From The Study...a conversation of possibilities

A Political Drama Play
Written by: Amy G. Dala

The Amygdala is a small almond-shaped lobe in the brain that functions as the brain's primary Fear Processor.  The Amygdala is part of the R-Complex, the most primitive subsystem of the brain.

Most of our political drama is driven by the machinations of the Amygdala.  We don't like to talk about our fears, so the higher centers of the brain do one of two things.  We either map Fear directly onto Hate (e.g. xenophobia) or we semantically invert our Dreads into reciprocal Desires and claim to be pursuing our Desires (rather than running away from our Dreads).

When the Amygdala goes into overdrive, we get the worst of all politics, the hateful politics of Fascism.

Sometimes you just gotta tell your bloody Amygdala to chill out.

Unless, of course, you have an insatiable appetite for shreklisch political drama.

The End... Don't forget to vote...Amy G. Dala

Lessons From The Sane Asylum

It has been said that life is the most patient teacher. You will be presented with the same experience over and over until you learn the best way to deal with the situation. This is not because life is cruel. Rather, it is because things have a way of coming back to haunt us when we don't deal with them. One form of intelligence is the ability to learn from mistakes. When you are presented with a painful experience, take the time to think about how you can avoid it in the future. This is an example of a lesson learned.

From Inside The Sane Asylum

Homesteader, Jes B Rambling, just sent me this picture from St. Augustine Fl. with the note he finally located the real St. Augustine grass guarded by a canon. He said he was off to celebrate
his 64th birthday in Youngville..Happy Birthday Jes B...safe ramblings to you!

Stopped to Ponder Series.

”People and things do not upset us, we upset ourselves by believing they upset us.” A. Ellis 

Made Me Grin...

Dado...our in resident photographer just sent this in to post...seems he is feeling his age.
Heard the other day he spent 15 minutes looking for his lost iPhone in his car with the light from his iPhone.

A funny thing happened on the way to therapy ...

"The day you decide that you are more interested in being aware of your thoughts
than you are in the thoughts themselves, that is the day you will find your way out."

Lessons from The Sane Asylum

And the young man went to visit the old master. While the master quietly served him tea, the young man talked about Life. The master poured the visitor’s cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The young man watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. “It’s overfull! No more will go in!” the young man blurted. “You are like this cup,” the master replied, “How can I show you Life unless you first empty your cup.”

Lessons from The Sane Asylum

After winning several archery contests, the young and rather boastful champion challenged a  master who was renowned for his skill as an archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable technical proficiency when he hit a distant bull’s eye on his first try, and then split that arrow with his second shot. “There,” he said to the old man, “see if you can match that!” Undisturbed, the master did not draw his bow, but rather motioned for the young archer to follow him up the mountain. Curious about the old fellow’s intentions, the champion followed him high into the mountain until they reached a deep chasm spanned by a rather flimsy and shaky log. Calmly stepping out onto the middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master picked a far away tree as a target, drew his bow, and fired a clean, direct hit. “Now it is your turn,” he said as he gracefully stepped back onto the safe ground. Staring with terror into the seemingly bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself to step out onto the log, no less shoot at a target. “You have much skill with your bow,” the master said, sensing his challenger’s predicament, “but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose the shot.”

From The Road Series...

From The Road...

It's strange the people we pass and yet not experience...if only we look in their silence we just might hear the echoes of their life. Such was a time on this winters day...

As I passed his fingers were pressing the silent keys with loving art, and the flute he was caressing with the silence of his heart. "Play something for me maestro"...in his fading eyes was a story of life that was written fair. The morning sun glowing and warmed the winter in his hair. There was a glow of un extinguished embers deep in his eyes, as he nodded and begin to smile. A youthful smile. Strange how all the silver marrows still have a golden yesterday.

Now the flutist, bowed and slender no longer marks the time to the baton's lead, but he begin to  breathe a message tender through his mind and that mellow reed. The melody came with the wisdom of the ages, pulsing with the ebb and flow. It was a melody laden with the lore of the sages from a land so long ago.

His fading eyes was a story of a life that was written fair, as the glowing sun warmed the winter in his hair..every movement he rendered, sanctified his days of yore, and yes, the slender instrument echoed a tender reverence of a glorious score.

The sound strolled down the street where love and youth once strolled, through the flute's narrow ally, he was breathing out his soul... and his fingers pressed the silent keys with loving art and the flute he was caressing from the silence of his heart...

I called him Maestro...thanks for the lesson...you and the silence of your heart will never part.

The Sane Asylum Hysterical Sites

Don't really know the where a bouts of Jes B Rambling, but have posted this in hopes he can investigate this site...
Last I heard from him, he was in St. Augustine looking for real St. Augustine grass...

JES B RAMBLING-it is Jes B in present tense and Jes Been in past tense. Jes is a pilgrim and not seen a lot in public, but on occasions he will have something to point out. He usually likes to do nothing and seems he never gets finished of doing nothing. He relates often, that if you never start anything you will never have to finish.  Jes has a gift of finding Hysterical Sites. He will ponder and investigate well  before he documents his findings. He is credited with documenting several pseudo normal sites in The Sane Asylum. The best time to catch one of Jes's post will be when he is wandering around with purpose. In those states he is usually accompanied by our In Resident Photographer, Dado. He likes to piddle around with some of the homesteaders but his whereabouts are usually unknown.

The girl that went off to become a soldier...

She went off to be a soldier in a time of war...
I wonder if she really knows what she might be fighting for?

A different look in the eyes of you this gentle soldier...
What cares do you wish to carry on your shoulders?

