Redesign

This site is being redesigned, and will be merged into:

Wisdom Now!

Until I set up a proper re-direct command, please visit Wisdom Now! to read the type of material that I have been posting here. I am updating that blog on an almost daily basis, and will continue to do so. When the redesign is finished, the material will be integrated from both blogs in a completely new format.

Enjoy!

Get out your boards and sunblock 'cause Surf's Up Greenland!

Global warming 'past the point of no return'
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 16 September 2005

A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. Scientists fear that the Arctic has now entered an irreversible phase of warming which will accelerate the loss of the polar sea ice that has helped to keep the climate stable for thousands of years. more>>

Sometimes I wonder what the point is of trying to convince the supposed richest, most powerful nation on Earth that there may be a reason why they should care. I should imagine that the universe-vision of capitalistic apocalypticism (thank you Tenzin Bob for that one) believes that this is a part of the turf war between the man in the sky that throws fire and his enemies that get inside little girls and make them cuss and vomit, and therefore not a problem for the chosen.

There's another big story in the news (well, not as big as the US President's promises to those who he ignored while happily playing guitar) about how much Mercury there is in fish, but how the health benefits of the oils as so good that you may be demented from Mercury poisoning, but you won't have a heart attack. OK.

What does one do? One must think about true self-interest. There are skills necessary for living in uncertain environmental conditions that very few people learn. There are skills regarding food consumption that very few people have information on. There are skills of yoga and meditation that keep the mind clear and capable of making decisions in one's best interest, rather than the interest of those who manufacture the sugar, bling-bling (jewelry) and jeans.

But of course, none of this matters if the pals of the lightning guy in the sky decide that the solution for global warming is nuclear winter.

Roy (cross-posting to Wisdom Now!, this has been a busy week)
this post is dedicated to the benefit of all beings

Chindogu:

I keep mentioning Joriki in these posts because most people don't realize that there is a strength of mind as potent as physical strength, without which truly clear thinking is impossible. This strength is what the Tibetans call the "double edged sword of Manjushri" that on the one hand protects you against falling prey to severely disciplined and pervasive mentalities that you may encounter, but on a very practical level, helps you to act spontaneously and decisively in a way that moves you towards your goals.

As kids in New York, we used 'got your mind' as an expression to indicate that someone had been befuddeled, confused, stymied, exploited or otherwise had their self-interest supplanted. Usually it held a connotation that one had been made to believe something untrue for the entertainment of others. This is actually a cruel thing to do: the neuron associations that are built up around trust issues are important in both relationships and self development.

One can defend themselves against this. It just takes a bit of know how, a little revolutionary spirit and a burning desire for freedom and self-determination, good old American values as I learned them (oops, I'm dating myself).

Have you ever seen the 'Road Runner'? It's a cartoon about a mad scientist coyote who, in every story, unsuccessfuly tries to catch the road runner. The stories usually end with the coyote being burnt up, bruised, buried, smashed, exploded, or run over, usually holding a piece of his latest Rube Goldberg contraption (similar to what the Japanese call a Chindogu) in his hand.

The difference between a Rube Goldberg contraption and a Chindogu is that the first a ridiculously complex device that performs simple tasks, while the second is useful, even efficient, but its use could cause other problems, like extreme embarassment - see the Chindogu below.

To some purists, I would imagine that the umbrella hat may not qualify, because it actually works, but I cannot imagine a samurai, or even an queue of salarymen out for a karaoke evening wearing them.

Anyhow, the Road Runner teaches children the futility of effort, and the result of trying to go beyond one's "place". For this very reason, the US 'Founding Fathers' (not founding parents, because the women had no civil rights) tried their hardest to make the development of a 'ruling class' impossible. They tried to create a nation in which people grew in status and wealth by their efforts and determination, not by their parentage. It was an especially difficult task for them, because they were all white male landowners, and much of that land was made profitable and fruitful by bondservants and slaves.

Recently, a couple of generations of kids have been raised by machines and fed a diet of road runner, casper the ghost (spending eternity is search of a friend), and other animated humanoids that teach children how funny losers are. With this learning under their belt, if they don't get enough positive attention, or proper nutrition, they unconsciously decide to become losers not only in the hopes of being liked, but because they believe they have found their "place" in a world divided between losers and loser-exploiters. If they do get enough attention and are very well fed, and accept the "strong father" model as the "winners'" way, they look for losers to be of service to them in school, at work and at home. If there aren't any losers in the immediate vicinity, they will either go find some elsewhere or create some out of the unsuspecting and weaker of their fellows so that they can enjoy the fruits of their superiority, as they so deserve (according to their way of thought).

If you are around a lot of these "loser exploiter" framed people and you even suspect a hint of discrepancy between what you're told and what's really happening, you may be developing a trying problem called in the past by names like "self-esteem", "integrity" or heavens forbid, "independence". Nevertheless, whether one is a loser or a loser-exploiter, if you follow the model that teaches that people fall into one of these two categories, the tyrant/hierarchy model 'got your mind'.

If you are a follower of the tyrant/hierarchy model of human nature, and close to a nodal personality (like the class bully or a politician, guru, or some other hierarchialist), then ideas like integrity and independence may be as much of a Chindogu for you as using a pogo stick to navigate office corridors in a law firm. More on this later, as we explore various aspects of Ki.

Roy
this post is dedicated to the benefit of all beings

Warm Up, Cool Down

The next step in developing a visual sense of Ki is an extension of the last one, but first, a little bit of theory. The brain, for the most part, cannot tell the difference between something that one sees and something that one remembers. If you remember, for instance, the taste of the best piece of chocolate cake you've ever had, some of the same neurons in the brain will light up in response to this memory that lit up when you had the cake in your mouth.

