Unpopular Opinions

[silent thunder]

I forgot about that rail line.  Woof!  That one's days are numbered.

 

I used to climb similar bluffs on the coast of Palos Verde.  No longer.

[Nungali]

6 hours ago, Taomeow said:

 

Here we are mostly into bluffs collapsing.  After a good rain, I usually worry that 1) my favorite walking qigong trail might disappear into the ocean --it's been steadily shrinking, and 2) what about the railroad tracks and the trains?  Cutting it a bit close from the get-go, and closer every time...  

 

   

 

Urgggh !   Thats close .

 

reminds me of the NZ  Kaikoura quake .... rail line was gone for ages .  the ocean floor rose up and  extended the coast in other places .

A bad storm heading your way ?   This weekend ?   ( thats now ,  here )  .... all the best luck there . 

 

This is my old motorcycle run when I lived on the south outskirts of Sydney .... was fun and 'hairy' (as they used to say )  the road dropped off one side into the ocean, the other side, straight up  with huge boulder catching nets , that didnt actually work  ... until one day .....  

 

 

 

 

 

  after years off  road slides  and patch ups ,  they had to do this ;

 

 

 

[Taomeow]

@Nungali It's a good thing you weren't riding your motorcycle when that happened!  

 

1 hour ago, Nungali said:

 

A bad storm heading your way ?   This weekend ?   ( thats now ,  here )  .... all the best luck there . 

 

Thank you.  Hurricane Hilary, which is now category 4, heading for Mexico and then SoCal.  We are in its direct expected path but it will weaken once it makes landfall (a shoutout to @liminal_luke -- are you watching this thing?  You're in its path too, get some preps ready just in case  .  @silent thunder you seem to be reasonably out of the way I think but keep an eye on it just in case?)  We are used to weather folks exaggerating the dangers of all things weather, so I'm hoping it won't be too bad, but we got a tropical storm warning for the first time ever -- normally they simply don't happen here.  Come Sunday I'll know if the warning was justified or just fearmongering.  I'm usually reasonably ready for unexpected adversities of the natural kind.  Food, water, flashlights, candles, TP, gas in the tank, bike secured, a few potted plants to take indoors, and hunker down on Sunday/Monday is the plan.  

[Taomeow]

P.S.  In the meantime, the locals are baffled by strange clouds everywhere -- a pattern never seen before -- and keep posting pictures from all over the city.  I'm hoping it's not ____ (fill in an unpopular opinion about weather modification shenanigans.)     

 

 

 

 

 

And perhaps the strangest of them all -- a lid from someone's trash bin wound up hanging high in the tree, though it couldn't have been blown there today, there's no wind...  unless it was a gust from the future through some spacetime wormhole?..

 

 

  

Edited August 19, 2023 by Taomeow

[liminal_luke]

7 hours ago, Taomeow said:

@Nungali It's a good thing you weren't riding your motorcycle when that happened!  

 

 

Thank you.  Hurricane Hilary, which is now category 4, heading for Mexico and then SoCal.  We are in its direct expected path but it will weaken once it makes landfall (a shoutout to @liminal_luke -- are you watching this thing?  You're in its path too, get some preps ready just in case  .  @silent thunder you seem to be reasonably out of the way I think but keep an eye on it just in case?)  We are used to weather folks exaggerating the dangers of all things weather, so I'm hoping it won't be too bad, but we got a tropical storm warning for the first time ever -- normally they simply don't happen here.  Come Sunday I'll know if the warning was justified or just fearmongering.  I'm usually reasonably ready for unexpected adversities of the natural kind.  Food, water, flashlights, candles, TP, gas in the tank, bike secured, a few potted plants to take indoors, and hunker down on Sunday/Monday is the plan.  

 

Thanks, Taomeow.  I just read that it's expected to make landfall about 200 miles south of here.  I'm a bit skeptical but we'll see.  I don't want anyone to get hurt but do love a big storm.  We'll be prepared in any case.

[Taomeow]

6 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

 I don't want anyone to get hurt but do love a big storm.  We'll be prepared in any case.

