Cool. I like these old Sufi and Zen stories, the ones with a punchline. But I'm
not sure of this one's pedigree because I first heard this joke as a generic
barroom joke. The owner's question was the same, but in the joke I heard, the
job seeker replied that he'd gotten his experience in the Sahara Forest. The
owner says, "You mean the Sahara Desert, don't you?" And the job seeker
replies, "Well...it is *now*." :-)
The appearance of this kind of story here strikes me as synchronicity-laden, so
I'm going to pass along to you something that came up over dinner. We were
talking about scifi, and opining about how hard it was to portray truly alien
aliens. If you think about it, almost all of them in scifi have been
anthropomorphized, and end up being pretty much like humans, only with bug
eyes. As the talk went on, I remembered the best story that I remember reading
in terms of capturing "alien-ness" -- it's by Terry Carr, and won both the Hugo
Award and Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1969. It's also very Zen. Or
Sufi. It's about the conflict of two mindsets that in all likelihood will never
understand each other, because the way their minds work is so different. I
think you of all people on this forum will appreciate it:
THE DANCE OF THE CHANGER AND THE THREE-PAGE 1
| |
| | | | | | | |
| THE DANCE OF THE CHANGER AND THE THREE-PAGE 1This all happened ages ago, out
in the depths of space beyond Darkedge, where galaxies lumber ponderously
through the black like so many silent bright rhinoceroses.... |
| |
| View on lexal.net | Preview by Yahoo |
| |
| |
From: "[email protected] [FairfieldLife]"
<[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, May 4, 2015 8:42 PM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Fwd: Nepal earthquake report from TM Center in
Kathmandu
This reminds me of the following story, from the Sufis:
The plantation owner was surprised to see the unlikely figure Nasrudin applying
for a job.
'I'll give you a chance, although you don't look like the sort who could fell
trees. Where did you learn to cut down trees?'
'In the Sahara desert', Nasrudin replied.
'But there aren't any trees in the Sahara.'
'No, there aren't, now', replied Nasrudin.
---In [email protected], <[email protected]> wrote :
It must be tough in the yagya selling business. The only way you have to
promote your wares is by saying astonishingly unconvincing things like "You
know that Earthquake that didn't flatten your village yesterday? That was
prevented by us"
A sceptic might say that we've no real idea whether an Earthquake would have
flattened anyone's village without the awesome yagya performance. But that's
just got to be nonsense, how could a system of reality based on the mighty
wisdom of the veda's possibly be in error?
But it looks like something did go wrong - maybe some interference from that
Hell Pit of Shiva agitation in Switzerland forced our normally strong grip on
the laws of nature into abeyance for just a second? - and of course, once
you've collected the money to pay for a prayer to make good things happen and
then something bad happens, you need a ready explanation to get yourselves off
the hook.
And here it is: It would have been worse if it had happened the day before.
Well, you've got to have something to rally round. And this is the trouble with
superstitious thinking, your view of the world is based on a nonsense and when
- surprise surprise - your dysfunctional iron-age model doesn't work the way
you expected it to you need a scapegoat, no matter how obscene, or those all
important donations for the next round of pointless prayers to non-existent
gods won't be so forthcoming.
But just this once, instead of giving money to the TMO why not give it to the
Red Cross, at least they are actually doing something to help the victims and
it won't seem like you are just throwing your money onto a bonfire...
How we're helping in Nepal | British Red Cross
| |
| | | | How we're helping in Nepal | British Red Cross The British
Red Cross is supporting the three-year programme, which is funded by a £4
million grant from the UK government’s Department for Internation... | |
| View on www.redcross.org.uk | Preview by Yahoo |
| |
---In [email protected], <WLeed3@...> wrote :
-----Original Message-----
From: William Leed <wleed3@...>
To: wleed3 <wleed3@...>
Sent: Sun, May 3, 2015 9:18 pm
Subject: Fwd: Nepal earthquake report from TM Center in Kathmandu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:Steve<steve@...>
Date: Sun, May 3, 2015 at 6:10 AM
Subject: Nepal earthquake report from TM Center in Kathmandu
To: Stephen Van Damme <steve@...>
TM Center in Kathmandu - Nepal Earthquake Report Namaste, I am writing a sort
of general report for friends and for supporters of the Nepal Projects. This is
going to a number of people and has nothing confidential in it, so anyone may
freely share it with others. There are so many enquiries about the situation
here and even offers of help for relief work as we start to get our legs back
from under us, since the earthquake. It is difficult for me to reply to
everyone one at a time so please bear with the situation and not mind the
generalities of this report. April 25th, just before noon, Nepal was struck by
a magnitude 7.9 earthquake. The epicenter was approximately 50 miles from
Kathmandu and about 30 miles from Pokhara.. roughly the center of the country….
