Some can't sleep with the lights on.....and some sleep with the Light on......

PEACEFUL INTROSPECTION IN AN AGE OF ANXIETY........

The Buddha Shakyamuni, in a pose of enlightenment, the passive left hand having it's palm facing out, in an active gesture of peace, bearing no aggression, and the active right hand resting in the lap in a gesture of meditation. As the Buddha has broken through the boundaries of egocentric existence and relaxes into compassion. All Buddhist art celebrates this supreme moment and leads the viewer toward the Buddha's experience of selfless enlightenment. The earliest forms of Buddhist art were semiabstract: bodhi-trees, wheels, stupas, and even the Buddha's stylized footprints served as supports for contemplating what was ultimately beyond words or forms. As the Buddha continually taught, it was not he who was continually revered but the possibility he presented. "Don't look to me," he said, "but to the enlightened state." I WATCHED FIFTEEN MINUTES OF THE NEVER-ENDING TRAUMA......'THE NEWS'....THIS MORNING......WHICH, AS IT HAS ALWAYS DONE, JUST PERPETUATES OUR NATIONAL ANXIETY AND HOPELESS DESPAIR........PERHAPS, A BILLION OF US SHOULD TURN OFF THEIR EVER-HELD SMARTPHONES AND TV SETS, FOR A FEW MINUTES OF TRUTHFUL INTROSPECTION.....IF THEY COULD 'ONLY' FIND THE TIME.....HOW ABOUT 23 MINUTES A DAY?......BEING AWAKE, ALERT, YET RELAXED AND 'PRESENT'.....AND, 'YES'....THOSE ARE SNAILS ON HIS HEAD.....GIVE THAT SOME THOUGHT....

YET...IT IS HUMAN NATURE TO COMPLICATE EVEN THE SIMPLEST MEDITATIONS

the madness of futility will manifest, from dreaming,

in the minds of those who think there is Meaning...

we are just gleaning for Being..

seeing is a product of the senses

that, in this realm, operate in the limiting manner

of our species' genetic, celestial mechanics;

thus, we seek "others" that consent

to our own delusions of immersive introspection,

and when that is not forthcoming,

we are thrown into entropy and chaos.......

the secret is Stillness of Mind and hearts

with unending and limitless forgiveness and understanding. (VERISTES)

"we must change the inside to change the outside........

the outside is a constant, in the bigger picture.....

which "seems" to change, depending on our own perspectives.....

the inside is mutable and capable of transmogrification through consciousness,

attitude and unknown and uncontrollable factors

even the brain's chemistry can change,

if not through will and resolution,

by a change in the dispensation of energy

and the utilization of good will and concern........

it is through love for others that we begin to love ourselves.

and it is through love of ourselves that we are energized to love others....." (Veristes)

IT MAY TAKE 'TWO HANDS' TO HANDLE A 'WHOPPER'....BUT, IT TAKES COMPLEX DELUSIONAL SYSTEMS TO HANDLE RELIGIOUS DOGMA....

Or to clasp, in prayer, to Jesus; a single hand, on an extended arm, to demonstrate allegiance to or worship of a Dictator; going down on both hands and knees to worship Allah. For some Hindus', It takes 6 arms to handle the forces of Evil........I just acquired a sleek, new Hindu Bronze sculpture of Kali, a symbol of both female empowerment and the dissolution of the perpetuation of cruelty...... Kali sprung from the anger of the goddess Durga to slay the demon Raktabija . During this struggle a new demon emerges from each drop of Raktabija’s blood as it hits the ground; to prevent this, Kali laps up the blood before it can reach the ground. She is also said to have been born when the goddess Parvati shed her dark skin; the sheath became Kali—who is also called Kaushika, “The Sheath”—leaving Parvati in the form of Gauri (“The Fair One”).

                                   Isn't this depiction of the Christian God, Jesus.....just as absurd?  

WITH 'EASTER' ON THE HORIZON........ WHAT'S ON TV? ..... VOTE FOR 'BEST JESUS'....WILL IT BE MAX VON SYDOW....OR......ADRIEN BRODY?

