Not Norfolk, but can recommend catching Northfork the film if you get a chance - nice, and suitably quirky…

photo: doublefeaturepodcast

This is great… Roos and Wallabies are pretty unhinged sometimes anyway,  so what they’d be like smacked out on opium is a truly pleasurable thing to contemplate :)

thanks to monkeyc.net for photo
and quoting some Henry Lawson along with it…

Australia’s a big country an’ Freedom’s humping bluey
An’ Freedom’s on the Wallaby
Oh don’t you hear her cooey
She’s just begun to boomerang she’ll knock the tyrants silly
She’s going to light another fire and boil another billy

Henry Lawson - Freedom on the Wallaby

If you’re into solar passive design then this sun motion simulator from the Astronomy Labs at the University of Nebraska Lincoln is just the ‘ducks guts’…

thanks to foxxyz for photo

]]> http://cybergate9.net/blog/2009/06/28/potpourri-v/feed/ http://cybergate9.net/blog/2009/06/24/bbq-haiku/ http://cybergate9.net/blog/2009/06/24/bbq-haiku/#comments Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:12:41 +0000 ShaunO http://cybergate9.net/blog/?p=572 slice of dead cows bum
in summer barbeque breeze
mine medium rare please

couldn’t resist really…
needed excuse to use photo…
which isn’t entirely congruent of course…
as roast is brisket whereas haiku refers to topside, silverside or rump… :P

Exotic dance
and secret song
echoes in their ears
sharing
a chosen bonding
of a few brief years…

Apart for
the most part
solitary & travelling
for thousands of miles
coming back
occasionally
to touch down
on jointly shared Isles…

Looking for truth
making a home
evidence to be
sometimes wide
of the compass mark
then missing
of sharing
and returning to sea
alone…

A swirling and circling
storm clouds threatening
head down
and wings out
natures perfect creation
a survivor…
Wind whipping up a tremendous fuss…

Solitude a sharing
on wing
with untethered seas
battered and buffeted
gales angry
a loss of bearing
no reason to provoke doubt
Love seemingly lost
but on truth forever devout
in sharing…

Rolling waves
white caps
sky clearing
a calming
and homeward bound
to sharing…

The sea
you see
is uncensored
and cannot be
anything other than the sea
truthfully…

And a Love shared
can never
be
a loss…

for the Wandering Albatross…

thanks:
- Mum for the postcard
- angela7dreams for the image ‘a pair of albatross‘

Another day
spring already weaning
flowers beautiful
colourful
scented
looking for meaning.

Meaning for writing
papyrus electronique
seems like there’s nobody in here
and no reason
no reason to speak.

But speak we do often
too often by far
trouble seeing truth nowadays
silence might be best
when elbow’s on the bar.

Bar raised too steep?
integrity
a castle keep?
honesty with self
getting too deep?
where’s that fluffy cloud
on which to forever sleep?

Loud music,
loud emotions,
feel like you can’t turn a trick,
butter on toast,
egg yolk on the floor,
just ask anyone,
they’ll show you the door.

Another chord you let,
go by,
reverberates,
in your brain.
Love’s not designed,
to inflict pain.

Fox on the trail,
pheasants in the field,
all truth, blessing…
all Love,
Cosmos has revealed?

Walking on the thin ice,
tentative,
and so you should be,
Love is not,
a shopping spree.

Stepping boldly,
up to the plate,
rush it up,
only so many minutes,
no time to wait,
quickly,
do it,
mate.

Or, sit stately, alone,
with deep
integrity,
and dark
honesty?
Too scarey?
An unavoidable,
interconnected truth,
fully invested,
in the uncomfortable,
full volume,
immersion in reality?

Love thy neighbour,
Love thy friend,
Love thy enemy.

Love thy self.

Welcome to the complicated…
the simple elegance,
of the obvious,
enjoy,
the beauty of,
the ‘real’ world,
which you and yours,
are concurrently sharing,
with thousands of generations of,
people who are,
just as beautiful…
As you.

Have you met you recently?

They are dancing with you
in colour
and in light
it’s so dazzling
and
it’s so bright.

Have you danced lately?

Brush aside
the occasional
rain bearing cloud
inevitable
an English summer
“skin is water-proof”.

