The Message of Self-control
by Swami Adiswarananda
Self-control is the control of the mind and its desires, urges, emotions and delusions. It is controlling the outgoing tendencies of the mind and the senses and bringing them back to our Self within. Self-control is the key to success in any field of life and it is an indispensable necessity for Self-realization, the goal of spiritual quest. Self-control is the message of the sages and saints. It is the exhortation of the scriptures and traditions, the foundation of all yogas and the very essence of all spiritual austerities and disciplines. In his Vivekachudamani Sri Shankaracharya says:
The mental sheath is the (sacrificial) fire, which, fed with the fuel of numerous desires by the five sense organs, which serve as priests, and set ablaze by the sense-objects, which act as the stream of oblations, brings about this phenomenal universe.
This is no ignorance (avidya) outside the mind. The mind alone is avidya, the cause of the bondage of transmigration. When that is destroyed, all else is destroyed, and when it is manifested, everything else is manifested.
Read the full essay here
Courtesy & copyright Prabuddha Bharata
Wednesday, December 15
'Answer' found to riddle of Sphinx
The riddle of the Sphinx has confounded generations of tourists and experts alike. Who built it, why, and what does it mean? Now a leading Egyptologist believes that he has pieced together the puzzle. After researching the pyramids of the Giza Plateau and their imposing half-human, half-animal guardian for 20 years, Vassil Dobrev of the French Archaeological Institute in Cairo has concluded that the Sphinx was the work of a forgotten pharaoh.
Read this article in the UK Independent
Read this article in the UK Independent
Friday, December 10
New Moon in Sagittarius
12/11 (Sat), 3:30pm HT; 12/12 (Sun), 1:30am UT
New Moon conjunct Sun in Sagittarius, traditionally considered one of the happiest and most harmonious New Moons of the year. As Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, bringer of wealth and hearty pleasures, the early weeks of December have been throughout the Northern hemisphere the time for enterprises of all kinds to celebrate the profits and achievements of the year, and gather the clans for feasts of love and friendship.
The Sagittarius New Moon has been interpreted as the annual waning of female energy as the male energy waxes now toward the birth of the solar hero child in late December. One mythic expression of this theme is the Greek tale of the annual descent of Persephone into the underworld until spring (see below). In fact, however, at this point the female does not actually weaken or decay. If anything, she reaches fruition with the gathering in of the harvest, creating the moment at which her cycle is productive and complete.
The nature of the harvest becomes evident in the relation of other planetary energies to the conjunction of Sun and Moon. It is very powerful this year, as Mercury and Pluto link with Sun and Moon in a four-planet conjunction that is quintile (72° from) both Jupiter in Libra and Uranus in Pisces. The result here is a harvest of not only the fruits of the Earth, but of the products of human imagination and creativity as well.
From the Universal Festival Calendar -by Dan Furst
New Moon conjunct Sun in Sagittarius, traditionally considered one of the happiest and most harmonious New Moons of the year. As Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, bringer of wealth and hearty pleasures, the early weeks of December have been throughout the Northern hemisphere the time for enterprises of all kinds to celebrate the profits and achievements of the year, and gather the clans for feasts of love and friendship.
The Sagittarius New Moon has been interpreted as the annual waning of female energy as the male energy waxes now toward the birth of the solar hero child in late December. One mythic expression of this theme is the Greek tale of the annual descent of Persephone into the underworld until spring (see below). In fact, however, at this point the female does not actually weaken or decay. If anything, she reaches fruition with the gathering in of the harvest, creating the moment at which her cycle is productive and complete.
The nature of the harvest becomes evident in the relation of other planetary energies to the conjunction of Sun and Moon. It is very powerful this year, as Mercury and Pluto link with Sun and Moon in a four-planet conjunction that is quintile (72° from) both Jupiter in Libra and Uranus in Pisces. The result here is a harvest of not only the fruits of the Earth, but of the products of human imagination and creativity as well.
From the Universal Festival Calendar -by Dan Furst
Archaeological Survey of India Continues Work at Angkor Wat
SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA, December 9, 2004: It has been a case of once
bitten twice shy for the archaeologists working on the restoration
projects at the historic Angkor Wat temple complex here after the
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was criticized for its work a
decade ago. Aware of the flak the ASI received for making the Angkor
Wat look like a "new temple" after the renovation work, experts do not
want to leave any stone unturned in ensuring that the same does not
happen now. "We are very very alert this time," says A. C. Roy, Team
Member for restoration of Ta Prohm temple in the Angkor complex. Though
he did not elaborate on the precautions they would be taking to ensure
that the heritage look of the stones did not go away, Roy said that
everything would be done so that what happened last time is not
repeated.
Spread over a area of some 40 miles, the city of Angkor hosts a number
of temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu and Siva built between the 9th and
13th century. The most famous temple here is the Angkor Wat, regarded
as the supreme masterpiece of Khmer architecture built by Suryavarman
II between 1113 and 1150. The mass of bas-relief carving is of the
highest quality and the most beautifully executed in Angkor and find a
place in the Guinness Book of World Records. The Cambodian government
had given the restoration work of this famous monument to ASI, which
completed the work between 1986 and 1993.
~ From HPI
bitten twice shy for the archaeologists working on the restoration
projects at the historic Angkor Wat temple complex here after the
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was criticized for its work a
decade ago. Aware of the flak the ASI received for making the Angkor
Wat look like a "new temple" after the renovation work, experts do not
want to leave any stone unturned in ensuring that the same does not
happen now. "We are very very alert this time," says A. C. Roy, Team
Member for restoration of Ta Prohm temple in the Angkor complex. Though
he did not elaborate on the precautions they would be taking to ensure
that the heritage look of the stones did not go away, Roy said that
everything would be done so that what happened last time is not
repeated.
Spread over a area of some 40 miles, the city of Angkor hosts a number
of temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu and Siva built between the 9th and
13th century. The most famous temple here is the Angkor Wat, regarded
as the supreme masterpiece of Khmer architecture built by Suryavarman
II between 1113 and 1150. The mass of bas-relief carving is of the
highest quality and the most beautifully executed in Angkor and find a
place in the Guinness Book of World Records. The Cambodian government
had given the restoration work of this famous monument to ASI, which
completed the work between 1986 and 1993.
~ From HPI
Wednesday, December 8
Archaeologist discovers 'John the Baptist' cave near Jerusalem
A British archaeologist has uncovered a cave in the mountains near Jerusalem which he believes conclusively proves that the Biblical figure of John the Baptist existed.
"The first concrete evidence of the existence of John the Baptist has been found on site," 46-year-old Shimon Gibson told AFP. Gibson, who holds a degree from University College London and has written several works on Biblical archaeology, believes the discovery to be "the first archaeological proof of the historical veracity of the Gospels". Other archaeologists, however, believe Gibson's conclusions go too far, and that the discovery of an ancient place of worship linked to John the Baptist does not prove that he actually existed.
Read the full article....
"The first concrete evidence of the existence of John the Baptist has been found on site," 46-year-old Shimon Gibson told AFP. Gibson, who holds a degree from University College London and has written several works on Biblical archaeology, believes the discovery to be "the first archaeological proof of the historical veracity of the Gospels". Other archaeologists, however, believe Gibson's conclusions go too far, and that the discovery of an ancient place of worship linked to John the Baptist does not prove that he actually existed.
Read the full article....
Tuesday, December 7
'Mr Bean' Attacks Religious Hatred Bill
Will we ever be able to sing "Always look on the bright side of life" again : ( ~ Raja
LONDON (Reuters) - British comedian Rowan Atkinson (news) -- creator of the hapless "Mr Bean" -- attacked a planned law outlawing incitement of religious hatred on Monday, saying it would curb free speech and humour.
Atkinson believes the measure now passing through parliament will make religion virtually off-limits to satirists.
It might even, he fears, lead to prosecutions, not only for some of his own sketches but for others like Monty Python's "Life of Brian," which was criticized on its release in 1979 for being anti-Christian.
Read the full article....
LONDON (Reuters) - British comedian Rowan Atkinson (news) -- creator of the hapless "Mr Bean" -- attacked a planned law outlawing incitement of religious hatred on Monday, saying it would curb free speech and humour.
Atkinson believes the measure now passing through parliament will make religion virtually off-limits to satirists.
It might even, he fears, lead to prosecutions, not only for some of his own sketches but for others like Monty Python's "Life of Brian," which was criticized on its release in 1979 for being anti-Christian.
Read the full article....
Monday, December 6
French fatigue over Da Vinci Code
A very funny story at the BBC site
The announcement this week from Hollywood that Tom Hanks will star in the film adaptation of Dan Brown's thriller The Da Vinci Code may have excited the book's millions of fans around the world. But in France, there was a collective sinking of hearts.
Read more at the BBC Site....
The announcement this week from Hollywood that Tom Hanks will star in the film adaptation of Dan Brown's thriller The Da Vinci Code may have excited the book's millions of fans around the world. But in France, there was a collective sinking of hearts.
Read more at the BBC Site....
Pompeii Video Online: Guardians of a legacy
Ancient Pompeii, a 150 acre walled city in southern Italy, was destroyed and covered by volcanic material when nearby Mt. Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. A complete city block, once inhabited by patricians, slaves and merchants, is now the focus of research and conservation by the Archaeological Sciences Department of the University of Bradford. This film describes how the recently created Pompeii Trust is attempting to preserve this important piece of history for future generations.
See the video
See the video
New theory on Stonehenge mystery
A fresh theory on how Stonehenge was built has been tested out by a group of experts and enthusiasts. Gordon Pipes, of the Stonehengineers group of scientists and archaeologists, has suggested that levers may have been used to move the giant stones. They have tested his "stone-rowing" theory which involves a 45-tonne stone being levered on a track of logs.
Read more here.....
Read more here.....
Titan Moon "Geologically Alive"
Scientists examining images from the Cassini craft think they may be closer to showing there is liquid hydrocarbon on Saturn's moon Titan. Radar images of a strip of the moon, covering 1% of the surface, revealed dark patches which could indicate liquid methane or ethane. The images also show streaky areas of the surface could be caused by winds.
Read more articles....
Read more articles....
Friday, November 12
Happy Diwali and other Myths
In the Hindu Calendar, this New Moon reverses the blazing energy of Diwali into the pitch darkness of Kali Puja, honoring the Great Goddess, the Maha Devi, in her severe, purifying form as the energy of decay, death and renewal. She is always depicted as shown here, with four arms holding a trident, a bloody sword, a severed head and a bowl symbolizing the blessings she grants to those who are devoted to her. Her name literally means "Time" and is used to mark the great cycles of the cosmic wheel, such as the Kali Yuga, or Dark Time, which is now coming to its climax before a new cycle begins. In the Wiccan calendar, sunset on this day begins Hecate Night, celebrating the most formidable aspect of the Triple Goddess.
New Moon conjunct Sun in Scorpio. Nowhere in the zodiac does the Moon go through such a reversal of energy and power as she does while the Sun is in Scorpio. At the Scorpio Full Moon (11/8 - 9), the Moon is advantageously placed in the Venus-ruled sign of Taurus, but at the New Moon she is in Scorpio, where she is "in fall", her powers muted and weakened. This is one reason why our emphasis shifts off the emotional plane now to the simple practical business of storing the fuel, getting the harvest in, getting repairs made before the snows come.
In the Celtic/Druidic and Wiccan calendars, this November New Moon is called Dead Moon, as it falls in the Scorpio month of death and renewal, and is often close to the festivals of the dead in late October and early November.
Image and text courtesy of the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst at hermes3.net
Thursday, October 28
'Hobbit' joins human family tree
Scientists have discovered a new and tiny species of human that lived in Indonesia at the same time our own ancestors were colonising the world.
The three-foot (one-metre) tall species - dubbed "the Hobbit" - lived on Flores island until at least 12,000 years ago.
The fact that little people feature in the legends of modern Flores islanders suggests we might have to take tales of Leprechauns and Yeti more seriously.
Details of the sensational find are described in the journal Nature.
Australian archaeologists unearthed the bones while digging at a site called Liang Bua, one of numerous limestone caves on Flores.
