Anti-ageing superfoods

Times

January 13, 2010

Anti-ageing superfoods

Eat one portion of any three of these superfoods to look ten years younger plus the eight diet fundamentals

 

The entire ageing process, from your first wrinkle to deteriorating memory, depends on oxidation, a process in which damaging free radicals, the body’s own exhaust fumes, begin to wear down the DNA. However, promising research has shown that we can slow down ageing in just about every system of the body by eating antioxidant nutrients that offset some of the damage that time and lifestyle inflict on our bodies and minds.

 

"Studies by the US government’s anti-ageing research department have shown that the amount of antioxidants you maintain in your body is directly proportional to how long you will live," says the nutritionist Patrick Holford.

 

So how do you boost your intake? Holford says we need to consume at least the five portions of fruit and vegetables a day recommended by the British government, but preferably the 8-10 servings suggested by the World Health Organisation to ward off cancer and other diseases.

 

But not all fresh produce packs the same anti-ageing punch, he says. "The antioxidant power of food is measured by its oxygen radical absorbance capacity [ORAC] score — the oldest living people consume at least 6,000 ORACs a day," Holford says.

Below is a list of superfoods that contain high levels of ORACs.

Consume one portion of any three of these a day to look 10 years younger:

 

Cinnamon

Dried oregano

Turmeric

Mustard

Blueberries, raspberries or strawberries

Pear, grapefruit or plum

Cherries

Orange or apple

Dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

Walnut halves

Pecan halves

Pistachios

Lentils

Kidney beans

Avocado

Broccoli

Asparagus spears

Glass of red wine

 

Diet fundamentals:

 

Balanced meals with an emphasis on whole grains and seasonal ingredients

Home-cooking with fresh ingredients, including home-baked bread

Eat less — using smaller plates is a good way to control portion size

Eat your meals slowly, enjoying your food, really tasting it, and chewing it well

Drink plenty of water during your meals

Eat fish at least twice a week

Eat vegetarian meals twice a week

Eat game, chicken or meat three times a week at most

WINE FACTS

WINE FACTS
  • Jefferson and wine: From Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, by Stephen E Ambrose, comes the following historical note. Jefferson took up residence in the President’s House in 1801, after his inauguration as the 3rd President of the United States.
       “Jefferson ran the place with only eleven servants (Abigail Adams had needed 30!), brought up from Monticello. There were no more powdered wigs, much less ceremony. Washington and Adams, according to Republican critics, had kept up almost a royal court. Jefferson substituted Republican simplicity - to a point. He had a French chef, and French wines he personally selected. His salary was $25,000 per year - a princely sum, but the expenses were also great. In 1801 Jefferson spent $6500 for provisions and groceries, $2700 for servants (some of whom were liveried), $500 for Lewis’s salary, and $3,000 for wine.”

  • Dom Perignon (1638-1715), the Benedictine Abbey (at Hautvillers) cellar master who is generally credited with “inventing” the Champagne making process, was blind.

  • Thomas Jefferson helped stock the wine cellars of the first five U.S. presidents and was very partial to fine Bordeaux and Madeira.
  • To prevent a sparkling wine from foaming out of the glass, pour an ounce, which will settle quickly. Pouring the remainder of the serving into this starter will not foam as much.

  • Old wine almost never turns to vinegar. It spoils by oxidation.

  • U.S. 1998 sales of white and blush wines were 67% of total table wine sales. Red wines were 33% of sales. At Beekman’s, the best we can calculate (since we don’t track the color of wine sales from Chile, Australia or Spain or of jug wines) is that our sales of white and blush comprised only 45% of total wine sales. Reds accounted for 55%. That’s in dollars, not unit sales. American wines accounted for 47% of our wine sales vs. 53% for imported wines.

  • In King Tut’s Egypt (around 1300 BC), the commoners drank beer and the upper class drank wine.

  • According to local legend, the great French white Burgundy, Corton-Charlemagne, owes its existence, not to the emperor Charlemagne, but to his wife. The red wines of Corton stained his white beard so messily that she persuaded him to plant vines that would produce white wines. Charlemagne ordered white grapes to be planted. Thus: Corton-Charlemagne!

  • When Leif Ericsson landed in North America in A.D. 1001, he was so impressed by the proliferation of grapevines that he named it Vinland.

