Daredevil

I didn't think I would hear anything profound on a Netflix show about a superhero. I had to transcribe it because it isn't even online. Just goes to show you that wisdom hides everywhere. 

"You get what you deserve"

It's an old saying, one that survived the years because it's true for the most part, but not for everyone. Some get more than they deserve because they believe they aren't like everyone else. That the rules, the ones people, like me and you, the people that work and struggle to live our lives, just live, don’t apply to them. That they can do anything and live happily ever after while the rest of us suffer. They do this from the shadows. Shadows that we cast with our indifference, with a pervasive lack of interest in anything that doesn’t directly affect us, we, in the here and now. Maybe its just the shadow of weariness, of how tired we are, struggling to claw our way back to a middle class that no longer exists because of those who take more than they deserve. They keep taking until all that’s left for the rest of us is a memory of how it used to be before the corporations and the bottom line decided we didn’t matter anymore, but we do, you and I, the people of this city, we still matter.

Still Points

Still points are marked by the absence of mental chatter. Suddenly the ears are softly ringing with the white noise of air molecules beating against the ear drums. A silence comes; and an infinite sense of visual space without content opens up.

The Voice

It speaks for itself. From the book "Falling Up" by Shel Silverstein.

Empty Your Cup

"Empty your cup so

that it may be filled;

become devoid to

gain totality."

- Bruce Lee

Buddha Drank Tequila ???

Don't expect "perfection" from your teachers and rock stars. Allow yourselves to relax enough so that you too can write, draw, play a musical instrument and sing. Even Buddha and Jesus did things disapproved of by friends and others. Their "imperfections" were part of their wisdom.

Conclusions

The sound at the end of sound is silence; so much is said without saying a word.

Lantern

I tried to do this on my own.

I tried to guide others

When I could not guide myself

I tried to see

Through eyes that were closed

I gave my heart recklessly

Yet, I could not love myself

I see so much light around me;
Why then am I left in the dark?

Let me grieve entirely
Let me see through my tears
Tonight, show me a brighter way

Long Distance

Age is just a
stop

watch

counting
life

as we run 

laps 

around a field

A track of 

time

going in
circles

as we
play 

the same 

game

Lighter Than Air

As we age, it becomes harder to cry. The vulnerability we experience can be too frightening to reveal to ourselves let alone others. Instead, our subconscious mind reads the writing on our heart and we become heavy. Whether we notice it or not, our breath begins to weigh us down. It starts with the heavy sigh and if left unresolved, a broken breath surfaces. We've all experienced this breath after crying and now it is trapped inside. It's only when we notice where that weight comes from can we face it and return our breath to normal. 

Breath easy today knowing that freedom is only a breath away.

Defrost

There is a heightened awareness of the piercing cold as the snowfall numbs your senses. The wind violently reminds you that you are in its icy tundra, away from all of the comforts which previously kept you warm. The ability to see ahead has begun to slowly deteriorate as the arctic realizes your intention to free yourself from its grasp. It needs to keep you afraid to stop you from progressing; it needs to stop you from finding truth in its dark and solitary waters. As the snow crunches beneath your boots, you become aware of the fatigue which has set in; just a few more steps to the cliffs.

Approaching the summit of your journey forged in tracks now unseen due to the storm, you look down towards the water. It is savage and unwavering. The crashing of its waves are fierce to send a simple message.

You cannot conquer us. Fear us. We will destroy you.

Holding onto the edge in fear, doubt creeps into the mind. Do you really need to face that which terrifies you even though you know it is best for your growth? You've been told you will survive. You know in your own heart that it is truth. The choice is yours now.

Succumb to frigid fear or jump knowing there is warmth inside

there is courage in the grass

every

winter the

grass wilts and dies

not once does it curse the sun

for giving it life

then taking

it away

i pray

for a courage 
like this

~Rich Pauloo

The Present

Like a virus the heartsting spread throughout her body. It's an interesting thing, the heart. It can ache like an injury or sting like a gash through the arm. It did not ache today. Her body came to the rescue and shut down without her consent like a computer virus. She went numb to the pain. Better than the alternative she thought. As she laid in bed, she began to think of a future she could not see clearly. The contagion had quickly infected her eyes and blinded her with fear. There was no diagnosis for heartache. She knew she could not treat the pain she felt with medicine. She remembered all the moments which once brought her happiness and shuttered as it now only brought pain. She needed something to bring light to the darkness, a nepenthe for the past.

