SHACK 123 DENIM

Aliexpress.com

Denim (Denim is a publishing textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This twill weaving produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck).

There was a time when I was 'thirsty' after anything denim, jeans, shirts, jackets and most of all the frayed torn style as worn in jackets without sleeves, some call them vests, waistcoats and gillets(gilets) body warmers.  I just liked the feel and look of them.

I wondered why I had this panache for this?  During my stay abroad from the UK, I took with me a Denim assortment and going into the sea with them to cool off I became in the 60's what is fashionable now in 2017 -------holes in jeans manufactured rents and tears. 

The clothes had a subtle meaning; they felt like I was close to the Earth, getting hands dirty, sweaty, unwashed, bearded, eking out a living, hunting, fishing, gathering, farming getting holes in them worn out and faded through constant wear and washing, rough sowing and patching, a familiar feel and comfort, well worn and fitting snugly.  After a hard days work sipping tea, a simple meal, tired and aching, to bed early with the setting sun and rising with it, the bare wooden shack a refuge, home and sanctuary, the entertainment was the silence, the sounds of nature and repairing equipment and clothes. Ah the simple Life and a sort of satisfaction in natures abundance and supply and living with awareness necessity, innovation, creativity and not wasting anything or taking too much, everything had a use and recycling and composting the rules of the day.

The fashion now is a designer statement; for those well off it maybe a statement 'I know of the hard labor, the mind of the hobo, tramp and not having enough, I am simple and although I have so much, I know my roots-----lets hope thats true'  And for some I just like the look of it.  And for others a statement look I am really not well off----or give of your wealth to others.

In the long run nothing really matters for all is swallowed up by the march of time and destiny.

SHACK

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SHACK 122 PRAISE

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Sitting in quietness and sometimes just ruminating a fantasy or a daydream may come upon me.  I get so caught up in its net that I am fascinated and it seems so real, the emotions, the passion and sometimes I feel as though I am squeezing my head, my brain to get the last ounce of energy to fire it up to maximum enhancement. I t can  be more tiring and exhausting than a physical workout.

Then I snap out of it. I realize this is not reality or is it?  It seems the brain does not recognize what is real in its screen of mind or the actual physical event.  It is like the TV, whatever is on the TV is impartial and just plays it, the person with the remote control decides.

So could it be the ego which I feel is the sum total of life up to the point of the years one is, and has a collection, a library of experiences and is a self contained personality of a private world and is indeed a kind of person inhabiting the mind and body, a sort of take over to a personal local enclosed being.  A sort of ghost in the machine.

This invading being sets up standards, ethics, morals, behavior patterns and especially attack and defense strategies. The most important role or facet it has, is a self monitoring loop which is constantly lurking to see the perimeter fences are all in tact, the silent sentinel.

Should one breech the walls, then a punishment will be metered out, the most common is sabotage. In my early years and no fault of my family, especially my dear Mother I was told 'never expect anything good, but when it does its a bonus' and always 'there is a curse on this family' and when I came in late 'do you know what this does to me, its like another stone on my grave'.

So I never could enjoy a day out with my mates, there was watching the clock, a silent nagging, really saying 'I don't want to be responsible for killing my Mother and being at her grave'. I saw many a person with similar experiences in my clinician days.

However, if I did  manage to let go (this is where Meditation and the Japanese and Chinese arts came in) and my ego then got disappointed and silently said  'its like a feeling that suggests words, a silent whisper that compacts thousands of words in a flash, not to be taken as inspiration, this is an ego trick, what is inspiration or the ego imitation, I digress, it says -----'you are not allowed to be free of the silent dread, so your punishment is to be back in the dread and things will go wrong, a health problem, a relationship breakdown, bad luck, I 'm always unlucky, I never win anything, I let my habits down therefore I don't deserve happiness or fulfillment'.

When one follows a fantasy, a daydream, a sleep dream, or a so called physical outplay of the ego legacy' then I have noticed and become aware of an ego reward------a satisfaction or self praise----a sort of self recommendation of praise, although it is merely self generated from within the ego's repository of rules and regulations, its legal team.  This delights the ego and wants and desires more, much more, sometime insatiably even to its own downfall.

So what is it that snaps one out of reverie and hallucination and awakes the brain from its idling, as if the TV could monitor and become the viewer with the remote control, but that would be self serving again.

