12/14/2023

The Painted Drum


 

Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You have to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes too near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could. ~Louise Erdrich (Book: The Painted Drum)

12/11/2023

Embodying the Tao.” -- The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tsu (#47)

 


“If you wish to attain oneness with the Tao,

don’t get caught up in spiritual superficialities.

Instead, live a quiet and simple life,

free of ideas and concepts.

Find contentment in the practice of undiscriminating virtue, the only true power.

Giving to others selflessly and anonymously,

radiating light through the world

and illuminating your own darkness, 

your virtue becomes a sanctuary

for yourself and all beings.

This is what is meant by embodying the Tao.”


-- Brian Walker’s translation of a truly remarkable book – Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tsu (#47)

12/02/2023

 


"We lie in the lap of immense intelligence,

which makes us receivers of its truth

and organs of its activities."


— R.W. Emerson

NOAM

 


Lock Him Up

LOCK

HIM

UP

11/23/2023

MESSSIAH

 


- Indians have been waiting for Kalki for 3,700 years.
- Buddhists have been waiting for Maitreya for 2,600 years.
- The Jews have been waiting for the Messiah for 2500 years.
- Christians have been waiting for Jesus for 2000 years.
- Sunnah waits for Prophet Issa 1400 years.
- Muslims have been waiting for a messiah from the line of Muhammad for 1300 years.
- Shiites have been waiting for Mandi for 1080 years.
- Drussians are waiting for Hamza ibn Ali for 1000 years.
Most religions adopt the idea of a “savior” and state that the world will remain filled with evil until this savior comes and fills it with goodness and righteousness.
Maybe our problem on this planet is that people expect someone else to come solve their problems instead of doing it themselves! ”
Riccardo Dablah

11/18/2023

Kalahari

 


In The Lost World of the Kalahari, Laurens van der Post writes about living among the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert and describes how shocked they were that he couldn’t hear the stars.At first they thought he must be joking or lying. When they realized he really couldn’t hear the stars, they concluded he must be very ill and expressed great sorrow. For the Bushmen knew anyone who can’t hear nature must have the gravest sickness of all. For nearly all of the time humans have been on the planet, regular conversations across the species border were an everyday natural part of life. Sadly, this seems like a strange invitation in our world today; most people have difficulty initiating such a conversation. Perhaps this is because we’ve been taught from a very young age to perceive nature as separate, a life-less object, a commodity. This mistaken perception seems to be at the foundation of our cultural ills. Humanity’s ability to perceive the sentience of Earth is critical to our survival and to all life on earth. Longing to be in conversation with nature can catalyze us. And perhaps the natural world longs for this relationship with us too...” ~ Rebecca Wildbear, the Animas Valley Institute

Apocalyptic Tradition

 


Willie Nelson


 

Terence McKenna


 

11/15/2023

More quantum

 


Real problem

 


“The real problem of humanity is the following:

We have Paleolithic emotions,

medieval institutions,

and godlike technology...."  E. O. Wilson

11/14/2023

The Demon Haunted World


 

All human beings

 


“All human beings are descendants of tribal people who were spiritually alive, intimately in love with the natural world, children of Mother Earth. When we were tribal people, we knew who we were, we knew where we were, and we knew our purpose. This sacred perception of reality remains alive and well in our genetic memory. We carry it inside of us, usually in a dusty box in the mind’s attic, but it is accessible.” ~ John Trudell