One of the principal symbols of The Fourth Way is a circle whose circumference is divided into nine parts that are joined within the circle to a triangle and an irregular six-sided figure, the enneagram.

According to Gurdjieff, the enneagram is "the fundamental hieroglyph of a universal language." Gurdjieff's use of the word hieroglyph, of course, points to Egypt. In this context, it is interesting to consider the nine deities established at Heliopolis in the Early Dynastic Period as part of the cosmogonic or creation myths. These cosmogonic tenets are given in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom.

The frontispiece of the Arithmologia by the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher(16011680), published in 1665, shows a figure not identical but somewhat similar to the enneagram. Kircher was a man of the Renaissance in pursuit of origins. His studies in magnetics, acoustics and medicine led him to attempt to decode Egyptian hieroglyphics. According to one source, Kircher regarded the ancient Egyptian religion "as the source not only of Greek and Roman religion but of the beliefs of the later Hebrews, Chaldaeans and even the inhabitants of India, China, Japan and the Americas, colonized in turn by Ham's progeny. Therefore, he believed that by studying these later and better recorded beliefs one could extrapolate the earliest religion of mankind, that of ancient Egypt."

Like The Fourth Way itself, the enneagram has not been known up to the present time. "The enneagram," said Gurdjieff, "has for a very long time been preserved in secret and if it now is, so to speak, made available to all, it is only in an incomplete and theoretical form." This, and the fact that it is a part of a teaching, has not deterred those who have sought to market the enneagram, divested of its deeper meaning and application, as a psychological tool. See William Patrick Patterson's Taking With the Left Hand.

Continue reading here:
The Enneagram - Gurdjieff Legacy

Ma Anand Sheela (born 28 December 1949 as Sheela Ambalal Patel in India, also known as Sheela Birnstiel)[1] is an Indian-born AmericanSwiss former spokeswoman of the Rajneesh movement (aka Osho movement) who has been convicted of multiple attempted murders.

Ma Anand Sheela

Sheela Ambalal Patel

As the personal secretary of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh from 1981 through 1985, she managed the Rajneeshpuram ashram in Wasco County, Oregon, United States.[2] In 1985, she pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault for her role in the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack.[3] She was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and paroled after 39 months [4] Sheela later moved to Switzerland, where she married, and purchased two nursing homes. In 1999, she was convicted by a Swiss court of "criminal acts preparatory to the commission of murder" in relation to a plot to kill US federal prosecutor Charles Turner in 1985.

David Berry Knapp, aka Swami Krishna Deva, former mayor of Rajneeshpuram, told the FBI in his testimony that Sheela told him during a trip to India which they took in 1985, that she had injected her first husband [Marc Harris Silverman] with an injection that caused his death.[5] After prison, Sheela married Urs Birnstiel, a Swiss citizen, who reportedly died after a short marriage.[6]

Sheela married Marc Harris Silverman, an American from Highland Park, Illinois,[9][10] and took the name Sheela P. Silverman.[11] She moved to India in 1972 to pursue spiritual studies with her husband. They became disciples of the Indian guru Rajneesh and Sheela took the name Ma Anand Sheela.[1][12] After her husband died, Sheela married a fellow Rajneesh follower, John Shelfer.[12]

In 1981, Sheela became Rajneesh's personal assistant and convinced him to leave India and establish an ashram in the United States.[13][14] In July 1981, Sheela purchased the 64,000-acre (260km2) Big Muddy Ranch in Wasco County, Oregon, which became the site for the development of the Rajneeshpuram commune.[13][15] She became president of Rajneesh Foundation International,[13] managed the commune and met daily with Rajneesh to discuss business matters.[13][16][17] According to Sheela, Rajneesh was complicit in and directed her involvement in criminal acts she later committed.[18]

