William Parker, Bronx-born bassist-composer extraordinaire, is one of the few jazz musicians who came up through the avant-garde (making his first big marks as a sideman to Cecil Taylor and David S. Ware) yet manages to fuse its techniques and innovations with standard rhythms, a sense of blues that might have wafted up from the Delta, a dash of wit, and a seemingly effortless swing.

His new two-CD album, Meditation / Resurrection (on the AUM Fidelity label), was recorded in the course of a single day last October, at Brooklyn's System Two Studio by Michael Marciano, who also mixed it live, to give it the feel of a spontaneous set at a club.

Or, rather, two sets, as the two discs feature slightly different quartets: Parker's regular bandmates, alto saxophonist Rob Brown and drummer Hamid Drake, joined, on Disc 1, by trumpeter Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson and, on Disc 1, by pianist Cooper-Mooreboth of them wide-ranging musicians, steeped in the avant-garde but also composers for theater, who have collaborated with Parker in the past.

The first disc has more robust rhythmsmost of its seven tracks are danceablewhile the second disc jets more adventurously. None of the music is chaotic or atonal; this is riveting, complex, but melodic jazz, deeply rooted in the fundamentals even while skywriting.

I first heard Parker in 1984 on the violinist Billy Bang's The Fire from Within, one of the startling great albums from that period, and it was no surprise when I learned that he'd studied under Jimmy Garrison (Coltrane's great bassist) and Richard Davis (who played with Eric Dolphy and Andrew Hill). I stumbled across his great percussionist, Hamid Drake, around the same time, on some of saxophonist Fred Anderson's recordings. Like Anderson, Drake was born in Louisiana, moved as a child to the Chicago area, and gravitated to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, the collective that produced Lester Bowie, Henry Threadgill, and many other pioneers. You hear all those traditions in Drake's percussion styles (on trap set and various hand drums), including many othersmainly from Africa and the Caribbeanthat he's intensely studied on his own.

These are all musicians who should be better known but seem not to care very much that they're not. (I might be wrong about this; I don't know any of them personally.) They carve their own paths, thrive in their own communities. Parker, who is also a poet and plays various African instruments, has been organizing the annual Vision Festival on Manhattan's Lower East Side for the last 20 years.

If you want to go all-out, I'd recommend his eight-CD set, Wood Flute Songs (if you can find it, and it's worth the hunt), a collection of live performances, with various ensembles, from 20062012. (If you want to sample a bit, start with "Groove #7" on Disc 1.) Brief clips from various albums can be heard on AUM Fidelity's website (click on Artists, then William Parker). But Meditation / Resurrection is an excellent pool for a waist-high jump in. And the live-mix sound is very good: crisp, warm, and present.

Excerpt from:

William Parker Quartets, Meditation / Resurrection - Stereophile Magazine

Some people forcibly hold their breath to increase lung capacity or athletic stamina. Others, to achieve a state of light-headedness.

But playing with consciousness doesn't bode well near water, experts said.Two recent drowning deaths in the Sacramento area have been traced to submerged meditating and breathing practices .

On July 18, Sacramento yoga instructor Aaron Pappas was practicing something called the Wim Hof breathing technique. He was holding his breath and trying to hyperventilate because it relaxed him,his girlfriend Sarah Estabrook said.

When she last saw him alive, he was sitting in a pool at Asha Urban Baths with his head and shoulders above water. He lost consciousness and drowned while performing the breathing practice, she said. He died in the hospital on July 23.

Earlier this summerYoav Timmer, 33, died while meditating face down in the Yuba River.

Rich Hanna, assistant director of parks and recreation for the city of Santa Barbara, said people who challenge themselves to breath-holding often don't realize they're in trouble until it's too late.

Hanna pushed to ban breath-holding in public pools after a young swimmer died during training a few years ago.

Theyre just kind of in this state of...euphoria or whatever," he said. "Theres some changes in their system and they don't recognize they're in danger. They basically just go unconscious in the water and pass out."

Karen Wilkinson, a yoga instructor and friend of Pappas, said he had a tendency to get extreme with his practice.

"He was always pushing the envelope, mediating for longer, trying to reach a state of consciousness that he couldnt reach just in his daily life," she said.

"My heart breaks for Aaron, his family and friends, as well as the whole community he's contributed so much to," said Asha Urban Baths owner Cori Martinez. "My prayers are with everyone who feels the loss of his passing."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against what they call Dangerous Underwater Breath-holding Behavior.

The creators of the Wim Hof method urge practitioners to never try the breathing technique in or near water.

Read more:

Breath-holding, Meditation Leads To Two Drowning Deaths ... - Capital Public Radio News

Photo: Michael Cummo / Hearst Connecticut Media

Greenwich native to host free meditation event

Greenwich native Julio Rivera may have stepped away from software engineering to forge a new career path and lifestyle, but traces of his tech background remain in his navigation of the entrepreneurial landscape.

After realizing his original concept to host mindfulness events in New York City under his brand Zen Compass wasnt best suited to his skills and goals, he pivoted. He dropped the vowels mostly made a new website and refined his strategy. I realized I didnt want to do event production, Rivera said of Zen Compass. Ive been playing with this idea for a couple months and now Im forming more of an online community.

Under the name ZnCo, Rivera still plans to host events, but theyll be smaller, more intimate and he will lead the meditation and mindfulness practices.

In addition, ZnCo will be grounded in holding online events that people can attend virtually. Im reaching out to teachers from around the country to lead practices and people will be able to learn meditation from them at their convenience, Rivera said. I want to make teachers more accessible to people anywhere.

His intentions for Zen Compass were always rooted in forming a supportive community for people to learn about meditation and encourage each other in their practices. After holding several events around New York City, he realized an online community may serve this purpose better since location will no longer limit attendance, he said.

To launch his restructured community, Rivera is planning a Meditation and Mindfulness event at the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich on Aug. 10. Im planning on using this as a way to gauge interest from people around here in ZnCo, he said. The event will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. with refreshments at the beginning and question and answer period about meditation included. These sorts of events and the online ones are free for now, Rivera said, as hes focusing on creating value with his brand first.

Hes working with several Greenwich businesses that promote a healthy lifestyle on potentially sponsoring his kickoff event, he said.

