tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46271300412201019842024-03-05T08:57:01.227-08:00Embracing Life...Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-53731667802455206492013-02-05T04:33:00.003-08:002013-02-05T04:35:42.742-08:00To Be or Not to Be...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju6VhtHrsyq5gHxGdS5VnKqdR5w74UC1rwcr-xFHT0hsXKWv0CZ1ou11FyD_Re4x8ppm26F0nAhSAISAtH1uuzLCkb24NUa2F2HPkZBjkAP8qjhsoc5U6rLMVSTsWai72ysaxjBVcVXXJ6/s1600/Girl+Step.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju6VhtHrsyq5gHxGdS5VnKqdR5w74UC1rwcr-xFHT0hsXKWv0CZ1ou11FyD_Re4x8ppm26F0nAhSAISAtH1uuzLCkb24NUa2F2HPkZBjkAP8qjhsoc5U6rLMVSTsWai72ysaxjBVcVXXJ6/s1600/Girl+Step.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">There is the infinite dance of cosmic being, and within it, but largely unaware of its undifferentiated participation in the totality of existence, there is the personal human mind. This mind is insensitive to life as a whole because it is filled to the brim by the particular images and ideas that determine its sense of separate existence and </span><span style="font-size: large;">generate</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">the chaotic social reality created by its necessarily conflicted social relations. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hidden beneath the isolated superficiality of the experience-based personal psyche —that is, at the very core of mind itself— awareness and the wholeness of being exist without distinction. However, at the superficial level of mind conditioned by personal and tribal experience and sustained by fear and desire, distinction is all there is. Distinction is, in fact, the life and essence of the self that deems itself separate and unique. Who would any one of us be be without the all-too common distinction between “you” and “me”; between “us” and “them”; between </span><span style="font-size: large;">“me” and “myself"; </span><span style="font-size: large;">and, more generally, between “me” and “not-me”? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Life, the ever shifting movement of existence as a whole, is all-inclusive and therefore not “a thing” or a container of things. But </span><span style="font-size: large;">personal self </span><span style="font-size: large;">in order to exist and endure in its own self-reflective eyes , must be something, some “one”, somebody. It must also endlessly strive to be recognized by others as such </span><span style="font-size: large;">within its particular cultural enclosure</span><span style="font-size: large;">. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The personal self is all about gradually evolving identity and the defense and projection of that identity, whereas life is innocent of separation, and therefore anonymous. Which is why the separate and self-projecting self can never feel secure and at peace, much less survive a serious inquiry into itself and the truth of its participation in life.</span>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-66325073201706871952013-02-03T10:30:00.002-08:002013-02-03T10:34:45.311-08:00To Wake Up to the Anonymous Self...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoHgr6te4JMbICvxa32xe-XuavXkOOPgjD_EXZx66FDEYex-w9a_MhYEElcnoZaHJk3kzexPY3wrXfd49fQopkSVEOvUlyfZ7rMhF9AVFDkDwYqJ2MQNHxUxEt-FUoKLqAbxRd5UMN4J16/s1600/Quit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoHgr6te4JMbICvxa32xe-XuavXkOOPgjD_EXZx66FDEYex-w9a_MhYEElcnoZaHJk3kzexPY3wrXfd49fQopkSVEOvUlyfZ7rMhF9AVFDkDwYqJ2MQNHxUxEt-FUoKLqAbxRd5UMN4J16/s1600/Quit.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No
one would deny being alive, but very few are content with just that. For most of us, to be alive is to be </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">defined by</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> a particular story </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">held by memory and sustained by self-centered thought. W</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">e generally see ourselves as particular entities living a relatively autonomous and enduring separate existence, e</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">ven though
the stream of life as a whole is nothing if not integrated movement, change, death, and regeneration. Yes, we admit that things change, that the circumstances and even the
attributes of the self evolve and change, but we are generally convinced that the “I” remains fundamentally separate and unchanged through time. "I" am who I was, who I am right now, and what I will become in the future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Regardless of how common this belief in personal identity and autonomy is, if closely observed it becomes clear that there is something deeply irrational about </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">an on-going private life that is largely unrelated to the whole of life</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">. In our proud personas and all-important social roles, the infinite actuality of life has been reduced to particular images and ideas, memories and desires, and that encapsulation is clearly insane. No one needs further proof of this insanity than what an unbiased look at t</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">he chaos of the world at large reveals, a world that is but the outpicturing of </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">the egotism, fear, and conflict in the</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> lives and relations of seven billion human beings</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">. Defined, isolated, and ordered around as we are by the cultural imperatives of </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">particular</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> tribes</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> and our own conflicting memories and desires, we </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">generate and sustain the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">insecurity, ambition, and </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">violence that we suffer and makes others</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> suffer</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">. </span><br />
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In relinquishing full </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">participation</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> in life</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">, we have condemned ourselves to the impossible enterprise of fulfilling the petty ambitions of self, clan, and tribe</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Despite undeniable scientific and technical development and endless sequential attempts to reform our institutions and improve ourselves morally and intellectually, we remain incapable of freeing ourselves from the same social and psychological problems human beings have already suffered for millennia. The persistence of this cruel </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">primitivism clearly</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> resides in </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">the alienated and fragmented quality of the human mind. Why should</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> all our efforts to improve the quality of human life ultimately fail, if not because they leave untouched the deep root from which they spring? This being so, our only intelligent and caring option is to confront in ourselves the general fact of a mind conditioned and isolated by experience, and in this mind, the root of all that ails humanity.