Montag, 28. Februar 2022
Sonntag, 27. Februar 2022
Give Me Love - George Harrison
Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Oh my lord
Please take hold of my hand, that
I might understand you
I might understand you
Won't you please
Oh won't you
Oh won't you
Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Oh my lord
Won't you please
Oh won't you
Oh won't you
Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me, keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me, keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Oh my lord
Samstag, 26. Februar 2022
Costs of War
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human
At least 929,000 people have been killed by direct war violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan. The number of people who have been wounded or have fallen ill as a result of the conflicts is far higher, as is the number of civilians who have died indirectly as a result of the destruction of hospitals and infrastructure and environmental contamination, among other war-related problems.
Thousands of United States service members have died in combat, as have thousands of civilian contractors. Many have died later on from injuries and illnesses sustained in the war zones. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and contractors have been wounded and are living with disabilities and war-related illnesses. Allied security forces have also suffered significant casualties, as have opposition forces.
Far more of the people killed have been civilians. More than 387,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting since 2001.
Millions of people living in the war zones have also been displaced by war. The U.S. post-9/11 wars have forcibly displaced at least 38 million people in and from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Libya, and Syria. This number exceeds the total displaced by every war since 1900, except World War II.
The U.S. could have pursued several nonmilitary alternatives to holding accountable those responsible for perpetrating the 9/11 attacks. These alternatives would have been far less costly in human lives. For example, the U.S. invasion of Iraq turned the country into a laboratory in which militant groups such as Islamic State have been able to hone their techniques of recruitment and violence. The formation of Islamist militant groups spreading throughout the region counts among the many human costs of that war.
Freitag, 25. Februar 2022
Donnerstag, 24. Februar 2022
Mittwoch, 23. Februar 2022
Dienstag, 22. Februar 2022
Personality Number
https://www.whats-your-sign.com/personality-number-meaning.html
Mine is 5. This occurred to me due to today' s odd date.
Montag, 21. Februar 2022
Realism in Romance induced by Saturn Transit Venus
https://mysticmedusa.com/saturn-venus-transits-truth/
Hard core remarks here but I was born with this aspect and breaking out is a lifetime struggle, never ending cynicism biting at your heels.
Sonntag, 20. Februar 2022
Freitag, 18. Februar 2022
Donnerstag, 17. Februar 2022
Mittwoch, 16. Februar 2022
Dienstag, 15. Februar 2022
Montag, 14. Februar 2022
Sonntag, 13. Februar 2022
Space Travel Human Hibernation Research
St. Valentine and his Celebration / My Funny Valentine - Sinatra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day
My funny valentine
Sweet comic valentine
You make me smile with my heart
Your looks are laughable
Unphotographable
Yet you're my favorite work of art
Sweet comic valentine
You make me smile with my heart
Your looks are laughable
Unphotographable
Yet you're my favorite work of art
Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?
But don't change a hair for me
Not if you care for me
Stay little valentine stay
Each day is Valentines day
Not if you care for me
Stay little valentine stay
Each day is Valentines day
Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?
But don't change a hair for me
Not if you care for me
Stay little valentine stay
Each day is Valentines day
Not if you care for me
Stay little valentine stay
Each day is Valentines day
Medications shortages and dangers as all imported from China
It used to be jeans for Walmart, next comes outsourcing bullet and nuclear weapons manufacure to Russia and China then declaring war on them.
Breaking Bad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad
I should see this. Acclaimed. I think it shows my point of Americans with a bad health diagnosis forced into criminality to pay medical expenses.
