For today

When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music, the playing itself is the point.
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Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. Alan Watts
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You are what you love, not what loves you.
Zen Proverb
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Understanding without practice is better than practice without understanding.
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Understanding with practice is better than understanding without practice.
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Residing in your true nature is better than understanding or practice.
Upanishads
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Don't push the river, it flows by itself.
Collective Wisdom
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We are often like people locked out of our house, trying to get in by storming the front door...
let us instead quietly slip in by the back door to open the front door from within.
Anonymous
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Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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A sorrow shared is a sorrow divided.
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A joy shared is a joy multiplied.
Anonymous
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I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights.
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I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'.
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I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.
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Let go, or be dragged.
Zen Proverb
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You can't 'take' a breath, your breath is given to you.
Shiva Rea
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Without going outside, you may know the whole world,
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Without looking through the window, you may see the ways of heaven.
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The farther you go, the less you know.
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Thus the sage knows without traveling
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He sees without looking
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He works without doing.
Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tsu
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May the long time sun shine upon you.
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All love surround you.
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And the light within you guide your way on.
Irish ballad
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Dance like there's nobody watching
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Love like you'll never get hurt
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Sing like there's nobody listening
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Live like it's heaven on earth
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And speak from the heart to be heard.
William W. Purkey
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When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.
Chinese Proverb
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When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
Jimmy Hendrix
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Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
Lao Tzu

Light on autumn leaves

 

Already going for another year

Did you see it?

Did you take advantage of it?

Did you walk in nature and smell that unique smell of fallen leaves?

Such a short season

Like your life really

Eighty or ninety seasons

Some seasons of our lives are like the autumn or fall

The last twenty years of our lives for example

They went so fast

Be warned about those so called golden years

Are not what the ads say

If you live longer than your friends then you watch them die

Hearing how this one or that has died

How this and that one are in poor health

Family they too are getting older with you

In our modern world younger people do not want the old around

The old do not get it

They do not understand

So if you are one of the older ones then be warned

Find your own interests

Partners usually die separately one before the other

And if you are the one who survives the other then how will you spend your time?

Mourning is correct

For a while that is

Then how will you spend your time?

Can you even be alone?

Do you know how?

It might not seem obvious to you

However if we live longer then better be prepared

How do you spend your free time now?

How will you spend it then when you are older?

Like autumn leaves we fall one by one

And one by one we die

For me merely a transition

And for you?

What is death for you?

Prepare for your older days by living a full life now

A life where you are engaged in helping others

Where you feel good about yourself

It's too late when you get old

For you will harvest what you have sown

Will there be light on the autumn leaves of your life?

For your throat and mouth

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Drinking coffee may protect against mouth and throat cancers, research suggests.
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Four or more cups of coffee a day can reduce the combined risk of both diseases by 39 per cent, it is claimed.
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Scientists pooled information from nine studies of head and neck cancers comparing regular coffee drinkers and those who avoided coffee.
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They found a strong association between frequent coffee drinking and lower rates of oral cavity and pharynx (mouth and throat) cancers.
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Tea consumption had no effect on head and neck cancer risk, and data on decaffeinated coffee was too sparse to be of use.
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Dr Mia Hashibe, the lead researcher, from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, said: Since coffee is so widely used and there is a relatively high incidence and low survival rate of these forms of cancers, our results have important public health implications that need to be further addressed.
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What makes our results so unique is that we had a very large sample size, and since we combined data across many studies, we had more statistical power to detect associations between cancer and coffee.
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The findings are reported online by the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, published by the American Association for Cancer Research.
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Dr Johanna Lampe, a member of the journal's editorial board, said:
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These findings provide further impetus to pursue research to understand the role of coffee in head and neck cancer prevention.
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John von Radowitz

