Documentary: Quark Science

Started watching a BBC series on Quark Science. The first episode ("Everything and Nothing") was amazing. It goes over how various people through the ages discovered, among many, many other things, the immense size of the universe and how the Big Bang theory came about.

It really highlights how our universe is such a gargantuan, strange, bewildering, and often times surreal place, on the level of a Dali painting. And how intensely clever and diligent the scientists were who discovered the knowledge we have today. And I don't know what's more fascinating--the actual discoveries or how the discoveries were made.

I learned so much from this episode, and am looking forward to watching the rest.

Some of it's available on youtube. The entire series is available through Amazon Prime.

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CTFML98

Ram Dass: Journey of Awakening

Just finished this book from Ram Dass. Compared to the sometimes maddeningly esoteric "Be Here Now"--the book for which he is most famous, "Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook" is surprisingly straightforward and wonderfully easy to read. I've been trying to meditate seriously for almost a year now, and while books like "The Mind Illuminated" and going on a Vipassana retreat were transformative,  Ram Dass brings "everything together" in a way I haven't seen in other books that cover meditation.

It's the single best introductory book on meditation I've ever encountered. Ram Dass very succinctly covers the reasons for meditating, how meditating fits in the broader context of life, and provides instructions for different practices.

Thank you Ram Dass for writing this fantastic book! I'm reading my library copy twice, just to make sure I didn't miss anything. I may have to purchase it to keep as a reference.

Moving Forward

So it took me 2 weeks to (mostly) recover from the flu. Hurrah!

I haven't been meditating like I regularly did last year. For the past few weeks, I've noticed the difference. I've been starting to feel stressed out. My mind has been running with all sorts of anxious thoughts.

So I decided to start my regular sits again. I did a 45 minute sit yesterday and the effect was almost immediate. It was as if the problems I thought I had vanished into thin air.

Again, it's not that meditating "fixed" any of those problems. It's more like after 45 minutes of focusing on my breath, I stepped away feeling the things I thought were problems weren't actually problems at all.

For a worrier like me, this is a pretty neat trick.

The Magic of Editing

Still recuperating from the flu. Spent most of this morning browsing a forum that compares instagram posts to reality. As most everybody who has used the web knows--which is pretty much everybody at this point--the stuff we see online is often filtered and photoshopped and edited. Even the video editing is quite spectacular now using free phone apps. You can edit out someone's wrinkles or bulges, make their nose slimmer or their chin smaller. Popular options are tinier waists, bigger butts, almost invisible noses, and artificially-smooth skin.

You can can get phone apps that record you and edit out anything you like in real time. You can get fuller hair, a more chiseled face, even add makeup to your moving visage.

What really got me was this little technique, as demonstrated (inadvertently?) by this instagrammer. You might not see it at first...but....

So apparently there are filters for landscapes too. Empty blue sky? BOOOORING! Who needs it. Spice it up with a cloud or two.

Sick

Hacking cough all last night. Looks like I have the flu. My body is aching all over. Have never tried flu shots but am considering it since I see my friend and her infant every so often. It seem this correlated with getting sick more often, since we'll often be surrounded by kids. And a day or twofer seeing her, I've found myself coming down with something. But then I read flu shots only work less than half the time, so don't know if it's worth it.

Spending the day reading Ram Dass's "Be Here Now." I read it a long time ago but didn't understand most of it. After starting a meditation practice last year, I'm more familiar with the concepts now.

Th evening was spent watching Jeopardy Greatest Of All Time. These guys are amazing. The speed at which they answered every question was stunning.

I definitely have lost my ability to recall names these days...I feel like I've forgotten the name of so many celebrities, both past and present. I've reached the age where there are tons of new faces and I have no idea who anybody is.

I don't mind though. I agree with Nietzsche. As he philosophized, happy is she who has a short memory.

I guess I should be in bliss!

I recall(haha) a podcast about people with hyperthymesia--the ability to remember the minutest details of their lives. You could ask them what they were doing at 2pm on July 2, 1983 and they could give you an answer. What struck me is that these people often had a high rate of depression.

Why

1) ...do my dogs like to sniff each other's nether regions when one of them is drinking water?

It seems so very impolite.


2) Do commercials like to feature doorbells ringing? Are they actually doing this on purpose, knowing our dogs will start barking their heads off every time it happens? Because it's gotten to the point we're starting to write a list of companies we'll never patronize due to how their commercials set off our dogs, haha.

