August 2011

www.16ROUNDS.com | August 2011

COVER STORY (PG. 11):

RATIONAL SPIRITUAL BELIEF www.16rounds.com

1

2

www.16rounds.com

<(previous issue's cover)>

INTRO

MY GURU - TV!

By Jessica Robbins

One needs 16Rounds to Samadhi 16Rounds is published: ● To propagate spiritual knowledge and to educate all people in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world. ● To bring people closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler and more natural way of life. ● To expose the faults of materialism. ● To bring about the well-being of all living entities.

16Rounds is an independent magazine compiled, written, and published by a few Hare Krishna monks.

It is produced in an attempt to benefit its readers, for our own purification, and for the pleasure of our spiritual grandfather, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhakti­ vedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder and spiritual guide of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

The first copy is free; additional copies of the same issue are $10 each. © 2011 16Rounds to Samadhi. All rights reserved.

16Rounds Staff: Editor: Mahat Tattva Dasa Mahat has been a monk since 1995 and is currently serving as the president of the Hare Krishna temple in San Diego.

Assistant Editor & Layout: Giriraj Gopal Dasa Giriraj Gopal Dasa is a working artist and a bhakti-yoga teacher and practitioner.

Layout: Bhismadeva Dasa Bhismadeva has been a monk since 2008 and is currently living in the ashram at the Hare Krishna temple in San Diego.

only to watch television for but a few minutes to get an idea of the modern culture’s mentality. From lusty sitcoms and rampant commercials with close-ups of perspiring fountain drinks alongside mile high hamburgers, to images of war and death occurring on the other side of the globe with side bars depicting rising gas prices—modern day television in essence promotes a consciousness largely based on eating, mating, and fearing.

Yet, where’s the novelty in such activities? Modern television makes us out to be merely “polished” animals—acting from lower urges in order to satisfy our desire to gratify our senses, so much so that we will even defend and fight to the death to protect this desire.

But is this where true happiness lies? It is clear that more material pleasure, and the quest therein, only begets more anxiety.

For if one desires to enjoy the objects of the senses they must work

CONTACT: 16rounds@gmail.com www.16ROUNDS.com 1030 Grand Ave. San Diego, CA 92109 facebook.com/16roundstosamadhi ADVERTISE Call/text Mahat at #858.405.5465.

See media/advertising kit at www.16rounds.com/advertise DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of "16 Rounds" or the institutions authors might be affiliated with.

even harder in order to obtain such a transitory level of happiness gained through external means. This is quite the opposite from an intelligent plan.

Real intelligence lies in finding out how to transcend the anxieties of modern life, which are all too apparent and are epitomized on modern television. We must inquire into the nature of the self because what and with whom we identify governs our actions and subsequently our happiness in life. We must be careful not to confuse our identity with that which

is observed—namely the body and all of the activities it takes part in—with the observer, the individual spirit soul, which is eternal.

Identification with matter, as has been pointed out can only lead to increasing dissatisfaction due to its ephemeral nature; whereas, knowing oneself to be a spirit soul—an eternal part and parcel of the Supreme Source gives one the proper basis upon which to act and relate to others in the world in an intelligent, selfless way. �

MEANING OF “16ROUNDS” Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means “union” or “linking.”

Meditation is a process of yoga by which the spiritual practitioner achieves union with the Divine. The recommended process of meditation for the age we are currently living in is mantra meditation. This process involves chanting of mantras. The Upanishads, the classical spiritual texts of ancient India, say that the best mantra is the Hare Krishna mantra: hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare, hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare.

A “Mala” is a set of 108 beads strung on a thread, sort of like a rosary. The spiritual practitioner prayerfully and with great concentration recites/chants the whole mantra once for each bead of the mala. The mala or the string of beads is held in the fist of the right hand and is meant to help us count how many times we chanted the mantra. It also helps engage the sense of touch in the process of meditation.

Once we have chanted the mantra 108 times, or once for each bead, we have completed “one round.” Serious practitioners of this spiritual discipline take a vow to chant at least sixteen times round the mala every day; thus the name “16 Rounds.”

Photo Credits

©1 flickr.com/seanmundy ©2 flickr.com/lord-jim ©3 flickr.com/pascalbovet ©4 flickr.com/roberts87 ©5 flickr.com/noeltanner ©6 flickr.com/michaelaston ©7 flickr.com/calliope ©8 flickr.com/25006937@N05 ©8 flickr.com/talen

www.16rounds.com

3

SELF REALIZATION

LEARNING NESCIENCE & KNOLEDGE SIDE BY SIDE

By A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada The following is taken from Srila Prabhupada's commentary on the eleventh mantra in the book called Sri Isopanisad.

"The miseries of this material world serve to indirectly remind us of our incompatibility with dead matter. Intelligent living entities generally take note of these reminders and engage themselves in the culture of transcendental knowledge."

Since

the creation of the physical world, everyone has been yearning to attain a permanent life, but the laws of nature are so cruel that no one has been able to avoid the hand of death. No one wants to die, nor does anyone want to become old or diseased.

The law of nature, however, does not allow anyone immunity from old age, disease or death. Nor has the advancement of material knowledge solved these problems. Material science can discover the nuclear bomb to accelerate the process of death, but it cannot discover anything that can protect people from the cruel hands of old age, disease, and death.

Sri Isopanisad instructs us not to make one-sided attempts to win the struggle for existence.

Everyone is struggling hard for existence, but the laws of material nature are so hard and fast that they do not allow anyone to surpass them. In order to attain a permanent life, one must be prepared for a spiritual journey.

The process by which one goes

back to Godhead is a peculiar branch of knowledge. To become happy in this life and attain a permanent blissful life after leaving this material body, one must study sacred literature, in this case Sri Isopanisad, and obtain transcendental knowledge. The conditioned living being has forgotten his eternal relationship with God and has mistakenly accepted the temporary place of his birth as all in all. We have kindly been delivered the sacred scriptures in India and other scriptures in other countries to remind the forgetful human being that his home is not here in this material world. The living being is a spiritual entity, and he can be happy only by returning to his spiritual home.

