"A TALE of TWO CITIES" --Charles Dickens-- UpDate 5.17
"May You Live
in Interesting Times"
in Interesting Times"
"We’re Living
in Dangerously
Uncertain Times "
Uncertain Times "
Profit Donations Accepted.
The Ancient Chinese
Curse Buddha BUDDHA
The Ancient Chinese Knew
THE CURSE
And So It Seems
I Got The Ashkenazi
I Got The Ashkenazi
Central European
Family Curse, PD is Me
A Parkinson’s Disease
Diagnosis and a
Time of
Great Socio-Electronic
Media Distraction plus
"The Shakes"
A NEUROLOGIC
Movement Disorder
That My Genetic Karma
INCONVENIENTLY
Just Brought Me
an Unwanted Gift
for My 76 years
"May You Live
in Interesting Times
in Interesting Times
The Curse Is
Why Are The
Times Cursed ?
Because The Times Have
$o Many Primo Addictions,
$subliminal, vastly Entertaining,
and $o World-wide Alluring --
Capturing Our Hot Attention
On Demand Take Us Hostage.
( Well
isn’t it that way ? )
---------------------------------------------------
“Plague be’comist yee ! “
UNCERTAIN TIMES ~ FEEL SAFER
MINDFULNESS HAS YOUR BACK
--------------------------------------------
UNCERTAIN TIMES ~ FEEL SAFER
MINDFULNESS HAS YOUR BACK
--------------------------------------------
Sir Charles Dickens ~1859
” It Was The Best of Times --
It Was The Worst of Times,
It Was The Worst of Times,
It Was The Age of Wisdom --
It Was The Age of Foolishness,
It Was The Age of Foolishness,
It Was The Epoch of Belief --
It Was The Epoch of Incredulity,
It Was The Epoch of Incredulity,
It Was The Season of Light --
It Was The Season of Darkness,
It Was The Season of Darkness,
It Was The Spring of Hope --
It Was The Winter of Despair,
It Was The Winter of Despair,
We Had Everything Before Us --
We Had Nothing Before Us,
We Had Nothing Before Us,
We Were All Going
Direct To Heaven --
Direct To Heaven --
We Were All Going
Direct The Other Way.
Direct The Other Way.
In Short,
That Period Was Like
The Present Period.”
---------------------------
Sir Charles Dickens
“A Tale of Two Cities”
Sir Charles Dickens
“A Tale of Two Cities”
a novel (1859)
"May You Live
in Interesting Times"
_/!\_
with
palms joined
Nama'ste
Bless the Thought
that Finds You Well
----------------------------------
Akasa Maitreya Levi
The Laughing Buddha Sangha
Mindfulness
Practice Satsang
First Wave Meditators • Asia1970’s
Come Study Dharma of Mindfulness
Come Study Dharma of Mindfulness
The First American
Old Timer's Sangha
who Practiced "Mindfulness" in India
who Practiced "Mindfulness" in India
when the Vipas’sana teachers were alive
Private "Mind-FULLY" • Satsang Group
Santa Monica CA 90405 • 1-310-450-2268
Private "Mind-FULLY" • Satsang Group
Santa Monica CA 90405 • 1-310-450-2268
----------------------------------------------
They Who Never
They Who Never
Heard
About
What
Came Before…
History
simply started to just Forget.
We
had our nose buried in our palms.
Mystical-based Journal needs preserving,
as
this fragile material is only momentary.
You
too can go search out Buddha-natured
Self-compassion
Teachers of good intention
but
the paper in the books we studied abroad
way
back then have turned brown. Hurry Up !
We DO wish to Name-Drop our Holy assets,
Always accessible yet educable
your Way.
Back in The Day Before You Were Born
Meditators simply sat, breathed, observed.
Everyone
then had bottoms just like Now.
We
Practice Mindfulness in Santa Monica.
------------------------------------------------------
-:¦:- Buddha Big
Bro • Dharma To Go
"May You Live
in Interesting Times"
-----------------------
"You DO Live Now in
Those Interesting Times"
Why ?
