Saturday, December 24, 2016

The Mistletoe


When winter nights grow long,
And winds without blow cold,
We sit in a ring round the warm wood-fire,
And listen to stories old!
And we try to look grave, as maids should be,
When the men bring in boughs of the Laurel-tree.
O the Laurel, the evergreen tree!
The poets have laurels, and why not we?

How pleasant, when night falls down
And hides the wintry sun,
To see them come in to the blazing fire,
And know that their work is done;
Whilst many bring in, with a laugh or rhyme,
Green branches of Holly for Christmas time!
O the Holly, the bright green Holly,
It tells like a tongue that the times are jolly!

Sometimes in our grave house,
Observe, this happeneth not;
But, at times, the evergreen laurel boughs
And the holly are all forgot!
And then! what then? why, the men laugh low
And hang up a branch of the Mistletoe!
O brave is the Laurel! and brave is the Holly!
But the Mistletoe banisheth melancholy!
Ah, nobody knows, nor ever shall know,
What is done under the Mistletoe.

By Barry Cornwall

Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 9, 2016

Legendary American Astronaut John Glenn Dead at 95

Legendary American Astronaut John Glenn Dead at 95
John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016)

John H. Glenn Jr, the first American to orbit the Earth passed away in Columbus, Ohio on December 8, 2016 at the age 95. America has lost one of its greatest pioneers.

Glenn was an aviator, engineer at NASA, astronaut, politician, and recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. He was an officer in the US Marine Corps and a war hero who served his country as a fighter pilot in the Pacific during WWII and during the Korean War. 

In 1962 he became the first American to orbit the Earth. he flew the Friendship 7 mission and was also a backup pilot to Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom, on the Freedom 7 and Liberty Bell 7 respectively.

In 1974 he won elections for the US Senate and became a congressman representing the State of Ohio for a quarter of a century.

A legend and a true here, he will be missed by many.

Godspeed, John Glenn!


Tuesday, November 1, 2016

November Splendor

Euonymus europaeus or the European Spindle Tree

When the trees their summer splendor
Change to raiment red and gold,
When the summer moon turns mellow,
And the nights are getting cold;
When the squirrels hide their acorns,
And the woodchucks disappear;
Then we know that it is autumn,
Loveliest season of the year.

By Carol L. Riser, Autumn

Image: Euonymus europaeus or the European Spindle Tree by Dominique Teng©2016

Sunday, October 30, 2016

The Curious Case of Young Mr. Tee

Spooky Halloween Story

They say that you see your entire life passing by before your mind's eye the moment you die, but this was definitely not the case with the young Mr. Tee. 

One year has passed and I am still horrified to look back to that ominous All Hallows' Eve dinner in upper Manhattan. None of us has ever mentioned what happened that evening and we quickly went back to our busy lives avoiding each other as much as we possibly could. But time heals all the horrors and you eventually have to move on, or so they say.

We were a really crazy bunch. Freshly out of Harvard, four of us moved to New York to make big money and live the high life one could only see in Hollywood movies. In the 1980s they would have called us "yuppies," but we were much more sophisticated. We ate less sushi, listened to better music, traveled more, collected better art, and with legends like the Lehman Brothers gone, we were less arrogant and understood the value of money better than anyone before us.

Mr. Tee, as we called Twardowski, was a very clever guy with enormous energy and incredible talent. He made his name on the trading floor very quickly and established his own firm less than six month after graduating summa cum laude. We all knew that he would succeed, but his stardom came somewhat too quickly and there was a lot of gossip.

See, Mr. Tee sold his soul to the devil. No, really. I mean, really. He was not only the most talented of the four of us, he was very greedy and probably the most ambitious. He wanted things to happen fast and did not care how.

One morning a few years ago, the story goes, he looked in the mirror and summoned the devil. Just like in a cheap off Broadway production, the bathroom darkened and amid a hellish swishing and dust swirls, the devil showed up and introduced himself: "You called me and here I am, Master. How can I be of help?"

I would have lost my cool in a wink of an eye, but not Mr. Tee. Oh, no! He was too determined to get rich very quickly and told the devil half jokingly that he needed his help. The devil smiled deceptively and suggested, that Mr. Tee already had a lot of money and with talent such as his he did not need any supernatural help. All that was true, but Mr. Tee wanted some special powers and agreed to a deal that looked like a bargain: He would become the most successful finance expert ever and everything he touched would turn into big money. All he had to do was to agree that the devil took his soul when time was ripe.

The deal was good. Money, fame, power, freedom! What else could one ask for? And all the devil wanted was his tiny soul. Tee wasn't even sure that he had one.

Mr. Tee saw no problem here, but clever as he was, he inserted a clause into the contract. "OK, OK! You can have my soul when we meet in Rome, or no deal at all. And you will have it in writing." Scratching his head the devil had no choice, but to accept and put his seal on the parchment.

As months went by, everybody wondered about Mr. Tee's fortune. He was one of the very few people who made big money and never lost a penny amid deep financial crisis that span across the globe. Everything he touched turned into gold. He was the modern alchemist par excellence.

People were jealous, of course, and there was even an investigation, but since there was no sign of any wrongdoing, Mr. Tee was exonerated. Those, however, who accused him of dark machinations went out of business as quickly as they pointed their fingers at our friend. Everybody wondered. Nobody said another word.

To celebrate his success, we decided to have a dinner together. Like in old times. Our friendship was as strong as ever and we missed our nightly escapades. Maybe because the three of us simply had to work a bit harder to keep up with the pace dictated by Mr. Tee. I was getting older and had very little energy left for Tee's noisy parties. I preferred to go to bed alone than end up drinking too much champagne after a tough day. I became a bore, he said to me one day, and both of us wondered what happened to that carefree cheerleader that I once was. Life caught up with me, I guessed correctly.

To repair the damage in my reputation I booked a table for a Halloween dinner in a very famous Italian restaurant. Their Halloween menu was spectacular with black colored pasta and other creepy things. They also scheduled a spooky horror show for that night and invited a prominent magician. The guests were to dress up in Halloween costumes. This sounded like real fun.

We decided to meet for a before dinner drink in the upscale Death & Company bar. Mr. Tee arrived dressed up as a 16th century Polish nobleman. He said something about his family history, but I did not pay much attention to it. I had a tough day and after my second Sweet Hereafter cocktail I felt that freshly made squid ink pasta was exactly what I needed if I wanted to keep my witch's hat on my head for the rest of the evening.  Someone paid for the drinks while I held on to my broomstick and hailed a cab. A smiling Jamaican driver with a diamond in his tooth pulled over. "You look cool, maaan" he said, and as soon as we all settled comfortably in his cab, he drove off with a hellish squeak.

The place looked great! Decorations were spooky and everybody, including the patron and the waiters, wore a Halloween costume. Our Extremely Bloody Mary apéritifs arrived promptly together with the almost black Beluga caviar canapés.

