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Welcome to Issue #7 of the Universal Quest Newsletter

YesHUa said, "The world is a bridge. Pass over it, but do not build your dwelling there."
~ Inscription from a mosque at Fatehpur Sikri, India, found in "The Unknown Sayings of Jesus"

"Natural, reckless, correct skill;
Yesterday's clarity is today's stupidity.
The universe has dark and light, entrust oneself to change.
One time, shade the eyes and gaze afar at the road of Heaven"
~ANON

Dear fellow Questors

Each day our understanding increases. As we tap into the wisdom of the ancients or the ongoing search by so many questors for meaning or the radical discoveries and revelations of science today, we feel an unveiling occurring. It is almost as if we can stand at some galactic distance away from our lives and realize the universality and harmony of it all. Many brave attempts to translate these discoveries into action or practical solutions are being made today through conferences, art, books, events, publications, films and media of all kinds. We would like to continue this tradition and if possible help others publish their insights into the Universe and our potential in it. Enjoy our ongoing Quest and do write to us about your personal quests, discoveries and insights.

Raja Choudhury
Founder
Raja@universalquest.com

From the Universal Festival Calendar by Dan Furst

8/26 (Sat) Birthday of Mother Teresa (1910)

8/29 (Tue), 00:19am HT, 10:19am UT New Moon conjunct Sun in Virgo. Harmonious and fruitful blendings of Earth energies. The night of the New Moon is ideal for teaching the physical and spiritual Education of the Virgin through the Map of Love in the late summer sky. The New Moon in Virgo is under unusual stress this year. It is about 90°away from Jupiter in Gemini and Pluto in Virgo, and thereby forms a dynamic "T-square" with both. It is possible that the opposition between Jupiter and Pluto (See 8/9 above) will be most keenly felt in marital and domestic areas, not least in arguments between lovers and spouses about which computer components to buy. Not the time to buy high-tech equipment, or risk marriages over it.

In the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, this day is Onkor, the harvest festival, which comes annually on the first day of the eighth lunar month.

In the Egyptian calendar, birthday of the goddess Hathor (Paopi 12).

8/30 (Wed) The ancient Roman festival of thanksgiving, the Charisteria, was held on this day.

Copyright 2000 Dan Furst.

Direct replies or comments please send to Dan Furst <hermes3@lava.net>

The Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders
August 28 - 31, 2000

Between the 28^th and 31^st August, leaders or leading thinkers from most of the World's religions will be gathering in New York City for a conference at the United Nations. This Summit for World Peace is being organized by Bawa Jain, an Indian native and resident of New Jersey who is the Vice President of the Interfaith Center in New York. He has managed to attract some great thinkers to the Summit including Reverend Konrad Raiser (World Council of Churches), Rabbi Meir Lau, Ayatollah Vaeze Javadi and Cardinal Francis Arinze from the Vatican. Ironically, in a true reflection of the politics of this World, the Dalai Lama has been excluded from the Summit as a result of China's protests at the UN. The Summit will discuss 4 key issues: Conflict transformation, Forgiveness and reconciliation, Elimination of poverty and Environmental Preservation. It is unclear what the Summit hopes to achieve, but as has happened in the past, such debates can become catalysts of change and tolerance and perhaps bring us closer to a more universal consciousness. This is definitely an event worth watching.

Visit the official Web Site of the Summit at http://www.millenniumpeacesummit.com/

To make your voice heard to the Summit, visit Beliefnet.com's Summit Web Pages at http://www.beliefnet.com/index/index_1001.html

Brahma's One Memory

One memory obsessed Brahma–and every so often he would still say to himself: "What beauty! What beauty!" When one day he found himself once again face-to-face with Satarupa, he thought it must be another of the mental images that tormented him. Without realizing it, he had stretched out a hand, while Satarupa made the same gesture toward him. Their fingertips touched. In that instant, and it was like a shock, a revelation, Brahma understood what contact is. So he got to his feet and without a word began to walk beside her. He was looking for a delightful, hidden place, where the intrusive gaze of his sons could never find him. They reached a pond. Brahma asked Satarupa to lie down on a lotus petal. Then he lay beside her. Slowly the petal closed around them. There they stayed for a hundred years of the gods, loving each other the way common people do. Thus they conceived Manu, who founded the society of men.

Extracted from the book "Ka" by Roberto Calasso

Drifting Clouds, Flowing Water
by Kyogen Carlson-sensei

"Here's a question for you. How can I am manage to practice nonattachment when everything I have is invested in this business? In this situation everything I have worked for, and that others have worked
for too, could be lost tomorrow. Just one false move and we'd all be out of work." I was being asked, in effect, "How can I be responsible in a really tough situation like this if I remain 'unattached,' and don't care about how things turn out?" The man asking this question was one who had had a career working for government agencies and was in the process of starting his own company. It was at that critical, fledgling stage of beginning to take off, but in need of constant care and feeding. The pressures on him were tremendous and unrelenting, for one miscalculation and his savings and life's work could be lost, and that of others as well. But in terms of practice, he was far from alone in this predicament. The specifics of his situation may have been different, but this question is the same one asked by Buddhists for centuries. It has always been the case that responsible people, at home as well as at work, find that others depend upon them, sometimes a great deal. It can seem that every which way they turn there are commitments and responsibilities. In addition, this man was at an age when he could see the many options of youth dropping away. As we recognize this happening, it becomes clear how the choices we make can have profound long term consequences. Therefore, they require very careful consideration. What does nonattachment mean in these situations? And how in the world does nonattachment harmonize with the idea of commitment?

