Ani-Choying-Drolma-Nepals-rock-star-nun – Story | BRProud – www.brproud.com

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Dook Domini

Good riddance, NDC copycats! – GhanaWeb

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Dook Domini

Feature Article of Wednesday, 8 March 2017

Columnist: Okoampa-Ahoofe, Kwame

NDC flag

By: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says that when the National Democratic Congress parliamentary minority members shoved up placards calling his 2017 maiden budgetary presentation 419, a rather intellectually and morally regressive evocation of a Nigerian military-era edict dealing with fraudulent commercial acts of criminality, he felt even more emboldened and righteous in his cause because the figure 419 reminded him of the Biblical scripture of Philippians Chapter 4 Verse 19, which tersely and poignantly reads as follows: And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Now, that is a creatively constructive way to wear down ones cynical political opponents: meet infantile imbecility with wisdom and spiritual enlightenment.

This is likely what might have provoked Mr. Kwesi Pratt, the faux-socialist National Democratic Congress propagandist, to bitterly complain to the host of an Accra-based radio station that he was annoyed by Mr. Ofori-Attas constant references to Biblical scriptures during his budgetary reading in Parliament recently. Well, I just finished reading the full-text of the Finance Ministers 2017 Asempa or God News budgetary statement and find absolutely no untoward or inordinate references to the Christian Bible in it, other than during the first few opening paragraphs of the same.

At any rate, this is a patent non-issue and squarely reflective of the sour-grape attitude of a political sponge and a veritable parasite whose political and economic feeding trough and paymaster just got electorally jack-booted out of the Flagstaff House. Besides, if he were that particular about Ghanas being declared a secular democracy, Mr. Pratt would have vigorously campaigned to have the name of God removed from our National Anthem. But what is even quite remarkable about the undeniably uncouth flashing of placards labeling Mr. Ofori-Attas budgetary presentation a 419 scheme, by people who ought to know better, regards the fact that we are reliably informed that the Haruna Iddrisu Group of Certified Political Charlatans had earlier on come to a mutual agreement with their parliamentary majority counterparts that they were going to avoid precisely this act of gross infantility.

Knowing their past gross misbehavior in the august House on such occasions, especially when the New Patriotic Party operatives held the reins of governance, I wouldnt have expected any better, let alone waste precious time striking any sort of a gentlemans agreement with these notorious pathological scofflaws and political scam-artists. We must also underscore, in no uncertain terms, that notwithstanding the fact of Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumias being a bona fide Muslim, albeit a very liberal Muslim, Ghana is a predominantly Christian nation whose Christian majority are intent on maximizing our inalienable right to free-speech without any let or hindrance, just as we have solemnly respected and staunchly supported the Vice-Presidents right to the democratic expression of his religious beliefs. For at the end of the day, both major religions are rooted in Judaic moral principles and cultural values. Two faces of the same coin, fundamentally speaking.

We also know Mr. Pratt to be a self-proclaimed socialist and a diehard Nkrumacrat; and we absolutely do not begrudge him his inalienable right to confess, profess and espouse his faux-Marxian political beliefs. By the same token, Mr. Pratt would be grossly remiss to suppose that he could lecture the Christocentric likes of Mr. Ofori-Atta on how to rhetorically conduct themselves privately or publicly, even in the august House of Parliament. I also dont know about what Mr. Pratt thinks about Speaker Michael Aaron Oquaye, the distinguished legal scholar and retired Dean of the University of Ghanas Faculty of Law, who is also an ordained evangelical Christian priest.

And would Mr. Pratt, himself a Presbyterian by baptism and schooling, have felt annoyed if Mr. Ofori-Atta had presented an extensive disquisition on Marxian Economics or Nkrumaism before the plenary session of the august House? I have said this many times before and, here again, reiterate the same: that if any of the key operatives of the main opposition National Democratic Congress and their media shills want Ghanaians to take them seriously, they would have to put on their thinking caps, if they really have any, and begin debating their majority counterparts of the ruling New Patriotic Party on the issues, rather than acting and behaving facilely like some disgruntled teenagers who just got their Junior Drivers License taken away from them by one of their parents.

By: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. English Department, SUNY-Nassau Garden City, New York E-mail: [emailprotected] *Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

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Good riddance, NDC copycats! - GhanaWeb

Ani Choying Drolma: Nepal’s rock star nun | GantNews.com – Gant Daily

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Dook Domini

Ani Choying Drolma was not stabbed as a teenager by her Tibetan sculptor father in one of his many fits of rage.

That, says Drolma, is an urban legend which has been amplified during the two decades in which she has been telling her incredible story to journalists around the world.

Not that her biography needs exaggeration.

Born in Nepal to Tibetan refugee parents, Drolmas rise from teenage nun to international music star is the stuff of fairytales. Her prolific philanthropic work and subsequent role as Nepals first UNICEF national ambassador has earned her comparisons to Indias Mother Theresa.

But with 12 pop albums to her name Drolma is arguably a more unusual, groundbreaking figure.

I have been the most revolutionary person I can think of in my society, Drolma tells CNN.

She isnt exaggerating.

Tough beginnings

Drolmas father did hit her.

Small things irritated him and hed beat me and my mum, she says. Today, I see it as a disease he was suffering from. But in those days we all suffered because of it.

Aged 10, full of anger and fear, Drolma resolved to become a Buddhist nun in Nepal, nuns are not permitted to marry or have children.

I thought, If I grow up and get married that man will treat me the same way. Domestic violence is a big problem in our society.

Her parents were approving of Drolmas decision our cultural belief is that when someone becomes a nun they are going to live their life more positively and three years later she was accepted by a local monastery.

Without hesitation, Drolma shed her hair, everyday clothing and birth name, Dolma Tsekyid.

When I first got (my head) shaved I felt so free, I could feel the breeze.

Nagi Gompa monastery was located on a mountaintop in the Kathmandu Valley, and to Drolma it was paradise.

The whole environment there was beautiful. Everyone was kind, and I never got beaten, or had to carry my two younger brothers on my back. Or do the cleaning.

I was given my childhood back.

In Nepal, where 37% of girls are married before age 18, according to Human Rights Watch, Drolma had bought herself valuable time.

Outside influence

Foreigners would often visit Nagi Gompa seeking spiritual enlightenment.

In 1993, American record producer Steve Tibbetts turned up at the hilltop retreat with his wife to learn meditation under Tulku Urgyen, who he described as a greatmeditation master and Drolmas main teacher.

On their last night, a translator at the monastery asked Tibbetts to record Drolma, then aged 22, singing.

She sort of rolled her eyes Whois this guy with his cassette recorder? took a deep breath, and sang somelines from Leymon Tendrel. Iwasamazed, dumbfounded, Tibbetts says.

So dumfounded, in fact, that Tibbetts forgot to press record.

Theres a quality in her singing that cutsto the heart of what its like to be human, he says.That quality, that tonality, justgoes right to the centerof your chest.

Tibbetts returned a few days later and captured Drolmas voice. On returning to the US, he set her haunting Buddhist hymns to a guitar track, and sent the recording to Nepal, suggesting the pair collaborate on an album.

Without calculation, I just did it, Drolma says, and later on it created some kind of a miracle in my life.

While Drolma attributes her big break to Tibbetts, he is adamant the opposite is true.

Just to be clear, she wouldnt be denied, he tells CNN, via email from the United States. If I hadnt have met her and started her off, she would have found someone else.

The singing nun

The first album was called Cho.

Cho sold well although Drolma refuses to disclose the figures; I dont think about numbers and a U.S. tour was planned.

In a country where getting a visa to travel is described by many citizens as being nearly impossible a Nepal passport ranked 98th in the world, alongside Sudan, Iran and Eritrea in the 2016 Visa restrictions Index, which measures how many countries citizens can travel to visa-free Drolma was given permission to enter the US for a 22-city tour.

I had two other nuns on stage with me, along with Steve and a guy on sound. We had a huge bus and we toured, she remembers. In New York we played (Brooklyn venue) the Knitting Factory. The fans were all Americans, there wasnt a Nepali face in sight.

Along with fast food, American women were a culture shock.