It was time for her to heal her own heart; she needed to love herself now. There was no nepenthe. No quick fix that wouldn't just mask the pain and hide it away. You can put feelings in box and pretend it is not there but these boxes begin to breed monsters. To be strong she needed to start moving on and begin to grow without him. This virus could be cured she realized. She needed to let go of her old life, her old self, and be reborn. The pain which once infected her started transforming into passion. Like a phoenix, she could become a flame and light her world on fire once again; she became the light that conquered the darkness. 

It's an interesting thing, the heart.

Day Light Saving Time

The shadows on the ground reach
across the black top

Like a hand

on a clock

The sun begins to set
on a silent tick toc

White Out

There is a question which has been posed to me more than once in my life:

"What happened last night?"

It's tragic to wake up to a fragment of a night. It's easier to not remember anything than to be faced with the disappointment of boredom or negativity. Some take this one step further and purposely forget months or even years of their lives. Why not wipe away memories which cause us pain than to experience them fully? When we make that choice, we sacrifice the good and the bad; we blindly launch missiles at a field and hope they hit the right target. Sadly, everything gets destroyed in its wake and life becomes haunted by lost moments. In the end, do you want your life to be a scattered scrapbook or an unabridged film?

the blowing clover and the falling rain

In his "Divinity School Address" at Harvard, Ralph Waldo Emerson admonished organized Christianity for overemphasizing the miracles preformed by Jesus, while neglecting true miracles.  He said, "The very word Miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches gives a false impression; it is as monster; it is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain."

There are two things to notice here: the rigidity of religious institutions and the notion of a miracle.  I want to focus on the latter.  

The blowing clover and the falling rain.  These are the true miracles, Emerson is saying.  Life, death and the beauty between; the dark enigma of what lies before and after.  These are the ineffable mysteries tangling the tongues of poets and stoking the fire of philosophers, twisting the marrow of musicians, and feeding the wanderlust of mystics and seekers.

Life, unfolding outwards from within, as all of life does, like a frond opening, a universe expanding, like a fetus derived from one fertilized egg unfolds outward into bones, blood, nerves, and hair.  Even before the cells divide, the DNA within a single cell first replicates itself--something comes out of nothing, form from formlessness.  Life isn't the only unfolding enterprise.  Even the inroganic rocks on the Earth's crust are churned out of the great molten belly of the planet, spilling out onto the ocean and land, cooling into an array of colors and densities.

Verse 14 of the Tao Te Ching:

See the invisible, Listen to the inaudible and grasp the intangible.
This invisible, inaudible and intangible is undefinable.
Thus unified, it is the One,
Nothing is brighter, nothing is dimmer,
Underminate, it is unnameable.
Ultimately it is Nothing.
This is the condition of the conditionless,
The form of the formless,
It is beyond all descriptions.
Welcome this invisible at the beginning,
Follow this invisible to the end.
Holding onto the Ancient Tao,
Still now is the principle of all beings,
Being aware of the Primordial “Beginning,” it is the Tao.

The form and the formless.  The miracle of anything at all, of Nothing as well, of the interplay between.  These are the true miracles, not water and wine, not fish and bread multiplied.  The profound and fierce beauty in the seemingly ordinary is a miracle.  The feather pen on my desk, the paper, pressed and polished bodies of trees, these are miracles.  The blowing clover in the afternoon wind, the music of the falling rain.


Rich Pauloo
March 10, 2015

Rest in Peace

“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose."

-Yoda

Fear grips us so tight we cannot see the dark from the light. Not darkness as in evil, darkness as the inability to see. Most individuals fear loss due to the overwhelming fear of emptiness and it becomes blinding. Loss is a natural part of life though. We grieve for people long since past, moments now surrounded by empty nostalgia, and former opportunities lost in time. If we let them, these things can make us bitter. Once we become bitter we cannot let go of the grief; grief becomes pain, causing us to fear life in order to avoid getting hurt. It is when we finally are able to loosen our grasp on the things we are afraid to lose that we can live in the light and see once again.  

Card Tricks

It seems like the deck is stacked against you but you've just bet all your money on one hand. Are you playing the odds or just done playing?

It's a Wonderful Life

What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary.

I'll take it. Then what?

Well, then you can swallow it, and it'll all dissolve, see... and the moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair... am I talking too much

Timeless

I've experienced moments when time stands still. When everything literally stops for a second and there is nothing but pure awareness. It is when time stops, that life begins. We get so caught up in our days, running from one task to another. There are very few moments when we get to stop and be still. Ticking clocks conjure up time. You don't need to break the clock to catch your breath.

