Even in absurdity, sacrament. Even in hardship, holiness. Even in doubt, faith. Even in chaos, realization. Even in paradox, blessedness
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"Life expands or shrinks in proportion to one's courage." ~Anain Nin
¡alive and well in sudamerica! This message comes way by of a very confusing keyboard, so please excuse excessive grammatical liberties. It seems very strange that this is only day 3... so much has happened and yet there is so much more. I´m typing from Aguas Calientas, the nearest town to Macchu Pichu, where we spent most of the day and where i return tomorrow to make the rather steep hike to the summit of Huayna Pichu. No altitude sickness, no utterly gut wrenching gastronomical adventures, and my Spanish is improving by the day. I´ve had plenty of time to think and experience this shockingly vivid place. I´m extremely light on time right now and so I´ll really have to save the stories for later. Just know that I¨m having a mindblowing adventure courtesy of the stunning history here, and of the tri-fold grace of puma, condor and sserpent... power, freedom, wisdom. I don´t know when I´ll have a chance to say hello again, but until then, know that i am staggeringly alive and brilliantly well. I love you all! Cheers, jaybird found this for you @ 21:06 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink
all that lies under condor wings  The Inca Empire (called Tawantinsuyu in modern spelling Aymara and Quechua, or Tahuantinsuyu in old spelling Quechua, which means Land of the Four Corners), was an empire located in South America from 1438 CE to 1533 CE. Over that period, the Inca used conquest and peaceful assimilation to incorporate in their empire a large portion of western South America, centred on the Andean mountain ranges. The Inca empire proved short-lived: by 1533 CE, Atahualpa, the last Inca, was killed on the orders of the Conquistador Francisco Pizarro, marking the beginning of Spanish hegemony. jaybird found this for you @ 11:52 in History, Civilization & Anthropology | | permalink
Cusco  Cusco or Qosqo was built at 3.400m in the shape of an enormous puma (see picture above right). The body of the puma contained the most important palaces, temples and governmental buildings while the fortress just outside the city, known as Sacsayhuamán, formed the head of this sacred animal. jaybird found this for you @ 12:05 in Culture, People & Customs | | permalink
Rumi O Pilgrims, thou art where, thou art where? Thy beloved is thy neighbor, behind the wall If that lovely faceless face you once see From house to house, you sought for proof If it is the house of soul you seek If you’ve been to the garden, where is your bunch? With all this pain where is your gain? Hidden treasure chest, buried in soil King of the World, to you will show jaybird found this for you @ 12:00 in Authors, Books & Words | | permalink
on the road to find out Well, this will be my last official post until I can get online in South America. I wonder what I'll have to report? If only MT's future post option would let me see what I'm posting in the future. Maybe with quantum computing... Today I perform a wedding for two good friends, Vicky and Greg. After that, it's a mad scramble to finish what's left to do and to try to make a dent in schoolwork. I am limiting my expectations, yet I'm emphasizing to myself this mantra: Teaching begins on the first step of any journey. Tomorrow at 9:20am, that journey begins when Joshua and Robin ceremoniously remove me from my duties at Jubilee and drive me to the airport. I'll be on four flights to my destination: Cusco. Sunday: Flying Right now, these names only mean the amount of research I've put into them. They're empty, awaiting fulfillment by experience. That's what I'm off to do: to experience, to live life, to learn. I'll see you all on the flipside. Thanks everyone for your support and friendship. It is sustaining and everlasting on return. Deep peace and deep merriment! Yours, jaybird jaybird found this for you @ 12:00 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink
almost there... Off to bed right now, and am mostly packed. It's almost time to go. A wedding tomorrow and a few errands and it's time to fly. My heart races with excitement for Peru and Bolivia and my mind races in preparation to learn. More tomorrow. jaybird found this for you @ 23:22 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink
eclipsing the media with mind The message seems clear- resist and we will fuck you up. Underneath this lies a second message. This message lies encoded inseparably from the phenomenology of seeing America’s best and brightest choked down by fascist thugs. I urge people to view this video as an amazing piece of guerilla surveillance. The Third Mind keeps the pressure on, even in sight of a Gestapo onslaught against peaceful protest. Kids- barely out of their teens, if at all- choked out by cops in riot gear, recalling the worst excesses of apartheid states from Birmingham to Cape Town to Tel Aviv to Boston. The constant recurrence of other people’s cameras provide the most hope for me. Indeed, we leave the Third Mind and add a Fourth, a Fifth, ad infinitum. The corporate media, always hungry for a scandal, will no