ACHARYA:

मिथैमिथको मिथिला यात्रा

2011-11-09T02:01:00.000-08:00

Ram-Janaki Bibaha Mandap

'शिरोच्छेदन किया राम ने रावणका पर वह मरा नहीं

उसके शिर मडराते रहे

लाखौं करोडौं नहीं अरबौं कि संख्या में

और जब वह मरा भी था, केवल दश शिर ही तो मरे थे

बाँकियों को थाम लिया कन्धे हमारे कन्धों ने

इसिलिए तो आज हैं हम राक्षस अधिक और आदमी कम ।'

-युगलकिशोर लाल

पहिलो प्रभाव

जनकपुरमा छठपर्व हेर्न जाने भनी अमृत भादगाउँले र म तिहारको भोलिपल्ट भरतपुरको पारस बसपार्कमा भेटियौँ । कुनै पनि बसमा बस्ने ठाउँ बाँकी थिएनन् । एउटाको डन्डीमा अडिएर छ घन्टाको यात्रा छठको रमाइलो कल्पना गर्दै पूरा गर्‍यौँ । साँझमा जनकपुर पुगेपछि साथीको साथीलाई फोन गरेर कहाँ बस्न सुविधाजनक होला भनी सोध्यौँ । काठमाण्डू गेष्ट हाउसमा तय भयो । पहिलो रात थकाइले गर्दा वेलैमा निद्रा परेछ, मच्छरले टोकेको पनि पत्तो भएन । स्नानकक्षमा पानी कालो रंगको आउँदो रहेछ, नुहाइसक्दा पो थाहा भयो । फोहोरामा थापिँदा बत्ती मलिन भएको हुँदा पहिला पत्तै भएनछ । अब लुतो आउनेभो भनेर म भोलिपल्ट दिनभरि भुटभुटिइरहेँ ।

सबेरै प्रातः भ्रमण निस्कँदा मूल सडकमा एक हुल सुँगुरले स्वागत गरे । थुतुनो उचाली-उचाली तिनले मानो 'जनकपुर हामी सुँगुर जातिको राजधानी हो' भनिरहेका थिए । फोहोरका डुँगुर र दुर्गन्धित नालीहरूमा हालीमुहाली गरिरहेका सुँगुरहरूको दाबी अस्वीकार गर्न कठिन थियो ।

मैले व्यंग गर्दै भनेँ, 'सुन्दर नगरी जनकपुर !'

अमृतले थपे, 'सुँगुर नगरी जनकपुर !'

भानु चोकदेखि जानकी चोकसम्मको बाटोमा ती स्थूलकाय प्राणीहरूको बिगबिगी थियो । जनकपुरको तुलनामा काठमाण्डू सफा लाग्यो । वेलाबखत फोहोर नउठ्ने समस्या भए पनि दुर्गन्धित नालीहरू राजधानीमा त्यत्ति देख्नुपर्दैन । साथीले कोण-कोणबाट जानकी मन्दिरको तस्बिर लिए । परिसर फूल, केरा र मिठाई बेच्नेहरूले ओगटेको हुँदा भनेजस्तो फोटो खिच्न मिलेन ।

जनक दर्शन र मिथिला कला

दिउँसो जनकपुरका पौराणिक प्रसंग स्थानीय डा. राजेन्द्र विमलबाट थाहा पायौँ । जनक वंशका राजा सिरध्वज जनक दर्शनका प्रणेता थिए । यो दर्शनले आत्मज्ञान प्राप्त गर्न घरबार त्यागेर वनबासी हुनु पर्दैन, केवल भोक्ता भाव, कर्ता भाव त्यागे पुग्छ भन्छ । ऋत् अर्थात् सृष्टिक्रम, सूर्योदय, सूर्यास्त, ऋतु परिवर्तन, दैनिक व्यवहार र स्वयंलाई समेत कर्ता वा भोक्ता भावले होइन, साक्षी भावले हेर्नु, म शरीर होइन आत्मा हुँ भन्ने स्मरण गरिरहनु आत्मज्ञान हो । यति ज्ञानलाई व्यवहारमा उतार्न सफल भएपछि राजा जनकले विदेह -म शरीर हुँ भन्ने भावनारहित) अवस्था प्राप्त गरेका थिए । आष्टावक्रको भोगविलास विमुख दर्शनको प्रतिच्छाया पनि जनक दर्शनमा पाइन्छ । ऐन्दि्रकतादेखि अतिन्दि्रयतासम्म, भौतिकतादेखि अध्यात्मसम्मको अन्तर्यात्रा दिशानिर्देश गर्ने यो दर्शन र तान्त्रिक दर्शनमा तारतम्य पनि देखिन्छ ।

कोहावर अर्थात् सुनौला सुहागरात नामक मिथिला कलामा चित्रित अक्षत योनीमा सम्भोगरत लिंगलाई छेवैको बाँसको टुप्पामा बसेर वाल्ल पर्दै हेरिरहेको सुगा साक्षी भावको उदाहरण हो । म कहाँ छु, के गरिरहेको छु भन्ने यथार्थलाई कर्म गरिरहँदा पनि पृथक् रहेर सोच्न सक्नुपर्छ यो सन्देश आश्चर्यचकित भई हेरिरहेको सुगाले बताउँछ । शरीर चेतनाको स्थूल रूप हो जसलाई समात्न सकिन्छ । जसलाई समात्न सकिँदैन त्यो चेतनाको सूक्ष्म रूप आत्मा हो । सम्भोगरत हुँदा शरीरमा अनुभूति भइरहेको रोमाञ्च कसलाई अनुभूति भइरहेको हो ? त्यसलाई पक्रन सके जीवनमा ठूलै आन्तरिक क्रान्ति हुन्छ । त्यसैले

आफ्नो होसलाई बाँसको टुप्पामा रहेको सुगाझैँ सर्वोपरि राख्नुहोस्, कुनै पनि वेला आफूभित्र चेतनाको दियो प्रज्ज्वलित हुन सक्छ । यसप्रकार कोहावरमा चित्रित तान्त्रिक दर्शनमा जनक दर्शनकै भोगदेखि योगसम्मको यात्रा देख्न सकिन्छ ।

राजा जनककै प्रभावले प्राचीन कालदेखि जनकपुरमा अभूतपूर्व धार्मिक सहिष्णुता रहिआएको डा. विमलले बताए । आपसी सहिष्णुताका कारण शैव, वैष्णव र शाक्त सम्प्रदायको एउटै परिचय बनेको रहेछ स्मार्त दर्शन । हरेक घरमा तुलसीको मठ, त्यसमा हनुमानको ध्वजा र देवीको प्रतीक स्वरूप शिलाहरू राख्ने चलन अद्यापि जनकपुरबासीमा रहेछ । सन्न्यासीले ललाटमा तीन सम्प्रदायको प्रतीक विभूति, त्रिपुण्ड र रातो टीका आज पनि लगाउँदा रहेछन् । यति सहिष्णु पुरवासीहरूले बुद्धलाई भने नगरमा छिर्न दिएनछन् । बुद्ध नगर बाहिरै अखाडा जमाएर बसेछन् । उनका अनुयायीहरूलाई पुरवासीहरूले देखिसहँदैनथे रे । भिक्षुहरूले 'ऊँ नमः सिद्धम्' भन्दा जनकपुरेहरूले 'ओ नामा सिधम् गुरुजी चितम्' भन्दै उल्लीबिल्ली गर्थे रे ।

जनकपुरमा सुफी सन्तहरूको पनि बसोबास छ । हिन्दू र मुस्लिम दर्शनको मिश्रति रूप सुफी दर्शनकै प्रभावले जानकी मन्दिरको छेवैमा मदरसा बनेको रहेछ । जैन दर्शनका तीर्थंकर मल्लीनाथ र नेमीनाथ जनकपुरकै भएको बताउँदै संस्कृतिविद् डा. विमलले दाबी गरे, 'जनकपुर आध्यात्मिक ऊर्जाले सिञ्चित भूमि हो ।'

धनुषा धाम

दोस्रो दिन नागरिक दैनिकका जनकपुर संवाददाता सुरेश यादव र मित्र राजेन्द्र महतोसँगै धनुषा धाम हेर्न गयौँ । धनुषा पुग्न मोटरसाइकलमा एक घन्टा लाग्यो । त्यहाँको मुख्य आकर्षण रामले त्रेता युगमा सीता स्वयंवरका वेला भाँचेको धनुष रहेको मानिने मन्दिर रहेछ । मन्दिर अति सामान्य थियो तर जहाँ धनुष टुक्रिएको जनविश्वास गरिएको छ, त्यहाँ जमिनमा अनौठो शिला फैलिएको रहेछ । न त्यसलाई ढुंगा भन्न मिल्ने न धातु । रमाइलो कुरा त त्यो शिला बढ्दै गइरहेको स्थानीयबासीले बताए । राजेन्द्रजी स्वयंले शिलाको आयतन फराकिलो हुँदै गएको देखेको स्वीकार गरे । भाँचिएको धनुषका बारे अनेक मिथक जनजिब्रोमा रहेछन् । अन्य कसैले उचाल्न नसक्ने धनुषलाई जानकीनन्दिनी सीताले घर लिपपोत गर्दा देब्रे हातले उचालेर त्यसमुनि लिप्थिन् रे । जनकले सोचेछन्, सीता दैवी शक्ति हुन्, यिनको विवाह कुनै दैवी पुरुषसँगै गरिदिनुपर्छ । त्यसका लागि रचाइएको स्वयंवरमा देशदेशावरका वीर आएछन् तर धनु कसैले हल्लाउन पनि सकेनछन् । रावणले त जोडले धनु उचाल्न खोज्दा आफैँ लडेर सबलाई हँसाएछ । पालो आएपछि रामले सजिलै धनु उचालेछन् तर ताँदो चढाउन खोज्दा भाँचिएछ ।

त्यो धनु परशुरामले तीर्थयात्रा गर्न जाँदा जनकलाई राख्न दिएका रहेछन् । फर्केर आउँदा भाँचिएको देखेपछि उनी नराम्ररी जंगिएछन् । लक्ष्मणले जति सम्झाए पनि परशुरामको रिस शान्त भएनछ । फन्केर हिँडेका परशुराम अलिक पल्तिरको कुण्डमा नुहाउन पसेछन् । चिसो पानीले बल्ल उनको दिमाग ठण्डा भएछ । परशुराम कुण्ड बाटैमा पर्दो रहेछ । त्यहाँ अहिले पनि तलाउ रहेको हाम्रा साथीहरूले देखाइदिए ।

छठको रमाइलो

छठपर्वको आरम्भ भइसकेको छ । सानाठूला तलाउहरू सिंगारिएका छन् । पानी मैलो भए पनि तैरिरहेका फोहोर हटाइएको छ । किनारमा व्रतालुहरूले पूजासामग्री लहरै सजाएका छन् । फलफूल, केरा, ठगुआ, सिंगारिएको माटोको घैंटो र बीचमा दियो बलिरहेको छ । जनकपुरे स्त्रीहरू बिछट्ट सिंगारिएर सडकमा निस्केका छन्, व्रतालु तलाउ किनारमा जम्मा भएका छन् । सर्वत्र घुइँचो छ । आतशबाजी गरिँदै छ । आकाश ढर्र्र्र धडाम्जस्ता आवाजले गुञ्जिएको छ । स्थानीयहरू त्यसैत्यसै रौसिएका छन् । छठ त जनकपुरेहरूलाई नसाजस्तै लाग्दो रहेछ । व्रत बस्नेको मनोकांक्षा पूरा हुन्छ । यसमा कसैले आशंका गर्नेे साहस पनि गर्दा रहेनछन् । बिहान सबेरैको ठण्डीमा फोहोर तलाउमा डुबुल्की मारेर हातमा अघ्र्य लिएर घन्टौँ सूर्योदय पर्खने व्रतालुहरूको आस्था कति प्रबल होला ! मैले त्यतिखेरै सोचेँ, यो लेखेर देखाउन सकिँदैन, किनभने आँखैले देखेर पनि विश्वास गर्न मुस्किल भइरहेको थियो ।

छठका बारेमा विरोधाभाषी मिथक प्रचलित रहेछन् । छठी माताको आराधना गरेको देखिन्थ्यो तर अघ्र्यचाहिँ सूर्यदेवलाई चढाउने विधि महत्त्वपूर्ण रहेछ । डा. विमलले छठपर्व आर्यहरू आउनुपूर्वदेखि चलिआएको तर्क गरे । अनार्यहरूले सूर्यलाई स्त्रीरूपमा पूजा गर्थे । त्यसैले सूर्यको उपासना गरिन थालेको हो । छठमा गहुँका पक्वान्न चढाइने चलनले पनि यो पुष्टि हुन्छ । उनका अनुसार आर्यहरूलाई गहुँको जानकारी थिएन ।

स्थानीय पत्रकार राजेश्वर नेपालले पौराणिक स्रोत उद्धरण गर्दै छठी मैया अर्थात् षष्ठी देवी महादेवकी पुत्रवधू अथवा कार्तिकेयकी प्राणपि्रया थिइन् भने । वैवर्त पुराणको प्रकृति खण्डको अध्याय ४३ र देवी भागवतको ९औँ स्कन्धको ४६औँ खण्डमा यसको प्रसंग रहेछ । षष्ठी तिथिमा निष्ठापूर्वक दिनभरि निराहार बसी गहुँको पीठोको खजुरिया -ठेकुवा) र चामलको पीठोको भुसवा बनाएर साँझमा नदी वा पोखरीको छठघाटमा पुगेर सूर्यलाई साक्षी राखी छठी देवीलाई अघ्र्य चढाइन्छ ।

छठमा उपयोग हुने हरेक वस्तुको प्रतीकात्मक अर्थ छ । चामलको पीठोमा पानी राखेर परिकार बनाइनुको तात्पर्य अक्षता अर्थात् अक्षत् ब्रह्ममा जल अर्थात् जीवनको सम्मिलन गरिएको हो । हाम्रो जीवन ब्रह्ममय होस्, जीवनमय होस् भन्ने अपेक्षा यहाँ लुकेको छ । सेतो सबै रंगहरूको सम्मिलन हो, जीवन सबै रंगले सजियोस् भन्ने आशय यसमा छ ।

मिथिला हिजो र आज

र्फकनुअघि जनक दर्शन थप बुझ्न हामी युगलकिशोर लाललाई खोज्दै गयौँ । लाल कालिदासको मालविकाग्निमित्रम् नाटक पढ्दै बसेका रहेछन् । मीठो चियासँगै दर्शन चर्चा आरम्भ भयो । मिथिला नामकरण हुनुमा रोचक मिथ रहेछ । जनकका पूर्वज राजा निमी निसन्तान मरे । पुरोहितहरूले उत्तराधिकारी जन्माउन निमीको मृत शरीर मन्थन गरे । यसरी जन्मिएका पुरुषलाई मैथिल भनियो, मैथिल राजाले शासन गरेको हुँदा यो क्षेत्रकै नाम मिथिला रह्यो । गुरु परम्परा, शास्त्र अध्ययन, सत्संग र सात्विक भोजनले मानिसको बोध निर्धारण गर्छ । जनकवंशीय राजा यस्तै सुष्ठु परम्परामा हुर्किएका थिए । अन्ततः जनक वंशका २१औँ राजाले अष्टावक्रसँगको शास्त्रार्थबाट आत्मज्ञान प्राप्त गरे । जनक दर्शन सनातन हिन्दू दर्शनभन्दा पृथक् होइन, केवल जीवनलाई दर्शनमय बनाइरहन जनक सफल भए । तब यो जनक दर्शन भयो ।

मैले लाललाई सोधेँ, 'यस्तो अपूर्व दर्शन र संस्कृतिका धनी जनकपुरेहरू आज किन आफ्नै जीवनलाई अव्यवस्थित र सहरलाई कुरूप बनाइरहेका छन् ?'

जवाफ लालको जिब्रोमै झुन्डिएको रहेछ । उनले भने, 'जनकपुर शाहवंशीय राजाको कोपभाजन बन्नाले यस्तो भयो । आजसम्मका शासकले जनकपुरलाई लुटेर, अपमानित गरेर, शोषण गरेर शान्त भएका छैनन् ।'

'अरूलाई दोष दिएर मात्रै नपुग्ला कि ?'

लाल समझयुक्त व्यक्ति रहेछन् । उनले आदमी कम राक्षस अधिक शीर्षकको माथिको कविता सुनाएर सबैको कमजोरी संकेत गरे र मलाई सन्तुष्ट पारिदिए ।

आस्थाको दियो

जनकपुरेहरू छठी देवी को हुन्, सूर्यलाई अघ्र्य दिएर कसरी तिनको आराधना हुन्छ प्रष्ट देखिएनन् । यद्यपि बर्सेनि तनमनलाई कष्टसाध्य व्रत बसिराख्छन् । हुन पनि मान्छे आस्थाले नै बाँचेको हुन्छ । मान्छेको आस्था उखेलेर फाल्नुहुन्छ भने मान्छेले तपाईंलाई उखेलेर फाल्छ । अतः आस्थाको सम्मान गर्नुको विकल्प छैन । आस्था तर्कभन्दा बलशाली हुन्छ, यो धु्रवसत्य बिर्सन हुँदैन । भनिन्छ आस्थावान् व्यक्तिलाई वृन्दावनमा रात बिताउँदा सबेरै अनुभूति हुन्छ यहाँ केही छ । कुनै अदृश्य ईश्वरीय चैतन्यले मनमस्तिष्क ओतप्रोत हुन्छ । लालले पनि भनेका थिए जनकपुर पुण्यभूमि हो, ल्यान्ड अफ मिर्‍याकल हो । यहाँ केही छ, जसले मानिसलाई नजानिँदो स्पर्श गर्दछ । र्फकने वेलामा साथी अमृतलाई यो आस्थाले छोएछ । उनले मौका पाउँदा फेरिफेरि आइरहने मन गरे । मलाई जनक दर्शनले बढी छोयो । त्यो सुन्दर दर्शन बिर्सेका जनकपुरेलाई के सम्झनु । तिनले एक न एक दिन आफ्ना पुर्खा र पहिचान सम्झेलान् भन्ने मेरो सपना छ । डा. विमल, लालजी र धनुषा लैजाने दुई साथीहरू भने सम्झनामा आइरहने छन् । लालजीको कविता पनि ।

Published in Naya Patrika Daily 9 Nov 2011

http://www.nayapatrika.com/multi-color/14922-मिथैमिथको-मिथिला-यात्रा.html

Janaki Mandir view from Bibaha Mandap

www.nayapatrika.com

मेरो स्वाध्ययन र ध्यान

2011-10-23T02:22:00.000-07:00

यदि तीन दिन सम्म कुनै किताब नपढ्ने हो भने

बोलीमा बासी कुराको गन्ध आउन थाल्छ । अज्ञात

संयोगवश मैले सानैदेखि किताबलाई साथी बनाएँ । पहिला म साहित्यको पाठक थिएँ । कविता, कथा र उपन्यास पढेर रमाउँथेँ । गोपालप्रसाद रिमाल, भीमदर्शन रोका, डब्लु. बी. इट्स र जोन किट्सका कविता, दौलतविक्रम विष्ट, एन्टोन चेखब र डिएच लरेन्सका कथा, पारिजात, शरच्चन्द्र, दोस्तोयब्स्की, लर्ेर्मेन्तोभका उपन्यास पढ्दाका दिन कति मधुर थिए म शब्दमा बताउन सक्दिन । त्योताका वास्तविक दुनिया फिका र साहित्यको दुनिया रोचक लाग्थ्यो । बुझ्दै जाँदा साहित्यको रसिकता क्षणभंगुर हुँदोरहेछ भन्ने थाहा भयो । पढिराख्दासम्म रमाइलो, छोडेपछि उही एक्लोपन, उही विरक्ति । मैले दर्शन पढ्न थालेँ । ग्रीकतिरका विद्वान्ले दर्शनलाई सबभन्दा सुमधुर संगीत भन्दारहेछन् । सुरु-सुरुमा त मलाई पनि त्यस्तै लाग्यो । पढ्दा पनि कस्तो मजा । कथा-उपन्यास पूरै किताब पढेर सकेपछि बल्ल रहस्य खुल्थ्यो र आहा ! भन्दै मुख मिठ्याउन मन लाग्थ्यो । दर्शन त दर्ुइ चार हरफ पढेपछि मस्ती अनुभव हुँदोरहेछ । यसलाई सर्वोत्तम संगीत भनिएको ठिकै रहेछ भन्ने लाग्यो । दर्शनका पुस्तक पढ्दाताका म पुस्तकालयहरुमा घन्टौं बिताउँथेँ । नयाँ पुस्तक खोज्न चाहिँ टुरिस्ट एरियाका पुस्तक पसलहरु धाउनुपथ्र्यो । नित्सेको दस स्पेक जराथुस्त्र भन्ने किताब खोज्न निकै समय लाग्यो । कैयौं दिनसम्म म बेचैन भएर पसलहरुमा भौंतारिइरहेँ । तर किताब पाइएन । त्यो किताब फेला पार्न मलाई पोखराबाट काठमाण्डू आउनुपर्‍यो । जब फेलापारेँ, रातदिन गरेर पढिसिध्याएँ । नित्सेले जत्तिकै जीवनलाई माया गर्ने लेखक मैले आजसम्म भेटेको छैन । जीवन प्रतिको प्रेम व्यक्त गर्दै उनी भन्छन् ः
'हामी प्रेमका भोका छौं र भोकमा काँचो भात पनि मीठो हुन्छ ।'

नित्सेका किताब निकै समय पढिरहेँ मैले । ती किताबले तत्कालीन समयमा मेरो सोचाइको दायरालाई बृहत्तर बनाए । जीवनलाई अपार प्रेम गर्न सिकाए । तुच्छ सुखलाई त्यागेर महान् सुखको प्राप्तिका लागि थाक्दैनथाकी संर्घष्ा गरिरहने ऊर्जा दिए । नित्सेको जीवनवादी दर्शन पढेको हरेक पाठकलाई यस्तै प्रभाव परेको हुनर्ुपर्छ ।

यद्यपि समय बितेर गयो कि म, पत्तै भएन । दर्शनको न्यानो पनि असमयमै सेलाउन थाल्यो । विस्तारै मलाई दर्शनशास्त्रहरु अव्यावहारिक लाग्न थाल्ो । देश-दुनिया एकातिर छ, जिन्दगीका संर्घष्ाहरु एकातिर छन्, दर्शनशास्त्र कहाँकहाँको कपोलकल्पनामा हराइरहेको मैले देखेँ । मैले दर्शन गलत रहेछ भनेको चाहिँ हैन, तर व्यावहारिक पटक्कै रहेनछ । पढ्दा आनन्द आओस् साथसाथै जीवनसँग त्यसको प्रत्यक्ष साइनो पनि होस्, पढाइ त त्यस्तो पो उत्तम हुन्थ्यो । मेरो जीवनको बाटोमा उज्यालो र्छन नसकेका विचरा दर्शनशास्त्रहरु खाटमुनिको अँध्यारोमा थन्किए । अब मैले अझै माथिल्लो स्तरको विधा खोज्नुपर्‍यो जुन रसिलो पनि होस् गुनिलो पनि ।

अन्ततः मैले ध्यानका सम्बन्धमा पढ्न थालेँ । ध्यान बारे पढ्नु रसिलो त छँदैथियो, जीवनप्रतिको दृष्टिकोण बदलिदिने हुँदा तत्क्षण अध्ययनको प्रभाव पनि अनुभूति हुन्थ्यो । जति हरफ पढ्दै गयो उति नै आफूमा रुपान्तरण भइरहन्थ्यो । ध्यानको अभ्यास गर्न थालेपछि त शरीर र मनमा पुनर्ताजगी अनुभव हुन थाल्यो । रातभरिको गहिरो न्रि्राले थकान मेटिई शरीरमा स्फर्ूर्ति भरिएजस्तै ध्यानको अभ्यासले शरीर तरोताजा, मन तनावरहित र उन्मुक्त हुँदोरहेछ ।

ध्यानले मलाई धेरै मदत गर्‍यो । परिवारको माया नपाएको कारणले होला मलाई हर्दम एक खालको छटपटी भइरहन्थ्यो । बिनाकारण बेचैन भइरहन्थेँ, सायद संवेदनशील हृदय भएकोले मैले कसै न कसैसँग विश्वास र मायाको सम्बन्ध जोड्न चाहन्थेँ । तर जसलाई विश्वास गर्न चाह्यो उसैले धोका दिन्छ, उसैले फाइदा उठाउन खोज्छ । परिस्थिति नै यस्तो छ, मानिसहरुलाई परिस्थितिले कुटिल बनाइरहेको छ, कसलाई दोष दिनु । मलाई बारम्बार कस्तो लागिरहन्थ्यो भने हर्ेर् इश्वर, कस्तो कालखण्डमा जन्मिएछु । जन्मिए पनि यो दर्रि्र देशमा किन जन्मनुपरेको होला, त्यसमाथि यो बिकट पहाडको असभ्य बस्तीमा किन जन्मिनुपरेको होला । झन् यो संकुचित मानसिकता भएको परिवारमा किन - म छिटै परिवार छोडेर नजिकको शहरमा पसेँ । र केही वर्षछि उच्च शिक्षा अध्ययनका लागि राजधानी आएँ । यद्यपि जहाँ गए पनि कर्मसँगै भनेजस्तो एक्लोपन र बेचैनीले साथ छोडेन । समस्या उही थियो, ६५ लाख मानिसहरुको भीडमा म एक्लै हुन्थेँ । विश्वास र प्रेमको खडेरी परेको यो भयानक कंक्रिटको जंगलमा, यस्तो तामसयुक्त कालखण्डमा बाँच्नका लागि सहारा खोज्नु नै सायद गलत हो । केही कुरा खोज्नु नै, चाहनु नै दुखलाई निम्ता दिनु रहेछ । हामीले जे खोजिरहेका हुन्छौं त्यो त सदार्सवदा हामीसँगै हुँदोरहेछ, केवल हामीलाई त्यसको होश नहुँदोरहेछ । ध्यानको अभ्यासले जुन दिन होश आयो त्यो दिन कस्तुरीजस्तै आफ्नै शरीरबाट निसृत सुगन्ध खोज्न मैले अन्यत्र आँखा डुलाउन छोडिदिएँ ।

जुन दिन मलाई पर्ूण्ातया मौन रहँदाको अपार ऊर्जा अनुभूति भयो, जुन दिन अस्थिर मन स्थिर भयो, जुन दिन सतत ध्यानस्थ रहने किमिया मैले फेला पारेँ, त्यही दिन मानो म उन्मुक्त भएँ । मैले आफैँसँग मित्रता गाँसेँ र आफैंलाई आफ्नो साथी बनाएँ । त्यसपछि त मेरा दुखका दिन गए । मैले दुखमा पनि सुख फेला पारिहाल्थेँ । दुख त आफ्नै आकांक्षाहरुको छायाँ पो रहेछ । दुखबाट भाग्नु छायाँबाट भाग्नुजस्तै रहेछ ः भाग्यो भने पछि लाग्ने, छहारीमा ढुक्कले बसिदियो भने हराउने । दुख होला कि भनेर, भविष्यको पीर गरेर वा अरुले के भन्लान् भनेर चिन्तित वा भयभीत हुनु र आफैंले पेन्ट गरेको राक्षसको चित्र देखेर डराउनु उस्तै कुरा रहेछन् । यद्यपि यो रहस्यको ज्ञानले मात्र भयमुक्त बनाउँदैन, बोध हुनर्ुपर्छ । र बोध हुनका लागि मन शान्त हुनर्ुपर्छ, प्रज्ञा अर्थात् विशिष्ट ज्ञान हुनर्ुपर्छ । जब मलाई यो बोध भयो, मैले यो देशमा, त्यो गाउँमा, त्यो परिवारमा जन्मनुपरेकोमा नियतिलाई दोष दिन पनि छोडिदिएँ । बरु मलाई यस्तो संयोग पर्नु सौभाग्य पो रहेछ भन्ने लाग्न थालेको छ । किनभने यी सबप्रति तीब्र वितृष्णा हुँदैनथ्यो भने यो बोध पनि हुने थिएन होला । यो बोधको आनन्दका तुलनामा देशले, जन्मस्थानले वा परिवारले दिने आनन्द एक छेउ पनि रहेनछ । इच्छाहरु, तिर्सनाहरु, वासना र कामनाहरु पूरा गरेर पाइने सुख वा महासुख तृष्णाको क्षयबाट पाइने सुखको तुलनामा सोह्र भागको एक भाग जति पनि हुँदैन रहेछ ।

