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Category Archives: Musings

Stepping in and out of Sync

February 14, 2014 8:29 pm / Leave a Comment / skunk

i’ve had many conversations where people whose opinions i respect have contended that mankind was created to be social.

—–

sometimes, under certain conditions, it can happen that a man falls in love with all aspects of life and existence (his own as well as in the world around him). he becomes incapable of boredom. or it’s more accurate to say that the slightest tinge of boredom reminds him of his curious fascination, and fascination dispels the boredom as instantly and effectively as light does darkness.

armed with this fascination for all aspects of life, a man without boredom may become infinitely patient. he is now an oddity in modern social settings. he loses his hurries and forgets their unpleasantness. he can find himself in what others may consider the most detestably life-wasting situations, whenever that feeling of waiting-for-something-else arises (the queue at the dmv, a horrendous traffic jam,  abiding in the lift line) and still enjoy within himself a fascination with the flow and function of life in his body, mind, emotions and energies. he begins to move more deliberately, slowly, taking longer to appreciate a flower, an insect, a painting, a story. he is more compelled to listen to his inner sensations, to be attentive to the world around him, cultivating receptivity in himself. he becomes less talkative (output) and more silent (input). in the process he may run a risk of becoming dull and unnoticeable socially, more solitary, individual. he forgets to move forward in the channels and ruts the normal flow of society has carved, and in doing so begins to alienate himself from the crowd. people get restless and honk at him, get pushy and shove at him, get angry and without understanding judge him eccentric or idiotic; and he has already forgotten about the inner unpleasantness of that hurried feeling, he is too busy savoring life to remember why his meditative rhythm pisses his compatriots off. he is in the minority, and may find that he doesn’t really mind it.

—–

lately i have spent a lot of time by myself. many hours of driving, some hours of writing, some self-reflecting to align and elucidate my meanings and adventures. spending time alone on the mountain, moving at my own pace. stopping in the thick of trees to hear an elusive silence. evaluating my present situations. no goals, no hurries, no worries. little to no social contact. i begin to experience a different rhythm of thought. it is paradoxical, feeling simultaneously alien to me and yet so much more natural and whole than the partial, herky jerky city rhythms i’ve grown accustomed to over decades of urban life.

my aloneness cultivates this rhythm.

—–

an aside, for the sake of clarity:

aloneness is to be distinguished from loneliness because they are oft confused but quite different, so i attempt to define both according to their usage herein.

1) aloneness, in its most superficial sense, is the state of being physically outside the range of influence of any other human beings. there are deeper levels of aloneness, which descend into the inner world of being.

for example: you can be alone and talking to yourself, browsing the internet, humming a song in your head, or planning your lunch. you might call this alone-doing. this would constitute one level of aloneness, rather towards the more superficial end of the scale.
towards the other end you might find such aloneness that is more free from language: thoughts, ideas, beliefs, worries, and plans no longer factor into what becomes a state of pure taking in, listening, experiencing.
you might call this alone-experiencing, or in an even purer state, alone-being.
such deep levels of aloneness are in fact quite difficult for a modern city dweller to attain or even understand, nearly impossible to sustain, and may take years of focused practice to get a sense of (speaking from experience).

2) loneliness, on the other hand, is simply a deep desire for companionship.

—–

back to the rhythm of aloneness: this rhythm is interrupted by more socially acceptable rhythms. the more urban the rhythm, the more out of sync with the natural rhythm of the Terrestrial Intelligence of the planet and its other dwellers. in fact, nature’s creatures do not fall out of step with their habitats unless we have somehow infringed on their normal functions. the infringements are born out of the rhythm of our thoughts, tuned to our social and cultural frequencies, focused on our conveniences and ignorant* of the natural rhythm within all life. this is humanity’s footprint.

humans sync more readily to each other than to other forms of life which they perceive as separate from and alien to themselves, and thus remain deaf to the drum that beats eternally throughout their physical existence.

i pause and feel the rhythm of my heart, and realize i’ve been ignoring its pulse. if it was up to me to maintain the beat, i’d have died of ignorance* long ago.

* – ignorance in the purest sense of the word, that of ignoring something (in these cases, something very vital).

—–

i arrive in South Lake Tahoe to find a social situation already in progress. it feels foreign enough, after clicking solidly into the groove of the road, to be a little jarring at first.

i don’t wish to imply it’s any less interesting or fun for me :)

from Oakland, CA,

yours truly,

Skunk

Posted in: musings, people

Snowism and Cultivation of Self-Awareness

February 22, 2014 6:01 pm / Leave a Comment / skunk

the Mountains are my temples.

snowboarding is my Guru.

the Snow, the Trees, the Terrain, flow with the grace of Terrestrial Intelligence.

i offer my deepest gratitude to the universe for this opportunity: the Awareness, the Life, the Body, the Mind, the Earth.

i humbly honor the possibility, provided by the generosity of Nature, by living it to the fullest.

canyons-top

—–

snowboarding can be spiritual in many ways. for one with an insightful eye, the secret laws that make up physical reality can be discovered by self-aware riding of water in solid phase.

