Save the Siberian Tiger

Siberian Tigers are majestic creatures.  The world's largest felines, they average about 11 feet (3+ meters) in length.  They are also endangered.  There used to be 8 tiger subspecies, but 3 became extinct during the 20th century and the remaining five are still continually threatened by poaching/hunting and habitat loss.

Conservation programs are in place, including a State Council notice in China declaring the use of tiger bone for medicine illegal.  But the use of tiger bones for Chinese Medicine and poaching for tiger fur is lucrative enough -- a tiger can fetch up to $50K in the international market -- that the practice continues.  Research has also shown that tigers, particularly the Siberian, requires vast forests to thrive.  Logging and its rapacious ventures into virgin land, creates a vicious cycle by flushing tigers out and giving poachers easier access to their prey through newly created logging roads.

WWF, in partnership with Russian authorities and other NGOs, is helping establish an ecological network of protected areas (Econet) to secure well-connected habitat for the Siberian Tiger, funds anti-poaching patrols in the Russian Far East and supports an ungulate recovery programme.  They are concentrating on habitat conservation where the tigers have the best chance of surviving and breeding.  WWF has set a bold goal of doubling the number of tigers in the wild by 2022.  Last year, Russia convened a tiger summit of world leaders from 13 countries where the tiger still live, and a unanimous commitment was pledged to help save the species from extinction.

For more information on how you can do your part in saving the tiger, please click on this link:

http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/tigers/ways-to-help.html

Let us help conserve life in this planet, for our own survival and our own future.

Media Madness

When asked “What thing about humanity surprises you the most?”, the Dalai Lama answered:

“Man…. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

“Inner peace is the key: if you have inner peace, the external problems do not affect your deep sense of peace and tranquility...without this inner peace, no matter how comfortable your life is materially, you may still be worried, disturbed, or unhappy because of circumstances.”

I found these quotes by the Dalai Lama on the internet... I never met his Holiness personally, but these statements touch me personally and profoundly just the same.

Modern Media -- the Internet, TV/Cable, Radio, Cinema and Print, have profound effects on our daily lives.  It keeps us constantly informed and in touch with an extended world beyond our immediate environment (social circle/neighborhood).  World events now have a sense of intimacy and urgency about them, that was not palpable less than a century ago, before TV and the Internet were widely present in most households.

I have nothing against Media.  As a matter of fact, I am a rabid consumer of information in the form of books, movies, cable TV (Discovery, History, TLC) and the internet.  There are a lot of great information that can be gleaned from these media sources.  But I cannot help but wonder if Media, specifically the News and information giants like CNN, FOX, NBC, etc., are actually doing more harm than good by propagating "sensationalism."  Their practice of hyping stories to attract the maximum number of viewers, have a multiplyer effect that create media driven crises-- What would have been contained and manageable before a media frenzy, becomes more astronomical and uncontrollable.

It makes me wonder if the crises in "hot spots" around the world would become as big as they eventually turn out to be without media magnification.  The current World Economic Crisis for example or the global proliferation of terrorism, would they be as serious as they are now without constant media attention?

But it is not all bad.  Constant media focus on humanitarian and environmental issues for example, would not get the proper forum without media interest.  So in the end, it all balances out one way or another.  Like everything else in Life, there is a good and there is a bad in everything.  Media is a part of the evolution of humanity, it is here to stay whether we want it or not.

But like everything else that is potent and powerful, we must treat it with respect.  Let us be mindful of its ability to alter people's consciousness and opinions.  We should not be solely motivated by monetary or political considerations when we use media, the mental and spiritual well-being of our fellowmen (and women) must also be factored in, to avoid the degeneration and destruction of "soul" caused by irresponsible "sensationalism"-- which promotes fearfulness, excessive consumerism and egocentrism.

The well-being of our "soul" is the key to our overall health in the long-run.  Information and media might be useful in our day to day lives, but inner peace is the only thing that will bring true happiness and wellness.