ध्यानको प्रभाव कति विज्ञानसम्मत छ भनी आफैंले अनुभूति गरेर हेरेँ । आरम्भका दिनमा मैले यसरी प्रयोग गर्थें । प्रथमतः मैले कम्तीमा एक दिनका लागि कुनै पनि कुराको लोभ नगरी बस्ने दृढ संकल्प गर्थें । कसैप्रति अनुराग मनमा नराखी, कसैसँग कुनै प्रकारको गुनासो, रिस वा क्रोध नगरी बस्थें । व्रत बस्नेले दिनभरि खाना नखाई पेट खाली राखेजस्तै ध्यान बस्नेले मनलाई खालि राख्नु अत्यावश्यक हुन्छ । कमसेकम आज दिनभरिका लागि मैले लोभ गर्दिन, कुनै व्यक्ति वा वस्तुको चाहना गर्दिन, कसैप्रति गुनासो वा रिस गर्दिन भन्ने निश्चय गरिसकेपछि मन यत्तिकै शान्त हुन थाल्थ्यो । त्यसपछि एकान्तस्थलमा सजिलो गरी बस्थेँ । शरीर र मनलाई निश्चल र स्थिर राख्थेँ । बिल्कुलै हलचल नगरी पर्ूण्ा रुपले मौन बस्थेँ । पर्ूण्ा मौन भन्नाले आन्तरिक संवाद पनि नगरी बस्ने भनेको हो । मन हर्दम संकल्प-विकल्प गरिराख्छ, मनमा कुरा खेलाइराख्छ । अतः मनलाई समेत मौन राख्नु वास्तविक मौन हो । डुलिराख्ने मनलाई ठेगान लगाउने विधि सास आएको-गएको हेरिराख्नु हो । सास नाकमा पस्दा प्वालहरुमा शीतलता अनुभूति हुन्छ, निस्कँदा न्यानो अनुभूति हुन्छ । क्रमशः एकाग्र र शान्त हुँदै गएपछि सास भित्र फोक्सोमा कहाँसम्म पुग्छ, त्यहाँ कतिञ्जेल रोकिन्छ र निस्कँदा केकति निस्कन्छ हेक्का राख्थेँ । म अत्यन्त शान्त भइराखेको छु भने सासको सूक्ष्म गति थाहा पाउन सक्थेँ । त्यतिमात्र होइन, शरीरमा रक्तसञ्चार भइरहेको समेत थाहा पाउँथेँ । हात, पाउ आदिमा रगत खेलिरहेको थाहा हुन्थ्यो, शरीरभरि त्यसको कम्पन अनुभूति हुन्थ्यो, मन अभूतपर्ूव आनन्दको सागरमा तैरिन थाल्थ्यो । जति जति ध्यानस्थ हुँदैगयो उति उति यो चरम आनन्दको अनुभूति अझै घनिभूत हुन थाल्थ्यो । कहीँ पुग्नलाई, कुनै काम सक्नलाई जस्तो हर्दम बेचैन बनाउने हतारो हराउँथ्यो । के को हतार, के को धपेडी । को आफ्नो, को पर्राई । को मित्र, को शत्रु । को धनी, को गरिब । के सुख, के दुख । के सफलता, के असफलता । भेदबुद्धि समाप्त हुन्थ्यो । रातदिन प्रतिस्पर्धाको भावनाले बेचैन भइराख्ने मनलाई यतिखेर चैन अनुभूति हुन थाल्थ्यो । भेदभावले गर्दा छियाछिया हुने मनको कोमलतालाई राहत हुन्थ्यो । यसरी ध्यानको मस्ती अनुभूति हुन थालेपछि मैले ध्यानलाई आफ्नो एउटा दैनिकी बनाएँ । आजभोलि त म जबजब शान्त रहन्छु तब तब अपार ऊर्जा र आनन्दको अनुभूति गर्छर्ुु पलेँटी कसेर आँखा चिम्म गरेर ध्यानमा बस्नै पर्दैन ।

'अब मुझको करार तो सबको करार है
दिल क्या ठहर गया तो जमाना ठहर गया ।'

सायद यही कारणले भनिएको होला ः आफू भलो त जगत् भलो ।
ध्यानको कला सिक्ने हो भने यसबाट सबैको जीवनलाई सहज, शान्त र आनन्दित बनाउन मदत मिल्छ । विद्यार्थीलाई ध्यानले अध्ययनमा एकाग्रता हुन्छ, स्मरण शक्ति बढ्छ, आत्मविश्वास सुदृढ हुन्छ । प्रतिस्पर्धाको भावनाले होइन, उत्कृष्टता प्राप्त गर्ने ध्येयले उसले अध्ययन गर्न सक्छ । प्रतिस्पर्धाले तनाव निम्त्याउँछ भने उत्कृष्टताको ध्येय राख्दा मनमा प्रफुल्लता अनुभूति हुन्छ । प्रश्न उठ्न सक्छ, एकाग्रता कसरी हुन्छ त - कसरी हुन्छ भने, ध्यानको अभ्यास छैन भने मन बेचैन, अस्थिर र तनावग्रस्त भइरहन्छ । धमिलो पानी भएको पोखरीजस्तै । त्यस्तो पोखरीमा पिंधमा के छ देख्न सकिँदैन । केले पानी धमिलो बनाएको छ थाहा हुँदैन । जब ध्यानको अभ्यास गर्ने बानी बस्छ, तब हाम्रो मन सङ्लिन थाल्छ । सङ्लो पानीमा सबैथोक प्रस्ट देख्न सकिन्छ । तलाउमा तरङ्गहरु उठिरहेका छन् भने पनि गहिराइमा देख्न सकिँदैन । ध्यानले मन अत्यन्त शान्त हुन थाल्छ । शान्त मनको गहिराइसम्म देख्न सकिन्छ । मनको गहिराइमा अनावश्यक कुराहरु छन् भने तिनलाई मिल्क्याउन सकिन्छ । र पढेका सूत्र तथा व्याख्याहरु त्यहाँ भण्डार गर्न सकिन्छ । यसरी होशपर्ूवक निश्चित ठाउँमा सञ्चय गरेका जानकारीहरु चाहिएको बेला तत्काल तिनलाई फेला पारेर वा सम्झेर उपयोग गर्न सकिन्छ ।

ममा ध्यानको प्रभाव पर्न थालेपछि एक्लोपना हराउँदै गयो । ध्यानस्थ भएका बेला मानिस-मानिसबीचका पर्खालहरु भत्किँदारहेछन् । म सबैसँग साथसाथ छु, हामी सबैका बीच सहसम्बन्ध रहेको छ, हामी सहअस्तित्वमा बाँचिरहेका छौं भन्ने बोध हुँदोरहेछ । हामी एउटा युनिभर्समा छौं, एउटै र्सर्ूय र वायुमण्डल सबैले उपयोग गरिराखेका छौं । त्यतिमात्र होइन, हामी सबैको मन र बुद्धिभन्दा गहिराइमा जुन ज्ञानको प्रकाश छ त्यो एउटै चेतनाको स्रोतबाट निसृत भइरहेको छ । यति कुरा राम्ररी बुझेपछि कहाँको एक्लोपन । मेरा आफ्ना इच्छा, चाहनाहरु अरुले पूरा गरिदिइराखेको र अरुका आकांक्षाहरु मैले पर्ूर्ति गरिराखेको मैले देख्न थालेँ । ध्यानको अभ्याससँगै मेरो अध्ययनमा पनि चामत्कारिक प्रगति भयो । बौद्ध दर्शनमा स्नातकोत्तर तहमा म विश्वविद्यालयमा सर्वोत्कृष्ट भएँ ।

यसप्रकार एक्लोपनबाट मुक्त हुने चाहनाले मलाई कहाँबाट कहाँ पुर्‍याइसकेको थियो । एउटै वाक्यमा भन्दा, मैले ढुंगो खोज्दा देउता फेला पारिसकेको थिएँ । जब आवश्यक परेन तब मैले भरोसा लाग्ने मित्रहरु पनि फेला पर्न थालेँ । संसारभरिका यस्ता मित्रहरुको साथ-संगत हुन पाउनु मेरो निम्ति लाख हो । प्रविधिको विकासले धर्तीका पल्लो छेउका साधकहरुसँग समेत सुपरिचित बनाएको छ । उनीहरुबाट बारम्बार प्राप्त हुने हौसला मेरो जीवनको ऊर्जा पनि हो आनन्द पनि । उखानै छ, नमाग्दा मोती मिल्छ, माग्दा भीख पनि पाइँदैन । जब मैले कसैबाट केही कुराको अपेक्षा नै गर्न छोडिदिएँ, तब स्नेहको सम्बन्ध बन्न थाल्यो । सायद ममा पात्रता विकसित भयो होला । सायद संसारको रीत यस्तै रहेछ कसैबाट केही अपेक्षा गर्नु नै दुखको कारण रहेछ । त्यसैले भनिएको होला ः भीख माग्दा सिक्का मात्रै मिल्छ, त्यो पनि खोटो ।

अर्कोतर्फ निरपेक्ष रहँदाको सुख वर्ण्र्ाातीत हुँदोरहेछ । चेतनामा बाँच्नुको आनन्दमा मग्न भइरहेका बेला म काठमाण्डूमा आयोजना भएका केही आध्यात्मिक कार्यक्रमहरुमा पुगेँ । मौनताको आनन्द फेला पारेका व्यक्तिहरु भेट्ने र तिनका अनुभूति सुन्ने मेरो चाहना थियो । यद्यपि अपेक्षाकृत एकान्तस्थलको आश्रममा बसी साधना गरिराखेका 'गुरु'हरुसमेत भोगको लालच लुकाएर बसेका मैले देखेँ । तिनका आँखामा अतृप्त वासनाहरु सल्बलाईरहेका देखिन्थे, तिनले व्यवहारमा स्वार्थकै दुनो सोझ्याइरहेका हुन्थे । मैले तत्क्षण आफ्नो दृष्टिपथ अन्यत्र मोडेँ । उपेक्षा गर्नुभन्दा उत्तम अस्वीकृति सूचक प्रतिक्रिया अर्थोक केही हुँदैन ।
पर्ूण्ातया छलकपटमुक्त विशुद्ध सामाजिक जीवन बाँच्ने अभिलाषा राख्ने व्यक्ति फेला पार्नु आकाश कुशुम खोज्नुजस्तै रहेछ । आधुनिक युगका जटिलताहरुले गर्दा पनि यस्तो भएको होला । यो कलियुगको उत्कर्षबेला हो शायद, यहाँ इमान-जमान खोज्नु नै सारहीन कार्य हो । बाहिर खोज्न छोडेर स्वयंभित्र खोज्न थालेपछि भने सारा आकांक्षाहरु तिरोहित हुँदारहेछन् । मनको खालीपन अनन्त सम्पदाले भरिँदोरहेछ । हुन पनि, यो मन पवित्र र शुद्ध राख्न सके त्योभन्दा ठूलो दौलत, आनन्द र निर्भयता अर्थोक के हुन सक्छ - मुठ्ठी बाँधेर राख्दा हामीसँग एक मुठीमात्र आफ्नो हुन्छ, मुठ्ठी खोलिदिँदा संसारको सारा सम्पदाका हिस्सेदार हुन्छौं । अर्कोतर्फ हिंस्रक व्यक्ति आत्मग्लानिले स्वयं दण्डित हुन्छ, सज्जन सदाचारका कारण भयमुक्त रहन्छ । मेरा एक विपस्सी मित्र तन, मनले सन्त भइसकेका छन् । विपश्यना ध्यानको अभ्यास गर्ने उनी हर्दम ध्यानस्थ देखिन्छन् । उनको अनुहारमा सुखको उत्तेजना पनि छैन, दुखको तनाव पनि छैन । उनको सम्यक् खानपान, आचरण र शान्त प्रकृतिले सबैलाई प्रभावित पारिराखेको हुन्छ ।

ध्यानको प्रभावले प्रशान्तता प्राप्त गरेका समकालीन व्यक्तिहरुलाई भेट्दा मेरो मनमा अत्यन्त उत्साह भरिन्छ । यो आलेख पढ्ने सबै पाठकलाई कम्तीमा एक पटक दश दिने विपश्यना ध्यानको शिविरमा सहभागी हुन म हार्दिक अनुरोध गर्छर्ुु ध्यानबाट प्राप्त गरेको धन बाँडिरहन मन लाग्दोरहेछ । अन्य स्रोतबाट प्राप्त धनजस्तो निजी प्रयोजनका लागि सञ्चय गर्न मन मान्दोरहेनछ । म तपाईंलाई सोध्छु, के तपाईं खोज्यो त्यही पाउन चाहनुहुन्छ - यदि चाहनुहुन्छ भने बाहिर दौडनुपहिला आँखा चिम्लेर ध्यानको अभ्यास गर्नुहोस् । तपाईंले जे खोज्यो त्यो पाउनुहुनेछ । रजनीशले भने, जिन खोजा तिन पाइया । कृपया ख्याल गर्नुहोला, यी वचनको प्रतीकात्मक अर्थ छ । शाब्दिक रुपमा बुझ्नु अधुरो बुझाइ हुनसक्छ ।

यदि ध्यान छैन भने तपाईं उज्यालो, रंगीचंगी र सुन्दर संसारमा अन्धो मानिसजस्तै हुनुहुनेछ । ध्यानको अभ्यास गर्नुहुन्छ भने र्सवकामार्थसिद्धये अर्थात् सबै काम सम्पन्न गर्न ध्यानको उपयोग गर्न सकिँदोरहेछ भन्ने यथार्थ तपाईंका सामु दिनको उज्यालोजस्तै र्छलंग हुनेछ । आफ्ना कुरा यति विश्वासपर्ूवक राख्न सक्ने आँट मलाई ध्यानबाटै प्राप्त भएको हो । यी हरफहरुको प्रामाणिकता सिद्ध गर्न म जहिले पनि तयार छु ।
पश्चिमाहरुले वैज्ञानिक र प्राविधिक विकास गरेर मनव जीवनलाई सुविधाजनक बनाएका छन् । हामी पर्ूर्वीयहरुले मानव जगत्लाई के योगदान दिनसक्छौं - योग वा ध्यान पर्ूर्वीयहरुको पूँजी हो, बल हो । यसलाई उपयोग गरेर हामीले के आर्जन गरेका छौं, हामीसँग समाज र विश्वलाई दिनसक्ने उपहार के छ, सन्देश के छ, सान्त्वना के छ - यिनै विषयमा अध्ययन, चिन्तन र मनन गरिरहनुमा म अर्थहीन जीवनको र्सार्थकता देखिरहेको छु । मेरो प्रयास कति साङ्गोपाङ्ग छ, यसलाई केकसरी गतिशील र समुन्नत बनाउन सकिन्छ म सचेत भइरहनर्ुपर्छ ।

आजभोलि मेरा सामाजिक सम्बन्ध निरपेक्ष, सुमधुर र सुष्ठु छन् । मैले जानेका र देखेभोगेका यथार्थहरुलाई विभिन्न माध्यमले समाजसमक्ष राख्छु र प्रतिक्रिया बुझेर त्यसमा परिस्कार गर्छर्ुु हामी कोही पनि सिद्ध भइहालेका छैनौं । कसैको चेतनाको पर्दा अधिक खुलिसकेको होला, कसैको नहोला । कोही उचाइमा पुगिसक्नुभएको र कोही फेदीमै हुनुहोला । यहीँ जन्मेका बुद्धले २५०० वर्षपहिला निर्वाण प्राप्त गर्नुभयो, त्यसयता कसैले निर्वाण प्राप्त गरेको सुनिएको छैन । कुनै फूलमा मह भरिएको हुन्थ्यो भने माहुरीहरुले पत्तो पाइहाल्थे । अतः यात्रारत हामीहरुको वाणी वा व्यवहार परिशुद्ध भइसकेको छैन । एउटा यात्रीको जीवनी पढेर पाठकलाई आफ्नो धरातल बोध हुनेछ र पङ्ख अझै फैलाएर उचाइमा पुग्न प्रेरणा मिल्नेछ भन्ने मेरो हृदयदेखिको कामना हो । एउटा व्यक्ति काम, क्रोध, लोभ र मोहबाट माथि उठ्न सक्यो भने स्वयं, समाज र संसारकै निम्ति अप्रतीम गौरव हुनेछ, परम मुक्तिदायी हुनेछ । यसप्रकारको निर्मल स्थिति प्राप्त व्यक्ति फेरि नेपालले नै जन्माएको देख्ने मेरो जीवनभरिको सपना हो ।

अध्ययन गर्ने बानीले गर्दा मलाई जीवन र जगत्को ज्ञान पनि भयो, मार्गदर्शन पनि मिल्यो । यद्यपि वास्तविक जिन्दगी किताबका पानामा होइन खुल्ला आकाश मुनि फेला पार्न सकिन्छ । 'धूप में निकलो घटाओं मे नहाकर देखो, जिन्दगी क्या है किताबों को हटाकर देखो ।'
यद्यपि यो ज्ञान पनि पढेरै प्राप्त गरेको हो । तर यो बोध हासिल गर्न भने ध्यानको अभ्यास चाहिन्छ । मैले बुझेसम्म ज्ञान र ध्यान जीवनलाई सांगोपांग रुपले बुझनका लागि अनिवार्य तत्व हुन् । बुद्धले पनि यस्तै भन्नुभएको छ । 'प्रज्ञोपाय समापत्तिर्योगः इत्यभिधीयते ।' प्रज्ञा अर्थात् सम्यक् ज्ञान र उपाय अर्थात् ध्यानको अभ्यासबाट जीवनरुपी यज्ञ सुसम्पन्न हुन सक्छ । ध्यानलाई जीवनशैली बनाउँदा यी लाभ हुने सुनिश्चित छ ः
१. दुखको मूल कारण आफ्नो मात्रै सुख चाहनु हो । अरुको सुख-दुख आफ्नै सुख-दुख देख्ने दृष्टिकोण विकसित गर्दाका दिन हाम्रो दुख हराउँछ । बुद्धले भन्नुभएको छ ः अरुका लागि लालटिन बालिदिँदा आफ्नो बाटो पनि उज्यालो हुन्छ । ध्यानको अभ्यासले यो चेतना जागृत हुन्छ ।
२. यदि जीवनमा बुद्धिमानी कुरा केही छ भने त्यो एकाग्रता हो र कुनै खराब कुरा छ भने त्यो हो आफ्नो क्षमतालाई छरपस्ट हुनदिनु । ध्यानले एकाग्र हुने कला सिकाउँछ ।
३. जब हामी अध्ययन वा कुनै काममा लाग्छौं त्यतिखेर संसारको अन्य कुनै पनि कुरा मनमा हुनुहुँदैन । यही उपयोगी व्यक्ति बन्ने रहस्य हो । जब व्यक्तिले उपासना आरम्भ गर्छन् तब मात्र उनीहरुको व्यक्तित्व विकास हुन थाल्छ । भनिन्छ, जुन नाविकलाई आफ्नो यात्राको गन्तव्य थाहा छैन उसको अनुकूल हावा कहिल्यै बहँदैन । जीवनको गन्तव्य के हो त बुझ्न ध्यान सर्वोपयोगी हुनसक्छ ।
४. जे कुरामा रुचि वा प्रवृत्ति छ त्यसैमा लागिरहनर्ुपर्छ । आफ्नो अन्तस्करणको आवाजलाई कहिल्यै रोक्नुहुँदैन । प्रकृतिले तपाईंलाई जे बनाउन चाहेको छ त्यही बन्नुहोस् । तपाईंलाई सफलता प्राप्त हुनेछ । यसको विपरीत तपाईं अरुको आग्रहले अन्य केही बन्न चाहनुहुन्छ भने केही बन्न सक्नुहुनेछैन । आफ्नो बुद्धिको मार्ग अर्थात् रुचि थाहा पाउन र त्यसमा दत्तचित्त हुने आत्मबल प्राप्त गर्न ध्यानले तपाईंलाई मदत गर्नेछ ।

सर्न्दर्भ सामग्री
१र्.र् इमर्सन । १९९१ । चौरासी बौद्ध सिद्ध । नई दिल्ली ः राधा पब्लिकेसन्स ।
२. कृष्णमर्ूर्ति, जे । १९९६ । मेडिटेसन, द वन्ली वे । ताइवान ः द कर्पोरेट बडी अफ बुद्ध एजुकेसनल फाउण्डेसन ।
३. व्यास, अम्बिकादत्त । मिति अनुपलब्ध । शिवराज विजय । बनारस ः चौखम्बा प्रकाशन ।
४. हिन्दी कहावतें । १९९० । सं राजीव दास । नई दिल्ली ः आदर्श पब्लिकेसन्स ।
५. पातञ्जल योग दर्शन, व्यास भाष्य । २००५ । आचार्य राजीव शास्त्री । नई दिल्ली ः आर्षसाहित्य प्रचार ट्रस्ट ।
६. रजनीश, ओशो । १९९५ । जिन खोजा तिन पाइया । नई दिल्ली ः हिन्दी पाकेट बुक्स ।
७. महास्मृत्रि्रस्थानसूत्र । २००२ । अनुवादक ः दोलेन्द्ररत्न शाक्य । कृष्णबहादुर नकर्मी ः ललितपुर ।
८. गुह्यसमाजतन्त्रम् । २००३ । सम्पादकः द्वारिकादासशास्त्री । वाराणसी ः बौद्ध भाराती ।
९. ओशो प्रवचन । एस धम्मो सनन्तनो । डिस्कोर्स नम्बर ४७ । पुना ः आशो कम्युन इन्टरन्यासनल ।

धम्मपदमा के छ ?

2011-10-23T02:15:00.000-07:00

प्राचीन समयदेखि आजपर्यन्त धम्मपदलाई पाली त्रिपिटक अर्न्तर्गत बुद्धका शिक्षाहरुको र्सवाधिक संक्षिप्त, सारगर्भित र सदाबाहर संकलनका रुपमा स्वीकार गरिएको छ । धम्मपद सूत्र पिटकभित्रको खुद्दक निकायमा समाविष्ट ग्रन्थ हो । धम्मपदले त्रिपिटकका चालीस वटा ग्रन्थमा विस्तारमा उल्लिखित बुद्ध दर्शनलाई ४ सय २३ वटा लयबद्ध पाली पद्यमा समेटेको छ । धम्मपदका हरेक पद्य बुद्धले कुनै न कुनै प्रसंगमा भिक्षु, सामान्य व्यक्ति वा सामूहलाई शिक्षा दिने क्रममा बताएका थिए । ती कथाप्रसंगहरु धम्मपद अट्ठकथा नामक बृहत् ग्रन्थमा संग्रहित छन् ।

बुद्धका समस्त शिक्षाले चेतनाको शुद्ध अवस्था प्राप्तिका लागि मार्गदर्शन गर्छन् । शुद्ध चैतन्य अवस्था भनेको परम शान्ति, आनन्द र समताको अवस्था हो । मानिस तनावग्रस्त, बेचैनी, असन्तुष्टि र दुखैदुखयुक्त जीवन बाँच्न अभिशप्त छ । यो कालखण्डमा मानिसलाई बुद्धको शिक्षा सञ्जीवनी हुन सक्छ । दुख, तनाव र छटपटी किन हुन्छ, यी पीडाबाट मुक्ति सम्भव छ-, छ भने मुक्तिको उपाय के हो त- बुद्धले छ वर्षो ध्यान र स्वानुसन्धानबाट यी सवालको समाधान फेला पारेका थिए । आफूले बोध गरेको ज्ञानलाई बुद्धले शील पालना, समाधि लाभ र प्रज्ञोदय यी तीन पदावलीमा संश्लिष्ट गरे । बुद्धको चर्चित अष्टांगिक मार्ग यिनै पदावलीको विस्तृत रुप हो र धम्मपद त्यसैको सरलीकृत व्याख्या हो ।

दुखका सर्न्दर्भ फरक हुन्छन् । सभ्यताको यो कालखण्डमा लालनपालन, शिक्षा पद्धति र मिडियाको प्रभावले व्यक्तिका महत्वाकांक्षा चुलिएका छन् । सायद पेट खाली हुँदा त्यति सास्ती हुँदैन जति महत्वाकांक्षाको प्रताडना सहँदा हुन्छ । व्यक्ति वा वस्तुप्रति अत्यधिक आसक्ति, घृणा वा अन्धभक्तिले हाम्रो मन मैलिएको छ । शिक्षाले आत्मनिर्भर हुनसम्म सिकाउन सकेको छैन, मनलाई शुद्ध बनाउने पद्धति सिकाउनु अझै धेरै परको कुरा हो । यो वा त्यो उपायले मानिसका आँखा छलेर, कानुन मिचेर वा तोडमरोड गरेर काम लिने प्रचलन सामान्य बन्न थालेको हुँदा व्यक्तिको मन झन्झन् प्रदूषित हुँदै गएको छ । आन्तरिक अनुशासन शून्यप्राय हुन थालेको आजको यथार्थ हो । दण्डहीनताको स्थितिमा यो सामान्य र स्वाभाविक उपक्रम भएको छ ।

यद्यपि, परिस्थिति जे भए पनि आन्तरिक अनुशासन राख्नुको गरिमालाई कुनै हिसाबले वेवास्ता गर्न सकिँदैन । दर्ीघकालमा बदनियतपर्ूण्ा कामको फल भोग्नर्ैपर्दछ । जस्तो, हामीले कुन सम्पत्ति कसरी कमाएको हो, कहाँ राखेको हो र कसरी खर्च गरेको हो भन्ने फेहरिस्त कामका माध्यमले इमान्दारीसाथ समाजलाई स्पष्ट पार्न सक्नर्ुपर्छ । त्यसो गर्न सके मन शान्त हुन्छ, मुटु सही ढंगले चल्छ, चिन्ता, तनाव र रोगले हतपती छुँदैनन्, बाँच्न सहज हुन्छ । अन्यथा आँखा छलेर कमाएको धन लुकेरै खर्च गर्नुपर्छ, लुकाएरै खानर्ुपर्छ, अँध्यारोमा लिएको मजा कालक्रममा पश्चात्तापमा परिणत हुन्छ । त्यस्ता व्यक्तिले लुकिछिपी सधैँ चोरकै जिन्दगी बाँच्नर्ुपर्छ । यसो गर्दा व्यक्तिको तन-मनमा अशान्ति र तनावले डेरा जमाउँछन् । बाहिर देखाउने र भित्र गोप्य राख्ने बहीखाता फरक-फरक हुनेलाई सधैँ पिरलो हुन्छ । कता के खुस्कने हो, खुस्की पो सक्यो कि भन्दै थरथरी काँप्नर्ुपर्दछ । विचराको मुटुको चाल ब्रि्रन्छ ।

अनादि कालदेखि नै सभ्यतालाई सुचारु राख्न सबै ग्रन्थमा पहिला सदाचारको परिकल्पना गरिएको थियो । सदाचारबाट धर्मको सूत्रपात भयो । धर्मको संरक्षकलाई अच्युत भनिन्थ्यो । अच्युत अर्थात् सदाचारको मार्गबाट कहिल्यै च्युत नहुने व्यक्ति । सदाचारको महत्ता बोध गर्नु बोधि प्राप्त गर्नु हो । जो अच्युत छ उसलाई कुनै दुखले कहिल्यै छुन आउन सक्दैन । बुद्ध भन्छन्, सबै मानिसको वास्तविक स्वभाव पहिल्यैदेखि बुद्धत्वयुक्त अर्थात् शान्त, आनन्दित र करुणायुक्त छ । संस्कार, संगत आदिका कारणले राग, द्वेष, मोह संकलित भई मन मैलिँदा बुद्ध स्वभाव ढाकिएको छ । मैल पखालेर आफ्नो वास्तविक स्वभाव पहिचान गर्नु नै बुद्धत्व प्राप्त गर्नु हो । शील पालना, समाधि लाभ र प्रज्ञोदय मार्फ् हरेक व्यक्ति बुद्ध बन्न सक्छं । बुद्धत्व शुद्ध चैतन्यको अवस्था हो ।