—–

1) Purification of the Conscious Mind, Part I

riding teaches us that the conscious mind’s function is a simple one, made unnecessarily complex by entrenched beliefs.

for the masterful rider, the conscious mind’s function is to report sensory input to the body, and choose an overall direction. the body’s own mind* handles the complexities of adaptation of Technique to Terrain. masterful riding effects an ecstatic experience, a combination of freedom, love, and openness. riding becomes fluid, rhythmic, and effortless.

as an analogy, think of walking. the mind simply chooses the direction and records sensations. the act of walking is performed naturally by the body-mind. its functions include governing the coordination of muscles and also adapting the pressures and tensions of motion to the Terrain. the conscious mind plays no role in and most of the time is unconscious of the complex physical functions of walking; that is to say, it does not consciously “know how” walking works nor does it need to.

for a beginner rider, the conscious mind harbors a belief that it must first earn and contain the knowledge required for riding coordination and balance. this belief (expressed internally in a negative way as “i don’t know how to” or “i’m not very good at”) is false, as the body-mind is already capable of performing the necessary calculations. the conscious mind interferes with the process of riding by manufacturing a Fear-distrust**-tension reaction which takes over command of the body, manifesting as unnecessary stiffenings of movement and non-harmonious, energy-draining tensionings of incorrect posture.

even the fastest and most logically sound of conscious minds is incapable of processing and directing the body to maintain balance in varying Terrain; it’s too slow by several orders of magnitude. worse yet, in attempting to take over the body’s tasks the conscious mind becomes too overburdened to perform its own functions very well; those of choosing direction and recording sensory input. the resulting instability and wasted effort of incorrect Technique cultivate Fear energy, and the beginner looks down towards his body in instinctual self-preservation to no avail, failing to look ahead to report upcoming Terrain. the body-mind is left blind with insufficient information to respond to Terrain in a timely fashion, and the body is hobbled by unnecessary stiffness. in these ways and others, Fear increases potential for failure and injury exponentially.

* – the center of computation in the human system that – among many other astounding functions – performs the unfathomably complex calculations we refer to as “coordination” and “balance” and instructs the body’s muscles into correct motion. this center and other centers in the human system that perform calculations and initiate functions at impossible speeds are generally (in modern science and modern opinion) lumped together as “the subconscious.”

** – distrust in this case refers to the conscious mind’s distrust of the body’s innate capabilities, resulting in a tendency to take over functions rightfully belonging to the body’s subconscious mind.

—–

2) Mystique of Technique

Technique is essential to masterful riding, and experience is the only soil in which Technique can grow. as an analogy, think of a baby initially learning to walk.

this statement at first appears to contradict the previously stated notion that our conscious mind’s belief that it must first earn the technical knowledge is false. however there is no contradiction, because in fact it is not the duty of the conscious mind to learn Technique, but simply to provide information into the feedback loop by remaining conscious of sensations.

when properly fulfilled without interference this function of sensory awareness frees the body-mind to experience and allows correct rhythms of motion to develop and sink into what we call muscle memory. visual awareness of upcoming Terrain prepares the body-mind to respond with appropriate action and touch/feel awareness of the consequences of muscle pressures discriminates between correct and incorrect motion, and helps to record this knowledge into the body’s memory. thus harmonious functioning of body and mind is achieved in a perfectly closed feedback loop. Fear breaks open this loop, resulting in immediate deterioration of Technique.

—–

3) Syncopating Rhythms

riding teaches us a balanced, harmonious syncopation of seemingly opposing rhythms into a perfected whole.

in our appointed comfort zones – groomed terrains – Techniques for controlling speed, direction, and stability are developed.
this is a rhythm of control.

out of comfort, the wild Terrains of nature challenge our awareness, balance, and adaptability.
this is a rhythm of surrender.

a masterful riding rhythm is simultaneously composed of both, control and surrender entwined in syncopated harmony, capable of controlling speed, stability, and direction while adjusting and responding to varying snow textures, features of Terrain, and remaining impervious to interferences from Fear-fueled imagination.

the master’s knowing skill and physical capabilities endow him with fluid, powerful, fearless and inspired riding.

—–

4) The Importance of Efficiency

riding demands a considerable flow of energy. the beginner is plagued by the inefficiencies of misplaced efforts; tense, static, awkward  postures, unnecessary clenching of muscles, incorrect motions and constant resistance to the natural forces of acceleration along the fall-line quickly drain his energies. in the short term this causes much discomfort and increases chances of injury, but in the long term it naturally serves to make the body stronger and develop stamina.

as the rider masters correct motion and rhythms Technique grows in efficiency. energy previously used to sustain unnecessary tensions becomes available to him, endowing him with new powers and capabilities (such as the ability to perform tricks, ride at higher speeds effortlessly, and adapt to more challenging conditions.)

