Author's posts
Jun 05 2009
Muse in the Morning
 Muse in the Morning |
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible.
–The Dhammapada, 1
Phenomena XV: Love
 Transition
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Jun 04 2009
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
–Bhagavad Gita
Phenomena XIV: crying
 Tears
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Jun 03 2009
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
The defeated live in pain.
Happily the peaceful live,
giving up victory and defeat.
–The Dhammapada, 201
Phenomena XIII: hurting
 Ice
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Jun 02 2009
WeaveMothers: What Shenshi Did
The WeaveMothers wove some new happentracks into the Ifalong, for this is what the Weavemothers were meant to do. And the Greataway sparkled a bit for a moment. Part of the Tapestry now connected more closely with momentous events and everyone paused for just an instant to reflect.
In the Locomotive the Engineer released some steam through the trumpet and smiled.
There is a tale that the Storyteller has told often. It is always a favorite, even by those who have heard it many times. For the Storyteller always embellishes it somewhat differently. The truth, they say, is never changed, but it comes in various hues.
The tale relates some of what happened before the Triad was formed. It is, in fact, the fable of the efforts of Shenshi to cause its formation. These events took place near Dome Azul at a time long after the color of that dome had faded, and the nearby coastal village of Punto del Oeste.
I can only relate the story in the way I heard it and as I remember it. One could probably consult the Rainbow for an exact version. But where would be the fun in that?
Jun 02 2009
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
nor should the brahmin
let loose with his anger.
Shame on the brahmin’s killer.
More shame on the brahmin
whose anger is let loose.
–The Dhammapada, 389
Phenomena XII: interacting
 True Colors?
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Jun 01 2009
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
sees his own Self in all beings
and all beings in his own Self
and looks on everything with an impartial eye.
–Bhagavad Gita
Phenomena XI: uniting
 Flow Lines
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Jun 01 2009
WeaveMothers: Post-beginnings
In telling any story I’m told that it is advisable to provide some background. But the Song of Earth is too much to tell. According to what is recorded in the Rainbow, the universe computer that records everything (and some even believe is everything), there was once an attempt to sing the song and all who knew it…or thought they did…gathered and sang…for 150 years.
The Storyteller was there. That’s where he learned his stories before he got on the train.
And they barely got started.
So maybe one just has to pick a place and tell a little bit and nurture it so that it will grow and answer any relevant questions when they do pop up, if one is able.
In the beginning?
The song doesn’t go back that far, since there was nobody to record it and the Rainbow had not yet been conceived.
But we can speculate that the WeaveMothers were weaving the Tapestry of Life. Why they have done what they have and when they started will likely always be a mystery.
May 30 2009
Friday Philosophy: Bummer of a week, mostly
I can’t say it has been a top of the line week. Given that last week included the death of the faculty colleague I work most closely with, one might have expected this week to have little direction to go but up. But one apparently would would have been wrong about that.
Of course leading off with Memorial Day weekend was a giant indication the week wasn’t going to be a whole lot of fun. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ramps up for veterans, whether the public is supposedly honoring the live ones or the dead ones. As a former draft dodger who was arrested by the FBI and forced to serve as an alternative to spending five years in the Oklahoma State Pen, I’m not terribly proud of my service…but I did the best I could while I was there.
Irony is one of the things the military does best. What better MOS for a draft dodger than military police. There was method in the madness, however, since at the time, Nixon had told the public that draftees would not be made into combat troops and combat troops would be brought home from Nam. What he failed to mention was that MPs were not combat troops, that the combat troops would be replaced by MPs and the draftees would be trained as, you guessed it, MPs.
May 29 2009
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
“is like the leaves on that tree;
what I teach is only a small part.
But I offer it to all with an open hand.
What do I not teach?
Whatever is fascinating to discuss,
divides people against each other,
but has no bearing on putting an end to sorrow.
What do I teach?
Only what is necessary to take you to the other shore.
–Siddhartha Gautama, The Dhammapada
Phenomena X: Separation
 Campfire
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May 28 2009
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
Not by mere renunciation does one attain supreme perfection.
–Bhagavad Gita
Phenomena IX: choosing
 Surfaces
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May 27 2009
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
things of no good
and of no use to yourself.
What is truly useful and good
is truly harder than hard to do.
–The Dhammapada, 163
Phenomena VIII: accepting
 Becalmed
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May 26 2009
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
and in its movement from phase to phase
it is governed only by the impersonal, implacable law
of arising, change, and passing away.
–Bhikkhu Bodhi, Introduction to The Dhammapada
Phenomena VII: changing
 Seeking to Connect
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