Cosmic winds, light, echoes (video)

Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; Nadia Drake (Phenomena, NatGeo, May 5, 2014)

Light echoes act as astronomical time machines or portals to the past.

On Earth, echoes are produced when sound waves bounce around like pinballs. In space, echoes are produced when light does the bouncing.

Just as sounds can echo -- so, too, can cosmic light. But instead of ricocheting off damp cavern walls, light traveling through the universe bounces off soft, dusty clouds.

 

Sometimes, this happens after an explosive event such a supernova. On Earth, most of the light we’d see from one of these exploding stars would have come directly here. But supernovas explode in three dimensions, sending light in all directions. Not all of that light is aimed toward Earth. If the geometry is right, some of the light... More
 

SUTRA: In the Sky

Nyanaponika Thera (trans.) Akasa Sutta (1) (SN 36.12); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

"In the sky, O meditators, various kinds of [solar, cosmic, magnetic] winds are blowing: winds from the east, west, north and south, winds carrying dust and winds without dust, winds hot and cold, gentle and fierce.

• ["Wind" or vayo (prana, chi, spiritus) is regarded as the source of movement, the invisible animating principle as it were, in the body.]

"Similarly, meditators, there arise in this body various kinds of feelings: pleasant feelings arise, painful feelings arise, and neutral feelings arise."

 

Illusion of expanding dust cloud (NASA/ESA/H.E.Bond)

Just as in the sky above winds of various kinds are blowing:

Coming from the east or west, moving from the north or south,

Some carry dust and others not, cold are some and others hot,

Some are fierce and others mild -- their varied moving style.

So also in this body here, feelings of different kind arise:

The pleasant feelings and the painful and the neutral ones.

But if a meditator is vigilant and persistent

To practice mindfulness and comprehension clear,

The nature of all feelings will one understand,

And having penetrated them, one will be taint-free in this very life.

Mature in knowledge, firm in Dharma's ways,

Then once one's lifespan ends, this body breaks,

 

And all measure and concept one has transcended.

[This last line is an allusion to nirvana.]

Drake is a science journalist. Phenomena is her space to talk about space -- from other worlds to exploding stars to the fabric of time and the universe. Her work has also appeared in Science News, Nature, New Scientist, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and WIRED. She lives in beautiful, foggy San Francisco.

• Buddhist physics: The Four Elements or Primary Qualities of Materiality
• 
  Prāna (प्राण) is the Sanskrit word for "life force." In yoga, Oriental medicine, and martial arts, the term refers to a cosmic energy believed to come from the Sun (solar cosmic rays) and connecting the elements of the universe. The universal principle of energy or force, responsible for the body's movement, heat, life, and maintenance, prāna is the sum total of all [active] energy that is manifest in the universe. This life energy has been vividly invoked and described in Vedas. In Ayurveda, tantra, and Tibetan medicine "praṇā vāyu" is the basic vāyu (wind, air) from which all the other vāyus arise. It is analogous to qi or chi. More
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Enter the Mandala: Cosmic Mind Maps

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Assistant Curator Dr. Jeff Durham (SFAAM)

Buddha icon in Tawang district, Arunachal Pradesh, India (Appaji/flickr.com)

A mandala in Tibetan Vajrayana meditation serves as a kasina (indiebookevent.com)

Buddhist and Hindu hallway, Norton Simon, Pasadena (Christian DeLao/judasmaiden15/flickr)

Enter the Mandala: Mental Maps and Cosmic Centers in Himalayan Buddhism

Jaws of Samsara, Bhavacakra (thangka-mandala)

Dr. Jeff Durham, Assistant Curator of Himalayan Art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, will explore the possibility of re-creating a Buddhist experience without years of meditative discipline:

Mandalas are geometric maps of Vajrayana Buddhist visionary worlds [planes of existence in Buddhist cosmology]. Appearing in both painting and sculpture, mandalas typically consist of nested squares and circles.

These geometric forms define the center of the cosmos and the four cardinal directions in the sky/space (akasha). Minutely detailed and saturated with philosophical meaning, mandalas are a feast for the eyes and mind.

