evolution

Hi. this is my first blog too . .

I am thinking about this question of how / when / why do we evolve?
Did we evolve in the old days for survival reasons? or just by simple chance? over what span of time? generations?
Maybe if I developed a too long thigh bone, this is what enabled me to run far, catch fast food . .?
I've heard that we evolved sweat glands, and that actually made room for our voice box which enabled us to develop sound and language . . . was there a reason for this? what was / is driving this reason?
I guess my question is, in this consciousness that we potentially have, what is our purpose?
to catch better food? to survive the blistering heat? to be able to find water?
Is there an underlying survival agenda driving us?
Drive? desire? agenda? imperative? what could lead us where?
If not survival, then . .
Bliss? Disolution? No differentiation? Complete integration of individual and whole?
utter - fill - ment?
How do we choose? decide? what shall we do then?
ah, the great matter.
to be aware, and yet, to follow

and also, I note that when we are playing up there on stage, there are about a hundred evolutions every minute -- if we slow down enough to notice them . . we are creating language all the time - with a gesture of the chin raising up or a snicker to the side . . when do we just speed pass all these tiny accidents of creation . . when do we follow them and let them be the seeds of our language? our evolution? with no pre-determined goal? or the goal of creating a culture?

evolve: to unroll, derive, educe, develop, work out, to produce by natural evolutionary processes, emit
evolution: a process of change in a certain direction: unfolding, the action or instance of forming or giving something off: emission, a process of continuous change from a lower, simpler, or worse to a higher , more complex, or better state: growth, a process in which the whole universe is a progression of interrelated phenomena . . .

Culture/community/ensemble--desolate

I am bumping up against this idea of Culture, of a community, of an ensemble. All three different things yes maybe so and I feel a strong yearning for them, yet wonder the capability or possibility for any to be, truly. Am I holding on to tight to a certain idea of what these three "things" mean to me, also another maybe. I know one thing about it, is that I need a culture, a community, an ensemble to allow me to sustain myself. So I am not doing this all alone. So I dont feel quite so desolate as an artist. This is why I am here in D/D. I need this culture. This community, this ensemble of amazing people to help sustain in this world.

thats all, i think for know
Laurie

What comes first?

I often wonder when we discuss parts of Trungpa Rinpoche's teachings (which are part of the inspiration of d/d), whether there is a developmental order or not. Can we talk about
'thorough relaxation and wholesomeness'
without talking about
'absence of of neurotic mind'
and then before that is creating
'space'. As Rinpoche says
'Before we produce anything at all....' we need space....space which accommodates all...
lots of room, freedom, and wakefulness'.

So when we sit together, then we are making room for each of us to create that kind of inner space. MInd space. Open, present. That leads to sensing the presence of my 'neurotic mind', those deeper uncertainties and anxieties, and touching it and letting it go. Then as I am moving in personal movement practice I cultivate a kinesthesia that is 'thoroughly relaxed and wholesome' but then, I have to not get 'lazy' which is the next one....
'absence of laziness'.

Neurosis makes me feel energized. It's familiar. There is some frontier of experience when I cultivate relaxation....I start to drift. I only know relaxation as the start of flop. So then I have to wake up in the embodied relaxed state....awake, present, just here. What would we create if we could all do this?

gratitude for monday night

i finally logged in to the blog...my first blog experience! i so appreciate the openness of the ensemble on monday night as i presented my 'experiment' with breath/movement/energy and flocking. it is such a gift to be a part of an artistic community that welcomes new ideas and offers a safe space to try things, make mistakes, and just explore possibilities. i learned a lot!
i watch the huge ancient Cottonwood tree dance in the sunlight--wind(breath) initates movement, creates an energy of DeLIGHT which reaches me behind the window.
luv, christa

The original announcement of the project for the Naropa MFA Theater Program

Here's a link to the original announcement for the desolate delight project!