The ones you leave behind in a time of war...
I'm sure they wonder what your sacrificing for.

Maybe to escape the clutch of sameness or just to feel a little bolder...
Makes little difference as you now become a soldier.

A different time as we watch and admire...
But my it's hard to see the little girl experience the fire.

What burdens do you bare...
That makes it so important that you much dare.

I try to understand...I know, its a different time and that I comprehend

In this time of moral and cultural change...
I know things are just not the same.

With your eyes so fair and kind...
Always know you are in our mind.

But it pains me so... to see the little girl who goes off to be a soldier...


...to all our young men and women we sacrifice in war...maybe one day, just maybe,
the brotherhood of humanity will be open to our common humanity...Doc

A funny thing happened on the way to therapy...

"Most people do not see their beliefs, instead their beliefs tell them what to see.
This is the simple difference between clarity and confusion."

just a bit of history...John Prine

Original lyrics for "Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)" released on this day 38 years ago. Produced by the great Steve Goodman, who not only was a great influence on John Prine professionally, but also personally...

Lessons from The Sane Asylum...

Contentment ~ 17th Karmapa

I truly feel that contentment is the greatest wealth. Anyone can claim it for themselves. Anyone can own it. Contentment is an incredible wealth that we don’t have to pay for, or seek anywhere outside ourselves. The natural resources to create this wealth are the inner riches of our own mind. Contentment is a wealth that gives the highest satisfaction, and we can gain it simply by mining our own resources, and knowing our own mind. We can cultivate the perspective that what we have is enough. We can see that we do not actually need more than we already have, and can be completely satisfied with that.

17th Karmapa

from the book "The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out"

The Wanderer

Though I have trod the path less traveled,
and ventured where few dare to go,
the heart that grew and forged my way
Now aches for streets I know.
I yearn to cast my weary eyes
Over a simple kingdom all my own,
The modest land in which I reign,
I am going home...

Made Me Grin Series...

Lessons From The Sane Asylum

“The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.” ~Eric Hoffer

Stopped to Ponder

Stop and listen for the farthest sound...

Just Been Thinking...

Just Been Thinking...

A dream is the brain trying to download excess illusions it collected to use in problem solving...many we can't remember so the download was complete. But those we remember are so emotional the brain just cannot delete...I did not say this is the truth, but a possibility...Dr. IB Thinking, Linguistic Medicine Man

P.S. At least I wore my Mardi Gras tie


DR I B THINKING-is one of the original homesteaders in The Sane Asylum and quiet active with his post to the public. The problem is Dr I B's brain wave vibes are a little different than most. His advice is usually well thought out, but you may need brain optimization treatment to understand his thinking. He believes language has created all of our illusion of beliefs about who we are, and if we can make that distinction,
we can change our beliefs which will change our reality. He seems to be playing the role of a linguistic medicine man. He likes his bow ties a lot!

Lessons From The Sane Asylum

Maybe your journey is not so much about becoming anything.
Maybe it is about un-becoming everything that is not really you...
in that way you just might be who you were meant to be in the first place...

From the Study...a conservation of possibilities

There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one; the regeneration of the inner man.
How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself...Tolstoy

A funny thing happened on the way to therapy...

"You are not listening with the intent to understand, you are listening with the intent to reply".

The Sane Asylum Wisdom Series.

The Philosophers Stone

Stone of philosophers, ruby red stone,
which caused so much sacrifice and misery unknown.
Deceptively though, the stone did appeal
and made foolish men think its happiness real.
O wise philosopher you must grieve no more
if you wish to revive the mirth of before.
You must face your past, for you cannot atone
for the damage you wrought with the wretched red stone.
Where is the land? That land from the past,
which many before you sought and amassed?
Take heed of their folly, and don't be deceived
by the trap which left many despaired and bereaved.
Though for happiness, power and ease they did strive,
instead they found death and now none are alive.
Consider these perished; this warning adhere.
Will you continue to seek out this stone you held dear?
You who beheld it’s baneful hue red
when the blood of your own arm and own leg was shed?
Stone of philosophers, ruby red stone.
When will you cease and leave mankind alone?

Lessons From The Sane Asylum

Most of us experience a life full of wonderful moments and difficult moments. But for many of us, even when we are most joyful, there is fear behind our joy. We fear that this moment will end, that we won’t get what we need, that we will lose what we love, or that we will not be safe. Often, our biggest fear is the knowledge that one day our bodies will cease functioning. So even when we are surrounded by all the conditions for happiness, our joy is not complete.

We may think that if we ignore our fears, they’ll go away. But if we bury worries and anxieties in our consciousness, they continue to affect us and bring us more sorrow. We are very afraid of being powerless. But we have the power to look deeply at our fears, and then fear cannot control us. We can transform our fear. Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.

A funny thing happened on the way to therapy...

"You will never learn if you think you already know".

From The Study...the mind

"The past is the set of events that can send light signals to an entity and the future is the set of events to which an entity can send light signals."

Stopped To Ponder...

 

,

 "So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind,
Is all this sad world needs."~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A funny thing happened on the way to therapy...

"Rationalization is a process of not perceiving reality,
but of attempting to make reality fit your emotions".

Stopped To Ponder

“Living has yet to be generally recognized as one of the arts"?

                       
 

I see this common quote on many boards, but very few
acknowledge the author...

What is the Soul?

- What'd the devil give you for your soul, Tommy?

- Well, he taught me to play this here guitar real good.

- Oh son, for that you sold your everlasting soul?

- Well, I wasn't usin' it

What is the Soul

  

                       We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own...