चेतनाको त्यही अवस्थालाई लक्ष्य गरेर बुद्धले धम्मपदमा मार्गदर्शन गरेका छन् । यो मार्गलाइ बुद्धले धर्मको बाटो -धम्मपद) भने । र शील पालना यो मार्गको पहिलो कदम हो । धम्मपदको पहिलो पद्यमा बुद्ध भन्छन्, 'खराब नियत राखेर बोल्ने अथवा काम गर्ने मानिसलाई दुःखले त्यसैगरी पछ्याइरहन्छ जसरी गोरुगाडाको पाङ्ग्राले गोरुलाई पछ्याइरहन्छ ।' यसको विपरीत, 'सदाशयतापर्ूवक बोल्ने वा काम गर्ने मानिसलाई सुखले त्यसैगरी पछ्याइरहन्छ जसरी छायाले वस्तुलाई पछ्याइरहन्छ ।' धम्मपद पढ्न थाल्नु बुद्धको पदचिन्ह अंकित बाटोमा यात्रा थाल्नु जस्तै हो । यो यात्राबाट पाठक त्यहीँ पुग्न सक्छ जहाँ पच्चीस सय वर्षपहिला गौतम बुद्ध -शान्तिका अग्रदूत) पुगेका थिए ।

कल्याणका लागि ध्यान र प्रज्ञा

2011-10-23T02:13:00.001-07:00

उपभोक्तावादी संस्कृतिको प्रभावले गर्दा मानिस वस्तुहरुको उपभोग वा संकलनमा दौडिरहेको छ, अडिने फर्ुसत छैन । मानिस राग, द्वेष र मोहको धापमा भासिँदै गइरहेको छ, बेहोशीमा, मूर्च्छामा धेरै र होशमा कम बाँच्न थालेको छ । यो दौड र प्रतिस्पर्धामा मानिसले पर्यावरण विनाश गर्यो जसले गर्दा मौसम परिवर्तन, खाद्यान्न अभाव, महंगी, भोकमरी, बेचैनी, अशान्ति, हिंसा, आतंक बढिरहेका छन् । अहिले मानिस स्वयंबाट सञ्चालित छैन, सूचनाबाट सञ्चालित छ । सूचनाको अत्रि्रवाहले मानिसको मस्तिष्क भारी भएको छ, प्रदूषित भएको छ । शान्ति र कल्याणका लागि ध्यान आजको अपरिहार्य आवश्यकता हो । ध्यानबाट लाभान्वित हुन चित्तको स्वभाव जान्नु पर्दछ ।

चित्तको स्वभाव : चित्त बिनाकाम यत्रतत्र भागिरहन्छ । यसको गति हावाभन्दा छिटो हुन्छ । एक तत्वको चिन्तनको अभ्यासमार्फ् मनलाई नजितेसम्म यो रातमा बेताल नामको राक्षसजस्तै चुलबुल गरिराख्छ । जंगली हात्तीले बस्तीमा पसेर जति विनाश पार्न सक्छ त्योभन्दा अधिक उन्मत्त चित्तले हानि पुर्याउँछ । यो बुझेर बुद्धले शील र समाधि मार्फ् चित्तलाई शुद्ध र शान्त राख्ने विधि बताउनुभएको थियो । गलत काम गर्दा स्वतः गिल्ट फिलिङ आउनु मानव जिनमै विकसित भइसकेको छ ।

ध्यान र शान्ति : अस्थिर चित्तलाई वशमा राख्नका लागि पहिला त चित्तलाई फेला पार्न सक्नर्ुपर्छ । षट् पारमिता र खासगरी शमथ भावनाको अभ्यासबाट चित्तलाई फेला पार्न सकिन्छ । शमथमा चित्तलाई विगतको यादमा या भविष्यको कल्पनामा जान नदिई वर्तमानमा होशपर्ूवक रहन अभ्यस्त बनाइन्छ । शमथको अभ्यास गर्दा स्मृति र सम्प्रजन्यलाई ख्याल गरिरहनु पर्छ । चित्तबाट पार पाउन चाहिँ विपश्यना भावनाको अभ्यास गर्नुपर्छ । विपश्यना भनेको काय, वेदना, चित्त र धर्महरुलाई कायानुपश्यी, वेदनानुपश्यी, चित्तानुपश्यी, धर्मानुपश्यी भएर तटस्थ भावले अवलोकन गर्नु हो । यसबाट काय, वेदना, चित्त र सबै धर्महरुको वास्तविक स्वभाव अनित्य, दुःख र अनात्म रहेछ भन्ने बोध हुन्छ । यही भावनाका क्रममा प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद-अविद्या, संस्कार, विज्ञान, नामरुप, षडायतन, र्स्पर्श, वेदना, तृष्णा, उपादान, भव, जाति, जरामरण) को ज्ञान, निस्वभावता या शून्यताको साक्षात्कार हुन्छ । चार आर्य सत्य र अष्टांगिक मार्गको रहस्य खुल्छ । यो बोधका कारणले आसक्ति हट्छ । हामीलाई आफ्नै बुद्ध नेचर अनुभूत हुन थाल्छ जुन प्रभास्वर हुन्छ । आफूसँग आनन्दित रहने कला ध्यान हो, यो बोध हुन्छ । चेतनाका चार हिस्सा हुन्छन् ः विज्ञान, संज्ञा, वेदना र संस्कार । केवल विज्ञानको अवस्थामा रहने कला विपश्यना अभ्यासबाट सिक्न सकिन्छ । यसबाट शान्त भएको चित्तमा त्रिकोटी परिशुद्ध प्रज्ञा उत्पन्न हुन्छ ।

ध्यान र प्रज्ञा ः प्रज्ञाको प्रादर्ुभावले ध्यानलाई अझ सघन बनाउँछ तब जीवन र जगत्को यथाभूत ज्ञान हुन्छ । तदनन्तर दुखी सत्वहरुप्रति करुणा जागृत हुन्छ । ध्यानले तनाव व्यवस्थापन होइन, त्यसबाट मुक्ति दिलाउँछ । सजगता, होशमा रहने अभ्यास भए तनाव हुँदैन । एकै समयमा दर्ुइ चित्त हुँदैन, कि राग चित्त हुन्छ कि ज्ञान चित्त । दर्ुघटना पर्न लागे पनि ध्यान चित्त छ भने भय हँुदैन । उसलाई बोध हुन्छ, यो जहाज खतरामा छ, मेरो शरीर खतरामा छ, म छैन । ध्यान समयको वचत हो, खर्च होइन । दाउरेले बन्चरोमा धार लगाउनुजस्तै । मोबाइलमा रिचार्ज आवश्यक परेजस्तै । ध्यान गर्ने होइन, हुने कुरा हो । दिमाखको अधिकतम उपयोग गरेरभन्दा नगरेर, विश्राममा रहेर अधिक आनन्द लाभ गर्न सकिन्छ भन्ने रहस्य बोध हुन्छ ध्यानको अभ्यासबाट । ध्यानको सर्वोपरि उद्देश्य त निर्वाण नै हो । Synopsis of a research paper of same title presented at Dharmachakra Academic Center. www.dharmacakraacenter.org

अरुलाई दुख दिने बानी

2011-10-22T23:24:00.000-07:00

अरुलाई दुख दिने बानीले अन्ततः आफैंलाई दुख हुन्छ । पहिला त अरुलाई सताएर फाइदा लिने बानी हामी आफैंले बसाल्छौं । यसमा बडो मजा आएजस्तो पनि हुन्छ । तर आखिरमा यस्तो बानीले हामीलाई नै सताउन थाल्छ ।
केही घुमन्तेहरु नदीको किनारमा बसिरहेका थिए । साँझको जाडोमा तिनीहरु थरथर काँप्दै थिए । समूहको मूली बढी नै काँपिरहेको थियो । संयोगले त्यतिखेरै नदीमा एउटा कम्बल बग्दै आएको देखियो । सबैले मूलीलाई भने, 'कम्बल बग्दै आइराखेको छ, पानीमा पसेर लिनुहोस् ।' मूली केही नसोची पानीमा हेलियो । कम्बलले पो उसलाई समात्यो । कम्बल भनेको त भालु पो रहेछ । टाउको पानीमुनि डुबाएर बग्दै आइराखेको । किनारबाट अरु कराए, 'के भो, किन बग्दै गयौ ?' मूलीले भन्यो, कम्बलले मलाई छोड्दैन, म के गरुँ ?

A Journey to Lumbini with Monks

2011-07-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

A travelogue on my journey to Lumbni few weeks ago. It was published in Nagarik Daily on 9th July, 2011. The link is:

http://nagarikplus.nagariknews.com/component/flippingbook/book/620-nagarik-09-july-2011/2-nagarik.html

संवेदनशीलता

2011-05-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

मान्छेमा स्नेह, दयालुता र कोमलता छैन भने जीवन निरस, कठोर र कुरुप हुँदै जान्छ । जति जति उमेर बढ्दै जान्छ, मानिसले जिन्दगीलाई राजनीति, नोकरी र परिवारको चिन्ताले भर्नथाल्छ । मानिस भयभीत रहन थाल्छ, र विस्तारै विस्तारै आफ्ना सारा संवेदनशीलता गुमाउँछ । तब न उसले अस्ताउँदो सूर्य, न बादल, न ताराहरु देख्नसक्छ । उमेर बढ्नुको साथसाथै आफ्नै बुद्धिले मानिसको जीवन तहस-नहस गर्न थाल्छ ।

A Dead Rat Creates Trouble!

2011-05-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

कौवाले मरेको मूसो फेला पारेको रहेछ । पन्ध्र, बीस कौवाले उसको पिछा गरिराखेका थिए । ऊ तिनलाई छल्दै सक्दो छिटो एकान्त ठाउँमा पुग्न चाहन्थ्यो । पिछलग्गूहरुले उसलाई ठुँगिरहेका थिए । कौवा रगतपच्छे भइसकेको थियो । यो के भइरहेको हो, उसले केही बुझ्न सकेको थिएन । अचानक उसको चुच्चोबाट मूसो भुइँमा खस्यो । सबै मूसो टिप्न तँछाडमछाड गर्न थाले । बल्ल उसले चैनको सास लियो ।

A Festive Dimension of Life

2011-04-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

हामी जे गर्र्छौं त्यसलाई कर्तव्य मानेर होइन, उत्सव सम्झेर गरौं । बोझ मानेर होइन प्रेमका कारण गरौं । अभेदताको अनुभव गर्नु नै प्रेम हो । वास्तविक प्रेमले हृदयलाई विकसित गरिदिन्छ, सूर्यले कमललाई झैं । मोह वा आसक्तिले मन संकुचित गरिदिन्छ ।

Whatever you do, do it as celebration, not as responsibility. Do it with love, not as burden. True love will expand your heart just like sunlight causes a lotus to bloom. Attachment or ignorance contracts your heart.

बुद्धि

2011-04-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

खुसीहरूले बगाएर नलैजाऊन्

2009-02-12T22:08:00.000-08:00

गर्लफ्रेन्डले 'भरे तोङ्बा खाऊँ है' भन्दा मेरा रौँरौँमा नशा दौडन थालिसकेको थियो । यद्यपि उसलाई यसबारे पत्तोखबर थिएन । उसको यो मादक-आग्रहबाट म निष्प्रभावित रहेको स्वाङ गरिरहेको थिएँ । आफूलाई सदाझैं 'कुल' राखिरहन सकेकोमा म भित्रभित्रै रमाइरहेको पनि थिएँ । मनमनै आफ्नो दर्शनशास्त्र पल्टाउँछु, 'यो हाडमासुको शरीरमा उर्लंने वासनाका आँधी र उत्तेजनाबाट मुक्त इन्दि्रयातीत आनन्द अनुभूति गर्ने मेरो आकांक्षा हो । त्यसभन्दा अघिका खुसीहरूले बगाएर नलैजाऊन् भनी मैले सतर्क रहने चेष्टा गरिरहनुपर्छ ।' यद्यपि केही बोलेमा उसले उडाउन थालिहाल्ली भनेर म चुप्पी साँधिरहन्छु । for more: http://www.nayapatrika.com/newsdetail.php?id=902100955479770&n_id=25

Never cry for any relation in life

2008-11-23T21:06:00.000-08:00

Never cry for any relation in life
because for the one whom you cry
does not deserve your tears
and the one who deserves
will never let you cry.

Treat everyone with politeness
even those who are rude to you
not because they are not nice
but because you are nice.

Never search your happiness in others
which will make you feel alone.
rather search it in yourself
you will feel happy
even if you feel alone.

Always have a positive attitude in life
there is something positive in every person.
Even a stopped watch is right
twice a day.

Happiness always looks small
when we hold it in our hand
But when we learn to share it
We realize how big and precious it is.

Pain and Pleasure

2008-11-20T01:55:00.000-08:00

If thou are pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now. (trans. George Long)A cucumber is bitter. Throw it away. There are briars in the road. Turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, "And why were such things made in the world?" (trans. George Long)Let opinion be taken away, and no man will think himself wronged. If no man shall think himself wronged, then is there no more any such thing as wrong. (trans. Meric Casaubon)(...) As for others whose lives are not so ordered, he reminds himself constantly of the characters they exhibit daily and nightly at home and abroad , and of the sort of society they frequent; and the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes has no value for him. (trans. Maxwell Staniforth)

"Die, you old fake!"

2008-11-20T01:44:00.000-08:00

Practice is nothing other than the capacity to arouse fearless energy.Without this energy, whatever practices you perform,whatever virtuous feelings you have, all are without substance.Without this energy, will you be prepared when you come face to face with death in your ordinary state of mind? How then will you persevere over other hardships? - Suzuki Shosan

a whoopee cushion

2008-11-20T01:39:00.000-08:00

Before enlightenment, a whoopee cushion is funny; when you realize enlightenment a whoopee cushion isn't funny; after enlightenment a whoopee cushion is funny again.-- J. Wilson

How to Meditate

2008-11-20T01:30:00.000-08:00

For meditation the first thing is the posture. you may sit in any posture. the posture must be very comfortable and still. we can meditate either on a floor or on a chair. in any place, whereever we feel comfortable. sit comfortably, cross your legs, clasp ur fingers. now close your eyes. stop inner or outer chatter. dont chant any mantra. just relax. totally relax. just relax. when we cross our legs and clasp our fingers, it gives us enough stability. eyes are door to the mind so should be closed. mantra chanting or any chattering inner or outer are the activities of the mind. so it should be stopped. when body relaxes, consciousness travels to the next zone mind and intellect. mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts. there are numerous thoughts always to the surface of the mind. whenever there are thoughts in the mind we may get many questions, known or unknown. to transcend the mind and intellect, one has to observe the breath. observation is the nature of the self. so one should just wittnes the breath. dont do conscious breathing.

Dont enhale or exhale consciusly. the enhalation or exhelation happen on its own. just observe the normal breath. this is the main key, this is the way. don't go behind thoughts. don't think to queries/question/thoughts. caste the thought. come back to the breath. observe normal breathing. then the density of the thougts reduces. slowly breath becomes thinner and shorter.

Finally breath becomes smallest. Some sort of light flashes between the eybrows.

In this state, one will have no breath and no thoughts. he will be totally thoughtless. this state is called nirmal stithithi or no thought state. this is the meditative state. in this state we will be under the shower of cosmic energy. the more mediation one does the more will be the cosmic energy one receives. this cosmic energy flows through the energy body.

Mythmaking

2008-11-20T01:29:00.000-08:00

Idealism is the death of body and imagination. i prefer art and mythmaking than philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche

How to Get Your Needs Met

2008-11-20T01:16:00.000-08:00

Liately I've been studying the techniques of Nonviolent Communication (NVC). While it may sound like a no-brainer to yogis who are familiar with satya, it's more challenging to put into practice than I had expected.

The beauty of NVC is its theory that conflict doesn't exist between people; it exists between the strategies that people use to get needs met. According to NVC philosophy, behind potentially intimidating messages are simply people appealing to us to meet their needs.

When we receive messages with this awareness, we never feel dehumanized by what others have to say to us. The trick is to not take the message personally, and to connect empathetically with the other person.

healthy wealthy and wise

2008-02-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

HEALTHY, WEALTHY AND WISE
Raizel Robin. Canadian Business. Toronto: Nov 24-Dec 7, 2003. Vol. 76, Iss. 23; pg. 129

Abstract (Summary)
Keeping workers happy and healthy is not a new concept. In the 1940s and '50s, companies encouraged social clubs and organized outings and picnics. By the '70s and '80s, however, the strategy had shifted to individual fitness and smoking-cessation programs. In the '90s, the likes of workplace spirituality, motivational speakers and on-site yoga became the rage. Today, you could say the hottest trend is capitalizing on a little bit of them all under the banner of "workplace wellness." Non-smoking support groups, company gyms, family-friendly workplaces, counselling, meditation, workshops in stress management and effective communication techniques, even personal coaches for CEOs-all of them fall under the catch-all phrase. Most programs focus on physical fitness and nutrition, though that, too, is changing. "There is a shift happening," says Karen Seward, vice-president of marketing, business development and research at Warren Shepell, a Toronto-based national employee-assistance program provider and consulting firm. "People have made the link between mental health and productivity and absenteeism-and the whole notion that people who are happy at home and happy at work are more productive in the workplace."
» Jump to indexing (document details)
Full Text (2144 words)
Copyright Rogers Publishing Limited Nov 24-Dec 7, 2003
[Graph Not Transcribed]
The nature of work has changed dramatically over the last half century. "Knowledge workers," a term first coined by business philosopher Peter Drucker in the 1950s, have replaced industrial labourers as the backbone of most corporations. In his seminal book, Landmarks of Tomorrow, Drucker used the term mostly to describe IT personnel, such as programmers, systems analysts, technical writers and researchers. Today, it can refer to just about anyone using a university degree at work, including financial analysts, lawyers and scientists. Knowledge workers now permeate every industry. No company is without them. They give businesses a competitive edge and are key to a healthy, productive economy.
Yet the changing nature of work is making many of them sick. While the corporate world spent 50 years developing exercise, benefit and insurance programs geared to the occupational health and safety of industrial employees--programs that are still in place today--experts say the well-being of knowledge workers is suffering. Sure, their jobs are different from factory work--but they can be just as physically strenuous, contributing to illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes, and nervous disorders like anxiety and depression. The symptoms are not as obvious, say, as a broken leg, but they can be just as costly. Mental illness in Canada alone costs $8 billion annually in lost productivity, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association. Heart disease costs about $5 billion a year in lost productivity and disability. Recent research shows that knowledge workers are more stressed out than any other type of employee--and if their minds and bodies aren't working properly, neither do they.
The average Canadian spends more than half of his or her waking hours at work--and half say they frequently toil on evenings and weekends. Days lost to illness or disability, meanwhile, have climbed each year since 2000, when a wave of downsizing began and those who still had jobs were forced to work longer hours with fewer resources. More than half of the Fortune 500 firms that downsized in the 1990s (there were about 1,468 of them) reported that productivity deteriorated as a result. If companies value their employees as key assets, say human-resources specialists, it's essential they encourage them to stay mentally and physically healthy.
Just like keeping manufacturing equipment in top working order, employee health has a tremendous impact on the bottom line. B.C. Hydro, for instance, reports that the return on investment of its employee wellness program is $3 to $4 for every dollar invested. That's a common result for many wellness programs, which have been expanding significantly in recent years. But some, such as Canada Life's, get up to $6 back. The savings come from reduced absenteeism and fewer extended health benefits and disability payouts.
Keeping workers happy and healthy is not a new concept. In the 1940s and '50s, companies encouraged social clubs and organized outings and picnics. By the '70s and '80s, however, the strategy had shifted to individual fitness and smoking-cessation programs. In the '90s, the likes of workplace spirituality, motivational speakers and on-site yoga became the rage. Today, you could say the hottest trend is capitalizing on a little bit of them all under the banner of "workplace wellness." Non-smoking support groups, company gyms, family-friendly workplaces, counselling, meditation, workshops in stress management and effective communication techniques, even personal coaches for CEOs--all of them fall under the catch-all phrase. Most programs focus on physical fitness and nutrition, though that, too, is changing. "There is a shift happening," says Karen Seward, vice-president of marketing, business development and research at Warren Shepell, a Toronto-based national employee-assistance program provider and consulting firm. "People have made the link between mental health and productivity and absenteeism--and the whole notion that people who are happy at home and happy at work are more productive in the workplace."
There's no shortage of companies catching on. MDS Nordion, Steelcase, Canada Life, Royal Bank, Enbridge Inc., Rogers Communications (which owns Canadian Business)--most big corporations have wellness initiatives of some sort. "Business today is a stressful environment," says George Cope, president and CEO of Toronto-based Telus Mobility. "I think healthy employees become part of a good overall business strategy." A few programs, such as Dofasco's (see "Taking care of business," p. 133), have even won awards.
Most forward-thinking executives probably see the benefits, but the quality of wellness programs, and how often employees use them, are crucial to their effectiveness. In a national wellness survey of Canadian companies released in September by workplace wellness consulting firm Buffett Taylor & Associates of Whitby, Ont., 83.4% of respondents said their company offered at least one "wellness initiative," such as stress management techniques, weight-control programs, fitness incentives or nutrition awareness. That's a huge increase from 64% back in 2000, when economic times were much better.
The jump shows companies are taking wellness seriously enough to ensure they provide assistance even when times are tough. But the majority are not currently offering comprehensive programs. Feeling the pressure to implement wellness initiatives, but often constrained by tight budgets, some even count extended healthcare benefits as wellness, according to Warren Shepell's Seward. Though comprehensive programs are catching on, the numbers show there are barriers to their effectiveness. Despite corporate efforts, one in three workers reports being stressed out due to excessive work demands and long hours, according to Statistics Canada. A survey by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada reported in 2000 that 43% of Canadians feel overwhelmed by their job, finances or family. Beverly Beuermann-King is a wellness consultant in Little Britain, Ont., with 13 years' experience. "Pessimism, dissatisfaction, lowered concentration, decreased motivation, accidents, absenteeism and poor health are all symptoms of job stress," she says.
A worn-out, unhealthy workforce is a costly one. The Conference Board of Canada estimates difficulties employees have in balancing work with family life cost employers in this country $2.7 billion annually. Meanwhile, workplace stress and stress-related illnesses cost the economy about $5 billion a year, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Psychiatrist Edgardo Perez, CEO of Homewood Health Centre, an employee assistance provider in Guelph, Ont., studies the effects of depression in the workplace and has found that up to 10% of employees at any given time will have moderate symptoms of depression or anxiety. Depressed workers may feel constant fatigue and worthlessness, he says. They may feel like failures, exhibit a loss of interest in their usual activities and withdraw from social situations. As well, they may be reluctant to work collaboratively. Anxious employees may also be irritable, have irrational fears of death and feel cut off from reality. "All of this interferes with their ability to concentrate and be productive," says Perez, who has found the problem can diminish an employee's productive work time by 20%.
According to Perez, depression costs the Canadian economy $12 billion a year. About $6.6 billion of that is due to productivity issues, and the rest is eaten up through the cost of medication and care. It's enough of a problem that several prominent Canadian business leaders decided to form the Business and Economic Roundtable on Mental Health, which calls depression an "unheralded business crisis in Canada."
But some companies are trying to turn the tide. Take B.C. Hydro, for instance. Its Lifestyle Program (see "Healthy idea," page 131) awards points to employees for doing any wellness activity, which can include working out at the on-site gym, spending time with family or even keeping a journal or meditating. Points can be redeemed for T-shirts, water bottles, baseball caps and other fitness gear, but are mainly a way to monitor the program's effectiveness. The employees who participate in the Lifestyle Program take, on average, two fewer sick days a year than employees who don't.
MDS Nordion, a company in Kanata, Ont., that provides most of the world's supply of radioisotopes used in nuclear medicine, implemented a wellness program that goes beyond health. It also studies how work is done and the amount of control given to employees. Since 1993, absenteeism has declined to four days per person a year from an average of five and a half.
As the evidence mounts in support of wellness programs, they will become more a social movement than a trend, say industry watchers. Martin Rutte is author of Chicken Soup for the Soul At Work, a 1998 book that has sold more than a million copies and made him a popular lecturer on the North American wellness circuit. "Twenty years ago, the only thing I could talk to you about in the workplace was the financial health of the company and maybe my career," says the Canadian writer, now based in Santa Fe, N.M. Today, the workplace is starting to acknowledge what he calls "the fuller human being"--the interconnectedness of mental, physical and even spiritual health. But for all the good intentions, if a company can't follow through with a culture that encourages employees to make time for wellness programs, they simply won't take advantage of them.
That's what happened to one senior human-resources director, Linda (her name has been changed at her request), who spent six years with a major chartered bank working 10-hour days on top of a two-hour commute. "My marriage suffered," she says. "We had to go to counselling because we were never there for each other."
Linda's health declined, as well; too busy to take a sick day, she developed pneumonia from a neglected cold. One Friday afternoon, as she was getting ready to enjoy a well-deserved weekend with her kids, her boss told her to come to work to finish a project--the following Sunday. Linda refused, but her superior kept pushing, and suggested they bring in both their daughters and plunk them in front of a TV while the women got their work done. Burned out, Linda later resigned--with no pay package and no other job to go to.
The funny thing about the bank Linda left, she remembers, is that it had a top-notch wellness program in place. "We had so many stress-management programs and work-life balance programs," she says. "There were counselling services and hotlines for day care and parent care." But the managerial culture, she says, prevented people from taking advantage of the services. It's a prime example of what Dr. Len Sperry, a professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a consultant to Fortune 500 companies, has called "a dysfunctional culture."
Just as people can be Type A's, so, too, can organizations. That can take its toll in many ways--but in Linda's case, the bank lost a key executive. "Having subsidized food in the caf and a free gym doesn't cut it these days," says Graham Lowe, a sociologist and president of the Graham Lowe Group, a consulting firm based in Kelowna, B.C. "It's relatively easy for an employer to invest in wellness," he emphasizes, but the program can be completely ineffective if its use isn't encouraged.
Linda's experience is all too familiar to Malcolm Weinstein, an executive coach and president of Weinstein Management Ltd. in Vancouver. Recent media attention to the plight of the under-appreciated, overworked, lonely-at-the-top CEO has had a positive effect on upper management, he says, but it's frequently middle managers who end up bearing the brunt of work-related stress--and they might be less inclined to take advantage of wellness programs. "I work with a lot of CEOs," says Weinstein. "They're more aware of achieving work-life balance now and are downloading their responsibilities." The pressure is worst among second-and third-tier managers who feel they must satisfy the most senior people and carry out orders they don't always want to, such as firing people. "There's a fear of admitting an inability to cope," says Weinstein. "There's pressure to be heroic that often extends beyond people's limits."
That's precisely why more companies are getting serious about their wellness programs. "HR people are asking us not just to put in wellness programs, but to think strategically about which programs will work best for them," says Seward of Warren Shepell. The attitude just a few years ago, she says, when companies would typically call up and ask for a catalogue of topics, then order a few sessions, was, "We'll send out an e-mail and hopefully people will come.' Now, companies are really making a clear link between their business objectives and mental health issues."
Linda, the former bank exec, found one organization that does just that. She's now happily employed at a large pharmaceutical firm and has no regrets about leaving her former job. Her new company's culture is entirely different, she says, because the president's corporate philosophy encourages wellness. If she works extra hours, she takes time in lieu. She feels encouraged to leave at a reasonable hour and has cut down her commute. And no more working weekends. "Life is a privilege," she says. "It's important to have a life outside work."
Indexing (document details)
Subjects:
Wellness programs, Employee benefits, Productivity, Manycompanies, Wellness programs
Classification Codes
9172 Canada, 5310 Production planning & control, 6400 Employee benefits & compensation, 9172
Locations:
Canada, Canada
Author(s):
Raizel Robin
Document types:
Feature
Document features:
tables
Publication title:
Canadian Business. Toronto: Nov 24-Dec 7, 2003. Vol. 76, Iss. 23; pg. 129
Source type:
Periodical
ISSN:
00083100
ProQuest document ID:
500107081
Text Word Count
2144
Document URL:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=500107081&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=19371&RQT=309&VName=PQD

digital dharma

2008-02-24T21:28:00.000-08:00

Digital Dharma
Hal Stucker. Photo District News. (Eastern ed.). New York: Feb 2008. Vol. 28, Iss. 2; pg. 112, 3 pgs

