Damien Escobar
Hey everybody! Yall all know of my love of Digital Artist, Visual Alchemy and his mandalas. Apparently his Mac that he used to create was damaged, and he has a Go Fund Me if anyone has a shekel, or drachma, to contribute? I just thought sharing it, is the least I can do.
My friend Jeanette shared a great astrologer with this weeks horoscope for everyone, so I am just going to share the link.
Namaste
Much Love
~
Rededicate
Realign
Remember
❤
Top & Bottom
Mandalas
By
Cover
I won’t stop, praying, or visualizing peace, but I agree with HHDL. Please send prayers to a lovely woman Mary, who is in the ICU ❤
Dalai Lama: Stop praying for Paris — humans created this problem and humans must solve it
Raw Story
Bethania Palma Markus
17 NOV 2015
The Dalai Lama offered unusually sage advice for dealing with the terrorist attack on Paris on Friday.
“Don’t pray for Paris — work for peace,” he told Deutsche Welle, a German broadcasting company.
“We cannot solve this problem only through prayers,” the spiritual leader said. “I am a Buddhist and I believe in praying. But humans have created this problem, and now we are asking God to solve it. It is illogical. God would say, solve it yourself because you created it in the first place.”
He added his hopes that the record violence of the 20th Century doesn’t continue to bleed into the current one.
“We need a systematic approach to foster humanistic values, of oneness and harmony,” he said. “If we start doing it now, there is hope that this century will be different from the previous one. It is in everybody’s interest. So let us work for peace within our families and society, and not expect help from God, Buddha or the governments.”
In what the Friendly Atheist described as sounding like Humanism, the Dalai Lama also said that much of the violence is over superficial matters.
“Furthermore, the problems that we are facing today are the result of superficial differences over religious faiths and nationalities,” he told DW. “We are one people.”
He also said he was leaving it up to the people of Tibet whether they wanted to continue having Dalai Lamas serve as leaders in the future.
“If the people think that this institution is no longer relevant, it should be abolished. I am no more involved in political matters,” he said. “I am only concerned about Tibet’s well-being.”
Namaste
Peace & Love
Mandala
By
Keep Coming Through
How is everybody? Me? Challenged. lol I love the title by Visual Alchemy, “Keep Coming Through,” because that is what we must do, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.” Dory, from Nemo, of course. The crazy thing is that I have been able to trust, and not fall into those standard resets to fear, and it is working out alright. The health is better but if you are prone to sending healing, please do so. It will be graciously accepted. I do believe that these challenges myself, and others are having are good. Some positive change is occurring. I love to use the digital i-ching at iFate,com They have always been accurate for me, so unless I really want to know, I don’t do it. This was my encouraging reading today after the difficult one a day or ago, when….my car wouldn’t start. Go figure, forward movement halted on all fronts, but things are moving again.
Rising Up
I-ching 46
This welcome hexagram symbolizes a lasting elevation in status or well-being. A raise or promotion is very likely to occur at this time. Endeavors will turn out successfully, fires will be put out and chaos will turn to calmness. However, this is not a time to slack off from responsibility. Take actions deliberately. Place one foot in front of the other with solidity and purpose. Stay focused and conscious. Be like the tree trunk that grows strong and steady towards the sky.
Changing lines:
The changes to line 1 indicate:
Elevating Inside and Out
As a new found elevation in status unfolds, the wise person sets their standards higher as well. Raise your standards and goals to new heights, and difficulties will be at a minimum.
The changes to line 4 indicate:
Charging Upward
This line is a reminder of the important job you have ahead of you. If you step forward with the proper preparations, you will find fame and reward.
Great Power
As if thunder and lightning are your allies, this hexagram implies great strength. This is a time to summon your determination and feel your own fortitude. Trust your momentum and your reputation will grow. Pay attention to details and follow through with your intentions, projects and ideas. New allies will surface as you extend your influence into uncharted lands. Helpful solutions will come to you. Let your vision and higher purpose be your compass.
Isn’t that just uncanny? I think so. Much love everyone.
Namaste
Sindy
Your Brain Isn’t a Computer. It’s a Quantum Field.
by DAPHNE MULLER
The irrationality of how we think has long plagued psychology. When someone asks us how we are, we usually respond with “fine” or “good.” But if someone followed up about a specific event — “How did you feel about the big meeting with your boss today?” — suddenly, we refine our “good” or “fine” responses on a spectrum from awful to excellent.