The miseries of this material world serve to indirectly remind us of our incompatibility with dead matter. Intelligent living entities generally take note of these reminders and engage themselves in the culture of transcendental knowledge. Human life is the best opportunity for the culture of spiritual

"Birth and death apply to the outward covering of the spirit soul, the body. Death is compared to the taking off and birth to the putting on of outward garments."

4

www.16rounds.com

ish human beings who are grossly absorbed in the culture of nescience do not mind this cruel process. Enamored with the beauty of the illusory energy, they undergo the same miseries repeatedly and do not learn any lessons from the

laws of nature.

Therefore the culture of transcendental knowledge is essential for the human being. Sense enjoyment in the diseased material condition must be restricted as

knowledge, and a human being who does not take advantage of this opportunity is unfortunate.

The path of advancement of material knowledge for sense gratification, is the path of repeated birth and death. As he exists spiritually, the living entity has no birth or death. Birth and death apply to the outward covering of the spirit soul, the body. Death i s compared to the taking off and birth to the putting on of outward garments.

Fool-

Five thousand years ago Sri Isopanisad was studied all over the world. Concealed for centuries in the Sanskrit language of India, this ancient spiritual gem is now revealed in the first authorized English edition ever published. This masterwork of the long forgotten Vedic culture is here presented by the most venerated descendant of the culture, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. Sri Isopanisad is the book to ignite a spiritual revolution in the mind of a modern Westerner.

Sri Isopanisad - $1.95 at www.store.krishna.com

far as possible. Unrestricted sense enjoyment in this bodily condition is the path of ignorance and death. The living entities are not without spiritual senses; every living being in his original, spiritual form has all the senses, which are now materially manifested, being covered by the material body and mind. The activities of the material senses are perverted reflections of the activities of the original, spiritual senses.

In his diseased condition, the spirit soul engages in material activities under the material covering. Real sense enjoyment is possible only when the disease of materialism is removed. In our pure spiritual form, free from all material contamination, real enjoyment of the senses is possible. A patient must regain his health before he can truly enjoy sense pleasure again. Thus the aim of human life should not be to enjoy perverted sense enjoyment but to cure the material disease. Aggravation of the material disease is no sign of knowledge, but a sign of ignorance. For good health, a person should not increase his fever from 105 degrees to 107 degrees but should reduce his temperature to the normal 98.6.

That should be the aim of human life. The modern trend of material civilization is to increase the temperature of the feverish material condition. Meanwhile, the foolish politicians are crying that at any moment

the world may go to hell. That is the result of the advancement of material knowledge and the neglect of the most important part of life, the culture of spiritual knowledge.

Sri Isopanisad herein warns that we must not follow this dangerous path leading to death. On the contrary, we must develop the culture of spiritual knowledge so that we may become completely free from the cruel hands of death.

This does not mean that all activities for the maintenance of the body should be stopped. There is no question of stopping activities, just as there is no question of wiping out one's temperature altogether when trying to recover from a disease.

"To make the best use of a bad bargain" is the appropriate expression. The culture of spiritual knowledge necessitates the help of the body and mind; therefore maintenance of the body and mind is required if we are to reach our goal. The normal temperature should be maintained at 98.6 degrees, and the great sages and saints of India have attempted to do this by a balanced program of spiritual and material knowledge. They never allow the misuse of human intelligence for diseased sense gratification.

Human activities diseased by a tendency toward sense gratification have been regulated in the Vedas. This system employs religion, economic development, sense gratification, and spiritual liberation, but at the present moment people have no interest in religion or spirituality. They have only one aim in life — sense gratification — and in order to achieve this end they make plans for economic development. Misguided people think that religion should be maintained if, or, because it contributes to economic development, which is required for sense gratification.

Thus in order to guarantee further sense gratification after death, in heaven, there is some system of religious observance.

But this is not the purpose of religion. The path of religion is actually meant for selfrealization, and economic development is required just to maintain the body in a sound, healthy condition. One should lead a healthy life with a sound mind just to realize true knowledge, which is the aim of human life. This life is not meant for working hard like an ass or for culturing ignorance for sense gratification. �

Review by Nug Magazine (nubmag.com)

Traditionally

from South India, dosas are a sourdoughlike pancakes made from rice and bean dough, stuffed with flavored potatoes, and served with handcrafted chutneys to use as a dip. At Bova Dosa, they add their own Southern California twist by adding avocado and soy-free, dairy-free cheese in some of their dosas. They also have sweet ones with natural peanut butter and agave.

Their food is spiritualized because they are practicing a form of Bhakti Yoga when creating it. They offer up their food to the highest source and give the food with love and devotion. They believe that when they distribute food that has been offered in this manner, both the food and the activity of giving and receiving money are spiritualized. People receive great benefits from eating it. People that are really sensitive have expressed their experience of eating their food as that of feeling a vibration.

Coral, one of the owners, says, “The greatest thing is when you can do what you are doing for the highest purpose and the betterment for anyone who comes into contact with it, spreading the love that is already there. It’s as if you’re being nourished by the love of God.” So when they say it is vegan soul food, they really mean it!

“You’re eating of this is a form of yoga and a form of union; that is the form of meditation you are practicing right now, so just open yourself up to receive what it is giving you. The whole time I’m making it I’m deep in prayer thinking, ‘If you could feed God, what would you feed him?’ As I’m making this food, I’m thinking of the Beloved, and it’s like making it for the Supreme. When other people receive this food, the sensation is indescribable, but people feel it.”

“We put our love, heart, and hopes for everybody into all the food we make.” The food is also said to be medicinal; for example, their chutneys are medicinal because every ingredient in it is powerful. They crack open coconuts by hand and use over two pounds of ginger in one chutney along with whole seed spices such as fenugreek, mustard seeds, Dahl, and fresh curry leaves. “We want to heal people and help them find the highest truth, and help them refocus on watering the roots instead of running around watering the leaves. Go to the source; there’s not enough money or whatever to fulfill them, so it’s important to get centered.”

You can find Coral and Sage running Bova Dosa at the Imperial Beach Farmers Market every Friday, and more markets will be coming soon. Go and treat yourself to a Dosa Love. �

"The modern trend of material civilization is to increase the temperature of the feverish material condition. Meanwhile, the foolish politicians are crying that at any moment the world may go to hell." www.16rounds.com

5

PHILOSOPHY

THE SPIRITUAL INHERENT QUALITY VS.THE HUMAN SURVIVOR MACHINE

By Karuna Dharini Devi Dasi “How do you know that the incessant progress of science will not compel scientists to consider that life has existed during eternity, and not matter?...How do you know that in 10,000 years one will not consider it more likely that matter has emerged from life?”