Abstract (Summary)
EURO RSCG WORLDWIDE RECENTLY CREATED A PRINT campaign for Wasa whole-grain crisp breads that cleverly associate the wholesome snack with the ancient practice of yoga. The images also contain a striking number of visual puns based on the motifs common to Nepalese paintings: apple slices arranged to resemble a lotus blossom, green beans laid together to resemble a halo, and kiwi slices in the shape of two faces-mirror images of each other-that look down on the scene below and seem to shine with an inner light.
» Jump to indexing (document details)
Full Text (1565 words)
Copyright VNU eMedia, Inc. Feb 2008
[Headnote]
A series of ads for a healthy snack took inspiration from the ancient practice of yoga, and the modern practice of Photoshop.
EURO RSCG WORLDWIDE RECENTLY CREATED A PRINT campaign for Wasa whole-grain crisp breads that cleverly associate the wholesome snack with the ancient practice of yoga. Art director Paul Chiemmongkoltip brought the idea to fruition with the help of photographer Kate Turning and retoucher Amy Dressers. The series of ads was based loosely on Nepalese thangka paintings. These are a colorful type of Buddhist religious paintings traditionally used to teach about the life of the Buddha. The Wasa thangka, however, would feature a young female yoga practitioner surrounded by healthy fruits and vegetables, temptingly laid out on the company's whole-grain crackers.
Dresser describes the Wasa ads as "Kaleidoscopic-sort of fantasy, high-key color images with a central figure and a flurry of stuff going on around them, so your eye goes all over the page."Turning says that her images had to suggest a "mystical world of health and well-being," so each element had to have a mysterious, floating quality.
While Turning and Chiemmongkoltip were shooting the food and the yoga practitioners, Dresser first tackled the backgrounds, creating them from several stock images. "The art director wanted them to basically be the Himalayas, but not exactly, with more of an illustration feel to the foreground and the clouds," Dresser recalls. Each line of background mountains is subtly different due to Dresser's manipulations, with "slight variations," she says. "The main mountain line and the skies are similar, but the clouds are more painterly in some and fading more in others."
Though Chiemmongkoltip had drawn up what Dresser described as a very tight layout, the choice of colors for the background was left mostly up to her. The retoucher was relieved to find that she could be more experimental with tints and tones and wasn't tied down to, say, matching a specific Pantone color. Dresser also did a considerable amount of hand painting, for example adding several layers of mist to the mountains. For this, she says, she used a "weak little fuzzy zero-percent hardness brush that I labored over them with, trying to make them look fake and real at the same time."
Dresser carefully amplified the highlights on the clouds and mountains, giving the overall light a somewhat otherworldly effect. "That's one of my main missions in most of the images I work on: making the highlights look as nice and as pretty as I can possibly get away with." The background was given an overall tint with a hue saturation layer, and then very specific color adjustments were applied to small parts of the image using color adjustment layers.
"There was no one layer that would either make or break the whole thing, just a lot of them put in doing tiny adjustments." Dresser ultimately ended up with a big folder full of adjustment layers for the background, usually about 15 to 20 for each background image.
To place the cracker, food and yoga figure elements into each shot, Dresser began by cutting the items from the backgrounds by hand. "I do most of my work using Photoshop paint tools, and really don't use things like vectors very often," she says. "Most of the images here were shot on white, so it was easy to isolate them from the backgrounds using channels, and then I traced around the edges and painted the masks in by hand. I've found that when I use shortcuts, cleaning up the edges sometimes takes as long as it does when I'm doing it all by hand."
She also took special care in cutting out the crackers. "I really was careful to cut out all the nooks and crannies on them, because I knew that they'd really care about the product looking as genuine as possible. So I didn't cut off the little imperfections or even out the bumpsI was very loyal to what the product actually looked like."
The images also contain a striking number of visual puns based on the motifs common to Nepalese paintings: apple slices arranged to resemble a lotus blossom, green beans laid together to resemble a halo, and kiwi slices in the shape of two faces-mirror images of each other-that look down on the scene below and seem to shine with an inner light. To create the kiwi effect, Dresser modified a mask she had hand-drawn for one of the figures seen in profile. "I started with that, but then we wanted to make the face look more like it was drawn and less photographic, so I did some tweaking on the mask, giving it more or less forehead, more full lips, trying to make it look a little softer." She then put in a darker outer edging on the face to set it off from the background, painting the tone in using a separate curve layer laid over the top.
The series has been very successful, with ads running in both the U.S. and Europe. And the campaign apparently has good karma to spare. Dresser, a vegetarian, took home several packages left over from the shoot and her boyfriend started eating them. And even though the initial freebies are long gone, he now goes out and buys Wasa.
[Sidebar]
AMY DRESSER
Phone: (323) 662-6377
E-mail: someone@urbancom.net
Web: www.amydresser.com
Principal Contact:
Amy Dresser is represented by Kate Chase Presents
Contact: Kate Chase
Address: 40 Arago Street, San Francisco, CA 94112
Phone: (415) 337-1700
E-mail: kate@katechase.com
Equipment: Power Mac Gii with a quad-core processor, eight gigs of RAM; Mitsubishi Diamond Pro monitor with an Envision LCD for menus; a Wacom Pen Tablet, Photoshop CS2
Sample Clients:
Bacardi, UPN Networks, CBS1TNT Networks, Best Buy, Kodak, Honda, Proctor & Gamble, Pepsi, RJ Reynolds, Smuckers, Warner Brothers Records, Atlantic Records, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Maxim
Grain of truth. Opposite page: The final ad for Wasa Is based loosely on Nepalese thankga paintings. The imagery was shot by Kate Turning and the extensive post-production was done by Amy Dressers. Left: Two ads from the same campaign. Above: The various elements that made up the final ad.
TIPS AND TRICKS
COLOR PALETTE AND CONTRAST-Dresser had to create a separate color scheme for each image, similar in nature to the colors on the original Buddhist paintings she was imitating, which were very bright and very highly saturated. "I'm not that scientific a retoucher," she says, "I'm not that mathematical, so that fact that I didn't have to match a specific Pantone color and that I could just make the colors look good to my eye was a huge weight off my shoulders."
As a general matter of style, Dresser tries to make things look "fake and real at the same time," usually by hand painting to amplify highlights and deepen shadows, though she says she is "usually more focused on highlights than she is on shadows," trying to make the highlights "a little more amplified than they ever could be in real life." For the Wasa images, the idea was to give the clouds in the background an "imaginary, mystical, unrealistic look and feel. They all began from shots of real clouds, and I used that as a template, but sampled different parts of that image, and then painted over it on several layers-dark, light and medium-painting over the light and dark areas to amplify them, and particularly trying to amplify the highlights as much as I can get away with."
TWEAKING THE YOGA FIGURES-Symmetry was also critical to making them work as a takeoff on the Nepalese paintings. Each image had a separate model, and all of them also had to look as though they were expert yoga practitioners, shining with the inner glow of enlightenment. This meant Dresser had to do a fair amount of tweaking in order to make the figures look both symmetrical and also to make them appear to be holding their yoga postures correctly. "I feel the most at home retouching people," says Dresser. "With these, there was a little bit of cheating, there are some parts that are flips, to make them more symmetrical than they actually were, and there was also some tweaking of the poses."
For example, one model's knees needed to be brought down to get her into a correct half-lotus position. Another model was holding a pose that involved standing on one leg. This made her shift her weight, so that the top portion of her body was leaning slightly over in one direction. Here, Dresser had to straighten her spine. For all the models, "I drew a bunch of guidelines to make sure that elbows were at the same level, that shoulders were even and that torsos were straight up and down." For this Dresser used mostly cut-and-paste. "I'm not a big fan of the liquefy tool, and with some of the adjustments on these models, they were fairly severe. It wasn't just a matter of smooshing in an arm here or there; I had to create a whole new angle for some of their limbs. They weren't really heavy-duty adjustments, but I did have to work out the symmetry of the body before I started masking it all out."
Above: More elements that were composited into the final ad. The retoucher describes the ads as "fantasy, high-key color images with a central figure and flurry of stuff going on around them."

Indexing (document details)
Subjects:
Yoga, Mountains, Color
Author(s):
Hal Stucker
Document types:
Feature
Document features:
Photographs
Section:
CREATE TOUCH OF CLASS
Publication title:
Photo District News. (Eastern ed.). New York: Feb 2008. Vol. 28, Iss. 2; pg. 112, 3 pgs
Source type:
Periodical
ISSN:
10458158
ProQuest document ID:
1432861681
Text Word Count
1565
Document URL:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1432861681&sid=7&Fmt=3&clientId=19371&RQT=309&VName=PQD

eat, love, pray

2008-02-24T21:22:00.000-08:00

LOVE IT/LOATHE IT
JENNIFER REESE, Alynda Wheat. Entertainment Weekly. New York: Feb 1, 2008. , Iss. 976; pg. 79

Abstract (Summary)
[...] rather than a pumpkin coach, a juicy book contract transports our heroine to her metaphorical ball, letting her travel the globe, consume mountains of Roman spaghetti, practice yoga, and eventually replace David with a devoted Latin lover.
» Jump to indexing (document details)
Full Text (262 words)
Copyright (c) 2008 Time Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be duplicated or redisseminated without permission.
Two critics weigh in on Elizabeth Gilbert's divisive best-selling memoir, 'Eat, Pray, Love'.
LOVE IT
Shelve it among the fairy tales. Elizabeth Gilbert's incandescent memoir succeeds as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for women who no longer relate to Cinderella. Replace the timid, motherless maiden with a newly husbandless writer in her 30s; instead of evil stepsisters, sub in David, a rebound boyfriend who's Just Not That Into Her. And rather than a pumpkin coach, a juicy book contract transports our heroine to her metaphorical ball, letting her travel the globe, consume mountains of Roman spaghetti, practice yoga, and eventually replace David with a devoted Latin lover. She returns home not just healed, but a superstar. Is it all a little gooey? You bet. I can't defend this luscious confection any more than I can resist it.
LOATHE IT
The problem isn't the book, it's the author. Eat, Pray, Love is, after all, Elizabeth Gilbert's lavish reward to herself for dumping a seemingly unobjectionable husband and taking up with a cad. For the next year, on perhaps the most expensive backpacking trip in recorded history, she babbles about her selfless generosity to her ex (!), how much pasta she can pack away, and what a devoted, spiritual creature she's become. That's scarcely a triumph over adversity--and even if it were, Gilbert created that adversity herself. Besides, courtesy dictates more grace in winning. If, despite a marked self-centeredness, you somehow manage to end up with everything everyone has ever wanted, keep it to yourself.
[Author Affiliation]
JENNIFER REESE

Alynda Wheat

[Illustration]
[PHOTO]

Indexing (document details)
Subjects:
Autobiographies
People:
Gilbert, Elizabeth
Author(s):
JENNIFER REESE, Alynda Wheat
Document types:
Feature
Section:
THE REVIEWS: BOOKS
Publication title:
Entertainment Weekly. New York: Feb 1, 2008. , Iss. 976; pg. 79
Source type:
Periodical
ISSN:
10490434
ProQuest document ID:
1418281161
Text Word Count
262
Document URL:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1418281161&sid=7&Fmt=3&clientId=19371&RQT=309&VName=PQD

boost ur brain power

2008-02-24T21:19:00.000-08:00

Boost your brainpower
Mark Witten. Chatelaine. (English edition). Toronto: Oct 2004. Vol. 77, Iss. 10; pg. 97, 4 pgs

Abstract (Summary)
Contrary to the belief that one has a fixed number of brain cells that diminish over time, research over the past two decades reveals that one's brain is like a renewable garden. The brain needs tending or will grow barren as one ages. Witten offers 10 mind-sharpening tricks, such as embracing tranquility, eating breakfast with fresh fruits, yogurt and whole grain bread or cereal, and having eight hours of deep sleep each night.
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Full Text (1434 words)
Copyright Rogers Publishing Limited Oct 2004
[Headnote]
Sure, going to school will make you sharper. But so will snoozing in a cool bedroom, digging into fresh fruit and frolicking with your kitty. Try these 10 mind-sharpening tricks today. By Mark Witten
Kick-boxing to Mozart. Yakking with your neighbour. Meditatig in the sun and sleeping soundly after making love. Who knew such pleasurable activities could boost your brainpower? Contrary to the belief that we have a fixed number of brain cells that diminish over time, research over the past two decades reveals that your brain is like a renewable garden. "If you stimulate your brain, it will promote cells and put out more branches like a tree," says Rémi Quirion, scientific director of the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction, of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research at McGill University in Montreal. But your brain needs tending or it will grow barren as you age. Here's how to cultivate your mind today:
1 'Schmooze it or lose it Make time to chat with a neighbour or confide in a friend. A University of Michigan study found that gabbing with friends, neighbours and relatives is as good for your brain as intellectual activities such as reading or learning new computer skills. "People who grow older 'with a rich network of family and friends tend to keep their minds sharper than those who are isolated or alone," says Dr. Howard Chertkow, a neurologist at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal and director of the Bloomfield Centre for Research in Aging at the Lady Davis Institute of McGiIl University. So, lighten up and take a break, because all work and no play isn't good for your noggin.
2 Travel to Thailand (or make coconutchicken soup) People who participate in mentally challenging activities throughout their lives increase the number and strength of brain cell connections, providing a reserve capacity as you age, according to research from Harvard University in Boston. "If you have more connections to start with, you can afford to lose some before the effects become apparent," says Carol Greenwood, senior scientist at the Toronto-based Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care. No need to become a student again, though. Go to public lectures, start a chess club or travel to an exotic destination. Even processing the information in a new recipe can help keep your brain nimble. Looking for inspiration? Head to our Recipe File at www.chatelaine.com.
3 Say "om" Practise meditation, yoga or tai chi to reduce the toxic effect of stress on your brain. Scans conducted at the University of Wisconsin showed that Buddhist-style meditation quiets the part of the brain associated with negative emotions and boosts the feel-good zone. "Prolonged exposure to stress hormones has been related to brain shrinkage and memory problems," says McGiIl neuroscientist Sonia Lupien. "Pick whatever stressreduction method works for you." Build 30 to 60 minutes of tranquility into your, day, for example, by meditating with a CD by. University of Massachusetts researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn or decompressing with quiet time. "One hour alone per day can work for everyone. I walk the dog," says Dr. Lupien.
4 Get more zzz's for brighter ideas After waking from a sleep, the British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote "Kubla Khan." Paul McCartney woke with "Yesterday" playing in his head. Imagine what you could do by catching up on your sleep debt. Eight hours of deep sleep each night will boost your creativity and problem-solving abilities, according to research by German scientist Jan Born. During sleep, information and memories from the day are moved from one region of the brain to another and reorganized in the process. This reshuffling allows you to see problems from a fresh perspective and create new solutions. To improve your sleep, keep your bedroom slightly cool and go to bed at similar times each night. If you're still not getting enough shut-eye, visit the Canadian Sleep Society's website (www.css.to) to find a sleep disorders clinic near you.
5 Put on a Barry White CD and get it on An active sex life can breed babies and new brain cells. In experiments with adult mice, University of Calgary researcher Samuel Weiss observed that production of prolactin during mating and pregnancy prompts stem cells (primitive cells from which other cells evolve) in the brain to divide. These mature into neurons that migrate to the brain's "smell centre" and may allow the mother to recognize and care for her offspring. "We know that in humans the act of mating increases prolactin in the bloodstream. So, it's possible that prolactin released during sex could stimulate the growth of new brain cells," says Weiss, noting that within five to 10 years advanced imaging technologies may allow scientists to see new brain cells being created in humans. Until then, it cant hurt to make time for a little lovin.
6 Kick your brain into shape Jog, cycle or walk briskly to stimulate the growth of new brain cell connections that you won t get as a couch potato. Aerobic exercise makes sedentary people "smarter," according to studies by U.S. psychologist Arthur Kramer. Fit people also do better on complex attention - demanding tasks than their less fit counterparts. Brain scans showed that physically fit subjects had more grey matter ("smart" cells) and white matter (fibres that send signals through the brain) than those who exercised less. So, kick up your heels: just 30 minutes of salsa dancing three times a week, for instance, helps keep your brain and body young.
7 Beat the blues Improving your mood, with sunshine, playing with your pet I or taking prescribed antidepressants can keep your memory sharp. While brain scans show that long-term depression shrinks the hippocampus, thought to be the memory region of the brain, Columbia University, researchers found that antidepressants such as Prozac may reverse this effect. "When people v are treated for depression with medicine or psychotherapy, their memory problems tend to decrease," says Dr. Angela Troyer, a psychologist at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care. Mood lifters range from munching on bananas to boost serotonin to seeking help from a qualified therapist.
8 Drop those fries and boost your IQ Lowering cholesterol levels in women helps prevent cognitive impairment, according to a recent University of California study. "High cholesterol levels around the membranes of nerve cells in the brain keep it from working well," says Dr. Howard Feldman, head of the University of British Columbia's neurology division. "A balanced diet without excess cholesterol is good for the heart and brain." High blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, obesity and inactivity are also risk factors for stroke, linked to cognitive impairment and dementia, says Dr. Feldman. So, skip foods high in sodium and saturated and trans fats, and ask your doctor or a registered dietitian for advice if you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
9 Listen to Mozart College students who listened to the sweet strains of Mozart's "Sonata for Two Pianos in D" performed better afterwards on tasks measuring the ability to manipulate complex mental images than those who didn't, according to a University of California at Irvine study. Other research demonstrates that music training boosts vocabulary, learning and memory in children. Playing, singing or listening to your favourite tunes will get your brain cells dancing to a faster beat.
10 Dig into a fruit cocktail Start your day with fresh fruit, yogurt and whole grain bread or cereal. Complex carbohydrates in this breakfast of champions provide essential B vitamins and a steady supply of slow-release energy to the brain, while antioxidants in the produce help keep your brain cells from rusting out. Eggs are also a rich source of memory-boosting choline. "It's as important for adults as it is for children to eat a healthy breakfast," says Greenwood. She believes that fad diets high in fat and protein and low in complex carbs may be bad for your brain. But does it matter whether you get complex carbs and antioxidants from eating blueberries or bananas rather than peaches, spinach or broccoli? "The fruit cocktail is best. Buy a variety of fruit and vegetables to suit your preferences," says Greenwood.
Smart pills?
Looking for a memory fix or an elixir to make you smarter? A trip to your local pharmacy can give you a mental edge, say some supplement and drug manufacturers. We checked with our McGiII University-based experts, neurologist Howard Chertkow and Rémi Quirion, scientific director of the Institute of Neurosciences of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, to see if these "smart" pills live up to their claims. Talk to your doctor before taking any supplement.
Indexing (document details)
Subjects:
Brain, Diet, Nutrition, Meditation, Cells, Memory
Author(s):
Mark Witten
Document types:
Feature
Document features:
Photographs
Section:
health
Publication title:
Chatelaine. (English edition). Toronto: Oct 2004. Vol. 77, Iss. 10; pg. 97, 4 pgs
Source type:
Periodical
ISSN:
00091995
ProQuest document ID:
696631901
Text Word Count
1434
Document URL:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=696631901&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=19371&RQT=309&VName=PQD

depresstion

2008-02-24T21:16:00.000-08:00

For a Happy Heart ; Depression, loneliness and anger take a toll on cardiac health. New research shows how to help.; [Atlantic Edition]
Anne Underwood. Newsweek. (International ed.). New York: Oct 4, 2004. pg. 55

Abstract (Summary)
The Japanese have a word for it--karoshi, or "death by overwork." But can stress on the job really do you in? Finnish researchers decided to find out. The years 1991 to 1993 in Finland were as bad as it generally gets economically, with unemployment nearly tripling. Those who survived the downsizing had to assume greater work loads. During this period and for seven years afterward, Dr. Jussi Vahtera and psychologist Mika Kivimaki at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki followed municipal workers who survived the cutbacks in four towns. Their sobering conclusion appeared this February in the British Medical Journal. Kivimaki puts it bluntly: "Those in work units with the most downsizing suffered twice the death rate from heart attack and stroke."
The implications are dramatic--not only for our risks of developing heart disease, but also for treating it. Along with low- fat diets and exercise, stress reduction should be an integral part of any program for healing heart health. Stress reducers like yoga, meditation and group sharing have direct effects on cardiac risk, lowering levels of stress hormones and helping to relax arteries. They also have indirect effects. Practitioners gain a sense of well- being that helps them stick to a diet and exercise plan. "Simply looking at the picture of someone you love can help dampen stress responses," says [Timothy Smith] in Utah.
» Jump to indexing (document details)
Full Text (757 words)
(Copyright Newsweek, Incorporated - 2004. Reproduced with permissionof copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited withoutpermission.)
The Japanese have a word for it--karoshi, or "death by overwork." But can stress on the job really do you in? Finnish researchers decided to find out. The years 1991 to 1993 in Finland were as bad as it generally gets economically, with unemployment nearly tripling. Those who survived the downsizing had to assume greater work loads. During this period and for seven years afterward, Dr. Jussi Vahtera and psychologist Mika Kivimaki at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki followed municipal workers who survived the cutbacks in four towns. Their sobering conclusion appeared this February in the British Medical Journal. Kivimaki puts it bluntly: "Those in work units with the most downsizing suffered twice the death rate from heart attack and stroke."
It should come as no surprise that emotions affect the heart-- and not only in metaphorical terms. Suffer a fright, and your heart begins to pound. Get angry, and your blood pressure rises. Thirty years ago scientists told us that men with type A personalities-- hard-charging, competitive and hostile--were more likely to suffer heart attacks. That turned out to be only partly true. Upon further investigation, anger and hostility were a problem, but not simple ambition or competitive drive. Today scientists are using high-tech instruments to elucidate the mind-body connections that damage the heart. And they are pointing the way to nonsurgical treatments that may benefit all of us.
If belligerence puts people at risk, science increasingly shows that a life of quiet desperation does, too. Patients who are depressed at the time of bypass surgery are more than twice as likely to die in the next five years as patients without clinical depression. Heart-attack survivors who live by themselves die at twice the rate of those who live with others. In a major study in the Lancet this month, researchers surveyed more than 11,000 heart- attack sufferers from 52 countries and found that in the year before their heart attacks, the patients had been under significantly more stress than some 13,000 healthy control subjects. "Severe stress didn't pose as great a risk as smoking," admits senior investigator Dr. Salim Yusuf of McMaster University. "But it was comparable to risk factors like hypertension and abdominal obesity. That's much greater than we thought before."
At every stage of heart disease, state of mind appears to play a role. It's most obvious in the later phases, where one can easily tally up heart attacks and deaths. But scientists are now showing that it plays a role in the initial phases as well. Psychologist Timothy Smith of the University of Utah is using CT scans to detect tiny calcium deposits in coronary arteries, an early sign of arterial damage. At the Society of Behavioral Medicine this year, he reported that couples with no history of heart trouble who were hostile or domineering in their interactions over money, kids, in- laws and household chores were more likely to have this type of damage. "The more strained their relationships, the more severe the silent atherosclerosis tended to be," he adds.
If there's a common explanation for these various effects, it may lie in the stress response. The classic stress condition is the fight-or-flight syndrome. The heart shifts into high gear and blood pressure rises, as the body speeds delivery of oxygen and glucose to muscles. Platelets in the blood become more "sticky" to aid clotting in the case of a wound. That's perfect for emergencies. But when the body responds the same way to everyday stressors like honking horns and looming deadlines, the cardiovascular system suffers. Chronic high blood pressure damages blood vessels, leading to inflammation and plaque formation. Turbulent blood flow can rupture a plaque, with the resulting blood clot leading directly to a heart attack.
The implications are dramatic--not only for our risks of developing heart disease, but also for treating it. Along with low- fat diets and exercise, stress reduction should be an integral part of any program for healing heart health. Stress reducers like yoga, meditation and group sharing have direct effects on cardiac risk, lowering levels of stress hormones and helping to relax arteries. They also have indirect effects. Practitioners gain a sense of well- being that helps them stick to a diet and exercise plan. "Simply looking at the picture of someone you love can help dampen stress responses," says Smith in Utah.
It only goes to show, as the Bible says in Proverbs 17:22, "A cheerful heart is a good medicine." And that's reason for all of us to take heart.
Indexing (document details)
Author(s):
Anne Underwood
Section:
Cover Story: Cardiac Care
Publication title:
Newsweek. (International ed.). New York: Oct 4, 2004. pg. 55
Source type:
Periodical
ISSN:
01637053
ProQuest document ID:
702121561
Text Word Count
757
Document URL:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=702121561&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=19371&RQT=309&VName=PQD

mindfulness

2008-02-24T21:13:00.000-08:00

Buddha Lessons ; A technique called 'mindfulness' teaches how to step back from pain and the worries of life; [Atlantic Edition]
Claudia Kalb, With Clint Witchalls in London. Newsweek. (International ed.). New York: Oct 4, 2004. pg. 52

Abstract (Summary)
With its roots in ancient Buddhist traditions, mindfulness is now gaining ground as an antidote for everything from type-A stress to depression. At the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts, where MBSR was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, 15,000 people have taken an eight-week course in the practice; hundreds more have signed up at medical clinics across the United States. Now scientists are using brain imaging and blood tests to study the biological effects of meditation. The research is capturing interest at the highest levels: the Dalai Lama is so intrigued he has joined forces with the Mind & Life Institute in Boulder, Colorado, which supports research on meditation and the mind. Next month, scientists will meet with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, for a major conference on the neuroplasticity of the brain. "People used to think that this was a lot of mystical mumbo jumbo," says psychologist Ruth Baer, of the University of Kentucky. "Now they're saying, 'Hey, we should start paying attention'."
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Full Text (853 words)
(Copyright Newsweek, Incorporated - 2004. Reproduced with permissionof copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited withoutpermission.)
At the age of 39, Janet Clarke discovered that she had a benign spinal tumor, which caused her unremitting back pain. Painkillers helped, but it wasn't until she took a meditation course in Lytham that Clarke discovered a powerful weapon inside her own body: her mind. Using a practice called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Clarke learned to acknowledge the aching, rather than fight it. "It was about getting in touch with your body, rather than your head," she says. "Mindfulness gives you something painkillers can't- -an attitude for living your life."
With its roots in ancient Buddhist traditions, mindfulness is now gaining ground as an antidote for everything from type-A stress to depression. At the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts, where MBSR was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, 15,000 people have taken an eight-week course in the practice; hundreds more have signed up at medical clinics across the United States. Now scientists are using brain imaging and blood tests to study the biological effects of meditation. The research is capturing interest at the highest levels: the Dalai Lama is so intrigued he has joined forces with the Mind & Life Institute in Boulder, Colorado, which supports research on meditation and the mind. Next month, scientists will meet with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, for a major conference on the neuroplasticity of the brain. "People used to think that this was a lot of mystical mumbo jumbo," says psychologist Ruth Baer, of the University of Kentucky. "Now they're saying, 'Hey, we should start paying attention'."
Paying attention is the very essence of mindfulness. In 45- minute meditations, participants learn to observe the whirring thoughts of the mind and the physical sensations in the body. The guiding principle is to be present moment to moment, to be aware of what's happening, but without critique or judgment. It is not easy. Our "monkey mind," as Buddhists call the internal chaos, keeps us swinging from past regrets to future worries, leaving little time for the here and now. First attempts may provoke frustration ("I'll never be able to do this"), impatience ("When will this be over?") and even banal mental sparks ("What am I going to make for dinner?"). The goal, however, is not to reach nirvana, but to observe the cacophony in a compassionate way, to accept it as transient, "like bubbles forming in a pot of water or weather patterns in the sky," says Kabat-Zinn.
The keystone of mindfulness is daily meditation, but the practice is intended to become a way of life. At Stanford University, Philippe Goldin encourages patients battling social-anxiety disorder to take "meaningful pauses" throughout the day as a way to monitor and take charge of their fears and self-doubts. Inner control can be a potent tool in the fight against all sorts of chronic conditions. In a pilot study of 18 obese women, Jean Kristeller, director of the Center for the Study of Health, Religion and Spirituality at Indiana State University, found that mindfulness meditation, augmented with special eating meditations (slowly savoring the flavor of a piece of cheese, say), helped reduce binges from an average of four per week to one and a half.
Mindfulness takes you out of the same old patterns. You're no longer battling your mind in the boxer's ring--you're watching, with interest, from the stands. The detachment doesn't lead to passivity, but to new ways of thinking. This is especially helpful in depression, which plagues sufferers with relentless ruminations. University of Toronto psychiatry professor Zindel Segal, along with British colleagues John Teasdale at Oxford and Mark Williams at Cambridge, combines mindfulness with conventional cognitive behavioral therapy, teaching patients to observe sadness or unhappiness without judgment. In a study of patients who had recovered from a depressive episode, Segal and colleagues found that 66 percent of those who learned mindfulness remained stable (no relapse) over a year, compared with 34 percent in a control group.
The biological impact of mindfulness is the next frontier in scientific research. In a study published several years ago, Kabat- Zinn found that when patients with psoriasis listened to meditation tapes during ultraviolet-light therapy, they healed about four times faster than a control group. More recently, Kabat-Zinn and neuroscientist Richard Davidson, of the University of Wisconsin, found that after eight weeks of MBSR, a group of biotech employees showed a greater increase in activity in the left prefrontal cortex- -the region of the brain associated with a happier state of mind-- than colleagues who received no meditation training. Those with the greatest left-brain activation also mounted the most vigorous antibody assault against a flu vaccine.
There's more in the pipeline. Stanford's Goldin is taking brain images to see if mindfulness affects emotional trigger points, like the amygdala, which processes fear. And at the University of Maryland, Dr. Brian Berman is tracking inflammation levels in rheumatoid arthritis patients who study mindfulness. One of them, Dalia Isicoff, says the payoff is already clear: "I'm at peace," she says. Mind and body, together.
[Illustration]
Caption: FOCUS: Kabat-Zinn (front) at Omega at the Crossings, a Texas retreat center

