I have not achieved enlightenment. I haven’t experienced Samadi (sp)

This book cannot get you there, but it can get you started. And you can use your mind along the way.

“A change on one level simultaneously affects all levels.”

Samadhi Movie, 2018 - Part 2 (It's Not What You Think)

1. Allow easy sorting of files (by title, not date) (finished 26 April 2022)
2. Write about perfectionism and procrastination

In some ways of thinking, the walk hasn’t had any effect on my life whatsoever. And just yesterday, two of my close friends, or Nakama talked about how the walk had a big impact on them. So that has helped inspire me to continue the quest and continue writing my book. In some ways, I think I am a perfectionist, and have this idea that the book must be perfect or not at all. But as my good friend, Mark says, done is better than perfect. So with that in mind, let’s write this book.

Today, I am 18,762 days old. So in some ways of thinking, that is the day number of this journey. I numbered the days of the walk, and struggle a lot with getting that system to fit in with the system of days counted in the outer world. For example, I call the hotel and ask them about my reservation on the 20th. And they said, the reservation was for a different date. And I realized the date I was using was the day number of my walk, not the calendar date that I would arrive.

So that’s an example of the difficulty I had. Linking my world with the real world. writing this book, in a way is another difficulty. Because in my world, I don’t have time to write the book. And in the real world, I have stated that I would write the book. In my mind, there are people waiting for the book, but also in my mind, there are people getting along with their lives and have written me off or written off the book. So which is it?

Step by step, we move forward. So let’s see if we can do this thing.

My friend Michael calls this navel gazing. I think, as I’m wondering aloud about my life and the choices. I intend to make this book available free on my website at this URL https://www.robnugen.com/books/slow-down/, and you can even watch its creation if you watch one of these other URLs

• https://github.com/thunderrabbit/barefoot_rob/
• https://bitbucket.org/thunderrabbit/barefoot_rob/
• https://gitlab.bmemc.com/thunderrabbit/barefoot_rob

So with that, let’s get started.

I have often said it makes no difference what you do. And then again it makes a huge difference.

3. Write about spirit and just do it

Humans were made in the image of God. So this doesn’t mean that God is shaped like a human, or vice versa. It means that humans are creative. We have freewill, and can create. According to our free will, within the limits of karma and physicality, we can create and do whatever we want. So, going on a walk across to him, might seem pretty ridiculous, but there’s literally no reason not to do it

from the point of view. We can do whatever we want to do. So,

All we have to do is start planning. And for me the biggest concern was getting the time off work, and then getting support from my wife to be away for that long. She tends to worry about things more than I do. And

it took some long discussions to assure her that I would remain safe during the trip. At the end, my head, I have two eyes. And I like my feet intact. So, all my body parts intact. So my definite intent intention to remain intact for as long as possible, including the duration of this walk. So, she finally agreed. Having the support was invaluable.

As we shall soon see.

Do whatever you want. Nothing matters. No one cares.

Do whatever you want. It makes all the difference in the world.

4. Let’s talk about the Ever Present Present, or EPP. Alan Watts pointed out that we use the thinnest of hands on our clocks and watches to trace the transition of Future into Past, as if the present moment is actually simply a sliver of Time.

As best I can tell, the present is actually all that is.
In The Power of Now Eckhart Tolle talks about it.

I heard his work was based on The Course of Miracles.

My chapter here is based on my cursory glance at those books on my bookshelf, waiting patiently for me to read them or toss them or anything else. Or nothing else.

So, in short, I should not be writing this book. As Frederick Marx said at length in the intro for his book Initiations, it falls to each generation to teach the new generation. I burst into tears when I read that. Oh fuck. I can’t do it.
I must do it. Aaaggggghhh and that was…. (checks email) August 7th, 2021.
I sent him a photo of myself crying.