For Buddhist meditators, however, they are not just images to view, but also worlds to enter. To work with a mandala, practitioners first re-create it in their mind’s eye then imaginatively enter its world.

• Lecture: Norton Simon Museum
• Date: Saturday, April 19, 2014
• Time: 4:00 pm-5:00 pm

Free with admission (limited seating). Member seating 3:30 pm; general seating at 3:45 pm.
  
Rise of Shramanic tradition
Wisdom Quarterly edit of Dharmic Religions (7th to 5th centuries BCE)

The Buddha taught mostly in Magadha

Buddhism and Jainism belong to the "wandering ascetic" (sramana) tradition as distinct from the Brahminical (temple priest) tradition.

They rose to prominence in 700-500 BCE (Svarghese 2008, pp. 259-60; Jain 2008, p. 210; Mallinson 2007, pp. 17-8, 32-33) in Magadha (Magadha Kingdom), reflecting "the cosmology and anthropology of a much older, pre-Aryan upper class of northeastern India" (Heinrich Zimmer, 1989, p. 217) and were responsible for the related concepts of the cycle of birth and death (saṃsāra) and liberation from that cycle (moksha) (Flood, 2003, pp. 273-4, n. 9].

 

The wandering ascetic movements challenged the orthodoxy of Brahminical rituals (Gavin D. Flood, 1996, An Introduction to Hinduism, Cambridge Univ. Press, p. 82) inherited by Hinduism. The shamans (shramanas) were wanderers as distinct from orthodox Vedic Brahmin priests. Mahavira, founder of Jainism, and the Buddha, founder of Buddhism, were the most prominent and long lived icons of this ancient Indian movement. More

There was no "Big Bang" (audio)

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Mitch Jeserich, KPFA Berkeley, 3-19-14

A first point, a first cause, a prime move(r) -- the Big Bang is no better than positing an all-powerful God who did it, yet we fool ourselves by using words to say nothing.

  

Recent reports of a major "breakthrough" on inflation less than a trillionth of a second after the purported Big Bang are exaggerated, but for good reason: There are Nobel Prizes at stake.
 

No doubt banging has gone on in space, big banging worse than the worst gang banging at The Bada Bing in Jersey. Nevertheless, there was no BIG Bang, a beginning to everything. Recently a scientist was being interviewed (maybe on NPR audio or C2C) and admitted that "the Big Bang" was not the beginning of everything, just the beginning of our ability to find a beginning, the edge of the knowable. What a gyp.

• Play in computer's media player
• Download this episode (MP3, 10.27 MB) 
• About the show, Archives, Playlists

Buddhist cosmology: 31 Planes of Existence

We were not all raised with the fantasy-tale that science had an answer to the origin of the universe? But now there are multiverses, and scientific uncertainty is expressed more openly, and even if a Big Bang occurred ~13 billion years ago, that in no way says that was IT, that was the beginning of all, the first cause.
 
There is no sensible or meaningful first cause, and one would become deranged pondering such a question. It is one of the Four Imponderables in Buddhism -- which not only would never lead one to enlightenment but would certainly, if persisted in, drive one to madness. Here is a simple analogy to see why: A professor starts drawing a circle on a chalkboard, and after the 33rd loop asks the class,
 

Count chalk loops or watch me pole dance.

"Where does this circle start?"
 
"Wherever you first placed the chalk," they answer.
 

"Where was that?"
 

"Hmmm, we didn't notice."
 

"Where does it start now?"
 

"Well, after you started it -- at some arbitrary point -- it ceases to have a meaningful 'beginning.' Any point, pick a point. Is that your point?"
 

"Yes, if you track and analyze the chalk marks, undoing each of the 33 or million loops to reveal incontrovertible forensic evidence of the first track, the original loop, what will it get you?"
 

"It will tell us exactly where you first set the chalk down!"
 

"And what will that tell you about the beginning of a circle?"
 

"Of a circle, nothing. But of this circle, nothing... Hey, wait a minute!"
 

"Exactly! This won't tell you who or what set it, or why, or where chalkboards come from, or what chalk is for, or anything else that matters about our existence. It will only lead to endless speculations and enduring academic careers that result in nothing about the true nature of existence (such as the Three Marks or how YOU or your life, such as it is, came to be).

