song of the day: Prelude, Bach's 4th Lute Suite
word of the day: grinagog (a person who is always grinning, especially foolishly without cause)
monk of the day: rob berg (who's done wonderful things)

i've been trying out a new practice this week- well actually it's not a "real" practice, it's just something i made up- i call 'orders of magnification'. a couple dozen times a day, could be a moment characterized by anything- frustration, peace, joy, anger, lethargy, body sensations, thoughts, thoughtless space- i stop and soak just put my full awareness on it for a bit. then, i widen the aperture of my awareness by about TEN SQAURE FEET (one 'order of magnification'), and i include what exists in that space around me (other life forms like bugs or people, what they might be experiencing, what their lives are like at this moment, all the life forms inside of them- bacteria, viruses- all the consituent parts that make up inert matter- all the inert matter that gives rise to life in the continuum. i try to pay attention to the visible and the invisible energy in that ten square feet too- what unseen energy or forces may be at work in this zone- if i have such a host of invisible qualities (emotion, thoughts, soul, etc) then what might there be for all the infinite space in the ten feet around me? after a while, i bring the order of magnification up to TEN SQUARE MILES and do the same thing, and so on with 1000 square miles, 10,000, then the whole planet, and on out into infinite space. it's just orders of magnification on perspectives, and i try to keep it going in both directions (down to sub atomic particles, up to parsecs in infinite space, but also always including the invisible domains (left hand quadrants). i also like to do this with measurements of time. when i start freaking out, i create an "envelope" of time that expands in two directions- one that reaches into the "past" five minutes and into the "future" five minutes (which is actually a TEN MINUTE envelope- one order of magnification). what was the state of my awareness five minutes ago? how have things changed in the last five minutes? what could possibly change in the next five minutes? this one is more 'the observance of states'- but is still using the orders of magnification. when i have sat in that ten minute envelope- i expand it to TEN HOURS- what happened in the last five hours in my life, in the life of my family and friends, in the culture, the World community? what is the possibility for the next five hours in all our lives, the biosphere? how many living beings will pass in and out of existence on this World in that ten hour envelope? millions, probably. am i aware of them? am i present with them, or will i allow my awareness to collapse into the narrow chimera of my seperate "self". when it does collapse, how long will it take to simply recognize the natural condition again? then the order of magnifciation moves to TEN YEARS, (what has happened in the last five years, what about the next five years?) then, ONE HUNDRED YEARS, TEN THOUSAND, A MILLION- to allow this to naturally expand outward and inward in all directions, all domains- visible and invisible- is helpful in restoring and hopefully stabilizing actual context, authentic perspective. the whole while, remembering to feel these feet touching the ground.