doubt be interested in footage of police terror. Innocent (and let’s be frank here, white middle class) post-adolescents getting brutalized by riot police makes for good copy. Cut the footage down to nothing but the most horrific moments. Skinny white men choked down by the town’s hottest Bears in cop suits, dressed up like Little Lord Fauntleroy Gestapo Style. Brutality captured from all angles opens the door for a cut-up of violence. Picture, if you will a meeting of four or five camera-persons from this event. One of them must know how to edit. They cut the footage down to the most brutal events. Splice in footage of the Gestapo, Boston cops defending racist terrorists in the 70s, LBJ, township rebellions, Kent State, atomic testing, etc. Finally add in prepared commentary to the mix. I suggest a string of nonsense, immediatist slogans, pop magic! Mantras, and even the odd flash of sigil. The end product resembles something between a Kenneth Anger film and the six o’clock news. America, you have raised your children for this. jaybird found this for you @ 15:54 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
bronze age love song  Ancient Egyptian Sexuality [via orlin grabbe] ...Revel in pleasure while your life endures jaybird found this for you @ 11:46 in Carnality, Naughtiness & Fun | | permalink
there's time enough Lynds' paper, "Time and Classical and Quantum Mechanics: Indeterminacy vs. Continuity," is the latest chapter in a story that begins with Zeno and runs through Newton and Einstein to today. The question they struggled to answer: How does matter move through time and space? Newton described motion as a change in position over time. (In the process of figuring that out, he invented calculus.) That allowed for infinite series of infinitesimal steps, which polishes off Zeno. But for his model to make sense, Newton needed what he described as "absolute, true and mathematical time, which of itself flows equably without relation to anything external." It's a God clock, ticking out discrete instants, or, if you prefer, a universal CPU, doling out reality one cycle at a time, a series of static instants giving only the appearance of motion like the successive frames of a movie. But Einstein didn't buy it. The heart of relativity is that everything depends on your point of view - if you're traveling at close to the speed of light (a constant), then time moves differently for you than for your slowpoke friends back home. Einstein died before he had worked out the implications of his own brilliant ideas. Among the problems left unsolved: Time could go faster or slower (or even backward), but was it divisible? And were there irreducible "atoms" of time, quantum flecks now called chronons? jaybird found this for you @ 07:46 in Science, Quantum & Space | | permalink
jay's reality show Time is accelerating in some bizarro whirlwind of bent light and catching sight of one's self doing things in the future. Really. I'm in an interstellar overdrive to try to get everything done (that *can* be done) before I skedaddle for two weeks under new constellations. Thanks to a little injection of prioritization from my therapist (obviously, I must be crazy as well), I was up until 2 catching up on schoolwork rather than surfing Flickr to see pictures of where I'll be this time next week. Based on the view from here right now, it really looks like everything will get done without a huge panic. Saturday, just before I split, I'm performing a wedding for an old friend, and I think the service will be a wonderful way to truly begin the journey... in the spirit of love, hope, and most importantly, teaching. I'm open to whatever Peru and Bolivia need to say, and I'll pay attention to all the subtle ways that teaching is transmitted on the path. I'm going to frame the leaving in ritual, as well as the return. And this posting, itself, was quite a diversion, but I felt like it was time for a short episode of my reality. Believe me, I prefer my reality to be short as well (being that reality is only a gauze over the eyes to minimize the glare of brilliant, cosmic non-absolutes). Wink. jaybird found this for you @ 19:23 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink
camera obscura  In pictures: Kalash spring festival Tucked away in the mountains of northern Pakistan, the tiny Kalash minority celebrate the end of winter in May each year with the Joshi (spring) festival. It is a time to give thanks for the end of the harsh weather and to celebrate the arrival of the more productive spring months. Until recently the Kalash had no calendars or watches. They work out the festival dates by the position of the sun. jaybird found this for you @ 15:19 in Culture, People & Customs | | permalink
mama africa The way most newspapers and TV news tell it, there's little going on in Africa except poverty, famine, disease, and even genocide. But there's more to Africa than hardship. And there are growing efforts to try to present a fuller, more rounded picture of this continent to the world... A prominent challenge came this week from Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Speaking in Kenya at the International Press Institute's annual gathering, he defied the media to tell the whole story. "I urge you to play your role, not merely as watchdogs and whistle-blowers, but as advocates and educators in our joint venture to make Africa ... a better place," he said. He further argued the negative portrayal hurts Africa's efforts to fix its problems. "One of the reasons why Africa has not been able to attract enough foreign direct investment, which we need for our development, is the constant negative reporting," he added. jaybird found this for you @ 11:14 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink
devolution ...Intelligent design is not what people often assume it is. For one thing, I.D. is not Biblical literalism. Unlike earlier generations of creationists—the so-called Young Earthers and scientific creationists—proponents of intelligent design do not believe that the universe was created in six days, that Earth is ten thousand years old, or that the fossil record was deposited during Noah’s flood. (Indeed, they shun the label “creationism” altogether.) Nor does I.D. flatly reject evolution: adherents freely admit that some evolutionary change occurred during the history of life on Earth. Although the movement is loosely allied with, and heavily funded by, various conservative Christian groups—and although I.D. plainly maintains that life was created—it is generally silent about the identity of the creator. The movement’s main positive claim is that there are things in the world, most notably life, that cannot be accounted for by known natural causes and show features that, in any other context, we would attribute to intelligence. Living organisms are too complex to be explained by any natural—or, more precisely, by any mindless—process. Instead, the design inherent in organisms can be accounted for only by invoking a designer, and one who is very, very smart. All of which puts I.D. squarely at odds with Darwin. Darwin’s theory of evolution was meant to show how the fantastically complex features of organisms—eyes, beaks, brains—could arise without the intervention of a designing mind. jaybird found this for you @ 07:13 in Science, Quantum & Space | | permalink
Rebuilding Creation  Mayan religious centres were designed along the principles of sacred architecture The Mayan story of creation has survived the destruction of the Spanish invasion. It is contained within the Popol Vuh, a 17th century book of the history of the Quiche Maya. The story of creation details the activities of the Twin Maize Gods and their family in the Third Creation, which the Maya date to 3114 BC. This date should not be taken literally – like the 4004 BC that people calculated as the date for Creation based on the Bible. Many scholars now believe that August 12, 3114 BC marked a significant celestial event, with one author, John Major Jenkins, arguing that the Mayan careful stellar observations resulted in their knowledge of what is known as the “galactic centre”. It is this stellar phenomenon that is also linked with the Mayan calendar’s end date of December 21, 2012 AD, which experts like Linda Schele remarks is nowhere mentioned as a physical end for the world within the Mayan literature. jaybird found this for you @ 20:06 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
it's about freedom... yeah. In a 300-page annual report, the group also accused the US government of damaging human rights over its attitude to torture and treatment of detainees. This encouraged and fuelled abuses by governments in all regions of the world, the human rights advocates said... The televised beheading of captives in Iraq, the bombing of commuter trains in Madrid and the siege at a school in Beslan in Russia showed that "four years after 9/11, the promise to make the world a safer place remains hollow", secretary general Irene Khan said. jaybird found this for you @ 15:59 in News, Opinion & Politique | | permalink
Natural-Born Liars Deception runs like a red thread throughout all of human history. It sustains literature, from Homer's wily Odysseus to the biggest pop novels of today. Go to a movie, and odds are that the plot will revolve around deceit in some shape or form. Perhaps we find such stories so enthralling because lying pervades human life. Lying is a skill that wells up from deep within us, and we use it with abandon. As the great American observer Mark Twain wrote more than a century ago: "Everybody lies ... every day, every hour, awake, asleep, in his dreams, in his joy, in his mourning. If he keeps his tongue still his hands, his feet, his eyes, his attitude will convey deception." Deceit is fundamental to the human condition. Research supports Twain's conviction. One good example was a study conducted in 2002 by psychologist Robert S. Feldman of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Feldman secretly videotaped students who were asked to talk with a stranger. He later had the students analyze their tapes and tally the number of lies they had told. A whopping 60 percent admitted to lying at least once during 10 minutes of conversation, and the group averaged 2.9 untruths in that time period. The transgressions ranged from intentional exaggeration to flat-out fibs. Interestingly, men and women lied with equal frequency; however, Feldman found that women were more likely to lie to make the stranger feel good, whereas men lied most often to make themselves look better. jaybird found this for you @ 11:44 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
