If you are indoors:

DROP to the ground; take COVER by getting under a sturdy table; and HOLD ON until the shaking stops. If there isn’t a table or desk near you, cover your face and head with your arms and crouch in an inside corner of the building.

Stay away from glass, windows, outside doors and walls, and anything that could fall.

Stay in bed if you are there when the earthquake strikes. Hold on and protect your head with a pillow, unless you are under a heavy light fixture, window or anything else that could fall. In that case, move to the nearest safe place (i.e. under a desk or in an inside corner).

Use a doorway for shelter only if it is in close proximity to you and if you know it is a strongly supported, loadbearing doorway. Brace yourself on the side with the hinges to avoid the door swinging at you.

Stay inside until shaking stops and it is safe to go outside. Research has shown that most injuries occur when people inside buildings attempt to move to a different location inside the building or try to leave.

Be aware that the electricity may go out or the sprinkler systems or fire alarms may turn on.

DO NOT use the elevators, even if they are working. There may be aftershocks.

If you’re in your hotel room, stay there. There are usually aftershocks, and sometimes they may be worse than the original earthquake. Under a desk or in an inside corner of your room is the safest place to be, even if you’re on the 40th floor.

If you are in a restaurant, get under the table.

If outdoors

Stay there. Move away from buildings, streetlights, and utility wires.

Once in the open, stay there until the shaking stops.

The greatest danger exists directly outside buildings, at exits, and alongside exterior walls. Many of the 120 fatalities from the 1933 Long Beach earthquake occurred when people ran outside of buildings only to be killed by falling debris from collapsing walls. Ground movement during an earthquake is seldom the direct cause of death or injury. Most earthquake-related casualties result from collapsing walls, flying glass, and falling objects.

If in a moving vehicle

Pull over to the side of the road and stop as quickly as safety permits and stay in the vehicle.

Avoid stopping near or under buildings, trees, overpasses, and utility wires. (an earthquake while you’re driving feels like there’s something wrong with your car)

Don’t stop in the middle of the freeway if traffic is still moving around you. Slow down and put on your turn signal to get to the side of the road. If everyone else is doing the same thing, it was most likely an earthquake.

Proceed cautiously once the earthquake has stopped. Avoid roads, bridges, or ramps that might have been damaged by the earthquake.

If trapped under debris

Do not light a match. Do not move about or kick up dust.

Cover your mouth with a handkerchief or clothing.

Tap on a pipe or wall so rescuers can locate you. Use a whistle if one is available. Shout only as a last resort. Shouting can cause you to inhale dangerous amounts of dust.

Things to pack that can help you survive an earthquake:

A crank radio or battery operated radio, including MP3 players with radio. They don’t take up much room and if the power goes out, you will be able to get current information.

A small flashlight in case the power goes out.

Travel snacks like granola bars, beef jerky and trail mix in case you’re stuck in one place for a while.

Water. You can’t pack it if you’re flying, but keep a couple bottles in your hotel room once you settle in, and in your rental car if you have one.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ may be possible, but not the resurrection of Christianity. In fact Jesus never died on the cross.  It takes at least forty-eight hours for a person to die on the Jewish cross; and there have been known cases where people have existed almost six days on the cross without dying.   

Because Jesus was taken down from the cross after only six hours, there is no possibility of his dying on the cross. It was a conspiracy between a rich sympathizer of Jesus and Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus as late as possible on Friday — because on Saturday, Jews stop everything; their Sabbath does not allow any act.  

By the evening of Friday everything stops.   The arrangement was that Jesus would be crucified late in the afternoon, so before sunset he would be brought down. He might have been unconscious because so much blood had flowed out of the body, but he was not dead.   Then he would be kept in a cave, and before the Sabbath ended and the Jews hung him again, his body would be stolen by his followers. 

The tomb was found empty, and Jesus was removed from Judea as quickly as possible. As he again became healthy and healed, he moved to India and he lived a long life — one hundred and twelve years — in Kashmir.   It is a coincidence, but a beautiful coincidence, that Moses died in Kashmir and Jesus also died in Kashmir. I have been to the graves of both. 

The graves are ample proof, because those are the only two graves that are not pointing towards Mecca. Mohammedans make their graves with the head pointing towards Mecca, so in the whole world all the graves of Mohammedans point towards Mecca, and Kashmir is Mohammedan.   

These two graves don’t point towards Mecca, and the writing on the graves is in Hebrew, which is impossible on a Mohammedan grave — Hebrew is not their language.   The name of Jesus is written exactly as it was pronounced by the Jews, “Joshua.” “Jesus” is a Christian conversion of the Jewish name. 

