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News Releases

List the things you want to do

What do you want to do with your life?

Social software can be great.
Try this:

1. Get Well (11) (x)
2. make a friend for life (1) (x)
3. Die well (1) (x)
4. Be Good (16) (x)
5. See the World (40) (x)
6. help my family (6) (x)
7. Earn a Master's Degree (1) (x)
8. Love more People (1) (x)
9. Give love (1) (x)
10. Listen, Learn and Share Knowlege. (1) (x)
11. Fall deeper in love with every one. (1) (x)
12. Stop The Killing. (1) (x)
13. HELP OTHER PEOPLE (74) (x)
14. get laid (1734) (x)
15. Say I love you to my family members (199) (x)
16. Thrive. (9) (x)
17. learn to draw again (158) (x)
18. improve my spoken french (5) (x)
19. start something big (42) (x)
20. have a single focused purpose (19) (x)
21. have a kid (23) (x)
22. be more honest with myself and other people (36) (x)
23. take back America from the jerks (336) (x)
24. I'm not sure but I hope feta cheese is involved (10) (x)
25. play guitar better (5) (x)
26. change the consciousness of our time (4) (x)
27. Be covered in the dust of love. (4) (x)
28. kiss in the rain (586) (x)
29. Share My Joy (1) (x)
30. Incite Laughter (1) (x)
31. yoga (25) (x)
32. teach a college course (89) (x)
33. drool ecstatically (1) (x)
34. be happy (1968) (x)
35. Speak the unspeakable (10) (x)
36. live simply (829) (x)
37. fall in love again (538) (x)
38. Write a novel (427) (x)
39. Wrestle An Angel (1) (x)
40. Banish Misfortune (1) (x)
41. Try Harder (1) (x)
42. I Want to Believe! (1) (x)
43. Find Peace (27) (x)

I'd better get crackin'!
Thanks to: Caterina

TOURISM - Endpiece

TOURISM - Endpiece

End of Year Lists

Some Good things to ask yourself...

1. What did you accomplish? [breakthroughs of the year-/obstacles]

2. What were your disappointments? [frustrations]

3. Think process. [review your two lists--methods ]

4. What lessons have you learned? [accomplishments and disappointments--Write them down]

5. Celebrate your success. [pat yourself on the back]

6. Celebrate with others. [Consider how others have contributed to the success]

7. Understand your values. [Your core beliefs and values are the foundation on which you
build]

8. Review your vision and goals for your organization. [Are you still on track?]

9. Develop your plan. [with your team]

10. Commit your plan to paper. [place your goals in a visible place somewhere where you will regularly see them]

Guidelines for Donating to a Disaster Incident

Guidelines for Donating to a Disaster Incident: "Guidelines for Appropriate
International Disaster Donations "

cabbage

cabbage

Originally uploaded by _william.

I think I made it through the holiday unscathed. Except for the loss of
my glasses. Oh and the peculiar surgery that i had last monday. That medication (vicodan) might have accounted for the loss of the spectacles. Maybe they are at the studio. I'll find out tomorrow.

Oh and Alice sent me a day late 'Yule Poem' an un-attributed parody of "A Visit From St. Nicholas." Not much from the reality department.

Yeah and Rumsfeld said that flight 93 was shot down. And thousands died on the shores of the Indian Ocean, and an asteroid is headed for the earth. Expected Impact April 2029.


Happy New Year.

The Heart Sutra - Prajnaparamita

The Heart Sutra

Thus have I heard. Once the Blessed One was dwelling in Rajagriha at Vulture Peak mountain, together with a great gathering of the sangha of monks and a great gathering of the sangha of bodhisattvas. At that time the Blessed One entered the samadhi that expresses the dharma called "profound illumination," and at the same time noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, while practicing the profound prajnaparamita, saw in this way: he saw the five skandhas to be empty of nature.

Then, through the power of the Buddha, venerable Shariputra said to noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, "How should a son or daughter of noble family train, who wishes to practice the profound prajnaparamita?"

Addressed in this way, noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, said to venerable Shariputra, "O Shariputra, a son or daughter of noble family who wishes to practice the profound prajnaparamita should see in this way: seeing the five skandhas to be empty of nature. Form is emptiness; emptiness also is form. Emptiness is no other than form; form is no other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness are emptiness. Thus, Shariputra, all dharmas are emptiness. There are no characteristics. There is no birth and no cessation. There is no impurity and no purity. There is no decrease and no increase. Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no formation, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no appearance, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no dharmas, no eye dhatu up to no mind dhatu, no dhatu of dharmas, no mind consciousness dhatu; no ignorance, no end of ignorance up to no old age and death, no end of old age and death; no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path, no wisdom, no attainment, and no non-attainment. Therefore, Shariputra, since the bodhisattvas have no attainment, they abide by means of prajnaparamita.

Since there is no obscuration of mind, there is no fear. They transcend falsity and attain complete nirvana. All the buddhas of the three times, by means of prajnaparamita, fully awaken to unsurpassable, true, complete enlightenment. Therefore, the great mantra of prajnaparamita, the mantra of great insight, the unsurpassed mantra, the unequaled mantra, the mantra that calms all suffering, should be known as truth, since there is no deception. The prajnaparamita mantra is said in this way:

OM GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA

Thus, Shariputra, the bodhisattva mahasattva should train in the profound prajnaparamita.

Then the Blessed One arose from that samadhi and praised noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, saying, "Good, good, O son of noble family; thus it is, O son of noble family, thus it is. One should practice the profound prajnaparamita just as you have taught and all the tathagatas will rejoice."

