Man has to interpret information provided by Science to know Man’s Status in Nature. In Indian tradition, Man’s transient, ephemeral, conditioned existence is often compared to beads of water found on the surface of Lotus Leaf.
Man may desire Freedom or make claims of “Born Free” while Science suggests Dependent or Conditioned nature of Human Existence. There is no Religion, there is no Philosophy, and there is no Science that has Power to grant Freedom to Man.
Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG
FROM DEVINDER SINGH GULATI:
Sankara’s claim of absolute identity between man and God is identical with Nanak’s claim. Ramanuja’s claim that God is modified by his own actions is echoed by Guru Nanak when he says God becomes the universe, but the universe is not all of God. In the becoming, God stands modified. Madhava’s path of Surrender is commended by Guru Nanak who says:
Hukam Rajaaee Chalanaa Naanak Likhiaa Naal ||1||
O Nanak, it is written that you shall obey the Hukam of His Command, and walk in the Way of His Will. ||1||
All three; Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhava represent vedantic thought. It can be said then that Guru Nanak’s religion is Vedantic. In one respect it represents the thought of Yoga philosophy. Guru Nanak affirms that there is one purusha and all the rest are his brides. That is the Vaishnav affirmation of Mirabai too. One Purush is from Yoga. The Sankhya affirms many purusas. These many purusas are the Jeev of Nanak, but he gives them female identity. They have to merge back with the Purush.
LORD God Creator or Prabhu has separated Himself from His creation; He is Detached, Disinterested, or prefers to keep Distance. For that reason, I describe Constitutive vs Regulative Dualism. While Sankara claims absolute identity between Man and God, in practical terms, it is of no help as Man lacks Regulative Powers. Ramanuja claims that God is Modified on account of His own actions, just like Human Body modifies the indwelling Soul.
Man has no independent existence of his own. Man exists for he is Yoked, Joined, or United with the Divine Power. From God’s perspective, He keeps Himself aloof from His creation. But, from Man’s perspective, existence is about Bonding, Joining, Coming Together, Uniting, or Yoking with Divine Power.
For that reason, I recommend view shared by Madhva, the path of Surrender, or ‘Saranu’ as Devotion or Bhakti is not good enough while God remains Aloof.
Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG
RATIONALISM vs IRRATIONALISM – IGNORANCE IS BLISS.
Man can describe the reality of the World and Universe as much as he likes. However, Man cannot impart that Knowledge to the Building Blocks of his own body. Man’s existence is not accounted by his mental concepts or philosophical doctrines. To support Man’s existence in Physical World and Universe, God imposed a permanent Barrier called Ignorance that separates Man from Reality of World and Universe. From human perspective, Sun’s Ecliptic is real giving Man opportunity to mark Days of his Life’s Journey on Earth.
Rationalism vs Irrationalism – Ignorance is Bliss. From Man’s perspective, Sun’s Ecliptic Path is Real.On wholedude.com
SYNCHRONIZATION OF BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS WITH SUNRISE AND SUNSET
Rationalism vs Irrationalism – Ignorance is Bliss. From Man’s perspective, Sun’s apparent motions are Real while Man lives ignorant of Earth’s Motions.
Apparent motions of celestial bodies shape Man’s Journey on Earth’s Surface while Man lives Blissfully ignorant of Earth’s Motions. No Religion, No Science, No Philosophy can overcome this Ignorance to give Human Body direct sensory experience of Earth’s Real Motions.
Guru Nanak proclaimed that this universe is real, not an illusion as suggested by some other religions. “Real are Thy continents; Real is the universe; Real are these forms and material objects; Thy doings are Real, O Lord.” Guru Nanak calls the universe as His chamber when he writes, “Eh jag sache ki hai kothri. Sache ka vich vaas”(AGGS, M 2, p. 463).
Guru Teg Bahadur at page 1429 of the Guru Granth Saheb: inj kir dyiKE jgqu mY ko kwhU ko nwih ]
nij kar dhaekhiou jagath mai ko kaahoo ko naahi ||
I had looked upon the world as my own, but no one belongs to anyone else.
nwnk iQru hir Bgiq hY iqh rwKo mn mwih ]48] naanak thhir har bhagath hai thih raakho man maahi ||48|| O Nanak, only devotional worship of the Lord is permanent; enshrine this in your mind. ||48||
jg rcnw sB JUT hY jwin lyhu ry mIq ] jag rachanaa sabh jhooth hai jaan laehu rae meeth || The world and its affairs are totally false; know this well, my friend.
kih nwnk iQru nw rhY ijau bwlU kI BIiq ]49] kehi naanak thhir naa rehai jio baaloo kee bheeth ||49|| Says Nanak, it is like a wall of sand; it shall not endure. ||49||
There is nothing contradictory in these two statements. these are the two faces if the same reality; Guru Nanak mentions of the reality of created world which certainly is real. God created a real world. The second view relates to the principle of change. The entire universe is continuously changing and never remains the same. What is now will not be the same after sometime. Those who consider themselves ever-living or ever ruling the world are living in fool’s paradise. No one can survive beyond a time. The Change changes everyone continuously change one form changes into another.
Prof Dalvinder Singh Grewal,
1925, Basant Avenue Ludhiana
From: “Devindersingh Gulati
There are three modifications to Vedantic thought. Vedanta is one of the six Indian thought systems. The basic premise of Vedanta is: the world is different yet not different from the one sole reality. According to the Bhedābheda view, Brahman converts itself into the created, but yet maintains a distinct identity. Thus, the school holds that Brahman is both different (bheda) and not different (abheda) from creation and the individual jīva.
The first modification to this premise was brought by Shankara in the eight century that goes by the name Advaita. A second modification was brought by Ramanuja in the eleventh century that goes by the name Vishishtadvaita. Advaita says (like Guru Teg Bahadur) the world is an illusion, Visistadvaita says (like Guru Angad) the world is real. Advaita says (like Gurbani) Jivatma and Paramatma are the same, Visistadvaita says Jivatma and Paramatma have a body-soul relationship. Advaita says that the supreme Brahman is Nirguna, Visistadvaita says the supreme Brahman is Saguna.
A third modification was brought in by Madhva in the thirteenth century that is called Dvaita. On his account, Brahman is a personal God. According to Madhva, reality is characterized by a five fold difference: (i) jīvas (individual persons) are different from God; (ii) jīvas are also different from each other; (iii) inanimate objects are different from God; (iv) inanimate objects are different from other inanimate objects; (v) inanimate objects are different from jīvas (Mahābhāratatātparnirnayaḥ, I. 70-71).
Gurbani clearly differs from Madhva’s perspective.
The Vedanta also says like Gurbani that all is the one. Yet there are differing stances within Vedanta that are all valid schools of thought.
It appears to me that the differing perspectives come from the different angles of viewing the Divine. Guru Nanak affirms that God is unknowable. He has been known in some aspects by the various Bhagats and Gurus that are limited perspectives. To employ Rudranarsimham’s metaphor. if you view the sun from the sun itself, there is no sunrise or sunset as when you view it from earth. But when you view it from the moon, there is only daylight or only darkness, depending on where on the moon you are situated. So let us concede that the Gurbani’s perspective is also a viewpoint; a valid one, that does not invalidate other viewpoints.
On 24 Dec 2016 15:08, “R.Rudranarasimham” wrote:
UNCHANGING PRINCIPLE IN CHANGING WORLD
Rationalism vs Irrationalism – Ignorance is Bliss. Human Organism has no direct sensory perception of Motions of Earth or of Sun. On wholedude.com
Sun when viewed as part of vast Universe, Sun experiences no Sunrise and Sunset. The phenomenon of Sunrise and Sunset belong to World where man keeps his conditioned existence.
This Unchanging Reality of Sun has to be contrasted with man’s experience of Day and Night that measures man’s lifespan on earth or World. If Day and Night are products of Illusion, man’s mortality is the product of Illusion.
Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG
From: Devindersingh Gulati
Here is an excerpt from a paper by Daya Singh Sandhu.
Guru Nanak also proclaimed that this universe is real, not an illusion as suggested by some other religions. “Real are Thy continents; Real is the universe; Real are these forms and material objects; Thy doings are Real, O Lord.” Guru Nanak calls the universe as His chamber when he writes, “Eh jag sache ki hai kothri. Sache ka vich vaas”(AGGS, M 2, p. 463).
