Fencing

The haywain. 

The world that turns around and around. And around. And around. Never to stop. For some it's up. For some down. Others enjoy, suffer, experience rewinding or rough years. Others see only a clear and blue sky. Question: is there next to physical 'law of conservation of energy'  also a law that says that total of emotion on planet Earth remains constant?

For the Christians life is a two-way-street: it's either good or bad. In the end the individual goes either to heaven or to hell. Nothing in between. 

What can we know? What should we do? What may we hope? Who is man? Those are the 4 basic questions of humanity according to a wise man. (Who? That's a Chinese garden.)

Kapuscinski: "And so the three possibilities I have mentioned have always stood before man whenever he has encountered an Other: he could choose war, he could fence himself in behind a wall, or he could start up a dialogue."

Back to basics? On a individual level it's fencing ones-selves behind a wall. Two steps ahead of everyone is that possible around the haywain? Or should we shift to another image? If yes, what image?

P.S. The haywain is the image in the central panel of the triptych 'The Haywain' (around 1516) from H. Bosch.

Sem Fechar. Sem Sarar

Letra

Have a Beer on Me

What can we learn from fighter pilots for everyday life?
1. Train like you fight
2. Don’t be both out of airspeed and ideas
3. Keep your knots up
4. Keep your scan going
5. Lost sight, lost fight
6. You can only tie the record for low flight
7. There’s no kill like a guns kill
8. Don’t turn back into a fight you’ve already won
9. You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take

10. A letter of reprimand is better than no mail at all
11. If you know you’re about to die, make your last transmission a good one

My favorite is #9. Just shoot! Nothing wrong with getting some bruises (#10).

Source: Ward Carroli

Delights

I love triptych. Mostly a painting that has two sides with a message: front closed and front opened. Sometimes the backside has a painting too (better: three). In the Middle Ages  the front was closed most of the time - I guess - because it was their way of getting the fellow Christians eager and willing for the beauty of the mystery. 

A couple of times a week, a month the triptych was opened with all it's colours and light. A very strong visual message of how to behave. Be good and you will go to paradise. Be bad and you will go to hell. 

Panels closed ... for me it's the Christian way of a Chinese garden. Seduce them to the mystery.

Panels open ... for me the christians are too black and white. The image of paradise and hell in afterlife is a wrong metaphor. Simply because there is no such thing. It's our 'homo sapiens' projection of evil to the Devil and Others. The painful truth is, we are "evil" here and now. Not the Others but you, me and all other individual 'homo sapiens'. We are sweet and sour. And if we deny our sour we ... 

P.S. The presented triptych 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' is from Hieronymus Bosch (around 1450-1516).

Full of Senses

For the ancient Egyptians to see their God(s), every now and then, with their own eyes in a procession standing on a litter, that's life. To see! Next to that they used all their other senses too, to experience and have direct contact with their God(s) here and now. To see ... and not to read a holy book.

Are we human beings not too biased when it comes to senses getting data for perception? We "common sense" people all are familiar with Aristotle's (4th century B.C.) list of five: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. But ... there is more. Better: there is more and next to that there could be even more. Never get frozen!

O Yes

Source of image: here.

Moving Silently

What is it? This moving animal in a black something?

A bird? What bird?

Here are original pictures of this #lovely #beautiful object. Mark the head and feathers.

It's a shell chiseled by some artisan into a bird. The provenance of this object is unknown (better: unknown to me). According to the 2012 catalogue from David Ghezelbash (page 43-46) is it a tridacne shell sculpted in the shape of an owl. Phoenician, around 8th century B.C. Belonging to an old private English collection. On sale, in 2012, at a cost of 220 thousand euros. 

Who made it for whom? Grandparent for (grand)child because he/ she loves birds and dreams about flying? A magician for his tribe? 

Why? Out of love for a (grand)child? For a ritual? A thank you for a God(s) or divinity  (ex-voto)? A beg for the ability to fly? I guess we will never know. 

P.S. According  to feedback from a birdman the "bird" is an Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus). Source image: @alamy.

You're Perfect

More on disillusionment and love: here.

As If In A Dream

Last nine years I listen mostly to MPB and fado music. Sometimes easy listening music in English. On rare occasions I listen to Dutch music. This is my #dutchtop10 of songs I like best. 

"Heeé! Ik was nooit op zoek, naar de vrouw van m'n leven. Maar als een droom kwam jij en ben je ook gebleven."

Since 1879 Banned

It's not suicide but a further form of enlightenment! The world we see with our senses is an illusion. The real truth is hidden behind the curtain.

Sokushinbutsu Buddhist monks take a path of years of meditating and self-mummification to become a "living Buddha". Their program:

• Step 1. 1,000 days live on special diet of water, seeds and nuts in order to shed body fat.
• Step 2. 1,000 days live on roots, pine bark and urushi tea to repel parasites in order to  prevent the body of decaying.
• Step 3. Step into a stone tomb and ring a bell once a day. Once the monk failed to ring the breathing tube was removed and the tomb was sealed for 1,000 days.
• Step 4. Opening of the tomb to see if the body successfully mummified. If yes, they were put on display in their temple. If not, they remained entombed.

So far, 24 living Buddhas have been documented. Since 1879 this practice is banned by the Japanese government because they consider it as suicide.