  • Cork was developed as a bottle closure in the late 17th century. It was only after this that bottles were lain down for aging, and the bottle shapes slowly changed from short and bulbous to tall and slender.

  • Merlot was the “hot” varietal in 1999, but in 1949, the “darling of the California wine industry” was Muscatel!

  • The Napa Valley crop described in 1889 newspapers as the finest of its kind grown in the U.S. was hops.

  • When Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii in volcanic lava in A.D. 79, it also buried more than 200 wine bars.

  • The “top five” chateau of Bordeaux, according to the 1855 Classification, were actually only four: Lafite-Rothschild, Latour, Margaux and Haut-Brion. In the only change to that historic classification, Mouton-Rothschild was added in 1973.

  • Grapevines cannot reproduce reliably from seed. To cultivate a particular grape variety, grafting (a plant version of cloning) is used.

  • Wine has so many organic chemical compounds it is considered more complex than blood serum.

  • Wine grapes are subject to mold when there’s too much moisture. Tight clustered Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel and Pinot Noir are most susceptible to mold. The looser clusters of Cabernet Sauvignon allow for faster drying of moist grapes and thus make it less susceptible.

  • In 1945, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild began a series of artists’ labels, hiring a different artist each year to design a unique label for that vintage. The artists have included such notables as Chagall, Picasso, Miro and Warhol. The 1993 label was sufficiently controversial in this country (the stylized juvenile nude on the label offended the Political Correctness Police) that the Chateau withdrew the label and substituted a blank label instead.

  • It is the VERY slow interaction of oxygen and wine that produces the changes noticed in aging wine. It is believed that wine ages more slowly in larger bottles, since there is less oxygen per volume of wine in larger bottles. Rapid oxidation, as with a leaky cork, spoils wine.

  • Before harvest, the canopy of leaves at the top of the vine is often cut away to increase exposure to the sun and speed ripening.

  • The average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels is 170 years!

  • The lip of a red wine glass is sloped inward to capture the aromas of the wine and deliver them to your nose.

  • Cold maceration” means putting the grapes in a refrigerated environment for several days before starting fermentation to encourage color extraction. This is being done more and more frequently with Pinot Noir since the skins of this varietal don’t have as much pigmentation as other red varietals.

  • Frenchman Georges de Latour came to America in the late 1800’s to prospect for gold. He didn’t find much gold, but he founded a truly golden winery: Beaulieu Vineyard.

  • Mycoderma bacteria convert ethyl alcohol into acetic acid, thus turning wine into vinegar. However, most incidents of spoiled wine are due to air induced oxidation of the fruit, not bacterial conversion of alcohol to vinegar.

  • The world’s most planted grape varietal is Airén. It occupies over 1 million acres in central Spain where it is made into mediocre white wine, but some quite good brandy.

  • Bettino Ricasoli, founder of Brolio, is credited with having created the original recipe for Chianti, combining two red grapes (Sangiovese and Canaiolo) with two white grapes (Malvasia and Trebbiano). Today the better Chiantis have little or no white grapes in them and may contain some Cabernet. They are thus deeper in color and flavor and more age worthy.

  • From 1970 until the late 1980s, sales and consumption of wine in the United States held a ratio of about 75% white to 25% red. At the turn of the Millennium, the ratio is closer to 50-50.

  • In the year 2000, Americans spent $20 billion on wine. 72% of that was spent on California wines.

  • In ancient Rome bits of toast were floated in goblets of wine. There is a story that a wealthy man threw a lavish party in which the public bath was filled with wine. Beautiful young women were invited to swim in it. When asked his opinion of the wine, one guest responded: “I like it very much, but I prefer the toast.” (referring, presumably, to the women)

  • Cuvée” means “vat” or “tank.” It is used to refer to a particular batch or blend.

  • Beaujolais Nouveau cannot be legally released until the third Thursday of every November. The due date this year (2001) is November 15th.

  • We’re seeing more and more synthetic corks these days, but the latest technology to prevent contaminated corks is the use of microwaves.

  • Labels were first put on wine bottles in the early 1700s, but it wasn’t until the 1860s that suitable glues were developed to hold them on the bottles.

