Everything is Interesting
Ram Dass (b. 1931) is an American contemporary spiritual teacher, originally named Richard Alpert, and the author of the seminal 1971 book ‘Be Here Now.’
He is known for his personal and professional associations with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, for his travels to India and his relationship with the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba, and for founding the charitable organizations Seva Foundation and Hanuman Foundation.
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Be Here Now is a seminal 1971 book on spirituality, yoga and meditation by the Western born yogi and spiritual teacher Ram Dass. The title comes from a statement his guide, Bhagavan Das, made during Ram Dass’s journeys in India. The cover features a Mandala incorporating the title, a chair, radial lines, and the word ‘remember.’
It is one of the first guides, for those not born as Hindus, to becoming a yogi, by a person himself not born a Hindu. For its influence on the Hippie movement and subsequent spiritual movements, it has been described as a ‘countercultural bible.’ In addition to introducing its title phrase into common use, the book has influenced numerous other writers and yoga practitioners, including Wayne Dyer and Michael Crichton.
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In 2010, a new rule for the next NCAA football season, dubbed ‘The Tebow Rule‘ by media because it would have affected him, banned messages on eye paint. During his college football career, Tebow frequently wore references to biblical verses on his eye black. In the 2009 BCS Championship Game, he wore John 3:16 on his eye paint, and as a result, 92 million people searched ‘John 3:16’ on Google during or shortly after the game. Tebow stated of the searches ‘It just goes to show you the influence and the platform that you have as a student-athlete and as a quarterback at Florida.’
The NFL already has a rule prohibiting players from wearing messages on eye black; so, Tebow is not able to continue the practice in the NFL. Despite the media label, the NCAA denies the rule was influenced by Tebow particularly, since many other notable players (Reggie Bush and Terrelle Pryor for example) wear or have worn messages on eye black. An NCAA spokesman said ‘When this rule was proposed the committee did not focus on any one team or student athlete. That measure reinforces what the intended use of eye black is, which is to shade the eyes from the sun.’
A nazar is an eye-shaped amulet believed to protect against the evil eye. In Central Asia, during the ages of Tengrism (a shamanistic religion of that region), people held similar superstitions like horseshoes, garlic, wolf’s tooth, dried thorn, lead, stones; but the crystal blue eye has always been the most popular one.
It is common in Turkey, Armenia, Iran, Greece, Cyprus and Azerbaijan. In Turkey, the nazar is often hung in homes, offices, cars, children’s clothing, or incorporated in jewelry. A typical nazar is made of handmade glass featuring concentric circles or teardrop shapes in dark blue, white, light blue and black, occasionally with a yellow/gold edge.
Paul Laffoley (b. 1940) is a US artist and architect. As an architect working for Emery Roth & Sons, Laffoley worked for 18 months on design for the World Trade Center Tower II.
As a painter, his work is usually classified as visionary art or outsider art; most of his pieces are painted on large canvases and combine words and imagery to depict a spiritual architecture of explanation, tackling concepts like dimensionality, time travel through hacking relativity, connecting conceptual threads shared by philosophers through the millennia, and theories about the cosmic origins of mankind.
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A Trappist [trap-ist] beer is a beer brewed by or under control of Trappist monks. There are a total of 174 Trappist monasteries worldwide; only seven (six in Belgium, one in the Netherlands) produce Trappist beer and are authorized to label their beers with the Authentic Trappist Product logo that indicates a compliance to the various rules of the International Trappist Association.
The Trappist order originated in the Cistercian monastery of La Trappe, France. Various Cistercian congregations existed for many years, and by 1664 the Abbot of La Trappe felt that the Cistercians were becoming too liberal. He introduced strict new rules in the abbey and the Strict Observance was born. Since this time, many of the rules have been relaxed. However, a fundamental tenet, that monasteries should be self-supporting, is still maintained by these groups.
