A track bike, no brakes, riding on the street -- you're one with
everything. --Paul Allemby, Graphic Artist
It
doesn't coast. That's the thing about it. --Kent Peterson, from
Sheldon Brown's "Fixed Gear
Testimonial" web page
No brakes? You'll kill
yourself! --Concerned bystander, 5th Avenue,
Manhattan
What does cycling has to do with nonduality? Is this something about
unicycles?
No it's not, even though unicycles have only one wheel. And it's true that
nonduality has to do with everything. So just what is nondual about bicycling?
The track bike!
The "track bike" or "fixed-gear bike" is famous among bicycle aficionados for
giving its rider a serene, concentrated feeling of unbroken connectedness with
everything. When people imagine that nonduality is like a certain feeling,
this is the kind of feeling they imagine :-) . It's like being in "The
Zone" all the time.
What They Are
What's so special about a track bike? Bicycle messengers in large cities like
them for being simple and ultra low-maintenance. Kevin Bacon rode one all over
San Francisco in the movie "Quicksilver." They are used in Olympic velodrome
events and the exciting Japanese "keirin" racing, which involves mild jostling
and the country's wildest betting. In the early 1900's, track biking was the
most popular sport in the U.S.
What really makes these bikes special however, is that they have a
direct-drive system. The single rear sprocket is fixed to the back axle and
doesn't spin freely. This means that the pedals never coast. Whenever the wheels
are moving, the pedals are moving, whether forwards or backwards. It is a
fixed-gear system with no slippage and no coasting. The the chain is connected
to the large chainring on the front and the small cog on the back. The small cog
is fixed to the bicycle's back wheel. Track bikes are also special because they
are minimalistic. Originally designed for velodrome racing on glassy smooth
banked oval tracks, these bikes are very very light -- they've got no cables or
levers or shifters. No extra apparatus at all. Track bikes look like sleek
racing bikes, with very thin tires and curvy "drop"-style handlebars. And there
are no brakes and no derailleurs! The acceleration, speed, deceleration and
stopping are all managed by controlling the spin of th e pedals. Experienced
racers can pedal at the rate of 3 or 4 revolutions per second. (Click here
for a track bike photo from Harris Cyclery.)
My Quest
I first saw a track bike in a 1990 bicycle guide. There was a photo and a
very poetic description of how this kind of cycling can improve one's pedalling
technique. I loved the slim, taught lines of the bike. I was intrigued by the
reviewer's cautious tones, warning that "suicidal New York bike messengers" like
to ride these bikes with no brakes in the street. I was hooked! I lived in
upstate New York in the city of Rochester, and none of the local bike shops knew
about track bikes. So I drove 10 hours to New York and asked a lot of
questions.
Some bike shops didn't even like to talk about them, as they were illegal to
ride in the city without brakes. It was one of those things where they'll give
you information if it sounds like you know what you're talking about. And
certainly I didn't! But I kept on looking and asking, going through the
Manhattan yellow pages for bike shops. Finally I found a nice shop in Greenwich
Village that took kindly to my earnest questions. So I bought the bike on the
spot, including the front brake they suggested. They even had a salesman who was
able to give me a few pointers on how to stop without the brake! I took it back
to Rochester, to practice in the safe streets of suburbia. And whenever I
visited Manhattan, I'd quiz anyone I'd see riding a fixed gear bike. Mostly the
questions were, "How do you stop it?" It turned out there are lots of ways to
stop, including several emergency measures you can take if the chain breaks.
(The chain is your accelerator and your brake.)
Greg's Marinoni:
Mystical Experiences and Sensei
It turns out that Jamaicans are the ones who brought the popularity of
fixed-gear cycling to New York. They ride these bikes in Jamaica growing up.
Coming to NYC, they ended up teaching lots of New York cyclists. Over the years
going to every bike shop in the city, I've found a great bike shop owned and
operated by Jamaicans -- Larry and Jeff's Bicycles Plus. With an owner who has
an affection for track bikes, and mechanics who include former Jamaican national
track champions and Olympic competitors, they really know this kind of
bicycle, and effortlessly keep my bikes in tip-top shape.
I remember how I came to take the front caliper brake off after a year of
practice. It was almost a mystical experience. For about 3-4 months, I had been
using the brake less and less, almost not at all. Then one day I had a deep
insight, an out-of-body experience like a flowering realization -- I was
watching myself riding and feeling how it was to negotiate on the bike without
the brake. It culminated in a very natural and positive feeling of, "I can do
this!" So I took it off, and never rode a track bike with a brake since. And the
totally connected oceanic riding experience is there, every time. Since 1991,
I've purchased and designed several custom tracks of different styles. I was
fortunate to hook up with a group of old-time track riders at Central Park, one
of whom became like a sensei to myself and some of the other newcomers. He
taught us track techniques that even the messengers and bike mechanics didn't
know, and took us on trips via little-known routes out side Manhattan. Today I
ride my track bikes everywhere, including up and down steep hills, in NYC rush
hour traffic, over the 59th Street Bridge to Queens, over the George Washington
Bridge to New Jersey, and even on the streets of London, where the traffic goes
the "other" way!