I was surprised by the independence and confidence the women there carried, she says. They all drove. They were educated. I was inspired.

Back in Nepal, Drolma bought a computer, installed an internet connection at the monastery, and opened a bank account.

More money, less problems

The financial resources from the tour gave Drolma the chance to realize her dreams.

In 1998, she founded the Nuns Welfare Foundation (NWF).

Two years later, she opened the free Arya Tara boarding school in Kathmandu, which today is home to almost 80 young nuns from poor backgrounds in Nepal and India, and run entirely by female nuns.

Unlike at the monastery where Drolma grew up, in addition to religious teachings, the girls receive lessons in English, Nepali, mathematics, science, and computing subjects to prepare them for careers. Many have gone on to higher education.

Some of the nuns later quit being nuns, she explains. At that point, a secular education helps them survive a modern life.

I remember (receiving) a letter from Ani after our first tour, says Tibbetts. She said shed realized that there was a chance to make some real money on the road and fulfill her dream of creating a school for young girls in difficult circumstances. She told me she wanted to do more tours.

In reality, Tibbetts thought she was probably more interested in getting a jeep, or a flat somewhere in Kathmandu.

He was wrong. She did exactly what she said she was going to do, he remembers, and she smashed through a lot of barriers in the process:religious, cultural, patriarchal.

Im the first nun in Nepal sending children in nuns robes into normal colleges, Drolma tells CNN. Theyve never had that type of encouragement before.

Fame and fortune

Over the next decade, Drolma made nearly an album a year: in 2002, her and Tibbetts even recorded in a cave believed to have once been home to 8th century Buddhist guruPadmasambhava.

She has performed around the world including to an audience of 20,000 people in Tibet last Easter counts superstars like Tina Turner and Tracy Chapman among her fans, and her biography Singing For Freedom, first published in French in 2008, has been translated into 15 languages.

Drolma has used her position to benefit those less fortunate than herself.

I lost my mother to kidney disease, Drolma says. When she was suffering I took her to India twice, but I still couldnt keep her alive.

In 2014, Drolma was made Nepals first UNICEF national ambassador. In a country where more than 33.9% of children in rural areas and nearly 9.1% in urban settlements are doing some kind of economic work, she was assigned to protect young Nepalis from violence.

Brave nun

In 2011, Drolma showed her willingness to challenge the establishment when she offered sanctuary to a 21-year-old nun who had reportedly been gang raped and ostracized from her religious community.

She is a human being like everybody else. This could have happened to anybody, Drolma said at the time.

It could have happened to me, to my sister. The most important thing is to treat her like a human being and then later we can look into the matter of whether she is still a nun.

If Drolma risked being ostracized by speaking out she didnt seem to care.

She had long been criticized in conservative Nepal for appearing in liberal Western magazines like Marie Claire, her love of Hindi films and her global pop career all deemed inappropriate for a nun.

As a nun, Drolma says, Im supposed to be living in a very limited way. Nuns are not supposed to do this, to go there, to say that. They even think a nun should not sing.

Yet I am someone who has come out and done everything to shock people.

She pauses, and moderates her comments slightly: I mean, I never sing tragic love songs, they are all meaningful spiritual hymns.

In a patriarchal country, Drolma is unique in having achieved total independence. In Kathmandu she lives in her own flat, drives her own car, and has a successful career.

I have never regretted my decision to become a nun, she says, with confidence. Yes, I missed out on the complicated married life. But some married women seem to regret not being able to go here or say this.

For me, Im completely enjoying my freedom. In fact, I am grateful for my childhood, even for my father.

It has all been a blessing in disguise.

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Ani Choying Drolma: Nepal's rock star nun | GantNews.com - Gant Daily

Getting real on resolutions for 2017 – Big Issue North

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Dook Domini

For Christmas 1991 my parents bought me a diary. It was an important looking hardback number with The Dahl Diary 1992 scrawled across the top in Quentin Blakes familiar style and a drawing of the author with some of his beloved characters. The character I identified with most was Matilda, a bookworm whose talents are woefully undervalued by her mean, TV-obsessed parents. On reflection this does seem fairly deluded of my eight-year-old self when evidently her parents didnt think she was bookish enough, or they might not have encouraged their daughter to self-reflect in an expensive book with characters from books on the cover.

There, surrounded by discarded wrapping paper, satsumas and Sindy dolls, I made my very first new years resolution: to keep a diary.

I set to it right away. I dont know if I realised that diary-keepers tend to jot down experiences as they happen but I shunned this more conventional diarising in favour of filling in The Dahl Diary 1992 completely on 25 December 1991. See, I told you I was unusually clever.

In particular I remember leafing through and every few pages pencilling in Be nice to Daniel.

Dan (I used his full name because writing in a book felt Very Important) is my eldest brother.

So my first new years resolution was a great success, if you accept my interpretation of this task as one 10 minute job undertaken between scoffing chocolate coins. Presumably I was being a complete shit to Daniel, within a few hours though.

I have never heard of a (valid) new years resolution that worked out. They seem wholly designed as a tool of self-flagellation for when you fail to lose weight/quit Candy Crush/do something uncharacteristically worthy but boring and time-consuming every single day (say, being nice to Daniel).

This year I have come up with a solution. That is not to have any new years resolutions. This probably doesnt sound that odd but the next sentence might A Buddhist monk I met in Keighley suggested what I might do instead: If you dont like something in your life you can change that instantly. Just change your mind.

I think he might be on to something. Scientific studies have proved that we literally see something differently when we are in an optimistic mood to when we are pissed off. An American experiment found that baseball players perceive the ball to be larger when theyre hitting well and smaller when theyre hitting badly. Reality and our perception of it are way off since our perception is more flexible than Louis Smith in a wind tunnel.

No one can really be objective because its all based on your own subjective experience and your mood at any given time. Buddhism and neuroscience agree on this one there is no fixed self. We can be several selves all at once in our own and other peoples minds: sister, daughter, fat, thin, interesting, dull and so on. Its really just a question of perception. The same goes for something so apparently fixed and tangible as your environment. Some might consider Keighley a boring little town with nothing going for it; some might see it as a large, well-connected and friendly place with a surprising sideline in spiritual enlightenment. Many will have had both perceptions at different times.

Our reality only exists to us. Someone thinks youre fine as you are somewhere even if that is just in your mind.

Originally posted here:

Getting real on resolutions for 2017 - Big Issue North

Ani Choying Drolma: Nepal’s rock star nun – News8000.com – WKBT

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Dook Domini

John Oliver Experiences Entertaining Enlightenment With The Dalai Lama – Decider

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Dook Domini

Economic Times

John Oliver Experiences Entertaining Enlightenment With The Dalai Lama
Decider
Traditionally, the Dalai Lama serves as the political and spiritual leader of Tibet, and he has earned the indignation of the Chinese government by fighting for Tibet's freedom. The Dalai Lama now lives in exile from Tibet in India, and at the age of ...
Dalai Lama tells John Oliver that Chinese leaders have the common sense part of their brain missingShanghaiist

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John Oliver Experiences Entertaining Enlightenment With The Dalai Lama - Decider

CNN’s ‘Believer With Reza Aslan’ could use a little more enlightenment itself – Los Angeles Times

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Dook Domini

Imagine something like Anthony Bourdains show Parts Unknown. Now replace Bourdain with religious scholar Reza Aslan and instead of a look at food culture, picture a glimpse of various sects, cults, rites and rituals around the globe and you have CNNs Believer With Reza Aslan.

The six-episode spiritual adventures series, premiering Sunday, focuses on groups misunderstood by majority religions; the Hindu are disgusted with the ghoulish Aghori sect in India; evangelical missionaries have labeled Haitis Vodou faith as demonic; and then theres the Hawaiian doomsday cult led by a man named JeZus.

But Believer doesnt offer as much enlightenment as its title and premise might suggest. The main problem here is that some of the chosen believers in the first few episodes are ultimately unbelievable.

Many of the groups and leaders featured here are so fringe that their bizarre philosophies and theatrics distract from Aslans main mission to demystify lesser understood faiths and find a commonality that makes us all believers in something.

