Shards of Consciousness

Tanka #10

2009-01-04T09:53:23-05:00

the same old, same old.
been there, done that, a new year
finds me still the same.
do i change my soul, my self
as i change the calender?

Podcast 60 - The Victorious Breath

2009-01-02T02:21:02-05:00

In Podcast 55 - Meditation Breathing Exercises, I discussed two breathing exercises from yoga that are useful in improving your emotional and physical state and preparing for meditation, alternate nostril breathing and the skull shine breath. There is a third breathing exercise that falls into this category, the victorious breath.

The victorious breath is easy to learn, has immediate effects due to the oxygenation that it performs, and can be practiced in any posture. I've found it a useful technique to use when walking or waking up in the morning.

The Victorious Breath.

This episode of the Shards of Consciousness podcast is based on a post I wrote in October, 2007 called The Victorious Breath.

If what you hear is useful to you, subscribe to the Shards of Consciousness podcast through iTunes or the feed. Tell your friends about us. Let me know what you think.

Music Featured

Corey&Cosmo - We?re All Stars - Transcontinental Experiment Remix

Music provided by the PodShow Podsafe Music Network

Did You Know?

2008-12-27T22:31:04-05:00

Did you know mirrors
live and breathe, run and shout, work
and play all around?

Did you know mirrors
are not glass. They are flesh and
dreams, world without end?

Did you know mirrors
laugh and cry, eat and sleep, suck
at their mothers' breast?

Did you know mirrors
shine in your little boy's eye,
your little girl's laugh,
your baby's dreams, that their lives
are the mirror of your thoughts?

Did you know?

Podcast 59 - What Is Personal Development?

2008-12-18T21:00:30-05:00

Personal development means different things to different people. We may relate it to becoming more productive, attaining success in whatever field interests us, spiritual growth, or education. Personal development can relate to all these things, and more, but most of the definitions embody adding to, or taking away from, what we already are or have. I suppose this is inevitable. Much of the western world view is mechanistic. Personal development becomes an exercise in engineering wherein traits are added or subtracted from the personality according to plan.

In the eastern view embodied in yoga, evolution is seen in terms of removing obstacles to expression, much as a sculptor removes stone to expose the piece of art that lies within. From this procedes an organic view of personal development, whereby that which already exists is allowed expression by the removal of barriers.

In this podcast I emphasize the latter.

What Personal Development Is To Me

This episode of the Shards of Consciousness podcast is based on a post I wrote in October, 2007 called What Personal Development is to Me

If what you hear is useful to you, subscribe to the Shards of Consciousness podcast through iTunes or the feed. Tell your friends about us. Let me know what you think.

Music Featured

Corey&Cosmo - We?re All Stars - Transcontinental Experiment Remix

Music provided by the PodShow Podsafe Music Network

Tanka #9

2008-11-09T10:05:26-05:00

memories building
a web structured by belief
light prismed, colored
grains of thought, fluid, structured
flesh of dreams made manifest

A Blogging Transition

2008-11-06T00:31:21-05:00

As I've mentioned in the past, I've been working with a new blogging engine called Habari. I've had several sites on the platform - Cockrum Publishing, SagRising, the Ambridge Family Theatre, and my son's site, Ripples of Thought. Habari is still fairly new, though, and it was missing one thing that Shards needs - podcasting support.

Finally, though, the support is there, and as of now Shards of Consciousness is also running on Habari. With this transition life has become much easier for me. All but the theatre site are running on one installation of Habari, which means when it's time to upgrade the software, I only have to do it once. At the same time, each site is completely independent. All have their own database, some using MySQL and some using SQLite, all use their own theme, and all utilize different plugins. A simplified work load while maintaining site independence. What more could one ask?

Even though I've redirected the feeds and have installed a plugin to rewrite the links so all old permalinks should still work, I expect there'll be some shakedown issues. If you run into any of them, I would appreciate it if you notified me, either at my email address if you already have it, or by using the contact page. For that matter, I would appreciate hearing from you just to say hi. :)

Now, back to blogging!

