Neat

What is this andara glass? Is it castoffs from a factory or some kind of waste that looks cool.

Back in the day... like mid 60's day, our family did a trip to the Ohio, Kentucky, W. Virginia area and did some tours of
glass factories. Mom bought a bunch of Blenko handblown stuff. I've got this pitcher.



It doesn't pour without dripping.... ha. Makes a nice vase, though.

That's pretty. Andara glass looks like regular slag glass, but comes from nearby Mt Shasta... Supposedly, it is the manifestation of a leaking into our plane from a higher one. People say these chunks of glass work on them as opposed to other crystals that you work with. I'd say it has truth for me based on my experience.

I don't know though and think of it as just glass with a mysterious side to it...

huh. I did a little reading on Mt Shasta glass and dimensional leaking. I'm less skeptical after sleeping on the reading, not sleeping on any glass or crystals, yet. I've read some Tibetan Buddhist references to other planes. Been years. We beginner zennies are instructed to not pay too much attention to those stories, although... I know the Tibetans have a seriously deep mythology.... so ancient cultures in California... why not?

The Mt Shasta glass seems to have been salted on the mountain, it's glass right? Not a mineral or crystal. You know, my high school chemistry teacher did an experiment when the glass pyramid craze struck mid seventies. He placed a dead gold fish under a pyramid in the lab. It rotted pretty quick. --- heh. Kinda put me off on glass and crystals. Heck, I don't even know what makes crystals in watches work.

Quartz has properties that can be measured pretty accurately and reliably. Hence, we use them to keep time. That's my understanding. Quartz has other interesting properties dealing with electricity I believe.

Crystals are a weird thing. Beautiful of course. I don't knoew if you are into them or not. They do seem to communicate to me... Not words all the time...usually a feeling or a sudden flash of an image...or even vibrations. Tesla said everything is vibration and frequency. So, I go with it.

The monks want you to find your path. This starts with something simple... When we learned that 2+2=4, we had to learn the concept of 2, +,=, and 4. We also had to learn precursor concepts even before that. So, reading a story (2+2=4) doesn't help us...it's skipping past some very important stuff. Does that make sense?

I've a general interest in geology, more fascination with the process than understanding. I think I've got a piece of Baraboo quartzite somewhere. It's used for railroad siding fill.

Not sure about the math problem. I guess we start learning with units. One. From a meditation/ mindfulness point of view, the general "rule" is one thing at a time, whether it's a breathe practice, mantra or koan.

There's a lot of quartzite at giza. These "bowls" are made of quartzite.

Cool. What were the bowls purpose? Grinding grain... decorative public water feature... mystical gazing pools?

Here's a quartz bowl up at Devils Lake. I hear tell this bowl and others, currently about 400 feet above lake level, formed when ancient Lake Wisconsin burst and a massive torrent flooded down into the Wisconsin River.