Before we could even say a word about the menu or the ambience, a character dressed up like a devil, horns and all, appeared at our table and introduced himself to Mr. Tee as "his faithful servant." I did not know that Tee had a servant. He always looked like someone who could manage everything by himself, but I figured that Tee's fortune and newly acquired social standing demanded some decorum. That sinister guy was probably his butler, or so, I thought.

Mr. Tee invited his servant to take a seat and offered him a drink. I got chills when that creepy guy with eyes like glowing coals refused the drink and went straight to business: "I came here for your soul Master Tee," he said. We started laughing. What a great entertainer! My tiredness disappeared and I truly started enjoying that evening. Tee stretched his arm majestically as if to brush off a speck of dust and, laughing loudly, told the man to get lost. It wasn't his time to go, he said. But the man in a devil costume became very serious and produced a piece of paper that looked like a parchment with an ancient looking seal affixed to it. Spreading the paper on the table he pointed his skinny finger at a passage in the text. "Here it is, my dear Master! I will come for your soul when you go to Rome!"

We burst out laughing. This was better than anything I have seen before. Mr. Tee raised his hand and spoke like a Polish noble: "My dear Mr. Devil, I understand your urgency, but we are here, in Manhattan. Look around and tell me what you see." The man looked around and laughed. "Your time is up, my dear Master. You might be in Manhattan, but this fine establishment is called 'Bella Roma' or Beautiful Rome, if you prefer. You are in Rome, Master! Your soul is mine and I came here to collect it!" Before anyone of us could utter a word, the devil character snatched Mr. Tee and carried him away leaving behind Tee's ancient feathered hat and a burning smell of sulfur. I recall hearing a laud scream. They were arguing, I think, but all that noise seemed to have come from very far away.

No one in the restaurant have noticed what transpired only an instant earlier. The music was a bit too laud, people laughed or chattered wildly, waiters were busy, and the spooky magic show was about to begin.

For a minute or two the three of us still thought that we had just witnessed one of Tee's extravagant spectacles, but when he did not come back to enjoy the rest of our Halloween dinner party, we became a bit worried. Only a bit. After a very short deliberation we decided to finish the meal without our Mr. Tee and even managed to enjoy the show. It was such a fun to be together again. We agreed to call Mr. Tee in the morning and arranged to meet for lunch. We deserved some explanation, Halloween or not.

I got back to my condo, but could not wait till the morning. I called Tee right away. There was no answer. There was no answer in the morning either. He did not show up in his office, missed his meetings, and left his business affairs unattended. This was highly unusual. Someone had to notify the police.

Weeks have passed, but there was no demand for ransom. And there was no body. Nothing. Not a trace! The investigating officer, Inspector O'Sullivan, told me later that they found a journal of sorts in Tee's bedroom. On one page covered with occult symbols Mr. Tee wrote about his meeting with the devil and his skepticism about the existence of human soul. The opposite page was adorned with a darkly beautiful drawing of a horned man who looked just like the guy that appeared in "Bella Roma." At the bottom of the page Tee wrote: "I tricked the devil today. If I have a soul, it will be mine forever since I do not intend to travel to Rome. Ever!"

Who knew that a dinner in a trendy Italian restaurant in upper Manhattan would mean Mr. Tee's tragic  unmaking...

~ Wishing everybody a very spooky Halloween ~ Dominique

Dominique Teng©2016

Saturday, October 1, 2016

My Breast Cancer Detox Juice Recipe


October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I have no cancer history in my family and considering my life-style I will most probably never have one. I know that I am very lucky in this regard, but I also put hard work to keep it this way.

I am not a biochemist and not a medical doctor, but I started my personal anti-aging and longevity research in my mid-twenties. Already as a very young person I knew that disease can be prevented or even reversed and all we needed was good food and a positive outlook on life. This was what my mother lived by.

So much in our lives depends on the choices we make, but it is very difficult to make the right choice if we do not have the necessary knowledge. But we are really blessed! We live in an information age and can access enormous data base virtually within seconds. The more we know the better because knowledge can save lives.

The ongoing cancer research is widely accessible since research papers can now published online. Scientists understand the cancer survival mechanisms and test variety of plants for their ability to kill cancer cells. Foods such as beets, raspberries and ginger, for instance, have been widely documented for their cancer fighting potential. But we also know that the body produces countless cancer cells every day. A healthy, strong immune system has the ability to neutralize these cells before they turn into tumors. What we need, is to support our immune system so that it can perform this action for as long as we live. Enriching our diet with foods that are rich in vitamins, antioxidants and other active compounds will help us stay healthy and hopefully cancer-free for life.

~ My Cancer Detox Juice ~

Ingredients:
  • 6 beets, washed, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 2 cups fresh raspberries
  • 1 inch ginger root (use more if you prefer)

Method:
  • Pass all the ingredients through the juicer.
  • Pour the ready juice into chilled glasses and enjoy in good company!

If you treat your good health as a gift and remember to always eat healthy food and keep your weight within the healthy norm,  you will never give breast cancer a chance! Prevention is better than cure.

By Dominique Teng
 
Dominique Teng©2016


*Information in this article is for educational purposes only and is not meant to diagnose or cure a disease.

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Unlimited Vision



I've learned that fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders to what may be just a few steps down the road for you. The journey is valuable, but believing in your talents, your abilities, and your self-worth can empower you to walk down an even brighter path. Transforming fear into freedom - how great is that? - Soledad O'Brien


Image: James Gurney Steampunk Specs

Image source unknown but greatly appreciated

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

What's Left Is Magic


Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What's left is magic. And it doesn't work. - James Randi

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Never Forget 9/11

 One World Trade Center, New York City

Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes or in their offices: secretaries, business men and women, military and federal workers, moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge -- huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation.”  - U.S. President George W. Bush

One World Trade Center under constructions as seen  in 2014
from the Westin Hotel window in Newport Jersey City, NJ

It’s been 15 years since the most devastating attack to hit U.S. soil on September 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people died in the assault, which was orchestrated by the cowardly al Qaeda terrorists who hijacked four passenger airplanes and crashed them into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon building in Virginia, and a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

All I ever needed to know about islam
I learned in five minutes on 9/11.
- Quote from Conservative Infidel website

For many people born after 9/11 the events of that day are just history, but those who witnessed the attacks in person or on television will never forget that day. The attacks touched so many people and changed the way we live and see the world today. And while people across the Middle East celebrated the attacks, some of us became New Yorkers.

September 11 is also an anniversary of a 2012 terrorist attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya where four lives were lost. The former Secretary of State still did not take the responsibility of her inaction on that day...

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Hello, September!


So come with me, 
where dreams are born, 
 and time is never 
planned. 
Just think of happy things, 
and your heart will fly on wings, 
 forever, 
 in Never Never Land! 

J.M. Barrie in "Peter Pan: Fairy Tales" 

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Magical Rose Garden

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. - Dale Carnegie

Monday, July 4, 2016

Happy 240th Birthday America!

