Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 06/10/2026But you know all this. Who are you, gentle reader? ~ Who am I? John Updike / "A Month of Sundays" 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Forgive me my denomination and my town; I am a Christian minister, and an American. I write these pages at some point in the time of Richard Nixon's unravelling. John Updike / opening of "A Month of Sundays" 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 05/07/2026"leaving texas 4th day of july ~ sun's so hot ~ the clouds so low ~ the eagles filled the sky" Happy 4th Everyone! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vywz...youtube.comGrateful Dead - Jack Straw (Raleigh, NC 7/10/1990)YouTube video by Grateful Dead 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 27/06/2026They fell silent and time passed, the shadow of the customs house shifted a few inches farther towards the river: the vulture moved a little, like a black hand of a clock. Graham Greene, "The Power and the Glory" 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 14/04/2026Life is one movement, and the moment you define you create a mess, because definitions will be dead and life is an alive movement. Osho / "Book of Secrets" 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 14/04/2026Voted "Yes" today for Virginia's redistricting amendment, which is a temporary measure to counteract the GOP's gerrymandering shenanigans meant to steal the upcoming midterm election. This is a "hot one" in Virginia and a lot of people are voting judging from the line. 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 13/04/2026Just finished watching season 2 of Hulu's Paradise -- very good. Looking forward to the final season. 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 13/04/2026When your mind is kept empty, you naturally use yourself freely like a child, without self-consciousness or acting. When you grow up, you are not natural... you are always self-conscious. If you are tense, you cannot catch a ball, but if you keep your mind empty, you will catch it. Sokei-an Sasaki 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 05/04/2026Those who love and revere me with unwavering faith, always centering their minds on me-- they are the most perfect in yoga. Krishna / Bhagavad Gita / Stephen Mitchell tr. 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 04/04/2026Nothing in the world can purify as powerfully as wisdom; practiced in yoga, you will find this wisdom within yourself. Krishna / Bhagavad Gita / Stephen Mitchell tr. 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 02/04/2026The wise man lets go of all results, whether good or bad, and is focused on the action alone. Yoga is skill in actions. Krishna / Bhagavad Gita / Stephen Mitchell tr. 020
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 31/03/2026But the truly wise, Arjuna ~ who dive deep into themselves, ~ fearless, one pointed, know me ~ as the inexhaustible source. Krishna / Bhagavad Gita / Stephen Mitchell tr. 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 27/03/2026Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health. Carl Jung It is good to have problems, and without problems we cannot survive, but not too many. You don't need to create more problems for yourself; you have enough problems. Shunryu Suzuki 030
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 17/03/2026O Shakti, each particular perception is limited, disappearing *in omnipotence*. Centering technique / Vigyan Bhairav Tantra / Zen Flesh Zen Bones / Reps and Senzaki 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 15/03/2026I had a real Friday the 13th yesterday. Someone decided to do some key work on the hood of my car in a parking lot. I was not even originally parked close to anyone, although I did notice that someone parked quite close to my passenger side while I was shopping. Must have just been the day. 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 15/03/2026As soon as you sense any lingering or obstruction, all of it is false imagining. Just make your mind clean and free, like space, like a mirror, like the sun in the sky. Zen Master Yuanwu / tr. Thomas Cleary / "Zen Essence" 011
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 15/03/2026The climate of the times was against him [resigned minister, 1913]. The immigrant hordes had brought to America German radicalism and Italian anarchism and Semitic materialism; 100
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 11/03/2026Actually, you are here, right here, so before you understand yourself, you are you. After you explain, you are not really you anymore. You just have an image. But usually you will stick to the image which is not you, and you will ignore the reality. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 07/03/2026Beyond the brick buildings of Jersey City... the green patch of cattailed marsh rippled and twinkled in the summer breeze like those vistas of freedom seen from a classroom window, rectangles of a world sublimely free of effortful thought and the problems that exist in books. John Updike, "ITBOTL" 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 04/03/2026Her eyes contemplating him seemed dark as small plums; liverish patches beneath her eyes in the wan electric light seemed to betray some streak of ancient, pagan blood. [the minister's wife, after being told by him that he was quitting the ministry] John Updike / "In the Beauty of the Lilies" 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 03/03/2026Everybody has a metaphysical assumption which you can't prove. Watch out for it. It's basic to all thought. Alan Watts / Reality, Art and Illusion / talk 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 22/02/2026Great hockey win for USA! The third period was all Canada -- the USA was lucky to survive it and get to sudden death overtime. 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 21/02/2026Wow, she was having fun! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg0h...youtube.comAlysa Liu wins the Olympic gold medal for the United StatesYouTube video by Team USA 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 02/02/2026Previous post from "In the Beauty of the Lilies" by John Updike. I sure wish there was a comparable writer these days with his writing skills and eye of a poet and social scientist. 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 02/02/2026The distant spires of New York City were a photogenic marvel, their apparently weightless suspension within the mists of summer heat belying the mass suffering and striving their enchanted profile rested upon. But the moving-picture camera was aligned to exclude any such modern view. John Updike 010
