Robin Beck

Why do people say alarms go off?  I see and hear this all the time. ‘The tornado siren went off’. ‘Alarm bells were going off.’ ‘My alarm clock went off.’ Don’t they actually go on?  This is nothing new, by the way.  People have been saying something goes off, when it really goes on, for decades or longer.

When I was young, ‘to go off’ also meant to get upset or angry. This was generally used in conjunction with ‘on,’ ‘about’, or ‘at.’ Someone might say that they were so mad,  they could’ve ‘gone off on’ someone, or they really ‘went off at’ them.  I am not sure if that use of ‘to go off’ is still in use.  If it is; then they might actually be saying ‘could of gone off.’ I see that a lot on message boards — could of, would of, should of.  Then someone else corrects it with something like, ‘It’s suppose to be could’ve / should’ve / would’ve  (contractions of could have, would have, should have) .

Of course, it’s supposed to be ‘supposed to’, not ‘suppose to.’ At least that use to be … er, used to be the case. I have recently noticed another meaning of ‘to go off’.  It is used to indicate ‘to go by’; to use something as a source. This is sometimes used with of, ‘to go off of’.  If someone corrects someone else, they might say they are going off of Merriam Webster. 

In case you did not notice, I am still unsure how one is suppose to to use quotation marks in conjunction with commas, periods, question marks, colons, semi-colons or exclamation marks. We use to always put them last, after the punctuation. Now some say to put it directly around the quoted or highlighted part, before the punctuation. I guess there is no sense in going off about it.  It might depend on which source one goes off of. Still, alarm bells go off in my head. I wouldn’t of written this if they didn’t.

Has anyone seen the program “Touch” on Fox Network? It appears to dramatize the strange kind  of causality sometimes referred to as Ripple Effect; which is sometimes connected with Synchronicity.  In the story, a mute boy has the ability to see the past and present — and predict the future — in terms of repeating patterns of numbers.  Well, something like that.  Others, such as the ‘Invisible Prince’,  who appears in the third episode, might ‘see’ the same thing(s) in terms of visual imagery. At any rate, the boy’s father, played by Kiefer Sutherland, is trying to figure out what is going on with his son.  In the process, numerical clues provided by the boy enable his father to intervene in the lives of inter-connected strangers and prevent multiple unhappy outcomes. So far, the show is not what I would call exceptionally well done. However, the topic is both intriguing and fraught with difficulty.

Buddhism has the concept of paticcasamuppada / pratityasamutpada 緣起 ; which is translated variously as conditioned genesis, dependent co-arising, and interdependent arising.  From this,   is derived dvadasa-ashtanga pratītyasamutpada or dvadasa-nidana十二因緣 ; the 12 linked chain of causation.

Tiantai and Nichiren Buddhism teach the concept of Ichinen Sanzen  一念三千 ; which reduces the universe to a single thought-moment:  eka-kshana  or eka-cittatpatika  一念 or 發意頃 .

Sometimes I see everything as recurring patterns, with variations on themes; which we are part of and influence, not just through physical deeds, but also  through the power of mind or citta niyama. Some themes are harmonious and beautiful, others not so much. We can help change the latter by exercising our minds; by cultivating wholesome and constructive motivations; thereby generating healthy vibrations. Or we can allow existing patterns to condition us.

Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
~~ Chorus from  The Grateful Dead song “Ripple”

(lyrics by Robert Hunter)

In the past, I have talked about balancing the cultivation of compassion with wisdom. One Dharma Friend mentioned that the compassion cultivations made her too drippy. Another described compassion cultivation as wet  / hot and discernment cultivation as dry / cold.   I have approached this mainly from the standpoint of cultivation; of developing a balanced,  equanimous  frame of mind.

Today, I watched a Dharma Talk on Youtube; “Freeing Problems in Life with Metta“  by Theravada Monk Ajahn Brahm (Peter Betts).  Clicking the link will take you to the “Videos for Metta Bhavana; Cultivation of Loving Kindness” page at  recently redesigned Gongyo on Line. If you scroll down, you shall find the embedded video. Or, you can view it at youtube. 

Acting on kindness and compassion does not mean we always need to give in or let them walk all over us. Ajahn Brahm approaches the problem from the standpoint of application to difficult situations in daily life: setting boundaries, when to intervene; when to walk away, when to resist; when to forbear. and so on. It gets sticky.  Kindness, Compassion, & Empathic Joy are powerful; they can break through resistance and get hostile others to listen to us.  That is when wisdom enters the equation. 

More: We had a power outage a few weeks ago and my 2006 model Vista computer died. I have been using an older, very XP slow machine. I finally obtained a new, faster Windows 7 computer and got it set up. Meanwhile, I am buying some adapter hardware to turn my HD from the dead machine into an external USB device. Hopefully, I can retrieve 5 plus years of photographs and other files. I’m also looking at External HDs to back up and store files in the future.

I have also updated Robin’s-eye Views.  As of now, there are 5 pages.  Home consists of some of my photographs, dated on the date I took them.  There are also pages for embedded videos and music playlists sorted by general genre. I have noticed that Sony (SME) randomly blocks music videos from embedded youtube playlists with a message: ‘sme restricts playback of this video in playlists.’ It appears that SME owns the Vevo channel on youtube? I gather they want us to use their Vevo videos with their advertising. BTW, the restriction is entirely random.

Solution; From embedded playlists, mouse over the video to bring up the controls. To just skip it, and go to the next video in the queue, click the next icon. To load it to the playlist: Click youtube. Then click on: ‘watch this video in a standalone player.’  Close the standalone player. Go back to the embedded playlist. The video will be loaded, click the arrow to start it. The playlist should continue until the next hassle.