tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7303036825390749382024-02-19T01:04:01.040-10:00alex incydeThis desert was once a seaincydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-89197273337995598622023-10-15T12:56:00.005-10:002023-10-15T12:56:29.835-10:00Cybersecurity<p> I thought I'd go ahead and share what I've been up to recently. I currently work in project management & corporate compliance, and was in healthcare for 10 years before that.</p><p>About a month ago, I discovered an interest in personal cyber-security & data privacy: for example, how can I shield my personal information from metadata tracking by ad & tech companies to use for targeted ads, or sell & trade it under their extensive privacy policy that no one ever reads? How can I ensure that my passwords are secure, and that my accounts use MFA/2FA whenever possible? Sadly, even if I take every precaution, my info could also be exposed because I'd given it to an organization who's had their data breached.</p><p>Cybersecurity is a part of everyone's lives - personally and at work, whether we like it or not. Unless of course, you live in a cabin in the woods with no internet or phone.</p><p>I soon realized that not only myself, but no one is able to protect themselves and their organizations from all the cyber threats out there, and I believe I have what it takes to help, professionally, with this worldwide problem. I thought immediately of the hospitals and nursing homes who have been taken hostage by ransomware attacks, and patients who have died as a result. Lives are irrevocably changed every day by malicious bits of code that, with better security and preparation, could be prevented. How could I NOT go for a career where I'd be protecting against those threats? Especially, those made against our most vulnerable citizens who are unable to do so themselves?</p><p>So with that inspiration, my focus is now on professional development… into cybersecurity!</p><p>I'm very early in this journey still, but I've been spending most of my precious & scarce free time (outside of work and parenting) digging into the wealth of articles, podcasts, and training out there. In fact, and this is not a promo I swear -- for me, it started with #LinkedInLearning courses that are made accessible through my company, Wolters Kluwer. I started with "Land your First Cybersecurity Job" by the amazing cyber-ninja Mari Galloway, and have been fully inspired to learn more, and build a roadmap to #PIVOT into the field ever since.</p><p>After that course and trawling the internet, it turns out there has been a huge national initiative to build a stronger cybersecurity workforce, simply because of the growing supply gap: the threats are getting more sophisticated & evolving quicker than they have been, even in recent years, yet there aren't nearly enough trained professionals to handle it.</p><p>I've just been accepted to the One Million Certified in #Cybersecurity certification course at #ISC2: https://www.isc2.org/landing/1mcc. Wish me luck!</p><p>Do you, or a friend, happen to work in cyber? If yes, PLEASE say hi so I can fire questions at you 😁</p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-21351178116759108302022-05-18T17:24:00.004-10:002022-05-18T17:24:54.108-10:00If the mind is clear<p>"If the mind is clear,</p><p>A dark room has its blue sky</p><p>If the mind is somber,</p><p>Broad daylight gives birth to demons and evil spirits</p><p>The just man has no mind to seek happiness,</p><p>Heaven therefore because of this mindlessness,</p><p>Opens its utmost heart</p><p>The bad man busies himself with avoiding misfortunes,</p><p>Heaven therefore confounds him for this desire</p><p>How unsearchable, are the ways of heaven</p><p>How useless, is the wisdom of man</p><p>The Tao is common property</p><p>It should be pointed out to all we meet</p><p>Learning is as ordinary as eating rice at home</p><p>According to the circumstances</p><p>It should be pointed out circumspectly</p><p>The ancients left rice for mice</p><p>And did not light lamps out of pity for moths</p><p>These thoughts of theirs are the operating point for humanity in life</p><p>Lacking this, a man is a mear earthman, a wooden body</p><p>The Zen sect says, when you are hungry eat</p><p>When you are weary sleep</p><p>Poetry aims at the description in common language in beautiful scenery</p><p>The sublime is contained in the ordinary,</p><p>The hardest</p><p>In the easiest</p><p>What is self concious and alterior</p><p>Is far from the Truth</p><p>What is mindless</p><p>Is Near" ~ Kojisai (1624) </p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-64820973108289482742021-09-26T20:00:00.003-10:002021-09-26T20:00:49.469-10:00Free Me<p> "If you're frightened of dying, and you're holdin' on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. If you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth."</p><p> - <i>Jacob's Ladder</i>, 1990</p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-63771354285341056352021-09-26T17:39:00.001-10:002021-09-26T17:39:37.831-10:00Ten Years of Nothing<p>"We experience the universe's current state simply because we exist. We see what we see because these are the only conditions that allow it. The possibilities held in every moment are reduced to a singularity by our presence. This is natural selection on the quantum level. We are birthed from the random: endless possibilities have come and gone in the wake of our presence, leaving only one experience of reality that is entirely observer-dependent.</p><p>Randomness rules every aspect of our lives, but ultimately, only one result prevails that is dependent on our mode of perception. In light of relativity, every observer lives their own personal version of the universe with their own perception of time: our own place in a vibratory, multidimensional mandala. </p><p>Though some of our experiences can overlap in symmetry, we find that we are God playing dice, the Brahman playing hide-and-seek with itself, creating uniqueness in every moment, now ad infinitum. We find polarities unified: chaos and order, difference and similarity, organism and environment, unity and separateness, something and nothing, as sides of the same coin. They create each other and depend on each other. All arises together, in and of itself."</p><p>-me, January 2011</p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-7926958792337517002021-07-17T19:50:00.001-10:002021-09-05T19:16:49.653-10:00You don't know what you want because you have it<p>"I don't know what I want. When you don't know what you want, you've reached the state of desirelessness. When you really don't know.</p><p>Why don't you really know what you want? Two reasons that you don't really know what you want: number one: you have it. Number two: you don't know yourself, because you never can. The Godhead is never an object of its own knowledge. It's always an endless mystery to itself. I don't know! And this I don't know is the same thing as I love, I let go, I don't try to force or control, it's the same thing as humility.