taoweblog
http://20six.de/taoweblog
powered by 20six.de
|
|
your innermost being
In England there has been a very influential group and in America also: Christian Science. A young man whose father was a member of a Christian Science group was asked, "What is the problem, your father has not been seen for three weeks?" They were meeting every Sunday. The young man said, "It is difficult; he is very sick." The old man said, "Nonsense, sickness is only a belief, imagination! And he is an old member of our group. We don't believe in sickness, just remind him, `You are not sick!'" He said, "I will remind him." After two weeks they met again. The old man said, "What happened, he has not come?" The young man said, "What can I do? Now he believes he is dead." The body has to become sick, the body has to become dead also. One should think of experiencing the spiritual, the eternal, the immortal. One should not waste time on such stupid ideologies, which have been prevalent all over the world. There are people, simple people, who immediately think that miracles can happen. And the greatest problem is that if you are very trusting something can happen. Seventy percent of sicknesses are illusory; they are only because you believe you are sick. That's why seventy percent of people are helped by any kind of medical approach other than allopathy -- even simple sugar pills work, the scientific name of which is homeopathy. Only thirty percent of diseases cannot be cured by your trust. They are really diseases; they need right diagnosis and right treatment. First find yourself. That's exactly what Socrates said, "Healer, first heal thyself." First know thyself. Unless you know yourself all is fiction -- your sickness, your health, both are meaningless because the reality is the grave. Perhaps somebody will die from disease and somebody will die with spiritual healing. It makes no difference. The only difference that makes a difference is that when death comes, in your innermost being you are absolutely alert and aware of your immortality. That is the only real healing: real being. These are just childish games, and because people want something great to happen to them, anybody can convince them: "Look, great things have started happening." Great things happen, but not through anybody else. You have to follow the path absolutely alone. An authentic experience that makes you free from mind and from body -- anything else does not matter. Police Officer O'Leary is cruising around in his patrol car one night. He is on the lookout for trouble. He sees two little old ladies in the front seat of a Chevrolet convertible, parked in a used car lot. The car lot is closed so O'Leary drives up alongside the Chevy and asks, "Are you two ladies trying to steal this car?" "Certainly not," says one of the ladies, "we purchased the car this afternoon." "Well," says the cop, "why don't you start it up and drive out of here?" "We don't drive," replies the other little old lady. "And besides we are waiting. We were told that if we bought a car here we would get screwed." People are just waiting in used car lots. Arriving home from school one day Herschel Goldberg asked his father, Hymie, if he can take their dog Petunia for a walk. "No," says Hymie, "you can't because she is in heat." "What? What does `in heat' mean?" asks Herschel. "Don't be worried about what it is," replies Hymie. "Anyway I have just thought of a way to fix the situation." So Hymie goes into the garage and gets a rag, pours some gasoline over it and then wipes Petunia's tail with it. "Okay," says Hymie, "now you can take her for a walk." Herschel is delighted and disappears down the street. But an hour later he returns without Petunia. "What happened?" asks Hymie. "Where is Petunia?" "Well," replies Herschel, "everything was fine for a while. She was playing with me and my friend Irving when all of a sudden she ran out of gas. So now Irving's dog is pushing her home."
|
|
|
... not by a Rolls Royce
There is no need for one being a part of an organized religion. One can be simply religious. The quality of being religious is totally free from any organizational structure. Every drug is against meditation. It gives an illusion which is dangerous. One can get addicted to it. Taoism is based on three L's: love, life, laughter. Suicide is for cowards, those who cannot enjoy life. If you love someone you want to offer something, knowing perfectly well that love cannot be expressed -- not by a roseflower, not by a Rolls Royce. But still the heart yearns to offer something to the person you love. Love always wants to give. So the whole taoistic experience of life is for taking the risk. Taoism is not an ordinary religion like other religions. It is a kind of religiousness. It is not Christianity, it is not Judaism, it is not something fixed, dead, defined. It is an open and growing experience. It has no belief systems. It gives every individual total freedom, no bondage. So it is difficult to call it religion. You can put it as a religionless religion. Meditative, having all the qualities which religiousness should have except an organized and dead system of beliefs. So we cannot call Taoism religion but we can call Taoism a way of life, a way of religiousness. People who are interested in meditation -- in going in -- are not interested in fighting in the courts, in fighting with the politicians. That is not their interest, they are not political, and they are not interested in unnecessarily wasting their time. Once they become attuned to their inner being, they will become settled, they will become centered, and then it will be possible for them to deal with these realities also. Taoism simply means a way of meditation and a life of joy and rejoicing. It is accepting to create your life into a blissfulness. Taoism is a religionless religion. It has no dogma, no creed, no catechism. It gives freedom to the individual, not a bondage, not a conditioning. It is really a program of deprogramming. To go inwards is the most difficult journey in the world. It needs a certain atmosphere, a certain milieu. One great mathematician was working on a thesis to prove that mathematics is a complete science -- the only complete science. And Bertrand Russell sent him a small puzzle, that "Before you publish your book, please answer this puzzle." The puzzle was that every library of the nation is told to make a list, a catalog of all the books in the library. Make two catalogs, one will remain in the library, and the other has to be sent to the central library of the country. Now the question arose in one of the librarian's, "What we have to do about this one catalog that remains in the library, whether to include it in the catalog or not? Because it is book in the library, and all the books have to be included in the catalog." He was very much puzzled. He inquired the central library what to do. The central library was itself in a great puzzle, because they were making two catalogs -- one that was going to be in the central library and one that was going to the king. The same question was again there: what to do with the catalog in the library. You cannot put it in the other catalog, because it is only a catalog. But you have to put it because it is a book also, and it is in the library. The mathematician who was working on the thesis was Gödel, one of the greatest mathematician of the last century. Because he could not solve his problem, he did not publish his book.