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> We need to see that we are </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">made dull and insensitive by the imprint in our minds of the entire journey of the species through time, as well as by the intrinsic limitation of our biographical experience and learning.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Put differently, the insecurity and grief produced by the alienation of the whole species from life, has generated over time countless different responses seeking even a small measure of security and certainty. These responses have at every point in time splintered the species by assuming particular personal and cultural identities. Separate and equally fearful and ambitious </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">individuals</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> organized in different and competing </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">societies, groups, and institutions, cannot but produce strife and sorrow, and this mode of existence cannot be significantly improved, let alone transcended -ever- through superficial modifications that leave its fundamental alienation and divisiveness intact.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The impotence of our actions in the past, in the present, and in a future conceived on the bases of previous actions and failures, clearly indicates the absolute necessity of an irreversible dissolution of the artificial boundaries of self and tribe that separate us from one another and alienates the species as a whole from life. There is no other solution. All other attempts to change are just a projection of the same nightmarish play of sectarian dogmatism and personal egotism we have been enacting over and over since we first appeared on the face of the Earth and started thinking we were original and very smart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To wake up from the nightmare of self-centered thought is to suddenly realize that the only sane and sensitive human being is one who is not identified with any particular ideology, and lives free of association with any given group or institution. To survive, he or she may perform a given function related to the satisfaction of the fundamental needs of other individuals, but is in no way psychologically identified with this function. In a mind free of the strictures of self and tribe, the doing is not the being. The being is only life, and life is one and anonymous, it has no place or need for particular identity.</span></div>
Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-24921142840209716822013-01-01T09:51:00.000-08:002013-01-01T11:20:01.415-08:00Cosmic Being<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNFEonPsmwv_PwfFBO60m7GDLXpC4CO1t7sqgGA8fCNFG08-43meL764K-0cepq3pEEsbT9sqaTOmuxQpGDRo82DuJEIXYKt-h2BTLqhQWdff7VBJNPE29adZZqdqbo0Oe6KuWqpWCIbiS/s1600/Cosmic+Being.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNFEonPsmwv_PwfFBO60m7GDLXpC4CO1t7sqgGA8fCNFG08-43meL764K-0cepq3pEEsbT9sqaTOmuxQpGDRo82DuJEIXYKt-h2BTLqhQWdff7VBJNPE29adZZqdqbo0Oe6KuWqpWCIbiS/s640/Cosmic+Being.jpg" width="634" /></a></div>
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Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-73335529413014211062012-08-04T18:08:00.001-07:002012-08-04T18:08:30.648-07:00Home Green Home<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVxLLIkrLX9_yvapPpwcp-CCZgXvmgkI5Rmgi6dGRQj16s8lK41OFAOkthuDWcFjUOTdG-FdCyagKAtxYhmlAeQgYRGZQKLy5Lir5trGt4vs620oqcfav6lamrbu-aIzljD8Kkpd7Suhb8/s1600/HGH+Installation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVxLLIkrLX9_yvapPpwcp-CCZgXvmgkI5Rmgi6dGRQj16s8lK41OFAOkthuDWcFjUOTdG-FdCyagKAtxYhmlAeQgYRGZQKLy5Lir5trGt4vs620oqcfav6lamrbu-aIzljD8Kkpd7Suhb8/s640/HGH+Installation.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Here
is a picture of the installation that we did at Home Green Home, in
Ithaca, on Gallery Night. The little pieces of paper have environmental
quotes on them. I've listed them for you below. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>We could have saved the Earth
but we were too damned cheap.
</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> <b> </b></i>Kurt Vonnegut<i><br /><br /><br />
A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from
the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to permit him
to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgment.<br />
</i>Beverly Sills<i><br /><br />
A very Faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and
risky behavior as the unavoidable price of population and economic
growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental
ethic.<br />
</i> E. O. Wilson<br /><i><br /><br />
For 200 years we’ve been conquering Nature. Now we’re beating it to death. <br /><br />
</i>Tom McMillan<i><br /><br /><br />
There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed. <br />
</i> Gandhi<i><br /><br /><br />
Time and space - time to be alone, space to move about - these may well become the great scarcities of tomorrow.
<br />
</i> Edwin Way Teale<i><br /><br /><br />
Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on
silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase
noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation,
meditation... tooting, howling, screeching, booming,
crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His
anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray
vegetation.
</i> Jean Arp<i><br /><br /><br />
How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt
pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working,
dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain,
seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality
of life? <br />
</i> Charles A. Lindbergh<br /><i><br /><br />
It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both
man and nature. </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Henry David Thoreau, Walden,
1854
<i><br /><br />
<br />
We’re finally going to get the bill for the Industrial Age. If the
projections are right, it’s going to be a big one: the ecological
collapse of the planet.
<br />
</i> Jeremy Rifkin<i><br /><br /><br />
Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he
can add to what he’s been given. But up to now he hasn’t been a
creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up,
wild life’s become extinct, the climate’s ruined and
the land grows poorer and uglier every day. <br />
</i> Anton Chekhov<i><br /><br /><br />
A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part
limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and
feelings as something separated from the rest
<br />
- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a
kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to
affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free
ourselves from this prison by widening our circle
of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole [of] nature
in its beauty.
<br />
</i>Albert Eintein<i><br /><br /><br />
Western society has accepted as unquestionable a technological
imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo: not
merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create
technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to
these novelties unconditionally, just because they are offered, without
respect to their human consequences.
<br />
</i> Lewis Mumford<i><br /><br /><br />
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.
