silent thunder

Almost impossible to find actual tin foil any longer whether for personal hat or other small scale uses. It's all that aluminium tripe since WW2 it seems, though I swear my local mind recalls Mom having actual tin foil in the house in the 70's (though that may be my Mandela Effect showing again). These days tin foil must be ordered from industrial suppliers and if not buying massive quantities...

Seems to me appearance of the observed relies entirely on the level of magnification, on the perspective of the observer. (not to forget the added impact of interpretation after observation.) To my eye the Moon is a smooth silver disk. In my telescope it's riddled with scars. From my telescope, Venus appears smooth, like a polished orb... From the Moon, the Earth appears like a smooth crystal orb, reminds me of an eye. Myopic view reveals craters and valleys in the skin of my hand that appears smooth to my eye.

Doomsday is everyday for someone... There's an internal doomsday everytime a previously held illusory notion incinerates in awareness. And while it often feels apocalyptic for the mindset attached to the dying foundation of illusiory conceptual belief, it's blissful empty clear liberation when citta, cleansed of the dust and smoke of bullshit shines. I delight now in the maelstroms of shattering illusions and previously assumed truths of projective dust. Where they were storms of discontent and at times frightening unsurety when notions of foundational seeming truth crumbled, they now emanate thunder in silence revealing awareness in simplicity, clarity, bliss. A pervading calm in the midst of mists dissolving in warm light.

I just... I mean... the shrimp!...

In one of the more stunning examples of ironic willful ignorance and self-blindered cognitive dissonance. "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal..." Written by men who owned other people as property.

seeking inhibits being (as I experience and interpret it) seeking smears citta with seeking, clouding simple being and unfolding in presence with notions of other and lack, or attainment of some thing or state... unfold in presence what else is there but what is?

How you perceive the world, what you think about, what you seek out to think about and allow yourself to ruminate on, how you feel, this is your own personal functional reality. No one else even knows what is going on within you, most don't even notice you. We are all the star of our own little movies aren't we? And in each other's movies, we are less than extras... background, or simply unnoticed. Consider this... if how you feel on the inside can be determined by the actions and words of other people... then your quality of life is tethered to and enslaved by the whims of others. Is there a greater level of enslavement than this?

I'm in love. That. Is. Stunning.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. -- William James

Missing @C T

oooh yea... shake yo money makah... shake what yo momma gave ya....

<bump>... So from any Bums who use FB and feel inclined to respond... I'm curious. Two and a half years since this conversation was started, what are your senses of FB now? Do you take information from that site as sincere?

I routinely find my mind wondering what our current modern life cultural blind spots are, what our comparative flat earth assumptions are. We most certainly have them... Those things we take for granted simply out of familiarity, or lack of curiosity to ever question. Or never even consider, they're so background they cease to arise on awareness radar. I consider Truth by Consensus (religious, political, mythical, scientific dogmatic) to be intellectual violence. I give earth-universe-centrists a break. It must have been truly mind boggling to have scientists claiming the earth spins and orbits the sun when from our senses that is extremely counter-intuitive. As for flat maps, they're all kinds of innacurate, on a global scale. Fine for small depictions, but utter shite for global. I love globes. I'd have a collection of them in stone if I were wasteful and interested in tossing money about. We have one very nice globe, it sits in my son's room and comes out regularly when topics turn global. But yea, what are our current flat earth assumptions that we take for granted that will one day make us seem like simple morons to the future generations?

I was bummed back when I realized my original avatar .gif wouldn't wiggle on this forum. I like to wiggle.

Some years ago I bought a water distiller. It's pure awesome! I figured why try and filter water any longer. Hassle, and don't quite trust the filters, so why not go the other way and instead of trying to filter the junk from the water, distill the water from the junk. Simple. Absolutely pure water. It's delightful. Tea leaves veritably sing in the stuff. Coffee is amazing. But mostly, I know we are drinking and cooking with pure water. I'd previously tested our tap water for ph and it outperformed five bottled waters (not saying much) and tied one... [Incidentally Evian is Naive spelled backwards... ] Our local city touts its reverse osmosis plant that processes and cleanses about 30% of our drinking water, which comes from what remains of the South Bay Marsh area, (now mostly filled in and developed with housing)... [why is it when we break the things of man it's considered vandalism and when we destroy nature, it's concidered progress?]. But what about the other 70%? Just can't trust it, I can't test for heavy metals and as we have, about a mile away from our balcony, the border of a truly ginormous Exxon refining and oil processing complex. Complete with dozens of their leaky storage tanks, larger than most commercial buildings and all the associated sure to be leaking somewhat piping... This distiller is a real powerhouse and I'm quite impressed. It will distill a gallon of water in about 3-5 hours. Made by H2O Labs. I highly recommend it. Next up is a negative ionizer. Have done a bit of research but no decision yet. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd be grateful.

Torrance where we've lived since 2000 has been resisting WM for decades. Each new election cycle they send in their jackass influence peddlers to blow money up the ass of local officials. Our residents formally declined them a place in every single referendum until the most recent officials opened their back door and snuck/allowed a WM grocery to open, saying "it's not an actual WM." Folks here acted livid, then bent over and went quiet.... sigh. I've yet to set foot in one. They are parasitic in my opinion through their lack of paying livable wages, undercutting small business and demanding absurd perks from local authorities. Severely parasitic. Capitalist disease at its worst.

Just found Nahko Bear and Medicine Tribe recently. His voice, a potent authority for such a young one.

I bet! I've yet to catch him live. I'd like to see him on a bill with Franti & Spearhead, that'd be the ish.

Rumi! Time to revisit.

Ancestral Memory

Perception perceives perception, not reality. ~ me to my son last week.

Life Awareness that there seems to be awareness, instead of nothing...

Nobody sees the obvious, nobody observes the ordinary. There are more miracles in a square yard of earth than in all the fables of the Church. ~ Robert Anton Wilson

Ragnar: What do you see? Bjorn: Power, the power of a king. Ragnar: Power is always dangerous. It attracts the worst and corrupts the best. I never asked for power. excerpt from a scene in Vikings on History Channel