Indexing (document details)
People:
Clarke, Janet, Kabat-Zinn, Jon
Author(s):
Claudia Kalb, With Clint Witchalls in London
Section:
Cover Story: Mindfulness
Publication title:
Newsweek. (International ed.). New York: Oct 4, 2004. pg. 52
Source type:
Periodical
ISSN:
01637053
ProQuest document ID:
702121681
Text Word Count
853
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how to make new friends

2008-02-24T21:06:00.000-08:00

How to make new friends
Danielle Groen. Chatelaine. (English edition). Toronto: Feb 2008. Vol. 81, Iss. 2; pg. 35, 1 pgs

Abstract (Summary)
Join in "We form lasting friendships with people who are similar to us," Fehr maintains. seek out an environment where you're likely to find someone who shares your interests: a yoga studio, a cooking class or an athletic team is a good place to start. Not having a strong social network, on the other hand, has been linked to irregular sleep patterns, lack of physical activity and even failure to use a seat belt.
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Full Text (454 words)
Copyright Rogers Publishing Limited Feb 2008
[Headnote]
Too busy for a social life? Here's how to meet people - and why it's important for your health.
Step forward
Not surprisingly, a familiar face strikes us as a friendly face. "It's the exposure effect," explains Beverley Fehr, a psychology professor at the University of Winnipeg. "When you see someone every morning at a coffee shop, you're no longer a stranger." Her advice is to go slow: Begin on a superficial level, and as you disclose more about yourself, see whether the person responds in kind. "By sending out those feelers," Fehr says, "you aren't risking too much."
Work it out
Your office is a gold mine of potential friends. "Be curious and ask questions," suggests the Vancouver life coach Laura North. "People are always looking for a place to tell their stories." You'll discover you have more in common with your colleagues than you thought. Try a small gesture of kindness, like buying a co-worker a cup of coffee; that'll show your interest in moving toward a friendship. As Fehr says, "It's an act of closeness. Friends don't keep count of who owes whom a few dollars."
Join in
"We form lasting friendships with people who are similar to us," Fehr maintains. seek out an environment where you're likely to find someone who shares your interests: a yoga studio, a cooking class or an athletic team is a good place to start. Susan Clarke, the executive director of a counselling agency in Saint John, N.B., called Family Plus/Life Solutions, says, "When you see the same people every week, it becomes more natural to talk to them - and then more natural to ask if they want to grab lunch."
Help others...
Clarke, who has lived in five cities over the last eight years, elected to get involved in her community. "Volunteering took maybe four hours out of my week," she says. "But everyone was working toward the common good, and in that egoless environment, it was easy to meet people." Best of all, making friends is a fringe benefit to feeling good about your own contribution.
...and yourself
The benefits keep coming: Friendships are an important part of physical health, particularly for women. Studies have linked social-support networks to improved heart function, a stronger immune system and better eating habits. Women with close friends are also more likely to seek medical attention and undergo routine exams. Not having a strong social network, on the other hand, has been linked to irregular sleep patterns, lack of physical activity and even failure to use a seat belt. So get out there, meet some new people and, please, buckle up.
MORE ONLINE
Read more tips on making friends at www.chatelaine. com/friends.
[Sidebar]
TRY SMALL KIND GESTURES.

Indexing (document details)
Subjects:
Social life & customs, Interpersonal communication, Friendship
Author(s):
Danielle Groen
Document types:
Feature
Document features:
Photographs
Section:
HEALTH FIX
Publication title:
Chatelaine. (English edition). Toronto: Feb 2008. Vol. 81, Iss. 2; pg. 35, 1 pgs
Source type:
Periodical
ISSN:
00091995
ProQuest document ID:
1420043941
Text Word Count
454
Document URL:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1420043941&sid=7&Fmt=3&clientId=19371&RQT=309&VName=PQD

FROM RESEARCH TO PRACTICE; Mindfulness Goes Mainstream

2008-02-24T20:49:00.000-08:00

FROM RESEARCH TO PRACTICE; Mindfulness Goes Mainstream
Jay Lebow. Psychotherapy Networker. Washington: Sep/Oct 2005. Vol. 29, Iss. 5

Abstract (Summary)
In one of the most remarkable partnerships in the history of research, Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, collaborated with the Dalai Lama on an astonishingly innovative piece of research investigating long-term meditation's effects on the mind and brain. For this project, the Dalai Lama sent eight monks to Davidson's laboratory. Each one had meditated for between 10,000 and 40,000 hours over the preceding 15 to 40 years.
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Full Text (1950 words)
Copyright Psychotherapy Networker, Inc. Sep/Oct 2005
FROM RESEARCH TO PRACTICE
BY JAY LEBOW
Mindfulness Goes Mainstream
Research is proving the value of awareness practices
It's hard to believe that just 20 years ago meditation was still widely considered something practiced only by Zen students, Yoga adepts, and New Age esoterics in Birkenstocks. True, in the '70s, a few outlander physicians, led by Herbert Benson, began studying the power of meditation to evoke a "relaxation response," which lowered blood pressure and alleviated stress. But for a long time, the scientific community considered the healing potential of meditation to be about as credible as that of faith healing and exorcism.
Since the early '90s, however, the idea that meditation might have a real, empirically measurable, impact on mental and physical health has become almost boringly mainstream. Dozens of research studies have now demonstrated that meditation can reduce anxiety, stress, blood pressure, chronic pain, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, substance abuse, and health care visits. It also seems to enhance the immune system, increase longevity, and improve the quality of life. Who knows? We may soon discover that meditation cures baldness, removes warts, and sharpens math skills.
But until the last few years, relatively few credentialed, respectable, standard-issue psychotherapists seemed to have discovered meditation for themselves or for their clients. Hovering for years around the fringy edges of mental health care, it's only now beginning to enter the mainstream of psychotherapy practice. More and more workshops and conferences seem to have "mindfulness" or "meditation" in their titles, and increasing numbers of therapists are teaching their clients to sit quietly and follow their breath.
In spite of increasing support for meditation among practitioners and much anecdotal evidence that it works well for different clients in a variety of circumstances, formal research on the value of incorporating it into the clinical practice of psychotherapy has been sparse. Perhaps the philosophy of detachment, which is often seen to accompany meditation traditions, conflicts with the goal of endless improvement and progress, which characterizes Western science and, probably, most psychotherapy models. After all, the byword for most psychotherapies has been "change," rather than "acceptance."
Also the research community may be constrained by an inability to think outside the box. The most stultifying research box of all is the self-defeating assumption that there must already be some empirical evidence showing the value of an intervention before there can be more exploration of its value as an intervention!
In the case of meditation, this assumption is indeed myopic, since there's a growing body of research demonstrating the extraordinary power of mindfulness practice to affect the way the mind works. Granted, much of this research hasn't been done in the area of psychotherapy per se, but some studies have shown that meditation has such an astonishing impact on the mind and brain that even the most hard-nosed psychotherapy researcher should be impressed.
In one of the most remarkable partnerships in the history of research, Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, collaborated with the Dalai Lama on an astonishingly innovative piece of research investigating long-term meditation's effects on the mind and brain. For this project, the Dalai Lama sent eight monks to Davidson's laboratory. Each one had meditated for between 10,000 and 40,000 hours over the preceding 15 to 40 years. In a randomized design, comparing the brain waves of these monks to those of novice meditators, Davidson and his colleagues found that the monks had substantially higher levels of gamma brain waves--brain activity indicating higher levels of consciousness--than the novices. The monks' brain waves were better organized and coordinated. Their brain activity was highest in the left prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that's been associated with happiness. Furthermore, these differences in brain function continued even when the monks weren't meditating, indicating that the years of mindfulness practice had fundamentally changed how their brains operated. And like other dose-response effects, the monks who'd meditated the longest showed these effects the most.
Other major areas of research on meditation and mindfulness are more directly related to psychotherapy. Some studies have looked at the value of training in mindfulness techniques for increasing happiness and reducing levels of distress and psychopathology. The best known is a series of studies by Jon Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, who developed and evaluated a program for increasing mindfulness called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Developed originally as a means of allaying chronic pain, MBSR is an 8- to 10-week course that includes an intensive, full-day mindfulness session. Following the course, participants practice mindfulness for at least 45 minutes per day, six days a week. Another prominent feature of MBSR training is teaching participants to observe their emotions, sensations, and cognitions--even the unpleasant and painful ones--calmly, dispassionately, and nonjudgmentally.
Kabat-Zinn's research has shown that MBSR significantly decreases pain and the number of medical symptoms reported, and reduces psychological distress in participants. Similar findings have emerged in studies that he and his colleagues have done on the impact of MBSR on generalized anxiety disorder and depression.
But what does it mean to be "mindful" or to do research on "mindfulness"? How do you take this deeply private, elusive experience and make it the focus of research aimed at studying how it can become part of replicable psychotherapy treatments? Rather than analyzing what's perhaps unanalyzable, researchers studying mindfulness have focused on two of its core features: remaining in the moment and developing one's ability to accept what's occurring. In this form, mindfulness practice is consciously and purposely initiated, but allows experience to unfold without evaluation or criticism.
Flowing from such a focus, researchers have developed the means for assessing mindfulness. One of these is the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale, developed by Kirk Brown and Richard Ryan of University of Rochester. Another is the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills, developed by Ruth Baer, Gregory Smith, and Kristen Allen of the University of Kentucky. Such scales track clients' self-reports of their mindful experiences, such as their ability to remain nonjudgmental. Although such brain technologies as MRIs and EEGs, as utilized in the Davidson research assessing the monks' brains, show promise for tracking levels of mindfulness, research on the extent to which mindfulness is present remains principally the product of self-reports.
Particularly promising, as well as unexpected, is a surge in research on mindfulness conducted by clinicians practicing cognitive-behaviorial therapy (CBT)--a group of researcher/practitioners who often seem to dismiss all techniques outside of their usual methodologies. Now a growing number of the most prominent CBT researchers have become convinced of the value of mindfulness practices and have come to see them as consistent with and complementary to CBT.
This may not be as strange at it appears at first. CBT therapists have always employed relaxation and imagery techniques that overlap with mindfulness practice. Both CBT and mindfulness share a focus on directing awareness to one's inner processes and to how we automatically react to situations and get carried away by our feelings. Furthermore, several of the leaders in the CBT movement, such as Steve Hayes of the University of Nevada and Andrew Christenson of UCLA, have written and spoken extensively about the need for self-acceptance and acceptance of others as a feature effective change.
A variant of Kabat-Zinn's MBSR is currently being developed by John Teasdale and his colleagues in Cambridge, England. Called Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), it's been shown to help reduce recidivism in depression. Teasdale and his colleagues have developed an eight-week course to help depressed people acquire a sense of detachment from the thought patterns that trigger their depression. MBCT incorporates simple breathing meditations and yoga stretches to help participants become more aware of the present moment. Teasdale and his colleagues have documented a relapse rate of 37 percent in depressed patients who'd had a major depressive disorder and received this intervention, as opposed to a rate of 66 percent among those who didn't receive this special treatment. The difference in relapse rate was even greater in those who'd had three or more previous episodes of depression.
In another example of the potential uses of meditation in the treatment of a difficult population, Alan Marlatt of the University of Washington examined the impact of Vipassana meditation on prisoners' behavior. In this experiment, groups of minimum-security prisoners in Washington State either participated in a 10-day course of meditation or received standard treatment. He found that even in this highly recidivist population, participating in this program instead in treatment as usual resulted in reduced levels of arrest, alcoholism, and drug use. For example, alcohol use in the meditation group decreased from 50 days out of the previous 90 to 10.
We're also beginning to see mindfulness practice incorporated into multimethod approaches intended for clients with problems that are notoriously resistant to treatment. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), for example, originally developed by Marsha Linehan of the University of Washington for clients with borderline personality disorder, incorporates mindfulness training as part of a complex treatment strategy. In DBT, clients are taught to observe their own emotions, for instance, to help them learn to calm down and detach themselves from their own inner turmoil. The mindfulness component of DBT is more flexible and less demanding than that of some other approaches, to avoid the difficulty that borderline clients often have with rigid structures and high performance expectations. The DBT program encourages clients to become comfortable with meditation techniques in a nondemanding environment, so they can experience its soothing effects and learn to increase mindfulness practice gradually. DBT has been the subject of several successful clinical trials. It is now the most widely circulated treatment for borderline personality disorder.
Enough research on the efficacy of mindfulness practice has been done in recent years that a metanalysis of these studies recently appeared in Clinical Psychology In that analysis, Ruth Baer assessed the impact of mindfulness practice on the kinds of problems most frequently encountered in psychotherapy, such as depression and anxiety. She found a mean effect size of 0.74 in mindfulness treatments, meaning that 74 percent of those in the groups receiving mindfulness training did better than those receiving another treatment or no treatment. This is a statistically "large" effect for these interventions. Baer also found that mindfulness treatments are highly acceptable to clients: 85 percent of participants complete these programs.
So where is this research taking us? It seems clear that the research has already demonstrated how powerful mindfulness techniques can be in the treatment of pain, anxiety, depression, and more complex problems, like borderline personality disorder. Basic questions still remain, however, about the most useful ways to incorporate these techniques into psychotherapy (particularly, how and when they should be integrated with other techniques) and for which clients these methods are most useful.
Furthermore, as Sona Dimidjian and Marsha Linehan of the University of Washington have pointed out, research has so far only focused on the secular types of mindfulness, leaving unexplored the role that spirituality plays in traditional mindfulness traditions. That raises the question to what extent, if at all, are the beneficial aspects of mindfulness connected to the spiritual or religious meanings ascribed to such practices by traditional cultures? For now, however, research has revealed that there is real value in helping therapists learn mindfulness skills and teach them to their clients.
Resources
Follette, Victoria, Steven Hayes, and Marsha Linehan. Mindfulness and Acceptance. New York: Guilford, 2004.
Germer, Christopher, Ronald Siegel, and Paul Fulton. Mindfulness and Psychotherapy. Washington, D.C.: APA Books, 2005.
Jay Lebow, Ph.D., is a contributing editor to the Psychotherapy Networker, clinical professor at Northwestern University, and senior therapist and research consultant at the Family Institute at Northwestern University. Contact: j-lebow@northwestern.edu. Letters to the Editor about this department may be e-mailed to letters@psychnetworker.org.
Indexing (document details)
People:
Davidson, Richard, Kabat-Zinn, Jon, Baer, Ruth, Teasdale, John
Author(s):
Jay Lebow
Publication title:
Psychotherapy Networker. Washington: Sep/Oct 2005. Vol. 29, Iss. 5
Source type:
Periodical
ISSN:
1535573X
ProQuest document ID:
903441091
Text Word Count
1950
Document URL:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=903441091&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=19371&RQT=309&VName=PQD

2008-02-21T21:47:00.000-08:00

If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now. (trans. George Long)

A cucumber is bitter. Throw it away. There are briars in the road. Turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, "And why were such things made in the world?" (trans. George Long)Let opinion be taken away, and no man will think himself wronged. If no man shall think himself wronged, then is there no more any such thing as wrong. (trans. Meric Casaubon)(...)

As for others whose lives are not so ordered, he reminds himself constantly of the characters they exhibit daily and nightly at home and abroad , and of the sort of society they frequent; and the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes has no value for him. (trans. Maxwell Staniforth)

my picture

2006-04-28T07:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.hinduism.co.za/yoga.htm

2006-04-22T04:31:00.000-07:00

he Path Of Yoga (Raja-Yoga) The Yoga of Meditation
"Raja-Yoga is the raja (the king) of Yogas, and as a sign of royalty it is often spoken of as YOGA without any further qualification or designation. Although Raja-Yoga is self-sufficient in its own sphere, it also plays the part of a preparatory school to the supreme Yoga of Knowledge" -Romain RollandA brief introduction to the Path of YogaTHE PATH OF YOGAFrom The Mahabharata Santi Parva, Sections CCXXXIX and CCXL Translated by sri Kisari Mohan Ganguli
[Note: What is the path of Yoga? Sage Vyasa provides the definition of the word 'YOGA' as follows:]
The uniting together of Intellect and Mind, and all the Senses, and the all pervading Soul is said to be Knowledge of the foremost kind.
[Vyasa further explains the path of Yoga:]That Knowledge should be acquired (through the preceptor's aid) by one that is of a tranquil disposition, that has mastered his senses, that is capable (by meditation) of turning his gaze on the Soul, that takes a pleasure in such meditation, that is endued with intelligence and pure in acts. One should seek to acquire this Knowledge by abandoning those five impediments of Yoga which are known to the wise, viz., desire, wrath, cupidity, fear and sleep.
[Note: The following texts from The Mahabharata cover the subject matters that appear in The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 5 called ‘The Yoga of Renunciation of Action’ and Chapter 6 called ‘The Yoga of Meditation’. Some of these Shlokas (verses) from the Gita are reproduced below after the text from The Mahabharata].
THE PATH OF YOGA ( The text from The Mahabharata in detail ):
Suka, (the son of Vyasa) said: By what means does one possessed of wisdom, conversant with the Vedas, observant of sacrifices, endued with wisdom, and free from malice, succeed in attaining to Brahman (The Supreme Reality) which is incapable of being apprehended by either direct evidence or inference, and unsusceptible of being indicated by the Vedas? Asked by me, tell me by what means is Brahman to be apprehended?Is it by penance, by Brahmacharya (celibacy), by renunciation of everything, by intelligence, by the aid of the Sankhya philosophy, or by Yoga? By what means and what kind of singleness of purpose be attained by men, with respect to both, viz., the mind and the senses?
The doctrine of knowledge as expounded in the Sankhya system
Vyasa said: No man ever attains to success by means other than the acquisition of knowledge, the practice of penance, the subjugation of the senses, and renunciation of everything. [Note: The commentator points out that by these four words the four modes of life are indicated].
The great entities (elements), five in number, represent the first or initial creation of the Self-born. They have been very largely placed in embodied creatures included in the world of life. The bodies of all embodied creatures are derived from earth. The humours are from water. Their eyes are said to be derived from light. Prana, Apana and the three other vital breaths have the air for their refuge. And lastly, all unoccupied apertures within them (such as the nostrils, the cavities of the ears, etc.) are of space. In the feet of all living creatures is Vishnu. In their arms is Indra. Within the stomach is Agni (digestive fire) desirous of eating. In the ears are the points of the horizon (or the compass) representing the sense of hearing. In the tongue is speech which is Saraswati (goddess of speech).
The ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose forming the fifth, are said to be the sense of knowledge. These exist for the purposes of apprehension of their respective objects. Sound, touch, form, taste and scent forming the fifth, are the objects of the five senses. These should always be regarded as separate from (or independent of) the senses.
Like the charioteer setting his well-broken steeds along the paths he pleases, the mind sets the senses (along directions it pleases). The mind, in its turn, is employed by the knowledge sitting in the heart. The mind is the lord of all these senses in respect of employing them in their functions and guiding or restraining them. Similarly, the knowledge is the lord of the mind (in employing, and guiding or restraining it). The senses, the objects of the senses, the attributes of those objects represented by the word nature, knowledge, mind, the vital breaths, and Jiva (the embodied soul) dwell in the bodies of all embodied creatures.
Primordial Nature is the refuge of the knowledge Which exists only in the form of a sound.
The Soul also is not the refuge of the knowledge. It is Desire that creates the knowledge.
The body, within which the knowledge dwells, has no real existence. The body therefore, is not the refuge of the knowledge.Primordial Nature (Prakriti) having the three attributes of Goodness, Passion and Darkness (Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas), is the refuge of the knowledge which exists only in the form of a sound. [Pranavah or AUM or OM]. The Soul also is not the refuge of the knowledge. It is Desire that creates the knowledge. Desire, however, never creates the attributes. The man of wisdom, capable of subduing his senses, beholds the seventeenth, viz., the Soul, as surrounded by six and ten attributes, in his own knowledge by the aid of the mind. The Soul cannot be beheld with the aid of the eye or with that of all the senses. Transcending all, the Soul becomes visible by only the light of the mind’s lamp. Divested of the properties of sound and touch and form, without taste and scent, indestructible and without a body (either gross or subtile) and without senses, it is nevertheless beheld within the body.
Unmanifest and supreme, it dwells in all mortal bodies.Following the lead of the preceptor and the Vedas, he who beholds it hereafter becomes Brahman’s self. They that are possessed of wisdom look with an equal eye upon a brahmana (Priest) possessed of knowledge and disciples, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a chandala. Transcending all things, the Soul dwells in all creatures mobile and immobile. Indeed, all things are pervaded by it. When a living creature beholds his own Soul in all things, and all things in his own Soul, he is said to attain to Brahman (The Supreme Being). One occupies that much of the Supreme Soul as is commensurate with what is occupied in one’s own soul by Vedic sound. He that can always realise the identity of all things with his own self certainly attains to immortality. The very gods are stupefied in the track of that trackless man who constitutes himself the soul of all creatures, who is engaged in the good of all beings, and who desire to attain to Brahman (the Supreme Being) which is the final refuge of all things. ___________________________________TOP

Index Alphabetical [Index to Pages]
The Yoga doctrine.The Mahabharata Santi Parva, Section CCXLTranslated by Sri Kisari Mohan Ganguli
Vyasa said: O excellent son, asked by thee, I have told thee truly what the answer to thy question should be according to the doctrine of knowledge as expounded in the Sankhya system. Listen now to me as I expound to thee all that should be done (for the same end) according to the Yoga doctrine.
The uniting together of Intellect and Mind, and all the Senses, and the all pervading Soul is said to be knowledge of the foremost kind. That knowledge should be acquired (through the preceptor’s aid) by one that is of a tranquil disposition, that has mastered his senses, that is capable (by meditation) of turning his gaze on the Soul, that takes a pleasure in such meditation, that is endued with intelligence and pure in acts. One should seek to acquire this Knowledge by abandoning those five impediments of Yoga which are known to the wise, viz., desire, wrath, cupidity, fear and sleep.
Wrath is conquered with tranquillity of disposition. Desire is conquered by giving up all purposes. By reflecting with the aid of the understanding upon topics worthy of reflection, one endued with patience succeeds in abandoning sleep. By steady endurance one should restrain one’s organs of generation and the stomach (from unworthy or sinful indulgence). One should protect one’s hands and feet by using one’s eyes. One should protect one’s eyes and ears by the aid of one’s mind, one’s mind and speech by one’s acts. One should avoid fear by heedfulness, and pride by waiting upon the wise. Subduing procrastination, one should, by these means, subdue these impediments of Yoga.
One should pay one’s adorations to fire and the brahmanas (priests), and one should bow one’s head to the deities. One should avoid all kinds of inauspicious discourse, and speech that is fraught with malice, and words that are painful to other minds. …
Meditation, study, gift, truth, modesty, simplicity, forgiveness, purity of body, purity of conduct, subjugation of the senses, these enhance one’s energy, which when enhanced destroys one’s sins. By behaving equally towards all creatures and by living in contentment upon what is acquired easily and without effort, one attains to the fruition of all one’s objects and succeeds in obtaining knowledge.
Cleansed of all sins, endued with energy, abstemious in diet, with senses under complete control, one should, after having subdued both desire and wrath, seek to attain to Brahman. Firmly uniting the senses and the mind (having drawn them away from all external objects) with gaze fixed inwards, one should, in the still hours of evening, or in those before dawn, place one’s mind upon the knowledge. If even one of the five senses of a human being be kept unrestrained, all his wisdom may be seen to escape through it like water through an unstopped hole at the bottom of a leather bag. The mind in the first instance should be sought to be restrained by the Yogi after the manner of a fisherman seeking at the outset to render that one among the fish powerless from which there is the greatest danger to his nets.
Having first subdued the mind, the Yogi should then proceed to subdue his ears, then his eyes, then his tongue, and then his nose. Having restrained them, he should fix them on the mind. Then withdrawing the mind from all purposes, he should fix it on the knowledge.Indeed, having restrained the five senses, the Yogi should fix them on the mind. When these with the mind for the sixth become concentrated in the knowledge, and thus concentrated remain steady and untroubled, then Brahman becomes perceptible like a smokeless fire of blazing flames or the Sun of effulgent radiance. Indeed, one then beholds in oneself one’s soul like lightning fire in the skies.Everything then appears in it and it appears in everything in consequence of its infinitude. Those high-souled Brahmanas that are possessed of wisdom, that are endued with fortitude, that are possessed of high knowledge, and that are engaged in the good of all creatures, succeed in beholding it.
Engaged in the observance of austere vows, the Yogi who conducts himself thus for six months, seated by himself on an isolated spot, succeeds in attaining to an equality with the Indestructible. Annihilation, extension, power to present varied aspects in the same person or body, celestial scents, and sounds, and sights, the most agreeable sensations of taste and touch, pleasurable sensations of coolness and warmth, equality with the wind [Foot-note by the commentator and translator: Equality with the wind means speed of motion, power to disappear at will, and capacity to move through the skies. (Super natural powers known as ‘Siddhis’)]. Capability of understanding (by inward light) the meaning of scriptures and every work of genius, companionship of celestial damsels; acquiring all these by Yoga the Yogi should disregard them and merge them all in the knowledge.
[Note: By the practice of Yoga all these are capable of being acquired or attained. But then the Yogi who suffers himself to be led away by those valuable possessions is said to fall in hell, for the enjoyment of this kind is nothing but hell compared to the high object for which Yogis should strive].
Restraining speech and the senses one should practise Yoga during the hours after dusk, the hours before dawn, and at dawn of day, seated on a mountain summit, or at the foot of a goodly tree, or with a tree before him.
[Note: Chaitya trees or Peepul trees are sacred and large trees which stand firm on their roots and about which all round of each tree a platform of earth is raised. " In front of a tree" probably implying ‘under the shade of its spreading branches’].
Restraining all the senses within the heart, one should with faculties concentrated think of the Eternal and Indestructible like a man of the world thinking of wealth and other valuable possessions. One should never, while practising Yoga, withdraw one’s mind from it. One should with devotion betake oneself to those means by which one may succeed in restraining the mind that is very restless. One should never permit oneself to fall away from it. With the senses and the mind withdrawn from everything else, the Yogi (for practice) should betake himself to empty caves of mountains, to temples consecrated to the deities, and to empty houses or apartments, for living there. One should not associate with another in either speech, act or thought. Disregarding all things, and eating very abstemiously, the Yogi should look with an equal eye upon objects acquired or lost. One should behave after the same manner towards one that praises and one that censures him. He should not seek the good or the evil of one or the other. He should not rejoice at an acquisition or suffer anxiety when he meets with failure or loss. Of uniform behaviour towards all beings, he should imitate the wind
[Note: "Imitate the wind" by becoming unattached to all things].
Unto one whose mind is thus turned to itself, who leads a life of purity, and who casts an equal eye upon all things,- indeed, unto one who is ever engaged in Yoga thus for even six months,- Brahman as represented by sound appears very vividly. [Note: Refer to pages "Gayatri" and "Krishna’s flute" See the column on the left].
[Also refer to The Bhagavad Gita, Ch.6, Verse 8: The Yogi who is satisfied with the knowledge and wisdom (of the Self), who has conquered the senses, and to whom a clod of earth, a piece of stone and gold are the same, is said to be harmonised (i.e., is said to have attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi).]
Beholding all men afflicted with anxiety (on account of earning wealth and comfort), the Yogi should view a clod of earth, a piece of stone, and a lump of gold with an equal eye. Indeed, he should withdraw himself from this path (of earning wealth), cherishing an aversion for it, and never suffer himself to be stupefied. Even if a person happens to belong to the inferior order, even if one happens to be a woman, both of them, by following in the track indicated above, will surely attain to the highest end.
[Note by the scholar and translator: The inferior order here referred to is, of course, the Sudra order. The Commentator points out that whereas only the three superior orders (Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya) are regarded to be eligible for the study of Sankhya and for inculcation of such Srutis as Tattwamasi (That Thou Art), here sage Vyasa lays down that as regards the Yoga path, all are eligible to betake themselves to it]. [ Refer also to Bhagavad Gita, Ch.9, Verse 32: "For taking refuge in Me, they also, O Arjuna, who may be of a sinful birth, women, vaisyas as well as sudras- attain the Supreme goal"].
He that has subdued his mind beholds in his own self, by the aid of his own knowledge the Uncreate, the Eternal Brahman,- That, viz., which cannot be attained except by fixed senses,- That which is subtiler than the most subtile, and grosser than the most gross, and which is Emancipation’s self.
[Note: ‘ Fixed senses ‘ i.e., when the senses are fixed on the mind and the mind on the understanding. Ajaram (a word in the original Sanskrit text) is immutable or unchanging or that in which there is no change for the worse or for the better. By subtility is indicated the incapacity of being apprehended, and by ‘Mahattaram’(Sanskrit) is meant infinity].
By ascertaining from the mouths of preceptors and by themselves reflecting with their minds
Upon these words of the great and high-souled Rishis spoken so properly, persons possessed of wisdom attain to that equality (about which the scriptures say) with Brahman himself, till, indeed, the time when the universal dissolution comes that swallows up all existent beings._____________________________________________________TOP I

