Not only does the forest operate on the principle of abundance for all and communal resource sharing to maintain health and vitality; the forest has also evolved since Devonian days to optimize for the production and exchange of these resources. There lives a lot of wisdom in the forest. Depending on the age of the tree and their position/role in the canopy communitythe production, use, and exchange of resources has ecologically evolved (via natural selection) to optimize energy and access to resources. So, this part of the trees story seems best told in a life linear wayfrom the time the tree was just a seed until it grew to be quite old and gray.

The Seedling

Beginning with the beginning of life, the seed- whether literally blasting forth from a heated (serotinous) cone or traveling in the gut of a bird or a squirrel who calls the tree home; or following the wind currents of a maple wing on the winds of a prayer, the self-sustaining seed will finally find ground to settle somewhere. Quite a miracle indeed, the seed contains all the energy and nutrient resources, to sprout life below ground that it would need. And imagine this, many trees will mass coordinate their seeding and fruiting activity as a forestall for one and one for all all at the right spring time (or if the species only fruits every few years, all in the same year to preserve precious resources in harsh or limited environmental conditions), when the light and seasonal conditions are prime. Why? Again, the trees know that we be forest. We are family and when we all thrive, the forest stays alive.

That said, competition among individuals is healthy and clear; especially for a tree in its younger year. Thus, the sapling generation is naturally driven to the light and races to the top of the canopy to compete for that spotlight. But along the way as they grow, they benefit the forest, greatly you know, because they photosynthesize and breathe back, feeding the forest at this age the most and strengthening the tree tribe from an infection or bark beetle attack. Then, reaching the age of maturity, the adult trees become increasingly more careful in balancing their photosynthetic flush and belly-bole (tree trunk) outgrowth in order to optimize the ratio between offensive nutrition intake and forest green out-take with wind resistant stems. There is a reason that philosopher kings from Plato to Buddha to Jesus to Mohammed taught under the tree and found enlightenment there. Trees exude wisdom. They intuitively know that to live long and leave a legacy they need a robust, insect resilient, fire retardant, bark protected tree stem and a sufficient canopy of green biomass to feed the whole tree ecosystem of roots or shoots or mycelia connected living plants and critters or reproductive cones and flowers that the tree gifts food, water, oxygen, and shelter against snow showers.

Somehow coded in the DNA and genes of that small forest seed, the mature tree intuitively knows that natural disturbances are part of the forest life game, so ensures it has just enough resource to thwart an infection or infestation or storm or forest fire, aflame. Thus, as the tree gets older and becomes an elder, she will now grow very slow (if at all), knowing that not every vital phloem cell will flow with that essential sap to repair any branch gap due to a thunderous lightning clap. The good news is that with this accumulated age and experience all lived in one place comes the accumulated history and wisdom that no younger tree or forest visitor can replace. Knowledge over time from navigating a natural disturbance sheltering in placea fire, a flood, or a storm, gives the tree (and all who listen to thee) a distinct advantage to keep protected and more resilient against any future threat the tree or forest of family might face.

Then my favorite tree efficiency story lies within its core. Eager to hear more? Well, as most trees mature and have reached quite a nice height to establish a healthy green canopy and absorb sufficient sunlight; they slow their growth upward and begin to spin, within. Essentially, mature treesthe enlightened ones, build resilience with reduced cells and resources by a twist of the stems wristand in that way, they avoid the chronic old age stems hunched over forward list. But, they dont just randomly twist. In order to semi-retire in their elder years and still resist the wind; there is a specific pattern and precise motion to optimize the trees altered mature state and magic tensile strength potion. Many subalpine trees as from my ecology studies I recall, twist each outer plant cell wall, 23.50. I also believe this degree for the tree may even be aligned with Fibonaccis natural law, but you should check me and see. Anyway, astute urban architects, planners, and developers (e.g. Vanke, the largest real estate developer in China) who have studied the forest have succeeded brilliantly in constructing sky scrapers copied from lifes play book on optimizing tensile strength to resist earthquakes and wind storms in cities like; Dubai, London, San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai from tree to tree and sea to sea, incidentally making billions of dollars off natures intelligence for free. Then further imagine, what if we built the buildings of our future cities as functioning forests, entirely? Dickson Depommier (senior counsel to Aerofarms and educator at Columbia University) has already mapped out New York with his graduate students from Columbia University and developed a new 100-year forest development plan for the entire city. As now many companies and banks realize during COVID-19 that they can work virtually, world centers of commerce might also aim to reset cities that optimize also a carbon neutrality and greater energy efficiency gain. If we drawdown over 30% of global atmospheric carbon by protecting standing tree forests (896.2 GT of CO2), then how much more carbon could we save if we cut the construction sectors carbon budget (23% of the total GHG) in half by literally building a forest of urban tree buildings? Isnt that another COVID-19 recovery and future-proofing point for team Tree? And finally (for now), what if we could make these new wood buildings singno kidding, but actually YES produce food, on every commercial building floor in a separate wing? This is Aerofarms vision, which is already a lucrative business, present reality, and huge win for team agriculture, looking to reduce their carbon emissions and feed the world, too.

Dedication to the 1 Trillion Trees Project

There are a little over 3 trillion trees on the planet. Thats about 400/person; but as I said earlier, its 50% less than we had before cities. How can we biodivert cities and return nature to the heart of our human civilization? What can we do to bring nature back to you? And, the first super-simple, super-easy, super-techno thing you can do is to shift your search engine from Google to Ecosia. Ecosia converts your clicks into virtual coin that they invest in forest restoration and tree planting. Check it out. They just launched and are on their way to planting now 90 million trees. (seems 1/second) Visit One Trillion Trees project

Dedication to the guardians of the forest, Nia Tero

We are all native to planet earth; and yet Indigenous Peoples are the guardians of our vital ecosystems. They embody natures wisdom in their rich cultures, intergenerational communities, and earth connections. They can show us how to recover our Human+Nature health and how to well celebrate our sustainable home. Visit Nia Tero

Dedication to the Mycelia, Fungi Perfecti

Mycelia are the naturally intelligent networks of our planet. As virtual shopping and online purchasing now explodes and spreads virallyalmost as fervently as the corona virus itself; the environmental footprint of packaging likely also sky rockets. The good news is that the problem of unsustainable packaging must be addressed in the new circular economy-driven world we want to emerge into at the other end of CV19. I love all the online shopping one can do for mushroom health and soil composting and citizen science engagement to help re-vitalize bee populations on Fungi Perfecti; but where did the Life Box go???? I can only now find a site for Live Box sports and entertainment streaming.

