Welcome to Athena IV – your serene escape to the enchanting world of Japanese Zen music. Immerse yourself in enchanting melodies featuring the flute, koto, and tribal drums. This music is designed to transport you to the tranquil and mystical world of traditional Japan.
Japanese Zen music, with its serene and meditative qualities, creates a peaceful environment that promotes mental clarity and emotional balance. The harmonious blend of the flute, koto, and tribal drums provides a unique and enchanting soundscape, perfect for relaxation, meditation, or focused work.
The year’s first supermoon is also the third full moon in a summer that includes four, making it a ‘blue supermoon’. Here’s how to see August’s full Sturgeon Moon rise. […]
The peels of 2 oranges
5 whole cloves
1 cup (approximately 250ml) of water
Instructions:
Begin by thoroughly washing the orange peels to remove any pesticides or impurities. Gently pat them dry.
In a small saucepan, bring the water to a rolling boil.
Carefully add the cleaned orange peels and cloves to the boiling water, then immediately lower the heat to a simmer.
Allow the mixture to gently infuse over low heat for about 15 minutes, unlocking the full spectrum of flavors and benefits.
Once the infusion has reached the desired strength, strain the tea into a cup, discarding the peels and cloves.
The Multitude of Benefits
This infusion is not just a delight to the senses but a boon to health, offering:
Enhanced immune function due to the high vitamin C content in orange peels.
Protection against oxidative stress and cellular damage, thanks to the abundance of antioxidants in both orange peels and cloves.
Natural antibacterial and anti-inflammatory support, making it a great choice for combating infections and soothing inflammation.
Digestive health benefits, with cloves helping to stimulate digestion and alleviate digestive discomfort.
Personalizing Your Infusion
While the basic recipe offers a wealth of benefits, there’s ample room for customization to cater to personal tastes and health needs:
Add a cinnamon stick or a few slices of fresh ginger for an extra warming effect.
A slice of apple or a few lemon rounds can introduce a new layer of fruity complexity.
Sweeten the brew naturally with a spoonful of honey or maple syrup, or choose a sugar substitute for a calorie-free option.
This ancient concoction not only connects us to the wisdom of our grandmothers but also offers a simple, effective way to incorporate natural health boosters into our daily routine
The present period is one of those watersheds in human evolution that represent the end of a complex series of events in recorded history. It involves the end of the old monastic orders, including the Hindu, Tibetan, Chaldean, Egyptian, Jewish and Christian. All of these will disappear in their older forms. If one is attached to these forms, this will seem to be a great loss, a sort of spiritual discontinuity in human affairs. If, on the other hand, one is detached and therefore able to penetrate to the core of the cycle, one will understand the continuity of the transition and sense that which will tap the quintessence of these old orders and yet transcend them. At the end of every long epoch of human evolution, at the dawning of a new epoch, there is inevitably a night of disintegration. Even if one is able to overcome one’s doubts, fears and anxieties in the face of the necessary dissolution of forms, it is still difficult to envisage in advance which of the inexhaustible possibilities of Divine Wisdom will be realized in a subsequent period of development. The wisest of beings are truly agnostic about the future. All neophytes would be wise in their turn not to attempt to extrapolate on the basis of what they think they know about recorded history and the tragedies of the twentieth century. Most human beings are so self-absorbed in their petty personal concerns that they know almost nothing even of the little story called recorded history over three thousand years, much less the broader global developments that have taken place in the first five thousand years of the Kali Yuga.
So long as one is worried about what has happened, is happening and will happen — so long as one is caught up in the illusions of the past, present and future — one cannot hope to understand or assimilate the perspective of meta-history. It is possible, nonetheless, in golden moments to glimpse the presence of the powerful vibration that was predominant in the golden age of humanity a million years ago at the dawn of the Fifth Root Race, an epoch hearkening back to that which existed eighteen and three-quarters million years ago in the Third Root Race. Manifestation itself is a complex-seeming superimposition of derivative vibrations upon the primal Soundless Sound. Moments in history such as the present should not be understood in terms of the seemingly static, though exceedingly ephemeral, images that waver on the surface of space but rather in terms of the vibrant impulsions behind these transitory forms. Thus, at present, the vibration of the Third Root Race may be felt as superimposed upon the process in which there is an inevitable end of all that has become degraded in recorded history. Everything in historical time eventually becomes unusable to the spirit, becomes warped and distorted, attracts lower elementals — forces bound up with human failure, greed, exploitation, self-righteousness, moralism and also universal human ignorance. Buddha put this simply in saying that existence is suffering. Put in another way, most human beings would agree that whatever specific form of happiness they might envisage, they will find it a torment to be condemned to the eternal experience of this form of happiness. Bondage to form is inconsistent with the freedom and immortality of the spirit; it is not in the order of Nature.
The vibration of the Logos associated with Hermes-Mercury-Budha which rejoices in the void anticipates, encompasses and transcends all historical parameters. This vibration represents the reverberation of Brahma Vach, unaffected and unmodified by the great vicissitudes of the historical process and the cycles of manifestation. It is archetypally and magnificently summed up in the figure of Sage Bhusunda in Valmiki’s Yoga Vasishtha. When asked by Sage Vasishtha how he had remained untouched by the dissolution of worlds, Bhusunda replied:
When at the end of a kalpa age the order of the world and the laws of Nature are broken and dissolved, we are compelled to forsake our abode, like a man departing from his best friend.
We then remain in the air, freed from all mundane conceptions, the members of our bodies becoming devoid of their natural functions, and our minds released from all volitions.
When the zodiacal suns blaze forth in their full vigour, melting down the mountains by their intense heat, I remain with intellect fixed in the Varuna mantram.
When the diluvian winds burst with full force, shattering and scattering the huge mountains all around, it is by attending to the Parvati mantram that I remain as stable as a rock.
When the earth with its mountains is dissolved into the waters, presenting the face of a universal ocean, it is by the volatile power of the Vayu mantram that I bear myself aloft.
