Category Archives: History

Wrong Desire is the Source of Suffering

From the Satires of Juvenal, Book IV, Satire X, as posted in Wikipedia:

orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.
fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem,
qui spatium uitae extremum inter munera ponat
naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores,
nesciat irasci, cupiat nihil et potiores
Herculis aerumnas credat saeuosque labores
et uenere et cenis et pluma Sardanapalli.
monstro quod ipse tibi possis dare; semita certe
tranquillae per uirtutem patet unica uitae.
(10.356-64)

I will try to translate if I can find some time. Might come in handy for the session I will be leading at RSA.

The Poet’s Eyes

From the second canto of Kavikanthabharanam by Kshemendra

With his own
eyes a poet
observes the shape of a leaf.
He knows how to make
people laugh
and studies the nature of each living thing.
The features of ocean and mountain,
the movement of sun, moon and stars.
His thoughts turn with the seasons.
He travels among different people
learning their landscapes,
learning their languages.

as quoted in The Cane Groves of Narmada River

Doing one’s dharma

The Cambridge University Hindu Cultural Society has a nice post about finding one’s place in the world:

The tiger must hunt, the nightingale must sing, the cow must yield. Similarly, there are tigers among men, nightingales among men, cows among men. We must act according to our dharma if we are to have peace in this life. In the words of the Shakesperian character, Polonius, ‘ This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.’

Often when working in IT departments the security professional is tugged away to perform other duties. The draw of performance issues and service delivery is so strong it can be difficult to remember that in order to have peace we must remain true. Security is a separate and distinct dharma.

News Today

Interesting news today for security professionals:

  1. Suicide bomber motivations point to social and economic factors more than religious or militarism
  2. Dead FARC leader’s laptop data cited in US-backed Columbian military operation in Ecuador. Evidence of “dirty bomb” alleged. Laptop data also the basis of alleged FARC ties to Venezuela
  3. Seattle-area home fires labeled as domestic terrorism. ELF group suspected due to giant white sheets left behind with the red letters “ELF” painted on them