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Nikolaos-Laonikos Psimikakis-Chalkokondylis was born in 1732 1989 in Athens, Greece. He is a musical activist turned wilderness guide. In 2011 he (successfully) finished his studies in composition with Paul Newland at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and piano with Helen Reid. In 2009 he studied for six months at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Tapio Nevanlinna and in summer 2010 he spent ten days in Skálholt, Iceland, as part of the Joint Music Masters NAIP 2010 summer school, which he really enjoyed. His compositions include a number of pieces ranging from solo instruments to orchestral scores, as well as electronic compositions. He is mostly interested, however, in interacting and collaborating with other artists and has had the privilege to work with dancers, poets, actors, and visual artists. Not any make-up artists yet.
He reads a lot of books and his favourite Wikipedia page is by far the List of common misconceptions. A hitchhiker and couchsurfer, sometimes he does strange things such as performing magic tricks, stand-up comedy, wearing a kilt and/or pretending to be Italian.
As an instrumentalist, Laonikos has performed in venues such as Stoke Newington Library, The Shunt, ICA, The Place, The Barbican Theatre, RichMix, The King's Place, and his living room, among others. His most recent collaborations include a score written with Chris Bartholomew (live electronics) for Angélina Jandolo's choreography Aqueous Run, performed at The Place as part of Resolution! 2011; presenting or: love is not a photograph at The Shunt; and collaborating with The People Pile at RichMix.
Laonikos is a meta-buddhist and he is a little lactose-intolerant. He is also allergic to poisonous mushrooms. Laonikos likes boobies and is not ashamed of it.
He has now left London and is doing a Wilderness Guide Course in Finland. However he is still interested in collaborations and is currently working on projects to be performed in London and Finland in 2012.
We do sincerely apologise for the quite informal character of this website despite its serious appearance. Laonikos does not believe in taking life too seriously, let alone websites. If you are the kind of person who would frown upon such an attitude, then you're clearly not the kind of person Laonikos would like to work with - you should click here instead.
Eric Satie, Harrisson Birtwistle, Carl-Einar Hackner, Gyorgi Ligeti, Matthew Shlomowitz, John Cage, Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Mark Miodownik, Vandana Shiva, Jack Sparrow, Zoe Laughlin, Martin Conreen, Savador Dali, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Claude Debussy, Chris Cullen, James Weeks, Maurice Ravel, Fleur Beemster, Marcel Mauss, Helmut Lachenmann, Anhell del Invierno, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Genghis Khan, Lucy Hancock, Michel Van der Aa, Claudia Molitor, Matthew Lee Knowles, Muse, Cole Porter, Paul Newland, Bela Bartok, Augustine of Hippo, Giorgio de Chirico, Eugene Delacroix, Arnold Schoenberg, Gavin Bryars, Manos Hatzidakis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher 'Isto' White, Philip Cashian, Jackson Pollock, David Toop, Pedro Segundo, Svanlaug Jóhannsdóttir, Anne Gerdes, Olafur Arnalds, Floor Wittink, Rinekke Smilde, Janneke Hoogeveen, Akio Suzuki, George Grigorakis, Mark Rothko, James Tenney, Amy Lazarou, Greta Salóme Stefánsdóttir, Morton Feldman, Camille Gouton, Giacinto Scelsi, Wassilly Kandinsky, Pierre Boulez, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Edward Shearmur, Jono Renton, John Coltrane, Napoleon Bonapartes, Roni Size