Easily Amazed

we’ve talked about wonder…what about curiosity? when you hear the word curiosity, what comes up for you? do you think of a wide-eyed child drinking in the world around, a nosy individual prying for more information, an insatiable hunger? what is your definition of curiosity?

i found this graphic at a great site, see hear do

ordinary love is selfish, darkly rooted in desires and satisfactions. divine love is without condition, without boundary, without change. the flux of the human heart is gone forever at the transfixing touch of pure love.

~pramhansa yogandanda

comments:

I was just thinking to myself how much you would enjoy Kriyananda’s talks on community (since its a main topic that you have been exploring here and elsewhere) He built Ananda village up from nothing and has years of experience and practical advice in building spiritual communities- Here is a great real audio discussion on the topic:

http://www.ananda.org/inspiration/streaming/ram/swami042702.ram

Jeff | Email | Homepage | 06.22.04 – 10:25 pm | #

this story from integral naked really inspired in me the passion to “create the life you want.” what’s stopping us from having the ideal job? merging our loves and passions with our careers? let’s join together in creating social change that is inspired by consciously and actively sharing the gifts we each have to offer.

So the solution is not to look for a place like that to work, but rather to create that place in our own interactions at work. Yes, it is true that the administration/higher management may not be enlightened, but if we can create that in our own space, then we contribute to the whole. Perhaps it means that you may be fired, but you have to let that go too. If that fear is inhibiting your evolution, it is time to move on. At least that is what I have told myself. A great release for me was when I decided that I wasn’t going to compete for the pittance in raises the University gives for “merit.” Once I realized that if I didn’t care, then they have no power over me. So now I am a better scholar and teacher (in the truer since of the words) than I was when I was trying to publish 3-4 “scientific” articles every year. I quit hussling for the grants, (they really are like prostitution with the pimp being the one making the profit) and I do the research I want to do. Students who want to learn with me appear. I tell them the limitations of the way I do things and allow them to make their choice. I find myself being able to evolve. Now colleagues are beginning to slowly listen and make similar choices. The community of those I work with is beginning to change. It is slow. I notice Tami has been working at this since 1985. But this has convinced me that we do create the world we want to live in. Fortunately in my role I get to work with teachers to help them do the same with their classrooms. And I see individuals making changes. It gives me faith in the model.

a perfect example of what penny and a friend were noticing:

we were noticing the wonderful things that happen when we are able to emerge out of ego and bring clear heads and clear hearts to our work.

comments:

Little by little. Giving one another a glimmer of hope, and setting a slightly better than expected example, and assuming a little more risk.

phil | Email | Homepage | 06.28.04 – 9:28 pm | #

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hi phil,

thanks for bringing “risk” into this conversation. it seems that setting a slightly better than expected example and therefor sharing a glimmer of hope, inherently requires stepping beyond the comfort zone and into that place of “a little more risk.”

oh how worth it it is, no?

ashley | Email | Homepage | 06.29.04 – 10:50 am | #

some interesting research that i read about in the jurnal of counseling and development. the theory being tested was that emotions result from the cognitive labeling of pysiological arousal states.

For example, in one classic study, male subjects walked across either a shaky or a stable bridge and were then asked to tell a story to a woman (Dutton & Aron, 1974). The stories told by the “shaky bridge” subjects contained a greater number of erotic elements than did the stories told by their “stable bridge” counterparts. Shaky bridge subjects were also more likely to call the woman after the study than were the stable bridge subjects. Thus, skaky bridge subjects mistakenly attributed the physiological arousal caused by the shaky bridge to sexual attraction.

interesting, huh?

comments:

Maybe they associated love with terror.

phil | Email | Homepage | 06.28.04 – 9:29 pm | #

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i think it’s the arrousal that both love and terror evoke within a person. they both induce a physical experience that shifts the internal state of an individual.

ashley | Email | Homepage | 06.29.04 – 10:51 am | #

check out these qualities attributed to john kerry in this new york time’s article.

