Yoda Sutras: Concourse No.19

Series 1

III - 1: Just Light a Candle

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.

Human Evolution:

Orrorin

Fossil hunters discovered remains of a 6-million-year-old human ancestor, dubbed Orrorin tugenensis, at a Kenyan site in 2000. Their analysis of upper-leg fossils from Orrorin suggested that it walked upright in a surprisingly modern way, more like 2-million-year-old Homo erectus than the 3- to 4-million-year-old australopithecines, the group that includes the renowned partial skeleton called Lucy. Scientists hypothesize a scenario where hips conducive to walking slowly with legs wide apart evolved in Orrorin and remained unchanged for almost 4 million years, until the demise of australopithecines. Around that time, Homo species evolved hips designed for a rapid stride with legs close together.

Think.

Medical Research: Therapeutic Cloning

Learn.

Scientists have treated mice that have a Parkinson's disease–like condition by making new neurons from each mouse's own skin cells. The work demonstrates the potential of therapeutic cloning for replacing damaged neurons in people who have Parkinson's. The individual steps of the process have each been done before in mice: cloning skin cells to make early embryos, extracting stem cells from the embryos, converting these embryonic stem cells into the right kind of nerve cells, and implanting the nerve cells into the mouse brains. But the new study is the first to put all the pieces together by extracting skin cells from the same mouse that ultimately will receive the newly minted nerve cells, mimicking one procedure that scientists have proposed for treating Parkinson's disease in people.

Imagine.

Understand.

Biology:

Suspended Animation

The larvae of an African fly survive severe droughts by essentially turning into candy drops. Some invertebrates, when severely dehydrated, go into a state of suspended animation in which their metabolisms completely cease. When conditions are right, the critters come back to life. The larvae of the African fly Polypedilum vanderplanki scrounge a living by eating detritus at the bottom of rain puddles but can survive up to 17 years of drought waiting for the next abundant rains. Most other animals known to freeze-dry are microscopic, such as sea monkeys (brine shrimp) and water bears (tardigrades). Biologists have known for years that a sugar called trehalose plays a crucial role in the survival tactics of several of these species. During desiccation, trehalose replaces water in the cellular fluids and is presumed to turn into a glassy state, much like melted sugar will solidify into candy drops. The glassy sugar would keep cellular structures from falling apart. That's indeed what happens in P. vanderplanki, researchers have now shown. The research might lead to new ways of preserving blood for transfusions or even entire organs for transplants.

Explore.

Investigate.

Experiment.

Health: Potassium for Muscle

A new study by researchers at the federal Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, at Tufts University in Boston, finds that diets rich in potassium appear to protect muscle. And fruits and veggies are a primary source of dietary potassium. The more of it individuals consumed, the more muscle they had, all other things being equal in the study conducted. Seen in people eating the most potassium, the protective effect appears to be enough to offset a good chunk of, if not all of, the age-related decline in muscle that normally occurs. It boils down to pH (level of acidity). The body converts protein and cereal grains, major parts of a normal diet, to acid residues. Excess acid triggers breakdown of muscle into components that ultimately make ammonia, which removes the acids. Potassium-heavy diets, being alkaline, can buffer those acids without sacrificing muscle.

Analyze.

Know.

Study.

Quantum Physics:

Diamonds are Almost Forever

Diamond's unique properties may make it a match for developers of tomorrow's quantum computers. Physicists are testing the crystal's ability to store information in single atoms, insulate information from outside disturbances, and transmit information as light rather than through electrical currents. The stiff crystalline structure that makes diamond nature's hardest material can shield an atom from heat vibrations — not forever, but a lot longer than in other materials. Physicists have now learned to use that ultimate cocoon quality to store and manipulate information in single atoms at room temperature — feats that in other materials require getting to the neighborhood of absolute zero. Because its atoms can store the notoriously peculiar quantum information, diamond has become a candidate material for use in future quantum computers. Such devices would rely on quantum weirdness to perform certain tasks that would take an ordinary computer till the end of time. Diamond, specifically artificial diamond, could also find more imminent applications, such as communicating data with unbreakable encryption or even advancing the understanding of quantum theory itself.

Innovate.

Ponder.

Perceive.

Create.

Geology: The Tibetan Plateau

Penetrate.

The Tibetan Plateau, a land mass nearly the size of the lower half of the United States, was thrust skyward when the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collided about 50 million years ago. The existing models predict that the plateau is older in the south and younger in the north, but according to new research the actual land doesn't seem to match the model. By claiming that the more northern regions of the plateau formed early in the aftermath of the impact, the new report contradicts current views. Uplift in the central part of the plateau happened before uplift in the south. Fossils of radiolarians, or unicellular marine protozoans, recovered from the Himalayas at the southern border revealed that the mountains must have been underwater 40 million years ago — after the central plateau had already emerged. The findings provide support for a new story on plateau growth, from the inside out.

Wonder…

But Beware!

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

_________Transcend._________

Atha Yodanushasanam

Now begins the teaching of Yoda.

You have to fall in tune with the whole existence, you have to get hooked with the dance of the universe — not with the social, not with small communities or sects…

Forget my words you have to. Remember the essence, not the words, you have to. And the essence need not be remembered, it has only to be understood.

True to your freedom - remain. And then a totally different kind of being arises in you, which is very unexpected, unpredictable.

Conscience means, 'This is good, that is bad. Do this, don't do that.' Consciousness simply means, 'Be a mirror: reflect, respond.' Response is right, reaction is wrong.

Create a lamp inside at your center, at your very center. And that light goes on growing... and one day your whole being is luminous.

Acceptance leads to a vision of the interrelatedness of existence. Then the whole universe is one unit, functioning in an organic unity.

Of a long infinite chain you are just a small part. All that is is involved in you, all that has passed is involved in you… The whole past is involved in you, and the whole future too.

You hold within you the seed from which the future will arise, just as much as you at this moment are the entirety of the past.

In this small lotus, everything has flowered, and everything else that will EVER flower is contained in this small lotus flower.

10.

You need not fight with darkness, just light a candle.

11.

Why is the mind so noisy? Why does it go on and on? Why? This whole phenomenon of the mind has to be understood with love, with compassion.

12.

Not forced at all is the real silence. The real silence comes out of understanding.

Close your eyes, meditate.

May the force be with you.

You have to travel far enough to come to the hill and to stand there above all the darkness of the valley, above all the paths, above all the viewpoints, religions, philosophies; you have to stand above all of them. This is a hard task, arduous. Once you have arrived there and you are just standing, God happens. In the right moment, when your standing, has become absolutely unwavering, suddenly you are penetrated by God. You disappear, God disappears; and there is oneness.

- Osho