The Legend Of The Lady In Blue
A 17th-century Spanish nun is said to have appeared to members of the Jumano tribe, who lived in present-day Texas. The Lady in Blue was said to have the power of bilocation.
One of the most important figures in Texas’ religious history never set foot in Texas at all. She never in her life traveled beyond her tiny village in Spain, yet she stirred religious fervor from the Concho River to the headwaters of the Rio Grande.
Our story begins in 1602 when Maria was born in the pueblito de Ágreda. She was a lovely child born to Catholic parents of noble rank. Barely beyond her toddler years, Maria showed an unusual devotion to a life of prayer and piety.
When she was ten, she already wanted to join a convent. When she was 12, her parents finally blessed her wish to join the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Tarazona. Before that could be arranged, though, Maria’s mother had a vision in which God instructed her to convert their mansion into a convent. She and her daughter would both become nuns. Her father would join a local monastery, following in the footsteps of his sons who were already friars. In four years, this all came to pass.
At 18, Maria took her vows and became Maria de Jesus – Mary of Jesus de Ágreda. The habit of her order was a dark cobalt blue. Now a nun, she spent more time than ever alone in prayer. Maria’s religious devotions intensified. Her sisters worried about her frequent fasting, frail health, and life of extreme deprivation. Yet for her it was a glorious time: she said God had given her a divine gift. It was the gift of bilocation. She could be in two places at once. Through meditation she could appear to God’s children in faraway lands and teach them about Jesus. She said she first appeared to the Jumano tribes of present day Texas in the 1620s. She did this for about ten years, from the time she was 18, to 29. And according to legend, the Jumano Indians of the time confirmed that the Woman in Blue, as they called her, had come among them.
The first proof is offered in the story of 50 Jumano Indians appearing on their own at the San Antonio de la Isleta Mission near present-day Albuquerque, asking the Franciscan priests to teach them about Jesus. When asked how they knew of him, the men said that the Lady in Blue had come to them and taught them the gospel. She had instructed them to go west to find holy men who could teach them more about the faith and baptize them. They, as the legend goes, pointed to a painting of a nun in the mission and said, “She is like her, but younger.”
I have complained about the faults of the Abrahamic religions as they are manifesting in the Middle East today, but many aspects of all of them are worthy and this story of Mary of Jesus de Ágreda is a good example. Buddhism has many stories like this as well. This shows, to my eye, that there is a ‘ground’ for all or most religions that is more fundamental than their doctrinaire teachings, than unquestioning loyalty to clergy or rigid credos. I am a Buddhist because it has a rich and very practical philosophy which also wisely and explicitly teaches that even the Dharma must not be clung to. Even the Dharma can prevent enlightenment if our attachment to it is unwholesome. Long before I became a Buddhist, I had profound spiritual experiences that did not in my mind fit into any tradition I knew. This made me realize, even when I was very young, that religious traditions do not and cannot describe or include everything. They are like cliff notes on the spiritual reality of living in the human realm. Some of those notes are beautiful and worthy, some are not so good. This story of Mary of Jesus de Ágreda is one of the beautiful and inspiring ones. ABN
The moral agony of Israel and Gaza
The conflict is tribal, involving three Abrahamic religions, each of which claims exclusive knowledge of God’s will.
Human tribes + God’s will + conflicting human interpretations of God’s will based on ‘infallible’ scriptures = an agonizing moral conflict that cannot be resolved within the boundaries that delineate it. Reason has no place here save to figure out how to destroy the other tribe(s). All words are fighting words. All statements are inflammatory.
In Buddhism, these are glaring examples of the First & Second Noble Truths. These two truths describe the core mundane reality of the Human Realm. The Third & Fourth Noble Truths describe what we can do about it.
The strong Buddhist answer is the best thing you can do is become a monk; remove yourself from the insoluble moral agony of human greed, pride, anger, ignorance, and doubt (in a higher reality).
The less strong Buddhist answer is mostly remove yourself from the tribal fray but make an effort to raise public awareness of the depth of the predicament; share the Dharma. That’s what I am doing on this site. In that spirit I present the video below. It has been taken off Instagram after receiving some 12 million views. It does provide valid information but if the information inflames you, one way or the other, it will only contribute to the problem. I present it in the hope that more understanding leads to better understanding and eventually moral clarity, at least for people enlightened enough to see beyond the fray. ABN
‘Nearly Impossible’: Retired US General Says Israel Unlikely to Achieve Stated Aim in Gaza
General Robert Abrams said it’s unlikely Israel will be able to accomplish their purported goal of eliminating Hamas while also protecting Palestinian civilians.
Retired US General Robert Adams sounded a note of pessimism early Sunday when asked by US media for his thoughts on Israel’s ongoing military action in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“I think it’s going to be what I would consider nearly impossible, to destroy Hamas, to eliminate their capability to do harm to Israel and Israeli people, while simultaneously protecting what some people have estimated as to be a million Palestinians who are in harm’s way and they can’t get out of harm’s way,” said Adams in an interview on US television.