I know there will be some hiccups as I learn what Im doing as I go, he said. But I think Ive got it now.

Contact the writer at mbennett@greenwichtime.com; Twitter@Macaela_

See the original post:

Greenwich native to host free meditation event - Greenwich Time

Alexander de Cadenets series of bronze and silver sculpturesfeaturing consumables contain a deeper spiritual message. This includes his Life-Burger hamburgersculptures and Creation a large scale shinybronze apple with three bites taken from it two adult bites and baby bite inbetween.Creation explores the mysterious process ofcreativity of how both a human being and an artwork come into existence. Alexstates, In Genesis, we weretold by God not to take a bite from the apple, yetit was by taking a bite that we became self-conscious and self-consciousnessis what is necessary formakingart.

Art is way of exploring what gives life a deeper meaning and evolves in relation to my own life journey Alexander de Cadenet

The Life-Burger sculptures explore therelationship between the spiritual dimension of art and consumerism and, attheir root, are an exploration of whatgives life meaning. Art historian EdwardLucie-Smith has written, The Life-Burgers offer a sharp critique of thesociety we live in and yet simultaneously theyare luxury objects in their ownright.

L.A. art critic Peter Frank takes a similarline when he writes, Were at a moment in modern history where the excesshas gotten staggeringly wretched.Oligarchs worldwide shock us and shamethemselves with their conspicuous consumption a consumption that extends tothe rest of us, as consumed noless thanas consumers. Alexander de Cadenetencapsulates this emerging neo-feudal order in his gilded and multi-deckedburgers. For the mega-rich, theworld is their fast food joint, and theirappetite insatiable. Over 3.6 billion sold!

In October Alex will exhibit Creation and aselection of Life-Burgers at St Stephen Walbrook, where we will also host a conference,organised in partnershipwith Alex and Watkins Mind Body Spirit Magazine, thatwill explore the relationship between art and the spiritual dimension. Theconference takes wordsspoken by Eckhart Tolle in an interview with Alex asinspiration, True art can play an important part in the awakening ofhumanity.

Alex has said that Being an artist is abouthaving a voice in the world, a pure and authentic voice in a challenging world.It is a way of sharing personalinsights and encounters with the world, ofexploring the mysteries of our existence and our place in the grand scheme. Artis the intersection between theformlessdimension and the world of form; itembodies our connection to nature or the intelligence that is responsible forour existences.

He has recently founded Awakened Artists; aplatform to showcase specially invited artists whose work accesses a deeperspiritual dimension. AwakenedArtists is an international community of visualartists who believe that the production of art is a spiritual act andcontributes towards the evolvingconsciousnessof those that create it and alsothose that experience it. On the back of these initiatives, I wanted tofind out more about his understanding of art as a way of exploring what giveslife a deeper meaning and how thishas evolved in relation to his own lifejourney.

Alexander de cadenet creation

JE: Your recent works playfully critique consumer and celebrityculture while using elements of those cultures to do so. To what extent do yousee yourself as aninsider or an outsider to those cultures?

ADC: I grew up exposed to these values and it hasbeen valuable for me in some ways as a yardstick by which to compare thingsto and also given me insights intothe darker aspects of it.

JE: What we consume and how we do so seem major preoccupations of the LifeBurgers and of Creation. What seems problematic about consumer culture?

ADC: Whats problematic is the desire to consumeand accumulate for the sake of it often to run away from pain or discomfort beauty and pleasure can at somepoint become quite warped and grotesque withoutlimits, where even the original value gets lost or diluted within excess. Ithink its become more and moreprevalent in the world today and its also verymuch part of the art world system too in the way that artworks are commoditizedand their original beauty canget lost in the transformation into statussymbols.

JE: You have been called a playful moralist. What does that phrase meanto you?

ADC: am conscious of my own ambivalentrelationship to morality so hopefully any moralizing is not done withself-righteousness but more as a way to exploreand express the inherentparadoxes and richness of life.

JC: You reference the Genesis creation stories in your Meteoritesculpture series and the Memento Mori tradition with your Life Burgers. Whatinfluence has theBible and Christianity had on your art?

ADC: Yes, I grew up with a close relationship withJesus. I have sometimes referenced stories from the Bible with my artworks overthe years. E.g. The Eye of theNeedle model, 30 Pieces of Silver or morerecently the on-going series of apple sculptures. The Bible is part of auniversal sub-conscious is deeply infusedwith meaning, its a powerful,established language of spiritual symbolism that one can reference tocommunicate and express certain thoughts and feelings.

JE: You performed a singing bowl meditation before photographing your DesertFlower series of photographs. What part does meditation play in your creativeprocess?

ADC: In one sense, my artwork reflects theevolution of my own consciousness and the sorts of statements Id like to sharein the world. Meditation is a process ofconnecting to a deeper dimension ofexistence a way of tuning into the deeper reality of our connection toNature. Sometimes it can get you into aharmonious zone that is reflected in thework you produce while in a meditative state.

JE: You have begun a series of interviews with artists exploring thespiritual dimension in art. What would you say that you have learned from thoseinterviews todate?

ADC: The process of interviewing others can enhanceones own connection to that dimension, it also has a strong social element asense of kindred spirit withthose who are interested in similar aspects oflife.

JE: Have you been surprised by the number of artists for whom thespiritual dimension features strongly in their practice?

ADC: I think the earliest art forms had a reallyfundamental and deeply significant meaning for those that created them. Theearliest cave paintings and bone orstone statuettes were infused with deepmeaning for the societies that made them. It seems that there are a growingnumber of artists and creatives that wishtomake something beyond being justsurface decoration and something that can bring a deeper consciousness orawareness into peoples lives.

JE: You interviewed Eckhart Tolle as part of that series, which was aparticular thrill for you personally. What has impressed you about Tolleswritings and whatstood out for you from the experience of meeting him?

ADC: Despite what he has achieved in the world,having status and success is not what drives him. That is a by-product ofhis work. He certainly does not wantpower over others. He desires to share hisexperience of life, in order for others to become more aware, conscious and to connectto beauty and the joy ofexistence. There was a particular moment when I sawmyself reflected in his eyes and I believe he saw himself reflected in mine. Itis rare to be able to go to aplace of such openness and acceptance like that,especially with an enlightened being and it touched my life.

