Changing Places

A steady continuous flow of attention directed towards the same point or region is meditation. — yoga sutras

“Meditation is to religion what the laboratory is to science.”
–Paramahansa Yogananda

The seventh aspect of yoga’s path is meditation, or dhyana. Once we have learned to practice dharana, to quiet the mind through focused effort, something else begins to happen.We can already bring our mind to one point and keep it there; we have an awareness of the mind and the object of concentration, the seer and the seen. Now dharana leads to dhyana, attention becomes effortless, there is no longer a seer, only the seen. We experience this kind of effortless absorption in love when our love for a child or partner transcends all thoughts of our personal safety or comfort. Because it is an intrinsic aspect of our nature, we also experience dhyana in our everyday activities. As a waiter, I would count the tables I was assigned at the beginning of the evening. “I have two tables”, then “I have four tables”. After long months of practice, I came to understand that I was not really working until I no longer knew or cared how many tables I had. At that point, I was simply in the flow. There was only the moment, and the next task to perform. Counting tables was dharana, and dharana became dhyana when the tables disappeared and there was only the task. — Rolf Gates, Meditations from the Mat.

Dhyana is the seventh limb of Ashtanga Yoga. Dhyana means worship, or profound and abstract religious meditation. It is perfect contemplation. It involves concentration upon a point of focus with the intention of knowing the truth about it. During Dhyana, the consciousness is further unified by combining clear insights into distinctions between objects and between the subtle layers of veils that surround intuition. We learn to differentiate between the mind of the perceiver, the means of perception, and the objects perceived, between words, their meanings, and ideas, and between all the levels of evolution of the nature. We realize that these are all fused in an undifferentiated continuum. One must apprehend both subject and object clearly in order to perceive their similarities, for a clear grasp of real identity of two apparently different things requires a clear grasp of their seeming difference. Thus Dhyana is apprehension of real identity among ostensible differences.

Ooh, must get one of these! A friend just sent me the link.

Via Ectoplasmosis.

Frogmen vs. Radioactive Octopus, Archie McPhee® Toys, Gifts & Novelties

Frogmen vs. Radioactive Octopus
During a routine underwater expedition, these unfortunate frogmen were attacked by a giant radioactive octopus! Will their harpoon guns, daggers and pruning shears be enough to defeat this terror of the deep or will they all be eaten alive? Each set includes twelve, 2-1/2″ hard vinyl frogmen and one, 9″ soft vinyl octopus that glows in the dark!

My actual reason for celebrating today – his first treat – peanut butter!

More to come as the celebration continues, but right now we’re off to our friends’ Fourth of July party.

OK, here’s Darwin with his birthday present – a ball with a liver-flavored screw through it and washers made of liver that screw onto the ends! Cool, huh?

It’s called the ever-lasting fun ball with ever-locking treats. Kinda reminded me of the happy fun ball from SNL.

He’s still working on it – an hour and a half later!

DO NOT TAUNT happy fun ball!

UPDATE:

The chewie parts lasted for three and a half hours – right up to fireworks time. Darwin is a mess from slobbering all over himself while eating the treat. Fireworks don’t seem to be bothering Darwin at all, although we aren’t very close to them. Chance went out to bark at the other dogs who are barking, and Roxie has growled a bit. Friends of ours have lost a dog when it was upset by fireworks and escaped their yard and was run over, so I’m glad ours aren’t too upset.

UPDATE:

Darwin harfed up his breakfast this morning (the 5th) – with a cute little worm in it.

So all the dogs got to get deworming medication today. Yeah, they were thrilled, too.

Independence Day has been changed this year – to January 20th, 20009….

Last Year was so much more fun.

For the Taoist take, go here or here.

Oh, just go read the whole thing. It’s good.

Kung Fu Monkey: L33T Justice

We are faced with utterly shameless men. Cheney and the rest are looking our representatives right in the eye and saying “You don’t have the balls to take down a government. You don’t have the sheer testicular fortitude to call us lying sonuvabitches when we lie, to stop us from kicking the rule of law and the Constitution in the ass. You just don’t. What’s beyond that abyss — what that would do to our government and our identity as a nation — terrifies you too much. So get the fuck out of our way.”

And to a great degree, the White House is right. You peel this back, and you reveal that the greatest country in the world has been run, for the last six and a half years, by men who do not give a shit about the Constitution, or fair play, or honesty. No, not just run by corrupt men, or bribe-takers, or adulterers or whatever, we could handle that –no we’d be admitting It Went Wrong.

There is a sizeable population in America that just does not, cannot wrap their head around the fact that the President may be a Bad Man who does Bad Things. He’s President of America. We’re Americans. We’re the good guys. Remember, the Nixon mythos in America is that the system worked. “See, in America, even the President is not above the law.”

