Column: Breaker of Chains

Stay in line. Ask questions. Raise your hand. Listen to your superiors. Follow directions. Be quiet. Keep your head down.

When I think of bad advice, this is what I think of.

Make a safe decision. Be easygoing. Get on the grind. This advice is even worse.

When you are a kid, what do you do? You play, have friends and enjoy life, but there is always one thing that every kid truly hates.

This is, of course, school. Many children, especially in the U.S., grow up knowingly hating school. Why?

Why do so many of us hate the idea of obtaining new knowledge? I believe this dread stems from a multi-rooted cause. To start, school is run very similarly to prison when you think about it.

You wake up and go to school early. The day is segmented off into periods of time in which you are told specifically what to do during each. One has to ask permission to relieve bodily functions. You are only allowed to speak when spoken to.

This regimented, strict and almost authoritarian way of educating begs the question: What kind of people does it produce? There will always be gifted and talented people who come out of school, obviously, but what about other people?

People who perhaps had gifts and talents that, if properly nurtured in a non-dictatorship like environment, might have thrived.

It is not only the schools fault. Society, as previously mentioned, both directly and indirectly, gives awful advice. We are told from a young age to always work hard so that you may get a good job in the future. A question so often asked is: What do you want to be when you grow up?

This ensures that children are looking forward to getting an acceptable and successful" job. If a child were to answer they do not know, or even worse, do not want to be anything, this would not be considered an acceptable answer.

Why are children being asked to think about what they want to be when they grow up instead of what games they like to play? How is a 6-year-old being held to that standard of success? How successful can a 6-year-old be?

Fast forward a bit, when you are in high school and college, you are encouraged to build your resume. People do not work on projects and become part of clubs for personal enlightenment, but rather, they do it to raise their score in a game called get a job.

If we keep telling and reinforcing the idea of constant kissing up, then what will America, let alone the world, be filled with?

I always used to think that in America, you can be anything. Now, I think in America you can be anything that someone else approves you to be.

I think it is more pivotal to find oneself than kiss up. Instead of asking What do you want to be when you grow up?, we should ask, What is your passion?.

I think schools should start emphasizing the idea of finding your passion rather than the idea of hall passes and building your resume.

Society should start to believe in the idea of personal enlightenment rather than rigid, robotic following. If we do not, no problems will be solved and no innovations will be created.

The stagnation of thought is something not only deep-rooted in school, but also it is ingrained in America.

Teachers need to start emphasizing unique thinking over test studying. Colleges should encourage innovation over new classes to take so that you can get hired. Parents should push their kids to read a book for fun, rather than for a class.

Perhaps we should start thinking about what we are told rather than doing what we are told.

Zachary Smolder is a School of Engineering freshman, pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. His column, "Breaker of Chains," runs on alternate Fridays.

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SMOLDER: Independent thinking critical aspect of finding your passions - RU Daily Targum

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Sonoma Valley Sun

Alchemy, the current exhibition at Arts Guild of Sonoma, displays art from the finalists who submitted works to the third annual National Juried Competition; the Call For Artists was open to anyone in the country. Through the subject of alchemy, artists were invited to express their dreams, desires, mysteries, symbols, creativity, and enlightenment.

The public is invited to view a wide array of the finalists art styles in the gallery at 140 E. Napa St. The show is up through November 3.

The shows juror was Jenny Gheith of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, who had the daunting task of blind-selecting 68 works from 143 submissions. The Arts Guild applauds some of its own member artists as well as other Sonoma artists who are among the finalists in this competition.

The Best of Show honor was awarded to Petaluma resident Ruby Newman for her painting Entwined Embrace, which explores the deepest meaning of alchemy, that of two souls combining in perfect harmony.

Along with being a fine arts painter, Ruby Newman has worked on several wonderful public art projects. These include murals and overseeing the restoration of the 1914 Golden Gate Park carousel, for which she personally hand-painted the 62 wooden menagerie figures, decorative panels, and masks. She also created all the decorative painting for the exterior and interior of old St. Vincents Church in Petaluma. A long-term member of the Arts Guild, she shows her art in the gallery every month.

Gallery hours are Wednesday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. through November 3.

Jackie Lee | Sun Fine Arts

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The magical process of creation and transformation Sonoma Sun | Sonoma, CA - Sonoma Valley Sun

We knew that there were going to be a bunch of new sets for Magic: The Gathering, and in their weekly live stream, we found out from Wizards of the Coast that the two upcoming sets are Theros: Beyond Death and Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.The sets will be released on January 24, 2020 and April 24, 2020, respectively. Each will also have a pre-release event a week prior to its official release date, which has become the new standard for just about every Magic: The Gathering set. Plus, itll probably be on Arena around that time.

In addition to that news, coming out November 16 there will be new Game Night decks.Game Night is an out-of-the-box multiplayer experience that has five decks playable out of the box, which includes a mix of reprints and five new cards. Its perfect for new players in a group who want to have competitive, evenly powered decks out of the box.

Those new cards coming out withGames Night are:

Calculating Lich (4){B}{B}

CreatureZombie Wizard

Menace

Whenever a creature attacks one of your opponents, that player loses 1 life.

We share a common enemy. Does that not make us friends?

5/5

Illustrated by Antonio Jos Manzanedo

Sphinx of Enlightenment(4){U}{U}

CreatureSphinx

Flying

When Sphinx of Enlightenment enters the battlefield, target opponent draws a card you draw three cards.

I would be a fool if I taught you everything I know.

5/5

Illustrated by: Johan Grenier

Highcliff Felidar (5){W}{W}

CreatureCat Beast

Vigilance

When Highcliff Felidar enters the battlefield for each opponent, choose a creature with the greatest power among creatures that plater controls. Destroy those creatures.

Once the felidar has marked you as prey, theres no point in running.

5/5

Illustrated by Kimonas Theodossiou

Fiendish Duo(4){R}{R}{R}

CreatureDevil

First strike

If a source would deal damage to an opponent, it deals double that damage to that player instead.

Half the size, double the mayhem

5/5

Illustrated by Lucas Graceland

Earthshaker Giant (4){G}{G}

CreatureGiant Druid

Trample

When Earthshaker Giant enters the battlefield, other creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn.

Come, my wild children. Lets give the interlopers a woodland welcome.

6/6

Illustrated by Milivoj eran

Other sets that will release in 2020, such as Core 2021 and Zendikar Rising, do not currently have release dates attached, but we do know that soon emerging from the Magic world will be the upcoming War of the Spark: Forsaken book. Its the follow up to the New York Times bestseller War of Spark: Ravnica, publishing on November 12 and written by Greg Weisman ofGargoyles andYoung Justicefame.

(via Comicbook.com, image: Wizards of the Coast)

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Next Two 'Magic: The Gathering' Sets Announced For 2020 - The Mary Sue

Little, Brown, 18.99

Review by Teddy Jamieson

THE Gourock Bay Hotel. 1992. Suede, the best new band in Britain according to the Melody Maker (a popular weekly music newspaper of the time, Milord), have just finished playing their libidinous, circling song Pantomime Horse in front of a small, surly crowd in a back room. As the desultory clapping dies away and the band ready themselves to launch into their next song, a gruff Glaswegian voice breaks the silence with a notably withering review. You effete southern wankers!

Its a moment remembered with some amusement by Suedes front man Brett Anderson in his new memoir, Afternoons With The Blinds Drawn. In truth, Suede were always a Marmite band. Most of that was down to Anderson, thanks to his penchant for wearing womens blouses, being playfully androgynous, owning a falsetto voice that irritated as many as it thrilled and his very obvious belief attitude that his band were better than anyone elses (to be fair, an attitude that you would find in any band of the time; it was generally accepted to be part of the job description).

What some saw as effete, others however (and, yes, my hand is raised at this point) believed thrillingly transgressive. Between grunge and techno, Suede were the first glittering, narcotic vision of what would come to be called Britpop. Id always had a desire to pollute the mainstream with something poisonous, Anderson writes at one point.

Others would wipe away the mascara, ditch the sexual ambiguity and become huge as a result. But for a moment in the early nineties Suede offered a vision of what a British band could be; dark, sexual, provocative, effete if you will.

In the years that followed they were both embraced and reviled by the music press, had hits, fell out, took too many drugs, lost members, made more records, toured constantly, carried on long after they really needed to, split up and then years later got back together again.

