Deconstructive spiritual inquiry : experiential undoing in Advaita and Zen

A study of the meditative techniques of Advaita and Zen. The thesis develops a methodology that allow's practioner's experience to be mapped against the philosophical underpinnings of tradition. The results show that despite opposing philosophies, in both traditions the psychological dynamics of "experiential undoing" are similar.

The view from the cushion : zen challenges to duality in the contemporary practice situation

Based on participant-observation fieldwork, interviews with western Zen practitioners, public dharma talks and personal interviews given by two contemporary Sōtō Zen teachers (Hōgen Yamahata and Ekai Korematsu), this paper explores the challenges to 'everyday' dualistic thought structures that Zen practice poses to the questioning student and the ontological and epistemological significance of these challenges to the worldview of the experiencing student. First, the teaching styles and non-dual emphases of the two teachers in the context of teacher/student exchanges are examined; and, secondly, the experiential challenges and changes in worldview from the practitioner's point of view are phenomenologically explored. By teasing out the parallels and links between the phenomenology of Zen practice and the philosophical underpinnings of Zen practice instructions, foundational philosophical tenets can be shown 'in action' in the contemporary practice situation and a window is opened on the ontological and epistemological significance of the experiential impact of Zen teachings.

The (zen) Buddhist heart of I ♥ Huckabees

 This paper offers a Buddhist reading of I ♥ Huckabees (2004). I begin with an overview of director David O. Russell's Zen influence to reveal how he weaves the Buddhist metaphor of Indra's net (a metaphor for the doctrine of pratitya-samutpada) and the principles of meditation into the narrative. The main objective, however, is to demonstrate that Russell doesn't merely re-present Buddhist ideals but also attempts to "practice" Buddhism by using the visual vernacular of contemporary media culture to rework film as meditation and meditation as film. In weaving Buddhist ideals into his satire on contemporary culture, I argue that Russell is engaging us in religious and ethico-political reflection.

Pharmacokinetics of recombinant human endostatin in rats

The pharmacokinetics of recombinant human endostatin (rh-Endo) has not been established in the rat, although this species of animal is commonly used in the pharmacological studies of rh-Endo. This study aimed to investigate the pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution, and excretion of rh-Endo in rats. 125I-radiolabeled rh-Endo was administered to healthy rats by intravenous (i.v) bolus injection at 1.5, 4.5 and 13.5 mg/kg. The maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) and area under the plasma concentration versus time curve (AUC) of rh-Endo increased proportionally with the increase of the dosage. There were no significant differences in total body clearance (CL) and elimination half-life (t1/2beta) of rh-Endo among the three dosages used. A 93.5% and 2.2% of the radioactivity was recovered in the urine and feces, respectively, in bile-duct intact rats; whereas only 0.1% of the total radioactivity was excreted into the bile in bile-duct cannulated rats. rh-Endo was rapidly and widely distributed in the liver, kidneys, spleen and lungs. Furthermore, a significant allometric relationship between CL, but not volume of distribution (Vd) and t1/2beta of rh-Endo, and the body weight was observed across mouse, rat and monkey, with the predicted values in humans significantly lower than those observed in cancer patients. rh-Endo exhibited a linear pharmacokinetics in rats and it is mainly excreted through the urine.

Paths to Buddhahood : the "sudden" and "gradual" awakening models in Mah ̄y n̄a and Vajray n̄a Buddhism

Examines the graduated paths of Mah ȳn̄a and Vajrayn̄a Buddhism and the instantaneous paths of Ch'an/Zen, rDzogs chen and Mahm̄udr.̄ The main contention between these approaches relates to how the mental defilements are to be purified and how the positive qualities of Buddhahood are to be realised. After comparing and examining the paths it is argued that the polarisation of the "sudden" and "gradual" approaches is the result of the critical philosophies of late Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, rather than a real spiritual dilemma for adherents of either path.

