Ashoka and buddhism

History makes us, we are our history. When you learn about world history you understand a lot of things, a new world is opened to you.  We are going to see how one of the most bloodthirsty  Mauryans emperors from India converted himself into a loyal follower of Buddhism and thanks to it he conquered through peace and respect. 

Ashoka was born in 304 b.c in India , his grandfather Chandragupta who built the Mauryan empire with the help of his tutor and advisor Chanakya. His successor was Bindusara , Ashoka´s father. Bindusara had a lot of children and Ashoka wasn´t one of his favourites, he disliked him because of his appearance and his strange skin due to a disease. Normally the next emperor was going to be his brother Sushima but Ashoka took his place after his father's death and burned him alive.For instance, to succeed to the throne he killed 99 of his brothers , sparing only one.  He ruled almost all Indian subcontinent from 268 B.C.E  to  234 B.C.E through a non violence edict. But he wasn't always the  pacifist emperator we know nowadays, as you could notice. Initially he was very cruel and took part in massive killings according to the Ashokavadana (sanskrit text that narrates  Ashoka's life and  reign ). For example is told he was very interested in tortures techniques and even built the “ Ashoka hell” a prison that seemed very elegant and beautiful from the exterior but inside was a torture chamber.He converted to Buddhism after witnessing  massive deaths (100,000 people), he deported around of 150,000 and leaving thousands die of famine and diseases. in their conquest of the Kalinga´s state.  It's not very clear how he got in touch with buddhism, it's possible that he had already heard about it before Kalinga or maybe after his war he learnt more about Buddha´s  learnings and combined them with other religions beliefs that in that time in India embraced peace, respect and spirituality.   At this time buddhism was a minor philosophical religion and thanks to him the buddhism was expanded through India and the Occident. 

                                     

He implemented a tolerance and respect policy,he helped the diffusion of buddhism teachings. He reigned with “ dharma” wich in hinduism means “ the purpose of your life” but in his context was also understood as  to be the energetic practice of the sociomoral virtues of honesty, truthfulness, compassion, mercifulness, benevolence, nonviolence, considerate behaviour toward all. He even  became vegetarian because of the “noninjury to animals” buddhism belief. His aim was to spread “nirvana” which can be translated as “ a non pain state” , and happiness.

How did he exactly manage to spread buddhism? First he went to numerous pelerinages, learnt more about “ dharma”, sent buddhist  monks on missions all around Indi, Asia and even Europe.Ashoka ordered the constructions of enormous stone pillars ( between 15 and 20 km) and slab where it will be witten dits. These ones showed the emperor a new outlook of life and spread the message of peace, respect and tolerance.They were not carved in Sanskrit—the official state language—but in local dialects, so that the messages could be widely understood. For example, an edict near modern-day Kandahar in Afghanistan, an area that had been under Alexander the Great’s control for a period of time, is written in Greek and Aramaic.

Quoting him :

All men are my children. As for my own children I desire that they may be provided with all the welfare and happiness of this world and of the next, so do I desire for all men as well.

Of all Ashoka's stone works, probably the most famous one is the Lion Capital at Sarnath, who later became the nation's symbol at Indian independence.

 After his conversion he performed social welfare activities such as the construction of medical treatments , he constructed special botanic gardens, roads were built, veterinary establishments were constructed.

Even if probably Ashoka's history is too good to be true and maybe some details are not that reliable( for example he continued to use military forces after his conversion) this emperor is a great example of good values such as tolerance, caring for the common good and how finding internal peace and follow the path of happiness can change us.

DOPAMINE

 Nowadays we are exposed to a lot of distractions and addictions. They sell us dopamine through social media, video games, alcohol, drugs, tv shows, fast food. What is dopamine? I think we´ve all heard about this but are not quite sure what it is. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, basically is the “ feel good” hormone. It is released by our brain when he expects a reward. Our brain anticipates how we will feel after doing the action that gives us dopamine, he anticipates the feeling of reward . For example when we binge watch videos on Instagram or post a photo. When we really enjoy doing something we will repeat, that's logic.  But there is this tiny line between doing something and becoming addicted because it's not easy to realize it.We are used to earn dopamine without doing nothing, with just a click. Indeed, platforms like Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram leverge the same reural circuitry used by slot machines and cocaines to keep us usig them.

What does dopamine to our brain? This hormone  plays a role in  our digestion, blood flow, heart rate, memory and focus,sleep, pain processing, etc. Yes dopamine it's not a bad thing but like everything in life too little or too much dopamine will affect our body and our minds.

