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Entries for July 2013

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

An Excerpt from The Joyous Cosmology by Alan Watts
By Samy AbulEla

Slowly it becomes clear that one of the greatest of all superstitions is the separation of the mind from the body. This does not mean that we are being forced to admit that we are only bodies; it means that we are forming an altogether new idea of the body. For the body considered as separate from the mind is one thing—an animated corpse. But the body considered as inseparable from the mind is another, and as yet we have no proper word for a reality which is simultaneously mental and physical. To call it mental-physical will not do at all, for this is the very unsatisfactory joining of two concepts which have both been impoverished by long separation and opposition. But we are at least within sight of being able to discard altogether ideas of a stuff which is mental and a stuff which is material. “Stuff” is a word which describes the formless mush that we perceive when sense is not keen enough to make out its pattern. The notion of material or mental stuff is based on the false analogy that trees are made of wood, mountains of stone, and minds of spirit in the same way that pots are made of clay. “Inert” matter seems to require an external and intelligent energy to give it form. But now we know that matter is not inert. Whether it is organic or inorganic, we are learning to see matter as patterns of energy—not of energy as if energy were a stuff, but as energetic pattern, moving order, active intelligence.(READ MORE)

book excerpts

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Mirroring: A New Way of Understanding Yourself and Your Animals by guest blogger Marta Williams
By Samy AbulEla

Our animals can reflect our thoughts, feelings, physical maladies, and even the significant issues we are dealing with in our lives. A common example of this is a dog who acts hyper and aggressive around other dogs when with the owner but who is calm and friendly when handled by a calm and confident trainer. It’s easy to see that in this situation the dog is picking up and reflecting the owner’s fears that the dog will be aggressive, and conversely, the trainer’s confidence that the dog can be calm and have fun with other dogs.(READ MORE)

animals

Thursday, July 11, 2013

What’s Your 12 x 12? The Big Apple Tries . . . Small by guest blogger William Powers
By Samy AbulEla

It’s a little bizarre that New York City’s very first twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot, off-the-grid house — an installation called the 12 x 12 Project — opens at the Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, Queens, this Saturday afternoon.(READ MORE)

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