title: IPhone 5

text: Like the iPhone 4s, the iPhone 5 has Siri, that allows the user to operate the iPhone by spoken commands. The software was improved in iOS 6 to include the ability to make restaurant reservations, launch apps, dictate Facebook or Twitter updates, retrieve movie reviews and detailed sports statistics.


title: IPhone 5

text: On the , texting can be aided by the voice assistant, which converts speech to text. In addition to regular texting, messaging on the supports iMessage, a specialized instant messaging program and service that allows unlimited texting to other Apple devices running iOS 5 or later. This supports the inclusion of content such as images and sound in text messages, integration with the device's voice-controlled software assistant, and read acknowledgments for sent messages. Input to the device comes from a keyboard displayed on the multi-touch screen or by voice-to-text by speaking into the microphone. Entered text is supported by predictive and suggestion software; there is a multi-language spell-checker which recognizes many regional accents of different languages.


title: IPhone 5

text: iOS 6 features several new and/or updated apps, which includes Apple Maps and Passbook. Apple's built-in Maps app, which replaced the former Maps app powered by Google Maps, had been universally derided and lacked many features present in competing maps apps. It uses Apple's new vector-based engine that eliminates lag, making for smoother zooming. New to Maps is turn-by-turn navigation spoken directions, 3D views in some major cities and real-time traffic. iOS 6 is able to retrieve documents such as boarding passes, admission tickets, coupons and loyalty cards through its new Passbook app. An iOS device with Passbook can be scanned under a reader to process a mobile payment at locations that have compatible hardware. The app has context-aware features such as notifications for relevant coupons when in the immediate vicinity of a given store.


title: IPhone 5

text: Facebook comes integrated through Apple's native apps with iOS 6. Facebook features can be directly accessed from within native apps such as Calendar which can sync Facebook events, or use Facebook's like button from within the Apple App Store.


title: IPhone 5

text: New privacy settings are available to the user. In addition to location services, the following have been added in iOS 6: photos (already partially restricted in iOS 5), contacts (address book), calendars, reminders, Bluetooth sharing, Twitter, Facebook, and Sina Weibo. iOS 6 also comes with a "Limit ad tracking" user control in the general settings menu to allow users the option to prevent targeted advertising. Apple's Advertising Identifier replaces the company's existing Unique Device Identification (UDID) standard. Advertising networks not yet using Apple's Advertising Identifier device identifier standard would not be affected, although Apple will require the standard in the future.


title: IPhone 5

text: Apple emphasized the improved build quality of the iPhone 5 at its press event. The frame used in previous versions was redesigned to use an aluminum composite frame. The and used stainless steel instead of aluminium due to Steve Jobs' preference for the metal which he thought, "looks beautiful when it wears".


title: IPhone 5

text: The is 18% thinner, 20% lighter, and has 12% less overall volume than its predecessor, the iPhone 4s. The phone's aluminum body is thick. At the September 2012 conference Apple claimed it was the thinnest smartphone in the world at 7.6 mm, though that claim was disputed as the Chinese Oppo Finder was thinner and some other smartphones could be considered to be thinner, depending upon where thickness is measured. The Oppo Finder measured at its thinnest point and at its thickest point making it overall thinner than the iPhone. This design was used three times, first with the iPhone 5 in 2012, then with the 5S in 2013, and finally with the first-generation iPhone SE in 2016.


title: IPhone 5

text: The uses a system on chip (SoC), called the Apple A6. The SoC comprises a 1.3 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and a tri-core PowerVR SGX543MP4 running at 266 MHz.<ref name="Geekbench test (28/9)"></ref> The 's operating memory (LPDDR2-1066 eDRAM) was doubled, from 512 MB to 1 GB. Storage capacities available are fixed at 16, 32 or 64 GB, the same as the 4s; plug-in memory cards are not supported. The two color options are black (with black glass and slate-colored metal trim), and white (with white ceramic and silver-colored metal trim); again the same color options (though differently implemented) as its predecessor the 4s had. The iPhone 5 retains the 8 megapixel back camera on the iPhone 4s, but has improved low-light performance, and has a 40% faster photo capture than its predecessors, while having a purple hue when a strong source of light is present in the photograph. The front camera, which is accessible through the FaceTime and camera app has a lower resolution, at 1.2 megapixels. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a charge capacity of 1440mAh is built in and cannot be replaced by the user; it is rated at ≤225 hours of standby time and ≤8 hours of talk time. There are three separate models of the phone available: one supporting CDMA and two GSM versions. This can have knock-on effects for which version of the device will actually work in which countries/regions. The phone takes a nano-SIM, smaller than the micro-SIM of the and .


title: IPhone 5

text: Hardware benchmarking conducted using Geekbench and GLBenchmark validates several claims that Apple included on their website and mentioned at the unveiling of the device, these include two times faster and two times the graphics performance. In the Geekbench overall hardware assessment, the iPhone 5 received a score that was approximately 2.5 times higher than the iPhone 4s. The benchmark conducted using GLBenchmark for the iPhone 5 returned a score that was 2 times better than the iPhone 4s. The result was however inconsistent as a 3D graphics benchmark assessment using Passmark returned a score that was only approximately 1.45 times better than the iPhone 4s. Battery life assessments conducted by AnandTech concluded that the battery life is shorter on the iPhone 5 than its predecessor when performing certain tasks, however when performing other tasks the iPhone 5 battery outlasts the iPhone 4s.


title: IPhone 5

text: The Retina Display is 1,136 × 640 pixels with an aspect ratio of almost exactly 16:9, (minus one extra row of horizontal pixels). With a diagonal of 4" it has a display size of 6.7 square inches, compared to 5.7 in iPhone 4 and 4s. The pixel density remains the same as the 4s model, which is 326 pixels per inch. Screen icons of the iPhone 5 are arranged in a matrix of six rows of four icons each. The increased screen size allows the sixth row of icons to be added to the five rows that were present in the iPhone 4. In-cell touch sensor technology from Sharp slims the screen which allows for a thinner phone. The screen's color saturation is 44% greater than its predecessor.


title: IPhone 5

text: There are three microphones (placed on the front, side and back) for noise cancellation and video calls.


title: IPhone 5

text: On April 28, 2014, Apple initiated an out of warranty recall program to replace any failing power buttons of iPhone 5 models which were manufactured prior to March 2013 at no cost.


title: IPhone 5

text: On August 23, 2014, Apple announced a program to replace batteries of iPhone 5 models that "may suddenly experience shorter battery life or need to be charged more frequently" which were sold between September 2012 and January 2013.


title: IPhone 5

text: The , as well as the iPod Touch (5th generation), iPod Nano (7th generation), iPad (4th generation), and iPad Mini feature a new dock connector named Lightning, which replaces the 30-pin Apple Dock connector introduced in 2003 by Apple on the iPod (3rd generation). The Apple Lightning connector has eight pins and all signaling is digital. This new connector is smaller than the previous one, helping the to be slimmer than its predecessors. Apple Lightning cables have duplicate pins on two sides of each plug, so it can be inserted either way round. Various accessories will be available to convert the Apple Lightning connector to the older 30-pin Apple Dock connector or USB, although not all old accessories will work, as not all signals are available, in particular video output and the iPod Out feature for BMW automobiles.


title: IPhone 5

text: Earphones known as Apple EarPods are included with the iPhone 5 and other devices announced at the Apple media event on September 12, 2012. They superseded earphones that were included with previous generation iPhones and iPods. According to technology commentators, the redesign of the earphones is aimed to improve sound quality by allowing air to travel in and out more freely. Apple states that the redesign of their earphones allows it to "rival high-end headphones that cost hundreds of dollars more". Reviews by Gizmodo and TechRadar reported that although the redesigned earphones sounded better than its predecessor, reviewers felt that quality of sound produced is poor.


title: IPhone 5

text: AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint offer LTE access in the US, while in the UK, only EE and Three are able to offer LTE access. On March 26, 2013, T-Mobile announced they would begin carrying the iPhone 5, making it the first iPhone to be available on all four nationwide carriers in the United States. The T-Mobile version of the iPhone features a modified version of the A1428 iPhone 5 model enabling Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) support. All carriers in Canada selling the have their own LTE networks, including Rogers Wireless, Fido Solutions, Bell Mobility, Virgin Mobile Canada, Telus Mobility and Koodo Mobile.


title: IPhone 5

text: 42 officially recognized bands exist for LTE, however rollouts are coalescing around the more-popular bands, based on what historically has been made available in specific regions. In Europe, bands available for LTE include, 2.6 GHz (the 3G-expansion band) and 800 MHz (cleared of analogue TV), with 1,800 MHz appearing in a few places including the UK. In Germany, the only carrier network supported is that of T-Mobile with its 1,800 MHz band allocated to LTE. Some countries in Europe, including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and others—will not be able to offer LTE connectivity via the iPhone 5 to their customers on their current LTE networks, as they have already deployed LTE in the 2.6 GHz band, which the iPhone 5 does not support. In November 2012, a representative of Swisscom reported that the iPhone 5 only supports LTE on networks that have been tested and certified by Apple.


title: IPhone 5

text: Unlike the iPhone 4s, which was the only "world phone" produced by Apple, there are three versions of the iPhone 5, which differ by the frequency used. All three work on 2G GSM/GPRS and 3G UMTS/EDGE networks on both the 800 and 1900 MHz bands used in the Americas, and the 900 and 1800 MHz bands used elsewhere. The CDMA A1429 model works on CDMA networks, such as that of Sprint and Verizon. Another version supports LTE only on the 1700/2100 MHz AWS band, and the 700 MHz band recovered after the conversion to digital television in the US (channels 52 to 56), currently the only network that supports the band is AT&T. GSM A1429 supports several other LTE bands available in other countries, such as LTE bands 1, 3, 5.