Its a familiar story. Perhaps too familiar for Anderson. In the introduction to his first book, Coal Black Mornings, Suedes front man defended its concentration on the pre-history of the band. The very last thing I wanted to write was the usual 'coke and gold discs' memoir, he wrote then.

Well, he has now. Thats exactly what Afternoons With The Blinds Drawn is; an account of Suedes salad years and their wilting aftermath. At times it feels like he is faintly appalled that he has done so. The resulting memoir is curious. Its both revealing and reticent. He is both very honest and also, at times, deeply evasive. The fall-out with fellow band member Bernard Butler, Suedes musical driving force, during the making of their dark, murky, swirling masterpiece Dog Man Star, to take one example, feels like it happens offstage (partly perhaps because by the end they couldnt bear to be in the same room at the same time).

In fact, the whole book has a hermetic sealed-in quality to it; all dust motes and drizzle and interior voice. Reading it is a bit like being inside a Suede song itself. Which is maybe a mark of the strength of Andersons vision. (At times, too, his prose can be rather arch and affected, but that in itself is also very Brett.)

That said, the books insularity is as much a strength as a weakness. For a start, it offers a corrective to the bumptious laddishness that characterises many Britpop memoirs. (Shall we call it the Gallagher option?) But then Suede always had more in common with Massive Attack and Tricky in their world view than Oasis and Blur at their most music hall.

And Andersons honest enough about himself, painting a picture of a young man dressed in nothing but a Moroccan robe, reading William Blake and Aleister Crowley, and taking too many chemicals. A damaged, paranoid figure, wired and isolated, edgy and obsessed and lost within a strange fantasy landscape, a simulacrum of life.

In a way the books main problem is that coke and gold discs issue. How do you make the familiar rise-and-fall music narrative fresh? Im not sure Anderson totally manages it, to be honest. As he trawls through the creation of various B sides you do feel this is great for the fans but not for the general reader.

And yet there is much to cherish here. Anderson is an adroit chronicler of rented London flats. The pages reek of stale cigarette ash, rising damp and mouldy grouting. From Notting Hill to North Kensington to Paddington and on to Knightsbridge, Anderson and his best mate Alan smoke and scheme and debauch themselves across the city. At one point, reading his description of yet another nicotine-coloured flat, I found myself fantasising about pitching Channel 4 an anti-aspirational TV pilot called Bedsitterland, hosted by Anderson and, say, Marc Almond, which would celebrate the drying, browning artichokes and the torn Rizla packets rather than Eames furniture and all-mod-cons kitchens.

Andersons choice of interior decoration doesnt notably improve in the wake of Suede becoming a chart band. But in every other sphere success proves an accelerant. By this point in my career, he writes in the wake of the bands best-selling third album, Coming Up, I think that my ego was, to say the least, burgeoning.

Ego and excess. To his credit, Anderson never revels in the drugs stories here. There are no blow-by-blow nor snort-by-snort breakdowns. Suffice to say, its clear that its happening, and it seems anything but glamorous. Afternoons with the blinds drawn sums it up. This dissolution reaches a climax towards the end of the book that, thankfully, just falls short of disaster. But only just. The older Anderson now has little time for the idea that excess is an aid to creativity.

Inevitably, the book offers the singers own nuanced take on pop and success. He is still in love with the former but found the latter disorientating. In pop music everyone becomes a cartoon, Anderson suggests. The problem comes when that cartoon persona develops a separate life to the person its attached to. Especially when the person is complicit in its creation.

Years of poverty and struggle and failure had made me hungry for any scraps of success that were thrown my way, Anderson admits, and in my frenzy to feed I think I was often far too willing to indulge their silly fantasies and wear the costume that was so carefully stitched for me despite the fact that it increasingly seemed ill-fitting.

Inevitably it becomes too heavy to wear anymore. Afternoons With The Blinds Drawn ends backstage at the Graham Norton Show with Anderson finally admitting: I cant do this anymore, to his fellow bandmates and friends.

All bands, Anderson suggests, follow the same career arc. The same points are plotted along the way, he suggests, like the Stations of the Cross; struggle, excess, disintegration and if youre lucky enlightenment.

This is a book written from a position of enlightenment. That enlightenment might also be the reason that Anderson doesnt ever fully pull back the curtain on his younger self. He is protecting the innocent. And the guilty. Its a mark of decency; a mark which his younger, callow, attitudinal self might not have recognised.

But we are given enough of a glimpse to hope that there might be a third volume, one that covers his solo years, his rapprochement with Bernard Butler and the records they made together as The Tears, and finally, in recent years, the rebirth of Suede which has given the band a thrillingly fierce third act. Turns out effete is the last thing they are.

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Review: Brett Anderson on Suede's "coke and gold discs" years - HeraldScotland

By Andrew Cohen

In India it is often said, Guru is God. But in the complex and ever-evolving world of the 21st century, can we still hold on to such beliefs? As Indian culture slowly makes the journey from the traditional, to the modern and postmodern era, can these ancient beliefs survive intact, untouched by the piercing lens of cultural evolution, the revelations of modern science and the profound insights about human nature that have come from western psychology?

Indeed, even in the land that gave birth to such remarkable spiritual geniuses as the Buddha, Adi Shankara, Sri Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi and Sri Aurobindo, can we still hold on to the notion that these profoundly enlightened masters were therefore, inevitably perfected human beings?

Guru is God implies that a true guru is perfect in all ways. This means that the physical form of body, mind and personality of the realised one is always an expression of manifest perfection. Does the profound gift of spiritual enlightenment inherently mean that the receiver of that gift is always perfect in all ways?

I dont think so. And that is because anything that is born, that has a beginning in time and that will eventually die, is inherently imperfect.But unmanifest absolute spirit or Brahmn is perfect because it has never been born and has never entered the stream of time and therefore is ever untouched by anything that has ever happened in time.

The man who has become a true guru, a true master, has a personality that has become radically transformed, now mysteriously and powerfully animated by the immortal consciousness of Brahmn. That awakened consciousness expresses itself as the guru principle. This principle has the power to awaken earnest seekers directly to the consciousness of Brahmn.

But if the guru-principle itself is to survive the unstoppable, dynamic movement of cultural evolution into the future, then it needs to be remodeled. The authority and power of the guru need to be downscaled in such a way as to emphasise that the human persona of the realiser is always inherently relative and in that, will always be imperfect. This somehow needs to be done while still finding a way to deeply honour that the manifestation of the guru-principle, when fully activated, reveals an absolute metaphysical source and uniquely reflects the brightness and brilliance of that source in all its overwhelming glory.

In my work as guru and spiritual teacher today, my own way to honour this guideline is to always make the effort to clearly distinguish between man and master. There is no way around the fact that the master always expresses himself through a relative personality structure, and his expression of the enlightened state is therefore always on the one hand limited, coloured and shaped by the condition of the body-mind of man, with his gifts and flaws alike; but on the other hand, he simultaneously transmits theuncorrupted purity and perfection of an authentic teacher.

Considering the guru perfect in all ways is confusing transcendental reality with manifest existence. Only at itsdeepest sourcethe initial impulse of spiritual transmission is inherently pure and untainted by the deficiencies of this world.

An authentic master, because he is rooted in that source, is able to transmit a powerful measure of this inherent purity to his students and to this day, this remains the most valuable aspect of the guru principle.

Follow Andrew Cohen at speakingtree.in

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Evolution of the guru principle - Economic Times

One sibling in my family was nearly destroyed by religion. The clergy in our diocese committed a monstrous crime, the scourge of sexual abuse known to many Catholic communities. Another sibling was made whole by religion, after losing a son to murder and finding that no one but God could salve her wounds. There are no clean lines in our clan.

On the trail, I repeatedly heard the term deep walking. My fellow pilgrims were an odd assortment of spiritual stragglers of a certain age. But there were also many young people. And for the young, as I heard it described, a pilgrimage is a way to do religion.

At a Benedictine monastery in a tiny village in northern France, it was strangely moving to eat dinner in utter silence among a handful of men whove shed all material comforts to engage in rigorous daily aerobics of the soul. I missed Wi-Fi, Twitter, emails and endless digital updates, until I didnt.

At a stopover in Laon, a city of shimmering stone 300 feet above the plains of Picardy in France, I tried to fathom the power of miracles. About 80 percent of Americans believe in them. As a pilgrim, I had to dampen down my doubts, to try to see things in another dimension. Miracles are not contrary to nature, as St. Augustine wrote, but only contrary to what we know about nature.

