TO WRITE, OR NOT TO WRITE? THAT’S THE QUESTION?

I have to confess that my enthusiasm for blogging has practically disappeared in my current life, when before I had so many things to say!
It’s not that I don’t have them now, I do have concerns, but the desire is what I lack, I don’t feel motivated, nor do I consider that what I have to say is vital for my readers, or I’m simply not interested in sharing my predilections for judging them not important to others.

The point of writing in my view it’s to share things I believe relevant, and doubt those things can be of interest to most.

Frankly I am most interested on watching Youtube videos, and maybe I should look into it, but as to for picking a particular theme, that are merely political, and on events you see on the news, beleive there’s no need for me to add to the pyle of information we can watch there.

I don’t know maybe inspiration will come back again, and figure out about add more posts, will see?

Wish you all a late good year 2024 to everybody, cheers!

GLOBAL SOLUTIONS TO LOCAL PROBLEMS, OR LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO A BIG PROBLEM ?

We live in a time when we we all ar founding out, the World it’s not as big as we thought, and furthermore, has a human population of over 8 billion as of 2023, with an overall  population density of 50 people per km² (130 per sq. mile), excluding  Antartica. Nearly 60% of the world’s population lives in Asia, with almost 2.8 billion in the countries of India and China combined.

The percentage shares of India, China and rest of South Asia of the world population have remained at similar levels for the last few thousand years of recorded history. The world’s literacy rate has increased dramatically in the last 40 years, from 66.7% in 1979 to 86.3% today. Lower literacy levels are mostly attributable to poverty. Lower literacy rates are found mostly in South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa. The world’s largest ethnic group is Han Chinese constituting over 19% of the global population in 2011. In terms of the largest number of native speakers,  Mandarin is the world’s most spoken language.

The world’s population is predominantly urban and suburban, and there has been significant migration toward cities and urban centres. The urban population jumped from 29% in 1950 to 55.3% in 2018.^[7[8]

 Interpolating from the United Nations prediction that the world will be 51.3 percent urban by 2010, Ron Wimberley, Libby Morris and Gregory Fulkerson estimated 23 May 2007 would have been the first time the urban population outnumbered the rural population in history. India and China are the most populous countries, as the birth rate has consistently dropped in wealthy countries and until recently remained high in poorer countries. Tokyo is the largest agglomeration in the world.

the World Economic Forum has singled out 10 key global challenges that, if they are to be addressed, require cooperation from the public and private sectors.

I will not mention every one, you can google it if you care, to, in order to be brief, and to the point.

By 2050 we likely will have 9 Billion people to feed, and shelter, and everything else that goes to support a person through his/her life, not just food, work, shelter, medicine, education, the list will be all the necessary things we all need to survive, be this clean water, or clean air, and whatever we consume like a plague of ants, like Marabunta do, it refers to a large group of ants, but specifically refers to a type of ant also known as siafu (its name in Swahili), warrior ants or legionary ants. They are the marabunta ants, which are surprising for their organization, behavior and way of attacking their prey. These insects gather in colonies of up to 20 million individuals that can be distinguished because they move en masse. In this way they search for food and destroy everything in their path, including small animals. Some people like to say we as Humans are pretty much like them in our beahavior, as consumers, remember those short films of people going to a sale, and charging into into a store all at the same time, and running all over people, for some cheap goods?

Well, that can get even worst with a lot of more people people around the Globe all competing for the necessary stuff, we all need to survive, and stay alive. With more people around and our own instinct to survive, that can get real ugly,

“Think globally, act locally” urges people to consider the health of the entire planet and to take action in their own communities and cities. Long before governments began enforcing environmental laws, individuals were coming together to protect habitats and the organisms that live within them. These efforts are referred to as grassroots efforts. They occur on a local level and are primarily run by volunteers and helpers.

I was a teenager on the sixties and for quite sometime you saw an enviromental counsciousness arise within the young people over the World, and things looked very bright, then, now things are not so clear, even if more awareness exist, and we are warned at every moment from all the media corners, the fate of the world and from all of us, continues to be even more dangerous, urgent, and pressing.

“Think Globally, Act Locally” originally began at the grassroots level, however, it is now a global concept with high importance. It is not just volunteers who take the environment into consideration. Corporations, government officials, education system, and local communities also see the importance of taking necessary actions that can impact positively the environment.

We live in a Universe full of Galaxies and stars, of inimaginable proportions, however this little tiny planet we call Earth. and many ancient cultures named it Mother, Earth, by many names. Still it’s our only Mother, and she nurture us, and give us life, since it’s beguinings. Well so far it’s the only one we got, at least untill now. Let’s make our best to keep it nurturing us.

Planet earth with sun rising over European countries (Elements of this image furnished by NASA- earthmap http://visibleearth.nasa.gov)

THE KEY TO HAPPINESS

My opinion from seventy years of age experience, the less you worry about what you want from life, and enjoy whatever you got at hand , day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute, the better!

Just like ancient Indian sage, and poet Kalidasa adviced.

Look To This Day

Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.

For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!

Salutation to a new dawn

Back From A Long Break Of Not Writing A Book To My Liking: Memoirs Of A Writer By Rafael Cansinos Assens

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”

– William Wordsworth

After a few months pause of not writing decided to publish a new post.

A simple expllanation, my old computer broke down, and was not happy to lose my writing program I had used for many years, lucklily now WordPress has made new settings that allow me to do a good job at it, at least when it come to presentation.

There is little I think now about a theme for this post, so I will talk a little bit about what I am reading and enjoying very much.

In fact three books that I have read two times, and reading for the third time, the bad news its if you do not read Spanish you cannot read it, to my knowledge it’s not translated into English yet.

Rafael Cansinos Assens
Rafael Cansinos Assens was born in Seville, in 1882. He moved to Madrid in 1901 where he carried out his literary career. He collaborated in various modernist and ultraist magazines. He cultivated the novel, poetry and literary criticism. He also made numerous translations into Spanish of foreign works. Of his vast oeuvre, in addition to El candelabro de los siete brazos, it is worth highlighting La novela de un literato, also published in Alianza Editorial, in which he offers us an enthusiastic fresco of Madrid’s artistic bohemia of the first third of the 20th century. Rafael Cansinos Assens died in Madrid in 1964.

The memoirs of a Literary are a true delight of stories about ancient Spain no longer the power it was with the loss from all its colonies, and the end of the Ninetee Century the end of the nineteenth century and the begining of the Twentieth century, with the arrival of Modernism, and a new way of life.

The origins of the surname In the mid-nineteenth century he was aware of his conversal heritage, which led a very young Rafael to investigate the origin of his surname, finding evidence of a family past marked by the expulsion of the Spanish from the Jewish religion in 1492 and that divided the Sephardic families. It is from this moment when the process of assimilation to Judaism begins in him, which will accompany him, with not a few setbacks, until the last minute of his existence.

He published his first work, El candelabro de los siete brazos (psalmos), in 1914, modernist, but published late, when this aesthetic began to fade. At that time, he led the gathering at the Colonial café, where he shared the creationist line of Vicente Huidobro, and with another group of avant-gardeists they founded ultraism, whose manifesto was published in 1919 through the magazines Cervantes and Grecia (directed by Isaac del Vando-Villar with Adriano del Valle as editor-in-chief), and whose objectives were synthesized in Ultra, published between January 1921 and February 1922. In 1919 he abandoned journalism to dedicate himself entirely to literature, directed the magazine Cervantes and collaborated in Greece, Ultra and Tableros, sharing their activities with the avant-garde group made up of Guillermo de Torre, Adriano del Valle and Xavier Bóveda, among others (and among them a young Jorge Luis Borges). At the same time, he maintained a very close relationship with the incipient Jewish community in Madrid, which at that time revolved around the figure of Max Nordau. His work from those years, except for some texts that he signed with the pseudonym “Juan Las”, does not, however, have anything avant-garde, but rather has its roots in biblical texts. In 1919 he published for the first time in Spanish, translating from English and French, a Talmudic anthology with the title of Beauties of the Talmud. His prestige as a translator will increase based on his versions of works by Julian the Apostate, Ivan Turguéniev, Leon Tolstoy, Maximo Gorki and Max Nordau. In 1921, in El movimiento V.P., he makes an ironic portrait of the protagonists of the Spanish avant-garde, and especially of the dissolution of ultraism.

His tales about the numerous Spanish writers he encounter through his Bohemian life, the many rich and the many delicious and spicy anecdotes that he collects from his bohemian life as a late-night writer in literary evenings, in cafes, and in bars in Madrid and why not also say it in brothels and houses of all sorts of friends, and coquettes of his time.

He published his first work, El candelabro de los siete brazos (psalms), in 1914, modernist, but published late, when this aesthetic began to fade. At that time, he led the gathering at the Colonial café, where he shared the creationist line of Vicente Huidobro, and with another group of avant-gardeists they founded ultraism, whose manifesto was published in 1919 through the magazines Cervantes and Grecia (directed by Isaac del Vando-Villar with Adriano del Valle as editor-in-chief), and whose objectives were synthesized in Ultra, published between January 1921 and February 1922. In 1919 he abandoned journalism to dedicate himself entirely to literature, directed the magazine Cervantes and collaborated in Greece, Ultra and Tableros, sharing their activities with the avant-garde group made up of Guillermo de Torre, Adriano del Valle and Xavier Bóveda, among others (and among them a young Jorge Luis Borges). At the same time, he maintained a very close relationship with the incipient Jewish community in Madrid, which at that time revolved around the figure of Max Nordau. His work from those years, except for some texts that he signed with the pseudonym “Juan Las”, does not, however, have anything avant-garde, but rather has its roots in biblical texts. In 1919 he published for the first time in Spanish, translating from English and French, a Talmudic anthology with the title of Beauties of the Talmud. His prestige as a translator will increase based on his versions of works by Julian the Apostate, Ivan Turguéniev, Leon Tolstoy, Maximo Gorki and Max Nordau. In 1921, in El movimiento V.P., he makes an ironic portrait of the protagonists of the Spanish avant-garde, and especially of the dissolution of ultraism.

The life that he led in post-war Madrid was fundamentally nocturnal, since he slept until well into the morning, when he began to work; his sentimental partner, Josefina Megías Casado, died in 1946, and his sister Pilar in 1949, with whom he had lived all his life, in 1950 he went to work at his home in Menéndez Pelayo Braulia Galán, who would become his wife years later, taking care of him until the end of his days. In 1958 she had a son, Rafael Manuel, who is in charge of the Foundation that bears the name of the writer. Thanks to his widow, the writer’s literary archive was preserved, made up of more than sixty thousand documents and one of the most important pieces, if not the most, of the so-called Silver Age of Spanish letters. His library, whose donation was despised by Francoist institutions, is preserved, along with that of Juan Ramón Jiménez, in the Zenobia-Juan Ramón Jiménez Room of the University of Puerto Rico.

Shortly before his death he finished the translation of Balzac’s Complete Works. He was a correspondent of the Sevillana Academy of Good Letters and of the Goethiana of São Paulo (Brazil); in 1925 the Royal Spanish Academy awarded him the “Chirel” prize and the following year he was distinguished with the French Academic Palms.

A street in Seville is named after him.

TWILIGHT

On the last train of the afternoon
like an unhappy player
the emigrant sun fled.
parting faces
in all windows.
frustrated suicides
retrace the viaducts.
The river is full of swords.
Hasty reverbs.
they pass whistling through the streets.
And the great brazier of the poor.
it spills over into the landscape.

Rafael Cansinos Assens

DISCOVERING OUR NARRATIVE, A PROCESS WE CALL LIFE

ON THINGS WE DISCOVER AS WE AGE

Life receives too many adjectives, but life it’s a verb, that it unfolds as we live, uncertainty a first, in childhood, and at our youth undecided, and shy, as we mature during our third decade we choose this, or that, hoping it will work out to reveal what we think we are, on the beginning of the fourth decade we tune, and correct course if in need of, asserting, and throwing out, what we believe of no use, friends, relationships, jobs, locations, and whatnot.

By the course when we arrive to the last years, we can see with clarity, the result from our work, and we can correct, and straighten certain things out, not all of them, since in life you cannot go back, only try again for new routes, different tactics to our general strategy, now hard to change into something else, since we start reaping the result from our past decisions, fortune or our luck, brings to our feet, what is in store for us, the assets, and our mistakes, good, and bad, realizing we need to work a lot on our shortcomings, since we are beginning to see with some clarity, that our fourth decade, will be on us soon, and with more difficulty will be too late to change course, and achieve gain.

It’s said that at Forty Two, we have reached finally full maturity, sort like be able to take stock from our situation, and make a balance, and see with some clarity what it’s ahead of us, like the famous opening words from Dante’s first chant:

“Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura ché la diritta via era smarrita…”

“Midway upon the journey of our life

I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.

So bitter is it, death is little more;

But of the good to treat, which there I found,

Speak will I of the other things I saw there.

The dark forest–selva oscura–in which Dante finds himself at the beginning of the poem (Inf. 1.2) is described in vague terms, perhaps as an indication of the protagonist’s own disorientation. The precise nature of this disorientation–spiritual, physical, psychological, moral, political–is itself difficult to determine at this point and thus underscores two very important ideas for reading this poem: first, we are encouraged to identify with Dante (the character) and understand knowledge to be a learning process; second, the poem is carefully structured so that we must sometimes read “backwards” from later events to gain a fuller understanding of what happened earlier.

ON OUR MISTAKES, SOMETIMES WE FEEL HOPELESS, AND LONELY

Loneliness is an

Essential friend

On our way

To bravery.

Ibn Arabi

I got to confess I had committed many mistakes through my life, a few very costly, and what is worst, the most grave with no remedy!

As we age, we slowly, or suddenly we realize, this fact, and grieve us, what to do?

When you do not even have the chance to ask for forgiveness, or do nothing to repair them, your heart grows heavy with pain, and despair, and we only have a tool in repentance, and prayer if you are a believer, those who are not, I wonder what they do? What their hearts tell them to do, and how can they lift the heavy weight of guilt from their hearts, I guess despair, pain, and tears and regret are common to our Human condition, and also our burden.

To have a conscience it’s good, but it would had being better not to acquire it after the fact from our mistakes.

The acquisition from mankind consciousness, no doubt a good thing, since at least set us on a straight path, not of those who err, and fail. The  burden of being Human, is to be moral, and distinguish good, from wrong, or even evil.

We toil through our life trying to avoid the wrong path that leads us to the way of despair, and sorrow. And on it we discover who we are, our many weaknesses, and reflect that we need to be better, to not incurring in the same ways who bring us repentance and sorrow.

There’s no shame in asking for forgiveness, not to do it, just make us more loaded with hopelessness, bitterness, and misery. So asking for forgiveness it’s the most beautiful thing for a heavy heart.

Let’s all walk, on the beautiful path, ahead of us, and do not go stray, or lose our way.

And if you care, and are a believer pray for Grace:

“Lord, I ask that you give me the strength to forgive. I ask that you place on my heart a spirit of forgiveness. I know this person said (he or she) was sorry. (He or she) knows what happened was wrong.

I repent also from my mistakes, and those who I aggravated, and injured, or suffered because of me, in any way, or form.”

 

REFLECTIONS FROM AN OLD MAN ABOUT HIS PAST

“It’s said that with Age comes Wisdom, but maybe it’s because regret, as we reflect on our mistakes.”

B.A.

Trough the years,  specially when you reach old age, you reflect on your past. And if we are sincere, we will admit that we  not did  just a few mistakes, but many, and therefore the way we acquired wisdom.

Of lately, I have giving a lot of thought to my now many years gone parents, and realized I could had being a much better son than I was.

I left home at the early age of seventeen, to do what a  lot of young people do, to go and study, somewhere away from home, sure I returned for some years on vacation times, but just for a few brief days, and then life caught in full with me, work, marriage, children supporting a family, on a far away city, with less, and less visits through the years being caught on dealing with all the things all you know too well, if you have your own family to take care, and your parents do not live anywhere near from where you are, my visits were few an sporadic, with long lapses of absences, except for a call to say hello, for a few minutes, and a visit of a week every two, or three years.

And now seeing my own children following my own pattern, of growing up, and being by themselves , moving to other cities, and actually being on the same situation my parents were, I can see clearly, how bad a son I was, not because the same thing it’s done to me, in fact I understand them perfectly, and accept what they are doing, as  normal and natural, they need to pursue their own life, just like I did.

What I cannot do, its to forgive myself  for the fact I pay so little attention to them, and that it seems incredible that on my seventy years of life, I only spent seventeen years at their side, and I did not give myself the chance to spent more time with them.

Today, too late,  I remember daily, their words to me, their love, and caring, and the little details, that not escape my memory, and that make me regret today, I did not make an effort to spent more time, to enjoy them, and to know them better.

On one of my sporadic visits, talking to Mother about something I do not even remember, I exclaimed: “Well we will see how things will end, and mother said: “Where do you think, they will? But right at the end of the street!”  She exclaimed, It took me a few moments to catch her meaning.

At that time my parents lived at a street that ended at a graveyard where the family’s graves where located.

Before mother died I had a dream, she was showing me a tree on the house from my Grandmother, where she grew up, a tree all too familiar to me, although at the time did not knew it was special, since in the house were many trees, on the dream she told me to bury her ashes under that tree.

Immediately after waking up, I called work, to tell them I had an emergency, a plane ticket, and flew over to go visit her, at the time, she was living not on her house, but too old to take care of herself, she was living at the house of my sister’s family, I did not even call her to tell her I was coming, on arriving, I took a cab and went to her house, my sister open the door and saw me with surprise, and the firs thing she said to me pulling me aside, and in a sort of secretive tone, not to be overheard was: “I was about just to call you! Doctors already told us mother only have a few days to live!”

I said: “I know, that’s why I am here!”

My sister surprised said: “Who told you, her?”  Without telling her the dream, I said I just had a dream. My sister, not wanting for mother to get scared, decided not to tell her, doctors already had given up on her, in order not to frighten her, and asked me not to mention anything to her.

Without telling her about my dream, I asked her about the tree, mother then told me it was a special tree, that my Grandfather brought to the house where he build the house for his new family, from the old town where both grew up, before moving to a new town and getting married, and where they started a new life, and a new family.

Ironically, the first moment mother talked to me in private, she confessed to me, she felt so bad, and was so tired, she just wanted to die, and be over with her suffering, but made me promise I will not tell the family about it, I guess considering me already an outsider from the family circle from my sister and brothers, who lived in the same city, me the only living far away. It was ironic, to say the least, but I kept quiet, and silent to both parties. I spent two weeks there, and had to leave and return to work, she died two days later, and could not attend her funeral.

For many years I have not going to my Grandmother’s town, I used to pass there, and stop to look at the old house they sold after my Grandmother died, and stare at the now empty lot, where the house was, the new owner destroyed it and put a mechanic shop for big trucks, but left the big tree, and two palm trees, at the property, once in a while by nostalgia, go into google maps and look at the place where mother was born, and raised, along with my aunts, unfortunately since recently, the old tree doesn’t appear anymore, someone told me they accidentally put it on fire, and they remove it..

Well another Mother’s day is gone, and another year added, to the many years now, since you left us for good, we still remember you, and we miss you Mother, and you too father, and please both forgive me, my many  years of absence!

RUMORS OF WARS AND SUFFERING

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Mathew 24: 6-8

Well, I apologize, in advance some of you may know my proclivity to look at things from different, and to some weird angles, as a child I grew up as a nice catholic educated boy, at school, not to mean that at my final years was not quite a cynic. Given at the time to read a lot about wars, specially WWII

In fact even if I do not read war’s books in many years, I read enough to last me for a lifetime, and understand that there’s nothing nice, or heroic about wars, and that to argue about such things it’s futile, and not conducing to anything, and what’s more you end antagonizing those who like to argue about the righteousness, of such country over the other, one when there’s such a malady as a new war.

And here we are again.. By the way, there’s not a place at our wide Earth, that someone is not at war with someone else, the difference is that depending where that war is taking place, most people do not care much about it, and therefore its not much talked, I guess that’s the Human nature, to dispute, and come to resolve the matter by violence, of some kind, be this lethal, or not.

For many years before retired, on my way to work I will pass in front of a military cemetery going, and coming back from work, to the point I will not even pay attention anymore, but once in a while will reflect when  seeing flags, or flowers someone dear father, brother, husband, or son was buried there, and someone come and pay they respect, and maybe even still have pain, and tears, on their memories of loss.

Now no, I do not care for wars, or their righteousness, or lack of it, if anything I reflect in the fact someone must be crying for the loss of a beloved one, somewhere around this vast world, and that made me sad, very sad, wars always bring suffering to many…

MY LOVE OF BOOKS, AND MY READING SAGA, A STORY OF LOVE, WONDER, HEARTBREAK, AND BACK PAIN.

“There’s is nothing like a book, to wake up the inquisitive mind in a child, for the rest of his life, character may be destiny, but books are beautiful views, and signpost of great help, along the life road, we travel.”

And you can quote me on that one!

About a month ago I read a post of a fellow blogger, complaining about finding files, my problem its finding books, that I own.

And  relatively speaking I own about maybe twenty –five boxes full of books, they occupy the better part of the second bedroom I have, stacked up around the walls of the bedroom about waist  high, I could save space pilling them higher, but it will be too hard to be able to search for a title when I am looking for it, book boxes are heavy, and no, I will not read a tablet!

Spend too much time on the computer as it is, and many great books specially the old kind you will not find online. Not to add some books are masterpieces of art, and just to behold them, feel, and have in your hand a real pleasure, it’s not just reading them!

Hey, some people collect, all kind of junk!

I do not collect, I read books, but if they are also a pleasure to behold, and with a few extras throw in to them as special editions, onion paper, decorated edges, leather bound, meanwhile you read them, got nothing against it!

My father had a large room of an old house with a big bookcase full of books even on top, and possibly as many boxes of books, and other objects, as I do now myself, on quite a smaller house.

Moving, many times (sorry lost counts of how many times, approximately thirty –three, or thirty-five times over my lifetime.) a reason not to own nice bookshelves, since you never know if it they will fit on your next place you move. Every time, I  got to decide what books to left behind, a task, I do not enjoy, and certainly not easy, in fact physically demanding as well, and dangerous to your lower back!

A soon as I leant to read,  possibly six  years of age, my father an avid reader put a book in my hands to read, early one morning, very likely a Saturday,  when I was off school.

An adventure novel by the then popular Emilio Salgari, in Italy, his extensive body of work was more widely read than that of Dante! Today he is still among the 40 most translated Italian authors. Many of his most popular novels have been adapted as comics, animated series and feature films. He is considered the father of Italian adventure fiction and Italian pop culture, and the “grandfather” of the Spaghetti Western, I guess my father read him as a child, and he read them when a child, and he kept them, and it was the first book I read, already told the story in a past blog.

Anyway it was not more than a 110 pages long, and when my father, returned home, I gave him back to him, my father told me:

“You did not like it?

“No, I just finish reading it, and in fact since there’s a sequel to the story, I want the next one!”

Father was delighted, and pleased, unfortunately for me, I devour the whole collection, about one book a day! But since my father had many books, some I am afraid not suitable for young children, I start reading every book he had, and no only that, with my allowance, start saving and buying my own books at the local bookstore, unfortunately at the time my small town did not have a public library, but father, and mother, were generous, and bought me many books, the ones tat I rarely touched were my schoolbooks! Specially math, chemistry, physics and the likes, except for History and Literature.

By the time I was in Junior high there was no book in my father library that I had not read, but he had many boxes full of paperbacks in English, a foreign language to me at the time, so I told him that I wanted to learn English, and my father had learned his English well, and here I will tell you from what book he learned it from.

”Théodore Robertson, whose real name was Pierre-Charles-Théodore Lafforgue, was born in Paris in 1803 and died in the same city in 1871. Robertson was a lexicographer who designed a method of teaching languages ​​that would go down in history as «the Robertson method », in honor of the pseudonym that he was allowed to use instead of his name, by decree, in 1858. Around 1822, when Robertson was only 19 years old, he was already teaching English courses, which allowed him to develop his method at an early age from the jacotot teaching system, by the Frenchman Jean Joseph Jacotot (1770-1840). Robertson’s method, focused on learning foreign languages ​​by combining theory and practice, with a great emphasis on the latter, spread throughout Europe and America, as we have editions and adaptations published in Germany, Spain and the  United States, and we also find evidence that his books were very popular in Russia.