The badger and
the hedgehog
the squirrel and
the crazy pheasant.

Indulged yourself yet
in a northern hemisphere
island
spring
leading to summer
beauty this year?

next year’s a promise?

maybe?

let yourself be
blessed today?

With
imagination
joy
exuberance.

With you & yours.

Paint yourself
all ‘Monet’…
outrageous colours
beautifully disorganised
beauty.

Have you let reality
God bless you?

The blood on the wall was…
in the pattern of?
well, possibly…
Any symbol of the times which,
the media could assign it,
however stupidly…
“If it bleeds, it leads”…

Oh look!…
It’s a swastika,
or a hammer and sickle.
Maybe it’s the morally broken cross of…
a British flag,
or liberation and the pursuit of happiness,
in white,
land-mine explosions,
on blue,
or the red and white blood soaked lines…
visions of some ‘neo-con’ fanatic…

What was he thinking…
(well, prior to not having any brains left to think with)…
too much blood,
too much pain?
too much truth?
Doubtful.

Trying to roll with the ‘gig’,
desperately trying,
to meet the protestant,
work ethic pattern?
or how shitty it is to be,
a lousy sinning catholic?
Freedom!?
You are fucking joking?
He asked.
Aren’t you?…

He was looking down the barrel,
a long black tunnel,
no light,
at the end of,
an apparent human-less humanity.

Just another day,
it should have been special,
a celebration of ‘being here’ optimism,
the world just, and,
just beautiful by its presence…
The warm summer rain dripping from,
a red rose’s petals of innocence…

Maybe it’s a temporary delusion,
all wish to subscribe to…

RSS feeds look something like?:
EP0100: Histories constancy…
EP0101: 20th century justifies killing anyone,
who doesn’t believe in what ‘we’ do…
EP0201: 21st century repeats last centuries mistakes
EP0202: Protestant christians justify killing muslins…
EP0300: Refer to last 2000 years…

New Feed:
‘http://www’ for nourishment?
Hungry anyone?

Awaking from that sleep,
sunlight streaming,
and bird choruses deafeningly beautiful,
he looked around…
And looked back from ‘the around’,
at himself,
and thought to us all…

God Forbid.
I hope that was a bad dream.

I am at a loss for words…

Well I was, but I have subjected myself to intense pyschotherapy since receiving your letters beginning in 2008. Feeling somewhat repaired I now seem to have enough vocabulary restored to respond to your most recent correspondence.

This is the second debarcle I have had with you clowns incidentally - you can check your CRM system, if you like, for our correspondence dated 2006.

That incident rose to you sending me threatening letters when I had an entirely valid licence which I could present for said address - completely processed on-line - so you can imagine my confidence (sic) in ‘your machinery’ when ‘they’ have obviously been designed to keep relevant information from the poor humans who suffer working in your organisation… like mushrooms in the dark…

Anyway on to the current cluster-f***.

Having been not so amused by receiving your correspondence after the purchase of a new TV in 2008 where you were clearly statutorily able to simply get my address from the retailer - (by the way could you please respond with the details of the Act which gives you this power including the appropriate exclusion provisions I sincerely hope you can quote in the Data Protection Act?) - I’ll have to admit the first letter was pretty simple.

There was an existing licence at said address and I followed your instructions, feverishly, mis-guided by the belief that your antiquated computer systems would do as you had so implied  - and correctly associate the reference number of the letter of demand you had sent me with the reference number of the current, valid, licence held at this address.

Thereby… (for any thinking, prescient, functioning, and/or individual organism [and in fairness, probably, bacteria]) clearing all further potential claims of criminality which might accrue, on my behalf, by apparently having attempted to avoid paying the £139.50 per year to watch the intensely depressing, facile, or stupid s*** which is generally served up as ‘public television’ in most western countries these days…

All was well in my, now, feeling less criminal for having purchased a TV, peaceful mind…

Until… shortly there after I received another letter - with no reference to the first - only referring again to the fact that I had  (criminally?) purchased a new TV - but this time to my work address!

Possibly high praise indeed I thought! You think I’m such a clever and sneaky bastard I’m packing my TV up, each and every day, and taking it to my work address to watch it so I can avoid paying my share of Jonathon Ross’ salary this year!

