silent thunder

That's definitely worth sharing... thank you!

six of the most dangerous words in combination in English, in my opinion. federal reserve bank military industrial complex eisenhower warned us of the MIC at his exodus from power... As to the influence of banks... consider that every promise rattled off by a politico, requires money to pull off... and who prints that money? Two of the most profoundly impacting revolutions, again in my opinion, of the modern age of mankind. The attributed value of paper money. The concept of land ownership. staggering implications in the daily quality of life.

behold the field in which I grow tao. it is barren... or is it?

Son: Dad, do you know how to make holy water? Me: how... Son: Boil the hell out of it.

so. much. yes!

I love Autechre! It's been so long since they were on my radar... thank you for the reminder! (First encountered them in the soundtrack of the movie Pi, which both the soundtrack and the film blew my mind wide open.)

Your posts so far here resonate with empathy and familiarity for me. We all share here voluntarily and I'm deeply grateful. We are all of us gardeners, whether we know it or not. Each action and word is a seed planted in the fields of awareness of those we affect. A wise man plants seeds of trees in whose shade, he knows he will never sit... I appreciate your taking time to share here.

There arose a time in my process of healing when I had to seek the healing. Seek out and explore the nature of the injury and its origin, in order for my mind to know what to heal. This drove my life for many years. Eventually shift occured, when, for lack of a perfect term, a critical mass was achieved. The result of many years of earnest intent backed up by extreme devotion to action in support of such... and the healing attained an inertia that began to process my life without my needing to direct, or even consciously involve myself. Realization was revealed that all actions from this time on, whether devoted to healing or not, all contributed to the healing... in my case. Inertia developed in the decades of seeking was now emanating throughout my body and mind. Once this inertia began to flow 'of its own accord', without my needing to direct and contribute more conscious energy, flows opened up wider than I could have imagined in my days of directting... all activity became grist for the mill, the work was revealed as cumulative and now, healing occurs. It just occurs. The process flows more unimpeded now, by my action or non-action through this inertia. Indeed, looking back, I can see that in my attempts to direct and increase the flow, I was actually damning up the process by involving too much mind and direction. Though can't imagine having the wisdom to see past this originally. A certain amount of tension it seems is beneficial, if only for the increased relaxation that occurs once, it is finally no longer sustainable and is released. The body, will heal itself by its own process. The mind is also the body. Now I walk life, not seeking, yet receiving. I liken it to the old saying "when the student is ready, the teacher appears." Which for me has shifted into "when the student is ready, the teacher is revealed everywhere, all of life is always speaking to us... are we listening yet?"

Well said mate. Didn't even realize that's how that one insight might be taken on a broader perspective but it makes absolute sense and you're right, thank you. One must account for all the laws, not just my insight on those ten, but I was young at the time and had been raised and believed utterly and completely. And it's how it hit me, regarding those ten, not the paradigm, so that is the context if it helps understand where my comment arose from... The church my Mother chose was Charismatic Lutheran and I believed wholly and unquestioningly until the age of critical thinking arose and my questioning started. This was the beginning of the end of my participation in the christian paradigm. Eventually, driven by unanswered or ignored questions, I finally just read the bible for myself. Holy Shit was that a mind job! I recall thinking 'this book is worse than any of the books they keep telling us not to read' (which I sought out and read to see why they should not be read). Deuteronomy and Leviticus particularly were utterly mindbending and gut churning experiences... Turns out for me, the surest path out of the christian world view was reading their source material. My conversation with my Mum went something like this... Me: Mom, have you read the bible? Mom: yes... of course. Me: all of it?! Mom: well no, not all of it. Me: you should... by the way, I'm not going to church any more. I recall for some years experiencing visceral rage when considering the lies perpetrated on me by the church. This eventually relented (thankfully for my health), when I came to realize that most of the folks sharing those views with me in our particular church, had no deep agenda, they simply hadn't themselves ever actually explored or questioned as I was. For them, those questions never arose, they weren't seeking below the surface and the church was more a social function and the views kind of seemed to come and go without much depth of contemplation, causing no apparent dissonance for them, aside from my uncomfortable questions from time to time. Hope this helps clarify my insight and the context of its sharing. I'm grateful for your questioning of it.

I doubt I'll forget the insight I had into the commandments. It came many years after my apostacy. The commandments are not rules to follow or else. They are signposts... markers... hallmarks of one who walks in spirit. When read in the context of describing someone who walks with god. This person will not covet, either the wive's of men, nor the property, as true value is derived in spirit and when walking in spirit all is fulfilled. This person will not commit murder. To one who walks in spirit, murder would be unthinkable. Blasphemy, lust, undo adoration of false idols... all these things evaporate as possible actions in one who walks with spirit. They're not a list of rules to abide by or risk eternal damnation as the exoterics and literalists have put forth. They're a set of indicators, describing the actions of a Sage. One who walks The Path.

Those who start the wars, never fight in them.

on second thought... na.

