Esalen

Day one ~ I meet my roommate Rich ..a silver-haired attorney from L.A. He’s been here for three weeks already. Part of a month-long retreat. He tells me he chooses workshops based on the amount of ‘group therapy’ they offer “..that's the best way to pick up chicks” he says. He introduces me to Judy at the lodge ..a pretty Asian from Santa Barbara. I get the feeling she was in one of his group therapy workshops. (I hear Zen master Perry’s voice reminding me to lower the volume on suppositions like that ..they interfere with reception). Returning to the present I hear Judy ask me if I wear my copper bracelet to cleanse my bioflow.

Continues here ~> workshop

Kālī

"There are many ways to calm negative energy without suppressing or fighting it. You recognize it, you smile to it, and you invite something nicer to come up and replace it; you go somewhere in nature, or you do some walking meditation.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

Tomorrow never knows

"Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream"     ~  Tomorrow never knows by John Lennon

Sweet dreams

oh well

Danielle Haim

I hurl into the moment like I'm standing at the edge / I know / That no one's gonna turn me 'round / Just one more step, I could let go / I hear the voices and they're calling for me now / I know / And nothing's gonna wake me now / Cause I'm a slave to the sound / So keep calling

The ghosts of Calcutta

“Ghosts appear most often where ignorance and falsehood reside.” ~ from Hindu Puranas written between 3000 BC and 1500 BC

A Swami at the Vedanta Temple helps us interpret this sutra. He tells us:  “If you translate ‘ghost’ to mean ‘past life’ ..you get Ghosts appear where there is difficulty letting go of the past. When this occurs, memories come back to haunt ..and the struggle blocks the appreciation of present and possible futures. You see, blockage (clinging to the past) is ignorance.”

Ganesha

the remover of obstacles

            Oh Lord Ganesha!
            You are the Trinity: Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa.
            You are Indra. You are fire and air. You are the sun and the moon.
            You are Brahman. You are the three worlds earth, space, and heaven.
            You are Om. Without color, expression, or form, nor attributes to divide

hemispheres

Danielle Haim

Let me out / Let me in / I'm giving up / not giving in / I gave you everything I could give / But if you go so easily / Go on, get out, set me free

star power

Classical conditioning, the power of connection between unrelated stimuli, like the sound of a bell and the smell of food ..can activate the salivary glands. Images of celebrities can activate areas of the brain responsible for receptivity and delight ..boosting the value of the products they endorse. While working at a foundation, awarding grants to research on developmental disorders, I was tasked to determine if there was any merit to the claim that Scientology can cure dyslexia. Turns out Tom Cruise was endorsing them and diverting funds, donated by the Hollywood movie industry, away from the Foundation and toward Scientology.

a case of false resonance

Psychologists say we often blame things on the most sensational events in recent memory. Vivid as they may be ..they are often suspect. Many people believe that the police framed OJ Simpson for the murder of his wife. After he was acquitted, jury members said things like “..reminded me of how the cops pulled-over and harassed my cousin Charlie.” A high school student shoots and kills his teacher and another student ..and people say “..have you seen the computer games kids play these days?” Our neighbor’s teenage daughter is committed to a mental institution and my sister goes “..no wonder, you should have seen how OCD her mother was.” I have to agree with Psychologists ..real life is not so easy to explain. Violent computer games don’t necessarily escalate into high school shootings. A brutal cop at a traffic stop is not the same as a police conspiracy. And I don’t think there’s any evidence that strict child rearing practices cause insanity ..although my sister says the neighbor drove her crazy as well.

Danielle Haim

See I'm not afraid no more / I'm not afraid no more / To turn you away no more / Turn you away no more / To turn you away, to turn you away

Moonlight mile

Buddha teaches that the nature of life is change and that the cause of suffering is clinging to the past and not accepting change.

Joe clings to the image of the good son 

The father clings to the image of his grown daughter when she was just nine 

The mother clings to the illusion that the daughter is still alive ..unable to grasp the reality of her death. 

The lover clings to the illusion that her boyfriend, missing in action for 3 years, will walk through the door.

Each one, unable to acknowledge change ..keeps the others stuck ..until Joe publicly drops the ‘good son’ illusion ..allowing the others to let go of theirs.

