Translation is a 5-step process of “straight thinking in the abstract.” The first step is an ontological statement of being beginning with the syllogism: “Truth is that which is so. That which is not truth is not so. Therefore Truth is all there is.” The second step is the sense testimony (what the senses tell us about anything). The third step is the argument between the absolute abstract nature of truth from the first step and the relative specific truth of experience from the second step. The fourth step is filtering out the conclusions you have arrived at in the third step. The fifth step is your overall conclusion.
The claims in a Translation may seem outrageous, but they are always (or should always) be based on self-evident syllogistic reasoning. Here is one Translation from this week.
1) Truth is that which is so. That which is not truth is not so. Therefore Truth is all that is. Truth being all is therefore total, therefore whole, therefore in tact, therefore all-inclusive, therefore excluding nothing, therefore love. I think therefore I am. Since I am and since Truth is all that is, therefore I am Truth. Since I am Truth, therefore I am total, whole, in tact, all-inclusive, love. I, being Truth, and I, being Mind, therefore Truth is Mind.
3) Truth being all there is, that which violates truth is not so, therefore there is no violence in Truth. Truth being all that is, there is no cause/accusation/excuse other than Truth, therefore Truth is blameless causation. Truth being all, therefore otherless, therefore one, can be a threat to those who think they are other than Truth, but since there is nothing other than Truth, nobody is threatened by Truth, therefore Truth allows all, Truth permits all, Truth includes all as Itself, Truth loves all as Itself. Truth being all-inclusive and otherless, there can be no threat to any being, since all being is Truth being, therefore Truth is endless possibilities.
4) There is no violence in Truth. Truth is blameless causation. Truth allows all, Truth permits all, Truth includes all as Itself, Truth loves all as Itself. Truth is endless possibilities.
5) Truth is blameless causation and endless possibilities. All Systems Go!
The Weekly Invitational Translation Group invites your participation as well. If you would like to submit a Translation on any subject, feel free to send your weekly Translation to zonta1111@aol.com and I will anonymously post it on the Bathtub Bulletin on Friday.
“I am thankful that thus far today I have not had any unkind thoughts or said any harsh words or done anything that I regret. However, now I need to get out of bed so things may become more difficult.”
Sylvia Boorstein (b.1936) American Buddhist teacher
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DAILY REFLECTION BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SCHOOL OF PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY
Changing of the Gods • Dec 2, 2022 Watch the whole 10-part series: http://changingofthegods.com The lens of archetypal astrology reveals recurring historical cycles of massive societal breakdowns, breakthroughs, revolutions both left and right, and world-changing transformations in mass culture and consciousness. It’s a journey into the cosmic mystery of the correlations between the cultural zeitgeist and the movements of the planets.
When the Knight of Swords comes up to indicate a man, he will be intelligent, subtle and clever. His capacity for abstract thought will be well developed. He is also highly intuitive and perceptive.
His nature will be elusive and ethereal, yet he has a strength and fascination that is hard to deny. He compels attention, except when he doesn’t want it, and at those times you will not even notice him pass by.
Because of the enquiring and analytic nature of his mind, you will often find him involved in occult study, and following spiritual pursuits. Whilst tolerant of those who know less than him, he will not divulge his knowledge easily. Rather those who wish to learn from him must fight to see him clearly, rather than falling for the projections he readily casts around him.
If this man is badly dignified his subtlety turns to manipulation, and his fascination to glamour. In this way, he becomes unprincipled and self-seeking. There is a certain ruthlessness present in the Knight of Swords at all times.
Even when we meet him at his best, he makes a hard task master, and an acutely keen observer. The sword in his hand will quite often be used to cut to the heart of things – and sometimes we will not be comfortable with what is revealed.
When this card comes up to indicate a state of mind in a man not normally seen as a Knight of Swords, we are then dealing with quite another issue. Now we must address the darkest qualities of the card. This is an angry man, who has quite possibly been emotionally hurt, and may well be looking for revenge.
He has the potential to be physically violent and mentally cruel. He is a nasty enemy and somebody who needs to be treated with the utmost caution.
As I watched the gripping murder trial of the prominent South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh over the last few weeks, I found myself wrestling with difficult questions about how data from smartphones and other digital technologies should be relied upon in the criminal justice system. We are all being constantly and intimately tracked by our gadgets, but the voluminous records produced by these devices are not always easy to interpret.
In the Murdaugh case, arguments by both the prosecution and the defense involved loads of data, and both sides raised important points about what the digital records prove and do not prove in a high-stakes case — and I expected a jury to have a hard time getting to the bottom of these issues.