Roz Savage

A British environmentalist has become the first woman to row alone across the Pacific Ocean, receiving a rock star welcome in Papua New Guinea after finishing a nearly 8,000-mile (13,000-kilometre) journey that nearly claimed her life.
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Thousands turned out to welcome Roz Savage, 42, as she rowed her 23-foot (7-metre) boat named Brocade toward Madang on Friday.
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Several people paddled canoes alongside her as she cruised into the harbor, where well-wishers adorned her with colorful leis.
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I'm already starting to think about the next one!
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Savage told The Associated Press on Saturday by telephone from Papua New Guinea, where she will rest for the next month.
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Savage previously crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 103 days and uses her trips to promote environmental causes.
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The Pacific row was meant to raise awareness about climate change and plastic debris polluting the ocean.
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She wants people to use biodegradable trash bags and reusable grocery bags.
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She estimates she made 2.5 million oar strokes during her 250-day trip, which was broken up into three different legs.
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She set off from San Francisco on May 25, 2008, and rowed 2,900 miles (4,640 kilometers) over 99 days to Hawaii.
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On May 22, 2009, she left Hawaii and rowed 3,158 miles (5,053 kilometers) — or an estimated one million oar strokes — before reaching the tiny South Pacific nation of Kiribati in September.
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She left Kiribati on April 19.
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Although the weather was mostly calm, and her biggest health concern was heat rash, there was one moment during the journey when she became separated from her boat and feared she might drown.
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Her boat hook fell overboard, and by the time she'd taken off her hat, iPod earplugs and sunglasses to swim after it, it had drifted far away.
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When she reached it and began swimming back to the boat, she was already tiring.
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She eventually abandoned the hook, but the boat was drifting farther away, and by the time she climbed back on board, she was perilously close to drowning, she said.
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That was a really, really dumb thing to do, she said.
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I will certainly, certainly never do it again.
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Her rowboat was equipped with a satellite phone and a desalination machine, allowing her to convert saltwater into drinkable water.
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She ate dried fruit, nuts, some freeze-dried meals and grew her own bean sprouts on board in a small pot.
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She was gleeful when locals welcomed her with a platter of fresh fruit upon her arrival in Madang. "I did some serious damage to that," she joked.
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Savage said she officially finished the row late Thursday night but wasn't allowed to dock immediately because she had to clear customs the next morning.
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Instead, she spent the first night post-adventure on another boat — albeit a fancier one than the vessel that has carried her across the ocean.
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Her first order of business after climbing on board?
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Taking a hot shower.
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It was such bliss to have a shower, she said.
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You can get reasonably clean with a bucket and sponge, but it's really not the same.
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She estimates she lost about 22 pounds (10 kilograms) during the trip, and said the heat was brutal, reaching 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41 Celsius) "which is — for an English person — quite debilitating.
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Savage said she is hoping to next conquer the Indian Ocean, rowing from Perth, Australia, to Mauritius next year.
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In the meantime, she plans to enjoy the sights of Papua New Guinea and has already been scuba diving.
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The diving here is amazing, she said.
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It's really made me just all the more resolved to do what I can to preserve the oceans as well as the world in general.
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Nice one
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Special kind of human

Couple talk

As a couple, you create your own rituals together.
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They become something that can shape your family life
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They can be about birthdays and how you celebrate them
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Or they can be about a particular person
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One might like a quiet occasion
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Another a noisy party with lots of friends
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But then this only happens when you share with each other what makes it special for you
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Amazing thing is how often couples or families even do not ask each other what they want
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What is important to them
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Tell each other what your perfect day or occasion would be and then see if you can provide that for each other.
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Something simple such as presents
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They are not simple at all
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They are important visual symbols of love for some.
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For others presents do not matter because they can feel loved in other ways.
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Presents for some while it is words for others
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Then there are actions we take that are important for each of us
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The time we spend is another
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For each one of us responds differently
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And one or two of these will be the way that we naturally feel loved and appreciated.
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Some of us will need the right words and also love presents.
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For many people buying presents for friends and finding out what they would really like is a turn on.
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For some notice what they do for others it tells us what they probably like themselves 
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If someone is always giving compliments and saying nice things, then words are it 
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On the other hand if they are always doing nice things for others then actions may be it.
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Another clue is to listen to what they complain about
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This the more so when they are feeling unappreciated and unloved.
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Is it true that you help each other?
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Do you spend enough quality time with each other?
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If your partner has different needs do you know them?
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Discover what she likes and make sure that you are showing her love in that way.
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Couple talk can be a powerful cement in any relationship it can also hide the cracks unless we make the effort to learn about each others needs
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Couple talk

Homemade nuclear

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Many might be alarmed to learn of a homemade nuclear reactor being built next door.

But what if this form of extreme DIY could help solve the world's energy crisis?
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By day, Mark Suppes is a web developer for fashion giant Gucci.

By night, he cycles to a New York warehouse and tinkers with his own nuclear fusion reactor.
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The warehouse is a non-descript building on a tree-lined Brooklyn street, across the road from blocks of apartments, with a grocery store on one corner.

But in reality, it is a lab.
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In a hired workshop on the third floor, a high-pitched buzz emanates from a corner dotted with metal scraps and ominous-looking machinery, as Mr Suppes fires up his device and searches for the answer to a question that has eluded some of the finest scientific minds on the planet.
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We have people in the whole gamut [building reactors] from physicists to electronics people to car mechanics to even one janitor
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In nuclear fusion, atoms are forcibly joined, releasing energy.

