Pop Quiz

[daniel]

Going over some of my thoughts, I realized I had the makings of a "pop quiz" for people who have been posting or lurking on this board... Of course just because I have my answers to these questions, doesn't mean my answers are necessarily "right," however I will post my answers after a few days - only if some other people first lob their own responses. And of course, others may have their own sets of questions...

POP QUIZ

What was the most impressive purpose of Stonehenge?

What was the first act of the Buddha upon achieving enlightenment?

Why were the Mayans and Toltecs obsessed with the year 2012?

What is the real purpose of technology?

What is the true intention of the "Greys" toward the human race?

What is the "Ascension" in the Book of Revelations?

When does the Kali Yuga end?

[White Resonant Mirror]

Well, I will give a half-hearted attempt at least to one question.....Wasn't the Mayan obsession with 2012 due to the end of the 52XX year cycle that began around 31XX B.C.? Also, wasn't this cycle elaborated upon by Pacal Votan during his life, as the leader of the classic Mayan Civ. ca.330-830 A.D.? I know this isn't jeopardy, so, excuse my answer being in the form of questions.

[White Resonant Mirror]

Now that I think about it, perhaps the Stonehendge question is answered by it's mapping of the Summer Solstice??? Not too familiar with Stonehendge....but, I believe the purpose of technology is to create the transition from biosphere to technosphere, then to noosphere, the mental envelope of the Earth, as first described by Russian Geologist V.I. Vernadsky.

[White Resonant Mirror]

Okay, I'll stop in a sec....the Kali Yuga will end with the demise of the Male-Dominator Culture.
I think...I'm learning at any rate, and I am really stoked about this quiz....wow, I think that is the first time I have ever said that....good thing, since I hope to be back in college in the fall.

[sidecross]

POP QUIZ

What was the most impressive purpose of Stonehenge?

That they would build it.

What was the first act of the Buddha upon achieving enlightenment?

He got up and took a walk

Why were the Mayans and Toltecs obsessed with the year 2012?

They talked to McKenna far too long

What is the real purpose of technology?

Avoidance.

What is the true intention of the "Greys" toward the human race?

I have not a clue, I see in colors.

What is the "Ascension" in the Book of Revelations?

The staircase to a heaven.

When does the Kali Yuga end?

It ends some time after it began.

[Bob]

POP QUIZ

What was the most impressive purpose of Stonehenge?

UFO launch pads, I dunno about that being actual but it's impressive nonetheless!

What was the first act of the Buddha upon achieving enlightenment?

I guess it depends on which part of his transformation you consider.
The initial change he made was to give up his devotion to the ascedic order of yogis he'd been paling around with. So the first thing he did was eat a phat ass meal, then he achieved his bodhi under the tree, after that I get a lil' foggy..though I'm pretty sure an apple bonked him on his head and he invented gravity boots!

Why were the Mayans and Toltecs obsessed with the year 2012?

Because that's the year their particular cycle of time ends. 13 Baktun's after it started, and still further because on Dec 21st 2012 (or thereabouts) the Sun intersects with their "Sacred Tree" constellation and the milkyway. an incredibly significant event in their mythos. The Sacred Tree is their gateway to the otherworld, and in 2012 the gateway opens.

The Tree of Life bearing it's fruit and alla that

Bob

[sidecross]

How much does the pop quiz count towards a final grade?

[Proteus]

O.K., i'll bite.

What was the most impressive purpose of Stonehenge?

The word purpose throws me a bit, but since its discernable purposes seem, from our vantage, to boil down to spiritualized astronomy, i'd say it's impressive purpose was to transform belief into a practical "instrument" of observation. Though, after reading Freddy Silva's book about crop circles, i'm not ready to rule out the possibility that Stonehenge's most impressive purpose may have to been to channel earth energy and make it available for spiritual questing.

What was the first act of the Buddha upon achieving enlightenment?

Well, i'm pretty sure the very first thing he did was to tell his friends what he'd discovered. According to legend, they were all instantly enlightened just hearing about the truth of "suchness." Though after sitting up all night, fighting the Maya, and facing down the architect, he probably had a nap pretty shortly after that.

Why were the Mayans and Toltecs obsessed with the year 2012?

First of all, i'd say that they were more obsessed with Time and keeping an accurate count of it than 2012, pe se. The Popul Vu suggests that the Maker-Provider's (the Maya's androgynous and dual creator) primary purpose in creating human beings was so that they could "mark the seasons." Not unlike other indigenous peoples in the Americas, the Maya believed strongly that human beings were necessary to finish the divine work of creation. Marking time was an important part of finishing this great work.