Greg's Chester:
My First Teacher
Actually, it was track bikes that turned me towards non-dualism! One day in
1992 I was riding my track in Central Park. I was a church-going born-again
Christian at the time. As I rode the bike, I approached another guy who happened
also to be riding a track. I slowed down a bit and we nodded, commenting sagely
on each other's bikes (it's a guy thing). We rode a few laps around the park
together. It turned out that he was also interested in philosophy, but not the
academic kind I'd gone to grad school for. Rather, he liked the perennial
philosophy. He was interested in Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy and Theosophy. He
spoke of the astral body, Jupiter spirits, and God being within us. I'd never
heard of any of this! It all sounded vaguely New Age-ish to me, but I
wasn't sure, having been enclosed in a Christian cultural bubble throughout the
1980's. I was fascinated however, so I sought out the Steiner book he
recommended. That book and that bike rider opened up huge vistas for me through
both Western and Eastern spiritual paths. The rider and I became wonderful
friends, he being a great teacher to me. His name is Paul Allemby, and his quote
is at the top of this article.
What Others Say
The quotes are true! In fact, here are some more comments and testimonials,
from other aficionados of fixed-gear track cycling:
Riding a track bike is a totally Zen-like experience. You are
in total contact with the bike, the road, and everything around you. A track
bike is cycling stripped down to its barest essentials. --Brian
Dorfmann, Programmer at a large Manhattan law firm
A "fixed" is
the best kind of bike. You're always pedalling so your concentration is, like,
really there. --Doug, track cyclist, habitue of Central
Park
I have so much fun riding the track bike that it is
frustrating that I can't convince riders to spend more time on a fixed gear. The
fixed gear builds a wonderful sense of oneness with the bike that can't be
duplicated with a freewheel bike. I am absolutely convinced that the fixed gear
is better than a freewheel, not only in developing and maintaining the pedal
stroke, but also in developing strength and power. --Steve
Cox
Fixed-gear is a totally new dimension in riding. I really
feel like I'm part of the bike. --Patrick
Murphy
It's probably all in my head, but it does seem that I'm
more aware of the pedals moving in circles, and to what extent my legs are with
them. --Dennis Cotcamp
This is riding. This is a
bicycle that teaches me something every time I ride it, that makes me more by
virtue of it's being less. It's the bike I ride until the street lights come on
and sometimes even longer. It's the bike I put away sadly and take out joyfully.
It's the bike that never forgets why we ride. --Kent Peterson
Incense Making 101. The
Basics. Part One.
by Mother's
Hearth
from Incense_Exchange
Here is a photo taken on the road between Lhasa and
Xigatse......it's an incense making operation using a mountain stream. At
this place they make cedar 'bricks' to go into incense. Photo by Dianne Boons
(Dgboons@aol.com)
So, want to try your hand at incense making? I understand, as I
love making incense. It is truly art. As a result, it is both very simple
and very complex at the same time. The physical process of creating
incense, especially basic incense, is not that difficult. If you have a good
recipe, your incense should burn when it's dry. But making incense is much
more than that.
Some people, including some on this list, think that the
best way to become an incense maker is to examine and study one ingredient at
a time. They believe that studying the various scents and how they interact
is a key step in the learning process. Simply jumping in and rolling incense
without sufficient background study just isn't proper and will not yield the
best results. Know what? They're right. Getting to know the
individual components of incense is a lifelong process and very important to
becoming a great incense maker.
But some of us might lack the depth of interest, time,
patience and devotion to study required - especially when first starting.
Many people want to make incense as a craft or a hobby. Other's are more
interested in creating combustible forms of loose incense that they are
burning now. Some just want to add to their overall base of knowledge. As a
result, I'm going to do these messages in a form that some here will consider
backwards. I apologize for that, but experience shows me that this is what
people are most interested in. It's a more journalistic approach than a
literary one. We'll start with the punch line and then work our way back to
where we should have started.
I'm not going to offer any philosophy with these first
messages (egads - heresy!) just the basics of becoming a home incense maker.
This is my own approach to incense making and other approaches are equally
valid, but this works for me.
Blah, blah, blah. Let's make incense!
