"A million invisible helping hands" Drawing by Jaya From Bilal Qureshi's story on National Public Radio in the US, about Guerra and Gallego's film Birds of Passage: Amidst huge changes freighting a culture never previously colonized in Colombia, South America... "...it is the women ... who sense that something is wrong. The Wayúu are a matrilineal society, and in dream sequences and natural omens, only the women foretell the impending chaos. "One of the key omens are the

Kathleen Dowling Singh: ~Dying is safe. ~Our fear of death is grounded in a strong sense of the 'I'" ...a transformation from perceived tragedy to experienced grace. I realized that what I had been witnessing in the process of dying was grace, all around, shimmering and penetrating. I became aware that all of the observed qualities of the Nearing Death Experience point to the fact that there is profound psychoalchemy occurring here, a passage to deeper being. There appears

Wendell Berry's words give us an understanding of why it is so hard to describe meditation ... "The mind that comes to rest is tended In some ways that it cannot intend Is born, preserved, and comprehended By what it cannot comprehend." ~ Wendell Berry, from 1979 in This Day The naturalness of deep rest meditation the deeper nature of resting. The resonance of generosity...the sheer ongoingness that giving is and does... Wendell Berry giving into his poems, along

Atul Gawande raises questions that help us be as perfectly imperfect as we are--mortal and holding very specific things precious. He suggests that doctors ask us, "What are you priorities? What are you willing to sacrifice?" I would broaden those very questions, to help us not only die, but also live gracefully. These very questions could help us uncover an unconditional willingness to center our lives around what we hold most precious. Not only to say, Okay, life will not b

Ask the world to reveal its quietude- not the silence of machines when they are still, but the true quiet by which birdsongs, trees, bellworts, snails, clouds, storms become what they are, and are nothing else. ~Wendell Berry Thanks to Kane for sharing this excerpt #poetry #WendellBerry #nature #ecology #silence #meditation #nonduality

Trungpa! (VCTR = Vidhyadhara Chogyam Trungpa Ringpoche, below...) (painting by Jaya) RK: Where does the sense of enlightenment or sacredness come from? Is it sacred because it comes out of the ultimate alaya? VCTR: You could say that. Ultimate alaya at least holds the potentialities of the whole thing. We could say that samsara came out of some kind of freedom. That is the basic logic of why anyone can attain enlightenment. RK: In meditation, is our approach to identify with

"Many African-American midwives in rural southeastern US of the 20th-century were proud that they could'“plow like men, and pick cotton by moonlight.' They said they were uneducated but that midwifery put their 'big minds' to work." (pg. 63, Listen to Me Good, Margaret Charles Smith and Linda Holmes.) About 11 years ago, while pregnant, I wrote and article called "Call Me A Pregnant Woman" to bring up questions about midwifing big mind and birthing insight: "Gautama Buddha s

I don't always like to use this kind of question--we don't need to earn life by being useful. So many people have a nagging feeling that something is wrong with them, and hope to get rid of that feeling by getting busy, or by being useful. What are we here for? Perhaps, if we can go beyond the purposes that human mind's can devise, we may talk about a way of being here that is fulfilling. A calling that is challenging. A challenge that is fruitful. A fruitfulness that bring

Trash dumpsters as planters that catch 2,000 gallons of runoff Micro-grids that are more resilient in emergencies--and maybe provide leadership away from making everything more and more big and centralized. Ecology, beauty, communication: life. Where a lot of people live. Healthy design trends that bring people-oriented "slow streets," relief from "sick building syndrome," "project sunroof," and "stairs of fabulousness." https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/urban-e

Penguins as tall as a man of medium height, for millions of years, life thriving on earth after the extinction of dinosaurs. 20 million years before whales came along. Just cool. Life is as whimsical in its breadth as our imaginations, and more. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/12/570136162/giant-prehistoric-penguins-once-swam-off-the-coast-of-new-zealand #nature #mystery

The last ice age lands 13 millimeters back...if the history of our earth is laid out along 100 meters. 1/5th of a millimeter "ago" we started burning coal. https://vimeo.com/236050600 #deepecology #nature