Stars and Stripes in Roswell, NM by Dominique Teng©2016
 Stars and Stripes in Roswell, NM

The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mounts, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, have always blown on free men. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

 Image by Dominique Teng©2016

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

The Antioxidant Power of Spirulina

Spirulina powdered supplement  by Dominique Teng©2016

Spirulina* is a green food supplement made of single-celled blue-green algae from the genus Anthrospira that floats freely in highly alkaline waters. Two species of the algae are used to produce spirulina supplements: the Anthrospira platensis and the Anthrospira maxima. The algae are believed to be one of the oldest organisms on our planet. The species used to produce nutritional supplement spirulina are cultivated all over the world in specially designed water farms.

Nutrients

The blue-green algae has been valued as a food source for a very long time. Aztecs discovered its nutritional properties and used it as their staple food. It was also consumed by the Mayas and the Olmecs.
  • The blue-green algae is probably the most concentrated source of nutrition. It is the best source of complete protein. It contains 18 amino acids including lysine, threonine, phenylalanine, and methionine.
  • It is rich in vitamins, especially of the B group including B12. This makes the spirulina supplements perfect food for vegans whose diet normally does not include sufficient amount of the vital vitamin B12. Some research suggests, however, that the vitamin B12 in spirulina is an analog form of vitamin B12 which is not easily absorbed by the human organism.
  • The high chlorophyll content makes it a perfect plant source of bio-available chlorophyll for the human body. Chlorophyll which has a similar structure to human hemoglobin, carries oxygen which enriches our blood, helps to normalize digestion and to keep our intestines healthy.
  • The blue-green algae is rich source of minerals. Among others it contains zinc, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, copper, and selenium. The algae is very high in calcium and iron. Unlike other supplement sources, the iron in spirulina is easily absorbed by the human body. Spirulina is low in sodium and iodine.
  • The blue-green algae is high in GLA or gamma linolenic acid, an essential omega-6 fatty acid used by the body to fight allergies, decrease inflammation, and prevent skin damage, among others.
  • One of the characteristics of this algae is its high content of carotenoids, especially beta carotene. In fact, its beta caroten content is ten times higher than that of carrots. 10 grams of spirulina provide 23,000 IU of beta carotene which is 460% of the RDA recommendation. It also contains astaxanthin, fucoxantin, and zeaxantin. The total content of mixed carotenoids is about 0.37 per cent.
  • The blue-green algae contains very high levels of SOD, or superoxide dismutase enzyme. SOD has a remarkable ability to fight free radicals and to retard aging.
  • The algae also contains only 15 to 25 percent of carbohydrates. Two main polysaccharides, glycogen and rhamnose, are easily absorbed by the body and do not cause insulin spikes. 

Spirulina as an antioxidant 

An ongoing research is being conducted all over the world. Spirulina may be the best antioxidant available to us. It is a highly complex superfood. Its high content of mixed carotenoids and the SOD enzyme, as well as selenium, makes spirulina a valuable antioxidant supplement. Spirulina also contains vitamin C and vitamin E which are both known for their antioxidant activity. The antioxidant activity of these nutrients is well researched. They work in synergy and seem to be most effective when acting together. In spirulina they all come in a natural proportion and are not synthetically manufactured to compose an antioxidant formula.

Like beta carotene and selenium, SOD effectively decreases the generation of free radicals in the body and reduces oxidative stress. It fights the superoxide, which is the most ubiquitous and aggressive free radical in the body.

Researchers also found that the algae contains the water soluble phycocyanin, a pigment that gives it its blue hue. Phycocynin is considered to be a free radical scavenger that protects liver and the kidneys from the oxidative damage. Phycocynin is also a powerful immune system modulator and is believed to alleviate the damage caused by radiation. The Russians successfully used spirulina to treat the victims of post-Chernobyl radiation.

Health benefits of spirulina

High nutrient content makes spirulina a superfood supplement. Although there are some conflicting findings, spirulina is generally believed to :
  • help control weight
  • improve digestion
  • detoxify the body
  • build muscles
  • reduce inflammation
  • reduce cholesterol
  • enhance immune system
  • inhibit viral replication in the body
  • lower the risk of certain cancers
  • inhibit growth of tumors in the body
  • help digestion
  • improve the skin
  • assist with the PMS
  • alleviate malnutrition

Daily dosage 

The suggested dosage is 500mg three to four times daily. Total daily dose of spirulina should not exceed 5,000 mg. Spirulina comes in the form of tablets, capsules, or a powder that can be mixed with juice or water, or added into smoothies. Spirulina has a very strong detoxifying effect and may cause Herxeimer reaction* in the body. It is sensible to begin supplementation with a small dose and increase the dosage gradually over a period of few days.

A caution is advised while buying spirulina supplements. Always consider buying spirulina from a certified, organic source as spirulina is subject to contamination. Because some allergic reactions have been observed, consult your health care provider before commencing supplementation. Discontinue use if condition worsens.

By Dominique Teng

Dominique Teng©2016


* The Anthrospira species of algae were once classified in the genus Spirulina hence the resulting confusion between the name of a nutritional supplement and the name of a species. Spirulina species belong to a genus of the Cyanobacteria in the Kingdom of Bacteria. In the older literature we still find the terms Spirulina platensis and spirulina maxima.

* Herxheimer reaction occurs in the body when a large amount of toxins flood the body as a result of a rapid detoxification.
 
Information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose, treat or cure a disease.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Harmony and Love


Harmony 
is one phase of the law 
whose spiritual 
expression is 
love. 

 James Allen

Image: "The Bug And The Wild Rose... In Perfect Harmony" by Dominique Teng©2016

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Modern Culture and It's Discontents

 Jean-Michel Basquiat - Self Portrait as a Heel, Part Two 1982

By Robert Beaudine

Most of my conservative friends are fighting political battles heroically, but they continue to ignore the cultural wars – which began over two hundred years ago, first over religion, then over education, then over the media, and much later over modern art.

Progressives knew if they won the cultural battles, they would eventually win the political front by default. During the 19th Century, conservatives were engaged in these cultural battles, but they kept losing ground. When they ultimately retreated from the battle over education, all was lost. Their progeny became less and less educated and lost interest in the cultural wars. 

Many decades later, during the 1950's and 1960's, a confused and apathetic generation of conservatives accepted our culture as a natural development and immersed themselves in the newest art forms including modern music, movies, and television – without a clue that these were progressive productions that influenced their thinking. Later, their progeny retreated from the political front and merely cast votes. 

Finally in 2008, a nation of slumbering conservatives awoke to the danger of our political situation and realized they better engage and fight back or else. But they lacked any understanding of history, which is vital to understand the modern day. Because of their government schooling, they didn't understand culture and never conceived that it was captured by progressives long ago. 

This is why political victories will not restore our Republic. We certainly need a paradigm shift in politics, but more importantly, we need a spiritual awakening. We must restore our cultural heritage based on Christianity – not today's watered down version, but its original Apostolic form.

***

By Dominique Allmon

Mr. Baudine has touched here such a vast and complex subject. Without education and knowledge there is no understanding of history and the processes that govern a civil society, its literature and art. 

