Wells Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England, dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, whose cathedra it holds as mother church of the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Built as a Roman Catholic cathedral from around 1175 to replace an earlier church on the site since 705, it became an Anglican cathedral when King Henry VIII split from Rome. It is moderately sized for an English cathedral. Its broad west front and large central tower are dominant features. It has been called "unquestionably one of the most beautiful" and "most poetic" of English cathedrals.

 

Its Gothic architecture is mostly inspired from Early English style of the late 12th to early 13th centuries, lacking the Romanesque work that survives in many other cathedrals. Building began about 1175 at the east end with the choir. Historian John Harvey sees it as Europe's first truly Gothic structure, breaking the last constraints of Romanesque. The stonework of its pointed arcades and fluted piers bears pronounced mouldings and carved capitals in a foliate, "stiff-leaf" style. Its Early English front with 300 sculpted figures is seen as a "supreme triumph of the combined plastic arts in England". The east end retains much ancient stained glass. Unlike many cathedrals of monastic foundation, Wells has many surviving secular buildings linked to its chapter of secular canons, including the Bishop's Palace and the 15th-century residential Vicars' Close It is a Grade I listed building.

 

The earliest remains of a building on the site are of a late-Roman mausoleum, identified during excavations in 1980. An abbey church was built in Wells in 705 by Aldhelm, first bishop of the newly established Diocese of Sherborne during the reign of King Ine of Wessex. It was dedicated to St Andrew and stood at the site of the cathedral's cloisters, where some excavated remains can be seen. The font in the cathedral's south transept is from this church and is the oldest part of the present building. In 766 Cynewulf, King of Wessex, signed a charter endowing the church with eleven hides of land. In 909 the seat of the diocese was moved from Sherborne to Wells.

 

The first bishop of Wells was Athelm (909), who crowned King Æthelstan. Athelm and his nephew Dunstan both became Archbishops of Canterbury. During this period a choir of boys was established to sing the liturgy. Wells Cathedral School, which was established to educate these choirboys, dates its foundation to this point. There is, however, some controversy over this. Following the Norman Conquest, John de Villula moved the seat of the bishop from Wells to Bath in 1090. The church at Wells, no longer a cathedral, had a college of secular clergy.

 

The cathedral is thought to have been conceived and commenced in about 1175 by Reginald Fitz Jocelin, who died in 1191. Although it is clear from its size that from the outset, the church was planned to be the cathedral of the diocese, the seat of the bishop moved between Wells and the abbeys of Glastonbury and Bath, before settling at Wells. In 1197 Reginald's successor, Savaric FitzGeldewin, with the approval of Pope Celestine III, officially moved his seat to Glastonbury Abbey. The title of Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury was used until the Glastonbury claim was abandoned in 1219.

 

Savaric's successor, Jocelin of Wells, again moved the bishop's seat to Bath Abbey, with the title Bishop of Bath. Jocelin was a brother of Hugh (II) of Lincoln and was present at the signing of the Magna Carta. Jocelin continued the building campaign begun by Reginald and was responsible for the Bishop's Palace, the choristers' school, a grammar school, a hospital for travellers and a chapel. He also had a manor house built at Wookey, near Wells. Jocelin saw the church dedicated in 1239 but, despite much lobbying of the Pope by Jocelin's representatives in Rome, did not live to see cathedral status granted. The delay may have been a result of inaction by Pandulf Verraccio, a Roman ecclesiastical politician, papal legate to England and Bishop of Norwich, who was asked by the Pope to investigate the situation but did not respond. Jocelin died at Wells on 19 November 1242 and was buried in the choir of the cathedral; the memorial brass on his tomb is one of the earliest brasses in England. Following his death the monks of Bath unsuccessfully attempted to regain authority over Wells.

 

In 1245 the ongoing dispute over the title of the bishop was resolved by a ruling of Pope Innocent IV, who established the title as the "Bishop of Bath and Wells", which it has remained until this day, with Wells as the principal seat of the bishop. Since the 11th century the church has had a chapter of secular clergy, like the cathedrals of Chichester, Hereford, Lincoln and York. The chapter was endowed with 22 prebends (lands from which finance was drawn) and a provost to manage them. On acquiring cathedral status, in common with other such cathedrals, it had four chief clergy, the dean, precentor, chancellor and sacristan, who were responsible for the spiritual and material care of the cathedral.

 

The building programme, begun by Reginald Fitz Jocelin, Bishop in the 12th century, continued under Jocelin of Wells, who was a canon from 1200, then bishop from 1206. Adam Locke was master mason from about 1192 until 1230. It was designed in the new style with pointed arches, later known as Gothic, which was introduced at about the same time at Canterbury Cathedral. Work was halted between 1209 and 1213 when King John was excommunicated and Jocelin was in exile, but the main parts of the church were complete by the time of the dedication by Jocelin in 1239.

 

By the time the cathedral, including the chapter house, was finished in 1306, it was already too small for the developing liturgy, and unable to accommodate increasingly grand processions of clergy. John Droxford initiated another phase of building under master mason Thomas of Whitney, during which the central tower was heightened and an eight-sided Lady chapel was added at the east end by 1326. Ralph of Shrewsbury followed, continuing the eastward extension of the choir and retrochoir beyond. He oversaw the building of Vicars' Close and the Vicars' Hall, to give the men who were employed to sing in the choir a secure place to live and dine, away from the town and its temptations. He had an uneasy relationship with the citizens of Wells, partly because of his imposition of taxes, and he surrounded his palace with crenellated walls, a moat and a drawbridge.

 

John Harewell raised money for the completion of the west front by William Wynford, who was appointed as master mason in 1365. One of the foremost master masons of his time, Wynford worked for the king at Windsor, Winchester Cathedral and New College, Oxford. At Wells, he designed the western towers of which north-west was not built until the following century. In the 14th century, the central piers of the crossing were found to be sinking under the weight of the crossing tower which had been damaged by an earthquake in the previous century. Strainer arches, sometimes described as scissor arches, were inserted by master mason William Joy to brace and stabilise the piers as a unit.

 

By the reign of Henry VII the cathedral was complete, appearing much as it does today (though the fittings have changed). From 1508 to 1546, the eminent Italian humanist scholar Polydore Vergil was active as the chapter's representative in London. He donated a set of hangings for the choir of the cathedral. While Wells survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries better than the cathedrals of monastic foundation, the abolition of chantries in 1547 resulted in a reduction in its income. Medieval brasses were sold, and a pulpit was placed in the nave for the first time. Between 1551 and 1568, in two periods as dean, William Turner established a herb garden, which was recreated between 2003 and 2010.

 

Elizabeth I gave the chapter and the Vicars Choral a new charter in 1591, creating a new governing body, consisting of a dean and eight residentiary canons with control over the church estates and authority over its affairs, but no longer entitled to elect the dean (that entitlement thenceforward belonged ultimately to the Crown). The stability brought by the new charter ended with the onset of the Civil War and the execution of Charles I. Local fighting damaged the cathedral's stonework, furniture and windows. The dean, Walter Raleigh, a nephew of the explorer Walter Raleigh, was placed under house arrest after the fall of Bridgwater to the Parliamentarians in 1645, first in the rectory at Chedzoy and then in the deanery at Wells. His jailor, the shoe maker and city constable, David Barrett, caught him writing a letter to his wife. When he refused to surrender it, Barrett ran him through with a sword and he died six weeks later, on 10 October 1646. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the choir before the dean's stall. During the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell no dean was appointed and the cathedral fell into disrepair. The bishop went into retirement and some of the clerics were reduced to performing menial tasks.

 

In 1661, after Charles II was restored to the throne, Robert Creighton, the king's chaplain in exile, was appointed dean and was bishop for two years before his death in 1672. His brass lectern, given in thanksgiving, can be seen in the cathedral. He donated the nave's great west window at a cost of £140. Following Creighton's appointment as bishop, the post of dean went to Ralph Bathurst, who had been chaplain to the king, president of Trinity College, Oxford and fellow of the Royal Society. During Bathurst's long tenure the cathedral was restored, but in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, Puritan soldiers damaged the west front, tore lead from the roof to make bullets, broke the windows, smashed the organ and furnishings, and for a time stabled their horses in the nave.

 

Restoration began again under Thomas Ken who was appointed by the Crown in 1685 and served until 1691. He was one of seven bishops imprisoned for refusing to sign King James II's "Declaration of Indulgence", which would have enabled Catholics to resume positions of political power, but popular support led to their acquittal. Ken refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III and Mary II because James II had not abdicated and with others, known as the Nonjurors, was put out of office. His successor, Richard Kidder, was killed in the Great Storm of 1703 when two chimney stacks on the palace fell on him and his wife, while they were asleep in bed.

 

By the middle of the 19th century, a major restoration programme was needed. Under Dean Goodenough, the monuments were moved to the cloisters and the remaining medieval paint and whitewash removed in an operation known as "the great scrape". Anthony Salvin took charge of the extensive restoration of the choir. Wooden galleries installed in the 16th century were removed and the stalls were given stone canopies and placed further back within the line of the arcade. The medieval stone pulpitum screen was extended in the centre to support a new organ.

 

In 1933 the Friends of Wells Cathedral were formed to support the cathedral's chapter in the maintenance of the fabric, life and work of the cathedral. The late 20th century saw an extensive restoration programme, particularly of the west front. The stained glass is currently under restoration, with a programme underway to conserve the large 14th-century Jesse Tree window at the eastern terminal of the choir.

 

In January 2014, as part of the Bath film festival, the cathedral hosted a special screening of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. This provoked some controversy, but the church defended its decision to allow the screening.

 

In 2021, a contemporary sculpture by Anthony Gormley was unveiled on a temporary plinth outside the cathedral.

 

Since the 13th century, Wells Cathedral has been the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Its governing body, the chapter, is made up of five clerical canons (the dean, the precentor, the canon chancellor, the canon treasurer, and the archdeacon of Wells) and four lay members: the administrator (chief executive), Keeper of the Fabric, Overseer of the Estate and the chairman of the cathedral shop and catering boards. The current bishop of Bath and Wells is Peter Hancock, who was installed in a service in the cathedral on 7 June 2014. John Davies has been Dean of Wells since 2016.

 

Employed staff include the organist and master of choristers, head Verger archivist, librarian and the staff of the shop, café and restaurant. The chapter is advised by specialists such as architects, archaeologists and financial analysts.

 

More than a thousand services are held every year. There are daily services of Matins, Holy Communion and Choral Evensong, as well as major celebrations of Christian festivals such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and saints' days. The cathedral is also used for the baptisms, weddings and funerals of those with close connections to it. In July 2009 the cathedral undertook the funeral of Harry Patch, the last British Army veteran of World War I, who died at the age of 111.

 

Three Sunday services are led by the resident choir in school terms and choral services are sung on weekdays. The cathedral hosts visiting choirs and does outreach work with local schools as part of its Chorister Outreach Project. It is also a venue for musical events such as an annual concert by the Somerset Chamber Choir.

 

Each year about 150,000 people attend services and another 300,000 visit as tourists. Entry is free, but visitors are encouraged to make a donation towards the annual running costs of around £1.5 million in 2015.

 

Construction of the cathedral began in about 1175, to the design of an unknown master-mason. Wells is the first cathedral in England to be built, from its foundation, in Gothic style. According to art historian John Harvey, it is the first truly Gothic cathedral in the world, its architects having entirely dispensed with all features that bound the contemporary east end of Canterbury Cathedral and the earlier buildings of France, such as the east end of the Abbey of Saint Denis, to the Romanesque. Unlike these churches, Wells has clustered piers rather than columns and has a gallery of identical pointed arches rather than the typically Romanesque form of paired openings. The style, with its simple lancet arches without tracery and convoluted mouldings, is known as Early English Gothic.

 

From about 1192 to 1230, Adam Lock, the earliest master-mason at Wells for whom a name is known, continued the transept and nave in the same manner as his predecessor. Lock was also the builder of the north porch, to his own design.

 

The Early English west front was commenced around 1230 by Thomas Norreys, with building and sculpture continuing for thirty years. Its south-west tower was begun 100 years later and constructed between 1365 and 1395, and the north-west tower between 1425 and 1435, both in the Perpendicular Gothic style to the design of William Wynford, who also filled many of the cathedral's early English lancet windows with delicate tracery.

 

The undercroft and chapter house were built by unknown architects between 1275 and 1310, the undercroft in the Early English and the chapter house in the Geometric style of Decorated Gothic architecture. In about 1310 work commenced on the Lady Chapel, to the design of Thomas Witney, who also built the central tower from 1315 to 1322 in the Decorated Gothic style. The tower was later braced internally with arches by William Joy. Concurrent with this work, in 1329–45 Joy made alterations and extensions to the choir, joining it to the Lady Chapel with the retrochoir, the latter in the Flowing Decorated style.

 

Later changes include the Perpendicular vault of the tower and construction of Sugar's Chapel, 1475–1490 by William Smyth. Also, Gothic Revival renovations were made to the choir and pulpitum by Benjamin Ferrey and Anthony Salvin, 1842–1857.

 

Wells has a total length of 415 feet (126 m). Like Canterbury, Lincoln and Salisbury cathedrals, it has the distinctly English arrangement of two transepts, with the body of the church divided into distinct parts: nave, choir, and retro-choir, beyond which extends the Lady Chapel. The façade is wide, with its towers extending beyond the transepts on either side. There is a large projecting porch on the north side of the nave forming an entry into the cathedral. To the north-east is the large octagonal chapter house, entered from the north choir aisle by a passage and staircase. To the south of the nave is a large cloister, unusual in that the northern range, that adjacent the cathedral, was never built.

 

In section, the cathedral has the usual arrangement of a large church: a central nave with an aisle on each side, separated by two arcades. The elevation is in three stages, arcade, triforium gallery and clerestory. The nave is 67 feet (20 m) in height, very low compared to the Gothic cathedrals of France. It has a markedly horizontal emphasis, caused by the triforium having a unique form, a series of identical narrow openings, lacking the usual definition of the bays. The triforium is separated from the arcade by a single horizontal string course that runs unbroken the length of the nave. There are no vertical lines linking the three stages, as the shafts supporting the vault rise above the triforium.

 

The exterior of Wells Cathedral presents a relatively tidy and harmonious appearance since the greater part of the building was executed in a single style, Early English Gothic. This is uncommon among English cathedrals where the exterior usually exhibits a plethora of styles. At Wells, later changes in the Perpendicular style were universally applied, such as filling the Early English lancet windows with simple tracery, the construction of a parapet that encircles the roof, and the addition of pinnacles framing each gable, similar to those around the chapter house and on the west front. At the eastern end there is a proliferation of tracery with repeated motifs in the Reticulated style, a stage between Geometric and Flowing Decorated tracery.

 

The west front is 100 feet (30 m) high and 147 feet (45 m) wide, and built of Inferior Oolite of the Middle Jurassic period, which came from the Doulting Stone Quarry, about 8 miles (13 km) to the east. According to the architectural historian Alec Clifton-Taylor, it is "one of the great sights of England".

 

West fronts in general take three distinct forms: those that follow the elevation of the nave and aisles, those that have paired towers at the end of each aisle, framing the nave, and those that screen the form of the building. The west front at Wells has the paired-tower form, unusual in that the towers do not indicate the location of the aisles, but extend well beyond them, screening the dimensions and profile of the building.

 

The west front rises in three distinct stages, each clearly defined by a horizontal course. This horizontal emphasis is counteracted by six strongly projecting buttresses defining the cross-sectional divisions of nave, aisles and towers, and are highly decorated, each having canopied niches containing the largest statues on the façade.

 

At the lowest level of the façade is a plain base, contrasting with and stabilising the ornate arcades that rise above it. The base is penetrated by three doors, which are in stark contrast to the often imposing portals of French Gothic cathedrals. The outer two are of domestic proportion and the central door is ornamented only by a central post, quatrefoil and the fine mouldings of the arch.

 

Above the basement rise two storeys, ornamented with quatrefoils and niches originally holding about four hundred statues, with three hundred surviving until the mid-20th century. Since then, some have been restored or replaced, including the ruined figure of Christ in the gable.

 

The third stages of the flanking towers were both built in the Perpendicular style of the late 14th century, to the design of William Wynford; that on the north-west was not begun until about 1425. The design maintains the general proportions, and continues the strong projection of the buttresses.

 

The finished product has been criticised for its lack of pinnacles, and it is probable that the towers were intended to carry spires which were never built. Despite its lack of spires or pinnacles, the architectural historian Banister Fletcher describes it as "the highest development in English Gothic of this type of façade."

 

The sculptures on the west front at Wells include standing figures, seated figures, half-length angels and narratives in high relief. Many of the figures are life-sized or larger. Together they constitute the finest display of medieval carving in England. The figures and many of the architectural details were painted in bright colours, and the colouring scheme has been deduced from flakes of paint still adhering to some surfaces. The sculptures occupy nine architectural zones stretching horizontally across the entire west front and around the sides and the eastern returns of the towers which extend beyond the aisles. The strongly projecting buttresses have tiers of niches which contain many of the largest figures. Other large figures, including that of Christ, occupy the gable. A single figure stands in one of two later niches high on the northern tower.

 

In 1851 the archaeologist Charles Robert Cockerell published his analysis of the iconography, numbering the nine sculptural divisions from the lowest to the highest. He defined the theme as "a calendar for unlearned men" illustrating the doctrines and history of the Christian faith, its introduction to Britain and its protection by princes and bishops. He likens the arrangement and iconography to the Te Deum.

 

According to Cockerell, the side of the façade that is to the south of the central door is the more sacred and the scheme is divided accordingly. The lowest range of niches each contained a standing figure, of which all but four figures on the west front, two on each side, have been destroyed. More have survived on the northern and eastern sides of the north tower. Cockerell speculates that those to the south of the portal represented prophets and patriarchs of the Old Testament while those to the north represented early missionaries to Britain, of which Augustine of Canterbury, St Birinus, and Benedict Biscop are identifiable by their attributes. In the second zone, above each pair of standing figures, is a quatrefoil containing a half-length angel in relief, some of which have survived. Between the gables of the niches are quatrefoils that contain a series of narratives from the Bible, with the Old Testament stories to the south, above the prophets and patriarchs, and those from the New Testament to the north. A horizontal course runs around the west front dividing the architectural storeys at this point.

 

Above the course, zones four and five, as identified by Cockerell, contain figures which represent the Christian Church in Britain, with the spiritual lords such as bishops, abbots, abbesses and saintly founders of monasteries on the south, while kings, queens and princes occupy the north. Many of the figures survive and many have been identified in the light of their various attributes. There is a hierarchy of size, with the more significant figures larger and enthroned in their niches rather than standing. Immediately beneath the upper course are a series of small niches containing dynamic sculptures of the dead coming forth from their tombs on the Day of Judgement. Although naked, some of the dead are defined as royalty by their crowns and others as bishops by their mitres. Some emerge from their graves with joy and hope, and others with despair.

 

The niches in the lowest zone of the gable contain nine angels, of which Cockerell identifies Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel. In the next zone are the taller figures of the twelve apostles, some, such as John, Andrew and Bartholomew, clearly identifiable by the attributes that they carry. The uppermost niches of the gable contained the figure of Christ the Judge at the centre, with the Virgin Mary on his right and John the Baptist on his left. The figures all suffered from iconoclasm. A new statue of Jesus was carved for the central niche, but the two side niches now contain cherubim. Christ and the Virgin Mary are also represented by now headless figures in a Coronation of the Virgin in a niche above the central portal. A damaged figure of the Virgin and Christ Child occupies a quatrefoil in the spandrel of the door.

 

The central tower appears to date from the early 13th century. It was substantially reconstructed in the early 14th century during the remodelling of the east end, necessitating the internal bracing of the piers a decade or so later. In the 14th century the tower was given a timber and lead spire which burnt down in 1439. The exterior was then reworked in the Perpendicular style and given the present parapet and pinnacles. Alec Clifton-Taylor describes it as "outstanding even in Somerset, a county famed for the splendour of its church towers".

