Interesting Articles and Videos 10th January

Interesting Articles and Videos 10th January

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Does spiritual practice mean we can never get angry?

No, says Sylvia Boorstein, it’s all how you work with it.

In October 1989, the Dalai Lama sat alone on stage at the largest auditorium on the campus of the University of California at Irvine and answered questions from an audience of more than 6,000 people. It felt like a relaxed conversation in a very large living room. The huge crowd was amazingly quiet, listening intently as he responded carefully to each question. Then someone asked, “Do you ever get angry?”

The Dalai Lama laughed his impish, delighted laugh and said, “Of course! Things happen that I don’t want to happen and anger arises. But, it’s not a problem.”

It seems to me that the most imperishable myth about spiritual practice, especially meditation practice, is that it promises an end to anger once and for all. It doesn’t. When something happens that we don’t want to happen, anger arises. It is the way of the human nervous system. Perhaps it’s one way, through eons of evolution, that human beings have survived. When we feel threatened in any way, anger triggers the adrenaline we need to protect ourselves. The potential of the adult human mind, however, is to recognize anger, locate the fear that gave rise to it, and respond wisely, remedying the situation without complicating it. Anger does not need to be a problem.

It’s understandable that the myth persists. The dharma centers I know are generally quiet. They have a culture of temperate response. I even teach smiling as a practice. It’s a gesture that inclines the mind in the direction of ease, and when smiling is difficult, it alerts the practitioner to the presence of the distress in the mind. I also teach a lot about cultivating the compassionate response of the heart that is our fundamental nature, but still, when things don’t go the way I want them to, anger arises.

Here are questions I often hear asked about anger:

Q. Does cultivating compassion really mean I can never express my anger again?

A. Cultivating compassion doesn’t ever mean you can’t express anger. An unexpressed anger creates a breach in relationships that no amount of smiling can cross. It’s a secret. A lie. The compassionate response is one that keeps connections alive. It requires telling the truth. And telling the truth can be difficult, especially when the mind is stirred up by anger.

The Vinaya, the compendium of monks’ rules in the Pali canon, lists five “Reflections before Admonishing.” Is now a good time to speak? Am I telling the whole truth? Is my voice gentle, not harsh? Am I motivated by kindness? Am I motivated by a desire to be helpful?

I keep a framed card with those five reflections on a table in my study and people often borrow it. I enjoy thinking of the Buddha as a psychotherapist offering advice that is timeless in its relevance.

Q. Surely holding in the anger can’t be good for you. I’ve worked many years in therapy to get in touch with my anger. What should I do now?

A. Getting in touch with one’s anger, if that was formerly a frightening thing to do, is surely a success. It means that we are less hidden to ourselves, more present, more aware of information that could help us respond in ways that could end our suffering. We have the capacity, as adults, to hold in the impulsive, reflexive, often destructive expression of anger and choose instead a clear, useful communication.

Q. What will happen to spontaneity?

A. Spontaneity seems to me the gift and the privilege of firmly established relationships. In my closest connections, those in which mutual love is a complete given, my blurting out, “Where were you? It’s a terrible thing to come home so late and not call. I can’t believe you did that!” will be heard as an expression of my fear, not as a threat.

Q. What will happen to my passion?

A. My experience of angry explosions or smoldering grudges is that they confuse and fatigue my mind and diffuse passion. I think passion comes from seeing clearly. The Buddha taught that choosing wisely in the midst of challenge leads to “clear comprehension of purpose.” I take that to mean lively response powered by resolve. The bodhisattva vow to end suffering in all beings is the most passionate pledge I can imagine.

My reading of the Dalai Lama’s answer about anger not being a problem was that he always managed a wise response. I usually do, and when I don’t, I apologize for not presenting my needs in a more useful form. The first verse of the sixth-century Buddhist commentator Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life says that wholesome deeds amassed over eons are erased in one moment of anger. Students sometimes ask, “Do you really believe that?” I say, “I don’t know. It’s certainly inspiring. I pay special attention when I respond angrily so I can discover what frightened me. I feel dismay about the suffering I caused myself and the other person. Since my practice is habituating my heart to kindness, moments of lapse inspire me.”