</p><p>'He by whom Brahman is not known, knows It; he by whom It is known, knows It not. It is not known by those who know It; It is known by those who do not know It.' (Kena Upanishad 2.3)</p><p>The meaning of the fact that everything is dissolving constantly, that we're all falling apart, we're all in a process of constant death... all falling apart, everything is. That's the great assistance to you. That fact, that everything is in decay, is your harbor. That is allowing you, that you don't have to let go, because there's nothing to hold on to.</p><p>It's achieved for you, in other words, by the process of nature. So once you see that you just don't have a prayer, that it's all washed up, and that you will vanish and <a href="https://www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/tempest/page_160/" target="_blank">"leave not a rack behind"</a>, and you really get with that... suddenly, you find you have the power. This enormous access of energy. But it's not power that came to you because you grabbed it, it came in entirely the opposite way. And power that comes to you in that opposite way, is power with which you can be trusted."</p><p>-Alan Watts</p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-67817774482377757872021-07-08T10:19:00.000-10:002021-07-08T10:19:00.566-10:00Protectionspell<p>"I remember the day I walked out of my Lion's mother's cave, the snakes had being awaiting me outside, and I started to play and dance with some fine confidence, full of plain white innocence. and when I learned to fly, I learned a lot about what lifts you up can throw you down and found out that also works the other way around</p><p>Thank you for your trust, because that is what makes me believe that we can heal each other cause everything is everything and I know sometimes you’re worried about the future and again and again I said to myself, don't you worry cause everything is everything, everything is everything.</p><p>Walking through the same dreams, indescribable and out of control as it seems, dream within a dream</p><p>and I try to remember that I don't depend on anything, only in a way that like loving or laughing, sleeping or crying</p><p>Creation is the opposite of dying, this is what keeps me sane, when someone interrupted the circle with consciousness, pretending to myself it could last had being the greatest part of it. It is the earth of lying</p><p>and its never been healthy to depend on someone's love, rather than the freedom it may give you to enjoy our wonder</p><p>I feel all this is a mirror that expands and everyone is free to mirror a part of himself. You can see your self in the way you want to see something</p><p>I hope you remember, that everything is everything, everything is everything, is everything, is everything, is everything....." </p><p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-347272047-845781678/protection-spell-dj-healer" target="_blank">https://soundcloud.com/user-347272047-845781678/protection-spell-dj-healer</a><br /></p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-80017824491682121732021-05-14T18:04:00.003-10:002021-05-14T18:04:29.862-10:00Memory Ends<p> "For the being of love, the process of memory must come to an end. Memory comes into being only when experience is not completely, fully understood. Memory is only the residue of experience; it is the result of a challenge which is not fully comprehended. Life is a process of challenge and response. Challenge is always new but the response is ever old. This response, which is conditioning, which is the result of the past, must be understood and not disciplined or condemned away. It means living each day anew, fully and completely. This complete living is possible only when there is love, when your heart is full, not with the words nor with the things made by the mind. Only where there is love, memory ceases; then every movement is a rebirth."</p><p>- J Krishnamurti</p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-65852016489141749592021-05-13T19:27:00.001-10:002021-05-14T18:33:41.433-10:00Water<p> "We should realize that, although they are liberated, without any bonds, all things are abiding in their own state. However, when humans look at water, they have the one way that sees it only as flowing without rest. This "flow" takes many forms, of which the human view is but one. Water flows over the earth; it flows across the sky; it flows up; it flows down. Water flows around bends and into deep abysses. It mounts up to form clouds; it descends to form pools.</p><p>The Wen Tzu says, 'The tao of water, ascending to heaven, becomes rain and dew, descending to earth, becomes rivers and streams.'</p><p>This passage says that, although the way of water is unknown to water, water actually functions as water; although the way of water is not unknown to water, water actually functions as water.</p><p>'Ascending to heaven, it becomes rain and dew.'</p><p>We should realize that water climbs to the very highest heavens in the highest quarters and becomes rain and dew. Rain and dew is of various kinds, in accordance with the various worlds. Water extends into flames; it extends into thought, reasoning and discrimination; it extends into awareness and the buddha nature.</p><p>It is not the case simply that there is water in the world; within the world of water there is a world. And this is true not only within water: within clouds as well there is world of sentient beings; within wind there is world of sentient beings; within fire there is world of sentient beings; within earth there is world of sentient beings. Within the dharma realm there is a world of sentient beings; within a single blade of grass there is world of sentient beings; within a single staff there is a world of sentient beings. And wherever there is a world of sentient beings, there, inevitably, is the world of buddhas and ancestors.</p><p>The reason this so, we should study very carefully."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh723pVt7aKuZKRWyrPMYVFCD_Rq4VxRZV07KhycQ22rhA8o_DS4IMpAsZEQz1kmAFGgHOa3XQwqkCF9-7otCTMs6nmY1-HICN062lD9yFKSsAGgoI5A85EF0IgwMUhYHMwr_iYpfbv-kg_/s1342/A%25CC%2584ka%25CC%2584s%25CC%2581agarbha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1342" data-original-width="1000" height="479" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh723pVt7aKuZKRWyrPMYVFCD_Rq4VxRZV07KhycQ22rhA8o_DS4IMpAsZEQz1kmAFGgHOa3XQwqkCF9-7otCTMs6nmY1-HICN062lD9yFKSsAGgoI5A85EF0IgwMUhYHMwr_iYpfbv-kg_/w356-h479/A%25CC%2584ka%25CC%2584s%25CC%2581agarbha.jpg" width="356" /></a></div><p>- Dogen Kigen, excerpt from <i>The Mountains and Waters Sutra</i>, 1240 AD.</p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-76273070390100273412021-05-13T19:26:00.007-10:002021-05-20T18:16:09.265-10:00How do you say Goodbye?<h4 style="text-align: left;">How do you say Goodbye?</h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBGmIKBvTJ75JzKmMjMKcCUF0CsP-nAsp-yDkA93pOrlkXpNbsasQZOKQQt9IH-ECiGyOrUevnkUMN0J9NTFeGgu-sOCWcI8j8BS19Dcpt5YZnQIB2LSj1QulaJ_HfQpzFM24C_jr_I36o/s1012/2001+-053-+gomma+and+ahah+by+bungalow+CROP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="1012" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBGmIKBvTJ75JzKmMjMKcCUF0CsP-nAsp-yDkA93pOrlkXpNbsasQZOKQQt9IH-ECiGyOrUevnkUMN0J9NTFeGgu-sOCWcI8j8BS19Dcpt5YZnQIB2LSj1QulaJ_HfQpzFM24C_jr_I36o/w441-h260/2001+-053-+gomma+and+ahah+by+bungalow+CROP.jpg" width="441" /></a></div><p>We say it almost every day. Sometimes it's just a word in passing to someone you'll see tomorrow, sometimes it's the last time we'll ever tell a person that without knowing it is. It's the latter I'm concerned with here. </p><p>Many of us have already faced this at some point in our lives. For those who have not, it's only a matter of time. But what is time, really? Can it really be measured? Can it really be felt, time? How long did it take to emerge from your mother's womb? How long did it take to journey across the room, or across the country, to be with someone important to you? How long does a true conversation last with someone you love? I say truly, these things are timeless! They all are.