RIP Ravi Shankar

Indian composer and sitar virtuoso, Ravi Shankar, passed away yesterday at the age of 92. In addition to introducing Western audiences to the intricacies of traditional Indian music, Shankar opened the doors to contemplative reflection for several generations of dedicated listeners - whether we realized it or not at the time. This humble man set a shining example of what music could be for over 50 years. [NOTE: Beautiful obituary from the NY Times here].   

And Collecting Fruit

A companion to yesterday's post (see Counting Uvos). Grainy, black and white print shows Umberto Pacaya (see Umberto Pacaya) and me (on the left) standing in front of a large capinuri tree (Maquira coriacea (Karsten) C.C. Berg) in the flooded forest behind Supay cocha (see Caño Supay) in the Peruvian Amazon. Same clunky, heavy, yet locally-produced, rubber boots. Equally great haircut. Same large machete, carried with comparable insouciance. A magical time and place for studying tropical trees.[NOTE: I still have the machete, an authentic Collins purchased in Mexico].

Counting Uvos

Elysa counts and maps "uvos" (Spondias mombin L.) seedlings under one of her sample trees in the Peruvian Amazon in 1985 (see Yield Studies, The Water Was Up To Here, and The Importance of Looking Down). There is so much that I like about this photo. The painted blue tips on the stakes used to grid the area under the crown of the tree. The metal clipboard. The clunky, heavy, yet locally-produced, rubber boots. Elysa's haircut. The huge machete (marked with red bandana) that she is carrying with such insouciance. [NOTE: I still have that clipboard].

Warung Kopi

Found an image from the wonderful coffee shop, or warung kopi, in Punggur that I mentioned several weeks ago (see Punggur). Customers look pretty happy with their breakfast, i.e. coffee, a roll, and maybe a pickled egg (shown in the jars with the orange brine). [NOTE: Best part about this place is the view].

Earth Consciousness

A useful distinction from Gary Snyder:

There are two kinds of earth consciousness: one is called global, the other we call planetary. The two are 180 degrees apart from each other, although on the surface they appear similar. "Global consciousness" is world-engineering-technocratic-utopian-centralization men in business suits who play world games in systems theory; they include the environmentalists who are employed at the backdoor of the Trilateral Commission. "Planetary thinking" is decentralist, seeks biological rather than technological solutions, and finds its teachers for its alternative possibilities as much in the transmitted skills of natural peoples of Papua and the headwaters of the Amazon as in the libraries of the high Occidental civilizations.

-The Real Work: Interviews & Talks (1964-1979)

[Image of Earth at night is a NASA composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. Image made possible by the satellite's "day-night band" of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, which detects light in a range of waverlengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techinques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, wildfires, and reflected moonlight].

Painting at Bayon

Came across this young man sitting in one of the shady, back passageways at the ruins of Bayon (see Bayon) in Angkor Thom. I didn't ask, but I assume he sells them to tourists. Amazing detailed and carefully rendered. Fine work. [NOTE: In addition to his paints and brushes and paper, he brought a scrap of pink Hello Kitty fabric to sit on].

Dokusan Bell

Dokusan is a Japanese word that means "going alone to a respected one". In the Rinzai school, and, to a lesser extent in the Sōtō school, dokusan is a private meeting between Zen student and teacher. A chance for the student to present his/her understanding, ask questions about practice, discuss difficulties, or reveal who they are at that moment. A powerful, transformative, at times uncomfortable, space.

Image above is from the dokusan room in the Empty Hand Zen Center. Lower left is the little bell used to call the student to dokusan - or to signal that the interview is over. Sometimes the space between these two rings can be quite brief. [NOTE: The wooden stick, or kotsu, with the inscription "May All Beings Awake" was given to Susan Postal by her teacher, Darlene Cohen, as part of her dharma transmission in the Sōtō lineage of Shunryu Suzuki].

Lunch at Donsard

N18°09.598'
E104°55.241'

Putting lunch together after the inventory work at Donsard (see Donsard and More Red Lines). We were about 15 people, and I remember we all ate on the floor in a big room where the individual dishes were spread out on a split rattan mat. We were given a little styrofoam plate (such as shown above), but no utensils. Food was delicious, albeit a bit messy for someone not accustomed to eating with his hands. [NOTE: There were no napkins, either. Once you were finished eating, you just walked back to the kitchen and washed your hands and face].