THE SYMBOLS OF WISDOM IN VISHNU PURANA AND “THE THREE BROTHERS AND THE GOLDEN APPLE” (ON SOME GENERAL PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS IN THE BULGARIAN FAIRYTALE AND VISHNU PURANA, CHAPTER 2)

e article draws parallels between the Bulgarian fairytale “The Three Brothers and the Golden Apple” and the second chapter of Vishnu Purana. The general philosophical aspects of these texts, which serve as a basis for the proposed hypothesis, are discussed. These are narratives of wisdom as a basis for the creation, development, existence of life, and human civilization. The gold thread in Vishnu Purana and the golden apple in the Bulgarian magic fairytale are symbols of knowledge and wisdom, with the power of which the visible world and the human society were created. If in Vishnu Purana this symbol is wrapped in a philosophical narrative about the creation of life, in “The Three Brothers and the Golden Apple” philosophy is hidden behind the seemingly concrete images and characters of the fairytale. In “The Three Brothers and the Golden Apple”, the tree with golden fruits symbolizes the tree of knowledge - an image that is present in all the sacred texts of the religions around the world. The tale is a story of the trials that one goes through in order to overcome one’s weaknesses, to know oneself, to understand the spiritual possibilities and qualities that make a person close and equal to God. The third brother continues his journey in the world, having a faithful companion - his intuition, symbolized by the most beautiful and intelligent princess. The third brother, or the symbol of the man who has overcome his weaknesses, can always benefit from the eternal Divine wisdom, symbolized by the golden apple.

CRISPR Technology Cracking into Creation

Medical directors of life and disability companies need to be aware of CRISPR technology and how it has beneficial and potential detrimental impacts to our industry. Clustered Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) is only 7 years old, but we are already seeing human clinical trials underway with this powerful but elegantly simple gene editing technology. It has the potential to revolutionize medicine and will bring human beings into an ethical debate like none other including the creation of life itself. This article will give the background of the development of this new technology, the ways that it is currently being used and the many areas of technology and medicine that will be transformed by its use. This article will also touch on the ethical debate that will need to be addressed as this technology becomes more readily available and used in research labs around the globe.

“Meant to Be?”

Religious and spiritual beliefs can help patients cope and/or prevent them from pursuing certain treatments. Major religions all contain myths about the creation of life—including human beings. Clergy, families, and friends may sanction certain procedures but prohibit others and vary widely, even within any one faith. Religious leaders may oppose a variety of procedures from small to large. Patients can follow or avoid such prohibitions. Patients, family, friends, and providers can misunderstand a religion’s perspectives, making incorrect assumptions and/or disagreeing about whether a particular couple is “meant” to have children. Providers may be unsure how to interact with patients’ beliefs and clergy, especially when the latter, not the patient, is making the decisions.

NONFATAL TRIANGLE

The article is aimed at revealing the drama of the personal life of Nina Petrovskaya, focusing on the period when her longtime relationship with Valery Brusov was coming to an end. The comparison of the facts presented in her letters to the poet with her biography demonstrates not only the particularities of the Symbolist concept of the creation of life, but also Brusov’s and Petrovskaya’s principles of modeling the identities of themselves and others

VALERY BRUSOV: FROM VITAL AND CREATIVE IDEAS TO RECREATING REALITY AND THE CREATIVE PERSONALITY IN THE SPIRIT OF BOLSHEVISM

We don’t need to blame Brusov and other symbolists for all the deadly sins almost including the October revolution. In fact, the Bolsheviks first destroyed symbolism as an old school, and their attempts in selecting figures of the new culture went far beyond Symbolistic ideas on the creation of life. After all, it is not the fault of the Russian Symbolists that their idea to reshape a new creative personality resulted in the destruction of this very personality in the U.S.S.R.

Introduction

The chapter introduces questions of skin and flesh tones via a discussion of Pedro Almódovar's 2011 film The Skin I live in. The film suggests a number of themes that are pertinent to this book: skin and identity; the relations between inside and outside; the nude and its colour; artificial skin and fantasies of the human creation of life; skin, touch and the haptic potential of vision; finally, the relationship between skin's role as a medium and the mediality of the image; issues of the colour of the nude and the longstanding association of skin, flesh and colour. The introduction also situates the book within the most relevant art historical studies on skin, flesh and the materiality of the image as well as within the scholarly field of the history of the body and of skin.