silent thunder

a place to set bits and baubles

some folks revel in the rain... others just get wet.

One of my bosses, after giving me a good dose of shit yesterday, semi-apologized for being a smart ass... I grinned rather uncontrollably, like the generally silly beast I imagine I seem like to other people... and blorted out. "Never stop. I'd rather take shit from a smart ass... than clean it up after a dumb one."

More translations! The many voices blend together and harmonize in ways that I sense, downplay the weaknesses in each and bolster the resonant strength inherent in the underlying truths as a collective. Not reading the original is... cumbersome to say the least, troubling even. Many varied translations helps me immensely. and yet, each time I get too distracted by the ineffectiveness of words, language let alone translations of words between cultures and times, eventually the following phrase manifests in my mind process. 'remember... the only impossibility, is to ever be separate from dao for one moment, even by the width of a hair.' and then I smile and relax into it.

Ismo crushes it on his tv debut! We'll be seeing more of him soon.

Guan Yu Park in Jingzhou, China is its location. That article has a few more pics, some of the extensive scaffolding during construction. Quite the project! The scale is truly epic... reminds me of the Lord of the Rings "Gates of Argonath statues" along the river Anduin. The message is not lost on me, to invest in and erect a 20 story statue tribute honoring the God of War. woof~!

I suspect I already know the answer, but will ask for clarity. As we are able to follow topics to ensure being notified of new content. Is it also possible to block topics from entering the activity feed?

In memory all actions are equal... to me. When an experience manifests with a strong reaction, or reveals some aspect of myself, or my essential nature previously unknown, whether in the dream realms or the waking, then it has power and value in my path. Dreams are so real when I'm in them, that there are times distinguishing them as 'not real' is not possible, until I wake up. Only then do I look back and sigh and say "well, it was just a dream." However, I no longer say that to myself... for too many times, I have had experiences in dreams that revealed key aspects to my essential nature, that have brought about realizations and insights that have lasting, powerful resonant effects in my experience of true self. Does it matter where the source of an experience came from, in the potential for that experience to reveal truth? Any longer, I say no. Dream experience and Waking experience are both often equal in memory, when dreams are vivid enough and recalled with clarity. And if an experience can bring about insight and realization, then to me, it matters little to me, how solid the event was... *(particularly when waking life is proven to not be solid, or permanent ) I honor my dreaming life as I do my waking life... but I also only take that so far and don't worship either as ultimate truth, nor do either lend me a sense of absolute certainty in any way, other than to reinforce the one certainty that still remains with me... i am aware. Waking life to me, is more like a shared dream, than dreams are like individual fantasies of unreality.

Oh good, thank you for clarifying. I was wracking my brain to think if I'd posted again in this thread or not... Part of me assumed I'd wandered into a digital room and forgotten why I was there... again.

LMAO! You guys just won the internet!

Isn't this place amazing!? The gift of the Bums is reciprocal and cyclical and seems to create a self sustaining loop and it also seems I receive far more than I offer here... like your words... they often ring like a bell for me Bud and bring a vast smile to my aging Viking face! *deep bow* Thank you for being you and being here as well and sharing of yourself. It's remarkable this place... truly. The friendships I've formed here at the Bums and the sharing of experiences is beyond anything I expected to find on the internet. So many gems that have nudged my insights and coaxed my unfolding into simple being. I'd love to meet up and visit the Temple some afternoon! It's smack in the heart of China Town so it's bustling with stalls and stores, restaurants and lovely smells and the market feel that I find so energizing in cities. I'll have some time free soon... are you local? or do you come to town routinely? Let me know and we'll work out a time to get together. As for riding, that may have to wait a bit, but sounds amazing! I rode street bikes for decades and love to ride. When I moved here my Suzuki Intruder (1400 woof!)... man could that thing haul and was my only transportation out here in the sunny lands for many years... and I loved it dearly. I've never been on an electric. I sold mine when my son was born 12 years ago and look at them longingly some days as I sit in traffic while they zip past. But unfortunately it will be a bit before I'm feeling comfortable to ride anything. No riding or even strenuous hiking recently as I'm scheduled for surgery in two weeks to address a recent rupture in my sigmoid colon that left me hospitalized back in January... and to remove the injured (diverticulitis) section. Recovery will probably be in the ten week range, though I'll be up to a walking tour once the initial healing and pain settles a couple weeks after the procedure. I would consider it a gift to spend an afternoon sharing energy, the sights and some tea perhaps. Much Love! Creighton

I have yet to go when there are formal rituals being offered, so I haven't witnessed any, though I've read about them in the events listing. Normally I attend on weekday afternoons when I'm in between shows and it is quiet. It's a small temple, but exquisite to me, usually when I go, there's just a few people, perhaps a couple tourists and a few locals who are usually about daily. We intended to go for the recent New Year's Festival, but a health snag left me not feeling up to it then... perhaps next year. The local community and martial schools put on a grand Lion Dance parade each year... we brought my son several years back. It was great fun.

sure thing mate... I'll grab some pics one evening when work lets out early and post them in this thread.

and to think... after how many billions of years of spinning and explosions... and explosions spinning and coealescing into fireballs of immense proportions... we all manifest here, with fingers and computers and minds to share ideas and concepts. such miracles as this!