And here is an excerpt from Guru Teg Bahadur at page 1429 of the Guru Granth Saheb:
inj kir dyiKE jgqu mY ko kwhU ko nwih ]
nij kar dhaekhiou jagath mai ko kaahoo ko naahi ||
I had looked upon the world as my own, but no one belongs to anyone else.
nwnk iQru hir Bgiq hY iqh rwKo mn mwih ]48] naanak thhir har bhagath hai thih raakho man maahi ||48|| O Nanak, only devotional worship of the Lord is permanent; enshrine this in your mind. ||48||
jg rcnw sB JUT hY jwin lyhu ry mIq ] jag rachanaa sabh jhooth hai jaan laehu rae meeth || The world and its affairs are totally false; know this well, my friend.
kih nwnk iQru nw rhY ijau bwlU kI BIiq ]49] kehi naanak thhir naa rehai jio baaloo kee bheeth ||49|| Says Nanak, it is like a wall of sand; it shall not endure. ||49||
rwmu gieE rwvnu gieE jw kau bhu prvwru ] raam gaeiou raavan gaeiou jaa ko bahu paravaar || Raam Chand passed away, as did Raawan, even though he had lots of relatives.
khu nwnk iQru kCu nhI supny ijau sMswru ]50] kahu naanak thhir kashh nehee supanae jio sansaar ||50|| Says Nanak, nothing lasts forever; the world is like a dream. ||50||
Rationalism vs Irrationalism – Ignorance is Bliss. If Sunrise and Sunset are products of Illusion, Man’s Mortality is the product of Illusion. Man’s Flight at the end of Lifetime. On bhavanajagat.comRationalism vs Irrationalism – Ignorance is Bliss. Sun’s Ecliptic Path is Real for Man is ignorant of Earth’s Motions. On bhavanajagat.com
RATIONALISM vs IRRATIONALISM. MAN’S EXISTENCE IS SHAPED BY FLAT EARTH WITH ARCHED DOME EXPERIENCE.
“Earth is Flat.” This statement can be verified using Pure Reasoning, by a rational interpretation of scientific theories called the Geocentric Theory, and the Heliocentric Theory.
Rationalism vs Irrationalism – Earth is Flat.Rationalism vs Irrationalism – Earth is Flat. Heliocentric Model needs verification using method of Pure Reasoning. Rationalism vs Irrationalism. Earth is Flat. Pure Reasoning supports the Geocentric Model.
The man experiences the reality of Sun’s ‘apparent’ motion across the Sky. I verify this statement by attaching my reasoning. The man’s days of real, physical, observed, verified existence on Earth’s Surface is determined by “Apparent Motion” (or Ecliptic Path) of Sun and not by Sun’s “Real Motion” around the Milky Way Galactic Center.
Rationalism vs Irrationalism. Earth is Flat for Man recognizes Sun’s Path while standing on Flat Disc of Earth.Rationalism vs Irrationalism – Earth is Flat. Sun’s real motion in Milky Way Galaxy is unknown to Man who only experiences the Reality of Sun’s apparent motion across the Sky.On bhavanajagat.com
The man is able to live and is able to keep his existence for Earth provides the experience of Flat Surface or Flat Disc. No Scientific Information has Power to overcome this direct Sensory Experience that governs all Living Functions or Biological Rhythms. A ‘Rationalist’ will give attention to his own direct Sensory Experience as keeping one’s own Life is the most Reasonable Doctrine.
The rational interpretation of scientific information
Rationalism vs Irrationalism – Earth is Flat. Genesis 1:16.
The doctrine of Rationalism uses Pure Reasoning to discover truth.
We need a rational interpretation of scientific information. What does Science say about Sun? We need to comprehend Science and make a rational interpretation using reason, and empirical data if not by faith or belief in God.
The First Book of Moses, The Old Testament Book of Genesis claims that Sun and Moon are appointed as lamps in the sky to illuminate world during Day and Night.
Let me know as to which part of Science you do not understand.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA BHAVANAJAGAT
Rationalism vs Irrationalism – Earth is Flat. Genesis 1:16.Rationalism vs Irrationalism – Earth is Flat. Genesis 1:16.Rationalism vs Irrationalism – Earth is Flat.
Doom Dooma Doomsayer welcomes the meeting between President Trump and Dalai Lama to reaffirm our commitment to foster friendly relations between Tibet, India, and the United States.
Hopeful of an early meeting between Trump, Dalai Lama: Lobsang Sangay | Central Tibetan Administration
Monday, December 19, 2016
11:26 PM
On bhavanajagat.com Hopeful of an early meeting between Trump, Dalai Lama: Lobsang Sangay
December 19, 2016
Lobsang Sangay (left), the Prime Minister of Tibet’s government in exile with Tibet’s spiritual leader, The Dalai Lama. Photo: PTI By Elizabeth Roche – Live Mint, 19 December 2016 Tibet’s PM-in-exile Lobsang Sangay says encouraged by Donald Trump’s stance on One China policy, remains hopeful of support to resolve Tibet issue peacefully New Delhi: Lobsang Sangay, ‘prime minister’ of the Tibetan government in exile in India, says he is encouraged by US president elect Donald Trump’s recent statement that his administration does not need to be bound by the One China policy. Sangay is also hopeful of an early meeting between Trump and the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Sangay was of the view India should also make Tibet as issue for talks with China given that China already considers it a “core” issue with India. On the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, Sangay said the institution of the Dalai Lama would not end but continue after the eventual passing of the 14th Dalai Lama. Edited excerpts from an interview. The “Middle path” (autonomy for Tibet rather than independence) that the Dalai Lama and you have been advocating seems to be yielding no returns. Is there a chance of a rethink on this? No. I think, if China grows strong and it’s growing stronger, China needs to think. If they really want to be respected in the international community, you have to earn that respect. And with all the money and military power you cannot buy or force respect, you have to earn it by demonstrating an action and solving the issue of Tibet will earn that respect for them. There is an argument on the Chinese side that if you are weak and you give concession, others will take advantage. Now they are strong. If they give concessions, they will be giving concession from the space of strength. US president-elect Donald Trump recently said the new administration does not need to be bound by the One China policy. The context was with reference to Taiwan. But does this give you hope as well? That was a very bold commentary coming from president-elect Donald Trump. We do think that boldness with substance is the right approach with the Chinese government. It looks now that his team has done research on Taiwan, that what he said was deliberate, after substantive research. Similarly, we would appreciate if he would also do something similar for Tibetan people. US presidents George W Bush and Barrack Obama have met his Holiness the Dalai Lama four times each. We remain hopeful that Donald Trump will support the Middle Way approach and meet His Holiness and strongly encourage that the envoys of His Holiness meet with Chinese envoys to resolve this issue of Tibet peacefully. There have been no talks between the Tibetan envoys and China for six years now. What is it that you think will give an impetus to restart dialogue? The Trump administration, the European Union, India, Japan, Australia—all governments must have a coordinated effort to press the Chinese government to solve the issue of Tibet peacefully. It should be a coordinated effort and consistent effort. You were invited to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing in ceremony (in May 2014). That was seen as a message to China. But then, the Modi government seemed to be making efforts to build a relationship with China. Now, irritants in the relationship have surfaced—China’s objections to India’s Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership being one. We now see clearance for His Holiness to visit Arunachal Pradesh in 2017. Do you see a consistent policy towards Tibet from the Indian government? Recently, President of India, Pranab Mukherjee hosted the Dalai Lama. This is a bold gesture from the government of India which we really appreciate. The Indian government is formulating its policy towards China which is showing all the right trends. India has done the most for Tibet. The largest number of Tibetans are in India. The Tibetan government in exile is based in India. I can’t think of any other place where this could be based. But we always request and appeal that Tibet be treated as one of the core issues (of India with China). China already does that. India has the moral high ground to speak for Tibet. His Holiness has said the institution of the Dalai Lama might end with him because of fears that the Chinese government will foist its own Dalai Lama onto the Tibetan people. At the same time, he has also said that the next Dalai Lama could be born outside Tibet—among the populations in exile. How do you see the future? The institution of the Dalai Lama will not end. He is the 14th Dalai Lama. For 14 times the Tibetan people have asked him to come back and we will ask him again for the 15th time. When Tibetans asked him to come for 14 times, we had an independent country. Now when we are in exile and we are leading this freedom struggle, all the more reason that we have to ask him to come back. So he will come back.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Three Components of Cell, 1. Cytoplasm, 2. Nucleus, and 3. Cell Membrane. Life and Death demand State of Knowing, Fact of Knowing, and Condition of Knowing Range of Information.