I was less moved by one of the high shrines of atheism, in Langres, the hometown of the Enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot. The town is just one step short of being Diderot Disneyland, which only the French could pull off. But after deep immersion in his beautiful, busy mind, I still felt a bit empty. Religion is story, a narrative about a force much greater than us, enigmatic by nature. Atheism has trouble telling a story.

In the Swiss Alps, a permanent prayer started to honor Maurice, said to be the first black saint, has been recited day after day, year after year, century after century by a rotating band of monks known as the Sleepless Ones. The martyred Maurice, who was from North Africa, is revered. His modern comeback has much to do with the vibrancy and growth of Christianity in Africa at a time when Christianity in Europe is dying off. If present trends hold, within 20 years Africa will have more Catholics than the Continent.

At Great St. Bernard Pass, the high point of the Via Francigena, at 8,114 feet, I was fascinated by a priest of 40 years who still struggled with his faith. Doubts are allowed by God, said this man who introduced himself as Father John of Flavigny, a onetime medical student. Its a bit like training for sports. If you only ride a bicycle with the wind at your back, thats not going to help you. You need to ride your bike against the wind.

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One Cure for Malnutrition of the Soul - The New York Times

Like the rest of Destiny 2's raids, the Garden of Salvation, will test your team's skills and coordination. Shadowkeep's first of the super-tough six-player activities raid sends you to Destiny 1's Black Garden, home of the Vex. And once you hit the Power level cap of 950, fighting through the raid and earning its rewards is one of the only ways to continue to advance, thanks to its Pinnacle drops.

Garden of Salvation is a very complicated activity and will require you and your teammates to know and fulfill your roles along the way. We've broken down every single encounter you'll fight through in the guide below, which will tell you how to handle both bosses, as well as where to find the raid's two hidden chests. While you're in Garden of Salvation, you can also grab some hidden chests, as well as Divinity, the raid Exotic trace rifle--but you'll need to complete a bunch of puzzles to do so. Here's everything you need to know to invade the Black Garden, kill the Consecrated and Sanctified Minds, and beat Garden of Salvation.

As you come over a hill at the start of the raid, you'll see a giant Vex harpy seemingly consuming a minotaur. That's the Consecrated Mind, and you'll be dealing with it for a lot of the raid. In this first encounter, you can't kill the boss--instead, you need to chase it (or maybe it chases you) to the end of the area in order to complete the fight. The struggle here is that you're working against the clock to move forward, because the boss produces an object called a Voltaic Overload at regular intervals, and if one sits on the ground for more than a few seconds, it'll explode and wipe out your whole team.

To stop the boss from killing you, someone on your team needs to pick up each of the Voltaic Overload charges when it hits the ground. When you pick up a charge, it starts a timer on your screen, and until that timer runs out, you can't pick up another Overload without dying from it. Thus, you need one team of at least two or three players to take turns picking up the Overloads.

Your second team of players has a different job: charge forward and open the path through the encounter. You do this with a special mechanic unique to the raid. If you look around the area with the Consecrated Mind, you'll see a glowing cube floating in the air, and a forcefield at the far right side of the room with a plus sign-shaped object in the middle. If you shoot the cube and stand near it, you'll see a line of energy extend from the cube to your character. Bring another person nearby, and the line will jump from you to them, creating a chain. The idea here is to make a chain from the cube to the plus sign (we'll call it a "lock" from here on out). The energy from the cube will open the lock, bringing down the forcefield. It's worth noting that while you're making the chain, you're "tethered," which means you can't shoot or use Supers. You can switch the cube on and off by shooting it to avoid accidentally wandering too close and having it render you unable to defend yourself.

So while one team of players picks up Voltaic Overloads, the second team opens the first gate and races into the next room. There, the job is to clear out all enemies. Watch out for Cyclopes in particular, which can one-shot your team from great distances--make them your top priority. You'll also need to pack Overload Rounds to deal with a couple of Overload Minotaurs throughout this encounter, so make sure both teams have them.

When you've killed every enemy (including the hobgoblins hiding up high), a Vex hydra called an Angelic will spawn. Kill that, and you'll unlock a second cube in this room, floating in one of several positions. Find it and make another chain to the nearby forcefield to open it.

At this point, the Consecrated Mind will teleport from the first room to the second. The team that cleared the second room now switches jobs with the team from the first room; since whoever stayed in the first room will have Voltaic Overload timers, they won't be able to keep picking up what the boss drops. The second team has to take that role, while the first team clears out the next room. Kill all the enemies, taking special care to eliminate Cyclopes (and note that more Cyclopes spawn after you kill the Angelic). Once that team opens the third forcefield, the team from the last room again moves up to the next area, clearing out enemies. The team in the third room has to keep picking up Voltaic Overloads in the meantime.

The fourth room has a forcefield with three locks instead of one, with three corresponding cubes that will unlock one at a time as you clear each lock. Those cubes are also farther away, so you'll need more people to make your chain. When the team in the last room is ready, it should call for one of the Voltaic Overload team members to run up and help them to chain to the first lock. Once the first lock is cleared, the Consecrated Mind will again teleport away, and the Voltaic Overload team can run forward to meet the rest of the squad.

You've got a breather here until you clear the last two locks on the forcefield, so feel free to take a minute. The next area is the toughest. Once you clear all three locks, you'll have to sprint across an open field filled with Cyclopes, Overload Minotaurs, and other enemies. Meanwhile, the Consecrated Mind is going to teleport out into the middle of the field and start dropping Voltaic Overloads. Basically, as a team, you need to race for the Overloads and pick them up to avoid being wiped and starting the whole encounter over. You also need to keep from getting sniped by Cyclopes and other enemies along the way. It's basically an explosion-filled foot chase.

First, make sure you check who has Overload timers and who doesn't before you start this section of the encounter--remember, there's no rush. Whoever doesn't have timers should run straight for the Voltaic Overloads as soon as you drop the forcefield. You'll probably pick up a total of three, so make sure you have enough players at the ready to deal with them. Everyone else should provide cover and try to draw fire. The Cyclopes here are a particular threat, because they can knock out one of your Overload runners and easily lead to a wipe. My team found the best way to deal with them was with quick, decisive sniper rifle action: we used Honed Edge rounds in Izanagi's Burden to one-shot the Cyclopes and quickly thin out the number of threats on the field. Remember, however, that speed is the key here and Voltaic Overloads are most important. Given the choice between picking one up and dying because of the timer, or letting it explode, it's better to sacrifice one player. No matter what, you're going to be running through a lot of danger.

Everyone should generally race for the far end of the area. Pick up all the Overloads along the way and keep going until you run out of runway. When its back is against the wall, the Consecrated Mind will teleport away and escape, ending the encounter and rewarding you with a loot chest.

The next section of the raid is a jumping puzzle through an area called the Undergrowth. The path forward isn't too confusing--you need to move generally forward from the spot where you first drop down underground. If you see moving walls that are trying to knock you to your death, you're going the right way.

This area also has a hidden treasure chest to find. It's actually pretty simple to locate, but it can also be easy to miss.

When you first enter the Undergrowth, you'll see a path heading away to your left along one wall, and one following the wall to the right. To get to the chest, you want to head left onto the big tree root that leads out over the abyss. Walk to the end of it and look out over the gap toward the bronze Vex machinery just over in the distance. That's your destination.

On the right side of the bronze structure, you should see a square platform moving up and down like an elevator. It hangs at the top but reverses pretty quickly when it hits the bottom, so you'll need to time your jump to land on it. You're actually trying to go just past that elevator. Land on it when it hits the bottom, then get off of it to find a small hole in the wall right next to where it stops at its lowest point. Slip through that hole to find the chest. Note that this hidden chest will give you things like mods and shaders, but no Powerful drops. It seems you might get additional copies of raid loot you've already unlocked from other encounters, but it'll only drop at your current level.

The path forward is best accessed from the right side of the area from the start, crossing over the big tree roots to jump to the areas with moving walls that will try to kill you. It can be tough to cross, but the path forward is pretty clear. On the other side of the Undergrowth, you'll hit the second encounter, which has you defending a series of Vex spires from incoming enemies.

When you enter the area of the second encounter, you'll see three Vex praying to a spire. Don't shoot them or venture too far forward or you'll start the encounter. This large area is shaped like a huge diamond, and you're currently standing at one of its points. To your left and right are paths that lead to the middle points, with their own spire at each one. From there, you can continue on to the final point. My team numbered these locations, starting by calling the first spire "1" and going clockwise from there.