 

https://packaged-media.redd.it/9k0h9125pyib1/pb/m2-res_720p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1692464400&s=a5839df4e7897a8c27bb691bfade3d3fc12c8dbd#t=0

[doc benway]

Be safe my Mexican and Californian friends!

❤️

[Apech]

Quite inspired to name that storm Hilary.

[liminal_luke]

22 minutes ago, Apech said:

Quite inspired to name that storm Hilary.

 

People say that Hurricane Hilary is a killer but I dunno, ain't nothin' compared to Mega-Tornado Trump.  Whatdaya say @old3bob, am I right?

Edited August 19, 2023 by liminal_luke

[old3bob]

41 minutes ago, liminal_luke said:

 

People say that Hurricane Hilary is a killer but I dunno, ain't nothin' compared to Mega-Tornado Trump.  Whatdaya say @old3bob, am I right?

 

yep, and putting it mildly...

[Nungali]

I guess it mostly depends on if you are on flat ground or not , or in the drainage area . We get a few small floods a year , thats mostly downstream on the floodplain . I am up river in steeper sided valley on a hill so its just access  flooded , none of that  - 3 feet of water inside the house  disaster .

 

Although, the old rickety wooden bridge across the river  on our east boundary ( the lowest one in the valley and the first to go under )  has surveyors pegs across the river and a snazzy new sign saying new bridge project , finished by 2525 .

 

I just checked it out . How often do storms / hurricanes come in from that direction ? 

[liminal_luke]

What's the difference between Hilary the storm and Hillary the politician?  One results in catastrophic loss of life.

 

(Before you throw tomatoes, no, I don't actually know this to be true.  Just thought it was a funny -- and possibly unpopular -- thing to say and couldn't resist.)

Edited August 20, 2023 by liminal_luke

[Apech]

UNPOPULAR OPINION

 

No system, or method or religion will produce the results as advertised.

 

 

 

[Cobie]

.

Edited August 20, 2023 by Cobie

[whocoulditbe?]

If every view is harmful, but every view also has a mutually-neutralising opposite, then every view is sometimes beneficial.

[Taomeow]

44 minutes ago, liminal_luke said:

What's the difference between Hilary the storm and Hillary the politician?  One results in catastrophic loss of life.

 

(Before you throw tomatoes, no, I don't actually know this to be true.  Just thought it was a funny -- and possibly unpopular -- thing to say and couldn't resist.)

 

[oak]

On 27/07/2023 at 11:43 PM, Apech said:

 

Jhanas lead to more suffering.

 

 

 

Would you like to expand on that, Apech?

[Nungali]

So .... what Happened ? 

 

with the storm I mean .

[Apech]

2 hours ago, oak said:

 

Would you like to expand on that, Apech?

 

"The jhanas are altered states of consciousness which are produced from periods of strong concentration. Although not enlightenment experiences, they do provide much needed experience into the Path and explain much of the cosmology in an experiential way. For example, each jhana tends to correspond to one or more heavenly realms in the cosmology. By attaining different levels of jhana, the meditator increases the likelihood of being re-born to a heavenly plane of existence. If you pass away while meditating at one of the jhanic levels, you will be re-born to that heavenly existence. If you pass away when you are not in a meditation session, but have attained to a certain level of jhana in the past, you can still be re-born to one of those heavenly planes."

 

https://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php/9_Jhanas

 

Heavenly realms contain the stain of pride and after an eon of god-like existence lead to descent into realms of greater suffering.

[Apech]

13 minutes ago, Nungali said:

So .... what Happened ? 

 

with the storm I mean .

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/watch-live-hurricane-hilary-storm-tracker-191109189926

 

Looks a bit rainy and a little windy!!!!!!!!!!

[oak]

10 minutes ago, Apech said:

 

 

Heavenly realms contain the stain of pride and after an eon of god-like existence lead to descent into realms of greater suffering.

 

This one is a teaching of which school of buddhism? 

[Apech]

8 minutes ago, oak said:

 

This one is a teaching of which school of buddhism? 

All as far as I know.

[Taomeow]

50 minutes ago, Nungali said:

So .... what Happened ? 