  • Top Napa Valley vineyard land sells for over $100,000/acre!

  • In the year 2000, there were 847 wineries in California.
  • Wine is often called the nectar of the gods, but Sangiovese is the only grape named after a god. Sangiovese means “blood of Jove.”

  • Ninety-two percent of California wineries produce fewer than 100,000 cases per year. Sixty percent produce fewer than 25,000 cases.

  • Egg whites, bull’s blood, and gelatin have all been used as fining agents to remove suspended particles from wine before bottling. Egg whites are still commonly used.

  • Brix” is the term used to designate the percentage of sugar in the grapes before fermentation. For example, 23° brix will be converted by yeast to 12.5% alcohol, more or less, depending on the conversion efficiency of the strain of yeast used.

  • In describing wine, the term “hot” refers to a high level of alcohol, leaving an hot, sometimes burning sensation.

  • In the production of port, the crushed grapes are fermented for about two days. Then the fermentation is halted by the addition of a neutral distilled spirit or brandy. This raises the alcohol level and retains some of the grapes’ natural sugar.

  • American wine drinkers consume more wine on Thanksgiving than any other day of the year.

  • As of 2000, 554,000 acres in California were planted to grapevines.

  • Still wine” does not come from a still. The phrase refers to wine without bubbles, which includes what is also referred to as table wine.

  • Fiasco [fee-YAHS-koh]; pl. fiaschi [fee-YAHS-kee] - Italian for “flask.” The word is most often connected with the squat, round-bottomed, straw-covered bottle containing cheaper wine from the Chianti region. The straw covering not only helps the bottle sit upright, but protects the thin, fragile glass. Fiaschi are seldom seen today as the cost of hand-wrapping each flask for cheaper wines has become prohibitive, and the more expensive wines with aging potential need bottles that can be lain on their sides.

  • As early as 4000 BC, the Egyptians were the first people to use corks as stoppers.

  • The wine industry generates 145,000 jobs in California.

  • California has 847 wineries. Napa County is the home of 232 of them.
  • Market research shows that most people buy a particular wine either because they recognize the brand name or they are attracted by the packaging. Not Beekman’s customers!

  • Portugal has 1/3 of the world's cork forests and supplies 85-90% of the cork used in the U.S.

  • There are only three legal categories of wine in the U.S.: table, dessert, and sparkling. In the early 1950s, 82% of the wine Americans drank was classified as dessert wines. These included Sherry, Port, and Madeira. I don’t have current national figures, but  Beekman’s sales of wine today are 90% table wine, 7% sparkling wine, and only 3% dessert wine!

  • Until 1970, Bordeaux produced more white wine than red. Today red wine represents about 84% of the total crop.

  • California produces approximately 77% of the U.S. wine grape crop

  • There is at least one commercial winery in every state of the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska!

  • Putting ice and kosher salt in a bucket will chill white wine or Champagne faster.

  • The most popular corkscrew, the wing-type, is cheap and easy to use, but it frequently mangles corks and leaves small pieces of cork in your wine. It also tends to pull out just the middle of an old, dry cork. Far superior are the Screwpull, which is also easy to use, and the waiter’s corkscrew, which requires just a little know-how to use effectively. No matter what type you use, you should also have a two-pronged (Ah-So) device to remove problem corks.

  • Zinfandel first appeared in the United States in the 1820s when Long Island nursery owner George Gibbs imported several grape vines from the Imperial collection in Vienna. One of the vines was Zinfandel. (The current thinking is that Zinfandel originated in Croatia where it is called Plavac Mali.) In the 1850s, Zinfandel made its way to California.

  • An Italian white wine called Est! Est! Est! got its name from a medieval story. A bishop was planning to travel the Italian countryside and asked his scout to find inns that had good wines, marking the door “Est” (“It is” or “This is it”) when he found one. The scout was so excited about the local wine found in the area that he marked one inn’s door “Est! Est! Est!” Another version of this story is that a priest was on his way to minister to a congregation in the boondocks. Upon discovering the wonderful local wine, he sent the message “Est! Est! Est!” back to Rome, renounced the priesthood, and spent the rest of his life enjoying the wine.

  • The auger or curly metal part of a corkscrew is sometimes called a worm.

  • Graves is thought to be the oldest wine region in Bordeaux.

