Diary 2021

Well being - flow and harmony

Sensation leads to perception leads to making meaning leads to conclusions, action, consequences.

Ladder of Inference:

Consequences

Action

Conclusions

Meaning

Perception

Sensation

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Celebrate the quest.

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Middle Way:

science / spirituality

memory / mythology

structure / spontaneity

ephemeral / eternal

humorous / profound

connectivity / non-attachment

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holy trees. strong

learn to listen to trees

then the brevity of our childlike way achieves joy

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inner life of nature

the wilderness of our own nature

into universe of myth & magic

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the future is coming for us

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the absurdity of fear and the fear of absurdity

Saigon

Seek out what magnifies your spirit.

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"I want to keep smashing myself until I am whole." - Elias Canetti

Die Twice

Before going to Cambodia I discovered a Saigon museum named for Uncle Ho. He’s the patron saint of Diehard Marxist Mania. It is a popular location for virginal couples posing for wedding photographs using expansive interior halls and sweeping stairways. Happy grooms escorted joyful brides in rented sparkling jewelry trailing gowns, frozen on stairs, in corridors, on window ledges. Jump!

In a dusty display case along a forgotten corridor were piles of medals, stamps, currencies and Zippo lighters. A Zippo was ubiquitous among soldiers with engraved inscriptions. One lighter said:

There are two times you face death.

Once when you’re born and once when you face death.

Hala, a Muslim girl I knew in Lhasa said, There are people who are born laughing and people who are born crying, I was born laughing.

Parked outside the museum was a U.S. Air Force F-16, ambulance, jeep, Huey helicopter and the tank North Vietnamese forces commanded to flatten gates and liberate the South. Rows of antique French cars used to ferry the wounded and ammunition around Saigon during the war collected dust in meticulous gleaming historical automotive fashion.

Hexagram 34 - The Power of the Great

Perseverance furthers. Ask what is right. Be in harmony. Movement. Not stubborn. Yielding quietly preserving work to remove resistance.

Book of Amnesia, V1

Laugh

Wolf meets dog. Freedom vs slavery.

Laugh and keep moving.

Passion & peristence.

Writing like music - rhythm, harmony, improvisation.

Time, effort, patience, cooperation.

Living safely is dangerous.

Dialect of the hands.

Thread music / dancing needle / flying leaves / zone of color art magic / sewing, tea, eggs, chillis, juice /

Writing Book of Amnesia / polish monster / just sitting / rain

Northern Laos

Improvisation

I am a calm lunatic.

Edited a hard copy of Ice Girl in Banlung.

Everything is a meditation - eating, sleeping, sexing.

Hungry girls go to bed. Women pay small. Men pay big.

Sex is a job. Raising kids is a duty.

An adventure in emotional distance with wisdom mind.

The big general picture (or) specific, concrete, precise details to see character.

"Information on life and hope" at a wat.

Popular lyrics "I am sorry."

A character's viewpoint on their experience. Internal monologue.

Intuitive improvisation is the mark of genius.

Projections of our own faults and weaknesses. Fear and disgust.

Discernment = spiritual power

Journalistic fiction.

The mercy of social revolution.

The mercy of social insight.

Exiting - writing, photography, travel.

After all the gadgets, electronics, "consumption".

Bill Evans - find, establish the simple point, the center. Start with the solid. Then expand.

Melody, harmony, rhythm.

Jazz improvisation (core)

I am a short story.

You are a novel.