Red Tara Sand Mandala

Okay, it looks like this event already happened, but I find it interesting that the there is a special connection between Red Tara and the Dalai Lama.
Also he will be in D.C. in November


Tibetan sacred art ceremony in DC to mark forthcoming Dalai Lama visit
Tibet News, September 12th, 2005
Washington DC, USA --

In honor of the Dalai Lama's 70th birthday this year, and his November visit to Washington DC, Tibetan Buddhist monks will create and then destroy a unique sand mandala at the new office of the International Campaign for Tibet on 20-21 September. The ritualized creation and dismantling of a sand mandala is a powerful spiritual and artistic experience, demonstrating the vibrant living tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Red Tara sand mandala will be created by monks from the Mindroling monastery of Tibet, re-established in India, at ICT's office in the heart of DC. The creation, visualization and dismantling of the mandala, which means 'circle' in Sanskrit and symbolizes the cycle of life and death, is an integral part of Tibetan Buddhist practice. There is a special connection between the Red Tara deity and the 14th Dalai Lama, who will be in Washington in November.

A sand mandala is made of hundreds of thousands of brightly-colored grains of sand, placed grain by grain, in intricate traditional designs. Visitors will be invited to watch the monks at work at ICT in the compelling and intimate ritual of creating the mandala. On 21 September, the mandala will be dismantled in a process symbolic of the impermanence of life. A press briefing will be held afterwards on the significance of the Dalai Lama’s forthcoming visit to DC.

The Mindroling monks, from Dehra Dun, India, will also consecrate a stunning Red Tara thangka (scroll painting) at ICT’s office on 21 September. The iconography of the Red Tara is based on ancient Tibetan Buddhist texts prophesizing the birth of the 14th Dalai Lama and including a special prayer invoking Red Tara to assist the 14th Dalai Lama to overcome extreme external and internal obstacles that could arise in his lifetime. Red Tara, one of the female deities in the Buddhist pantheon, is meditated upon to protect from fear. Mindroling Monastery is one of the six major monasteries of Tibet belonging to the Nyingma lineage and is currently the seat of the head of the lineage.

The construction of the sand mandala is a highly visual process which begins with drawing the design, forming a 'cosmogram'. Once this is complete, the monks painstakingly begin the process of applying colored sand through the end of a metal funnel onto the design. Mandala sand painting is considered to be one of the most unique and exquisite artistic traditions of Tantric Buddhism. Called 'dul-tson-kyil-khor' in Tibetan, literally 'mandala of colored powders', the process is one of prayer, patience and meditation.

The venue of the mandala creation is a new cultural and diplomatic center for the Tibetan people in the heart of DC. The International Campaign for Tibet together with the Mind-Life Institute is hosting a public talk by the Dalai Lama entitled 'Global Peace through Compassion' on 13 November at the MCI Center (www.dalailamadc.org).

if Republicans believe in their own BS

Found this over at Huffington Post; article by Stephen Elliot on Tom Delay of Oct. 3rd. It is a tounge in cheek comment to Elliot's post, obviously intended for Republican trolls:

Republicans! Don't read this! Remember, You won! You won!, Mission Accomplished! Terrorists are in their last throes! The economy is booming! Brownie did a heck of a job! My country, right or wrong! Libs are a Gay-pride, blackfaced march to the welfare office to get money to pay for their abortions and pot! Jesus is my co-pilot! W, The President! You got your 300 dollar tax credit! Gas is cheap! Buy now, pay later! Shop, shop, shop! Saddam had nukes! We were greeted as liberators! The Middle East is now filled with democracies! The borders are secure! Freedom is on the March! Our morals are the envy of the world! Our justice to others is a shining beacon! Oh, and did I mention Jesus? Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!

Posted by: JeffDeVore on October 04, 2005 at 11:54am
see:


10.03.2005
The Continuing Saga of Tom DeLay, from Texas

Return of the Evacuees

Well, this recent Tuesday, my Mom and I returned home, after a 5 hour trip coming south from northern Texas. The Houston area is returning to normal. The heat here is unbearable for this late in September, what with the humidity it always feels like it is 103 degrees F outside.

Last Thursday there were evacuees who had run out of gas in our little town here. Huge lines at the few stations that had some gas. A cousin of mine who came back last Saturday says that many of the stores had empty shelves in them.