Life and Death, Creation and Dissolution demand performance of guided, sequential, goal-oriented, purposive actions that involve application of Knowledge. Life and Death demand State of Knowing, Fact of Knowing, and Condition of Knowing Range of Information.
Cells are building blocks of Life. In the context of study of Human Life, all Cells of Man are derived from a previously existing Fertilized Egg Cell that is essentially made up of three parts, 1. Cytoplasm, 2. Nucleus, and 3. Plasma Membrane.
LIFE AND DEATH – KNOWLEDGE IN ACTION. MEMBRANE PERFORMS SEVERAL COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS TO ESTABLISH LIVING CELL AS AN INDEPENDENT, INDIVIDUAL ENTITY.
Cells perform a variety of functions to make, repair, or degrade Molecules of Life. Not all of the Information is derived from Nucleus which stores ‘genetic information’ in structures called Chromosomes. Apart from ‘Genetic Inheritance’, Life demands ‘Maternal Inheritance’ or Cytoplasmic Inheritance which includes various Cytoplasmic Organelles, and Membrane System which enables Cell to perform its activities by creating isolated compartments within the Cell. Plasma Membrane and Membrane System of Cell perform several Cognitive Functions to establish Living Cell as an Independent, Individual Entity.
LIFE AND DEATH – KNOWLEDGE IN ACTION. COGNITIVE ABILITY OF MEMBRANE. STRUCTURE OF MITOCHONDRION.
I ask my readers to give attention to ‘COGNITIVE’ abilities of Cell Membrane, the part of Cytoplasm which not only acts as Physical Barrier to segregate Cell Activity but also ‘Knows’ or recognizes specific Molecules to allow, to regulate, or to facilitate their entry or exit. For example, Membrane of Mitochondria has ‘Cognitive’ ability to recognize thousands of varied peptide molecules they routinely process to perform metabolic functions.
Like all other Cellular functions and activities, the process described as “AUTOPHAGY” represents Cognitive Ability of Cell Membrane System.
Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG
YOSHINORI OHSUMI WINS NOBEL PRIZE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH ON CELLS
LIFE AND DEATH – KNOWLEDGE IN ACTION. 2016 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE.
Monday, October 03, 2016
By Sheena McKenzie, CNN
LIFE AND DEATH – KNOWLEDGE IN ACTION. DR. YOSHINORI OHSUMI.
[Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi pictured at the Tokyo Institute of Technology campus in Yokohama]
(CNN)The first of this year’s Nobel Prizes has been revealed, kicking off with the award for Physiology or Medicine.
Biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi, of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, was awarded the medicine prize for his discoveries in autophagy — the process whereby a cell recycles part of its own contents.
Scientists had been aware of autophagy since around the 1960s, but knew little about how it worked — until Ohsumi’s pioneering experiments with baker’s yeast in the 1990s.
It’s important because autophagy can eliminate invading intracellular bacteria, and disrupted autophagy has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes and other disorders that particularly affect the elderly.
What does autophagy mean?
The term “autophagy” can be translated as “self-eating,” and was first coined by scientists studying cell behavior in the 1960s.
At the time, researchers found a cell could destroy part of its own contents by transporting it to another compartment — called the lysosome — for degradation.
But as Nobel Committee member Juleen Zierath explained, Ohsumi showed that the lysosome “wasn’t a waste dump — it was a recycling plant.”
The Nobel Prize winner’s experiments in the 1990s used baker’s yeast to identify genes essential for autophagy.
“He then went on to elucidate the underlying mechanisms for autophagy in yeast, and showed that similar sophisticated machinery is used in our cells,” explained the Nobel Foundation in a statement.
What does it mean for us?
“Thanks to Ohsumi and others following in his footsteps, we now know that autophagy controls important physiological functions where cellular components need to be degraded and recycled,” it said.
“Autophagy can rapidly provide fuel for energy and building blocks for renewal of cellular components, and is therefore essential for the cellular response to starvation and other types of stress. After infection, autophagy can eliminate invading intracellular bacteria and viruses.”
“The foundation also explains that disrupted autophagy has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes and other disorders that appear in the elderly.
“Mutations in autophagy genes can cause genetic disease. Disturbances in the autophagic machinery have also been linked to cancer. Intense research is now ongoing to develop drugs that can target autophagy in various diseases.
From the vault
In 2015, the prize was divided — one half jointly going to Ireland’s William C. Campbell and Japan’s Satoshi Omura for “their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites.”
And the other half awarded to China’s Youyou Tu for “her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria.”
Back in 2012 Britain’s John B. Gurdon and Japan’s Shinya Yamanaka won the prize for discovering that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing into all tissues of the body.
“Since the method we’ve developed doesn’t require embryos, it could technically allow anybody with a slight knowledge of chemistry to transform skin cells, and even possibly down the road produce a human being from skin cells,” said Yamanaka at the time.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Autophagosome represents Creative Mechanism to regulate Living and Dying Functions to accomplish Specific Purpose.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Cell Functions Shape Living Experience.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Mechanisms of Autophagy.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Cellular Events involve Act of Knowing.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Autophagy, complex guided event.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Membrane has crucial role in Cellular Functions because of its Cognitive Ability.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Molecular Mechanisms of Autophagy provide better understanding of Life, Disease, and Death.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Autophagy – Cellular Mechanisms.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Cell Membrane creates Cell Compartments to isolate Cellular Events.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Autophagy Deregulation and Neurodegenerative Disease – Parkinson’s Disease(PD).
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Autophagy Receptors and Adaptors.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Cell Death and Autophagy.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Autophagy and Pathogenesis. Factors involved in causing Disease or Dysfunction.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Autophagy Mechanism.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Selective Autophagy.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Selective and Non-Selective Autophagy.
Life and Death – Knowledge in Action. Cell Membrane imposes Physical Barrier between Cell and its immediate External Environment. In addition, Cell Membrane creates numerous Compartments to segregate or isolate Chemical Reactions and Events within the Cell. Membrane has remarkable Cognitive Abilities.
DOOMED AMERICAN FANTASY – DUMP CHINA – MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN
DOOMED AMERICAN FANTASY – DUMP CHINA – MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
37th US President Richard M. Nixon’s China Fantasy placed America on a Slippery Slope with tragic consequences including Military Disaster in Vietnam.
Nixon-Kissinger China Fantasy formulated US Policy of “Conceptual Failure,” and “Strategic Blunder” which holds no Promise for America’s Future.
Doomed American Fantasy – Dump China – Make America Great Again. Rembrandt’s Painting depicts King Belshazzar, the Doomed last King of Babylon not able to decipher ‘The Writing’s On The Wall’.
“The Writing’s On The Wall” is clear. Prophet Daniel warned King of Babylon who was not able to decipher the Writing announcing impending Doom.
DOOMED AMERICAN FANTASY – DUMP CHINA – MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
America needs to Read The Writing On Made In China Label. America is losing Values, Character, and Strength. America is slipping from its Superpower Status. It’s not too late. To avoid Downfall, to avert Disaster, to prevent Catastrophe, and to halt Calamity in its tracks, America needs to Dump China Fantasy. The next US President Trump has to start afresh to ‘Make America Great Again’.
Doomed American Fantasy – Dump China – Make America Great Again. James Mann, author of ‘The China Fantasy’.
The New York Times
Op-Ed Contributor
America’s Dangerous ‘China Fantasy’
By JAMES MANN OCT. 27, 2016
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, American business executives and political leaders of both parties repeatedly put forward what I label the “China fantasy”: the view that trade, foreign investment and increasing prosperity would lead to political liberalization in the world’s most populous country.
“Trade freely with China, and time is on our side,” said President George W. Bush. He was merely echoing his Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, who called the opening of China’s political system “inevitable, just as inevitably the Berlin Wall fell.”
