W5 D2 Pennies From Heaven

Error of Simplification
If Earth is reduced to the size of a golf ball it will be smoother than the ball; what one misses in the process are the marvels which take our breath away. Does not the planet lose much by way of its ‘personality’ if an observer from far above couldn’t pick out the Himalayan ranges or Grand Canyon?
2.
A nation may be founded on the belief ‘In God We Trust’. ‘But count your pennies’ is what comes to be attached to it because such a trust has to be put in the process of nation building. God reduced to pennies. In God we trust but count your pennies. A catchphrase nevertheless, but carries practical wisdom. In order to hold a nation together an army is a necessity and armaments cannot be got merely on trust. Those arm merchants who supply the arms also believe in God but they insist on being paid in hard cash from the nation. Do you think the soldiers, who secure the national boundaries from invasion can be sent to their stations on trust? The nation has placed in God their trust but hard cash is as good as God having translated their trust in ways they can understand.
In God we trust: Pharisees and Publicans also swear by it. But then in public giving God all the credit is good for their souls; and more than everything else is good for their businesses.
Simplifying Providence in terms of hard cash we have simply made a short work of God. Some of these Good Christians who call on the name of God are altogether something else in the way they run their businesses. They have oversimplified God so finely no one may distinguish between their God and their ‘filthy lucre.’
Tailpiece: Atheists who deny God when asked give their reasons and as Dostoevsky says in The Idiot,’ will ever slur over; they will always be talking of something else.”
Is God to be defined by Trinity or Transubstantiation or denied for the ‘crimes and misdemeanors’ of the Christians? ‘God has just such gladness every time he sees from heaven that a sinner praying to him with all his heart as a mother has when she sees the first smile on her baby’s face.’
‘The essence of religious feeling doesn’t come under any sort of reasoning or atheism.’ I fully agree with this.
benny

WEEK-5 Truth Of Action

Truth Out There
Mopu became one of the earliest converts to Buddhism. He belonged to the tribe of Bhils. The simple forest dwellers were for sometime terrorized by a man-eater. None would help them. Once Buddha happened to pass through their midst. Hearing how they were put to great hardship he went to the fierce beast and argued that he ought to mend his ways. The tiger became all of a sudden docile and chose to live among their midst. The Bhils were naturally converted to Buddhism.
Buddha lived among them for a while.
The morning after Buddha had left for the cities of the plains and beyond, Mopu got up early and began his devotions. He thought of Truth Incarnate who had tamed a murderous tiger and sat for a long time singing praises to his divine gifts.
Much was his confusion to see the tiger now looming menacingly above him. “ I’m going to eat you up.” He came to the point. “Didn’t Truth Incarnate teach you to renounce your meat eating ways?”
“But did he make grass eating a pleasure for me?”
“When I see you fellows feasting night and day over your hunt why I die many deaths of shame and regrets.” The tiger added with a bitter smile. “Why me?” Mopu asked with a shudder,” I may eat meat but I eat it with great distaste. Meat has never made me happy.”
“You speak for yourself, man!” the tiger hissed before his kill.
Buddha as Truth incarnate may be present in spirit among the Bhils who however must deal with the tiger one way or other. This inability of lifeforms to hold onto Truth Absolute ‘which is out there’ explains the concept of finite factor.
Accordingly a finite factor allows us to abridge some aspects of Truth in order to address our time and place more efficiently. The difference is like watching a 3- D movie without Polaroid glasses. Truth is simplified.
Tailpiece: Truth of Nature, Truth of Experience and Truth of Action are three sides of a prism. It disperses the white light of Truth in colors.
benny

Week4

Summary
What ideas we set forth is in time and place. Hegelian dilectical materialism would make synthesis as splicing of thesis and antethesis. Synthesis, thesis etc., fine terms, no doubt. It can only take place through exchange of energy.
In such cause and effect the Neocons are the reverse side of Jihadists. (W4D2)
benny

W4 Day7

We Are All Connected

No life-form ever can be a mere passive medium transferring the past strengths to the future. To the primitive man a flint stone tool must have seemed the ultimate in technology. He would have found several uses for it, but for all that the bronze age showed how inadequate it was. Do we now consider a bronze artifact any more useful than as a museum piece?
Every age brings its own problems, which is unique that technology needs to be more advanced to meet the demands. In inventing new ways and means we are changed by them and in turn change the future in some manner. In terms of experience we have added something to the collective experience, quality of which is as mysterious as life itself.
Each of us adds something to the collective experience: Civilization is like a megaplant with production lines of various components going on non-stop where birth of a child is like a worker punching the timecard on arrival and death as punching out for the day. Merely because we have left the workstation would it mean that the production is held up?
benny

News Of The Day

The Times We Live In
I came across the following news.
Quote:

I Lost my Son to a Conflict I oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty

By Andrew J. Bacevich
Special to The Washington Post

Parents who lose children, whether through accident or illness, inevitably wonder what they could have done to prevent their loss. When my son was killed in Iraq earlier this month at age 27, I found myself pondering my responsibility for his death.
Unquote.
Who can ever say in good conscience, as a law- abiding citizen, father, mother or as a brother that one is completely free from blame? Our own governments, which are our creatures, savage us all and their pomp and circumstance have all been supplied at our cost and bother. In our vote and in our allegiance to the policies they set forth in the back rooms and in secrecy we are all committed. We also have been hoodwinked in the process by being called ( by those who stood to gain by our civic sense of duty) to a higher calling and make the ultimate sacrifice for the country that they have sold down the river for some paltry pecuniary advantage.
We are all guilty in varying degrees to the complicity of perpetuating Causes that can only work against our own interests in the long run.
benny

Quote For The Day

However well begun must be finished well.