Missing

Name: Merlyn Aya

Age: Unknown

Last Seen: 12/2/14

Enjoy Having Less Not More

The global climate emergency is serious and real. It's not enough to make manufacturing more efficient; or cars cleaner. Reduction in economic output must be radically reduced now - or we risk the overall collapse of our global technological civilization. It's not economic growth that we want - but, the unthinkable need for economic contraction. We must learn to live and enjoy having less not more!    

Shadow Puppets

Don't fight shadows.
Notice the hands in front of the projector
You'll see the illusion

Huge monsters become tiny hands
In the light

Wisdom's Voice

Wisdom's "voice" is quiet and still; far away from the rattling of daily life. We can hear it speaking to us as if to a best friend. Each of us has a wise fool within us. "It takes one to know one". Wisdom is in living life consciously. Sometimes we "prepare" ourselves to hear wisdom's voice; other times it comes in loud shouts. "Wake up! Wake up!"

Image: http://epitemnein-epitomic.blogspot.com/2011/08/proverbs-8-wisdoms-call-and-self.html

Flash Light

It has been said that the night is darkest just before the dawn. Yet, the night is just as dark after the sun sets, before the moon begins to glow and the stars begin to appear.

Thinking we will only see light after darkness does us a disservice. It is when the light fades into the dark that your faith is truly tested. 

Find the light in the dark. Don't wait for the light to find you.

Leap of Faith

I generally don't write things like this but I thought why not? There are no rules.

Eyes which once were as clear as a glacier's stream were now fixed on the roaring river below. He held onto the railing of the bridge with his life. Time left him haggard and disillusioned. The grandfather who had held his heart had passed away and with him the boy's spirit to live. The boy who once played in the gentle sun now had all but forgotten it was day. It became night too soon for a boy so young. The philosopher, so rich and filled with life now felt he had lost his way. He could not feel the wind on his face; the life in his own breath. If he only listened to life, he would know that he could never lose it, unless he took it away by a leap of forgotten faith. It was now up to life to remind him of what he only saw as a faint light in the horizon. 

The wind softly spoke of memories the boy had forgotten in time's careless wake.

          Don't you feel me?

   it whispered .

                        My passion as I welcomed those tears and dried them

                        How I caressed your face and stroked your hair to remind you that you were not alone.

The moon caressed the boy with warm light and sang him a lullaby he had become deaf to since he grew cold.

           Can't you hear me?

   it sang .

                               I stayed awake while you slept under the tenderness of my light

Even when you could not see me my love

I was always there.

The stars danced a ballet of lights as they twinkled like fire in the glowing night. 

            Will you see me?

   they asked .

                                               We saw you grow

                                                 We lit the way

                                                   We will always tend to you

                                                      Even in the darkest nights

                                                       We might look distant

                                                         But we are only a glimpse away. 

This Life, That Life, My Life

Socratic Classes

My classes are mostly Socratic dialogues on meaningful topics. I demonstrate philosophy as a struggle for truth and wisdom. Some students get inspired to go on to standard philosophy courses - where they often become disappointed with pedantic teaching and readings. One student said, "I took philosophy to find meaning, instead I practice conceptual gymnastics. Frustrating and meaningless." Schools often limit philosophy to a "language game" focused on analysis, critical thinking, and technical statements. Fortunate is the student exposed to a Socratic teacher exploring wisdom and truth.

PAPAJI - Consciousness Alone Is

Wonderful video; in ten minutes Papaji sums up consciousness in relation to all-that-is.

Having is Giving

Americ Azevedo - Voice & Thoughts.original recording.

Josh Williams - Electric Guitars, Synths/Sounds/Programming.

Soul Medicine

Using Time Wisely

Using time wisely is wise living. Time passes and never returns. While living we're in time. We go beyond time through time by way of time. Facing time allows a glimpse of the timeless, the eternal.

Having "time on our hands" disturbs many people. Boredom sets in. Anything seems better than doing nothing or "just" being still.

Love is what we want. Free time is for love. Do and be what we love. Lovers of wisdom spend time engaged in philosophy - a word that really means "love of wisdom". Do what you love. Be what you love.

While Walking Around

Something Is Calling

Something is calling
I know not what it is
Say it is my soul

Relationship with Time

I was a little kid living with my parents on a dairy farm. Quiet clear summer nights smelling of alfalfa. Often noticed the ticking sound of our windup alarm clock. I loved to hold it to my ear to hear it "tick-toc". By getting really still, you could see the minute hand budge slightly with each tick-toc.

