Sexuality and Devotion: Mystical Readings of the Song of Songs

Abstract

This article considers the rich interpretative tradition that has grown out of the Song of Songs. Particular attention is given to the Targum on the Songs which identifies its narrative as an account of the marriage between God and Israel. Although the Targum post-dates the earliest Christian exegesis, the correlation made between the Bride and Israel is likely to have predated the text and influenced the first Christian interpreters.

Two influential commentaries on the Song, offered by Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, are then examined. Although there are significant differences between these, both preserve a sense of the correspondence between the motions and movements of the soul and the sense organs of the body. It is argued that this represents a positive embracing of sexual discourse as appropriate to describe the human approach to God. This movement is carried forward into contemporary spirituality via hymnody and popular devotion. The necessity to frame the spiritual language of desire in terms that transgress gender norms enables people of different sexual orientations to name their love of God through their physical passion.     

The Song of the Siren: Dealing with Masochistic Thoughts and Behaviors

Masochism is a complex emotion that can be tenacious and ruthless in inflicting psychic pain on selected patients. It is the authors' intent to illuminate the intrapsychic dynamics of two patterns of self-defeating masochism. One is cognitive in nature, in which the patient's masochism is limited to their thoughts, without acting it out behaviorally. When, on the other hand, masochism becomes behavioral as well, the punitive super-ego dictates surrender to self-defeating and self-depriving behaviors. Theoretical discussions and case studies will show how Family, Cultural, and Religion contribute to the patient's mental and behavioral suffering. Various treatment strategies, such as modeling, creating distractions, identifying the sources of the voices of the past by analyzing the roots of masochistic feelings, providing the corrective emotional experience, are discussed as techniques designed to heal the struggles of the masochistic patient.     

两宋道教内丹学的发展与成熟

道教自东汉中期出现之后,降及隋唐,主流教派所崇尚的外丹黄白之术逐渐向以静功、存思、气法为主要表现形式的内丹路径发展。钟、吕内丹道即内丹道教的先导。①两宋是内丹道的成熟阶段。一、两宋前内丹学的兴起与传承道教的修仙方术于唐宋之际由外丹学转向内丹学,是其发展历程中的一次重大转变。内丹道的兴起,可以追溯到隋初开皇年间(581-600),罗浮山道士苏元朗(道号青霞子),称得大茅真君秘旨,撰《龙虎金液还丹通元论》及《旨道篇》,首倡内丹之道。②但隋唐时期,外丹道仍占主流地位。内丹道自隋青霞子苏元朗开宗明义、唐崔希范、钟离权、吕洞…     

COMT val158Met and executive control: a test of the benefit of specific deficits to translational research

The role of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) val158met in prefrontal cortical deficits associated with the liability to schizophrenia remains controversial. This study evaluated 464 healthy adult participants using three measures of executive functions in working memory: a 3-back version of the N-back continuous performance task (CPT) and two variants of the AX-CPT. The interpretability of N-back performance was confounded by possible generalized deficits, whereas the AX variants included internal controls for uncovering specific deficits. There was no relationship between the COMT genotype and N-back performance, whereas val/val individuals had a specific deficit on a dot-pattern version of the AX-CPT. In this case, a specific executive function known as context processing appeared to be compromised. These data suggest that the interpretability gained by including task manipulations to uncover specific deficits can enhance associations between cognitive and genetic levels of analysis.     

宋僧三书考

本文对宋僧正受<楞严经合论>十卷、本嵩<华严七字经题法界观三十门颂>二卷、子璿<首楞严义疏注经>二十卷三书作了比较详细的考辨,对于成书时间、版本源流作了尽可能的考证,并对<佛藏子目引得>等书著录中的讹误作了纠正.     

