Medley

The Path of Self-Reliance

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Published: Monday, 26 September 2011 01:39

Compiled by Nicholas Weeks

All you can do is to prepare the intellect: the impulse toward "soul-culture" must be furnished by the individual. Thrice fortunate they who can break through the vicious circle of modern influence and come up above the vapours! ... We have one word for all aspirants: try. [KH in Mahatma Letters, #54; 2nd Ed. #35.]

II 4 O Rama, listen to what I [Vasishtha] am about to say, which instruction is sure to remove the darkness of ignorance.  A well-sustained self-effort leads to success in every field of life.  Wherever one encounters failure, it is due to lack of self-effort.

Liberation produces selflessness; we lose our selfishness when we come to know the unity of the soul.  By effort one can attain knowledge which leads to salvation. This is obvious; but what is called God, destiny or fate is fictitious and is not seen. The dull and the ignorant created God, which is none other than self-effort of a past incarnation affecting one.

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Clinton Declares Vegan Victory

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Published: Monday, 26 September 2011 01:35

Pamela Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP – USA

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While he was president, Bill Clinton packed on the weight. Talk about stress eating! By the time his two terms were up, he was 20 pounds heavier and looking forward to a well-deserved rest.

But he was still gobbling burgers, shakes, and fries. Four years after leaving office, Clinton was on tour promoting his memoir “My Life” and his life took a sudden turn for the cardiac. Chest tightness led to a quadruple bypass and a major come-to-heaven session with himself.

It was time to clean up his act — and his arteries.

For the next five years, Clinton was more diligent about his diet, cutting calories, and increasing his physical activity. But it still wasn’t enough. In 2010, he had to undergo another operation, this time to repair clogged veins from his bypass.

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The Symbol-Strewn Landscape: Esoteric and Initiatic Symbolism in European Gardens in the 18th and 19th Century

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Published: Monday, 26 September 2011 00:44

Christopher McIntosh – Germany

[This essay was first published in Masonic and Esoteric Heritage: New Perspectives for Art and Heritage Policies. Proceedings of the First International Conference of the OVN, Foundation for the Advancement of Academic Research into the History of Freemasonry in the Netherlands, October 20-21, 2005. Ed. A. Kroon, M. Bax, J. Snoek. The Hague, Netherlands: OVN Foundation, 2005. It is reproduced here in a revised form.]

Dr. Christopher McIntosh is an independent historian and author on history, mythology and western esotericism. This paper is based on his book Gardens of the Gods: Myth, Magic and Meaning, (I. B. Tauris) London 2005. Currently he teaches in the distance MA programme at the Centre for the Study of Esotericism, Exeter University, England. He lives in Bremen, Germany.

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