Saturday, September 30, 2006

Roundup for Sept 30, 2006

Detail from pic from two series of photographs Michael of one foot in front of the other posted, taken in New York during a day of drizzly weather. Michael is a master of capturing interesting details. Here, the bird's not on the statue, the statue holds the bird. In other photos, a girl at a statue's base focuses our attention in an otherwise gray photo; a dog in a sweater is standing while it's master's blouse is askew; a woman with a cane has her hand covering half her face; four people in the crowd, cover a range of expression from digging the music to, possibly, moving on with a tinge of sadness.

George of Sentient Developments tells his brilliant, single-digit-aged kids that God is on the order of make believe of “sasquatch, werewolves, ghosts, UFOs and telekinesis.” Teaching religion to children borders on abuse, says George. “Parents need to open doors rather than close them. Religions not only close the doors to our rational faculties and our experiential potentials, they often act as the deadbolt that locks the door tight forever.” I don’t think that by religion George is including all Buddhist sects.

Sea-Moose [aka, Shaw-mus], The Contemporary Taoist, intrepidly diagnoses the cause of his pain, but drops a point or two in the IQ rankings. We may need to lower his grade to C-minus-Moose.

He’s Just Had His Coffee, so Tim was able to assemble a boffo set of links today on music, groups, programming & Google management.

In his post “From birth to death it is just like this,” The Brad of Hardcore Zen fame interprets a koan for us. Excellent, insightful stuff – that clever Brad – written in colorful Bradese. It does make one wonder, however, if Brad’s cleverness and colorfulness isn’t in contradiction of the message of the koan. I think not, but maybe.

Peace, like a river, ran through the buddhoblogosphere.

Tinythinker of peaceful turmoil posted on peace. His post beginning with this interesting sentiment:
There is a general sense that among the more mystically-oriented and contemplative sacred traditions that absolute pacifism is the answer - the only answer - to violence. I don't happen to agree with this. As I've written before, when it comes to the point where we are confronted with the threat of violence, we (human society) have already failed. That is, the effect was laid with the causes we allowed to be sewn which then ripened in the condition we helped to create. It's the basis of the concept of karma.
Mike Doe of Doe-do posted “Peace” regarding an individual’s development of peacefulness. He began thinking about peace after first visiting Blogmandu. Ain’t that the way? Here’s a snippet of Doe’s non-doleful words:
When you are at peace with yourself there is no need to fight the world, there is no need to seek out and create conflict – just for the sake of conflict. A peaceful person just lives their life quietly without fuss and without drama regardless of who is watching.
And now back to the stream, already in progress...

In Cliff’s This Was This, Mr. Jones goes back in time to an ordeal that can only have happened in Canada. Following is not a snippet from his post:
I once was kidnapped and left wandering the woods for two weeks and had to survive by drinking a tea brewed using from the still-piping-hot urine of a moose I killed with my own bare hands.
Famous Bill of Integral Options Café writes about the modes and forms of change in the first of a promised two-part post. Here, a small chunk of his post:
…[One variation of VERTICAL change,] break-out, is the most relevant to dealing with personal crises. Break-out occurs when one is in the midst of change, caught between what was and what is yet to become. This period can be quite prolonged and involves a great deal of frustration and anger. Beck and Cowan say, “… Such transformational change is tumultuous; it marks life passages and ‘significant emotional events.’
Paul, A Blue-Eyed Buddhist, REJECTS BUDDHISM! Well, sort of – and in theory, only. Here’s a bit from his rant:
But you know what? I’d rather you be a happy Catholic than a miserable Buddhist. Or a happy agnostic, or a happy atheist. And while I’m frequently quite arrogant (hey, I’m an air traffic controller, I save lives and separate airplanes with the power of my mind) I would like to think that I’m not quite arrogant enough to declare that the ONLY way to becoming happy, serene and enlightened in this lifetime is through Buddhism.