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#Redheifer

The red heifer (#Hebrew: פָּרָה אֲדֻמָּה, romanized: pārā adummā), a female bovine which has never been pregnant or milked or yoked, also known as the red cow, was a cow brought to the priests as a sacrifice according to the Torah, and its ashes were used for the ritual purification of corpse uncleanness, that is, an #Israelite who had come into contact with a human corpse, human bone, or grave.

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Mushin (mental state)

Mushin (mental state)

'Mushin' in Japanese and 'Wuxin' in Chinese (無心 "no mind") is a mental state. Zen and Daoist meditators are said to reach this state, as well as artists and trained martial artists. They also practice this mental state during everyday activities.

Mushin is achieved when a person's mind is free from thoughts of anger, fear, or ego during combat or everyday life. There is an absence of discursive thought and judgment, so the person is totally free to act and react towards an opponent without hesitation and without disturbance from such thoughts. At this point, a person relies not on what they think should be the next move, but what is their trained natural reaction (or instinct) or what is felt intuitively. It is not a state of relaxed, near-sleepfulness, however. The mind could be said to be working at a very high speed, but with no intention, plan or direction.

Some masters believe that mushin is the state where a person finally understands the uselessness of techniques and becomes truly free to move. In fact, those people will no longer even consider themselves as "fighters" but merely living beings moving through space.

The legendary Zen master Takuan Sōhō said:

The mind must always be in the state of 'flowing,' for when it stops anywhere that means the flow is interrupted and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-being of the mind. In the case of the swordsman, it means death. When the swordsman stands against his opponent, he is not to think of the opponent, nor of himself, nor of his enemy's sword movements. He just stands there with his sword which, forgetful of all technique, is ready only to follow the dictates of the subconscious. The man has effaced himself as the wielder of the sword. When he strikes, it is not the man but the sword in the hand of the man's subconscious that strikes.

The term contains the character for negation, "not" or "without" (無), along with the character for heart-mind (心). The term is shortened from mushin no shin (無心の心), a Zenexpression meaning the mind without mind and is also referred to as the state of "no-mindness". That is, a mind not fixed or occupied by thought or emotion and thus open to everything. It is translated by D.T. Suzuki as "being free from mind-attachment".

However, mushin is not just a state of mind that can be achieved during combat. Many martial artists train to achieve this state of mind during kata so that a flawless execution of moves is accomplished — that they may be achieved during combat or at any other time. Once mushin is attained through the practice or study of martial arts (although it can be accomplished through other arts or practices that refine the mind and body), the objective is to then attain this same level of complete awareness in other aspects of the practitioner's life.

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Om

Om, also written as Aum, is the most sacred syllable Symbol & manta of Brahman The Almighty God in Hinduism. Brahman is Supreme Self, Ultimate Reality, Creator of all Existence. The syllable is often chanted either independently or before a mantra; it signifies the essence of the ultimate reality, consciousness or Atman. The Om sound is the primordial sound and is called the Shabda-Brahman (Brahman as sound).

Om is part of the iconography found in ancient and medieval era manuscripts, temples, monasteries and spiritual retreats in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The symbol has a spiritual meaning in all Indian dharmas, but the meaning and connotations of Om vary between the diverse schools within and across the various traditions.

In Hinduism, Om is one of the most important spiritual sounds. It refers to Atman (soul, self within) and Brahman (ultimate reality, entirety of the universe, truth, divine, supreme spirit, cosmic principles, knowledge). The syllable is often found at the beginning and the end of chapters in the Vedas, the Upanishads, and other Hindu texts. It is a sacred spiritual incantation made before and during the recitation of spiritual texts, during puja and private prayers, in ceremonies of rites of passages (sanskara) such as weddings, and sometimes during meditative and spiritual activities such as Yoga. It is also used in other Dharmic religions, such as Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.

The syllable Om is also referred to as onkara (ओङ्कार, oṅkāra), omkara (ओंकार, oṃkāra) and pranava (प्रणव, praṇava).