  • The Puritans loaded more beer than water onto the Mayflower.

  • In terms of acreage, wine grapes rank #1 among all crops planted worldwide.

  • Although “château” means castle, it may also be a mansion or a little house next to a vineyard that meets the requirements for winemaking with storage facilities on its property.

  • Château Petrus is the most expensive of the Bordeaux wines. Its price is as much due to its tiny production as to its quality. Petrus is made from at least 95% Merlot grapes.

  • The Egyptians were the first to make glass containers around 1500 B.C.E.

  • The 1855 Classification of Médoc châteaux listed only the best properties. “Best” was defined as those properties whose wines were the most expensive. The top estates were then divided into five categories (the “growths”) based on price.

  • Margaux is the largest of the Médoc appellations.

  • Pomerol is the smallest Bordeaux appellation.

  • Grand Cru” is French for “great growth” and designates the best. In Burgundy it refers to the best vineyards which usually have multiple owners. In Bordeaux its meaning varies by the specific region, but it always refers to properties under a single ownership.

  • Rose bushes are often planted at the end of a row of grape vines to act as an early warning signal for infestation by diseases and insects like aphids. A vineyard manager who notices black spots or root rot on the roses will spray the grape vines before they are damaged.

  • In Empire, California, some 400 copies of Little Red Riding Hood are locked away in a storage room of the public school district because the classic Grimm’s fairy tale recounts that the little girl took a bottle of wine to her grandmother. --- Roger Cohen, New York Times, April 23, 1990   [The crazies aren’t limited to Kansas.]

http://www.beekmanwine.com/factsquotes.htm

Homer Simpson: What I've Learned

January 10, 2010 

 

Homer Simpson: What I've Learned

 

To celebrate The Simpsons twentieth anniversary, look back at the American hero's wisdom on promises, death, Duff, and much more

By John Frink & Don Payne


Homer Simpson Thinking Picture at Moes

Originally published in the January 2002 issue

 

When someone tells you your butt is on fire, you should take them at their word.

 

There is no such thing as a bad doughnut.

 

Kids are like monkeys, only louder.

 

If you want results, press the red button. The rest are useless.

 

There are many different religions in this world, but if you look at them carefully, you'll see that they all have one thing in common: They were invented by a giant, superintelligent slug named Dennis.

 

You should just name your third kid Baby. Trust me — it'll save you a lot of hassle.

 

You can have many different jobs and still be lazy.

 

I enjoy the great taste of Duff. Yes, Duff is the only beer for me. Smooth, creamy Duff ... zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

 

You can get free stuff if you mention a product in a magazine interview. Like Chips Ahoy! cookies.

 

You may think it's easier to de-ice your windshield with a flamethrower, but there are repercussions. Serious repercussions.

 

There are some things that just aren't meant to be eaten.

 

The intelligent man wins his battles with pointed words. I'm sorry — I meant sticks. Pointed sticks.

 

There are way too many numbers. The world would be a better place if we lost half of them — starting with 8. I've always hated 8.

 

If I had a dollar for every time I heard "My God! He's covered in some sort of goo," I'd be a rich man.

 

Be generous in the bedroom — share your sandwich.

 

I've climbed the highest mountains ... fallen down the deepest valleys ... I've been to Japan and Africa ... and I've even gone into space. But I'd trade it all for a piece of candy right now.

 

Every creature on God's earth has a right to exist. Except for that damn ruby-throated South American warbler.

 

I don't need a surgeon telling me how to operate on myself.

 

Sometimes I think there's no reason to get out of bed ... then I feel wet, and I realize there is.

 

Let me just say, Winnie the Pooh getting his head caught in a honey pot? It's not funny. It can really happen.

 

Even though it is awesome and powerful, I don't take no guff from the ocean.

 

I never ate an animal I didn't like.

 

A fool and his money are soon parted. I would pay anyone a lot of money to explain that to me.

 

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll get a hook caught on his eyelid or something.

 

I made a deal with myself ten years ago ... and got ripped off.

 

Never leave your car keys in a reactor core.

 

Always trust your first instinct — unless it tells you to use your life savings to develop a Destructo Ray.

 

When you borrow something from your neighbor, always do it under the cover of darkness.