He pokes at the perimeter of the campaign bubble that envelops him, constantly trying to break out for a walk around the block, a restaurant dinner, the latest movie.

Landing one sunny day in St. Louis, Mr. Kerry wandered off the airstrip to stroll through a grass patch, leaving his security detail trying to keep him in sight while scores of staff members, supporters, police officers and journalists waited without explanation for an hour.

“Can we walk over there?” he had asked an aide earlier that day, heading for a fund-raiser after a series of radio interviews from a hotel. “I’d love to get outdoors and remember what it’s like.”

He is a diligent greeter, never speeding through a hotel kitchen without handshakes. He is chronically and unapologetically late — for campaign events, for meetings, even for church. And on Memorial Day, he showed up a half-hour into an hourlong parade in Portsmouth, Va., his only scheduled stop for the day.

He is careful to use people’s names

Senator Kerry strums his Spanish classical guitar in a kind of musical meditation.

There is the John Kerry who starts his speeches with throat-clearing thank-you’s that last 5, 8, even 10 or 12 minutes

He almost always works in a local line — a reference to the Bedford Angels, for example, at a high school commencement last Sunday — and frequently refers to something a previous speaker has said.

pretty good list, eh? i love that the author mentions using people’s names, honoring the local culture, saying thank you, listening to others, and being outdoors. a great mental picture is the combination of chronically and unapologetically late following a stroll through a grass patch… makes me think of this story.

some blog somewhere out there linked me to these incredible pictures, A Closer Look: Secretory Structures of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, found at herbalgram.org. this particular picture is Clary sage (Salvia sclarea L., Lamiaceae) showing stalked and sessile secretory glands on the calyx trichomes (Cryo-SEM, magnified 752 times actual size).

when you go to the link, be sure to check out the larger image of the peppermint.

comments:

A couple of my friends/classmates are clary sage junkies. I can’t help wondering if there’s something sex linked about it, because most girls I know are absolutely enthralled by it and have a distinct physical reaction to the smell, but most guys don’t find anything particularly special about it. Maybe it’s just related to women having better sense of smell…

If I were a cologne wearing sorta guy, I’d have to wear clary sage.

-Dave

Dave | 06.16.04 – 12:38 pm | #

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so interesting… i’m not familiar with clary sage, sounds like i need to become. maybe too much information, but i’m totally enthralled by this picture and think that if i were playing in a reality that looked like that, i’d be sexually aroused in the ut-most playfull way!!

ashley | Email | Homepage | 06.16.04 – 12:54 pm | #

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BTW, gorgeous pictures.

Dave | 06.16.04 – 12:54 pm | #

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Ya know… I can’t say for certain that it’s sexual arousal, but it’s definitely some sort of arousal. I forwarded the link on to two of my friends, and hopefully they’ll give have more to say.

At one party, folks got a little rambunctious with the clary sage, and we wound up with clary sage everywhere, including all down the front of my pants.

If you have Trader Joe’s down in TX, they sell a very nice and very effective clary sage household cleaner.

It does look like an absolutely joyous place to romp about. Did you see there was a link to a larger version of the picture?

Dave | 06.16.04 – 1:02 pm | #

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what a fun reality you’ve imagined there ashley! i’ve always experienced the scent as having very potent clearing and uplifting properties. i’ve also been told that it has natural hormones in it. my bottle says ‘induces feelings of well-being’. all good!

penny | Email | 06.17.04 – 11:08 am | #

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this photo and the other ones on the link you included are breathtaking and make me a little dizzy–imagine spending your days in that world as a microphotographer!

about clary sage, dr kurt schnaubelt says of the essential old, “newcomers to aromatherapy often react to this with a light euphoria and giddiness”.

Christy Lee-Engel | Homepage | 06.17.04 – 4:04 pm | #

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you can even see it in the picture… light euporia and giddiness. it’s popping out all over the place

ashley | Email | Homepage | 06.18.04 – 2:48 am | #

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