Changing Places

Woot!

DNA, Robert Finkbeiner

Three subtle energy currents:
Twin helixes around a jade pillar.
This glowing presence
Is the force of life itself.

Deep in meditation, it is possible to become aware of the life-force itself. You can see it if you learn how to look within. To describe it as electricity, or power, or light, or consciousness is all somewhat correct. But such descriptions are inadequate. You have to see it for yourself. You have to feel it for yourself. You have to know it for yourself.

To be in its presence is like being in front of something primeval, basic, mysterious, shamanistic, and profound. To be in its presence makes all references mute and all senses slack, leaving only deep awe. One is drawn to it in utter fascination. It is the mighty flame to our moth-like consciousness.

This column of energy that coils around itself holds all the stages of our growth. It is our soul; it is the force that animates us and gives us awareness. If you want to engage your life completely, it is essential for you to come to terms with this inner power. Once you harmonize with it you can blend with the dynamics of being human.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“Oh soul,
you worry too much.
You have seen your own strength.
You have seen your own beauty.
You have seen your golden wings.
Of anything less,
why do you worry?
You are in truth
the soul, of the soul, of the soul.”

Jalal ad-Din Rumi

A helix, sometimes also called a coil, is a curve for which the tangent makes a constant angle with a fixed line. The shortest path between two points on a cylinder (one not directly above the other) is a fractional turn of a helix, as can be seen by cutting the cylinder along one of its sides, flattening it out, and noting that a straight line connecting the points becomes helical upon re-wrapping (Steinhaus 1999, p. 229). It is for this reason that squirrels chasing one another up and around tree trunks follow helical paths. — Eric Weisstein, Mathworld

I think the extraordinary success of the double helix sprang largely from the fact that it’s such a simple geometric shape. The helix struck a responsive chord in so many people because it suggested that the secret of life is something you can look at. Looking at it, you see properties which otherwise would have been totally incoherent if you didn’t have a geometric shape to hang it on. –Benoit Mandlebrot

“What is art,
But life upon the larger scale, the higher,
When, graduating up in a spiral line
Of still expanding and ascending gyres,
It pushes toward the intense significance
Of all things, hungry for the Infinite?
Art’s life, — and where we live, we suffer and toil.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

People often talk about their spritual growth as a spiral. Karen Armstrong’s recent autobiography is called “The Spiral Staircase“. Very few people find their spirituality is a straightforward process, if they are determined to really find something more than what western society gives us as religion, or what Eastern mysticism gives us as chants and mantras.

For me, the spiritual growth has come in strange ways and from strange places, and I think that is how authentic spiritual growth progresses, from within, as we turn through the limits of our own being and try to become more. We find ourselves turning again and again within the limited space of ourselves, and finally realize that there is an enormous amount of space outside of ourselves. We then create mobius strips and Klein bottles, trying to bring this outside space within ourselves, an impossible task at first. We see the beautiful poetry of Rumi as he struggles with spirituality, the magnificent stories and tales of mythology, religion, and literature, all trying to move in these same paths.

And then one day, a small hummingbird sits in front of your nose, flapping its wings, and looks at you curiously, or you gaze into a flower and finally really see it, or someone says something that catches your ear and your mind at just the right moment, or a quiet meditation brings you to the place within yourself that just knows, simply knows, and you smile. You get it. You get that Mona Lisa smile on your face and just - become yourself.

And it happens over and over. We find ourselves, we lose ourselves, we find ourselves again, at another place on the spiral. The helixes divide, and come back together. And life goes on.

Had one of those lovely “Christian” women with the stupid ribbon magnets on her car decide I had cut her off pulling out of the grocery store parking lot and decide to zip past me in the same lane. Fortunately, I saw her coming and stayed over enough for her to get by. Why is it always these assholes who are the most inconsiderate people on the road? Why is everyone else supposed to live to their “values”, when it is obvious they have none, really?

Sorry, just in a really bad mood today since a friend sent the sad news that her brother-in-law passed away last night, which put me in a dark mood for the morning. I thought I just felt bad for her family, and then realized - it’s been two years this week since my mom died. Ah, that explained the funk I’ve been in all week long. The body always, always remembers, even when things are not in our conscious thoughts.

