|
|
 22 Oct 2005 @ 08:50
As for sitting in mediation, that is something which MUST include fits of ecstatic blissful laughter---brayings that will make you slump to the ground clutching your belly, and even after that passes and you struggle to your feet, will make you fall anew in further contortions of side-splitting mirth.
---Hakuin
When the striving ceases, there is life waiting as a gift.
---Saul Bellow
Please do not get caught in that place where you think you know.
---Zen saying
The Gulf Stream can be seen (red) in this thermal satellite image.
© NOAA
Last month NCN member and chemist Silvia Martinez, who lives in Spain, answered my request for links to articles she has been reading about a decrease in the flow of the Gulf Stream. I had heard dire predictions about this occuring some 30 years ago, but then it was all theoretical and frankly rather confusing. The idea is salt water can't freeze unless it's so cold the salt gets expelled in the process. For the last hundreds of years this has happened in the Greenland Sea most noticeably. The salt sinking causes warmer water from the southwest to flow in, washing the lower salt water southerly and forming a cycle we call the Gulf Stream (since it ends up and turns around in the Gulf of Mexico). More fresh water from the melting of ice age glaciers is diluting the salt water around Greenland to the extent that sinking salt isn't bringing in the same rush of warmer water. Here is the note Silvia sent me and the links. More >
|
|
|
|
 10 Aug 2005 @ 09:39
The true man of ancient times knew nothing of loving life, knew nothing of hating death. He emerged without delight; he went back in without a fuss. He came briskly, he went briskly, and that was all. He didn't forget where he began; he didn't try to find out where he would end. He received something and took pleasure in it; he forgot about it and handed it back again. This is what I call not using the mind to repel the Way, not using man to help out Heaven. This is what I call the True Man.
---Chuang-Tzu
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
---Edward Abbey
Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the room.
---Simone Weil
Cindy Sheehan hears the Sheriff
While jailed reporter Judith Miller decides with her cellmate every night who gets to sleep on the floor [link] , activist mother Cindy Sheehan tells reporters she may be arrested tomorrow as a security threat. As news sources around the world are reporting (if their corporate owners allow them) Ms. Sheehan has walked as far as they'd let her down the road to the President's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he is taking a 5-week vacation (the longest presidential retreat in 36 years). Well, he does say he goes there "to meet with folks in the heartland and hear what's on their minds" [link] . Of course we know he never can let himself be disagreed with in public, so Cindy Sheehan bakes in the sun. She is telling reporters she's been notified that she and supporters will be cleared out when the Secretaries of State and Defense come to the ranch tomorrow. At the moment, people are boarding planes, trains, buses and anything else that will get them to Crawford in case that happens. More >
|
|
|
|
 1 May 2005 @ 10:44
Stand in awe, and sin not;
commune with your own heart,
and in your chamber, and be still.
---Psalm 4:4
To sit without emotion, hope, or aim,
In the loved presence of my cottage-fire,
And listen to the flapping of the flame,
Or kettle whispering its faint undersong.
---William Wordsworth
The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. No existent theology can be a final formulation of a spiritual truth.
---Harry Emerson Fosdick
The old photos are of my country grandmother in her garden, and of little Dickie learning about the flowers from Mom.
Whenever I attempt an essay about my early days in Western New York, I usually can expect an email of corrections from my sister, Ann. She seems to remember the facts of what, where, and when better than I do, burdened as I was of course with being such a visionary. And also she's a few years younger than I am. (Correction #1 may come regarding the word "few".) But last evening she wrote me a note requesting some things out of my memory. Here it is~~~ More >
|
|
|
|
 24 Jan 2005 @ 10:35
Brothers, have no fear of men's sin. Love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery of things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.
---Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Meditation is not the means to an end. It is both the means and the end.
---Krishnamurti
"What have you come here for?" Master Ma-Tzu asked Hui-Hai.
"I have come seeking the Buddha's teaching."
"What a fool you are," Ma-Tzu said. "You have the greatest treasure in the world inside you, yet you go around asking other people for help."
Hui-Hai bowed and said,: "Please, Master, tell me what this treature is."
"Where is your question coming from? THIS is your treasure---precisely what is asking the question at this very moment. You are the master of everything."
---Zen mondo
The February issue of Prospect has a cover story that should give us all a goal toward which to work. And time is of the essence (even if it is a few billion years)!
Escape from the universe
Michio Kaku
The universe is destined to end. Before it does, could an advanced civilisation escape via a "wormhole" into a parallel universe? The idea seems like science fiction, but it is consistent with the laws of physics and biology. Here's how to do it. More >
|
|
|
|
 19 Nov 2004 @ 10:51
I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.
---John Muir
Excessive stress is involved in a wide variety of medical conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure, ulcers, acid reflux disease, strokes, and many other illnesses. Though most of us have heard that deep breathing can help us relax in the midst of stressful situations, many of us do not really know how to breathe deeply. We do not really know how to breathe deeply. We do not know how to quiet our minds and emotions and release the unnecessary tension in our diaphragm, ribs, belly, and back that restricts our breathing. As a result, our efforts to deal with stress through deep breathing often result in shallow, fast breathing which tends to make us even more nervous, anxious, and tense than we already are.
Though it is extremely important to your breath and health to learn how to quiet your mind and emotions and to release unnecesarry tension in your breathing muscles, there is a simple breathing practice that you can use in the meantime to help you relax. In this approach, you simply emphasize and lengthen your exhalation. The long exhalation helps turn on your parasympathetic nervous system, your "relaxation response."
Using this technique, there's nothing to do except to make sure that your exhalation is longer than your inhalation. You don't have to count to do this. Just put your attention on your breathing as you exhale. Sense the air from your lungs going out slowly and gently through your nose. When you're finished exhaling, don't put your attention on the inhalation. In fact, don't make any kind of effort to inhale at all. Just wait for your inhalation to arise by itelf. Take several complete breaths in this way.
If, after several breaths, your exhalation still isn't longer than your inhalation, simply imagine that you are gently blowing out a single candle as you exhale slowly and effortlessly through pursed lips. Take several more breaths in this way, and you will soon find yourself beginning to relax. To deepen this relaxation, you can hum for several breaths.
---Dennis Lewis
Breathing in, breathing out, feeling resentful, feeling happy, being able to drop it, not being able to drop it, eating our food, brushing our teeth, walking, sitting---whatever we're doing could be done with one intention. That intention is that we want to wake up, we want to ripen our compassion, and we want to ripen our ability to let go, we want to realize our connection with all beings. Everything in our lives has the potential to wake us up or to put us to sleep. Allowing it to awaken us is up to us.
---Pema Chodron
The photo is from the increasingly popular image site Sorry Everybody. [link] More >
|
|
<< Newer entries Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Older entries >> |
|
