Read the whole story HERE."The Taliban thought it had destroyed one of the world's wonders, the monumental Buddha statues of the Bamiyan Valley. But the Buddhas shine again in the towering cutouts in the mountainside where they stood for centuries. They are back, thanks to 3-D light projection. And they look great."
"It is sometimes impossible to tell where the healthy spirituality of the sage ends and spiritual psychosis begins. [...] We are all too aware today of the power of spiritual experience to do harm, as we watch people blow themselves--and others--up in the name of God. [...] The spiritual can be urgent and propulsive--spiritual truth has often come to be a matter of life and death. When we feel we connect with something larger than ourselves, we are willing to sacrifice our small selves to that something that we feel, that we know, is greater. This impulse can drive us to reach out to our fellow man in ways that are noble, inspiring, and even heroic. But it can also lead to intolerance and folly. In short, spiritual experiences bring out the best and worst in us."
"Soma (Sanskrit: सोम sóma), or Haoma (Avestan), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a Vedic ritual drink[1] of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the subsequent greater Indian and greater Persian cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, whose Soma Mandala contains 114 hymns, many praising its energizing qualities. In the [Persian] Avesta, Haoma has the entire Yašt 20 and Yasna 9-11 dedicated to it.
"It is described as being prepared by extracting juice from the stalks of a certain plant. In both Hindu and Zoroastrian tradition, the name of the drink and the plant are the same, and also personified as a divinity, the three forming a religious or mythological unity.
"There has been much speculation concerning what is most likely to have been the identity of the original plant. Soma is associated with the warrior-god Indra and appears to have been drunk before battle. For these reasons, there are stimulant (amphetamine-like) plants as well as entheogenic plants among the candidates that have been suggested. [However,] there is no consensus on the question..."
Indra, god of war
"Make up your minds that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous."
Acropolis by Leo von Klenze
~ Pericles, funeral oration, 431BC
“Fear is a kind of pain, an anticipative pain, like the ‘ache’ of desire. It brings energy, intensity, strength. In a way, you might say it’s the source of courage.” ~Anand Pandava, the Indian intelligence agent in THE ASSASSIN LOTUS
 |
| Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) |
"There were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at first. But by acting as if I was not afraid, I gradually ceased to be afraid. Most men can have the same experience." ~T.R.