When the Blessed One had said this, venerable Shariputra and noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, that whole assembly and the world with its gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas rejoiced and praised the words of the Blessed One.

Seasons Geetings

Seasons Geetings

Indigo Ocean - Currents of Mind-"Surrender to Escape"

Indigo Ocean - Currents of Mind:
Without her permission, I'll reprint this. Indigo writes honestly about her experience as a human being and her quest for truth..

"When I speak of surrender I don't mean giving yourself away. I mean finding yourself anew. I would never ask you to give up anything without offering you something much greater in return. There is no deprivation required, only a sacrifice. You must give up your small self if you are to discover your great self. Live in constant communion with your inner self and you will be living the life that called you to Earth.

When you decide that no matter what happens you are going to live in your joy and let something beyond your isolated intellect take care of the situation, you have surrendered. Your head is not stuck in the sand. You are paying close attention to see what your inner self does with the situation. This is how growth occurs.

Whenever I anthropomorphize God, which I generally try not to do, I imagine this huge body sitting with one toe shoved into this tiny little shoe, tugging and pulling at it and saying, "How do we fit into these bodies?" The answer of course is, grow the shoe. Expand.

In order to expand, you must first relax the leather. It must be soft and pliable or expansion will tear it apart. So if you want to be one with the highest aspects of yourself, to embody divinity as fully as you are able to do with this life of yours, soften your idea of who you are.

The idea each of us holds about who we are is one of the most difficult things to surrender. Each of us wants to be someone in particular. Every child gradually learns to move away from direct contact with the world. They go from relating as a wide open sky meeting a great, unknown expanse to relating as a fragile being that must hide behind a cloud of identity.

Society encourages the development of this facade because it wants to be able to easily sum each of us up at a glance and decide whether we are important to its aims. With many people, if you can help them get ahead or at least reflect favorably upon them by association, then you are worth knowing. If not, you will swiftly be dismissed and ignored.

Which role did you decide to take? Or was a role forced on you without much input on your part? Are you the smart one? Are you the flunky? Are you the misunderstood artist? The isolated nerd? The super-achiever? The bubbly breath of fresh air? What shape is your cloud? How dense is it? Does it completely block all light or are there moments when your true being shines through?

Perhaps there are times when you are alone that you momentarily forget who you are supposed to be. Maybe when you are traveling alone and there is nothing familiar around you nor anyone to relate to you in habitual ways there is some clarity that emerges. Though even in that situation everyone you meet is trying to sum you up, at least it is unlikely that whatever image of you they create will match your self-image. If you can see all misunderstandings about who you are as opportunities for escape, you are half-way over the barricades already.

The surrendered life is a life beyond clouds. It is a life lived free, not necessarily from the point of view of the world, but in how you relate to yourself. The surrendered life is not an echo of past thoughts, words, or actions. It is a continual stream of present moment responses coming from the inner self, which is always present-centered and never habitual.

Surrender directly to your inner self -- which lives in constant surrender to the flow of all existence -- and regain your true nature as a clear light shining in a spacious sky. Build your relationship with your inner self so that you can reliably allow your dense, unyielding, suffocating concepts of "self" that have been controlling your life to give way just a bit and some space to emerge there. In that space, you will begin to awaken to an awareness of your true nature as a reflection of something inexpressible that could never be captured by any label."

Indigo offers guidance. She is pretty cool too!

Foucault, the "Author Function"

Foucault, the "Author Function": "Michel Foucault on the 'Author Function'"

Elephant Mask

Animals have their own lives.
Sometimes better than our own.
We all could wish for Animal pleasures
But the government might stop us,

If you feel like you live in a zoo
Go ahead and act like an ape.
I'm an anthropoid and you're one too.
Consider the life you want to escape.

Do no harm is my first advice
After that, pursue you own life.

.If you find some one in a field,
Dead and exposed, be kind.

You may go there too.
Elephants in zoo's
rock to and fro,
take up stones
marking the walls of their enclosures.

Some see the marks as the sign of Buddha,
Some sell the marks as Art.

the scrawl of a beast might fetch a thousand dollars
but my poem is yours for free.

Don't treat me like an elephant
scratching the walls of his cage.

Ice-Age Ivory Flute Found in German Cave

Ice-Age Ivory Flute Found in German Cave
one of the oldest musical instruments discovered

Strong Meteor Shower Peaks Monday Night

Strong Meteor Shower Peaks Monday Night: The Geminids get their name from the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. On the night of this shower's maximum, the meteors will appear to emanate from a spot in the sky near the bright star Castor in Gemini.
The Geminids begin to appear noticeably more numerous in the hours after 10 p.m. local time Monday, because the shower's radiant is already fairly high in the eastern sky by then. The best views, however, come around 2 a.m. Tuesday, when their radiant point will be passing very nearly overhead. The higher a shower's radiant, the more meteors it produces all over the sky.

birth

The shadow of a child that never was
Across my heart, with pale hands draws his void.

mom

Out of the foggy dawn

With out asking if I were home
From Florida to Tennessee,
You took the trip to find your son.

...................................................
a hundred words unsaid
...................................................

But then again a million more.
Are were are all your children now?
And where are the fathers?

Why Sing?

What does a bird mean
When it calls from each branch
Singing from tree to tree
In the forest?
Described by the poet as song
And territorial marking
By the naturalist;
The bird's true intent
Can only be known by the bird itself.
There is no exegis for true song.

Though we may never
Know the why,
We might enjoy
A cry in the woods.