The remains of the partial skeleton were found at a depth of 5.9m. At first, the researchers thought it was the body of a child. But further investigation revealed otherwise.
Wear on the teeth and growth lines on the skull confirm it was an adult, features of the pelvis identify it as female and a leg bone confirms that it walked upright like we do.
Read more at the BBC News Site
Monday, October 25
How Spiritual Are You?
Take the Time Magazine Spirituality Test
UNITED STATES, October 20, 2004: Are you fascinated by the many things in life that cannot be scientifically explained? Do you seem to have a "sixth sense" that sometimes allows you to know what is going to happen? Do you sometimes feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism? To find out how spiritual you are, click on "test" above. The short test is adapted from a personality inventory devised by Washington University psychiatrist Robert Cloninger, author of "Feeling Good: The Science of Well-Being."
UNITED STATES, October 20, 2004: Are you fascinated by the many things in life that cannot be scientifically explained? Do you seem to have a "sixth sense" that sometimes allows you to know what is going to happen? Do you sometimes feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism? To find out how spiritual you are, click on "test" above. The short test is adapted from a personality inventory devised by Washington University psychiatrist Robert Cloninger, author of "Feeling Good: The Science of Well-Being."
Sunday, October 24
Indian Mounds Mystify Excavators
COLLINSVILLE, Illinois -- A thousand years ago along the banks of the Mississippi River, in what is currently southeast Illinois, there was a city that now mystifies both archeologists and anthropologists.
At its zenith, around A.D. 1050, the city that is now called Cahokia was among the largest metropolitan centers in the world. About 15,000 people lived in the city, with another 15,000 to 20,000 residing in its surrounding "suburbs" and outlying farmlands. It was the region's capital city, a place of art, grand religious rituals and science.
But by 1300, the city had become a ghost town, its carefully built structures abandoned and its population dispersed.
Archeologists continue to comb what is now the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, looking for clues that will tell them what happened here -- why the city and its culture vanished and why the people who lived here built more than a hundred earthen mounds, many of which are still scattered across the countryside.
Read more at the Wired News site
At its zenith, around A.D. 1050, the city that is now called Cahokia was among the largest metropolitan centers in the world. About 15,000 people lived in the city, with another 15,000 to 20,000 residing in its surrounding "suburbs" and outlying farmlands. It was the region's capital city, a place of art, grand religious rituals and science.
But by 1300, the city had become a ghost town, its carefully built structures abandoned and its population dispersed.
Archeologists continue to comb what is now the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, looking for clues that will tell them what happened here -- why the city and its culture vanished and why the people who lived here built more than a hundred earthen mounds, many of which are still scattered across the countryside.
Read more at the Wired News site
Festivals and Myths for Today
In the Mahayana Buddhist calendar, this festival commemorates the sacred moment at which the divine being variously known as Tara, Kwan Yin, Kannon, Kwanzen and other names attained bodhisattvahood, and became the lady of mercy and compassion.
Om Tara, Tu Tare, Ture Soha.
In a wonderful synchronicity, the Roman Catholic calendar honors St. Raphael, the archangel of healing, on this day.
Image and text courtesy of the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst at hermes3.net
Wednesday, June 23
Transcendance and the Human Condition
"One of the most basic human experiences, one that is genuinely universal and unites - or, more precisely, could unite -- all of humanity, is the experience of transcendence in the broadest sense of the word."
~ Václav Havel, President, Czech Republic
~ Václav Havel, President, Czech Republic
Wednesday, June 2
Lake of Peace
Fix your mind inwardly between the eyebrows [as
in meditation] on the shoreless lake of peace. Watch
the eternal circle of rippling peace around you. The
more you watch intently, the more you will feel the
wavelets of peace spreading from the eyebrows to the
forehead, from the forehead to the heart, and on to
every cell in your body. Now the waters of peace are
overflowing the banks of your body and inundating
the vast territory of your mind. The flood of peace
flows over the boundaries of your mind and moves on
in infinite directions.
~Paramahansa Yogananda,
"Metaphysical Meditations"
in meditation] on the shoreless lake of peace. Watch
the eternal circle of rippling peace around you. The
more you watch intently, the more you will feel the
wavelets of peace spreading from the eyebrows to the
forehead, from the forehead to the heart, and on to
every cell in your body. Now the waters of peace are
overflowing the banks of your body and inundating
the vast territory of your mind. The flood of peace
flows over the boundaries of your mind and moves on
in infinite directions.
~Paramahansa Yogananda,
"Metaphysical Meditations"
Friday, May 7
Meditation According to Yoga
Meditate in Silence.
It is impossible to find God outside of ourselves. Our own souls contribute all the divinity that is outside of us. We are the greatest temple. The objectification is only a faint imitation of what we see within ourselves.
Concentration of the powers of the mind is our only instrument to help us see God. If you know one soul (your own), you know all souls, past, present, and to come. The concentrated mind is a lamp that shows us every corner of the soul.
~
The Mind-Lake
The bottom of a lake we cannot see, because its surface is covered with ripples. It is only possible for us to catch a glimpse of the bottom, when the ripples have subsided, and the water is calm. If the water is muddy or is agitated all the time, the bottom will not be seen. If it is clear, and there are no waves, we shall see the bottom. The bottom of the lake is our own true Self; the lake is the Chitta [mind-stuff] and the waves the Vrittis [thought-waves].
Again, the mind is in three states, one of which is darkness, called Tamas, found in brutes and idiots; it only acts to injure. No other idea comes into that state of mind. Then there is the active state of mind, Rajas, whose chief motives are power and enjoyment. "I will be powerful and rule others." Then there is the state called Sattva, serenity, calmness, in which the waves cease, and the water of the mind-lake becomes clear.
~ Swami Vivekananda
It is impossible to find God outside of ourselves. Our own souls contribute all the divinity that is outside of us. We are the greatest temple. The objectification is only a faint imitation of what we see within ourselves.
Concentration of the powers of the mind is our only instrument to help us see God. If you know one soul (your own), you know all souls, past, present, and to come. The concentrated mind is a lamp that shows us every corner of the soul.
~
The Mind-Lake
The bottom of a lake we cannot see, because its surface is covered with ripples. It is only possible for us to catch a glimpse of the bottom, when the ripples have subsided, and the water is calm. If the water is muddy or is agitated all the time, the bottom will not be seen. If it is clear, and there are no waves, we shall see the bottom. The bottom of the lake is our own true Self; the lake is the Chitta [mind-stuff] and the waves the Vrittis [thought-waves].
Again, the mind is in three states, one of which is darkness, called Tamas, found in brutes and idiots; it only acts to injure. No other idea comes into that state of mind. Then there is the active state of mind, Rajas, whose chief motives are power and enjoyment. "I will be powerful and rule others." Then there is the state called Sattva, serenity, calmness, in which the waves cease, and the water of the mind-lake becomes clear.
~ Swami Vivekananda
Sunday, April 25
The Way
The Way that can be experienced is not true;
The world that can be constructed is not real.
The Way manifests all that happens and may happen;
The world represents all that exists and may exist.
To experience without abstraction is to sense the world;
To experience with abstraction is to know the world.
These two experiences are indistinguishable;
Their construction differs but their effect is the same.
Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way,
Which is ever greater and more subtle than the world.
~ from the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tse
The world that can be constructed is not real.
The Way manifests all that happens and may happen;
The world represents all that exists and may exist.
To experience without abstraction is to sense the world;
To experience with abstraction is to know the world.
These two experiences are indistinguishable;
Their construction differs but their effect is the same.
Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way,
Which is ever greater and more subtle than the world.
~ from the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tse
Preparation for becoming a mystic: 3
The First Steps: Part 3
Pranayama 2
The power of breath
~ Swami Vivekananda
Returning to our subject, we come next to Pranayama, controlling the breathing. What has that to do with concentrating the powers of the mind? Breath is like the flywheel of this machine, the body. In a big engine you find the fly-wheel first moving, and that motion is conveyed to finer and finer machinery until the most delicate and finest mechanism in the machine is in motion. The breath is that flywheel, supplying and regulating the motive power to everything in this body.
There was once a minister to a great king. He fell into disgrace. The king, as a punishment, ordered him to be shut up in the top of a very high tower. This was done, and the minister was left there to perish. He had a faithful wife, however, who came to the tower at night and called to her husband at the top to know what she could do to helphim. He told her to return to the tower the following night and bring with her a long rope, some stout twine, pack thread, silken thread, a beetle, and a little honey. Wondering much, the good wife obeyed her husband, and brought him the desired articles. The husband directed her to attach the silken thread firmly to the beetle, then to smear its horns with a drop of honey, and to set it free on the wall of the tower, with its head pointing upwards. She obeyed all these instructions, and the beetle started on its long journey. Smelling the honey ahead it slowly crept onwards, in the hope of reaching the honey, until at last it reached to top of the tower, when the minister grasped the beetle, and got possession of the silken thread. He told his wife to tie the other end to the pack thread, and after he had drawn up the pack thread, he repeated the process with the stout twine, and lastly with the rope. Then the rest was easy. The minister descended from the tower by means of the rope, and made his escape. In this body of ours the breath motion is the "silken thread"; by laying hold of and learning to control it we grasp the pack thread of the nerve currents, and from these the stout twine of our thoughts, and lastly the rope of Prana, controlling which we reach freedom.
We do not know anything about our own bodies; we cannot know. At best we can take a dead body, and cut it in pieces, and there are some who can take a live animal and cut it in pieces in order to see what is inside the body. Still, that has nothing to do with our own bodies. We know very little about them. Why do we not? Because our attention is not discriminating enough to catch the very fine movements that are going on within. We can know of them only when the mind becomes more subtle and enters, as it were, deeper into the body. To get the subtle perception we have to begin with the grosser perceptions. We have to get hold of that which is setting the whole engine in motion. That is the Prana, the most obvious manifestation of which is the breath. Then, along with the breath, we shall slowly enter the body, which will enable us to find out about the subtle forces, the nerve currents that are moving all over the body. As soon as we perceive and learn to feel them, we shall begin to get control over them, and over the body. The mind is also set in motion by these different nerve currents, so at last we shall reach the state of perfect control over the body and the mind, making both our servants. Knowledge is power. We have to get this power. So we must begin at the beginning, with Pranayama, restraining the Prana. This Pranayama is a long subject, and will take several lessons to illustrate it thoroughly. We shall take it part by part.
We shall gradually see the reasons for each exercise and what forces in the body are set in motion. All these things will come to us, but it requires constant practice, and the proof will come by practice. No amount of reasoning which I can give you will be proof to you, until you have demonstrated it for yourselves. As soon as you begin to feel these currents in motion all over you, doubts will vanish, but it requires hard practice every day. You must practise at least twice every day, and the best times are towards the morning and the evening. When night passes into day, and day into night, a state of relative calmness ensues. The early morning and the early evening are the two periods of calmness. Your body will have a like tendency to become calm at those times. We should take advantage of that natural condition and begin then to practise. Make it a rule not to eat until you have practised; if you do this, the sheer force of hunger will break your laziness. In India they teach children never to eat until they have practised or worshipped, and it becomes natural to them after a time; a boy will not feel hungry until he has bathed and practised.
Those of you who can afford it will do better to have a room for this practice alone. Do not sleep in that room, it must be kept holy. You must not enter the room until you have bathed, and are perfectly clean in body and mind. Place flowers in that room always; they are the best surroundings for a Yogi; also pictures that are pleasing. Burn incense morning and evening. Have no quarrelling, nor anger, nor unholy thought in that room. Only allow those persons to enter it who are of the same thought as you. Then gradually there will be an atmosphere of holiness in the room, so that when you are miserable, sorrowful, doubtful, or your mind is disturbed, the very fact of entering that room will make you calm. This was the idea of the temple and the church, and in some temples and churches you will find it even now, but in the majority of them the very idea has been lost. The idea is that by keeping holy vibrations there the place becomes and remains illumined. Those who cannot afford to have a room set apart can practise anywhere they like. Sit in a straight posture, and the first thing to do is to send a current of holy thought to all creation. Mentally repeat, "Let all beings be happy; let all beings be peaceful; let all beings be blissful." So do to the east, south, north and west. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find at last that the easiest way to make ourselves healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way to make ourselves happy is to see that others are happy. After doing that, those who believe in God should pray--not for money, not for health, nor for heaven; pray for knowledge and light; every other prayer is selfish. Then the next thing to do is to think of your own body, and see that it is strong and healthy; it is the best instrument you have. Think of it as being as strong as adamant, and that with the help of this body you will cross the ocean of life. Freedom is never to be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself.
