Yoda Sutras: Concourse No.23

Series 1

III - 5: Nothing is Missing

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.

Biology: Deep into the Earth

More than a mile and a half below the earth, deep in a sunless gold mine, water pools in a fracture heated, just barely, by the slow radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. That radiation is enough to split some water into one of its constituents: hydrogen. By combining this, the lightest element, with geologically produced sulfate, a newly discovered microbe species thrives far from the light of the life-sustaining sun. In fact, this newly discovered ecosystem has flourished for at least 20 million years. A team of scientists visited the Mponeng gold mine in South Africa and sampled groundwater exposed by new drilling four times over the course of 54 days. Each sample, uncontaminated by contact with the surface, revealed the same deep-earth ecosystem dominated by a new microbe related closely to the sulfate-reducing Desulfotomaculum kuznetsovii that lives near vents on the ocean floor. Dating the helium and argon isotopes in the water revealed it had been isolated from the surface—and its biological cousins—for millions of years. The analysis shows that the groundwater age is between 16 million and 25 million years. The microbial community has been isolated from the surface for 20 million years, and it uses sulfate and H₂ produced from inorganic processes. The energy chain of this community relies not on photosynthesis from the sun but sulfate reduction, much as anaerobic bacteria have done for at least a billion years. Such slow, steady, shielded organisms may represent a hardy life form that could equally well persist deep beneath the surface of other worlds, such as Mars or Europa.

Think.

Alternative Energy: Transmitting Solar Power

Learn.

A former NASA scientist has used radio waves to transmit solar power a distance of 92 miles (148 km) between two Hawaiian islands, an achievement that could prove the technology exists to beam solar power from satellites back to Earth. The vision of John C. Mankins is to transmit solar power collected by orbiting satellites as large as 1,102 pounds (500 kg) to lake-sized receiver stations on Earth. Mankins, who worked at NASA for 25 years and managed the agency's space-based solar program before it was disbanded, transmitted 20 watts of power between the two islands. The receivers, however, were so small that less than one one-thousandth of a percent of the power was received. The experiment cost about $1 million, and larger arrays could be constructed with more money. Despite the miniscule reception on the receiving end, Mankins said the ground-based test proved it is possible to transmit solar power through the atmosphere.

Imagine.

Understand.

Space Exploration:

Acidic Martian Oceans

Despite being separated by thousands of kilometers, Martian soils from Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum have proved broadly similar in parts — rich in chlorine and sulfur. Recent high-precision measurements have shown that phosphorus — the critical energy carrier in all known forms of Earth life — is equally abundant in such patches of Martian dirt. Such a broad dispersal of similar soils argues for an acidic sea stretching across large swaths of Mars, or perhaps lakes with the same inherent chemistry. Such a global acidic ocean would also help explain the lack of carbonates in the soil, a key indicator of the presence of former seas on Earth. But such a sea might not have been a boon to life, even though acid-loving microbes thrive here on Earth; high levels of phosphorus argue against a living presence. Because, according to the scientists, high concentrations of phosphorus in a Martian ocean would not be expected if Mars had an active biosphere during the ocean's existence.

Explore.

Investigate.

Experiment.

Genetics: Honeybee Genome

The honeybee's brain may be small, but the insect has learned to use it to recognize a flower's color and shape as well as to waggle-dance that information back to its hive. In fact, honeybees possess the most complex symbolic language outside of our own family (primates) and they do it with a brain of only one million neurons — five orders of magnitude less than that of humans. More important, this is only four times as many neurons as possessed by fruit flies, flitting creatures that lack any form of society — at least as a bee or human would recognize it. Yet, the newly sequenced genome of the honeybee — Apis mellifera—reveals that some of the same genes that guide the development of a fruit fly's nervous system have been repurposed in the bee to control its genetic ability to switch social roles, among other hive secrets. The honeybee becomes the fourth insect to have its genome sequenced, following the fruit fly, mosquito and silkworm and preceding a veritable swarm of insect genomes to be revealed in future. Despite diverging from human ancestors more than 600 million years ago, the bee shares a number of genes with its vertebrate cousins that its insect brethren lack, such as those involving RNA interference, aging, DNA methylation and circadian rhythms. The honeybee genome is already yielding some other surprising conclusions, such as a very slow rate of evolution. There are fewer changes and substitutions in the honeybee when compared with Drosophila and Anopheles.