This encounter is like a four-way version of the Vex Spire public event you see in places such as Nessus. Vex are trying to reach the spire, where they start praying and then disappear. If enough of them sacrifice themselves to the spire, your team will be wiped. Thus, you need to clear enemies from each of the spires and then defend them throughout the course of the encounter. To start, split your team into two, with two players staying back to defend Spire 1, and four heading down the left path to Spire 2. This team will need Barrier rounds, but not Overload, so feel free to swap your mods accordingly.

Basically, what you're doing here is capturing each of the spires in turn, and then defending them for the rest of the fight. When the capture team leaves Spire 1, the defending team will clear out various small enemies, as well as an Angelic Hydra that spawns down the center hallway. Killing the Angelic triggers the chain tether mechanic for this encounter, unlocking a cube in the middle hallway.

Each person defending a spire will have to periodically activate the cube to create an energy chain to their spire. That will give them the Enlightenment buff. As you defend your spire, enemies will appear with unbreakable shields, rendering them invincible unless you have Enlightenment. The tough part of this encounter is that no person alone can make a long-enough chain to get the buff; you need at least two people to do it. Luckily, as you capture more and more spires, Vex gates will become active near each one, allowing you to quickly teleport between neighboring spires so you and your teammates can help each other regain the buff.

For loadout here, we found success with The Recluse for its enemy-clearing capabilities, and some spire defenders also used Tractor Cannon for its ability to kill multiple small enemies in one shot; it's also good for knocking shielded enemies away from the spire, even if it doesn't kill them. Sniper rifles are also recommended for killing Angelics and distant enemies, as are grenade launchers. Make sure your team has a good balance of weapons for defending the spire from small enemies, as well as a few big damage-dealers for killing Aneglics as quickly as possible.

While two players stay back at Spire 1 to defend it and start activating Enlightenment, the capture team takes over Spire 2 by clearing out the enemies there, including Barrier Hobgoblins. Each Spire also has an Angelic; once you kill that, the place is considered captured and you can start activating the Enlightenment buff and using the Vex gates to access other spires. When you capture Spire 2, leave one person from the capture team behind to defend it while the other three players on the capture team continue to Spire 3. You should have at least one defender at each spire, and one of the two defenders at Spire 1 can now float back and forth between 1, and 2, helping to rebuff people and defend. When the capture team takes Spire 3, the floating defender from Spire 1 can make it their home, so three people are left to take Spire 4. At that point, the defenders at 1, 2, and 3 should clear the waves that attack their spires, then jump through the gates to help each other out and rebuff each other with chains. You'll need to move fast, as waves keep coming, but you should have ample time to help each other and keep your buffs refreshed.

Once all four spires are captured, you'll have one defender at each spire, plus two players floating between them to help rebuff and defend. Now the encounter will change, with three Angelic hydras will spawn at one of the spires, so keep a lookout and make sure you and your teammates are vocal about where they are. When this happens, the two people who are not dedicated to defending spires should go to the location with the Angelics, using the Vex gates, and help defend it. Everyone else will need to clear a wave of shielded enemies before they can leave their posts if they're needed. Keep coordinated and help to clear out the Angelic enemies as quickly as possible, then rebuff everyone before the defenders head back to their spires for the next wave. Keep repeating this process until you've killed Angelic enemies at each spire. When that happens, the barrier blocking the way to the center of the arena will fall.

Everyone should now rush to the middle, where you'll find another spire to defend and another cube to use for buffs. Angelics will spawn down the hallways and more shielded enemies will come your way--this is your last stand. Work together to buff at least some of your teammates so they can knock out shields (a single shot will take shields down, so if you're low on buffs, concentrate on destroying as many shields as possible and let unbuffed people finish off the enemies).

You'll fight off three waves of Angelics and other enemies in this center area, including Vex Supplicants, which are harpies from the Vault of Glass that fly straight at you and explode. Titan Bubbles and Warlock Wells of Radiance are helpful here, as are Hunter Shadowshot tethers, but a coordinated team that's at level shouldn't have much trouble fighting off all the enemies. Once you've cleared enough waves, the encounter ends and grants you a reward chest.

Your next encounter happens in the same place, but the mechanics change significantly. You'll again deal with the Consecrated Mind, but this time, you're going to kill it. To do that, you need to again stop its Voltaic Overload attacks, and you'll have to work to make it vulnerable to attack. Activate the fight by creating a tether chain from the nearby cube to the spire in the center of the arena.

Again, split into two teams. Your first team's job will be to shadow the boss and pick up Voltaic Overloads when it drops them. The Consecrated Mind will fly to the end of one of the short hallways surrounding the center of the arena, and you'll have to jump over a bottomless pit in order to follow. When it gets to the far side, the Consecrated Mind will drop a Voltaic Overload, which one player will have to pick up. This time, however, the Overloaded player will be trapped and unable to move, while the Consecrated Mind prepares to one-shot kill them.

To stop the Consecrated Mind from killing your trapped teammate, you have to shoot its glowing red eyes. There are six eyes that appear on the boss during this portion, arranged in a triangle--two on its "fin" on the top, two on the left-side fin, and two on the right-side fin. Each time you pick up an Overload, you'll need to shoot one of the eyes on each fin in order to stun the boss. The best way to do this is to assign a side to each member of your Voltaic team, with the trapped person being responsible for the top fin.

The trapped person's job is to look up and see which of the two eyes on the top fin is lit up red--either the outermost eye, or the innermost eye. This is the signal for which eye to shoot on each fin; when you're not trapped, both eyes appear red. The trapped person calls out which eye to shoot, and all three players shoot their eye to stun the boss. Shoot the wrong eye or take too long, and the trapped player dies.

While the Voltaic Overload team is chasing the boss around, the rest of your team is executing something similar to a Gambit match. One of the four spires you previously defended will start to glow white at the beginning of the encounter, signaling that it is the one you have to defend from approaching shielded enemies, just like in the last encounter. You'll be able to see all four spires down the hallways leading from the center of the arena.

You can't use the chain to gain the Enlightenment buff to defend the spire this time, though. Instead, you have to find and kill Vex Minotaurs, who drop Voltaic Motes, similar to Motes of Darkness in Gambit. Each Minotaur drops five motes at a time. When the Gambit team kills one, one player should grab all the motes and then run straight for the spire. You'll be able to bank the motes in the spire just like you do in a Gambit match. Banking any motes (even just one) will give you a full dose of the Enlightenment buff. Whoever banks motes then stays at the spire to defend it from approaching enemies, while the rest of the Gambit team has 40 seconds to find another Minotaur, kill it, and bank its motes to relieve the first person.

You'll need to protect the spire throughout the fight to keep from getting wiped out, but banking motes has a secondary effect. When you've banked 30 motes in total, you'll see a message telling you that the boss is being drawn to the overloaded spire. When that happens, everyone should immediately run to the spire, because you've reached the damage phase and you'll need to attack the boss to avoid getting wiped. It's a good idea for the Gambit team to keep a running tally of the motes they've banked, since there are no count indicators provided for you. When you're about to hit 30, you can start pulling the rest of the team to the spire.

When the Consecrated Mind reaches the spire, it'll spread its fins and reveal a bunch of red eyes. As a team, quickly shoot out all of the eyes. The boss will reveal a white weak point in its center, and this is what you want to hit--but the Consecrated Mind will also retreat backward toward the center of the area, making it harder to shoot as it goes.

Right before this point, you quickly want to drop a Titan bubble with Weapons of Light and fire a Shadowshot tether at the boss to slow it down. As the boss retreats, step into the bubble to get the Weapons of Light buff, then shoot it in the face with sniper rifles; we found success using those with the Firing Line perk, Whisper of the Worm, and Izanagi's Burden. Grenade launchers with spike grenades also fair pretty well, as does a Hunter with Golden Gun and Celestial Nighthawk. You must do enough damage to stun the boss during this phase, or it'll wipe you; it's also important that you start to move forward before too long because a Vex barrier will trap you by the spire if you linger.

Once the boss becomes invulnerable again, you'll need to repeat the process with another spire until you've killed it. You'll need to finish the job in three rounds in order to avoid allowing the Consecrated Mind to become Enraged, and therefore much more deadly.

