How's the water?

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  INTEGRATE YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS, THE LEFT SIDE OF THE BRAIN AND THE RIGHT, YOUR ANIMAL AND YOUR "HUMAN" SIDE........

 

---

SOME OF OUR GOALS

To develop the sympathetic imagination, the basis of all ethics [see  below].

 To unify the self: our goal is to maximize our potential by cultivating both sides of our brains, developing all our multiple intelligences.

[2A2a] To return to the traditional college goals of developing character and conscience

 

[2A2b] To practice replacing fear and greed with love, compassion, tolerance, and the sympathetic imagination,which is essential to morality and ethics.

 

Trying to imagine what it was like to be someone else is a form of experiential learning, the kind that can stick with you later. All of this depends on your willingness to be an actor, to willingly suspend your disbelief long enough to play the part. That willingness also enables you to FREE yourself from the world views that you may have inherited without conscious thought or decision on your part.* Trying out the worldviews of other cultures is the humanities equivalent of a scientific experiment. When you adopt, however briefly, another Weltanshauung, and see and feel as a member of that culture would, you test out whether any part of that philosophy of life is one you want to adopt and/or, by contrast, what part of the worldivew you inherited you may consciously want to embrace as an adult.

*William Blake called them your "mind-forged manacles"

MEDITATION AND GUIDED IMAGERY:

"A Zen-inspired blend of meditation, breathing exercises and focus techniques are in vogue in corporate America—championed by blue-chip employers like Google Inc. and General Mills Inc. as a simple but potent mind-sharpening tool." Gershman, Jacob. "

"Lawyers Go Zen, With Few Objections." WSJ. June 18, 2015.

Accessed September 20, 2015 by Starfish, E603A

Lovingkindness is a form of meditation designed to cultivate feelings of warmth and kindness to all people, including oneself, the researchers said. Practicing the technique may activate a soothing-caring regulation system that is probably deficient in chronic self-critics, they suggest [that] this practice may...... help in breaking down perfectionist tendencies. I know that at least for me, if I choose to allow myself forgiveness, encouragement, and grace, then I will be happier and more peaceful. The harshest of "self-critics" can use this meditation to learn how to better handle their self-judging nature. When we are less demanding of ourselves, we can in turn, be less demanding of others.

Lukits, Ann. "After Meditation, Self-Critical People Ease Up." WSJ. August 13, 2015. Accessed September 20, 2015 by Starfish, E603A.

        

        

RAM DASS AKIDO STORY

RAM DASS GUIDED IMAGERY

The Words

Now just getting comfortable being with what is: sounds, sights, feelings, sensations, thoughts. Not pushing or pulling. Not trying to stop or change. Rest your weary mind. Just be with what is. 

Perhaps imagine the ocean: a vast ocean of awareness. Rest in the depths of the ocean. At the surface of the ocean waves arise: waves of thoughts, of sensations, of feelings, memories, plans; waves of phenomenon after phenomenon, arising, existing, and then dissolving back into the ocean of which they are a part. Your Awareness Ocean. Waves arising, falling back into the ocean. Your awareness embraces all phenomena.

Imagine surrounding you images, images appearing in concentric circles spreading out as far as the mind can imagine in every direction. These concentric circles composed of beings, of all beings, of beings now and then, of beings here and there, of beings on this plane of awareness and on many other planes as well,* beings that are human, beings of all species, . . . 

In this phantasmagoric image of all beings, arises the awareness of the suffering inherent in  these beings, suffering that is connected with being in form,** suffering that is the result of the clinging of mind.

From the center of your chest, breathing out, send forth to these beings light and love,

touch each being with your heart.

May all beings everywhere be free from suffering.

May all beings everywhere be peaceful.

May all beings everywhere be happy.

May all beings everywhere be free

--------------------------

TODAY'S SPECIAL FOCUS

May GRAY WOLF AND HER FAMILY be free from suffering.

May GRAY WOLF AND HER FAMILY be peaceful.

May GRAY WOLF AND HER FAMILY be as happy as possible under the circumstances.

May GRAY WOLF AND HER FAMILY be free

===========

May ALANNA RITCH AND HER FAMILY be free from suffering.

May ALANNA RITCH AND HER FAMILY be peaceful.

May ALANNA RITCH AND HER FAMILY be as happy as possible under the circumstances.

May ALANNA RITCH AND HER FAMILY be free.

----------------------

May MARICARMEN QUIROZ-OCTAVIANO AND HER FAMILY be free from suffering.

May MARICARMEN QUIROZ-OCTAVIANO AND HER FAMILY be peaceful.

May MARICARMEN QUIROZ-OCTAVIANO AND HER FAMILY be as happy as possible under the circumstances.

May MARICARMEN QUIROZ-OCTAVIANO AND HER FAMILY be free.