Samstag, 12. Februar 2022
Self- Actualization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-actualization
I find I have gone through many of these steps. People seem capable of fulfilling them in different orders depending on their inherent abilities. As a very intellectual person I found that side of me much easier to fulfill and then got relatively bored with such acheivememts. Others are excellent athletes, artists or extremely good socially. Later they bore with those traits and desire to learn the others. George Bush has become a painter in his spare time. I love my "mundane" physical job as I use my body, not my mind, to its fullest and deal with lots of people in a real time practical scenario where I must learn to control my emotions and understand those of others and their motivations in order to just get through the day. This instead of being a solitary egghead of the ivory tower sort and also the spiritual isolationist who enjoys nature. Both have their advantages but lack completeness. I think the chakra theory is very useful here. People could move around the chakra fulfillment ladder ( not just linearly up it) as they learn more about what is possible to acheive with each chakra. The wiki article here mentions Einstein and Albert Schweitzer. Picasso or Leonardo da Vinci might be others or great politicians or statesmen like Julius Caesar. Buddha or Jesus would of course fulfill spiritual roles. Considering reincarnation one can imagine being a loving mother in one life, a casanova in another, a wasrrior in a third and an inventor or " mad genius" in a fourth, a wealthy trader in a fifth, a leader in a sixth, and finally settling into deep spiritualism in one' s last incarnation. If one considers haphazard modern rolechanging, people do much of these things by changing jobs and roles. Men become very motherly with their children nowadays, people do lots of online dating in general, play online warrior games or kearn martial arts, take over some managerial responsibilities at work, play the stock market or buy houses and then in old age start to think of deeper meaning in life. So each person tries to fulfill many roles but at different times in their lives and to a different extent, depending on capabilities. The real difficulty of course is guessing which stage you need to fulfill next and what you are going through now. Once you get that glassy eyed boredom with a certain life issue then you move on. Sri Aurobindo read extensively in literature and philosophy and wrote own works, plays, etc. He was a greatpolitical leader in India' s independence movement. He tried spiritual techniques because he thought this would help him acheive his political goals better but realized that politics was nonsense in comparison once he had seen the possibilities.
I had an important phase in young adulthood ( saturn transit fist house for first time) as I left my average small middle class American town to find my European roots and escape the mundane. If you can make it in New Yorkk you can make it anywhere they say. My mom was English and a linguist. I was in England 13 months, obtained a passport and moved on to Germany to fulfill dreams of cultural, linguistic enrichment. One soon notices, after geting past linguistic barriers, that Europeans ape American culture to a great extent. Escaping americanization for genuine culture likely requires moving to another planet. India, Africa, etc. have all succumbed to superficial cultural norms. So one delves into deeper culture, older literature. I learned yoga, tai chi, got initiated into higher spiritual techniques, all of this as ancient human wisdom culture predating modern superficialities. I believe now that in general leaving America permanently was a good decision as I read about the problems they have due to many basic mistakes in infrastucture, health are system, subversion of democracy by the military industrial complex or entertainment complex dumbing down the population. India certainly has reason to envy American living standards but Europe has acheived a better life balance. It is more diificult to self actualize from extreme poverty of third world or in a sytem of extreme capitalism and money centered lobbyism like in America where the system is against one most of the time. Self- actualization on an individual level does not happen in a vacuum. There is a reason people remember " golden ages" like renaissance Italy or Elizabethan England where Shakespeare flourished. Buddha flourished under such a culture and Baghdad of the 1001 Nights was likely similar. Lower emotional needs are met in such cultures and we can concentrate on our higher needs. If education, work experience, basic food, medicine and housing become difficult to obtain as in third world or parts of America then self - actualization becomes impossible as we struggle for basic existence and turn to drugs to calm usand petty street crime to meet daily needs.
Freitag, 11. Februar 2022
Donnerstag, 10. Februar 2022
Mittwoch, 9. Februar 2022
Dienstag, 8. Februar 2022
Goddess Tara
https://www.worldhistory.org/Tara_(Goddess)/
Tara is female deity in both Hinduism and Buddhism who personifies compassion and offers salvation from the suffering of rebirth and death. She is thought to have been born of empathy for the suffering world and is regularly invoked for protection, guidance, and deliverance from difficult situations.
In Hinduism, she is the second of the ten Mahavidyas, avatars of the great Mother Goddess Mahadevi (also known as Adi Parashakti as well as other names). Adi Parashakti manifests as the trinity of goddesses Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati, and the Mahavidyas are then more specific avatars of these three. She is an ishta-devi, one’s preferred female deity (the male version being an ishta-deva), as Hinduism is henotheistic (a belief in a single deity with many manifestations). Tara is a manifestation of Parvati as a devoted mother caring for and protecting her children and is thought to be the mother of Sakyamuni Buddha (l. c. 563 - c. 483 BCE) who is understood in Hinduism as an avatar of the god Vishnu. Her major cult center is Tarapith in West Bengal.