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A nigga should be disciplined, you’ve gotta run yourself like a company

Khalifa Nzuri

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Random thoughts/quotes

#Preparation

Being prepared is preparing to prepare for the unpreparable, and hence #knowing how unprepared you really are. Khalifa Nzuri

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#Peace

1. #freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility.“you can while away an hour or two in peace and seclusion"synonyms:tranquility, calm, restfulness, peace and quiet, peacefulness, quiet, quietness;

2. freedom from or the cessation of war or violence."the Straits were to be open to warships in time of peace"synonyms:law and order, lawfulness, order, peacefulness, peaceableness, harmony, nonviolence; formalconcord

"we pray for #peace”

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Mushin (mental state)

Mushin (#mental state) … The term is shortened from mushin no shin (無心の心), aZen expression meaning the mind without mind and is also referred to as the state of “no-mindness”. That is, a mind not fixed or occupied by #thought or #emotion and thus open to everything.

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Sith

The Sith is an organization of preternaturally-gifted warriors in the fictional Star Wars universe.[1] It is an ancient interstellar quasi-religious kraterocratic institution with an agenda of galactic domination, led by members who seize power whether through physical force, social maneuvering or political cunning.

Within the space opera setting of Star Wars, the Sith are an affiliation of warriors who cultivate a legacy of forbidden martial arts in pursuit of individual power, immortality, and galactic domination. Their schemes are key to the overarching plot of the Star Wars films and much other fictional material in the franchise. Frequently opposed by their ancient forebears, the Jedi, the Sith have also been stymied at crucial junctures by internal frictions. The notion that the Sith’s cruel and selfish philosophy is ultimately self-defeating on both a personal and institutional level is a running theme within Star Wars media.

Individual Sith are characterized by their lust for power and their desire to destroy the Jedi Order, a philosophically and politically opposed organization of altruistic warriors who seek to use their own special abilities to advance the common welfare. The Sith philosophy lionizes greed, lust, selfishness and the attainment of power regardless of the cost to others. Both Sith and Jedi alike may draw on the Force to achieve a variety of superhuman feats. However, in keeping with their egoistical doctrine, the Sith use these powers for their benefit alone, often to manipulate and destroy others. The Sith are key villains within the Star Wars universe, and are enslaved to their own self-serving desires; amoral, sadistic, vindictive, violent and ultimately self-destructive.

The origin, agenda, abilities and philosophy of the Sith are intertwined with their relationship to the Force. With proper training, the Force may be called upon by rare individuals capable of "sensing" or "touching" it to achieve extraordinary feats such as telekinesis, precognition and mental suggestion. Not all psychological states are conducive to employing the Force; discipline is required. However, both quietude and focused, intense passion alike can be effective. The Sith originate in a group of Force-sensitive warriors who discovered efficaciousness of passion as a tool to draw on the Force many centuries prior to the events of the first Star Wars film. Fully embracing this approach, they became defined by it.

The warriors who would become the first Sith were apparently heterodox members of an older martial order of Force-sensitive sapient beings in the Star Wars universe: The Jedi. The Jedi served as a space-faring knightly order within the Galactic Republic, a representative democracy encompassing most developed worlds. In this capacity, the Jedi Order sought to use the powers of the Force to help defend the weak, preserve peace and advance the rule of law across the galaxy, in keeping with their organization’s ethics of self-sacrifice and service to the common welfare. The Jedi creed mirrored their method of utilizing the Force, and Jedi doctrine admonished states of serenity, detachment, compassion, and humility as the proper means of accessing its power. When certain members of the Jedi Order began to experiment with passion as an alternative, controversy emerged. The Jedi establishment saw these innovations as a threat to the ethos of the Jedi, opening members to the seduction of selfishness, aggrandizement and cruelty. Eventually, this controversy led to a sectarian conflict in which the heterodox Jedi were defeated and exiled.[2]

In exile, the dissident Jedi were free to explore the relationship between passion and the Force. Their investigations led them to conclude that the martial and ethical disciplines of the Jedi establishment were foolish and misguided. Passion, they found, not quietude, was the most potent means of accessing the Force. And the most effective passions were the darkest and most severe, such as anger, fear, aggression, and, at the summit, pure hatred. Upon these “empirical” findings the exiles would erect a new worldview and martial tradition—a mirror image to the creed and practices of the Jedi Order. Conflict, the exiles judged, not peace, was the natural state of the universe, and in such a world, only ruthless personal ambition, not self-abnegation, could be justified. To achieve power, the dissidents would devote themselves to mastering the Force by cultivating dark passions, a practice anathematized by the Jedi as taking recourse to the Force's "Dark Side." Guided by their kratocratic and egoistic philosophy and armed with taboo Dark Side techniques, the former Jedi exiles would reemerge to menace the galaxy as the Sith Order.