2012 isn't mentioned in this foundational text--nor is any specific beginning or end point. As i understand it, 2012 is only known to us by implication--not by the kind of repeated references to that date that one might expect from an obsessed people. The significance of 2012 would seem--if we temporarily forget the work of Aguelles and McKenna--natural given that our own linear Gregorian calendar posits no definite "final day," whereas the Mayas believed that time was cyclical and that the current cycle had a specific and unalterable endpoint before starting anew. In these frightening times, the notion of a predictable end dove-tails nicely with our own culture's belief in an eventual, but unpredictable apocalypse. i'm "feeling" the reality of 2012 as an endpoint, but i'm still able to step back and see that it's possible that we've freighted the Mayan Calendar's endpoint with apocalyptic significance because our current institutions are failing us and an exotic, "outsider" perspective that resonates with our fears about an impending collapse is just too hard for some of us to resist.

But, the obvious smart-ass answer is: "they had to obsess about something--why NOT 2012?"

What is the real purpose of technology?

Seems like purpose is the wrong word here too: technology seems to be an externalization of a number of thought patterns and processes. i'm confident that our ability to see the knife in the raw piece of flint, the flute in the dried reed, or the cornfield in the uncultivated field is, at least in part, a product of our minds' natural tendency to make distinctions, find patterns, and see all impediments to our instant gratification as problems to be solved. Our skills at perceiving patterns, remembering the results of experiments, and our basic lust for gratification have driven technological innovation from the moment we noticed that we could domesticate plants and animals to secure our food supply to now, when we can check our e-mail by cellphone at a busstop.

i'm less confident that technology could be an evolutionary imperative not unlike the catepillar's chrysallis--a field of inventions and palliatives with which we've surrounded ourselves until we metamorphose into beings that transcend the gap that technology has created between us and Nature.

Since i'm flogging a dead horse, i'll point out one more possibility: Technology is the reification of Thanatos (perhaps the only thing that Freud got right). We have, through our various tools and innovations, severed our connection to nature, forgotten how to fend for ourselves in the hunter-gather sense, degraded the environment to the point that only a fraction of the current population could survive a sudden shift to a world without technology, and semi-poisoned all beings (even, apparently, organic famers in Colorado and farm-raised salmon) with a long list of carcinogens and toxic chemicals. We are, as you remark in your book when quoting Benjamin, becoming so good at destroying ourselves that it's sinister beauty can be a form of aesthetic pleasure. We'll see whether the "purpose" of technology is "natural," transformative, or suicidal or soon enough.

What is the true intention of the "Greys" toward the human race?

They exist on t.v., in the paranoid underground, and here on this site--and so their motives are as numerous as the many minds in which they exist. Until i see one for myself, the only answer i can give is, "what Greys?"

What is the "Ascension" in the Book of Revelations?

For me, it's yet another iteration of the ego-centric notion that a "special" people, with special knowledge will be taken off our dying world at the last moment. Like the 2012 prophecies, i'm willing to believe that Jesus (whether or not he's riding in a UFO) will whisk his chosen few illuminati from the earth just as the collapse occurs, but it still seems like escapist fantasy to my benighted imagination.

When does the Kali Yuga end?

Each time someone drops delusive notions and sees the world as belonging to all of us. Were a critical mass of folks to do that right now--and that's entirely possible--we could pass under the flaming sword back into the Garden of Eden without fear.

---
Not surprisingly, i'm too earnest to crack wise about these issues, though i could probably stand to lighten up for a change.

[jezebelle]

o.k., here we go . . .
What was the most impressive purpose of Stonehenge?
Alignment of equinox events, gounding earth as major cosmic events transpire.


What was the first act of the Buddha upon achieving enlightenment?
He touched someone.

Why were the Mayans and Toltecs obsessed with the year 2012?
this answer: the Sun intersects with their "Sacred Tree" constellation and the milkyway. an incredibly significant event in their mythos. The Sacred Tree is their gateway to the otherworld, and in 2012 the gateway opens . . .
and: our sun forms an alignment with a sister sun in the andromeda galaxy, we as a species will be in a more lightened (wider band, perhaps?) field of electromagnetic radiation. Golden age is one term I've read. I think of it, as the last harvest for the awareness-train.

What is the real purpose of technology?
To externalize, that which-is-within.

What is the true intention of the "Greys" toward the human race?
genetic melding?

