silent thunder

nap time

Media is a tool that has been so perfected it is to me, nearing the over-honed. It's a blade now so sharpened, it's beginning to not be able to hold its edge... or so it seems to me. <shrug> but waddo I know... I don't enjoy social media, but I've come to appreciate some aspects of it... like it seems to have the upside barometer quality of giving glimpses of the world, in a manner not utterly controlled by the major media corps. Glimpses have repercussions. Arab Spring comes to mind. While I was in hospital couple weeks back, I was talking at some length with Ronnda, one of the nursing assistants who would come in every two hours to do vitals checks. She is a gorgeous older gal, long white hair and a radiant presence and smile. She came here from Honduras fleeing an abusive relationship and the tone and poverty of the country in general. She talked about the influence of American operations within her Government from long before she was born. The American influence south of the border in particular, but around the world through the CIA is atrocious. I have an Uncle who was CIA in the sixties... I met him one afternoon, in 86. He'd been hiding in France since before I was born, when his 'division' was shut down suddenly. We had one long conversation about the nature of the military industrial complex, the federal reserve and American Foreign Policy that utterly peeled my eyes from the history I was raised on... He spoke about the infusion of influence into foreign political structures, through cash. He spoke about how, if cash didn't work, then simply shift to another pawn in their system, infuse them with cash and tech and stage a revolt from within, replacing the unwilling dictator with a pocket friend. This stuff got my Uncle in trouble when he was publishing small pamphlets about it in the sixties and seventies. Now, there's a film about it. Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Go figure. Once influence over the government has been established, then companies cozy with the MIC can come in and begin raping resources whole sale, while using the people as little more than slave labor. If the citizens try to unite, or go to their government for retribution, they are stonewalled by the pocket friend dictator of the month, or they are simply 'desaparecido'. And the resources keep flowing. Honduras is so stuck in this... I could see it in her eyes, the fierce love for her family and home and the resignation/reality of how things likely will continue to be in her homeland and many others.

biomechanical, non-autonomic, five legged octupus, arm cap.

Rain hitting leaves often sounds like bacon frying to me...

For siezures specifically, I have also read and seen/heard multiple strong accounts of much benefit coming from hemp/cannabis oils.

For me, one is an unnamed rain canyon in the Bad Lands near the Sage Creek area. Though I don't think it was the area that was the source, it just happened to coincide with our experience... so there's that. My wife and I were camping in the Sage Creek area and headed out to look for a hiking trail. After driving for a while, I felt a pull to this unnamed canyon on the roadside and parked the car. My wife knew the drill, she was already prepping our three legged albino ferret Nikita for a hike, putting her into my pack/case and within a minute we were headed up the canyon for a hike, Nikita riding along alternately riding my shoulders, in my hands or back in the pack through the zipper. By mid-morning the Sun was above the canyon wall, the month was August. It was blazing. Niki was asleep in my pack. But we were early 20's, married and it was amazing there, this was what we loved best, just hiking in nature. Eventually we sat down to rest and almost immediately as we settled, the silence was a presence. Palpable. Potent. Saturating. We mentioned it as we drank and then we too fell silent. The silence grew more present, more potent and we became very still and made contact. Eyes widening. I got the very palpable sense in this canyon, we were very far away from any form of vegetation, insect, or life of any sort. This basin supported no life that could be sensed. It was truly yin. even in the blazing light of day... uttely yin and devoid of sound. It was like a physical expasive feeling, to know that aside from my gal, we were the only two things for quite a distance in any direction. This type of silence we had never encountered in our lives. And nowhere that I have ever been since... carried this silence. Utter silence. So complete. So saturating, it was utterly present, we both felt it, not as a physical sensation, but as a presence.... within. Time seemed a non concept until it was over. I was in Silence. I was utterly silence. and then a shift... and a sensing that there was something in the silence... and it was growing so faint... flowing sound/sense... it reminded me of water flowing at first, but that wasn't right, it wasn't a sound yet it filled the silence and was becoming a roar... steadily growing in intensity. She and I locked eyes again and nodded, silently... 'you hearing this!?" and then it struck me, the sound was not water... but thunder... the silence was full of rolling thunder that was growing in intensity as the moment extended, growing steadily and quickly into a deafening roar filling my awareness, saturating, expanding, vibrating... and alive... fully present. It grew to the point I could feel the potential to simply vibrate my mind processes apart... there came a tinge of fear and then as suddenly as it manifested, it released and we soon realized we were hearing each other breathing and we could hear our clothes moving against our skin and our hearts beating and we stared at one another for a long while with these grins of 'well how about that!?' on our faces. We spoke about it briefly then and there, but not long, or deep. Those conversations came much later. This is the experience where my name silent thunder originated. Being that silence catalyzed a shift in awareness permanently for both my wife and I, awakening in us a thirst to explore and seek, a shift akin to a small trickle of water beginning to flow downhill through a weak spot in a damn, pushing and carrying small pebbles and sticks down what we would come to find was The Path. The ramifications decades later are paradigm shifting. The trickle, is a flow now, a river of light in which we swim and dance through life. I'm not sure it was the place that was so powerful. I don't consider it any more sacred than my living room, or my local park. I sense it was us being very neutral and open from hiking without speaking for some time, creating a mental space... that when we encountered a place with no life whatsoever... no wind... nothing creating sound, we fell into it and realized that silence is within and that it is filled with roaring thunder. I sense the same is happening anywhere of sufficient yin. edit to add. This was the early 90's, South Dakota and at the time I was deeply rooted in studying Lakota/Plains Native Lore and Druidism.

fertile potential

Wow... he sure blasted the truth out on that one... <WOOF!>

Fern Basin

It seems when I fall back into the world of identifying with things, that like sleep, it's a bit like going underwater. when my head rises above the water though, clarity, clear breath, awareness, raw pure emptiness abides... until my head goes under again and I'm swimming in the interactions of emotion, thought-forms and identifying with the temporal.

My true nature seems to be awareness. Along with this clarity, emptiness and loving kindness seem to arise without effort, technique or skill. Indeed effort, technique and skill (meditation, nei gong, qi gong) for a time were the final filters over awareness.

hummingbirds and lilacs

sunflower seed butter

My only possible response to the horror that is 'grass bubble'...

I've practiced Shao Lin Five Animals, Jeet Kun Do, Chung Moo Quan, Fire Hands, Ting-Jue, Longmen Pai, Golden Flower, Stillness. The core of all of those for me is still, Loving Kindness. Loving Kindness is the core of all other practices and the only one that has always been with me.

bees

candy assed?

fate filled

My latest girlfriend is Labradorite. She just jumps out and grabs my awareness. To me they're Thunderstorm Stones, the layers, the levels... the saturation of the colors... woof!

chicken

used bookstore time!

Can't sell what I don't own. Lao decides where to go, I'm just the legs...

Kryptonite? I don't have any Kryptonite, but how bout a Yeh Ming Zhu?

what's up?!

My wife grew up in Germany and had this tape in her car when we were dating. 29 years later, I still have this tape sitting on my desk, next to Zamfir pan flute master and U2 Joshua Tree... lol thanks for the memory jog mate!