silent thunder

All formal praxis have shifted to medicinal, where they were once dietary. Some have transitioned from active to passive (eg meditation has come off the mat and ceases to be a sought happening or separate event).

I'm still processing that somehow Native Americans could be considerd to be 'getting away' with having feathers...

who?

There will be discomfort. There may be pain. This does not mean there must be suffering. Suffering is a crisis of perception. This realization arose unbidden in my mind in the midst of chronic extreme pain that lasted years. i was semi-crippled then. Confined to a chair most days, or walking with a cane. There are no prisons but what mind creates and then inhabits.

Today's prognosis. more thunder, not so much silence...

“I wish neither to possess nor to be possessed. I no longer covet ‘paradise’. More important, I no longer fear ‘hell’. The medicine for my suffering I had within me from the very beginning but I did not take it. My ailment came from within myself, but I did not observe it, until this moment. Now I see that I will never find the light unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel, consuming myself.” Bruce Lee

My heart has rarely experienced such a wonderous breaking open in joyful presence. So wonderous, that praxis has all but consumed every aspect of waking life, with no official praxis taking place any longer. Form whithers and function thrives! Thank you influences of shit! Though, correlation does not equal causation.

My immune system is so charged with joyful, connected living that I take my corona virus with a side of lyme disease. This is my response when folks ask me why i'm not freaking out.

Took me twenty odd years to realize why i just couldn't manage to follow through on becoming a physician. Then one day it crystallized. Health care in America seems financially predatory to me. They will treat you, but at maximum possible cash extraction. Treating people is profitable. Curing them is bad for long term business modeling. Preventing illness? Well that is just financial suicide... When i met and started learning from Zhou Ting-Jue, he said (through translator). You are not my patient. You are student. I do not treat you, I teach how to help your body heal itself and prevent illness. Student... not patient. invaluable what that man shared with me.

Pearls! For the several years I was semi-crippled, often confined to a chair, hopping on the good leg around the house, gimping with a cane on good days... in a bid to escape unceasing pain without resorting to pills, the spontaneous compulsion arose to begin intensely running the martial forms i knew in my mind. I found relief and engagement. I began to run the forms in my mind as wholly and intimately as i could manage to re sense the sensations and re-feel the process... the impact it had on my system was profound. Looking back, i suspect this endeavor bore fruit in my eventual full recovery. It certainly worked to diverge awareness from identifying with the pain. It piercingly impressed upon me, the value and integrity behind one of Buddha's quotes. "Take care what you allow yourself to think. This becomes your reality."

sensations arise, sensations recede. thoughts arise, thoughts recede. sounds arise, sounds recede. breath in, breath out. emptiness abides. all is one. this is it.

ok last one for now... these guys always get me out of my chair.

R Carlos Nakai (Lakota) collaborated with Tibetan musician Nawang Khechog to great effect on this album.

In my experience, far more impacting and silly than what religion puts on its head... is what it fosters in illusory assumptions inside of it.

Good knight, my friend!

i mull it over again each time another response arises. And it's consistent. My response has been and continues to be silence. silence that is, aside from these words... to communicate silence. silence: that which is broken, when one speaks its name. sunyata... words often seem tiny, ill suited things to communicate intensely vast concepts, that abide beyond localized mind's ability to render into a model, or map. the word water conveys a notion, but the word will never quench thirst. the menu is not the meal, the map is not the territory. sunyata

@Hannes sean seems to pop in every fortnight or so lately... be patient and he'll process it when he next logs on. peace

I have noticed a trend in my emotional response to folks who've sparked my anger and before action can even arise, the anger simply vanishes. For some time i wondered if this was linked to the growing apathy i have experienced for all the former pleasures and pursuits that could draw my interest and pull me into joyful loss of time. Or if it was some growing passivity due to age and/or wisdom of the heart. perhaps it's both, or neither. Regardless, the realization upon looking back at potential altercations is that there is no need for me to interfere, or respond, or seek retribution, they do not merit the attention; and as for retribution, why bother? I do not see what i could do that would be harsher or more appropriate a punishment than what they inflict on themselves, every day by being who they are... nothing i do is going to be more fitting punishment, than for them to wake up tomorrow and continue being who they are... i leave them to it. My idea of revenge is to live a full, rich life nurturing what i love, instead of feeding what i despise. Life is short, someone can use my energy for healing, or simply sharing a good meal and a deep conversation, or a simple sunset. Live life... let the puddle seekers stomp about and feel strong... it matters not a whit.

Wow, that is quite remarkable! i had no idea such a trend existed in japanese art. Thank you.