title: IPhone 5

text: The received mainly positive reviews from commentators and reviewers. Tim Stevens from "Engadget" praised the for its high resolution screen surpassing that of the , which he considered to be one of the best phone screens available on the market. Stevens was critical of the new connector, which is incompatible with devices and cables that use the superseded 30-pin connector, although the "LA Times" reported that this was a change necessary to make the device smaller than its predecessor. Engadget agreed that Apple fulfilled most of the promises stated on its website, such as "better battery performance", "two times the graphics performance" and "two times faster." David Pogue of "The New York Times" considered the 4-inch Retina display a "nice but not life-changing change", and praised the Lightning connector for its size, sturdiness, and reversibility, while noting its lack of support for older accessories, remarking that "Apple has a long history of killing off technologies, inconveniently and expensively, that the public had come to love". Technology columnist Ed Baig of "USA Today" was impressed that Apple had met the public's "lofty expectations" for the iPhone 5 in a competitive market. In a repair-ability review, iFixit found the iPhone 5 easier to disassemble and repair than its predecessor.


title: IPhone 5

text: "Wired" reported that the iPhone 5 design, carried on in the iPhone 5s and first-generation iPhone SE, was regarded as "long been the golden child of Apple phone design and a benchmark for phones in general", while the succeeding iPhone 6/6S design was less critically acclaimed as it "felt a little bit wrong, as though you were holding a slick $650 bar of soap". "Wired" described the iPhone 5 as "elegance rooted in the way the aluminum and glass work together. It felt streamlined, yet substantial, which is different from the iPhone 6, which feels substantial in size alone. Plus, unlike the ubiquitous rounded corners of the 6, the iPhone 5 didn't really look like anything else on the market at the time". However, the iPhone 5's design was not suited to scaling up, in contrast to the iPhone 6/6S which could better accommodate the growing consumer trend towards larger screen sizes and indeed spawned the 6/6S Plus phablet models.


title: IPhone 5

text: Reviewers and commentators were critical of the new Maps app that replaced Google Maps in iOS 6. It had been reported to contain errors such as misplacement of landmark tags, directing users to incorrect locations and poor satellite images. Nine days after Maps' release, Apple issued a statement apologizing for the frustration it had caused customers and recommending that they try alternate mapping services.


title: IPhone 5

text: Gizmodo editor Diaz discussed the correspondence between Apple and a reader about purple flare in pictures taken on iPhone 5 camera. Apple's response to the issue was that it is normal and advised the customer to aim the camera away from bright light sources when taking photos. Tests conducted by TechCrunch indicate that the problem existed on the iPhone 4s but was more distinct and pronounced on the iPhone 5. Consumer Reports found that the purple haze effect occurred on several other manufacturers' phones including the Samsung Galaxy S III and Motorola Droid Razr Maxx, and that it was not less pronounced on the iPhone 4s. The report concluded that digital cameras in general, including higher-end SLRs, can all suffer from lens flare in which a purple-tinted effect was not uncommon.


title: IPhone 5

text: There were anecdotal claims of the coating of primarily black iPhone 5s chipping off, exposing the bright aluminium underneath. Apple executive's response to email correspondence from an affected customer summarized that it was normal for aluminum to scratch. The term "scuffgate", a reference to "antennagate" which affected the iPhone 4, was applied by various sources such as CNET, Yahoo News, and All Things Digital to describe the scuffing issue.


title: IPhone 5

text: Some users reported on the Internet that the white model leaked light behind the screen, though the issue was not unique to the iPhone 5, as it also affected other Apple devices.


title: IPhone 5

text: Techcrunch reported that the sold out twenty times faster than the 4 and 4s models. Apple said that they were "blown away by the customer response". Phil Schiller, Apple's vice-president of worldwide marketing, said that over two million orders had been received in the first 24 hours. AT&T said that the was the fastest-selling iPhone the company had ever offered, selling over five million units on launch weekend and exceeding the supply available. The release and sale of the iPhone 5 has also slowed down the growth of Android according to market share reports released by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. During the first 16 days after the phone's initial release it comprised over 20% of all phones sold in that period.


title: IPhone 5

text: J.P. Morgan's chief economist, Michael Feroli said that "sales of could boost annualized US GDP growth by $3.2 billion, or $12.8 billion at an annual rate." Shortly after the announcement of the iPhone 5 and preceding the launch, Apple's stock price rose to a record $705.07, but within three months fell to $507.48. According to the analysis of Eric Savitz, Apple's stock decline and resulting losses were not the result of any issue with the new Maps application, but disappointed investors. He points to initial hardware sales of only five million, compared to projections up to twice that, as the primary cause.


title: IPhone 5

text: Since the release of the iPhone 5, discounts on previous generation iPhones have enabled Apple to maintain a market lead in the United States and Japan, but the iPhone continued to lag behind the combined total of Android phones in the global market.


title: Live (band)

text: Live (, often typeset as LĪVE or +LĪVE+) is an American rock band formed in York, Pennsylvania, in 1984 and consisting of Ed Kowalczyk (lead vocals, guitars), Patrick Dahlheimer (bass), Chad Gracey (drums), and Chad Taylor (guitars). Kowalczyk is the only remaining member of this original lineup.


title: Live (band)

text: The band started to gain attention following their single "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)", the video for which got regular airplay on MTV, and the moderate success of their second album, "Mental Jewelry". Their biggest success came in 1994 with their third album, "Throwing Copper", which sold eight million copies in the U.S. The band had a string of hit singles in the mid-1990s, including "Lightning Crashes", which stayed at the top of the "Billboard" Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for ten consecutive weeks and the Modern Rock Tracks (now Alternative Songs) chart for nine weeks from February 25 to April 22, 1995. The band has sold over twenty million albums worldwide.


title: Live (band)

text: When touring, Live has used additional musicians, including Ed Kowalczyk's younger brother Adam, British keyboardist Michael "Railo" Railton, rhythm guitarist Christopher Thorn of Blind Melon, and guitarist Zak Loy of Alpha Rev.


title: Live (band)

text: In 2009, Ed Kowalczyk left the band; he was replaced by singer Chris Shinn and the band released the album "The Turn" in October 2014. Kowalczyk rejoined in December 2016 and in 2018, they released a new EP, "Local 717". Chad Taylor was fired from the band in June 2022, while Kowalczyk fired the other two founding band members before going on tour as Live with other musicians.


title: Live (band)

text: Live started in the early 1980s under the name First Aid, as a trio of Taylor, Dahlheimer, and Gracey. Kowalczyk joined in 1984, when the group lost a talent show. They went through various different names, including Action Front, Paisley Blues, and Club Fungus, before settling on Public Affection in January 1987. Gracey picked the name based on a comment by his girlfriend at the time. When the band graduated from high school, they recorded a self-released cassette of original songs, titled "The Death of a Dictionary", in 1989. In 1990, they released an EP of demos produced by Jay Healy, titled "Divided Mind, Divided Planet", via their "Black Coffee" mailing list. They played regular concerts at CBGB in New York City, which helped earn them a contract with Radioactive Records in 1991. In June that year, the band changed its name to Live.


title: Live (band)

text: Under the new name, the band entered the studio with producer Jerry Harrison (of Talking Heads) and recorded the EP "Four Songs". The single "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)" went to number nine on the Modern Rock chart and was followed by their debut album, 1991's "Mental Jewelry", which Harrison again produced. Pat Dalheimer said, "So important to have somebody else in the room to help us, especially with arrangements. I mean, we were still learning how to write songs...Jerry just seemed to know everything...this guy's a wizard!" Some of the album's lyrics, written by Kowalczyk, were inspired by Indian philosopher and writer Jiddu Krishnamurti.


title: Live (band)

text: After appearances on the MTV "120 Minutes" tour, at Woodstock '94, and on Peter Gabriel's WOMAD tour, Live's second album, "Throwing Copper", achieved mainstream success. The record featured the singles "I Alone", "All Over You", and the number-one US Modern Rock hits "Selling the Drama" and "Lightning Crashes". "Lightning Crashes" also stayed at the top of the "Billboard" Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for ten consecutive weeks. The band appeared on NBC's "Saturday Night Live", where they played "I Alone" and "Selling the Drama", and they performed for the first time in the UK, on "The Word".


title: Live (band)

text: The success of these singles eventually gained "Throwing Copper" the number one position on the "Billboard" 200 album chart on May 6, 1995, its 52nd week on the chart. It was the third longest gap between an album first charting and reaching number one, behind Fleetwood Mac's eponymous album in 1976 (58 weeks) and Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" in 1989 (64 weeks). It is Live's best-selling album to date, having sold eight million copies in the US alone.


title: Live (band)

text: The success of "Throwing Copper" helped 1997's "Secret Samadhi" (co-produced by the band and Jay Healy) to reach the number one position in its debut on the US album chart. It took its name from Samadhi, a state of Hindu meditation. The album contained four Modern Rock hit singles, but failed to match its predecessor's success, with sales reaching two million. The band performed "Lakini's Juice" and "Heropsychodreamer" from the album on "Saturday Night Live".


title: Live (band)

text: Jerry Harrison returned as co-producer for 1999's "The Distance to Here", which entered the US album chart at number four and featured the hit single "The Dolphin's Cry". In 2000, Live embarked on a co-headlining tour with Counting Crows. On that tour, Counting Crows' lead singer, Adam Duritz, often joined Live for their performance of "The Dolphin's Cry", while Kowalczyk sang a verse of "Hanginaround" with Counting Crows.


title: Live (band)

text: On September 18, 2001, the experimental "V" (originally to be called "Ecstatic Fanatic") was released to mixed reviews. The first single was "Simple Creed", which featured a rap by Tricky, but the events of 9/11, which occurred a week before "V" was released, meant that the melancholic "Overcome" received significant airplay and became the album's selling point. "V" reached number 22 in the US. Also in 2001, Live contributed a live version of the song "I Alone" to the charity album "Live in the X Lounge IV".


title: Live (band)

text: In May 2003, the band released the Jim Wirt-produced "Birds of Pray", which reached number 28 on the US album chart, boosted by the unexpected success of the single "Heaven", Live's first U.S. Hot 100 hit single since "The Dolphin's Cry".


title: Live (band)

text: In November 2004, Live released a greatest hits compilation, "". "Awake" included "We Deal in Dreams", a previously unreleased song from the "Throwing Copper" sessions, a cover version of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line", and a new version of their song "Run Away", with Shelby Lynne sharing lead vocals with Kowalczyk. A deluxe version of the album included a DVD with 22 music videos and an interview with Kowalczyk.


title: Live (band)

text: In 2005, Live signed to Sony BMG Music Entertainment's Epic label. They released the album "Songs from Black Mountain" in June 2006. The record peaked at number 52 on the "Billboard" 200 album chart, and reached number three on the "Billboard" Independent album chart. The first single was "The River".