We already know what is  dopamine and things like : social medias, sex, fast food, social medias ( I know it looks like dopamine it´s a bad thing but it isn´t. I will give you examples of “ natural” things and good thighs that give us dopamine)

Too much dopamine in your body can play a role in :

 Addiction: when something gives you too much dopamine like is the case of drugs you can become addicted to it. Your brain is used to having this big amount of dopamine  because of the drugs so then it´s more difficult for it to produce it in other ways. Your brain becomes dependent on the drug for the dopamine release. 

Obesity: it´s similar to an addiction, but in this case you are addicted to food. Such as the drug addiction who activates the “ dopamine reward system”, junk food does the same.

Although  these high levels of dopamine that are caused by drugs or junk food for example can also cause you a dopamine deficiency because your body is now used to create this hormone thanks to those things. So the “natural cycle of dopamine” is affected

Too little dopamine:

Parkinson: In Parkinson’s disease, there is a loss of the nerve cells in a specific part of the brain and loss of dopamine in the same area.

Depression: Some of the depression symptoms are due to a high level of dopamine in some brain areas , this causes hallucinations and delusions BUT also a lack of it in other parts of the brain can cause other symptoms such as lack of motivation and desire.

How to produce natural dopamine?

. Eat food rich in tyrosine : In order to make dopamine, your body needs tyrosine which can be found in almonds, bananas, avocados, eggs, beans, fish, and chicken.

. Working Out: Yes I know a lot of us are very lazy but we know all the incredible benefits that working out gives us. Good health, longer life, it puts us in a better mood . Working out helps to the increasing of brain cells production and dopamine

. Reading : When you acquire the pleasure of reading a whole new world is open to you. Reading disconnects us , even for a little time, from the real world. I think that soon I will post book recommendations.

. SLEEPING : A lot of us don't give too much importance to our sleep schedule, we are so busy with our lives, our problems, our tv shows. But getting enough sleep is very important in order to have a good brain function, a good mood and even a longer life.

.Meditating :Meditation is a practice that has thousands of years and helps us to know ouservelves, increase motivation and focus. I´ve been meditating a lot , for the last 2 or 3 months and I can tell you that I feel such a difference. I feel calmer, happier. I have a more positive mind.

Dopamine cell

Freemasonry and Illuminatis

I think that we´ve all heard about the famous conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and Freemasonry, but we are not sure what's the difference. I'm going to tell you first what are the origins of these two groups and their history . Then , what are the differences between them .And finally my opinion about them.

 The Freemasonry is the world's largest worldwide secret society. The questions of when, how, why and where Freemasonry originated are still the subject of intense speculation.There is a legend where they said that the first mason mentioned in history is Hiram Abif the architect of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem . Other theories say that the Freemasonry existed a long time ago, that characters from the Bible like Noe, the architects mentioned or Moíses were masons.

 They attribute to the masons the construction of the pyramids, that they were part of the humanists of the Renaissance .The general hypothesis is that they descend directly or indirectly from the organisation of operative stonemasons who built the great cathedrals and castles of the middle ages.

 There are 3 degrees in Freemasonry Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow (now called Fellowcraft), and Master Mason. The first Mason Lodge was built in England, in 1717 . It was the Grand Lodge and is located in England.The Freemasonry is divides in two currents : Regular Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry ( British Isles, United States,a big part of Europe included Spain, the american continent) and Regular Continental Freemasonry ( France,Francophone Africa,and part of Europe).
The regular Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry is the one with the more “ strict rules”, for example it's prohibited to discuss about politics and religion, women are not allowed ans you must belief in a Supreme Being.

 The rules accepted by the two orders are : That it must have a legitimacy of origin; that is, that its constitution has been sponsored by some other regular Masonic organization. In this sense, the initial regularity is generally considered to emanate from the ancient Grand Lodge of London and Westminster. Respect for the values and fundamental principles established in the founding documents, in particular the so-called Anderson Constitutions, published in 1723.

We could say that each Grand Lodge is independent, even if they respect some basic rules they can implement their own.
Usually there is a Grand Lodge that supervises the lodges in their state or country but there isn't a Worldwide Lodge that supervises everyone. Finally, lodges that don't include the criteria of either of the two main currents are usually called wild, although they prefer to refer to themselves as under the celestial vault.

 The oppositors of the Freemasonry all along the History were the Catholic church, the Islam religion, dictatorships like the fascim, the nazis,etc. That's because they saw Freemasonry as a dangerous society related to esotericism and that wanted the destruction of religion, the family and the State.

 Currently being part of Freemasonry is easier, or not that hard to enter. If you want to be a Mason, you can petition a local lodge for membership. You'll need to demonstrate good character and belief in some sort of Supreme Being. Then the members of the Lodge will vote to see if they accept you. But almost all the lodges are exclusives for men.