</p><p>One day we are born, one day we grow, one day who we were is gone, the molecules in our bodies that were there before are completely recycled, rebuilt, and restructured. Days are just time, one time the Earth spins and returns to a place it never was before.</p><p>I'll never forget the last time I was at the Lake in Wisconsin, right around the time my son was size of a lentil in his mother's womb, and I happened upon my grandfather, Dave, sitting in his office, who had just put down a book, I forget what it was. He told me Alex, I've come to a conclusion about spirituality and religion, and there is nothing else, there is only Love. The Universe is made of Love, and that's it. And I nodded, because I knew he was right.</p><p>Nothing special, nothing extra. Nothing outside of us. We are it. Love is what surrounds us everywhere and always, whether we accept it or not, it's just there. Love is what makes life, and life is all we are in an otherwise lifeless and chaotic existence of stars exploding in far-off spaces, dust collecting and merging together to form new planets that none of us will ever see except through a telescope, when the vibrations that reach our eyes have traveled for thousands of years at the speed of light across unknown galaxies. How else are these things in our world here, except as things to be seen, heard, felt as living, conscious beings?</p><p>So we have to ask, if these things arise together, phenomena and being, and only exist for each other's sake, are they actually separate at all? Is there really an experience and an experiencer? We all were born out of an act of love, we all grew up because of acts of love from others greater than ourselves, and thus we are here now, alive and breathing, nourished, sheltered, with clothing on our backs and most importantly, the capacity to love one another.</p><p>To see an end as a beginning, we simply need to take a step back from our immediate selves. Does a drop of water worry about when it will evaporate? Ask a wave on the ocean, what will it tell you? Whooooosh.... CRASH.... again, and again, but never the same twice.</p><p>In the same way, events in this life seem to repeat or have patterns, but in the big picture, it's all one big beautiful, chaotic wave, made up of a collection of smaller waves, with even smaller waves inside them, all composed of drops of water, where even one drop is great number of water molecules making it what it is, as it crashes again and again into rock, over eons and eons, gently crushing them into pristine sandy beaches, creating tiny bubbles floating on the surface of the deep ocean, being formed by the chaos and popping so quickly no one could ever keep up, but can only listen to the subtle and unique sound it all makes, vibrating through the air as it reaches your inner ear, becoming sound waves, shimmering across your neural cortex that dissipate as soon as they arrived, just like those bubbles.</p><p>Love is what makes our sense of time and self disappear, it's what makes us do things that make no sense, it's what makes us forget about living and dying, it's what keeps us grounded in what's happening now. It's a bedtime story, it's an embrace that seems to last forever but never long enough, it's a lullaby, it's teaching someone how to play, it's holding someone's hand when they are sick, it's making dinner, it's saying a prayer, it's the Sun rising with loon calls echoing across the water. These events are not random!</p><p>Those of us who have ever lost all sense of Love, find ourselves trapped in our own loneliness, isolation and sadness, a prisoner of our own minds, belittling ourselves and others by thinking we are just separate things that will live forever, and never change.</p><p>My grandmother Bea was someone who seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of this Love. She gave it to everyone around her incessantly, this intangible, inexpressible, infinite thing that you can never quite put your finger on, but you <i>know</i> it's there, because you <b><i>feel it</i></b>, because it's literally what is maintaining your and my entire existence, it's the same force that holds the atoms in our bodies together, what helps us through illness, old age, tragedy, loss, and death itself.</p><p>My mother tells me that when I was a boy, I once said "There are too many goodbyes, and not enough hellos." </p><p>We have all lost someone and had to say goodbye, whether we knew it was goodbye or not. But if we step back from our immediate selves, death of one person is not a finality, not a goodbye, it's an opportunity to discover a new version of ourselves, not as one person, but all of us who are alive now, remembering and cherishing, as one gigantic crashing wave of vibrations: flesh, blood, synapses, emotions, voices, beating hearts ignited by the fire of Love itself. All of us will never be who we are forever, we are changing all the time, we are change itself.</p><p>So, the best way to say goodbye, is to say "Hello". Meet yourself and this world exactly as it is, because there is no other time, no other person, no other way it could be. No inside, no outside, no beginning, no end.</p><p>Goodbye Gomma, Goodbye AhAh, Hello us. Let us not sleep in sorrow, let us wake up and meet things as they are with our eyes open, our hearts ready to carry this Love on as long as we can. We need to love ourselves, and we need to love each other. We ARE it. So say Hello. That's how you say good bye.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Say Hello!</h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivFXz6T6aSEF70FSO4xQfLlfUupbYUlEX03DDEcEBb2lP427Kp_Oze3CQ7pqYSVfxrt1sgoNiWPEEggxFc84TyKKTTFem1coMpN1HS8m7_HMctM7HMKoLIrxbYw5YUGyRi_Jn-WjOeuRtA/s2048/IMG_1678.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="437" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivFXz6T6aSEF70FSO4xQfLlfUupbYUlEX03DDEcEBb2lP427Kp_Oze3CQ7pqYSVfxrt1sgoNiWPEEggxFc84TyKKTTFem1coMpN1HS8m7_HMctM7HMKoLIrxbYw5YUGyRi_Jn-WjOeuRtA/w327-h437/IMG_1678.JPG" width="327" /></a></div>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-86450781967326949942021-05-06T17:12:00.010-10:002021-05-06T17:14:30.758-10:00Ten year path (re-post)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I posted this quote exactly 10 years ago (May 2011), images added this time:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>"Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary.<p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1895" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71uLKUhG-wCntL7nwD0vybOQyP3tG6ub6fb4K4AuV59YiGQRhR_Tr18upIJpUU0Y60c0EhCyDs_TcV1JAz45QFYP_LNWtYUa2lVTH-Ua66UT29dGRn740srKyIMlq0TxrB-w26v0t0B8o/w371-h376/IMG_1539.PNG" width="371" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">"This question is one that only a very old man asks: <b>Does this path have a heart? </b>If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you."