The mushrooming of new religions and the attention that Asian outlooks are receiving in the West are surface signs of change, but more important are the shifts that are occurring in the Western worldview itself.  Science is changing.  It is showing Newtonian matter to be but the frozen surface of a nature which, at its torrential source, is ghostlike, "empathic" in the degree of its responsiveness, and in important ways ineffable.  And along with these changes within science, our attitude toward science is changing; we are maturing in our capacity to see it in perspective.  Impressed by its technology and power-to-prove, we slipped for a century or so into looking to science for the last true word about everything.  Now we see that there are things- they tend to be the higher, more important things- about which it can tell us nothing.  This frees us to look seriously to other sources of knowledge that take those things into account.

perfect day for bananabread

two unusual looking girls could be spotted walking down shattuck toward the berkeley bowl on the evening of july 2nd.  one is on the phone with her mom, talking about food.  the other, after a sad collection of events, is mourning the loss of the strap of her beloved shoe.  two days prior, both had sat on a street corner nearby, attempting to earn enough loose change to see moonrise kingdom for the 3rd and 2nd time, respectively.  they ended up collecting a grand total of: $0.00.  but.... company was earned.  one man drifted off the map after 35 years, and is back 4 years later with surreal tales of passing through jail.  the other is a tool fan, who goes by the name of origami tony.  the two fit together better than you'd think.
now one ponders the face of her crush.  her crush whom she has not yet spoken to.  she shall never speak to him, despite the fact that she will probably see him four to six times before the summer is through.  alas, it is entirely understandable that she cannot picture his face, for he covers it with an incredibly childish looking animal mask.
but we digress.  this story is supposed to be about bananabread.  not a bananafish.  not a bananacrush.  not even bananafriends.  BREAD goddammit BREAD.
so we've got eight rotting bananas in our freezer.  oh man are they frozen.  the solution is to put them in the toaster oven, and three minutes later to remove them with their leaking banana juice and licking it off her hands.  frida, that is. that's who her is.
though the toaster oven was of much assistance, it was undeniable that the bananas were still quite frozen. laura tried to mash, frida to smash.  and eventually the bananas joined the mix of other ingredients that had, VERY carelessly, been measured out.  wheat flour could be spotted on the floor, the counter, the stovetop, and in the sink.  banana peels formed a miniature mountain from the depths of the sink ocean.  frida observed the dough as it reached a state of completion.
"it looks like chicken salad" she declared with habitual serenity.
we put the chicken salad in the oven and thought about all we'd accomplished.  laura, the eager apprentice and frida, the kitchen master, would find out in only 60 minutes time what the fruits of their labor would yield....
Then he went over and sat down on the unoccupied twin bead, looked at the girl, aimed the pistol, and fired a bullet thru his right temple.