Week Day 6

Feet Of Clay
The High Priest Melchizadek, the Lord of Salem ascended to the royal throne and said,” I am rarin’ to go!” He was in his prime and he was the lord of all he surveyed. It was a perfect kingdom: such a magnificent sight that he enjoyed he was certain was meant for his subects as well. He believed that it added to his enjoyment.
“ In their pleasure my benevolence is paid with interest,” so he mused. He looked about and to his dismay he found that there was none in his realm besides him.
It was a pity.
It was also a dreadful bore.
So he searched far and wide and found a worm who promised to be his subject. “ But make me a man, Oh High Priest!” the worm cried. So Melchizadek brought up the worm as though it were a man in full control of his faculties.
Once the High Priest, now old and decrepit asked the worm if he felt different. The worm shot back,” Say, you call yourself a High Priest. What kind of office is that?”
Melchizadek was delighted,” Now you asked a question. You are a man.” Directly Old King of Salem set him alongside on his throne and asked him to take a look. “You are ready for the most wondrous sights ever offered to any man. Look closely.”
The worm looked as was told and after an eternity of pause he said,” While you set me up here ants have made their home there! How dare they!”
Old Melchizadek asked in confusion “ What?”
“ See there my former home? I turned up the earth with the sweat of my brow and slugged it out with elements. For what?” he was angry,” The ants have simply moved in and cashed in on my labor!”
Truth of Nature and Truth of Experience together make humans behave somewhat like the worm in the story. Truth of Action (of which I shall come to by and by) is the third aspect which makes him transcend his limitations. Civilization marches on the combined strengths of Nature and Experience as one. Its stability comes from Truth. Not the truth of one person but a quality that must be manifested from the whole. Every act of man must figure in it for better or worse and somewhat knocked out of shape owing to the pull and push of march of events.
benny

Pick Of The Week

"Most Americans aren't the sort of citizens the Founding Fathers expected; they are contented serfs. Far from being active critics of government, they assume that its might makes it right." : Joseph Sobran (1946- ) Columnist

=
"A State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands -- even for beneficial purposes -- will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.": John Stuart Mill - (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist ( picked from ICH)
All talk of democracy by dwarfs( in moral sense) who have appropriated seats of power must prove very inconvenient to those citizens who walk tall in ideals and who refuse to grub money or scratch dirt in order to set trap for those who do not see eye to eye.
Dwarfs often get the better of the giants since it would be an unequal fight: no ideals to cramp their fighting style and money at their command would make it always so.
benny

W4 Day4

‘Swords fall off as useless; bullets merely cleave the air before an idea whose time has come. It was on such a premise the New World witnessed the birth of the USA.’ In a matter of three centuries we find the same nation being treated by its own Chief as though run out of steam. So he resorts to the tactic of scare mongering, (as I make of the news given herebelow,) in order to make a case for his belligerent policy.
'President Bush portrayed the Iraq war as a battle between the U.S. and al-Qaida on Wednesday and shared nuggets of intelligence to contend Osama bin Laden was setting up a terrorist cell in Iraq to strike targets in America. "Here in America, we are living in the eye of a storm," he said. "All around us, dangerous winds are swirling and these winds could reach our shores at any moment."(AP)
Does the idea of scaring the nation work?
2.
Gas Raid From Mars
On the night of October 30, 1938 Orson Welles became a celebrity with his realistic broadcast of HG Wells’s ‘War of the Worlds,’. It lasted only half an hour but caused panic from the Atlantic to the West Coast. In Newark in a single block at Heddon Terrace and Hawthorne Avenue more than twenty families rushed out of their houses with wet kerchiefs and towels to flee from what they believed to be was a gas raid. ( extract: New York Times of Oct 31)
President Bush knows from the past how to distract the nation from real issues. Whether he succeeds or not all that energy that he throws into what seems a bottomless well comes again into circulation.
Who is mopping up the loose change of energy the USA is throwing about?
benny

W4 Day3

Idea Is The Oxygen
‘Brute force wins you slaves; but sell me an idea so that I may worship you,’ so said the Nubian king who refused to kowtow before Pharaoh Actin’ it-out. So the Son of Thoth did some soul searching and came up with the idea of pyramids. What an idea it was! Its indestructability we see even now. The Great Pyramids of Egypt are already given the status of honorary member when we are compiling the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
No great monument like the Pyramids of Cheops could have been built on the levels of energy of the ruling class alone. So the powers-that-be hit upon an idea that would electrify the masses. A belief in afterlife and the pharaoh as a celestial symbol made it all possible.
The idea is the thing.
benny

W4 Day 2 Copycats All

Energy Is All Things To All Men
Energy that every lifeform expends for needful things does not know what sets it off; neither has it parents or nationality; neither shall it bow to cultural identity of nations but let itself be borrowed for the use of any. As impersonal as stars that scatters heavy elements all about.
Earlier we had a Pope inciting the faithful to take part in a crusade against infidels; and if ‘the same infidels’ now call out for a Jihad there must be something in our common experience that is not yet digested.
Jerusalem was the bone of contention then as now. Jerusalem the city of Peace isn’t what it implies because of two ideologies that cannot see eye to eye. There exists a lapse of nine centuries but in terms of ideologies it is as if no lapse ever occurred.
Experience that is good, works as a safety net for all must be good so each man and woman can benefit from it. Every wrong so blatantly committed and not addressed to shall surface time to time to trouble mankind.
benny

week-4

Blind Energy
We are shot through experience of our species we cannot be labeled easily.
If we had nothing common with animals why do we qualify the legendary Richard the Conqueror as lion hearted? When we see someone whose table manners are appalling and his life style as equally messy, of which animal he calls to mind? One Ottoman sultan was called Selim the Sot for his drunkenness. He swilled wine like a porker obviously. It is rumoured that he siezed the island of Cyprus in 1570 for control over the fabled Cypriot wine!
( If nations these days go to war over oil we know experience of mankind merely put premium on things differently over the period of time.)
Experience is mixed on the same palette by the brush that makes no distinction: energy is needed by animals and angels alike to get things done. Need we then say about man, who must hold a position between and betwixt?
benny