By 1984, the ashram was coming into increasing conflict with local residents and the county commission (Wasco County Court).[19] Sheela attempted to influence the Wasco County Court's November election and capture the two open seats[20][21] by bussing in hundreds of homeless people from within Oregon as well as outside, and registering them as county voters.[13] Later, when that effort failed,[22][23] Sheela conspired, in 1984, to use "bacteria and other methods to make people ill" and prevent them from voting.[24][25] As a result, the salad bars at ten local restaurants were infected with salmonella and about 750 people became ill.[3][20][26][27]

On September 13, 1985, Sheela fled to Europe.[15][28] A few days later Rajneesh "accused her of arson, wiretapping, attempted murder, and mass poisonings."[15] He also asserted that Sheela had written the Book of Rajneeshism and published it under his name.[29] Subsequently, Sheela's robes and 5,000 copies of the Book of Rajneeshism were burned in a bonfire at the ashram.[29]

After US authorities searching her home found wire-tapping networks and a laboratory in which the bacteria used in the attack had been grown,[15] Sheela was arrested in West Germany in October 1986. She was extradited to the US in February on charges of immigration fraud[30] and attempted murder.[26][31] The Oregon Attorney General prosecuted for crimes related to the poisoning of Commissioner Matthew and Judge Hulse[32] while the US Attorney prosecuted crimes related to the restaurant poisonings.[32] Sheela pleaded guilty on 22 July 1986 to first-degree assault and conspiracy to commit assault against Hulse[32] and later to second-degree assault and conspiracy to commit assault against Matthew.[32] She pleaded guilty to setting fire to a county office and wire-tapping at the commune. For these crimes, Sheela was sentenced to three 20-year terms in federal prison,[33] to be served concurrently. In addition she was fined $470,000.[26][32][34]

Sheela was sent to the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, for female criminals.[34] While there, she announced plans to make a "controversial documentary" about her life.[35] In December 1988, she was released on good behavior after serving 39 months of her 20-year sentence, and moved to Switzerland.[36][37][38]

Sheela married Swiss citizen Urs Birnstiel, a fellow Rajneesh follower.[39] She moved to Maisprach, Switzerland, where she bought and managed two nursing homes.[36][38]

In 1999, she was convicted by a Swiss court for "criminal acts preparatory to the commission of murder" in relation to a plot to kill US federal prosecutor Charles Turner in 1985. The Swiss government refused to extradite her to the US but agreed to try her in Switzerland. She was found guilty of the equivalent Swiss charge and was sentenced to time served.[40]

In 2008, Sheela collaborated with David Woodard and Christian Kracht on an art exhibition at the Zrich Cabaret Voltaire, the building which was once the birthplace of the Dada movement.[41][42]

In 2018, a documentary, Wild Wild Country, was released that includes interviews with Sheela. On July 20, 2018, 'BBC Stories' YouTube channel published a video called Wild Wild Country: What happened to Sheela?[43]

Excerpt from:
Ma Anand Sheela - Wikipedia

It is easy to write about the need for a positive mental attitude in coping with severe illness. It is easy to philosophize and to write abstract ideas about attitudes. The main point to consider, however, is: How do people act who do have a positive mental attitude in the face of a serious illness? What do they do? If we in the healing arts are to help people, then we must provide guidelines pertaining to mental attitude.

In my experience I have noticed certain characteristics or qualities in those people who in fact do have good mental attitudes. These characteristics are:

"Drainage is the term applied to the physiological processes by which all waste and toxic matters are eliminated from the cells and the tissues and, in turn, eliminated from the body. It is the means by which internal cleanliness is maintained. It is believed by the greatest authorities that defective drainage is responsible for almost every disease known to man, except the infectious diseases and accidents." By William F. Haack

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Resources | Magazine Articles | Mental Attitude and Cancer ...

This page embraces all the ways evolution can be pursued consciously. It deals not only with the biological evolution that so many of us are familar with (which can become conscious with bioengineering and social selection), but also with individual, cultural, organizational, and technological evolution, and the evolution of consciousness, itself.

On this wiki, the term conscious evolution refers to change undertaken intentionally as part of a larger progressive development -- especially informed by -- or as part of -- the epic of evolution or the Great Story of evolution.

