"Little dogs: stripped down to the most accurate part of their knowledge, completely confident in the moment and careless of all abstraction. The courage of dogs: to look straight at what appears before them, without wondering if things could have been otherwise."
"In addition to his vast knowledge of the field, Berryman had unusually sensitive instrumentation for measuring the intensity of language. As a critic, if not always as a poet, he was especially good when deciding whether a fine phrase had a deep thought behind it, or was just showing itself off. And he was very convincing when he argued that Shakespeare had the same priorities. According to Berryman, the older and better Shakespeare got, the more he was concerned that the verse should spring from what we might call a deeper consideration. Berryman said as much about the interchange between the king and Bertram in All’s Well That Ends Well.To make sure that Bertram gets the message, the king wields his monarchical privilege of repeatedly telling Bertram what he, Bertram, must know already, and even takes the liberty of quoting one of Bertram’s father’s speeches: something that Bertram could probably have done better, except that he—and this is the armature of the scene’s dynamics—is too young to feel yet what the king has come, through time, to know is true.“Let me not live,” quoth he,“After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuffOf younger spirits, whose apprehensive sensesAll but new things disdain; whose judgements areMere fathers of their garments; whose constanciesExpire before their fashions.”There is a notion of bedrock throughout Shakespeare’s work almost to the end: a notion that the essential meaning, the deeper consideration, has to be protected against all transient distortions, including the poet’s own gift for ... what? Well, the answer is in the opponent’s name: Parolles. Words. Words are the bewitching enemy, the beautiful seducer.The threat posed by the spectacular expression that outruns its substance was a long-running theme in Shakespeare, and is surely one of the preoccupations that now make him seem so modern. Though he seems modern in every age—modern all over again—he seems especially modern in ours, when we look at him from the angle of analytical philosophy, a school of thought which has, at its tutorial center, a concern for scrupulosity of language: the scrupulosity that was incarnated by Wittgenstein, and as much in his likes as his dislikes. Wittgenstein’s admiration for Mörike depended on the poet’s determination that the word should not exceed the thing. We should be slow to read back from the grim philosopher agonizing over a conceptual nuance for weeks on end in his cold digs to the fluent playwright composing a whole different version of act v on Monday night before the new play opened on Tuesday, but it still seems legitimate to propose that Shakespeare was concerned enough by the capacity of his own facility to fly off by itself, and thus to want it anchored to something solid.It might seem madness to suppose that Shakespeare shared the same conviction about the seductive power of words as Wittgenstein, but it should be possible at least to entertain the notion that Shakespeare could not have created his most evocative enchantments without a notion of limit and precision; and all precision, in language, eventually depends on a disciplined adherence to thought. The process of composition might produce a new thought—always one of the best reasons for composing in verse at all—but the new thought, too, has to test out, meeting a standard of quality if not of contiguity. Although the combination of thoughts might fiercely resist being reduced to a prose equivalent—think of almost any striking stanza by, say, John Crowe Ransom—it must be something more than a vague suggestion towards the indefinable. (If Mallarmé seems to do that, it is because he is treating the indefinable as his subject.) When, in later Shakespeare, we have trouble anchoring an image to a thought, it’s at least worth considering that the thought has gone awry—that the deeper consideration is not fully formed—before deciding that we have been granted an insight into the inexplicable. But we would not even conceive of such a possibility if we did not have, as a measure, everything that Shakespeare had already done. It’s his store of dazzling clarities that warns us against the assumption that there might be a further profundity in the obscure."
Rest of the essay can be found here.
Still looking up mining, I try to look up art works. I come across the following:
West, Liu Xiaodong 2012
Liu Xiaodong and his team came to Xinjiang on 22 June 2012 and commenced the two-month “Liu Xiaodong’s Hotan Project” documenting the life of jade miners in the region known for reserve of the precious stone. Liu carried on with his unique way of live painting established while producing the Three Gorges Series (2004 –2005). He set up a temporary studio in his tent to accomplish this elongated project with sketches, diaries, oil painting and photography. A camera team was also present to document the entire progress with a film.