Jacotot was born at Dijon on 4 March 1770. He was educated at the university of Dijon, where in his nineteenth year he was made a professor of Latin, after which he studied law, became a lawyer, and at the same time devoted a large amount of his attention to mathematics.

Well, what can I say?

Simply put Books can open a child’s mind to unravel a whole Universe, unknown before, and set him on his pathway.

 

ON MYSTICISM AND MEISTER ECKHART

“The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love.“.

The above quotes belong to Meister Eckhart Eckhart von Hochheim  (c. 1260 – c. 1328),[1] commonly known as Meister Eckhart[a] or Eckehart, was a German Catholic theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha in the Landgraviate of Thuringia (now central Germany) in the Holy Roman Empire.

Eckhart came into prominence during the Avignon Papacy at a time of increased tensions between monastic orders, diocesan clergy, the Franciscan Order, and Eckhart’s Dominican Order of Preachers. In later life, he was accused of heresy and brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII. He seems to have died before his verdict was received.

Well with that quote it’s not surprising , that the church at the time accused him of heresy!

However on these more enlightened days he is considered a great mystic by many.

He was well known for his work with pious lay groups such as the Friends of God and was succeeded by his more circumspect disciples John Tauler and Henry Suso. Since the 19th century, he has received renewed attention. He has acquired a status as a great mystic within contemporary popular spirituality, as well as considerable interest from scholars situating him within the medieval scholastic and philosophical tradition.

Little is known about his family and early life. There is no authority for giving him the Christian name of Johannes, which sometimes appears in biographical sketches: his Christian name was Eckhart; his surname was von Hochheim.

Eckhart joined the Dominicans at Erfurt, probably when he was about eighteen, and it is assumed he studied at Cologne.

I will not go into detail, about the accusation, or it will require a book, luckily for him he died before a verdict was drawn.

It has been said of Meister Eckhart that he was the first Christian pantheist.

In his life and work he was not only an ordained priest, but also a visionary mystic whose ideas ranged beyond orthodox church norms. Shortly after his death, twenty-eight of them were declared heretical. But when charged with heresy, he had made only a conditional retraction, claiming to have spoken “the naked truth” and challenging the judges to demonstrate that what he said was false. Fortunately, he did not live to see the condemnation, or to suffer the consequences in person. Posterity has cleared his name and condemned the judges. But they were not the first ecclesiastics to forbid what lay outside the box: others before had often done so, and so have others since. I have nothing against the church, but I share Mark Twain’s quote:

“The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from the day of Galileo down to our own time, when the use of anesthetics in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the biblical curse pronounced against Eve.”

Some attribute Meister Eckhart thinking to Theologia Germanica, also known as Theologia Deutsch or Teutsch, or as Der Franckforter, is a mystical treatise believed to have been written in the later 14th century by an anonymous author. According to the introduction of the Theologia the author was a priest and a member of the Teutonic Order living in Frankfurt, Germany.

But let me finish with some quotes from Meister Eckhart:

“Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.”

“Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world, or by running away from things, or by turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, we must learn an inner solitude wherever or with whomsoever we may be. We must learn to penetrate things and find God there.”

“Theologians may quarrel, but the mystics of the world speak the same language.”

“A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don’t know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox’s or bear’s, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.”

“Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.”

REFLECTIONS OF CHRISTMAS PAST, AND PRESENT.

Like snowflakes,

My Christmas memories

Gather and dance—

Each beautiful, unique,

And gone too soon.

Deborah Whipp

With time we grow , and look with different eyes what most people see as Sacred.

But a little of more time, we turn mellow, and tolerant, give a few more years, and we turn even softer, sentimental will be the proper word, we may even cry a tear, or two, when remembering things now afar on time, like our childhood, our parents, and older relatives, now gone for quite some years, you better have created a family of your own, otherwise you will be alone, and with nothing but your memories as a better time, of a paradise lost…

Such it’s the effect  of holidays, it’s hard to be merry, if you have no one to share with.

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,

Stol’n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!

My hasting days fly on with full career,

But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th …

Milton.

Verse, a breeze mid blossoms straying,

Where Hope clung feeding, like a bee—
Both were mine! Life went a-maying

With Nature, Hope, and Poesy,

When I was young!

Taylor Coleridge

Often I think of the beautiful town
That is seated by the sea;
Often in thought go up and down
The pleasant streets of that dear old town,
And my youth comes back to me.
And a verse of a Lapland song
Is haunting my memory still:
‘A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.’

Wadsworth Longfellow

‘Tis death! and peace, indeed, is here,
And ease from shame, and rest from fear.
There’s nothing can dismarble now
The smoothness of that limpid brow.
But is a calm like this, in truth,
The crowning end of life and youth,
And when this boon rewards the dead,
Are all debts paid, has all been said?

Matthew Arnold

I would go back, but the ways are winding,
If ways there are to that land, in sooth;
For what man succeeds in ever finding
A path to the garden of his lost youth?

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Delight it is in youth and May
To see the morn arise,
And more delight to look all day
A lover in the eyes.
Oh maiden, let your distaff be,
And pace the flowery meads with me,
And I will tell you lies …

A. E. Housman

Why does a date-palm lose its leaves in autumn?
Why does every beautiful face grow in old age?
Wrinkled like the back of a Libyan lizard?
Why does a full head of hair get bald?
Why is the tall, straight figure
That divided the ranks like a spear
Now bent almost double?
Why is it that the
Lion strength weakens to nothing?
The wrestler who could hold anyone down
Is led out with two people supporting him,
Their shoulders under his arms?
God answers,
“They put on borrowed robes
and pretended they were theirs.
I take the beautiful clothes back,
so that you will learn the robe
of appearance is only a loan.”
Your lamp was lit from another lamp.
All God wants is your gratitude for that.

Rumi.

Oh! Fading light of sunset, here comes another Holiday!

HISTORY OF DREAMING, AND CONNECTION WITH SPIRIT, THIRD PART

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

― C.G. Jung.

First let me say, there’s all sort of dreams, provoked by so many reasons, from you being worry about something, that its bothering you, to unfulfilled wish desires, or you just had too much to eat for diner, and have a nightmare, but one thing I will tell you, the dreams you have are a reflection of who you are, and of course your Spiritual side, or the lack of it, will show up, in your dreams.

You would not have Joseph’s kind of dreams, if you are not a Spiritual person, first, because if you are not interested in such thing, as a Spiritual life, it’s like asking a vicious, and evil person, to have good thoughts, and be merciful, it doesn’t work that way, we are what we are, and we resonate, and have affinity for those things we have an inclination to, period.

Of course we all can change, if we desire to change, and be better, but in all honesty, do we want to change, and be better?

Where we go from here?

We most live now day, in a secular environment, some with strong ties to Religion, but most if good persons, few have the vocation of a desert Father, or monk.

  Of course if you are from a Spiritual nature, or show inclinations, you can have Spiritual dreams,  as well.

But are Spiritual dreams different?

Not really, they are just dreams that are related to Spirituality, dreaming is just that way, the same way you cannot dream about mathematics, if you do not care about it, or even worst, if you do not know the first thing about it.

Einstein’s Dream

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity came to him in a dream about cows. He dreamed he was walking through a farm when he came upon some cows by an electric fence. He then saw the cows jump at the same time as the fence gave them an electric shock. But a farmer, who had been standing at the other end of the field, saw them jump one by one, like a Mexican wave. Einstein realized their views of the same event had been different. This lead to the Theory of Relativity, the idea that events look different depending on where you’re standing because of the time it takes the light to reach your eyes.

History of Dreaming

It’s well know that we Humans besides consciousness, and rational, we also dream, scientist now say even animals do.

The earliest recorded dream is from the Sumerian king Dumuzi of Uruk who ruled just before Gilgamesh, sometime around 2500 BC. “An eagle seizes a lamb from the sheepfold,” a translation reads. “A falcon catches a sparrow on the reed fence … The cup lies on its side; Dumuzi lives no more. The sheepfold is given to the winds.” The king was freaked out about his dream, and occasioned the first recorded dream interpretation, care of his sister, who was evidently a professional at these things. Sister’s advice: Some bad stuff is about to come down, so you’d do well to hide.

Scholars now day believe he did not even exist, he was fabricated to give an origin to a dynasty, but they had to come with some sort of story for those early rulers, and somehow the story of the dream stuck, and here we have it as the first dream in record. Which proves that Man has worried about dreams since.

However it’s well know by anthropologist, and anybody who is interested in dreams, that all aboriginal people around the World, not jus today but through History have a culture of interpreting dreams, and that somehow are connected to Spirit, according to their particular beliefs, no different than Christians with dream stories in the Bible, as Joseph,  and  in the New Testament.

The flight into Egypt is a story recounted in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 2:13–23) and in New Testament apocrypha. Soon after the visit by the Magi, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to flee to Egypt with Mary and the infant Jesus since King Herod would seek the child to kill him.

DREAM INTERPRETATION AND IT’S PROBLEMS. SECOND PART.

The first problem with dreams it’s not how to interpret them, that comes later, the first one it’s to remember them!

It’s well known, that as we age we forget everything specially our short memory, I am at that stage, where I can spend many minutes going crazy looking for something I just put down, somewhere, and cannot figure where?

Despite being methodical, as I age it seems to go with the territory, my dear mother when I was young used to go crazy trying to figure out where she left this or that, in my naivety as a child couldn’t figure out how mother could forget so easily such things?

Well, now I know!

Hardly a day go through, when something so simple as putting something away, can disappear, like if by magic!

Mother wherever you may be, please forgive me! It seems I am even worst than you, on that respect, I just recently moved to another house, and packed everything, and I am going like crazy to find things I know I did pack them, where they are, I will figure out eventually when I finish unpacking, I am not in a hurry, the whole thing of moving it’s just exhausting!

We spend a third of our lives sleeping, and dreaming, and we forget almost instantly, after waking up within a minute, what was the last dream we had, so the first rule about interpreting dreams it is to write them down immediately!

Of course if the dream wakes you up the moment you dream it, that’s an important dream, your subconscious, is telling you, its important to remember, therefore dreams can be very impressive, for you to recall them later.

And the reason you may have very impressive cinematic dreams.

Yes, they are telling you not to forget them, since it’s very important for you to be aware, at something you are likely oblivious of it. And consequently in danger to run soon into problems.

So if you are serious, pay attention to dreams and be methodical, and keep a dream diary by your bed and make a habit of writing them down.

How Keeping a Dream Journal Benefits Your Waking Life

• It reduces stress.

• It makes you more creative.

• It helps you remember an amazing idea.

• It helps you solve problems.

• It helps you learn from mistakes.

An the best part, you will be able to figure up what the dream was all about it, even if may take you not days, but weeks,  months, or more to figure it all up, once you reread your diary.

ON DREAMING, A SEARCH FOR KNOLEDGE OF THE SELF. FIRST PART.

“God sleeps in the rock, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal, and awakens in man”

Ibn Arabi

I wouldn’t even know where to start, this business about dreaming it’s so extensive, let me just say for many years as far back as when I was a child maybe no more than five, or six years of age I was intrigued and interested on dreams, in my natal chart I have a very close conjunction Venus with Mars in Pisces, on the fourth  house, making a trine with Uranus in Cancer on the eight house.

Another thing that fascinated me at the time was snorkeling, and diving on the Ocean, did quite a lot of it until of course other prosaic but normal occupations took me away from it, like trying to make a living by working, now I realize that dreaming and diving were connected, you dive to see an underworld beneath the waters, just as you dive within  your subconscious dreams in search of a hidden  treasure.

And there’s a veritable cornucopia of treasures hidden within our Self, and dreams can be a gate to them.

And for that, first we need to be able to decipher symbols, since the language of dreams is not a straightforward language, or very rarely the case. but a tangle of apparently confused images, with a thing of reality, those images lack a coherence, or a logic of our awaken state.

Voltaire said: ‘Why do we dream in our sleep if we have no soul? and, if we have one, how is it that dreams are so incoherent and extravagant?’

Voltaire was a clever fellow, but I guess he was not aware we dream on a symbolic language of images, rather than logical phrases, and its for that reason we need to study Symbology, or Symbolism, since some people refuse to give it a status of a science, to the study of the language, or science of dreams. Sorry folks some philologists, or linguistics if you care to split hairs, had evolved to the point they have not reconciled yet, language with symbols in languages, not to speak of dreams, separated now to the study of texts, or mere fussy Grammarians, who of course are not interested in Jungian psychology, or care to dwell on it.

  My point just because people are too specialized on something it doesn’t mean you cannot be eclectic, and climb to higher point of view, where you can see the connection between symbol, dream, and even language if in need to do so.

In dreams there are no barriers to the expression of the soul through symbols that may be apprehended, to bring light, and coherence, to what may resemble a Picasso on a bad day.

But I will not mince words, in order to dwell into the study of dreams you require lot of intuition, and a long time of the study of symbols, I guess its a call, not something that you may be undecided as when its time to go to college, and you may make a compromise on lack of a true vocation, to become a Dentist, or an Engineer, rather than a Lawyer.

We all are attracted to different things according to our temper, character, family history, genetics, proclivities, and what not, so to be a dream interpreter it’s a call. Or you may stumble into it, like Ali Baba into the cave of the 40 thieves.

WE ARE MOVING AGAIN!

“The hardest thing about moving is the hassle of it, like getting everything to fit into so many boxes, and then find them again.”

I firmly believe everything comes for a purpose, that may be hiding, or unknown  to us, so I know there will be something good at the end of the tunnel, but  let’s just say it: I hate moving!

Let me put it better, it’s not the thought of living in a place, or the uncertainty of the future place, but the actual act of moving, I mean the packing, the whole hassle of moving things around, and the effort and the time you got to spend at it.

I am not looking forward to it, but I got to be somewhere else on September first, at the latest, and to make things worse, I have not found a proper place yet..!

I hate the idea of first having to take my stuff to a storage facility, and live in a hotel until I find a suitable place, but if I have to do it, I will.

They say the average person in America moves about twelve times, I do not know about that, I cannot even recall all the times I had moved, every time I count them, then remember another place I did not count, my memory right now tells me 32, or 33 times, but it could be more, I just do not remember, maybe close to 3 times more than your average person I had lived in at least seventh different cities, and in the particular city I am now it’s my fourth time, and nine different addresses in the city, this will be my third address since I moved back here hardly five years ago.

My landlord decided not to renew my yearly rental agreement, since she need a house for his young son, who is moving out of home, for the first time, good for him, terrible for me!

Well, such is life!

Wish me luck, I am gone to need it!

As I say on the beginning, I am man of faith, and know everything comes from God, and He wants for me to move, so I will, so help me God! Your order, it’s my command.

Sorry for my rant, but my mind it’s too busy now with my problem, next post hopefully will be something nicer, like the picture below.

IT’S JUST PARANOIA, OR THERE IS CONSPIRACY A PLENTY?

“The truth is far more frightening – Nobody is in control.

The world is rudderless.”

First lets begin by saying, since Man it’s a social animal, conspiracy has being with us since the beginning of time, and conspiracies exist a plenty today, as it had through History.

“To what extent were you justified in getting rid of a tyrant? How bad did a ruler have to be before you were justified in committing the country and half the world to civil war?,

” Stothard says, posing the questions that animated the plotters. “There were people with very similar views to Gaius Cassius and Cassius Parmensis who said that no matter how bad Caesar was, civil war was worse, and the best thing to do was just retreat to your garden, if you could afford it, settle down and concentrate on your personal peace. There were other people with very similar views who said if someone like Julius Caesar is in charge of the whole world, you could never get personal peace.”

Not that all the plotters were quite so high-minded. “For some, it was pure personal pique,” Stothard says.

“‘Caesar gave away my land to his mistress’; or ‘Caesar didn’t help me get a job I should’ve gotten’; or ‘Caesar didn’t give me money that I thought he should’ve given me.’ But they were in league with people who’d thought through, in a very complex way, what kind of future they were justified in trying to achieve or prevent.”

So yes, conspiracies for one end, to another one, are part of Ancient Societies, to our current one today.

But it does not mean everything that happens, bad, or worst, it’s the product of a conspiracy, far from it, most of the things that go wrong on our lives, we only have ourselves to blame for.

As for what happens at society at large, sure, a few things may be a conspiracy of sorts, but mainly I agree with the premise stated above:

“The truth is far more frightening – Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.”

The word chance, opportunity,  missed chances, and blunder, combine more often than not to our lives, than blaming everything on conspiracies.

Conspiracy theories are typically unverified and sensationalistic interpretations of events that are “self-insulating against disconfirmation” and are “based on weak kinds of evidence” 1. Beliefs in conspiracy theories are associated with the rejection of generally accepted norms, assumptions, and behaviors, e.g., regarding vaccination 2. combating climate change 3. or political participation 4. However, many of these theories are widely disseminated and accepted 5. Despite growing research in this area, little is still known about the cognitive underpinnings of the belief in conspiracy theories.

What is the definition of being paranoid?
Paranoia is the feeling that you’re being threatened in some way, such as people watching you or acting against you, even though there’s no proof that it’s true. It happens to a lot of people at some point.  You don’t think you’re paranoid at all because you feel sure it’s true.

“When no one’s word is authoritative, any crank is as credible as the next person. It is the irony at the heart of conspiracy thinking: You can’t trust anyone these days, so you may as well place some credence in some stranger who just tweeted something exciting, if unproven. When someone whispers, “Trust no one,” they are inevitably also saying, “Trust me.” Pete Buttigieg.

Well, it’s your choice, to be a believer, or not.

My point is: That make you more free, or more frightened?

If your answer it’s the latest, I feel sorry about you, life can be beautiful if you imagine to be so, as well, your choice.

RUNNING OUT OF TIME

“Time brings all things to pass.”

Aeschylus

Existence it’s necessary for time to be, otherwise time has no thing to attach itself to it, or run after, or keep time for, no existence, no time, existence of something, the beginning of time.

However today Scientist are not so sure, developments in theoretical physics, especially the rise of string theory, have changed their perspective. The pre-bang universe has become the latest frontier of cosmology.

But do not take my word for it,  could be old news Scientifically speaking, I am not a Cosmologist with the latest paper on it, what I am saying had a date around 2006, who knows what is the latest word on it.

However like all of you, even a newborn, we are all running out of time, as we read this.

But if one thing we can be sure of it, is that time is running, as we speak, or remain silent, move, or not, sleep or counscious, as you wake up, you are already a few hours older, and by the end of the day, well another day it’s gone!

Fling me across the fabric of time and the seas of space. Make me nothing and from nothing-everything. The Past, the Future, O dear, is from you; you should regard both these as one.

Rumi.

Don’t delay, or procrastinate every day will come, at its appointed time, be ready for it.

The fool suffers death twice, first for fearing it during his life, and the second, for wanting to postpone it, when it appears before him.

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. – Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace.

Leo Tolstoy, the greatest humanist, put these words in General Kutuzov’s mouth. And, actually, it is a combination of two quotes. In book ten, the General says:

But believe me, my dear boy, there is nothing stronger than those two: patience and time, they will do it all.

Later, he repeats this idea in his thought: They must understand that we can only lose by taking the offensive. Patience and time are my warriors, my champion.

But not over worry about time, take it from Einstein:

In the Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein determined that time is relative–in other words, the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference. … The faster a clock moves, the slower time passes according to someone in a different frame of reference.

THE MANY PRISONS OF THE MIND, AND CHOOSING TO BE HAPPY

In the Allegory of the Cave Plato, Socrates describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them and give names to these shadows. The shadows are the prisoners’ reality, but are not accurate representations of the real world. Three higher levels exist: the natural sciences,  mathematics, geometry, and deductive logic; and the theory of forms.

Socrates explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are actually not reality at all. A philosopher aims to understand and perceive the higher levels of reality. However, the other inmates of the cave do not even desire to leave their prison, for they know no better life.

Most people around the World are not free, they are prisoners. No, they are not in jail,  they are prisoners of their ideas, their moods, and the way they choose to see the World. To be happy it’s a commitment with life to choose to be happy, make it your everyday practice, regardless of changing circumstances.

As a young man I first heard from a wiser old man that life it’s like the famous song, sang by Edith Piaf: “La Vie en Rose.”  Yes, you have to wear pink colored glasses.

And that’s a choice we made up, not only every day, but moment to moment, because life it’s change.

Des yeux qui font baisser les miens
Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche
Voilà le portrait sans retouches
De l’homme auquel j’appartiens

Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tout bas
Je vois la vie en rose

Il me dit des mots d’amour
Des mots de tous les jours
Et ça me fait quelque chose

Il est entré dans mon cœur
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause

C’est lui pour moi, moi pour lui dans la vie
Il me l’a dit, l’a juré pour la vie

Et dès que je l’aperçois
Alors je sens en moi
Mon cœur qui bat

Des nuits d’amour à plus finir
Un grand bonheur qui prend sa place
Des ennuis, des chagrins s’effacent
Heureux, heureux à en mourir

Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tout bas
Je vois la vie en rose

Il me dit des mots d’amour
Des mots de tous les jours
Et ça me fait quelque chose

Il est entré dans mon cœur
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause

C’est toi pour moi, moi pour toi dans la vie
Il me l’a dit, l’a juré pour la vie

Et dès que je t’aperçois
Alors je sens dans moi
Mon cœur qui bat
La la, la la, la la
La la, la la, ah la
La la la la

Eyes that make mine lower

A laugh that is lost on his mouth
Here is the portrait without retouching
From the man I belong to
When he takes me in his arms
He whispers to me
I see life in pink
He tell me love words
Everyday words
And it does something to me
He has entered in my heart
A slice of happiness
That I know the reason
It’s him for me, me for him in life
He told me, swore it for life
And as soon as I see him
So I feel Inside me
My heart beating
Nights of endless love
A great happiness that takes its place
Trouble, sorrow fades away
Happy, happy to die
When he takes me in his arms
He whispers to me
I see life in pink
He tell me love words
Everyday words
And it does something to me
He has entered in my heart
A slice of happiness
That I know the reason
It’s you for me, me for you in life
He told me, swore it for life
And as soon as I see you
So I feel inside me
My heart beating
La la, la la, la la
La la, la la, ah la
La la la la

And sure it’s a song about love, and you may not have a couple, but it doesn’t matter, it’s about loving ourselves, and the truth is, we need so little to be happy, to hear a  joke, when someone smile to us, when we think positively about life, why then not to choose to be happy? And I am not saying it’s easy, but if you make it a practice, it become like switching gears, in your car, you do it without thinking, effortless.

THE END OF OF THE PANDEMIC, A NEW BEGINING?

Love is in the air, everywhere I look around

Love is in the air, every sight and every sound
And I don’t know if I’m being foolish
Don’t know if I’m being wise
But it’s something that I must believe in

And it’s there when I look in your eyes…John Paul Young

I remember when young, every year on Spring, I felt like the tune of that old song, for days, on end, the funny thing I could not remember when I sort of forgot about it?

To be honest I felt the same way on early Autumn, as well, and a few years before the song was released on December 1977  but through the years I stop jumping from joy for no reason, and stop taking out to the street just to feel the sun, and the fresh cool, but not cold air, and be full of confidence, and be in love with life, and glad to be alive, and grateful for the pure joy within myself   to be present at such magnificent day.

Loa, and behold I am alive!

Was my general feeling, and no, I was not on top of a mountain, contemplating a gorgeous view, at most a blooming tree, by my street, or a an orange leafy tree just before the leaves will begin to fall…

Anything will look beautiful, and was in love with life for just to breathe, and have the pleasure of staring at the street, as my heart will beat with joy to be right there..!

I neve lost the feeling, but with the years got kind of dulled, somewhat, you know as you age you become less excitable, and the love of life, kind of tempers out to a pleasant feeling, no more jumps, or yells of joy, that stuff it’s for kids.

Well a year of this pandemic, and that what seem the end of it, seems to be bringing back that feeling back!

Yeap! The sudden feeling of an inexplicable joy one gets when something romantic or idealistic occurs. I am in love again!