I then convey myself beyond this perceptible world and rest in the holy ground of Pure Spirit. I remain as if in profound sleep, unagitated in body or mind.
I abide in this quiescence until the lotus-born Brahmā is again employed in his work of creation, and then I re-enter the confine of the re-created world.
Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana
Nirvana Prakarana XXI
Surveying vast worlds, epochs, civilizations and historical eras, Bhusunda stood apart, rooted in dharana and dhyana. He represents the eternal spectator, unaffected and unmodified by the vicissitudes of the process of history. It is this supreme detachment rooted in meditation that may be called the Hermes current. When that Logoic current is self-consciously sounded at the level of SAT —Truth-Wisdom — it becomes the mirroring in time, on the lower planes of manifested existence, of the eternal vibration of Brahma Vach. To understand this is to see that everything emerging from that Hermes current is a preparation for dhyana — irreversible and boundless meditation. Thus there is already in the rich resources of the 1975 Cycle nourishment available for earnest souls eager to learn how to engage in deep, strong and firm meditation, so as to become lenses for the light of Divine Wisdom.
If this is the nature of the great undertaking of dhyana, and if some individuals confront many difficulties in rising to meet the opportunities of the Cycle, it ultimately must be due to a lack of sufficient motivation. No explanation of deficiency in meditation owing to this or that circumstance can ever be adequate. It is illogical to attempt to explain an inability to maintain continuity of consciousness in the formless realm by pointing to any collection of circumstances in the derivative regions of form. Hence there is strong emphasis in every authentic spiritual tradition upon the purification and cleansing of the heart. Before one can really master the mind, one must cleanse the heart. It is necessary to see all the distorted, complex and awkward elements in one’s feeling nature. And yet there is hardly a human being alive who does not know what it is to care for another, who does not know what it is to suffer, and who does not want to relieve the suffering of others. In fact, the very sense of the hideousness of the deformities of one’s feeling nature is nothing but a reflection of the soul’s awareness of its intrinsic beauty and purity. Like a craftsman with the highest standard of excellence, the soul surveys its self-evolved vestures with an objective eye.
Rather than becoming fascinated with that in oneself, much less in others, which must be let go because it does not measure up to the best in oneself, one must learn to hold fast to those authentic elements that represent, in every human heart, the vibration of a minute point of universal life, light and love. This dharma-energy can be used to purify the heart so that one can bring not just part of oneself but the whole of one’s being into line with a single strong motivation so as to be of help to all living beings. One may release the will to be of service in the relief of human ignorance and the alleviation of the deeper cause of all human pain that is the false notion of the self. One may begin to learn the positive joy of bringing down the light of wisdom and letting that light diffuse into as many beings as it possibly can. When such motivation begins to pervade one’s being, becoming strong and firm, it gives a buoyancy and lightness, an incentive and resolve to keep going.
Once this current is established, one sees that one’s past failures stemmed from either the inability to commit oneself completely and irrevocably to the quest, or a neglect of the detailed and difficult task of burning out every impure element in the heart. In any event, through the release of heart energy, one is prepared to begin burning out all the corrosive motivations that arise from fear, self-protection, body identification, identification with the astral form, with tanha — the clinging to forms in general. Clinging to the realm of sensations is at the root of the hardness and impermeability of the lower mind. Once one begins to understand how much pain obscurity of the mind produces within and without, one can bring a greater honesty and maturity, a greater intensity, to the task of self-purification. One will find it easier if one lets go of the notions of personal salvation, progress and enlightenment, discarding all elements of fascination with the ups and downs of the personal nature. All these represent only the outer rind of human life; they are of little consequence at the moment of death.
Ere thou canst settle in Dhyana-Marga and call it thine, thy Soul has to become as the ripe mango fruit: as soft and sweet as its bright golden pulp for others’ woes, as hard as that fruit’s stone for thine own throes and sorrows, O Conqueror of Weal and Woe.
Make hard thy Soul against the snares of Self; deserve for it the name of ‘Diamond Soul’. For, as the diamond buried deep within the throbbing heart of earth can never mirror back the earthly lights, so are thy mind and Soul; plunged in Dhyana-Marga, these must mirror nought of Maya’s realm illusive.
The Voice of the Silence
Every authentic system of spiritual discipline indicates different stages upon the path of progressive mastery over the mind. The path of progressive awakening to supreme unconditional universal Truth is an arduous course of intensified practice leading to serene contemplation. Dhyana Marga — the Path of Meditation — is an inward fusion of mentality and morality that releases the mystical energies of enlightenment. Transcending ratiocinative analysis and ethical endeavour, though yielding to the full fruition of both, dhyana is the mysterious catalyst spoken of by Jesus which “leavens the whole”. It is the living presence of the Dhyani energies vital to any lasting nucleus of universal brotherhood formed by sincere aspirants and neophytes on the Path. Like the fabulous wish-fulfilling gem or the pearl of great price, dhyana is one of the priceless treasures of the Path which must, at a certain stage of development, be earned by the disciple before there can be any further advance. If this is true of the cyclic process of individual growth, it is even more true of the evolutionary stream of humanity.
From the beginning of the 1975 Cycle emphasis has been laid upon reaching beyond discursive reasoning and analytic study. Though skilful analysis can be helpful, it is no more efficacious than one wing of a bird in flight. The other wing is ethical practice, purification of motive and steadfastness in reference to one’s deepest integrity and fidelity of commitment. The balance between these two aspects of development has been stressed from the start, but as in the life of a bird a definite stage comes at which further development of the wings is neither possible nor desirable, so too in the growth of a committed group of sincere individuals, many of whom have bound themselves by commitments to the spirit of the Pledge of Kwan-Yin. Touched by the potent vibration of the Cycle, a strong nucleus of seekers has persisted, despite ups and downs, in creating a distinct current of direction in their lives. In ways known and unknown to themselves, they have resonated to the current Seventh Cycle of the Theosophical Movement, the last of the series initiated by Tsong-Kha-Pa in the fifteenth century in Tibet. It is deeply fitting that all aspirants upon the path of The Voice of the Silence should now seek to become more firm and steadfast with regard to dhyana or meditation.