 

A better bang to find

"But if one were to meditate, one could potentially see for oneself how things (galaxies, universes, and people) originate, turn, and fall away -- again and again and again."
 

It is possible with Buddhist meditation on the Four Elements (not four material things but four primary or fundamental qualities of materiality) to begin to see the ultimate "particles" of perception (called, in Buddhist physics, kalapas). One can go from the smallest, these features of matter, to the most cosmic -- world expansions and world contractions. And what is another word for the transition between those two periods (aeons) than a Big Bang?
 

There is a Big Bang, but there was no "the Big Bang," no beginning. And if we crave to know about the first in the endless cyclical series, it would tell us nothing of the space it blew up or into or created as it blew, or the matter that burst into expansion (inflation), or subsequently collapsed and caused yet another implosion, which gives rise to another explosion.
 

Hmm, maybe lines and symbols?

Worst of all, assuming the insanity for pondering this imponderable is not the worst thing, you and science will be none the closer to finding or figuring out "how it all began." Keep blowing up infinitesimally small particles at CERN/LHC instead.

"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" (TV)

Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Neil deGrasse Tyson (cosmosontv.com)

The new "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" premeires Sunday, March 9, on 10 channels

The "cosmos" or world-system we live in is much bigger than we can imagine.

Celestial planes in Buddhist cosmological museum, Thailand (UweBKK/flickr.com)

  

Look up, look up, and look out over the skies. It's what any eager astrophysicist would do, from the smoky skyline of New York to the chemtrail-laden skies of Los Angeles. From coast to coast, the host with the most is no longer Carl Sagan. Now the mantle is passed onto upstart Neil deGrasse Tyson, the telegenic Michio Kaku of all things space, a media darling who knows better than to step out of line and say anything daring or beyond the pale of the gatekeepers of academe. But he does a good job, and the kids will love to be drawn out of the misery down here into the mystery of worlds above. Minds may be expanded, but the status quo will not be questioned. Stephen Hawking and his new brain implant were not available to work on the show. Carl Sagan was, but the ChronoVision is not yet what it will one day be (just ask Andrew Basiago). As for "Cosmos," even Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane is on board, having brought the show to Fox TV. More (plus video)

Everyone loves a good ghost story

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Roger Clarke (Telegraph.co.uk)

I don't see anything because I'm not looking to the left. OH NO! Shapeshifter!

Ghosts/phantoms permeate European culture through and through (telegraph.co.uk)

 

"Hungry ghosts" (pretas) depicted in Asia

It’s the time of year [the dead of winter] -- a little before that other time of year -- when many people’s minds turn to spooks and ghost stories. Once, the parish bells rang out on Hallowe’en to scare away such prowling phantoms and demons speeding forth from what M.R. James, the Victorian ghost-story writer, would call “sequestered places.”

But now, a commercialized Hallowe’en presents itself, imported from the United States, which in turn took its antecedents from an Irish Catholic celebration of seasonal misrule.

 

Ghosts are real. Just ask Dr. Gabor Mate.

Up to the 19th century, it was often said in rural England that none but a “Popish priest” could lay -- or exorcise -- a ghost, and much of traditional English belief in ghosts comes from the unquiet spirit of hidden Catholic traditions. 

 

In earlier centuries, for example, to say you believed in ghosts was to identify yourself as a Catholic, or at the very least a religious dissident, since early Methodists believed in the same thing also.

 

The infamous Cock Lane ghost that so convulsed London in 1762 was very much gingered up by a parish priest with Methodist inclinations; all of society, including Horace Walpole (who wrote the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto), flocked to a house in Smithfields to hear the ghost that scratched out pronouncements on the living and dead. 