Love is in the air, in the whisper of the tree Love is in the air, in the thunder of the sea
And I don’t know if I’m just dreaming
Don’t know if I feel safe
But it’s something that I must believe in
And it’s there when you call out my name.

Well, you get my meaning, I am ready to go out and jump, and yell for no reason at all, maybe too much time of being inside home, of not talking to friends in person, or behind a mask.

Well, I am sure we all want to be back to normal, and be done with it.

Love is in the air

Love is in the air

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Love is in the air, in the rising of the sun
Love is in the air, when the day is nearly done
And I don’t know if you’re illusion
Don’t know if I see truth
But you’re something that I must believe in
And you’re there when I reach out…

Now of course, I am not saying you should not keep to the guidelines of the Pandemic, until it’s safe to do so, it’s just that Love is in the air!

Let’s all celebrate!

FINDING A FACE IN THE CROWD NOT AN EASY TASK

Oh Lord!

Your face present on every being,

In the multitude.

But so difficult

To recognize You,

On anyone’s face.

How many faces we see daily, regardless of the mask most wear outside, their own natural mask on these days of pandemics?

To live in your presence day, by day, minute by minute, and You escaping our gaze, possible the most challenging of endeavors it’s to recognize You, not in one, but on the many.

Blinded by your  own diversity, we struggle to find you even in one person, how much difficult it’s to find you on every face, and everything.

Before the official tabernacle was built, “Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the ‘tent of meeting.’ Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp” (Exodus 33:7). As Moses visited this tent of meeting to intercede for the people of Israel, “the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses” (verse 9). Moses’ position of favor with God is evident in the fact that “the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend”

Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence… but,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

And yet to recognize God on every face it’s our task, not an easy one, Jesus disciples where astonished by his words:

³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? ³⁸ When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ³⁹ Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

As in fact most of us do not recognize Him.

But some of us take care of business, even behind a mask.

To be Human, and being alive, we always have the chance to run into Him, because he is everywhere, and sometimes in need, let’s not waste the opportunities, that come our way…Specially on these days full with trials.

There is many different ways to be of service, even if you are not a person of Faith, you are still human and capable like everyone, of kindness, and love, choose a way, or path,  that it’s becoming to you.

THE DAKRKEST HOUR, JUST BEFORE THE DOWN, MEMENTO MORI.

“It is always darkest just before the Day dawneth.”

-Thomas Fuller

After all I figure we are blessed to be living at  an extraordinary time, maybe every moment it’s precious, because it’s the only  we got, no next heartbeat has a warranty, years ago, my father after turning the TV off walked to the bedroom where my mother was already trying to sleep, and heard him come into the bedroom, sensing she was still awake he start talking to her, telling her about the show he just watched, meanwhile he put on his pajamas and sat on the bed, suddenly he just felled backwards  into the bed, his legs still on the floor, and that was it.

He never saw the dawn, his heart stop instantaneously meanwhile he was talking, and could not finish not even the sentence, but the last word he was speaking, suddenly his heart just stop beating, provoked by early defibrillation.

By the time my mother seek help making emergency calls, and when it arrived, he was already death, way before a new down…

I had visited them a couple of weeks before, and his last words towards me, were to praise me, thing that rarely he did, I flew back to his funeral, did not want to see his body, but my sister insisted, I cried quietly.

Mother followed him ten years later although doctors told us she only had a few weeks to live. I went to see her, and spent a couple of weeks with her, she died two days after I left back to work, could not attend her funeral.

Well, what can I say? When young we see life, like it will never end, as we grow in age suddenly the reality of dying it’s a thing we can see around the corner, I guess we all react to it, on a different manner, according to our inner feelings, and beliefs, some may even plan ahead and make sure their funeral will be taken care properly, others may be scared, or indifferent like facing a fact of  life and refuse to even think about it.

Some may even seek counseling, for their fears, others who knows what they may contemplate, in their lonely thoughts, if they do?

This pandemic, brought us all to think about death, one way, or another one, being in the news as a constant reminder of our own ephemeral existence, and many of us losing beloved relatives, and friends. 

The philosopher Democritus trained himself by going into solitude and frequenting tombs. Plato’s Phaedo, where the death of Socrates is recounted, introduces the idea that the proper practice of philosophy is “about nothing else but dying and being dead”.

The Stoics of classical antiquity were particularly prominent in their use of this discipline, and Seneca’s letters are full of injunctions to meditate on death. The Stoic Epictetus told his students that when kissing their child, brother, or friend, they should remind themselves that they are mortal, curbing their pleasure, as do “those who stand behind men in their triumphs and remind them that they are mortal”. The Stoic Marcus Aurelius invited the reader to “consider how ephemeral and mean all mortal things are” in his Meditations.

After every major military victory in ancient Rome, a “triumph,” as it was called, was celebrated in Rome. It was a ceremonial procession granted to victorious generals who drove in a chariot drawn by four horses. They would ride through the streets to the temple of Jupiter, on the Capitoline Hill, to offer sacrifice in the temple. When they reached the foot of the Capitoline, some of the leading captives may have been taken off for execution.

The ceremony usually started early in the morning and took up a whole day and sometimes even more than two days. Before the general entered the city at a specific point, the Porta Triumphalis, he would first give a speech praising his legions.

The victorious general who drove throughout the streets of Rome in the chariot, decorated with gold and ivory, was followed by his troops and preceded by his most glamorous prisoners and spoils, taken in war. The triumph for the victorious general offered extraordinary opportunities for self-publicity and therefore popularity with the people of Rome. The victorious general was seen as, in some way, divine, representing the god Jupiter.

Paintings depicting certain episodes of the battle were used in the ceremony. There were also musicians, as well as examples of the exotic plants and animals taken from the conquered country.

The general was dressed in an elaborate red or purple toga and his face was painted red to imitate the red-painted face of the statues of Mars, the god of war or Jupiter – the King of the gods. The red paint was made with vermilion, an opaque orange-red pigment, derived from powdered mineral cinnabar.

One of the most interesting parts of the triumph was that behind the victorious general in the chariot stood a slave, holding a golden crown over his head, and whispering to him throughout the procession, “Respice post te. Hominem te memento” in the ears of the victorious generals as they were paraded through the streets, reminding him that: “Even in triumph, do not forget, you are only a mortal” Some say this is spurious, invented by later Christians, but nevertheless food for thought, at our hubris, as mere passerby mortals.  specially on these hard  trial times, where we seem going through the darkest hour, before the down.

WHEN TOO MUCH TURMOIL PREVAIL OUTSIDE, LOOK FOR PEACE WITHIN, GO INTO COLD MOUNTAIN.

If the wheel of fortune is fickle by nature?  The chances of your turn to be loved by it, May arrive at some point.

The title of my last post was: A year to forget, and move on, what follows? We will see…Well it did not take too long, did it?

I will not dwell in telling you, if you live here on Planet Earth, I am sure you are aware, unless you are a Chinese hermit living on the Zhongnan Mountains, Bill Porter found an old  hermit who had been on the mountain for many years, and so isolated from worldly cares, he said to him, and his guide: “You guys mention chairman Mao, who is that guy?” He never had heard of chairman Mao!

Well our state of mind can be as that as well.

Matsuo Basho (1644-94), samurai-born but a rootless wanderer most of his life, was a deep student of Zen. One day his Zen master Butcho paid him a visit at “home” — a “broken cottage” by the Sumida River in Edo (present-day Tokyo). “How are you getting on?” the master inquired.

“After the recent rain the moss has grown greener than ever,” replied Basho.

“What Buddhism is there,” pursued Butcho, “before the moss has grown greener?”

“A frog jumps into the water,” replied Basho — “hear the sound!”

We’re almost there: “An ancient pond/ a frog jumps in/ the sound of water.”

A year of Pandemic, death, riots, unemployment, masks, isolation, uncertainty, contested election, and this New Year mayhem at the Capitol, a New President, Impeachment trial, and who knows what else it’s ahead of us?

My point is we cannot have the counsel of knowing the future, and even less to know it will be nice, and rosy.

When we arrive to a place in our road when we can grasp, we are not really in control, of what may happen except our own immediate actions, like knowing what you will cook for diner, even if you can’t predict, a friend will pick you up unexpectedly, and not able to refuse him, he will take you somewhere else to have diner, or   an urgent matter comes to you before diner, and you must take care of it, and forget diner, or even worst  a phone call with tragic news make you urgently to go away at once.

You get my meaning, there’s things that are beyond our control, and are unpredictable.

The Way To Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain’s full of strange sights

Men who go there end by being scared.

Water glints and gleams in the moon,

Grasses sigh and sing in the wind.

The bare plum blooms again with snow,

Naked branches have clouds for leaves.

When it rains, the mountain shines –

In bad weather you’ll not make this climb.

A thousand clouds, ten thousand streams,

Here I live, an idle man,

Roaming green peaks by day,

Back to sleep by cliffs at night.

One by one, springs and autumns go,

Free of heat and dust, my mind.

Sweet to know there’s nothing I need,

Silent as the autumn river’s flood.

Thirty years in this world

I wandered ten thousand miles,

By rivers, buried deep in grass,

In borderlands, where red dust flies.

Tasted drugs, still not Immortal,

Read books, wrote histories.

Now I’m back at Cold Mountain,

Head in the stream, cleanse my ears.

I travelled to Cold Mountain:

Stayed here for thirty years.

Yesterday looked for family and friends.

More than half had gone to Yellow Springs.

Slow-burning, life dies like a flame,

Never resting, passes like a river.

Today I face my lone shadow.

Suddenly, the tears flow down.

Han Shan.

And no, I am not suggesting for you, to abandon life, and go to the mountains to live in a cave, but make your home your cave, when you daily retire to it, and free yourself at least for those hours, from the worries of the World, with the pandemic you must have acquired some practice already, neither worry about the news, what will come, will come, no need to agonize before our number It’s called up.

A YEAR TO FORGET, AND MOVE ON, WHAT FOLLOWS? WE WILL SEE.

A global pandemic, an overactive hurricane season, nationwide protests over racial injustice and a contentious presidential election have dominated the news this year. No wonder Time magazine has dubbed 2020 “The Worst Year Ever.”

Maybe the bright side of 2020, is it will be over in a matter of a couple of days, a few hours from now. I don’t mean that turning to 2021 will change everything miraculously, but you know the saying: “Hope is the last thing to die.”

And at this point, I want to believe it, or I am spoiled? After a life of ups, and downs, and I should say personally my affairs are no worse than in any other year, granted I have not caught Covid-19 yet, even if two close members of my family have, this year seems like if you watch the news a nightmare with no end in sight!

And a good reason  not to watch the news, you may add, but other than going to an isolated place where no people or the internet can reach you, it will be hard to do, not talking about abandoning work, giving up your electronic devices, and living like a hermit. Hardly any of us can afford to do so.

SO THE SHOW MUST GO ON, AND THEREFORE THE BUSINESS OF LIVING.

As usual, we will wake up, head to the bathroom, go prepare your favorite wake up drink, take a bath, or a shower, dress up, and go and face the new day, doing whatever you have  to do, and you have made  personally your business of living.

Please do not forget your mask!

Personally I hate so much using the mask, but I thanks the mask for making me more efficient, on doing my shores outside the house, its not only the difficulty in breathing, but even how difficult it makes to see what is below your eyes, and a simple task like pulling your wallet to pay for something it becomes a burden, I have also more respect for the blind, and people with respiratory problems.

Oh well, why bitch?

If there is life, there is Hope, and the sun rays will warm up  our body, and we will go on smiling, and try to be better, and do the right thing, at each step of the way, that’s the real business of living, to face the insurmountable odds, and pay attention to why is better to smile, than to cry, or be mad, to do the utmost of be an example of bravery, compassion, love, and a beacon of wisdom. Following the way of those, on whom the Almighty  have bestowed  His Grace, not the way of those who earned  His anger, nor of those who went astray.

Look well therefore to this day; Such is the salutation to the ever new dawn!

Happy New Year to All of You!

LIFE IS WORTH LIVING DESPITE IT’S HARDSHIPS, AND MEMORIES FROM AN OLD THANKSGIVING MEAL.

“Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this.”

Homer

What a year 2020 has been!

But I will not dwell on it, you know as well as everyone else, and no doubt you have your own share of stories, I will focus on a positive note.

Through my life despite an introverted character that pulls me hard towards seclusion, and the act of going out of the house not unpleasant, but certainly I see it as a task, or a chore, I rather would like to do the things I enjoy more, like drinking my coffee through my lips slowly, in the company of a good book, or with a nice small group of friends sharing diner, or cuddling up with my loved one, not that I have one at the moment, well let’s get to the point I need exercise for my body, this covid-19 quarantine, has being a real disaster on my efforts to be in shape, and with the never ending pandemic in sight, now since a month decided to do 25 minutes from my old routines, that I used to do years ago, at my Dojo.

Before the pandemic my only source of exercise was to walk for all my errands daily, carrying my groceries, or whatever back to home, and since I live far enough from where I do my errands, this was always enough to keep me in shape, without worrying about getting out of shape.
But I confess doing my old routines in the backyard, it’s not only tough, and demanding, but boring, doing it by myself.

So, since last week I decided after my workout, to supplement it, with a walking around my neighborhood through two parks, one small, and the other larger, but do it at a very early hour hoping will not be crowded, to my surprise I was right, at that hour there was almost nobody, except for very few people, but as I observed them realized all of them were old like myself , and even some even older!

Most of them by themselves, few older couples, and all of them at safe a distance, not exactly a crowd, by any means, but what amazed me more was this really old, and heavy lady with a special cane for walking, she really has to do a great effort, and don’t believe she walks short distances, despite her obvious efforts in walking, I have seen her now all over the place since!

Now, reflecting life is tough, and full of hardships, but we old folks, who have cling to it for quite a while, we must find life also precious, to hang around just a little bit more, if we can.

Old news, but how was your Thanksgiving day?

Now hope you all guys despite traveling limitations had a nice Thanksgiving, I got to confess the tradition in America was foreign to me,  before my time in the US Thanksgiving was just a day you go to church and offer thanks to the Lord, then you out of church go back to your daily routine, not a special day after, in anyway.

So when arriving in the US and finding it was a general Holliday, and a precious one, where you go to be together with family members before Christmas, well it was new to me.

I got to confess I was invited, a few times to some people’s home, Thanksgivings, specially by a good friend and his mother of German origin who prepared delicious dinners for us.

But as a guest, myself never hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, but I have a tale of making a foreign dish, and taking it to a Thanksgiving gathering, at the house of a cousin of my current girlfriend at the time, quite some years ago.

Nowadays here in America everybody is a gourmand, but it was not always so, the late eighties, and early nineties, saw an explosion of a new bug, the taste of foreign cuisines. In my opinion now we are kind of spoiled we enjoy the food from almost all over the World, on our own cities, when before asking for a foreign delicacy was almost unheard of, even supposedly foreign restaurants catered stuff like Chinese Chop-Suey, or Italian spaghettis with meat balls, as examples of what we passed for a foreign dish, or as an old friend of mine used to say: “A Chef Boyardee  can out of the grocery shop,  that was Italian food for me then, imagine! And I used to think, what’s the big deal about Italian food?”

Rut Tam wrote:

‘My family’s food went from ‘Chinese grossness’ to America’s ‘hottest food trend. The lengths to which immigrant families have gone to hide the way we feed ourselves break my heart.’

Well back to my story, my girlfriend was supposed to cook a dish, whatever she wished to do, I had been along with her the year before, and my girlfriend spent the better of a day cooking a dish and complaining what an ordeal it was.

As the days went on, the next year approached to Thanksgiving,  my girlfriend started to dread the idea, of cooking another dish for the gathering, seeing her distress, and remembering all her worries and nervous state she got, not to say the mood she will get into, I offered  to stop worrying about it, this year will be my time to do a dish, to take to her cousin’s Thanksgiving.

She was relieved, but every day first thing on the morning, she will ask me:

“Have you thought about what you are going to cook for Thanksgiving?

To which I will replay nonchalantly:  “Not really, but do not worry I will think of something to cook, just leave it to me.”

But as the day approached she got really worried and pestered me the day before Thanksgiving, I mean she was close to a nervous breakdown!

I said to her: “Stop worrying I will cook them a Mole.”

“A what!?”

“A Mole, dear.”

“I never heard of such a thing!”

“Well it’s a very well known Mexican dish.”

She replied: “Well you better get going now, tomorrow is Thanksgiving! And where are the groceries?”

“ I will pick them up this evening after work”  was my calm reply, and I did, that evening went to the market and picked all I needed.

My girlfriend thought I will spend all night laboring on it, I just told her: “Look I will wake up real early, and the Mole will be ready before we have to go into the car on the way to your cousin, meanwhile you go and do whatever, but please I do not want you behind my shoulder a nervous rag watching me cook, go for a walk, relax get a hot  bath, and get your outfit ready, or whatever you need to do like putting gas on the car.

So I start cooking with the kitchen all to myself, and by the time she got ready, my dish was almost done, she come into the kitchen saying:

“God! That stuff you are cooking it’s all over the place, does not smell bad, but what the hell is Mole?”

Coming behind me, her eyes went as big as saucers when she saw the big pot with mole brewing.

She just went ballistic! In all truthfulness I could not blame her, she has never seen Mole before and the way it looks may surprise many, in an off way.

She tried to stay calm but she told me and with good reason, nobody will like to even try it.

For the first time she put a little seed of doubt on my mind, and even told her: “Look if you do not want it, we can leave it here, and buy whatever prepared food you want.”

Not wanting to hurt my feelings she just reluctantly went along, I loaded the Mole into the car, making sure it would not roll out, and spill. After taking a shower we went off, during the way she expressed her doubts people will like it.

I just told her: “Look if no one like it at least I will have something to eat myself” My Mole was not your usual stuff, it was a vegetarian Mole, I have being a Vegetarian for most of my life since I was seventeen, and I was not about to eat turkey, anyway.

It was a gorgeous drive day by the coast, and we got to her cousin’s house and put my Mole on the large table, her cousin was also  somewhat alarmed when se took the lead off, but she just asked what the name of it was.

A few minutes later with most of the people invited already there she, announced everybody to pick up a plate and go and self serve, on a line at the table, I did not rush, and took my place at the line, I could observe everybody passing over my dish, first looking at it with surprise, on their eyes, and bypassing it without touching it.

When my time came I served myself some mashed potatoes and a big quantity of my Mole on top of it, already figuring I will be the only one eating it.

I went to the patio and sat a table and the husband of her cousin sat in front of me, with his plate, and immediately he noticed the Mole on my plate and he hesitantly asked me:

“What’s that you are eating?”

“Mole.”

He got curious and said to me: “Pardon me, I am curious, will you mind if I have a little taste of your plate?

Pushing the plate in front of him I said; Sure help yourself to it”

He did, took a forkful, and not three seconds after he put it on his mouth, without saying a word he jumped suddenly off the table with his own plate, and took off almost running into the kitchen.

My first thought was he didn’t like it, and went to spit it out from his mouth, away from me, not to offend me. Looking at the tables couldn’t see any of my Mole at anyone’s plate.

To my surprise the husband whose name I can’t recall, a dentist, returned a couple of minutes later with a new big plate with my Mole almost overflowing from his plate!

As soon as he sat and started eating it, he would stop chewing for a moment, raving  loud enough for some people to hear him clearly, about how delicious it was!

Soon, one, by one of the people on our table got up with their plates, and shy at first, put just a little bit on their plates, but after taking a couple of bites, they will rise again and run into the kitchen coming back with full plates loaded with Mole. I guess word got around, and almost everybody from the about twenty-five people at the gathering, went back to the kitchen to get some of it.

I took a breath of relief, and people wanted to know who cooked that dish, and what was the name of it, and congratulated me.

I finished my plate, and went into the kitchen to find my girlfriend’s cousin, and a friend of her, both taking turns at licking the gravy sauce with their  fingers, of the already empty big pot.

My girlfriend was behind me, and saw them in disbelief, there was plenty of turkey, and all other dishes at the big table but my Mole was all gone!

As her cousin finished polishing my pot, with her fingers over the sink, and licking the last vestiges of the gravy from it.

Turning to my surprised girlfriend, I mockingly said:

“No one will even eat it, right?”

Her cousin, or the other woman said: “Are you kidding? If I would not worry about getting it all over my head I will stick my face into the pot, and lick it!”

On our way back home she fumed: “And the worst part of it, I still do not know how Mole tastes, promise me you will cook it again for me, you could have saved some for me!”

“You wasted  your chance today dear, maybe if I am in the mood for Mole on Christmas, I will cook some. ”

I laughed.

I guess, that was one of my small contributions, to the  broadening for cultural foreign food appreciation, in our country.

WHAT’S GOING ON, A LITTLE BIT ON OUR CURRENT PROBLEMS, AND THE WISDOM OF RUMI

THE MOON CAST AN OMINUS PRESENCE

On October 31st we had a blue Moon  at the furthest point from the Earth named a micro Moon this bring a lot of emotions , and feelings on edge, like if we need more at this time of uncertainty, pandemic, economical, and  political upheaval, and events coming out of nowhere, exacerbating nerves already on edge.

Usually I got no idea what my next post will be about until the moment I seat to write a new post, today my problem it’s not what to write about it, but to try to say as little as possible, without missing something that may be important and meaningful as well.

First the Holiday with Halloween, All Saints Day, and Day of the Death in a row, that today on our globalized World seem to amalgamate into a single thing, at least on my neck of the woods.

So be weary of heighten emotional states of mind, try to be cheerful, avoid anger if things do not go the way you want them to be, keep in mind you just have to adjust and work your mindset to be happy  regardless, remember it’s for you to change your attitude, by accepting things as they are, sure you also can start a way to change the situations you consider they need change, but do it in a peaceful state of mind, not in a angry, and destructive way.

The most important thing, be ready for change.

The idea of providing some verses of Rumi as our guide for this trying times come to mind.

“You have woken up late, lost and perplexed but don’t rush to your books looking for answers, pick a flute instead and let your Heart play.”

“What comes will go, what is found, will be lost again. But what you are is beyond coming and going, and beyond description.”

“Yesterday I was clever and wanted to change the World. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“Half of life is lost in charming others. The other half is lost through anxieties caused by others. Leave this play, you have played enough.”

“I choose to love you in silence… For in silence I find no rejection. I choose to love you in my loneliness, for in my loneliness no one owns you but I.

I choose to adore you from a distance, for distance shield us both from pain.

I choose to imprison you on my thoughts, for in my thoughts freedom is for me to decide.

I choose to kiss you in the wind, for the wind is gentler than my lips.

I choose to hold you only in my dreams, for in my dreams there is no end.”

Be Lost In The Call

“Lord, said David, since you do not need us,why did you create these two worlds?

Reality replied: O prisoner of time,
I was a secret treasure of kindness and generosity,
and I wished this treasure to be known,
so I created a mirror: its shining face, the heart;
its darkened back, the world;
The back would please you if you’ve never seen the face.

Has anyone ever produced a mirror out of mud and straw?
Yet clean away the mud and straw,
and a mirror might be revealed.

Until the juice ferments a while in the cask,
it isn’t wine. If you wish your heart to be bright,
you must do a little work.

My King addressed the soul of my flesh:
You return just as you left.
Where are the traces of my gifts?

We know that alchemy transforms copper into gold.
This Sun doesn’t want a crown or robe from God’s grace.
He is a hat to a hundred bald men,
a covering for ten who were naked.

Jesus sat humbly on the back of an ass, my child!
How could a zephyr ride an ass?
Spirit, find your way, in seeking lowness like a stream.
Reason, tread the path of selflessness into eternity.

Remember God so much that you are forgotten.
Let the caller and the called disappear;
be lost in the Call.”

Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi

REFLECTIONS ON LIFE AS WE AGE, AND THE SEARCH FOR PEACE.

Life has no shores,

Man finds not a safe Port.

Life slides by, and we pass…

S.R

Many poets, and writers, have described life as a river, a mere stream coming down a mountain, going through placid valleys, and dying by the Sea.