 

with the storm I mean .

 

It was pretty hard on Baja California, but it hasn't reached our parts yet except for the rain, which is now intensifying.  Current ETA 5 pm-ish (it's 3:30 here). 

 

 

 

  

Edited August 20, 2023 by Taomeow

[oak]

13 minutes ago, Apech said:

All as far as I know.

 

But didn't the Buddha taught and encouraged the attainment of the jhanas? Forgive my poor knowlwdge of buddhism, what am I missing here?

[Mark Foote]

1 hour ago, Apech said:

 

Quote

  1 hour ago, oak said:

 

This one is a teaching of which school of buddhism? 

All as far as I know.
 

 

 

"The jhanas are altered states of consciousness which are produced from periods of strong concentration. Although not enlightenment experiences, they do provide much needed experience into the Path and explain much of the cosmology in an experiential way. For example, each jhana tends to correspond to one or more heavenly realms in the cosmology. By attaining different levels of jhana, the meditator increases the likelihood of being re-born to a heavenly plane of existence. If you pass away while meditating at one of the jhanic levels, you will be re-born to that heavenly existence. If you pass away when you are not in a meditation session, but have attained to a certain level of jhana in the past, you can still be re-born to one of those heavenly planes."

(https://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php/9_Jhanas; "Adapted from a chapter from "Buddha's Lists", book by David N. Snyder, Ph.D.")

 

 

 

I would guess that the entry in "dhammawiki" was made by none other than David N. Snyder, PhD, himself.  The promo for his book on Amazon, which promo I'm sure was also written by Dr. Snyder, reads:

 

A detailed explanation of all of the important lists of the Buddha. Includes a step-by-step procedure to full enlightenment; not as easy as one might think!
 

 

I've read the first four Nikayas of the Pali Canon, I don't recall reading anything about an equivalence between the jhanas and heavenly realms.  
 

At his passing, Gautama is reported to have attained the states of concentration in order, through "the cessation of ('determinate thought' in) perceiving and feeling", the final attainment.  Then he is said to have walked the states backward to the fourth of the initial states, of the "material" (rupa) jhanas.  In that state, he died (Digha Nikaya "Mahaparanibbana Sutta").

Now I'm sure that was an addition by the later editors, so that the disciples wouldn't feel they had to attain "the cessation of perceiving and feeling" in their last breath. 

Gautama often stopped his description of the states of concentration with the fourth, and then described the "survey-sign" of the concentration, an overview of the body by which  the fourth concentration could presumably be recalled as necessary.  The "survey-sign" he termed "the fifth limb of concentration"--that says to me that the attainment of the four rupa jhanas and the survey-sign were the normal practice of concentration for him, and the attainment of the further states was the exception.

I'm writing a piece now, my take on some things Shunryu Suzuki said:

 

Suzuki mentioned the first, second and third stages of concentration in his description of "preparatory zazen":

Of course, to have good shikantaza, we have preparatory zazen. You know, from old, old time, you know, we have that technical term, konpunjo. Konpunjo means “to enter,” you know. That is started from Theravada practice, you know. To prepare for the first stage or second stage or third stage, they practice some special practice. Those practice is not the practice of the first stage or second stage or third stage, but to prepare for those stages.

(70-02-22: The Background of Shikantaza, “question and answer”)

 

 

I’ve written about Gautama’s metaphors for the first three stages of concentration (Common Ground).  In my experience, the metaphors are a way to identify the particular feeling in concentration that is most conducive to “one-pointedness” at the moment, and apart from “one-pointedness” they have no meaning.

 

 

"One-pointedness" refers to the feeling of the placement of attention when the placement of attention is a function of the movement of breath:

 

The presence of mind can utilize the location of attention to maintain the balance of the body and coordinate activity in the movement of breath, without a particularly conscious effort to do so. There can also come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a certain location in the body, or at a series of locations, with the ability to remain awake as the location of attention shifts retained through the exercise of presence. 

 

(Common Ground)

 

 

You were just joking, right Apech, and I've wasted my breath?

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by Mark Foote