Spirit Grooves

Just to mix it up, back in the early days of home computers we all learned the saga of the CPU (central processing unit), the fact that inside a computer chip a myriad of events are taking place, but the microprocessor is so blindingly fast that in CPU time it seems like a long interval between each single event, like waiting all day for something to happen as measured in our time. That was before multiple-core CPUs were available. Today we have multiple processors all working together at once. And CPU tasking is just an analogy here.

In my own life I find it helpful to use what I call "organic multitasking," a term I made up which gives attention-priority to whatever task is needed from a teleological standpoint, kind of jumping around based on priority. However, factories don't do this. Instead it is more convenient to complete one short linear section at a time, rather than jump all over the place.

Direct download: PDF-1700-ORGANIC_MULTITASKING.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 8:04am EDT

Every once in a while I have to write a little essay. Who knows why? I can’t explain it. I just do it. Here is one: Astrology is cultural astronomy, a simple reflection of the facts of astronomy, what those facts mean to us here on Earth. What does this statement mean? Astronomy is a fact-based science as in: this New Moon or that Full Moon takes place on a certain date, at a certain time, and that is a fact. It can’t be argued. This is astronomy, pure science.

Direct download: PDF-1696-ONLY_THE_TRUTH_HAS_A_FUTURE.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 8:03am EDT

Or I should say, one-night bloom. This photos is of a Night-Blooming Cereus (Cereus greggii), a plain-enough looking plant from South America that blooms for one night only. It opens at dusk and is gone by dawn. It is what I personally consider the most amazing flower I have ever seen, amazing not only in its size (7-inch blossom), but it also has THE most incredible scent of any flower I have known. The fragrance of this flower is not only better than the finest perfume, but it reaches beyond my ability to smell and somehow penetrates into the brain itself. It is pungent like smelling salts, but delightful and informative in its penetration, producing for me as much an insight as a sensation.

Direct download: PDF-1695-ONE_NIGHT_STAND.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 8:02am EDT

When I speak of post-meditation, meditating off the cushion, this bothers some folks, so let me be clear. I am not suggesting you give up meditating on the cushion, but I am suggesting that you might consider augmenting your cushion sitting by meditating on any other focused work you do, if you can. The cushion is a good place to build the habit (the mental muscle memory) of sitting. Sure, the cushion is home base or most familiar, but once you learn to meditate, you will find that you can meditate elsewhere, including almost anywhere. I wrote about this in the previous 3-part blog on “Mixing the Mind,” so scroll down if you want to revisit that.

Direct download: PDF-1686-OFF_THE_CUSHION_-_POST-MEDITATION.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:59am EDT

number of you have written to me about seriously starting to look at your mind, call it dharma practice, mind training, or just wanting a clear mind. And many of you are actually doing something about it, at least some sitting meditation or, if not that, contemplating doing some. But most of you are not that happy with your progress and would like to improve it. The next blog or so addresses this issue.

Direct download: PDF-1683-OBSCURATIONS.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:58am EDT

Meditation should be enjoyable, at least if you are in it for the long haul. You can’t just grit your teeth and wade through it. It is a liberator, not some bitter medicine. That is why if you are having trouble sitting on a cushion to meditate, it can be helpful to find some activity in your life that you already enjoy, something that takes focus and concentration, to use as an object of meditation, and try that. For me it was close-up photography, computer programming, video editing, and writing. For others it could be fly-tying, jewelry-making, pottery, or what-have-you. More difficult might be watching sports or movies. Only you can know by trying. For example, it would be very hard for me to watch a movie and meditate, without being distracted by the content of the movie and just following that. That is a no-brainer, because the whole point of watching the movie is the content.

Direct download: PDF-1682-NOTES_FROM_THE_CUSHION.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:57am EDT

The doing or not-doing of actions appear in all kinds Buddhist teachings (as well as the Tao), and especially in Zen Buddhism, where there are many slogans and instructions, either hidden or right out front about the "doing of things." "Do Not Do a Thing" is a common one. And in the Tao, we are told to do by not-doing.

The Tibetans tend to phrase this as we are to use "Skillful Means" in our actions. Skillful means are actions without negative consequences that generate awareness. It sounds more complicated than it is.

