silent thunder

That is pure awesome! as a general warning... expect a PM from me if/when I make it down that way mate. We got some hanging out to do!

Powerful experience rereading this topic. Stay in the city or push into the wilderness? I've lived the benefits and detractions of both, having lived both ways. Though I used to find cities vile scabs of technology, this has passed. I don't love, or worship cities, but I appreciate them deeply now. Grew up in the Northern Woods of Minnesota, my Father's place was one of a few dozen homes in a small isoted community on the banks of the Mississippi. To our West there were a few other houses spread out along the banks, to our East, was nothing but Ranch land and wild forests. Split time with Mom in a suburb of Minneapolis. Met my partner in life at an audition, fell instantly into the metaphysical gravity of love and we moved to the city while attending University together. I then followed her to NYC for seven years. Then having suggested casually we should think of relocating to Los Angeles while visiting. Boy was she ready for that! Three months later she had a job here and we were living just a few blocks from where I type this now. This April it will be 20 years in the South Bay. We'll undoubtedly end up a ways outside some Northern City once we're done here. Somewhere close enough to a city, an hour or two perhaps, to day trip in for museums, theater, music, culture; but day to day, live in the relative quiet of a forest. (relative because honestly, some Forests can be far noisier than some cities!... I've noted the nigh on spiritual quiet of our local few block neighborhood in South Bay here for years now, one friend has come to realize the same and remarks on it with each visit)... Where we live, tucked in a beach town south of LA proper, is one of the quietest neighborhoods I've ever lived in. It's magnificent, particularly in the hours just before dawn. Talk about peaceful.. My Dad's place out in the sticks of Minnesota... It was noisy AF in those woods particularly certain times of the year! I used to revile cities, referring to them as 'scabs' on the planet. Not so any more. I appreciate them. Not all aspects of them. But then, I don't adore all parts of a forest either. Boggy, swampy too moist areas, I tend to avoid. The years in NYC refined my processing of human energies and technological presence. It was one of the aspects I knew would be most challenging for me going into it and it was a constant source of cultivation and intentional energy work while there. The fruits are indispensible. Now solitude is wherever I'm standing, sitting, or working. It arises within and is not characterized by loneliness, nor induced or inhibited by external forms/surroundings. On my Father's side, we are related to Sami people of Northern Scandanavia/Syberia. The Tribal, tent dwelling nomads who followed the reindeer across the Great Forests of the North. I have come in my wanderings to embody one of our oldest Sami sayings: "My Home lies within me. It will follow me wherever I go." I so value my solitude and am thoroughly recharged, bouyed and filled by it, yet as Brian mentioned, I do not suffer from loneliness, whether in the midst of a crowd, nor in the hollow wood. Home is here and here is always flowing. There are times, when I lament and grow heartsick that nearly all of those closest to me in heart, are furthest in mileage. Though they are never further than a thought or a call... It is a painful aspect of the utter ease of modern migration and motion. Solitude is a commodity now. Cultivated in any location and seemingly a staple. What was once medicinal is now dietary. I'm with @liminal_luke and for me the functional antonym of lonely is connected. Invested perhaps too. Posed the question to my Son, he paused for half a minute and then shrugged. "don't really have one that I can think of." My gal gave the exact same answer she did two years ago. Content. I say thanks Bums, for here I have found connection in abundance, on a level I did not anticipate stemming from a technology I used to abhor. Talk about progress eh?

Absolutely. it was my first encounter with the Great Thunder of True Silence

whoa... This is one of the most succinct descriptions of relation to climate in general, but SoCal climate in particular that I've ever heard. We share much resonance Master Meow. So deeply grateful that you authentically share so much of your insight, effort and time here. *deep bow of gratitude*

I miss the North. The Northern Forests are... intrinsically my true home. I miss Fall and true Winter. Though the painful sessions of returning feeling to frozen digits not so much. I miss deep, dense forests and the near utter silence after a foot of snow has blanketed the world. I miss how it sometimes rains for days, over thousands of square miles on end without ceasing... and there's no flooding. I adore Southern California. Snow in the morning and Beach in the afternoon if one wishes... but at a price. When my tour in Southern California runs its course (another 10 years i sense). I expect to settle in Northern Oregon or Washington for the final cycle of life. Certainly up North. Time for another road trip i think. I need some northern old growth spirit touching mine...

I have lived with several zen masters... all of them feline. ~anon Cats above most animals I've spent time with seem to be innate masters of zen, in both their innate emptiness when not engaged, and their unbreakable focused mindfulness when in action. True Masters. As for Tara: She's the quietest in spirit and presence of any I've shared time with.