|
|
|
he could not force any woman to marry him
One Mohammedan emperor -- who was a little bit crazy -- loved a young woman and wanted her consent to marry him. In Mohammedan marriages the priest asks the woman three times, "Are you, of your own accord, without being forced, ready to marry this man?" And the woman has to say yes three times. If she does not say it, the marriage is not possible. So even the Mohammedan emperor could not force any woman to marry him. He was persuading this woman, but she was not willing. One day he went to see the woman and he found her in the arms of a young man. They were hugging each other with a great joy. He brought both of them to the court and ordered that they should be tied to a pole in a hugging position, and for twenty-four hours they had to hug each other. Now, hugging for a few minutes is okay but twenty-four hours of hugging -- and that too, while tied to a pole, no way to get away.... The pleasure changed into pain, into such intense pain -- because in twenty-four hours' time they pissed over each other, defecated. It was stinking. And after twenty-four hours they were released, but it is said that the young man escaped from the city and never came to see the woman. The prime minister of the emperor said to him, "This is a strange kind of punishment, we have never heard of it." The king said, "This is real punishment. Those two people are not going to see each other again. These twenty-four hours have been almost twenty-four lives for them!" Stinking and tied together, hugging was forgotten long ago. Now the only question was how to get free from the hands of this woman, and the woman was also thinking how to get free. But they were tied and they could not. Pleasure can be changed into pain. This is why almost all the couples in the world are in pain, in misery. They are tied together by marriage, which is for a longer period than twenty-four hours, and soon they start being fed up with each other.How long can you look at the same nose, and how long can you praise it? Soon, very soon, all the beauty of the woman disappears, all the greatness of the man, the heroship disappears. And they suddenly find that now they are tied together and the society makes it impossible to be free again. Their pleasure has turned into a lifelong misery. So these opposites are not opposites. The vice versa also happens: the miserable man by and by starts having a certain pleasure in his misery. All polar opposites are parts of each other. They are complementary and can change into each other. There is something beyond the polarities. And that's Tao. Enlightenment has no polar opposite to it. Unenlightenment is not the polar opposite of enlightenment; it is only the absence of enlightenment.
|
|
|
And the miracle is...
You can close your eyes -- that does not mean that the sun has disappeared; it is still there. And everybody is trying to close his eyes; the sun is too glaring. Believe it is not there. These pseudo-religions are trying to teach you exactly that: Try to reach to God, try to reach heaven, follow Jesus Christ. But none of them says don't follow anybody and don't look for any paradise or heaven because this is all trying to deceive yourself. Encounter yourself, face yourself. Have a one hundred and eighty-degree turn. Look into the chaos that is there, into the agony that is there. And if it is your nature, then howsoever painful it is, we have to become acquainted with it. And the miracle is, it is painful to pass through it but it is just the greatest bliss when you have passed and reached the centre of your being. Agony is all around the centre, and the ecstasy is just in the centre. Perhaps agony is just a protective shell -- ecstasy is so valuable it needs protection. And nature has created such a protective wall, what to say of others? -- even you start running away from it. Who is going to enter into your agony if you yourself are running away? The moment you think of it, agony seems to be a tremendous gift of nature. It changes its whole colour, its fragrance, its meaning. It is a protective wall, so protective that even you start running away from it. Don't run away from yourself whatever the case may be. A man's mettle is judged by his entering into his own inner chaos. You are worthy to call yourself human beings when you have reached to the centre and you can see from the centre, around yourself. You are blissful -- not only are you blissful, from the centre the whole existence is blissful too. Agony and ecstasy are two sides of your being. They both make you one organic unity, one whole. How to get rid of agony, that's what pseudo-religions have been telling you for centuries. Once you are in love with the chaos, the freedom that chaos brings, the unbounded space that chaos brings, enter into it till you reach the centre. To find oneself is to find all. Then there is nothing missing, and then there is no question left. Then for the first time you have the answer. Although you cannot convey the answer to anybody else, you can convey the way you found it. And once you know the taste of ecstasy, your whole life, for the first time, has something that can be called godliness. A new quality arises in you, a new flare, a new flame. But that is our nature, everybody's nature. Fortunately all streams reach finally to the ocean. The small, the big, somehow or other they all find their way to the oceanic. And this oceanic feeling is the religious feeling. When your small drop drops into the ocean.... In one sense you are no more. In one sense you are for the first time. On one hand there is death, and on the other hand there is rebirth.