 

The north porch is described by art historian Nikolaus Pevsner as "sumptuously decorated", and intended as the main entrance. Externally it is simple and rectangular with plain side walls. The entrance is a steeply arched portal framed by rich mouldings of eight shafts with stiff-leaf capitals each encircled by an annular moulding at middle height. Those on the left are figurative, containing images representing the martyrdom of St Edmund the Martyr. The walls are lined with deep niches framed by narrow shafts with capitals and annulets like those of the portal. The path to the north porch is lined by four sculptures in Purbeck stone, each by Mary Spencer Watson, representing the symbols of the Evangelists.

 

The cloisters were built in the late 13th century and largely rebuilt from 1430 to 1508 and have wide openings divided by mullions and transoms, and tracery in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The vault has lierne ribs that form octagons at the centre of each compartment, the joints of each rib having decorative bosses. The eastern range is of two storeys, of which the upper is the library built in the 15th century.

 

Because Wells Cathedral was secular rather than monastic, cloisters were not a practical necessity. They were omitted from several other secular cathedrals but were built here and at Chichester. Explanations for their construction at these two secular cathedrals range from the processional to the aesthetic. As at Chichester, there is no northern range to the cloisters. In monastic cloisters it was the north range, benefiting most from winter sunlight, that was often used as a scriptorium.

 

In 1969, when a large chunk of stone fell from a statue near the main door, it became apparent that there was an urgent need for restoration of the west front. Detailed studies of the stonework and of conservation practices were undertaken under the cathedral architect, Alban D. R. Caroe and a restoration committee formed. The methods selected were those devised by Eve and Robert Baker. W. A. (Bert) Wheeler, clerk of works to the cathedral 1935–1978, had previously experimented with washing and surface treatment of architectural carvings on the building and his techniques were among those tried on the statues.

 

The conservation was carried out between 1974 and 1986, wherever possible using non-invasive procedures such as washing with water and a solution of lime, filling gaps and damaged surfaces with soft mortar to prevent the ingress of water and stabilising statues that were fracturing through corrosion of metal dowels. The surfaces were finished by painting with a thin coat of mortar and silane to resist further erosion and attack by pollutants. The restoration of the façade revealed much paint adhering to the statues and their niches, indicating that it had once been brightly coloured.

 

The particular character of this Early English interior is dependent on the proportions of the simple lancet arches. It is also dependent on the refinement of the architectural details, in particular the mouldings.

 

The arcade, which takes the same form in the nave, choir and transepts, is distinguished by the richness of both mouldings and carvings. Each pier of the arcade has a surface enrichment of 24 slender shafts in eight groups of three, rising beyond the capitals to form the deeply undulating mouldings of the arches. The capitals themselves are remarkable for the vitality of the stylised foliage, in a style known as "stiff-leaf". The liveliness contrasts with the formality of the moulded shafts and the smooth unbroken areas of ashlar masonry in the spandrels. Each capital is different, and some contain small figures illustrating narratives.

 

The vault of the nave rises steeply in a simple quadripartite form, in harmony with the nave arcade. The eastern end of the choir was extended and the whole upper part elaborated in the second quarter of the 14th century by William Joy. The vault has a multiplicity of ribs in a net-like form, which is very different from that of the nave, and is perhaps a recreation in stone of a local type of compartmented wooden roof of which examples remain from the 15th century, including those at St Cuthbert's Church, Wells. The vaults of the aisles of the choir also have a unique pattern.

 

Until the early 14th century, the interior of the cathedral was in a unified style, but it was to undergo two significant changes, to the tower and to the eastern end. Between 1315 and 1322 the central tower was heightened and topped by a spire, which caused the piers that supported it to show signs of stress. In 1338 the mason William Joy employed an unorthodox solution by inserting low arches topped by inverted arches of similar dimensions, forming scissors-like structures. These arches brace the piers of the crossing on three sides, while the easternmost side is braced by a choir screen. The bracing arches are known as "St Andrew's Cross arches", in a reference to the patron saint of the cathedral. They have been described by Wim Swaan – rightly or wrongly – as "brutally massive" and intrusive in an otherwise restrained interior.

 

Wells Cathedral has a square east end to the choir, as is usual, and like several other cathedrals including Salisbury and Lichfield, has a lower Lady Chapel projecting at the eastern end, begun by Thomas Witney in about 1310, possibly before the chapter house was completed. The Lady Chapel seems to have begun as a free-standing structure in the form of an elongated octagon, but the plan changed and it was linked to the eastern end by extension of the choir and construction of a second transept or retrochoir east of the choir, probably by William Joy.

 

The Lady Chapel has a vault of complex and somewhat irregular pattern, as the chapel is not symmetrical about both axes. The main ribs are intersected by additional non-supporting, lierne ribs, which in this case form a star-shaped pattern at the apex of the vault. It is one of the earliest lierne vaults in England. There are five large windows, of which four are filled with fragments of medieval glass. The tracery of the windows is in the style known as Reticulated Gothic, having a pattern of a single repeated shape, in this case a trefoil, giving a "reticulate" or net-like appearance.

 

The retrochoir extends across the east end of the choir and into the east transepts. At its centre the vault is supported by a remarkable structure of angled piers. Two of these are placed as to complete the octagonal shape of the Lady Chapel, a solution described by Francis Bond as "an intuition of Genius". The piers have attached shafts of marble, and, with the vaults that they support, create a vista of great complexity from every angle. The windows of the retrochoir are in the Reticulated style like those of the Lady Chapel, but are fully Flowing Decorated in that the tracery mouldings form ogival curves.

 

The chapter house was begun in the late 13th century and built in two stages, completed about 1310. It is a two-storeyed structure with the main chamber raised on an undercroft. It is entered from a staircase which divides and turns, one branch leading through the upper storey of Chain Gate to Vicars' Close. The Decorated interior is described by Alec Clifton-Taylor as "architecturally the most beautiful in England". It is octagonal, with its ribbed vault supported on a central column. The column is surrounded by shafts of Purbeck Marble, rising to a single continuous rippling foliate capital of stylised oak leaves and acorns, quite different in character from the Early English stiff-leaf foliage. Above the moulding spring 32 ribs of strong profile, giving an effect generally likened to "a great palm tree". The windows are large with Geometric Decorated tracery that is beginning to show an elongation of form, and ogees in the lesser lights that are characteristic of Flowing Decorated tracery. The tracery lights still contain ancient glass. Beneath the windows are 51 stalls, the canopies of which are enlivened by carvings including many heads carved in a light-hearted manner.

 

Wells Cathedral contains one of the most substantial collections of medieval stained glass in England, despite damage by Parliamentary troops in 1642 and 1643. The oldest surviving glass dates from the late 13th century and is in two windows on the west side of the chapter-house staircase. Two windows in the south choir aisle are from 1310 to 1320.

 

The Lady Chapel has five windows, of which four date from 1325 to 1330 and include images of a local saint, Dunstan. The east window was restored to a semblance of its original appearance by Thomas Willement in 1845. The other windows have complete canopies, but the pictorial sections are fragmented.

 

The east window of the choir is a broad, seven-light window dating from 1340 to 1345. It depicts the Tree of Jesse (the genealogy of Christ) and demonstrates the use of silver staining, a new technique that allowed the artist to paint details on the glass in yellow, as well as black. The combination of yellow and green glass and the application of the bright yellow stain gives the window its popular name, the "Golden Window". It is flanked by two windows each side in the clerestory, with large figures of saints, also dated to 1340–45. In 2010 a major conservation programme was undertaken on the Jesse Tree window.

 

The panels in the chapel of St Katherine are attributed to Arnold of Nijmegen and date from about 1520. They were acquired from the destroyed church of Saint-Jean, Rouen, with the last panel having been purchased in 1953.

 

The large triple lancet to the nave west end was glazed at the expense of Dean Creighton at a cost of £140 in 1664. It was repaired in 1813, and the central light was largely replaced to a design by Archibald Keightley Nicholson between 1925 and 1931. The main north and south transept end windows by James Powell and Sons were erected in the early 20th century.

 

The greater part of the stone carving of Wells Cathedral comprises foliate capitals in the stiff-leaf style. They are found ornamenting the piers of the nave, choir and transepts. Stiff-leaf foliage is highly abstract. Though possibly influenced by carvings of acanthus leaves or vine leaves, it cannot be easily identified with any particular plant. Here the carving of the foliage is varied and vigorous, the springing leaves and deep undercuts casting shadows that contrast with the surface of the piers. In the transepts and towards the crossing in the nave the capitals have many small figurative carvings among the leaves. These include a man with toothache and a series of four scenes depicting the "Wages of Sin" in a narrative of fruit stealers who creep into an orchard and are then beaten by the farmer. Another well-known carving is in the north transept aisle: a foliate corbel, on which climbs a lizard, sometimes identified as a salamander, a symbol of eternal life.

 

Carvings in the Decorated Gothic style may be found in the eastern end of the buildings, where there are many carved bosses. In the chapter house, the carvings of the 51 stalls include numerous small heads of great variety, many of them smiling or laughing. A well-known figure is the corbel of the dragon-slaying monk in the chapter house stair. The large continuous capital that encircles the central pillar of the chapter house is markedly different in style to the stiff-leaf of the Early English period. In contrast to the bold projections and undercutting of the earlier work, it has a rippling form and is clearly identifiable as grapevine.

 

The 15th-century cloisters have many small bosses ornamenting the vault. Two in the west cloister, near the gift shop and café, have been called sheela na gigs, i. e. female figures displaying their genitals and variously judged to depict the sin of lust or stem from ancient fertility cults.

 

Wells Cathedral has one of the finest sets of misericords in Britain. Its clergy has a long tradition of singing or reciting from the Book of Psalms each day, along with the customary daily reading of the Holy Office. In medieval times the clergy assembled in the church eight times daily for the canonical hours. As the greater part of the services was recited while standing, many monastic or collegiate churches fitted stalls whose seats tipped up to provide a ledge for the monk or cleric to lean against. These were "misericords" because their installation was an act of mercy. Misericords typically have a carved figurative bracket beneath the ledge framed by two floral motifs known, in heraldic manner, as "supporters".

 

The misericords date from 1330 to 1340. They may have been carved under the direction of Master Carpenter John Strode, although his name is not recorded before 1341. He was assisted by Bartholomew Quarter, who is documented from 1343. They originally numbered 90, of which 65 have survived. Sixty-one are installed in the choir, three are displayed in the cathedral, and one is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. New stalls were ordered when the eastern end of the choir was extended in the early 14th century. The canons complained that they had borne the cost of the rebuilding and ordered the prebendary clerics to pay for their own stalls. When the newly refurbished choir opened in 1339 many misericords were left unfinished, including one-fifth of the surviving 65. Many of the clerics had not paid, having been called to contribute a total sum of £200. The misericords survived better than the other sections of the stalls, which during the Protestant Reformation had their canopies chopped off and galleries inserted above them. One misericord, showing a boy pulling a thorn from his foot, dates from the 17th century. In 1848 came a complete rearrangement of the choir furniture, and 61 of the misericords were reused in the restructured stalls.

 

The subject matter of the carvings of the central brackets as misericords varies, but many themes recur in different churches. Typically the themes are less unified or directly related to the Bible and Christian theology than small sculptures seen elsewhere within churches, such as bosses. This applies at Wells, where none of the misericord carvings is directly based on a Bible story. The subjects, chosen either by the woodcarver, or perhaps by the one paying for the stall, have no overriding theme. The sole unifying elements are the roundels on each side of the pictorial subject, which all show elaborately carved foliage, in most cases formal and stylised in the later Decorated manner, but with several examples of naturalistic foliage, including roses and bindweed. Many of the subjects carry traditional interpretations. The image of the "Pelican in her Piety" (believed to feed her young on her own blood) is a recognised symbol for Christ's love for the Church. A cat playing with a mouse may represent the Devil snaring a human soul. Other subjects illustrate popular fables or sayings such as "When the fox preaches, look to your geese". Many depict animals, some of which may symbolise a human vice or virtue, or an aspect of faith.

 

Twenty-seven of the carvings depict animals: rabbits, dogs, a puppy biting a cat, a ewe feeding a lamb, monkeys, lions, bats, and the Early Christian motif of two doves drinking from a ewer. Eighteen have mythological subjects, including mermaids, dragons and wyverns. Five are clearly narrative, such as the Fox and the Geese, and the story of Alexander the Great being raised to Heaven by griffins. There are three heads: a bishop in a mitre, an angel, and a woman wearing a veil over hair arranged in coils over each ear. Eleven carvings show human figures, among which are several of remarkable design, conceived by the artist specifically for their purpose of supporting a shelf. One figure lies beneath the seat, supporting the shelf with a cheek, a hand and a foot. Another sits in a contorted manner supporting the weight on his elbow, while a further figure squats with his knees wide apart and a strained look on his face.

 

Some of the cathedral's fittings and monuments are hundreds of years old. The brass lectern in the Lady Chapel dates from 1661 and has a moulded stand and foliate crest. In the north transept chapel is a 17th-century oak screen with columns, formerly used in cow stalls, with artisan Ionic capitals and cornice, set forward over the chest tomb of John Godelee. There is a bound oak chest from the 14th century, which was used to store the chapter seal and key documents. The bishop's throne dates from 1340, and has a panelled, canted front and stone doorway, and a deep nodding cusped ogee canopy above it, with three-stepped statue niches and pinnacles. The throne was restored by Anthony Salvin around 1850. Opposite the throne is a 19th-century octagonal pulpit on a coved base with panelled sides, and steps up from the north aisle. The round font in the south transept is from the former Saxon cathedral and has an arcade of round-headed arches, on a round plinth. The font cover was made in 1635 and is decorated with the heads of putti. The Chapel of St Martin is a memorial to every Somerset man who fell in World War I.

 

The monuments and tombs include Gisa, bishop; † 1088; William of Bitton, bishop; † 1274; William of March, bishop; † 1302; John Droxford; † 1329; John Godelee; † 1333; John Middleton, died †1350; Ralph of Shrewsbury, died †; John Harewell, bishop; † 1386; William Bykonyll; † c. 1448; John Bernard; † 1459; Thomas Beckington; † died 1464; John Gunthorpe; † 1498; John Still; † 1607; Robert Creighton; † 1672; Richard Kidder, bishop; † 1703; George Hooper, bishop; † 1727 and Arthur Harvey, bishop; † 1894.

 

In the north transept is Wells Cathedral clock, an astronomical clock from about 1325 believed to be by Peter Lightfoot, a monk of Glastonbury. Its mechanism, dated between 1386 and 1392, was replaced in the 19th century and the original moved to the Science Museum in London, where it still operates. It is the second oldest surviving clock in England after the Salisbury Cathedral clock.

 

The clock has its original medieval face. Apart from the time on a 24-hour dial, it shows the motion of the Sun and Moon, the phases of the Moon, and the time since the last new Moon. The astronomical dial presents a geocentric or pre-Copernican view, with the Sun and Moon revolving round a central fixed Earth, like that of the clock at Ottery St Mary. The quarters are chimed by a quarter jack: a small automaton known as Jack Blandifers, who hits two bells with hammers and two with his heels. At the striking of the clock, jousting knights appear above the clock face.

 

On the outer wall of the transept, opposite Vicars' Hall, is a second clock face of the same clock, placed there just over seventy years after the interior clock and driven by the same mechanism. The second clock face has two quarter jacks (which strike on the quarter-hour) in the form of knights in armour.

 

In 2010 the official clock-winder retired and was replaced by an electric mechanism.

 

The first record of an organ at this church dates from 1310. A smaller organ, probably for the Lady Chapel, was installed in 1415. In 1620 an organ built by Thomas Dallam was installed at a cost of £398 1s 5d.

 

The 1620 organ was destroyed by parliamentary soldiers in 1643. An organ built in 1662 was enlarged in 1786 and again in 1855. In 1909–1910 an organ was built by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, with the best parts of the old organ retained. It has been serviced by the same company ever since.

 

Since November 1996 the cathedral has also had a portable chamber organ, by the Scottish makers, Lammermuir. It is used regularly to accompany performances of Tudor and baroque music.

 

The first recorded organist of Wells was Walter Bagele (or Vageler) in 1416. The post of organist or assistant organist has been held by more than 60 people since. Peter Stanley Lyons was Master of Choristers at Wells Cathedral, and Director of Music at Wells Cathedral School in 1954–1960. The choral conductor James William Webb-Jones, father of Lyons's wife Bridget (whom he married in the cathedral), was Headmaster of Wells Cathedral School in 1955–1960. Malcolm Archer was the appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers from 1996 to 2004. Matthew Owens was the appointed organist from 2005 to 2019.

 

There has been a choir of boy choristers at Wells since 909. Currently there are 18 boy choristers and a similar number of girl choristers, aged from eight to fourteen. The Vicars Choral was formed in the 12th century and the sung liturgy provided by a traditional cathedral choir of men and boys until the formation of an additional choir of girls in 1994. The boys and girls sing alternately with the Vicars Choral and are educated at Wells Cathedral School.

 

The Vicars Choral currently number twelve men, of whom three are choral scholars. Since 1348 the College of Vicars had its own accommodation in a quadrangle converted in the early 15th century to form Vicar's Close. The Vicars Choral generally perform with the choristers, except on Wednesdays, when they sing alone, allowing them to present a different repertoire, in particular plainsong.

 

In December 2010 Wells Cathedral Choir was rated by Gramophone magazine as "the highest ranking choir with children in the world". It continues to provide music for the liturgy at Sunday and weekday services. The choir has made many recordings and toured frequently, including performances in Beijing and Hong Kong in 2012. Its repertoire ranges from the choral music of the Renaissance to recently commissioned works.

 

The Wells Cathedral Chamber Choir is a mixed adult choir of 25 members, formed in 1986 to sing at the midnight service on Christmas Eve, and invited to sing at several other special services. It now sings for about 30 services a year, when the Cathedral Choir is in recess or on tour, and spends one week a year singing as the "choir in residence" at another cathedral. Although primarily liturgical, the choir's repertoire includes other forms of music, as well as performances at engagements such as weddings and funerals.

 

The cathedral is home to Wells Cathedral Oratorio Society (WCOS), founded in 1896. With around 160 voices, the society gives three concerts a year under the direction of Matthew Owens, Organist and Master of the Choristers at the cathedral. Concerts are normally in early November, December (an annual performance of Handel's Messiah) and late March. It performs with a number of specialist orchestras including: Music for Awhile, Chameleon Arts and La Folia.

 

The bells at Wells Cathedral are the heaviest ring of ten bells in the world, the tenor bell (the 10th and largest), known as Harewell, weighing 56.25 long hundredweight (2,858 kg). They are hung for full-circle ringing in the English style of change ringing. These bells are now hung in the south-west tower, although some were originally hung in the central tower.

 

The library above the eastern cloister was built between 1430 and 1508. Its collection is in three parts: early documents housed in the Muniment Room; the collection predating 1800 housed in the Chained Library; and the post-1800 collection housed in the Reading Room. The chapter's earlier collection was destroyed during the Reformation, so that the present library consists chiefly of early printed books, rather than medieval manuscripts. The earlier books in the Chained Library number 2,800 volumes and give an indication of the variety of interests of the members of the cathedral chapter from the Reformation until 1800. The focus of the collection is predominantly theology, but there are volumes on science, medicine, exploration, and languages. Books of particular interest include Pliny's Natural History printed in 1472, an Atlas of the World by Abraham Ortelius, printed in 1606, and a set of the works by Aristotle that once belonged to Erasmus. The library is open to the public at appointed times in the summer and presents a small exhibition of documents and books.

 

Three early registers of the Dean and Chapter edited by W. H. B. Bird for the Historical Manuscripts Commissioners – Liber Albus I (White Book; R I), Liber Albus II (R III) and Liber Ruber (Red Book; R II, section i) – were published in 1907. They contain with some repetition, a cartulary of possessions of the cathedral, with grants of land back to the 8th century, well before hereditary surnames developed in England, and acts of the Dean and Chapter and surveys of their estates, mostly in Somerset.