OR...

let's watch Charlton Heston part the Red Sea with his shepherd's staff......it's in Vegas, now.....with Ozian flying Hanuman monkey godlets, suspended by invisible wires, over magical auras......I certainly don't have the genes for all this stupidly dogmatic dumbeddownness.....but, yes, I can see where it's coming from.......neolithic cavemen's craniums...too bony and thick for much pre-frontal cortex.....praying for the gentle hands of Jesus.   

squint....to see Jesus, ready to feed burgers to the strarving masses of true believers

CALM WATERS

“Concentration is a cornerstone of mindfulness practice. Your mindfulness will only be as robust as the capacity of your mind to be calm and stable. Without calmness, the mirror of mindfulness will have an agitated and choppy surface and will not be able to reflect things with any accuracy.”

“Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are.”

― Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are.......

Alice̲ C̲o̲l̲t̲r̲a̲n̲e̲ ̲– J̲o̲u̲r̲n̲e̲y̲ In S̲a̲t̲c̲h̲i̲d̲a̲n̲a̲n̲d̲a̲ ... This month, a half century 'late'....is on the Cover of DOWNBEAT Magazine........my LP of her music has stretched out grooves from its many revolutions on the turntable, ridden by a diamond stylus....

‘Mere’ Causality: Arguments, Objections, and Good Principles

 Too polite to refuse tainted food, tendered by his followers, the legend goes......The Buddha died of food poisoning...........A contrast to the Western Way.... being tortured, nailed, pierced and left in the sun to die......

'HEY....' MR TAMBOURINE MAN.......I'M NOT SLEEPY AND THERE'S NO PLACE I'M GOING TO......

 Since, for most of my Life, I've never been much of a 'Sleeper'......and have averaged 3-4hrs/night of sleep.....usually awakening from Apnea....wide awake....and, seldom, returning to 'deep, unconscious, 'deep' sleep.......This afternoon, going through some old books that I've had since my early 20's, I picked up...and read parts of....THE PRIMORDIAL BREATH, Vol I...AN ANCIENT CHINESE WAY OF PROLONGING LIFE THROUGH BREATH CONTROL..... One of the many 'new age-ish' books that accompanied the Hippie Mind Set in the late 1960's and early 1970's.... On a shelf with BE HERE NOW, The Works of R.D. Laing/Rollo May, P. D. Ouspensky, George Gurdjieff, Meher Baba, and other psychologist/philosophers/occultists/eccentrics that were sitting cross-legged and chanting 'Om's' for the trendy/fashionable sub-culture then as Ragas and Sutras, accompanied by tablas, finger-cymbals, hang drums, kotos and sitars, Tony Scott albums and 'East Meets West' collaborations implored American Youth to 'go inside' before running about, 'outside'......so, lots of brown rice, seaweed, rice and green tea later......I'm watching, with tolerant amusement, some Emory Philosophy/Psychology students, smoking weed and dancing with 'talking' drums and tambourines..... chanting some gibberish in Swahili, while jumping around in the concrete parking area just to keep warm.........as their less-involved friends, seated on the deck in heavy winter coats and fingerless gloves, search for meaning on their hand-held 'devices', diving every few seconds into bags of chips and bottles of tomato pesto......

It's far easier to see the light in darkness....and things illuminated....that, before, unseen, did not exist.......Always carry a torch, although even that may create illusory beings......Reality is what you think it is.........

CONCEPTUAL THINKING IS A LATE DEVELOPMENT

Victims of the Phurpa...glamour and self-deception, may....for a Time, no longer hold sway, separated from the essence of Being......Yet, they await the open palm of hope and optimism, like the golden gifts to Danae……Repudiative Enantiodromia, Anamnesis and Memory Transformation.....the intellectual tools of projective rationalization, denial and virtual displacement.....It is the Empty Hand that 'holds' the meditative appeasements of calm introspection...and that expresses the potentiality of Openness....

WHERE?......IN THE FOLDING?

We comb the rough, sometimes disparateness of Existence into a less disquieting fabric that we can drape about our Incomprehension.....like the rationalizations of the 'four humors' of Hippocrates....As though Life were a waterfall rather than a conundrum......we seek order and structure.......

