik pic for video)
Instruction from Tibetan Book of the Dead whispered to one who has just passed over
"Remember the clear light, the pure clear white light from which everything in the universe comes, to which everything in the universe returns; the original nature of your own mind. The natural state of the universe unmanifest. Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it. It is your own true nature, it is home." (click pic for site)
Call of Krishna's Flute
Click Pic to Listen. In India Krishna is the very form of Divine Love
"One must contact the ocean of unfading bliss within, and be free of the limiting duality of "I" and "you," to unveil the perennial spring of imperishable sweetness which is within each and all." (Meher Baba)
Misunderstandings about Gurus
Talk by Mooju (clik pic to hear)
Bede Griffiths, Surrender
Click Pic to Listen. Griffiths was a Christian priest & mystic who founded an ashram in India for Christian-Hindu dialogue.
Classic Meditation Talks by Maharishi Mahesh
Click to Listen
Lovely Chant from the Qu'ran
Click Pic to Listen
Sephardic Jewish Chant
Click Picture to Listen
Mindfulness Breath, Thich Nath Hanh
Click Pic to Listen
"Be Who You Are"
American Zen Master John Daido Loori (clik to hear)
Native Amerian Right to Worship
Click Pic to Listen
Shivo'ham: Sanskrit Chant
(Click Pic to Listen)
Radha-Krishna, Indian Bhajan
Radha the heart's love yearning for Krishna the Beloved (Clik to Hear)