 

Adjacent to the cathedral is a large lawned area, Cathedral Green, with three ancient gateways: Brown's Gatehouse, Penniless Porch and Chain Gate. On the green is the 12th-century Old Deanery, largely rebuilt in the late 15th century by Dean Gunthorpe and remodelled by Dean Bathurst in the late 17th century. No longer the dean's residence, it is used as diocesan offices.

 

To the south of the cathedral is the moated Bishop's Palace, begun about 1210 by Jocelin of Wells but dating mostly from the 1230s. In the 15th century Thomas Beckington added a north wing, now the bishop's residence. It was restored and extended by Benjamin Ferrey between 1846 and 1854.

 

To the north of the cathedral and connected to it by the Chain Gate is Vicars' Close, a street planned in the 14th century and claimed to be the oldest purely residential street in Europe, with all but one of its original buildings intact. Buildings in the close include the Vicars Hall and gateway at the south end, and the Vicars Chapel and Library at the north end.

 

The Liberty of St Andrew was the historic liberty and parish that encompassed the cathedral and surrounding lands closely associated with it.

 

The English painter J. M. W. Turner visited Wells in 1795, making sketches of the precinct and a water colour of the west front, now in the Tate gallery. Other artists whose paintings of the cathedral are in national collections are Albert Goodwin, John Syer and Ken Howard.

 

The cathedral served to inspire Ken Follett's 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth and with a modified central tower, featured as the fictional Kingsbridge Cathedral at the end of the 2010 television adaptation of that novel. The interior of the cathedral was used for a 2007 Doctor Who episode, "The Lazarus Experiment", while the exterior shots were filmed at Southwark Cathedral.

 

An account of the damage to the cathedral during the Monmouth Rebellion is included in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1889 historical novel Micah Clarke.

 

The cathedral provided scenes for the 2019–2020 television series The Spanish Princess.

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

- Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia (23 Jul 1892-1975)

 

This is an inaction, art figure that I put together. The head is a cast made from my original hand sculpted version. There is no articulation and the backer card is laminated. The art on the card was also done by me. I have wanted to make this for a while. A mash up of the innocent, child, friendly 80's figures with the darker, films. I hand painted the figure and as stated the card is laminated and is hard plastic that will NOT rip.

  

Some pictures of a blazing barge carrying wrecked cars. The Victoria BC FireStorm 30 did a great job.

 

The smoke could be seen from far away, bad smoke, gas tanks exploding, it was quite a scene.

STOP Flickr Blocking in the UAE!

Red tape: "any official routine or procedure marked by excessive complexity which results in delay or inaction."

Wells Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England, dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, whose cathedra it holds as mother church of the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Built as a Roman Catholic cathedral from around 1175 to replace an earlier church on the site since 705, it became an Anglican cathedral when King Henry VIII split from Rome. It is moderately sized for an English cathedral. Its broad west front and large central tower are dominant features. It has been called "unquestionably one of the most beautiful" and "most poetic" of English cathedrals.

 

Its Gothic architecture is mostly inspired from Early English style of the late 12th to early 13th centuries, lacking the Romanesque work that survives in many other cathedrals. Building began about 1175 at the east end with the choir. Historian John Harvey sees it as Europe's first truly Gothic structure, breaking the last constraints of Romanesque. The stonework of its pointed arcades and fluted piers bears pronounced mouldings and carved capitals in a foliate, "stiff-leaf" style. Its Early English front with 300 sculpted figures is seen as a "supreme triumph of the combined plastic arts in England". The east end retains much ancient stained glass. Unlike many cathedrals of monastic foundation, Wells has many surviving secular buildings linked to its chapter of secular canons, including the Bishop's Palace and the 15th-century residential Vicars' Close It is a Grade I listed building.

 

The earliest remains of a building on the site are of a late-Roman mausoleum, identified during excavations in 1980. An abbey church was built in Wells in 705 by Aldhelm, first bishop of the newly established Diocese of Sherborne during the reign of King Ine of Wessex. It was dedicated to St Andrew and stood at the site of the cathedral's cloisters, where some excavated remains can be seen. The font in the cathedral's south transept is from this church and is the oldest part of the present building. In 766 Cynewulf, King of Wessex, signed a charter endowing the church with eleven hides of land. In 909 the seat of the diocese was moved from Sherborne to Wells.

 

The first bishop of Wells was Athelm (909), who crowned King Æthelstan. Athelm and his nephew Dunstan both became Archbishops of Canterbury. During this period a choir of boys was established to sing the liturgy. Wells Cathedral School, which was established to educate these choirboys, dates its foundation to this point. There is, however, some controversy over this. Following the Norman Conquest, John de Villula moved the seat of the bishop from Wells to Bath in 1090. The church at Wells, no longer a cathedral, had a college of secular clergy.

 

The cathedral is thought to have been conceived and commenced in about 1175 by Reginald Fitz Jocelin, who died in 1191. Although it is clear from its size that from the outset, the church was planned to be the cathedral of the diocese, the seat of the bishop moved between Wells and the abbeys of Glastonbury and Bath, before settling at Wells. In 1197 Reginald's successor, Savaric FitzGeldewin, with the approval of Pope Celestine III, officially moved his seat to Glastonbury Abbey. The title of Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury was used until the Glastonbury claim was abandoned in 1219.

 

Savaric's successor, Jocelin of Wells, again moved the bishop's seat to Bath Abbey, with the title Bishop of Bath. Jocelin was a brother of Hugh (II) of Lincoln and was present at the signing of the Magna Carta. Jocelin continued the building campaign begun by Reginald and was responsible for the Bishop's Palace, the choristers' school, a grammar school, a hospital for travellers and a chapel. He also had a manor house built at Wookey, near Wells. Jocelin saw the church dedicated in 1239 but, despite much lobbying of the Pope by Jocelin's representatives in Rome, did not live to see cathedral status granted. The delay may have been a result of inaction by Pandulf Verraccio, a Roman ecclesiastical politician, papal legate to England and Bishop of Norwich, who was asked by the Pope to investigate the situation but did not respond. Jocelin died at Wells on 19 November 1242 and was buried in the choir of the cathedral; the memorial brass on his tomb is one of the earliest brasses in England. Following his death the monks of Bath unsuccessfully attempted to regain authority over Wells.

 

In 1245 the ongoing dispute over the title of the bishop was resolved by a ruling of Pope Innocent IV, who established the title as the "Bishop of Bath and Wells", which it has remained until this day, with Wells as the principal seat of the bishop. Since the 11th century the church has had a chapter of secular clergy, like the cathedrals of Chichester, Hereford, Lincoln and York. The chapter was endowed with 22 prebends (lands from which finance was drawn) and a provost to manage them. On acquiring cathedral status, in common with other such cathedrals, it had four chief clergy, the dean, precentor, chancellor and sacristan, who were responsible for the spiritual and material care of the cathedral.

 

The building programme, begun by Reginald Fitz Jocelin, Bishop in the 12th century, continued under Jocelin of Wells, who was a canon from 1200, then bishop from 1206. Adam Locke was master mason from about 1192 until 1230. It was designed in the new style with pointed arches, later known as Gothic, which was introduced at about the same time at Canterbury Cathedral. Work was halted between 1209 and 1213 when King John was excommunicated and Jocelin was in exile, but the main parts of the church were complete by the time of the dedication by Jocelin in 1239.

 

By the time the cathedral, including the chapter house, was finished in 1306, it was already too small for the developing liturgy, and unable to accommodate increasingly grand processions of clergy. John Droxford initiated another phase of building under master mason Thomas of Whitney, during which the central tower was heightened and an eight-sided Lady chapel was added at the east end by 1326. Ralph of Shrewsbury followed, continuing the eastward extension of the choir and retrochoir beyond. He oversaw the building of Vicars' Close and the Vicars' Hall, to give the men who were employed to sing in the choir a secure place to live and dine, away from the town and its temptations. He had an uneasy relationship with the citizens of Wells, partly because of his imposition of taxes, and he surrounded his palace with crenellated walls, a moat and a drawbridge.

 

John Harewell raised money for the completion of the west front by William Wynford, who was appointed as master mason in 1365. One of the foremost master masons of his time, Wynford worked for the king at Windsor, Winchester Cathedral and New College, Oxford. At Wells, he designed the western towers of which north-west was not built until the following century. In the 14th century, the central piers of the crossing were found to be sinking under the weight of the crossing tower which had been damaged by an earthquake in the previous century. Strainer arches, sometimes described as scissor arches, were inserted by master mason William Joy to brace and stabilise the piers as a unit.

 

By the reign of Henry VII the cathedral was complete, appearing much as it does today (though the fittings have changed). From 1508 to 1546, the eminent Italian humanist scholar Polydore Vergil was active as the chapter's representative in London. He donated a set of hangings for the choir of the cathedral. While Wells survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries better than the cathedrals of monastic foundation, the abolition of chantries in 1547 resulted in a reduction in its income. Medieval brasses were sold, and a pulpit was placed in the nave for the first time. Between 1551 and 1568, in two periods as dean, William Turner established a herb garden, which was recreated between 2003 and 2010.

 

Elizabeth I gave the chapter and the Vicars Choral a new charter in 1591, creating a new governing body, consisting of a dean and eight residentiary canons with control over the church estates and authority over its affairs, but no longer entitled to elect the dean (that entitlement thenceforward belonged ultimately to the Crown). The stability brought by the new charter ended with the onset of the Civil War and the execution of Charles I. Local fighting damaged the cathedral's stonework, furniture and windows. The dean, Walter Raleigh, a nephew of the explorer Walter Raleigh, was placed under house arrest after the fall of Bridgwater to the Parliamentarians in 1645, first in the rectory at Chedzoy and then in the deanery at Wells. His jailor, the shoe maker and city constable, David Barrett, caught him writing a letter to his wife. When he refused to surrender it, Barrett ran him through with a sword and he died six weeks later, on 10 October 1646. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the choir before the dean's stall. During the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell no dean was appointed and the cathedral fell into disrepair. The bishop went into retirement and some of the clerics were reduced to performing menial tasks.

 

In 1661, after Charles II was restored to the throne, Robert Creighton, the king's chaplain in exile, was appointed dean and was bishop for two years before his death in 1672. His brass lectern, given in thanksgiving, can be seen in the cathedral. He donated the nave's great west window at a cost of £140. Following Creighton's appointment as bishop, the post of dean went to Ralph Bathurst, who had been chaplain to the king, president of Trinity College, Oxford and fellow of the Royal Society. During Bathurst's long tenure the cathedral was restored, but in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, Puritan soldiers damaged the west front, tore lead from the roof to make bullets, broke the windows, smashed the organ and furnishings, and for a time stabled their horses in the nave.

 

Restoration began again under Thomas Ken who was appointed by the Crown in 1685 and served until 1691. He was one of seven bishops imprisoned for refusing to sign King James II's "Declaration of Indulgence", which would have enabled Catholics to resume positions of political power, but popular support led to their acquittal. Ken refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III and Mary II because James II had not abdicated and with others, known as the Nonjurors, was put out of office. His successor, Richard Kidder, was killed in the Great Storm of 1703 when two chimney stacks on the palace fell on him and his wife, while they were asleep in bed.

 

By the middle of the 19th century, a major restoration programme was needed. Under Dean Goodenough, the monuments were moved to the cloisters and the remaining medieval paint and whitewash removed in an operation known as "the great scrape". Anthony Salvin took charge of the extensive restoration of the choir. Wooden galleries installed in the 16th century were removed and the stalls were given stone canopies and placed further back within the line of the arcade. The medieval stone pulpitum screen was extended in the centre to support a new organ.

 

In 1933 the Friends of Wells Cathedral were formed to support the cathedral's chapter in the maintenance of the fabric, life and work of the cathedral. The late 20th century saw an extensive restoration programme, particularly of the west front. The stained glass is currently under restoration, with a programme underway to conserve the large 14th-century Jesse Tree window at the eastern terminal of the choir.

 

In January 2014, as part of the Bath film festival, the cathedral hosted a special screening of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. This provoked some controversy, but the church defended its decision to allow the screening.

 

In 2021, a contemporary sculpture by Anthony Gormley was unveiled on a temporary plinth outside the cathedral.

 

Since the 13th century, Wells Cathedral has been the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Its governing body, the chapter, is made up of five clerical canons (the dean, the precentor, the canon chancellor, the canon treasurer, and the archdeacon of Wells) and four lay members: the administrator (chief executive), Keeper of the Fabric, Overseer of the Estate and the chairman of the cathedral shop and catering boards. The current bishop of Bath and Wells is Peter Hancock, who was installed in a service in the cathedral on 7 June 2014. John Davies has been Dean of Wells since 2016.

 

Employed staff include the organist and master of choristers, head Verger archivist, librarian and the staff of the shop, café and restaurant. The chapter is advised by specialists such as architects, archaeologists and financial analysts.

 

More than a thousand services are held every year. There are daily services of Matins, Holy Communion and Choral Evensong, as well as major celebrations of Christian festivals such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and saints' days. The cathedral is also used for the baptisms, weddings and funerals of those with close connections to it. In July 2009 the cathedral undertook the funeral of Harry Patch, the last British Army veteran of World War I, who died at the age of 111.

 

Three Sunday services are led by the resident choir in school terms and choral services are sung on weekdays. The cathedral hosts visiting choirs and does outreach work with local schools as part of its Chorister Outreach Project. It is also a venue for musical events such as an annual concert by the Somerset Chamber Choir.

 

Each year about 150,000 people attend services and another 300,000 visit as tourists. Entry is free, but visitors are encouraged to make a donation towards the annual running costs of around £1.5 million in 2015.

 

Construction of the cathedral began in about 1175, to the design of an unknown master-mason. Wells is the first cathedral in England to be built, from its foundation, in Gothic style. According to art historian John Harvey, it is the first truly Gothic cathedral in the world, its architects having entirely dispensed with all features that bound the contemporary east end of Canterbury Cathedral and the earlier buildings of France, such as the east end of the Abbey of Saint Denis, to the Romanesque. Unlike these churches, Wells has clustered piers rather than columns and has a gallery of identical pointed arches rather than the typically Romanesque form of paired openings. The style, with its simple lancet arches without tracery and convoluted mouldings, is known as Early English Gothic.

 

From about 1192 to 1230, Adam Lock, the earliest master-mason at Wells for whom a name is known, continued the transept and nave in the same manner as his predecessor. Lock was also the builder of the north porch, to his own design.

 

The Early English west front was commenced around 1230 by Thomas Norreys, with building and sculpture continuing for thirty years. Its south-west tower was begun 100 years later and constructed between 1365 and 1395, and the north-west tower between 1425 and 1435, both in the Perpendicular Gothic style to the design of William Wynford, who also filled many of the cathedral's early English lancet windows with delicate tracery.

 

The undercroft and chapter house were built by unknown architects between 1275 and 1310, the undercroft in the Early English and the chapter house in the Geometric style of Decorated Gothic architecture. In about 1310 work commenced on the Lady Chapel, to the design of Thomas Witney, who also built the central tower from 1315 to 1322 in the Decorated Gothic style. The tower was later braced internally with arches by William Joy. Concurrent with this work, in 1329–45 Joy made alterations and extensions to the choir, joining it to the Lady Chapel with the retrochoir, the latter in the Flowing Decorated style.

 

Later changes include the Perpendicular vault of the tower and construction of Sugar's Chapel, 1475–1490 by William Smyth. Also, Gothic Revival renovations were made to the choir and pulpitum by Benjamin Ferrey and Anthony Salvin, 1842–1857.

 

Wells has a total length of 415 feet (126 m). Like Canterbury, Lincoln and Salisbury cathedrals, it has the distinctly English arrangement of two transepts, with the body of the church divided into distinct parts: nave, choir, and retro-choir, beyond which extends the Lady Chapel. The façade is wide, with its towers extending beyond the transepts on either side. There is a large projecting porch on the north side of the nave forming an entry into the cathedral. To the north-east is the large octagonal chapter house, entered from the north choir aisle by a passage and staircase. To the south of the nave is a large cloister, unusual in that the northern range, that adjacent the cathedral, was never built.

 

In section, the cathedral has the usual arrangement of a large church: a central nave with an aisle on each side, separated by two arcades. The elevation is in three stages, arcade, triforium gallery and clerestory. The nave is 67 feet (20 m) in height, very low compared to the Gothic cathedrals of France. It has a markedly horizontal emphasis, caused by the triforium having a unique form, a series of identical narrow openings, lacking the usual definition of the bays. The triforium is separated from the arcade by a single horizontal string course that runs unbroken the length of the nave. There are no vertical lines linking the three stages, as the shafts supporting the vault rise above the triforium.

 

The exterior of Wells Cathedral presents a relatively tidy and harmonious appearance since the greater part of the building was executed in a single style, Early English Gothic. This is uncommon among English cathedrals where the exterior usually exhibits a plethora of styles. At Wells, later changes in the Perpendicular style were universally applied, such as filling the Early English lancet windows with simple tracery, the construction of a parapet that encircles the roof, and the addition of pinnacles framing each gable, similar to those around the chapter house and on the west front. At the eastern end there is a proliferation of tracery with repeated motifs in the Reticulated style, a stage between Geometric and Flowing Decorated tracery.

 

The west front is 100 feet (30 m) high and 147 feet (45 m) wide, and built of Inferior Oolite of the Middle Jurassic period, which came from the Doulting Stone Quarry, about 8 miles (13 km) to the east. According to the architectural historian Alec Clifton-Taylor, it is "one of the great sights of England".

 

West fronts in general take three distinct forms: those that follow the elevation of the nave and aisles, those that have paired towers at the end of each aisle, framing the nave, and those that screen the form of the building. The west front at Wells has the paired-tower form, unusual in that the towers do not indicate the location of the aisles, but extend well beyond them, screening the dimensions and profile of the building.

 

The west front rises in three distinct stages, each clearly defined by a horizontal course. This horizontal emphasis is counteracted by six strongly projecting buttresses defining the cross-sectional divisions of nave, aisles and towers, and are highly decorated, each having canopied niches containing the largest statues on the façade.

 

At the lowest level of the façade is a plain base, contrasting with and stabilising the ornate arcades that rise above it. The base is penetrated by three doors, which are in stark contrast to the often imposing portals of French Gothic cathedrals. The outer two are of domestic proportion and the central door is ornamented only by a central post, quatrefoil and the fine mouldings of the arch.

 

Above the basement rise two storeys, ornamented with quatrefoils and niches originally holding about four hundred statues, with three hundred surviving until the mid-20th century. Since then, some have been restored or replaced, including the ruined figure of Christ in the gable.

 

The third stages of the flanking towers were both built in the Perpendicular style of the late 14th century, to the design of William Wynford; that on the north-west was not begun until about 1425. The design maintains the general proportions, and continues the strong projection of the buttresses.

 

The finished product has been criticised for its lack of pinnacles, and it is probable that the towers were intended to carry spires which were never built. Despite its lack of spires or pinnacles, the architectural historian Banister Fletcher describes it as "the highest development in English Gothic of this type of façade."

 

The sculptures on the west front at Wells include standing figures, seated figures, half-length angels and narratives in high relief. Many of the figures are life-sized or larger. Together they constitute the finest display of medieval carving in England. The figures and many of the architectural details were painted in bright colours, and the colouring scheme has been deduced from flakes of paint still adhering to some surfaces. The sculptures occupy nine architectural zones stretching horizontally across the entire west front and around the sides and the eastern returns of the towers which extend beyond the aisles. The strongly projecting buttresses have tiers of niches which contain many of the largest figures. Other large figures, including that of Christ, occupy the gable. A single figure stands in one of two later niches high on the northern tower.

 

In 1851 the archaeologist Charles Robert Cockerell published his analysis of the iconography, numbering the nine sculptural divisions from the lowest to the highest. He defined the theme as "a calendar for unlearned men" illustrating the doctrines and history of the Christian faith, its introduction to Britain and its protection by princes and bishops. He likens the arrangement and iconography to the Te Deum.

