The nature of suffering November 30, 2009

Recalling some interesting episodes from Daniil Andreev, as promised.

I find his idea of SUFFERING very refreshing, compared to the classical religious idea. Andreev denies suffering being a necessary condition to evolve. He underlines the non-divine nature of suffering.

It is hard to quote Adreev outside the context of his book, so I would just re-phrase some points (my words in Italic).

All the suffering that beings experience, all their pain and agony, emit radiations….. Every feeling, every emotional response necessarily emits corresponding radiations. Radiations from anger, hate, greed, or animal and human lust sink to the realm of negative forces. True, those radiations are barely sufficient to replenish the energy of individual demonic groups. But the radiation from suffering and pain is capable of satisfying hosts of demons of almost all types and sizes. This  is essentially their food.

Among the various types of suffering-radiation, the one associated with the shedding of physical blood occupies a particularly significant place. When people and animals bleed, a burning radiation of especial intensity is released in the first few minutes. Therefore, certain categories of demons are not so much interested in the death of living beings, or in the suffering of their souls in the afterlife, as they are in bloodshed. Not one bloodbath in history has occurred or will occur without the subliminal instigation of those bloodsuckers of the afterlife. Further, the bloody sacrificial rites of some ancient cultures were horrifying not only because of their cruelty but also because it was not gods but those very same demons that were feeding on them.

This is a very metaphysical description, but I hope you get the point:

POLL: What to do with elderly people? November 27, 2009

The world population, at leat in the West, is growing old. And it is not only an economical problem of paying rents in some future, but also a problem of attitude towards the elderly (under this term I mean people over 70, in developed countries). Since my father is 60 now I can see he is far too healthy and dynamic to call him elderly, so I think it is 70 when a person is getting weak and needs more support. The age may vary from country to country though.

Since ages the elderly had been respected and taken care of. That was one of the basic laws of live. Presently I can see a huge shift in the attitude of a younger generation.

1. Due to the new technologies which young people are so good at, there is a huge gap between those who use them and those who are not. It is like living on another planet, literally. Any knowledge/information is so easily accessible that we don’t need many years to learn things. Often a short Internet check gives loads of information and a good insight into a subject. Basically there is an illusive  feeling they can’t lean anything from the elderly and there is no interest in communication on the side of younger generations. As for human relations, some aging people are indeed become wiser, and some grow into frustrated, moaning persons who are not inspiring to take after…

2. Taking care of old parents/relatives is being shifted towards some services and home for elderly. It is not any more common (at least in Europe) to nurse them at home till their last breath. For many people it seems to be a good solution to pay somebody else for taking care of their weak parents. In fact, that shocked me when I first learned about this new trend, coming from Russia to Austria 12 years back. That is how they depict it in a US source: “Few people gleefully anticipate the task of caring for an aging parent—but plenty seem to deny that it’s coming. Sooner or later, avoidance can thrust adult children into the caregiver role with a shotgun start. A parent’s slip in the bathroom or a collision caused by a mistake in the driver’s seat can precipitate a deluge of anguished decisions and rapid changes you’re not ready to handle. Suddenly, you could be scrambling to locate account numbers to pay Mom’s bills while she’s in the hospital, tangling with her insurance company to figure out why coverage for an X-ray was denied, and consulting with your brother—who lives three states away—about getting Mom into an assisted-living facility. You grapple with guilt because your mother never wanted to move out of her home, but now her condition leaves little choice. As the drama plays out, you’re also trying to stay afloat at work and look after your other dependents, the kids.”

I don’t really know any solution for this problem, especially on a global level. I feel it would be good if the elderly (whose who are not too weak to stay inside) would be more integrated into the modern life. I wonder what you think of it?