<br />
</i> Ansel Adams<i><br /><br /><br />
To people who think of themselves as God’s houseguests, American
enterprise must seem arrogant beyond belief. Or stupid. A nation of
amnesiacs, proceeding as if there were no other day but today. Assuming
the land could also forget what had been done to
it.<br />
<br />
</i> Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams<br /><i><br /><br />
All in favor of conserving gasoline, please raise your right foot. <br />
</i> Author Unknown<br /><i><br /><br />
As we watch the sun go down, evening after evening, through the smog
across the poisoned waters of our native earth, we must ask ourselves
seriously whether we really wish some future universal historian on
another planet to say about us: “With all their genius
and with all their skill, they ran out of foresight and air and food
and water and ideas,” or, “They went on playing politics until their
world collapsed around them.”
<br />
</i>U Thant<i><br /><br /><br />
We must not be forced to explore the universe in search of a new home
because we have made the Earth inhospitable, even uninhabitable. For if
we do not solve the environmental and related social problems that
beset us on Earth - pollution, toxic contamination,
resource depletion, prejudice, poverty, hunger - those problems will
surely accompany us to other worlds.
<br /><br />
</i> Donald G. Kaufman and Cecilia M. Franz, Biosphere 2000 </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br />
Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,<br />
For strip-mined mountain’s majesty above the asphalt plain.<br />
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,<br />
And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.<br />
</i>George Carlin<i><br /><br /><br />
There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew. <br />
<br />
</i>Marshall McLuhan<i><br /><br /><br />
At every turn, when humanity is asked the question, 'Do you want
temporary economic gain or long-term environmental loss, which one do
you prefer,' we invariably choose the money.<br />
</i> Ethan Hawke<i><br /><br /><br /><br />
The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man’s heart away from nature
becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things
soon led to lack of respect for humans too.
<br />
</i>Chief Luther Standing Bear<i><br /><br />
Our environmental problems originate in the hubris of imagining
ourselves as the central nervous system or the brain of nature. We’re
not the brain, we are a cancer on nature.
<br />
</i>Dave Foreman<i><br /><br /><br />
I conceive that the land belongs to a vast family of which many are
dead, few are living, and countless numbers are still unborn.
<br />
</i>Author Unknown<i><br /><br /><br />
Economic advance is not the same thing as human progress. </i>John Clapham<i><br /><br />
<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></i></span>
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</span>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-25507254486053787602012-07-11T12:17:00.001-07:002012-07-11T12:17:38.947-07:00The Face of the Mystery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRwcbxvzwutt3zI5nJJK-Ci-SRw48gBZe-M36gXQGast-RCUZOCkl9Q6gZUl-xhj1rr0bamsGRqR3E8QGAnJv1RHtrlHqe0AKXSeH92OreUOvHkKZIxaf1hAZTTbvEndxQWdPo5EXYn_js/s1600/The+Sun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRwcbxvzwutt3zI5nJJK-Ci-SRw48gBZe-M36gXQGast-RCUZOCkl9Q6gZUl-xhj1rr0bamsGRqR3E8QGAnJv1RHtrlHqe0AKXSeH92OreUOvHkKZIxaf1hAZTTbvEndxQWdPo5EXYn_js/s1600/The+Sun.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-22398292287024996292012-03-03T07:24:00.002-08:002012-03-03T16:58:57.138-08:00There Is No Separation...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQC459tlP7Ai6EPOAZBDFyUCmX0EakJNZulWR8upH3_aJyUX-zUhbiD1cUpd33Z79Zf8TwvKnn4nCoipiAnLIpC1ZU0mQ9yt1z5MYHThtcoGY9CZZOQynPhowSoy3AZhZrbyZ-k7dG4FR/s1600/You+are+It+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQC459tlP7Ai6EPOAZBDFyUCmX0EakJNZulWR8upH3_aJyUX-zUhbiD1cUpd33Z79Zf8TwvKnn4nCoipiAnLIpC1ZU0mQ9yt1z5MYHThtcoGY9CZZOQynPhowSoy3AZhZrbyZ-k7dG4FR/s640/You+are+It+.jpg" width="476" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Knowledge and belief describe the boundaries and constitute the contents and projections of the self. And the groups and institutions from which the self derives much of its identity and sense of destiny, also depend for their own on particular bodies of knowledge and belief. None of this fragmentary psychological and cultural content is related to the truth which is one, total, actual, and therefore not reducible to the knowledge of one presuming to stand outside of it. In other words, the very presence and outreach of the tribal and personal self is the negation of truth.</span></div>
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For one who is only interested in the possibility of finding the truth, there is then only one question then: Can individual instances of a general phenomenon of mental conditioning by previous experience and knowledge (personal memory and cultural tradition), revert to the source, the original truth? Can the human being give way to life itself?</div>
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It is of utmost importance to realize that this possible transit from the mental reality created by experience and preinformed desire to what is largely independent from such reality, cannot possibly occur in time. So “transit” is not an adequate term for what we are trying to convey here. We are not asking whether the self can move from one state of consciousness to a presumably better one guided by its own or somebody else's prescription. We are asking rather whether the ongoing accumulation and projection of experience that constitutes the self can come to an end.</div>
