How to save the word…with non-action. July 30, 2008

Many people dream of saving the world. Combatting terrorism, global warming, mafia, corruption, etc… And there is another possibility of doing it – to be exact, NOT to do a certain thing. Not to commit the fatal mistake. There are some stories from the time of the Cold War when the world has been saved through the non-action of military people.

This is an amazing true story about the man, who held the future of the world in his hands for 10 min. In 1983. 

A Russian pensioner in a village north of Moscow claims he saved the world. Most people would walk straight on if accosted in the street with that tale. But the truth is that Stanislav Petrov, interviewed on Monday for a Radio 4 programme and about whom a film is being made, did exactly that.

 image by James Gordon

On September 26 1983, Petrov, a 44-year-old lieutenant colonel, was monitoring the Soviet Union’s early warning satellites from a command bunker. Three weeks earlier a Korean jetliner, with 269 passengers on board, had been shot down over Soviet airspace. The Americans were about to deploy the Pershing II missile that could hit Moscow from West Germany in 12 minutes. Ronald Reagan had called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and launched his “star wars” programme. The Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, critically ill with renal failure, thought Reagan already had a missile defence system and was convinced that the US was about to shoot first.

Mountain July 29, 2008

 

image by axinia

Mountain

I see a mountain from my window
Standing like an ancient sage
Desireless, full of love.
So many trees and so many flowers
They plunder the mountain all the time.
It’s attention is not disturbed
And when the rain pours like
Many pitchers of clouds bursting
And it fills the mountain with greenery.
The storms may come soaring,
Filling the lake with compassion
And the rivers flow running down
Towards the calling sea.
The sun will create clouds and
Wind carries on its feathery wings
The rain on to the mountain.
This is the eternal play
The mountain sees
Without desires.

                                                                 poem by Shri Mataji

Nikola Tesla on partiotism, science and the future of mankind July 28, 2008

 

image by axinia

You may remember my fascination for Nikola Tesla, that great genius of the 20th century (read my post on his awesome personality here). He was not only an inventor of Leonardo da Vinci caliber, but also a great visioneer of the future of humanity.

Interestingly, he saw the key to the happy future in the science serving people. And his understanding of science was rather spiritual, than materialistic. He saw science as a living process, the matter as a being. In fact, he was the only human being known who could controll and produce the lightning.

In that respect  I find it intresting to read his thoughts on the possbile (glorious!) future of mankind – and see, how such things like patriotism and science could be connected:

“As long as there are different nationalities, there will be patriotism. This feeling must be eradicated from our hearts before permanent peace can be established. Its place must be filled by love of nature and scientific ideal. Science and discovery are the great forces which will lead to that consummation….The consequences of such an advance are incalculable.

In all traditions, Spirit means breath or wind July 26, 2008

image by axinia

In all traditions, Spirit means breath or wind:

Our word Spirit is derived from the Latin Spiritus, which means breath. For the Greeks, the Spirit is known as Pneuma, a term which also means breath. The Hebrew word Ruah is synonymous with wind. Yahweh is derived from the root HWY, which also means wind.

The consistency in these different terms in not fortuitous. It results from the intuition of the Unconscious, which makes clear that to know the Spirit is to know the breath of God. This reminds on of the passages in the New Testament which describes the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost:

“Suddenly a sound came form heaven

Like the rush of a mighty wind

And it filled the house where we were sitting”

In India, this breath is known as Brahmachaitanya, the Breath of God. In the tradition of the Vedanta, the Prasana Upanishad(commented by Shankaracharia) declares: “in the heart resides the Atman, the Self. It is the centre of a hundred and one little channels….In these moves…the breath”.

Still in India,

Airport ranking – my top 5 most interesting July 24, 2008

I have been travelling by plane since I was a baby. I love airports. I even wanted to become a stewardess :). I have not been around the whole world, but there is a number of airports I have been departing from and arriving at: Vilnus, Moscow (2 airports), Vienna, Paris, Mumbai, London, Istanbul, Milan, Frankfurt, Nizza, Berlin, Zürich, New Delhi, Tashkent, Rostov-on-Don, Khakriv, Doha to name a few I could remember.

Each airport is a kind of a visitcard of a country/city. It is interesting to see how much of the national character  is involved into the design and service of that very special place – airport.