The morning after the Dalai Lama’s question and answer session in Irvine, the newspapers announced that he had been awarded that year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

“Oh Dear” Social Control Through Confusion

Thanks to Brasscheck TV

“Oh Dear”

Confusion will be our epitaph

The Truth About Gratitude: Is Your Sense of Gratitude Conditional?

By Nanice Ellis

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

Gratitude — A Cure and a Curse?

If you look closely, you will see that there are dual sides to everything in life, including gratitude. Just as fire can burn or heat, gratitude can cure or curse. Understanding the truth about gratitude just might change the way you think, feel or pray.

Many years ago, while walking along the cold, winter streets of Manhattan, I recall looking at the homeless, living in their cardboard box homes. The hardships that I witnessed made me feel grateful for the small problems I had in comparison. I probably learned this strategy as a child; when I refused to eat dinner, my mom would remind me of the starving children in Africa, and she would tell me that I should be grateful for the food I had because others weren’t as lucky. You might say that I was guilted into gratitude.

Looking back now, with greater insight, I can clearly see that I used the misfortune of others as leverage, in order to feel grateful for my life, and, in this way, I was unknowingly responsible for contributing to their circumstances. By judging, and then using that judgment to feel better about my life, I was actually cursing these same people.

Just as we bless someone when we see them through the eyes of love, we curse them when we see them through the eyes of fear – energetically contributing to their hardships: “Oh, you have it so bad, you poor thing. That makes me so grateful for what I have, and you don’t.”

This is Convoluted Gratitude

Convoluted Gratitude is not gratitude at all. It is judgment disguising itself as something positive, and it actually holds the “undesirable” situation in place. When you judge someone else’s misfortune, so you can feel grateful, it is gratitude at their expense. Can you look deep and see what it energetically does to them — and to you?

There is also another kind of Convoluted Gratitude. It is when you imagine a worse time for yourself, and, by comparison, you feel grateful for your current circumstances. “I’m so grateful this isn’t worse.” “I’m grateful to live in this house I don’t really like, because it is better than nothing.” “I’m grateful for this job I can’t stand, because it is better than being unemployed”.

When you imagine a worse version of reality for yourself, so you can feel better about the current one, this is Convoluted Gratitude by default.

Convoluted Gratitude is a fear-based mind game, based on leverage, judgment and comparison. “That is bad so it makes this better.” If the real essence of gratitude is love, and you are experiencing the world, yourself or others through the fear of judgment, you cannot be in gratitude.

It is true that our life experiences often bring us to an understanding of our preferences and when our preferences are attained, gratitude is a natural result, but, if we depend on contrast in order to experience gratitude, we hold ourselves in a diabolical loop of needing the undesirable in order to feel grateful for the desirable.

I’m not saying that you should give up your preferences – that’s not the point. The point is that you don’t need the attainment of anything in order to feel grateful. You can be grateful right now – without convoluted conditions attached to gratitude. This is Unconditional Gratitude.

Unconditional Gratitude is not a mind game, but rather a full heart experience, manifested as a field of love that expands well beyond the physical mind and body.

Unconditional Gratitude is the natural result of opening your heart and allowing the presence of “what is.” From the humble state of allowance, there is a sense of merging with the divine beauty in everyone and everything. Unconditional Gratitude happens in this moment through True Presence. This means dropping all your stories about how you, or your life, should be or could be.

Be Careful What You’re Grateful For

The breath is enough to induce gratitude. The ability to see, hear and feel is enough to invoke gratitude. Loving another is all the fuel you need to experience gratitude. The sun, the stars, the moon – the perfection in which life cares for us and heals us. Every moment of your life has offered you abundant gifts containing the seeds for gratitude.

Instead of using starving children in Africa to remind you to appreciate your food, see all children of the world fed and happy. Be Grateful.

Instead of needing someone worse off so you can feel better about your current circumstance, see everyone in their highest good right now. Be Grateful.

Instead of using your mis-fortuned past-self as leverage to feel gratitude now, see your past self as the courageous catalyst who led the way to your current life. Be Grateful.

This is the shift from fear to love.

Unconditional Gratitude happens authentically in this moment.

It needs no leverage, judgment or comparison.

It is the natural result of pure awareness – through an open heart.

This is the true Grace of Gratitude.

Invocation for Unconditional Gratitude

Today may I drop my stories of good and bad long enough to see the divine harmony and beauty of what is.