A succession of Sith-led regimes would arise to challenge the Jedi and the Galactic Republic.[3] However, internal conflicts and power struggles would prove decisive in thwarting the Sith's designs. The paradox of reconciling endless personal ambition with corporate action would become a great practical and philosophical concern for the Sith. Ultimately, this paradox would be “resolved” through a drastic reorganization effected by a leader named Darth Bane, who recast the Sith in an esoteric lineal master-apprentice tradition known as “The Rule of Two.”[4] Thereafter (at least, as a matter of orthodoxy) there would be only two Sith at a time: One to embody power, and another to crave it. Together, acting from the shadows, a succession of Sith masters and apprentices would work through the centuries to inveigle or force themselves into positions of power and undermine responsible government, preparing the Galactic Republic for eventual usurpation. The Banite tradition admonished each apprentice to eventually challenge and slaughter his or her master, and then take an apprentice in turn. In this way, Darth Bane believed that the kratocratic essence of Sith philosophy could be reconciled with a sustained project of galactic domination and revenge against the Jedi. The first six Star Wars films chronicle the consummation, and eventual undoing, of this ancient scheme.

Darth Bane’s plan would come to fruition through Sheev Palpatine, a Senator, later Supreme Chancellor, of the Galactic Republic, and secretly a Dark Lord of the Sith (“Darth Sidious”). By manipulating disgruntled factions within the Galactic Republic, Palpatine orchestrated a civil war. This conflict, known within the Star Wars universe as the “Clone Wars,” provided a justification for consolidating power in the Galactic Republic’s chief executive and assembling a large army of hastily cloned soldiers—surreptitiously conditioned to obey certain key commands issued by Palpatine. Although the Jedi eventually discovered Palpatine’s identity as a Sith and attempted to arrest him, this action was anticipated by Palpatine, who successfully framed their actions as an attempted coup, providing in turn a pretext for annihilating the Jedi by activating “Order 66,” one of the clone soldiers’ embedded protocols. In the course of effecting his designs, Palpatine also manipulated the Jedi’s most powerful initiate, Anakin Skywalker, into his service, by promising to teach Skywalker Dark Side techniques that could save the life of Padme Amidala, a Galactic Senator to whom Skywalker was secretly married in violation of Jedi rules, and whose death in childbirth Skywalker had preternaturally foreseen. In a tragic irony, Amidala’s sheer horror at discovering Skywalker’s collaboration with Sidious in destroying the Jedi would itself be the cause of her death during childbirth, though Sidious would trick Skywalker into believing that an episode of Skywalker’s physical abuse of Amidala had been the actual cause of her death. Skywalker’s subsequent emotional collapse would lead him to fully embrace the Dark Side of the Force and assume the persona of Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith.

With Darth Vader at his side, Palpatine would rule the newly styled Galactic Empire for approximately 20 years as its emperor. Initially unknown to Vader and Sidious, two children were successfully delivered by Padme before her death. One, Luke Skywalker, would be secretly tutored in the ways of the Force by Vader’s own former Jedi master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and a powerful elder Jedi, Yoda, who also survived Palpatine’s purge. Along with his sister, Leia, Luke would become a key member of a rebellion to restore the Galactic Republic. Ironically, during a final confrontation between Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and the Emperor aboard a mobile battle station known as the Death Star, the Sith lineage would end as Darth Bane prescribed that it proceed. The Emperor offered Skywalker an ultimatum to enter his service or die, and proceeded to use his Force-derived powers to torture and kill Skywalker when the latter refused to embrace the Dark Side of the Force. Experiencing a crisis of conscience at the imminent death of Skywalker, whom Vader now knew to be his son, Darth Vader chose to intervene and kill his master, the Emperor. Darth Vader would die of his own injuries shortly thereafter, thus apparently bringing an end to the Sith and their ancient vendetta.