My sister served recently as juror foreman on a murder case in Texas. I called her just a few hours after the verdict was remitted and she left her hotel room to return home to her husband. The woman was convicted of hiring men who kidnapped, beat and murdered her husband for her. The evidence was overwhelming and left little to the imagination, including confessions. My sister reluctantly agreed to accept the foreman role, with the caveat that under no circumstances regarding the verdict, would she ever condone the death penalty. If that were the focus, she assured all involved the trial would result in a hung jury and mistrial. They voted her foreman. Trial proceeded and the woman was sentenced to life in prison. I poked my nose into the news and read the following quote, regarding the dragging death of James Byrd Jr, by a group of men. Some of the victim's own relatives seek to overturn the application of the death penalty in this case. is it justified? what's your take? At what point does punishment, become it's own crime? What are our social obligations, if any, to try and rehabilitate violent and dangerous people? Often it seems a defense of violent behavior is offered in that "i suffered x as a child which makes me how I am now, so I should be excused." Yet I say to these people, even though i may understand why you did what you did... does not now mean there are no consequences for what you did. But what are those consequences to be? who is to decide? is there one right and wrong application that applies to all cases? I've been on both sides of this in 50 years and currently do not have a cut and dry response. The Norwegians have a maximum sentence of 11 years for any crime. Norwegian prisons for the most dangerous people consist of being sent to an isolated farm, far from civilization where escape is unlikely. If you run away there, you run away from your means of survival. While there, you work on the farm. You work with the other inmates. You run the farm. You grow, harvest and eat what you grow. I don't know the recidivism rates of Norwegian criminals, but their approach and dedication to rehabilitation, vs punishment is very intriguing to me, compared to the American system of private prisons that profit on high incarceration rates. what is the dao of punishment vs rehabilitation? Is it possible to sleep next to a rabid dog? There are some very wise and deeply experienced masters present... if inclined, please share your reactions and insights.

Living small and mobile. How much do you really need for full life, for a life of freedom? To travel and have hours each day for pondering life, practicing art, meditation... whatever you choose. To live small, while enjoying more freedom while also contributing a smaller impact footprint on the environment...

YES! This! reworded here very eloquently:

One of the most effective, quickest and free ways to shift perspective as I've experienced, is through altering breath. Breath affects awareness as few other substances/processes. Fasting is another, also free, not quite so quick. Pranayama in particular, is so powerful in this regard.

I suspect my field of awareness, if it had a shape, would be a toroidal sphere...

The seed has no idea of being some particular plant, but it has its own form and is in perfect harmony with the ground, with its surroundings ... and there is no trouble. This is what we mean by naturalness. Shunryu Suzuki Do flowers unfold in great effort and straining? Do trees grow through the acquisition of high skill and years of training? What is, is what is... it is as it is without need for more, or less.

For me, wei wu wei is not the lack of any action at all. It is not a negation of life and a literal 'doing nothing' as this in my experience is an impossibility for a being that is alive. I have come in my decades of 'sitting in stillness' to realize that this body is never truly still, always the hair is growing, hormones are producing, signals transmitting all over the body growing fingernails while I sleep or work or read a book, heart is pumping blood, cells are repairing damaged tissues, removing waste, etc. It's a veritable cacophony. So wei wu wei as 'doing without doing' has always resonated false with me. (just my take, not trying to convince anyone else) For me, wei wu wei is experienced translated as 'action without forcing'. Action (or non-action) that follows natural flow. Action or non action that flows through awareness without overly being influenced, affected or intperted by intellectualizing in any overt manner. Sometimes doing without forcing expresses in a given situation, in a manner where I will not interfere and literally do nothing, remaining uninvolved and allowing conditions to play out around me with no judgement or response. Other times I may respond to stimulus unfolding and before a thought can even enter local mind, body is already adding action to the conditions adjusting its flow. Both of these can be experienced as wu wei for me. It's not about what I do, but how I do it. This quote by Shunryu Suzuki seems to speak to the nature of what I'm trying to share: If mind is calm, if heart is calm, and action arises without attachment to outcome or purpose/intent, this to me is wei wu wei, even in the midst of great activity, there can be a 'weightless, actionless, or non-identification of self with the process... and in non-action, there is an utter release. Key to both (for me) is a non-attachment to potential outcomes... each moment arises in local awareness as stimulus prompts response. when calm, open and non-attached, both activity and non-action are equally unbound, open, flowing and free of forcing a response of any particular type. self dissolves and action flows through among the conditions of life as air flows through forest... waves to me are not made of water... waves are expressions of movement through water. action in wei wu wei is like this for me... again, not claiming this is the truth... this is how I experience it at this time... subject to change and not trying to convince anyone of anything, I've nothing to sell...

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It's ok mate. I no longer eat word salad. carry on...

me either... but thankfully some astronauts saw fit to bring their cameras... (drool).

A prime example of naive realism. Your assessment is your interpretation of partial information, not a depiction of what is as it is... Naive Realism: My human perceptual tools perceive what is in its entirety and convey that information accurately. This makes my perception The Arbiter of Truth. It's so obvious, it must be true... Were this the case, we would all still be convinced the Earth is the axis of the spin of the Universe, cuz duh! Walk outside and observe the sun arching overhead... obviously I'm not moving, the Sun is. Truth by Consensus, Naive Realism is akin to Intellectual Violence. All perception is based on gamble. Awareness interacts with stimuli through our perceptual mechanisms. This is always partial, pared down information compared to what is... we then interpret these partial signals based on social and familial conditioning and extrapolate this into what to us seems like a full image and then assume we 'get it', and see what is, as it is. Preposterous assumptive nonsense... This has been refuted by every age since the Stoics mate.