In less than a few sentences, we can contradict ourselves: We’re “good” but feel awful about how the meeting went. How then could we be “good” overall? Bias, experience, knowledge, and context all consciously and unconsciously form a confluence that drives every decision we make and emotion we express. Human behavior is not easy to anticipate, and probability theory often fails in its predictions of it.
Enter quantum cognition: A team of researchers has determined that while our choices and beliefs don’t often make sense or fit a pattern on a macro level, at a “quantum” level, they can be predicted with surprising accuracy. In quantum physics, examining a particle’s state changes the state of the particle — so too, the “observation effect” influences how we think about the idea we are considering.
The quantum-cognition theory opens the fields of psychology and neuroscience to understanding the mind not as a linear computer, but rather an elegant universe.
In the example of the meeting, if someone asks, “Did it go well?” we immediately think of ways it did. However, if he or she asks, “Were you nervous about the meeting?” we might remember that it was pretty scary to give a presentation in front of a group. The other borrowed concept in quantum cognition is that we cannot hold incompatible ideas in our minds at one time. In other words, decision-making and opinion-forming are a lot like Schrödinger’s cat.
The quantum-cognition theory opens the fields of psychology and neuroscience to understanding the mind not as a linear computer, but rather an elegant universe. But the notion that human thought and existence is richly paradoxical has been around for centuries. Moreover, the more scientists and scholars explore the irrational rationality of our minds, the closer science circles back to the confounding logic at the heart of every religion. Buddhism, for instance, is premised on riddles such as, “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without it.” And, in Christianity, the paradox that Christ was simultaneously both a flesh-and-blood man and the Son of God is the central metaphor of the faith.
For centuries, religious texts have explored the idea that reality breaks down once we get past our surface perceptions of it; and yet, it is through these ambiguities that we understand more about ourselves and our world. In the Old Testament, the embattled Job pleads with God for an explanation as to why he has endured so much suffering. God then quizzically replies, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4). The question seems nonsensical — why would God ask a person in his creation where he was when God himself created the world? But this paradox is little different from the one in Einstein’s famous challenge to Heisenberg’s “Uncertainty Principle”: “God does not play dice with the universe.” As Stephen Hawking counters, “Even God is bound by the uncertainty principle” because if all outcomes were deterministic then God would not be God. His being the universe’s “inveterate gambler” is the unpredictable certainty that creates him.
The mind then, according to quantum cognition, “gambles” with our “uncertain” reason, feelings, and biases to produce competing thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Then we synthesize those competing options to relate to our relatively “certain” realities. By examining our minds at a quantum level, we change them, and by changing them, we change the reality that shapes them.
Daphne Muller is a New York City-based writer who has written for Salon, Ms. Magazine, The Huffington Post, and reviewed books for ELLE and Publishers Weekly. Most recently, she completed a novel and screenplay. You can follow her on Instagram @daphonay and on Twitter @DaphneEMuller.
Visit the article, lots of hyperlinks, and a video.
Art:
Whoever I Am
Quantum Experiment Shows How “Time” Doesn’t Exist As We Think It Does (Mind-Altering)
By: Arjun Walia
The concept of “time” is a weird one, and the world of quantum physics is even weirder. There is no shortage of observed phenomena which defy our understanding of logic, bringing into play thoughts, feelings, emotions – consciousness itself, and a post-materialist view of the universe. This fact is no better illustrated than by the classic double slit experiment, which has been used by physicists (repeatedly) to explore the role of consciousness and its role in shaping/affecting physical reality. (source) The dominant role of a physical material (Newtonian) universe was dropped the second quantum mechanics entered into the equation and shook up the very foundation of science, as it continues to do today.
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulating consciousness.” – Max Planck, theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918
There is another groundbreaking, weird experiment that also has tremendous implications for understanding the nature of our reality, more specifically, the nature of what we call “time.”
It’s known as the “delayed-choice” experiment, or “quantum eraser,” and it can be considered a modified version of the double slit experiment.
To understand the delayed choice experiment, you have to understand the quantum double slit experiment.
In this experiment, tiny bits of matter (photons, electrons, or any atomic-sized object) are shot towards a screen that has two slits in it. On the other side of the screen, a high tech video camera records where each photon lands. When scientists close one slit, the camera will show us an expected pattern, as seen in the video below. But when both slits are opened, an “interference pattern” emerges – they begin to act like waves. This doesn’t mean that atomic objects are observed as a wave (even though it recently has been observed as a wave), they just act that way. It means that each photon individually goes through both slits at the same time and interferes with itself, but it also goes through one slit, and it goes through the other. Furthermore, it goes through neither of them. The single piece of matter becomes a “wave” of potentials, expressing itself in the form of multiple possibilities, and this is why we get the interference pattern.
