Mehmet Sabeheddin, New Dawn
Waking Times

Thanks to the latest Hollywood martial arts blockbuster along with a steady stream of Hong Kong action films, audiences around the world have been entertained by wild and colourful portrayals of Chinese secret societies.

These extravagant fictional tales often obscure the plain truth that for at least two thousand years secret societies did play a vital part in the dynamics of China’s political, social and religious life. Right up to the birth of the People’s Republic in 1949, secret societies were a special characteristic of old China.

Gandhi was a paragon of virtue, an icon of iconoclasm. He was the type of person who took the world for what it was, took inventory of his own personal power, and then did his absolute best to be the change he wished to see in the world. He was a shining example of living by example, and he was not afraid of challenging the powers-that-be.

In this article we will break down seven juicy nuggets of Gandhian wisdom through a philosophical lens. Maybe by standing on the shoulder of this giant we can see even further than he did. And maybe we too can become the change we wish to see in the world.

1. “Be the change you wish to see in the world”
“The inner world is the world of your requirements and your energies and your structure and your possibilities that meets the outer world...

Douglas Main, Live Science
Waking Times

Santa and his bag of… magic mushrooms?

The story of Santa and his flying reindeer can be traced to an unlikely source: hallucinogenic or “magic” mushrooms, according to one theory.

“Santa is a modern counterpart of a shaman, who consumed mind-altering plants and fungi to commune with the spirit world,” said John Rush, an anthropologist and instructor at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif.

Here are eight ways that hallucinogenic mushrooms explain the story of Santa and his reindeer.

1. Arctic shamans gave out mushrooms on the winter solstice.

According to the theory, the legend of Santa derives from shamans in the Siberian and Arctic regions who dropped into locals’ teepeelike homes with a bag full of hallucinogenic mushrooms as presents in late December, Rush said.

Rise above the daily inconveniences. Inconveniences are only inconveniences. Annoyances are only annoyances. Frustration is only frustration. Who says that everything has to be smooth for you at every moment? You are not to give a high rating to the little matters that you let become big. Save yourself from daily frustration. Annoyances happen. You are the one who rates them as frustration. You are the one who says how momentous they are.

Most inconveniences will resolve themselves one way or another, or you resolve them. There are remedies. You have an important deadline, and your computer doesn’t cooperate. It is not the end of the world, although it may too often seem like that to you.

Tell Me, dear ones, when your computer connection starts to work just fine again, is your happiness quotient as big as your unhappiness quotient was? Probably not. Your jumping for joy doesn’t begin to jump to the height your frustration did. Is this not so?

Have you convinced yourself that the negative aspects of life are more noteworthy than the positive aspects of life? What would you do that for? It would appear that frustration makes the grade while smooth-running is just so-so and taken for granted. A thorn in your side seems to merit far more attention. It is as if you are under the spell of thorns.

Christina Sarich, Staff Writer
Waking Times

If you are endlessly tired, irritable, have trouble losing weight, or feel depressed, you might be suffering from the environmental onslaught of toxins being poured into our air, water and soil by greedy corporate monopolies. If you aren’t sure whether you are suffering from toxic overload, you can at least be certain you are not immune to the toxic effects of environmental pollution like oil spills, fracking, chemtrails, nuclear energy (think Fukushima), or even the domestic production of war materials. Even every day items like shampoo and rug cleaners also contain thousands of chemicals that are deadly toxic in higher dosages.