Reprazent, Shlomo, CocoRosie, Ken Robinson, Percy Grainger, Oliver Sacks, Becky Wiles, Diana Deutsch, M.C. Escher, Brian Greene, Osho, Sara Codrington, Paul Ricoeur, Robert de Niro, Nicolaus Copernicus, Gyorgi Kurtag, Jason Mraz, Paul Griffiths, Anoek Brokaar, Alison Comerford, Mark Twain, Alfred Hitchcock, Samuel Adler, Pixiguinha, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Michael Biondi, Morcheeba, Monty Python, Jon Roskilly, Musica Ficta, William Godwin, Enesis, Louis Armstrong, Neil Armstrong, Simpsons, Terror X Crew, FFC, Sublime, William Shakespeare, Magnus Lindberg, Mariana de Moraes, The Shunt, Sarah Brightman, Jacques Loussier, Arcangelo Corelli, Jules Verne, Vinicius de Moraes, Homer, Claude Monet, Leonidas, Franco Donatoni, Aphex Twin, No Profile, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Textier, Squarepusher, Alvin Lucier, Bonobo, Brian Locke, Timo Järvenpää, Mikko Oinonen, Pieter-Jan Deygere, Caroline Bergvall, Lunatic Soul, Son Lux, Blank & Jones, Antonymes, Phaeleh, Soundmouse, Bill Bailey, Noam Chomsky, Sam Chaltain, Simeon John-Wake, Autechre, Gustav Holst, Psapp, George Brecht, Toquinho, Catarina Silva, Juliet Colyers, Nouvelle Vague, Yannis Weggenmann, William Earle, Tears for Fears, The Album Leaf, Nancy Redman, Stan Getz, Komar & Melamid, William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Tansy Davies, George Koulouris, Edgard Varese, Norah Jones, Nigel Barrett, Ravi Shankhar, Peter Sellers, Iannis Xenakis, Quentin Tarantino, Claude Bolling, John Zorn, Maarit Kangron, George Aperghis, Richard Ayres, Martin Scorsese, Edvard Munch, Louis Andriessen, David Fanshawe, Nils Landgren, B.F. Skinner, Emily Dickinson, Chris Paul Daniels, Rudyard Kipling, Dalai Lama, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cy Twombly, Oscar Peterson, Oscar Wilde, Robert Schumann, Lucy Forde, Kid Koala, Mogwai, Chet Baker, Clive Bell, John Moore, Elliott Carter, Richard Baker, Mitch Hedberg, Helen Lawson, Jad Abumrad, Robert Krullwich, Earle Brown, George Perle, Cornelius Cardew, Philip Guston, Andy Warhol, Andreas Mastorakos, Michail Palaiologou, Nahum Mantra, Claudio Monteverdi, Carl Orff, Julian Anderson, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Giuseppe Penone, Max Richter, Willem de Kooning, Amon Tobin, Angeline Kidjo, Herodotus, Carl Jung, W.B. Yeats, Carla Bley, Kevin Spacey, Eddie Izzard, Sigrún Sœversdóttir-Griffiths, T.S. Elliott, Johnny Hartmann, Miles Davis, Cal Tjader, Robin Williams, Alexander Ness, Groove Armada, Anne Harild, Ed Finnis, Karol Szymanowski, ARCO Collective, Entropia, Bill Evans, Georges Antheil, Gerald Barry, Jelly 'Roll' Morton, Casey Middaugh, Eckhart Tolle, Vladimir Horowitz, Alexandres Dumas, René Descartes, Celedonio Romero, Angel Romero, Pepe Romero, Plato, Anthony Burgess, Bjork, Nadia Gravina, Compay Segundo, Irakere, Justin Vernon, Brad Blanton, Jean Sibelius, Adam Fletcher, Nora Engonopoulos, Kate Maxwell, Guy Dammann, Arturo Sandoval, Heath Ledger, Quincy Jones, Harry Belafonte, Vangelis, Elke Heirbaut, Milan Kundera, Adam Cass, Rick Astley, Patsy Rodenburg, Neil Astley, Aldo Leopold, John Clare, Jon Maker, Billie Holiday, Edward Monkton, Chris Dench, Brian Ferneyhough, Perio Manzoni, Richard Toop, William James, Alexander the Great, Buddha, Anton Bruckner, Alban Berg, Georgia Preka, Simon Holt, Luciano Berio, Mr. Scruff, Salvatore Sciarrino, Henry Cowell, Brian Eno, Evelyn Ficcara, Nicoletta Tiberini, Roland Barthes, Hannah Rackow, Gary Burton, Seven Ark, Stephania Chounda, Isobel Waller-Bridge, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Witold Lutoslawski, John Burnside, Yehudi Menuhin, Joan Miro, Anthony Payne, Michael