my mind begins to hum...

[mayavin]

Painting of his execution in the Piazza della Signoria.

[the fire elf]

think i found a cartel...

The establishment and enforcement of cartels have associated costs
which should be low enough in order not to outweigh the expected
benefits from explicit collusion.

...private cartels entail an agreement on terms and conditions from which
the members derive mutual advantage but which are not known or likely
to be detected by outside parties. Private cartels in most jurisdictions are
viewed as being illegal and in violation of antitrust laws.

Another factor facilitating the formation of cartels is that the benefits from
colluding should outweigh the expected loss from detection. The expected
loss from detection depends basically on two aspects:

The ability of competition authorities to detect a cartel and
Their degree of punishment (economic or penal) of such behaviour.

http://www.theishayatradition.com/home.html

[the fire elf]

of art in the 'cradle':

During the Saddam regime, we know where the red line was,
and we could stop before crossing it.

Now, there are a thousand red lines.
We are stuck in one place, unable to move

"Some artists admit to nostalgia for Hussein's reign.
For all his brutish oppression, Hussein was a champion of the arts,
through which he promoted his brand of Arab nationalism.
His regime bought up hundreds of works and sponsored competitions,
international exhibitions and scholarships abroad.
Although there was no overt censorship,
it was usnderstood that producing works glorifying Hussein and his wars
would secure commissions.
Many artists did, but others did not.
Provided they did not directly challenge Hussein, they were mostly left alone."

For Nasar, the gallery embodies his belief in the power of art
to open the eyes of those who follow blindly;
it restores sanity amid bloodshed
and creates new heros for a generation growing up under the sway of gunmen.

"Art is a part of life here in Iraq," he said.
"Without it, people would become like monsters."

"Before, it was propaganda about the nation.
Now it is propaganda about religion."

His renditions of wedding and baby photos were popular souvenirs among troops
deployed in Iraq.
A dealer with contacts inside the fortified Green Zone,
where many foreigners live and work,
brought him snapshots to copy.
Working secretly from a room in one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods,
Anwar could produce two or three paintings a day
at $50 apiece,
a small fortune in postwar Iraq.

But Anwar seemed to spend half his life
peering over his shoulder.
An unexpected knock on his studio door sent him into a panic.
Finally, the pressure became too much to bear,
and he fled to Jordan last year.

"Art will die in Iraq," he predicted gloomily.
"Art comes from the artists,
and if the artists go, then the art will go with them."

It was hardly art, but it was a living.
It also could have gotten him killed.

Artists must smuggle their wares to their few remaining patrons.

... the art community is withering
under a daily assault of car bombs, kidnappings, gunfights and mortar blasts.

Dictatorship has given way to the suffocating strictures
of religious extremists,
who frown upon most forms of artistic expression,
consider sculpture idolatrous
and a painting of a nude an insult to Islam.

The abstract tribute to freedom stands there still,
its garish green surface
chipped, faded, and pocked with what appear to be bullet holes.

The mullahs have no idea about art," he said.
"We are ready to do carnivals of theatre,
dancing,
and music....
But they hate these activities.
So they promote militias and make the culture of death.

[mayavin]

[mayavin]

and the Nazir Guru i understudie(d)
knew what country he was sitting in the middle of

[mayavin]

note the gentle finger?

[the fire elf]

"rawm"

[third person perspective]

passing sages can deliver a teaching in moments
while some come together to war for years

[third person perspective]

lets have a clean game

[mayavin]

*+7points*

[the fire elf]

[the fire elf]

[the fire elf]

[the fire elf]

[the fire elf]

[the fire elf]

[the fire elf]

[the fire elf]

[the fire elf]

the more stringent of the structured training (and annointing) i received from Sri Nazirmoreh

[quote]Sri, Shri or Shree (Devanagari - शà¥

[the fire elf]

and now my reflection is soo mercurial,
whilst my hands seem intelligent in their own right

[mayavin]

and i don't recall having magic hairs on my nose,

why the light in my eye?
doesnt retinae absorb?

[the fire elf]

the distance walking with a pack
has developed an askance tension of muscle on shoulder bone

theorizing the counter building would balance the tension,
seems time to look into augmenting the mode of practice
to include mind/bodybuilding

Evolutionarily, specialized forms of skeletal and cardiac muscles predated
the divergence of the vertebrate/arthropod evolutionary line. This
indicates that these types of muscle developed in a common ancestor
sometime before 700 million years ago (mya). Vertebrate smooth muscle
(smooth muscle found in humans) was found to have evolved
independently from the skeletal and cardiac muscles.

current symptom of left socket unstabled due to excessive tension to the scapula-spine ligaments,
leads to minor shoulder dislocation

The articulations between the bones of the shoulder make up the shoulder
joints. The shoulder must be flexible for the wide range of motion
required in the arms and hands and also strong enough to allow for
actions such as lifting, pushing and pulling. The compromise between
these two functions results in a large number of shoulder problems not
faced by other joints such as the hip.

