silent thunder

Maam this is the Arby's drive thru...

Now I know what Nissa does on Summer vacation...

Have shared before, but this one bears revisiting regularly...

We have a pair who nest and brood in the eaves above our bedroom window. We wake to them every morning during the season. It's bliss.

For me, it's nigh on every conversation I've ever participated in. And the process of discerning context in any book, particularly those of an esoteric or philosophic focus. Semantics, personal and socially conditioned meanings of phrases and terms... is a constant dance of trying to gauge intended meanings of the speaker/author or translator. Context is always so crucial... particularly where only text is involved. Body language and vocal cues lend so much subtlety that text struggles to convey for me.

Stunningly beautiful moment...

No one implied not dealing with the world of the shared dream. Again you infer meaning that is not shared or implied. Pondering the dream like nature of reality is not rejecting or ignoring.

I hear you and understood your intent not as an invalidation, but comparison. My intent was tangential and personal about how your comment reminds me of my challenge relating to any of the old great traditional texts in general and the caveat of working with them due to the nature of shift over time and what may have originally been shared versus what we encounter now in various versions over time.

That whole 'according to the suttas' bit is the caveat for me. With any of these traditions, it's always some human's interpretation and also often a translation on top of the interpretation in these areas. It's why I've always deeply appreciated the main tenet of buddhism about never accepting anything said by anyone, including the buddha. To always run any teaching/offering through your own system and discover for ourself its potential veracity/application. Scientitic method really, at work centuries before it was codified in the West.

What stranger on the internet would/could be considered a qualified observer in any other stranger's inner life/health on any matter of significance? Any advice offered in response to such queries will remain superficial simply due to lack of context, based on the story and assumptions created in their mind. Particularly in areas of life that are complex and deeply seeded. Even when one knows a person well and intecedes in their life assuming they can improve it. It's an improvement based on the interceder's projection and assumption. Based on their story of what's going on. Assuming you know what will trigger healing/release in another is just an assumption. There is simply no way to know what the outcome of interference/advice/intercession will bring. How are any of us to know what may prompt an awakening/release/healing in another? What may be required to shift their awareness? Could likely be any interference we offer is an impediment no matter how well intentioned.

Any meaning we derive from any experience is our mind and conditioning applying onto memory, a story. It is a layering of interpretation, assumption and projection. It is not inheirently true, real or even important. It's just another thought/story. stories are stories, and meaning is entirely personal and able to shift as we recall repeatedly. This is why Doubt is such a potent teaching and companion to the human minding process. Doubt all and release all. What remains will be one's natural essence. All else is mind and story...

I appreciate Shogo's Sensei and that he allows Shogo to share their training in some well edited videos. Those laundry pole blades are absolute menaces!

You left us plenty of time. But the wildflowers are blooming all along the cliffs here and my son is pretty steady in his 'flowers over people' inclinations Hope it was awesome though and thanks for sharing the info, it's always great to have options...

I don't care what she thinks... I don't think about her at all.

Both of my lineage teachers repeatedly emphasize the same. There is no need to chase or try and manufacture the MCO. It is a natural process native to us that will be revealed without any need to chase or manufacture. Indeed chasing and trying for force, are impediments.. The emphasis seems to be about embodying pure raw beingness whether in movement or stillness, on the cusion (or doing the laundry eventually), unlayered, unfettered quiet being and then the natural process once hindered by all the layers is revealed and experienced within settled awareness and being. The further i walk the path of motion and stillness, the more unshakable the experience of stillness inheirent in all movement. The more they merge into liquid reflections of each other... it seems there abides a point of stillness out of which, and to which all movement arises from and returns to...

I may bring my son if we don't head up into the cliffs overlooking Southbay. Haven't been to Santa Monica for a few years now.

The Catholic stories in particular always take a steep nose dive into darkness for me whenever the battles against witchcraft get mentioned... Anyone a bit different than 'the norm'... any women using the old pagan folk remedies to cure the same whooping cough... anyone who didn't 'act right'. Kind of like the heavier and more virulent reactions by many to trans folks and the new awakening in society right now.

Bees and flowers and spiders and lakes and sand and waterfalls and...

Rivers and Insects and Trees. Oh my!

My most intense and effective teachers have seldom been humans...

My gal just shared this with me. I'm pretty firmly in the camp of you do you, be it gal, guy, both or other... Now... where did I put my femurs?