'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

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."

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

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

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

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"

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