Here is my personal ranking of 5 best airports I have visited so far:

Number 5: Milan airport (Italy), makes rather an out-dated impression (probably build in the 1970s), but has its charm due to the green colour and massive ads of Italian designers:

Awesome photos from my divine holidays July 23, 2008

When I came back from my truly divine holidays I found in my camera almost only the awesome shots of the sunsets, clouds and landscapes. Although I met a couple of thousands of people, my attention was obviously somewhere else…

Our life is full of manifestations of Divine. However it is the majestic pictures of landscapes or skyscapes that makes us understand the UNITY OF THE WHOLE. It does good to see that there is a life behind the clouds, that there are masterpieces of art and fantastic scenes beyond our knowledge and imagination. It is good to know that there is still so much to discover and to enjoy – and this is the secret story behind.

The story of never-ending DIVINE LOVE.

I was fascinated by that scenery, especially some minutes later when the cloud line became so exact. It felt like the huge dramatic curtain falling slowly from above – and the perfect peace of disillusion down there:

And what would you say about that? -the whole sky in vivid salmon lines:

That looks to me like a N. Roerich paint:

And what about that spectacular sunset?

There, in the depth of the sky, there are wings of angels resting on the clouds…

…and the veil-like path for those willing to walk on the clouds:

And, finally I was stunned to see such a perfect line above the clouds like the board of the Mother-Earth`s sari…

LOVE; axinia

Blogging pause: on holiday without Internet July 17, 2008

image by vova

To all my dear friends and silent readers!

Being such an Internet-fan I can not imagine a week without blogging, surfing, commenting, etc. As impossible it looks to me now, I will have to survive without blogging next days. But it is also very refreshing and relaxing… And that is what I actually call holiday.

I am leaving for one week holidays and will not be posting till Thursday. In the meanwhile you can also read my older posts 🙂 Presently there are 264 posts on this blog, you may like to read some of them, for instance the following:

No challenge is worse than any challenge

Heart and Brain

7 steps of all-purpose management by axinia

My Fine Art of Blogging

When I look at a person

7 ways to open your heart or how to feel love

The top secert of success

10 reasons why I practice Sahaja Yoga

LOVE, axinia

Russia from helicopter: views of Moscow July 15, 2008

This time I want to share with you some awesome photos of Moscow that I found on some Russian photo-sharing sites. These are the pictures of Moscow taken from helicopter. I remember some of my readers wanted to see more of “true” Russia – I am happy to share it with you here, until my future Russian blog project starts  🙂

Alexander Nevsky Chappel

The world is getting happier – study says July 14, 2008

 image by axinia

It is probably one of the most surprising findings over the last years – while the media keep showing us the disastrous pictures of our life, the recent study shows the amazing dynamics of happiness all over the world!

The world is getting happier, according to the cumbersome but compelling World Values Survey released Monday by the National Science Foundation, which managed to track and quantify joy among 350,000 people in 97 countries over a quarter of century.

“The happiness index rose in an overwhelming majority of nations studied,” the study said.

Denmark is at the top of the list – with India, Ireland, Mexico and South Korea experiencing a “steeply rising” level of happiness in the survey that asked respondents to succinctly rate their subjective sense of well-being and life satisfaction. Everyone was apparently happy to do so. The survey had an “exceptionally high” 97 percent response rate.

Zimbabwe, meanwhile, is in last place. Things aren’t so jovial in Armenia, Pakistan and Rwanda – among the last 19 nations on the roster. For them, national contentment flagged into the statistically negative zone.

Americans are in the comfortably warm and fuzzy upper levels. The U.S.ranked No. 16, behind Canada, Sweden, El Salvador and New Zealand but in front of Britain, Germany, France and Italy.

What is actually happiness? July 13, 2008

 image by axinia

If you ask people what they wish themselves, almost everyone says “to be happy”. It means they are not happy presently. But what is this mysterious happiness which is so difficult to achieve?

What do we actually need to become happy?

Is happiness a sum of several thing?

Or is it totally independent from the outer word and is the result of the inner development?

Or may be it is an inborn quality that can no be learned/achieved?

I would de very much interested to hear from my readers what they think of it, what happiness mean to them! Thanks in advance.

LOVE, axinia