What are you reading now? - Page 31

maszac · 01-15-2012, 08:48 PM

Just finished tim powers the anubis gates. The book made me feel clever, pretty fun time traveling business.

LHM · 01-15-2012, 10:18 PM

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - Stephen King.

First time reading stephen king. Loving it so far.

The Don · 01-16-2012, 02:17 AM

Hey LHM! Long time no see buddy buddy.

Are the Dark Tower series any good? I've heard King himself called it his greatest work.

Right now I'm trying hard to read Manufactoring Consent by Chomsky, but eh.. It's hard to find the time..

shaisia · 01-16-2012, 03:59 AM

Just finished Martina Coles newest offering "the faithless" .Gonna start on "as the crow flies" really old Jeffery Archer

Qui-Bong Jinn · 01-16-2012, 01:04 PM

I've heard some pretty good things about the Dark Tower series, my dad read them and he liked them quite a bit. Just never got time to reading them myself, I am still consumed by a Story of Ice and Fire.

eldizle · 01-18-2012, 05:27 AM

The first two dark tower books were great, I got stuck on the third, and then just stayed stuck in the wheel of time after neglecting it for awhile.

I have a really hard time not seeing steven king as a racist after odetta.

Yeah yeah, just a character.

The Rev · 01-18-2012, 06:28 AM

"The Method of No-Method: The Chan Practice of Silent Illumination" by Master Sheng Yen.

The Rev

maszac · 01-18-2012, 07:22 AM

I was also bout to start the dark towers but started florida roadkill instead, i got friends who say the dark tower series is by far one of the trippiest kinda scary reads.

Rev, what in the heck is that about?

The Rev · 01-18-2012, 08:22 AM

Meditation technique.

The Rev

Wirikuta · 01-25-2012, 02:25 PM

I´m reading fear of freedom by Erich Fromm for the second time.

Terry · 01-25-2012, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Don

Hey LHM! Long time no see buddy buddy.

Are the Dark Tower series any good? I've heard King himself called it his greatest work.

Right now I'm trying hard to read Manufactoring Consent by Chomsky, but eh.. It's hard to find the time..

They're good, without spoiling anything I will say his brush with death made him decide to finish the series quicker and I think the last three books suffered as a result.

To me the series peaks at Wizard and Glass, but yea they are all worth reading.

kamikazi89 · 01-27-2012, 07:09 AM

Inherent Vice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Galt · 02-11-2012, 05:30 AM

Kami, if ya like I.V., check out Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade (oldie but goodie).

**SageTree** · 02-11-2012, 09:52 AM

"Jew in the Lotus" a real life story about a meeting of nearly a minyan of Jews and the Dalai Lama, in his now 'home' base of Dharmasala.

Major awesome so far as it really gets in depth pretty fast on pretty lay levels.

Highly recommended.

Galt · 02-11-2012, 10:22 AM

Sage, I expect I already know the answer but, the All and Everything trilogy, read did you?

**SageTree** · 02-11-2012, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galt

Sage, I expect I already know the answer but, the All and Everything trilogy, read did you?

No never even heard of it... I don't really read that much non-fiction, assuming this series is some sort of philo-religio-spiritual allegory?

I usually prefer to just read the sources and do my own midrash and exegesis to find meaning.

Tell me more, give me your take... why do you figure I read it...
Maybe I will?

I'll do a little reading between now and your reply

The Don · 02-11-2012, 11:18 AM

Couldn't quite get into Consent, so I've put that on hold.

Reading 2 books now;

Hitchikers Guide, by Adams. Felt it was time. I've heard lots of good stuff about it.

The other book is one of the most interresting I've read in a while. A book about literary criticism. My Danish teacher lend it to me after I expressed interrest in the subject.

It gives introductions to the different methods. Just got done with the Biographical Method, and now we're on to New Criticism. Can't wait for Deconstruction and Post Colonial! WOOO!