The real damage was over in Beaumont/Port Arthur, and places like Cameron, LA, and Lake Charles , LA. Plus a lot of East Texas towns had damage, trees down, and power down, and 100 degree heat outside.

One could say that starting from High Island, all the way to Mississippi, this whole stretch of the coast has been hammered by Katrina/Rita. It will take years for many communities to recover if at all.
Houston, lucked out, as there was not so much physical damage as there was nervous damage--- the I45 100 mile traffic jam for example.

Our backyard looks remarkably the same except for some blown around twigs. Go figure. The high pressure system over Texas kept Rita from coming in near Matagorda.

So Houston lucked out this time, but given a hotter Gulf of Mexico, who knows what will happen in years to come.

Evacuee; fleeing from Rita

Well, Weds. the 21st, my Mom and I became Rita evacuees-- fleeing from a storm which on that day was rated as a Category 5 that was supposed to come in at Port Lavaca or Matagorda on the Texas Coast.

We decided to get out that morning. My idea was to get to Austin , Texas, but I quickly found out that most hotels/motels in Texas were all ready booked because of Katrina evacuees, and others fleeing from Rita.
We ended up leaving Rosenberg, at 7:15pm , on Sept 21st.

It took us 5 hours to go from Rosenberg to Eagle Lake, Texas. At that time Rita looked to be a Category 5, with 165 mph winds. I packed my stuff, and then Mom packed the family photo albums, her clothes, and we left thinking 145mph winds might wipe out our house, because we are just 55 miles inland from the gulf. Burnet , Texas was our destination, as that was the only room I could get on short notice.

So there we were traveling about 3 mph in a stream of cars. At one point I got very worried that if all the roads were like this, we would run out of gas,and we would be stuck at 12;30 at night, with my Mom with a pacemaker, plus hot weather is hard when you are old and used to air conditioning. Well , it was totally frustrating and also scary, as you could feel some panic in the air. I hope I never experience anything like it again.

But then , THEN, once we got thru and past Eagle Lake,then we took alt 90 to Gonzales , no problem ,had the road to ourselves,and then 183 up thru Luling, Lockhardt, then I35 Austin, then to Burnet. Got there at 4:40 am the morning of Sept.22nd. I drove from 7:15pm til that 4:40 am.

All that we could figure out , was there had been some sort of accident in Eagle Lake, but it was strange as when we finally got to Eagle Lake, it was just a 4 way stop , with a guy with a red flashlight directing 4 way traffic, that was backed up on both of this farm to market 2 lane roads.

As we waited some people cheated by using the opposite lane to go foward.
So we got to Burnet , Texas, totally wiped out.

We made it up to my brothers in Mckinney, yesterday. I am glad we did come here, as at the time there was no way to know Rita was going to shift and go in near Sabine Pass.
Both of us needed it. My sister in Sugarland, was going to escape to Brenham , Texas, but traffic gridlocked in Houston, and they could not even get out of Sugarland! They are okay though, as Rita went further east, and down to a Cat 3.


Though awful, it could have been much worse.
Maybe the Dalai Lama, who was in Austin, last Tuesday did powerful prayers, and got the magnitude of the karma reduced. Hard to say, but as I say, at least my Mom and I have a home to drive back to. People in Slidell, LA, had it much worse.
So I give thanks, for getting out of there, and being safe here with family.
It shakes you up, but makes you realize how precious our time here on earth is.

My Mom and I became 2 out of 1 million evacuees for a while, but I feel even more sorry for Louisiana, that has been hit twice in 4 weeks.

I brought my laptop with me, and one of the things I grabbed, was a box with most of the negatives of all the photos I have taken over the years. It is funny what you grab, when, you leave a house, and think it may get blown away. Some physical items can be replaced, but once blown in a hurricane, photos are gone. I am afraid my energy is still a bit in an uproar. Or stressed.

My Mom called a neighbor, who says our house is okay, so we will likely go back down this coming Tuesday. I am sure tree branchs are down.
In all it has been a strange and scary week.

Red Tara , again

Red Tara Thankha ---- found over at Tibetan Spirit http://www.tibetanspirit.com/ - - just thought I would post this because a lot of the news has been really dispiriting lately and can only do so many political type posts. Plus it looks like Tropical storm Rita could be headed this way. This could effect the author of this blog.
I will say I have always had good dealings with Tibetan Spirit, check them out, they have cool stuff.