COMT基因Val158Met多态性与抑郁的关系

抑郁的发生具有重要的遗传学基础。COMT基因Val158Met多态性是抑郁的重要候选基因位点。目前有关COMT基因Val158Met多态性与抑郁关系的研究主要采用单基因设计、单基因-环境设计以及多基因-环境设计。有资料显示负性情绪偏向及其相关脑区可能在COMT基因Val158Met多态性与抑郁间起中介作用, 但具体机制仍有待探究。未来研究可以进一步考察被试的种族、年龄和性别等因素对COMT基因Val158Met多态性与抑郁关系的调节作用, 并通过采用多基因-环境设计, 综合运用积极与消极环境指标等措施深入考察负性情绪偏向和相关脑区在COMT基因Val158Met多态性与抑郁间的作用及其机制。     

宋代的二郎神崇拜

随着密宗战神毗沙门天王及其子二郎独健信仰在唐末渐隐,关羽与灌口二郎崇拜却于宋代凸显出来,比邻相伴直至清代。在五代灌口神曾被蜀人当作“护国”神祗,入宋后由于王小波、李顺之乱受到牵连,一度被禁,改以川中梓潼神或赵昱替代,终复原祀。宋仁宗时西夏围攻延州,曾因突降大雪退兵,宋廷以为神佑。在《宋大诏令集》所载历次褒封中,可以见出由最初“嘉岭山神”向灌口二郎的转化,并在汴梁受到特别尊崇,政和中封为“昭惠灵应王”。由此又可见出泉州因“丘山降雪”称神的南宋“通远王”,亦可能是灌口二郎的化身,元代妈祖崇拜大兴之后隐没不彰。     

Song copying by humpback whales: themes and variations

Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) produce long, structured sequences of sound underwater, commonly called songs. Humpbacks progressively modify their songs over time in ways that suggest that individuals are copying song elements that they hear being used by other singers. Little is known about the factors that determine how whales learn from their auditory experiences. Song learning in birds is better understood and appears to be constrained by stable core attributes such as species-specific sound repertoires and song syntax. To clarify whether similar constraints exist for song learning by humpbacks, we analyzed changes over 14 years in the sounds used by humpback whales singing in Hawaiian waters. We found that although the properties of individual sounds within songs are quite variable over time, the overall distribution of certain acoustic features within the repertoire appears to be stable. In particular, our findings suggest that species-specific constraints on temporal features of song sounds determine song form, whereas spectral variability allows whales to flexibly adapt song elements.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at .     

两宋瘟疫灾害考述

两宋时期爆发的瘟疫次数比较多,在时间上,不是呈平均之势,而是不规则,无周期的;空间分布上呈现出南方比北方多,东部比西部多的特征。由于瘟疫造成的危害比较大,当时人们在和瘟疫的多次斗争中摸索出一些防治措施,积累了相当丰富的经验。     

Cognitive control and the COMT Val158Met polymorphism: genetic modulation of videogame training and transfer to task-switching efficiency

The study investigated whether successful transfer of game-based cognitive improvements to untrained tasks might be modulated by preexisting neuro-developmental factors, such as genetic variability related to the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT)—an enzyme responsible for the degradation of dopamine. The COMT Val¹⁵⁸Met genotype may differentially affect cognitive stability and flexibility, and we hypothesized that Val/Val homozygous individuals (who possess low prefrontal dopamine levels) show more pronounced cognitive flexibility than Met/-carriers (who possess high prefrontal dopamine levels). We trained participants, genotyped for the COMT Val¹⁵⁸Met polymorphism on playing “Half-Life 2”, a first-person shooter game which has been shown to improve cognitive flexibility. Pre-training (baseline) and post-training measures of cognitive flexibility were acquired by means of a task-switching paradigm. As expected, Val/Val homozygous individuals showed larger beneficial transfer effects than Met/-carriers. Our findings support the idea that genetic predisposition modulates transfer effects and that playing first-person shooter games promotes cognitive flexibility in individuals with a suitable genetic predisposition.     

Under Solomon's Tutelage: The Education of Desire in the Homilies on the Song of Songs

This essay examines how Gregory of Nyssa sees the Solomonic books of Scripture (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs) train desire to long for God. The philosophical exercises contained in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes prepare the soul for the supreme training contained in the Song of Songs. The purpose of the Song of Songs is to lead the soul to union with God. The Trinitarian strategy of the philosophy contained in the Song of Songs exposes the soul to paradox and oxymoron, through which the soul is schooled to release its noetic–erotic grasp of concepts and is thus led to apophatic union with God.     

两宋瘟疫灾害考述

两宋时期爆发的瘟疫次数比较多,在时间上,不是呈平均之势,而是不规则,无周期的;空间分布上呈现出南方比北方多,东部比西部多的特征.由于瘟疫造成的危害比较大,当时人们在和瘟疫的多次斗争中摸索出一些防治措施,积累了相当丰富的经验.