Galt · 02-11-2012, 11:19 AM

Pulled it off the shelf in my father's study when I was ten or eleven, but didn't finish them all til I was almost twenty. Your seemingly endless quest to make sense of it all struck me as being well suited to the exercise.

George Gurdjieff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
All and Everything - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Interesting man and interesting stories. I believe you may enjoy learning of both.

**SageTree** · 02-11-2012, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galt

Pulled it off the shelf in my father's study when I was ten or eleven, but didn't finish them all til I was almost twenty. Your seemingly endless quest to make sense of it all struck me as being well suited to the exercise.

George Gurdjieff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
All and Everything - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Interesting man and interesting stories. I believe you may enjoy learning of both.

Thanks Galt, those are the pages I read as well, looks like good stuff.

I don't know if I'd say I'm trying to make sense of it all.... but would tone it down a notch and just saying I try to practice meaning making in a light-hearted way.

Here is a story from Tibetan Buddhism about going with the flow and still living an intentional life:

First a little back ground, make of it what you will, then the story...

Quote:

A prayer wheel, or mani wheel, is a wheel filled with innumerable mantras and inscriptions wrapped clockwise around a central axis. Some prayer wheels are tiny, like tops; others are huge, filling an entire room, and one turns the wheel by holding its handles and walking clockwise around it. Others are attached to running streams or waterfalls so that they can harness the natural energy and spread benedictions throughout the land. The faithful believe that spinning these prayer wheels or hanging prayer flags in the wind actualizes the inscribed prayers.

The Tibetan province of Kham is akin to America’s Wild West. The people of Kham are great equestrians, and like all who ride regularly, they love their horses. Until about a century ago, Kham was carved into dozens of smaller kingdoms, each of which had its own army, raised by forcible conscription.

Quote:

There was once an old man in far eastern Kham known as the Mani Man because day and night he could always be found devotedly spinning his small homemade prayer wheel. The wheel was filled with the mantra of Great Compassion, Om Mani Padme Hung.

The Mani Man lived with his son and their one fine horse. The son was the joy of the man’s life; the boy’s pride and joy was the horse.

The man’s wife, after a long life of virtue and service, had long since departed for a more fortunate future. Father and son lived, free from excessive wants or needs, in one of several rough stone houses near a river on the edge of the flat plains.

One day their steed disappeared. The neighbors bewailed the loss of the old man’s sole material asset, but the stoic old man just kept turning his prayer wheel, reciting “Om Mani Padme Hung,” Tibet’s national mantra.

To whoever inquired or expressed condolences, he simply said, “Give thanks for everything. Who can say what is good or bad? We’ll see…”

After several days the splendid creature returned, followed by a pair of wild mustangs. These the old man and his son swiftly trained. Then everyone sang songs of celebration and congratulated the old man on his unexpected good fortune.

The man simply smiled over his prayer wheel and said, “I am grateful…but who knows? We shall see.”

Then, while racing one of the mustangs, the boy fell and shattered his leg. Some neighbors carried him home, cursing the wild horse and bemoaning the boy’s fate.

But the old man, sitting at his beloved son’s bedside just kept turning his prayer wheel around and around while softly muttering the gentle mantra of Great Compassion.

He neither complained nor answered their protestations to fate, but simply nodded his head affably, reiterating what he had said before.

“The Buddha is beneficent; I am grateful for my son’s life. We shall see.”

The next week military officers appeared, seeking young conscripts for an ongoing border war.
All the local boys were immediately taken away, except for the bedridden son of the Mani Man.

Then the neighbors congratulated the old man on his great good fortune, attributing such luck to the good karma accumulated by the old man’s incessantly spinning prayer wheel and the constant mantras on his cracked lips. He smiled and said nothing.

One day when the boy and his father were watching their fine horses graze on the prairie grass, the taciturn old man suddenly began to sing:

“Life just goes around and around,
up and down like a waterwheel;
Our lives are like its buckets,
being emptied and refilled
Again and again.