Years later, I was a graduate student, working on a thesis called "Wholes and Parts". Two years later, no sense of progress! I was going nowhere with this thesis. In frustration, I decided to write an "instant thesis". In one week, during two nights, two hours each night, a total of four hours, wrote a perfect jewel - “A Theory of Subjective Time”. My adviser told me to show it to the "time expert". Which I did. Quickly, it substituted for my two year going nowhere thesis!

Sometimes you take a long time to accomplish nothing; but can take almost no time to get it all done!

Holographic Wholeness

Realize interconnected holographic wholeness. The ordinary and the cosmic meet everyday but we forget, get lost. Pay attention again and again to the miracle of existence that is you, me, and us. We easily fragment life. We started as oneness, we can return to oneness. Here and now. Life was here before us and goes on without us. As we get less human-centric it becomes clear that life is universal even when we don't see it. Once humans believed the earth was the center of the universe - now it's so not so.  From the view of love, of spirit, it is All One.

Hanshan and Shide

The Profile of Hanshan and Shide 

Monks,painted by Luo Pin, a top famous

Chinese traditional painter of Qing 

Dynasty, and one of Eight Eccentric 

Painters of Yangzhou(扬州八怪)

The Story

Moments

Slam Poetry. Tragic. Beautiful. Hits home.

 Neil Hillborn - OCD


"The first time I saw her..
Everything in my head went quiet.
All the ticks, all the constantly refreshing images just disappeared.
When you have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, you don’t really get quiet moments.
Even in bed, I’m thinking:
Did I lock the doors? Yes.
Did I wash my hands? Yes.
Did I lock the doors? Yes.
Did I wash my hands? Yes.
But when I saw her, the only thing I could think about was the hairpin curve of her lips.."

Cook Book

Hearts can be so fragile. It's such an intimate experience to expose everything you are to another human being, simply trusting that your heart will be safe with them. When that trust is broken and we become hurt, our world is thrown into disarray. So many emotions engulf us and we lose trust that we can ever give our heart away again. There is such a unique pain which comes from heartbreak; that feeling is indescribable. So we hide our hearts away in fear, hoping they cannot be hurt as long as they aren't there to be broken. Yet, no matter how hard you try, you cannot hide your heart. When you listen to a song which brings tears to your eyes, see an event which makes you smile or catch a scent which causes you to remember, the heart begins to reappear. It's those emotions which are stirred up, no matter how bitter or sweet, that come together to create something beautiful.

Mel's Cappuccino

Designed by Mel @ HIGHWIRE COFFEE

Tao Te Ching: #1

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao ...


Translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English

Crazy (Gnarls Barkley) - Christopher Youmans & Carmen Ross cover

Full screen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7DUfF9ukGM

Leucippus - Father of Atomism

Leucippus (fl. 450 B.C.) Greek philosopher, founder of Atomistic Theory

The sum of things is unlimited, and they all change into one another. The All includes the empty as well as the full. The worlds are formed when atoms fall into the void and are entangled with one another; and from their motion as they increase in bulk, arises the substance of the stars.*

* Summary of Leucippus' theory by Diogenes Laertius as found in The Great Thoughts compiled by George Seldes.
Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucippus. 

Force in the Universe

Image from http://refe99.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/There-is-force-in-the-universe-which-if-we-permit-it.jpg

World Mind

Each of us is so small, so little. How can we expect to know what's going on everywhere? Can an insect crawling along the highway know that it is near a big city? It can't even tell it's on a highway! What's all the current crisis leading to? We as individuals and, even groups, do not have God's eye view.
Perhaps, there's a World Mind. Indeed, the internet and all its power to connect us all together all over the world is like a nervous system for a world mind; but, we don't all know it yet. It's said that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We can't get a handle, for example, on all the aspects of global warming; but, the world mind (above and beyond the limited view of individuals minds) may coordinate things somewhat intelligently.
Still, there's the individual responsibility to do the best we can. To learn what we can. To make our best judgments with limited knowledge and understanding. That we must. Practice integrity.

Greatest Healer

Love's the greatest healer to be found.

~ Willie Nelson

Prison Escape

“How do you react when you think you need people's love? Do you become a slave for their approval? Do you live an inauthentic life because you can't bear the thought that they might disapprove of you? Do you try to figure out how they would like you to be, and then try to become that, like a chameleon? In fact, you never really get their love. You turn into someone you aren't, and then when they say "I love you," you can't believe it, because they're loving a facade. They're loving someone who doesn't even exist, the person you're pretending to be. It's difficult to seek other people's love. It's deadly. In seeking it, you lose what is genuine. This is the prison we create for ourselves as we seek what we already have.”