These Suited Bastards know the fragile shell of American exceptionalism is all that’s keeping a whole lot of people from processing that they’re working too many hours for not enough money, and they either believe real reeaaaalll hard that they’re living in the Shining City on the Hill or admit their lives are shit and they’ve been chumped.

Who ya gonna believe, me or your lyin’ Congress?

I cannot help but think that as Nixon walked to the chopper, somewhere in the darkened hallways of the White House Dick Cheney shook his head, spit, and whispered: “Pussy.”

Ick. Geez, Duncan, get a room. And shower after…

Hunter defends Ann Coulter against critics – Hardball with Chris Matthews – MSNBC.com

Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter defended conservative pundit Ann Coulter’s incendiary commentary Monday, saying Coulter was “closely approaching that level of being a great American.”

Graphic images – you’ve been warned.

A Fiend’s Folio: Hand Wound Monday: A Medley Of Firework Injuries

Just in time for the Fourth of July, I present to you a medley of firework wounds to help you celebrate the nation’s independence, collected from around the net.

Via Neatorama

They are all just a bunch of crooks. We no longer have a presidential administration, just a crime syndicate.

Gee, the law is only for the little people in this country after all.

Hey, but a blowjob is worth impeaching someone for.

Seriously, I never want to hear a Republican claim they are for “law and order” ever again.

Bush Commutes Libby’s Prison Sentence – New York Times

President Bush said today that he had used his power of clemency to commute the 30-month sentence for I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, who was convicted of perjury in March and was due to begin serving his time within weeks. The action, announced just hours after a federal appeals court denied Mr. Libby’s request to allow him to remain free while his case is on appeal, spares Mr. Libby his prison term, but it does not excuse him from stiff fines or probation. In a statement issued early this evening announcing his decision, Mr. Bush said he had listened to both critics and defenders of Mr. Libby, who was convicted of four felony counts for lying during a C.I.A. leak investigation.“I respect the jury’s verdict,” Mr. Bush said. “But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison.”

Gosh, but people who whined about their death sentence couldn’t be spared, huh, Dubya?

In the weeks before the execution, Bush says, a number of protesters came to Austin to demand clemency for Karla Faye Tucker. “Did you meet with any of them?” I ask. Bush whips around and stares at me. “No, I didn’t meet with any of them”, he snaps, as though I’ve just asked the dumbest, most offensive question ever posed. “I didn’t meet with Larry King either when he came down for it. I watched his interview with Tucker, though. He asked her real difficult questions like, ‘What would you say to Governor Bush?’” “What was her answer?” I wonder. “‘Please,’” Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, “‘don’t kill me.’” I must look shocked — ridiculing the pleas of a condemned prisoner who has since been executed seems odd and cruel — because he immediately stops smirking.

“Justice” is only for the little folk to Dubya.

John Edwards:

Only a president clinically incapable of understanding that mistakes have consequences could take the action he did today. President Bush has just sent exactly the wrong signal to the country and the world. In George Bush’s America, it is apparently okay to misuse intelligence for political gain, mislead prosecutors and lie to the FBI. George Bush and his cronies think they are above the law and the rest of us live with the consequences. The cause of equal justice in America took a serious blow today.”

Thanks, Mr. Edwards. You just earned a contribution for the day.

These millionaires seemingly can’t afford to pay their workers living wages and provide benefits.

When did we go from being a nation that cared about its people and businesses that cared about their employees to a bunch of asshats?

Supermarket Swindle: The Facts
Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons made record profits last year.

• Ralphs/Kroger: $3.4 billion
• Vons/Safeway: $2.6 billion
• Albertsons/Supervalu: $2.3 billion

The CEOs of Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons are collecting record bonuses for the success of the supermarkets. Details below are from 2005. On the same day that the supermarkets threatened to lock out their employees, it was announced that Steven Burd, CEO of Vons/Safeway would receive an $11.5 million bonus package for 2006.

2006 Bonus Packages:
• David Dillon (Ralphs/Kroger): $8.3 million
• Steven Burd (Vons/Safeway): $7 million
• Jeffrey Noddle (Albertsons/Supervalu): $11.9 million

Watch Robert Greenwald’s latest video Supermarket Swindle here.

Darwin earned his Canine Good Citizen certificate Tuesday night, along with Trex and Pepper! We are now looking for the right therapy program for him to work in. I’m hoping in a few more months he can become certified as a therapy dog.

He was rewarded by his trainer Joella with a fuzzy kitty, which has since vanished to some unknown location.

UPDATE: Kitty was found, under the couch!