Finnissy, Roald Dahl, Emanuelle Roy, Dai Fujikura, Antoine Busnois, Kat Pett, Kasia Ziminska, Chuck Klosterman, Louise Mari, Alex Mouratos, Natalia Bisdeki, Matt Ridley, Robin R. Baker, Peter Renshaw, Guy Wood, Adam Michael Bridges, Rachel Lanskey, Luke Crookes, Maaike van der Linden, Olivier Messiaen, Francis Bacon, Google.com, Randall Munroe (XKCD), David Blaine, René van Munster, Ioli Tripodaki, Mary Schmich, Christos Giannakopoulos, Frank Oppedijk, Chris Angel, David Cope, AIR, Italo Calvino, Richard Mabey, Shama Rahman, Julian Baggini, Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Goehr, Hector Berlioz, Sigrún Sævarsdóttir-Griffiths, Giacomo Puccini, Charles Ives, Che Guevara, Giuseppe Verdi, Yvonne Greaves, Christopher Wolff, W.H. Auden, Keith Jarrett, Andrea Salazar, Heath Ledger, David Behrmann, George Seferis, Gary Peacock, Stephen Montague, Al diMeola, John McLaughlin, David Oistrakh, Stefan Makris, Saran den Oude, Paco de Lucia, Winton Marsalis, Paul Davies, Andre Jolivet, Elvis Presley (still alive), Paul Griffiths, Eva Cassidy, Jack deJohnette, David Tudor, Eugene Trivizas, Astor Piazzola, Oliver Knussen, Ezra Pound, Jo Kondo, Proem, Sigmund Freud, Mario Merz, Chloe Blanca Orton, Antonin Dvorak, George Orwell, Crass (Gee Vaucher, Penny Rimbaud et al), Christina Neou-North, Ornette Coleman, Keith Humble, Alvin Curran, Henri Matisse, Samuel Beckett, Federico Garcia Lorca, Elizabeth Maconchy, Jean Piaget, Mike Fletcher, Niccolò Machiavelli, Bee Gees, Samuel Barber, Bruno Bartolozzi, Adrian Thorne, Secede, Kaija Saariaho, Morwenna Truscott, Nicola LeFanu, Douglas Adams, Jón Gunnar Biering Margeirsson, Edvard Grieg, Jacques Ibert, Mikhail Bakunin, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, William Wallace, Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Stacey Kent, John Watson, Alberto Ginastera, Bernhard Riemann, George Gershwin, Robert Caby, Michael Shermer, the 300 Spartans, Jonathan Harvey, Sam Hayden, Luigi Nono, Karl Marx, Groucho Marx, Jacques Fresco, Mauricio Kagel, Marcel Duchamp, Barbara Mendes, Andrejz Panufnik, Peter Warlock, Slang Alcedo, George Philip Telemann, Kryzstof Penderecki, Nicholas Cook, Josquin De Prez, Dmitri Shostakovich, Nico Muhly, Charlie Parker, Psarantonis, Mikis Theodorakis, Jono Buchannan, Paulo Coelho, Modest Mussorgsky, Laurence Crane, Rodes, Vincenzo Bellini, Nikolay Carlos Salzedo, Tapio Nevanlinna, Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Strauss, Ed Bennett, NOT Vladimir, Andreas Boregaard, Maartje Kuipers, Lefteris Eliades, Franz Liszt, Sarah Rogers, My St. Saviour, Lucy Ridley, Thales of Miletus, Edward Thorndike, Alexander Scriabin, Family Guy, Nikolas Sideris, J.K. Rowling, Serge Prokofiev, Nye Parry, The Fleetwood Mac, Erik Erikson, Bonobo, Toru Takemitsu, Chiel Busscher, e.e. cummings, Dave Brubeck, Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santásima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, Carl Vine, Constantinos Grigoratos, Miguel Monteiro Sena, Pimsleur, Imogen Baylis, John White, Eva-Leena Pokela, Efterklang, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Anne Gerdes, Fritjof Capra, Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Pachelbel, Burt Bacharach, Gabriel Faure, Judith Weir, Per Norgard, Sigur Ros, Naomi Klein, Radiohead, Wanada Trinity, Frida Kahlo, Richard Dawkins, Edward Elgar, Don McLean, Luigi Cherubini, Hermann von Helmholtz, Secede, Adrian Thorne, Kiki Dimoula, Ernest Bloch, John Kenneth Galbraith, Graham Fitkin, K.P. Kavafis, Goldfrapp, Peteris Vasks, Matthew King, Paul Whitty, Regina Spektor, Marisa Merz,Caz Wolfson, JFB, Theresa Sauer, Brian Tudor, Justin Connolly, Peter