Also I should add, along the way it picks all kinds of things, too many to even remember all, and a recollection of memories who define who we are, what we did, and where we end…

A past that, if well spent, will bring a modicum of satisfaction, to some many regrets, but if it brings us a little bit of Wisdom, then life it’s well worth.

You ask many men, or women of some age, what they think of life, their response will be as varied as their experience.

Where I am from, we like to say, people’s opinion of the fair, they went to try their luck, or skills in gambling, depend on how much they won, or lost on it.

It comes to the reason that if they had a bad day, and they lost their shirt, the fair was not good at all, but if you win some money, well you will be as happy according as to how much money you made.

Not that life it’s a gambling casino, but if for lack of wisdom you feel a looser, well, whose fault it was?

ATTITUDE

The great Stoic philosopher Epictetus used to say: It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it.  As you think, so you become …

Ibn Arabi the great Andalusian Sufi sheik said:

Be vigilant, God takes from you in what He gives you, He only takes from you, so you can become steadfast and so He will love you. He loves the steadfast.When He loves you, He treats you as a lover treats his beloved. It can be that the achievement of your desire is in your best interest, or it may be that your best interest lies in your desire not being achieved. He knows what it’s best for you, and what works for your best interest. if you dislike what is given to you at the moment, later you will praise Him when you see his Wisdom. God knows better and you cannot know his judgement until the end of the affair. His love of you is to look at the steadfastness which He provides you when He takes from you, the losses you may suffer in property and family, or what it makes difficult for you to leave. There is not a thing he removes from you that you may not have a replacement for it with God.

As it’s said:

“Everything you part away from, can be replaced, but if you part from God, there is no replacement.”

Ultimately the responsibility of  life, it’s in our own hands, and depends solely on us, and our proper attitude we take when things do not seem to please us, but character, deeds, an attitude it’s for us to choose, and enact, later what may happen will be the result of it.

And even if it may seem life it’s unfair to us,  meanwhile there may be life left on us, we have a chance to change things, just be steadfast, and wise, on your goals and actions

Serenity, and peace do not reside outside of us, there can be places around the World with great beauty, and peace, but its not as important as serenity and peace within, so seek it in your heart first, and you will have peace of mind, regardless of your surroundings.

FORESIGHT, AND PLANING FOR THE FUTURE, RATHER THAN WAIT AND SEE WHAT MAY HAPPEN, A TIME FOR HEART.

EVERYTHING WE ARE GOING THROUGH WAS PREDICTABLE.

We have eyes to see, so we can navigate safely, you see an obstacle in your path when walking, well you avoid it.

We have ears to hear, and alert us to whatever noise we hear, if  it’s not  normal, example being at home relaxing in your bedroom doing whatever, and hearing a loud noise away in the Livingroom when you know you are alone.

We smell a heavy butane odor, and look for a leak, we open windows, and above all we do not light a match.

We eat something, and we notice it taste funny, we stop eating, and get rid of whatever we had in our mouth and spit it out.

Well, you get what I am saying, our senses protect us from danger, but how come when we see, and hear everyday bad news, about injustice, wars, violence, hate, prejudice, racism, xenophobia, we pay little attention, we switch the news and look for something else so we can forget all problems and enjoy our peace, an tranquility?

We  have the luxury to do so, when the fire its far away, and not on our next door neighbor.

Well not today, the fire is here at home…

And its about time for ourselves to be involve, and try to do our best, to be on the side of the common good.

Years ago remember having many conversations about the topic of future trouble in America, simply put; because our lack of awareness to realize we live in a small World today, and what it happens in another Continent, far away will also affect us, one way or another, at a later date, as Covid-19 did.

Please do not care to hear arguments  for who did this, or who did not, neither to hear political mumble, from right, or left. it’s not about partisanship, but to be honest and take the side of the one in need, the  downtrodden, the oppressed, the weak, in other words be a person of heart, peace, and kindness, not about hate, and violence.

Be an advocate for the resolution of conflict, not an instigator of problems, we have seeing a lot of that, and we want peace, and love towards each other.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” Mathew 5: 3-11.

Now it’s a time for Heart, be all  united by it.

VIVAMOS VIDERE, THE MORE WE LIVE, THE MORE WE ARE A WITNESS TO LIFE.

“Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn! Look to this Day! For it is Life, the very Life of Life. In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence. The Bliss of Growth, The Glory of Action, The Splendor of Beauty; For Yesterday is but a Dream, And To-morrow is only a Vision; But To-day well lived makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness, And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope. Look well therefore to this Day! Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!”

Kalidasa

The more we grow old, the more things we experience in life, some of them a great surprise, and a  thing that makes us ponder at life itself.

It’s meaning, and our lot in it.

And we talk, and feel according as to what we consider it was good, or bad, but we did gain anything on it?

I mean even bad experiences can be a great lesson, and not necessarily a waste of time, or just unfortunate.

It’s not what happen to us but what we do with it.

Many things come from a giving fact, who are our parents were, our place of birth, the chances good, or bad we had to start a life with handicaps, or good fortune, and so many other factors, but in the end we all have to choose our actions according to the situation, and some of us if we are honest, can admit we did, not only a few mistakes, but many.

The sum of good, and bad will add up to what we call to be our destiny.

And we will have to live with that, and make amends if we have the chance, some may choose not to, or even if they do, results may not be as satisfying a we hoped, at least to others.

Mistakes need to be acknowledge first, amends are next, but not always possible, but you always can compensate by doing good in other areas.

Like helping those in need.

You may believe life has no meaning, or moral, but we all can feel the effect of your actions, so be thoughtful, and do not do things that may injure or offend others, that it’s just common sense.

As we grow old, hopefully we acquire experience, and even if unexpected things come our way we learn to sort them out as best we can, example this pandemic, we all had to adjust to it, and act accordingly, some of us  are no longer alive, and even more of us may not make it through, but we are all in this upheaval, and living these days who seem to no end in sight.

Well, do as best as you can, and whatever we go through do not focus on the loses, take it as another lesson to profit from.

A new dawn is coming every morning.

“And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope. Look well therefore to this Day! Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!”

2020 ANNO HORRIBILIS=HORRIBLE YEAR, SO FAR.

To be Human is to be Frail, Transitory, and Perishable, it’s our lot, so Live the best you can, and do the most Good you are able to.

That our current year 2020 has being so far, a trying year for most, if not all of us, is not even news today, since the year beginnings, one disaster, after the other one, not care even to make a list this pandemic just being the top of the awful layered cake, 2020 has being so far.

No doubt, all these messes  here, and all over, was if not necessary, a wake up call to all of us to figure out we are fragile, and mortal, and our lives in the context of time nothing but a leaf falling from the tree of Life.

Every disaster carry if not a good thing, a lesson, or an exhortation to be better, and a reminder we are here just for a little while, therefore to use our time wisely, and do not waste your time, and efforts on vanity.

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. Ecclesiastes 1. 2

Fires engulf Australia

From the driest September ever in 2018 to the raging fires of January 2020.

On 2 January 41 admitted hospital patients in Wuhan, China, were confirmed to have contracted (laboratory-confirmed) the 2019-nCoV (novel coronavirus); 27 (66%) patients had direct exposure to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. All 41 patients were subsequently relocated from the hospital they had originally been diagnosed in to the Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, China.Who declared that its three concerned levels (China country office, Regional Office for the Western Pacific and headquarters) have been working together to respond to the outbreak.

To the World Health Organization announced COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Just in more than a month we have the following crisis, and disasters:

• U.S. Civil Unrest. June 26, 2020.

• COVID-19 Coronavirus. June 25, 2020.

• 2020 Spring Tornadoes. June 16, 2020.

• Ebola Outbreak. June 15, 2020.

• Rohingya Refugee Crisis. June 11, 2020.

• Cyclone Amphan. June 7, 2020.

• Southern Border Humanitarian Crisis. June 2, 2020.

• Yemen Humanitarian Crisis. May 21, 2020.

Civil Unrest The New Normal

Of course it could be argued, disasters and crisis are everyday occurrence around the World, but it’s only noticed when it hit us right down our own street.

And on top of it to be incarcerated on our own home because the pandemic, with no end on sight, it doesn’t make things easy for any of us.

And understandably  we  may be at our wits’ end.

Well, maybe  time to read a good classic like: The Enchiridion By Epictetus.

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. ”― Epictetus

Be at peace.

THE THINGS TO COME, SOONER THAN WE EXPECTED, THE FRUIT OF UNBRIDLED PLUTOCRACY, AN OUTDATED MODEL, ON A FINITE WORLD.

Michelle Goldberg, in the NYT podcast, “The argument,” said something that put the first five months of this year into stark perspective. She said that 2020 started off like 1974 (an impeachment crisis), quickly became 1918 (a pandemic), turned into 1929 (economic crash), and is now 1968 (massive urban unrest).”

And we just are in June, the year its not over!

On my past blog I wondered, after the Covid-19 pandemic the World at large is suffering, what new disaster we will be facing next?

Due to the long list of problems we face as a challenge, at our failure to address them properly, and solve them, for a lack of willingness to do so, on the part of us, individually, and the blindness from most Governments who refuse to hear the Cassandra’s outcry, warning us of impending doom.

I wrote:

So the question,  not what the next crisis will be? But which of all the above will be next?

Well the next disaster did not took too long to rear its ugly head.

What about Social unrest?

A simple arrest, transformed into manslaughter, was the spark that set the fire, and explode around the US, as fast as a wildfire all over our cities.

Yes, a spark it’s all you need to set a fire of gigantic proportions, when the conditions are ripe for such event to occur.

The reasons are many and of diverse manufacture, but they all come to a head after George Floyd killing.

The list is long as a year has days; Michelle Goldberg quote on top give us an insight of the maladies we being suffering in just half a year. But all with long roots into unresolved problems we still face today.

 

I will only state that after a long quarantine, and the loss of jobs. 

Friday’s U.S. jobs report from the Labor Department is expected to show U.S. employers shed nearly 30 million positions from payrolls this spring as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and related shutdowns—but that is just one of several varying estimates of job destruction.

Other data suggest layoffs might have topped 40 million, while another count shows only about 20 million are tapping unemployment benefits. No matter the measure, job loss triggered by the pandemic is historically high and likely to leave a lasting effect.

Needless to say those more affected are the people who depend from paycheck, to paycheck just to solve their immediate needs, with no extra funds for emergency contingency.

Here is an article that sums up our troubles Worldwide:

What about our governments?

And what is the root of the problem?

“Parents in despair because they can’t pay the fees at the privatized neighborhood school…

Families left without healthcare because the mining company that pollutes their river also dodges the taxes that could pay for their treatment…

Women getting four hours of sleep a night as they try to balance caring for their families and homes with earning income…

Whole communities thrown off their land to make way for a foreign company…

Workers paid so little by employers that they’re suffering malnutrition.

These are just a few of the reports I’ve heard from my colleagues in recent months.

We see people frustrated by the surge in the power of the plutocrats.

Plutocracy is a society or a system ruled and dominated by a small minority of the wealthiest. The rich have always been powerful; some element of plutocracy has been present in all societies.

But the degree of control being exercised now; the number of the ultra-rich essentially buying political power; the nearly impossible persistence required to overcome the legal, public relations, and technical resources controlled by corporations and the richest individuals; the much denser concentration of wealth in even the largest countries; and the global nature of the resources, power, and connections being accumulated have combined to foreclose meaningful democratic options and space for a life independent of the materialistic values of the plutocracy.

The economy no longer facilitates human society; humans live to serve the economy.

The logic that undergirds all of this — the greed for money, power, and control — is antithetical to preserving an environment in which living things can thrive. Through most of human history we have endured various unbalanced political and social systems.

Today’s market economy has roots going back centuries, but only in this one has it become so monolithic, with virtually the entire world under its spell.

We are living in an age of hyper-capitalism: we have gone beyond industrialization and value-addition to a point where the rules are written by the financiers, and the finance industry, rather than a sector that actually makes something, has become arguably the most politically powerful industry in history.

A brief period of relative equality in the richer countries after World War II gave way from the late 1970s to a powerful ideology of competition, unending growth, and unhindered profit. This ideology was charted deliberately by institutes lavishly funded by aspiring plutocrats.

The denial of limits, the privileging of competition and profit over cooperation and public goods, and the capitulation of governments to the power of money has made the modern plutocracy a dominant reality, and one that must be reversed.

Commentators now routinely speak of how people can “contribute to the economy.” The economy no longer facilitates human society; humans live to serve the economy. “Freedom” has been reconfigured to refer to consumer choice rather than the ability to determine how to order one’s life.

A few years ago there was considerable debate about the concept of “peak oil” — the possibility we were reaching the beginning of the end of usable petroleum supplies. We may be reaching a more dangerous point: peak plutocracy, where society and the environment can sustain no more concentration of power and resources.

The now predominant and powerful ideology of competition, unending growth and unhindered profit was charted deliberately by institutes lavishly funded by aspiring plutocrats.

So it is worrying to hear so consistently from colleagues around the world the extent to which the power of people is being curtailed by the people with power.

We see the evidence of peak plutocracy in:

• the so far largely successful efforts of business interests to prevent meaningful action on climate change;

• the push for high-input, high-tech, restricted-ownership agriculture that excludes smallholder farmers — a great portion of them women — who feed most of the world’s people;

• the collusion of governments and companies in taking control of land and natural resources from communities in order to generate profits for privileged outsiders;

• the “race to the bottom” among governments to sacrifice revenues through blanket “tax holidays” in order to lure foreign investment, even when the benefits are unclear or negligible;

• the failure of governments to establish laws that protect workers from abuses ranging from trafficking to unlivable wages to unacceptably risky working conditions, with women workers in the most precarious, low-paid and inhumane jobs;

• 

• the failure to recognize the systematic abuse of women’s rights in many areas — but in particular the deep uncompensated subsidies women provide to all economies with their unpaid and low-paid care work that keep families and societies functioning;

• the pressure put on countries — and more recently the collusion between governments and companies — to change commercial and consumer-protection laws so that foreign companies can dominate markets;

• the use of coercion, including violence, by powerful elites in private enterprises, fundamentalist movements, and repressive regimes to control women’s bodies and sexual and reproductive choices, their labor, mobility and political voice;

• the pressure to privatize schools at the expense of decent public education, despite the complete absence of evidence that the results will be beneficial to anyone beside the owners;

• 

• the unwarranted scorn directed at the public sector, and the pervasive recourse to the notion of “private sector led development” by most donor countries and inter-governmental institutions, even in the absence of positive models

• the fetishization of foreign direct investment in low-income countries despite compelling evidence that no country has achieved sustainable development with foreign capital;

• the increasing congruence of interests among governments, corporations, and elites in limiting the freedom of action of social movements and public interest groups, constricting political space in all parts of the world;

• the increasing domination of wealthy corporations and individuals in United Nations debates and processes.

• the brazen ideological defense of inequality and massive concentration of power and resources by wealthy individuals and the institutes they fund;

• 

• the increasing number of disasters and emergencies are turned into profit opportunities, as affected areas are remade according to the plutocrats’ rules.

• the refusal of governments to combat the global youth unemployment crisis with public jobs programs to address the widely-acknowledged looming crisis of deteriorating infrastructure;

• the fallacy of scarcity revealed by the capacity of governments to find massive public financial resources for war and bank bailouts, but seldom for programs that would employ people, combat hunger and disease, and foster renewable energy.

• 

• The hyper-concentration of wealth in the hands of the few has corrupted democratic systems, in rich countries as well as in poor ones.

We need to democratize power. But that doesn’t mean just better monitoring of elections. It means making power more horizontal, more accessible to more people, the people who are affected by the decisions made.

There is no one-off recipe for making this happen. It has to happen over and over again, every day, everywhere, with increasing connections so that we won’t be crowded out by those with money and influence. We have to occupy space and not leave it, and then occupy some more.”

From Our World United Nations University. Soren Ambrose April 2005.

As you can see the roots of the ongoing problem are many, and have deep roots on the Hegemony of the plutocratic model that the few uphold against the many. Protest  broke out in the 47 countries that experienced an uptick of unrest in 2019. And logically will continue to rise if the root of the problem its not addressed.

Now we are seeing the poisonous fruit these state of affairs has brought all over the World, the time for reckoning its here now.

THE AGE OF RESPONSIBILITY, OR PAYBACK, IT’S HERE.

“There are not many persons who know what wonders are opened to them in the stories and visions of their youth; for when as children we learn and dream, we think but half-formed thoughts, and when as men we try to remember, we are dulled and prosaic with the poison of life. But some of us awake in the night with strange phantasms of enchanted hills and gardens, of fountains that sing in the sun, of golden cliffs overhanging murmuring seas, of plains that stretch down to sleeping cities of bronze and stone, and of shadowy companies of heroes that ride caparisoned white horses along the edges of thick forests; and then we know that we have looked back through the ivory gates into that world of wonder which was ours before we were wise and unhappy.”

― Howard Phillips Lovecraft

There is a difference between enjoying your youth and destroying your future.

Nimit Kala.

Who doesn’t remember their youthful days, and look back at that time when you were young, with a sense we were indestructible, and a feeling we could get away with almost everything?

And as carefree, that we felt the World out there was for us to take?

Then we grew up, and we matured, and come to our senses, and as my father liked to say, we no longer thought we could drink the whole Ocean in one gulp.

Now assuming all of you readers are mature and responsible people, let’s make a brief checklist.

Poverty, War and Terrorism, Climate Change, Drug Abuse, Disease, Animal Abuse, Murder, Racism, Pollution, Population Growth, Global Warming, Unemployment, Sexism, Raping, Totalitarianism, Religious Fundamentalists, Severe Income Disparity, Refugees, Violence, Child Abuse, Obesity, Irresponsible Government, and Power, Gun Control issues, Mass Shootings, Fascism, Ignorance, Self Absorption, And spending too much time online.

And that are just a few of the problems that come to mind after Covid-19, that its not over by any means.

So the question,  not what the next crisis will be?
But Which of all the above will be next?

Maybe a meteorite out of space?

A nuclear War?

Global Hunger?

Mass extermination of Species?

 

Maybe the stage is set for our Human Specie to disappear, or simply to grow up, and act like responsible adults, and do what it’s sensible, and proper to do, rather than act like spoil brats, bent on continuing  their usual irresponsible bad behavior.

We all live under the same heaven, and our World it’s finite, we are all interconnected on a subtle level,  and what affect one, affect us all, we like it or not. We as a Human specie we are breaking the boundaries of a World in equilibrium, time to do something about it, rather than ignore the warning signs, and keep the madness going.

LOVE, AND SOLITUDE IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

According to the dictionary this proverb means:

“Turbulent changes do not affect reality on a deeper level other than to cement the status quo.”

Well, I do not know if this apply also to this crisis, since its the first time on my life I am forced to a quarantine, however being somewhat in age, and living by myself for a quarter of a Century, I believe loneliness, doesn’t affect me on a special way, rather more like an inconvenience, not to be able to run errands, and go to eat outside the house, and of course getting my favorite coffee drink, and seat at a coffee house, a pleasure that I indulge for many years now, a few days a week.

A leisurely activity that I miss a bit, but that if not struck by the virus, and gone tomorrow, hope I will enjoy once again, in the future.

I guess for the social types, like extroverted characters, these conditions may be harder to bear, extroverts are often described as talkative, sociable, action-oriented, enthusiastic, friendly, and out-going.

I know, I got brothers, and a daughter who fit the mold, now I smile when at a very young age was determined to live by myself, growing up in a home were everybody including my parents were extroverted, it was just simply exhausting for me. Of course at the time couldn’t understand why I was different, neither my family.

Now, do not misunderstand, I had a happy childhood, and I also participated playing, but more often than not, I rather will be seating and reading by myself, I got to be an expert to focus my attention to my book, and ignore the noise around me.

School also was a problem, a big one, but despite the noise, and all the mayhem that a classroom without a teacher present becomes, also made good friends, but looking back most of those friends were somewhat introverted, and the kind of guy who enjoyed a more relevant type of conversation, rather than play, and general hubbub.

It took me sometime to clear out of jobs who enforced a daily contact with many people, even if I can say when it come to work I always got high marks, in whatever I did, but now looking back and knowing myself better, can clearly see how certain jobs I enjoyed more than others.

When computers arrived at the workplace, I worked for several companies were even in a crowded place, I had the privacy of my cubicle to concentrate on what I was doing, in a few months, I invariably became at the highest top category of producers. And companies will be sad to let me go when finding a more lucrative job.

My last and final job  had nothing to do with computers, but it was a small environment, with about seven people, and at least five of them were no doubt introverted, quiet characters, who you could have great conversations, during the frequent  lull periods during the day, due to lack of clients. Of course we will get busy with other work, but we could work, and chat, and many clients as well, will enjoy our conversations, I could say our most frequent customers were the ones who even if doing business with us, they preferred us, to others similar businesses because our expertise, not only on matter related to our work, some of them they will even hung up around our place on their free time. They even will say something like:

“This is a place were not only you come for business, but were you can be leaving more wiser, than when you went in.”

Well, what we are gone to do? We may enjoy solitude or not, we all need to go out in order to live a normal life in society, the old days of living in a cave are not an option, but for a few.

A tension in the coronavirus response is that it’s so difficult to get people to accept social distancing that few want to muddle the message with worries about social isolation. But if the ultimate concern is the health and well-being of the most vulnerable, then both dangers need to be addressed.

But we’ve also entered a new period of social pain. There’s going to be a level of social suffering related to isolation and the cost of social distancing that very few people are discussing yet.

Well I hope for most of you to be safe from the pandemic decease, and free from the effects , and troubles of isolation, for all of you and your loved ones.

Keep safe, and use the phone, grab a good book, and finish work, or projects undone around the house, but above all, keep the love flowing to everyone, even if from a safe distance.

Wish the best, to all of you.

COSMOLOGIES, AND SEMANTICS.

Neither being (sat) nor non-being was as yet. What was concealed?

And where? And in whose protection?…Who really knows?
Who can declare it? Whence was it born, and whence came this creation?
The devas (gods) were born later than this world’s creation,
so who knows from where it came into existence? None can know from where
creation has arisen, and whether he has or has not produced it.
He who surveys it in the highest heavens,
He alone knows or perhaps He does not know.”

— Rig Veda 10. 129

“We have discovered that all signs suggest a universe that could and plausibly did arise from a deeper nothing—involving the absence of space itself and—which may one day return to nothing via processes that may not only be comprehensible but also processes that do not require any external control or direction.”

Lawrence Krauss.

The other day I was watching a debate on my PC two people debating, a well known Scientist, and a Theologian, and I was struck by the vehemence of the speakers to hold to their interpretations of truth, and the virulent war from the people who commented on the debate, and was struck by the fact that, a very possible idea, few people know about the knew developments in Semantics.

Enter Semantics, or the Linguistic approach.

Michael Lynch (philosopher) has recently advocated a different type of pluralism about truth. In a series of articles and in his 2009 book Truth as One and Many Lynch argues that we should see truth as a functional property capable of being multiply manifested in distinct properties like correspondence or coherence.

Now, if you go back and reread the two views at the top of my post, you will discover the parallelism , or analogy of both statements.

The difference to me its the timeline one was expressed thousands of years ago in a more poetic fashion, the other one relatively recently on mathematical language by Mr. Krauss.

Cosmology

Now Cosmology its divided in several branches:

Physical cosmology, or Observational cosmology is a branch of cosmology concerned with the studies of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and with fundamental questions about its origin, structure, evolution, and ultimate fate. Cosmology as a science originated with the Copernican principle, which implies that celestial bodies obey identical physical laws to those on Earth, and Newtonian mechanics, which first allowed those physical laws to be understood. Physical cosmology, as it is now understood, began with the development in 1915 of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, followed by major observational discoveries in the 1920s: first, Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe contains a huge number of external galaxies beyond the Milky Way; then, work by Vesto Slipher and others showed that the universe is expanding. These advances made it possible to speculate about the origin of the universe, and allowed the establishment of the Big Bang theory, by Georges Lemaître, as the leading cosmological model. A few researchers still advocate a handful of alternative cosmologies; however, most cosmologists agree that the Big Bang theory best explains the observations.

