Showing posts with label cave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cave. Show all posts

Friday, August 26, 2011

Sex with Neanderthals (animation)

Wisdom Quarterly (ARCHEOLOGY, COSMOLOGY)



VIDEO: "Family Guy" explores cave-couple sex and fighting



Sex with cavemen helped modern humans

"The cross-breeding wasn't just a random event that happened, it gave something useful to the gene pool of the modern human," said Stanford University's Peter Parham, senior author of the study in the journal Science.

Equipped with knowledge of the genome of the Neanderthals and the Denisovans, of whom a tooth and a finger bone were discovered in a Russian cave last year, researchers scoured the data for hints of what genes crossed over.

Scientists already knew that about four percent of Neanderthal DNA and up to six percent of Denisovan DNA are present in some modern humans. This study took a close look at a group called HLA class I genes which help the immune system adapt to fight off new pathogens that could cause various infections, viruses and diseases.

Researchers traced the origin of one type, HLA-B*73, to the Denisovans, who likely mated with humans arriving in West Asia on their way out of Africa. More



"Humans" According to Buddhist Cosmology

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

There are 31 Planes of Existence. That means living beings can take rebirth in various forms on various planes, even formlessly. Most realms, however, are "fine material" planes. But sadly most beings fall into unfortunate worlds. This world, this Earth, is not the full extent of the "human realm," according to Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal experts.



There are three spheres (sensual, fine material, and immaterial) in this world system. But there are countless world systems in all directions. Humans within this world system are not limited to Earth. We have been to the stars, and many reside there. Everywhere things evolve, devolve, and repeat. The history of life on this Earth is only known to a few.



Most of us are fed anthropological nonsense, sincere nonsense, from good professors. But entire fields of knowledge ignore the inconvenient truths their science stumbles on. Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race by Michael A. Cremo is one brave effort to reveal the facts that do not fit the story. Cremo reveals a history so vast and incomprehensible that most shrink back to the safety of a story of human history that does not even make sense.



But Cremo's findings do accord with the wisdom of the East. Indian mythology (indeed mythologies from around the world), cosmology, and spiritual history (Vedas) tell an altogether different story covering billions of years, cosmic cycles, past empires, space flight, extraterrestrial visitations, other worlds, life on other planets in this very solar system, and much more. The Buddha adopted much of this cosmology. And apparently the Egyptians and Sumerians were aware of it.



Wisdom Quarterly has gone so far as to postulate that Buddhist cosmography and cosmology, which is centered around the mythical Mt. Sumeru, may be what Sumerian civilization was all about. There have been many visitations, many iterations of the "human" species, punctuated equilibrium (biological evolution in bursts), and a great deal of genetic manipulations by nagas (reptilians), devas (beautiful light being ETs), asuras (titans), kumbandhas (trolls), and even yakkhas (possibly neanderthals and other bipedal hominids, who still roam the world's forests in secret).



That Homo sapiens (modern humans) mated -- or were combined with since different species cannot produce viable offspring by simple mating -- should surprise no one. Homo floresiensis were "hobbits." And yet they were human. "Human" is a very labile term.





Stewie's Big Bang Theory (Family Guy)

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Rare look into Tibet's Buddhist grottoes

"The frescoes have a twist of Kashmir flavor. They are a valuable resource for archeologists trying to figure out when and where Buddhism was introduced to China." Shangri la is full of Buddhist caves and treasures (TibetanAltar)

China Exclusive: A rare look into Tibet's largest Buddhist grottoes
(PeoplesDaily) Hidden among sandstone hills in remote western Tibet, a stretch of honeycomb-shaped caverns is way beyond the reach of most travelers.

Known as the Donggar Piyang grottoes, the 1,000-year-old caverns in the Tibet Autonomous Region's Ngari Prefecture hold one of the world's greatest collections of Tibetan Buddhist murals.

The grottoes, divided into two clusters of 200 and 1,000 caves, respectively, hold remains of ancient monasteries, fortresses, and forests dating back as far as the 10th century.

Experts expect that the well-preserved grottoes will shed some light on the Guge Kingdom, an ancient kingdom that is estimated to have existed between the 9th and 17th centuries in what is known today as Zanda County.

The exotic frescoes of the Donggar Piyang grottoes were first discovered in 1992, when an archaeological expedition team set foot in this remote corner of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau... More

Donggar Frescos and Rutog Rock Paintings (TibetTravel.org)
Shangri la (Digital Tibetan Buddhist Altar)
Touring Tibet and China's minority cultures
China's lunar orbiter off to new space horizon
What's driving China's pursuit of financial success
China dying of drought and flooding
China's Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves

Friday, June 3, 2011

Korean Seon Legend: Wonhyo's realization

Korean Buddhist legend, Robert Koehler (rjkoehler.com, geumsan-sa.org)
In a graveyard realizing he had drank from a skull cup, Wonhyo had an epiphany (satori).

