Sumangali.org: In The Spirit Of Serendipity

A story just caught my eye at Good News Network, in the Inspired! column. A Portuguese man made a will, aged 29. Seems like the sort of sensible grown-up thing one should do at that age. He had no family, but his sense of duty wasn’t about to be dampened so easily; he picked out 70 names at random from the phone book.

Luis Carlos de Noronha Cabral da Camara still had nobody to carry on his name when he died (although such a name deserves to be carried, and very carefully so). His estate—2 houses, a car, and few thousand in cash—thus went to complete strangers at around £6000 apiece.

This reminded me of a site to which a friend recently drew my attention, called Random Acts of Kindness. I particularly like their quotes section, where I found these two. I think as a pair they are particularly warming, as they display commonality between religions:

“Help your brother’s boat across, and your own will reach the shore.”
—Hindu Proverb

and…

“If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path.”
—Buddhist saying

Image: Pavitrata Taylor

You can read more of Sri Chinmoy’s inspirational quotes, like the one pictured, at SriChinmoyLibrary.com

There seems to be a bit of a conservation theme going on in this blog at the moment, and it’s about to be perpetuated. A new monthly podcast has been released this week. The subtitle is what caught my eye first: The Extraordinary in Everyday Life. Smacks of serendipity to me, let’s have a look.

Episode I is about Dr. Josef Margraf, a German biologist who went to China and didn’t come back. It all started with a rare species of banana in a Buddhist monastery, but now he cultivates over a hundred different types of plant, by replicating their natural rainforest environments. In his own words:

“Our goal is to reverse the trend of destruction and eventually design systems that look exactly like the old rainforest that has been cut down by logging companies, that have been replaced by rubber plantations and sugar cane plantations. We wish to reverse this trend to come back to a rainforest that is actually useful.”

Dr Margraf says his work has not only led him to discoveries in nature but also discoveries in himself. Furthermore, he has been amazed by the profound success of his project, which he calls Tian Zi, or Seeds of Heaven.

You can watch the clip above, or you can subscribe to the series for free on iTunes. (You can get iTunes here if you don’t have it yet, and Quicktime here.)

LIFE Voices is created by Kedar Misani for SriChinmoy.TV

I read today in The Independent about the bank robber who got away with 120,000 carats of diamonds from a bank vault without using violence or even force. His secret weapon was chocolate… with which to charm the staff. It happened in Belgium, so he had a head start.

The biggest diamond on earth is The Star of Africa, one of the Crown Jewels, at 530-carats. Even though it’s the biggest in the world you could still fit it in one hand (I think you’ll need quite a lot of chocolate to get close enough, but you can practise with this life-size photo).

The biggest known diamond in the universe though is 10 billion trillion trillion carats, and it’s floating above Australia right now. Known officially as BPM 37093, it’s nicknamed Lucy, after the Beatles song. I imagine if it was close enough to earth, diamonds would soon become two a penny, but it’s 50 light years away, so unfortunately creative diamond crime is probably set to continue for a while. It’s known, rather less glamorously, as a white dwarf, or yet less so as a star that has run out of gas.

There are a lot of diamonds out there, big ones, and bank robbers might be pleased to know that they sometimes fall from the sky. Earlier this year The New Scientist ran a story about rare black diamonds possibly having crashed to earth in a 1km-sized rock. That was a few billion years ago though, so Belgian chocolatiers, don’t be disheartened.

Diamonds are the strongest material on earth. They can only be cut with lasers or other diamonds. They’re certainly beautiful, although not so useful now we no longer need them for record players. I wouldn’t spend too much chocolate on them personally.

I was looking for a fitting quote with which to end, but this found me first and I thought it unwise to risk continuing:

“A fine quotation is a diamond in the hand of a man of wit and a pebble in the hand of a fool.”
—Joseph Roux

Perhaps instead I’ll leave this link to something I wrote a while ago, inspired by the night sky, called A Galaxy of Stars (published at SriChinmoyCentre.org).

Or you can find out why Belgian chocolate is so good at VisitBelgium.com.

