--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb wrote: > > > > > > So it's Friday, and the End Of The World to boot. Cool. > > > > > > So I finished all my work for the week a few minutes ago, and then > > > chose to celebrate it by taking a walk around the 'hood I live in, > > > prior to celebrating it by going out to dinner with my extended > > > adoptive family. > > > > Barry, just wondering if you took that photo of the light on water > from > > the location pictured below. > > Yes. It's a couple of hundred meters from where I live. Good Googling! > > Haarlemerstraat, at the upper left of the ariel view, is Leiden's > main shopping drag. I went shopping on it today, with Paris and > Pippin in their Christmas attire. The photo below shows them in > their little reindeer antlers and Santa hat, but from an earlier > Christmas in Paris, the city. The dogs are a bit greyer around the > muzzle now, as am I. :-) > > [Barry';s Christmas Dogs] > > We were quite a hit. Stupidly, I forgot to bring my iPhone (same > camera that took the other photo of the canal) with me, so I don't > have any "reaction shots" of the often-dour Dutch cracking up and > smiling. A few even laughed out loud. I consider that a win. > > Even though no one asked, dinner was smashing. We went to a > Thai restaurant called Buddhas (http://www.buddhas.nl/ > <http://www.buddhas.nl/> ) and > it was delightful -- one of the few Dutch restaurants I've found in > which the food was worth what they were charging for it. Spain > and France spoil you when it comes to eating out. > > After dinner we walked around and looked at the Christmas lights > and at the skaters on the rink they have erected over the canal in > front of the town hall. Not Rockefeller Center, but cool. Then I let > the others walk home and I climbed up to the Citadel (a castle > from the 11th century that is one of the oldest (and interestingly, > since it is in the center of Leiden, one of the most silent areas of > the city) and meditated for a while. > > [http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2071/2115542556_1343492e48.jpg] > > Not because of the so-called Apocalypse, not because I wanted to > tune in to some grand global W00 Woo Fest...just because I felt > like meditating. It was an OK meditation, just your normal, every- > day stuff like seeing visions of Shiva dancing Gangnam style with > an unidentified Hindu goddess almost wearing the sexiest see- > through sari I've ever seen, followed by God herself coming down > for a chat, sharing a champagne glass full of soma with me and > commending me for my infinite patience in dealing with FFL > stalkers. > > Oh wait. That didn't happen. I must have been channeling that. > That's what TMers might consider an OK meditation. :-) > > Mine was just silence. Pure, infinite silence.
Robin: Well, that's good, Barry. In fact that's *really* good. "Pure, infinite silence". You are a fun guy, Barry. Did Curtis every get around to telling you that you weren't supposed to eat Irish children because of the shortage of potatoes? I don't believe authfriend has ever said anything about you that was objectively false. And yet, you have never come back at her to refute her--You think her severe analysis of you refutes itself? Your hatred of FF, TM, the TMO, and MMY: this tempts you into deliberate exaggeration and misrepresentation of your own meditation experience: "Pure, infinite silence": this is a description motivated by your antipathy about TM & MMY--Did that cynicism not exist, you would probably have said: "It was pleasant enough. Quite relaxing. But no big deal." The "pure, infinite silence": Simply an anti-Bevan remark. Although I don't disagree with you--contra Buck--about the charismatic potential John Hagelin. Eliot said that Santayana's philosophy lectures at Harvard were soporific. I like the mystery of tragedy in Bevan more than the unseriousness (in some unpreventable way) of soul in John Hagelin. Santayana, he would seem on fire. Merry Christmas, Barry. Your dogs look like they don't know who you are. Not enough individuation of first person ontology.