 

According to Cockerell, the side of the façade that is to the south of the central door is the more sacred and the scheme is divided accordingly. The lowest range of niches each contained a standing figure, of which all but four figures on the west front, two on each side, have been destroyed. More have survived on the northern and eastern sides of the north tower. Cockerell speculates that those to the south of the portal represented prophets and patriarchs of the Old Testament while those to the north represented early missionaries to Britain, of which Augustine of Canterbury, St Birinus, and Benedict Biscop are identifiable by their attributes. In the second zone, above each pair of standing figures, is a quatrefoil containing a half-length angel in relief, some of which have survived. Between the gables of the niches are quatrefoils that contain a series of narratives from the Bible, with the Old Testament stories to the south, above the prophets and patriarchs, and those from the New Testament to the north. A horizontal course runs around the west front dividing the architectural storeys at this point.

 

Above the course, zones four and five, as identified by Cockerell, contain figures which represent the Christian Church in Britain, with the spiritual lords such as bishops, abbots, abbesses and saintly founders of monasteries on the south, while kings, queens and princes occupy the north. Many of the figures survive and many have been identified in the light of their various attributes. There is a hierarchy of size, with the more significant figures larger and enthroned in their niches rather than standing. Immediately beneath the upper course are a series of small niches containing dynamic sculptures of the dead coming forth from their tombs on the Day of Judgement. Although naked, some of the dead are defined as royalty by their crowns and others as bishops by their mitres. Some emerge from their graves with joy and hope, and others with despair.

 

The niches in the lowest zone of the gable contain nine angels, of which Cockerell identifies Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel. In the next zone are the taller figures of the twelve apostles, some, such as John, Andrew and Bartholomew, clearly identifiable by the attributes that they carry. The uppermost niches of the gable contained the figure of Christ the Judge at the centre, with the Virgin Mary on his right and John the Baptist on his left. The figures all suffered from iconoclasm. A new statue of Jesus was carved for the central niche, but the two side niches now contain cherubim. Christ and the Virgin Mary are also represented by now headless figures in a Coronation of the Virgin in a niche above the central portal. A damaged figure of the Virgin and Christ Child occupies a quatrefoil in the spandrel of the door.

 

The central tower appears to date from the early 13th century. It was substantially reconstructed in the early 14th century during the remodelling of the east end, necessitating the internal bracing of the piers a decade or so later. In the 14th century the tower was given a timber and lead spire which burnt down in 1439. The exterior was then reworked in the Perpendicular style and given the present parapet and pinnacles. Alec Clifton-Taylor describes it as "outstanding even in Somerset, a county famed for the splendour of its church towers".

 

The north porch is described by art historian Nikolaus Pevsner as "sumptuously decorated", and intended as the main entrance. Externally it is simple and rectangular with plain side walls. The entrance is a steeply arched portal framed by rich mouldings of eight shafts with stiff-leaf capitals each encircled by an annular moulding at middle height. Those on the left are figurative, containing images representing the martyrdom of St Edmund the Martyr. The walls are lined with deep niches framed by narrow shafts with capitals and annulets like those of the portal. The path to the north porch is lined by four sculptures in Purbeck stone, each by Mary Spencer Watson, representing the symbols of the Evangelists.

 

The cloisters were built in the late 13th century and largely rebuilt from 1430 to 1508 and have wide openings divided by mullions and transoms, and tracery in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The vault has lierne ribs that form octagons at the centre of each compartment, the joints of each rib having decorative bosses. The eastern range is of two storeys, of which the upper is the library built in the 15th century.

 

Because Wells Cathedral was secular rather than monastic, cloisters were not a practical necessity. They were omitted from several other secular cathedrals but were built here and at Chichester. Explanations for their construction at these two secular cathedrals range from the processional to the aesthetic. As at Chichester, there is no northern range to the cloisters. In monastic cloisters it was the north range, benefiting most from winter sunlight, that was often used as a scriptorium.

 

In 1969, when a large chunk of stone fell from a statue near the main door, it became apparent that there was an urgent need for restoration of the west front. Detailed studies of the stonework and of conservation practices were undertaken under the cathedral architect, Alban D. R. Caroe and a restoration committee formed. The methods selected were those devised by Eve and Robert Baker. W. A. (Bert) Wheeler, clerk of works to the cathedral 1935–1978, had previously experimented with washing and surface treatment of architectural carvings on the building and his techniques were among those tried on the statues.

 

The conservation was carried out between 1974 and 1986, wherever possible using non-invasive procedures such as washing with water and a solution of lime, filling gaps and damaged surfaces with soft mortar to prevent the ingress of water and stabilising statues that were fracturing through corrosion of metal dowels. The surfaces were finished by painting with a thin coat of mortar and silane to resist further erosion and attack by pollutants. The restoration of the façade revealed much paint adhering to the statues and their niches, indicating that it had once been brightly coloured.

 

The particular character of this Early English interior is dependent on the proportions of the simple lancet arches. It is also dependent on the refinement of the architectural details, in particular the mouldings.

 

The arcade, which takes the same form in the nave, choir and transepts, is distinguished by the richness of both mouldings and carvings. Each pier of the arcade has a surface enrichment of 24 slender shafts in eight groups of three, rising beyond the capitals to form the deeply undulating mouldings of the arches. The capitals themselves are remarkable for the vitality of the stylised foliage, in a style known as "stiff-leaf". The liveliness contrasts with the formality of the moulded shafts and the smooth unbroken areas of ashlar masonry in the spandrels. Each capital is different, and some contain small figures illustrating narratives.

 

The vault of the nave rises steeply in a simple quadripartite form, in harmony with the nave arcade. The eastern end of the choir was extended and the whole upper part elaborated in the second quarter of the 14th century by William Joy. The vault has a multiplicity of ribs in a net-like form, which is very different from that of the nave, and is perhaps a recreation in stone of a local type of compartmented wooden roof of which examples remain from the 15th century, including those at St Cuthbert's Church, Wells. The vaults of the aisles of the choir also have a unique pattern.

 

Until the early 14th century, the interior of the cathedral was in a unified style, but it was to undergo two significant changes, to the tower and to the eastern end. Between 1315 and 1322 the central tower was heightened and topped by a spire, which caused the piers that supported it to show signs of stress. In 1338 the mason William Joy employed an unorthodox solution by inserting low arches topped by inverted arches of similar dimensions, forming scissors-like structures. These arches brace the piers of the crossing on three sides, while the easternmost side is braced by a choir screen. The bracing arches are known as "St Andrew's Cross arches", in a reference to the patron saint of the cathedral. They have been described by Wim Swaan – rightly or wrongly – as "brutally massive" and intrusive in an otherwise restrained interior.

 

Wells Cathedral has a square east end to the choir, as is usual, and like several other cathedrals including Salisbury and Lichfield, has a lower Lady Chapel projecting at the eastern end, begun by Thomas Witney in about 1310, possibly before the chapter house was completed. The Lady Chapel seems to have begun as a free-standing structure in the form of an elongated octagon, but the plan changed and it was linked to the eastern end by extension of the choir and construction of a second transept or retrochoir east of the choir, probably by William Joy.

 

The Lady Chapel has a vault of complex and somewhat irregular pattern, as the chapel is not symmetrical about both axes. The main ribs are intersected by additional non-supporting, lierne ribs, which in this case form a star-shaped pattern at the apex of the vault. It is one of the earliest lierne vaults in England. There are five large windows, of which four are filled with fragments of medieval glass. The tracery of the windows is in the style known as Reticulated Gothic, having a pattern of a single repeated shape, in this case a trefoil, giving a "reticulate" or net-like appearance.

 

The retrochoir extends across the east end of the choir and into the east transepts. At its centre the vault is supported by a remarkable structure of angled piers. Two of these are placed as to complete the octagonal shape of the Lady Chapel, a solution described by Francis Bond as "an intuition of Genius". The piers have attached shafts of marble, and, with the vaults that they support, create a vista of great complexity from every angle. The windows of the retrochoir are in the Reticulated style like those of the Lady Chapel, but are fully Flowing Decorated in that the tracery mouldings form ogival curves.

 

The chapter house was begun in the late 13th century and built in two stages, completed about 1310. It is a two-storeyed structure with the main chamber raised on an undercroft. It is entered from a staircase which divides and turns, one branch leading through the upper storey of Chain Gate to Vicars' Close. The Decorated interior is described by Alec Clifton-Taylor as "architecturally the most beautiful in England". It is octagonal, with its ribbed vault supported on a central column. The column is surrounded by shafts of Purbeck Marble, rising to a single continuous rippling foliate capital of stylised oak leaves and acorns, quite different in character from the Early English stiff-leaf foliage. Above the moulding spring 32 ribs of strong profile, giving an effect generally likened to "a great palm tree". The windows are large with Geometric Decorated tracery that is beginning to show an elongation of form, and ogees in the lesser lights that are characteristic of Flowing Decorated tracery. The tracery lights still contain ancient glass. Beneath the windows are 51 stalls, the canopies of which are enlivened by carvings including many heads carved in a light-hearted manner.

 

Wells Cathedral contains one of the most substantial collections of medieval stained glass in England, despite damage by Parliamentary troops in 1642 and 1643. The oldest surviving glass dates from the late 13th century and is in two windows on the west side of the chapter-house staircase. Two windows in the south choir aisle are from 1310 to 1320.

 

The Lady Chapel has five windows, of which four date from 1325 to 1330 and include images of a local saint, Dunstan. The east window was restored to a semblance of its original appearance by Thomas Willement in 1845. The other windows have complete canopies, but the pictorial sections are fragmented.

 

The east window of the choir is a broad, seven-light window dating from 1340 to 1345. It depicts the Tree of Jesse (the genealogy of Christ) and demonstrates the use of silver staining, a new technique that allowed the artist to paint details on the glass in yellow, as well as black. The combination of yellow and green glass and the application of the bright yellow stain gives the window its popular name, the "Golden Window". It is flanked by two windows each side in the clerestory, with large figures of saints, also dated to 1340–45. In 2010 a major conservation programme was undertaken on the Jesse Tree window.

 

The panels in the chapel of St Katherine are attributed to Arnold of Nijmegen and date from about 1520. They were acquired from the destroyed church of Saint-Jean, Rouen, with the last panel having been purchased in 1953.

 

The large triple lancet to the nave west end was glazed at the expense of Dean Creighton at a cost of £140 in 1664. It was repaired in 1813, and the central light was largely replaced to a design by Archibald Keightley Nicholson between 1925 and 1931. The main north and south transept end windows by James Powell and Sons were erected in the early 20th century.

 

The greater part of the stone carving of Wells Cathedral comprises foliate capitals in the stiff-leaf style. They are found ornamenting the piers of the nave, choir and transepts. Stiff-leaf foliage is highly abstract. Though possibly influenced by carvings of acanthus leaves or vine leaves, it cannot be easily identified with any particular plant. Here the carving of the foliage is varied and vigorous, the springing leaves and deep undercuts casting shadows that contrast with the surface of the piers. In the transepts and towards the crossing in the nave the capitals have many small figurative carvings among the leaves. These include a man with toothache and a series of four scenes depicting the "Wages of Sin" in a narrative of fruit stealers who creep into an orchard and are then beaten by the farmer. Another well-known carving is in the north transept aisle: a foliate corbel, on which climbs a lizard, sometimes identified as a salamander, a symbol of eternal life.

 

Carvings in the Decorated Gothic style may be found in the eastern end of the buildings, where there are many carved bosses. In the chapter house, the carvings of the 51 stalls include numerous small heads of great variety, many of them smiling or laughing. A well-known figure is the corbel of the dragon-slaying monk in the chapter house stair. The large continuous capital that encircles the central pillar of the chapter house is markedly different in style to the stiff-leaf of the Early English period. In contrast to the bold projections and undercutting of the earlier work, it has a rippling form and is clearly identifiable as grapevine.

 

The 15th-century cloisters have many small bosses ornamenting the vault. Two in the west cloister, near the gift shop and café, have been called sheela na gigs, i. e. female figures displaying their genitals and variously judged to depict the sin of lust or stem from ancient fertility cults.

 

Wells Cathedral has one of the finest sets of misericords in Britain. Its clergy has a long tradition of singing or reciting from the Book of Psalms each day, along with the customary daily reading of the Holy Office. In medieval times the clergy assembled in the church eight times daily for the canonical hours. As the greater part of the services was recited while standing, many monastic or collegiate churches fitted stalls whose seats tipped up to provide a ledge for the monk or cleric to lean against. These were "misericords" because their installation was an act of mercy. Misericords typically have a carved figurative bracket beneath the ledge framed by two floral motifs known, in heraldic manner, as "supporters".

 

The misericords date from 1330 to 1340. They may have been carved under the direction of Master Carpenter John Strode, although his name is not recorded before 1341. He was assisted by Bartholomew Quarter, who is documented from 1343. They originally numbered 90, of which 65 have survived. Sixty-one are installed in the choir, three are displayed in the cathedral, and one is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. New stalls were ordered when the eastern end of the choir was extended in the early 14th century. The canons complained that they had borne the cost of the rebuilding and ordered the prebendary clerics to pay for their own stalls. When the newly refurbished choir opened in 1339 many misericords were left unfinished, including one-fifth of the surviving 65. Many of the clerics had not paid, having been called to contribute a total sum of £200. The misericords survived better than the other sections of the stalls, which during the Protestant Reformation had their canopies chopped off and galleries inserted above them. One misericord, showing a boy pulling a thorn from his foot, dates from the 17th century. In 1848 came a complete rearrangement of the choir furniture, and 61 of the misericords were reused in the restructured stalls.

 

The subject matter of the carvings of the central brackets as misericords varies, but many themes recur in different churches. Typically the themes are less unified or directly related to the Bible and Christian theology than small sculptures seen elsewhere within churches, such as bosses. This applies at Wells, where none of the misericord carvings is directly based on a Bible story. The subjects, chosen either by the woodcarver, or perhaps by the one paying for the stall, have no overriding theme. The sole unifying elements are the roundels on each side of the pictorial subject, which all show elaborately carved foliage, in most cases formal and stylised in the later Decorated manner, but with several examples of naturalistic foliage, including roses and bindweed. Many of the subjects carry traditional interpretations. The image of the "Pelican in her Piety" (believed to feed her young on her own blood) is a recognised symbol for Christ's love for the Church. A cat playing with a mouse may represent the Devil snaring a human soul. Other subjects illustrate popular fables or sayings such as "When the fox preaches, look to your geese". Many depict animals, some of which may symbolise a human vice or virtue, or an aspect of faith.

 

Twenty-seven of the carvings depict animals: rabbits, dogs, a puppy biting a cat, a ewe feeding a lamb, monkeys, lions, bats, and the Early Christian motif of two doves drinking from a ewer. Eighteen have mythological subjects, including mermaids, dragons and wyverns. Five are clearly narrative, such as the Fox and the Geese, and the story of Alexander the Great being raised to Heaven by griffins. There are three heads: a bishop in a mitre, an angel, and a woman wearing a veil over hair arranged in coils over each ear. Eleven carvings show human figures, among which are several of remarkable design, conceived by the artist specifically for their purpose of supporting a shelf. One figure lies beneath the seat, supporting the shelf with a cheek, a hand and a foot. Another sits in a contorted manner supporting the weight on his elbow, while a further figure squats with his knees wide apart and a strained look on his face.

 

Some of the cathedral's fittings and monuments are hundreds of years old. The brass lectern in the Lady Chapel dates from 1661 and has a moulded stand and foliate crest. In the north transept chapel is a 17th-century oak screen with columns, formerly used in cow stalls, with artisan Ionic capitals and cornice, set forward over the chest tomb of John Godelee. There is a bound oak chest from the 14th century, which was used to store the chapter seal and key documents. The bishop's throne dates from 1340, and has a panelled, canted front and stone doorway, and a deep nodding cusped ogee canopy above it, with three-stepped statue niches and pinnacles. The throne was restored by Anthony Salvin around 1850. Opposite the throne is a 19th-century octagonal pulpit on a coved base with panelled sides, and steps up from the north aisle. The round font in the south transept is from the former Saxon cathedral and has an arcade of round-headed arches, on a round plinth. The font cover was made in 1635 and is decorated with the heads of putti. The Chapel of St Martin is a memorial to every Somerset man who fell in World War I.

 

The monuments and tombs include Gisa, bishop; † 1088; William of Bitton, bishop; † 1274; William of March, bishop; † 1302; John Droxford; † 1329; John Godelee; † 1333; John Middleton, died †1350; Ralph of Shrewsbury, died †; John Harewell, bishop; † 1386; William Bykonyll; † c. 1448; John Bernard; † 1459; Thomas Beckington; † died 1464; John Gunthorpe; † 1498; John Still; † 1607; Robert Creighton; † 1672; Richard Kidder, bishop; † 1703; George Hooper, bishop; † 1727 and Arthur Harvey, bishop; † 1894.

 

In the north transept is Wells Cathedral clock, an astronomical clock from about 1325 believed to be by Peter Lightfoot, a monk of Glastonbury. Its mechanism, dated between 1386 and 1392, was replaced in the 19th century and the original moved to the Science Museum in London, where it still operates. It is the second oldest surviving clock in England after the Salisbury Cathedral clock.

 

The clock has its original medieval face. Apart from the time on a 24-hour dial, it shows the motion of the Sun and Moon, the phases of the Moon, and the time since the last new Moon. The astronomical dial presents a geocentric or pre-Copernican view, with the Sun and Moon revolving round a central fixed Earth, like that of the clock at Ottery St Mary. The quarters are chimed by a quarter jack: a small automaton known as Jack Blandifers, who hits two bells with hammers and two with his heels. At the striking of the clock, jousting knights appear above the clock face.

 

On the outer wall of the transept, opposite Vicars' Hall, is a second clock face of the same clock, placed there just over seventy years after the interior clock and driven by the same mechanism. The second clock face has two quarter jacks (which strike on the quarter-hour) in the form of knights in armour.

 

In 2010 the official clock-winder retired and was replaced by an electric mechanism.

 

The first record of an organ at this church dates from 1310. A smaller organ, probably for the Lady Chapel, was installed in 1415. In 1620 an organ built by Thomas Dallam was installed at a cost of £398 1s 5d.

 

The 1620 organ was destroyed by parliamentary soldiers in 1643. An organ built in 1662 was enlarged in 1786 and again in 1855. In 1909–1910 an organ was built by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, with the best parts of the old organ retained. It has been serviced by the same company ever since.

 

Since November 1996 the cathedral has also had a portable chamber organ, by the Scottish makers, Lammermuir. It is used regularly to accompany performances of Tudor and baroque music.

 

The first recorded organist of Wells was Walter Bagele (or Vageler) in 1416. The post of organist or assistant organist has been held by more than 60 people since. Peter Stanley Lyons was Master of Choristers at Wells Cathedral, and Director of Music at Wells Cathedral School in 1954–1960. The choral conductor James William Webb-Jones, father of Lyons's wife Bridget (whom he married in the cathedral), was Headmaster of Wells Cathedral School in 1955–1960. Malcolm Archer was the appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers from 1996 to 2004. Matthew Owens was the appointed organist from 2005 to 2019.

 

There has been a choir of boy choristers at Wells since 909. Currently there are 18 boy choristers and a similar number of girl choristers, aged from eight to fourteen. The Vicars Choral was formed in the 12th century and the sung liturgy provided by a traditional cathedral choir of men and boys until the formation of an additional choir of girls in 1994. The boys and girls sing alternately with the Vicars Choral and are educated at Wells Cathedral School.

 

The Vicars Choral currently number twelve men, of whom three are choral scholars. Since 1348 the College of Vicars had its own accommodation in a quadrangle converted in the early 15th century to form Vicar's Close. The Vicars Choral generally perform with the choristers, except on Wednesdays, when they sing alone, allowing them to present a different repertoire, in particular plainsong.

