Medley

People over the millennia have reported having deeply moving religious experiences either spontaneously or while under the influence of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin-containing mushrooms or the Amazonian brew ayahuasca, and a portion of those experiences have been encounters with what the person regards as “God” or “ultimate reality.” In a survey of thousands of people who reported having experienced personal encounters with God, Johns Hopkins researchers report that more than two-thirds of self-identified atheists shed that label after their encounter, regardless of whether it was spontaneous or while taking a psychedelic.

Moreover, the researchers say, a majority of respondents attributed lasting positive changes in their psychological health ¾ e.g., life satisfaction, purpose and meaning ¾ even decades after their initial experience.

People who believe in oneness – the idea that everything in the world is connected and interdependent – appear to have greater life satisfaction than those who don't, regardless of whether they belong to a religion or don't, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

“The feeling of being at one with a divine principle, life, the world, other people or even activities has been discussed in various religious traditions but also in a wide variety of scientific research from different disciplines,” said Laura Marie Edinger-Schons, PhD, of the University of Mannheim and author of the study. “The results of this study reveal a significant positive effect of oneness beliefs on life satisfaction, even controlling for religious beliefs.”

John White – USA

[A Practical Guide to Death and Dying was originally published by QUEST books in 1980. This particular version was previously published in the Theosophical Digest, y1992 v4 i2-p90.] 

Growing Old Gracefully 

Growing Old Gracefully: The Phenix Society. 

I’m associated with the Phenix Society. I became part of it fourteen years ago because, after writing about it as a journalist, I sincerely felt it was doing valuable work in helping people to find meaning and direc­tion in life. That includes dealing with the fear of dying. The Phenix Society was born in 1973 when a handful of southern Connecticut residents began to meet regularly in search of a positive approach to aging. They were all older people who’d been through a wide variety of life’s shocks. Hobbies and week­ly bridge games for the senior citizens’ center weren’t enough to satisfy them. They vaguely sensed there was a better way, but it wasn’t until one of them read a passage in Carl Jung’s Modern Man in Search of a Soul that the answer stood out clearly. Jung wrote:

“A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species to which he belongs. We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning.”

James LeFevour – USA

In a previous article, the idea of ayurvedic doshas being applied to the mind was introduced. In summary there are three doshas (vata, pitta, and kapha) that come from 2 of the 5 elements (earth, water, fire, air, space) of the universe, and those 2 elements produce the 3 motions of the universe. When applied to the mind this demonstrates 3 distinct personality types that are prevalent in all people.

To read more visit here.

In this article, instead of focusing just on the mind it is worthwhile to go further into one’s passions. In terms of chakras, instead of just the ajna chakra, we will see what ajna and the anahata (heart) chakra do in tandem to our personalities.

It is not a new concept to look at the mind and the heart in unison as one unit. The science of meditation has only begun to plumb the depths of how our brains and hearts work together on a cellular level. Now we are applying doshas to it as well to understand the persona.

If one were to understand the nature of dosha, it becomes apparent that all things have a nature, so all things have a dosha. In a table, the legs, screws, and table top all have individual doshas. So too does the table in general have one dosha attributed to it. It is this way with people. Our minds, hearts, and all chakras and organs have dosha qualities. The combination of these doshas when applied to the whole give us our general dosha.

Tim Wyatt – England

The author

Like most people in the world I’m relatively poor. I’m one of the official 14 million people living in ‘poverty’ in the UK. But compared to a Yemeni orphan or Indian untouchable I live a millionaire lifestyle. I have as much warmth, food and shelter as I need. And although I’m officially and statistically poor, I’ve got lots of ‘stuff’. In fact, I’m drowning in it.

I ‘own’ a tiny old house, an ageing car, several dozen boxes containing the 20 million plus words from my half century of scribbling, 4,000 books, 2,000 CDs and vinyl LPs, hundreds of pictures, artefacts and objects d’art, dozens of bonsai trees – and a shed.

James LeFevour – USA

Ayurveda is becoming more known to the west as a form of medicine and natural health. For those who have visited an ayurvedic doctor as an alternative to mainstream medicine you will know that after having one’s blood pressure taken and after a series of questions about natural bodily process, your doctor will explain to you that each physical body has a primary dosha. This body dosha can determine a range of physical qualities including how acidic your stomach is, how easily you put on weight, or what sort of herbs will aid you in good health.

Medicine and physical health is how most people know ayurveda, but this "knowledge of life" as ayurveda translates can be used to understand more than just digestion and bloodwork. Ayurveda dates back more than 5000 years to the Sanskrit texts, the Vedas, and can give us an insight to how we function as spiritual beings.

The doshas for example are not just body types. Everything in the universe could be considered to have a dosha, and that dosha or nature determines how each being or planet or atom works in harmony with everything around it.

One way in which doshas and ayurveda is being applied to more than just physical health is in understanding the mind. As David Frawley says in Ayurveda and the Mind, “Learning the right use of the mind not only solves our psychological problems, but directs us to our higher potential of Self-realization. It leads to the spiritual life, which is our real occupation as conscious beings.”

Henry David Thoreau portrait by Darren McAndrew 2017

 A new study published in Ecology Letters is using observations made by Henry David Thoreau – 19th-century American naturalist, social reformer, and philosopher – to explore the effects of climate change on tree leaf-out and, as a result, the emergence of spring wildflowers.

The paper was coauthored by Susan Kalisz, head of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Mason Heberling, a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow affiliated with UT. Researchers from the University of Maine, Boston University, and Syracuse University also participated in the research.