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Gradually Learn as You Let Go

My master used to tell a story about letting go. It's called the Wedding Party.

Once upon a time, a wedding party boarded a boat to journey downstream to the site for the ceremony. It was to be an overnight trip.

The next morning when everyone woke, they saw the same banks that they thought they had left the previous night. They turned to the boatman who humbly begged their forgiveness for having forgotten to untie the boat from the dock. Having remained tied to the dock, the boat had simply bobbed around throughout the night but made no progress.

Analogously, if we remain attached to material things, such as wealth, grudges, or envy, we will not make any spiritual progress at all.

This entry was inspired by an article I came across by
Mark CHERNOFF

1. You can have a heartbreaking story from the past, without letting it rule your present.

2. A big part of letting go is simply realizing there’s nothing to hold on to in the first place.

3. The subtle pain you continue to feel can be healed through compassion for those suffering alongside you.

4. There is always, always, always something to be thankful for in the present.

Future Bright: a transforming vision of human intelligence | Kurzweil

Future Bright: a transforming vision of human intelligence | Kurzweil:

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The Decision that Separates Winners and Loosers

Power doesn't create great responsibility; great responsibility creates great power
Confidence doesn't make you successful; successful behavior creates confidence
Behavior doesn't rely on personality; behavior creates personality

Having freedom means taking responsibility. And freedom means consequences. We are free when what we do has consequences. To increase your freedom, make your behaviors matter.

Late Afternoons In Farm Country

The grass covered hills
Get soothingly colored tan and mauve,
And hem-in plowed fields,
Whose freshly turned furrows
Look purple in late afternoon sunlight.

Sparse stands of trees caste shadows
That transmogrify into groups
Of weirdly shaped blotches
Marching across the valley,
Their pace quickening as the sun sets.

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Katie Alice Greer on why all art is political – The Creative Independent

Katie Alice Greer on why all art is political – The Creative Independent: "I think if we’re going to have conversations about art, it’s best to avoid words like that, and actually explain why we think art is political, or art is beautiful, or art is important."

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Kale, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, and Cabbage

These are most popular of the world's healthiest vegetables: kale, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cabbage. They are called brassicas.

For a long time, brassicas had a mixed reputation. The rising popularity of brassicas is due to their extraordinary health benefits and also they can taste delicious when properly prepared, that is without death-by-boiling or burial under a blanket of cheese.

Roasted brassicas are awesome!

Writing and Work

It would seem that in brilliant writing what's at work is a brilliant mind. But what I have found more often than not is that the amount of work that goes into it is what is payed back; if you don't put in the work, you just don't get good writing.

Louis Pasteur said, "In the field of observation, chance favors the prepared mind." In writing, the mind is prepared by writing. That's the work. That is the hard and inglorious work that must precede any good writing.

Writing is such hard work, that I continually draw inspiration and encouragement from the likes of Samuel Beckett, "Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again! Fail again! Fail better!"

Science takes a dry, clinical view of it; a failed experiment is just as valuable as a so-called successful experiment; either way information is obtained; more data; more knowledge. Progress.

And so it is with writing. You write something. It isn't right. You rewrite it. You get an idea in that process. It's like getting closer to a destination you can see it better as you get near, as you reach the crest of a certain hill, you can perfectly see what you need to do. But you have to go down into another dip and then up over another further hill. It is these ups and downs and the movement and the work of movement that makes the progress.

Anyone who's written much has usually asked themselves at some point, "why writing?" Who would want to be a writer?! It's such hard work. And it's all about the end product. The process itself is miserable. I've heard one journalist explain the process of writing as, "you bang your head against the screen until blood comes out. That's writing."

But for those of who have been bitten by the writing bug, what we become attached to is the idea of improvement, so that the process of arriving at the end product - a piece of writing - becomes less painful and more rewarding. Perhaps we will learn something. Learning something interesting that you would not have found out any other way makes the process by which you learned itself of value.

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