Benetton’s new issue of colors magazine has blindness as its theme. It’s available in audio format and in braille, which is great. The online version contains a number of interviews with and vignettes about visually impaired people. And in a fit of mad imagination, the art director decided to do the magazine in black and [...]
yule in moomin valley (trollvinter)
December 25, 2007 – 8:00 am
The Tove Jansson estate has a habit of taking down Moomin videos on Youtube, so enjoy this one while it’s up. In this episode, while the rest of the Moomin family are in the deep slumber of their winter hibernation, Moomintroll finds himself awake and unable to get back to sleep. He discovers a world [...]
body mandala
December 24, 2007 – 11:45 am
Several Buddha-figure systems of both father and mother anuttarayoga tantra have body mandalas (lus-dkyil). A body mandala comprises a network of Buddha-figures arranged inside the body of ourselves as a Buddha-figure and for which various parts of our impure samsaric bodies have served as their obtaining causes (nyer-len-gyu rgyu). The obtaining cause of something is [...]
mountain of light
December 23, 2007 – 7:47 pm
“Perfection into Light Itself” a lecture by Caroline de Westenholz on mystical religion in Louis Couperus’ “The Mountain of Light” (Berg van Licht)
The Double Single… O Bassianus, would you be the Elect Soul… I saw so many, but no-one, who made me think so surely: he IS the Soul Elect… For she must be [...]
seeing touch
December 23, 2007 – 9:29 am
Or: I’ve got theories….Been reading up on the brain’s sensory processing, mainly because I get very strange results reading braille. At first, the dots meant nothing to me, then I started to recognize syllables, then words and sentences. As my ability grew, I started perceiving the words under my fingers visually, in a way, that [...]
legong - the sky-dancers
December 21, 2007 – 9:01 pm
The highly stylized Legong Kraton enacts a drama of a most purified and abstract kind. The story is performed by three dancers: the condong, a female attendant of the court, and two identically dressed legongs (dancers), who adopt the roles of royal persons. Originally, a storyteller sat with the orchestra and chanted the narrative, but [...]
yogambara
December 21, 2007 – 12:17 pm
Samantabhadra is regarded as Adi-Buddha and as first Dhyani - Bodhisattva
Among the ancient Northern Buddhist sects and the old translation schools, Samantabhadra is looked upon as Highest Intelligence, a primordial Buddha, or Adi-Buddha. He is figured seated with the legs locked; but unlike the other representations of Adi-Buddha, he has neither crown nor ornaments, and [...]
j.c. bloem - going home
December 21, 2007 – 12:30 am
On a train. Time is passing in a dream.
There, upon the panes, sways the hour of dusk.
Once I have arrived where you are,
I shall, once more, be closer to my death.
But there I shall be placed,
satiated, in the lamp’s soft glow.
All things will be forgotten
But this one thing: to be with you.
This love knows neither [...]
ice fever
December 20, 2007 – 8:33 pm
A polar high pressure area is pushing bitterly cold air towards us. Minus 4 degrees centigrade during the day, eastern wind and pretty good frost at night, all of which means: skating on natural ice. The first races have already taken place, but everyone as yet hesitates to ask the crucial question: “will there be [...]