Direct download: PDF-1678-NOT-DOING.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:56am EDT

The first of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism is “The Truth of Suffering," and I am often asked: "Where is the suffering? I am not really suffering? Life is good!" It is as though they are suggesting that Buddhism is a downer and that Buddhists believe we are supposed to be suffering. Daniel Brown, Clinical Professor of Psychology at the Harvard Medical School, who is also a skilled translator of Tibetan (and a Buddhist practitioner with a knowledge of Sanskrit) states that "suffering" is not a good translation of what the original Sanskrit word "dukkha" means as used in the First Noble Truth.

Direct download: PDF-1675-NO_SUFFERING_ALLOWED_PLEASE.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:54am EDT

In this blog I will cover very briefly what was quite a long time, the period in Ann Arbor when the 1950s turned into what we now call The Sixties. Keep in mind that the 1960s hippie-thing did not start until the summer of 1965, so we are talking some seven or eight years here.

Direct download: PDF-1673-NO_DIRECTION_KNOWN.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:53am EDT

Even though we are in a time of potentially intense solar flares, the Sun has been relatively quiet these last days. Large solar flares draw attention to our connection with the Sun, and it is tempting to fall into thinking that when the Sun is quiet we are somehow less connected, but this does not seem to be the case. Because intense solar activity so obviously affects Earth, it is easy to assume that the Sun is the cause and we just a victim of its activity. It is more subtle than that. This would be like saying that when our heart palpitates (and we are affected by it), the heart is the subject and we the object. While this is true in one sense, our body and our heart are so much closer to each other than that. In fact they are one being. It is the same with the Sun and the effect of solar activity on us. The quiet Sun is quiet like a heartbeat is quiet, meaning it is still there and controlling the show. We are more intimately connected with solar activity than most of us are aware of.

Direct download: PDF-1654-NEW_FLARE_AND_SOLAR_SENSITIVITY.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:51am EDT

PART 1: “SATURN, THE TIMEKEEPER”

January 23, 2012

“Never trust anyone over thirty.” Remember that old phase? Intuitively we know what it means and astrologically it makes perfect sense. What I am about to present here is very abridged and thus quite abstract, so those of you who are already having trouble staying in touch with the earth, read no further because this is subtle and not for everyone. See if it makes sense to you. It is about “time.” Here goes: Saturn is the great chronometer in astrology, the timekeeper. This has been so for… ever, I guess, and it appears both in the astrology of the East and the West. Saturn not only measures time; it is time, astrologically speaking. Which means the other planets are not.

Direct download: PDF-1643-NEVER_TRUST_ANYONE_OVER_THIRTY_-_SERIES_IN_5_PARTS.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:50am EDT

I came across these pictures while rummaging through some stuff at the library, in particular the first Neo-astrology Conference held at our center here in Big Rapids, Michigan, a three-day conference from July 21-23, 1989. First of all, it was fun! It also included many distinguished astrologers, such as Michel Gauquelin, Thomas Shanks, Robert Donath, Lee Lehman, Doug Pierce, Dr. Suitbert Ertel, Rob Hand, Charles Harvey, John Townley, Mark Urban-Lurain, Ken McRitchie, Alois Triendle, Robert Schmidt, Robert Thibodeau, and others. One highlight of that conference was a mass tubing down the Muskegon River, a whole busload of us. It was great.

Direct download: PDF-1642-NEO-ASTROLOGY_CONFERENCES_AND_OTHERS.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:49am EDT

I want to say something about how natural dharma is, at least in my experience. To do this, I have to share a bit of my own history, a personal story of finding the dharma. It might be useful to some of you who love nature as I do. I was born and raised in Lancaster Pennsylvania until the 6th grade, at which time my family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where I then grew up. Those early years in Pennsylvania were idyllic. In Lancaster we lived out in the country where my parents built a house. It was the first house built in that area, and it was wedged between two very large farms. There was no one else around for many years. I grew up surrounded by nature. At the end of our back yard was a vast field in which, when fresh plowed, I would find arrowheads. Otherwise that field had corn, tobacco, wheat, or alfalfa. And beyond that field was a small water-filled quarry where my younger brothers and I built a raft, and there were also islands of woods in that sea of farmland in which we roamed. Lancaster is known as the "Garden Spot of the World," and it is that.