Like the potter’s clay,
our physical existences
Are fashioned into one form after another:
The shapes are broken
and reformed again and again,
The low wall will be high,
and the high fall down;
the dark will grow light, and the rich lose all.

If you, my son, were an extraordinary child,
Off to a monastery
as an incarnation they would carry you.
If you were too bright, my son,
Shackled to other people’s disputes
at an official’s desk you would be.

One horse is one horse’s worth of trouble.
Wealth is good, but too soon loses its savor,
And can be a burden, a source of quarrel, in the end.

No one knows what karma awaits us,
But what we sow now will be
reaped in lives to come; that is certain.
So be kind to one and all
And don’t be biased,
Based upon illusions regarding gain and loss.
Have neither hope nor fear, expectation nor anxiety;
Give thanks for everything, whatever your lot may be.
Accept everything; accept everyone;
and follow Nature's infallible Law.

Be simple and carefree,
remaining naturally at ease and in peace.

You can shoot arrows at the sky if you like, My son,
but they’ll inevitably fall back to earth.

As he sang, the prayer flags fluttered overhead, and the ancient mani wheel, filled with hundreds of thousands of handwritten mantras, just kept turning.

Then the old man was silent.

Galt · 02-11-2012, 01:05 PM

That was quite beautiful - thanks.

01-15-2012, 10:18 PM	#602 (permalink)
LHM BRINGBACKFANCYSYMBOL Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 1,777 Thanks: 90 Thanked 170 Times in 44 Posts	The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - Stephen King. First time reading stephen king. Loving it so far. __________________ Next time you say "I have nothing in common with this person," remember that you have a great deal in common: A few years from now - two years or seventy years, it doesn't make much difference - both of you will have become rotting corpses, then piles of dust, then nothing at all.

01-18-2012, 06:28 AM	#607 (permalink)
The Rev Adorable Idiot Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: There's no one here. Posts: 22,064 Thanks: 6,124 Thanked 7,238 Times in 3,642 Posts	"The Method of No-Method: The Chan Practice of Silent Illumination" by Master Sheng Yen. The Rev __________________ Budforce - My Friend August 29, 1973- May 25, 2012

01-18-2012, 08:22 AM	#609 (permalink)
The Rev Adorable Idiot Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: There's no one here. Posts: 22,064 Thanks: 6,124 Thanked 7,238 Times in 3,642 Posts	Meditation technique. The Rev __________________ Budforce - My Friend August 29, 1973- May 25, 2012

01-25-2012, 02:25 PM	#610 (permalink)
Wirikuta Decade Yahookan Join Date: Jul 2001 Posts: 1,092 Thanks: 86 Thanked 144 Times in 72 Posts	I´m reading fear of freedom by Erich Fromm for the second time. __________________ Pot doesnt create bad situations, but it breeds apathy towards them. The only thing in the universe that really rquires faith is a bad salesman. peace, Wirikuta

02-11-2012, 05:30 AM	#613 (permalink)
Galt Abandon all hope Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: On the bus Posts: 1,106 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 601 Thanked 697 Times in 436 Posts	Kami, if ya like I.V., check out Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade (oldie but goodie). __________________ "Don't you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person who grows their food?" ― Joel Salatin[

01-15-2012, 08:48 PM	#601 (permalink)
maszac toast Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: kc Posts: 2,019 Thanks: 1,744 Thanked 329 Times in 200 Posts	Just finished tim powers the anubis gates. The book made me feel clever, pretty fun time traveling business.

01-16-2012, 02:17 AM	#603 (permalink)
The Don You follow? Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 10,947 Thanks: 522 Thanked 757 Times in 413 Posts	Hey LHM! Long time no see buddy buddy. Are the Dark Tower series any good? I've heard King himself called it his greatest work. Right now I'm trying hard to read Manufactoring Consent by Chomsky, but eh.. It's hard to find the time..

