10 Replies
물 속에는
물만 있는 것이 아니다
하늘에는 그 하늘만 있는 것이 아니다
그리고 내 안에는
나만이 있는 것이 아니다

내 안에 있는 이여
내 안에서 나를 흔드는 이여
물처럼 하늘처럼 내 깊은 곳 흘러서
은밀한 내 꿈과 만나는 이여
그대가 곁에 있어도
나는 그대가 그립다

And though many of us in Southern California know we’re fortunate compared with most of our global neighbors facing environmental disaster, we also sense we’re living where humans are probably not meant to live, and the fire, flood and mudslide warnings will only become more frequent.
In the months after the fire, I’d noticed that some of my neighbors remained captive to what they had lost, while others were thinking more about how they could begin anew. It’s a matter of circumstances and temperament, perhaps, but the world’s increasing threats mean that we have to learn to ground ourselves amid the constant reminders of impermanence.

手をつなぎ道を渡ろういちにのさん
長い月日を駆け抜けたように

Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.
It is a beauty of things modest and humble.

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

If similar to myself, then you are still largely insulated from the increasing difficulties in the world. The daily reality we live is not one that either witnesses or feels, fully and constantly, the horrific suffering and destruction that is involved in producing our everyday comforts or our sense of safety and superiority. Therefore, we don’t experience any relief or even elation from knowing this system of destruction is being disrupted, will be reduced, and may even come to an end. If we fully felt the pain of our entanglement with that obscenity, we would be open to an openness and curiosity to that breaking down, including the instabilities, difficulties and hardships that will typify the rest of our lives. This does not mean we are against the industrial consumer societies that dominate humanity today or are even anti-civilization in our sentiment. It simply means that we are not only grieving their loss but we also do not see a useful role in trying to prop them up any longer. The multiple foundations of modern societies that are all breaking together, at the same time, mean we can choose for ourselves to be either breaking together or breaking apart. When I say ‘breaking together’ I mean allowing the breakdowns in our privileges, comforts, worldviews and identities, to allow a new openness for connection with people, nature and even the eternal. We can also allow this breaking to reconnect us with aspects of who we are that have been hidden under the social conditioning we’ve experienced since birth. We have tended to cling to the products of that conditioning, in order to feel safe, respected, capable and able to have fun in ways we already know. But we’ve got to let go and begin breaking together.

All known life is homochiral. DNA and RNA are made from “righthanded” nucleotides, and proteins are made from “left-handed” amino acids. Driven by curiosity and plausible applications, some researchers had begun work toward creating lifeforms composed entirely of mirror-image biological molecules. Such mirror organisms would constitute a radical departure from known life, and their creation warrants careful consideration. The capability to create mirror life is likely at least a decade away and would require large investments and major technical advances; we thus have an opportunity to consider and preempt risks before they are realized.

It would grow persistently, and we would have no way of eating it [or] fighting it. So the consequences for the environment could be catastrophic.
Unless compelling evidence emerges that mirror life would not pose extraordinary dangers, we believe that mirror bacteria and other mirror organisms … should not be created.