• add photo
• maybe add emails, inc his reply

And now it’s April 27th, 2022. (8 months later!) Life happens. Things go off the rails.
Just come back to the project and put a few words together. It can be no other way. Life takes time as we go through successive snapshots of living all taking place in the EPP.

Breathe with me. Be here now.

5. I am fascinated by time. I love taking pictures of long(?) construction projects like houses being built in my neighborhood, or sidewalks being repaired, or a street being narrowed(!) to make more room for sidewalks on each side.

One of my favorite projects in my world is what I call Marble Track 3. In a way, I started in in early 1980s when my brother and I would build marble tracks with Legos.

I tried to slow the marbles down by making the slopes less sloped; I eventually realized Legos simply couldn’t do it. I turned to Craftsticks, which were just popsicle sticks bought from Michael’s, a craft/hobby store.

I built my marble track over a period of years spanning high school and university. It mostly got put on hold after that when I started working full time (thanks to my best friend Maggie’s referral) and then really got put on hold when I put my entire life (*) on hold to travel.

I asked Maggie if she could hold the marble track for me while I spent a year or two in Japan. That was in 2003.

In early 2007, I realized it had been a while. I decided to make a new marble track, dubbed Marble Track 2, as a gift for Maggie.

I gave Marble Track 2 to Maggie as a gift for keeping (the previously unnamed) Marble Track 1. And to make things make sense, gave her Marble Track 1 as well.

Meanwhile, I posted Marble Track 2 basically finished (NSFW language) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlUqu6QE7bw http://mt2.robnugen.com on Youtube and it got attracted lots of comments. 1,289,076 views as of 27 April 2022.

Most interesting comments for me were basically: “How did you make that?”

“Well, I just glued sticks onto wood and more sticks onto those…”

Then a whole slew of other comments were deriding my art! “6 months wasted” etc.

So now I am creating Marble Track 3. While doing so, I am creating a stop motion animation of characters creating Marble Track 3.

It’s taking ages! My response to those trolls: “you think I wasted 6 months? Well watch this”

And my response to those who wanted to know how I made it, “watch this” which shows every stick being brought into place step by step.

I try to work on it a couple hours every week, and the final video slowly accumulates frames. I estimate the final will be two hours long.

Still need to add audio and CGI background, but I’ll let Future Rob figure that out.

So yeah, playing with time: taking years to spend hours (creating approximately 6 to 10 photos per hour), which when viewed at 12 frames per second create a coherent story, which itself lasts hours!

(*) Wende, engagement, Spot, Scott, house, and more! It was hard.

6. Technology is a weird new shiny thing for us.

Each time we come into a human body (yes I’m talking reincarnation here) we have to start from scratch.

Even if you scratch the reincarnation part and just say we’re born, we have to start from scratch.

Chaotic sensations eventually get resolved into lights and sounds, which eventually get identified and faces and voices.. plus this funny body with “arms” and “legs” “fingers” and “toes” “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” We have to learn all this. From scratch.

But technology just keeps on marching.
I watched a video on Youtube via Reddit via my “phone” which is actually like a portable TV and radio on which I can see, hear, communicate, etc.. Really wild…

Oh sorry, so I watched a video that showed some guys making a rope… out of plants. Basically out of wheat or straw or something.

Making a rope!

Now, rope just magically squirts out of a rope machine, apparently at a Factory on the other end of my mailman’s route.

Now we’ve got not just rope, but cars, airplanes, ball point pens, and all kinds of stuff. Plus Bitcoin, NFTs, contact lenses, James Webb Space Telescope orbiting Lagrange Point 3 or whatever, checking out infrared radiation so it can see further away than we have in recent memory.

Okay, so the point is don’t get completely swept away by technology.
You’ve got a physical body, full of blood, nerves, emotions, chakras, ideas, inspirations, desires…

Once you’ve figured out enough of the chaotic sensations that come into your body, feel free to listen internally and decide what to do based on your inner guidance.

Toss this book down or close the computer or turn off your EyeVisor 3000 and just breathe.

Notice this moment.