Archive for the ‘Religion’ tag
M.I.A. Boyz – Live at Coachella 2008
M.I.A. performs “Boyz” from her album “Kala” live at the 2008 Coachella Valley Music Festival in Indio, California, on April 26, 2008.
Spirituality, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ roll (about Mahrishi Yogi and the Beatles trip to India in 1968)
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was widely regarded as the foremost scientist in the field of consciousness, and considered to be the greatest teacher in the world today.
“My Vedic Science is the science of Veda.
Veda means knowledge. Therefore, my Vedic Science, the science of Veda, is the science of complete knowledge.
Knowledge results from the coming together of the knower, the process of knowing, and the object of knowing–knowledge blossoms in the togetherness of knower, process of knowing, and known. Therefore, knowledge is the Unified Field of knower, process of knowing, and known; therefore,
My Vedic Science, the science of knowledge, is the science of the Unified Field of knower, process of knowing, and known.
Those who practise the Transcendental Meditation technique have the experience that Transcendental Consciousness is unbounded awareness–it is pure wakefulness; it is fully awake within itself; it knows only itself and nothing else.
My Vedic Science is the Science of Consciousness
Trip to India – 1967:
The Beatles and their entourage, which included Mia Farrow — were doing drugs, taking LSD, at Maharishi’s ashram, and once he lost his temper with them. He asked them to leave, and they did.
But when they went back to the US, John Lennon gave a hard interview on the Johnny Carson show, accusing Maharishi also wrote a satirical song about Maharishi, which went: Sexy Sadie, what have you done/you made a fool of everyone.
Nineteen sixty-nine was for John Lennon a year of intense crises and search for social and personal liberation. He had already entered in a major transitional period; he had married Yoko Ono in March, and the Beatles were about to break up.
[black and white film of the Himalayas and Rishikesh]
[voice-over]
JOHN: I was influenced by acid and got psychedelic, you know, like the whole generation. But really, I like rock and roll, you know.
[voice-over]
RINGO: Just one of those things that happened, you know, as life went on.
PAUL: We’d been into drugs, and we were — there’s the next step, then, is — then you’ve got to try and find a meaning, then.
GEORGE: That’s where I really went for the meditation.
[On-the-street interview with Maharishi, who holds an armful of flowers]
REPORTER: The Beatles seem to be among your supporters now. How do you feel about that?
MAHARISHI: I feel a great promise for the younger generation, because if the Beatles take up this Transcendental Meditation, they are the ideal of energy and intelligence in the younger generation, and that will really bring up the youth on a very good level of understanding and intelligence. I’m very happy about it, that they heard my lecture last evening, and they talked to me for about an hour after the lecture. They seem to me very intelligent and alert.
[on camera]
GEORGE: And after the lecture, we went– because, you know, that was one of the privileges of the Beatles, we could get in anywhere. So we got backstage, met Maharishi, and, you know, I said to him, “Got any mantras? Give us a mantra.” And he said, “Well, we’re going to Bangor tomorrow. You should come and get initiated.”
[black and white newsfilm of Maharishi and the Beatles at Bangor, August 25, 1967]
[voice-over]
PAUL: Yes, we got up there. There was a big crowd up there at the train station, there was a crowd to meet us. And we all sort of wandered through in our psychedelic gear and spent, like, a sort of– it was like a summer camp. And you spend all your first few days just trying to stop your mind dealing with your social calendar, you know, whatever’s coming up. But it was good. I eventually got the hang of it, we all got the hang of it.
[newsfilm of interview]
JOHN: You know, you just sort of sit there, and you let your mind go, wherever it’s going. Doesn’t matter what you’re thinking about, just let your mind go. And then you just introduce the mantra, or the vibration, just to take over from the thought. You don’t will it or use your willpower.
GEORGE: If you find yourself thinking, then the moment you realize you’ve been thinking about things again, then you replace that thought with the mantra again.
[newsfilm of Beatles and Maharishi at Bangor]
[voice-over]
RINGO: I was really impressed with the Maharishi, and was impressed because he was laughing all the time. He was just having a ball. You know, it was another point of view. It was the first time we’re getting into sort of Eastern philosophies now.
(Transcript from the “The Beatles Anthology,” about their time with Maharishi)
Trading Cacao God
The chocolate enjoyed around the world today had its origins at least 3,100 years ago in Central America as a cerimony beer-like beverage and status symbol, the author of The World of the Ancient Maya (Cornell University Press, 1997), John Henderson said.
All of the Mesoamerican peoples made chocolate beverages, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning “bitter water”. The seeds of the cacao tree, also being used as a form of currency, have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor.
Analysis of residue from a ceramic “teapot” from about 1100 BC, found in Puerto Escondido, Honduras, suggests that chocolate may have been drinking in small, delicate pottery vessels for ceremonial beverages and consumed by elites. This pushed back by at least 500 to years the earliest documented use of cacao.
Deep excavations at Puerto Escondido. The Honduran workman at the right is excavating Olmec-period (approximately 1100-900 BC) remains. Photo by John Henderson.
Chocolate, prepared as a beverage, was introduced in Europe to the Spanish court in 1544 by Kek’chí Maya nobles, brought from Guatemala by Dominican friars. The first load of beans arrived to Sevilla, Spain in 1585. Nowdays Cocoa beans are still used as a form of currency: trade means prices, taxes, and shipping costs. Business chocolate.
Are Women Allowed to be on TV?
Another point of view: Shaykh Muhammad S Adly regarding women being on camera in al-islam on youtubeislam.
Protection
American (converted) Muslim Woman speaking about the Veil (Hijaab) and protection of your inner beauty from outside world
Second (Missionary) Life
The Jesuits, for 500 years in the front line of Catholic evangelisation, have decided that Second Life, the online virtual world, can be fertile territory for spreading the Gospel.
In an article in their official organ, “Civiltà Cattolica,” they suggest that just as they once penetrated the jungles of Africa or distant China, today they should be present in Second Life.
Father Antonio Spadaro, the literary critic of “Civiltà Cattolica” and an expert on new technologies, writes: “This virtual Second Life is becoming populated with churches, mosques, temples, cathedrals. synagogues, places of prayer of all kinds. And behind an avatar there is a man or a woman, perhaps searching for God and faith, perhaps with very strong spiritual needs…I don’t see there is anything so astounding if we have a few avatars in Second Life.”
“Second Life is not simply a ‘closed’ phenomenon,” he writes. “It is a real living environment that every day extends its frontiers and increases the number of residents. We cannot close our eyes to it. It must be understood, and this is especially true for people with educational responsibilities. There are young people, fragile people, facing the seductions of simulated life. The best way to understand it is to enter into it. Therefore any initiative which can help the souls of residents should be considered positive.”
Reference: The Financial Times Limited 2007