Well, apparently not. The Murdaugh trial lasted almost six weeks. The prosecution and defense called more than 70 witnesses. The jury began deliberating after lunch on Thursday and reached a verdict by dinnertime. I have little quarrel with its decision, but the lightning speed with which it came to its conclusion — about three hours — makes me deeply uncomfortable with how the criminal justice system might deal with all of the digital effluvia being spewed by our devices. Unlike the jury, apparently, I worry that the evidence our devices produce can just as easily muddy the picture of a crime as clarify it.
Britt Dove, a South Carolina law enforcement officer, testified about cellphone data at Murdaugh’s trial.Credit…Pool photo by Joshua Boucher
Murdaugh was convicted of shooting to death his wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son Paul near the dog kennels on the family’s vast estate in Colleton County, S.C., in June 2021. There were no witnesses, and the police found little forensic evidence to tie Murdaugh to the crime. They did not recover any murder weapons or any blood-soaked clothing; and because the murders occurred on Murdaugh’s property and he touched the bodies when he discovered them (he says he felt Paul for a pulse and touched Maggie on her waist), the evidence of his DNA found at the scene proves little.
Instead, the prosecution’s case stood on two pillars. First, Alex Murdaugh’s dishonesty and crookedness — he has admitted to stealing millions from his clients and law partners and lying about his actions to almost everyone, including to the police in this case. (Prosecutors say he killed his wife and son to distract from his financial crimes, a theory I found dubious — the murders only added to the scrutiny.)
Second, prosecutors reconstructed a tight timeline of the crime using lots and lots of data. Among other sources, they extracted information from Alex, Maggie and Paul Murdaugh’s iPhones; call records of family and friends; location and speed data from Murdaugh’s S.U.V.; entry logs from his office security system; images from automatic license plate readers mounted on public roads; communications on social networks and messaging apps; reams of financial data; and video and audio recorded on Murdaugh’s 911 call and by the police at the scene.
It isn’t surprising that authorities would mine such data to determine basic facts like who was where and when, but prosecutors in the Murdaugh case claimed to find many deeper truths in the digital record. And it’s in their interpretations of the data that they sometimes lost me. Often, they seemed to be finding patterns in the data that didn’t necessarily hold true, and this made me wary that authorities can build outlandish stories from our data.
For instance, the victims’ time of death. The county coroner said Maggie and Paul were killed between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on June 7, 2021. To get a more precise time for the killings, prosecutors pointed to the victims’ phone usage. Paul was known to be always looking at his phone, and both Paul and Maggie’s phones were last unlocked at around 8:49 p.m. that night. And so, prosecutors argued, Maggie and Paul must have died just after 8:49 — what else but death could have kept them from responding to incoming texts?
An 8:49 time of death put Alex Murdaugh in deep trouble. His voice was recorded on a Snapchat video captured by Paul at the kennels around 8:45 p.m. that night — in other words, Alex would have been at the scene of the crime just minutes before the victims’ time of death. Murdaugh initially told the police he had not been at the kennels around that time and only admitted he had been there after the Snapchat video was found. (He explained that his addiction to opioids had driven a paranoia that had caused him to lie.)
Prosecutors claimed to see much more in the data. Murdaugh’s iPhone didn’t record him taking any steps between 8:09 p.m. and 9:02 p.m. that night. Since he too was known to be always glued to his phone, did his hour of nonactivity show he had deliberately stashed his phone so it wouldn’t show him going to the dog kennels during the murders? Then, at 9:02 p.m., Murdaugh’s phone recorded a flurry of activity — lots of phone calls, lots of steps walked. Was this evidence that he was “manufacturing an alibi” to show that he was otherwise occupied around the time of the murders, as the prosecution argued?
Murdaugh’s car was also scrutinized. Murdaugh says that on the night of the murders, he drove to and from his mother’s house (his mother has Alzheimer’s disease, and he and others in the family often dropped in to check on her). Tracking data provided by General Motors’ OnStar service showed that Murdough’s Chevy Suburban did indeed drive to and from his mother’s house at the time. But on his way there, Murdaugh hit a top speed of more than 70 miles per hour. Why was he going so fast, prosecutors wondered — was he speeding to flee the murder scene as fast as he could? Later, at his mother’s house, Murdaugh’s phone data showed him walking around outside for several minutes. Why? Was he trying to hide something?
Come on — really? I can see how some of these details can paint a pretty damning picture when put together on a neat timeline. But I expected the jury to spend some time pondering the perfectly innocuous explanations for many of them.