Reading Newspapers--- sort of a basic thing

I recommend reading "How Bush Blew It, over at Newsweek.
Here is an excerpt:

"How this could be—how the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century—is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace.

President George W. Bush has always trusted his gut. He prides himself in ignoring the distracting chatter, the caterwauling of the media elites, the Washington political buzz machine. He has boasted that he doesn't read the papers. His doggedness is often admirable. It is easy for presidents to overreact to the noise around them.
But it is not clear what President Bush does read or watch, aside from the occasional biography and an hour or two of ESPN here and there. Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with disloyalty. After five years in office, he is surrounded largely by people who agree with him. Bush can ask tough questions, but it's mostly a one-way street. Most presidents keep a devil's advocate around. Lyndon Johnson had George Ball on Vietnam; President Ronald Reagan and Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, grudgingly listened to the arguments of Budget Director Richard Darman, who told them what they didn't wish to hear: that they would have to raise taxes.

When Hurricane Katrina struck, it appears there was no one to tell President Bush the plain truth: that the state and local governments had been overwhelmed, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was not up to the job and that the military, the only institution with the resources to cope, couldn't act without a declaration from the president overriding all other authority."

and:" One by one, the lawmakers listed their grievances as Bush listened. Rep. Bobby Jindal, whose district encompasses New Orleans, told of a sheriff who had called FEMA for assistance. According to Jindal, the sheriff was told to e-mail his request, "and the guy was sitting in a district underwater and with no electricity," Jindal said, incredulously. "How does that make any sense?" Jindal later told NEWSWEEK that "almost everybody" around the conference table had a similar story about how the federal response "just wasn't working." With each tale, "the president just shook his head, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing," says Jindal, a conservative Republican and Bush appointee who lost a close race to Blanco. Repeatedly, the president turned to his aides and said, "Fix it."

And then over at MahaBlog,(http://www.mahablog.com/) here is that bloggers reaction to this article:


There's something fundamentally screwy about a president who won't read newspapers or watch television news, but instead relies entirely on his staff to tell him what's going on in the world. This is not normal. Imagine a CEO who pays no attention to his company or industry in general until someone on his staff works up the courage to tell him the company is losing money. Granted, a lot of corporate heads are oblivious, but not that oblivious.

(According to legend, John Kennedy used to speed-read six newspapers every morning while he ate breakfast. As I recall, Kennedy usually had a clue what was going on in the world.)

Second, what is the point of an executive who gives no direction? Many's the time I've attended "crisis" meetings in which staff and managers and maybe a couple of vice presidents dealt with a serious problem. After thorough discussion of the goals and obstacles, and after questions are asked and suggestions are made, the big shots decide on a plan of action. They don't just sit there and yell, "fix it!"

From my own reading of History, I believe that FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, LBJ, Nixon, Carter, they all read newspapers each morning. LBJ had 3 tvs set up so he could watch all 3 network news programs.

It sort of pinpoints one of the really strange aspects of "W". He doesn't read newspapers, or watch the news(has to get a Dvd made of summaries), and he doesn't talk to any ordinary Americans, any American in some diner or cafe, or on the street, or anyone who disagrees with him. All meetings with the public are totally vetted events. Thus like Nixon he islolates himself more and more. Unique and strange, and in the case of Katrina, deadly for those stuck in attics, in the poorest neighborhoods.

Am going to post most

of Craig Crawfords post today to the Huffington Post, - - -The Unmasking of George Bush - - - "

Hurricane Katrina exposed to the bone what many consider George Bush’s true persona. We’ve seen it all in the past two weeks: his patrician instincts, the seemingly disingenuous posturing and a stubborn refusal to fully take responsibility for what goes wrong.

