Jan 27 2014

Captain’s Log III – The Heathen’s War

Vengeance Class Assault Frigate

Vengeance Class Assault Frigate

Ordo was just about to start one of his daily meditations in his inner chamber, as the communication holoreel flickered to life and a holographic image of his superior, the Lord Admiral Lok’ri came to life.”Captain Ordo”, he stated calmly, as always.
“Admiral”, Ordo said, offering a bow with his head, still in his sitting position.
“The Minmatar has launched several assaults on imperial assets in the Bleak Lands this evening. The Empire needs the Praetoria. You are to transfer yourself to your combat clone in Mehatoor, and report to operations immediately.”
Ordo blinked and confirmed the admirals call and the holographic communication disconnected. He stood up and started walking out of his chamber, heading towards his own personal cloning facility.
As Ordo entered the facility, he made a nod towards one of his service men as he walked towards an metallic chair in the middle of the room. He sat down and leaned back and almost immediately felt a ‘synthetic snake’ in the form of a tube connecting to the capsuleer socket on his neck. Ordo closed his eyes and drifted away from the consciousness of this body…

Raphael willed his Vengeance class assault ship, TES Dark Sefrim, towards the incoming artillery fire that hammered his ship’s armor. His course changed and with a single thought, Raphael turned on his Micro Warp Drive, turning his ships velocity to almost 3000 meter/second. He was heading towards the Minmatar capsuleer. Fast.
Guiding his vessel in the wake of the Thrasher class destroyer, Raphael now orbited it up close, activating his rocket launchers on a whim. A wide grin emerged on his face as his camera drones captured the beautiful scenery of Minmatar rust being redefined to dust by the very blast and fires that his rockets delivered as they smashed the enemy ships hull.
The Thrasher was destroyed within minutes, and while the capsule of the pilot ejected and escaped unharmed, Raphael deemed himself victorious. The military complex was defended, and only a handful of enemy ships remained in their holy grasp.
As the last remnants of the heathens were swiftly destroyed, Raphael praised his fellow brothers and sisters on their achievement and continued his issued patrol, further leading a squad of Praetorians even deeper into enemy territory in the Bleak Lands…

Ordo opened his eyes.
His consciousness slowly coming back to him. Memories regained from his combat clone slowly took their place within his head, as he sat up straight in the metallic chair. He praised these memories even more than usual, as they should have inherited all the lessons he gained during his last mission in his other body.
Although Ordo trusted the technology he was using, he couldn’t help but to think that some fragments of his thoughts, his humanity and his very being – were stripped away every time he used the “Jump Clone” technology by changing his conciousness to another clone of his.
“These memories wasn’t experienced by this body”, he said to himself in his head, while staring on his hands.

Ordo came back from his deep thoughts as a one of his service men called on him, telling him he had another encrypted holographic transmission coming through.
He made himself stand up from his chair and walked out of the cloning facility, heading back towards his inner chamber.


Jan 10 2014

Insight, natural energy and the Kalapas

Meditation by Goro79 on deviantART

Meditation by Goro79 on deviantART

 

I have satisfied an urge to become a monk. Although answers I sought has now been replaced by more questions.
Through short and intense training of the so called vipassanā meditation (vipassana meaning; insight into the true nature of reality) I now inhibit a new experience of introspection on mostly the physical level. I realized a very interesting phenomenon occuring in our human bodies, in an endless sort of ‘appearing and disappearing’ manner (destruction and creation?), in forms of energized tiny vibrations. My initial training in this technique resided around various buddhist teachings. More specifically, teachings that proclaimed itself being over 2500 years old, leading back to the time when Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha, re-discovered this technique (re-discovered, as they say. I wonder who, or what, discovered it before him).
I find myself, not disapproving their philosophy or theories, but a willingness inside me to broaden my perspective.

The ancient asian Qi principle has long been branded as mere “mythology” in modern times. I must say though, the thought of this “energy flow” is not so far away from my physical experience, thus my interest.

Qi flow through different meridians

While this can be a complete coincidence, I can imagine that the ancient people of asia that came up with this “theory” or “principle” of Qi, experienced something similiar as I have. How many other “energized”, “electric flows” through the body can we have?
If this is the case, and i’ve come across a physical sensation/stimuli that resembles the Qi, and in short, one of the inspirations of the so called The Force, featured in Star Wars… Then I’m even more satisfied.

In any case, an interesting thought around this is what this actually is – the feeling itself.
The possibility of it being a mere illusion is slim, very slim. Taking into account all the thousands of people that has ventured and done these courses in modern day society, and gotten the effect. Even on my course, I saw the most sceptical around at least getting these vibrations in his face.

The buddhist theory, which are a part of the vipassana teaching, is referring to that these vibrations and sensations are the late product of Kalapas. These kalapas can be described as the following:
“Kalapas (“particles of perception”), according to the Buddha, are the tiniest of particles which ultimately constitute mind and matter. Foreshadowing modern physics by two and a half millenia, they are said to arise and pass away trillions of times in the blink of an eye.”

While I haven’t found any real truth of this, one may take into account that modern science hasn’t really gotten that far in explaining the tiniest of particles just yet. Leaving this idea to be a mere theory of self-experience, as you are supposedly about to experience this as you reach nibbāna (nirvana), or the disintegration of the mind and body.

Nevertheless. Whatever these sensations, vibrations, indications and/or life force really is, the most important question may be; how does it really affect our daily lives and the way we think?
The buddhist philosophy talks of impurities that are getting abolished while practicising their method of observing these vibrations. There are several branches who practices to balance Qi, such as Qigong, but also Feng shui, certain martial arts.
Lastly, acupuncture, the use of needles to access different parts of the meridians and make Qi flow more easily in the body, has actually scientifically proven to be successful in treating various sicknesses and symptoms of pain.

I will meditate further, and dive into this sea of ‘awareness’.. That frankly doesn’t seem to have a straight answer to anything.