|
|
|
Who is it?
Truth has to be paid for. You have to sacrifice much. It is not cheap. Once upon a time there was a parrot who could say only three little words: "Who is it?" One day when the parrot was alone in the house there was a loud knock on the door. "Who is it?" screeched the parrot. "It is the plumber," the visitor responded. "Who is it?" repeated the parrot. "It is the plumber, I tell you," was the reply from the outside. "You called me to tell me your cellar was flooded." Again the parrot called, "Who is it?" By this time the plumber became so angry that he fainted. A neighbour rushed over to see the cause of the commotion and, gazing at the unfamiliar face of the prostrate plumber, he asked, "Who is it?" The parrot answered, "It is the plumber." The pundit is a parrot, and a very foolish parrot at that, because parrots can be forgiven, but human beings cannot be forgiven so easily. The first lesson is to know that you don't know. In India it is very difficult. Knowledge has become part of the Indian blood. For centuries they have been like parrots, repeating shastras, scriptures -- memorizing -- not knowing anything but feeling very egoistic that they know. If you are interested in the masses you have to be manipulated by the masses. If you want to become a man of the masses, the whole mass interferes with you. They teach you how you should sit and how you should stand and what you should say and what you should not say and what you should eat and what you should not eat and when you should go to bed and when you should get up. They teach you everything. This is very ironical that the people who think they are leaders of the masses and gurus of the masses in fact are the slaves of the masses. The masses teach them how to be. They don't have any freedom. And the masses go on looking from everywhere: "Are you really following what the mass wants to be followed? Are you really following the idea of the mass, what a saint should be like?" Or if you are not following, then you become a fallen saint; then you are a sinner. Never interfere with anybody's life, and don't allow anybody to interfere with your life. Be individualistic.
|
|
|
the Bandwagon effect
The Bandwagon effect: Actions seem more apropos if others are doing it, and things seem more desirable when others want them. To avoid this, separate your level of interest from the desires of others. This seems to be a case which raises the question of whether it is possible for most/all people to glean an absolute value for what they desire. Interest in consumer items does not fall out of the sky. Instead it is created within a certain milieu. It seems difficult to separate the desire from the context. For example, this problem arises when contemporary people consider their need for souped-up computers. The actual need for any of the functions such devices serve is tough to determine, since the functions themselves (e.g., sending email) may be a kind of consumer product. A white lab coat doesn’t make anyone an expert: The trappings of authority can be abused in order to convince. That does not suggest a way to avoid this. Clearly it should be that if you finding yourself accepting a statement, ask yourself if it is because the person making it really has any special authority on the issue, or rather that they just seem like an authority. The same should be said about body language, tone of voice, and so on: people abuse authoritative presentation with real authority. Rare doesn’t always mean valuable: The harder it is to obtain, the more value we place on its attainment. E.g. Hearing that something is out of stock because it is such a huge seller makes it more likely that you will pay premium prices for it. To combat this, ask yourself if you would still want an item if there were a warehouse full of them. A minor problem here is that demand can be guide to the value of an item. Word gets around, people read “Consumer Reports,” and so on. The real issue is whether one is just being told that there is high demand for a product. A colour pie chart does not make it true: Facts should be evaluated on their own, regardless of whether they appear in or are accompanied by printed material. I’m on your side:
Salespeople can manufacture trust in a loaded situation, then use that trust to make a sale. For example, she will apparently risk making a sale. 
