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A Nation sings of the New Dawn

I Love this song. Koit. Dawn.

Tönis Magi, hero of his Nation Estonia, wrote this and performed it at the annual singing festival.

the words are beautiful. After many years of suppression and dominance by the USSR and Russian imposed government. Now the country was free of the shackles.

This song represents the joy felt by Estonians at their own self-governance.

It still sends tingles down my spine. Thanks Tönis

Dawn

It’s time to hold our head up high again

and cast away our robes of slavery

so that everything created in a creative spirit

could be born again.

It’s dawn, a royal (magnificent) blaze

lihttps://lyricstranslate.com/en/koit-dawn.html

Karmendriyas, Nadis & Tendons

In yoga there is a network of energy conduits called the karmendriyas, or control organs. They are the compliments to the jnanendriyas, the sensory organs. 

While the karmendriyas are unknown in Western medicine they are the vehicles used in Shiatsu and the Martial Arts. Western medicine starts from exploration of the physical supposing this to be the origin of life, not the outcome.

However the Nadis are a more subtle expression of the system which expresses as the karmendriyas, and are the basis of it. They permeate the body and unfold Consciousness, like the silken sheaths which surround the body of a sheikh, sometimes shown as the flames which surround a buddha.

Among reports of the Nadis some claim there are 144000 of these channels which they divide into two. One group among them is called the Pranonadis, while the second is called the Jnanonadis. The PranoNadis reach out into the universe seeking contact with the outside and are called the vehicles of breath. This is why we catch our breath when we encounter something unfamiliar. The Jnanonadis are the return vehicles which carry that knowledge back to the Consciousness of the individual.

The karmendriyas are focused into five specific organs, though the channels run throughout the body. These are generally referred to as the throat or voice, the hands, the feet, the penis and the anus. It is via these five organs that we impose our will upon the world.

Consider the role of a demanding parent. The child ignores the first instruction, as a response the parent raises their voice. When this fails the parent may wag their finger at the child while repeating their demand. On further refusal the parent stamps the foot. These actions demonstrate the karmendriyas in action, at the same time there can be a tightening of the anus.

The Karmendriyas are the system behind the western psychological study ‘person watching’ which describes various postures adopted by people and what these postures reveal about the way the individual is feeling. Originally called ‘Manwatching’ this was the title of the book Desmond Morris published in 1978 that began that particular study in the West. The psychological states are described but not the cause of the postures adopted. It is likely Morris was unaware of their existence. Since the book was published before the era of ‘political correctness’ in speech the title was inoffensive, but later would prove so which caused the study to be renamed the neutered ‘person watching’.

However I mention tendons as I am having particular problems with them at the moment. This is another system which is ignored by Western medicine. The tendons, biology teaches us, are the means whereby muscles are attached to bones. This is again to take a very limited view of their role. They constitute a unique system of their own.

Currently I am moving through the final stages of releasing an injury caused in 2007 which displaced my hips. I was suffering from sciatica which left my left foot hanging. As I tried to open a particularly stiff door to the hotel room I was staying in in Bath I pushed hard down on my left foot which folded under me and caused a sprained ankle. It put my hips out of whack and has caused many years of suffering, not only in the left ankle but also the right knee, the hips and the spine.

These are becoming gradually re-aligned and in the process teaching me a great deal about the body. Many people suffer from misplaced hips and the modern medical response is to replace the hips. Completely ignoring the karmendriyas which play through the body, or indeed the tendons, modern medicine applauds itself for releasing the patients from the pain they were suffering while at the same time telling us ‘pain is the way the body has of telling us something is wrong’.

My advice to anyone reading this is do not try to relieve the pain but work, through the breath, to release the blockage which is causing it in the first place. This might involve re-awakening painful memories from past lives, animal as well as human. But the soul, which you are, carries all of this knowledge within itself. Take courage and face the trials that you have suffered from living in this world. Breathe your way through the trials and release those blocks which are hindering your wholeness and wellbeing.

Who’s Been Stealing My Biscuits?

I’d had some chopped dates hanging about for a week or more and decided it was now time to make them into biscuits. I used a blend of flours, spelt x 2, self-raising x 2, Maize x 1, some milled walnuts and chopped walnuts. I added some baking powder and mixed it all with melted butter and sugar and a little milk, if it looked too dry.

I was worried that the extra baking powder might make them a bit salty, but they turned out lovely. I had been eating them for a few days when I found one on the top of the compost bin outside the door. Hmm. Who could have put that there?

Sue called and brought me two sprouts, two cauliflowers and two cabbages to plant out, so I offered her one. I think she enjoyed it. There were half a dozen left in the tin.