The art -work is interesting, but what I find more refreshing and interesting is the artist's process. Sketching, painting, diaries, photographs and the lived experience which goes on to inform his sensibility. Different time-span approaches (time to make the artwork) to the same subject matter. Also, different ways, from pencils to paints, to clicks to words noting, reflecting, weaving in something of his own in the work he pursues.
I wonder how someone looks at such a work? How do you meet an audience, what form do you put your work in? Seems like that age-old question of form/content. And then this added layer of art for the joy of making, pursuit, the verb, or art as an object, the output? Personally, I struggle often with this question. Sometimes I feel the work finds its own momentum when the form/content question is resolved. (Not that it doesn't come up again while working, still)
But all that aside, the joy of creation, the joy of artist must be there in the approach that Liu Xiaodong follows - such immersion (!), any and all mediums, just the subject and the artist, and a way to note, see, understand, reflect and then again use that understanding to better note, see, understand, reflect - and so goes the itinerarnt, almost eternal (if it were not thankfully bound by our brief lives) artistic process.
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(As a corollary, the subject needs to be inexhausible. Almost like eternity of time, eternity of the subject. But then, most nature is. Some artists have found eternity in a single tree. Even a single object on this moving earth - changing lights and changing shadows is a new object every minute. But here, it is about the building of the artist as much as the artwork. Like nature's adaptation to the environment, both are formed by each other, responding to and building off, vibing off each other.)
"Western North America produces more metal and mineral products today than any other region of similar size in the world. Beginning with the fortyniner’s discovery of gold, there has been one surge of mining activity after another. Silver in the Civil War era, copper at the turn of the century, potash, tungsten, phosphate, uranium, beryllium, to name but a few, have gained importance in turn as demand for metal and mineral products increased and new advances in technology were made.
When contemplating the present mineral production of the western United States, it is difficult to imagine how undeveloped much of the region must have appeared to the early explorers. The natives had in their possession only a few trinkets of gold, silver, and copper, and seemed to have little interest in, or knowledge of, minerals. The discovery of placer gold at Sutter’s Mill at Coloma, California, in January of 1848 was the first of many events that revealed the importance of the rich mineral resources of the West. The series of major new mineral discoveries since the California gold rush seems paced almost as if the region were some sort of gigantic mineral warehouse stocked with new commodities for use as they become needed.
Long gone are the days when mineral exploration consisted of probing outcrops of bold gold and silver veins. The list of minerals required by industry today includes a majority of elements on the chemist’s periodic chart, and the variety of ore deposits in which they occur is so great that no one individual could possibly be competent to prospect for them all. No government specialist, academic authority, or corporate expert is able to recognize the surface expression of all ore types under all conditions.
The era of the legendary mining engineer, who could go anywhere in the world and briskly size up the ore potential of any kind of mineral property, passed during World War I. The method of the mining engineer was to examine and sample the partially developed ore deposits found by early gold and silver prospectors, to determine if other metals might be present, low grade ores might be profitably mined by mechanized methods and treated by one of the efficient new metallurgical processes, or the property incorporated into a complex of mines, all shipping to a large, efficient, centralized smelter.
The modern explorationist goes back into areas investigated by the early prospectors and mining engineers, using new concepts of ore localization and techniques of search for mineral deposits that would have been of no interest to his predecessors. In the early years of mining, there was no market for most of the metals mined today. Transportation was inadequate, mechanized equipment and technology for development and treatment of the ores were lacking, and major capital was not available for investment in large mine developments and surface plants.
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Society unquestionably derives major benefits from mineral production. To emphasize one commodity, the present major mining activity in the West centers upon the copper mines of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Montana. Without these mines, copper could not be produced in large quantities and at low cost, allowing its general use in mass production of electrical power, transportation, and other conveniences enjoyed by everyone today. Similar benefits could be cited in the case of other minerals such as lead, zinc, silver, gold, iron, coal, tungsten, and uranium. A healthy mining industry is important to the economy of the United States. The future need for minerals cannot be expected to diminish unless there is a major turn downward in the standard of living presently enjoyed in the United States."