|
|
|
Gott-Göttliches- Macht
Heidelberg University published in 1987 the German researcher's N. Josephson book entitled 'GREEK LINGUISTIC ELEMENTS IN THE POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES - GREEK PACIFIC' in which exist comparative catalogues between 808 Hellenic words and their corresponding Polynesian ones. This linguistic influence at the Pacific Ocean islands was provoked, according to Josephson, around 950 B.C. by Greek colonists.... Teo tihua cán = Theos-Thia-Kani= Gott-Göttliches- Macht, TheosThiaKani ist griechisch!!! Die Geschichte ist anders verlaufen als wir in den Schulen lernen. Diese erwiesene und von jedem zu überprüfende Aussage ist von einer weltbewegenden Bedeutung. Wahrscheinlich wird es von den Lesern nur belächelt werden. Die CHUETSUA Indianer sprechen griechisch!!! Prüft nach. Fragt einen Indianer und einen Griechen! Auch in HAWAI sprechen sie Griechisch. Fragt einen, der die Sprache spricht. SURROUNDING THE PHYSICAL BODY IS A PROTECTIVE ELECTRO-MAGNETIC FIELD, COMPOSED OF RADIATIONS FORMED BY ALL THE BODIES OF MAN. THE AURA APPEARS AS A FOUNTAIN OF ENERGY AND WHEN RADIATING COMPETENTLY HAS A DEFINITE AND REGULAR SHAPE. AURAS ARE ABSORBERS, SOAKING UP VIBRATIONS FROM EVERYTHING AROUND -- THE SUN, MOON, ANIMALS, PLANTS, STONES AND PEOPLE. THEY DEVELOP AS THE CONSCIOUSNESS DEVELOPS. THE WORD `AURA' COMES FROM THE GREEK WORD `AVRA', WHICH MEANS BREEZE. It is certainly like a breeze. You cannot see it but you can feel it. THE AURIC FIELDS OF THE ASTRAL AND MENTAL BODIES EXTEND MUCH FURTHER FROM THE PHYSICAL BODY THAN THAT OF THE ETHERIC BODY, WHICH STANDS OUT NO MORE THAN A HALF INCH OR SO. THE UNDULATING FLOW AND RHYTHMICALLY SHIMMERING COLOR OF THE MENTAL AND ASTRAL BODIES GIVE THE IMPRESSION THAT THEY ARE MOVED BY A BREEZE. IN PEOPLE, WHEN THE ACTIVITY OF THE BEING IS INTENSIFIED, AS DURING MEDITATION, ITS ENERGIES POUR THROUGH THE FIELDS OF THE MENTAL, ASTRAL AND ETHERIC BODIES, INCREASING THEIR SIZE AND THE BRILLIANCE OF THEIR COLORS. AURAS ARE OFTEN DEPICTED AS A FIELD OF FLAMES SURROUNDING THE PHYSICAL BODY.
|
|
|
all pointed to that statement
In a small school, the teacher was talking about Jesus as the greatest man in history. For half an hour or more she talked about Jesus, around and around, not exactly making the pronouncement that he was the greatest man in history, but all her arguments pointed to that statement. Then finally she asked a small boy -- he was American -- to stand up. "Who is it?" He said, "Abraham Lincoln." She was shocked. She said, "It is good, but not perfect. Sit down." She asked another boy. He said, "Winston Churchill." She said, "Not bad, but not right either. Just sit down." And that way she went around the class. It was an international school, so everybody was talking -- somebody about Lenin, somebody about Mao Zedong, somebody about Mahatma Gandhi. She was puzzled. She had been talking about Jesus and nobody was answering, "Jesus." Then finally she came to a small boy, Jewish. She was worried that he would say Moses. But you know Jews.... The little boy stood up and said, "Jesus Christ." She said, "Absolutely perfect!" But she was puzzled a little; this boy was a Jew. So after the class she took him aside and asked him, "Are you not a Jew?" He said, "Yes, I am a Jew." "Then why did you say that Jesus Christ was the greatest man in history?" He said, "In my heart of hearts I know Moses was the greatest man in history, but business is business!"
All the religions, all the societies, are corrupting people. You are coming from a world which has been guiding you on every step. Do you know, Gautama Buddha's scriptures have thirty-three thousand principles for the Buddhist monk? Even to remember them is impossible. Thirty-three thousand principles, for every detail of life! The smallest detail of life is determined. You have to follow it, otherwise you are guilty. You can have only three pieces of clothing. It may be a very cold winter and you may need something warmer, but that is not in accordance with the principles, because all woollen things come from the hair of animals. While taking that hair from the animals you are hurting those animals, and you are leaving them without fur in winter. Only in winter does that hair grow to protect them from the cold. All the year round they don't care about their fur, but just as winter starts coming closer, the fur becomes thicker. It is a natural protection for the poor animals, and you are cutting their fur exactly in the middle of the winter when it is the biggest and the best. You are leaving them without fur in the cold winter of the mountains, in the Himalayas, where snow is falling. Buddha prohibited it: you should not use any woollen clothes. 