-Louis Pasteur

According to

popular modern Darwinian thinking, the human species as we know it is the result of various chemical combinations undergoing random developments over a very long period of time. These developments have insured our survival ability so far. Survival ability is built into us by nature, like airbags and other devices are built into a car. We are Survivor Machines.

survival these days? Do we secretly harbor fears about having to return to bare necessities due to nuclear devastation or global warming? Is it because for the last hundred

years we have widely propagated the belief system of natural selection and survival of the fittest in nearly every science journal and classroom?

Oddly enough, the majority of human beings choose to participate in what could be called “artificial selection.” We choose arbitrary artificial selection for other species as

Survivor Machines; that may not sound very inspiring, but what an inspiration that could be for people who compete on a survivor TV show! I once gaped as I watched contestants who were challenged to cross a deep tank, climb a series of thirty foot tall slippery floating triangle shaped obstacles, balance precariously on top and slide down the other side while being pummeled by fire hydrant blasts of water. Those who survived the arduous course most efficiently, defeated their opponents and won a prize.

Why are Americans so hard-wired for

"Certainly the material world is a place where most of us have to tough it out. School, job, family, roof over your head, food in the mouth; all these require sometimes heavy sacrifices. However I don’t think this world was created as a place where optimum survival is the greatest possible achievement of a living being. " 6

www.16rounds.com

©1

PHILOSOPHY achievement of a living being. There is absolutely no question of the Spiritual Inherent Quality needing any material combination of traits to insure its survival.

As Srila Prabhupada explains in his Bhagavad-gita As It Is,

©2

"Any layperson can understand that the material body minus consciousness is a dead body, and this consciousness cannot be revived in the body by any means of material administration. Therefore, consciousness is not due to any amount of material combination, but to the eternal spirit soul.” well as our own. A few examples:

A sick seal washes up on a beach and a government subsidized Marine Animal Protection Agency dispatches a vehicle to rescue it, nurse it back to health and return it to the ocean. Millions of hybrid dogs are bred generation after generation until the strain’s original quality is compromised so we can enjoy cute little pets. Ambulances race throughout the city saving people who are on the point of expiring and they are nursed back to health in hospitals for days, weeks, months, and even years. Special Olympics participants are charitably financed to train the handicapped to shoot hoops or swim one hundred meters thoug fate has not provided them with all of the physical or mental attributes that normal athletes are endowed with.

Very unscientific!

Though we have proposed survival of the fittest as a top ranking answer to the mystery of life, we human beings go around try ing to save everything we see. We feel deep, complex emotions for our children or for other’s, as when we see a poor child on a hunger campaign poster. Comforting a dying man or coming to the aid of a stranger who is being attacked is certainly not to the advantage of our internal organic chemical survival mechanisms! What is that seem-

“The very small spiritual spark is the basic principle of the material body, and the influence of such a spiritual spark is spread all over the body as the influence of the active principle of some medicine spreads throughout the body. This current is felt as consciousness, and that is the evidence of the presence of the soul. Any layperson can understand that the material body minus consciousness is a dead body, and this consciousness cannot be revived in the body by any means of material administration.

Therefore, consciousness is not due to any amount of material combination, but to the eternal spirit soul.”

The greatest possible achievement of the living being is self-realization, or realizing one’s self as a spiritual portion of the potency of the

"In his popular book “Life Comes From Life,” Prabhupada explains, “All living beings possess the required intelligence to execute four principles: eating, sleeping, mating and defending.

These four principles exist even in the atom.

The only difference with the human being is that they have the extra intelligence with which they can understand God.” Supreme Soul. Survival of the species is a less intelligent, primitive miscalculation of what is the authentic struggle. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is teaching us the worthy struggle for the survival of the soul.

In his popular book “Life Comes From Life,” Prabhupada explains, “All living beings possess the required intelligence to execute four principles: eating, sleeping, mating and defending. These four principles exist even in the atom.

The only difference with the human being is that they have the extra intelligence with which they can understand God.”

ingly unlimited reservoir of human empathy for another that wells up inside of us whether or not it is to our advantage to be moved by such feelings? Moreover, what triggers us Human Survivor Machines to relish art, music, dance, literature, a beautiful sunset or a baseball game?

There is a finer awareness in all of us.

Sometimes we notice it. (It is not some thing which is the subject matter of survi vor shows.) It comes from a place where stress is a stranger, where happiness is a given. That finer awareness we experience from time to time is only the dawn of the opportunity to experience the Self. The Human Survivor Machine is actually an external mechanism which is like a suit of armor for the most important feature of our existence: the Spiritual Inherent Quality.

Yes, there is spirituality deep in every one of us, and that conscious spiritual spark is never an accident of nature participating in a harsh competition for survival. (Stones and rocks have got us beat by a long shot if tough survival is the bottom line.)

Certainly the material world is a place where most of us have to tough it out.

School, job, family, roof over your head, food in the mouth; all these require sometimes heavy sacrifices. However I don’t think this world was created as a place where optimum survival is the greatest possible

©3

"Feelings for another? Love of puppies, seals, babies, Grandmas — It’s all good, because all creatures possess the Spiritual Inherent Quality which is attractive to us."

Feelings for another? Love of puppies, seals, babies, Grandmas — It’s all good, because all creatures possess the Spiritual Inherent Quality which is attractive to us. We are not meant for the impersonal slaughterhouse farm factory, weapons manufacturing, abortion clinic “culture”, cutthroat, back-stabbing, get-ahead business enterprises, etc., that have only co`ntributed to the devolution of human spiritual consciousness. This is our unfortunate inheritance, courtesy of modern science.

