w-3day6

A fast moving hurricane will have scant rainfall but its speed would be very high. A slow moving hurricane will have less windspeed but a heavy rainfall.
Man however clever or strong he may be, his cleverness and power can only be licked into shape in context of others. His strength is in numbers that in turn has its downside. Thus we identify with a nation ( be it the People’s Republic of China or the USA) which can only operate by taking some of our freedoms. The excuse may be ‘in the national interests.’
We gain experience as we grow older but would not that be rather wasted on a body that’s ready to fall apart?
From the above three examples what are we to assume? That Nature plays fast and loose with us? In order to understand the mystery of life we need to get the nature of matter right.(W4.D2)
* Wisdom must first cut teeth before it can chew a head off.
benny

w-3day5

Any artist worth his salt would rather be true to his artistic vision than settle for everybody else’s. Gaugin, Manet, Van Gogh and Cezanne refused to toe the line of conventional wisdom and were in their time ridiculed. They were unconventional so they were called Bohemians. And many other names. The establishment that make the rules hold an idea of protecting their own interests. In order to do it they seek compromise, status quo. For this end all their viewpoints must agree on the core idea. Only that they arrive at it at the risk of losing their soul: artistic integrity.
Gaugin and other artists also had their viewpoints powered by idea. How come they speak to us beyond their own time and place whereas writ of the establishment has ceased so soon? Any painting by VanGogh or Manet is now sought after and commands astronomical prices at any auction. ( None of these would have become a painter with this in mind.)
Edgar Degas(1834-1917) French Painter
The painter once commenting about art lovers said thus, ”When a person pays 3000 francs for a painting it is because he likes it. When he pays 300,000 it is because others like it.”
benny

w-3day4

Without a viewpoint none of us shall know what to get out of life. Take the case of Paul Cezanne whose father a prosperous banker from Aix, was dead against his taking up art as his career. But Paul refused to budge from his stand. He wanted to become a painter. Even there he did not wish to become just another painter, letting himself led through paces as every conventional painter of his day would have done. He thought of representing Nature in his canvas in terms of geomentrical shapes. Cezanne had a viewpoint.
You and I have viewpoint that shall never match totally. For this simple reason we compete one another. However fierce it may be, our viewpoints draw relevance from our world around us. Our success also directly depends on it. In time and place.
Lev Trotsky was a very good organizer, whom Lenin had named as his successor to lead the Communist party. But Joseph Stalin as the General Secretary of the Communist party worked behind the scenes and had the rank and file behind him. In the power struggle that followed after Lenin was laid by a stroke, found Stalin in power. Stalin and Trotsky had different viewpoints as to the direction the party should take. It was irreconcilable and could only end in defeat for the one who was chosen by none other than Lenin himself.
benny

w-3day3

Man as a rational being uses his intellect to make sense of his world. It is made in terms of ideas.
From whence came his impulse to seek beyond his term of life on the earth? One wants to build up a mighty business empire and leave it for his descendants; another creates beautiful works so his name may live after him. Or one devotes his life in works of charity so his name will be recorded in heaven and so on.
Ideas are what give man or woman a special significance: power to transcend his or her lifespan. For example Alexander Fleming’s discovery and pioneering work in antibiotics makes him still relevant.
Tailpiece: Aren’t we still indebted to the nameless inventor of wheel? Do we not in a manner of speaking resurrect Chopin or Mozart everytime we play their pieces as accurately and with understanding?
benny

w-3day2

Every life form owes its material makeup to matter that could have come from anywhere in cosmos. As such in terms of nature and nurture what would it tell us? We humans are terrestrial beings: we are nurtured by conditions of our home planet. Notwithstanding that our material nature also gives us an idea of cosmos. In terms of ideas each of us holds a point in cosmos. A viewpoint.
Thus Bishop Iraeneus will have his viewpoint as much as every one who has an interest in the scriptures. Heresy is one man’s poison and it might be a cure for another’s blind faith.
benny

week-3tailpiece

(carried over from yesterday)
John ‘whom Jesus loved’ was as much a mystic as Judas if we were to believe the tradition that the latter was a gnostic. The gnostics believed and laid stress on intuitive knowledge as the way to salvation rather than through faith. ( We hear of blind faith. Any fool can have that. But do we hear knowledge being qualified as blind?) When the gospel of John opens with a definition of Logos (cf. The Word was made flesh...) we can assume if John did ever utter these words it was the gnostic in him speaking. Otherwise how did he know it was so?
Lastly by what authority the Church Fathers did settle on four gospels? Would it have, in this age, passed the test under a strict scrutiny in a court of law?
benny

