East India Company Implicated in Academic Bribery (DP)

Dissociated Press
Monday, Feb 16, 2009
Marburg, Germany

In a surprise news shaking the contemporary academic world, documents found in the archives of the Department of Indology, Marburg University, reveal substantial East India Company sponsorship behind global indological research as recently as 2007.

The company, previously thought to have gone defunct in 1858, is now rumored to be as active as ever in influencing the direction of mainstream indological studies. The documents discovered apparently feature a re-confirmation of an original covenant dating to mid-19th century, signed by Max Müller and Ralph Griffith among others.

Rumors abound over the objectives and supporting forces behind the company. Senior officer for the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), who declined to be identified, has confirmed the presence of East India Company representatives in high-level staff meetings on several occasions.

Sources tell that the Queen of England is still bent on exercising her dominion over colonies of past, supporting the systematic campaign of misinformation interpreting old Indic religious texts as mere animistic ritualism. With the renewed funding of the British Empire, the East India Company is rumored to be educating the Indian masses on the Holy Gospel of Christ under the convenient veil of indology. (DP)

Karma: Universal and Buddhist Interpretations

The word karma, in its simplest sense, means action. In a broader context, it features the causal relationships brought about by the action, likened to seeds awaiting to ripen in the future. Karma is generally understood as the sum-total of one's activities and their latent effects, weaving a complex causal web leaving even the wisest perplexed over matters of predetermination and free will.

The exact course and formation of causal relationships can be hard to decipher.

The concept has been broadly popularized in the West by Buddhist and Hindu teachers over the past century. The Buddhist tradition has excelled particularly in its presentation of the underlying ethics, while the Hindus, and in particular the Vedantic tradition, have done some interesting groundwork in estimating the subconscious mechanics of karmic ripening.

A comprehensive gloss on the treatment of karma in Buddhism and Hinduism, along with Jainism and Sikhism, the other two main dharmic religions, is beyond the scope of this article. In the following, I hope to first distill the essentials of what determine the nature of the effect arising from a particular cause, and then gloss the Buddhist ethical analysis of action and offence as applied in their old monastic code.

A number of universal factors affect the causal content of each action.

Universal Karma

Karma is the sum total of several variables instead of the outcome of a single factor. Cause here means all direct and indirect, often far-reaching consequences born from the action. First and foremost, karma is born of the desire and intent of the doer. The consequence befalling each action are defined, among others, by the following:

1) Intention. Was the intent positive or negative, good or evil? Was the act done impulsively, with contemplation or by accident?
2) Implementation. Was the act fulfilled in accordance with the intention, or to a contrary result? Was the good or evil act brought to a conclusion?
3) Effects. Are the factual effects of the act positive, negative or mixed, individually as well as collectively?
4) Object. Was the object of a good deed particularly wanting or without need? Was the object of an evil deed helpless and innocent, equal and neutral, or greater and evil itself?
5) Circumstances. Was the act done out of a real need, or whimsically? Was the doer in a forced situation or faced with a free choice?
6) Atonement. Did the doer of an evil act try to make amendments by attempting to correct its consequences? Was the repentance superficial or genuine?

We can all form examples of the above for ourselves, the principles ought to be clear enough. In examining the factual consquence of the act and its effect on its object, the collective effect of the transformation effected in the object, and the underlying intents, we all begin to fathom just how complex the network of cause and effect really is.

I would assume the above to be largely universal, and for the most part also applicable in a court of law as in ethical measurement, even if it is evident that analysis and interpretation of the variables involved is an inherently subjective venture. Religions have certainly all had their say on the matter, and particularly so among Indic religions, where extensive theories of personal causation have evolved.

Buddhist monks of Thai and Tibetan traditions gathered in Lumbini, Nepal.

In Buddhist Monasticism

The ancient Buddhist monastic rules (vinaya) make for a particularly fascinating read in this context. This owes largely to the excessively detailed and thorough philosophy of offense featured in the commentarial tradition, primarily assessing an offense against the criteria of motivation and implementing act. The system of Vinaya Pitaka doesn't discuss the variables of the offense with regards to its possible consequences; its sole intent is to judge whether an offense has occured, and if so, at which degree of severity.

