5 Ways to Prevent Your Identity from Being Stolen
5 Ways to Prevent Your Identity from Being Stolen |
- 5 Ways to Prevent Your Identity from Being Stolen
- The quantum world of the Buddha
- Meditation is good for your genes. So, likely, is patting a dog.
- Gurinder Singh's son become CEO of Religare subsidiary
- Compassion as an antidote for our own suffering
| 5 Ways to Prevent Your Identity from Being Stolen Posted: 26 May 2013 09:00 AM PDT  Identity theft is a growing problem, as technology becomes a bigger part of our lives. This is a major crime that can complicate your life in ways you could never have imagined, like wrecking your finances, ruining your credit history and damaging your reputation. In this digital age, thieves don't have to dumpster dive, swipe your wallet or steal your mail to get the personal information they need to access your bank account and credit cards. While there's no way to be 100% safe from identity theft, there are some simple things you can do to make it more difficult for thieves to steal your identity.     Read More @ Source |
| The quantum world of the Buddha Posted: 26 May 2013 07:00 AM PDT If we wish to learn about the so-called quantum world which is the basis of material things we have to look in the direction of what transcends all materiality which is a spiritual reality. The basis of particles like electrons, protons, or atoms, for example, is immaterial and non-particulate. Nothing is localized in this quantum world. The so-called quantum world is made up of quantum waves which are indefinite and infinitely spread out. These waves can be thought of as interference patterns. But nothing determinate or particulate. In this wavy world lies the potential for our everyday world which is not yet born and certainly, not annihilated. We might add to this and say this wavy world is empty of mass and energy. If we had to be more precise as to what it is, all that we can say is it is a kind of raw, vital information. This quantum world the Buddha would recognize and much more in which, to quote Max Planck, Spirit is the matrix of all matter. His teaching would turn to the quantum world, pointing the way to nirvana. In contrast to this, the Buddha would recognize our modern, material world to be non-spiritual—a world alien to sentiency; a world that does not care; a world that appears to be one of strict determinism in which spirit is of no use and death is final. Our modern world is still quite primitive. Even though the quantum view of the world has basically overthrown the Newtonian world of classical physics and has undermined its morality that brought us the Holocaust, we still haven't managed to grasp the implications of such a world; we still continue to look at Buddhism through the tunnel vision of Newtonian mechanics and the morality that it inspired. |
| Meditation is good for your genes. So, likely, is patting a dog. Posted: 26 May 2013 12:00 AM PDT I've meditated every day since 1970, with just a handful of exceptions. That's over forty years. During most of that time I thought I was engaged in a spiritual journey from illusion to enlightenment. Now, I don't believe much, if at all, in that possibility. But I still meditate. Every day. Along with doing Tai Chi at least three days a week, which is a form of moving meditation. Meditation is good for the body and mind. So those who don't believe in soul or spirit can benefit from meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, mindfulness, and other ways of eliciting the Relaxation Response (opposite of Stress Response). Recent research showed this to be true. I learned about the study in New Scientist. Here's what "Meditation boosts genes that promote good health" said: FEELING run-down? Try a little chanting, or meditation – yes, really. Such relaxation techniques can boost the activity of genes that promote good health, and a few minutes each day is enough to show results. "It's not New Age nonsense," says Herbert Benson of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He and his colleagues analysed the whole genomes of 26 volunteers – none of whom regularly meditates – before teaching them a relaxation routine lasting 10 to 20 minutes. It included reciting words, breathing exercises and emptying the mind. After eight weeks of performing the routine daily, gene analysis was repeated. Clusters of beneficial genes had become more active and harmful ones less so (PLoS One, doi.org/mfj). The boosted genes had three main effects: improving cellular energy efficiency; upping insulin production, which improves control of blood sugar; and preventing the breakdown of caps on chromosomes that help prevent cells wearing out and ageing. Clusters of genes that became less active were those involved in chronic inflammation, which can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease. By taking blood immediately before and after the technique was performed, researchers also showed that the gene changes happened within