Adi Da Samraj Passes from the Body
Adi Da Samraj, a spiritual master, writer, and artist of international renown, passed away in his hermitage in Fiji, on November 27, of natural causes. He was 69 years old. He founded an entirely new way of spiritual practice, to which he gave the name “Adidam”.
Adi Da was a prolific writer and artist, with over sixty published books and more than one hundred thousand works of art. The book that Adi Da designated as his most important work is The Aletheon, which he worked on intensively for the last two years, bringing all of his most essential spiritual and philosophical communications into a final form. He completed his work on The Aletheon on the morning of his passing. The Aletheon is scheduled for publication in 2009. Read Article
Bridgeport cop also on the paranormal beat
After patrolling Bridgeport [Connecticut] for 11 years, Police Officer James Myers has found another calling: the spiritual realm.
Break-ins at the downtown complex of the shuttered Savoy Hotel and the Poli Palace/Majestic theaters got him inside the rundown buildings, where he took photos, an old hobby for the 38-year-old father of three.
But these photos were different from other abandoned buildings he’s shot.
“Things started to show up on my camera,” he said.
Not just anything: orbs, which indicate the presence of spiritual energy. And lots them.
Then a chance meeting in Bridgeport Hospital with famed psychic and Monroe resident Lorraine Warren set him on the path to becoming a paranormal researcher. While working there, he heard Warren, 81, was a patient and approached her. She knew his name before he introduced himself.
As Myers recalled: “She said, ‘Jimmy, how are you?’”
Since then, in his spare time, Myers has been assisting Warren and her son-in-law, Tony Spera, with investigations for the A&E network’s show “Paranormal State.” He helps interview people and collect data with recording equipment. Read Article
She’s a ‘dog whisperer’
Annette James’s life has literally gone to the dogs.
Some of her earliest memories include a Newfoundland dog named Fay who was both her playmate and protector.
“She took care of me because we lived right on the water in a very small community in one of the outports in Newfoundland.”
The dog died when James was 17. A devastating loss, she recalls. In fact the deaths of all of the dogs she’s loved have been difficult. When she talks about the passing of her “fur babies,” she gets teary-eyed.
Her passion for all dogs has brought her to her current profession. Some people call her a ‘dog whisperer.’ She doesn’t think of herself in those terms. Rather, she says, she works to help dogs and people establish healthy, happy relationships through behaviour modification training. Read Article
Healing hands On the front lines of despair, volunteers and agency workers provide everything
It takes a special kind of person to work on the front lines for a social agency.
They are the foot soldiers in the trenches, fighting an ageless but ever-evolving war against poverty, addiction, mental health issues and social disintegration.
Day after day, front line workers reach out and touch people who are sick, hurt or haven’t showered in ages. They wipe up vomit, and worse. They hold the broken, calm the enraged, encourage the addicted. They work with people few in society seems to care about.
It can be difficult, frustrating work, but more often it’s a deeply satisfying, even joyous, vocation.
Ronni Abraham, director of services for Boys&Girls Clubs of Calgary [Alberta, Canada], says her organization is careful to look for “core qualities” rather than specific backgrounds when it recruits front-line workers for its many child and youth programs.
The qualities that make for a good front-line worker? According to Abraham, it’s about having a good head on one’s shoulders, being non-judgmental, accepting, compassionate and energetic and able to think on one’s feet, multi-task and problem-solve under fire.
Essentially, she says, “we’re looking for superheroes.” Read Article
Lama to speak in Halifax
Wandering through the market in Marrakech, Morocco, long after the sun has set, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche says taking reality as real will drive you mad. Speaking over a crackling line to his cellphone, the Buddhist lama, filmmaker and author describes our ordinary lives as a “big sleep” — we get scared by what we dream up.
“Reality is not what we think it is,” he explains as vendors loudly hawk snakes, carpets, oils and shoe polish. “We have to transcend it.”
Our problem is that we imagine what we see is real and permanent, he says. In fact, it is just a temporary illusion. There’s nothing to get stressed about; wait a minute (or a lifetime) and it will pass.