It was only a short time before I realised it was not a compliment however - it was simply the fact that you have access to every delivery address that’s in my Amazon account. I do hope you sent like letters of demand to my house in Australia and my friends in the UK, New Zealand and Canada!? And as stated above I really would appreciate return advice as to Acts, regulations, and exemptions which give you unrestricted access to this data.

Do you not think my boss would have noticed me ’sneaking’ a 32 inch widescreen LCD TV onto my desk at work to watch it at that address?

No - I doubt you would have thought about this - because it is patently clear that your organisation is pathologically stupid.

Anyway now you know that I am quite happy for you to legally pursue me all you like for having no TV licence, or TV, at my work address…

Imagine what the Judge might say:
“Sir, did you establish the location of the said receiving device?…”
“Umm, no…”
“Yet you continued to send letters of demand to an address where you had no idea whether there was any receiving device whatsoever?”
“Umm, yes…”
Judge:
“You f***ing idiot, case dismissed…”

To conclude though, never let it be said that I don’t try and find ‘a positive light’ on most events…

With your tenacious approach to compliance, and trying to find ‘illegal transactions’, it seems to me that your services might be mis-placed.  You would surely make more money by hiring yourselves as consultants to the Financial Services Authority, The Bank of England, and/or HM Treasury?…

(hmm.. wouldn’t that be ‘my’ tax-payers money too?… bugger…)

No - hang-on - that’s not actually very positive is it?

Because it is crystal clear that not one those organisations - or yours - has the faintest f***ing clue about what’s going on anywhere, anytime, in any sphere of reality, or actuality …

Oh well.. never mind… I enclose “27 8×10 glossy photographs…“…

Oh s***… no I don’t…

Here are the photocopies of your documents and associated evidence for you to sort through and work out for your-bloody-selves… I couldn’t be ar**d…

Yours, and Ooroo

==== END OF AN OPEN LETTER ====

Squiggle the surface,
a tempting?
a pretty fishing ‘fly’?
see its reflection,
of past,
and have a good cry.

Triple hooks,
strong tropical fishing rig,
a doubling of chance?
for real insight,
or un-truth,
or another merry dance?

Big weights,
rough seas,
commune with the mermaids,
and other fantasies…

But don’t waste time…
trawling that bottom,
down there in those depths,
its not likely, big hooks,
will catch the sublime…

Trolling the fast line,
speeding boats,
big lures,
hunting fat fishes…
all on the run?
High speed hook-ups,
and dead fish,
all over the deck,
what guarantee of fun?

On a serene back-water…
hear the happy fish,
splish, splosh, splish…
splash…

Dive in too,
content with sharing,
swim about in,
the estuary,
with all of our kind…
all paddling together,
Loving, giving,
in the big pond,
the catchers and the caught,
we are all…

Basically the same.
this is this life,
not a big boat, or a big fish,
nor a big game.

Repealing 2008,
remembering 1928,
revealing 2008…
Ever feel like,
you wanted to get off?
The ever loud driving,
the ‘party’,
the bass-beat of greed…
‘get ahead’,
‘go ahead’,
too empty a mantra…
Left ringing in your ears?

Did you get a chance to stop and look…
at the beauty of the swirling snow?
or, read that book?

The big Ox might give a lead?
a bare shoulder, previously,
turned into the cold wind,
hard toil,
love & more persistence?
Ever present internal beauty,
learned to turn a blind eye to all whippings,
drudging honest hoofs through snow…
waiting for a ‘real’ day?
This is the real deal?
the real year?
It’s here my dear brother…
all that investment, well done,
time to make some withdrawals,
and invest where love calls you,
to that wide open door…

A mountain on fire,
doused in doubt,
and spewing forth in pain…
Thundering claps of cantering,
horses hoofs,
being over-taken by the trains…
But, constellation gemini,
will be in ascendant,
ever refusing to lie down.

