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#1570 ~ Sunday, September 28, 2003 ~ Editor: Gloria Lee
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Ben Hassine ~ NDS
Rilke and atma vichara
"I could give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore the depths where your life wells forth."
-Letters to a Young Poet
This Week's Show: Miracle Doctors
Photograph by Jenny Kubo
First shown Sunday, September 28, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MSNBC
Ultimate Explorer host Lisa Ling sets off on an epic journey to Nepal to cover extreme adventure, political intrigue, and a humanitarian mission to bring sight to some of the country's most remote villagers.
It is a stunningly beautiful and mystical place, but Nepal in the new millennium has been plagued by troubles. In 2001 nearly the entire royal family was massacred, allegedly by the crown prince, who then turned his weapon on himself.
To make matters worse, the country has also been embroiled in a civil war that has pitted forces of the government against the Maoist guerrillas who are trying to overthrow it.
Much of Nepal's population lives in abject poverty and receives little or no health care. For them, something as treatable as cataracts usually leads to complete blindness—a virtual death-sentence in this harsh and unforgiving land. Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness worldwide and the cause of nearly 70 percent of blindness cases in Nepal.
Ling joins two eye doctors who have dedicated themselves to treating—and curing—blindness in Asia's poorest countries. Sanduk Ruit, born in rural Nepal, and Geoff Tabin, an American, have given sight to thousands of blind patients in a six-country region for more than two decades.
Together with Ling, the doctors trek across majestic mountains and harrowing gorges to the remote and long-forbidden kingdom of Mustang, where they set up an "eye camp." There, they are met by scores of blind villagers living an ancient way of life, who have made the difficult and arduous journey to receive treatment.
Most of the people who receive the revolutionary microsurgery will regain vision within 24 hours. And with their sight, they will receive a dramatic second chance at life.
Join Ling as she delves deep into Nepal's mountainous countryside on an expedition that might be her most challenging yet.
To learn more about the Himalayan Cataract Project or help give someone his or her sight back by supporting the work of Dr. Ruit and Dr. Tabin, log on to www.cureblindness.org.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/explorer/
Blind Tibetans waiting for surgery
Gill Eardly ~ Rumi to Hafiz
An Awkward Comparison
This physical world has no two things alike.
Every comparison is awkwardly rough.
You can put a lion next to a man,
but the placing is hazardous to both.
Say the body is like this lamp.
It has to have a wick and oil. Sleep and food.
If it doesn't get those, it will die,
and it is always burning those up, trying to die.
But where is the sun in this comparison?
It rises, and the lamp's light
mixes with the day.
Oneness,
which is reality, cannot be understood
with lamp and sun images. The blurring
of a plural into a unity is wrong.
No image can describe
what of our fathers and mothers,
our grandfathers and grandmothers, remains.
Language does not touch the one
who lives in each of us.
'The Essential Rumi' Coleman Barks/John Moyne
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The
Blues™ anchors a multi-media celebration that
raises awareness of the blues and its contribution to
American culture and music worldwide. Under the guiding vision of Executive Producer Martin Scorsese, seven directors will explore the blues through their own personal styles and perspectives. The films in the series are motivated by a central theme: how the blues evolved from parochial folk tunes to a universal language. The
seven-part film series includes:
|
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http://www.pbs.org/theblues/index.html
Alan Kuntz ~ MysticWalk
True Spirituality
The master was asked, "What is spirituality?"
He said. "Spirituality is that which succeeds in bringing one to inner transformation."
"But if I apply the traditional methods handed down by the masters, is that not spirituality?"
"It is not spirituality if it does not perform its function for you. A blanket is no longer a blanket if it does not keep you warm." the master said.
"So spirituality does change?"
"People change and needs change. So what was spirituality once is spirituality no more. What generally goes under the name of spirituality is merely the record of past methods."
--from "The Song of the Bird"
by Anthony deMello
Jerry Katz ~ NDSN
For all the September 28 news stories, please visit http://nonduality.com/index.html#1
Mall
debate offers opportunity to reflect on cultural values
By William L. Spence The Daily Inter Lake
Mennonites have
historically emphasized simpler lifestyles and nonconformity with
modern ways.
"We teach Christianity as discipleship," Hollinger
said. "What life is about is following Jesus — being a
disciple. So the foundation of our faith is based on the idea of
giving our life away."
Materialism rests on a very different foundation. Its message
— one echoed in countless advertisements daily — is
that life depends on acquisition, that things will make us happy.
"That's the big carrot hanging in front of us, but I think
it's an empty promise," Hollinger said. "Happiness
isn't found in owning things. In Spanish, the word for happiness
is ‘contentimento’ — contentment. Advertising is
based on disrupting your contentment, on making you dissatisfied.
When acquiring things is on your agenda, you by definition aren't
content."
However, removing the temptation by blocking Wolford's mall isn't
necessarily the answer, either. -more-
Buddhism is enjoying a remarkable resurgence in the Siberian republic of Buryatia, with thousands of faithful traveling each year to bow to the shrines at Ivolga, some 20 miles from the region's capital of Ulan-Ude. The Buddhist faith now numbers nearly 1,000 lamas and a million followers in Russia, mostly in the Siberian republics of Buryatia, Altai and Tuva as well as in Kalmykia, Europe's only Buddhist republic, on the northern shores of the Caspian Sea. ... In recent years, however, Russian authorities have barred the Dalai Lama, Buddhism's chief spiritual leader, from visiting Russia, citing complaints from China, Russia's strategic partner. -more-
Ben Hassine ~ NDS
| And
Death Shall Have No Dominion by: Dylan Thomas |
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Alan Larus
Come up along the stream,
just follow the wild geese
through a dark green wall.
I'll be waiting by the chairs
and table made of stones.
It will be the same day
on any sunny day this fall,
with climbing squirrels
and flying with the forest doves.
It will be a tall grass long day
when we are running home,
knowing every tree and stone
all along the foxes trail.
Come trespassing and see,
it is filled to the brim
and nothing's flowing in.
