Krishnamurti on Trees

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From Krishnamurti to Himself, His Last Journal, 1987:

Brockwood Park, Friday 25th February, 1983

THERE IS A tree by the river and we have been watching it day after day for several weeks when the sun is about to rise. As the sun rises slowly over the horizon, over the trees, this particular tree becomes all of a sudden golden. All the leaves are bright with life and as you watch it as the hours pass by, that tree whose name does not matter — what matters is that beautiful tree — an extraordinary quality seems to spread all over the land, over the river. And as the sun rises a little higher the leaves begin to flutter, to dance. And each hour seems to give to that tree a different quality. Before the sun rises it has a sombre feeling, quiet, far away, full of dignity. And as the day begins, the leaves with the light on them dance and give it that peculiar feeling that one has of great beauty. By midday its shadow has deepened and you can sit there protected from the sun, never feeling lonely, with the tree as your companion. As you sit there, there is a relationship of deep abiding security and a freedom that only trees can know.

Towards the evening when the western skies are lit up by the setting sun, the tree gradually becomes sombre, dark, closing in on itself. The sky has become red, yellow, green, but the tree remains quiet, hidden, and is resting for the night.

If you establish a relationship with it then you have relationship with mankind. You are responsible then for that tree and for the trees of the world. But if you have no relationship with the living things on this earth you may lose whatever relationship you have with humanity, with human beings. We never look deeply into the quality of a tree; we never really touch it, feel its solidity, its rough bark, and hear the sound that is part of the tree. Not the sound of wind through the leaves, not the breeze of a morning that flutters the leaves, but its own sound, the sound of the trunk and the silent sound of the roots. You must be extraordinarily sensitive to hear the sound. This sound is not the noise of the world, not the noise of the chattering of the mind, not the vulgarity of human quarrels and human warfare but sound as part of the universe.

It is odd that we have so little relationship with nature, with the insects and the leaping frog and the owl that hoots among the hills calling for its mate. We never seem to have a feeling for all living things on the earth. If we could establish a deep abiding relationship with nature we would never kill an animal for our appetite, we would never harm, vivisect, a monkey, a dog, a guinea pig for our benefit. We would find other ways to heal our wounds, heal our bodies. But the healing of the mind is something totally different. That healing gradually takes place if you are with nature, with that orange on the tree, and the blade of grass that pushes through the cement, and the hills covered, hidden, by the clouds.

This is not sentiment or romantic imagination but a reality of a relationship with everything that lives and moves on the earth. Man has killed millions of whales and is still killing them. All that we derive from their slaughter can be had through other means. But apparently man loves to kill things, the fleeting deer, the marvellous gazelle and the great elephant. We love to kill each other. This killing of other human beings has never stopped throughout the history of man’s life on this earth. If we could, and we must, establish a deep long abiding relationship with nature, with the actual trees, the bushes, the flowers, the grass and the fast moving clouds, then we would never slaughter another human being for any reason whatsoever. Organized murder is war, and though we demonstrate against a particular war, the nuclear, or any other kind of war, we have never demonstrated against war. We have never said that to kill another human being is the greatest sin on earth.

Every day is Earth day.

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  . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　.  ˚ ˚　　 *　　
　✦　 .　✶　.　✦　˚ 　✦˚　˚　　　　
    .　. 　˚　.　 ੈ  ✧̣̇ ˳ · ˖ ✦ .

Monday, 21 April 2025

Goodbye, Jorge Mario Bergoglio ✶

You were better than most in your position.

I pray free thought prevails, and maybe for robots, bugs, and aliens to attack, so humans stop fighting each other and join forces to combat them, instead.

Sunday, 20 April 2025

Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII ✶

One of my favorite musical performances of all time. Catch it on IMAX before the end of the month if you can.

Wednesday, 16 April 2025

When not to obey orders ✶

Andrew Milburn, former commanding officer of the Marine Raider Regiment and Combined Special Operations Task Force-Iraq, writing at War on The Rocks:

It may seem that the question of dissent in terms of loyalty to the Constitution is of academic importance to most officers, the vast majority of whom will never rise to the rank that will allow them to have a say in matters of policy. But whether obeying civilian masters or a military chain of command, the question of agency — of having an obligation to exercise your own moral judgment — remains the same.

It’s not a topic that fits well into the curriculum of any school — there is no handy acronym that will teach an officer when to disobey orders. Discussions on the subject tend to gravitate to a very binary focus: the differentiation between legal and illegal orders. As officer candidates, regardless of service, we learn that we have a duty to obey all orders that are not illegal, yet many of us learn that it’s not quite as simple as that.

See also this video.

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

General strike ✶

It’s time to organize.