To say the least, things in China haven’t turned out that way.
Over the past few years, the Chinese regime has become ever less tolerant of political dissent – to such an extent that, these days, American leaders have become far more reluctant to make claims about China’s political future or the impact on it of trade and investment. The “China fantasy” got the dynamics precisely wrong: Economic development, trade and investment have yielded greater political repression and a more closed political system.
This amounts to a new China paradigm: an intensely internationalized yet also intensely repressive one-party state. China provides the model that other authoritarian regimes, from Russia to Turkey to Egypt, may seek to replicate. As a result, the United States will find itself struggling with this new China paradigm again and again in the coming years.
In using the word “repression,” I am talking about organized political activity, not private speech. Visitors to China are sometimes surprised to find that cab drivers, tour guides or old friends may speak to them with candor, even about political subjects. However, what such people can’t do is to form an organization independent of the Chinese Communist Party or take independent action to try to change anything.
Doomed American Fantasy – Dump China – Make America Great Again. Wang Qiaoling (Left), and Li Wenzu with photos of their husbands, Human Rights lawyers imprisoned by China.
Wang Qiaoling, left, and Li Wenzu with photos of their husbands, human rights lawyers in China who have been detained since July 2015. Credit How Hwee Young/European Pressphoto Agency
Indeed, over the past two years the Chinese government has been moving in new ways against people and institutions that might, even indirectly, provide support for independent political activity. It has tightened the rules for nongovernmental organizations. More recently, it has been arresting Chinese lawyers. It has also been staging televised confessions, a practice reminiscent of Stalin’s show trials.
Why is it that trade and investment have led to a Chinese regime that represses dissent more than it did five, 10 or 20 years ago? The answer, put simply, is that the regime thinks it needs to do so, can do so and has fewer outside constraints inhibiting it from doing so.
First, it needs to because as the economy develops and grows more complex, Chinese citizens are having new grievances of the sort that would otherwise lead to organized political activity. Environmental problems have multiplied. Consumers worry about product safety (tainted milk, for example) and accidents (like train wrecks). And at least to educated Chinese, internet censorship can be an annoyance, if not an insult.
Second, China’s security apparatus has a much greater capacity to repress dissent than it did in the past. Technology gives it greater capacity to control both physical space (the streets) and cyberspace (the internet).
Finally, the world’s increased commercial involvement with China over the past two decades has made foreign leaders more reluctant to do anything in response to Chinese crackdowns, lest the Chinese regime retaliate. This is in large part a problem of perception: In fact, the Chinese regime cares about its standing in the world and would seek to avoid international condemnation if world leaders took strong stand and work together.
Almost forgotten now is that in the 1990s, the United States, possessing far greater economic leverage in dealing with China than it has today, threatened trade restrictions if Beijing did not improve the human rights climate. After intense debate, the Clinton administration eventually backed away from threats to limit trade with China.
The aftermath of that debate was disastrous. American leaders overreacted by deciding to avoid any further strong actions in support of human rights in China. Instead, they offered the “China fantasy”: the idea that change would come inevitably.
At one point, giving voice to the optimism and the false assumptions about how trade would liberalize China, President Clinton told China’s president, Jiang Zemin, at a Washington news conference, “You’re on the wrong side of history.” History, however, is rendering its own judgment – that America’s confidence in the political impact of trade with China was woefully misplaced.
Looking forward, we are obliged to deal with a China capable of moving endlessly from one crackdown to another, no longer interrupted by the occasional easings or “Beijing Springs” of the past. It will be a different China, in which educated, middle-class people may be less loyal, but their views also less influential.
What we can do is to keep expressing as forcefully as possible the values of political freedom and the right to dissent. Democratic governments around the world need to collaborate more often in condemning Chinese repression – not just in private meetings but in public as well. We should also find new ways to single out and penalize individual Chinese officials involved in repression. Why should there be a one-way street in which Chinese leaders send their own children to America’s best schools, while locking up lawyers at home?
The Chinese regime is not going to open up because of our trade with it. The “China fantasy” amounted to both a conceptual failure and a strategic blunder. The next president will need to start out afresh.
James Mann, a resident fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and former Beijing bureau chief for The Los Angeles Times, is the author of “The China Fantasy.”
TIBET OCCUPATION – UNFORGOTTEN MEMORY – GREATEST CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
Tibet Occupation – Unforgotten Memory – Greatest Crime Against Humanity. Thank You Tsering Woeser.
Evil Red Empire’s Tibet Occupation ranks as World History’s Worst Crime Against Humanity. I seek the appointment of an International War Crimes Tribunal to fully investigate Red China’s Tibet Occupation and the atrocities of ‘Cultural Revolution’ as Crimes Against Humanity. I warmly appreciate Ms. Tsering Woeser’s efforts to expose these Crimes.
The Cultural Revolution in Tibet: A Photographic Record
SINOSPHERE
By LUO SILING OCT. 3, 2016
Tibet Occupation – Unforgotten Memory – World History’s Worst Crime Against Humanity.
Tsering Woeser’s father, an officer in the People’s Liberation Army in Lhasa when the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, photographed many public attacks on Tibet’s old ruling class and religious leaders. Here, a Buddhist nun wears a sign labeling her as a counterrevolutionary. Credit Tsering Dorje
In 1999, the Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser came across Wang Lixiong’s book “Sky Burial: The Fate of Tibet.” On finishing it, she sent Mr. Wang photographs taken by her father, who was with the People’s Liberation Army when it entered Tibet in the 1950s and documented the early years of the Cultural Revolution in Lhasa in the 1960s. Mr. Wang wrote back, saying, “It’s not for me, as a non-Tibetan, to use these photos to reveal history. That task can only be yours.”
Ms. Woeser began tracking down and interviewing people who appeared in the photos. This resulted in two books published by Locus in Taiwan in 2006: “Forbidden Memory: Tibet During the Cultural Revolution,” based on her father’s photographs, and “Tibet Remembered,” an oral history narrated by 23 people who appear in them. Meanwhile, Ms. Woeser had begun taking her own photos, using her father’s camera, of the places he photographed. Many were included in a new edition of “Forbidden Memory,” published this year on the 50th anniversary of the start the Cultural Revolution.
Tibet Occupation – Unforgotten Memory – World History’s Worst Crime Against Humanity. Tsering Dorje before the Potala Palace in 1969.
Tsering Dorje standing before the Potala Palace in Lhasa in 1969, in a photograph provided by his daughter, Tsering Woeser.
Ms. Woeser was born in Lhasa in 1966 to a Tibetan mother and her father, Tsering Dorje, who was half Tibetan and half Han, the dominant ethnicity in China. But in 1970, her father, who had served as deputy commander of the Lhasa military district, was transferred to Sichuan Province. It wasn’t until 1990 that Ms. Woeser returned to Lhasa, where she became editor of the journal “Tibetan Literature.” In 2003, she published “Notes on Tibet,” a collection of essays and short stories that was soon banned by the Chinese government. She is now a freelance writer and poet based in Beijing with Mr. Wang, whom she married in 2004. In an interview, she discussed what she learned from her father’s photographs of Tibet’s experience of the Cultural Revolution.
How did your father manage to take these photos?
In 1950, Mao Zedong ordered the People’s Liberation Army into Tibet, and on the way it passed through my father’s hometown, Derge, which is in the present-day Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. At the time my father, who was only 13, was sent away by his Han father to enlist in the P.L.A. His mother was a local Tibetan. During the Cultural Revolution, my father served as an officer in the political department of the Tibet Military District. I suppose he was able to take photos because of his privileges as a P.L.A. officer.
It’s curious, however, that for all the photos that my father took, he was able to keep the photos and negatives. This certainly could not have happened if the army had assigned him to take the photos. This indicates that my father’s activity was not commissioned by the military.
Tibet Occupation – Unforgotten Memory – World History’s Worst Crime Against Humanity
On Aug. 24, 1966, in Lhasa, Buddhist scriptures were burned as part of the campaign against the “Four Olds” – old customs, old culture, old habits, old ideas. Credit Tsering Dorje
Very few people had cameras then, and even fewer had the chance to take photos of public events. There were several media agencies active in Tibet then. They produced lots of documentaries, photos and reports. And yet in the newspapers and posters from then you can’t find any photos of ruined temples or “struggle sessions” against “counterrevolutionary monsters and demons.” I’ve looked at all the issues of Tibet Daily from 1966 to 1970 but can find no such photos.
