Alan Moore on writing and magick

Klint Finley
via http://mutateweb.com/archives/2005/02/16/alan-moore-on-writing-and-magick/
New Alan Moore interview:
AM: I’ll give a brief recap in case we feel we missed anything. Magic and language are practically the same thing, they would at least have been regarded as such in our distant past. I think it is wisest and safest to treat them as if they are the same [...]

Write Magick

Manipulating the field of perception . . . Shamanic trance postures, sending the unstruck note via written word into your blood stream . . .  Scrying the dark side of the brain . . . coaxing whispers from the spaces between the emptiness neurons . . . Buddhism
Brion Gysin, William Burroughs, Ray Bradbury. . .
“i [...]

Jack Kerouac’s Essentials of Spontaneous Prose

Via http://www.languageisavirus.com/
SET-UP
The object is set before the mind, either in reality. as in sketching (before a landscape or teacup or old face) or is set in the memory wherein it becomes the sketching from memory of a definite image-object.
PROCEDURE
Time being of the essence in the purity of speech, sketching language is undisturbed flow from the [...]

further and further

EXPLORING OUR CONFUSION
—–Leonard Jacobs
In our own lives, we feel a sense of confusion — it seems to be confusion — but that confusion brings out something that is worth exploring. The questions that we ask in the midst of our confusion are potent questions, questions that we really have. We ask: “Who am I? What [...]

You do not just want to work with chicken shit

 Lojong writing prompts email reminders from http://lojongmindtraining.com/
Work With the Greatest Defilements First
You should work with whatever is your greatest obstacle first – whether it is aggression, passion, pride, arrogance, jealousy, or what have you. You should not just say “I will sit more first, and I will deal with that later.” Working with the greatest [...]

Change Your Attitude, but Remain Natural

Lojong writing prompts email reminder from http://lojongmindtraining.com/
Change Your Attitude, but Remain Natural
Generally, our attitude is that we always want to protect our own territory first. We want to preserve our own ground – others come afterward. The point of this slogan is to change that attitude around, so that we reflect on others first and [...]

refraining from outrageous action

Todays Lojong writing prompts email reminder from http://lojongmindtraining.com/
Always Abide by the Three Basic Principles
The three basic principles are also described as [1] keeping the two vows, [2] refraining from outrageous action, and [3] developing patience.
The first is keeping the promises you made when you took the refuge and Bodhisattva vows, keeping them completely. This one [...]

Lojong email reminder clump prompts

 Another email reminder clump from http://lojongmindtraining.com/
If You can Practice Even When Distracted, You are Well Trained
The idea of this slogan is the realization that whenever situations of an ordinary nature or extraordinary nature come up – our pot boiled over, or our steak is turned to charcoal, or suddenly we slip and lose our grasp [...]

Whatever You Meet Unexpectedly, Join With Meditation

Todays email reminder from http://lojongmindtraining.com/
Whatever You Meet Unexpectedly, Join With Meditation
The idea is that whatever comes up is not a sudden threat or an encouragement or any of that bullshit. Instead it simply goes along with one’s discipline, one’s awareness of compassion. If somebody hits you in the face, that’s fine…
Generally speaking, Western audiences have [...]

a fine smoky tea

Another pot of tea arrives, as they continue the discussion. Seven pots of tea so far, working on number eight.
ah . . . it is a fine smoky tea.
“So what is it exactly that is getting to you? I hear all the stories you are telling me, but I sense that you aren’t telling me [...]

Lojong Writing Prompts

Todays email reminder from http://lojongmindtraining.com/
Seeing Confusion as the Four Kayas is Unsurpassable Shunyata Protection
The reason that the four kayas become a great protection is that we begin to realize the way our mind functions, our state of being. We realize that whatever comes up in our mind is always subject to that flow, that [...]

Be Grateful to Everyone

email reminder from http://lojongmindtraining.com/
Be Grateful to Everyone
So in a sense all the things taking place around us, all the irritations and all the problems, are crucial. Without others we cannot attain enlightenment – in fact, we cannot even tread on the path. In other words, we could say that if there is no [...]