That was Then, but This is Now

Follow the Curve.....it is likely to take one full circle, because the perceived horizon is the fixation of attention. Those that maneuver beneath the Surface of 'Things' have a greater challenge, for most of what is and has been or will be lies beneath the observation of senses, in the Cosmos of Incomprehension...to which we apply 'tags' and labels...in the delusional expectations of categorical inclusion and shared mutually substantiated beliefs about what we imagine is Real.......Dive in, with the realization that one's point of entry is a moving target, not a fixed, unchanging objective......Hesitate too long....and you will enter yet another World......that of another Perspective....

The Hula Hoop

The Stillness of an infant, sleeping Awakening, with crying.... As at its beginning breath..... The toppling, searching imbalance, Then, the falling, reaching... Upright, focus-forward, seeking... Yet, dependent.

Constructural Coincidence

transmogrification of two simultaneously interrelated events that invite analytical involvement....requiring one to be forgotten...then the other, upon the realization of the 'loss'......each requiring the interpenetration of the other. constructural antonym for its existence......or.....just a 'picture' of 'this'......meaning, after expression......like attributing personality to the Cosmos......or finding whales feeding wrens..in the dissipation of clouds..........

Darmok And Jalad At Tanagra

It's about the Metaphor, of course.....like "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" If you begin Star Trek: Voyager episode Spirit Folk at exactly 11:49:35 on New Year's Eve, Ensign Harry Kim will smooch a sacred cow as the clock strikes midnight, starting the New Year on a 'new hoof'........ or: there's always the Dance of the Hours, in Fantasia, where Hippos dance to Amilcare Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours.......demonstrating the Populace's dumbing down of Philosophically contextual relevance as they cross themselves before a statue of a weeping virgin or the 'now grownup Jesus, hanging from some timber......Well, that was circumferentially oblique, wasn't it? Connect the dots and hope that this 'draws' a Picture......that 'says something meaningful'.....Or, do I have to step into this nearby phone booth......if I can find it.....and rip off my suit and tie, hat and shoes?

"Frank, the Bunny Nebula..." parallel layering of Garuda eyes.......desaturated, disassembled, re-colored, then reassembled as abstraction....in 3-D SX-70 format......with a dozen hidden/unconscious images, brought into view with the 'right' glasses.....S

o 'what's the point?'......there is no 'point'......... only 'circles of endless repetition'.......a 'point' requires a line of sight, doesn't it?.....a 'unique, simplistic location' in Euclidian Space.......

.

"GREATNESS of dimension is a powerful cause of the sublime. This is too evident, and the observation too common, to need any illustration … However, it may not be amiss to add to these remarks upon magnitude, that, as the great extreme of dimension is sublime, so the last extreme of littleness is in some measure sublime likewise: when we attend to the infinite divisibility of matter, when we pursue animal life into these excessively small, and yet organised beings, that escape the nicest inquisition of the sense; when we push our discoveries yet downward, and consider those creatures so many degrees yet smaller, and the still diminishing scale of existence, in tracing which the imagination is lost as well as the sense; we become amazed and confounded at the wonders of minuteness; nor can we distinguish in its effects this extreme of littleness from the vast itself."    Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of our Ideas of the Beautiful and the Sublime (1757)

Watching THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR this morning on TCM  elicited memories of my first readings of the 17th Century Metaphysical Poets, and my own subsequent attempts at writing abstract, often abstruse, poetry in my late teens.....bored by the fatuous Pre-Raphaelite ramblings into chivalric Romanticism and my 'need' to unearth 'the sublime plurality produced by the collisions of Theoretical Science, the 'proven' body of 'Proven' Science and the vestiges of Old Religions that had muddled, with dogmatic 'veritas', the inestimable journey toward enlightenment via mathematically provable observation.....  William Blake was a pivot, of course, as John Donne had been...in my earlier readings of metaphysical poetry....still in the metaphorical quicksand of ancient preconceptions........I thought and reflected upon my intuitive view into my own visualizations of how the folds of Human frontal lobes continue to bring together constructs of mind and thought that had been more separated on the flat planes of intellectual process thinking, before.....

I am soooo eager to watch the upcoming COSMOS Series......which, hopefully, will squish some new grey matter together enough for more Change to substantiate, develop and 'fix' in the grandiose Formulae that determine the directionality of mass contemplation and, eventually, new neurons that connect to the as yet undeveloped cellular constructs of the Future.......