True meditation begins with intense concentration or dharana — bringing the mind to a clear focus, which then gives way to the uninterrupted contemplation that is the beginning of dhyana. In its full unfoldment it can lead to true wisdom — prajna— complete absorption in one’s higher consciousness with universal self-consciousness, a state of being marked by the attunement of Atma-Buddhi-Manas to the Cosmic Triad. The actual level of attainment reached by anyone attempting this meditation and the pace of his or her development are relatively unimportant. Whatever doubts, anxieties or ambitions some may bring to such attempts are largely irrelevant. What is significant is that a definite and increasing number of human beings should make an attempt, at whatever pace, to learn the practice of true meditation. The simple fact that a number of human beings recognize this common undertaking and obligation, sensing the common joy in the quest for gaining greater proficiency in dhyana, is propitious and encouraging to the alchemical work of the Theosophical Movement. It is a positive contribution to the profound impact of the 1975 Cycle, to the elevation of human consciousness in the world as a whole, and to the careful preparation of the ground for the Mystery Temples of the future.
The apprentice on the path of Dhyana Marga must learn that the senses are liars; it is precisely at that moment when one seems outwardly to be most alone and engaged in the difficult task of acquiring mental concentration that one is in fact most directly related to humanity. Once one sees this clearly, it becomes possible to insert one’s honest and humble efforts in the practice of dhyanainto a larger effort by a number of people. If they bind themselves together by invisible threads spun through firmness and contemplation and by a continuous current of meditation, they can leaven up the world, in the metaphor of Jesus. This has nothing to do with any individualistic accomplishment. Rather, through their meditation, they can create a magnetic field into which can be focused the wisdom of Avalokiteshvara, the wisdom of the collective Hosts of Dhyani Buddhas, Mahatmas and Bodhisattvas. Metaphysically, it is the totality of actual and invisible wisdom behind the whole of this system of worlds, which is itself a partial emanation of the primal Adi-Buddha. The aggregate sum-total of actual and potential wisdom forming the radiant core of the system of worlds is nothing but a spark of that absolute and infinite ocean of purely transcendental Wisdom from which arises the possibility of all worlds and all periods of manifestation.
Wisdom is neither created nor destroyed, neither increased nor decreased, but is universal, inexhaustible and vast. It is already self-existent on a primordial plane and is in fact the very ground of the possibility of existence. It may be represented in thought and in collective manifestation as a Host of beings called the Army of the Voice. This is merely a metaphor to intimate something of the virtually inconceivable grandeur and precision of the array of divine elements and beings that constitute the living cosmos. It is possible to focus that light of universal wisdom, continual contemplation and eternal ideation within a matrix created by the love, unity and joint heroic efforts of a nucleus of human beings formed over a period of time. Thus, it is possible to bring down onto the plane of mundane human existence glimpses and rays, sparks and flashes, of that divine light of wisdom that is all-potent on its own plane but is otherwise latent and unavailable. Collectively, a group of human beings can become like a great lens for the drawing down of the light of unmanifest wisdom into our globe to meet the cries of pain, the hungers and the longings of myriads of minds and hearts.
To begin to become an apprentice of eternal wisdom in time, one must gain some minimal understanding of cycles. There can be no practice of concentration and meditation and dhyana unless one can rise above the sequence of alternating states of consciousness involved in the breath, the pulse, sleeping and waking, the passage of seasons, septenates of years, life and death and rebirth. Whilst it would be a false and self-imposed burden to expect to comprehend complex evolutionary cycles, one may, nonetheless, bring a minimal sense of the marriage of continuity and detachment to one’s understanding of the collective human pilgrimage. The 1975 Cycle of the Theosophical Movement, its Seventh Impulsion, marks its anniversary on November 17, a date that is significant not only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of the Christian era, but in relation to human consciousness on this earth in general. According to Clement of Alexandria, it was the true birthday of Jesus. Historically, it was the birthday of Pico della Mirandola, the light of the Renaissance. It is also the anniversary of many extraordinary events in history, both recorded and unrecorded. It is one of a series of occult points in the year that may be thought of as birthdays of the Dhyanis, points of intersection in cyclic time of aspects of Avalokiteshvara with manifested humanity. Thus, whilst the Seventh Impulsion of the Theosophical Movement is directly linked to this particular aspect of the manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, it cannot be separated from the other manifestations of the Logos present at other cyclic intervals.
July 21, 2024 at 3:17 am PT is a full Moon in Capricorn. Capricorn rules the tenth house of career, social involvement, and your place in society. Capricorn is an Earth sign focusing on earthly mat […]
As Gautama Buddha taught, one soon realizes upon entering the Path that it is impossible to fall back with impunity into thoughtlessness and heedlessness. Eternal vigilance is the price of spiritual freedom, and is constantly stressed in the training of srotapattis and would-be Bodhisattvas. On the razor-edged Path, as it is called in the Katha Upanishad, everything is finely balanced and highly energized. The greater the knowledge, the greater must be the responsibility and courage to accept the consequences of all thoughts, images, emotions and acts. More and more, one must feel a profound and cool heart-awareness of one’s kinship with all those whose self-created fetters have become, through ignorance and cupidity, like the entwining coils of a venomous snake. Unconditional compassion (karuna) and wise action (upaya) cannot come without the moral stamina to stay on the Path, despite seductive distractions, insidious rationalizations and specious excuses for sluggishness and backsliding. The sacred lineages of true Teachers (the Guruparampara) vivify the immemorial teachings by the light of measureless love and wisdom-compassion, effortlessly exemplified in their celebration of universal unity and human solidarity, and the supreme transcendence of the sovereign Self in the temporal realm of maya.