The Sith are dedicated to the egoistic "Sith Code" and to mastering the Dark Side of the Force.[5] Sith members, known as Sith Lords or Dark Lords of the Sith, traditionally use the title Darth-prefix before their Sith name. The Sith's Dark Side methodology, which draws on the Force through severe negative emotions, is antipodal to that of their archenemies, the Jedi, who rely on the Force's "Light Side," i.e., the Force as experienced through disciplined states of quietude and compassion. Notably, both the Jedi and Sith shun romantic and familial love, as the Jedi fear such love will lead to attachment, and thus selfishness, and the Sith fear it will compromise their connection to the Dark Side of the Force. Although the Sith are intimately linked to the Dark Side, not every "Dark Side"-user is a Sith; nor is every "Light Side"-user a Jedi.

The Dark Side of the Force is stigmatized as corruptive and addictive by the Jedi, who view it as evil.[6] As portrayed in all Star Wars-related media, the Dark Side provides users with powers similar to those of the Light Side-using Jedi, but as it leverages passion and violence, its use is enhanced by negative raw and aggressive emotions and instinctual feelings such as anger, greed, hatred, and rage. Extended indulgence in the Dark Side creates a loss of humanity, morality, empathy, and the ability to love, leaving the Sith amoral, cruel, selfish, sadistic and violent. Considering this dark change in personality to be a transformation into a different person altogether, some who turn to the Dark Side take on a different name, as they regard their former persona as dead and destroyed. By deciding to learn the ways of the Dark Side of the Force, the Sith may also acquire powers and abilities considered by some in the Star Wars universe to be unnatural.[7] A notable example is a form of directed dielectric breakdown called "Force Lightning," infamously used by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious to torture Jedi-initiate and rebel Luke Skywalker. Darth Sidious claimed that his own master could even use the Force to avert the natural deaths of those whose lives he wished to save. Being uninhibited in their use of the Force, Sith could also repurpose abilities shared with the Jedi, such as telekinesis, to new and terrifying effect: Darth Vader was infamous for his use of telekinetic strangulation, or "Force Choking," as a means of execution or intimidation.

Like the Jedi, the Sith's signature weapon is an extremely lethal focused energy melee weapon known as a lightsaber, which (generally) only those trained in the ways of the Force can use effectively. Sith use lightsabers in combination with Force-derived powers, such as telekinesis, enhanced dexterity and precognition, to achieve superhuman combat prowess. A fully trained Sith is depicted as being at least a match for a well-trained Jedi Knight, and either can handily defeat multiple ordinary attackers armed with projectile weapons. The Sith worldview and modus operandi are often portrayed as self-destructive. Star Wars characters who “give into the Dark Side of the Force” and seek to use its power for their own narrow self-interest (or for morally dubious purposes on behalf of others, such as revenge) usually meet with tragic or terrible fates, or have their accomplishments eventually undone by characters with altruistic motivations. Several Sith, such as Darth Vader and Darth Sidious, provide spectacular examples of this trope. As manifest villains within the Star Wars franchise, the Sith appear to embody a kind of elemental moral error. Whether this error ultimately lies in the Sith’s embrace of passion itself, or rather in their selfishness and cruelty, is left ambiguous. Star Wars media occasionally hints that the Jedi may also be misguided in some measure.

Many of the stories featuring the Sith belong to a branch of the Star Wars canon now known as "Star Wars: Legends," and previously as the "Expanded Universe" (or "EU"), consisting of a variety of media created prior to the advent of the 2015 feature film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[8] Future authors and screenwriters are not required to honor all of the events depicted in this material, but the Expanded Universe has apparently remained a source of creative inspiration. Certain characters important to EU history, such as Darth Bane, have become part of broadly shared Star Wars canon. The EU thoroughly details the schism between the dissident “Dark Jedi” and the Jedi establishment that led to the creation of the Sith Order, as well a series of conflicts between the Sith, Jedi and the Galactic Republic spanning the millennia prior to the events of the Star Wars motion picture series, and certain events thereafter.