The word for a Buddhist monk in Sino-Japanese is "Unsui," literally "cloud, water." It comes, originally, from the phrase "gyoun-ryusyu", or "drifting clouds, flowing water." Neither clouds nor water insist upon any particular form, for they take shape according to conditions. Clouds attach to nothing, and so drift freely across the sky. Water twists and turns on its way down hill in complete accord with the path it must follow. The flowing of the water has the strength to move mountains, while the drifting of the clouds is utterly free. In these qualities we have a perfect description of the Zen mind. Just as clouds cling to nothing, floating free and changing with the wind, acceptance of change is the essence of nonattachment and expresses the perfect freedom of meditation. Flowing water follows its course naturally, without resistance or hesitation. This lack of resistance describes the willingness at the heart of a true commitment to Zen practice, which like water, has the strength to move mountains. To become a monk, an Unsui, requires ordination. By its very nature, ordination means a deep commitment to the form of practice we call Zen Buddhism. It also means a commitment to a teacher, and to a Sangha, or community of fellow trainees. Ordination means a commitment to a life of training in nonattachment, so right from the very beginning, the concepts of nonattachment and commitment are present together in Zen teaching.

Read the full essay at http://www.universalquest.com/driftingcloud.htm

The New Rose; Pulp Passions

The New Shakespearean Rose Theater

One year soon, in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts, construction will begin on a replica of the Rose Theater, originally built on the South Bank in London and used to perform Shakespeare’s plays. The director of Shakespeare & Company, Tina Packer, foresees this anachronism amidst the rolling hills as the goal of her tenure.

See the article at: http://www.universalquest.com/therose.htm

Pulp Passions

an interview with Sarah Berney by Peter Barton

Sarah Berney lives in a clean, well lighted hermitage on Warren Street in Hudson, NY, once the studio of George McKinstry, turn of the century Hudson River School artist. She also maintains a pocket-sized room on the Lower East side of Manhattan in order to make paper paintings at Dieu Donne paperworks in SoHo. Determined to follow a vision that leads away from the humanist realms of figuration and representational traditions, she has placed her foot squarely on the metaphysical plane of expressive and sensual abstraction in order to explore feelings more wedded to the present tense of contemporary art and experiences more intrinsic to her own life. The artist is interviewed in the stark, sunbeamed twilight hours of her studio and is found to possess a surprising depth of devotion to her art form, unexpected because of the bright and easy persona by which people and friends know her best.

See the interview at: http://www.universalquest.com/pulp.htm

The Brain's Story

The human brain weighs only 1.3Kg on average. Yet this mass of grey blancmange is central to everything we do. It is the home of our thoughts, our memories and our emotions. In the nineteenth century scientists believed that particular parts of the brain corresponded to particular functions. This theory was called phrenology. Phrenologists believed that there were particular areas of the brain regulating such character traits as sloth, happiness and intelligence. Now we know that the brain isn't so easily mapped.

To find out more read the BBC's fascinating new site on the Brain, on illusion and perception, on memory and much more.

Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/articles/brainstory_brainbasics.shtml

JonBenet Ramsey's Murder; The Galactic Times

The Astrology of JonBenet Ramsey’s Murder

The murder of the six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey is a conundrum. Many theories have been brought forward to explain the murder of the young beauty queen in her parents’ house on Christmas Night 1996. Indeed the case is still open and still no one knows the identity of the murderer(s).

Lois Rodden’s wonderful site AstroData News provides birth information for JonBenet, which allows us to speculate on the motives and execution of the crime for which there is no firm case. Indeed Rodden notes sites for virtually any possibly murderer: her father, her mother, her father and mother together, her older brother, a family friend, or the police.

Read more detailed information at: http://www.universalquest.com/jonbenet.htm

The Galactic Times for August 26, 2000 by Philip Sedgwick

Mars doubled….

What's that in the air? Can you hear it? It's the latest buzz. Yep, right now testy and proud Mars in Leo inches up to oppose electrifying Uranus in Aquarius. Normally this minor short term aspect induces only minuscule inklings of nervous energy. But this aspect resuscitates the major alignment of May of this year by agitating the same degrees in the mid-fixed signs. It feels like caffeine is in the water supply or perhaps uppers filter through the air. There are antidotes to this short term trend, which seek to remind us of long entrenched historical (and perhaps hysterical - maybe even histrionic) patterns in our lives.

Read the Galactic Times at: http://www.universalquest.com/galastro826.htm

About Universal Quest

Raja Choudhury : Founder
A T Mann : Cofounder/Contributing Editor

Visit our Web Site at http://www.universalquest.com

We would love your contributions, articles, thoughts, comments, suggestions and ideas. Please do write to us at news@universalquest.com

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Raja Choudhury
Universal Quest,
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