Suzhou, China in 1227 AD ---
WHY ? ---
Unfortunately, the most fascinating, the most interesting periods in history
were filled with tumult and upheaval. Tales of treachery, wars, and chaos provided
compelling, exciting reading and telling -- so much so that
'fascinating' became distraction for the intellectual elite living in
these way too 'interesting times'. Ethical work didn't get responsibly done, their attention to duties of
skillful governance suffered badly. Sadly, for the burdens of the participants actually living through
these momentous and most often, monstrous events: they were
experiencing horrific fear, inhuman torture,
devastating hunger, brutal pain and massive slaughter. And...
Stupid Options for those who actually
are moved to ‘lay on’ this evil Curse,
are moved to ‘lay on’ this evil Curse,
to
fashion a distracting, disorienting,
seductive Spell that would surely make
seductive Spell that would surely make
Macbeth's
vulgar witches cackle proud
- heartless,
smooth, the Chinese reads:
"May You
Live in Interesting Times”
May you be born into an foolish age
May you live in pre-occupying times,
so distracting you don't know better.
------------------------------------------------------------so distracting you don't know better.
“We Pray, Oh Dear Bodhisattva:
There is no doubt that a dreadful
Curse has fallen innocently on us.
We move from crisis to ugly
crisis.
We suffer one heartless disturbance
and irreparable shock after
another.
Whatever happened to the Blessings
of our Mother Goddess Kwan
Yin ? "
-------------------------------------------------
"There is a noteworthy Chinese adage contrasting times of authentic Peace --and anxiety-driven
War back then, that displayed thematic similarities to Suzhou, China in 1227.
Two of the tales expressed a somber preference for a more banal, politically correct
time of peace-based stability, versus a chaotic war and the beginnings of
anarchistic turbulence. The Commoners: Thirsty, hungry, they bore all
manner of hardships. Where would they have a safe home now to call their own
again? They prayed to Heaven, to Earth, and to their venerable Ancestors, and
to the very Buddha himself. Mostly, they prayed not to let them run into
the merciless, demonic royal horse soldiers that would slice off their genitals
and scoop out their eyes with a spoon, indifferently.
--------------------------------------------------------------
“ Truly, better to be a dog in days of peace
Than to be a human being in Times of War !
Than to be a human being in Times of War !
The
Curse: Like a Hungry Dog It is Predatory
It is Bred to Have a Go at You and Capture You.
It is Bred to Have a Go at You and Capture You.
The
Buddha’s Dharma is meant to Liberate You.
"May
You Live in More Compassionate Times "
-------------------------------------------------------------
My sincere aspiration
was always towards
unobstructed exploration
-- in the open space
of the Momentariness of the Experience itself ~
To Be Directly With
the Last Living Buddhist
Meditation Teachers of
the Pre-Global Era --
most passed on - I so appreciate their presence
-----------------------------------------------------------------
" Kindness " is more
important than ' Wisdom
' -
and the clear recognition of this -
IS the beginning of Wisdom "
and the clear recognition of this -
IS the beginning of Wisdom "
~ Theodore Issac Rubin
-------------------------------------
" You don't get
enlightened --
it is
'enlightenment' itself
that gets
enlightened."
---end---
editing cuts -- skip to article
"DEATH, Death,
More Death, and Plague"
Sir Charles Dickens ~1859
... said: "We''re In For
Some Pretty Nasty
Some Pretty Nasty
"Uncertain Times”
C N N Cable agrees...
C N N Cable agrees...
Historians and epidemiologists have long debated about the total percentage of the medieval population slain by The Arrow Of The Pestilence (as it was known in the fourteenth century); conservative estimates range from 10 - 20%. The most recent estimate is estimates the total population loss at 65% in both Asia and Europe. Most average estimates state that about one-third of the population died from the disease in the years spanning the Black Death
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of beliefas the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. . . . The passage makes marked use of anaphora, the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of consecutive clauses—for example, “it was the age . . . it was the age” and “it was the epoch . . . it was the epoch. . . .”
This technique, along with the passage’s steady rhythm, suggests that good and evil, wisdom and folly, and light and darkness stand equally matched in their struggle.
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imagin-ings, a secret to the heart nearest it! Something of the awfulness, even of Death itself, is referable to this.
the mission—to recover and “recall” him to life— establishes the essential dilemma that he and others face: namely, that human beings constitute perpetual mysteries to one another and always remain somewhat locked away, never fully reachable by outside minds.…. bound more by his own recollections than by any attempt of the others to “recall” him into the present…. death also evokes the deep secret revealed …the selflessness of his death leaves us to wonder at the ways in which we might have manifested this great love in life.a potent depiction of the peasants’ hunger. These oppressed individuals are not only physically starved—and thus willing to slurp wine from the city streets—but are also hungry for a new world order, for justice and freedom from misery.