(America is one of the newest resource rich countries in the world. Where other countries have perhaps gone through those cycles, there is a lot being uncovered in America. Or if the products are relatively new, like oil, geo politics of the world changes when new countries come up on desired resources map.)
"The entire village of Matatlan is dedicated to the distilling of mescal, and this sort of specialization is common; this mosaic of specialized villages, this economic organization, is pre-Columbian in origin. This everyone in Arrazola carves wood; everyone in Teotitlan del Valle is a weaver, and everone in San Bartolo Cocotepec, where we have not arrived, makes the black pottery which Oaxaca is justly famous for."
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"In Teotitlan del Valle, we visit the house of Don Isaac Vasquez, a master weaver whose carpets and blankets, and use of natural dyes, have become famous outside Mexico. He lives and works with his extended family -- such families are the norm here among the artisans; there is almost a hereditary artisan class. The children will be trained in weaving and dyeing from an early age. They will be surrounded by it, imbibe it, consciously or unconsciously, every minute of their lives. Their skills,
their identities, will be shaped from the start, and not just by the whole village, the local tradition, in which they grow up.
Virtually everyone in Teotitlan del Valle has a deep and detailed knowledge of weaving and dyeing, and all that goes with it -- carding, combing the wool, spinning the yarn, raising the insects on their favorite cacti, picking the right indigo plants. A total knowledge is located, embodied in the individuals, the families of this village."
- Oaxaca Journal, Oliver Sacks
(Just a thought tangent. In childhood, range, width, a wide wide range, stars in the sky, big earth, small beings, range of life, beings - perhaps a mix of literature samplers, different poets, different essays, stories of a wide, wide range, bite sized tasting menu. And then a little of how - how to dive deep, through a few practice sets of deep diving in some fields, loosely guided yet allowing the student to find their own personal mnemonics, mind palaces and matrix. This knowing of 'how' to dive deep as a way of being, and a knowing of wide wide wide range of life - just generally... thinking of education. Then one is imbibed aware of life's superabundance, and one knows how to dive deep when needed, and what it takes in terms of effort, and that the effort is the building of the seeing, the mind matrix.)
"Darwin loved conceptual beauty: the revelation of perfect simplicity behind extraordinary complexity."
I read about Climbing plants in the book, "the history of the world in 100 plants". Like beautiful tangents, the book lands around different aspects of earth history, human history, science, evolution and the underlying principles of nature. 'By the way' kind of fun fodder for the mind.
In a note about climbing plants, it refers to Darwin's "On the Movements and History of Climbing Plants.". Can be found here.
What to me is interesting about climbing plants, quoted from the book (100 plants):
'Plants become climbers, in order it is presumed, to reach the light,' Darwin wrote. All plants grow towards the light, but climbers take a short cut, using other plants and other natural (or human-made) structures for support, rather than growing rigid stems. 'This is effected by climbers wiht wonderfully little expenditure of organised matter, in comparison with trees.' That a climber can reach heights of rainforest giants without troubling to grow a woody support system is a classic example of the opportunisitc nature of evolution.
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Climbing plants do not make up a single group. They are a bunch of often unrelated plants that operate on the same basic idea. They all reach light that would otherwise be inaccessible: but they do in number of different ways. They have reached the same solution to the same problem by different means: what's known as convergent evolution. (Classic examples: bats, insects, birds and the extinct pterosaurs all evolved true flight; each by a different evolutionary route.)
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Darwin's investigations showed that plants don't just grow: they also move. The tendrils and growing shoots of climbing plants revolve in search of something to hold on to: and some tendrils are, indeed, capable of noticing when they touch an object (Darwin used the term 'irritability'). Movement, a function of hydraulics rather than muscles, is essential for the life of the climbers. Darwin wrote: 'It has often been vaguely asserted that plants are distinguished from animals by not having the power of movement. It should rather be said that plants acquite and display this power only when it is of some advantage to them.'