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No one can “know” the truth because it is unrelated to the trappings of the personal self: experience, knowledge, and desire. But complete and direct perception of the actual nature of the self and of the suffering it creates with its fragmentary, conflictive, and enduring mental content, is already on the threshold of truth because such insight cannot but obliterate the self. </div>
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Drawing by Kim Schrag</div>
</span>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-79239006028477127052012-01-06T08:33:00.000-08:002012-01-06T08:42:32.674-08:00Who Are We?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyV4AldaXd4MSrFCbvu258NJygHVMmU5j2sPZ1MBPGaohCG6LHF8u1CX8_7jYr21mVa-2CyK-03420HtJavLOGfJ_T0UZrhDKCLfOmT9kbwZ1FjRYtpvLFYLV7Z8txuNFEk8g528YBtE5B/s1600/Gold+-+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyV4AldaXd4MSrFCbvu258NJygHVMmU5j2sPZ1MBPGaohCG6LHF8u1CX8_7jYr21mVa-2CyK-03420HtJavLOGfJ_T0UZrhDKCLfOmT9kbwZ1FjRYtpvLFYLV7Z8txuNFEk8g528YBtE5B/s1600/Gold+-+4.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If put to the test kindly, who would be able to prove that she or he is perfectly unique and, therefore, existing independently from everything else? Who could prove that personal existence is not an integral part of the restless movement of existence as a whole? And who would dare argue that personal consciousness is conceivable outside of its peculiar cultural moorings, or the unquiet particular brain something apart from the interpenetrating and rather impersonal material reality of the Universe?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are we just multiple sets of</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> insubstantial </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">personal and tribal memories driven by the same foolish desire for exclusive self-realization</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and, therefore, ultimately </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">condemned</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to destroy ourselves</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">? Or is it the case that, being nothing in ourselves personally, together we constitute the point of awareness (or one of the points of awareness) of the unthinkably complex mental and material </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">reality</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> of </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the cosmos</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and, beyond </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">even</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the very timeless and formless ground from which all form comes into being and into which all form goes to die? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-10128800473491742582012-01-04T14:58:00.000-08:002012-01-05T13:26:57.461-08:00The Gateway to All Understanding...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvWmN-rUMumsSgKGnUSmdypZSb_BZk-EVsuvYSugyB39Td3NIoqW-VEVvpIN-1xxQgym5oJ7PwZ9cNUipq-viBMqie05a2YTTJYhTA5OM47esTnzAzmCn4C34Em_6sWobNbVRhj7f6I57x/s1600/Darkness+Within+Darkness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvWmN-rUMumsSgKGnUSmdypZSb_BZk-EVsuvYSugyB39Td3NIoqW-VEVvpIN-1xxQgym5oJ7PwZ9cNUipq-viBMqie05a2YTTJYhTA5OM47esTnzAzmCn4C34Em_6sWobNbVRhj7f6I57x/s1600/Darkness+Within+Darkness.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-40870971818715808672011-12-30T08:03:00.000-08:002011-12-30T08:06:14.654-08:00The Simple Mind...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFShccWqHNXPY-CNKANZoTU5DDSHPSBm_8lhElG06MFAG1q8nuOP7xMK4FFeTvA5M0jSYkFQvu1tdBJsRb7FgcG6439FxFpOFUNwsF-X2sATQdq9Gxn9XXhjl3X3E7yFupgBIoc4d6wPr/s1600/A-1+HombreRoca+-+3+%252B+-+Detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFShccWqHNXPY-CNKANZoTU5DDSHPSBm_8lhElG06MFAG1q8nuOP7xMK4FFeTvA5M0jSYkFQvu1tdBJsRb7FgcG6439FxFpOFUNwsF-X2sATQdq9Gxn9XXhjl3X3E7yFupgBIoc4d6wPr/s1600/A-1+HombreRoca+-+3+%252B+-+Detail.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"That which is eternal cannot be sought after; the mind cannot acquire it. It comes into being when the mind is quiet, and the mind can be quiet only when it is simple, when it is no longer storing up, condemning, judging, weighing. It is only the simple mind that can understand the real, not the mind that is full of words, knowledge, information. The mind that analyses, calculates, is not a simple mind..." Jiddhu Krishnamurti</span>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-23300094768902275802011-12-24T11:51:00.000-08:002011-12-24T14:20:14.062-08:00THE TORRENT OF COSMIC LIFE...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGsc_5_LlUcw_ItG61WwTC5UnFCZI9FdeGdpaTAHxYYTIs8U3wKv2Ih44Tv-K5CBZar7BkWxWqGCCxVYPfCEOncb2Llt2j2LIoMMgxcf3nQXAOJpXownxHVETC-d3XABznfx5X-iTuMBMq/s1600/Falls+of+Light+-+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGsc_5_LlUcw_ItG61WwTC5UnFCZI9FdeGdpaTAHxYYTIs8U3wKv2Ih44Tv-K5CBZar7BkWxWqGCCxVYPfCEOncb2Llt2j2LIoMMgxcf3nQXAOJpXownxHVETC-d3XABznfx5X-iTuMBMq/s640/Falls+of+Light+-+5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Everything
changes with the realization that one belongs primarily to life and
only secondarily to culture and society. Life is all there, and so it
is incorrect to think that one has a life, or that life is in one.