week-3

Recently Dan Brown the author of the Da Vinci Code won a landmark legal victory. The whole idea of copyright, so seems to me, is never on sure grounds. ( There is nothing new under the sun. Ideas are of the public domain. Only that each expresses it differently.)
The idea of human Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene is not anything new. ( Dan needn’t have bothered to think that up.) Wasn’t there also some question mark surrounding his birth? These petty controversies and scandals alike have been part of our oral tradition.
It begins at first as gossip passed around among men in the street and works its way up gradually into ivory towers where some drudge puts it to paper; lo and behold it has in course of time, become scholarship. Granted that Dan Brown did write a first-class religious thriller, are we to believe it added anything new?
Now coming to my main point: Surely there were some 30 gospels extant till Iranaeus the Bishop of Lyons thought of establishing four of these as canonical text? None of these four were written by the disciples with whose names, they have now come inseparably attached. Mark, Matthew, Luke and John have as much claim to the real Jesus as Judas or Thomas. How come then the gospel of Thomas or Judas are non-canonical while that of John is? ( Your guess is as good as mine.) I can only say for those who didn’t make it that they got a bad press.
benny

w-2day7

What the birds or the plants might do in pursuing their own agenda must create its own momentum: Plants rely on hummingbirds which unlike insects are warm blooded and are not put off by cold or torrential rain. The birds with their 1200 heartbeats per minute require energy more often and so quickly too. If plants would design their flowers to suit these pollinators it must be said some thing of the power and wisdom. It makes both user and the used move on.
I hazard to subscribe power and wisdom to Oneness. It is the quality expressed by material nature. Natural selection validates the wisdom and power so patently in the example of species that have stood the test of time.
benny

w-2day6

On the Enderbury Islands in the Pacific nothing lives besides scores of cattle and rabbits. But for the cattle grazing the grass would have grown wild and proved difficult for the rabbits. Here we see how an opportunity has arisen for the rabbits.
‘Survive or perish!’- It would mean creating opportunities as well. In the Arctic tundra the furry lemmings, taking advantage of a plentiful spring breed prodigiously; they stand at the bottom of a precarious food chain, a fact that explains their overpopulation. If not for their bounty, the snowy owls and Arctic foxes would go hungry; Foxes add to their diet waterfowls, presence of which in a way eases the number of lemmings hunted down. The foxes are on the other hand playing it safe by varying their diet.
The snowy owl, each season regulates the brood of chicks it raises, according to the availability of lemmings. Each party in a food chain, the predator and the prey alike, has its power to influence the other.
benny

w-2day5

Nature is red in tooth and claw; in a food chain the roles of predator and prey are set. Whereas man with his intellectual capacity may shape his role to change with the times or seek result oriented solutions. Such being the case where man steps in to create an order it is because he perceives an advantage thereby. What gives muscle to man’s concern for conservation programs? Is it not that he is aware of a higher quality of life?
benny

w-2day4

All life-forms must pass through the turnstile of time. For example all lives are controlled by their internal biological clocks* that are in turn synchronised with external events by time signals. Animals and plants can detect changing of seasons and respond accordingly.
(* In the human body such things as body temperature, sleeping and waking, hormone levels, excretion rate and mental ability are controlled by the biological clock.)
How living organisms keep time with their environment is often the key to life and death. For example: nocturnal creatures in deserts must cope with heat of the day. So it makes sense if they stay put during the day.
This preoccupation with time and how life forms manage their lives create a rhythm as natural as our heartbeats. (1) It in turn must correspond with the very cosmos.
Explanation: 1. There exists a certain symmetry which man would assume from his observation that everything on this earth occurs in cycles, as the orbital paths of the sun and the moon would mean day and the nights alternating one another. The sun in its turn also has its orbit around the Milky Way.
Tailpiece: Wouldn’t a may fly consider the lifespan of humans as interminable as we might look at a galactic year?
benny

w-2day3

Green algae form the basis of Arctic food chain. The March sun that filters through the Arctic Sea helps their growth and they form the staple diet for the Arctic carp; ring seals survive the extreme Arctic cold by feeding on these carps. Polar bears survive in turn by preying upon the seals. It is possible only because of an order that drives each life form to run on predictable lines. Such a certainty is the basis for the food chain.
This order is created because of material nature: each species expresses it and in that process has also acquired an ability to anticipate events.
benny

w-2day2

Oneness is in all and through all: so much so every life form is of same weight with reference to it.
How we limit purpose or usefulness of other species speaks more of our ignorance than truth.
benny

week-2

The tilt of the earth creates its own characteristics. How the earth is positioned in relation to the sun for an example gives us seasons. Around the equator the sun is always overhead that makes seasons less defined than in the temperate regions. It dictates way of life of species living in any ecosystem.
Take amphibians for an example. In the rainforests frogs tend to live above and lay eggs than on the ground. The reason? Broad leaves above are wet and warm to incubate their eggs. Similarly every life form would fill in the particular niche taking every opportunity to further its agenda: Survive or perish.
benny