"Progress" seems to be a natural quality to humanity, or we would still dwell in caves if this was not so. New technology opens new, undreamed of, possibilities and always makes an impression on the human mind. It creates, directly or indirectly, the need for new ways of aesthetic expression. Conventions are broken and new styles appear to meet the persistent need for self-expression, self-knowledge and discovery.

With each generation, societies became more "permissive" and "daring." For an artist to break with the past became a way of life somewhere around 1870s when the old masters and their schools were finally relegated to the dark rooms of art history and made space for the new, daring, light-caring, scandalizing, "image-distorting" Impressionists. 

When Impressionism appeared on the cultural scene the society was also in a state of turmoil. And yet, for the most part, despite their divorce from the tyranny of artistic conventions of the past, Impressionists created masterpieces of such beauty that we cannot even imagine that some of the artists died in poverty. 

Things changed drastically, for the worse, in the beginning of the 20th century, especially after the incredibly bloody revolution in Russia. I remember a whole semester of the early 20th century European art and literature with the Soviets and the French leading the trends. Poets employed onomatopoeia to bring the sound of machinery; painters broke with the past completely and either deconstructed the human image or glorified the machine. Destroy the old, create the new! Movements such as Dadaism sprung in Europe like mushrooms after the rain. 

Soviet revolution not only uprooted wealthy tyrants, it destroyed their Christian values and their "decadent" love for beauty. A so called "Soviet Person" was created and this, of course, found reflection in artistic expression and literature. By force if necessary. Soviet censors made sure that art, literature, and film propagated their idea of the world. 

Elsewhere, intellectuals insisted that their was the desired way of life and broke off with ancient conventions. In 1950s France, for instance, the cool "cafe society" glorified the Soviet tyranny. Intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre were infatuated with Marxism and communism while at the same time countless people suffered unimaginable horrors in Russian gulags and Chinese re-education camps.

When we look back, the technology of the early 20th opened the doors to mass media. The whole process actually started much earlier, in France and Prussia even before the Industrial Revolution, but was perfected later to the point that the Y generation of today resembles spineless, ignorant zombies. 

We are at a turning point, but the future looks rather bleak. Art, music, cinema, and literature became incredibly permissive and allow for violence and ugliness of unheard proportions. If you do not understand or do not appreciate depravity you are not sophisticated enough. But is a butter stain on the wall or a crucifix immersed in the artist's urine really an art? It definitely is an artistic expression of the "rebellious" artist, but has little aesthetic value to a disturbed human soul constantly seeking solace in the urban jungle. Social alienation, depravity, mental illness, substance abuse and addiction are often the unexpected consequences of modern society. We are definitely free to do as we please, but often also completely alone in our struggle for sanity in the ever more complex world. Art, literature, and the media are not helping, unless we consider self-destruction to be the ultimate goal.  

So much more can be said and written on this subject, but I will end here and leave you, dear reader, to your own reflection. Change is inevitable, but how much of it we allow depends on our "capital" of knowledge. Unfortunately, when the educational system is distorted and schools are dominated by Fabian social engineers, our future is more than uncertain.

By Dominique Teng
 
Dominique Teng©2016

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Cyborg Buddha



Is what we are born with enough or could we use a little help? - A Conversation with Professor James Hughes

As a former Buddhist monk, Professor James Hughes is concerned with realization. And as a Transhumanist - someone who believes that we will eventually merge with technology and transcend our human limitations - he endorses radical technological enhancements to humanity to help achieve it. He describes himself as an “agnostic Buddhist” trying to unite the European Enlightenment with Buddhist enlightenment.

Sidestepping the word “happiness,” Hughes’ prefers to speak of “human flourishing,” avoiding the hedonism that “happiness” can imply.

“I’m a cautious forecaster,” says Hughes, a bio-ethicist and sociologist, “but I think the next couple of decades will probably be determined by our growing ability to control matter at the molecular level, by genetic engineering, and by advances in chemistry and tissue-engineering. Life expectancy will increase in almost all countries as we slow down the aging process and eliminate many diseases.” Not squeamish about the prospect of enhancing - or, plainly put, overhauling- the human being, Hughes thinks our lives may be changed most by neuro-technologies - stimulant drugs, “smart” drugs, and psychoactive substances that suppress mental illness.

“I’m pretty optimistic that, barring giant asteroids or Godzilla or whatever,” he speculates, “we’ll make a lot of progress.”

Hughes is a professor at Trinity College in Connecticut. He is also Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics in Emerging Technologies and leads the “Cyborg Buddha” project with two of the Institute’s board members, one of whom is a Zen priest. The project’s mission is to “promote discussion of the impact that neuroscience and emerging neuro-technologies will have on happiness, spirituality, cognitive liberty, moral behavior and the exploration of meditational and ecstatic states of mind.”

I caught up with Hughes by telephone last summer and engaged him in a conversation on topics ranging from neurotechnology to psychopharmacology, from environmental degradation to the possibility that the cosmos itself could become conscious, from beauty pageants to a future full of mind-bending eventualities. 

By Richard Eskow

So we might someday live for hundreds of years? Is that good?  Accepting the inevitability of death doesn’t mean accepting death at any given moment. So if there’s some medicine that allows you to live longer, that’s up to us. I want to live until I’m so enlightened I don’t really care about continuing my life. And that’s probably going to take me a long time.

But isn’t it greedy to want to live so long?
The Australian philosopher Peter Singer suggested that every dollar you spend - beyond the absolute minimum you need to survive - instead of sending it to starving people is a greedy dollar. But if we don’t shoot ourselves and send the money to the Third World, we’ve decided to live and spend. Then why not another year? And if you’re committed to serving others, why not live another hundred years to serve them even more?

What about altering our brains to induce meditative states?
You could say that the Fifth Precept against intoxicants applies, that you shouldn’t do anything to your brain except sit with it. But all the different lay and monastic proscriptions, dietary and otherwise, are means for constructing an environment that supports mindfulness. One thing that supports mindfulness is what you put in your brain. Couldn’t it also be true that all of us might benefit from adjustments that would let us meditate better, pay better attention, not be as distracted by our crises?

What if we could just take a pill or receive a patterned electrical charge to the brain and become enlightened?
I asked the neurologist and author James Austin, who has meditated in the Rinzai tradition for fifty years, about that. He didn’t really like the idea. I think many Buddhists wouldn’t consider it authentic if you could just pop a pill. But even within the Buddhist tradition we have methods, like Dzogchen, that argue for rapid enlightenment, while others say it has to be a long process of maturation and moral purification through many lifetimes.

Part of the answer is: What would that pill or electrode do to you? Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation temporarily suppresses proprioception, our self-monitoring of where our body parts are. It can happen in meditation, too—a wonderful experience of oneness with your environment, a centerlessness and spaciousness.

It’s not enlightenment. It doesn’t change your moral behavior. It doesn’t make it easier to relate to your kids. It’s just a nice experience that gives you a glimpse of the fact that you may be creating the self-centeredness of your world. It might let you glimpse the fact that you were constructing your own misery.

