my guess is we're losing the Battle of Brain Fitness with Islamists

{ old draft never posted, from 04/13/2017 }

I understand Afghans and Arabs love their poets, and see we have very few these days. I wonder what their poets arcs are about?

I wonder what favorite Arab story arcs are like, are they the same as ours might be?

Not only do the Afghans and Arabs have their poets, they also have the discipline of full attention of their Minds 5 times a day. Prayer, yes, but brain science says that generates Huge stimulation, growth and renewal, and so I submit we are losing that war.

Take the video scene of a youthful, confident Imam singing prayers in a crowded subway car, and everyone joyfully chanting back, . . . and worry about how unready we are to defend ourselves.

We need to be exercising our Prayer Mind daily in our most vigorous ways. The war of Maximum Brain Fitness of daily full body & mind prayer is an excellent challenge for the West.

Not to mention the Poetry! I personally want to hear to poetry of our American men, our engineers and carpenters -- No offense ladies, but i need to be championing our men now.

Our dear Namo Buddaya friend who diligently recites those fantastic stanzas morning and night for the last 5 years or so -- man, his Mind is in such Fit, Calm cheerful Readiness.

Dzaya Dzaya, SuDzaya! Victory Victory Excellent Victory!

What Mind muscles are exercised, huzzah, so grateful to witness.

Underscored here -- From OHSU Brain Center newsletter:

Dr. Sara Lazar of Harvard has been studying the impact of yoga and meditation on the brain for over 20 years. Her research showed that after eight weeks of a mindfulness-based stress reduction program, participants had an increase in brain volume or cortical thickening in four areas of the brain that are associated with such functions as emotional regulation, perspective-taking, and learning. Importantly, the amygdala, associated with fear and stress, also shrunk in those who meditated.

Just as physical exercise has a plethora of health benefits, so does mental exercise in the form of meditation.

The four and the Ten 02112020 notes

Our body mind understands spiritual time in units of 4.

the mojave spirit quest is 4 days, whether it takes less or more, it takes 4 days.

Goenka's Bootcamp has 3 days pranayama and only until the 4th day does Vipassana begin.

it is time for another 40 day journey,  i need to say so to lou.

and i fantasize about including anyone else in it at church, like a regular prayer time

Email to friends, too big to text,Covid-19 Spring 2020 Emma Curtis Hopkins

Email to my wine&whine chocalatier friends, during our isolation from COVID-19,  Spring 2020.
We've been texting and phone chatting and "planets"-walking (far apart but together, i am mercury, because I wanted to be close to the sun, C1 is Saturn because she wants to be surrounded by rings, C2 is Earth and Venus depending on the moment.)
this was too long to text, even for me, hahah.

Reading my dear guide, Emma Curtis Hopkins, who was a 19th century Christian mystic, shared same teachers as Mary Baker Eddy, who founded Christian Science, but Emma did not follow that line, went her own way as a healer. Emma's early work included being one of the founders of the High Watch Sanitarium (?) that developed early treatment approaches that grew to be some of the roots of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Randomly opened it this morning, and thought I'd share:

"Between om and presence is the little syllable ni. Between om and potence is the little syllable ni, -- abbreviation for two Latin words. Ni stands for nigellum. Nigellum means nothing. Ni stands for nihil. Nihil means nothing. So, between Om, the Mind, and its rightful possessions of power, place, and Science, or Wisdom, is the claim of darkness, or nigellum, which is negation, standing as if it were something, while it is nothing.

Thus, between your mind and the attainment of its supreme bliss is the everlasting "ni," or the very bold assumption of nothing that it is something. By dropping the claims of misery, you step through the valley of the shadow of the apparent reality of misery, into the reality of blessedness divine."

nineteenth century language, but I catch that There is truly NOTHING between God's totality and the Power, omnipotence.
nothing Between God's presence and ourselves, omnipresence
nothing between God's knowing and our reality, omniscience.

"ni, standing as if it were something, while it is nothing"

very cool, i find it cleansing for my spirit.

every blessing on you and yours,
c4

I live beside a true spring . . .

...In progress ...

It took me some months, perhaps years? before I knew them to be there, and then stood beside them. Springs. Source. and you guys who know me know I have ever sought out True Source, and here is an example. Ever brimming from Place outside our understanding, most true Being.

A song calling me to Most High Good voiced itself there. that first song, like a texas prairie backyard song. That was eight years ago now, i believe.

and just today my mama -- in the landscape of my heart -- is gently with me, lifts her head, listens and then sings now with me. This is New. it has been a long time since I sang with my mom, ever since she left, and somehow for a moment I was with her today. hallelujah.

How did this happen? (uh-oh, daddyBill Perkins big breath ready-to-tell-a-long-tale mode, haha) Last year, I was living the first year without any one of my mother's nuclear family, the jeweled-soul Nancy -- an outstanding Example of what might be possible as a human being, and as you ponder her she is pointing Upward so you know it is her relationship to Most High that is her Source -- I was living through a calendar of mourning/praising/celebrating for that Precious One. Her distinctive strength of character born out of the early 20th century we are all so fortunate who had direct experience The calendar revealed itself from an initial 40 days to a second to a third, and then I saw it was a necklace of nine loops of 40 pearls and would span the Year. It was somehow already set and I could only follow.

