Knots on a Counting Rope The world of the blind is a mystery to us who see. In some old traditions, a blind person was sometimes cast in the role of a seer, as if his very blindness opened up the possibility of a deeper vision. It is also said that it is not rare for blind people to be joyful. There is a legend in an American Indian tradition of how a boy born blind learns to surmount his handicap to the point of riding fearlessly in a horse race. There is a holistic beauty in that legend and the depth of inspiration behind carries conviction. Tell me the story again. Grandfather. Tell me who I am. I have told you many times. Boy

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Austria in 1948. He started body building at the age of 15 and by the age of 19 had won several power lifting contests as well as the Mr. Europe (Junior) and the Mr. Europe bodybuilding contests. In 1968 he became a resident of the United States and went on to win all the major titles of bodybuilding championships: Mr. World, Mr. Universe (five times) and Mr. Olympia, the most prestigious title of all, which he won six times in a row and once more five years later when he made a comeback to bodybuilding on the occasion of a documentary film. His charisma was a great factor in attracting public attent

Sonal Mansingh Interview with Sonal Mansingh Among the great dancers of India, Sonal Mansingh is special, as she had to overcome the sequels of a severe car accident to be able to resume her career as a top performer, displaying rare courage and determination. As she herself says, this experience "was much more than just an accident and the courage to come back." It brought among other things "a qualitative difference " to her way of dancing. It is while travelling in Germany in the summer of 1974 that Sonal Mansingh had this fateful car accident. As a result, her twelfth vertebra, four ribs and a collarbone were fractured. She ha

Fitness One concept that has become quite significant in recent times is that of "fitness". It appears to be the sum total of many factors blended into one central-qualitative condition which is more than mere "well-being". These factors are mostly physical and correspond to precise capabilities of the body such as cardiovascular endurance,1 muscular strength and endurance,2 flexibility3 and body composition4 (rapport between lean body masse and fat mass in the body). When all these components of physical fitness are positive in a person, that person is declared fit, a physical state which usually also brings along a feeling of well-being and energetic youthfulness.

Part II Health and Nutrition The Indian tradition: A depiction of the "subtle body", with its network of wheels (chakras) and fibres (nadis). In this holistic view, the question of health is not restricted to the gross body". It looks upon the human being as a whole consisting of body, mind and spirit. Page – 90 Health Introduction Health is the most basic quality that a body must have and, in any given society, there is a spontaneous recognition of the paramount importance of health. In fact, health is felt so precious that special beliefs about it are common: for instance quite a few people feel that talking about their good health could prov

Aiki-do The life of Master Ueshiba Morihei: acquiring strength On 14 December 1883, Ueshiba Morihei was born in Tanabe, a small town near Osaka. His father was a master of swordsman ship in the Kii family, lords of the province. Until the age of 15, Ueshiba Morihei had a weak constitution. His small size and lack of physical resistance meant he could get little benefit from his father's teaching. When he was 13, he met his first master, Tozawa Tokusaburo from the Kito ryu, who taught him jujutsu. So he very soon learnt to wield the spear and the sword. At 20, he was already recognized as an expert in these skills and received a diploma from his

Greek physician treating a patient's arm Page – 176 Healing Introduction A man was suddenly struck by a crippling disease. In a matter of only a few days, he was reduced from a normal condition to a situation where he could hardly move his limbs, and his jaws were nearly locked. In the words of the patient himself, "the bones in my spine and practically every joint in my body felt as though it had been run over by a truck". Doctors in the hospital gave him maximum doses of aspirin [26 a day] and phenylbutazone [12 a day] plus some more medicines. As a result, as he said later, he developed hives all over his body and felt as if his skin were being chewed u

Douglas Wakiihuri, world marathon champion and silver medallist Modem Olympic Games One and one half thousand years ago, the flame of the ancient Olympic Games was extinguished at Olympia in Greece by the Roman Emperor Theodosius. When the idea of reestablishing the Olympic Games was first brought up, it was greeted with sarcasm: "Not far removed from the ridiculous, " people said. The man who had the conviction and the courage to initiate this idea, as well as the tenacity to finally realize the first Olympic Games, was Baron de Coubertin. The wars had swept through Europe at the end of the last century and he realized

A Severe Case of Hypocondria There were four of us — George, and William Samuel Harris, and myself, and Montmorency. We were sitting in my room, smoking, and talking about how bad we were — bad from a medical point of view I mean, of course. We were all feeling seedy, and we were getting quite nervous about it. Harris said he felt such extraordinary fits of giddiness come over him at times, that he hardly knew what he was doing; and then George said that he had fits of giddiness too, and hardly knew what he was doing. With me, it was my liver that was out of order. I knew it was my liver that was out of order, because I had just been reading a

PART FOUR Ascent to the Supermini!, Descent of the Supermind and Supramental Transformation The process of ascent to the supermind from the mind and the descent of the supermind, which would transform successively the Overmind, Intuitive mind, Illumined mind, Higher mind, mind and the rest cannot be a logical series of separate segments. Sri Aurobindo has stated that while a sufficient integration of one status has to be complete before an ascent to the next higher station will be entirely secure, it is a totality of ascending powers of being which interpenetrate and dovetail and exercise in their action on each other a power of mutual modification. As a result, when the