Dr. Catherine Cunningham, PhD, Natural Intelligence Media is committed to awakening Natural Intelligence in the World. She produces multimedia content books, films, and podcasts with her creative companions that aim to inspire everyone, everywhere to live a happy, healthy, naturally intelligent life.

Visit our Natural Intelligence Website HERE.

Participate in our Combatting COVID-19 with Compassion Heart Campaign HERE

Listen to my Naturally Intelligent by Design Podcast, featuring strategies from animals in our world to adapt to disruptive environmental change. HERE

Listen to our Natural Intelligence Worldwide Podcast HERE.

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The Tree's Truth: Conserve Resources - Thrive Global

LOS ANGELES - "What lies at the end of every journey? The goal. The desire. The cheese. But there are many things that stand in our way before we reach that goal."

The voice is a powdery baritone now, but still immediately recognizable as having evolved from the pendulous, dusted yawp that once so memorably hollered to "bring the motherf---in' ruckus."

He continues:"A shrouded valley of doubt, procrastination, excuses. What do you need to build a bridge, cross the valley and attain what you seek? But everything you need already exists in your own universe. You just have to activate it."

These teachings come courtesy of the RZA - aka Prince Rakeem, aka Bobby Digital, aka Zig-Zag-Zig Allah, aka the Rzarector in your sector from Shaolin to the holy city of Mecca. The mastermind of the Wu-Tang Clan shares his wisdom on the album "Guided Explorations," where you'll hear him offering Proustian rhapsody of the sights and smells of Shaolin, nee Staten Island, and how it stacks up to the personal atoll floating amid your chakras. Its cover depicts the RZA in a saffron robe, backed by an incandescent Laserium-style map of the heavens, proffering a glowing orb that reads "RZA" and "Tazo" (the tea company sponsoring the affair).

Bong, bong.

"I thought about meditation for the first time at 13 or 14. A viewing of (the 1978 kung fu film 'The 36th Chamber of Shaolin') sent me on a mission," the RZA intones. "I'd seen it before, but that time it sparked my quest to look for books, learn kung fu styles and meditate. Another film, 'Fists of the White Lotus,' inspired me, too. In it, there's a quote where the villain says, 'Today is the Dragon Boat Festival. This is the day where I meditate all day to regain my chi.' And the hero came and disturbed him. When he said it, I was like, 'You gotta take a day to sit down and regain your chi.' "

The RZA does not give interviews; he grants you an audience. His answers should be brushed onto scrolls of papyrus. On this pre-pandemic afternoon in mid-February, he receives me in a lavishly appointed hotel suite at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles - roughly an hour away from his placid mountain aerie in a gated community just east of Calabasas. He's wearing all black: jeans, high-laced combat boots, designer Wu baseball cap and a jacket with just a slash of killer bee yellow. Amber-tinted sunglasses conceal unusually alert eyes. His full beard lacks even a speck of gray, which helps him look a decade younger than his 50 years.

The nominal purpose of the conversation is to discuss "Guided Explorations," but it's really an entree into the constantly swirling galaxy of the RZA. At the moment, that includes "Wu-Tang: An American Saga," the fictionalized drama about the rise of Clan, which Hulu just renewed for its second season; a mini-documentary about Ol' Dirty Bastard that recently premiered on Amazon Music; and the Bayou heist "Cut Throat City," the third feature film that he's directed. Starring Terrence Howard, Wesley Snipes, T.I. and Ethan Hawke, it was scheduled for an April release until covid-19 forced an indefinite postponement.

A tete-a-tete with the RZA is a psychedelic experience. The tangents can be oblique or occasionally perplexing, but the effect is what matters. His mind is a choose-your-own adventure, where every outcome is a matryoshka doll of infinite metaphysics. Regardless of what he's promoting or what his latest album sounds like (or even if it's not exactly an album), the multi-hyphenate legend is one of the rare subjects worth speaking with anytime you get the chance to hear him talk.

This encounter starts off with an explanation about how original Wu-Mansion was actually in Warren Beatty's old house. Ask a simple question about his dalliances with meditation and you amble down a path that includes whistle stops in the Wudang Mountains; the original Shaolin temple; the sacred texts of the "Diamond Sutra" and the "8 Pieces of Brocade"; Shi Yan Ming (the 34th generation Shaolin warrior monk, of course), and the reason for why when you see drawings of the Bodhidharma it's just one shoe on a stick. There's also a side lesson of 5 Percenter numerology crossed with mystic Eastern wisdom.

"I thought Shaolin had 36 chambers, but Shi Yan Ming explained that it's actually 36 times two," he says, describing his edification and travels in the wake of 1997's "Wu-Tang Forever.""Because it's 36 external and 36 internal. Shaolin starts with the external, Wu-Tang starts with the internal, but they're part of the same school! I'm hearing this and all the folklore that I thought was all just literature. It's like reading Shakespeare. Stories that's so old that by the time we get to the modern day some of them are believable. Like somebody might believe Romeo and Juliet were real, but it was fiction. I was finally getting the pure facts. I began to understand that meditation is moving and still."

As hyperbolic as it sounds in this postmodern, cynical, plague-riddled world, the RZA is one of the most valuable prophets of the past quarter-century. We take it for granted now, but what he has accomplished with Wu-Tang remains one of the most monumental achievements in modern cultural history.

After growing up in the infamously poverty-stricken and violent projects of Staten Island, the bodhisattva-born Robert Diggs scored a record deal in the early '90s and promptly flamed out. After getting dropped by his label, he fled to Ohio and became involved in a web of illicit activity, culminating in an attempted murder charge. Testifying in his own defense, the RZA won an acquittal from a nearly all-white jury.

Returning to Staten Island, he formed a Voltron that featured the neighborhood's best rappers and a pair of his cousins (the GZA and the Ol' Dirty Bastard). But this wasn't just hip-hop; the RZA transliterated a supernatural creole of comic books and 5 Percent Islam, criminology rap and creaky Memphis soul samples, kung fu flicks and street hustler slang. He was something out of Joseph Campbell; a mystic brew of Occidental and Asiatic influences like Gary Snyder, but from a different Beat Generation. The influence he wields and the respect for his work has maintained.

