Life and Spirituality

  F rom 1974 to 1978, I spent four years in Vancouver pursuing doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia. During this period, I stayed in a rented room near the university in the home of a Canadian Lady by the name of Olive Cuthbert. She was a retired nurse who had spent part of her younger days in Malaysia. She said the Malaysians had looked after her well and she wished to help students from developing countries to return the favor. She had since rented out two furnished rooms on the first floor of her Vancouver home to such students on very favorable terms. I stayed with her all through my four or so years of study while the occupant of the other room changed over the years. There was one from Fiji, then Kenya and finally from Nigeria. Since we shared the kitchen and much else in the home we all became good friends during our stay. The most interesting of my friendship in this home was with the Kenyan student. His name was Mwaghazi Mwachofi Mwashimba, a

F ew on a path of self improvement would deny that physical violence must be avoided but not all realize that violence in speech is highly detrimental too. While physical violence drags the human soul back to the level of animals from whence it arose, verbal violence pushes a human to misery and denies the joy a human deserves. A path of self improvement involves a study of self and constant evaluation of one’s behavior to discover the good and the bad so that one may reduce bad and enhance good. Realizing what is poor is the first step, after that an effort is required to banish the shortcoming since it may persist out of habit for longer. I too do   a self review all the time and have come to realize that, while use of physical violence has not been a problem with me most of my life, I have been prone to use verbal violence at times and it is a shortcoming I am working on to eradicate, even though advanced in age. It is never too late for self improvement. Life continu