Yoda Sutras: Concourse No.16

Series 1

II - 7: The Cliff Facing the Abyss

Mind is a tangled web.

Use it to catch the world.

Try to comprehend the infinite complexity of it all…

…elegantly embedded in the fabric of space and time.

Open your eyes in amazement.

Be Aware.

See.

Brain:

Roles of Dopamine

Researchers made lab rats experience desire or dread by tampering with the same brain chemical, located in slightly different regions of the brain. Dopamine performs a spectrum of functions. Depending on where along the length of the region the neurotransmitter is triggered, it elicits emotions ranging from desire to disgust. Dopamine interacts with spatially coded signals so that its output varies from one end of a brain region to the other. It conducts a frenzied song of craving at one end of a tiny brain region and a panic-stricken hymn at the other. In the long-term, drugs might be developed to locally treat various dopamine-mediated disorders such as drug addiction, obsession, obesity and anxiety.

Think.

Earth: Extraterrestrial Organic Matter

Learn.

Two rocks, found in Antarctica during the 1990s, belong to a rare type of meteorite called CR chondrites. This class of asteroid fragments is thought to contain the oldest and best preserved record of organic materials that have fallen to Earth. During the era known as the late heavy bombardment, from 3.8 billion to 4.5 billion years ago, comets and asteroids peppered Earth and delivered extraterrestrial organic materials, including tons of carbon each year. Life could arise on this planet only amidst an abundance of organic materials. The new data suggest that meteorites delivered much higher abundances of amino acids to the early Earth than previously suspected. A team led by Zita Martins of Imperial College London reports finding the highest known concentration of amino acids — between 180 and 249 parts per million — in the twin ancient space rocks. The higher the contents of key molecules in primitive extraterrestrial materials, the more likely it is that exogenous material played a role in the origin of life.

Imagine.

Understand.

Cosmology:

Gravitational Scaffolding

Although no one knows what dark matter is made of, it appears to constitute 85 percent of the mass of the universe. And simply because there's so much of it, the stuff provides the gravitational scaffolding that pulls together ordinary gas — electrons, protons, atoms, and the like — to make stars and galaxies. Every galaxy is nestled within a halo of cold dark matter, composed of exotic particles that move much slower than the speed of light. (This relatively slow pace is why this dark matter is dubbed "cold.") The halos start out small but continually merge to grow bigger, dictating that all structure in the universe should evolve in the same way, from little to big. The growing clumps of dark matter form the backbone of a cosmic web, with clusters and superclusters of galaxies falling into place along the densest filaments, like paint onto a dark canvas. On the largest scales in the universe, dark matter accounts amazingly well for galactic structure — where and how galaxies concentrate.

Explore.

Investigate.

Experiment.

Technology: Neutron Detector

A new technology for measuring neutrons might help detect smuggled radioactive materials. A common type of neutron detector uses a container filled with helium-3, a light isotope that readily reacts with neutrons. When a neutron from a sample of uranium, for example, hits a helium-3 nucleus, a reaction ensues. The helium nucleus breaks and produces one hydrogen nucleus (a proton) and an atom of hydrogen's radioactive isotope, tritium. Usually, these particles are highly energetic and ionize matter. In the presence of a voltage, the ionization produces a small spark, and the reaction is detected. Now scientists have developed an alternative technique. It promises to detect neutrons over a range of intensities at least 100 times greater than the old method. The new detector simply looks for photons produced when tritium's single electron falls back into a lower-energy state. A better neutron detector could help prevent nuclear or dirty-bomb terrorism.

Analyze.

Know.

Study.

Pollution:

Acid Rain

Acid rain happens when airborne acids produced by electric utility plants and other sources fall to Earth in distant regions. The corrosive nature of acid rain causes widespread damage to the environment. The problem begins with the production of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas, and oil, and from certain kinds of manufacturing. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react with water and other chemicals in the air to form sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and other pollutants. These acid pollutants reach high into the atmosphere, travel with the wind for hundreds of miles, and eventually return to the ground by way of rain, snow, or fog, and as invisible “dry” forms. Acid rain leaches nutrients from soils, slows the growth of trees, and makes lakes uninhabitable for fish and other wildlife. In cities, acid pollutants corrode almost everything they touch, accelerating natural wear and tear on structures such as buildings and statues. Acids combine with other chemicals to form urban smog, which attacks the lungs, causing illness and premature deaths.

Innovate.

Ponder.

Perceive.

Create.

History: Beginnings of the Factory System

Penetrate.

The factory system, which eventually replaced the domestic system and became the characteristic method of production in modern economies, began to develop in the late 18th century, when a series of inventions transformed the British textile industry and marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Among the most important of these inventions were the flying shuttle patented (1733) by John Kay, the spinning jenny (1764) of James Hargreaves, the water frame for spinning (1769) of Sir Richard Arkwright, the spinning mule (1779) of Samuel Crompton, and the power loom (1785) of Edmund Cartwright. These inventions mechanized many of the hand processes involved in spinning and weaving, making it possible to produce textiles much more quickly and cheaply. Many of the new machines were too large and costly for them to be used at home, however, and it became necessary to move production into factories.

Wonder…

But Beware!

Don't get caught in the mighty maze of your own mind.

_________Transcend._________

Atha Yodanushasanam

Now begins the teaching of Yoda.

With more intensity you will live, with more flame; like a great wave you will live. These tiny waves will disappear. You will become a storm…

All energies have to meet and become one energy.

Sooner or later death will be coming. Before death comes, meditate. Before death knocks at your door, try to know who you are.

The door opens in the present, the door opens at this moment, either now or never.

Enlightenment is not something that happens from the outside, it is something that sprouts in you, that blooms in you. A growth it is, not an achievement.

The desire is the path. Go through it you have to, go into it you have to. You have to go into it utterly, totally. Only by going into it, to the very bottom of it, do you start rising above it.

Become one from many and then from one become zero. This is the whole mathematics of spirituality — from many to one and from one to nothingness.

Live life. Live it as God gives it to you, live it without guilt, live it courageously.

The Zen teaching is nothing but the teaching of how to take that one step, how to jump into nothingness.

10.

How to come to the very end of your mind — which is the end of the world; how to stand there on the cliff facing the abyss and not get frightened…

11.

When you die as the ego you are born as a God, as the God. When you die in your small territory, you simply become spread all over existence — existence itself you become.

12.

Understood this truth has to be and repeat I would like to: the end of the mind is the end of the world — because the mind is the world.

Close your eyes, meditate.

May the force be with you.

'Getting it' means coming to know that there is nothing to get. 'Getting it' means getting rid of all greed, of all ambition, of all goals. The day you get that the way things are is the perfect way, you have attained. The day you recognise the fact that things cannot be better than this, suddenly you have exploded into a new light, into a new being, into a new consciousness. 'Getting it' is getting that there is nowhere to get to.

- Osho