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I’d like a Check for A Million Dollars…


A friend wrote me saying he was coming up from the city this weekend and was there anything I’d like. I was thinking along the lines of “A check for a million dollars would be nice.”

Later in the day I was listening to a podcast on the way to town, and I heard:

Those who speak of faith (even without “radical self-understanding”) are involved with the Principle of Divine Communion, because they somehow “know” that the “twenty watts” of their ordinary life contain practically nothing of the Vast Power of Existence. Faith is the presumption of the Vast Power, the “Unlimited Wattage” of the One Divine Reality. The “Narcissistic” hope for the goods of life–“God, I want you to give me a million dollars”–is not faith. Faith is leaving behind the limited principle of the body-mind-“self” and the “world”, and presuming the Greater Principle of the Self-Existing and Self-Radiant Divine Reality.

from MY “BRIGHT” SIGHT, by His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj, from the talk, “Guru, Faith, and Divine Communion”, page 9.

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My Canvas

Where to begin? I need to organize my thoughts, my pictures, my PCs, my everything. Guess I’ll start with a wiki and some kanban.

k2-ewbThe logo (above, centered on the canvas) is a rendering of Machapuchare, one of the highest peaks of the Himalaya in Nepal. Adi Da (“Bubba Free John” at the time) signified that this is a logo for “The Great Tradition” of Mankind’s wisdom-inheritance. The peak is also featured on one of his books, The Enlightenment of the Whole Body.

 

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So Many Deprecated Functions, So Little Time

Friday night, time to watch a Kenneth Clark documentary–and wondering what Adi Da said about the series in The Basket of Tolerance, I went to the database-essay page I set up and: nothing! Oh oh, what did my recent Ubuntu upgrade mess up….?

Looking up my Ubuntu mysql database problem...
Looking up my Ubuntu mysql database problem…

Ok, after about 1/2 an hour, I figure out I’m just connecting and talking to mysql in a deprecated way. I learn the new syntax, and I get the essay I’ve been looking for: “Western Man’s Turn From God: A Commentary On The Book and Video Series Civilisation, By Kenneth Clark”. Now I can go to bed, that basic database connectivity is working again.

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Going Green: Ever Eat a Pine Tree?

 

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Spring & Fall

Cedars in the spring show new growth in a really light yellow/green color compared to older dark green leaves. My “fall” roommate happened to be walking by.

Ever Eat a Pine Tree? Many parts are edible. — Euell Gibbons*1

I was recently reading an ebook by Sergei Boutenko, Wild Edibles, A Practical Guide to Foraging. (Sergei suggests putting pine tips into hot water for Doug Fir tea.) I’m thinking of snagging some tips of new pine growth and putting them into a green smoothie. I also see miner’s lettuce on the way to work, while I’m stuck in construction crew roadside blocks, as they’re still removing dead trees from the Valley Fire in Lake County last September.

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Vinca flowers inside the fence where the deer are less likely to eat them.

And I’m still listening to instrumental Christmas music on Pandora while working.

*1: “Pine Needle Tea, made by pouring 1 pint of boiling water over 1 ounce of fresh white pine needles chopped fine, is about the most palatable pine product I have tasted. With a squeeze of lemon and a little sugar it is almost enjoyable.” 🙂