silent thunder

Never heard of it before, but this came up in a gnostic setting... http://gnosticteachings.org/books-by-samael-aun-weor/the-elimination-of-satans-tail/288-the-kundabuffer-organ.html and this within the context of Gurdjeff's teachings https://sites.google.com/site/amritayanabuddhism/Home/the-organ-kundabuffer having no belief in satan or beelzebub as anything other than an allegory, I'll go with allegory, or that's what folks called it when other folks were born with tails...

Going to a pub for this one... should be fun.

It seems like a magnetic resonance to me, negativity in culture and society. It sucks me in like gravity or magnetic compulsion at times. My intention and my daily practice in cultivation seem to be my only armor and it is full of holes. The negativity, like smoke finds the smallest opening and floods into my sense of self. Still, in spite of my constant failure, I will sit, stand and walk into the storm again and continue with my intent. My endgame from this perspective is the 'resolution of the opposites', but there are times when this seems an implausible feat. Thanks for posting this topic... timely and needed on this end, I'll be watching closely.

evening in the low desert

Matrix indeed, but I think we're already deep down the rabbit hole...

this drifted onto my thought pond, seemingly randomly... like hawk's feet in flight folded, closed, then forgotten until the landing not everything is important, necessary, appropriate or helpful all the time.

Exactly, I see your context now, thanks for extending it, I was missing it. It makes so much sense that it would be crucial to be able to gauge that spacing considering the speed they are catching things at, if one allowed to large a grasp, misses would be much more common. I'd guess it's akin to muscle memory for us, as they successfully grasp things, sense memory would lock that feeling in for future skill growth. The only way I could think to measure it, would be in photographs of the moments prior to the catch, and measuring prey size and the talons in the pics... lucky folks to have such work.

I'm so glad you shared this... Hawk has been my life long companion spirit, from as far back as I can recall... She would circle us daily for weeks watching. We made eye contact every day. Constant reminder to see the big picture, yet let no details slip unnoticed... Take nothing personally, is the usual message.

For me, gratitude is a clear understanding of just how much love you have for something. Unfortunately, usually discovered when that thing is lost to me and its absence makes me aware of how much gratitude I had for it being part of me.

hmm interesting stuff... I've taken dozens of hawk pics as they're one of my favorites. have yet to see them flying with dangling legs, the pic I posted pretty clearly shows the talons folded, but the point of the post seems to have been lost. not all things in our life are useful or even helpful at all times in our life. value adjusts and worth is determined by the conditions of existing life based on our perception

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=584901168290330&set=a.186786298101821.39381.100003113553557&type=1&theater can't post pics above 18 kb on this forum for some reason now, but here's a link to a shot I took of a hawk that hovered our spot daily while working on Star Trek... she got so low I could count her feathers...

not until ready to strike, otherwise they're tucked and closed

many folks can't be in the presence of stillness for very long... it vibrates them right out of the room Welcome to the Bums mate!

It's interesting to see how value changes situationally. Some things that in my youth were incredibly valuable to me, are now disregarded or perhaps even abhorrent. While others have grown exponentially in value. Seems linked to the illusory nature of our perception and how we don't perceive things accurately, but as we intend to perceive them based on our desires/wants... Bah, more morning rambling... and before my lemon tea...

Nice! Good to know you were doing the darkness training too. I've noticed in a particular room, if I practice after sundown but during some residual light, the shadows on my wall, with the small imperfections in the paint, will create flowing scenes and intense visuals if I hold my gaze on one point for any length of time. The peripherals start going off and then a suggestion of something comes about and suddenly, wham there's a whole vista appearing before my open eyes on the wall in grayscale with a bluish filter affect from the evening sun color. These can hold for some length of time as I don't chase them or fill them, just empty observation. Then the shadows will shimmer and flow randomly for a while before another scene settles on my thought pond. I've noticed the light as I'm in Qi Gong with eyes closed, but after this I'm going to try it open eyed in a dark room for a while and see where this takes me. Nice topic, thanks for posting.

Had a plethora of birds cycling through our campsite over the long weekend. Tried to post some pics but I'm still limited to very small sizes, so we'll skip that. But wow, the swallows rifling out of the shadows in the early evening, while hunting was intense. They'd swoop right between our heads as we sat in our chairs watching the sun go down, once they got used to us. Then replaced by the bats for the night-shift... awesome stuff all around.

yup, feet don't have much value there

These started for me when I was meditating in pitch dark with my eyes open. They progressed from simple colors telescoping inward and outward, to spiraling geometric shapes of oscillating colors. I don't get the light when I'm in Qi Gong with eyes open, but if I close them for more than a few heartbeats, the show begins. I'm not particularly attached to it any more, it's comforting in a way and was fun for a while. Now it's just part of one of the processes that's me, or my idea of me... or something... edit: as far as I know it's the third eye firing off

I had a very similar experience in the Void. It was the absence of everything that I could conceive of and it was terrifying, I ended the trip abruptly. Soon after I had another spontaneous trip into the Void while taking a shower, which led to a long vision. This time it was absolutely spirit filling and renewing... Longest I've meditated in seated, traditional posture is 4-6 hours. My usual time is around 45-120 minutes, depends entirely on the day and my schedule and inertia. Though I've gone longer in a waking trance like state, walking around and interacting in a remote sort of fashion for far longer.

can't imagine anything like that has happened in the semi's ever...

*nods* sounds about right... 7-1 wow, just wow.

I've always thought skill/discipline had the edge, but I know a guy from the NBA and he says of 'gamesmanship' if you aren't cheating on some level, you just don't really want to win. I just shake my head and reply every time... 'who would want to win that way... that isn't winning to me', but I ramble... well played Germany? or really poor showing Brazil? or both...

Um... Brazil.... Germany.... WOW