At the start of a new round after a damage phase, check in on your team's Voltaic Overload counters, as you might need to switch players around briefly to make sure someone can pick up the Overloads to keep from wiping. Similarly, the Overload team should try to help kill Minotaurs whenever possible (but avoid picking up the motes), and one member of the Gambit team should be ready to switch over and pick up a Voltaic Overload if all three members of that squad already have a counter. It's worth noting that if you die, your Overload timer goes away, freeing you to take the drop again. Through this whole process, watch out for Vex Supplicants, which move fast and can blow you up before you realize they're there. They spawn down the long hallways to the spires and like to head immediately to the middle. Supplicants will often also hang out in your way as you jump back from picking up a Voltaic Overload, where they can kill you as soon as you land.

When the Consecrated Mind goes down, you'll be able to leave through the door behind the rotating hallway. The path from there will take you back through another jumping puzzle, but again, it's a relatively simple one. Continue forward until you hit a field with flowers, trees, and a couple of big waterfalls of white Vex milk. Your second and final hidden chest of the raid is located here.

From here, climb the big tree on the right side of the area, fighting your way past a few enemies. As you make your way up the hill, you'll see two openings up ahead. Go through the entrance on the left, which will take you inside the big tree. If you turn around and face the opening, you should see a platform up above the door with a glowing chest on it.

You can reach that platform by taking a circuitous route around the outside of the tree, or you can hop up on the stump on the right side of this room and just leap straight up to it. As a Hunter, I got this one with almost no effort and without the use of ST0MP-EE5 or adjusting my specs for mobility.

Continue back up the hill and you'll eventually climb up to a huge new arena and a fight with the final boss: the Sanctified Mind.

This final fight brings in a few more mechanics and includes a whole lot of things you need to keep in mind, while also mixing in elements of everything you've done in the raid so far. First and foremost, note that there are several Vex spires in this area, all of them with the port for accepting motes. During each phase of the fight, two spires will be active, designated by the chain cubes above them, and those are also the only two that will allow you to deposit motes. You'll need to defend both the spires from approaching Vex Goblins that will try to pray and sacrifice themselves to them; if they succeed, you'll be wiped. So job one in a lot of cases is to keep the area clear of enemies.

Your loadout for this fight should be similar to what you used for the Consecrated Mind. You'll want powerful sniper rifles like Izanagi's Burden and Whisper of the Worm for damaging the boss (and killing Cyclopes), and something like The Recluse, The Huckleberry, or similar guns for killing a whole lot of smaller enemies and defending spires. Shadowshot tethers can be useful here again, but especially if you wind up on the mote-gathering team, you might want to go with a roaming Super that will let you kill a lot of enemies fast. Titan Bubbles are great for Weapons of Light during the damage phase, but other stationary Supers like Well of Radiance might not be as effective thanks to the way the arena shifts around you.

You'll need three teams of two for much of this fight. Two of the teams will be responsible for mote collection, and once they've turned their motes in at a spire, for clearing out shielded enemies using the Enlightenment buff--just like in the last encounter. But the two spires are not the same; one is a regular Vex spire that you've seen throughout the raid so far, and one is a "dark" version of the spire. The dark version is orange and only accepts "dark" motes, which are also orange. Luckily, you'll know which kind you have based on where you get them; more on that in a minute. What's important is that more of those plus sign-shaped locks will appear in front of the boss, and their color will correspond to the color of the spire you need to use to create the chain that unlocks them.

The two mote teams will alternate leaving the main arena to go for motes, while the other four players stay back and defend. When the fight starts, everyone will shoot at enemies until an Angelic spawn, at which point you'll need to kill it to unlock the chain cubes above the spires. That will also light up two red weak points on the Sanctified Mind: one on the right shoulder and one on the left hip.

Concentrate fire on the right shoulder first. When it explodes, a piece will fall off the boss, which will open a big orange portal in the middle of the radiolarian lake near him. The first mote team should immediately head for the portal and go through, staying together; the portal will only stay open for a short time so you need to get both players through quickly. That'll transport them to a distant island full of enemies. Clear out the enemies and pick up as many motes as you can--these will be the orange "dark" Voltaic motes, and therefore will correspond to the spire on the right side of the arena when facing the boss. You need to get at least 15 between both players, but each of you can only carry 10 at a time. Meanwhile, back at the boss, activating the portal will spawn a distant Cyclops high above the arena on the right side, so make sure to take it down immediately, or it will snipe your teammates and wreck your run. Every time a portal opens, a cyclops spawns on its corresponding side, so make sure to always be ready to kill it fast.

When the mote team has enough, they should tell the players who stayed behind to shoot the Sanctified Mind's shoulder again (Note: In a pinch, you can snipe the weak point on the boss from the island, but this can throw off your rhythm so do it very sparingly). Blowing up the shoulder will instantly teleport the first mote team back to the arena, where they can jump down and head to the glowing orange spire to deposit their motes. Depositing will give them both Enlightenment, and they should immediately spread out across the arena and start shooting shielded enemies. Since a new portal opened, a Cyclops will again spawn; my team was successful when one of the returning mote collectors stopped to kill the Cyclops as soon as they arrived, while the second person jumped down to bank their motes.

Meanwhile, as soon as the shoulder is blown up and the first mote team is teleported back, the second mote team should jump into the portal and repeat the process. They should gather motes as quickly as possible and then signal for the rest of the team to bring them back by shooting the shoulder. Alternatively, if your team's Enlightenment buff is running out, you should shoot the shoulder and bring the mote team back immediately. Keeping shielded enemies away from the spire is essential because Vex sacrificing themselves to the spires is the quickest way for your team to get wiped out. It's possible to recover if you have less than 30 motes after two portal visits, but it's highly recommended you try to get all the motes in just two trips.

Once both teams have gone through the orange portal and deposited 30 motes, that spire will be fully charged--you won't be able to deposit more motes into it at that point, which means if you're stuck carrying unneeded motes, you won't be able to get the Enlightenment buff to kill shielded enemies.

If you've done things correctly, quickly start repeating the process with the weak point on the boss's left hip--you need to move fast, since you're on the Enlightenment timer. That'll create a blue portal and spawn a Cyclops on the left side of the arena. Send the first team through to get motes again, which you'll deposit in the blue spire on the left side of the arena when you return. Again, make sure you get 30 motes in total; if you don't, send another person through the portal again until you have enough. Both spires must be fully charged with 30 motes or you won't be able to trigger the damage phase or stop the boss from wiping you during the next portion.

While the mote teams are doing their thing, the last team has a whole other job to do. These guys are the Builders, and their job is to clear enemies and to keep the boss from destroying the arena. As you work through the fight, the boss will cause sections of the arena to turn orange, which will make those areas disappear and kill anyone who's standing on them. The back sections of the arena matter less, but losing the front portions makes clearing enemies and staying alive very difficult. The builders' job is to use the spires to make chains to different floating plus-shaped locks around the area in order to restore the land the boss destroys. They should do this as quickly as they can, but only between waves of enemies if possible--activating the cubes and getting in the chain will mean you can't shoot enemies, which can create sticky situations if you need to protect the spires.

For the most part, two people should be able to make a chain to almost any of the locks, but have a third person who's currently defending on-call should you need a longer chain. The builders will need to be highly coordinated to deal with the boss destroying the arena, and it's important that they also make it clear where they're working. You'll want to keep the other defenders well away when you're creating the chain so that you can quickly get it where it needs to go and you don't accidentally disrupt anyone's ability to shoot enemies. Whenever the building team is not restoring land, it should be shooting goblins to defend the spires, and helping to activate the portals to bring back the mote teams so they can deposit.

After a specific period of time--it seems to be about around four or five enemy waves--the boss will create a big, colored plus sign-shaped lock in front of it. This is the boss's big wipe mechanic. You need to clear that lock before it fully charges or you'll die, but it takes a long time for that to happen, so you have time to clear out enemies before you worry about it. Another Angelic enemy will spawn, along with more shielded goblins that'll try to reach the spires. Keep clearing them and take down the Angelic to re-open access to the cubes.

Once you're in the clear, you need to make a chain to the boss's lock from the spire of the corresponding color. The best way to do this is to assign one person to be the first link in the chain, and one person to the last link. Both those people get into position, one near the boss and one near the spire. Then, the two players who do not have Enlightenment fill in the chain between the beginning and end players. Four should be enough to link to the boss's lock, and the fewer players you can use, the better, as it'll create the chain more quickly. But be ready to shift this if you need more people, as you need to be close to the boss's lock to chain to it and might need the extra distance.