As anyone following the news knows there has been a lot of damage in the
Kathmandu Valley and massive destruction in the rural districts surrounding the
Kathmandu Valley. At the latest count, more than 6,600 people were killed and
property damage is at least 130,000 homes completely destroyed and maybe up to
600,000 damaged to some degree. Many, many people are homeless and are
surviving outdoors as best they can, as relief efforts to provide them with the
basics of survival arrive. In the village areas the devastation is such that
whole villages were flattened and in many place 70-90% of all buildings
collapsed. The number of people affected by this calamity is estimated to be
about 8 million people or roughly 25% of the population of Nepal. Right now
about 650,000 people have left the Kathmandu Valley to return to their home
villages to help their families or start relief work and salvaging what they
can of their village homes. Kathmandu is starting to come back to life, but
today (Saturday the 2nd) not 10% of the shops were open and traffic was almost
negligible. The city has a largely deserted feeling and the people are doing
OK, most Nepalis are cheerful by nature and stoic by disposition so they are
handling things amazingly well. The old parts of the city have been badly
damaged and we have lost many wonderful, ancient Temples and national
monuments. The Holy Temple of Pashupatinath was hardly damaged although many
surrounding buildings were. Bhakatpur suffered a lot and I read that about 25 %
of the houses came down, along with many temples, including the Natyapol
temple, which is the biggest and most majestic of them all. In Kathmandu
amongst other collapsed structures was the KASTHMANDAP… dating from the 12th
century, Kathmandu supposedly took its name from this ancient mandap in the
Durbar Square. In contrast to all of this... much of the city shows little to
no damage.. It seems to depend on the quality and age of the building
construction. However many of the new apartment buildings have damage and it is
too early to know if it is just cosmetic or structural and if they will have to
come down. The economic loss is in the billions of dollars and the tourist
industry will take huge hit and time to recover. Now that all sound rather
harsh and certainly it is, but here is another angle and this is the underlying
reality… The geologists and seismologists have been predicting a major
earthquake could come at any time.. and in fact is considered long over due.
The last major quake to hit Kathamndu was in 1934 and was proportionately even
more devastating, considering the population of the Valley was less than 10% of
what it is now. The predictions of the seismologists were very dire, with
estimated fatalities in the 100s of thousands… Now here is the thing,.. the
quake hit at noon on aSaturday, the day off in Nepal. The timing was such that
schools were closed and many places of business and all government offices were
closed. In the rural areas most families were out in the fields planting the
spring crops or preparing their fields. If the quake had struck at night or
the morning hours the death toll would have in fact been in the hundreds of
thousands. These village homes are largely made of mud and stone with no mortar
and they simply crumbled in a heartbeat. There is no way to get around it… the
Himalayas is one of the most seismically active areas of the world.. In fact
this earthquake moved Kathmandu about 10 feet south and raised the Valley up
about 3 feet… all in one go.. (Mount Everest sank by about an inch…) So, when
you consider the Laws Of Nature, it is in fact almost a miracle that the damage
occurred in a relatively narrow window of the day and day of the week that
could mitigate such a potential calamity. People here are very much aware of
this and deeply grateful that Nature’s timing was as kind as it was.. This is
not to belie the extent of the suffering and destruction.. It IS MASSIVE, but
it could have been so very much worse. Now that is interesting from our
perspective in that these days in Nepal there are very many Maharishi Yagyas
going on… None of the Maharishi Pandits were harmed although many lost family
village homes.. They have been working for the last 6 years to create coherence
for Nepal and the world…. During this time, we have seen a marked increase in
coherence in the political field. The Maoist party lost their destructive edge,
were sidelined by the political process and have now faded largely into
irrelevancy. The political parties have a long way to go, no doubt, but the
situation has improved like the day from the night. In many areas of society we
have seen all the predicted signs of increasing coherence and especially since
we have had the first TM SIdhi Courses in Nepal. I am writing these points
because it is important to have a perspective during times of natural calamity…
they can seem so arbitrary and the suffering can seem so vast. In truth, yes we
are suffering now in Nepal… but it is a fraction of what was predicted and
considering everything we are very grateful. Another area of gratitude that I
must acknowledge is the response from the International Community. Relief aid
is flooding into the country. Even I received 95 concerned emails from friends
and Foundation supporters, the very morning after the earthquake… So, I am
confident that Nepal will rebuild… it is going to be an on going effort for
some time, but the Nepalis are a self reliant people. getting through the next
months will be hard, no doubt, but they will do it. I have told friends that
‘if’ I have to face such a situation as this, in my life, then there are no
better people to go through it will than our Nepali friends. I love these
people and for me this is home. I want to thank all the friends and supporters
for your kind attention and the sincerity of your hearts.. It has been a great
honor for me to have helped host many guests these last years and watch the
marvel on your faces as Nepal unfolded HER magic for you. If anyone wants to
participate in the relief efforts or offer support in any way, it is welcome.
But, neither Atmaram-Dai nor I are soliciting any donations from anyone or
anywhere. If you contact us individually we can steer you to legitimate
Foundations that can accept donations and give you a tax exemption. Our work is
to create coherence and support the Cultural Integrity of Nepal and it is the
most heart felt work that I have ever done in my life. I consider it to be the
greatest gift that I have ever received and sharing it with others has been
just a huge and wonderful part of my life. Thanks. Jai Guru Dev and all the
best to all of you. Ramprasad ============================================
Nepal earthquake in 75 photos:
All about the disaster that killed 6,100, destroyed 6 lakh houses|
- May 01, 2015
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nepal-earthquake-all-about-the-devast
ating-disaster-that-killed-thousands-affected-millions/article1-1342182.aspx
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