Conscious evolution always involves intentionality, exercised with a degree of awareness of relevant factors (context, causative dynamics, possibilities, etc.). Some people believe it also involves wisdom, informing intentions with broader, deeper, more systemic, longer-term, and nuanced perspectives.

There is widespread concern that unconscious -- poorly understood, unwise, often unintentional -- developments in humanity's large scale activities are generating crises and potential catastrophes including extinctions, climate change, and unnecessary human suffering.

This has led to growing demand for more thoughtfully intentional development of social organization, technology, and even consciousness. The processes of nature, including the lessons of evolution, are rich with guidance for such development.

Our efforts to consciously develop life-serving, responsive, self-organizing human and natural systems constitute a new facet of the evolutionary process, itself. This conscious evolutionary activity is a natural expression of the universes developmental creativity and a milestone in its progress.

Some believe that this shift in evolutionary dynamics constitutes an "evolutionary leap." Specifically, the social systems, technologies, and consciousness that arose out of the processes of evolution are now -- for the first time -- being consciously applied to those evolutionary processes. In a sense, evolution -- in its human aspect -- can now consciously shape its own processes and direction. This is evolutionary news.

Furthermore, a civilization capable of conscious self-evolution would be a thoroughly new type of life form to add to the remarkable achievements of our alive, evolving universe.

A significant challenge in our conscious evolutionary undertaking will be, therefore, to learn more about evolutionary dynamics and how we might apply them to the development of ourselves and our lives, technologies, societies, and world.

Intentionality implies choice. Much of what is unfolding in natural and human environments today is being generated by the choices of individuals and institutions -- but it is happening at a different level than the choices were made. We choose to drive our cars, but did not choose to generate climate change.

Furthermore, just as our choices affect the state of the larger systems we are part of, so the structures and conditions of those systems affect the the choices we make. We often choose to drive our cars rather than ride our bicycles because the places we need to travel to are so distant (because of our car culture) and there are so many highways in the way (because of our car culture) that using our bikes is very impractical.

Conscious evolution thus necessarily involves becoming aware of the various levels of reality at which our choices are (or could be) causing effects, and further becoming aware of the systemic (and other unconscious) factors affecting our choices. This awareness increases our ability to generate the effects we desire with the choices we make.

There are many realms in which conscious evolution can be pursued. Some are listed below. The dynamics, challenges and stories associated with each can be explored on the linked pages. Furthermore, many of us have had epiphanies, revelations, and reflections regarding conscious evolution, which we can share through the "personal essays" links at the bottom of this page.

Tom Atlee's initial take on conscious evolution

Lion Kimbro on Conscious Evolution

Center for Human Emergence Synergizing the work of John Peterson, Don Beck, Ken Wilber, Andrew Cohen, and others.

Center for Conscious Evolution - Barbara Marx Hubbard's Gatway to Conscious Evolution website

Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential book by Barbara Marx Hubbard

The Graduate Institute's Masters Degree in Conscious Evolution Master of Arts degree in Evolutionary Spirituality, Sacred Activism and Transformative Education

Journal of Conscious Evolution ART, CONSCIOUSNESS, TIME, CULTURE, AND EVOLUTION, edited by Allan Combs and Sean M. Avila Saiter

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Conscious evolution | Evolutionary Spirituality | FANDOM ...

For most of us, spiritual evolution does not occur simply as a result of one flash of insight or revelation. On the contrary, it usually requires inspired intention and consistent, diligent effort. And the way this is achieved is through the greatest gift that evolution has given us: the power of choice.