Adams noted the difficulty of Israel’s objective given the complex urban terrain of Gaza.
“This is going to be a very difficult task for the Israeli Defense Forces, that the defense that Hamas will put up in that very dense urban terrain, unlike anything that we’ve seen in recent years, is going to require some very siege fighting, and simultaneously trying to ensure that the Israelis do not target unwittingly the locations of the hostages,” said Adams.
Desalination system could produce freshwater that is cheaper than tap water
Engineers at MIT and in China are aiming to turn seawater into drinking water with a completely passive device that is inspired by the ocean, and powered by the sun.
In a paper appearing today in the journal Joule, the team outlines the design for a new solar desalination system that takes in saltwater and heats it with natural sunlight.
The configuration of the device allows water to circulate in swirling eddies, in a manner similar to the much larger “thermohaline” circulation of the ocean. This circulation, combined with the sun’s heat, drives water to evaporate, leaving salt behind. The resulting water vapor can then be condensed and collected as pure, drinkable water. In the meantime, the leftover salt continues to circulate through and out of the device, rather than accumulating and clogging the system.
The new system has a higher water-production rate and a higher salt-rejection rate than all other passive solar desalination concepts currently being tested.
The researchers estimate that if the system is scaled up to the size of a small suitcase, it could produce about 4 to 6 liters of drinking water per hour and last several years before requiring replacement parts. At this scale and performance, the system could produce drinking water at a rate and price that is cheaper than tap water.
paper: Extreme salt-resisting multistage solar distillation with thermohaline convection
FBI as the Attack Weapon Against ‘Political Enemies’: Police State Director | Facts Matter
Epoch TV subscription vid, but subscriptions are cheap today. I have zero affiliation with ET. ABN
Israel-Palestine War: Is the US Preparing to Attack Iran?
Iran-Russia Set a Western Trap in Palestine
The Russia-Iran strategic partnership – with China in the wings – is laying an elaborate, Sun Tzu-tinged trap for the Hegemon in West Asia.
Apart from Israel, there is no entity on the planet capable of switching the focus, in a flash, away from the west’s spectacular debacle in Ukraine.
The warmongers in charge of US foreign policy, not exactly Bismarckian stalwarts, believe that if Project Ukraine is unattainable, Project Final Solution in Palestine could instead be a – ethnic cleansing – cakewalk.
A more plausible scenario, though is that Iran-Russia – and the new “axis of evil” Russia-China-Iran – have all it takes to drag the Hegemon into a second quagmire. It’s all about using the enemy’s own, discombobulated flip-flapping to unbalance him and disorient him to oblivion.
The White House’s wishful thinking that the Forever Wars in Ukraine and Israel are inscribed in the same lofty “democracy” drive and essential to US national interests, has already backfired – even among American public opinion.
That does not prevent cries and whispers along the Beltway revealing Israel-allied US neocons increasing the tempo to provoke Iran – via a proverbial false flag that would lead to an American attack. That Armageddon scenario neatly fits Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s biblical psychopathy.
Vassals would be forced to meekly comply. NATO heads of state have made a beeline to visit Israel to demonstrate their unconditional support for Tel Aviv – including Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Britain’s Rishi Sunak, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, the senile lodger at the White House, and France’s Emmanuel Macron.
US Freezes Exports of Civilian Firearms
This bit of news seems to have popped up suddenly and with little explanation. The federal government quietly issued a policy change yesterday halting the export of most civilian firearms, ammunition, and related accessories to much of the world. They also suspended the issuance of new firearms export licenses. There are some exceptions to the ban, but several of the world’s biggest importers of American firearms will be affected. The order was issued by the Commerce Department (?) and the reason given was rather vague, citing national security concerns and the need to ensure firearms aren’t “diverted” to hostile actors.
This is going to have an immediate impact on American firearms manufacturers including Smith & Wesson and Sig Sauer.