Human Survivor Machines we are not, yet we are brainwashed by scientific atheistic education to think so. Our brains need re-programming. �

www.16rounds.com

7

SOCIETY

THE FORBIDDEN ARCHEOLOGIST Knowledge Filtering and Extreme Human Antiquity

By Michael Cremo

human origins announce discoveries of bones of apemen that appear to confirm their ideas. These discoveries are promoted in the mainstream media as “our ancestors” and as “missing links” in the imagined evolutionary chain. This column has given me the chance to respond to such propaganda by showing how humans like us existed at the same time as the proposed apelike ancestors.

Another of my interests is the history of Vedic culture in India. By Vedic culture, I mean the culture of Indo-European-speaking people. Sanskrit, the language of the Vedic literature, is Indo-European. According to conventional history, Vedic culture came into India from the outside, from the northwest, as part of a migration of Indo-European speaking people into India about 3,500 years ago. But in the Vedic literature itself there is no evidence for any such migration.

The Vedic literature indicates that Vedic culture has always been present within India. So in this column, I sometimes discuss evidence that shows the Vedic culture has been in India for longer than 3,500 years.

In all the areas of my interest, the topic of knowledge filtration comes up. I introduced the idea of the knowledge filter in my book Forbidden Archeology. It represents the influence of dominant theories on the treat of evidence in archeology and other sciences.

Evidence that supports dominant theories passes through this knowledge filter very easily. But evidence that contradicts dominant theories does not pass through this filter, and thus this evidence is not very well known. To most people, even professional scientists, this evidence simply does not exist. Some of the agents responsible for this knowledge filtration are the editors and reviewers of scientific journals. Between the readers and the writers stand the editors and “peer reviewers.”

Even mainstream scientists are beginning to question the effectiveness of the peer review process. The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom reported on research in this topic in an article titled “Trial by Peers Comes Up Short” by Sophie Petit-Zeman (Guardian.com.uk, 16 January 2003). Dr. Tom Jefferson of the Cochrane Collaboration Methods Group said, “"Peerreview is generally assumed to be an important part of the scientific process and

Michael Cremo, with some 50 million year old artifacts from the California gold mines.

Some years ago,

Doug Kenyon, editor of Atlantis Rising, asked me to write a column for his magazine. I agreed, and it was a good decision. I named the column “The Forbidden Archeologist.” In it, I have commented on many topics of interest to me.

The first is archeological evidence for

8

www.16rounds.com

extreme human antiquity. According to mainstream conventional science, human beings like us first came into existence between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, having evolved from more primitive apelike ancestors. But the ancient Sanskrit writings of India and the texts of other cultures tell us that humans have existed on earth for far longer periods of time. There is some ar-

cheological evidence for this. I extensively documented this kind of evidence in my book Forbidden Archeology. That book was published in 1993. So this column has given me a chance to write about new evidence for extreme human antiquity that has come to my attention since then.

From time to time, scientists who support the current evolutionary theories of

is used to assess and improve the quality of submissions to journals as well as being an important part of the process of deciding what research is funded. But we have found little empirical evidence to support the use of peer-review as a mechanism to ensure the quality of research reporting, and there's even more depressing evidence about its value in deciding what should be funded."

SOCIETY of the Americas. Steen-McIntyre and her colleagues tried to independently publish their report, but experienced difficulty in doing so. Steen McIntyre wrote in a letter (March 29, 1979) to H. J. Fullbright, an editor of a book in which her report was supposed to be published (but never was): “Archeologists are in a considerable uproar about Hueyatlaco—they refuse even to consider it. I’ve learned from second hand sources that I am considered by various members of the profession to be (1) incompetent, (2) a news monger, (3) an opportunist, (4) dishonest, (5) a fool.”

©4

Editors of mainstream scientific journals and their peer reviewers often function as gatekeepers for orthodoxy. Thomas E. Lee was a Canadian archeologist. He discovered stone tools on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, in the province of Ontario in Canada. The objects were found in a formation over 70,000 years old. According to standard theories, there were no human beings in North American before 25,000 years ago, maximum. Therefore Lee found it impossible to get mainstream science journals to publish his findings. In the Anthropological Journal of Canada (1977, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 2), Lee wrote: “A nervous or timid editor, his senses acutely attuned to the smell of danger to position, security, reputation, or censure, submits copies of a suspect paper to one or two advisors whom he considers well placed to pass safe judgment. They read it, or perhaps only skim through it looking for a few choice phrases that can be challenged or used against the author (their opinions were formed long in advance on the basis of what came over the grapevine or was picked up in the smoke-filled back rooms at conferences—little bits of

gossip that would tell them that the writer was far-out, a maverick, or an untouchable).

Then with a few cutting, unchallenged, and entirely unsupported statements, they ‘kill’ the paper.”

In 1988, George Miller, curator of the Imperial Valley College Museum in El Centro, California reported that some mammoth

bones bearing human cut marks were found in California’s Anza Borrego Desert.

Scientists from the United States Geological Survey dated the bones using the uranium isotope method. They got an age of at least 300,000 years. Tests using other methods (paleomagnetic dating and dating of volcanic ash found at the site) indicated an age of perhaps as much as 750,000 years.

The original reports came in a newspaper article (D. Graham, “Scientist Sees an Early Mark of Man,” San Diego Union, 31 October 1988), but Miller planned on publishing a scientific paper about the discoveries.

While I was researching another case for my book Forbidden Archeology, I visited

the San Diego Natural History Museum. There I met paleontologist Thomas Deméré.

I mentioned Miller’s discovery to him. I also mentioned that Miller was planning on publishing a paper on it.

Deméré said he and his colleagues had heard about that. He told me the paper would never pass peer review. Minds were made up in advance, before the paper was even read.

In the 1970s, geologist Virginia SteenMcIntyre and some of her colleagues were involved in dating the archeological site of Hueyatlaco in Mexico. There archeologists had discovered stone tools and wanted to know how old they were. Steen-McIntyre and her colleagues, using several different dating methods, got an age of over 250,000 years for the site. The archeologists rejected the age because it contradicted their theories of human origins and the peopling

Eventually her paper was published in a geological publication. Steen-McIntyre wrote in a letter to one of the editors (Steven Porter, 8 February 1980): “The ms [manuscript] I’d like to submit gives the geologic evidence. It’s pretty clear cut, and if it weren’t for the fact a lot of anthropology textbooks would have to be rewritten, I don’t think we would have had any problems getting the archeologists to accept it.