It is only through the Guru that the chela has the golden opportunity of lighting up ‘the Nachiketas flame’ of discernment and daring. Once lit, it must be sedulously guarded and tended by the chela, and eventually fanned into the fire of wisdom-sacrifice (jnana yajna) which gives light to all and takes from none. Established on this hoary Path, a stage will definitely come when all indifference to earthly reward will be natural and easy. In the Katha Upanishad Nachiketas simply could not see the point of the glittering gifts Yama, the god of death, offered him: riches, kingship, kingdoms and earthly happiness. All these had no meaning for Nachiketas because he knew too well the deceptive trappings of a life he had long since outgrown. He sought only the secret of immortality, and was unreservedly willing to honour the privilege of receiving the secret and retaining it with constant gratitude. Every skill and faculty is needed while climbing the steep mountain precipices of the secret Path. It must never be forgotten that all the needed resources are within oneself, and they will all have to be summoned and utilized, on this razor-edged Path. Having heard about the Path and having grasped that one cannot evade this recognition, however partial or fleeting, one must see the profound sense in which the Path is difficult to tread.
The powerful metaphors — indeed the entire parable — of the Katha Upanishadhave manifold layers and levels of meaning, all pointing to the secret spiritual heart. In The Voice of the Silence the Paramita Path is connected with antaskarana, the inward bridge between the impersonal and personal selves. The time will come when the seeker must choose between the two, for either must prevail. One cannot both be upon the Path and also maintain the absurd but prevalent misconception that there is a personal entity inside oneself, a ‘ghost in the machine’, to whom things are happening and who is holding the reins in life’s journey. This is the root illusion in the eyes of enlightened seers; no such entity really exists; there is only a bundle of propensities and reflexes, images and fantasies. The concatenation of elemental entities comprising the shadowy self are engaged in their own activity, propelled by the gunas expounded in the closing chapters of the Bhagavad Gita. The evanescent and everchanging personality may cling to the illusory misconception that it is acting freely, but it is no more than a congeries of numerous life-atoms pursuing their own predetermined proclivities. The celebrated metaphor of the chariot, also deployed in Plato’s Phaedrus, is given a vast extension in the Katha Upanishad as it is applicable to cosmic as well as to human activity. The Katha Upanishad may be seen not only as a philosophical dialogue, but also as an alchemical text, replete with deeply evocative, enigmatic and magical mantrams.
At some point one must mentally let go of the route by which one has come, what Gautama Buddha called the Raft and The Voice of the Silence terms the antaskarana bridge. This letting go is depicted in the image of the complete sacrifice (mahasmashana) of the ‘assemblage of sins’ and the namarupa(name and form) to the impersonal, immortal Self upon the altar of the secret heart. For a Manasa to be engaged in embodied existence means that an impersonal cosmos has made an immense sacrifice. This is symbolized physically by the sacrifice of the father giving of his life-essence, and mentally by the magnanimous sacrifice of a great being giving freely of his spiritual essence so that evolution may go on. It is also evident in the noble sacrifice of the mother who, over a period of painful gestation, gives everything to the astral body (linga sharira) of the soul coming into the world, just as the maternal matrix of Akasha nourishes the embryo of the globe. The impersonal has sacrificed for the sake of manifestation on the personal plane. This must be deliberately reversed through an intense awareness of what one owes to one’s father, mother, and all one’s teachers, especially to one’s spiritual parents and preceptors. The conscious reversal involves taking everything one has, with all one’s powers and limitations, and readily sacrificing it for the sake of the self-conscious re-emergence on the plane of manifestation of the inward god, the inner sovereign, who otherwise would remain the silent Self. One must allow that Self within, who is no different from the Self of all, to assume divine kingship within the human estate.
No one can tap the highest resources without becoming secure enough to want nothing for the puny, shadowy self. Moved solely by desires that elevate the whole of humanity and the entirety of creation, and established in that proper mental posture, one can abandon the antaskarana bridge, because one can re-create it at will. Seeing one’s personal self as no different from other personal selves, one can do the bidding of the divine through the instrumentality of anything in Nature, including, therefore, the use of one’s persona, in which one has renounced absolutely all proprietary interest. Becoming aware of the life-atoms in one’s vesture, one realizes that there is no such thing as the ‘personal self’ save in a metaphorical sense. Life-atoms are constantly streaming in and out as part of the ceaseless spiritual transmutation of matter on seven planes and the awesome law of sacrifice within the seven kingdoms of Nature. The true hotrior hierophant is an initiated alchemist able to send forth beneficent emanations through a mighty current of concentrated thought, mystic meditation, noetic vision and unconditional compassion, consciously quickening the upward movement of all the available life-atoms. To such a sage or magus, the antaskarana Path does not have its former significance, except as a drawbridge to be extended at will in the service of universal welfare.
A deep immersive journey into the heart of the Hawaiian islands. Through the stewards of ‘aina, Kanaka Maoli.
Aloha! In this video I spend the day with Unko I and do a catch and cook. Alot of people were curious about why only Hawaiian’s can live in this area so he talks about it.
Contact Ben for hunts, fishing & adventures on Molokai: florendoben84@gmail.com or 808-269-1149
Out in the Hawaiian islands is a place that stands out on its own. Molokai is the island (outside of unaccessible Niihau) that’s kept development away. This is old Hawaii, a place without traffic lights or bustle. Here, time stands still, and the locals have fought hard to keep it this way. Join me on an epic adventure with a Molokai local into a Hawaiian island that has stayed true to its roots.
Can we save coral reefs from the ravages of climate change? Why engineering heat-tolerant species is our moral imperative …
Many people have an aversion to human interventions into the natural world. However, as Corals: On the Brink explores, this mindset can overlook both the responsibilities humans already bear for the state of the world around them, and the potentially extraordinary consequences of inaction. Centred on the work of Line Bay, a research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), and Ryan Phelan, Executive Director of the conservation organisation Revive & Restore, the short documentary details their efforts to leverage emerging technologies to engineer coral species that are more resilient in the face of dire threats posed by man-made global warming. Situated at the nexus of genetics, climate and risk management, the piece makes a compelling case that the only way to save coral ecosystems, which are invaluable to human and nonhuman animals alike, may be human intervention and innovation. […]
Mililani Trask (Kanaka Oiwi) is a Native Hawaiian political speaker, attorney, and champion of indigenous and human rights. During the Hawaiian sovereignty movement in the 1980s, Trask founded Ka Lahui Hawaii, a Native Hawaiian initiative for self governance. She worked as a diplomat and has testified multiple times at the United Nations, advocating for the passage of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She remains prominent in Native Hawaiian politics, and currently serves as an advisor to Innovations Development Group, a firm focused on bringing clean, renewable, energy to Hawaiian communities.
