May all beings everywhere, in this galaxy and beyond,find peace within ourselves, with others, and with Mother Earth.May we rediscover health, joy, naturalness, and freedom.May those in dark places know the emptiness of suffering.May the demonic forces behind our enemies be extinguished byAvalokiteshvara’s inexhaustible wisdom. May Mañjuśrī’s flaming swordcut out the infection in our hearts […]
space
Messenger
Emerging from liquid,unique in the solar system,as far as I know, I am a messenger, andmy story is far from over.There are still maps tobe formed and surfaced- ideas to be risked, sent likea probe crashinginto the orbit of Mercury.I am still getting closer to the distanceof a different destiny, at least until the fuel runs out. George […]
Why Poetry is Well Suited for Space Work
Why did I think she had eyes thecolor of feces and sweat dipping tainted hairs white as burning phosphorous? What is wrongwith me? Why could I not justsee brown and white? It’s as if my mind has to reenter the atmosphere before it can join otherhumans again. Not unlike astronauts,poets speak words with Neoprene-coated nylon.Their syllables irrigating the sandy […]
Seen from the Surface of Mars
Beneath the scars hiddenin the crevasses, two solareclipses can be seen from the surface of Mars.A place where all creaturesknow how to suffer together. A place where forever wild meanssomething more than a bumper sticker.A place where the seas of our galaxycast doubt on the prospects of living.Where everything is an ancient memory,and Hubble’s children are illuminated […]
The Way Galileo Saw It
When I look up I see the quiet survivalof the solar system. I see the outbursts ofconstellations andthe disturbing meaningof the Milky Way. When I look up I see the penetration of thecorona, a universe of stars,the way Galileo saw it, all ionized and catastrophic. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has […]
A Mind With Space in It Is a Lively Mind
Master Jingzong; English translation by Foyuan, edited by Jingxing In life, the first thing we have to do is to take good care of ourselves. If we don’t do so, who will? During all these years as a monk and an Amitabha-reciter, I have always felt that someone was looking after me. This is the “I” […]
Postcard from Raymond: The Unseen is the Real
There is a mysterious, imperceptible force from beyond the observable universe yanking our galaxy in a certain and irresistible direction. We can’t stop it. The cosmic phenomenon known as “dark flow” is controversial, but it describes a flow or peculiar velocity of galaxies towards the Centaurus and Hydra Constellations. The gravitational anomaly called the “Great […]
Postcard from Raymond: Pale Blue Dot
I love nothing more than having my assumptions demolished. I enjoy being put in my place. This is not some masochistic desire to be debased or humiliated. Rather, I find it liberating to see how small we really are in the cosmos, via images of space and all kinds of beginner-friendly astronomical analyses. It was […]
Postcard from Raymond: How interconnected do you feel?
This image is a simulation of the “cosmic web,” a network of the scaffolding holding together the structure of the universe. This structure constitutes galaxies, dark matter, the gas that coalesces into stars, and “filaments”: regions of galaxy clusters woven together through what resembles slender, cobweb-like threads. This image from UC Riverside highlights how these […]
Postcard from Raymond: The View from Afar
Artist Pablo Carlos Budassi has put together a stunning “logarithmic scale conception” of the observable Universe, with the Solar System at the centre. Thanks to discoveries by physicists, mathematicians, and many others in the 20th century, we know that time and space are interrelated, and that the universe is expanding every second, with galaxies, stars, […]