Monday Blogcrawl

When I stroll around Sydney I often note the number of churches that have closed, the buildings turned into something else. I suppose it is inevitable; the western world has ceased to be interested in joining, and communal worship seems to be one of those things we have left behind. But still, sad to see whole communities disappear as their members enter nursing homes and their buildings fall into disrepair. I should start a theodiversity movement which seeks to restore forgotten sects and cults and ensure a diverse religious landscape. In the meantime, here are some things that might interest you from the World Wide Web:

Lots of argument this week about the behaviour of Buddhist monks in Thailand

• An ancient Buddhist trail in Shanxi province in China. Meanwhile, Peter Hannam at the Sydney Morning Herald suggests tourists visit the ancient Buddhist sites of Henan.
• Reincarnation Stories brings us a nice little rundown on reincarnation in popular culture.
• Ebay gets nervous about witches, with sync.co telling us they are about to ban the sale of hexes, potions and other things witchy.
• America is on continually shaky ground when it comes to interfaith religions, and Eboo Patel wants to get kids of different religious backgrounds together - from Stanford Social Innovation Review.
• The seven laws of attraction spelled out.
• Quest books has an interesting-looking new title on people who have left their church communities behind.
• A hidden camera goes inside the top-secret prayer circle at the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City - fascinating!
• Looks like Lisa-Marie Presley has abandoned Scientology - the Village Voice brings us details.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

From: A Soft Place to Land: Life-Changing Moments of Wisdom and Grace by Maggie Hamilton


"Often those who live long in our hearts are life's improbable heroes. It is their willingness to venture outside the square that helps reawaken the hero in us all."


pg. 46

Monday Blogcrawl

A day never goes by when I don't employ at least some of the advice of Dale Carnegie. But more and more I am realising the wisdom of his advice to listen twice as much as you speak. I am by nature talkative, and I am also a showoff, so am inclined to babble. But when I am quieter I have realised that I am more interesting and people trust me and like me more. So this month I am trying to be quieter and to make more of an effort to listen and to remember what people tell me. Here are some interesting self-help-ey things from the web from the past week:

• The Miami Herald has self-help critic Micki McGee writing about the recently deceased Stephen Covey and comparing him to Karl Marx
• Tom Chatfield is one of my newer obsessions, and on the BBC Future blog he discusses the seriousness of Twitter conversations and their potential repurcussions
• Buddhism seems uniquely suited to Geekdom, and Megan Quinn reports on a Buddhist Geeks Conference in  the dailycamera
• At Social Media Today Brian Cugelman has updated How To Win Friends and Influence People for the social media world
• A fascinating piece on Mary Baker Eddy's cars at The Mary Baker Eddy Library
• I've just discovered I am quoted in the latest Doreen Virtue book, so here is some of her daily guidance from the angels, from the You Can Heal Your Life website
• The Dale Carnegie training people offer some advice on how to overcome past mistakes

Recently deceased self-help superstar Stephen Covey (photo AP)