My major instrument was Trumpet, I minored in Piano. Think Haydn's Concerto in E-flat Major for Trumpet and Orchestra. I never played it but it influenced my early years. My teacher was an Italian gentleman by the name of Essoto Pelligrini. Here's a taste of Haydyn's work http://wyntonmarsalis.org/discography/title/trumpet-concertos
B Find what makes your heart sing…and do it! ________________________________ From: Merle Lester <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, September 25, 2012 7:48:43 PM Subject: [Zen] knowing thank you bill...you have and are on a wonderful journey... good to hear...and you have witnessed much and thank you for sharing and opening out your heart the blue blue yonder and the never never land to me are not negatives... i like the expressions..what they mean is up to you... make of it what you will yes we are all awaiting the final curtain call... and life ..is but death..and death is life..." you cannot have one without the other"..was that not a song? it is a surprise to know that one dies when one hears this from the lips of others at a tender age ...question: if we did not see death or was not told..would we ourselves know? of course this is impossible. .it's all around us everyday...the flowers bloom ..they die and so us too how did we as you and me come to be? that is the question? in the back of my mind i knew being is shaped by knowing i knew long before i was born i would be born is this a strange fantasy of childish imagination or is it a reality? what musical instrument do you play? have a beautiful day merle Merle: My initial post was to wish you a happy Birthday. But then your post mentioned that you were "another year older and closer to the blue blue younger ....the never never land". That sounded negative and started me thinking about my concepts of time and space. My hammer is not meant for you it was meant for everyone here who would deny the reality of existence as we experience it in a physical form. It is just slightly metaphorical. What can I say? I have exerienced, as I am sure you all have, many people who can parrot all of the right words and act the appropriate way so as to play the part of an enlightened being. My hammer statement is aimed at those people who insist that "this suchness", "this isness", is illusory. Descarte's pronoucement Cogito Ero Sum, to me means that I know that I am experiencing something. Something is hammering at my senses and I respond. Someone among us in the Forum might say that all of this is form, without substance. Ephemera. That person will get hit with my hammer. Anyone who will deny the fact that we are all here collectively, in this stuff, at this moment. Even as we seek a deeper understanding of existence, we are all still participants. I know that you meant 'yonder' rather than 'younger'. I have no Fundamentals to be 'ist' about. I am no Fascist. I have met so many people over the years who, in the comfort of their life situation, will easily deny the pain of another and dismiss it as an illusion. I bristle at pedantry. It is easy to say that it is all mind stuff, it's something quite different when you are hit with a hammer. Again you stated that you were "another year older and closer to the blue blue younger ....the never never land". Even though we have all seen bodies and we've all lost loved ones, our age has little to do with our own death. I've seen new born babies die, young children, young men and young women, all dead. Death is no closer simply because the Earth has completed another circuit around the Sun. I began to muse about the magnitude of our self importance as percieved from the here and now. Many thoughts. We take ourselves too seriously. We live at a point where new things are coming into being and old things are falling away. As it and ever shall be.... (insert the appropriate finish) Where do I imagine going after I shuffle off this mortal coil? My education is as a scientist. Empirical data shows me that my body's vital functions will eventually cease and the body will decompose. If you were to dissect my body while I was living, you would never find my soul, my eternal essence. If you were to amputate my arms and legs and remove all but the non-essential organs from my body I would still be 'here'. I've heard stories from people who have had out of body experiences or who have had a near death experience. I've experienced neither. I've read of people who could recall past lives. I can not. To my knowledge no one that I've ever known has tried to communicate with me from beyond the grave. I know no non-corporeal beings. So I have no emperical data, I have only anecdotal information. Logic takes me back to Rene, "I think, therefore, I am". The logic puzzle/thought experiment that I like to play with is this: If there was no consciousness in all of creation, would creation exist? Or; If there was "no thing" to be aware of all of this stuff, would there still be stuff? The purely physical answer is yes it would all still be here, but no one would know it. Which is pretty much the same thing as saying NO. To exist implies a consciousness. If there was no consciousness there could be no universe. I am aware, I am conscious. Does my awareness come to be and cease to be, when my body is no longer able to survive. The only logical answer is no. I believe that what we are is more that just electrochemical discharges across our synapses. Where does my imagination take me when I contemplate the end of this life. My mind draws a blank so I'd have to say that we don't go anywhere. My heart says that we go somewhere deep, warm, comforting, full of LOVE and Joy. I feel that. I feel that when I hold a new born child or when I am with someone who is dying. Last word, just in case you've read this far. In order to reduce further confusion about me. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Geology and a Master's in Geophysics. After working for Texaco from 1979 through 1993. I left the oil business and went to Nursing School. I work as a Registered Nurse. I worked for 5 years on a Medical/Surgical/Oncology unit at a hospital. I then spent 10 years working with hospitals as a Clinical Systems Analyst doing Healthcare IT. I left that and I've now been doing Hospice work as a nurse and as a volunteer. So you may see me hop around from physics to math to Geology to Medicine. Oh, and I started my college training as a classical musician. B Find what makes your heart sing…and do it! ________________________________ From: Merle Lester <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, September 24, 2012 6:27:09 PM Subject: [Zen] eternity and you thank you B...for the birthday wishes .. so B... . who are you really?..speak more of Thee and pray who are YOU? .. sorry i meant to write the "blue blue yonder." ..why would i question youR take on life? .why would i deny your understanding and your learning of life?.. .. why are you striking me with a hammer if i do not see it your way?. ... is THIS the fundamentalist in you.. there isa little bit of fascism in every human heart... ... i do not understand what you believe the "blue blue yonder" and the "never never never land" mean to you...IF anything? my take is: ..the endlessness of the universe, the timeless of time. the no return of this body as it is ...when you B depart from your mortal coil the body as it is now/ here. .where will you go:..?????. ."the never never land"....the "blue blue yonder." ..what did you have in mind..? .meaning where does your imagination lead you? what is time? you speak of billions of years in who's language do you speak? human time is timeless the universe is timeless... there is no time in one's mind's eye there is only one universe and that universe is you without you what can you possible see? think? or feel? in the never never land? merle Happy birthday Merle. My inital college degrees are Geology and Geophysics. In geology we speak of hundreds of millions of years, just as Joe might speak in terms of billions or million millions of years and even those chunks of time are but an instant in eternity. Life on earth began 600 million years ago, the reign of the dinosaurs lasted less that 150 million years. Humanity's earliest ancestors didn't show up until less that 5 million years ago. The last Ice Age ended 12,000 years ago. The first domesticated animals, 10,000 years ago. The first evidence of writing 4,000 years ago. Each human life lasts but 100 years, that's 0.00000017th the span of all life, 0.000000005th the span of the age of the known universe. We live on a planet which seems significant yet 1,300,000 Earths could fit inside of our Sun and that Sun is only a medium sized star in a universe of uncountable stars (billions and billions according to Carl Sagan). From the furthest known reaches of known space our sun could not be seen. This is my perspective regarding Zen. First the concept of Infinite Time and Space. Huge, beyond imaging. An infinite Infinity of Infinities is still nothing. It is no time or space at all. Given that infinite space and infinite time and given the demonstrated size and length of our physical existence and percieving myself as that point of being within the greater context of time and space. Who am I? You are no closer to that "blue blue younger....the never never land", beyond the beyond, than you ever were or ever will be. Cogito Ergo Sum or in my own words I know that I am experiencing something. You can deny what I am saying but if I see you I will hit you with a hammer and then let's see if what I say is not so. B Find what makes your heart sing…and do it! ________________________________ From: Merle Lester <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, September 23, 2012 4:57:28 AM Subject: Re: [Zen] the green dragon jesus edgar...i was thinking which dragon was edgar..and it was red my answer long before i read this...at 8:00pm ..what am i psychic or what?... and i am think grey dragon for KG..... ???????? which dragon am i .?..i know but who else knows.. . and folks happy birthday for me..today.. 23rd sept. another year older and closer to the blue blue younger ....the never never land. .. enjoy your day.. one of the dragons! Bill's dragon is green but mine is the red Welsh dragon. No wonder we are always going round and round! Edgar On Sep 21, 2012, at 11:11 PM, Merle Lester wrote: > > > > > ah so we must google to see what the green dragon can and cannot do...is >this >you bill...are you calling?...merle > > > >I cannot prove that, but you can by coming close to him. > >anthony > > >From: Merle Lester <[email protected]> >To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> >Sent: Saturday, 22 September 2012, 6:35 >Subject: [Zen] the green dragon > > > > > > > > > > goodness me.... is bill!!!!!!!!!!! that dangerous? > > >..he might be all fire and breathing the breath of the green dragon upon us > > > is this his way of protecting himself lest we discover his true identity >which >may be the living buddha?. > > >.merle > > > >Merle, > >I have hired a demon to protect me from enlightened people, such as Bill!. To >prevent you being harmed by him, you better pretend not to be enlightened, >even >if you are. > >Anthony > > > > > > > >yes watch out anthony..i bite..merle > > > >Anthony, > >Be careful not to 'twist things around' or 'change the subject'. Merle does >not >like that. > >In this case you're obviously 'twisting and changing' because the 'gospel' to >which Merle refers is in the New Testament, not the Old Testament. > >Shame on you! > >...Bill! > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
