Yesterday, 26 August 2010, would have been the 100th birthday of Mother Teresa, the modern age's most famous saint. Born in 1910 in Albania, she traveled to India in 1929 where she would later take her religious vows two years later. In 1946 she had a mystical experience that prompted her to embark on a life of charity in 1948. For 50 years St. Teresa (she's one miracle away from "official" sainthood as described by the Catholic church, and I've no doubt she'll be proclaimed a saint within my lifetime) worked tirelessly serving the poor and destitute of India, those suffering from horrible disease, malnutrition, and crippling poverty.
Although the owner of Empire State Building, Anthony Malkin, did not light his edifice blue and white to honour her, claiming he doesn't light it for religious figures, despite lighting the building to honour the end of Ramadan (this is America, don't forget, everyone with power is deathly afraid of Muslims and has to appease them, not realizing the difference between Muslims and terrorists), and lighting the tower for completely asinine reasons like a Mariah Carey album and the Ninja Turtles, The Urban Mystic none-the-less feels the need to commemorate a shining example of selfless service and the hights to which humans can aspire to. India opened a new train line, the Mother Express, in her honour yesterday.
Let us pray that more people are inspired by Mother Teresa's example and try to live their lives with love, especially now when the world is in such dire conditions.
Yesterday night I heard on the radio news that the last US combat troops in Iraq left and are now in Kuwait. Everyone will be home by 31 August. The war is over.
The infamous Starchild skull has had a DNA test done, demonstrating that it possesses a long string of DNA that is not found in any known creature. This seems to indicate that it is not human. The scientist who did the test suggests that it is an alien that was implanted into a human mother who gave birth to it on the earth. Why this alien IVF experiment was conducted is anyone's guess. Lloyd Pye, owner of the skull, is now seeking funding to develop a complete sequence of the Starchild's entire genome (it's called the Starchild due to its small size despite later evidence that it was an adult at the time of its death).
Michael Tymn writes about an interesting chess match between a (then) living grand master and a deceased grand master; two of among the greatest in the world. Viktor Korchnoi played against Géza Maróczy through the help of automatic writer Robert Rollans. The match was arranged by Swiss stock broker and occasional psychical researcher Wolfgang Eisenbeiss. The match lasted seven years and eight months. I won't give away the winner.
This is a marvelous story that would make a great movie, if done right. Until a producer finds this story and decides to take it to a mass audience we'll just have to settle for the written word.
On this day in 1945, just before dawn, the world entered the atomic age. The Manhattan Project cost $2 billion ($20 billion today) and involved the largest group of brilliant minds ever assembled. Not too long after two bombs would be dropped on Japan, turning the largest science experiment in history into largest weapon of war ever used. It was estimated that in order to defeat the Japanese the largest invasion ever would have to be conducted, resulting in one million American casualties. Five million Japanese would have to be killed reaching Tokyo and forcing the government to surrender. The Russians would have invaded from the north, resulting in millions more dead and dividing the Japanese islands in two, one communist, one capitalist. The divided nation would eventually go to war to reunify the islands in a conflict that would make Korea look like a school yard squabble. For saving countless millions of lives and ending the war more than a year early, the overwhelming impetus toward world peace that was born on 16 July 1945 cannot be underestimated. There has not been another World War since. There has not been anything close to one, and we have the threat of nuclear annihilation to thank. It seems we humans are so primitive that we have to be scared straight, or at least less crooked.
A day that will live in infamy. No, not that day. On this day in 1947 the US Army Aircorps published a press release announcing they had recovered a "flying saucer" at Roswell, New Mexico. Hours later they retracted their statement, claiming it was only a weather balloon. Over the years the US government has come up with four "official" stories of what crashed at Roswell, each supposedly debunking the previous one. This alone is proof the government is hiding something, if they keep admitting they were lying and come out with a new "official" story of what crashed. It was a MOGUL balloon, of which many crashed and ranchers regularly called the Roswell air base to come and pick up, but this time it was different somehow and the ranchers thought this particular balloon was a flying saucer. Next, the three alien pilots who crashed, one of whom was still alive and moving around, were said not to be 4 foot tall aliens, but 7 foot tall plastic crash dummies which wouldn't be used until several years after the Roswell crash (after 1951), so I guess the Army Aircorps was testing a time machine. I'm waiting for the fifth "official" story, just to see how stupid the government thinks we are. As more and more countries begin releasing at least some of their formerly classified UFO files I'm left to wonder when the United States will follow suite. Maybe not full disclosure, but at least admit you're hiding something. We're not fools, even if we tend to act like fools to get attention.