Boat repair Log

Status Update
By Mckenzie Clark
12/10/13 Boat repair Log

Time on boat: 3.5 hours
Time spent thinking this might be a bad idea: 3.5 hours
Hats lost:1
Time on boat before hat lost: 2 minutes
Toenails almost lost: 1
Toenails almost lost to date: 3
Baby toe prints in blood on deck: 4
Paint spilled on deck : ¾ quart
Time spent contemplating spill: 3 seconds
Amount of deck hastly painted after spill: ¼
Amount of paint in ocean during spill: none (success!)
F-bombs: 6
Footprints in paint on deck: 2
Projects completed: 0
Projects completed to date: 3
Projects completed successfully upon first attempt: 0
Projects pending: 10,000
Time spent contemplating own competence at boat repairs: 3.5 hours
Time spent contemplating boat partner’s competence at boat repairs: 3.5 hours
Times attempting to channel successes of sailor friends: 10?
Falls into ocean: 0 (success!)
Near falls into ocean: 3
Tools dropped in ocean: 0 (success!)
Tools dropped in ocean to date: 4
Hats found after 3.5 hours: 1 (success!)
Hypotheses: this might be a bad idea

Tantra yoga

Tantra yoga has the power to enhance and sustain well being. It releases a hormone called ‘oxytocin’ ..often referred to as the “bonding hormone”. Oxytocin plays a role in the development of intimacy. Over time it serves to deepen the commitment felt between practitioners  [ Tantra Yoga ]

Growing up

Delayed adolescence: During High School, I experienced my mother’s struggle with divorce and single-parenting more than anything going on in the classroom (or school grounds). Not sure I’d call it depression ..but things sure looked awfully bleak. It felt like I was living in a cave without much light until about my senior year when my head started clearing a little ..although I hadn’t really learned much. I had begun practicing zen although I’m not sure that had anything to do with it. College is where I actually started  growing up (delayed adolescence ..?). I began to realize that things happening to me were the consequence of my own actions. More so than chance ..or the actions of others (karma ..?) I noticed when I put in the effort I succeeded more often than when I didn’t (big revelation). Now I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do ..not only in school but in my life as well. I put in long hours at the library and started getting good grades. I dated like a gentleman and started getting laid (continued ..?).

Adèle Exarchopoulos

Adèle and Léa while waiting for the technical team during the love scenes. Video ~>( x )

(Her laugh is so contagious.)

The Mexican Girl by Jack Kerouac

On the Road (1947) Jack Kerouac chronicles his brief love affair with a young Chicana migrant worker, ‘Bea Franco,’ in California’s Central Valley. It was a true story and part of the book with the most heart ..I felt   (♡)

Audio of Jack Kerouac telling the story can be heard here ~>  "The Mexican Girl"

in and out the rabbit hole

The Art of Leaving by Anna Stothard

With the first kiss people usually invent a story about falling in love “..Eva couldn’t help inventing a story about falling out of love. She considered herself talented at leaving people and places. The first smile of a love affair was mostly fiction and blind hope, but you knew where you were with good-bye. You knew that mistakes would dissolve, doors would open, and then everything would be possible again. It was the ending, Eva maintained, that gave meaning to the story.”

Anna Stothard

”The secret to getting away with shit is to switch off your personality and go undetected: .. most of the million ghosts walking mindlessly from A to B in every city of the world are inconspicuous because they aren’t noticing themselves, but an arrogant person or an anxious person is noticeable because they are so aware of existence.” ‘The Pink Hotel’

Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin plan to film ‘The Pink Hotel’.  The narrative follows a seventeen-year old London girl who flies to Los Angeles for the funeral of Lilly, a mother she’d barely known. While there, she uncovers a suitcase full of photographs, letters and clothes in the attic of the eponymous hotel and, led by these clues, sets out to unravel her mothers’ secrets. Stothard is hoping that, as locals, Paquin and Moyer film on location at the real pink hotel (also known as The Cadillac) in Venice Beach.

Waking in L.A. with Anna Stothard: "I lived in Thai Town and Little Armenia, in this apartment block full of just all different sorts of people. And I found that, not driving — I have never driven — I just found that I walked this version of Los Angeles that none of my friends seemed to know anything about. And I’d walk out of my apartment and there would be a huge Armenian wedding going on, and then you’d pass through the crowds of these Armenians and you’d get Thai children peeling oranges on a street corner for a Thai altarpiece. And the Armenians never seemed to talk to the Thai people. There were all these different layers of the city that nobody seemed to cross over. Everyone says that LA is all these suburbs looking for a city. But actually in every little bit of Los Angeles there are so many different layers. You just have to look beyond the cliche of Los Angeles."

Liz Clark

Voyage of a swell: "At ten, I completed a 5,000-mile, 6-month cruise in Mexico on my family’s sailboat, The Endless Summer, experiencing a different culture, the freedom and beauty of sea travel, and opening my mind to horizons beyond my hometown reality. At 23 I spontaneously came upon the chance to become the captain of my own sailboat. Swell. October of 2005, I pointed Swell’s bow south from the Santa Barbara harbor. I’ve sailed over 18,000 nautical miles of ocean since. I’ve discovered that the most important sort of exploration happens within.” [link]

Catching Fire

"remember who the real enemy is"

(Image source: StalkerAE)

An interpretation:  The film shows what can happen when economic class differences are enforced by the Government. They become structured rather than fluid. The possibility for advancement is eliminated ..except by winning the hunger games ..inspiring a false sense of hope.

Attack of the jabberjays

Safety not guaranteed

 
“It’s that time, and that place, and that song. And you remember what it was like when you were in that place.”