That's why earlier this month, on a Saturday night in the middle of mandated isolation, an Instagram Live beat battle between the RZA and DJ Premier became the hottest topic on social media, attracting a staggering peak audience of nearly 200,000 people. A rare silver lining about the crisis has been the unexpected shift in pop cultural fixations. A cynical TikTok-baiting single from Drake was roundly mocked online, but the RZA, wearing a sleeveless shirt and fingerless gloves, looking like a mechanic from the Paradise Garage, owned the timeline.

"The intention of Wu-Tang has always been the same," he says, taking a sip from a cup of "Zen" green tea. "Our goal is to spread hip-hop culture, our culture, art culture. It's a form of knowledge and cultural fusion. And a lot of the songs I played contain pieces of other songs that were manipulated to create new ones. The Ol' Dirty said that 'Wu-Tang is for the children.' What I think he meant by that is when a child comes to a certain age and learns of the Wu-Tang catalogue, it'll help him navigate life. So many people are trying to find a map, and Wu-Tang provides a map."

The RZA's beat-battle selections underscored the 25th anniversary of one of the most immortal years in hip-hop history. Fresh off the platinum success of the Wu's entirely RZA-helmed debut, "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)," he rented an apartment with the Ghostface Killah in Staten Island, and promptly sequestered himself in a stank 300-square-foot basement studio, subsisting on nothing but turkey burgers. A flood - the first of two biblical deluges to waterlog the RZA's archives - had destroyed all pre-existing beats. So forced to fulfill contractual and fraternal obligations, the RZA hastily produced all of Chef Raekwon's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx," the near-entirety of the Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Return to the 36 Chambers," and all but one beat on the GZA's "Liquid Swords." All three are unimpeachable classics, full of flawless mistakes and chaotic originality. Regularly and deservedly ranked among the top 50 hip-hop albums ever made, they fundamentally define what it means to describe music as "cinematic."

Just in time for the summer of 1995, Method Man and Mary J. Blige dropped their single for "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By," which won a Grammy and instant canonization as one of hip-hop's greatest love songs. It amounts to the greatest year that any producer ever had, a trick of crossroads divination that scarcely seems real in retrospect. The hip-hop equivalent of Wilt Chamberlain averaging 50 points a game in a single season. It could never happen again.

"ODB would come over with his seeds and wife, and they argued a lot," the RZA remembers, reflecting on the basement sessions from that March. "So I had her come down and curse him out and told him to sing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow,' because he always used to sing that anyway. That was one of his jokes. That and 'The Love Boat' theme. Busting them out was part of his personality."

There was no furniture in the living room. Just a lot of chess and "Samurai Showdown" played on the forgotten video-game console, the 3DO. Once ODB was finished, Raekwon and Ghost descended. After scooping up the RZA's best beats, they decamped to Barbados to compose their Mafioso rap-opus. All season long, the lab was the center of the universe, attracting all the Wu members, plus the likes of Nas, Big Daddy Kane and Cypress Hill.

So what was it about that hermitic basement summer of 1995 that produced such stainless cult magic, a clutch of generational spells that continue to rings bells and inspire a multigenerational obsession? The RZA offers a parable. "When some things are kept closed in, the vibrations are kept tighter. That basement was the cave. Bodhidharma, the master of Zen, he had to go meditate in the cave for nine years to figure out his solution on how to make a better world and to help the Shaolin. That's his legend. That cave is always important. You gotta have a cave."

It's only natural that over the past decade and a half, the RZA has increasingly harnessed his creative energies toward film and television. As Prince once said when asked why he didn't write another "Purple Rain": "I've been to the top of the mountain. There's nothing there." The RZA freely acknowledges that much of the early Wu-Tang music was mired in negativity, a reflection of their upbringing and environment, but not the head space you want to be in after a half-century of striving for perfection.

Our conversation is sprawling, a wild syncretistic display of the RZA's curiosities. He is both seeker and Shakyamuni. He waxes philosophical on the following subjects: the Ottoman Empire being composed of people of pigmentation; the origins of Mongolian democracy; the need to celebrate the economic contributions of black Americans; the numerological breakthroughs of ancient India; why he went vegan; how American has different Kit Kats than Europe; the accomplishments of the First Council of Nicaea; how freedom must operate under a law of justice; and a brief digression about how goat curry contributed to the aggression of early Wu-Tang.

Finally, we return to meditation.

"I'm doing this project to help unlock the energy of other people, other creative energy. Zen is important to me," he says. "It means enlightenment and awareness. That's where my spirit has been for a long time."

And like anything destined to stand the test of time, Wu-Tang encompassed more than just a sound, attitude or moment in history. They are an idea and ontology destined to both evolve but remain immutable. So it is both remarkable and inevitable that a man once so committed to the concept of his superhero alter ego, Bobby Digital - to where he made an unreleased movie and purchased an armored Digi-Mobile for him - has become wizened and maybe even spiritually enlightened. This is the same RZA, but now set off on a different path.

"Life is accumulation of those 12 jewels. It's joy. It's bliss. It's love," he says. " My goal at this point is to inspire, leave footprints, and show the younger dudes that this is all possible. And if I'm blessed to be able do that, bong, bong."

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The RZA wants to help you nd enlightenment - San Antonio Express-News

This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

THIS IS A LIVESTREAMED EVENT

April 15th marks the anniversary of Buddha Shakyamuni demonstrating the attainment of enlightenment in 589 B.C.E. As part of Buddhas Enlightenment Day celebrations, a special evening talk will be given, exploring the symbolism behind the life story of Buddha Shakyamuni. We will look at Buddhas life story and how it conveys practical and profound teachings on how to enter, make progress and complete the spiritual path to enlightenment.

For support with our online classes, prayers & events: support@meditation-dc.org

Gen Kelsang Demo is the Resident Teacher at Kadampa Meditation Center Washington DC and the Midwest National Spiritual Director. She is a long time student of Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche and has been teaching for over 20 years. Gen Demo has a wealth of practical knowledge and provides clear and inspiring teachings for people of all levels of interest.