Tell you what, people. If you really want to support the troops, fight for their damn medical care when they get home. My own brother-in-law, a former Marine, suffers leukemia and a bum leg from a terrorist attack, and post traumatic stress disorder. But he can’t get a full disability from our wonderful veteran’s administration, and his doctors here in San Diego basically wrote him off last year for the leukemia. Fortunately they moved to Tucson and the good doctors there have him in full remission. It doesn’t take much to find as many similar or worse stories of lack of care and coverage on the Internets. You want to support these guys? Quit buying magnets from China, and write your congress creatures a letter about the crappy care these soldiers get when they get back. That’s how you support the troops, folks. Get them decent pay and benefits, don’t put a friggin’ magnet on your car.

And don’t drive like an asshole if you do - it pisses the rest of us off.

Edwin Hutchinson, Gulf Fritillary

Lady butterfly,
I saw you a week ago.
Now you are back,
with your lover,
In tandem flights
And helical tangents:
How many times
You return gladly!

In the legends there is the story of the butterfly lovers. The loved each other so much that even in death, their hearts were fixed faithfully upon one another. In honor of their devotion to each other, the gods changed them into butterflies and let them come back together in reincarnation after reincarnation.

Would that all of us could manifest such determination and faith to what we love!

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

A friend of mine was growing passion flower vines and became annoyed at all the little holes that were being eaten with. She wondered what she could spray them with, and I said, “Oh, don’t do that! Those are holes from butterfly caterpillars feeding on them. If you destroy them, you won’t have all these gorgeous butterflies around!” So she fell in love with butterflies, gained a new hobby of studying them, and now grows even more native plants and other butterfly flowers instead of just her roses, and introduced me to how to grow roses organically. It seemed to be a good exchange.

I have an entire wall outside my house covered with passion flowers and butterflies right now. I love to go out in the garden and see them flitting about, watch the butterflies enjoying their new wings, and hunt for the little caterpillars. The big carpenter bees have also taken a love to these flowers. From all this exuberance, there is one passion fruit on the entire mess of vines. And the dogs will probably find that and pull it off to play with it.

Doesn’t look much cleaner, eh?

GOP- The Culture of CORRUPTION.

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) | Beyond Delay
Legislative Assistance for Jack Abramoff’s Client

Rep. Blunt and his staff have close connections to uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is the subject of criminal and congressional probes. In June 2003, Mr. Abramoff persuaded Majority Leader Tom DeLay to organize a letter, co-signed by Speaker Hastert, Whip Roy Blunt, and Deputy Whip Eric Cantor, that endorsed a view of gambling law benefitting Mr. Abramoff’s client, the Louisiana Coushatta, by blocking gambling competition by another tribe. Mr. Abramoff has donated $8,500 to Rep. Blunt’s leadership PAC, Rely on Your Beliefs.

If, as it appears, Rep. Blunt was accepting campaign contributions from Mr. Abramoff in exchange for using his official position so support a view of gambling law that would benefit Mr. Abramoff’s client, he would be in violation of the law.

Finally!

DeLay Is Indicted and Forced to Step Down as Majority Leader - New York Times

Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the powerful House Republican majority leader, was accused by a Texas grand jury today of criminal conspiracy in a campaign fund-raising scheme.

Mr. DeLay was indicted on one count charging that he violated state election laws in September 2002. Two political associates, John D. Colyandro and James W. Ellis, were indicted with him.

Maxfield Parrish, The Lute Players 1922

Maiden plucks folk tune on steel strings,
Crickets chant like monks.
I’ve walked into autumnal contentment,
Yet a young boy seeks guidance.

One may be quite far along on the path, but if one meets a beginner who sincerely seeks guidance, then one should help without reservation. If such a beginner were to come to you, what would you say? This is what I said to someone today :

“The time of beginning is one of the most precious times of all. It can be very exciting and full of wonderful growth. The first thing to do is to make up your mind that you are going to go the distance.