I came back after lunch and found the tin was empty. What?!? Who’s doing this?

I thought of the magpies raising a family in the tree outside, or could it be the pheasants who have been venturing into the garden lately. The door had been open against the heat. I scratched my head, bemused, and decided I must put the lid firmly back on the tin in future.

This morning as I sat in meditation there was an enormous crash from the kitchen. I got up and walked quietly in, to find a squirrel escaping in panic through the window. Mystery solved. I closed the door and the window and resolved to tidy the kitchen so as not to tempt further invasions should the heat prove too much over the weekend.

Anything above about 24 degrees and I begin to suffer. I can’t lose heat from my body since I burned myself in 1974. No pigment layer on the back, just one big scar and the body just keeps gathering heat and can’t lose it. I have to wash myself down with a cold flannel, but when it comes to cooling my back, the cold water feels like knives cutting in to me.

Hohum. I don’t feel any animosity towards the squirrel. How could I? He is hungry. Just quiet amusement and a resolve to be tidier in the future. How likely is that?

Showing Affection In Families

I have been graced recently with visits by pheasants in the garden. It was one of the females who came first and hops up on to the feeding tray, despite her weight. More recently her partner has arrived and shown less fear lately than before. Today the hen even hopped into the garden and was walking about close to my feet.

I was so pleased to see them that later, as I sat enjoying breakfast tv – an 80s rerun – quite frankly I am bored with the world hanging on Trump’s thoughts as if they are the only crisis facing the world today. From my chair I reached out toward the male pheasant with a great rush of love to hug him about his body. Then realised that birds don’t like to be hugged, and their wings held down. Hence this short reflection on affection in the animal kingdom.

For those who purport to be scientists yet deny the ability of others to show affection I would suggest they look deeply into their own hearts and find if they are the ones suffering from such paucity.

All animals and birds, and indeed insects are capable of showing emotions, My dog cried when I had to have his friend, the cat put down because he was suffering so badly from rat poison a neighbour had distributed. No more Sidecar. Pepi let the tear roll down his cheek.

I stopped outside Fort William and admired some Scottish Highland cattle. One of them came over to see me. I had learned years before that cattle like to breathe a greeting to one another, blowing breath into the nostrils of the other and breathing in the fragrance of the companion, like dogs sniffing each others bums to study the health of the other. Perhaps I had called the Highlander to me, I don’t remember. But I was scratching his head and leaning towards him when he swished his head and struck me a resounding blow across the temple with his horns. Sadly I didn’t have horns to catch the blow and, almost stunned, realised he was saying hallo.

I have watched the courting of birds from my window with pigeons hopping politely up to one another while the other hops enticingly away. Splaying their tails and bobbing their heads the male makes suit to the female. I watched some oystercatchers a few days later and expected to see similar behaviour, to find their ritual behaviour was entirely different. The female ran away quite far, stopped and waited for the male to chase her. When he came up, she ran again. I don’t remember whether I saw the resolution of this encounter, or what it may have been.

We are apes and, like monkeys, have hands with which we manipulate things. Our instinct is to reach out and touch and hold something that fascinates us, or proves too dear to let go. We groom one another, stroking the hair, holding hands, reaching forwards with the face.

But besides hands we have forward facing eyes, like squirrels and other rodents. Horses don’t have this, nor do sheep. Horses nibble at one another’s fur, in their grooming ritual. Sheep butt heads or move pushing alongside one another.

Each of the great families have their own ways of showing affection according to the structure of their bodies. We are foolish to think we are the only creatures that have a range of emotions simply because we don’t know how to identify them.

Affection and gratitude in insects? Sure, I’ll give you a couple of examples. A bee fell into my beer while I was taking a lunch break at a workshop in Sweden. I had nothing to reach into the glass to rescue it with, so I resolved to extend my finger and let the poor creature climb out on that. I had to suppress my fear that the little thing might sting me in her shock. She climbed out, shook herself off and flew away. Only to return minutes later and sit on my shoulder for a few moments to thank me, before flying away again. I think the queen had told her to go back and thank me for her escape. Nature is full of courtesy and good manners.

I have a particular fondness for wasps. I speak of them as my allies. Have done for years. I am always surprised in Spring when the first solitary queens come out looking for homes. I greeted one one year and bade her welcome. I sit at the computer facing a window that is usually slightly open. She flew in one day and buzzed around a bit and then flew away. We exchanged a few silent greetings. Then she came back, perhaps it was the next day. She visited several times before she started to build her nest above the window. ‘Oh dear, no.’ I cried, ‘You can’t build here. I’m sorry. You must find somewhere else.’ I had to keep the window closed for several days after that so she would not try to carry on building. The gum is still hanging above the window.