 

If a spaceship landed and aliens took me back to their planet and made me their leader, and I got to spend the rest of my life eating doughnuts and watching alien dancing girls and ruling with a swift and merciless hand? That would be sweet.

 

I may not be the richest man on earth. Or the smartest. Or the handsomest.

 

Never throw a butcher knife in anger.

 

The office is no place for off-color remarks or offensive jokes. That's why I never go there.

 

My favorite color is chocolate.

 

Always feel with your heart, although it's better with your hands.

 

The hardest thing I've had to face as a father was burying my own child. He climbed back out, but it still hurts.

 

If doctors are so right, why am I still alive?

 

I'm not afraid to say the word racism, or the words doormat and bee stinger.

 

Always have plenty of clean white shirts and blue pants.

 

When that guy turned water into wine, he obviously wasn't thinking of us Duff drinkers.

 

I love natural disasters because we're allowed to get out of work.

 

When I'm dead, I'm going to sleep. Oh, man, am I going to sleep.

 

What kind of fool would leave a pie on a windowsill, anyway?

 

THE SIMPSONS © 2001 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


The Fourth Dimension

The Fourth Dimension
2010-01-08 10:42:18  

A scene from Avatar with mock dialogue.

  

 Jan. 8 -- There are layers of meanings to the best films, novels and plays, and we find our own points of significance in these works by cultural "re-imagining".

    

Director James Cameron's Avatar is sweeping cinemas around the globe like a tsunami. Here, you have to book in advance or wait in long lines - and the only shows with tickets available are for odd hours.

    

Groundbreaking special effects aside, the 3D movie has the themes of fighting colonialism, indiscriminate use of military forces and interracial relationships. But the moment the giant bulldozer appeared on screen, I had an "aha" epiphany: This movie is about today's China, or, more accurately, there is a specific Chinese interpretation.

    

Avatar is, or could be seen as, a parable about the fight of ordinary people against the all-engulfing greed of real estate developers. In Chinese parlance, the Na'vi would be called "nail houses", people who refuse to give up their legally owned properties. They protect their rights and houses - or trees in this case - and stick out like nails amid a field of debris.

    

I'm sure Cameron did not get his inspiration from the plight of Chinese "nails". He was obviously referring to the wars George W Bush launched in the Middle East. But I'm not the only Chinese person who "twisted" this tale to fit our paradigm.

   

 For example, when the Na'vi shoot arrows at the heavy machinery that crushes everything in its path, the scene that instantly come to my mind was the Shanghai woman, surnamed Pan, who used a homemade Molotov cocktail to thwart the rumbling bulldozers - albeit in vain. When the Na'vi hold a vigil reminiscent of the Zhang Yimou-directed Olympic Opening Ceremony, the sense of foreboding is so pervasive that I cannot help but think of Tang Fuzhen, the Chengdu woman who resorted to self-immolation to protest against "forced eviction".

    

I wouldn't be surprised if the authorities put a stop to the screening of this massive blockbuster - when too many people, as I do, read into it a connection with a reality that's too close for comfort. But they cannot blame Cameron for "inciting unrest" among a restive populace unable to hold on to their rights of abode.

    

Such is the nature of cross-cultural message relays. People of one culture read into the works of another culture meanings unintended. With reasonable arguments, these interpretations can add layers to the work and bring relevance to a new audience. It is quite different from a failure to understand the author's original meaning. Most educated Chinese get the message Cameron embedded in the fantasy tale, but it does not resonate with us as much as the developers-vs-landowner angle.

    

In my line of work, I encounter these kinds of problems every day. I am a consultant for several organizations in the business of importing foreign books, movies, TV shows and events. Apart from the factor of name recognition, I ask myself and those who seek my counsel: "Does it have a Chinese angle?" "Can the target audience relate to the issues?"

    

One work that clicked with Beijing audiences was Jane Eyre. Wildly popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s when China opened its doors to Western influence, the classic story about a young governess and her rocky romance with her employer faded on dusty shelves when foreign books were no longer taboo.

    

Last year, the National Center for the Performing Arts had two runs of Jane Eyre. It dawned on me this tale really strikes home today. Jane is not beautiful, she is not rich, the man who is willing to marry her has a castle. Yet she walks away from the wedding because he has a wife.

