Wednesday, May 28, 2008

What is Yoga?

Yoga is one of the six schools of Hindu way of life, focusing on meditation as a pathway to self-knowledge and freedom. Yoga is seen as a means to normally physiological and spiritual mastery. Outside India, Yoga has occur to chiefly related with the practice of asanas of Hatha Yoga, although it has influenced the complete dharmic religions family and other spiritual practices throughout the world

About 5,000 year old carvings from the Indus Valley Civilization indicate a figure that archaeologists believe represents a yogi sitting in thought posture. The sitting in a conventional cross-legged yoga pose with its hands and resting on its knees. The explorer of the seal, archaeologist Sir John Marshall, named as the figure Shiva Pashupati.

A seal from the Indus Valley Civilization, The first recognized written reference to yoga is in the Rig Veda, predictable by the western scholars to be at least 3,500 years old. The Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali also communicate the concepts and teachings of yoga.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

7 Forgotten Wonders of the Medieval Mind

7 Forgotten Wonders of the Medieval Mind

Here I list the top seven Forgotten Wonders of the Medieval Mind

* Abu Simbel Temple

* Angkor Wat

* Taj Mahal

* Mont Saint-Michel

* The Moai Statues

* The Parthenon

* The Shwedagon Pagoda

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Capsule Fruits

In botany a capsule is a type of simple, dry fruit formed by many species of flowering plants. A capsule is a dehiscent structure collected of two or more carpels that, at maturity, split apart (dehisce) to free the seeds within. In some capsules, the split occurs between carpels, and in others every carpel splits open. In yet others, seeds are out through openings or pores that form in the capsule. In the Brazil nut, a lid on the capsule opens however is too small to release the dozen or so seeds (the actual "Brazil nut" of commerce) within. These take root inside the capsule after it falls to the ground.

Capsules are at times mislabeled as nuts, as in the example of the Brazil nut or the Horse-chestnut. A capsule is not a nut as it releases its seeds and it splits apart. Nuts on the other hand do not let loose the seeds as they are a compound ovary containing both a single seed and the fruit. Nuts as well do not split.