Reposted by TomElle @elevatedbliss.bsky.social · 30/01/2026Right palm is itchy Expect outflow of money So said the old wives #Haiku #Haikuish 071
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 17/01/2026Your True Self is your immediate experiencing before thought categorizes it. It is this moment speaking. 030
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 16/01/2026That white screen is not something that you can actually attain; it is something you always have. The reason you don't feel you have it is because your mind is too busy. Once in a while you should stop all your activities and make your screen white. That is zazen. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 11/01/2026The cat, the dog, the flower--all of nature accepts its life and lives it happily. To accept this life, you must work hard in your mind to gain understanding. Life and death is just subjective. You must know it is your own delusion. Sokei-an Sasaki 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 23/11/2025There is nothing more fundamental ~ than I, Arjuna; all worlds, ~ all beings, are strung upon me ~ like pearls on a single thread. Bhagavad Gita 7.7, Stephen Mitchell tr. 020
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 21/11/2025The presence that pervades the universe ~ is imperishable, unchanging ~ beyond both *is* and *is not* ~ how could it ever vanish? Bhagavad Gita, 2.17, Stephen Mitchell tr. 030
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 19/11/2025"I know the Jungians will not like this, but there comes a time when you just dream yourself out, and there are no more dreams, and you sleep deeply and breathe from your heels." Alan Watts, "Zen Bones" talk. Interesting. As for myself, my dream machine is working very well these days, thank you! 020
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 11/11/2025The day was August 14, 1945. Roscoe wore a full beard, going gray, but his mustache was mostly black. Trust no man, not even your brother, if his beard is one color, mustache another. He was fat but looked only burly... He was burning up but looked cool in his seersucker. "Roscoe" / William Kennedy 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 01/11/2025As breath turns from down to up, and again as breath curves from up to down--through both these turns, *realize*. Centering technique / Vigyan Bhairav Tantra / Zen Flesh Zen Bones / Reps and Senzaki 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 11/10/2025sit. let thoughts settle themselves. let mind drop on its own accord. you just sit gazing at the wall, in a silent corner, not doing anything at all. relaxed. loose. with no effort. not going anywhere. as if you are falling asleep awake... you remain alert on the inside. Osho, "What is Meditation" 020
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 08/10/2025As I am getting old, the idea of (re)incarnation) is making sense. In fact, it is downright logical. 020
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 08/10/2025We are like foam, like bubbles in the Ocean of Consciousness. For a little while we have this spark, this body, and we reflect everything. The law of causality will create this once more, This is the law of incarnation. Sokei-an Sasaki 020
Reposted by TomSarah Hina @sarahhina.bsky.social · 08/10/2025there is the world out there and the world that's near one is a fire the other: refuge but time is a circle and gravity a mouth smoke is coming— I can smell it on the air 1306
Reposted by TomSarah Hina @sarahhina.bsky.social · 15/09/2025for a little while longer nights formed of cricket song and a canopy full of stars 1205
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 15/09/2025Feel your substance, bones, flesh, blood, saturated with *cosmic essence*. Shiva answers Devi, “What is your reality?” Vigyan Bhairav Tantra / Zen Flesh Zen Bones / Reps and Senzaki 000
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 01/09/2025www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRp-...youtube.comChanting - Buddhist Mantra Of Avalokitesvara- remove negative energies and fear 大悲咒- 불교 음악-YouTube video by Zen Music Chant 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 31/08/2025Virginia is in the political sweet spot where you have Medicaid expansion, legal abortion, and widely available plastic straws. Matthew Yglesias on X 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 26/08/2025The foolish people have been telling you, "The empty mind is the devil's workshop." The empty mind is God's workshop! The occupied mind is the devil's workshop. Osho 010
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 25/08/2025i've consulted the oracle (i ching / tarot) many times, although not so much recently. for me, it's valuable in showing which way the wind is blowing, helping you to see past blind spots, making one aware of the current configuration. it's not so much a matter of "fortune telling". 020
Tom @flowingmountain.bsky.social · 25/08/2025short list of some good zen books. thank you very much! 1) zen mind, beginner's mind / shunryu suzuki 2) original nature / sokei-an sasaki 3) dropping ashes on buddha / seung sahn 4) way of zen / alan watts 5) zen flesh, zen bones / reps and senzaki 000