Summary

Time as we know of it is rooted on our transitional reality. Reality of water is not the same for steam as reality of a foetus is not the same for an embryo. Flame of a candle has its own reality, which a candle may not fully fathom. Truth of nature sets material universe on a yardstick and truth of experience
must speak for every transaction effected in such an universe on the universal currency of energy.
So when we speak of time we are referring to a certain reality- in a way we can make do and profit from Time. It is as if we take a peek at Now, the pinhole through which Time is made real to us. Our understanding has grasped its essentials in the moment. However let us not pretend that we can comprehend fully the ultimate reality of which we speak from our finite understanding. As such we ought to be very careful as to the certainties we form from insufficient evidences.
benny

W3 Day7

Small Is Beautiful
Energy is neither created nor destroyed. Recalling Einstein’s famous formula a small mass of matter when converted releases tremendous amount of energy. All that energy mankind has ever possessed or shall, owe to what was released at the time of the Big Bang.
Evolution in a manner of speaking is a transaction of so many species with energy as a bill of exchange. Naturalists reckon land animals under the existing conditions, could hold a weight of 100 tons but no animal has come anywhere near that mark. ‘Small is beautiful’ is the message the size of animals seems to indicate. Trimmer they are, less energy they shall need to expend we might say.
benny

The Man Who Could Hate Anything

'In the midst of Plenty' Bar was just the kind of therapy for me. I could meet all kinds of people and build up my shattered ego. I have been below par lately. I suffered from a low esteem. Sorry for this digression. For this story is about the man in a red blazing tie, almost loud enough to shatter my color sense.
I met the man slouched over his drink. His eyes struck me as infinitely sad. Having looked into mine he could not easily shake loose.
"Ah, I got you" I murmered with a touch of triumph. "My powerplay is having results" I said to myself as I moved towards him.
Always the opening line was as embarrassment for me as the one who was the recipient. Having made the move, I could not back out now! "A bold tactical move speaks for you" I quoted the 'Powerplay for the wimps'. I pulled up the chair and sat opposite to him. I wanted to touch upon the weather. Before the snot of conversational kerchief could come fluttering into view, I sidetracked; I said: "Nice tie". Almost I bit my tongue in embarrassment.
The stranger ran his fingers through his tie with a distaste and almost spat out:"This rag! I hate its color. Besides, it is too wide." He said it and his bilious eyes glided below his hooded lids. The pause was as painful to me as well as for him.
Gently I said:"Hate is a very powerful emotion. Is there anything you don't hate?"
"No!" he spat out. He downed his gin in one gulp and studied his nails as if he were seeing them for the first time. "I hate every thing. This drink that makes me bitter. I hate the weather that drove me into this awful joint."
For a full ten minutes he went on the monotonous litany of his hate which I could see was so pervasive that even the toothpicks neatly stocked before him in a chipped porcelain cup were not spared.
While his monologue seemed gaining second wind, I excused and said:"I hate to break up this meeting."
It somehow made the contact. The stranger streched his hand as if to say 'hold it'. “ You also hate then! That make you my soulmate!”
He turned to the bartender and beckoned him. "Hey Joey, here is my pal. We both have things to hate. What would you recommend?"
As the bartender took a trifle too long, the stranger leant to me and said in a whisper:"We both hate bartenders who are slow, don't we?"
I nearly choked and ran for life.
benny

W3 Day 6

JP Tells A Story
Jai Paramartha was a mystic who had a great following in the medieval India. Just as so many devotees came from far and wide to have a darshan or to be blessed by him there were critics too. Some scoffed him for he never fitted their idea of how a saint or mystic ought to be. Where the simple folks from both sides of River Godavari called him Master Light in reverence and affection there was anoher epithet that was hurled at him from some quarters. If anyone had called him Master Fool to his face he would have accepted it as a compliment. Why? He didn’t think he ought to to be labelled so easily. He was all things to all men.
Gampa Guru alias Jai Paramartha was so simple and profound that could not have had its source something that was not otherworldly. So much was beyond question or dispute. He was so different!
On one occasion he told a story.
“At the Creation Time each life form was allotted equal levels of energy to which behemoths complained. Their complaint was that they were the largest elephant-like creatures. “You have counted us equal with insects which are so many.” “Our energy level is same..”
“Trim yourself to make the most of it.” Advised the Keeper of the Celestial Park.
Taking heed of his advice they became in course of time, elephants which were half the size of their forefathers. Complaints of injustice did not come from the behemoths alone. Bees were angry too. They saw mites lolling whole day among the herds of cattle. They complained to the Celestial Keeper that holding same levels of energy with those lazy blood suckers was unfair. “We buzz all day and by sundown we are a wreck!”
“Make your constant toil, something to remember by.”
The result was that they began producing honey which pleased all. “Give them bees, whatever energy left of mine,” said bears who loved it above everything else.
“Why such kindness?” the Keeper could not understand.
“I am thinking of my cubs.” One wise old bear said,” perhaps self interest. Call what you will.”
Jai Paramartha told this story to a crowd who had come to hear his discourse. As the mystic came out one scoffed at it and said, “I don’t believe in such a thing as passing one’s energy level whatever left of it to another.”
Jai Paramartha flung his hand as if to strike him. Involuntarily the other raised his hands to block the blow. “Why do you pose like that?”
“Master I thought you meant to strike me.”
JP merely looked at him and passed on with a friendly smile. “I -a man of peace strike you! Hai Ram, Ram!.”
In every action and reaction energy is carried across. Every cause and every effect in the loom of Cosmic Nothingness works non-stop.
benny

W3 Day 5

Reinvent Experience
Merely because we live by a tight schedule to get things done within a nine to five working life it is unnecessary to count each minute; neither would a wordsmith be required to count alphabets before he sets down to write.
Our life unfolds before time in it inexorable march and we perform our tasks beneath the shadow of experience of our ancestors. Truth of their experience has fallen over us like the mantle of Elijah. Their follies and triumphs alike are woven into our patrimony. Instead of complaining of the smell of mothballs and sweat we could get it fit for our use and comfort.
2.