 

In December 2010 Wells Cathedral Choir was rated by Gramophone magazine as "the highest ranking choir with children in the world". It continues to provide music for the liturgy at Sunday and weekday services. The choir has made many recordings and toured frequently, including performances in Beijing and Hong Kong in 2012. Its repertoire ranges from the choral music of the Renaissance to recently commissioned works.

 

The Wells Cathedral Chamber Choir is a mixed adult choir of 25 members, formed in 1986 to sing at the midnight service on Christmas Eve, and invited to sing at several other special services. It now sings for about 30 services a year, when the Cathedral Choir is in recess or on tour, and spends one week a year singing as the "choir in residence" at another cathedral. Although primarily liturgical, the choir's repertoire includes other forms of music, as well as performances at engagements such as weddings and funerals.

 

The cathedral is home to Wells Cathedral Oratorio Society (WCOS), founded in 1896. With around 160 voices, the society gives three concerts a year under the direction of Matthew Owens, Organist and Master of the Choristers at the cathedral. Concerts are normally in early November, December (an annual performance of Handel's Messiah) and late March. It performs with a number of specialist orchestras including: Music for Awhile, Chameleon Arts and La Folia.

 

The bells at Wells Cathedral are the heaviest ring of ten bells in the world, the tenor bell (the 10th and largest), known as Harewell, weighing 56.25 long hundredweight (2,858 kg). They are hung for full-circle ringing in the English style of change ringing. These bells are now hung in the south-west tower, although some were originally hung in the central tower.

 

The library above the eastern cloister was built between 1430 and 1508. Its collection is in three parts: early documents housed in the Muniment Room; the collection predating 1800 housed in the Chained Library; and the post-1800 collection housed in the Reading Room. The chapter's earlier collection was destroyed during the Reformation, so that the present library consists chiefly of early printed books, rather than medieval manuscripts. The earlier books in the Chained Library number 2,800 volumes and give an indication of the variety of interests of the members of the cathedral chapter from the Reformation until 1800. The focus of the collection is predominantly theology, but there are volumes on science, medicine, exploration, and languages. Books of particular interest include Pliny's Natural History printed in 1472, an Atlas of the World by Abraham Ortelius, printed in 1606, and a set of the works by Aristotle that once belonged to Erasmus. The library is open to the public at appointed times in the summer and presents a small exhibition of documents and books.

 

Three early registers of the Dean and Chapter edited by W. H. B. Bird for the Historical Manuscripts Commissioners – Liber Albus I (White Book; R I), Liber Albus II (R III) and Liber Ruber (Red Book; R II, section i) – were published in 1907. They contain with some repetition, a cartulary of possessions of the cathedral, with grants of land back to the 8th century, well before hereditary surnames developed in England, and acts of the Dean and Chapter and surveys of their estates, mostly in Somerset.

 

Adjacent to the cathedral is a large lawned area, Cathedral Green, with three ancient gateways: Brown's Gatehouse, Penniless Porch and Chain Gate. On the green is the 12th-century Old Deanery, largely rebuilt in the late 15th century by Dean Gunthorpe and remodelled by Dean Bathurst in the late 17th century. No longer the dean's residence, it is used as diocesan offices.

 

To the south of the cathedral is the moated Bishop's Palace, begun about 1210 by Jocelin of Wells but dating mostly from the 1230s. In the 15th century Thomas Beckington added a north wing, now the bishop's residence. It was restored and extended by Benjamin Ferrey between 1846 and 1854.

 

To the north of the cathedral and connected to it by the Chain Gate is Vicars' Close, a street planned in the 14th century and claimed to be the oldest purely residential street in Europe, with all but one of its original buildings intact. Buildings in the close include the Vicars Hall and gateway at the south end, and the Vicars Chapel and Library at the north end.

 

The Liberty of St Andrew was the historic liberty and parish that encompassed the cathedral and surrounding lands closely associated with it.

 

The English painter J. M. W. Turner visited Wells in 1795, making sketches of the precinct and a water colour of the west front, now in the Tate gallery. Other artists whose paintings of the cathedral are in national collections are Albert Goodwin, John Syer and Ken Howard.

 

The cathedral served to inspire Ken Follett's 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth and with a modified central tower, featured as the fictional Kingsbridge Cathedral at the end of the 2010 television adaptation of that novel. The interior of the cathedral was used for a 2007 Doctor Who episode, "The Lazarus Experiment", while the exterior shots were filmed at Southwark Cathedral.

 

An account of the damage to the cathedral during the Monmouth Rebellion is included in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1889 historical novel Micah Clarke.

 

The cathedral provided scenes for the 2019–2020 television series The Spanish Princess.

Vale-... Still no sign of Doctor Meagan's body. In other news, despite the combined efforts of the GCPD and ARGUS, several known affiliates of the Secret Society remain at large, among which are The Cheetah, Black Manta, The Rogues, the Reverse Flash, The Enchantress and Killer Croc. Speaking to us from his hospital bed, with his thoughts on the matter is Delbert Billings AKA Spellbinder, who was horrifically mangled when Croc (real name Waylon Jones) turned turncoat. Can you hear me Mr Billings?

 

Billings- *on phone* Loud and clear Vicki. Frankly I'm disgusted at the GCPD's inaction. Croc is a truly damaged individual. For crying out loud he ripped my leg off! And ate it! He blinded Wrath, butchered dozens of the Arkham Moth's soldiers, and as for his girlfriend..

Vale- Girlfriend?

 

Billings- The Enchantress. That witch sucked Prometheus into some swirling death portal, I haven't seen him since, the poor bastard- excuse the language, please... Then you have the boy wonder locking up people in his basement and his Titans knocking Polaris into a coma. He's still under from what I hear... It all makes you wonder though Vicki, who are the real bad guys here? It's this specific question I'll be answering in my book "Heroes or Villains".

 

Vale- Thank you Del. That was Dellbert Billings, talking from Gotham General. His book will be released in October, recounting his hardships as a masked criminal and containing interviews from other supervillains regarding the increased brutality they've faced at the hands of superheroes and vigilantes. Later today our reporter Jack Ryder will be attending an award ceremony in celebration of Mayor Walker's heroism in the face of adversity. Until then, it's goodbye from me, have a great day!

 

===City Hall===

 

The President- You sir, are the bravest man in the history of ever. The absolute greatest. Except for myself, and Uncle Sam obviously. It is with great pleasure I grant you the Alan Scott Award for Outstanding Heroism.

 

Drury- Thank you sir, really. But honestly? I'm not sure I really deserve this award. Truthfully I'm not the hero of this story. I did what I had to, to save my family. Even then, I didn't do it alone, I had help from some truly special people. And ultimately, in the end, it was one man made the ultimate sacrifice and in doing so saved Gotham from it's darkest nightmares. That man's name was Lester Butchinsky. If anyone deserves this award, he did. Thank you.

 

Ryder- That was Mayor Drury Walker on receiving the Alan Scott Award for Outstanding Heroism. It'll be interesting to see just what our mayor has up his sleeve these coming months.

 

====The Mayor's Office====

 

Anatoli- Good speech.

 

Drury- Thank you Anatoli.

 

Anatoli- I... I want you to take this back.

 

*Anatoli hands Drury a cheque*

 

Anatoli- I don't want the money Mr Mayor.

 

Drury- But Anatoli, I-

 

Anatoli- I don't think I've earned it. Goodbye.

 

Miranda- Then, what do we do with it?

 

====Len's Apartment====

 

*Knock knock*

 

Len- Yeah?

 

Miranda- It's us Len.

 

Len- Drury? It's been some time.

 

Drury- Yeah. Listen. I want you to take this. Please.

 

Len- ... Sure.

 

*Len opens the letter and a cheque falls out*

 

Len- Damn, Drury, I can't accept this.

 

Drury- Yes you can. And you're going to use it to fix the bar. You know you miss it.

 

Len- Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do.

 

Drury- Heh. It's settled then.

 

Len- Thanks man, seriously. If there's anything you ever need. I'll be there.

 

Drury- Well. There *is* something...

 

===Two Weeks Later- The Bar===

 

Magnet- And then, I said, it must be my animal "magnetism"! Haha!

 

Chancer- -It was crazy y'know, everything on fire, thought the bastard was dead but damn, he just didn't give up. Don't why anyone would call him "genius"... Anyway, he stabbed me right here. That didn't stop me though because I-

 

Artie- C'mon Len, new bar, new tab!

 

Len- Well, since I'm feeling generous, how's about I half the costs?

 

Artie- You'd do that?

 

Len- Hold your horses, that's still 2000 bucks. Maybe you should go easy on the whiskey this time!

 

Gar- - I broke up with her y'know. She said "Gar I love you", I said "Love hurts don't it?" ... I blew her up with a rocket launcher you see.

 

*The bar erupts with laughter*

 

Blake- You're crazy man!

 

Gar- Heh. Yeah...

 

Drury- Pass a Black Spider down this way eh Len?

 

Miranda- A Firebug for me please!

 

Len- Coming right up!

 

Artie- -I've got more money at home, just let me go to the car.

 

Len- Do that, and they'll never find your body! Ha! Firebug wasn't it?

 

Miranda- Yeah.

 

*Len passes them their drinks*

 

Miranda-*raising her glass* To Lester.

 

Drury- To Lester.

 

*They chink their glasses.

 

*Outside, the neon sign flashes brightly, a bright, brilliant blue. The bar's name? "Butchinsky's"*

Quotes About Krishna

 

Quotes tagged as "krishna" (showing 1-30 of 39)

Christopher Pike

“It doesn't matter. You are what you are. I am what I am. We are the same-when you take the time to remember me.”

― Christopher Pike, The Red Dice

tags: krishna, red-dice 61 likes Like

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

“Can't you ever be serious?' I said, mortified.

'It's difficult,' he said. 'There's so little in life that's worth it.”

― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

tags: divakaruni, krishna, life, palace-of-illusions, panchaali, seriousness 54 likes Like

Christopher Pike

“The truth is always simpler than you can imagine.”

― Christopher Pike, The Red Dice

tags: krishna 47 likes Like

“The only way you can conquer me is through love and there I am gladly conquered”

― Gopi Krishna

tags: krishna, love, mohit-k-misra, moht-misra 38 likes Like

“One who sees inaction in action and action in inaction- he is a wise man.”

― Gopi Krishna

tags: holy-bhagwat-gita, krishna, mohit-k-misra 16 likes Like

“It is I who remain seated in the heart of all creatures as the inner controller of all; and it is I who am the source of memory, knowledge and the ratiocinativefaculty. Again, I am the only object worth knowing through the Vedas; I alone am the origin of Vedānta and the knower of the Vedas too. — Krishna; Chapter 15, verse 15”

― Anonymous, The Bhagavad Gita

tags: hinduism, krishna 11 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Christ attained the ultimate spiritual oneness through prayer and devotion, Moses and Mohammed through prayer, Buddha and all the Indian sages through intense meditation and so did I. And so can you.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 3 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Just like love becomes consummated upon the attainment of orgasm, all the faith and divinity in the world reach their ultimate existential potential upon the attainment of Absolute Unitary Qualia or simply Absolute Godliness.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 2 likes Like

Alan W. Watts

“When it comes down to it, government is simply an abandonment of responsibility on the assumption that there are people, other than ourselves, who really know how to manage things. But the government, run ostensibly for the good of the people, becomes a self-serving corporation. To keep things under control, it proliferates law of ever-increasing complexity and unintelligibility, and hinders productive work by demanding so much accounting on paper that the record of what has been done becomes more important than what has actually been done. [...] The Taoist moral is that people who mistrust themselves and one another are doomed.”

― Alan W. Watts

tags: democracy, esotericism, government, krishna, philosophy, politics, tao, zen 2 likes Like

“Gujarat is my home state, welcome to the land of Krishna, Gandhi, Sardar & now it's Narendrabhai”

― Mukesh Ambani Vibrant Gujarat 2015

tags: gandhi, gujarat, krishna, narendra-modi, sardar 2 likes Like

Manasa Rao Saarloos

“I haven’t been to a temple in years, never been forced. My folks always said, marry a nice human being, religion doesn’t matter. They said your god is inside you! Don’t you forget that. Krishna, Jesus, Allah, are all one. Follow vegetarianism as far as you can, but you can choose your own diet, doesn’t matter. Believe in god, but for you and not because the world asks you to. Forgive and forget to be at peace. Do not believe in revenge, believe in karma!!”

― Manasa Rao Saarloos

tags: allah, forgive-and-forget, god, hinduism, jesus, karma, krishna, marriage, parenting, religion-and-philoshophy, spirituality, vegetarianism 2 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause. And it is all because people never attempt to reach the fountain-head. They are content only to comply with the customs of their forefathers and instructions on some books, and want others to do the same. But, to explain God after merely reading the scriptures is like explaining the city of New York after seeing it only in a map.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, fundamentalism, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, religious-extremism, religious-faith, religious-terrorism, religious-violence, self-realization, terrorism, transcendentalism 2 likes Like

Vikrmn

“Forgive all before you go to sleep, you'll be forgiven before you get up. – Lord Krishna.”

― Vikrmn, Corpkshetra

tags: 10-golden-steps-of-life, 10gsl, ca-vikram-verma, chartered-accountant, forgive, forgiven, get-up, golden, inspirational, krishna, life, lord-krishna, motivational, sleep, steps, vikram, vikram-verma, vikrmn, vv 2 likes Like

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

“But Krishna was a chameleon.”

― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

tags: identity, krishna, palace-of-illusions 1 likes Like

Padma Viswanathan

“Perhaps terror and peace became the same thing when life's mysteries were unveiled. In the Bhagavad Gita, when Krishna reveals his divine form at Arjuna's request, Arjuna is terrified at seeing what no mortal can stand to see. But the end to human doubt surely must also bring with it a definite, final peace.”

― Padma Viswanathan, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao

tags: arjuna, bhagavad-gita, enlightenment, fear, krishna, life-s-mysteries, mysteries, peace, terror 1 likes Like

Sandeep Sharma

“The moment when your heart’s rhythm synchronises with the chants of the holy temple, you find God in your soul. It was noisy yet peaceful. They were all dancing in the packed hall, with eyes closed and hands swinging up in the air. It was as if the motto of life was nothing but to enjoy this very moment and taste the love of the almighty.”

― Sandeep Sharma, Let The Game Begin

tags: god, krishna, life-and-living, mathura 1 likes Like

Vivian Amis

“All suffering is caused by one belief....the belief in separation”

― Vivian Amis, The Lotus - Realization of Oneness

tags: buddha, business, end-to, family, friends, god, harmony, home, jesus, krishna, love, missery, oneness, partnership, peace, quotes, realization, self, suffering, war, world 1 likes Like

“You don’t need validation or approval from anyone but yourself. Even if the entire world goes against, disagrees with or attempts to crush you, stand up for what you believe in, and stand up alone if you have to! It’s better to die while living your own truth than to live in the truth of another. Lord Krishna in the holy Bhagavad Gita pointed this out when he said;

 

“It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.”

 

Integrity is the key to freedom. It’s only your own truth that can ‘set you free.’ It’s perfectly fine if your truth doesn’t match that of others because the experience of physical reality is a completely subjective one. It doesn’t make either of you wrong, as long as you’re both being true to yourselves, that’s all that matters.”

― Craig Krishna, The Labyrinth: Rewiring the Nodes in the Maze of your Mind

tags: beliefs, believe-in, bhagavad-gita, destiny, identity, integrity, key, krishna, opinions, perfection, stand-up, truth 1 likes Like

“Show yourself as an ideal Vaisnava, then you are my representative in full. We are not after titles and designations. We must teach by personal example. Do this and the future of our movement will be glorious.”

― Prabhupada Dasa

tags: krishna 1 likes Like

“When you think you know Everything, you know NOTHING! When you think you know Nothing.. You become KRISHNA- THE UNKNOWN !”

― True Krishna Priya

tags: consciousness, krishna, soul 1 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Once you attain the state of Absolute Oneness or Non-Duality, you become one of those spiritual legends that humanity so gloriously venerates as the founding fathers of religion.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 1 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Once you emerge from the state of absolute divinity, the self within you becomes Christ – it becomes Buddha – it becomes Moses – it becomes Krishna. The sage who emerges from the state of non-duality begins to perceive the self as Christ, not Christ as Christ – the self as Moses, not Moses as Moses – the self as Mohammed, not Mohammed as Mohammed – the self as Krishna, not Krishna as Krishna.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 1 likes Like

“Narada Muni says - Whether you consider the human to be an eternal jivatma or a temporary body, or even if you accept an indescribable opinion that he is both eternal and temporary, you do not have to lament in any way. There is no cause for lamentation other than the affection which has arisen out of delusion. (1.13.44)”

― Srimad Bhagavatam

tags: krishna, spiritual 1 likes Like

“To become free from sinful life, there is only simple method: if you surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning of bhakti.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: beginings, bhakti, krishna, krishna-conciousness, method, sin, surrender 0 likes Like

“So it is our request that you try to study Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Don't try to distort it by your so-called education. Try to understand Kṛiṣṇa as He is saying. Then you will be benefited. Your life will be successful.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: benifit-of-doubt, education, krishna, krishna-consciousness, life, life-quotes, study, successful-living, understanding 0 likes Like

Chaitanya Charan Das

“Meditation is defined by not just the mode of thinking, but also the object of thought”

― Chaitanya Charan Das, Gita for Daily Enrichment

tags: chanting, god, krishna, meditation, spirituality, yoga 0 likes Like

“If by studying Bhagavad-gītā one decides to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, he is immediately freed from all sinful reactions.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: freedom, karma, krishna, krishna-consciousness, reactions, sin, study, surrender 0 likes Like

“By studying Bhagavad-gītā, one can become a soul completely surrendered to the Supreme Lord and engage himself in pure devotional service. As the Lord takes charge, one becomes completely free from all kinds of materialistic endeavors.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: consciousness, devotion, god, gods-grace, krishna, krishna-conciousness, scriptures, service, study, supreme-love 0 likes Like

Jarett Sabirsh

“being attached to any one philosophy or religion

dwelling on moot differences and wanting to fit in

despite the path all are led Home in time

following an alternative pathway is certainly no crime

Krishna, Buddha, Allah or Zohar Kabbalah

devoted nonviolently, one is led to Nirvana

Hindu Sages, Zen Masters or Christian Mystics

many tongues, but identical truth spoken from their lips

mentioning Self or no-self or God is Father or Mother

according to their culture emphasizing one method or another

allness vs. nothingness, meditation vs. prayer

devotion in practice is all you should care

when Truth reveals itself you're beyond all conception

then not a single man-made word will hold any traction”

― Jarett Sabirsh, Love All-Knowing: An Epic Spiritual Poem

tags: buddha, buddhism, god, krishna, meditation, religion, spirituality 0 likes Like

“The perfection of yoga, therefore, does not terminate in voidness or impersonalism; on the contrary, the perfection of yoga is attained when one actually sees the Personality of Godhead in His eternal form.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Nice to see some girl writers down Black Rock lately. I asked if this was alright? i'm sure she said it was.I hope it was/is alright. It was of course 'in progress' but sometimes lately that's as near as i get to a finished pic. Painted with Geak and Sky High and no one had finished.

Plane Spotting at ORD

 

as published at nickgourlie.com/creativecommons/inaction.html

and

www.gadling.com/2012/11/25/cyber-monday-2012-our-favorite...

and

www.base36.com/it-consulting-blog/bid/229109/IT-Consultin...

and

japanese.com

and

amelearenshaw.wordpress.com/?p=86&preview=true

and

everythingaboutyorkies.blogspot.com/2013/09/travelling-by... and www.xcellenttrip.com/get-the-most-out-of-your-flights/

 

and

 

energy.gov/articles/charting-path-sustainable-jet-fuels

 

photo de Sarah Van Der Linden

Eureka, Utah

Live customization for Levi's® 501® "Live Unbuttoned" event. I was booked for an event by Levi's® to paint T-Shirts. Each customer that bought a 501 jeans would get live customiized T-Shirt by me. A good and fun job to fill up your fridge :)

We had total freedom in what we do only the slogan "unbuttoned live" had to be included. I designed the slogan for my stuff myself. I worked basically with stencils thatI I cut in plastic sheets and added stuff with Mixed MEdia such as Paint for clothes, POSCA Markers, Textilemarkers, Montana cans. It was a fun and stressful job but cool to see happy people. I was In Leipzig store and have to admit that Leipzig really is a nice city with nice and friendly people

DAS 'KINDER' KLIMA

 

School kids in Nottingham went on 'strike' action during the school day to protest against climate change inaction, part of todays global strike by the Youthstrike4climate movement.