Sculthorpe, Albert Einstein, Madison Dance, Ahmad Jamal, John Woolrich, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Manue de Falla, Pierre Schaeffer, D.T. Suzuki, Alfred Schnittke, Aki Onda, Ruben Gonzalez, Morcheeba, Cesaria Evora, Eric Satie, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Georges Bizet, Marcel Mauss, Spyros Charonis, The Dubliners, H.G. Wells, Orson Wells, Serge Koussevitsky, Mark Maslin, Gustav Mahler, psilocybin mushrooms, Andrea Salazar, Philip Glass, Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, Richard Wagner, Euclid, Robbie Williams, Jukas Kayne, Mike Roberts, Bartosz Dudzikowski, AGF, Jaga Klimazewska, Tim Cunningham, Chris Bartholomew, Richard Causton, Beardyman, Jack Nicholson, Arundhati Roy, Geoffrey Miller, Eban Pagan, Guy Dammann, Sarai Den Ouden, Carl Jung, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Johann Hari, Franz Kline, Max Planck, Gerald Resch, Steve Reich, Beck, Francis Poulenc, Gustav Klimt, Charles Rosen, Mom, Dad, our first dog, Zohrab Uduman, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Nigel Barrett, James Joyce, Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina, Erroll Garner, Milton Babbitt, Chick Corea, Robin Jessome, Diderik Wagenaar, Portishead, Johannes Ockeghem, Alessandro Timossi, Epicurus, Bradley Manning, Glenn Greenwald, Lefteris Kiskireas, John Burnside,Pythagoras, Aristotle, Ole Farstad, Orlando di Lasso, Howard Skempton, Chris Lewis, Peter Kropotkin, Lucio Fontana, Frederic Rzewski, Valeria Tello Giusti, Tristan Murail, Michael Klingbeil, Morton Subotnik, Francisco Goya, Thomas Ades, Bedrich Smetana, Peter Gane, Thalia Myers, Neil Luck, Magister Leoninus, Roland Barthes, Paul Ricoeur, Isaac Newton, Lukas Foss, Antonio Porcia, St Aquila, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Maria Mylona, James Saunders, Helen Reid, Michael Nyman, George Koulouris, Plotinus, Madonna, Leonardo da Vinci, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Aaron Copland, Marina Pepper, Pink Floyd, Aristoxenus of Tarentum, Nancy Wilson Ross, Mum, Franz Schubert, Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, Professor Penguin, Conlon Nancarrow, Renee Jonker, Rene Magritte, Christian Sinding, Le Corbusier, Bjorn Lomborg, Frederic Chopin, Wronsky, Stephane Mallarme, Thomas Hobbes, Emma Goldman, The Lappetites, Peteris Vasks, Apollinaire, Maurice Durufle, Guinga, Yamadu Costa, Darius Milhaud, George Crumb, Colin McPhee, Friedrich Nietszche, Ellen Taaffe-Zwilich, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Robin Holloway, Max Reger, Jacob Applebaum, Elizabeth Loftus, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Paul Anka, Jonathan Abraham, Vincent-Olivier Gagnon, Henri Dutilleux, Toshio Hosokawa, Studio Ghibli, Norman dello Joio, Christopher Nolan, The People Pile, Naomi Klein, Ilias Mamalakis, Penny Rimbaud, Arthur Honegger, Rolf Hind, Sarah Browns, Lyell Cresswell, Fleur Beemster, Ottorino Respighi, Sigurður Halldórsson, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Julian Philips, Ennio Morriconne, Tom Johnson, Ben Gernon, Keith Johnstone, Gardner Read, Kurt Stone, Anna Wichmann, Luigi Dallapiccola, Iannis Ioannidis, Thomas deLio, John Oswald, J.J. Fux, Angelina Jolie, Angélina Jandolo, Diether de la Motte, Roger Smalley, Mica 'Micachu' Levi, Archimedes, Sofia Gubaidulina, Guy Fawkes, Ken Loach, Carl Sagan, one hundred schoolchildren from iceland, Johannes Brahms, Eliane Radigue, Feruccio Busoni, Jay Griffiths, Evan Parker, Turkka Aaltonen, The People Pile, Julian Assange, Chris Lubkemann, Remi Gaillard, Christopher Small, Dylan Moran, Mahatma Ghandi, Alan Watts, The Little Prince, Frank O' Hara.