Howeversomuch complex it may be, our mind has encoded it and we experience it in the way we can benefit from. In terms of time and context.
Doesn’t our instinct illustrate the above? Every little ‘flight or flee’ question that our ancestors faced in the savannah has been compressed and stored in our mind: what we experience as adrenalin rush is a pointer to this fact. Only that we see now no open places to rush to when talk goes around at our workplace about redundancy.
Instead to a shrink, perhaps.
benny

W3 Day 4

Where Is The Accountant?
Carbon dating is a variety of radioactive dating which is applicable only to matter which was once living and presumed to be in equilibrium with the atmosphere, taking in carbon dioxide from the air for photosynthesis.
Plants and animals absorb carbon dioxide from the air as long as they live, taking in one c-14 atom to every million million c-12 atoms. When they die, their C-14 atoms begin to disintegrate although c-12 atoms do not. As the rate of c-14 is known and is not affected by external factors the age of the remains can be calculated.
Dating by tree rings: age of a felled tee can be calculated by counting its growth rings-one for every year of its life- which vary in width according to the weather and climate for the year. It is curious to notethe growth patterns are siimilar for individual tree species over a large area. The growth rings are compared against a master pattern to establish the felling year. Ack: How Is It Done-Reader’s Digest 1990) Various techniques have been devised by the scientists to calculate the age which could have been possible only because the Truth of Nature.
2.
As fragile as a leaf can show its material nature that time may not erase. We may study the vegetation of some 66 million years old from fossilized leaves. The fossils are formed out of what minerals and the vegetation give to the soil. Time covers them in dust which when settled, and it is a continuous process, it is sediment and the minerals contribute its own to transform it into rocks.
Into this natural and continuous process a decomposing matter no more than a leaf leaves its impress.
Every give and take transacted in a material universe, at any point of time and place is part of Oneness: the key to mysteries of our universe.
Tailpiece: If Nature demonstrates Truth in the way matter transacts business can we not persume that every experience of life forms will also form part and parcel of the universe?

benny

W3 Day 3 Truth Of Experience

A slice of life.
In 1955 My father packed my elder brother and me off to a boarding school, because of constant disruption in our studies following his frequent transfers. The school with all its Dickensian touches and rampant hypocrisy among the teachers who were more noted for their mediocrity and brutal punishments than fine qualities left me unscathed. Its regimental style in a manner suited me fine: I found some order in life. I made friends easily and extended my horizons due to the number of friends I made and kept.
Of two contacts in particular I shall mention here. Cyril was my brother’s classmate and Sam was of my age. They were not my friends exactly but kindred spirits. We went apart after we had completed our studies.
Cyril and Sam had completely vanished from my ken though I never lost a chance to enquire of my friends whenever I met any of my schoolfellows or boarders.
Well after almost half a century I came to Coonoor a place high in the Blue Mountains in the south India. It was purely by sheer accident that my wife and I set up home here. Before we left the lowlands we were all for making Ootacamund our home. Oh no, we changed it for Coonoor last minute.
After we had moved in Quail Hill, I found to my surprise both Sam and Cyril lived in the neighborhood. It was as they were waiting to pick up the threads from where we had left off. The Past indeed seeps through Present.
But would that mean one may go back into past? Or turn back time?
Truth of Experience keeps every experience of ife-forms distinct; how one may take lessons from experience shall be unique for each as explained by the story The House Of Joy.
2.

Siva the destroyer was resting under a large spreading tree. He had laid his couch over the grass and slept knowing that while he rested life will go on in its own sweet way. Unknown to him a hunter was chasing a bird through a forest and it in panic flew through the foliage of the tree. It disturbed a wasp’s nest, which made the wasps very mad. One stung the sleeping god. He was so enraged at it and opened his third eye balefully. Having scorched the fields and beyond he went back to his sleep.
When he got up he realized what he had done in a moment’s anger. He felt sorry and looked if he could do anything to make amends. “Is there anything I can do, brother wasp?” the Destroyer called out.
“I dunno,” the wasp replied and went on with his chores. It amazed Siva no little that there was nothing to show that he did scorch the earth. Grass grew thick and cattle were having a good time; so were every bird and the bees.
“Was I dreaming then?” the god could not help wondering.
Tailpiece: Actions have a life of their own. Chain of events which a life-form sets into motion will go on after it ceases to exist. What energy was spent by Siva in destroying part of the earth was made use of by life forms for their own ends.

benny

W3 Day 2

A Partial Account
A scholar who was for long abroad on archaeological trips finally returned home. There was a reception given to him by the Board of Trustees of Natural History Museum. The night was clear and warm. Under a starry sky the old scholar surrounded by many who came to see and hear him felt at ease. A reporter for the local newspaper wanted to know what made him give so much of his time and resources to a time dead and gone.
“Dead but not gone!” the old scholar replied. He clenched his fist and asked,” What makes it possible for me to do this?” “Your body of course.” “Where do you think that my body found its elements in the first place? Did it not come from stars?” the scholar asked.
“I guess so.” The reporter nodded,” We are made of stardust and all that.”
Catching the young reporter looking at the starry sky he asked, “What is the night sky lit up with? Does not light from stars dead and gone still reach us? Do we take them for dead?”
“I guess not.”
The scholar made his point. We are made by the past. The dead count as one with the living.
2

