** This is the F A C T S Page ! ...enjoy it ! **
would YOU like to contribute ...Yes ?
email me
OK ...here we go !!
:
Your wildest dreams were never more
within reach..... All you need to do is have
confidence in the work you do and your
assessment of the world. And know that you
deserve what you are getting. It could just be that
good things will come your way and that you will
slam the door, simply because you don't believe
you are worthy, and therefore the delivery boy has
to be some kind of prankster. Put those thoughts
out of your head. If you don't, the gloomy
prophecies will come true.
===============================================================================
And how about this one ? :
The largest of the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea,
Rhodes is a showcase of architecture that includes the oldest inhabited
medieval city in Europe. Such durable construction is a response to the
continual invasions and foreign occupations that punctuate its history.
By 307 BC, fortifications around the city of Rhodes were strong
enough to resist a six-year onslaught by the Macedonian forces. Unable
to penetrate the city, the Macedonians eventually agreed upon a truce,
then quickly departed. The Rhodians used their abandoned weapons and
armaments to create the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of
the Ancient World. About 65 years later, an earthquake toppled the brass
deity. Its ruins remained in place for nine centuries before Arab
invaders gathered them to sell as scrap metal. Medieval lore, prone to
exaggeration, had the statue straddling the harbor, with ships passing
between its legs. More likely, it was slightly smaller than the Statue of
Liberty, which resembles the ancient writers' description of Colossus.
Beginning in 1309, Rhodes served as a haven for the Knights of
St. John, who had recently suffered a defeat in Jerusalem. This crusading
order quickly took over fortifications around the island and upgraded
them to medieval standards. The resulting turrets and ramparts secured
Rhodes against the rising Ottoman Empire for more than two centuries
before the city succumbed to a siege in 1522. Aside from a few minarets
and a quarter in the old city, however, relatively little remains from
the Ottoman Turks' 400-year occupation of Rhodes.
Greece has gone to great lengths to preserve not only the old
walled city of Rhodes, but also the remnants from other invaders,
including the Dorians, Romans, Byzantines, Genoese, Venetians, and fascist
Italians.
===================================================================
Moses Maimonides, the 12th-century Aristotelian philosopher and
physician, was the first Jewish authority to formulate a list of Judaism's
essential doctrines. He drafted 13 principles of faith, and declared
that, to be considered a Jew and to achieve salvation in the World to Come,
one had to accept them. Ignored at first, over time these articles of
faith came to represent the foundational work of Jewish doctrine.
,br.
Rabbinic Judaism, the standard form of Judaism established between
the 1st and 6th centuries, had no place for dogma. Being Jewish was
determined solely by birthright, the rabbis taught, and personal salvation
depended on acting in accordance with God's commandments. Maimonides,
however, lived in Egypt, which was dominated by a competing monotheistic
religion, Islam. Muslim scholars had begun compiling official lists of
Islamic dogma, and Maimonides thought it wise to create a parallel,
Jewish list.
,BR.
Maimonides wrote the 13 Principles between 1158 and 1168. He wanted
to provide exact concepts of God and faith that could be used by Jews to
avoid mistaken beliefs. Maimonides's key principles affirmed the unity
of God, the superiority of Mosaic prophecy, and the future arrival of
the Messiah. For three centuries following Maimonides's death, every
major Jewish philosopher devoted portions of their treatises to forming
dogma. A version of Maimonides's 13 Principles was eventually inserted
into the Jewish liturgy as a prayer. By the 15th century, dogma had
become an integral part and of the Jewish faith.
In recent centuries, the progressive Jewish denominations have
removed dogma from Judaism. The more conservative branches of Judaism,
however, have stressed their allegiance to Maimonides's 13 Principles. Jewish
dogma, the bold innovation of a philosopher sensitive to the needs of
his time, has become a timeless part of traditional Judaism.
=====================================================================
The 2nd-century philosopher Valentinus studied in Alexandria, Egypt and
became an influential theologian in the orthodox Christian community of
Rome. He aspired to be bishop of Rome, but was edged out by a rival who
had the advantage of having been nearly martyred. Disappointed,
Valentinus left the Church hierarchy around 140 AD. But not before he
had formulated an idea that was the precursor to the Christian concept
of the Divine Trinity.
Prior to his conversion to Christianity, Valentinus was a Gnostic
("Knower"), and claimed to have secret knowledge handed down from Jesus.
According to his preaching, God had sent forth 181 pairs of divine
beings, with each pair producing the next until finally there was
Demiurge ("Creator"), who created the world and the first man, Adam. But
Demiurge couldn't bring Adam to life without divine light from heaven,
which he stole and injected into Adam. These sparks of light were passed
on to the human race as the souls of an elite few.
