Scattered Light

Photo

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:05:12 -0700

Photo

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:21:26 -0700

The same beach, at the same spot, on three sequential nights...

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:24:36 -0700

The same beach, at the same spot, on three sequential nights …a different sunset each time. Thanks Thailand (Ao Nang beach, Krabi, Thailand April 2012)

"Since opposed principles, or ideologies, are irreconcilable, wars fought over principle will be wars..."

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 11:17:03 -0700

“Since opposed principles, or ideologies, are irreconcilable, wars fought over principle will be wars of mutual annihilation. But wars fought for simple greed will be far less destructive, because the aggressor will be careful not to destroy what he is fighting to capture. Reasonable-that is, human-men will always be capable of compromise, but men who have dehumanized themselves by becoming the blind worshipers of an idea or an ideal are fanatics whose devotion to abstractions make them the enemies of life.”

- Alan Watts (The Way of Zen. 1957)

Alien Clouds (Sept 2012)

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 23:36:00 -0700

Alien Clouds (Sept 2012)

Full Moon (Aug 30 2012)

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 23:22:54 -0700

Full Moon (Aug 30 2012)

Full Moon over Los Angeles (Aug 30 2012)

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 23:20:06 -0700

Full Moon over Los Angeles (Aug 30 2012)

Full Moon rising over Los Angeles, Ca (Aug 30, 2012)

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 23:15:03 -0700

Full Moon rising over Los Angeles, Ca (Aug 30, 2012)

Cloud and People (Sept 2012)

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 23:10:44 -0700

Cloud and People (Sept 2012)

Sunset and Branches (Sept 2012)

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 23:06:57 -0700

Sunset and Branches (Sept 2012)

socialuprooting: Alan Watts: Man and Nature (1959)

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:00:00 -0700

socialuprooting:

Alan Watts: Man and Nature (1959)

The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:07:45 -0700

The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness:

socialuprooting:

Elephants cooperate to solve problems. Chimpanzees teach youngsters to make tools. Even octopuses seem to be able to plan. So should we humans really be surprised that “consciousness” probably does not only exist in us?

This privileged state of subjective awareness in fact goes well beyondHomo sapiens, according to the new Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (pdf), which was signed last month by a group of cognitive neuroscientists, computational neuroscientists, neuroanatomists, neuropharmacologists, neurophysiologists who attended the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness in Human and non-Human Animals at Cambridge University in the U.K.

“The weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness,” the scientists wrote. “Non-human animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”

The octopus is the only invertebrate to get a shout-out at all. And plenty of research has been accumulated to back up this assertion. A 2009 study showed that some octopuses collect coconut shells to use as portable shelters—an example of tool use, according to the researchers. Other research has documented sophisticated spatial navigation and memory. Anecdotal reports from researchers, such as Jennifer Mather, describe watching octopuses in the wild make errands to collect just the right number of rocks to narrow the opening to a desired den. And laboratory experiments show a distinct change in behavior when octopuses are kept in tanks that do not have enough enrichment objects to keep them stimulated.

What was keeping scientists from accepting the existence of consciousness outside of our own family tree? Simple brain anatomy. Older models of brain activity lodged complex, conscious experiences—like musing about a piece of music or reminiscing about a piece of cake—in our highly evolved cortex. But, as the authors of the new declaration noted, many nerve networks involved in “attentiveness, sleep and decision making appear to have arisen in evolution as early as invertebrate radiation, being evident in insects and cephalopod mollusks (e.g. octopus).”

Even emotions (or, according to the declaration, their “neural substrates”) are not dependent on an animal having particular brain structures, such as our cortex, after all. In fact, many other neural regions are activated when we emote and “are also critically important for generating emotional behaviors in animals,” the scientists noted.

Photo

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:45:41 -0700

photojojo: David Jordan Williams imagined a solar system a...

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 12:11:28 -0700

photojojo:

David Jordan Williams imagined a solar system a little closer to home!

A Planetary Holiday - Celestial Bodies in Everyday Environments

via Devid Sketchbook

"(“to do” is “not to do”) …I am precisely my habitual effort to hold..."

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 14:28:07 -0700

“(“to do” is “not to do”) …I am precisely my habitual effort to hold onto myself. I find myself totally incapable of any mental action which is not intentional, affected or insincere. Therefore anything I do to give myself up, to let go, will be a disguised form of the habitual effort to hold on. I can not be intentionally unintentional or purposely spontaneous. As soon as it becomes important for me to be spontaneous, the intention to be so is strengthened; I cannot get rid of it and yet it is the one thing that stands in the way of its own fulfillment. It is as if someone had given me some medicine with the warning that it will not work if I think of a monkey while taking it.”

- Alan Watts (The Way of Zen)

"(Meditation) …the life of “sitting and looking” has lost it’s appeal, for no..."

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 14:15:32 -0700

“(Meditation) …the life of “sitting and looking” has lost it’s appeal, for no religion is valued which does not “improve the world,” and it is hard to see how the world can be improved by keeping still. Yet it should be obvious that action without wisdom, without clear awareness of the world as it really is, can never improve anything. Furthermore, as muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.”

- Alan Watts (The Way of Zen)

Photo

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 10:47:43 -0700

“Nom Myoho Renge Kyo”

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 12:10:57 -0700

“Nom Myoho Renge Kyo”

"…in studying or practicing Zen it is of no help to think about Zen. To remain caught up in..."

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:56:00 -0700

“…in studying or practicing Zen it is of no help to think about Zen. To remain caught up in ideas and words about Zen is, as the old masters say, to “stink of Zen.” .”

- Alan Watts (The Way of Zen)

is the “drug” the truth, or is the...

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:51:58 -0700

is the “drug” the truth, or is the “truth” the drug?