Index Alphabetical [Index to Pages]
From The Bhagavad GitaExplanations based on the writings of Swami ShivanandaThe Divine Life Society, Rishikesh
Selected verses from The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 5 called "The Yoga of Renunciation of Action"
The Blessed Lord said :
Verse 3 : He should be known as a perpetual sanyasi (renunciate) who neither hates nor desires, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he is easily set free from bondage.
Verse 6: But renunciation is hard to attain without Yoga; the Yoga-harmonised sage quickly goes to Brahman (The Supreme Being).
Verse 13: Mentally renouncing all actions and self-controlled, the embodied one rests happily in the nine-gated city, neither acting nor causing others (body and senses) to act.
Verse 15: The Lord takes neither the demerit nor even the merit of any; knowledge is enveloped by ignorance, thereby beings are deluded.
[Note: Man is bound when he identifies himself with Nature (Prakriti or Maya) and its effects –body, mind, prana or the life breaths and senses. He attains freedom or moksha (liberation) when he identifies himself with the immortal, "actionless" Self that dwells within his heart.]
Verse 17: Their intellect absorbed in That (Supreme Being), their self being That, established in That, with That for their supreme goal, they go whence there is no return, their sins dispelled by knowledge.
Verse 18: Sages look with an equal eye on a Brahmin endowed with learning and humility, on a cow, on an elephant, and even on a dog and an outcaste.
[Note: The brahmana (brahmin or priest) is Sattwic. The cow is Rajasic. The elephant, the dog and the outcaste are Tamasic. The sage sees in all of them the one homogeneous immortal Self Who is not affected by the three gunas (Sattwa, Rajas & Tamas) and their tendencies.]
Verse 20: Resting in Brahman (The Supreme Being), with steady intellect and undeluded, the knower of Brahman neither rejoices on obtaining what is pleasant nor grieves on obtaining what is unpleasant.
Verse 21: With the self unattached to external contacts he finds happiness in the Self; with the self engaged in the meditation of Brahman he attains to the endless happiness.
[Note: If you want to enjoy the imperishable happiness of the Self within, you will have to withdraw the senses from their respective objects and plunge yourself in deep meditation on the Self within.]
Verse 24: He who is happy within, who rejoices within, and who is illumined within, that Yogi attains absolute freedom or moksha, himself becoming Brahman.
Verse 25; The sages obtain absolute freedom or moksha- they whose sins have been destroyed, whose dualities (perception of dualities or experience of the pairs of opposites e.g. happiness-unhappiness) are torn asunder, who are self-controlled, and intent on the welfare of all beings.
Verse 26: Absolute freedom (or Brahmic bliss) exists on all sides for those self-controlled ascetics who are free from desire and anger, who have controlled their thoughts, and who have realised the self.
Verse 27 : Shutting out all external contacts and fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, equalising the outgoing and incoming breaths moving within the nostrils.
[Note: Bhrumadya drsti or gazing between the two eyebrows where the psychic centre known as the Ajna Chakra is situated. The mind becomes steady when the breath becomes rhythmical.]
Verse 28 : With the senses, the mind and the intellect (ever) controlled, having liberation as his supreme goal, free from desire, fear and anger – the sage is verily liberated for ever. ___________________________________TOP

Index Alphabetical [Index to Pages] Selected verses from The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6 called The Yoga of Meditation"
The Blessed Lord said :
Verse 2: Do thou, O Arjuna, know Yoga to be that which they call renunciation; no one verily becomes a Yogi who has not renounced thoughts.
[Note: The Lord eulogises Karma Yoga (Yoga of Action) here because it is the means or an external aid to Dhyana Yoga (Yoga of Meditation). It leads to the Yoga of Meditation in due course. No devotee of action who has not renounced the thought of the fruit of his actions can become a Yogi of steady mind. The thought of the fruits will certainly make the mind unsteady. In order to encourage the practice of Karma Yoga (Yoga of Action), it is stated here that Karma Yoga is sanyasa.]
Verse 3: For a sage who wishes to attain to Yoga, action is said to be the means; for the same sage who has attained to Yoga, inaction (quiescence) is said to be the means.
[Note: For a man who cannot practise meditation for a long time and who is not able to keep his mind steady in meditation, action is a means to get himself enthroned in Yoga. Action purifies his mind and makes the mind fit for the practice of steady meditation. Action leads to steady concentration and meditation. For the sage who is enthroned in Yoga, renunciation of actions is said to be the means. The more perfectly he abstains from actions the more steady his mind is, and the more peaceful he is, the more easily and thoroughly does his mind get fixed in the Self.]
Verse 4: When a man is not attached to the sense-objects or to actions, having renounced all thoughts, then he is said to have attained to Yoga.
[Note: Renunciation of thoughts implies that all desires and all actions should be renounced, because all desires are born of thoughts. "Whatever a man desires, that he wills; And whatever he wills, that he does."- From The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.4.5.]
Verse 5: Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone, let him not lower himself ; for this self alone is the friend of oneself and this self alone is the enemy of oneself.
[Note: The lower mind or the impure mind (asuddha manas) is your real enemy because it binds you to the samsara (making you worldly-minded), and the higher mind or the Sattwic mind, the pure mind (suddha manas) is your real friend, because it helps you in the attainment of moksha.]
Verse 6: The self is the friend of the self for him who has conquered himself by the self, but to the unconquered self, this self stands in the position of the enemy like the (external) foe.
[Note: Conquer the lower mind through the higher mind. The lower mind is your enemy. The higher mind is your friend. The lower mind is filled with Rajas and Tamas (passion and darkness). The higher mind is filled with Sattwa or purity.]
Verse 7: The Supreme Self of him who is self-controlled and peaceful is balanced in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, as also in honour and dishonour.
[Note: The self-controlled Yogi is not affected by the pairs of opposites : cold and heat implying comforts and discomforts at the physical level, pleasure and pain refer to emotions at the level of the mind, and honour and dishonour implying the faculty of understanding at the intellectual level.]
Verse 9 : He who is of the same mind to the good-hearted, friends, enemies, the indifferent, the neutral, the hateful, the relatives, the righteous and the unrighteous, excels.
[Note: Such equal minded Yogi has equal vision.]
Verse 10 : Let the Yogi try constantly to keep the mind steady, remaining in solitude, alone, with the mind and the body controlled, and free from hope and greed.
[Note: If you are well established in the practice of pratyahara, sama and dama (withdrawal of the senses, control of mind and the body respectively), if you have the senses under your full control, you can find perfect solitude and peace even in the most crowded and noisy place of a big city. If the senses are turbulent, if you have not got the power to withdraw them, you will have no peace of mind even in a solitary cave of the Himalayas.]
Verse 11 & 12 : In a clean spot, having established a firm seat of his own, neither too high nor too low, made of a cloth, a skin (tiger skin or deer skin) and kusha-grass, one over the other, there, having made the mind one-pointed, with the actions of the mind and the senses controlled, let him, seated on the seat, practise Yoga for the purification of the self.
Verse 13 : Let him firmly hold his body, head and neck erect and still, gazing at the tip of his nose, without looking around.
[Note : Though the gaze is directed towards the tip of the nose when the eyes are half closed and the eyeballs are steady, the mind should be fixed only on the Self. Gazing at the tip of the nose will soon bring about concentration of the mind.]
Verse 14 : Serene minded, fearless, firm in the vow of a brahmachari (celibate), having controlled the mind, thinking of Me, and balanced in mind, let him sit, having Me as his supreme goal.
Verse 15 : Thus always keeping the mind balanced, the Yogi, with the mind controlled, attains to the peace abiding in Me, which culminates in liberation.
Verse 16 : Verily Yoga is not possible for him who eats too much, nor for him who does not eat at all, nor for him who sleeps too much nor for him who is (always) awake, O Arjuna.
Verse 17 : Yoga becomes the destroyer of pain for him who is moderate in eating and recreation (such as walking etc.), who is moderate in exertion in action, who is moderate in sleep and wakefulness.
Verse 19 : As a lamp placed in a windless spot does not flicker- to such is compared the Yogi of controlled mind, practising Yoga in the Self (or absorbed in the Yoga of the Self).
Verse 29 : With the mind harmonised by Yoga he sees the Self abiding in all beings and all beings in the Self; he sees the same everywhere.
Verse 31: He who, being established in unity, worships Me, who dwells in all beings, that Yogi abides in Me, whatever may be his mode of living.
[Note: Scriptures tell of a person named Sadana who lived in God though he was a butcher, because his mind was ever fixed at the lotus feet of the Lord.]
Arjuna said :
Verse 33 & 34 : This Yoga of equanimity taught by Thee, O Lord, I do not see its steady continuance, because of the restlessness of the mind.
The mind verily is restless, turbulent, strong and unyielding, O Krishna : I deem it as difficult to control it as to control the wind.
The Blessed Lord said :Verse 35 & 36 : Undoubtedly, O mighty armed Arjuna, the mind is difficult to control and restless; but by practice and by dispassion it may be restrained.
I think Yoga is hard to be attained by one of uncontrolled self, but the self-controlled and striving one can attain to it by the proper means.
Arjuna said :
Verse 37 : He who is unable to control himself though he has the faith, and whose mind wanders away from Yoga, what end does he, having failed to attain perfection in Yoga meet, O Krishna?
[Note: He has faith in the efficacy of Yoga but he is not able to control the senses and the mind. He has no concentration of mind. Having failed to achieve perfection in Yoga, i.e., Self-realisation or the knowledge of the Self, what path will he tread, and what end will such a man meet?]
The Blessed Lord said : Verses 40, 41,42, 43 & 44 :
O Arjuna, neither in this world, nor in the next world is there destruction for him; none, verily, who does good ever comes to grief.
Having attained to the worlds of the righteous and having dwelt there for everlasting years, he who fell from Yoga is reborn in a house of the pure and wealthy.
Or he is born in a family of even the wise Yogis; verily a birth like this is very difficult to obtain in this world.
There he comes in touch with the knowledge acquired in his former body and strives more than before for perfection.
By that very former practice he is borne on in spite of himself. Even he who merely wishes to know Yoga goes beyond the Brahmic world.
Verse 45 : But the Yogi who strives with assiduity, purified of sins and perfected gradually through many births, reaches the highest goal.___________________________________Book titled "How to know God": The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali. A rational and psychological explanation of yoga. It will especially appeal to those who want religion to make sense.___________________________________
From The Teachings of Sri Ramana MaharshiThe following text is reproduced from our Page 'Self-enquiry'Question: In turning the mind inwards, are we not still employing the mind?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Of course we are employing the mind. It is well known and admitted that only with the help of the mind can the mind be killed. But instead of setting about saying there is a mind, and I want to kill it, begin to seek the source of the mind, and you find the mind does not exist at all. The mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes itself the Self.
Question: Even so, I do not understand. ‘I’, you say, is the wrong ‘I’ now. How to eliminate the wrong ‘I’?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: You need not eliminate the wrong ‘I’. How can ‘I’ eliminate itself? All that you need to do is to find out its origin and abide there. Your efforts can extend only thus far. Then the beyond will take care of itself. You are helpless there. No effort can reach it. Sri Ramana Maharshi: The yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass.
Question: How is that done?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: You have to ask yourself the question ‘Who am I?’ This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you, which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems.Again people often ask how the mind is controlled. I say to them, ‘Show me the mind and then you will know what to do.’ The fact is that the mind is only a bundle of thoughts. How can you extinguish it by the thought of doing so or by a desire? Your thoughts and desires are part and parcel of the mind. The mind is simply fattened by new thoughts rising up. Therefore it is foolish to attempt to kill the mind by means of the mind. The only way of doing it is to find its source and hold on to it. The mind will then fade away of its own accord. Yoga teaches Chitta Vritti Nirodha (control of the activities of the mind). But I say Atma Vichara (self-investigation). This is the practical way. Chitta Vritti Nirodha is brought about in sleep, swoon, or by starvation. As soon as the cause is withdrawn there is a recrudescence of thoughts. Of what use is it then? In the state of stupor there is peace and no misery. But misery recurs when the stupor is removed. So nirodha (control) is useless and cannot be of lasting benefit.
How then can the benefit be made lasting? It is by finding the cause of misery. Misery is due to the perception of objects. If they are not there, there will no contingent thoughts and so misery is wiped off. ‘How will objects cease to be?’ is the next question. The srutis (scriptures) and the sages say that the objects are only mental creations. They have no substantive being. Investigate the matter and ascertain the truth of the statement. The result will be the conclusion that the objective world is in the subjective consciousness. The Self is thus the only reality, which permeates and also envelops the world. Since there is no duality, no thoughts will arise to disturb your peace. This is realisation of the Self. The Self is eternal and so also is realisation.
Abhyasa (spiritual practice) consists in withdrawal within the Self every time you are disturbed by thought. It is not concentration or destruction of the mind but withdrawal into the Self.===================================Related articles: Sankhya versus Yoga Raja Yoga Gita Meditation Direct Path Self-enquiry God Self- Atma
The Nature of Reality Consciousness - the three states Self-realisation Emancipation Freedom and Bondage Gita for Children
Yoga Mind Karma Yoga TOP

Index Alphabetical [Index to Pages]

yoga

2006-04-22T04:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.hinduism.co.za/yoga.htm

Vyasa said: O excellent son, asked by thee, I have told thee truly what the answer to thy question should be according to the doctrine of knowledge as expounded in the Sankhya system. Listen now to me as I expound to thee all that should be done (for the same end) according to the Yoga doctrine.

Yoga

2006-04-22T04:12:00.000-07:00

Meditation

Quotations
If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now. (trans. George Long)
A cucumber is bitter. Throw it away. There are briars in the road. Turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, "And why were such things made in the world?" (trans. George Long)
Let opinion be taken away, and no man will think himself wronged. If no man shall think himself wronged, then is there no more any such thing as wrong. (trans. Meric Casaubon)
(...) As for others whose lives are not so ordered, he reminds himself constantly of the characters they exhibit daily and nightly at home and abroad , and of the sort of society they frequent; and the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes has no value for him. (trans. Maxwell Staniforth)

Glossary

2006-03-10T01:27:00.000-08:00

A Glossary Of Terms
Below is a list of terms commonly found in philosophy texts and other scholarly works. Some are esoteric and rarely seen ('adscititious,' 'deipnosophist'); others are more frequently employed and contextually significant.
absolute -- 1. that which can exist on its own without depending on other things. 2. in ethics, the view that moral truth exists independently of cultural context and time and place ("moral absolute"); cf. moral relativism.
absolutism -- in political philosophy, the view that absolute rule is the most desirable, or the least inadequate.
adscititious -- not inherent or essential, derivative.
a posteriori -- reasoning from particular facts to general principles or conclusions; inductive, empirical. [ Latin, "from the posterior".]
a priori -- 1. reasoning from general propositions to particular conclusions; deductive. 2. an assertion made before examination or substantiation. [Latin, "from beforehand".] A priori knowledge exists independently of direct experience; e.g., one needn't draw a hundred parallel lines to know that they never intersect one another.
agathism -- the doctrine that all things tend towards ultimate good, as distinguished from optimism, which holds that all things are now for the best. adj., agathistic. [From the Greek agathos, good.]
agnosticism -- the belief that one cannot know whether God exists or does not exist. An agnostic may or may not believe in God, but in any case feels that there is insufficient proof to hold fast to either view. Cf. atheism.
animism -- the belief that objects are inhabited by spirits, and that natural events or processes are caused by spirits.
anthropomorphism -- the ascription of human characteristics or motives to inanimate objects, natural phenomena, or supernatural things. Many major religious systems -- among them Judaism and Christianity -- share anthropomorphic qualities. An example is the belief that human beings are "made in God's image," or that God is a personal deity sensitive and responsive to human need and pain, or more commonly, that God is an elderly man with a long gray beard sitting somewhere in the sky on his celestial throne.
anthropopathism -- the attribution of human feelings and emotions to anything not human; e.g., inanimate objects and animals.
anthroposophy -- a theory advanced by Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925) contending that the spiritual realm can be understood through the exercise of human intellectual faculties. Knowledge of "higher worlds" is possible according to this view.
apocalyptic -- of or pertaining to religious revelation or to momentous spiritual occasions. From the Greek, meaning "uncovering".
apodictic -- incontrovertibly true; demonstrably so, certain.
apollonian -- having the classical beauty and strength of Apollo as opposed to the emotionally volatile and romantic attributes of Dionysus. The Apollonian/Dionysian -- or classicist/romanticist -- distinction is one of which many philosophers have made use since Hellenistic times. It was drawn upon by Nietzsche, for instance, in The Birth of Tragedy; the Apollonian was depicted as critical, rational, logical; the Dionysian as intuitive, creative, artistic.
archetypes -- 1. an original model or prototype. 2. the quintessence or ideality of something. 3. in Jungian psychology (Carl Jung, 1875-1961), symbolic representations of established ways of responding to certain types of experience, contained in the collective unconscious.
Arianism -- a heretical doctrine associated with the teachings of Arius, an Alexandrian priest of the fourth century who taught that God created from nothing (ex nihilo) and begot a Son before He created all other things. The Son of God, according to Arius, was divine but not equal to God. This doctrine was condemned as heresy at the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.). The official Church teaching at Nicaea was that Jesus and God are consubstantial, of one and the same substance.
Aristotelianism -- of or pertaining to the philosophy of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), among the greatest philosophers who ever lived. Aristotle made prodigious contributions to the understanding of biology, epistemology, ethics, logic, metaphysics, and politics.
associationism -- a theory of knowledge propounded by thinkers such as Condillac in France and James Mill in England which holds that nearly all thought processes are governed by association (e.g., cause and effect, resemblance and difference, contiguity). Associationism has influenced the modern theory of conditioning and learning; it is opposed by those who believe the mind can freely create arbitrary images.
ataraxia -- a tranquil and calm state of mind.
atheism -- the belief that God does not exist.
Atman -- in Hindu religion, the individual soul, in contrast to Brahman.
atomism -- the theory, as set forth by philosophers such as Democritus, that physical objects consist of minute, indivisible particles moving in a void.
attribute -- in Spinozistic philosophy (Benedict Spinoza, 1632-1677), one of the infinite aspects of Reality, such as matter or thought.
Averroism -- the philosophical system of Averroes, an important medieval philosopher and contemporary of Thomas Aquinas (see Thomism). Averroes denied the immortality of the soul but thought reason to be eternal and transcultural.
axiology -- the study of values and the nature of value judgments.
axiom -- a statement that is true by definition or so obviously true that it needn't be proved. In logic, an assumption used as an unquestioned basis for a theory.
behaviorism -- a psychological theory that stresses the importance of studying overt behavior and denies the legitimacy of introspective reports of consciousness. Behaviorists see mental activities (emotions, dreams, pains) as having no scientific value.
Brahman -- in Hindu religion, the power that sustains the cosmos and the soul (atman).
Buddhism -- a religion of various sects (e.g., Zen, Mahayana) founded sometime in the 6th century B.C. by Siddhartha Gautama (the Enlightened One) which teaches that suffering is part of existence and that the extinction of separate consciousness is prerequisite to enlightenment. (Useful commentaries on Buddhism can be found in the highly regarded works of Christmas Humphreys, D.T. Suzuki, and Alan Watts.)
Calvinism -- a religious offshoot of Protestantism known for its doctrine of predestination (the idea that every individual is predestined to either damnation or salvation).
categorical imperative -- in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a moral law or command not dependent on any conditions; a rule enjoining us to act so that we could will our act as a universal maxim.
Catholic -- the official title of the Western Church after the rift between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches. [from the Greek, meaning "universal"].
Catholicism -- the religion of Western Christianity up to the Reformation; the religion also of the Church of Rome.
causality -- the theory that every event has a rational cause. Aristotle identified four causes to everything: material, formal, efficient, and final.
coherence theory of truth -- the theory that a statement is true if and only if it coheres with a given system of statements or beliefs.
collective unconscious -- in Jungian psychology (Carl Jung, 1875-1961), the part of the unconscious that contains symbolic representations, or archetypes, of ancient ways of thought inherited from humanity's past experience.
contingent -- a proposition whose truth depends on facts about the world, not on the rules of logic. In modal logic, all true propositions that are not necessary are contingent.
contradiction, law of -- first put forth by Aristotle, the axiom that nothing can both have and not have a given property or characteristic.
cosmology -- the study of the origin and structure of the universe.
cynicism -- 1. a Greek school of philosophy originally based on the doctrine that nothing can be known. In the Roman era cynicism became an ethical doctrine emphasizing the need to live an austere, abstemious life. 2. more recently, the view that people act in ways to further their own ends and self-centered ambitions.
deipnosophist -- one who speaks learnedly at the dinner table; from a work by Athenaeus, Deipnosophistai, written in 228 A.D.
deism -- the belief that there is a God whose existence can be apprehended without revelation. Cf. agnosticism, atheism, and theism.
determinism -- the theory that all events (including mental ones) are caused, so that whatever happens cannot happen otherwise. Determinism is opposed to the theory of free will, which holds that human choice is active and unconstrained.
dialectic -- 1. the art of testing whether assertions are valid or not. 2. In Hegelian philosophy, a kind of logic that proceeds from thesis to antithesis to synthesis. [from the Greek, "pertaining to debate".]
dialectical materialism -- in Hegelian and Marxist theory, the view that the world is a material process undergoing stages of unending change.
dogmatism -- a theory or belief system unsusceptible to critical questioning and doubt; a dogmatist is one who holds unflinchingly to an idea in the belief that such an idea is infallible.
dualism -- 1. a theory opposite to monism, holding that reality consists of two substances (e.g., mind and matter, body and soul). 2. in Platonic metaphysics, the belief that human being consists of soul and body, the latter being a prison in which the formerly all-knowing soul resides. 3. a theory running contrary to monotheism, holding that supernatural reality is of two forms, the one good and the other bad; Manichaenism is one such dualistic religious view.
ecumenism -- a movement providing worldwide unity among religions through cooperative understanding. [ecumenical, from the Greek, "of the inhabited world."]
elements -- basic components or constituents of things; Aristotle recognized four: fire, water, earth, air.
empirical -- based on observation and experiment rather than pure reason; inductive.
empiricism -- the epistemological view that all knowledge is grounded in experience and direct observation, and not what's in our mind a priori. Eminent empiricists include Locke, Berkeley (pronounced Barkley), Hume, J.S. Mill and Bertrand Russell.
entelechy -- the inner nature of something which is responsible for its ultimate development and fulfillment. In Aristotelian philosophy, entelechy is seen as form, as distinguished from matter.
Epicureanism -- school of Greek philosophy (Epicurus: 341-270 B.C.) based on the belief that there are no divine laws and that wisdom consists in the pursuit of rational pleasures; the forerunner of modern utilitarian moral philosophy.
ethics -- the theory of good and evil, of conduct which is right and wrong; the branch of philosophy dealing with moral principles and their methods of justification.
fatalism -- the doctrine that each person's destiny lies beyond any individual effort to change it.
first cause -- the beginning of an elaborate series of causes, often identified with God.
free will -- the freedom of conscious choice of moral agents, irrespective of the significant influence of genetic endowment, environment, and cultural circumstance.
hedonism -- in moral philosophy, the doctrine that 'good' is that which contributes to pleasure or diminishes pain. The most influential of classical hedonistic philosophers was Epicurus; more recent hedonistic philosophies include those of the utilitarians (Jeremy Bentham, James and John Stuart Mill among them).
idealism -- in metaphysics, the view that ideas or thoughts are the chief, organizing reality, as against the views of materialism, which holds that matter is the primary reality of the universe. The most popular and enduring idealistic philosophy is Platonism.
intuitionism -- in ethics, the view that people have an innate sense of right and wrong.
logic -- the study of proper reasoning, of valid and invalid arguments, of fallacies and syllogisms. Usually broken down into formal logic and informal logic.
maieutic -- see the Socratic Method.
materialism -- the doctrine that matter is the only, or primary, reality, as opposed to idealism, which contends that ideas and thoughts of things are the only reality.
metaphysics -- the study of being in its largest sense; an inquiry into the ultimate reality. [Literally, "beyond physics".]
monism -- 1. In Greek philosophy, the theory that everything is made out of the same basic stuff (e.g., the atomistic philosophy of the Ionians); the theory that there is literally only one thing (the Eleatic monism of Parmenides and his disciples). 2. The rejection of dichotomies, such as those of 'mind' and 'matter'. Examples of monist theories are materialism and idealism.
moral relativism -- The view that values differ across cultures and societies and are not universally "true" in all places and for all time. The opposite of moral absolutism
naturalism -- the doctrine that reality is governed by certain laws, including those of cause and effect.
nihilism -- 1. the view that nothing can be known, that knowledge is illusory, meaningless, or irrelevant; the denial of any objective ground of truth. 2. the view that moral values and perspectives are groundless and cannot be justified, either by appeal to God and tradition or by appeal to the human conscience, intuition, or the laws of a state. 3. the belief (e.g., of Nietzsche) that the universe has no ultimate aim or purpose, that human life is insignificant. [From the Latin nihil, "nothing".]
nirvana -- in Buddhist religion, a state of mystical wisdom achieved after all fleshy desires have been surmounted. In Hindu religion, the renunciation of all material attachments and achievement of ultimate happiness.
noumenon: in Kantian philosophy, the thing-in-itself which cannot be perceived in experience.
objective -- independent of individual apperception or feeling; cf. subjective.
Ockham's Razor (or Occam's Razor) -- a principle developed by William of Ockham (1285-1349) which holds that the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable, and that entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem ("entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity"). The principle is often referred to as the law of parsimony.
ontology -- the study of being, of the ultimate nature of things.
ousia -- a Greek term meaning essence, the essential nature of a thing.
panentheism -- the view that God is both "in" all things and outside of all things at the same time; the idea that God is both immanent and transcendent.
panpsychism -- the theory that all objects in the universe -- "inanimate" as well as "animate" -- have an inner being or psychological nature.
pantheism -- the doctrine that God is inherent in all things, that every particular thing in the universe is a manifestation of God's essence. The doctrine was most influentially and cogently advanced by Spinoza.
Peripatetic -- a follower or disciple of Aristotle. The word comes from the Greek verb "to walk about"; while holding discussions with students, Aristotle would frequently walk around.
pluralism -- the doctrine that the world is composed of many things, the source of contrary processes. Cf. monism.
positivism -- a philosophical view which recognizes only those things that can be empirically verified, or known directly by observation.
pragmatism -- the notion that truth is the practical application of an idea; a theory which emphasizes the instrumental nature of the intellect and which sees the consummation of truth in direct, successful action. The earliest pragmatist philosophers were Americans: C.S. Peirce and William James among them.
prolegomenon (plural: prolegomena): a critical introduction to a thesis or work; prefatory remarks.
realism -- 1. The doctrine in epistemology that the external world exists independently of perception. 2. The view that universal ideas correspond to objective realities.
relativism -- See moral relativism.
scholasticism -- a philosophical movement of medieval times characterized chiefly by speculative thought, the merging of theological conceptions with metaphysical ones (as, say, in the work of Aquinas).
Socratic Method -- An approach to teaching and philosophizing pioneered by Socrates (470-399 B.C.) which consists of asking a succession of questions. The aim is to expose some weakness or inadequacy in the thinking of the interrogated. The questions serve as an impetus for further study and reflection.
specious -- an argument that seems plausible but is in fact fallacious.
subjective -- existing in thought as opposed to the "external" world.
theism -- 1. belief in a God or Gods. 2. the view that God transcends the universe but is also, in some way, immanent in it.
transcendental -- that which is beyond the reach of the senses, of ordinary experience. [literally, "to climb over".]
transcendentalism -- 1. The philosophical disposition to look for truth within oneself, as against the conventions of culture or society. 2. A form of realist metaphysical thought, esp. in Plato, which sees Truth beyond the phenomenal, material world. 3. A part of Kantian philosophy in which real knowledge is achievable when one can transcend mere empiricism and ascertain the a priori. 4. A New England movement, associated most often with Ralph Waldo Emerson, that sought to express spiritual reality and the ideal, relying exclusively on intuition.
utilitarianism -- the moral philosphy of Epicurus, and much later, of Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and John Stuart Mill, according to which actions are considered moral which contribute to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people. "Good" is tantamount to "pleasure," "bad" with "pain". Contrast this view with deontological ethics.
voluntarism -- the doctrine that the will is the supreme force or factor in human conduct and in the universe; this perspective received its most influential articulation in Schopenhauer's philsophy.
Weltanschauung -- German word meaning "worldview," a way of looking at and understanding the external world.
yang -- in Chinese philosophy, a universal principle which manifests itself as a male force, as spirit and heaven.
yin -- in Chinese philosophy, a universal principle which manifests itself as a female force, as body and earth.
Zen -- a system of Buddhist meditation intended to transcend the normal categories and strictures of human rationality, whose ultimate goal is the achievement of satori, or deep revelation and insight.

