Transgender athletes and those athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) will reportedly be banned from competing in female competitions at the Olympics from early next year.
A report in The Times claims this comes after a science-based review undertaken by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which looked into the permanent physical advantages of being born male.
Previously, Olympic sports had the power individually to decide whether transgender women could compete if they had reduced testosterone levels.
What’s the backstory to the stories of angels and devils in Lithuanian tales, and how influential were pagan roots in forming their image? In conversation – Lithuanian Literature and Folklore Institute doctoral researcher Solveiga Šlapikienė.
Angels and devils are often seen as beings of opposite natures – symbols of good and evil, a classic binary opposition, even antonyms. Yet alongside their stark contrasts, there are also unexpected parallels, especially in their shared origins. How does Lithuanian folklore explain the creation of angels and devils?
The most common and well-known explanation for how angels came into being involves striking or rubbing stones together – sparks flying from flint and steel could also give rise to angels. In fact, both angels and devils are said to have originated this way. That’s an important detail.
So there are no etiological legends that explain only the creation of angels? Angels and devils always seem to appear together.
Almost always. If angels are mentioned on their own, it’s only in very brief or fragmentary tales, with just a few lines saying that angels were created in such a way – and that’s all. But in any more developed narrative, angels and devils appear side by side.
It’s worth noting that two main categories describe how angels were created. The first says that God created angels together with Lucifer, his opponent, his adversary.
The angels created by Lucifer, or by Liucius as he is sometimes called, were the same in kind as those made by God. But Lucifer, acting as a trickster, tried to imitate God’s creative acts – and failed. His attempts produced distorted, imperfect beings, darkened and flawed copies of divine creations.
Devil Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania. | LRT TV / Screengrab
Another version says that God created all the angels at once, but over time, some rebelled and were cast out. Do many Lithuanian folk tales deal with the human choice between good and evil?
Very many. Across the body of folklore about angels, only a small portion shows angels existing purely in the heavenly realm, without any contact with humans. Most of what we have speaks of guardian angels – those who accompany a person from birth to death.
And, of course, devils often appear alongside them: like a dark angel perched on one shoulder, always nearby, watching and following the person throughout their life.
One of the most popular motifs is that both angel and devil keep a record of human deeds – the angel writes down the good, the devil the bad. When death comes, each brings their book to the bedside, and the balance between good and evil determines where the soul will go: to heaven or to hell.
The presence of both beings beside a person throughout life touches on many aspects of human existence. The angel is most often associated with moments of danger. For instance, if a building is about to collapse, the angel, acting as an inner voice, may warn the person to move aside or avoid an action, thus saving them from harm.
(The video should have sound but works without it.)
I would add — yes, bikes are dangerous but the danger is overemphasized. I believe it is overemphasized because all healthy men would love to ride but are afraid; and the exaggeration of danger justifies staying away; following that is the echo chamber of uninformed agreement and circular reasoning.
Modern motorcycles are definitely safer than bikes from just two decades ago. They are equipped with many traction and braking safety features. Also, airbag jackets and vests for motorcycles are available and moderately priced.
My very consistent attitude toward motorcycles is I never try to convince anyone to ride and am not doing that now. Right now, I am just setting the record straight, as I see it.
Motorcycling is a very free sport. Most riders are very pleasant, polite men; and they are that way because riding uses and exhausts primal animal hormones, thought and sensory processes, and instincts as they were evolved to be used.
Yes, some women ride and I love them for it, but the sport is mostly men. ABN
This experiment employed an individual differences approach to test the hypothesis that learning modern programming languages resembles second “natural” language learning in adulthood. Behavioral and neural (resting-state EEG) indices of language aptitude were used along with numeracy and fluid cognitive measures (e.g., fluid reasoning, working memory, inhibitory control) as predictors. Rate of learning, programming accuracy, and post-test declarative knowledge were used as outcome measures in 36 individuals who participated in ten 45-minute Python training sessions. The resulting models explained 50–72% of the variance in learning outcomes, with language aptitude measures explaining significant variance in each outcome even when the other factors competed for variance. Across outcome variables, fluid reasoning and working-memory capacity explained 34% of the variance, followed by language aptitude (17%), resting-state EEG power in beta and low-gamma bands (10%), and numeracy (2%). These results provide a novel framework for understanding programming aptitude, suggesting that the importance of numeracy may be overestimated in modern programming education environments.
Section three has been added to the Diamond Sutra. A link to the sutra can be found at the top of this page or here.
Kumarajiva’s translation of the Diamond Sutra was divided into thirty-two sections by Prince Zhaoming of the Liang Dynasty (502-587). The sutra has been divided in different ways by others, but the Zhaoming division has remained the most widely used to this day. The titles of the sections are also his.
Section Three is called “The Heart of the Mahayana” because it contains the basic Mahayana vow to help all sentient beings attain enlightenment. In a word, to “save” them. The version and explanation of the vow in this section is the “heart,” or deepest explanation of the vow, because it includes both the helping part and the empty part.
As the Buddha says in this section, “All great bodhisattvas…should realize as they vow to save all sentient beings that in truth there are no sentient beings to be saved.”
This is both an answer to Subhuti’s question and a rephrasing of it. In the last paragraph of this section, the Buddha answers with more detail: “Subhuti, if a bodhisattva has laksana of self, laksana of human beings, laksana of sentient beings, or laksana of a soul, then he is not a bodhisattva.”
Laksana is a Sanskrit word meaning “characteristic,” “mark,” “symptom,” or “mental thing (dharma).” It is often translated as “characteristic,” “mark,” “thought,” or “idea.”
The basic meaning of laksana is “dharma of the mind” or “thing of the mind.” Thus, if a bodhisattva has any “thing at all in their mind about there being selves, human beings, sentient beings, or souls” when they are generous, they are not truly a bodhisattva. This describes the ultimate selflessness of self and other.
In this translation, the word “soul” has been used. A more literal translation would be an entity that “takes rebirth” or lives after this body is gone.
Word choices are fascinating and need to be discussed, but to avoid getting lost in them, it is best to remember that in this section, the Buddha is categorically saying that no matter what kind of sentient being you can conceive of, in truth, there are no sentient beings, there is no saving them, and if a bodhisattva has an iota of a sense that they are doing that or that they have a self, then they are not truly a bodhisattva.
In other posts we have discussed fractals in the humanities. This concept may help in understanding the meaning of this section and in glimpsing the meaning of the sutra itself. Surely all of us at one time or another have acted with a pure heart and a pure mind to give to or help another with no thought of ourselves or even of them. For at least a moment we dwelt within a pure state of mind and feeling that was utterly selfless, sublime.
Rather than say that state is the Diamond Sutra, let’s say that it is a state that points toward the meaning of the sutra. That state is a small fractal of the larger fractal set described by the sutra. Altruistic consciousness freed from the marks self, other, calculation, design.
NOTE: My original intention was to post the entire sutra and do commentaries on each section within six months or one year. I have not been able to do that due to other commitments and interests but may go for it at some point. The Diamond Sutra is a beautiful work of literature and an important text for Buddhist practitioners. It would be good if everyone were exposed to it and at least had some sense of what it means. ABN
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