|
|
|
Kahlil Gibran writes in “The Prophet”: ALMUSTAFA, THE CHOSEN AND THE BELOVED, WHO WAS A DAWN UNTO HIS OWN DAY, HAD WAITED TWELVE YEARS IN THE CITY OF ORPHALESE FOR HIS SHIP THAT WAS TO RETURN AND BEAR HIM BACK TO THE ISLE OF HIS BIRTH. AND IN THE TWELFTH YEAR, ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF IELOOL, THE MONTH OF REAPING, HE CLIMBED THE HILL WITHOUT THE CITY WALLS AND LOOKED SEAWARD; AND HE BEHELD HIS SHIP COMING WITH THE MIST. THEN THE GATES OF HIS HEART WERE FLUNG OPEN, AND HIS JOY FLEW FAR OVER THE SEA. AND HE CLOSED HIS EYES AND PRAYED IN THE SILENCES OF HIS SOUL. BUT AS HE DESCENDED THE HILL, A SADNESS CAME UPON HIM AND HE THOUGHT IN HIS HEART: HOW SHALL I GO IN PEACE AND WITHOUT SORROW? He has seen -- the ship is coming. Now you can see the human frailty, the dilemma: this world is known; that ship is still surrounded in mist. And one never knows where it is going to land you. From the moment you became my fellow travellers, has not the question arisen in your mind, time and again: "Where is this pilgrimage going to end?" As he comes closer to the earth, as he comes closer to the outer world, as he comes closer to the flowers and the stars, a problem: How shall I go in peace... without sorrow? -- in a ship one knows nothing about. You cannot even see the ship clearly, it is surrounded in mist; how can you see the other shore? It is absolutely invisible. And who knows whether there is any other shore? Because nobody has ever returned from the other shore to give you an eyewitness account. HOW SHALL I GO IN PEACE....? -- he's torn apart -- AND WITHOUT SORROW? and for many reasons. NAY, NOT WITHOUT A WOUND IN THE SPIRIT SHALL I LEAVE THIS CITY. The world of our experiences, the world of our bodily pleasures, the world of our mind, its flights...."How shall I leave? So much beauty on one side -- which is tangible; I can touch it, I can feel it -- and I'm to leave all this for something unknown, intangible, invisible." You can understand; putting yourself in his place, the heart will be torn apart. It will be almost the anguish of "To be, or not to be?" because all that you are, your roots, are here in this earth.
LONG WERE THE DAYS OF PAIN I HAVE SPENT WITHIN ITS WALLS. He's not unaware of the fact: "In this city, which is known to me... anguish, anxiety. AND LONG WERE THE NIGHTS OF ALONENESS. But because everybody has lived in this world, in this body, perhaps for many, many lives, we have even become accustomed to pain. 
|
|
|
he will become the successor
All these people -- Mahavira, Buddha, Sanjay Vilethiputta, Ajit Keshkambal, Makhkhali Gosal -- all these people were behaving like politicians, trying to be the tirthankara because the credibility of that religion was ancient. It was an establishment, well organized. When Mahavira was alive, one of his disciples hoped that he will become the successor of Mahavira. But seeing that Mahavira goes on living, he became frustrated. He propped Mahavira and moved away from Mahavira taking his five hundred disciples with him, because he said this man does not know enough. He says there are only seven hells -- that is wrong. There are seventy-seven hells. Because it is impossible to categorize all crimes and all sins into seven categories -- seventy-seven hells. Now you cannot prove these people; not disprove these people. It is just their imagination. Hearing this, another man, Sanjay Belattiputt, said, "This man is an idiot! It is better than seven, but really there are seven hundred hells." He was joking, he was not serious, but he was simply saying, that all these things are simply nonsense. In the name of religion you can go on propagating any kind of nonsense.
You can often hear people sitting and repeating the sound of Aum. They do not know that Aum is a formula like H2O. There are three letters in Aum. They are 'A', 'U', 'M'. Perhaps you may not have noticed that if you close your mouth and say 'Aa' loudly inside then you will feel the sound of 'A' resounding in your head. 'A' is an indication of the head centre. If you say 'U' inside then you will feel the sound of 'U' resounding within your heart. 'U' is an indication of the heart. And if you say 'M' inside, the third part of Aum, then you will feel it resounding near your navel. 'A', 'U' and 'M' are three sounds indicating sounds of the head, the heart and the navel. If you say 'M', you will feel the whole force of it on the navel. If you say 'U', you will feel the force going to the heart. If you say 'A' then 'A' will resound in the head and disappear. This is a formula. One has to go from 'A' to 'U' and from 'U' to 'M'. Nothing will happen by just repeating Aum. So those processes, which take us in this direction -- from 'A' to 'U' and from 'U' to 'M' -- are the ones one must pay attention to. Deep breathing is the first process. The deeper the breath, the more harmonious, the more in tune it becomes, the more the life-energy within you will start arising, will start radiating from your navel. That alone is worth attaining. This comes only by experience. Many times you will fall. But don't be discouraged. Get up again, and be going. 