- Return Home -

invention

2006-03-06T00:58:00.000-08:00

V. INVENTIONS & ACHIEVEMENTS
c. 510 B.C. -- First known map, invented by Hecataeus in Greece.
c. 250 B.C. -- Principles of the lever and other simple machines developed by Archimedes.
c. 140 B.C. -- Invention of trigonometry by Hipparchus.
1260 A.D. -- Konstantin Anklitzen invented the gun/cannon.
1608 -- Hans Lippershey invented the first telescope.
1654 -- Basic laws of probability propounded by Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat.
1666 -- Isaac Newton laid down the principles of integral calculus.
1752 -- Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning conductor.
1793 -- Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin.
1830 -- Andre Ure invented the first thermostat, and Edwin Beard Budding created the first lawn mower.
1846 -- Elias Howe created the sewing machine.
1867 -- Christopher Latham Sholes invented the typewriter.
1879 -- James Ritty invented the cash register.
1888 -- George Easton created roll film camera.

simulacra

2006-03-06T00:22:00.000-08:00

Modules on Baudrillard II on simulation
ACCORDING TO BAUDRILLARD, what has happened in postmodern culture is that our society has become so reliant on models and maps that we have lost all contact with the real world that preceded the map. Reality itself has begun merely to imitate the model, which now precedes and determines the real world: "The territory no longer precedes the map, nor does it survive it. It is nevertheless the map that precedes the territory—precession of simulacra—that engenders the territory" ("The Precession of Simulacra" 1). According to Baudrillard, when it comes to postmodern simulation and simulacra, “It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real” ("The Precession of Simulacra" 2). Baudrillard is not merely suggesting that postmodern culture is artificial, because the concept of artificiality still requires some sense of reality against which to recognize the artifice. His point, rather, is that we have lost all ability to make sense of the distinction between nature and artifice. To clarify his point, he argues that there are three "orders of simulacra": 1) in the first order of simulacra, which he associates with the pre-modern period, the image is a clear counterfeit of the real; the image is recognized as just an illusion, a place marker for the real; 2) in the second order of simulacra, which Baudrillard associates with the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century, the distinctions between the image and the representation begin to break down because of mass production and the proliferation of copies. Such production misrepresents and masks an underlying reality by imitating it so well, thus threatening to replace it (e.g. in photography or ideology); however, there is still a belief that, through critique or effective political action, one can still access the hidden fact of the real; 3) in the third order of simulacra, which is associated with the postmodern age, we are confronted with a precession of simulacra; that is, the representation precedes and determines the real. There is no longer any distinction between reality and its representation; there is only the simulacrum.
Baudrillard points to a number of phenomena to explain this loss of distinctions between "reality" and the simulacrum:
1) Media culture. Contemporary media (television, film, magazines, billboards, the Internet) are concerned not just with relaying information or stories but with interpreting our most private selves for us, making us approach each other and the world through the lens of these media images. We therefore no longer acquire goods because of real needs but because of desires that are increasingly defined by commercials and commercialized images, which keep us at one step removed from the reality of our bodies or of the world around us.
2) Exchange-Value. According to Karl Marx, the entrance into capitalist culture meant that we ceased to think of purchased goods in terms of use-value, in terms of the real uses to which an item will be put. Instead, everything began to be translated into how much it is worth, into what it can be exchanged for (its exchange-value). Once money became a “universal equivalent,” against which everything in our lives is measured, things lost their material reality (real-world uses, the sweat and tears of the laborer). We began even to think of our own lives in terms of money rather than in terms of the real things we hold in our hands: how much is my time worth? How does my conspicuous consumption define me as a person? According to Baudrillard, in the postmodern age, we have lost all sense of use-value: "It is all capital" (For a Critique 82).
3) Multinational capitalism. As the things we use are increasingly the product of complex industrial processes, we lose touch with the underlying reality of the goods we consume. Not even national identity functions in a world of multinational corporations. According to Baudrillard, it is capital that now defines our identities. We thus continue to lose touch with the material fact of the laborer, who is increasingly invisible to a consumer oriented towards retail outlets or the even more impersonal Internet. A common example of this is the fact that most consumers do not know how the products they consume are related to real-life things. How many people could identify the actual plant from which is derived the coffee bean? Starbucks, by contrast, increasingly defines our urban realities. (On multinational capitalism, see Marxism: Modules: Jameson: Late Capitalism.)
4) Urbanization. As we continue to develop available geographical locations, we lose touch with any sense of the natural world. Even natural spaces are now understood as “protected,” which is to say that they are defined in contradistinction to an urban “reality,” often with signs to point out just how “real” they are. Increasingly, we expect the sign (behold nature!) to precede access to nature.
5) Language and Ideology. Baudrillard illustrates how in such subtle ways language keeps us from accessing “reality.” The earlier understanding of ideology was that it hid the truth, that it represented a “false consciousness,” as Marxists phrase it, keeping us from seeing the real workings of the state, of economic forces, or of the dominant groups in power. (This understanding of ideology corresponds to Baudrillard's second order of simulacra.) Postmodernism, on the other hand, understands ideology as the support for our very perception of reality. There is no outside of ideology, according to this view, at least no outside that can be articulated in language. Because we are so reliant on language to structure our perceptions, any representation of reality is always already ideological, always already constructed by simulacra.

simulation

2006-03-06T00:11:00.000-08:00

Jean Baudrillard
Simulacra and Simulations

from Jean Baudrillard, Selected Writings, ed. Mark Poster (Stanford; Stanford University Press, 1988), pp.166-184.
The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none.
The simulacrum is true.
Ecclesiastes

If we were able to take as the finest allegory of simulation the Borges tale where the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up exactly covering the territory (but where, with the decline of the Empire this map becomes frayed and finally ruined, a few shreds still discernible in the deserts - the metaphysical beauty of this ruined abstraction, bearing witness to an imperial pride and rotting like a carcass, returning to the substance of the soil, rather as an aging double ends up being confused with the real thing), this fable would then have come full circle for us, and now has nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra.l

Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory - precession of simulacra - it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer those of the Empire, but our own. The desert of the real itself.

In fact, even inverted, the fable is useless. Perhaps only the allegory of the Empire remains. For it is with the same imperialism that present-day simulators try to make the real, all the real, coincide with their simulation models. But it is no longer a question of either maps or territory. Something has disappeared: the sovereign difference between them that was the abstraction's charm. For it is the difference which forms the poetry of the map and the charm of the territory, the magic of the concept and the charm of the real. This representational imaginary, which both culminates in and is engulfed by the cartographer's mad project of an ideal coextensivity between the map and the territory, disappears with simulation, whose operation is nuclear and genetic, and no longer specular and discursive. With it goes all of metaphysics. No more mirror of being and appearances, of the real and its concept; no more imaginary coextensivity: rather, genetic miniaturization is the dimension of simulation. The real is produced from miniaturized units, from matrices, memory banks and command models - and with these it can be reproduced an indefinite number of times. It no longer has to be rational, since it is no longer measured against some ideal or negative instance. It is nothing more than operational. In fact, since it is no longer enveloped by an imaginary, it is no longer real at all. It is a hyperreal: the product of an irradiating synthesis of combinatory models in a hyperspace without atmosphere.

In this passage to a space whose curvature is no longer that of the real, nor of truth, the age of simulation thus begins with a liquidation of all referentials - worse: by their art)ficial resurrection in systems of signs, which are a more ductile material than meaning, in that they lend themselves to all systems of equivalence, all binary oppositions and all combinatory algebra. It is no longer a question of imitation, nor of reduplication, nor even of parody. It is rather a question of substituting signs of the real for the real itself; that is, an operation to deter every real process by its operational double, a metastable, programmatic, perfect descriptive machine which provides all the signs of the real and short-circuits all its vicissitudes. Never again will the real have to be produced: this is the vital function of the model in a system of death, or rather of anticipated resurrection which no longer leaves any chance even in the event of death. A hyperreal henceforth sheltered from the imaginary, and from any distinction between the real and the imaginary, leaving room only for the orbital recurrence of models and the simulated generation of difference.

The divine irreference of images

To dissimulate is to feign not to have what one has. To simulate is to feign to have what one hasn't. One implies a presence, the other an absence. But the matter is more complicated, since to simulate is not simply to feign: "Someone who feigns an illness can simply go to bed and pretend he is ill. Someone who simulates an illness produces in himself some of the symptoms" (Littre). Thus, feigning or dissimulating leaves the reality principle intact: the difference is always clear, it is only masked; whereas simulation threatens the difference between "true" and "false", between "real" and "imaginary". Since the simulator produces "true" symptoms, is he or she ill or not? The simulator cannot be treated objectively either as ill, or as not ill. Psychology and medicine stop at this point, before a thereafter undiscoverable truth of the illness. For if any symptom can be "produced," and can no longer be accepted as a fact of nature, then every illness may be considered as simulatable and simulated, and medicine loses its meaning since it only knows how to treat "true" illnesses by their objective causes. Psychosomatics evolves in a dubious way on the edge of the illness principle. As for psychoanalysis, it transfers the symptom from the organic to the unconscious order: once again, the latter is held to be real, more real than the former; but why should simulation stop at the portals of the unconscious? Why couldn't the "work" of the unconscious be "produced" in the same way as any other symptom in classical medicine? Dreams already are.

The alienist, of course, claims that "for each form of the mental alienation there is a particular order in the succession of symptoms, of which the simulator is unaware and in the absence of which the alienist is unlikely to be deceived." This (which dates from 1865) in order to save at all cost the truth principle, and to escape the specter raised by simulation: namely that truth, reference and objective caues have ceased to exist. What can medicine do with something which floats on either side of illness, on either side of health, or with the reduplication of illness in a discourse that is no longer true or false? What can psychoanalysis do with the reduplication of the discourse of the unconscious in a discourse of simulation that can never be unmasked, since it isn't false either?2

What can the army do with simulators? Traditionally, following a direct principle of identification, it unmasks and punishes them. Today, it can reform an excellent simulator as though he were equivalent to a "real" homosexual, heart-case or lunatic. Even military psychology retreats from the Cartesian clarifies and hesitates to draw the distinction between true and false, between the "produced" symptom and the authentic symptom. "If he acts crazy so well, then he must be mad." Nor is it mistaken: in the sense that all lunatics are simulators, and this lack of distinction is the worst form of subversion. Against it, classical reason armed itself with all its categories. But it is this today which again outflanks them, submerging the truth principle.

Outside of medicine and the army, favored terrains of simulation, the affair goes back to religion and the simulacrum of divinity: "l forbade any simulacrum in the temples because the divinity that breathes life into nature cannot be represented." Indeed it can. But what becomes of the divinity when it reveals itself in icons, when it is multiplied in simulacra? Does it remain the supreme authority, simply incarnated in images as a visible theology? Or is it volatilized into simulacra which alone deploy their pomp and power of fascination - the visible machinery of icons being substituted for the pure and intelligible Idea of God? This is precisely what was feared by the Iconoclasts, whose millennial quarrel is still with us today.3 Their rage to destroy images rose precisely because they sensed this omnipotence of simulacra, this facility they have of erasing God from the consciousnesses of people, and the overwhelming, destructive truth which they suggest: that ultimately there has never been any God; that only simulacra exist; indeed that God himself has only ever been his own simulacrum. Had they been able to believe that images only occulted or masked the Platonic idea of God, there would have been no reason to destroy them. One can live with the idea of a distorted truth. But their metaphysical despair came from the idea that the images concealed nothing at all, and that in fact they were not images, such as the original model would have made them, but actually perfect simulacra forever radiant with their own fascination. But this death of the divine referential has to be exorcised at all cost.

It can be seen that the iconoclasts, who are often accused of despising and denying images, were in fact the ones who accorded them their actual worth, unlike the iconolaters, who saw in them only reflections and were content to venerate God at one remove. But the converse can also be said, namely that the iconolaters possesed the most modern and adventurous minds, since, underneath the idea of the apparition of God in the mirror of images, they already enacted his death and his disappearance in the epiphany of his representations (which they perhaps knew no longer represented anything, and that they were purely a game, but that this was precisely the greatest game - knowing also that it is dangerous to unmask images, since they dissimulate the fact that there is nothing behind them).

This was the approach of the Jesuits, who based their politics on the virtual disappearance of God and on the worldly and spectacular manipulation of consciences - the evanescence of God in the epiphany of power - the end of transcendence, which no longer serves as alibi for a strategy completely free of influences and signs. Behind the baroque of images hides the grey eminence of politics.

Thus perhaps at stake has always been the murderous capacity of images: murderers of the real; murderers of their own model as the Byzantine icons could murder the divine identity. To this murderous capacity is opposed the dialectical capacity of representations as a visible and intelligible mediation of the real. All of Western faith and good faith was engaged in this wager on representation: that a sign could refer to the depth of meaning, that a sign could exchange for meamng and that something could guarantee this exchangeGod, of course. But what if God himself can be simulated, that is to say, reduced to the signs which attest his existence? Then the whole system becomes weightless; it is no longer anything but a gigantic simulacrum: not unreal, but a simulacrum, never again exchanging for what is real, but exchanging in itself, in an umnterrupted circuit without reference or circumference

So it is with simulation, insofar as it is opposed to representation. Representation starts from the principle that the sign and the real are equivalent (even if this equivalence is Utopian, it is a fundamental ax~om). Conversely, simulation starts from the Utopia of this principle of equivalence, from the radical negation of the sign as value, from the sign as reversion and death sentence of every reference. Whereas representation tries to absorb simulation by interpreting it as false representation, simulation envelops the whole edifice of representation as itself a simulacrum.

These would be the successive phases of the image:

1 It is the reflection of a basic reality.
2 It masks and perverts a basic reality.
3 It masks the absence of a basic reality.
4 It bears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum.

In the first case, the image is a good appearance: the representation is of the order of sacrament. In the second, it is an evil appearance: of the order of malefice. In the third, it plays at being an appearance: it is of the order of sorcery. In the fourth, it is no longer in the order of appearance at all, but of simulation.

The transition from signs which dissimulate something to signs which dissimulate that there is nothing, marks the decisive turning pomt. The first implies a theology of truth and secrecy (to which the notmn of ideology still belongs). The second inaugurates an age of simulacra and simulation, in which there is no longer any God to recognize his own, nor any last judgement to separate truth from false, the real from its art)ficial resurrection, since everything is already dead and risen in advance.

When the real is no longer what it used to be, nostalgia assumes its full meaning. There is a proliferation of myths of origin and signs of reality; of second-hand truth, objectivity and authenticity. There is an escalation of the true, of the lived experience; a resurrection of the figurative where the object and substance have disappeared. And there is a panic-stricken production of the real and the referential, above and parallel to the panic of material production. This is how simulation appears in the phase that concerns us: a strategy of the real, neo-real and hyperreal, whose universal double is a strategy of deterrence.

Hyperreal and imaginary

Disneyland is a perfect model of all the entangled orders of simulation. To begin with it is a play of illusions and phantasms: pirates, the frontier, future world, etc. This imaginary world is supposed to be what makes the operation successful. But, what draws the crowds is undoubtedly much more the social microcosm, the miniaturized and religious revelling in real America, in its delights and drawbacks. You park outside, queue up inside, and are totally abandoned at the exit. In this imaginary world the only phantasmagoria is in the inherent warmth and affection of the crowd, and in that aufficiently excessive number of gadgets used there to specifically maintain the multitudinous affect. The contrast with the absolute solitude of the parking lot - a veritable concentration camp - is total. Or rather: inside, a whole range of gadgets magnetize the crowd into direct flows; outside, solitude is directed onto a single gadget: the automobile. By an extraordinary coincidence (one that undoubtedly belongs to the peculiar enchantment of this universe), this deep-frozen infantile world happens to have been conceived and realized by a man who is himself now cryogenized; Walt Disney, who awaits his resurrection at minus 180 degrees centigrade.

The objective profile of the United States, then, may be traced throughout Disneyland, even down to the morphology of individuals and the crowd. All its values are exalted here, in miniature and comic-strip form. Embalmed and pactfied. Whence the possibility of an ideological analysis of Disneyland (L. Marin does it well in Utopies, jeux d'espaces): digest of the American way of life, panegyric to American values, idealized transposition of a contradictory reality. To be sure. But this conceals something else, and that "ideological" blanket exactly serves to cover over a third-order simulation: Disneyland is there to conceal the fact that it is the "real" country, all of "real" America, which is Disneyland (just as prisons are there to conceal the fact that it is the social in its entirety, in its banal omnipresence, which is carceral). Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, when in fact all of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of the hyperreal and of simulation. It is no longer a question of a false representation of reality (ideology), but of concealing the fact that the real is no longer real, and thus of saving the reality principle.

The Disneyland imaginary is neither true nor false: it is a deterrence machine set up in order to rejuvenate in reverse the fiction of the real. Whence the debility, the infantile degeneration of this imaginary. It ~s meant to be an infantile world, in order to make us believe that the adults are elsewhere, in the "real" world, and to conceal the fact that real childishness is everywhere, particularly among those adults who go there to act the child in order to foster illusions of their real childishness.

Moreover, Disneyland is not the only one. Enchanted Village, Magic Mountain, Marine World: Los Angeles is encircled by these "imaginary stations" which feed reality, reality-energy, to a town whose mystery is precisely that it is nothing more than a network of endless, unreal circulation: a town of fabulous proportions, but without space or dimensions. As much as electrical and nuclear power stations, as much as film studios, this town, which is nothing more than an immense script and a perpetual motion picture, needs this old imaginary made up of childhood signals and faked phantasms for its sympathetic nervous system.

Political incantation

Watergate. Same scenario as Disneyland (an imaginary effect concealing that reality no more exists outside than inside the bounds of the art)ficial perimeter): though here it is a scandal-effect concealing that there is no difference between the facts and their denunciation (identical methods are employed by the CIA and the Washington Post journalists). Same operation, though this time tending towards scandal as a means to regenerate a moral and political principle, towards the imaginary as a means to regenerate a reality principle in distress.

The denunciation of scandal always pays homage to the law. And Watergate above all succeeded in imposing the idea that Watergate was a scandal - in this sense it was an extraordinary operation of intoxication: the reinjection of a large dose of political morality on a global scale. It could be said along with Bourdieu that: "The specific character of every relation of force is to dissimulate itself as such, and to acquire all its force only because it is so dissimulated"; understood as follows: capital, which is immoral and unscrupulous, can only function behind a moral superstructure, and whoever regenerates this public mocality (by indignation, denunciation, etc.) spontaneously furthers the; order of capital, as did the Washington Post journalists.

But this is still only the formula of ideology, and when Bourdieu enunciates it, he takes "relation of force" to mean the truth of capitalist domination, and he denounces this relation of force as itself a scandal: he therefore occupies the same deterministic and moralistic position as the Washington Post journalists. He does the same job of purging and revivihg moral order, an order of truth wherein the genuine symbolic violence of the social order is engendered, well beyond all relations of force, which are only elements of its indifferent and shifting configuration in the moral and political consciousnesses of people.

All that capital asks of us is to receive it as rational or to combat it in the name of rationality, to receive it as moral or to combat it in the name of morality. For they are identical, meaning they can be read another way: before, the task was to dissimulate scandal; today, the task is to conceal the fact that there is none.

Watergate is not a scandal: this is- what must be said at all cost, for this is what everyone is concerned to conceal, this dissimulation masking a strengthening of morality, a moral panic as we approach the primal (mise-en-)scene of capital: its instantaneous cruelty; its incomprehensible ferocity; its fundamental immorality - these are what are scandalous, unaccountable for in that system of moral and economic equivalence which remains the axiom of leftist thought, from Enlightenment theory to communism. Capital doesn't give a damn about the idea of the contract which is imputed to it: it is a monstrous unprincipled undertaking, nothing more. Rather, it is "enlightened" thought which seeks to control capital by imposing rules on it. And all that recrimination which replaced revolutionary thought today comes down to reproaching capital for not following the rules of the game. "Power is unjust; its justice is a class justice; capital exploits us; etc." - as if capital were linked by a contract to the society it rules. It is the left which holds out the mirror of equivalence, hoping that capital will fall for this phantasmagoria of the social contract and furfill its obligation towards the whole of society (at the same time, no need for revolution: it is enough that capital accept the rational formula of exchange).

Capital in fact has never been linked by a contract to the society it dominates. It is a sorcery of the social relation, it is a challenge to society and should be responded to as such. It is not a scandal to be denounced according to moral and economic rationality, but - challenge to take up according to symbolic law.

Moebius: spiralling negativity

Hence Watergate was only a trap set by the system to catch its adversaries - a simulation of scandal to regenerative ends. This is embodied by the character called "Deep Throat," who was said to be a Republican grey eminence manipulating the leftist journalists in order to get rid of Nixon - and why not? All hypotheses are possible, although this one is superfluous: the work of the Right is done very well, and spontaneously, by the Left on its own. Besides, it would be naive to see an embittered good conscience at work here. For the Right itself also spontaneously does the work of the Left. All the hypotheses of manipulation are reversible in an endless whirligig. For manipulation is a floating causality where positivity and negativity engender and overlap with one another; where there is no longer any active or passive. It is by putting an arbitrary stop to this revolving causality that a principle of political reality can be saved. It is by the simulation of a conventional, restricted perspective field, where the premises and consequences of any act or event are calculable, that a political credibility can be maintained (including, of course, "objective" analysis, struggle, etc.) But if the entire cycle of any act or event is envisaged in a system where linear continuity and dialectical polarity no longer exist, in a field unhinged by simulation, then all determination evaporates, every act terminates at the end of the cycle having benefited everyone and been scattered in all directions.

Is any given bombing in Italy the work of leftist extremists; or of extreme right-wing provocation; or staged by centrists to bring every terrorist extreme into disrepute and to shore up its own failing power; or again, is it a police-inspired scenario in order to appeal to calls for public security? All this is equally true, and the search for proof- indeed the objectivity of the fact- does not check this vertigo of interpretation. We are in a logic of simulation which has nothing to do with a logic of facts and an order of reasons. Simulation is characterized by a precession of the model, of all models around the merest fact- the models come first, and their orbital (like the bomb) circulation constitutes the genuine magnetic field of events. Facts no longer have any trajectory of their own, they arise at the intersection of the models; a single fact may even be engendered by all the models at once. This anticipation, this precession, this short-circuit, this confusion of the fact with its model (no more divergence of meaning, no more dialectical polarity, no more negative electricity or implosion of poles) is what each time allows for all the possible interpretations, even the most contradictory - all are true, in the sense that their truth is exchangeable, in the image of the models from which they proceed, in a generalized cycle.

The communists attack the socialist party as though they wanted to shatter the union of the Left. They sanction the idea that their reticence stems from a more radical political exigency. In fact, it is because they don't want power. But do they not want it at this conjuncture because it is unfavorable for the Left in general, or because it is unfavorable for them within the union of the Left - or do they not want it by definition? When Berlinguer declares, "We mustn't be frightened of seeing the communists seize power in Italy," this means simultaneously:

1 That there is nothing to fear, since the communists, if they come to power, will change nothing in its fundamental capitalist mechanism.

2 That there isn't any risk of their ever coming to power (for the reason that they don't want to); and even if they do take it up, they will only ever wield it by proxy.

3 That in fact power, genuine power, no longer exists, and hence there is no risk of anybody seizing it or taking it over.

4 But more: 1, Berlinguer, am not frightened of seeing the communists seize power in Italy - which might appear evident, but not so evident, since:

5 It can also mean the contrary (no need for psychoanalysis here): I am frightened of seeing the communists seize power (and with good reason, even for a communist).

All the above is simultaneously true. This is the secret of a discourse that is no longer only ambiguous, as political discourses can be, but that conveys the impossibility of a determinate position of power, the impossibility of a determinate position of discourse. And this logic belongs to neither party. It traverses all discourses without their wanting it.

Who will unravel this imbroglio? The Gordian knot can at least be cut. As for the Moebius strip, if it is split in two, it results in an additional spiral without there being any possibility of resolving its surfaces (here the reversible continuity of hypotheses). Hades of simulation, which is no longer one of torture, but of the subtle, maleficent, elusive twisting of meaning4 - where even those condemned at Burgos are still a gik from Franco to Western democracy, which finds m them the occasion to regenerate its own flagging humamsm, and whose indignant protestation consolidates in return Franco's regime by uniting the Spanish masses against foreign intervention? Where is the truth in all that, when such collusions admirably knit together without their authors even knowing it?

The conjunction of the system and its extreme alternative like two ends of a curved mirror, the "vicious" curvature of a political space henceforth magnetized, circularized, reversibilized from right to lek a torsion that is like the evil demon of commutation, the whole system, the infinity of capital folded back over its own sur&ce: transfinite? And isn't it the same with desire and libidinal space? The conjunction of desire and value, of desire and capital. The conjunction of desire and the law; the ultimate joy and metamorphosis of the law (which is why it is so well received at the moment): only capital takes pleasure, Lyotard said, before coming to think that we take pleasure in capital. Overwhelming versatility of desire in Deleuze: an enigmatic reversal which brings this desire that is "revolutionary by itself, and as if involuntarily, in wanting what it wants," to want its own repression and to invest paranoid and fascist systems? A malign torsion which reduces this revolution of desire to the same fundamental ambiguity as the other, historical revolution.

All the referentials intermingle their discourses in a circular, Moebian compulsion. Not so long ago sex and work were savagely opposed terms: today both are dissolved into the same type of demand. Formerly the discourse on history took its force from opposing itself to the one on nature, the discourse on desire to the one on power: today they exchange their signifiers and their scenarios.

It would take too long to run through the whole range of operational negativity, of all those scenarios of deterrence which, like Watergate, try to revive a moribund principle by simulated scandal, phantasm, murder - a sort of hormonal treatment by negativity and crisis. It is always a question of proving the real by the imaginary; proving truth by scandal; proving the law by transgression; proving work by the strike; proving the system by crisis and capital by revolution; and for that matter proving ethnology by the dispossession of its object (the Tasaday). Without counting: proving theater by anti-theater; proving art by anti-art; proving pedagogy by anti-pedagogy; proving psychiatry by anti-psychiatry, etc., etc.