What do your father’s photos show?
Mostly mass meetings and “incidents.” By mass meetings I mean large-scale gatherings such as the celebration by tens of thousands of Chairman Mao’s launching of the Cultural Revolution. Incidents include the destruction of temples and struggles against “monsters and demons.” The photos contain many identifiable figures including the Communist leaders of Tibet, the founder of the Tibetan Red Guards, individual Red Guards, as well as nobles, clergy and officials of the old Tibet society who were targeted in “struggle sessions.” In my investigations most of my efforts were focused on these people, because it’s through them that the photos have their greatest value. Over six years, I interviewed about 70 people in the photos.
How do your photographs and your father’s, taken in the same locations, differ?
In 1966 and 1967, my father took photos of mass meetings and rallies of Red Guards and the P.L.A. in front of the Potala Palace. In 2012, when I went to the same place to take photos, two self-immolations by Tibetans had taken place in Lhasa that May. As a result, the government tightened its policy of ethnic segregation and took more security measures against Tibetans, especially those from outside Lhasa. The measures were first implemented in March 2008, when protests broke out across the Tibetan region, and became more severe in 2012. As I took my photos, I noticed a curious phenomenon: the palace square was filled with men in black. They had umbrellas on their backs, which they would use to block people from taking pictures if an incident broke out. They lined up in rows and monitored the people passing by. They prohibited anyone from sitting in the square.
Tibet Occupation – Unforgotten Memory – World History’s Worst Crime Against Humanity. Tsering Woeser in Lhasa with her father’s camera.
Tsering Woeser, with her father’s camera, in Lhasa in 2013. Credit Pazu Kong
Another example: In 2014, I was standing where my father had taken photos in front of the Jokhang Temple. What did he see back then? Red Guards trying to hang Chairman Mao’s portrait on the roof of the temple, where the Chinese flag was also planted. Though I didn’t see any Mao portraits there, the flag was waving in the same place. Also, there were quite a few believers kneeling and praying, as well as a crowd of tourists fascinated by their actions. On the roof of a house diagonally across from the temple there were sharpshooters from the armed police. Ever since 2008, sharpshooters have been deployed on the roofs of buildings around the temple.
Comparing today with the Cultural Revolution, there were no believers kneeling back then, and the temple was ruined, while today the temple offers a bustling scene where believers may freely worship. But these are only superficial differences. Religious worship is still strictly controlled. Furthermore, there is now commercialized tourism, with gawking tourists who treat Tibetans like exotic decorations and Lhasa as a theme park.
Who was the founder of the Lhasa Red Guards?
Tao Changsong, born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. In 1960, he graduated from East China Normal University and volunteered to move to Tibet, where he became a teacher of Chinese at Lhasa Middle School. During the Cultural Revolution he was the main force behind the creation of the Lhasa Red Guards, as well as commander of the Lhasa Revolutionary Rebels Headquarters. When the Revolutionary Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region was formed, he became its deputy director, a position equivalent to vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region today. He also went to Beijing many times and met with Zhou Enlai, Jiang Qing and other key members of the Central Revolutionary Committee. In 2001, I interviewed him twice. I didn’t show him my father’s photos, assuming he might not tell me the story if he saw them, since he appears in one. It shows him at the Dalai Lama’s summer palace, the Norbulingka, leading a team of Red Guards hanging up a poster on which is written “People’s Park.”
Tibet Occupation – Unforgotten Memory – World History’s Worst Crime Against Humanity.
A public rally in Lhasa to force “monsters and demons” to confess their failings. Credit Tsering Dorje
There were two “rebel factions” in Lhasa during the Cultural Revolution. One was the Revolutionary Rebels Headquarters. The other was the Great Alliance of Proletarian Revolutionaries Command, or Great Alliance Command for short. The two fought each other for power. In the later period of the Cultural Revolution, the Headquarters faction lost ground, while the other faction achieved total control, and retained it even after the Cultural Revolution [which ended in 1976]. Headquarters members were purged from the party. Tao Changsong was investigated on suspicion of belonging to the “three types of people” – “people who followed the Lin Biao-Jiang Qing counterrevolutionary faction,” “people with a strong factionalist bent” and “people who engaged in looting and robbery.” After the mid-1980s, he worked at the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences and served as assistant editor of the journal “Tibet Studies” and as deputy director of the Modern Tibetan Research Institute. Now he’s retired and lives in Chengdu and Lhasa, where he is in good standing with the government.
Mr. Tao is a lively talker with a sharp memory. He also showed his cautious side when he began having difficulty answering my questions about the Red Guards’ campaign against the “Four Olds” at the Jokhang Temple. The statement in his account that left the deepest impression on me concerned the P.L.A.’s crackdown on “second rebels” [Tibetans who revolted in 1969]. He said: “The Tibetans are too simple-minded. If you execute them they say, ‘Thank you.’ If you give them 200 renminbi they also say, ‘Thank you.’ “
Tibet was an exception to the general practice of purging the “three types of people” after the Cultural Revolution. In Tibet there were few purges of that kind. When Hu Yaobang came to Lhasa in 1980, he put an end to the purging of the “three types.” Why? Because there were many Tibetans among them. Hu thought if you purged them, the party wouldn’t be able to find reliable agents among local Tibetans. So the party couldn’t purge them. And some of them not only were shielded from purges but even received promotions. As a result, the people who rose in power during the Cultural Revolution still dominate Tibet, whether Tibetan or Han.
Tibet Occupation – Unforgotten Memory – World History’s Worst Crime Against Humanity.
Two Red Guards in Lhasa in 1966. Credit Tsering Dorje
Tell us about the people in the photographs who were victims of the struggle sessions.
There were about 40 of them. They belonged to a variety of professions in the old Tibet: monks, officials, merchants, physicians, officers, estate overlords and so on. The settings included struggle sessions at mass assemblies, in the streets and at local neighborhood committees that methodically conducted their sessions by turns. The time frame was from August to September 1966. After that, the division between the factions led each to conduct its own separate struggle sessions. The people attacked in these sessions were incorporated into the “monsters and demons” unit, where they were ordered to attend long-term labor and study sessions at their assigned neighborhood committee.
What’s most interesting about these victims is that most were members of the upper class whom the Communist Party from the 1950s to the eve of the Cultural Revolution had designated as “targets to be won over.” And since they did not follow the Dalai Lama and flee the country during the 1959 uprising, the party rewarded them with many privileges. In other words, they were partners of the party. One of them, a monk, even served as an informant for the military.
But after the Cultural Revolution began they were labeled “monsters and demons” and suffered humiliating attacks. In the end they were overtaken by madness, illness and death. Some died during the Cultural Revolution, others afterward. Most of the victims died. Of the few who survived, some went abroad. Some, however, remained in Tibet, where they took up the party’s offer and joined the system to regain their high status. Today these people are found in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the National People’s Congress and the Buddhist Association, where they fulfill ceremonial functions needed by the party.
Tibet Occupation – Unforgotten Memory – World History’s Worst Crime Against Humanity.
A National Day celebration on Oct. 1, 1966, in Lhasa marking the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Credit Tsering Dorje
Given the fate of most of the victims, the people I interviewed were mostly their relatives, or in some cases the disciples of victimized monks. They told me so many stories.
Such as?
Tibet Occupation – Unforgotten Memory – World History’s Worst Crime Against Humanity.
Sampho Tsewang Rinzin, from one of the most renowned noble families in Tibet. Sampho began working with the Party in the 1950s and benefited from that. But he was cruelly struggled against during the Cultural Revolution, as you can see in the photos. The Red Guards who were beating him made him wear the uniform of a Senior Minister in the Tibetan Government, which as much as it made him look splendid, brought him so much humiliation and stripped him of all dignity, so that in the end he was sobbing in front of everyone. He died soon after this. Then there was the “female living Buddha” – an erroneous term; we call them rinpoche – Samding Dorje Phagmo Dechen Chodron. Historically there have been very few female living Buddhas in Tibet. She was the most famous. In 1959 she followed the Dalai Lama and escaped to India. But she was persuaded by party cadres to return to Tibet and was held up as a patriot who had “resolved to shun the darkness and embrace the light.” She even met with Mao. After the Cultural Revolution started she was labeled a “monster and demon” and humiliated at struggle sessions.
