Yoda Sutras: Concourse No.36

Series 1

IV - 9: A Subtle Balance

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.

Astronomy:

A Second Wave of Planet Formation

At first glance, the two stars in a new study appear young. Both emit a lot of infrared light, a sign that they are surrounded by large, dusty disks that absorb starlight and reradiate it in the infrared. These disks provide the raw material for planet making. Common around newborn stars, the disks usually vanish after several million years. A team imaged the disks around the two stars, BP Piscium and TYCHO 4144 329 2, using the large Keck II Telescope atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea. Other features, however, indicate that the stars aren't young. Newborn stars have an allotment of lithium that's burned up as they age. Low abundances of lithium in both BP Piscium and TYCHO 4144 329 2 show that they're not newcomers. In addition, spectra of the stars reveal that both have relatively high surface gravity. That also indicates middle age because young stars, larger and still contracting, have lower surface gravity. Moreover, TYCHO 4144 329 2 orbits a companion that appears to be an ordinary old star, the researchers found. Analyzing the companion, the astronomers deduced that TYCHO 4144 329 2 must be at least 400 million years old. The age of BP Piscium remains uncertain, but observations suggest it should be classified as a giant star, an aging and bloated body. The disks around these old stars can be explained only by a kind of stellar rejuvenation in which each star recently swallowed a neighboring body—either another star or a lower-mass object called a brown dwarf. Material subsequently ejected by the star could form a dusty, planet-making disk hundreds of millions to perhaps billions of years after these stars first formed planets. A few other aging stars too seem to possess similar disks. If planet formation is indeed occurring around these older stars, it gives hope that planet formation is truly ubiquitous.

Think.

History: Eleusinian Mysteries

Learn.

The sacred rituals that were the most important of the religious festivals in ancient Greece are known as Eleusinian Mysteries. Like the Eleusinia, a biennial festival in honor of the Greek divinities Demeter and Persephone, the Eleusinian mysteries derived their name from the town of Elevsís, in Attica, near Athens. Long before the rise of Athens, the people of Elevsís observed the mysteries, which were subsequently adopted by Athens as an official festival. The Eleusinian priesthood was retained in charge. The most important part of the festival, the initiation of the candidates, took place every year for centuries in the Telesterion at Elevsís. This initiation climaxed a series of rituals that began early in the spring with the celebration of the Lesser Mysteries at Agrae, near Athens. At that time the mystoe, the candidates for the first of four stages in the revelation of the mysteries, were told the legend of Demeter and Persephone, the latter of whom was referred to as Kore (Greek, “the maiden”). Purification rites were also part of the ceremony of the Lesser Mysteries. The autumn ceremonies, called the Greater Mysteries, began with the fetching of sacred objects from Elevsís to Athens by youths known as ephebi. The ceremonies included an address by a priest to the candidates, a cleansing in the sea, a sacrificial rite, and a great procession from Athens to Elevsís, where the initiation occurred in secret ceremonies.

Imagine.

Understand.

Neuroscience:

Laughter and Cheers

Sports fans pack stadiums and bars to support their favorite teams. Similarly, comedy lovers get a kick out of going to comedy clubs and theaters. These sorts of activities—sharing a laugh or in a game victory—are classic bonding experiences. Previous research has shown that mirror neurons in our brains react to visual and verbal cues by trying to copy facial gestures and movements observed in others. A new study shows that our brains are also wired to react to nonverbal sounds—especially positive ones. A team of neuroscientists at University College London used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine the neural processing of vocal cues associated with four emotions: amusement, triumph, fear and disgust. Twenty subjects, while lying in an fMRI machine, listened to two-and-a-half second snippets of sounds conveying emotions: from a cheery "ha ha" or enthusiastic "woo hoo" to a fearful "aaah" and a grumpy "blech." In response to hearing the sounds, subjects not only showed activity in the region of the brain believed to process sound, but also in motor parts. The premotor cortical area—specifically the left posterior inferior frontal region—has previously been linked to the control of facial movements. And these are the parts of the brain researchers would expect to be activated if someone were going to make the actual facial expression or if they were going to make a noise. Nonverbal positive sounds that convey emotion, such as laughter, appear to cause neurons in the region of the brain that controls facial movements to activate, providing evidence as to why laughter is contagious. This research expands our understanding of neural mechanisms for mirroring, extending it beyond just responses to visual stimuli.

Explore.

Investigate.

Experiment.

Health: Tannins in Red Wine

Resveratrol, a molecule found in the skin of red grapes, among other places, has been found to have a host of health effects, most recently prolonging the life spans of obese mice. But the natural wonder drug does not play a role in the beneficial effects of wine drinking, according to a new study. There are some fascinating effects of resveratrol in animal systems, but to get similar doses into humans through red wine, one would have to consume more than 1,000 liters of red wine a day, the researchers say. Because drinking that much wine is beyond even the hardiest oenophile—yes, even those in France—the researchers set out to identify exactly the compounds in red wine that promote heart health. Using the endothelial cells that line human artery walls, they tested which compounds in wine had the greatest effect. The tests showed that flavonoids called oligomeric procyanidins—essentially condensed tannins, the compounds that impart bitterness to young reds—suppressed production of the peptide responsible for hardening arteries. Such procyanidins can make up as much as 50 percent of the bioactive compounds in a given wine. Resveratrol is available only at one one-hundredth or one one-thousandth of the levels of procyanidin.

