Contemplative Musings

 

Touchstone Litany

To the Creation I live within; to the creation that lives in me       

Open My heart

To the rhythm of tides and seasons; to the rhythm of my own blood   
Open my heart

To the footsteps before mine in the sand, of peoples and creatures

To the footsteps after mine in the sand, of peoples and creatures   

Open my heart                                                                  

To those who will be born today; and to those who will die today

To Life waves rippling –ringing outward onto the future

Immeasurable motions of our moments, lives times lives                  

Open my heart

To the hungry and to those who grow and gather food                                                                       

To the homeless and to those who build and give shelter                                                   

To the poor and to those who have more than they need                                                   

To the sick and to all healers                           

Open My Heart                                                                                                      

To those who live in fear and to those who live in faith

And those who live in fear   
Open my heart

To those who love me and comfort me; to those I love

To those who vex and trouble me       
Open my heart

To the Silence who holds all this; who holds us through all this                                               

To the Living Silence  I dwell within; who dwells in me   
Open my heart  
To the Holy Spirit in whom I dwell; Holy spirit  Who dwells in me
Be my heart

Lindsay Bowker for fellow contemplative Anne Cushman

Cove Meadow  October 2009

I posted this out of my archive of meditations in connection with a current post on TED and also on my blog http://www.lindsaynewlandbowker.posterous.com/ exploring whether there are  global values that we share as a world community.

How the Light Works

Every time we sit in meditation silencing our conscious minds, especially if we sit with others, we create the possibility of opening the portal within us that is pure consciousness.  That is, we create the possibility within us of fusing wisdom and intuition.  We create the possibility within us and amongst us that we will not just observe what is but will be able to participate in the creation of what will be. We create the possibility of transcending the intellects predilection to and preoccupation with,  what is illumined and are able to form the possibility of acting from within the light itself.  But it is only through the action that we can realize that possibility and become actual participants in creating  what will be that we actually become the creation.  Consciousness must result in action to have an effect in shaping what will be.

Lindsay Newland Bowker

Cove Meadow

April 2009

Spirit Soaring Music ..Mostly From the Past-Mostly Obscure

ERIC WHITACRE'S VIRTUAL CHOIR-2,000 voices via you tube singing acapella under the direction of composer Eric Whitacre..made me cry to see the you tube images of 2,000 faces..folk who had never met each other or been togethether or rehearsed together in any way..singing this amazing piece. A new Virtual choir peice will debut on  April 7. http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_whitacre_a_virtual_choir_2_000_voices_strong.html

Allen Ginsberg wrote Father Death Blues on the plane home after receiving news of his father's death and often sang it, as here, accompanying himself on the harmonium.  He sang it always with a dignity and sweetness that is deeply moving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew6ef3nE-E4&feature=related

Jawdropping Science & Invention

ANGELA BELCHER--On growing batteries..the car of the future will run on viruses

http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_belcher_using_nature_to_grow_batteries.html

WAVE ENERGY FOR ELCTRICITY & FRESH WATER

 An Australian company has engineered andis marketing a very simple sysytem for converting wave action ro electrical energy while at the same time using natural pressure differenetations to deliver deliver high power flow of sea water for s desalination by osmosis. http://www.carnegiecorp.com.au/



STRUCTURE OF PURE WATER
Theodor Schwenk, author of Sensitive Chaos, and founder of The Institute for Flow Sciences, developed the Drop Picture Method at the Institut für Strömungswissenschaften. Schwenk was inspired by the realization that water, to serve the needs of human nutrition, must really be like a “food” and must have on its own the qualities of vitality and nourishment to maintain human health. The Drop Picture Method was developed to reveal this aspect of water’s “quality” in a holistic way. The photo below is of "damaged" water

Leading Edge of Design

Young Israeli Neri Oxman is at the very cutting edge of design technology  http://web.media.mit.edu/~neri/site/index.html .  In her early work she was printing out "skins"..for buildings, chairs tables etc. with properties based on natural structures having the desired properties.  The beginning of a technology that could revolutionize how we build and manufacture in the future. Many videos of Neri and and hearing and seeing her is a great pleasure ..a spirit soaring experience.