—–

the ongoing study of the functions and consequences of Fear is an obviously integral part of Snowism. while i have superficially touched upon this topic here already, this subject warrants much deeper observation and study. this essential aspect of Snowism will be addressed in depth in the (hopefully near) future.

—–

i recognize this material can tend to be mentally dense and obscure. translating the wordless wisdom of self-awareness into a language that can be understood logically is a difficult task which i can only hope i’m doing some small measure of justice to.

in doing this, my hope is that you, as the vicarious reader, can recognize and glean some general usefulness out of my writings. the fundamental purpose of these entries dedicated to Snowism is not to express my own enthusiasm so much as to point out the depth and transformational wisdom inherent in the process of learning in general, regardless of the subject matter at hand. whether you are a lover of riding snow or not is immaterial; the point is that with sufficient passion and focus, a dedicated pursuit of any subject matter can result in profound, fundamental insights into the essential Nature of our lives.

—–

to me, religion is a lot more fun when it is chosen by the heart, rather than dogmatically enforced by cultural and educational means. i recognize, as i hope you will too, the magic of an existence in a universe where any deep and self-aware pursuit of love and passion can teach us all we need to know about making our lives an ultimately meaningful experience. this, to me, is the essence and the purpose of all religion in the history of our kind.

back in Salt Lake City and loving it,

yours truly,

Skunk

 

Posted in: musings, snow

Again and again.

March 25, 2014 3:37 pm / 1 Comment / skunk

to be perfectly honest,

i didn’t know much about myself until i started actually listening/feeling/observing my thoughts, instincts, responses, feelings, and energies.

and i know,

if i didn’t take time out of my routine of economy to do this and write about it, i would probably have never gotten to spend quite so much time trying to say things that i really find interesting about life as a human being. this has been a very illuminating process for me.

so thanks for being here to read this, you awesome magnificent piece of Terrestrial Intelligence you.

—–

see, i bet you thought this was gonna be a snowboarding blog. but i must remind you (and myself) that it’s not, really, about snowboarding, even when it’s all i do for months at a time and think and write about.

it’s about consciously observing the learning process, the adaptation. watching my instincts work. my body moves faster than my mind can comprehend, much less control; it’s got a built-in Terrestrial Intelligence, and its abilities and scope are so great compared to the conscious mind with which i observe that i ironically feel almost intimidated by my own capabilities (capabilities and intelligence which moves every animal on this planet).

some people have referred to this excursion i’m currently on as “finding myself,” and i find the term has too long been overused into triviality; only once i realized how little i know about myself, compared to the amount of stuff i don’t know about myself, did this expression begin to feel sufficiently fitting.

—–

here in this coffee shop in Salt Lake City, which i keep finding myself in again to write things in places with signs on the wall that say “this is intended to be a ‘quiet area'” (under which people sit and have loud conversations), it’s sunny and spring-like, approaching 70. for the sake of a certain little known group of muscles in my right foot, which have been serving as the latest vestiges of unnecessary tension in my snowboarding motions, i am taking the day off. after all, i’m not missing too much: another day riding corny slush at the same resort as i’ve been doing these last 4 days; and more or less all season long, snowboarding over and over again.

and with such musings, just when certain thoughts voiced by friends and parents in the past (don’t you ever get sick of it?) float through my mind, something deep and profound occurs to me with a mental shock that stops me for a moment in my tracks, in this case halfway through strapping my right foot into the back binding – a well practiced, repetitive motion that i’ve performed dozens of times a day almost every day for the past 2+ months.

what occurs to me is that i have a bone to pick with a seemingly harmless and useful word that i learned as a child and have been using repeatedly and without much attention for decades.

—–

snowboarding again? don’t you ever get sick of it? the same thing, over and over, again and again…doesn’t it get boring?

in a former mindset, i might pause to explain that it’s actually not the same thing at all. it looks similar at a casual glance; but a slightly deeper observation, with a little bit of experience, reveals that of the hundreds of trails i’ve ridden no two have ever been the same in pitch or form; of the countless times i’ve ridden the same trail, no two runs have ever had the same exact conditions; that the slight variances in temperature, season, time of day, wind, angle of the sun relative to the aspect of the slope, water content of the snow, volume of skiers with various styles of riding, my own mental, emotional, and physical state (whether i want to ride fast or slow, tricky or smooth, playful and light or heavy and strong) and too many other “small” factors to list here, make for a completely different experience on each run. that no two runs are ever the same and they never can be. that in reality the same exact set of macro and micro conditions cannot repeat in our ever-changing environment; this is only possible under artificial conditions, like in the case of a scientific experiment, and even in such a case, under the strictest controls, there will always be some factors that cannot be maintained and are simply ignored.

but this time, i focus on this harmless little word, and am utterly shocked to realize how blind it makes me.

and this word is “again”.