Dear and departed are not non-existent. We weep for them and then they are given a place in our hearts. Of course they have no longer an identifiable body as such. Still those atoms that made up their physical reality are deathless. What would that mean to us?
How we understand of death is from the land of living and is subjective:it is a reality only relevant to us. Hence it is partial.
The sunlight that we see has had an headstart of 8 minutes. Does that lapse of time mean anything to us? The light that we see at night is from stars millions of light years away. Some of them are dead and yet it makes no impact to us as the story in the beginning would indicate.
In short time as we know or understand time tells only in part.
benny

On Mother's Day

Mothers are the pages, which Nature turns when It wants to see the plot go somewhere.
Isn't boring if the story was entirely taken up with death and destruction of wars; or of ambition to possess and hold the power over destinies of man who might be well off without mischiefmakers interfering with his life unasked? Or think of those old goats, who with their wealth try to buy youth and innocence? Or avarice of old men trying to hoard up treasures they cannot take with them, or men trying to prove they are as good as gods? Nature allows them in its book for some variety. But what is the use of purple prose of visionary or the acidulous prose of the cynics if a mother can make the music of the soul with her presence? In her heartfelt birthpangs the story line is taken up once again and her struggles as single mother or as matriarch Nature sets much in store: these passages always hit the sublime.
benny

week-3

A Time To Sow, A Time To Reap

Time is experience. Period.

King Arthur And Merlin
King Arthur and his knights once stopped at the hut where Wizard Merlin used to retreat whenever he wished to purify his soul. It was deep in the forest and only known to the wizard and a very few of his servants. But to his shock there was the king on a morning breathless from his hard ride.
How had he found him out? Before he could ask the vistor, the king came to the point. He wanted Merlin to pray for the success of the mission.
“What mission?”
“ Search for the Giant from Kilkenny, who had made off with Five Virgins of the Abbey of Armagh Edon !” Merlin opened the breviary to read a word of counsel. The king in mud spattered boots stopped and he said,” No you just speak to the light there.”
Merlin looked at the royal master with amazement. There was the candle with its flame and set on a curiously wrought silver candlestick. “ That fire is pure and holy!” the king exulted while the knights who had traveled with him dropped on their knees in deep reverence.
The king exclaimed reverentially that it was common knowledge that the flame was lit on that Easter morning while the Lord of the Days had risen. The king would have bowed before the candle but a wind blew and the flame went out!
Bfore the shocked king could react the host said,” That is nothing sire!”.
The knights were all in shock and dismay while Merlin relit the candle. He asked them, ” The flame is back.” He tried to pacify the visitors who would not be comforted. They all were certain : “It is an evil sign and our quest is doomed. That is for sure!”
Merlin asked them to prove that second flame was different from the earlier. The king admitted it was impossible to prove. “Rightly so,” the wizard said with an emphasis.
He asked a little later how did the king find him out.
“This hut is only known to me and brother Terence, who is my servant.”
The king with a laugh said,” I am the Lord of the realm and the Master. Ternce may serve you but you serve me. Is it not?’
Merlin nodded. The king said,” Terence knows who his real master is. He shall never disobey my command.”
Truth of nature is like King Arthur. We may speak of time as if something straightforward from our point of view. We speak only from our experience. But is it all time signifies?
Tailpiece: King Arthur can only speak from his point of view and his religious sensibilities. What does he know of the reality of the candle or the flame?
What is Time like? Time is like Terence, who must obey material nature, the physical reality of our universe.

Week 2- Summary

To Recap
No man comes clean, pure, untainted by the experience of his universe. Take the mystery of our conception: the sperm that gets coalesced with the egg has sets of genetic code from both parents. But for all that do we not make much of ‘doing our own thing’ or ego trip? No matter how we are shaped by experiences existed before our coming into this world we hold ourselves as separate from them. I have my identity as distinct from yours.
Truth of nature is what gives us the certainty of our own individuality.
Truth is sovereign that directs our growth: howevermuch comforting our prenatal state may have been, do we wish to go back to it? We know in our very being we are not aquatic creatures but terrestrial beings.
Truth of nature of man’s material makeup also connects him to cosmos since all the elements in his material make-up have come from cosmos. In terms of experience of his primaeval past, nothing that his race has ever subscribed to or still practice shall be alien to him. It will require only an opportunity a chance incident for him to rediscover his past. Thus a Caucasian, all his life a dweller of the Bible belt in America, shall invent his past in many ways: what could he have in common with a bushman?
A bushman may go to his shaman and fall into trance. If the civilized Caucasian who is apt to think a liberal is worse than devil, go to a bar and get stone drunk is he not showing something of his past?

benny

W2 Day7

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.
2.
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

