We

must become

alone, so utterly alone,

that we withdraw into our

innermost self. It is a way of bitter

suffering. But then our solitude is overcome

and we are no longer alone, for we find that our

innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the

indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves

in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed

by its multiplicity, for in our innermost

soul we know ourselves to be

one with all

being.

Hermann Hesse

Everything

is amazing, and

nobody's

happy.

...meditators

showed significantly

larger volumes of the hippocampus

and areas within the orbito-frontal cortex,

the thalamus and the inferior temporal

gyrus — all regions known

for regulating

emotions.

"We

know that

people who consistently

meditate have a singular ability to

cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional

stability and engage in mindful behavior," said Eileen

Luders, lead author and a postdoctoral research fellow at

the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging. "The observed

differences in brain anatomy might give us

a clue why meditators have

these exceptional

abilities."

go forth and sit

Add

your light,

won't you, please?

It takes all of a minute.

Here is the backstory,

in all it's awful

detail.

Toothpaste for Dinner

Today,

the one and only

birth day of my one and

only daughter: Sofia. Let us all

take a moment to bless her: angel of grace,

phenomenally brilliant young woman, humorist,

possessed of the most beautiful voice

I have ever heard. Every

good wish, now,

forever, once

upon a

time.

Sensual

pleasure occupies

only a very small and

fiery place in the illimitable

desert of love, glowing so brightly

that at first nothing else is to be seen.

Around this inconstant campfire is danger,

is the unknown. When we arise from a

short embrace or even a long night,

comes again the necessity of

living near each other,

for each other.

Collette

Who's

that in the

picture? If you're

eating your breakfast,

don't read on, because that's you.

And me, and our friends and families.

It's our financial past, present, and future,

and that of this nation's -- and in fact, the world's --

economies. While it isn't immediately apparent

from the photograph that someone is

making money off what is

happening to us,

they are.

That

someone

is Goldman Sachs.

Matt Taibbi, who is about

as far from being a dupe or an idiot

or a knucklehead as one can be, has written

a brilliant piece for Rolling Stone called The Great

American Bubble Machine. And you oughta read

it. But not while you're eating, because it

tastes awful and will turn your

stomach. Here's just a

scent:

"The

first thing

you need to know

about Goldman Sachs is

that it's everywhere. The world's

most powerful investment bank is a great

vampire squid wrapped around the face

of humanity, relentlessly jamming its

blood funnel into anything

that smells like

money.

"Any

attempt to

construct a narrative

around all the former Goldmanites

in influential positions quickly becomes

an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying

to make a list of everything. What you need to know

is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman

Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely

unfortunate loophole in the system of Western

democratic capitalism, which never foresaw

that in a society governed passively by

free markets and free elections,

organized greed always

defeats disorganized

democracy.

"They

achieve this

using the same

playbook over and

over again. The formula

is relatively simple: Goldman

positions itself in the middle of a

speculative bubble, selling investments

they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast

sums from the middle and lower floors of society

with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows

it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies

the bank throws at political patronage. Finally, when it all goes

bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they

begin the entire process over again, riding in to rescue us all by

lending us back our own money at interest, selling themselves

as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys

keeping the wheels greased. They've been pulling

this same stunt over and over since the 1920s —

and now they're preparing to do it again,

creating what may be the biggest

and most audacious

bubble

yet."

read on, bold ones

(photo by andrea galvani)

On

the off

chance that you're

still laboring under the

vague hope that Barry Magic

has any intention or desire to save

us from this sort of thing, smoke this.

As I've suggested before, the man in the

glasses with the pretty smile might well

ought to be stood up against a wall,

given his last cigarette or baby's

heart to eat, and then well

ventilated. But Barack

Obama has got

his back.

In a big

way.

Red Meat

click it to biggify it

While

the rest of us

Americans scurry

about with a Blackberry

in one hand and a to-go cup

of coffee in the other in a feverish

attempt to pack more achievement into every

minute, it's the New Orleans way to build one's days

around friends, family, music, cooking, processions, and

art. For more than two centuries New Orleanians

have been guardians of tradition and masters

of living in the moment -- a lost art. Their

preference for having more time than

money was at the heart of what

made that city so much

fun to visit and

so hard to

leave.

Dan Baum

World-power

means nothing.

Only the unsayable,

jeweled inner life

matters.

Rumi

Images

of erect phalli

had a talismanic quality

in ancient Rome. They derived

from the deity Priapus, god of fertility

and protector of gardens and fields and livestock.

As a talisman, it served a variety of purposes…

We see this in tintinnabula (fig. 1), a sort of

phallic wind chime. Bells were believed to

be protective as well, so a phallus hung

with bells would have been a

charm of significant good

fortune.

Christina Voss,

Priapic Art in Pompeii

(tickle bells to enlarge)

Do

underground

oceans vent through

the tiger stripes on Saturn's

moon Enceladus? Long features

dubbed tiger stripes are known to be

spewing ice from the moon's icy interior

into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles

over the moon's South Pole and creating Saturn's

mysterious E-ring. Evidence for this has come from the

robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn. Pictured

above, a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown

from a close flyby. The unusual surface features

dubbed tiger stripes are visible

in false-color

blue.