It’s looked worse than this,
and we’ve pulled through…
One Oxen foot lead by another,
Gonna have to learn the easy stuff,
all over again,
one hard step at a time…

And to our mercurial master,
languishing in pause,
seeking peace,
truth,
in Love, a cause…
to you my brother,
all wishes beautiful…
for your own skill,
self-applied,
you gotta be on your own side…
You will root out your own truth,
of that I am sure…
Pigs can be a little aimless,
but moving mountains you have been set,
it’s a messy business mate,
but it’s in there,
keep looking,
don’t wait…

Have you heard the story?
A Pig, an Ox, and Horse walk into a bar…
Bar Keep says,
“You’re a weird lot”…

“You bettcha!
We’ve been rooting around for years,
for the truth…”
Pig says,
“With a steadfast eye out,
for honesty”
the thoughtfully resolute Ox adds,
“and… as always…”
the silly fat horse, in reflection, tips his head coyly to one side,
(get ready for the verbiage…)
“we are cantering off not quite together,
again,
having learnt lots from each other,
again,
and blessed with some understanding,
of…
love and compassion,
a sense of the absurd,
the wonderfulness of sillyness,
and sarcasm?
or beauty?
or a fundamental understanding that,
having survived as friends in any family is…
a major reason for celebration!”

Viva ‘Animal Signs’,
Viva la difference.
Celebrate…
tolerance,
patience,
Love,
forgiveness…

Truth…

Viva 2009!

Stomping about,
making a point,
talked…
more than you listened…
or,
remembered accurately.

You are beautiful,
you just keep getting,
the herd dust in your eye?…

Look again…
on another shelf?
on another self?
Bull… stomping…
in a China shop?
playing with meaningless cliches…
as a substitute for,
meaning?

Awesome experience,
this life,
hey?

Get to live and die,
if you choose…
in your heaven,
or your own hell.

Get a choice…
blessed with choice,
and what a choice…
Heaven lying at your feet,
contradictions, messages,
no mean feat…

How do I get outta here?
there’s no getting outta here,
‘A - Dead’ apparently…

You only get…
the ever inter-connected choice,
an elephant in the herd,
rubbing trunks with those you love…
but what a blessing.

Permission to write,
meaningless,
self-centred meanderings,
anywhere,
anytime,
cliches included,
in an out of date 60’s…
‘lack of poetry’ style…

Meaningless trash?
but fun?
An awkward baby elephant,
tripping over ones own,
now very old,
and circular,
heavy footsteps…

More fun is in order?
It should arrive,
from Amazon tomorrow?…

Credit crunch excluded…

With thanks to BBC TV listings,
the Eagles,
Bob… again,
and a de-ranged mind I borrowed…
from my Karma :)

A bear on a rocky Alaskan mountain side hunting moths?

A glacier spreading its feet,
through a Himalayan valley…
from space?

Have you ever looked?
Will you look?
Before you die?

When will you die?
How long will you live?
Is your current delusion,
your only illusion?

Are you already dead?

Breathing yes,
Participating, no?

Truthful, yes?
Living amongst the lying, no?
Caring, yes?
Ego-less, yes?
Self generated drama?
Fully determined selfishness?

Boring yourself,
and others,
with your minor,
and petty,
innocuous uselessnesses?

The snow falls.
A snow leopard climbs.
A volcanic mountain rises,
A river eroded mountain canyon crumbles.

In a million to one chance…
you were conceived,
born,
and immediately began your…
inexorable journey to death.

A child of the Universe.
You are gifted with choice.
Your God.
Your Illusion.
Your Truth.
Your choice,
to test your truths.

Have you ever seen…
A world free of anger, delusion, illusion?
Have you ever looked?
Can you see the Snow Leopard feeding her cubs…

Summertime in South Australia is pretty special - the Galahs and Sulpher Crested cockatoos en-masse looking for water, creating one hell of a ‘din, and doing their level best to re-arrange the gums trees into configurations that more suit their purposes…. Looking forward to 40 degree days when you can definitely drink as much as you like and pretty much sweat it out simultaneously as you put it in…

I broke my glasses this morning. What luck to do it on the 24th of December when you and I know there is very little chance of getting anything done… :)  I wear glasses always and the world goes into a vaguely impressionist state of ill-focus when I don’t have them on…

Strangely enough those glasses mean’t something to me too. I’ve had them since 2001 when my girlfriend at the time, quite helpfully, but unplanned, happened to be an an Optometrist.