In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation, cosmological inflation, or just inflation, is a theory of exponential expansion of space in the early universe. The inflationary epoch lasted from 10−36 seconds after the conjectured Big Bang singularity to some time between 10−33 and 10−32 seconds after the singularity. Following the inflationary period, the universe continued to expand, but the expansion was no longer accelerating.

Inflation its the Physics theory was developed in the late 1970s and early 80s, with notable contributions by several theoretical physicists, including Alexei Starobinsky at Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Alan Guth at Cornell University, and Andrei Linde at Lebedev Physical Institute. Alexei Starobinsky, Alan Guth, and Andrei Linde won the 2014 Kavli Prize “for pioneering the theory of cosmic inflation.” It was developed further in the early 1980s. It explains the origin of the large-scale structure of the cosmos. Quantum fluctuations in the microscopic inflationary region, magnified to cosmic size, become the seeds for the growth of structure in the Universe (see galaxy formation and evolution and structure formation). Many physicists also believe that inflation explains why the universe appears to be the same in all directions (isotropic), why the cosmic microwave background radiation is distributed evenly, why the universe is flat, and why no magnetic monopoles have been observed.

Religious Cosmology

Religious cosmology is an of the origin, explanation, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe, from a religious perspective. This may include beliefs on origin in the form of a creation myth, subsequent evolution, current organizational form and nature, and eventual fate or destiny. There are various traditions in religion or religious mythology asserting how and why everything is the way it is and the significance of it all. Religious cosmologies describe the spatial lay-out of the universe in terms of the world in which people typically dwell as well as other dimensions, such as the seven dimensions of religion; these are ritual, experience and emotional, narrative and mythical, doctrinal, ethical, social, and material. Religious mythologies may include descriptions of an act or process of creation by a creator deity or a larger pantheon of deities, explanations of the transformation of chaos into order, or the assertion that existence is a matter of endless cyclical transformations. Religious cosmology differs from a strictly scientific cosmology informed by the results of the study of astronomy and similar fields, and may differ in conceptualizations of the world’s physical structure and place in the universe, its creation, and forecasts or predictions on its future. The scope of religious cosmology is more inclusive than a strictly scientific cosmology (physical cosmology) in that religious cosmology is not limited to experiential observation, testing of hypotheses, and proposals of theories; for example, religious cosmology may explain why everything is the way it is or seems to be the way it is and prescribing what humans should do in context. Variations in religious cosmology include those of Indian origin, such as Buddhism, Hindu, and Jain; the religious beliefs of China; and, the beliefs of the Abrahamic faiths, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Religious cosmologies have often developed into the formal logics of metaphysical systems, such as Platonism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Daoism, Kabbalah, or the great chain of being.

Philosophy

Philosophical cosmology, philosophy of cosmology or philosophy of cosmos is a discipline directed to the philosophical contemplation of the universe as a totality, and to its conceptual foundations. It draws on several branches of philosophy—metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of physics, philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, and on the fundamental theories of physics. The term cosmology was used at least as early as 1730, by German philosopher Christian Wolff, in Cosmologia Generalis.

Philosophical cosmology can be distinguished by two types of cosmological arguments: deductive and inductive cosmological arguments. The first type has a long tradition in the history of philosophy, proposed by thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Descartes and Leibniz, and criticized by thinkers like David Hume, Immanuel Kant and Bertrand Russell, while the latter has been formulated by philosophers like Richard Swinburne.

For Leibniz, all the plenum of the universe is entirely filled with tiny Monads, which cannot fail, have no constituent parts and have no windows through which anything could come in or go out. In his Aesthetics, philosopher José Vasconcelos explains his theory on the evolution of the universe and the restructuring of its cosmic substance, in the physical, biological and human orders.

Philosophical cosmology tries to respond questions such as:

What is the provenance of the cosmos?

What are the essential constituents of the cosmos?

Does the cosmos have an ulterior motive?

How does the cosmos behave?

How can we understand the cosmos in which we find ourselves?

As you can see every branch of Cosmology its occupy by the same questions,  but looking at it from different approach or angles, but in reality its just a matter of difference in the use of Semantics, to some the Universe and Existence have purpose and meaning, to other its meaningless just a random occurrence.

My opinion?

Some are just more elegant, or inspiring than the others, and as you think so you are. And do not forget, The Knowing Self cannot be known as object, only as subject!

You may perceive the World outside yourself, but in reality it’s with your senses, and within your cognitive faculties you make sense of it, and its impossible to share it with anybody else except through language, and language its such a flawed tower of Babel.

^[

EDUCATION, A JOB THAT NEVER ENDS, OR GROW OLD.

Plato treats the subject of education in The Republic as an integral and vital part of a wider subject of the well-being of human society. The ultimate aim of education is to help people know the Idea of the Good, which is to be virtuous.

“A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, must become a lover of books.”

“Books give a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” “The measure of a man is what he does with power.” “The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life”. “Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.”

Quotes attributed to Plato.

Who said  teaching was ever easy?

Socrates paid with his life for the crime of teaching his fellow Athenians.

The importance of a good education its never lost for most parents, its convincing the children the problem.

Yes I know, today getting an education can cost a fortune, and not every parent can send his children to a good school, but I am sure every conscious parent will do his best to give their child the best they can.

Reflections On The Hardships Of Teaching.

Well, what can we say, simply put to be a good teacher it takes many sacrifices, and love, yes you got to love teaching, otherwise you are not just wasting your time but worst, endangering the education of those who you teach.

If you may want to make money, being a teacher its probably not for you, only a few very specialized teachers may do that, and not necessarily will be the one you remember as a great inspiration for you, to try to achieve something in life, you may find those very early on your education.

Yes, that wonderful teacher who inspired you to really start reading, or be conscious about the neatness of your homework, or simply made the class not boring, and inspired you to find more about it on your own time.

Yes every teacher has to deal with nightmare students, its bad enough when you have two, or three, bad apples, at the classroom but sometimes its ridiculous!

Teaching Begins At Home

Usually bad discipline at home translate as bad behavior at school, if the parents are responsible, and dedicated parents, the child will be well behaved at the classroom.

Yes unfortunately bad behavior at school, doesn’t mean the school its lousy, but that you are not doing the proper thing with your children at home.

You will be surprised, at how many 21 year old youngsters  behave worst than a child of seven, and its simply because they did not have at home any discipline whatsoever, very likely the parents were not taught either, or criminally abandoned their responsibility, and let children to themselves, or the result of broken homes, where the responsible parent spent most time at work, and children grew on their own.

Behavior its learned at home, period.

How do I know that?

Well, currently I am privately tutoring a 21 year old youngster, who mentally its at twelve at most!

He cannot do homework, its always  late, he wants to change the class at his convenience, day, or hours, and place, regardless what we agree before, he questions me at every turn, like if what I am teaching its not true, he always knows better in an argument, about things he does not know anything, practically I have to force him to read a page on his phone, about what I am trying to teach him, so he realize I am not talking gibberish, or making it up, that by the way, take him a long time since he reads but very slowly, his phone its not a tool for research, but for entertainment, often bring next time a book on the subject we were arguing, and then he wants for me to give him the book for free!

Once I loaned a book for him to make a copy, he didn’t, he had a week to do it, and have to ask him several times for it, until his mother promise me she would return it to me, she did.

I mean the youngster its not stupid, bad, or mentally impaired, he is smart, he is just terribly childish.

Only child, parents divorced, mother works daily away from home, the youngster cannot keep a job, can you wonder why?

He may be 21, but he has not gain on maturity, period.

Being a teacher its not easy.

But it can be summed up on a brief list:

Disruptive environment, or simply put students discipline problems.

The rules of teaching are constantly changing. In some aspects, this is good while occasionally it may also be bad. Teaching is not immune to fads.

Great teachers invest a tremendous amount of time outside of the time spent with their students. They understand that all these things have a significant impact on student learning. However, teachers must commit to stepping away from their teaching responsibilities from time to time so that their personal life does not suffer in some aspect.

Students are not the same, they are at different levels, and some require more time and effort than others, in a crowded classroom, well it will be difficult to say the least.

Lack of funding, reflects on overcrowded classrooms, lacks of qualified teachers, books, materials, lack of time for personal attention and many other maladies, that unfortunately reflects also on the quality of the education for the absence of money.

And of course Parental involvement, or the lack of it.

HIGHWAY ROBBERY, AND PIRACY WELL AND ALIVE IN OUR CONTEMPORARY NEW WAY OF TRAVELING, CYBERSPACE.

In the old days traveling had a mayor inconvenience, if we can call it that, just an inconvenience, but in fact your own integrity, and physical security was at risk, not only you could loose your money and goods, but your life, and women be abused sexually by the bandits, even kidnapped.

A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads.

Such criminals operated in Great Britain from the Elizabethan era until the early 19th century. In many other countries, they persisted for a few decades longer, until the mid or late 19th century. But of course robbery on the roads, and piracy on the many Seas of the World, have been common since the early annals of History.

And elsewhere around the World, even today Piracy on the High seas its common.

I guess we will never get rid of it, until every Human being on the planet turns if not into a Saint, at least into an honest man, or woman for that matters, they were also cases of ladies of who robbed the Highways, and the High Seas.

The above images  romanticized portraits of such nefarious individuals, more likely they were as ugly as the deeds, that they perpetuated.

But lets get to the point, today Cyberspace its a new dimension of traveling, and due to total lack of regulation, and lack of responsibility from our governments, and the many sharks of profiteering it thrives with old style Highwaymen, and Pirates, who do their business, by extracting ransom from the common sheep flock, that mean us the common person, now days titled the consumer, forced to pay a ransom to navigate unmolested into the dangerous, and full of Highwaymen, and Pirates of Cyberspace.

With not privacy to protect, or be invaded by adds, and soliciting, like there’s no tomorrow, they may even hold your computer for ransom, or spy to rob you, at least Dick Turpin got caught and was hanged from the neck.

An account in The Gentleman’s Magazine for 7 April 1739 notes Turpin’s brashness: “Turpin behaved in an undaunted manner; as he mounted the ladder, feeling his right leg tremble, he spoke a few words to the topsman, then threw himself off, and expired in five minutes.”  

I am not a vicious man claiming for capital death to such individuals, but yes, like maybe most of you will like an end to that vicious invasion of privacy, and endless soliciting, that has become the experience of traveling Online, and the fact there’s almost no way to travel undisturbed, if not paying for protection, itself the reason to countless legal scams, used  by the same companies you pay to protect you.  They thrive on your fear and impotence.

LIFE A JOURNEY OF SELF DISCOVERY.

“To be acquainted with what is best and oldest in yourself, is to know yourself as you were, before the world was made, before you emerged into time.”

Henry Corbin

One of the questions that remember as a child, that frequently asked  myself, it was to wonder who I would become, once reaching adulthood, on my life journey

At the time ignoring, that at that point I was already setting, who in time, I will  turn to be,  as a result of my own early inquiry.

Just by the fact of posing the question, the signs were present, as we know, character its destiny.

I should add, that meanwhile my young friends  were enthusiastic, about becoming a policeman, a firefighter, or a pilot, myself even if playing and liking those rolls was not really sure that I may choose to be something so straightforward, and wondered if life would not have some more deeper nuance, than that?

Not knowing then, that the question already was working within my inner self, and my path has being decided, well before I knew it consciously.

Sometime before vaguely remember I wrote maybe on one of the many posts of my blog, that at an early age, I do not recall the exact time, a friend of us a few years older come into our house visiting us and telling about a philosophy class he had and repeating what he had learnt that day.

He quoted the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.

They are the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. More simply put, suffering exists; it has a cause; it has an end; and it has a cause to bring about its end.

That moment was like a revelation to me on hearing those words, from that day on, I will question him about what he learnt  on his philosophy class, so I learned about the pre-Socratic Philosophers, then Socrates, and Plato, and I wanted to know everything about it, and will wonder when I will be able to grow up and be taking a philosophy class?

At the time maybe in fourth, or fifth grade at elementary school, couldn’t wait to be our friend’s age to be studying those issues.

From then, even if I played games of pretending with friends my age, I knew it was just pretense, and play, Philosophy would be my path.

And no, I didn’t wait until my time to take a philosophy class, when going into a bookstore will check books with titles about philosophy, or related themes, at our little town bookstore, (The town didn’t had a library) the owners a couple of elderly widows, would complain to my father about my purchases, and say something like this:

“Mr. Anaya, that child of yours come here buying books not proper, or suitable to his young age, he shouldn’t be readings such things, you better keep an eye on him.”

My father would laugh about it, well aware of my reading inclinations by that time.

My old bookstore now a prosaic bank.

Even if later on, he clipped my wings on going to college and study Philosophy, on the belief I would not be able to make a living out of it.

I do not blame him he probably was right at the time.

But that did not affected me, on my choice or reading materials, I kept at it.

Well now lets move forward to a few days ago.

Feeling a little depressed about myself, and the state of affairs of my current living, several things happened by chance, one, I did some lectures about subjects dear to me, over a year ago, someone took videos from it but didn’t uploaded them all, a few remained sort of lost.

Then someone call me and tell me those videos were finally uploaded, even now just over a year ago couldn’t remember too well what did I talk about it, so curious I watch myself on them, and  a sudden realization hit me.

I was looking at myself like the guy in my screen was not me, but someone else, a great Teacher of mine who I dreamt many years ago.

Yes, he had come into my dreams maybe a half a dozen of times, in critical, and unexpected moments through my life since I was 19, or so, then close to 40, and a little bit after 42, and a few times more since.

Yes I was looking at myself on the screen, but for the first time realizing my image, was the image of the man in my dreams, talking like I did on those videos.

Well, you all know looking at the mirror, we do not find who we are, but if you look at a picture, or a video, somehow you look different of what you see in the mirror, there is talk on the net about this phenomena but I will not go into it just saying It’s a sense that something about the photographed self seems unquantifiably different than the mirrored self. It’s in your head.

Other people, including photographers, don’t see this version of you. They see a version that you are rarely privy to, and that can seem wildly foreign to our ingrained sensibilities.

Well that shocked me, and picking up a couple of books at random,  went out to a café, and after seating with my coffee open the book and I read at the first page I open:

“Ibn ‘Arabi was and never ceased to be the disciple of an invisible master, a mysterious prophet figure to who a number of traditions, both significant and obscure, lend features which relate him, or tend to identify him, with Elijah, Saint George, and still others. Ibn ‘Arabi was above all the disciple of Khidr. (khadir)”

After several lines discoursing into something else he come back and says:

“The function of Khidr is to reveal each disciple to himself…He leads each disciple to his own theophany..because that theophany correspond to his own “inner heaven,” to the form of his own being, to his eternal individuality…Khidr mission consist in enabling you to attain to the Khidr of your own being.” for its in this inner depth in this “prophet of your being,” that springs the Water of Life.”

I sat there marveling at the synchronicity, first my shock at discovering my resemblance on the video to the one in my dreams, and then within a trip of some minutes and ordering my coffee, reading totally by chance those passages.

My early distress vanished like a momentary cloud on the horizon, and a feeling of wellbeing, and peace returned  into my heart.

A Gnostic quote reads as follow posted on  my post of August 2012  :

“Abandon the search for God and the creation and other matters of a similar sort. Look for him by taking yourself as the starting point. Learn who it is within you who makes everything his own and says, “My God, my mind, my thought, my soul, my body.” Learn the sources of sorrow:, joy, love, hate . . . If you carefully investigate these matters you will find him in yourself.”

We are all blessed, but its to each of us to discover those blessings.

MAN THE SYMBOLIC CREATURE

“The past is preserved only in darkness, the future is not raised to the level of an image, as something which can be anticipated. It is the symbolic expression which first creates the possibility of looking backward and looking forward… What occurred in the past, now separated out from the totality of representations, no longer passes away, once the sounds of language have placed their seals on it and given it a certain stamp.”

Ernst Cassirer

Archaeologists have discovered what they believe could be the earliest known writing. A 12,000-year-old pictograph was found within the ancient settlement of Gobeklitepe in southeast Anatolia, Turkey.

The pictograph, chiseled into an obelisk, reportedly depicts a traditional sky burial whereby bodies are left outdoors to be picked apart by scavengers.

There is speculation that astrology of some form appeared in the Sumerian period in the 3rd millennium BC.

By the 16th century BC, the extensive employment of omen-based astrology can be evidenced in the compilation of a comprehensive reference work known as Enuma Anu Enlil. Its contents consisted of 70 cuneiform tablets comprising 7,000 celestial omens. Texts from this time also refer to an oral tradition – the origin and content of which can only be speculated upon.

Enuma Anu Enlil is the principal source of omens used in the regular astrological reports that were sent to the Neo-Assyrian king by his entourage of scholars. There are well over 500 such reports published in volume 8 of the State Archives of Assyria. A majority of these reports simply list the relevant omens that best describe recent celestial events and many add brief explanatory comments concerning the interpretation of the omens for the benefit of the king.

A typical report dealing with the first appearance of the moon on the first day of the month is exemplified by Report 10 from volume 8 of the State Archives:

If the moon becomes visible on the first day: reliable speech; the land will be happy.

If the day reaches its normal length: a reign of long days.

If the moon at its appearance wears a crown: the king will reach the highest rank.

From Issar-šumu-ereš.

The series was probably compiled in its canonical form during the Kassite period (1595–1157 BCE) but there was certainly some form of prototype Enuma Anu Enlil current in the Old Babylonian period (1950–1595 BCE). It continued in use well into the 1st millennium, the latest datable copy being written in 194 BCE. It is believed that the first 49 tablets were transmitted to India in the 4th or 3rd centuries BCE and that the final tablets dealing with the stars had also arrived in India just before the start of the common era.

At this time Babylonian astrology was solely mundane, and prior to the 7th century BC the practitioners’ understanding of astronomy was fairly rudimentary. Because of their inability to accurately predict future celestial phenomena and planetary movement very far in advance, interpretations were done as the phenomena occurred or slightly before. By the 4th century, however, their mathematical methods had progressed enough to calculate future planetary positions with reasonable accuracy, at which point extensive ephemerides began to appear.

Otto Eduard Neugebauer (May 26, 1899 – February 19, 1990) was an Austrian American mathematician and historian of science who became known for his research on the history of astronomy and the other exact sciences in antiquity and into the Middle Ages. By studying clay tablets, he discovered that the ancient Babylonians knew much more about mathematics and astronomy than had been previously realized. The National Academy of Sciences has called Neugebauer “the most original and productive scholar of the history of the exact sciences, perhaps of the history of science, of our age.”

And what this great  original thinker has to tell us?

In a nutshell, that the Babylonians discovered Algebra, a symbolic, simple today, but at the time a revolutionary Human discovery, and furthermore he thought this discovery was due to the fact the Babylonians were the product of two different people the Sumerian, and the Acadian, two totally different cultures, the Acadians were Semite,.

Most historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language (pointing to the names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, etc., as evidence), a non-Semitic and non-Indo-European agglutinative language isolate. It was not an inflected language, contrary to its Semitic neighbors.

They had a hell of a time to understand each other, the usual language and text of the Sumerians, so in order to understand each other they got to acquire new mental skills, and thanks to these efforts Babylonians were the first  in getting to understand the meaning and use of an abstract symbolism.

Every Algebraic operation says Neugebauer, presupposes to understand certain fixed symbols, both for mathematical operations and for the mathematical quantities to which they apply.

In the absence of this conceptual symbolism, it would not be possible to combine quantities that are not numerically determined and designated, nor to derive new combinations from them, but a symbolism presented itself immediately necessary in the writing of the Acadian texts … Therefore the Babylonians had a more important instrument for proper and adequate Algebraic development.

I am aware that Science today its dismissive of the Symbolic thought, however it escapes them how these accomplishments of the Babylonians, not only provided the basic Algebraic for mathematics, but also a rich Symbolism that escapes them on the Ontological subjective nature of Man.

That like a undercurrent submerged within our psyche, it pours a torrent of symbolic images into our dreams, desires, and behaviors to which, no matter the amount of objectivity, and concrete mind it is impossible to bury forever, in the annals of time, since It is an integral and inseparable part of our Human nature. Just as the eternal feminine is the counterpart of the masculine, and our right cerebral side, the counterpart of the left.

 

THE FUTURE ITS NOT HARD TO SEE, DYSTOPIA.

We as Humans we seem to be condemned to live in the present, but to be looking back at the past with longing, and ahead to the future with dread.

B.A.

A Spanish poet of the 15th Century by the name of Jorge Manrique wrote:

“Stanzas about the Death of his Father”) is Jorge Manrique’s best composition. In fact, Lope de Vega pronounced it in humbled admiration to its superior craftsmanship,”worthy to be printed in letters of gold”. It is a funeral eulogy dedicated to the memory of Rodrigo Manrique (his father), who died on 11 November 1476 in Ocaña. Jorge thought that his father led a life worth living. He makes a reference to three lives:

1.-The terrestrial life that ends in death

2.-The life of the fame, that lasts longer (Kleos Greek)

3.-The eternal life after death, that has no end.

In the first stanzas he said:

Remember the sleeping soul

Fan the brain and wake up!

Watching

How life goes

How death comes,

So silent;

So swiftly  pleasure is gone,

How, after memory,

It gives pain;

How, in our opinion,

Any time past,

Always was better.

This translation its kind of literal

Here its another one more poetic:

Let from its dream the soul awaken,

And reason mark with open eyes
The scene unfolding,—
How lightly life away is taken,
How cometh Death in stealthy guise,—
At last beholding;

What swiftness hath the flight of pleasure
That, once attained, seems nothing more
Than respite cold;
How fain is memory to measure
Each latter day inferior

To those of old.

And  that is as true today, as it was many years ago. So no wonder we more likely look at the future with at least some reserve, if not dread.

A future of our society in doubt, by the many problem that plague us.

Overpopulation, over pollution, over extinction of species, vital to keep our World habitable, Political morass, and unwillingness to do nothing positive to deal with the problems, rather than see the train coming at the crossroad, and unwilling  to put the breaks  before attempting crossing, playing a gamble that they will beat the oncoming disaster.

 

Well I do not need to tell you, there is a high price to pay for stupidity, combined with stubbornness,  and of course you know the definition of  insanity, some people attribute it to the darling of quotes; Albert Einstein:

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.

No wonder people have nightmares about our almost sure Dystopian future, just imagine..!

The recent uptick in dystopian films and post-apocalyptic scenarios seems more urgent and more extreme than it has in the past.

Ostensibly set in the future, the post-apocalyptic mode can function as a window on the present, the prognosis its not good.

The list of environmental disasters today now its divided into categories, and listed in alphabetical order:

Agricultural, Biodiversity, Human Health, Industrial, Mining, Oil Industry, Nuclear, and divisions as what element of the environment they affect, like Air, Fresh Water, Land, Oceans.

And I do not want to depress you, or overwhelm you with the long list on each category, all you got to do is pay attention to the news.

Rather than do that, I will show some of the things are important, to fix our problems.

We need to fight Ignorance, and Mediocrity, the reason of so much lack of Consciousness. No matter where you go, almost everything is exactly the same and it’s getting worse by the day, in other words an ignorant person its a blind person, and the blind cannot lead us, and that its what we have leader wise, and I am not talking just about our country, Worldwide its pretty much the same, maybe with few exceptions.

A cross country trip meant you got a taste of the different flavors of life. You experienced things you’d only experience in a certain state. However, these days everywhere you go it’s pretty much the same deal, malls and chain stores everywhere, all offering the same product you can get elsewhere. Worse, yet is the fact that people seem to desire this mediocrity for it’s comfort factor and have lost all sense of adventure. People desire mediocrity so much that it’s becoming the only thing offered. Look around yourself, everything is mundane. Even tattooing before a thing for tribal aborigines, and outcasts, has gotten it’s fair share of this cancer.

Line at a popular Tattoo parlor.

The population growth , its just too much to be handled by our small planet. The Statistical Institute estimated that the world’s population in 1920 was 1,791,496,000.

The current world population is 7.7 billion as of October 2019 according to the most recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometers.

I am not usually a pessimist, and believe the World somehow will go as and old Italian song said:

Gira el Mundo Gira – Il volo – Il Mondo.

Just too many of us, with such unruly crowd, and doing whatever seems everybody please, with no regard to anything else, specially to the fragility of our environment, a Dystopian future?