The Aghori are an ascetic sect of Hinduism that rejects the caste system (good), but challenges widely held ideas about purity with post-mortem rituals such as eating human flesh (bad).

As with each episode, Aslan tries to embed with his chosen subjects and practice as they do. But in Varanasi, it leads to hanging out with three random Aghoris camped by the Ganges River who get Aslan to smear his body with the ashes of human remains and possibly even eat brain matter. He draws the line when the guru asks him to consume something else too gross to mention, and then flings it at Aslan when he refuses.

The research and scene-setting in this installment, where Aslan explains the caste system, its relation to the Hindu religion and interviews scholars and people on the street is when the show is at its best. But when it leads to him hanging out in a meditation den, lit like a rave, with an attention-seeking guru who drinks honey out of human skulls, the journey is more about sensationalism than true discovery.

In Hawaii, the Rainbow Village doomsday cult is building an ark in the middle of the jungle in anticipation of the apocalypse.

Again, the setup gives seemingly pertinent background on other doomsday cults and their leaders, including Jim Jones, David Koresh and Heavens Gate. But the group the show chooses to embed with appears more like a loose-knit hippie commune than anything else. Self-proclaimed prophet JeZus doesnt even seem all that sure of why 40 or more people have chosen to live with him in the jungle and invest in a vision that isnt much of a vision at all: Stick with him and you might survive the coming floods and destruction. Even JeZus admits his theatrical displays rants, flailing arms, word-salad revelations are oftentimes a front: If you can survive my narcissism, you can pass the test, he says.

Haiti is where the show finds its footing. Aslan breaks down the history of the Vodou religion, how it arrived with African slaves and how it mixed with the Catholic iconography of slave traders and masters. He embeds with Vodou priests and priestesses, and scenes shot during their rituals capture a deeply genuine sense of devotion and enlightenment.

Believer shows the tension between a fairly new evangelical movement in Haiti and the islands centuries-old Vodou beliefs, and how that conflict replicates some of the oppressive aspects of the island during its dark slavery years.

Aslan, a SoCal-based religion professor, became a name beyond the academic set when he published his 2013 bestseller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. It outraged some in conservative Christian circles because they felt a Muslim author had no place writing about Jesus.

As a host, Aslan is charismatic. But in order to make Believer more believable, the show needs to stop trying to shock and, like Bourdain does with his series, find the extraordinary in the most ordinary of people and moments.

------------

Believer With Reza Aslan

Where: CNN

When: 7 and 10 p.m. Sunday

lorraine.ali@latimes.com

@lorraineali

The rest is here:

CNN's 'Believer With Reza Aslan' could use a little more enlightenment itself - Los Angeles Times

Confab: Trump, Up and Down – The Weekly Standard

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Dook Domini

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Hosted by Eric Felten.

12:00 PM, Mar 04, 2017 | By TWS PODCAST

The Weekly Standard

Sorry, you've reached the limit on the articles you can view.

In this episode of THE WEEKLY STANDARD Confab, Michael Warren joins host Eric Felten to talk about the Trump administration's eventful week, from the high of the president's speech before Congress to the low of the Attorney General's Russia recusal. Then Chris Deaton comes by to tell us about the proliferation of city soda taxes.

This podcast can be downloaded here. Subscribe to THE WEEKLY STANDARD Confab's iTunes podcast feed here.

Web Link: http://www.weeklystandard.com/article/2007091

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Confab: Trump, Up and Down - The Weekly Standard

Ani Choying Drolma: Nepal’s rock star nun – CNN.com – CNN

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Dook Domini

That, says Drolma, is an urban legend which has been amplified during the two decades in which she has been telling her incredible story to journalists around the world.

Not that her biography needs exaggeration.

But with 12 pop albums to her name Drolma is arguably a more unusual, groundbreaking figure.

"I have been the most revolutionary person I can think of in my society," Drolma tells CNN.

She isn't exaggerating.

Drolma's father did hit her.

"Small things irritated him and he'd beat me and my mum," she says. "Today, I see it as a disease he was suffering from. But in those days we all suffered because of it."

Aged 10, full of anger and fear, Drolma resolved to become a Buddhist nun -- in Nepal, nuns are not permitted to marry or have children.

"I thought, 'If I grow up and get married that man will treat me the same way'. Domestic violence is a big problem in our society."

Without hesitation, Drolma shed her hair, everyday clothing and birth name, Dolma Tsekyid.

"When I first got (my head) shaved I felt so free, I could feel the breeze."

Nagi Gompa monastery was located on a mountaintop in the Kathmandu Valley, and to Drolma it was "paradise".

"The whole environment there was beautiful. Everyone was kind, and I never got beaten, or had to carry my two younger brothers on my back. Or do the cleaning.

"I was given my childhood back."

Foreigners would often visit Nagi Gompa seeking spiritual enlightenment.

On their last night, a translator at the monastery asked Tibbetts to record Drolma, then aged 22, singing.

"She sort of rolled her eyes -- 'Whois this guy with his cassette recorder?' -- took a deep breath, and sang somelines from 'Leymon Tendrel.' Iwasamazed, dumbfounded," Tibbetts says.

So dumfounded, in fact, that Tibbetts forgot to press "record".

"There's a quality in her singing that cutsto the heart of what it's like to be human," he says."That quality, that tonality, justgoes right to the centerof your chest."

"Without calculation, I just did it," Drolma says, "and later on it created some kind of a miracle in my life."

While Drolma attributes her big break to Tibbetts, he is adamant the opposite is true.

"Just to be clear, she wouldn't be denied," he tells CNN, via email from the United States. "If I hadn't have met her and started her off, she would have found someone else."

The first album was called "Cho".

"Cho" sold well -- although Drolma refuses to disclose the figures; "I don't think about numbers" -- and a U.S. tour was planned.

Along with fast food, American women were a culture shock.

"I was surprised by the independence and confidence the women there carried," she says. "They all drove. They were educated. I was inspired."

Back in Nepal, Drolma bought a computer, installed an internet connection at the monastery, and opened a bank account.

The financial resources from the tour gave Drolma the chance to realize her dreams.

In 1998, she founded the Nuns' Welfare Foundation (NWF).

"Some of the nuns later quit being nuns," she explains. "At that point, a secular education helps them survive a modern life."

In reality, Tibbetts thought "she was probably more interested in getting a jeep, or a flat somewhere in Kathmandu."

He was wrong. She did exactly "what she said she was going to do", he remembers, and she "smashed through a lot of barriers in the process:religious, cultural, patriarchal".

"I'm the first nun in Nepal sending children in nuns robes into normal colleges," Drolma tells CNN. "They've never had that type of encouragement before."

Over the next decade, Drolma made nearly an album a year: in 2002, her and Tibbetts even recorded in a cave believed to have once been home to 8th century Buddhist guruPadmasambhava.

Drolma has used her position to benefit those less fortunate than herself.

"I lost my mother to kidney disease," Drolma says. "When she was suffering I took her to India twice, but I still couldn't keep her alive."

In 2011, Drolma showed her willingness to challenge the establishment when she offered sanctuary to a 21-year-old nun who had reportedly been gang raped and ostracized from her religious community.

"She is a human being like everybody else. This could have happened to anybody," Drolma said at the time.

"It could have happened to me, to my sister. The most important thing is to treat her like a human being and then later we can look into the matter of whether she is still a nun."

If Drolma risked being ostracized by speaking out she didn't seem to care.

"As a nun," Drolma says, "I'm supposed to be living in a very limited way. Nuns are not supposed to do this, to go there, to say that. They even think a nun should not sing.

"Yet I am someone who has come out and done everything to shock people."

She pauses, and moderates her comments slightly: "I mean, I never sing tragic love songs, they are all meaningful spiritual hymns."

In a patriarchal country, Drolma is unique in having achieved total independence. In Kathmandu she lives in her own flat, drives her own car, and has a successful career.

"For me, I'm completely enjoying my freedom. In fact, I am grateful for my childhood, even for my father.

"It has all been a blessing in disguise."

Graphics by Wafa'a Ayish and Sofia Ordonez.

