blends

nature of samsara  / dharma  = Kopp's eschatological laundry list

8 fold path = scott peck's 4 tools of discipline

additional material / visuddimagga = Pirsig's Gumptionology and traps

 i can now admit to myself that i need more space and more consistent routines to thrive, and that the onus of running interference to the rest of the world while i get mine, is upon me, although i don't know how i will do both.

it's like one is firing the camera shutter and then running to get into the frame before the flash goes off. still... cards dealt play mumble mumble

an old book has resurfaced, that i had read and discarded as too shallow. one passage caught my attention - about a Tibetan medicine man in bangalore treating the author for respiratory problems. hmmm.... man thinks like me 

modern medicine is a side effect of industrial culture. the industrial economy reduces humans to single point sources of economic output. the industrial society stratifies to enforce this role as early as possible, and tries to keep it going as long as possible. the so-called 'metabolic syndrome' is an offshoot of this behaviour - of running a complex system such as a human for a long enough time without required 'maintenance', or as we humans call it, rest, rejuvenation, and recreation. Very unlike machines which require fuel and lubrication regularly, and replacement of parts at regular intervals, human 'machines' are regenerating, and do so by wholistic reconnection with nature, people, and purpose, something the industrial economy doesn't understand, or chooses not to. as a result of its insistence to run humans as machines, we have humans with appendixes cut off, metal pins in their bodies holding together worn out bones, tired pancreas not allowed to rest, but forced to work till destruction... entire generations living on low quality nutrition marketed as the exact opposite,  while machines rob us of the need to use our legs , speeding us downhill to a surfeit of 'metabolic syndrome' ...

rationally there are safeguards in place for every scheme, and yet, the leviathan's teeth always find a way to morally and physically insulate themselves from the effect of the ideology they impose on the rest. in theory, every process has quality control and foolproofing, and in practice, each of these are circumvented whenever needed . in practice, systems exist in a state of anergy, and failure is the default mode . the creation of digital machines has created an economically better-off-than-before, but nonetheless intellectual serfs.

economics is politics, politics is the game theory of class warfare, collective bargaining etc, which has roots in biology and physiology, and degrees of freedom, which has roots in biology, and chemistry, and geography. ultimately we are sophisticated cavemen whacking each other on the head with symbolic clubs of large cars, designer labels, swanky apartments etc, while laying a larger claim to the mammoth carcass..

surely, there must be some evolutionary progress made beyond this by us over so many years ..... ?

not compassion and love - these are part of the mammalian chassis. 

transcending is just having your state machine become a cycle or a part of a larger state machine. this has always been the case. transcending requires the larger state machine to be a new one.

advaita something something ?

traditional medicine something something  ?

a good measure of devotional practice is that after some time, it should make one light of heart and joyous in disposition at all times, and the rituals merely become outbursts of expression of this joy. the exerciser eventually starts enjoying exercise and relapses into it whenever circumstances, like muddy water, clear up after a time. it must be the same with any practice. else it's an imposition and or addiction.

the sea of difference between addiction and addition is just the letter 'c'

The moss covered boulder

Cautious as one crossing a winter stream... 

Vacant as a valley, 

Murky as muddy water.

 

 A boss is ,by definition, someone who orders you to build a marble tower out of wood.Its up to you to figure out whether he wants a marble tower which stands ,or is okay with building a marble sized tower out of wood,which falls down

 have you ever been to the ghost market, to hire a ghost to haunt that apartment you owned, so as to get the tenant to leave ?

 What is the shape of the universe 

We dont know cos we havent seen the edges/boundaries where it ends 

If the universe ends at some point, has a boundary,  what lies beyond?

We cannot know. If we did, then the boundary would push further to just beyond that point.

Then the boundary of the universe is also the limit of our knowledge?

No, not the limit of our knowledge , but the limit of our comprehension... otherwise the boundary would show up while we are in deep sleep, or at the back of our head.. the boundary of the universe that we know, is , syllogistically, the limit of what we know.

Does space disappear when we sleep ?

 No we sleep in space. If it were to disappear, we wouldn't wake. 

What if it did and we woke but are living a dream ?  A fragment of consciousness and memories without a matter component ?

Who would know the difference ? Can consciousness move a physical object ? Can it press a switch ?

It cannot, but it can imagine a switch, and imagine it pressed... 

But it would know that it is doing the pressing and percieving the pressing

What if it split itself just before the pressing, that it didnt know it did the pressing ?

 intent-driven vs (negative)-look-back driven

performance factor/ not authoring own story as we go

we need one daily scott adams essay

 There is no shortage of wealth in this world - of leisure, of dignity, affection ... what this world lacks is a wealth of credit, and in the sisyphean endeavour to even out the distribution of this, real wealths have been destroyed, not looted, destroyed. 

I have a tendency to shut off completely, and go along with whatever is in vogue in the current micro-society ( meaning bunch of two-three people I am around)

as a result, I have no continuing efforts or results, on the ground. In my mind - yes, but not on the ground.

I also have developed the ability to not complete any task set before me. I blame this squarely on this phase of life not being built on bedrock, but off of other people's roofs or walls. The hesitancy to commit given the lack of bedrock or sky, has run for decades now, and half-assery is now detectable in my blood cells, under a microscope.

This gives me considerable unease, which can be masked by eating, reading blogs, doing THAT one thing to keep the nearest boss happy, while slow-death-ing the soul work.

 sometimes , you meet life 

you blink

then it's twenty-five years later

in other news

the beanstalk attempted to bake bread again

the beanstalk added a lot of dutch cocoa powder

the beanstalk forgot to add sugar

the bread came out amazingly well

in shape, texture, and sponginess

looks chocolatey, 

tastes like a naan

"If you think this is your country, your government, your people, then you've completely misunderstood the nature of the beast. Remember Hobbes ... are you a person or an cell in a leviathan ?"

The agent looked steadily at Jeepley. The record of traces and sightings lay on the table between them, with its worn cover facing up.