The power of conscious choice, or free agency, is unique to human beings as far as we know. You and I are highly evolved individuated selves who have been blessed with the extraordinary capacity for self-reflective awareness and the freedom to choose. In fact, these are the very faculties that make it possible for us to consciously evolve. Think about it: You, whoever you are, at least to some degree have the power to choose. How much do you really appreciate the significance of this extraordinary birthright? It is surprising how few people consider the deeper implications of possessing the freedom to choose. Just imagine -- without free agency, who would you be? Little more than a robot, unconsciously responding and reacting to conditioned egoic fears and desires, cultural triggers, biological impulses, and external stimuli, with no control over your own destiny. But while it is true that we are all profoundly influenced by many of these forces, both inner and outer, at the same time, it is equally true that we always have at least some measure of freedom to choose how we respond.

If you aspire to become an evolutionarily enlightened human being, your ability to do so depends upon accepting the simple fact that independent of external circumstances, you always have a measure of freedom to choose. That sounds like a simple statement, but it's amazing how many intelligent people will deny it. When you look honestly for yourself, however, you will see that it is true: you are always choosing. Sometimes your choices are conscious; sometimes they are unconscious. Sometimes they are inspired by the best parts of yourself; other times they are motivated by lower impulses and instincts. But the bottom line is that every time you act or react, at some level a choice is being made. And you, whoever you are, are the one who is making that choice. After all, who else could it be?

Conscious evolution is a simple concept to grasp, but not quite as simple to put into in practice. Our freedom to choose is not unlimited. We each have some measure of freedom. Not complete freedom, but a measure, and that measure is greater for some people than it is for others. But as long as there is some it's enough to begin. If there is a measure of freedom then there is freedom to choose.

What that means is that in relationship to the important choices you make, you are never completely unconscious. There is always some degree of awareness, however small, which gives you the freedom to choose. And the path of conscious evolution is about increasing that degree of awareness, increasing that measure of freedom, until you are living as the enlightened self that you consciously choose to be, rather than the unenlightened self you have unconsciously and habitually identified with your entire life.

I believe that it is possible to take responsibility for the entirety of who you are in such a profound way that you can consciously choose who you want to be. But that doesn't mean it will be easy. The human self is by nature a complex multidimensional process, and within that process are many factors that limit our freedom and obscure our awareness. There are powerful biological instincts that still drive us on a deep level to act in ways that challenge our higher rational inclinations. There are all the karmic consequences of our personal history, the emotional and psychological tendencies that have formed in response to our particular life experience. There are layers of cultural conditioning, values and assumptions about how things should be that color our perspectives without us even knowing it. And many people believe that within our psyches we also carry the unresolved stories of previous lifetimes. All these factors play a part in the complex web of motives and impulses that makes up your sense of self. All of this is you. And yet it is possible to take responsibility for all of these dimensions of who you are, through the transformative recognition that you are always the one who is choosing.

If you aspire to evolve, if you intend to become a conscious vehicle for the evolutionary impulse, you have to use the God-given powers of awareness and conscious choice to navigate between your new and higher spiritual aspirations, and all of the conditioned impulses and habits that are embedded in your self-system. You need to become so conscious that you can make choices that move you, consistently, in an evolutionary direction. And it is only through the wholehearted embrace of your power of choice that it becomes possible for you to do this. This is what I often call "enlightening the choosing faculty" -- bringing the light of consciousness, conscience and higher purpose to bear on the unique and extraordinary capacity within that can define your destiny.

Eventually, if you go far enough in your spiritual development, the self-generated momentum of your own evolutionary choices will become the driving force of your life, rather than the unconscious habits of the past. And that's when something very profound occurs. Your capacity to choose will become more and more aligned with the creative freedom of the evolutionary impulse, the energy and intelligence behind the initial choice to become. When free agency, the greatest gift of the evolved human, is liberated from unconscious and habitual patterns and becomes identified with a higher or cosmic will, the individual becomes a conscious agent of evolution.

When your power of choice aligns itself with the evolutionary impulse in this way, your own deepest, heart-felt, spiritual aspiration becomes one with the original cosmic intention to create the universe. That's what Evolutionary Enlightenment is pointing to. To the degree to which you make conscious and transcend those outdated biological, psychological, and cultural habits within yourself that are inhibiting your higher development, you become an ever-more-powerful agent for conscious evolution.