The topic is interesting. And to see climbers and their tendrils in action, here is a short video:
Came across this interesting chart - how three large index fund managers own ~21% of S&P 500 companies (in 2019, up from 7% in 2000). This was in context of a paper talking about stewardship by those who have influence. S&P 500 itself represents over 80% of the public market cap of US companies.
"The three largest index fund managers—BlackRock, Inc. (BlackRock), State Street Global Advisors, a division of State Street Corporation (SSGA), and the Vanguard Group (Vanguard), collectively known as “the Big Three”—own an increasingly large proportion of American public companies."
“for at bottom, and particularly in the deepest and most important things, we are unutterably alone, and for one person to be able to advise, let alone help, another, a great deal must come about, a great deal must come right, a whole constellation of things must concur for it to be possible at all.”*“Works of art are infinitely solitary and nothing is less likely to reach them than criticism. Only love can grasp them and hold them and do them justice. – With regard to any such disquisition, review or introduction, trust yourself and your instincts; even if you go wrong in your judgement, the natural growth of your inner life will gradually, over time, lead you to other insights. Allow your verdicts their own quiet untroubled development which like all progress must come from deep within and cannot be forced or accelerated. Everything must be carried to term before it is born. To let every impression and the germ of every feeling come to completion inside in the dark, in the unsayable, the unconscious, in what is unattainable to one’s own intellect, and to wait with deep humility and patience for the hour when a new clarity is delivered: that alone is to live as an artist.”
"Each cell leads a double life, an entirely independent one, belonging to its own development alone; and an incidental one, in so far as it has become part of a plant." - Matthias Schleiden, a botanist"Both plants and animals were similarly organized - each an aggregate of fully individualized independent beings." - Theodor Schwann, a zoologist
"The walls of the palace are composed of adobe -- sticky clay mixed with stalks of corn, animal stools, all fermented together -- and conical stones pressed into it, so as to form an elastic base -- the stones can move independently in their matrix of adobe, absorbing, dispersing, the force of an earthquake. I am fascinated by this, and draw a diagram in my notebook: the discovery of composites for added strength, for resisting shock, millennia ago. Since nothing so singular can be passed over by the group, a vigorous discussion at once breaks out about composites in nature -- the interweaving, at a microscopic level, of two different materials, one crystalline or amorphous, perhaps, and one fibrous, in order to get something harder, tougher, yet more elastic than either component alone. Nature has employed composites in all sorts of biological structures: horses' hooves, abalone shells, bone, the cell wall of plants. We use the same principle for reinforced concrete, and new synthetic ceramics or reinforced plastics; the Zapotec used it for adobe."
"Another major difference between materials from Nature and the Engineer is in the way they are made. While the Engineer selects a material to fabricate a part according to an exact design, Nature goes the opposite direction and grows both the material and the whole organism (a plant or an animal) using the principles of (biologically controlled) self-assembly. Moreover, biological structures are even able to remodel and adapt to changing environmental conditions during their whole lifetime. This control over the structure at all levels of hierarchy is certainly the key to the successful use of polymers and composites as structural materials."
Adapting the form (of a whole part or organ, such as a branch or a vertebra) is one aspect of functional adaptation. A second, which relates more directly to Materials Science, is the functional adaptation of the microstructure of the material itself (such as the wood in the branch or the bone in the vertebra). This dual optimization of the part’s form and of the material’s microstructure is well known for any engineering problem. However, in natural materials shape and microstructure are intimately related due to their common origin, which is the growth of the organ. Growth implies that “form” and “microstructure” are created in the same process. The shape of a branch is created by the assembly of molecules to cells, and of cells to wood with a specific shape. Hence, at every size level, the branch is both form and material – the structure becomes hierarchical.It is not evident at all that the lessons learned from hierarchical biological materials will be applicable immediately to the design of new engineering materials. The reason arises from striking differences between the design strategies common in Engineering and those used by Nature. These differences are contributed by the different sets of elements used by Nature and the Engineer – with the Engineer having a greater choice of elements to choose from in the “toolbox”. Elements such as iron, chromium, nickel, etc. are very rare in biological tissues and are certainly not used in metallic form as, for example, in steels. Iron is found in red blood cells as an individual ion bound to the protein hemoglobin: its function is certainly not mechanical but rather chemical, to bind oxygen. Most of the structural materials used by Nature are polymers or composites of polymers and ceramic particles. Such materials would not be the first choice of an engineer who intends to build very stiff and long-lived mechanical structures. Nevertheless, Nature makes the best out of the limitations in the chemical environment, adverse temperatures and uses polymers and composites to build trees and skeletons.