In the Christmas spirit Eric’s local Optometrist’s were fantastically helpful and after the initial - ’sheesh! what can we do today?’ moment - they managed to find a pair of lenses matching my prescription which could be cut into a new pair of frames. So I am the proud new owner of a goovy pair of black framed ’secretaries glasses’ but without the body bumps in the right places to match :)

The Christmas spirit…

I’ve spent Christmas in some lovely and weird places, with some lovely and/or weird people :) Latterly its been quite family focussed. I actually spent Christmas with my parents in 2006 for the first time in I don’t know how long…

I also have memories of Christmas on the balcony in Canberra cooking prawns on the BBQ, a Christmas day spent literally on a Boeing 747 flying England to Australia, and a Christmas in Darwin a seemingly very long time ago…

A friend down the street dropped in a little package of goodies for Eric today - Apple juice, shortbread… And the nice man who cleans Eric’s windows and has been his ‘partner in crime’ on the Downham Market town sign for the last decade dropped a great ‘bell ringers’ Christmas card this afternoon.

It’s difficult to avoid memories at this time of year… how lucky we all are as human beings… the longer on the planet the more experience has passed…

Oh Ye, on Christmas Eve, synapses fire…

Merry Christmas!

and just in case you need to Track Santa on Google Earth :) (via Nigel)

Because now with the sun full, and high overhead, all one could really see was an ocean of green dappled light in the under croft of a magnificent forest.

Twinkling lights seemed to be flitting about in the canopy as I wandered closer. I could hear conversation.

“I think it beastly how the goblins have behaved lately…”

“You do? In what regard?”

“In the matter of credit default swaps”

“Oh that… in the matter of risks involved with mortgage-backed security derivatives I’m afraid I am quite ignorant…”

With not another word, the two fairies alighted, and flew off, aglow, into the distance.

There was a little boy standing beside me.
He looked up at me and grinned.
And we walked off, hand in hand, into the forest.

I awoke.

Just another…
egoist,
on the rail-road to self-hell,
pretending ‘one’ matters,
in one’s own self-absorbed shell.

Just another…
loser.
Meaning looking for…
loss.
Missing the connection,
and, drowning in…
another days,
dreary dross.

Just another,
pretender.
Feymann you ain’t.
But you never had to be…
a contender,
a compulsive,
a repulsive.
Suicide boats to heaven…
never dock with integrity.

Just another…
‘you could have been’,
‘would have done’,
‘powdered up’, or
‘dusted down’…
Shame about,
the wasted time.

Just another,
passing through…
Temporary licence to humanity,
such extraordinariness, and
sadly missed hues.

Get to fuck yourself over,
time and again.
Prove you can’t make the grade,
or pull the cord.
And then kamikaze on…
your own guilt edged sword.

Oh, goody…
Just another…

a “doin’ the blues” day obviously…
just as easy to see the “flip-side” ala…
“Is already Awesome” or somebody else’s like “Leaf and Stream“

Personally I’d be happy to admit that I could ‘talk for England’, as they say…

But I doubt this is a very positive personal trait and I’m fully aware it does little, to nothing, for developing ones listening skills. I’ll also admit I’ve never tested the alternative practice (silence) seriously…

John Francis on the other hand has. I recently saw a ‘BBC Hardtalk’ interview with John Francis as a guest - amazing. Of course that will disappear off IPlayer very soon…

But if you have 20 minutes to spare for inspiration I can heartily recommend an injection of John’s infectious positiveness and wisdom via this TED Talk.

Says owner Jackie: “People come into the pub and the first thing they say is ‘Where’s Peggy?’ - I tell them she’s kicked the habit and is teetotal now.”

Skipping sideways…

Watching “God and Buddha - a dialogue (1999) - Deepak Chopra & Robert Thurman” (video online) - which incidentally isn’t quite what I expected, or quite a dialogue either  - but still interesting, and I particularly liked Deepak Chopra’s explanation of the Vedanta tradition’s way of looking at ‘dream states’. Roughly, (please forgive any inaccuracies I might introduce through brevity or ignorance here) there are three states:

1) Rational mind - your concious day time mind, “the rational mind weaving stories around your ‘karmic software’”, what we all call everyday experience;