As it is, no anthro journal will touch it with a ten foot pole.”

A few years ago, a scholar was putting together a collection of essays about Alfred Russel Wallace, who along with Darwin was the cofounder of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Wallace was also involved in research into paranormal. Darwin did not approve of his involvement in such things. In my book Human Devolution, I have a chapter about Wallace’s research into the paranormal. The scholar invited me to submit an essay based on that chapter to be included in his book. I submitted the essay to him, but it did not wind up in the book, because of the objections of the editor from the academic publishing company that was going to bring out the book.

The editor objected to my reputation as a maverick researcher, with nonmainstream

"From time to time, scientists who support the current evolutionary theories of human origins announce discoveries of bones of apemen that appear to confirm their ideas.

These discoveries are promoted in the mainstream media as “our ancestors” and as “missing links” in the imagined evolutionary chain."

Recently, I put together forty-nine of my Atlantis Rising columns in a book called The Forbidden Archeologist. What I hope to do is give people who are not already readers of Atlantis Rising the chance to see the columns, with no knowledge filtering. � Michael A. Cremo (aka Drutakarma Dasa) has been a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness since 1974. His latest book, The Forbidden Archeologist,as well as his other books, are available from his website www.mcremo.com.

ideas.

One thing I like about Doug Kenyon is that he gives me complete freedom to choose my topics for my column. There is no knowledge filtering going on here. The words you see are mine, unedited and unchanged.

www.16rounds.com

9

COVER STORY

10

www.16rounds.com

COVER STORY

RATIONAL SPIRITUAL BELIEF Spiritual Rationality A Challange To Materialistic Belief

By Dr. William Lane Craig

This is an excerpt from a talk Dr.William Lane Craig gave during a public discussion, a debate, he had with Dr. Peter Atkins. Dr. Craig is a philosopher and a theologian. Dr. Atkins is a chemist and an outspoken atheist.

I believe that

there are many reasons for the existence of God, but for this occasion Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to restrict myself to sketching briefly four different reasons why I think God exists.

NUMBER ONE: THERE IS THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE

Have you ever asked yourself where the universe came from, why everything exists instead of just nothing? Typically, atheists have said that the universe is just eternal, and uncaused. But the astrophysical evi-

dence indicates that the universe began to exist in a great explosion called the Big Bang fifteen billion years ago. Most laymen do not appreciate that not only were all matter and energy created in that event, but physical space and time themselves. This is of upmost importance, for it implies, as the Cambridge astronomer Fred Hoyle points out, that the Big Bang theory requires the creation of the universe from nothing. Now, this tends to be very awkward for the atheist, for as Anthony Kenny of the Oxford University urges, a proponent of the Big Bang theory, at least if he is an atheist, must believe that the universe came from noth-

The Big Bang theory requires the creation of the universe from nothing. This tends to be very awkward for the atheist, for he must believe that the universe came from nothing and by nothing. But surly that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make sense because OUT OF NOTHING NOTHING COMES!

Dr. William Lane Craig

www.16rounds.com

11

COVER STORY

THE NIGHT OF KIRTAN IS FREE GENEROUS DONATIONS ARE WELCOME Please bring warm vibes. Make yourself comfortable. Dance, sit, or meditate to the music and chanting. Let us free our spirit and unite our consciousness through the sacred sound vibrations of timeless sanskrit mantras.

Dress comfortably. Shoes are not worn in the studio. Drinking water is provided.

12

www.16rounds.com

COVER STORY ing and by nothing. But surly that doesn’t make sense because OUT OF NOTHING NOTHING COMES! So, where did the universe come from? Why does the universe exist, instead of just nothing. There must have been a cause which brought the universe into being.

We can summarize our argument thus far as follows. Premise one: whatever begins to exist has a cause. Two: the universe began to exist. Three: therefore, the universe has a cause.

Now, from the very nature of the case as the cause of space and time, this cause must be an uncaused, changeless, timeless, and immaterial being of unimaginable power which created the universe. It must be timeless, and therefore changeless because it created time, because it also created space, it must also transcend space as well and therefore be immaterial, not physical. Moreover, I would argue that it must also be personal, for a changeless, impersonal cause can never exist without its effect. If the changeless, impersonal conditions for any effect are timelessly present, then their effect must be timelessly present as well. For example, the cause for water’s freezing is the temperature being below zero degrees centigrade. If the temperature were below zero from eternity, then any water around would be frozen from eternity. It would be impossible for the water to just begin to freeze a finite time ago. The only way for the cause to be timeless and for the effect to

begin a finite time ago is for the cause to be a personal agent who freely chooses to create a new effect without any prior determining conditions. For example, a man sitting from eternity could freely will to stand up, and thus you would have a new effect arise from an eternal cause. Thus we are brought not merely to a transcendent cause of the universe, but to its personal creator.

In his book The Creation, Dr. Atkins struggles mightily to explain how the universe could come into existence uncaused, out of nothing. In the end, he finds himself trapped in self-contradiction. He states, "Now we go back in time, beyond the moment of creation, to when there was no time, and to where there was no space." At this “time before time”, he imagines a swirling dust of mathematical points which recombine again and again and again, and finally come, by trial and error, to form our space-time universe. It needs

to be honestly said that this is not a scientific hypothesis. It is pop metaphysics, and of the worst kind, for it is obviously self-contradictory since it assumes time and space in order to explain the origin of time and space. As scientist David Park writes, it is deceptively easy to imagine events before the Big Bang, but in physics there is no way to make sense of these imaginings. As if this were not bad enough, Dr. Atkins compounds the problem by asking where the mathematical points came from. His answer? Time brought the points into being and the points brought time into being. This is like saying that the chicken brought the egg into being and the egg brought the chicken into being. It’s no wonder that in his review of Dr. Atkins’ book in The Times Literary Supplement the philosopher John Leslie asks incredulously, ”How could such nonsense have been churned out by the author of a superb textbook like Physical Chemistry?” In

simply given in the Big Bang itself. We now know that life prohibiting universes are vastly more probable than any life-permitting universe like ours. How much more probable?

The answer is that the chances that the universe should be life-permitting are so infinitesimal as to be incalculable and incomprehensible.