MASTER: ...."What is the use of making pilgrimages if you can attain love of God remaining where you are? I have been to Benares and noticed the same trees there as here. The same green tamarind-leaves!
"Pilgrimage becomes futile if it does not enable you to attain love of God. Love of God is the one essential and necessary thing. Do you know the meaning of 'kites' and 'vultures'? There are many people who talk big and who say that they have performed most of the duties enjoined in the scriptures. But with all that their minds are engrossed in worldliness and deeply preoccupied with money, riches, name, fame, creature comforts, and such things."
The Master was about to take his leave. The pundit and his friends bowed low before him.
It was not yet dusk, and Sri Ramakrishna returned to Ishan's house with the devotees. The Master took his seat in the drawing-room with Ishan and his sons, a pundit, and a few devotees.
MASTER (smiling, to Ishan): "I said to Pundit Shashadhar: 'You have hardly set your foot on the tree, and yet you aspire to lay hold of a big bunch of fruit. First of all practise some spiritual discipline; then you may teach others.'"
ISHAN: "Every preacher thinks that he enlightens others. The glow-worm also may think that it illuminates the world. Imagining this to be the glow-worm's feeling, someone said to it: 'O glow-worm, how can you bring light to the world? You only reveal the intensity of the darkness.'"
MASTER: (with a smile): "But Shashadahr is not just a scholar. He also has a little discrimination and dispassion."
The Master was about to leave for Dakshineswar. Ishan and the other devotees stood around him while he gave Ishan various words of advice.
MASTER: "A devotee who can call on God while living a householder's life is a hero indeed. God thinks: 'He who has renounced the world for My sake will surely pray to Me; he must serve Me. Is there anything very remarkable about it? People will cry shame on him if he fails to do so. But he is blessed indeed who prays to Me in the midst of his worldly duties. He is trying to find Me, overcoming a great obstacle – pushing away, as it were, a huge block of stone weighing a ton. Such a man is a real hero.'
"Live in the world like an ant. The world contains a mixture of truth and untruth, sugar and sand. Be an ant and take the sugar.
"Again, the world is a mixture of milk and water, the bliss of God-Consciousness and the pleasure of sense enjoyment. Be a swan and drink the milk, leaving the water aside.
(Pages 307-309)
Here Sri Ramakrishna makes two very good points about the search for God (the journey without distance):
1. God is everywhere. One does not need to visit some holy place, some temple or church, or make some grand physical journey to commune with God. All that matters is love. "Love of God is the one essential and necessary thing." People can make grand gestures of visiting holy sites to pray and yet have it all just be a show to win fame and recognition, whereas someone who is filled with the love of God can find God while going for a walk in the woods or helping a poor beggar on the streets.
2. One does not need to renounce the world to find God. Indeed, it is a truly great feat to find God while retaining one's worldly duties. Anyone can sell their possessions, become a monk, and meditate for twelve hours a day. That's no challenge at all. What is really difficult is to take the time to practice while not renouncing the world. Turning everyday activities into opportunities for consciousness growth, such as washing the dishes, maintaining ethical practices at work, and helping your aging parents. As Jesus said, be in the world but not of it (John 17: 14-16, though the exact phrase does not appear in the text, it is a nice, concise summary). You have a greater opportunity to grow in compassion and to see the universal love of God that permeates everyone by completing your duties in the world while remembering that you are not this little, limited, physical body born of the world.
A good example of this is Lahiri Mahasaya, the householder-yogi who reintroduced the lost art of Kriya Yoga to the world.
Do we want the Truth or do we want to be "educated"? There is a tendency of people in control, whether in universities or in governments, to want to "educate". Not for the Truth, but for the convenience of the moment, thinking they are the prophets of the zeitgeist, and by their manipulation of the public mind they will bring people around to the "right" direction.
- Richard Rose
Like the Tao, any description of this thing (I don't know what to call it) would limit what it is, and what it is is limitless, so it cannot be described. Even saying this is limiting it. Go figure.
Yesterday, 26 August 2010, would have been the 100th birthday of Mother Teresa, the modern age's most famous saint. Born in 1910 in Albania, she traveled to India in 1929 where she would later take her religious vows two years later. In 1946 she had a mystical experience that prompted her to embark on a life of charity in 1948. For 50 years St. Teresa (she's one miracle away from "official" sainthood as described by the Catholic church, and I've no doubt she'll be proclaimed a saint within my lifetime) worked tirelessly serving the poor and destitute of India, those suffering from horrible disease, malnutrition, and crippling poverty. 
