31 Jul Kotodama 72
I + Word = World My word creates the world....
31 Jul My Mother’s Transition 2
In the last year of my mother's life, she was mentally clear but otherwise incapacitated. Living in a nursing facility, she couldn't do much but be carted around to group entertainment activities like movie watching. Her days must have been intolerably long, as she had little to do to kill time until time killed her. Yet, her perspective was otherwise. I once asked her if she was often bored, to which she replied, "Oh, I am busy all day; barely have time to do anything." What was she busy with? "Thinking about my life." My mother traveled to the land of her memories. Her memories must have been happy as she never complained and had no regrets. That's how my mother transitioned, living in her memories until she became a memory. For me, only a happy memory....
25 Jul Koan 125
“He who speaks does not know, he who knows does not speak.” -- Lao Tzu He who speaks tries to explain. He who knows does not speak as nothing can be explained. The Everything is the everchanging noisy now and the silent space outside the now. He who speaks is the now. He cannot grasp the now, as a hand cannot grasp itself. He who knows does not speak as the now can only be known by observing it from the silent space outside the now, Describing the now is a fool's errand. Descriptions are static, while the now is everchanging. Descriptions are empty, as what's described is now no longer. He who knows does not speak, for the endless and everchanging now is like a circle. The space inside a circle cannot be squared. He who knows delights in observing the now; an experience he cares not to interrupt by speaking which would transition him into the now....
25 Jul Kotodama 13
"Sol" is the name of the Roman sun god. From soul comes light....
24 Jul Kotodama 88
The etymology of the word "universe" is literally "turned into one." The universe is the Everything turned into one thing. The Everything is the now and what is before and after the now. Sometimes, the Everything is called “God.” As many people pray to God for many specific things but ultimately happiness, the workings of the universe may reveal the peace beyond near-term happiness. God is like a shiny coin rapidly flipping and reflecting light. One side is called “heads” and the other called “tails.” The plural is used to describe each side because each time we see the same side it is different in time and space than it was before and we are not the same person from one minute to the next. The side we see is the now. The side we don’t see is what is before and after the now. As God is rapidly turning, the visible side is just reflections of light. However, the mind slows down the turning and creates detailed images from the light. The images and the stories we tell about them are illusions. The heads and tails seem a duality. However, the duality is also an illusion. All there is are two sides “turning into one," the universe in the form of a coin. Rarely noticed is the edge of the coin, the “third side.” The third side interconnects the two seemingly independent sides that are actually interdependent as one cannot exist without the other. Horizontally from edge to edge is an invisible central axis, or path, around which the coin dances in perfect harmony. The path is the “Tao." The Tao is ultimate reality,* the underlying principle or source from which all things arise and to which they return. The Tao is the natural flow and harmony of the universe. When we simply appreciate the coin fluttering like a butterfly, we are in tune with the Tao. We are not distracted by images and related stories we've created. We are in a state of peaceful harmony. Most of us are oblivious of the Tao, as our attention is on what was now, what is now and what will be now, the visible side of the coin. We see what is now in the context of what was and we hope to get lucky; that the next visible side, the next now, will bring us happiness. “Hap” means luck. It is the root of happiness. We pray to God to bring us luck. Yet, when we experience the simple beauty of the Tao, we realize eternal peace rather than temporary happiness. *While a coin flipping in the air seems a simple process, it's actually extremely complicated to explain in terms of physics. It involves classical mechanics, rotational dynamics, angular momentum and precession, fluid dynamics, chaos theory and quantum mechanics. In perspective, the theory of relativity is considered easier to come to know than coin flip dynamics....