Earth beautiful in spite of police states (video)

The Earth shines in time lapse footage from space (ABC News)

• VIDEO: Russians successfully launch into space

The strangeness of space from the view of Earth

China's "Father Nature" and California's Yeti

Shen Nung, Viharnra Sien (วิหารเซียน), Chinese-Thai community, Thailand (Clay Irving)

The sign next to the statute reads: "Shen Nung - The First Farmer and Founder of Natural Mad" (Med/Ag, medicine and agriculture?)

Shen Nung (also Shennong) is also known as the Emperor of the Five Grains and the Father of Chinese (Herbal) Medicine. He was a ruler of China and cultural hero who is reputed to have lived 5,000 years ago. He taught the ancient Chinese people the practices of agriculture. Appropriately, his name means "the Divine Farmer." The demigod (human-deva hybrid) Shen Nung taught his people how to cultivate grain as food so they could avoid killing animals and living like ogres, who lust for blood. By choosing plants -- as if to say "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole Earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it; they will be yours for food" (Gen. 1:29) -- they were able to increase their population, sophistication, and domesticated civilization. China was once one of the great realms on par with ancient Egypt, Sumer, and the Indus Valley civilizations. All of them were rooted in the teaching and help of devas according to their history and lore.

This proves there is no "Bigfoot," but it does not explain the ancient lore from India (yaksha) to China (yeren) to Indonesia (orang pendek) to Siberia (Mountain Man) to Bhutan (yeti)

Our Yosemite-Yeti Expedition
Pat Macpherson (Wisdom Quarterly)
Team WQ spent an extended Father's Day weekend on safari in the northern highlands of Yosemite National Park and the desolate desert lowlands (where they are also sometimes spotted) of Mono Lake.

They aren't far apart as the crow flies, but there is a steep altitude drop off from one to the other. The Tenaya Lake region is an alpine granite wonderland.

We were headed for Cloud's Rest. And while it seemed clear that Earthbound-devas (bhumi-devas or woodland fairies) were all about, we could locate no trace of Sasquatch, the abominable California yeti (yakshi) of indigenous Californian and Buddhist lore.

The most famous yeti or yakkha in Buddhism is Alavaka (as recorded in the "Inspired Utterances," Ud. VI, 1). His description makes it clear that while he might have been a cross bred cannibal, he was powerful, intelligent, and possessed supernormal abilities.

Our "sightings" of flora and fauna were just black bears, massive redwood trees, and a certain father's prank.

We did see how the Native Americans lived, particularly the local Paiute, who now have their own museum exhibit at Mono Lake and a strange relationship with brine-shrimp-flies.

• Bigfoot appeared after experiments to cross ape, human
• The most famous Buddhist Bigfoot: Yakkha Alavaka
• VIDEO: Police capture Bigfoot on dash cam (Discovery)
• Indonesian yeti (orang pendek) spotted in the jungle
• Bigfoot saved from drowning in icy Siberian river
• Cryptozoologists embark on hunt for Indonesian yeti
• Sasquatch Music Festival 2011
  

Hollow Earth Expedition 2012 (video)

(Part 1 of 8) Go to PART 2

2012 North Pole Expedition
Brooks Agnew Ph.D. discussed possible cataclysms that may occur around 2012. And he offered an update on his planned North Pole Inner Earth Expedition.

The current timetable is to embark on the expedition in August 2009, traveling to the Arctic region aboard a nuclear powered icebreaker. A helicopter and ship stored in the icebreaker will be used to advance scout for the opening reported in the gradual curvature of the crust, he detailed.

Agnew said ancient Mesoamericans described visits from the "Shining Ones" (the literal translation of Buddhist devas) -- possible ETs, who may have imparted knowledge of astronomy, architecture, and agricultural practices.

One of the Mayans' complex calendrical systems ends in 2012, coinciding with the Earth aligning with a black hole in the center of the galaxy, Brooks outlined. This positioning will cause planets to heat up in the solar system, potentially wreaking havoc with our climate, he said.

A pole shift could take place within a short time period -- three to five days. And the reversal of northern and southern hemispheric patterns could set up a "global superstorm," with 300 mph winds lasting up to a month, Agnew warned. More at Disclose.TV

• Arkofmillionsofyears.com
• Coast to Coast AM interview with Dr. Agnew
• The Ark of Millions of Years Volume Two: 2012 and the Harvest of the End Times
• The Ark of Millions of Years: Volume Three
  

Tree Fairies ("devas") in Buddhism

Simone Gaulier, Groningen Univ., Buddhism in Afghanistan and Central Asia (Vol. 2)

DRYADS (Tree Devas)

The theme of the tree spirit (dryad) inherited from nature genii found in the Vedas and Vedic Brahmanism in ancient India was inherited by early Buddhism. Such a theme had already been adopted to represent Maya, Siddhartha's mother, during the birth of the Bodhisat (buddha-to-be).

She became a Sal tree spirit (Salabhanjika), as Wisdom Quarterly has demonstrated. These themes from around the area the Shakyans [the Buddha's family clan] ruled, in modern Pakistan and Afghanistan in the ancient Northwest Indian frontier, grew in Gandharan art.

The devas became incorporated in various depictions of Buddhist legends. In Afghanistan (e.g., Shotorak), these supple figures surround bas relief images of Maitreya (the future Buddha or "Messiah") and Siddhartha (the historical Buddha) enthroned.

They were discreetly presented in one of the final nirvana scenes on the same site, appearing down to the waist in the Sal (Sala) trees. The same dryad (female tree spirit or bhummi devi) can be found by the end of the 6th century in Kyzyl as the Buddha is passing into nirvana. Her bust emerges from a flowering Sal tree, casting a shower of petals on the body of the Buddha.

Gandharvas and Apsaras

The Gandharvas are music-playing genii (devas) ruled by Dhrtarastra, the Great King of the Eastern Sky. The flying Apsaras are celestial figures forming one of the eight categories of supernatural beings in Buddhist cosmology developed in its iconography. The most famous is perhaps Pancaskikha, the harp playing companion and charioteer for Sakra (Indra).

Variations of these graceful figures filled the transcendent scenes of the Buddhist legends with increasing frequency. But they already seem to have served in the early Buddhist sects to express the superhuman destiny of the Buddha. In Bamiyan [former Afghan site of the largest Buddha statues in the world], for example, they contributed to an atmosphere of celestial glory.

Richly adorned and wearing sophisticated princely garments, the Gandharvas have generally been given masculine features, while the Apsaras assumed a feminine appearance despite the indeterminate sex of such supernatural creatures.

"Angelic" figures (in Miran), garland bearers (Yotkan), crown bearers (Fondukistan and Kyzyl), the bearers of baskets filled with flowers (Kumtura), revolving in the air (Kyzyl), or appearing on the balcony of celestial palaces (Shotorak and Kyzyl), this subtle and elegant throng was to provide later Mahayana Buddhism with the heavenly orchestras of its Pure Lands. [And these elements were later incorporated into the religions of the Near East, most notably Christianity.]

Lokapalas ("Four Great Kings")

The "guardians of the four directions" (Lokapalas) appear in the art of Gandhara (ancient northwest India, now Pakistan and Afghanistan) in the course of one of the episodes in the life of the Buddha -- "the offering of the four bowls." The Buddha has his first meal after enlightenment.

Four neutral devas (literally, "shining ones," fairies, elemental, nature spirits) later took on a militant character in Central Asia, around Khotan. Aurel Stein discovered statues of them at the gate of a burial mound reliquary (stupa) in Rawak. They are the "four great kings" of the sky -- Vaisarvana of the North tramples a demon. A prince in armor with pointed ears heralds the celestial kings as depicted in Asian caves (Tun-huang, Turfan, and Bezeklik, etc.)

They seem to be advanced space aliens in helmets, military dress, protected by breast-plates -- Dhrtarastra (East), Virudhaka (south), and Viupaksa (West) bearing swords and spears.

On Earth there are not only fairies but ogres (yakshas) -- "Pan" like nature men, wolf men, abominable snowmen, men of the mountain, intelligent bipedal hominids who at best were only half human. Like the reptilians (nagas, dragons, serpents, vipers, tyrant rulers) they were derived from Vedic mythology. The tree spirits were sometimes celestial, sometimes earthbound nature beings -- bhummi devas -- in early Buddhism.

Trees are life-sustaining along the Himalayan foothills from Afghanistan to India (fullstopindia.com).

The World's "Second Oldest Profession"
The Getty and many other top American museums are part of a long history of illicit art trade. Looted art has been trafficked for as long as art has been in existence, and Frammolino says this is due to the overpowering effects of antiquity. Aprodite is the stone goddess (pictured above), from Felch and Frammolino's new book: Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum [the Getty].

From Afghanistan with Love (rawa.org)
Afghanistan has world's oldest oil paintings

Majority in U.S. say leave Afghanistan
German troops intensify attacks on Afghan civilians

Blasts kill 20 in Afghan flashpoints
Afghanistan to be handed over to gangsters
“Iran caught 10 times trying to send arms to terrorists”
Deadly attack on Afghan wedding party
In Kabul, air pollution a bigger killer than war
Afghanistan tackles sex abuse of kids within police
15-year-old Afghan girl gang-raped in Takhar
MPs’ brother, friends held with drugs
Two girls killed, one survives strangulation
US spends two billion a week in Afghanistan
Afghan taxes squeezing poorest
AFGHANISTAN: Clashes displace 12,000 in Faryab

Most Australians sick of the Afghanistan cost, saying we are fighting a losing battle

Wedded to the warlords: NATO’s unholy Afghan alliance
Report: Billions in U.S. aid wasted in Iraq, Afghanistan
With friends like these, who needs the Taliban?
Afghanistan: A Heritage in Ruins
Afghan judge whips man for drinking alcohol
IDP situation concerning, UNHCR
Afghanistan remains dangerous for children: UN
Teenage girl raped in Sar-i-Pul
Nato airstrike kills 14 women and children in Afghanistan
Kabul gold rush: western billions bear fruit
Girls’ schools closed in Logar after Taliban threats
112 killed in Nuristan airstrike: governor
Afghanistan emerges as worst violence-hit state
Foreign troops kill civilians in Maidan Wardak
Militants hack off Afghan’s nose, ears
Taliban kill head of Afghan girls’ school
Aid workers fight secret war against HIV on Kabul’s backstreets
Police collecting opium tax in Uruzgan
Iran executes Afghans in violation of agreement
Why US can’t combat Afghan corruption

Why We Love Trees (Tree Hugger's Ball)

We love trees. And what better way to show it than to save them, meditate under them, and hug them? The Buddha was born under a Sal tree in Lumbini Garden.

During his quest, he sought shelter under a great Sal tree. There he realized that a course of austerities was no way to enlightenment; then, mistaken for a tree spirit (dryad or bhummi-deva), he was fed good food that fortified him for the more difficult effort of balancing striving-and-receiving.

He then sat under a Bodhi tree and reached enlightenment. He taught under trees, taught others to sit under trees, and frequently retreated to the forest alone to enjoy the silence and bliss of meditation under trees.

Such was his experience under the canopy that when it came time to pass into final nirvana, he laid out between twin Sal trees. He joyfully said goodbye, gave his last words of advice -- "All conditioned-phenomena are hurtling towards destruction; work out your liberation with diligence" (Parinirvana Sutra) -- then entered the purifying absorptions (jhanas) before going beyond:

"Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, so it is!" (the Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra mantra)

(OC Weekly: Tree Hugger's Ball)

It’s that time of year again -- the annual Tree Hugger’s Ball takes over Silverado, and OC’s eco-maniacs get their day in the Sun. The afternoon begins with the Go Green Expo, an environmental fair dedicated to teaching everyone how to do just that via food, art, auctions, shopping, costumed dancers, and information about alternative energy and fuel-efficient vehicles. Eco-hero Daryl Hannah is the night’s guest speaker; she’ll be followed by bands playing folk, Appalachian music and “environmental blues” (gas prices, oil wars?) and dancing until midnight. Guests are encouraged to wear their own earthy costumes. It is a ball after all.

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.

• SLIDESHOW: Korean Buddhist temple
• Dr. Death (Kevorkian): Crank or Pioneer?

Sanshin mountain-spirit, Mt. Seorak-san,

Prof. David Mason (san-shin.net)

Absorption of San-Shin by Korean Buddhism

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

• Where did the Korean people come from?

Bolivia grants Nature rights (video)

Bolivia's new Mother Nature Law

ZMEscience.com
Environmentalism is finally being taken seriously. Steps are moving in the right direction to protect nature and reverse climate chaos. One intriguing idea, spearheaded by Bolivia, is to give legal rights to natural systems: Bolivia’s "Law of Mother Nature" is set to pass, which will redefine the mineral riches as “blessings.” It is expected to lead to radical new conservation of these resources.

“It has to happen. We have to be able to give legal protection and consideration to the rest of the natural world,” said Patricia Siemen, executive director of the Center for Earth Jurisprudence. “It’s in the human best interest, as well as the larger natural world’s.”

The first article of the Mother Nature Law (translated from Spanish) states that every human activity has to “achieve dynamic balance with the cycles and processes inherent in Mother Earth,” with Mother Earth defined as “a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings that sustains, contains, and reproduces all beings.” A Nature ministry will be formed and issues will be addressed thoroughly. More

Why do we love trees?

Zocalo, a Getty Center talk moderated by Bob Sipchen, editor-in-chief, Sierra Magazine Magnificent trees in Kentucky (travelBBB.com)

Why Buddhism LOVES Trees -- Explained

It’s hard to overstate the significance of trees. They provide food, fuel, shelter, shade, beauty, cleaner air, and the raw material for charcoal, paper, and homes. Early manuscripts were printed on birch and beech; the ships that propelled explorers and armies were built from elms and oaks. But beyond their practical use, tress stimulate the spirit and imagination, carrying deep symbolic meaning. Seated in their shade, the Buddha found enlightenment, and Newton found gravity. Laurels meant victory for the Ancient Greeks and Romans; cedars signify revolution and independence for Lebanon; and palms and jacarandas convey the promise of Los Angeles. In conjunction with the Getty exhibition "In Focus: The Tree," Zócalo invites artist Jennifer Steinkamp, environmental studies professor Nalini Nadkarni, and farmer David Mas Masumoto to discuss the beauty and meaning of trees, and why we love them. More

How the talk went: The three participants on a panel called "Why Do We Love Trees" might be expected to have fairly simplistic relationships with the plants in question. READ MORE

Warming killing off trees in Western states (Los Angeles Times)

Tree Dictionary
Million Trees LA
Tree People

Has Age of Environmentalism Brought Us Closer to Nature?
Environmental issues are a bigger part of the collective consciousness than ever before. Recycling has become the norm, water conservation is a major issue in the American West, and environmental... READ MORE
Why Don't Californians Talk About Politics?

Despite widespread public anger at California's broken governing system, its citizens remain disengaged -- and have been unable to fix the system. The voter registration rate is among the lowest... READ MORE

The Devas' Deathbed Advice to Citta (sutra)

Maurice O'Connell Walshe, translator, Gilanadassanam Sutra (SN 41.10)

Fairies (devas, "shining ones," both seen and unseen, exist.

At that time Citta the householder was a sick man, suffering from a serious illness. Then a number of devas [elemental spirits, fairies, woodland sprites] who dwell in gardens, forests, and trees, the devas of healing herbs and of great trees in the forest, gathered together and said to Citta the householder [Note 1]:

"Make a resolve, householder: 'In some future time may I be a king, a world-ruler!'" [2]

To this Citta replied... "That is something impermanent, something to be rejected and passed over."

Now Citta's friends, colleagues, and blood-relatives heard him say this, and they said to him: "Sir! [3] Set up mindfulness. Don't ramble!"

"What have I said that makes you tell me to set up mindfulness and not to ramble?"

"Why, sir, you just said: 'That is something impermanent, something to be rejected and passed over.'"

"Yes, but I said that to the devas who dwell in gardens... who bade me make a resolve that in some future time I might be a king, a world-ruler."

"Sir, what purpose did those devas have in mind in urging you to make such a resolve?"

"This is what those devas thought: 'This householder Citta is a virtuous man, of noble disposition. If he makes a resolve that in some future time he may be a king, a world-ruler, this will be profitable to that virtuous man, having made such a resolve with a pure heart, and will bring the just man a just and great reward...' So then I replied, 'That is something impermanent, something to be rejected and passed over.'"

[Citta then instructs them to practice generosity and have perfectly verifiable-faith in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha and passes away as follows:] "Thus should you train yourselves: We will be endowed with verifiable confidence in the Buddha:

• Indeed, the Blessed One is worthy and fully awakened, perfect knowledge and conduct, well-gone and welcome, an expert with regard to the world, the unexcelled trainer of those fit to be tamed, the teacher of devas and human beings, awakened, blessed.
• We will be endowed with verifiable confidence in the Dharma: This Path/Practice is well-expounded by the Blessed One, verifiable here and now, timeless, inviting verification, pertinent, to be realized by the wise for themselves.
• We will be possessed of verified confidence in the Sangha: The Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples who have practiced well... who have practiced rightly... who have practiced methodically... who have practiced masterfully -- in other words, the four pairs, the eight types of noble individuals -- the community of the Blessed One's instructed disciples: worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of respect, an incomparable field of merit for the world.
• Whatever there may be in our family that can be given away, all that will be shared unstintingly with these virtuous ones who are of admirable character. Thus should you train yourselves."

NOTES
1. A whole Samyutta (SN 41) is devoted to this householder (see also Vol. II, No. 23), who is held up as a model layperson in SN 17.23 (not translated here). His name is not the same as citta "mind," but means "bright, shining" [which is interesting because the mind is said to be luminous in its original, undefiled nature].
2. Cakkavatti or Chakravartin (literally, "a wheel-turning monarch," the Indian term for a universal ruler. This was what Siddhartha Gautama could have become if he had not become a buddha. The devas are aware of Citta's great virtues (though they possibly exaggerate in thinking he could become a world-ruler), but are not wise enough to think of his spiritual progress (cf. SN 1.20, n. 4).
3. Ayyaputta = Ariyaputta, literally "son of the Ariyans," not a racial epithet but rather the follower (instructed disciple) of the Noble Ones (cf. SN 22.7, n. 1).

Meeting the Devas

Wisdom Quarterly (TRAVEL JOURNAL)

Two of us, two WoQies, went deep into forbidden Asia in search of an enlightened Buddhist teacher. Two Americans wandering in Orwellian dystopia searching for satori.

I was looking for the answer, the key, that would unlock enlightenment (as if I only needed that one ineffable "answer"); she was following her bliss, trusting that I was onto something, not wanting to be left behind in spiritual vacuum of Southern California. We were in Burma under the current regime, slowly on our way to India to sit where the Buddha sat.

It was a cheap hotel, a converted tenement flat, in the city center -- our old copy of Lonely Planet recommended it as a cheap stay for shoestring backpackers. Across the street sits a golden stupa complex that seems to mark the exact center of Rangoon, at that time the capital (now it's the secret city of Naypyidaw), not far from a five-star hotel full of older European adventure travelers dashing through this blacklisted country. They'd wear their passport stamps like badges so their dinner party guests might gasp, "You took a truncheon to the head to take some photos?"

There were roaches, rats, and worst of all mosquitoes. Only the fans kept them at bay. But the periodic brown outs meant those fans went off more than half the time. The Burmese are lovely and kind, walking like shadows compared to their neighbors that over-the-top kindness of northern Thailand.

She became sick, bed ridden. With mosquitoes attacking, all we could do was light 20 incense sticks at at time or retreat to the office, where somehow an air conditioner, TV, and one angry clerk counted stacks of kyat (Burmese dollars). We were preparing to make our way to Mandalay then onto our goal in the south, what I called the "Malabar Front" from Nineteen Eighty-Four. The British author George Orwell lived here, and he was in fact describing the British/Burmese government when he coined the term "Big Brother."