2) Dreams - at night, your rational mind is asleep, but your conciousness is still using your ‘karmic software’ to make stories out of your ‘thoughts’. The assertion is then that the ‘mechanics’ of these two states is the same. And we all know that you get really ‘caught up’, or ‘lose yourself’, in dreams - so much so that it isn’t until you wake up that you realise that that story was in a ‘dream state’…; and

3) Then a circular possibility is that if you “peel back the layers of your soul” - searching for truth and reality - the Vedantic path - seeking enlightenment - that you may ‘awaken’ from even the first state and realise that that was just another ‘dream state’ too…

Appeals to my intellectual ‘wetware’ - I think it’s a lovely concept :)

This is going to be my 3 (5?, 15? :-P) minute guide to various tasks I generally need and the software (some free) one needs to do them…

OK, rushing right along…

If you have:

• an original DVD you want to ’squish’ and backup to a DVD-R (4.7GB) you need DVDShrink
• an AVI (DivX, XviD etc usually sourced from Internet, a friend, or wherever) which you want convert onto a DVD to give to someone who only has a standard DVD player you need ConvertXtoDVD (ok, not free, this one will set you back £30 but is the simplest tool in its class)
• a DVB class recording (ala MPEG-2) which is full of ‘ads’ and needs ‘cleaning up’ take a look at VideoRedo (a rather clever, albeit not free, bit of software which can guess ad-cutting out of a MPEG-2 source)
• a DVB class recording you want to turn into an AVI (an hour of MPEG-2 is about 2GB, an hour of good quality AVI is about 700MB…) have a look at the AutoGK toolkit page
• a DVB class recording you want on a DVD-R for standard DVD players - ConvertXtoDVD again

Ah, and after you’ve done all that, have the video file(s) in a format you want, and want to ‘burn it’ to CD/DVD, try out CDBurnerXP. It’s not perfect, but it is free, and will manage most straight-forward CD/DVD burning jobs…

Last but not least - media players - over M$ media player ‘bloatware’ and ‘I’ll get back to you right after I’ve failed downloading yet another video codec’ messages yet? - try GOM Player or VLC Media Player instead. Both very good (and free) primary media players, each with their own strength.

Not sure why - think it might be that it’s destructive rather than constructive - for both yourself and ‘the other’ (the ‘target’) - anger on a personal level…

Personally I was ‘lucky’ in some ways - didn’t really ’see’ anger until I was in my mid 30’s - the luck in this is there’s a real comparison for me - kind of the pre-anger and post-anger view of my world…

Anger, of course, is a valid (albeit not very positive) human emotion - we all ‘get into’ the anger experience, at some time, in my estimation. What I’m interested in is pressing reason, or intellect, against emotion in exploring where anger ‘fits’ (or not, as the case may be)…

Anger is a thing entrenched in the ‘me’ version of the world I think. A nice counter to that is the self-less version of the world… which is trickier to understand in my experience but more interesting, much happier, and certainly more fun!

Roughly:

• You’re really entrenched in the ‘me’ view - see it operate when someone stamps on your foot, or really offends your sensibilities. You ‘have to react’, often in anger, to protect ‘you’. You’re really self-trained to think you are ‘it’ - ‘you against the world’ type of thing - gotta defend ‘me’…
  I, me, me ,mine :-)
  I’m a solid ‘thing’ which exists… In all likelihood you’ve been brought up this way and much of western culture reinforces that outlook.
• What about you don’t actually ‘exist’ at all (in a non-relational way) ? The ‘test’ for this is to try and break down the component parts of yourself and define where the ‘me’ is - you are your hand? or your liver? or generally the cells that make up your body? You are your ‘mind’? Where is your ‘mind’? Is your ‘mind’ the the cells that make up your brain? Tricky…
• So you are nothing…? If you don’t ‘exist’ you are nothing, yes? By logic, not very likely - nothing comes from nothing? And returns to nothing? I don’t think so - it defies logic - matter can come from energy and vice-versa - the little we know ‘in science’ tells us this. Nothing doesn’t come from nothing, and things don’t ‘go to nothing’ - ‘things’ don’t ‘disappear’ - transform, yes, but they don’t just disappear. But you are probably not the ‘bits’ which make up the physical you…
• If you accept that your body was ’something’ (loosely, in simplicity, ‘matter’) before you were born and returns to that ’something’ (again ‘matter’ and/or energy) after you die then it’s not a great leap to consider that your awareness (mind, or consciousness, or soul, or whatever - let’s not get hung up on the terminology) could be much the same.