God then sent the Christ, one of 365 heavenly beings, to Earth, where
he inhabited the body of Jesus. Valentinus preached that Jesus' goal was
to teach the elite who they really were. By simply knowing this (hence
"Gnostics"), the elite would be admitted to heaven. The man Jesus,
Christ's "channeler" who died on the cross, redeemed the rest of
humanity. Valentinus thus understood Christ and Jesus as two separate
but unified beings.
Followers of Valentinus organized in small groups among Catholic
congregations, and were very secretive. Valentinus died around 160 AD,
but his doctrine spread throughout the Roman Empire. When the first
Christian Emperor, Constantine, came to power in the 4th century,
Valentinians were persecuted as heretics. But Valentinus's idea of a
plurality of persons in the Godhead survived, and was codified centuries
later as the orthodox Catholic doctrine of the Trinity--the unity of
Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit in one, divine God.
========================================================================
In the second century BC, a spiritual movement called Tantrism began to
spread in India, significantly influencing Buddhism. Tantric Buddhism
held that "nirvana" could be experienced through a series of physical
acts engaging the senses. This contrasted sharply with traditional
Buddhism, which defines nirvana as the transcendent state of freedom
achieved by extinguishing physical desire.
The importance of the physical human body was central to Tantric
beliefs. Rejecting the traditional ascetic character of earlier
Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism promoted the full engagement of physical
experiences. But the ambiguous language of Tantric texts made it unclear
whether erotic terms were to be understood only symbolically, or
expressed concretely in physical acts.
One example is yab-yum, a sexual ritual symbolizing the union of
opposites. Though monks adhere to the rules of celibacy, images of
divine couples engaging in a sexual embrace are relatively common in the
memorial shrines ("stupas") and monasteries of Tantric Buddhists.
Traditionally, however, yab-yum is not to be adopted freely by
followers. "Only when one can blow a hole through a pile of barley flour
with one's mind-power," goes an old adage, "is one able to engage in
yab-yum." Moreover, only followers who have received proper instruction
in the images' esoteric significance are allowed to view them.
Some scholars view Tantric Buddhism as the most evolved and enlightened
expression of the original Buddha's teachings; others revile it as a
denigration of those same teachings. Critics cite Tantrism's practices
as barbaric expressions of popular spirituality, which oppose the
Buddha's original cautions against sensual activities. The Tantric
tradition is most widely known today as Tibetan Buddhism.
======================================================================
During the 6th century in India, a group of disenchanted
Buddhist monks sought a new approach to spiritual insight and
understanding. Eschewing the traditional "gradual enlightenment" path, which
required years of study and complex ritual practices, these monks emphasized
enlightenment as a direct, non-intellectual, and sudden experience.
This version of Buddhism, commonly known as Zen (meaning "meditation"),
later developed a unique interactive practice called "koans" as a
meditative discipline for novices. Koans serve a dual purpose: To communicate
some aspect of Zen experience, and to test the novice's competence in
Zen understanding.
A koan is a riddle or paradoxical statement designed to push
students into exhausting their logical intellect and egotistical wills, which,
it is believed, prepares the mind to contemplate a more fitting,
intuitive response. By the 12th century AD, koans had become a principal tool
used in Zen practice, where students spent hours, days, and even months
pondering a particular koan.
Koans deliberately challenge the logical tendencies of the mind to
reveal the Zen perspective of the non-intellectual, non-dualistic nature
of reality. One example of this "engaging without thinking" is the
well-known koan, "When both hands are clapped, a sound is made; listen to
the sound of one hand clapping." Other koans are in question-and-answer
form, such as: "What is Buddha? Three pounds of flax."
Working through a series of koans (there are an estimated 1,700 in
all), the student gradually breaks down the thought processes that are
presumed to give rise to personal and spiritual conflict. If done
properly, it's expected that within two to three years of beginning the koan
practice, the student will experience a non-conceptual moment of
insight ("satori"). It often takes another 10 to 15 years, however, to fully
integrate the experience of transcending egocentricity.
===========================================================================
The Shinto religion emerged in Japan sometime around the
third century AD. Shinto means "the way of the gods," and the gods
themselves are called kami. These gods, it is believed, are found everywhere
and in everything. Kami are considered responsible for all natural
occurrences, so to communicate and establish good relations, Shinto
developed two important rituals: one festive and one shamanic. These practices
also provided religious unity in an ancient Japanese society otherwise
divided by clans.