|
|
|
Testpersonen wurde der Wirkstoff Psilocybin verabreicht
Wissenschaftler der Johns Hopkins University haben mit einer Studie bestätigt, dass durch halluzinogene Pilze "mystische Erfahrungen" hervorgerufen werden können. Bei der Studie wurde einem Teil der insgesamt 36 freiwilligen Testpersonen der Wirkstoff Psilocybin verabreicht, welcher in so genannten "Zauberpilzen" vorkommt. Diese halluzinogenen Pilze werden seit langem für angebliche mystische und spirituelle Erfahrungen verantwortlich gemacht, bei welchen etwa Schamanen Nachrichten von Göttern empfangen haben. Die Testpersonen der Studie waren allesamt, vor dem Verabreichen des Psilocybin, medizinisch untersucht worden, um einer eventuellen Gefährdung vorzubeugen. Bei dem anschließenden Test, wurde den Probanden dann entweder der halluzinogene Wirkstoff oder alternativ ein Placebomittel verabreicht. Wie sich als Ergebnis zeigte hatten mehr als 60 Prozent der freiwilligen Testpersonen eine mutmaßlich spirituelle Erfahrung gemacht, welche auf die Wirkung von Psilocybin zurückzuführen wäre. Einige der Probanden beschrieben die halluzinative Erfahrung sogar als eines der bedeutendsten Ereignisse in ihrem Leben. Manche Teilnehmer dagegen erlebten jedoch unter den Einfluss von Psilocybin auch Angstgefühle und sogar Paranoia. Mikroskope mit 4Pi- und STED-Technologie erreichen eine bis zu zehnmal höhere Auflösung als die besten Lichtmikroskope. Mit einem gewöhnlichen Licht-Mikroskop lassen sich jedoch Punkte, die näher als etwa 300 Nanometer voneinander entfernt liegen, nicht mehr getrennt darstellen. Bessere Ergebnisse liefern Elektronen-, Rastersonden- und Röntgenmikroskope. Doch deren hochenergetische Strahlung und das im Strahlengang erzeugte Vakuum zerstören biologische Substanzen und eignen sich nicht zur Untersuchung dreidimensionaler Strukturen. Eine wichtige Weiterentwicklung beruht auf der "Stimulierten Emission-Depletion", kurz STED: Ähnlich wie bei der Fluoreszenz-Mikroskopie werden auch STED-Proben mit speziellen Farbstoffen markiert. Ein technischer Trick grenzt hierbei die Ausdehnung der fluoreszierenden Lichtflecke ein: Jeder Punkt wird durch zwei zeitlich genau abgestimmte Lichtpulse bestrahlt. Der erste besteht aus kurzwelligem, grünem Licht: Er regt die Farbstoffmoleküle an, die sich genau im Fokus des Lichtstrahls befinden. Ihm folgt ein zweiter Puls aus langwelligem, rotem Licht: Die angeregten Moleküle geben ihre eben erst gewonnene Energie als Fluoreszenz, als "Leuchten", wieder ab. Der zweite Lichtstrahl wird dabei so platziert, dass er nur die Farbmoleküle am Rand jedes Punkts anregt. Dadurch "schrumpft" der Durchmesser des Leuchtpunkts, die Zahl der Punkte, die nebeneinander passen, ohne sich zu überlagern, steigt, die Auflösung wird verbessert.
|
|
|
Brahmi inscriptions date from C3BC
Hindu system is a pure place value system, that is why you need a zero. Only the Hindus within the context of Indo-European civilisations have consistently used a zero. Our decimal system is descendent from this system. In 3000BC the Hindus culture flourished and large numbers were used. From the middle of 2000BC Indo-European tribes were making their way from the N.W. towards India. They introduced Sanskrit - earliest knowledge of maths from this time. In Sanskrit there are number words for 1-9, 10, 100 and further powers of 10 - up to 10 - definitely a decimal system. Brahmi inscriptions have been found all over the subcontinent of India - date from C3BC. The existence of special symbols for the figures 1 - 9 was a typical and important characteristic of Hindu arithmetic and provided the prerequisite for the rise of the decimal place - value system. Tens were written with individual symbols - obstacle on the way towards a consistent place value system. From 100 onwards numbers were represented according to another principle - 2 new symbols 100 and 1000 - named place value system. What was favourable to the development of a decimal place value system in India? Hindu counting system was purely decimal and distinct symbols for the numbers 1 - 9 existed already. A notation for high powers of ten existed already. Hindus used counting boards - had tens units columns. A lot of astronomical activity at this time - had to use large numbers. They knew about Babylonian place value system - knew about Greek astronomy and its notation and may have encountered the small circle indicating a zero. The most important as well as the most widely used place - value symbols are those belonging to the Nagari script numerals 1 - 9, very similar to the Brahmi numerals. Nagari numerals are very similar to our own. In books about AD570 they were writing 241960, - digits arranged in normal way zero is used, place value notation is used for the numerator and denominator of the fraction. This system quickly came into use - probably earliest symbol for zero was a dot and not a small circle. Knowledge of the Hindu decimal system was early in reaching the West (AD662). On its way to the West the Hindu method of writing numerals soon became known to the Arabs who had established a world empire from the 7th Century. Many mathematical books from the Greeks and Hindus were translated in Baghdad and travelled the West. The Arabs played an essential part in the dissemination of the numeral system - no number system of their own. Al-Khouarizmi was the first Arab to explain the Hindu system of numerals. He wrote an "Algebra" and "Arithmetic" about AD820.