JE: You will be exhibiting at St Stephen Walbrook in the autumn. Whydo you think a church is an appropriate location to show your work?

ADC: This is a particularly beautiful space and itswonderful to show ones art in this environment. This church also has a richhistory of contemporary art. As thisseries of artworks offers reflection onlife and being, I feel they have an affinity with what the church is all about.

JE: You are planning a conference on art and the spiritual dimensionwith the title Art awakening humanity, a phrase taken from Eckhart Tolle, andhave begun anew grouping of artists called Awakened Artists. In what ways canart awaken humanity and why do you think humanity needsawakening?

ADC: Eckhart also said that The true function ofart is to awaken others and I agree with that. You can invest into an artworka deeper spiritual message that iswhat the artists in the Awakened Artists groupwish to achieve. Yes, there are a lot of problems at the moment in our societywith deeply ingrained ignorantand even dangerous viewpoints that can causesuffering and harm to the planet and its occupants. As an artist, you have avoice to talk about the things thatmatter to you a chance to have your say. Drawingthings to peoples attention or offering insights can be helpful in combattingthese behaviours.

JE: What do you hope the Awakened Artists group can achieve?

ADC: Id like that it is a platform to bringtogether artists who would like to contribute to a shared vision of art assomething that brings awareness and a deeperconsciousness into those thatexperience it.

JE: How can art offer access to a deeper dimension of existence andcontribute towards the evolution of consciousness?

ADC: Either experientially like for example encounteringthe phenomenon of a James Turrell light installation or by offering insightsinto the issues we face todayin such a way that genuinely moves people.

JE: Tell me a little about the work of David C. Greene, the firstmember of Awakened Artists. What is there about his work that fits the brieffor this new group?

ADC: I find Davids work exceptionally authentic.I dont know of any artist on the planet today who focuses on the beauty of thedesert landscape at night and thephenomena that can be encountered there. Isee his work is part of the heritage and tradition of Edward Hopper meets a bitof Georgia OKeeffe its abouthispersonal life but has a deep connection tothe beauty of nature. David Greenes night time landscapes absorb you you gettransported there and cannotremain unaffected by the experience. LikeEckharts photos, his landscapes open our eyes to what is already there.

JE: The desert features in your work and that of David C. Greene. Whatpart does the desert play in your spirituality?

ADC: One of my favourite lines in Eckharts The Power of Now reads: Presence isneeded to become aware of the beauty, the majesty, the sacredness of nature.Have you ever gazed up into the infinity of space on a clear night, awestruckby the absolute stillness and inconceivable vastness of it? This says a lot tomeand ifa piece of art can give a sense of this or be a signpost to look inthis direction, I believe it has a great value to humanity, not just for peopletoday but Ithink also for future generations.

Words By Revd Jonathan Evens Priest-in-charge St Stephen Walbrook London

Creations by Alexander de Cadenet, St Stephen Walbrook from 3 Octoberuntil 3 November 2017.

Art Awakening Humanity, 25 October, St Stephen Walbrook https://ssw.churchsuite.co.uk/events/standzg2.

Awakened Artists https://www.awakenedartists.com/.

Read more:
Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed By Revd Jonathan Evens - ArtLyst

Now going into eighth grade, she's setting her sights on a topic a bit more complicated than the cookie business: cybersecurity.

The 12-year-old from Palmdale, Calif., is one of 1.8 million Girl Scouts nationwide who will have the opportunity starting in 2018 to adorn their vests, tunics and sashes with merit badges for information security, an addition announced in June.

And last week, Girl Scouts of the USA introduced another 23 new badges in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and the outdoors.

"Girl Scouts will be able to design robots and racecars, go on environmentally conscious camping trips, create algorithms, collect data in the great outdoors, try their hand at engineering," the Girl Scouts said when announcing the badges.

The moves illustrate the ongoing evolution of the 105-year-old organization, which in recent years has expanded its merit badges beyond those associated with traditionally feminine skills - think "babysitter" or "dinner party."

It's a shift Lewelling appreciates.

"I'll definitely be trying to get cybersecurity badges," she said. "I'm going into eighth grade now and we use technology for everything so I want to know how I can protect myself online."

The 18 cybersecurity badges - earned by mastering online safety, dealing with cyberbullies and coding, among other skills - are the result of a multiyear partnership between the Girl Scouts and Palo Alto Networks, a security company in California's Silicon Valley.

It's not the first technology-and-Scouting collaboration. Girl Scouts of the USA recently partnered with Google to offer coding activities.

Young Daisies and Brownies won't be fending off cyberattacks from hackers and rogue nation states - there's an age-appropriate curriculum designed with help from Palo Alto Networks that includes basic computer skills, techniques for staying safe online, and practice in keeping private information private.

All of the new badges join an increasingly contemporary array of insignias ("computer expert," "inventor," "product designer" and "website designer" were all added in recent years), though the organization has not purged longstanding badges or themes.

The badges will be available to troops across the country, though local chapters can supplement them with additional patches and programs.

The expansion of science and technology-related badges and programs marks "a real transitional moment for the Girl Scouts," said Kathleen Denny, adjunct professor of sociology at Trinity University, who has researched the Girl Scouts.

"A historian writing about the Girl Scouts once said the organization was looking to develop a traditional, up-to-date woman," Denny said. "They've always had that progressive, feminist impulse - but never losing sight of the preparation for more traditional roles of wives and mothers."

The new badges could help young women see a place for themselves in the technology industry - a booming sector, but one known for its gender gap.

A study by research firm Frost & Sullivan found that women hold only 11 percent of information security jobs globally.

EducationHuman InterestLifestylePublic SafetyTechnology

Read more:
Girl Scouts step up with badges tied to STEM, cybersecurity - NewHampshire.com

Tasmanian devils have been decimated in recent years, this is what it takes to make sure they survive.

Jodie Elmer and Drew Lee checking on a trapped devil.

HEALTHY: A Save the Tasmanian Devil team check over a devil in the North East. Pictures: Neil Richardson

Save the Tasmanian Devil manager David Pemberton using a VHS tracker to locate released devils.

Road signs are part of a strategy to reduce devil deaths due to road traffic.