—–

now i might sit here with my high-falutin’ ideals and extol the wondrous glory of our ever-changing universe, making each moment spent on the snow potentially new and fresh and full of an excited liveliness, but the truth is that i have not always in reality LIVED this experience. I have had moments when i felt tired of “this again.” i gotta drive for 10 hours, again? i have to go to the same mountain, again? i have to ride the same trails, again? i have to bend over and strap my foot in, again, just so i can make the same turns, again, and get to the bottom where i will stop and unstrap my foot again, to ride the same chairlift again, and strap my foot in at the top…again?!?

this word – again – makes it instantly feel like a chore, makes anything feel repetitious. and no matter how much zeal i had for performing an action yesterday, when it was still fresh and new, today it’s an “again”, and instead of finding the enthusiasm that powers me effortlessly through what needs doing i feel resigned and put upon to trudge and trundle through the motions. i resist and drag my heels and mourn my lot in life, to be doomed to suffer such a repetitive, cyclical existence. and before i know it, even my beloved snowboarding can become unconscious and boring, polluted by an attitude and a range of emotions unconsciously implanted within my being by this little, innocent, useful word, again.

—–

the power of what seems like a small, subtle, and insignificant revelation to become a tool for one’s well-being is not lost on me. may the association of this feeling of resignation and boredom with the tainted window of perspective created by the “againness” of things always serve to remind me that i have a choice in the matter. i possess the power to decide whether to stay in this funk of woe-is-me resigned choreful existence or break this warped window, look deeper with fresh eyes, and realize that this is a different run, under different conditions, in a different time, a time called NOW, and i can therefore choose whether to just go through the motions despondently or continue to take things as fresh, see them as they are without judgments based on my past experiences, learn from them and grow.

—–

and this shows why this journal is not really about snowboarding; snowboarding, in this case, is merely the teacher. but the lessons learned here can be applied again and again, in any situation, to all facets of action in life, and can thusly enrich one’s ability to enjoy whatever needs doing around them under any conditions. having the knowledge of the internal choice of perspective endows a person with options and a freedom to choose one’s level of enjoyment, whether on the slopes or sitting in traffic. and, paradoxically, while it would be easy to categorize this as a subtle, meaningless “mind game” that has no bearing on the reality of the external world, the difference it makes within the Juan doing it is tremendous and in itself has easily seen and far reaching consequences that affect his surroundings significantly.

Life, after all, is here to be experienced, and if you have the power to make the conscious choice whether to shuffle suspiciously through it or enjoy every moment, which would you choose?

—–

In the last post i promised a map and some pictures, but as is often the case my thought takes its own journey and i am helpless to follow in fascination. so instead, this verbose and probably obscure essay on the subtly hidden yet deeply significant power of words over our states of being came spilling out.

i did not, however, forget about the visual aids promised, and i shall endeavor, while i’ve got the day off from my grueling 0 hour workweek, to construct the map and go through and post pictures a little bit later.

thanks as always for reading.

with love from SLC,

Skunk

Posted in: musings

Endings

April 9, 2014 4:58 pm / 1 Comment / skunk

this post is dedicated to a dear friend and fellow snowist‘s ski season, cut down in the prime of its spring during an inopportune mental tea break in a Kirkwood gully.

Satheesh Kumar, with whom i’ve shared beds and dinners, heal thyself well.

may this ending bless you with rich perspectives and door-opening opportunities.

—–

Winter’s last breath goes out in whorls and swirls like a smoker exhaling in the cold, curling into vorticities around the edges, bringing waves of snow all across epicland.

Winter's Breath

in between the dervish dance of precipitations, Spring’s intensifying blue-sky-sunshine heat makes its presence felt.

the winter is coming close to its ending, but to the last bestows fluffy gifts upon the snowists.

—–

Nature has her dovetailing rhythmic cycles; take the seasons, for example.

on the scale of the year, winter takes its proper place, playing its role as a beat in a measure of 4 counts, like the time in our daily lives we spend sleeping.
taking the winter as its own unit, we can see winter’s internal triplet of beginning, middle, and ending.

thus in this process we call winter, we have established two different rhythms playing out simultaneously in harmony on two scales of magnitude.

—–

fractal waves of rhythms become evident in every object, process, and motion*. from this we can extrapolate the existence of a fundamental motivational force which is capable of providing a universal MIDI clock energy for syncing the wavy patterns that form the basis of all things. in our physical clockwork universe, it may be what’s powering motion on all scales in self-similar ways, from the spin of a galaxy to the vibrating manifestation of an atom.

energy is in motion. matter is in motion. life is in motion. thought is in motion. time is in motion. putting whatever is being moved and how aside for the moment, the existential energy for the movement must come from somewhere, and since all that we perceive to exist moves, this highly subtle and intricate source could be the basis of what we call existence.

of course i have no proof of any of it; what you read here is simply a slightly curated observation of a motion of thoughts through time from particular perspectives.

i sincerely invite any insight that points out incoherence, in the interest of further exploration.