“When I first began, I made a lifelong commitment. I determined that I would learn from my teacher for at least seven years. Now, it has been much longer than that, but the essential element is still the same : commitment.

“But commitment needs something else in order to be perpetuated. It needs discipline. This is the perseverance to keep on when things are tough. Adversity is life’s way of testing and perfecting a person. Without that, we would never develop character.

“Rice suffers when it is milled. Jade must suffer when it is polished. But what emerges is something special. If you want to be special too, then you have to be able to stick to things even when they are difficult.”

Commitment and discipline — these are two of the most precious words for those who would seek Tao.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

Know the masculine,
but keep to the feminine:
and become a watershed to the world.
If you embrace the world,
the Tao will never leave you
and you become as a little child.

Know the white,
yet keep to the black:
be a model for the world.
If you are a model for the world,
the Tao inside you will strengthen
and you will return whole to your eternal beginning.

Know the honorable,
but do not shun the disgraced:
embracing the world as it is.
If you embrace the world with compassion,
then your virtue will return you to the uncarved block.

The block of wood is carved into utensils
by carving void into the wood.
The Master uses the utensils, yet prefers to keep to the block
because of its limitless possibilities.
Great works do not involve discarding substance.

– Tao Te Ching, 28

“The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.” — Rollo May

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

“I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

“The Boy’s Uncle made me Real,” he said. “That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”

– Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit”

I want to run off like the rabbit, and just be real and myself, enjoying the autumn. But - I have my commitments to keep, and so I can’t quite be that real yet. First I have boys to raise, who seek my guidance (even if they don’t knowit or admit it, of course). So, I have to spend some more time getting my fur rubbed off…

I give up. This country is officially totally fucked up beyond all belief.

Sheehan Arrested Outside White House

By Daniela Deane and Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, September 26, 2005; 2:33 PM

Cindy Sheehan, the grieving California mother of a soldier slain in Iraq, was arrested today while protesting the Iraq war outside the White House.

Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son Casey was killed last year, and several dozen other protesters staged a sit-in on the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue after marching along the pedestrian walkway, the Associated Press reported. Police warned them three times that they had to move along before making arrests, the news agency said.

Anti war demonstrators hold up signs as they march in front of the White House Saturday, Sept. 24, 2005 in Washington.

“The whole world is watching,” protesters chanted as Sheehan was led to a police vehicle.

Sheehan and some 200 other protesters sat in circles on the sidewalk, apparently courting arrest. Hundreds more people rallied in Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue.

Sheehan’s arrest came after a massive antiwar demonstration Saturday in Washington which drew more than 100,000 people — the largest such demonstration since the Iraq war began in spring 2003. A demonstration supporting the war drew roughly 500 people Sunday.

Sheehan, 48, first attracted wide attention in August when she established the antiwar “Camp Casey” outside of President Bush’s Texas ranch. As part of the 26-day protest in Crawford, Sheehan asked for a meeting with Bush, which he declined.

Blue Sky Preserve, Jerry Schadd

My back is stooped from scholarship,
My eyes are dimmed by history’s words.
Surrounded though I may be by learning,
I still cannot compare with nature’s perfection.

Learning is a passion shared by many of us. There is a great allure to education and a fascination with the accomplishments of civilization. We go to libraries and museums. We go to exhibits showing the diggings from royal tombs. We are enchanted with new inventions. And yet, if we look out our windows and see a tree in its perfection, or gaze into a tide pool, or watch a cat as it strolls its territory, or see the flash of a blue jay, we can see another order of beauty and intelligence in this life.

The works of humanity cannot compare to the works of nature. The works of civilization lack the balance and refinement of nature. Too many times, our accomplishments are tainted by impure motives : profit, hardship, desire for fame, simple greed. We achieve, but we cannot foresee the results because we are unable to place our actions into a greater context.

Nature is a conglomeration of contending forces, of tooth and claw, venom and perfume, mud and excrement, eggs and bones, lightning and lava. It seems chaotic. It seems terrible. And yet, for all its unfathomable workings, it far surpasses the business of our society.