―Byron Katie

Let Stillness Heal You

Sunflower

To love to Floss - A mother's teaching on meditation

To love to Floss - A mother's teaching on meditation

by Liliana Caughman

Big day, big interview.
A woman now but still calling Mom for advice -- always.
Nervous.
Hopeful.
Mind flying through years of memories,
projections to the future
meddlings in the past
connections, skills developed, insecurities.
Confidence wavering sinosodially
Up and down
peaking, panicking, falling.
Nothing's flat.
or even.

Voice on the phone of tucked-in-on-a-rainy-day-home-sick
Voice of healing kisses on scraped knees
Smell of fresh baked cookies

I'm ready for a pump-up,
number 1 fan's supersticious traditions

...
And she asks me I've been flossing.
...

Not as much as I could be, I say.
[She knows that's a stretch]

We'll you'd better start, she continues,
People won't notice if you don't
but they'll notice if you do.
You'll be free from the built up crap.
Reach the uncomfortable places inbetween.
Grow stronger, thicker flesh.
Massage your body's natural defenses
protect yourself from nesting invaders.
It's not about your teeth, she reminds,
you have beautiful teeth.

I'm conviced.
I start flossing.
I'm hired.

People sense when one takes time to care for the Self.
The Self takes care when it's tended to.
Remember to love to floss to meditate.

-Liliana Caughman

Light Years Away

I don't have that peace

I don't have the stillness they blog about

It takes years to get that

Once I'm able to fix this

Once I'm able to change this

Then I will be able to

Just breathe 

Right now

As you read this

You haven't fixed anything

You haven't changed anything

Welcome,

You've arrived

Preface to "Meditation: Waking Up to Life"

Here's a reading of the Preface to my book Meditation: Waking Up to Life.

Follow Your Breath

Follow your breath today
Follow your feet today
Be mindful today
Be easy
Be simple
Allow truth to come
and give it away

Quantum Ejection

Last night I dreamed
   of a wildly beautiful
   sunset against a view
   of the Golden Gate Bridge
   though the window

As the sun went down
   I saw pulses of golden
   light rise from the horizon.
   So amazing that I was 
   calling friends on the
   phone to have them
   look.
   The pulses 
   of golden light sometimes
   stopped and then started
   again. 

After a few episodes of
   quantum ejection of
   light at the horizon,
   I noticed bright streams
   of particles coming up
   I felt joy and love

o

walk around in circles
and you'll return to the beginning
and you'll return to the end
it isnt life and death
it isnt a snake eating its tail
its a circle
displaced
lost
wandering
empty
alone
thinking its the end
only returning to the beginning
doesnt it end?
end?
it doesnt

Fly

As dusk unzips the night, night unzips the dawn.

Spacetime

Movement through 
Einsteinian spacetime 
leaving mystical 
traces of reality

Rainbow Stairway

This morning, a rainbow in the stairway.

Pin

My mind is like a pinwheel. Constantly spinning. There are always gusts. I put up walls to block the element to no avail. The wind won't die down. So it continues to spin, catching the wind.

Watch Tower

You sit watching cars like a dog. Not really paying attention to the model or color.
You sit watching people like an ornithologist. Not really paying attention to the person as much as their simple actions.

Why not watch your thoughts?

Not paying attention to model or color.
Not paying attention to other people or their actions.

There is no fee for watching the mind.
You don't have to 'pay' attention.
You simply watch where your attention goes
And let it play without attachment.

I chose to play today
Not pay.

Cross Words

A white page seems so daunting. It looks back at you saying, "You have to write perfectly! You are only as good as your words. You will be judged accordingly." That's a lot of pressure from a blank box. Many people end up just looking at it blankly; blank as the box it feels it cannot fill. It's the mind reflecting itself though, trying to grasp onto the ego which says it must be the best. It's the ego which wants to be fed. It's the ego which traps us in our little boxes. Yet, this can change so quickly. Look at it differently. It's now a blank canvas, not a glaring box. Don't be trapped in the expectations of a white box. Free your mind and write.

Bob Dylan on the air

Bob Dylan on
   the air
Me on the ground
   a lifetime
   waiting for 
   take off
Could die before
   I succeed
   before I
   learn to read
   the wisdom
   in my own
   heart.

Bohmian Dialogue - Working Through the Word Together

All One

All One

is cosmic consciousness lived

in every moment of our lives.

It's always with you and I

but usually there's a vale over it.

"It" is cosmic consciousness -- 

the basis of the golden rules

and deep understanding of reality.

