S Shah > Recent Status Updates

"...beyond the limits of present time and body, 'Over the hills and far away.'"

"'If I hold up a sign with the word 'ROSE' written on it, and you read that sign, you will be forced to repeat the word 'ROSE' to yourself. If I show you a picture of a rose you do not have to repeat the word 'ROSE' to yourself. ... A syllabic language forces you to verbalize auditory patterns....It is precisely these automatic reactions to words themselves that enable those who manipulate words to control thought"

"'The 'evil' virus of addiction takes many forms—....the 'addiction to rightness, to being in the right,' the addiction to moral dualism....This rhetoric of indignation manipulates the individual through disgust, shame, and guilt....addiction makes the morality junky physically dependent for survival on his righteous destruction of other life.....such moral indignation functions as a kind of internal parasite...."

O I today
sad as Chu Yuan
stumbled to the store
in broiling Florida October
morning heat cursing
for my wine, sweating
like rain, & came to my chair
weak & trembling
wondering if I'm crazy at last
—O Chu Yuan! No!

That we walk around clung
To Earth
Like beetles with big brains
Ignorant of where we are, how,
What, & upsidedown like fools,
Talking of governments & history,
—But Mount Hozomeen
The most beautiful mountain I have ever seen,
Does nothing but sit & be a mountain,

I find myself wanting to do a live reading of San Francisco Blues.

Unfortunately found Mexico City Blues a bit difficult to get through—I'd wanted to love it. The Scripture of the Golden Eternity resonated significantly more after taking a short break to read something else.

190th Chorus
What I have attained in Buddhism
is nothing
What I wish to attain,
is nothing.

Let me explain.
In perceiving the Dharma
I achieved nothing—
What worries me is not
nothing
But everything, the trouble is
number,
But since everything is nothing
then I am worried nil.

p. 133

By the end of the book I did not care.