5 popular myths about Russian women November 24, 2009

Although I am not on the marriage market since long, the topic of marriages, especially for Russian women still keeps me busy (my best girlfriends are free). Being a Russian in Europe is in a way exotic (Russian speaking people are still a minority here, surprise surprise! :)) and every time I speak to someone, the topic of Russian women pops up. There are lots of rumors about Russian women in the West, some of them quite OK, some are just ridiculous…

However there are good people out there who do their best trying to bring clarity into the topic,  here are some lovely arguments against the popular myths  for bride seeking males I found accidentally in web:

Different people always have preconceptions about each other people or nationalities. With the internet and media in every corner of life, it is easy to hear stories and gossip, the Western world has posted propaganda about Russia for many years and in a way it has also effected how people view Russian women, however most of this is all untrue. Below are 5 popular myths about Russian women, understanding these will help you understand why so many people have a lot to say about  Russian brides.

1.Russian brides are shy, quiet housewives who are happy at the kitchen sink.

The great advantage of having such a wide selection of women to choose from, is you have the chance to meet a woman with a personality to suit you, all women are different just like any women in the West, some have their own plans and goals in life, some are happy to be the traditional housewife, some are shy and introverted, some our outgoing, this is the great thing about having so many Russian women to choose from, there will always be someone who will have the perfect chemistry and personality for you.

 2.Most Beautiful Russian women are prostitutes

Because  Russian women are often labeled as “Russian brides”  or “mail order brides”  many men some they are so desperate that they sell themselves and of course it does not take long for rumors to spread that Russian women are generally prostitutes this is complete nonsense . Russian brides are not for sale, Russian mail order brides are not delivered to your door by courier.

Human attitude towards Nature throughout History – interesting overview November 22, 2009

The earliest phase was characterized by a conception of the universe as extremely small and of the Earth as the only inhabited planet. The world, however, possessed, besides our physical plane, a number of other planes, also material but with a materiality of a different nature and possessing different properties than ours. None of the planes, including ours, were thought to evolve. They had been created once and for all and were inhabited by good and evil beings. Humans lay at the center of those beings’ interests and were, so to speak, their apple of discord. Humans were not conscious of Nature as something distinct from themselves and did not contrast themselves with it. Individual natural phenomena evoked, of course, one or another feeling-fear, pleasure, awe-but it seems that Nature was almost never perceived as a whole, or was perceived so in a purely aesthetic sense, and even then only by individuals who were highly gifted artistically. For that reason, one rarely finds among artistic works of those eras lyrical poetry about Nature, and even more rarely does one find landscape painting. In the main, the cultures of antiquity, as well as certain later cultures in the East, belong to that phase. As for religion, polytheism was typical of this first phase.

Typical of the second phase were the monotheistic systems, which either ignored Nature or else were hostile to it. The growth of individuality led to the conception that humans could grow spiritually. Nature, on the other hand, showed no signs of spiritual growth. It was stagnant and static; it was amoral and irrational; it was under the power of the demonic; and if the spirit itself was not to be vanquished, that part of a person’s being that was cosubstantial with Nature had to be vanquished by the spirit. This was the antinature phase. The Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu peoples all passed through it; Jewry (meaning believers in Judaism) still remains in it. The latter, however, like the Muslim peoples, did not so much declare war on Nature as simply snub it.
The Semitic attitude to nature has, generally speaking, been marked by a poverty of feeling. It has long been remarked how lacking the authors of the Bible and the Quran were in their feeling toward nature compared to those who wrote the great epics of ancient Greece and of India in particular. The Semites gave Nature what they considered its due, sanctioning procreation with the blessing of their religion, but in their religious philosophy and art they strove to ignore it, and with grave consequences.

The best short film ever! November 20, 2009

It is very very American and naive… but watch it and it will make your day! 🙂

The film length is 16 min, please watch till the end!

LOVE; axinia

10 quotes to dissolve your thoughts November 19, 2009

Sincerity is the jewel that forms in the shell of the heart.

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Life is an opportunity given to satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul.

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There are many paths, and each man considers his own the best and wisest. Let each one choose that which belongs to his own temperament.