It takes something impersonal, non local, vast and highly aware indeed a super Intelligence and that is consciousness which is a razor sharp Mind, clear and focused which is not of body or brain but knows the TV and all is but a temporary, transient expediency and when The TV knows this it surrenders its own agenda to the Greater Being.  

The one may ask or inquire----what then is reality?

If the ego isn't what is?

SHACK
Grow like a tree---sways by the wind----makes the roots strong----gets rain drenched-------slacks the thirst-----snow-----gives the branches exercise-----human pruning and earth husbandry-----love-----who planted me and gave me life------the great mystery. (Shack)

SHACK 121 TARGET

TO BE SURE OF HITTING 

THE TARGET

FIRE YOUR ARROW

AND WHEREVER  IT LANDS 

THAT IS YOUR TARGET

TO BE SURE OF HITTING 
THE TARGET

WHEREVER THE ARROW LANDS
DRAW A CIRCLE AROUND IT

THE ARROW WILL ALWAYS BE CENTER

Sometimes we are too intense of hitting the target and it can be the end and be all even to obsession.  Then the kyudo(Japanese Archery) can assist.  

The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede. What stands in your way is that you have a much too willful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.

Eugen Herrigel

I did not learn Kyudo however in Aikido, Kendo and Judo, Kungfu, Taichi, Qi Gong and Meditation, there comes a moment when 'the will' lets go and the DO-the way, The Tao takes over.

What is it that takes over and is the Way?

SHACK

Images above by Merlin Archery and Regex Info

SHACK 120 BRAIN FOG

allergic living

Racking the brain as to the Mystery of Life hurts, can bring fatigue, sometimes madness, distraction in pleasures.  Running away from the awful fate of destiny ----death!

I may never know the answer before death and will death have the answer for me in another dimension, realm or place?

Yet in a strange way giving up not in despair or suicide neither reckless endeavor by just saying 'oh what the hell who cares anyway 'and yet secretly not meaneing it, if per chance just on the off beat one actually stops the struggle, not just a relaxing of a tired brain, exhausted by the quest, the burning desire to know and constantly being thwarted-----a sheer moment of total surrender to the unknown, unconditional and not contrived------one may slide into a real letting go of the known and settle into the unknown where a strange beautiful calm, a grace embalms one and all is well and the unknown remains unknown and it is still all very well indeed.

Then the nowhere is the known---perhaps?  

SHACK

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SHACK 119 AT ALL COSTS

www.suggest-keywords.com

Perhaps as one reads this it may be very controversial and to others something else. 

Life in the human body and indeed natures inhabitants is precious, the attitude for me is ' I didn't create Life I have no right to take it wantonly'.  However be that as it may I tentatively suggest that Life at all costs is sometimes a bit over the top.

Doctors do a great job in difficult circumstances at times and yet perhaps they could be a little more aware of when Life should not be continued.

I have a note which  I carry which is 'if found unconscious please do not resuscitate'. I do not know whether this is legal and I found out if I want a legal document to this effect it cost lots of money and form filling with an executor to allow this and be named.

I am not referring to persons who are suicidal, depressed and what's the point in living, or quite stable and still have done it all and want to leave the planet.  Then those that fear death and want to be revived at all costs and of course those with terminal illnesses and disabilities which makes Life hard, some who love life and want to stay whilst some beg to be given euthanasia.

Life in a flesh body is Terminal at some point in time.  In fact every body of form from Flesh to Rock to Planet is Terminal. Its simply a fact of Life as we comprehend it now.

We are born to die and vice versa.  The reverse as in vice versa is perhaps debatable to some. To Die to be Born. How so?  Many take the opinion that when your dead your dead, no afterlife or heaven, no God perhaps.  Then there is the view that Nature recycles all and everything and our bodies feed other life forms and our minds die because the brain is just an electrical phenomena and when the light goes out all electricity which is generated by food and chemicals, cells and the interaction ceases then ------your gone for good ------you might say you were never real just an electrical phenomena caused by a freak accident called the big bang and over the 13½ Billion years of evolution(some say 14 ½  Billion)that by trial and error we are where we are today and evolution made its own cellular intelligence its all in the genes(jeans oh no Shack not now) there is no creator.