And so I see I am reporting here about it, and what a revelation, in that space, to come to April for Aunt Nancy, for my mama, but even more for their mother, Jean Mc__ Salisbury, that April became a centerpiece in that beautiful necklace of Attention/Honoring.
was year two of Aunt Nancy's passing I celebrate April as a joyful spot in the heart of my grandmother, Jean Salisbury, my Pana.

here's to my Pana's April, where she got to play joyful triumphant music for every Easter on the organ, and then gave birth to her namesake, Jean Carol Salisbury, on the second day of April, 1917. And then six years later gave birth to the miracle Nancy at the end of the month. May we all be blessed with such a relationship with faith and family.

real slow guitar, Ooom...Dnt ooom-dnt Ooom-Dnt ooom-dnt Ooom-Dnt ooom-dnt

Purify me, oh Lord, from your always flowing Spring
Pour your transforming waters over me.

Purify me, oh Lord, in your Ever-Brimmin' Spring
wash me
in your
Tenderness
& Grace

and that
fearless freedom
that lights your Face,
ho!

and all the
Love and Wisdom
youCanLoadMeDownWith
today,
Lord!

Pour your transforming Wisdom in through me.

I experience my True Source as an Indigenous God

Most High Inspired Clarity has more easily arisen for me when I am out in nature, the early vast prairie sunsets from our prairie hill, and later, wandering the paths of my mountain in california.

and often in my youth, the ceilings and walls of a churchspace confined my sense of the grandeur of the divine, Holy Spirit flowing through all Life.

So it was a great of gift of Holy Spirit to me that I got to spend some years deeply seeing the indigenous art of a pocket of southern California, the Perris and San Jacinto valleys, where a clear Creator God was devotedly celebrated. My dreams responded with this early-man level of art, often raw, highly abstracted graphic imagery. It seemed some level of my being understood directly this "language of the spirit" and has given me insight and courage to boldly explore the sacred life within and without.

But I should say that way before that, in San Antonio experimenting with a visualization meditation method called Silva Mind Control, and influenced by Carlos Castaneda's shamanistic world view, my ability to view/be/witness the space of an interior spiritual landscape caused me to have long ago stepped out of the traditional Christian trappings I was raised in, Take No Other God before Me, and seek out the Most High God no matter where it took me -- except!!! Just in case, I always visualized an illuminated, shimmering Cross risen above me, an umbrella of safety that keeps evil and Moth-like usurpers out of my spiritual quest and on a path Most True.

I have it confirmed in my heart that Emmanuel, the Christ with me, indeed does accompany me in my quests, and is glad for my experiments in Spirit, is glad I can reconcile the indigenous gods of early Man with the indigenous God of the Hebrews, who has been so boldly documented by a most highly civilized peoples, whose Wisdom has been inherited by my peoples through the Hebrew Jesus of Nazareth, who bequeathed the promise to each of us and was in flesh, in fact, most high god.

I will stop there for now.

dreaming sears again

(from journal notes online, see Outgoing) wildly dreaming sears again:

yoga, i was thinking and the 40 second stretch for openers, that i wanted to write down right then my proposal to Steve in particular, copy to all, incl helena? and the human resources guy that visited us 2 years ago? anyway what?

Thesis: the Sears stores of the Northwest could be a dynamic player in defining the next expression of the Brand. You could hypothesize that we are living in some next Last Stand phase for sears stores. If that is so, perhaps the NW Sears operation could develop enterprise that rekindles customer interest and grows our base. That is my sense of the possibility now, if the "young turks" on the ground helped to make it so and higher management joins to new possibilities.

I have a couple of bold, big picture dreamings, haha, and several smaller picture projects/schemes, and then -- like the following proposal you are already familiar with -- just everyday operations dreamings. So,

A simple Starter:
Begin our morning rally with 40-seconds focusing on stretching and deep breathing.

Not only does this help loosen up and charge the body/mind/attitude machine of every associate, brain science demonstrates how wholesome a few seconds of such action revitalizes the entire system, including one's heart, balance, mood, and endurance.

Our training module on Health and Safety declare that every shift should begin with some stretching, so what better reason than to institute it and do some together?

Two times, Bruce and Steve have impromptu and kind of jokingly let me lead a starting stretch, and it was surprising to me the encouraging feedback I got from the some our best workers. Zach in shoes, for instance, after the most recent time, thanked me for giving him a good excuse to set himself up for the next part of his shift. He said something like " I'd like to warm-up, but wouldn't do it on my own out there. This gives me a great excuse!" The other time i led it was a good year ago, so many folks aren't around, but the different ages and types of folks that made a point to say it was terrific was very encouraging.

Those two times, I was caught by surprise, so it was a pitiful, thin version of what i am proposing. I think if I were able to truly prepare and lead it a few times, everyone would catch on and anyone could lead it, in fact, different variations would be SO fun. I do believe it would be a big hit -- even if it were also an excuse to groan and complain, haha -- and be a natural, wholesome addition to the morning rally. 

I also think it would be the kind of thing that would be worth a news story, or Facebook post, about brain science practice at Sears, haha. seriously.

Good light on the Human Measure