Zigzag Idiot

Wonder how long it will be before robots connected to artificial intelligence will be waiting tables, stocking shelves, laying bricks, mowing yards, pizza delivery, Ferris wheel operators, baggage handlers, elderly assistants, unemployed steelworkers.

Last night I had prolonged and detailed dream of traveling to Houston regularly. For some reason I had taken up bull riding in rodeos. Yesterday I got my old 1995 1/2 ton 4w drive Chevy running again. It hadn’t been started in 7 years. I put another fuel pump and filter in it and it started right up. In 2017 I had stopped to patch some barbed wire fence on top of a large hill. I failed to set the emergency brake and let it roll off a hill and crash into a wooded area. That was a strange feeling to turn back to where the truck was parked only to see it rolling off down the hill with increasing speed. I dug it out of the woods with a front bumper and windshield completely destroyed. Amazingly the motor was intact and even the radiator I had installed just a week prior was spared.

A small passage from my I-Ching consultation yesterday,,, This line can also refer to a person who, in following a spiritual path, has not experienced the benefits he expected. Instead of questioning whether he has been following the correct path, he interprets the counsel "to return" as saying that he has not tried hard enough, and needs to try harder. He must recognize that a spiritual path, as described in the main text, is a forward-leading path that leads to more and more separation from his true self, as he tries to become something special (i.e., a "spiritual being"). The path of return indicated by this hexagram is the path of divesting oneself of all self-images and attempts to be special. The person needs also to rid himself of the blame spell he has put on himself for not doing enough. (See p. 550, Deprogramming Procedure.) Pertinent correlation from Almaas’ Teaching- Ending Up with a Mental Image for an Identity An important question remains unanswered: Why, when Being or its aspect of space is lost, is what remains nothingness and not something else? In other words, why do we end up with emptiness and not another content of experience? To answer this question we have to discuss the point at which psychodynamics touches phenomenology. We need to see how psychodynamic processes—which are processes in time—affect felt phenomena—which always involve spatially experienced objects of perception. We first consider how specifically the loss of space leads to deficient emptiness.pace is lost as the mind takes self-image for identity. We have seen that this leads to the building of boundaries in the openness of space. The final result is that instead of the experience of Being without mental images, one ends up with a mental image for an identity. So instead of space being pervaded by Being it gets filled with a self composed of many self-representations. Now, what is the phenomenon of space when it is filled with the self? In other words, what is the mind filled with the psychic structure? On the surface it is the usual experience of the personality with its various manifestations. But, at the core, it is the deficient emptiness. The Void, pg. 135 We Know Ourselves From the Veil of Memory The mental images and attitudes that determine how we experience ourselves form the basis of a whole implicit worldview. We also experience ourselves only indirectly, as a subject experiencing an object. We are aware of ourselves as an object like other objects, seeing ourselves in the world as one object among others. Even when one is aware of oneself as perceiver or subject, this perception is different from the direct sense of our facticity, from the fact of our existence. We still know ourselves from the veil of memory. The Point of Existence, pg. 21

Wart removal for a butchered rabbit Modern day health care needn't be so complicated. When I was a boy of about 15. Doctor Fried, the family Doctor removed a couple of warts off my hand. He actually burned them off with a tool that looked like a sortering iron. My mother did his bookkeeping. So I was around him more than usual. When he got done, he said, " How about you butcher one of your rabbits and bring to me". I said. "No problem. He knew I was in the rabbit business. I started raising rabbits when I was about 12 years old. I usually sold live rabbits to a buyer when they were about 10 -12 weeks old. One thing that stuck with me about raising rabbits is shoveling the manure from under the hutches would absolutely cleanse and drain your sinuses. I guess its ammonia that comes out of the manure piles. Breath very much at all and your nose will be running and your eyes will tear. Here's a short article that is quite good. https://online.diamondapproach.org/harmony-of-centers/