Bush could throw a trillion dollars into the Mississippi Basin, dispatch hundreds of spinners to shift the blame — even fly to the region every other day until he is out of office — but to many Americans none of that would undo their first impressions of his above-it-all response to Katrina.
The president’s handling of this disaster reveals a part of his nature that explains so much more than the arguably preventable extent of Katrina’s unprecedented wreckage. It explains such things as his refusal to back down on Social Security revisions that even his own party leaders don’t want anymore. It explains how the “compassionate conservative” proclamation of his first presidential campaign translated into little of significance, especially for the urban poor. And it explains why he hasn’t gone to one funeral for an American soldier killed in Iraq.In short, rising numbers of Americans perceive Bush as someone who thinks he’s always right, who believes his critics are know-nothing wimps, and who considers the little people as mere tools for the rich and powerful to do what he considers right for America." CQ Weekly

There is a bit more to this article. The full article can be found by clicking on the CQ Weekly link.

Reading on the edge

What have I been reading lately? Aside from Blazing Splendor, which I reviewed earlier I just picked up How we Lost Iraq by Aaron Glantz.
After living in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, he pretty much sums up what many are beginning to notice: whatever goodwill we garnered for getting rid of Saddam, has been totally squandered in Iraq by an Administration incapable of making shrewd moves, or even what would be fair for the people of Iraq. Here is a large excerpt from a review at Amazon.com, done by V.I. Scherb:

"Aaron Glantz, a reporter for Pacifica Radio, has written a compelling first hand account of his experiences in Iraq between early 2003 and early 2005. This is new journalism at its best. Mr. Glantz is very upfront about where he is coming from as a supporter of human rights for all, whether they be Americans, Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, or Iraqi Christians. He is quite willing to acknowledge the atrocities of Saddam's regime as well as of the terrorists and U.S. forces. Living among the Iraqi people and sometimes mistaken for one by U.S. soldiers, he brings clarity to a complex situation and puts a human face on people under enormous pressure that you won't soon forget. Glantz's honesty comes through in a way you never see in the mainstream media, whose reporters are often isolated from the day to day lives of Iraqis in their suites at the Palestine hotel. He is also quite willing to turn his eyes on himself, asking "How many people can you interview whose relatives have been killed before you start to crack--or worse, tune it all out?"

In addition to a strong narrative arc that describes how American liberators became occupiers became oppressors, the book is filled with details and conversations that make pieces of the puzzle that is Iraq fall into place. To pick one example, his discussion of kidnappings in Iraq brings up thought-provoking points that one rarely hears voiced. Glantz notes an Associated Press report that "80 percent of the roughly 170 foreigners kidnapped in Iraq had been peacefully released. Overall, it seemed hostages directly involved in the occupation [this would include contractors working for the military] fared much worse than their civillian counterparts" (217). Details that should be reassuring turn out to be disturbing, such as Glantz's comment that the soccer stadium converted into a mass grave in Fallujah "turned out to be a lot smaller than I imagined it" which necessitated the bodies being buried very close together, "and each mound has a small concrete slab as a headstone, the name of the person hand-scrawled with red paint. Sometimes there are more than one name" (273).

Although he gives you his own opinions (and identifies them as such), many of the book's most powerful moments come when he gives the voices of the Iraqis scope. To take one example, a simple conversation with a shopkeeper suggests a chillingly plausible reason for the number of suicide bombers: there are people willing to pay them, rumors suggesting one might get as much as $250,000. As the shopkeeper explains, "Of course some people will take money to explode themselves . . . That way their family and and their grandchildren will be able to live well in the future." While huge sums go to military contractors and to protect oil interests, little goes to help the locals. As the shopkeeper wistfully comments, "If some of the money went to unemployed Iraqi people . . . there would be fewer bombings" (119-20). The passage is shocking, not only because it critiques U.S. policy, but because it suggests that many of the "fanatics" may not be fanatics at all, but simply people who are trying to protect and provide for their families by victimizing the families of others. Can the noblest of ends justify the worst of means? It is a question that some Iraqis answer in the affirmative, but obviously many in the U.S. answer the same question in the same way.