It is, say scientists, the "holy grail" of energy production - completely clean and cheap.
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The problem is, no-one has found a way of making fusion reactors produce more energy than they consume to run.
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Mr Suppes, 32, is part of a growing community of "fusioneers" - amateur science junkies who are building homemade fusion reactors, for fun and with an eye to being part of the solution to that problem.
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He is the 38th independent amateur physicist in the world to achieve nuclear fusion from a homemade reactor, according to community site Fusor.net.

Others on the list include a 15-year-old from Michigan and a doctoral student in Ohio.
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Mr Suppes has spent the last two years perfecting his reactor
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I was inspired because I believed I was looking at a technology that could actually work to solve our energy problems, and I believed it was something that I could at least begin to build," Mr Suppes told the BBC.
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While they might un-nerve the neighbours, fusion reactors of this kind are perfectly legal in the US.
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As long as they [private citizens] obtain that material [the components of the reactor] legally, they could do whatever they want," says Anne Stark, senior public information officer for California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
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During fusion, energy is released as atomic nuclei are forced together at high temperatures and pressures to form larger nuclei.
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Scientists say devices like Mr Suppes' pose no real threat to neighbouring communities or the environment because they contain no nuclear materials, such as uranium or plutonium.
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There is no chance of any kind of accident with fusion," says Neil Calder, communications chief for Iter, a multi-national project begun in 1985 with the aim of demonstrating the feasibility of fusion power.
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There's no CO2 pollution, there's no greenhouse gases, you can't use it for proliferation [the spread of nuclear weapons] - it has so many advantages," he said.
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Government-led efforts to produce power from fusion have been going on around the world for 50 years.
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Iter - funded by US, Japan, Russia, India, China, and South Korea - is working on a multi-billion dollar, advanced reactor, due to be built in the south of France by 2019.
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But the availability of equipment and technology has seen an increasing number of amateurs enter the fray.
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Some experts are sceptical that all these people are producing fusion reactions, but when he demonstrates his device, Mr Suppes says a bubble meter placed next to the reactor indicates that a fast neutron, a by-product of fusion, has been produced.
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The amateur scientist began building his reactor two years ago, purchasing parts on eBay with $35,000 of his own money and about $4,000 he raised on a website that connects artists and inventors with private investors.
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Real researchers that are working at Los Alamos [US Department of Energy National Laboratory] and are working at Lawrence Livermore are following this and commenting on it, even though it's not an officially sanctioned project," he says.
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Mr Suppes sees his work in nuclear fusion as more than just a hobby, and he intends to try to build one of the world's first break-even reactors - a facility producing as much energy as it uses to operate.
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He now has to go out and do what everybody else has to do, which is to convince people to invest in his project - whether its government funding or private funding to carry him through," said Mr Calder.
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Nuclear fusion is the source of energy in stars such as the sun
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The best fuels for fusion are two types, or isotopes, of hydrogen - deuterium and tritium
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Energy is released as atomic nuclei are forced together at high temperatures and pressures to form larger nuclei
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Reproducing these conditions on Earth is extremely challenging
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Mr Suppes is hoping to build a break-even reactor from plans created by the late Robert Bussard, a nuclear physicist who drew up plans for a fusion reactor that could convert hydrogen and boron into electricity.
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Work on a scaled up version of a Bussard reactor, funded by the US Navy, has already been taking place in California.
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But Mr Suppes believes he will be able to raise the millions of dollars it takes to build a Bussard reactor because he feels someone with enough money "will feel they cannot pass up the opportunity" to find out if it will work.
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Iter said it would be wrong to dismiss out of hand the notion that an amateur could make a difference.
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I won't say something that puts these guys down, but it's a tricky situation because there is a great deal of money and time and a lot of very experienced scientists working on fusion at the moment, said Mr Calder.
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But that does not eliminate other ideas coming from a different group of people.
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Richard Hull - Fusor.net