Homeostasis: Life in Balance

Homeostasis is a magical word.  The coincidental presence of the word "home" within "home-ostasis" should already clue us in to its importance.  Homeostasis is vital for the health and healing of all living organisms, as well as to the health and healing of all ecological systems, including our planet, Earth.

A term (milieu intérieur) defined by French Physiologist, Claude Bernard and later coined by American Physiologist, Walter Bradford Cannon, Homeostasis (from Greek hómoios meaning "similar" and stásis, meaning "standing still") can be simply defined as The ability of a system or living organism to adjust its internal environment to maintain a stable equilibrium.  A word that was originally used to describe physiological phenomena, the term has been extended to include all living systems in such diverse disciplines as medicine, science, ecology, sociology, philosophy, politics and religion. 

Many diseases are a result of disturbance of homeostasis, a condition known as homeostatic imbalance. As it ages, every organism will lose efficiency in its control systems. The inefficiencies gradually result in an unstable internal environment that increases the risk for illness. In addition, homeostatic imbalance is also responsible for the physical changes associated with aging. "Just as we live in a constantly changing world, so do the cells and tissues survive in a constantly changing microenvironment. The 'normal' or 'physiologic' state then is achieved by adaptive responses to the ebb and flow of various stimuli permitting the cells and tissues to adapt and to live in harmony within their microenvironment. Thus, homeostasis is preserved. It is only when the stimuli become more severe, or the response of the organism breaks down, that disease results - a generalization as true for the whole organism as it is for the individual cell." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis)

Homeostasis occurs not only within our bodies, but also in our environment.  Pollution is an environmental disease that nature compensates for to ensure its own system's survival.  The Earth is a living organism.  Medicine people from all over the world have been warning us about the importance of living in harmony with the environment for hundreds of years.

Chemist James Lovelock and Microbiologist Lynn Margulis formulated the Gaia Theory (Principle) proposing that all organic and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet -- The scientific investigation of the Gaia hypothesis focuses on observing how the biosphere and the evolution of life forms contribute to the stability of global temperature, ocean salinity, oxygen in the atmosphere and other factors of habitability in a preferred homeostasis.  The Gaia Hypothesis has since been supported by a number of scientific experiments and provided a number of useful predictions, and hence is properly referred to as the Gaia theory. In fact, wider research proved the original hypothesis wrong, in the sense that it is not life alone but the whole Earth system that does the regulating. In 2001, a thousand scientists at the European Geophysical Union meeting signed the Declaration of Amsterdam, starting with the statement "The Earth System behaves as a single, self-regulating system with physical, chemical, biological, and human components." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis)

From ancient Hermetic texts we read: "That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above, corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Thing."  Daoist sages have always counselled on the wisdom of embracing opposites -- the moment we chose one side and block out the other, we upset nature's balance.  Therefore the idea of Homeostasis is not new, it has always been with us from the earliest times.  But we have chosen to ignore it.

The freak storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and temperature shifts we are currently experiencing are homeostasis at work.  The Earth is alive!  We must learn to balance our needs with the planet's own need or we will perish in the process.  The Earth is hemorrhaging and it is correcting itself.  The only way to reverse this catastrophe is by actively living in harmony with the Earth right now -- we've got to stop polluting it today!  I understand that we have complex economic and political systems inplace to consider, but how do you bargain with the Earth?  I do not think this planet will sit and wait for us to sort our political, economic, diplomatic and bureaucratic differences before it starts correcting the imbalances we are causing to its system.

The pattern of Life exist from the smallest systems within us (cells, molecules, organs) to the vastness of the Universe (planets, star systems, galaxies).  We are truely made in the image of God -- one organism, related and interrelated atomically as well as ecologically.  Homeostasis is critical for our survival and to the health of our planet, and vice versa.  We must therefore respect our planet, as we care for ourselves individually.  We are locked in this fate by our very existence.  We have no choice but to live in harmony with Earth (our only home) for our own collective survival.

“Because we all share this planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. This is not just a dream, but a necessity.”  ( by the Dalai Lama XIV)

"MITAKUYE OYASIN" - "All (are) My Relatives" (Lakota Sioux Prayer)