I strongly believe that we cannot afford to live as we have lived; we cannot afford to progress as we have progressed, and we have to redefine the way we interact with each other and the rest of the planet. I believe we are all responsible to some degree for the state we've brought our Earth into, and also that it is entirely within our abilities (and responsibilities) to achieve a state of sustainable living and symbiotic survival with other species on this planet and the planet itself.
"As I walk in the deep silence, it takes little imagination to realise that a forest is not just a lot of trees. A living forest demonstrates oneness, for even while embodying physical separation it is empowered by its subtle spiritual connection. […] [into my awareness] come images of a thread of connection between all life forms throughout the whole universe - a thread of endlessnes, of continuity."- Michael J. Roads
Atonement (at-one-ment) with nature and re-establishing a sustainable and healthy relationship with the wilderness without aid us in coming to terms with the wilderness within, bringing the invaluable gift of a healthier understanding of ourselves and the world around us. A journey of self-discovery and renewal, it is our duty to see it through to honour our biotic heritage.
I believe in having an attitude of play and sincerity rather than seriousness when it comes to life. Maintaining a childish openness, curiosity, and an outworldly sense of wonder when it comes to experiencing your every day is essential in reminding ourselves of our place in the universe. Humour can also help us be mindful in our daily affairs.
Humour and satire is one of the oldest forms of political commentary. And, as Osho (humourously - but sincerely) says, "If people are happy, nobody can drag them into a war."
Through being active and interested in the way the world works we can find ways in which as individuals we can influence our future, on both an individual and a collective level. It is evident, with the recent socioeconomic crises and the numerous revolutions around the globe over the last few years, that the prevalent political systems are inadequate to deal with the real problems of the world.
The well-being of our environment is something that concerns all of us. We can't detach ourselves from it because we grow out of it and are as much part of it as it is part of us.
We must reject repression of our rights on any level and take responsibilites in our hands, embracing creativity, collaboration, communication. I firmly believe that at the deep core of the biggest problems plaguing humanity is education. We have to reframe the way we educate ourselves and the generations to come, helping people change the world through engaging meaningfully with their lives and passions. We should aim at striving away from Democracy the ideal and towards democracy the real, a democracy which is fluid and ever-changing, evolving to meet the needs of each generation and producing free-minded individuals.
It is not fair that the degree of our influence depends on our socioeconomic status and it is certainly not democratic - however we might not get a second chance so let's make sure we're making the right choices today to the extent that we can.
has to be recognized as an agent of social development, in the highest sense because it transmits the highest values - solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it has the ability to unite an entire community, and to express sublime feelings.- Jose Antonio Abreu
I agree with Christopher Small when he says that music is "a way in which we explore, affirm and celebrate our concepts of ideal relationships … in ways that talking or reading can never allow us to do." Small, a few months before he died, asked at a school "So what about music education and climate change?"
I believe that music education and getting back with our artistic selves is an integral part of learning to appreciate collaboration, communication, and sharing. Copyright laws and market-based attitudes on music (and art) education have prevented people from feeling free to be musical. Music is a verb, not a noun. Life is a verb, not a noun. Once we know this, we can start halting our ungrateful abuse of our Earth - "ours" as in "our mother" not as in "our money."
Through music we can also get in touch with the wild aspect of our human nature, in a similar manner to the indigenous musics of the world which celebrate our interconnectedness with the rest of existence, and through song and dance can express gratitude to this planet for what it offers them. We have a lot to learn from the peoples we think we can only teach.
