silent thunder

If I were to type something about this it'd probably look very similar to this: moderate a forum the way you cook a small fish

Breathe in... Breathe out repeat as required

fish

Seriously. Amazing conversation.

Another great source of negative ions is the beach. Crashing waves. Walk along the break and be healed.

I really resonate with what you're saying 4bsolute. Not withdrawing from breath no matter the external conditions. Much of my process is about release... radical release and it's practice seems intimately tied with breath. Particularly pointed of late, is the sensory process at the deepest point of extreme relaxed exhalation and breath sublimation prior to the extreme need to inhale while remaining relaxed. Breath and consciousness seem inexorably entwined and between breath rate, lung saturation and sublimation it seems there is a nigh on infinite playground of consciousness hovering in the midst of breath.

Wife and son and I spent a good portion of today hanging out near the thermal geyser system in Yellowstone. The rampant presence of life around the vents, the massive colonies of bacteria and thermophiles had us contemplating the likelihood of life in other places and brought me back to a quote about alien life that has always resonated. "if we are the only life in the universe... it seems like a colossal waste of space."

Be yourself... everyone else is taken ~ Lord Byron

as above, so below as without, within

the leaves of an aspen tree dancing in the wind outside my window

To begin the path, the only requirement I would list would be curiosity. To remain on the path however is to me the real issue and for that you must be willing to endure the systematic stripping away of all preconceived notions and programmed beliefs. The spiritual path is far from comfortable and reassuring. I have found it to be often the opposite. To me though, it sure beats the alternative. Peace edit to add this quote: We must want the actual truth, more than we want the truth that we imagine. ~Adyashanti

oops, sorry, (belch) y'all were planning to use that apple as some thing?

I love me some barefoot, stubbed toe, stepping on stones wu wei accupressure! I only put on shoes when I absolutely have to... shoes to me, are much like lineages... they can soften the path a bit and may let me speed my walking rate, but they also act as a barrier of sorts between my process and path and when I slow down, I notice so much more anyways... It's reassuring to see that someone else defends the term New Age. All these highly touted and sacred held lineages have much to offer, but they also have much to avoid in my experience, particularly in the vein of the the unquestioning and robotic seeming manner of following another's path without critical thought or even active participation on some levels. All the lineages that exist now, were once a path of New Age discovery, being created by a human treading a path not yet laid by any dogmatic truth. We don't see the universe as it is... we see it as we are. As such, where is the one vantage point of truth?

dis-ease

I find one of the most amazing things about the desert are the sunrises during the 'winter months'. My job has me up before dawn all year long and I have come to adore the time when most of the local human life is still asleep but the world is waking up. There is a process of light in the sky, that exudes this incredible range of pale mauve, lavender, cascading blues and pinks that play along the high cirrus clouds so prevalent that time of year... combined with the morning songs of the birds... beyond words.

I will say, there were some potent faces staring back at me.

Yup, candle/mirror gazing. It was introduced to me as a way to see the faces of my prior incarnations... (shrug to that). I can't see having the candle behind your head as your face would too shaded, I just set the candle on the counter and locked eyes with my reflection; then as the shadows oscillate on the face, some truly epic face shifting does occur. I always found it entertaining, but little more than pareidolia.

hmm energies and humans moving...

RAW was one of the great thinkers and communicators. So grateful for his words and his many, many salient points throughout his lifetime. and to your point above... it's nigh on impossible to listen when your ears are already full of your own words...

I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of solitude and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us. ~kahlil gabran Your children are not your children. They are sons and daughters of Life's, longing for itself. They come through you but not for you. And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. ~kahlil gabran

I hide from the sun, except for early morning and dusk... I'm pale and it hurts me.

I've empathize with you Orion and can say that I have felt the way you are expressing that you feel now. While I don't sense there are really any words that will in any way help with this feeling, there certainly weren't any 'words' that ever helped me in those times... but simply sitting next to a good friend and talking, not listening to a bunch of advice from them, but them listening to me, seemed to gather inertia that aided in the change of the state. I will offer three things that always come back to me in times like that. All emotional states spend themselves out and dissipate. I never make long term, or 'permanent/suicidal decisions while in the temporary state of an emotion. Absolutely everything is grist for the mill in spiritual process... cultivate, non-action, rejection, supplication, rebellion, reading, writing, sex, abstinence, there is nothing that is not useful on the path... fuck all the 'shoulds' and 'should nots' at this time and just be as authentic as you can... if that means sitting in bed all day, do it. If it means sitting in lotus for 9 hours, do it. if it means ordering a bunch of food and throwing it at the squirrels while balancing naked on a bar stool whistling old tv theme songs... you get my drift... I have love for you mate... you are not alone.

the sun shines in all directions the rain falls equally on the healer and the murderer

double dutch bus

fireflies