--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <r...@...> wrote: > > Thanks for the appreciative words, Barry. It so happens that > that particular Zen story is one of my inspirations and I've > told it often.
Why am I not surprised? You live it. > The other day Judy mentioned that I must be "really pissed" > because of something Raunchy said. It surprised me a bit that > she would think I would get upset by something someone wrote > here. It surprises many people who aren't into the pursuit of revenge as a lifestyle. > As you say, it's just a little forum, and I might add that > we're all just visitors on a little planet in a vast galaxy, > a "perspective trick" I find useful. I often look at astronomy > photos to broaden my perspective. If one can get a sense of > how small we are in comparison to the actuality of things, > it's hard to take oneself too seriously. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour, That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned, A sun that is the source of all our power. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour, Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'. Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars. It's a hundred thousand light years side to side. It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick, But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide. We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point. We go 'round every two hundred million years, And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions In this amazing and expanding universe. The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding In all of the directions it can whizz As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know, Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is. So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, How amazingly unlikely is your birth, And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth. > Another thing is that I can usually find something to like > in most people. Judy has many admirable qualities. Yes, she does. That is what is so pity-provoking when she doesn't use them. As a friend of mine used to say about a mutual acquaintance, "The thing about W*** is that he never fails to disappoint." > I've known Raunchy personally for decades and I think she's > a wonderful person. I'm sure she is, when she isn't being monotopical. > Nabby is the most entertaining guy here. In many ways, yes he is. As many have pointed out, we really wouldn't get much of the True TM True Believer point of view if he weren't here to provide it. > I'd be disappointed if he left. As would I. I have given him shit over the years, but I really do feel a kind of weird affection for the guy. > I tend to think of people as sense organs of the infinite. Some occasionally act more like the excretory organs of the infinite. :-) > "Light that is one though the lamps be many," as the > Incredible String Band put it. I used to hang with Robin Williamson of the ICB back when I lived in L.A., post-TM period for me, post-Scientology and post-ICB period for him. He is really a remarkable and inspiring guy. > God wants to taste all varieties of experience, from the > bum in the gutter to the President of the United States > (little distinction in Raunchy's opinion). http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=alT19_AzXFU&gl=US Down at the bus station Shark grins and sandpaper conversation Men's faces women's bodies on the magazine stand And a headline about Sarajevo and Tehran They are radiant angels, they are earthly slaves They are predators moving in their endless days Days of striving, nights of novocaine Never going to bring them freedom from their pain - Bruce Cockburn ( If you have never heard Bruce's song "Loner," listen to this and stick around until Hugh Marsh's solo at the end. It is one of the most amazing performances on the violin I have ever heard.) > So from that perspective, all the clashing personalities > on FFL and in the world at large aren't really clashing; > they're just expressing various facets of a much larger, > more inclusive perspective. You see the extremes Of what humans can be? In that distance some tension's born Energy surging like a storm You plunge your hand in And draw it back scorched Beneath it's shining like Gold but better Rumours of glory - Bruce Cockburn (No video available for this one, sorry.)