Pranayama 2
The power of breath
~ Swami Vivekananda
Returning to our subject, we come next to Pranayama, controlling the breathing. What has that to do with concentrating the powers of the mind? Breath is like the flywheel of this machine, the body. In a big engine you find the fly-wheel first moving, and that motion is conveyed to finer and finer machinery until the most delicate and finest mechanism in the machine is in motion. The breath is that flywheel, supplying and regulating the motive power to everything in this body.
There was once a minister to a great king. He fell into disgrace. The king, as a punishment, ordered him to be shut up in the top of a very high tower. This was done, and the minister was left there to perish. He had a faithful wife, however, who came to the tower at night and called to her husband at the top to know what she could do to helphim. He told her to return to the tower the following night and bring with her a long rope, some stout twine, pack thread, silken thread, a beetle, and a little honey. Wondering much, the good wife obeyed her husband, and brought him the desired articles. The husband directed her to attach the silken thread firmly to the beetle, then to smear its horns with a drop of honey, and to set it free on the wall of the tower, with its head pointing upwards. She obeyed all these instructions, and the beetle started on its long journey. Smelling the honey ahead it slowly crept onwards, in the hope of reaching the honey, until at last it reached to top of the tower, when the minister grasped the beetle, and got possession of the silken thread. He told his wife to tie the other end to the pack thread, and after he had drawn up the pack thread, he repeated the process with the stout twine, and lastly with the rope. Then the rest was easy. The minister descended from the tower by means of the rope, and made his escape. In this body of ours the breath motion is the "silken thread"; by laying hold of and learning to control it we grasp the pack thread of the nerve currents, and from these the stout twine of our thoughts, and lastly the rope of Prana, controlling which we reach freedom.
We do not know anything about our own bodies; we cannot know. At best we can take a dead body, and cut it in pieces, and there are some who can take a live animal and cut it in pieces in order to see what is inside the body. Still, that has nothing to do with our own bodies. We know very little about them. Why do we not? Because our attention is not discriminating enough to catch the very fine movements that are going on within. We can know of them only when the mind becomes more subtle and enters, as it were, deeper into the body. To get the subtle perception we have to begin with the grosser perceptions. We have to get hold of that which is setting the whole engine in motion. That is the Prana, the most obvious manifestation of which is the breath. Then, along with the breath, we shall slowly enter the body, which will enable us to find out about the subtle forces, the nerve currents that are moving all over the body. As soon as we perceive and learn to feel them, we shall begin to get control over them, and over the body. The mind is also set in motion by these different nerve currents, so at last we shall reach the state of perfect control over the body and the mind, making both our servants. Knowledge is power. We have to get this power. So we must begin at the beginning, with Pranayama, restraining the Prana. This Pranayama is a long subject, and will take several lessons to illustrate it thoroughly. We shall take it part by part.
We shall gradually see the reasons for each exercise and what forces in the body are set in motion. All these things will come to us, but it requires constant practice, and the proof will come by practice. No amount of reasoning which I can give you will be proof to you, until you have demonstrated it for yourselves. As soon as you begin to feel these currents in motion all over you, doubts will vanish, but it requires hard practice every day. You must practise at least twice every day, and the best times are towards the morning and the evening. When night passes into day, and day into night, a state of relative calmness ensues. The early morning and the early evening are the two periods of calmness. Your body will have a like tendency to become calm at those times. We should take advantage of that natural condition and begin then to practise. Make it a rule not to eat until you have practised; if you do this, the sheer force of hunger will break your laziness. In India they teach children never to eat until they have practised or worshipped, and it becomes natural to them after a time; a boy will not feel hungry until he has bathed and practised.
Those of you who can afford it will do better to have a room for this practice alone. Do not sleep in that room, it must be kept holy. You must not enter the room until you have bathed, and are perfectly clean in body and mind. Place flowers in that room always; they are the best surroundings for a Yogi; also pictures that are pleasing. Burn incense morning and evening. Have no quarrelling, nor anger, nor unholy thought in that room. Only allow those persons to enter it who are of the same thought as you. Then gradually there will be an atmosphere of holiness in the room, so that when you are miserable, sorrowful, doubtful, or your mind is disturbed, the very fact of entering that room will make you calm. This was the idea of the temple and the church, and in some temples and churches you will find it even now, but in the majority of them the very idea has been lost. The idea is that by keeping holy vibrations there the place becomes and remains illumined. Those who cannot afford to have a room set apart can practise anywhere they like. Sit in a straight posture, and the first thing to do is to send a current of holy thought to all creation. Mentally repeat, "Let all beings be happy; let all beings be peaceful; let all beings be blissful." So do to the east, south, north and west. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find at last that the easiest way to make ourselves healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way to make ourselves happy is to see that others are happy. After doing that, those who believe in God should pray--not for money, not for health, nor for heaven; pray for knowledge and light; every other prayer is selfish. Then the next thing to do is to think of your own body, and see that it is strong and healthy; it is the best instrument you have. Think of it as being as strong as adamant, and that with the help of this body you will cross the ocean of life. Freedom is never to be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself.
Monday, April 19
Preparation for becoming a Mystic: 2
The First Steps - Part 2
Pranayama
The Yogic way of purification
~ Swami Vivekananda
After one has learned to have a firm erect seat, one has to perform, according to certain schools, a practice called the purifying of the nerves. This part has been rejected by some as not belonging to Raja- Yoga, but as so great an authority as the commentator Shankaracharya advises it, I think fit that it should be mentioned, and I will quote his own directions from his commentary on the Shvethashvatara Upanishad: "The mind whose dross has been cleared away by Pranayama, becomes fixed in Brahman; therefore Pranayama is declared. First the nerves are to be purified, then comes the power to practise Pranayama. Stopping the right nostril with the thumb, through the left nostril fill in air, according to capacity; then, without any interval, throw the air out through the right nostril, closing the left one. Again inhaling through the right nostril eject through the left, according to capacity; practising this three or five times at four hours of the day, before dawn, during midday, in the evening, and at midnight, in fifteen days or a month purity of the nerves is attained; then begins Pranayama."
Practice is absolutely necessary. You may sit down and listen to me by the hour every day, but if you do not practise, you will not get one step further. It all depends on practice. We never understand these things until we experience them. We will have to see and feel them for ourselves. Simply listening to explanations and theories will not do. There are several obstructions to practice. The first obstruction is an unhealthy body: if the body is not in a fit state, the practice will be obstructed. Therefore we have to keep the body in good health; we have to take care of what we eat and drink, and what we do. Always use a mental effort, what is usually called "Christian Science," to keep the body strong. That is all--nothing further of the body. We must not forget that health is only a means to an end. If health were the end, we would be like animals; animals rarely become unhealthy.
The second obstruction is doubt; we always feel doubtful about things we do not see. Man cannot live upon words, however he may try. So, doubt comes to us as to whether there is any truth in these things or not; even the best of us will doubt sometimes. With practice, within a few days, a little glimpse will come, enough to give one encouragement and hope. As a certain commentator on Yoga philosophy says, "When one proof is obtained, however little that may be, it will give us faith in the whole teaching of Yoga." For instance, after the first few months of practice, you will begin to find you can read another's thoughts; they will come to you in picture form. Perhaps you will hear something happening at a long distance, when you concentrate your mind with a wish to hear. These glimpses will come, by little bits at first, but enough to give you faith, and strength, and hope. For instance, if you concentrate your thoughts on the tip of your nose, in a few days you will begin to smell most beautiful fragrance, which will be enough to show you that there are certain mental perceptions that can be made obvious without the contact of physical objects. But we must always remember that these are only the means; the aim, the end, the goal, of all this training is liberation of the soul. Absolute control of nature, and nothing short of it, must be the goal. We must be the masters, and not the slaves of nature; neither body nor mind must be our master, nor must we forget that the body is mine, and not I the body's.
A god and a demon went to learn about the Self from a great sage. They studied with him for a long time. At last the sage told them, "You yourselves are the Being you are seeking." Both of them thought that their bodies were the Self. They went back to their people quite satisfied and said, "We have learned everything that was to be learned; eat, drink,and be merry; we are the Self; there is nothing beyond us." The nature of the demon was ignorant, clouded; so he never inquired any further, but was perfectly contented with the idea that he was God, that by the Self was meant the body. The god had a purer nature. He at first committed the mistake of thinking: I, this body, am Brahman: so keep it strong and in health, and well dressed, and give it all sorts of enjoyments. But, in a few days, he found out that that could not be the meaning of the sage, their master; there must be something higher. So he came back and said, "Sir, did you teach me that this body was the Self? If so, I see all bodies die; the Self cannot die." The sage said, "Find it out; thou art That." Then the god thought that the vital forces which work the body were what the sage meant. But, after a time, he found that if he ate, these vital forces remained strong, but, if he starved, they became weak. The god then went back to the sage and said, "Sir, do you mean that the vital forces are the Self?" The sage said, "Find out for yourself; thou art That." The god returned home once more, thinking that it was the mind, perhaps, that was the Self. But in a short while he saw that thoughts were so various, now good, again bad; the mind was too changeable to be the Self. He went back to the sage and said, "Sir, I do not think that the mind is the Self; did you mean that?" "No," replied the sage, "thou art That; find out for yourself." The god went home, and at last found that he was the Self, beyond all thought, one without birth or death, whom the sword cannot pierce or the fire burn, whom the air cannot dry or the water melt, the beginningless and endless, the immovable, the intangible, the omniscient, the omnipotent Being; that It was neither the body nor the mind, but beyond them all. So he was satisfied; but the poor demon did not get the truth, owing to his fondness for the body.
This world has a good many of these demonic natures, but there are some gods too. If one proposes to teach any science to increase the power of sense-enjoyment, one finds multitudes ready for it. If one undertakes to show the supreme goal, one finds few to listen to him. Very few have the power to grasp the higher, fewer still the patience to attain to it. But there are a few also who know that even if the body can be made to live for a thousand years, the result in the end will be the same. When the forces that hold it together go away, the body must fall. No man was ever born who could stop his body one moment from changing. Body is the name of a series of changes. "As in a river the masses of water are changing before you every moment, and new masses are coming, yet taking similar form, so is it with this body." Yet the body must be kept strong and healthy. It is the best instrument we have.
This human body is the greatest body in the universe, and a human being the greatest being. Man is higher than all animals, than all angels; none is greater than man. Even the Devas (gods) will have to come down again and attain to salvation through a human body. Man alone attains to perfection, not even the Devas. According to the Jews and Mohammedans, God created man after creating the angels and everything else, and after creating man He asked the angels to come and salute him, and all did so except Iblis; so God cursed him and he became Satan. Behind this allegory is the great truth that this human birth is the greatest birth we can have. The lower creation, the animal, is dull, and manufactured mostly out of Tamas. Animals cannot have any high thoughts; nor can the angels, or Devas, attain to direct freedom without human birth. In human society, in the same way, too much wealth or too much poverty is a great impediment to the higher development of the soul. It is from the middle classes that the great ones of the world come. Here the forces are very equally adjusted and balanced.
