One of the most important of all associations with a "place" in the Life and Teachings of the Buddha, other than the Bodhi Tree and Deer Park, is with Vulture Peak, a small mountain just outside the city of the ancient city of Rajgir, India.

Here, sixteen years after his Enlightenment, he set forth the second turning of the wheel of Dharma to an assembly of 5,000 monks, nuns and laity, as well as innumerable bodhisattvas. This collection of teachings, which extended over twelve years, includes the Saddharmapundarika Sutra and the Surangama Samadhi Sutra, as well…

Even though Phoenicians were recorded the first to have brought vines to the western Mediterranean, the Greeks were undoubtedly the ones who first exported it as an element of divinity.

And most probably they started in Italy, then moving into Sicily, France, Northern Africa and Spain (1000-950 BC). As Greek myths recall, some seventeen generations before the Trojan War, Oenotrus was born, perhaps the youngest of the sons of Lycaon (King of the Wolves). Being dissatisfied with his portion of his father's land, he left Arcadia (situated at the centre of Peloponnesus) and along with brother…

A young girl named Mei-Niang (Sultry-Woman) known for her wit, intelligence, and beauty, was recruited to the court of Emperor Tai Tsung. She had been chosen to become one of the Emperor's hundreds of concubines in his court.

Years later she became Wu Zetian, the only female in Chinese history to rule as emperor. To some she was an autocrat, ruthless in her desire to gain and keep power. To others she, as a woman doing a "man's job," merely did what she had to do, and acted no differently than most male emperors of her…