For example, Steven Hawking has estimated that if the rate of the universe’s expansion had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thou-

fact, Dr. Atkins’ Oxford University colleague Keith Ward in his book God, Chance and Necessity points out no less than seven such logical fallacies in Dr. Atkins’ scenario.

Ward concludes that it is “blatantly self-contradictory and so cannot be true”. By contrast, the view that theists have always held, that there is a personal creator of the universe is not only logically consistent, but it also follows logically from the premises which I have laid out.

sand billion million, the universe would have re-collapsed into a big fireball. Brandon Carter has calculated that the odds against the initial conditions being suitable for later star formation, without which planets could not exist, is one followed by a thousand billion billion zeros, at least. PCW Davies estimates that change in the strength of gravity or of the weak force by only one part in ten to the one hundredth power would have prevented a lifepermitting universe. There are around fifty such quantities and constants present in the Big Bang which must be fine-tuned in this way if the universe is to permit life. So improbability is multiplied by improbability by improbability until our minds are reeling in incomprehensible numbers. There is no physical reason why these

The only way for the cause to be timeless and for the effect to begin a finite time ago is for the cause to be a personal agent who freely chooses to create a new effect without any prior determining conditions. For example, a man sitting from eternity could freely will to stand up, and thus you would have a new effect arise from an eternal cause. Thus we are brought not merely to a transcendent cause of the universe, but to its personal creator.

NUMBER TWO: THE COMPLEX ORDER IN THE UNIVERSE

During the last thirty years or so, scientists have discovered that the existence of intelligent life depends upon a delicate and complex balance of initial conditions

©5

constants and quantities possess the values they do. The former agnostic physicist Paul Davies comments, “Through my scientific work I have come to believe more and more strongly that the physical universe is put together with an ingenuity so astonishing that I cannot accept it merely as a brute fact.” Similarly, Fred Hoyle remarks, “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics”. And Robert Jastrow, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has called this the most powerful evidence for the existence of God ever to come out of science.

We can summarize our reasoning as follows. Premise one: the fine tuning of the initial conditions of the universe is due to either natural law, chance, or design.

Two: it is not due to either law or chance. Three: therefore, it is due to design.

NUMBER THREE: OBJECTIVE MORAL VALUES IN THE WORLD

If God does not exist, then objective moral values do not exist.

Many theists and atheists agree on this point. Michael Ruse, a noted agnostic philosopher of science explains, “The position of the modern evolutionist is that morality is just an aid to survival

www.16rounds.com

Cont'd on pg. 15 ›››

13

OPEN MIC

TOO BIG TO FAIL The HBO Rationalization for the 2008 Corporate Pillage of the American Public

By Peter Brinkman

The 2011

H B O film drama Too Big to Fail covered the September 2008 American financial meltdown as an unforeseen doomsday scenario involving the leading brass of United States Treasury as they scramble to save the corporate Titans on Wall Street. Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke steer our nation away from financial collapse by getting Congress and the American people to bail out large banks. Paulson is a tormented character doing what’s best based the information in an absolving narrative that reinforces that big business were forced to take taxpayers money to keep the system creaking along. Too Big to Fail is the name given to surviving few financial leviathans stitched together from the ashes of the late Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers and Freddie and Fanny.

Hold on one second dude but I’m having a cultural-historical hot flash regarding the accepted idea of Too Big to Fail. Wasn’t the Titanic the ship too big to sink?

The Roman Empire too sprawling to conquer? Goliath far too powerful for David? The magnificent dinosaurs and the giant in Jack and the Bean Stalk? What exactly can

©6

we learn from the lessons of the past, the Bigger the harder They fail? Its human arrogance to his creations are infallible. What happened to Icarus’s hot wing’s toe with the sun? Lehman, Bear, Mac and May were all massive institutions rotten to the core by risky speculative gambles. It seems

The reality of this movie ignored the real problem. The financial meltdown occurred because of unregulated corporate capitalism and its inherent toxicity to this country and the world.

14

www.16rounds.com

©6

that nothing human pride always comes before the fall and nothing is too big to fail. Only advertiser that cater to insecure men consistently harp that bigger actually means better.

Michael Moore’s 2010 documentary “Capitalism a Love Story,” exposes the government bailout of Wall Street as a breach of democracy, manipulative scare tactics, only possible through eroded government regulation that got the bottom 90% to swallow the toxic bets of the super rich investment bankers. Although HBO drama tries to separate the treasury department from business interest, Henry Paulson was former CEO of Goldman Sachs and his cronies were wrapped in the loving embrace of Wall Street. These appointed public servants were sleeper cells for the big business that road the profit train through tax cuts and deregulation. Banks threw cheap home loans at the American people creating the illusion of financial boom and passing the risk to insurers like AIG. In essence the unscrupulous government regulators allowed Wall Street bankers to make millions through irresponsible lending and in the closing hours of the Bush Regime pretended catastrophe randomly struck, and unsuspecting American people had to assume responsibility. Paulson’s as a puppet of Goldman Sachs saved the banking industry from owning up to their shady business deals by begging congress to assume responsibility. In HBO’s drama he begs the then speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi to enable the bailout. Paulson the true champion of big business, and costumed regulator brilliantly continued the function of brilliant CEO to double the assets of Goldman Sachs, eliminate competition like Lehman and get the American people to swallow 700 billion in debt. Goldman Sachs came out of the crash with record profits and paid their masterminds tens of millions in bonuses. The movie contended they

OPEN MIC "RATIONAL SPIRITUAL BELIEF" ››› Cont'd from pg. 13

“A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics”.

©7

The unregulated corporate capitalism was the cause of the financial meltdown as defined by predictable nature; as stated in the movie, “now a handful of banks own 70% of all assets in this country and the world.” would lose their best and brightest through “brain drainage” if they didn’t pay them disgusting amounts of money. Paulson’s only briefly courted the real problem briefly saying that no one on Wall Street questioned their toxic business practices because they were making too much money.

The reality of this movie ignored the real problem. The financial meltdown occurred because of unregulated corporate capitalism and its inherent toxicity to this country the world. There is no free market when government enables corporations to pillage the dwindling resources of the planet so the top 10 percent can own more than bottom half. The reality is that runaway greed and economic growth are unsustainable on a planet with 7 billion people and rapidly exhausting resources. The rich back giant selfserving monsters in the forms of corporations whose mission is to grow voraciously in the continuous re-concentration of the earth’s wealth in the hands a few.