There are four parajika-offenses or unforgivables for the Buddhist monks, committing which a monk is unconditionally exiled from the monastic community for the remainder of his life. They are as follows: 1) sexual intercourse, 2) homicide, 3) theft, and 4) exaggeration of spiritual status. These offences are applicable at this severity only while living as an ordained monk; should the monk for example be unable able to control his sexual urge, he may forsake monkhood and live in a relationship for as long as he wishes, and later in his life again become a monk. However, having sex while still ordained is unforgivable.

The monastic tradition, rich in its abundance of rules, naturally gives the bulk of its attention to these four severest offences. As an example, the tradition defines theft by four criteria:

1) Object: Anything belonging to another or a group of people.
2) View: The object is understood as belonging to another or a group of people.
3) Intention: One decides to steal the object.
4) Effort: One steals the object.

In the above, in absence of factor 2) no ethical violation has occured. (The object accidentally stolen must of course be returned once understood as such.) In absence of factor 3), where the thief has accidentally stolen an object he has contemplated on stealing, a full offense is not committed, neither is it in absence of factor 1) where the thief has stolen no-man's property or something of his own. Additionally the value of the object is in direct proportion to the severity of the crime.

Homicide, in turn, is judged according to the following criteria:

1) Object: A living human being. (Commentarial tradition includes featus here; the rule was born consequent to abortion medicines administered to nuns.)
2) Intention: To knowingly, with understanding, contemplation and intention wish to terminate a person's life. "Knowingly" also includes the following:
3) View: A perception of an object as a living human being.
4) Effort: Whatever may be done in order to terminate an individual's life.
5) Outcome: Life is terminated as a direct consequence of the act.

In the above, in absence of factor 2), for example in an accidental shot, no ethical violation punishable as homicide has occured. In absence of factor 3), for example in the accidental killing of an animal or another human instead of the object (not however if the other is viewed upon as the object), a full offense has not been committed. In absence of factor 4) a full offence has also not been committed, for the transition from will to action has not occurred. A death caused without intention, and thereby also without effort, does not lead to an ethical violation.

Those interested in the Vinaya-tradition may want to study Thanissaro Bhikkhu's Introduction to the Patimokkha Rules and Buddhist Monastic Code, freely employed in this article. In the latter, particularly the fourth chapter discussing the parajika-offences makes a thorough study of ethics, coupled with illustrative examples.

Continued in The Banishment of the Watch-Maker...

Dr. Ravi Livingstone, I presume?

I've been sharing a house with a number of particularly cool animals since my return from India in November, all to be featured in due course.

Dr. Ravi Livingstone, a legendary adventurer and the coolest brown tailed grey parrot ever, happened to wobble across the path of my laptop camera today amidst making his burrow inside my pull-over, his favorite base of operations. It was hardly possible to not have it go on record. Sayonara, say no more. Ravi is world-class Zen.



Ravi is on record for flying once in his half a decade of adventures. Otherwise he navigates by jumping off platforms, making a crash landing and wobbling about to his next destination. And he's particularly effective in fast wobbling when there's food on the table, go figure. We're still working on the music lessons, expect to see a future installment once the baby-yoddling and space-beeps become more consistent and systematic.

Available also directly at YouTube: Dr. Ravi Livingstone, I presume?

Chess Problems #1

I was pleased to notice Windows Vista shipping with Chess Titans, a decent chess simulation. I was pretty good as a kid, even if years of abstinence have obviously softened me enough to have a good deal of catching up to do before I dare sit across the table from the old Communist chess master next door.

White makes checkmate in one move. Tip: Horse moves.

Now, nine queens would kick some serious ass... A man's got to have his future prospects clear. Chess, they say, is the game of the ancient Indian military strategists. It certainly holds its own as far as games developing structured and extended thought go. And no, I was not playing the baby level in this game. =)

Introducing Halibatsuiba

Halibatsuiba in Space Odyssey Purplosphere

Name:	Halibatsuiba
Type:	Caribou
Gender:	It
Location:	Conscious fields
Looking For:	Whatever I can get
Activities:	flip-kicking, mind melding, space snorkeling
Interests:	accidental transfiguration, cryptozoology, jinx art, oriental occultism, random concepts
Favorite Foods:	elemental cuisine, magic mushrooms, radical improvisation, raspberry roast, split bananas, 1957 ladies' space boots
Favorite Places:	dark side of the moon, light side of the moon, magnetospheres in general
About Me:	It was November 1957 when I woke up on the dark side of the moon, saw Laika swooshing by in a deep red Soviet space suit. My head really hurt a lot that morning. I have no memories of what was before — perchance that's the day I was born? If someone knows about my forgotten past, please contact A. Filipchenko of Soviet Space Ventures and have a message conveyed to professor H. L. Tsuiba. Love you, earthlings.