I saved several of her children that year, and have done since, keeping a jar especially for the purpose, and a card to slide under it, being careful not to catch their feet. I release them from the kitchen door and ask them to bid their queen well, several generations away from the great grandmother I imagine. They often return to say thanks.

Life is so much more pleasant if we stay simple and recognise that others have lives as precious to them as ours is to us. Gratitude is such a more generous and welcoming way of life than open hostilities and uncalled for aggression. It’s time we lost the ‘red in tooth and claw’ impression the West has promoted since the days of Aesop and recognise that most of the time life is a song of harmony and joy passing from one to another.

The Media Generation

We are entering a time when the Media generation is beginning to make itself known. I am referring to those who have grown up with the tv set always on, slick American comedies with smart a*se comments thought up by a panel of writers. A generation when the quip and swift comeback is more important than the content or possible hurt caused by such negligent remarks.

We are seeing the products of media schools and acting houses taking foremost place as presenters on the stations. These are products of the stable. They have no experience beyond experience in front of a tv camera.

Like the career politicians that took the truth out of politics at the turn of the millennium, we now have the career celebrities whose aim is not to entertain you but to make a name for themselves presenting no matter what crap to ensure a whopping wage packet and another noseful of ‘Columbian marching powder’. Loud voices, inane laughter and a readiness to say whatever next comes to mind.

I don’t mean to say that all the new young lovelies are without value or virtue, but to complain that there are too many dynasties appearing, whether those are the children of celebrities or the products of the schools that make celebrities.

The same is true for writers. We hear phrases that come into fashion – ‘early doors’ is one of the latest I keep hearing. Such phrases last for a year or two and fix the date of production. Dating the production to the era of that language and approach.

Of course there need to be training establishments for performers and writers alike. But it does sadly herald a lack of integrity and substandard entertainment for the rest of us. Integrity takes years to learn and earn.

Occasional productions stand out above the herd and deserve the acclaim they get. For myself I find I am watching programmes made in the 70s and 80s because reality tv holds no interest for me. Nor endless game shows with exaggerated prize money that is ‘oh so often’ whipped away at the last minute. Interspersed with gambling adverts.

Ah well, maybe I’ll just have to learn how to read again. Even movies are growing dull substituting shock and action for plot. I should know. I watch enough….

Ideas

Ideas are to be entertained in the arena of your understanding.

As thoughts flash across our minds they are not to be taken as established facts – as if there was ever such a thing as an established fact. Rather they should be used to decorate our growth in awareness like Christmas decorations hanging on a tree.

There is very little which remains established as we grow. What once was understood to be a fundamental law is found only to be a fundamental flaw as we choose a new understanding armed with new facts and opinions. But we must not cling to these as if they are cherished truths, there is only one of these.

We are each a temporary visitor to this ephemeral world in the eternity of our Soul carving its way through Creation. The only death we experience is that of the body, and the body of opinions which guide our lives.

Why lead a life imprisoned by your thoughts when the inspiriations of the world flash swiftly across your brow? You can be free to be a real force within Creation. If you will only let yourself be.

Youtube Pope Report

I noticed an article on Youtube saying ‘Pope refuses Trump’s handshake’. Had to enquire further. A long report with several still photos but no live video. You can always tell more from live video showing people’s reaction, rather than staged shots with commentary. Was any of it true? I had no way of knowing.

The article unfolded with the intriguing statement – what happened next will etc. As reported Pope got up out of his chair, walked up to President, took him to a font and said ‘Let’s wash our hands together’.

This was reported as an act of humility and likened to Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. When Jesus met his disciples again, as an act of humility, he washed their feet, the article read. By washing their feet Jesus was able to establish the feet of the disciples on Holy ground, in the Heavens. What has this got to do with Humility?

Then, as I was showering today, the thought came to me. There is an instance of washing hands, in the story of Jesus. It is when Pontius Pilate washed his hands of the mock trial the Temple rigged against the man. Pilate absolved himself from any further involvement in the trial.

This was not an act of humility or contrition, but an absolution, dissociating the Pope from any further actions the President may undertake and giving him free rein to do as he chooses.

A similar event happened in the Middle Ages when the Pope gave absolution to the hired Knights from northern Europe in their Crusade against the Cathars. The promise was made, ‘if you take part in this Crusade against our Christian fellows, you will be absolved from any and all crimes past or future.’ They burned 5000 townspeople of Beziers in the Cathedral, with no question asked as to whether they were Catharist or Catholic. The reported comment was ‘God will know his own’.

I wonder what St Peter would say, most likely ‘you go your way and I’ll go mine’.