The etymology of “ Illuminati” refers to the illuminated mens, the ones who know the truth, that are enlighted with this wisdom . Various groups claimed to be illuminatis, there is not only a group. There are the Alumbrados( 16th century) in Spain,the Rosicrucians that remained secret the first 100 years of their creation. However on this post we are going to focus on the group from Bavaria, the “ famous” ones.


The Secret Society of the illuminatis started with 5 men on may 1 , 1776, yes in their first meeting there were 5 men signing a pact in the woods. It all started with the bavarian professor Adam Weishaupt. His family was jewish converted to christianism and he was very devoted. Despite this he thought that the power from the monarchy and the church didn't let the men be free. At this time the Freemasonry was expanding all over Europe but Weishpaut after joining didn´t agree with their beliefs so he decided to found his own secret society.

 The aim of Adam Weishaupt was to replace christianism by a religion based on reason . The members of this secret society called themselves “Perfectibilists.” This society was divided in 13 degrees of initiation divides in 3 classes, the first one was the for beginners, they were in the range of novices or minervals, then the second one “ freemasons'' ( they took the idea of the hierarchy from the freemasonry society) and the third one is the mystery one where they had the ranges from priest, prince, magnus and king.
At the beginning the members could only be Weishaupt students ( in fact it's said that the first members were young teenagers, such as 14 years old) but over the years this society grew up considerably , they included politicians, nobles,lawyers, etc.

Famous people from Bavaria were part of it and even is speculated that Goethe was also an perfectibilists .They had their own nicknames if we can call it like that, Weishaupt was Spartacus for example and the one of the co-founder Adolph von Knigge was Philon . Also when they communicated by letters they used a cipher language.

Their beliefs and plans were: creating a female branch from their society, defense of atheism and suicide, abortion, the creation of a New World Order and they even create invisible ink. Sadly this order was banned by an edict in 1785 and in 1787 another edict imposed the death penalty to any member of this group. Wieshpaut was banned and moved to Gotha in Saxony where he taught philosophy at the university of Göttingen. Normally this is where this secret society ended, but there are a lot of speculations that they continued. They related them to the French Revolution, which is false. Also they inspired many fictional books such as Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and Foucault’s Pendulum by Italian novelist Umberto Eco.

The Minerva owl was the Illuminati´s symbol, a symbol of power and wisdom.

 Now we are going to see what relates these two societies, what explains their similarities. First of all
the founder of the Illuminatis was part of the Freemasonry, and one year later after joining this group he decided to create this other one. Because the Illuminati recruited many members in Europe through Freemason lodges, the two groups are often confused for each other. The degrees from the Illuminatis were inspired by the ones from Freemasonry, indeed Weishaupt and Adolph von Knigge were both part of the Freemasonry.

The difference is that Freemasonry, even if it is classified like a secret society, is not a secret at all. The members don't keep it a secret that they are part of it, the illuminatis did it instead.


 Nowadays the Illuminatis are often associated with Beyoncé,Jay Z, a new world order or even reptilians. All these conspiracy theories are not proved , but the mystery of these secret societies will always blow our imaginations. And I think Freemasonry is a very interesting society, it is more likeable that they control us instead of Illuminatis.

Le désir

Le désir est par définition insatiable, il est la marque de notre manque ontologique. Car l´homme au contraire de l´animal n´est pas parfait , comme le dit le mythe de Prométhée , on est nu et sans chaussures. Le désir est paradoxale puisque il veut, au sens de désirer , et en même temps ne peut pas être satisfait. Il marque l'infinité de l´homme , puisque nos désirs sont illimités, mais aussi soulignent notre finitude puisque, c´est l´indice qu´on naît avec cette manque ontologique. Ce désir n'a pas de bornes, de limites. Puisque á différence du besoin qui peut être satisfait celui ci ne le sera jamais, on voudra toujour plus. Une illustration de cela est l´exemple donné par  Socrates, celui des tonneaux percé des Danaïdes qu'il compare au lieu de l'âme qui est le siège des passions, qui est insatiable, qui ne pourra jamais être rempli. Tout à fait comme les tonneaux. On est conscient de nos désir mais pas sachants, on ne sait pas d'où il vient . Puisque la passion s'oppose á la raison , les passions sont tout ce que nous empêche de penser . Par exemple dans le cas d'un jaloux, il part d'une certitude, que son amoureux le trompe. Au lieu de partir d'une hypothèse, il part d'une conclusion. Mais en fait notre condition humaine est d'être désirant , avoir des désires est d'être vivant. Oui, c´est notre manque ontologique mais c´est ce qui nous fait humains.