I love that story! And as I see it, you didn't miss a sit, you gained a sleeping meditation. and at the start of the retreat... those sleeping meditations, couple of them... utterly paradigm shattering. Intrigued to see when my path leads to another meeting with him.

Can I purchase the paperback from your site directly? I may have just missed it when perusing. (Any more, I prefer to avoid amazon completely.)

Sweet! Another Bum Book to add to my stack. Thanks for sharing. I'll seek it out soon.

I recognize those faces! wow... talk about dedication.

Fascinating conversation. Thanks Bums! Master Wang at his retreat, spoke of Mountain Daoists (full time), Temple Daoists (full time) and Household Daoists (cultivate when able). As for Celibacy... my own take is similar to Socrates in that "As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent." Thanks again for a stimulating topic.

I thought the same thing the moment I saw him go after that hip joint without looking, with that giant grin on his face... all while dancing a little jig. Such pure joy and obvious skill. Awesome.

wow. just wow... synchronicity... years ago became a daily companion yet today, on this site... this is whopper number 3! thank you so much for sharing timing... relevance... layers... wow

omg @Nintendao Monty Python's Flying Smoker...

I have not. Though it's been referenced a few times in very compelling conversations over the years by friends. I'm intrigued and may give it a shot when I'm in a watching mood. I'm put in mind of the Tarkovsky films of the mid/late 70's. Stalker and Solaris. Each delves deeply into the notions of automated response, consciousness as reflected in reality perception, our deepest subliminal impulses and how they relate to our surface notions of morality. Tarkovsky was such a master of atmosphere and dialogue as a sprinkling of detail on wave of atmospheric influence. ack... I'm monologuing... lol at least he's Russion and deep... lol

Fully agree. She is just... so fully present. authentic... she wasn't catering, selling she was sharing authentically... of herself. one of a kind, what a force all that from a screen, can only imagine being in the room with her...

Ha, our most recent feline family member, Tara... we call her our Owl Cat. She's a Nordic Forest Longhair but i swear in varying lights, varying times of day... She's 33%Owl, 34%Fox, 33%Feline and 39%Shadow/Mist.

those few images say so much more... than all the words on this forum. wow. just wow. what a miracle our tiny, moist speck of dust is! and yet... perfectly ordinary

Always wanted to take a train to Siberia... preferrably in the Fall/Early Winter transition. This talk of AI has me reflecting on my obsession with the notion of AI in humans, Automated Interaction... i.e. lack of free will, or independent choice. I'm seemingly made of the notion that we do not have much in the way of 'free will' or 'independent choice' in our actions/reactions of life and movement through life. Stimulus prompts response. What is called Choice is a local mind rationalization after the compulsion has played out. The origins of what is called by Society... choice, for my awareness, are made and arise from well below the threshold of local 'waking' consciousness. Most of what folks who claim (often vehemently) that they exhibit Free Will, or 'make a choice' when they get up and get a drink of water, go camping, read a book, or call a friend, or respond to a news article, or reply to Bums thread... I don't consider any of that, nor most of conscious waking trance life, to be a result of local awareness making an independent choice. To me, what most folks call choice, is the localized conscious rationalization of compulsory response to stimuli. In many ways this is a mirror of computer programs, which will respond to prompts in predictable established, programmed pathways. AI... is not artificial intelligence in my analysis It's Automated Interaction and it mirrors (as do all human tools) an aspect of human perception, allowing us to peer just a bit further into the nature of reality, than our senses are tuned to... but being designed by us, is still going to have inherently the same human paramaters and limitations, but in different spheres of relative influence.

intriguing... i didn't intend that post for this thread.

Buddha... Awake. Waking, not as waking up out of sleep... but in the manner of becoming aware of true nature. unveiled in the cave when mind rests without stimulus true nature unveils with the full atrophy of behavioral conditionings self identifications with emotional responses and attractions/aversions when all else falls away what remains? true nature when all that is not true nature atrophies and falls away, what remains is not what is achieved not what is sought, manufactured, or gathered and stored up what is revealed is what abides all along under the trappings and seekings true nature unmarkable spotless untaintable clarity, emptiness, bouyancy

Some of the photos of the ash... Villages buried in ash. Roofs caving in. 11 towns in Batangas, locked down to prevent returns to homes. 160,000 displaced. Livestock, livelihoods, gone. Heart-wrenching.

Me, camping with a buddy in Grizzly country. Him: So, what's your like... bear strategy? Play dead? Get big and yell? Me: ... nope... very simple. Always camp with a slow friend. Him: ... dude! you suck!

“Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.” ― George Carlin

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own” ― Nikola Tesla