Myo-o

In the Buddhist mythology of Japan, fierce protective deities, corresponding to the Sanskrit Vidyaraja (“King of Knowledge”), worshiped mainly by the Shingon sect. They take on a ferocious appearance in order to frighten away evil spirits and to destroy ignorance and ugly passions. They are depicted with angry expressions, with a third eye in the middle of their foreheads,

Lowell, Amy

Lowell came from a prominent Massachusetts family (her brothers were Abbott Lawrence Lowell, later president of Harvard, and astronomer Percival Lowell). She was educated in private schools and by her mother, and until she was 28 she did little but alternately live

Palau, Flag Of

As part of the United States-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), Palau was under the flags of the United Nations, the United States, and the Trust Territory. Local desire for a separate state and government was realized on January 1, 1981, and a Palauan flag was hoisted on that occasion. A competition had been held in 1979 that resulted in more than a thousand

Aversion Therapy

Psychotherapy designed to cause a patient to reduce or avoid an undesirable behaviour pattern by conditioning him to associate the behaviour with an undesirable stimulus. The chief stimuli used in the therapy are electrical and chemical. In the electrical therapy, the patient is given a lightly painful shock whenever the undesirable behaviour is aroused; this

Rabbula

Reforming bishop of Edessa and theologian who was a leading figure in the Christian church in Syria. He advocated the orthodox Alexandrian (Egypt) position in the 5th-century controversy with the Antiochian (Syria) school of Nestorianism, a heretical teaching that denied that the person of Christ possessed both a divine and

Libertarianism, Nonaggression axiom

According to the principle that libertarians call the nonaggression axiom, all acts of aggression against the rights of others—whether committed by individuals or by governments—are unjust. Indeed, libertarians believe that the primary purpose of government is to protect citizens from the illegitimate use of force. Accordingly, governments may not use force