Phillip Barber, a lawyer for Alex Murdaugh, wrote out a timeline based on Maggie Murdaugh’s cellphone data.Credit…Pool photo by Joshua Boucher
By 8:49 p.m. Paul Murdaugh’s phone battery was down to 2 percent — wouldn’t that have been a perfectly good reason for him to put down his phone? And while Maggie Murdaugh’s phone was not unlocked after 8:49, it did record some usage after that time — its backlight went on and off, its orientation changed from sideways to vertical and it recorded moving about 59 steps. Did that mean Maggie was not yet dead? Or that the killer was moving her phone? (It was found using Apple’s “find my phone” feature the day after the murders on the side of the road leading to the Murdaugh property; the prosecution alleged he threw her phone out of his car on his way to his mother’s house.) To complicate matters, both Alex and his brother testified that it was Alex who provided the police with the password to Maggie’s phone — but if Alex knew Maggie’s password, why didn’t he unlock her phone after the killing, if he was the murderer, just to complicate the time of death?
Also, if Alex Murdaugh was speeding away from his house to flee the crime scene, why did he drive at more than 80 miles per hour on the way back from his mother’s house? Could it be that he just had a heavy foot?
Then there’s all the walking and phone calling he did at around 9 p.m. and later at his mom’s house — couldn’t he have just been pacing while on the phone, something I find myself doing all the time? Could it also be possible that his phone’s step data was inaccurate? Studies have found that the iPhone’s activity measurements are far from perfect. When I’m on a plane, my iPhone sometimes thinks I’m driving; when I’m in a car, my Apple Watch sometimes praises me for working out. Why should we believe these devices are good enough for a murder conviction?
Murdaugh’s speedy guilty verdict suggests that the legal system may have a hard time teasing out such complexities. Murdaugh’s defense team pointed out some of these issues, but because technology is complicated and its idiosyncrasies difficult to explain — and likely because Alex Murdaugh’s lies were tough to explain away — their arguments clearly did not land.
Yes, our devices now capture everything about what everyone is doing, but making sense of that data isn’t trivial. In the Murdaugh case, both sides pointed to the digital record — but by the end of the trial, I felt like I had no real idea what actually happened. The jury was hardly so cautious.
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Experts believe most people could benefit from improving their breathing patterns. Before you read on, take this test to find out how healthy your own breath rate is.Test Your BreathingContinue Reading
March 3, 2023 9NYTimes.com)
We breathe in and out roughly 25,000 times a day. And yet, according to experts, including pulmonologists and psychiatrists, most of us are doing it wrong — breathing too rapidly and too shallowly.
Over the last few decades, research has started to confirm what ancient cultures around the world have long believed: Breath work, the practice of correcting and controlling your breathing through simple exercises, can improve health and well-being.Test Your Breathing
One study, published last April, found that breath work helped recovering Covid-19 patients return to healthy respiratory rates. And another study, published in November, found that breathing exercises — among other mindfulness practices — were as effective as drugs to treat anxiety disorders.
When sick, stressed or anxious, many people start breathing rapidly from the top of the chest, which activates the body’s sympathetic nervous system, said Dr. Melis Yilmaz Balban, a neurobiology researcher at Stanford University and co-author of a study published in January on how breath work can be used to lift mood. Breathing in this way raises your heart rate, suppresses digestion and heightens the brain’s tendency to detect danger, whether real or imagined.
Many people find it difficult to slow their breathing even after a threat or source of stress has subsided, and may end up developing unhealthy breathing habits in the long term. When breath, pulse and blood pressure remain elevated, “that stressful day becomes a stressful week becomes a stressful month,” said Stuart Sandeman, a London-based coach who helps people improve their breathing and is the author of “Breathe In, Breathe Out.”
The mechanism that makes a lot of breath work effective for enhancing mental, emotional and physical health is that it forcibly slows breathing down, said Dr. Raj Dasgupta, a pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist at Keck Medicine of University of Southern California, who uses breathing exercises with patients who have chronic lung diseases or insomnia. When you slow your breathing down, “the parasympathetic system — what we call the ‘rest and digest’ system — hopefully takes over and helps calm you down,” he said.
Additionally, “with any type of breath work exercise, we are forced to pay attention to our breath and our internal state,” said Dr. Yilmaz Balban. “It brings you into the moment.”
Dr. Dasgupta noted that even if you have health conditions that affect breathing, it’s safe to attempt to deepen and slow your breaths bit by bit. “When my chronic lung disease patients start having a flare up and get that feeling of shortness of breath, of course they need their medications,” he said. “But I tell them that they should also focus on using that diaphragm muscle and slowing down the respiratory rate.”
The recent research into breathing upholds what “yogis and meditators have been talking about for thousands of years,” Mr. Sandeman said. “These older traditions knew the benefits of breathing well,” he added, and Western medicine is just beginning to catch up.