How can a single piece of matter exist and express itself in multiple states, without any physical properties, until it is “measured” or “observed?” Furthermore, how does it choose which path, out of multiple possibilities, it will take?
Then, when an “observer” decides to measure and look at which slit the piece of matter goes through, the “wave” of potential paths collapses into one single path. The particle goes from becoming, again, a “wave” of potentials into one particle taking a single route. It’s as if the particle knows it’s being watched. The observer has some sort of effect on the behavior of the particle.
You can view a visual demonstration/explanation of the double slit experiment here.
This quantum uncertainty is defined as the ability, “according to the quantum mechanic laws that govern subatomic affairs, of a particle like an electron to exist in a murky state of possibility — to be anywhere, everywhere or nowhere at all — until clicked into substantiality by a laboratory detector or an eyeball.” (New York Times)
According to physicist Andrew Truscott, lead researcher from a study published by the Australian National University, the experiment suggests that “reality does not exist unless we are looking at it.” It suggests that we are living in a holographic-type of universe. (source)
Delayed Choice/Quantum Eraser/Time
So, how is all of this information relevant to the concept of time? Just as the double slit experiment illustrates how factors associated with consciousness collapse the quantum wave function (a piece of matter existing in multiple potential states) into a single piece of matter with defined physical properties (no longer a wave, all those potential states collapsed into one), the delayed choice experiment illustrates how what happens in the present can change what happens(ed) in the past. It also shows how time can go backwards, how cause and effect can be reversed, and how the future caused the past.
Like the quantum double slit experiment, the delayed choice/quantum eraser has been demonstrated and repeated time and time again. For example, Physicists at The Australian National University (ANU) have conducted John Wheeler’s delayed-choice thought experiment, the findings were recently published in the journal Nature Physics. (source)
In 2007 (Science 315, 966, 2007), scientists in France shot photons into an apparatus and showed that their actions could retroactively change something which had already happened.
“If we attempt to attribute an objective meaning to the quantum state of a single system, curious paradoxes appear: quantum effects mimic not only instantaneous action-at-a-distance, but also, as seen here, influence of future actions on past events, even after these events have been irrevocably recorded.” – Asher Peres, pioneer in quantum information theory (source)(source)(source)
The list literally goes on and on, and was first brought to the forefront by John Wheeler, in 1978, which is why I am going to end this article with his explanation of the delayed choice experiment. He believed that this experiment was best explained on a cosmic scale.
Cosmic Scale Explanation
He asks us to imagine a star emitting a photon billions of years ago, heading in the direction of planet Earth. In between, there is a galaxy. As a result of what’s known as “gravitational lensing,” the light will have to bend around the galaxy in order to reach Earth, so it has to take one of two paths, go left or go right. Billions of years later, if one decides to set up an apparatus to “catch” the photon, the resulting pattern would be (as explained above in the double slit experiment) an interference pattern. This demonstrates that the photon took one way, and it took the other way.
One could also choose to “peek” at the incoming photon, setting up a telescope on each side of the galaxy to determine which side the photon took to reach Earth. The very act of measuring or “watching” which way the photon comes in means it can only come in from one side. The pattern will no longer be an interference pattern representing multiple possibilities, but a single clump pattern showing “one” way.
What does this mean? It means how we choose to measure “now” affects what direction the photon took billions of years ago. Our choice in the present moment affected what had already happened in the past….
This makes absolutely no sense, which is a common phenomenon when it comes to quantum physics. Regardless of our ability make sense of it, it’s real.
This experiment also suggests that quantum entanglement (which has also been verified, read more about that here) exists regardless of time. Meaning two bits of matter can actually be entangled, again, in time.
Time as we measure it and know it, doesn’t really exist.
(For Sources go to article link below.)
Art
Top: Gil Bruvel
Middle: Visual Alchemy
Bottom: Pablo Montes
Celebrating semesters successful end. I have had such a blessed morning in the garden with Deva Premal chanting, coffee, warm cinnamon rolls. I am going to see the Tibetan Monks tonight. My meditation group Thursday night.
Life is Sweet!
Thank you for my Life~
Namaste
. *✿ღ✿ღ.¸¸
♥
Art
Saxophone Concerto in E flat major
Glazunov
Happy Spring ~ Happy Spring Equinox and Happy Solar Eclipse.
❀✫ ღ✿ƸӜƷ ✿ღ ✫❀
Wow! Right?