Phanem-anon: Celebrating Indigenous Women and Leadership – May 4-5
We invite the Dartmouth community and the public to join in the conversation with Jennifer Rose Denetdale (dine), Winona LaDuke (Ojibwe), Mililani Trask (Kanaka Oiwi), and Ellen Gabriel (Mohawk). Their involvement in indigenous resistance movements include DAPL, the Keystone XL Pipeline, Indigenous gender issues, Treaty rights, history, the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous peoples, and more. Please join the Native American community at Dartmouth in welcoming these extraordinary women, while engaging in opportunities to bring awareness to prominent indigenous issues.
Sponsored by: Native American Studies Program, Office of the Provost, Environmental Studies Department, the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, the Office of Sustainability, Porter Family Fund for Sustainability in the Curriculum, Office of Residential Life and the Living Learning Communities, Native American Program, and the First Year Student Enrichment Program
The Pacific and the world are mourning the loss of Hawaiian scholar and activist Haunani-Kay Trask, who died at the weekend aged 71.
In 1991 Tagata Pasifika had the privilege of interviewing Professor Trask for the documentary The Hawaiians. Trask, a fearless advocate for the Kānaka Maoli, spoke passionately about Native Hawaiian rights and indigenous sovereignty.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m a patriot of the Hawaiian nation. The Hawaiian nation burns in our hearts. It’s still alive. It’s right here on my land.”
Our alofa to Haunani-Kay Trask’s family, friends and the Hawaiian community.
Dr Haunani-Kay Trask 03 October 1949 – 03 July 2021
Hawaii was a recognized independent nation prior to January 17, 1893. On that day, the nation and government was illegally overthrown by the United States. Since then, the USA has illegally assumed control over Hawaii turning the islands into Military Bases that threaten world peace.
The United States claims that Hawaii was lawfully annexed as the 50th State.
What would you think when you find out that is Not True! In fact the United States government signed a Joint Resolution of the Congress in 1993 that “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”.
1. To remove the odour from your hands after cutting onions, chicken or fish, just wash your hands with salt and water, then you will have no more smell.
2. To avoid the feeling of the hotness of pepper on your hands after cutting/slicing it with your hands, rub them with salt and vegetable oil or red oil and wash them.
3. When pepper mistakenly enter your eye, put a pinch of salt in your mouth, the hotness of the pepper will disappear and you will see the magic.
4. When storing empty containers or bottle, throw in a pinch of salt to help them from getting stinky.
5. Sprinkling some salt on your fresh peppers while pounding it, helps to make it pound quickly.
6. Soaking bitter leaves in salt and hot water, helps to remove extra bitterness before cooking with it.
7. If your liquid milk always spoil before you finish it, You can add pinch of salt when you first open it, it will help the milk to stay fresh longer.
8. Salt and detergent mixture can help you to kill ants and cockroaches disturbing you in the kitchen.
9. Placing your overripe tomatoes in a cold and salty water overnight, will help to make them fresh and firm.
10. If you cut lemon and you do not want to use it finish, sprinkle salt on it, it would stay fresh for 3 days. Make sure you rinse it before using it again.
11. Salt can be used as a preservative method for preserving meat, fish or vegetables. It helps to prevent bacteria growth.
12. Grease fires or small fire can be put out with the use of salt.
13. To store your fermented locust beans (ogiri, iru or dawadawa), mix it with salt and put it in a container. Your fermented locust beans will stay fresh for years without getting spoil.
14. When boiling eggs, add a pinch of salt to keep the shells from cracking and peeling the eggs will also be easy.
15. If you don’t want your spaghetti to gum together while cooking, add a drop of vegetable oil into a salty boiling water and it will come out separately.
16. Soaking your rice with hot water and salt before cooking it, will help to remove excess starch.
17. You can use salt to parboil your rice in order to remove the starch from the rice quickly.
18. Adding salt on your cocoyam when it starts boiling helps to make it soften quickly.
19. Salt is used to sanitize your kitchen sponges. It is used to kill the bacteria, germs in them. Soak the sponge in a hot salty water.
20. Salt improves the texture of the meat as it helps to break down the tough proteins, thus tenderizing the meat.
21. When chopping/cutting vegetables, sprinkle little salt onto the chopping/cutting board, it will keep the vegetables from moving or flying around while cutting/chopping.
Immediately after saying I AM FREE NOW, a rampaging 75-mph wind came to a complete stop. This was just one of many stunning Archangel Michael telekinetic events that David recounts in this powerful sequel to Part One: • David Wilcock LIVE: The Archangel Mic…
Also, in perhaps the ultimate “I’m Not Racist” social proof in the history of this community, within minutes of enduring your way through this film, David drops a slightly-rushed rendition of “Mr. Bozack” by EPMD (1991).
In the original this was done completely without music after 31 years. We added the music back in so you can rate how well D-dub did!
Go to thedisclosure.com for more updates!
PLEASE NOTE: The comments section has been MASSIVELY infected with spam accounts claiming they are David and want to speak to you.
David does NOT use Telegram whatsoever. David does NOT text people. David does NOT reach out and make personal contacts. He’s alone in a house with a dog and a turkey. That’s it.
Almost every single heartfelt comment you write is getting pounded by one of these. It appears to be nearly impossible to stop. We do not have the time to do all the labor. Please do not respond to them!
With that being said, the comments are overwhelmingly fantastic and we are not going to let “Our Friend” get in the way of appreciating you… at a distance, not by text!
Out in the Hawaiian islands is a place that stands out on its own. Molokai is the island (outside of unaccessible Niihau) that’s kept development away. This is old Hawaii, a place without traffic lights or bustle. Here, time stands still, and the locals have fought hard to keep it this way. Join me on an epic adventure with a Molokai local into a Hawaiian island that has stayed true to its roots.
