Scottish literary giant Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that
it’s "not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s
hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from
old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit." Forests
have long been a place we go to clear our minds. But the simple act of
strolling through woods isn't so common these days. That could change if former
wilderness guide Amos Clifford, who founded the Association of Nature and
Forest Therapy in 2012, has his way. He's formed a 'forest therapy' group for
one reason: to preach the gospel of a new form of preventative healthcare known
as "forest bathing" (a poetic term for using our five senses to
absorb a forest's atmosphere). Read more.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Women Artists of the Canadian Inuits
Kenojuak Ashevak, Spirit of the Raven
|
In sharp contrast to the Western art world where women have
been largely sidelined or excluded, in the Canadian Inuit society of Cape
Dorset , it is the women who are
recognized as the leaders of the contemporary Inuit art movement. It is women
artists who have won the most awards and accolades, and who have achieved the
highest prices at auction for their artworks and received worldwide recognition.
Co-operatives were created in which art could be produced in a changing economy
for the Inuit people. Women artists often shared any economic gain, investing
into the artistic processes in order to maintain community productivity. Many
of the works contain a ritualistic and spiritual significance relating to the
shamanic beliefs of the people. Read more.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
The World Tree
The World Tree |
In world mythology, The World Tree is the axis mundi, world
axis, or central axis of the cosmos. Images of the World Tree exist in nearly
all cultures and represent the world center and/or the connection between
heaven and earth. The axis mundi links heaven and earth as well as providing a
path between the two. Many ancient cultures incorporate the myth of the World
Tree, Tree of Life, or Tree of Knowledge, as it is also known. The Mongols call this axis the turge tree. The mythic Eagle, who was
the first shaman (buu), perches at
the top of the turge tree, which
touches the sky by the Pole Star (Altan
Hadaas). A tree of seven branches with a bird or eagle at the top and a
serpent at the roots is symbolism often found on prehistoric monuments.
This central axis exists within each of us. Through the
sound of the drum, which is invariably made of wood from the World Tree, the
shaman is transported to the axis within and conveyed from plane to plane. As
Tuvan musicologist Valentina Suzukei explains: "There is a bridge on these
sound waves so you can go from one world to another. In the sound world, a
tunnel opens through which we can pass, or the shaman's spirits come to us. When
you stop playing the drum, the bridge disappears." The inner axis passes
through an opening or hole through which the shaman can ascend to the Celestial
Realm of unmanifest potential and descend on healing journeys into the temporal
realm of manifest form. Read more.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
How Enlightenment Changes the Brain
Enlightenment is a traditionally mystical and slippery
concept, but when it is subjected to the rigors of empirical analysis, there is
a lot to be learned about our brains and ourselves. Dr. Andrew Newberg, who has
put enlightenment through a battery of scientific tests, says there are
actually two kinds of enlightenment: lowercase-e enlightenment, which changes
our opinions about the world, and Enlightenment, which changes our essence,
i.e. how we think of life, death, God, etc. Read more.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Meditation Rebuilds the Brain
Test subjects taking part in an 8-week program of
mindfulness meditation showed results that astonished even the most experienced
neuroscientists at Harvard University.
The study was led by a Harvard-affiliated team of researchers based at
Massachusetts General Hospital, and the team's MRI
scans documented for the very first time in medical history how meditation
produced massive changes inside the brain's gray matter. "Although the
practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical
relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides
cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,"
says study senior author Sara Lazar of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging
Research Program and a Harvard Medical School instructor in psychology. "This
study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these
reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they
are spending time relaxing." Read more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)