You bet!

If we keep business as usual, but do not worry the World will keep turning, just maybe with a lot less of us, after all the World has faced bigger crisis, in the past, ask the Dinosaurs.

MEN UNIQUE AS A LIVING BEING, LIVING A PARALLEL LIFE OF SUBJECTIVITY, AND QUESTIONING THE MEANING OF LIFE.

Chinese Hermit Today

“Man is always inclined to regard the small circle in which he lives as the center of the world and to make his particular, private life the standard of the universe and to make his particular, private life the standard of the universe. But he must give up this vain pretense, this petty provincial way of thinking and judging.”

Ernst Cassirer.

It is generally acknowledged that auto-gnosis, or self knowledge its the main purpose of philosophy, even if through History this has been debated.

“I know you won’t believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.” –Socrates.

Cogito, ergo sum is a Latin philosophical proposition by René Descartes usually translated into English as “I think, therefore I am”. The phrase originally appeared in French as je pense, donc je suis in his Discourse on the Method, so as to reach a wider audience than Latin would have allowed. It appeared in Latin in his later Principles of Philosophy. As Descartes explained, “we cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt..” A fuller version, articulated by Antoine Léonard Thomas, aptly captures Descartes’s intent: dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum (“I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am”). The concept is also sometimes known as the cogito.

 

Rene Descartes

This proposition became a fundamental element of Western philosophy, as it purport form a secure foundation for knowledge in the face of radical doubt. While other knowledge could be a figment of imagination, deception, or mistake, Descartes asserted that the very act of doubting one’s own existence served—at minimum—as proof of the reality of one’s own mind; there must be a thinking entity—in this case the self—for there to be a thought.

Jakob Johann Freiherr von Uexküll  was a Baltic German biologist who worked in the fields of muscular physiology, animal behavior studies, and the cybernetics of life. Works by scholars such as Kalevi Kull connect Uexküll’s studies with some areas of philosophy such as phenomenology and hermeneutics.

Jakob von Uexküll is also considered a pioneer of semiotic biology, or biosemiotics. However, despite his influence (on the work of philosophers Max Scheler, Ernst Cassirer, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Humberto Maturana, Georges Canguilhem, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (in their A Thousand Plateaus), for example) he is still not widely known, and his books are mostly out of print in German and in English.

Jakob Johann von Uexküll

In a way he was an enemy of the idea there was an absolute reality of things, that could be the same to every different living organism, every organism possess a specific monadic, it posses its own schemes, and patterns, that give the a particular, and peculiar related to itself, and reason to be.

Its only a coincidence, we find a usefulness to certain plants, or animals, and other act as our enemies, or they seem to do so, he argues, they are like us, looking for their own convenience, even if unconsciously.

For many years scientist, and philosophers alike imbued on the idea of  a rationalist explanation of the World, and Being, given by biology, and Science combined negated what has been the province of Philosophy, and Religion for centuries.

Man difference in reality to the rest of Nature Kingdoms, its his own subjectivity.

Rousseau proclaimed the natural goodness of man and believed that one man by nature is just as good as any other. For Rousseau, a man could be just without virtue and good without effort. According to Rousseau, man in the state of nature was free, wise, and good and the laws of nature were benevolent. It follows that it was civilization that enslaved and corrupted man and made him unnatural. Because in the order of nature all men were equal, it also follows that distinction and differentiation among men are the products of culture and civilization. Because man is by nature a saint, it must be the corrupting influence of society that is responsible for the misconduct of the individual.

“The body of a savage man being the only instrument he understands, he uses it .. reflection is a state contrary to nature, and that a thinking man is a depraved animal. “

To go beyond his biology it represents for Rousseau, not a step forward, but a detriment.

The Symbolic Universe

There is no way out, back to square one.

Man cannot escape, he is a thinking animal, a self reflective being, who meditates, and reflects upon himself.

He does not only live in a physical Universe, but also in a Symbolic Universe.

And therefore: Language, Myth, Art, Knowledge, and Religion, are as part of himself as breathing, eating, and reproducing.

Every progress on those fields, they refine, and reinforce progress.

“There is no remedy against this reversal of the natural order. Man cannot escape from his own achievement. He cannot but adopt the conditions of his own life. No longer in a merely physical universe, man lives in a symbolic universe. Language, myth, art, and religion are parts of this universe. They are the varied threads which weave the symbolic net, the tangled web of human experience. All human progress in thought and experience refines and strengthens this net. No longer can man confront reality immediately; he cannot see it, as it were, face to face. Physical reality seems to recede in proportion as man’s symbolic activity advances. Instead of dealing with the things themselves man is in a sense constantly conversing with himself.

He has so enveloped himself in linguistic forms, in artistic images, in mythical symbols or religious rites that he cannot see or know anything except by the interposition of this artificial medium. His situation is the same in the theoretical as in the practical sphere. Even here man does not live in a world of hard facts, or according to his immediate needs and desires. He lives rather in the midst of imaginary emotions, in hopes and fears, in illusions and disillusions, in his fantasies and dreams. ‘What disturbs and alarms man,’ said Epictetus, ‘are not the things, but his opinions and fantasies about the things.”

Ernst Cassirer

Your brain is the most complex, mind-blowing organ in the universe. It is estimated to have over 100 billion neurons (also called nerve cells or brain cells), which is about the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. … The action potential of a single neuron is like a lightning bolt that can stimulate other neurons.

Mircea Eliade

Famous sociologist Mircea Eliade coined the term “homo religiosus” to describe a kind of person who shares particular attitudes with all people of faith.

Do the similarities among world religions indicate a concomitant similarity among religious people? Eliade is convinced that they do:

Religious man assumes a particular and characteristic mode of existence in the world and, despite the great number of historico-religious forms, this characteristic mode is always recognizable.

Whatever the historical context in which he is placed, homo religiosus always believes that there is an absolute reality, the sacred, which transcends this world but manifests itself in this world, thereby sanctifying it and making it real. He further believes that life has a sacred origin and that human existence realizes all of its potentialities in proportion as it is religious – that is, participates in reality.

The gods created man and the world, the culture heroes completed Creation, and the history of all these divine and semidivine works is preserved in the myths. By reactualizing sacred history, by imitating the divine behavior, man puts and keeps himself close to the gods – that is, in the real and significant.

Where did this “common, interior religious disposition” come from?

Did it come from the teaching of religious people within an already formed religious community, or rather did it come from something within himself — which he brought to the community of belief?

Religious communities teach lessons and doctrines to their adherents – how their religious rituals function, the details of the myths, the meaning of various symbols, colors, and actions, the sacredness of particular places and times, etc.

THE POWER OF ILLUSION, THE NARADA STORY

Maya is not a separate entity. Absence of light is called darkness, so also absence of Knowledge, Illumination etc., is called ignorance, illusion or Maya.

Once Narada Muni who is very intimate devotee of the Lord Krishna, through devotion and austerities he had reached a great Spiritual station, so Lord Krishna went to visit him, and as his reward offered to grant him a desire.

“My dear Krishna, can you please show me power of your Maya, your illusory energy? Please explain to me the secret of this magic called Maya and how she act?”

Sri Krishna hesitated to do it. So Krishna asked his dear devotee:

My dear Narada are you sure you want to see power of my maya!?

Narada was very determined so he said: Yes, Krishna i am sure. I want to see power of your Maya!

Lord Krishna replied : Ok Narada I will show you, but lets walk for a while. After they walked some minutes he said to Narada: “Let’s lie down here in the shade and I shall tell you everything. But first, Narada, it’s terribly hot; would you get me a cool glass of water?”

“Right away,” Narada promised happy to do some service to his beloved Lord krishna. He set out across the fields. The sun beat down and though he was a good walker, the little line of thatched cottages on the horizon that marked the nearest village seemed no closer as he strode along. The heat grew unbearable. Narada’s throat became parched too; he began to think that he would ask for two glasses of water, and drink the second himself.

Finally he reached the village and ran to the nearest house. The door opened – and there stood the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She smiled up at Narada through long, dark lashes and something happened to him that had never happened before. All he could do was to look at her beautiful face.

Finally he spoke out, and try to ask her for water, but in the traditional way the girl went and fetch her father who before anything wanted to treat the guest to the generosity of the host, every time he wanted to ask for the water, he was distracted by their attentions, and the beauty of the girl, who looked at him The girl shyly, but with some coquetry, of her big, and beautiful black eyes, intrigued by the handsome looks of the stranger felt attracted like the bee to the flower, and every time her father would order to fetch something to honor the guest, Narada would look at her, as at the most precious jewel.

The day went by and he forgot totally about His Lord Krishna, days went by, and he started to work for the father, the father admiring his good work, he thought he will be a good husband for his girl, and finally, after a couple of years Narada’s wish become a reality, and he was married to the beautiful girl.

The couple settled down to a life of family bliss. After a while, children began to arrive. Narada’s home became a very animated household.

Somebody was always being bathed or dressed; there were meals to get and people to be provided for. And all these things were filling up their lives. Narada and his wife became engrossed in their private little world, quietly building their dreams. he worked tirelessly, and good fortune favored him.

  Years passed. The children grew up, went to school, got married; in time, grandchildren arrived. Narada became the patriarch of a great family, respected by the whole village; his lands stretched to the horizon. He and his wife would look at each other fondly and say, “Don’t you think being grandparents is the greatest thing on earth?”

Then after so many years, of working and farming, one day the sky darkened ominously, and   a persisting rain for days come, it rained days, and nights for days, then a torrential   flood came. First The village fields became a raging river, then his servants told him the cattle was gone.

The water start reaching his house, so he took his treasures, and his numerous family to the top floor of his house, but the water keep reaching higher and higher, finally he climbed to the roof with his children and family, until the water reached up to him, graving his wife and his favorite little grandchild, he was swept by the current, in the struggle he lost both, he almost drowned, and lost consciousness, when he woke up on top of a high rock,  before Narada’s helpless eyes, everything that he loved and lived for – his lands, his cattle, his house, but especially his beloved wife and all their children and grandchildren – were swept away. Of all the village, only he remained.

He was trying to save them from all these calamities but was not successful.

Unable to watch the destruction, Narada fell to his knees hurt to the core of his being, and cried for help from the very depths of his heart.

“Krishna! Krishna!”

As he cried in utter despair, suddenly the heat of the sun was unbearable, at once, the raging floods disappeared and there was Sri Krishna, standing casually on the fields where they had walked what seemed to be so many years before.

“Narada,” the Lord asked gently, “You have been gone for some minutes, where is my cup of water?”

 

DIFFERENT WAYS SAME GOAL, THE CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL, AND THE TURNING OF THE HEART.

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36: 26

The Soul or Anima its seen on different light by different Cultures, and Religions, like the Buddhists consider it like an aggregated.

SamâIn Buddhism, the term anattā (Pali) or anātman (Sanskrit) refers to the doctrine of “non-self”, that there is no unchanging, permanent self, soul or essence in living beings.It is one of the seven beneficial perceptions in Buddhism,and along with dukkha (suffering) and anicca (impermanence), it is one of three Right Understandings about the three marks of existence.

The Buddhist concept of anatta or anatman is one of the fundamental differences between Buddhism and Hinduism, with the latter asserting that atman (self, soul) exists

In Buddhism-related English literature, Anattā is rendered as “not-Self”, but this translation expresses an incomplete meaning, states Peter Harvey; a more complete rendering is “non-Self” because from its earliest days, Anattā doctrine denies that there is anything called a ‘Self’ in any person or anything else, and that a belief in ‘Self’ is a source of Dukkha (suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness) It is also incorrect to translate Anattā simply as “ego-less”, according to Peter Harvey, because the Indian concept of ātman and attā is different from the Freudian concept of ego.

Anatta or Anatta-vada is also referred to as the “no-soul or no-self doctrine” of Buddhism.

Meanwhile in Islam the Sufis.

The Quran affords much importance to the nafs of an individual, highlighting the agency of free will and intelligence, without which neither responsibility nor accountability can exist. The Quran does not attribute to the nafs any inherent properties of good or evil, but instead conveys the idea that it is something which has to be nurtured and self-regulated, so that it can progress into becoming ‘good’ through its thoughts and actions. The Quranic conception of the nafs therefore has an extremely modernistic undertone.

There are three principal stages of nafs in Sufism Wisdom, also mentioned in different verses of the Quran. The Sufis call them “stages” in the process of development, refinement and mastery of the nafs.

The inciting nafs (an-nafs al-ʾammārah)

In its primitive stage the nafs incites us to commit evil: this is the nafs as the lower self, the base instincts. In the eponymous Sura of the Quran, Yusuf says “Yet I claim not that my nafs was innocent: Verily the nafs incites to evil.”[Quran 12:53] Islam emphasizes the importance of fighting the inciting nafs in Quran as well as in hadith.

The self-accusing nafs (an-nafs al-luwwāmah)

In Sura al-Qiyama the Quran mentions “the self-accusing nafs”.[Quran 75:2] This is the stage where “the conscience is awakened and the self accuses one for listening to one’s ego. One repents and asks for forgiveness.”Here the nafs is inspired by your heart, sees the results of your actions, agrees with your brain, sees your weaknesses, and aspires to perfection.

The nafs at peace (an-nafs al-muṭmaʾinnah)

In Sura al-Fajr the Quran mentions “the nafs at peace”.[Quran 89:27] This is the ideal stage of ego for Muslims. On this level one is firm in one’s faith and leaves bad manners behind. The soul becomes tranquil, at peace.At this stage, followers of Sufism have relieved themselves of all materialism and worldly problems and are satisfied with the will of God.

However they add four additional stages.

The inciting nafs (an-nafs al-ʾammārah)

The self-accusing nafs (an-nafs al-luwwāmah)

The inspired nafs (an-nafs al-mulhamah)

The nafs at peace (an-nafs al-muṭmaʾinnah)

The pleased nafs (an-nafs ar-raḍīyyah)

The pleasing nafs (an-nafs al-marḍīyyah)

The pure nafs (an-nafs aṣ-ṣāfīyyah)

Dervishes from the Jerrahi school of Sufism are encouraged to study a text describing these stages of nafs as a nested series of cities.

Characteristics of nafs

In its primitive state the nafs has seven characteristics that must be overcome:

Pride (Takabbur)

Greed (Hirs)

Jealousy (Hasad)

Lust (Shahwah)

Backbiting (Gheebah)

Stinginess (Bokhl)

Malice (Keena)

In Hinduism specifically in Yoga

Shakti (Devanagari: Śakti; lit. “power, ability, strength, effort, energy, capability is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism, and especially the major tradition of Hinduism, Shaktism.

Shakti is the concept or personification of divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as “The Great Divine Mother” in Hinduism. As a mother, she is known as “Adi Shakti” or “Adi Parashakti”. On the earthly plane, Shakti most actively manifests herself through female embodiment and creativity/fertility, though it is also present in males in its potential, unmanifest form. Hindus believe that Shakti is both responsible for creation and the agent of all change. Shakti is cosmic existence as well as liberation, its most significant form being the Kundalini Shakti, a mysterious psychospiritual force.

When you surrender to Shakti, its energy will guide you upwards waking up all the chakras, specially the heart chakra, and it will join on the top of the head Shahasrara Padma, with his counterpart the masculine Shiva.To become one. Represented on Hindu Iconography as the sexual Union between Shiva and Shakti.Its said that Shiva its Shakti in her Feminine form on the manifested or Earthly Realm.

Some may say each its different, my personal opinion, its just different ways to reach the same goal.

TAWBA The Turning Of The Heart

We all have a story, and individual situations, that belong only to us, designed for us personally to discover Heart, by the power of Spirit.

The only way we can reach a truly Human condition, its through of what the Sufis name “Tawba”  translated as repentance, and the Hadith on the Hearts, that says:

“Verily, the hearts of the children of Adam, all of them, are between the two fingers of the Merciful as one heart. He directs them wherever he wills.” Then, the Prophet said, “O Allah, the director of the hearts, direct our hearts to your obedience.”

It’s said than when Allah decides to gift you with such a experience he turns your heart with his two fingers.

And that turns your attitude from heedlessness, to remembrance, and put you in the way to return to God obedience, and favors.

As the circumstances from life, are individually different, we all have our own story, and our own way to discover Heart, what I explained here doesn’t imply, that one method its better to others, you may use even many other ways not mentioned here, they all work when well followed, with sincerity,  enthusiasm, and diligence, conditions necessary to succeed .

Life situations sometimes push us into corners, so we can discover Heart. I used to say to those who will care to listen me when in pain, by sorrow:

“Well, now you are in a great position, you have being offered a great gift, most of the time our heart needs to be broken, to discover we have a Heart”

Regarding to your own situation, it can apply to you as well, it all depends on our personal attitude to turn personal grief into Gold.

ON SACRED SPACE, THE HEART OF THE MATTER, RENE DAUMAL MOUNT ANALOGUE.

And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

Exodus 3:5

“Eternity He who binds himself to a joy Does the winged life destroy. But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sun rise.”

William Blake

Sacred Space, Or Holy Ground

What it used to be an almost forgotten religious tradition, relegated to the past, as modernity took us away from Myth, and Religions, it seems to be having a sort of personal renaissance, and I mean personal, because no longer it’s attached to a particular creed of Faith, or at a designated place by those traditions, but to a personal subjective feeling within ourselves, devoid from the trappings of  ancient Religions.

It doesn’t mean, the old traditional places are without devotees, by the contrary, more than ever by the facility of communication, and the easiness of traveling, they have experienced a surge of believers, ready to pay, to fulfil their piety by going into pilgrimage to the Holy sites.

The Personal Sacred Space

I mean , the average person, the lukewarm spiritual, but not religious individual may not attend the crowded religious festivals around the World, but hold now a belief that certain geographical places, hold on, an energy or power, that you can feel once there.

It’s popular now to hear of such places as Vortices , or Vortex of  energy, numerous places around the World suddenly are declared Sacred Space by your neighbor, friend, coworker, etc.

And there is talk of such places, and many of us had traveled to places where you feel there’s something special to them, once you get there. Every big city has some place not too far relatively speaking, but also not that close, where you should be able to experience at least peace, and relaxation, accompanied by a feel good vibe, among beautiful, serene surroundings. this be a charming Town, a Desert, a Mountain, a hidden Valley, or whatever place you feel it’s  “A Special Place.”

And if I would agree it’s special for many, its not for others.

How so?

Well, the main thing they travel there, but do not live there!

Most people fail to understand that well being, peace, and happiness, do not reside in a Shangri- La mythical geographical place, but is a totally subjective state of being, given at any moment by our feelings, and state of mind, within our hearts.

So it’s easy to be fooled by a sense of peace, serenity and awe, at the particular place that seems to trigger the experience, and therefore always searching, or returning to the places we believe trigger the experience.

But also there’s nothing wrong  with feeling special in certain places close to our hearts, because our past its linked to them, or special people, a parent or grandmother, etc. Or we just grow there in happiness, as children, but then moved away, and we are nostalgic, and we yearn for those days gone. They are special places, at least to us, someone else may not share the experience, I even wrote something  in this blog about it.

I mean it’s fun to travel and vacation, to such places, but to believe you had found Paradise, hardly.

Paradise it a state of Being, not a Geographical place.

Rene Daumal Mount Analogue

French writer Rene Daumal wrote a little unfinished novel; Mount Analogue.

The novel is both bizarre and allegorical, detailing the discovery and ascent of a mountain, which can only be perceived by realizing that one has travelled further in traversing it than one would by travelling in a straight line, and can only be viewed from a particular point when the sunrays hit the earth at a certain angle.

“Its summit must be inaccessible, but its base accessible to human beings as nature made them. It must be unique and it must exist geographically. The door to the invisible must be visible.”

Daumal died before the novel was completed, providing an uncanny one-way quality to the journey. Father Sogol – the “Logos” spelled backwards – is the leader of the expedition—the expedition to climb the mysterious mountain that unites Heaven and Earth.

The novel also marks the first use of the word “peradam” in literature, an object that is revealed only to those who seek it.

“One finds here, very rarely in the low lying areas, more frequently as one goes farther up, a clear and extremely hard stone that is spherical and varies in size—a kind of crystal, but a curved crystal, something extraordinary and unknown on the rest of the planet. Among the French of Port-des-Singes, it is called peradam. Ivan Lapse remains puzzled by the formation and root meaning of this word. It may mean, according to him, “harder than diamond,” and it is; or “father of the diamond,” and they say that the diamond is in fact the product of the degeneration of the peradam by a sort of quartering of the circle or, more precisely, cubing of the sphere. Or again, the word may mean “Adam’s stone,” having some secret and profound connection to the original nature of man. The clarity of this stone is so great and its index of refraction so close to that of air that, despite the crystal’s great density, the unaccustomed eye hardly perceives it. But to anyone who seeks it with sincere desire and true need, it reveals itself by its sudden sparkle, like that of dewdrops. The peradam is the only substance, the only material object whose value is recognized by the guides of Mount Analogue. Therefore, it is the standard of all currency, as gold is for us.”

Daumal compares art and alpinism in this novel, saying:

Alpinism is the art of climbing mountains by confronting the greatest dangers with the greatest prudence. Art is used here to mean the accomplishment of knowledge in action.

You cannot always stay on the summits. You have to come down again…

So what’s the point? Only this: what is above knows what is below, what is below does not know what is above. While climbing, take note of all the difficulties along your path. During the descent, you will no longer see them, but you will know that they are there if you have observed carefully.

There is an art to finding your way in the lower regions by the memory of what you have seen when you were higher up. When you can no longer see, you can at least still know. .

Our Sacred Space

It’s fashionable now day to build your own Sacred space, this be a retreat in your garden, a small Altar, with the symbols, and objects you prefer to include there, located in a corner of your favorite place to meditate, or pray, like many ancient cultures did, and do on the present, I got to confess I grew around that kind of thing, but was little bit of a cynic, an unbeliever, and thought I knew better, today I am just comfortable with having a mat, and a corner where I seat for meditation, and prayer, nothing too elaborated, in fact plainly bare, as facing a wall can be, but I got friends who go through the effort of seeking all kind of beautiful, and special things and create an elaborated Altar piece according to their taste.  

If inclined you can do the same, if  you do not have one yet, according to your particular beliefs, and taste.

But do not forget,  Heaven and Earth are everywhere, but first you need to find them within you, then you will be able to behold them everywhere.

WRITING IS THE ART OF BRINGING TO LIGHT, WHAT PREVIOUSLY WAS HIDDEN WITHIN YOURSELF.

Please, Put It On Writing

Words are easily spoken.

And be swept by a gust of wind
So swiftly, and end nowhere…

Never reaching the ear,
To the  one you intended,
Or bounce aimlessly,
And reach the wrong person.

If you write it instead,
Maybe one day, someone
May read it.
And the words
May grow like a seed,
Nurtured by a thirsty
Soul.

So, please write me
Even a line will suffice,
To who is in need of
Those words.
In truth, it may take
Some time,
Maybe centuries,
Before finding an echo,
And do not run into
The burning book crowd.

We need to say it,
So lets talk writing it,
To express what it’s hidden
And bring it out,
Since even you
May had ignored it.

Thoughts are difficult
To express with words,
In writing you can go back
And correct it,
But never so,
A word that incautiously
Left your Lips…

Let your fingers do the
Work for you.
They allow your heart,
To say what words would fail.
And bring the pleasure of
Accomplishment.

And who knows?
Maybe they will echo
On someone’s Heart.
The arrow of your
Thoughts, will score
A bull’s eye.
Then they will
Accomplish what these
Words were intended for.

B.A.

Why Introverts Like Writing,  And Can Be very Good At.

To be honest, not all writers are introverts. Literary greats such as Ernest Hemingway, Kurt Vonnegut, Anaïs Nin, and Mark Twain are thought to have been extroverts, but maybe they had some elements who they share with introverts.

But many Writers, Artist and Scientist,  do self-identify as introverts, such as J.K. Rowling and John Green,  Chopin, Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton. Other famous introverted writers are thought to include Agatha Christie, Charlotte Brontë, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Homer, Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, George R.R. Martin, Ayn Rand, Dr. Seuss and… the list goes on and on.

Yes, anyone can write. But it takes a certain type of person to create worlds in their head, work in complete isolation for hours on end, and strive to get every word just right.