Tibet Occupation – Unforgotten Memory – World History’s Worst Crime Against Humanity.
Ngawang Gelek, a member of the Little Red Guards, which replaced the Young Pioneers children’s organization during the Cultural Revolution, at a rally in Lhasa. He later became a militia commander and eventually a devout Buddhist. Credit Tsering Dorje.
In the photo where she is shown being beaten, she was only 24. She was weak then, because she had recently given birth to her third child. Her husband was the son of the great Lhasa nobleman Kashopa. The couple eventually divorced. It was her ex-husband who told me about her experiences as well as those of her parents after I showed him the photos.
Today, Dorje Phagmo is vice chairwoman of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Standing Committee. She often appears on television attending various conferences.
Did you interview the Red Guards in the photos?
In one of my father’s photos there is a female activist, a quite vicious one during the Cultural Revolution. She once led a team to ransack a house where she not only seized the owner’s property but set fire to manuscripts bequeathed to the owner by the great Tibetan scholar Gendun Choephel. A Tibetan scholar called this a major crime against Tibetan history and culture. Later this woman became party secretary at the Wabaling neighborhood committee. When I found her there, she looked quite insignificant. As soon as I brought up the Cultural Revolution, her facial expression immediately changed. She refused to give an interview or let me take her photo.
There was also a former monk I interviewed who had smashed Buddhist stupas and burned scriptures during the Cultural Revolution. Afterward, he volunteered to be a janitor at the Jokhang Temple and worked there for 17 years. He told me: “If it weren’t for the Cultural Revolution, I think I would have lived my entire life as a good monk. I would have worn monk’s robes. The temples would still be there. Inside the temples I would have devotedly read scriptures. But the Cultural Revolution came. The robes could no longer be worn. Though I have never looked for a woman or abandoned monastic life, I am not fit to wear the robes again. This is the most painful thing in my life.”
Follow Luo Siling on Twitter @luosiling.
This article was adapted from a three-part interview in the Chinese-language site of The New York Times.
Tibet Occupation – Unforgotten Memory – World History’s Worst Crime Against Humanity.
TIBET OCCUPATION – UNFORGOTTEN MEMORY – WORLD HISTORY’S WORST CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY. AUTHOR OF FORBIDDEN MEMORY – CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN TIBET Ms. TSERING WOESER.
TIBET OCCUPATION – UNFORGOTTEN MEMORY – WORLD HISTORY’S WORST CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
TIBET OCCUPATION – UNFORGOTTEN MEMORY – WORLD HISTORY’S WORST CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
The Female Living Buddha and her parents were “criticised and struggled against”.
BEIJING DOOMED – OCEAN OF WISDOM TEACHES IN MONGOLIA
In 1574, Mongol Emperor Altan Khan offered Sonam Gyatso the title of ‘Dalai Lama’ which literally means Ocean of Wisdom. Thus Sonam Gyatso became the Third Dalai Lama as the title was applied posthumously to two Lamas whom he represented as reincarnation. In 1588, the Third Dalai Lama died while teaching in Mongolia. The Great Fifth Dalai Lama founded the Ganden Phodrang Government of Tibet in 1642. The successive Dalai Lamas have headed the Tibetan State for nearly four centuries.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s visit to Mongolia is very significant as it attests historical connections between Tibet and Mongolia.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama Visits Gandan Tegchenling Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
November 20, 2016
By Staff Writer
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 19 November 2016 – His Holiness the Dalai Lama left Japan for Mongolia late yesterday morning. As the plane descended through the clouds over Ulaanbaatar, a white blanket of snow covered the land as far as the eye could see.
His Holiness was greeted at the door of the plane by Khambo Lama Choi Gyamtso with other senior Mongolian lamas, a representative of the Indian Embassy, and Representative Telo Tulku from Moscow.
A large number of monks awaited His Holiness in the arrival hall and he spent a few minutes talking to dignitaries who had come to receive him. He gave a brief interview to Mongolian National Television. Expressing happiness at being able to visit Mongolia once again, he said he was looking forward to giving Buddhist teachings, visiting Gandan Tegchenling Monastery and interacting with members of the younger generation over the next four days.
This morning, a short drive through Ulaanbaatar brought His Holiness to Gandan Tegchenling Monastery. After first paying his respects in the Vajradhara Temple, he took his seat in the Gandan Assembly Hall. Khambo Lama Choi Gyamtso offered the mandala and three representations of the body, speech and mind of enlightenment on behalf of the entire congregation. Following prayers and a tsok offering, His Holiness gave the oral transmission of his ‘Praise to the Seventeen Masters of Nalanda’.
Lunch, offered in His Holiness’s honour by Gandan Tegchenling Monastery, was served in a traditional Mongolian yurt.
In the afternoon, several thousand people braved extremely cold weather to greet His Holiness in front of the Avalokiteshvara Temple. He briefly told them too how happy he was to be in Mongolia again. He urged the crowd not only to perform rituals and prayers, but also to study what Buddhist teachings mean. He promised to explain how to do this during teachings he is scheduled to give tomorrow.
More than 1000 monks packed into the Yiga Choeling Dratsang to listen to His Holiness. He explained to them how he has been holding discussions with modern scientists for more than 30 years, focussing primarily on four fields-cosmology, neurobiology, physics, especially quantum physics, and psychology. Since both sides have learned a great deal from each other, their dialogue has been richly and mutually beneficial.
“I first started talking to scientists out of simple curiosity. But as our conversations developed, I realized that there were some things they knew about that we could usefully learn about in our monastic institutions. Consequently, we have introduced the study of some aspects of science into the curriculums of several of our major monastic universities in India.”
His Holiness also stressed the importance of studying the classic texts composed by Nalanda masters.
“It is not enough just to have simple faith, as many people in the past have done. It is essential that our faith is based on knowledge and reason. This is why these days I advise Tibetans to be 21st century Buddhists, which means following Buddhist teachings on the basis of sound understanding. It’s also important to be able to sustain faith and religious tradition in the light of modern knowledge. So, I advise you Mongolians to be 21st century Buddhists too.”
His Holiness answered several questions from the audience before returning to the Guest House where he is staying. Tomorrow, he will teach Je Tsongkhapa’s ‘In Praise of Dependent Arising’ and ‘Three Principal Aspects of the Path’ and give a permission of Je Rinpoche in conjunction with the Deities of the Three Families.
Beijing Doomed – 14th Dalai Lama Visits Mongolia.
Beijing Doomed – 14th Dalai Lama Visits Mongolia.
Beijing Doomed – Dalai Lama Visits Mongolia.
Beijing Doomed – 14th Dalai Lama in Beijing.
Beijing Doomed – Dalai Lama Visits Mongolia.
ULAN-UDE, RUSSIA. IVOLGINSKY DATSAN MONASTERY. SINCE 1992, DALAI LAMA PAID FIVE VISITS TO THIS MONASTERY.On theculturetrip.com
What is Man? – Man is Living Thing. The Vitruvian Man( c. 1492 ) by Leonardo da Vinci. Man is composite of two Principles; 1. Form, and 2. Matter.
What is Man? The motivation for asking this question comes from a statement expressed in Sanskrit language, ‘Sarvesham Svastir Bhavatu’ which seeks the well-being of all human beings of all races, of all nations, of all cultures, and of all religions.
WHAT IS MAN? MAN IS LIVING THING AND IS COMPOSITE OF TWO PRINCIPLES, 1. FORM, AND 2. MATTER.
The term Altruism describes unselfish concern for the welfare of others. It involves Human Behavior and Action that appear to favor another Individual’s chances of Survival and Reproduction. The thought expressed in Sanskrit Language reveals Human Nature.