La préciosité

The word "precious" was borrowed from the Latin adjective: "pretosius": which has value.The precious movement was born in France in the 17th century, and culminated particularly between 1650 and 1660. It is located during the regency after the government of Louis XIII. It was born as a challenge to the coarseness of the court of Henry IV where the courtesans were rude, liked salacious jokes  , the unsophisticated language . 

This movement is present throughout Europe, each country develops its current: in England there is euphemism , in Spain gongorism (style research, taste of images) in Italy Marinism ( hyperbola, antitheses, metaphors) All these movements seek a refined and elegant style  . This movement trespasses the bounds of literature and is converted into a way of life.  The main aspects of this movement are: the taste for distinction (the importance of sustained language (periphrase and metaphor, culture,elegance), the courteous love in which the woman is an idealized and inaccessible being,the art of conversation and even the questioning of marriage. Also there is the creation of neologisms like , congratulate, anonymous . 

They used  periphrases such as "the mirrors of the soul" to designate the eyes, a simple armchair becomes a «convenience of conversation» They oppose the too realistic term or evoke «vulgar» realities: corpse, vomit, sweep, The broom becomes «the instrument of cleanliness». The precious always seek a more elegant, refined life and distinguish themselves from the common.  


What characterizes this movement in France is the development of precious salons, of a cultivated company that meets in its salons most in the district of Marais . The precious ones, as we call them the women who run these salons or also called “Hotels”. The mistresses of the living rooms often receive their guests in a room, sitting on the bed. The courtesans thus form a circle around the mistress of the house. These salons are places of entertainment (  champagne, board games, etc ) but also a cultural crossroads ( debates, poetry, readings of works ,etc). The first big and famous salon in Paris was that of the Italian Marquise of Rambouillet who in her “Blue Room” welcomes aristocrats like Mme de Lafayette , Mme de Sévigné or the poet Voiture. Another very important salon was that of Madame de Scudéry, who every Saturday brought together bourgeois . 

The literary genres privilege by the precious: idealistic novel (pastoral novel that stage shepherds and shepherds who have a chaste love or heroic novel), poetry, eloquent letter or badine. The great works of this movement are, l Astrée d Honoré d Urfe ( pastoral novel) Clélie and Le Grand Cyrus ( heroic novel) by Mme de Scudéry or Correspondances de Madame de Sévigné.

Nevertheless this movement was contested by great figures of the time such as Molière, in the Précieuses ridicules ( 1659) where he criticized the extravagance of language, clothing and manners. This movement is very influential , it has an influence on the loving mores that become more refined , the language also on its part becomes more refined one could say that it anticipates the classical language but also it has brought a simplification of the French language, even if it seems contradictory (author, reply, aisne), and we use periphrases created in this era as for example: to have spirit, to be confused with someone and the place of the woman in the intellectual life, they are rather interested in novels and poetry, they judge and write literary works.

Les précieuses ridicules of Molière

The flamenco

The flamenco is a very famous type of music, we´ve all seen the dance and heardat least once a flamenco song. And if you didn´t , well you are in the right place . Today I´m going to talk about the history of flamenco, because it's a very interesting one. And also recommend your songs, old and new ones. Because any kind of music evolues.

 We don't have an exact date of when the flamenco started, we know that it has a lot of contributions of the indian culture, the melismatic singing from the greeks, african dance moves, etc. It´s a truly melting pot . But one of the cultures that contributed the most and we can say that gives the origin to flamenco as we know it nowadays , are the gypsies.

 About the etymology of the word, it's uncertain . But a theory is that it came from the verb “fellah min gueir ard” that means aimless peasant.
The first time that we mentioned the flamenco dance in the literature, was in the Cervante´s book, La Gitanilla. The principal flamenco places until nowadays are Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera and the Triana´s neighbourhood at Sevilla.

 We can divide the history of flamenco in three big periods : The gold period ( 1860-1910, the Opera period(1910-1955) and The Renaissance (1955).
 

A short summary of these threes is that in the gold period was when the flamenco started to become famous, they were restaurants where the show was the flamenco dance and sing . In this period where the music halls and cabarets opened , and not only in Spain but also all around Europe. For example the Moulin Rouge by Josep Oller in Paris .The Opera period is when the flamenco started to be worldwide known and being more marketed. This didn't like it to everyone, they thought that the true essence of the flamenco was being lost. Finally the Renaissance was when the flamenco developed even more. The guitarist started to be more appreciated, now he started not only to be an accompaniment but also a solist.The flamenco artist started to grow, the dancers and singers went to big festivals and shows.

