Medley

Ananya Sri Ram Rajan – USA

Relationship is the only thing we have with each other.

                                                                                                            --J. Krishnamurti

“We cannot escape relationship.” From the moment of conception, there is relationship. It may not be a conscious relationship for the fetus, but the life form has some innate intelligence that it is dependent upon the mother for its continued existence. Therefore, relationship exists.

As conscious beings with the ability for a deeper awareness, humans, in general, take relationship for granted. If this were not the case, we would not be warring over race, religion, land, or whatever we feel passionate about. Nor would we be decimating the precious resources of this one and only beautiful planet we live and depend upon. At the same time, our personal relationships would hold more significance to us.

Rhythms produced by the brain can reliably be used to predict how sensitive we are to pain, new research shows.

The living brain is constantly producing regular rhythmic patterns of activity, which can be compared to musical notes. Scientists at the University of Birmingham in the UK, and the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in the US, have successfully demonstrated that one particularly prevalent pattern of brain activity, called alpha waves, strongly relates to the body's susceptibility or resilience to pain.

Imagine reading by the light of an exploded star, brighter than a full moon -- it might be fun to think about, but this scene is the prelude to a disaster when the radiation devastates life as we know it. Killer cosmic rays from nearby supernovae could be the culprit behind at least one mass extinction event, researchers said, and finding certain radioactive isotopes in Earth's rock record could confirm this scenario.

A new study led by University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign astronomy and physics professor Brian Fields explores the possibility that astronomical events were responsible for an extinction event 359 million years ago, at the boundary between the Devonian and Carboniferous periods.

The paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Jan Nicolaas Kind – Brazil

Let’s face it, no matter what some might say, in many parts of the world political debates have entirely deteriorated. They have turned like going into combat – the gladiators are ready to fight, looking for any and every way to find flaws in the opponent’s argument, while minds are not open to the opponent’s beliefs. This type of debate, whereby the main objective is to destroy the opponent’s character and status. leads to mud throwing, insults and under the belt, personal attacks. Instead of elucidating debaters’ standpoint through utilizing rhetorical eloquence, the level of the deliberations has sunk so miserably low that watching such a confrontation has become the worst thinkable nightmare.

Conclusion: nowadays most political debates are unbrotherly and absolutely useless.

Let America Be America Again - Langston Hughes - 1902-1967

 Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Leo Babauta – USA

Managers transforming office culture

If you’re an employee with little control over your schedule, there might not be too many ideas for finding focus that you can implement during your work day. In that case, I suggest you

1) implement what you can; and

2) buy a copy of this book for your manager and/or upper management, and especially point them to this chapter.

The rest of this chapter is for management: CEOs, vice presidents, supervisors, middle managers, small employers. Bosses of all kinds. Anyone who controls the schedules of others, or has influence on the policies and office culture that determine how people work.

John White – USA

[A Practical Guide to Death and Dying was originally published by QUEST books in 1980. This particular version was previously published in the Theosophical Digest, y1992 v4 i2-p90.] 

Other Planes of Existence.

It was St. Paul who pointed out that the proper term is heavens—plural — not heaven. In other words, embracing and interpenetrating the three-dimensional world with which we are familiar, there are other worlds, other planes of existence, other realms of nature. As I said, science is now beginning to recognize the multi-dimensionality of the universe in which you can pass from one set of dimensions to another, as in the notion that black holes in space connect matter and antimatter universes.

One of the most useful contemporary presentations of the nature of the afterlife worlds is found in a book by Dr. George Meek. In After We Die, What Then? he offers what he calls “A Blueprint of Immortality,” showing, in a large multicolored diagram with accompanying text, what post-mortem existence is like.