</div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm8Bb-vSKEhxc2gwXDzvil8MZs_DzMUxgqgeuOVaWPvY8whmSHb5CO5uZt0pjqWzafAt3ckSKY4JQijNSILGYoh7qtqKZ5seW4jCJCkoGBot6hIWqQKoeGXeO2ObTWozfaMNDL4yteIKAt/s2048/20170520_115129.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="349" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm8Bb-vSKEhxc2gwXDzvil8MZs_DzMUxgqgeuOVaWPvY8whmSHb5CO5uZt0pjqWzafAt3ckSKY4JQijNSILGYoh7qtqKZ5seW4jCJCkoGBot6hIWqQKoeGXeO2ObTWozfaMNDL4yteIKAt/w465-h349/20170520_115129.jpg" width="465" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: center;">- Don Juan</h3><p></p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-65021264266671866892021-05-03T02:13:00.004-10:002021-05-06T17:15:33.648-10:00Visiting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjjkchsdrhmClzmcp8OF1HBkGQHoVPpKhBCGBjvdc2TijZ4pa5INPg9HxS7hy0ZOhyphenhyphenqJhVI6vDzdPV0Q2DU6aBO0fpRCRVeVnagq8P8u5nnklbf8WsDQbeesVtVDfhmEG1vCpcOMzHoH8r/s944/0E2A438F-74CB-4BC6-8698-693BEA779B61.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="944" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjjkchsdrhmClzmcp8OF1HBkGQHoVPpKhBCGBjvdc2TijZ4pa5INPg9HxS7hy0ZOhyphenhyphenqJhVI6vDzdPV0Q2DU6aBO0fpRCRVeVnagq8P8u5nnklbf8WsDQbeesVtVDfhmEG1vCpcOMzHoH8r/w505-h337/0E2A438F-74CB-4BC6-8698-693BEA779B61.jpeg" width="505" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">Unknown, Hsiang-chi Temple—</p><p style="text-align: center;">Miles and miles into cloud-draped peaks.</p><p style="text-align: center;">Among the old trees, a path no one travels,</p><p style="text-align: center;">A bell deep in the mountains but where from?</p><p style="text-align: center;">A brook gulps among protruding boulders,</p><p style="text-align: center;">And though the sun glows, it’s cool beneath the pines.</p><p style="text-align: center;">At dusk, by a bend in an empty pool,</p><p style="text-align: center;">Meditating quietly I rout the deadly dragon.</p><p style="text-align: center;">-Wang Wei (699 - 761 AD)</p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-30295806552655347942021-05-01T19:50:00.003-10:002021-05-01T19:50:17.915-10:00The Outside Goes With The Inside<p>"There are—in nature, in the actual physical universe—no such things as <i>things</i>, and no such happenings as events. They’re all invented by us in the same way as we invent lines of latitude and longitude, inches, meters, minutes and hours. They’re all measures: they don’t really exist out there. But we choose certain lines. For example, we choose the boundary of the human skin and we say this divides me from everything else. Inside this bag of skin is “me,” inside those bags of skin is “you.” And outside that is a foreign world that isn’t me, that isn’t you. <b>But that’s not true!</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6fdNC_5UpccIzoph2_tCmSsnAQVEuAesy2UdXAT7mBN3nf3zszM4UpsrcnCnOYSy0IysU-_Uql9R_aclC_YGvw0Y9uue9SzxqJtSkmgnCjCXx9G4qCs1FTniqtTTE3AJtA97mjik_Qc3K/s700/Alex_Grey_Praying.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="515" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6fdNC_5UpccIzoph2_tCmSsnAQVEuAesy2UdXAT7mBN3nf3zszM4UpsrcnCnOYSy0IysU-_Uql9R_aclC_YGvw0Y9uue9SzxqJtSkmgnCjCXx9G4qCs1FTniqtTTE3AJtA97mjik_Qc3K/w294-h400/Alex_Grey_Praying.jpeg" width="294" /></a><br />Alex Grey, <a href="https://www.alexgrey.com/art/paintings/soul/alex_grey_praying" target="_blank">Praying</a></div><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">"The skin, from one point of view, can be said to divide us from the external world, but from another point of view it is exactly what joins us to the external world. The skin is full of pores through which we breathe the air. The skin is full of nerve ends through which we become sensitive to what goes on around us. And if, as a matter of fact, the air pressure outside the skin was not exactly fifteen pounds per square inch—if it was anything less than that—we’d blow up. The <a href="https://youtu.be/a01QQZyl-_I" target="_blank">pressure</a> inside would be too much for the outside. See? What we don’t—we are carefully educated not to notice certain things, because once you start noticing it—in other words, using your spotlight to concentrate on certain areas—at the <i>same time</i> as you notice, you also <b><i>ignore</i></b>, you also <i>don’t</i> notice.</div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ6uuanSjPJY9YcNQh84uF1fkCBHIIxPEGI21A3VEZgTAOUXmmkRRo6xT5B9HI0TEFTeG3KpPULs37UohGMFbv_zDsPXKR_AQSHaCqQjrz9N-qBwsI5rkmSt_74lgh8Y5bbh9LvnJMxOow/s800/black-and-white-circle-art_65519.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ6uuanSjPJY9YcNQh84uF1fkCBHIIxPEGI21A3VEZgTAOUXmmkRRo6xT5B9HI0TEFTeG3KpPULs37UohGMFbv_zDsPXKR_AQSHaCqQjrz9N-qBwsI5rkmSt_74lgh8Y5bbh9LvnJMxOow/w233-h233/black-and-white-circle-art_65519.jpeg" width="233" /></a></div><p></p><p>"Often I take a blackboard and I draw a circle on it. And I say to people, “What have I drawn?” And they’ll say, “A circle,” “a ball,” “a sphere.” Very few people ever say, “A hole in the wall.” A few smart ones do. In other words, do you notice what’s inside the circle, or do you notice what’s outside? Because what’s outside is just as important as what’s inside. You know, the fundamental secret of life—I’m going to tell you this, and this is worth all your price of admission; it’s the ultimate secret! The ultimate secret is: for every inside, there is an outside. And they go together, and you can’t have one without the other. And that’s the whole problem of metaphysics, of religion, of life and death, so be of good cheer. But normally, you see, the way we are trained to attend our attention is captured by the area inside, just as it’s captured by an object that moves rather than one that’s still. In other words, if a mouse were suddenly to go skitty-skit across the floor here, everybody would notice the mouse. And I keep moving a little instead of standing still, like this, while I talk to you so that you will notice me a little, see?</p><h4 style="text-align: left;">So by that I mean, <b>the inside always goes with the outside.</b></h4><div>"Now then, the whole use of consciousness—this is the point I’m making—<b>the whole use of consciousness is the isolation of certain areas which we pay attention to. </b>And we pay as the price for that kind of attention ignoring what stands outside them. For example, most people think that space is nothing. Space is just emptiness through which we all move. Interstellar space—the space between planets, the space between galaxies—is nothing. But every painter and every architect knows that space isn’t nothing at all. Architects sometimes talk about the influence of space upon behavior. And to the uninitiated this sounds like nonsense. And if you paint, you realize that you have to paint the space as well as the things in the space. In other words, if you work in oils on canvas, you have to work on the background. You have to paint the background in. And you realize, therefore, that it’s something that’s there.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwyeu3U5yl4f0kFaoCRx330eOMM0Jn60epepBu_zCuCKNDGGK6LrlvinkiHJuzI70I4uVmEKuBUcabSlbEC4cW5Hb1jWsb8PEJjUoQH8QPwXAhLqZED1xmtXD-4RN5x3sQET05tuaxPbJ_/s1000/+Ma+Lin%252C+Landscape+With+Great+Pine.