Think about what you do. How much of it can compare to the perfection of nature?

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
– Albert Einstein

“In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.” — Alice Walker

“To the dull mind nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” — Joseph Campbell

Our morning walk with the dogs today was out to Blue Sky Preserve. Walking among the beautiful old oaks is a really pleasant way to spend the morning and admire the beauty of nature. It was assuming to watch some people cut themselves off still from the nature they were supposedly enjoying, with headphones, cell phones, running quickly instead of enjoying a stroll through the old oaks, or loud chatter to their walking partners instead of simply enjoying what was around them.

I wonder sometimes if people even know there is nature to be enjoyed. It seems they are often so wrapped up in themselves they forget there even is anything else. Why is it so hard to just enjoy the world as it is, instead of trying so hard to make ourselves and what is around us something more?

YiXing Teapots’ Great Grandmother

Teapot is now a collection of the NanJing Museum.

The sun rose and set today in twelve hours.
We plucked golden pears from arching branches.
Climbing a thousand steps to a rustic temple,
We made our offerings to the gods.
At nightfall, we sat in warm companionship.
A crescent moon joined our circle.
Dipping water from the silver-braided stream,
We set it bubbling in an earthenware pot.
It’s not easy to brew good tea,
But this teapot has a venerable history:
A scholar once pawned all his books for it.
Now it imparts the flavor of antiquity.

Autumn equinox is the time to reflect upon life. If we have enjoyed a bountiful harvest, we express our thanks. If the year has been difficult so far, then we are happy for what we do have and resolve to do better once the chance comes. The appreciation of life does not require wealth or plenty. It requires only gratitude for the beauty of the world.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” — John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world’s happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.” — Dale Carnegie

“Appreciation of life itself, becoming suddenly aware of the miracle of being alive, on this planet, can turn what we call ordinary life into a miracle.” — Dan Wakefield

My year has been a good one, full of a great deal of bounty and a good harvest. I very much appreciate where I am now, entering the autumn period of my life. I have two wonderful sons, a great husband, a small house I enjoy and a garden, two beautiful golden retrievers and two lovely furry cats. Twenty years of marriage and being here in this home have been good to me.

And I’m grateful that I’ve finally woken up to see the beauty of the world, and to be able to enjoy the simple pleasures of a good cup of tea, companionship, and crescent moons.

Daily Kos: [SECRET LOCATION REVEALED] Grover Greeted by Katrina ‘Bathtub’ Billboard; More dKos suggestions?

Working Assets, an organization that “helps busy people make a difference” organized an event that showed just how crude and dangerous Mr. Norquist’s ideas about government really are. Activists rented a truck whose cab was flanked by two twin billboards, featuring Field Marshal Norquist’s famous quote juxtaposed with an image of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - a drowned New Orleans. Appropriately, at 8:45 this morning Working Assets parked the truck in front of the offices of Americans for Tax Reform, an essential part of Norquist’s New Right brigade, and the meeting place for that weekly breakfast strategy session of rightist revolutionaries.

With the conspicuous truck parked squarely in front of Americans for Tax Reform’s locked-down offices, a sizeable handful of activists, with original chants that point to America’s shameful standards in high school English curricula, courted media photographers while making their presence known to the planners of the watery death of American government. “246810 What if a hurricane comes again? 13579 Your rich friends will be just fine.” Someone missed that 9th grade lesson on meter.

Heh. I like this kind of protest - smart, effective, and right where they work. You rock, guys….

And oh, boy, is my brother a grandfather…..

The Pueblo Chieftain Online - Pueblo, Colorado U.S.A

MONDAY MORNING SPECIAL
RATED:BABY
Bright And Bubbly You
Welcome to the world, GRANDSON

Dear Evan,

Well, grandson, you finally got here. Missed the State Fair by a day, but there’s always next year.

Your mother (She Who Must Be Obeyed Jr. II) brought you into the world and you were none too happy. You came in with a head of flaming red hair, kicking and screaming so much that they had to put the hospital in lock-down. Or was that just another fire drill?