Link:

Ani Choying Drolma: Nepal's rock star nun - CNN.com - CNN

Prufrock: How the Pope’s Cook Changed European Cuisine and … – The Weekly Standard

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Dook Domini

Reviews and News:

How the Pope's 16th-century chef revolutionized cooking: "At the time, medieval tastes still dominated elite dinner tables. In the Ancient world, the cuisine of the Mediterranean, based on bread, oil, and wine, was held up as a marker of its innate superiority over the Germanic peoples, with their supposedly barbaric fare of meat, milk, and beer. After the fall of Rome, the two traditions slowly merged until, in the late Middle Ages, the food served on the tables of the mighty across Europe was broadly similar: heavily spiced sweet-and-sour combinations, given layers of earthy complexity with great heaps of garden herbs. Many of the dishes Scappi chose to record in his magnum opus retain that sensibility, such as his recipe for an omelette made with pig's blood goat cheese, spring onion, cinnamon, clover, nutmeg, marjoram, and mintthe kind of concoction that would nowadays be considered inedible just about anywhere on earth. Yet, among these forbidding relics of the medieval world, the Opera abounds with innovation that put cookingperhaps for the first timeon a plinth next to the other creative arts."

* *

What can Walker Percy teach us about depression and suicide? "You have a right to be depressed, he says: We are born into this world as alienated from ourselves, and our division has been exacerbated by our philosophic inheritance, and the strangeness of how modern life is lived. The world itself is mad, as witnessed to by its ever-novel modes of world destruction; in such a world, to be mad is to be sane. As for anyone who is not depressed by all this, one may well be suspicious of their sanity"

* *

Ideology and the corruption of language: "Everyone talks about 'dialogue,' but very few of us have the patience or are willing to do the hard work to engage in it."

* *

Why are we tempted to abandon society? "Hermits appeal to us because of the allure of simplicity. The hermit's life is de-cluttered entirely from human connection or communionliving in a world without dentist appointments or small talk, distractions or annoyances. Living outside of our community, the hermit finds a necessary perspective: A God's-eye view on the hustle and bustle of the world that consumes and distracts us. Hermitage has almost always been associated with religious or spiritual enlightenmentthe purpose is never just to get away into nature but to learn from it. It's a curiously goal-oriented project, even as its practitioners often reject such thinking."

* *

Now Showing: A Play inside Noida cinema hall! – Times of India – Times of India

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Dook Domini

This Monday evening, at a multiplex in a mall in Sector 21, the audience bought the tickets, made their way inside the cinema hall, and found their seats. But instead of the opening credits on the big screen, the audience was greeted by the cast in front of the screen. It was a play being staged inside a cinema hall, in what the organisers call is a first-of-its-kind experiment.

A Noida-based theatre group, 'Actor Unveiled', staged their play 'On The Astral Plane' inside a cinema hall of a Noida multiplex. The group said that the idea to hold a play inside a cinema hall sprung from the constant complaint of Noida not having decent auditoriums for theatre. Kanu Priya, the director, said, "I had been trying to look for a proper auditorium for almost two years in Noida, and in their absence, and had to stage shows in Delhi instead. But that meant that our Noida folks and the actors' families had to travel there to see. So when I couldn't find a decent auditorium, I decided to be a little creative and that's how this idea came."

Now Showing: A Play inside Noida cinema hall! - Times of India - Times of India

Great Commission Women hear mission presentation – Bucyrus Telegraph Forum

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Dook Domini

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Kei Sullivan told about her mission trip to Nepal. In the 60's and 70's Nepal was a Mecca for spiritual enlightenment.

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(Photo: Keenan, Courtney)

BUCYRUS - Great Commission Women of Christian and Missionary Alliance Church began their February meeting with prayer and refreshments.

Janet Cory presented the national project and played a video of a displaced Syrian family. Their experience of escaping capture and being helped by the church is being replicated many times.

Plans for the mother-daughter banquet were announced. The program will include a speaker who will impersonate Fanny Crosby, who wrote a considerable number of songs, many of which are in the groups hymn book.

Kei Sullivan told about her mission trip to Nepal. In the 60s and 70s Nepal was a Mecca for spiritual enlightenment. There were dozens of statues throughout the country. The population is 81 percent Hindu, 9 percent Buddhist, and 2 pecent Christian, the commission reported. She often saw shrines by the side of the road.

Sullivan said the food was terrible, the temperature was 105 degrees, and visitors, such as herself, were physically uncomfortable. However, she heard many testimonies of how people came to know the Lord. During her talk she quoted Mabel Francis and Amy Carmichael who ministered overseas many years ago. She not only was able to help the Nepalese, but learned about herself, and came under conviction about changes needed in her own life. She concluded that it was a very fruitful undertaking.

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Great Commission Women hear mission presentation - Bucyrus Telegraph Forum

One of Hollywood’s Oldest Buildings Has Become a New-Agey Microdosing and Meditation Haven – L.A. Weekly

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Dook Domini

A workshop at the Be Hive

Courtesy Tamara Edwards

Theres nothing you cant microdose, says Fabian Piorkowsky, his salt-and-pepper hair slicked back into a low bun. You could probably microdose nicotine if you wanted to. The European biochemist turned shaman has spent the last three decades leading ayahuasca-fueled healing ceremonies in countries like South Africa and Peru and claims to have promoted microdosing or the administering of tiny quantities of drugs to trigger what he calls a healing crisis long before it became the hottest buzzword in Silicon Valley. But on this rainy Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, hes attracted a small crowd to hear him speak in a venue much closer to home: a century-old brick loft in the middle of Hollywood, a neighborhood with its rash of tourist attractions, fast food restaurants and nightclubs that's not exactly known for its wellness scene.

Tamara Edwards, the 32-year-old founder of the Be Hive, is looking to change that. Billed as an urban sanctuary, the second-floor space she opened at the corner of Cahuenga and Sunset boulevards last July directly above two other health-focused businesses, LifeFood Organic and Sweatheory offers the kind of programs youre more likely find in a remote jungle, or at least west of the 405: cacao ceremonies, new-moon gatherings, sound baths, yoga and reiki classes, and a smattering of science-and-spiritualityblending workshops such as the microdosing one Piorkowsky hosts every month. (He charges $45 in advance or $50 at the door for the two-hour session; drugs not included.) Owing largely to word-of-mouth and social media, the Be Hive has quietly built a small but devoted following of mostly Eastsiders who dont want to travel to new agefriendly Venice or Malibu or South Africa or Peru, for that matter in search of spiritual enlightenment.

It feels like this part of Los Angeles is already calling for it, says Edwards, who actually lives in Venice herself. Were just building this super organically and we kind of just see ourselves as stewards of the space. What does this space want and what does the community want? Were just curating that.

What the community apparently wants, in addition to meditation and hypnosis workshops and regular visits from Piorkowsky, who acts as a kind of shaman in residence, includes the option of spending the night in one of six sparse yet modern bedrooms, all named after various plants and herbs and available for rent on Airbnb for less than $100 a night. The rooms, which keep the Be Hive afloat financially by covering its rent, tend to attract the kind of traveler who feels more at home lounging on a tiny rooftop garden covered in potted succulents than, say, tanning at the pools at the nearby Roosevelt or W hotels, which can cost more than three times as much.

Fabian Piorkowsky's SOL products on display at the Be Hive

Courtesy Tamara Edwards

But any of the programs and offerings at the Be Hive are easily upstaged by the historic space itself. Erected in 1914, the brick building is among the oldest in Hollywood. It is rumored to have housed a bank at one point and a brothel at another. Though theres little evidence supporting the latter, its easy to imagine that the row of near-identical white bedrooms connected by a long wooden hallway at one point served a more salacious purpose than simply hosting travelers from Airbnb. The building has housed everything from a now-shuttered museum of rock & roll memorabilia in the 1980s to campaign headquarters last year for thenCity Council hopeful Teddy Davis. It is still the current home of the recording industry startup Gobbler its co-founder and CEO, Chris Kantrowitz, is the Be Hives primary investor and has committed it to a 10-year lease, according to Edwards.