I believe that wide spread

non-drug induced, spontaneous 

experiences of cosmic consciousness

are essential to the survival

of human life on earth. Not

by religion, dogma or ideology can

we come to unity. Not by education

alone can we do so. But, by

repeated glimpses of the oneness of

all things!

Heartfelt meditation, movement, music,

quiet stillness and longing are required. 

Go Deeper

Audio recording by Josh Williams (artwork and music) and Americ Azevedo (voice).

Who

Speaking From a New Place

Ocean of Stillness

Be 

an 

ocean 

of 

stillness 

within 

the 

world

Book of Life

The book of life is written in the heart. It is read by those whose eyes have been washed by tears. The deepest wisdom is earned in pain, despair, and disappointment. But, past that – there comes a lightness and freedom that is beyond everyday human understanding – call it divine. We are like butterflies breaking out of our cocoons!

Living Way Off the Ground

Global technological civilization is living way off the ground. Too many people never feel the earth, nor see and sense the wonder of the sky above. "Time" is lost, replaced by an endless drone of instant messages, emails, news flashes, and instant videos. Endless rapid communication near and far. The only truly subversive act is to STOP, breathe deeply and listen for silence - the voice of Being - for a little while. Abandon doing for being. Be still.

Take Back Our Lives Together

It's through others that we live. Civilization - with all it's technology - abstracts us from each other - to the point that symbols becomes life - that is false. Today, take back our lives together - see ourselves in others.

Alan Watts: OM The sound of Hinduism part 1a

Worth listening to. Alan Watts is classic. He opened so many people up to Eastern religion. He was an important part of the "beatnik" era. The man for the job - having been a former Episcopalian minister.

Unnatural Way of Presence

Walked into a bookstore. 
Found a lovely looking book about 
"simple teachings for being present".
Opened it - 
totally complex language and ideas.
All words about presence - 
but no presence.
Streams of non-stop words.
The natural way of being
was lost.
Forget, forget, forget books 
and essays (such as this one)
you are reading now.
Look! Look! Be! Just be. 

Counting money

Count the money you have, not the money you don't have.

Bohmian Dialogue - Working Through The Word Together

Socratic dialogue has a center, a facilitator. Bohmian dialogue, however, has no center or leader, rather everyone is responsible. It is a working through the word together. Listening, suspending judgement, and sharing happen. There is no "topic". The topics emerge as participants speak, listen, respond or stay quiet. A Bohmian dialogue group is from ten to forty members. Because of its open ended format, it truly reflects a microcosm of the wider culture.

Philosophy - What's It Good For?

In my last year at the University of California at Irvine, I switched majors from biology to philosophy. Friends asked me, "What good is philosophy?" What they really meant was, "Can you make any money at it?" I knew people with lots of money, but little meaning in their lives. They seemed to be lost in games and pastimes. They worked without questioning the purpose or value of their work. I was interested in meaning, not money, but the people around me didn't share my feeling. Most of them believed that only money was real.

In my search for meaning, I first turned to the study of logic, mathematics, and science. In my teenage years I encountered logical positivism. Logical positivism was an early 20th Century school of philosophy that claimed all the grand questions of traditional philosophy were meaningless. Questions like "What is the meaning of life?" or "Is there a God?" were meaningless, logical positivists asserted, because the answers cannot be verified. But questions like "Does the moon have an opposite side?" are meaningful because we can construct tests to prove or disprove any answer. We can build a rocket to the moon. But how can we verify the meaning of life, or the existence of God? The logical positivists saw no true/false test for these matters.

Of course, just because we can't prove or disprove God's existence doesn't mean he doesn't exist! Logical positivism lost its hold on me while I was a graduate student at San Francisco State University in 1970. I was moving toward 'meaningless' questions like: Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the purpose of life? Why is there evil in the world? Then I discovered Buddhism and other ancient spiritual traditions that addressed such questions. I was beginning to find real philosophy. 

Philosophy is not a word game. It is, as Plato explained, the "love of wisdom". Few students get to study real philosophy at college. Philosophizing is an extraordinary act. It requires re-thinking issues at the most fundamental level -- right down to questions of being. One winds up asking simple-sounding, childlike questions like "What is real?"

The world is adrift, without meaning. That is why so many become victims of political ideologies and extreme religious viewpoints that offer a sense of meaning at the expense of compassion, truth, and justice.