I invite myself in to somebody’s mind,

Curiously, joyfully welcomed to stay and explore and listen and be heard  

And all the while evidence grows

Everything happening is the creation of our own minds

Individually we create worlds entirely unique

Brushing our paints all over a canvas we thought to be blank

But we didn’t quite see what we were looking at

The canvas appeared empty but

White light contains all colors

As we covered the white with our individual colors

We hid that which was already there for us all

And now each mind lives in its own unique world

Wishing we could see that white canvas together once again

Ohhhhhh yes we can

We may look out at the colors of others

We may look in at the colors of our own

Watch what happens as the colors of your own dissolve

Watch what happens as your canvas becomes blank

The colors are only fragmented white light

They are integral parts of the white light

Integral

Parts

from The Bhagavad Gita
In this world there are two roads of perfection.  Not by refraining from action does man attain freedom from action.  Not by mere renunciation does he attain supreme perfection.  For not even for a moment can a man be without action.  Helplessly are all driven to action by the forces born of Nature.  He who withdraws himself from actions, but ponders on their pleasures in his heart, he is under a delusion and is a false follower of the Path.  But great is the man who, free from attachments, and with a mind ruling its powers in harmony, works on the path of Karma Yoga, the path of consecrated action.  Action is greater than inaction: perform therefore thy task in life.  Even the life of the body could not be if there were no action.  The world is in the bonds of action, unless the action is consecration.  Let thy actions then be pure, free from the bonds of desire.  Thus spoke the Lord of Creation when he made both man and sacrifice: “By sacrifice thou shalt multiply and obtain all thy desires. By sacrifice shalt thou honour the gods and the gods will then love thee.  And thus in harmony with them shalt thou attain the supreme good.  For pleased with thy sacrifice, the gods will grant to thee the joy of all thy desires.  Only a thief would enjoy their gifts and not offer them in sacrifice.”
Holy men who take as food the remains of sacrifice become free from all their sins; but the unholy who have feasts for themselves eat food that is in truth sin.  Food is the life of all beings, and all food comes from rain above.  Sacrifice brings the rain from heaven, and sacrifice is sacred action.  Sacred action is described in the Vedas and these come from the Eternal, and therefore is the Eternal everpresent in a sacrifice.
The man who has found the joy of the Spirit and in the Spirit has satisfaction, who in the Spirit has found his peace, that man is beyond the law of action.  He is beyond what is done and beyond what is not done, and in all his works he is beyond the help of mortal beings.  In liberty from the bonds of attachment, do thou therefore the work to be done: for the man whose work is pure attains indeed the Supreme.
Let thy aim be the good of all, and then carry on thy task in life.
In the actions of the best men others find their rule of action.  The path that a great man follows becomes a guide to the world.  I have no work to do in all the worlds, and yet I work.  If I was not bound to action, men that follow many paths would follow my path of inaction.
Even as the unwise work selfishly in the bondage of selfish works, let the wise man work unselfishly for the good of all the world.

do you think the thoughts you have in your head can be as powerful as things said out loud

i they are one and hte same

(at the moment of writing this, this is on present on my (virtual/real?) life:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-idrFK-Icz7g/T2-9Dt9Hq1I/AAAAAAAABwM/P3VmNkRN7y8/s833/DSC_0674.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-YxMOH1i-CHA/T2-9GgovuNI/AAAAAAAABwU/LuHUrx44uBA/s833/DSC_0677.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h2ryr_uUEs&ob=av2e (i like the way he moans so much... his voice too, but the moans make my chest pound a little bit)
)


thoughts transcend into actions (and vice versa)
not always verbal (but always something)
the eyes cant deceive someone who isnt afraid to look into them
taking a chance to get drawn into a tornado
oh, when the eyes look away (!!)
when they look out of the corner
theres no defined meaning to that
but, in context, they say so much

things said out loud are......
cycles (a lot of the time, not always... you can really pierce sometimes)
i found myself abstracting out a conversation
and it was like seeing a marble on top of a moving platform whose center was blocked off
there was never a resoultion
an end point
it was just revolving around something unspeakable
powered by enthusiasm
were we afraid to speak THE unspeakable?
im not sure
but we did not touch it
and i was thinking about it the entire time
my chest feeling hollow
wanting to REACH SOMEWHERE
not just being a spectator of this phenomenon that emanated such strange energy
i wanted to put my hands over it, like over a fire
and then slide them apart from each other, and give my chest a peek of this
trying to fill in the hollow
but there was no way of doing that
the other party was comfortable just walking around
strolling along with time
... so i did the same.

the flowers look sad, dont they?
i think the photographer relates to the things presented to him out there, and captures them

(what about the "before i forget"s?)

i was driving the other day, listening to tchaikovsky's violin concerto (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATK_pj2iMqg)

and as soon as the violin solo started playing

i had a very strange reaction

i felt very overwhelmed

like i knew how powerful this sound was

and i couldn't do anything about it

(it is going to go on; it is its own being)

this feeling manifested itself as follows:

my fingers needed to be tight, as if trying to create a void

but the wheel was on the way

it was as if i was trying to get rid of this overwhelming feeling

so my arms tightened, my grip tightened around the wheel

and i was pushing my body with my arms away from the wheel

and i closed my eyes

until i could breathe again

(once the violin could breathe as well)

and i kept driving

but my fingers were dancing on my leg, on the wheel, on my face

and when i got to the place i was going

and the music stopped

i sat back and let my body melt with the silence for a while

Annabel Lee- lyrics to the song cycle and explanation

Dear Josh,

If you're reading this.... thanks!!!!