Lahaina Fire Recovery Update. Cleanup in Lahaina Town on Maui is nearing completion with more than 1,183 residential properties already cleared, 42 commercial properties cleared and 2,632 vehicles removed.
Over eight months ago, the deadliest fire in modern American history torched the city of Lahaina on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. So, what’s it like now? Join local firefighter Jonny and me as we explore the restricted burn zone to better understand the situation from a local’s perspective.
@FreeHawaiiNews – Why Are Mauiʻs Residents Saying “No” To Building Seven More Telescopes Atop Haleakalā? What Do Hawai`i Island Residents Think About Extending The US Armyʻs Lease For Pohakuloa Beyond 2029? Also Our Pacific Way Report On The 2024 Festival Of The Pacific Arts Held For The First Time In Hawaii, Why The Hawaiian Islands Have Never Been Specifically Named As Part Of The State Of Hawaii In Legal Documents & Another Fascinating Kumu Hinaʻs Mana`o. Join Hosts Hinaleimoana Wong & Leon Siu As They Give The Kanaka Perspective On Issues In Hawaii You Wonʻt Get Anywhere Else.
Allow yourself to relax into Supergiant Wind Chimes Sound Bath. This recording is intended to give you Maximum Relaxation and Relief from Stress and Tension. Imagine yourself immersed in a Sonic Bath. One that Submerges you in Waves of Pure Sound. One that Cleanses your Soul and Detoxifies Your Body. Close your eyes and imagine you are the best version of you. Listen to the Chimes as your Higher Mind gives you evidence that you are perfect in this moment. Peace, Love and Joy to You. ❤️🙏🏻👍🏻
We need two ingredients for life to start on a planet: dry land and (fresh) water. Strictly, the water doesn’t have to be fresh, but fresh water can only occur on dry land.
To those who knew that there was more than one key to theogonic symbolism, it was a mistake to have expressed it in a language so crude and misleading. For if the educated and learned philosopher could discern the kernel of wisdom under the coarse rind of the fruit, and knew that the latter concealed the greatest laws and truths of psychic and physical nature, as well as the origin of all things — not so with the uninitiated profane. For him the dead letter was religion; the interpretation — sacrilege. And this dead letter could neither edify nor make him more perfect, seeing that such an example was given him by his gods. . . . Now all the gods of Olympus, as well as those of the Hindu Pantheon and the Rishis, were the septiform personations (1) of the noumena of the intelligent Powers of nature; (2) of Cosmic Forces; (3) of celestial bodies; (4) of gods or Dhyan Chohans; (5) of psychic and spiritual powers; (6) of divine kings on earth (or the incarnations of the gods); and (7) of terrestrial heroes or men. The knowledge how to discern among these seven forms the one that is meant, belonged at all times to the Initiates, whose earliest predecessors had created this symbolical and allegorical system.
The Secret Doctrine, ii 764-765
It is, according to Gautama Buddha, a greater feat to govern oneself than to command all the elements in Nature. All Nature and its powers bend heavenwards before the gentle, irresistible theurgy of the perfected Bodhisattva, the pilgrim-soul who has reached the summit of the Path and become the son of the Dhyanis, compassionator of the triple worlds, greater than all gods. The potential of pure swaraj or self-rule is latent in every Monad, and is quickened by the fiery ray of the Manasa Dhyanis. When first the dark fire of their formless intelligence ignited self-consciousness in the evolved forms of terrestrial humanity over eighteen million years ago, man became a living link between heaven and earth. Conscious of the divine presence within his preceptors, his companions and himself, he was governed by a natural impulse towards gratitude, devotion and benevolence. He lived in effortless sympathy with the hosts of bright devas and devatas that he found in and around himself and throughout the entire realm of Nature. Reflecting the Akashic ideation infused into him by the Manasa, his actions radiated a benign and spontaneous magic.
Although the impress of that primordial time is ineradicable, human beings have descended so low in consciousness that they can scarcely believe, much less recall, their original estate. Emerson’s charitable characterization of man as God playing the fool cannot account for the awful process by which man has become spiritually self-orphaned and blinded, becoming a burden to himself and a parasite on Nature. What, one might ask, are the strange gods and alien altars towards which human beings have directed their pristine powers in degrading themselves? Since there is no power greater than that which made Monads self-conscious, one need not look beyond oneself to find the cause of one’s own impoverishment. Nor need one look anywhere but within to find the means whereby one may embody the divine impulsion towards its transcendent end. The regeneration and restoration of humanity requires individuals to heed the wisdom of Krishna’s teaching that all beings go to the gods they worship, and thereby awaken to self-conscious immortality in unison with the unmanifest godhead.
Such an awakening can be neither metaphysically cheap nor psychologically simple; one must skillfully navigate between the Scylla of desperate salvationism and the Charybdis of cynical materialism. If man is potentially a self-conscious link between heaven and earth, one might ask how man is specifically connected with the earth and with heaven. The elements constituting the human vestures are indeed consubstantial with the fabric of Nature outside the human form. Thus, man is linked to the earth through the five sense-organs, each of which has its astral analogue, and also through a variety of classes of elementals. Through each of the astro-physical senses, and especially the sense of inner touch, man is continuously involved in complex processes of interaction with the elemental kingdoms. On the other side, he is connected with the Dhyanis and the devas through daimons, which are the invisible essences of the elements, elastic, ethereal and semi-corporeal, in Nature. These daimons are made up of a much more subtle matter than that which composes the astral form of the average human being. By consciously drawing upon them, one can bring about the progressive etherealization of one’s vestures. Just as the crucifixion of Jesus symbolizes the bondage of spirit on the cross of matter, so too the Eucharist signifies the spiritualization of material vestures and the liberation of the spirit. This process must be initiated through meditation, intensified through refinement in consciousness, through reverence, renunciation and compassion. If one can suffuse one’s whole being with benevolent and elevated thoughts and feelings, it is possible, over a period of seven years, to reform the life-atoms that constitute the astro-physical form. Such a radical renewal will be apparent in one’s hands, face, toes and tongue — indeed at every point in the body.