The House Of Joy

The city in Hebrew meant Golden Cradle. It stood along the caravan route between Luxor and Babylon. Many passed through its gates awed by its fabled wealth. The city had many attractions but what attracted these foot-weary strangers above all was the House of Joy. It belonged to a merchant prince who entertained in style. They found comfort and hospitality under his roof. The host knew most of them would never come back; still he did not cut corners. His lavish style was such some wondered, “Incredible for a merchant to throw his money away?” But the prince knew his fame spread as far as these strangers went.
One evening one Belshazzar by name came in but would not eat. The host pressed him to try various dishes but he excused himself that his appetite was killed by a sight which was before his line of vision. “I can see the fellow lying there, from where I sit.”
“So what, let him.” Mumbled his companion and went on gnawing at a chicken leg. “ I see now dogs licking at his sores.” The stranger almost threw up disgusted.
“Oh Lazarus, he makes himself obnoxious. One gets used to it with time,” commented the host with a smile.
He got up and left as fast as he could. Later when another stranger extolled the hospitality of the prince Belshazzar thought of Lazarus. He felt disgust and he made it very plain to the other. The one who was so taken in by hospitality at the House of Joy observed, “Well, it would seem we are talking altogether of two different things.” Yes they were.
No two persons shall perceive things as they are; neither will their emotions match exactly. Why? Each person is licked into shape by experience that holds subtle differences.
benny

W2 Day6

A Foothold Will Do
The way atoms are arranged will make a world of difference: graphite, diamond have their own uses: graphite is nothing much to kill for whereas man may murder in order to lay hands on the diamonds. Blood diamonds fuel politics in Africa that draws Europe into its dirty trail. Graphite was once an explosive item as diamonds are now. Monopoly over graphite led to bitter feud during the Napoleonic wars between Britain and France. No longer. Warfare of 19th Cenury has given over to ‘precision bombing’ of present day. Graphite may not be of military value that nations should go for a war over it. But still graphite has its uses. For instance if a pencil sketch of Picasso comes up for auction today do you think you and I can go over and make a bid for it?.
Carbon graphite and diamonds are rearrangement of same atoms. But difference in their molecular arrangement will determine the use and the quality: no matter what, it always without exception shall connect with many other.
Even lowly carbon has its worldwide ramifications: aren’t we now thrown into a dither because of a bogey of ‘carbon footprint’?
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

W2 Day5

Form and Function
Genetic material of man and bacteria are of same nature: Material nature. This nature gives both the wherewithal to respond to external stimuli.
Humans as a species would require all the skills it can get in order to adjust to the vagaries of its environment. Different strains of bacteria have evolved with human species (ref: Week-1 To Recap. Section 2) and yet would have different skills than we humans. Because they have different priorities than we have.
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.
2.
Material nature of cosmos expresses oneness. 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 (i.e. mycorrhizae) live among plants. Fungus receives 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.
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

W2 Day 4

Horse Sense

King Vikrama of Vijayanagar was once traveling through a mountainous region. It was a desolate country and his horse suddenly became nervous. The reason soon became clear as two figures came towards them. The king patted the mane of his horse and whispered softly, ”It is alright. It is father and son.” The horse just froze in fright.
The king knew that the beast had reason to be afraid. He could spot a ghost a mile away. Just as his master. There stood a man in disguise of a traveler who the king knew was a spirit all right. But it was the son who made the horse most frightened. The beast crouched on all fours while the boy now came in a trot towards him. He sniffed him all over and whinnied. The boy acted as if he were a horse!
Meanwhile the father held out his hand. The king pressed a coin into his palm that to his amazement he threw away.
“I was a king in previous life,” the ghost said, “ Never mind these vile dress of mine. I am a ghost who could not find a body except that of a beggar.”
Soon the boy was prancing around the beggar pulling him in all directions. Harried the man requested Vikrama to remove his horse away. “This boy is a spirit too, that of a horse.” “That makes sense.” The king exclaimed, he sees now a real horse and wants to be also one.”
King Vikrama quickly rode away.
The horse could well recognize truth of nature of its kind though it had changed its outer form. What makes us know another is similarly by truth of our nature. Our humanness signifies it.
benny

W2 Day 3

Oneness Of Cosmos
Scientists believe there are immense voids stretching across the universe where no matter seems to exist. No light seems to shine from its yawning centre either. A black hole perhaps? Similar to what is observed in our own galaxy? Existence of such ‘bubbles’ of contrariness in the middle of cosmic radiation ought to warn us how we define matter.
Cosmos is not something straightforward. Matter, thus in a material universe shall be dark matter or anti-matter for that matter. Even so material nature expresses oneness using this very asymmetry just as the tilt in the earth regulates seasons.
Galaxies move across other galaxies without colliding. Similarly matter rarely crash into anti-matter causing total annihilation. Material nature operating with totally opposing values like matter and anti-matter is not for creating nothingness but Oneness. It is positive in quality.
benny

A Two-in-one Conundrum

A fast moving hurricane will have scant rainfall but its speed would be very high. A slow moving hurricane will have less wind speed 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.
2.
Anomaly of Matter by way of a quick explanation, I shall illustrate by the property of light. Light according to the classic Newtonian model is a series of waves. Whereas in Quantum physics we understand light as particles. Can light be both a wave and a particle?
In terms of human species I shall merely point out multicultural society of mankind underscores the true meaning of homo sapiens or the wise ones. Every quirk in him or emphases placed by societies on certain attitude to life or death, and beliefs must be absorbed in the totality of the species.
It would require wisdom.
Before the Truth of Nature no Caucasian is preferred over a Bushman or a Brahmin over Moslem or a Jew over a Buddhist.
benny