Reflecting on Habits: Lessons from Dog Walking

Every day my husband and I walk our dogs on an off-leash trail.

We often run into two different owners on our walks.

One of them has a German Shepard that's been prone to attacking certain dogs on sight, including our own. I'll refer to this dog as "Big Lucy."

The other has a smaller mix that's also prone to attacking our dogs. I'll refer to this dog as "Little Lucy."

LITTLE LUCY 

After the first attack, Little Lucy's owner has since put her on leash. Now when we encounter them, he stops on the side of the path to watch us pass.

I can feel the tension building as we'd walk by. He tells her to sit.  So she sits and watches us... UNTIL she sees the backs of our dogs. Then, without fail, she springs into action, lunging towards them, snarling. The leash holds her back. Her owner scolds her.

This has been going on for over a year now, and hasn't changed. At some level, I feel like the owner has been inadvertently training the dog to attack dogs on sight. He doesn't mean to obviously, but the repetition of the behavior has only reinforced it over time.

BIG LUCY 

Big Lucy's owner had a similar approach, at first.  Whenever we encountered them, he would drag Big Lucy by the collar, off into the bushes, and wait for us to pass. You could feel the tension in the air as we walked by. Big Lucy would lunge and snarl.

For a few weeks, we didn't see Big Lucy's owner (he was probably walking her earlier or later in the day.) When we saw him next, I expected yet another tense encounter, but instead, I noticed Big Lucy had a big ol' stick in her mouth. Big Lucy's owner would toss it as we approached. Big Lucy, too engrossed with the stick, would ignore our dogs. Occasionally she might give them a glimpse, but the stick was far more enticing to pursue than our dogs.

She hasn't been aggressive towards our dogs since.

CHANGING HABITS

I think this is a good illustration of how it's often easier to DO something than NOT DO something. And that if we have a bad habit we'd like to break, it's easier to replace it with another activity whenever the urge arises, than simply say "don't do this."

I don't think we're that different than dogs. Aside from the butt sniffing thing.

Love

I had an experience recently that made me think one can either love everything and everyone, or nothing or no-one. There is no pick and choose.

I don't know if this is true for everyone, but it felt true within. Love can't have barriers. I can't say I love this person and this person, or this thing and that thing only, but not that person nor that person. And not that thing.

I don't have many spiritual experiences in my life, but it was like someone/something just told me "Duh! Didn't you know that?" And laughed.

I've always been on the slower side. During our white elephant game this Christmas I selected the "gag" gift even though I had seen it actually being put in its box earlier that evening. I had just forgotten.

May your 2020 be filled with the experience of boundless and endless love.

Ram Dass RIP

When I was younger Ram Dass was one of those names I'd always been vaguely aware of. We even have a copy of Be Here Now (my husband's), something we've owned for over 20 years. I remember perusing it when I was younger, not quite "getting it" and wondering if my lack of psychedelic drug use was what was keeping me from fully understanding its message.

20 years later I was reintroduced to him via the documentaries "Going Home" (his life in Maui after his stroke) and "Dying to Know"(which covers his history with Timothy Leary.) Older now (though I doubt I'm wiser!) his messages of love and being have much more resonance with me.

Fascinating life and human being.

Last night I watched this interview between him and Ekhart Tolle below. It's fairly long (partly due to the fact Ram speaks slowly now due to his stroke.)

So grateful that so much of his work is preserved in video, book, and of course in the many, many people who have been influenced by his teachings.

Starting 2020 with A Course In Miracles

I saw mention of this on another blog and was intrigued.

I'm not Christian but am fascinated with how the exercises and viewpoints in ACIM are similar (though not identical) to viewpoints you'll find in Buddhism, Sikhi, Sufism etc.

So I tried the first lesson for students and am thinking of trying a lesson for the rest of the year.

It's interesting hearing the terms of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit crop up again in my areligious life, but as I've explored it seems like many paths embrace common themes. Oneness with everything, self-transcendence, the idea of the ego as our primary illusion-maker, doing nothing, etc.

The exercises seem easy and brief enough that it seems like it requires no huge commitment. I did look at some of the later exercises and it seemed like they had a lot of Biblical terminology. I'm told they symbolize something different than what's originally taught in church, but I guess we'll see.