When the boss's lock is cleared by the chain, you can shoot its big white critical spot. After just a few seconds, though, the boss will rise into the air and a second plus sign lock will appear before it. You have a couple of seconds to repeat the same process as with the first lock, but from the other spire. The best way to handle this is as follows: Destroy the first lock, then have the chain team run to the other side and prepare for the second lock. The two or three players who don't need to help with the second lock should stay behind at the first spire and shoot the boss as much as they can. When you clear the second lock, your opportunity to damage the Sanctified Mind increases significantly, and at this point everyone should fire away.

Use a Titan Bubble with Weapons of Light to maximize your sniper or grenade launcher damage. Golden Gun and Celestial Nighthawk is recommended, as are rally barricades to make sure you do as much damage as possible. With one properly executed damage phase, my team was able to knock out fully half the Sanctified Mind's health. Once the boss becomes invulnerable again, you'll have to repeat the whole process. If everyone is coordinated enough, you should be able to take the boss down in two or three phases. Note that after you complete a damage phase, the active Vex spires will change, so you'll need to deposit motes in a new place on both sides of the arena.

When the Sanctified Mind goes down for good, you'll have beaten Garden of Salvation, but that's not all there is to do in the raid. Check out our guide for unlocking Divinity, the raid's Exotic trace rifle, which requires quite a bit of work--and six-player puzzle-solving--to get.

See more here:
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Raid Guide - How To Beat The Garden Of Salvation - GameSpot

captionMark Zuckerberg spoke about Facebook and free speech at Georgetown.sourceGeorgetown/Facebook

In a live-streamed speech at Georgetown University on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg laid out his thoughts on freedom of speech.

Zuckerberg used the moment to talk about his own legacy, and the legacy of Facebook. He told the New York Times that he gave the speech in order to explain his views on free expression, and lay out a future path for Facebook after he is no longer in charge.I hope this is a moment for us to put our place in history in perspective, he told The Times.

In the speech, Zuckerberg described Facebook as a platform that gives users two important things: voice and inclusion. He then referenced well-known social movements in which people used their voices, implicitly comparing them to Facebook.

More people being able to share their perspectives has always been necessary to build a more inclusive society, Zuckerberg said, as he proceeded to quote Frederick Douglass and to reference the Civil Rights Movement and the Enlightenment. He also mentioned that #blacklivesmatter first appeared as a hashtag on Facebook.

Read more: Facebook made the unusual decision to push back directly on Elizabeth Warren and her criticism of the company, but its attempt to defend itself backfired spectacularly

Not everyone was convinced by Zuckerbergs attempt to include Facebook in the story of broader social movements. Vanita Gupta, President of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, told the New York Times, Mark Zuckerberg is co-opting civil rights history to try to justify Facebooks policies that do long-term damage to our democracy.

Facebook is under fire for its policy of running political ads with misinformation, exempting them from the normal third-party fact-checking process. Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has been particularly critical, and breaking up Facebook is a major part of her platform. Last week, she ran a fake Facebook ad claiming that Zuckerberg supports Trumps reelection, and the company tried to call her out on Facebook, which did not go well for them.

Despite backlash against the policy, Zuckerberg maintained that he and Facebook dont want to censor politicians or the news in a democracy. Last week, after Politico published records of off-the-record dinners Zuckerberg had with Conservative leaders and politicians, Zuckerberg posted that hearing from a wide range of viewpoints is part of learning, and told others to try it.

Read more:
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is trying to build a legacy amid scandals and criticism - Business Insider

I write this on the 15th in Bhutan. I realize where this is going mostly to be read, it is a day earlier. Ive been mostly enjoying the confusions of the international date line and the reminders of the mess that is time and space

That noted, according to one source in Japanese tradition the 15th of October, is marked as the day in the year 606, when Jianzhi Sengcan returned to that mystery from which all of us come and, as with that ancient venerable, to which all of us return.

In our Zen traditions Sengcan (Seng-tsan in the older Pinyin transliteration and Sosan in Japanese) is the third Chinese ancestor, inheriting the dharma from Huike who inherited it from Bodhidharma. Just as the historicity of this lineage is confused, clouded, best to be held within the mysteries of story and myth, he is also traditionally named as the author of a poem.

And that poem, the title variously translated as Faith in Mind, or On Trust in the Heart, or Have Faith in Your Mind, or a Song of Enlightenment has invited numerous attempts at rendering into English.

Among my favorite versions is that by Stanley Lombardo, poet, classicist, and Zen master within the Kwan Um School.

TRUSTING IN MIND

The Great Way is not difficult,Just dont pick and choose.If you cut off all likes or dislikesEverything is clear like space.

Make the slightest distinctionAnd heaven and earth are set apart.If you wish to see the truth,Dont think for or against.

Likes and dislikesAre the minds disease.Without understanding the deep meaningYou cannot still your thoughts.

It is clear like space,Nothing missing, nothing extra.If you want somethingYou cannot see things as they are.

Outside, dont get tangled in things.Inside, dont get lost in emptiness.Be still and become OneAnd all opposites disappear.

If you stop moving to become still,This stillness always moves.If you hold on to opposites,How can you know One?

If you dont understand One,This and that cannot function.Denied, the world asserts itself.Pursued, emptiness is lost.

The more you think and talk,The more you lose the Way.Cut off all thinkingAnd pass freely anywhere.

Return to the root and understand.Chase appearances and lose the source.One moment of enlightenmentIlluminates the emptiness before you.

Emptiness changing into thingsIs only our deluded view.Do not seek the truth.Only put down your opinions.

Do not live in the world of opposites.Be careful! Never go that way.If you make right and wrong,Your mind is lost in confusion.

Two comes from One,But do not cling even to this One.When your mind is undisturbedThe ten thousand things are without fault.

No fault, no ten thousand things,No disturbance, no mind.No world, no one to see it.No one to see it, no world.

In emptiness the two are the same,And each holds the ten thousand things.If you no longer see them as different,How can you prefer one to another?

The Way is calm and wide,Not easy, not difficult.But small minds get lost.Hurrying, they fall behind.

Clinging, they go too far,Sure to take a wrong turn,Just let it be! In the end,Nothing goes, nothing stays.

Follow nature and become one with the Way,Free and easy and undisturbed.Tied by your thoughts, you lose the truth,Become heavy, dull, and unwell.

Not well, the mind is troubled.Then why hold or reject anything?If you want to get the One VehicleDo not despise the world of the senses.

When you do not despise the six senses,That is already enlightenment.The wise do not act.The ignorant bind themselves.

In true Dharma there is no this or that,So why blindly chase your desires?Using mind to stir up the mindIs the original mistake.

Peaceful and troubled are only thinking.Enlightenment has no likes or dislikes.All opposites ariseFrom faulty views.

Illusions, flowers in the air Why try to grasp them?Win, lose, right, wrong Put it all down!

If the eye never sleeps,Dreams disappear by themselves.If the mind makes no distinctions,The ten thousand things are one essence.

Understand this dark essenceAnd be free from entanglements.See the ten thousand things as equalAnd you return to your original nature

Enlightened beings everywhereAll enter this source.This source is beyond time and space.One moment is ten thousand years.

Even if you cannot see it,The whole universe is before your eyes.

Infinitely small is infinitely large:No boundaries, no differences.Infinitely large is infinitely small:Measurements do not matter here.

What is is the same as what is not.What is not is the same as what is.Where it is not like this,Dont bother staying.

One is all,All is one.When you see things like this,You do not worry about being incomplete.

Trust and Mind are not two.Not-two is trusting the Mind.

Words and speech dont cut it,Cant now, never could, wont ever.

And at absolutely no extra cost a brief visit with the translator, Stanley Lombardo, together with his wife Judith Rotiman, also a poet, and, like her husband, a Zen master within the Kwan Um School

Go here to read the rest:
A Song of Trusting in Mind | James Ford - Patheos

Deepak Chopra, the doctor and self-help guru, who turns seventy-three next week, has written more than one book for every year he has been alive. Chopra was born in New Delhi and studied medicine in India before moving to the United States, in 1970. After practicing as an endocrinologist in Massachusetts, he became involved in the Transcendental Meditation movement. He eventually relocated to the West Coast, left T.M. behind, and became a spiritual adviser to Michael Jackson and other celebrities. A quarter century later, his books have sold millions of copies, and his television appearancesespecially alongside Oprah Winfreyhave made him perhaps the most prominent advocate for alternative medicine recognizable around the world.

