If you’re interested in mindfulness and meditation, this scene from “Star Wars: Rogue One” demonstrates mantra meditation at its best: Belief, total commitment and single-mindedness, and practice in action.
A few related quotes:
“You must concentrate upon and consecrate yourself wholly to each day, as though a fire were raging in your hair.”
~ Zen Master Taisen Deshimaru
As a quick note today, here’s a list of my currently-free books and online video courses about the Scala programming language and functional programming (as of October, 2024):
This is a photo I took of the entrance to El Santuario de Chimayo in New Mexico. My notes say that the church was opened in 1816.
As I’ve mentioned before, it drives me crazy when politicians and other people on tv wave a Bible in one hand, while simultaneously breaking The Ten Commandments on a regular basis. Even though I pray for them and try to forgive them, those charlatans and that hypocrisy drives me nuts.
I have also mentioned that I have a friend in their late-80s, and his biggest concern in life is for the mistakes he has made, and that he might spend eternity in Hell.
I think about these things when I think about people who vote for politicians who wave the Bible with one hand while simultaneously breaking The Ten Commandments with the other.
If you are a Real Christian, you have to be concerned that if you vote for a politician like this, there’s at least a chance you’ll be going to Hell, right? 🔥
I believe that true Christians know what I mean: If (a) you recall The Ten Commandments, and (b) find a politician that has potentially broken nine of them, then (c) that politician is the very definition of an ANTI-CHRISTIAN, right?
A vote for them is literally a vote for the OPPOSITE of Christ’s values.
I just don’t think that can be good for your soul.
“Swami Vivekananda says that if you have ever felt the urge to stretch out your arms in trying to embrace the universe, you have felt the truth. Not one atom in this universe, not one insect, not one life here is different from you. It is you yourself. It is one life and one consciousness. It is a joy, an enormous creativity of the consciousness which shines in all these ways. When you experience the universe, you are tasting yourself!”
~ Swami Sarvapriyananda, Dissolve into Infinity
“Just as water wears away stone over time, daily practice thins the veil of illusion.”
~ Ram Dass, in Polishing The Mirror
Pete Rose was Charlie Hustle. All these years later, and the the game hasn't seen another player like him. RIP, Pete, October, 2024.
A squirrel asking for some Buddha wisdom, and admiring that nice acorn hat. (Friends always send me squirrel photos because I lived with a squirrel in Talkeetna, Alaska.)
Last night I passed out for the 10th time. As usual, I woke up in the middle of the night, and knew that I felt really bad. I ran to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face, and knew I was going to pass out before I could get the Benadryl open. So I got back into bed and passed out.
Of course, when you pass out, you never know if you’ll wake up again, but so far I’m 10 for 10.
A unique thing about this event is that I was hit very hard in the top-right part of my head in the afternoon, and still have that pain today. I suspect that it had to do with this syncope event.
Dear Fellow Christian Voters,
As I’ve written many times here now, it drives me crazy when politicians and people on television (a) wave a Bible around in one hand while (b) simultaneously breaking The Ten Commandments with their other hand. This is one part of American society that just needs to stop.
To that end, here’s an image that I hope will help you visualize and think about Heaven. If you’re young and don’t think much about Heaven (and hell) that’s okay, but I can tell you that an 80+ year old friend has said that the main thing he thinks about now is that he doesn’t want to spend ETERNITY in hell.
So when you vote, please trust in Jesus Christ and the Bible, and not all these other people that are frankly liars who are willing to sell their souls. Please don’t sell yours to support them; there are people like myself who care about you.
As a little yoga/savasana tip, here’s a collection of 50+ phrases you can use to help relax and focus, both before and during savasana.
Please note that I don’t know the original source of all these quotes. I had a few yoga instructors back in the day, so I got a collection of the quotes from them.
I came across two quotes recently that seem related ... and not necessarily just in a spiritual/religious way:
“The devil doesn’t come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you’ve ever wished for.”
AND:
“The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison.”
Lately I’ve been thinking about how some people get to a certain point and then never mature any more. It’s like maybe they get everything they ever wanted, and they stop there. They become comfortable or complacent, and in doing so, they create their own prison.
October 5, 2024: When I started to wake up this morning I clearly heard two men talking.
It started when the first man — who turned out to be an older man — sighed pretty deeply, and then the second man asked him what that was about. I assumed that the second man was his son or grandson.
The old man replied, “Do you ever notice that when you sigh, you’re doing the right thing?”
The younger man said he didn’t know what that meant. I thought the same thing.
So the old man said, “Well, you’ve been thinking about something, and now you’re about to do the right thing, but for one reason or another you don’t want to do it. But now you’ve decided to do that right thing, so you let out a sigh before you do it.”
I tried to stay there to here more of the conversation, but I could not, because I was waking up too fast.
This is another “sketch” of Luke Skywalker from whatever the last Star Wars movie was called. I started with this earlier image I created, then converted it to a Gimp life sketch by going to Beautify > Beautify > Art > Life Sketch > 100%.
While I’m in the neighborhood, I also created this fake Luke Skywalker “hoodie” oil painting.
Drowning in the Cooler of Love,
Where everyone,
Would love to drown.
~ an adaptation of a Stevie Nicks song
If you haven’t seen them yet, here’s a link to Alvin Alexander’s free Scala 3 and Functional Programming video courses. The functional programming course shown in this image was just released today, September, 8, 2024.
October, 2024, and my new free “Functional Programming Fundamentals with ZIO” video course is now available!
I can’t find the original source of this image and product, but I have always liked the “Live Brave” saying, which I first heard on the excellent Eli Stone tv series (which stars Johnny Lee Miller, who may be more well known for the movie Hackers and of course, Elementary).