May I give less control to my mind, and more power to my heart which can see past contrast.

May I embrace love and compassion for all, and imagine only the highest good for myself and for the world.

May my gratitude overflow so that others can be reminded of unconditional gratitude, and that love is always a choice.

May I be blessed by the Grace of Gratitude, and may I provide blessings wherever I go.

So Be It.

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Cure For Cancer Was Hidden From The Public Since 1923!

The root cause of cancer has been detected several decades ago, or more precisely, in 1923.

But very small number of people in the world know about this since the pharmaceutical and food industries keep it as a secret.

About a century ago, in 1931, Otto Heinrich Warburg, the German scientist, physiologist and medical doctor, received Nobel Prize for this revolutionary breakthrough.

Dr. Heinrich found and proved that unhealthy lifestyle and unhealthy diet are associated with the creation of acidic environment in the body, which further leads to cancer development. Excess acidity in the body removes the oxygen from the cells, creating the perfect environment for growth of cancer cells.

Cancer cells need anaerobic conditions and glucose in order to grow and spread. Healthy body tissues in the human body are alkaline, while tumor tissues are acidic.

According to Dr. Warburg, if you remove 35% of the healthy cell`s oxygen, it will convert into cancer cell in only two days.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED: Proper nutrition is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. The acid-base environment in the body is determined by the types of foods you consume.

Acidity and alkalinity are measured with a logarithmic scale called pH. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14. A pH of 7 is neutral. A pH less than 7 is acidic. A pH greater than 7 is basic. In a healthy body, the pH values should be slightly above 7.

Also, the pH of the blood is always 7.4 and 7.45.

Which foods create acidic environment in the body?

Alcohol Any cooked food Bread Refined salt, Refined sugar and all its derivates, Products of animal origin (milk and cheese), Refined flour and all its derivates (cakes, pasta). Margarine Cigarettes

Coffee

All industrial processed food such as cans, artificial colors, flavors, stabilizers and others

Which foods alkalize the body?

Fruits

Vegetables

Water

Regular physical activity is also very important for your health. Being inactive for a longer period can lead to incidence of numerous diseases. In addition, 60% of what you eat should be alkalizing foods.

People who suffer from serious diseases should eat a diet consisting of 80% of alkaline foods and avoid processed and unhealthy food.

Black and White?

My mum used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread butter on bread on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, ...... but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.

Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, ....... but I can't remember getting e. Coli

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake or at the beach instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), ..... no beach closures then.

We all took PE ..... And risked permanent injury with a pair of Dunlop sandshoes instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors that cost as much as a small car. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.

We got the cane for doing something wrong at school, they used to call it discipline, ....... yet we all grew up to accept the rules and to honour & respect those older than us.

We had 50 kids in our class and we all learned to read and write, do maths and spell almost all the words needed to write a grammatically correct letter......., FUNNY THAT!!

We all said prayers in school irrespective of our religion, sang the national anthem and no one got upset, .... Funny that too!

Staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention we wish we hadn’t got.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.

I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations. ............We weren't!!

Oh yeah ... And where was the antibiotics and sterilisation kit when I got that bee sting? ............... I could have been killed!

We played “King of the Hill” on piles of gravel left on vacant building sites and when we got hurt, mum pulled out the 2/6p bottle of iodine, ......... and then we got our backside spanked.

Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10 day dose of antibiotics and then mum calls the lawyer to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. ........ How could we possibly have known that?

We never needed to get into group therapy and/or anger management classes.

We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!

How did we ever survive?

LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA.

AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T, SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED.

I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING!

Exceptional Botanical Kills 98% of Cancer Cells in Under 24 Hours

By Carolanne Wright

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

The same herb frequently eaten as salad in Asia has been shown to destroy cancer cells — without harming healthy tissue. Researchers at the University of Washington have created a compound based on traditional Chinese medicine that is 1,200 times more effective in killing malignant cells than chemotherapy drugs. Combined with iron, the herb selectively targets cancerous cells and has proven to be a powerful tool in combating the disease. Tomikazu Sasaki, senior author of the study and chemistry professor at the University of Washington, describes the compound as “… a special agent planting a bomb inside the [cancer] cell.”