The Cellophane House, erected at MOMA in a matter of hours  with modular components manufactured off site has a skin of cellophane imprinted with solar cellas that provide all the energy needed to heat, cool and light this 3- story 1,800 sq foot townhouse with roof terrace and car port.

 http://kierantimberlake.com/pl_sustainability/cellophane_house_1.html

Politics Beyond Polemics

Vermont Setting Foundation Stone for 28th Constitutional Ammendment: Corporations are not Persons With protections and Rights under the US Constitution

A year ago, the Supreme Court finally stated in Citizens United what has been implicit in many decisions over the past decade. That corprations are persons with rights and protections under the US Contsitition. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the dissent and expressing a view held by the majority of Americans , said

"Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires…Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of 'We the People' by whom and for whom our Constitution was established."

On the One year anniversary of this eye opening Supreme Court decision, Virginia Lyons, a Vermont State Senator has raised the torch, held up the light with a legislative initiative that would amend the US Constitution to clarify that corporations are not persons.  The legislation, expected to pass the very progressive Vermont Legislature, is  seen as a foundation stone for a 28th constitutional amendment.. contains compelling  language that speaks a truth. "The profits and institutional survival of large corporations are often in direct conflict with the essential needs and rights of human beings,"{ Corporations} "have used their so-called rights to successfully seek the judicial reversal of democratically enacted laws.” {rendering} “democratically elected governments…ineffective in protecting their citizens against corporate harm to the environment, health, workers, independent business, and local and regional economies."

 There is a groundswell of support: 76 percent of Americans, according to a recent ABC News poll, said they opposed the Citizens United decision.

http://www.alternet.org/news/149620/vermont_is_gearing_up_to_strike_a_major_blow_to_corporate_personhood

Unity Through Diveristy

Tom Atlee's Co-Intelligence Institute is about an entirely different way of acting collectively to acheive social and economic goals.  His recent essay on diversity as a strategy and a powerful creative potential is a wonderful example of the think and action that is Co-Intelligence.  http://co-intelligence.org/DiversityUniverse.html

Abundance of the Moment

Perfect Dumplings

For lunch today I had home made duck soup with dumplings..a miracle..dumplings.  For years..decades.actually.I have tried to make dumplings so many times with so many different techniques and so many different recipes and always the same result..a gooey mess that sucks up all the broth.  My mother let me try so many times, directly in her broth, and always the same.. 

Today as I considered risking the broth in this amazing soup to try one more time, the cosmos..or maybe my mother from the Great Beyond.... suddenly whispered in my ear.."What about that nice bamboo steamer dear..you know..on top of the soup..above .it"   And there it was ..two tiers of unbelieavbly fluffy and perfect dumplings nesting in the bamboo steamer.


A moment of perfect abundance.  January 24, 2011


LEMON WONDER...Cleaning Green

It is very hard to go green and be a good steward for the world when you hit the cleaning products aisle in our remote corner of America.  So I am thrilled to now have the most effective, universal, economical, and wonderfully fresh smelling cleaner I have ever ever used....lemons..just lemons and tap water.  And now that I have it refined enough to spray on, it is even more of a joy that housekeepers have taken to it as well.  I just save all my lemon rinds in the freezer til I have enough to work with ( the rinds of 8 lemons will fill a large spray bottle)..harvest the zest only with a  kitchen rasp..blend with about 2.5 cups of water, strain through a a cloth funnel or fine strainer.  Lemon is one of the most effective grease cutters there is and also one of the best disinfectants.  Applied with a chamois or faux chamois the finish sparkle puts even magic eraser to shame. You can even spray it on your skin as a naturally fresh anti-bacterial toner!   As you can see my kitchen has lots of stainless, including stainless small appliances and many super shiny ceramics and assorted silver pitchers.  My lemon spray makes it so quick and easy to keep every surface, even wood and painted surfaces shiny and sanitary.

See Clean: The  Zen Art of Cleansing by Micahel DeJong , and my review of it on Amazon   http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Humble-Zen-Cleansing-Michael-DeJong/dp/1402747667/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296051466&sr=1-1 

 for lots of recipes and ideas for using only baking soda, salt, white veinegar, lemon, and good old fashioned borax for all your cleaning needs.

Cove Meadow January 26, 2011

Poems That Speak To Me

The Reaches of a Life

(for Lisette on her 80^th birthday)

I believe in the continuum of a life and the infinity of a

   life

                In life waves rippling-ringing outward onto

  the future

                in the immeasurable motions of our

  moments, lives times lives

                in immemorial dreamseed in undreamt

  futures growing

as the lost past lives in us as we shall be in the last

  reaches of our kind

as my  words bloom from your life, which is a strong

 life and growing,

                one with the beginning & endlessness of all.

Harry Smith

Two Friends II

Birch Book Press 1988