 

Market Square, Nottingham

A group of civil rights demonstrators stages a sit-in at the U.S. Capitol March 15, 1965 protesting demanding Congress expel some of the Alabama representatives in response to police violence against civil rights marchers at the Edmond Pettus Bridge in Alabama.

 

The group met briefly with House Speaker John McCormack (D-MA) but vowed to continue their sit-in until Congress took action. The spokesperson for the group was Carl Speight (center), 22, of Wheeling, W. VA.

 

Police later dragged the group out of the Capitol.

 

Confrontational protests in Washington, D.C. continued for days after the attack in Selma and included sit-ins at the Capitol and the White House, blocking traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House as well as pickets and mass demonstrations.

 

The groups demanded Congress and the President act on a voting rights protection bill. The incident at the bridge and subsequent demonstrations helped spur passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act by Congress that was signed by President Lyndon Johnson.

 

For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsk6Kj5r8

 

The photographer is unknown. The image is an auction find.

Link to - Not in the Baseball Hall of Fame - #91. Darrell Evans - www.notinhalloffame.com/baseball/944-57-darrell-evans

 

Link to the top 100 - not in the Baseball Hall of Fame - www.notinhalloffame.com/baseball

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Darrell Wayne Evans (b. May 26, 1947) is a former third baseman and first baseman in Major League Baseball who played from 1969 to 1989 with the Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants and Detroit Tigers. He is also the former manager and director of player personnel for the Victoria Seals of the Golden Baseball League.

 

Overshadowed in his prime by fellow National League third baseman Mike Schmidt, he has been described by author Bill James as "the most underrated player in baseball history, absolutely number one on the list", primarily because his defensive skill, home run power, and ability to draw walks in a long career were offset by a low career batting average of .248. He remains one of the few players to have hit over 400 career home runs without being seriously considered for induction into the Baseball Hall Of Fame.

 

Evans became the first player to hit 40 home runs in both leagues, and at age 38 became the oldest player ever to lead the American League in home runs (40 in 1985). Evans hit over 20 home runs in 10 different seasons and drew over 100 walks five times, with a career high 126 in 1974. He currently ranks 11th all-time in walks among major leaguers, ahead of the likes of Pete Rose, Willie Mays, Stan Musial and Hank Aaron.

 

In 1988, Evans hit his 400th home run, becoming the 22nd player to reach that milestone. He retired after having joined Reggie Jackson in becoming only the second player to hit 100 home runs with three different teams, and ranking in 11th place among all-time walks leaders. Evans hit 60 home runs after reaching age 40, at the time a major league record. He later served as a coach with the New York Yankees in 1990.

 

A two-time All-Star (1973 and 1983), Evans was selected as the third baseman on the 1973 Sporting News National League All-Star team. He won the 1983 Willie Mac Award for his spirit and leadership. He earned a World Series ring with the 1984 Detroit Tigers.

 

MLB debut - April 20, 1969, for the Atlanta Braves

Last MLB appearance - October 1, 1989, for the Atlanta Braves

 

MLB statistics:

Batting average - .248

Hits - 2,223

Home runs - 414

RBI - 1,354

 

Teams:

Atlanta Braves (1969–1976)

San Francisco Giants (1976–1983)

Detroit Tigers (1984–1988)

Atlanta Braves (1989)

 

Career highlights and awards:

2× All-Star (1973, 1983)

World Series champion (1984)

AL home run leader (1985)

 

Link to all of his issued baseball cards - www.tradingcarddb.com/Person.cfm/pid/1739/col/1/yea/0/Dar...

Quotes About Krishna

 

Quotes tagged as "krishna" (showing 1-30 of 39)

Christopher Pike

“It doesn't matter. You are what you are. I am what I am. We are the same-when you take the time to remember me.”

― Christopher Pike, The Red Dice

tags: krishna, red-dice 61 likes Like

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

“Can't you ever be serious?' I said, mortified.

'It's difficult,' he said. 'There's so little in life that's worth it.”

― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

tags: divakaruni, krishna, life, palace-of-illusions, panchaali, seriousness 54 likes Like

Christopher Pike

“The truth is always simpler than you can imagine.”

― Christopher Pike, The Red Dice

tags: krishna 47 likes Like

“The only way you can conquer me is through love and there I am gladly conquered”

― Gopi Krishna

tags: krishna, love, mohit-k-misra, moht-misra 38 likes Like

“One who sees inaction in action and action in inaction- he is a wise man.”

― Gopi Krishna

tags: holy-bhagwat-gita, krishna, mohit-k-misra 16 likes Like

“It is I who remain seated in the heart of all creatures as the inner controller of all; and it is I who am the source of memory, knowledge and the ratiocinativefaculty. Again, I am the only object worth knowing through the Vedas; I alone am the origin of Vedānta and the knower of the Vedas too. — Krishna; Chapter 15, verse 15”

― Anonymous, The Bhagavad Gita

tags: hinduism, krishna 11 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Christ attained the ultimate spiritual oneness through prayer and devotion, Moses and Mohammed through prayer, Buddha and all the Indian sages through intense meditation and so did I. And so can you.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 3 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Just like love becomes consummated upon the attainment of orgasm, all the faith and divinity in the world reach their ultimate existential potential upon the attainment of Absolute Unitary Qualia or simply Absolute Godliness.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 2 likes Like

Alan W. Watts

“When it comes down to it, government is simply an abandonment of responsibility on the assumption that there are people, other than ourselves, who really know how to manage things. But the government, run ostensibly for the good of the people, becomes a self-serving corporation. To keep things under control, it proliferates law of ever-increasing complexity and unintelligibility, and hinders productive work by demanding so much accounting on paper that the record of what has been done becomes more important than what has actually been done. [...] The Taoist moral is that people who mistrust themselves and one another are doomed.”

― Alan W. Watts

tags: democracy, esotericism, government, krishna, philosophy, politics, tao, zen 2 likes Like

“Gujarat is my home state, welcome to the land of Krishna, Gandhi, Sardar & now it's Narendrabhai”

― Mukesh Ambani Vibrant Gujarat 2015

tags: gandhi, gujarat, krishna, narendra-modi, sardar 2 likes Like

Manasa Rao Saarloos

“I haven’t been to a temple in years, never been forced. My folks always said, marry a nice human being, religion doesn’t matter. They said your god is inside you! Don’t you forget that. Krishna, Jesus, Allah, are all one. Follow vegetarianism as far as you can, but you can choose your own diet, doesn’t matter. Believe in god, but for you and not because the world asks you to. Forgive and forget to be at peace. Do not believe in revenge, believe in karma!!”

― Manasa Rao Saarloos

tags: allah, forgive-and-forget, god, hinduism, jesus, karma, krishna, marriage, parenting, religion-and-philoshophy, spirituality, vegetarianism 2 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause. And it is all because people never attempt to reach the fountain-head. They are content only to comply with the customs of their forefathers and instructions on some books, and want others to do the same. But, to explain God after merely reading the scriptures is like explaining the city of New York after seeing it only in a map.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, fundamentalism, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, religious-extremism, religious-faith, religious-terrorism, religious-violence, self-realization, terrorism, transcendentalism 2 likes Like

Vikrmn

“Forgive all before you go to sleep, you'll be forgiven before you get up. – Lord Krishna.”

― Vikrmn, Corpkshetra

tags: 10-golden-steps-of-life, 10gsl, ca-vikram-verma, chartered-accountant, forgive, forgiven, get-up, golden, inspirational, krishna, life, lord-krishna, motivational, sleep, steps, vikram, vikram-verma, vikrmn, vv 2 likes Like

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

“But Krishna was a chameleon.”

― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

tags: identity, krishna, palace-of-illusions 1 likes Like

Padma Viswanathan

“Perhaps terror and peace became the same thing when life's mysteries were unveiled. In the Bhagavad Gita, when Krishna reveals his divine form at Arjuna's request, Arjuna is terrified at seeing what no mortal can stand to see. But the end to human doubt surely must also bring with it a definite, final peace.”

― Padma Viswanathan, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao

tags: arjuna, bhagavad-gita, enlightenment, fear, krishna, life-s-mysteries, mysteries, peace, terror 1 likes Like

Sandeep Sharma

“The moment when your heart’s rhythm synchronises with the chants of the holy temple, you find God in your soul. It was noisy yet peaceful. They were all dancing in the packed hall, with eyes closed and hands swinging up in the air. It was as if the motto of life was nothing but to enjoy this very moment and taste the love of the almighty.”

― Sandeep Sharma, Let The Game Begin

tags: god, krishna, life-and-living, mathura 1 likes Like

Vivian Amis

“All suffering is caused by one belief....the belief in separation”

― Vivian Amis, The Lotus - Realization of Oneness

tags: buddha, business, end-to, family, friends, god, harmony, home, jesus, krishna, love, missery, oneness, partnership, peace, quotes, realization, self, suffering, war, world 1 likes Like

“You don’t need validation or approval from anyone but yourself. Even if the entire world goes against, disagrees with or attempts to crush you, stand up for what you believe in, and stand up alone if you have to! It’s better to die while living your own truth than to live in the truth of another. Lord Krishna in the holy Bhagavad Gita pointed this out when he said;

 

“It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.”

 

Integrity is the key to freedom. It’s only your own truth that can ‘set you free.’ It’s perfectly fine if your truth doesn’t match that of others because the experience of physical reality is a completely subjective one. It doesn’t make either of you wrong, as long as you’re both being true to yourselves, that’s all that matters.”

― Craig Krishna, The Labyrinth: Rewiring the Nodes in the Maze of your Mind

tags: beliefs, believe-in, bhagavad-gita, destiny, identity, integrity, key, krishna, opinions, perfection, stand-up, truth 1 likes Like

“Show yourself as an ideal Vaisnava, then you are my representative in full. We are not after titles and designations. We must teach by personal example. Do this and the future of our movement will be glorious.”

― Prabhupada Dasa

tags: krishna 1 likes Like

“When you think you know Everything, you know NOTHING! When you think you know Nothing.. You become KRISHNA- THE UNKNOWN !”

― True Krishna Priya

tags: consciousness, krishna, soul 1 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Once you attain the state of Absolute Oneness or Non-Duality, you become one of those spiritual legends that humanity so gloriously venerates as the founding fathers of religion.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 1 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Once you emerge from the state of absolute divinity, the self within you becomes Christ – it becomes Buddha – it becomes Moses – it becomes Krishna. The sage who emerges from the state of non-duality begins to perceive the self as Christ, not Christ as Christ – the self as Moses, not Moses as Moses – the self as Mohammed, not Mohammed as Mohammed – the self as Krishna, not Krishna as Krishna.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 1 likes Like

“Narada Muni says - Whether you consider the human to be an eternal jivatma or a temporary body, or even if you accept an indescribable opinion that he is both eternal and temporary, you do not have to lament in any way. There is no cause for lamentation other than the affection which has arisen out of delusion. (1.13.44)”

― Srimad Bhagavatam

tags: krishna, spiritual 1 likes Like

“To become free from sinful life, there is only simple method: if you surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning of bhakti.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: beginings, bhakti, krishna, krishna-conciousness, method, sin, surrender 0 likes Like

“So it is our request that you try to study Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Don't try to distort it by your so-called education. Try to understand Kṛiṣṇa as He is saying. Then you will be benefited. Your life will be successful.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: benifit-of-doubt, education, krishna, krishna-consciousness, life, life-quotes, study, successful-living, understanding 0 likes Like

Chaitanya Charan Das

“Meditation is defined by not just the mode of thinking, but also the object of thought”

― Chaitanya Charan Das, Gita for Daily Enrichment

tags: chanting, god, krishna, meditation, spirituality, yoga 0 likes Like

“If by studying Bhagavad-gītā one decides to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, he is immediately freed from all sinful reactions.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: freedom, karma, krishna, krishna-consciousness, reactions, sin, study, surrender 0 likes Like

“By studying Bhagavad-gītā, one can become a soul completely surrendered to the Supreme Lord and engage himself in pure devotional service. As the Lord takes charge, one becomes completely free from all kinds of materialistic endeavors.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: consciousness, devotion, god, gods-grace, krishna, krishna-conciousness, scriptures, service, study, supreme-love 0 likes Like

Jarett Sabirsh

“being attached to any one philosophy or religion

dwelling on moot differences and wanting to fit in

despite the path all are led Home in time

following an alternative pathway is certainly no crime

Krishna, Buddha, Allah or Zohar Kabbalah

devoted nonviolently, one is led to Nirvana

Hindu Sages, Zen Masters or Christian Mystics

many tongues, but identical truth spoken from their lips

mentioning Self or no-self or God is Father or Mother

according to their culture emphasizing one method or another

allness vs. nothingness, meditation vs. prayer

devotion in practice is all you should care

when Truth reveals itself you're beyond all conception

then not a single man-made word will hold any traction”

― Jarett Sabirsh, Love All-Knowing: An Epic Spiritual Poem

tags: buddha, buddhism, god, krishna, meditation, religion, spirituality 0 likes Like

“The perfection of yoga, therefore, does not terminate in voidness or impersonalism; on the contrary, the perfection of yoga is attained when one actually sees the Personality of Godhead in His eternal form.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

A protest called by Uni Students For Climate Justice in Melbourne, forming part of a COP26 Global Day of Action against climate inaction.

I read a book by a UK professional photographer. He visited New England and shot the autumn colour in the area. With the help of map and GPS, he visited all the lakes in the 50 km radius around the place he stayed. Finally he found one with perfect colour and reflection. He waited another day for the right light. Then he took the shot with his medium format camera which is published in the book. This is called professional approach.

 

The amateur approach on the other hand is that I never know what I am going to shoot when I pick up my camera. I shoot whatever is offered to me. That includes the subject, the scene, the light or the mood sometimes even the philosophical concept in it. It is not goal-oriented or so called purposeless. Also I don't care about technical quality and so I shoot with any camera.

 

But I can see more and more amateurs are actually shooting with professional grade equipment and taking the "professional" approach with careful planning and specific targets to shoot.

 

The amateur approach I described is close to the "Wu-Wei" 無為 concept mentioned by the book "Tao of Photography". It is translated as inaction or doing nothing or forceless and effortless. It is the approach not aiming to achieve a specific goal but rather to stay open to all creative possibilities.

 

There is not good fall colour landscape in the city area. The worst thing is that there will always be cars on the street when you see the color in the trees. I had my lunch in the nearby restaurant. I came out and saw the colours. I had only my compact camera with me and I decided to just let the car staying in the scene. Wu-Wei.

 

Happy Tuesday!

 

"I never look for a photograph. The photograph finds me and says, I'm here! and I say, Yes I see you. I hear you!"

 

- Ruth Bernhard

 

"Throughout my life I've never pursued anything. I just let things pursue me ... they just show up .... This is the way I've led my life, not just in photography, but in life."

 

- Manuel Alvarez Bravo

In the heart of Korea Town in Los Angeles, Shepard Fairey and his crew put up a massive 35' x 100' mural on the side of the Line Hotel. Check out our recap as we caught Shepard and the crew working on the final day of the mural.

 

Check out my post on 12ozProphet:

www.12ozprophet.com/index.php/news/shepard-fairey-peace-t...

Check out the full post on 12oz Prophet here: www.12ozprophet.com/news/12ozprophet-exclusive-risk-bio-m...

Beautiful Lamborghini LP700-4 Aventador driving around in french woods. Shot today during a charity event organized by EAP and Rotary Club.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

•** My YouTube videos - only the best supercars !!

•** Follow me on Facebook for more car-related stuff & trivia !

Quotes About Krishna

 

Quotes tagged as "krishna" (showing 1-30 of 39)

Christopher Pike

“It doesn't matter. You are what you are. I am what I am. We are the same-when you take the time to remember me.”

― Christopher Pike, The Red Dice

tags: krishna, red-dice 61 likes Like

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

“Can't you ever be serious?' I said, mortified.

'It's difficult,' he said. 'There's so little in life that's worth it.”

― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

tags: divakaruni, krishna, life, palace-of-illusions, panchaali, seriousness 54 likes Like

Christopher Pike

“The truth is always simpler than you can imagine.”

― Christopher Pike, The Red Dice

tags: krishna 47 likes Like

“The only way you can conquer me is through love and there I am gladly conquered”

― Gopi Krishna

tags: krishna, love, mohit-k-misra, moht-misra 38 likes Like

“One who sees inaction in action and action in inaction- he is a wise man.”

― Gopi Krishna

tags: holy-bhagwat-gita, krishna, mohit-k-misra 16 likes Like

“It is I who remain seated in the heart of all creatures as the inner controller of all; and it is I who am the source of memory, knowledge and the ratiocinativefaculty. Again, I am the only object worth knowing through the Vedas; I alone am the origin of Vedānta and the knower of the Vedas too. — Krishna; Chapter 15, verse 15”

― Anonymous, The Bhagavad Gita

tags: hinduism, krishna 11 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Christ attained the ultimate spiritual oneness through prayer and devotion, Moses and Mohammed through prayer, Buddha and all the Indian sages through intense meditation and so did I. And so can you.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 3 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Just like love becomes consummated upon the attainment of orgasm, all the faith and divinity in the world reach their ultimate existential potential upon the attainment of Absolute Unitary Qualia or simply Absolute Godliness.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 2 likes Like

Alan W. Watts

“When it comes down to it, government is simply an abandonment of responsibility on the assumption that there are people, other than ourselves, who really know how to manage things. But the government, run ostensibly for the good of the people, becomes a self-serving corporation. To keep things under control, it proliferates law of ever-increasing complexity and unintelligibility, and hinders productive work by demanding so much accounting on paper that the record of what has been done becomes more important than what has actually been done. [...] The Taoist moral is that people who mistrust themselves and one another are doomed.”

― Alan W. Watts

tags: democracy, esotericism, government, krishna, philosophy, politics, tao, zen 2 likes Like

“Gujarat is my home state, welcome to the land of Krishna, Gandhi, Sardar & now it's Narendrabhai”

― Mukesh Ambani Vibrant Gujarat 2015

tags: gandhi, gujarat, krishna, narendra-modi, sardar 2 likes Like

Manasa Rao Saarloos

“I haven’t been to a temple in years, never been forced. My folks always said, marry a nice human being, religion doesn’t matter. They said your god is inside you! Don’t you forget that. Krishna, Jesus, Allah, are all one. Follow vegetarianism as far as you can, but you can choose your own diet, doesn’t matter. Believe in god, but for you and not because the world asks you to. Forgive and forget to be at peace. Do not believe in revenge, believe in karma!!”

― Manasa Rao Saarloos

tags: allah, forgive-and-forget, god, hinduism, jesus, karma, krishna, marriage, parenting, religion-and-philoshophy, spirituality, vegetarianism 2 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause. And it is all because people never attempt to reach the fountain-head. They are content only to comply with the customs of their forefathers and instructions on some books, and want others to do the same. But, to explain God after merely reading the scriptures is like explaining the city of New York after seeing it only in a map.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, fundamentalism, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, religious-extremism, religious-faith, religious-terrorism, religious-violence, self-realization, terrorism, transcendentalism 2 likes Like

Vikrmn

“Forgive all before you go to sleep, you'll be forgiven before you get up. – Lord Krishna.”