A sample of blood is taken from each devil to use for testing.

David Pemberton points out a devil den.

These virtual fences have proved effective at reducing devil deaths on the roads.

This is a chip tag reader, which scans devils on the way in to eat food left inside retrieving a range of information recorded on it.

Jodie Elmer loves her job on the Save the Tasmanian Devil team.

The VHS tracker emits beeps when near a devil.

David Pemberton explains the extensive range of devils, who love water and the beach.

These white traps are much less stressful for Tasmanian devils than traditional wire traps.

The yellow dots mark the movements of one of the released devils over a vast area.

This chip monitoring station has proved a great success.

Loading up ready to start the days work checking traps.

Microchipping a devil the team hasn't encountered before.

Weighing the devil (7 kilograms).

Traps ready for loading.

Collars like these are placed on the released devils initially to provide data on their movements.

Dr Pemberton explains how much devil populations have declined in the Wukalina/Mount William area.

The virtual fences are activated by headlights striking them.

"Osprey" ready for a check-up.

Taking blood and microchipping allows the team to keep track of devils.

Nice clean fangs.

Baby Tasmanian devils discovered in the pouch.

Open wide.

The program is vital to the continuation of devils in the wild.

With casuarina trees whipping in the wind above him David Pemberton pointedtowards a spread of grey-coloured animal scats, filled with little white shards of bone.

This is a Tasmanian Devil latrine, theSave the Tasmanian Devil manager explained.

It is where many devils come to deposit their scats, actinglike a visitor book of sorts letting devils know who else has come by in the night.

Its a key lesson or example of how socially conscious [devils] are, they want to know who else is around, Dr Pemberton said.

"Osprey" the Tasmanian devil getting a check-up. Pictures: Neil Richardson

Since the release of 33 devils in the North Eastin May there has been a team fromSave the Tasmanian Devil permanently stationed at the Parks and Wildlife house in Mount William National Park.

They have been monitoring the released devils daily using a range of technologies and methods, including GPS tracking, bush cameras, VHS tracking and setting traps.

As part of the relocation of the devils, which were from Maria Island, the team laid their scats at the latrines, to introduce them to the incumbent devils.

Since researchers first came to the Wukalina/Mount William area 20 years ago the population of devils has nose-dived to just 10 to 20 per cent of original numbers.

Where once the population of devils numberedaround 200, it now sits at around 20.

The rapid decline in the population is due to the rise of the deadly Devil Facial Tumor Disease, Dr Pembertonsaid.

Dr Pemberton said the disease is now a part of the devils ecology, and is something that needs to be managed into the future.

The Wild Devil Recovery Trial is working to ensure Tasmanian devils continue to survive outside captivity.

Teams are learning the bestmethods to translocate devils back to the wild.

Dr Pemberton said a wild population of devilsis important for two reasons: genetic diversity and ecosystem impact.

Ensuring genetic diversity in devils is vital in avoiding in-breeding and giving the animals the best chance of success.

We cant eradicate [DFTD], evolution might. To give evolution a chance you want genetic diversity and you want numbers, with those two in tandem then who knows what can evolve, Dr Pemberton said.

The other key work of the trial is to reduce the impacts the loss of devils has on the entire ecosystem.

The loss of such a large chunk of the devil population affects much morethan just the animals themselves, it has ripple effects right down the chain.

Such an example is the brush-tailed possum, a favourite food of devils, which has seen population booms following devil decline.

Where once possums in the open werevulnerable to attack, Dr Pemberton said in recent times he has gone into a paddock and seen a possum on every fence post.

The simplest way to treatthat conundrum and that problem is to get [devil] numbers back up in the wild and let devils do what theyre designed to do.

The post-release monitoring of the devils has shown they are settling in well.

Each time devils are released, the team gathers important information about whichmethods secure the best results, and this has paid off in the most recent release.

White cylindrical traps are loaded on the back of a ute, the final preparations for the team heading out to check the monitoring traps.

With the slamming of doors and the growl of an engine they are off to see if they caught any devils overnight.

Just an hour later the call comes through, theyve got a devil at Cape Portland, 45 minutes away.

Tasmanian devils have an extensive range, they can travel up to 20 kilometres in a night, and tracking has shown many of the released devils have roamed far.

Just as people do, in their travels devils use roads as the most efficient means of getting from A to B, which puts them at risk of becoming road kill.

At key points along the road, small plastic boxes about the size of a glasses caseare fixed to posts. They arevirtual fences that emit a blue light and loud noise when car headlights land on them, warning devils about the oncoming traffic.

These have been overwhelmingly effective, with none of the recently released devils succumbing to roadkill so far.

At Cape Portland wildlife biologist Drew Lee workedwith Jodie Elmer to carefully transfer the caught devil into a brown hessian bag.

Mr Lee said they use the white tubular traps as they are less stressful for the animals than traditional wire traps.

The white traps are less stressful for devils than traditional wire traps.

They found devils in wire traps would try to bite their way out, often causing damage and even losing their teeth.

In contrast, devils are usually curled up asleep in the end of the modern traps, he said.

Mr Lee attacheda set of scales to the hessian bag, lifting it devil and all into the air.

Seven point zero kilograms, he read to Mrs Elmer who was takingnotes on a clipboard.

Sitting down Mr Lee placedthe bag on his lap, opening it just enough to reveal the top of the devils head.

It was a new devil to the team, not one they have released or trapped before. Thats exciting.

Mr Lee then took a blood sample for testing while he explained, The only way we can pick up a tumor is when we see it.

As DFTD doesnt ignite an immune response in the devilsthey are not able to test for this in the blood, making early detection difficult.

A microchip was then attached to the devil, so researchers know when they come across it again.

Next a pair of calipers were used to measure the devils head width, whichreveal its sex and age.

A check over of Osprey shows a devil in good health.

The prognosis is a one-year-old female.

Pulling her snout out of the bag a check of her teeth revealedan impressive set of ivory fangs bedded in pink gums.

Mr Lee then flippedher over, her spiky black tail poking out of the bag, and checkedher pouch for babies.

One, two, threefour, he countedout as he spottedthe little pink young.

Three little pouch young are discovered in Osprey's pouch.

Devils are able to reach sexual maturity in their first year, and their ability to breed while still so young is helping the species continue.