What is the "Ascension" in the Book of Revelations?
Where the spirit within, meets the outside, via holy ghost.

When does the Kali Yuga end?
Kinda now, isn't it? or until 2012?

[Charlie]

What was the most impressive purpose of Stonehenge?

I cheated on this one. Excerpts from Google:

"In the 1960's astronomer Gerald Hawkins used a computer to provide the first concrete evidence that Stonehenge was used as a device for observing the heavens."

"Most scholars agree that it must have been a sacred and special place of religious rituals or ceremonies."

"Some say that it was a horrid place, which the Druids used for religious sacrifice, but most others have a more positive idea. A temple of the sun, a Pagan Cathedral, or a holy sanctuary in the midst of blessed ground, or maybe a clock or even a place to Predict Eclipses."

What was the first act of the Buddha upon achieving enlightenment?

If you answer, I will hit you 40 times with a stick; if you don’t answer, I will hit you 40 times with a stick.

Why were the Mayans and Toltecs obsessed with the year 2012?

All of their astrological plotting pointed towards a grand alignment of the planets that only occurs every 26,000 years. This alignment occurs in 2012.

What is the real purpose of technology?

The word “real” infers an insidious, hidden element, but from the wheel to the windmill to the internet, technology has sought to lighten the physical burden of man, give him more free time, and push him up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

What is the true intention of the "Greys" toward the human race?

Get good Nielsen ratings, sell lots of cheap paperbooks, keep people like Geraldo Rivera employed.

What is the "Ascension" in the Book of Revelations?

Cheated again with Google:

users.sdccu.net/alahoy/2001.htm "After the great defeat in the Battle of Armageddon, by the second return of Jesus Christ, the rapturing of those bodies will build the New Jerusalem. Some who have already been taken during the first stage will be coming back to join you in the third stage of ascension. They will be the teachers because they have been through, what we call, the schools, the chambers, the universities, the purity corridors. They are called the millennial teachers who return in the third phase of the ascension."

http://www.spiritualjourneys.com/html/ascension.html “...the two olive trees mentioned by St. John in the Book of Revelations (11:11-12):
11- And after three days and a half the spirit of life from God entered into them (olive trees), and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. 12-- And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

Personally, I feel that the Bible has been updated and changed so many times to reflect modern language usage that it can no longer be accurately interpreted.

When does the Kali Yuga end?

I had never heard this term before coming upon it in this forum. All I know is it refers to an “Age of Darkness.” Once again, after a superficial Google reading, no one agrees when this started or ends. According to the Krishnas: “Krishna appeared about 5,000 years ago so we are about 5,000 years into the Kali-yuga now. It lasts 432,000 years so there is still about 427,000 years to go.”
Various Hindu sites said it already ended, in 1898 or 1932. I’m sure people like Arguelles think it will end in 2012. God knows how many other interpretations exist…

[Woodpecker]

"Why were the Mayans and Toltecs obsessed with the year 2012?"

Why were, and are, the Aztecs, Huichols, Secoyas, Sionas, Huaoranis, Shuars, Cherokees, Crees, Potowotomis, Coras, Lakotas, Cheyannes, Inuits, Inupiats, Navajos, Mohawks, Zapotecs, Mazatecs, Tepehuans, Cofans, Yanomamos, Kayapos, Desanas, Kichuas, Guaranis, Kampas, Waraos, Huitotos, Zaparos, Achuars and Wai-Wais (to name just a few) not obsessed with the year 2012?

[daniel]

Great answers - perhaps better than mine, which are posted below, in cursory form. I can expand on any of them if anyone cares... perhaps other people want to offer similar quizzes.

Q: What was the most impressive purpose of Stonehenge?

A: To predict lunar eclipses – an amazing engineering feat.

Q: What was the first act of the Buddha upon achieving enlightenment?

A: He touched the Earth.

Q: Why were the Mayans and Toltecs obsessed with the year 2012?

A: Earth, aligned with the Sun, crosses the dark rift at the center of the Milky Way – the Galactic Equator – hypothetically flipping the polarity of the human psyche from matter to spirit.

Q: What is the real purpose of technology?

A: To bring women to a higher state of consciousness of their own nature.

Q: What is the true intention of the "Greys" toward the human race?

A: To use the fear emitted by our energy bodies to sustain their soulless existence.

Q: What is the "Ascension" in the Book of Revelations?

A: The achievement of a new consciousness structure, which is a new lived realization of time and space.

Q: When does the Kali Yuga end?

A: When the individual self-liberates.