Then there is reincarnation and a working theory that I wrote about in 1960; the brains memory is actually stored outside the body in holographic magnetic memory fields and the neurons are the switches that facilitate and activate the 'picture show' to the screen of mind. Very much like pilots holographic displays on their windscreens.

Now like Radio and TV invisible waves some of the programmes are unfinished, like the computer when you sign off and it says 'some programmes are not shut down'  these lurk in space and seek to be finished off, so one might choose a similar position and reincarnate to do so. Like TV and Radio the antennae is tuned to a certain frequency and so the holographic fields of a family or female / male resonate and attract that programme and baby is born.

So the above supposes there is an intelligence at work, and of course even agreeing with the theory can debate and point out ' well its back in the realm of electricity and resonance and still doesn't prove God'.

The debate goes on and only a direct experience of the Informing Intelligence, the Source, God, The almighty will be proof for the individual, not necessarily for the masses. 

Then there is attachment; one lives a life with family and friends and perhaps a dearly loved partner and one wants to cling dearly forever to them.  I call this cloistered love---you old cynic Shack. True love as I see it is to love the whole of life partners and friends and so on, yet one has the sense of a Divine Love and can  love all equally a kind of unconditional love, for Life is like that it gives and gives and gives Like Mother Earth and then it takes, its a kind of impersonal Love.

I feel there is right timing for Birth and a Right timing for Death, birth and death are opposites---life has no opposites.

To be born at the right time is to experience what evolution and the Infinite Intelligence intended for you and when its time to move on and release the past and enjoy the next Life experience somewhere else.  In fact not wanting to die at the right time holds back one's evolution-----the Mother and the baby have an innate feeling when it is the right time for birth and the same innate feeling if one is quiet and aware when it is time to depart and carry on in the space of Eternity.

SHACK 

SHACK 118 MY WAY

emily quotes

POPULAR SONG

I DID IT MY WAY

MY SONG

I DIDN'T DO IT MY WAY

SHACK

What way is the right way, what is the way anyway?

Oh what a muddle and confusing.  Have a cup of tea.

(Shack) I need one

SHACK 117 MOUNTAINS

lifemechanics.com

Mountains of the Mind.  Maybe we should look at what is a mountain in the mind and its construct.  They are are thought bricks, each stacked up and forming ladders of inter connecting constructs like the neuron maps, the possible interconnections and computations.

Some of us can reach the plateau, the peak and then see heights not reached from this lofty ledge and so keep adding to the considerable tangle and caverns of information we have built.

Although we are told to keep the mind active may I suggest there is another 'mind' waiting to be discovered not in brick building and not necessarily breaking the bricks apart but leaving them in a safe place when needed.  

From the lofty perch one abseils either to the ground and begins again, perhaps to begin another brick building or another option could be to abseil into the void / emptiness held by a temporal rope named ego until it lets one go. 

This emptiness, this space dangling in the void is a very alive experience, this  is pure mind or consciousness and one realizes this is the energy and essence anent to brick building.

One realizes there is no death in emptiness and space is the only reality that cannot be threatened, throwing bricks into the vacuum is frustrating because they disappear because they have no place there and only clutter the peace and tranquility. 

There is no death-----only transformation.

Be not afraid, Life is with you always even unto Eternity ----Life is Eternity and Eternity is Infinity.

SHACK    

SHACK 116 THE SPACE OF SPACE

reference.com

Beyond the electrical firing neurons ----its more like the backdrop.(Shack)

Something happens in the depth of my being.  

There is a something there and when I ask  where is there and  the depths of my being words are inadequate, for it is the realms of experience.

Where is my being, it is a sort of inward gesture, as if the eyes, ears, touch and smell all focus into one dynamic awareness, it is if all the senses combine in an energy stream and the focus becomes an intense but easy awareness. The senses can easily 'swap' roles and adapt.

At any rate the steady gaze as an impartial observer takes one to this 'place' it is a suspended area immersed in pure space, it is like that of which the planet and stars reside in.

Then there is a renewal, a nectar which seems to pour into that void / emptiness and that is in the depth of space.

One may ask?; well what is the depth in space----not like a rocket leaving Earth and going out from it, or leaving the Moon and going out from it or back to Earth, its a matter of experience, if you live on the Moon the positions might be reversed.