Direct download: PDF-1639-NATURE_AND_THE_LAMA_OF_APPEARANCES.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:48am EDT

EQUIPMENT FOR CLOSE-UP NATURE PHOTOS

October 23, 2011 I get requests and messages from readers about photographing and photography equipment, especially from those of you who want to do macro and close-up nature work. This may well be more info than many of you want, so just skip over it. Here goes: You can take close-up photos with almost any camera, probably with the one you already have. All you do have to get in close. Sounds easy, right? Not so easy. Chances are that what you will get when you first start out are snapshots, quick photos of whatever you are pointing at. The journey from snapshots to real macro and close-up photos is an ever descending spiral into more and better equipment and it will cost you not only money but even more time. Macro photography has to be learned, but if you love nature, it is a fun learning curve and very good exercise.

Direct download: PDF-1638-NATURE_AND_NATURE_PHOTOGRAPHY_-_IN_FIVE_PARTS.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:47am EDT

I have written perhaps overmuch recently about reactions and their karmic consequence. I am trying to finish up here, but a number of you keep asking questions. I do want to go over one particular topic I find important about being mindful of our reactions. I am sure most of you already understand it, but going over it one more time can't hurt either, and it is a key point.

Reaction-training or "Reaction Tong-Len" as I call it is very easy to get into, especially if we are just starting out in dharma practice. Anyone can try it. All we do is begin to notice when we react (and we react all the time), so there should be no long waits. That bus comes through every minute or so.

Direct download: PDF-1637-NATURAL_FEEDBACK_SYSTEM.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:46am EDT

Yesterday I visited a friend's house up in the Traverse City (Michigan) area. They live perched on a high hill above a tract of almost impenetrable forest. There are bears, wolves, and lately cougar tracks around their house, so trust me, this is a wild place.

I have written once before about the natural spring that sits below their house on the edge of the forest. The pure springs that feed this pool have been there for…. well, relatively probably forever. Unlike most woodland ponds, which tend to be muddy, this spring is crystal clear and fresh all the time. In winter it never freezes and animals come to drink there.

Direct download: PDF-1636-NAGAS_AND_THE_SACRED_SPRING.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:45am EDT

This is a long and specialized post, so please feel free to ignore it. I try to write on topics of general interest in these blogs, but I also tend to at times wear different hats, some of them more technical than others. One of these is photography. Of course I post photos I have taken, because they can be fun to look at, but I save the reader from all of the behind-the-scenes goings-on of a more technical nature. No one is really interested, except perhaps the few of you who also enjoy photography techniques. This post is an update from me for you on my photography.

Direct download: PDF-1631-MY_PHOTOGRAPHY_CHANGES.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:43am EDT

I have been studying and practicing astrology for about fifty years. Although I was a professional astrologer in the 1960s, I did not make my entire livelihood from astrology until the summer of 1972. That is when I hung out my shingle, so to speak. That was also the year that my wife and I found out she was pregnant with our first child. That sure put a practical hitch in my gitalong. I had to pull something together and fast.

Since I was the first person to create astrology programs on microcomputers (1977) and share them with my fellow astrologers, in my early years before they appeared I calculated astrology charts using log tables, time-change books, and printed ephemerides. That means pencil and paper folks. Remember, we didn't even have 4- function calculators until 1972-1973.

Direct download: PDF-1630-MY_LIFE_AND_TIMES_AS_AN_ASTROLOGER.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:42am EDT

[The Facts: We are once again experiencing a time of increased solar flares and CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) events. There was an M5.6 solar flare on July 2, 2012 at 7:52 AM EDT(and a CME) and this has been followed by another solar flare reaching M3.8 in magnitude since then. More and larger flares are predicted over the next few days. Since astrology is nothing other than cultural astronomy, let me remind you what these intense solar outbursts might mean. Hold on to your hats! ] As mentioned, we are experiencing massive solar flare eruptions on the surface of our Sun. And I did it again. I managed to forget about that lucky-old Sun and its intermittent messages to me in this peak time of the solar cycle. I was too busy arranging the deck chairs on my life and trying to get all my ducks in a row to remember that when the Sun speaks, I listen. We all do. And it is an inside listening and message, one that we can’t help but hear because it interrupts what we ignorantly think of as our life.

Direct download: PDF-1620-MORE_SOLAR_ERUPTIONS_-_WHAT_DO_THEY_MEAN.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:39am EDT

Since I see no reason to stretch this out for many days, when Seeger's passing is so fresh in our minds, I am just going to blog on this and let those we feel like reading it, read it. And of course there were the folk festivals, of which the one in Newport, Rhode Island is perhaps the most famous, if not the first. The Newport Folk Festival was established in 1959 by George Wein, the same man who in 1954 established the Newport Jazz Festival. The first Newport Folk Festival was held on July 11-12, 1959 and featured, among other acts, the Kingston Trio, a group that had exploded to national prominence only the year before. Flanking the Kingston Trio were classic folk singers like Odetta, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and of course, the ubiquitous Pete Seeger.