There is no computer access, except in secret, very irregularly, constantly skirting censors and government blocks. We were lucky to get MSN or Hotmail to work.

Her mystery illness worsened: she wouldn't drink but sweat constantly, she was sleepy all the time, but never rested, she was not hungry, but whether she ate or not, she would never go to the restroom. What to do? She would surely die, and of course I would be to blame. I brought her, but I told her not to come, to stay back in Thailand until I returned from the this Quest, and we moved on to India.

There are no hospitals in Burma (a police state now called Myanmar) and no doctors, just little pharmacies with long lines. She's very intuitive. So I asked her what she wanted to do. She was only sure that she wanted to stay when I was recommending the inevitable -- by evacuated like a Vietnam soldier all the way back to California to recover in a nice clean PPO corporation-run hospital. It would mean failure, going to the embassy and explaining what we were doing here, paying $50,000 for the arrangements, and somehow explaining to everyone back home what had happened.

As I worried and found no easy answer weighing everything, asking her what was wrong with her, it happened. In a darkened room with no windows, with incense wafting thickly in the air, with more water bottles being chugged and a pile of plastic building up in the corner of the room, bhumma devas (Earth or elemental fairies) came.

She said they looked beautiful. I swallowed hard, "So you're dying and they're welcoming you to the other side?" She ignored the implication and smiled broadly talking to them. She was no more delirious than she had been in the past three days, which meant not at all. She was better than normal. Serene, accepting, as if she was eager to go. "This is how it ends? At 21, in a foreign land? You want your body shipped back to the States because I might as well stay in Asia.

She said they were saying it was all going to be okay. She said they said to trust me because I was good or at least good for her. Neither of those seemed the case, and I'm sure the embassy would argue that I was the worst travel partner ever for coming to one of the most dangerous countries in the world with a tall blond in tow.

And I asked, because I'm a stupid Westerner and this is how we think after college: "You say you see them, so what do they look like?" Her mouth contorted,"Hmmm," stymied, then explained that she didn't "see" them, as such. Her eyes were open and she was lucid and speaking perfectly clearly: She sensed them, knew them to be there, could feel them, could know them, could hear them... saw them in that sense. That is, the mind's eye must fill in what is perfectly clear to the other senses. I tried to ask about them, but my intellectualizing was harming matters. They were there, they were communicating, they were bringing good news. And I had bad news to break.

It had come to me, an inspiration. If I could get to a Black Market Internet connection, put in the symptoms, which was no easy doing because the system was down throughout the city. When I found a way, there it was -- deadly cholera. The cure? Ciprofloxin (ah, Cipro, what didn't it cure before overuse made germs resistant?) The answer? It turns out those "pharmacies" are their hospitals with no red tape. I bought cheap Indian (Roxy brand) Cipro, which as inexpensive as it was came with a free session with a doctor to discuss it. I told him about her symptoms, and how I thought it was cholera, he agreed, and sent me running with instructions before it was too late. I had been doing things correctly. There was nowhere to bring her to and no other way to go other than to leave the country, an option we had that they didn't.

I explained it to her, and asked her if she wanted to try the "medicine" (we don't believe in Western chemicals), but antibiotics are a little different. Even our herbs serve the same function some times. She smiled and said she trusted me. I asked why, and said it was because the devas said so and were sure. (I thought both her and those devas a little loopy for trusting me because, again, it seemed all my fault for getting her into this mess of an adventure).

She recovered fully. And later on a plane, I asked if she remembered the devas. She looked at me strangely as if I had asked the most foolish question ever, and after a long pause holding me in a fixed gaze, she answered: "Of course." Me, too. I don't know why I ever doubted that devas are real and right here particularly in natural settings. It's perfectly clear they are. It was then.

REBIRTH - What might not be clear is that the reason they came to receive, comfort, and advise her then was that not long ago, she had been one of them. She could recognize it in other people. It's just like our own Western mythology tells children, and I've asked many children for confirmation. They see them, they know what the traits are and can see that in some people, but they soon are taught to forget and deny what they know. The rest are branded "witches and weirdoes" so they stay quiet. But it's well known so long as we don't say it to anyone bent on not believing.