minutes. Further studies in people who regularly meditate suggest these changes could be long term. "It seems fitting that you should see these responses after just 15 minutes just as, conversely, short periods of stress have physiological effects that are harmful in the long term," says Julie Brefczynski-Lewis of West Virginia University in Morgantown. The team is now looking at whether these techniques could be used as an adjunct to conventional medicine in people with high blood pressure, inflammatory bowel disease and cancer. A lot more detail can be found in the study itself, which has a rather imposing title: Relaxation Response Induces Temporal Transcriptome Changes in Energy Metabolism, Insulin Secretion and Inflammatory Pathways. What's beneficial is the relaxation response. Meditation is just one of the ways to achieve it. The study says: The relaxation response (RR) is the counterpart of the stress response. Millennia-old practices evoking the RR include meditation, yoga and repetitive prayer. ...The RR is elicited when an individual focuses on a word, sound, phrase, repetitive prayer, or movement, and disregards everyday thoughts. These two steps break the train of everyday thinking. Millennia-old mind-body approaches that elicit the RR include: various forms of meditation (e.g., mindfulness meditation and transcendental meditation); different practices of yoga (e.g., Vipassana and Kundalini); Tai Chi; Qi Gong; progressive muscle relaxation; biofeedback; and breathing exercises. When I mentioned the subject of tonight's blog post to my wife, she was patting one of our two dogs. Her canine-centric reaction: "Patting a dog is another way to relax." A few minutes of Googling revealed that this intuitively correct notion has some scientific evidence to back it up. So says the Harvard Health blog. Studies going back to the early 1980s support the idea that dogs—and other pets—have enormous health benefits for people. Pets have been shown to lower blood pressure, improve recovery from heart disease, and even reduce rates of asthma and allergy in children who grow up with a Fido or a Frisky in the house. Pets also improve people's psychological well-being and self-esteem. Along with a survey of dog owners. The poll of 1,000 of the UK's seven million dog owners, conducted for dog food makers Winalot, showed 55 per cent felt more relaxed after time with their dog, 44 per cent were more optimistic and another 44 per cent were less worried about life's everyday problems like job security and financial troubles. Psychologist Dr David Lewis, of Mindlab International, said: 'You've had a tough and stressful day. The boss has been on your case, the children playing up, the shops packed and the traffic bumper-to-bumper. 'Now all you want to do is relax and unwind. Actually, forget the TV and interact with the dog instead. The research we conducted shows this is a profound and effective stress reducer and increases feelings of contentment and relaxation.' In addition the survey found that one in four people describe their dog as their best friend and one in six women share their deepest, darkest secrets with their pet alone. Sure. Who needs God? Those who share their life with a canine know that reversing those letters reveals the true ultimate deity who must be loved, served, and honored: DOG. |
| Gurinder Singh's son become CEO of Religare subsidiary Posted: 25 May 2013 11:00 PM PDT Money (lots of it) and spirituality (questionable amount of it) continue to mix at Radha Soami Satsang Beas, the Indian religious organization I used to be a part of. Someone just emailed me a link to this news story, "Religare Health Trust names Gurpreet Dhillon as CEO." Religare Health Trust (RHT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Delhi-based Religare Enterprise Ltd (REL), has named Gurpreet Dhillon as CEO of the company. Earlier, Dhillon was working as the executive director and COO of RHT. ...Gurpreet Dhillon is also a second cousin of the billionaire brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh who are the promoters of Religare and Fortis Group. Moreover, Gurpreet is one of the two sons of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, leader of the spiritual group Radha Soami Satsang Beas. The Singh brothers are followers of the spiritual group and their maternal grandfather had previously served as one of the gurus of the group. It's a tangled web -- the connections between Guru Gurinder Singh Dhillon, Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, and the guru's sons. You can read about the strands here, here, and here. Some will say that all's fair between relatives, whether close or distant. If a Radha Soami Satsang Beas devotee wants to make Indian-style billionaires out of relatives who just happen to be the guru and his sons, so what? Others, like me, have an old-fashioned view that spirituality shouldn't be so closely connected to money-making. Gurus and other spiritual leaders should be focused on "divine" aspirations, not becoming hugely rich. |