So, how do you get started? Here are three simple breathing exercises that the pulmonologists, sleep doctors and researchers consulted for this story recommend.
4-4-8 breathing
Try this exercise if you are feeling anxious or scared.
What to do: Take a breath in for four counts, hold your breath for four counts and then exhale for eight counts. Repeat.
…Breathe inHoldBreathe out
Narrated by Stuart Sandeman
Why this works: Several studies have found that purposefully extending your exhale to last longer than your inhale — which is what this exercise aims to do — can quickly slow your heart rate and bring blood pressure down. In fact, extending the exhale is also something that the body naturally tends to do every five minutes or so, Dr. Yilmaz Balban said, as a way for it to “kind of reset the breathing rhythm” and calm down.
Alternate nostril breathing
This exercise, borrowed from yoga practices, can help improve focus.
What to do: Close your right nostril and breathe in through your left nostril for a count of four. Now close your left nostril and breathe out from your right nostril for a count of four.
…Breathe inBreathe outBreathe inBreathe out
Narrated by Stuart Sandeman
Why this works: Ancient Hindu teachings said that each nostril was responsible for different functions in the brain and body, and intentionally switching between the left and right nostrils would balance those two systems and bring about focus, mental clarity and calm.
More recently, researchers have found some limited evidence to support those teachings, Dr. Yilmaz Balban said, with a handful of small studies demonstrating that the right nostril is connected to the sympathetic system — our fight or flight mode — while the left nostril is connected to the calmer parasympathetic system. At the very least, consciously switching between the two nostrils helps you tune out racing thoughts and focus on the moment, Dr. Yilmaz Balban added.
What to do: Breathe in for a count of four, hold your breath for a count of four, exhale for a count of four and hold your breath again for a count of four.
…Breathe inHoldBreathe outHold
Narrated by Stuart Sandeman
Why this works: By making the inhalations, breath holds and exhales equal, you force your breathing into a steady rhythm, Mr. Sandeman said, keeping you alert and energized rather than lulling you into a completely relaxed state.
You can also try taking the breathing test again to see if you can slow your breath rate down.Test Your Breathing
[Outro] Come together, yeah Come together, yeah Come together, yeah Come together, yeah Come together, yeah Come together, yeah Come together, yeah Come together, yeah Come together, yeah Come together, yeah77
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About
Genius Annotation
“Come Together” is the opening track to Abbey Road, written by John Lennon and to be used as a campaign song for famed LSD enthusiast Timothy Leary, who was running for Governor of California at the time.
It’s been suggested that each verse talks about one of the members of The Beatles or a self-portrait of Lennon himself. However, by his own admission, Lennon often simply filled his lyrics with non-sequiturs:
The thing was created in the studio. It’s gobbledygook; Come Together was an expression that Leary had come up with for his attempt at being president or whatever he wanted to be, and he asked me to write a campaign song. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t come up with one. But I came up with this, Come Together, which would’ve been no good to him – you couldn’t have a campaign song like that, right?
FEBRUARY 28, 2023 AT 7:00 AM BY ROB BREZSNY (NewCity.com)
Photo: Ryoji Iwata
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In 1993, I began work on my memoirish novel “The Televisionary Oracle.” It took me seven years to finish. The early part of the process was tough. I generated a lot of material I didn’t like. Then one day, I discovered an approach that liberated me: I wrote about aspects of my character and behavior that needed improvement. Suddenly everything clicked, and my fruitless adventure transformed into a fluidic joy. Soon I was writing about other themes and experiences. But dealing with self-correction was a key catalyst. Are there any such qualities in yourself you might benefit from tackling, Aries? If so, I recommend you try my approach.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Two Taurus readers complained that my horoscopes contain too much poetry and flair to be useful. In response, I’m offering you a prosaic message. It’s all true, though in a way that’s more like a typical horoscope. (I wonder if this approach will spur your emotional intelligence and your soul’s lust for life, which are crucial areas of growth for you these days.) Anyway, here’s the oracle: Take a risk and extend feelers to interesting people outside your usual sphere. But don’t let your social adventures distract you from your ambitions, which also need your wise attention. Your complex task: Mix work and play; synergize business and pleasure.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Astrologer Jessica Shepherd advises us to sidle up to the Infinite Source of Life and say, “Show me what you’ve got.” When we do, we often get lucky. That’s because the Infinite Source of Life delights in bringing us captivating paradoxes. Yes and no may both be true in enchanting ways. Independence and interdependence can interweave to provide us with brisk teachings. If we dare to experiment with organized wildness and aggressive receptivity, our awareness will expand, and our heart will open. What about it, Gemini? Are you interested in the charming power that comes from engaging with cosmic contradictions? Now’s a favorable time to do so. Go ahead and say, “Show me what you’ve got” to the Infinite Source of Life.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Only a lunatic would dance when sober,” declared the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero. As a musician who loves to dance, I reject that limiting idea—especially for you. In the upcoming weeks, I hope you will do a lot of dancing-while-sober. Singing-while-sober, too. Maybe some crying-for-joy-while-sober, as well as freewheeling-your-way-through-unpredictable-conversations-while-sober and cavorting-and-reveling-while-sober. My point is that there is no need for you to be intoxicated as you engage in revelry. Even further: It will be better for your soul’s long-term health if you are lucid and clearheaded as you celebrate this liberating phase of extra joy and pleasure.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Poet Mary Oliver wondered whether the soul is solid and unbreakable, like an iron bar. Or is it tender and fragile, like a moth in an owl’s beak? She fantasized that maybe it’s shaped like an iceberg or a hummingbird’s eye. I am poetically inclined to imagine the soul as a silver diadem bedecked with emeralds, roses and live butterflies. What about you, Leo? How do you experience your soul? The coming weeks will be a ripe time to home in on this treasured part of you. Feel it, consult with it, feed it. Ask it to surprise you!
