M.J. Rose

My heart still breaks when I think of the Buddha statues that were destroyed back in 2001, but this recent find does make me feel just a little bit better..

Buddha statue find at Afghan site [BBC News]

The seat of Bamiyan Buddhas: The Taleban dynamited the Buddha statues in 2001

A giant statue of a Buddha has been discovered in central Afghanistan, near to the ruins of the world-famous Bamiyan Buddhas.

Archaeologists say the 19m (62ft) statue is in a sleeping position and dates back to the Third Century.

Other relics such as coins and ceramics were also found.

The Taleban blew up two giant standing Buddhas carved into the mountainside at Bamiyan – once a thriving centre of Buddhism – in 2001.

The statues, the tallest such standing Buddhas in the world at the time, were considered by the Taleban to be un-Islamic representations of the human form.

Archaeologists are working on restoring the larger of the two Buddhas in a project that is expected to take a decade… [Complete article from BBC News and a video clip: here.]

Mystery ship washes ashore in Alabama after Hurricane Ike

FORT MORGAN, Alabama (AP) — When the waves from Hurricane Ike receded, they left behind a mystery: a ragged shipwreck that archeologists say could be a two-masted Civil War schooner that ran aground in 1862 or another ship from 70 years later.

A ragged boat from 1862 or 1933 washed ashore in Fort Morgan, Alabama, after Hurricane Ike.

The wreck, about 6 miles from Fort Morgan, had been partially uncovered when Hurricane Camille cleared away sand in 1969.

Researchers at the time identified it as the Monticello, a battleship that partially burned when it crashed trying to get past the U.S. Navy and into Mobile Bay during the Civil War.

After examining photos of the wreck post-Ike, Museum of Mobile marine archaeologist Shea McLean agreed that it is probably the Monticello, which ran aground in 1862 after sailing from Havana, Cuba, according to Navy records. iReport.com: See video of the ship from iReporter Tammy Brewer

“Based on what we know of ships lost in that area and what I’ve seen, the Monticello is by far the most likely candidate,” McLean said. “You can never be 100 percent certain unless you find the bell with ‘Monticello’ on it, but this definitely fits.”

Fort Morgan was used as Union forces attacked in 1864 during the Battle of Mobile Bay.

Other clues indicate that it could be an early 20th-century schooner that ran aground on the Alabama coast in 1933…[Complete article from CNN.com here.]

We do all this work in a lifetime to discover who we are, to become enlightened, less selfish, more productive, thinner, nicer, cooler… And to what end exactly? If we don’t maintain our egos in the next life, what exactly is the point of all this self discovery over and over and over again? Why not just sit on a log for 75 years eating insects and twiddling our thumbs until the next life overtakes us? I think the answer exists somewhere within that mysterious bit of truth about how the self is not really just ourselves, but is a part of a vast self-knowing whole…

Here is a pleasant little article from The Times of India addressing this mystery.

The self is a projection from the unified source of consciousness.

by DEEPAK RANADE

Any attempts by the self to be enlightened are based on the premise that this projection has a unique identity. Like a bubble in the ocean. There is a fine distinction between the bubble and the surrounding water. But the bubble is within the water, it is made up of the same water. If the bubble were to make any attempt to understand itself, it would momentarily feel that it is separate with an identity of its own. But that remains only till the thin separating membrane exists. Once this assertive margin gives way, it is revealed that there has been no change in either the content or the nature of the water. It was water, and will remain water.

All creation is analogous to bubbles in the vast expanse of consciousness. Realisation involves loss of this separateness from the surrounding water, a sense of just merging into the water. It is dissolution of that membrane of separateness called the ego. If this dissolution occurs during the journey of life, it would be similar to the bubble losing the differentiating membrane on the way travelling from the bottom of the sea to the top. When the mind-body organism ends (death) it would be the equivalent of the bubble reaching the surface and then just popping. This bubble has a plethora of forms and shapes. But still just a transient identification of being separate.

This feeling of separateness motivates all our attempts and endeavours to embark on the path of understanding the Self. Like the bubble trying to understand itself as a separate entity when actually it is surrounded by and made up of the same water. The separateness that desires this enlightenment is the ego, the identification with the mind-body organism. The consciousness that animates this mind-body form is the true Self.

The true Self creates a projection which has great conviction of separateness and independent existence. It is a distortion induced by the perceptive apparatus. Religious orientation and beliefs are not congenital. They are a product of conditioning.

Many cultures believe in reincarnation or rebirth. Which entity takes rebirth? The identity that each of us has is an entirely man-made nomenclature of convenience. So what would reincarnate?… [Complete article here.]