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All earthly knowledge is as a cloud covering the sun.

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Life is a misery for the man absorbed in himself.

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Happy is he who does good to others; miserable is he who expects good from others.

The Rose of the World – my review November 17, 2009

The Rose of the World by Daniel Andreev is a unique and poetic cosmological treatise passionately written out of personal experience. It offers a prophetic call for the spiritual reunification of all people and an open and harmonious relationship among the great world religions. For Daniel Andreev, whose mystic revelations are often compared with those of Dante and William Blake, the Rose of the World is a spiritual flower whose roots are in heaven: each petal is a unique image of the great world religions and cultures, and the whole flower is their joint co-creation with God.

Roza Mira (full title in Russian: Роза Мира. Метафилософия истории, literally The Rose of the World. The Metaphilosophy of History), that was written in the fifties of the 20th century gives a unique and fresh view on the history and future of mankind. The uniqueness of this perspective its intellectual brilliance combined with a deeply spiritual insight…

According to Roza Mira, there are no contradictions between different religions, because they tell about different aspects of spiritual reality, or about the same things in different words. Daniil Andreev compares different major religions to different paths leading to one and the same mountain peak (which is God). Andreev names five world religions, he believes in the Trinity of God, but the third hypostasis, instead of being the Holy Spirit, is claimed to be the Eternal Femininity. (which is by the way, one and the same thing to me personally).

Beautiful vision, isn’t it? The more so, Andreev also tired to give a solution how exactly this could work out!  However I can’t say I was delighted about the book. Why?

This book is  the most contradictory of all books I have read in the last 10 years. The contradiction for me lies  in the fact that one and the same book has some highly vibrational pieces and some that can block one’s mental level completely. When I read some pages I feel the author was a true saint of a rare caliber. However at some points his visions not only lack vibrations, but I would not recommend to read them at all…The reason for that “quality variety” may lay in the different methods by which Andreev obtained his knowledge and visions. Some of them were probably from the supraconsious site. Whatever it is, I would like to share with you my impressions.

The most wanted currency November 16, 2009

Love is the current coin of all peoples in all periods.

Hazrat Ihayat Khan.

(iamge by me)

The Cosmonautics Memorial Museum in Moscow November 15, 2009

My father is  the “sky” person who has always been dreaming about flying as high as possible… Since he could not become a pilot for health reasons,  he became a paratrooper officer and made 2000 jumps with parashute. The space exploration has been fascinating him for ages. I obviously inherited some fo this fascination, since I love airplanes and everything that can take me higher :).

This time when I was visiting my parents in Moscow my father was delighted to show me and my mom the new Space museum. As you can imagine, Russia has something to show in that area…

This museum, the only one of its kind, situated inside an enormous monument to the explorers of the cosmos, is well worth the visit, not least for the nostalgia it should inspire in anyone who grew up in the heady days of the space race. The displays trace the history of space exploration, including the first interplanetary satellite flights, the first dogs in space and man’s journeys to the cosmos.

Let me show you some shots I made inside the museum.

My parents – by the way, they now live just next to the  Zvezdnyi Gorodok “Startown” by Moscow, where all cosmonauts are being trained:

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We saw an interesting documentary about the history of Space exploration. Juri Gagarin, the first ever human in space:

 his smile is unforgettable!

The typical space costume live:

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The clothes cosmonauts wear inside a spaceship:

There’s plenty of fun gadgetry, plus an excellently conceived display explaining how astronauts survive a space flight, all of which should be interesting for children. The food in the space freezer:

My photo-impressions from Moscow in November November 12, 2009

I am back from a short Moscow trip with some images which I took for you.

The quality of images is not that good, but I think you will get an impression of how it is like in Moscow in November – cold, pretty nasty and windy, but still enjoyable :).

It was getting dark rather early, and I was mostly outside during late afternoon, therefore most of the images look like taken at night. In fact it was a daytime (from 3 till 6 p.m.).

LOVE; axinia