Its kind of this hub for spiritual but also modern and nomadic entrepreneurs, basically, the soft-spoken Edwards says. Obviously we have a lot of artists but were not exclusive, were open to everyone.

Piorkowskys workshop, for example, drew a mix of people parents and schoolteachers included many of whom were eager to learn about microdosing as a form of stress or pain management. Largely associated with psychedelics such as LSD, microdosing involves taking one one-hundredth of a typical dose of a drug, according to Piorkowsky. The amount is large enough to help with anxiety and depression, some researchers say, yet small enough that its psychoactive effects are rarely felt. The technique has been touted as a mood and even a marriage enhancer by author Ayelet Waldman her new book, A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage and My Life , chronicles her regular use of LSD while Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have hailed it as a creativity-inducing productivity booster in the pages of Rolling Stone and GQ.

In a long room with gold-painted walls and big windows overlooking a cactus garden, about a dozen people at the Be Hive sit cross-legged on floor cushions, taking notes and asking questions about the history, chemistry and legality of microdosing (the answers vary widely depending on the substance). The general idea behind microdosing, Piorkowsky explains, springs from this question: "How can I achieve what the medicine or plant or substance offers in a safe way without interfering with daily activities? Piorkowsky, whom Vice once described as a German who made a killing working in finance in London, only to spend it all becoming a shaman in the Peruvian jungle, has come up with one such solution: homemade tinctures called SOL drops, whose natural ingredients he says mimic the structure of illegal hallucinogens such as ayahuasca, iboga and San Pedro.

While theyre far from FDA-approved Piorkowsky is careful not to make any medical claims he says the herbal supplements are intended to boost energy, emotional balance and self-awareness. And at $40 for a 15-milliliter bottle, theyre not cheap. But its a price some of his followers are willing to pay. One of the workshops attendees, who asks not to be named because of her work with incarcerated youth, says she was desperate for stress-management techniques after having internalized the pain and anger of many of her students. On top of that, she says, she was paralyzed by fear and uncertainty following the election of President Donald Trump. Shed heard about the purported psychological benefits of microdosing and figured shed give it a try in the name of self-care.

Tamara Edwards

Courtesy Tamara Edwards

Edwards was seeking a similar kind of enlightenment when she turned to meditation about a decade ago following a life-altering breakup that caused her to question her identity. A New Yorkbased model at the time, she credits a two-week meditation retreat in India with her realization that she needed to leave the fashion industry because it wasnt spiritually fulfilling. So she returned to Los Angeles, where she'd once moved as a teenager to pursue acting, but this time tried her hand at producing. She landed gigs on a number on indie films but soon became disillusioned once again, and eventually left to become a meditation teacher. Now, she says, more people are turning to spiritual practices like meditation, thanks in part to the tumultuous political climate.

Its like this rat race and I think were reaching a time that people are starting to wake up and be like, Every moment of my life is precious, she says. So they are looking for something deeper, theyre looking for deeper connections, theyre looking for deeper fulfillment in life.

Of course, not everyone seeking deeper connections can afford to drop $50 in the hopes of aligning their life with the rhythms of the natural world, as, for instance, the new-moon kava ceremony purports to do. Edwards says she welcomes input and involvement from the community about the types of programming theyd like to see at the space. She eventually hopes to shift the business to a more affordable membership model, where members pay a monthly fee for unlimited classes rather than just for individual ones. It almost seems to make the most sense, so that we could make the prices lower and more accessible, she says. The way she sees it, it has the potential to be "like a Soho House for wellness.

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One of Hollywood's Oldest Buildings Has Become a New-Agey Microdosing and Meditation Haven - L.A. Weekly

The Enlightenment’s legacy is under siege. Defend it. – The Week Magazine

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Dook Domini

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The many anti-globalist politicians, parties, and movements roiling the politics of Western liberal democracies can be understood in many ways. But the most fruitful may be to view them as the latest representatives of an old tradition of opposition to the 18th-century Enlightenment and its legacy to our world.

The Enlightenment legacy can be seen all around us: individualism, international commerce and trade, moral cosmopolitanism, freedom of the press and a culture of publicity, technological modernity, the valorization of expertise, and on and on.

Back in the 1760s, when these and many other norms and ideals were just beginning to emerge in Europe, a series of writers began to question their worth and to claim that a society based upon them would be disastrous for human happiness and flourishing. But now, for the first time in many decades, their descendants are gaining traction in debates, winning votes in elections, and rising to positions of political power. Those of us on the Enlightenment's side in the dispute owe it to ourselves to become acquainted with the most cogent and compelling claims made by the leading opponents of our position. That is the only way to defeat them.

The Enlightenment began as an act of rebellion against complacency. Demoralized by what they saw as centuries of intellectual and economic stagnation, as well as decades of pointless religious civil wars, the leading figures of the Enlightenment (Locke, Montesquieu, and Kant, among many others) advocated a series of reforms. Europeans needed to learn to think for themselves, founding a culture of criticism, applying healthy doses of skepticism to the claims of political and ecclesiastic authorities, and bringing rational criticism to bear on received institutions and customs. They needed to advocate the use of the scientific method to increase the sum total of human knowledge and apply these findings to the betterment of human life through technological advances. They needed to spread this knowledge among the common people to enable a greater degree of self-government. They needed to encourage and reward international commerce and trade, both to raise standards of living and diminish the likelihood of conflict between states.

This was the agenda of the Enlightenment, which lives on to this day in the norms, practices, and beliefs that prevail among intellectual, cultural, economic, political, and journalistic elites throughout the Western world.

But the agenda has been dogged by critics from the beginning and not just ecclesiastical and political critics who rose up in defense of their own privileges against the reformers. Far more formidable were the philosophical critics, who had no stake in defending the old order for its own sake. Instead, these critics worried that a world transformed in precisely the ways advocated by the Enlightenment would be a world marked by psychic and spiritual misery along with new forms of economic oppression and conflict.

The first and possibly greatest of these critics was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who became notorious in the 1760s and '70s for claiming that a highly educated, civilized, and "enlightened" world would be filled with profoundly alienated and unhappy people who felt deeply divided against themselves, longing for a lost sense of wholeness and fulfillment that remained forever beyond their grasp. This unhappiness, Rousseau predicted, would give birth to tyrannical political movements and unprecedented forms of moral degradation (which to some extent he exemplified in his own life).

Building on Rousseau's insights and prophecies, Johann Gottfried Herder argued in the 1770s and '80s that the cosmopolitan Enlightenment project would lead to social and psychological fragmentation. Human beings are naturally social, Herder claimed, and they depend on and thrive most fully within linguistic-cultural wholes that form a unified context of meaning and purpose. Without that intact context, individuals feel lost, alone, bereft, miserable. The way to combat these maladies is the self-conscious construction of a new political whole of the "nation." (Herder was Europe's first theorist of and advocate for nationalism.)

This first wave of counter-Enlightenment thought crested and dissipated around the turn of the 19th century. Over the next several decades, as Europe modernized, underwent industrialization, endured a series of wars, and experienced numerous revolutions, reform movements, and successful efforts at national unification, the legacies of the Enlightenment and its critics left their marks from one end of the continent to the other.

Only in the closing decades of the 19th century did the critiques of Rousseau and Herder come surging back in a new and far more radical form. Writing in the 1870s and '80s, Friedrich Nietzsche described a modern world in which all forms of greatness had been flattened out into universal mediocrity and nihilism. The causes of this decline were complex, but one aspect of it was the Enlightenment's ill-advised and nave "will to truth" its foolish disregard for humanity's equal and opposite "will to ignorance." Push people to live in the glaring light of truth and they will end up blinded, prone to lunging for relief toward the opposite extreme of complete darkness.

Martin Heidegger developed this insight further during the 1920s and '30s, writing about how the founders of civilizations and peoples wrest collective meaning from the nothingness that underlies human existence in all of its forms and that threatens to overwhelm and engulf all such meaning in the modern, enlightened world. For a time, Heidegger became a devoted Nazi because he believed Adolf Hitler was doing precisely this overcoming modern meaninglessness by leading the German people on a quest to forge a new way of being-in-the-world that appropriated and transformed the German past and projected it onto a grand, indeterminate future.