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): According to the color consultant company Pantone, Viva Magenta is 2023’s color of the year. According to me, Viva Magenta is the lucky hue and power pigment for you Virgos during the next ten months. Designer Amber Guyton says that Viva Magenta “is a rich shade of red that is both daring and warm.” She adds that its “purple undertone gives it a warmth that sets it apart from mere red and makes it more versatile.” For your purposes, Virgo, Viva Magenta is earthy and exciting; nurturing and inspiring; soothing yet arousing. The coming weeks will be a good time to get the hang of incorporating its spirit into your life.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): If you are not working to forge a gritty solution, you may be reinforcing a cozy predicament. If you’re not expanding your imagination to conjure up fresh perspectives, you could be contributing to some ignorance or repression. If you’re not pushing to expose dodgy secrets and secret agendas, you might be supporting the whitewash. Know what I’m saying, Libra? Here’s a further twist. If you’re not peeved about the times you have wielded your anger unproductively, you may not use it brilliantly in the near future. And I really hope you will use it brilliantly.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Storyteller Martin Shaw believes that logic and factual information are not enough to sustain us. To nourish our depths, we need the mysterious stories provided by myths and fairy tales. He also says that conventional hero sagas starring big, strong, violent men are outmoded. Going forward, we require wily, lyrical tales imbued with the spirit of the Greek word metis, meaning “divine cunning in service to wisdom.” That’s what I wish for you now, Scorpio. I hope you will tap into it abundantly. As you do, your creative struggles will lead to personal liberations. For inspiration, read myths and fairy tales.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Many astrologers don’t give enough encouragement to you Sagittarians on the subject of home. I will compensate for that. I believe it’s a perfect time to prioritize your feelings of belonging and your sense of security. I urge you to focus energy on creating serenity and stability for yourself. Honor the buildings and lands you rely on. Give extra appreciation to the people you regard as your family and tribe. Offer blessings to the community that supports you.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): If you are like ninety-five percent of the population, you weren’t given all the love and care you needed as a child. You may have made adaptations to partly compensate for this lack, but you are still running a deficit. That’s the bad news, Capricorn. The good news is that the coming weeks will be a favorable time to overcome at least some of the hurt and sadness caused by your original deprivation. Life will offer you experiences that make you feel more at home in the world and at peace with your destiny and in love with your body. Please help life help you! Make yourself receptive to kindness and charity and generosity.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The philosopher Aldous Huxley was ambitious and driven. Author of almost fifty books, he was a passionate pacifist and explorer of consciousness. He was a visionary who expressed both dystopian and utopian perspectives. Later in his life, though, his views softened. “Do not burn yourselves out,” he advised readers. “Be as I am: a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it.” Now I’m offering you Huxley’s counsel, Aquarius. As much as I love your zealous idealism and majestic quests, I hope that in the coming weeks, you will recharge yourself with creature comforts.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Piscean author and activist W. E. B. Dubois advised us to always be willing to give up what we are. Why? Because that’s how we transform into a deeper and stronger version of ourselves. I think you would benefit from using his strategy. My reading of the astrological omens tells me that you are primed to add through subtraction, to gain power by shedding what has become outworn and irrelevant. Suggested step one: Identify dispiriting self-images you can jettison. Step two: Visualize a familiar burden you could live without. Step three: Drop an activity that bores you. Step four: Stop doing something that wastes your time.