In Buddhism, Tara is a savior deity (savioress) who liberates souls from suffering. She is recognized as a bodhisattva ("essence of enlightenment") in Mahayana Buddhism and as a buddha and the mother of buddhas in Esoteric Buddhism, particularly Vajrayana Buddhism (also known as Tibetan Buddhism). According to one origin tale, she emerged from the tear of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara who cried when looking upon the suffering world. She is therefore associated primarily with compassion but can take on many forms to help and protect her devotees, including a wrathful deity similar in appearance to Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and transformation.
LIKE A STAR, TARA IS THOUGHT TO PROVIDE A SINGLE POINT OF LIGHT ONE CAN NAVIGATE BY.
The first fully attested textual evidence of Tara’s worship comes from the 5th century CE, but recognition of the goddess is much older as she is mentioned in the Rig Veda (c. 1500-1100 BCE) and was known during the Vedic Period (c. 1500 - c. 500 BCE). She is also associated with the goddess Prajnaparamita from the Buddhist work Perfection of Wisdom, an anthology composed between c. 50 BCE - c. 600 CE. She is also referenced in the Bardo Thodol (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) dated to the 8th century CE.
Her name means "savioress" in Sanskrit but has also been translated as "star" and she is invoked for guidance in life generally and, specifically, by those who feel lost and are having difficulty finding their way. Like a star, Tara is thought to provide a single point of light one can navigate by. She is associated with mother goddess figures in the Buddhist schools of many different cultures and is probably best known to a Western audience as Guanyin, goddess of compassion, from China. She remains one of the most powerful and popular goddesses in Esoteric Buddhist schools, and her worship, in both Hinduism and Buddhism, continues in the modern era.
Possible Historical Development
It is unclear when the veneration of Tara began, but she is associated with the Shakti sect of Hinduism which worships the feminine divine principle of the Mahadevi as the source of all creation rather than the male principle of Brahman. Shakti does not deny the male principle, recognizing the importance of both male and female, but elevates the Mahadevi to the most prominent position. It is likely this sect was established by the Indus Valley Civilization (c. 7000 - c. 600 BCE) and influenced the development of the popular sects of Vaishnavism (centered on the god Vishnu) and Shaivism (emphasizing Shiva). All three recognize the importance of balance between male and female energies as well as the elevating effect of personal devotion to the deity of one’s choice.
As noted, textual evidence for Tara comes first from the Rig Veda and physical evidence of her worship from her temple at Tarapith, established in c. 1225 BCE. The site of Tarapith was formerly (and part of it still is) a charnel ground where corpses were left to decompose (or were cremated) as part of mortuary rituals. These grounds were frequented by religious ascetics known as siddhas as well as those who were considered even more spiritually advanced known as mahasiddhas ("great" or "perfected" siddhas) who claimed to be able to commune with the eternal spirits and powers of the place as well as the souls of the dead.
Tarapith Temple
Tarapith (as the name makes clear) is a pith (plural, pitha, "abode" or "seat") of Tara, a place where her power and presence are most accessible. As she is associated with death and symbols of mortality such as skulls in some of her forms, she may have been developed by mahasiddhas sometime before 1225 BCE as their ishta devi, probably as part of the Shakti sect. Whatever part purely religious considerations played in this, their devotion to Tara would have self-identified the group, differentiating it from others in the Shakti sect, and helping to develop a specific form of worship of the goddess.
Tara in Hinduism
There are several origin tales for Tara in Hinduism but one of the best-known concerns the goddess Sati, consort of Shiva. Sati’s father, Daksha, insulted Shiva by not inviting him to participate in a sacred fire ritual. Sati felt personally responsible for this slight and, unable to live with the shame of her father’s actions, threw herself into the fire during the ritual. Shiva went mad with grief and, to help him, Vishnu gathered up the parts of Sati’s body and scattered them across India. Wherever a part fell, it bloomed into a manifestation of another goddess, and so Sati continued to live through them. Each of these sites was then recognized as a pith – the home or "seat" of a particular goddess.
One of Sati’s eyeballs is said to have fallen at Tarapith, making that her seat, and the temple was later raised in her honor. The site was obviously associated with Tara before the construction of the temple and especially its charnel grounds where the siddhas and mahasiddhas would engage in their rituals. Scholars Robert E. Buswell, Jr. and Donald S. Lopez, Jr. comment:
[Pitha] appear commonly in scenes from the lives of the mahasiddhas. Many of the sites can be linked to geographical locations on the Indian subcontinent, although some remain unidentified, and the location of others shifts according to different traditions. They are considered, however, to form a network, both in the external world and inside the body of the tantric practitioner…In both their external and internal forms, the pitha are presumed to form a mandala (647)
The mandala (Sanskrit for "circle") is a geometric shape expressing spiritual meaning and interpreted by those who view it as a kind of map of their inward journey. It can also be understood as a representation of Divine Order, which is how it would be understood regarding the pitha. Hinduism is known to adherents as Sanatan Dharma ("Eternal Order"), and the universe is understood to operate according to the rules of that order created and maintained by Brahman. When Vishnu scattered the parts of Sati’s body, therefore, Divine Order directed where they would land for its own purposes; these purposes were later understood as the creation of a mandala to aid human beings in their spiritual work.
Tara Statue
The pitha became pilgrimage sites and Tarapith one among many (51, according to some traditions, 12, 24, or 32, in others). Tarapith honors Tara in her form as compassionate mother while also recognizing her fierce protective nature. Accordingly, blood sacrifices were made (and still are in the present) to the cult statue of the goddess inside the temple. Participation in the rituals at Tarapith are believed to be restorative, curing illnesses (both physical and psychological) and even bringing the newly dead back to life.
Tara in Buddhism
Tarapith is a Hindu temple and, specifically, of the Shakti sect, but it is honored by Buddhists who recognize Tara as not only the mother of Sakyamuni Buddha but of all buddhas before and after him. She is said to have been born of the compassion of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (also known as a buddha) when he wept over the suffering world. Avalokitesvara is an important figure in both Hinduism and Buddhism and, in the latter, is associated with the sacred number 108 as he is said to have 108 avatars which appear to people in their various forms to help them most effectively.
TARA IS REGARDED AS THE FEMALE EMBODIMENT OF AVALOKITESVARA WHO HIMSELF IS UNDERSTOOD AS THE EMBODIMENT OF COMPASSION & COMPASSIONATE WISDOM.
In Tibetan Buddhism, he is known as Chenrezig who, upon looking down upon the world from the summit of a mountain, saw how people endlessly suffered through ignorance, which trapped them in their own fears and bound them to the cycle of rebirth and death (samsara) on which they would suffer eternally unless awakened. His tears formed a pool at his feet which expanded into a lake, and, at its center, a lotus appeared and then opened, revealing Tara in her complete form and power. She is therefore regarded as the female embodiment of Avalokitesvara/Chenrezig who himself is understood as the embodiment of compassion and compassionate wisdom.
Modern-day scholars continue to debate whether Tara emerged first in Hinduism or Buddhism which may seem a senseless argument since it is clear, historically, that Hindu texts and the temple honoring her predate the establishment of Buddhism. Buddhists, however, claim an eternal spiritual history for their belief system comparable to that claimed by Hinduism, and according to this understanding, Avalokitesvara, and therefore Tara, predate institutionalized Hinduism. In this Buddhist cosmography, there are many different world systems operating in different spheres of time simultaneously, and in one of these, according to another origin tale, Tara was born.
The Goddess Tara
According to this story, there is a young woman named Yeshe Dawa ("Wisdom Moon" or "Moon of Primordial Awareness"), daughter of a king, who lives in the realm of Multicolored Light and makes sacrifices for centuries in her pursuit of wisdom until she is taken on as a student by The Drum-Sound Buddha, the Buddha of that world, who instructs her in the path of enlightenment. Having attained a high degree of spiritual insight, she takes the vow of the bodhisattva and is blessed by the Buddha. The monks rejoice at her accomplishment and tell her she should now pray to be reborn as a male so she can advance further in her next life. Wisdom Moon rebukes the monks, noting:
Here, no man, no woman,
No I, no individual, no categories.
"Man" or "Woman" are only denominations
Created by confusions of perverse minds in this world. (Mull, 8)
She then vows to always be incarnated as a female for as long as she continues in the realm of samsara because there were many men who served as role models of the enlightened path but, owing to human ignorance and male arrogance, few women. She continued to advance in spiritual wisdom, power, and compassion, meditating continuously, and by so doing she freed infinite numbers of souls from the suffering of rebirth and death, finally becoming the goddess Tara, the savioress, always ready to respond to the cries of those who call upon her.