Our efforts to support the well-being of Man would be affected by our understanding the ‘real’ or ‘true’ nature of Man. All religious and cultural traditions make assumptions about Human Nature. The basic assumption about Human Nature is that of finding it displayed in Feelings, Thoughts, Action, and Behavior.If Man is viewed as Multicellular organism, we need to discover Human nature of this Subject who lives because of functions performed by trillions of cells. Hence, we need to know if Human Nature is displayed in the functional characteristics that are observable in interactions of cells that constitute Human Organism.
The objective of this Blog Post is to explore Universal Principles that determine Human Nature. Unlike Human Cultures and Religions that define Human Nature reflected in Man’s Thoughts, Feelings, Moods, Action, and Behavior, I discover Human Nature by describing the characteristics of Functional Behavior exhibited by cells, the Building Blocks of Man.
THE STUDY OF MAN AS A LIVING THING :
What is Man? Man is Living Thing. Greek philosopher and the founder of Biology Aristotle(384 – 322 B.C.). Science investigates Being as Being and the Attributes which belong to Being in virtue of its own Nature.
Greek philosopher and the founder of Biology, Aristotle( 384 – 322 B.C. ) claims that Science investigates Being as Being and the Attributes which belong to Being in virtue of its Nature. For a Thing to come into Being, Aristotle describes Four Kinds of Causes; 1. Efficient Cause, 2. Formal Cause, 3. Material Cause, and 4. Final Cause, the end or Purpose for which a Thing exists.
Aristotle describes Living Things are composite of two Principles; 1. Form, and 2. Matter. Matter and Form are the Material and the Formal Cause respectively of what comes to be known as a Thing. Matter represents Potentiality of the Living Corporeal Substance and Form represents Actuality of the Living Thing. The structure and the behavior of things contribute to their individual being and function. Aristotle did not regard the Body and Soul as two separate entities as the Soul is merely a set of defining features.
I would like to proceed with my presentation keeping the basic criteria that Aristotle would use to know Human Nature, 1. Form, 2. Matter, 3. the Human Living Thing, its nature being function of its structure and its behavior. In case of Man, the Form undergoes changes during every stage of its existence such as infancy, boyhood, youth, adult, and old age. The Living Matter or Protoplasm continues to live without any apparent changes in its fundamental living properties. The biological functions or the Chemical Composition of Living Matter or Protoplasm does not evolve or change because of its survival value for the species. The living functions such as consciousness, responsiveness, recognition, communication through signalling, motion, and nutrition are innate properties of the living substance or protoplasm and are not acquired by a learning process. This innate ability of protoplasm to perform functions helps in development of instinctive behavior that is observed in the organism. It is not surprising to observe that certain important features of human nature are innate rather than learned from experience. There are several factors involved in development of human nature and in formation of individual character. We need to recognize the contrast between the innate and the learned, heredity and environment, nature and nurture or social upbringing. The biological properties such as Motion, and Nutrition, the biological characteristics such as consciousness or awareness of its own condition called existence in a given environment, and the biological nature such as responsiveness, communication, and recognition of other living cells present in its external environment could account for an instinctive behavior pattern observed in all living organisms. This instinctive behavior pattern accounts for the nature of biotic interactions among members of a given biotic community. To explain human nature, we need to study the character and behavior of man’s corporeal substance or protoplasm and view man as a terrestrial organism represented by a biotic community of trillions of individual living cells and as a natural host to trillions of microbes that inhabit man’s gastrointestinal tract. The terms such as spirit or soul must be used by stating its defining features and we need to understand the connection between the feature and the substance that contributes to that feature of soul or spirit that is seen as the vital, animating principle found in all living things.
THE MECHANIST CONCEPT OF LIFE :
What is Man? Man is Living Thing. There is fundamental distinction between the lifeless and the living, animate and inanimate, living and nonliving matter. The living system cannot maintain its living functions by exclusively using the elementary laws of Physics and Chemistry.
The Mechanist Concept of Life asserts that the phenomena of life are merely processes and transformations obeying elementary laws of Physics and Chemistry. The living system is ultimately reducible to its constituent molecules and atoms. The living cell is a thermodynamically unstable system. This means that without continuous input of energy, a living cell will degrade spontaneously into a nonliving collection of molecules. To maintain life an organism not only repairs or replaces( or both ) its structures by a constant supply of the materials of which it is composed but also keeps its life processes in operation by a steady supply of energy. This functional activity of a living cell is called metabolism. Living systems must be supplied energy for continual synthesis of new organic molecules and to replace, or to repair broken organic molecules. We need to explain this functional ability of a living system to acquire energy from its external environment. This ability is not operated by laws of Physics and Chemistry. For example, in Physics, the force by which every mass or particle of matter including photons attracts and attracted by every other mass or particle is called Gravitation which is the weakest of the four Fundamental Forces operating in nature. A Living System does not use the force of Gravitation to attract a substance to use it for its Metabolism. Physics explains the process of diffusion and operation of Osmosis in which a solvent passes through a semipermeable membrane such as the wall of a living cell, into solution of higher concentration, so as to equalize concentrations on both sides of the membrane( the osmotic pressure gradient ). Osmosis is a relevant biological mechanism but it does not fully account for the energy acquisition by a living cell.
HOW DOES PROTOPLASM ACQUIRE ENERGY?
What is Man? Man is Living Thing. The Biological Membrane or the Plasma Membrane separates Protoplasm of the Cell from its environment. It allows a highly controlled exchange of matter across the barrier it poses.
The functional activity called Metabolism involves a Living System’s continual exchange of some of its materials with its surroundings, principally in the process of building up or destroying its protoplasm. The most striking characteristics of protoplasm are its vital properties of Motion, and Nutrition. Motion is the property of Protoplasm with which it changes shape and position using “intrinsic power” and to exhibit amoeboid movement. Ciliary movement or vibration of hair-like processes from the surface of any cell may also be regarded as a variety of motion with which Protoplasm is endowed. Nutrition is the “power” which protoplasm has of attracting to itself the materials necessary for its growth and maintenance from surrounding matter. When any foreign particle comes in contact with the protoplasmic substance, it becomes incorporated in it, being enwrapped by one or more processes projected from the parent mass which encloses it. When thus taken up, the foreign particle may remain in substance of Protoplasm for some time without change, or may be again extruded. The living substance called protoplasm has the “intrinsic power” of motion and uses its power to ingest and to expel foreign particles in the external environment with which it may come into contact. The Biological Membrane or the Plasma Membrane which separates protoplasm of the cell from its environment allows a highly controlled exchange of matter across the barrier it poses; some compounds are able to pass through the membrane easily, others are completely blocked. The screening effect on the substances that enter and leave the cell is perhaps the most important function of the membrane. The actions and behavior of protoplasmic substance are dependent upon its innate “power” and may not be attributable to elementary laws of Physics and Chemistry.
SPIRITUALITY AND HUMAN NATURE :
What is Man? Man is Living Thing. Red Blood Cells provide a very good example of the adaptive subordination of cells to meet requirements of the Whole Organism. The specialized functions of tissues and organs of Human Body are possible because of such functional subordination.
The structural differentiation and the functional organization of various organ systems makes man a very complex living organism. This kind of specialized functions of tissues and organs is possible because of adaptive subordination of the cells to the requirements of the Whole Organism. If altruism describes any behavior that appears to favor another individuals’ chances of survival, we can easily recognize this characteristic in the functions performed by the Red Blood Cells. Each Red Blood Cell lives for a very limited life span of its own and during its short period of existence it serves the purpose of the Whole Human Organism with a sense of devotion, with the spirit of cooperation, to provide assistance to all other cells, tissues, and organs of the body in a selfless manner.
I define the term ‘Spiritual’ as the NATURE of a relationship, a partnership, an association, or bonding between two individual living entities based upon characteristics such as compassion, sympathy, understanding, cooperation, mutual assistance, mutual tolerance, voluntary subservience to provide some benefit to the member participating in interactions. Spirituality is Innate and is not Acquired by Learning Experience. The very existence of Man, performing characteristic living functions, depends upon Living Matter, Corporeal Substance called Protoplasm which has Intrinsic or Innate “Power” to acquire Matter and Energy from its external environment.
Man’s Form becomes the actuality that it represents because of its Spiritual association with Protoplasm or Living Matter. Man lives as a Spiritual Being because of the Spiritual Nature of his Corporeal Substance.