 

Ghosts can cook (M.A. Winkowski)

The founder of the Methodist faith, John Wesley, came from a haunted family. The account of the Epworth Poltergeist in 1716 is one of the classic ghost stories in the canon, and it took place in the Lincolnshire rectory while 14-year-old Wesley was away from home. In letters to John’s brother Sam, his mother detailed how the arrival of two new servants at Martinmas (the feast of St. Martin on Nov. 11) was the beginning of... a whole panoply of terrifying sounds, groans and crashes that not even a sceptical father could explain. John Wesley’s father, a bad-tempered man who was constantly at war with his own parishioners, finally decided that these sounds came from Old Nick himself. More

Real "ghosts" (shadows, poltergeists)

 (COMMENTARY)

Seance faked hand image (Museum archive 1920)

Ghosts (Sanskrit pretas, Pali petas) are real, though mostly harmless. They are unfortunate "spirits" (with subtle physical forms and often the power to appear in various shapes and guises). All of them lived before -- like all beings everywhere, just revolving and revolving in endless cycles of samsara.

 

It is rebirth that can be brought to an end and, with it, all suffering (dukkha, disappointment) once and for all. But people are not interested in that. We're interested in trying to get ahead on this plane of existence. Just below us are the animals suffering terribly. No one cares. The ghosts have it even worse, though not nearly as bad as the ogres (yakkhas), cruel titans (asuras, "demons") and hellions (narakas).

Shapeshifting "Old Hag" ghosts

Just the other night I was accosted by "ghosts" due to the "Old Hag Syndrome." The female ghosts (not old, not hags) held my hands down against my will while I was conscious, upset, awake, and struggling. Because there was sleep paralysis, people will say d'uh it was "sleep" and therefore a dream. While dreamlike, it is not semiconscious, closed eye sleep. We can trigger paralysis through deep relaxation without actually being in a sleep state. The struggle to come out of paralysis lasted for what felt like ten minutes.

(paranormal.about)

Of course, it couldn't have helped that Mesmerist/hypnotist Rick Collingwood (mindmotivations.com) was on Coast to Coast talking about Hypnosis and Evil Spirits. He was not a believer until he hypnotically exorcised a "speed spirit" (a possession resulting from the use of speed such as meth or cocaine), which so weakens a person as to make him/her susceptible to entities seeking to attach or to behave parasitically as energy vampires).

 

The fireplace will keep them away

As usual, these usually-unseen beings seemed more mischievous than malevolent. But they are very happy to scare a person, as if to feed on the distress. If there are shining beings on the Abhasvara Plane who feed on joy, why not miserable eaters who zap energy away? So I cultivate compassion and annoyance rather than fear or actual malice ready to banish them with positive and protective energy.

• BOOK: A Natural History of Ghosts (Roger Clarke)
• Hungry Ghosts Eat Dead Bodies, Skin Flakes, and... (tofugu.com)
• The Hungry Ghost Realm (Tibetan Buddhist Altar) The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called Why P'howa? The next of the lower realms is the realm of the...
  
• The Realm of Hungry Ghosts (China Buddhism Encyclopedia)Hungry ghosts (pretas) are pictured as beings with huge, empty stomachs, but they have pinhole mouths, and their necks are so thin they cannot... 
  Hungry Ghosts: The Diet of the Dead among the Grigori... (esoterx.com) The Realm of the  Hungry Ghosts, Hindu/Buddhist... Take for example, the Hindu preta (a Sanskrit term meaning “departed, deceased, a dead...”)
• What are "Hungry Ghosts"? (Barbara O'Brien)
• VIDEO: Black bear loose in Pasadena
• Jim Earl's big page of poop
• Jimmy Dore Comedy

Motives for Gift Giving (sutra)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly translation based on Ven. Thanissaro, "Discourse on Generosity" (Dana Sutta, AN 7.49)

Giving has the added benefit of resulting in easier meditative absorption (adbusters)

 

Sariputra was wise to ask (TA)

CAMPA, Gaggara Lake, ancient India - Ven. Sariputra said to the Blessed One: 

"Does one person give a certain gift that does not bear great fruit and benefit, whereas another person gives the same gift and it bears great fruit and benefit?"

 

"Yes, Sariputra."

 

"Venerable sir, why, what is the cause, what is the reason?"

 

The Buddha answers (TA)

1. "Sariputra, in one case a person gives a gift seeking profit, with a mind/heart attached [to gaining some reward], seeking to store up [merit with the thought], 'I'll enjoy this after death.'
 