Ask and it will be given to you

Matthew 7:7
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
So I asked, “in what ways might language be a virus from outer space?”
The first answer to begin unveiling this interconnection arrives via http://www.futurehi.net/archives/000060.html 
Is Humanity Being Hacked?
Sometimes when I am in deep meditation [...]

Dancing the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

I wish that I didn’t have to be an ancient, reincarnated, bristle cone, grandfather, guru. I get tired of already knowing everyone and everything. Sometimes I can forget and everything is new and unknown, it’s a different kind of magick when all things are new and unknown. This time I was fortunate enough to cover [...]

email reminder clump

Todays email reminders from http://lojongmindtraining.com/ are actually a compilation of several days. I have been away from the computer for a few days and my email has piled up. I considered to stop posting these, but the act of posting these has actually prodded me to at least think about writing more regularly. While away [...]

Lists of feelings and needs

I have been contemplating and studying a couple of lists from a web site on Nonviolent Communication. I am finding that in studying communication, language, psychology and group work, I am coming across some great material that can also be used for writing, character development and the like.
Here are a couple lists . . .
feelings [...]

Sending and Taking Should Be Practiced Alternately.

Todays email reminders from http://lojongmindtraining.com/
Sending and Taking Should Be Practiced Alternately. These Two Should Ride the Breath
Sending and taking is a very important practice of the Boddhisattva path. It is called tonglen in Tibetan: ‘tong’ means ’sending out’ or ‘letting go’ and ‘len’ means ‘receiving’ or ‘accepting’. ‘Tonglen’ is a very important term; you should [...]

In Postmeditation, Be a Child of Illusion

Todays email reminders from http://lojongmindtraining.com/
In Postmeditation, Be a Child of Illusion
Illusion does not mean haziness, confusion, or mirage. Being a child of illusion means that you continue what you have experienced in your sitting practice [resting in the nature of alaya] into postmeditation experience.
You realize that after sitting practice, you do not have to [...]

Rest in the Nature of Alaya, the Essence

 Todays email reminders from http://lojongmindtraining.com/
Rest in the Nature of Alaya, the Essence
The first six types of consciousness are the sensory perceptions: …eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind consciousness. The seventh type of consciousness, nuisance mind, is a kind of conglomeration called nyon-yi.
The idea of resting one’s mind in the basic alaya is to free [...]

Self-liberate Even the Antidote

 Todays email reminders from http://lojongmindtraining.com/
Self-liberate Even the Antidote
The antidote is the realization that our discursive thoughts have no origin… But we need to go beyond that antidote. We should not hang on the so-what-ness of it, the naivete of it.
The idea of the antidote is that everything is empty, so you have nothing to care [...]

Author Unknown

The following post was pilloried  from http://dailylight.wordpress.com/2007/12/26/reading-70-from-divine-remembrance/
I am including here because it fits in perfectly with the tonglen and lojong postings and is yet more great material that may prod me to writing.
Enjoy!

Heavenly Father, Help us
remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours [...]

Examine the Nature of Unborn Awareness

 Todays email reminders from http://lojongmindtraining.com/

Look at your basic mind, just simple awareness which is not divided into sections, the thinking process that exists within you. Just look at that, see that.
The reason our mind is known as UNBORN awareness is that we have no idea of its history. We have no idea where this mind, [...]

Daily Reminders; Regard All Dharmas as Dreams

Another thing about these email reminders is that they are in the order that they are found in the book that they are taken from, just so you know.                   Available from . . . http://lojongmindtraining.com/
Regard All Dharmas as Dreams
You can experience that dreamlike quality by relating with sitting meditation practice. When you are reflecting on [...]

a virus from outer space

a la: http://www.acjournal.org/holdings/vol6/iss3/responses/attias/virus.html
“Language,” William S. Burroughs reminded us, “is a virus from outer space.” Performance artist Laurie Anderson adds, “That’s why I’d rather hear your name than see your face.” This metaphor captures [...]