Yoda Sutras: Concourse No.5

Series 1

I - 5: When Consciousness Arises

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:

Schwarzschild Radius

The black-hole concept was developed by the German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild in 1916 on the basis of physicist Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The radius of the horizon of a Schwarzschild black hole depends only on the mass of the body, being 2.95 km (1.83 mi) times the mass of the body in solar units (the mass of the body divided by the mass of the Sun). If a body is electrically charged or rotating, Schwarzschild’s results are modified. An “ergosphere” forms outside the horizon, within which matter is forced to rotate with the black hole; in principle, energy can be emitted from the ergosphere. According to general relativity, gravitation severely modifies space and time near a black hole. As the horizon is approached from outside, time slows down relative to that of distant observers, stopping completely on the horizon. Once a body has contracted within its Schwarzschild radius, it would theoretically collapse to a singularity — that is, a dimensionless object of infinite density.

Think.

Health: Insulin Signaling

Learn.

Mice engineered to have brains less sensitive to insulin live 18 percent longer than normal mice. The finding could help explain the link between low concentrations of insulin in the blood and greater longevity in centenarians and in some lab animals on calorie-restricted diets. In a new study, mice ate high-calorie diets and so had high blood insulin. However, the researchers tricked some animals' brains into sensing less insulin. The engineered mice had just one copy of a gene called IRS2 in their brain cells instead of the normal two. The single gene copy produced less of a protein that's critical to the function of insulin receptors. The engineered mice, unable to properly regulate insulin, were more overweight and developed a worse diabetes-like condition than the normal mice did. However, brains of the altered mice sensed only a fraction of true insulin levels, which somehow enabled the animals to be healthier and live longer than the other overfed mice.

Imagine.

Understand.

Technology:

Imaging Single Atoms

A team of physicists has shown how a common type of electron microscope can spot single hydrogen atoms — the smallest atoms of them all. Previously, electron microscopes had trouble imaging single atoms lighter than carbon. The University of California, Berkeley team visualized defects and impurities — including atoms of hydrogen — on graphene, the one-atom-thick, chicken-wire nets of carbon that normally stack up to form graphite. In graphene, carbon atoms bind to one another even more strongly than they do in diamond. That makes the material extremely stable under the deluge of electrons of a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), despite being literally as thin as it gets. The researchers say that using graphene could enable scientists to understand the structure of molecules that have been difficult to image with other techniques capable of resolving single atoms, such as X-ray diffraction. Thanks to graphene’s sturdiness, single-molecule motions and chemical reactions could be filmed as they happen.

Explore.

Investigate.

Experiment.

Space Technology: Geosynchronous Orbit

A satellite in a geosynchronous orbit follows a circular orbit over the equator at an altitude of 35,800 km (22,300 mi), completing one orbit every 24 hours, in the time that it takes the earth to rotate once. Moving in the same direction as the earth's rotation, the satellite remains in a fixed position over a point on the equator, thereby providing uninterrupted contact between ground stations in its line of sight. The first communications satellite to be placed in this type of orbit was Syncom 2, launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1963. Most communications satellites that followed were also placed in geosynchronous orbit.

Analyze.

Know.

Study.

Quantum Mechanics:

Quantum Entanglement

Nicolas Gisin and his team at the University of Geneva sent pairs of photons traveling separately along optical fibers, from Geneva to the nearby towns of Jussy and Satigny. The photons were generated in a state of quantum uncertainty, so that their departure times would be slightly fuzzy. When a photon arrived at its destination, it was detected. This detection gave the photons’ travel times precise values, erasing the uncertainty. The travel times showed small, random variations from one photon to the next. Quantum theory predicts that in this type of situation, it is impossible to predict the exact travel time in advance, and that, in fact, even the photons themselves don’t know what the travel time is. The physicists also created the photons in such a way that the destiny of each photon sent to Jussy was linked by quantum entanglement to the destiny of a photon sent to Satigny. Quantum entangled particles form one system, rather than separate systems with independent properties. In this case, the travel times were correlated, and once a photon was detected, the travel time of its twin ceased to be undefined. Once measured, the second photon’s travel time turned out to be identical to that of its entangled twin. It’s as if one photon let the other know what value to pick.

Innovate.

Ponder.

Perceive.

Create.

Microbiology: Oil-eating Microbes

Penetrate.

Hydrocarbons like oil and natural gas are made up of carbon and hydrogen, they are among the most abundant substances on Earth. Even though we use them as fuel sources, they are actually very unreactive at room temperature. This makes them difficult to use as a biological energy source, particularly if there is no oxygen around. For over 100 years scientists have known that microbes such as bacteria can use hydrocarbons like oil and gas as nutrients. But this process usually requires supplies of oxygen to work at room temperature. Therefore scientists are surprised to find an increasing number of microbes that can digest hydrocarbons without needing oxygen. The striking diversity of micro-organisms that can break down hydrocarbons may reflect the early appearance of these compounds as nutrients for microbes in Earth's history. Bacteria and archaea living with hydrocarbons therefore may have appeared early in the evolution of life.

Wonder…

But Beware!

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

_________Transcend._________

Atha Yodanushasanam

Now begins the teaching of Yoda.

Unless you are a fighter you will not have ego enough to drop; so tiny your ego will be, not worth dropping.

A man is fully enlightened only when he disappears completely, when there is nothing left inside, when he is just like a hollow bamboo and becomes a flute and the whole starts singing through him.

You have not tasted life yet. The taste of eternity life has, not of time. Time is death.

To live in time is not to live at all; to go beyond time is the beginning of life.

Unless you become enlightened you are dead, unless you know who you are — dead you are.

The only point to be remembered is: your mind should not function; unclouded by the mind your senses should remain.

Life has no meaning in itself. Meaning arises when consciousness arises in you.

Just an empty canvas life is; you have to paint the meaning on it.

Stop projecting your fantasies, dreams, expectations on life. Completely forget that. One and single has to be the whole effort, and that is how to be awake.

10.

Thirsty for meaning you are for the simple reason that you are not looking at that which is, and you cannot look at that which is because you are fast asleep.

11.

Man does not exist in a vacuum, man does not exist like an island. He is in constant communion with the force, with the whole or with Tao. Aware of it, he may be or not — that will make a lot of difference.

12.

A small capsule around ourselves we have made; encapsulated, alienated we have become.

Close your eyes, meditate.

May the force be with you.

Religion arises in wonder and awe. If you can feel wonder, if you can feel awe, you are religious. Not by reading the Bible or Gita or Koran, but by experiencing awe. When you see the sky full of stars, do you feel a dance in your heart? Do you see a song arising in your being? Do you feel a communion with the stars? Then you are religious.

- Osho