Incense is made up of three dry components: aromatic, base
and binder. The aromatic is the part you want to smell. The base is used to
assist in burning and to "mellow" the scent of strong aromatics (although
most bases are also aromatic). The binder is the "glue" that holds it all
together. There is also a liquid component, usually water, that you have to
add to activate the binder, but then you have to wait until it's all
evaporated to burn your incense.
As you might have seen in recent messages on the list, the
simplest way to roll incense is to make sandalwood incense and add essential
oils to the mix. I suggest using sandalwood because it's such a wonderful
aromatic in its own right and an excellent base as well. You can use other
powdered woods as long as they don't smell bad when burned (red cedar and
pine are good, inexpensive choices).
For a binder, I recommend guar gum, gum tragacanth or
makko/tabu. Many books recommend using gum arabic, but it's not a good
binder. It's very sticky (so it sticks to your hands and tools) and not very
strong, not to mention that it's no easier to locate than any other binder.
On the topic of incense books, many recommend using saltpeter (or saltpetre
a.k.a. potassium nitrate) - avoid it. A recipe that won't burn without
saltpeter is not worthwhile. Reformulate it. I will talk more about these
substances in later messages.
If you use one of the gum binders, try this
recipe: Carefully mix: 1 tablespoon sandalwood powder 1/8 teaspoon guar
gum or tragacanth gum in a bowl. Mix completely.
If you want to use
makko/tabu as a binder, try a mixture of 2 teaspoons sandalwood and one
teaspoon makko.
Gradually add 2 teaspoons of water. Use the least amount of
water possible to completely moisten the mix.
Stir the mix and put on some latex (or similar) gloves.
Press the mix together and it should stay in one lump.
Pick up your incense "dough" and begin to knead it. When
you begin, the dough might have bits that don't stick or drop out of your
hands. Knead the dough over the mixing bowl and add any bits that drop off
back into the dough.
Knead the dough for several minutes. It will become a
uniform color and texture.
Finally, you need to roll your incense. If
you'd like to make cones, take about 1/4 teaspoon of your dough and form a
rough, four-sided pyramid between your fingers. Make sure it is tall and
thin, not short and fat. If you'd like, you can dry it in that shape, but
for better results, lay the rough cone in the palm of one of your hands.
With the index finger of the other hand, press down on the cone with the tip
of your finger over the tip of the cone (the cone is now hidden by your
finger). Press down lightly on the cone and roll it back and forth in the
palm of your hand. Keep more pressure on the tip area and less along the
length to keep the tapered shape. This will make your cone smoother, thinner
and taller. The base of your cone should be no thicker than an unsharpened
pencil.
If you want to make stick incense there are several
approaches. You can use an extruder (the topic of a future message) if you
have one. You can actually roll nice, thin Japanese-style incense sticks by
simply rolling out a "rope" of dough. It's just like playing with clay when
you were a kid! Finally, and this is the easiest approach for new incense
makers, you can use a dowel rod like a rolling pin to roll the dough out
flat. You can then use a knife or razor blade to slice the dough into thin
sticks. They'll be square instead of round, but that won't have a
significant impact on their burning properties.
Here comes the hard part - drying. Don't try to hasten
drying times. I've tried it all and every approach can damage your incense.
Don't destroy all the time and materials you've used by trying to hasten the
drying. In fact, the slower the better as long as it does not mold. Fast
drying can lead to serious distortions and even cracking. Cracks often cause
cones to stop burning.
For cones, set the wet cone down on a drying board as if you
were going to burn it. Allow it to sit in that position over night and then
lay it on its side and allow to dry for two more days. If you light a cone
and it goes out before it burns completely, allow the other cones to dry for
another day.
Sticks will distort as they dry. The faster you dry them,
the more they will distort. To greatly reduce the warping, try this little
tip. Put your sticks on a drying board and then slide the board into a
plastic bag. Don't let the bag touch your incense. Keep the bag closed for
24 hours and then open the end for 24 hours. Remove the sticks and, if they
are still flexible, dry for another day outside the bag.
That was pretty simple, wasn't it? If you want to
experiment with oils, you can add them directly to your dough once you've
kneaded it for several minutes. You can add a drop or two to a single cones,
or add more to scent the entire batch of dough. Personally, I rarely use oils
in my incense, but you certainly can. Lots of people have a large store of
oils and want to experiment with them in incense. I say trust your education
and experiment with them if you wish.
I hope that showed you the light
on the ease of incense making. In the next message, I'll talk about using
aromatics and how to prepare incense ingredients. I'm sure there are some
questions, so please fire away.
The Basic Premise of Sorcery
I personally detest
the darkness and morbidity of the mind. I like the immensity of thought.