“When you dream you are falling off a cliff, you are scared,” Rinpoche says. “But when you realize you are dreaming — and you don’t necessarily wake up — you can stop being scared.” Read Article
Jews Commend European Parliament for Dialogue With Hindu Statesman Zed
In a remarkable interfaith gesture, Jews have applauded European Parliament (EP) President Hans-Gert Pottering for inviting acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed for a dialogue.
Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, prominent Jewish leader in Nevada and California, in a statement at South Lake Tahoe (California, USA), said, “I commend the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pottering, for extending an invitation to the prominent Hindu statesman, Rajan Zed, to introduce Hindu perspectives and create dialogue on diversity issues in Europe.”
Rabbi Freirich further stated, “I applaud the efforts of President Pottering, the European Parliament, and the European Council for promoting cultural and religious diversity in Europe, as the minority populations of European countries continue to grow. Rajan Zed makes an articulate and passionate ambassador to spread the peaceful message of Hinduism, and to encourage collaboration amongst diverse populations”.
During 2008 as a part of European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, various religious leaders were invited to address the European Parliament plenary, including Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, Grand Mufti of Syria and Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. The EP consists of 785 elected members from 27 countries representing 492 million people. Read Article
Don’t Count On Magic: The world’s most prominent environmentalist on the dangers of illusion
Former Vice President Al Gore—now a Nobel Prize winner and the world’s most prominent environmentalist—isn’t looking for another job in Washington. But his eloquent warnings about the dangers of global climate change have obviously helped shape the priorities of the incoming Obama administration. Gore sat down with NEWSWEEK’s Fareed Zakaria recently to talk about a bailout for Detroit, the greening of China, and the elusive promise of “clean coal.” Excerpts:
ZAKARIA: Would you bail out the carmakers?
GORE: Whatever assistance might be forthcoming should be focused on speeding the changes that are absolutely essential to ensure that our companies are competitive in the global marketplace. When I was vice president, I initiated a program called the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles. The federal government invested over a billion dollars in partnership with the Big Three to focus on the accelerated development of advanced high-efficiency vehicles. But as soon as they felt they were off the hook at the end of 2000, they pulled the plug and walked away. Read Interview
Between Israel and India, a Link Based on Culture and, Now, Terrorism
Midway through Wednesday afternoon, Ani Anighotri was doing his multitasking thing, cruising the Internet while chatting with a friend about a recent business trip to his homeland, India, from his home in Georgia. Then an e-mail message popped onto his screen and ended the jocular conversation. The subject line said, “Attack in Mumbai.”
The accompanying message told Mr. Anighotri of reports of random shooting in Mumbai. He went to a Web site and found an account of a second, similar assault. Then, turning on an Indian cable television station, Mr. Anighotri saw a fire set by terrorists blazing in the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel, the same hotel in which he had stayed just three weeks earlier.
By Thursday morning, Mr. Anighotri had discovered another subtler point of connection. It was now clear that besides hotels, a café, a train station and two hospitals, the terrorists had invaded a Jewish outreach center, operated by the Chabad Lubavitch movement. Mr. Anighotri absorbed the news as the co-chairman of an 80-member group in the Atlanta area called the Indo-Jewish Coalition.
In its modest way, the coalition attests to the deepening bonds between Jews and Indians, whether in Israel, India or the United States; and this week’s events demonstrate perhaps the most visceral and grisly element of connection, though far from the only one. Read Article
Gay Marriage and a Moral Minority
We now know that blacks probably didn’t tip the balance for Proposition 8. Myth busted. However, the fact remains that a strikingly high percentage of blacks said they voted to ban same-sex marriage in California. Why?
There was one very telling (and virtually ignored) statistic in CNN’s exit poll data that may shed some light: There were far more black women than black men, and a higher percentage of them said that they voted for the measure than the men. How wide was the gap? According to the exit poll, 70 percent of all blacks said that they voted for the proposition. But 75 percent of black women did. There weren’t enough black men in the survey to provide a reliable percentage for them. However, one can mathematically deduce that of the raw number of survey respondents, nearly twice as many black women said that they voted for it than black men.
Why? Here are my theories:
(1) Blacks are much more likely than whites to attend church, according to a Gallup report, and black women are much more likely to attend church than black men. Anyone who has ever been to a black church can attest to the disparity in the pews. And black women’s church attendance may be increasing. Read Article