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What Is Conscious Evolution? | HuffPost

Community empowerment

Supporting individuals and organisations to work in ways which are empowering and achieve empowerment

There are many assumptions connected with the term and practice of community empowerment which make both concept and application problematic, confusing and potentially meaningless. These include assumptions that:

Research indicates that a lack of empowering approaches in the past may have left a legacy of people, and communities, feeling: disillusioned, cynical, apathetic, disinterested, angry, confrontational and over-consulted.

Staff working in both public and voluntary sectors often face this reality and, whilst focusing on priorities around community empowerment, it can be helpful to remember how easy it is for people to feel disempowered and how engagement can take place in ways which are more empowering than others

Four key points:

Community empowerment is about working in ways which empower people ways which mean that people feel confident, that they and the groups they are involved in are inclusive and organised, that networks are formed, are cooperative and support each other and ultimately they are influential. These are the 5 Community Empowerment Dimensions which inform all our work at changes, and which are drawn from the DiCE planning and evaluation framework.

By confident, we mean, working in a way which increases peoples skills, knowledge and confidence and instils a belief that they can make a differenceBy inclusive, we mean working in a way which recognises that discrimination exists, promotes equality of opportunity and good relations between groups and challenges inequality and exclusionBy organised, we mean working in a way which brings people together around common issues and concerns in organisations and groups that are open, democratic and accountableBy cooperative, we mean working a way which builds positive relationships across groups, identifies common messages, develops and maintains links to national bodies and promotes partnership workingBy influential, we mean working in a way which encourages and equips communities to take part and influence decisions, services and activities

Community empowerment is the product of putting the values of community development into action.

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Community empowerment | Changes

The study and practice of meditation is on the rise, where the physical and psychological benefits are applicable to just about anybody.

Meditation and mindfulness go hand in hand to resolve mind body complications and symptoms during your sleeping life and your waking life. But first off, it is important to know the distinction between mindfulness and meditation, and how the two overlap in improving overall mind and body wellbeing within an individual.

What is mindfulness versus meditation?

Mindfulness is an active, daily process of focusing on the present moment and existing within it. You are present by being fully aware of your physical body as well as any thoughts and feelings that happen inside your mind and body.

Mindfulness is the ability to identify each thought as it passes through your mind, where you objectively identify them without judging or criticizing each thought. Mindfulness can be achieved through both mental and physical exercises and routines that strive to improve your mind-body relationship.

Mindfulness and meditation have a mirror-like relationship with each other: mindfulness supports and enhances meditation, and meditation supports and broadens mindfulness. Mindfulness is a practice you can use continually through the day, whereas meditation is practiced in specific time intervals.

With mindfulness, the focus is on awareness, whereas with meditation, the goal is to clear your mind of everything. The two go hand in hand however, especially when it comes to helping you sleep. Sleep is a vital function of your body that should not be ignored, where sleep deprivation can lead to a number of problems.

Mindfulness and meditation together help in three major ways with regard to sleep problems:

• Mindfulness and meditation work together to combat stress through retraining your body to elicit the relaxation response instead of fight or flight, which can be brought on by chronic stress.  The high cortisol levels associated with fight or flight makes it impossible to sleep, where mindfulness and meditation practices help reduce these high cortisol levels so your body is able to sleep.
• Mindfulness and meditation strengthen different regions of the brain. Studies show that both disciplines have a direct impact on neural structure and functioning. This impact also reaches the part of the brain associated with REM sleep.
• They together increase melatonin levels as well. Research shows that meditating before bed leads to increased amounts of melatonin, the neurochemical called the ‘sleep hormone,’ which makes sleep possible.

Physical and Psychological Benefits of Meditation

The benefits of mindfulness and meditation are many, besides your sleep quality, where the same physical and psychological benefits that help you sleep also help your waking life.