| Compassion as an antidote for our own suffering Posted: 25 May 2013 10:00 PM PDT
A compassionate approach to dealing with hurt, on the other hand, is to drop both these forms of aversion: let go of the thoughts of anger the moment we become aware of their presence, and turn toward the hurt, with compassion. We train ourselves to "drop down" below the level of emotion and thought, down to the level of raw feeling — that ache, that bruise, that sense of having been "punched in the gut." When we embrace our own hurt with a mind of compassion — when we wish it well, as we would with a dear friend who was in pain — there is no need for anger. And having empathized with our own pain, we can then feel empathy for the other person and have compassion for them. From turning toward our pain in this way to experiencing compassion for the other person often takes seconds. But it works the other way around as well. Having compassion for others helps us to be more compassionate toward our own pain, to drop our aversion toward it, and to accept its presence with an even mind. There's a great illustration of this that comes from the Buddha's life. There was a time when the Buddha was injured by a falling rock. Tradition has it that the rock was pushed down a hillside by the Buddha's cousin, Devadatta, who desired to take control of the Sangha. The rock missed the Buddha, but a splinter flew off it and injured his foot severely, causing great pain. (I have to say, though, that the symbolism of Devadatta taking something whole and creating a splinter [group?] that hurt the Buddha seems too good to be true.) So the Buddha, injured, and apparently in agony, is lying down in a hut, mindful and alert, when he receives a visitor in the form of Māra, the Stress Reduction personification of doubt. And Māra taunts the Buddha about how he's lying there in a stupor, unable to do anything, unable to fulfill his goals of teaching beings to liberate themselves, lying there as if he were a dreamer. So you can imagine anyone, injured and in pain, unable to do what they loved, having this kind of doubt. The appearance of Māra is interesting. As the personification of doubt, his presence implies that the Buddha was not entirely immune to those inner voices that taunt us that we're not good enough. Those voices still arise for him, but he's able to face them and send them packing. And that's what happens in this case. And the Buddha says something very interesting. He says, amongst other things: "I lie down with sympathy for all beings." And Māra realizes he's defeated, and vanishes. The Buddha's self-doubt vanishes. Doubt arise for the Buddha, but they can't "infect" his mind. His clarity and mindfulness act as a psychological immune system. So what about "I lie down with sympathy for all beings" makes it an effective immune response to protect the Buddha against suffering and doubt? Well, when we're in pain — when we're lonely or sick, for example — we tend to assume that there's something special about it, and about us. We've been singled out: "Why me?" We've been afflicted with an especially severe form of suffering: "This is terrible! I can't bear it!" And these thoughts intensify our suffering.  If you like my articles and want to support the work I do, please click here to check out my books, guided meditation CDs, and MP3s. Or you can make a donation. But when we consider others' sufferings — when we "lie down with sympathy for all beings" — we realize that we're all in it together, and that many other people have it worse than we do. You have a cold? Someone else has just been diagnosed with cancer. You have cancer? Someone else has just learned that their child has cancer. When we recognize the commonness of suffering, and have sympathy and compassion for others' pain, we can (once again) let go of our stories — let go of our thoughts and emotions — and drop down to the level of raw feeling, and have compassion for that pain too. So having compassion for ourselves frees us up to have compassion for others, but having compassion for others can also free us up to have compassion for ourselves, and to bear with our suffering mindfully, and without aversion. Read More @ Source |
I've often written about how experiencing compassion for ourselves can naturally spill over to experiencing compassion for other people. When someone says something that you find hurtful, that hurt is a form of suffering. Often what we do is try to become angry, ultimately in an effort to rid of the "cause" of the suffering (the other person) and thus remove the hurt. This is a kind of double aversion, because not only are we experiencing aversion to the person whose words gave rise to the feeling of hurt, but we're turning away from the hurt itself.| You are subscribed to email updates from BuddhaRocks ☸ To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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