title: Live (band)

text: On season five of "American Idol", finalist Chris Daughtry was accused of performing Live's version of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line" and claiming it as his own interpretation. A week later, Daughtry acknowledged this was true and said that Live was one of his favorite bands. In May 2006, Live appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" to address this issue. On August 2, 2008, Daughtry and Live performed the band's interpretation of "I Walk the Line" together at the Toms River Fest in Toms River, New Jersey.


title: Live (band)

text: On September 14, 2007, Live released "", their first album since 1989 on their own Action Front Records label. The new songs were "Beautiful Invisible" and "Radiant Sea". Live recorded their first concert DVD in the Netherlands during two shows at the Paradiso on June 30 and July 1, 2008. "Live at the Paradiso – Amsterdam" was released on November 11, 2008, on DVD and CD. Also in 2008, the band headlined a US tour that also featured Blues Traveler and Collective Soul.


title: Live (band)

text: An unreleased Live song, "Hold Me Up", features in the 2008 Kevin Smith film "Zack and Miri Make a Porno". Smith said, "I first heard (the song) in '95 when we were putting together the "Mallrats" soundtrack. It was actually in the film for the first test screening, but Live decided they wanted to hold onto it as a potential single off their next album ... When I was editing "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" ... I put in a request for it...again, I was denied. Third time, apparently, was the charm. Needed a song for that sequence in "Zack and Miri" and remembered the Live track. This time, the band signed off on us using the track. Took 13 years, but was worth the wait!" In spite of Smith's endorsement, the song does not appear on the movie's soundtrack album.


title: Live (band)

text: After a concert in July 2009, Live announced that the band would take a two-year hiatus to work on other projects. Kowalczyk recorded his solo album "Alive", and the other band members formed a group with Kevin Martin and Sean Hennesy of Candlebox, called The Gracious Few. That band proceeded to record a self-titled debut album in California for release in September 2010. On November 30, 2009, Taylor revealed that the "hiatus" could become a permanent split. The other members of Live accused Kowalczyk of unreasonable demands in contract and salary negotiations.


title: Live (band)

text: On June 8, 2011, Taylor revealed that he, Dahlheimer, and Gracey would restart the band without Kowalczyk. He made no mention of any new lead singer, but said, "We'll have to begin addressing the hole left by our singer's departure". He added that, "I need to feel Live once again without the constraints that were placed on it over the last few years. Chad [Gracey], Patrick, and I invested most of our lives to writing, recording, and performing the songs of Live. We deserve a chance to reconnect with the fans to say goodbye to the old era and hello to the new." Kowalczyk disapproved of their decision. He complained that "they obfuscate that it's not the real band. They don't say that it's not the original lineup. They just kind of go out and surprise people, and it's really sort of lame".


title: Live (band)

text: On January 24, 2012, Taylor, Dahlheimer, and Gracey announced that they were leading members in a project to renovate a four-story building at 210 York Street in York. The building housed a technology company, creating sixty new jobs. It also included a brand new recording studio.


title: Live (band)

text: Live returned from their nearly three-year hiatus on March 12, 2012, with Chris Shinn, formerly of Unified Theory, as their new lead singer. The new lineup performed before an invited audience at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center in York. They performed with new touring members, including Gracious Few bandmate Sean Hennesy on rhythm guitar and Alexander Lefever on keyboards. In July 2012, Live commenced more legal proceedings against Kowalczyk for misuse of the band's name while promoting his live performances. Live's first major tour with Shinn was as part of the Summerland Tour 2013, playing 35 shows across the US. Other featured bands were Everclear, Filter, and Sponge.


title: Live (band)

text: Live's first album to feature Shinn, "The Turn", was released on October 28, 2014. The record's first single, "The Way Around Is Through", was uploaded to YouTube on September 10, 2014, and officially released on September 16.


title: Live (band)

text: During 2014–2015, Kowalczyk embarked on a worldwide tour, playing acoustic "unplugged" shows celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the release of "Throwing Copper". Zak Loy accompanied Kowalczyk on this tour, playing guitar, mandolin, pedal steel, and singing backing vocals.


title: Live (band)

text: On October 24, 2016, Chad Taylor and Ed Kowalczyk, along with singer Zoe LaBelle, took part in an interview for WVYC. Although the primary reason for the interview was to promote new music by LaBelle that Taylor had worked on, it marked the first time that the two former bandmates had publicly appeared together since 2009. Fueling speculation over a possible reunion, the Live Facebook page returned on November 16, 2016, with an early picture of the band's original lineup and a new logo. On the same day, Ed Kowalczyk's Facebook page was also updated with a new profile picture and cover photo, both displaying the same logo from the band's page. Despite the changes on Facebook, Live's website remained black until December 9, when a countdown was posted suggesting new information would be released on December 12. Later that day, Live's Twitter and Facebook pages announced that the band's original lineup had reunited with tour dates in 2017. In autumn 2018, they released the singles "Love Lounge" and "Be a Giver, Man". On October 12, they released their new EP, "Local 717".


title: Live (band)

text: On June 21, 2022, Kowalczyk announced that Chad Taylor had been fired from the band the day before. Gracey also posted about the band's internal issues, emphasizing that Kowalczyk "is not the problem".


title: Live (band)

text: In September 2022, Kowalczyk announced that he would be touring as Live without Dahlheimer or Gracey. In a November 2022 interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine, former lead singer Chris Shinn confirmed that Dahlheimer and Gracey had been fired by Kowalczyk. This leaves Kowalczyk as the only original member left in the band.


title: Marlon Jackson

text: Marlon David Jackson (born March 12, 1957) is an American entertainer, singer and dancer best known as a member of the Jackson 5. He is the sixth child of the Jackson family. Marlon now runs Study Peace Foundation to promote peace and unity worldwide.


title: Marlon Jackson

text: Marlon David Jackson was born on March 12, 1957, at St Mary's Mercy Hospital in Gary, Indiana, the sixth child of Joseph who was a steel mill worker, and played in an R&B band, the Falcons, with his brother Luther, and Katherine Jackson, a Jehovah's Witness. He was born seventeen and a half months before his younger brother Michael (born August 29, 1958). Growing up, Marlon was especially close to Michael, whom he considered the substitute for his lost twin brother, Brandon, who died shortly after birth. Marlon and Michael were a fun team. “We were the jokers of the family," Marlon said. They would often get in trouble, but they stuck together.


title: Marlon Jackson

text: By 1964, Marlon and Michael joined their brothers Tito, Jackie and Jermaine, forming the group the Jackson 5. Mother, Katherine played the piano and clarinet, and sang harmonies with the brothers. Father, Joe led the rehearsals, keeping them off the street and away from trouble. They won singing competitions all over the state including New York. That marked the beginning of their career. Because of their name the Jackson 5, Randy Jackson the youngest Jackson brother didn't make the cut. He was later included in the TV program “The Jacksons” in 1976 as well as some performances. Marlon was known as “the dancingest Jackson”, cause of his flamboyant dance moves, a name he himself came up with. Marlon was not the most prominent member of the Jackson 5. He did sing lead vocals on many of their hits. Marlon also played the conga and tambourine. Marlon has three sisters; Rebbie, La Toya and Janet.


title: Marlon Jackson

text: Marlon and his brothers first signed as the Jackson 5 with Gordon Keith of Steeltown Records in November 1967, and their first single "Big Boy", was released on January 31, 1968. After the group recorded three more songs with the Steeltown label (on two records) they were signed with Berry Gordy of Motown Records in 1969. Not feeling that they were being paid fair royalties by Motown Records for their success as well as their desire for creative control, the Jackson 5 decided to leave the label and sign with Epic Records in 1975. Jermaine split from the Jackson Five to start a solo career at Motown, and was replaced by his brother Randy Jackson. Unbeknownst to the group, Gordy had trademarked the name The Jackson Five and did not allow the group to continue using the name when they left the label. Once signed with Epic, the group became known simply as The Jacksons. In 1983, Gordy asked the group to perform at the "" television special. In 1997 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 with his brothers. In 2001, he reunited with his brothers to perform for the Michael Jackson .


title: Marlon Jackson

text: Like Michael and Jermaine, Marlon began a solo career, releasing the album "Baby Tonight" In 1987. Despite "Baby Tonight" reaching No. 22 on the Top R&B Albums chart in the United States, Marlon has not released another album since then.


title: Marlon Jackson

text: Marlon was successful within real estate in Southern California. In 1999, Marlon started running the Major Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) along with Florida attorney Willie E. Gary, baseball player Cecil Fielder, boxer Evander Holyfield, and Alvin James. MBC was a religious network based in Atlanta. In October 1, 2004, they rebranded as Black Family Channel. In May 2007, the Black Family Channel was sold to the Gospel Music Channel, now known as Up TV. In 2008, Marlon and a board of new partners founded the Motherland Group, LLC bringing recognition to Badagry, Nigeria.


title: Marlon Jackson

text: Marlon now runs Study Peace Foundation, founded in 2015, aimed to promote peace and unity in communities worldwide offering programs designed to engage children, adults and the elderly to live in peaceful environments. “As a community we all should know that promoting peace and unity would cause a chain reaction that children will observe. It all starts with what we make accessible to the children,” he said. The foundation went into a partnership with KaBOOM! (non-profit organization) to build playgrounds in New Orleans, Gary and Los Angeles.


title: Marlon Jackson

text: In August 1975, 18-year-old Jackson married his girlfriend, Carol Ann Parker, whom he met in New Orleans during one of the Jacksons' tours. Marlon and Parker have three children:


title: Marlon Jackson

text: On July 7, 2009, at The Staples Center (now renamed Crypto.com Arena), Marlon and his family offered their final eulogies for Michael, saying he was the "soul" of the family, addressing the crowd: "Maybe now, Michael, they will leave you alone" and "I would like for you to give our brother, my twin brother, Brandon, a hug for me." Marlon said, "I love you, Michael, and I'll miss you.". In honor of Michael, Marlon and his brothers, Tito, Jackie, Jermaine and Randy Jackson served as pallbearers wearing a gold necktie, a single white glove and sunglasses.


title: Marlon Jackson

text: In a 2019 Rolling Stone interview, Marlon was vocal about the allegations against his brother Michael saying, “if your brother was deceased and someone wanted to slander his name, you’d be supporting him. That’s not him. That’s not his character. We definitely know our brother, and there are no facts whatsoever to corroborate these allegations." He continues, "It’s a quick money grab. That’s all it is."