I'm being lazy and answering the question with quotes out of the Ridhwan Glossary. But let me first start by saying I don't know! But I'm leery of all this talk about imagination. Unconstrained imagination bolsters self deception. Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Here's some food for thought though from the mind of A.H. Almaas Self-Aware Consciousness At some point, however, you come to the recognition of what we call “essential truth.” Essential truth is not an insight about something but the apprehending of the immediate reality of the moment. This immediate reality is presence—the quality of beingness—as when one is experiencing an essential aspect, such as Compassion or Strength. We find out here that one of the most important characteristics of essential presence is that it is self-aware consciousness. Absolute Being So when we say Absolute, we mean Being -- Essence with no qualities, before qualities come into Being. Then you know it's the source of everything, because you see everything arising from it. Diamond Heart Book Three, pg. 165 Absolute Dimension Because the absolute is not simply nonbeing, we experience it as a field, an expanse, and not simply nonbeing. To understand this we need to make a particular differentiation explicit. We have been using two terms interchangeably, namely absolute and absolute dimension. Strictly speaking, the absolute is the ultimate nature of Reality, and it is beyond dimensions; for dimensions are the experience of manifestation. Yet, we do experience the absolute as a dimension, boundless and infinite, an infinity that contains and holds all manifestation, including the other boundless dimensions. We can say that the absolute is the unmanifest, the ultimate truth and mystery of Being, beyond all dimensions and qualities. But when it begins to manifest appearance, this manifestation appears as if in an expanse, an infinite and boundless expanse, that looks like black space. Manifestation appears always in the context of time and space. It always possesses an expanse in time and space. Therefore, when we witness appearance from this stance of the absolute we see an expanse appearing in a more vast, dark expanse, the absolute. We have the sense of the absolute as an expanse, as a vast infinite black space. The absolute appears in this perception as a boundless dimension that underlies all other dimensions. But in reality the absolute is beyond space and time, for it is beyond manifestation. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 394

Hey Brotherman, It's been a while,,,, Terence Mckenna made note of something that I also found to be similar with me. When I get off cannabis, My dreamworld becomes much richer, When I'm smoking cannabis regularly,,, I don't have that vivid of dreams. Mckenna hypothesized that the daytime hours was filled with more revery. Thus , the subconscious was accessed throughout the day, relieving surplus pressures ,,, for lack of a better way of saying it. Drop in and visit if you feel like it, Take care!

Sometimes I’m just a horrible human being. My tendency to exaggerate when I write doesn’t really help that much. Hyperbole adds flavor but I’m noticing at times the negative influence it has. The power that language has in its influencing both one’s outer world and inner world as well. It’s been a bit of a blind spot of mine perhaps. A favorite Zen story or Koan ,,, The Voice of Happiness After Bankei had passed away, a blind man who lived near the master's temple told a friend; Since I am blind, I cannot watch a person's face, so I must judge his character by the sound of his voice. Ordinarily when I hear someone congradulate another upon his happiness or success, I also hear a secret tone of envy. When condolence is expressed for the misfortune of another, I hear pleasure and satisfaction, as if the one condoling was really glad there was something left to gain in his own world. "In all my experience, however, Bankei's voice was always sincere. Whenever he expressed happiness, I heard nothing but happiness, and whenever he expressed sorrow, sorrow was all I heard."

Overcoming cynicism I’m looking at my progess over a period of a 20 years. Twenty years ago my spiritual egotism was intact with buffers protecting and perpetuating the condition of what some call spiritual materialism. Around that time I had encountered a Teacher of the Fourth Way (esoteric Christianity). He pointed out,at various times, the presence of my inner Pharisee, which, by the way is synonymous with a Zen Devil or spiritual materialist. Guilt perpetuates self condemnation and as a result we extend that judgement to everyone we encounter. This projection stains our entire world. Self forgiveness sets everyone else free from our own condemnation. How wonderful it feels to discover everyone’s innocence including our own. The discovery of this state of consciousness is transient at first but to return to it is synonymous with what Gurdjieff called Self-Remembering. Everything in one’s perceptual field becomes vivified. You become lighthearted.

My I-Ching reading today. A part of it anyway. Hexagram 3 Line 5. Difficulties in blessing. A little perseverance brings good fortune. Great perseverance brings misfortune. Here, the difficulties encountered refer to the retreat of the Sage that occurs when the ego takes over a person's work on developing himself. The ego hopes, through ambitious and pious work, to be recognized by the Sage as "spiritual." The meaning of "a little perseverance" is to approach liberating the true self with modesty. This means not to forget to live one's life joyfully. The ego, in its striving, would drive the person to ascetic extremes and deprivations. This is the meaning of "great perseverance brings misfortune." The problem with the idea of "being spiritual" is that it contains all the self-flattery that maintains the ego as leader of the personality.It further divides a person's true nature into a higher and lower self, splitting his wholeness and placing spells on what is believed to be his"lower,"" or animal nature. Accepting this idea creates a fate, which is usually that of illness. This line can also indicate a person whose progress is blocked due to mistaken beliefs about the purpose of human life. It can refer to human-centered beliefs such as: "I have to do it all, "humans are the representatives of heaven on earth, "humans are responsible for making everything work," and "for creating order in the world." Such difficulties in blessing can be erased if he asks the Sage to help him rid himself of these mistaken beliefs. This will engage the Helper of Transformation to remove the blocks created by these phrases in his inner program.

Being authentic is overrated This goes against a basic premise I had when this Journal was started. I see the truth in what she says.

Do cats have linguistic awareness? I wouldn’t think so. Do cats have non-conceptual awareness? This sounds more likely. I just don't know, really. Just imaginative conjecture on my part.

@Francis777 I do that too. Welcome! If you prefer to not have comments from others. Just let us know.