Different strategies in designing a material result from the two paradigms of “growth” and “fabrication” are shown in Fig. 1. In the case of engineering materials, a machine part is designed and the material is selected according to the functional prerequisites taking into account possible changes in those requirements during service (e.g. typical or maximum loads, etc.) and considering fatigue and other lifetime issues of the material. Here the strategy is a static one, where a design is made in the beginning and must satisfy all needs during the lifetime of the part. The fact that natural materials are growing rather than being fabricated leads to the possibility of a dynamic strategy. Taking a leaf as an example, it is not the exact design that is stored in the genes, but rather a recipe to build it. This means that the final result is obtained by an algorithm instead of copying an exact design. This approach allows for flexibility at all levels. Firstly, it permits adaptation to changing function during growth. A branch growing into the wind may grow differently than against the wind without requiring any change in the genetic code. Secondly, it allows the growth of hierarchical materials, where the microstructure at each position of the part is adapted to the local needs. Functionally graded materials are examples of materials with hierarchical structure. Biological materials use this principle and the functional grading found in Nature may be extremely complex. Thirdly, the processes of growth and “remodeling” (this is a combination of growth and removal of old material) allow a constant renewal of the material, thus reducing problems of material fatigue. A change in environmental conditions can be (partially) compensated for by adapting the form and microstructure to new conditions. One may think about what happens to the growth direction of a tree after a small land-slide occurs. In addition to adaptation, growth and remodeling, processes occur which enable healing allowing for self-repair in biological materials.
"In spring it is the dawn that is most beautiful. As the light creeps over the hills, their outlines are dyed a faint red and wisps of purplish clouds trail over them.
In summer the nights. Not only when the moon shines, but on dark nights too, as the fireflies flit to and fro, and even when it rains, how beautiful it is!
In autumn the evenings, when the glittering sun sinks close to the edge of the hills and the crows fly back to their nests in threes and fours and twos; more charming still is a file of wild geese, like specks in the distant sky. When the sun has set, one's heart is moved by the sound of the wind and the hum of the insects.
In winter the early mornings. It is beautiful indeed when snow has fallen during the night, but splendid too when the ground is white with frost; or even when there is no snow or frost, but it is simply very cold and the attendants hurry from room to room stirring up the fires and bringing charcoal, how well this fits the season's mood! But as noon approaches and the cold wears off, no one bothers to keep the braziers alight, and soon nothing remains but piles of white ashes."
"The sun was shining, the shadows cast by the croft long as those of some mighty palace. No part of night or day wears such beauty as the time of sun's rising, for then there is quiet, loveliness and splendour over everything. And now over everything there was quiet, loveliness, and splendour. The song of the birds was sweet and happy. The mirror-like lake and the smoothly flowing river gleamed and sparkled with a silvery, entrancing radiance. The Blue Fells lay gazing in rapture up at their heaven, as if they had nothing in common with this world. They had nothing in common with this world. And in the unsubstantiality of its serene beauty and its peaceful dignity the valley, too, seemed to have nothing in common with this world. There are times when the world seems to have nothing in common with the world, times when one can no more understand oneself than if one has been immortal."
How does a monk contemplate his states of mind? He recognizes the mind in its different states and when it is not in those states. There are certain states which are hindrances. Without dwelling on those, here are the states which are positive.