The festive ritual, called matsuri, is a regularly scheduled
ceremony held in a shrine, where the kami--usually the guardian deities of a
clan or village--are ritually welcomed into this special building.
Worshipers offer food and entertain the kami with music and dancing. The
kami is wined and dined, lauded and revered. At the end of the matsuri, a
priest sprinkles the attendees with holy water and blesses them on
behalf of the kami.
The shamanic ritual involves a miko, or female shaman, who allows
herself to be possessed by the kami, which then speaks through her.
This ritual helps Shinto followers determine the will of the kami. For
example, kami are held responsible for agricultural conditions, so a miko
may be used to find out why crops have failed, or conversely why a
harvest was especially bountiful. Usually someone other than the miko asks
questions of the kami.
The imperial family, on behalf of all Japan, occasionally
performed these rituals to honor or seek guidance from an important kami, such
as the sun goddess, Amaterasu Omikami. More often, however, individual
clans used these rituals to appease and communicate with their
particular ancestral kami. Because Shinto had no specific founder or sacred
scriptures or fixed dogma, these rituals preserved a set of common
religious beliefs in a constantly changing Japanese society, and as a result
Shinto is still present in Japanese culture today.
=========================================================================
In the early part of the 18th century, St. Petersburg's
opulent Summer Gardens were the site of celebrations on a scale
befitting the personality of their proprietor and chief designer, Czar Peter
the Great. Aristocrats and diplomats were invited to the tree- and
statue-lined gardens along the banks of the Neva for what were called
Assemblies. Guests were "offered" wine, beer, vodka, and corn brandy for a
long series of toasts, many of them to the czar's health. No one dared
refuse the drink, and those that could not walk from the gardens
slumbered on benches and beneath trees.
Built in 1704 as part of Peter the Great's vision of a city by
the sea, the Summer Gardens are modeled on the design of French formal
gardens and feature intricately patterned flowerbeds, ponds, elaborate
fountains, statuary, and sculpted shrubs and trees. Peter the Great,
himself a gifted craftsman, oversaw the procurement of the marble from
Roman and Venetian workshops and selected the artisans to receive the
commissions. Italian sculptures mark the intersection of all the Garden's
walks, and 60 white marble statues depicting scenes from Aesop's Fables
are spread throughout. Other statues depict figures from Greek and
Roman mythology, some historical figures, and themes that Peter believed
most reflected the prosperity and greatness of Russia, such as "Truth,"
"Glory," "Seafaring," and "Architecture."
Peter the Great spared no effort in obtaining every plant and
animal he wanted for his cherished Summer Garden. Spread among its 37
acres are lime and elm trees from Kiev, chestnut trees from Hamburg, and
oaks and various fruit trees from Moscow. The tops of many of these were
sculpted into cones, cubes, and spheres, and beneath some of them stood
pagoda-style cages filled with rare birds. A lover of animals, Peter
included an odd assortment in his Gardens--blue monkeys, porcupines, and
sables in cages; and in the basins beneath some of the Garden's 50
fountains, fish and seals swam among the stone gargoyles.
===========================================================================
Religion in Norway was pagan until about 1000 AD, when Christianity
finally took hold. Norwegian cosmology--native ideas about the origin and
structure of the universe, and the place of humans in it--reflected the
most basic elements of a harsh arctic environment, as well as the
brutal combat common among warring North Germanic tribes. The Prose Edda,
written around 1220 AD by Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson, described
this ancient creation belief.
In the earliest time, nothing existed except a yawning chasm. Icy
mists swirled to the north, fire and blinding light stretched to the south,
and a hard frost formed in the middle. The frost was poisonous because
an evil influence was already at work. This frost produced Ymir the
Frost Giant, a mighty and evil creature in the likeness of man.
A giant cow was also formed from the hard-frost region. Her milk fed
Ymir and his children. One day the cow licked a block of ice and
uncovered a giant, Buri. From Buri sprang a young Odin and his two brothers.
Odin became chief among the heroic gods called the Aesir, who mirrored
the Old Norse culture of a warrior aristocracy.
The three young gods and the frost giant could not live together in
peace, and when the gods were old enough, they killed Ymir and
dismembered him, forging the earth and sky from different parts of his body. Then
Odin and his brothers carved out the first man and woman from two
trees, and breathed life into them.
This creation myth was widely shared among different clans, and was
symbolic of a culture where the martial virtues of strength, courage, and
resourcefulness were admired. Conflict was regarded as natural, if not
inevitable, and was typically resolved by violence. Warriors usually
worshiped Odin, even though he was known for arbitrarily sponsoring and
then abandoning mortal heroes.
=========================================================================
Back to NERVE center