Catholics call time on long-winded eulogies - Faithwise Review of the Week

Catholics call time on long-winded eulogies, Sify News,
Canberra: Keep it short, and don't mention sex or drunkenness -- those are the new rules for eulogies at funeral masses in Australia's Catholic church.
An increase in the number of inappropriate comments at funeral masses has prompted Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, to impose a five-minute deadline on eulogies and deem some areas of a person's life off limits. ...
The Catholic church in Ireland and most of the United States ban lay people from giving eulogies at funeral masses, but the church in Australia allows for a few short words of remembrance from a family member or friend near the end of a funeral mass. Read from another source

Multi-faith Conference Unites against Homophobia inspired by ...20 Feb 2007 by david t
This weekend, a conference took place to discuss ways to combate homophobia inspired
by religious institutions.

Prophet Mantra puzzle solved! Sanskrit Mantra in Tibetan script

Circumcision Reduces Risk of HIV, Studies Indicate (Update 4) By Frances Schwartzkopff
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Circumcising adult males reduces their chances of getting HIV through heterosexual sex by about 50 percent, researchers found, increasing the possibility that the surgical procedure may be used to combat the virus's spread. [image source: eCanadaNow]

Jumma Salaat in a Multifaith room 7 Feb 2007, Toronto
The following question was asked from Mufti Ebrahim Desai regarding the
permissibility of Jummua Salaat in multi-faith rooms that are usually found in
universities, hospitals and airports.

Multifaith meditation
LORNE MALLIN, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
A weekend-long multifaith meditation retreat in Vancouver was treated to presentations from the Dalai Lama and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Compared to the large-scale events of the much-heralded visit, it was like getting a personal audience with the renowned spiritual leaders for the 276 participants, about 10 percent of whom were Jewish.

Soon, adultery won't be a crime but a social offence, Vishwa Mohan, [ 14 Feb, 2007, TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: For long, there has been a debate on whether adultery should be regarded as a crime as it is under Indian laws. Finally, the argument seems to be going in favour of those against this social malaise being treated as a criminal act.

The draft National Policy on Criminal Justice, authored by the Madhava Menon committee, has responded to the demand of the National Commission for Women (NCW) to de-criminalise adultery by recommending that it should be treated as a social rather than a criminal offence.

While listing adultery among the offences that should be removed from the category of criminal acts, the Madhava Menon panel has said that by treating an adulterer as a criminal actually becomes an obstacle in any rapprochement between husband and wife, besides making the accused vulnerable to extortionist policemen.

Says the draft report: "There is a universal tendency to put down all types of social conduct with the use of criminal sanctions without examining the use of possible alternative means of social control and without studying the impact of such step on the status of criminal justice in the country."

Thought for the day by John Selby

"A primary teaching throughout the Koran, repeated over and over by the faithful in ritual prayer, is the fact that "God wants to give you clarity and guide you, and to be present for you ... for God is most knowing, most wise ... God wants to lighten your burden, knowing the humanity was created weak." (p. 127)
...In the Islamic tradition, God already knows what is in our hearts, and we don't have to tell Allah what help we need. All we need to do is call on God, by whatever name, surrender our ego center to our spiritual center, and shift from broadcast to receive mode. As I understand it, this is what Muslims are doing at a spiritual level five times a day when they pause for ritual prayer." (Chpater 5: Emotional healing, Mohammed; p. 127)
Quoted from: meditation secrets from the world's greatest teachers, by John Selby. (2003) Contents: Succeeding with meditation - Breath watch, Patanjali - Quieting the mind, Lao-Tzu - Accepting the truth, Buddha - Heart awakening, Jesus - Emotional healing, Mohammed - Self-remembering, Gurdjieff - Experiencing bliss, Krishnamurti - Your daily meditation program.
Author: Psychologist John Selby has spent over thirty years practicing and teaching meditation and its benefits and has studied meditative techniques and traditions all over the world. The author of seven meditation and self-help books, Selby has sold more than half-a-million copies of his books worldwide. His books have been translated into eight languages.
From The Critics: "While some adherents may not be comfortable with the yoking together of these often disparate traditions, Selby knows his audience, and his work will find a receptive readership among those interested in New Age spirituality." [Library Journal @ Bn.com]