Autobiographical Sketch/Four Positive Effects of Sai Teachings

Summary: This post introduces two new documents from the Founder and Outreach Coordinator of The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative:

1) “An Autobiographical Sketch” (11 pages) (with significant updates in March, 2012)
2) “Four Positive Effects from the Teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba” (subtitled: “A Companion Document to ‘An Autobiographical Sketch’”) (13 pages) (April, 2012)

Full text of post--

Recently (March, 2012), I made some significant updates to the “Autobiographical Sketch” which I make accessible in the “About The IPCR Initiative” and “Contact” sections of The IPCR Initiative website (at www.ipcri.net )(and at my “Collected Writings” website (www.writingsofstefanpasti.net ). The new additions provided information about the current focus of The IPCR Initiative (“IPCR Outreach 2012”), and provided links to more of the documents mentioned. In addition, I felt that this is a time in my life when it is appropriate to share some of my more personal thoughts.

Since the teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba are the most important influence in my life, I do think, from time to time, about submitting documents to the website of the International Sai Organization (at www.sathyasai.org ). I have submitted some documents in the past. The particular section of the International Sai Organization where I send submissions to is the website for Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publication Trust (SSSBPT). At that website (see the “Contact” section, at http://sssbpt.org/Pages/ShareUs/ShareUs.htm ), there is the following invitation:

“We welcome your comments, suggestions and Literary Contributions in the form of Articles, Compilations, Short Stories with Morale, Poems, Miracles and Experiences, Illustrations, Drawings, Caricatures, Rare Photographs or any other things that deems fit etc. for publication under various sections in our Website.”

I thought that it might be appropriate to send the document “An Autobiographical Sketch” to the editors at the SSSBPT, as it might be considered a relevant and appropriate sharing of personal experiences with the readership there. However, when I began to compose a cover letter to the editors at SSSBPT for the “Autobiographical Sketch”, the cover letter kept getting longer and longer. Soon I felt that there was another document which was emerging, and I let the creative process take its course.

The document “Four Positive Effects from the Teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba” (subtitled “A Companion Document to ‘An Autobiographical Sketch’”) is the result of an effort to describe the spirit and intentions which have influenced me to share the document “An Autobiographical Sketch” with the Sri Sathya Sai Sadhana Book and Publications Trust (SSSBPT) branch of the Sri Sathya Sai Organization.

Readers of this post may be wondering… “Well, that all seems like writing and documents specific to people interested in that particular spiritual tradition—but how does it relate to the beliefs and projects associated with the readership at WorldPulse?\"

This writer believes it is becoming more and more likely that an exponential increase in compassion for our fellow human beings will need to become an essential and critical element of a truly comprehensive response to the challenges of our times.

Here is another way of expressing the above observation:

“We are in uncharted territory, for there is no culture or society that ever existed on planet Earth who has ever had to resolve the kind of challenges the next few generations will have to resolve. In some ways, all of us are Stakeholders, and People Needing Assistance, and most of us are going to need to become Experienced Practitioners of some kind. There can be some consolation in the fact that if most of us become Experienced Practitioners in compassion for our fellow human beings, we will all have a better chance of accomplishing what no civilization has accomplished before.” [from “Calling ‘the better angels of our nature’: A Multi-Angle View of the Debt Crises” (January, 2012; 398 pages) (by this writer) (see Section VIII. Solutions, subsection “About the ‘Interfaith’ in Interfaith Peacebuilding”, p. 303)](accessible from IPCR Initiative website homepage, at www.ipcri.net )

I believe that readers who do have a look at the documents “An Autobiographical Sketch” and “Four Positive Effects from the Teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba” will discover that there are experiences related and questions raised which are relevant to facilitating discussion on many of the most difficult challenges ahead. Readers may have life experiences and world views which are very different from this writers’ experiences and views; and yet benefit from hearing how people walking around in different “cultural shoes” believe solution-oriented activity can be accelerated.

Ultimately, I believe it will be this kind of sharing—sharing about how solution-oriented activity can be accelerated, from a countless variety of different points of view—which will inspire great numbers of people to become involved in the best solution-oriented projects, and finally create the collective belief that our efforts working together are a greater force than the challenges we are facing.

I hope that many readers do find something in the documents “An Autobiographical Sketch” and “Four Positive Effects from the Teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba” which will be useful to their efforts at this critical time.

The two documents can be accessed from the “Highlights” section of The IPCR Initiative website (see http://www.ipcri.net/Highlights-from-IPCR-and-other-locations.html ), and from the “2012” section at my “Collected Writings” website (see http://writingsofstefanpasti.net/2012-.html ). Pdf files of the two documents are also attached to this post.

For a Peaceful and Sustainable Future,

Stefan Pasti, Founder and Outreach Coordinator
The Interfaith Peacebuilding and Community Revitalization (IPCR) Initiative