Kuan Tai Temple, Mendecino, CA Thien Hau, just off of Hill street a few blocks north of Downtown Los Angeles. I visit regularly.

Sit comfortably in stillness. Eyes look to nose, nose looks to heart, heart looks to lower dan tien. While abiding in stillness, rest awareness gently @ lower dan tien.

what is hearing music when I hear the music only in my mind's ear? where does that music live? ear? inner ear? mind? awareness?

I'd be wholly unfit to fulfill the duties, I'd be a naughty guiding hand... I just know it. Guiding them into piles of dog shit... into puddles... into lamp posts.

I've long suspected my Dad rewrote some of Milne's book...

I wrestled with the concept of Eden and the Fall from Grace, while being raised Charismatic Lutheran, particularly as the age of reason kicked in. It just stuck in my mind like a sliver that didn't fit with the idea of a loving creator. And it seemed to be a punishment, when I considered that the story of the Garden represented a place that had been made by a model maker/creator and we were inhabitants, allowed to live there through the favor of the model maker. As my suspicion at the model maker theory weakened through my experiences and learning... It struck me, one day that the paradise of Eden was not a place where the first two humans lived... but Eden was the state of unified blissful awareness all awareness stems from and 'The Fall' was an analogy for the descent of undifferentiated, unified awareness, the pure light, pure awareness into the realm of duality and form. The fall from Eden upon eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, was the merging of awareness into the slow, dense dimension of forms. Once awareness 'fell', descended , or coalesced into the slower, denser vibration of physical forms and identity as a separate self with a 'form' arose, the peace of Eden was naturally dissolved into the differentiated mind of comparison, duality, pain and pleasure, likes/dislikes, wants/unwanted, desired/undesired, good and bad. The knowledge of good and evil wasn't a sin that required punishment, rather the warning was... 'if awareness descends into this... it is going to saturate and harness and drive duality into awareness and Eden is lost. You are not 'kicked out' of Eden as a punishment. There is no movement even taking place, rather it is the shift as unity dissolves into the realization and experience of duality." The warning of the knowledge of good and evil was a simple statement of fact regarding the manifestations of duality, not a dire warning of an angry father. When awareness descends into the realm of form, agreeable and disagreeable, good and bad, wanted and unwanted all flourish and coarise naturally. It's not a punishment, it's just the nature of awareness in form, as opposed to awareness in the unity of non-form. Not long after this, I had a related realization regarding the ten commandments. They were no longer a list of things one should never do, or risk eternal punishment at the hands of some petty tyrant carefully watching and waiting to punish infractions. Rather, like the information about the knowledge of good and evil, they are listed more like path markers than rules for punishment. A subtle shift occured and instead of seeing a list of 'never do these things and you will be closer to god, or do any of these and god will punish you'... it seems to me now, they are teaching markers... to let you know where your current path is leading. When you walk with the light of loving unity in your heart (knowing god to me), you will not kill, or steal... you won't steal because there will be no coveting. There can be no other gods as when you embody this path, the light abides from within your very source and permeates all that you embody. You will worship nothing above this moment as realization of the illusion makes that ridiculously, humorously impossible. The commandments for me on that day, dissolved in the old form of a dire warning and measure of control by an external force, into the compassionate explanation of how to clearly and instantly see based on how you relate to the realms of form, outside of Eden/bliss of unified awareness, of just where your path is currently going...

I recall once, driving several people from a retreat around in my truck one evening. The subject of conversation was about great teachers and healers setting up foundations, schools and clinics along with those accomplished masters who choose not to teach and avoid healing and others in general and why... From the back seat, one person shared this and it still resonates. "karma is karma... some avoid contact and withdraw from 'beneficial actions' as well as harmful, what are the reaching ends of a beneficial action? Even good karma may bind one to the wheel of samsara."

may the hair of a camel not sprout in your crotch as you sleep... ~anonymous

The Compassionate Monk A ship, on which two monks booked passage, was beset by pirates. Standing passively to the sides the two monks, both highly trained and skilled in the energetic arts and the various martial styles did nothing as the pirates looted and filled bags with the belongings of the other passengers. However, after settling their gains, the pirates then turned and began assaulting the passengers, intending to kill them to prevent the possibility of being caught later. At this point, the compassionate monk stepped calmly out and slew every pirate on board. When the scene was done and all the passengers calmed and treated, the brother of the compassionate monk approached rather horrified and asked. "how could you abandon yourself to violence and to karma in such a way?" "I was being compassionate to the pirates." responded Compassionate "by killing them?" brother asked incredulously "precisely. I have developed training and skills to work with my karma. Those poor souls would have been stained for countless generations. I have prevented their karma and taken on my own, which I gladly and readily will settle." So... was he compassionate in his actions? I have no idea... who can know such things?! It's my paraphrase of an old story that resonates whenever this topic comes up... I'm going to the museum now. I wish you calm and joy in your pursuits mate!

exactly... only for me the reason nothing is found, is that the ego is not a thing, it does not have a place and does not exist. ego is rather the action of trying... the seeking... or the avoiding and evading ego is mental motion out of presence, beingness

the magnitude of the spectrum that we can interact with is so small, yet so utterly captivating(ensnaring). i wonder what part of the spectrum of electromagnetism dragons reside in... and dreams... and sages...