History

.Most of us do not think much about history
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Many of us assume that it is an accurate retelling of events in the past
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If we did think about it we can immediately see how it influences the young of every country who are obliged to study history at school
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That is each and every generation in each and every country
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And what do they study?
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And what did we study and what do we think about that today?
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For some of us not much for whatever reasons it did not tick the boxes of our needs or interest in the subject
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And the answer today is much the same 
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Whatever they are given they consume, absorb and learn
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Whatever truth or lies are put in front of them
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This is where history becomes political
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As is often the case, there seem to be two irreconcilable views:
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Those who want the history syllabus to stress national endeavour and achievement
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Those who want it to recognise the failings and blemishes which invariably dirty any country's historical record.
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In Britain's case it is easy to see how arguments become heated when you take just one subject such as the British Empire from the myriad of subjects that make up British history
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Was the British Empire a 'good thing' or a 'bad thing'
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There's no doubt that proponents of both of these interpretations can find ample historical evidence to support the very different arguments they are making.
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But it's more important - and it's much more difficult - to try to strike some sort of balance between them than it is to adopt either of these deeply entrenched adversarial position
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One historian from an earlier time who knew this very well was George Macaulay Trevelyan.
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Towards the end of his life, he gave his considered verdict, and it was revealingly - and rightly - even-handed.
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Having lived through the devastation and the destruction of two world wars, he reluctantly agreed with Edward Gibbon that much of history was indeed a "register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind".
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But he also insisted that history was, in addition, "the register of the splendour of man, and of his occasional good fortune, of which our island has had more than its share".
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Who, for example, should decide what history is taught in schools:
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Should it be the government?
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Or academic experts
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Or examination boards
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Or the schools themselves
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Or even the parents
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What is the balance that should be struck between teaching the history of England, of Britain, of the British Empire, of Europe, of the United States, of China or of the world as a whole?
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Is the teaching of history about chronology and narrative
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Or about analysis and structure
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Or about information and detail
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Or about imagination and empathy
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Or about a combination of some or all of these things?
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Should it be concerned with extended periods of time, to give a sense of the length of the past
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Or with shorter periods which can be studied in greater depth?
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For how many hours a week should history be taught in schools?
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And to what age should it be made compulsory?
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Who should decide what gets taught?
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The Institute of Historical Research, is looking into the history of the teaching of history in schools in England since it first became a serious activity early in the 20th Century.
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In America and Russia too this subject is becoming more contentious and for exactly the same reasons
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And one of the most important discoveries so far has been the extent to which similar questions have been asked across the decades and generations
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Often in complete ignorance of how they've been answered before.
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At the very least, any discussion of the teaching of history in English, American or other schools should be informed by an historical perspective.
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History is not just a simple subject as you might have thought
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History informs the minds of each generation
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Not only that countries that deny their excesses, massacres and truly terrible pasts leave a psychological imprint on that society
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An imprint that cannot go away until they acknowledge that event or series of events
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These events or periods are often internal and are as important for a country to acknowledge as those atrocities they might have committed externally
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There is a way to go yet then for most countries
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History is an important subject for all countries and is not just as an academic exercise
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To a very important degree it shapes how we see ourselves, our country and our planet

Black arts

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Today one might think of the black arts as being something to do with art forms by persons of African descent
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Alternatively you might mix them up with black magic
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Or nowadays often referred to as dark magic
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Black or dark magic is the practice of sorcery that draws on neutral or malevolent powers.
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This type of magic is invoked when wishing to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction
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It is also used for personal gain without regard to the harmful consequences to others
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Yes all of these could be called black arts and today there is another version
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While killing people directly is still practiced in many places
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While others are still being poisoned, imprisoned or tortured
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The ones I am thinking about today are the modern version

Killing by disinformation

By slander, innuendo

Well placed gossip

Edited videos, dirt dug up

Altered images

Stitching up the media

Buying favours

These are the modern black arts

Indeed they are a profession for many

Men and women who usually with no personal interest in the target are able to destroy others for a living

Just for the money

No interest in whether or not the target is guilty or innocent 

Just another client

Just another assignment

No interest at all really

And then one day they find themselves out

They know too much

Warned not to speak

Suddenly life is different

No longer the thrill of destroying others from behind the curtain

No longer able to manipulate and ruin

Not once did they think about what comes next

Perhaps ideas of retiring with lots of money

Enjoying a life of pleasure and leisure

And just what friends can such people have?

Only others like themselves

Who else would want their company?

Maybe they hide their lives

But then it is hard to hide when you are crippled inside

Not a thought for the terrible karma they have created for themselves

Probably never heard of karma

No idea that nature will give them back at least twice the pain they caused others

No idea of paying for the harm and pain done

Look around our world see how many have painful lives

Understand that they are all paying for pain inflicted on others

Karma is an iron law

The law of harmony

Of resonance

It is real

It is something we create for ourselves every day every hour of our lives

And why would it not be real?

The evidence is all around us

Evidence of cause and effect in action

No disguising or hiding from it

Our thoughts and actions are our responsibility

What we think and do creates our karma

Be thankful that you did not spend your life harming and destroying others

Or do you, did you?