01-16-2012, 03:59 AM	#604 (permalink)
shaisia YaHookan Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Spain Posts: 30 Thanks: 2 Thanked 10 Times in 8 Posts	Just finished Martina Coles newest offering "the faithless" .Gonna start on "as the crow flies" really old Jeffery Archer

01-16-2012, 01:04 PM	#605 (permalink)
Qui-Bong Jinn Jedi High Council Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Kingston, Ontario Posts: 2,895 Thanks: 1,197 Thanked 804 Times in 576 Posts	I've heard some pretty good things about the Dark Tower series, my dad read them and he liked them quite a bit. Just never got time to reading them myself, I am still consumed by a Story of Ice and Fire.

01-18-2012, 05:27 AM	#606 (permalink)
eldizle Love. Share it. Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Tampa Posts: 6,923 Thanks: 1,841 Thanked 1,276 Times in 741 Posts	The first two dark tower books were great, I got stuck on the third, and then just stayed stuck in the wheel of time after neglecting it for awhile. I have a really hard time not seeing steven king as a racist after odetta. Yeah yeah, just a character.

01-18-2012, 07:22 AM	#608 (permalink)
maszac toast Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: kc Posts: 2,019 Thanks: 1,744 Thanked 329 Times in 200 Posts	I was also bout to start the dark towers but started florida roadkill instead, i got friends who say the dark tower series is by far one of the trippiest kinda scary reads. Rev, what in the heck is that about?

02-11-2012, 09:52 AM	#614 (permalink)
SageTree Kalyāṇa-mitrā Join Date: Sep 2000 Posts: 28,085 Blog Entries: 26 Thanks: 15,877 Thanked 9,700 Times in 6,369 Posts	"Jew in the Lotus" a real life story about a meeting of nearly a minyan of Jews and the Dalai Lama, in his now 'home' base of Dharmasala. Major awesome so far as it really gets in depth pretty fast on pretty lay levels. Highly recommended. __________________ Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder. ~Rumi~

02-11-2012, 10:22 AM	#615 (permalink)
Galt Abandon all hope Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: On the bus Posts: 1,106 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 601 Thanked 697 Times in 436 Posts	Sage, I expect I already know the answer but, the All and Everything trilogy, read did you? __________________ "Don't you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person who grows their food?" ― Joel Salatin[

02-11-2012, 11:18 AM	#617 (permalink)
The Don You follow? Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 10,947 Thanks: 522 Thanked 757 Times in 413 Posts	Couldn't quite get into Consent, so I've put that on hold. Reading 2 books now; Hitchikers Guide, by Adams. Felt it was time. I've heard lots of good stuff about it. The other book is one of the most interresting I've read in a while. A book about literary criticism. My Danish teacher lend it to me after I expressed interrest in the subject. It gives introductions to the different methods. Just got done with the Biographical Method, and now we're on to New Criticism. Can't wait for Deconstruction and Post Colonial! WOOO! __________________ I am genuienly sad about my thanks:post ratio

02-11-2012, 11:19 AM	#618 (permalink)
Galt Abandon all hope Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: On the bus Posts: 1,106 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 601 Thanked 697 Times in 436 Posts	Pulled it off the shelf in my father's study when I was ten or eleven, but didn't finish them all til I was almost twenty. Your seemingly endless quest to make sense of it all struck me as being well suited to the exercise. George Gurdjieff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia All and Everything - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Interesting man and interesting stories. I believe you may enjoy learning of both. __________________ "Don't you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person who grows their food?" ― Joel Salatin[

02-11-2012, 01:05 PM	#620 (permalink)
Galt Abandon all hope Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: On the bus Posts: 1,106 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 601 Thanked 697 Times in 436 Posts	That was quite beautiful - thanks. __________________ "Don't you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person who grows their food?" ― Joel Salatin[

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