Author's posts
Jul 27 2008
Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective
Jul 27 2008
Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective
Jul 26 2008
Friday Philosophy: Waging Peace
The WeaveMothers, one and several, saw the thread snap. It whipsawed through the firmament as the tapestry of reality sagged and fragmented. Like so many other wherewhens, the place of weakness involved the worldtime of the brighter spot. As much as they could experience Fear, they feared another stillbirth should the loose cable strike the brightness.
And, one and several, they wondered if it didn’t seem dimmer.
The Engineer seized the braking lever suddenly and pulled with all hir might. The giant wheels locked and a plaintive squeal proclaimed the rending of the fabric.
The Storyteller ceased singing the song. The Listener’s head turned to watch the Passenger fall from the seat and awaken suddenly. On the Passenger’s head there was what could have been blood…near where there could have been other scars. Some of the Passenger’s face came away in its forelimb.
Jul 25 2008
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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Jul 24 2008
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
and may the good man find peace.
May he who has peace become free
and may he who is free make others free.
–ancient, traditional prayer of India
Phenomena VI: praying
 Sun
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Jul 23 2008
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
Born of compassion and kindness.
It patiently holds the thread
Of creation together.
Understand this and become a person of Truth.
–Sri Guru Nanak Dev, Hymn 16, Japji Sahib
Phenomena V: Truth
 At the Nub
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Jul 22 2008
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
–Arya Sura, Jatakamala (aka Garland of Birth Stories
aka Once the Buddha Was a Monkey)
Phenomena IV: listening
 Evaporation
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Jul 21 2008
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
–Siddhārtha Gautama, The Questions of Suvikrantavikramin
Phenomena III: delving
 Film at 11
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Jul 21 2008
Part of a story, for what it is worth…
I have no right to speak about another culture. I have done my studies, but I do not * know * and can only relate what I have encountered. I am not Dineh. I am not nadle (important link there–it would honor me if you followed it). I have no right to speak of this.
In the best of times, I have little right to speak of anything.
According to Dineh legend, two nadle named Turquoise Boy and White Shell Girl once belonged to the Dineh people. They invented all arts and handcrafts between them – basketry, weaving, the carving of pipes. All these they gave freely to the Dineh, and they thrived.
At one point, however, there was a terrible war between the men and the women, and they separated to live on opposite sides of a riverbank. Turquoise Boy did the women’s work for the men, and White Shell Girl did the men’s work for the women. They would often meet at night on the riverbank, which was shunned by the rest of the tribe, and commiserate sadly on how difficult it was to satisfy half a tribe all by themselves. These nightly meetings enabled them to notice, however that the river was rising dangerously, and that if nothing was done the Dineh people would all drown.
Turquoise Boy and White Shell Girl made a last dramatic plea to their tribe – come together and cooperate, or die. Faced with death, the men and women grudgingly agreed to put aside their differences and save the tribe. The two nadle built a boat, which enabled the tribesfolk to sail to a new and higher world.
–Raven Kaldera, from Pallas the Genderbender
The last sentence of Raven’s story:
The water is rising. We must, we must all band together soon, before it is too late.
Jul 19 2008
Friday Philosophy: Issues and Coalition Building
There are so many ills tainting our world. People’s inhumanity towards one another expresses itself in so many different ways.
Pick one. Work on it. Make it your Cause. Commit the rest of your life to it. Commit to bring it to an end. Do anything you can to advance that issue, including working on other issues…so that maybe when the time comes someone might have learned enough about you and your issues that they might actually care about them as well as their own.
What? What was that last part? Work on other people’s issues? Why would anyone ever do that? Isn’t that, like, a colossal waste of time and effort?
Actually, no. It’s how something…anything…gets accomplished.
Down here at the bottom of the issue food chain, the only way anyone is going to notice us is if we push other people forward, people who are and issues which are obscuring our existence.
Jul 18 2008
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
–Bodhidharma, Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices
Phenomena II: enticing
 Strings
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Jul 17 2008
Muse in the Morning
| Muse in the Morning |
–Krishna, the Mahābhārata
Phenomena I: inhaling
 Lurking
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