Enabling multi-point haptic grasping in virtual environments

Haptic interaction has received increasing research interest in recent years. Currently, most commercially available haptic devices provide the user with a single point of interaction. Multi-point haptic devices present a logical progression in device design and enable the operator to experience a far wider range of haptic interactions, particularly the ability to grasp via multiple fingers. This is highly desirable for various haptically enabled applications including virtual training, telesurgery and telemanipulation. This paper presents a gripper attachment which utilises two low-cost commercially available haptic devices to facilitate multi-point haptic grasping. It provides the ability to render forces to the user's fingers independently and using Phantom Omni haptic devices offers several benefits over more complex approaches such as low-cost, reliability, and ease of programming. The workspace of the gripper attachment is considered and in order to haptically render the desired forces to the user's fingers, kinematic analysis is discussed and necessary formulations presented. The integrated multi-point haptic platform is presented and exploration of a virtual environment using CHAI 3D is demonstrated.

Grasping virtual objects with multi-point haptics

The majority of commercially available haptic devices offer a single point of haptic interaction. These devices are limited when it is desirable to grasp with multiple fingers in applications including virtual training, telesurgery and telemanipulation. Multipoint haptic devices serve to facilitate a greater range of interactions. This paper presents a gripper attachment to enable multi-point haptic grasping in virtual environments. The approach employs two Phantom Omni haptic devices to independently render forces to the user's thumb and other fingers. Compared with more complex approaches to multi-point haptics, this approach provides a number of advantages including low-cost, reliability and ease of programming. The ability of the integrated multi-point haptic platform to interact within a CHAI 3D virtual environment is also presented.

Virtual haptic cell model for operator training

Microrobotic cell injection is an area of growing research interest. Typically, operators rely on visual feedback to perceive the microscale environment and are subject to lengthy training times and low success rates. Haptic interaction offers the ability to utilise the operator’s haptic modality and to enhance operator performance. Our earlier work presented a haptically enabled system for assisting the operator with certain aspects of the cell injection task. The system aimed to enhance the operator’s controllability of the micropipette through a logical mapping between the haptic device and microrobot, as well as introducing virtual fixtures for haptic guidance. The system was also designed in such a way that given the availability of appropriate force sensors, haptic display of the cell penetration force is straightforward. This work presents our progress towards a virtual replication of the system, aimed at facilitating offline operator training. It is suggested that operators can use the virtual system to train offline and later transfer their skills to the physical system. In order to achieve the necessary representation of the cell within the virtual system, methods based on a particle-based cell model are utilised. In addition to providing the necessary visual representation, the cell model provides the ability to estimate cell penetration forces and haptically display them to the operator. Two different approaches to achieving the virtual system are discussed.

A haptic platform to enable fingertip grasping and manipulation

Haptic technologies allow human users to haptically interact with virtual environments. Haptics has been employed in many application domains including operator training, virtual exploration and teleoperation. Currently, most commercially available haptic devices focus on a single point of haptic interaction. While single-point haptics have been successfully employed in many applications, they remain limited to particular types of haptic interaction. Multi-point haptic devices are a logical progression and facilitate a far wider range of interactions including object grasping, multi-finger object manipulation and size discrimination. The ability to effectively achieve such interactions offers significant benefits for many applications including virtual training, telesurgery and telemanipulation. In such applications, the ability to use multi-point haptic interactions can provide far more effective user interaction as well improved perception of the virtual environment.

A multi-point haptic platform for grasping and manipulating virtual objects

This work presents a multi-point haptic platform that employs two Phantom Omni haptic devices. A gripper attachment connects to both devices and enables multi-point haptic grasping in virtual environments. In contrast to more complex approaches, this setup benefits from low-cost, reliability, and ease of programming while being capable of independently rendering forces to each of the user’s fingertips. The ability to grasp with multiple points potentially lends itself to applications such as virtual training, telesurgery and telemanipulation.

Allelujah (dance version)

Allelujah Dance Version is a dance piece that also fits well with projects of a religious or spiritual theme; Christmas and Easter included. It centers on a female vocal singing Alleluia, with violin, cello, piano, harp, drums and bass.

Allelujah loop 01

Allelujah Loop 01 is a cinematic and New Age piece that also fits well with projects of a religious or spiritual theme; Christmas and Easter included or any other religious celebration where Allelujah gives praise. It centers on a female vocal singing Alleluia, with violin, cello, piano, harp and 2 synths and bells at the very end.