* – this knowledge is used mathematically today to, among many other things, compute stunningly realistic CGI textures and topographies, in emulation of Nature.

—–

if Juan were to give the following any thought, Juan might feel compelled to agree that complacency and subsequent corruption historically tend to creep into human affairs. It’s prevalent enough in every aspect of culture today (especially on the dramatic worldly stage of mediaolitics) that i shouldn’t feel the need to give much more in the way of examples.

my intention here is not to criticize, but to point out a potential inevitability to it.

if there is a universal force that accounts for all rhythms on every scale, why should it not also account for those of societal structures, the historically inevitable rise and collapse of civilizations, empires, cities, neighborhoods, companies, corporations, great women and men, etc, as they dance circles to the greater rhythm of the scale of celestial clockwork?

—–

ironically i realize now for too long i was an astrological skeptic, believing myself clearly capable of choosing my destiny and action with disregard to the stars. but in light of this viable logical foundation for Astrology as a science, i can see that my self-assurant attitude prevented me from ever actually checking if the rhythms on the scale of my life match up to complex celestial movements.

this would have been the only realistic way to know. Juan must find out for himself.

—–

because after all, without fail, nothing existing in time can stay at the top forever; everything is doomed to its beginning, middle, and ending, its rise and its fall, the what-goes-ups ever entwined with their must-come-downs.

perhaps, on the scale of human affairs, the inertial tendency to complacency and corruption is a necessary manifestation of that force which creates wavy rhythms in all things, on all scales, everywhere we have ever collectively looked, and thus serves the function of a higher law of universal vibration which gives birth to motion, time, and substance.

—–

naturally Juan who hates or loves winter tends to love or hate the spring, which marks the ending of his hate or love, respectively, thus personifying in his being the to-and-fro motion between polar opposites on the scale of love, a motion that evokes the all encompassing ubiquity of wavelike vibrations.

—–

i cannot capture in words the magnitude of everything that this winter has meant for me. the freedom, the travel, the discoveries, the joy, the adventure, the neverending freshness of Nature, the learning, the progression, and the life dreamed of are a few of the fragments of meaning that come to mind; and yet they don’t capture the aliveness of these last couple months in my life. this winter has made of me a snowist fulfilled that cannot ask for more.

in the face of spring to come, with the ending of snows in plain proximity, i might imagine that i’d be feeling a resistance to the ending, a wanting to hold on to the gifts of these amazing all-too-fleeting experiences, and that this resistance would bring a subtle depression of spirits that would put a taint on my last few weeks of riding. in other words, the automatic swing of poles that we so recently watched Juan experience would take hold of my mind and being.

but as any faithful snowist can understand, this potential depression never gets the opportunity to cast its shadow upon my heart; it exists only vaguely in a limited manner of thought. with some flexibility of mind it’s immediately apparent that the ending of a winter is synonymously a beginning of a spring; and though i may have to put away my plank, i will do so not with regrets but with gratitude for opportunities seized and lessons learned, and that giddy-anticipation-of-unknowns-ahead-vibration in the belly we sometimes call “butterflies.”

because change is motion; change is life; change is energy; change is time; change is an open-ended potential for another glorious beginning, middle, and ending full of surprise, wonder, love, and learning.

and as the name itself connotes, spring is a time for explosive growth.

—–

in the physical world: i’ve rented a room in a lovely house in Wildernest, Colorado for the month of April. Here amongst the high rocky peaks i shall endeavor to transition smoothly from snow-seeking mode to an open-ended exploration of minimalistic living in the wilds of the western US.

more soon.

much love and inspiration,

Skunk

 

Posted in: musings

Subtle Meanings of Words

April 15, 2014 6:22 pm / Leave a Comment / skunk

i’ve been tending towards lengths-of-wind lately that i don’t feel should become too characteristic of this Journal.

but alas, in my heretofore experience in the endeavor of searching the secrets of Terrestrial Intelligence within and without and writing about it with some modicum of clarity, things can certainly get subtle and complex, and require so many words in the telling.

yet this may not stand as an excuse.

so one more in the service of brevity, a short hypothetical example that illustrates how a very small and subtle thing, on a grander scale or scheme of things, can unconsciously change the whole nature of an endeavor.

—–

The Meaning of Words vs. Telling Juanself He Already Knows The Word

So let us say i were to charge Juan with conducting some type of Research.

At the sound of this word Research, Juan’s thought subconsciously might carry an implicit meaning of the way he has most often known the word to be used: as some kinda tedious, bespectacled-lab-coat-wearing, looking through micro scopes and fiches, involving a lot of dusty books, sitting around in fields observing and compiling results of experiments, et cetera. and then the conversation could proceed to the topic of the research, and so forth from there.

thusly, in this Juan case, the more fundamental form of the word (consciously embedded in the language) is ignored: that it is a redoing of the search, looking for anything that might have been missed and leaving no stone unturned; and evoking the feeling of an adventurous delving-ever-deeper-into-mysteries, full of newness and questioning the foundations of what Juan thought Juan knew.

it’s a very subtle thing. chances are it would probably be missed, and neither of us shall ever be the wiser.

but Spiritually, in the Spirit of the whole endeavor, i feel that it could make a distinct difference. had Juan caught on to the spark of mystery in the word, he may have reflected upon it more enthusiastically. his inspiration would in turn inflate my own enthusiasm for the prospect, the two vibrations echoing in harmony and creating a natural dedication to the idea.

At this hypothetical point, it’s easy to see that setting out to research with one understanding  vs. the other changes the nature and potential of the outcome; that as a result of the former he might resort to the type of methodology described implicitly in his “known” idea of research, but the latter may inspire a more open and experimental approach.

the results of these two approaches to Research could then vary quite greatly out of a very small difference in understanding.

—–

the struggle to remain conscious of such subtleties is a noble Juan.

—–

coming soonly: i know it’s late in the season, but i got some footy yesterday, so a vicarious collage of thrills (with obligatory dubstep soundtrack) is in the works.

Skunk

Posted in: musings

Trees

May 28, 2014 4:24 pm / Leave a Comment / skunk

from a tree’s perspective Aspens are a blur of activity in the shape of a lightning bolt. other trees take time to concentrate their trunks, while Aspen willingly sheds his lower branches to spin higher out of the shade, toward the sun.

those lower branches will be useless anyway among surrounding evergreen conifers. where branches once jutted, Aspens now observe the snowy world through ocular scars.

ocular

What looks like an entire grove is in fact, below the ground, a single organism.

—–

when a tree dies in the woods, it doesn’t necessarily fall. it may remain standing, its layers slowly eroding, revealing the vortical substratum that underlies the formation of its cells and ensures stability in all growth.

in some special places where earth, waters, and sky unite, we may witness increased evidence of the raw twisting power of this energy grid upon which the flesh of things forms.

dead-tree03 tree-vortex-live dead-trees02 dead-trees01 here-be-dragons

—–

to minimize fear while learning to ride snow, a safe environment must be created.

canyons-piste

wide trails are cut through the glades, where we come and learn to get our rhythms right, trust our body, trust our edges, feel the speed, discover the point of stillness* in the midst of motion.

the safety, however, is fleeting, and during the course of some hours the turns, the slope, the sun and wind begin to form obstacles in the snow.

under cover of darkness the snowcats crawl up the hill, the machines restoring a synthetic flattened order. tomorrow morning we can return and groove our turns to the rhythms of the beats in our headphones, in perfectly groomed, predictable, obstacle-free safety.

but in the maturation process of every snowist, there comes a time to leave order and safety behind.

* – the word stillness here is used in the sense of being in a state free of tensions and resistance, a state of effortlessness, love, and flow.

—–

trees.

treesBC01 navaronne-solitude fillin-in-trees canyons-tomb-trees-snow dream-peak-wispy-clouds peak5-pow treesBC-snow canyons-trees0 treesBC02 here-be-dragons glorious-glades-evergreen-solitude keystone-trees02 keystone-trees01 breck-trees breck-trees02 breckfromkeystone breck-treepatch breck-treepatch2

they stand or sway in ponderous temporal contrast to all the fast paced action swarming around, through, and over them. they give off a sense of knowing, of experience, of stoic benevolence.

they inspire me to stop and absorb their presence. i sit, listening to faintly creaking conversations, and feel the rhythms of heartbeat mind and breath decelerate.

—–

there are several major factors that serve to push the snowist away from the open piste and into the trees, but for the sake of brevity (such as is possible after typing a thousand words) here we’ll only touch upon the most immediate of them.

what follows is an analogous perspective in the form of a somewhat double spaced essay.

—–

Evolution of a Free Rider

riding snow is a martial art.

as in other martial arts, it begins with a whole system of progression involving colors and forms and the careful studying of paths.

the ultimate goal of mastering the system, in riding as in ancient martial art philosophy, is to transcend it, so that it never actually need be used.

when a rider no longer requires carefully pre-planned route selection, the time instinctively looms nigh for him to transition away from the relative safety of the piste. He has now earned the right to be called “Free Rider”.

Evolutionary influences on riding

having entered the domain of Natural Terrain, our rider is faced with a daunting prospect: his carving technique, so tightly honed riding mapped trails, has left him. in its place, familiar tensions return and old fears hijack his ability to turn.

he must begin again, very cautiously, where evolutionary process begins.

evolution on all levels employs a mechanism that can be referred to as overcoming; first a challenge is presented by environment, and organism must find a way to adapt. in light of this, we can gauge beneficial environmental influence on our rider by his ability to achieve effortlessness in the presence of dangers posed by Natural Terrain; in other words, by the rider’s ability to overcome the aforementioned fears and tensions.

in instances of encountering Natural Terrain, such as

pali-gnarli

many dangers present themselves. chief among them are these two:

a) the limitation (or shortening) of path visibility considerably lowers – in some cases completely eliminating – any sense of predictability. the rider’s sense of security plummets and with it his faith in the capabilities of body and board. this chain reaction throws open wide the door for Fear, ever-quick to assume control of muscle groups and postures, responsible for the return of habitual tensions.

this challenge results in a tremendous positive influence on the rider. to become a Free Rider, he must overcome the challenge of lower visibility and plummeting faith by mastering the craft of unbroken conscious flow. in such a state, no matter what features or obstacles were suddenly revealed around the last turn, the rider’s gaze never rests on them long enough for fear to get a toehold. instead consciousness is constantly pushing the gaze forward to map out the next turn. thus our rider maintains effortless posture free of the resistance of tensions.

b) the rider’s practiced and physically established rhythm is broken by trees presenting themselves as physical obstacles and enforcing a slope-conscious flow.

here the rider encounters a paradox.

in Natural Terrain, the only way to maintain control is to relinquish the need to control.

the ability to turn at will (mastered on groomed terrain) is subjugated by features and qualities of Natural Terrain. the rider must conform his turns to the lay of the snow; thus the will of the rider must give way to the greater will of Nature, dictating where the rider may turn and in which direction, and controlling his speed between turns as he points his plank and flattens his body to pass between tight trees.

potential lines snake harmoniously through whatever openings present themselves in the moment, unveiling heretofore unimaginable options and access to untrammeled snowy perfection. such promptings must be obeyed by the free rider without hesitations being allowed to sprout from their seeds of internal fears and tensions. to overcome this resistance, the rider must consciously evolve the mental presence of receptivity to the mandates of Natural Terrain.

in other words, where the piste rider exercises his will to control rhythm and timing, the evolved off-piste rider must allow Terrain to dictate his turns, thereby syncing his rhythm harmoniously with the greater scales of flow of Land, Tree, and Snow.

—–

here assertive personal control is being replaced by receptivity. from this a certain association – through subtle cultural connotations – with passivity or laxity may arise; the reader is advised to take note that receptivity and the willingness to trust and follow the guidance of Nature in the face of uncertainty requires a very high level of actively conscious intensity. it’s important to clarify that any mention of effortlessness or ease connotes not  laxity but points to a liberation from tensions, resistances, and fears, heretofore unnoticed, that may have unconsciously dictated the rider’s actions.

—–

having thus evolved, our Free Rider now views many aspects of skiing from a fresh perspective. the map gains new significance for him and becomes more useful as he gains knowledge and mastery of the Natural Terrain it represents in reality. he realizes that the groomed trails he formerly believed comprised the entirety of the resort are in fact just a small fraction, and that the real soul of the mountain is much more easily found in the dark unknown sections between them. he finds his knowledge very small, and the world so great with so much in it yet to learn. new dimensions are opened to his eyes, always in plain sight, but never before included in his consciousness.

—–

the beneficial influence of Trees on riding conditions

the wintry silence in the trees invites the silence of snow.
protected from winds, the snow settles in bountiful pillows.
the challenge naturally keeps out all but the most prepared.
unspoiled abundance invites Juan who is ready in sound mind and body to heed its call.

perfect-snow-line trail-out-pow peak5-trees01 peak-5-glade peak5-hike

—–

snowy rewards await the Free Rider. a new dimension opens before him: depth.

he watches a crow alight on a treetop; orienting himself in a similar angle, he descends as if floating on clouds; effortlessly, gracefully, yet exploding with bountiful energy.

the overwhelming bliss vibrating in his chest is outwardly reflected in his omnipresent smile.

—–

someday soon we’ll switch to summer talk, i promise.

With love from Colorado,

Skunk

Posted in: musings, Nature, snow

Shorty

July 11, 2014 4:22 am / Leave a Comment / skunk

it’s just been too long, and there’s always too much to ever be said.

so it may be best just to keep it

really

really

brief…

at least this time, cause stuff ain’t always ready for the sayin.

—–

one thought:

to watch a flower grow
can quickly grow boring.

but to feel a flower grow from within
is indescribable
even for the flower.

—–

and my new hero and role model seen here deftly executing his 17th save:

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/07/tim-howard-rejects-fan-hug-world-cup

that’s a goal you scored right there, for Random Hug Awareness.

hugging must be reserved for when people are sincerely moved to hug each other.

or in other words,

WWTHD?

from Union Square San Francisco
of Assisi

Skunk

—–

Posted in: musings

Universal Positioning System

August 5, 2014 7:58 pm / Leave a Comment / skunk

I have noticed a certain tendency to check GPS as i drive into new territory. these types of things make me curious, so i looked into it. i don’t mean on google; by looking at my direct experience, a method inadmissible by the standards of modern science and logic as any kind of proof of anything, the very same method i find, ironically, to be by far the most realistic, direct, and reliable for interpreting Life.

—–

i found a niggling little fear that would periodically gnaw at my being in moments approaching mental quietude. a sort of self-distrust, that i don’t know where i’m going and despite having checked maps and read the next instruction i would forget or miss the turn, mess it up somehow and that this will be a catastrophic event that must at all costs be prevented from happening. and the way to quiet this small, almost imperceptible niggle of self-distrust, would be by checking again how many miles away i am from the turn, or what the name of that road was, or which direction i’m going in, and so forth.

this, of course, was a subtle process that i had gotten used to and never consciously paid any attention towards. and as such it became a compulsion, an automatic niggle-trigger-into-GPS-check, which would always tell me something i already knew as i had just only but checked.

to me, this is neither useful or pleasant.

—–

even deeper; and now it is seen that this is not a problem but a symptom of a more fundamental self-distrust; not trusting myself to remember what’s important, not trusting myself to recognize the right situation and know what to do, not trusting the quiet and innocent voice of intuition, the voice of the heart, or not trusting myself to hear it. this voice doesn’t offer justification or stand up for itself, and comes from a mysterious place; it can easily be pushed aside and drowned by loud thoughts full of self import and swinging emotion about like a bully.

and the reason for this distrust is this very distracting nature of these loud thoughts, which demand attention so frequently and carry so much weight of import and priority that it’s too easy to get distracted from very simple tasks well within the most rudimentary abilities of mankind, like remembering how far and in which direction the next turn is, or knowing what to do if i miss it.

—–

i turn off the GPS and see the map floating in my memory, burned in there by constant checking and rechecking. i’m a tiny dot on a line on the map; and the terrain, so much greater in scale than myself in my little car, is itself so small compared to the vast breathing planet the map represents; and the planet so small in its own solar system, smaller in its galaxy, and smaller still; each level of scale rendering me by unimaginable orders of magnitude smaller and less significant.

how small and simple, my niggles and fears, may they dissolve into ridiculousness.

—–

in moments approaching quietude…

why always in these moments? why go to so much effort to avoid quietude? avoid aloneness? avoid silence?

what moves in the unknown mysterious darkness of mind, beyond these thoughts, when i am silent?

—–

 

Posted in: musings, travel

Found

November 19, 2014 8:44 pm / Leave a Comment / skunk

There once was a little boy who was born with 3 memories.

a desire to float in space.

a picture of a soapbox.

and a whisper in his ear “it’s a game, have fun…”

—–

One day he stood up, looked his life, and he saw: it was decidedly lacking magic. So he decided to do something about it. Not knowing much of anything but gifted with an efficient mind and some patience – a winning combo if ever I saw one – he endeavored to unfetter those chains which bound his life and set off on a quest into nature to find the secrets of Terrestrial Intelligence.

—–

bravely he set off into the world, into nature and spirit and self and psyche, illuminating from within reflected intelligence of the world without. so slowly his inner world filled with light, he never really quite stopped to notice, loving the chase and chasing the love, dovetailing through time and space in the world of his story.

He had built a compass within himself, pointing to beauty and rhythm and balance and adventure.

and as peace descended upon his soul, he settled upon the shore, and found some quiet time to allow the journey to catch up with him.

and that’s when things started to get really weird.

—–

Poring internally over his findings pieces began to click together, forming larger and larger pictures, darkness weaving into light. waves and vortices swirled in his being and mystical symbols began opening new doors of perception. prophecies and random words from strangers began to take on curious significance. he climbed higher and higher upon the pyramid, reaching for the radiant object of his quest.

and with a sudden shock, the boy turned around and found his Heart Purified.

and the gift of his Heart offered him a choice.

—–

That boy, who spent much of his life throwing himself at his fears and reading fantasy novels, made his choice. but put yourself in his shoes for a minute.

Imagine being offered the choice to write your own story. To make destiny.

Imagine being given the energy to change the world.

Unlike you, my beloved brave readers, that boy was scared to death.

so die he did and in doing so, was reborn Man.

—–

The time has come for Man to mature.

This society of Fear cannot stand much longer.

Let Man now make his choice – for self-annihilation in destructive Fear or Utopia of Harmonious Balanced Love.

—–

Let’s begin with Alchemy of Love.

WorldBody

Blessings,

Skunk

–  – – –  –

Thank you to my family and friends for endless inspiration.

Special thanks Blush and Claire

more soon…

Posted in: adventures, desire, meditation, musings, Nature, people, travel

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