    

Now, contrast it with Dwelling Narrowness, a recent TV show so popular it was banned - a woman uses her beauty to become a concubine for the sole purpose of getting a decent apartment. What would she think of Jane Eyre? Nuts, probably. Edward Rochester could have got a full house of concubines.

    You see, Jane Eyre is poignant because it is a perfect counterpoint to Dwelling Narrowness and the harsh reality it depicts. In both Avatar and Jane Eyre, you can detect the real issues that grip China - an emerging middle-class, made up of those in their late 20s and early 30s, blocked out from affordable housing, and an army of property owners in a losing battle against developers and the interests they represent. More irony: The latter group is robbed so that more houses can be built and the former gourp has to buy them at prices so high they are essentially robbed, for life.

    

With house prices skyrocketing across the country, housing is such a big problem that even a domestic release was reinterpreted through this prism. The Founding of a Republic, an epic made to celebrate the 60th anniversary of New China, was ruthlessly dissected by irreverent young writer Han Han. He pointed out that Madame Soong Ching-ling's support of the Communist Party hinged on her ability to retain her mansion in downtown Shanghai, a point partly supported by a line in the movie that a Communist leader said she could keep her house.

    

When I mounted The Sound of Music in Beijing 12 years ago, one of my concerns was the seven kids.

    

China has a family planning policy. Most urban families have only one kid. Would they accept one with seven? Would it be outlandish?

    

No, I was not engaged in self-censorship. I was zooming in on those discrepancies the audience may have with the work. Even without the policy, most Chinese families would not want more than two kids. A horde of siblings is not something urban children - our target audience - take for granted.

    

Fortunately, the musical does not focus on sibling dynamics. The seven kids act no differently from schoolmates. Besides, the plot was already so familiar many probably did not even think of it. But it was a legitimate point. Most sitcom families in America have three children. How can you map out storylines in a Chinese television show centered around a family?

    

Home with Kids, a hit sitcom in China, tackled this dilemma with ingenuity. The wife had a previous marriage, so she has a son. The husband has a daughter from a previous marriage and he also has a younger son, who was born in the United States. So, it is still a family of three kids, all born legally.

    

A family sitcom with one child would be a daunting task for the scriptwriters.

Most people grow up in one culture and have trained themselves to look at things from a certain angle. Their way of thinking and doing things is what makes culture unique.

    

But to broaden the appeal of a cultural work, it is often necessary to tone down that specificity so that people from other cultures may search and find their own relevancies. That means distilling the complexities and uniqueness to a few broad issues. Hollywood is a master at that. It often dumbs down too much, leaving a few cut-and-dried cliches.

    

Avatar may not have much depth, but it inadvertently hits a nerve in a country where the bulldozer is a sign of both progress and threat.

    

(Source: China Daily)

Editor: Wang Guanqun

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The Law of Karma

The Law of Karma
Every action has a reaction which creates a chain of follow up actions. What you sow you reap; though you sow one seed, it grows into a thousand new seeds which further give rise to new seeds and new trees. This is the eternal law of karma. There is a cause for every effect and every effect has a cause.

We may be able to see the cause, and it is equally possible that we may never be able to recall it. This is due to the inability of our mind; we are so restricted in the knowledge held by the brain! Our brain does not remember most of the actions of this life, what to say of knowing or recalling our past karmas.
No one can evade, mould or change this all-powerful ‘Law of Karma’. It is not easy to fully understand how it functions, but let us make an attempt to know how it works.

Every action has a route which it follows. Our subconscious carries the sum total of all our desires, passions, good and bad experiences, which we carry with us from our numerous past lives. Our defeats, victories, pain, pleasures and all our animal instincts are embedded in it. At the top are innumerable unfulfilled desires and hopes which are waiting to rear their head.
Now here is the process you need to understand: First the samaskaras trigger the thought and then the thought matures into desire. This may happen with or without any outer stimulation. As this desire arises, it gets more attention or afflictions of our attachments, the deeper it gets. With time, it is further strengthened and then it changes into sankalpa (the conviction to achieve the object). When this conviction matures, it converts into action or karma.