This week a new species of leopard was declared in Borneo. Until now it was thought to be so similar to its mainland cousin that it was considered the same species. In fact the two were separated 1.4 million years ago, during which time they each developed different markings. So a leopard can change its spots, it just takes a little time.

The expression “a leopard cannot change its spots” comes from a Greek proverb that appears in the Bible (Jeremiah 13:23):

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.”

Perhaps this bodes well then in the Grand Scheme of Things.

I’m not a great cat lover, but I do love great cats, and this one is very fine indeed. You can watch one prowling with the regal nonchalance reserved for those at the pinnacle of the food chain in this BBC article.

Borneo is a hotbed of scientific discoveries, a place where serendipity probably grows on trees. The Heart of Borneo conservation project says:

“The forests of the Heart of Borneo are some of the most biologically diverse habitats on Earth, possessing staggeringly high numbers of unique plant and animal species.”

I find it completely fascinating that so many exquisite creations exist in nature whether we are there to appreciate them or not (as I mentioned in The Newness of Now).

Only a couple of hundred years ago you’d have had to get on a ship for several weeks to see anything remotely tropical. Now you click a button and a Clouded Leopard is prowling around your living room. No scurvy, no sea-sickness, no creepy-crawlies. I love the 21st Century.

Image: WWF-Canon / Alain Compost BBC.co.uk

Perhaps one gets so used to hearing strange stories in the news that they no longer seem so strange. I read about this one a couple of weeks ago, and thought “Oh that’s nice,” then turned the page. It is only now that I am realising how absurd it is, but also how wonderful.

In December of last year one of Audrey Hepburn’s dresses (valued at £70,000) fetched £467,200 at Christie’s auction in London. That in itself is mind-boggling. My first (ridiculous) thought when I saw the photo was “It hasn’t even got any sleeves.” As if sleeves would have made it plausible.

The proceeds have gone to the City Of Joy Aid charity, to be used for education facilities in Bangladesh. The first school was set up last month.

A school in return for a piece of plain black cloth. Yes.

No, it’s more amazing than that. This is one of fifteen schools to be built with the proceeds.

The dress was donated by the designer, Hubert de Givenchy, to the founder of the charity, French author Dominique Lapierre. Lapierre said:

“I am absolutely dumbfounded to believe that a piece of cloth which belonged to such a magical actress will now enable me to buy bricks and cement to put the most destitute children in the world into schools.”

Indeed. The more I think of this story the more unreal it seems. The motto on the charity’s website is an Indian proverb: “All that is not given is lost.” The more I think of that the more true it seems.

Audrey Hepburn would be glad, I’m sure. Despite her glamorous appeal, her own life was not all powder puffs and champagne flutes. Whilst on a childhood holiday in Arnhem, Holland, the city fell under wartime occupation. Audrey suffered and witnessed great hardships that stayed with her forever, and she spent much of her later life working with UNICEF.

You can read about Audrey Hepburn’s inspiring work at AudreyHepburn.com, and even watch video clips of her charity speeches. On the other hand, you can watch a clip of the bizarre bidding at Christie’s and read more about the beneficent piece of black material at BBC.co.uk.

Photo: Bud Fraker/Paramount Pictures Circa 1956 from AudreyHepburn.com

5.43am. 2 minutes before my alarm. I’m awake and smiling. This is a very unusual combination of events. Waking usually only happens after the snooze button has taken a pounding. Smiling usually only happens after my daily 6am meditation.

I remember this day every year: the day the dawn chorus wakes me. Winter’s discomfort becomes so familiar I forget to expect its end, or even to look forward to this day: the day that marks the start of spring.

Blackbirds are always first to rise. They’re smart and quick and can make do with very little light. They start to hunt for breakfast before the smaller more nervous ones, who wait until the sun gives them more light to travel by: first robin, then sparrows and dunnocks, and last the finches. We’ve been watching it all during our own breakfast over the past weeks, as the sky melts from navy, to royal, to powder blue.

Now it’s light by breakfast time and a lady Blackbird is setting up home in the Pyrocantha. She’s been considering it for a while, checking out the dimensions of various nooks, and the likelihood of cat invasions. A wide straw bowl on the first day, then springy dew-laden clumps of moss on the second, and now the smooth mud lining is being trampled down. In the blackbird world, plastering is not a man’s job. Mr Blackbird is a vigilant sentinel on the garage roof, occasionally offering inspections or consultations.