If you’re an introvert who loves writing, it’s probably in part because you get to work alone. There are no staff meetings, no small talk, no group brainstorming sessions, and no social burnout when you’re writing. It’s just you, your notebook, or laptop, and whatever your inner world devises.

Now, I also believe many of our fellow bloggers, who love to post, knowingly, or unknowingly they are attracted to read, and write, because it’s part of their inner drive, or character nature, from being an Introverted personality.

And that is why I titled my post as:

Writing is the Art, of bringing to Light,  that what previously was Hidden within yourself.

The Passion Of Creation

And for that we first need to take the first steps , and start running, and to gain momentum jump over the fence, and realize we are who we are, writers at heart, and we can be as good as we work hard to polish ourselves, and perfect our skills.

I am not inclined to seek help, or look for advice from anyone, but there its nothing wrong with you, if you do that, my knowledge come from an early habit of reading, and an eclectic taste for it, only once I was taken to a beginner’s writer’s class by a friend, I was soon disappointed by the teacher when first thing he did was to ask us to write a small story, to a group of people who knew nothing about writing, and hardly ever read a book, I could tell, by their limited knowledge of authors, during the class.  If I would have been the teacher, I rather have read them a small good story, and talk about it, instead than asking them to create anything, since they were not properly read, by a long stretch of the imagination, you have to hear some of the stuff they wrote, and sat patiently after to hear it, I do not know, even now, when remembering it, if to cry, or to laugh.

My advice then is to read a lot first, be voracious and read all kind of stuff. You will be surprised at the things I read, and write elsewhere, and not in my blog.

Of course each of us may have our own inclinations, given by many factors, too large to mention here, but the reason why, we all have  different lives.  But of course you got to be possessed by your inner whispering Daemon, as Socrates described it:

“Perhaps it may seem strange that I go about and interfere in other people’s affairs to give this advice in private, but do not venture to come before your assembly and advise the state. But the reason for this, as you have heard me say  at many times and places, is that something divine and spiritual [“daemonic” in original text] comes to me…” (Plato, Socrates Apology: 31c.d.)

What to Write?

If your asking yourself this question, you are at the beginning of your Journey as a writer.

All writer’s have a story. Whatever we write is about us, or somehow related to our lives.  As our taste in reading,  and the daily events we live through, whatever you may write it should come from deep within your heart. Your story is also something which lies in your heart so mostly whatever people write is somehow related to them. Their personal Daemon, or demons may drive them, lets not forget the desperate souls that poured their angst, in writing.

Creative people its said are mainly extroverts, writing being a creative process, should have many extroverts, I sort of disagree with that way of thinking, recently someone said:

“Brainstorming builds on combination of ideas from multiple people, when ideas from one person are enhanced by another, leading to a product that none of the participants in the brainstorming session could have envisioned individually. In my personal experience, my best ideas came out when I was with other people. Even if they didn’t consciously contributed to them, even the fact that I had to explain my ideas to them made my original ideas better, and solved problems to which I didn’t have solutions before. Group brainstorming is hard on introverts, though. They would rather just be left alone to think, and thus will not benefit from thoughts of others.”

My answer to that is; you cannot be a real writer if you need to brainstorm with a group of people every time you write, sure you can get fresh ideas that way, but seating and writing, it’s a lonely time consuming process, that writers, inventors and engineers work like artists, and need to be alone, outside of their companies, or left alone when at work, where they can invent and write peacefully without others affecting them.

You want inspiration?

Seek it reading more books, and pondering if you could do it better.

One has to feel comfortable being alone, which is hard for most extroverted people, who find hard to sit by themselves for fifteen minutes in a room with no stimulation, and many of them preferred to zap them with electric shocks just to avoid feeling lonely, and bored, and to avoid thoughts they want to suppress. I guess that’s why jails were invented as punishment for those who break the law, we all humans, need a social environment, to be mentally healthy, but I imagine having to be worst for extroverts.

I know that to talk about psychological characters, it’s controversial, and not politically correct, with some philosophers, and scientist, but we all have an individual character, with preferences, and different choices, and we are compatible, or not with certain characters, and gathering with the wrong type, can end with you, like in a bad relationship, marriage, in trouble, by divorce, or mutual avoidance.

So is with writing, please if you never heard, or read Henry James, William Faulkner, T. S. Eliot, Herman Melville, or Vladimir Nabokov, and those are the ones who provoke more essays  to, be made by other writers, in America today. If your primary intent, isn’t the passion of the written word itself, but to be famous, or make money, do yourself a favor, and forget it!  You are wasting your time, better become an actor, or a banker, instead.

When eating, we like to say the proof of the pudding is in the eating, in writing the proof is in the pleasure, awe, emotions, and esthetic satisfaction you get from reading it.

REINVENTING THE WORLD AS WE SEE IT, THE DANGER OF CHOOSING POORLY, PLEASE BE CAREFUL OF YOUR OWN NARRATIVE.

The World it´s not as it is, but as we see it, so it is, at least to us.

B.A

We live in a World made of images, information, and narratives, collective, and personal, and that we call it Knowledge, or Ignorance for the lack of it, or I would add for the poor quality we choose to feed our minds, and souls with.

We mostly generally, are  easy to be  program by information, that now day has become not a source for Truth, but for convenience, to people who want to control what you should think about particular issues, be this about the drink you prefer to buy, to the way you should interpret the news you watch, or hear.

It’s common for people to judge you in a poor light, or be wary of your political opinions, just by your favorite source of media. Most never questioning their own favorite source.

We are obedient receptors of information, good, or bad, that indiscriminately, we absorb, and then project into our beliefs, that translate later into actions, based on what you were told, and concluded as truthful, therefore a fact.

Thoughts Long Held, Turn Into Actions

So one day sick to your Soul, of the way things that are going on the World, and full of righteous indignation decide to take some radical action, to put an end to that!

You get out out of bed, or the sofa, and head out to the local help center, and offer yourself as a volunteer to combat misery in the so many varieties it exist; homelessness, hunger, sickness, or whatever your choice of cause to alleviate, or decide to take affirmative action, by being careful to protect the environment, buying and selecting  what in your opinion would help to conserve, and protect, rather than destroy.

A Different Scenario

Or you get up, and fed up by all those parasites, who are sucking the blood of the planet decide to put an end to it, by showing your disgust, an with careful planning, decide to teach those people at the local Church, or High School, a lesson they will never forget, for the sin of thinking differently, than you do, how clever, and macho you are by sacrificing yourself, but getting  ahead of you, as many of them as you can, or just full of rage on impulse picking your gun collection and shoot whoever you first see on sight, just because you are so pissed off.

Yes, sure we know that those people are mentally disordered, or unbalanced, as we like to call them now day, but ignore totally the fact they are very easily infected with the decease of extremist ideologies, same that they acquired just the same way you got your political ideas, by selectively picking what you choose to believe, and take action against it, regardless if you never got a personal injury from an extreme terrorist, from whatever ideology you hate, and will never carry an act like that.

Well, some mental cases, unbalanced or just full of hate towards  people  they see as the ¨other,¨ just do that, we frequently see it on the news, now a too common occurrence.

How Common?

Just last year in 2018 in the United States  alone, the mass shootings, not all acts of terror, by a mental disorder case, criteria disputed accordingly,  but nevertheless mass shootings.

Shootings that occurred in the United States in 2018. Mass shootings are incidents involving multiple victims of firearm-related violence. The precise inclusion criteria are disputed, and there is no broadly accepted definition.

Of the shootings that meet the criteria for inclusion here, there were 323 shootings, 387 were killed and 1274 injured, and 3 mass shootings occurred at a school.

Shootings, almost as big as the year is long, basically 42 short to make  365, one for every day of the year. about 3.5 days a month without a shooting, average, since more than one shooting can happen on a given day, and a few days may go by without one, but not for too long. You may think there’s a war going on in America. And I guess there is, and its  escalating up.

Be Careful, And Selective

My intention it’s to point out, we all have an obligation to be selective, about what kind of person we aspire to be, violence may seem a random epidemic, but it’s not, all of us have a choice, as in the Native American story.

The Two Wolfs

Once upon a time, there was a Cherokee grandfather (or Navajo grandfather), who told his grandson, “Grandson, there are two wolves inside of me. One wolf is white, good and altruistic, generous and kind, and the other wolf is black, mean and greedy, violent and angry. The two wolves are in a constant fight within me.” The grandson, with wide eyes, says, “But which one will win, grandpa?” And the grandfather says after a pause:

“The one which I feed.”

Violence As A Way To Resolve Conflict

Before you absolve yourself  of such idea, tell me what are the  movies you like to watch?

It’s common to hear guys saying: ‘I like movies with plenty of action!’

What they are really saying is; I like movies with plenty of violence.

Someone wrote:

¨The government, and Hollywood fill up the viewing agenda on pseudo patriotism and militaristic propaganda. God said “Thou shalt not kill,” and that meant killing a neighbor, another soldier, the bully in your neighborhood, your wife or husband or the third wheel that’s been hanging around while your at work. Killing is simply not an alternative.

Self defense may be alright under certain circumstances. But that’s not the same as parroting violent incidents in the media, and the difference between killing on tv, and taking real lives is like day and night. People bleed, people suffer, people die and they’re not coming back for a sequel. School shootings and the resulting trauma are simply unacceptable. Where does a guy get the idea to shoot hundreds of people through a window opening in a luxury hotel? Violence is epidemic and it’s high time we counter.

The media through the Internet, television, video games and music, degenerates our society. I mean have you ever checked out the video game Grand Theft Auto? All about killing and killing cops, pimping, thieving , and just about any type of violence you can imagine. Johnny 12 year-old is eating it up, and the cognitive, as well as the emotional neurons adapt I suppose, although what will survival of the fittest entail in the future?  Macho supporters sing the praises of social Darwinism. If you’re weak minded or unable to contribute than you should probably just die off. Seriously that was America back in the Westward Ho days.¨

Quantum Mind.

Hungarian physicist Eugene Wigner. “It follows that the quantum description of objects is influenced by impressions entering my consciousness,” he wrote. “Solipsism may be logically consistent with present quantum mechanics.”

Wheeler even entertained the thought that the presence of living beings, which are capable of “noticing”, has transformed what was previously a multitude of possible quantum pasts into one concrete history. In this sense, Wheeler said, we become participants in the evolution of the Universe since its very beginning. In his words, we live in a “participatory universe.”

To this day, physicists do not agree on the best way to interpret these quantum experiments, and to some extent what you make of them is (at the moment) up to you. But one way or another, it is hard to avoid the implication that consciousness and quantum mechanics are somehow linked.

Beginning in the 1980s, the British physicist Roger Penrose suggested that the link might work in the other direction. Whether or not consciousness can affect quantum mechanics, he said, perhaps quantum mechanics is involved in consciousness.

What if, Penrose asked, there are molecular structures in our brains that are able to alter their state in response to a single quantum event. Could not these structures then adopt a superposition state, just like the particles in the double slit experiment? And might those quantum superpositions then show up in the ways neurons are triggered to communicate via electrical signals?

Maybe, says Penrose, our ability to sustain seemingly incompatible mental states is no quirk of perception, but a real quantum effect.

The Heart, The Place Of Meeting, And Transformation.

Ibn ‘Arabi offers a unique framework for explaining the structures of knowledge. His epistemology is referenced within the Oneness of Being (wahdāt al-wujūd), and all knowledge is ultimately the knowledge that the Being has of Itself through Its own self-disclosure. The human form mirrors this self-disclosure, and within this form he situates the center of the human experience in the faculty of the heart (qalb).

He intimates at the highest human potential which is the immediate perception of the Real as It appears to the heart in every moment, a condition of complete union known as the ‘Station of No Station’.

The Mind it’s the feeder, the receptacle it’s the Heart, and the reason you can’t throw in it impurity, or it will cover with rust, and dirt, the mirror of pure consciousness, the Heart. (See my last post in this blog).

And instead of Love, Truth, Peace, Wisdom, Light, and Bliss, you will get Hate, Falsehood, Ignorance, Darkness, and Suffering.

What you imagine yourself to be, that way you will become, and you will be for good, or for bad, your choice.

POLISHING THE HEART, MIRROR OF THE SOUL

Dear friend;

¨Your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it clean of the veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets.¨

Al Ghazali.

“Between the mirror and the heart is this single difference: the heart conceals secrets, while the mirror does not”

Rumi.

An Old Analogy

Polishing the Mirror of our Souls it’s an old symbolic image commonly used through antiquity, now day something most people have no idea, what are you talking about.

When searching in the Internet for a meaning, the only thing I could find was a reference to lesbianism!

And Ram Dass using it as a title for a book.

Shame on us!

The Sufis, and many other ancients seekers, speak of polishing the heart into a mirror, so that through our love we can reflect the heart of everything. This is one practice that in time can help us  to find who we really are, not the illusory dreamlike life, that most people live.

What does it mean to you to polish your heart? Where does your heart need polishing right now?

Mirrors In Ancient Times

The looking glasses of the ancients were usually made of metal, at first of a composition of tin and copper, but afterwards more frequently of silver (Plin, l.c.). Pliny says that silver mirrors were first made by Praxiteles in the time of Pompey the Great, but they are mentioned as early as that of Plautus (Most. I.3.111). Under the empire the use of silver mirrors was so common, that they began to be used even by maid servants (Plinio. H. N. XXXIV.17 s48): they are constantly mentioned in the Digest, when silver plate is spoken of (33 tit. 6 s3; 34 tit. 2 s19 § 8). At first they were made of the purest silver, but metal of an inferior quality was afterwards employed (Plin. H. N. XXXIII.9 § 45). Frequently too the polished silver plate was no doubt very slight, but the excellence of the mirror very much depended on the thickness of the plate, since the reflection was stronger in proportion as the plate was thicker (Vitruv. VII.3, p204, ed. Bip.). We find gold mirrors mentioned once or twice by ancient writers (Eurip. Hecub. 925; Senec. Quaest. Nat. I.17; Aelian, V.H. XII.58);  but it is not impossible, as Beckmann has remarked, that the term golden rather refers to the frame or ornaments than to the mirror itself, as we speak of a gold watch, though the cases only may be of that metal.

Polishing The Mirror

As you can imagine ancient mirrors made out of metal needed constant polishing, in order to retain their polished reflecting qualities. and therefore their usefulness as mirrors.

This quality become a myriad of analogies to symbolize the constant work and effort in order to keep the mirror of the heart without blemishes.

¨Let me give you the mirror, but if you see some fault on its face, do not blame the mirror, but something reflected onto the mirror. Know that it is your own image; find the fault in yourself!¨

— Excerpt from The Conversations (Maqalat) of Shams of Tabriz

Everything that we experience as a problem is within ourselves. Consequently the solution to the problem is also within us.

We need to cleanse ourselves from our vices, and forgetfulness, so we can heal. We  need to work constantly into restraining our ego so we can love, and forgive, and we can be  blessed, by receiving the pure Light of Spirit on a qualified instrument of purity, that becomes our heart after the constant polishing.

How does one polish the mirror of the heart? Prophet Mohammad says in a well-known Hadith (tradition) that the polishing of the heart is the act of invoking or remembering God (dhikr). In other words, the more one remembers God and burnishes the mirror of his substance, thereby cleansing it of the stain of forgetfulness that stubbornly clings to it, the more the heart becomes cleaner and clearer. Rumi explains it in this way:

“Through remembrance and meditation, the heart is polished until the mirror of the heart receives virginal images.”

A  sort of returning to the primordial condition  of Eden, but with the Wisdom and love acquired through practice.

Rumi’s Chinese and Greek argument.

The Chinese and the Greeks}were arguing as to who were the better artists.
The King said,
“We’ll settle this matter with a debate.”
The Chinese began talking,
but the Greeks wouldn’t say anything.
They left.
The Chinese suggested then
that they each be given a room to work on
with their artistry, two rooms facing each other
and divided by a curtain.
The Chinese asked the King
for a hundred colors, all the variations,
and each morning they came to where
the dyes were kept and took them all.
The Greeks took no colors.
“They’re not part of our work,”
They went to their room
and began cleaning and polishing the walls. All day
every day they made those walls as pure and clear
as an open sky.
There is a way that leads from all-colors
to colorlessness. Know that the magnificent variety
of the clouds and the weather comes from
the total simplicity of the sun and the moon.
The Chinese finished, and they were so happy.
They beat the drums in the joy of completion.
The King entered their room,
astonished by the gorgeous color and detail.

The Greeks then pulled the curtain dividing the rooms.
The Chinese figures and images shimmeringly reflected
on the clear Greek walls. They lived there,
even more beautifully, and always
changing in the light.
The Greek art is the Sufi way.
They don’t study books of philosophical thought.
They make their loving clearer and clearer.
No wanting, no anger. In that purity
they receive and reflect the images of every moment,
from here, from the stars, from the void.
They take them in
as though they were seeing
with the Lighted Clarity
that sees them.

As translated By Coleman Barks.

The purity of the Sufi is due to his constant remembrance of God. The more he remembers God, the more he comes to know Him; and the more he comes to know Him, the more he comes to love Him. This is why the act of polishing the mirror of the heart is the key to entering into a love-relationship with God. The Sufi’s heart, in other words, is like white snow because of its purity, which it has attained through the remembrance of God. In one important tale, Rumi seeks to illustrate this idea in a more concrete way.

IT MATTERS, HAVING THE PROPER ATTITUDE, TAKES YOU A LONG WAY, THE ORIGINAL MIND.

The Sage is occupied with the wordless

And acts without effort.

Teaching without speaking,

Producing without possessing,

Creating without regard to result,

Claiming nothing,

The Sage has nothing to lose.

Tao Te King

Human conditions, often we forget are relative, it matters little to be poor, rich, sick, or healthy, if you have a proper attitude, that of remaining happy with our lot, we must constantly remind ourselves that we are not only the body, but that our true nature is  Spirit, and before this fact, all material conditions are only secondary, and immaterial, in relation to our true Nature, and therefore only conditions for ever changing, and of importance relative to the moment we are presently experiencing, not to say they are not important.

Wu wei is a concept literally meaning non-action, non-doing or non-forcing. Wu wei emerged in the Spring and Autumn period to become an important concept in both Taoism an Chinese statecraft.

In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu explains that beings (or phenomena) that are wholly in harmony with the Tao behave in a completely natural, uncontrived way. The goal of spiritual practice for the human being is, according to Lao Tzu, the attainment of this purely natural way of behaving, as when the planets revolve around the sun. The planets effortlessly do this revolving without any sort of control, force, or attempt to revolve themselves, thus engaging in effortless and spontaneous, or as water flowing downstream avoiding obstacles naturally, and effortless.

It’s An Attitude

So, Wu Wei, it’s not doing nothing, it’s an attitude, like when things are outside your control, what’s the point of clinging to, and be in the way of it?

There’s many things that require an attitude, of tuning yourself on, and off in a special wavelength, of letting go, like jumping the rope, you do it without thinking, first, of course you just jump, but later, you can add even different ways of doing it, and even get to do fancy moves.

Our mind, and emotions, are like our body, we can train them to do what we want to accomplish, in fact, body, and mind are one, and emotions are the product of our minds. When your body and mind are together as one, you are fully and naturally present in the moment. This is the essence of mindfulness practice. Body and Mind Are One

Pen Shue, or Chih Shue?

The nature of mind has long been one of the most perplexing problems in Western philosophy, achieving particular prominence since the time of Descartes (1596-1650) who, in the second of his Meditations, attempted to distinguish between mind-substances and physical-extended substances. Understanding the nature of mind has been a difficult and still unresolved problem in the West.

According to pen chueh, the mind is believed as being enlightened from the very beginning. Shih chueh believes, however, that there is a definite point in time when we transition from ignorance to realization.

As we shall see, the so-called defiled mind is the activity of mind which conceptualizes, judges, distinguishes subject from object, hates, craves, and constructs the conceptual framework within which we categorize our perceptions and experiences. This defiled mind seems to correspond roughly to the Western notion of mind, but what is this “pure mind”? How is the pure mind related to the defiled mind? Are they two different minds or two aspects of the same thing? Are they separable? Is one more fundamental than the other? If so, in what sense? These tended to be the kinds of questions which the Ch’an Buddhists were concerned with, and it goes without saying that the realization of the pure mind was considered an essential part of the goal for the Ch’an Buddhist.

To get a feeling for this pure mind, the following quotation taken from the sermons of Ch’ao-chou Ta-tien, a disciple of the famous Ch’an master Shih-t’ou (700-790), describes the pure mind:

    The master ascended the ‘high seat’ and spoke to the assembled monks, saying:

Now, you students of the Way must realize your own original mind (tzu-chia pen-hsin …. Simply do away with all of your erroneous imaginings, thoughts and discrimination. This is your true mind (chen-hsin ). This mind has nothing to do with sensory realms, with maintaining the experience of silence and quietude, and is completely free from interaction [with these kinds of states]. Just this mind is Buddha, and it is not spiritual cultivation. What is the reason for this? It responds to worldly activities, it is in accord with the illumination [of each thing], it is calm and self-functioning. Penetrating to the place of this functioning cannot be grasped conceptually. And the name we give to this subtle functioning is the ”original mind” (pen-hsin)

THE BACKLASH OF HISTORY; GLOBALIZATION, AND ITS CONSQUENCES, WHAT IT ALL MEANS.

 

Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom.

Nelson Mandela

 

 

I kind of smile when as a blogger frecuently run into blogs disparaging at the changes we are seeing around the Globe, and we do not like it, specially when the change in question it’s hitting right at home, and it’s too close for comfort.

White lies are small, inconsequential, and use some light dishonesty in order to keep everyone happy—or at least cover your rear, right?

Well, anyone who has had a seemingly innocent falsehood blow up in their face knows that’s not always the case. A fib can have sometimes dramatic consequences, setting a chain of events into motion that could hardly have been anticipated when the original lie was told. That’s true in both life and history; many an untruth has led to major, unexpected, tectonically earth-shifting results.

History Has Consecuences

The European colonization the World over during roughly 400 years. One could argue from history that exploration has led to the subjugation or decimation of cultures, and that is undoubtedly true. Historians have documented the often bad effects of culture contacts: there is no whitewashing the history of Cortez and the Aztecs, Pizarro and the Incas, or the eventual effects of exploration on the American Indians, to mention only the effect of European exploration on the Americas.

And the further striping of many parts of the World, of the local inahibatans self rulership, into a position, if if not of blatant slavery, to secondary servitude, by European powers, and the movement of millions of Africans to the New World,  by any standards a major historical phenomenon, with long-term international consequences.

To assess these consequences, and the new developments of a more benign, but still ruthless conquest of the markets, and materail resources by globalization, the many mini-wars on far off lands, it may seem of little consequence, for those naive enough to believe so, but now shocked to the core, to see their borders aflood with masses of inmigrants of all colors, in a desperate struggle for survival, should be a lesson to understand that there is no actions without consecuences, and to believe so, and be a complice of policies in the past that supported  invasion, and mayhem abroad. Well there is a big price tag to pay for it, the bill is due, and the bill collector is knocking at your door, as we speak!

 

Rather than bore you with my personal opinion about the matter, I will provide you with a wide spectrum of voices, to do it for me.

Quotes on the Effect of Globalization

We are aware that globalization doesn’t mean global friendship but global competition and, therefore, conflict. That doesn’t mean we will all destroy each other, but it is no happy global village, either.

Rene Girard

Globalization and trade liberalization were supposed to make us all better off through the mechanism of trickle-down economics. What we seemed to be seeing instead was trickle-up economics, accompanied by a destruction of democratic politics, as we moved ever closer to a system of ‘one dollar, one vote’ as opposed to ‘one person, one vote.’

Joseph Stiglitz

The trends that are shaping the twenty-first-century world embody both promise and peril. Globalization, for example, has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty while contributing to social fragmentation and a massive increase in inequality, not to mention serious environmental damage.

Klaus Schwab

It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity.

Kofi Annan

Globalization has much potential. It could be the answer to many of the world’s seemingly intractable problems. But this requires strong democratic foundations based on a political will to ensure equity and justice.