"Does philosophy help you make money?" My answer is personal. All the really amazing jobs I've held came from my grounding in philosophy. I became a computer programmer because my boss assumed that philosophy made one logical. I got promotions to higher levels of responsibility because I saw the "big picture" in the organizations I worked for. One day I found myself the acting CEO of several small technology companies in trouble. Why? Because my philosophical perspective gave me a high tolerance for ambiguity, which allowed me to go into unknown and almost unknowable situations again and again. So yes -- philosophy can help you make money. But meaning, understanding, and wisdom are the real payoffs.

Glimpsing the Universe

One of the greatest miracles - the emerging maps and images of the structure of the whole universe. All this knowledge is tentative. We will never get to the bottom of it all. Among the greatest human-cosmic adventures. 

Filaments represent strings of galaxies across the universe. 

The Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics

Nothing Permanent In The Mind, Except Consciousness

There's nothing permanent in the mind, 
except consciousness.

Almost impossible to talk or think 
our way into this realization.

An easier way is through 
meditation or silent prayer.

Some say that 
nature is emptiness;

others say that it is God.

It’s up to you 
to realize mind's true nature.
Or, perhaps, you are granted grace 
and it just happens!

Riding the bus into work this morning

We recently received this letter in the email. Worth sharing. Writer gave permission for republishing in the Philosopher-at-Large blog.

Americ,

Riding the bus into work this morning I looked around at all my fellow patrons. Wondering, my eyes meet with the only other person not looking down at an electronic device. We share a moment in a smile. As I scan around at everyone else, they are only shadows of people. Physically near but consciously lost in other universes. It made me want to break down and cry in the middle of the bus. I wanted to grieve for something modern humanity seems to have lost.

Not that I don't love technology and it's awesomeness. But I can just imagine the raw power that would exist within this bus if all these people were present to one another - the ideas that would spread like wildfire, the shared experience of one another. It seems almost revolutionary almost radical.

I looked back at the woman, she smiled again, knowingly.

Anyway, I wanted to share.

Liliana Caughman

Giving Is Having

You know you 

have something 

when you give it away. 

By giving, having 

suddenly becomes real.

Vision Actualization Process

The following is a ten step process for making your visions happen. I developed it with hundreds of students in my PACS 164A (Introduction to Nonviolence) class at the University of California, Berkeley. You can do it by yourself; however, it's more powerful if you do it with others. We had over 400 students go through this process. All kinds of wonderful projects emerged. Lives where changed. Thousands of people outside our classes (even in foreign countries) received the benefits of student visions for good turned into tangible actions in the world. 

Vision Actualization Process

Date: _______________

Name:  Last_________________ First_______________

A personal vision contributing a nonviolent sustainable good society.

Write down responses to the following steps. Read your responses. Rewrite as you become clearer on your project. Share with others what you are doing. Take feedback. Make adjustments if needed. Rewrite again. Act. Feedback. Adjust. Act again. Actualize.

Vision Title
A short descriptive title for your personal vision.

Detailed Vision Story
On a singe sheet of paper, describe your current vision. Keep in mind that it is perfectly okay to now have a different vision than the one you originally declared in class.

Mission Statement
A brief summary of what you are trying to accomplish.

Territory
The “landscape” of people, problems, and projects your vision is embedded within. Why is it needed? Who else is doing it? How can you do it better?

Limiting Beliefs, Re-framing, and Positive Self Affirmations 
Identify the limiting beliefs that slow down or stop you and re-frame them into affirmations supporting your vision.

Goals
List specific goals that must be met in order to attain your vision. (Could be one or several interdependent goals.) What resources do you need in terms of time, people, knowledge, money, and materials? What overall types of actions are required?

Planning
Provide specific steps and timelines for attaining each goal. 

Actualization
Let all of the above “hit the road”. Moving from thought to action. What actions did you already accomplish to actualize your vision? What actions are you undertaking at this time? What’s ahead on your "to do list" for today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, etc.?

Observations and Adjustments
Evaluate, reevaluate, and reevaluate again your ideas and/or process. What problems, complexities or issues are you running into? What modifications are, or have been, required of your plan?  Where are you now?

Any Other Comments.
For example, your personal experience with the vision project, your thoughts about doing this in the class context, or anything else.

Green Manufacturing Blog

I highly recommend following the

Green Manufacturing Blog. 

It is produced by David Dornfeld, head of the Mechanical Engineering Department and Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley. This subject is most important as we head into a world of global climate change. Here's the blog's summary description:

Commentary, information and resources related to green manufacturing, sustainable manufacturing and sustainability in the US and abroad. Based on information from a variety of sources (web to print) and including technical information from researchers in the field as well as researchers at the University of California in the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability (LMAS - lmas.berkeley.edu). 