the end is beginning Whether it is named the Singularity or the Spike, the Transcendental Object at the End of Time or the New Jerusalem, the vision of humankind’s mass transcension into a hyperdimensional state of being is a millennia-old archetype whose depths obstinately refuse to be fully plumbed. Like all abiding memes, it is a motif whose representations can vary a great deal in detail without losing their basic archetypal pattern. Today’s prophesized Singularity (as commonly publicized by Vinge, Drexler, and Kurzweil, among many others) is no different. Though first catalyzed by an unparalleled technological leap, this metahistorical Spike promises to comprehensively and irrevocably transmogrify every mode in which we relate to our selves, each other, and the phenomenal world at large. Our sphere of influence will vastly deepen -- not only outer space, but inner space as well will be laid bare to the penetrative stare of innumerable nanites and foglets. We shall at last see as we have been seen, and will then be, courtesy of superhumanly intelligent and benignly spiritual machines, summarily remolded in the image of our greatest and wildest expectations. The only significant precedent to such a mind-bending warp in consensual reality would have to be the resultant Utopia often foreseen as the coda to the various ‘end-times’ scenarios of pious apocalypticists. Peering at length through the symphonic perversity of their feverish visions, we touch upon several key intimations regarding the ‘look’ and ‘feel’ of a post-historical planetary renovation -- visions which until recently have been either faithfully reverenced as gospel truth in spite of (or perhaps because of ) their seeming improbability, or alternatively scorned as hallucinogenic pipe-dreams. But when set alongside the forecasts of our contemporary futurists, these ancient allusions are sometimes startlingly similar to those foreseen today, and occasionally appear to describe the technologies of tomorrow in bold detail. jaybird found this for you @ 07:40 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
is the funk in the trunk? In 1997, O'Connell-Rodwell took this discovery in a bold, new direction by proposing that low-frequency calls also generate powerful vibrations in the ground - seismic signals that elephants can feel, and even interpret, via their sensitive trunks and feet. Scientists have long known that seismic communication is common in small animals, including spiders, scorpions, insects and a few vertebrate species, such as white-lipped frogs, kangaroo rats and golden moles. Seismic sensitivity also has been observed in elephant seals - huge marine mammals not related to elephants. But O'Connell-Rodwell was the first to suggest that a large land animal is capable of sending and receiving vibrational messages. "A lot of research has been done showing that small animals use seismic signals to find mates, locate prey and establish territories," she notes. "But there have only been a few studies focusing on the ability of large mammals to communicate through the ground." jaybird found this for you @ 19:33 in Environment, Ecology & Nature | | permalink
land of the jaguar, of the condor Countdown: 4 days, 19 hours, 24 minutes The more ancient character inherent in it was displayed in the presence of deities many of which were little better than mere totems, and although a definite monotheism or worship of one god appears to have been reached, it was not by the efforts of the priestly caste that this was achieved, but rather by the will of the Inca Pachacutic, who seems to have been a monarch gifted with rare insight and ability-a man much after the type of the Mexican Nezahualcoyotl. In Inca times the religion of the people was solely directed by the state, and regulated in such a manner that independent theological thought was permitted no outlet. But it must not be inferred from this that no change had ever come over the spirit of Peruvian religion. As a matter of fact sweeping changes had been effected, but these had been solely the work of the Inca race, the leaders of which had amalgamated the various faiths of the peoples whom they had conquered into one official belief. jaybird found this for you @ 15:21 in Culture, People & Customs | | permalink
Animal Reviews: The Cat The team has observed that baddies in films (and possibly in real life too) favour the cat over any other mammal as an illustrative prop to demonstrate their power over others. These cats are often decked head to paw in diamonds, and are usually fairly well mannered in temperament (seemingly in an attempt to create a dramatic contrast to the volatile nature of the kitty's owner). So that makes them excellent. jaybird found this for you @ 11:12 in Silly People, Satire & Strange Behaviors | | permalink
schroedinger's traffic light On my way to work this morning, there was a massive jam around a light that was both red and green at the same time. People had no clue what to do when the predictable duality went all hooey on them. It was fascinating. jaybird found this for you @ 09:23 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink
Yup. Yes indeed. ...Some brain-damaged people can't comprehend sarcasm, and Israeli researchers think it's because a specific brain region has gone dark. The region, according to the researchers, handles the task of detecting hidden meaning, a crucial component of sarcasm. If that part of the brain is out of commission, the irony doesn't come through, the scientists report... "People with prefrontal brain damage suffer from difficulties in understanding other people's mental states, and they lack empathy... Therefore, they can't understand what the speaker really is talking about, and get only the literal meaning." The findings... could help rehabilitation centers do a better job of helping brain-damaged patients adjust to the world and understand other people. jaybird found this for you @ 07:10 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
vibrant beings  jaybird found this for you @ 20:19 in Environment, Ecology & Nature | | permalink
Atalanta Fugiens  Michael Maier’s book Atalanta Fugiens (Atalanta Fleeing) was published at Oppenheim in 1617 by the firm of Johann Theodor de Bry. It’s an alchemical text in a strikingly unusual form: it comprises fifty sections, where each section consists of a score of a short fugue (‘in two canonical parts over a cantus firmus’), a motto, an engraved emblematic image, a Latin verse, and a few pages of cryptic commentary. It takes its title from the legendary tale of Atalanta’s race with Hippomenes. In its simultaneous presentation of music, image, poetry and prose, it is a singular piece of Baroque multimedia. jaybird found this for you @ 16:15 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
howard zinn I cannot get out of my mind the recent news photos of ordinary Americans sitting on chairs, guns on laps, standing unofficial guard on the Arizona border, to make sure no Mexicans cross over into the United States. There was something horrifying in the realization that, in this twenty-first century of what we call "civilization," we have carved up what we claim is one world into 200 artificially created entities we call "nations" and armed to apprehend or kill anyone who crosses a boundary. Is not nationalism--that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder--one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? These ways of thinking--cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on--have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power. National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica, and many more). But in a nation like ours--huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction--what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves. jaybird found this for you @ 12:07 in Consciousness, Psychology & Philosophy | | permalink
A Stand Against Assimilation  "In the past we used to learn from elders and have no written history or learning," says Luke Rehmat, a member of the dwindling 3,000-strong Kalash community nestled in the mountains of the Hindu Kush in northern Pakistan. "We want to preserve our culture, but it is also very necessary to get a good education for all, including women." Until recently, the lifestyle of the Kalash had changed little since the community was established, according to their oral history, by settlers from Alexander the Great's armies in 377 BC. jaybird found this for you @ 08:05 in Culture, People & Customs | | permalink
sunday noodle soup The dawn began in a shroud I know these people, you see, Soon, flight; The evening comes down softly jaybird found this for you @ 16:31 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink
william butler yeats *** Where dips the rocky highland Where the wave of moonlight glosses Where the wandering water gushes Away with us, he's going, jaybird found this for you @ 14:29 in Authors, Books & Words | | permalink
8 days, 11 hours, 20 minutes That's how long until the South America trek officially kicks off, on the first of four flights which will eventually drop myself and three other co-experiencers to Cusco, Peru. We will wind our way through the Andes, to Lake Titicaca, and through Bolivia. I've just returned from an excursion to procure provisions, and I'm startlingly on budget and keeping myself within fairly tight limits. The site will be on autopilot, but I'd like to invite any of my regular readers to guest host as well. Email me for login info. I'm having to get all of my schoolwork done two weeks in advance, and work-work is a whole other organizational fiasco. We're having a little bon voyage party tomorrow with my friends Kim and Tree who're headed off to Germany. Wunderbar! The sense of acceleration and exhileration is ever-present, and I'm so greatly looking forward to getting below the equator for the first time and seeing the Southern Cross in the night sky and to be far beyond my cultural norm. I'm planning a ritual soon to bless the undertaking with a lil' mojo, and am already feeling myself pulling away from here, stretching my soul toward a hidden continent, a world above the clouds... Ariba! jaybird found this for you @ 23:23 in Journaling the Infinite | | permalink
sheep in wolf's clothing Eight sane people gained secret admission to 12 different hospitals. Th |
