silent thunder

Walking Two Paths simultaneously is among the most practical and profound teachings I've encountered.

We each experience reality from the center of our own awareness and that experience always seemingly alights in awareness as whole and complete with no holes or ommissions. Yet this does not imply that we experience the all of reality... just that our experience is whole and full for us. My gal is navigating a process by which one of her eyes has ceased to function accurately at all. She's nearly blind in one eye. The lense has become distorted and dimpled and so refracts light in myriad directions, not just a single direction (which is readily corrected for by glasses/lenses). She is amazed when looking at the same picture with each eye seperately and how vastly different they appear given how the signals are received by the conditioned perceptual system and it trying to rectify imaging through the usual process. The reality for her is that when it's not reconcilable for both eyes to contribute to a picture of the world that reconciles as complete, her brain simply shuts down the input from one eye and ignores it utterly, so as to compensate for the experience of wholeness. Yet her experience of seeing is not diminished in her experiential process at all. It still seems complete and whole, (unless she closes the dominant eye and forces the subbed eye into operation). We learned about this with our son when he was in 4th grade and one of his teachers realized his eyes were not tracking accurately. Through working with an optometrist and a set of exercises, we were able to aid him in developing more accuracy which allowed him to read and process more readily... but in the process of finding out where his alterations of perception lay... there were clear indicators of when his brain was simply shutting off input entirely from one eye, depending on conditions and fatigue, etc. It was utterly fascinating to witness first hand. And this is perhaps why Naive Realism is still so rampant among humans to this day, even though it's been summarily dismissed since the age of the Stoics. It is a compelling notion that our experience of life is whole, complete and accurate, and it's also very comforting to assume we see the world as it is, entirely accurately when it's all actually interpretation, storytelling, projective and assumption/conditioning based. At this point much of the cultivation process seems like a dance with the process of bringing awareness to the process of the Storyteller who crafts elaborate and detailed stories about the nature of reality, from the few parcels of signals that we receive from our perceptual process. It's quite disconcerting (or downright horrifying) to come face to face with the aspects of our assumptions about perception and the universe and realize they are wholly innacurate illusions. At this point for me, the realm of absolute certainty is the realm of the arrogance of ignorance. And it's entirely understandable that so many folks retreat from such processes of awakening when they get glimpses through the veil, it's quite disorienting and uncomfortable and so rather than pursue the path of truth, they dig back in deeply to the comfort of Naive Realim and the absolute certainty of former interpretation versus exploring what is... edit to add: Adyashanti has two statements that resonate on this point for me: "Most of us want to feel better, we don't actually want to see that we're misperceiving things. But that's the core of spirituality. And the only way to really wake up is to realize that the way you perceive yourself is not true." Adyashanti " Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretence. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true." Adyashanti

At this point on my path, awareness is buddha nature. And zen, chen and dzogchen have all risen to prominent resonance via the implicit nature of their focus and sharings.

Been coming across old posts thought to make a place to recall some Bums who are wandering elsewhere and are missed. @gentlewind he and I joined same day I believe. He has published a couple ebooks of poetry since he left. @BaguaKicksAss her direct insights and pure manner always kicked my butt in the best way. @GrandmasterP we lost touch with him when he retired and moved to the coast. I imagine him watching the waves. @Brian I know he is thriving, but man I miss his unsight humor and his humor. And his humor.

Love you bes... *hug*

I no longer recall where I heard this, but it still resonates. For a full, vibrant life one should develop at least three hobbies: one you can earn money with one that will keep you healthy and one(or twenty) for the pure the joy of it

Appreciation of process...

So. Much. Yes!

Those who crave power seem to always be the most susceptible to being corrupted by it. Like those who always want and crave to lead. I find these usually unworthy of following. While the fool is always absolutely certain, the sages walk in perpetual doubt.

I still mourn the loss of all my Grandpa's hand tools from the 30's n 40's. When he passed, she sold his entire collection of tools and hand tied fishing flies n lures. I wept openly. Been working in wood and metal craft for the last 25 years now. I would use them daily. As for the smells... walnut and red cedar make me giddy and when I come in the door most days my son generally gives me a hug and comments on yhe wood scents. Good vibes...

Done a fair amount of wood steaming/bending, but this idea is going to make a grand surprise for my gal someday on either her birthday/mothersday which frequently coincide or for our anniversary. Props to the design initiator! Crescent Moon floating chair... wow~!

I've built thousands of doors in my career in Hollywood. Many of them strange by common standards. Never had a chance to make one of these in human size

I worked very hard and managed to become an uncommon schmuck.

Within local awareness, there is still pretty solid conceptual good and bad for me. Moral relativism on grand scales is an intellectual passtime that breaks down for me on our scale.

can a smile be inverted i wonder? when i smile, if i consider it, it seems it's my whole being that smiles... the face is another aspect of the smile, not the host. fun to consider what is smiling when one smiles...

I find seriousness to often be confused with sincerity, particularly in the West. Are you being serious? No. However this does not imply one is being insincere. It is quite possible to be sincere while remaining light hearted and jovial. Often to me light hearted and playful sincerity is a sign of high skill. In most situations seriousness and somber attitude are not necessary and overrated.

I don't recall deci being banned, but leaving.

Why would you assume to know what someone else is capable of learning from any given source?

I suspect what folks mean by enlightenment is what to me reflects our natural essence devoid of overlays, illusion, interpretation, assumption and projection. Our true nature. Impossible to know what folks really imply by the concept without being in their mind with them so in the realm of words it's all interpretive and intuiting on the part of the listener/reader. It seems equally impossible to know whether or not a lineage or any member of it is enlightened either; and when we claim another is enlightened or not, we present ourself as a qualified observer and arbiter capable of assessing such. I am grateful for each of my teachers, both the great and the janky. They all have provided grist for the mill of my process. As for transmission. Nature on the whole is the transmitter od the All in All. No thing is a seperate function. Organisms comprise the environment. It all arises tzujan. It is all 'of a thing'.

If truly hierarchical it should have been Cats, gods, etc etc

If you don't read the news you're uninformed. If you read the news, you're misinformed. ~Samuel Clemens