This in itself is only one small application of the vast body of arcane and exact knowledge regarding the hosts and hierarchies of beings involved in human evolution. In neo-Platonic thought these beings were divided into three broad classes:
According to the doctrine of Proclus, the uppermost regions from the Zenith of the Universe to the Moon belonged to the Gods or Planetary Spirits, according to their hierarchies and classes. The highest among them were the twelve Huperouranioi, or Supercelestial Gods, with whole legions of subordinate Daimons at their command. They are followed next in rank and power by the Egkosmioi, the Inter-cosmic Gods, each of these presiding over a great number of Daimons, to whom they impart their power and change it from one to another at will. These are evidently the personified forces of nature in their mutual correlation, the latter being represented by the third class, or the Elementals.
H.P. Blavatsky
In every aspect of life, human beings are intimately and immediately engaged with these ordered ranks and legions of daimons or elementals. The elementals are neither immortal spirits nor tangible bodies; they are merely astral forms of the celestial and super-celestial ideas that move them. They are a combination of sublimated matter and rudimentary mind, centres of force with instinctive desires but no consciousness in the human sense. Acting collectively, they are the nature-spirits — the gnomes and sylphs, salamanders and undines of alchemical tradition.
All these daimons, together with the higher gods, are connected with the seven sacred elements. At the highest metaphysical level, these elements have nothing to do with what we call fire, air, earth and water. For, in essence, these elements are not material, nor may they be understood in terms of visible functions on the physical plane. Just as the hosts of celestial and super-celestial gods are guided from within by the power of formless spiritual essences, and act outwardly in their dominion over the daimons of the elements, so these daimons themselves preside directly over the elements of the four kingdoms of organic life, ensouling them and giving them their outward capacities of action. Thus, when human beings arouse Buddhi in kama, the reflection of the sixth principle in the fourth,Buddhi will transmute the lower Manas. In the antaskarana, in the channel of aspiration, the force of Buddhi in Manas will actually become manifest in the fingers, nostrils and lungs.Buddhi will be aroused in all the centres of the brain and the heart. It will then be possible to invite or invoke the chief controllers of the many classes of daimons. When this takes place, the teaching that man is a living link between heaven and earth takes on a concrete meaning in benevolent magic based upon arcane science.
Weekly Astrology June 10-16 JUNE 11 MARS SQUARE PLUTO- ARE YOU UP FOR CHALLENGES? MARS in TAURUS is forming a square to PLUTO Retrograde. Rules by VENUS in GEMINI right now, it may be a war of word […]
Orichalcum, the lost metal of Atlantis, may have been found in a shipwreck off Sicily
MYSTERIOUS metal ingots linked to the mythical civilisation of Atlantis have been recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Sicily.
Archaeologists last month recovered a wealth of ingots of an unusual golden alloy from the wreck sitting in about 3m of water, 300m off the coast of Gela in southern Sicily. […]
A medieval astronomical instrument discovered entirely by accident has turned out to be a powerful record of cross-cultural scientific collaboration.
The brass astrolabe dates back to 11th century Spain – but was subsequently engraved with annotations and amendments over the centuries, in multiple languages, as changing owners adapted and updated it for their own use. […]
The ‘Master’ in the sanctuary of our souls is ‘the Higher Self’ — the divine spirit whose consciousness is based upon and derived solely (at any rate during the mortal life of the man in whom it is captive) from the Mind, which we have agreed to call the Human Soul (the ‘spiritual soul’ being the vehicle of the Spirit). In its turn the former (the personal or human soul) is a compound in its highest form, of spiritual aspirations, volitions, and divine love; and in its lower aspect, of animal desires and terrestrial passions imparted to it by its associations with its vehicle, the seat of all these.
H.P. Blavatsky
Restoration of the right relationship between the Master in the inmost sanctuary and the incarnated consciousness is gained only through a sacrificial process of self-purification. Obscuring and polluting tendencies nurtured in the mind through its misuse over many lives must be removed by a self-chosen and self-administered therapy. Like the Pandava brothers exiled from their kingdom through their own folly, or like the master held prisoner in his own house by those who should be his servants in the parable of Jesus, the pristine divine ray of the Logos in man is trapped and stripped of its sovereign place in human life unless consciously sought by the aspirant. This invocation of wisdom through the supplication of the mind to the spirit was seen by the ancient Greeks as the cultivation of sophrosyne — the subordination of the inferior element to the superior. It is shown in The Voice of the Silence as the shila virtue — the attunement of thought, will and feeling to the pulsation of divine harmony, Alaya-Akasha. The mind stands as the critical link between the divine and the animal nature. The recovery and right use of the privilege of human existence depend upon the subordination of the elements of the lower rupa existence to the spiritual ideation of Arupa Manas.
The sacrificial posture and selfless motive required for this self-purification can be readily grasped through a telling analogy. There is not a modern metropolis which does not maintain the equipment needed to neutralize the effluvia of human waste and thereby reduce the danger of infection to its population. Similarly, a large number of devices are available, both to cities and to individuals, for the purpose of removing sediments and impurities from drinking water, through distillation, filtration and osmosis, to make it available in a purer and fresher form. With the human mind the same principles of public health and civic responsibility would require that each individual and every society strive to purify the muddy stream of human passions which pollute those coming into contact with it. Every human being has received the crystalline waters of life in a pure and unsullied condition, and therefore everyone has the karmic responsibility for every failure to return these waters to the ocean of life in a pristine condition. Insofar as this responsibility has been neglected by individuals, under karma in successive lives they are self-condemned to immersion in the waters they themselves have poisoned. Under the laws of karma affecting the processes of reincarnation and the transmigration of life-atoms, individuals owe it to their neighbours and their descendants, as well as to themselves, to purify their mental emanations.
