A bit more about awareness

[Taomeow]

[Aetherous]

That's how the immortals drive.

[Birch]

 

Yes, this one I 'got' on the second watch. Why? I was looking at the stopped traffic and the people crossing calmly in front. The cleanly flowing through - traffic. Nothing in there showed any signs of alarm. All was as it should be...until I watched it a second time. Wow.

[Taomeow]

That's how the immortals drive.

 

Yup!

 

Now when you see the time-sensitive opening/closing in the confluences of events and circumstances (mundane to cosmic) as clearly as the driver of that car must have seen the opening in the confluences of traffic (i.e. if he/she was indeed an immortal who SAW rather than a reckless aficionado of crazy risk-taking, a homicide-by-auto perpetrator in the making, or a space cadet who got unbelievably lucky -- or was being protected by a strong guardian star, i.e. destined to get lucky...) -- that's how the immortals do magic.

 

I was trying to remember what this video reminded me of... I had this nagging "been there" feeling... and finally I did. Once I traveled to Europe to get together for a vacation with a college roommate/best friend of mine who lives there and whom I hadn't seen in ten years. I was jetlagged and not really thinking clearly, but instead of trying to get some sleep, as soon as we got together and ate, we went for a walk by the sea and climbed some rocks overhanging the water and couldn't stop talking -- and it was already dark, and eventually, where we were, pitch black. So then we decided to go back, and without thinking about it twice -- or at all -- I just jumped off the rock because I thought I was landing on solid ground a couple of feet below. No. In my jetlagged confusion, and in total darkness, I jumped into the sea right between the rocks sticking out and up like swords and daggers, and I felt one of them slash the wristband of my watch as the water closed over my head. I felt the bottom, pushed upward in a straight line, emerged, and discovered that I'm taking a swim in a crack between the rocks the exact width of my body (shoulder- or hip-wide), minus the watch that didn't fit in. I climbed out, wet and ashamed of myself and unharmed -- not a scratch, not a bruise, nothing but the missing watch. The next day, in broad daylight, we went to examine the spot, and discovered that where I took a dive was the ONLY place where I could jump without landing on daggers and swords for miles around, and the "bath tub" was every bit as narrow as I thought it was the night before, but seeing it for myself was still doing nothing about making me believe it. I was looking at it and I couldn't believe it. It was impossible to do this by chance, but it was done -- by me.

 

I wouldn't be able to replicate it though -- and that's one difference between "modern science" and magic that modern science holds against magic.

[Taomeow]

Yes, this one I 'got' on the second watch. Why? I was looking at the stopped traffic and the people crossing calmly in front. The cleanly flowing through - traffic. Nothing in there showed any signs of alarm. All was as it should be...until I watched it a second time. Wow.

 

You're good! I had to watch it three times before I got it.

[Birch]

You're good! I had to watch it three times before I got it.

 

Well, it does say a lot (to me) about how watching a bunch of 'normality' can in fact blind you to what might be going on. And that peaceful people crossing streets and cars waiting isn't where you need to look.

[Taomeow]

Well, it does say a lot (to me) about how watching a bunch of 'normality' can in fact blind you to what might be going on. And that peaceful people crossing streets and cars waiting isn't where you need to look.

 

Right... that's real life for you... where the lesson is seldom what you're told you're going to learn, the "meaning of life..." -- ...

 

-- I never answer the "meaning of life" question because "real life" is not "filled" or "not filled" with a particular meaning -- it is filled with all possible meanings all at once. Whatever you're looking at is not it, whatever you are NOT looking at is not it either... so what is it?

 

I guess it's the second look... or the third, or the three billionth... however long it takes to "get it all" -- it's getting it all that's the meaning of life. It's something you see in hind sight, in front, inside, through others' eyes, all at once and in retrospect and in projection... the meaning of life is... as big as life itself, no bigger, no smaller.

[suninmyeyes]

Right... that's real life for you... where the lesson is seldom what you're told you're going to learn, the "meaning of life..." -- ...

