Both my actions and my heart must be pure.The Sabbath is a day to do good things that bring me closer to God.Jesus will help me as I come unto Him.It could be merely a question of doing nothing. One powerful weapon in the fight against environmental deterioration and climate disaster may just be an age-old spiritual technology. It helps cultivate community, self-discipline, inner calm and contentment. If you care about our future, about your well-being, observe a real sabbath day of rest. The Sabbath is said to be a foretaste of the world to come (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 57b). One day a week, minimize the need for more goods, minimize the use of natural resources, minimize the emission of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. On these days practitioners intensify their practice, observe certain forms of abstinence, deepen their knowledge and express communal commitment through acts of reciprocity. Uposatha days were intended by the Buddha for cleansing the mind. Since the Buddha’s time, many Buddhists have observed uposatha days, often on a weekly basis in conjunction with the phases of the moon. Other practices include sleeping on the ground or for only a short time, or yoga with meditation, reading Hindu scriptures and charitable giving. A typical Vrata (day of fasting and/or religious rituals) involves a fast for a fixed period of time, usually from sunrise to sunset, where either no food is eaten or only one meal is eaten, or only a certain food such as milk is consumed. His inspiration was the practice of many Hindus to fast on a particular day of the week - each day is dedicated to a different god. As a respite from the tremendous pressures of his political activism, Mohandas Gandhi took each Monday as a day of total silence. Similarly, among the people of Dormaa Traditional Area in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana it is prohibited to work the land or go into the bush/forest for any occupational activity on Tuesday. This gives the sea the time to replenish its fish stock. Among some Fante fishing communities on Ghana’s coastline there are sacred days, usually Tuesday, set aside as a rest day for fishermen. They consider the second day, Orie, to be a holy day of obligation, on which farmers rest from farming and feast with their family. The Igbo, who currently live mostly in Nigeria, have a four-day week. Many cultures have instituted ritualized days of rest. More recently, Bogotá, Colombia, has introduced car-free Sundays that the population savors, while England’s Playing Out has helped parents in hundreds of places temporarily close off local neighborhood streets to car traffic so that kids can play. When Israeli cities shut down for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur (the day of atonement), nitrogen oxide pollution in the air decreases for the day by 70-99%. Increasing numbers of people see the wisdom of observing a technology shabbat, a break from all devices with screens. Every Sunday since 2007 Mexico City has handed over some 55 km of streets around the historic city center to bicyclists, skateboarders, rollerbladers, toddlers on push toys, parents behind strollers, and other pedestrians, attracting sometimes tens of thousands of people.
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