The film was mentioned in a Post here.
Parts 1 and 2 were included in a Post yesterday.
Enjoy!
Year: 2010
10 Questions Dalai Lama video extract 1
The World Food Shortage
“Would you please give your honest opinion about financially-sensible solutions to the food shortages in your country and the rest of the world?”
The headline above was the only question asked in a world-wide survey was conducted by the UN last month.
The survey was a huge failure because of the following:
- In Eastern Europe they didn’t know what “honest” meant.
- In Western Europe they didn’t know what “shortage” meant.
- In Africa they didn’t know what “food” meant.
- In China they didn’t know what “opinion” meant.
- In the Middle East they didn’t know what “solution” meant.
- In South America they didn’t know what “please” meant.
- In the USA they didn’t know what “the rest of the world” meant.
- In Britain they hung up as soon as they heard the Indian accent.
- In Brussels (and in most other European capitals, come to that) they had no idea what “financially-sensible” was.
- North Korea reported merely that by definition there could be no food shortage in their Communist paradise and that supplies of caviar, truffles and champagne were plentiful. They added that in any case “the rest of the world” could shove their food ….. (They called back later to ask that food aid conveys should nevertheless be continued ….)
- The Cubans refused to answer, alleging it was “a capitalist plot”, and anyway under Castroan Communism there never had been, wasn’t and never could be any shortage of food – everything else, perhaps, but not food, as the people could always eat fish or grubs ……
- The Scots replied that as long as they could get their Mars-bars dipped in batter there’d never be a food shortage.
PS For a serious comment on the world food situation check this out …. two pieces in the UK Guardian Newspaper here and here.
Sometimes I am deeply ashamed to be part of the so-called “developed” world. Is it beyond the wit of governments to put a stop to this?
By Chris Snuggs
10 Questions for the Dalai Lama
If you only had one hour what would you ask?
This is how an excellent film by Rick Ray on the Dalai Lama is introduced. We watched the DVD a few evenings ago and it was heart-stirring and full of the extraordinary wisdom from one of the leading spiritual leaders alive today.
Do watch it if you can. Here’s the official trailer from YouTube:
As so often seems to be the case these days, there is a website for the movie here. And the Dalai Lama’s website is here.
Finally, I see that part of the film, where Rick Ray is having an audience with His Holiness, is available on YouTube. I’ll post links to the four videos over the next two days.
By Paul Handover
Night shining clouds
Better known as Noctilucent Clouds
(Hoping this link is still available on the BBC web site)
Just watch this and be inspired!
From that BBC link:
Each summer, high in the night skies of the far northern and southern hemispheres a unique phenonmenon occurs – noctilucent clouds. Little is known about them, but now an amateur astronomer from north Wales is trying to predict when they are likely to appear.
Here, John Rowlands, one of four finalists in the BBC’s search for the Amateur Scientist of the Year So You Want To Be A Scientist? – and his mentor, Professor Nick Mitchell from the University of Bath – take a closer look at these mysterious silver and blue waves at the edge of space.
John has his own Facebook page here with plenty more information.
And a quick Google images search found this:
And there’s still more. This delightful video on YouTube, courtesy of NASA.
Described thus:
The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission will provide the first detailed exploration of Earth’s unique and elusive noctilucent or night shining clouds that are found literally on the “edge of space.” Located near the top of the Earth’s mesosphere (the region just above the stratosphere), very little is known about how these polar mesospheric clouds form or why they vary. They are being seen at lower latitudes than ever before and have been growing brighter and more frequent, leading some scientists to suggest that this recent increase may be the direct result of human-induced climate change. The mission is led by Dr. James Russell of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at Hampton University.
By Paul Handover
(with thanks to the UK Flyer List for bringing this to my attention.)
Back to Basics
The Seven Wonders of the World (with thanks to the unknown author …)
Follow up to The Four Divine States
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein
A few days ago, I published an article setting out the place of the Four Divine States in our daily lives.
A regular follower of Learning from Dogs, Patrice Ayme, posted a comment on the article. This is what Patrice wrote.
No empathy survives contact with the enemy. This is the problem with the business of goodness, and how it ties up with evil.
The problem with goodness, or lack thereof, is that it is not how hatred and war are generated. More goodness does not a peace make. All it can very well do is reinforce the tribal instinct.
Understanding may start with the heart, but it survives only through the facts. Most humans have known and experienced love. To teach them love is to teach them water: the height of emotional arrogance. The truly good, instead, will teach the facts.
This is my attempt to shed more light on my approach, for followers of truth on the same path.
With great respect to Patrice, who is clearly a great thinker, I shall avoid justifying what I wrote previously or engaging in debate as the truth is non negotiable.
Take a look at the following chart. (Note: We inadvertently published the chart without the written permission of Veritas Publishing and upon being advised, immediately removed it. The map of consciousness may be viewed on the Veritas Publishing web site and purchased for the small sum of $6.00.)
This ‘Map’ was developed by Dr David R Hawkins to show the logarithmic levels of human consciousness. Here is how it is described on David Hawkins’ web site:
Over 250,000 kinesiological calibrations spanning 30 years of multiple research studies conducted by The Institute for Spiritual Research, Inc., have defined a range of values corresponding to well-recognized attitudes and emotions.
Important areas to look at occur at level 200, the doorway at which integrity is possible, and 500, where information is processed differently and we move out of a factual world, controlled by the intellect. The 400s is the world of science and the intellect, the 500’s, the beginning of the world of the non linear.
Patrice’s, or anybody else’s, great level of intellect is being used to explain something on a higher level – it just can’t be done! The Buddha, Christ and Krishna were all what the world calls avatars, i.e. on levels of 1000 or greater.
The Brahma Viharas where developed by the Buddha, a divine being at level 1000 or over.
By Jon Lavin
Fear and the alternative
“Fear paralyzes; curiosity empowers. Be more interested than afraid.” — Patricia Alexander, American educational psychologist.
This dropped into my email in-box the other day so I grabbed it to set this Post off on the right theme.
There is much around that can generate fear, touched on in my Post a couple of days ago where I quoted Richard Branson.
For an example of fear, many will have listened to the recent interview of Professor James Lovelock on the BBC Today programme and wondered just where we are all heading. ( The interview may be listened to here. – it’s 7 minutes long but listen to it!)
Here’s a YouTube video of Lovelock being interviewed in 2009. (Also worthy of watching for the full 13 minutes and note the connection between Lovelock and Branson.)
So if you listened and watched these two interviews then one could argue that there is more than enough to be fearful of our future.
Now go back to the opening quotation: “Fear paralyzes; curiosity empowers. Be more interested than afraid.”
Being fearful is not the answer – even if no alternative appears to be a rational way of mentally processing something.
Here’s a piece from Wayne Dyer’s book, There’s a Spiritual Solution to every Problem.
We are subjected to many illusions in our daily life. The greatest one is the one that keeps us trapped in giving our energy to what always has been.
The past is behind us. Predicting the future accurately, even by eminent scientists such as James Lovelock, is very, very unreliable. Thus all we have is today. So do not be afraid, be curious.
By Paul Handover
Learning from Dogs 