Week-2 Anomaly Of Matter

The Egg And I ©
An Indian fakir who performed the famous rope tricks in various parts of India came to Europe at the turn of the last century. Having hit a bad patch and reduced to do menial tasks he managed to get a job as a sandwich man, carrying advertisements on his front and back.
In 1901 he was in the Swiss capital. One summer evening he was coming and almost hit against one who was pushing a baby carriage but seemed to be lost in thought. He got around to talk to the young man who brightened up to see a fakir from the east. “Is it true that you believe Reality is a void?” he asked. The fakir answered.” That all depends upon what Reality you are looking for? There or here? Reality of today or of yesterday?”
Asked to make himself clearer he said: “My rope trick, which is nothing really, but out there makes me live a princely life? But here, it is so hard even with wit!”
The young man asked, “How does Reality change from day to day?” “See what I carry on back today? Yesterday it was at the front. One is for dairy products and the other for cuckoo clocks. Two products that have no connection with one another except in my person.“
The young father would have kept the conversation going but the baby began to cry and the Indian pointed him to the fact. “Ah, yes the baby. Thanks.”
“By the way what is your name?
“Einstein.”
2.
The star, SN2006gy is 150 times the mass of the sun. It has provided the spectacular fireworks show about five times brighter than any of the hundreds of supernovae ever seen before,
The discovery, announced Monday by NASA, drew oohs and aahs for months from the handful of astronomers who peered through telescopes to see the fuzzy remnants of the spectacular explosion after it was first spotted last fall.
And even at 240 million light years away, this star in a distant galaxy does suggest that a similar and relatively nearby star — one 44 quadrillion miles away — might blow in similar fashion any day now or 50,000 years from now, Smith said. It wouldn't threaten Earth, but it would be so bright that people could read by it at night, said University of California at Berkeley astronomer David Pooley. However, it would only be visible to people in the Southern Hemisphere, he said.( AP. May 7)

Material nature of matter being consistent Truth of nature will give a star its own signature as man will impress on his times and place. He doesn’t bring anything new except that he works with chains of events already in motion. Does he control events or is he being carried along by the force of events? It is a 64 million dollar question which has not been answered as yet. Like the Indian fakir he has to reconcile many of his experiences in the light of hard times.
Take the case of the most celebrated scientist of our times: Einstein made us rethink of our universe away from the Newtonian model. How did he fare in the latter part of his career? Did he for all that astounding feat ever achieved by man succeed in the holy grail of Theory About Everything? No, he made himself a relic of the past by fighting against the Quantum Physics which he helped to bring about. Only that younger scientists like Niels Bohr, Heisenberg went on with their valuable researches that had more to do with the need of the hour, made vital by his pioneeirng discovery.
In short Truth of nature shall not be controlled by any man or nation however highminded or brilliant or powerful be.

benny

To Recap

To Recap:
We make much of the term Self, as sacrosanct; in most of enlightened progressive societies an idividual’s right to opinions is considered inviolable. Rightly so. If I cannot consider myself as representation, an entity, whole and complete in what way I can be responsible for my actions?
Man as the key to understand what is wrong with our society.
Only we need to keep one point in mind always: each of us is forged on the assembly line of past and what time-space of our universe has contributed to finetune us may not be as obvious as our immediate context. Yes the country that give birth to us, our homes within which we all had found our role models and schools are very crucial. These may loom large as to give us a false sense of security so patriotism is an excuse enough for some to stay stunted and for another his pedigree merely whitewashes his woefully inadequate personal qualities.
Man is connected with every matter that make up our observable universe. A single example would be sufficient to illustrate the truth: a meteorite could impact in any part of the globe and wipe away the smugness of any complacent man who like Candide who believes that he lives in the best of worlds.
2.
Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms believed to have been the first living things on Earth. According to Dr. Martin Blaser of New York University School of Medicine: the bacteria have been with us for quite a while and some are helpful. The researchers noted that microbes in the body actually outnumber human cells 10-to-1. Our microbes are actually, in essence, a part of our body," Blaser said.
"Without good bacteria, the body could not survive," added Dr. Zhan Gao, a scientist in Blaser's lab involved in the study. Blaser avers that " Some bacteria seemed to be permanent residents of the skin, with four genera -- Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Propionibacteria and Corynebacteria -- accounting for a bit more than half the population. Others were more transient. It would seem each person has a distinct signature in terms of core set of bacteria that would reside on permanent basis. "Microbes have been living in animals probably for a billion years. And the microbes that we have in our body are not accidental. They have evolved with us," Blaser said.( Reuters- will dunham 1-5-07)
Tailpiece: Perhaps President Bush may excuse for his fiasco in his war on terror for the cocktail of streptococcus and Corynebacteria being incompatible?
benny

Man As The Key

W1.Day 7
What does the principle of similitude teach us of our species? Man is the key to understand mankind.I shall place two quotations to explain.
For the secularly minded let me cite the famous quote of Terence: I am a man and nothing pertaining to man is alien to me. For those who follow the Scriptures I shall quote Apostle St.Paul: ’For as in Adam all die, evenso in Christ shall be all made alive. (1 Cor.15 : 22)
benny

Material Nature

1. 6th Day

If Law is to be consistent and unequivocal there must be a basis that is unchangeable: a framework within which laws could operate. Law is sovereign and absolute.
No life form can be said to be equal to the task since life forms are changing and corporeal.

2.
Matter is the substance of which physical objects are composed. It constitutes the observable universe. Laws, which we associate with universe are unchangeable.
But is matter consistent? Dark matter, anti-matter and the whole gamut of fundamental particles like quarks and leptons, these are dimensionless points. There is a tendency to regard manifestations of energy, such as light and sound, as not being material. However in physics the distinction is difficult to enforce. According to the theory of relativity matter and energy can be converted into one another. (ack: wikipedia)
If changeable how it could be qualified as absolute? In order to get on with my point let me say thus: Material nature that allows matter to hold different states, which is observable is an absolute. Howso? It governs energy that cannot be created or destroyed. For the time being I shall rest the sovereignty of Law, Divine or otherwise onto the Material Nature. Material Nature is sovereign because Law is enforceable since energy will be expended or gained. ( Every action has a reaction that is equal: Such a fundamental simpleforward law must transact with energy, as small bills of exchange.)
Tailpiece: Law requires muscle, and how it could be held up as divine if God ( to use a familiar term) did not have the Will or Might? Yes, Material Nature has its writ over all observable universe.