The shoulder can abduct, adduct (such as during the shoulder fly), rotate,
be raised in front of and behind the torso and move through a full 360° in
the sagittal plane. This tremendous range of motion also makes the
shoulder extremely unstable, far more prone to dislocation and injury
than other joints.

[the fire elf]

Bodybuilding is the process of maximizing muscle hypertrophy through
the combination of weight training, sufficient caloric intake, and rest.
Someone who engages in this activity is referred to as a bodybuilder.

the objective not being to maximize hypertrophy,
but intentionally reform it's current structure

Overtraining refers to when a bodybuilder has trained to the point where
his workload exceeds his recovery capacity. There are many reasons that
overtraining occurs, including lack of adequate nutrition, lack of recovery
time between workouts, insufficient sleep, and training at a high intensity
for too long (a lack of splitting apart workouts). Training at a high
intensity too frequently also stimulates the central nervous system (CNS)
and can result in a hyper-adrenergic state that interferes with sleep
patterns. To avoid overtraining, intense frequent training must be met
with at least an equal amount of purposeful recovery. Timely provision of
carbohydrates, proteins, and various micronutrients such as vitamins,
minerals, phytochemicals, even nutritional supplements are acutely
critical.

[mayavin]

Hatha yoga (Sanskrit haá¹­ha yoga), also known as Hatha vidya, is a
particular system of Yoga introduced by Yogi Swatmarama, a sage of 15th
century India, and compiler of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. In this treatise
Swatmarama introduces Hatha Yoga as 'a stairway to the heights of Raja
Yoga', hence a preparatory stage of physical purification that renders the
body fit for the practise of higher meditation.

[mayavin]

a preparatory stage of physical purification that renders the
body fit

The Asanas and Pranayama in Raja Yoga were what the Hindu Yogis used
to physically train their body for long periods of meditation. This practise
is called shatkarma.

[mayavin]

or perhaps merely more seated practice...

[mayavin]

the oldest surviving comprehensive text of Hatha Yoga is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Yogi Swatmarama. This work is nonetheless derived from older Sanskrit texts on Yoga besides Yogi Swatmarama's own yogic experiences. It includes information about shatkarma, asana, pranayama, chakras, kundalini, bandhas, kriyas, shakti, nadis, and mudras among other topics.

[the fire elf]

The term "mysticism" is often used to refer to beliefs which go beyond the
purely exoteric practices of mainstream religions, while still being related
to or based in a mainstream religious doctrine. For example, Kabbalah is
a significant mystical movement within Judaism, and Sufism is a
significant mystical movement within Islam. Gnosticism refers to various
mystical sects which arose out of Christianity. Some have argued that
Christianity itself was a mystical sect that arose out of Judaism. Non-
traditional knowledge and ritual are considered as Esotericism, for
example Buddhism's Vajrayana. Vedanta, the Naths (North India), the
Natha (South India), Siddhar, Nagas are considered the several mystical
branches of Hinduism. Hinduism being an ancient religion and a rather
broad 'all-paths' embracing philosophy has many mystical branches.

Mystical doctrines may reference religious texts that are non-canonical, as
well as more mainstream canon (Christian example of the former, Dark
Night of the Soul, and the latter Book of Revelation), and generally
require a more committed intellectual, psychological and physical
approach from spiritual devotees. Most mystical teachers typically have
some history or connection with a mainstream religious branch—
controversial or otherwise, but gather followers through reinterpreting
sacred texts or developing new spiritual approaches from their own
unique experience.

[the fire elf]

Mystics hold that there is a deeper, more fundamental state of existence
hidden beneath the appearances of day–to–day living (which may
become, to the mystic, superficial or epiphenomenal). For the authentic
mystic, unity is both the internal and external focus as one seeks the truth
about oneself, one's relationship to others and Reality (both the world at
large and the unseen realm). The mystic's motivation for such an arduous
endeavor appears to be unique to the individual and culture.

[mayavin]

The processes/experiences undertaken to achieve unity are described
variously as the path, theosis, faqr (Sufism),
Makhafah/Mahabbah/Ma'rifah (fear/love/knowledge, Sufism/Egypt), fana
(Sufism/Arab and Persian), enlightenment, the way, transcendence, the
Fourth Way (Gurdieff), salvation through the Christ self, satori (Zen
Buddhism), dhyana or bhakti (Hinduism), wu-wei(Taoism), etc. Every
culture develops traditions and myths pointing the way to the
transcendent heroic Self; the process may be embodied in visual
symbolism (Hindu "Shiva"/Christian "Stations of the Cross") or detailed
psychologically in powerful stories such as Theseus and Odysseus, etc.