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="947" data-original-width="1000" height="379" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwyeu3U5yl4f0kFaoCRx330eOMM0Jn60epepBu_zCuCKNDGGK6LrlvinkiHJuzI70I4uVmEKuBUcabSlbEC4cW5Hb1jWsb8PEJjUoQH8QPwXAhLqZED1xmtXD-4RN5x3sQET05tuaxPbJ_/w400-h379/+Ma+Lin%252C+Landscape+With+Great+Pine.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Ma Lin, "Landscape With Great Pine"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>"Can you imagine a solid without a space ’round it? Why, you can’t possibly do so! Can you imagine a space without a solid in it? You can’t possibly, because you have to constitute the solid to imagine yourself in the middle of an empty space. There is no way of having a space without a solid just as there is no way of having a front without a back. <b>They go together.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>"But we are trained by our education and by our language—by the patterns of thought which our culture instills in us—to notice the solid and ignore the space. So, in the same way, we notice ourselves as we exist inside our skins and ignore ourselves as we exist outside our skins. And that gives us our peculiar feeling of insularity, of being skin-encapsulated egos who feel ourselves to be different from, to confront, to meet an alien, external, and largely hostile physical universe. And this is the supremely difficult price that we pay for our ingenious ability to use symbols, and to divide the world into the symbolic and the real, the significant and the insignificant, the important and the unimportant.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>"We have <i>lost</i> the fundamental physical elemental sense that every single one of us is the entire works, focused here and now. That is to say, every human being—every beetle, every mosquito, every living cell—is something that the entire cosmos, the whole universe, is doing in a particular way. </b>Just as when you hold a magnifying glass to the sun, and you focus the sun as a vivid little point of light at that particular spot on that particular leaf, so every creature that exists is a focus, a special case of what the entire works of existence is doing. Only: we have been taught to forget that. By being concentrated on the here and now—who I am, what circumstances I’m in, what I’m doing, what’s important for me—we get <i><b>absorbed</b></i> in it.</div><div><br /></div><div>"My fingers—all of them move separately and independently, but only because they are part of the hand, and only because the hand is part of the arm, and so on. So underneath our marvelous ability to analyze the world through concentrated attention and through symbols—words which suggest that a tree is a tree. The word “tree” is different from the word “ground,” and therefore it seems that the tree is different from the ground. But it isn’t. The tree is the ground reaching up to grab at the sky and, you know… enjoy. It’s the ground, swinging. So, in the same way, each one of us is the whole cosmos waving and saying,</div><h4 style="text-align: left;">'Yoo-hoo! I’m here!'</h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5-H1eFJ5dcED4gbG23dQREtKs2STsFw23djyvUnTQ4ImGKsx1ECnGgjTGM1qZJsTqh01jezI81bvxlYBnMhdj-9Z_QcjTbrRjCcC0nXkHeNrL-_6hoTDgU_kXZnbWhzCbr-pDNGJ3-uTQ/s1100/unbelievable-places-12-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="880" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5-H1eFJ5dcED4gbG23dQREtKs2STsFw23djyvUnTQ4ImGKsx1ECnGgjTGM1qZJsTqh01jezI81bvxlYBnMhdj-9Z_QcjTbrRjCcC0nXkHeNrL-_6hoTDgU_kXZnbWhzCbr-pDNGJ3-uTQ/w320-h400/unbelievable-places-12-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Tianzi Mountains (China)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>"So that knowledge is necessary. That knowledge of being one with the totality is necessary to underpin and support the knowledge of being different, and unique, and individual. Without it, the individual goes mad."</div><div><br /></div><div>- Alan Watts, from <a href="https://www.organism.earth/library/document/symbolic-and-real" target="_blank">"The Symbolic and the Real"</a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_3D8UuwKgefKZjsMB63bWOm3kJsylI5XxqVjl2h36-D2_i0G9jiEIFlqeENMHRhj0gpNQPn97Z1bGlx-MDcQOGtGcp5y4K6fyHS2EThax2ftfgt5npZWxJzcdSRprSjcEgvjB2vEkxCr/s790/alanwatts.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="790" data-original-width="680" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_3D8UuwKgefKZjsMB63bWOm3kJsylI5XxqVjl2h36-D2_i0G9jiEIFlqeENMHRhj0gpNQPn97Z1bGlx-MDcQOGtGcp5y4K6fyHS2EThax2ftfgt5npZWxJzcdSRprSjcEgvjB2vEkxCr/s320/alanwatts.jpeg" /></a></div>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-51936456432882554362021-04-28T18:25:00.003-10:002021-04-28T18:33:37.760-10:00ʻāhu <p></p><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">ʻāhu, on the trail of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, 2017</span></h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghcycmXHiMTE8Zdzad35wPbOKAgp-zQ18lgzUZ9DjZ4iTr-Mt3JMqgLHUG6xvsP0fohMLHHLbEWqLEmKISQdTqtyxbACXm4mp9JZZMteePw9yCXA8TU1z5x3_sE04pcqNlOpVx3Vqkr4XW/s2000/hele+malie+2017+lava+rock+pile.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="2000" height="571" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghcycmXHiMTE8Zdzad35wPbOKAgp-zQ18lgzUZ9DjZ4iTr-Mt3JMqgLHUG6xvsP0fohMLHHLbEWqLEmKISQdTqtyxbACXm4mp9JZZMteePw9yCXA8TU1z5x3_sE04pcqNlOpVx3Vqkr4XW/w571-h571/hele+malie+2017+lava+rock+pile.jpg" width="571" /></a></div><p>ʻāhu : To pile, gather, accumulate, heap up; to lay away, as goods for the future; collect; collection, mound.</p><p style="text-align: center;">On the trail of the park, the ʻāhu are left by former travelers to hint towards the direction of the next campsite.</p><p style="text-align: center;">The Verse:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Others have trodden this Path before you, overcoming the same obstacles facing you now, and making crucial decisions at the same crossroads.</i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Study their journals, watch for their trail markings.</i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Gain inspiration and wisdom from the heroes and learn from the mistakes of those who chose a side-path.</i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>All were Seekers, explorers whose daring mapped a course you can follow.</i></p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-37679650744558297782021-04-15T19:16:00.012-10:002021-04-15T19:25:23.718-10:00Heart<h3 style="text-align: center;"><u>MAKA HANNYA HARAMITA SHIN GYŌ<br /></u><u>The Great Prajñā Pāramitā Heart Sutra</u></h3><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_fo1G_n8Wm4LHRmIn1PNg5S86ctYLyhaP9brv21djHY9bEF2L-2PZHnodEjRFiC4TE2rn_Jqjsf7LQ5ggi5Er2EtzeB5e6vwhG1Ge_CPQSd36J9heIbXjkuxx6bpTz7OwExGxU2RvBb9/s487/prajanana-paramita-the-heart-sutra-prints.