Chopras work evinces a consistent skepticism toward the scientific consensushe has called into question whether evolution is merely a process of the mindand a firm belief that mental health can determine physical reality. He has written of a place called perfect healththe title of one of his books, and now the slogan for one of his wellness retreatsin which human beings can go somewhere internally that is free from disease, that never feels pain, that cannot age or die. These beliefs have made him controversial among doctors and scientists. In 1998, Chopra was awarded the satirical Ig Nobel Prize for his unique interpretation of quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of economic happiness. A random Chopra-quote generator is popular online, and Chopra has been called out for tweeting and writing phrases that, in the words of one paper, may have been constructed to impress upon the reader some sense of profundity at the expense of a clear exposition of meaning or truth. (Example: Attention and intention are the mechanics of manifestation.)

Chopras latest book is Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, and it touches on a number of themes that have been present throughout his career: that human beings can become metahuman by reaching a new place of awareness; that science has served to block the way to the absolute freedom that metahuman holds out; and that self-improvement can move creation itself. I recently spoke by phone with Chopra. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed controversial remarks he has made about cancer and AIDS, his claim to have never been even a tiny bit sick, and whether there is a reality that exists independently of our own minds.

How do you define yourself and what you do?

I would say that to define oneself is to limit oneself. But Ive had various roles through my life. Im an internist, an endocrinologist, a neuro-endocrinologist; a teacher of integrative medicine and an author; a husband, a son, a father, a child.

I know you are a doctor, but does thinking about yourself as a doctor seem limiting to you in some way?

It seems limiting to me, but I would say I think of myself closer to a healer. Because, when I look at healing and the origins of the word healing, its related to the word whole. So wholeness means everything, including body, mind, and spirit, and the environment. I think of myself as a doctor who is interested in the physical body, but also in all aspects of human experiencehuman emotions, human thinking, human experience, and, ultimately, in understanding ourselves beyond the conditioned mind. So I would say I want to be a healer. Thats my aspiration.

At what point in your career did you become famous?

Some people think it happened with The Oprah Winfrey Show, in 1993, when she did a one-to-one with me for a book called Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, which then stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for thirty-some weeks. Actually, my most well-known book is The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. But I have to say that Oprah helped me a lot with the launch of my career, and shes been an ally ever since. Weve taught six million people meditation online together.

How many books have you written now?

This is my ninetieth book.

Would you say your writing process has changed between your first and your ninetieth?

Yes. My process was more structured in the past. And now I feel its more a flow than anything else. I used to always be told by media and publishers, and even the BBC when I was in England, to dumb everything down, and I used to, and I dont anymore. I feel free to say whatever I want to.

Ive been looking for a through line in your work, and the one that Ive noticed most is the idea that our minds can determine reality, or that theres a connection between our minds and reality. Is that a fair way of phrasing it?

Yes. The correct phrase would be that our experience of the world, and of our body, is a projection of our conditioned mind. So, when youre born, you have no human constructs. Youre looking at the world as a messy, gooey experience of color, form, shapes, sounds, pictures, smells, tastes, and random thoughts, which are yet not clear. But then a construction process begins. And so youre told, Youre male, youre of a religious background, ethnic background, nationality, gender. And that begins to create a provisional identity. And then that provisional identity has perceptual experiences but interprets them as the physical body and the world. But, in the deeper reality, theres no such thing. All there is is consciousness experiencing itself perceptually, as perceptual activity, which is species-specific. You dont see the same world as a painted lady, a species of butterfly that smells the world with an antenna, tastes the world with her feet. So what is the picture of the world to a snake that navigates through the experience of infrared?

If you and a snake perceive the world differently and experience it differently, does that mean that the world is actually different? Or does it just mean that we perceive it differently?

We can only experience a narrow band with our perceptual reality. So there is no such thing as a physical world. Thats where Im going. Our experience of the world is species- and culture-specific. And that is what we interpret as fundamental reality.

You once said, Consciousness is key to evolution and we will soon prove that. What did you mean?

You know, Ive said in the past that Darwinian evolution is a human constructthat, ultimately, consciousness drives at least human evolution. We can direct our evolution by the choices we make. And now that we know the science of epigenetics and neuroplasticity, we can see very clearly that, because we are self-aware, unlike other species, we can consciously direct our evolution. And that is what epigenetics and neuroplasticity are showing us.

Epigenetics is not that we can direct our evolution, though, is it?

Well, we can trigger the activity of certain genes and decrease the activity of certain other genes. So, when people practice self-reflection or mindful awareness, or they have the experience of transcendence, you can actually see which genes get activated and which genes get deactivated. Theres a mechanism to that. So you can actually activate the genes that cause self-regulation or homeostasis, and actually decrease the activity of the genes that cause inflammation. So what is healing? It is nothing but self-regulation or homeostasis. And what is disease is mostly linked to chronic inflammation. Only five per cent of disease-related gene mutations are fully penetrant, which means they guarantee the disease. That includes everything, from Alzheimers to cancer to autoimmune disease. Only five per cent is related to genetic determinism. The rest is influenced by life style. [Gerard Karsenty, the chair of the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, says, Those assumptions include non-Mendelian diseases. It is for now hard to precisely assess in multigenic diseases the extent of the contribution of gene mutations and the one of lifestyle taken in a broad sense. This is particularly true for autoimmune diseases that hit at all ages, including during childhood and with a higher incidence in women.]

You tweeted, An emerging view, alternate to Darwins random mutations & natural selection is that consciousness may be the driver of complexity/evolution.

Correct. But there are a few people who agree with that.

So, you know, scientists generally are nave realists. Which means they look at the picture of the world, and thats what it is.

What do you do, if not that?

Ive become aware of that which is having the experience rather than the experience, which in spiritual traditions is called the self. The body, the mind, and the world are the self.

It seems like all of these things are fitting under the rubric of what we were talking about earlier about consciousness and reality. I know you once said something like, The moon doesnt exist unless someone sees it. Is that right?

No, no. That was Einsteins quote, by the way. He actually said, I refuse to believe that the moon doesnt exist if no one is looking at it. [In his biography of Einstein, Abraham Pais recounted an interaction he had with the physicist who asked me if I really believed that the moon exists only if I look at it.] Thats a statement coming from a nave realist. The moon that you and I see is a human experience. A horseshoe crab doesnt have that experience living in the depths of the ocean.

Einstein was incredulously asking someone whether they really believe that the moon only exists when its looked at. Correct?

Yes. The moon is an experience in human consciousness. The moon that you and I see is an experience in human consciousness. If there was no human consciousness, no body, mind to go with it, there would be no awareness of the moon.

But the moon would still be there, correct?

How do you prove that? How do you validate that? How do you disprove that? How do you prove an unobserved phenomenon?

The moon is a human story. The universe is a human story. Its a human construct, or human experiences, and interpreted by the human mind.

So this would be akin to the question, which Im sure weve all heard, that if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?

Correct. The sound is only in consciousness. Before that its a vibration of air molecules.

But the vibration of air molecules are occurring. Correct?

The vibration of air molecules is a human construct for a human mode of knowing and experience in human consciousness, so yes, they are constructs. The air molecules are as much of a construct as latitude and longitude, as The New Yorker, as Greenwich Mean Time, as money, as Wall Street, as Manhattan.

Im not sure what that means.

Human constructs are human ideas around modes of human knowing.

I see.

So an atom, a molecule, a force field, vibration of moleculesthese are all human constructs.

So its not that the tree is making a sound and we just happen to be there or not there to hear it. Its that the sound is only present to the degree that we are also present.

Actually, there is no tree and there is no sound and there is no body and there is no mind. Theres only consciousness thats having an experience. The rest is human constructs.

In your book Quantum Healing, you wrote, Research on spontaneous cures of cancer conducted in both the United States and Japan has shown that just before the cure appears, almost every patient experiences a dramatic shift in awareness. He knows that he will be healed and he feels that the force responsible is inside himself, but not limited to him. It extends beyond his personal boundaries throughout all of nature. Suddenly he feels, I am not limited to my body. All that exists around me is part of myself. At that moment, such patients apparently jumped to a new level of consciousness that prohibits the existence of cancer. Then the cancer cells either disappear, literally overnight in some cases, or at the very least stabilize without damaging the body any further.