Pranayama
The Yogic way of purification
~ Swami Vivekananda
After one has learned to have a firm erect seat, one has to perform, according to certain schools, a practice called the purifying of the nerves. This part has been rejected by some as not belonging to Raja- Yoga, but as so great an authority as the commentator Shankaracharya advises it, I think fit that it should be mentioned, and I will quote his own directions from his commentary on the Shvethashvatara Upanishad: "The mind whose dross has been cleared away by Pranayama, becomes fixed in Brahman; therefore Pranayama is declared. First the nerves are to be purified, then comes the power to practise Pranayama. Stopping the right nostril with the thumb, through the left nostril fill in air, according to capacity; then, without any interval, throw the air out through the right nostril, closing the left one. Again inhaling through the right nostril eject through the left, according to capacity; practising this three or five times at four hours of the day, before dawn, during midday, in the evening, and at midnight, in fifteen days or a month purity of the nerves is attained; then begins Pranayama."
Practice is absolutely necessary. You may sit down and listen to me by the hour every day, but if you do not practise, you will not get one step further. It all depends on practice. We never understand these things until we experience them. We will have to see and feel them for ourselves. Simply listening to explanations and theories will not do. There are several obstructions to practice. The first obstruction is an unhealthy body: if the body is not in a fit state, the practice will be obstructed. Therefore we have to keep the body in good health; we have to take care of what we eat and drink, and what we do. Always use a mental effort, what is usually called "Christian Science," to keep the body strong. That is all--nothing further of the body. We must not forget that health is only a means to an end. If health were the end, we would be like animals; animals rarely become unhealthy.
The second obstruction is doubt; we always feel doubtful about things we do not see. Man cannot live upon words, however he may try. So, doubt comes to us as to whether there is any truth in these things or not; even the best of us will doubt sometimes. With practice, within a few days, a little glimpse will come, enough to give one encouragement and hope. As a certain commentator on Yoga philosophy says, "When one proof is obtained, however little that may be, it will give us faith in the whole teaching of Yoga." For instance, after the first few months of practice, you will begin to find you can read another's thoughts; they will come to you in picture form. Perhaps you will hear something happening at a long distance, when you concentrate your mind with a wish to hear. These glimpses will come, by little bits at first, but enough to give you faith, and strength, and hope. For instance, if you concentrate your thoughts on the tip of your nose, in a few days you will begin to smell most beautiful fragrance, which will be enough to show you that there are certain mental perceptions that can be made obvious without the contact of physical objects. But we must always remember that these are only the means; the aim, the end, the goal, of all this training is liberation of the soul. Absolute control of nature, and nothing short of it, must be the goal. We must be the masters, and not the slaves of nature; neither body nor mind must be our master, nor must we forget that the body is mine, and not I the body's.
A god and a demon went to learn about the Self from a great sage. They studied with him for a long time. At last the sage told them, "You yourselves are the Being you are seeking." Both of them thought that their bodies were the Self. They went back to their people quite satisfied and said, "We have learned everything that was to be learned; eat, drink,and be merry; we are the Self; there is nothing beyond us." The nature of the demon was ignorant, clouded; so he never inquired any further, but was perfectly contented with the idea that he was God, that by the Self was meant the body. The god had a purer nature. He at first committed the mistake of thinking: I, this body, am Brahman: so keep it strong and in health, and well dressed, and give it all sorts of enjoyments. But, in a few days, he found out that that could not be the meaning of the sage, their master; there must be something higher. So he came back and said, "Sir, did you teach me that this body was the Self? If so, I see all bodies die; the Self cannot die." The sage said, "Find it out; thou art That." Then the god thought that the vital forces which work the body were what the sage meant. But, after a time, he found that if he ate, these vital forces remained strong, but, if he starved, they became weak. The god then went back to the sage and said, "Sir, do you mean that the vital forces are the Self?" The sage said, "Find out for yourself; thou art That." The god returned home once more, thinking that it was the mind, perhaps, that was the Self. But in a short while he saw that thoughts were so various, now good, again bad; the mind was too changeable to be the Self. He went back to the sage and said, "Sir, I do not think that the mind is the Self; did you mean that?" "No," replied the sage, "thou art That; find out for yourself." The god went home, and at last found that he was the Self, beyond all thought, one without birth or death, whom the sword cannot pierce or the fire burn, whom the air cannot dry or the water melt, the beginningless and endless, the immovable, the intangible, the omniscient, the omnipotent Being; that It was neither the body nor the mind, but beyond them all. So he was satisfied; but the poor demon did not get the truth, owing to his fondness for the body.
This world has a good many of these demonic natures, but there are some gods too. If one proposes to teach any science to increase the power of sense-enjoyment, one finds multitudes ready for it. If one undertakes to show the supreme goal, one finds few to listen to him. Very few have the power to grasp the higher, fewer still the patience to attain to it. But there are a few also who know that even if the body can be made to live for a thousand years, the result in the end will be the same. When the forces that hold it together go away, the body must fall. No man was ever born who could stop his body one moment from changing. Body is the name of a series of changes. "As in a river the masses of water are changing before you every moment, and new masses are coming, yet taking similar form, so is it with this body." Yet the body must be kept strong and healthy. It is the best instrument we have.
This human body is the greatest body in the universe, and a human being the greatest being. Man is higher than all animals, than all angels; none is greater than man. Even the Devas (gods) will have to come down again and attain to salvation through a human body. Man alone attains to perfection, not even the Devas. According to the Jews and Mohammedans, God created man after creating the angels and everything else, and after creating man He asked the angels to come and salute him, and all did so except Iblis; so God cursed him and he became Satan. Behind this allegory is the great truth that this human birth is the greatest birth we can have. The lower creation, the animal, is dull, and manufactured mostly out of Tamas. Animals cannot have any high thoughts; nor can the angels, or Devas, attain to direct freedom without human birth. In human society, in the same way, too much wealth or too much poverty is a great impediment to the higher development of the soul. It is from the middle classes that the great ones of the world come. Here the forces are very equally adjusted and balanced.
Tuesday, April 13
The Seeker
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
~ T. S. Eliot, from Four Quartets, final section
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
~ T. S. Eliot, from Four Quartets, final section
Tuesday, April 6
The Hubble Factor
The Hubble telescope has opened up a universe that we could never have imagined. These three recent images show the latest images from Hubble: The Universe at the deepest we have we have ever seen it at almost the Big Bang; The Cat's Eye Nebula - a birth place of stars; Mars' Front Face - a world of potential and perhaps even life. So much beauty in our life times. How can we not be awestruck and mystical.
Visit the Hubble Site to see more beautiful images.
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| Deep Space at the Start of Time | Cat's Eye Nebula - Birthplace of Stars | Mars Front Face |
Visit the Hubble Site to see more beautiful images.
Sunday, April 4
Palm Sunday and the myths of Rome
Today is Palm Sunday. The most solemn week of the Christian year Holy week is the week leading up to Easter, and is the week during which Christians particularly remember the last week of Jesus's life. Holy week begins on Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday commemorates Christ's triumphant arrival in Jerusalem to the cheers of the crowd. The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the King of Israel!"
(John 12: 12-13)
Later in that week many of the people in that cheering crowd would be among those shouting that Jesus should be executed.
~ From the BBC Religions and Ethics Page
In ancient Rome, Today (4/4) is the first day of Megalesia, a week-long festival in honor of Cybele, the Magna Mater (Great Mother) worshipped throughout the Roman Empire. Megalesia was said to have marked the arrival in Rome of Cybele's image, sent from her home temple in Phrygia (in the western region of modern Turkey).
~ From the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the King of Israel!"
(John 12: 12-13)
Later in that week many of the people in that cheering crowd would be among those shouting that Jesus should be executed.
~ From the BBC Religions and Ethics Page
In ancient Rome, Today (4/4) is the first day of Megalesia, a week-long festival in honor of Cybele, the Magna Mater (Great Mother) worshipped throughout the Roman Empire. Megalesia was said to have marked the arrival in Rome of Cybele's image, sent from her home temple in Phrygia (in the western region of modern Turkey).
~ From the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst
The elephant and the mystic seeker
A guru had just brought home to a young aspirant the realization of himself as identical in essence with the power that supports the universe and which in theological thinking we personify as 'God.' The youth, profoundly moved, exalted in the notion of himself as at one with the Lord and Being of the Universe, walked away in a state of profound absorption; and when he had passed in that state through the village and out onto the road beyond it, he beheld, coming in his direction, a great elephant bearing . . . the driver, riding ... high on its neck, above its head. And the young candidate for sainthood, meditating on the proposition 'I am God; all things are God,' on perceiving that mighty elephant coming toward him, added the obvious corollary, 'The elephant also is God.'
"The animal, with its bells jingling to the majestic rhythm of its stately approach, was steadily coming on, and the [driver] above its head began shouting, 'Clear the way! Clear the way, you idiot! Clear the way!' The youth, in his rapture, was thinking still, 'I am God; that elephant is God.' And, hearing the shouts of the [driver] he added, 'Should God be afraid of God? Should God get out of the way of God?' The phenomenon came steadily on with the driver at its head still shouting at him, and the youth, in undistracted meditation, held both to his place on the road and to his transcendental insight, until the moment of truth arrived andthe elephant, simply wrapping its great trunk around the lunatic, tossed him aside, off the road.
"Physically shocked, spiritually stunned, the youth landed all in a heap, ... and rising, ... he returned, disordered, to his guru, to require an explanation. 'You told me,' he said, ... 'that I was God.' 'Yes,' said the guru, 'you are God.' 'You told me that all things are God.' 'Yes,' said the guru again, 'all things are God.' 'That elephant, then, was God?' 'So it was. That elephant was God. But why didn't you listen to the voice of God, shouting from the elephant's head, to get out of the way?'
~ As retold by Huston Smith from an ancient Hindu story.
"The animal, with its bells jingling to the majestic rhythm of its stately approach, was steadily coming on, and the [driver] above its head began shouting, 'Clear the way! Clear the way, you idiot! Clear the way!' The youth, in his rapture, was thinking still, 'I am God; that elephant is God.' And, hearing the shouts of the [driver] he added, 'Should God be afraid of God? Should God get out of the way of God?' The phenomenon came steadily on with the driver at its head still shouting at him, and the youth, in undistracted meditation, held both to his place on the road and to his transcendental insight, until the moment of truth arrived andthe elephant, simply wrapping its great trunk around the lunatic, tossed him aside, off the road.
"Physically shocked, spiritually stunned, the youth landed all in a heap, ... and rising, ... he returned, disordered, to his guru, to require an explanation. 'You told me,' he said, ... 'that I was God.' 'Yes,' said the guru, 'you are God.' 'You told me that all things are God.' 'Yes,' said the guru again, 'all things are God.' 'That elephant, then, was God?' 'So it was. That elephant was God. But why didn't you listen to the voice of God, shouting from the elephant's head, to get out of the way?'
~ As retold by Huston Smith from an ancient Hindu story.
The Passion revisited
For weeks I had avoided seeing The Passion of the Christ, especially after all the controversy: accusations of anti-Semitism on the part of Gibson; excessive violence; overtly catholic interpretation of the crucifixion; the hype. After much resistance I finally succumbed yesterday and I must admit I was surprised. The Passion is a beautifully filmed spiritual epic about a man willing to turn the other cheek and take on the ignorance of the whole world by sacrificing himself as an example of what we can achieve in humanity. If you take away 2000 years of Christian history: the reinvention of Jesus from a prophet, rebel and a rabbi of peace of the Jewish people to a son of god to suit the Roman palette, the crusades, the use of Christianity to justify empire and the wholesale slaughter of millions of indigenous people and Jews in the name of a higher calling, well then you end up with a pretty profound message. Love. Compassion. Humanity. Self sacrifice.
Yes, the violence was extreme but almost lyrical, as in the beauty and awe that even a mushroom cloud can inspire. The Jewish rabbis did look a little rabid and foamy at the mouth and Pontius Pilate did come across as a humanitarian even though it is well known that in his reign thousands of Jews were crucified and put on public display to quell their dissatisfaction. The cross-carrying scene was excruciatingly long. But, overall the movie was deeply satisfying.
I came away with an increased sense of my own potential as a human being and I left with a spark of divinity reignited in my heart. While I would not sign up for the Christian religion, for religions are man-made institutions built around the realization of a teacher well after their death, I did come away with a deeper understanding of the universal message of Jesus. No matter what the world throws at you, no matter how people judge you or condemn you, you must continue to love and believe that there is a force in the universe that unites us all and we are just an illusory manifestation of that force trying desperately to help us realize our own divinity.