Saturday, 12 April 2025

The Emperor’s New Clothes ✶

The tale concerns an emperor who has an obsession with fancy new clothes, and spends lavishly on them, at the expense of state matters. One day, two con-men visit the emperor’s capital. Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are either incompetent or stupid. The gullible emperor hires them, and they set up looms and pretend to go to work. A succession of officials, starting with the emperor’s wise and competent minister, and then ending with the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress. Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool.

Finally, the weavers report that the emperor’s suit is finished. They mime dressing him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city. The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that they have all been fooled. The emperor is startled, but opts to continue the procession.

Wednesday, 9 April 2025

QR codes ✶

Lots of information, along with an open source QR code generating website.

Sound in space ✶

Matthew Florianz’s work with Frontier Developments’ audio team for Elite: Dangerous. See also his video, Creating ambient environment soundscapes.

Monday, 7 April 2025

♫ Mermaid Muse Speaks ✶

Haunting song from Amos’ new album, The Music of Tori and the Muses. Brings to mind Vangelis’ Tales of the Future.

Sunday, 6 April 2025

What democracy looks like ✶

Protect people, defend civic institutions, build alternatives, disrupt and disobey.

Friday, 4 April 2025

Amazon Conservation Association donation drive complete ✶

Since it was my birthday the other day I decided to give a present to the trees and complete my first livestream charity drive on Twitch to raise $100 for the Amazon Conservation Association!

A drawing of a tree.

HyperTextHero · $50
Camble · $16
BadMojo11 · $15
Niborius · $9
Schippah · $5
Sokolas · $5

Thank you to all the donors.

A little goes a long way.

Tuesday, 1 April 2025

How you can protect democracy ✶

There is good news: Regular citizens are the ones best suited to strengthen our democracy. This is especially true at the local level, where our sphere of influence is greatest.

…

To defeat authoritarianism, we must commit to a healthier information diet. Doomscrolling can increase anxiety or have a numbing effect that impedes our ability to act in the real world.

Shifting your information consumption away from social media, cable networks, and pundits and toward more in-depth, and — above all else — accurate information is a useful first step in protecting democracy (and feeling better about the world).

See also, a letter from America’s former lawyers:

Make no mistake: the Trump Administration’s punitive and unjust actions are wrong even if — especially if — they prove effective at silencing lawyers. Might does not make right. Indeed, these actions are particularly dangerous when they succeed in intimidating lawyers into abandoning their fundamental role in our justice system.

All lawyers must condemn these actions targeting the legal profession and stand up for the rule of law. Doing so is essential to keeping ours a country of laws, not of men.

Tuesday, 25 March 2025

Daily habits

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  • Write and or draw in the morning before anything else.
  • Don’t look at news in the morning, or at all, if possible.
  • 7 minute workout exercise, at least once per day.
  • Learn a new song or practice others on guitar or piano keyboard.
  • Touch a personal project like photo books or music recording.
  • Eat something healthy (usually) before drinking a coffee.
  • Think of a positive thing.
  • Speak with or write to someone you love.
  • Go for a walk.
  • Do something you like, that makes you feel happy.
  • Make it a process.
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  . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　.  ˚ ˚　　 *　　
　✦　 .　✶　.　✦　˚ 　✦˚　˚　　　　
    .　. 　˚　.　 ੈ  ✧̣̇ ˳ · ˖ ✦ .

InDesign tips

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Below are page layout and typesetting tips for InDesign I’ve learned along the way since the days QuarkXPress was the top software for this type of work.

I’ve used InDesign for dissertations, brochures, business cards, posters, flyers and many other things made with type including photo books and insomnia-curing documents with hundreds of pages.

Accessible PDFs

Learn how to make accessible PDFs so they can be read widely.

Basic paragraph style

Don’t use it. Set your own, and make sure it is not based on [Basic Paragraph], for the sake of other designers you send your file to.

Bold and italic shortcuts

Shift+Cmd+I = Italic

Shift+Cmd+B = Bold

CMYK and RGB

An equilateral triangle made of nine smaller triangles of primary colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors. After the color theory work of Joseph Albers.

Understand the difference between CMYK (print) and RGB (screen) color.

Print rich black (and brown) colors in CMYK print. Standard Black ~ C:0 M:0 Y:0 K:100
Rich Black ~ C:20 M:20 Y:20 K:100
Deep Black ~ C:60 M:40 Y:40 K:100

For print projects don’t forget to work in CMYK and convert all colors to CMYK before packaging your project to send to the printer.

Talk to your printer and ask for samples of the paper you will be printing on. The type of paper has an effect on color and typography. Once you’re more experienced and confident don’t be afraid to break the rules.

Colors look different on different screens. Accept this. If you don’t, and need to choose a color, get a lot of different screens in the same room all displaying the same color, then choose the color that looks best in all the screens at the same time.

Find and replace using GREP

GREP expressions can be used to quickly find and replace specific strings of text or typography formats. You can ask AI tools like Claude to write them for you. Here’s an example.