Being She Jr. II’s first child, and quite possibly the most handsome baby ever born, you will probably get a lot of attention. That’s OK, sometimes it will seem like the world is picking on you, like when they put your mug shot in the newspaper and you aren’t even 2 weeks old. But you’re tough. Daddy is a U.S. Marine, after all.

* * *

There also will be a lot of “firsts” recorded during your first year of life. After that, your Baby Book will probably look like everyone else’s - one sentence per year, if you’re lucky (Age 2: Learning to ride trike; Age 3: Rode his tricycle over mom’s foot; Age 4: Got tricycle back.) You’ll fondly remember your first toy (cardboard box). When you get to be Grandpa’s age, you’ll read over the list of firsts and try to recapture the joy of youth and innocence.

If you have a little grandson to help you do that, it will be a whole lot easier.

My first words to you, I believe, were: “Stop acting like such a baby.”

You replied: “Wa-a-a-h-h-h!”

That’s probably how it will be with us, for a while. Your good looks and winning personality may sway other people and ease your path in life. But you’ll find Grandpa’s a tough customer. Well, OK, I’d spoil you rotten no matter what. But the point is, if you keep crying like that, I’ll . . . Oh, wait. You seem to have fallen asleep again. How cute!

* * *

Now, I’ve started a little project. I’ve decided to take a photo of you every day (actually, about a dozen, but I’m talking about only the best ones) and collect them all. Later, we’ll publish them in one of those “Year in the Life” photo books.

We’ll use the money to send you to college.

I know this will be a best-seller, because in the first few days people have just flocked to see your baby photos. They say things like:

“What a cute baby!”

“Look how red his hair is!”

“Woodka, you showed me those same photos just an hour ago!”

Please don’t tell She Jr. II of our little plan, she’ll think I’m exploiting you and probably take my camera away. . . . Hey! Bring back that back!

* * *

Finally, a lot of grandpas would try to warn you about the state of the world right now. There is a war going on, a hurricane just destroyed one of America’s cities and the country is still trying to recover from the 9/11 terrorist attacks four years ago.

But I’m not going to try to scare you or put the burden of trying to make the world a peaceful place on your tiny shoulders.

There is trouble in every age. For instance, when I was a youth, the Huns had just sacked Rome, the Black Plague was destroying entire villages and the Spanish Inquisition had just begun.

Did I mention that Grandpa sometimes tells tall tales?

* * *

Enjoy your life, Evan, there is a world of possibility ahead for you. You are a blessing to our family. Welcome to the world.

If you are awake
Late enough
You can hear the planes come in
With the bodies
Of the dead
They will not acknowledge
Or let others see
Brought home, in the night…

There Is A Brokenness
by Rashani

There is a brokenness
out of which comes the unbroken,
A shatteredness out of which blooms the unshatterable.
There is a sorrow
Beyond all grief which leads to joy
And a fragility
Out of which depth emerges strength.
There is a hollow space
Too vast for words
Through which we pass with each loss,
Out of whose darkness we are sanctified into being.
There is a cry deeper than all sound
Whose serrated edges cut the heart
As we break open
To the place inside which is unbreakable
And whole.

“Hope floats . . . We are Unsinkable”

Covington artist Tammi Curtis-Ellis created this vision of New Orleans hope.

From the mailbag, Tammi Curtis-Ellis sends us an image of a painting showing the hope and determination of the New Orleans area.

“I am an artist from Covington, LA. While we had emormous damage to our community, it can not compare to the emotional and physical damage that the people of other areas suffered.

“During the days that I was travelling between my home and my children’s apartment in Baton Rouge, I completed this painting. My main focus was the hope and determination that is such an element of the people of the Gulf Coast.

“That is why I chose the scripture of Jeremiah 29:11 - “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”

“Also, the words “Hope floats and We are unsinkable” came to my mind while I was visualizing this painting.

“My heartfelt desire is that I can find a financial backer to supply the money for quality prints of this painting and marketing so that all the sale proceeds can go to Habitat for Humanity and CERF (Craft Emergency Relief Fund), an organization to assist artist in times of disaster.