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. John Cage
I feel ready, on yer toes ready, and I am tender to the motto Be Prepared, because, prepared, your future is like a sculpture, clay of tomorrow, moist in your palm. Live like this, damp side out to the world. It's all I'd tell my kids; live generously and keep the clay wet. Jay Griffiths
Leave the house before you find something worth staying in for. Banksy
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. Horace Mann
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." Isaac Asimov
In a world where everything moves so fast, the ability to sometimes stop and leave everything behind for a few seconds should be praised. Miguel Sena
We must become the change we want to see in the world. Mahatma Ghandi
The sudden splash into pure wilderness - baptism in Nature's warm heart - how utterly happy it made us! Nature dreaming into us, wooingly teaching her wonderful glowing lessons, so unlike the dismal grammar ashes and cinders so long thrashed into us. Here without knowing it we still were at school; every wild lessons a love lesson, not whipped but charmed into us. John Muir
The birds have vanished into the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
Dogen
And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our feet, and learn to be at home. Wendell Berry
The thief left it behind:
the moon
at my window
Ryokan
It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so. Robert Oppenheimer
A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to. Banksy
The best way to complain is to make things. James Murphy
Spare words: nature's way. Lao-Tzu
I think it is paramount that we look to both the experiencer and to the place, and, more important, to that which carries both the experiencer and the place. If we inquire into the center of this larger field of experience, it becomes imposible and ridiculous to distinguish person from place. Spirit unites these apparent separate realities into a resplendent, expanding and abundant wholeness. Cass Adams
For Sabina, living in truth, lying neither to ourselves nor to others, was possible only away from the public: the moment someone keeps an eye on what we do, we involuntarily make allowances for that eye, and nothing we do is truthful. Having a public, keeping a public in mind, means living in lies. […] A man who loses his privacy loses everything, Sabina thought. And a man who gives it up of his own free will is a monster. Milan Kundera
Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again.
Chinese inscription, cited by Thoreau in Walden
Ah, this land is so very beautiful… I close my eyes and tears roll slowly down my wind-blown cheeks. The drops cool with this blowing wind. I heard the same bird again, his song a series of two sessions… six notes in each, three per breath. High high twirlee, low low twirlee. I shall never see grays, blues and whites blending as I do now. An intricately woven blend; the sky, clouds, snow, mountaintops, so soft. My back and chest radiate the result of prolonged high altitude sun but the rest of me is bundled… it is no neither night nor day but that precious time between. Far below flows the river, ceaselessly, over hollow logs and dry, iridescent bark. Time, for a few minutes, stands still. Our earth is eternal and boundless.
Melanie, student at the Albert Camp (1983)
Yield and overcome; bend and be straight.
Empty out and be full; wear out and be renewed.
Have little and gain; have much and be confused.
True wholeness is achieved by blending with life.
Lao-Tzu
Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me… We must learn to reawaken and keep outselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look… To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Henry David Thoreau
It is better to prevent misery than to release from misery:
it is better to prevent error than to forgive the criminal.
Labor well the Minute Particulars, attend to the little ones,
And those who are in misery cannot remain so long
If we do but our duty: labor well the teeming earth.
William Blake
Whatever evaluation we finally make of a stretch of land, no matter how profound or accurate, we will find it inadequate. The land retains an identity of its own, still deeper and more subtle than we can know. Our obligation toward it then becomes simple: to approach with an uncalculating mind, with an attitude of regard. To try and sense the range and variety of its expression - its weather and colors and animals. To intend from the beginning to preserve some of the mystery within it as a kind of wisdom to be experienced, not questioned. And to be alert for its openings, for that moment when something sacred reveals itself within the mundane and you know the land knows you are there. Barry Lopez
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Wayne Gretzky
Everywhere –
in each tree, rock, bird and beast
I meet myself.
It is at once me,
and I am not it.
Dōgen
If you want a better world, you have to get up off your ass and make it better. Jacques Fresco
I feel that if one is able to stop the merely human reactions in such a place long enough, then one is able to join in the "play" of the ongoing natural relationships of all the living beings of that place and, of course, this is the sacred. Cass adams
Midnight. No waves,
no wind, the empty boat
is flooded with moonlight.
Dogen
To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us, and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not. Julian Assange
Peace is every step. Thich Nhat Hanh
We can no longer look for leadership outside ourselves. Tim DeChristopher
What is needed is to learn afresh, to observe, and to discover for ourselves, the meaning of wholeness. David Bohm
The radiant Dawns have risen up for glory in their white splendour like the waves of waters.
She maketh paths all easy, fair to travel, and rich, hath shown herself benign and friendly.
We see that thou art good; far shines thy lustre; thy beams, thy splendours have flown up to heaven.
Decking thyself, thou makest bare thy bosom, shining in majesty, thou Goddess Morning.
Upanishads, Rig 4.1
In beauty, I walk.
With beauty before me, I walk.
With beauty behind me, I walk.
With beauty above me, I walk.
With beauty below me, I walk.
with beauty all around me, I walk.
Old Navajo Saying
The blue mountains are constantly walking. Dōgen
This is the real secret of life - to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play. Alan Watts
There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. By doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to all things. Yamamoto Tsunetomo
