What can a gal do with one luxury item, some books, magazines, a hope, and a promise?...

So we shall see in this lifetime.
Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu, (smiles).

The best way to control me is to let me do as I wish.

"When everybody tells you-the doubters tell you- It can't be done, you'll go broke or all kinds of tragedies will come your way, Nonsense.
If you can get to the root of who you are, the gut of who you are and make something happen from it, in whatever field...my sense is you're gonna surprise yourself."-Sassoon

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (finale)

Presence is not opposed to Distance.

Distance is a commitment to total meaning.

Presence is a total commitment to the living moment,

the two go together.

Yet most people cannot do either. Sometimes they can manage presence or distance. I do both, at the same time (smiles).

Black is thicker than blood

To the simple minded I am full of contradiction. To the sophisticate I am simply complex.

Israel is not a promise of anything until the Jews and the Arabs stop fighting.

I am a Jew, and am part of a Jewish community. Ideologically I do not support the Jews, I do not support the Arabs, Buddhists, or the Christians. I support the humans, and I wish for us to be a successful species together.

It's time to move forward.

A daily orgasm is a great way to stay in touch with yourself

This young man, well he was trying to win my affections, and we were having a texting conversation. I told him, for fun, that I am a robot controlled from outer space.

Naturally, he said "I will be getting that remote", I told him of course that he would have to wrestle the angels to get it...silly boy, he was not taking me literally.

"Jacob's Dream"

by Mordechai Rosenstein

Here's to the Dream Weavers,
the unseen maneuvering

ruling Ceasers,
the Ones who know we are Believers
Here's to the quarries of the ships passing,
to the failures and successes
that are everlasting,
to the Ones who have known us
from our very depths
to the Ones who can teach us
to be nothing less
Cheers to the Weavers
for interlacing our hearts
trailings of wisdom
walks in the park,
To the love, to the pain
to the compassionate embrace
leaving you tingling
with no single trace...

The Art of Expression

Когда ты рядом лишь тогда я живу

i don't care if he likes me or not. i like me.

Wait, stop, can you feel it, can you feel the rhythm pulsing...

Ha Shem

..............

While creation groans
With constant plea
From bayou to bay
And from bay to the sea
And the winds prophesy
What a meager repentance
Such blasphemous offerings
And what mocking remembrance
Of secret waters rippling with mirth
Spirit hovering
Over depths
Meeting earth
Dancing in love
With wind
From above
Panting then
Pulsing 'Til the first cry
Of birth
Alpha And omega
Thus speaks
Ha-Shem.
-Karen Baker-Fletcher

Hublot Big Bang Series

Robert Thurman explains the symbiotic relationship between Tantric Buddhist communities and theBuddhist universities such as Nalanda which flourished at the same time:

"The Tantric communities of India in the latter half of the first Common Era millennium (and perhaps even earlier) were something like “Institutes of Advanced Studies” in relation to the great Buddhist monastic “Universities.” They were research centers for highly cultivated, successfully graduated experts in various branches of Inner Science (adhyatmavidya), some of whom were still monastics and could move back and forth from university (vidyalaya) to “site” (patha), and many of whom had resigned vows of poverty, celibacy, and so forth, and were living in the classical Indian saiñnyãsin or sãdhu style. I call them the "psychonauts" of the tradition, in parallel with our “astronauts,” the materialist scientist-adventurers whom we admire for their courageous explorations of the “outerspace” which we consider the matrix of material reality. Inverse astronauts, the psychonauts voyaged deep into “inner space,” encountering and conquering angels and demons in the depths of their subconscious minds."

The Dying Gaul

"To be Irish is to know that in the end,

the world will break your heart"

-PM

"This is the secret that the human being holds over the angels: Only the human heart can be broken and whole at once."

The MockingJay

I know you are asking yourself..."but what can I do?"
Wake up; Expect Nothing and Appreciate Everything...
Here are some answers:

...we need to become more aware of the human rights issues at stake in the world today. Political prisoners, oppressive labor practices, religious fanaticism, minority and regional problems, censorship, racism, and other forms of injustice are rampant. Even if each of us studied one particular problem or one particular country, the world as a whole would be one giant step ahead. Of course, it is best to have a broader interest in human rights and all of us should endeavor to know our world as thoroughly as possible. Next, we can use our votes to defend human rights. We can write letters of condemnation or support to government officials, diplomats and the press to pressurize oppressive regimes, praise media coverage and stand by those who oppose violators. We can give money to human rights organizations either directly or by purchasing their publications and attending their activities. These organizations have additional ideas for individuals which range from Amnesty International's political prisoner adoption program to demonstrations against repressive regimes. Religious and civic organizations can be mobilized to worthy causes.

Much can be done.

-Randall Fegley

Mythology,

is a premodern form of psychology, tracing the inner paths of the psyche, and making clearer the obscure world of the unconscious mind...

Hello, welcome back, sorry to keep you waiting, I hope to make it worth your while.

Together let us explore the beauty, the wonder, the coincidence, and the Grandness of it all...

You are wonderful. You are vibrant. You are the reason why.

The Dior Gardens - Rose de Granville

To him she was a synonym for the Rose he carried in his hand for her...the rose was the most beautiful flower he could see, it stood above and over all of the rest..