[Tasmanian devils] arepersisting ... they are tough and tenacious and they are breeding young and that's what's making this happen, Dr Pemberton said.

DFTDkills them, but some of the mums weantheir young before they die and those young breed.

Because they can breed young they are surviving in the wild.

All that was left was to name the young mum, theyre running with the theme of birds.

Osprey.

Devil populations have plummeted, here Save the Tasmanian Devil manager David Pemberton points out a devil den.

The check-up was a success; a young female devil with four babies (the maximum a devil can support) who was in excellent health.

Because theres such a surplus of food its a great place to be a devil out here, Mr Lee said.

Kneeling, Mr Lee openedthe bag. Osprey tooka few tentative steps out of the hessian sack before making a break for it.

Running into the bush, she was gone.

While the rise of DFTD has had a significant impact on Tasmanian devil populations, the evidence is they continue to persist.

This can in large part be credited to the work of an international team, who all work to improve our understanding of the disease, develop vaccines and create insurance populations.

People like the very dedicated Save the Tasmanian Devil team, who get up at 5am in the dark and cold to translocate devils to a new home and then spend weeks tirelessly monitoring their progress.

See the original post:
Fighting for the Tasmanian devil: photos, video - Ararat Advertiser

Robots posing as people online are "a menace," Tim Wu wrote recently in The New York Times.

Bots swarm the Internet pretending to be human, slinging election propaganda and controlling hot Broadway tickets.

Robots, some in embodied human form, may take over a startling percentage of U.S. jobs in the next couple of decades. In his book out last month, Will Robots Take Your Job? Nigel M. de S. Cameron notes that the U.S.'s 3.5 million workers in the trucking industry are at risk because of the coming rise of autonomous vehicles, but robots are moving also to "occupy the space of emotional intelligence." Robot health-care companions and virtual psychiatrists may be in the offing.

There's a lot of anxiety out there about the expanding role of robots in our society.

Robots do, of course, offer huge benefits to us. To take just a few examples, robots defuse bombs, explore Mars, and already aid in health care in multiple ways. Four years ago when I needed surgery for aggressive uterine cancer, it was an oncologist-robot team that skillfully performed the procedure.

But the worries remain. And last week, news broke of a robot called "Frigid Farrah" that's meant as a sex companion for a person, but with a twist. According to The Independent, the robot was originally advertised in this way: If you touch Frigid Farrah "in a private area, more than likely, she will not be to [sic] appreciative of your advance."

Some commentators, including Laura Bates writing in The New York Times, suggests this kind of interaction amounts to rape. The manufacturer, Roxxxy True Companion, issued a statement that, unsurprisingly, takes a different view.

Should the specter of human-robot sexual encounters only increase our robot anxiety, then? On Monday, I chatted by email about robot sex with Girl on the Net, a writer in the UK who has thought extensively about issues like this. She told me that she finds the discussion around Frigid Farrah fascinating:

"not necessarily because of the robots themselves, but because of the way it exposed some gaps in how people understand consent. In the UK at least there were quite a few commentators talking about sex robots as if they were already conscious, autonomous beings. We had a few headlines that said people could be 'raping' sex robots, implying that consent is inherently tied to behavior, rather than tied to understanding and desire.

In my opinion, laying aside the implications of someone who wants a sex robot to be reluctant, one could no more rape a sex robot than they could rape a Fleshlight [sex toy] or a toaster, because robots don't yet have consciousness. Consent is not just about saying 'yes' or 'no' it's about making conscious and active choices, in conjunction with another conscious person."

I agree with Girl on the Net: Today's robots are not conscious and thus "rape" is not the correct descriptor.

I want to be very clear about what I am saying here: The robots' lack of consciousness is fundamentally different from the state of a person who has lost consciousness or for some reason suffers from diminished mental acuity. For a person who has passed out, who is in a coma, or who is mentally compromised for any reason and is violently sexually assaulted, "rape" is absolutely the correct term.

That is what I find disturbing about Frigid Farrah: Rape is an act of violence. The notion of a passive or reluctant partner used as a perfectly normalized selling point in the sex industry hits me as wrong. All wrong.

At the same time, I knew from my tech reading that there's much more to robot sex than this one story. I asked Girl on the Net to describe some of the positive aspects. (Our conversation is edited for length.)

"Firstly, there are people who may struggle to have relationships with humans, but who would benefit from the comfort and companionship that could be provided by robotics. There is a growing body of research into the ways in which robotics can improve health outcomes for elderly, disabled or vulnerable people but at the moment most of the research shies away from looking into robotics to help with sexual needs as well as emotional and non-sexual physical needs.

If we are going to spend lots of money creating robotic assistants and companions for people who need them, we shouldn't just ignore this one important need because we're too nervous to talk about sexual things!

And I think I'd kick myself if I didn't also mention that I think sex robots could make quite a few people happy. Sexual pleasure is a really important source of happiness for many people."

Girl on the Net also made another insightful point to me: Right now, most sex robots are created with straight men in mind. That's obviously a narrow approach and we can, she said, think more expansively than that.

And do these robots even need to be humanoid in form? Girl on the Net continued:

"I went to the International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots last year and one of the key themes was how robots could be designed for pleasure but without necessarily looking like a human. For example, haptic fabrics and strap-on items could be used to wrap around the human body and provide pleasure, or smaller robots could be built that have learning capabilities but without humanoid looks.

Think [of] a robot that one might 'wear' like underwear, or one that could be worn over the hand as a kind of sexy exoskeleton. Robots definitely don't have to look human in order to be sexual!"

In his robot book, Cameron cautions that because change in technology occurs at an exponential rate now, it is "extraordinarily difficult to predict what comes next." That's a worrisome thing in some robot-related ways, as for trying to predict and plan for job losses.

But that lack of predictability is not all bad, I think. The next generations of robots may be quite different in appearance from what we envision now and they may contribute quite creatively and ethically to our pleasure.