In his later thought, after his extravagant hopes for National Socialism had been dashed, Heidegger came to view the modern world as an undifferentiated, irredeemable "wasteland" thoroughly permeated by technological modes of thinking, acting, and living. For the late Heidegger, the only hope for redemption from absolute nihilism involved the deconstruction of technological modes of thought and then the expectant waiting for the revelation of a new god who might make possible the advent of "another beginning" beyond modernity, beyond mass politics, beyond the Enlightenment and its pernicious legacy.

If such eschatological pronouncements sounded portentous when Heidegger uttered them (in the 1950s and '60s), they came to seem bizarrely anachronistic once the Cold War drew to a close and many in the West began to entertain the possibility that history had culminated in a world universally destined for enlightenment liberalism.

But the "end of history" lasted barely more than a decade. Buffeted by a series of shocks over the past 16 years the 9/11 attacks, the Iraq War, the financial meltdown, the dashed hopes of the Arab Spring, the Syrian civil war, the rise of ISIS, and the refugee crisis in the European Union the liberal order bequeathed by the Enlightenment looks more vulnerable today than it has at any time since the 1930s. That mood of pessimism is both a cause and an effect of the resurgence in counter-Enlightenment thinking in our time.

Among Heidegger's most influential admirers today is Aleksandr Dugin, the Russian fascist philosopher who serves as Vladimir Putin's informal ideological guru. One of Dugin's books, Martin Heidegger: The Philosophy of Another Beginning, has been translated into English by Nina Kouprianova, who just so happens to be the ex-wife of alt-right white supremacist Richard Spencer.

The point of rehearsing this history isn't to bring the counter-Enlightenment tradition up on the charge of thought-crime, or to engage in an act of guilt by (Nazi) association. The point is, rather, the opposite: to emphasize how vitally important it is for those who wish to defend the Enlightenment and its legacy along with its vision of human life, both individually and collectively to engage deeply and thoughtfully with its most challenging, resourceful, and resilient critics. The fact that these ideas have come roaring back so forcefully after so many years in eclipse is a powerful indication that they can't be dismissed as glibly as some of the Enlightenment's side of the debate would like.

Original post:

The Enlightenment's legacy is under siege. Defend it. - The Week Magazine

Spirit of truth: Trump and the transition of politics and pundits – The Hill (blog)

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Dook Domini

Lent is the season of reconciliation and sacrifice. The true meaning of penance is derived from metanoia, Greek for change of heart. And Washington D.C. is a place in need of grace for true transformation. The political establishment knows it. Lights, cameras, action.

One must read the text line by line of the inspired speech delivered to the Joint Session of Congress by President Donald J. Trump, to understand the temporal and theological implications, to comprehend the enormity of challenges yet the profound blessings being showered upon this nation at this pivotal time in history. Desiring good to prevail for all people, President Trump stated, "We are one people, with one destiny...And, we are all made from the same God."

It is disturbing to hear of holy Jewish sites and Christian churches being desecrated, heartless crimes perpetrated and victims deprived of sanctuary and justice. President Trump strongly stated, While we may be a Nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms. Promising to deliver a message of unity and strength, the President delivered what he promised.

He Who Has Ears, Let Him Hear (Matthew11:15)

Like Billy Graham, President Trump proclaimed, Believe in yourselves. Believe in your future. And believe, once more, in America. This inspiring call to action by the successful businessman elected as 45th President of the United States did not fall on deaf ears in the House Chamber, media outlets or living rooms.

Popular twentieth century Thomist philosopher Josef Pieper notes, Belief is by its nature a free act. Close-minded people who choose to focus on the past instead of opening their ears and hardened hearts to a brighter future need enlightenment. Set aside partisanship in favor of patriotism. Restoration in pride of being an American is the Reaganesque trumpet calling all American people to renewed faith, hope and love for God, country and life. Good news, millennials I know find it cool to be patriotic and pro-life. That will Make America Great Again.

Americans agree that the most memorable part of this historic Congress event was the compassionate link between President Trump and the widow of Navy Seal Ryan Owens and the spiritual connection with her husband. The cinematography panning was riveting generating bi-partisan tears. In a special way, we all felt connected to this American hero who sacrificed his life for our freedom.

I submit that another profound moment of grace was when CNN expressed admiration for President Trump and the pundits were Americans first before political agendas. Post-speech comments by Anderson Cooper, Gloria Borger, Don Lemon and former Obama team member Van Jones offered glimpses into illuminations of consciences. President Trump clearly hit a cord and touched hearts of skeptics. What is exciting is there is hope for healing and unity if courage with grace prevails.

Trump Means Business and Jobs

As a personal anecdote, I flashed back to the RNC Cleveland Convention, where I had a serious discussion with Van Jones in the Arena. Growing up in South Los Angeles I hold passionate concern for inner-city plight and frustration for why both parties ignore it.

I enthusiastically expressed, Van, you know that Trump will be great for the community, finally kids and struggling businesses will have a chance to reach their potential. Look at Crenshaw district, Walmart closed-jobs lost. Leimert Park stores are shut down. Why not help Trump rebuild our inner-cities, no matter what party we belong to? Come on Van, lets all work together. This is President Trumps hopeful plea of unity and following his speech skeptical pundits, including Van Jones, exhibited change of hearts. Bravely standing up to political peer pressure will result in practical solutions for struggling Americans. True charity. Let us welcome a new chapter in American Greatness.

New Hope=New Life

In Judaism-the heart, not the brain, determines life. President Trump described the source of his speech, a message deeply delivered from my heart with incredible life energy. One could say, he has inspired 70 as the new 50. What was also notably transforming was he touched resistant hearts of media naysayers and even unlikely members of Congress such as Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenAnother day, another dollar for retirement advice rip-offs Spirit of truth: Trump and the transition of politics and pundits Overnight Cybersecurity: Sessions recuses himself from Russia probe | Bill would help states with cybersecurity | Typo took down Amazon cloud MORE who reluctantly broke into energetic applause when he spoke about helping women entrepreneurs.

Hope is the virtue which holds other virtues together and we learn from St. Thomas Aquinas that the mother of virtues is love. St. Mother Teresa taught, We must love until it hurts. President Trump described Ryan Owens and those who virtuously sacrifice their lives for our freedom and protection until it hurts, passionately noting, For as the Bible teaches us, there is no greater act of love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Fellow Americans, brothers and sisters, let us respect and be grateful to our commander-in-Chief and all who love our country sacrificing to serve a cause greater than themselves. The color purple symbolizes Lent and the blending of red and blue for royal splendor.

Possibly your Lenten sacrifice Mr. President, and your penance political pundits, is to love and respect each other for the greater good of America. Recalling the inspiring words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, Faith, hope and love abound, but the greatest of these three is love.

Nol Irwin Hentschel is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of AmericanTours International (ATI), America's largest privately held, American-woman owned,"Visit USA"tourism organization. Mentored by St. Mother Teresa and Lady Margaret Thatcher. Follow her on Twitter@NoelUSA

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill

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Spirit of truth: Trump and the transition of politics and pundits - The Hill (blog)

Lent Is Not About What You Give Up – Patheos (blog)

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Dook Domini

The Great Fast, Lent, is a time of spiritual reflection. The forty days not only reflect Jesuss journey into the desert, upon which he fasted for forty days and faced severe temptations before the start of his public ministry, but also the years which Moses and the children of Israel were said to wander between Egypt and the Promised Land. It is a time of struggle, a time of purification, and hopefully a time of spiritual enlightenment.

By how it is typically presented, when people contemplate Lent, they first think about fasting, about fasting regulations or what one has to give up, and in the process, they think Lent is about what one gives up for a limited time, without truly understanding the purpose of their actions.

Holy Week Procession in Granada by By Chopanito (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Great Fast, Lent, therefore is a time in which we are to learn self-control. This is not to say we have not learned it before, but, year after year, it is likely that there is more for us to learn, more depth within for us to explore, more examination to see where our weaknesses lie, and so more awareness of what we can do in order to improve our spiritual condition.

