Over

one thousand five hundred years ago in China, there lived an emperor named Wu. He was a great patron of Buddhism and he dearly wanted a great Buddhist teacher from India to come and spread the message of Buddhism. He set in motion elaborate work to see that Buddhism spread to the people of his land. These preparations went on for many years and the emperor waited and waited, but no teacher came.

Then one day, when the emperor was over sixty years old, a message was sent across that two great, fully enlightened teachers would cross the Himalayas and come and spread the message in China. There was great excitement and the emperor prepared a big celebration in anticipation of their arrival. After a few months of waiting, two people appeared at the border of the Chinese kingdom. They were Bodhi Dharma and one of his disciples.

Bodhi Dharma was born a prince in the Pallava Kingdom in South India. He was the son of the king of Kanchipuram, but at an early age, he left his kingdom and princehood and became a monk. At the age of twenty-two he was fully enlightened, and that was when he was sent as a messenger to China. The moment the news of his arrival came, Emperor Wu himself came to the borders of his empire and set up a huge reception and waited.

When these monks came, weary from the long travel, Emperor Wu looked at the two of them and was greatly disappointed. He was told that an enlightened being would be coming and was expecting something, but this was a mere boy of twenty-two years. Worn by the travel of a few months in the mountains, Bodhi Dharma was really not looking very impressive.

The emperor was disappointed but he contained his disappointment and welcomed the two monks. He invited them into his camp and offered them a seat and food. Then, at the first opportunity he got, Emperor Wu asked Bodhi Dharma, “Can I ask you a question?”

Bodhi Dharma said, “By all means.”

Emperor Wu asked, “What is the source of this creation?”

Emperor Wu asked, “What is the source of this creation?”

Bodhi Dharma looked at him, laughed, and said, “What kind of foolish question is that? Ask something else.”

Emperor Wu was extremely offended. He had a whole list of questions to ask Bodhi Dharma, questions that he thought were deep and profound. He had held many debates and discussions about this particular question, and now this fool of a boy who came from nowhere just dismissed it as a foolish question. He was offended and angry but he contained himself and said, “Okay, I will ask you a second question. What is the source of my existence?”

Now Bodhi Dharma laughed even louder and said, “This is an utterly stupid question. Ask something else.” If the emperor had asked about the weather in India or about Bodhi Dharma’s health, Bodhi Dharma would have answered. But this man was asking, “What is the source of creation? What is the source of who I am?” He brushed this off.

It was Bodhi Dharma who brought Zen to China.

Now Emperor Wu became really angry but he contained himself and asked the third question. He made a list of all the good things that he had done in his life – how many people he had fed, how many things he had done, all the charity that he had given and finally he said, “To spread the dharma, to spread Buddha’s message, I have built so many meditation halls, hundreds of gardens, and trained thousands of translators. I have made all these arrangements. Will I get mukti?”

Now Bodhi Dharma became serious. He stood up and glared down at the emperor with his huge big eyes and said, “What? You! Mukti? You will burn in the seventh hell.”

What he meant was, according to the Buddhist way of life, there are seven layers of the mind. Instead of just doing what is needed, if a man does something and then keeps accounts of it, “How much I have done for somebody,” he is in the lowest level of the mind and he will inevitably suffer because he is expecting people to be nice to him in return for his deeds. If they are not nice to him, he will be mentally tortured and it will be a seventh hell.

But Emperor Wu did not understand any of this. He flew into a rage and threw Bodhi Dharma out of his empire. For Bodhi Dharma, it made no difference – in or out. It doesn’t matter whether it is a kingdom or a mountain; he carried on with his journey. But Emperor Wu missed the only opportunity of his life.

It was Bodhi Dharma who brought Zen to China. Gautama the Buddha taught Dhyan or meditation. Hundreds of years later, Bodhi Dharma transported Dhyan to China where it became Chan. This Chan went further down to Indonesia, Japan, and other far east Asian countries, where it became Zen.

Bodhi Dharma went into the mountains where he gathered a few disciples, and they would meditate in the mountain caves 

After he was sent out of the empire by Emperor Wu, Bodhi Dharma went into the mountains. There he gathered a few disciples, and they would meditate in the mountain caves. For a meditator, the biggest enemy is sleep. The legend says that Bodhi Dharma once fell asleep while in meditation and was so furious that he cut off his eyelids. His eyelids fell to the ground and became the first tea plant. Tea was thereafter supplied to the monks as a protection against sleep.

Where does this legend come from? The hill that Bodhi Dharma resided in after his encounter with the emperor was known as Tai or Chai. When they went there, the monks probably found certain leaves which Bodhi Dharma discovered could be boiled in water and drunk to stay awake. They could then sit and meditate the whole night; and that was how tea or chai was discovered.

