I am reading a book on zen

It told me all about being in the here and now , in chapter 1.

It did a good job. I haven't been able to get to chapter 2 ever since

 sunrise at noon

can we slip the surly bonds of the self 

and fly ?

through the jungle and mountains

past the seas

we've come seeking

the fire the light the glow

brothers all

will you meet me there ?

knowing fully well 

the you there 

will never meet the me there 

ever again

a moment

will it be enough ?

i buy car insurance

 scott peck - life is difficult. so all meaning and fulfilment falls on the other side of hard work

murakami - focus and endurance. 

michener - liberal arts, apply yourselves to large tasks of immense value and effort

a theme seems to be emerging

not to forget - cal newport - a heavy weight descending on your brain

and then there's matt might's hacking strength

  much soup. many spills. when food ?

sometimes we do too much preparation . over time, the blogs have reversed. ortrta was for conspiracy theories. it died. froogy has more conspiracy theories than any. goingkilo used to get populated when work was needed, ie, just after appraisals or between jobs. now lying fallow for ages . the original theme for froogy was phaedrus' - what is good, do we need anyone to tell us that ?Looks like we DO need somebody to tell us that.the stream runs shallow and bleeds into pools which keep drying up.

a suspension of the terror of daily life - a trip

destiny on hold, carbs welcome

not outrageous coffee, delicious flight sandwich, 

karma holiday, spend without looking 

free air,  rooms always tidy

then back again

 Sets, by virtue of their nature, give rise to sets that don't have their  ature

Categories do the same 

In the human sphere, a protocol essentially boils down to a list of  things to be kept in mind

And so each gives rise to cousin protocols and cou ter protocols

There is no end to this, the engine of variety,  similarity and variation driven in an endless dance of novelty on a bed of boring regularity,  

Todays novelty becomes  tomorrows regularity, as sets accumulate sets , and strive to gobble all, and plug the perennial leakage

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