However, regardless of my likes and dislikes, I have to give due credit to
the sorcerers of antiquity, for they were the first to find out and do
everything we know and do today. Don Juan explained that their most
important attainment was to perceive the energetic essence of things. This
insight was of such importance that it was turned into the basic premise of
sorcery.
Sorcerers of Antiquity An Introduction THE ART OF
DREAMING Carlos Castaneda
About the
Now
The now has been
popularized by Eckhart Tolle. I haven't read his book, The Power of Now, but
I am sure that to be such a runaway best seller, it is worth reading. I
would like to raise a question....has the now been populated...can it
be...should it be? We have all driven through sleepy little towns with
signs reading, "Population five hundred." The now is rather weird in
that respect. It is made up of no one and everyone. The sign would read,
"You are entering the Now, population no one and everyone. Come back
soon."
It's fun to speculate.
Is there a Now P.D. ? Do Now's finest drive motorcyles and ticket
passengers who are illegally parked. Obviously not. Is there a Now Cafe
where people hang out talking about the whether? I wonder if people have
sex in Now, have babies in Now. Is there a Now 500....a Now Steeplechase?
Whenever I have found
myself in Now, it seems as if everything is proceeding exactly as it
should. No crimes are being committed....there are no streakers, no soap
box preachers, no baseball bleachers....no classroom teachers....just me
experiencing the moment.
There is something very
mysterious about the town of Now. You can be there on the Now Square
enjoying the feel of sunlight on your face and boom! all of a sudden you
find yourself in the town of Then. In Then it's overgrown with weeds and
you are apt to get poison ivy before you know it. You find yourself
scratching the itch of memories, both good and bad.
Once when I was in Now I
decided to take a stroll to the local cemetary. All of the grave markers
read the same way: Never born, never died. This begged the question, "Why do
they have a cemetary in the first place, if no one has ever born or will
ever die in Now?' I guess it's for the bodies...
Some people come to Now
for a long weekend. The locals call them No-hows. They come to Now but
don't know how to stay. Sometimes people rent them room over their
garages, only to find the space mysteriously empty most of the time. They
have returned to Then as quickly as they could.
I am not quite prepared
to live in Now myself. I like the mountain ranges and the clear blue
sky. The annual rainfall is perfect and the temperature is always
seventy degrees. Sometimes celebrities purchase elegant pads in Now.
They venture out onto the streets wearing Wayfarers and driving little
Vespas. Sadly, I heard it said that Celine Dion wants to move into the
Now as soon as she finishes her three-year stint in Vegas. I am not at all
sure that Now recognizes celebrity, though. Perhaps she would be happier
in Then.
Well, that's about all I
can think of to say about living in Now. It's more of an experience,
anyway. The next time I go to Now, I'll try and send you a postcard. And if
you get there before I do, enjoy.
D: What are the characteristics of the jivan-mukta
(the liberated in life) and the videha-mukta (the liberated at death)?
M: 'I am not the body; I am Brahman which is
manifest as the Self. In me who am the plenary Reality*, the world consisting of
bodies etc., are mere appearance, like the blue of the sky'. He who has realized
the truth thus is a jivan-mukta. Yet so long as his mind has not been resolved,
there may arise some misery for him because of relation to objects on account of
prarabdha (karma which has begun to fructify and whose result is the present
body), and as the movement of mind has not ceased there will not be also the
experience of bliss. The experience of Self is possible only for the mind that
has become subtle and unmoving as a result of prolonged meditation. He who is
thus endowed with a mind that has become subtle, and who has the experience of
the Self is called a jivan-mukta. It is the state of jivan-mukti that is
referred to as the attributeless Brahman and as the Turiya. When even the subtle
mind gets resolved, and experience of self ceases, and when one is immersed in
the ocean of bliss and has become one with it without any differentiated
existence, one is called a videha-mukta. It is the state of videha-mukti that is
referred to as the transcendent attributeless Brahman and as the transcendent
Turiya. This is the final goal. Because of the grades in misery and happiness,
the released ones, the jivan-muktas and videha-muktas, may be spoken of as
belonging to four categories - Brahmavid, - vara--variyan, and varishtha. But
these distinctions are from the standpoint of the others who look at them; in
reality, however, there are no distinctions in release gained through jnana.
* If there is prolonged meditation that the worlds are an
appearance in me who am the plenary Reality, where can ignorance stand?
A
track bike, no brakes, riding on the street
-- you're one with everything.
--Paul Allemby, Graphic Artist
It doesn't coast. That's the thing
about it.
--Kent Peterson, from Sheldon Brown's "Fixed Gear
Testimonial" web page
No brakes? You'll kill yourself!