So if you were a scientist and you saw one case of that, one in a billion, youd want to know the mechanism. And I feel the mechanism is a return to fundamental homeostasis, which means self-regulation, and total absence of fear, including the fear of death. Because your identity is no longer your body-mind.

And so is that more important than medicine?

No, I think medicine is very useful for acute illness. If you have pneumonia, I certainly tell you to take an antibiotic. You break your leg, Id have you see an orthopedic surgeon. If you have cancer, there are many types of chemotherapy and radiation and stem-cell therapies and immunotherapies that will help you. But, in todays age, if you dont understand that integrating that with good sleep, with meditation, with stress management, with mindfulness, with healthy emotions, with good food that actually changes the activity of your microbiomeif you dont conform to that, then youre out of date.

This is from your book Perfect Health: There exists in every person a place that is free from disease, that never feels pain, that cannot age or die. When you go to this place, limitations which all of us accept cease to exist. They are not even entertained as a possibility. This is the place called perfect health. Visits to this place may be very brief, or they may last for many years. Even the briefest visit, however, instills a profound change. As long as you are there, the assumptions that hold true for ordinary existence are altered. If you can be in this place, why would you necessarily need medicine to stay healthy?

We dont. Ive never used medicine myself. Im seventy-three years old, never been in the hospital, never had surgery. Cant even remember having a cold.

You would vaccinate your children, correct?

Of course I would, if Im in a surrounding where there is... You know, I would not vaccinate a child in New York City for polio, because it doesnt exist. But I would for measles, because it does exist.

Even if the child was in this state that you call perfect health?

The child is in a state of perfect health if its born normally. Its in a state of homeostasis. But we also live in a world that has environmental toxins, that has climate change, that has extinction of species, that has poison in our food chain, and that is ready for extinction. And all of that is the projection of our collective insanity.

You say, The cause of disease is often extremely complex, but one thing can be said for certain: no one has proved that getting sick is necessary.

Right. My own situation says that.

Because youve never been sick.

Yes.

Because youre in this place called perfect health?

Because Im aware of being aware and I can choose the experiences I want and I focus on love, compassion, joy, equanimity, and Im beyond the fear of personal death because I dont identify with my provisional, personal, so-called identity. The question you asked me when we started, How do you define yourself?I dont.

If we were all in this place, would we need medicine?

Yes. Because of the world weve created, we would, yes.

But not because

And, besides that, the ecosystem is a predatory play of consciousness where, you know, its a recycling of experience. Birth, death, illness: they are part of our provisional identity, but I dont identify with that identity. If you do not identify with the experience, if consciousness that is aware of experience, if the awareness of experience is not the experience, then youre intrinsically free of the experience. Do you know what Im saying?

Im not sure.

O.K. If you are aware of a thought, then youre not the thought, youre the awareness of the thought.

Dr. Stacia Kenet Lansman, whos a leading vaccine skeptic, cited your work as an inspiration. Do you

I have never been against vaccination.

I know you havent.

I have never spoken against medical treatment or intervention. You should do whatever works.

But do you worry that the idea that we can achieve this place of perfect health based on our own mental state can give license to anti-scientific thinking, like we see in the anti-vaccine movement?

You asked me if I worry about that. I dont worry about anything.

Which is why you havent gotten sick.

But people can take what I say and interpret it how they want to. Theres also a difference between scientism and science. Science is a very neutral activity: theories, observation, experiments, validation or invalidation. Period. I am a big proponent of science as the greatest adventure that human consciousness has taken. With scientism, its a different thing. Its being a fundamentalist and believing that science has all the solutions for human problems, including the existential dilemmas we have about our identity, our fear of old age, infirmity, and death.

There was an interview you gave many years ago, with Tony Robbins, about AIDS. Hed put forth the idea that H.I.V. is not the source of AIDS. You said, H.I.V. may be a precipitating agent in a susceptible host.The material agent is never the cause of the disease.It may be the final factor in inducing the full-blown syndrome in somebody whos already susceptible. He then asked,Butwhat made them susceptible? You answered, Their own interpretations of the whole reality that theyre participating in. Do you still feel that way about H.I.V. and AIDS?

I still feel that pathogens are precipitating factors in susceptible hosts, and that the outcome of illness and recovery is very complex. Now, having said that, when you can find a single agent that you can either attack or get rid of, then, of course, thats the solution. You know, you and I can be exposed to a pneumococcus and one person gets pneumonia and the other doesnt. So you can see that illness is not just one mechanistic happening, an encounter with the pathogen. It has to do with everything. Are you deeply rested, are you stressed, whats your nutrition, what are your personal relationships, what is your emotional stateall of these things have an influence. Every experience we have is ultimately metabolized into a molecule in the body. If I gave you bad news right now, your blood pressure would go up. In fact, if I sent a mean tweet to Mr. Trump, his blood pressure would go up even further.

You went on to say, I have a lot of patients with so-called AIDS, this label that weve given them, that are healthier than most of the population thats living in downtown Boston. They havent had a cold in ten years. And then Robbins said, But someone has told them they have this disease. You said, Yes, somebody has told them that. And Robbins says, And they bought into it. And you said, Exactly.

Listen. You can do a five-hour interviewyou can edit it into any way you want. You can take statements out of context.

No, thats the whole context.

And then you can say, This is what you said. Right? I had that experience myself as a physician. I said to the patient, You have cancer. Immediately, he looked like he was going to have a stroke. He was going to faint. And then I realized I read the wrong chart and I said, Sorry, that was somebody else. In two seconds I could see him recover from high blood pressure, sticky platelets, a jittery heart, and so on. So, you know, there is a lot more to reality than just a simple diagnosis and the label.

But to go on to the point youre just making now, about diagnosis, when Robbins said about the diagnosis of AIDS, People are accepting this, and when they accept this, what happens to them? You replied, When they accept it, then they make it happen. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Is that what youre saying?

Yeah. I might have said that. And, if I did, I regret it.

What I say today is, Believe the diagnosis, but dont believe the prognosis.

Youve been criticized before for selling products that people claim can help cure cancer or other diseases via meditation.

No, Ive never claimed that. No.

Never?

If you find a reference of that, let me know.

Well, there was a video called Return to Wholeness: A Mind-Body Approach to Healing Cancer. And the release about it says, Meditation and visualization are two of the most

Right. That video was a program to help people visualize and get into a relaxed state. I believe it was promoted as that on my Web site until I became aware of it, and then it was taken off.

And then you took it down?

Yeah. It was actually an artificial-intelligence program for meditation and self-regulation. And, by the way, used at many cancer-therapy clinics across the world as an aid to relaxation. [A member of Chopras staff named Cancer Treatment Centers of America as one of the clinics that use the video, but a representative for the treatment centers was unable to verify this.]

So, when you say in your best-sellers, like Super Brain, that increased self-awareness can reduce the risks of aging and help people achieve freedom and bliss, do you feel that youre doing that at all, or not?

I am. Of course. Im seventy-three years old, and I dont think my biological age is seventy-three. In fact, I have publicly declared that I am slowing down my aging process. And I think you can go on social media and look at all the pictures over the last few years and you can see, physically, that I am not looking as old, or feeling as old, as I was twenty-five years ago. I know what Ive said is outrageous, but, if people actually listen carefully, they will see that they determine a lot of what goes into well-being and health. And, ultimately, I dont think that health is physical at all. Because, ultimately, we are all going to die, and all going to have some kind of infirmity. But most of what we do is creating anxiety from living a full life in the present moment.

So you feel that youve reached a different stage of human existence?

Im just following the example of people who have lived long, healthy lives without any infirmity and died peacefully in meditation. In the Indian tradition, its called mahasamadhithe big meditation.

When youre selling books by saying that theres a network of intelligence in the human body that has the potential to defeat cancer, heart disease, and even aging itself, is that not selling to people that cancer can be beaten by something other than medicine?

Have you read the book? Or have you read criticisms of the book?

Ive read several of the books, and some criticisms.

So then you have to make up your own mind. Im not a purveyor of false hope. In fact, I think the term false hope is an oxymoron. Either you have hope or you dont. And those that have hope do better than those who dont.

So there is no false hope?

Its up to you how you interpret this, and it doesnt actually affect me. You know, Im at a stage in my life where Ive gone beyond criticism and/or flattery. I dont need that.

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Deepak Chopra Has Never Been Sick - The New Yorker