More fluffy Halibatsuiba adventures at
http://halibatsuiba.fluff-friends.com!

The Eternal Loveboat Heaven

The History and Theology of the Eternal Loveboat Heaven

Publ. Church of Titanic, White Star City, April 15th 2912

For the millennium memorial year of The Great Sinking

The Great Sinking, leading to Jack's sacrifice of love and the opening of the Eternal Play.

The Eternal Loveboat Heaven was originally exposed to the broader public in the 1997 movie Titanic, directed by the great James Cameron; blessed be his soul. The narrative, dubbed "The Greatest Love Story of History" by the learned, has inspired devotees worldwide over the last millennium.

Titanic tells the story of Jack Dawson, the Eternal Lad, a young, handsome artist and adventurer of poor background, and his forbidden love, Rose DeWitt Bukater, the Eternal Lady, of aristocratic background, bound to an arranged marriage with a wealthy man she does not love in the least.

Lady Rose with lead antagonists, Mother and Fiancee, in the Historic Play.

The Historic Play

The story begins with Rose, this charming embodiment of love, asail on the greatest and most magnificent ship of all time towards a destiny she squints, a life of duty and bondage. She would much rather taste the joy and infinite possibilities of life alongside Jack, the most charming of all young lads she had met but mere hours ago, who prefers a life of adventure and excitement, and who during their brief acquaintance saved her life, talking her out of suicide.

As the journey over the infinite waters unfolds, Rose soon finds herself sneaking off for clandestine love journeys across the ship under the prying eyes of her mother and fiancee. They dine together with her family, feigning innocence, they gaze into the horizon, they make love on the back seat of a car the cargo compartment, they flee through the engine room from those who would forbid them, relishing their play of love.

The Evil Iceberg, breaker of ships and hearts, looming in the horizon.

A great tragedy is to come, however — Evil Iceberg would cringe its teeth, seeing lovers united past the sea. The ship, sailing full speed into the Iceberg, has five water-containing compartments breached and flooded, and the unsinkable begins to sink. Jack is framed for arrest by the jealous fiancee for robbery of Heart of the Ocean, the greatest of royal jewels, given to Rose by her wealthy husband-to-be, attempting to purchase his way into her heart.

As the ship begins to sink, Rose forsakes her place and family in the life boat, returning to Jack who is locked in the depths of the ship by the Fiancee's evil assistant. Risking her life in a desperate attempt to rescue her love, she fights her way to the depths of the flooding ship and back. The lovers join once again at the fore of the ship, the place of their first meeting, enrapt in kiss and embrace as inevitable doom looms in the horizon, Titanic now torn in two and sinking fast.

Artist's recreation of Jack's illustration of beloved Lady Rose wearing The Heart of the Ocean.

Both fallen in ice-cold water, Jack gives his life in a great sacrifice of pristine love, offering Rose a floating piece of ceiling they come across, and a possibility for life. Frozen and dead in water, Jack sinks to the depth of the oceans as Rose meets her rescue — but at what cost? Is life without Jack worth living for? And yet she had given him her sacred promise to never give up. In her ripe old age of over a hundred years, she still cherishes the memory of Jack in her heart's chamber of secrets, shared with but a chosen few, destined to a long life of painful separation from her eternal beloved.

Whosoever hears or remembers this sacred narration, the Historic Story, the greatest love story of all time, will soon have his heart filled with pristine love for Rose and Jack, his heart-disease of attraction for other narrations cured, and he is to meet Jack and Rose together again in The Eternal Loveboat Heaven.

Rose and Jack united in the Meeting Chamber of the Eternal Loveboat.

The Eternal Play

Its deep meaning unknown to all but the most devoted, the closing segment of the narrative offers us a glimpse into the Eternal Story, a timeless Titanic sailing forever and ever across the deep blue seas, Rose and Jack meeting again and again in their love adventures on the ship. On the eternal Titanic, the Fiancee and the Mother along with their companions are but shadows present not in flesh but as memories and life-like imaginations, so as to invoke the feeling of forbidden love. Especially, there is no Evil Iceberg in the Eternal Story to force the lovers apart.

In truth, none but those given fully into acting as a supportive player in the love drama may enter The Eternal Loveboat Heaven; for it is those, the supporting elements, that enhance and facilitate the union of the Eternal Lad and Lady, worthy of worship for all.