|
|
|
for the first time
Galileo for the first time wrote in his book that the old idea of the sun moving around the earth is only supposition; it is not the truth, it only appears so. The truth is just the contrary: the earth moves around the sun. Now, it was against the statements of the Bible, and the Bible is the word of God, and God can never commit a mistake. What to say about God -- even the pope is infallible, and he is a very faraway relative to God; he does not commit, cannot commit any mistake. And particularly when God himself has made the world -- he knows better than Galileo whether the sun is moving around the earth or the earth is moving around the sun. Galileo was old, almost on his deathbed. He was dragged to the pope's court and he was forced to change the statement. He tried to persuade the court, saying that, "I am also a Christian; I am not an atheist. I believe in God, I believe in Jesus -- but this is a scientific fact and a small fact which has nothing to do with religion." The pope said, "It has much to do with religion. If one thing is wrong in the Bible, then people can start thinking, `Who knows, other things may be wrong also.' We cannot allow anything to be wrong in the Bible. It is the very truth. You have to change it; otherwise face death." Galileo said, "Death I am facing anyway, but just for your joy I will change the statement. But remember, I will have to make a footnote...." The pope did not ask what footnote; he said, "You just change the statement and whatever footnote you want to write, write it." Galileo did a great job. He changed the statement, and underneath in the footnote he said, "Whatever I say, it makes no sense. The earth still goes around the sun. Who am I to decide?" Now, the fear of all these kinds of primitive minds -- their gods, their greed of heaven, their fear of hell -- is being imposed continuously on the child. It is continued in the educational systems. No educational system exists in the world at this moment which can be called creating rebels, not creating slaves. The world is full of slaves. Taoism is a tremendous effort to bring the rebel into the world, to create a religion which is also rebellion. Of course, every rebellion has to be against the past. The common masses think that the more ancient a scripture is the truer. They fight, their scholars continuously argue that "our scriptures are more ancient," and they don't understand a simple thing: that the more ancient a scripture is, the more primitive it is going to be.
|
|
|
that sakshin
The eastern sages have been saying there is no need way to compare between dream and reality. The only thing which is real, or about which you can be certain, is you; not what you see, but the seer. One can be certain that for a dream to exist -- the dream may be unreal or real, that is irrelevant -- but for a dream to exist, even if it is unreal a real seer is needed. In the night, YOU were real, the dream was unreal. In the morning, the dream is no more there, only YOU are there. Again another dream unfolds. When one becomes enlightened even that dream disappears, but you are again real, you are still real. There is only one reality and that is your inner consciousness, your witnessing soul. Everything else may be real, unreal, and there is no way to decide it. It is said about Chuang Tzu that he dreamed one night that he had become a butterfly, moving from one flower to another, rushing in the garden. In the morning when he awoke he was very puzzled. He was a great teacher, a great master, one of the greatest Buddhas ever born on the earth. His disciples gathered and they looked at him, and he was very sad. They said, 'Master, you have never been sad. What has happened?' He said, 'there is a problem to be solved for you: and the problem is that I, Chuang Tzu, dreamed in the night that I had become a butterfly.' They laughed, they said, 'Now the dream is gone, you are awake, why bother about it?' Chuang Tzu said, 'Listen to the whole thing. Now, a problem has arisen: if Chuang Tzu can dream, and in dream can become a butterfly, why can't it happen vice versa? A butterfly can go to sleep and dream that she has become a Chuang Tzu. Now who is who? Whether Chuang Tzu dreamed that he had become a butterfly or the butterfly is dreaming that she has become a Chuang Tzu. This is the problem that is making me very sad.' It is said that no one from his disciples could solve this conundrum, this koan. How to solve it? How to decide who is who? But if there was somebody deeply meditative, he would have answered. In fact, Chuang Tzu has posed the question just to know whether somebody has really become meditative among his disciples. Because then neither the butterfly is true, nor Chuang Tzu is true, but the one who is puzzled, the one who watched the butterfly, who is watching Chuang Tzu: the one who watched Chuang Tzu becoming a butterfly and who watched the butterfly becoming Chuang Tzu. That watchfulness, that awareness, that witness, that is the only reality.