It was so delicate and at the same time more strong than the stones, in the bed of that garden. Beauty brings with it many tests of strength. Beauty brings forth the need to covet, to conquer, to take, and to tear apart...

So the rose, it grows thorns. Most people do not like the thorns of the rose, but he was not like most people…he had an understanding regarding beauty...He saw the thorns as necessary points of wisdom. Much like her intellect. And the softness of the flower, as the curve of her rounded hip, and the soft recess where her neck and shoulder met, where he could kiss and touch with his fingertips...the color deep and unending, drawing all in to want to stare and become, and the shape of the petals, her lips slightly open forming a kiss, which beckons to the center of the flower, the treasure, the scent...

He gave her the rose that day and a tear fell from his eye as he did, she was smiling and she gently touched his face and spoke, Lover what is the matter? He only kissed her on the cheek because he could not begin to explain about the rose, how he really did not need to give it to her because she was the reason roses were created. She, was that most beautiful masterpiece....

and she never knew exactly why he shed a tear that day, but there was always something about roses which made her soul remember to sing, and let her know somehow...that she was not alone in the world. -AO

The Prince of Peace

by Akiane Kramarik

Aspire to think Cosmically. The Human Race Is Beautiful.

Paul McCartney on 'hey Jude'

Once you get analyzing something and looking into it, things do begin to appear and things do begin to tie in. Because everything ties in, and what you get depends on your approach to it. You look at everything with a black attitude and it's all black.

...I had just turned up at a photo session and it was at the time when Linda and I were just beginning to knock around with each other steadily. It was a hot day in London, a really nice hot day, and I think I wore sandals. I only had to walk around the corner to the crossing because I lived pretty nearby. I had me sandals on and for the photo session I thought I'll take my sandals off.

Linda: No, you were barefoot.

Paul: Oh, I was barefoot. Yeah, that's it. You know, so what? Barefoot, nice warm day, I didn't feel like wearing shoes. So I went around to the photo session and showed me bare feet. Of course when that comes out and people start looking at it they say, "Why has he got no shoes on? He's never done that before." OK, you've never seen me do it before, but, in actual fact, it's just me with my shoes off. Turns out to be some old Mafia sign of death or something.

Then the this-little-bit-if-you-play-it-backwards stuff. As I say, nine times out of ten it's really nothing. Take the end of Sgt. Pepper, that backward thing, "We'll fuck you like Supermen." Some fans came around to my door giggling. I said,
"Hello, what do you want?"
They said, "Is it true, that bit at the end? Is it true?
It says 'We'll fuck you like Supermen.'"
I said, "No, you're kidding. I haven't heard it, but I'll play it."
It was just some piece of conversation that was recorded and turned backwards. But I went inside after I'd seen them and played it studiously, turned it backwards with my thumb against the motor, turned the motor off and did it backwards. And there it was, sure as anything, plain as anything. "We'll fuck you like Supermen." I thought, Jesus, what can you do{...}?

Finding Soul in High Heel Shoes

Artist Willie Cole
{...}

Daphne Guinness Sings

York Minster

Photo of Europe at Night

The view from a different perspective

mmmmm...dessert!

Mythology does not develop from concepts set forth by theologians whose concern it is to establish a reasonable system. it grows from the experience of men and women who become aware of phenomena and events for which they have no explanation.

-T.Ward

In the end...is new beinginng!

Great Jews

The Red Star Line served as an escape hatch for over half a million Jews seeking sanctuary from 1873 to 1934. The narrative of Jewish immigration from Europe to the United States often overlooks the importance of these ships. “None of the migration would have happened without the development of lines like Red Star,” said Hasia Diner, professor of Jewish history at New York University, via email.

Religious pluralism is conducive to the exploration of truth.

The AppleShip

A Small Tribute to The Great Federico Fellini

His career in cinema spanned five decades and he gained much critical acclaim. He won many awards including four Oscars in the Best Foreign Language category. His films offer a combination of themes including memory, dreams, fantasy and desire. They are often intimate looks at people at their most bizarre and the term "Felliniesque" is used when depicting an ordinary scene that has been altered by the addition of hallucinatory imagery. Many current filmmakers such as Woody Allen, David Lynch, Pedro Almodovar and Terry Gilliam have claimed to have been influenced in their work by Fellini.

Space.

Human ingenuity.

Mechanical Metamorphosis

Instead of attempting to create sophisticated robots that imitate the complexity in the insect form that required millions of years of evolution to achieve, scientists now essentially want to hijack bugs for use as robots.

The hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (HI-MEMS) program is sponsoring research into surgically implanting microchips straight into insects as they grow, intertwining their nerves and muscles with circuitry that can then steer the critters. As expensive as these devices might be to manufacture and embed in the bugs, they could still prove cheaper than building miniature robots from scratch.

'What the modern world needs more than anything else is a story that unifies'

Great Book. Excellent book.

We need to feel in our bones that something much bigger is going on than our petty quarrels and our obsession with getting and spending, and that the role we each play in this very big something is what really defines the meaning and purpose of our lives.

...sometimes Buddhist and Hindu religious leaders lived in quarters on a shared religious site. Lay people consulted the Buddhist monastics about matters having to do with morality, and understanding the higher truths about life,...these same people also asked the Hindu priests to pray to the Hindu and local gods for this worldly benefits...good life, health, prosperity