Barbara J. King is an anthropology professor emerita at the College of William and Mary. She often writes about the cognition, emotion and welfare of animals, and about biological anthropology, human evolution and gender issues. Barbara's new book is Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat. You can keep up with what she is thinking on Twitter: @bjkingape

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What's New In The World Of Robot Sex? - NPR

Go Wash Your Bowls: A Meditation on Generosity in Buddhism

James Ishmael Ford

A student of the way came to Master Zhaozhou and said, I have just entered your monastery. Please give me instruction. Zhaozhou asked, Have you eaten your rice gruel? The students said, yes. Zhaozhou responded, Wash your bowl. With this the student had an insight.

Gateless Gate (Wumenguan) Case Seven

Ive always loved this case in the Wumenguan, that grand twelfth century collection of koans, those mysterious questions used on the Zen way. Not least because it features the great master Zhaozhou Congshen (Joshu in Japanese) so much. Born at the end of the eighth century and living through most of the ninth, Zhaozhou is one of the signal figures in the formation of Zen Buddhism. He appears five times in this particular anthology, starting with the very first case.

Ive sat deeply with this koan. Ive investigated it as a student, and for the past decade and a half Ive accompanied a goodly number of Zen students in their own investigation. Ive found this case near endlessly rich. It certainly can open our hearts in a wide number of directions.

And, like any real koan, it can mislead the unwary. For instance Ive worked with several students who believe Zhaozhou is rebuking the student. One thought the master was annoyed at how his precious time was being wasted by the importuning of a novice. And this is a brush off. Another took a slight variation on that and believed it was a sharp rebuff of someone hoping for a conceptual response to Zens fundamental questions of life and death. Better, but still pretty far from the heart of the matter.

Rather, Ive found Wash your bowls an invitation into the very heart of generosity. The technical term in Buddhism for generosity is dana. That word dana is shared constellated with similar meanings in the other Indian religions, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism. And each of these traditions shades the point of generosity slightly differently.

For Buddhists dana is principally a spiritual practice. And as a practice it ranks with our moral precepts and our meditative disciplines. As Buddhism, and particularly of concern for me, Zen Buddhism matures into its Western expressions we seem to have come to these practices one at a time.

First, we were attracted to the power of Zens meditative disciplines. At the heart of all Buddhist meditation and particularly Zen its call to silence and to a bare presence has been powerful and compelling. For some it was Zens unique contribution to Buddhist meditation, koans, that captured imaginations, and called us into the contemplative life. Then, for many reasons, some the tragedies of abuse, for others, just the complexities of our lived lives, where meditation alone seemed not enough; the moral precepts have become, if a little late, a serious part of the package of Buddhism here in the West.

And, now, perhaps, we are ready to see how dana, how generosity is also a core practice and, I suggest, as with meditation and precepts, a powerful and compelling pointing toward something. Now, when I googled the term dana together with Zen, the first page of listings and well into the second was largely a recounting of giving opportunities provided by various Zen centers. And, certainly it is that. Nor, should that practicality ever be ignored. But, there is more to it. Quite a bit.

For some dana is a practice that purifies ones karma leading to a propitious rebirth. For others it is a central part of a practice that cultivates wisdom. At the Brooklyn Zen Centers website I found a critical pointer for dana as spiritual practice. To practice dana is to challenge the egos frame that in order to give, we must get. Dana is instead a trusting step, a confidence in the universe that allows us to open to life. So we turn our intention toward this practice through which we deeply realize our interconnection to all that is.

Here we are invited into something, and specifically the something we also find in the Wash Your Bowls koan. What we are invited into on the Zen way is to open our eyes to the connections. We are invited into discovering how we and all things exist in a mysterious dance of becoming and falling away. We and all things are constantly creating each other.

The power of our bare presence is to allow us to begin to see this. And, the rest of it, is a call to respond. This is not a dance where there is an option to sit it out. This is the dance of life and death itself, the invitation is into more grace. Grace, which is possibly another word for generosity.

So, old Zhaozhou is approached by a student of the way. The question is sincere. And it is met with all the gravity the situation calls for. Have you eaten? So much in that. So much. And when the answer is a blessed yes, then the next step. Just wash your bowls.

In another Zen text we hear the line like a box and its lid. Here the teacher and the student meet. Here the bowl is used and it is washed.

Here the heart of the worlds generosity is revealed.

As is ours.

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Go Wash Your Bowls: A Meditation on Generosity in Buddhism - Patheos (blog)

Zen, Chinese Chan, Korean Sn, also spelled Seon, Vietnamese Thien, important school of East Asian Buddhism that constitutes the mainstream monastic form of Mahayana Buddhism in China, Korea, and Vietnam and accounts for approximately 20 percent of the Buddhist temples in Japan. The word derives from the Sanskrit dhyana, meaning meditation. Central to Zen teaching is the belief that awakening can be achieved by anyone but requires instruction in the proper forms of spiritual cultivation by a master. In modern times, Zen has been identified especially with the secular arts of medieval Japan (such as the tea ceremony, ink painting, and gardening) and with any spontaneous expression of artistic or spiritual vitality regardless of context. In popular usage, the modern non-Buddhist connotations of the word Zen have become so prominent that in many cases the term is used as a label for phenomena that lack any relationship to Zen or are even antithetical to its teachings and practices.

Compiled by the Chinese Buddhist monk Daoyun in 1004, Records of the Transmission of the Lamp (Chingde chongdeng lu) offers an authoritative introduction to the origins and nature of Zen Buddhism. The work describes the Zen school as consisting of the authentic Buddhism practiced by monks and nuns who belong to a large religious family with five main branches, each branch of which demonstrates its legitimacy by performing Confucian-style ancestor rites for its spiritual ancestors or patriarchs. The genealogical tree of this spiritual lineage begins with the seven buddhas, consisting of six mythological Buddhas of previous eons as well as Siddhartha Gautama, or Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha of the current age. The spiritual awakening and wisdom realized by these buddhas then was transmitted from master to disciple across 28 generations of semi-historical or mythological Buddhist teachers in India, concluding with Bodhidharma, the monk who supposedly introduced true Buddhism to China in the 5th century. This true Buddhism held that its practitioners could achieve a sudden awakening to spiritual truth, which they could not accomplish by a mere reading of Buddhist scriptures. As Bodhidharma asserted in a verse attributed to him,

A special transmission outside the scriptures, not relying on words or letters; pointing directly to the human mind, seeing true nature is becoming a Buddha.