Continued here:
The Life and Liberation Story of Buddha Shakyamuni - Patch.com

During one of my daily walks with my toddler, when we passed his favorite playground, I noticed a new sign warning that the coronavirus survives on all kinds of surfaces and that we should no longer use the playground. Since then, Ive taken great pains to prevent him from touching things.

This hasnt been easy. He loves to squeeze bike racks and graze tree trunks, jostle bushes and knock on picnic tables. He likes to run his fingers against bars around a swimming pool and pet the chickens at the neighborhood coop.

Whenever I bat his hand away or try to distract him from potentially absorbing these dreaded, invisible germs, I wonder: Whats being lost? How can he possibly indulge his curiosity and learn about the world without his sense of touch?

I find myself thinking about Johann Gottfried Herder, an 18th-century German philosopher who published a treatise on the sense of touch in 1778.

Go into a nursery and see how the young child who is constantly gathering experience reaches out, grasping, lifting, weighing, touching and measuring things, he wrote. In doing so, the child acquires the most primary and necessary concepts, such as body, shape, size, space and distance.

During the European Enlightenment, sight was considered by many to be the most important sense because it could perceive light, and light also symbolized scientific fact and philosophical truth. However, some thinkers, such as Herder and Denis Diderot, questioned sights predominance. Herder writes that sight reveals merely shapes, but touch alone reveals bodies: that everything that has form is known only through the sense of touch and that sight reveals only surfaces exposed to light.

To Herder, our knowledge of the world our relentless curiosity is fundamentally transmitted and satiated through our skin. Herder argues that blind people are, in fact, privileged; theyre able to explore via touch without distraction and are able to develop concepts of the properties of bodies that are far more complete than those acquired by the sighted.

For Herder, touch was the only way to understand the form of things and grasp the shape of bodies. Herder changes Ren Descartes statement I think, therefore I am and claims: We touch, therefore we know. We touch, therefore we are.

Herder was onto something. Centuries later, neuroscientists like David Linden have been able to map out the power of touch the first sense, he notes in his book Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind, to develop in utero.

Linden writes that our skin is a social organ that cultivates cooperation, improves health and enhances development. He points to research showing that celebratory hugging among professional basketball players improves team performance, that premature babies are more likely to survive if theyre regularly held by their parents instead of being kept solely in incubators and that children severely deprived of touch end up with more developmental problems.

During this period of social distancing, what sort of void has been created? In our social lives, touches are often subtle and brief a quick handshake or hug. Yet it seems as though these brief encounters contribute mightily to our emotional well-being.

As a professor, I know its been a huge advantage to have digital technology that enables remote learning. But my students are missing out on the little touches, intentional or accidental, from their friends and classmates, whether its in the classroom, in dining halls or in their dorms.

Perhaps not surprisingly, touch plays a bigger role in some cultures than in others. Psychologist Sidney Jourard observed the behavior of Puerto Ricans in a San Juan coffee shop and found that they touched one another an average of 180 times per hour. I wonder how theyre handling social distancing. Residents of Gainesville, Florida, are probably having an easier time; Jourard found they only touched twice per hour in a coffee shop.

Social distancing is crucial. But Im already pining for the day when we can all engage with the world unimpeded, touching without anxiety or hesitation.

Were more impoverished without it.

[Insight, in your inbox each day. You can get it with The Conversations email newsletter.]

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What's lost when we're too afraid to touch the world around us? - The Conversation US

Former Van Halen vocalist Sammy Hagars daughter, Kama Hagar, has shared a new post on her official Instagram account and showed off her body while writing an important tip to her followers.

In the caption of the post, Kama revealed her experiences in Los Angeles and shared untold tips to find a real guru/teacher.

Afterward, Sammy Hagar stated in the comment section that he is so proud of her daughter because she is putting so much effort to give information for people who are seeking enlightenment and the truth.

In the picture, Kama Hagar was laying down on the yoga mat and holding still with the fetal position. She was wearing white tops and tights that suits her body.

Here is what Kama Hagar wrote:

Every guru I had when I first moved to LA turned out to be a cult leader, my friend said to me over juice and aai bowls.

This might be the most LA moment Ive ever had not because of the cold-pressed juice, but because of the realization that we had both accidentally joined like, eight cults at one point.

She continued:

The abundance of spirituality and healing in the world (namely places like: LA, NYC, SF) seems to be a blessing and a curse.

To keep things in the line of blessing, I wrote a blog on 9 signs your teacher may be a cult leader. If we know the signs, we can really sort through whats real and what feels right

Kama shared a list for the signs:

1. First, it feels like a mecca of peace and love, but then it feels like youre being taken over.

2. Your teacher/guru speaks objectively vs. subjectively.

3. Your teacher/guru tells you the way.

Sammy Hagar added this comment:

This is so cool, that you are putting this out there for people that are seeking enlightenment and the truth. Like every other business including religion, charity music you name it. not everyone is 100% honest.

You have to be careful every step you take in life. Its unfortunate. You cant let it stop you from seeking truth and enlightenment. but you can be careful.

You can check out the post below.

View this post on Instagram

"Every guru I had when I first moved to LA turned out to be a cult leader," my friend said to me over juice and aai bowls. This might be the most LA moment I've ever had not because of the cold-pressed juice, but because of the realization that we had both accidentally joined like, eight cults at one point. The abundance of "spirituality" and "healing" in the world (namely places like: LA, NYC, SF) seems to be a blessing and a curse. To keep things in the line of blessing, I wrote a blog on 9 signs your teacher may be a cult leader. If we know the signs, we can really sort through whats real and what feels right. 1. First, it feels like a mecca of peace and love, but then it feels like you're being taken over (mentally, spiritually, emotionally or all of the above) 2. Your teacher/guru speaks objectively vs. subjectively 3. Your teacher/guru tells you the way Read the other 7 signs on the blog link in bio

A post shared by Kama Hagar (@kamahagar) on Apr 15, 2020 at 11:13am PDT

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Van Halen Star's Daughter Flaunts Flawless Body And Curves In A Fetal Position - Metalheadzone

Have you been wishing lately that youd actually taken up meditation instead of just thinking about it all those years?