The grave is certainly of Jesus. A family has been taking care of both the graves — they are very close together in one place, Pahalgam — and only one family has been taking care of them down the centuries. They are Jews — they are still Jews — and I had to take their help to read to me what is written on the graves. 

Moses had come to Kashmir to find a tribe of Jews who were lost on the way from Egypt to Jerusalem. When he reached Jerusalem his deep concern was the whole tribe that had got lost somewhere in the desert. When his people were established in Jerusalem, he went in search of the lost tribe, and he found the lost tribe established in Kashmir. 

Kashmiris are basically Jewish — later on Mohammedans forcibly converted them — and Moses lived with them and died there. Jesus also went to Kashmir, because then it was known that Moses had found the lost tribe there.   The doors of Judea were closed — he would be hanged again — and the only place where he would find the people who speak the same language, the people who have a same kind of mind, where he would not be a foreigner, was Kashmir.   

So it was natural for him to go to Kashmir. But he had learned his lesson. He had dropped the idea of being the only begotten son of God; otherwise these Jews would crucify him too. He dropped the idea of being a messiah. He lived with his few intimate friends and followers in Pahalgam.   Pahalgam is named after Jesus, because he used to call himself “the shepherd” — Pahalgam means “the town of the shepherd.” 

So it was a small colony of Jesus and his friends, surrounding the grave of their forefather and the founder of Judaic tradition. Jesus remained a Jew to the very end; he never heard about Christianity.   But the followers who were left in Judea managed to create the story of resurrection. And there was no way to prove it this way or that. 

Neither could they produce Jesus — if he was resurrected then where was he? Nor could the other party prove what had happened. They had put such a big rock on the mouth of the cave that it was impossible for Jesus to have removed it, and there was a Roman soldier on duty twenty-four hours, so there was no possibility of anybody else removing the rock and taking the body.   

But because Pontius Pilate was from the very beginning against crucifying Jesus…. He could see the man was absolutely innocent. He has some crazy ideas, but they are not criminal. And what harm does it do to somebody? If someone thinks he is the only begotten son of God, let him enjoy it. Why disturb him, and why get disturbed? If somebody thinks he is the messiah and he has brought the message of God… if you want to listen, listen; if you don’t want to listen, don’t listen. 

But there is no need to crucify the man.   But Jesus learned his lesson — learned the hard way. In Kashmir he lived very silently with his group, praying, living peacefully, no longer trying to change the world. And Kashmir was so far away from Judea that in Judea the story of resurrection, amongst the followers of Jesus, became significant. So I say a kind of resurrection certainly happened — it was a conspiracy more than a resurrection.   

But certainly Jesus did not die on the cross, he did not die in the cave where he was put; he lived long enough.   

Taken from http://oshoteachings.blogspot.com/

And So, I start the new year by cleaning up my hard disk, dumping old mp3 files and struggling to make my ancient powerbookG4 run faster… until I realized I was missing one of the most important things that has kept me alive for the past year. I had accidentally deleted the song “Tenshi no Bodyguard” by Yukiko Iwai from my computer! arggh, the cutest jpop song ever is now missing from my playlist! The song came out in 1987 and it launched Yukiko’s career in singing and voice acting. I realized the song had cuteness value when a Singaporean girl with an awful voice sang it during the JAS NHK Karaoke Cup and the Japanese judges gave her a ’special prize’ for cuteness and effort.

It’ll be a long time before I can find someone who sells old Jpop CDs so it’s a good thing youtube has a clip of the song =)

In the midst of struggle, I find encouragement from my friend who tells me about a German World War proverb that captures the resilience of the German people during the most difficult time in history:

Uns geht’s gut,
Aus der Nase fliesst das Blut,
Die Beine haben sie abgehackt,
Aber uns geht’s gut

Everything’s fine
Our noses are bleeding
Our legs have been hacked off
But everthing’s fine

He says that his parents lived through World War 2 in Europe and the suffering that it brought caused them to become stronger, physically, mentally and emotionally. Everyone experiences sturggle in life. Some try to avoid it completelty while others try to go around it. Tantrics, on the other hand, face their sturggles head-on. That’s why my favorite words now are: ファイト！ and 頑張れ！

A few days ago, the United Nations reported that the Earth’s condition is declining due to pollution, over-use and overpopulation. So what else is new?

Rather than be negatively affected by it, I think it shows an excellent opportunity to be vegetarian. Why? One of the main causes of the decline is over-use of marine resources and inefficient land use. By having most people switch to vegetarian diets, marine resources would be preserved (since less people would eat fish) and land use would be made more efficient since livestock production causes both pollution and waste. The UN report is here. But where is my kangkong?