After Monday

Two thoughts this morning....first, after all my desire to create an open field of conversation in the 'culture' I'm the one who forgot to tell everyone about the video camera! I am very sorry....no red flag went up when Joan mentioned she was bringing it...it just went right by me and didn't register. Hopefully we can navigate through the bump! And second, we didn't talk about the Desert Quadrants. Except at the end when we moved to the new form including swarming/herding/flocking as part of our opening practice. So help me to remember to include time for those discussions. They are so juicy! Oh, and also I forgot to dedicate our creative energy to the larger field. That's important. Maybe that could become a 'little job'?

i c u

soundscape-birds tell each other about themselves
I see-one red scooter in space motionless, the reflection of the house across the street, a rock about the size of a head perched on the patio.
end

my eyes and more and more my ears are opening to seeing so many AUNTS around. moments in time I stop and notice the beauty of...I notice the performance of...i notice. its about that

D/D is about Noticing for me...its about noticing

l

will the title be yellow ? how can I make it a color?

Hello dds,
I got in.
opened the door and here I am .
read the other postings about
Trungpa Rinpoche and Zen and the sandwhich.
It's me, Katharine.
I read a couple poems in front of people as a part of a new book, "Uncontained...in the margins....garden" with the eco-arts gang on saturday and listened to many while looking up at the great big sycamore at Naropa's Lincoln campus. The poets seem relaxed and wholesome and the day was like that..watching the sun shine up the leaves and get in the eyes of all the poets..They squint but the sun is still in the eyes. I wanted to move around but I stood pretty still and read like the others (a thumb away from the mic) and it was soo fun and inspiring...I love the poets and inspired MYseLF!

Last week dd was hard for me to get out of my previous week of deep silence and sitting and rise to the occasion of the creative buzz of the work...There must be some seperation in my being that takes a while to climb back into the brave world of speech and creative juice...So, listening to the poets and reading myself I started to get the feel back again...Oh this is a voice...this is what we do..talk into the mic or in the street or at the bank or down by the river....By the way there is a wall where people are putting up things they write...at the library..part of the eco-arts wall.

Ok. Now you can all see how I'm getting the swing of the CoLOrs....and the liGht has changed in these few moments it took me to write. It is shining up the keys.
Do we write love?
sure.
alright then.
(I'm looking forward to us in three and a half hours from now.)

love,( love...as oppossed to...brown or black...)
kk

Delight

Here's the quote from Trumgpa Rinpoche about 'delight'....will also post the one about desolation. This sparked the tille of the project. I'm also so moved by the image of 'artists and unemployed samari' which is the chapter title.

WORK OF ART

What a work of art is all about is a sense of delight. Touch here, touch there, delight. It is an appreciation of things as they are and of what one is -- which produces an enormous spark. Something happens -- clicks -- and the poet writes poems, the painter paints pictures, the musician composes music.

From "Artists and Unemployed Samurai" in THE TEACUP AND THE SKULLCUP: CHOGYAM TRUNGPA ON ZEN AND TANTRA. Page 42.

AUNTs in the Kitchen!

I have been checking out the blogging situation for the past couple days yet I have been scared maybe to type my thoughts...Im not sure. So Anyway...It is sunday and I just made dinner...I fixed grilled cheese and tomato soup. I was really excited to eat the grilled cheese but I burnt it. Then once my meal was finished being cooked...I decided well I can just dip my grilled cheese in the soup to drown out the cajun style sandwich. I would say that this was an AUNT....and then it became an AUNT directed when I decide to dip the grilled cheese in my soup, which I totally didnt have on the "menu" before hand! hahaha!!

and now I am gonna eat it to contribute to my sustainability! YES!

much love to all you desolate delighters...its truly an honor and pleasure to be around you.
Laurie aka damaris' roommate

Sign Post

I was just doing the dishes and thinking about how quick and efficient my meals have become... when it occurred to me that AUNTS is fast-food, or I should say, AUNTS is a very contemporary form in that it offers instant gratification, unlike long, belabored choreography rehearsals... and so how perfect that we are combining it with the slow-food feel a of a year-long commitment... and then I wanted to try out the new blog... and then I got soapsuds on the keyboard.
Love,
Miriam

Thank you Miriam!

Here we go....into the 21st century. Creating the spontaneous compostions....AUNTS...last night was a big step forward. The landscape is getting very large. Let's just stay awake as our 'system' unfolds with this new energy imput!

As for sustainability....keep letting go of subconscious gossip and find that kinesthetic sensation of relaxed and wholesome. and the phrase from CTR is 'space is solid stories'.....sometimes I say 'space is full of stories'.

Warmness and outbreaths!
Barbara