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Blackhat is a 2015 American action thriller film produced and directed by Michael Mann and starring Chris Hemsworth, Tang Wei, Viola Davis, Holt McCallany, and Wang Leehom. The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on January 8, 2015, and was released in theaters on January 16. "Blackhat" was a box-office bomb, earning only $19.7 million at the box office against a budget of $70 million. The film received generally mixed reviews, with criticisms focused on casting and pace, though the film appeared on some critics' year-end lists.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: A nuclear plant in Chai Wan, Hong Kong, goes into meltdown when a hacker causes the coolant pumps to overheat and explode. Soon after, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange gets hacked, causing soy futures to rise. The Chinese government and FBI determine that the hack was performed using a remote access tool. Captain Chen Dawai of the People's Liberation Army cyber warfare unit is tasked with finding the hacker, and enlists the aid of his sister Lien, a networking engineer. He meets with FBI Special Agent Carol Barrett in Los Angeles and reveals the code in the tool was written by himself and Nicholas Hathaway, his college roommate, during their time at MIT. Dawai requests that Hathaway, who is in prison for hacking banks, be offered a temporary release in exchange for his services. Hathaway, knowing how necessary he is to the investigation, demands new terms: his prison sentence commuted if his assistance leads to the hacker's identification and capture. He is required to wear an ankle bracelet monitor and be accompanied by deputy U.S. Marshal Mark Jessup.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Hathaway manipulates the update system on Jessup's phone GPS that tracks his location, allowing him to follow his own lead and arrange a meeting with the hacker's partner at a restaurant. While they wait, he tells Lien about his past, but the partner does not arrive. Hathaway discovers a camera watching them and, following it to the connected computer, messages the hacker that he is now on his trail.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Clues uncovered by Dawai and Barrett lead the team to Hong Kong, where they work with Police Inspector Alex Trang. The team traces the stock trade money to a paramilitary operative named Elias Kassar. Hathaway, Jessup, Chen, and Trang, along with a Special Duties Unit team, raid Kassar's hideout, and a shootout ensues in a drainage tunnel, resulting in the deaths of Trang and several officers as Kassar and his men escape.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: The nuclear plant has stabilized enough to have a data drive recovered from the control room, but it is corrupted by radiation. The National Security Agency's Black Widow software has the ability to repair the data, but they refuse to allow the Chinese access. Reluctantly sanctioned by Barret, Hathaway hacks into the NSA and uses Black Widow, discovering that the hacker's server is based in Jakarta. Lien finds out the hacker has been buying high-resolution satellite photos of a site near Seri Manjung, Malaysia.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: For his illegal hack, the NSA and FBI demand Hathaway's return to prison. Dawai's superiors advise him to turn Hathaway over to the U.S. government, but he instead alerts Hathaway to their plans. Meanwhile, one of Kassar's men secretly plants a tracking device on Dawai's car. As Hathaway and Lien, who have become romantically involved, argue about his fleeing alone, Dawai is blown up by a rocket launched by Kassar; Barret and Jessup, arriving on the scene, manage to shoot several of Kassar's men before they are both killed. Lien and Hathaway escape on a subway train, and she uses her connections to charter a plane to Malaysia.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Hathaway deduces that the hacker's attack at the nuclear plant was merely a test for a later plan: to sabotage a large dam and destroy several major tin mines in Malaysia, allowing the hacker to make a profit buying tin options. In Jakarta, he hacks into a bank's computer to drain the hacker's bank accounts, forcing the hacker, Sadak, to contact him. Sadak and Hathaway agree to meet and discuss a partnership; Hathaway anticipates a double-cross and arms himself with makeshift weapons and body armor which he conceals under his clothes.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Though Hathaway insists Sadak and Kassar come alone, they bring their henchmen. Lien spots them and alerts Hathaway, who orders them to a new location in a park during a large religious procession. Hathaway trails them, but is caught at gunpoint by Kassar. As he is being frisked, Hathaway blindsides and stabs Kassar to death with a sharpened screwdriver. Sadak's men catch up and a firefight ensues; Hathaway is shot several times, but manages to kill the reinforcements. Sadak stabs Hathaway with a knife before Hathaway kills him. He reunites with Lien, who treats his wounds, before they leave Indonesia with Sadak's money.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: In an interview done at the LMU Film school, Michael Mann said he was inspired to make "Blackhat" after reading about the events surrounding Stuxnet, which was a computer worm that targeted and reportedly ruined almost one fifth of Iran's nuclear centrifuges. In keeping with his high standard for authenticity, Mann brought in several technical advisors and consultants like former hackers Kevin Poulsen (senior editor for "Wired News") and Christopher McKinley, to make the film as authentic as possible. McKinlay was famous for hacking the online dating site OkCupid in order to make his profile the most attractive to women. Director Mann also met with Mike Rogers, who was chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence until 2015. Parisa Tabriz, who manages Google's information security engineering team, said that "It's the most accurate information security film I've seen."


title: Blackhat (film)

text: The film was tentatively titled "Cyber", however the final title was revealed on July 26, 2014, during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con International, and it was being estimated that it might qualify for the Oscars. The first official trailer for the film was released on September 25, 2014.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Filming began on May 17, 2013, in Los Angeles, California; Hong Kong; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and at Lapangan Banteng in Jakarta, Indonesia.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: The film would be Mann's first feature to be shot entirely using digital cameras. Although "Collateral," "Miami Vice" and "Public Enemies" were predominantly digital features, Mann employed 35mm film sparingly.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Director Mann donated HK$300,000 (US$38,500) to The Community Chest of Hong Kong in the name of Hang Seng Bank, to thank the bank for allowing him to film "Blackhat" for five evenings in the bank's lobby area.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: The film score was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams with Atticus Ross. Upon viewing the film, however, Gregson-Williams posted a message on Facebook stating that his score went almost unused in the final edit, which included synthesized music not prepared by Ross or himself. He went on to say that, "I therefore reluctantly join the long list of composers who have had their scores either sliced and diced mercilessly or ignored completely by Michael Mann." He stated that although he is credited for the score, the final film "contains almost none of my compositions". He later deleted the status update containing this information.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Mann later explained that he often prefers to use more than one composer "to rotate among different emotional perspectives", stating, "If a composer wants to have his music stand alone, he should be a recording artist and let his work contest itself in that arena."


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Some of Ryan Amon's music that was originally used for "Elysium" was reused in the film. Mike Dean also contributed additional music.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: "Blackhat" opened on January 16, 2015, against the wide release of "American Sniper", an "unexpected juggernaut", which set records for the largest January opening weekend in history. "Blackhat" was a box-office bomb, opening at number 11 and earning only $1.7 million on its opening day. It made just $4.4 million for the weekend against its $70 million budget. This made the movie one of the worst debuts ever for a movie playing in over 2,500 locations. After only two weeks, Universal decided to withdraw the film from all but 236 theaters. It had been in 2,568 theaters, making it the sixth-biggest drop in history for a third-week film.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: An in-depth analysis by industry trade publication "Deadline" of why "Blackhat" did not perform primarily examined the marketing strategy as “the major challenge they were unable to overcome” with independent tracking services supporting this conclusion: “total awareness for "Blackhat" was in the 40-50% range on January 4 and grew to 50-60% on January 15 (versus "American Sniper"’s 80-90%).” Additionally, “the film wasn’t helped by a marketing campaign that failed to convey a sophisticated plot and a romance… "Blackhat" instead chased a young audience with action footage that did not seem fresh.”


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Internationally, the film grossed $2.33 million in 19 territories in its opening weekend. It played below expectations in markets including Denmark, Greece, Poland, Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam. Deadline credited Wang Leehom and Tang Wei’s inclusion with increased success in other nations including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. The film was anticipating great success in China, where Wang and Tang are household names, but the film was not approved by the government for exhibition, and it never showed. In its third weekend, the film grossed $1.8 million with openings of $595,000 and $446,000 in Russia and Spain, respectively. In its fourth weekend, the film grossed $1.2 million for a total of $8.4 million, with its top opener in Germany at $526,000.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Due to the less-than-stellar numbers at the American and Asian box offices, Universal Pictures International opted not to release "Blackhat" theatrically in Australia. The film was also scrapped for a theatrical release in Belgium.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: "Blackhat" was released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 12, 2015, in North America. The Blu-ray edition includes both a DVD copy of the film and a voucher for an UltraViolet/iTunes digital copy, as well as three featurettes: "The Cyber Threat", "On Location Around the World", and "Creating Reality". The DVD edition contains only one featurette: "Creating Reality".


title: Blackhat (film)

text: In Australia, the film was originally slated to be released theatrically on February 25, 2015, but due to its poor performance at the US box office, it was instead released straight to home video on May 14, 2015. In the UK, the film was also released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 22, 2015.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Michael Mann premiered a re-edited 136-minute director's cut of the film at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on February 20, 2016. The re-edited version played once, as part of a retrospective series of Mann's films. The primary change in this cut was the movement of the film's nuclear reactor attack sequence from the opening to the middle of the film. Mann originally intended to place the reactor sequence in the middle, but moved it to the beginning of the theatrical cut just before its release. It premiered on FX on May 9, 2017. In 2018, it was made available exclusively on DirecTV, but was later removed from the service.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 32% based on 190 reviews, with an average rating of 4.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Thematically timely, but dramatically inert, "Blackhat" strands Chris Hemsworth in a muddled misfire from director Michael Mann." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: For many critics, a significant issue of the film was the casting of Chris Hemsworth as a hacker. Christy Lemire in the "Chicago Sun-Times" stated in her review, "Anyone who makes his or her way in the world sitting in front of a computer screen all day is not going to look as hunky as Hemsworth." Hemsworth himself was unsatisfied with his performance, saying, "I didn’t enjoy what I did in the film...It just felt flat, and it was also an attempt to do what I thought people might have wanted to see. But I don’t think I’m good in that space."


