Stepping stones

karma. throw slam catch from base to base

Torii. stepping stones. blinded

touching base not easy

The shirt is mine. the other pics not. expect for my use of them.

One thing leads to another.

Yesterday put me on A base.

I saw a performance  ( http://www.rataplanvzw.be/Detail/tabid/193/ArticleId/2284/PRET-A-AIMER-DE-BELOFTEN-SPELEN.aspx ) . I was moved. First base.
It was her first solo performance. It’s about love, infatuation, one night stands, going to a medicine man to help her find her soul mate – didn’t help -, singing in different musical styles. etc.
I enjoyed it. But after the the show I was sitting in the bar. Alone. Looking around. next to me in a corner was a little tree.  I looked curious at it. I the noticed what spirit I had. A negative one. When I looked back at the people I couldn’t feel it. Blocked. When I looked at the tree I touched base. To some degree.

I walked  around a bit there, looking. Not feeling comfortable. paying attention to my mind and feelings.. I ended on top of some stairs overlooking the people. Standing still for a bit. I left in a perspective mood

walked in the city, ending in the bar “den hopsack”  “where everybody knows your name” Cheers.
While walking I soon stopped at the corner of a street, looking  around. After a few minutes I continued. I was in no rush. I was to some degree at ease, at peace. Another base, gate.

At some point I recognized that “touching base” as in sensing,unveiling the truth, getting clarity is what I needed. but also what everybody needs.

troubles well

kinds of troubles:

• biological
• spychological
• spiritual

Sources :

• ego, identification, self
• others
• self
• personality
• media
• suppression
• lack of insight
• lack of compassion
• compassion

We have different facets. Each facet can give problems.
We are born with values for those facets. In other word, no tabula rasa, no clean slate. Acquiring one is a Taoist goal. As we live , which begins before birth and continues until death, they get filled.

.   A Cup of Tea

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”

“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/1acupoftea.html

emptying cup or cleaning slate.

Are we the only ones with those facets ?

 

You ?

What do you give ?

I did a workshop writing. I was scared and axcited.
It improved me. It will improve you if you do it.
Exercise in creativity. letting words come to me.

When it ease you have nothing to learn. Wen it is difficukt do not cringe, let you brain free, let it work. Do not cramp it.

How about you?
What are you learning ?

Hats of to us.
We take the cap of brain. no but. It is the butt of live

give joy

Typed at a concert Enjoying it. Not criticizing.
It is fun that way. It is true that they are not masters and no in tune. I do not mind. I enjoy never te less. If find them at fault Then I am at fault. I am enjoying there discord.
They are playing some dixie like music. Sure well played harmonic music is beautiful.

They invited peole to dance. I was the only one to dance. I danced with silly mood. Pretty in concord with the music. At the end I bowed.

I gave joy to myself.

In what’s called bad weather

Today – monday 6-3-2017 – I went out again.

I was gone for longer but ran less.

Fresh in memory. Still, not all details will be recalled.

After my run of 3h30 thursday my thighs where painful. That has mostly cleared up. My run/walk of today did not add to that. Good.

The weather is cold and rainy. Did not bother me. Me running in sandals. sometimes avoiding puddles. Doing that until I think “fuck that” and I step in them. Feet get a bit cold.  At home I replaced the wet stinky socks I was wearing with new ones. So much for “fuck that”. The cold did not bother me, but when I got home I had practically no force in my hands. I did not have cold feeling hands but they where cold. So I did not feel the true situation of my hands. Dangerous but useful.

Again my outing – not this message (outing) – was a spiritual exercise. oops need to add detail. The previous post mentions it as a yogic exercise. but I can Just as easily call it by the name of an other spiritual practice. What I practice – not preach – is being open and relaxed.

I put my conscious on my self – purely therapeutic I am a good little boy. you know. My parents raised me well. – with a calm and relaxed but active state (running, walking) and intention. The intention off being open to myself.  Relaxing by putting my calm, and open awareness on the spot.

I shifted my conscious from my head to my feet and hips and shoulder with a semi-automatic shift to whole body . Not hole body.  When my conscious – with relaxed state and also relaxed and opening intention – is on my head. The stress, cramp there goes to my shoulders or my feet. So I have to include them too.  When I want to open the stressed area at the top of my head It can at times be easy to miss it.