w-1day7

Oneness describes material nature of cosmos. It is expressed in the underlying drive for order. Symbiosis for example refers to an order in terms of utility.
Certain species of root fungus (ie. mycorrhizae) live among plants. Fungus recieves carbohydrates and in turn it enhances nutritive intake of the plant.
Another aspect of order we see in our Milky Way. A nebulous gaseous cloud tends to form a spiral shape with arms. A double spiral in a DNA defines order: material nature expressed by a form as distinct from another.
Tailpiece: When cream is poured into a stirred cup of coffee shows up a striking resemblance to galaxies with outer parts of arms trailing around its centre. Is it merely a coincidence? Or does it speak of an order?
benny

w-1 day6

Nine-tenths of our genes are identical to that of a mouse. It doesn’t tell much. Neither would this: sixty percent of DNA found in the humans is also found in a banana. Where lies the mystery then?
DNA in a molecule is a genetic universe. A difference of .1 in a molecule would make some 3 million genetic differences. From such numbers material nature can give a mouse its own uniqueness as a man.( cf. Week 4. 5th day).
Genetic material of man and nematode are of same nature: Material nature. This nature gives both the wherewithal to respond to external stimulii.
Tailpiece: But if different species having acquired special skills and would still opt for a relationship of sorts would it not mean each stands to gain thereof? It also implies some kind of order. The expression ‘You watch my back and I shall watch yours.’illustrates it.
benny

w-1day5

Case of a phenomenon like Aurora Borealis or Aurora Australis is due to the electrically charged particles traveling along the planet’s magnetic lines strike hydrogen molecules. As a result the molecules glow in the upper atmosphere. If similar conditions exist whether in Jupiter or anywhere in cosmos the same phenomenon should manifest. Would it not mean then that certain laws are in place? Laws of Nature?
benny

w-1day4

If all life-forms including celestial bodies are evolved out of interstellar gases and dust do we have a specific centre? Every element in our body has been a wanderer among clouds of interstellar gas, and having come together by some sort of an arrangement should we not have been equally at home in cosmos as well?
To all intents and purpose we consider the earth as our home and millennia of living here has shut out much of our cosmic ancestry; and in compensation we have acquired an ability to live on the earth. This truth is brought home when we try to travel in space.
Benny

w-1 day3

Death of stars gives rise to new stars in cosmos: those elements spewed out of a dying star are what make up calcium in our bones and iron in the blood. Can we think of life on earth without oxygen? Or for that matter carbon? These two also are by courtesy of a supernova.
In a manner of speaking we are ‘star children’ shaped by stellar events.
benny

w-1day2

Coral reefs are like islands in a vast ocean looking for their meal to come in. They act as a magnet attracting other species to live in their proximity. A coral reef is an example of predators and prey coexisting: schools of parrot fishes gather there for their procreative act. They send clouds of eggs and sperm simultaneously. Sometimes these fishes eat part of corals themselves; and their presence brings in manta rays who time their arrival to make a meal of their eggs and sperm. Thus indirectly they curb the damage the fishes could inflict on the reef. Tigersharks also drop in for their feed. Green turtle hatches there while octopuses, mandarin fishes and many other species use it for furthering their own biological programs.
benny

week-1

2nd Day
Coral reefs are like islands in a vast ocean looking for their meal to come in. They act as a magnet attracting other species to live in their proximity. A coral reef is an example of predators and prey coexisting: schools of parrot fishes gather there for their procreative act. They send clouds of eggs and sperm simultaneously. Sometimes these fishes eat part of corals themselves; and their presence brings in manta rays who time their arrival to make a meal of their eggs and sperm. Thus indirectly they curb the damage the fishes could inflict on the reef. Tigersharks also drop in for their feed. Green turtle hatches there while octopuses, mandarin fishes and many other species use it for furthering their own biological programs.
benny

W-1 day2

Coral reefs are like islands in a vast ocean looking for their meal to come in. They act as a magnet attracting other species to live in their proximity. A coral reef is an example of predators and prey coexisting: schools of parrot fishes gather there for their procreative act. They send clouds of eggs and sperm simultaneously. Sometimes these fishes eat part of corals themselves; and their presence brings in manta rays who time their arrival to make a meal of their eggs and sperm. Thus indirectly they curb the damage the fishes could inflict on the reef. Tigersharks also drop in for their feed. Green turtle hatches there while octopuses, mandarin fishes and many other species use it for furthering their own biological programs.
benny

week-1

Small marine animals called polyps create coral reefs. After a polyp dies it leaves behind a deposit of calcium carbonate upon which another one builds. Coral reefs stand as a testimony to their skill. Even a larva as small as a pearl has its pride of place in its formation. By the same token we all have our place in the cities we build.
Drawing calcium from the sea the polyps produce reef even as our architecture would indicate: there is nothing that we have brought special which isn’t part of nature.
What makes us then differentiate one another?
Tailpiece: Haves in the lexicon of Nature denote Natural selection. Have-nots have become extinct.