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" gave the film a largely positive review, stating, "Michael Mann's thriller "Blackhat", a story about the intersection of bodies and machines, is a spectacular work of unhinged moviemaking." Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" also gave it a positive review, writing, “It lures us in with the promise of up-to-the-minute villainy, but the satisfactions of ‘Blackhat’ are surprisingly old school.” "The Hollywood Reporter"’s Sheri Linden noted, “The essential problem of cyber-thrillers is one that even so gifted a director hasn’t quite solved, particularly in the film’s first half: Characters looking at computer screens and explaining the significance of what they see doesn’t make for the most riveting viewing.” Matt Zoller Seitz, the editor-in-chief of "RogerEbert.com", gave "Blackhat" three and a half out of four stars, stating in his review, "‘Blackhat’ is mainly about what happens when the real world is annexed by the virtual: what it does to geography and relationships; how it signal-jams our species' sense of time as a series of self-contained moments, and substitutes an existence that can feel like an endless, intrusive buzz."


title: Blackhat (film)

text: Although "Blackhat" received generally mixed reviews, many critics found merit in its filmmaking to include it in their "best-of" lists for 2015. In "Sight & Sound" magazine's poll for the best films of 2015, six critics voted for it as one of the five best films of the year.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: "Blackhat", like several of Mann's crime thrillers, is a notable pop-cultural work on the theme of mass surveillance. According to critic Nick Pinkerton, Mann's concern with surveillance follows in the footsteps of earlier films by Fritz Lang and Henry Hathaway. The emerging relationship between power and network technology in the mid–20th century was a major theme in those directors' respective works, particularly Lang's "The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse"(1960) and Hathaway's "The House on 92nd Street"(1945) and "Call Northside 777"(1948). Pinkerton suggested that "Blackhat"s protagonist was named "Hathaway" in an intentional allusion to the latter director.


title: Blackhat (film)

text: In an early scene, several books seen on Hathaway's prison-cell bookshelf serve as an "ideological gate key" to the film, according to critic Niles Schwartz. These include books of philosophy and critical theory like Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish", Jean-François Lyotard's "The Postmodern Condition", Jacques Derrida's "The Animal That Therefore I Am", Jean Baudrillard's "America"; a biography of nuclear physicists Ernest Lawrence and J. Robert Oppenheimer; and Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe", an introduction to string theory. Mahola Darghis at the "New York Times" said "Blackhat" demonstrated Mann's "hybrid approach" to filmmaking, "at the crossroads of the classical Hollywood cinema and the European art film", as an action film containing highbrow philosophical references more typical of arthouse cinema from directors like Jean-Luc Godard.


title: Reuben sandwich

text: The Reuben sandwich is a North American grilled sandwich composed of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing or Russian dressing, grilled between slices of rye bread. It is associated with kosher-style delicatessens, but is not kosher because it combines meat and cheese.


title: Reuben sandwich

text: One origin story holds that Reuben Kulakofsky (his first name sometimes spelled Reubin; his last name sometimes shortened to Kay), a Lithuanian-born Jewish grocer residing in Omaha, Nebraska, asked for a sandwich made of corned beef and sauerkraut at his weekly poker game held in the Blackstone Hotel from around 1920 through 1935. The participants, who nicknamed themselves "the committee", included the hotel's owner, Charles Schimmel. Schimmel's son, who worked in the kitchen, made the first Reuben for him, adding Swiss cheese and thousand island dressing to his order, putting the whole thing on rye bread. The sandwich first gained local fame when Schimmel put it on the Blackstone's lunch menu, and its fame spread when a former employee of the hotel won the national sandwich


title: Reuben sandwich

text: Another account holds that the Reuben's creator was Arnold Reuben, the German-Jewish owner of Reuben's Delicatessen (1908–2001) in New York City. According to an interview with Craig Claiborne, Arnold Reuben created the "Reuben Special" around 1914. Bernard Sobel in his 1953 book, "Broadway Heartbeat: Memoirs of a Press Agent" states that the sandwich was an extemporaneous creation for Marjorie Rambeau, inaugurated when the Broadway actress visited the Reuben's Delicatessen one night when the cupboards were particularly bare.


title: Reuben sandwich

text: Still other versions give credit to Alfred Scheuing, a chef at Reuben's Delicatessen, and say he created the sandwich for Reuben's son, Arnold Jr., in the 1930s.


title: Reuben sandwich

text: The grouper Reuben is a variation on the standard Reuben sandwich, substituting grouper for the corned beef, and sometimes coleslaw for the sauerkraut as well. This variation is often a menu item in restaurants in Florida.


title: Reuben sandwich

text: Reuben egg rolls, sometimes called "Irish egg rolls" or "Reuben balls", use the standard Reuben sandwich filling of corned beef, sauerkraut, and cheese inside a deep-fried egg roll wrapper. Typically served with Thousand Island dressing (instead of Russian dressing) as an appetizer or snack, they originated at Mader's, a German restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where chef Dennis Wegner created them for a summer festival circa 1990.


title: Reuben sandwich

text: The Rachel sandwich is a variation which substitutes pastrami or turkey for the corned beef, and coleslaw for the sauerkraut.


title: Reuben sandwich

text: The Dinty Moore sandwich is a Detroit variation which substitutes coleslaw or shredded lettuce and tomato for the sauerkraut. It is sometimes on toasted white (wheat) bread instead of toasted rye and sometimes omits the Swiss cheese. It is often a triple-decker sandwich.


title: Reuben sandwich

text: Vegetarian versions, called "veggie Reubens", omit the corned beef or substitute vegetarian ingredients for it, including zucchini, cucumbers, wheatmeat, and mushrooms. Vegan versions can use the aforementioned wheatmeat also known as seitan, tempeh or mushrooms with non-dairy cheese, dressing and butter.


title: Reuben sandwich

text: As a Reuben combines both meat and dairy ingredients in the same meal, it cannot be kosher. However, it is frequently served at kosher style restaurants. Kosher versions may be made using non-dairy imitation cheese, or substitute vegetarian corned beef, or omitting the meat or the cheese.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi (; 30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was an Indian Hindu sage and "jivanmukta" (liberated being). He was born Venkataraman Iyer, but is mostly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: He was born in Tiruchuli, Tamil Nadu, India. In 1895, an attraction to the sacred hill Arunachala and the 63 Nayanmars was aroused in him, and in 1896, at the age of 16, he had a "death-experience" where he became aware of a "current" or "force" ("avesam") which he recognized as his true "I" or "self", and which he later identified with "the personal God, or Iswara", that is, Shiva. This resulted in a state that he later described as "the state of mind of Iswara or the jnani". Six weeks later he left his uncle's home in Madurai, and journeyed to the holy mountain Arunachala, in Tiruvannamalai, where he took on the role of a sannyasin (though not formally initiated), and remained for the rest of his life.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: He attracted devotees that regarded him as an avatar of Shiva and came to him for darshan ("the sight of God"). In later years, an ashram grew up around him, where visitors received upadesa ("spiritual instruction") by sitting silently in his company asking questions. Since the 1930s his teachings have been popularized in the West.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi approved a number of paths and practices, but recommended self-enquiry as the principal means to remove ignorance and abide in self-awareness, together with bhakti (devotion) or surrender to the self.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi was born Venkataraman Iyer on 30 December 1879 in the village Tiruchuzhi near Aruppukkottai, Virudhunagar District in Tamil Nadu, South India. He was the second of four children in an orthodox Hindu Brahmin family. His father was Sundaram Iyer (1848–1890), from the lineage of Parashara, and his mother was Azhagammal (1864–1922). He had two brothers Nagaswami (1877–1900) and Nagasundaram (1886–1953), along with a younger sister Alamelu (1887–1953). His father was a court pleader.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Both a paternal uncle of his father and his father's brother had become sannyasins. Venkataraman's family belonged to the Smarta denomination, and regularly worshiped Shiva, Vishnu, Ganesha, Surya and Shakti in their home.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: When Venkataraman was seven he had his upanayana, the traditional initiation of the three upper varnas into Brahmanical learning and the knowledge of Self. He had a very good memory, and was able to recall information after hearing it once, an ability he used to memorize Tamil poems.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Narasimha notes that Venkataraman used to sleep very deeply, not waking from loud sounds, nor even when his body was beaten by others. When he was about twelve years old, he may have experienced spontaneous deep meditative states. "Sri Ramana Vijayam", the Tamil biography that first appeared in the 1920s, describes a period a few years before the death-experience in Madurai:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: When he was about eleven his father sent him to live with his paternal uncle Subbaiyar in Dindigul as he wanted his sons to be educated in the English language, so that they would be eligible to enter government service. Only Tamil was taught at the village school in Tiruchuzhi, which he attended for three years. In 1891, when his uncle was transferred to Madurai, Venkataraman and his elder brother Nagaswami moved with him. In Dindigul, Venkataraman attended a Hindu School where English was taught, and stayed there for a year.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: His father, Sundaram Iyer, died suddenly on 18 February 1892. After his father's death, the family split up; Venkataraman and Nagaswami stayed with Subbaiyar in Madurai.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Venkataraman first attended Scott's Middle School and then the American Mission High School where he became acquainted with Christianity.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In November 1895 Venkataraman realized that Arunachala, the sacred mountain, was a real place. He had known of its existence from an early age, and was overwhelmed by the realisation that it really existed. During this time he also read Sekkizhar's "Periyapuranam", a book that describes the lives of the 63 Nayanmars, which "made a great impression" on him, and revealed to him that "Divine Union" is possible. According to Osborne, a new current of awareness started to awaken during his visits to the Meenakshi Temple at Madurai, "a state of blissful consciousness transcending both the physical and mental plane and yet compatible with full use of the physical and mental faculties". But Ramana Maharshi later stated that he remained uninterested in religion or spirituality until his awakening eight months later.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: According to Narasimha, in July 1896, at age 16, he had a sudden fear of death. He was struck by "a flash of excitement" or "heat", like some "avesam", a "current" or "force" that seemed to possess him, while his body became rigid. He initiated a process of self-enquiry, asking himself, "what it is that dies?" He concluded the body dies, but this "current" or "force" remains alive, and recognized this "current" or "force" as his "Self", which he later identified with "the personal God, or Iswara".


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In one of his rare written comments on this process Ramana Maharshi wrote, "inquiring within "Who is the seer?" I saw the seer disappear leaving That alone which stands forever. No thought arose to say "I saw". How then could the thought arise to say "I did not see"."


