I have the habit on a Saturday afternoon to pour myself a bourbon, strike a match to light a pipe of Latakia tobacco and to thus apply myself to the study of whatever enthusiasm has taken me for the moment.  In the instant most recent, I happened to read a choice selection from Wordsworth, which I will hence share my thoughts upon  and a small selection thereof.  

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I recently rummaged through my bookshelf and came up with three books that turns out give a really nice sequence.  

Opening the Door to Bon by Nyima Dakota (an overview of the foundational practices for Bon Tibetan Buddhism)
The Awakened One A life of the Buddha by Sherab Chodzin Kohn ( a wonderfully clear representation of the life and awakening of Gautama Buddha)
What makes you 'not' a Buddhist  a really serious exploration of the core realization of emptiness.  

I hope these books and this podcast help in your practice. 

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Listen to "158: meditation notes - three books" on Spreaker.

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What are your experiences with 'writers block'?  When I find myself not writing, it is rarely when I'm looking at a blank piece of paper.  What gets written may end up discarded,  set aside into the archeological pile of draft notes, or re-used in a different context.  No, when I am not writing it is when I don't even sit down .  The space is there.  

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I've been criticized for using the term ZenGlop - -that this silly word trivializes the substance and structure of my work.  Fair enough, perhaps it does.  But ....  Reading about pre-socratic philosophers and their focus on the question of why something exists.  And if it exists, what did it come from . (The Miletians, Thale Anaximander and Anaximenes) .  The fragments that we have from 6th century Miletus suggests a lively discussion about whether there is a determinate single substance ( one of the elements) that serves as the source of all being.  or whether there's some indeterminate substance filling that same purpose.  It's a question that has driven most of philosophy for close enough to 3000 years.  Somewhere in there is ZenGlop.   

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Thoughts on recently finished composition for piano and electronics.  Also a consideration of what it feels like inside an MRI, and whether that's sufficient aesthetic inspiration (give away the answer: "it is").

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Listen to "154: notes on new composition" on Spreaker.

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We bring to each moment a set of insights, capabilities, strengths ( weaknesses) - - and even as this accumulated wisdom may be obscured by afflictive emotions, it is entirely sufficient to embrace a wise and compassionate reaction. 

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Listen to "153- meditation notes simplicity of available wisdom" on Spreaker.

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If music is a still, then I am a fermented mash ready to be evaporated and precipitated out as an alchemical spirit.

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Listen to "152: music is distillation and distiller" on Spreaker.

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