Along the Paris streets, the death-carts rumble, hollow and harsh. Six tumbrels carry the day’s wine to La Guillotine. All the devouring and insatiate Monsters imagined since imagination could record itself, are fused in one realization, Guillotine. And yet there is not in France, with its rich variety of soil and climate, a blade, a leaf, a root, a sprig, a peppercorn, which will grow to maturity under conditions more certain than those that have produced this horror. Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
Dickens summarizes his ambivalent attitude toward the French Revolution. The author stops decidedly short of justifying the violence that the peasants use to overturn the social order, personifying “La Guillotine” as a sort of drunken Lord who consumes human lives—“the day’s wine.” Nevertheless, Dickens shows a thorough understanding of how such violence and bloodlust can come about. The cruel aristocracy’s oppression of the poor “sow” the same seed of rapacious license” in the poor and compels them to persecute the aristocracy and other enemies of the revolution with equal brutality. Dickens perceives these revolutionaries as crushed “[c]rush[ed] . . . out of shape” and having been “hammered . . . into . . . tortured forms.” These depictions evidence his belief that the lower classes’ fundamental goodness has been perverted by the terrible conditions under which the aristocracy has forced them to live.I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out. . . .
I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the Light of His.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of beliefas the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. . . . The passage makes marked use of anaphora, the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of consecutive clauses—for example, “it was the age . . . it was the age” and “it was the epoch . . . it was the epoch. . . .”
This technique, along with the passage’s steady rhythm, suggests that good and evil, wisdom and folly, and light and darkness stand equally matched in their struggle.
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imagin-ings, a secret to the heart nearest it! Something of the awfulness, even of Death itself, is referable to this.
the mission—to recover and “recall” him to life— establishes the essential dilemma that he and others face: namely, that human beings constitute perpetual mysteries to one another and always remain somewhat locked away, never fully reachable by outside minds.…. bound more by his own recollections than by any attempt of the others to “recall” him into the present…. death also evokes the deep secret revealed …the selflessness of his death leaves us to wonder at the ways in which we might have manifested this great love in life.a potent depiction of the peasants’ hunger. These oppressed individuals are not only physically starved—and thus willing to slurp wine from the city streets—but are also hungry for a new world order, for justice and freedom from misery.
Along the Paris streets, the death-carts rumble, hollow and harsh. Six tumbrels carry the day’s wine to La Guillotine. All the devouring and insatiate Monsters imagined since imagination could record itself, are fused in one realization, Guillotine. And yet there is not in France, with its rich variety of soil and climate, a blade, a leaf, a root, a sprig, a peppercorn, which will grow to maturity under conditions more certain than those that have produced this horror. Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
Dickens summarizes his ambivalent attitude toward the French Revolution. The author stops decidedly short of justifying the violence that the peasants use to overturn the social order, personifying “La Guillotine” as a sort of drunken Lord who consumes human lives—“the day’s wine.” Nevertheless, Dickens shows a thorough understanding of how such violence and bloodlust can come about. The cruel aristocracy’s oppression of the poor “sow” the same seed of rapacious license” in the poor and compels them to persecute the aristocracy and other enemies of the revolution with equal brutality. Dickens perceives these revolutionaries as crushed “[c]rush[ed] . . . out of shape” and having been “hammered . . . into . . . tortured forms.” These depictions evidence his belief that the lower classes’ fundamental goodness has been perverted by the terrible conditions under which the aristocracy has forced them to live.I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out. . . .
I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the Light of His.
"DEATH, Death,
More Death, and Plague"
"Uncertain Times”
C N N Cable agrees...
C N N Cable agrees...
Historians and epidemiologists have long debated about the total percentage of the medieval population slain by The Arrow Of The Pestilence (as it was known in the fourteenth century); conservative estimates range from 10 - 20%. The most recent estimate is estimates the total population loss at 65% in both Asia and Europe. Most average estimates state that about one-third of the population died from the disease in the years spanning the Black Death
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,,,
Death, Good and Evil, wisdom and folly, and light and darkness stand equally matched in their struggle.