― Vikrmn, Corpkshetra

tags: 10-golden-steps-of-life, 10gsl, ca-vikram-verma, chartered-accountant, forgive, forgiven, get-up, golden, inspirational, krishna, life, lord-krishna, motivational, sleep, steps, vikram, vikram-verma, vikrmn, vv 2 likes Like

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

“But Krishna was a chameleon.”

― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

tags: identity, krishna, palace-of-illusions 1 likes Like

Padma Viswanathan

“Perhaps terror and peace became the same thing when life's mysteries were unveiled. In the Bhagavad Gita, when Krishna reveals his divine form at Arjuna's request, Arjuna is terrified at seeing what no mortal can stand to see. But the end to human doubt surely must also bring with it a definite, final peace.”

― Padma Viswanathan, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao

tags: arjuna, bhagavad-gita, enlightenment, fear, krishna, life-s-mysteries, mysteries, peace, terror 1 likes Like

Sandeep Sharma

“The moment when your heart’s rhythm synchronises with the chants of the holy temple, you find God in your soul. It was noisy yet peaceful. They were all dancing in the packed hall, with eyes closed and hands swinging up in the air. It was as if the motto of life was nothing but to enjoy this very moment and taste the love of the almighty.”

― Sandeep Sharma, Let The Game Begin

tags: god, krishna, life-and-living, mathura 1 likes Like

Vivian Amis

“All suffering is caused by one belief....the belief in separation”

― Vivian Amis, The Lotus - Realization of Oneness

tags: buddha, business, end-to, family, friends, god, harmony, home, jesus, krishna, love, missery, oneness, partnership, peace, quotes, realization, self, suffering, war, world 1 likes Like

“You don’t need validation or approval from anyone but yourself. Even if the entire world goes against, disagrees with or attempts to crush you, stand up for what you believe in, and stand up alone if you have to! It’s better to die while living your own truth than to live in the truth of another. Lord Krishna in the holy Bhagavad Gita pointed this out when he said;

 

“It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.”

 

Integrity is the key to freedom. It’s only your own truth that can ‘set you free.’ It’s perfectly fine if your truth doesn’t match that of others because the experience of physical reality is a completely subjective one. It doesn’t make either of you wrong, as long as you’re both being true to yourselves, that’s all that matters.”

― Craig Krishna, The Labyrinth: Rewiring the Nodes in the Maze of your Mind

tags: beliefs, believe-in, bhagavad-gita, destiny, identity, integrity, key, krishna, opinions, perfection, stand-up, truth 1 likes Like

“Show yourself as an ideal Vaisnava, then you are my representative in full. We are not after titles and designations. We must teach by personal example. Do this and the future of our movement will be glorious.”

― Prabhupada Dasa

tags: krishna 1 likes Like

“When you think you know Everything, you know NOTHING! When you think you know Nothing.. You become KRISHNA- THE UNKNOWN !”

― True Krishna Priya

tags: consciousness, krishna, soul 1 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Once you attain the state of Absolute Oneness or Non-Duality, you become one of those spiritual legends that humanity so gloriously venerates as the founding fathers of religion.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 1 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Once you emerge from the state of absolute divinity, the self within you becomes Christ – it becomes Buddha – it becomes Moses – it becomes Krishna. The sage who emerges from the state of non-duality begins to perceive the self as Christ, not Christ as Christ – the self as Moses, not Moses as Moses – the self as Mohammed, not Mohammed as Mohammed – the self as Krishna, not Krishna as Krishna.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 1 likes Like

“Narada Muni says - Whether you consider the human to be an eternal jivatma or a temporary body, or even if you accept an indescribable opinion that he is both eternal and temporary, you do not have to lament in any way. There is no cause for lamentation other than the affection which has arisen out of delusion. (1.13.44)”

― Srimad Bhagavatam

tags: krishna, spiritual 1 likes Like

“To become free from sinful life, there is only simple method: if you surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning of bhakti.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: beginings, bhakti, krishna, krishna-conciousness, method, sin, surrender 0 likes Like

“So it is our request that you try to study Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Don't try to distort it by your so-called education. Try to understand Kṛiṣṇa as He is saying. Then you will be benefited. Your life will be successful.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: benifit-of-doubt, education, krishna, krishna-consciousness, life, life-quotes, study, successful-living, understanding 0 likes Like

Chaitanya Charan Das

“Meditation is defined by not just the mode of thinking, but also the object of thought”

― Chaitanya Charan Das, Gita for Daily Enrichment

tags: chanting, god, krishna, meditation, spirituality, yoga 0 likes Like

“If by studying Bhagavad-gītā one decides to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, he is immediately freed from all sinful reactions.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: freedom, karma, krishna, krishna-consciousness, reactions, sin, study, surrender 0 likes Like

“By studying Bhagavad-gītā, one can become a soul completely surrendered to the Supreme Lord and engage himself in pure devotional service. As the Lord takes charge, one becomes completely free from all kinds of materialistic endeavors.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: consciousness, devotion, god, gods-grace, krishna, krishna-conciousness, scriptures, service, study, supreme-love 0 likes Like

Jarett Sabirsh

“being attached to any one philosophy or religion

dwelling on moot differences and wanting to fit in

despite the path all are led Home in time

following an alternative pathway is certainly no crime

Krishna, Buddha, Allah or Zohar Kabbalah

devoted nonviolently, one is led to Nirvana

Hindu Sages, Zen Masters or Christian Mystics

many tongues, but identical truth spoken from their lips

mentioning Self or no-self or God is Father or Mother

according to their culture emphasizing one method or another

allness vs. nothingness, meditation vs. prayer

devotion in practice is all you should care

when Truth reveals itself you're beyond all conception

then not a single man-made word will hold any traction”

― Jarett Sabirsh, Love All-Knowing: An Epic Spiritual Poem

tags: buddha, buddhism, god, krishna, meditation, religion, spirituality 0 likes Like

“The perfection of yoga, therefore, does not terminate in voidness or impersonalism; on the contrary, the perfection of yoga is attained when one actually sees the Personality of Godhead in His eternal form.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Mayo in action

Quotes About Krishna

 

Quotes tagged as "krishna" (showing 1-30 of 39)

Christopher Pike

“It doesn't matter. You are what you are. I am what I am. We are the same-when you take the time to remember me.”

― Christopher Pike, The Red Dice

tags: krishna, red-dice 61 likes Like

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

“Can't you ever be serious?' I said, mortified.

'It's difficult,' he said. 'There's so little in life that's worth it.”

― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

tags: divakaruni, krishna, life, palace-of-illusions, panchaali, seriousness 54 likes Like

Christopher Pike

“The truth is always simpler than you can imagine.”

― Christopher Pike, The Red Dice

tags: krishna 47 likes Like

“The only way you can conquer me is through love and there I am gladly conquered”

― Gopi Krishna

tags: krishna, love, mohit-k-misra, moht-misra 38 likes Like

“One who sees inaction in action and action in inaction- he is a wise man.”

― Gopi Krishna

tags: holy-bhagwat-gita, krishna, mohit-k-misra 16 likes Like

“It is I who remain seated in the heart of all creatures as the inner controller of all; and it is I who am the source of memory, knowledge and the ratiocinativefaculty. Again, I am the only object worth knowing through the Vedas; I alone am the origin of Vedānta and the knower of the Vedas too. — Krishna; Chapter 15, verse 15”

― Anonymous, The Bhagavad Gita

tags: hinduism, krishna 11 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Christ attained the ultimate spiritual oneness through prayer and devotion, Moses and Mohammed through prayer, Buddha and all the Indian sages through intense meditation and so did I. And so can you.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 3 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Just like love becomes consummated upon the attainment of orgasm, all the faith and divinity in the world reach their ultimate existential potential upon the attainment of Absolute Unitary Qualia or simply Absolute Godliness.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 2 likes Like

Alan W. Watts

“When it comes down to it, government is simply an abandonment of responsibility on the assumption that there are people, other than ourselves, who really know how to manage things. But the government, run ostensibly for the good of the people, becomes a self-serving corporation. To keep things under control, it proliferates law of ever-increasing complexity and unintelligibility, and hinders productive work by demanding so much accounting on paper that the record of what has been done becomes more important than what has actually been done. [...] The Taoist moral is that people who mistrust themselves and one another are doomed.”

― Alan W. Watts

tags: democracy, esotericism, government, krishna, philosophy, politics, tao, zen 2 likes Like

“Gujarat is my home state, welcome to the land of Krishna, Gandhi, Sardar & now it's Narendrabhai”

― Mukesh Ambani Vibrant Gujarat 2015

tags: gandhi, gujarat, krishna, narendra-modi, sardar 2 likes Like

Manasa Rao Saarloos

“I haven’t been to a temple in years, never been forced. My folks always said, marry a nice human being, religion doesn’t matter. They said your god is inside you! Don’t you forget that. Krishna, Jesus, Allah, are all one. Follow vegetarianism as far as you can, but you can choose your own diet, doesn’t matter. Believe in god, but for you and not because the world asks you to. Forgive and forget to be at peace. Do not believe in revenge, believe in karma!!”

― Manasa Rao Saarloos

tags: allah, forgive-and-forget, god, hinduism, jesus, karma, krishna, marriage, parenting, religion-and-philoshophy, spirituality, vegetarianism 2 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause. And it is all because people never attempt to reach the fountain-head. They are content only to comply with the customs of their forefathers and instructions on some books, and want others to do the same. But, to explain God after merely reading the scriptures is like explaining the city of New York after seeing it only in a map.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, fundamentalism, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, religious-extremism, religious-faith, religious-terrorism, religious-violence, self-realization, terrorism, transcendentalism 2 likes Like

Vikrmn

“Forgive all before you go to sleep, you'll be forgiven before you get up. – Lord Krishna.”

― Vikrmn, Corpkshetra

tags: 10-golden-steps-of-life, 10gsl, ca-vikram-verma, chartered-accountant, forgive, forgiven, get-up, golden, inspirational, krishna, life, lord-krishna, motivational, sleep, steps, vikram, vikram-verma, vikrmn, vv 2 likes Like

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

“But Krishna was a chameleon.”

― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

tags: identity, krishna, palace-of-illusions 1 likes Like

Padma Viswanathan

“Perhaps terror and peace became the same thing when life's mysteries were unveiled. In the Bhagavad Gita, when Krishna reveals his divine form at Arjuna's request, Arjuna is terrified at seeing what no mortal can stand to see. But the end to human doubt surely must also bring with it a definite, final peace.”

― Padma Viswanathan, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao

tags: arjuna, bhagavad-gita, enlightenment, fear, krishna, life-s-mysteries, mysteries, peace, terror 1 likes Like

Sandeep Sharma

“The moment when your heart’s rhythm synchronises with the chants of the holy temple, you find God in your soul. It was noisy yet peaceful. They were all dancing in the packed hall, with eyes closed and hands swinging up in the air. It was as if the motto of life was nothing but to enjoy this very moment and taste the love of the almighty.”

― Sandeep Sharma, Let The Game Begin

tags: god, krishna, life-and-living, mathura 1 likes Like

Vivian Amis

“All suffering is caused by one belief....the belief in separation”

― Vivian Amis, The Lotus - Realization of Oneness

tags: buddha, business, end-to, family, friends, god, harmony, home, jesus, krishna, love, missery, oneness, partnership, peace, quotes, realization, self, suffering, war, world 1 likes Like

“You don’t need validation or approval from anyone but yourself. Even if the entire world goes against, disagrees with or attempts to crush you, stand up for what you believe in, and stand up alone if you have to! It’s better to die while living your own truth than to live in the truth of another. Lord Krishna in the holy Bhagavad Gita pointed this out when he said;

 

“It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.”

 

Integrity is the key to freedom. It’s only your own truth that can ‘set you free.’ It’s perfectly fine if your truth doesn’t match that of others because the experience of physical reality is a completely subjective one. It doesn’t make either of you wrong, as long as you’re both being true to yourselves, that’s all that matters.”

― Craig Krishna, The Labyrinth: Rewiring the Nodes in the Maze of your Mind

tags: beliefs, believe-in, bhagavad-gita, destiny, identity, integrity, key, krishna, opinions, perfection, stand-up, truth 1 likes Like

“Show yourself as an ideal Vaisnava, then you are my representative in full. We are not after titles and designations. We must teach by personal example. Do this and the future of our movement will be glorious.”

― Prabhupada Dasa

tags: krishna 1 likes Like

“When you think you know Everything, you know NOTHING! When you think you know Nothing.. You become KRISHNA- THE UNKNOWN !”

― True Krishna Priya

tags: consciousness, krishna, soul 1 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Once you attain the state of Absolute Oneness or Non-Duality, you become one of those spiritual legends that humanity so gloriously venerates as the founding fathers of religion.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 1 likes Like

Abhijit Naskar

“Once you emerge from the state of absolute divinity, the self within you becomes Christ – it becomes Buddha – it becomes Moses – it becomes Krishna. The sage who emerges from the state of non-duality begins to perceive the self as Christ, not Christ as Christ – the self as Moses, not Moses as Moses – the self as Mohammed, not Mohammed as Mohammed – the self as Krishna, not Krishna as Krishna.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

tags: brainy-quotes, buddha, buddhahood, christ, christianity, consciousness-mind-brain, consciousness-quotes, divine-self, harmony-quotes, hinduism, islam, krishna, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness-quotes, moses, muhammad, muhammad-pbuh, neurotheology, nirvana, nondual-philosophy, nondualism, nonduality, peace, pearls-of-wisdom, philosophy, philosophy-quotes, self-realization, transcendentalism 1 likes Like

“Narada Muni says - Whether you consider the human to be an eternal jivatma or a temporary body, or even if you accept an indescribable opinion that he is both eternal and temporary, you do not have to lament in any way. There is no cause for lamentation other than the affection which has arisen out of delusion. (1.13.44)”

― Srimad Bhagavatam

tags: krishna, spiritual 1 likes Like

“To become free from sinful life, there is only simple method: if you surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That is the beginning of bhakti.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: beginings, bhakti, krishna, krishna-conciousness, method, sin, surrender 0 likes Like

“So it is our request that you try to study Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Don't try to distort it by your so-called education. Try to understand Kṛiṣṇa as He is saying. Then you will be benefited. Your life will be successful.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: benifit-of-doubt, education, krishna, krishna-consciousness, life, life-quotes, study, successful-living, understanding 0 likes Like

Chaitanya Charan Das

“Meditation is defined by not just the mode of thinking, but also the object of thought”

― Chaitanya Charan Das, Gita for Daily Enrichment

tags: chanting, god, krishna, meditation, spirituality, yoga 0 likes Like

“If by studying Bhagavad-gītā one decides to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, he is immediately freed from all sinful reactions.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: freedom, karma, krishna, krishna-consciousness, reactions, sin, study, surrender 0 likes Like

“By studying Bhagavad-gītā, one can become a soul completely surrendered to the Supreme Lord and engage himself in pure devotional service. As the Lord takes charge, one becomes completely free from all kinds of materialistic endeavors.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

tags: consciousness, devotion, god, gods-grace, krishna, krishna-conciousness, scriptures, service, study, supreme-love 0 likes Like

Jarett Sabirsh

“being attached to any one philosophy or religion

dwelling on moot differences and wanting to fit in

despite the path all are led Home in time

following an alternative pathway is certainly no crime

Krishna, Buddha, Allah or Zohar Kabbalah

devoted nonviolently, one is led to Nirvana

Hindu Sages, Zen Masters or Christian Mystics

many tongues, but identical truth spoken from their lips

mentioning Self or no-self or God is Father or Mother

according to their culture emphasizing one method or another

allness vs. nothingness, meditation vs. prayer

devotion in practice is all you should care

when Truth reveals itself you're beyond all conception

then not a single man-made word will hold any traction”

― Jarett Sabirsh, Love All-Knowing: An Epic Spiritual Poem

tags: buddha, buddhism, god, krishna, meditation, religion, spirituality 0 likes Like

“The perfection of yoga, therefore, does not terminate in voidness or impersonalism; on the contrary, the perfection of yoga is attained when one actually sees the Personality of Godhead in His eternal form.”

― A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

a view from pangsapuri berembang indah jelateks

A frozen statement on global climate change and inaction by the public and the Canadian government, while participating in the 2009 Polar Bear Swim in Vancouver, BC, Canada. What better time to raise the issue of the imminent threat facing Polar Bears (and the other environmental and societal impacts of climate change) than at the Polar Bear Swim?

Power of Prayer

This devotional service is a sort of cultivation. It is not simply inaction for people who like to be inactive or devote their time to silent meditation. There are many different methods for people who want this, but cultivation of Krishna consciousness is different. The particular word used by Srila Rupa Gosvami in this connection is anusilana or cultivation by following the predecessor teachers (acaryas). As soon as we say "cultivation," we must refer to activity. Without activity, consciousness alone cannot help us. All activities may be divided into two classes: one class may be for achieving a certain goal, and the other may be for avoiding some unfavorable circumstance. In Sanskrit, these activities are called pravriti and nirvriti-positive and negative action. There are many examples of negative action. For instance, a diseased person has to be cautious and take medicine in order to avoid some unfavorable illness.

 

Those who are cultivating spiritual life and executing devotional service are always engaged in activity. Such activity can be performed with the body or with the mind. Thinking, feeling and willing are all activities of the mind, and when we will to do something, the activity comes to be manifest by the gross bodily senses. Thus, in our mental activities we should always try to think of Krishna and try to plan how to please Him, following in the footsteps of the great acaryas and the personal spiritual master. There are activities of the body, activities of the mind and activities of speech. A Krishna conscious person engages his words in preaching the glories of the Lord. This is called kirtana. And by his mind a Krishna conscious person always thinks of the activities of the Lord-as He is speaking on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra or engaging in His various pastimes in Vrindavana with His devotees. In this way one can always think of the activities and pastimes of the Lord. This is the mental culture of Krishna consciousness.

 

Similarly, we can offer many services with our bodily activities. But all such activities must be in relationship with Krishna. This relationship is established by connecting oneself with the bona fide spiritual master, who is the direct representative of Krishna in disciplic succession. Therefore, the execution of Krishna conscious activities with the body should be directed by the spiritual master and then performed with faith. The connection with the spiritual master is called initiation. From the date of initiation by the spiritual master, the connection between Krishna and a person cultivating Krishna consciousness is established. Without initiation by a bona fide spiritual master, the actual connection with Krishna consciousness is never performed.

 

This cultivation of Krishna consciousness is not material. The Lord has three general energies-namely the external energy, the internal energy and the marginal energy. The living entities are called marginal energy, and the material cosmic manifestation is the action of the external, or material, energy. Then there is the spiritual world, which is a manifestation of the internal energy. The living entities, who are called marginal energy, perform material activities when acting under the inferior, external energy. And when they engage in activities under the internal, spiritual energy, their activities are called Krishna conscious. This means that those who are great souls or great devotees do not act under the spell of material energy, but act instead under the protection of the spiritual energy. Any activities done in devotional service, or in Krishna consciousness, are directly under the control of spiritual energy. In other words, energy is a sort of strength, and this strength can be spiritualized by the mercy of both the bona fide spiritual master and Krishna.

 

In the Caitanya-caritämåta, by Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, Lord Caitanya states that it is a fortunate person who comes in contact with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Krishna. One who is serious about spiritual life is given by Krishna the intelligence to come in contact with a bona fide spiritual master, and then by the grace of the spiritual master one becomes advanced in Krishna consciousness. In this way the whole jurisdiction of Krishna consciousness is directly under the spiritual energy-Krishna and the spiritual master. This has nothing to do with the material world. When we speak of "Krishna" we refer to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, along with His many expansions. He is expanded by His plenary parts and parcels, His differentiated parts and parcels and His different energies. "Krishna," in other words, means everything and includes everything. Generally, however, we should understand "Krishna" to mean Krishna and His personal expansions. Krishna expands Himself as Baladeva, Sankarsana, Vasudeva, Aniruddha, Pradyumna, Rama, Nrsimha and Varaha, as well as many other incarnations and innumerable Visnu expansions. These are described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam to be as numerous as the uncountable waves. So Krishna includes all such expansions, as well as His pure devotees. In the Brahma-samhita it is stated that Krishna's expansions are all complete in eternity, blissfulness and cognizance.