Cultural formulations, societal structures and personal identities are trenches and
parapets separating us from life and from each other in exchange for
a false sense of security in particular identity and social status.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">All
our mental and social problems are the result of this psychological and tribal
alienation, so it is naïve to expect their
resolution from new or revamped forms of personal change and
institutional reform that leave intact our collective separation from
life. It is the very experience and aspirations of different social
groups and individuals, that blind humanity as a whole to the fact of
its seamless integration with the whole movement of life. </span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We generally refuse
to see the extent to which our organismic reality is deeply enmeshed
in the boundless torrent of cosmic life, and are frightened to death
by the loss of personal identity implied in yielding to the
undifferentiated embrace of the totality. This wrongheaded denial of
our fundamental nature preserves the conflicted segmentation of human
society, not just through tradition and habit, but by cruelly
burdening every newborn child with the same illusory sense of
physical and mental separation. Thus conditioned, we take life to be a battle in which everyone is compelled to
defend and fulfill his personal identity by following the dictates of
particular desires and fears. To simply realize the falseness of this sense of life, does change everything. Nothing else does.</span></div>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-14377858405470810772011-12-12T11:15:00.000-08:002012-01-03T11:42:39.512-08:00Inside Itself<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW0wU7iOoILo9dfFeHsRvpd54ZmHUvdno2D5X9FYQF_WOkTcNV4unXE90D9srXjFbrPm2uBzkWABrs-wuipzXT8LxFeHsSvPyvtZkjG6KQ-5WbPNw6hWdfrOiC-FMJHwF_Ck0vrid0GpqC/s1600/SchragSelf-Centered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW0wU7iOoILo9dfFeHsRvpd54ZmHUvdno2D5X9FYQF_WOkTcNV4unXE90D9srXjFbrPm2uBzkWABrs-wuipzXT8LxFeHsSvPyvtZkjG6KQ-5WbPNw6hWdfrOiC-FMJHwF_Ck0vrid0GpqC/s640/SchragSelf-Centered.jpg" width="488" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: small;">Self-Centered</span></i></b></div>
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Endlessly revolving,</div>
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appropriating everything</div>
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that comes into its sphere</div>
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as identity.</div>
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Caught in its own cage,</div>
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enough openings to relate,</div>
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not enough to escape</div>
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solitary confinement.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNdKCvBRVa439oYWPhKWjWVIsD4vrUge6fas7LTP2qvhuYAnU4ylaXUuQakzCt6cT3WKsqXA0qX5Jbad3VayhuA7Lg3ek8oNB2TdE8PWapiKdmr0ox0outNBvA1Xu_tiKvT5DujFAKFy4t/s1600/SchragAccumulation+I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNdKCvBRVa439oYWPhKWjWVIsD4vrUge6fas7LTP2qvhuYAnU4ylaXUuQakzCt6cT3WKsqXA0qX5Jbad3VayhuA7Lg3ek8oNB2TdE8PWapiKdmr0ox0outNBvA1Xu_tiKvT5DujFAKFy4t/s640/SchragAccumulation+I.jpg" width="488" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Accumulation</i></b></div>
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The psychological self is made of images,</div>
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ideas, and memories of:</div>
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<i><b>past relationships</b> </i></div>
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<i>wife, mother, daughter, friend, enemy,</i></div>
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<i>lover, boss, teacher, pets </i></div>
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<b><i>places</i></b></div>
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<i>countries, states, towns, neighborhoods</i></div>
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<b><i>possessions</i></b></div>
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<i>houses, mortgages, clothing, cars</i></div>
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<b><i>titles and degrees</i></b></div>
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<i>Professor, Doctor, BFA, MFA</i></div>
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<b><i>professions</i></b></div>
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<i>teacher, architect, accountant</i></div>
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<b><i>ideology</i></b></div>
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<i>religious and political </i></div>
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<b><i>accomplishments and failures,</i></b></div>
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<b><i>desires and plans,</i></b></div>
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<i><b>addictions and pleasures.</b> </i></div>
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Each new layer of attachment adds to the sense that I exist, I have continuity,</div>
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I am related, I am important in relation to what I associate with and disassociate from.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHqsVVs54O81jf8tmNVi5J374hsk-Zoy0rh5zerScbUudJIzJjfOXztTWt2nXER9VFKQfTITljcGsJbZKKa_ouib49fCcdHGL9lHcV2Wqmb42hdgh_F9ZUBXMP1c8DaiEYh2LGm7JIC412/s1600/SchragFalling+AwayAccumulation+-+II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHqsVVs54O81jf8tmNVi5J374hsk-Zoy0rh5zerScbUudJIzJjfOXztTWt2nXER9VFKQfTITljcGsJbZKKa_ouib49fCcdHGL9lHcV2Wqmb42hdgh_F9ZUBXMP1c8DaiEYh2LGm7JIC412/s640/SchragFalling+AwayAccumulation+-+II.jpg" width="474" /></a></div>
