silent thunder

The derision of reaching out when folks are at their lowest as 'fake'... Rings to me with the old rather witless derision of "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." As if good intentions were without use. Intentions are to me, the empty point of stillness about which all actions rise, pivot and cease. Reaching out, when you're not feeling it is perhaps one of the hallmarks of High Skill in my experience. It's nigh on effortless to reach out when everything is peachy, on a daily basis! Low hanging fruit. When I'm stressed, pinched, fearful, uncertain? Being able to reach out then?! High Skill. Loving all Humanity is simple, effortless. Loving individual humans requires skill and effort. Living and loving an individual human? well for many, that's just not even possible (consult divorce rates globally). Being able to reach out in times of crisis is to me a hallmark of the achieved and a marker that your cultivation is bringing actionable fruit to daily life when its needed most. Because yes, The Road to Hell may indeed be paved with Good Intentions. But ya know what? So is The Road to Heaven. And if you don't at least start out with good intentions? then you're fucked from the get-go. Good intentions. Reaching out. Comforting. Verbally appreciating.... For the Win.

In the realm of behaviors I'm in agreement on a keen edge to cull the unbeneficial. But this seems most aptly applied to bring benefit when applied to myself. When it strays into character, it degenerates quickly. No one is the Arbiter of Truth. Indra's Net. My general take, not the truth, but my truth as i experience it. Not trying to convince, or change anyone, or any thing, that illusion gratefully passed at some point. Sharing my take on things is all my words ever are my friend. I respect and admire you deeply.

This point has been driven home repeatedly lately in the satsangs my wife and I listen to daily together. There is no one Middle Way... We each of us, are a locus of resistance. Our awareness experiences reality/maya from the center of our own awareness. My middle way is unique to the extrems of my local awareness. I love how you wrote that the Buddha woke up from the dead end side paths of asceticism, to discover his middle way. We all have our own middle way, there is not one middle way for all. as i experience it at least...

I enrolled the moment I read this. Thank you for sharing! *bow of respect*

The health of the tree is indeed revealed in the quality of its fruits. Actions, reactions communicate volumes. In my experience, strong teachers, achieved individuals and influential people I have worked with, do not as a rule run about mucking on others and shitting where they eat. They do not feel a bit of pressure in the face of untruths and there is no hint of attacking those with ignorant tendencies. This is a misuse of personal resources. They use what resources at their considerable disposal to either build up and help ignorant students or potentials to play to their strengths. Or they, if deemed a lost cause, leave them without any effort spent, putting their resources to work where they may bear fruit. I have never witnessed Wang Li Ping, nor Zhou Ting-Jue, nor any of my most effective teachers, berate, whine, or assault. They are capable of seeing the big picture and putting their actions into effect where they will be productive, not reductive. Their strength of a lineage is not exemplified in shitting on people who are ignorant, and brow beating them, but in finding ways to lift the ignorant up (often at first without their even realizing it) and reinforcing the innate latent strengths. In this way, community rises as one in heightened skill, not a few who are capable of feeding and predating on the weakened.

In our neck of the woods, the virus is not a direct issue... yet. But it's coming. I'm working on the assumption that everyone will be exposed eventually, my family included. So even though the virus isn't in our neighborhood impacting us...we are heavily impacted by people's reactions to it. Out of our recent forays to gather supplies and help out a neighbor, we've had two altercations, neither violent, or aggressive, just two people not being aware, or acting selfishly and not paying attention. The rest have been admirable, calm, helpful, aware... we're blessed to be in the neighborhood we are. Plenty of immigrant families here. Macedonia, Japan x3, Mexico x2, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia... just in our two buildings... Torrance is like a little United Nations and our Cul De Sac is amazing. It's not just the bad and selfish in the reactions and it really never is... My wife and I have increased our usual practices of 1) noticing when folks behave admirably and reaching out and telling them we noticed it and how much we admire it and appreciate it. 2) telling each other about such admirable acts when we get together and sharing it with friends and family when we reach out. Reaffirm that yes, in extreme times, humans react more extremely... but in good admirable ways, not just in selfish, petty ways. And if one pays attention, the good far outweighs the selfish and petty. By a factor of hundreds. The selfish petty acts usually get the lion's share of the attention... particularly when consuming the mental junk food of news. We, for years, as a couple have been actively cultivating... practicing noticing the wonderful actions of those around us and making sure to highlight them both to ourselves and those involved. Creating a locus of reflection that does not allow our minds to fall into the easy trap of assuming that it's 'us against the world'... 'grab all you can when you can'. The benefits of the noticing game are profoundly beneficial... i highly recommend it.

Thanks for sharing! We'll get some good mileage out of this for sure.

wow... dropping pearls! Thank you Bums!

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Mis-identification with thoughts, sensations and emotions is very dusty indeed.

I've some vivid sense memories of hovering and gliding as a very young child. Countless lucid dream experiences of flight, levitation, becoming vapourous/transparent/miasmic. Also a period of time where I was simultaneously fully conscious in two bodies in lucid dreams... one was usually normal size and one utterly gigantic. I practiced whirling meditation for a time in the Sufi tradition... it was profoundly intense. My last performance as an actor was at LaMama, Off-Broadway in the 90's. The show was an adaptation of the poetry of Rumi and an exploration of the time he spent with his Sufi teacher in the desert. In preparation, we spent several months studying and whirling intensively. Many intense occurances played out during this period of my life. Whirling was profoundly impacting, so intense, it didn't carry on long term.

