01:33 - 07.12.06
kalachakra
Even with packing up two lunches for my sons before I left, I still managed to make extra quick time somehow this morning. The feeder bus managed to miss waiting at two stop lights which meant we made the earlier train. That train was less busy, so we made it into downtown earlier than usual too. The connector bus left just after I arrived, so I was knocking on my son's door about 20 minutes earlier than usual. My daughter-in-law was just getting ready to leave and answered the door with my granddaughter bopping to her morning rhythm. Just a pleasant way to begin the day. The day flowed easily too. Mostly we watched movies or music videos as we lay on the floor playing. My granddaughter loves watching Justin Timberlake - stops everything she's doing to stare at the dancing on his newest video. With Ms Stefani she usually is doing her best to keep in time with the music, but not with Mr Timberlake - just that engrossed stare. We watched Aladdin today as well. She still prefers Muppet Treasure Island above all the videos I've brought though. Personal tastes are strongly developed in her already. She pointed to the photo of my daughter-in-law's father this afternoon. He died about two years ago. Even though she's never met him, my granddaughter was quite excited and gabbled on for a bit pointing at him specifically. Maybe she met him in the bardo.
My daughter-in-law loves finding and receiving free things. Today a calendar from our federal government was the prize that showed up in the mail. It led to a discussion of the measuring of time when my son drove me home after a truly tasty dinner. At some point, I was describing what I could recall of calendars from the Jewish, Chinese, Hindu and Muslim cultures, all of which have more similarities than differences yet all of which have very different dates with respect to the number of the same year it is. He noted that there was a lot of talk about the Mayan calendar ending in either 2011 or 2012. Cited several celebrities that were using that information for personal authority. It was bothering him a bit. I suggested if the naming of a certain date/year as "doomsday" bothered him he could always decide to go by one of the other calendars, therefore rendering the prediction immaterial. I pointed out that the calendars we had been discussing were mostly quite ancient and in each system someone always managed to find a way to "prove" that the world would end on a specific date - all different - in each. Talked about the sun cycles and the fact that lately Mr Sun isn't doing what he's expected to do by scientists. Our life spans are so incredibly short that for anyone to declare they know when the world will end for certain is simply unbelievable. Not even computers are capable of doing the math on that one other than as probabilities. I wanted to check first, but I think that what the Mayans might have been noting is the date they believed was the beginning of the next precession of the equinox cycle. You know, the end of the Age of Pisces moving on into the Age of Aquarius. In a cycle that spans almost 26,000 years, the exact date of transition itself would be difficult to pinpoint exactly. Has anyone actually checked the Mayans' math? They must have miscalculated some other portents given that their culture disappeared in the blink of an historical eye. My point to my son was that it didn't really matter anyway. The world will end when it ends without recourse for the population at that time.
That segued in to a discussion about what happens after death according to various faith systems. Again, no one can prove anything, although many believe often completely contradictory scenarios with all their hearts and minds. That eventuality really doesn't matter either since none of us can control that outcome, walking into it blindly as it were. Even with the near death experiences I have had, I wouldn't have the audacity to say for certain although I do enjoy trying to put the puzzle together based on the pieces of information I witnessed at those instances. As we were talking, we were listening to Alice Cooper's talk/music show as we often do. I commented that even within different music systems we think we know we treat the ideas differently. I told him about the lyrics to the bollywood movie Asoka - one of the great rulers of India - where the heroine sings of her many past lives together with the king and her expectation of even better times in future lives when it comes to the point of imminent death in the current life. That shifted us into a discussion about the theory of reincarnation and the laws of karma and dharma. We had been speculating about that for about five minutes when all of a sudden Mr Cooper changed subject and started going on about reincarnation and the way some people all seem to think they were somebody famous or powerful and how that diminishes the entire concept. Smart man - this lifetime. Most systems postualte that each soul will experience all things over their lifetimes. That is where the Wheel of Asoka began. Hmm.
Time for bed though the cats are restless and remind me that the most important worship is of their own sweet selves. Whatever. Good night dear diary.
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