Jack and Rose enrapt in Dance of Bliss at their daily down below meeting.

Since the early years of the third millennium, ardent devotees have contemplated on the Eternal Play to return unto their Lad and Lady at the end of their lives, enrapt in contemplation of their daily deeds according to their own preference. In some, a special fondness awakens for being a member of the crew, while others share the ambition for joining the circle of Miss Molly Brown's attendants, and yet some long to be one of Jack's rowdy pals. There have even been movements in Eastern Europe and parts of the Grand Soviet Federation recruiting passengers into second and third class of the Eternal Loveboat.

Grand-Captain Dicaprius IV of Vatican, one of the leading early theologicians of the Church of Titanic, has established that regardless of individual inclination, all devotees aspiring to sail with our Eternal Lad and Lady shall drink of the same infinite ocean of spirit, for all are united in the service of Jack and Rose's eternal love. Who can fathom the beauty and depth of love, the pinnacle of touching beauty, so aptly embodied in the two? Who but the cruel'est of men could fail to be attracted to their service?

The Unsinkable Molly Brown, wise mother goddess of Eternal Loveboat Heaven.

And there is much service to be done throughout a day in the Eternal Play. The crew members are required when Lad and Lady storm through the engine room, and in particular when intruders need to be distracted from the cargo hall. The chéf and his entourage are instrumental in preparing the daily meals, the orchestra must be present at all but the most secret of trysts, and Miss Molly Brown's retinue is always available to give Rose guidance on matters of love after a lovers' quarrel.

This is how devotees remember the Eternal Play of their Lad and Lady, full of longing for their service on the Eternal Loveboat, sailing to the farther shore of the seven oceans of love. For testimonies on how the cosmic play of Rose and Jack has affected millions, be sure to tune in to The Eternal Loveboat Heaven. Thank you for your attention. Be sure to read the comments, too!

Review: There Will Be Blood (2007)

Today's review deserves a prelude to do the depth of the movie full justice. It's a very decent movie about an all-out asura exploiting the people and the oil fields of early 20th century California, after all!

Asuras, featured in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology, are evil or envious gods, beings of great prowess and ambition, fallen deep into the dark side. As a psychological profile, asura-hood features intense paranoia, envy, cruelty, and lust for power over all. The asura's self-securing drive for achievement leads to consuming competitiveness and a division of world into allies and enemies — divided by their fitness for furthering personal ambitions.

Fully immersed in his schemes, the asura grows paranoid of others; they are all seeking to thwart him, they are his enemies, a pitiful foe begging to be confronted and eliminated. No abuse or crime is beyond the scope of the asura; his sheer hunger for control drives him to manipulate others, his conscience is all but dissolved in his dark primal instincts. In short, asura is a psychopath of some power. And if there is an asura, There Will Be Blood...

Title: There Will Be Blood
Year: 2007
Genre: drama
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469494/

Released in January 2008, There Will Be Blood explores the grim world of southern California's oil boom at the turn of the 20th century. Featuring the ghastly life of Daniel Plainview, it portrays some of the darkest aspects of human psyche with substantial realism, owing largely to the excellent performance of Oscar-winning Daniel Day-Lewis.

The narrative carries you through some thirty years of Plainview's life, from the beginnings as a budding businessman to a shrude capitalist who shuns no opportunity at exploiting one and all if it serves his purpose. As the film unfolds, the wicked nature of our oil miner becomes more and more explicit, and even apparently innocent acts in the path turn out to feature as aspects of his elaborate schemes.

The born-again young Christian priest of the village, a gifted fanatic with bizarre stage acts in his Church of Third Revelation, grew to be a second favorite character of mine, right along with Plainview of course, who did little to work on his largely irrational anger towards the priest. Overall, the characters are well performed, even if it is Day-Lewis's performance that carries the watcher to the farther shore of the two-and-half-hour movie, the theme of which might otherwise have not been that interesting to me.

The atmosphere and environment are well-created and realistic, camera moves very well and the occasional handheld shots create an engaging visual display. The movie is saturated with the eeriest of musics, if indeed it can be so called, predicting ill at each turn even where none is to be seen. The end of the movie is as grim and unexpected as any I've ever seen, perfectly fitting for a movie of such caliber of unusuality. Not your run-of-the-mill American tale, not by a long shot.

[ 8/10 ]