--Concerned bystander, 5th Avenue, Manhattan
What does
cycling has to do with nonduality? Is this
something about unicycles?
No it's not,
even though unicycles have only one wheel. And
it's true that nonduality has to do with
everything. So just what is nondual about
bicycling? The track bike!
The "track
bike" or "fixed-gear bike" is
famous among bicycle aficionados for giving its
rider a serene, concentrated feeling of unbroken
connectedness with everything. When people
imagine that nonduality is like a certain
feeling, this is the kind of feeling they
imagine :-) . It's like being in "The
Zone" all the time.
What They Are
What's so
special about a track bike? Bicycle messengers in
large cities like them for being simple and ultra
low-maintenance. Kevin Bacon rode one all over
San Francisco in the movie
"Quicksilver." They are used in Olympic
velodrome events and the exciting Japanese
"keirin" racing, which involves mild
jostling and the country's wildest betting. In
the early 1900's, track biking was the most
popular sport in the U.S.
What really
makes these bikes special however, is that they
have a direct-drive system. The single rear
sprocket is fixed to the back axle and doesn't
spin freely. This means that the pedals never
coast. Whenever the wheels are moving, the pedals
are moving, whether forwards or backwards. It is
a fixed-gear system with no slippage and no
coasting. The the chain is connected to the large
chainring on the front and the small cog on the
back. The small cog is fixed to the bicycle's
back wheel. Track bikes are also special because
they are minimalistic. Originally designed for
velodrome racing on glassy smooth banked oval
tracks, these bikes are very very light --
they've got no cables or levers or shifters. No
extra apparatus at all. Track bikes look like
sleek racing bikes, with very thin tires and
curvy "drop"-style handlebars. And
there are no brakes and no derailleurs! The
acceleration, speed, deceleration and stopping
are all managed by controlling the spin of th e
pedals. Experienced racers can pedal at the rate
of 3 or 4 revolutions per second. (Click here for a track
bike photo from Harris Cyclery.)
My Quest
I first saw a
track bike in a 1990 bicycle guide. There was a
photo and a very poetic description of how this
kind of cycling can improve one's pedalling
technique. I loved the slim, taught lines of the
bike. I was intrigued by the reviewer's cautious
tones, warning that "suicidal New York bike
messengers" like to ride these bikes with no
brakes in the street. I was hooked! I lived in
upstate New York in the city of Rochester, and
none of the local bike shops knew about track
bikes. So I drove 10 hours to New York and asked
a lot of questions.
Some bike shops
didn't even like to talk about them, as they were
illegal to ride in the city without brakes. It
was one of those things where they'll give you
information if it sounds like you know what
you're talking about. And certainly I didn't! But
I kept on looking and asking, going through the
Manhattan yellow pages for bike shops. Finally I
found a nice shop in Greenwich Village that took
kindly to my earnest questions. So I bought the
bike on the spot, including the front brake they
suggested. They even had a salesman who was able
to give me a few pointers on how to stop without
the brake! I took it back to Rochester, to
practice in the safe streets of suburbia. And
whenever I visited Manhattan, I'd quiz anyone I'd
see riding a fixed gear bike. Mostly the
questions were, "How do you stop it?"
It turned out there are lots of ways to stop,
including several emergency measures you can take
if the chain breaks. (The chain is your
accelerator and your brake.)
Greg's
Marinoni:
Mystical
Experiences and Sensei
It turns out
that Jamaicans are the ones who brought the
popularity of fixed-gear cycling to New York.
They ride these bikes in Jamaica growing up.
Coming to NYC, they ended up teaching lots of New
York cyclists. Over the years going to every bike
shop in the city, I've found a great bike shop
owned and operated by Jamaicans -- Larry and
Jeff's Bicycles Plus. With an owner who has an
affection for track bikes, and mechanics who
include former Jamaican national track champions
and Olympic competitors, they really know
this kind of bicycle, and effortlessly keep my
bikes in tip-top shape.
I remember how I
came to take the front caliper brake off after a
year of practice. It was almost a mystical
experience. For about 3-4 months, I had been
using the brake less and less, almost not at all.
Then one day I had a deep insight, an out-of-body
experience like a flowering realization -- I was
watching myself riding and feeling how it was to
negotiate on the bike without the brake. It
culminated in a very natural and positive feeling
of, "I can do this!" So I took it off,
and never rode a track bike with a brake since.