"One gives a gift -- whether food, drink, clothing, transportation, garland, sweet scent, balm, bedding, shelter, lamp -- to a wandering ascetic or Brahmin. What do you think, Sariputra? Might one give such a gift?"

 

"Yes, venerable sir."

 

"Having given such a gift seeking profit with heart/mind attached, seeking to store up [merit with the thought], 'I'll enjoy this after death' -- on the break up of the body, after death, one reappears in the company of the Four Great Space Kings. Then, having exhausted that karma, that power, that status, that sovereignty, one returns, falling back to this plane.

 

2. "There is a person who gives a gift but not seeking profit, mind/heart not attached, not seeking to store up [merit with the thought], 'I'll enjoy this after death.' Instead, one gives a gift with the thought, 'Giving is good.' ...What do you think, Sariputra? Might one give such a gift?"

 

"Yes, venerable sir."

 

"Having given this gift with the thought, 'Giving is good,' on the break up of the body, after death, one reappears in the company of the devas ["shining ones"] of the World of the Thirty-Three. Then, having exhausted that karma, that power, that status, that sovereignty, one returns, falling back to this plane.

Sariputra's sacred relics (Camerabhai/flickr)

3. "Or instead of thinking 'Giving is good,' one gives a gift with the thought, 'This was given in the past, done in the past, by my relatives. It would not be right for me to let this family tradition end'... on the break up of the body, after death, one reappears in the company of the [Yāma] devas of delight. Then, having exhausted that karma, that power, that status, that sovereignty, one returns, falling back to this plane.

 

4. "Or instead... one gives a gift with the thought, 'I am well off. They are not well off. It would not be right for me, being well off, not to give a gift to those who are not well off'... on the break up of the body, after death, one reappears in the company of the contented devas. Then, having exhausted that karma, that power, that status, that sovereignty, one returns, falling back to this plane.

 

5. "Or instead... one gives a gift with the thought, 'Sages of the past made great sacrifices -- Atthaka, Vamaka, Vamadeva, Vessamitta, Yamataggi, Angirasa, Bharadvaja, Vasettha, Kassapa, and Bhagu. Just so will this be my contribution'... on the break up of the body, after death, one reappears in the company of the devas who delight in creating. Then, having exhausted that action, that power, that status, that sovereignty, one returns, falling back to this plane.

The Buddha and his four chief monastic disciples, male and female, Wat Yai Chai Mongkol (Mongkhon) in Ayutthaya, Thailand (Rainer Lott/Steffi Esch/flickr.com)

 

6. "Or instead... one gives a gift with the thought, 'When this gift of mine is given, it makes the heart/mind serene; appeasement and joy arise'... on the break up of the body, after death, one reappears in the company of the devas who wield power over others' creations. Then, having exhausted that karma, that power, that status, that sovereignty, one returns, falling back to this plane.

 

7. "Or instead of thinking, 'When this gift of mine is given, it makes the mind/heart serene; appeasement and joy arise,' one gives a gift with the thought, 'This is an ornament for the heart/mind, a support for the mind/heart.' One gives a gift... What do you think, Sariputra? Might one give such a gift?"

 

"Yes, venerable sir."

 

"Having given this -- 

1. not seeking profit, not with a heart/mind attached, not seeking to store up [merit with the thought], 'I'll enjoy this after death,' 
2. nor with the thought, 'Giving is good,' 
3. nor with the thought, 'This was given in the past, done in the past, by my relatives, so it would not be right for me to let this family tradition end,' 
4. nor with the thought, 'I am well off...,' 
5. nor with the thought, 'Sages of the past made great sacrifices... in the same way this will be my contribution,' 
6. nor with the thought, 'When this gift of mine is given, it makes the mind serene; appeasement and joy arise,' 

The Buddha and arhats (Horus2004/flickr)

7. "but with the thought, 'This is an ornament for the heart/mind, a support for the mind/heart' -- on the break up of the body, after death, one reappears in the company of Brahma's Retinue. 

"Then, having exhausted that karma, that power, that status, that sovereignty, one is a non-returner. One does not come back to this plane.