So friends a little catching up to do here,thank you, nods, and shout out’s, and awards. Spring break has been awesome, very springy. I chilled, and watched hours, and hours of Star Trek Voyager, on Netflix. I see what all the hoopla was now about Netflix, Orange is the New Black, been hearing about it for years now….anyways I digress, but highly advocate Netflix. lol What an exciting time with all the cosmic goings on! I titled the post, Butterfly Ballet, because I was in my garden with the yellow blooms on the bush, and the butterfly’s, birds, and bees….. A lovely monarch came and literally danced before the oak tree to this piece of music, Saxophone Concerto in E flat major. I wanted to acknowledge my friend and blogger at I Write the Music, for this piece, he always introduces me to new things. He also reblogs my post sometimes, on his blog, Higher Density Blog. A great blogger friend. You all are.
My brilliant, talented friends, Odysseus, and om, have awarded me The Liebster Award. Thank you!!! I am going to nominate a few people…..Now if you wish to follow the rules, you can go check them out at, EYESOFODYSSEUS, otherwise please just accept the award, and or pass it on. I will list nominees below.
Also my other, of many brilliant friend Aquileana shared some very helpful links for me on Ovid’s, Metamorphosis, as I am doing my Honor’s presentation and essay on it. So helpful! Thank you sister. If you aren’t already and admirer of her blog, do yourself a favor and go visit at, La Audacia De Aquiles.
Nominees Are:
Walking My Path ~ Mary is awesome.
I Create Music ~Great musical shares.
Artists
“No Butterflies or Moths were killed in making this mandala”
(love that title)
Spring Daffodils
John Nolan
This is where Buddhism gets a bad rep. Most people think this philosophy is pessimistic because of its direct translation from Sanskrit. It’s not just about dealing with the rough downs of life.
The deeper translation is knowing that nothing found in the physical world or even the psychological realm can bring lasting deep satisfaction.
In our modern day, it is about seeing how to eradicate the perpetuation of this suffering. If we suppress or avoid the difficult feelings that arise when life throws us curve balls, we can actually suffer more.
And if we also attach ourselves to an outcome, expectation or feeling that is opposite of what we feel, (i.e. joy vs. sadness), we end up disappointed, frustrated and angry. So the philosophy teaches that instead of being afraid of our suffering or discomfort, or instead of constantly trying to end it, just be with it. You aren’t broken. Sickness, aging, loss, these are all a part of life. Accepting this and realizing that life is not always easy, you can create your own “normal” vs. the one marketing industries have tried to impose on us to numb true feelings. And don’t dwell, remember, the discomfort will pass, especially if you practice the Buddhist’s theory of non-attachment.
Embrace the uncertain and let go of expectation. It will open your heart.
Anitya translates to “impermanence”. We can never again access the moment that has just passed, nor can we ever fully replicate it. As each day passes, our cells are changing, our thoughts develop and manifest differently, the temperature and air quality shifts. Everything around us is different. Always.
This can help with the dukkha, knowing that our pain can and will pass. But what most of us fear is that the happy moments will also pass. Nonattachment comes into play then, and reminding ourselves that we shouldn’t be attached to the outcome how long that joyous moment should be. It is the moment it is in, be in that moment and that is all.
All we have is the present moment.
In our every day, we can apply this minute to minute. It will help you appreciate all of it- your loved ones, your health, your environment and nature. Remember to cherish the moments you love, and remind yourself of the impermanence in the sad moments you wish would pass.
How many times have you heard, “I want to find myself?” We are, as a society, always seeking this ‘self’, thinking that once we find him/her, our life problems will be fixed.
This again, is attaching to an outcome. It can actually prolong suffering according to Buddhism.
Anatma describes the idea of a changing self, one that is not fixed or concrete. Just like the impermanence of anitya in regards to our physical bodies, thoughts and moments in time, anatma is the same…everything that makes up “who we are”, is not stable. It can change over time.
Just think of what you ‘label’ as your identity…jobs, family roles, interests.
Sure, if you are a kind person, you will always be a kind person. That is not what anatma negates. It is just about accepting yourself just as you are.
In your day to day, instead of seeking this version of self, focus on creating a self that works for you and you strive for in that day, that moment in time. If you are depressed one day, this does not define you.
Allow forgiveness, for others and yourself, and understand that you can be ‘new’ in a new moment.
These three ideas can allow us to flow with life in a comfortable current of presence and as Thich Nhat Hanh says, opens the door to all moments.
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This is from Project Yourself~
Read it here.
Art
Visual Alchemy
bluebutterfliesandme 