 Now that we know the history , I´m going to talk about the characteristics. There are a lot of types of flamenco songs. The most known ones are :
 The sevillanas (happy ones) ,for example Cántame of Maria del Monte
 Fandangos (typical ones) a good singer is “El Cabrero”
 Bulerias( the ones that usually are for the parties)
Tango ( no it´s not the argentinian tango)

 Other very important representers are Antonio Mairena, Camarón de la Isla, Paco de Lucia, Manolo Sanlucar and manyothers. And big dancers of flamenco are for example Carmen Amaya, Sara Barras ,Antonio Gádes, Joaquin Cortés , The lyrics of the songs are about love, sadness, passion, heartbreak, anguish. It transmits us the feeling from the gypsy culture. The dance is incredible with the beautiful dresses,the flowers in the hair of the dancers, the “ castañuelas”. The man usually has a wide-brimmed hat, a vest, white or black blouse,etc.


 The songs that I recommend you are : Bulerias of Paco de Lucia and Camarón de la Isla,Malagueña from Paco de Lucia, Soy Gitano of Camarón de la Isla , Tratante de vara larga of Remedios Amaya and ¡Que bonito! from Rosario and the version of the Te quiero, te quiero of Rosario with El Cigala.

                                 

Living in our world, what to do to be happy?

We all agree that in our actual world things are complicated, we are living through a pandemic, some of us are still locked down at home ( that's my case) I´m not here to tell you the ultimate guide for happiness, I´m 17 I still have a lot to learn, but these things helped me to  feel better and being productive . Well before the pandemic I used to get out a lot with my friends , go to parties and the kind of teenager stuff. I´m not saying that I was only interested in parties, I also tried to read more and was really applied in my homework, but I didn't allow myself enough time to do other things like reading, drawing, being with my family, etc

.I think there isn't a magic key that will open you the door of happiness, I think that you need to go through a tough road, you need to have bad moments, feeling sad so you will enjoy more and appreciate more the good moments. I mean , I know that hard times suck but they are  inevitable. When you are going through this time you need to remember that like in everything in life this will not last forever and that also ALL depends on how you confront it.What I would recommend you if you are feeling lost, boarded or want to change your life is starting doing something about NOW.

Procrastination is our worst enemy. I personally deleted my social media apps, I only have twitter because I want to be a journalist so I need to be aware of what's happening around the globe , and also whatsapp because I need to communicate with my classmates, friends and family. But I think social medias take a lot of our time, we are scrolling for hours, watching a lot of irrelevant and dumb stuff instead of doing other things

. If you want to be more happy I highly recommend you to think about your social media use, learn how to use them wisely, because social media is not a bad thing but we don't know how to use it. I can do other posts about that, I´m not an expert clearly but I´m learning.

Another important thing is to start reading, you learn so much about books, even if they are fictional stories or true stories you can a lot of times relate to the characters or learn of them. It also improves your language and culture, so please instead of watching Netflix all day, re for at least 20-30 min per day, then you can watch all the tv shows that you want , but at least you were productive and you nourished our brain.

Find a hobby, before I thought that I wasn't good at any sports, drawing , etc. But I realized that the truth is that I wasn´t constant. You don't need to be good at drawing to start, I think that the goal of a hobby is to enjoy it, get better with time and be constant. Start exercising, that's so important and you don't have excuses.

There are so many youtube videos of routines without equipment. Start writing, you don't need to be skilled, you just need  a pen and a paper. I assure you that when you start writing about your feelings, your dreams, your fears, you weigh less on you. I know that writing doesn´t solve your problem but It helps you, your mental health, you  will see everything from a new perspective.

I´m starting journaling, I will do a post after on how it helped me and how I do it. In conclusion a hobby is not necessarily a sport, do what makes you happy.

Something that will bring you a lot of rewards is to learn a new language, you will have more job opportunities, you´re going to expand your social circle, you can read the books in their original language and discover a new exciting culture.

Personally i'm learning german on Italki, it's a language learning website where you have a large list of languages and teachers. You can choose the price that fits you the more and you will have online classes. It's A really good site. I recommend you to go and check it.

But let's be clear, there are those that we don't feel like to do anything, we just want to lay on our bed. That's completely normal and even important to rest and allow ourselves to relax, watch our favorite tv show all day, eat that delicious dessert, sleep a lot. But we can't transform this to a daily thing.

Like I said before it's important to know how to balance everything.Well these are some tips that I hope will help you :)See you soon

                           

Lima, Miraflores ( I´ll leave you  a pic that I took of my city)