The Eight Auspicious Buddhist Objects: If you wish to insure complete good fortune to all your household, you may want to display all eight auspicious objects together to seal your intent for good times and good fortune for your home and all who inhabit

Americans have a love-love relationship with food—we love making it, eating it, and taking pictures of it. But America’s cozy relationship with food is complicated—nearly 72% of the population struggles with being overweight, the average American eats 3,600 calories a day, and 1 in 3 Americans are at risk for nutrient deficiencies. Why? It’s all because of something called the “Western Diet” AKA the “American Diet.”What is the Western Diet?Nearly 60% of the Western Diet is made up of cheap

The following is a syndicated post from the blog “Aowen Chinese Medicine 奧文中醫: Chinese medicine in words and pictures,” by Nicolaas Herman Oving (practitioner, translator, and educator in the field of Chinese Medicine). It originally appeared at http://ovingchinesemedicine.com/uncategorized/short-history-on-the-chinese-term-for-nerve/.I originally wrote this in response to a colleague who suggested that the Chinese term for ‘nerve’, 神經 [shénjīng], implied that the Chinese conceived of this

A small French start-up company is selling a technology with a hint of alchemy: turning water into gold.It does so by extracting from industrial waste water the last traces of any rare—and increasingly valuable—metal."We leave only a microgramme per litre," according to Steve van Zutphen, a Dutchman who founded Magpie Polymers last year with a fellow 30-year old Frenchman Etienne Almoric."It's the equivalent of a sugar lump in an Olympic swimming pool."Magpie Polymers operates from slightly

India's arts and sciences are extensive and many may have predated their Western counterparts. These disciplines usually contained significant spiritual elements, and were not simply attempts to unethically exploit nature or improve the material standard of living. The relevance of Hindu art and science is increasingly recognised in the West. Mathematics India is often credited with contributing to the world, via Arabia, our current numerals and the concept of "zero." Hindu mathematicians

Initiation is just one of these things either discussed in silent, mysterious tones or off-handedly in a way which indicates that absolutely, positively everybody is aware of what initiation is and if you do not understand, you must be...well, not one of the initiated. It's really not all that mysterious, and there are lots of secular examples of initiation. Passing your driver's test and receiving your license, graduating from college, turning twenty-one and ordering your first legal drink

Be like water. Water’s adaptive fluidity is the need of the times. This post from The Mind Unleashed highlights how the water metaphor teaches us to go with the flow and adapt to the ever-changing environment with ease.Water cannot be compressed or repressed. It changes states, and has incredible kinetic energy.As the proliferation of staged events and the accompanying fear campaigns and predictable clampdowns ensue, it’s always good to take stock of any situation unfolding and assess how best

The ancient science of alchemy still influences the contemporary spiritual theories, and stays shaping the spiritual philosophies of our time. The whirlpool of its magic at one point became madness for the alchemists who tried to decipher its secret language of symbols and signs, and for the ones who managed to just bath in the beauty of its images, it stayed full of blessings. The desire to knock on the door that promises eternal life and eternal youth returns through centuries to haunt the

Rarely does a book about pagan history rise to the level of a scholarly work that is simultaneously readable and meticulously researched. The Witch’s Ointment is both.Packed with rich details on the history of the elusive, mysterious, infamous use of flying ointment in the practice of witchcraft, The Witch’s Ointment is a satisfying, enlightening account of how this special potion descended through folklore.It is impossible not to be delighted by Hatsis’ colorful retelling of biographical

A pupil asked: There are some practitioners who feel by themselves like qi moves in a circle through the Ren and Du Meridians, and therefore declare that the themselves have opened these channels. This method of opening Ren and Du channels using thoughts and other such methods "guiding qi through the channels of the heavenly circle”, do they differ from the' way of the elixir?The Teacher of Single Yang answered: Earlier it has already been said about the principle that "if a body does not