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Later in life, he called his death experience "akrama mukti", "sudden liberation", as opposed to the "krama mukti", "gradual liberation" as in the Vedanta path of jnana yoga. It resulted in a state of mind which he later described as "the state of mind of Iswara or the jnani:"


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: After this event, he lost interest in school studies, friends, and relations. He was absent-minded at school, "imagining and expecting God would suddenly drop down from Heaven before me". Avoiding company, he preferred to sit alone, absorbed in concentration on this current or force, and went daily to the Meenakshi Temple, ecstatically devoted to the images of the 63 Nayanmars and of Nataraja, wanting "the same grace as was shown to those saints", praying that he "should have the same bhakti that they had" and "[weeping] that God should give me the same grace He gave to those saints".


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Knowing his family would not permit him to become a sanyassin and leave home, Venkataraman slipped away, telling his brother he needed to attend a special class at school. Venkataraman boarded the train on 29 August 1896 and reached Tiruvannamalai on 1 September 1896 where he remained for the rest of his life.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: When Maharshi arrived in Tiruvannamalai, he went to the temple of Arunachaleswara. He spent the first few weeks in the thousand-pillared hall, then shifted to other spots in the temple, and eventually to the Patala-lingam vault so that he could remain undisturbed. There, he spent days absorbed in such deep samādhi that he was unaware of the bites of vermin and pests. Seshadri Swamigal, a local saint, discovered him in the underground vault and tried to protect him. After about six weeks in the Patala-lingam vault, he was carried out and cleaned up. For the next two months he stayed in the Subramanya Shrine, so unaware of his body and surroundings that food had to be placed in his mouth to keep him from starving.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In February 1897, six months after his arrival at Tiruvannamalai, Ramana Maharshi moved to Gurumurtam, a temple about a mile away. Shortly after his arrival a sadhu named Palaniswami went to see him. Palaniswami's first darshan left him filled with peace and bliss, and from that time on he served Ramana Maharshi as his permanent attendant. Besides physical protection, Palaniswami would also beg for alms, cook and prepare meals for himself and Ramana Maharshi, and care for him as needed. In May 1898 Ramana Maharshi moved to a mango orchard next to Gurumurtam.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Osborne wrote that during this time Ramana Maharshi completely neglected his body. He also ignored the ants which bit him incessantly. Gradually, despite Ramana Maharshi's desire for privacy, he attracted attention from visitors who admired his silence and austerities, bringing offerings and singing praises. Eventually a bamboo fence was built to protect him.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: While living at the Gurumurtam temple his family discovered his whereabouts. First, his uncle Nelliappa Iyer came and pleaded with him to return home, promising that the family would not disturb his ascetic life. Ramana Maharshi sat motionless, and eventually his uncle gave up.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In September 1898 Ramana Maharshi moved to the Shiva-temple at Pavalakkunru, one of the eastern spurs of Arunachala. He refused to return even though his mother begged him to.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Soon after this, in February 1899, Ramana Maharshi left the foothills to live in Arunachala itself. He stayed briefly in Satguru Cave and Guhu Namasivaya Cave before taking up residence at Virupaksha Cave for the next 17 years, using Mango Tree cave during the summers, except for a six-month period at Pachaiamman Koil during the plague epidemic.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In 1902, a government official named Sivaprakasam Pillai, with writing slate in hand, visited the young Swami in the hope of obtaining answers to questions about "How to know one's true identity". The fourteen questions put to the young Swami and his answers were Ramana Maharshi's first teachings on Self-enquiry, the method for which he became widely known, and were eventually published as "Nan Yar?", or in English, "Who am I?".


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Many visitors came to him and some became his devotees. Kavyakantha Sri Ganapati Sastri, a Vedic scholar of repute in his age, with a deep knowledge of the Srutis, Sastras, Tantras, Yoga, and Agama systems, but lacking the personal "darshan" of Shiva, came to visit Ramana Maharshi in 1907. After receiving "upadesa" from him on self-enquiry, he proclaimed him as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Ramana Maharshi was known by this name from then on. Ganapati Sastri passed on these instructions to his own students, but later in life confessed that he had never been able to achieve permanent Self-abidance. Nevertheless, he was highly valued by Ramana Maharshi and played an important role in his life.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In 1911 the first westerner, Frank Humphreys, then a police officer stationed in India, discovered Ramana Maharshi and wrote articles about him which were first published in "The International Psychic Gazette" in 1913.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In an appendix to "Self realisation" Narasimha wrote that in 1912, while in the company of disciples, Ramana Maharshi had an epileptic seizure, in which his vision was suddenly impaired three times by a "white bright curtain" which covered a part of his vision. At the third instance his vision was shut out completely, while his "head was swimming", and he felt his heart stop beating and his breathing seizing, while his skin turned blue, as if he was dead. This lasted for about ten or fifteen minutes, whereafter "a shock passed suddenly through the body", and his blood circulation and his respiration returned. In response to "strange accounts" about this event, he later said that it was a seizure, which he used to have occasionally, and did not bring on himself. According to Osborne, it "marked the final completion of Sri Bhagavan's return to full outer normality".


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In 1916 his mother Alagammal and younger brother Nagasundaram joined Ramana Maharshi at Tiruvannamalai and followed him when he moved to the larger Skandashram Cave, where Bhagavan lived until the end of 1922. His mother took up the life of a "sannyasin" and Ramana Maharshi began to give her intense, personal instruction, while she took charge of the Ashram kitchen. Ramana Maharshi's younger brother, Nagasundaram, then became a "sannyasi", assuming the name Niranjanananda, becoming known as Chinnaswami (the younger Swami).


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: During this period, Ramana Maharshi composed "The Five Hymns to Arunachala", his magnum opus in devotional lyric poetry. The first hymn is "Akshara Mana Malai". It was composed in Tamil in response to the request of a devotee for a song to be sung while wandering in the town for alms. The Marital Garland tells in glowing symbolism of the love and union between the human soul and God, expressing the attitude of the soul that still aspires.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Starting in 1920, his mother's health deteriorated. She died on 19 May 1922 while Ramana Maharshi sat beside her.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: From 1922 until his death in 1950 Ramana Maharshi lived in Sri Ramanasramam, the ashram that developed around his mother's tomb. Ramana Maharshi often walked from Skandashram to his mother's tomb. In December 1922 he did not return to Skandashram, and settled at the base of the Hill, and Sri Ramanasramam started to develop. At first, there was only one hut at the "samadhi", but in 1924 two huts, one opposite the "samadhi" and the other to the north, were erected. The so-called Old Hall was built in 1928. Ramana Maharshi lived there until 1949.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Sri Ramanasramam grew to include a library, hospital, post-office and many other facilities. Ramana Maharshi displayed a natural talent for planning building projects. Annamalai Swami gave detailed accounts of this in his reminiscences. Until 1938, Annamalai Swami was entrusted with the task of supervising the projects, and received his instructions from Ramana Maharshi directly.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Sri Ramana Maharshi led a modest and renunciate life. However, according to David Godman, who has written extensively about Ramana Maharshi, a popular image of him as a person who spent most of his time doing nothing except sitting silently in samadhi is highly inaccurate. From the period when an Ashram began to rise around him after his mother arrived, until his later years when his health failed, Ramana Maharshi was actually quite active in Ashram activities such as cooking and stitching leaf plates.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In 1931 a biography of Ramana Maharshi, "Self Realisation: The Life and Teachings of Ramana Maharshi", written by B. V. Narasimha, was published. Ramana Maharshi then became relatively well known in and out of India after 1934 when Paul Brunton, having first visited Ramana Maharshi in January 1931, published the book "A Search in Secret India". In this book he describes how he was compelled by the Paramacharya of Kanchi to meet Ramana Maharshi, his meeting with Ramana Maharshi, and the effect this meeting had on him. Brunton also describes how Ramana Maharshi's fame had spread, "so that pilgrims to the temple were often induced to go up the hill and see him before they returned home". Brunton calls Ramana Maharshi "one of the last of India's spiritual supermen", and describes his affection toward Ramana Maharshi:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: While staying at Sri Ramanasramam, Brunton had an experience of a "sublimely all-embracing" awareness, a "Moment of Illumination". The book was a best-seller, and introduced Ramana Maharshi to a wider audience in the west. Resulting visitors included Paramahansa Yogananda, Somerset Maugham (whose 1944 novel "The Razor's Edge" models its spiritual guru after Ramana Maharshi), Mercedes de Acosta and Arthur Osborne, the last of whom was the first editor of "Mountain Path" in 1964, the magazine published by Ramanasramam.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In November 1948, a tiny cancerous lump was found on Ramana Maharshi's arm and was removed in February 1949 by the ashram's doctor. Soon, another growth appeared, and another operation was performed by an eminent surgeon in March 1949 with radium applied. The doctor told Ramana Maharshi that a complete amputation of the arm to the shoulder was required to save his life, but he refused. Third and fourth operations were performed in August and December 1949, but only weakened him. Other systems of medicine were then tried; all proved fruitless and were stopped by the end of March when devotees gave up all hope. To devotees who begged him to cure himself for the sake of his followers, Ramana Maharshi is said to have replied, "Why are you so attached to this body? Let it go", and "Where can I go? I am here." By April 1950, Ramana Maharshi was too weak to go to the hall and visiting hours were limited. Visitors would file past the small room where he spent his last days to get one final glimpse. He died on 14 April 1950 at 8:47 p.m. At the same time a shooting star was seen, which impressed some of his devotees as a synchronicity.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi was, and is, regarded by many as an outstanding enlightened being. He was considered to be a charismatic person, and attracted many devotees, some of whom saw him as an avatar and the embodiment of Shiva.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Many devotees visited Ramana Maharshi for "darshan", the sight of a holy person or God incarnate, which is advantageous and transmits merit. According to Flood, in Indian religions the guru is akin to the image or statue of a deity in the temple, and both possess power and a sacred energy. According to Osborne, Ramana Maharshi regarded giving darshan as "his task in life", and said that he had to be accessible to all who came. Even during his terminal illness at the end of his life, he demanded to be approachable for all who came for his "darshan".