Annabel Lee (this is Edgar Allan Poe's poem lyrics put to the piano piece, Un Sospiro, by Franz Liszt. I thought Un Sospiro sounded like the "sounding sea".)

It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love- I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me- Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we- Of many far wiser than we- And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea. Another New World (you probably recognize this) The leading lights of the age all wondered amongst themselves what I would do next After all that I'd found in my travels around the world was there anything else left? "Gentlemen", I said, "I've studied the maps" "And if what I'm thinking is right" "There's another new world at the top of the world" "For whoever can break through the ice" I looked round the room in that way I once had and I saw that they wanted belief So I said "All I've got are my guts and my God" then I paused,"and the Annabelle Lee" Oh the Annabelle Lee, I saw their eyes shine the most beautiful ship in the sea My Nina, My Pinta, My Santa Maria My beautiful Annabelle Lee That spring we set sail as the crowds waved from shore and on board the crew waved their hats But I never had family just the Annabelle Lee so I didn't have cause to look back I just set the course north and I studied the charts and toward dark I drifted toward sleep and I dreamed of the fine deep harbor I'd find past the ice for my Annabelle Lee After that it got colder the world got quiet it was never quite day or quite night And the sea turned the color of sky turned the color of sea turned the color of ice 'Til at last all around us was fastness one vast glassy desert of arsenic white And the waves that once lifted us sifted instead into drifts against Annabelle's sides The crew gathered closer at first for the comfort but each morning would bring a new set of the tracks in the snow leading over the edge of the world 'til I was the only one left After that it gets cloudy but it feels like I lay there for days maybe for months But Annabelle held me the two of us happy just to think back on all we had done We talked of the other worlds we'd discover as she gave up her body to me And as I chopped up her mainsail for timber I told her of all that we still had to see As the frost turned her moorings to nine-tail and the wind lashed her sides in the cold I burned her to keep me alive every night in the loving embrace of her hold I won't call it rescue what brought me here back to the old world to drink and decline And to pretend that the search for another new world was well-worth the burning of mine But sometimes at night in my dreams comes the singing of some unknown tropical bird And I smile in my sleep thinking Annabelle Lee has finally made it to another new world Be Here Now by Mason Jennings Be here now No other place to be Or just sit there dreaming Of how life would be If we were somewhere better Somewhere far Away from all our worries Well here we are You, are the love, of my life Be here now No other place to be All the doubts that linger Just set them free And let good things happen And let the future come Into each moment Like a rising sun You, are the love, of my life You, are the love, of my life Yea you know you are Sun comes up and we start again (x 6) And it's all new today All we have to say Is be here now Be here now No other place to be This whole world keeps changing Come change with me Everything that's happened All that's yet to come Is here inside this moment Its the only one You, are the love, of my life You, are the love, of my life Yeah you know you are Sun comes up and we start again (x 6) Its all new today All we have to say Is be here now My Response to all of these lyrics- using your music from Another New World and keeping some of the lyrics too! So it is kind of an extension of your song =0) The leading lights of the age all wondered amongst Themselves what I would do next After all that I'd found in my travels around The World was there anything left? Gentlemen I said, I've studied the maps And if what I'm thinking is right In any part of this great big circular world We can always break through the ice I looked round the room in that way I once had And I saw that they wanted belief So I said "All I've got is one simple idea, in order to bring us relief" Well I looked for a sparkle or shine in their eye To help me begin to speak But I didn't find it, so I closed my eyes and remembered the Annabelle Lee Here I sit with you all right here at my side In this Old World of drink and decline Pretending the search for Another New World Is well worth the burning of mine But this Old World we're in, wouldn't look quite so dim If we took a good look around And smiled for the light flooding down on us bright That we cover with troubles we've found The crew gathered closer at first in confusion But each passing moment would bring A new recollection of moments right here In this Old World that still made them sing Why should we ignore the crowd waving from shore They don't have to be waving good bye For its sheer good fortune to miss those you love Every day that you're sharing alive The ice started melting Oh Annabel Lee may have died by the sea But at such cost doesn't it seem We'd all better take this Old World we know And break through the ice and just be Oh Annabel Lee may have died by the sea But at such cost doesn't it seem We'd all better take this Old World we know And break through the ice and just be