Dear all readers, here is a very interesting video about Stephen Hawking's view on the existence of god. It caused somewhat of a controversy.

I also made some notes of certain points in the video that I was interested in. I will also include my own personal views in the post in conjunction with the notes, so the notes are not just a transcription and the notes are also in my words too. Enjoy!




The video is based of the opinions and commentary of Stephen Hawking. This program examines the creation of the universe.

Stephen Hawking describes himself as a physicist, cosmologist and a dreamer. He may not be able to communicate like a normal human being and has to speak through a computer. However, he believes that unlike most humans, his mind is free. His question is whether there is a god that controls the universe, that controls all the stars and the planets and even both you and I. He introduces this as a research on how the universe was created and how it really works.

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (just kidding), the answer to all natural phenomena was  the god or gods made everything. The world was scary and everyone had to trust one god or another as an explanation for the strange habits of mother earth.

Even the mighty vikings are terrified of gods! They also place their faiths in gods like Thor!



(NOT THIS THOR LAH AIYO!!)

There is a story about a wolf god called Skoll (Not the WoW character). The wolf god would once in a while gobble up the sun. The vikings would be scared. They responded by screaming loudly and shouting and drumming and chanting war cries.

The sun would return because of their actions. At least that was what they believed. A hundred years later, this thing would be called a solar eclipse.


(Curse you, Skoll!)

Without a scientific explanation, think about how would it feel to have your sun that gives you warmth and light, suddenly disappear. You would be scared.

The vikings believed that by doing all those chants, they scared away Skoll. Now, with the scientific explanation. It comes to show that the universe is not as supernatural or mysterious as it seems.

Knowledge on how the universe works was supposed to be a god privilege. However, mortals have been able to understand how it works too. Anaxagoras is a greek philosopher who became interested about solar eclipses and figured the whole damn thing out and also proven that the Earth does not rotate around the sun.


For centuries, people with disabilities are referred to as a end-product of a curse from god. Stephen Hawking prefers to understand that it was because of the laws of nature.





There are two sets of laws. The analogy of tennis is used. There are the man-made laws. Whether it is an in or an out or whether it is a foul or not. 

Then, there are the laws of nature. It governs what happens when the ball is hit. The angle and the power, even to the energy from the muscles is all under the power of nature.


Unlike the laws of man, the laws of nature is unbreakable.


Because of this law, Stephen Hawking believes that there would be no role for God.


People would counter this by saying that god created these laws of nature.


Stephen Hawking proceeded to tel Galileo's story. He said that the discoveries that scientists made lessened the need for a god to exist.


Science does not deny religion, it just offers a simpler alternative to simple things like the eclipse.


Now, let us cook up a universe.


Ingredients:
999999 grams of Matter
2999999 Joules of energy
99999999999999 cubic kilometers of space
(numbers are purely fictional)


Albert Einstein had also proven that matter and energy are in fact the same thing. Thus, there are in actuality just 2 ingredients.


Space exists everywhere. Matter is anything that has mass. Matter is the same as energy. You can get a whole universe for free. 


Also, the laws of physics demands the existence of a negative energy. Imagine a man wants to build a hill on a flat piece of land. There is a hill and a hole now. It is still in balance.


When the big bang happened, there was a lot of positive and negative energy that equally balanced out and equals to zero. So, in the end our universe equals zero.


If the universe summed up to zero, you do not need a god to create it. Why would you need a god to create when nothing is created?


Then, the question is shifted to who made the big bang? Who started all of this? The answer is quantum mechanics.


On a sub atomic level, particles can appear and disappear at random.


Time actually began with the big bang. If you were to send a clock into a black hole, it would eventually stop (assuming it did not get crushed). Thus, time did not exist before the big bang as the universe was a big black hole. Thus, a god did not exist due to the lack of time for a god to exist.


According to Stephen Hawking, there is no afterlife. So, YOLO!!!


My personal belief is that god exists but not as a creator. God exists as a deity or supernatural being that is more powerful than regular humans. They do not govern but they live in a paradise called the god realm in Buddhism. I prefer the Buddhist belief and also Buddhism does not care about a creator god as that was already in the past and it would not be beneficial.


Ok, so peace out!

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The haven is the ladrang or household of my spiritual guide, His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche.  I spent the day there. It is such an honor to be able to serve my spiritual guide through helping to do chores in his house. 

A few minutes after I arrived, Li Kheng gave a short talk about Social Grace. Like how you should look, talk think and stuff like that. It was very interesting because it teaches you how to behave in a proper manner when speaking to people of high status, or people in general. For example, if we want to wear a specific type of color (cold or warm), we must maintain it from head to toe and things like that. 

After the class, I had some lunch. It was fried rice and some mushroom soup. It was very delicious. It was made by Levi, she is a very good cook. After having that delicious lunch, I helped to clean some of the plates. 