“So many artist friends of mine from the Gulf Coast have been displaced, some losing everything. We cannot afford to lose the visual interpretation that they bring to the life of the coast. I hope I can be an artist helping artist, but I need assistance myself to make this happen, as my income relied on the New Orleans art market. I ask that this story receive attention and that we find a way to bring our artists home. The painting can also be viewed on the homepage of my website at www.tamiellis.ws. ”

Picasso, Blue Nude

Loneliness need not be despair.
It could be an opportunity.

Why are people lonely? It is because they feel no contact with anyone or anything else. They need to feel that they are valued, that they are a part of something, and that their environment will respond to them. When that does not happen, they feel isolated.

One of the major strategies for combating loneliness is to have a mate and family. That is not always perfect, and the problems of a relationship and family sometimes outweigh the terror of loneliness. It is far better to be self-sufficient. Then whether one has loved ones or not, one will not suffer from loneliness.

Some people claim that self-sufficiency is a myth. A person is a social animal, they declare; people cannot successfully live outside of some community. But that is not the correct way to understand true self-sufficiency. What we are referring to is a supreme sense of connection with oneself and the cosmos around oneself. This doesn’t preclude community with others, but it does prevent the excesses and shortcomings that occur when society is one’s only source of union.

Tao surrounds us. One who is with Tao is never lonely, but is an integral part of the natural cycle. In the same way that water surrounds a fish, Tao surrounds us. If we feel lonely, then it is only because we are forgetting how we are totally immersed in Tao. That is why loneliness can be an opportunity : It reminds us that we are dwelling on our own egoistic identity rather than on the support of Tao.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“Language… has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.” — Paul Tillich

“Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.” — Henry Rollins

“Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your own presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement.” — Alice Koller

“What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.” — Ellen Burstyn

“Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.” — Thomas Merton

If you went back and read some of my earliest blog postings from a few years ago, you would see it was a time when I felt quite lonely and isolated. After my brief breakdown, I went through a period of needing to be around other people, and yet, there were few people then who seemed to want to be around me. I was not so much lonely as incredibly anxious when I was by myself.

As things stabilized for me, I felt less and less need to be around others, and returned to the state that was most common for me in my youth - being happiest to be left alone. I grew up enjoying solitude, rather than wanting the company of a lot of other people. i typically had a few close friends, and while polite to others, was always somewhat aloof. The classic introvert.

So I am now pretty much comfortable either way - I don’t feel the stress and strain as much that I once felt being around a lot of other people at a time, but I also don’t feel lonely when by myself. So I suppose I’ve reached a state of being self-sufficient. And those I’m most comfortable around are pretty self-sufficient as well. I’m always aware of what is around me, whether nature, people, animals, whatever. And I know who around me is comfortable with themselves, who is putting on a show, who is getting high on being the star of the show, who is taking it all in and absorbing everything.

The last group interests me the most, usually, and are the ones I gravitate towards - people who not only know themselves well but are very aware of others. And there, very often, you’ll find the followers of the Tao, whether they know they are or not.

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” –Ansel Adams

Seek silence.
Gladden in silence.
Adore in silence.

As one progresses on the path, one seeks silence more and more. It will be a great comfort, a tremendous source of solace and peace.

Once you find deep solitude and calm, there will be a great gladness in your heart. Here finally is the place where you need neither defense nor offense — the place where you can truly be open. There will be bliss, wonder, the awe of attaining something pure and sacred.

After that, you will feel adoration of silence. This is the peace that seems to elude so many. This is the beauty of Tao.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

The Tao is silence
words
cannot capture.
The Tao is emptiness
not even
silence
can embrace.
(The Tao is Tao, 2)

It is part of wisdom to know when to speak and when to use silence to point the way. It is also part of wisdom not to say anything, either verbally or through silence, when people are not ready to listen.

In the final analysis, real understanding of the Tao can only be reached when you go the way yourself.

True understanding of the Tao is based on experience. It cannot be transmitted by either words or silence.