===================

** in the physical body

--------------------------

* other planes of awareness:

"In esoteric cosmology, a plane other than the physical plane is conceived as a subtle state of consciousness that transcends the known physical universe..." often experienced after death

 

"Carl Jung believed that people all over the world are intimately linked via the collective unconscious—the inherited part of our unconscious mind, a universal human "bathtub" that holds the memories, experiences, and wisdom of the entire human race"

Bison: "Some astrophysicists have used some intense data from an intense observation laboratory and theorized that there's some other plane of matter that exists as consciousness separate from physical matter. Consciousness is an important part of human nature. Feeling, memories, and imagination make us very unique from other animals. If these all existed in some stew of combined feelings, we all would have access to it. I'd know what your aspirations are, and vice-versa. This certainly isn't true, but who's to say we don't subconsciously know these things. Maybe I form my own conscience based on the separate plane from others. Forming my own conscience based on the collective consciousness of others, seems reasonable enough to me. We don't think outside the box; we make our own box from the collective box of consciousness!"

===================

the human brain:"Such a realm, for example, is the microscopic domain of axons and dendrites, and neuro-transmitters washing across neuronal synapses - a dimension entirely concealed from directapprehension, yet which presumably precipitates, or give rise to, every aspect of our experience.….The human brain is still a mostly unknown territory and much of it's space and various mechanisms are still a mystery. This picture below is an image from the textbook of my Linguistics class. The colored areas show different sections with known functions but the beige, uncolored area is relatively unknown. As you can see, it's a relatively large area. This "realm" is mysterious but still controls, translates and transmits every aspect of our lives to us."

"We are surrounded by millions of different worlds" (Foster, 2)These 'millions of worlds' expand so far beyond just the surface of our planet. Consider the video that Harvard produced called The Inner Life of the Cell. Watching how everything runs so efficiently within a cell isboth a chilling and profound experience. A cell, therefore, is one of the millions of worlds that exists and it exists within each of us.

THE MYSTERY

 

 

---

 

 10-6 Dass 2 MUST BRING BOOK TO CLASS OR -10 Quiz in class. BLUE WHALE'S BIRTHDAY  LEADER? FALLOW DEER

Because of our three special events today

Best and Worst" for first half of alphabet postponed until Tuesday (putting us back on schedule) because of a birthday, a rebirth, and a special request from A+M for our Dass guided imagery:

"Good morning, Red Hawk!

I can barely believe that it has been more than a year since I last spoke with you. I meant to write to you many times throughout this past year but never completed my drafts. I'll write a separate email soon, but the reason I finally got around to writing you today is because of a tragedy that occurred in the Aggie Family this past month. A young woman and A&M student, Alannah Ritch, was struck and killed in the early morning by a sanitation truck while she was riding her bike. Another female student, Maricarmen Octaviano was murdered by her boyfriend. They were 21. Both will be honored tonight in a ceremony we call 'Silver Taps.'

In fact, aside from classes the main recipient of my time and effort IS the Silver Taps Committee at A&M, which is responsible for hosting the grieving families of students who die while enrolled. A ceremony is held here any month that a student passes away. The ceremony itself is only 30 minutes long, occurring in complete darkness. The only sounds are of boots marching, a 21-gun salute, the buglers, and grief. My committee's job is to be with the family, relatives and friends that are attending for their loved one before, during, and after. During the week of the ceremony we also gather and sort through hundreds of letters from the student body reaching out to the family.

As you might imagine, you and Kate and the rest of the Capybaras have been on my mind a lot this past month as we prepared for tonight's hosting and Taps ceremony. Not only because your class and its focus on compassion motivated me to apply to the committee in the first place, but because of the particular nature of Alannah's death. Last year we honored so many students that I lost count and suffered from compassion fatigue; I did not write you any of those times but I felt moved to write today because our own Kate (Grey Wolf) also suffered tragedy on her bicycle in the early morning. She did not lose her life, but in a way she did. She lost her old life, abruptly and uncontrollably.

I don't know if you will see this before class (still 1130 TTh?) but I wanted to let you know, in case you had the time to include a special request after the meditation to send love and light to Alannah, Mari, and their families. Our school newspaper collects stories from family and friends of the deceased each month. I've included two links below to Alannah's article and to Mari's article. Both were very public deaths in the community.

Every Taps night is different and each family expresses their grief differently. Although I wish we never had to perform this tradition again, I am humbled to be with the families and sit with them, listen to them, laugh with them, and wrap them in tight hugs during their suffering.

Sending so much love to you and your new Bumpsters,

Seahorse

Alannah Ritch: Silver Taps: Alannah Rose Ritch
Mari Octaviano: Silver Taps: Maricarmen Quiroz-Octaviano

Silver Taps: Maricarmen Quiroz-Octaviano
Maricarmen Quiroz-Octaviano is described by her parents as a hard-working and kind-hearted woman who was always ...

Silver Taps: Alannah Rose Ritch
Remembered by her family as a selfless, joyous Christian who enjoyed music and valued friendship, Alannah Rose R..."

================

GRAY WOLF [KATE STRICKLAND] E603 2013 capybaras

     

        

     

    

 

 REQUIRED READINGS:

 

SECOND THIRD OF DASS BOOK, 91-148   +

• : Thich Nhat Hanh [VIETNAM,GLOBAL CULTURE FLAG]

• 509-521                biography and five mindfulness trainings

REVIEW DASS +

816                     Breughel, Fall of Icarus BELGIUM                
817-818               Auden, "Musee des Beaux Arts"  BRITAIN
818                        Williams, "Landscape ...." AMERICA