"Be the Change" - His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Inverness, Scotland Charles Bukowski: Depression and Three Days in Bed Can Restore Your Creative Juices (NSFW) Pico Iyer once called Charles Bukowski the “laureate of American lowlife,” and that's because he wrote poems for and about ordinary Americans -- people who experienced poverty, the tedium and grind of work, and sometimes frayed relationships, bouts of alcoholism, drug addiction and the rest. Bukowski could write so eloquently about this because he came from this world. He grew up in a poor immigrant household with an abusive father, took to the bottle at an early age, worked at a Los Angeles post office for a decade plus, and had a long and tumultuous relationship with Jane Cooney Baker, a widow eleven years his senior, who drank to excess and died at 51, leaving Bukowski broken. And then there's the depression. Bukowski experienced that too. But he knew how to channel it, how to turn days of darkness into sources of personal and creative renewal. Here's a transcript of what Bukowski has to say: I have periods where, you know, when I feel a little weak or depressed. via Biblioklept
Art and the Limits of Neuroscience The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless. What is art? What does art reveal about human nature? The trend these days is to approach such questions in the key of neuroscience. “Neuroaesthetics” is a term that has been coined to refer to the project of studying art using the methods of neuroscience. Semir Zeki, a neuroscientist at University College London, likes to say that art is governed by the laws of the brain. Leif Parsons What is striking about neuroaesthetics is not so much the fact that it has failed to produce interesting or surprising results about art, but rather the fact that no one — not the scientists, and not the artists and art historians — seem to have minded, or even noticed. What we do know is that a healthy brain is necessary for normal mental life, and indeed, for any life at all. But there is a second obstacle to progress in neuroaesthetics. Yet it’s early.
The Lord’s Prayer as a powerful Kundalini Meditation The Lord’s Prayer as a powerful Kundalini Meditation. When I was a child, I somehow understood the Lord’s Prayer was an important part of the Sunday Church service. Then as a student at a church school we recited this Christian prayer 2-3 times a day... often in way that was mechanical & without meaning. Despite this, I have often come back to this very traditional prayer for both the tough times & as part of the celebrations for the good times. The Lord’s Prayer was first linked to the awakening of the 7 chakra energy system by channeller and spiritual teacher Edgar Cayce (1877- 1945). Master Choa Kok Sui (1954-2007) author of Pranic Healing then researched this idea further. To experience this ancient prayer as an activation of the energy system (aura & chakras) for the expansion of consciousness is a beautiful, powerful & profound experience for me & many others. How does it work & what is the effect.
Ethics - Educating the Mind and Heart Humanism is an impossible dream | Andrew Brown Reading to the end of a recent press release I discovered that the British Humanist Association proclaims that it is "the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious and campaigning for an end to religious privilege and discrimination based on religion or belief. It exists to support and represent people who seek to live good and responsible lives without religious or superstitious beliefs." I realised that though I know what this means clearly enough, it's actually an entirely impossible dream. "Humanism" is, of course, a thoroughly contested word. But for the moment I will stick to the BHA's definition and ask whether that represents a coherent idea. The first point is that it is defined in a largely negative way. The humanism that the BHA stands for is quite clearly defined in opposition to Christendom. Christianity is not, of course, the only religion against which the BHA campaigns. But suppose this definition of religion is in fact quite wrong.
Can Neuroscience Challenge Roe V. Wade? The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless. When I was asked this summer to serve as an expert witness in an appellate case that some think could lead to the next Supreme Court test of Roe v. Wade, I was surprised. Rick Hearn is the attorney representing Jennie McCormack, an Idaho woman who was arrested for allegedly inducing her own abortion using mifepristone and misoprostol — two F.D.A.-approved drugs, also known as RU-486 — and for obtaining the drugs from another state over the Internet. While the case against Ms. The authors of a 2005 review of clinical research in the Journal of the American Medical Association have written, “Evidence regarding the capacity for fetal pain is limited but indicates that fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester.” As Mr. The turn to legislation based on alleged neuroscientific findings in search of an end-run around the protections provided by Roe v. Leif Parsons
Nadis, the Channels of Life force Energy A couple of years ago I use to visit a homeopath to treat a recurring hair fall problem, she would diagnose the cause by checking my pulse also known as Nadi Pariksha (pulse examination). Surprisingly, she would point out the right causes, simply by examining the energy flow in the nadis. In ancient Indian medicine, Nadis are the channels or energy pathways that carry Prana or life force throughout the body and they connect at special energy points called chakras. The Sanskrit term ‘Nadi’ comes from the root ‘Nad,’ which means motion, flow, or vibration. Just how veins and arteries are important for the healthy functioning of our physical body, Nadis weave through our physical nerves as well as the subtle circuitry (yoga nadis) of the mind, of the self, of the consciousness matrix that supports our physical presence from invisible dimensions of existence. Illustration showing the nadis and major and minor chakras The body is filled with innumerable Nadis that cannot be counted. Sushumna
Meditation and Mindfulness Mindfulness is not thinking, interpreting, or evaluating; it is an awareness of perception. It is a nonjudgmental quality of mind which does not anticipate the future or reflect back on the past. Any activity can be done with mindfulness. Talking on the telephone, cleaning your home, driving, working, and exercising can all be incorporated into a mindfulness practice. Throughout the day, inwardly pause and become very aware of where you are, what you are doing, and how you are feeling. When mindfulness is the primary tool of meditation, the awareness that we apply to our breath (or to whatever our object–or focus–of meditation is, such as a word, image, sound, or physical sensation to which we return our attention after becoming distracted) can be expanded to include all physical and mental processes so that we may become more mindful of our thoughts and actions. It is commonly thought that meditators hope to stop all thoughts and rest their minds in thoughtless peace. by Steven Smith
Gnossiennes (Satie) The Gnossiennes (French pronunciation: [gnosjεn]) are several piano compositions written by the French composer Erik Satie in the late 19th century. The works are for the most part in free time (lacking time signatures or bar divisions) and highly experimental with form, rhythm and chordal structure. The form as well as the term was invented by Satie. Etymology[edit] Satie's coining of the word gnossienne was one of the rare occasions when a composer used a new term to indicate a new "type" of composition. It is possible that Satie might have drawn inspiration for the title of these compositions from a passage in John Dryden's 1697 translation of the Aeneid, in which it is thought the word first appeared:[citation needed] Let us the land which Heav'n appoints, explore; Appease the winds, and seek the Gnossian shore.[2] Characteristics[edit] The Gnossiennes were composed by Satie in the decade following the composition of the Trois Sarabandes (1887) and the Trois Gymnopédies (1888). Lent.
This Must Be Heaven Once upon a time, a neurosurgeon named Eben Alexander contracted a bad case of bacterial meningitis and fell into a coma. While immobile in his hospital bed, he experienced visions of such intense beauty that they changed everything—not just for him, but for all of us, and for science as a whole. According to Newsweek, Alexander’s experience proves that consciousness is independent of the brain, that death is an illusion, and that an eternity of perfect splendor awaits us beyond the grave—complete with the usual angels, clouds, and departed relatives, but also butterflies and beautiful girls in peasant dress. Our current understanding of the mind “now lies broken at our feet”—for, as the doctor writes, “What happened to me destroyed it, and I intend to spend the rest of my life investigating the true nature of consciousness and making the fact that we are more, much more, than our physical brains as clear as I can, both to my fellow scientists and to people at large.”
[GMCKSTwinHearts] Feb/March 2014 - pattigs - Gmail