Sort your life from now on if you did

We are responsible for what we think and do

No one escapes this, it affects us all

Individuals

Families

Countries

We are all governed by karma

There is an up side too for those who help others

Karma supports and helps

Is there to support us

Those funny accidents if you want

That unexpected good luck

That help that arrived at the last minute

Our choice each and every one of us as to whether we choose to be agents for good or bad

Our life reflects those choices

Karma then adjusts those thoughts and deeds

An absolute law for all in the universe

Nothing personal

Just the way it is for all of us

Your call

Black arts no thanks

Thoughts on computers

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Are in our lives now in all shapes and forms

Unavoidably in our lives

No choice

From mobile phones to laptops to cameras you name it

We have no choice but to learn how to use them

To a greater or lesser degree we all do

Then something goes wrong

Not necessarily mega because that requires that we give it to a professional or the maker to fix

No I am talking about those times when you know that it was you

You pressed something or changed something

You know it is simple

Yet you cannot find out what it is

Several choices present themselves

If there is someone nearby who knows how to fix it then fine

If you can see from some instruction manual also fine

But it is those times when you cannot and must rely on your own efforts

Some of us scream and shout however that does not fix the problem

Some of us walk away

That also does not fix the problem

Some are incensed by the instructions on screen, online wherever

Instructions that seem designed to create further frustration

Designed to wind you up

It is at these times that we clearly see our own nature on display

No hiding

No pretending

It is us on our own faced with the problem

And how do we do?

All of us learn at different speeds

All of us learn to calm down and focus at different speeds too

It is interesting to notice our own movement from anger and irritation to focus on the problem

To paying attention to all the little details that are the requirement to fix any control issue

One little tick in a box

One little detail amongst so many options

We suspend other thoughts and focus on finding that detail

Then after maybe hours we do find it

Relief and pleasure at completing the job, being able to use whatever it was again

In my case the machine I am writing on now

Over an hour to find that one little detail

Now relaxed, happy with the result the thought occurs

The result while pleasing the other learning is more so

No anger or mega frustration maybe a fatalistic here we go again

But no not really today a calmer more accepting approach

Quiet attention

Nice really was a time when the approach was very different and violent

When all the time it is us

Us having done something silly or just inattentive

Then when we learn to accept it was us we have grown a bit

And you how were you with your last experience of this nature?

Are you growing?

The Seven Hermetic Principles

Are to be found in several writings and were written by Hermes Trismegistus 

The Asclepius and the Corpus Hermeticum are the most important of the Hermetica, writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, which survive.

Known also as the Master of all arts and sciences. perfect in all crafts, Ruler of the Three Worlds, Scribe of the Gods, and Keeper of the Books of Life, Thoth Hermes Trismegistus--the Three Times Greatest, the "First Intelligencer"--was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the embodiment of the Universal Mind.
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He was known by the Ancient Egyptians as The Great Great and the Master of Masters
The origin of the description Trismegistus or "thrice great" is unclear.
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Copenhaver reports that this name is first found in the minutes of a meeting of the council of the Ibis cult, held in 172 BCE near Memphis in Egypt
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Many Christian writers, including Lactantius, Augustine, Giordano Bruno, Marsilio Ficino, Campanella and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola considered Hermes Trismegistus to be a wise pagan prophet who foresaw the coming of Christianity.
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They believed in a 'Prisca Theologia', the doctrine that a single, true theology exists, which threads through all religions, and which was given by God to man in antiquity and passed through a series of prophets, which included Zoroaster and Plato
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And just why are we writing about this?
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Because it is part of our heritage and sometimes it is interesting to know where things comes from
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And yes there is indeed a single true history of humanity which one day we will be made aware of
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There is also as we have written many times a Perrenial or Ancient Wisdom and all of the various writings by Socrates, Zoroaster, Plato, Hermes Trismegistus and other Masters speak the same wisdom
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Their teachings and writings are as valid today as they were when they taught them thousands of years ago
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These seven principles we are talking about today include:
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Principle of Mentalism –  All is Mind.
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Everything which exists is the expression of the divine mind.
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Principle of Correspondence – As above, so below.
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There is always a correspondence between the laws and the phenomena of every plane of being and life.
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Principle of Vibration – Nothing rests, everything moves, everything vibrates.
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Everything has a vibration which eminates from the All, and that the higher the vibration, the higher the position on the cosmic scale.
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Principle of Polarity – Everything is dual.
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Everything has its opposite, and that the opposites are the same, only differing in degree.
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Principle of Rhythm – Everything flows.
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Everything there is a measured motion, a to and a fro.
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Principle of Cause and Effect – Every cause has its effect, and every effect its cause.
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Everything happens according to law and that there is nothing which is chance.
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Principle of Gender – Gender is in everything.
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Masculine and feminine principles are at work within every aspect of creation.