silent thunder

resounding

LMAO! Cats for the win! I finally cut the bottom corner of our screen door, 7 inches across and up, creating a flap for ours to walk in and out at their discretion; otherwise Rama, our Maine Coon sits there, maowing tirelessly, letting us know he has been denied the choice of in or out.

ephemeral

There is the prediction of a binary system going Red Nova within the next two years. It was predicted by a team based out of Michigan about three years ago. If it goes off as predicted. It's light will brighten by a magnitude of 10k, making it the brightest star in our visible sky for a few years post explosion... https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-why-a-bright-new-star-could-be-appearing-in-the-night-sky-in-2022

Love it!

George reminds me of a modern version of Chuang Tzu in how he lampoons social oddities with razor sharp observations and reveals their inherent absurdities with humorous high skill.

Major Tom?

I have been a political outsider from age 10, I suspect according to 'charts and graphs' that I am so far left, I'm perhaps not represented on the scale. In 1979, I was 10 when Reagan ran against Carter, the temperment of the adults around me cut through my child's mind fog and peaked my interest in politics and how it works and my Father took the time to explain the americo electoral process, federal vs local election systems and actual Democracy vs Representative Democracy. He also delved a bit into Oligarchy and Corporate/Special Interests Lobbying influence of the ruling class. One afternoon at age 17, I had the incredible fortune to have a few hour meeting with an Uncle (ex-CIA operative) who'd been in hiding in Europe since the year before I was born. In that conversation he peeled back the veil of innocence completely and from his unique perspective, I was forever inducted into the process behind the veil that is often not pierced. This prompted a decade of seeking out his writings (that were responsible for his needing to hide for nearly two decades and led to his murder a few months after his return to the US and our conversation). It led to the obsessive study of alternate American history and an in depth trudge through the swamp of the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank and of the Military Industrial Complex. I did get active within the system on a local level through my 20's and 30's. Though lately, last 10 years or so, I've retreated wholly into focusing on healing within. It's been an endurance test to remain active here at the bums since the avalanche of unveiled rightism, xenophobia and misogony that came with the 2016 reveal of the current american landscape. I was gob-smacked at the unveiling of the depth and breadth of vitriol, misogony, xenophobia, anti-lgbtq, anti-social/welfare net support here. It prompted several sabbaticals. Spotless put it perfectly... sean, your return is like a bongful of fresh air. And speaking of fresh air... After adding my voice to this revelatory thread, I'm off to Black Mountain with my son for retreat in the woods. Peace. Creighton ps. in a way, I'm nauseously grateful for Trump. For if one does not know that one is ill, one does not seek treatment. Perhaps treatment is possible.

at the one

While the pain experienced by those who remain when one silences their own process is real based on my own experience; the stories about what occurs to the awareness of the life consciously passed, the ramifications, the judgements, the scare tactics are just that... stories built from assumptions and hear/say. They reflect to me, the assumptions of the minds that share them, not the absolute reality of what arises. My life, my awareness is within my conscious ability to cease voluntarily. Is this not so? Tao has no mind, no judgement, is no thing, no process. Cessation of form is as natural as arising of form. Sun shines in all directions from a star. No direction is more appropriate. No leaf falls in the wrong spot, nor does rain ever settle in the incorrect place. Life arises and continues to arise. Forms rise and fall. Truthfully for me, there is no pounding judgement awaiting those who silence themselves at the point of their choosing. Judgement is for living minds and is the realm of those continue to hold a form, generating localized mind/awareness.

The one set free in the action of forgiveness is not the perpetrator, but The Forgiver. My Mother condemned my Father's behaviors for decades after their divorce. I would see her spin over his abhorrent actions. It ruined perfectly fine afternoons for her and affected him not a whit. He was on his boat enjoying life, while she labored in the painful abhorrence of judgement and condemnation. When she forgave him, her demeanor shifted, weights were schluffed off and she was the one set free. The condemning mind, the mind that condemns 'the world's failings', condemns all... (self included, though not often consciously). In my experience condemning mind is the dissociative condemning of self via projection onto others what we loathe in self but won't face openly. A selective acknowledgement of loathed aspects of self through the safety of dissociative projected judgement of other's behavior that is not yet acknowledgable as self generated. What is loathed in self draws keen focus in the actions of others. Most vehement condemnation reserved for those aspects of others that mirror what is truly loathed within, though rarely, if ever, acknowledged consciously as arising within as present in experienced self. Condemning others is a manner to engage what i loathe within... without admitting to it and engaging this acknowledgement of self directly. It offers a degree of separation that is as comforting as it is damaging to self in my experience. For in the inability to forgive and let go in others, i create an energetic transaction of non-forgiveness within. Working with forgiveness of others and cessation of condemnation is a manner of opening a way to acknowledge and eventually forgive self in the process of unfolding and exploring true nature. The conginitive dissonance of this non=acknowledgement resonates for me, most often below the threshold of conscious awareness and thus seems to exist and is perceived only in others. Very unpleasant to engage, so easily it renders itself to projective dissociation and the cycle of self abuse begins and is maintained in perpetuity unless an interrupt signal presents and we do not flee the acknowledgement. Cessation of condemning 'others' for me, is the beginning of cessation of condemning one's own failings and loathed aspects. The crack that lets the forgiveness in. By first intending to release judgement of others, a signal is generated that forgiveness is possible. Forgiveness releases the forgiver, not the forgiven, in my experience. Condemnation, judgement, resentment, abhorrence all arise within and this is what dissolves when forgiveness arises... freeing the forgiver.