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="487" data-original-width="487" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_fo1G_n8Wm4LHRmIn1PNg5S86ctYLyhaP9brv21djHY9bEF2L-2PZHnodEjRFiC4TE2rn_Jqjsf7LQ5ggi5Er2EtzeB5e6vwhG1Ge_CPQSd36J9heIbXjkuxx6bpTz7OwExGxU2RvBb9/w432-h432/prajanana-paramita-the-heart-sutra-prints.jpeg" width="432" /></a></div></div><p style="text-align: center;">KAN JI ZAI BO SA GYŌ JIN HAN-NYA HA RA MI TA JI</p><p style="text-align: center;">Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, practicing deep Prajñā Pāramitā,</p><p style="text-align: center;">SHŌ KEN GO ON KAI KU DO IS-SAI KU YAKU</p><p style="text-align: center;">clearly saw that all five skandhas are empty, transforming anguish and distress</p><p style="text-align: center;">SHA RI SHI SHIKI FU I KU KU FU I SHIKI</p><p style="text-align: center;">Shariputra, form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form;</p><p style="text-align: center;">SHIKI SOKU ZE KU KU SOKU ZE SHIKI</p><p style="text-align: center;">form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form;</p><p style="text-align: center;">JU SO GYŌ SHIKI YAKU BU NYO ZE</p><p style="text-align: center;">sensation, perception, formulation, consciousness are also like this.</p><p style="text-align: center;">SHA RI SHI ZE SHŌ HO KU SO FU SHŌ FU METSU</p><p style="text-align: center;">Shariputra, all things are essentially empty – not born, not destroyed;</p><p style="text-align: center;">FU KU FU JO FU ZO FU GEN</p><p style="text-align: center;">not stained, not pure; without loss, without gain.</p><p style="text-align: center;">ZE KO KU CHU MU SHIKI MU JU SO GYŌ SHIKI</p><p style="text-align: center;">Therefore in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, perception, formulation,</p><p style="text-align: center;">consciousness;</p><p style="text-align: center;">MU GEN-NI BI ZES-SHIN I</p><p style="text-align: center;">no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind,</p><p style="text-align: center;">MU SHIKI SHŌ KO MI SOKU HO</p><p style="text-align: center;">no color, sound, scent, taste, touch, thought;</p><p style="text-align: center;">MU GEN KAI NAI SHI MU I SHIKI KAI</p><p style="text-align: center;">no seeing and so on to no thinking;</p><p style="text-align: center;">MU MU MYO YAKU MU MU MYO JIN</p><p style="text-align: center;">no ignorance and also no ending of ignorance,</p><p style="text-align: center;">NAI SHI MU RO SHI YAKU MU RO SHI JIN</p><p style="text-align: center;">and so on to no old age and death, and also no ending of old age and death;</p><p style="text-align: center;">MU KU SHU METSU DO</p><p style="text-align: center;">no anguish, cause of anguish, cessation path;</p><p style="text-align: center;">MU CHI YAKU MU TOKU I MU SHŌ TOK'KO</p><p style="text-align: center;">no wisdom and no attainment. Since there is nothing to attain,</p><p style="text-align: center;">BO DAI SAT-TA E HAN-NYA HA RA MI TA KO</p><p style="text-align: center;">the Bodhisattva lives by Prajñā Pāramitā,</p><p style="text-align: center;">SHIM-MU KEI GE MU KEI GE KO MU U KU FU</p><p style="text-align: center;">with no hindrance in the mind; no hindrance and therefore no fear;</p><p style="text-align: center;">ON RI IS-SAI TEN DO MU SO KU GYŌ NE HAN</p><p style="text-align: center;">far beyond delusive thinking, right here is Nirvana.</p><p style="text-align: center;">SAN ZE SHŌ BUTSU E HAN-NYA HA RA MI TA KO</p><p style="text-align: center;">All Buddhas of past, present, and future live by Prajñā Pāramitā</p><p style="text-align: center;">TOKU A NOKU TA RA SAM-MYAKU SAM-BO DAI</p><p style="text-align: center;">attaining Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.</p><p style="text-align: center;">KO CHI HAN-NYA HA RA MI TA</p><p style="text-align: center;">Therefore know that Prajñā Pāramitā</p><p style="text-align: center;">ZE DAI JIN SHU ZE DAI MYO SHU</p><p style="text-align: center;">is the great sacred mantra, the great vivid mantra,</p><p style="text-align: center;">ZE MU JO SHU ZE MU TO TO SHU</p><p style="text-align: center;">the unsurpassed mantra, the supreme mantra,</p><p style="text-align: center;">NO JO IS-SAI KU SHIN JITSU FU KO</p><p style="text-align: center;">which completely removes all anguish. This is truth not mere formality.</p><p style="text-align: center;">KO SETSU HAN-NYA HA RA MI TA SHU</p><p style="text-align: center;">Therefore set forth the Prajñā Pāramitā mantra,</p><p style="text-align: center;">SOKU SETSU SHU WATSU</p><p style="text-align: center;">set forth this mantra and proclaim:</p><p style="text-align: center;">GYA TEI GYA TEI HA RA GYA TEI HARA SO GYA TEI</p><p style="text-align: center;">Gaté gaté paragaté parasamgaté</p><p style="text-align: center;">BO JI SOWA KA HAN-NYA SHIN GYŌ</p><h1 style="text-align: center;"><b>Bodhi Svaha!</b></h1>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-79160814848429750972021-04-15T18:44:00.002-10:002022-09-16T16:48:56.972-10:00The Power To Love<p> August 3rd, 2013</p><p>The "best man speech" for my brother, Brian:</p><p>As most of you know, Brian’s got quite a personality, growing up with him wasn’t always super easy. By that I mean physically growing up, as he would lie on top of me so I couldn’t get up, head butt me with his giant “cement head”, and make sure I would never be any good at basketball by deflecting all of my shots into the street.</p><p>Eventually he moved from pushing my limits, to pushing the limits of gravity. And by this I mean second-story jumps from our roof to the pool, back-flipping off our trampoline, and in the process breaking pretty much every part of his body. After enough visits to the emergency room, Mom and Dad’s insurance plan actually gave him a frequent flyer card. (No, that’s actually true).</p><p>And then Brian discovered boarding… a way to put his life at risk AND impress people at the same time… especially this beautiful girl named HEATHER. She was someone who immediately shared his excitement for pretty much everything, and that kept him in line. She provided the care & support to calm his wild side… just a little bit. And Brian finally had someone to bandage his road rash so other than my Mom.</p><p><b>When I think about what’s really important in this life, it comes down to two things: to do what you love, and to live sustainably.</b> And it sure isn’t easy without a foundation, one rooted in family, friends, and especially a partner. Someone to enjoy the ride with, to navigate the twists and turns of the road, to enjoy the highs, and to tough out the lows. Heather, to me you have been a beacon of light for my Brian, and I couldn’t imagine a better wife for him, and someone I’m really excited to call my sistah.</p><p>You both have the power of compassion, the power to love, to forgive, and the ability to find enjoyment in whatever is going on. I love you both!</p><div><br /></div>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-53901054156023650992021-04-15T18:02:00.005-10:002022-09-16T16:49:40.371-10:0013<p>"...But even now, as I stand at the edge of this decision I feel the excitement coming back in the pit of my stomach that is making me let out tears from my eyes, makes my nose run, makes my hands shake, and makes me want to shout in joy, all at the same time. It is this excitement that makes me alive, this feeling that makes me ME, and NO ONE can deny that."