This is the theory of how deep-rooted samaskaras or impressions shape our thoughts, convert them into desire, and desire into conviction, till finally the action takes place. The whole process may happen in just a fraction of a second or even in lesser time! Do you have any idea how many trillions upon trillions of samaskaras are lying in your subconscious? And consequently how many wishes and desires are lying unfulfilled in the deep recesses of your mind?

While strolling on the road, one sees scores of men, women, girls and boys. The mind registers all these faces and keeps making a non- stop commentary on them. Standing by the road and seeing the traffic pass by, how active your mind is! Seeing flashy cars, the desire to own one arises. A beautiful woman passes by and your heart aches with desire for her. Watching television has become a fixed ritual for modern men and women; seeing the glamorous lifestyles of actors and actresses on screen, how eager your mind gets to have it all. One wishes to go to all those wonderful places, to have sex with that curvaceous woman seen on TV and in films. The name, fame, glory and glitter of the silver screen lures the mind in a myriad ways. People living in an ultra-modern society want to have it all, see it all, do it all.
Know this: samaskaras have the ability to take the shape of thought – desire- conviction, and finally of action.

Whether that action will be good or bad and what its consequences will be is a different story.
Upanishadic wisdom says that every action will bear a fruit which is of two types: one part is the happiness or pain experienced right there, in that moment; the second part remains hidden and gets added to the bank of other past karmas – it becomes a part of our ’sanchit karma’ i.e. the accumulated karmas of innumerable past lives. We are not new on this earth, we have been born here many times, and in each life we made a home, had a family, had some kind of livelihood and had friends and enemies. We were never idle even in the past births – we were doing something (good or bad) and every action that we did is going to bear some fruit.

The law says that if you do an evil action, the fruit will be dukha or pain, and if you do a pious karma then the fruit is sukha or happiness.

Well, no one wishes for dukha, yet we experience pain in our lives. The question is why? Yes, we do not wish dukha, yet we do get it. It is because of our lust, greed, ego, anger and attachments. We do so many actions, and though we justify our actions as valid, sometimes in reality they are not.
The police catches criminals and the courts punish them for their heinous crimes of theft, burglary, murder, rape, arson and loot. But has anyone ever been arrested for anger, lust, ego or greed? The answer is a very definitel no! But aren’t these vices the very reasons for a person’s criminal act? Society punishes a person after the act has been committed and the person has been caught. But in the court of dharma, when you do an evil act, you are punished in two ways, one part of fruit is received on the spot in the form of the turmoil felt by the mind, the anguish, palpitation, rise in blood pressure, the agitation and frustration of the mind. And the other part of karma fruit gets deposited in the bank of our past karmas, where, in time it causes pain, dukha, diseases, losses or unfortunate situations in life.

Vedas say that all actions are of two types: dharma and adharma. Actions that are endorsed by seers are dharma and the those which are forbidden are adharma. Servitude, donation, charity, penance, japa, chanting, compassion and humility are all dharma. And all actions arising from lust, greed, anger, revenge and ego are adharma.

Dharma will give you happiness and adharma will give you pain. This means that if ones actions are of adharma, then it may be pleasurable at that moment, but later on the fruit will be of pain. And dharmic actions might seem unattractive but give purity, clarity and happiness in the end.
Suppose you are served delicious food which looks good to the eyes, smells good and tastes good too, but is laced with a slow poison; then there is food which is nutritious but not as inviting to the senses – which one would you prefer? Most of the time, a person who is a slave of the senses will prefer the first type without realizing that the end result would be pain.

The wise ones have said that karma is of three types – sanchit, kriyaman and agami. Sanchit karma are those which we did in the past, kriyaman are those which we are doing now in the present moment, and agami karmas are those which we will do in the future. Man, driven by his weaknesses, mental afflictions and vices, performs karmas without thinking about their consequences. When pain and failure result, he blames god for his misfortunes and never realizes that it is his own past karmas which are punishing him in the present moment.

This is the story of all human beings – they wish for instant gratification of the senses and do not wish to think about the fruits of their action. The wise ones think deeply and then make the right choices. Today it may not seem to be a thing of deep concern, but indeed it is. Actions of dharma and adharma are going to shape your mind and further desires; the desires into actions and the fruits of action. An uncontrolled mind gets motivated to act irresponsibly and then suffers from the ill effects of its own actions.