Why

Enceladus is

active remains a mystery,

as the neighboring moon Mimas,

approximately the same size, appears quite

dead. Most recently, an analysis of dust captured

by Cassini found evidence for sodium as expected in a

deep salty ocean. Conversely however, recent Earth-based

observations of ice ejected by Enceladus into Saturn's

E-Ring showed no evidence of the expected sodium.

Such research is particularly interesting

since such an ocean would be a

candidate to contain

life.

APOD

(click the pic to biggify it)

There

is a combination

of eroticism and tenderness,

and it melts you and arouses you,

and that’s what was happening.

You get a hard-on and melt,

both at the same

time.

Philip Roth,

The Dying Animal

Married to the Sea

(click it to enlarge it)

The rising sun not beet,
or blood,
but sea-rose red.

I amplified my heartbeat
one thousand times,
the animals at first confused
then decided I was another
thunder being.

While talking directly to god
my attention waxed and waned.
I have a lot on my mind.

I worked out
to make myself as strong
as water.

After all these years
of holding the world together
I let it roll down the hill
into the river.

One tree leads
to another,
walking on
this undescribed earth.

I have dreamed
myself back
to where
I already am.

On a cold day
bear, coyote, cranes.
On a rainy night
a wolf with yellow eyes.
On a windy day
eleven kestrels looking
down at me.
On a hot afternoon
the ravens floated over
where I sunk
myself in the river.

Way out there
in unknown country
I walked at night
to scare myself.

Who is this other,
the secret sharer,
who directs the hand
that twists the heart,
the voice calling out to me
between feather and stone
the hour before dawn?

Somehow
I have turned into
an old brown man
in a green coat.

Having fulfilled
my obligations
my heart moves lightly
to this downward dance.

Jim Harrison

Will Oldham,

a.k.a. Bonnie "Prince" Billy.

Musician and actor unlike any other.

Try this, if you're inclined.

It's very fine.

Advice doesn't help lovers!
They'e not the kind of mountain stream
you can build a dam across.

An intellectual doesn't know
what the drunk is feeling!

Don't try to figure
what those lost inside love
will do next!

Someone in charge would give up all his power,
if he caught one whiff of the wine-musk
from the room where the lovers
are doing who-knows-what!

One of them tries to dig a hole through a mountain.
One flees from academic honors.
One laughs at famous mustaches!

Life freezes if it doesn't get a taste
of this almond cake.
The stars come up spinning
every night, bewildered in love.
They'd grow tired
with that revolving, if they weren't.
They'd say,
"How long do we have to do this!"

God picks up the reed-flute world and blows.
Each note is a need coming through one of us,
a passion, a longing-pain.
Remember the lips
where the wind-breath originated,
and let your note be clear.
Don't try to end it.
Be your note.
I'll show you how it's enough.

Go up on the roof at night
in this city of the soul.

Let everyone climb on their roofs
and sing their notes!

Sing loud!

Jelaladin Rumi

As I was

telling Suzuki Roshi

what a disaster my life had become, he began to chuckle.

I found myself laughing along with him.

There was a pause. I asked him what I should do. "Sit zazen," he replied. "Life without zazen is like winding your clock without setting it. It runs, but it doesn't tell time."

To Shine One Corner of the World

Men

who love

wisdom should

acquaint themselves

with a great many

particulars.

Heraclitus

Brightblack Morning Light - Everybody Daylight sélectionné dans Rock / Pop et Clips

The

true god

has no face.

The true Tao has

no name. But we cannot

identify with that until we are of

a very high level of insight. Until then,

the gods with faces and the Tao with

names are still more worthy

of veneration and study

than the illusions

of the world.

With

long and

sincere training,

it is possible to see the

face of god. Holiness is not

about scientific objectivity. It is

about a deep and clear recognition of

the true nature of life. Your attitude toward

your god will be different than anyone else's

god -- divinity is a reflection of your own

understanding. If your experience

differs from others, that does

not invalidate your sense

of godliness. You will

have no doubts

after you have

seen.

Knowing

god is the source

of compassion in our lives.

We realize that our separation from

others is artificial. We are neither separate

from other people not from Tao. It is only our own

egotism that leads us to define ourselves as individuals.

In fact, a direct experience of god is a direct experience

of the utter universality of life. If we allow it to

change our way of thinking, we will

understand our essential

oneness with all

things.

How

does god look?

Once you see god, you will

see that same face on

every person you

meet.

Deng Ming-Dao

Married to the Sea

To know is
nothing at all.
To imagine is
everything.

Anatole France

Aching of Life

There must be something better,
But I’m satisfied just as I am.

Monkeys sport deep in the forest,
Fish shoot up the mountain stream.

If there’s change, there’s also repose –-
Which soon must suffer change.

Along the solar orbit of the night,
I feel life’s constant aching:

Smack in the middle of the day,
I found moonlight between a woman’s legs.

Shinkichi Takahashi