No this is not an outward experience it is a traveling into the mind and there are no landmarks unless one breaks the impartial observation and creates them.   This is timeless travel and the body is not involved in at all suffice to say the mind is in it.

So one goes somewhere in the mind and it seems the mind is endless and maybe one does not go anywhere and once thought subsides one is in the quiet mind and therefore in space and that special place is indeed everywhere.

SHACK

Graduate Design Thesis at Carnegie Mellon.wordpress. com
Beyond all thoughts and images all is swept aside by the stream of awareness which brings with it its own unique intelligence.(Shack)  

SHACK 115 WHERE OH WHERE?

worlartsme

Center Left, Center Right, Center, fascist, Communist and all points West of the Compass(colloquialism) all this is in the remit of politics. These are some of the remits in parliaments, indeed the the religion of politics.

The ideologies hammered in by the media and indelibly stamped on the foreheads and the mannerisms and studied avoiding and guarded speech, political correctness.

Is it for the benefit of humanity, very rarely, it is for wealth and prosperity and usually for the gain of the politicians and their cronies, the benefit of the followers and disciples, party members and a general enclave within the circles of the party.

There will always be wars and confrontations as long as one has 'sticky' rigid beliefs, because tolerance only goes so far.  When tolerance is stretched to the limit like an elastic band-------SNAP.

Who knows what horrors await when the breaking point ruptures. The breaking point is reached when the pressure perhaps of holding back through mental restraint often after patience and tolerance has run out and the brakes of human compassion and dignity fail to halt the onslaught.  

Such is the Religion of Politic.  

SHACK

SHACK 114 YARN

National Maritime Historical Society

It was a dark and stormy night and the Captain turned to the mate and said 'spin us a  yarn'.

The Mate then said 'eh Cap'n it was a dark and stormy night and the waves broke over the bow of the ship'

The Captain then said to the mate spin us another yarn ' the mate said it was a dark and stormy night and the waves broke over the bows of the ship'

The mate then turned to the Captain and said 'Cap'n spin us a yarn 'the Captain said it was a dark and stormy night and the waves broke over the bows of the ship'

SHACK
Tell a story, especially a long drawn-out or totally fanciful one, as in This author really knows how to spin a yarn, or Whenever he's late he spins some yarn about a crisis. Originally a nautical term dating from about 1800, this

SHACK 113 SOFTWARE

whatknotnow.blogspot.com
The knot of conditioning(there is also the Buddhas Knot)
unravel the knot of habit  ---willing to take a chance? ----and see what happens

Shack

Software that is self aware of its own programming and repeats itself as a habit and as a continuous loop, very much like in some restaurants background music which start with tune A and run through about nine or ten songs and come back to tune A and off it goes on another round. 

Software has not the facility of a human conscience (not yet---hopefully never),  a checker that has human propensities and it acts in an impersonal sort of personal programme similar to a computer, in that way it has no moral compass or compassion. 

It is the changeover between loops that the awareness may click in and realizes the loop it has been ensnared in and the rota of  the repetitive time clock triggered reaction and responses. 

Awareness has then become the Saviour from habit and dependency and can lead one to freedom and a fulfilling Life.

SHACK

Buddha Knot

SHACK 112 FANS

you tube

In bygone days when I stood in the crowd and in those days there were not many seats and the grounds were so packed it was difficult to get the loo at half time.  One often queued for six or seven minutes to get to the the urinal. 

The aroma of hot boveril( Bovril is the trademarked name of a thick, salty meat extract, developed in the 1870s by John Lawson Johnston. It is sold in a distinctive, bulbous jar. Bovril is made in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire; owned and distributed by Unilever UK.) and rolled up cigarettes, the swearing and chanting crowds, the noisy loudspeakers and the half time marching band all had a sort of charm and unique flavor. 

At certain matches engendered a special rivalry and sometimes very violent.  Of late there have been killings by stabbing or gang threats with kicking to death and pushing in the crowd until one is trampled under foot or pushed and crushed by the bars that are supposed to separate people.

With the event of more seats in the stadium it has alleviated it a bit,  however it has carried on outside, sometimes to the railway station where the away fans are returning home.

At European and World cups this gets horrific.  Cafe's, restaurants, shops and car windows  are smashed and fires.

