silent thunder

I have lived with several zen masters, most of them feline.

So many aspects of life elicit intoxication within... Rain. Rain is absolutely mesmerizing and intoxicating. Music and cooking for loved ones top my list of late. Earth wracking thunderstorms, WOW!. and crickets. I get very high simply thinking about Monarch egg laying season approaching and when the Monarchs we foster emerge from their Chrysalis and walk about on my hands and arms before flying off our balcony, it's beyond words. Holding my sleeping cat... high as fuck! Watching my gal and son work on higher Algebra together too. I'm also partial to cannabis and coffee, pranayama and sitting in relative silence, and always do I adore the lovely charged response of watching my wife's hips swiveling joyously to a steady beat while she smiles and slides through the music playing in our lounge room. In my experience, any aspect of life that provides a reaction whether emotional, physical or psyche based, can elicit a desire to pursue and become habitual. Is experience external or internal? Does addiction arise within, or from without? Does pleasure and pain arise from within, or without? Blaming the external object for the internal reaction seems like blaming the finger for being responsible for the presence of the Moon, to me. Chains of Iron or Chains of Gold, both seeminlgy grip one into Maya as effectively as the other. All that I despise and all that I crave, arise from one source and return to that... so the distinctions between these, must lie within I as well? *sips coffee and folds into lotus... reaches for the vape. And Dao Bums... I get a special charge from logging on here. Love!

Found it straight away. He's managed to create a workable card version of casting Yi-Ching throws and they're absolutely captivating in my opinion. Here's the link to his convo asking for feedback.

Bump. Hey there @remod Another Bum just posted about what decks inspire us or that we use for divination and your project came to mind. How's it going mate?

I appreciate Tarot. Though I seldom consult it, I have several decks, mostly for the appreciation of their art and symbolism. For consulting insights outside my perspective, I've always resonated with the Elder Futhark Runes and use them regularly. Recently I've felt a draw to explore the I-Ching. That topic however seems incredibly vast and thus rather unapproachable for now. Alongside the Runes, I use two decks. A Druidic deck and a set of Lakota Medicine cards, that I find really augment and compliment the Runes in perspective offered. They draw on the energetic signatures of animals from both the Celtic and Native American Plains Indigenous cultures cosmology. One of the Bums here has also been creating his own divination deck and has posted about it several times as he's been developing it and printing. If I can find it I'll post a link to the topic, you or others may find it interesting. I was rather blown away by his skill with layout and design.

Thanks for sharing @aotvoid that Liminal Dreaming book generates some gravity for me. In recent years I've experienced a new type of lucid dreaming in my mid 50's. It's a semi-hypnagogic 'sideways' sliding consciousness in the hour before sunrise. The body remains asleep while the mind awakens and is aware of surroundings while seamlessly sliding 'sideways' into and out of the dream state with full lucidity, while also maintaining awareness of physical life. The crossover and the blending of realities seems rife with potential. New territory for me and one I've not encountered in any of the standard lucid explorations that I've researched to date.

The real problem with internet quotes, is determining their veracity. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Crystals and minerals have sung to my awareness as long as I can recall. They've been quite helpful in my process of exploring this. Trees and bushes as well, were instrumental in revealing this give and take... Lately i find, the objects engaged with no longer need to be spherical, nor do they need to be between my hands necessarily, or even in my line of sight. The hands may be at my side, or engaged in any given task. The intention engages the process and the sphere that is engaged, encompasses my entire field of awareness, wherever that extends outward or inward.

The All is Awareness. All the way outward and all the way inward, is Awareness. As this one experiences it, there is Awareness and this is what is... This is It. Awareness is what is in every aspect of what arises and what may arise. Unborn, undying, ever unfolding tzujan, of itself and this comprises what is on all scales. We are never and can never be separate from it and due to its fundamental and profoundly simple penetrative nature comprising all that is, it is perhaps the most subtle and readily overlooked aspect of being. Hence all schools of cultivation have at their core, some practice where humans calm the mind and body in order to encounter what is so fundamental, it lies beyond notice in most situations.

@Trunk she was a real powerhouse. I had a similar reaction to Amy as I did with LInda Ronstadt. It was a marvel to me that so much resonance could come out of a person.

Always appreciate your updates mate. It'd be pretty grand to sit around the same fire pit some time, trading stories.

for some years now, I describe it to be like a flower that is perpetually unfolding...

I'm in full agreement...

and down south, it's deep Winter. YinYang perpetually flowing, oscillating, ever shifting towards balance without ever achieving complete balance

Hey Saan, welcome to the Bums. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche comes to mind, since you say you're already on a path in the Buddhist tradition. He is part of a well established lineage and teaches openly online and in person, as well as having published a number of books, several of which I have found quite beneficial. He has students here as well who may be able to shed light on some aspects of the practices. Best to you on your path.

bzzz bz'zz bzzzzzzzzzzzzbzzt...

I avoid direct sunlight and limit my exposure with high discretion. It is unpleasant to me to be in direct sunlight as I tend to run hot. And as pink and pale as I am, I burn in less than half an hour. Zhou Ting-Jue when teaching me Qi Gong recommended sessions in pre-dawn, or dusk, with back facing the rising or setting sun. He also recommended working at night's zenith.

I just realized all this time I've been suffering under a misconception. I thought Einstein was a real physicist. But it turns out he was theoretical.

What?! Where?!

nope hmm... is half dead similar to half pregnant?

Contentment in my experience is not a spendable resource. Contentment is what is revealed when the more frenetic action of mind and heart quiet down. It seems to me, a foundational state of awareness in form when striving and averting fall away. It may be masked, but not depleted.

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