The Material Basis of Spirituality. What is Matter? and What is Spirit? If materialism is about the influence of money and material wealth, I would like to use the Power/Force/Energy called Money to talk about Life and Death. The Law of Conservation is applicable to both the living, and the non-living matter. If any person can refute my claim using valid, scientific information, I would give the person a US $1,000 bill as a reward.
What it is to be a Substance? and What it is to Exist? We need to establish knowledge about the man on a firm basis and the information it provides must be tested for its accuracy and consistency with an external reality. We have to make the fundamental distinction between the living and the non-living matter. The scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced the materialistic position concerning the basic similarity of organic living and inorganic physical matter. The man is viewed as a product of natural evolution and is thought to be subject to the same laws of Physics and Chemistry or mechanistic principles.
We need a methodology to study philosophy and to understand philosophical statements. Logical Positivism, also known as Scientific Empiricism aims to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. It describes analysis of language as the function of philosophy. This analysis of language and of concepts is important to understand questions of belief and ideology which affect what we think we ought to do individually and socially. I would use this method of ‘Applied Philosophy’ to analyze the philosophical doctrine of ‘Materialism’ and to study the views of Greek philosophers and their efforts to interpret human nature and human existence.
What is Man? Plato’s Theory of Human Forms. Greek Philosophers Plato and Aristotle – To understand Man and Human Nature, we must know the Human Form, its actions and behavior.
What is Man? The motivation to ask this question comes from a statement expressed in the Sanskrit language, ‘Sarvesham Svastir Bhavatu’, which seeks the well-being of all humans, of all races, of all cultures, of all religions, and of all nations.
WHAT IS MAN? PLATO’S THEORY OF HUMAN FORMS. THE DISCOVERY OF PEACE, HARMONY, AND TRANQUILITY AS LIVING EXPERIENCE.
Our efforts to support the well-being of Man would be affected by our understanding the ‘real’ or ‘true’ nature of Man. Aristotle describes corporeal substances are composite of two principles, 1. Form and 2. Matter. It is important to seek a proper understanding of Human Form and to know the truth about Human Nature by describing the Form. Being born relates the man to the Subjective Reality of his physical existence and Human Nature is related to the fact of man’s existence in the physical world and universe. If the Objective Reality of the man is non-material or immaterial, we still need to know as to what exists in the world, and as to how it exists.
PLATO’S THEORY OF FORMS-THE DUALISM OF BODY AND SOUL:
Greek philosopher Plato (427 B.C. to 347 B.C.) describes Human Nature by his Theory of Forms. He describes four aspects or dimensions of Man; 1. The Logical Form, 2. The Epistemological Form, 3. The Moral Form, and 4. The Metaphysical Form.
I.The Logical Form: It describes the Physical Being, the Physical Form, and its Identity. Each human being has characteristic physical features using which he can be identified as a member of the genus Homo and he has very specific features that establish his identity that is shared by all the members of a species known as Homo sapiens, sapiens. Members of this species could be further identified as Specific Individuals using the present Identification Technology.
This Specific Individual will not exist with the same identifying features during the entire duration of his physical existence. The Logical Form of Man is impermanent and is subject to constant change and eventual death. However, the existence of this Physical Form is important to support the existence of Man and to know his Human Nature. Existence precedes Human Nature or Essence. The Essence (or, Who You Are) is defined and preceded by Existence (or, What You Do).
The man belongs to a Social Group, and always exists as an Individual with Individuality while his Physical Form changes and passes through various stages such as infancy, boyhood, teenage, adult and old age. The Logical Form is subject to change, decay, and death. Hence, the reality of this Form is often doubted. Plato has not known the man as a multicellular organism and his description of the Logical Form is not based upon the study of Human Anatomy and Human Physiology.
II.The Epistemological Form: The term Epistemology deals with the Theory of Knowledge. It describes the possible kinds of Knowledge and the degrees of certainty for each kind of Knowledge. Plato describes the kind of Knowledge that Man can acquire through Education, a process of Learning from Sensory Experience, and teaching imparted by others. Plato expects to obtain full Knowledge of Human Forms through proper Education. In Plato’s view, such Self-Knowledge is important to know the Metaphysical Form of Man. Self-Knowledge leads to an understanding of the man’s true or real nature. Perception of impermanent, material, perishable Human Body is described by Plato as opinion or belief and he considers that such perception is not true Knowledge of Human Form.
Plato has not given attention to Knowledge that is Innate or that is not Acquired by the Learning Process. To perform Living Functions in support of existence, the man uses biological information that is Inherited and not Knowledge that has to be Acquired through Learning.
III.The Moral Form: It describes qualities such as Courage and Justice, the observable aspects of Human Nature described from Human Action and Human Behavior.
IV.The Metaphysical Form: Plato claims that the Metaphysical Form is not perceivable by any of the senses. The Metaphysical Form is the Real Form of Man as compared to the Logical Form which is considered to be unreal. The Metaphysical Form is not present in Space or Time, as it is beyond the World of changeable and perishable things. It belongs to the Realm of Unchanging, Eternal Forms. This Form being True can be fully known through Intuitive Knowledge.
Plato’s Theory of Body-Soul Dualism:
Plato divides Man into two categories; 1. Body – a material entity, and 2. Mind or Soul – a non-material or immaterial entity which can exist apart from the Body. Plato maintains that the Mind or Soul is indestructible, it existed eternally before Birth and will exist eternally after Death.
Plato further describes three parts of Soul as 1. Appetite – the seat of desires and passion such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire, 2. Reason – the seat of discernment that chooses right from wrong and makes distinctions between good and evil, and 3. Spirit – the seat of self-assertion, self-interest, anger, indignation, and self-pride. Plato considers that the well-being of Man depends upon harmonious interactions of three aspects of the Soul. Plato thinks that such harmonious interactions would only be possible when Reason controls both Spirit and Appetite. To strike this balance and to maintain harmony, Man has to obtain Knowledge of Eternal, Unchanging Metaphysical Form.
Plato thinks that Justice is revealed as a Principle of each thing performing the function most appropriate to its nature, a Principle of the proper adjudication of Activity and Being. The Principle of Justice is revealed or discovered in the Individual Human Soul when each part of the Soul performs its proper and appropriate function. Plato believes that Human Soul rules the Human Body. The Rule of Reason is required to combine the virtue of Temperance with Self-Mastery. Harmony results when all elements agree as to which should do what.
The Six Dimensions of Man:
I describe Six Forms of the man and each Form can be identified by its own Action/Behavior; 1. The Physical Form, described by Human Anatomy and Human Physiology, 2. The Mental Form, described by Sciences such as Psychology and Psychiatry, the Form associated with Thinking, Imagination, Intellect, Memory, Moods, Feelings, and Self-Pride, 3. The Social Form described by Social Sciences, the social aspects of the man, his activities, and the structure and organization of all human institutions. I view the man as a multicellular organism that naturally hosts trillions of microbes and in fact exists as an interacting biological community or a social group, 4. The Moral Form described by Man’s power of Discernment or Conscience to make moral and ethical choices, 5. The Spiritual Form, the aspect that formulates harmonious interactions between the cells, tissues, organs, and the organ systems of Human Body whose individual functions generate the Singular Effect known as Man, and 6. The Creative Form described by the man’s Individuality that compels the man to always exist as Specific Individual, Original, Unique, Distinctive, and One of his own Kind of Living Thing. The man’s existence would be at risk if any of these Six Dimensions is adversely impacted. Unless we seek clear, visual images of Human Form in all its Dimensions, we will fail to understand the man and his Purpose in Life.
VITRUVIAN MAN, BY LEONARDO DA VINCI(c. 1492). This picture is used as the cover page for Best & Taylor’s Text Book of Human Physiology. Medical Science and Medical Education is knowledge built upon the foundations of understanding and knowing Human Anatomy ( Structure ) and Human Physiology ( Function).The Material Basis of Spirituality. What is Matter? and What is Spirit? If materialism is about the influence of money and material wealth, I would like to use the Power/Force/Energy called Money to talk about Life and Death. The Law of Conservation is applicable to both living, and non-living matter. If any person can refute my claim using valid, scientific information, I would give the person a US $1,000 bill as a reward
Whole Dude - Whole Spirituality 