• Physical benefits include: growing your brain; increasing blood flow to your brain; reducing blood pressure and heart rate; increasing production of serotonin and dopamine; boosting immune system, relaxing your muscles, and slowing the aging process.
• Psychological benefits include: reducing stress induced anxiety and depression; increasing stress resilience; increasing positive emotions; stimulating the prefrontal cortex that helps with present moment awareness; increasing emotional stability and intelligence; increasing learning capacity; increasing empathy and compassion; increasing sense of connection to yourself and others in your life; increasing sense of meaning and purpose; and increasing sociability.

The practice of meditation must be ongoing as part of a daily routine, where the benefits will start to show even immediately but especially over a period of time. You have nothing to lose - give it a shot!

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Friedrich Nietzsche, who was born in 1844, fell silent in 1889, and died eleven years later, was the first great philosopher of the twentieth century. What made, and makes, him so important, is that he recognized with great clarity and impressive foresight the most troubling and persistent problem of modernity, the problem of values. His attempts to resolve this problem were not successful, but they did uncover depths of issues that still defeat our best efforts today.

Portrait of Nietzsche Athamos Stradis 2012

Lets begin with his notorious declaration that God is dead (first in The Gay Science, 1872). Secular thinking is a commonplace today, but in Nietzsches time this declaration was strikingly prophetic. The point of the claim is not so much to assert atheism: although Nietzsche was certainly an atheist, he was far from being a pioneer of European atheism. Rather, his observation is sociological, in a way: he means that Western culture no longer places God at the center of things. In another way, the term sociological is quite misleading, for there is nothing value-neutral in Nietzsches assertion. The death of God has knocked the pins out from under Western value systems, and revealed an abyss below. The values we still continue to live by have lost their meaning, and we are cast adrift, whether we realize it or not. The question is, what do we do now?

One might at first think that the death of God is an all-too-familiar issue, conservative Christians arguing that if God does not exist then objective moral values dont exist either, and secular humanists replying indignantly that Gods existence is entirely irrelevant to the validity of the moral judgments we make. Nietzsche agrees with those theists that the death of God signaled the end of objectivity as a feature of moral value, but differs from them by not taking this as a reason to believe in God. Yet he did not think that values were subjective in the crude popular sense, that anyones convictions are as valid as anyone elses. Rather, to Nietzsche, values have power, and spring from power: like works of art, their greatness is in their power to move us. But the media manipulation of popular sentiment is no indicator of the power that creates value, since almost everybody is merely a member of the herd to Nietzsche. Any relating of value to popular preferences (even the preferences of an aristocracy) is an attempt to hold on to the objectivity of values. But if moral objectivity is at an end, an entirely new and radically individualistic source of value must be sought. Nietzsches conception of the power of values is deeply elitist: only the great can create values.

Nietzsche argued that in ancient times, values belonged to peoples who created them:

A tablet of the good hangs over every people. Behold, it is the tablet of their overcomings; behold, it is the voice of their will to power You shall always be the first and excel all others: your jealous soul shall love no one, unless it be the friend that made the soul of the Greek quiver: thus he walked the path of his greatness To practice loyalty and, for the sake of loyalty, to risk honor and blood even for evil and dangerous things with this teaching another people conquered themselves, and through this self-conquest they became pregnant and heavy with great hopesThus Spake Zarathustra, I, 1883

Thus in antiquity it was the power through which a people defined itself that created the values of that people. Then came what Nietzsche thinks of as the degenerate complexity of Christianity, in which weakness rather than power was used to define value: The meek shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5) In fact, the Christian priestly class does exercise its own will to power, in its triumph over pagan peoples, but in the process mans instinctual animal pride has been abased through the disciplines of poverty, mortification of the flesh, guilt for sin; a morality echoing the message of a God who suffers on the cross. The explicit message is that value is not embodied in earthly holy men, but beyond, yet the truth is the opposite: the priests power has been realized in their victory over competing allegiances. But this victory has been won through Christianitys plague of self-denial what Nietzsche calls a nay-saying to life.