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Saturnalia [sat-er-ney-lee-uh] is an Ancient Roman festival or celebration held in honor of Saturn (Cronus), the youngest of the Titans, father of the major gods of the Greeks and Romans, and son of Uranus and Gaia. Most relevantly, Saturn is the father of Rome’s primary god, Jupiter. Saturnalia was introduced around 217 BCE to raise citizen morale after a crushing military defeat at the hands of the Carthaginians.
Originally celebrated for a day, on December 17, its popularity saw it grow until it became a week-long extravaganza, ending on the 23rd. Efforts to shorten the celebration were unsuccessful. Augustus tried to reduce it to three days, and Caligula to five. These attempts caused uproar and massive revolts among the Roman citizens.
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SantaCon is a mass gathering of people dressed in Santa Claus costumes parading publicly on streets and in bars in cities around the world. The focus is on spontaneity and creativity, while having a good time and spreading cheer and goodwill. Sometimes known as Naughty Santas, Cheapsuit Santas, Santarchy, Santapalooza, and Santa Rampage, SantaCon incorporates elements of a flash mob in the context of cheerful bawdy and harmless behavior, the singing of naughty Christmas carols, and the giving of small gifts to strangers. In 2005, a more violent version of the event occurred when participants in New Zealand rioted, looting stores, throwing bottles at passing cars, and assaulting security guards.
In 1994, the Suicide Club (a secret society in San Francisco credited as the first modern extreme urban exploration society, and also known for anarchic group pranks) staged the first ‘Santarchy,’ which was later adopted as Santacon by offshoot the Cacophony Society (a randomly gathered network of free spirits united in the pursuit of experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society). Influenced by the surrealist movement, Discordianism, and other subversive art currents, the Cacophonists celebrated the Yule season in a distinctly anti-commercial manner, by mixing guerrilla street theater and pranksterism.
Dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants (Latin: ‘nanos gigantium humeris insidentes’) is a Western metaphor meaning, ‘One who develops future intellectual pursuits by understanding the research and works created by notable thinkers of the past,’ a contemporary interpretation. However, the metaphor was first recorded in the twelfth century and attributed to Bernard of Chartres. It was famously uttered by seventeenth-century scientist Isaac Newton. In Greek mythology the blind giant Orion carried his servant Cedalion on his shoulders.
‘Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.’
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A highly sensitive person (HSP) is a person having the innate trait of high psychological sensitivity (or innate sensitiveness as Carl Jung originally coined it). According to American pyschologist Elaine N. Aron, who coined the term, highly sensitive people comprise about a fifth of the population, and process sensory data much more deeply and thoroughly due to a biological difference in their nervous systems.
This is a specific trait with key consequences that in the past has often been confused with innate shyness, social anxiety problems, inhibitedness, or even social phobia and innate fearfulness, introversion, and so on. The existence of the trait of innate sensitivity was demonstrated using a test that was shown to have both internal and external validity. Although the term is primarily used to describe humans, the trait is present in nearly all higher animals.
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In Hinduism and yoga kundalini [koon-dl-ee-nee] (literally ‘coiled’) is a ‘corporeal energy,’ an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, which lies coiled at the base of the spine. It is envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent, hence a number of English renderings of the term such as ‘serpent power.’ The kundalini resides in the sacrum bone in three and a half coils and has been described as a residual power of pure desire.
Kundalini is described as a sleeping, dormant potential force in the human organism. It is one of the components of an esoteric description of man’s ‘subtle body,’ which consists of nadis (energy channels), chakras (psychic centers), prana (subtle energy), and bindu (drops of essence).
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The fascination with death extends far back into human history. Throughout time, people have had obsessions with death and all things related to death and the afterlife. In past times, people would form cults around death gods and figures. Famously, Anubis, Osiris, and Hades have all had large cult followings.
La Santa Muerte (Saint Death), or the personification of death, is currently worshiped by many in Mexico and other countries in Central America. Day of the Dead, November 2, is a celebration for the dead.
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The Daily Omnivore 