Analyze.

Know.

Study.

Neuroscience:

Stepwise Cognition

To a cognitive neuroscientist, success in life depends largely on how well your brain shapes actions to fit both your goals and the context in which you act. If you need to cross the street, first check the traffic. If you're feeding your new in-laws, serve better wine — and different jokes — than you do for your poker buddies. Such context-driven "cognitive control," thought to reside in the brain's prefrontal cortex, has lately become one of neuroscience's hottest topics, inspiring hundreds of papers regarding its role in everything from academic and sports performance to depression and gambling. Yet it remains unclear just how the prefrontal cortex exerts this control. Researchers have explored models emphasizing (not necessarily to mutual exclusion) attentional control, conversations between the prefrontal cortex and limbic areas, and the prefrontal cortex's sensitivity to context. Another emerging model is that of a "hierarchy" of control. In this view, we respond to increasing cognitive challenges not on a continuum, but in leaps as different areas of the prefrontal cortex activate. That is, we throw more light on a problem not by sliding a dimmer switch, but by flipping a series of toggles that successively activate chunks of the prefrontal cortex from back to front. Recognizing this could be an important early step in understanding how cognition works.

Innovate.

Ponder.

Perceive.

Create.

Physics: Gravitational Anomaly

Penetrate.

A new analysis suggests that when five different spacecraft flew past Earth several years ago, they gained more speed than can be accounted for by Einstein's theory of gravitation. The unexplained gain in speed is tiny, between 1.8 and 13.5 millimeters per second — only about one-millionth the total velocity of the spacecraft examined. But with radar tracking able to clock spacecraft speeds as small as 0.1 mm per second, that excess is enough to warrant further scrutiny, assert John D. Anderson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and his collaborators. The largest speed deviations occurred during the flyby of NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous craft. Anderson's team proposes that Earth's rotation is somehow imparting an extra kick to the craft. The kick might be similar to, but much larger than, an effect predicted by Einstein's theory in which rapidly spinning bodies warp surrounding space and drag orbiting objects with them.

Wonder…

But Beware!

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

_________Transcend._________

Atha Yodanushasanam

Now begins the teaching of Yoda.

When you eat, eat with great taste and sensitivity, and let that taste be your God in that moment.

If you are eating an apple, with total taste eat it. In the taste be absorbed — because it is God that has come to you in the form of an apple. It is God! — crystallized as an apple.

God is not an ideal. God is the fundamental reality of life.

Be total in your acts. Be total, whatsoever you are doing. And never think of perfection — because in the present totality is, and in the future perfection is.

The moment you bring in the future, you bring conflict. The moment you bring in the future, you bring tension, anguish, anxiety. Herenow - just be!

I am trying to bring this consciousness to you that you are a butterfly — that the whole sky is yours, that all the nectar of all the flowers is yours.

Joy is herenow! And one needs only one thing to be joyful, and that is: Be joyful. Nothing else, no other requirement.

Lies are difficult, truth is simple. Truth is already the case. Truth is there — truth is showering in the daylight, truth is raining all over the place. Wherever you are, truth is available.

You are not to go, you are not to even take a single step! — and the journey is over. Just silent and aware of it you have to become. Yes, let-go is the door.

10.

God is not a goal, God is already the case. God has happened to you — you are carrying him within yourself.

11.

Truth is not difficult, love is not difficult, joy is not difficult. Just start living it you have to. And nothing is missing, not a single thing is missing.

12.

Truth cannot be achieved by achieving. Forget all about achievement, just relax.

Close your eyes, meditate.

May the force be with you.

The mind is there all around you, and you see from the center. The mind is all around you, many clouds moving, traffic, rush hour... you see it, but you are the seer. You are not troubled by it; there is nothing to be troubled about. A few empty thoughts floating around you — why be troubled? And why get into analysis? Those empty thoughts are just empty thoughts, forms flickering around. Let them flicker. You remain settled in your being, you remain centered, you remain at the very core. This is what is called witnessing. And witnessing is the technique, the ultimate technique, of all spiritual understanding. Just SEE.

- Osho