Our Aim
Bodhi aimed to create a "new man" combining the spirituality of Gautama Buddha with the zest for life embodied by zen Buddha art : "He should be as accurate and objective as a scientist ... as sensitive, as full of heart, as a poet ... [and as] rooted deep down in his being as the mystic." His term the "new man" applied to men and women equally, whose roles he saw as complementary; indeed, most of his movement's leadership positions were held by women. This new man, "zen Buddha art ", should reject neither science nor spirituality but embrace both. Bodhi believed humanity was threatened with extinction due to over-population, impending nuclear holocaust and diseases such as AIDS, and thought many of society's ills could be remedied by scientific means.
The new man would no longer be trapped in institutions such as family, marriage, political ideologies and religions The new man, he said, "is not necessarily the better man. He will be livelier. He will be more joyous. He will be more alert. But who knows whether he will be better or not? As far as politicians are concerned, he will not be better, because he will not be a better soldier. He will not be ready to be a soldier at all. He will not be competitive, and the whole competitive economy will collapse. Bodhi inspire by osho and spoke many times of the dangers of overpopulation, and advocated universal legalisation of contraception and abortion. He described the religious prohibitions thereof as criminal, and argued that the United Nations' declaration of the human "right to life" played into the hands of religious campaigners. According to bodhi , one has no right to knowingly inflict a lifetime of suffering: life should begin only at birth, and even then, "If a child is born deaf, dumb, and we cannot do anything, and the parents are willing, the child should be put to eternal sleep" rather than "take the risk of burdening the earth with a crippled, blind child."
He argued that this simply freed the soul to inhabit a healthy body instead: "Only the body goes back into its basic elements; the soul will fly into another womb. Nothing is destroyed. If you really love the child, you will not want him to live a seventy-year-long life in misery, suffering, sickness, old age. So even if a child is born, if he is not medically capable of enjoying life fully with all the senses, healthy, then it is better that he goes to eternal sleep and is born somewhere else with a better body." He stated that the decision to have a child should be a medical matter, and that oversight of population and genetics must be kept in the realm of science, outside of politicians' control: "If genetics is in the hands of Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, what will be the fate of the world?" He believed that in the right hands, these measures could be used for good: "Once we know how to change the program, thousands of possibilities open up. We can give every man and woman the best of everything. There is no need for anyone to suffer unnecessarily. Being retarded, crippled, blind, ugly - all these will be possible to change." "Science has been a dagger driven into the back of nature. Philosophers have not done much harm-they cannot because they are absolute failures-but science has done much harm. Now the greatest enemy today is science. And why it has been so harmful? - because from the very beginning enmity has been at the base. Hatred, not love...enmity with life, not friendship. Science has created the idea in humanity that they have been teaching survival of the fittest - as if life is just a struggle! The fact is otherwise, just the contrary. Life is a vast cooperation."
"So the first thing to be understood is: All ideals are perfectionist. Hence, ALL ideals are inhuman.
And all ideals cripple and paralyse you. All ideals create a kind of subtle bondage around you, they imprison you. The really free man has no ideals."
If you make it an ideal, it is inhuman AND impossible. And it will destroy you. All ideals are destructive, and all idealists are the poisoners of humanity. Beware of them! Live a simple, ordinary life - a day to day existence. Feeling hungry, eat; feeling sleepy, sleep; feeling loving, love. Don't hanker for anything perfect. Perfection is impossible. And don't start creating a new ideal out of this simple fact.
The new man is the very ordinary man: Nothing special, nothing superior, supramental.
The new man is the first man who recognises that it is enough to be human. There is no need to be a superman. There is no need to become gods and goddesses, it is so fulfilling just to be an ordinary human being."
The new man will be simply man. And I repeat again: I don't accept anything higher than man. I am talking about the ordinary, simple man.
There is nothing higher than that."
OUR VISION
According to bodhi every human being is a Buddha with the capacity for enlightenment, capable of unconditional love and of responding rather than reacting to life, although the ego usually prevents this, identifying with social conditioning and creating false needs and conflicts and an illusory sense of identity that is nothing but a barrier of dreams. Otherwise man's innate being can flower in a move from the periphery to the centre.
Bodhi viewed the mind first and foremost as a mechanism for survival, replicating behavioural strategies that have proven successful in the past. But the mind's appeal to the past, he said, deprives human beings of the ability to live authentically in the present, causing them to repress genuine emotions and to shut themselves off from joyful experiences that arise naturally when embracing the present moment: "The mind has no inherent capacity for joy. ... It only thinks about joy The result is that people poison themselves with all manner of neuroses, jealousies, and insecurities. He argued that psychological repression, often advocated by religious leaders, makes suppressed feelings re-e tc b merge in another guise, and that sexual repression resulted in societies obsessed with sex. Instead of suppressing, people should trust and accept themselves unconditionally. This should not merely be understood intellectually, as the mind could only assimilate it as one more piece of information: instead meditation was needed.
MISSION
Dr. Vishal Bodhi's mission of a violence-free, stress-free society has expressed itself in numerous service initiatives that have inspired volunteers worldwide to carry these forward with his guidance.
Dr. Vishal Bodhi, founder of Jee Helpline Welfare Research Centre, inspires thousands of people across the world. He plays many roles for many people - as a humanitarian ambassador, spiritual leader or a meditation teacher, as well as a peace advocate.
For over three decades, Dr. Vishal Bodhi has been engaged in:
- Promoting human values
- Fostering interfaith harmony
- Building communal unity
- Encouraging social responsibility
- Spearheading humanitarian causes
Dr. Vishal Bodhi has designed special programs that teach effective and practical techniques for emotional and physical wellbeing. He has rekindled the traditions of yoga and meditation and offered them in a form that is relevant to the 21st century. Apart from reviving ancient wisdom, Dr. Vishal Bodhi has also created new techniques for personal and social transformation. These include the Meditation which has helped millions of people to find relief from stress and discover inner reservoirs of energy and peace in daily life.
Bodhi's work sees him addressing audiences of diverse nationalities and backgrounds, including those at the United Nations, prison inmates, corporate management teams, ailing farmers and school children. It is also not an uncommon sight to see people from warring nations sitting side-by-side in one of Bodhi's programmes or addresses.
People say that Dr. Vishal Bodhi leads through example, whether it is travelling through floodwaters to inspect rehabilitation efforts in Bihar, urging misguided youth to join mainstream society and work for social development; or meeting people at satsangs (music and meditation gatherings) every evening and answering queries on overcoming life's challenges. His focus is always on fostering human values and building communal unity through his philosophy and ideal of a one world family.
Dr. Vishal Bodhi's life is a story of dedicated efforts towards making this ideal a reality.