MindfulnessInvestigationEnergyBlissStillnessAbsorptionEquanimity
These are not "good" emotions or moral qualities such as compassion, honesty or justice. The Sutta was composed for solitary monks who don't interact with other people in those ways. Rather, the seven factors are the ideal states of mind that are essential for the most profound states of meditation. This, in turn, is the basis for the intuitive thought and insight that lead to full awakening. This is why they were called the seven factors of enlightenment.These are meditation states and are therefore transient, but their effects are expected to trickle back into ordinary life. Over time, a good practitioner will be peaceful under all circumstances, not just when she has withdrawn from the world to meditate. This cyclic model of attainment is common in many spiritual practices. It involves a repeated retreat or withdrawal from the mundane, to allow time and space for ascent into perfection, followed by a return to ordinary life until the ideal mental qualities are well expressed in both.
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The training algorithm:
The Buddha's training algorithm applies just as much to the seven factors as to any other object of consciousness. Identify the states of mind. Notice how it comes and goes. Understand its causes and its enemies. Embed that understanding in memory. This body of hard-won direct knowledge will inevitably strengthen those good states when they appear in the future. Work hard and repeat the procedure and awakening.
The seven factors of enlightenment divide into three active mental qualities -- investigation, energy and bliss -- and three passive mental qualities -- body-mind stillness, absorption, and equanimity -- governed by sati (or mindfulness) which partakes of both. Mindfulness has a metacognitive, monitoring function over the other six factors. It is said to refine each state of mind and balance them against each other, so you don't get too much of any one good thing.Investigation is the first of the active factors. Gentle but persistent investifation of fine sensory details + mental processes too. Loosely correaltes with curiosity.Energy - drive, will, determination. It suggests the physcial and mental strength of a warrior. Persistent effort. An enduring patience in the face of suffering or difficulty. Effort is the ability to see to the end no matter what, even if one has to grit one's teeth.Bliss - The sense of vitality and delight in the body. Initially as happiness - minor, momentary, showering, uplifting or rapturous. Then comes contentment. This is a state of being utterly at peace with the present moment, just as it is. It implies such a deep acceptance of the inevitable pains and discomforts of life that they cease to be a problem.(These three above are active states, about body-mind transformation and puposeful effort. The goal and the final stages toward it are tranquil)Body-mind stillness is a state in which the body becomes perfectly still and the mind is silent for long periods. Sort of an antidote to the state of anxiety, agitation and worry. (Natalie Ginzberg refers to it as something like a mind to be still without stirring up thoughts and drama)Abosrption. One-pointedness. (Sort of concentration). A kind of enthralling tunnel vision or positive obsession that loses sight of everything else, even the body itself. There are no distractions to contend with in this state. Profound tranquility.Equanimity, or serenity. In this state, the awareness of having a body has almost vanished. No sensation, no thought, no emotion, in a way no sense of personal self. "Body and mind drop away". "Let the space of your mind be emotionally neutral, like physical space, which could not care less whether bullets or hummingbirds streak through it."
Both the Buddha and modern pscychologists aim to alleviate suffering, and improvement doesn't need to be perfect to be worthwhile. The Buddha and modern pscychologiests even recommend similar strategies. Learn to calm down, control impulses, wind back emotion, detach from useless thought and activity, and automate all of these strategies so that they become habitual.
The monk identifies the affective tone, or valences, of literally everything that arises in his mind and strives to reduce them all to neutral. In meditation language, it is "just watching without reacting," or nonjudgemental acceptance. If we repeatedly inhibit our tendency to respond to a stimuls, its positive or negative valence will get weaker over time until it finally induces no response in us at all. A good practitioner will become calmer, more detached, less troubles, less responsive, and less engaged. He will also be more cool, rational, adult, and philosophic about life and fortune in general.