And the totally connected oceanic riding
experience is there, every time. Since 1991, I've
purchased and designed several custom tracks of
different styles. I was fortunate to hook up with
a group of old-time track riders at Central Park,
one of whom became like a sensei to myself and
some of the other newcomers. He taught us track
techniques that even the messengers and bike
mechanics didn't know, and took us on trips via
little-known routes out side Manhattan. Today I
ride my track bikes everywhere, including up and
down steep hills, in NYC rush hour traffic, over
the 59th Street Bridge to Queens, over the George
Washington Bridge to New Jersey, and even on the
streets of London, where the traffic goes the
"other" way!
Greg's
Chester:
My First
Teacher
Actually, it was
track bikes that turned me towards non-dualism!
One day in 1992 I was riding my track in Central
Park. I was a church-going born-again Christian
at the time. As I rode the bike, I approached
another guy who happened also to be riding a
track. I slowed down a bit and we nodded,
commenting sagely on each other's bikes (it's a
guy thing). We rode a few laps around the park
together. It turned out that he was also
interested in philosophy, but not the academic
kind I'd gone to grad school for. Rather, he
liked the perennial philosophy. He was interested
in Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy and Theosophy.
He spoke of the astral body, Jupiter spirits, and
God being within us. I'd never heard of any
of this! It all sounded vaguely New Age-ish to
me, but I wasn't sure, having been enclosed in a
Christian cultural bubble throughout the 1980's.
I was fascinated however, so I sought out the
Steiner book he recommended. That book and that
bike rider opened up huge vistas for me through
both Western and Eastern spiritual paths. The
rider and I became wonderful friends, he being a
great teacher to me. His name is Paul Allemby,
and his quote is at the top of this article.
What Others Say
The quotes are
true! In fact, here are some more comments and
testimonials, from other aficionados of
fixed-gear track cycling:
Riding
a track bike is a totally Zen-like
experience. You are in total contact with
the bike, the road, and everything around
you. A track bike is cycling stripped
down to its barest essentials.
--Brian Dorfmann, Programmer at a large
Manhattan law firm
A "fixed" is the best
kind of bike. You're always pedalling so
your concentration is, like, really
there.
--Doug, track cyclist, habitue of Central
Park
I have so much fun riding the track
bike that it is frustrating that I can't
convince riders to spend more time on a
fixed gear. The fixed gear builds a
wonderful sense of oneness with the bike
that can't be duplicated with a freewheel
bike. I am absolutely convinced that the
fixed gear is better than a freewheel,
not only in developing and maintaining
the pedal stroke, but also in developing
strength and power.
--Steve Cox
Fixed-gear is a totally new
dimension in riding. I really feel like
I'm part of the bike.
--Patrick Murphy
It's probably all in my head, but
it does seem that I'm more aware of the
pedals moving in circles, and to what
extent my legs are with them.
--Dennis Cotcamp
This is riding. This is a bicycle
that teaches me something every time I
ride it, that makes me more by virtue of
it's being less. It's the bike I ride
until the street lights come on and
sometimes even longer. It's the bike I
put away sadly and take out joyfully.
It's the bike that never forgets why we
ride.
--Kent Peterson
Incense
Making 101. The Basics. Part One.by Mother's Hearth
from Incense_Exchange
Here is a photo taken on the road between
Lhasa and Xigatse......it's an incense making operation using a
mountain stream. At this place they make cedar 'bricks' to go
into incense. Photo by Dianne Boons (Dgboons@aol.com)
So, want to try your hand at incense
making? I understand, as I love making
incense. It is truly art. As a result, it is both
very simple and very
complex at the same time. The physical process of creating
incense,
especially basic incense, is not that difficult. If you
have a good recipe,
your incense should burn when it's dry. But making incense
is much more
than that.
Some people, including some on this list, think
that the best way to become
an incense maker is to examine and study one ingredient at a
time. They
believe that studying the various scents and how they interact is
a key step
in the learning process. Simply jumping in and rolling
incense without
sufficient background study just isn't proper and will not yield
the best
results. Know what? They're right. Getting to
know the individual
components of incense is a lifelong process and very important to
becoming a
great incense maker.
But some of us might lack the depth of interest,
time, patience and devotion
to study required - especially when first starting. Many
people want to
make incense as a craft or a hobby. Other's are more
interested in creating
combustible forms of loose incense that they are burning
now. Some just
want to add to their overall base of knowledge. As a
result, I'm going to
do these messages in a form that some here will consider
backwards. I
apologize for that, but experience shows me that this is what
people are
most interested in. It's a more journalistic approach than
a literary one.
We'll start with the punch line and then work our way back to
where we
should have started.
I'm not going to offer any philosophy with these
first messages (egads -
heresy!) just the basics of becoming a home incense maker.
This is my own
approach to incense making and other approaches are equally
valid, but this
works for me.
Blah, blah, blah. Let's make incense!