The point then is that we are to gain self-awareness. We must come to know ourselves. The Fast is not about what we give up, but what we gain: self-knowledge. Once we have come to know ourselves, we can come to know God, for in knowing ourselves, we will come to know our true relationship with God. The process certainly includes emptying ourselves of all distractions, all entanglements which would lead us astray. Fasting is a way to do this, but it is not the only way, and indeed, though the period is known as the Great Fast, fasting is only a means, and not the primary one, by which we empty ourselves from all that is false and come to know who and what we are once all the illusion we have held to is shed from us.

We are selfish. We are self-seeking. We are ignorant. We are easily led astray by our own inordinate desires. We seek after our own immediate good over the long term good, let alone the common good. The Great Fast reminds us that this way of life, this way of thinking, leads us away from the happiness which we desire. We might gain a little pleasure, but the long term effects is detrimental to ourselves and those who we love (let alone those we are called to love but do not). To know ourselves is to know our weaknesses, to know what we have made of ourselves. It is to see through all the pretense and illusion of the self we have created for ourselves to hide who we are from ourselves and for all who come to meet us. Then we can look at ourselves, our true selves, knowing who we are in God, unobscured by the defilement of sin, unattached to the illusion, undetermined by our ego. We will then see and who we are, made in the image and likeness of the God who is love. To know ourselves is to know love, to be self-giving, every rejecting all attachment to ourselves through self-denial, but not in a nihilistic self-denial which seek the destruction of what is good within us, but the self-denial which cuts through all the spiritual delusion and waste from sin and sets us free to live and breathe in the spirit of love.

It is not easy to truly be open and empty of all that defiles us so that we can come to know ourselves. Indeed, it is extremely difficult. Most of us, myself included, are sinners who have so many bad habits that control us, that we find ourselves wandering around like the children of Israel, going around in circles but never entering the Promised Land. The Great Fast rightfully reminds us of the children of Israel, and puts us in solidarity with them, as we realize that what is said of them is actually a reflection of us as we live our day to day lives. We keep grumbling as God guides us out of the land of Egypt (that is, out of sin) and to the Promised Land, even though he gives us bountiful gifts (such as the sacraments). We fail to appreciate what God is doing for us because we want to dictate to God how he should serve us instead of listening to him and let him direct us to our perfection. We, too, try to make rocks produce water, as we stumble through the spiritual land, parched because of our sin. And so we only receive a small portion of the living water which Christ has in store for us in the Promised Land.

During the Great Fast, let us not think about what we are giving up. Let us think about what we are willing to receive. Let us think of the graces which are being offered to us, and accept them for what they are, tokens of Gods guiding love. Let us grow in faith, hope and love as we empty ourselves from those attachments which seek to stifle our faith, undermine our hope, and cast aside our love. For our faith, let us look to some spiritual resource and pick it up, and gain from the wisdom within (this year, I am re-reading Augustines City of God for this purpose). Let us, moreover, overturn the despair which is in our lives, all those weeds seeking to undermine our hope by following the path of mercy which sees the goodness in all so that there is hope for all. Finally, let that goodness then draw us in so we can grow to love all things as we follow after the example Christ our Lord and Savior.

The Great Fast is not about fasting, though fasting is certainly a tool used in it for our own good. The Great Fast is about spiritual reawakening. Let us hope this year God truly moves us with the fire of love, so that in the end, it is will not be about what we have given up, but what we have gained.

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Lent Is Not About What You Give Up - Patheos (blog)

Star Made Witch: Spiritual Alchemy by Jenny Tyson – Patheos (blog)

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Dook Domini

The cover of Spiritual Alchemy by Jenny Tyson published by Llewellyn Worldwide in 2016.

Spiritual Alchemy by Jenny Tyson is a very unusual book. Its book in two parts: part one is a journal following the author through her journey of relative spiritual ignorance to increased alchemical enlightenment, and part two covers practical application of what she learned after a few years of practice. Further, it is a communication of some rather advanced magical and alchemical material by a beginner medium.

In part one, the reader tags along as Tyson discovers her way through communicating with spirits, ancestors, and deities. At times I was as frustrated with her slow progress as she was! One has to trust that she will get back on the path to discovery beyond her setbacks. It gets exciting when the spirits instruct Jenny to quit taking the decongestants and prescription painkillers she was on cold turkey for her initiation. As you can imagine, the withdrawal symptoms she experienced were quite traumatic!

Unfortunately, throughout the text Tyson, does not make it clear that those feverish deliriums and pain are known withdrawal symptoms for this kind of medication. Her Kundalini healing progressed as she was bedridden and riding out hallucinations, terrible pain, and illness. I also experienced my first spirit initiations when I was suffering a serious illness, and I could partially relate to her spiritual experiences. It was clear in the telling that Tyson had responded to shadow advice from her own unconscious and not to wisdom from the spirits when she took the dangerous approach of home rehab. Tyson risked her life, and we would be wise to be more careful and learn from her mistakes. The choice to stop any medicationsmust be made with your medical professional and done according to a safe schedule.

Thankfully, on the other end of it, Tyson discovered her body no longer needed the painkillers and decongestants she had been reliant on, and she became healthier. The messages Tyson received and her experiences introduced her to new spiritual heights and gave her spiritual abilities she had not had before.

Part two, Practical Applications, is my favorite part of the book. Tyson covers auditory scrying in great detail. I have been very curious about auditory scrying because it is something I figured out on my own, and I hadnt seen much material about spirit listening. She used a lot of different technologies like radio scanners and random sound generators to train her ability. Through the machines, Tyson was able to communicate with John Dee, William Kelley, the Archangel Gabriel, and others. My preference is to listen for spirit voices speaking directly in my environment, and she covered that kind of scrying too.

I found Tysons advice on ritual preparations like diet considerations and environment very wise. Certain foods cause distracting digest effects like gas or fatigue. Heavy foods, sugars, and beans are best avoided prior to meditation. I was also impressed with her methods for making seal and sigil parchments and plates. Her section on mirror scrying was excellent. Tysons approach is similar in some ways to how I mirror scry, but she had a number of techniques new to me that I look forward to trying. I really did appreciate her narrative information about homunculi and I wish there had been more information on them.

I recommend Spirit Alchemy as a testimony of an initiatory experience. Following Tyson through her struggles to learn mediumship skills, heal her heart center and meet the gods was fascinating. I was very interested in Tysons techniques of using radio scanners and mirror scrying. Tyson really did end up better off for her trials and efforts and I look forward to what she writes next.

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Star Made Witch: Spiritual Alchemy by Jenny Tyson - Patheos (blog)

‘Stellaris’ Utopia Expansion Gets Dated – Trailer – WorthPlaying.com

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Dook Domini

For millennia our race has developed, explored and battled for control of a planet. Now we turn our eyes beyond our own solar system, to other stars in our galaxy. New planets, new discoveries, maybe even new civilizations await us. And Paradox Development Studio, the masters of grand strategy, will be your guides on this new voyage.

With a dynamic decision system and a heavy emphasis on exploration and science teams, Stellaris gives you much more to research than bigger lasers or stronger hulls though youll need those too. Space is very big, and your first step will be getting a grasp of just what is around you and how it can be best used for the benefit of your civilization.

We reach for the stars for many reasons. They challenge us to explore. They dare us to explain. They prod us to expand. But, most of all, the universe offers every space-faring race a new start. This is the chance to perfect the species and to reach new heights of self-awareness, technological prowess or spiritual enlightenment. You can only get to Utopia by moving faster than light.

Stellaris: Utopia is the first major gameplay expansion to Stellaris, Paradoxs strategy game about building an empire in new galaxies. Utopia introduces new options for developing your empire, with new types of space stations and constructions that open alternate avenues for making your species the dominant power in the galaxy.

One of the core improvements in Utopia is the introduction of Ascension Perks. As your species advances and gains new traditions, it can choose how it wants to evolve as it is further enlightened. You can choose between a biological path, a psionic path or a synthetic path, with various options within these broad categories. Body, Mind or Machine - how will your species challenge the future?