Potentially interesting to note that the angel in the story was playing the role of The Shaitan... "The Adversary, The Opposer, or one who terrifies and opposes you to shy you away from a dark and destructive path. Any angel could play this role when required. As the stories developed, this role played by many angels morphed into the modern notion of the one devil adversary of god. One angel who opposes god and is an adversary of god and righteousness, instead of any angel appearing in terrifying form to serve god and shy one away from an undesired path.

Artists of Life: Kathryn King and Wayne Adams dropping pearls! Sharing deep wisdom realized in their life living off grid in a home they've built over the course of 27 years. They built this small floating off grid world entirely from recycled materials. The entire thing floats on reused fish farming structure and the structures are built from salvaged materials. They gather driftwood for heating and cooking wood. They both carve and work in various art forms. The colors they chose are magenta and green from the fireweed plant, the first to rebirth after forest fires. Their wisdom flows with a piercing calm, gentle and pervasively demonstrative of a life lived wholly and authentically. Various quotes that resonated: there isn't anything you do you don't need to maintain somehow... I'm still workin on it, everything's a process. Learn by doing... There's two types of schools and i've been to both. One's the institution, i say go. But also when you step out... choose your teachers... travel, experience. Get out of that little nest and do things. Get away from the high tech computer and use your hands, head and heart. What you can't learn in schools... life skill. Search for people, something that's for you, before you choose and take your time because it's a knowledge based lifestyle... it's not a freebie... take your time. don't be in a rush. a lifelong process... lose anything but your sense of humor. you'll be fine it's a big deal You gotta enjoy yourself. We enjoy each other, we like each other. I refuse to lose my sense of humor in this great big mess. I think it's ok to stop living a fear filled life. Don't be scared to have a life, get out there. Fear is there to be gotten over and worked through... If you can do that, then you can accomplish anything you want in your life.

So potent that you are willing to share this. Thank you. For me, there is and always has been only one cornerstone philosophical question. Continue life or not? That's it. All other lines of questioning are predicated on the answer to this one. I've been on the verge of suicide three times. Knife in hand, ready to go. In the third experience, I was leaning against the tree I had chosen to bleed out on, knife was pressed to neck, about to plunge. Amidst the fog, the pain and the voices of ruin and apathy, the following settled in mind so very distinctly, unforcefully and plainly, it cut through the fog. one constant of life is change. what is now can not remain. all is change. Therefore it continued... why this permanent solution for a temporary experience? The voice fell silent, i put the knife away and walked home. I have no words of warning about dire consequences for the deed itself, your life is your life and none can stay your hand if you so choose. However, the impact on those who remain... good god, that is a crushing weight to bear, an acid that does not cease burning. Ruinous. Calamity. So why a permanent choice for a temporary feeling? can always do it later. Why make that permanent decision just now. There's shift in the wind... Change is the real master of life and all find release to death eventually, you'll get to have that peace. I for one, being far from perfected self crave many things... among them, is to share more words, ideas and time with you. Connection is the meaning of my life. This above all others I cultivate am sustained and nourished by... And no matter how you play this, I will be a voice who, you can assure yourself will never blame you, despise you, nor judge you, should you choose to pass. But I will sing from my heart mournfully, how much I am with you, and how dear you shine for me through the momentary connection you offered me through your caring enough to share. I will never judge you, but I will deeply mourn you and in your passing, I will experience my own self as less. That voice led me to another insight eventually. My skin is not the barrier that separates me from all of life... it is the very bridge that connects me to all. Love and respect to you for sharing.

Depth of stance, length of hold in the stance and position of support are all key and are relative. I don't always hold my stances at the same depth, or for the same set length of time each round. As the body dictates, I respond to conditions as they are now, not to some rigid predefined ideal. Master Zhou rotates the knees gently as have I after studying under him for the last eight years to great benefit. Depends on the individual situation and shifting conditions if a particular practice is beneficial in the now however. As with any practice, it should in my experience not be a wooden/metal, inflexible path that is trodden daily the same way in the same rhythms no matter what is occuring... listen to the body and respond accordingly in what and how practice is approached.

Happy Valentine's day... i mean President's day... i mean Memorial day... i mean Veteran's day... i mean Mother's day... i mean... Happy Insecure Country Day and all the subsequent bluster that goes into compensating lack of meaning and connection with insubstantial projections of fantasy that billboard the inherent ephemeral insubstantiality... is that too much sharing? it's hard to tell lately... sincerely though... love y'all.

good and evil like and don't like very very simple stuff

People who convince themselves, they are justified... perpetrate vile horrors not just with ease, but with a sense of obligation. (me)

one cloud and they run. leaving my son and i there, dancing in the rain.

oh ah... ok then

We're about to pass through your town on our way to Oregon on vacation. What days do you teach? I just may be able to catch a class on our way through...

and this thread will only persist as long as we continue to notice it and prop it up and maintain its inertia with our participation... which I for one, steadfastly refuse to be part of... oh shit... um... hmm.