Ultimately, this cycle of violence underlies the whole book, and it applies to both Iraqi history as well as to U.S. actions in the Middle East. Although the book is hardly a justification of the invasion of Iraq, the book is by no means an unrelenting attack on U.S. policy. Glantz sometimes defends U.S. actions and critiques the anti-war Left; Glantz also describes his struggle with his editors at Pacifica who want more sensational stories than Iraqi discontent with the lack of power, water, and proper sanitation. He refuses to believe many of the worst reports of the U.S. military's behavior, although he acknowledges that a number of them turn out to be true. One of the things that makes the book remarkably compelling, is that you can actually see the shift from denial to acceptance taking place in his narrative, a shift that parallels the Iraqis transition from hope, to disappointment, to outrage. Glantz also makes unheard of efforts (at least for a journalist these days) to talk to multiple witnesses and check out their statements when this is possible. If he doesn't see things himself, he describes the aftermath in telling detail and interviews survivors. Ultimately the story Glantz tells is a tragic one, a story in which a bad situation is dishonestly exploited by the powerful, opportunities to do good are squandered, and arrogance and poorly thought out policy make a situation increasingly spiral out of control. " see How America Lost Iraq

It is a easy read, and I recommend it to anyone curious about what has gone down over there. --- J.P.

If we are to pull ourselves out of the.....

"If we are to pull ourselves out of the disasters of Katrina and Iraq alike, we must live in the real world, not the fantasyland of the administration's faith-based propaganda. " ----from
Falluja Floods the Superdome by Frank Rich, New York Times 9/04/05.

I emailed this to several of my friends . New York Times articles tend to get archived very fast now days, and then you have to pay. But this article is also over at: http://www.iht.com/protected/articles/2005/09/04/news/edrich.php.
Maybe it will be around for awhile there.

Meanwhile today I came across this clip from a Yahoo News article:
"Local officials bitterly expressed frustration with the federal government's sluggish response as the tragedy unfolded.

"Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area. And bureaucracy needs to stand trial before Congress today," Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, said on CBS' "The Early Show."

"So I'm asking Congress, please investigate this now. Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."

Also over at the Huffington Post there is a link from David Corn contrasting how FEMA performed in Florida during 4 hurricanes in 2004 with the prepositioning done this time:"

How do you explain FEMA's abysmal response to Hurricane Katrina only one year after its swift action in the four storms of 2004?

Well, Louisiana isn't Florida. And Kathleen Blanco isn't Jeb Bush.

For the full story on the politics of Bush-era disaster relief, see:
"FEMA: Florida Election Management Agency"

http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/000246.htm

Obviously a Major Malfunction

"Obviously a major malfunction"--- those were the icy, technocratic words of the capcom announcer at Nasa when the shuttle Challenger disintegrated in early liftoff back in 1986.

Well as early as last Sunday morning, when Katrina became a Category 5, someone should have assumed the worst and ordered some actual troops to be prepositioned, just based on the experience of Hurricane Andrew if nothing else. Instead we see a major malfunction of the system. And the same technocratic disconnect initially.

I remember at one point last Weds., because of 2 shots, it was announced that all rescue boats would "stand down" , until further notice.
Meantime over at David Corn's web blog, I found this reminder of what was accomplished during Dunkirk , when thousands of private boats had Stuka dive-bombers to worry about, while they attempted to evacuate British & French troops> http://www.davidcorn.com/. I will let the rest speak for itself:


"I see that the [Louisiana] governor is committed to moving everyone out in the next two days. What is really obscene is that we plan to bus them 350 miles, in school buses, to another sports area, although this one will have electricity and air-conditioning.

That is not how a country responds to disaster, and it is pathetic that our government and leadership cannot expect or inspire more. I was thinking about the comparison to Dunkirk, when the British military fell victim to a massive miscalculation about the strength of Nazi troops (the parallels abound). The British figured out, on the fly, how to evacuate 338,226 troops between May 26 and June 4, 1940, from the beaches of Dunkirk, often using small privately owned craft to get in out to the shore. (I Googled it. No, I didn't remember it from Dr. Miller's history class in White Plains High School.) Over 200,000 were also evaluated from other coastal towns. This was all accomplished with little or no time to plan, under fierce bombardment and aerial attack. Legend says the troops were treated to hero's welcome with special trains and high tea waiting at the British shore.

We are pathetic."

Moral Absolutes

I just wanted to add that just because I post something, doesn't mean I endorse everything in what is quoted material. For example the editorial from the Arab News.
I think by using the term 'pure evil', they were just trying to make a strong point. I think that humans, being what they are not capable of absolute evil.
Okay, lets say 100% evil. Even some of the evillest people in history may have had at least some tiny spark of good in their lives. Even Hitler was kind to Blondi, his German Shepard.
Now don't get me wrong. I am no apologist for Hitler. In fact from a Buddhist point of view his mind-stream will probably spend countless aeons, in some deep, dark hell-realm. After it pays the karmic debt for causing the deaths of millions, at some point which only the Buddha can know, his shade will be released. So you could say in his case 99.999999......
% etc evil.