 

3 hours and 30 minutes of yoga

I first did yoga. Not elaborate . Lying on my back for some time. Then bending  my knees  again for some time. Still on my back with bent knees putting the knees together and the feet apart for some time. OOps sloppy reporting. No mentioning of anything else doing during those positions. Hoo. I can put that in after the list of positions. en de the positions with the knees spread wide and the feet not.

A bit of depth know. Maybe I should let you find out. After all reading is no substitute for doing. But if I write maybe you will be inspired to do it. Seems like I long shot. Plenty of people bye a book with glorious pictures of nature pictures or art pictures but do not go and visit the photographed sites. How many people go and see the Yellow stone park thousands. Park rangers are worried. Publishing seems to work.

Lying there on my back, on a mat. I let me get some peace there then. Where was my Consciousness then ?  I do not really remember now. It must have been with me. I was not dead

My tradition is to put the focus of my awareness on me. Utterly shellfish me. More particular on my body, or a part of my body. Yes I admit I am preoccupied with my body.

All fine and dandy, but what comes out of putting my attention in me. I read that the father of  Marconi was doing something useless. playing around with radio waves. His mother covered for her son. One day He showed his father usefulness, gaining support from his father after all.

This post is not about him. Back on topic.

When I put my conscious on me I get results. What depends on the intention that goes with it. If I stay calm and put my consciousness on a stressed spot.  That spot becomes calm. When I have a cramp, like in my foot or my calves. My first – automatic – response is what everybody experiences, but I regain my calm . and put my consciousness on the spot (there is something missing here, but I am not sure what ). The cramp goes away gradually. I also use the intention of opening at the spot. T can then access it but something of the stress may spread.  Giving stress to other areas.

Backing up further on to the original topic. I started  with yoga at home. after that I ran for 3  hours and 30 minutes. Of which the first 2 hours where non-stop. When I run I put my consciousness on my body and on my surroundings.

Yoga for more than 3 hours.

It improves my performance.

I have stress at the top of my head. When I open that on the run. It negatively affects the run. It’s like opening the sewers in my head.  I manage not to make it worse, not to add to it. The fallout gives ma bit of stiff shoulders.  Like I wrote before, putting my consciousness on it with being calm and relaxed myself the spot unstiffens to some degree.

Calm and relaxed is not the same. An ice cube is calm but not relaxed. It took me a while the realize the difference. Before that I gave only calm. It did not make things worse but also did not improve. I am learning.

It is not my first and of course not my last run.

ps: 3h30 is about 35 KM for me, currently

Coincidence

Today I read this post. Yesterday evening I went to bar here in Antwerp. I was to late for the live music. The night was not a loss. I stayed until 2 or 3 in the morning talking to some people. Maybe connecting with another through the energy, consciousness and hearing a bit of her thoughts concerning me.

I had a dialogue with the man next to me about people. It was difficult to put in to words what I wanted to say. I started talking about it using economy, but that puts up the right or wrong of the economy. That was not what I wanted to talk about.
No. What I wanted to talk about is not exclusive to the economy.
We are al in roles. a treadmill. The Stanford University prison experiment shows that. Other psychological experiments also show it.  Every role puts blinders on. The blinders makes us zombies. Blind to what we do. Only seeing the seeming need that needs to get done. Our fellow humans fall by the wayside. Ourselfs falls by the wayside.

As a child we question not our parents over what they give us. We question not our teachers. Our parents do not question what they give us. Growing up we are told , taught, disciplined how to life. Step outside that how and they retaliate. Besides that we also have desires and talents.Which we inherit. We are brought up in a world where all those that are not family have to pay. A friend may get free access or discount.
Why ?
It is written in the post. Hierarchy of openness. ( read it)
Why is that ?

The problem is deeper than humans. Deeper than mammals. Maybe deeper than plants.
All animals have that hierarchy of openness. What I wanted to talk about was not even exclusive to humans.

solutions: escape,hide,shield or fight,struggle or solve. Only the full truth solves it ones and for all.
Humans we are. One can only start from where one is. Solving the problems of our society ones and for all is to solve ourselfs.