
Tags: buddha's teachings, Happiness, Knowledge, life, meditation, reality, Science

Steven Hawking, George Ellis, and Roger Penrose. According to their calculations, time and space had a finite beginning that corresponded to the origin of matter and energy.3 The singularity didn’t appear in space; rather, space began inside of the singularity. Prior to the singularity, nothing existed, not space, time, matter, or energy – nothing. So where and in what did the singularity appear if not in space? We don’t know. We don’t know where it came from, why it’s here, or even where it is. All we really know is that we are inside of it and at one time it didn’t exist and neither did we. There was no explosion; there was (and continues to be) an expansion. Rather than imagining a balloon popping and releasing its contents, imagine a balloon expanding: an infinitesimally small balloon expanding to the size of our current universe. Anonymous
And so without even quoting about string theory or M theory, the obvious question that goes beyond our present ability to understand is the question “How did it all begin” or “Where did the massive energy that appeared to become our known universe originate?”, etc. These questions can also become the fodder for religious thought, ie “God created the Universe” and it can be left at that for at this point science just can’t answer that question. Neither “answer” can be “correct” because science admits it is unanswerable and religion takes it on faith. So, as T. Carlyle says, the world is an inscrutable and magical place. Rodger

Touch strengthens your immune system, improves sleep, reduces stress, and ramps up the body’s production of its natural painkillers.
The connection between touch and mental and physical well-being is extremely potent, according to research. Touch stimulates the vagus nerve, which has branches running through your entire body. “The nerve’s primary role is to slow the nervous system,” says Tiffany Field, Ph.D.. “As a result, your heart rate goes down, your blood pressure drops, and your stress-hormone levels fall.”
These effects have a huge impact on your health, studies have found. In Field’s research on adults with illnesses like AIDS and cancer, massage therapy was shown to boost participants’ natural killer cells, which attack bacterial, viral, and cancer cells. Because of the calming effect of touch, massages can improve sleep patterns, allowing you to spend more time in the restorative deep stages of sleep. Other research shows that touch makes the body stronger and more resistant to pain, and it increases your levels of oxytocin, which is the hormone responsible for those warm, fuzzy feelings that come with being around those you love.