• So you were ’something’ before your physical/mind manifestation existed? And ‘they’ will still be ’something’ after you are ‘gone’? Seems completely reasonable given this flow of logic. ‘Matter’ arises and decays - a big sea of matter is out there - science tells us that - it constantly re-assembles, re-arranges, transforms…
• Given it’s likely that most would agree awareness/conciousness is not simply ‘matter’ but something different, then I don’t think it’s too greater leap to consider a parallel ’sea of awareness’ - which likewise arises, decays, re-assembles, re-arranges and transforms. It likewise also probably doesn’t, however, ‘come from nothing’ or ‘go to nothing’. This is, though, I grant you, pretty non-intuitive. If you suspend dis-belief for a moment and think through the likely truth of this flow of thought though it is possible - and, in fact, it seems quite plausible…
• The conclusion in this flow of argument is that there is some sort of continuum of awareness - and a parallel, or integrated, continuum of matter.
• (and it gets really interesting if you’re able to articulate imagining this as my brother Kurt can…read and test every word - find one that doesn’t fit - isn’t necessary… this is the definition of articulate succinct creative communication)
• Extrapolated thought would suggest you are a relational part of this continuum…. and the most interesting part, your awareness/conciousness, is just ‘in’ that sea of awareness - and that is the ‘real’ you. It existed before you were born and will still be there after you are dead… not as ‘you’ in the (fill in you with yourname) you today sense, but it will still be there… And,of course, everyone else is in that ’sea of reality’ too..
• You are not real as ‘me’ in the current limited view of the ‘physio you’ sense - but your core reality, and truth, is that you are a real part of the infinitely inter-connected continuum of awareness…
• The next step is a little tricky (well is for me anyway) - In the ‘we are all an inter-connected continuum of awareness’ - “bliss, void, indivisable” - the things which naturally arise are Love, compassion and empathy - transcendence of self to selflessness - human-ness - creativity - sharing - ‘the human spirit’ - the ’soul’ of conciousness…

This is my amateur attempt at an incomplete summary (and due to my limited understanding probably quite inadequate) of this little chain of Buddhist philosophy. An important aside is that Buddhist philosophy is truly self-referential - in that, only you can understand your understanding of it - my limited understanding or explanations, or any doctrine, or any dogma, are not your understanding - the key is you must find the path to truth and reality (your understanding).

One of the neat things about all of this is - in my somewhat, as yet, ignorant view - it seems to accord reasonably well with most theologies. I grant you, you have to dispense with a lot of tradition, inane detail, doctrine, and other dogmatic crap to arrive at that view… But it’s difficult to find a spiritual tradition which doesnt contain the core components of the infinite, a continuum, Love and compassion as core, and subsequently moral ethics and seeking fundamental (self-understood) truth as central themes…

‘Rabbiting on’…

I imagined I hear you say “yeah, yeah Shaun…”, with a little sigh, “and is there a point to all of this… stuff?”

Hmmm… thinking…

“Oh yes!” he says confidently, buying time to catch the thought train back to the original station…

In anger, it seems to me, one is reinforcing a very narrow view, that “me is against the world” view (even if in the emotion you are only doing the minutely personal view of ‘me is against so and so’).

If you explore the intellectual, reality, & perspective options and find some truth in a continuum of awareness, a shared space, it becomes relatively easy (he says with the same level of confidence as a train returning to the ‘original thought station’) to put yourself in the other “person’s shoes”… the exchange of self and other…

When you can do that, I would suggest, it’s difficult to be angry with them - they, after all, are here in reality just like you - well maybe not ‘just like you’ :) - but in this ’shared space’ - a truth of shared essence - of Love, compassion, empathy - a human mind in infinite conciousness - in the ‘pool’ - experiencing the human condition.

At that point it’s difficult to ‘accuse them’ of anything - e.g. falling into the trap of ‘delusion’, ’self-pride’, or whatever other slightly bent emotion they are projecting at you that you happen to be reacting (in anger) to…

Didn’t you experience just such an emotion last week!?