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Objects being touched or used by him were highly valued by his devotees, "as they considered it to be "prasad" and that it passed on some of the power and blessing of the Guru to them". People also tried to touch his feet, which is also considered "darshana". When one devotee asked if it would be possible to prostrate before Sri Ramana Maharshi and touch his feet, he replied:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In later life, the number of devotees and their devotion grew so large that Ramana Maharshi became restricted in his daily routine. Measures had to be taken to prevent people touching him. Several times Ramana Maharshi tried to escape from the ashram, to return to a life of solitude. Vasudeva reports: "Bhagavan sat on a rock and said with tears in his eyes that he would never again come to the Ashram and would go where he pleased and live in the forests or caves away from all men."


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi did return to the ashram, but has also reported himself on attempts to leave the ashram:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Some of Ramana Maharshi's devotees regarded him to be as Dakshinamurthy; as an avatar of Skanda, a divine form of Shiva popular in Tamil Nadu; as an incarnation of Jnana Sambandar, one of the sixty-three Nayanars; and as an incarnation of Kumārila Bhaṭṭa, the 8th century Mimamsa-philosopher. According to Krishna Bhikshu, one of his early biographers:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: A number of Ramana Maharshi's Indian devotees (a more extensive list of devotees can be found in V. Ganesan's "Ramana Periya Puranam"):


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi provided "upadeśa" ("spiritual instruction") by providing darshan and sitting silently together with devotees and visitors, but also by answering the questions and concerns raised by those who sought him out. Many of these question-and-answer sessions have been transcribed and published by devotees, some of which have been edited by Ramana Maharshi himself. A few texts have been published which were written by Ramana Maharshi himself, or written down on his behalf and edited by him.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi also provided an example by his own devotion to Shiva, which has been extensively described by his devotees, such as walks around the holy hill Arunachala, in which devotees participated, and his hymns to Arunachala.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi described his Self as a "force" or "current", which descended on him in his death-experience, and continued throughout his life:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi used various terms to denote this Self. The most frequently used terms were "sat-chit-ananda", which translates into English as "truth-consciousness-bliss"; God, Brahman and Siva, and the Heart, which is not to be confused with the physical heart, or a particular point in space, but was rather to indicate that "the Self was the source from which all appearances manifested".


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: According to David Godman, the essence of Ramana Maharshi's teachings is that the "Self" or real "I" is a "non-personal, all-inclusive awareness":


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi considered the Self to be permanent and enduring, surviving physical death. "The sleep, dream and waking states are mere phenomena appearing on the Self," as is the "I"-thought. Our "true nature" is "simple Being, free from thoughts".


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi would field many questions about "jnanis" ("liberated beings") from devotees, but even the terms "jnani" and "ajnani" (non-liberated being) are incorrect, since it leads one to the idea of there being a knower and a known, a subject and an object. The truth of it according to Ramana Maharshi is that there are neither "jnanis" nor "ajnanis", there is simply "jnana", which is Self:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi's main means of instruction to his devotees in order to remove ignorance and abide in Self-awareness was through silently sitting together with his visitors, using words only sparingly. His method of instruction has been compared to Dakshinamurti – Shiva in the ascetic appearance of the Guru, who teaches through silence:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: "Vichara", "Self-enquiry", also called "ātma-vichār" or "jnana-vichara" is the constant attention to the inner awareness of "I" or "I am". Ramana Maharshi frequently recommended it as the most efficient and direct way of realizing Self-awareness, in response to questions on self-liberation and the classic texts on Yoga and Vedanta.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: According to Ramana Maharshi, the I-thought is the sense of individuality: "("Aham, aham") 'I-I' is the Self; ("Aham idam") "I am this" or "I am that" is the ego." By paying attention to the 'I'-thought, inquiring where it comes from, the 'I'-thought will disappear and the "shining forth" ("sphurana") of "I-I" or Self-awareness will appear. This results in an "effortless awareness of being", and by staying with it this "I-I" gradually destroys the "vasanas" "which cause the 'I'-thought to rise". When the "vasanas" disappear, the mind, "vritti" also comes to rest, since it centers around the 'I'-thought, and finally the 'I'-thought never rises again, which is Self-realization or liberation:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Robert Forman notes that Ramana Maharshi made a distinction between "samadhi" and "sahaja samadhi". "Samadhi" is a contemplative state, which is temporary, while in "sahaja samadhi" a "silent state" is maintained while engaged in daily activities. Ramana Maharshi himself stated repeatedly that "samadhi" only suppresses the "vāsanās", the karmic impressions, but does not destroy them. Only by abiding in Self-awareness will the "vāsanās", which create the sense of a separate self, be destroyed, and "sahaja samadhi" be attained.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Although he advocated self-enquiry as the fastest means to realisation, he also recommended the path of "bhakti" and self-surrender (to one's deity or guru) either concurrently or as an adequate alternative, which would ultimately converge with the path of self-enquiry.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Surrender has to be complete and desireless, without any expectations of solutions or rewards, or even liberation. It is a willingness to accept whatever happens. Surrender is not the willful act of an individual self, but the growing awareness that there is no individual self to surrender. Practice is aimed at the removal of ignorance, not at the attainment of realisation.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: According to David Godman, Ramana Maharshi taught that the idea of reincarnation is based on wrong ideas about the individual self as being real. Ramana Maharshi would sometimes say that rebirth does exist, to step forward to those who were not able to fully grasp the non-reality of the individual self. But when this illusoriness is realised, there is no room any more for ideas about reincarnation. When the identification with the body stops, any notions about death and rebirth become inapplicable, since there is no birth or death within Self. Ramana Maharshi:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: According to Wehr, C. G. Jung noted that Ramana Maharshi is not to be regarded as an "isolated phenomenon", but as a token of Indian spirituality, "manifest in many forms in everyday Indian life". According to Zimmer and Jung, Ramana Maharshi's appearance as a "mauni", a silent saint absorbed in "samadhi", fitted into pre-existing Indian notions of holiness. They placed the Indian devotion toward Ramana Maharshi in this Indian context.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: According to Alan Edwards, the popular image of Ramana Maharshi as a timeless saint also served the construction of an Indian identity as inner-oriented and spiritual, in opposition to the oppressive, outer-oriented, materialistic culture of the British colonial rulers:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Though Ramana Maharshi's answers explain and incorporate elements from Advaita Vedanta, his spiritual life is strongly associated with Shaivism. The Tamil compendium of devotional songs known as "Tirumurai", along with the Vedas, the Shaiva Agamas and ""Meykanda"" or ""Siddhanta"" Shastras, form the scriptural canon of Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta. As a youth, prior to his awakening, Ramana Maharshi read the Periya Puranam, the stories of the 63 Tamil saints. In later life, he told those stories to his devotees:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi himself considered God, Guru and Self to be the manifestations of the same reality. Ramana Maharshi considered the Self to be his guru, in the form of the sacred mountain Arunachala, which is considered to be the manifestation of Shiva. Arunachala is one of the five main shaivite holy places in South India, which can be worshipped through the mantra "Om arunachala shivaya namah!" and by Pradakshina, walking around the mountain, a practice which was often performed by Ramana Maharshi. Asked about the special sanctity of Arunachala, Ramana Maharshi said that Arunachala is Shiva himself. In his later years, Ramana Maharshi said it was the spiritual power of Arunachala which had brought about his Self-realisation. He composed the "Five Hymns to Arunachala" as devotional song. On the three occasions Venkataraman (Ramana) referred to himself he used the name "Arunachala Ramana". Ramana Maharshi also used to smear his forehead with holy ash, as a token of veneration.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In later life, Ramana Maharshi himself came to be regarded as Dakshinamurthy, an aspect of Shiva as a guru of all types of knowledge, and bestower of jnana. This aspect of Shiva is his personification as the supreme or the ultimate awareness, understanding and knowledge. This form represents Shiva in his aspect as a teacher of yoga, music, and wisdom, and giving exposition on the shastras.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: During his lifetime, through contact with educated devotees like Ganapata Muni, Ramana Maharshi became acquainted with works on Shaivism and Advaita Vedanta, and used them to explain his insights:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Already in 1896, a few months after his arrival at Arunachala, Ramana Maharshi attracted his first disciple, Uddandi Nayinar, who recognised in him "the living embodiment of the Holy Scriptures". Uddandi was well-versed in classic texts on Yoga and Vedanta, and recited texts as the "Yoga Vasistha" and "Kaivalya Navaneeta" in Ramana Maharshi's presence.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In 1897 Ramana Maharshi was joined by Palaniswami, who became his attendant. Palaniswami studied books in Tamil on Vedanta, such as "Kaivalya Navaneeta", Shankara's "Vivekachudamani", and "Yoga Vasistha". He had difficulties understanding Tamil. Ramana Maharshi read the books too, and explained them to Palaniswami.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: As early as 1900, when Ramana Maharshi was 20 years old, he became acquainted with the teachings of the Hindu monk and Neo-Vedanta teacher Swami Vivekananda through Gambhiram Seshayya. Seshayya was interested in yoga techniques, and "used to bring his books and explain his difficulties". Ramana Maharshi answered on small scraps of paper, which were collected after his death in the late 1920s in a booklet called "Vichara Sangraham", "Self-enquiry".