Incense is made up of three dry components:
aromatic, base and binder. The
aromatic is the part you want to smell. The base is used to
assist in
burning and to "mellow" the scent of strong aromatics
(although most bases
are also aromatic). The binder is the "glue" that
holds it all together.
There is also a liquid component, usually water, that you have to
add to
activate the binder, but then you have to wait until it's all
evaporated to
burn your incense.
As you might have seen in recent messages on the
list, the simplest way to
roll incense is to make sandalwood incense and add essential oils
to the
mix. I suggest using sandalwood because it's such a
wonderful aromatic in
its own right and an excellent base as well. You can use
other powdered
woods as long as they don't smell bad when burned (red cedar and
pine are
good, inexpensive choices).
For a binder, I recommend guar gum, gum
tragacanth or makko/tabu. Many
books recommend using gum arabic, but it's not a good
binder. It's very
sticky (so it sticks to your hands and tools) and not very
strong, not to
mention that it's no easier to locate than any other
binder. On the topic
of incense books, many recommend using saltpeter (or saltpetre
a.k.a.
potassium nitrate) - avoid it. A recipe that won't burn
without saltpeter
is not worthwhile. Reformulate it. I will talk more
about these substances
in later messages.
If you use one of the gum binders, try this
recipe:
Carefully mix:
1 tablespoon sandalwood powder
1/8 teaspoon guar gum or tragacanth gum
in a bowl. Mix completely.
If you want to use makko/tabu as a binder, try a mixture of 2
teaspoons
sandalwood and one teaspoon makko.
Gradually add 2 teaspoons of water. Use the
least amount of water possible
to completely moisten the mix.
Stir the mix and put on some latex (or similar)
gloves. Press the mix
together and it should stay in one lump.
Pick up your incense "dough" and begin
to knead it. When you begin, the
dough might have bits that don't stick or drop out of your
hands. Knead the
dough over the mixing bowl and add any bits that drop off back
into the
dough.
Knead the dough for several minutes. It
will become a uniform color and
texture.
Finally, you need to roll your incense. If you'd like to
make cones, take
about 1/4 teaspoon of your dough and form a rough, four-sided
pyramid
between your fingers. Make sure it is tall and thin, not
short and fat. If
you'd like, you can dry it in that shape, but for better results,
lay the
rough cone in the palm of one of your hands. With the index
finger of the
other hand, press down on the cone with the tip of your finger
over the tip
of the cone (the cone is now hidden by your finger). Press
down lightly on
the cone and roll it back and forth in the palm of your
hand. Keep more
pressure on the tip area and less along the length to keep the
tapered
shape. This will make your cone smoother, thinner and
taller. The base of
your cone should be no thicker than an unsharpened pencil.
If you want to make stick incense there are
several approaches. You can use
an extruder (the topic of a future message) if you have
one. You can
actually roll nice, thin Japanese-style incense sticks by simply
rolling out
a "rope" of dough. It's just like playing with
clay when you were a kid!
Finally, and this is the easiest approach for new incense makers,
you can
use a dowel rod like a rolling pin to roll the dough out
flat. You can then
use a knife or razor blade to slice the dough into thin
sticks. They'll be
square instead of round, but that won't have a significant impact
on their
burning properties.
Here comes the hard part - drying. Don't
try to hasten drying times. I've
tried it all and every approach can damage your incense.
Don't destroy all
the time and materials you've used by trying to hasten the
drying. In fact,
the slower the better as long as it does not mold. Fast
drying can lead to
serious distortions and even cracking. Cracks often cause
cones to stop
burning.
For cones, set the wet cone down on a drying board as if you were
going to
burn it. Allow it to sit in that position over night and
then lay it on its
side and allow to dry for two more days. If you light a
cone and it goes
out before it burns completely, allow the other cones to dry for
another
day.
Sticks will distort as they dry. The faster
you dry them, the more they
will distort. To greatly reduce the warping, try this
little tip. Put your
sticks on a drying board and then slide the board into a plastic
bag. Don't
let the bag touch your incense. Keep the bag closed for 24
hours and then
open the end for 24 hours. Remove the sticks and, if they
are still
flexible, dry for another day outside the bag.
That was pretty simple, wasn't it? If you
want to experiment with oils, you
can add them directly to your dough once you've kneaded it for
several
minutes. You can add a drop or two to a single cones, or
add more to scent
the entire batch of dough. Personally, I rarely use oils in my
incense, but
you certainly can. Lots of people have a large store of
oils and want to
experiment with them in incense. I say trust your education
and experiment
with them if you wish.
I hope that showed you the light on the ease of incense
making. In the next
message, I'll talk about using aromatics and how to prepare
incense
ingredients. I'm sure there are some questions, so please
fire away.