The unregulated corporate capitalism was the cause of the financial meltdown as defined by predictable nature; as stated in the movie, “now a handful of banks own 70% of all assets in this country and the world.” Goldman Sachs and its allies orchestrated the crisis as a ruse to destabilize their competitors and devour their shares. They preyed on the ignorance of the American people, manipulating us through the media and advertising to believe it came out of left field. With the political change immanent and our representatives in Washington worried about getting reelected, Henry Paulson and his comrades at Goldman picked their opportune moment to bring pressure for action to the doorstep of the American people. We were bamboozled into bailing the banks from the toxic waste dump they had amassed behind closed doors and scared into action hinged on the threat that economic collapse.

The Bush regime was ground zero for some of the greatest breeches

of public trust in American history. Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith would be flabbergasted at this Big Fail on Regulation, democratic trust, responsible business practices. However company men like Henry Paulson, Lloyd Blankfein and their cronies will remain devoted to their objectives 1) To make as much money as possible no matter the social, environmental, or economic collateral 2) To grow inevitably and annihilate competitors by any means necessary, illegal or loop-holed. 3) Lastly to the American people and human beings only as consumers, borrowers, debtors, things to manipulated and exploit to generate more money for themselves and super rich buddies.

The moral that echoes this pillage of the American Public by the greed of Big Business and their partners in congress, has been said time and time again by many religions and cultures. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” Timothy 6:10, King James Bible. �

❧ ❧

❧

and reproduction and any deeper meaning is illusory”. Friedrich Nietzsche, the great atheist of the last century who proclaimed the death of God, understood that the death of God meant the destruction of all meaning and value in life. I think that Friedrich Nietzsche was right. But we’ve got to be very careful here. The question here is not “Must we believe in God in order to live moral lives?”. I’m not claiming that we must. Nor is the question “Can we recognize objective moral values without believing in God?”. I think that we certainly can. Rather, the question is, “If God does not exist, do objective moral values exist?”.

Like Niche and Ruse, I just don’t see any reason to think that in the absence of God the morality evolved by Homo sapiens is objective, and here Dr. Atkins would agree with me. He says, “I see no evidence for its absoluteness.

And the ethics of a lion seem to be much different from the ethics of an antelope. As for human beings,” he says, “we are just slime on a planet belonging to one sun”.

On the atheistic view, then, some action, say rape, may not be socially advantageous, and so in the course of human development has become taboo. But that does absolutely nothing to prove that rape is really wrong. On the atheistic view there’s really nothing wrong with your raping someone, thus without God, there is no absolute right and wrong. But the problem is that objective values do exist, and deep down we all know it. There is no more reason to deny the objective reality of moral values than the objective reality of the physical world. Actions like rape, cruelty, and child abuse aren’t just “socially unacceptable behavior”, they are moral abominations. Some things, at least, are really wrong. Similarly, love, equality, and self-sacrifice are really good.

Thus we can summarize this third consideration as follows.

Premise one: if God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist. Two: objective values do exist.

Three: therefore, God exists.

NUMBER FOUR: THE IMMEDIATE EXPERIENCE OF GOD

This isn’t really an argument for God’s existence, rather it’s the claim that you can know that God exists wholly apart from arguments, simply by immediately experiencing Him. This was the way people in the Bible knew God. As Professor John Hick explains, to them God was not an idea adopted by the mind, but an experiential reality which gave significance to their lives. Now, if this is so then there’s a danger that proofs for God could actually distract your attention from God Himself. If you’re sincerely seeking God, then God will make His existence evident to you. The Bible promises, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. We must not so concentrate on the external proofs that we fail to hear the inner voice of God speaking to our own hearts. For those who listen, God becomes an immediate reality in their lives.

IN CONCLUSION

We have seen four reasons to think that God does exist. Together, these reasons constitute a powerful cumulative case for the existence of God. If one wants us to believe atheism instead, then he must first tear down all four of the reasons I’ve presented, and then in their place erect a case of his own to prove that God does not exist. Thus, until he does that, I think that we can conclude that theism is the more plausible world view. �

❧ ❧

www.16rounds.com

❧ 15

16

www.16rounds.com

OPEN MIC

COSMIC KARMA GROCERY SHOP

Artwork by Gour-Ni-Times (www.gour-ni-times.de).

Gour-Ni-Times is managed Phillip Trier Rabe.

Material nature itself is constituted by three qualities: the mode of goodness, the mode of passion and the mode of ignorance.

Above these modes there is eternal time, and by a combination of these modes of nature and under the control and purview of eternal time there are activities, which are called karma. These activities are being carried out from time immemorial, and we are suffering or enjoying the fruits of our activities. For instance, suppose I am a businessman and have worked very hard with intelligence and have amassed a great bank balance. Then I am an enjoyer. But then say I have lost all my money in business; then I am a sufferer. Similarly, in every field of life we enjoy the results of our work, or we suffer the results. This is called karma.

- From Srila Prabhupada's Introcution to the Bhagavad-gita

www.16rounds.com

17

OPEN MIC

MY DINNER WITH ANDRE

By Mahat Tattva Dasa

own prison, and still they exist in a state of schizophrenia where they are both guards and prisoners. As a result they no longer have, having been lobotomized, the capacity to leave the prison they’ve made, or even to see it as a prison.

Then he went into his pocket and took out a seed for a tree and said, “This is a pine tree”. He put it in my hand and said, “Escape before it’s too late”. See, actually for two or three years now I had this very unpleasant feeling that we really should get out. And we really should feel like Jews in Germany in the late 30’s. Get out of here. Of course the problem is where to go, because it seems quite obvious that the whole world is going in the same direction.

My Dinner with Andre is a 1981 film starring Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, written by Gregory and Shawn, and directed by Louis Malle. The film depicts a conversation between Gregory and Shawn (apparently playing themselves) in a chic restaurant in New York City. Based mostly on conversation, the film's dialog covers such things as experimental theatre, and the nature of life. The dialogue contrasts Shawn's modest, downto-earth humanism with Gregory's extravagant spiritual experiences.