Stellaris: Utopiawill be shaping galactic civilizations as ofApril 6, 2017and will be found at Steam and the Paradox Store for $19.99/19.99.

Utopia also includes:

Stellaris: Utopia brings even greater depth and variety to a game already celebrated for its story-telling power and near endless possibilities. Are you ready for perfection?

Thousands of planets populate procedurally generated star systems giving you the largest possible theatre for performing the emergent stories that Paradox has become famous for. Customize your ships, encounter unique randomly generated races, and participate in advanced diplomacy that would make Picard look like an amateur.

And all in a beautiful and evocative star map unmatched by anything weve made before.

Are you prepared for the glorious future Paradox will be showing you?

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'Stellaris' Utopia Expansion Gets Dated - Trailer - WorthPlaying.com

Spring Symbolizes Renewal Of Life In Nature And It’s The Most Magical Time Of The Year – South Asian Link

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Dook Domini

By Dr. Jagessar Das

Springtime is quickly approaching in the northern hemisphere. What a magical time it is when life that lay dormant through the winter, is renewing itself to manifest in its varied beautiful form for the summer. Springtime symbolizes the renewal of life in nature. It lifts the spirit of people and they feel happier and more cheerful. In winter many people suffer the winter blues. Some research has shown that this is due to the decreased amount of sunlight that people have in winter. Many animals hibernate in the winter and become active again in spring. Trees that had lost all their leaves in the fall are now sprouting new shoots. The flowering bulbs such as crocus, tulips and daffodils are springing up to display their beautiful magic everywhere. The birds that had migrated to warmer climates are returning to their summer homes in the north. It is really a wonderful time when we can all anticipate the coming of summer and the great outdoors.

All of nature works in cycles. The seasons are cyclical. There is spring, summer, autumn and winter. Annual plants germinate, grow, and flower and then die. They germinate again from the seeds of last summer. Perennial plants enter a stage of dormancy in the winter, and spring to life in spring, and produce their flowers and fruits in the summer, and then decline in the fall, only to be renewed the next spring. These annual cyclical and seasonal changes are caused by the tilting of the earth on its axis, and as the earth goes around the sun once each year, the four seasons manifest themselves in the northern and southern hemispheres.

There are also cycles caused by the rotation of the earth every twenty-four hours. Thus we have darkness followed by sunrise, sun light, sunset then darkness again. Just so, there is darkness, moonrise, moonlight, moonset and then darkness. Just so, we have star-rise and star-set due to the rotation of the earth.

These cyclical changes have certain effects on humans. In the winter most people spend a great deal of time indoors. The summer tan of the skin fades into a winter pallor, only to be renewed next summer. People replace their summer games with winter games. People cannot grow fresh crops during the winter, so they eat foods grown in hothouses, imported, stored from the summer, either in bulk, or frozen, or preserved in other ways. Psychologically, people feel happy in the summer and gloomy in the winter. However, this psychological change that afflicts some people is partly caused by their own outlook or understanding of the cycles of nature. They need to develop equanimity of the mind, so that they do not have the various mood swings according to the changing seasons. Nature does its work in a harmonious way. We need to understand that, and not be affected in any negative way.

Humans also go through cyclical changes. More properly, I should say that the soul takes part in cycles manifesting as the human body. After life, there is death, and then there is life again, as the soul proceeds into another body. This is due to the Law of Karma that none of us can escape. A person starts life in infancy from innocence, and then grows into knowledge by awakening of the intellect, and then deteriorates, both physically and mentally, and enters a second childhood followed by death. This is followed in the next life as another cycle. It is important for us to understand that the Inner Sunlight that brightens our life in the summer, is entirely in our own hands. We must not allow the darkness of ignorance to overshadow the Sunlight that manifests from within us. That Sunlight is the Light of the Soul that is Divine in its attributes. This Sunlight can be realized by awakening from spiritual ignorance to spiritual enlightenment. How much of this we can accomplish depends upon our own dedication and application in purifying ourselves in thought, word, and deed, in living righteously, and in awakening into spiritual enlightenment. So, as the spring is soon to start outwardly in the Northern hemisphere, let it be symbolic of the spring that shines new light into our spiritual life!

Dr. Jagessar Das is a Surrey-based writer and spiritualist with the Kabir Association of Canada. For more info visit http://www.kabir.ca

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Spring Symbolizes Renewal Of Life In Nature And It's The Most Magical Time Of The Year - South Asian Link

BENES: Humility is the key – San Angelo Standard Times

Posted on February 25, 2017 by Dook Domini

Becky Benes, Special to the Standard-Times Published 1:04 a.m. CT Feb. 25, 2017 | Updated 4 hours ago

SAN ANGELO For the past 10 months, I have suffered from yet another frozen shoulder. Yes, this is now the left shoulder. The first week of February, I had had it. The pain was too much to bear. I finally was willing to succumb to another hormone shot, something I resist and avoid at all costs. However, the doctor was not available until April.

In my desperation, I had a very passionate "come to Jesus meeting and demanded a solution." After all, I had done everything within my power to unfreeze it and rectify it to health. I had prayed, used positive affirmations and every holistic means possible. I was miffed that my shoulder was not healed. After all, I did have the faith at least the size of a mustard seed, so what was up with this deal?

As I left my "come to Jesus" meeting, this is the awareness I gleaned: "Becky, you are a spiritual snob. You are full of spiritual pride."

What does that mean?

"It means you have never surrendered this to me nor taken advice I have set your way. You think you are too "spiritual" to ask others to pray for you or to seek help."

The tears began to fall. Wow, this was so true. Humbled to the core, I became willing to ask for prayer and help.

Miraculously, when I got home, I had a message that my doctor could fit me in the next morning.

After meeting with the doctor, I was informed that a shot was not an option and surgery was the plan. Plus, he had an opening in less than 48 hours. I was dumbfounded and taken off guard. This was not my plan, I was willing for a shot, but surgery was too much.

In complete surrender, I reached out to my coach and close spiritual friends to help me walk this journey. My spiritual pride, which I had never noticed before, was having a field day. Ringing thoughts in my ears so loud, I could no longer deny it was there. The thoughts were things like, "If you were more spiritual, you would have been healed. If you had any faith at all, you would not need surgery. Then it would flip, saying, "Don't let them do it, you know better than the doctor, you can heal yourself, you just need more time." Sadly, I could go on.

Eventually, a friend suggested, "Becky, would you consider that the doctor and the surgery are the vehicles through which God is offering healing? Perhaps, this is your miracle." This was a huge breakthrough for me. I had forgotten that it is my job to ask and God's job to deliver. And God's plan might not be my plan. And that God works through all people.

That evening, I humbly asked people to pray for me via Facebook. This was a huge step for me, it was public expression of my complete surrender that I couldn't but God could through the hands and feet of others, if I was willing to be open to receive it.

Eight days after my surgery, in my meditation book, Around the Year with Emmet Fox, Feb. 18, the entire page addresses spiritual pride. Fox, in his discourse about the verse in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil," suggests that those of us who pray become more sensitive and more powerful in our prayers. This also makes one susceptible to different forms of temptations, like "to work for self-glory, for personal distinction; and beyond all other temptations the deadly sin of spiritual pride."

Fox goes on to say, "Many who have surmounted all other testings have lapsed into self-righteousness, that has fallen like a curtain of steel between them and God."

Wow, if that is not the icing on the cake. I have read this book for years and have never seen or read this passage. Now in black and white, there it is. Plain and clear just for me. What a humbling experience and yet another reminder of the process of spiritual unfoldment. This brings home the Zen saying, "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water."

Spiritual growth is an on-growing process, not a goal or an end-result we achieve. However, if we become self-righteous (all-knowing) believing we are better or less than another in any area of our life be it spiritual, political or professional, a steel curtain separates us from God and others. We gridlock and become closed to different perspectives and ideas. Our hearts and minds become solid and not fluid with possibilities.

Perhaps humility is the key to lift the steel curtain that stands in our way of our union with God.

It's something to consider.

Becky Benes, a resident of San Angelo, is a transformational speaker and certified business coach. Her column appears on the second and fourth Saturday of the month. For more information, go to OnenessOfLife.com.

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