This fanatical behavior probably stems from identification, the color flags, the emblemed shirts, the songs and chants all form a sort of religion, a political statement.  I belong, I am not alone, I will defend my country, my family, my herd, my clan, MY TEAM.

I was often teased and bullied by the home fans not physically so much just a shove or sneer, after all I was a home fan, sort of.

They could not understand I supported good football skill and could applaud a good set of moves and a goal if the other team did so. They thought it lucky or the referee was biased.

What was fascinating was the physical postures and snarling faces, growling, clenched fists it was real primal behavior as if the 'old reptilian brain' was somehow switched on, the latest findings in neuro science could answer this. The primitive behavior displayed by terrorists and the barbaric beheading and torture is only but a step out of reach for uncontrolled football fans rioting.  Other sports do not seem to attract so much violence-----perhaps the money and glamor, the celebrity wealth and most of all the anger venting saying 'kick the hell out of ---?  Go kick ass' Give em a good kicking' and there is something about using the feet and chasing a ball.  

 This is not a football trend only; countries, religions and politics, yea even businesses have their emblems, flags and uniforms.  To appreciate another team or whatever and yet favor one's own without the paraphernalia of chants and mad hysteria shows one's identity is not hinged or is attached or has one's life dominated by the success or failure of one's team, country or religion----there is something greater than this in Life.    

I have a neighbor that is so obsessed with his team that he names a well known player as equivalent to Jesus, the manager as God and the team as glorious.  When his team loses he sulks and gets drunk, blames the referee, the pitch the weather, or cheating and host of other excuses, when they win a major trophy he marches with others through the streets singing and swearing and rubbishing things, then returning home repeats a solo performance in the garden.

He tells people he lives and dies for his team, it is his life and he lives for the next match -------he is not alone.

SHACK

daily mail
Its strange how innocent people walking by the mob and after the match they will often just glare at bye standers and say 'what the fuck are you staring at' almost if they are ashamed of themselves or that others are superior and judging them.  They may feel isolated and alone if not with the 'boys', some men will go to pub many nights leaving the their wife and family or Mum or Dad to get high with the boys a sort  of male comradery..  This  is often to shore up lack of identity in themselves as an individual or lack of confidence and low self esteem.(Shack)

SHACK 111 MELTING

avb.s.oman.net

A sheer mass of ice, seemingly so solid.  Analogous to this is a rigid belief system and perhaps community, not a judgment but an observation.  There is safety in the herd especially with animals and other forms of nature. However with humans there is the spirit of inquiry and exploration and to push the borders further.

However there are two ways of this pioneering enterprise one we may name outside the mind in the world of form and one inside the mind by self inquiry and meditation. 

The outside form maybe mountaineering and such like, overcoming disabilities, business risks and various other physical challenges and it is true it requires mental and mind effort, and maybe age has a lot to do with not being able to do the physical challenge but provides one with the fortitude and inner strength of will power and determination to see one through senior years.  This still remains in the material form level.

However there is another challenge of the inner quest, this is to endeavor to find the origins of oneself, the essence of Life, this often means giving up ones 'mental and mind habits and sequence's, patterns and well known path's and safety through the library of stored experience'.  

The process maybe the same for both. With the warmer arriving 'chunks of the block of ice drop off to become an iceberg.  One leaves home and starts the journey into unknown territory(modern research has it that water has memory---laying that aside we continue with our narrative) the iceberg has nine tenths of its form under water, its sub or unconscious, which has itself emerged in its essence but unaware of it, it is fascinated by the sea life of ocean beings, boats, humans, strange land masses.

The material form one may ponder how it came into this life and form and leave it at that and delight in the new experiences. The inquiry one will also delight in the external wonders and then become aware of the sea and begin to explore those parts under the ocean until it begins to feel and realize it is the ocean and has found its source.

Both as they travel to warmer climes eventually melt into the ocean one realizing its source and is not fearful and the other reluctantly having to give up its form and perhaps with some trepidation.   

For those who are of the reincarnation mode; the sea then starts the precipitation cycle of rising to clouds and the rain, rivers and back to sea, another cycle, the clouds may also follow the form or inquiry analogy.  

Could it be the one that has recognized its essence and has known its Source while in form does not join the precipitation cycle and moves onto other experiences and has evolved into something else?    

SHACK