Did you manage not to project it at someone else?

Phew! Now even I’m not sure whether there’s a main point to all of this - think I’ll leave that to you to work out for yourself :-P

with thanks:
to Paco CT and Bob.Fornal for photos;
friends who fed back on a very
‘drafty’ early bit of these scribblings; and
again, to Bob, for my understanding
(yet incomplete, of course, but that’s my problem)
of Buddhist philosophy.
Celebrate!

Immediate thought was - maybe I should post this over on ‘Buggered if I Know‘ because I can just feel it - it’s ‘gonna’ end up being a bit of a wandering, ‘but what would I know’ type of post…

In soaking up the sun it can make even more immediate the ‘Jewel Tree of Tibet‘ visualisation - not only can one visualise enlightened ones sending Jewel Light, you can imagine and feel it filling you up and it over-flowing in thanks to everyone you wish to send happiness to. Of course it wouldn’t be me if I was suggesting that you might do this in only one context - descriptively in this case via Tibetan Buddhism - you might, in my opinion, just as easily have this feeling of sharing a blessed universal Love in a Christian context, or Hinduism, or even as a secular humanist. In short, if you invoke your soul it would actually take effort to miss it.

A dear friend of mine mentioned that her family sometimes ‘accuses’ her (half in jest I’m sure) of living too much in the present.
Ha!
In an ‘aspiring logician’ mode my response was “I’d love to know what the alternative is!?”. By logic you can’t live in the future, or the past. By just about anyone’s judgement, ‘living in the past’ is not considered a very positive personal attribute. And if you tell too many people you think you live in the future there’s a possibility some might doubt your sanity :-)

But in this ‘world’ that is exactly where the commercially driven, or others, of a ‘materialist’ nature, want you to be - in your ‘acquiring’ future. “Ooh I’ll be happy when I get the latest model car, the newest Nokia phone, or that ‘all age’ curing skin cream”. We’ve all had the experience of ‘getting’ these ‘new things’ and… for, exactly, how long did this ‘new thing’ make you happy?

But in a commercial sense it’s great - ‘I want’ - ka-ching! - ‘I need’ - ka-ching! - ‘but so and so has’ - ka ching! - money in the till - profit barons of the world unite :)
(if you’re interested in the history of psychology used in marketing over the past 80 odd years check out Adam Curtis’ documentary series - A Century of The Self)

On another level, I’ll be happy if… (fill in the blank) “I get a new boy/girlfriend, we have a baby, get married, I get a new job, I ________ …”

Ever noticed that you are completely happy right up until the moment you ask yourself - “how happy am I?” - you were completely happy in the moment, right up to the point when you tried to ‘get into’ the future, or the past, of ‘how happy am I?’ :)

It’d be a reasonable suggestion, in my humble opinion, that you are far more happy when your explorations as a human being yields a path of learning, (and hence my title reference to Dharma), sharing, in truth, in reality… actually exercising that awesome ‘computing power’ of the mind you have been blessed with by birth. You could die tomorrow, or today…

Really… at that point you’ve got to admit, surely, in the “one more moment to live” scenario - that it’s ‘a tad more taxing’, and rewarding, to be working out what really makes you, your Loved ones, your friends (and enemies incidentally) really, truly, happy… Sure beats the value of working out what new features Nokia have included in their ’shiny new phone’ - to, no doubt, ensure you get ’skinned in fees’ on O2’s 3G network :)

…some lovely lyrics ‘on topic’ which came my way recently - ‘Leaf and Stream‘…

Honestly, this isn’t rocket science, is it?…

You get the choice - stay on the ‘treadmill’ of new phones and life enhancing skin creams - or - spend a little time working out where you ‘fit’ and how you can Love yourself and your friends & family with intensity - today… just a reminder, you may be dead tomorrow…
(and for a completely different take on ‘death’ check out the film What Dreams May Come if you’re so inclined)

And death is just another ‘real’ part of life… but what would I know? :-)

with thanks to:
- Ian Anderson for the title,
- Bob Thurman for my little understanding of Buddhist Dharma,
- friends and family for patience and Love…, and
- davidreid & kiddharma for photo’s (here & here)
oh, and that reminds me about “Dharma the Cat” cartoons…