I am glad I saw it.
Yes, the violence was extreme but almost lyrical, as in the beauty and awe that even a mushroom cloud can inspire. The Jewish rabbis did look a little rabid and foamy at the mouth and Pontius Pilate did come across as a humanitarian even though it is well known that in his reign thousands of Jews were crucified and put on public display to quell their dissatisfaction. The cross-carrying scene was excruciatingly long. But, overall the movie was deeply satisfying.
I came away with an increased sense of my own potential as a human being and I left with a spark of divinity reignited in my heart. While I would not sign up for the Christian religion, for religions are man-made institutions built around the realization of a teacher well after their death, I did come away with a deeper understanding of the universal message of Jesus. No matter what the world throws at you, no matter how people judge you or condemn you, you must continue to love and believe that there is a force in the universe that unites us all and we are just an illusory manifestation of that force trying desperately to help us realize our own divinity.
I am glad I saw it.
Thursday, April 1
The myths of April 1
In the ancient Greek calendar, the Veneralia, the annual rites of Peace, celebrating the power of love by which Aphrodite (her name is the source of "April") overcomes the physical power of Ares, god of war. The famous expression "Amor Vincit Omnia" (Love Conquers All) is a relic of this festival.
In the ancient Egyptian calendar, this day begins a major four-day festival cycle honoring the Neters, or "gods", as keepers of cosmic order. The main feasts and ceremonies:
Festival Day of Hathor as sky goddess whose cow horns embrace the Sun. Hathor, whose name literally means "house of Horus", is, along with Isis, one of two Neters who were honored as mother of the solar deity and divine hero Horus. Hathor is also identified in this spring festival with Aphrodite/Venus, goddess of love.
And of course today is April Fool's day, derived from the old Teutonic Feast of Fools ruled by Loki, the trickster god.
From the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst.
In the ancient Egyptian calendar, this day begins a major four-day festival cycle honoring the Neters, or "gods", as keepers of cosmic order. The main feasts and ceremonies:
Festival Day of Hathor as sky goddess whose cow horns embrace the Sun. Hathor, whose name literally means "house of Horus", is, along with Isis, one of two Neters who were honored as mother of the solar deity and divine hero Horus. Hathor is also identified in this spring festival with Aphrodite/Venus, goddess of love.
And of course today is April Fool's day, derived from the old Teutonic Feast of Fools ruled by Loki, the trickster god.
From the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst.
Monday, March 29
Spring
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
~ Anne Bradstreet
~ Anne Bradstreet
Methane on Mars could signal life
By Dr David Whitehouse
Is there life beneath the soil?
Methane has been found in the Martian atmosphere which scientists say could be a sign that life exists today on Mars.
It was detected by telescopes on Earth and has recently been confirmed by instruments onboard the European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express craft. Methane lives for a short time in the Martian atmosphere so it must be being constantly replenished. Scientists see two possibilities, both of them scientifically important, but one of them is sensational: either active volcanoes, none of which have been found yet on Mars, or microbes - meaning life on Mars.
Read full article at the BBC News site.
Is there life beneath the soil?
Methane has been found in the Martian atmosphere which scientists say could be a sign that life exists today on Mars.
It was detected by telescopes on Earth and has recently been confirmed by instruments onboard the European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express craft. Methane lives for a short time in the Martian atmosphere so it must be being constantly replenished. Scientists see two possibilities, both of them scientifically important, but one of them is sensational: either active volcanoes, none of which have been found yet on Mars, or microbes - meaning life on Mars.
Read full article at the BBC News site.
Sunday, March 28
Divinity Invoked To Save Ganges River
PATNA, INDIA, march 23, 2004: Every morning, dozens of Hindu men and women gather at the Khojkala ghat to offer prayers and sing hymns in praise of "Ganga Maiya" or Mother Ganga to save the river from pollution. Arjun Prasad, a member of the group, said the rituals would continue for a year. "We have begun here but will organize prayers at different points along the river," he said. The group has also launched a clean-up campaign and is creating awareness among the people on the need to keep the river free of pollution. "We have been requesting devotees not to throw polyethylene and garbage into the river," said Arjun Prasad Yadav, another member of the group. Members of the group lend a hand every morning to clean up the river. Baskets have also been placed at various points to deposit material left over after prayers that would otherwise get thrown into the river. Last week, noted environmentalist Medha Patkar had urged Bihar Chief Minster Rabri Devi to initiate measures to save the Ganges from getting further polluted. Raw sewage, rotting carcasses, industrial effluent, fertilizers and pesticides infect the river for much of its 1,550 mile stretch from the Himalayan foothills to the Bay of Bengal. The river is highly polluted by the time it reaches Patna, some 1,050 miles downstream from its source.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/577471.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/577471.cms
Modern Mystics: Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna was one of the greatest Indian mystics of the past 150 years. He was born in 1836 and died in 1886 and his short life represents the very core of the Vedantic spiritual realizations of the seers and sages of India throughout history. 
His whole life was literally an uninterrupted contemplation of God. He reached a depth of universal consciousness that transcended space and time and had a truly universal appeal. Ramakrishna, as a silent force, influenced the spiritual thought currents of his time and at his death his reputation has been well established in his native Calcutta. But, it wasn't until Swami Vivekananda, his most famous disciple, brought his message of universal consciousness and Vedanta to America in 1893, that his name became synonymous with the best of Eastern mysticism. This God-man of nineteenth-century India did not found any cult, nor show a new path to salvation. His message was his own living God-consciousness. At a time when the very foundation of Hinduism was crumbling under the relentless blows of colonialism, materialism and skepticism, Ramakrishna demonstrated that God can be a living presence and that consiousness can transcend all material illusions and realize true universal consiousness. Drawn by the magnetism of Ramakrishna's mystical personality, people flocked to him from all over Bengal and India. His small room in the Dakshineswar temple garden on the outskirts of Calcutta became a living parliament of religions. Everyone who came to him felt uplifted by his profound presence, boundless love, and universal outlook. Each seeker saw in him the highest manifestation of his own ideal.
The greatest contribution of Ramakrishna to the modern world is his message of the harmony of all religions. To Ramakrishna all religions are the revelation of God in His diverse aspects to satisfy the diversity of human minds. Like different photographs of a building taken from different angles, different religions give us the pictures of one truth from different standpoints. They are not contradictory but complementary. Sri Ramakrishna faithfully practiced the spiritual disciplines of all the different religions and came to the realization that all of them lead to the same goal. Truth. Universal Truth. Ramakrishna declared, "As many faiths, so many paths." The paths vary, but the goal remains the same. Harmony of religions is not uniformity; it is unity in diversity.
Extracted from The Ramakrishna Vivekananda Center site.
His whole life was literally an uninterrupted contemplation of God. He reached a depth of universal consciousness that transcended space and time and had a truly universal appeal. Ramakrishna, as a silent force, influenced the spiritual thought currents of his time and at his death his reputation has been well established in his native Calcutta. But, it wasn't until Swami Vivekananda, his most famous disciple, brought his message of universal consciousness and Vedanta to America in 1893, that his name became synonymous with the best of Eastern mysticism. This God-man of nineteenth-century India did not found any cult, nor show a new path to salvation. His message was his own living God-consciousness. At a time when the very foundation of Hinduism was crumbling under the relentless blows of colonialism, materialism and skepticism, Ramakrishna demonstrated that God can be a living presence and that consiousness can transcend all material illusions and realize true universal consiousness. Drawn by the magnetism of Ramakrishna's mystical personality, people flocked to him from all over Bengal and India. His small room in the Dakshineswar temple garden on the outskirts of Calcutta became a living parliament of religions. Everyone who came to him felt uplifted by his profound presence, boundless love, and universal outlook. Each seeker saw in him the highest manifestation of his own ideal.
The greatest contribution of Ramakrishna to the modern world is his message of the harmony of all religions. To Ramakrishna all religions are the revelation of God in His diverse aspects to satisfy the diversity of human minds. Like different photographs of a building taken from different angles, different religions give us the pictures of one truth from different standpoints. They are not contradictory but complementary. Sri Ramakrishna faithfully practiced the spiritual disciplines of all the different religions and came to the realization that all of them lead to the same goal. Truth. Universal Truth. Ramakrishna declared, "As many faiths, so many paths." The paths vary, but the goal remains the same. Harmony of religions is not uniformity; it is unity in diversity.
Extracted from The Ramakrishna Vivekananda Center site.
Friday, March 26
Today in Mythology
Today
In the ancient Persian calendar, this day was celebrated as the birthday of Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), who is said to have been born to a 15-year old virgin in 660 BCE.
Today is also the birthday of mythologist and "Follow Your Bliss" teacher Joseph Campbell (1910).
Sunday March 28
A day of mystery in many ancient calendars. It was widely believed in the Hellenistic and early Christian periods that God created the Sun and the Moon on this day. Third-century Christians accordingly chose 3/28 as the day of Christ's nativity, and observed it as such until the December feast of Christmas was created in the 4th century. On this day the ancient Romans hold ceremonies of purification and sacrifice, including, in later Roman times, gladiatorial combats at the tombs of their ancestors.
In ancient Mesopotamian calendars, this is the feast day of Ishtar, goddess of love and war.
March 29 - 30
In the Hindu calendar, this day is Ramanavami, birthday of Rama, one of the most powerful and beloved avatars of Vishnu the Creator. The epic Ramayana tells the story of Rama and his consort Sita, avatar of Lakshmi. Ramanavami is among the most spectacular of Hindu holidays, as it features enactments in theatre and dance of such famous episodes as Rama and Sita hunting the Golden Deer.
~ From the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst
In the ancient Persian calendar, this day was celebrated as the birthday of Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), who is said to have been born to a 15-year old virgin in 660 BCE.
Today is also the birthday of mythologist and "Follow Your Bliss" teacher Joseph Campbell (1910).
Sunday March 28
A day of mystery in many ancient calendars. It was widely believed in the Hellenistic and early Christian periods that God created the Sun and the Moon on this day. Third-century Christians accordingly chose 3/28 as the day of Christ's nativity, and observed it as such until the December feast of Christmas was created in the 4th century. On this day the ancient Romans hold ceremonies of purification and sacrifice, including, in later Roman times, gladiatorial combats at the tombs of their ancestors.
In ancient Mesopotamian calendars, this is the feast day of Ishtar, goddess of love and war.
March 29 - 30
In the Hindu calendar, this day is Ramanavami, birthday of Rama, one of the most powerful and beloved avatars of Vishnu the Creator. The epic Ramayana tells the story of Rama and his consort Sita, avatar of Lakshmi. Ramanavami is among the most spectacular of Hindu holidays, as it features enactments in theatre and dance of such famous episodes as Rama and Sita hunting the Golden Deer.
~ From the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst
Monday, March 22
Ancient Rock Art Site Rediscovered in Southern India
KUPGAL HILL, INDIA, March 19, 2004: A rock art site dating back to the Neolithic or late Stone Age has been rediscovered in southern India. There is evidence that the site was first found in 1892 but the exact location was lost to future archaeologists. The Kupgal Hill site, according to the article, has boulders which have small, groove-like impressions called "musical stones" by locals. When struck with small granite rocks, these impressions emit deep, "gong-like notes." These boulders may have been an important part of formalized rituals by the people who came there. Researchers believe that shamen or young males came to Kupgal Hill to "tap into" the power of the site. Dr. Nicole Boivin from the University of Cambridge in the UK has written a book called "The Antiquity," and in this book she explains that in some cultures percussion plays a role in rituals that are intended for shamen to communicate with the supernatural world. At the Kupgal Hill site Dr. Boivin observed that the motifs on the rocks are of cattle and some human-like figures either on their own or with the cattle. Dr. Boivin is concerned about modern day commercial granite quarrying in the area.