But if you ascribe pure evil to a human, you are de facto turning them into a god of some sort.
At any rate by posting an editorial from the Arab News, I was attempting to point out, that even in Saudi Arabia, with its Wahabi sect, which are very much into drawing lines of moral absolutes, even there, there is digust and horror at Islamic terrorism. And furthermore it is interesting to see what papers in the Arab world are saying about the latest bombings.

In other news I have added most of the article on Tara (Buddhism) over at Wikipedia.Also the article on Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was just 2 lines, so I wrote and added a bio for him there. This can be checked out at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Jewel Offerings-- -dedicating the merit to M.S.R.O. 

to further emphasize a point--- also found at the democratic underground. 

'it's also important for me to go on with my life"

it's also important for me to go on with my life, -G.W. Bush.

--- this found among many places at:COX NEWS SERVICE Arizona Star: Bush on Saturday defended his decision not to meet with the grieving mom of a soldier killed in Iraq.
"But whether it be here or in Washington or anywhere else, there's somebody who has got something to say to the president, that's part of the job," Bush said on the ranch. "And I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say. But, I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."

So instead of taking 20 minutes off from clearing brush, or shortening a 2 hour bike ride, or from attending a Republican fund raiser, to share even tea and sympathy with Cindy Sheehan, 'Dubya' believes ' it's also important for me to go on with my life".

Meanwhile we get to behold the true nature of right-wing activism in the form of some lunk with a pickup truck with a pipe attached by chains , plowing through the crosses marking those slain in Iraq during the night.

I guess this is the way the right chooses to honor the fallen. And the way the right-wing media has villified and smeared Mrs. Sheehan, just shows there are no depths of depravity they won't plumb, in order to score some political points.

For a more uncensored take on this check out: http://www.democraticunderground.com/

Jerry Garcia---- Ten Years After

Gosh can it really be ten years since Jerry Garcia left us.
Hard to believe. Another case of you don't now what you got
til its gone.
His music lives on though. From reading one of his biographies and also one of the histories of the Grateful Dead what I took away from all that info was that Garcia really, really loved music, loved playing music, and loved delving into America's musical past and folklore, and extracted what he could and used it in a contemporary way.

Before his Grateful Dead years he spent a lot of time playing bluegrass music, studying it, playing with jug bands, collecting and sharing tapes, listening to old recordings, and learning all sorts of licks and styles.
And not only bluegrass music , but all sorts of folk, western, country, and old timey type music. The guy loved to jam with other musicians and loved to push the envelope of where a song could go.
You can hear this in lyrics from something like say 'Cumberland Blues':

Gotta get down to the Cumberland mine
That's where I mainly spend my time

Make good money, five dollars a day
If I made any more I might move away

In this little blog post there is no way I can do justice to his influence. I still enjoy American Beauty and Workingmans Dead. Just the first 3 notes from St. Stephen's always opens me up to a different dimension. Still trippy after all these years I guess. But after all Garcia was also called Captain Trips too.
As more Dicks Picks come out, along with other live concerts, and Dvds of concerts, everyone will be able to listen and encounter as much of Jerry Garcia as they want. So it is a shame he left us at 53 years, but didn't he ramble in his time?

He believed in sharing his tapes and the Dead believed in free taping of their concerts. Always a certain generosity of spirit about his music and sharing his music with the rest of us beings.I'll leave this off with a little lyric from Brokedown Palace:

'Fare you well, fare you well, I love you more than words can tell, listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul.'

Can still hear in my head the steel guitar lick right after that.
Check it out :"Grateful Dead: Truckin' Up To Buffalo" on DVD complete concert at Buffalo's Rich Stadium on July 4, 1989 with the picture taken from the master 1" video tape, shot with six cameras, and featuring an outstanding new 5.1 and stereo mix produced from the master multi-track tapes, this nearly three hour concert features such staples as "Touch of Grey," "Morning Dew," "All Along The Watchtower," "Deal," "Terrapin Station," and "U.S. Blues."