To me the Bums is like a gathering in sean's digital backyard. It's not a public place. It's a meeting place hosted by sean and i behave here as i wouldd at any gathering public, or semi. It doesn't belong to me, or us, it's made available to us, so I treat it with respect... and interactions matter to me (as much as any of my interactions in the miasma of Maya do).

I've become rather fascinated with the term citta in recent years and its various translations... in my personal experience, citta is central to my process which sort of follows cleanse citta cease feeding and identifying with the storyteller abide in presence in raw being clarity emptiness bliss

Since purchasing this Water Distiller five or six years ago, I've only come to appreciate it more. Particularly now. We have no need to purchase any water, ever. Years ago, I tested our faucet water for ph levels and found it outperformed or equaled the five bottled waters I tested. I expected that as we have a local marsh and a reverse osmosis plant. But without a method for testing for heavy metals and with the presence of a massive Exxon refining plant a mile away... There is zero trust in the water here, in spite of the marsh/aquifer and the reverse osmosis processing plant. The plant processes about 1/3 of the water that reaches our faucet... so not good. Anyway, the distiller works brilliantly and consistently for years now. Paid for itself a dozen times over, cost $200 on sale at the time. I clean it after every six gallons, by soaking the bottom in vinegar and after thousands of gallons, it's stainless interior is pristine, without a hint of mineral deposit. Can't recommend, or praise it highly enough.

Yea, I'm hoping some of the fallout of this pandemic will be more companies realizing the benefits of letting folks work from home. Mansions earns highest marks as one of the most engaging and creative games we've come across in decades and we have a literal closet full of games. It earns my highest recommendation alongside Talisman. Particularly unique in that it's a coop game and my son loves those. If your kid is into Risk. There's a game you should also check out if you haven't, Ikasa, it's similar to Risk but set in Feudal Japan with gameplay that has much more depth of strategy. It utilizes 5 armies each with 3 Daimyo who recruit/hire four different troop types then these armies move on the board and wage war. Soldier options are Samurai, Archers, Musket Gunners and Naginata peasants, each with different die rolls for successes and archers/gunners having ranged options. The board is the country and prefectures of Japan. Gameplay is similar to Risk, but there's more depth to the play, choosing how to spend koku in hiring soldiers, building structures that increase a prefecture's defenses, ninja strategy and elements of war. Great strategy fun and one of the more beautiful game boards and pieces in high detail. happy hunting mate!

haunting...

Ethereal... Gossamer... Like liquid bliss.

My days start with coffee, or tea and reading. I read until something i read prompts me to write. I write until the heart opens and warms, then play qi gong or go for a walk. Once home, it's time to play. Games with family or alone. First meal of the day is between noon and 3pm depending on the body. Cooking and eating have become meditation. Lately painting has revealed as one of the last remaining gravity wells where local awareness can sink into with some abandon. I regularly experience losing self in the play of colors and the scrape of knife across canvas, or the pouring of acrylics and the interplay of gravity and the swirling co-mingling of colors. The only active choice involved is what colors to play with, how thin to mix and how far to stretch, the rest is blissful mindless merging with the process. My wife has been something of a hermit these last four years. She quit her job after some coaxing, to allow herself full time healing of childhood traumas. She spends hours in quiet contemplation, listening to satsangs and floating in 'the grey zone'. My son is a natural home body, so he's appreciating studying from home. His full course load amounts to about 3 hours of attention, then he's free. While he's missing his friends, he meets regularly in online games wearing headsets and they have a blast. We are thriving in our seclusion, which aside from our Saturday volunteering in the local marsh and our hikes/restaurant/museum runs being curtailed has not changed much. My main job is so stressful that as I've aged, seclusion and isolation when not on a project, away from the majority of life has become a bliss unequaled. We love cooking and experimenting with new recipes as a family. We listen to music, listen to audio books and play a plethora of games, video, card and board based. Lately we've been breaking open our stores of what I find to be the greatest board game of all time. Mansions of Madness. It's a story based cooperative game set in the world of Lovecraft. Where a group of characters are thrust into a horror/mystery scenario and must work together to try and quell the occult machinations, or survive the onslaught of supernatural forces. It's a unique game that uses detailed tiles and figurines and the story is unfolded through a digital app that tells you what aspects of the game to place next, what monsters, npc's are doing and saying and what clues you find reveal. It's got several puzzle aspects and many of the stories require notes to be taken in order to recall everything needed to solve the situation or survive the dilemna. Most games last 3 hours or so. We've got four expansions still in the box waiting to be opened. It's almost like camping indoors. We continue to thrive, reach out to friends and family, staying connected through voice. No panick, but measured care is taken in what used to be mindless activities like taking a walk, or grocery shopping. Love abides. Connection thrives. Life unfolds. Blessings Bums...

no thanks friend. no interest in that thread.

huh? I'm lost on that one mate...

A morning for Einaudi and Satie...

Ha! Well played good sir! Well played!

If there were any real tin foil left... it's all that aluminium garbage for decades. harumph!