Truth Of Nature

Scientists made an unexpected discovery several years ago that Mercury has a small magnetic field.
This discovery by the Mariner 10 spacecraft puzzled them, who believed that because of its small size the planet's core had long ago solidified. But the most common explanation for a magnetic field is a molten interior, such as on Earth. The Moon and Mars, for example, show evidence only of ancient magnetic fields.
The Messenger spacecraft is on its way to Mercury and is expected to arrive next year, but in the meantime researchers led by Jean-Luc Margot, an assistant professor of astronomy at Cornell University, launched their own attempt to learn about the planet's core. Researchers have cracked a mystery at the core of Mercury — and say there's molten fluid inside the tiny planet. They did it by using the same trick as cooks who want to know if an egg is raw or hard-boiled. Spin the egg. A hard-boiled egg with a solid interior will spin smoothly, a raw one with a liquid center will wobble.
Material nature keeps the nature of an egg true, hard boiled or not,- and can be used to understand nature of another material object because of its material consistency. In short Truth of Nature.
Principle of similitudes
This principle is based on the truth of nature: a grain of sand will prove to be the key for understanding a mountain and a flower for a rain forest for an example.
benny

Laws Of Nature

W1. Day 5

In 2005, the first evidence of the existence of the organic blocks of life were found by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telesope in an young sunlike star. Now we are told of the existence of an earth-like planet that could potentially harbor life.
We know many stars are rich in iron, having swallowed so many asteroids and meteorites. Scientists worked out from computer simulations 85 systems that could harbor life. Whether a planet like ours will ever be found is beside the point. Let our own history be our guide.
Within Milky Way, a stellar nursery created conditions for the earth to tease organic molecules-acetylene and hydrogen cyanide which when combined with water gave rise to several amino acids needed to form proteins. It also formed one of the four chemical letters or bases called adenine.
In short, the primordial ooze of our earth’s ocean set conditions for life: whichever planet may duplicate similar conditions life could be possible there.
2.
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?
Tailpiece:
Speaking of Laws can there be two standards, one for the rich and another for the poor? One for the colored and another for non-colored? One for the obese and another for the thin?
Speaking for mankind all would agree that Law is the same for all. Our laws are dispensed by humans, and its ambit, covering the whole species. Such natural laws represent an absolute standard. We call it Divine Law.
benny

Just Passing Thru

W1 Day 4
If all life forms as well as celestial bodies are evolved out of interstellar gases and dust do we have a specific centre? In order to understand this question I shall give an analogy from my background: my father being a career banker was constantly shifted from place to place. As he made a name for himself the places where he was sent also became more important. At the end of his career he held a rather vital position, and we lived in a big city with all the perks that my father could command.
Because of such disruption in the lives my sisters, brothers and myself I do not have any emotional attachment to the town where I incidentally came to be born. Neither do I have any particular bond with other places where I did schooling and made friends. Because of the nomadic existence I had no difficulty when I went to the Netherlands in 1997. Holland was more like a stopover as India was. If India and the Netherlands are alien places do I feel myself at home anywhere? Yes, where I have made my home at any given moment.
We may be terrestrial creatures yet our parts are strewn all over Cosmos.
2.
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.
Can we just pack up and go as we do here on earth, on a lark?
Tailpiece: Regarding that specific centre that defines my cosmic ancestry we all are unique whether we are identical twins or not. You cannot occupy my point; neither can I occupy yours. It is shown in the subtle differences of our viewpoints and personalities.
benny

Where Do We Come From?

W1.3rd Day

In standard astronomy, the Big Bang produced hydrogen, helium, and traces of lithium, while all heavier elements are synthesized in stars and supernovae. Supernovae tend to enrich the surrounding interstellar medium with metals, which for astronomers means all of the elements other than hydrogen and helium and is a different definition than that used in chemistry.

A supernova is a relatively rare event occurring, on average, only once every 50 years in a galaxy the size of the Milky Way. However, supernovae have a significant role in enriching the interstellar medium with heavy elements, and the expanding shock waves from these explosions can trigger the formation of new stars. ( ack: wikipedia)

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

Worth Of An Enemy

1.2nd Day

Of what use is a friend? A friend is one whom you could talk to without any reservation and treat and cherish as an equal. He or she is one in whose presence you could be just yourself. A friend will not judge you or control you and friendship grows because both have created conditions for each other to grow. Yes, with a friend you can let your hair down.
Of what use is an enemy then? Will you not guard your speech and revise your behavior when your enemy is about? You do not want to confer any advantage to him or her so that your enemy may profit at your expense. An enemy sets you on the go mode and at workplace you may do whatever within your power to overtake him.
Consider an enemy as the tool that makes you shape up. You are watchful so he or she doesn’t get anything past you. If your rival acts contrary to your interests will you not immediately act to neutralize its effect? An enemy keeps you on your toes! An enemy one might conclude makes you and I advance: If such is the case you will agree he or she has uses.
An enemy could be said to be a ‘friend’ under extra ordinary circumstances.
2.
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. Tiger sharks 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.
A coral reef is an example of predators and prey coexisting: schools of parrotfishes 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 that 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.
Ways of the world: #1
My neighbor makes himself a pest and is out to pick a fight with me. Luckily he has neighbors too whom I can use to my advantage.
benny

Naked And Blind Are We

Is there anything that we brought into this world? No, nothing.
Do we take anything out of this world as we pass the gate? Nothing.
Naked we came as everyone before us and all that we claim of having done we are leaving for others to enjoy.
Yet we pay estate tax, put up with fools and pay lipservice to customs and blind gods of our making.
Never mind. While we have our being we fool ourselves that we are very relevant.
2.

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.
benny