|
|
|
they are eating too much
Deer are growing, but a danger has started happening: they are eating too much alfalfa, getting too fat, and for deer that is dangerous because once they get too fat then they cannot run. Then they are easy prey to any animal, to any hunter. Not only that -- when they become too fat ... they die. The reason was they became so fat they could not walk. They fell over their feet and broke their legs, the weight was too much. Their feet are thin; those feet are not meant for that big a load. So either bring more deer so the alfalfa is not too much, or start cutting down the alfalfa, because this will kill the poor deer. They don't have a built-in program where to stop. Nature takes care. In nature, nothing goes off balance. If there is too much alfalfa then deer will start coming more and more from all over the place; if there is less alfalfa, deer will disperse. But deer are in a difficulty: they cannot go anywhere because they cannot find a place where human beings will not be killing them. And they don't have a built-in program where to stop, so they go on eating. Essence is a built-in program -- and that's where man is different. Man comes as existence, and essence follows. You are not given a built-in program. You come open-ended, with no directions, with no clear-cut idea of what you are going to be. You exist first -- and this is a great difference, the greatest possible difference. You exist first, and then you have to find who you are. The animals, the trees, the rocks, know first who they are, then they exist; hence there is no spiritual enquiry. No animal bothers asking the questions: Who am I? What is the meaning of my life? He knows it already; there is no question, there is no doubt, no enquiry. Man is a continuous enquiry, a continuous question. To the very last breath he goes on growing. To the very last breath he can change his whole life pattern. He can take a quantum jump. There is no necessity for him to just go on following the path that he has followed. At the very last moment he simply can step aside. There is nobody to prevent him, it is his freedom. Man is the only animal in existence that has freedom -- and out of the freedom is agony.
Agony means: I don't know who I am.
|
|
|
man stellt sich auf das Boot
An der U-Boot-Lehrgruppe in Neustadt hat man ein Wasserbecken mit 32 m (zweiunddreißig!) Wassertiefe. Unten im Wasserbecken ist eine originalgetreu nachgebaute U-Boot-Sektion. In diese steigen alle unten seitlich ein. Dann werden die Luken verriegelt und das Ding geflutet. Danach muss innerhalb von 20 Minuten die ganze Besatzung evakuiert sein. Man taucht also in voller Montur aus dem "gesunkenen" U-Boot raus, stellt sich auf das Boot und zündet den Tauchretter. Danach fährst Du wie im Fahrstuhl 32 m nach oben. Da steht dann der Taucherarzt und guckt, ob mit dir alles OK ist. Und irgendwann hast du dann alles geschafft und restloses Vertrauen in dich selbst und in deine Kameraden. Der schönste Tag ist dann, wenn du nach dieser langen Zeit dein Zeugnis bekommst und dir voller Stolz dein U-Bootabzeichen „stilisierter U-Bootrumpf mit Eichenlaub“ auf die Jacke nähen kannst. Die neue U-Boot Klasse hat keine inneren Schotten mehr, so dass bei einem Wassereinbruch das Wasser überall hinfliessen kann. Angeblich sind die Pumpen aber dafür ausgelegt, das Wasser schneller wieder rauszubefördern, als es bei einem größeren Wassereinbruch ins Boot fließen könnte. Im indischen und im pazifischen Ozean gibt es angeblich großflächige Sonarnetze am Meeresboden mit denen man U-Boote aufspüren kann Da würde auch ein moderner unmagnetischer Rumpf nichts nützen, weil er ja immer noch den Schall reflektiert. Die 212 Klasse hat ungefähr die Reflektion einer Coladose. Nicht nur die magnetischen, auch die thermischen und akustischen Signaturen sind gegenüber anderen U-Booten stark minimiert worden. Wären Schotten nicht trotzdem sinnvoll, falls mal ein etwas größeres Leck entsteht oder die Pumpen ausfallen? Vielleicht wollte man ja Gewicht sparen. Im Gegensatz zu anderen U-Booten hat es auch nur eine Hülle. Die Russen und Amis kriegen mit Milliardengeldern eine brauchbare "Stealth" Technologie für U-Boote seit Jahren nicht zu Stande, aber eine kleine germanische Werft an der Nordsee. Wenn dann irgendwann die allgemeine Schulterklopfhysterie beendet wird und das Denken wieder einsetzt, bleiben nur die nackten Fakten Kosten pro U-Boot > 1 Mrd. Euro. Ist das nicht ein bisschen arg viel Geld für ein Küstenmotorschiff, welches wahrscheinlich ins Guinessbuch Einzug hält, weil außer der Brennstoffzelle noch 500 LCD Displays auf engstem Raum verbaut wurden?
|
|
|
[erste Seite] [eine Seite zurück]
[eine Seite weiter]
|