Were feeling it tooas well as the anxious tension in our chests, the funky sleep patterns, and, yes, the sheer boredom of staring at the same four walls for yet another day. When you also remember that all the art you so dearly love is stowed away inside shuttered art museums, galleries, and studios, it makes you just want to cry.

But despair not! The Rubin Museum of Art is here to help you stay centered (even while its closed) with a recently launched series titled theDaily Offering. An informative, 10-minute episode is posted on the museums Instagram page every Thursday through Monday (the days the museum would have been open).

With soothing intro music and calming rhythmic voices, the videos are just what we didnt know we needed, with all variety of chilling out, from musical performances to guided meditation.Heres a quick guide to the tips weve learned so farbut make sure to tune in for new episodes, too!

Shakyamuni Buddha (16th century). Courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Art.

Each Daily Offering starts with an up-close look at an artwork in the Rubin Museum collection. Whether its through a formal analysis uncovering the magic of the Buddhas seated posture, or an eye-opening examination of Tibetan medical thangkas, Rubin Museum curatorElena Pakhoutova and director of digital experiences Jamie Lawyerlead us in an exercise in focused, calming observation.And its not just about visual art, either: the series also features hypnotic musical performances from the Brooklyn Raga Massive collective that will quiet racing minds.

Green Tara (13th Century). Courtesy of the Rubin Museum.

Are you a meditation school drop-out? Fear not. The Rubin makes meditation easy with guided bite-size lessons that ease listeners into the practice through artworks. In the first Daily Offering, the museums head of programs, Dawn Eshelman, teaches us about Tara, the most important female figure in Buddhism, a bodhisattva who reached enlightenment but chose to stay on earth and help her fellow human beings achieve their own mental freedom.

Meditation teacher and author Sharon Salzberg then leads a brief meditation while participants gaze at a 13th-century sculpture of Tara. Salzberg reminds listeners simply to take the time to remember to breathe. Sometimes we get frozen, she says while encouraging us to take time to reflect. (In week three of the series, meditation teacher Kate Johnson leads a new set of sessions.)

If youd like to take your fledgling practice further, the museums Buddhist Shrine is accessible at all times. Interested virtual visitors can choose between atwo-hour video recording,accompanied by Buddhist chants and flickering candlelight, or aself-guided virtual tourof the space, where you can take time to learn about the individual objects on the altar.

Buddhist Thangka. Courtesy of Rubin Museum of Art.

If youre anything like us, youre digging into your quarantine treatsall the time. No need to worry. Dr. Tawni Tidwell is here to help you get back on track with ancient Tibetan wisdom about healthy habits that can also help you fight opportunistic infections and strengthen your natural immunity.

Trying to keep mindless, chaotic thoughts at bay? Time to up your intake ofbitter greens: kale, broccoli, endives, and the like. Tidwell even shares tips on preparation. She especially emphasizesthe mind-body connection and how environmental conditions and emotional responses can affect our health (and vice versa). And with a sudden clip of cold weather upon us, were especially looking forward to just sipping a mug of hot water. Its the first Eastern medicine, and certainly the simplest one.

Stay tuned for more episodes here.

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Need a Moment of Zen? The Rubin Museum Is Using Its Buddhist Art Collection to Offer Daily Mindfulness Tips and Guided Meditation Sessions - artnet...

By Debola Osibogun

As the COVID -19 pandemic continues to spread across the globe with devastating effects on the global economy, the world must now than ever before unite to fight the unseen enemy. The COVID-19 virus has more than any other disease in recent history affected humanity with millions of people losing jobs and billions confined to their homes. The Virus has isolated man and indeed created cities without people. In Nigeria, the government needs to treat the pandemic very seriously and ensure it leaves no stone unturned in finding a lasting solution.

A lot of attention has been placed on social distancing and good hygiene as immediate solutions to curbing the spread of the COVID-19 Virus. Though these solutions seem to be preventing a drastic spike in the infection curve, embarking on social distancing and maintaining good personal hygiene as strategies cannot totally eradicate the Virus. Recent studies show the COVID-19 Virus can survive 48 hours on surfaces which implies that even if you keep a social distance and maintain good personal hygiene by merely coming in contact with a surface touched by an infected person you are likely to be exposed to the virus. This write-up pays special attention on how to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus while transacting with a focus on how the virus can be spread through the exchange of banknotes. A recent study by (F.Vriesekoop et al 2010 Dirty Money: an investigation into the hygiene status of some of the worlds currencies as obtained from food outlets) shows that a lot of banknotes worldwide are filthy and ridden with bacteria.

The study which looks at banknotes from countries like United States of America, Burkina Faso and United Kingdom and Nigeria suggests a correlation between the number of bacteria present on a banknote and the economic prosperity of the country. It confirmed that the bacteria found present on the Nigerian Naira was much more than that present on the United States dollar. The study also emphasised that bacteria was more prevalent on lower denomination notes because they are more widely used. In addition, a connection was made between the volume of bacteria present on banknotes and the material used to make the currency. i.e. banknotes made of polymer had less presence of bacteria than cotton made banknotes.

If the COVID-19 virus which spreads via droplets of an infected individual can survive upward of 72 hours outside the human body then it risks being spread through banknotes while transacting business. Considering that Nigeria is a predominantly cash based economy this is something that needs to be taken very seriously by the government. The Chinese in suspecting the spread of COVID-19 by banknotes have began sterilising banknotes from COVID-19 prone areas with ultraviolet heat treatment. Given the volume of cash transactions in Nigeria one can only conclude that the country runs a greater risk of the virus spreading via banknotes if the infection rate in the country is not curbed. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should pay attention to the banknotes in the days ahead if we are to win the battle against the COVID-19 virus.

As at the 10th of April 2020 the number of cases reported by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) states that the country has recorded 310 cases majority of them in Lagos state. If this situation escalates further the CBN might want to refresh banknotes and do a more aggressive promotion of its cashless policy. The current situation presents a perfect opportunity for the CBN to get a further buy in from the populace into its cashless policy thereby increasing financial inclusion. Payment modes that limit direct contact with physical cash (online banking and mobile banking) should be promoted more aggressively during this period.