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<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Falling Away</span></b></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">We have all seen this phenomenon,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">a pile of papers, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">books or blocks, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">stacked so high</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">that the structure is no longer balanced and the whole pile starts to fall down.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Imagine if these layers were</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">assumptions and expectations,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">world views,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">accumulated stories of who,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">what, when and where.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">If the layers are light,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">they might just float away. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">No chasing,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">no picking up,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">no worrying about where they might go, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">just an unexpected opportunity </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">to dismantle and be free </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">of the accumulation.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9V34eG7vPUOLHA28DWlF5_oFUaCEOsVAUYpH2GdcGhGToQFhP4nfBMLHPdU5nKfm08hCzQiq_FUWzPklT4NCpEXef_XSVX3B4yVgYehZfyhOs7RqVaUjCTTAMl6PZx6QyE5lJKIij2Qcs/s1600/Inside+ItselfI+I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9V34eG7vPUOLHA28DWlF5_oFUaCEOsVAUYpH2GdcGhGToQFhP4nfBMLHPdU5nKfm08hCzQiq_FUWzPklT4NCpEXef_XSVX3B4yVgYehZfyhOs7RqVaUjCTTAMl6PZx6QyE5lJKIij2Qcs/s640/Inside+ItselfI+I.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Inside Itself I</span></b></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">A sacred liveliness animates the parts within the whole.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> There is no division between what is perceived to be the interior and the exterior form.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> Inside Itself expresses the love and interconnectedness of the totality.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTukZ9j_b_pDa9IifVLzHBeUNiFT351Z1Y7ElfzAX3HU_cNnZyuGe-4kiL9A-z89WXmCCuPiLagSowqoZg3IYmpkhC5a7_VgXMRlPDNyfGJmgZEidNwad2QI1Z6PSUA4Z-eOZ1IX-5SUjL/s1600/Inside+Itself+II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTukZ9j_b_pDa9IifVLzHBeUNiFT351Z1Y7ElfzAX3HU_cNnZyuGe-4kiL9A-z89WXmCCuPiLagSowqoZg3IYmpkhC5a7_VgXMRlPDNyfGJmgZEidNwad2QI1Z6PSUA4Z-eOZ1IX-5SUjL/s640/Inside+Itself+II.jpg" width="484" /></a></div>
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<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Inside Itself II</span></b></i></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">An element existing within something else, while separate and particular,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> is still dependent for its existence on the larger form.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">The organs of the body can be seen separately with specific and highly specialized functions, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">but it would be absurd to say that they exist independently from the body. </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">A flock of birds, a school of fish, and a swarm of bees all move together</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> as if they were a single organism guided by the same mind, and yet the individuals</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> in each group are vitally connected to the environment in which they live. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">If you imagine the earth, do you just see the rocky sphere of the planet, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">or do you include the sky and clouds, the oceans, rivers and glaciers, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">the soil, the animals and plants? Does Earth end at the biosphere?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> Could we exist without the sun, the moon, the stars, the universe?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">As a human being, do we exist separately from the natural environment or the social connections</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> which sustain us? Physically and psychologically, where do we begin and end?</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHT6WlntwQCqze2X9vXeGykXVA3rR-RIuADa1yR9BRBwXDJ2R_jutoRijAjBXK-Q7rU04NXsigLeSBHi77sM_hyGLrq4kjKVZUOr7Q7RtNlkY9VX4Rs0k4848KwK60mzJNST_q-RpaMSUj/s1600/SchragLife%2527s+Looking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHT6WlntwQCqze2X9vXeGykXVA3rR-RIuADa1yR9BRBwXDJ2R_jutoRijAjBXK-Q7rU04NXsigLeSBHi77sM_hyGLrq4kjKVZUOr7Q7RtNlkY9VX4Rs0k4848KwK60mzJNST_q-RpaMSUj/s640/SchragLife%2527s+Looking.jpg" width="478" /></a><br />
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<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Who's Looking?</span></b></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Who is the one who is looking?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Can I keep stepping back while asking the question until it is apparent </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">that there is no individual apart from Life? </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Is it not Life that is the observer all of the time,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">even when the conditioning of thought creates a lens of distortion?</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Imagine what would happen if that lens could be taken off completely. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">What would Life see? </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Would there be a new clarity, a new intensity, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">an awareness of relationship that we are currently missing?</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisbSLra7dkcKPr-53gC-BgS_xXxRi6fhvoN1HISHKk-Pvk6GezQPjB6dCFd8GxWA_wKcZg4VhO4Y0BYNxe_G9JE5TfE1C2z5Z-2VgYnSmVLZ-ozYjo39fPwX5f0SNkq73ZuJiTFYY62fx8/s1600/Great+Unfolding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisbSLra7dkcKPr-53gC-BgS_xXxRi6fhvoN1HISHKk-Pvk6GezQPjB6dCFd8GxWA_wKcZg4VhO4Y0BYNxe_G9JE5TfE1C2z5Z-2VgYnSmVLZ-ozYjo39fPwX5f0SNkq73ZuJiTFYY62fx8/s640/Great+Unfolding.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">The Great Unfolding</span></b></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">We are product,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">and part, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">and one with</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">the continuously generating source. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Our understanding of life continues </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">to unfold, with a greater awareness </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">of the unity of the whole.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">This unity denies our individuality, our isolation,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">our separation.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">We are able to move beyond both the despair of self-centered withdrawal </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">and the desire for personal success. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5lO5zs6nIIh4iwlbKQ8TIhdK_1NOl6KVFUx3zGhHzBMUzrkhffUbGRX3_5NNPO4xkCKDfcGZdsuexDNYH0aMiFu1KuqFXbkmuRsZdwL1hLiz34jXwpsrHcgmmUGHf4dVyj6FyYq0_GSKF/s1600/There+is+no+Separation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5lO5zs6nIIh4iwlbKQ8TIhdK_1NOl6KVFUx3zGhHzBMUzrkhffUbGRX3_5NNPO4xkCKDfcGZdsuexDNYH0aMiFu1KuqFXbkmuRsZdwL1hLiz34jXwpsrHcgmmUGHf4dVyj6FyYq0_GSKF/s640/There+is+no+Separation.jpg" width="478" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> </span><br />
