We’d had the ‘happy’ on the bedroom wall for a while, so I added the ‘birthday caroline!’ for today.
Month: February 2010
Om Yoga
Woo! A new yoga book Caroline bought me. I like yoga books; I have many. This one is nice and simple: Om Yoga by Cyndi Lee. It has crayon drawings by the author and sets out a daily practice for every day of the week, according to the tendency of that day. As Thursday is my Friday, I started with that day. A backbend-emphasis session. I like her straightforward style, with very clear diagrams. This book will be my guide for a while. Practicing along with someone – a teacher, a friend, a book, a DVD, an audio – always teaches me something fresh, a new approach. I also like chanting Om. It’s not a religious, or spiritual thing, it’s just an Om.
Cyndi Lee:
Relax your face and your opinions
Krishnamurti:
The stronger the beliefs, the stronger the dogmas. And when we examine these beliefs- the Christian, the Hindu, the Buddhist- we find that they divide people. Each dogma, each belief has a series of rituals, a series of compulsions which bind man and separate man. … We consider belief in God, the belief in something, as religion. We consider that to believe is to be religious.
Wintery Shower (10/365)
Book of Life, 10 Feb
A mind that is agitated by belief shall not know truth. But the mind that understands its relationship with property, with people, with ideas, the mind which no longer struggles with the problems which relationship creates, and for which the solution is not withdrawal but the understanding of love – such a mind alone can understand reality.
– Krishnamurti
Shelter (9/365)
Close by
Stay close by
There’s nowhere to go
Stay close to feel
There’s nothing to do
In attention
Then thoughts think
Stay close by
Do we need a belief of any kind, and if we do, why is it necessary? That’s one of the problems involved. We don’t need a belief that there is sunshine, the mountains, the rivers. We don’t need a belief that we quarrel. We don’t have to have a belief that life is a terrible misery with its anguish, conflict, and constant ambition; it is a fact. But we demand a belief when we want to escape from a fact into an unreality.
– Krishnamurti
Belief
A man who loves has no beliefs – he loves.
– Krishnamurti
The Trees of Brockwood – The Fallen Cedar (8/365)
A mighty tree felled by snowflakes
When there is love, self is not.
Knowing is not experiencing:
But if you and I, as individuals, can see this whole working of the self, then we shall know what love is. I assure you that is the only reformation which can possibly change the world. Love is not the self. Self cannot recognize love. You say “I love,” but then, in the very saying of it, in the very experiencing of it, love is not. But, when you know love, self is not. When there is love, self is not.
– Krishnamurti
The Trees of Brockwood – The Funky Oak – (7/365)
You know, it can walk. And it does.
Weekend Walk 9 – Winchester to Cheriton (South Downs Way)
Today I walked the very western end of the South Downs Way. I parked at Cheriton then rode the bus into Winchester. From the city centre, the path crosses the M3 then through the hamlet of Chilcomb, up onto the downs. Then across to Cheesefoot Head and Gander Down. I left the SDW to get back to Cheriton, a mile or so off the path. It took 3.5 hours with a lunch stop. I aim to walk the full 100 miles before the end of the year. Here’s the video from today:
An Evil Thing
Krishnamurti, Book of Life, 6 Feb:
You know what I mean by the self? By that, I mean the idea, the memory, the conclusion, the experience, the various forms of namable and unnamable intentions, the conscious endeavor to be or not to be, the accumulated memory of the unconscious, the racial, the group, the individual, the clan, and the whole of it all, whether it is projected outwardly in action, or projected spiritually as virtue; the striving after all this is the self. In it is included the competition, the desire to be. The whole process of that, is the self; and we know actually when we are faced with it, that it is an evil thing. I am using the word ‘evil’ intentionally, because the self is dividing; the self is self-enclosing; its activities, however noble, are separated and isolated.
Chilcomb (6/365)
Creation
Creation is when the self is not there, because creation is not intellectual, is not of the mind, is not self-projected, is something beyond all experiencing.
– Krishnamurti, Book of Life, 5 Feb
Snowdrops I (5/365)
Lesser Seen Brockwood – Before the fridge or freezer (4/365)
Lesser Seen Brockwood – Before there were fridges or freezers (4/365), originally uploaded by :Duncan.
I’m not sure if this was for keeping ice, food, naughty children, or what. I suspect it was an ‘Ice House’
Michael Palin Meets The Dalai Lama
From the television last night. Recorded in 2005.
Amazing how serious and joyful he is.
When I see the Dalai Lama I am always reminded of Hunter S Thompson. They are brothers with very different paths!
When I see the Dalai Lama I am always reminded of Hunter S Thompson. They are brothers with very different paths!
End before it begins
You can feel how thought and conclusions and opinions and judgements form your facial expression
You can feel how tension and protection affect your posture
You can feel how the brain gets patterned and grooved
You can feel it happening in yourself
You can see it happening in others
You can feel all this undo
And end before it begins
Book of Life, 4 Feb:
Love admits no division. Either you love, or do not love.
Lyric of the Day – A Sardine in a Hair Net, by Reeves & Mortimer
Like a shrimp in a suitcase laying on a window ledge,
like a pair of tartan slippers and they’re underneath a hedge,
like a scout master at daybreak putting peanuts in his glove,
like a specially formed ice arch for climbing over doves,
like a sardine in a hair net and he’s staring at a priest.These things you’ll find constantly irritate our minds.
Like a sugar unicycle that’s being ridden by a fork,
like a batten berg owned by Jesus that can miraculously talk,
like a lemon pip with sideboards fighting a bearded crab,
or Bono in a boob tube on the choir master’s lap,
like a elaborate heating system apparently in Kent.These things you’ll find constantly irritate our minds.
Like a badger with an afro throwing sparklers at the Pope,
like a family of foxes and they’re glowering at some soap,
like a lump of Nazi nougat walking down an avenue,
like a Tudor vacuum cleaner saying “How do you do?”
like a kestrel having sex above a television set.These things you’ll find constantly irritate our minds.
Follow the mole! (3/365)
Moles. Kind of cute. Kind of a nuisance to gardeners. Someone told me they have worm larders down there. They don’t just eat worms, they bite their heads off and keep them for later. The worms stay alive and fresh but can’t go anywhere because they have no mouth or brain. Do worms have brains? I don’t know, but moles do.
Falling Awake 