After that, I helped to cut the grass in the garden with hedge shears. It was a bit tough as I had trouble bending down but it was fun. It would have been easier with a lawn mower but I guess it would be too noisy. 

After cutting the grass on the front lawn, I went to cut the grass at the back lawn near the vegetable garden that Haven has. 

After that, I took a break by going on the blog of His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche. The link is: http://blog.tsemtulku.com/. I was chatting with some of Rinpoche's followers like Timothy Miller and Terri Hellerich. I also played with the dog's at Haven (Yogi, Oser, Dharma and Dzamkar). Did I mention that Rinpoche is an really big animal lover? 

After the break, I went to the working area and Jean Mei made a little box for me on the whiteboard for my assignments. My assignments were to share Rinpoche's blog on 20 different facebook groups and write this blog post. Both are very fun to do! 

While doing my assignments, I was called to help Pavara wash out some maggot-infested potatoes and to do so without killing them. We couldn't figure out what to do. So, we threw away the rotten potatoes and washed the tray that once held the rotten maggot-infested potatoes.

My day here has not ended but I think all the interesting bits are said already. Most likely gonna have some tasty food for dinner later too.

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Disclaimer: All humans have different tastebuds, so if the food tastes bad for you, it is just you. Thank you.

A vegetable stir-fry with eggs is a perfect dish for a family supper, this is very easy to prepare. Serve with either rice or crusty bread. Italian Ciabatta is highly recommended.

Ingredients:

• 30 ml/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 225g/ 8 oz courgettes
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 red pepper and 1 yellow pepper, both seeded and thinly sliced
• 10ml/2 tsp paprika
• 400g/14 oz can chopped tomatoes (or cut your own)
• 15ml/ 1 tbsp of tomato puree
• 4 eggs
• 115g/4 oz/1 cup cheddar cheese
• salt and black pepper
• fresh crusty bread, to serve

Method:

1.  Heat the oil is a deep, heavy-based frying pan. Add the onion and garlic and fry over a medium heat. Stir for 4 minutes  until it softens.
2. Cut the courgettes into 5cm/2 inches long batons or strips. Add the courgettes and red and yellow peppers to the onion and cook gently, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes, until the vegetables are beginning to soften.
3. Stir in the paprika, tomatoes and tomato puree. Boil it then lower the heat and let it simmer gently for 15 minutes or until the veggies are tender.
4. Add egg
5. Let it set.
6. Add cheese slices on top.
7. Wait for cheese to melt
8. If possible fold in half or if that is to hard, scramble a bit.
9. Serve with crusty bread.

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In Confucian ideals, filial piety is a virtue of respect for one's parents and ancestors. According to the Classic of Filial Piety, Confucius once said: "In serving his parents, a filial son reveres them in daily life; he makes them happy while he nourishes them; he takes anxious care of them in sickness; he shows great sorrow over their death; and he sacrifices to them with solemnity. For Confucius, filial piety was not merely blind loyalty to one's parents. More important than the norms of xiào were the norms of benevolence and righteousness. For Confucius and Mencius, Xiao was a display of rén, which was ideally applied in one's dealings with all elders, thus making it a general norm of intergenerational relations. In reality, however, xiàowas usually reserved for one's own parents and grandparents, and was often elevated above the notions of rén and yì.

Now, for a Buddhist point, Hinayana Buddhism did not have a strong notion of filial piety. Buddhism in India involved many men leaving or abandoning their families, parents, wives, and children to become monks (Buddha himself was said to have done so). The true Buddhist had to reject all family ties, just as they had to reject social and class ties if they were to pursue Nirvana. Family was viewed as just another encumbrance of mortal life that had to be dealt with. Sorrow and grief were said to be "born of those who are dear. Buddhist monks were obligated to sever all ties with their family and to forget their ancestors. Theravada Buddhism stressed individual salvation, and had little room for the interdependent society that Confucianism had created in China, which stressed the good of the community more than the good of the individual. In India, Buddhism also advocated celibacy among its monks, which was unacceptable in the Confucian worldview, given that it was viewed as the child's duty to continue the parental line.

Judeo-Christian thought stresses following the Ten Commandments, which are recognized as the moral foundation in Judaism and Christianity. Lee et al argues that it is rarely practiced in the West and most children from a Judeo-Christian background do not honor and care for parents to the extent of those from Eastern backgrounds. This is, they argue, because in the West, the individual is more important than the family and when an elderly parent becomes a burden to the adult child, the needs of the adult child to be burden-free supersedes any feeling of obligation to care for the elderly parent.

In summary, Filial Piety is an attitude that is common amongst any race, religion or creed. Respect for one’s parents is universal!

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Pujas are extremely beneficial. They can benefit yourself or others in many ways. Here is a place where you can get some pujas done for you :D

http://vajrasecrets.com/off-puja-say-a-little-prayer.html

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This is the video I made for my B'day!!!

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