Source: http://blog.ishafoundation.org

I

n ancient times, India did not exist as one country. Its people were not of the same religion, race or language. But still, a sense of unity existed throughout the land because of the common spiritual ethos that the people carried in them. The spiritual ethos was such that, whether an individual was a king or a peasant, there was only one ultimate goal for everybody – liberation. This is a result of the phenomenal amount of spiritual work done in this country. One person who is largely responsible for this, who is of paramount significance in the shaping of human consciousness, is Shiva.

In the story that follows, Sadhguru tells us about Shiva, the first yogi, and how he transmitted the yogic sciences to the Saptarishis.

Sadhguru

In the yogic culture, Shiva is not known as a god, but as the Adiyogi or the first yogi – the originator of yoga. He was the one who first put this seed into the human mind. According to the yogic lore, over fifteen thousand years ago, Shiva attained to his full enlightenment and abandoned himself in an intense ecstatic dance upon the Himalayas. When his ecstasy allowed him some movement, he danced wildly. When it became beyond movement, he became utterly still.

People saw that he was experiencing something that nobody had known before, something that they were unable to fathom. Interest developed and people came wanting to know what this was. They came, they waited and they left because the man was oblivious to other people’s presence. He was either in intense dance or absolute stillness, completely uncaring of what was happening around him. Soon, everyone left…

Except for seven men.

These seven people were insistent that they must learn what this man had in him, but Shiva ignored them. They pleaded and begged him, “Please, we want to know what you know.” Shiva dismissed them and said, “You fools. The way you are, you are not going to know in a million years. There is a tremendous amount of preparation needed for this. This is not entertainment.”

So they started preparing. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, they prepared. Shiva just chose to ignore them. On a full moon day, after eighty-four years of sadhana, when the solstice had shifted from the summer solstice to the winter solstice – which in this tradition is known as Dakshinayana – the Adiyogi looked at these seven people and saw that they had become shining receptacles of knowing. They were absolutely ripe to receive. He could not ignore them anymore. They grabbed his attention.

Sadhguru at Kanti Sarovar

He watched them closely for the next few days and when the next full moon rose, he decided to become a Guru. The Adiyogi transformed himself into the Adi Guru; the first Guru was born on that day which is today known asGuru Pournami. On the banks of Kanti Sarovar, a lake that lies a few kilometers above Kedarnath, he turned South to shed his grace upon the human race, and the transmission of the yogic science to these seven people began. The yogic science is not about a yoga class that you go through about how to bend your body – which every new born infant knows – or how to hold your breath – which every unborn infant knows. This is the science of understanding the mechanics of the entire human system.

After many years, when the transmission was complete, it produced seven fully enlightened beings – the seven celebrated sages who are today known as the Saptarishis, and are worshipped and admired in Indian culture. Shiva put different aspects of yoga into each of these seven people, and these aspects became the seven basic forms of yoga. Even today, yoga has maintained these seven distinct forms.

Transmission of the yogic sciences to the seven rishis

The Saptarishis were sent in seven different directions to different parts of the world to carry this dimension with which a human being can evolve beyond his present limitations and compulsions. They became the limbs of Shiva, taking the knowing and technology of how a human being can exist here as the Creator himself, to the world. Time has ravaged many things, but when the cultures of those lands are carefully looked at, small strands of these people’s work can be seen, still alive. It has taken on various colors and forms, and has changed its complexion in a million different ways, but these strands can still be seen.

The Adiyogi brought this possibility that a human being need not be contained in the defined limitations of our species. There is a way to be contained in physicality but not to belong to it. There is a way to inhabit the body but never become the body. There is a way to use your mind in the highest possible way but still never know the miseries of the mind. Whatever dimension of existence you are in right now, you can go beyond that – there is another way to live. He said, “You can evolve beyond your present limitations if you do the necessary work upon yourself.” That is the significance of the Adiyogi.