Grid made quickly

Using the Rectangle tool (M) click and drag to draw a box, and without releasing the mouse button, press ↑ ↓ ← and → arrow keys to make a grid.

Drag multiple images from the Finder into your document and click and drag as above without releasing the button and use the arrow keys. The images will be loaded into the grid.

Hierarchy and styling of typography

Understand typography and its structure in the InDesign software:

A Story flows across many Text Frames that contain lots of Paragraphs made of Characters.

Use Parent Pages to create custom page styles for specific sections.

The word “Helvetica” set in the Comic Sans typeface.

Style paragraphs and characters for consistency and the ability to change everything quickly when your boss decides we need Papyrus or Comic Sans instead of Garamond or Helvetica. Name your styles in a sensible manner, like Main Title Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3 Body Text Bullet list Number list Figure Caption Quotation Dropped Capital Hyperlink Smallcaps Sidebar Footnote, Small Text, and so on.

Use Space After under Paragraph Style Options → Indents and Spacing instead of hard paragraph breaks in the text.

Link to a page in the current document

  1. Select some text or an object you want to be the link
  2. Menubar: Type → Hyperlinks & Cross-References → New Hyperlink.
  3. Link To: Select Page from drop-down. Destination: Select page number to link to.

Math calculations in inputs

Any input box with numbers in it supports math functions so you can type things like 300/1.618 to get 185.414.

Optical margin alignment, hanging punctuation

Make your document’s typography look nicer by turning on optical alignment so that bits of odd letters and elements like curly quotation quotes align in a pleasant way:

  1. Menubar: Window → Type & Tables → Story Panel
  2. Check the Optical Margin Alignment checkbox.

Preview without guides

Press W to switch between Normal and Preview screen modes.

Save locally and often

Save your document on your local machine often.
Make a backup copy of your work daily.

Selecting with clicks

1 click = character insertion point
2 clicks = select word
3 clicks = select line
4 clicks = select paragraph
5 clicks = select story

A heart signifying love, warmth, and affection.

Variables for pages and dates

Use text variables which change automatically depending on the page you are on, the current date, etc.

Warm colors

Add a bit of yellow to a color such as red to make a warmer red.

Zooming and scrolling

Hold Alt while scrolling the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out.

Hold Shift while scrolling the mouse scroll wheel to scroll from side to side.

˚　✦　.　　.  ˚　.　　. ✦　 
  . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　.  ˚ ˚　　 *　　
　✦　 .　✶　.　✦　˚ 　✦˚　˚　　　　
    .　. 　˚　.　 ੈ  ✧̣̇ ˳ · ˖ ✦ .

Monday, 24 March 2025

Planetary aircraft detection analytic feed ✶

Planet’s new Aircraft Detection Analytic Feed automates daily detection of aircraft by leveraging a machine learning model trained using PlanetScope and SkySat data. It precisely identifies aircraft ≥25 meters in length or wingspan across airfields globally.

Sunday, 23 March 2025

The battle for the bros ✶

Andrew Marantz writing in the New Yorker about protein-head influencers of the current moment, who end up ironically doing the same thing the power-hungry people they love or loathe do: Using media to enrich themselves at the expense of their followers.

The article touches on the dissafection of men and the failure of the other side to meet them where they’re at and talk to them in their language.

In a 2022 book, “Of Boys and Men,” Richard Reeves, a social scientist and a fellow at the Brookings Institution, blasts Republicans for exploiting “male dislocation” and misogynist fury at the expense of women’s rights. But he also lambastes Democrats for “pathologizing masculinity.” He gives an example from his sons’ high school in Bethesda, Maryland, where boys passed around a spreadsheet ranking their female classmates by attractiveness—behavior that Reeves describes as “immature,” even “harmful,” but not worthy of an international incident, which is what it became. He writes that “indiscriminately slapping the label of ‘toxic masculinity’ onto this kind of behavior is a mistake,” likely to propel young men “to the online manosphere where they will be reassured that they did nothing wrong, and that liberals are out to get them.”

Boom!

In politics, like in a bicycle, car, or airplane, when turning too quickly to correct a problem, one can overcorrect and go too far in the opposite direction, a maneuver which depending on the amount of fuel or rage one has onboard, can end in a fiery crash.

Extremist views, whether right or left, end up meeting and joining together, becoming the same thing, like red becoming violet and blue becoming indigo at the ends of the spectrum.

Illustrated by two pixel behemoth man-monsters made by Nick Little, these get extra points for having Meditations along with a video game controller down the middle ground.

All of Bach ✶

A project of the Netherlands Bach Society with the aim to perform and record all of Bach’s works and share them online with the world for free.

Here’s their BWV 565 Toccata and fugue in D minor.

Via Tim Bray.

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