Many Buddhist Pure Land writings describe a world that seems almost futuristic, with beautiful buildings and long lives and great powers, creating favorable circumstances for enlightenment.
I sometimes describe the Buddhist Transhumanist project as a “Pure Land effort.” We want to build an environment that maximizes our capacity for spiritual growth and understanding, or, to use a more secular term, for more flourishing. Our effort would have a purpose different from simple self-gratification.

Last year, on the popular television show Britain’s Got Talent, contestant Susan Boyle emerged from village life in Scotland to become an overnight worldwide singing sensation. A plain woman by conventional standards, she reportedly wanted a beauty makeover. Many objected, fearing she’d become “inauthentic.” Yet isn’t this a metaphor for Transhumanism? Why shouldn’t Susan Boyle look however she wants to look? Or do you think something “authentic” is lost? 
This is one contribution Buddhism can make to the debate. Buddhism rejects the notion of “authenticity.” The core idea of anatta is that there is no permanent and abiding or “authentic” self. There is only change and your own conscious process of self-creation. The Abrahamic faiths believe in a soul, which is carried into secular ideas of “authentic self.” But Buddhism doesn’t.

A lot of people don’t want to take psychiatric medications because they don’t think they are “themselves” on drugs. But when we talk to people who have severe depression or ADD, many of them say, “I’m not my true self until I take the drug.” A Buddhist perspective might be “Well, I’m glad you feel that way, but in fact you’re not your ‘true self’ either time.”

There’s research that suggests cosmetic surgery has a more lasting positive effect on subjective well-being and day-to-day happiness than almost any other intervention. And it turns out to be quite lasting.

Isn’t this really a Transhumanist question playing out in the culture?
Yes. A Western Buddhist may have complete disdain for plastic surgery, and they have a point. There are better ways to be happy than having plastic surgery or tweaking your brain chemistry. But at the same time, too often we’ve carried this concern to a Puritan extreme.

It was understandably celebrated when two people got face transplants after being terribly disfigured. But cosmetic surgery is often considered frivolous. Help us think through what’s frivolous and what’s isn’t. 
It’s a Buddhist Middle Way problem. On the one hand, we have to be compassionate with people and their suffering, their need to become comfortable enough to work on life’s problems. If that means taking Prozac or having their face done, we need to acknowledge that. On the other hand, we live in a materialist, patriarchal, “lookist” culture. Part of achieving serenity is becoming comfortable with who you are and the fact of your embodiment, however it appears.

Many people feel we need to be more skeptical about technology. They’re afraid of a techno-boosterism that advances the notion that it can solve all our problems, when in fact, technology has caused so many of them.
There’s the undeniable hubris in many of the ideas that emerged during the European Enlightenment. We can master everything, understand everything, we don’t need to take any precautions because we’re so smart. But there’s also the notion that somehow we’re going to fix environmental devastation by withdrawing from nature. We’ve been profoundly affecting the ecosystem for five to ten thousand years. We can’t just “withdraw.” Some deep ecologists want to see us get back to a world population of one hundred million people, but this is not tenable short of genocide. We need to think about a sustainable, abundant future for our children. There’s a responsible, sustainable, abundant technology path that is ethical. Some call the approach “Techno-gaian.”

I’ll confess to a certain attachment to the pastoral view. I imagine a premodern landscape with twenty-first century medicine and communications.
The problem with a lot of affluent pastoralists is that they think a lot of people around the world should just embrace their voluntary simplicity. But it’s not voluntary. They would love to get off the farm as quickly as possible. They vote with their feet as soon as they can. Yes, pastoralism has its appeal. We’re driving ourselves crazy with our pace of life. But this was true twenty-five hundred years ago. There is a reason Buddhism arose with India’s increasingly complex societies. The problems of materialism and life’s distractions are ancient.

Isn’t there a clinging quality to some aspects of Transhumanism? Isn’t it just ego trying to perpetuate itself? Transhumanists speak of “the Singularity,” an envisioned time when technology makes people so godlike that they’d be incomprehensible to today’s humans. We want to extend ourselves into our physical and computational environment. We want to lengthen our life span and amplify our brain power. Isn’t there a lot of me in Transhumanism?
In seeking to expand ourselves, some people think we could destroy our “selves.” A colleague of mine, Susan Schneider, recently wrote a paper that asks, “If you believe, as many Transhumanists say they do, that the self is a pattern, then doesn’t a radical transformation of that pattern mean that you destroy yourself? Isn’t it therefore contradictory to say that you’re striving to become a ‘radically enhanced person’? In fact, you’re expressing a suicidal intention.”

But there is a way out of that, which is to adopt the Buddhist view of nonself, or self as process, not essence. If you want to be immortal, you may not understand what “you” really are. If you see yourself dancing at the heat-death of the universe in your artificial adamantine body, you haven’t yet grappled with this fundamental problem.

There seems to be a kind of cognitive imperialism among Transhumanists that says the intellect alone is “self.” Doesn’t saying “mind” is who we are exclude elements like body, emotion, culture, and our environment? Buddhism and neuroscience both suggest that identity is a process in which many elements co-arise to create the individual experience on a moment-by-moment basis. The Transhumanists seem to say, “I am separate, like a data capsule that can be uploaded or moved here and there.”
You’re right. A lot of our Transhumanist subculture comes out of computer science - male computer science - so a lot of them have that traditional “intelligence is everything” view. As soon as you start thinking about the ability to embed a couple of million trillion nanobots in your brain and back up your personality and memory onto a chip, or about advanced artificial intelligence deeply wedded with your own mind, or sharing your thoughts and dreams and feelings with other people, you begin to see the breakdown of the notion of discrete and continuous self. What happens if I can back up all my memories and share them with my wife? If she can remember my life as well as I can, has she become me? Am I her?

The Tibetan teacher Gelek Rimpoche has suggested that sufficiently developed artificial intelligence could be a reincarnated being. In other words, a former being has taken up residence in a machine.
The Dalai Lama said that too, I think offhandedly. There are Christian theologians who argue for an almost Buddhist understanding of the self as an embodied experience of relationship to the divine.

And there’s the notion of Corpus Christi: we’re all organs in the body of Christ, digits on his fingers. That gets pretty close to the Borg [the alien collective from Star Trek that absorbs entire races, turning its individuals into elements of a mechanical hive identity.
Right. The idea that there is not necessarily an eternal existence to the self as a separate entity.

Not too long ago, you posed this question in a survey on your website: “Does your ethical code advocate the well-being of all sentient beings, whether in artificial intellects, humans, post-humans, or non-human animals?” That sounds like the metta (loving-kindness) prayer, calling for the happiness of all sentient beings without exception.
It’s what we call non-anthropocentric personhood theory. Some people don’t see personhood in viruses or bacteria or even fish or chickens, but we think that wherever there is personhood - if it’s in any of these platforms - it should be equally respected.