Direct download: PDF-1619-MORE_ON_THE_FOLK_SCENE_-_PART_2.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:38am EDT

Since there is some interest in these Phase Charts, enclosed are a few graphics that will make learning and using Phase Charts easier. One of the attractions of Phase Charts is that it remedies one long-standing failing of modern astrology, that of interpreting mirror-aspects as the same. For example, take the 90-degree Square aspect. We all use it, but in the years when I came up in astrology, everyone interpreted a waxing square the same as they did a waning square. In other words, a square is a square is a square, and so on. This would be equivalent to saying that a First-Quarter Moon is the same as a Fourth-Quarter Moon. I doubt that any astrologer would make that mistake, but then we turn around and interpret planetary aspects  that are mirrors (Squares, Sextiles, etc.) the same. Go figure.

Direct download: PDF-1618-MORE_NOTES_ON_HOW_TO_USE_FULL-PHASE_ASPECTS.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:37am EDT

Many families today have two incomes. Both mom and dad work. In my family I have been able to be the provider and my wife Margaret has not had to take an outside job, although she takes care of the bills and has done many business-related tasks over the years, as well as being the majordomo for the household. And yes, walking point financially for the family can be worrisome and a major pain. You know the old refrain, the man is the hunter and the woman the gatherer. Of course, in these days that dichotomy has morphed into I don’t know what, but that is not my object here.

Direct download: PDF-1612-MOMS_FOREVER.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:35am EDT

I have pointed out that one shortcut to practicing meditation is to piggyback on areas of your life where you already have achieved focus and concentration. I found it in computer programming, and video editing, but it could be anything: playing chess, tying flies, doing crossword puzzles, and so on, wherever you find yourself spending real time concentrating and focusing the mind. You already have some discipline. Some of you have messaged me asking how to convert this discipline into meditation practice. The best part is that you don’t have to add anything more to your schedule, but just approach where you are already concentrating a little differently. Aside from photography, I did this mostly with computer programming, so I will use that as my example.

Direct download: PDF-1610-MIXING_THE_MIND.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:34am EDT

Now, some notes. This is follow-up to a couple of recent blogs that invoked the analogy

of the self as a mirror.

In this analogy the self is a mirror that reflects our own image, an image that we

ourselves have formed and preened to our liking. When we look (or think of) our self, we

get caught up with our own reflection, making looking through the back of the mirror

(and beyond) difficult.

Direct download: PDF-1607-MIRROR_MIRROR_ON_THE_WALL.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:32am EDT

I get asked all the time what books I am reading. I invariably answer “I don’t read books, per se, anymore; I read some Buddhist texts, but that is about all.” That is a bit of a smug answer. I am perhaps deflecting the question rather than trying to explain what it is that I am doing about my reading habits. This is a topic I probably should take a pass on and not tackle. However, it fascinates me and has become an important part of my life, so here goes. Years ago my first teacher, a Rosicrucian initiator named Andrew Gunn McIver (who, born in Scotland, was in his eighties at the time I met him) often used to say to me when he saw me reading this or that book: “Michael, some day you must become the book.” Hmmm, thought I, now what does that mean?

Direct download: PDF-1604-MIND_TREASURES_-_ASTROLOGICAL_TERTONS_AND_TERMA.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:31am EDT

If you are reading this you want more detail on how to actually do Shamata Meditation. The sales pitch is over. These are the details for those of you who cannot find an authentic local center. When to Meditate It is considered important to meditate daily or at least with uniform regularity and this is why: Regular meditation is like taking our daily temperature; each meditation session, no matter how brief, samples the state of our mind. You sample it. You see how it is. If there is no regularity, then we have no way to measure how calm or wild our mind is. If we sit a lot one day and none the next two days it is very difficult to gauge (remember) just how we are doing. And consistently watching your mind is very much a part of meditation. It is the whole point here: sampling and starting to know the mind.

Direct download: PDF-1601-MIND_PRACTICE_-_HOW_TO_DO_IT.pdf
Category:general -- posted at: 7:29am EDT

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