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.

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