Your destiny is nothing but the sum total of your past actions. The past is gone but you have this moment in your hand. Every action you do now shapes your future.
But what about the past karmas which are going to reward or punish you? Can we do something about them today? The answer is no! Those fruits will come to you and you will have to accept them. No one can run away from his or her karmas – no one! This seems really depressing, isn’t it? Do not feel sad for there is a ray of hope. Read on.

The present moment is in our hands, and by acting responsibly we can use it to bring about a total transformation in our lives. If one performs pious deeds, serves all, is compassionate and generous – in other words if we develop positive karma, it will prove to be a great leveler and will slowly lead to a bringing down of the adverse effects of past karma.

The theory of karma says that doing pious deeds will slowly scale down the effects of negative karmas, bringing them at par, first, and then more in favor of, dharma. As dharma begins to dominate a person’s life, new and positive developments begin to take place. One gets opportunities for being blessed by pious souls and saints. As the Ramayana says, when good karma fructify, only then the chance of meeting a seer or rishi is possible. And the chance of meeting a saint means an opportunity to not only be blessed but also to receive wisdom and the tools of evolvement that help one come out of the cycle of karma.

The Bhagavad Gita says that the power of good karma makes a person a deserving candidate for
receiving higher knowledge which will bring forth a whole new approach to living one’s life in dharma.
Good and bad actions happen through the mind with a sense of ‘I’ being the doer. As long as the doer is there, one or another kind of karma will keep on generating. All karmas create bondage – if bad karma is like an iron handcuff, then pious karma is a handcuff made of gold. Both bind you and keep you in the whirlpool of samsara. One has to understand the truth: mind- senses-body are entities totally different from the ’self’ which is beyond these corporeal elements. Once you begin to understand who you really are and begin to cultivate a distance and discrimination, all actions will happen without binding you. When all karma is performed with the sense of being a ‘non-doer’, and one follows the righteous path, then the person transgresses the cycle of karma.

The real self is unknown and this self-ignorance binds man. Once we have understood the real self, then life is lived while witnessing it. The present moment is lived in the spirit of a non-doer and the old karmas or sanchit karmas get burnt in the fire of gyana (true knowledge) and then what is left is kriyaman karma. Such a person with his new-found wisdom has great patience and tolerance, and accepts the fruits of his karma without discrimination.

Try to understand it like this: a person has some arrows in his basket, one arrow has been mounted on the bow and one has already been shot. This person can destroy the arrows in his basket, he can throw the arrow which is strung, but he can do nothing about the arrow that has been shot. The arrows in the basket are sanchit karma, the one on the bow is agami karma and the arrow that has been shot is kriyaman karma. The Bhagavad Gita says that we can destroy our sanchit karma with gyana and samadhi; the present actions can be performed as a non-doer; but the fruits of actions which are functional in the present moment cannot be wiped out. Remember that this statement is applicable only to a realized person. For an ignoramus, even sanchit karmas work along with kriyaman karma!

When ones actions are motivated by ill, evil, negativity, one doesn’t even realizes what one is doing. But when the fruits of karma fall in the lap, then the person either suffers meekly or is angry, dejected and agitated.

Impressions (samaskaras) and unfulfilled desires are the root of all the wrongs in a man’s life. Only if the root agyana is eradicated with true knowledge – can one live a life filled with happiness and contentment. We are responsible for our actions and the results of our actions.

Source : Soul Curry Magazine

The Law Of Karma

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Rank # 10 Netherlands 612.5 tonnes of gold reserves

Rank # 9 Japan 765.2 Tonnes of Gold reserves

Rank # 8 Switzerland 1040.1 Tonnes of Gold reserves

Rank # 7 China 1054.0 Tonnes of Gold reserves

Rank # 6 SPDR Gold Shares ETF with 1,120.6 Tonnes of Gold reserves

Rank # 5 France with 2,450.7 Tonnes of Gold reserve

Rank # 4 Italy with 2,451.8 Tonnes of Gold reserves

Rank # 3 International Monetary Fund with 3,217.3 Tonnes of Gold reserves

Rank # 2 Germany with 3,412.6 Tonnes of Gold reserves

Rank # 1 United States with 8,133.5 Tonnes of Gold reserves

Source: Gold World