Consumer Awareness and Financial Enlightenment Initiative (CAFEi), a non for profit organization focused on Research, Enlightenment, Advocacy for Consumer Protection with primary objectives to aid consumers in making safe, accurate and informed decisions on goods and services in all facets, including the Banking and Finance industry on previous occasions had called upon the CBN to commence the mopping up of dirty banknotes in circulation because of the impact it has on inflation, trade and the image of the country.

The advent of COVID-19 is yet another reason that CAFEi is calling on the CBN to revisit the matter again. This call is even more critical as it is a call to save humanity. CBN the call to action is now.

*Otunba Debola Osibogun is President, Consumer Awareness and Financial Enlightenment Initiative (CAFEi)

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Dirty Naira Notes and Covid-19 - THISDAY Newspapers

April 15, 2020 9 min read

Its 2020 and the lazy stoner stereotype no longer holds up.

There are so many stimulating activitiesboth physically and mentallythat you can do while consuming cannabis. The high isnt necessarily the end goal, but a meaningful accompaniment along on the journey.

Thats because productive cannabis users are normalizing marijuana, actively rewriting the narrative every day. Who are these high-functioning stoners, you ask?

RELATED:You're Stuck At Home For The Foreseeable Future. Why Not Try Micro-Dosing Cannabis?

They have things to do, nothing romantic, but are busy with life. They use cannabis to alleviate stress, anxiety, manage pain, and even gain energy. They seek healthy and mindful activities to do once they are stoned. No judgement here for the binge-watching TV type of nights, those are needed, too. But you may find these activities can be more rewarding. Its all about balance.

Here are ten healthy, productive things to do while high at home.

Yoga and weed? Self-care 101. Theres a reason for all the cannabis-themed yoga classes gaining popularity in legal states. Yoga is a beautiful activity to pair with weed because it is centered on breathwork. An uplifting edible or a few tokes off of a joint before your yoga session can help you find awareness of breath and bring you into your body. For a fun, zippy, energized feeling, I would recommend a Sativa strain like Pineapple. Lean into the body-intelligence, take a few hits, a big drink of water and enjoy your flow. Reward yourself with the rest of the joint post-session as you lie in savasana.

Its a Saturday. Youve got a nice warm, stoney mood on the horizon. What to do? A great use of a cannabis high is to direct your energy in search of some hidden gem. If youre a music fan like I am, a trip to the local record store, antique shop or thrift shop is ideal. Get lost in the aisles of interesting knick-knacks, or simply beeline it to the stacks of records. Your attention to detail will be heightened if you smoke a mellow, chill hybrid like giggly Jilly Bean. The quest is the fun part. Adding a rare Lou Reed deep cut to your vinyl collection? A perfect day.

Stoned + Toned workout videos are an inspiration. (Photo by courtesy Imad Bolotok/Stoned + Toned)

Cannabis can be a healthy part of your workout ritual. It comes easier than you might think. You'll never find me working out without smoking or popping a low dose edible beforehand, says cannabis workout guru and Stoned + Toned Founder and CEO Morgan English. Not only does it help ease inflammation or pain I may have, but more importantly, it brings me to the moment. The elusive zone is something you can tap into with cannabis. Your heart will thank you for its increase of blood flow, pumping oxygen to your sweet limbs.

Everyone should be health-conscious in their own way; and for me, cannabis helps with that, English says about her own exercise ritual. Cannabis keeps me motivated and happy during workouts, which then fuels me in a different way for the rest of the day. An energetic Sativa like Golden Goat will inspire you to get those running shoes on. Start with a small microdose, as low as 3-5 milligrams, then see how you feel about 20 minutes in. Good music is a must.

If youre a literary nerd, what are the two best scents on earth? Super potent, skunky weed and the pages of a freshly-opened book, in that order. Getting high and then perusing your bookshelfis a fun way to put your brilliant, philosophical stoned mind to work. In Los Angeles, California, the bookstore population has dwindled but there are still some gems like Stories or downtowns legendary The Last Bookstore. Indulge post-quarantine by wandering its aisles on the high of a sweet hybrid like Tangerine Dream. Become the Hemingway of weed.

I am no Van Gogh, but it sure is calming to paint while high. (Photo by Lindsey Bartlett/Green Entrepreneur)

When is the last time you put brush to canvas? I cant laud the therapeutic benefits of painting enough. The movement of the brush stroke stimulates the senses. It doesnt matter what you paint, the act itself is divine. One of my favorite methods to paint is in watercolor. On a cheap watercolor paper book, I like to create calligraphy. Think of your favorite song lyrics or musings, funny lines, quotes, and start painting. A joint of the euphoric strain Headband in one hand, paint brush in the other, is always a good idea. Painting classes have become virtual across the country, like Puff, Pass, & Paint, where you can flex your creative muscles with an online live class.

One amazing thing about cannabis is its ability to pull you into the present moment. Use weed to aid in your meditative practice. Meditation helps to create a home within your mind, a place to go back to. My mediation practice protects me from feeling more unnerving perhaps existential mental thought patterns like anxiety, allowing me to take a step back. I recommend a guided meditation to get you started (tons can be found on YouTube) and most will gift you with a mantra or saying to repeat. Mantras I always come back to are: inhale love, exhale hate, and, om. All you need is yourself, a comfortable seated position, and a cannabis strain that can help you drop into your body and become the conscious observer. I would recommend an Indica-heavy, sour strain like Larry OG. Once you are able to see each passing thought as a little sugar leaf floating by on a river, then youre there.

Potting plants or digging deep in your garden are great elevated activities. (Photo by Lindsey Bartlett/Green Entrepreneur)

Grounding means getting our hands dirty. As a pothead plant mom, nothing makes me happier than repotting, planting or gardening outdoors, depending on the season. Making space for new green friends while high is peaceful. Try finding new succulents to place in creative, unique planters. Potting is made even better with a pinene-heavy Indica like the citrusy sweet and calming King Louis XIII. If edibles are more your speed, I recommend an Indica-dominant edible that eases you in with 10 milligrams. Its slow and long release over the course of a few hours will be sure to help you dig deep to the roots.

Marie Kondo would be proud. One really practical thing to do while highat homeis to clean and reorganize your life. If there is clutter on the floor, there is clutter in the mind. It is not a romantic but a necessary act that also calms your senses. If your windows are foggy and water-stained, clean them and youll be literally and figuratively seeing more clearly. Plus it makes you feel like you have accomplished something positive, even if its as simple as the dishes. Blast music, burn sage and a joint of an energetic, airy Sativa like Sour Diesel to reset the space. Cleanliness is close to godliness.