But with the death of God, Christianitys mode of anti-strength value-creation has collapsed, and modern man has no firm unitary belief to replace it. Our value is an incoherent pastiche of bits and pieces from a hundred sources. Nietzsche called it the multi-colored cow. The smorgasbord of faiths on offer in the West today wonderfully illustrates what Nietzsche foresaw: values as mix-and-match consumer goods. This is absurd, and the results are pitifully anemic; but how and where can the human will to power burst forth with a new set of values? That was Nietzsches dilemma, and it has become the explicit dilemma of modern humanity, just as he predicted.

Like all the best philosophers, Nietzsche made a heroic attempt to give a solution to his problem. He gave his solution the name bermensch, literally translated overman, although its more often translated (somewhat painfully to us) as superman. Mere man is not a creator of value; his individuality proves to be insufficient to achieve that. His only dignity is that he may be a bridge to something higher: The ape is an embarrassment to man; just so will man be an embarrassment to the overman. The overman is that higher type of individual who has an absolute self-confidence in his power, and through the powerful assertion of his individuality, values may once again be created: not by peoples, not clothed in the spurious authority of a beyond, but for the first time in a specifically individual assertion of values through individually-justified action. And these values must be created, not appropriated as something already existent.

Nietzsche did not claim to know in detail what the overman would be like. He did think that the overman will have fellows, metaphorical brothers, but he must be an individual though and through: the future genius is a non-genus. Thats one reason why the Nazi appropriation of the bermensch concept for the master race is outrageous to all Nietzsche scholars. Nietzsche expressed contempt for anti-Semites and for propagandists of Germanic racial superiority. Modern man, mass man, whatever racial affiliation he may boast, is anathema to Nietzsche. It is an absurd dream of contemporary culture that we anyone at all just by being ourselves can surpass the ancient creativity of entire peoples. Most individuals are too small for the task (the crowd chants Were all individuals! Monty Python, Life of Brian). Any person can try to live according to what he calls my own values, but they are usually not his own values: they are bits and pieces picked up in the bazaar of modernity, and he has no idea where they came from. Nothing is more obvious to Nietzsche than the fact that people dont generally know how to create values.

I think Nietzsche provides a powerful indictment of modernity. Of course, Nietzsche may simply be wrong that the only values with any value (so to speak) are those a powerful individual creates. Personally, I believe that he is wrong. That is, I accept his claim that values must be created by individuals, but I deny that a value-creating individual must be a Nietzschean overman. Furthermore, I think that there are values associated with being human whose validity extends beyond the human self-creating context, to apply to rational beings in general. In that way, I am a Kantian. Sure, the individual as modern multi-culturally sensitive individual cannot create value; but I think it is possible to retain a sense of individuals legislating values while shedding the overmans sense of absolute separateness from other rational individuals.

Why is modern man so agonized still? I dont know. But I wont be totally surprised if Nietzsche turns out to be the first great philosopher of the twenty-first century too.

Dr Eric Walther 2012

Eric Walther taught philosophy from 1967 and computer science from 1983 at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University; he retired in 2003. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from Yale University, and an MS in Computer Science from Polytechnic University.

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Nietzsche, Our Contemporary | Issue 93 | Philosophy Now

Trying to explain or define Zen Buddhism, by reducing it to a book, to a few definitions, or to a website is impossible. Instead, it freezes Zen in time and space, thereby weakening its meaning.

Defining Zen () is like trying to describe the taste of honey to someone who has never tasted it before. You can try to explain the texture and scent of honey, or you can try to compare and correlate it with similar foods. However, honey is honey! As long as you have not tasted it, you are in the illusion of what honey is.

The same goes with Zen because Zen Buddhism is a practice that needs to be experienced, not a concept that you can intellectualize or understand with your brain. The information that we'll give here won't cover all of what of Zen is, but is a starting point to the Zen experience.

At the heart of the Japanese culture lies Zen, a school of Mahayana Buddhism. Zen is, first and foremost, a practice that was uninterruptedly transmitted from master to disciple, and that goes back to the spiritual Enlightenment of a man named Siddhrtha Gautama (Shakyamuni Gotama in Japanese) - The Buddha - 2500 years ago in India.

