Rousseau

Mountain Landscape, by Soga Shōhaku, ca. 1761-1763

Japanese prints make man small and nature big.

Rousseau is at the heart of going back to nature phantasy, that the Concord Transcendentalists connect with. By postulating that society corrupts and doesn't corrupt, he rightly points out that owning land was the start of when nature is not allowed to be free.

I was trying to explain to my daughter how the Portuguese could exploit Japan's isolation in the TV show Shogun(2024), there was a time when information didn't flow as freely as it does now. It begins to flow more freely with writing, then radio, then TV, then cable, then internet.

Rosseau wasn't so hostile to civilization, he says the opposite, forgets his repudiation like all good dialectic thinkers. Civilization is amazing too, helpful, supportive.

I feel a kind of tug by Dionysian ecstasy, and civilization. Yesterday in Madison Wisconsin, they arrested 80 revelers at the Mifflin Street Party (source). You are allowed to be wild and dress up for sporting events, Mardi Gras, Halloween to get candy. Religions want to harness this energy, if they're smart. Milarepa thought he got enlightened after a beer, after sitting in meditation year after year so that there were calluses on his butt. He wrote poetry and sang his songs. 

There's also unrealistic nostalgia in harkening back to an ideal time that never really existed. Going back to nature might not be what you really think it is. Our internal input is the most important thing we have, that is who we are. Some people think it's listening to God even. Uncovering our Buddha-nature. 

Small not on style, I'm no sure whether it's Buddha Nature, buddha nature, Buddha nature or Buddha-nature. Wikipedia has the last. 

Back to Rousseau. I found it shocking that he gave up all 5 of (probably) his children with Theresa to orphanages. Going back to nature was just a simplified version of callousness to him, and honestly I lost all respect for him.

I wonder how he could write Emile, about education, if couldn't be bothered to raise his children. Then I realized it was about how he would have liked to have been educated. An extension of his theories.

When I was younger, I thought the ideas were pretty important, but I think what you do speaks the loudest and crimes against humanity are always an empathy gap. That is the biggest problem and the most unnatural thing. 

Still, I like this idea (Strathern 2002, p.56): He specifically states that "in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, nor be poor enough to be forced to sell himself." The state should "allow neither rich men nor beggars."

Mr. Five Willows (Wuliu), Tao Yuanming 

Cunningham

 

Lilac

Eastern Redbud

Hilltop

 European Crab Apple Tree

Grape Hyacinth

Rhododendrons 

Tulip

Tulips

Dead nettles

Siberian Buglos

Tulips

Bugle

Wild Cabbage

Phlox

Lake meditation

 

Lake meditation today.

I was reading today that these yellow flowers Buttercups are invasive and take over so other flowers can't bloom (source).

I like "almost died in wilderness" stories. Here's one in the New York Times.

4/19/24. Yesterday I thought about walking down to the lake and I thought about how muddy it was, the car noise of the two highways bracketing it (Van Wyck and the Grand Central Parkway), the tire in the water (you can see in the top photo), and all the garbage people leave behind. Sometimes urban greenspaces aren't kept up well and they can be unappealing. I've been tempted to take a garbage bag and do some cleaning when I go. 

The fisherman takes garbage out, which I really appreciate.

I'm also noticing how dirty NYC is, so maybe it's my issue of the moment. 34 years living here, I sometimes am not bothered by it. I look at the clouds in the sky or see the beauty. Sometimes I get negative and see the garbage. Another layer of trying not to be negative.

Eclipse & Earthquake & Hurricanes

248PM NYC 

It’s partly cloudy so that complicates things:

3:06 PM

3:14 PM

In DC, my cousin’s shot:

In Queens NYC, the eclipse isn't 100%. Have to go to Buffalo for that. The next one is going to be 2079 (source). There will be one in August 23rd 2044 in other parts of America. 

On Monday April 8th, the eclipse starts at 2 PM, and peaks at 3:25 PM with 90% covered sun for NYC, and ends at 4:36 PM.

The next eclipse happening is on March 30, 2033 and will be visible from Alaska just after sunrise and coincides with the peak season for the aurora borealis.

The August 23, 2044 eclipse will be visible in Montana and North Dakota. The path of totality for this eclipse includes Greenland and parts of Canada.

I'm going to the library today to see if you can check out some eclipse glasses. They had a sign all out. I bought some on the street for $5 a few days later. 

Wow, just felt an earthquake: 10:24 AM EST here in Kew Garden Hills (4/5/2024), Flushing, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. Reminds me of the hurriquake, the earthquake during a hurricane. Yup, it was centered in New Jersey (twitter). Says it's 5.5. Some are saying 4.8.