The following tale is from the life of Ven. Wonhyo, the renowned monk from the Silla peninsula. He twice tried to visit Tang, China. At the age of 33 with his Dharma friend, Ven. Uisang, he tried to cross the Amnokgang river on a trip that failed. On a second attempt, he left with Usiang for Dangjugye, in the territory of Baekje, to reach Tang by sea.

When they arrived at the harbor, it was already dark and stormy. They stayed in a cave hewn out of the earth. When they awoke he realized it was not a cave but an old graveyard.

The heavy rain had not stopped, so they had to stay another night. On the second night he could not sleep. He knew it was a graveyard. And this led him to a sudden realization:

“All phenomena arise when the mind arises. And when the mind is absent, the cave and the graveyard were not two; there was no sense of duality.”


This sudden realization gave rise to a profound understanding of the world. Wonhyo said, “The three worlds are only mind, and all phenomena arise from the mind, from consciousness. If the truth is present in the mind, how could it be found outside of the mind! I won’t go to Tang.”

Then he once again returned to Silla.

There is a dramatic story which was later added to these events. It is said that Wonhyo drank water when he awoke in the night desperately thirsty. In the darkness, he found a container with water in it and gratefully drank it.

The next morning he found that the water he drank was filthy rainwater that had collected in the skull. This experience became the basis of his realization that “there is nothing clean and nothing dirty; all things are made by mind.”

The fact that all phenomena arise from the mind is a truth he clearly understood. He knew that the mind exists in all human beings. So he decided not to go to Tang China but to return home.
Sanshin mountain-spirit, Mt. Seorak-san,
Prof. David Mason (san-shin.net)

San-shin.org
There were at least three elements similar to Korea's [indigenous] San-shin traditions already present in the Mahayana Buddhism that took root in Korea. This made it easy for the imported religion to absorb native spirits: protection by devas, meditation-practice in caves, and carving stone Buddhas.

Protection by Devas
In the Hwa-eom-gyeong 18 "Mountain Gods" are said to serve as guardians of the Dharma [Buddhist teachings]. They are considered devas, demigods, or nature/animal spirits ranking lower than the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Na-han but higher than any human being.

Each San-shin of each mountain that hosts a Buddhist temple is said to protect the temple buildings themselves and the local Sangha [community of monks]. Protection of the nation in general, always a part of Korea's San-shin traditions, became a major theme of Korean Buddhism throughout history.

Still today, monks and common people both pray to San-shin for spiritual protection from ill-fortune.

Meditation-practice in caves
In the Seon sect which became very important in Korea from the ninth century onwards, it was standard from the beginning for monks (in both China and Korea) to seek enlightenment without distractions by extended meditation practice conducted in mountain caves.

Both beneficent and harmful spirits were encountered there as part of the monk's development; there are several old stories about Korean monks [such as Wonhyo and Usiang] and other heroic seekers meeting and being helped or advised by San-shin while meditating or deeply praying in caves. There are many Tantric Buddhist texts which... More

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Sea burial fuels "conspiracy" theories


The U.S. faces a quandary trying to prove Bin Laden's death without inflaming the world so it may or may not release alleged photos of his irretrievable body. Skeptics include the mother of a 9/11 victim.

Sea burial fuels conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theorists on both the left and right were quick to insist that Bin Laden was either still alive or had been dead for years, pouncing on the government's decision to slide the body of the world's most wanted man off a board into the Arabian Sea.

As blogs hummed with allegations that the Obama administration had faked the middle-of-the-night raid, the Bin Laden "death hoax" threatened to replace questions about President Obama's citizenship as the latest Internet rumor to go viral.
"I am sorry, but if you believe the newest death of OBL, you're stupid," antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan posted on her Facebook page. "Just think to yourself -- they paraded Saddam's dead sons around to prove they were dead -- why do you suppose they hastily buried this version of OBL at sea?"

Infowars.com, the website of Libertarian radio host Alex Jones, was crammed with stories charging that the U.S. government had concocted the killing to justify a security crackdown. The Tea Party Nation website brimmed with indignant posts questioning the timing of Obama's announcement.

"Don't you think OBAMA needs something to assure his reelection," one commenter wrote.

Even a relative of one of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks voiced skepticism, citing the burial at sea.

"Is it true or false? I don't know," said Stella Olender of Chicago, whose daughter Christine died at the World Trade Center. "To me that seems strange, that they disposed of it and no one [besides] whoever was right there knows what happened." More