Everything is metamorphosed into its inverse in order to be perpetuated in its purged form. Every form of power, every situation speaks of itself by denial, in order to attempt to escape, by simulation of death, its real agony. Power can stage its own murder to rediscover a glimmer of existence and legitimacy. Thus with the American presidents: the Kennedys are murdered because they still have a political dimension. Others - Johnson, Nixon, Ford - only had a right to puppet attempts, to simulated murders. But they nevertheless needed that aura of an art)ficial menace to conceal that they were nothing other than mannequins of power. In olden days the king (also the god) had to die - that was his strength. Today he does his miserable utmost to pretend to die, so as to preserve the blessing of power. But even this is gone.

To seek new blood in its own death, to renew the cycle by the mirror of crisis, negativity and anti-power: this is the only alibi of every power, of every institution attempting to break the vicious circle of its irresponsibility and its fundamental nonexistence, of its deja-vu and its deja-mort.

Strategy of the real

Of the same order as the impossibility of rediscovering an absolute level of the real, is the impossibility of staging an illusion. Illusion is no longer possible, because the real is no longer possible. It is the whole political problem of the parody, of hypersimulation or offensive simulation, which is posed here.

For example: it would be interesting to see whether the repressive apparatus would not react more violently to a simulated hold up than to a real one? For a real hold up only upsets the order of things, the right of property, whereas a simulated hold up interferes with the very principle of reality. Transgression and violence are less serious, for they only contest the distribution of the real. Simulation is infinitely more dangerous since it always suggests, over and above its object, that law and order themselves might really be nothing more than a simulation.

But the difficulty is in proportion to the peril. How to feign a violation and put it to the test? Go and simulate a theft in a large department store: how do you convince the security guards that it is a simulated theft? There is no "objective" difference: the same gestures and the same signs exist as for a real theft; in fact the signs mclme neither to one side nor the other. As far as the established order is concerned, they are always of the order of the real.

Go and organize a fake hold up. Be sure to check that your weapons are harmless, and take the most trustworthy hostage, so that no life is in danger (otherwise you risk committing an offence). Demand ransom, and arrange it so that the operation creates the greatest commotion possible. In brief, stay close to the "truth", so as to test the reaction of the apparatus to a perfect simulation. But you won't succeed: the web of art)ficial signs will be inextricably mixed up with real elements (a police officer will really shoot on sight; a bank customer will faint and die of a heart attack; they will really turn the phoney ransom over to you). In brief, you will unwittingly find yourself immediately in the real, one of whose functions is precisely to devour every attempt at simulation, to reduce everything to some reality: that's exactly how the established order is, well before institutions and justice come into play.

In this impossibility of isolating the process of simulation must be seen the whole thrust of an order that can only see and understand m terms of some reality, because it can function nowhere else. The simulation of an offence, if it is patent, will either be punished more lightly (because it has no "consequences") or be punished as an offence to public office (for example, if one triggered off a police operation "for nothing") - but never as simulation, since it is precisely as such that no equivalence with the real is possible, and hence no repression either. The challenge of simulation is irreceivable by power. How can you punish the simulation of virtue? Yet as such it is as serious as the simulation of crime. Parody makes obedience and transgression equivalent, and that is the most serious crime, since it cancels out the difference upon which the law is based. The established order can do nothing against it, for the law is a second-order simulacrum whereas simulation is a third-order simulacrum, beyond true and false, beyond equivalences, beyond the rational distmctions upon which function all power and the entire social stratum. Hence, failing the real, it is here that we must aim at order.

This is why order always opts for the real. In a state of uncertainty, It always prefers this assumption (thus in the army they would rather take the simulator as a true madman). But this becomes more and more difficult, for it is practically impossible to isolate the process of simulation; through the force of inertia of the real which surrounds us, the inverse is also true (and this very reversibility forms part of the apparatus of simulation and of power's impotency): namely, it is now impossible to isolate the process of the real, or to prove the real.

Thus all hold ups, hijacks and the like are now as it were simulation hold ups, in the sense that they are inscribed in advance in the decoding and orchestration rituals of the media, anticipated in their mode of presentation and possible consequences. In brief, where they function as a set of signs dedicated exclusively to their recurrence as signs, and no longer to their "real" goal at all. But this does not make them inoffensive. On the contrary, it is as hyperreal events, no longer having any particular contents or aims, but indefinitely refracted by each other (for that matter like so-called historical events: strikes, demonstrations, crises, etc.5), that they are precisely unverifiable by an order which can only exert itself on the real and the rational, on ends and means: a referential order which can only dominate referentials, a determinate power which can only dominate a determined world, but which can do nothing about that indefinite recurrence of simulation, about that weightless nebula no longer obeying the law of gravitation of the real - power itself eventually breaking apart in this space and becomnig a simulation of power (disconnected from its aims and objectives, and dedicated to power effects and mass simulation).

The only weapon of power, its only strategy against this defection, is to reinject realness and referentiality everywhere, in order to convince us of the reality of the social, of the gravity of the economy and the finalities of production. For that purpose it prefers the discourse of crisis, but also - why not? - the discourse of desire. "Take your desires for reality!" can be understood as the ultimate slogan of power, for in a nonreferential world even the confusian of the reality principle with the desire principle is less dangerous than contagious hyperreality. One remains among principles, and there power is always right.

Hyperreality and simulation are deterrents of every principle and of every objective; they turn against power this deterrence which is so well utilized for a long time itself. For, finally, it was capital which was the first to feed throughout its history on the destruction of every referential, of every human goal, which shattered every ideal distinction between true and false, good and evil, in order to establish a radical law of equivalence and exchange, the iron law of its power. It was the first to practice deterrence, abstraction, disconnection, deterritorialization, etc.; and if it was capital which fostered reality, the reality principle, it was also the first to liquidate it in the extermination of every use value, of every real equivalence, of production and wealth, in the very sensation we have of the unreality of the stakes and the omnipotence of manipulation. Now, it is this very logic which is today hardened even more against it. And when it wants to fight this catastrophic spiral by secreting one last glimmer of reality, on which to found one last glimmer of power, it only multiplies the signs and accelerates the play of simulation.

As long as it was historically threatened by the real, power risked deterrence and simulation, disintegrating every contradiction by means of the production of equivalent signs. When it is threatened today by simulation (the threat of vanishing in the play of signs), power risks the real, risks crisis, it gambles on remanufacturing artificial, social, economic, -political stakes. This is a question of life or death for it. But it is too late.

Whence the characteristic hysteria of our time: the hysteria of production and reproduction of the real. The other production, that of goods and commodities, that of la belle epoque of political economy, no longer makes any sense of its own, and has not for some time. What society seeks through production, and overproduction, is the restoration of the real which escapes it. That is why contemporary "material" production is itself hyperreal. It retains all the features, the whole discourse of traditional production, but it is nothing more than its scaled-down refraction (thus the hyperrealists fasten in a striking resemblance a real from which has fled all meaning and charm, all the profundity and energy of representation). Thus the hyperrealism of simulation is expressed everywhere by the real's striking resemblance to itself.
Power, too, for some time now produces nothing but signs of its resemblance. And at the same time, another figure of power comes into play: that of a collective demand for signs of power - a holy union which forms around the disappearance of power. Everybody belongs to it more or less in fear of the collapse of the political. And in the end the game of power comes down to nothing more than the critical obsession with power: an obsession with its death; an obsession with its survival which becomes greater the more it disappears. When it has totally disappeared, logically we will be under the total spell of power - a haunting memory already foreshadowed everywhere, manifesting at one and the same time the satisfaction of having got rid of it (nobody wants it any more, everybody unloads it on others) and grieving its loss. Melancholy for societies without power: this has already given rise to fascism, that overdose of a powerful referential in a society which cannot terminate its mourning.
But we are still in the same boat: none of our societies know how to manage their mourning for the real, for power, for the social itself, which is implicated in this same breakdown. And it is by an art)ficial revitalization of all this that we try to escape it. Undoubtedly this will even end up in socialism. By an unforeseen twist of events and an irony which no longer belongs to history, it is through the death of the social that socialism will emerge - as it is through the death of God that religions emerge. A twisted coming, a perverse event, an unintelligible reversion to the logic of reason. As is the fact that power is no longer present except to conceal that there is none. A simulation which can go on indefinitely, since -unlike "true" power which is, or was, a structure, a strategy, a relation of force, a stake - this is nothing but the object of a social demand, and hence subject to the law of supply and demand, rather than to violence and death. Completely expunged from the political dimension, it is dependent, like any other commodity, on production and mass consumption. Its spark has disappeared; only the fiction of a political universe is saved.
Likewise with work. The spark of production, the violence of its stake no longer exists. Everybody still produces, and more and more, but work has subtly become something else: a need (as Marx ideally envisaged it, but not at all in the same sense), the object of a social "demand," like leisure, to which it is equivalent in the general run of life's options. A demand exactly proportional to the loss of stake in the work process.6 The same change in fortune as for power: the scenario of work is there to conceal the fact that the work-real, the production-real, has disappeared. And for that matter so has the strike-real too, which is no longer a stoppage of work, but its alternative pole in the ritual scansion of the social calendar. It is as if everyone has "occupied" their work place or work post, after declaring the strike, and resumed production, as is the custom in a "self-managed" job, in exactly the same terms as before, by declaring themselves (and virtually being) in a state of permanent strike.
This isn't a science-fiction dream: everywhere it is a question of a doubling of the work process. And of a double or locum for the strike process - strikes which are incorporated like obsolescence in objects, like crises in production. Then there are no longer any strikes or work, but both simultaneously, that is to say something else entirely: a wizardry of work, a trompe l'oeil, a scenodrama (not to say melodrama) of production, collective dramaturgy upon the empty stage of the social.
It is no longer a question of the ideology of work - of the traditional ethic that obscures the "real" labour process and the "objective" process of exploitation- but of the scenario of work. Likewise, it is no longer a question of the ideology of power, but of the scenario of power. Ideology only corresponds to a betrayal of reality by signs; simulation corresponds to a short-circuit of reality and to its reduplication by signs. It is always the aim of ideological analysis to restore the objective process; it is always a false problem to want to restore the truth beneath the simulacrum.
This is ultimately why power is so in accord with ideological discourses and discourses on ideology, for these are all discourses of truth - always good, even and especially if they are revolutionary, to counter the mortal blows of simulation.
Notes
1 Counterfeit and reproduction imply always an anguish, a disquieting foreignness: the uneasiness before the photograph, considered like a witch's trick - and more generally before any technical apparatus, which is always an apparatus of reproduction, is related by Benjamin to the uneasiness before the mirror-image. There is already sorcery at work in the mirror. But how much more so when this image can be detached from the mirror and be transported, stocked, reproduced at will (cf. The Student of Prague, where the devil detaches the image of the student from the mirror and harrasses him to death by the intermediary of this image). All reproduction implies therefore a kind of black magic, from the fact of being seduced by one's own image in the water, like Narcissus, to being haunted by the double and, who knows, to the mortal turning back of this vast technical apparatus secreted today by man as his own image (the narcissistic mirage of technique, McLuhan) and that returns to him, cancelled and distorted -endless reproduction of himself and his power to the limits of the world. Reproduction is diabolical in its very essence; it makes something fundamental vacillate. This has hardly changed for us: simulation (that we describe here as the operation of the code) is still and always the place of a gigantic enterprise of manipulation, of control and of death, just like the imitative object (primitive statuette, image of photo) always had as objective an operation of black image.

2 There is furthermore in Monod's book a flagrant contradiction, which reflects the ambiguity of all current science. His discourse concerns the code, that is the third-order simulacra, but it does so still according to "scientific" schemes of the second-order - objectiveness, "scientific" ethic of knowledge, science's principle of truth and transcendence. All things incompatible with the indeterminable models of the third-order.

3 "It's the feeble 'definition' of TV which condemns its spectator to rearranging the few points retained into a kind of abstract work. He participates suddenly in the creation of a reality that was only just presented to him in dots: the television watcher is in the position of an individual who is asked to project his own fantasies on inkblots that are not supposed to represent anything." TV as perpetual Rorshach test. And furthermore: "The TV image requires each instant that we 'close' the spaces in the mesh by a convulsive sensuous participation that is profoundly kinetic and tactile."
4 "The Medium is the Message" is the very slogan of the political economy of the sign, when it enters into the third-order simulation - the distinction between the medium and the message characterizes instead signification of the second-order.
5 The entire current "psychological" situation is characterized by this shortcircuit.
Doesn't emancipation of children and teenagers, once the initial phase of revolt is passed and once there has been established the principle of the right to emancipation, seem like the real emancipation of parents. And the young (students, high-schoolers, adolescents) seem to sense it in their always more insistent demand (though still as paradoxical) for the presence and advice of parents or of teachers. Alone at last, free and responsible, it seemed to them suddenly that other people possibly have absconded with their true liberty. Therefore, there is no question of "leaving them be." They're going to hassle them, not with any emotional or material spontaneous demand, but with an exigency that has been premeditated and corrected by an implicit oedipal knowledge. Hyperdependence (much greater than before) distored by irony and refusal, parody of libidinous original mechanisms. Demand without content, without referent, unjust)fied, but for all that all the more severe - naked demand with no possible answer. The contents of knowledge (teaching) or of affective relations, the pedagogical or familial referent having been eliminated in the act of emancipation, there remains only a demand linked to the empty form of the institution- perverse demand, and for that reason all the more obstinate. "Transferable" desire (that is to say non-referential, un-referential), desire that has been fed by lack, by the place left vacant, "liberated," desire captured in its own vertiginous image, desire of desire, as pure form, hyperreal. Deprived of symbolic substance, it doubles back upon itself, draws its energy from its own reflection and its disappointment with itself. This is literally today the "demand," and it is obvious that unlike the "classical" objective or transferable relations this one here is insoluble and interminable.
Simulated Oedipus.
Francois Richard: "Students asked to be seduced either bodily or verbally. But also they are aware of this and they play the game, ironically. 'Give us your knowledge, your presence, you have the word, speak, you are there for that.' Contestation certainly, but not only: the more authority is contested, vilified, the greater the need for authority as such. They play at Oedipus also, to deny it all the more vehemently. The 'teach', he's Daddy, they say; it's fun, you play at incest, malaise, the untouchable, at being a tease - in order to de-sexualize finally." Like one under analysis who asks for Oedipus back again, who tells the "oedipal" stories, who has the "analytical" dreams to satisfy the supposed request of the analyst, or to resist him? In the same way the student goes through his oedipal number, his seduction number, gets chummy, close, approaches, dominates- but this isn't desire, it's simulation. Oedipal psychodrama of simulation (neither less real nor less dramatic for all that). Very different from the real libidinal stakes of knowledge and power or even of a real mourning for the absence of same (as could have happened after 1968 in the universities). Now we've reached the phase of desperate reproduction, and where the stakes are nil, the simulacrum is maximal - exacerbated and parodied simulation at one and the same time- as interminable as psychoanalysis and for the same reasons.
The interminable psychoanalysis.
There is a whole chapter to add to the history of transference and countertransference: that of their liquidation by simulation, of the impossible psychoanalysis because it is itself, from now on, that produces and reproduces the unconscious as its institutional substance. Psychoanalysis dies also of the exchange of the signs of the unconscious. Just as revolution dies of the exchange of the critical signs of political economy. This short-circuit was well known to Freud in the form of the gift of the analytic dream, or with the "uninformed" patients, in the form of the gift of their analytic knowledge. But this was still interpreted as resistance, as detour, and did not put fundamentally into question either the process of analysis or the principle of transference. It is another thing entirely when the unconscious itself, the discourse of the unconscious becomes unfindable - according to the same scenario of simulative anticipation that we have seen at work on all levels with the machines of the third order. The analysis then can no longer end, it becomes logically and historically interminable, since it stabilizes on a puppetsubstance of reproduction, an unconscious programmed on demand - an impossible-to-break-through point around which the whole analysis is rearranged. The messages of the unconscious have been short-circuited by the psychoanalysis "medium." This is libidinal hyperrealism. To the famous categories of the real, the symbolic and the imaginary, it is going to be necessary to add the hyperreal, which captures and obstructs the functioning of the three orders.
6 Athenian democracy, much more advanced than our own, had reached the point where the vote was considered as payment for a service, after all other repressive solutions had been tried and found wanting in order to insure a quorum.

postomodern

2006-03-06T00:09:00.000-08:00

Discover Magazine asked numerous scientists late last fall what truly great book remains to be written. Like all other books these days, science texts are a penny a million. The Discover article even began with this gem from Ecclesiastes: "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh."
Here is how Sean Carroll, a genetics professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, replied to the question:
"The most important book that has not yet been written is Life In The Universe. This book would survey all of the places in the universe where life exists, the diversity among life-forms, and many hypotheses concerning the unique or multiple origins of life. This book has not yet been written because the science of exploring life both within and outside of our solar system is still in its infancy. The question of whether life is unique to Earth is in fact one of science's great unanswered questions. But I can think of no topic that would more profoundly affect our perspective of our place in the universe. Over the first 500 years of science, humanity's purported place at the center of the universe has been progressively stripped away, by astronomy, geology, and biology. Should we find ourselves to be the inhabitants of but one of many -- or a great many -- places where life exists, this would shake the foundations of human thought."
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy Of Morals:
"Exactly what is it that I, especially, find intolerable; that I am unable to cope with; that asphyxiates me? A bad smell. The smell of failure, of a soul that has gone stale." Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia:
"Things have come to a pass where lying sounds like truth, truth like lying. Each statement, each piece of news, each thought has been pre-formed by the centres of the culture industry. Whatever lacks the trace of such pre-formation lacks credibility...Truth that opposes these pressures not only appears improbable, but is in addition too feeble to make any headway in competition with their highly-concentrated machinery of dissemination."
Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra And Simulation:
"Power (or what takes its place) no longer believes in the university. It knows fundamentally that it is only a zone for the shelter and surveillance of a whole class of a certain age...it will find its elite elsewhere, or by other means. Diplomas are worthless: why would it refuse to award them, in any case it is ready to award them to everybody..."
Wendy Beckett, The Gaze Of Love:
"The eye that sees nobility and beauty in what another would regard as ordinary is the eye of prayer."
Albert Camus, Lyrical And Critical Essays:
"Our task as men is to find the few principles that will calm the infinite anguish of free souls. We must mend what has been torn apart, make justice imaginable again in a world so obviously unjust, give happiness a meaning once more to peoples poisoned by the misery of the century. Naturally, it is a superhuman task. But superhuman is the term for tasks men take a long time to accomplish..."
Guy Debord, The Society Of The Spectacle:
"The spectator's consciousness, imprisoned in a flattened universe, bound by the screen of the spectacle behind which his life has been deported, knows only the fictional speakers who unilaterally surround him with their commodities and the politics of their commodities. The spectacle, in its entirety, is his 'mirror image.' Here the stage is set with the false exit of generalized autism."
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes From Underground:
"...we have all lost touch with life, we all limp, each to a greater or lesser degree. In fact, we have lost touch so badly that we often feel a kind of loathing for genuine 'living life,' and hence cannot endure being reminded of it. We've reached the point where we virtually regard 'living life' as hard labor, almost servitude, and we all agree in private that it's much better 'according to the books.'"
Loren Eiseley, The Immense Journey:
"There is no logical reason for the existence of a snowflake any more than there is for evolution. It is an apparition from that mysterious shadow world beyond nature, that final world which contains -- if anything contains -- the explanation of men and catfish and green leaves."
T.S. Eliot, The Idea Of A Christian Society:
"...what is more insidious than any censorship, is the steady influence which operates silently in any mass society organized for profit, for the depression of standards of art and culture. The increasing organization of advertisement and propaganda -- or the influencing of masses of men by any means except through their intelligence -- is all against them. The economic system is against them...and against them is the disappearance of any class of people who recognize public and private responsibility of patronage of the best that is made and written."
Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence Of Christianity:
"[T]he present age...prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence...in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane. Nay, sacredness is held to be enhanced in proportion as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the highest degree of illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness."
Eric Hoffer, The True Believer:
"A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business. This minding of other people's business expresses itself in gossip, snooping and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves we either fall on our neighbor's shoulder or fly at his throat."
William James, The Varieties Of Religious Experience:
"The carnivorous-minded 'strong man,' the adult male and cannibal, can see nothing but mouldiness and morbidness in the saint's gentleness and self-severity, and regards him with pure loathing. The whole feud revolves essentially upon two pivots: Shall the seen world or the unseen world be our chief sphere of adaptation? And must our means of adaptation in this seen world be aggressiveness or non-resistance?"
Soren Kierkegaard, The Journals:
"If people insist on calling my crumbs of wisdom sophistry I should just like to draw their attention to the fact that it lacks at least one of the characteristics, according to the definitions of both Plato and Aristotle: that one earns money with it."
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy Of Morals:
"Exactly what is it that I, especially, find intolerable; that I am unable to cope with; that asphyxiates me? A bad smell. The smell of failure, of a soul that has gone stale."
Jose Ortega y Gasset, What Is Philosophy?:
"Why not be content without philosophizing, with what we find in the world, with what already is, what stands there clear before us? For this simple reason: all that there is, there in front of us, given to us, present and clear, is in its very essence a mere piece, a bit, a fragment, the stump of something absent. And we cannot see it without sensing and missing the part that is not there. In every given being, every datum of the world, we find its essential fracture line, its character as a part and only a part; we see the scar of its ontological mutilation...its nostalgia for the bit that is lacking, its divine discontent."
Max Planck, Where Is Science Going?
"Every serious and reflective person realizes, I think, that the religious element in his nature must be recognized and cultivated if all the powers of the human soul are to act together in perfect balance and harmony. And, indeed, it was not by any accident that the greatest thinkers of all ages were also deeply religious souls, even though they made no public show of their religious feeling."
Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notes Of Malte Laurids Brigge:
"We discover that we do not know our role; we look for a mirror; we want to remove our make-up and take off what is false and be real. But somewhere a piece of disguise that we forgot still sticks to us. A trace of exaggeration remains in our eyebrows; we do not notice that the corners of our mouth are bent. And so we walk around, a mockery and a mere half: neither having achieved being nor actors."

George Santayana, Platonism And The Spiritual Life:
"The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded for ever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these the spirit blooms timidly, and struggles to the light among the thorns."
Arthur Schopenhauer, "On Learning & The Learned":
"Students and scholars of all kinds and of every age aim, as a rule, only at information, not insight. They make it a point of honour to have information about everything, every stone, plant, battle, or experiment and about all books, collectively and individually. It never occurs to them that information is merely a means to insight, but in itself is of little or no value...With the impressive erudition of those great pundits, I sometimes say to myself: 'Ah, how little they must have had to think about, to have been able to read so much!'"

Socrates, quoted in Plato's Apology:
"Were I to make any claim to be wiser than others, it would be because I do not think that I have any sufficient knowledge of the other world, when in fact I have none."
Henry David Thoreau, Walden:
"The success of great scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success, not kingly, not manly. They make shift to live merely by conformity, practically as their fathers did, and are in no sense the progenitors of a nobler race of men."
Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra And Simulation:
"People no longer look at each other, but there are institutes for that. They no longer touch each other, but there is contactotherapy. They no longer walk, but they go jogging..."
Andre Breton, Manifesto Of Surrealism:
"...the realistic attitude, inspired by positivism, from Saint Thomas Aquinas to Anatole France, clearly seems to me to be hostile to any intellectual or moral advancement. I loathe it, for it is made up of mediocrity, hate, and dull conceit. It is this attitude which today gives birth to these ridiculous books, these insulting plays. It constantly feeds on and derives strength from the newspapers and stultifies both science and art by assiduously flattering the lowest of tastes; clarity bordering on stupidity, a dog’s life. The activity of the best minds feels the effects of it; the law of the lowest common denominator finally prevails upon them as it does upon the others."
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, The Waste Books:
"You should never look for genuine Christian convictions in a man who makes a parade of his piety."
Lewis Mumford, The Conduct Of Life:
"Western culture no longer represents man: it is mainly outside him, and in no small measure hostile to his whole self: he cannot take it in. He is like a patient condemned in the interests of X-ray photography to live upon a diet of barium sulphate...In the end, as Samuel Butler satirically prophesied, man may become just a machine's contrivance for reproducing another machine."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga And Paralipomena:
"To buy books would be a good thing if we could also buy the time to read them; but the purchase of books is often mistaken for the assimilation and mastering of their contents. To expect that a man should have retained all that he had ever read is like expecting him to carry about in his body all that he had ever eaten."
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Culture And Value:
"Freud's idea: In madness the lock is not destroyed, only altered; the old key can no longer unlock it, but it could be opened by a differently constructed key."

Raoul Vaneigem, The Book of Pleasures:
"The long dark night of trade is all the illumination our inhuman history has ever known. It will lift as life dawns. Death stares at our passions and we mute them; we mesh our desires with what is inimical to life; and we base the greater part of existence on the bloody search for profit and power...Once cloaked in divinity, then fleshed in ideology, power is now revealed in its bare bones: Economics. If this carries all the bets, the game from now on must go against us."

peace

2006-02-23T01:27:00.000-08:00

Peace on Earth: Cosmic Balance and World Peace
By Frederic Lamond

Until 3,000 years ago, all religions were pantheistic and polytheistic as Hinduism, Taoism and Shinto still are. They tolerated the religions of other tribes and cultures, recognising in their worship the same divine energies as their own, albeit with different names.

Why then did patriarchal, monotheistic religions arise in the Middle East 3,000 years ago, and spread in their Christian forms throughout Europe and then on to the European colonised overseas territories during the last 1,500 years? Why did these monotheistic religions fight so fiercely to eradicate nature worship in the lands they controlled? Why did Christianity promote a dualistic antagonism between the spirit and the flesh, with only the former conceived as being in the "image of God"?

I was pondering these questions shortly after my initiation in February 1957 into what is now called Wicca: a pantheist mystery cult that revives the worship of the Neolithic earth mother goddess and her consort, the horned god of fertility. Shortly afterwards the answer came to me in a sudden flash of insight. The evolution of the universe and especially of life on earth has been the product of a dialectical antagonism between two forces of nature:

One is the highly conservative power of love, which seeks to maintain all living species and ecological equilibria just as they are at any given point in time, and is embedded in the genetically inherited instincts of all living species, including humanity. This power is generally represented by one or more goddesses and fertility gods in those religions that anthropomorphise cosmic and earthly energies.

The other, a force of destructive creation, which seeks forever to upset existing equilibria in order to create new and more highly evolved forms and species. In a universe in which the total amount of energy is constant and can neither be added to nor reduced - although it can be converted to matter and back again - neither God nor man can create anything without destroying something else. This is the power the Jews call Jehovah, the Christians - God the father, Muslims - Allah and Hindus - Shiva.

Power is neither evil nor undesirable. If only the force of love existed, the universe would never have moved from its original state of undifferentiated nothingness. But if only the force of destructive creation existed, the whole universe would be like the Sun: an endless series of thermonuclear explosions creating new elements, but which last only a few microseconds before dissolving again in the fiery furnace.

We owe the process of evolution on earth - in which continents, mountains, plants and animals have appeared and live actively long enough to experience their own life, but which can also slowly evolve in succeeding generations - to the ongoing delicate balance between these two antagonistic cosmic forces.

Most of the supporters of a return to ancestral traditions and religions do so in order to protect their cultural identity against the spread of globalisation and consumerist values, but I feel this is not enough to promote world peace and protect the planet'secology. There are many patriarchal aggressive gods and values in many traditional religions, and these should be curbed as much as those of patriarchal Christianity or Islam.

We should build instead on the worship of our earth and love goddesses, who will help develop our ecological intuition: not exclusively but in a balanced manner with our gods. As a Hindu proverb says: "The Gods treat as beasts of burden men who do not consider themselves their equals!"

(The writer lives in Austria)

peace

2006-02-23T01:26:00.001-08:00

2006-02-23T01:26:00.000-08:00

Anais Nin

2005-12-20T02:30:00.000-08:00

Just read it, some maiden introduced Nin yesterday !
"I want to burn, even if I break myself. I live only for ecstasy. Nothing else effects me. Small doses, moderate loves- all these leave me cold. I like extravagance, heat... sexuality which bursts the thermometer! I am neurotic, perverted, destructive, fiery, dangerous- lava, inflammable, unrestrained. I feel like a jungle animal who is escaping captivity." - Anais Nin