~ from the BBC News site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3520384.stm
~ from the BBC News site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3520384.stm
Happy Spring Equinox
Spring Equinox, one of the four great cardinal festivals of the solar year. The spring season begins as the Sun enters Aries, and as James Joyce put it, the Ram has power. The festival period that begins now, and lasts for nearly a week, marks the return of Light, and of Mother Earth's vitality, from winter's long darkness and cold. From this point on the solar wheel, the days grow longer until the Summer Solstice and the "white nights" of late June. Spiritual traditions all over the planet celebrate this festival with hunts for eggs, rabbits and other symbols of birth. The Spring Equinox and the New Moon in Aries are both doubly charged this year (2004), coming as they do within only a few hours of each other.
The ancient Celtic and other central European peoples called the Spring Equinox Alban Eilir, or Ostara (source of "Easter"). It marks the day when the Earth goddess Bride, who had married the sky god at Imbolc time in early February, conceives the Sun Child who will be born nine months later at the Winter Solstice.
Like the Winter Solstice festival cycle that runs from Dec. 21 - 25, the Spring Equinox festival cycle extends over a few days, March 21 to 25. The reason for this is simply that in very ancient times, millennia before the rise of Ur and Egypt, the Spring Equinox fell on March 25 and thus was celebrated on that day. It has since moved back, from the Precession of the Equinoxes, to March 21. Thus the closer the equinox festival is to March 21, the newer it is; the closer it is to March 25, the more ancient; or, as in the case of Christian festivals, superseded an older "pagan" festival.
In Japan this day is Shubun, the Buddhist day of contemplation on hakanai, the impermanence of things. This day is ideally placed, not long before the start of one of natures's most glorious spectacles of impermanence, the Japanese cherry blossom season.
In India, this is the great annual Hindu Spring festival of Navaratri, also called Gangaur because it celebrates the Great Mother (Maha Devi) in her aspect as Gauri, the nurturer, the source of all vitality, fruition and increase. Each of the festival's nine days -- the number symbolizing the months in a human gestation cycle -- venerates a different emanation of the goddess.
~ from the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst at www.hermes3.net
The ancient Celtic and other central European peoples called the Spring Equinox Alban Eilir, or Ostara (source of "Easter"). It marks the day when the Earth goddess Bride, who had married the sky god at Imbolc time in early February, conceives the Sun Child who will be born nine months later at the Winter Solstice.
Like the Winter Solstice festival cycle that runs from Dec. 21 - 25, the Spring Equinox festival cycle extends over a few days, March 21 to 25. The reason for this is simply that in very ancient times, millennia before the rise of Ur and Egypt, the Spring Equinox fell on March 25 and thus was celebrated on that day. It has since moved back, from the Precession of the Equinoxes, to March 21. Thus the closer the equinox festival is to March 21, the newer it is; the closer it is to March 25, the more ancient; or, as in the case of Christian festivals, superseded an older "pagan" festival.
In Japan this day is Shubun, the Buddhist day of contemplation on hakanai, the impermanence of things. This day is ideally placed, not long before the start of one of natures's most glorious spectacles of impermanence, the Japanese cherry blossom season.
In India, this is the great annual Hindu Spring festival of Navaratri, also called Gangaur because it celebrates the Great Mother (Maha Devi) in her aspect as Gauri, the nurturer, the source of all vitality, fruition and increase. Each of the festival's nine days -- the number symbolizing the months in a human gestation cycle -- venerates a different emanation of the goddess.
~ from the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst at www.hermes3.net
Sunday, March 21
Preparation for becoming a Mystic: 2
Buddhist techniques of preparation
From The New Meditation Handbook
Meditations to Make Our Life Happy and Meaningful
by Geshe Kelsang
These potentials are like seeds in the field of our mind, and our meditation practice is like cultivating these seeds. However, our meditation practice will be successful only if we make good preparations beforehand.
If we want to cultivate external crops we begin by making careful preparations. First, we remove from the soil anything that might obstruct their growth, such as stones and weeds. Second, we enrich the soil with compost or fertilizer to give it the strength to sustain growth. Third, we provide warm, moist conditions to enable the seeds to germinate and the plants to grow.
In the same way, to cultivate our inner crops of Dharma realizations we must also begin by making careful preparations.
First, we must purify our mind to eliminate the negative karma we have accumulated in the past, because if we do not purify this karma it will obstruct the growth of Dharma realizations. Second, we need to give our mind the strength to support the growth of Dharma realizations by accumulating merit. Third, we need to activate and sustain the growth of Dharma realizations by receiving the blessings of the holy beings.
It is very important to receive blessings. For example, if we are growing outer crops, even if we remove the weeds and fertilize the soil we shall not be able to grow anything if we do not provide warmth and moisture. These germinate the seeds, sustain the growth of the plants, and finally ripen the crop. In the same way, even if we purify our mind and accumulate merit we shall find it difficult to meet with success in our meditations if we do not receive the blessings of the holy beings.
Receiving blessings transforms our mind by activating our virtuous potentials, sustaining the growth of our Dharma realizations, and bringing our Dharma practice to completion.
From this we can see that there are three essential preparations for successful meditation: purifying negativities, accumulating merit, and receiving blessings.
From The New Meditation Handbook
Meditations to Make Our Life Happy and Meaningful
by Geshe Kelsang
These potentials are like seeds in the field of our mind, and our meditation practice is like cultivating these seeds. However, our meditation practice will be successful only if we make good preparations beforehand.
If we want to cultivate external crops we begin by making careful preparations. First, we remove from the soil anything that might obstruct their growth, such as stones and weeds. Second, we enrich the soil with compost or fertilizer to give it the strength to sustain growth. Third, we provide warm, moist conditions to enable the seeds to germinate and the plants to grow.
In the same way, to cultivate our inner crops of Dharma realizations we must also begin by making careful preparations.
First, we must purify our mind to eliminate the negative karma we have accumulated in the past, because if we do not purify this karma it will obstruct the growth of Dharma realizations. Second, we need to give our mind the strength to support the growth of Dharma realizations by accumulating merit. Third, we need to activate and sustain the growth of Dharma realizations by receiving the blessings of the holy beings.
It is very important to receive blessings. For example, if we are growing outer crops, even if we remove the weeds and fertilize the soil we shall not be able to grow anything if we do not provide warmth and moisture. These germinate the seeds, sustain the growth of the plants, and finally ripen the crop. In the same way, even if we purify our mind and accumulate merit we shall find it difficult to meet with success in our meditations if we do not receive the blessings of the holy beings.
Receiving blessings transforms our mind by activating our virtuous potentials, sustaining the growth of our Dharma realizations, and bringing our Dharma practice to completion.
From this we can see that there are three essential preparations for successful meditation: purifying negativities, accumulating merit, and receiving blessings.
Saturday, March 20
Preparation for becoming a Mystic: I
The First Steps - Part 1
Yama, Niyama and Asana
The Yogic way
~ Swami Vivekananda
Raja Yoga is divided into eight steps. The first is Yama - non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, and non-receiving of any gifts. Next is Niyama - cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study, and self-surrender to God. Then comes Asana, or posture; Pranayama, or control of Prana; Pratyahara, or restraint of the senses from their objects; Dharana, or fixing the mind on a spot; Dhyana, or meditation; and Samadhi, or superconsciousness. The Yama and Niyama, as we see, are moral trainings; without these as the basis no practice of Yoga will succeed. As these two become established, the Yogi will begin to realise the fruits of his practice; without these it will never bear fruit. A Yogi must not think of injuring anyone, by thought, word, or deed. Mercy shall not be for men alone, but shall go beyond, and embrace the whole world.
The next step is Asana, posture. A series of exercises, physical and mental, is to be gone through every day, until certain higher states are reached. Therefore it is quite necessary that we should find a posture in which we can remain long. That posture which is the easiest for one should be the one chosen. For thinking, a certain posture may be very easy for one man, while to another it may be very difficult. We will find later on that during the study of these psychological matters a good deal of activity goes on in the body. Nerve currents will have to be displaced and given a new channel. New sorts of vibrations will begin, the whole constitution will be remodelled, as it were. But the main part of the activity will lie along the spinal column, so that the one thing necessary for the posture is to hold the spinal column free, sitting erect, holding the three parts--the chest, neck, and head--in a straight line. Let the whole weight of the body be supported by the ribs, and then you have an easy natural posture, with the spine straight. You will easily see that you cannot think very high thoughts with the chest in. This portion of the Yoga is a little similar to the Hatha-Yoga which deals entirely with the physical body, its aim being to make the physical body very strong. We have nothing to do with it here, because its practices are very difficult, and cannot be learned in a day, and, after all, do not lead to much spiritual growth. Many of these practices you will find in Delsarte and other teachers, such as placing the body in different postures, but the object in these is physical, not psychological. There is not one muscle in the body over which a man cannot establish a perfect control. The heart can be made to stop or go on at his bidding, and each part of the organism can be similarly controlled.
The result of this branch of Yoga is to make men live long; health is the chief idea, the one goal of the Hatha-Yogi. He is determined not to fall sick, and he never does. He lives long; a hundred years is nothing to him; he is quite young and fresh when he is 150, without one hair turned grey. But that is all. A banyan tree lives sometimes 5000 years, but it is a banyan tree and nothing more. So, if a man lives long, he is only a healthy animal. One or two ordinary lessons of the Hatha-Yogis are very useful. For instance, some of you will find it a good thing for headaches to drink cold water through the nose as soon as you get up in the morning; the whole day your brain will be nice and cool, and you will never catch cold. It is very easy to do; put your nose into the water, draw it up through the nostrils and make a pump action in the throat.
To be continued....
Yama, Niyama and Asana
The Yogic way
~ Swami Vivekananda
Raja Yoga is divided into eight steps. The first is Yama - non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, and non-receiving of any gifts. Next is Niyama - cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study, and self-surrender to God. Then comes Asana, or posture; Pranayama, or control of Prana; Pratyahara, or restraint of the senses from their objects; Dharana, or fixing the mind on a spot; Dhyana, or meditation; and Samadhi, or superconsciousness. The Yama and Niyama, as we see, are moral trainings; without these as the basis no practice of Yoga will succeed. As these two become established, the Yogi will begin to realise the fruits of his practice; without these it will never bear fruit. A Yogi must not think of injuring anyone, by thought, word, or deed. Mercy shall not be for men alone, but shall go beyond, and embrace the whole world.
The next step is Asana, posture. A series of exercises, physical and mental, is to be gone through every day, until certain higher states are reached. Therefore it is quite necessary that we should find a posture in which we can remain long. That posture which is the easiest for one should be the one chosen. For thinking, a certain posture may be very easy for one man, while to another it may be very difficult. We will find later on that during the study of these psychological matters a good deal of activity goes on in the body. Nerve currents will have to be displaced and given a new channel. New sorts of vibrations will begin, the whole constitution will be remodelled, as it were. But the main part of the activity will lie along the spinal column, so that the one thing necessary for the posture is to hold the spinal column free, sitting erect, holding the three parts--the chest, neck, and head--in a straight line. Let the whole weight of the body be supported by the ribs, and then you have an easy natural posture, with the spine straight. You will easily see that you cannot think very high thoughts with the chest in. This portion of the Yoga is a little similar to the Hatha-Yoga which deals entirely with the physical body, its aim being to make the physical body very strong. We have nothing to do with it here, because its practices are very difficult, and cannot be learned in a day, and, after all, do not lead to much spiritual growth. Many of these practices you will find in Delsarte and other teachers, such as placing the body in different postures, but the object in these is physical, not psychological. There is not one muscle in the body over which a man cannot establish a perfect control. The heart can be made to stop or go on at his bidding, and each part of the organism can be similarly controlled.
The result of this branch of Yoga is to make men live long; health is the chief idea, the one goal of the Hatha-Yogi. He is determined not to fall sick, and he never does. He lives long; a hundred years is nothing to him; he is quite young and fresh when he is 150, without one hair turned grey. But that is all. A banyan tree lives sometimes 5000 years, but it is a banyan tree and nothing more. So, if a man lives long, he is only a healthy animal. One or two ordinary lessons of the Hatha-Yogis are very useful. For instance, some of you will find it a good thing for headaches to drink cold water through the nose as soon as you get up in the morning; the whole day your brain will be nice and cool, and you will never catch cold. It is very easy to do; put your nose into the water, draw it up through the nostrils and make a pump action in the throat.