This is why NBA players, golfers etc. are using visualization. Just as in the quantum observer effect, what you believe, you achieve. Many financial and success goal workshops take people through the process of visualizing themselves having achieved their goals - in fact, they want they to get their brain to believe that they have already accomplished them - why? To wire together the neurons that make the chemical calls that foster an addiction to action - action towards that goal.

In Ki science, it is believed that Ki follows intent - a person with weak intent has scattered and diffused Ki; a person with strong intent has coherent and collected Ki. This is why we can see a tangible difference in a person with strong Ki - a popular expression refers to a strong Ki person as one who's 'got it together' (or some more colorful metaphor). In doing these visualizations, we are only scratching the surface, but we are basically getting our energy and thoughts to follow our intent - to stick together and do one thing instead of jumping around to do lots of things. This practice helps focus the mind as well, further helping to cohere the intent. So let's do the next exercise.

Sit comfortably, feet on floor, and place the hands, as if praying somewhere around the level of the heart (comfort is more important than position) with the elbows close to the body. Breathe slowly through the nose and visualize on:
BREATHE IN : the vapor from the universe flowing in through the fingertips to the space between the 3rd and 4th lumbar vertebrae -
BREATHE OUT :the vapor from the point between these vertebrae moving through the elbows and out through the fingers.

The point in the spine should be right behind the navel.

Above all, relax and enjoy. The visualiations should not be anatomically correct; you should try to feel them more than see them anyway.

Roy
this post is dedicated to the benefit of all beings

Jazz III

Well, finally some news from New Orleans - it seems that the French Quarter has survived the flooding and other devastation. It will be interesting to see what happens, because 80% of the city has been destroyed. This area is the main tourist attraction and the entertainment center of the city, and home to a couple of expensive hotels as well as very exclusive residences. I've even heard a rumor that the levees were purposely broken, sacrificing the poor minority areas of the city, in order to prevent the FQ from being destroyed, but that's a conspiratorial rumor (I hope).

Anyway, there are concerts and songs - half of show business is out there begging. I'm surprised that the great friends of the US, Saudi Arabia and England, have not been as generous as the Germans and Venezuela, countries that have been snubbed or worse by the current administration.

But still we need to focus on Ki. It is a good time to practice counting the breath. By relaxing and counting the breath, and restarting the count again the instant a thought other than the count arises is a good way to get started with focus. This is called shamatar in some places. I've always liked that name. Start giving yourself 5 minutes (use a kitchen timer) a day to do this, and after you go the whole 5 minutes without having to start over, increase to 6, and after that is mastered, increase a minute at a time until you've reached 10 minutes. By that time, you have set Joriki in motion and are on your way to becoming a Ki master.

Roy
this post is dedicated to the benefit of all beings

Jazz II

New Orleans, the home of Jazz in America has gone the way of Atlantis. It's underwater. The Mayor of the city and the Governor of the state are basically abandoning the area to rescue engineers that will attempt to pump out the water, and even if they can, the downside estimate is 3 to 4 months before the area becomes habitable again. All the old clubs, the headquarters of Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Wynton Marsalis, Pete Fountain, and so many others - all underwater, soaked to the bone, gone. The famous old cemeteries, gone. All the charm and nostalgia and history, history. I should imagine billions could make for an exact restoration of some places, but not of St. James Infirmary.

I can hear those funeral dirges and the lamentations of the women now. So what happens to jazz, now that it, like the people of the African diaspora, has lost one of its roots: had a big piece of its culture and ancestry erased. Of course, there are books and photographs, recordings and souvenirs here and there, but those streets will never be the same again. Even if everything is rebuilt bright and new over the next 20 years, I should imagine this inundation has changed the psychic atmosphere of the area forever.

Sad.

Anyone who reads this blog and does Reiki or some other form of light or energy or distant healing, please send your energy and prayers to the area devastated by the hurricane. Also send some light to the energy officials who have decided to waive the clean air act provisions about sulfur etc. in order to ramp up production, so that gas prices can come down and make public opinion a little better for the president, because this excuse for temporarily repealing our environmental standards is a better fit for the agenda of the Neo Cons than accepting the generous offer of help from Hugo Chavez.

Roy
this post is dedicated to the benefit of all beings

Thinking about change-Jazz I

I've been thinking about changing the format and style of this blog and would like anyone out there who is reading to put in you 2 cents. I'm thinking about using a different layout, based on a homegrown template instead of this one. I'm thinking about working a lot more with pictures. I'm thinking about doing reviews (music, books, movies, various kinds of stuff - a sort of a journal of things I find interesting and that people turn me on to that express Ki).

Anyway, Jazz.

Jazz is essentially improvisational, the basic idea being that everyone in the group is interpreting the music in their own way, but there is a group interpretation that they are all creating simultaneously as well - but this is usually in the most avant-garde players, or the "folk" oriented old timers, like Buena Vista Social Club.

Usually the group is organized to build a soundscape for one or more of the players to do the main improv, in the same way that artists work together to create anime or manga.

Sometimes everyone works together in tightly orchestrated fashion in order to express the improvisation of the composer, as in classical music with breakouts.

But it is really a sort of populist improvisational music at root - despite the modern cultural perception of musician as a member of some imagined cultural elite.

Jazz is a very good way to learn about Ki. You can easily hear and see how not only people express Ki as individuals, but how they work together to express it as a group.

Just like I got into dancing for a while, the next few posts will have a Jazz theme (don't worry - there's lots of Ki stuff coming along too).

Roy
this post is dedicated to the benefit of all beings