Grimace and Pride Points

For the early morning hot water I squeeze the juice out of a lime and drop the squeezed semi-orb in the compost.
The other day I dropped the squeezed peel in my cup after having squeezed the juice into the compost. That was a grimace point. My built in temperature gauges on the other hand are bragging points. One way I measure the heat here is by how hot the pavement, how much I must hop or walk fast, at the pool as I walk around to jump in at the deep end after yoga around noon. Another is how much sweat during yoga which we do with no fans in a closed room. A few days ago went to the pool wrapped in a towel and prepared for the day's measurement of heat, dropped the towel and started to walk. And then I wondered, why was I wearing a towel? I always carry a towel and put it on the table. I wear it to the drying rack to put on my swim suit, wear the towel because I'm naked. Oh -oh. Skipped a step. Put the towel back on, went back to the drying rack, slipped on my swim trunks and resumed the morning ritual. That was another grimace point.

Happy Good Friday

Death of the Small Self Day - cuke version

And it's a public holiday here in Bali as is Easter. Lot of holidays here because of their religious inclusion. Everybody likes em. Three of four of Ben's employees at Anapurna are Christian and they were off yesterday - but not the cook - so he was alone last night serving and making drinks and Thursday night is one of the two big days there. Great blues too. Our laundry is sitting waiting at the travel office nearby cause it's run by two Christian brothers from Flores.

Rosicrucian take on Easter

Overproduction, Overpopulation in Pictures

From the Guardian

Chronicles of CTR Important Announcement Receives cuke dot com Award of Excellence!

The Chronicles of CTR is the online archive of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's lectures and oral history. Cuke has been in touch with them and shared info since back in the nineties. Read this "Important Announcement" which was the first email I read this morning - then read my comment below. - DC


Dear Friends,

We are both happy and sad to announce that the Chronicles will be undergoing a significant step in its journey with a substantial (for us) investment from News Corp, and the parent of Fox News, controlled by Rupert Murdoch. They have kindly allowed us to notify our readers before they issue their press release tomorrow.

While this may initially sound strange to many, as you probably know, the news business is changing rapidly, and News Corp several years ago started quietly buying "trusted blogs," as a way to support their existing business. Their model is to put in the money to substantially upgrade the site and market it, keep the content people, and try to keep the user experience very similar, except for targeted advertising for Fox News products. As part of it, we will become a for-profit social enterprise, and will report to the New Properties division of News Corp. We will not be asking for donations anymore.

In addition, what you may not know is that Rupert Murdoch's last wife was a yoga instructor, and through her, he became quite interested in meditation. He is now personally funding a lot of mindfulness research and has, we are told, taken a personal interest in the Chronicles. (We have not met him but hope to.)

Despite our best efforts, we simply couldn't raise the money to make the changes to the Chronicles website and content that we hoped to for some years. We think the advertising, which News Corp assures us will be subtle and non-obtrusive, is a small price to pay for better access to the dharma. (The ads will be targeted, so will direct you specifically to Fox News shows relevant to the content you are reading.) Joanne and I will stay on, and keep control over the content, with only an annual review from the people at News Corp.

The one small change they have asked for, which is part of the standard branding of all of their properties, is to rename the site "Fox Chronicles of CTR." While not tiger, lion, garuda or dragon, we feel Rinpoche might have liked the fox.

Yours in the Dharma,
Walter Fordham,
For The Fox Chronicles

PS: Please forward your comments and feedback regarding this announcement to foxchronicles@chronicleproject.com. Your comments will be posted on the Chronicles home page -- http://chronicleproject.com/

[Read them! - DC]
--

DC here with comment. I fell for this. I forgot it was sent out on April 1st. For those from our international readership who don't know, April 1st is called April Fools Day. It's a day to play tricks on people, to fool them. Here's the Wikipedia page on April Fools. There it's written that "it is well known in India, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil and the United States." So it's pretty international. And goes way back. I told Katrinka and sent an email to a few that "I think this is the most astonishing and unlikely bit of news I've ever read that didn't involve violence.” Also - (Can it be true?) was on the subject line and "On the other hand it may be a joke perpetrated by a rival Buddhist hacker." was at the end of my message but not till son Kelly wrote that it was April Fools did I realize that I'd been April Fooled. I usually do an April Fool post on April first but forgot it this year. I repeat a line from my fooled email: God I love Buddhism! 

I often went to the St. Stupid's Day parade in San Francisco on April 1st to enjoy my stupidity with other stupid people. [cuke St. Stupid Day Page]. However, this year, to celebrate my stupidity, it took the CTR Chronicles letter of the 2nd - here in Bali cause we're way ahead of the time in Nova Scotia where they are.

Wrote to foxchronicles@chronicleproject.com

Dear Fellow Buddhists.

I fell for it. See top post on cuke.com's What's New for today.

Chronicles of CTR Important Announcement Receives cuke dot com Award of Excellence!

Humbly,

David

Med Sea Plastic Overdose

Plastic in the environment ain't just a problem in Bali - it's a big problem in the Mediterranean Sea. I wonder if we listed problems in order of their species threat and human survival and quality of life hierarchy, where this would go.  - dc

Bali Bill knew Arthur Okamura

Just sent this email to friends and family of Arthur Okamura. Adding to it now. - DC

I play tennis twice a week here in Sanur, Bali, with a man we call Bali Bill who came here from London in 1971. Somehow Bolinas CA came up in conversation and he said he'd been there and asked if I knew Arthur Okamura. I said that I'd known him since the late sixties, had lived for nine years with his prior wife of 20 and mother of his kids, that he'd died in 2009, and that I'd officiated at his cremation (because we couldn't get Mel or any other close ZC priest). Bill said that decades ago - late seventies - Arthur and his mate Suzanne Acevedo were here and they stayed up all night playing music and talking and drinking and so forth. He says the only problem arose when he put on a Neil Young album and Suzanne walked off and he learned Young was an ex of hers. Later Bill stayed with them in Bolinas. He has fond memories of their time together.

Arthur Okamura Memorial Page on cuke.com

Mangosteens - Brain Food etc

Maybe all those folks on the Internet are just trying to sell supplements, but it's comforting to read all the positive health benefits ascribed to the mangosteen which is called mangis here in Indonesia. I love em. So good and sweet and so easy to eat. Just squeeze and they open up. And as a result my brain will regenerate and memory and other functions will excel and more. Hurray!