Requests Around Town


I think it highly unlikely that the neighbor who chose to decorate a front yard with a silver-painted pig and wood chips intended in any way to reference Vishnu in his incarnation as a boar. But as I’m caught up in learning about the animal chariots and incarnations of the 330 million these days, that is what came to mind for me.
There’s a story that Vishnu incarnated as a boar to kill a demon who could not be killed by man or god (similar to the story about Durga slaying Mahisha, the buffalo demon).
When in anthropomorphic form, Varaha is often seen with Bhudevi (Earth goddess) and sometimes also Lakshmi. There she is again–Lakshmi–calling to me to remind me to act from my abundance (from there comes my capacity to slay demons).
Have you savored something today? Appreciated it essence? Have you found something for which to be grateful even if it is too hot, your garden is suffering from drought, and work has perhaps yielded no tangible immediate reward other than a paycheck if you are fortunate enough to have work? Can you taste some good in a mediocre meal–even if it is just reveling in the combination of plenty to eat and having a discriminating palate?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
It is good to act consciously, to move and react from a place of sensitivity, discrimination, and understanding. It is good to know both the big picture and the details. When does paying attention and thinking things through, though, become “overthinking?” I think (ha ha) that it is when thinking things through takes us away from the heart, when it desensitizes, instead of assists us in acting with discrimination.
Here’s some useful, along with some merely anecdotal and highly subjective discussion on the impending arrival of more cicadas than usual. I don’t remember them being overwhelming in 2004, but vividly remember being astonished by them 17 years earlier than that–more cicadas than I ever dreamed possible. A Jain would have had much trouble walking down the street for worry about stepping on one (or dozens).