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: One of the works that Ramana Maharshi used to explain his insights was the Ribhu Gita, a song at the heart of the Shivarahasya Purana, one of the 'Shaiva Upapuranas' or ancillary Purana regarding Shiva and Shaivite worship. Another work used by him was the Dakshinamurthy Stotram, a text by Shankara. It is a hymn to Shiva, explaining Advaita Vedanta.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Ramana Maharshi gave his approval to a variety of paths and practices from various religions, with his own upadesa (instruction or guidance given to a disciple by his Guru) always pointing to the true "Self" of the devotees.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In contrast to classical Advaita Vedanta, Ramana Maharshi emphasized the personal experience of self-realization, instead of philosophical argumentation and the study of scripture. Ramana Maharshi's authority was based on his personal experience, from which he explained classic texts on Yoga and Vedanta, which he came acquainted with via his devotees. Arvind Sharma qualifies Ramana Maharshi as the chief exponent of "experiential Advaita", to distinguish his approach from Shankara's classical "doctrinal Advaita". Fort classifies him as a neo-Vedantin, because of the focus on self-inquiry instead of philosophical speculation. Ramana Maharshi himself did not call his insights advaita, but said that "dvaita" and "advaita" are relative terms, based on a sense of duality, while the Self or Being is all there is.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Although Ramana Maharshi's teaching is consistent with and generally associated with Hinduism, the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta, there are differences with the traditional Advaitic school. Advaita recommends a negationist "neti, neti" (Sanskrit, "not this", "not this") path, or mental affirmations that the Self is the only reality, such as "I am Brahman" or "I am He", while Ramana Maharshi advocated Self-enquiry "Nan Yar". In contrast with traditional Advaita Vedanta, Ramana Maharshi strongly discouraged devotees from adopting a renunciate lifestyle and renouncing their responsibilities. To one devotee who felt he should abandon his family, whom he described as "samsara" ("illusion"), to intensify his spiritual practice, Sri Ramana Maharshi replied:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: The scholar of religion Lola Williamson has described Indian gurus such as Ramana Maharshi, Meher Baba, Sri Aurobindo and Swami Satchidananda Saraswati as having developed "Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements", also called neo-Vedanta and modernist Hinduism.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Although many claim to be influenced by him, Ramana Maharshi did not publicise himself as a guru, never claimed to have disciples, and never appointed any successors. While a few who came to see him are said to have become enlightened through association, he did not publicly acknowledge any living person as liberated other than his mother at death. Ramana Maharshi never promoted any lineage.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: With regard to the Sri Ramana Ashram, in 1938 Maharshi made a legal will bequeathing all the Ramanashram properties to his younger brother Niranjanananda and his descendants. In 2013, Ramanashram is run by Sri Niranjananda's grandson Sri V.S. Raman. Ramanashram is legally recognised as a public religious trust whose aim is to maintain it in a way that is consistent with Sri Ramana Maharshi's declared wishes. The ashram should remain open as a spiritual institution so that anyone who wishes to can avail themselves of its facilities.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In the 1930s, Maharshi's teachings were brought to the west by Paul Brunton in his "A Search in Secret India". Stimulated by Arthur Osborne, in the 1960s Bhagawat Singh actively started to spread Ramana Maharshi's teachings in the US. Ramana Maharshi has been further popularised in the west by the neo-Advaita movement, via the students of H. W. L. Poonja; this movement gives a western re-interpretation of his teachings by placing sole emphasis on insight alone. It has been criticised for this emphasis, omitting the preparatory practices. Nevertheless, Neo-Advaita has become an important constituent of popular western spirituality.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: The scholar Philip Goldberg has listed Western religious thinkers influenced by Ramana Maharshi as including Francis X. Clooney, Georg Feuerstein, Bede Griffiths, Andrew Harvey, Thomas Merton, Henri Le Saux (Swami Abhishiktananada), Eckhart Tolle, and Ken Wilber.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: According to Ebert, Ramana Maharshi "never felt moved to formulate his teaching of his own accord, either verbally or in writing". The few writings he is credited with "came into being as answers to questions asked by his disciples or through their urging". Only a few hymns were written on his own initiative. Writings by Ramana Maharshi are:


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: In addition to original works, Ramana Maharshi has also translated some scriptures for the benefit of devotees. He selected, rearranged and translated 42 verses from the Bhagavad Gita into Tamil and Malayalam. He has also translated few works such as Dakshinamurti Stotra, Vivekachudamani and Dṛg-Dṛśya-Viveka attributed to Shankarachaya.


title: Ramana Maharshi

text: Several collections of recorded talks, in which Sri Ramana Maharshi used Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, have been published. Those are based on written transcripts, which were "hurriedly written down in English by his official interpreters".


title: Zach Hadel

text: Zach Hadel (born March 4, 1993), known by his pseudonym psychicpebbles, is an American animator, voice actor, internet personality, writer, director, and storyboard artist. He and Michael Cusack are co-creators of the Adult Swim animated series "Smiling Friends." He is also known for his Internet animations and for being a co-host of Let's Play web series "OneyPlays".


title: Zach Hadel

text: Hadel grew up in Kansas and began his animation career by uploading Adobe Flash animations to Newgrounds, later transitioning to YouTube. He enrolled in college to learn graphic design, but dropped out. A self-taught animator, Hadel had stated that shows such as "SpongeBob SquarePants", "The Simpsons" and "South Park" had inspired his animation style. Videos of his became popular online, such as his animated video about the "arrow in the knee" meme from "" which went viral in 2011. Along with fellow Newgrounds animator Chris O'Neill, Hadel created the popular web cartoon series "Hellbenders," which was picked up for a pilot by Adult Swim, but ultimately not pursued. Hadel also collaborated with O'Neill to make an animated short video parodying the "Kony 2012" documentary; the video went viral, receiving over 1.7 million views within its first weekend. Hadel was also a member of "SleepyCabin," a comedy and discussion podcast hosted by former Newgrounds animators. , his YouTube channel "psychicpebbles" has 1.5 million subscribers and 208.4 million views.


title: Zach Hadel

text: Hadel animated a segment of Seth Rogen's Hilarity for Charity with Justin Roiland, co-creator of "Rick and Morty". Roiland later stated the animation was the one instance of a joke that went too far. Hadel and Roiland also appeared alongside animator Alex Hirsch on h3h3's livestream podcast for charity where they raised over $100,000 for California wildlife relief.


title: Zach Hadel

text: Hadel hosted the podcast "Schmucks" from 2017 to 2019, where he interviewed fellow entertainers such as Michael Stevens, Finn Wolfhard, Jon Jafari, and Ethan Klein.


title: Zach Hadel

text: In 2018, Hadel storyboarded for "SpongeBob SquarePants" for the season 11 episode "The Grill is Gone".


title: Zach Hadel

text: On April 1, 2020, Cartoon Network's late-night Adult Swim block premiered the pilot episode of Hadel and Michael Cusack's animated adult television series, "Smiling Friends". The series follows two employees, Pim and Charlie, of a private company missioned to make people smile. The series premiered with a full season marathon on January 9, 2022, and debuted on HBO Max on February 9.


title: Richard Ashcroft

text: Richard Paul Ashcroft (born 11 September 1971) is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer and occasional rhythm guitarist of the alternative rock band The Verve from their formation in 1990 until their original split in 1999. Songs he wrote for the band include "Bitter Sweet Symphony", "Lucky Man", and the UK number one "The Drugs Don't Work". He became a successful solo artist, releasing three UK top three solo albums. The Verve reformed in 2007 but again broke up by summer 2009. Ashcroft then founded a new band, RPA & The United Nations of Sound, and released a new album on 19 July 2010. Ashcroft released his fourth solo album, "These People", on 20 May 2016. Ashcroft went on to release the album “Natural Rebel” in 2018, and the compilation of acoustic versions of his best hits: “Acoustic Hymns Vol.1” in 2021.


title: Richard Ashcroft

text: In May 2019, Ashcroft received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. Chris Martin of Coldplay has described Ashcroft as "the best singer in the world".


title: Richard Ashcroft

text: Ashcroft was the only son of office worker Frank and hairdresser Louise Ashcroft (née Baxter); he also has two younger sisters. His middle name, Paul, is also the name of a paternal uncle. When Ashcroft was 11, his father died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage. Ashcroft soon "fell under the influence of his stepfather", who belonged to the Rosicrucians.


title: Richard Ashcroft

text: Ashcroft attended Up Holland High School in West Lancashire, along with future bandmates Simon Jones, Peter Salisbury and Simon Tong, and then attended nearby Winstanley College, where he met Nick McCabe. His teachers referred to him as "the cancer of the class", though one member of staff recalled him being "incredibly intelligent". Ashcroft was an avid football player, playing junior football for Wigan Athletic. For some time, Ashcroft wanted to be a professional football player, idolising George Best, but as he grew older he lost interest in this, turning to music instead.


title: Richard Ashcroft

text: Ashcroft formed The Verve (originally just Verve) in 1990 with McCabe, Jones, and Salisbury. The band signed to Hut Records and became well known for their appetite for both psychedelic music and drugs. They also became a part of the Britpop movement. The band split in 1995, and around this time Ashcroft wrote a collection of songs he intended to release as his first solo album. However, by 1997 he had changed his mind and asked McCabe to return (alongside new member Tong), reforming the Verve and releasing the very successful album "Urban Hymns". Ashcroft was at the forefront of the band's popularity, receiving an Ivor Novello Award for his songwriting and being referred to by the press as "the unmistakable face of the Number One rock band in England". However, the pressures of touring and the tensions within the band led to McCabe's departure in mid-1998 and the announcement of the band's break-up in April 1999.


title: Richard Ashcroft

text: In early 2007, Ashcroft made peace with McCabe and Jones and the Verve's reunion was announced in June. The band played gigs later that year and continued touring in 2008, headlining at several festivals around the world. A new album, "Forth", was released in August.


title: Richard Ashcroft

text: In August 2008, the Verve broke up for the third time, though it was not announced until the following year.


title: Richard Ashcroft

text: Ashcroft's first solo single, "A Song for the Lovers", peaked at No. 3 in the UK charts in April 2000. It was followed by the single "Money to Burn" which reached the UK Top 20 at No. 17. The album, "Alone with Everybody", was released in June, reaching number 1 and receiving platinum status in the UK. Album reviews were generally positive. In September, a third single was released – "C'mon People (We're Making It Now)" – entering the charts at No. 21. Richard does not publish the lyrics to his songs in the inlay cards of his albums or singles as he feels they are personal to him.


title: Richard Ashcroft

text: Ashcroft began work on his second album "Human Conditions" in 2002. The lead single, "Check the Meaning", was released in early October, and peaked at No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart. The album was released later that month and reached No. 3 in the UK Album Chart. Reception to the album was generally positive. Review aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalised score of 61% based on 15 reviews. In response to negative reaction to the album, Coldplay's Chris Martin – a fan of both Ashcroft and the Verve – defended the album's merits which "made an impression" on Ashcroft. The appreciation shown would later result in a support slot for Ashcroft, serving as the opening act for Coldplay during a European tour. The album's second single, "Science of Silence", was released the following January and charted at No. 14 in the UK. On 26 March, Ashcroft made his first live appearance of 2003 at London's Royal Albert Hall as part of the third annual Teenage Cancer Trust charity fundraising event, before "Buy It in Bottles", the third and final single to be taken from the album, was released on 7 April, charting at No. 26.