Indeed, yesterday Times had an article about how the change in the ocean temperature could give us a tough year for hurricanes. Remember when forest fires in Canada brought orange skies?

Feeling like end of times. My Christian friend gets excited when I say that, and I back away. Jesus is wonderful, but I'm a Buddhist, and I'm just speaking emotionally, not from spiritual conviction. Causality is how I see the world. I can work harder in meditation, study, ethics, fellowship and devotion on the Buddhist path to get past suffering, which is symbolized by the moon I'm reading in How Karma Works: The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising by Geshe Sonam Rinchen.

Links/sources:

NASA Eclipse site

USA Today

12 Nidanas

Milwaukee Sentinel has a good graphic about future eclipses.

Fun facts

NY Post: "Total solar eclipses actually happen every 18 months or so. The next time the WORLD will witness this phenomenon will be on August 12, 2026. The path of totality will fall over Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and a few scant feet of Portugal."

Next Eclipses NY Times.

Bonus nature sound:

Bald Eagle squalks.

walk today

I thought that was a great bra in the sky, but jokes aside, I found the combination of clouds to be fascinating. This was from a week or so ago.

Cherry blossoms starting on Monday.

Above Vinca vines are used as ground cover. Vinca minor is also called lesser periwinkle or dwarf periwinkle. 

There were some interesting andromodus. Pieris japonica is shade loving and low maintenance. I think it's my next girlfriend.  

Cori says there's a double broad, lots of cicadas. There's a 13 year cycle, and a 17 year cycle and sometimes a big one of both those cycles happens together. 

I also note, some odd creatures have been washing up in bulk on California shores.

First flowers

March 11th 2024, Kew Garden Hills, NYC, New York, USA

Now I'm not out there finding the first flower, I just noticed this, so not making any almanac claims. I wonder if the rhyme should change to "February showers bring March flowers".

Amazing animals

Blue Dragons These sea slugs are pelagic; they float upside down by using the surface tension of the water to stay up, where they are carried along by the winds and ocean currents.

Axolotl These aquatic salamanders have one of the most incredible abilities of all animals on Earth: They can regenerate a missing limb, tail, spinal cord, parts of their brain, heart, and lower jaw, and other organs.

Dung Beetle Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. Some species of dung beetles can bury dung 250 times their own mass in one night.

Tardigrades survive in the most extreme conditions, including the bottom of the ocean and Mount Everest. Tardigrades are also the first animal to survive in space.

Colugo are arboreal gliding mammals that are native to Southeast Asia. Sunda flying lemur is also a flying lemur.

Sea Gulls have unhinging jaws which allow them to consume large prey.

Pigeons

The domestication of pigeons occurred as early as 10,000 years ago (Wikipedia). Pigeons have held historical importance to humans as food, pets, holy animals, and messengers. Due to their homing ability, pigeons have been used to deliver messages, including during the world wars. Despite this, city pigeons, which are feral birds released for one reason or another, are generally seen as pests, mainly due to their droppings. Feral pigeons are considered invasive in many parts of the world, though they have a positive impact on wild bird populations, serving as an important prey species for birds of prey.

My soccer team's nickname, which many reject, is the pigeons. 

I just read The Pigeon by Patrick Suskind, in which a pigeon in his hallway freaks out the story hero Nathaniel Noel, that precipitates a crisis, and a resolution. 

"The titular pigeon can be a symbol for disorder intruding on the protagonist's meticulously organized existence, and may be seen as similar to Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 poem The Raven, which features its titular bird perched over its protagonist's door instead of Noel's pigeon."

I think they've built a nest under and next to my air conditioner in my window.

Links:

That Time the U.S. Tried to Steer Bombs with Pigeons (Popular Mechanics)

Images

 

Seal Watching

 

You can't really see the seals in the picture but there's a black blob out there on a sandbar in Moriches Bay.

Atlantic Ocean

We went to Cupsogue Beach County Park and did "seal watching". Guy talks a bit about seals, turns out he's a bit concerned scaring away the seals. He has a telescope and you can see them through that. His camera zoom keeps turning off, kind of annoying. They wait till people leave and then walk down closer. We didn't wait, the little one wasn't patient enough for that. I saw woman with a difficult child and wanted to help her out, but I didn't. It's quite beautiful there and I'd like to go back there again even though it was a long drive.

He said in early times they worried the seals ate the fish too much, but now they don't worry about that, but the government used to give money for seal pelts. The Marine Mammal Protection Act put an end to that kind of nonsense in 1972, signed by Richard Nixon. 

Here's a video that is better than anything I saw with my eyes. Their photos link.