The Basic Premise of Sorcery
I personally detest the darkness and morbidity of
the mind. I
like the immensity of thought. However, regardless of my
likes and
dislikes, I have to give due credit to the sorcerers of
antiquity,
for they were the first to find out and do everything we know and
do
today. Don Juan explained that their most important
attainment was
to perceive the energetic essence of things. This insight
was of
such importance that it was turned into the basic premise of
sorcery.
Sorcerers of Antiquity
An Introduction
THE ART OF DREAMING
Carlos Castaneda
About
the Now
The now has been
popularized by Eckhart Tolle.
I haven't read his book, The Power of Now, but
I am sure that to be such a runaway best
seller, it is worth reading. I would like to
raise a question....has the now been
populated...can it be...should it be? We have
all driven through sleepy little towns with
signs reading, "Population five hundred." The
now is rather weird in that respect. It is made
up of no one and everyone. The sign would read,
"You are entering the Now, population no one
and everyone. Come back soon."
It's fun to
speculate. Is there a Now P.D. ? Do
Now's finest drive motorcyles and ticket
passengers who are illegally parked. Obviously
not. Is there a Now Cafe where people hang out
talking about the whether? I wonder if people
have sex in Now, have babies in Now. Is there a
Now 500....a Now Steeplechase?
Whenever I have
found myself in Now, it seems
as if everything is proceeding exactly as it
should. No crimes are being committed....there
are no streakers, no soap box preachers, no
baseball bleachers....no classroom
teachers....just me experiencing the moment.
There is
something very mysterious about the
town of Now. You can be there on the Now Square
enjoying the feel of sunlight on your face and
boom! all of a sudden you find yourself in the
town of Then. In Then it's overgrown with weeds
and you are apt to get poison ivy before you
know it. You find yourself scratching the itch
of memories, both good and bad.
Once when I was
in Now I decided to take a
stroll to the local cemetary. All of the grave
markers read the same way: Never born, never
died. This begged the question, "Why do they
have a cemetary in the first place, if no one
has ever born or will ever die in Now?' I guess
it's for the bodies...
Some people come
to Now for a long weekend. The
locals call them No-hows. They come to Now but
don't know how to stay. Sometimes people rent
them room over their garages, only to find the
space mysteriously empty most of the time. They
have returned to Then as quickly as they could.
I am not quite
prepared to live in Now myself.
I like the mountain ranges and the clear blue
sky. The annual rainfall is perfect and the
temperature is always seventy degrees.
Sometimes celebrities purchase elegant pads in
Now. They venture out onto the streets wearing
Wayfarers and driving little Vespas. Sadly, I
heard it said that Celine Dion wants to move
into the Now as soon as she finishes her
three-year stint in Vegas. I am not at all sure
that Now recognizes celebrity, though. Perhaps
she would be happier in Then.
Well, that's
about all I can think of to say
about living in Now. It's more of an
experience, anyway. The next time I go to Now,
I'll try and send you a postcard. And if you
get there before I do, enjoy.
D: What are the characteristics of the jivan-mukta
(the liberated in life) and the videha-mukta (the liberated at
death)?
M: 'I am not the body; I am Brahman which is
manifest as the Self. In me who am the plenary Reality*, the
world consisting of bodies etc., are mere appearance, like the
blue of the sky'. He who has realized the truth thus is a
jivan-mukta. Yet so long as his mind has not been resolved, there
may arise some misery for him because of relation to objects on
account of prarabdha (karma which has begun to fructify and whose
result is the present body), and as the movement of mind has not
ceased there will not be also the experience of bliss. The
experience of Self is possible only for the mind that has become
subtle and unmoving as a result of prolonged meditation. He who
is thus endowed with a mind that has become subtle, and who has
the experience of the Self is called a jivan-mukta. It is the
state of jivan-mukti that is referred to as the attributeless
Brahman and as the Turiya. When even the subtle mind gets
resolved, and experience of self ceases, and when one is immersed
in the ocean of bliss and has become one with it without any
differentiated existence, one is called a videha-mukta. It is the
state of videha-mukti that is referred to as the transcendent
attributeless Brahman and as the transcendent Turiya. This is the
final goal. Because of the grades in misery and happiness, the
released ones, the jivan-muktas and videha-muktas, may be spoken
of as belonging to four categories - Brahmavid, - vara--variyan,
and varishtha. But these distinctions are from the standpoint of
the others who look at them; in reality, however, there are no
distinctions in release gained through jnana.
* If there is prolonged meditation
that the worlds are an appearance in me who am the plenary
Reality, where can ignorance stand?