Imagine Healing Now

Imagination 

sometimes makes us ill;

sometimes makes us well.

Creation

The physicist, unmaking mind and life

explaining creatures as kinds of light

To undo the work of the Creation,

returning from the 6th to the 1st Day!

               “To Undo the Work of the Creation…”

                             Paul Goodman[1]

When did it begin? Anyone of us around for that event? Was it the sound of “aum” as suggested in the ancient Upanishads?  Physicists and cosmetologists project backwards using mathematical time travel. They say we can tune into the sound of the cosmic creation event, the Big Bang. You can “hear” that creation sound on your radio or television as the static on channels with no active broadcast stations – it’s a small percentage of that static! The shock waves of creation are still with us.

“Universe” = “uni” + “verse” suggesting “One song”. The universe sings one song. Listen, listen, and listen. The song is love.

Creation is not over. New varieties of animal and plant species are still arriving. Old mountains falling. Creation is a big long winded event. Now is the moment of creation. “Undo the work of Creation” – come into presence where you are. It begins here and now. Again and again. Now create. “Let there be….” Just fill in the blanks.

  

A listener of my audio recordings[2] listeners wrote:

your words always give me hope
that there is someone on the same frequency out there.
the frequency of the universe.

A beautiful idea: that we can tune ourselves to the frequency of the universe! What could that frequency be? Perhaps the ringing echoes of the Big Bang creation event. Maybe the sound of Aum (om) as suggested in the Upanishads. Or, is it the frequency of truth - which only a quiet soul can hear?

---

[1] Poetry Magazine, July 1940, page 184. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/56/4#!/20582182

[2] https://soundcloud.com/americ

Learning and Unlearning

"If you are not having fun, you are not learning." That was my motto when teaching database theory and administration. One day a student surprised me. He was quoting back me my own motto!

Meditation is one of the best ways to unlearn, to break out of old habits, to let go of the past and be more present to what is here now.

Humans are born learners – in youth often experiencing a certain ecstasy in learning itself. To stay young keep learning something new. Open up a different kind of magazine. Keep changing the environment that you're looking at so that your mind works at mastering new vistas. You're old when you can't be bothered to learn new things. A long time ago my first child told me, “When you stop learning you die.” I think he was eight or seven years old at the time.

Learn to unlearn. Question authority as it presents itself in books, all the media, and interpersonal relationships. Learning to unlearn is one of the greatest attainments in our lives; unlearning opens up space for new knowledge, skills, and insights. 

New American OccuPie 1

Clyde Leland's brilliant musical social political commentary inspired by the original Occupy Movement. Clyde's "New American OccupPie 1" transcends the Occupy Movement, deserving a place within mainstream social-political-entertainment culture. This is music and song for sparking dialogue among friends and critics.

Wise men and fools - Bruce Lee

Miracle

Image found by looking up "Life" on Google.

Image from http://www.cfcmiddleeast.org/?p=3736 

Why are there human's in the universe?

Here’s a mystery. Why are there human’s in the universe? Does the universe need us to be here so that it can be observed; so that we can be awed by the wonder of it all? 

I believe that the universe is human in the sense that without humans (or other equally sentient conscious creatures there would be no one, nothing to honor the glory of the creation). 

Mining Building

View from my classroom in the Mining Building. 

A perfect place for teaching Engineering Ethics. 

Beauty, design, and the implications of our actions.

All at once.

Grounding

We stand on the earth. But we might not be “grounded” – meaning that our heads are “in the clouds”. Mastery is when we are planted here and now in this spot. Rooted in place. So that we cannot be easily pushed over for others who are not being with truth. 

Grounding is a Qi Gong practice. Do the “horse pose”. It is fundamental. Stand with your knees relaxed. Back erect, comfortably, non-forced, yet straight. Your hands softly open and turned inward toward your belly. Arms extending outward a little. (Many variations on this pose exist!) 

Everyday is different, everyday is new

Everyday is different, everyday is new. We wake up in the morning often surprised by how we feel "today". Suddenly, what seemed important yesterday is not important. Suddenly, something is harder or easier today. Always, somewhat of a surprise as we wake up to today. 

Sound tracks remixed by listeners of my SoundCloud oral teaching uploads. An amazing development in my work as a "philosopher-at-large".

Re-mix by americ

The Answer

Know thyself,
all will make sense.

Love thyself,
you will Love All.

All One

Get out of your head and into your body! 

Believe it or not (mind! watch it) our bodies have been around much longer and have gained tons of experience. 

In other words, keep remembering how wise you already are.