In the EU, the Sith trace their origins to the followers of a dissident Jedi named Exar Kun, who endorsed the use of the Dark Side of the Force, contrary to Jedi orthodoxy.[9] After Kun and his “Dark Jedi” followers were exiled for their practices, they eventually settled on a planet named Korriban which was occupied by the “Sith,” a red-skinned humanoid race with a high prevalence of Force-sensitives. Over the course of centuries of intermingling between the ethnic Sith and Dark Jedi, the name “Sith” would come to apply to the martial philosophy and political affiliation created the former Jedi exiles on Korriban, rather than a specific race. This Sith regime would strike out at the Galactic Republic and Jedi on numerous occasions. Notable conflicts between the Sith and the Galactic Republic include the “Great Hyperspace War,” in which the Sith would launch a massive invasion of the Republic but succumb to infighting, and the “Sith Holocaust,” in which the Galactic Republic would unsuccessfully attempt to exterminate the Sith from known space, leading the Sith survivors to take a vow of eternal vengeance on the Galactic Republic. The EU also describes the exploits of Sith characters following the collapse of Emperor Palpatine’s Galactic Empire and the restoration of the Republic, such as the attempt by “Darth Krayt” to establish a New Sith Order on Korriban.

The word "Sith" was first used in the novelization of Star Wars, as a title for Darth Vader, the "Dark Lord of the Sith". The Sith were not formally introduced or mentioned on-screen until the release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, in 1999, though they had been named in some Expanded Universe works before that time.

Because the term Sith was never spoken in the original trilogy (although Darth Vader was described as "Lord of the Sith" in the published screenplay), early Expanded Universe products usually considered the "evil Jedi," those who joined the dark side of the Force, as "Dark Jedi." In his novel series The Thrawn Trilogy, author Timothy Zahn labeled Sith Lord Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine as "Dark Jedi," and the term "Sith" was never mentioned in the series until later reprints of the novels. Dark Jedi is the name given in the Star Wars universe to antihero fictional characters attuned to the Force and adept in its dark side. The concept of "Dark Jedi" is not endorsed anywhere within the movie trilogies. They exist by that name only in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, including video games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the Star Wars: Jedi Knightseries; the term is never used in any of the seven Star Wars films.

In the context of the Star Wars "Expanded Universe" of fiction, the term "Sith" originally referred to a species of Force-sensitive sentients indigenous to the planets Korriban and Ziost; these people were later enslaved and ruled by exiled "Dark Jedi" from the Galactic Republic. Following centuries of interbreeding and mixing of cultures between the aliens and the exiles, the Sith would no longer be identified by their race, but by their dedication to the ancient Sith philosophy.

#sith #starwars

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Nirvana (Sanskrit, also nirvāṇa; Pali: nibbana, nibbāna ) is the earliest and most common term used to describe the goal of the Buddhist path. The literal meaning is "blowing out" or "quenching." It is the ultimate spiritual goal in Buddhism and marks the soteriological release from rebirths in saṃsāra.[1][3] Nirvana is part of the Third Truth on "cessation of dukkha" in the Four Noble Truths,[1] and the summum bonum destination of the Noble Eightfold Path.[3]

Within the Buddhist tradition, this term has commonly been interpreted as the extinction of the "three fires", or "three poisons", passion, (raga), aversion (dvesha) and ignorance (moha or avidyā). When these fires are extinguished, release from the cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra) is attained.

Nirvana has also been deemed in Buddhism to be identical with anatta (non-self) and sunyata (emptiness) states. In time, with the development of Buddhist doctrine, other interpretations were given, such as the absence of the weaving (vana) of activity of the mind, the elimination of desire, and escape from the woods, cq. the five skandhas or aggregates.

Buddhist scholastic tradition identifies two types of nirvana: sopadhishesa-nirvana (nirvana with a remainder), and parinirvana or anupadhishesa-nirvana (nirvana without remainder, or final nirvana). The founder of Buddhism, the Buddha is believed to have reached both these states.[ Nirvana, or the liberation from cycles of rebirth, is the highest aim of the Theravada tradition. In the Mahayana tradition, the highest goal is Buddhahood, in which there is no abiding in Nirvana, but a Buddha continues to take rebirths in the world to help liberate beings from saṃsāra by teaching the Buddhist path.

