Editorial notes: This post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 27/09/2016 Hint: To properly appreciate this essay, explore the links. They add another dimension into the message Shai wanted to convey. The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of all wisdom is to know that there...
A call to my heart
Editorial notes: This poem was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 19/09/2016 Arise, my heart. Don’t look down, no matter the pains that surround me. Shine, my heart. Cast the beacon of your feelings on all that arises within me. Your light has come, my heart. The sympathy you seek...
An attempt at seeing creation
I am small and the world is great and beyond my comprehension right now. This at least I can say without doubt. But here is a dream. Once there was a fish in a fishbowl. There were pebbles on the ground, water all around, a toy castle, and a filtration system of some sort. Every so while food would fall from above the water, from where there was no water, a place of nothingness except pain of...
Ki Teitzei
Editorial notes: This post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 13/09/2016 A rabbi who was kind to me and who gave me hope before I could understand it, told me that we travel in circles, forever repeating our lessons with opportunities to rise ever higher. I reflect on my biography but...
Untitled
Editorial notes: This untitled post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 13/09/2016 Like a captain far from any familiar shore, gifted with a map without which he could only be utterly lost, yet dreading the fear that his past mistakes can only repeat so that he will lose even the ken...
Echoes in the green smoke #2
Editorial notes: This post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 15/06/2016 Decomposition of Zoroastrian mythology into Rasta ritual andĀ cant An historical narrative with novel conclusions The field of comparative religion has been stymied by a reluctance to attribute any reality to...
First impressions of R
I’ve only been studying R[I] for a few weeks. It’s my second programming language, and I’m only a beginner at my first – python. R is strangely strange. It looks a bit like java with all its brackets, but then goes and uses “<-” for designating variables, as if the universal “=” wasn’t good enough. In my accumulation of anecdotal evidence...
Echoes in the green smoke
Editorial notes: This post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 12/05/2016 I first heard this story while smoking a thick reefer, bathing in a hot water spring in the interior of Fiji. I had travelled by cattle truck, foot and horse to arrive at this place. And it was good. I had long...
Meditating on death
The Buddha called sickness, ageing and death, the divine messengers. The Buddha called death the supreme teacher, containing all teachers just the elephant’s footprint can containĀ all others. I know that I will become sick, that I will age, and that I will die. I know these things but rarely am I aware of them. I begin with an intention to be aware of that death. I spark my mind with...
Reflecting on fear and doubt of change
The Buddhists teach that fear is like a slave at a festival who cannot enjoy the celebrations because of immanent obligations, while doubt is like one lost in the desert, wavering back and forth, going nowhere. Change can be frightening for many reasons. Change implies new challenges and facing new unknowns. Change can mean abandoning old challenges and old senses of self. Sometimes the need for...