Tara as Symbol of Transformation
She is believed to quickly respond to adherents who recite her mantra, "Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha" (pronounced Ohm Tahray Too-Tahray Turay So-ha), which cannot be literally translated but essentially praises the goddess for her role as savior and asks for her speedy assistance. The mantra is often chanted or sung to musical accompaniment and repeated during private meditation or public worship. The mantra is thought to not only bring Tara into the physical and spiritual presence of the one reciting it but also encourage growth and change.
Tara herself can manifest in 21 forms and so embodies the value of transformation. Aside from her mantra, adherents also recite the prayer known as Praises to the Twenty-One Taras which, names each of her forms, what that form protects against, asks for her help, and praises her for salvation from rebirth and death. Her most popular forms are:
Green Tara: known as "Tara Who Protects from the Eight Fears" (lions, elephants, fire, snakes, thieves, water, imprisonment, demons), representing protection from misfortune generally. Green Tara is the most often depicted and best-known image of the goddess.
White Tara: not always depicted as white but recognized by eyes on the palms of her hands, soles of her feet, and a third eye on her forehead symbolizing her attentiveness. The White Tara embodies compassion and is invoked for healing (physical, spiritual, and psychological) and the hope of longevity.
White Tara and Green Tara
Blue Tara: the wrathful aspect of the goddess, often depicted with many arms like the Hindu goddess Kali for whom she is sometimes mistaken. Blue Tara is the personification of righteous anger that destroys painful illusions and awakens one to spiritual truths. She is invoked for good fortune in any enterprise, protection, and spiritual progress.
Red Tara: sometimes depicted with eight arms, each hand holding a different object associated with warning against and protection from danger. She is associated with the attraction of positive energies, spiritual focus, and psychological/spiritual victory. She is often invoked by those trying to break bad habits.
Yellow Tara: sometimes depicted with eight arms, hands holding jewels or a single hand holding a jewel believed to grant wishes. She symbolizes prosperity, physical comfort, and wealth and is always either a shade of yellow or gold. She is invoked for financial gain but also for the granting of wishes having to do with the welfare of one’s family, friends, and oneself.
Black Tara: associated with personal spiritual power, she is depicted with an open mouth and wrathful expression as though yelling, seated on a sun disc sometimes alive with flames, holding a black urn containing the essential forces necessary to overcome negative energies and destructive forces, whether internal or external. She is invoked to clear obstacles one has created or those placed in one’s path by others or circumstance.
All of her forms are transformative in nature and, as noted, encourage transformation in adherents. Tara continues in this role after one’s death as she serves as a protector and a guide in the afterlife. In the work known as Bardo Thodol ("Liberation Through Hearing in the Intermediate State"), better known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Tara is invoked for protection (Book I, Part II, 5th Day) and called on in the concluding Prayer for Guidance. In the prayer, she is invoked in her various forms and colors to assist the soul in finding peace.
Whatever her color or form, she is always shown as a young, slim, healthy woman ready to spring into action on behalf of her devotees. Tara’s ability to address the needs and concerns of virtually every aspect of a believer’s life makes her among the most popular, if not the most popular, goddess in the Buddhist pantheon in the present day, just as she has been regarded in the past.
Conclusion
Adding to her popularity is her appeal to women who recognize they are just as capable of spiritual enlightenment as males. Theravada Buddhism and some other schools of Buddhist thought maintain that one must be incarnated as a male to advance to the highest spiritual plane and free oneself from rebirth and death, but Tara, in the story of her enlightenment in the realm of multicolored light, makes clear that "male" and "female" are illusory designations clung to by shallow minds unable to recognize the true nature of reality.
Scholar Allison Mull notes how Wisdom Moon vows to continue to be incarnated as a woman to help all sentient beings appearing in female form recognize the divine light in themselves and encourage it to grow. Mull notes:
It is this vow that Tara would later become known for; her insistence on the error in designations, and her resolve to lead beings on the higher path of realization…Liberating an infinite number of suffering beings both day and night, Wisdom Moon came to be known as "Savioress" or, in Sanskrit, "Tara" (8)
Some Buddhist schools (Mahayana Buddhism and Vajrayana Buddhism, among others) have embraced Tara’s vision and vow and have made use of it in attracting and ministering to women. Male and female Buddhist monks participate in veneration of Tara in the present day as well as millions of lay Buddhists and Hindus around the world who continue to call on Tara to assist them in maintaining balance, embracing transformation and change, and finding their footing in an often-challenging world.
Abonnieren
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