"Epilogue[Written by Soryu, a scholar-priest who prepared the final draft for the original edition.]In this slim volume, you will find prose of spare simplicity, and phrases of beautifully polished elegance. You will find writing of robust, masculine strength, as well as touches of delicate, feminine grace.As you read The Narrow Road to a Far Province, at times you will find yourself rising up to applaud. At other times you will quietly hang you head with emotion.Perhaps you will want to put on your straw rain cape and set off upon a similar journey, or you may be content to sit still and imagine the enchanting views as they pass before your mind's eye -- so multifarious are the impressions limned herein in prose as beautiful as mermaid's tears.What a fascinating journey! What writing skill! ..SoryaEarly summer of the Seveth Year of Genroku [1694]"
Each wave turning overLeaves a trail of tiny shellsAnd petals of bush clover.*Sadder and much moreForlorn even than at SumaIs autumn on this shore.*How cool the autumn air!I'll peel them and enjoy them --The melon and the pear.*How hot the sun glows,Pretending not to noticeAn autumn wind blows!*Through fragrant fieldsOf early rice we went, besideThe wild Ariso Sea.*It's Tanabata Eve!Tomorrow Cowherd meets his Weaver:The lover-stars' reprieve!O'er wild ocean spray,All the way to Sado IsleSpreads the Milky Way!*With your nest on a rock,Have you a truce with the ocean waves,O trusting sea hawk?- Sora*From far Hot Spring HillsAll the way to the Windy Beach --How cool is the evening view!The river MogamiHas drowned the hot, summer sunAnd sunk it in the sea!*"As we neared the valley, we passed a hut that once housed a forge...I thought of those swords tempered in China's Lungchuan (Dragon Spring) and of Kanchiang and his wife Muych who forged fine blades together. I realized then that to excel in anything requires much more than ordinary effort."*"And now I lay down my writing brush, for what I saw on Yudono-yama I am forbidden by the rules of for mountain pilgrims to reveal.When we returned to our temple lodgings in South Vale, the Acalya asked for my poetic impressions of our pilgrimage to the Three Holy Mountains, and so I wrote the following for him on poem strips:How cool the crescent moon,Faint above the leafy blackOf Mount Haguro!How many cloud shapesCapped the peak before the moonRose on Moon Mountain?Since I may not tellOf Yudono's wonders, tearsOn my coat sleeve fall.And Sora wrote:How they touch my heart:Coins by faithful pilgrims strewnOn Yudono's path!*When summer winds blowIn this blest South Vale, they bringThe cool fragrance of snow.*The Mogami river rises in the highlands of the far north. In its upper reaches here in Yamagata, there are some exceedingly dangerous rapids, such as "the Go Stones," where rocks are scattered about like black counters on a go board, and "the Peregrine Falcon," where the waters are as swift as a falcon's flight. Flowing north of Mount Itajiki, mentioned in an old poem, the Mogami finally empties into the sea at Sakata.Gathering as it goesAll the rains of June, how swiftlyThe Mogami flows!*In the domain of Yamagata is a hilltop temple called Ryushaku-ji. Built in 860 by the great abbot Jikaku, it is situated in a particularly pure and tranquil spot. ...In the profound tranquility and beauty of the place, our hearts felt deeply purified.In this hush profound,Into the very rocks it seeps --The cicada sound.
*What a cool, summer breeze!
Here, I make myself at home,Rest, and take my ease.Come into the air!Crawl from 'neath thy silkworm shed,Dear toad, croaking there.A lady's eyebrow brushCame to my mind when I sawSafflowers in bloom.How ancient the attire --Unchanging for centuries--That silkworm keepers wear!- Sora
*Fleas and lice did bite;And I'd hear the horse pass waterNear my bed at night.
*All June's rainy daysHave left untouched the Hall of LightIn beauty still ablaze.*Recalling Chinese poet Tu Fu's words:Even though a country is defeated,Its mountains and rivers remain.And o'er the castle ruins, when it is spring,The grass will be green again.*Of all the many places mentioned in poetry, the exact location of most is not known for certain. Landslides have changed the course of rivers, obliterating roads and burying monuments, and trees have grown old and withered away, with young ones taking their place, so that the face of the land is changed and the whereabouts of many famous places is now obscure. But here there is no mistake. This monument was made a thousand years ago and is a very real and vivid link with the past. Seeing it is one of the things that has made my trip worthwhile and one of the happiest moments of my life. Forgetting all the trials of the journey, I wept for sheer joy.*Sandal thongs of blue:We'll seem shod with irisesOf the bravest hue!*Young hands planting rice!Erstwhile I see them rubbingFerns with equal grace!*One whole paddy fieldWas planted ere I moved onFrom that willow tree!*Woodpecker! 'tis wellYou harm not this hermitageIn its summer dell!*In the hills, 'tis May.Bless us, holy shoes, as weGo upon our way!*There we did begin,Cloistered in that waterfall,Our summer discipline.*Were she a flower,She would be a wild, fring'd pinkPetals manifold.*
From Mircea Eliade's "Images and Symbols"
"Indra thus receives a second revelation : he now understands that everyone ought to take his own path to the fulfilment of his vocation, which means, in the last reckoning, doing his duty. And, since Indra’s vocation and his duty were to continue to be Indra, he resumes his identity and carries on his heroic adventures, but without pride or delusion now that he understands the vanity of all “situations”, even that of a King of Gods . . .