Intelligent Decline

"As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns,the ones we don't know we don't know." - -Donald Rumsfeld

Okay now, 'Intelligent design' is just theological speculation. As one blogger has pointed out once you start teaching 'Intelligent design ' in the classroom, then you need to also make fair time for:

• The blood of the monster Tiamat's husband, Kinqu,slain by Marduk created life on earth (the earth itself being created by the remains of Tiamat).
• The earth, sky, and all life on the planet came from the egg of the god Pangu and the god himself.
• Esaugetuh Emissee created mankind from clay on a hill
• The universe is governed by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, with Brahma being the creator
• Odin and his brothers used Ymir's body to create the universe."
• The ejection of fuel from a damaged engine on the spacecraft Terminus created the universe .

One could go on and on. For example in Buddhist Cosmology you have myriad worlds and world systems. In something akin to the Big bang there are periods when whole universes are created, evolve and then there is dissolution, decay, and whole universes disappear into emptiness.

But to be so sloppy about what is science and what is religious cosmology is quite moronic. Even in science or astronomical cosmology , it doesn't deny there could be a creator God, but it is something outside the perview of science.

'Intelligent design', is taken seriously by scarcely any scientific experts. It proposes that the natural world is too complex to have been created by entirely natural processes, so there must be a designer of some kind. As to how the designer acts, or how scientists could study those actions, it has no answers. Intelligent design explains nothing and predicts nothing; it isn't even a theory.

You can't ask high school physics teachers to teach 'Intelligient design ' because there is no science involved. Be clear if you want to ask for a Christian Fundamentalist cosmology class to be taught in schools, be up front about what you are asking for. It really shows that it is just a intellectually dishonest way of trying to get Christian Cosmology taught in schools. The voices of unreason do get loud at time. I hope all the science departments in the country get a bit het up about this.

Cool passage from As it is

This is a really cool passage from As it is by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. Came across this as I was reading it, and hopefully any of my friends into Vajrayana will dig it, and maybe anybody else, it will at least intrigue.
Here it is:

"Actually once you have realized the genuine state of wakefulness, samsara is no longer the problem it usually is. In the normal state of thinking we experience joy, we experience sorrow-- there are all these thoughts, all our worries and plans. But in the very moment of recognizing this thoughtfree wakefulness, there is no problem at all. At that moment, samsara is quite delightful, with a sense of great equality, expansive, and quite open. You may experience happiness, but if recognize your essence, you don't get too overjoyed and caught up in that. You may experience pain, but if recognize your essence, you don't get totally depressed and caught up in that. That is why it is called the great equality.

Usually, when everything is going well, people get so overjoyed that their hat falls off their head--- they just can't keep it on! But if in that moment you recognize the essence, whats the big deal about being happy about fleeting phenomena? Everything is equalized. At other times people get depressed and weep miserably. But if recognize your essence, what is the big deal to be depressed about? This recognition is your best friend in both joy and sorrow. If you continue training in this, you will get very good results. If not, well, it is not too much fun in this world. Everything changes, there is not too much we can rely on. Samsara has a fickle nature and nothing remains.

We need to recognize the unchanging natural state of awareness. Life is not that great if you have to remain as a totally samsaric person. Everything changes; there is no steadiness anywhere in the world, among sentient beings, or what is experienced. Second by second, everything changes. In this essence, though there is no thing that changes."

Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padme Siddhi Hung 

Found this over at the Arab News......

This is from an editorial in the Arab News, the English version of the main newspaper in Saudi Arabia. The recent bombing in Egypt, I believe shows , that the Islamic extremists are pretty much going after , or taking on the world.(not just theWest) Most all those killed in Egypt were Egyptian Muslims. How does this further getting the west out of Iraq? Evil times.
At least the Muslim world is waking up to the evil spawn nutured within their world.
Here is the link for the full editorial: Editorial: Pure Evil