The early Jains described little “life lights” or “soul lights” in everything—animals have a lot of them, trees or grass have a few, even a rock has a couple. And people have the most twinkling lights of all.
It turns out that quite a few Transhumanists are “pan-psychics,” who believe the whole universe is alive in some sense. People asked Ben Goertzel, a wellknown Artificial Intelligence researcher and writer, “How will I know if a computer really becomes alive?” He answered, “That’s hard for me, because I think everything’s alive.” If you start thinking about the fact that intelligence is just patterns of energy engaging in complex behaviors, then a certain way of thinking leads you to a very spiritual understanding of the universe.

Here’s my fear: I’ll merge with machines and live forever. Our minds will be networked. We’ll communicate telepathically. And the result will be explosive growth in the power of … the advertising industry. [Laughter] They’ll project ads into my thoughts, my dreams. My greatest dystopian fear is that all human existence will become a vehicle for reproducing spam.
Ray Kurzweil, the inventor and Transhumanist author, said, “you would know the Singularity was here when you had a million emails in your inbox.” And yes, they might all be spam.

Are there dystopian possibilities? Sure. Early Transhumanists were naively Utopian, but few are anymore. The turning point came when a ‘blueprint’ of the 1918 influenza virus was put up on the Web. Most people now accept that new technologies bring catastrophic possibilities. Someone could make a terrible virus with a DNA printer and wipe us all out.

There will always be people with amoral goals. We can’t be naive. But it’s all a part of the tapestry of creating a just, responsible world order that can deal with the presence of greed, hatred, and ignorance. Then we can try to reduce it and make it a slightly happier world for everybody.


Article source here

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Navigating Changes and Challenges

Sacred Geometry Unfolding  in a Lettuce by Dominique Teng©2016

By Gina Lake

Change feels like tossing a coin up in the air - you don't know which way it will land, good or bad for the ego? The ego is deeply concerned it will turn out badly. The ego considers the worst case scenarios and fears the worst. It attaches a story to what's going on: "My life is going downhill." 

But good and bad are concepts, not realities. In reality, everything that happens is a mixture of what we (the ego) would consider good and bad. Everything has its advantages and disadvantages, its hidden blessings and hidden costs. Even in every day, both what we like and don't like show up. Every moment has this same mixture of what we would consider good and bad. If we stay in the moment in the midst of something that is changing that we don't like (e.g., a divorce, a move, unemployment, a health problem), we see that the actual experience of life in each moment is constantly shifting. Even in the worst of times, our bad feelings come and go and we are capable of laughter, happiness, and certainly love.

The story we bring into this moment about our "problem" makes the moment seem more difficult and stressful than it actually is. How challenging life is, is largely a matter of how much we are just in life without the story of our problem and how much we are not in real life but in our story. We carry our problems around with us mentally and bring them into the moment, spoiling it. Our problems have no objective existence, but exist only as an idea of a problem. We define something as a problem, and that creates the experience of having a problem.

No situation or circumstance is unmanageable, but we make it so by thinking about our problem, complaining about it, trying to figure out what can't be figured out, feeling bad, being angry or afraid, worrying, rehashing the past, and wishing things were different. These thoughts make whatever we're experiencing more challenging, much more than any particular situation actually is. When a challenging time or situation is stripped of these thoughts, all that's left is what to do or not do in this moment about it or anything else. Often what's required of us in a particular moment has nothing to do with our "problem." And yet, we may carry the idea of this problem into such ordinary and potentially pleasant moments.

I challenge you to stay depressed or unhappy constantly. It's impossible! Like a fist that is clenched too long, the contracted state must let go at a certain point. Eventually, we experience relief from it. That relief usually comes as a result of putting our mind and attention on something other than our problem - getting lost in some experience we are having. Getting lost in what is real rather than what is unreal - our problem.

The trouble is our ego actually loves the idea of a problem and all the worries and plans that go with that problem. The ego is also what hates the problem, while at the same time it enjoys hating it! You can sense this when you notice the complete experience of your suffering. Within that suffering is enjoyment of suffering! That's the ego. Suffering keeps the ego alive and gives it an identity: "I am someone who is suffering. And I have a problem that needs a solution." A problem gives us not only an identity, but also something to do.

The ego defines something as a problem, generates unpleasant feelings around it, and seeks solutions. This problem-creation and solution-seeking is how the ego is maintained. Without a "problem" and the suffering caused by that, there wouldn't be anything to think about. Without thought, you would drop into Essence and be happy, and the ego would be out of a job. The ego has a racket going that keeps it in power, and the ego doesn't want you to catch on to that.

The beauty is that change isn't like a coin that is tossed in the air; it just feels like that to the ego. Change isn't like a coin because a coin has only two sides - one considered good and one considered bad. From the standpoint of Essence, any change that is happening is just as it is meant to be. In other words, the flip of the coin always ends up in your favor. That is actually the truth about life. It isn't like a coin for two reasons: It doesn't have two sides: It is neither good nor bad, but just what it is. And it is always a mixture of what the ego would consider good and bad. Life is often like a coin tossed, however, in its unpredictability. We just don't have to be afraid of how it will land.

Something very wise is behind every experience that feels like a coin toss. We may not be aware of it, but we can trust that it will bring us the experience we need. And if we don't bring worries, fears, judgments, resistance, victimization, anger, confusion, or other negativity to that experience, we will discover that it serves our growth and evolution toward becoming a more loving and wiser human being. Life is wise, and it is bringing us Home. Change and challenges are a natural and necessary part of life. When we trust and listen to the wisdom that we are instead of to the false self that we are not, we find that any change or challenge can be navigated gracefully and without too much suffering.

About the author

Gina Lake has a masters degree in counseling psychology and over twenty years experience as an astrologer and a channel, with a focus on helping people understand themselves and whatever programming interferes with awakening to their true nature and living the life they were meant to live. Visit her website at www.radicalhappiness.com.

Article source here 

Image: Sacred Geometry Unfolding in Romana Lettuce by Dominique Teng©2016

Friday, April 29, 2016

Philosopher and Theologian

Black Cat by Dominique Teng©2016

Philosopher is a weird creature who looks for a black cat in a dark room that is not there... Theologian is a weird creature who looks for a black cat in a dark room that is not there and finds it. - Sam Keen, American philosopher


Friday, April 22, 2016

The Pale Blue Dot


 Happy Earth Day!

By Carl Sagan

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Remember, everyday is an Earth day! - Dominique



Image: This is a section of the Great Barrier Reef off the eastern coast of Australia, captured through a 1200mm lens. (08.22.2010). Source: Incredible Photos from Space, NASA, Astronaut Wheelock

Text: From: "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space" by Carl Sagan

Monday, April 11, 2016

Quote of the Day


Feeling gratitude 
and not expressing it 
is like wrapping a present 
and not giving it. 

William Arthur Ward 

Image by Dominique Teng©2016

Saturday, April 9, 2016

The Mystery of Time


Time and Space constitute the two greatest mysteries of the human mind. Deeper even than the mystery of space is that of time- so deep, in fact, that it took humanity thousands of years to become conscious of its implications. Apparently the human mind becomes first aware of space and much later of the reality of time. Even a child is more or less conscious of the reality of space, while the time-sense is practically absent and develops at a much later stage. The same happens in the development of human civilization. The discovery of space, as an element of spiritual importance, precedes a similar discovery of time. 

