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Archive for September, 2009

Sep 20

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Varanasi, Banaras, Kashi, and Ganga

After reading and wondering about India my whole life, I’m finally going. I will be there for about 3 weeks. My main destination is Varanasi and the many small villages between there and Delhi. Though I’ve tried to learn a bit of the impenetrable Hindi language I am lucky that most Indians speak English. So, even if I get completely lost perhaps I will be able to get back on course with some help.

Friends (especially my Indian friends) always ask: Why India? There are so many other great places on the planet to go. From what I’ve learned so far, India is just about as different from America or Europe as you can get. If there is a spiritual axis that the world spins on, its center is India. In some places, little has changed since the days of the Mahabharata 6,000 years ago. No doubt sometimes it will be tiring, annoying, miserable, disgusting, and heart wrenching but it will be different. Different is what I’m always looking for.

Here is a summary of Varanasi from Wikipedia:

According to legend, the city was founded by the Hindu deity, Lord Shiva, around 5,000 years ago, thus making it one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in the country. It is one of the seven sacred cities of Hindus. Many Hindu scriptures, including the Rig Veda, Skanda Purana, Ramayana, and the Mahabharata, mention the city. Varanasi is generally believed to be about 3,000 years old.

Why the fascination with the Hindu religion? Of all of the world’s mythologies, Hinduism is by far the most expansive, creative, and strangely accurate in describing the universe. Hinduism is less about humans and more about the universe – it’s not a personalized religion like Islam or Christianity. There is something sublime about a religion that understands that humanity is not the culmination of creation but only a small part of something much more amazing. It’s what amazed Carl Sagan about Hindu cosmology and it’s what amazes me, as well.

Why learn Hindi? Sanskrit? As Joseph Campbell said, “Sanskrit is the world’s great spiritual language.” Sanskrit shares a common ancestor with Latin. Linguists are still stumped on what that common, parent language was but the syntax of Latin and Sanskrit are so striking that it has become a race among linguists to uncover the this “mother” language. Hindi is distant offspring of Sanskrit. They both use an almost identical Devanagari alphabet. India is broken up in two linguistic regions: Devanagari and Dravidian. If you are really interested there are thousands of excellent papers out there exploring these connections. As an interesting side-note, there is a tradition that has Jesus spending his formative years in India – the so call “missing years”. Interestingly, linguists believe there is a strong connection between Brahmi (the origin of Devanagari) and Aramaic (the language that Jesus spoke). That sounds like a pretty exciting reason to me.

I will post pictures and journal during the trip. I will be leaving Dec 29. And for those that don’t believe I’ll dunk myself in the Ganges, I’ll take pictures. Wish me luck.

Sep 13

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Out of the Darkness

When I was in 9th grade a friend named David shot himself over a break up with a middle school girlfriend. 10 years ago Preston, a friend and a great athlete, died from a drug overdose. 5 years ago my buddy and long-time neighbor Seth took his own life after the Katrina hurricane destroyed his home. And, four years ago, after struggling with alcoholism, my buddy Tara also made the choice that she couldn’t go on living. Even though suicide affects us all the reasons are poorly understood. It’s not a topic most people even feel comfortable talking about – it just seems so out of balance with the natural order. Research has shown that major depression and bipolar disorder are to blame in most cases. Of course, like in murder, some people may just do it in the heat of the moment – caught up in emotions so powerful there doesn’t seem to be another way out.

Thankfully, there are organizations out there that are promoting awareness and funding research. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), a 501(c)(3) organization, has been at the forefront of a wide range of suicide prevention initiatives – each designed to reduce loss of life from suicide. They are investing in groundbreaking research, new educational campaigns, innovative demonstration projects and critical policy work. And they are also expanding their assistance to people whose lives have been affected by suicide, reaching out to offer support and offering opportunities to become involved in prevention.

I know there are thousands of demands on your time and money but why not take a second to donate $5 to Tammy (Tara’s sister). She will be one of the thousands of people around the country that will be walking in the AFSP’s 2009 Out of the Darkness Community Walk on November 7, 2009. Please make a small donation to Tammy in memory of her sister, Tara, if you can.

Donate here.

Sep 12

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How We Read The Minds of Others

Rebecca Saxe, a neuroscientist at MIT, studies how our brains consider and interact with other people’s minds. Using MRI, she discovered that we have a part of the brain specifically dedicated to minding the minds of others, and at a recent TED conference discussed some fascinating findings she discovered in her study:
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Sep 4

Fall / Winter 2009 Reading List

Here is what I’ve been reading. I’ve finished some of these already but I’ll go ahead and list them…

  • NurtureShock by Po Bronson
  • Every Patient Tells a Story by Lisa Sanders
  • The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales by Nelson Mandela
  • Moby Dick by Herman Melville
  • FREE: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson
  • Welcome to Your Brain by Sandra Aamodt
  • Yes! by Noah J. Goldstein
  • The Five Most Important Questions by Peter F. Drucker
  • The 360-Degree Leader by John C. Maxwell
  • How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer
  • The Motley Fool Million Dollar Portfolio by David Gardner
  • Rule #1 by Phil Town