 

Devotional service means to prosecute Krishna conscious activities which are favorable to the transcendental pleasure of the Supreme Lord, Krishna, and any activities which are not favorable to the transcendental favor of the Lord cannot be accepted as devotional service. For example, great demons like Ravana, Kamsa and Hiranyakasipu were always thinking of Krishna, but they were thinking of Him as their enemy. This sort of thinking cannot be accepted as bhakti, or Krishna consciousness.

 

The impersonalists sometimes misunderstand devotional service in such a way that they divide Krishna from His paraphernalia and pastimes. For example, the Bhagavad-gita is spoken on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra, and the impersonalists say that although Krishna is of interest, the Battlefield of Kuruksetra isn't. The devotees, however, also know that the Battlefield of Kuruksetra by itself has nothing to do with their business, but in addition they know that "Krishna" does not mean just Krishna alone. He is always with His associates and paraphernalia. For instance, if someone says, "Give something to eat to the man with the weapons," the eating process is done by the man and not by the weapons. Similarly, in Krishna consciousness, a devotee may be interested in the paraphernalia and locations-such as the Battlefield of Kuruksetra-which are associated with Krishna, but he is not concerned with simply any battlefield. He is concerned with Krishna-His speech, His instructions, etc. It is because Krishna is there that the battlefield is so important.

 

This is the summary understanding of what Krishna consciousness is. Without this understanding one is sure to misunderstand why the devotees are interested in the Battlefield of Kuruksetra. One who is interested in Krishna becomes interested in His different pastimes and activities.

 

The definition of a pure devotee, as given by Rupa Gosvami in Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, can be summarized thus: his service is favorable and is always in relation to Krishna. In order to keep the purity of such Krishna conscious activities, one must be freed from all material desires and philosophical speculation. Any desire except for the service of the Lord is called material desire. And "philosophical speculation" refers to the sort of speculation which ultimately arrives at a conclusion of voidism or impersonalism. This conclusion is useless for a Krishna conscious person. Only rarely by philosophical speculation can one reach the conclusion of worshiping Vasudeva, Krishna. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita itself. The ultimate end of philosophical speculation, then, must be Krishna, with the understanding that Krishna is everything, the cause of all causes, and that one should therefore surrender unto Him. If this ultimate goal is reached, then philosophical advancement is favorable, but if the conclusion of philosophical speculation is voidism or impersonalism, that is not bhakti.

 

Karma, or fruitive activities, are sometimes understood to be ritualistic activities. There are many persons who are very much attracted by the ritualistic activities described in the Vedas. But if one becomes attracted simply to ritualistic activities without understanding Krishna, his activities are unfavorable to Krishna consciousness. Actually, Krishna consciousness can be based simply on hearing, chanting, remembering, etc. Described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam are nine different processes, besides which everything done is unfavorable to Krishna consciousness. Thus, one should always be guarding against falldowns.

 

Srila Rupa Gosvami has also mentioned in this definition of bhakti the word jnana-karmadi. This karmadi (fruitive work) consists of activities which are unable to help one attain to pure devotional service. Many forms of so-called renunciation are also not favorable to Krishna conscious devotional service.

 

Srila Rupa Gosvami has also quoted a definition from the Narada-pancaratra, as follows: "One should be free from all material designations and, by Krishna consciousness, must be cleansed of all material contamination. He should be restored to his pure identity, in which he engages his senses in the service of the proprietor of the senses." So when our senses are engaged for the actual proprietor of the senses, that is called devotional service. In our conditional state, our senses are engaged in serving these bodily demands. When the same senses are engaged in executing the order of Krishna, our activities are called bhakti.

 

As long as one identifies himself as belonging to a certain family, a certain society or a certain person, he is said to be covered with designations. When one is fully aware that he does not belong to any family, society or country, but is eternally related to Krishna, he then realizes that his energy should be employed not in the interests of so-called family, society or country, but in the interests of Krishna. This is purity of purpose and the platform of pure devotional service in Krishna consciousness.

~ Excerpt from Introduction to Nectar of Devotion © Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

 

En photo et vidéo, rétrospective d'une connexion rouennaise sur le PGC blog : photograffcollectif.blogspot.com/2011/01/connexion-rouenn...

Jeepers creepers! Where d'you get those peepers? After a little inaction on the painting front I thought it would be best to get my hand back in with a little easy sunny painting on a sunny afternoon. With no idea on what I was going to paint, all i had was a blank door down the mews staring at me and eventually decided a face would see me right. After about half an hour of glaring at the door I decided I'd just pick up a paintbrush and start. The devil makes work for idle hands and all that jazz. A short time later, and after using a few spraycans (which i said i wouldn't use), I give you 'Peepers'. What exactly it's on about is for you to decide...

 

Cheers

 

id-iom

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;

 

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law;

 

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

 

Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992), Laws of Robotics from I. Robot, 1950

Remarks

 

Dean Pittman

Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Organization Affairs

Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

 

(As prepared)

 

Every year at this time, the State Department is in a particularly frenzied state, preparing for the annual spectacle that we lovingly refer to as UNGA – the UN General Assembly. For many of us who have ridden the UNGA roller coaster over the years, that acronym possesses a gratifying guttural quality – there’s a heavy dose of UGH in every UNGA. This year’s dose is complemented by the U.S. presidency of the Security Council for the month of September. A 2fer for us!

 

It’s true that every new General Assembly brings with it dozens of world leaders, as well as innumerable events, speeches, protests, media outlets, and traffic snarls. The atmosphere can at times seem more carnival than colloquium.

 

Also every year at this time, the State Department endeavors to illuminate in advance U.S. priorities for the new General Assembly, and I’m pleased to be assuming that task today. I do so in the confident knowledge that the United Nations remains crucial to many of our national interests, and that in spite of its carnival-like aspects, this annual gathering of UN member states can be concretely useful in advancing those interests.

 

I’ll speak a bit today about what I mean by that utility, and how the United States translates its goals and objectives at the General Assembly into tools, actions, and results. I’ll describe briefly how actions at the Security Council have real impact, and how inaction at the Security Council can have real implications. Because at the end of the day, the United Nations must be more than the sum of its parts: it must be the system that provides function to the collective aspirations of the world community. There simply is no other alternative.

 

First, though, a few words on the overarching objectives that will frame much of the work we undertake over the next few words. As in previous years, we approach each new General Assembly in the context under which the Assembly was established nearly 70 years ago: to foster a more peaceful world, and to promote development and human rights. In these categories fall the broadest range of issues you can imagine, from Ukraine to Syria to Afghanistan to nonproliferation to human rights to climate change. All of those issues and many, many more are present on this year’s UNGA agenda.

 

In addition to the peace and development themes, however, the United States approaches the new General Assembly with another enduring priority, to continue working for a more effective, efficient UN system. In this area – which really colors all of our work throughout the UN system – we will be unrelenting in our push for improved UN budget discipline and management reform to ensure that the UN is able to meet the demands posed by today’s global challenges, and do so accountably, transparently, and responsibly.

 

So, look, this is a challenging time for the United States and its partners on the world stage, and I think that might be understating the matter, to say the least. It’s hard to imagine a time of so many divergent challenges confronting the international community. We have the security and humanitarian situations in Syria and Iraq, and the serious threat posed by the terrorist group known as ISIL, which I will touch on in some more detail.

 

We have a conflict in Ukraine that poses a threat to European security. We have an acute regional health emergency in West Africa. The situation in Gaza remains a key concern. And these are just headline stuff. There also are a significant number of other issues that demand what the President refers to as collective action.

 

One obvious example: Climate Change. At this year’s UNGA, climate change will receive priority attention. High-level events will include a meeting of the Major Economies Forum to focus on Energy and Climate, and the Secretary General’s Climate Summit, which will feature discussion of concrete new actions to address the very real implications of climate change. President Obama and Secretary will speak at both. Secretary Kerry will also be reinforcing his own determined commitment to protecting the world’s oceans in a high-level event next week, which follows the very successful Oceans Conference he hosted here in Washington in June.

 

My point here is that the annual frenzy that defines the UNGA high-level period often can conceal opportunities and real action on issues important to the United States and, of course, to the other UN member states. Only rarely is it possible to have all the right people in the right place to make strides on difficult issues. UNGA can be such a place. Just last year at UNGA, for example, constructive action was achieved on the challenge of Syria’s chemical weapons, and negotiations related to Iran’s nuclear program.

 

Many of you will recall that as my colleagues and I were heading to New York for the start of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly, the conflict in Syria was reaching new dimensions, with recent evidence that the Assad regime had used chemical weapons on its own people. Russia and China had blocked Security Council action on Syria, but because the moment was right and the key players were all at hand at UNGA, a certain intangible momentum took hold, and the Council successfully adopted Resolution 2118, obligating the Syrian regime to take immediate action toward eliminating its chemical weapons.

 

Those weapons were subsequently identified and destroyed in what is a case study in the utility of collective action. We found a way to use the Security Council in spite of previous political failures; we had a competent technical organization ready to assume this difficult task, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and we had a coalition of nations, led by the United States, ready to provide the necessary means of destroying these weapons.

 

And, on Iran – opportunities at UNGA last year have led to significant action in addressing Iran’s nuclear efforts. Expect more this year. Pretty dramatic: calls by the President, world leaders negotiating around the UN Security Council table, Russians coming on board – it could have been a made for TV movie.

 

And so while much of UNGA is dedicated to broad conversations on global themes, much work is done on a more discrete basis, in bilateral conversations, in impromptu meetings, and sometimes in quite unanticipated directions. And when it happens, the results can be significant.

 

I thought I would continue by summarizing a bit further what will be among the key themes and activities during this year’s high-level week, and I hope to leave ample time to hear your thoughts and questions.

 

Tomorrow, I will be joining Secretary Kerry in New York when he chairs a session of the UN Security Council to demonstrate broad and unified international support for the new Iraqi Government, and to emphasize the need for serious political inclusivity as the new government pursues its agenda on behalf of the Iraqi people.

 

The Council session will provide a platform for the international community to underscore its support for Iraq’s new government as it fights ISIL. In recent days, the Secretary has been traveling extensively to issue what he has termed a “wake-up call” to world leaders on the threat posed by ISIL, and build a coalition of nations to address that threat. As tomorrow’s session will show, these efforts have had growing success and a global coalition is coming together.

 

We’ll see more next Wednesday when President Obama chairs a Security Council Summit to focus high-level international attention and action on the growing and dangerous related phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters.

 

Although the problem of terrorists traveling to foreign conflicts is not new, the threat recently has become grave, with an unprecedented flow of fighters and facilitation networks fueling multiple conflicts worldwide, such as in the Horn of Africa, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. These terrorist fighters not only exacerbate existing conflicts, but also often return to threaten terrorist attacks on the homefront.

  

As I said earlier, these are some of the headlines. But there will also be other events of importance to U.S. priorities. Next week for example will feature the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, which will strive to strengthen protections for indigenous cultural heritage and advance progress toward the goals of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In additional we’ll be discussing the post-2015 Development Agenda, the set of goals that will replace the Millennium Development Goals at the end of next year, and set the world’s development agenda for the next fifteen years or more. Heady stuff. Important stuff.

 

Peacekeeping will also be a major focus as we look to peacekeepers to carry out increasingly complicated and dangerous tasks around the globe. That aim was central to the Secretary General’s decision to launch a comprehensive strategic review of UN peacekeeping. And reinforce our own view that we need to work to improve UN peacekeeping mission logistics, planning, and force generation capabilities; to expand the pool of troop and police contributors; and to enhance the ability of peacekeepers to protect civilians, including from sexual and gender-based violence. The U.S. pays over $2billion a year in support of UN peacekeeping mission around the world – we’ve added two over the last year in Mali and CAR. We want to get them right.

 

These are just a few of the big ticket issues that will be under discussion during high-level week in New York. We can certainly discuss others, which include addressing gender-based violence in conflict settings, cementing progress made on the human rights of LGBT persons, country-specific events on Libya, South Sudan, DPRK, CAR and much more.

 

You may also be aware that tomorrow the Secretary will be making remarks at USAID’s Frontiers in Development Forum, where he is expected to elaborate his vision for American leadership on development issues, including the importance of the evolving post-2015 Development Agenda.

 

Finally, and as usual, world events shape UNGA in ways we could not predict even a few months ago. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa will of course be the feature of several high-level events at UNGA, and there is much happening now that will determine the agendas and outcomes of those events.

 

On Tuesday, the President spoke at the Centers for Disease Control, where he detailed our efforts to partner with the United Nations and other countries to help the Governments of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal respond to the outbreak just as we fortify U.S. defenses here at home. The President laid out four goals associated with this effort:

• control the epidemic at its source in West Africa;

• mitigate second-order impacts, including blunting the economic, social, and political tolls in the region;

• engage and coordinate with a broader global audience; and

• ortify global health security infrastructure in the region and beyond.

 

This effort, which includes assets from the Department of Defense, CDC, USAID, and other USG agencies, is built upon a crucial partnership with the World Health Organization and other international organizations that help coordinate and manage crises of this nature. In many ways, this is a unique international challenge, and only through maximum collaboration and communication can we ensure the greatest and most beneficial impact.

 

I’ve been all over the map I know, but that underscores the role of the UN in so many diverse and critical areas. And, I hope that gives you just a quick sense of some of the key events and activities that will constitute this year’s UNGA experience. It’s a little like spring break for foreign policy types – it’s non-stop action, just a little out of control, and guaranteed to leave you sleep-deprived and ready to go home. But another truth about UNGA is that it doesn’t end when all the heads of state depart and the high-level summits are concluded – the work, the initiatives, the collaboration, they are all just beginning.

 

This is a particular apt moment in time when we should pause to recognize that over the last 70 years, we have built an amazing – though admittedly flawed – international system designed to advance our human aspirations and respond to our human needs.

 

The UN and its agencies and organizations did not evolve from lesser entities, the nations of the world created them for specific purposes. While we member states may not value equally all the organizations in question, times such as these remind us of the utility of the World Health Organization, the World Food Program, UNICEF, and even those less known, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization. As many have said, if the United Nations did not exist, we would need to invent.

 

That utility requires investment by member states, and we all understand that the United States provides very significant support to the UN system. We do so because this system advances our interests and values, and because we accept that collective action on global issues offers the best path on a host of global issues. At the same time, we recognize that this varied and expansive bureaucracy is imperfect.

 

As we work to strengthen UN peacekeeping, UN capacity to respond to health crises, or advance access to quality education to all corners of the globe, we are determined to see improvements across the UN system in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, transparency and management reform. It is in this context that we support efforts such as the Secretary General’s peacekeeping review, efforts across the UN system to constrain staff costs, and elimination of redundant responsibilities. Vocal and active U.S. leadership on these issues is making a difference, but that leadership must be sustained, best practices amplified, and failures illuminated. In times of extraordinary challenges, business as usual is really not an option. We have to be tough because we expect so much from the UN.

 

So, criticisms aside – this is actually quite a remarkable time to be a UN watcher, and I encourage you to pay particular attention to this year’s UNGA. I have no doubt that the next week or two will feature some surprises, perhaps new ground will be broken on recurring issues. What will people be talking about after the summits and speeches have concluded? What event at UNGA will be best remembered at this time next year? I won’t offer a prediction here, but I will be very surprised if we aren’t all surprised in some manner, and that’s really what makes UNGA UNGA.

****************************

 

Washington, DC

September 18, 2014

Trick Dog  

Trendy hangout in a converted warehouse w/ an array of craft cocktails & eclectic small plates.

3010 20th St

San Francisco, CA 94110

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www.trickdogbar.com/

Fire Drill Friday, along with Fridays for Future, protesting against inaction on the climate crisis on 12/6/19, led by Jane Fonda

Beyond The Silence // Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany #igersBlackForest #igersGermany Amidst the plantation of pines, I found myself walking the white. It had been there since the start, but the deeper I delved into the Black Forest, the more I marvelled at what was out there, just waiting to be found. See snow is silent, where as rain is not. They both fall from the sky above and alter our environment, yet snow seems to fall in the most graceful manner - potentially causing grievances, but in a gentle way. They both change the way we behave, what we do and where we go - at times making even the known seem unrecognisable. Some see it as beauty, others as pain. Some desire it, others despise it. Some don't experience it at all, but quite a lot do - more than you may realise - and if they don't, they likely know someone who has. *** In the silence, there is beauty. In the silence, there is wonder. In the silence there is sadness, there is joy, and sometimes thunder. *** Surrounded by silence we separate ourselves from the world in which we really are. Life feels still, sometimes seeming like stagnation - other times like well earned time off. But the thing with focussing too much on the inaction is that we forget there really is no such thing. Everything keeps moving forward, tip-toeing into the future flux. Change is inevitable, such is life. It always has been, it always will be. Embrace it if you can. If not, wait out the storm. All we have to do is learn to be okay with that. *** Covered, but not contained. Reflecting, but not restrained. *** Amidst the silence, there is noise. Beyond the silence, there is sound. Listen. Find. Be heard, be found. via Instagram ift.tt/2cvPPi9

Australian school students striking & organising to demand real action on the climate crisis

twitter.com/strikeclimate

www.schoolstrike4climate.com

www.facebook.com/StrikeClimate/

www.instagram.com/schoolstrikeforclimate/

 

“We are striking from school to tell our politicians to take our futures

seriously and treat climate change for what it is - a crisis.” School Strike 4 Climate

 

Photo by Stephen Hass – Using Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License

 

Over 330,000 strike on Friday in Australia doubling the March 2019 protests.

Students, workers and people all ages in 115+ Australian cities & towns.

Potentially over 4 million people globally will participate in world's largest climate mobilisation.

 

“The strike comes three days before world leaders meet in New York for the United Nations Emergency Climate Summit. Scott Morrison will not attend the UN summit despite being in New York at the same time meeting with Donald Trump.” www.schoolstrike4climate.com/post/biggest-climate-mobilis...

 

“Politicians can show us that they care by taking urgent action to meet our demands:

One: No new coal, oil and gas projects, including the Adani mine.

Two: 100% renewable energy generation & exports by 2030

Three: Fund a just transition & job creation for all fossil-fuel workers & communities.”

School Strike 4 Climate

 

7 continents

150+ countries

5000+ Strikes

90 Unions

4 Global Union Federations

School Strike 4 Climate

 

“Climate change is one of the biggest problems facing the world and it isn’t being addressed quickly enough.” School Strike 4 Climate

 

UPDATE BELOW: 25 September 2019

 

“Greenhouse gas emissions have been rising in Australia since the Coalition repealed Labor’s carbon price despite the country’s commitments to reduce pollution under the Paris agreement. Total national emissions have increased each year since 2014.” www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/25/morrison-r...

 

“Diplomatic officials from countries that I speak with see Australia as a denialist government,” he said. “It’s just accepted that’s what it is. It is seen as doing its own promotion of coal and natural gas against the science.” www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/25/australian...

 

“Scott Morrison is increasingly seen as running a “denialist government” that is not serious about finding a global climate solution and uses “greenwash” to meet its emissions commitments, analysts and former diplomats say.” www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/25/australian...

 

“Richie Merzian, a former climate diplomat who now works at progressive thinktank the Australian Institute, said Australia was seen by other countries as denying the severity of the problem and in engaging in “greenwashing” by using accounting tricks to meet targets while actual emissions increased.” www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/25/australian...

 

“A report backed by the world’s major climate science bodies released on the eve of the summit found current plans would lead to a rise in average global temperatures of between 2.9C and 3.4C by 2100, a shift likely to bring catastrophic change across the globe.” www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/25/australian...

 

Critical News Update 21 July 2021 : Great Barrier Reef could soon be listed as ‘in danger’ by the World Heritage Committee.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/21/coalition-bel...

Critical News Update 23 July 2021 :

www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/23/whether-or-no...