The only thing one can do to guide others is to point the way. — Jos Slabbert

How do you bring people into harmony with the Tao?
You can only point at the invisible.
It is like using sign language in the dark.
The mystery is that it works.
(The Tao is Tao, 95)

You are the One which is aware
of the awareness of objects and ideas.
You are the One that is even more silent than awareness.
You are the Life which precedes the concept of life.
Your nature is silence and it is not attainable,
It always Is.

‘This - Prose and Poetry of Dancing Emptiness’
– Sri H. W. L. Poonja (Papaji)

Our original nature is, in highest truth,
devoid of any atom of objectivity.
It is void, omnipresent, silent, pure;
it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy ~
and that is all.

Enter deeply into it by awakening yourself.

~ Huang Po

“Music is the silence between the notes.” — Claude Debussy

“He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.” — Elbert Hubbard

“See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…we need silence to be able to touch souls.” –Mother Teresa

“I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strangely, I am ungrateful to these teachers” — Kahlil Gibran

“The fish in the water is silent, the animal on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing. But man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.” — Rabindranath Tagore

“The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.” — Rabindranath Tagore

“In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.” –Mahatma Gandhi

I enjoy silence, both the lack of sound, and the silence beyond the chattering of my mind. When I am most at peace, there are few thoughts in my head, other than perhaps, “ah”! or “mmm…” The pleasure of a beautiful rose in my garden with its sweet fragrance, some great sex, some really good chocolate, and other sensual things can bring me to that point. But the deeper silence comes mainly in my awareness of the Tao, the moments I see real depth in the world, in the sun shining on a leaf and noticing all the texture and intricacies of just one leaf, or a landscape like those Ansel Adams photographed.

But the very best silence is to be able to hear the noise around me, the television in the background, the music from my son’s room, the arguing between my husband and son, the cat snoring next to me in her sunbeam, the click of the keyboard - and still, be able to reach the quiet space within myself. Ah.

Native Growers » I wish they all could be California girls…

Just about everyone in Los Angeles has a cause, but Rene Russo’s is a decidedly lonely mission. While many of her Hollywood peers use their celebrity to exalt the hybrid Prius or bash Republicans, she is championing plants that many homeowners are unfamiliar with or, worse, dismiss as weeds.

Russo has become an advocate for the use of California native plants, which she is trying to promote as a low-maintenance panacea for the region’s water supply uncertainties.

“People have equated natives with chaparral, with brush, with dead, and it’s erroneous,’’ she said with obvious frustration in an interview at her Brentwood home.

To prove her point, Russo offered a tour of her lush garden on a recent Sunday morning while off from “Yours, Mine and Ours,’’ a remake of the 1968 Lucille Ball-Henry Fonda comedy she is filming with Dennis Quaid.

Russo, 51, said her own schooling in natives came more than five years ago, after she and her husband, Dan Gilroy, a screenwriter, bought two houses on three acres. As the couple, who have an 11-year-old daughter, set out to remodel the bigger house, Russo hired a garden designer to help her identify the tangle of flora that grew around the houses and along a steep hillside.

There was lawn everywhere,” she said.Oaks were dying,’’ she added, from over-watering. She decided to discard two-thirds of what was there — invaders such as weeping willows, acacias, Brazilian pepper — and replace them with California buckeye, Coulter pine, pitcher sage and dozens of other native species. About three-fourths completed, the garden needs little pruning and watering — every three weeks in the summer and not at all in winter — and no fertilizing, she said.

Russo’s devotion — she has lent her name to fundraisers and public events promoting natives — shows in the design of the contemporary home she is renovating. It is almost all glass, and even the front door, studded with windows, offers a generous view of her California cypress, lilac and yellow-berry toyon.

“I love the garden more than the house,’’ Russo said as she walked down the rugged paths of her property.

Just had to cross-post this piece from my other blog, Native Growers. I love California native plants, and seeing someone with as much presence and exposure (yes, literally, see “Thomas Crown Affair!”) as Rene Russo promote native plants is truly wonderful. I can’t afford the house in Brentwood, but I grow a fair number of natives on my little plot of land in Poway ( a lovely little city next to San Diego), and would sure like to see her garden!