‘I used to be a friend of Israel. I used to stand on their side… and they have lost me’ — Scott Ritter on the Gaza invasion
The invasion of Gaza is a KOBK move that shows the provocation of the MIHOP Hamas attack was planned to create this outcome. The US supporting role and European approval of the Israeli response shows vaguely who the Western players are, i.e. whoever is in control of the West, something we do not really know. That whoever is in control of the West is comfortable telling Western peoples any lie they like shows they believe they have total control of their geographical domains. That they are also actively provoking an enormous Muslim backlash shows they are expecting to win against all of them. That this may well lead to WW3 shows they either have a secret weapon or are bold to the point of madness. Since nothing good has come of their rule over the past several decades, the future looks bad for everyone unless they are stopped. ABN
UPDATE: The rational necessity of thinking in KOBK terms is it makes you see the world through the eyes of the most powerful people in the world. From their point of view, they must either ‘kill’ (utterly disempower) their enemies or they will themselves be ‘killed’. Utterly disempowering an enemy often does mean literally killing them but not necessarily. Western leaders clearly are KOBK players. Whether Russia and China are also KOBK players does not matter. All that matters is Russia and China might be KOBK players or might become KOBK players and thus Western leaders must treat them as KOBK players. The same goes for Russia and China vis-a-vis the West. KOBK is a ‘game’ played within hierarchies and pitted against other hierarchies. If you are a top hierarch and do not play, you will lose. If you do not understand KOBK, you cannot understand the world today. KOBK follows a different morality and works at a level that most of us never even glimpse. Wise compassion requires that we understand this very dangerous and inevitable dynamic and why we are now rushing toward WW3. Hamas is acting KOBK, so is Israel. USA is acting KOBK because they see an even bigger picture. Israel and USA are on the same side, for now. Europe is also on that side, for now. When you think from the different players’ points of view, it becomes simpler to see what is happening. This is why I was able to predict a KOBK escalation of the Ukraine War well over a year ago. I did not see that the escalation would take place specifically in Israel, but what is now happening is fully consistent with KOBK reasoning. It has been clear for a long time that the West is going for world domination. The reason world leaders pay so little attention to their peoples is KOBK. ABN
Concepts don’t exist — as objective, phenomenological, cognitive, or neural structures
The case for removing concepts from cognitive science and AI research
It can be difficult to convince someone that concepts don’t exist. Everyday experience appears to provide overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Concepts are not only intuitively perceived to be active in daily life, they are also a widespread feature of theories across AI and cognitive science, where they are assumed to be necessary for symbolic and logical thought¹. Most who read the title of this post would be tempted to brush off the argument as patently, demonstrably absurd. It’s akin to trying to convince a European 500 years ago that God doesn’t exist, when everything around them appears to be evidence of, and indeed presupposes God’s existence. Any contrary argument is likely to be taken as the result of sophistry or word-wrangling, or because some critical piece has been neglected.
Despite their seeming obviousness, it is worth noting that there is still no complete and unambiguous explanation for what concepts are, or how they work on thoughts —and indeed how to program them into AI. The human ability to learn and create concepts is multifaceted and complex. AI theories and implementations generally only touch on one or two of its features, while neglecting large numbers of counter-cases. This has lead some researchers, notably Lawrence Barsalou, to suspect that the way we think of concepts is flawed. Perhaps the whole notion of concepts — as a native mechanism for grouping experiences — is untenable.
This article is well-worth reading. Below, I have made a few notes based on my reading of it. To my eye, it demonstrates the existence of consciousness as a thing, the existence of a very real subjective world, the high probability that this subjective world is not entirely confined in your head, that consciousness is a primary of existence and not confined to our brains, and also, importantly for this website, why FIML works so well.
(The sections in quotes are from the article.)
Firstly, concepts: they exist within consciousness and are used to reason, analyze, communicate, organize, and so on. They are probably a features of consciousness itself, depending on how you define them. They need not be stable.
Secondly, FIML:
To begin with, there is no scientific experiment or empirical observation that can be used to prove that any given concept “exists”, and by extension that concepts exist at all.
No. FIML practice provides unlimited empirical observations that concepts exist. FIML is a scientific experiment and can easily be repeated as many times as you like.
To objectively prove that any given interpretation matches reality, you would somehow have to compare your subjective mental concepts against an objective view of the real situation. But the latter isn’t possible.
Yes, it is possible. FIML is precisely that—a means ‘to compare your subjective mental concepts against an objective view of the real situation’.
FIML accomplishes this by allowing two subjective consciousnesses to objectively compare their mutually ‘subjective mental concepts’ against each other. To claim that ‘an objective view of the real situation’ can only be achieved by some other means is absurd. The very best means to objectively compare subjective states is to have two honest informants compare them based on a shared micro unit of communication in the real-world in real-time. This is what FIML does.
Continue reading “Concepts don’t exist — as objective, phenomenological, cognitive, or neural structures”The discreteness of concepts is a built-in requirement of language itself, one that does not necessarily reflect what an individual mind is doing.
Tenants Are Suing Landlords for Allegedly Price-Fixing Rents with Software and the Feds Could Get Involved
A pair of lawsuits from tenants across the U.S. allege that landlords use rent-setting software to illegally collude and boost their rents.
One lawsuit was filed in a district court in Tennessee and one in Washington. Both lawsuits were filed a year ago after a ProPublica investigation revealed that real estate software and analytics company RealPage’s rent-setting software, formerly called YieldStar, was artificially raising rents by sharing market data from competitors and setting prices for them, as well as sometimes encouraging landlords to leave units vacant.
Over 20 lawsuits from renters across the country alleging RealPage committed antitrust violations were consolidated in April in Tennesse’s Middle District, chosen for its central location. The United States Department of Justice filed a notice on October 17 asking for permission to participate in oral arguments on December 11. The court approved the government’s request, and the DOJ has until November 15 to submit a formal statement of intent if it wants to participate.
American Buddhist Net 