From the time of Bodhidharma to the present, each generation of the Zen lineage claimed to have attained the same spiritual awakening as its predecessors, thereby preserving the Buddhas lamp of wisdom. This genealogical ethos confers religious authority on present-day Zen teachers as the legitimate heirs and living representatives of all previous Buddhas and patriarchs. It also provides the context of belief for various Zen rituals, such as funeral services performed by Zen priests and ancestral memorial rites for the families of laypeople who patronize the temples.

The Zen ethos that people in each new generation can and must attain spiritual awakening does not imply any rejection of the usual forms of Buddhist spiritual cultivation, such as the study of scriptures, the performance of good deeds, and the practice of rites and ceremonies, image worship, and ritualized forms of meditation. Zen teachers typically assert rather that all of these practices must be performed correctly as authentic expressions of awakening, as exemplified by previous generations of Zen teachers. For this reason, the Records of the Transmission of the Lamp attributes the development of the standard format and liturgy of the Chinese Buddhist monastic institution to early Zen patriarchs, even though there is no historical evidence to support this claim. Beginning at the time of the Song dynasty (9601279), Chinese monks composed strict regulations to govern behaviour at all publicly recognized Buddhist monasteries. Known as rules of purity (Chinese: qinggui; Japanese: shingi), these rules were frequently seen as unique expressions of Chinese Zen. In fact, however, the monks largely codified traditional Buddhist priestly norms of behaviour, and, at least in China, the rules were applied to residents of all authorized monasteries, whether affiliated with the Zen school or not.

Zen monks and nuns typically study Buddhist scriptures, Chinese classics, poetics, and Zen literature. Special emphasis traditionally has been placed on the study of public cases (Chinese: gongan; Japanese: kan), or accounts of episodes in which Zen patriarchs reportedly attained awakening or expressed their awakening in novel and iconoclastic ways, using enigmatic language or gestures. Included in the Records of the Transmission of the Lamp and in other hagiographic compendia, the public cases are likened to legal precedents that are designed to guide the followers of Zen.

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Although Zen Buddhism in China is traditionally dated to the 5th century, it actually first came to prominence in the early 8th century, when Wuhou (625705), who seized power from the ruling Tang dynasty (618907) to become empress of the short-lived Zhou dynasty (690705), patronized Zen teachers as her court priests. After Empress Wuhou died and the Tang dynasty was restored to power, rival sects of Zen appeared whose members claimed to be more legitimate and more orthodox than the Zen teachers who had been associated with the discredited empress. These sectarian rivalries continued until the Song dynasty, when a more inclusive form of Zen became associated with almost all of the official state-sponsored Buddhist monasteries. As the official form of Chinese Buddhism, the Song dynasty version of Zen subsequently spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

During the reign of the Song, Zen mythology, Zen literature, and Zen forms of Buddhist spiritual cultivation underwent important growth. Since that time, Zen teachings have skillfully combined the seemingly opposing elements of mythology and history, iconoclasm and pious worship, freedom and strict monastic discipline, and sudden awakening (Sanskrit: bodhi; Chinese: wu; Japanese: satori) and long master-disciple apprenticeships.

During the Song dynasty the study of public cases became very sophisticated, as Zen monks arranged them into various categories, wrote verse commentaries on them, and advocated new techniques for meditating on their key words. Commentaries such as The Blue Cliff Record (c. 1125; Chinese: Biyan lu; Japanese Heikigan roku) and The Gateless Barrier (1229; Chinese: Wumen guan; Japanese: Mumon kan) remain basic textbooks for Zen students to the present day. The public-case literature validates the sense of liberation and freedom felt by those experiencing spiritual awakening while, at the same time, placing the expression of those impulses under the supervision of well-disciplined senior monks. For this reason, Zen texts frequently assert that genuine awakening cannot be acquired through individual study alone but must be realized through the guidance of an authentic Zen teacher.

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During Japans medieval period (roughly the 12th through 15th centuries), Zen monks played a major role in introducing the arts and literature of Song-dynasty China to Japanese leaders. The Five Mountain (Japanese: Gozan) Zen temples, which were sponsored by the Japanese imperial family and military rulers, housed many monks who had visited China and had mastered the latest trends of Chinese learning. Monks from these temples were selected to lead trade missions to China, to administer governmental estates, and to teach neo-Confucianism, a form of Confucianism developed under the Song dynasty that combined cultivation of the self with concerns for social ethics and metaphysics. In this way, wealthy Zen monasteries, especially those located in the Japanese capital city of Kyto, became centres for the importation and dissemination of Chinese techniques of printing, painting, calligraphy, poetics, ceramics, and garden designthe so-called Zen arts, or (in China) Song-dynasty arts.

Apart from the elite Five Mountain institutions, Japanese Zen monks and nuns founded many monasteries and temples in the rural countryside. Unlike their urban counterparts, monks and nuns in rural Zen monasteries devoted more energy to religious matters than to Chinese arts and learning. Their daily lives focused on worship ceremonies, ritual periods of sitting Zen (Japanese: zazen) meditation, the study of public cases, and the performance of religious services for lower-status merchants, warriors, and peasants. Rural Zen monks helped to popularize many Buddhist rituals now common in Japan, such as prayer rites for worldly benefits, conferment of precept lineages on lay people, funerals, ancestral memorials, and exorcisms. After the political upheavals of the 15th and 16th centuries, when much of the city of Kyto was destroyed in a widespread civil war, monks from rural Zen lineages came to dominate all Zen institutions in Japan, including the urban ones that formerly enjoyed Five Mountain status.

After the Tokugawa rulers of the Edo period (16031867) restored peace, Zen monasteries and all other religious institutions in Japan cooperated in the governments efforts to regulate society. In this new political environment, Zen monks and other religious leaders taught a form of conventional morality (Japanese: tszoku dtoku) that owed more to Confucian than to Buddhist traditions; indeed, Buddhist teachings were used to justify the strict social hierarchy enforced by the government. Many Confucian teachers in turn adapted Zen Buddhist meditation techniques to quiet sitting (Japanese: seiza), a Confucian contemplative practice. As a result of these developments, the social and religious distinctions between Zen practice and Confucianism became blurred.

