Medley

Barbara Hebert – USA

Compassion for the personality is something that is rarely discussed in theosophical circles. As seekers on the spiritual path, the personality is typically ignored because of its temporality, yet the personality is the vehicle for traveling this path. It plays an essential role in our spiritual growth. We discuss compassion for all living beings, yet we are rarely compassionate with ourselves. It may be helpful to explore the concept of self-compassion, compassion for the vehicle through which we walk the spiritual path. It is useful to note that self-compassion does not preclude our constant self-examination and effort to walk this path; rather, self-compassion  supports our efforts as we undertake this difficult task. 

Marly Winckler – Brazil

 
The word yoga (Yoga) comes from the Sanskrit Yuj, which means ‘to join’. According to Hindu philosophy, the human soul, or Jivatma, is a partial facet or expression of the Over-Soul, or Paramatma, the Divine Reality, the source of the manifested Universe. Although in essence the two are the same and indivisible, yet Jivatma has become subjectively separated from Paramatma and is destined, after going through an evolutionary cycle in the manifested Universe, to again unite with Him in consciousness. This state of unification of the two in consciousness as well as the mental process and discipline by means of which this union is reached, are both called Yoga¹.

Patanjali was the great compiler of the ancient tradition of yoga - and did so masterly. The system outlined by Patanjali consists of eight parts, being called Ashtanga Yoga. The system contemplates eight angas or limbs, designed as stages that follow one another in a natural sequence. They are: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi.

Image © Michael S. Helfenbein

The nature of Mars' mantle and crust is revealed in its volcanic rocks 

Mars has a distinct structure in its mantle and crust with discernible reservoirs, and this is known thanks to meteorites that scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and colleagues have analyzed on Earth. 

Neuroscientists resolve long-standing debate

Some monkeys have shown the ability to count objects 

(Image credit: Michael Woodruff/Shutterstock)

Research co-led by neuroscientists Professor Yung Wing-ho from City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) and Professor Ke Ya from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Faculty of Medicine (CU Medicine) has made a groundbreaking discovery regarding number sense in animals by confirming the existence of discrete number sense in rats, offering a crucial animal model for investigating the neural basis of numerical ability and disability in humans.

Jan Nicolaas Kind – Brazil

Just imagine two debaters ...

One of them, number 1, a sociopath. is operating influenced by egotism, narcissism and voracity thus representing a threatening dark force, acting like a mob boss, fully determined to obliterate everything his opponent is and stands for.

Columbia researchers have discovered a genetic variant that reduces the odds of developing Alzheimer's disease by up to 70% and may be protecting thousands of people in the United States from the disease.

The discovery of the protective variant, which appears to allow toxic forms of amyloid out of the brain and through the blood-brain barrier, supports emerging evidence that the brain's blood vessels play a large role in Alzheimer's disease and could herald a new direction in therapeutic development.

Tim Wyatt – England

Tim petting some (Greek) cats

As we reach the end of the first quarter of the first century of this still new-ish millennium, one of the few remaining certainties is that we live in a world riddled with total uncertainty. The only sure bet is that we’ll almost certainly continue to be hit between the eyes by major upheavals of one sort or another. Chaotic leitmotifs predominate. The key uncertainty is whether this will be a path to regeneration or a road to perdition. Whatever our trajectory no doubt the new crunch-point or cataclysm will be dished up in some exotic new variety we haven’t come across before. And it will probably scare the hell out of us.