This can be explained by the fact that space-feeling is first and foremost connected with the movement of the body, where as time-feeling is connected with the movement of the mind.

Time is the mind's conception of motion.

Though space-feeling starts with the body, however, it does not remain at this stage, but gradually changes into a spiritual function, by creating a space conception which is independent from the body, independent of material objects, independent even of any kind of limitation: culminating in the experience of pure space or the infinity of space. Here we no longer speak of “conception,” because infinity cannot be conceived, mentally “pictured” or objectivized, it can only be experienced. Only when man has penetrated to this experience and has mentally and spiritually digested and assimilated it, can we speak of the discovery of time as a new dimension of consciousness.

In early Buddhism the experience of space was recognized as an important factor of meditation, for instance in the Four Divine States of consciousness (brahmavihara), in which the consciously created feelings of selfless love, compassion, sympathetic joy, and spiritual equanimity are projected one after another into the six directions of space, namely the four points of the compass, the zenith and the nadir. These directions had to be vividly imagined, so as to make space and its penetration by the mind a conscious experience. In a similar way, space became the main subject of contemplation in the higher or more advanced stages of meditative absorption (jhana) until consciousness completely identified itself with the infinity of consciousness, in which the mediator becomes one with the subject of his meditation.

In Mahayana Buddhism, space played an even more important part in the development of religious art and its symbolism, in which a universe with myriads of worlds and solar systems and infinite forms of life and dimensions of consciousness was conceived- leading to the creation of new systems of philosophy, metaphysical speculation and a vastly refined psychology. The concept of time, however, was merely treated as a secondary, if not negative, property of existence- namely, as that on account of which existence was illusory, a passing show of transient phenomena.

It was only with the advent of the Kalacakra School in the tenth century A.D. that religious seers and thinkers realized the profound mystery which is hidden under the conventional notion of time, namely the existence of another dimension of consciousness, the presence of which we feel darkly and imperfectly on the plane of our mundane experience. Those, however, who crossed the threshold of mundane consciousness in the advanced stages of meditation, entered into this dimension, in which what we feel as time was experienced not merely as a negative property of our fleeting existence, but as the ever present dynamic aspect of the universe and the inherent nature of life and spirit, which is beyond being and non-being, beyond origination and destruction. It is the vital breath of reality-reality, not in the sense of an abstraction, but as actuality of all levels of experience- which is revealed in the gigantic movements of the universe as much as in the emotions of the human heart and the ecstasies of the spirit. It is revealed in the cosmic dance of heavenly bodies as well as in the dance of protons and electrons, in the “harmony of the spheres” as well as in the “inner sound” of living things, in the breathing of our body as well as in the movements of our mind and the rhythm of our life.

Reality, in other words, is not stagnant existence of “something”; it is neither “thing-ness” nor a state of immovability (like that of an imaginary space), but movement of a kind which goes as much beyond our sense-perceptions, as beyond our mathematical, philosophical and metaphysical abstractions. In fact, space (except the “space” that is merely thought of) does not exist in itself, but is created by movement; and if we speak of the curvature of space, it has nothing to do with its prevailing or existing structure (like the grain in wood or the stratification of rocks), but with its antecedent, the movement that created it. The character of this movement is curved, i.e. concentric, or with a tendency to create its own center- a center which may again be moving in a bigger curve or circle, etc. 

Thus, the universe becomes a gigantic mandala or an intricate system of innumerable mandalas (which, according to the traditional Indian meaning of the word, signifies a system of symbols, based on a circular arrangement or movement, and serves to illustrate the interaction or juxtaposition of spiritual and cosmic forces.) If, instead from a spatial point of view, we regard the universe from the standpoint of audible vibration or sabda, “inner sound,” it becomes a gigantic symphony. In both cases all movements are interdependent, interrelated, each creating its own center, its own focus of power, without ever losing contact with all the other centers thus formed.

“Curvature” in this conception means a movement which recoils upon itself (and which thus possesses both constancy and change, i.e. rhythm) or at least has the tendency to lead back to its origin or starting-point, according to its inherent law. In reality, however, it can never return to the same point in space, since this movement itself moves within the frame of a greater system of relationships. Such a movement combines the principle of change and nonreversibility with a constancy of an unchangeable law, which we may call its rhythm. One might say that this movement contains an element of eternity as well as an element of transiency, which latter we feel as time.

Both time and space (No!) are the outcomes of movement, and if we speak of the “curvature of space” we should speak likewise of the “curvature of time,” because time is not a progression in a straight line- of which the beginning (the past) is lost forever and which pierces into the endless vacuum of an inexorable future- but something that recoils upon itself, something that is subject to the laws of ever-recurrent similar situations, and which thus combines change with stability. Each of these situations is enriched by new contents, while at the same time, retaining its essential character. Thus we cannot speak of a mechanical repetition of the same events, but only of an organic rebirth of its elements, on account of which even within the flux of events the stability of law is discernable. Upon the recognition of such a law which governs the elements (or the elementary forms of appearance) of all events, is the basis upon which the I-Ching or “The Book of Changes,” the oldest work of Chinese wisdom, is built.

Perhaps this work would better be called “The Book of the Principles of Transformation” because it demonstrates that change is not arbitrary or accidental but dependent on laws, according to which each thing or state of existence can only change into something already inherent in its own nature, and not into something altogether different. It also demonstrates the equally important law of periodicity, according to which change follows a cyclic movement (like the heavenly bodies, the seasons, the hours of the day, etc.), representing the eternal in time and converting time quasi into a higher space-dimension, in which things and events exist simultaneously, though imperceptible to the senses. They are in a state of potentiality, as invisible germs or elements of future events and phenomena that have not yet stepped into actual reality. 

This sameness- or as we may say just as well, this eternal presence of the “Body of the Law” (dharmakaya), which is common to all Buddhas, to all Enlightened Ones- is the source and spiritual foundation of all enlightenment and is, therefore, placed in the center of the Kalacakra-Mandala, which is the symbolical representation of the universe. Kala means “time” (also “black”), namely the invisible, incommensurable dynamic principle, inherent in all things and represented in Buddhist iconography, as a black, many-headed, many-armed, terrifying figure of simultaneously divine and demoniacal nature. It is “terrible” to the ego-bound individual, whose ego is trampled underfoot, just as are all the gods, created in the ego’s likeness, who are shown prostrate under the feet of this terrifying figure. Time is the power that governs all things and all being, a power to which even the highest gods have to submit.

Cakra means “wheel,” the focalized or concentric manifestation of the dynamic principle in space. In the ancient tradition of Yoga the Chakra signifies the spatial unfoldment of spiritual or universal power, as for instance in the chakras or psychic centers of the human body or in the case of the Cakravartin, the world-ruler who embodies the all-encompassing moral and spiritual powers. 

In one of his previous books on Buddhist Tantrisim, H.V. Guenther compares the Kalacakra symbol to the modern conception of the space-time continuum, pointing out, however, that in Buddhism it is not merely a philosophical or mathematical construction, but is based on the direct perception of inner experience, according to which time and space are inseparable aspects of reality. 