When the Ming dynasty (13681661) in China began to collapse, many Chinese Zen monks sought refuge in Japan. Their arrival caused Japanese Zen monks to question whether their Japanese teachers or the new Chinese arrivals had more faithfully maintained the traditions of the ancient buddhas and patriarchs. The resultant search for authentic Zen roots prompted the development of sectarianism, not just between Japanese and Chinese Zen leaders but also within the existing Japanese Zen community. Eventually sectarian rivalry led to the emergence of three separate Japanese Zen lineages: baku (Chinese: Huanbo), Rinzai (Chinese: Linji), and St (Chinese: Caodong). Ignoring their similarities, each lineage exaggerated its distinctive features. Thus, both Rinzai and St emphasized their adherence to certain Song-dynasty practices, in contrast to the baku monasteries, which favoured Ming traditions, especially in such areas as ritual language, musical instruments, clothing, and temple architecture. People affiliated with St, by far the largest of the Japanese Zen lineages, stressed the accomplishments of their patriarch Dgen (120053), whose chief work, Shbgenz (123153; Treasury of the True Dharma Eye), is widely regarded as one of the great classics of Japanese Buddhism.

During the first half of the 20th century, D.T. Suzuki (18701966), a Japanese Buddhist scholar and thinker, wrote numerous essays and books in English to introduce Zen ideals to Western audiences. Suzuki was born just after Japan began to adopt Western technology in an effort to catch up with Europe and America. He was strongly influenced by 19th-century Japanese Buddhist reformers who sought to cast off what they saw as the feudal social structures of the Tokugawa period and who advocated a more modern vision of Buddhism that could compete successfully with Christianity. Suzuki spent 11 years in the United States (18971908) as an assistant to Paul Carus (18521919), a German who had earned a doctorate in theology and philosophy before emigrating to America. Carus published a magazine to promote what he called the Science of Religion, a new religion compatible with science. During this period, Suzuki was also influenced by contemporary intellectual currents, such as the ideas of the German Protestant theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (17681834), who had identified irrational intuition and feeling as the essence of religion, and of the American philosopher William James (18421910), who posited the possibility of nondualistic knowledge via pure experience as overcoming the dualism inherent in empiricism.

Suzuki interpreted the episodes of spiritual awakening depicted in Zen public cases as proof of humankinds ability to suddenly break through the boundaries of common, everyday, logical thought to achieve a nondualistic, pure experience in which distinctions such as self/other and right/wrong disappear. He characterized this experience as an expression of the irrational intuition that underlies all religions and all acts of artistic creation, regardless of culture or historical period, and that achieved its highest expression in the secular arts of Japan. Suzuki, therefore, interpreted Zen not as a form of Buddhism but as a Japanese cultural value with universal relevance. His use of Western theological and philosophical concepts to explain the Zen experience in modern ways influenced Nishida Kitar (18701945) and other members of the Kyoto school of Japanese philosophy. In the early 20th century, many Japanese intellectuals described Zen as the underlying essence of Japanese culture or as the unique form of Japanese spirituality. As Japanese society became increasingly militaristic during the 1930s and 40s, descriptions of Zen became more warlike, frequently invoking loyalty to the state, fearlessness, and mental tranquillity in the face of death. In 1938, for example, Suzuki described Zen as a religion of will power and identified Zen training with Bushido (the code of conduct of the Japanese warrior class) and Japanese swordsmanship.

When Suzukis books were reprinted after World War II, they found a ready audience in the United States and Britain among ex-servicemen who had acquired an interest in Japanese culture and among youths dissatisfied with postwar society. In particular, members of the new American literary and artistic movement known as the Beats looked to Zen for inspiration. In popular culture the word Zen became an adjective used to describe any spontaneous or free-form activity. Since the heyday of the Beat movement in the 1950s, however, academic studies of Zen have grown in complexity and sophistication, examining the role of Zen practices and Zen institutions in the religious lives of Buddhists in East Asia. In 1953 the Chinese Nationalist historian and diplomat Hu Shih (18911962) published an important essay on the history of Zen in China, in which he challenged Suzukis characterization of Zen as irrational and beyond logical understanding. Hu argued that Zen must be understood as a human institution and that scholarly descriptions of it must be based on verifiable historical evidence, not on psychological interpretations of the religious stories found in Zens public cases.

Since 1953 a new generation of scholars has completely rewritten the history of Zen. They have made major strides both in documenting the historical development of the Zen school in East Asia and in understanding the religious and cultural contexts within which Zen literature, such as public cases, functioned as guides to spiritual truth. During the 1980s and 90s, some Zen scholars and Zen priests in Japan advocated what they called Critical Buddhism in an effort to denounce any connection between Zen and illogical thought and any association between Zen institutions and social problems such as religious discrimination, cultural chauvinism, and militarism. Regardless of the ultimate fate of Critical Buddhism, it is clear that efforts to create a new Zen compatible with the demands of modern society will continue.

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Zen | Buddhism | Britannica.com

A week-long international martial arts competition got under way at the world-famous Shaolin Temple in central China on Saturday, mainland media reported.

The evolution of kung fu: from hired killers to soldiers, the mafia, and finally an esteemed sport

The event is the first ever grand gathering to be held at the 1,500-year-old temple in Dengfeng, Henan province, which many regard as the birthplace of kung fu, news portal Thepaper.cn reported on Saturday.

A total of 116 martial artists from across China and around the world will take part in a series of contests across four disciplines, the report said.

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These will include demonstrations of the two finger skill, in which practitioners demonstrate their inner strength by doing handstands and press-ups using just two fingers of each hand.

Others participants will pit their abilities against one another in stone lock lifting and knife throwing, while the only woman taking part in the event a martial artist from Japan, who was not named is expected to demonstrate her iron palm skill by breaking bricks and wooden boards with her bare hands, the report said.

Opinion: Why a kick in the teeth is good for Chinese kung fu

According to Shi Yongxin, the temples head abbot, the event is not all about martial arts, however.

We want to tap into our traditional culture with this gathering, he was quoted as saying.

Martial arts is not only about sport, it is more about culture and the spirit, he said.

A series of talks on Zen Buddhism, as well as Go competitions will be held alongside the martial arts demonstrations, the report said.

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China's Shaolin Temple welcomes 116 kung fu masters for grand gathering - South China Morning Post