Three sorts of being

"Tell me what you do with the food you eat, and I'll tell you who you are. Some turn their food into fat and manure, some into work and good humor, and some, I'm told, into God. So there must be three sorts of men."

-- Kazantzakis, from Zorba the Greek

Birthday Message 2009 (Kazantzakis)

I believe in the innumerable, the ephemeral masks which God has assumed throughout the centuries, and behind his ceaseless flux I discern an indestructable unity.

I believe in his sleepless and violent struggle which tames and fructifies the earth as the life-giving fountain of plants, animals and men.

Blessed be all those who hear and rush to free you, Lord, and who say, "Only you and I exist."

Blessed be all those who free you and become united with you, Lord, and who say, "You and I are one."

And thrice blessed be those who bear on their shoulders and do not buckle under this great, sublime, and terrifying secret: That even this one does not exist!

We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life.

-- Nikos Kazantzakis, from The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises (1927)

No other shore (J. Krishnamurti)

There is no way to the other shore. There is no action, no prescription, no behavior that will open the door to the other. It is not an evolutionary process; it is not the end of a discipline; it cannot be bought or given or invited. If this is clear, if the mind has forgotten itself and no longer says 'the other bank' or 'this bank,' if the mind has stopped groping and searching, if there is total emptiness and space within the mind itself, then and only then is it there.

-- J. Krishnamurti, from Freedom, Love and Action

Creation over life (H. Miller)

From the little reading I had done I had observed that the men who were the most in life, who were molding life, who were life itself, ate little, slept little, owned little or nothing. They had no illusions about duty, or about the perpetuation of their kith and kin, or the preservation of the State. They were interested in truth and in truth alone. They recognized only one kind of activity – creation. Nobody could command their services because they had of their own pledged themselves to give all. They gave gratuitously, because that is the only way to give.

-- Henry Miller, from Sexus

The spirituality of Harry Potter

There are still religious proponents who insist that the Potter tales are about witchcraft and should be banned. Yet those of us who have journeyed with the characters through the pages of these books know that the Harry Potter series is not really about the wizarding world. It is about the struggle of good versus evil, the power of friendship and growing into adult roles and responsibilities in serious times.

There is a saying, “Religion is for those who are afraid to go to hell; spirituality is for those who have already been there.” In an earlier volume, Luna advises Harry as to why they can see the beasts that lead the carriages taking Hogwarts students to school. Both Luna and Harry have seen death, and only those who have done so can see the beasts. The Harry Potter series is not a religious pageant, as some have described the long-running comic Peanuts. Harry is growing up in a world where the stakes are high, the dangers are many, the losses are great and friendship is the greatest asset that anyone could have in any challenge.

-- Cindy Bowman, Portland Spiritual Living Examiner

Rest of article at link:
http://tinyurl.com/n77fmr

Recession boosts ashram attendance

A New York Times story recently described how yoga retreats and meditation programs across the United States are experiencing, in some cases, greatly increased numbers of short and long term visitors who come seeking refuge from the troubled economy or who have found that signing up for a work-exchange program is a cost effective way to spend some time between jobs while also building up their spiritual energies.

Full story at link.
http://tinyurl.com/koz7z2

Photo: Devotees join in kirtan signing at New Vrindaban ashram in Pennsylvania.

Open-eye meditation

Based on 3D technology, open-eye meditation (OEM) does not require the meditator to close his eyes, nor is it time-consuming. According to meditation consultant Ramesh Kamath, "You need to look at a chart printed using 3-D techniques. After a few seconds, a hidden religious symbol will appear on the chart. Your meditation is complete and you will be relieved by just seeing the symbol for five minutes a day." Aura meter technology is used to assess the intensity and kind of problems a person faces, he added. The medium can be used to deal with anxiety, stress-related problems and depression.

http://tinyurl.com/m2qn8w

eWakenTube update

Check out our YouTube channel, eWakenTube. Just updated with a bold, new look.

http://www.youtube.com/user/eWakenTube

Ancient Sikh martial art comes to the West

Ancient but deadly: the return of Shastar Vidiya
(from the Independent UK)

Shastar Vidiya is a once-popular but today little-known fighting technique from north India that was forced to go underground when banned by the British in the 19th century, to be replaced by the mostly ceremonial "gatka" style seen at Sikh festivals. Though the art itself had been practiced prior to the emergence of Sikhism, it was the Punjabi Sikh tribes -- in particular the blue-turbaned Akhali Nihangs, the elite among Sikh warriors -- who honed it to its highest pitch of perfection and uniqueness.

Indian monks were the first to export Buddha's new teachings across the Himalayas and legend has it that it was the great Indian monk and zen pioneer Bodhidharma who first introduced martial arts to the Shaolin Temple in AD 600. Bodhidharma himself is thought to have come from south India where another indigenous fighting style known as Kalaripayattu has also undergone a recent renaissance.

However, Shastar Vidiya is more than simply a fighting style. Practitioners are expected to live up to strict religious principles and honor martial codes, demonstrating the unity of body, mind and spirit that is the real essence of ancient martial arts.

Today, a handful of British Sikhs have begun teaching this art to the public in an attempt to revive it for the 21st century world. More on this story at the link.

http://tinyurl.com/dxoc6o

Why great minds can't grasp consciousness

By Ker Than, LiveScience Staff Writer

It wasn't that long ago that the study of consciousness was considered to be too abstract, too subjective or too difficult to study scientifically. But in recent years, it has emerged as one of the hottest new fields in biology, similar to string theory in physics or the search for extraterrestrial life in astronomy.

No longer the sole purview of philosophers and mystics, consciousness is now attracting the attention of scientists from across a variety of different fields, each, it seems, with their own theories about what consciousness is and how it arises from the brain.

Instead of trying to reduce consciousness to something else, some scientists suggest that consciousness should simply be taken for granted, the way that space and time and mass are in physics. But other researchers find this view unhelpful and suggest that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain, similar to the 'wetness' of water or the 'transparency' of glass, both of which are properties that are the result of the actions of individual molecules.

http://tinyurl.com/5we3xq