“Only in our minds we tend to separate the three dimensions of space and the one of time. We have an awareness of space and an awareness of time. But this separation is purely subjective. As a matter of fact, modern physics has shown that the time dimension can no more be detached from the space dimension than length can be detached breadth and thickness in an accurate representation of a house, a tree, or Mr X. Space has no objective reality except as an order or arrangement of things we perceive in it, and time has no independent existence from the order of events by which we measure it.” (Guenther, Yuganaddha, The Tantric View of Life, 1952)

Both space and time are two aspects of the most fundamental quality of life: movement. Here we come to the rock-bottom of direct experience, which the Buddha stressed in his emphasis upon the dynamic character of reality, in contrast to the generally prevailing notions and philosophical abstractions of a static Atmavada, in which an eternal and unchangeable ego-entity was proclaimed. (The original concept of atman was that of a universal, rhythmic force, the living breath of life- comparable to the Greek “pneuma” – that pervaded the individual as well as the universe.) 

“We ourselves create mathematical time. It is a mental construct, an abstraction indispensable to the building up of science. We conveniently compare it to a straight line, each successive instant being represented by a point. Since Galileo’s days this abstraction has been substituted for the concrete data resulting from the direct observation of things… In reducing objects to their primary qualities- that is, to what can be measured and is susceptible of mathematical treatment- Galileo deprived them of their secondary qualities, and of duration. This arbitrary simplification made possible the development of physics. At the same time it led to an unwarrantably schematic conception of the world.” (Alexis Carrel, Man the Unknown)

Indeed it led to a science which was based on a “post mortem” of our world, on the static end-results of what was once alive, a world of facts and dead matter.

“The concept of time is equivalent to the operation required to estimate duration in the objects of our universe. Duration consists of the superimposition of the different aspects of an identity. It is a kind of intrinsic movement of things… A tree grows and does not lose its identity. The human individual retains his personality throughout the flux of the organic and mental processes that make up his life. Each inanimate or living being comprises an inner motion, a succession of states, a rhythm which is his very own. Such motion is inherent time… In short, time is the specific character of things… It is truly a dimension of ourselves. 

An experience of reality (and that is all we can talk of, because “reality as such” is another abstraction) cannot be defined but only circumscribed, i.e., it cannot be approached by the straight line of two-dimensional logic, but only in a concentric way, by moving around it, approaching it not only from one side, but from all sides, without stopping at any particular point. Only in this way can we avoid a one-sided and perspectively foreshortened and distorted view, and arrive at a balanced, unprejudiced perception and knowledge. This concentric approach (which moves closer and closer around its object, in order finally- in the ideal case- to become one with it) is the exact opposite of the Western analytical and dissecting way of observation: it is the integral concentration of inner vision (dhyana).

What does time mean from the standpoint of experience? Most people would answer: duration! But duration we have, even when there is no experience of time, as in deep sleep. The experience of time, therefore, is something more than duration: it is movement. Movement of what? Either of ourselves or of something within or outside ourselves.

But now the paradox:

The less we move (inwardly or outwardly) the more we are aware of time. The more we move ourselves, the less we are aware of time. A person who is mentally and bodily inactive feels time as a burden, while one who is active hardly notices the passage of time. Those who move in perfect harmony with the innermost rhythm of their being, the pulsating rhythm of the universe within them, are timeless in the sense that they do not experience time anymore. Those who move and live in disharmony with this inner rhythm, have existence without inherent duration, i.e., merely momentary existence without direction or spiritual continuity and, therefore, without meaning. 

What we call “eternal” is not an indefinite duration of time (which is a mere thought-construction, unrelated to any experience) but the experience of timelessness.

Time cannot be reversed. Even if we go back the same way, it is not the same, because the sequence of landmarks is changed, and moreover, we see them from the opposite direction- or as in memory, with the added knowledge of previous experience. The experience of time is due to movement plus memory. Memory is comparable to the layers of year-rings in a tree. Each layer is a material addition, an addition of experience-material, which alters the value of any new experience, so that even repetition can never produce identical results. 

Life- like time- is an irreversible process, and those who speak of eternal recurrence of identical events and individuals (as Ouspensky in his book, A New Model of the Universe) mistake rhythm or periodicity for mechanical repetition. It is the most shallow view that any thinker can arrive at, and it shows the dilemma into which scientific determinism is bound to lead. It is typical of the intellect which has lost its connection with reality and which replaces life with the phantoms of empty abstraction. This kind of reasoning leads to a purely stagnant and mechanical world-view, ending in a blind alley.

Whether the universe as a whole can change or not is quite irrelevant; important alone is that there is a genuine creative advance possible for the individual and that the past that is ever growing in him as a widening horizon of experience and wisdom will continue so to grow until the individual has reached the state in which the universe becomes conscious in him as one living organism, not only as an abstract unity or a state of featureless oneness. This is the highest dimension of consciousness.

What do we understand by dimension? The capacity to extend or to move in a certain direction. If we move outward, we can only do so in three dimensions, i.e. we cannot go beyond our three-dimensional space. The movement, however, which produces and contains these dimensions is felt as time, as long as the movement is incomplete or as long as the dimensions are in the making, i.e. not conceived as a complete whole. The feeling of time is the feeling of incompleteness. For this reason there is no time in moments of higher awareness, intuitive vision or perfect realization. There is no time for the Enlightened Ones. 

This does not mean that for an Enlightened One the past has been extinguished or memory blotted out. On the contrary, the past ceases to be a quality of time and becomes a new order of space, which we may call the Fourth Dimension, in which things and events which we have experienced piecemeal can be seen simultaneously, in their entirety, and in the present. Thus the Buddha in the process of his enlightenment surveyed innumerable previous lives in ever widening vistas, until his vision encompassed the entire universe. Only if we recognize the past as “a true dimension of ourselves,” and not only as an abstract property of time, shall we be able to see ourselves in proper perspective to the universe, which is not an alien element that surrounds us mysteriously, but the very body of our past, in whose womb we dream until we awake into the freedom of enlightenment. 

That the gods of Buddhist iconography and their symbols and functions do not belong in the realm of metaphysics, but to that of psychology, has been correctly pointed out by C.G. Jung in his Commentary on the Secret of the Golden Flower. Speaking of the great Eastern philosophers, he says: “I suspect them of being symbolical psychologists, to whom no greater wrong could be done than to take them literally. If it were really metaphysics that they mean, it would be useless to try to understand them. But if it is psychology, we can not only understand them, but we can greatly profit greatly by them, for then the so-called ‘metaphysical’ comes within the range of experience. If I accept the fact that a god is absolute and beyond all human experiences, he leaves me cold. I do not affect him, nor does he affect me. But if I know that a god is a powerful impulse in my soul, at once I must concern myself with him, for then he can become important… like everything belonging to the sphere of reality.” 

Lama Anagarika Govinda, Creative Meditation and Multidimensional Consciousness, 1977

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