In practice, this implies a continuous cleansing of one’s thoughts, one’s words and one’s actions; these in turn fundamentally depend upon the purification of the will. Unfortunately, purification of the will, which is vital to the spiritual regeneration of humanity, is itself seriously misunderstood as a consequence of the process of pollution of consciousness and magnetism. Mired in the morbid obscuration of higher consciousness, too many people suppose that a bolstering of the lower will is a means to survival. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The higher spiritual will does not itself need to be strengthened, but it may be released through the removal of obscurations and hindrances. So long as the will is activated by the individual only on behalf of passions and the illusion of the persona, that will is not worth having. Hence, many people have discovered that the will cannot be released on behalf of lesser purposes. This predicament is conspicuous in those diseased societies which place an inordinate emphasis upon the personal will. Will itself is a pure colourless principle which cannot be dissociated from the energy of the Atman released through breathing. Thus when human beings breathe benevolently, blessing others with every breath, they can release the beneficent will-energy of the Atman. As soon as the will is released on behalf of the personal ego, however, against other human beings, it is blunted. This inevitable paralysis of the antagonistic lower will is indeed a beneficent and therapeutic aspect of karma.
Viewed from a collective standpoint, many human beings can be seen as having been weakened because they have absorbed life-atoms from others who have misused spiritual knowledge and the potency of the higher will. Throughout the world perhaps one in ten persons has insistently used the will against other human beings in this or previous lives. This may have been for the sake of bolstering the insecure identity of the persona or, worse, through the misuse of spiritual knowledge connected with false meditation, indulgence in drugs and mediumistic practices. Since 1966 contemporary society has witnessed the emergence of a number of centres of pseudo-spiritual activity; now it is witnessing the inevitable psychological breakdown of many who were responsible for this moral pollution. The waves of spiritual influence initiated by the descent of Krishna offer golden opportunities to all souls, including those inverted natures self-blocked from inward growth by their own failures on the Path in previous lives. Amongst these there were some too cowardly to make a new beginning, who sought instead to compensate for their own weakness and delusion by cashing in on the currents of the 1975 Cycle. Having forfeited timely opportunities offered through compassion, they are self-destroyed when Krishna takes a firm stand on behalf of the entire human family because they are unable to generate a genuine concern for others. Never having generated an interest in the welfare of the vast majority of mankind, they are self-condemned. Sadly, they cast a long shadow over a much larger class of weaker souls who are affected by them, no doubt through their own delusions and vulnerabilities.
Persons are sometimes drawn into dangerous orbits of misused knowledge through loose talk about such sacred subjects as kundalini, kriyashakti and the activation of the higher spiritual centres in man. Ordinary people who enjoy a normal measure of spiritual health wisely avoid those places where they are likely to hear profane chatter. Through a natural sense of spiritual good taste they simply shun those places where self-deluded con men congregate to make a living off the gullible. Today, because the moral and spiritual requirements for participation in the humanity of the future have become more evident to many people, the market for such deceptive opportunism has begun to diminish. The America of P.T. Barnum, who said that a sucker is born every moment, has been replaced to a large extent by the America of Abraham Lincoln, where, as is well known, one cannot fool all the people all the time. Although many souls have to travel a great distance along the path of self-integration, they have learnt enough not to be duped by pseudo-spiritual blandishments. Just as they have learnt not to believe everything conveyed by the mass media and not to leap at every free offer or supermarket discount, they have also learnt to pass up invitations for instant development of kundalini and every facile promise of spiritual development that dispenses with the judicious control of the emotions and passions.
Even in the difficult area of sexuality the idea of strength through celibacy (e.g. Gabrielle Brown, The New Celibacy, 1980) has gained some currency amongst many people, young and old, who find the burden of ego-games and unequal experimentation intolerable. There is nothing wrong with the sacred act of communion and procreation, and as the ancient Jews believed, God is pleased when a man and a woman come together in true unison. Nor need this issue be obscured by pseudo-arguments concerning the Malthusian spectre of over-population. As the economist E.F. Schumacher pointed out, even if the entire population of the globe were concentrated in America, this would result in a population density no greater than that of Great Britain, a nation long noted for the spaciousness and greenery of its countryside. North America itself, over its ancient and almost entirely unwritten history, has supported many varied civilizations, some of which displayed a much greater spiritual maturity than is evidenced in its recent history. Broadly, one cannot understand the physical facts of life on earth, much less the spiritual facts of life, through a language of conflicting claims and counter-claims, rationalizations and compensatory illusions, or pseudo-sophisticated statistical arguments based upon a selfish and shallow view of the nature of the human psyche.
The purification and release of the will must be comprehended in terms of human individuality, and therefore must be considered in the light of the mystery of every human soul. Since this mystery encompasses an entire series of reincarnations extending over eighteen million years, it can only begin to be appreciated through careful consideration of the motley evidence offered by one’s participation in varied states of consciousness in the present life. Any individual concerned to recover the spontaneity and benevolence of the spiritual will must be willing to examine courageously the manner and extent to which he or she has become the servant not of the divine Ego, but rather of the lower astral form and its attendant incubi and succubi.
For this ‘Astral’ — the shadowy ‘double’ (in the animal as in man) is not the companion of the divine Ego but of the earthly body. It is the link between the personal SELF, the lower consciousness of Manas and the Body, and is the vehicle of transitory, not of immortal life. Like the shadow projected by man, it follows his movements and impulses slavishly and mechanically, and leans therefore to matter without ever ascending to Spirit.
This rare and special Full Flower Moon May 23 at 6:53 am PDT, 9:53 am EDT, 1:53 pm GMT at 2 degrees 55′ of the last fire sign is totally awesome. With 3 Planets at 29 degrees, VENUS conjunct […]
In the realm of gemstones, few captivate the imagination quite like jade. Renowned for its stunning beauty and deep cultural significance, jade has been revered by civilizations for millennia. From ancient rituals to modern adornments, this gemstone continues to hold a special place in both the material and spiritual […]
“In forty years of medical practice, I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical ‘therapy’ to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases: music and […]
Hālau 'Aha Hui Lānākila 