</p><p>-Me, July 17th, 2008</p>incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-8347887245671914092016-08-18T21:58:00.003-10:002021-04-13T18:13:58.372-10:00Truth"Truth cannot be accumulated. What is accumulated is always being destroyed; it withers away. Truth can never wither because it can only be found from moment to moment in every thought, in every relationship, in every word, in every gesture, in a smile, in tears. And if you and I can find that and live it - the very living is the finding of it - then we shall not become propagandists; we shall be creative human beings - not perfect human beings, but creative human beings, which is vastly different." - J. Krishnamurtiincydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-38036513355030347782016-08-13T17:12:00.000-10:002021-04-13T18:14:05.688-10:00That is enoughNever Tell You, this tune brings me back. Back to London, to earlier times, when I was young, full of curiosity, exploring a new city all on my own. That was my breakout moment, when I stopped being a shy guy and completely came out full on into it. I miss those moments, those feelings, but they are gone now, in accord with their nature. Bittersweet. Hanging out with Jen, with Scientist, with Ed, Stanton, Mike, Skipple. A family of music lovers, in love with a new sound and a new feeling. It just felt so free. I have never felt so free. There's no reason I shouldn't feel free all the time. We can. It's always right here. Something new. That which is new soon becomes the passed. It is their nature. They traverse through time. Reverberations of intention, action, passion. Now it's Echospace. This takes me even deeper. Timeless music, in a way. I feel I could listen to this throughout my life and never tire of it. In its own time, its own space, when it's appropriate, or when it just comes out of a shuffle. It's all about letting things flow, however they are, they are your life. Right and wrong? Good and bad? These are descriptors, sometimes useful words to express how we feel. But is anything truly right? Is there really a Right Effort, Right Concentration, etc? What does that mean? Right as opposed to wrong. Without these polarities, it's all a gray area. Beneath these words, it's static, black flickering into white, it looks like gray, because it's changing so fast, no one could ever keep up. We must live in the gray area. What determines right and wrong, good and bad, is up to us, our choice. In the end there is only choice. According to natural feeling. Before hesitation, before thought, before judgement, only feeling and acting on it, when we are true to it, not censoring, not filtering. I certainly do too much of that. It's again, a useful tool in situations. But it's my choice to say when it's useful and when it's not. Experience informs my decision. Effects and causes. Interlinked, from the beginningless past, stretching forward into the endless future. Never repeating. What appears as repetition is really different, ever so slightly, and through repetition is the only way to notice such a subtle change. Breath one, breath two, breath three. Not the same. All breaths, but each their own. One is now, one is next, one is gone. Do not be ashamed of who you are. Be who you are in the fullest, own it, stand behind it, this does not mean be rigid and fixed, but allow change to happen, allow sensitivity and observation to inform you, to respond. Listen closely, fully. That is the only way to absorb. Observe, absorb, respond. All in one fluid motion. What room is there for mind? Only in searching for such a mind can it be discovered it cannot be found, measured, weighed, located, held in a physical place. Mind is just as fluid as water. Water is water, mind is mind, both a natural flow, never fixed, always in motion. If points of the mind are stuck, it creates dams, obstructions, other flows are blocked and re-routed. Also natural, but unnecessary. How much easier is it to admit what you like, what you desire, without acting on it immediately, but just feeling it and being curious about it, looking where it comes from. Which is nowhere at all. Arising out of the dark like the sun on the horizon. It is okay to live in the gray areas. We need not define and categorize phenomena, they do that sufficiently on their own, when we look at them, in categories and definitions beyond what we can accomplish with our words and thoughts. See how it changes. See its character, how it moves in time. Sadness, crying, then relief. Joy, laughter, then a settling. On to the next. Pay attention. Attention may stretch out and around, expand to the furthest reaches of awareness. Feel everything that presents itself in the process of being. Colors, flavors, pitches, tones, differences, characteristics, qualities. All in their own mode. Recognize and own how these phenomena come up inside. They are no different in nature than rain falling, wind blowing, birds calling, geckos kissing. There, and gone. Coming back? Maybe, maybe not. Let's listen and see. Let's engage and find out. Let's look closer if we want, or let's let it go. What returns, returns, if it needs our attention. How unique! How precious each minute transformation. London here, London gone. London different. Maui distant, Maui close, Maui alive. Shy, scared, single, hesitant, onto brave, cool, calm, collect, celebrating, facing uncertainty, onto partnership, commitment, anxiety, marriage, growth, gratitude, discipline, routine, habit, progress, education, meditation, wisdom, foolishness, learning through trial and error, repeated mistake, deep recognition of circumstance. Where is it now? Where was that just gone? Where are we going? Who is this? The entire range and spectrum of feeling, explore and experience it all as it comes, fully and completely. Avoidance is not the way. Onward into the night, into the light. Turn the light around, turn it inward. That is the intention for this weekend. Just look, listen, without judgement. That is enough...incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-72675978754363576042016-01-30T23:53:00.000-10:002021-04-13T18:14:16.091-10:00ILX2 Leaders You AdmireI started taking this course, <a href="https://www.edx.org/course/inclusive-leadership-training-becoming-catalystx-il2x-0" target="_blank">ILX2 Inclusive Leadership Training: Becoming a Successful Leader</a> via <a href="http://www.edx.org/" target="_blank">edX</a>.<br />
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I will be posting my responses and discussions here for the sake of preservation.<br />
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Question:<br />
Which leaders do you look up to? Which leaders do you admire? Which leaders inspire you? And why?<br />
Choose a leader or leaders you admire. These leaders could be anyone—a parent, a teacher, someone in your family, someone you work for, a famous leader (living or dead).<br />
What makes their leadership special to you? What leadership attributes do you admire in these leaders?<br />
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Response:<br />
The leaders I admire most in my life are: my boss, Cassandra, my Zen teacher, Michael, and my favorite famous philosopher, Alan Watts.<br />
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Cassandra is a great communicator, handles unexpected circumstances and pressure very well, despite whatever is happening in her personal life, and always shows appreciation for her employees. She is able to recognize talent and encourages her team to do a great job every day.<br />