A joint on the beach is one of the most supreme pleasures of life. Plus, you get a workout from walking on the sand. (Photo by Lindsey Bartlett/Green Entrepreneur)

The original nature walk meant going out on a hike into the wild unknown and smoking a bowl with a view. While observing social distancing, take a walk or intermediate trail hike, 2 or 3 miles, with a lush, scenic view at the summit. One would bewise to enjoy this viewwith some cannabis (legally). For a pain-relieving but cerebral high, go for a balanced hybrid like Sunset Sherbert. Itll serve as a nice reward once you reach the peak. Even better, it makes going down a bit easier on your knees and potentially sore feet. Be mindful of anything combustible in the great outdoors and bring a closable glass bottle to use as an ashtray. Do not leave a trace. Also, mind the laws and make sure its legal to consume in your state and parks. Leading in this example is Canada, where all national parks allow cannabis consumption. Keep in mind the local rules and regulationsduring stay-at-home measures (safety first), or start making a list of beautiful, isolated nature hikesto-do once parks reopen in the coming months.

Another simple yet potent grounding ritual, cooking is a key stoned activity because it connects you to your nourishment. Carefully slicing veggies after a long day and a nice toke reminds me that Im human. Cannabis strains like the creative, talkative Cinderella 99 help to elevate an act so mundane. We eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, of course, but the goal is to find enlightenment in minimalist tasks. If safe, secure and clear of all potential fire hazards, its surprisingly fun and calming. Its simplicity reminds me of the Buddhist saying: Before enlightenment, chop wood carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood carry water.

Read more:
10 Healthy, Productive Things To Do While High - Green Entrepreneur

Good governance, state and citizenship

The writer is a social development and policy adviser, and a freelance columnist based in Islamabad.

Governance is one of those buzzwords of politics, economics and development which are used without much understanding of meaning and contextual relevance.

The term governance continues to be used vaguely in policy and practice like the notions of civil society, power, participation and transformation. In the mainstream literature on governance, it is loosely defined as a mode of political expression in contradistinction to governmentality.

Governmentality is associated with the idea of the state as a top-down and inefficient administrative entity to exercise coercion more than consent to govern people. The argument for good governance is rooted in the idea of subsiding the role of the state rather than making it accountable to people. The good governance debate, therefore, doesnt not threaten the state's monopoly over power and violence, but rather reduces the burden of governments responsibility towards citizens.

The concept of good governance advocates an increased role of diverse institutions as intermediaries for negotiating power of choice between government and people. These diverse institutions from the non-governmental domains include but are not limited to the private sector and a politically inert civil society. In this sense, the domain of governance is a horizontal space of political intermediation between state and citizens through a third party which in itself is not accountable to the people.

One can assume from this understanding of governance that it is, perhaps, some kind of diffusion of governments role in determining political and economic matters of a state and society. However, the literature on governance stops short of providing any meaningful explanation about this diffusion of governments role other than enumerating some key functions of good governance.

Good governance becomes a desirable political goal of democracy with little role of the state in political and economic matters. Some people argue that the good governance debate has dissuaded public attention from the idea of the state-citizen relationship. The good governance debate is more of a technical discussion on institutional reforms with a larger role for non-governmental entities like the market and a malleable civil society.

On the contrary, the state-citizen relationship is more of a political debate on rights, duties and accountability mechanisms without necessarily rejecting the role of intermediary institutions or power brokers between state and citizens. The state-citizen relationship is about ensuring people centric governance, in that civil society and private sector become irrelevant or they must cease to exist only if they cannot be made accountable to people.

For good governance to happen you need professionals and experts but for an effective state-citizenship role you must have informed citizenry and political consciousness of people at large. Good governance is more of a development oriented agenda of reforms but a state-citizen relationship is a political goal of empowerment. Good governance at times becomes an end in itself of a reform package but it may only be one of the political objectives of effective state-citizen relationship. The good governance debate tends to absolve the state of its responsibilities by relegating it to an inefficient and bureaucratic function while the state-citizenship debate gives centrality to the functional accountability of the state.

Good governance is syllogistic as it deduces politics and discourse of power diffusion from the larger ecosystem of global political and economic order and it is, therefore, generic. A state-citizen relationship advocates peoples governance within a state system and it is contextual. Good governance is a technical issue, to be dealt with by experts while the idea of state-citizen relationship is political and transformational and puts people first.

Hence, the demand for good governance becomes an ambiguous political call on the state and those intermediaries making such calls themselves remain unaccountable to people. This contradiction of good governance debate serves the political objective of de-politicization of citizens. Furthermore, this gives credence to the specialized knowledge of experts who in turn make a living out of our ignorance.

In this world of burgeoning experts of economy, development and security all we have is a supermarket of ideas to be consumed by its producers only. A development expert can write a jargonized proposal to narrate the problems of a society to raise money but the very jargon makes this expert an inevitable choice to become a well-paid advisor for the same project. If knowledge production and its consumption becomes the monopoly of experts, it gives birth to asymmetrical relationships between people and power intermediaries. This asymmetrical relationship reduces the role of the people to knowledge recipients rather than making them its producers and consumers.

The knowledge that is imposed upon people in a good governance debate is directed to create power spaces for the rule of experts without downward accountability. These experts in reality become the fragmenters of worldviews, augmenters of complexity and tormentors of political societies. This is the complexity and uncertainty which tends to create high demands for experts as interpreters and implementers of fragmented knowledge frameworks. This is how neoliberalism has penetrated deep into our thinking about politics and economics and our worldview of socioeconomic transformation.

Are we too obsessed with neoliberalism as if its the source of all ills? To answer this question, let us deconstruct the notion of neoliberalism first. It is important because many people tend to criticize neoliberalism as an original sin without understanding it. Let us forget about the prefix neo to understand first what the term liberalism entails.

Liberalism as it implies has something to do with being free from conformism, traditions and dogmatism. Here liberalism seems like a progressive concept that questions the unquestionable domains of tradition, culture, politics and religion. The genesis of modern liberalism goes back to the age of enlightenment in Europe from the 17th to 19th centuries. This was the time when the role of religion in politics was questioned in addition to challenging the tradition and cultural dogmatism.