"This, Sariputra, is why, this is the cause, this is the reason one person gives a certain gift and it does not bear great fruit or benefit, whereas another person gives that gift and it bears great fruit and benefit."

Why Wisdom Quarterly covers "strange" topics

Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; MCremo.com; C2C 

The Buddha in a variety of dimensions (Cornelia Kopp/AlicePopkorn/flickr.com)

  

Gibberish? (Arkiharha/flickr)

Ever wonder why Wisdom Quarterly discusses such "silly" and "senseless" topics as mythology, science, religion(s), devas, extraterrestrials, UFOs (vimanas), heavens (worlds in space), Himalayan Yetis, Pacific Northwestern Sasquatches, giants, monsters, "magic," DMT, yoga, the Vedas, and the like? (See second video below).

It is a good question best answered by Dr. Michael Cremo, who appeared last night on Coast to Coast's 550+ stations across the U.S. talking about all of these and more -- placing them in a coherent structure or cosmology. Buddhist cosmology is very similar to Vedic/Brahminical Hindu cosmology. The historical Buddha was born into a cultural context, the post Indus River Valley Civilization, likely the oldest in the world.


(Russell Scott) "My Science, My Religion" with Forbidden Archaeologist Michael A. Cremo

Coming soon: Nirvana for Dummies

What he addressed, whether confirming or restoring to its correct interpretation, is a view of our universe -- a universe of ETs, shapeshifting light beings, giants, monsters, heavenly planets, other dimensions, magical psychic powers, lost worlds, and so on.

(Or it may be a "multiverse" if all of the dense physical worlds are one universe, the Sensual Sphere, all the subtle material worlds another, the Fine Material Sphere, and all the formless a third universe, the Immaterial Sphere).

In the Kalama Sutra, the Buddha explains why there's no need to argue about faith. Reading excerpts of it can be very misleading. It is an American favorite, a call to free inquiry...

 

Dr. Cremo, the "forbidden archeologist," brings it all together as a seamless whole, a characteristically "Indian" view of the world, with Hinduism a kind of "religion" that in fact is much more than just a religion. It contains the seeds of all the world's religions. The Buddha and Buddhism are the crowning achievement of India, the cherry atop a sundae of delights.

India and Buddhism

It is sometimes said that all things, when reduced by fire, revert to carbon, and that when carbon is compressed it produces the most adamantine substance known to us, the diamond. Hinduism (or Vedantic Brahmanism) is like that, with Buddhism as its crowning achievement, brilliant, precious, and noble.

Listen to a Powerpoint presentation by Dr. Cremo, or read one of his books, or look through his website. And what he says and gets in trouble for -- crossing into forbidden territory where knowledge filters and gatekeepers demand we not go. 

Wisdom (Simon Diamond/Earth-Spirit/flickr)

We'll be laughed at, like the Buddha and Jesus and shaman seers were/are laughed at. We'll be ridiculed and rejected as ridiculous. We'll never be "respectable" or famous because we refuse to fall into line and simply dutifully report the "consensus reality" about Buddhism or about our world or about why things happen (in the social and political spheres).

Even when Dr. Cremo would seem to be disagreeing with us and favoring Hinduism, we are actually on the same page. He is not a Buddhist, and yet with his research into Eastern Philosophies, mythological histories, and extreme human antiquity, we are sure he would appreciate the distinction the Buddha made between conventional and ultimate language in reaching the ultimate reality.

(ZeroFortyFive) Michael Cremo on "Extreme Human Antiquity"

Ancient Human Origins

CoasttocoastAM.com, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013

Aum, the cosmic sound (Taopunk/flickr)

"Forbidden archeologist" Michael Cremo discusses the latest DNA discovery showing that humans like us have existed on Earth and elsewhere far longer than the general scientific community will acknowledge. He also updates his work on ancient aliens and catastrophes in world history and prehistory, staggering cyclical periods of time covered in Buddhist and Indian cosmologies (kalpas, and great-kalpas, or aeons). It is not evolution we see in the fossil record but devolution. Yet, anything that contradicts mainstream Darwinism/evolution is suppressed or altered to conform to preferred and accepted scientific theories. This is the opposite of science, and religious histories tell us more about the big picture when scientific bias and gatekeeping dominate fields like archeology, anthropology, genetics, or biology.