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it !
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it !
Something of the awfulness, even of Death itself, is referable to this mission —to recover and “recall” him to life— establishes the essential dilemma that he and others face: namely, that human beings constitute perpetual mysteries to one another and always remain somewhat locked away, never fully reachable by outside minds.…. bound more by his own recollections than by any attempt of the others to “recall” him into the present...
Death also evokes the deep secret revealed …the selflessness of his Death leaves us to wonder at the ways in which we might have manifested this great love of life --a potent depiction of the peasants’ hunger. These oppressed individuals are not only physically starved—and thus willing to slurp wine from the city streets—but are also hungry for a new world order, for justice and freedom from misery.
Along the Paris streets, the death-carts rumble, hollow and harsh. Six tumbrels carry the day’s wine to La Guillotine. All the devouring and insatiate Monsters imagined since imagination could record itself, are fused in one realization, Guillotine. And yet there is not in France, with its rich variety of soil and climate, a blade, a leaf, a root, a sprig, a peppercorn, which will grow to maturity under conditions more certain than those that have produced this horror. Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
Dickens summarizes his ambivalent attitude toward the French Revolution. The author stops decidedly short of justifying the violence that the peasants use to overturn the social order, personifying “La Guillotine” as a sort of drunken Lord who consumes human lives—“the day’s wine.” Nevertheless, Dickens shows a thorough understanding of how such violence and bloodlust can come about. The cruel aristocracy’s oppression of the poor “sow” the same seed of rapacious license” in the poor and compels them to persecute the aristocracy and other enemies of the revolution with equal brutality. Dickens perceives these revolutionaries as crushed. . . out of shape” and having been “hammered . . . into . . . tortured forms.”
Along the Paris streets, the death-carts rumble, hollow and harsh. Six tumbrels carry the day’s wine to La Guillotine. All the devouring and insatiate Monsters imagined since imagination could record itself, are fused in one realization, Guillotine. And yet there is not in France, with its rich variety of soil and climate, a blade, a leaf, a root, a sprig, a peppercorn, which will grow to maturity under conditions more certain than those that have produced this horror. Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
Dickens summarizes his ambivalent attitude toward the French Revolution. The author stops decidedly short of justifying the violence that the peasants use to overturn the social order, personifying “La Guillotine” as a sort of drunken Lord who consumes human lives—“the day’s wine.” Nevertheless, Dickens shows a thorough understanding of how such violence and bloodlust can come about. The cruel aristocracy’s oppression of the poor “sow” the same seed of rapacious license” in the poor and compels them to persecute the aristocracy and other enemies of the revolution with equal brutality. Dickens perceives these revolutionaries as crushed. . . out of shape” and having been “hammered . . . into . . . tortured forms.”
These depictions evidence his belief that the lower classes’ fundamental goodness has been perverted by the terrible conditions under which the affluent aristocracy has forced them to live. I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out. . . .
I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the Light of His.
I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the Light of His.
----------------------------------------------
” It Was The Best of Times --
It Was The Worst of Times,
It Was The Worst of Times,
It Was The Age of Wisdom --
It Was The Age of Foolishness,
It Was The Age of Foolishness,
It Was The Epoch of Belief --
It Was The Epoch of Incredulity,
It Was The Epoch of Incredulity,
It Was The Season of Light --
It Was The Season of Darkness,
It Was The Season of Darkness,
It Was The Spring of Hope --
It Was The Winter of Despair,
It Was The Winter of Despair,
We Had Everything Before Us --
We Had Nothing Before Us,
We Had Nothing Before Us,
We Were All Going
Direct To Heaven --
Direct To Heaven --
We Were All Going
Direct The Other Way.
Direct The Other Way.
In Short,
That Period Was Like
The Present Period.”
---------------------------
Sir Charles Dickens
“A Tale of Two Cities”
Sir Charles Dickens
“A Tale of Two Cities”
a novel (1859)
Charles Dickens Dickens ~1859
Sir Charles Dickens , OMD ~1859
Sir Charles Dickens , OMD ~1859
Death-culture in the late Middle Ages. At its essence, the culture of the macabre represented a kind of dialogue between those mortals who would all, someday, face death, and that inevitable, undefeatable force that took their life.