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<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">There Is No Separation</span></b></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>As I walk the path from the house to the garden, I can see the bright yellow </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Rudbeckia blossoms moving with the wind. The birdhouse that protected a chickadee</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> and her young this spring, is now empty, except for a spider that is busy making its own</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> webbed nest. As I pass through the gate and into the garden, I stop to look at the squirrels</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> chasing each other in spirals down the trunk of one of the many Black Walnut trees surrounding </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">this small garden. The air is full of the sounds of crows, woodpeckers, small song birds,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> crickets and cicadas. The sun comes and goes under the clouds. I move through the garden </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">in an almost trance-like state, not in any hurry, nor with any real purpose, except to see what</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> is there. It occurs to me that nothing in this garden is aware of its own beauty. The flowers</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> don't know their power of attraction, they just attract. Each flower comes from a seed in </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">the ground, unfolds its beauty, petal by petal, attracts and is pollinated by bees and wasps, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">and eventually drops the seed that it has created so that the next part of the plant cycle will </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">continue. Are we, as human beings any different from this cycle of life? While we may get</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> caught up in our own vanity and drive for individual identity, are we not carried through</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> each stage of life, our body growing, changing, transforming, without our control or initiative.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> Isn't it true that just like the plants, we must have the sun, water, minerals from the earth, air,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> warmth, and the interaction between us and other beings, in order to fully develop and survive? </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Where are the boundaries between the body and nature? Where are the boundaries between</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> the human being and Life?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> There is no separation.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBzkp4ty0kkXD6LwMrdMzy5br1ZBFiETkP6-rWCnOLzDg3vzII4eZimHIB5izml7aa30s_jwmCTvzn7__B3bmQcDrL5AzwUahBav_PHICFHqxKmeqPYFREOyrw2ezodVTKfM63QCTGIH7T/s1600/Kim+Schrag+Exhibits+at+CAP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBzkp4ty0kkXD6LwMrdMzy5br1ZBFiETkP6-rWCnOLzDg3vzII4eZimHIB5izml7aa30s_jwmCTvzn7__B3bmQcDrL5AzwUahBav_PHICFHqxKmeqPYFREOyrw2ezodVTKfM63QCTGIH7T/s640/Kim+Schrag+Exhibits+at+CAP.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
This exhibit is currently showing at the Community Arts Partnership, ArtSpace, in Center Ithaca, on the Ithaca Commons, until December 22. Books with the images and texts are for sale ($35) and will help us in covering some of the costs of the exhibit. E-mail schragk@gmail if you are interested.</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Update: I have added a link at the bottom of the blog page, so that you can order the Inside Itself catalog directly from Lulu books. If you would still rather order the book from us, send us an email. <a href="mailto:schragk@gmail.com">schragk@gmail.com</a></span><br />
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<br /></div>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-13265256207100237562011-11-17T11:36:00.000-08:002011-11-17T11:40:43.660-08:00News from the world not created by thought...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq9V7KEY4iVbiGvWFXQijz39lMiVXuz7UZXKoYxT3tHAJlevT0Hud83NlawlkjvY34fQqaosU5Ec2lfsLKS4VZRzqpdeMM7RY8ktCDVDAN381vBrrjbMlHEjcWJEsT58-pmd5b3qh6cU1P/s1600/News+from+the+world+not+created+by+thought.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq9V7KEY4iVbiGvWFXQijz39lMiVXuz7UZXKoYxT3tHAJlevT0Hud83NlawlkjvY34fQqaosU5Ec2lfsLKS4VZRzqpdeMM7RY8ktCDVDAN381vBrrjbMlHEjcWJEsT58-pmd5b3qh6cU1P/s1600/News+from+the+world+not+created+by+thought.jpg" /></a></div>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-30123299033810922722011-11-06T16:56:00.000-08:002011-11-06T16:56:00.060-08:00Let it Be Here and Now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlqiaEdN6rN8NPvrndqqpD0ukK9QRFxITuBKKhKOdGxAc2ngHlmnoC4v30qUjHTncnfWeV5rertLKisEKi8n7aOnUo62qk0qvh-QHZLat5dUP7UOLJinzvLx5gsAxJemHAw_7qDcFFjJBw/s1600/Through+the+evolution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipsIDqbYxeODj_G-rlhJATp41FsvSxGirkQsGO9-abigLwOtqddOKpvM3Z7Dt-DaM2QTs9XHZBlQ9inHVs7hUIunDK5wYYeDacGvXR_Wg3Axyg_hkUdouq4nihh0aO_bxSCtS36ScNimz2/s1600/Let+It+Be+Here+and+Now.