What is essential is not always to forsake one’s historical situation and strive in vain to rejoin the universal Being—it is to keep steadily in mind the perspectives of Great Time, while continuing to fulfil one’s duty in historical time. This is precisely the lesson given by Krishna to Arjuna, in the Bhagavad-Gita. In India, as elsewhere in the archaic world, the access to Great Time obtained by the periodic recitation of the myths, permits the indefinite continuance of a certain order, which is at once metaphysical, social and ethical. This order does not encourage an idolisation of History, for the perspective of mythical time renders any portion of historic time illusory.
As we have just seen, the myth of cyclic and endless Time, destroying as it does the illusions woven by the minor rhythms of time (that is, by historical time) reveals to us the precariousness and the ontological unreality of the Universe, and, at the same time, it points to the way of deliverance. Indeed, one can be saved from the bonds of Maya either by the contemplative way, renouncing the world, practising asceticism and the mystical techniques conducive thereto, or by the way of action, remaining in the world, but no longer enjoying the “fruits of one’s actions” (phalatrisnavairdgya). In either case, the essential thing is not to believe in the reality exclusively of the forms that are born and bloom in Time: we must never forget that such forms are “true”only in their own frame of reference and that, ontologically, they are devoid of substance. As we have said. Time can become an instrument of knowledge, in the sense that it is enough to project a thing or a being upon the plane of cosmic Time to become immediately aware of its unreality. The gnoseological and soteriological function of such a change of perspective, obtained by reference to the major rhythms of time, is admirably illustrated by certain myths about the Maya of Vishnu."
“But it was also here that I learned that there is nobility in a basketball that has faded, that has gone bald. And there is nobility in the person who carries it to the court. The shooter who has learned to shoot at a deficit, with a ball that slides around in their hand, or the dribbler who made a way with a ball that has endured seasons of being battered against the concrete.
Your ball is your ball, and depending on how you and your folks are livin’, you might not see a new one for a while. And so of course, praise to the person who made way with a bald rock, and a little path of concrete that was their concrete, and a rusted rim with no net. Those be the noblest of hoopers. The ones who, back then, you had to keep your eye on. Cuz they’ve done all the hard shit already. Once they get a little bit of grip on something new, it’s lights out.”
"Most of the world's plants - more than 90 percent of the known species - are connected by a vast subterranenan network of fungal filaments, in a symbiotic association that goes to the very origin of the plants, 400 million years ago. These fungal filaments are essential for the plants' well-being, acting as living conduits for the transmission of water and essential minerals (and perhaps also organic compounds) not only between the plants and fungi but from plant to plant. Without this "fragile gossamer-like net" of fungal filaments, David Wolfe writes in Tales from the Underground, "the towering redwoods, oaks, pines and eucalyptus of our forests would collapse during the hard times." And so too would much of agriculture, for these fungal filaments often provide links between very different species - between legumes and cereals, for instance, or between alders and pines. Thus nitrogen-rich legumes and alders do not merely enrich the soil as they die and decompose, but can directly donate, through the fungal network, a good portion of their nitrogen to nearby plants. United by these multifarious underground channels (and also by the chemicals they secrete in the air to signal sexual readiness or news of predator attack, etc.), plants are not as solitary as one might imagine, but form complex, interactive, mutually supportive communities."
From Oliver Sacks' Oaxaca Journal