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Michael values tradition, practice, and clarity of mind, and exemplifies it in his presence at all times. He is very wise and always knows the best thing to say in response to any situation.<br />
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Alan Watts has an incredible command of language, speaks like a true storyteller, expressing everything with profound and vivid effect, whatever idea or concept is the subject at hand. He is able to bring a big-picture perception into every aspect of life.<br />
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All three are very honest, sometimes brutally so, never deceive, and easily cut through the bullshit to get down to what really matters - being true to yourself, doing great work for the sake of the world, not taking life too seriously, and ultimately, the pursuit of truth.incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-82942257878619888462015-11-29T12:17:00.001-10:002015-11-29T12:17:57.841-10:00On Opening the Dharma<span style="font-size: large;">The Dharma, incomparably profound and minutely subtle,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is rarely encountered, even in hundreds of thousands of millions of kalpas;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We now can see it, listen to it, accept and hold it;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">May we completely realize the Tathāgata's true meaning.</span><br />
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- Recited at each Dharma Assembly of the Diamond Sangha and Maui Zendoincydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-17400579487630778372015-11-29T11:57:00.003-10:002017-10-16T21:20:35.545-10:00On Compassion"Compassion is not sentiment; it is not this woolly sympathy or empathy. Compassion is not something that you can cultivate through thought, through discipline, control, suppression, nor by being kind, polite, gentle, and all the rest of it. Compassion comes into being only when thought has come to an end at its very root."<br />
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"That which conforms can never flower in goodness. There must be freedom, and freedom comes only when you understand the whole problem of envy, greed, ambition, and the desire for power. It is freedom from those things that allows the extraordinary thing called character to flower. Such a man has compassion, he knows what it is to love."<br />
- J. Krishnamurti<br />
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All true expressions of compassion come only after compassion itself exists within, in totality. Without a single discriminating thought, there is no separation, and thus a deep connection to all that is, what we can see and experience, and even what we cannot. It radiates outward from the center, like the roots and branches of a tree.incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-43653014002357673092015-11-29T11:47:00.001-10:002015-11-29T12:11:08.053-10:00Heaven & Hell"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity. He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. The cut worm forgives the plow. Dip him in the river who loves water. A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees. He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star. Eternity is in love with the productions of time. The busy bee has no time for sorrow. The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure. All wholsom food is caught without a net or a trap. Bring out number weight & measure in a year of dearth. No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings. A dead body, revenges not injuries. The most sublime act is to set another before you. If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise."<br />
- William Blake<br />
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incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-6425803998482100872015-11-29T01:27:00.001-10:002016-04-18T02:02:21.274-10:00Four Infinite VowsThese vows are set forth by the Diamond Sangha and recited three times in unison at the closure of a zazen session.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">All beings without limit, I vow to carry over;</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Kleshas without end, I vow to cut off;</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Dharma gates without measure, I vow to master;</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Buddha's Way without peer, I vow to fulfill.</span></i></b><br />
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<br />incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-31540842408624065142015-11-29T01:21:00.000-10:002015-11-29T01:52:53.928-10:00Single-Mind"The Chinese thrush sings in my heart, and gray clouds gather in the empty sky of my mind. All things are my teacher." - Robert Aitken Roshiincydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-730303682539074938.post-5516000519394033092015-11-29T01:00:00.000-10:002015-11-29T01:53:44.538-10:00Mu5/19/15<br />
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Mu breathes Mu. In, out, in, out, in, out. Not automatic, not intentional, purely conscious, but just enough. With a deep breath in, Mu takes it all in, all the old energy, revitalized, and out again, breathing forms into matter, like a bubble wand they float off into space, some to pop, some to grow. Breathe yourself in, breathe yourself out. Outside of space-time, the game is over. Within, the scattering. Let's play. Let's have the realest experiences, let's get fully lost, and let's find ourselves in the darkest corners. Who is the one that is afraid? Who is the one that is anxious? Who is it that moves the hands, lifts the feet? Is it YOU? Who is the one that explores, that creates? Who is the you that you do not know? Mu breathes Mu. Who breathes your lungs when you're asleep? Who beats your heart when your attention is somewhere else? Who grows your hair, ever so slowly? <b>Do you know how? </b>If so, show me. It is like this. Mu breathes Mu. Who are you now, Brahman? Cuckoo, cuckoo... How do I know you? How do I know you were you just a moment ago? Not now, just then. When? You just missed it. What you can't put your finger on, here I am. A baby cries for its mother. The mother's heart floats. Here, little child, here I am. All together now, all proliferating. Supreme and conscious, ever so young, ever so ancient. Beyond time, beyond space. What is left? Drop it. The qualities are all empty, all full, complete. Cock a doodle DOOOOO!!!! Tweet-tweet. It is like this, but not exactly It. Who is the true yogi, I ask you? Who is the first Buddha? Who is the original rump shaker? The first mover? Who is it that forgets the one that remembers? May I have this dance, madame? An opening of the hand. The Dragon circles overhead. I will sit in the fire and walk the coals. Chick a dee! Chick a dee-dee! The animals know best, without knowing at all. Listen carefully. Feel deeply. Tread lightly, but surely. Where does this path go, or that one? Whack whack, cut back the brush. Trail blaze, set this road afire, wash it down with a light breeze on the skin. Ahhh....incydehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15956759445835161618noreply@blogger.com0