"Yesterday’s barbarity follows a pattern — a pattern of pure evil, so evil that most people find it difficult to believe that human beings could do such things.
How can anyone justify the killing of innocents? No religion condones it. Yet that is what the militants do. What is that justification to target Egyptian workers at a downtown cafe? Why did they merit death?
Most of those killed yesterday were Egyptians. It is impossible to fathom the terrorists’ warped thinking, but they clearly think that ordinary Egyptians, like ordinary Londoners, are disposable.
Theirs is not just a war against the Egyptian economy and government, it is a war against the entire Egyptian people, as it is against all the people of Britain, of Spain, of Lebanon, of Iraq, of Indonesia, of the US — of everywhere. The terrorist is at war with the entire world.
It is not enough to hunt down and destroy these men of evil. The thinking that drives them must also be destroyed. That puts a special responsibility on decent human beings everywhere. These fanatics claim to act in the name of Islam. That has to be shown to be a lie.
Their vision of the faith is so warped, so twisted, that it has nothing to do with Islam. They pollute it, they make it feared, even hated elsewhere in the world, they bring shame and humiliation to the faithful. They have departed from Islam. Muslims here and elsewhere must tell the world, not just once but again and again, every time the fanatics attack, that they have nothing to do with Islam, that they have been cast out.
Until the message gets through the world, Islamophobia will continue to grow. Until it gets through to the fanatics themselves, unless they realize they are damned, the slaughter of the innocents will continue.
No major city in the world will be spared — not in the West, not in the Muslim world, not anywhere. In their minds, we are all disposable, we are all potential victims of their all-encompassing hate."

I would gather that if you were an ordinary Egyptian who lost someone in the Sharm el-Sheik bombings, you would develop a less than favorable notion of Al Queda.

The Year 1000

(St. Mark the Evangelist - -from the Gospel of Ebbon, 9th Century.)

The following is one of my favorite quotes, from a book by the art historian Henri Focillion entitled, The Year 1000. Will post this and add a little more commentary later:"


History is made of a threefold cluster of activating forces--- traditions, influences, and experiments; and every civilization perhaps every epoch of every civilization, stresses one or the other of these forces in turn. Tradition resembles a vertical force rising out of the depth of the ages; but at times it loses its cohesion, its vital drive, and then fictions and disorting myths appear in its place. perhaps this must be so if tradition is to adapt itself to the new times. Tradition is only seldom unalloyed. In fact there are traditions that are out and out inventions, to serve this or that cause, and they are of no small interest. But diverse as the facets of tradition's internal ferment may be,the ferment represents the working of the past in the historical present. Influences, in turn, represent the technique of interchange and cross-fertilization. Peoples communicate with other peoples by such influences; the foreign influences which they bring are
accepted more or less passively- - -by way of infiltration, or by a shock, because they answer a profound need, or because they are disturbing. They are like a horizontal level of water rippled by diverse currents which establish a kind of changing harmony, a more or less stable consensus within the human community.

But the enrichment and renewal of history clearly come from the experiments that are quickened by mans urge to inquire and create. Experiments, one might say , dig into the future. They may be groping, insecure and full of mistakes; they may not always be fortunate; but without them the substance of history would quickly be exhausted, without them there would be no history but merely a hopeless round of lifeless forms of conservatism.
Periods bereft of the genius of trial and of risk lend truth to the brief and terrible phrase of the Merovingian writer, mundus senescit. --
(the world grows old)

To comment further: Using Focillions measuring stick, if one looks back over the last 50 years of the 20th century and on up to now, we see a period of extended experimentation in this country; the 60's and early 70's and then two periods of intense conservatism, the Reagan era and then the new Bush era. Not forgetting that the 1950's ,the I like Ike era was one of harking back to tradition taken to the max.

To have lived through and been a bit whipsawed by all the change during this time period, one can understand, why there might be a clinging to tradition as an anchor , or shelter during a storm of change.

On the other hand if one wants to appreciate a hopeless round of lifeless forms of conservatism try taping say, 3 hours of Dick Chenry giving speeches on Cspan or CSPAN2. and watching him for 3 hours.

Now as we enter the 2nd half of the first decade of the 21st century, I would say we are seeing most experimentation staunched in favor of another hopeless round of lifeless forms of conservatism.

And we are also having to deal with the influences of the West's encounter with Islam and the Islamic world. Whatever the outcome of the Iraq war, each Iraq war veteran will bring back a small bit of influence with them; of being in a culture very different from ours, and of experiencing events very much outside their frame of reference of usual American life.

At this point it is hard to say how this will all play out. Whoever chances to read this, I do suggest using Focillions measuring stick as it were and apply it to history on your own. See where it takes you, and what it reveals for you. Okay enough of this extended commentary for now. Selah.