To be continued....
Friday, March 12
The Emptiness
What sages learn
Is to return their nature
To the beginning
And let their minds
Travel freely in
Openness.
What developed people
Learn is to link their nature
To vast emptiness and
Become aware of the
Silent infinite.
~ Huai-nan-tzu
Is to return their nature
To the beginning
And let their minds
Travel freely in
Openness.
What developed people
Learn is to link their nature
To vast emptiness and
Become aware of the
Silent infinite.
~ Huai-nan-tzu
Meditation
Having closed all doors of the senses, and firmly holding the mind in the cavitiy of your heart and then fixing the life breath in the head and thus remaing steadfast in yogic concentration on god, he who leaves the body and departs uttering the one indestructible Brahma, OM and dwelling on me in my absolute aspect, reaches the supreme goal.
-BHAGVATGITA IV, meditation 12-15
-BHAGVATGITA IV, meditation 12-15
Wednesday, March 10
The dream....
A great image metaphor of the trascendant dreaming of itself as real and vice versa - The Hindu concept of Vishnu (the universal consciousness) and Krishna (the living consciousness) are one and are nothing but a dream of each other as being different.
Tuesday, March 9
The flame within calls....
To be one with the inner light is a thirst that is hard to quench. Sometimes I fear I do not have the courage to stay the course. Like the moth that keeps approaching the flame of the lantern, I too am scared sometimes of being burnt. The glass around the flame is like my little glimpses, the ones I see when sometimes deep in meditation, I lose myself and feel a sense of bliss. Ah, if only I could break through the glass and then the flame and I could be like one. But the moth is fearless unlike me. It keeps striking its head against the glass. Who knows, one day it just might break through. Perhaps I too could be as lucky as that moth.
Saturday, March 6
Death
This morning I woke up thinking of death. Why do we fear death? I suspect it is not death we fear, but the process of dying. We fear pain, suffering, loss, our own minds, debilitation, loneliness, over-dependency and regret. We have to develop the ability to cooperate gracefully with the inevitable, and death is inevitable. If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, or in a week, what would you do? Would you review your life, prioritize what is important and then try and live out those priorities? Or, would you collapse in fear or denial at the thought of impending finality and enter that domain clinging to the pillow of your regrets? The latter is the gateway to hell, and it amounts to what hell really is, while the prior is the beginning of spiritual wisdom.
To understand the inevitability of death and to face it, no matter how far away it may appear to be is the key to the spiritual life. Mystics, prophets and monks of all traditions are called twice born. This implies that at some point in their lives, they choose to materially die and are then reborn into the spiritual life. They face death squarely and say, "now I live my life as a dead person!" What a release that must be. No more the fear of death. No more the dread of the inevitable. Now you are dead and you can fully live in the moment, every moment, and sense the presence of the divine.
Emotional and psychological mediocrity are not the way to live life, we should be able to plumb the depths of misery to understand true joy and bliss. If we face death squarely and understand that whatever time we have left, a week or forty years, is a gift to be valued, then perhaps we will live every moment fully from now on. First remove all regrets from your life. Then give your love to those you have shared your heart with along the way and give it freely and unconditionally. Then turn inwards and open your inner eye and say, "I am already dead, now let me return to the place I am really from." If you do this with sincerity, the void from which you have come, from which our very essence and matter arose, this void will open its gates and let you catch a glimpse of the light you will see when you die. This moment will be true bliss and then every moment of your life will be lived as a dead person, bathed in the light of timeless, formless, blissful immortality.
To understand the inevitability of death and to face it, no matter how far away it may appear to be is the key to the spiritual life. Mystics, prophets and monks of all traditions are called twice born. This implies that at some point in their lives, they choose to materially die and are then reborn into the spiritual life. They face death squarely and say, "now I live my life as a dead person!" What a release that must be. No more the fear of death. No more the dread of the inevitable. Now you are dead and you can fully live in the moment, every moment, and sense the presence of the divine.
Emotional and psychological mediocrity are not the way to live life, we should be able to plumb the depths of misery to understand true joy and bliss. If we face death squarely and understand that whatever time we have left, a week or forty years, is a gift to be valued, then perhaps we will live every moment fully from now on. First remove all regrets from your life. Then give your love to those you have shared your heart with along the way and give it freely and unconditionally. Then turn inwards and open your inner eye and say, "I am already dead, now let me return to the place I am really from." If you do this with sincerity, the void from which you have come, from which our very essence and matter arose, this void will open its gates and let you catch a glimpse of the light you will see when you die. This moment will be true bliss and then every moment of your life will be lived as a dead person, bathed in the light of timeless, formless, blissful immortality.
Thursday, March 4
Waking up the mystic in me.....
When you look at me,
You see a man,
I bleed and ache and love and laugh,
Need love, need to love, need so much.
Yet every three days I shed my skin,
My cells die and are born again,
I am eternally new, born again and again.
They say that every atom in my body was once a star,
I too must sacrifice myself now
For I too was once a mountain, yes a star.
If you prod me deeper you will find,
I was there at the Beginning of time,
at the awakening of being and of mind.
I am essence at the subatomic plain
Subtle vibrations of cosmic strings
I am not a man, not what you see.
I am eternity trapped in the illusion of this reality.
I am everything there is, all that has been,
And all that is to be.
This body, this need, this time is only but a dream.
You see a man,
I bleed and ache and love and laugh,
Need love, need to love, need so much.
Yet every three days I shed my skin,
My cells die and are born again,
I am eternally new, born again and again.
They say that every atom in my body was once a star,
I too must sacrifice myself now
For I too was once a mountain, yes a star.
If you prod me deeper you will find,
I was there at the Beginning of time,
at the awakening of being and of mind.
I am essence at the subatomic plain
Subtle vibrations of cosmic strings
I am not a man, not what you see.
I am eternity trapped in the illusion of this reality.
I am everything there is, all that has been,
And all that is to be.
This body, this need, this time is only but a dream.
Wednesday, March 3
Kabir's poem
O SERVANT, where dost thou seek Me?
Lo! I am beside thee.
I am neither in temple nor in mosque: I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash:
Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation.
If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me: thou shalt meet Me in a moment of time.
Kabir says, "O Sadhu! God is the breath of all breath."
~ From the SONGS OF KABIR translated by Rabindranath Tagore
Lo! I am beside thee.
I am neither in temple nor in mosque: I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash:
Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation.
If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me: thou shalt meet Me in a moment of time.
Kabir says, "O Sadhu! God is the breath of all breath."
~ From the SONGS OF KABIR translated by Rabindranath Tagore
Tuesday, March 2
Contemplating the transcendental
"All things are created by the Om;
The love-form is His body.
He is without form, without quality, without decay:
Seek thou union with Him!
But that formless God takes a thousand forms in the eyes of His creatures:
He is pure and indestructible,
His form is infinite and fathomless,
He dances in rapture, and waves of form arise from His dance.
The body and the mind cannot contain themselves,
when they are touched by His great joy.
He is immersed in all consciousness, all joys, and all sorrows:
He has no beginning and no end;
He holds all within His bliss."
~Kabir
The love-form is His body.
He is without form, without quality, without decay:
Seek thou union with Him!
But that formless God takes a thousand forms in the eyes of His creatures:
He is pure and indestructible,
His form is infinite and fathomless,
He dances in rapture, and waves of form arise from His dance.
The body and the mind cannot contain themselves,
when they are touched by His great joy.
He is immersed in all consciousness, all joys, and all sorrows:
He has no beginning and no end;
He holds all within His bliss."
~Kabir
Sunday, February 29
Patterns
Have you noticed patterns in things around you? Do you see 1:11 or at 11:11 on a regular basis? When you look around you, do you see patterns, or shapes, or geometries in the most mundane every day things. If so you are not alone. One of our evolutionary traits that increased our chances of survival was the ability to see and recollect patterns - from seasonal hunting to watching the cycles of nature and the stars. In fact, the concept of time is very much a by-product of this for we are only able to understand our own mortality when we see it as a limited number of cycles. I suppose, that in order for us to understand true mysticism we need to get beyond the patterns or the cycles of time and perceive the higher patterns in the universe, ones that initiate us into the mysteries of infinite space and time, of timelessness, of an inner pattern. Look around you and let your everyday humdrum world initiate you into the mysteries of the universe. You never know, the portal to the infinte may be opening up just next to you. Don't miss it!
Friday, February 27
Preparation
Next week I am going to write about being a "Modern Mystic." Yes, it is possible to live in the modern world of speed, terrorism, financial fraud, war, premeptive action, technology, genetics, strings, quarks, Mars rovers, designer drugs and yet still experience the mystical. I'll take you on a journey through many traditions and then look at how it can be achieved today. But, before we induce the mystical, we have to be prepared. Having a mystical experience when unprepared is like having a 20,000 volt current pass through your neurones when you are only built to withstand a thousand. When it does come, it will be like a thousand light bulbs lighting up in your head and you will need to be ready. So we will look at getting prepared. Come back next week and I will start my quest.
Ah! Sunflower
"Ah, Sunflower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller's journey is done:
Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go."
~William Blake
The painting here is Blake's "The Ancient of Days". William Blake (b. Nov. 28, 1757, London--d. Aug. 12, 1827, London) was the first of the great English Romantic poets, as well as a painter, engraver and printer.
Who countest the steps of the Sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller's journey is done:
Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go."
~William Blake
The painting here is Blake's "The Ancient of Days". William Blake (b. Nov. 28, 1757, London--d. Aug. 12, 1827, London) was the first of the great English Romantic poets, as well as a painter, engraver and printer.
Wednesday, February 25
The Passion
I haven't seen the new Mel Gibson film yet, but I did hear a great review of it on NPR from an editor at Slate (his name slips me.) He described the film as being in theme with Mel Gibson's other work in which the hero always suffers excruciating pain and setback before finally receiving redemption or justice - Mad Max, Payback, Braveheart and the Patriot. I guess I am concerned about a film that focusses on the sacrifice of the man rather than the core of his message. Perhaps Mel Gibson should read the Gospel of Thomas. What do you think?
Ash Wednesday
For Roman Catholics, this is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the season of austerity leading to the celebration of Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Easter. On this day the celebrant of the rite marks crosses of black ash on the third eye chakras of the faithful to remind them of the vanity of all worldly pleasures, and ask them to turn inward to cleanse the soul of all impurities in the weeks before the solemn rites of sacrifice and redemption are enacted. Ash Wednesday is yet another Christian adaptation of an earlier festival: the Adonia, a time of mourning for the Syrian demigod Tammuz, whose rites were observed at this time all over the eastern Mediterranean, especially at Byblos and the other major cities of Syria.
from the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst
from the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst
Tuesday, February 24
Shrove Tuesday
From BBC Religion and Ethics site
Shrove Tuesday is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent. It's a day of penitence, to clean the soul, and a day of celebration as the last chance to feast before Lent begins. Shrove Tuesday is probably the Christian festival that the family enjoys most, after Christmas, of course. But there's more to Shrove Tuesday than pigging out on pancakes or taking part in a public pancake race. The pancakes themselves are part of an ancient custom with deeply religious roots.
Penitence
Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the ritual of shriving that Christians used to undergo in the past. In shriving, a person confesses their sins and receives absolution for them. When a person receives absolution for their sins, they are forgiven for them and released from the guilt and pain that they have caused them. In the Catholic or Orthodox context, the absolution is pronounced by a priest. This tradition is very old. Over 1000 years ago a monk wrote in the Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Institutes:
"In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him."
Shrove Tuesday celebrations
Shrove Tuesday is a day of celebration as well as penitence, because it's the last day before Lent. Lent is a time of abstinence, of giving things up. So Shrove Tuesday is the last chance to indulge yourself, and to use up the foods that aren't allowed in Lent.