Haiku #11

2008-11-05T21:05:44-05:00

slyly pretentious
the contentious slap and stab
smiles hide knives in words

That's the Song I Hear

2008-11-05T21:03:35-05:00

Today the lyrics to an old song have been running through my mind

I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms and keep it company
I'd like to see the world for once
All standing hand in hand
And hear them echo through the hills "Ah, peace throughout the land"

Worse things could be stuck there.

Podcast 39 - Tragedy, Comedy, and the Effects of Materialism

2008-11-05T15:56:01-05:00

Often, as we look at our lives and the lives of those around us we think Hey. This bit about our beliefs creating our reality is a crock. We've tried thinking 'happy thoughts'. We visualized our selves in different life circumstances that appear more desirable to us than our current actuality. Yet still, the baby cries when we're tired. The car breaks down when we had plans to go out of town. Our spouse seems more attracted to the movie star of the moment than they are to us.

I thought it may be helpful to illustrate how our beliefs can create our world on a societal level by looking at how a root belief can affect the development of a culture. In this case, the root belief is whether we are purely creatures of matter or not. Materialism is not new in the world. There is evidence of it in literature going back millenia. Until the past century or so it appears that it was a minority opinion. The effective development of physics from the nineteenth century led to attempts to use some of it's underlying theses to explain some of the whys of life, as well as the whats and hows. As a result, materialism has become a root belief for a large segment of the population in the West. The materialization and mechanization of the soul has had painful, deleterious effects on the development of our culture. In this podcast I use the literary concepts of tragedy and comedy to illustrate why this is so.

Shards39_TragedyOrComedy.mp3

This episode of the Shards of Consciousness podcast is based on a post I wrote in January, 2007 called Is Your Life a Tragedy or Comedy?.

If what you hear is useful to you, subscribe to the Shards of Consciousness podcast through iTunes or the feed. Tell your friends about us. Let me know what you think.

Music Featured

Corey&Cosmo - We're All Stars - Transcontinental Experiment Remix

Music provided by the PodShow Podsafe Music Network

Living Wills

2008-10-21T11:20:18-04:00

No one likes to think about becoming extremely ill, whether we are young or old. Unfortunately, it can happen to any of us. The question is then, will your desires as to what life-sustaining measures will be used on you be honored?

Do you want to be resuscitated if your heart stops?
Do you want to receive blood or blood products?
Do you want to have a feeding tube or other artificial form of nutrition or hydration?
Do you want mechanical respiration (a breathing machine)?
Do you want kidney dialysis?
Do you want antibiotics?
Do you want any form of surgery or invasive diagnostic tests?

To answer these questions, several years ago Pennsylvania legislators enacted Pennsylvanias Living Will law. Under this law, if you are of sound mind, eighteen years of age or older, or have graduated from high school or married, you can execute a declaration governing the initiation, continuation, or withholding or withdrawing of life-support treatment. The document must be signed by you or by someone else on your behalf and at your direction. It must also be witnessed by two other people who are age eighteen or older. In the document, you can also declare that a specific individual is able to make medical decisions for you if you are not able to do so for yourself.

The purpose of the living will law is to provide a legal means for you to declare your desires regarding the use of life support devices or extraordinary medical treatment before you reach a condition where you cannot make your desires known, such as if you are terminally ill or in a coma. With the creation of a living will, you relieve your family of the burden of deciding what medical treatment you would wish to have if you were able to make the decision for yourself. The creation of a living will is not a permanent decision, though. If you change your mind about any part of it, you can revoke that decision through communicating your decision to your doctor, other health care provider, or other witness to the revocation as long as you are competent to do so.

The law has special allowances for pregnant women. Regardless of whether the woman has a living will, the law requires the use of all life-sustaining treatment until the birth of the child, unless such treatment would be physically harmful to the woman, would lead to pain that medication could not alleviate, or would not allow the continuing development and birth of the unborn child. The state is required to pay for any such life support for terminally ill women.

To create a living will, it is recommended that you see your lawyer. You should also talk to your doctor. After you have created a living will, see that your doctor(s) have a copy of it, let your family know about it, and see that they have at least one copy, especially if you have named a surrogate medical-decision maker. The more people who know, the more likely it is that your wishes will be followed.