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#CASHRULESEVERYTHINGAROUNDME

#CASHRULESEVERYTHINGAROUNDME

Kept the money & drugs in different places, played the cards right but niggaz lose with aces. Hit the home run but still touch all the bases. Tried differnt keys. Open up doors. Fuck nasty bitches, bitch never fuck em raw. Brains all over the floor, nigga leaning Shit don’t happen for nuthin, theres a meaning Came to pass doc told me i wasnt breathing, Caught a lil gift from a gin they call em demons. Old Jamaican lady told me i needed Jesus. Now what you think a prison got a yard for? I’m hungry like the nigga on the cardbaord Real nigga I ain’t switch up yet. When the sketty jam up nigga switch up skets. Caught a thotty on the straggle da was pickup neck I drop jewelz on these nigga they aint pick up yet? The world is full of lies the truth is such. Cash rules everything around cept for lucifer. A lot more than ya legs to stand tall. Like it take a lot more than a clit to have walls? Bet it take a lot more than a dick to have balls. A lesson a nigga kept from a father I never met. Be careful with drama they got them skets yo. They kill for them dollaz its on deck tho. CASH RULES EVERTHING AROUND WE

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#GunpowderTea

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#Gunpowder

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Yin/Yang

In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (also yin-yang or yin yang, 陰陽 yīnyáng "dark—bright") describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Many tangible dualities (such as light and dark, fire and water, expanding and contracting) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang. This duality lies at the origins of many branches of classical Chinese science and philosophy, as well as being a primary guideline of traditional Chinese medicine, and a central principle of different forms of Chinese martial arts and exercise, such as baguazhang, taijiquan (t'ai chi), and qigong (Chi Kung), as well as appearing in the pages of the I Ching. Duality is found in many belief systems, but Yin and Yang are parts of a Oneness that is also equated with the Tao. A term has been coined dualistic-monism or dialectical monsm. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary (rather than opposing) forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts. Everything has both yin and yang aspects, (for instance shadow cannot exist without light). Either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation. The yin yang (i.e. taijitu symbol) shows a balance between two opposites with a portion of the opposite element in each section. In Taoist metaphysics, distinctions between good and bad, along with other dichotomous moral judgments, are perceptual, not real; so, the duality of yin and yang is an indivisible whole. In the ethics of Confucianism on the other hand, most notably in the philosophy of Dong Zhongshu (c. 2nd century BC), a moral dimension is attached to the idea of yin and yang.

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#Sine

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Leprosy

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection caused by the bacilli Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Initially, infections are without symptoms and typically remain this way for 5 to 20 years. Symptoms that develop include granulomas of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This may result in a lack of ability to feel pain and thus loss of parts of extremities due to repeated injuries or infection due to unnoticed wounds. Weakness and poor eyesight may also be present. Leprosy is spread between people. This is believed to occur through a cough or contact with fluid from the nose of an infected person. Leprosy occurs more commonly among those living in poverty. Contrary to popular belief, it is not highly contagious. The two main types of disease are based on the number of bacteria present: paucibacillary and multibacillary. The two types are differentiated by the number of poorly pigmented, numb skin patches present, with paucibacillary having five or fewer and multibacillary having more than five. The diagnosis is confirmed by finding acid-fast bacilli in a biopsy of the skin or by detecting the DNA using polymerase chain reaction. Leprosy is curable with a treatment known as multidrug therapy. Treatment for paucibacillary leprosy is with the medications dapsone and rifampicin for six months. Treatment for multibacillary leprosy consists of rifampicin, dapsone, and clofazimine for 12 months. A number of other antibiotics may also be used. These treatments are provided free of charge by the World Health Organization. Globally in 2012, the number of chronic cases of leprosy was 189,000, down from some 5.2 million in the 1980s. The number of new cases was 230,000. Most new cases occur in 16 countries, with India accounting for more than half. In the past 20 years, 16 million people worldwide have been cured of leprosy. About 200 cases are reported per year in the United States. Leprosy has affected humanity for thousands of years. The disease takes its name from the Latin word lepra, which means "scaly", while the term "Hansen's disease" is named after the physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen. Separating people by placing them in leper colonies still occurs in places such as India, China, and Africa. However, most colonies have closed since leprosy is not very contagious. Social stigma has been associated with leprosy for much of history, which continues to be a barrier to self-reporting and early treatment. Some consider the word "leper" offensive, preferring the phrase "person affected with leprosy". World Leprosy Day was started in 1954 to draw awareness to those affected by #leprosy.

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#Dignity