17 minutes ago, thelerner said:

eh, 8 out of 10 ain't bad. We are after all a Republic..  and while flawed at times it (theoretically) keeps us away from the tyranny of the masses, and voting ourselves bread and circus.. potentially. 

https://infographics.economist.com/2018/DemocracyIndex/

 

In any case, off to beat the crowds and vote early.

Once rated the freest country in the world by every credible freedom watch organization, the USA is now rated between #11 and #20 by those same groups.

There are only 19 “fully democratic” countries in the world and the US is not one of them.--The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Democracy Index.

On 10/13/2018 at 3:53 PM, dawei said:

 

 The first one really just enforces separation theory... self vs others. This seems quite a conundrum that Quan Yin understood.

 

Second is still separation theory.

 

Third is separation theory too...  but gives one a chance to laugh 

Are you talking about the mythical Goddess Guan Yin?

Hand Art

Separation- Edward Munch, 1896

Georgia O'keeffe, the mother of American modernism.   "White Flower"

Blue and Green Music (1919) by Georgia O'Keeffe

Chauvet cave paintings (30, 000 years ago)

Claude Monet literally created the impressionist movement with his painting "Sunrise" in 1874.

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

Marcus Aurelius

 When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.

                                       Viktor Frankl

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.-- Will Rogers

The only journey is the one within.-- Rainer Maria Rilke

enlightenment- what a concept!? -- Jed Stuart

Dr. Seuss

“We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infintesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.” -- Alan Watts

Rembrandt

“The truth is, we know so little about life, we don’t really know what the good news is and what the bad news is.”-- Kurt Vonnegut

James Turrell

Study a dozen great masters of many different views and then find yourself somewhere in the middle.--- Jed Stuart 

"Is there an art of having orgasms without ejaculating?-- student

" Yes, there is, but in China only bad people do this-- men who wish to exercise power over women."-- Professor Cheng Man-ching, creator of the Yang 37 short form

My desire was not to become a living Buddha, just to become a human being.---  Grandmaster Cheng Man-ching

When ever you think you know what is going on, remember this, you are wrong!--- Jed Stuart