Liberalism questioned the nexus of the church and the state as an unholy alliance to suppress free thinking within people. This was the beginning of modern capitalism, which gained political power by breaking the nexus of church and ruler and by overthrowing feudalism. We know political liberalism as the foundation of freedom of expression, secularism and parliamentary democracy.

There was another strain of economic liberalism propounded by Adam Smith, the Scottish economist of the Enlightenment period. Adam Smiths economic liberalism was founded on the principle of noninterference of government in the economy ie privately owned means of economic production must be free from state regulation. To him, people make rational economic choices out of self-interest and therefore it is the market rather than the state which must govern the economy.

This may look like real freedom but in reality it was to allow the wealthy to accumulate more wealth without the interference of the government to prevent free accumulation of capital by the rich. The equal distribution of wealth created by capitalism could not be ensured without the role of parliament to legislate in the interest of people. This bifurcation of politics and economy blurred the collective imagination of freedom. The rebirth of this classical economic liberalism as neoliberalism in our age of globalization has universalized disparities, and on the political side it has disintegrated worldviews.

We live in a disintegrated world today, using its political notions unthinkingly at the cost of our free thinking.

Email: [emailprotected]

Twitter: @AmirHussain76

The rest is here:
Good governance, state and citizenship - The News International

APRIL 2020 Issue 970 x 90 Books

Shokoofeh Azar Translator anonymous The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (Europa Editions, 2020)

The first pages pull off an impressive act, juggling the stuff of dreams with the all too real. In a few horrifying lines, Shokoofeh Azar describes a young man hanged without trial, one of the thousands executed in the fall of 88, around Tehran. Their only crime had beenreading banned pamphlets, or distributing flyers, and their murderers enjoyed a career boost, becoming Revolutionary Guards, even mayors. Yet alongside such documentary materialIrans Islamic Republic at its worstThe Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree explicates its surreal title image. On the day of the boys state-sanctioned murder, his mother leaves her rural home to climb to the top of the tallest greengage tree (the fruit of which is better known as a green plum). There she sits mesmerized, for three days and three nights, perched on stardust, gazing down at an Earth no bigger than a tiny speckcarrying in its womb the past and future.

The woman flies off to Tralfamadore, in other words, and with much the same prompting as Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five. Indeed, a firebombing haunts the mother. Years before her son was killed, during the Islamic Revolution of 79, the familys Tehran home was ransacked. In thefight against the vice of pleasure, the mob set fire to the fathers luthier shopwhere the older daughter Bahar was trying to hide. Instantly, she was immolated.

But then, Bahar too inhabits a magical space. She serves as the novels ghostly narrator, making free with mortal chronology. Only over time does the story emerge as a decades-long tragedy, in which the opening execution is just another chapter. Under the Ayatollahs, Bahars family suffers till it shatters. Yet as its devastation comes to light, our undead narrator provides otherworldly relief. Herself a fantasy, she summons up many others of her kind:

Such passages risk being congenial to flat repetition and hand-me-down phrasing (in the blink of an eye), and a few times I fretted about the translation. Yet by and large the fabulist business proves delightful. I especially enjoyed the metamorphosis of Bahars sister, who ends up a mermaid. Better still, such materials always reveal their roots in the loam built up over millennia of Persian storytelling with all its grandeur and creativity. The way this heritage has collapsed mirrors the familys going to bits, and those dual pistons drive Greengage Tree. Thus while the opening recalls Vonnegut, the structure overall owes more to One Hundred Years of Solitude. The Colombian text is cited a couple timesmost poignantly, when the Revolutionary Guards toss it into a bonfireand the Iranian likewise yokes a doomed family to a destructive culture, while decorating the gloom with a phantasmagoria. Azar might not have moves as breathtaking as Garca Mrquez, but she belongs on the same stage.

Sorting out the novels chronology also entails escaping to an older Iran, a largely illiterate village in the hills. Here Bahars remaining relations seek peace amid ancient forests central to Persian traditiona natural setting for the sort of tales you might hear from Scheherazade. Once or twice those tales stretch the narrative almost to breaking, meandering a long way from the core drama. Still, the familys five-hectare grove cant protect them from the book-burners. Soon enough, what remains of the family library is destroyed, in a scene that raises the hackles despite rhetoric as overripe as some of the fairytale scenes. Before long, the son Sohrab languishes in prison, soon to be hanged. Small wonder Mom climbs up into the stars and Sis swims off into the Caspian Sea. Or, to put it another way, the assorted mystical developments might actually represent more mundane disorders. A psychiatrist might call them PTSD, if in a form you wont find in the Merck Manual. Just such a diagnosis turns up, in fact, on the closing pages of Greengage Tree.

At that point, years after the sons execution, the grieving father has fallen into the hands of the State. Hes made his lonesome way back to Tehran, and there he cant resist picking up a few bootleg CDs of protest music. To hear such songs, to know at least some artists were still alive and reacting, left him overjoyed. But when the Basji patrols discover the contraband, they label the man a Corrupter on Earth. Jailed, beaten, he must write a confession. Dad however takes that last step out of bounds. He wrote for days, and the result sounds a lot like the novel weve been reading, with children either murdered or turning to mythical beasts. But then, under still more pressure, the old man delivers something a doctor would recognize, with grief-induced psychosis and withdrawal.

Which version counts as the truth? That dangerous term? Plainly, Azar would answer both, arguing that the Old Gods still hold value, still alive and reacting, even as she recognizes how mysticism didnt offer any simple solutions to murder, plunder, poverty, or human injustice. An ambitious claim, this tempts her at times into overreach. Nevertheless, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree overwhelms any reservations. My quibbles about syntax or vocabulary, for instance, matter little when one considers that the translator had to remain anonymous. The current regime would never brook such critique, and likewise Azars acknowledgments end with thanks to the free country of Australia, to which she fled ten years ago. Ultimately, her work stands as another of the terrific fictions, a number of them by women, out of this tormented region and moment. It affirms again the adaptability, the veracity, the sheer power of the novel form.

John Dominis fourth novel, The Color Inside a Melon, appeared last summer.

Link:
Shokoofeh Azar's The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree - Brooklyn Rail