Blackbirds are flourishing in Britain. They are extremely common, but I am still thrilled every time I see or hear one. To me they are heralds of good news.

You can hear some good recordings of blackbird songs at Freesound.iua.upf.edu and BBC.co.uk

“There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;–
Turn wheresoe’er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.”
William Wordsworth
From Ode on Intimations of Immortality

Meadowy metaphors used to be rife in English poetry. Wordworth’s were the days when wildflowers pranced on any land not trodden on or nibbled at for more than a season. His inability to see meadows as they “hath been of yore” was no doubt metaphysical, and not because they had all been ravaged by weeds. No, that’s more a 20th Century problem.

The problem is mainly that wildflowers thrive on unfertile soil, whereas weeds thrive on fertile soil. The increased use of fertilisers has made the remaining scraps of disused land home to aggressive, weedy tenants rather than poetic, meadow flowers.

As I discovered in Saturday’s Guardian, budding Wordsworths might still have something to write about in future years. Rae Spencer-Jones describes in Where The Wild Things Are how British motorway embankments are turning into meadowy havens, and abandoned land in built-up areas is winning the hearts of local residents with its new-found beauty.

In conjunction with other organisations like The Woodland Trust, the environmental charity Landlife has a wealth of initiatives aimed bringing wildflowers back to our countryside, including topsoil inversion: turning over the soil to reveal the less fertile layers. The charity dedicated 5 acres of land as a National Wildflower Centre in Court Hey Park, just outside Liverpool. They also supply seeds online for growing such delights as Bats-In-The-Belfry, Corncockle, Musk Mallow and Teasel. Truly irresistible.

Image source: Kedar Misani

Sri Chinmoy recently visited Thailand during his annual harmony and humanitarian travels, and decided to lift some elephants while he was there.

A champion decathlete in his youth, Sri Chinmoy later took up weightlifting, and is still weightlifting at age 75. His aim is not to compete with others, but simply to inspire others to transcend their boundaries. In his own words:

“I am a man of prayer and meditation. I feel inspiration is of paramount importance. If I can inspire someone, and if that person also can inspire me, then we can do many good things for the betterment of this world.”

The elephant is the symbol of Thailand, and certainly a symbol of strength, so it seemed the most appropriate way for Sri Chinmoy to honour the country and to offer his goodwill. He started with 3 baby elephants, the heaviest being 1,074 pounds (including apparatus). Next came mature elephants from over 4,000 pounds to the heaviest elephant he has ever lifted: a 8,046 pound female carrying a mahout (8,622 pounds including apparatus). The park’s owner said:

“This lift by Sri Chinmoy is the reason my wife and I started the elephant camp 12 years ago, because he is showing that we can succeed at anything that is good for life on this planet.”

According to British weightlifting expert Jim Smith, this last lift is one of the heaviest calf raises ever recorded. You can read the full story at SriChinmoyCentre.org

Ashrita Furman—who holds the Guinness World Record for holding the most Guinness World Records—was also there, and couldn’t resist the opportunity to attempt the most squat thrusts in a minute, but of course on the back of an elephant. You can read all about it at Ashrita.com.

Elephant, my elephant,
You are strength,
Reality’s strength.
Your solid strength
And conscious willingness
Can and shall lead the world
To Infinity’s endless length.
—Sri Chinmoy, Animal Kingdom

In recent years Sri Chinmoy has honoured thousands of people in his Lifting Up The World With A Oneness-Heart programme. In September last year he had a 3-day weightlifting celebration, during which he lifted airplanes, huge boulders, a car, a giant pumpkin and 2002 World’s Strongest Man Hugo Girard of Canada: a total weight of 111,524 pounds. “The most amazing feats of strength” 5-time Mr.Universe and fitness expert Bill Pearl had ever seen. You can view clips at SriChinmoy.tv. You can read more about Sri Chinmoy’s sporting life at SriChinmoyCentre.org

Image source: Projjwal Pohland