[Woodpecker]

(Obvious answer to my question posed above: because those other tribes never developed astronomy as far as the Mayas (& Toltecs?) did.)

[daniel]

woodpecker,

check out the book Maya Cosmogenesis by John Major Jenkins. It is a very impressive achievement.

[amj]

Daniel,

Can you elaborate on your theories about the purpose of technology? sounds kinda right on to me, but please do say more...

Also, what exactly do you mean by "self-liberates"? Doesn't this sound simplistic at all? I mean, wouldn't self-liberation entail a completely different way of life? Is it possible to have a self-liberated inner life, where outside forces don't affect you and suffering doesn't really phase you, sort of like what krishnamurti is always talking about...? But how can one be self-liberated when there is so much suffering/perceived injustice in one's environment, when one's moods vary like the weather?

[daniel]

hi amj

some of my ideas were posted in the left hand path forum. It is a bit longwinded to get to why I think this is the case... I will try quickly.

The last 5,000 or so years are the "Kali Yuga." Kali is the wrathful manifestation of Shakti, the female goddess of sexual energy (which is not just sex but also the erotic currents of feminine awareness and attention). If Shakti represents energy and manifestation, Shiva represents immutability and consciousness. Similarly in the Gnostic tradition, Sophia is the goddess of wisdom who "clothes God's thoughts in material form." Philo-sophers are lovers of Sophia, originally.

If this is the Kali Yuga, then it is the feminine daemonic current that has gone berserk (this idea is presented in the fascinating book Demons of the Flesh) - not the male aspect of consciousness. You would have to envision a kind of subconscious feminine current operating beneath the level of individuals (Evola writes that in an esoteric sense there is only "one man" and "one woman" taking many different roles).

My thesis is that men are basically unchanged by history - it is women who are trying to change. It was Eve who bit the apple - Adam was happy in paradise. Why are women trying to change? Because they are trying to come to a higher state of consciousness about their own nature and the nature of their desire.

An aside: In the book Voices of the First Day, about the Australian aboriginals (whose culture has continued for perhaps 40,000 years), the author makes the case that they lived in a comparative paradise - much more advanced in their sacred culture, their sense of yogic discipline, and their sex relations - they practice polygamy, plus extramartial affairs, plus older women who are alone or widowed are paired up with younger men going through initiation. This all seems like a better system, yet still not ultimately ideal for the women.

Evola notes that men tend to be "actively passive," while women are "passively active" -- women act as magnetic centers, compelling male behavior. The male obsession with technology is a desperate attempt to understand nature and control feminine chaos by imposing artificial order. Francis Bacon wrote: "We must torture Nature until she reveals Her secrets."

I suggest that this entire endeavour of technology is a secret path for the feminine current, utililzing male single-minded obsessiveness, to reach a higher state of consciousness about itself.

can't write anymore right now...

[daniel]

just to continue what I was saying...

Cultural forms are also "technologies." The novel is a technology, as is the film and the television show. The great subject of the 19th Century novel was female desire - Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Wuthering Heights. The nature of female desire and feminine consciousness is also essential to many classic films and film genres - the Hollywood comedies of the 1930s, even film noir and many detective films (I think it was Lacan or one of his followers who noted how the women in these films function as an "absent phallus" that the plot revolves around, though they themselves are generally almost immobilized (Vertigo is one interesting example).

By the way, if women must come to a higher state of consciousness about their own nature and desires, then men must also move to a deeper understanding of the nature of love. Men are, for the most part, failures as lovers -- inattentive. egoistic, possessive. I believe that the future of love-relationships will be relationships where the partners work for each other's liberation rather than trying to hold them down or back or possess them in some impossible way, as humans are spirits, and you cannot possess or own a spirit (you can't actually possess anything, really).

I can go on further on this idea if anyone wants - I believe it is crucial to understanding what is happening right now. Beneath the surface of our quickly collapsing society, women are enraged, and men are terrified.

As for the Kali Yuga, it is a state of mind. Time is not the kind of linear spatial projection that the modern materialist thinks it is. When you become completely calm and still, the center of your own mandala, you are no longer living in the Kali Yuga - no matter how much chaos and suffering is raging around you. This is an active stillness. It is, I think, only from this position that you can manifest positive change.

As Rilke says: "Don't drink wine - become intoxication."

Or in I Am That: "The world and the Self are perfect. It is only your attitude that is faulty and needs adjustment."

[jezebelle]

Bloodly well said . . . Daniel, go on when you feel like it. I never thought of it that way, but it makes sense.