-Wikipedia This excerpt I chose and printed here for you to read comes across as one of Gregory’s extravagant experiences. Perhaps there is some extravagance to it. However, even though coming across as a bit extreme, there are many points that we should find to be of interest and relevance.

Dehumanizing of people by an unhealthy increase in selfishness, emphasizing and pronouncing industrial development and corporate greed to the point of having a need for shelters of “human” culture (“planets within planets”) - are some of the threats we should be aware of. I find these ideas worth paying some attention to.

OK. Yes. We are

bored. We’re all bored now. But has it ever occurred to you that the process that creates this boredom that we see in the world now may very well be a self perpetuating, unconscious form of brainwashing created by a world totalitarian government based on money? And that all of this is much more dangerous than one thinks? And it’s not just a question of individual survival Wally, but that somebody who’s bored is asleep, and somebody who’s asleep will not say no?

18

www.16rounds.com

See, I keep meeting these people, I mean, just a few days ago I met this man who I greatly admire. He’s a Swedish physicist, Gustav (last name unintelligible), and he told me that he no longer watches television, he doesn’t read newspapers, and he doesn’t read magazines. He’s completely cut them out of his life, because he really does feel that we are living in some Orwellian nightmare now, and that everything you hear now contributes to turning you into a robot.

When I was in Findhorn, I met this ex-

traordinary English tree-expert who had devoted his life to saving trees. He just got back from Washington, lobbying to save the redwoods. He’s 84 years old and always travels with a backpack because he never knows where he’s going to be tomorrow. When I met him in Findhorn he said to me, “Where are you from?” and I said, “New York”. He said, “Ah, New York. That’s a very interesting place. Do you know a lot of New Yorkers who keep talking about the fact that they want to leave but never do?”

I said, “Well, yes” and he said, “Why do you think they don’t leave?” I gave him different theories. He said, “Oh I don’t think it’s that way at all. He said, “I think that New York is a model for the new concentration camp, where the camp has been built by the inmates themselves, and the inmates are the guards, and they have this pride in this thing they’ve built. They’ve built their

I think it’s quite possible that the 1960’s represented the last burst of the human being before it was extinguished. The rest of the future there will simply be all robots walking around. Feeling nothing, thinking nothing. And there’ll be nobody left, almost nobody, to remind them that there once was a species called a human being with feelings and thoughts. The history and memory are right now being erased, and soon nobody will really remember that life existed on the planet.

Now, of course, (the Swedish physicist) feels that there’s really no hope, and that we’re probably going back to a very savage, lawless, terrifying period. Findhorn people see it a little differently. They are feeling that there’ll be these pockets of light springing up in different parts of the world. That these will be in a way invisible planets on this planet. That as we, or the world, grow colder, we can take invisible space journeys to these different planets, refuel for what it is we need to do on the planet itself and come back. It’s their feeling that there have to be centers now where people can come and reconstruct a new future for the world.

When I was talking to (the Swedish physicist) he was saying that actually these centers are growing up everywhere now and that they are trying to do what Findhorn was trying to do, and in a way what I was trying to do. I mean these things can’t be given names, but in a way these are all attempts at creating a new kind of school or a new kind of monastery, and (the Swedish physicist) talks about the concept of reserves, islands of safety, where history can be remembered and the human being can continue to function in order to maintain the species throughout a dark age. �

LIFESTYLE

COLOR THERAPY

By Sara Bock

According to

Ayurveda, an ancient holistic health practice from India, matter is composed of a combination of the elements ether, air, fire, water, and earth. To live in health and harmony, we need to keep the elements in our bodies balanced based on the foods we eat, the impressions we take in, and our overall lifestyles. One technique to keep in balance is through chromotherapy, or color therapy. Colors, like all matter, contain different amounts of the elements. They also contain different gradations of light. Our mental, emotional, and physical states can be strongly influenced by the colors around us – what we wear and what we see. Color therapy is a long term process. By changing the colors we surround ourselves with, we can gradually improve our health.

Some colors are in goodness (sattva).

They keep the mind peaceful, and stimulate spiritual growth. Pastels are sattvic, as are gold, green, blue, violet, saffron, and white.

Monks often wear saffron or white - both sattvic colors.

Other colors are in passion (raja) and in excess can ignite anger, agitation, and other passionate feelings. They are bright and flashy, and include red, orange, dark yellow, and purple.

Colors in darkness (tama) breed inertia, and dullness. They interfere with spiritual growth. Brown and black are considered tamasic.

Gold is the most sattvic color, and is good

for all body types. It increases ojas (an energy source in our bodies), and thus improves immunity. Gold can increase intelligence and stabilize the mind.

People of a vata nature (air/ether) can stay balanced by surrounding themselves with orange, yellow, green, gold, brown and purple. Too much white can cause anxiety in people of vata nature. People of pitta nature (fire) stay balanced with gold, blue, white, brown, and violet, and should reduce contact with fiery colors like reds and oranges. People of kapha nature (earth and water) do best with red, orange, yellow, green, gold, blue, white, purple, and violet.

If you do not know your Ayurvedic nature, you can ask a practitioner, or look online or in an Ayurvedic book to take a self diagnostic test.

Once you discover which colors will keep you balanced, you can alter the colors in your wardrobe and environment. Alternatively, you can do color meditation. Pick a color best suited for you (when in doubt choose gold, as gold is healthy for all body types). Find a focal point of that color 3-5 feet in front of you. Your focal point can be in nature (snow for white, grass for green, sky for blue, etc) or manmade. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for 5-10 minutes.

Open your eyes, continue breathing deeply, and focus on the color in front of you for an additional 5-10 minutes. Finally, close your eyes, and breathe deeply for 2-3 minutes.

If you visit your local Hare Krishna temple, or certain other spiritual centers, your

eyes will feast upon a variety of inspiring colors in the form of flowers, paintings, and decorations that uplift the mind and spirit.

Spiritual life is full of vibrant colors that bring happiness and life to the spirit. �

FACEBOOK.COM/ 16ROUNDSTOSAMADHI

©8

YOUTUBE.COM/ 16ROUNDSTOSAMADHI

TWITTER.COM/ 16ROUNDSMAG

www.16rounds.com

19

20

www.16rounds.com