400,000-year-old human DNA extracted

We are all hybrid-Neanderthals?

400,000-year-old human DNA has been extracted from fossils found in a cave in Spain. Initial analysis of the bones led scientists to believe they were most closely related to Neanderthals (such as the thoughtfully pictured reconstruction at right). Yet, the DNA has revealed a connection to an ancient human population from Siberia, known as the Denisovans... More

"In Search of Fairies" (documentary)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Oengus MacOg (video), Wisdom Quarterly; Wikipedia edit

Devas play among blades of grass and woodland groves (myheartsisters.org)

The Fairy Faith (In Search of Fairies - documentary)

A deva (Sanskrit देव) in Buddhism is one of many different types of non-human light beings who share the characteristics of in general being more powerful, longer-lived, and more contented than human beings.

 

Burmese space-nats (article.wn.com)

Synonyms in other languages include English fairy or sprite or angel, Tibetan lha, Japanese ten, Thai Thevada (from the Pali devata), Mongolian tenger (тэнгэр), Chinese tiān (天), Khmer tep (ទេព) or preah (ព្រះ), Burmese nat, Korean cheon, Vietnamese thiên. 

 

The kami in Shinto and Buddhism (OMP)

The concept of devas was adopted in Japan partly because of the similarity to the Shinto religion's concept of kami.

 

Other words used in Buddhist texts to refer to similar supernatural beings are devatā "deity" and devaputra (Pāli devaputta) "son or offspring of the devas." which refer to devas born in space, leading to the loose English translation "angel" or "being of light." Bhumi-devas live on Earth, particularly in quiet woodlands. 

Powers

Burmese deva or nat (WQ)

From a human perspective, devas share the characteristic of generally remaining invisible to the physical human eye, having its luminosity extend beyond the range of ordinary human sight on the light spectrum. Shamans and children can often see them due to their greater innocence and sensitivity, something that is lost if and when they become enmeshed in the world.

 

"Wings" (Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty/TA)

The presence of a deva can, however, be detected by humans who have opened the "divine eye" (divyacakṣus, dibbacakkhu), an extrasensory power by which one can see beings existing on other planes.

 

Their voices can also be heard by those who have cultivated divyaśrotra (Pali dibbasota), a similar power of the ear. (The external ear does not become more sensitive so much as the internal portion of the brain, mind, or ear-sensitivity does).

  

Transformation (shape shifting)

Luminous avian-deva (garuda, suparna), Thailand (00_prototype/flickr.com)

 

Lakshmi, India's greatest goddess or devi (NB)

Most devas are capable of constructing illusory forms by which they can manifest themselves to beings existing on lower planes, such as Earth. Higher and lower devas even have to do this between one anothers' planes.

 

Devas do not require the same kind of sustenance as do humans, although the lower kinds do eat and drink. Higher devas shine with their own intrinsic luminosity. Humans also give off light, scientists have confirmed, but it is usually very weak.

 

Devas are also capable of moving great distances quickly and of flying through the air, although lower devas sometimes accomplish this through magical aids such as a flying "chariot," "mansion," or extraterrestrial craft (vimana). More

• Lord of the Rings: Facts Behind the Fiction (History)
• Irish Fairy Beliefs: Folklorist Dr. Jenny Butlerby
• Secret Tibetan Book of the Dead (History Channel) 

(onmarkproductions.com)

(Japanese devas) BENZAITEN, BENTEN: River Goddess, Water Goddess, Bestower of Language and Letters, Goddess of Wealth and Good Fortune, Patroness of Music, Poetry, Learning, and Art, Defender of Nation, Protector of Buddhist Dharma. Origin = Hindu River Goddess Sarasvatī (サラスヴァティー). Every major city in Japan has a shrine or temple dedicated to Benzaiten. Her places of worship number in the thousands and are often located near water, the sea, a lake, a pond, or a river. She is one of the nation's most widely venerated deities. More