Source: http://blog.ishafoundation.org

List of countries by number of mobile phones in use

Rank	Country or region	Number of mobile phones	Population	% of population	Last updated date
-	World	Over 6 billion	7,012,000,000[1]	87	2011[2][3]
1	China	1,046,510,000	1,341,000,000[4]	75.32	June 2012[5]
2	India	960,900,714	1,210,193,422[6]	79.28	October 2012[7]
3	United States	327,577,529	310,866,000[8]	103.9	June 2012[9]
4	Brazil	259,290,000	192,379,287[10]	134.78	October 2012[11]
5	Russia	256,117,000	142,905,200[10]	155.5	July 2011[12]
6	Indonesia	236,800,000	237,556,363	109.28	September 2012[13]
7	Japan	121,246,700	127,628,095	95.1	June 2011[14]
8	Pakistan	119,860,799	178,854,781[15]	68.60	May 2012[16][17]
9	Germany	107,000,000	81,882,342	130.1	2009[18]
10	Nigeria	101,271,578	140,000,000	72.3	May 2012[19]
11	Bangladesh	98,470,000	148,090,000	68	July 2012[20]
12	Iran	96,165,000	73,973,000	130	February 2012[21]
13	Mexico	92,900,000	112,322,757	82.7	Dec. 2011[22]
14	Italy	88,580,000	60,090,400	147.4	Dec. 2008[23]
15	Philippines	86,000,000	94,013,200	91.5	October 2011[24]
16	United Kingdom	75,750,000	61,612,300	122.9	Dec. 2008[25]
17	Vietnam	72,300,000	90,549,390	79	October 2010[26]
18	France	72,180,000	63,573,842	114.2	Dec. 2008[27]
19	Egypt	92,640,000	82,120,000	112.81	Egypt Ministry of Communications & IT, August 2012[28]
20	Thailand	69,000,000	65,001,021	105	2010[29]
21	Turkey	66,000,000	71,517,100	92.2	2009[30]
22	Ukraine	54,103,347	45,579,904	118.7	April. 2012[31]
23	South Korea	52,510,000	48,580,000	108.1	2011[32]
24	Spain	50,890,000	45,828,172	111.0	Dec. 2008[33]
25	Argentina	50,409,800	40,134,425	125.6	2010[34]
26	Poland	47,153,200	38,186,860[35]	123.48	2010[36]
27	Colombia	46,147,937	45,393,050	101.6	2011[37]
28	South Africa	59,474,500	50,586,757	117.6	2011 GSM African Mobile Observatory report [38]
29	Algeria	33,000,000	35,000,000	94.2	2011[39]
30	Taiwan	28,610,000	23,197,947	123.33	September 2011[40]
31	Kenya	28,080,000	42,000,000	71.3	2012[41]
32	Venezuela	27,400,000	28,200,000	98.0	2008[citation needed]
33	Peru	33,000,000	30,000,000	110.0	Oct. 2012[42]
34	Romania	22,800,000	21,438,000	108.5	March 2008[citation needed]
35	Canada	25,543,862	34,482,779	74.1	Q3 2011[43]
36	Morocco	36,550,000	31,968,361	113.6	Q1 2012[44]
37	Netherlands	20,000,000	16,515,057	121.1	Nov. 2009[45]
38	Australia	21,260,000	21,179,211	100.4	Jun 2007[46]
39	Saudi Arabia	46,000,000	27,137,000	169.5	Jun 2010[47]
40	Malaysia	30,379,000	28,250,000	106	2010[48]
41	Chile	21,000,000	17,094,270	122.9	Dec. 2010[49]
42	Nepal	18,240,670	26,620,020	68.5	Mar. 2012[50]
42	Ethiopia	18,000,000	85,000,020	21.8	Dec. 2012[51]
43	Guatemala	17,571,895	14,713,763	119.4	Jun. 2010[52]
44	Sri Lanka	17,359,312	21,000,000	80.95	Dec. 2010[53]
45	Ecuador	15,900,000	14,300,000	111.18	Jan. 2012[54]
46	Portugal	14,500,000	10,632,000	137.0	2008[citation needed]
47	Hong Kong	13,264,896	7,008,900[55]	187.9	Nov. 2010[56]
48	Belgium	11,822,000	10,414,000	113.6	2009[citation needed]
49	Hungary	11,833,000	10,020,000	118.3	Sept. 2010[citation needed]
50	United Arab Emirates	11,540,040	8,264,070	139.6	Nov 2011[57]
51	Sweden	11,194,000	9,103,788	122.9	(July 2012 est.)
52	Bulgaria	10,655,000	7,600,000	140.2	2008[50]
53	Israel	9,319,000	7,310,000	127.5	2008[50]
54	Denmark	7,000,000	5,543,819	126.2	February 2008[58]
55	Azerbaijan	7,000,000	8,900,000	78.7	November 2009[59]
56	Jordan	6,010,000	5,950,000	101.0	March 2010[60]
57	Singapore	7,289,000	5,076,700	143.5	December 2010[61]
58	New Zealand	4,620,000	4,252,277	108.6	2008[62]
59	Estonia	1,982,000	1,340,602	147.8	April 2009[citation needed]
60	Lebanon	2,720,000	4,224,000	64.4	Oct 2010[63]
61	Lithuania	4,960,000	3,341,966	148.4	February 2010[64]
62	Cuba	1,300,000	11,200,000	11.6	December 2011[65]
63	North Korea	1,000,000	24,451,285		February 2012[66]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use