Since traditional chemotherapy is rife with severe side-effects and kills healthy cells, researchers are encouraged by the findings. Standard chemotherapy destroys as many as 1 normal cell for every 5 cancer cells. The compound developed by Sasaki and his team is far more specific, killing 12,000 cancer cells for each healthy cell affected, which minimizes adverse side-effects. Because of this, the effectiveness of the treatment is increased as higher doses can be tolerated.

Portrait of a 2,000-Year-Old Medicinal Treasure

Sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua L.) has been used for over two millennia in traditional Chinese medicine for a variety of complaints — from skin disorders to high blood pressure and malaria. Native to Asia, the plant is rich in the following beneficial compounds:

Artemisia annua contains sesquiterpenes, flavonoids, coumarins, essential oil, palmitic acid, stigmasterol, B-sitosterol, aurantiamide acetate, annuadiepoxide, B-glucosidase III, etc. And sesquiterpenes contains arteannuin, artemisinin A (qinghaosu I), artemisinin B (qinghaosu II), deoxyartemisinin (qinghaosu III), qinghaosu IV, qinghaosu V, qinghaosu VI, arteannuin C, artemisinic acid (qinghao acid), methyl artemisinate, artemisinol, annulide, friedelin, friedelan-3B-ol, etc. Flavonoids include chrysosplenol D, artemetin, casticin, cirsilineol, axillarin, cirsiliol, tamarixetin, rhamnetin, cirsimaritin, rhamnocitrin, chrysoeriol, kaempferol, quercetin, luteolin, patuletin, etc. Coumarins include scopoletin, coumarin, 6-methoxy-7-hydroxycoumarin, scoparone, etc. Wormwood oil includes camphor, B-caryophyllene, iso-artemisia ketone, B-pinene, bornyl acetate, carveol, benzyl isovalerate, B-farnesene, copaene, y-muurolene, fenchone, linalool, isoborneol, a-terpineol, borneol, camphene, myrcene, limonene, y-terpineol, etc. [source]

Of particular interest in the treatment of disease, especially cancer, are the compounds limonene (anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, antioxidant), B-pinene (antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, antioxidant) and quercetin (anti-inflammatory , anti-proliferative, supports immune function).

Artemisinin is the active component found in sweet wormwood, which has been used successfully to treat malaria and has saved millions of lives worldwide. Now researchers are turning their attention towards applying the herb to cancer.

Iron as a Trojan Horse

Artemisinin on its own will destroy 100 cancer cells for every normal cell. To improve the results, researchers added an iron chemical tag into the mix. Since cancer cells need large amounts of iron to maintain rapid tumor growth, they will readily engulf the artemisinin-iron tag compound. As explained by UW Today, “Once inside the cell, the iron reacts with artemisinin to release poisonous molecules called free radicals. When enough of these free radicals accumulate, the cell dies.”

Henry Lai, a University of Washington bioengineering professor and co-author of the study, said the compound is like a Trojan horse in gaining access to cancerous cells. Artemisinin is extremely toxic when combined with iron, but harmless otherwise.

Cancer cells are also not as efficient as healthy cells in cleaning-up free-floating iron, making the malignant cells more sensitive to the herb. Because cancer cells are already under stress from high iron levels, artemisinin pushes the cells over the edge. Due to this mechanism, researchers believe the compound can be used successfully for almost any type of cancer. Currently, the artemisinin-iron tag duo has been tested on human breast and prostate cancers in vitro, and has safely killed breast cancer in rats.

To establish artemisinin’s effectiveness, the team saturated normal breast cells and radiation-resistant cancerous tissue with holotransferrin — a compound found within the body that carries iron into the cells. Next, the cells were dosed with artemisinin. Within 16 hours, all the cancer cells exposed to holotransferrin died and only a few normal cells were affected. Lai notes that a breast cancer cell contains up to 15 times more iron receptors than other cells, therefore making it more susceptible to artemisinin’s assault.

“Most currently available drugs are targeted to specific cancers,” Lai said. “This compound works on a general property of cancer cells, their high iron content.”

The research team hopes that since artemisinin is already widely available, a compound to treat cancer can be manufactured inexpensively to help those who are ill in developing countries.

The Washington Technology Center and the Witmer Foundation provided funding for the study.