Giving up foods: but not wasting them
In the old days there were many foods that observant Christians would not eat during Lent: foods such as meat and fish, fats, eggs, and milky foods. So that no food was wasted, families would have a feast on the shriving Tuesday, and eat up all the foods that wouldn't last the forty days of Lent without going off. The need to eat up the fats gave rise to the French name Mardi Gras; meaning fat tuesday. Pancakes became associated with Shrove Tuesday as they were a dish that could use up all the eggs fats and milk in the house with just the addition of flour.
Shrove Tuesday is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent. It's a day of penitence, to clean the soul, and a day of celebration as the last chance to feast before Lent begins. Shrove Tuesday is probably the Christian festival that the family enjoys most, after Christmas, of course. But there's more to Shrove Tuesday than pigging out on pancakes or taking part in a public pancake race. The pancakes themselves are part of an ancient custom with deeply religious roots.
Penitence
Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the ritual of shriving that Christians used to undergo in the past. In shriving, a person confesses their sins and receives absolution for them. When a person receives absolution for their sins, they are forgiven for them and released from the guilt and pain that they have caused them. In the Catholic or Orthodox context, the absolution is pronounced by a priest. This tradition is very old. Over 1000 years ago a monk wrote in the Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Institutes:
"In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him."
Shrove Tuesday celebrations
Shrove Tuesday is a day of celebration as well as penitence, because it's the last day before Lent. Lent is a time of abstinence, of giving things up. So Shrove Tuesday is the last chance to indulge yourself, and to use up the foods that aren't allowed in Lent.
Giving up foods: but not wasting them
In the old days there were many foods that observant Christians would not eat during Lent: foods such as meat and fish, fats, eggs, and milky foods. So that no food was wasted, families would have a feast on the shriving Tuesday, and eat up all the foods that wouldn't last the forty days of Lent without going off. The need to eat up the fats gave rise to the French name Mardi Gras; meaning fat tuesday. Pancakes became associated with Shrove Tuesday as they were a dish that could use up all the eggs fats and milk in the house with just the addition of flour.
Major Religions of the World
Ranked by Number of Adherents
from adherents.com
(Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is sociological/statistical in perspective.)
1. Christianity: 2 billion
2. Islam: 1.3 billion
3. Hinduism: 900 million
4. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 850 million
5. Buddhism: 360 million
6. Chinese traditional religion (Confuscionism): 225 million
7. Primal-indigenous: 150 million
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 95 million
9. Sikhism: 23 million
10. Juche: 19 million
11. Spiritism: 14 million
12. Judaism: 14 million
13. Baha'i: 6 million
14. Jainism: 4 million
15. Shinto: 4 million
16. Cao Dai: 3 million
17. Tenrikyo: 2.4 million
18. Neo-Paganism: 1 million
19. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
20. Rastafarianism: 700 thousand
21. Scientology: 600 thousand
22. Zoroastrianism: 150 thousand
The adherent counts presented in the list above are estimates of the number of people who have at least a minimal level of self-identification as adherents of the religion. Levels of participation vary within all groups. These numbers tend toward the high end of reasonable worldwide estimates. Valid arguments can be made for different figures, but if the same criteria are used for all groups, the relative order should be the same. Further details and sources are available below and in the Adherents.com main database.
from adherents.com
(Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is sociological/statistical in perspective.)
1. Christianity: 2 billion
2. Islam: 1.3 billion
3. Hinduism: 900 million
4. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 850 million
5. Buddhism: 360 million
6. Chinese traditional religion (Confuscionism): 225 million
7. Primal-indigenous: 150 million
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 95 million
9. Sikhism: 23 million
10. Juche: 19 million
11. Spiritism: 14 million
12. Judaism: 14 million
13. Baha'i: 6 million
14. Jainism: 4 million
15. Shinto: 4 million
16. Cao Dai: 3 million
17. Tenrikyo: 2.4 million
18. Neo-Paganism: 1 million
19. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
20. Rastafarianism: 700 thousand
21. Scientology: 600 thousand
22. Zoroastrianism: 150 thousand
The adherent counts presented in the list above are estimates of the number of people who have at least a minimal level of self-identification as adherents of the religion. Levels of participation vary within all groups. These numbers tend toward the high end of reasonable worldwide estimates. Valid arguments can be made for different figures, but if the same criteria are used for all groups, the relative order should be the same. Further details and sources are available below and in the Adherents.com main database.
Sunday, February 22
Starting a Quest
Before you start any quest you have to prepare for the journey, even if that journey is inwards into the deepest recesses of your being, into your soul.
"having closed all doors of senses and firmly holding the mind in the cavitiy of heart & then fixing the life breath in the head & thus remaing steadfast in yogic concentration on god, he who leaves the body & departs uttering the one indestructible Brahma, OM & dwelling on me in my obsolute aspect, reaches the supreme goal."
Bhagavad Gita IV, meditation 12-1
"It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light. First, believe in this world -- that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you are not understanding it in the right light. throw the burden on yourselves!"
Swami Vivekananda
"having closed all doors of senses and firmly holding the mind in the cavitiy of heart & then fixing the life breath in the head & thus remaing steadfast in yogic concentration on god, he who leaves the body & departs uttering the one indestructible Brahma, OM & dwelling on me in my obsolute aspect, reaches the supreme goal."
Bhagavad Gita IV, meditation 12-1
"It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light. First, believe in this world -- that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you are not understanding it in the right light. throw the burden on yourselves!"
Swami Vivekananda
The Modern Mystic
At this early hour of the morning I contemplate the mystic in me. I have learned that there are techniques in every tradition to awaken an inner perception of the transcendant state. A state that lies beyond time and beyond the senses. It is a process by which one can awaken more of the brain than most human beings use in an average lifetime. From the words of mystics before me, it seems the mind is a transmitter or a device to connect to fields, states and dimensions untenable through human experience alone. This state can be induced temporarily with DMT, mushrooms or LSD. Some are born with this ability to use more of their minds. But the true state, the one which provides the most satisfactory outcome comes through practice. And the result....pure bliss. In a world where we crave interconnectedness through the web, through our technologies and our communications, there is actually only one true way to connect to everything, and that lies within. Withdraw your senses. Control your breath. Release the fields of electomangetic activity within your spine. Make sounds that awaken the centers. Watch. Watch. Watch. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Surrender. And then a light will come. You will never be able to go back. Bliss!
Saturday, February 21
Sayings of Jesus from The Gospel of Thomas
20. The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us what Heaven's kingdom is like." He said to them, "It's like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, but when it falls on prepared soil, it produces a large plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky."
37. His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?" Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample then, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."
77. Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
- Gospel of Thomas, verses [20, 37, 77], Nag Hammadi Library
The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth and is now accepted by theologians and historians as a true part of the early Christian Church and as one of the most significant manuscripts ever found about Jesus and the history of the Church. Portions of three Greek copies of the Gospel of Thomas were found in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt about one hundred years ago. They are known as Oxyrhynchus Papyrus and were probably written during the early part of the 3rd Century, A complete version in Coptic, the native Egyptian language written in an alphabet derived from the Greek alphabet, was found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. That version can be dated to about 340 AD. The Coptic version is a translation of the Greek version. Most scholars believe that the Gospel of Thomas was originally written in Syria in Greek. This Gospel was excluded from the original New Testament after the Conference of Nicea because it puts forward a version of Jesus' teachings that were contrary to ideas popular in the Roman Empire at that time and the later Roman Catholic Church. The heretic idea it professed was that the Kingdom of God is spread out upon the earth now, if people can just come to see it; and that there is divine light within all people, a light that can enable them to see the Kingdom of God upon the earth. This meant that every one of us has the ability to experience God. This philosophy of direct knowledge became known as Gnosticism.
RC
You can read the entire manuscript at gnosis.org and find out more about the history of the Gospel of Thomas at this site.
37. His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?" Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample then, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."
77. Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
- Gospel of Thomas, verses [20, 37, 77], Nag Hammadi Library
The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth and is now accepted by theologians and historians as a true part of the early Christian Church and as one of the most significant manuscripts ever found about Jesus and the history of the Church. Portions of three Greek copies of the Gospel of Thomas were found in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt about one hundred years ago. They are known as Oxyrhynchus Papyrus and were probably written during the early part of the 3rd Century, A complete version in Coptic, the native Egyptian language written in an alphabet derived from the Greek alphabet, was found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. That version can be dated to about 340 AD. The Coptic version is a translation of the Greek version. Most scholars believe that the Gospel of Thomas was originally written in Syria in Greek. This Gospel was excluded from the original New Testament after the Conference of Nicea because it puts forward a version of Jesus' teachings that were contrary to ideas popular in the Roman Empire at that time and the later Roman Catholic Church. The heretic idea it professed was that the Kingdom of God is spread out upon the earth now, if people can just come to see it; and that there is divine light within all people, a light that can enable them to see the Kingdom of God upon the earth. This meant that every one of us has the ability to experience God. This philosophy of direct knowledge became known as Gnosticism.
RC
You can read the entire manuscript at gnosis.org and find out more about the history of the Gospel of Thomas at this site.
The Legend of Valentine's Day
For those of you who celebrated Valentine's day on the 14th, you may have been tempted to believe that the whole thing was a recent invention of the card publishing, jewelery and chocolate industries. Well, put your minds at rest. Valentine's day has been dedicated to lovers since ancient antiquity.
The Lover's day celebrated in antiquity was actually the 15th of February, and the Romans celebrated it as Lupercalia, the festive day of the gods Lupercus and Faunus, both responsible for the fertility of flocks, fields and people. On Lupercalia, goats and dogs were sacrificed on Palatine Hill in Rome and then young men would race on to the streets beneath the hill wielding goatskin thongs called Februa (same root as February). They would lash women gathered in the streets with their thongs. Februa lashing supposedly ensured fertility and easy child delivery.
The celebration of Lupercalia transformed and became more civilized as the Roman Empire expanded. When Rome conquered Gaul, a new tradition was developed of exchanging the first Valentine-like cards. Apparently, a container in which women had placed their names (possibly accompanied by love notes) was used in a lottery. Men drawing a women's name would either seek or were guaranteed (this detail seems obscured by time) a woman's "favors" whatever those might be.
The legendary naming of St. Valentine Day stems from real-life Christian martyrs of the Roman Empire known as Valentines. One of these is believed to have been a Roman priest and physician who was killed in the third century, during the persecutions of the Emperor Claudius II Gothicus - the Goth. A second Saint Valentine candidate was believed to be the bishop of Teni and was executed in Rome at around the same time. Their status as saints was assured through legends of harboring Christians from persecution, curing the blindness of a cell keeper's daughter and for conducting marriages while they were forbidden during times of war. It is most likely that this last legend and the traditions of Lupercalia ensured that St.Valentine became known as the patron saint of lovers.
The Lover's day celebrated in antiquity was actually the 15th of February, and the Romans celebrated it as Lupercalia, the festive day of the gods Lupercus and Faunus, both responsible for the fertility of flocks, fields and people. On Lupercalia, goats and dogs were sacrificed on Palatine Hill in Rome and then young men would race on to the streets beneath the hill wielding goatskin thongs called Februa (same root as February). They would lash women gathered in the streets with their thongs. Februa lashing supposedly ensured fertility and easy child delivery.
The celebration of Lupercalia transformed and became more civilized as the Roman Empire expanded. When Rome conquered Gaul, a new tradition was developed of exchanging the first Valentine-like cards. Apparently, a container in which women had placed their names (possibly accompanied by love notes) was used in a lottery. Men drawing a women's name would either seek or were guaranteed (this detail seems obscured by time) a woman's "favors" whatever those might be.
The legendary naming of St. Valentine Day stems from real-life Christian martyrs of the Roman Empire known as Valentines. One of these is believed to have been a Roman priest and physician who was killed in the third century, during the persecutions of the Emperor Claudius II Gothicus - the Goth. A second Saint Valentine candidate was believed to be the bishop of Teni and was executed in Rome at around the same time. Their status as saints was assured through legends of harboring Christians from persecution, curing the blindness of a cell keeper's daughter and for conducting marriages while they were forbidden during times of war. It is most likely that this last legend and the traditions of Lupercalia ensured that St.Valentine became known as the patron saint of lovers.
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