i guess you'd have to look at underwhelming too, in the sense of boring schoolwork, dumbed down tv shows etc.

thanks for sharing about your roots being vedantic, if i may surmise, that helps me to understand where you're coming from as it was the pathway i entered also. reading aldous huxley's 'perennial philosophy' was one of the main doors of perception, i had so many notes and dog eared pages on that book, i carried it everywhere and wanted to shout its praises from the rooftops to all around...

such a huge relief to step out of the cramped box of european religious thought!

it seems to pain you somewhat that the concepys you refer to are undergoing such stress. could you have perhaps identified or invested in them on a personal level?
it is sad, in an autumnal kind of way, when things pass away, but they have to go to make room for newer and more resilient thought forms, would you agree with that?

more existentially, it might be nice not to have to die one day, just stick around enjoying life with your friends and family for ever, but we have to make room for the young, or we'd be piled thick on the ground for sure!

i identify with the wild beauty of nature very much, which makes watching a sunset, or a storm, or waves curling a very personal experience, i feel no separation, the merging is unselfconscious and absolute. later my rational mind attaches labels and tags to the memory in a futile but endearing attempt to have some kind of coherent filing system for ideas, for easier search in the archives.

heh, izzy's diary comes to mind...

... but it also makes it physically painful to see pictures of polluted earth scenes like jerome posted yesterday.

all this identifying... it is pleasurable, but has quite a price...

i need an identity to live here on earth, without it i'd be toast, but what is it made of?

this is where meditation is the scuba tank that can help you stay down deeper and longer in the parts of our minds that aren't easily accessed, where often there are keys to understanding our natures more fully, which in turn helps enormously in establishing priorities, and in turn values.

ergo, raja yoga.

sandalwood:

Any conception of self and world is necessarily an artistic creation.

no truer words ever spoken! every breath can be breathed more consciously, every step made with more mindfulness. life as one long tea ceremony...

:)
 sandalwood:

Sama-dhi can be taken to literally mean 'same-seeing'. That is, that which sees is the same as that which is seen.

Martin Buber got this with the i-thou.

thanks for all the sanskrit insights. it really fascinates me how old a language it is, the seed syllables in tibetan buddhism and the science of mantra go back to similar roots.

yoga truly is the most beautiful gift we humans have ever given ourselves, and aside from its beauty even, it may be the only philosophy/way of life wise and powerful enough to save us from our darker sides, so ascendant right now.

yoga is not perceived in the west as a science yet, but if your goal is self-knowledge, or a life lived deliberately, it's the best and closest tool we have.

it's also the cleanest, as it needs very little fuel indeed, just a mat, some space and time to concentrate.

mathematise that baby! (i do believe there is a growing fusion between machine intelligence and what we presently, and presumptuously, lol, name 'human'.  recent experiences with the nintendo wii's fitness program and balance board have have been very revealing and helpful in that regard)

apologies for mis-spelling your handle before, oops...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

the reason so many suffer is because they miss the obvious...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty