July Wrap

We had a fantastic July this year. Cathy and I spent about 10 days in southern California visiting some great friends. My girls turned 35 years gorgeous! I put some of our favorite pics from the month here.

Here's what I got for the month:

This whole pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain thing really keeps me busy.

Don't let her wardrobe fool you, she's hip, thru and thru.

This morning while laying in bed I realized that anything more than a face full is a waste.

Every thought I have
Every sound I hear
Happiness, streaming @ me
1,000 miles per hour!

I go down a lot quicker than I get up.

There is no baseline.

And now from some real people:

A Zen student approached his teacher. "I have a problem," he said. "I would like to start a business, but unfortunately, I don't have any money. What shall I do?". "That's simple," said the Zen master. "Why don't you stop thinking about starting a business?". Dainin Katagiri from You Have To Say Something.

Unless we are willing to give up our attachments, we cannot appreciate the priceless jewel of our true nature. Introduction to the Blue Cliff Record.

I've been reading Huston Smith's The World's Religions. Here's some goody I got from there:

Finally my brethren, for well-conducted people life presents no problems (p. 177)

Only those are worthy to govern who would rather be excused. (p. 178)
H.G. Wells once said that God and sex were the only two things that really interested him. (p. 141).

Nirvana: Etymologically it means "to blow out," or "to extinguish," not transitively, but as a fire ceases to draw. Deprived of fuel, the fire goes out, and this is nirvana. Nirvana is the highest destiny of the human spirit and its literal meaning is extinction, but we must be precise as to what is to be extinguished. It is the boundaries of the finite self. It does not follow that what is left will be nothing. Negatively, nirvana is the state in which the faggots of private desire had been completely consumed and everything that restricts the boundless life has died.

That's it for this month.
My best,
your bobJuan.

June Wrap...

We got some mountain time in this month. Cathy stayed @ her dad's mountain home in Pinetop for almost 3 weeks. I got up there two weekends in a row. We were able to spend some time in and around Alpine and another new hike around Poll Knoll near Greer with our friend the kevJuan. I'm glad she's back, we were almost out of clean dishes. Life keeps giving us exactly what we need in harmoniously glorious and sweet proportions!

Here's what I got for June.

As long as there is still something to do, boy oh boy.

This whole wanting thing, what a doozey.

Perfection awaits my presence

endlessly......

If it weren't for women or TV

when was the last time I showered?

Would I be wearing these clothes?

That's one pot

this kettle is not gonna call black.

I gave my personality the day off.

This is the situation I've been looking for.

I've said NO enough, long enough.

Repeat after me. Happiness is not circumstantial.

How much vanity is involved in thinking

THIS is not it.

So, we had a falling out

let's have a falling in.

My day is really simple when I ask myself what it is I really want.

The good life is not having enough money so I can quit participating.

I've seen where that goes.

Give me the ball coach, put me in!

I'm not going to rush this, it's taken me my entire life to get here.

I am responsible for how interesting my life is.

If you want peace, accept your life without conditions.

How can buying something be described as saving money?

It doesn't matter how many chances you get really. It's this one that matters.

And now from some real people:

One, seven, three, five.

The truth you search for cannot be grasped.

As night advances, a bright moon

illuminates the whole ocean;

The dragon's jewels are found in every wave.

Looking for the moon, it is here,

in this wave, in the next. - The Blue Cliff Record.

I did not want to live what was not life. Living is so dear. Henry David Thoreau

The mountain isn't going to climb itself. Bobby Royal. June 28th, 2010.

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened. --Thomas Jefferson

Inside the Great Mystery that is, we don't really own anything. What is this competition we feel then, before we go, one at a time, through the same gate? Rumi.

I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody. Lily Tomlin

They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it? Jeanette Winterson

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious. Brendan Gill

You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it. Robin Williams

Maintaining a complicated life is a great way to avoid changing it. Elaine St. James

There is not any memory with less satisfaction in it than the memory of some temptation we resisted. James Branch Cabell

That's it for this time.

My best, your bobJuan.