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipsIDqbYxeODj_G-rlhJATp41FsvSxGirkQsGO9-abigLwOtqddOKpvM3Z7Dt-DaM2QTs9XHZBlQ9inHVs7hUIunDK5wYYeDacGvXR_Wg3Axyg_hkUdouq4nihh0aO_bxSCtS36ScNimz2/s1600/Let+It+Be+Here+and+Now.jpg" /></a></div>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-75232046725632817702011-10-16T12:21:00.000-07:002011-10-16T12:21:01.391-07:00There is No Separation<title></title><style type="text/css">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja6IfSaL7d5OTVNyXMTwoTL4fx4i0AgbVKsAjTGGLuShqtqXavWvbFsL13Ltw2Ss-hpCcfXCm_mEJ_ULg24SGZylmJBEWiFkjV3i5uy7b5GWpLSJXym910aLjLPtnXd9cNiByNTi7mkDpW/s1600/There+is+no+Separation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja6IfSaL7d5OTVNyXMTwoTL4fx4i0AgbVKsAjTGGLuShqtqXavWvbFsL13Ltw2Ss-hpCcfXCm_mEJ_ULg24SGZylmJBEWiFkjV3i5uy7b5GWpLSJXym910aLjLPtnXd9cNiByNTi7mkDpW/s640/There+is+no+Separation.jpg" width="476" /></a></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As I walk the path from the house to the garden, I can see the bright yellow </span></span><em><span style="font-style: normal;">Rudbeckia</span></em> <span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> blossoms moving with the wind. The birdhouse that protected a chickadee and her young this spring, is now empty, except for a spider that is busy making its own webbed nest. As I pass through the gate and into the garden, I stop to look at the squirrels chasing each other in spirals down the trunk of one of the many Black Walnut trees surrounding this small garden. The air is full of the sounds of crows, woodpeckers, small song birds, crickets and cicadas. The sun comes and goes under the clouds. I move through the garden in an almost trance-like state, not in any hurry, nor with any real purpose, except to see what is there. It occurs to me that nothing in this garden is aware of its own beauty. The flowers don't know their power of attraction, they just attract. Each flower comes from a seed in the ground, unfolds its beauty, petal by petal, attracts and is pollinated by bees and wasps, and eventually drops the seed that it has created so that the next part of the plant cycle will continue. Are we, as human beings any different from this cycle of life? While we may get caught up in our own vanity and drive for individual identity, are we not carried through each stage of life, our body growing, changing, transforming, without our control or initiative. Isn't it true that just like the plants, we must have the sun, water, minerals from the earth, air, warmth, and the interaction between us and other beings, in order to fully develop and survive? Where are the boundaries between the body and nature? Where are the boundaries between the human being and Life? There is no separation.</span></span></span></div>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-51860693719071372482011-10-15T08:59:00.000-07:002011-10-16T12:24:28.116-07:00My existence or yours...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqxxrI7yZI9yglL8Mqx_-cfISBWL6hIpK4sTs32v2i2LRcNzIFoiNFOWWEi7fddSAUZr-0xrTzc7fjwBiqvsgGlQL6jGUvtr-UcUiydGENnHBAwYz4jNcWCy-BXVE8kx_DTO8xd_ZXAhbX/s1600/Why+would+my+existence+-+Froggie+-+English+Version+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqxxrI7yZI9yglL8Mqx_-cfISBWL6hIpK4sTs32v2i2LRcNzIFoiNFOWWEi7fddSAUZr-0xrTzc7fjwBiqvsgGlQL6jGUvtr-UcUiydGENnHBAwYz4jNcWCy-BXVE8kx_DTO8xd_ZXAhbX/s1600/Why+would+my+existence+-+Froggie+-+English+Version+.jpg" /></a></div>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-17319540262131788182011-10-13T16:37:00.000-07:002011-10-16T12:24:06.898-07:00There is Thought...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZTwoK0ITzi6fIJ88a5DqOVYQbnhtEgJcErfSWitOVcXerM-I7v8mqTnyi64eo2fXu3yOGPRHXWMgYipgRg9jafsgpFEH7GzeCSikCOM2s__xXrnXm8LDS_JpVxNeirISnzCBOGenhzlYv/s1600/There+is+though%252C+Leaf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZTwoK0ITzi6fIJ88a5DqOVYQbnhtEgJcErfSWitOVcXerM-I7v8mqTnyi64eo2fXu3yOGPRHXWMgYipgRg9jafsgpFEH7GzeCSikCOM2s__xXrnXm8LDS_JpVxNeirISnzCBOGenhzlYv/s1600/There+is+though%252C+Leaf.jpg" /></a></div>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-3315463943416771722011-10-10T07:41:00.000-07:002011-10-16T12:23:41.365-07:00Life Itself<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Rdi6t5stJDV0Cx_MaXD4TLOV6gYwK8ptN5pAeOZtBLCzdH_o2Wp4UB68FpD99uZJF5yOK1ZhwPElxDp1ebSkRKqAfZrluV242c9zUPo3jNNx1AOp-RNCdwlccAZ8ts5DvHYd4fgm6uOT/s1600/Through+the+evolution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Rdi6t5stJDV0Cx_MaXD4TLOV6gYwK8ptN5pAeOZtBLCzdH_o2Wp4UB68FpD99uZJF5yOK1ZhwPElxDp1ebSkRKqAfZrluV242c9zUPo3jNNx1AOp-RNCdwlccAZ8ts5DvHYd4fgm6uOT/s1600/Through+the+evolution.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4627130041220101984.post-18881448002532501982011-01-12T07:30:00.000-08:002013-02-05T04:30:58.068-08:00To Be or Not to Be...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">There is the infinite dance of cosmic being, and within it, but largely unaware of its undifferentiated participation in the totality of existence, there is the personal human mind. This mind is insensitive to life as a whole because it is filled to the brim by the particular images and ideas that determine its sense of separate existence and </span><span style="font-size: large;">generate</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">the chaotic social reality created by its necessarily conflicted social relations. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hidden beneath the isolated superficiality of the experience-based personal psyche —that is, at the very core of mind itself— awareness and the wholeness of being exist without distinction. However, at the superficial level of mind conditioned by personal and tribal experience and sustained by fear and desire, distinction is all there is. Distinction is, in fact, the life and essence of the self that deems itself separate and unique. Who would any one of us be be without the all-too common distinction between “you” and “me”; between “us” and “them”; between </span><span style="font-size: large;">“me” and “myself"; </span><span style="font-size: large;">and, more generally, between “me” and “not-me”? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Life, the ever shifting movement of existence as a whole, is all-inclusive and therefore not “a thing” or a container of things. But </span><span style="font-size: large;">personal self </span><span style="font-size: large;">in order to exist and endure in its own self-reflective eyes , must be something, some “one”, somebody. It must also endlessly strive to be recognized by others as such </span><span style="font-size: large;">within its particular cultural enclosure</span><span style="font-size: large;">. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The personal self is all about gradually evolving identity and the defense and projection of that identity, whereas life is innocent of separation, and therefore anonymous. Which is why the separate and self-projecting self can never feel secure and at peace, much less survive a serious inquiry into itself and the truth of its participation in life.</span><br />
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Welcome to the new blog by Fernando Llosa and Kim Schrag.Fernando Llosa and Kim Schraghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18403684989924703582noreply@blogger.com0