 

-- I never answer the "meaning of life" question because "real life" is not "filled" or "not filled" with a particular meaning -- it is filled with all possible meanings all at once. Whatever you're looking at is not it, whatever you are NOT looking at is not it either... so what is it?

 

I guess it's the second look... or the third, or the three billionth... however long it takes to "get it all" -- it's getting it all that's the meaning of life. It's something you see in hind sight, in front, inside, through others' eyes, all at once and in retrospect and in projection... the meaning of life is... as big as life itself, no bigger, no smaller.

Somehow I am reminded of a feeling right now when we were kids spending summer

lying in the field ,looking at the sky and stars . Asking each other how big is the universe where does it start and where does it end?Same type of feeling that just doesent translate coherently into words.

Edited June 4, 2011 by suninmyeyes

[doc benway]

You're good! I had to watch it three times before I got it.

Me too...

[Sloppy Zhang]

That's how the immortals drive.

 

Unfortunately, many people are not immortals nor are they immortal.

 

 

Edited June 4, 2011 by Sloppy Zhang

[Aetherous]

True...just a joke.

 

Anyway, did you know that in the first video, the second crash where the car flips onto the pedestrian....that pedestrian survived unscathed!

[Desert Eagle]

something like this happened to me about 10 years ago and I still wonder about it.

 

I was driving fast because some ******* was tail-gating me and speeding on a dark 2 lane country road with steep ditches on both sides. A 2 lane intersection came up but I was too fast so I just hit the brakes before it and the car kept skidding past it. Just as I cleared it, 2 opposing cars sped past so had I been half a second late I would have helicoptered into the ditch.

 

the ******* already stopped before the intersection. I blocked the road and stared at him, gave him advice in an angry tone and left. I was too bewildered at the time with the adrenaline interference. It was in my early days of driving and when I asked my dad about it, he said I should have lit the emergency lights and slowed down even if he hit me from the back it would be 100% his fault.

Edited June 4, 2011 by Desert Eagle

[Desert Eagle]

Unfortunately, many people are not immortals nor are they immortal.

 

 

"always wanna play but you don't wanna loooose"

[Sloppy Zhang]

True...just a joke.

 

I know

 

It sucks to be the cloud that rains on the parade. But, you know, it always sounds better in theory. "I want to like like an immortal". "I want to walk the earth like an immortal". And "I want to drive several tons of metal at blinding speeds down a road full of bystanders like an immortal". The results are... not always ideal. Fare more failures than successes, if your measure of success is narrowly avoiding death unscathed.

 

Anyway, did you know that in the first video, the second crash where the car flips onto the pedestrian....that pedestrian survived unscathed!

 

I did I've seen a couple of those clips passed around in different contexts. It's surprisingly hard to find depressing, sobering videos of peoples' lives being ruined by idiots. I guess it's always more fun to glorify reckless behavior.

 

That's not to say I condone or condemn either one, and that's not to say that I think any one particular thing is going on in any one particular place. It's just that each side tends to gravitate towards two different sides of the issue, and both tend to have nice clips to link to.

 

And it's easier to say "wow, that guy is awesome" when you don't see what happens the other 99 times someone tries to pull off the same stunt.

 

"always wanna play but you don't wanna loooose"

 

It's a good song. Don't think it particularly fit with the tone of the video. But still good.

 

"Life is a waterfall. We're one in the river and one again after the fall."

Edited June 5, 2011 by Sloppy Zhang

[Vajrahridaya]

I'm so sad for those poor people, victims of recklessness.

 

I stopped speeding once I hit a deer in upstate NY, it rolled over my car and I got out the car and walked over to it, I saw it take it's last breaths, I was so hurt by this. I couldn't believe it. I killed this poor living being. I have been far more careful ever since.

 

I cried for some of those people in the video you showed us Sloppy. That poor pedestrian slaughtered by the car that got hit and the last one, and the balloon going into the sky, I guess it was a parent and the kid that got hit?