The practice of Zen meditation or Zazen ( - za meaning sitting, and Zen meaning meditation in Japanese), is the core of Zen Buddhism: without it, there is no Zen. Zen meditation, is a way of vigilance and self-discovery which is practiced while sitting on a meditation cushion. It is the experience of living from moment to moment, in the here and now. It is through the practice of Zazen that Gautama got enlightened and became the Buddha.

Zazen is an attitude of spiritual awakening, which when practiced, can become the source from which all the actions of daily life flow - eating, sleeping, breathing, walking, working, talking, thinking, and so on.

Zen is not a theory, an idea, or a piece of knowledge. It is not a belief, dogma, or religion; but rather, it is a practical experience (read our Buddhism FAQ for more details). We cannot intellectually grasp Zen because human intelligence and wisdom are too limited - the dojo (the hall where Zazen is practiced) is different from the university.

Based on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, Zen is not a moral teaching, and as it is without dogma, it does not require one to believe in anything. A true spiritual path does not tell people what to believe in; rather it shows them how to think; or, in the case of Zen - what not to think.

Zen is not interested in metaphysical theories and rituals and focuses entirely on the mindful practice of Zazen. Zen is very simple. It is so simple, in fact, that it's very difficult to grasp.

In the silence of the dojo or temple, quietly sit down, stop moving, and let go your thoughts. Focus just on your Zazen posture and your breathing. Keep your back straight. Let your ego and your unconscious mind melt away, merge with the universe.

This is Zen.

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What is Zen? | ZEN BUDDHISM

Since the beginning of time, man is searching for the truth. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors, sat under the stars, and around the campfire discussed and asked themselves the same questions we ask ourselves today. Who am I? Why am I here? Is there a God? Is there life after death? Are we alone in the Universe?

Zen is very pragmatic and down to earth. It is essentially a practice, an experience, not a theory or dogma. Zen adheres to no specific philosophy or faith, and has no dogma that its followers must accept or believe in, but it traditionnally accept the concepts of karma and samsara. For us westerners, this is very different from our Christian religion and its filled with dogmas.

Zen does not seek to answer subjective questions because these are not important issues for Zen. What really matters is the here and now: not God, not the afterlife, but the present moment and the practice of meditation (zazen).

Moreover, Zen firmly believes that nobody knows the answers to those questions and that they are impossible to answer because of our limited condition. Life is a dream, a grand illusion that we perceive through the filter of our personality, our experiences, our ego. This is a great piece of theater in which we do not see all the actors and in which we barely understand the role of those that we see.

Zen gladly accepts the idea that men are only men and nothing more. Man, being what he is, cannot answer life's impossible questions without falling into the trap of illusion. No one knows the answers to the deep questions about life and death.

These questions are impossible to answer, given the limited sphere of knowledge that comes with the condition of being a human being. As Master Taisen Deshimaru said, "It is impossible to give a definite answer to those questions, unless you suffer from a major mental disorder."

Does this mean that Zen closes the door to metaphysical phenomena? Absolutely not! Zen cannot confirm nor deny them, therefore, it is better to remain silent and to live simply in the moment.

What does Zen think of religions beliefs then? As a great Zen Master once said, "Faith is like painting the walls of your room with mud, then trying to convince yourself that it is beautiful, and it smells good". Faith is an illusion, a dream that we strongly consider real, but that in reality only impoverishes the true spirituality of man. The strength of our faith and conviction has nothing to do with the fact that a belief is true or not. The veracity of our faith is in us only, nowhere else.

Religions feel compelled to give answers to everything as a sign of their "great wisdom", but for Zen, not giving any answer at all is actually the great wisdom.

A true religion shows man how to think and not what to think, therefore, we must learn to ask great questions rather than looking for great answers.

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Buddhist beliefs | ZEN BUDDHISM