Sharan Burrow

We must create a kind of globalization that works for everyone… and not just for a few.

Nestor Kirchner

If you’re totally illiterate and living on one dollar a day, the benefits of globalization never come to you.

Jimmy Carter

In Globalization 1.0, which began around 1492, the world went from size large to size medium. In Globalization 2.0, the era that introduced us to multinational companies, it went from size medium to size small. And then around 2000 came Globalization 3.0, in which the world went from being small to tiny.

Thomas Friedman

The standardization of world culture, with local popular or traditional forms driven out or dumbed down to make way for American television, American music, food, clothes and films, has been seen by many as the very heart of globalization.

Fredric Jameson

Masterpieces of art possess immense potential to advance a worldview that could help assuage the societal terrors posed by globalization, the most thoroughgoing socioeconomic upheaval since the Industrial Revolution, which has set off a pandemic of retrogressive nationalism, regional separatism, and religious extremism.

Martin Filler

Imperialism or globalization – I don’t have to care what it’s called to hate it.

Bill Ayers

Globalization creates economic policies where the transnationals lord over us, and the result is misery and unemployment.

Evo Morales

The negative side to globalization is that it wipes out entire economic systems and in doing so wipes out the accompanying culture.

Peter L. Berger

If it is, in reality, capitalism that is the motor force behind the destructive forms of globalization, then it must be in their capacity to neutralize or transform this particular mode of exploitation that one can best test these various forms of resistance to the West.

Fredric Jameson

Globalization means we have to re-examine some of our ideas, and look at ideas from other countries, from other cultures, and open ourselves to them. And that’s not comfortable for the average person.

Herbie Hancock

The 1 to 2 billion poorest in the world, who don’t have food for the day, suffer from the worst disease: globalization deficiency. The way globalization is occurring could be much better, but the worst thing is not being part of it. For those people, we need to support good civil societies and governments.

Hans Rosling

There’s a natural antipathy on the part of the voters to a continuation of globalization as we know it. It’s simply a code word today for bad trade deals that disadvantage the American people.

Peter Navarro

Well, we see an increasingly weaker labor movement as a result of the overall assault on the labor movement and as a result of the globalization of capital.

Angela Davis

Globalization obviously has the potential to be good. That doesn’t mean it’s good for everybody. There’s a very large number of people in India and China who benefited directly from globalization, but it doesn’t mean everybody in America benefits from globalization.

Angus Deaton

Conclusion

Laissez-faire capitalism is a belief that unregulated capitalism will create the greatest benefit for all. Proponents of such a system believe that government interference, including tariffs or social safety nets, ultimately causes more harm than good by promoting or protecting inefficiency. In extreme forms, the philosophy has been used as a reason not to intervene in humanitarian crises, such as the Irish famines (1846–49), despite evidence that many “natural” catastrophes are the result of government actions or lop-sided concentrations of wealth and resources. Adam Smith’s belief in the “invisible hand” that balances economic systems is sometimes cited as evidence of his support for laissez-faire policies, though his call for government to intervene to prevent monopolies shows he was not an absolutist.

There’s so many conflicting opinions about Globalization, it’s clear that for some it’s a fountain of great opportunities, and for others a cause for grief, and unequality, my two cents here is that governments around the World should be responsible of laws, that would promote the welfare of Nations as a whole, and not to benefit just a few, the key it’s to find a balance that would address both sides, to promote happiness and well being for everyone, and avoid the total degradation of Men by another one, a common situation prevalent through History, and today, time to put a stop to it.

 

 

 

 

THE SIMURGH, FARID UD DIN ATTAR’S THE BIRDS JOURNEY TO MOUNT QAF

O my heart, if you wish to arrive

at the begining of understanding,

walk carefully.

To each atom there is a different door,

and for each atom there is a

different way which leads to

the mysterious Being,

of whom I speak.

In this vast Ocean the World

is an Atom, and the Atom a World.

Who knows which, is of more value here,

the Cornelian precious stone,

or a mere pebble?

Attar.

The faraway king of all the birds, the Simurgh, lets fall a magnificent feather at night, in the center of China, by it’s mere presence, the Chinese great wise scholars, on seeing this single feather knew of this magnificent but mysterious bird, and it’s fame spread all over,  therefore the saying:

“Seek knowledge even as far as China.”

Tired of their age-old anarchy, the birds resolve to go in search of him. They know that their king’s name Simurgh, means thirty birds; they know his palace is located on the Qaf mountain, the circular mountain that surrounds the earth.

Mount Qaf in Arabic tradition is a mysterious mountain renowned as the “farthest point of the earth” owing to its location at the far side of the ocean encircling the earth. It is also the only place in this world where the Roc will land.

They embark upon the nearly infinite adventure. They pass through seven valleys or seas; the name of the penultimate is Vertigo; the last, Annihilation. Many pilgrims give up; others perish. Thirty, purified by their efforts, set foot on the mountain of the Simurgh. At last they gaze upon it: they perceive that they are the Simurgh and that the Simurgh is each one of them and all of them. In the Simurgh are the thirty birds and in each bird is the Simurgh.

The poem was written around 1200 by the Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar.

About thirty works by Attar survive, but his masterpiece is the mantiq at-Tayr (The Conference of the Birds).

In the poem, the birds of the world gather to decide who is to be their sovereign, as they have none. The hoopoe, the wisest of them all, suggests that they should find the legendary Simurgh. The hoopoe leads the birds, each of whom represents a human fault which prevents human kind from attaining enlightenment.

“He who would know the secret of both worlds will find that the secret of them both is Love.”

The hoopoe tells the birds that they have to cross seven valleys in order to reach the abode of Simurgh. These valleys are as follows:

1. Valley of the Quest, where the Wayfarer begins by casting aside all dogma, belief, and unbelief.

2. Valley of Love, where reason is abandoned for the sake of love.

3. Valley of Knowledge, where worldly knowledge becomes utterly useless.

4. Valley of Detachment, where all desires and attachments to the world are given up. Here, what is assumed to be “reality” vanishes.

5. Valley of Unity, where the Wayfarer realizes that everything is connected and that the Beloved is beyond everything, including harmony, multiplicity, and eternity.

6. Valley of Wonderment, where, entranced by the beauty of the Beloved, the Wayfarer becomes perplexed and, steeped in awe, finds that he or she has never known or understood anything.

7. Valley of Poverty and Annihilation, where the self disappears into the universe and the Wayfarer becomes timeless, existing in both the past and the future.

“When the birds hear the description of these valleys, they bow their heads in distress; some even die of fright right then and there. But despite their trepidations, they begin the great journey. On the way, many perish of thirst, heat or illness, while others fall prey to wild beasts, panic, and violence. Finally, only thirty birds make it to the abode of Simurgh. In the end, the birds learn that they themselves are the Simorgh; the name “Simorgh” in Persian means thirty (si) birds (morgh). They eventually come to understand that the majesty of that Beloved is like the sun that can be seen reflected in a mirror. Yet, whoever looks into that mirror will also behold his or her own image.”

If Simurgh unveils its face to you, you will find

that all the birds, be they thirty or forty or more,

are but the shadows cast by that unveiling.

What shadow is ever separated from its maker?

Do you see?

The shadow and its maker are one and the same,

so get over surfaces and delve into mysteries.

Now, this book was recommended to me by Adam, a friend of mine over 35 years ago, and had it in my hands many times at the bookstore, and read just snippets of it, I am fastidious, and particularly with books, and want the best translation, and the best format, and was not satisfied with the stuff available at the time, so, then just took it out of the library and read it.

I just bought it a few days ago, compromising as usual, I may buy another one, by a different translator.

It was one night while soaring in the Chinese sky,I heard people talk of a great bird that flew by,
Called Simurgh, the greatest bird alive,
Who dwells on Mount Qaf, where he is said to thrive,
Upon a giant mountain unlike any other seen, covered with trees.
Beyond Samarkand, across seven valleys and seven seas.

Jorge Luis Borges admired Attar’s Simorgh tremendously, comparing it to Dante’s Eagle in Canto XVIII of the Paradiso—another composite bird, made up of just kings flying around Jupiter in aquiline formation. Borges preferred the Simurgh as the more cohesive, integrated figure; however, in Attar’s poem, the Simorgh’s integration is also the birds’ disintegration:

Their life came from that close, insistent sun And in its vivid rays they shone as one.
There in the Simorgh’s radiant face they saw
Themselves, the Simorgh of the world – with awe

They gazed, and dared at last to comprehend

They were the Simorgh and the journey’s end.
They see the Simorgh – at themselves they stare,
And see a second Simorgh standing there;
They look at both and see the two are one,
That this is that, that this, the goal is won. Then, as they listened to the Simorgh’s words,
A trembling dissolution filled the birds–
The substance of their being was undone,
And they were lost like shade before the sun;
Neither the pilgrims nor their guide remained.
The Simorgh ceased to speak, and silence reigned.

There is admirable economy in the birds’ quest, Borges noted—“the searchers are what they seek.” Yet also in this climax is the sense of consumption, mortality, illusion.

If you haven’t read it, do it by all means.

“The ocean can be yours; why should you stop  Beguiled by dreams of evanescent dew?
The secrets of the sun are yours, but you
Content yourself with motes trapped in beams.”

KNOWING SELF, THE UNKNOWN ITSELF. WHO, OR WHAT WE REALLY ARE?

What It’s Self?

According to an online dictionary:

A person’s essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action.

“Our alienation from our true selves”

Synonyms:

Ego, I, oneself, persona, person, identity, character, personality, psyche, soul, spirit,mind, (inner) being

“Listen to your inner self”

The self is an individual person as the object of his or her own reflective consciousness. This reference is necessarily subjective, thus self is a reference by a subject to the same subject. The sense of having a self – or self-hood – should, however, not be confused with subjectivity itself.

There is a directness outward from the subject that refers inward, back to its “self”

A curious state of affairs, who, or what it’s this subjective Self?

Who is this mind who talks within ourselves, and we call the “I”?

A subjective me, separated  from my physical person, who can only be witnessed, and listened by myself, and no one else?

There are psychiatric conditions where such ‘sameness’ is broken include depersonalization, which sometimes occur in schizophrenia: the self appears different to the subject.

Schizophrenics they may hear ‘voices’ within themselves diffrent from their self.

Who we are, as a different , but particular individual, it’s not our subjective Self, but a given condition of existence.

Our name, sex, parents, city, and country we are born, or live, religion, economy, school, friends, occupation, work, profession, wife, husband, relatives, friends, factors that marked our physical identity given by genetics, and ancestors, geography, and what not.

None of them the it’s real Self, but circumstantial conditions given at birth, and the subsequent life story we live by such limiting configurations, all simply circumstantial, or happenstance of one kind, or another one, supposedly planed, or not, since we didn’t choose the initial conditions of existence, and the consequence of the many struggles we go through as individuals to establish the identity of our own choosing, sometimes contrary as to what others perceive as a given.

Although subjective experience is central to self-hood, the privacy of this experience is only one of many problems in the philosophical and scientific study of consciousness.

Personal Story

Well, at an early age, I was six, or seven years of age, when I heard an older friend talking about a philosophy class, he had and the teacher expounded on Buddhism about the Three marks of existence. In Buddhism, the three marks of existence are three characteristics (Pali: tilakkhaṇa; Sanskrit: trilakṣaṇa) of all existence and beings, what we namely call impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness or suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā).

And the five Skandhas (Sanskrit) or khandhas (Pāḷi) means “heaps, aggregates, The five aggregates or heaps are: form (or matter or body) (rupa), sensations (or feelings, received from form) (vedana), perceptions (samjna), mental activity or formations (sankhara), and consciousness (vijnana).

The skandhas aggregates, as a concept, in contradistinction to the idea of a unified “being or individual”, and complements the Anatta doctrine of Buddhism, which asserts that all things and beings are without self. The ornate and “five aggregates” doctrines are part of the liberating knowledge in Buddhism, wherein one realizes that the “being” is merely made up of a temporary grouping of five aggregates,  inferences due to our five senses, who produce the illusion of a Self, each of which are “not I, and not myself”, and each of the skandhas is empty, without substance.

Now, of course all this explained in more simple terms by my friend, and very likely his teacher, as well, since my friend was nine, or ten years of age at the time, like pain,  suffering, and death being a given of existence, and our attachment to existence.

Via Positiva Vs Via Negativa

Of course to those easily confused by the many Ways that exist I may refer you to a post I wrote on May 2012 titled: Via Positiva Via Negativa, and remind you form it’s emptiness, and emptiness it’s form, the difference it’s in the eye of the beholder.

The third century Indian Buddhist master Nagarjuna taught, “Emptiness wrongly grasped is like picking up a poisonous snake by the wrong end.”  In other words, we will be bitten!

Emptiness is not complete nothingness; it doesn’t mean that nothing exists at all. This would be a nihilistic view contrary to common sense. What it does mean is that things do not exist the way our grasping self supposes they do.

Ramana Maharshi

In order of brevity, and not to make this post a treaty that would take many books, I will expose the simple, but profound words of the Ramana Maharshi, who was a Hindu sage and Jivanmukta. He was born as Venkataraman Iyer, but is most commonly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. His message was simple, easily to understand, but with great wisdom.  Though Ramana’s answers explain and incorporate elements from Advaita Vedanta, his spiritual life is strongly associated with Shaivism.

Although many claim to be influenced by him, Ramana Maharshi did not publicize himself as a guru, never claimed to have disciples, and never appointed any successors.While a few who came to see him are said to have become enlightened through association,  he did not publicly acknowledge any living person as liberated other than his mother at death. Ramana never promoted any lineage.

I do not hold any particular Spiritual Path, to be better, than another one, neither claim to be this, or that, I am of the thought we all Men or Women come in all different guises, and likes, and dislikes, a Spiritual Path it’s unique to the individual, and it’s my firm belief that the problem, it’s not that there’s too many Religions, but too few, each person should be a Temple of the Light into his/her own heart, and have each their own, and unique Way, and should recognizes Universally Self, in every being. That by the way, according to Ramana Maharshi It’s the test, that confirm a person it’s an enlightened Being.

“Inquiring within Who is the seer? I saw the seer disappear leaving That alone which stands forever. No thought arose to say I saw. How then could the thought arise to say I did not see.” R.M.

“I cannot show you God or enable you to see God because God is not an object that can be seen. God is the subject. He is the seer. Don’t concern yourself with objects that can be seen. Find out who the seer is” R.M.

“When the identification with the body stops, any notions about death and rebirth become inapplicable, since there is no birth or death within Self.”  R.M.

Reincarnation exists only so long as there is ignorance. There is really no reincarnation at all, either now or before. Nor will there be any hereafter. This is the truth.

“O learned one if the mind going inside come backs again outside, it’s only called practice; knowledge it’s a very unfailling experience.” R.M.

“Realization it’s nothing to be gained anew. You are the Self. You are already and eternally That.” R.M.

There is never a moment when the Self is not; it is ever present, here and now. If Realization were something to be gained hereafter, there would be an equal chance of its being lost; this cannot be Liberation, which is eternal.” R.M.

“Investigate the nature of the mind and it will disappear. When you inquire to see what it is, you find there is no such a thing as mind. When the mind has vanished, you realize eternal Peace.” R.M.

“We need not acquire anything new, only give up false ideas and useless accretions. Instead of doing this, we try to grasp something strange and mysterious because we believe happiness lies elsewhere. This is the mistake.” R.M.

“Birds , and all caged pets are waiting for an opportunity to fly, or run out of their cages. Ramana remarks:

All want to rush out. There is no limit to going out. When happiness lies within and not without.”

ON BLOGGING, AND WHY DO I WRITE?

You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.

You can’t cross the sea merely
by standing and staring at the water.

Clouds come floating into my life,
no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add color to my sunset sky.

Life is given to us, we earn it by giving it.

Rabindranath Tagore.

As to the frequent, and too much used question of;

Why do I Blog?

My response could be the obvious, like why do you eat, or even why do you have blue eyes, or why do you like a certain type of food, or why do you have a mole on your cheek?

And many such answers of the sort, of why you are, who you are, and what’s the stuff that motivate you to have the daring of typing some words, and put them out there for everyone to read.

Motivations can be many, as diverse as us human beings we are, despite of it, we all have our own special reasons why do we write.

I believe I do, because I love reading even at the tender age of five as I just learnt, at school, my father, who was an avid reader gave me my first book to read, nothing too complex, a small book 110 pages long or so, an adventure genre book, by the Italian writer Emilio Salgari, about Sandokan a pirate in Malasya, a very improbable story, but designed to appeal to a young person’s imagination.

Emilio Salgari

Emilio Salgari (Italian pronunciation: [eˈmiːljo salˈɡaːri], but often erroneously pronounced [ˈsalɡari]; 21 August 1862 – 25 April 1911) was an Italian writer of action adventure swashbucklers and a pioneer of science fiction.

In Italy, his extensive body of work was more widely read than that of Dante. Today he is still among the 40 most translated Italian authors. Many of his most popular novels have been adapted as comics, animated series and feature films. He is considered the father of Italian adventure fiction and Italian pop culture, and the “grandfather” of the Spaghetti Western.

Salgari wrote more than 200 adventure stories and novels, setting his tales in exotic locations, with heroes from a wide variety of cultures. He gained inspiration from reading foreign literature and newspapers, travel magazines and encyclopedias, which he used to portray his heroes’ worlds. He wrote four major series: The Pirates of Malaysia; The Black Corsair Saga; The Pirates of Bermuda; and a collection of adventures set in the Old West. Salgari’s heroes were mostly pirates, outlaws and barbarians, fighting against greed, abuse of power, and corruption.

Salgari opposed colonization in his fiction. His most legendary heroes Sandokan, The Tiger of Malaysia, a Bornean prince turned pirate, and his loyal lieutenant Yanez of Gomera, led their men in attacks against the Dutch and British fleets. They declared war on James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak, and tried to force him from his throne. The Black Corsair and Captain Morgan battled against injustice in the Caribbean, while Salgari’s pirates of Bermuda fought for American independence.

His tales had been so popular that soon his publisher hired other writers to develop adventure stories under his name. They added 50 novels to his “canon”. Salgari’s style was imitated by many, but no other Italian adventure writer managed to duplicate his popular success.

Sandokan The Tiger From Malasya

After reading the book completely non stop since midmorning until late afternoon, I returned the book to father, my father thought I had not read the book, so he said to me:

You didn´t like it?

To which I responded:

On the contrary, I love it, and therefore I want the continuation, the book that you gave me has a continuation and I want it immediately!

And so my long years of reading books commenced.

WRITING AS AN EXTESION OF READING

Well, there you have it, in a nutshell, I write because after so much reading figured up it was time for me to put my owns thoughts in writing.
After so much taking in, naturally it was time to give back, as a process of Osmosis.

Osmosis

The process of osmosis over a semi-permeable membrane. The blue dots represent particles driving the osmotic gradient.
Osmosis is the spontaneous net movement of solvent molecules through a selectively permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, in the direction that tends to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides. It may also be used to describe a physical process in which any solvent moves across a selectively permeable membrane (permeable to the solvent, but not the solute) separating two solutions of different concentrations. Osmosis can be made to do work. Osmotic pressure is defined as the external pressure required to be applied so that there is no net movement of solvent across the membrane. Osmotic pressure is a colligative property, meaning that the osmotic pressure depends on the molar concentration of the solute but not on its identity.

Simply put Osmosis, it’s soaking a rag until it cannot absorb any more liquid, and the process of absorption, it’s reversed and therefore, as when you clean with a rag something you spill on your counter the rag start to release the liquid instead of absorbing it, and you need to bring a new rag, or squeeze dry the one you have, before trying to clean up more the mess left, on the counter.

A TIME TO GIVE BACK

So it’s my time to give, rather than taking knowledge, not that I stop reading, but naturally feel like sharing what I have absorbed through my reading, and life experience, and that’s why I am here telling you about it.

That, and trying to add the skill of writing, as a complement to my reading, and sharing it with you, are the prime motivations behind my writing, not getting any money from my writing, or even further from my mind, getting to be famous through it, and so far yet, not even writing a book, has come to my mind…

What inspire me to write a particular post, can be as variable, as the weather, one day to another one, as for example, as I sat on my desk and turned the computer on, I didn’t knew what my next post would be all about it, then I read a message, someone wrote me, and bingo!

A friend of mine like to travel constantly, and once I retired figure that I would do the same, but then that was some time ago, before I knew myself better, the fact I am an INFJ, and just cannot be running around here, and there without having my battery easily exhausted, just a trip of four days some days ago made me crash, when I got home, sleep for twelve hours nonstop, when usually do not sleep more than six, a day!

Commenting on that, to another friend I said:
Our friend like to travel through the Oceans frequently, myself I prefer to travel through, as well, but rather the Oceans of Knowledge, within myself, with the help of some books of course, my kind of cup of tea.

Crossing Through the Oceans of Knowledge

Knowledge & Wisdom

Knowledge it’s acquiered by study, reading books, going to school, listening, and seeing, and doing.

Menwhile Wisdom it’s only acquiered through a life of experience, by living.

Simply put, to become wise you cannot just get it by what you read, or learn at school, but by what you

live, through the hurdles of life, and the challenges, that your particular life entailed, one of the reasons

that to posses wisdom you need a long life, specially if you have lived through a lot of visicitudes, and

unexpected twists and turns of the road we call life.

Yes it can be a twisty way uphill, and with many unexpected curves, and difficult to navegate,, such it’s

the Way to Wisdom. Usually not a joy ride, to put it mildly.

“Walker, there is no path, the path is made by walking”

Is a famous phrase by the Spanish poet Antonio Machado. This phrase has become a motto for life,

especially in times of uncertainty and difficulty. It means that there is no predefined route in life, and

that the path is built as you go. By walking the path is made, and when you look back you see the path

that will never be trodden again.

Antonio Machado Ruiz

Antonio Machado Ruiz (Seville, July 26, 1875-Colliure, February 22, 1939) was a Spanish poet, the

youngest representative of the generation of ’98. His initial work, modernist in style (like that of his

brother Manuel) , evolved towards a symbolist intimacy with romantic features, which matured into a

poetry of human commitment, on the one hand, and contemplation of existence, on the other; a

synthesis that in Machado’s voice echoes the most ancient popular wisdom. In the words of Gerardo

Diego, he “spoke in verse and lived in poetry.”

A FEW THINGS ABOUT MY DAILY ROUTINE, AND MAYBE TRAVELING SOON.

Life has many turns, and strange paths, Who may lead us on strange places, at different points in our lives.

There is nothing like old age to reach a point of reflection about our lives, and all the things we have gone through, and are now distant memories from a far receding past from year after year, on our dwelling through life.

Usually strikes me as odd from a lot of people, at their lack of Historical perspective, on many issues that affect us today.

I could offer many examples, but I will restrain myself from doing so, since I do not want people to start offering us, their side of their particular views, about some events that lead to controversy, and opposite views, even if sometimes I entertain myself from reading, or watching people arguing about a particular subject. It can be fun, when someone is not attacking you personally.

Divided we stand, seems to be our logo as human beings, through the plurality from our opinions. I have to confess I do argue occasionally, but only with good friends, never with strangers, except occasionally online, I do not care to make enemies, but seek new friends. Some online called trolls, or bots, seem to delight in upsetting all kinds of people, and occasionally if they do not agree with you, they may accuse you, labeling you as one.

I guess as a retired man, got a  lot of time on my hands, so I read books, and log on my computer, and surf the web, cook a meal a day, and  except for doing necessary work around the house, and small errands, near me, I am a total slacker!

As I see it, after over fifty years of working, I deserve some time off, for myself, and do as I please, or feel like. Usually now I sleep six hours at most, and go to bed late.

Maybe I should start doing some traveling? I am just lazy about the unpleasant things about traveling, and my  lack of disposition to suffer from them, and to be away from home where I have all I need. Will see, in late July made some plans with old friends to go on a trip. we will  see how that goes, if it happens.

I know this post has not much to tell, but not always, we are in the mood for lofty thoughts, or we just simply lack inspiration at the moment, we sit to write a new post.

Of lately I have notice many visits to my blog from Moldavia, thank you, and greetings to whoever its reading me, you can comment as well if your care to.