Analyze.

Know.

Study.

Ecology:

Fragmented Rain Forest

The towering—and tiny—trees of the Amazon can live for hundreds of years. But a 22-year study of what happens when the rain forest is sliced up by timber cutting, cattle ranching and soy farming has revealed that survivors in various fragments do not last for long. Since 1980, researchers have been studying 40 different one-hectare plots in nine rain forest fragments in central Amazonia near Manaus. Covering roughly 32,000 individual trees composed of 1,162 species, 24 of the hectare plots rest near the edges of the remnant fragments while 16 lie deep within intact interiors. Comparing the two reveals that trees located on the edges of such fragments quickly perish, dying nearly three times faster than their interior peers. When the rain forest gets fragmented, hot winds from the surrounding pastures blow into the forest and kill many trees, which just can't seem to handle the stress. Also, winds build up around the fragment and knock down a lot of trees. Although overall tree species richness did not change over the two decades of the study, the type of species that predominated at the edges changed radically: from specialized trees capable of persisting in the dark understory to so-called generalist species. These species are fast-growth, short-lived species with low wood density, such as Cecropia sciadophylla, which has increased by more than 3,000 percent after fragmentation. Such edge fragments are also highly unstable, with one species replacing another in rapid succession, and the trees themselves remain generally smaller than their undisturbed, towering brethren in the interior.

Innovate.

Ponder.

Perceive.

Create.

Quantum Physics:

Bottom Quarks

Penetrate.

The most massive subatomic cousins of protons and neutrons ever detected have made fleeting appearances in a U.S. particle accelerator. The weightiest parts of the particles—known as sigma-b baryons—are called bottom quarks, one of the six types of quarks that are fundamental constituents of matter. Physicists at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., found telltale traces of the sigma-bs in the debris produced by more than 100 trillion collisions of protons and antiprotons that had occurred in the accelerator in the past several years. Ordinary matter, such as protons and neutrons, contains only up quarks and down quarks, whereas the sigma-bs each contain a bottom quark and either a pair of up quarks or a pair of down quarks. Once abundant in the Big Bang, sigma-bs—and the bottom quarks that make them special—show up today only in high-energy events such as particle collisions. Sigma-b particles weigh about six times as much as protons. The prevailing theory of particle physics accurately predicted the sigma-b masses. It calls for still heftier baryons that haven't yet been found.

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 just look — pure, a look without any ideas, a look without any rejection, acceptance. A pure look, as if your eyes don't have a mind behind, as if your eyes are just mirrors.

Balance succeeds, imbalance fails.

A wise man balances, and he knows life balances itself.

This world needs God as much as God needs this world. This world cannot exist without God; God also cannot exist without this world.

Be active totally, then you will be able to be passive totally. Then both the extremes meet and a subtle balance is achieved.

When two things balance — outer and inner, activity and passivity — suddenly you transcend them both.

Habits are easy to follow because you need not be aware — they go on on their own. Awareness is difficult, because a habit for you it has never been.

The reality is always there waiting just near your heart, near your eyes, near your hands.

Touch it you can, feel it you can, live it you can — but you cannot think it.

10.

Seeing is direct, touching is direct — thinking is indirect. That's why thinking misses.

11.

People who think, they never act; and people who don't think, they go on acting. The world is in misery.

12.

Be aware — the energy that moves into thinking should become awareness. Consciousness that goes on in a vicious circle with thinking should be retained, purified.

Close your eyes, meditate.

May the force be with you.

Just think: if man disappears from the earth, the world will be absolutely perfect, absolutely beautiful — there will be no problem. Problems come with man, because man's way of looking at things can go wrong — because man has a consciousness. And that consciousness creates trouble. Because you can be conscious, you can divide things. Because you can be conscious you can say, "This is right and that is wrong." Because you can be conscious, you can say, "This is ugly and that is beautiful." This consciousness is not enough. If it becomes more, if it becomes a circle, perfect consciousness, then again everything is settled. Nietzsche has said — and he has many insights to reveal — he has said that man is a bridge, he is not a being. He is a bridge — something to go beyond. You cannot make a house on the bridge. That's what Jesus says: "Go through it. Don't make a house on it, it is just a bridge." Nietzsche's sentence is: "Man is just a bridge between two eternities, the eternity of nature and the eternity of God." Everything is okay in nature, everything is okay in God. Man is a bridge, he is just in the middle — half nature, half God. That is the trouble — divided. The past belongs to nature, the future belongs to God. Tense, like a rope stretched between two eternities. Sometimes moving towards nature, sometimes moving towards God; sometimes this way, sometimes that way; a constant trembling and wavering, unsettled.

- Osho