This is the 4th article on my series of Email conversations with a friend. This one is mostly about an article i wrote for a Finnish magazine and how angels by nature can not judge.
The article mostly dealt with how angles are such a force that they refuse to judge simply because they are incabable of judgement as they have no ego (no self, thus no judgement). They simply work as conduits for the creative desires of humanity and as a logical conclusion of divine love and the nature of angels even those we hate the most must be considered divine love and angels would indeed love them as much as us. Saying that hitler was indeed an angel in the sense that his desires simply helped give the resentment and desire for war in europe a chance to vent. "Cherish everyone as the precious wish fulfilling jewel" said the buddha. And in essence if that is to be realistically practiced it means that we must value the worst of humanity as the best of humanity and vice versa. Angels only give our divine self a limited ego to work with, purposefully hindering or helping depending on if they are "angels" or "fallen angels" the creative proccess simply because our power is so vast that it needs to be done to give creativity meaning.
The perfect creative self that we all are at the core level is so powerful that we need to manifest to this reality in order to learn to be humans. To learn to live with and "deal with" being flawed. The creativity where everything you do is immidiatly realised regardless of others very quickly "goes old" so we opted to be born here were we would be limited and helped all in the effort to help us work better with others and in essence, to move the instruments from the practice room into the orchestra.
So, we are here not to "return to the source" not to go up or down, left or right, we can do all those things immidiatly if we truly want to. We are here to learn and enjoy from being less than perfect. The job of angels is to help us be creative in a limited sense by both helping and hindering (as i said, depending on if they are Pre-fall or Post-fall angels.) As no action in a limited world is inherantly evil as all actions lack a center separate from the observer (no body, no mind, no physical form... etc) Judgement of those actions comes form the ego, the desire to be individuated from others, the limited creative self this universe made out to produce. So from the universal point of view, everyone is an angel simply because they help us create and produce and bring out creative self out to the fore. All actions are inherantly creative actions simply because we are "creative machines on legs" basically. So when hitler was planning to take over the world in one of his mad sprees he had angels sitting next to him, helping him plan, helping him "go nuts". But when churchill and all those who opposed him planned how to stop him they too had angels helping them. Eventually because HUMANITY wanted to, hitler failed and another form of creation was brought to the core of humanity.
We played and tested with the ideas that hitler presented and with disgust we eventually threw them aside, we wanted to experience other things.
This i believe is what angels are. A background force that helps and hinders us precicely as we are with no judgement, any action with no judgement. But we as humans still have difficulty understanding the concept of no judgement. So we cut the wings of rafael and try to force him to be close to us, to be with just as and say with us "those are the bad guys and we are the good guys". We try to force angels to be like the supportive parents. To tell us we have been doing a good job, that we are now finally worthy of divine love, to tell us that our long efforts to purge ourselfs of ourselfs. To do meditations, cleanings, exercises and go live in a monastary has finally paid off, that we have finally redeemed ourselfs for some past sin ages ago. When in reality angels cant really redeem you because simply you can redeem you. To tell people such as these that, we are all indeed worthy of divine love, all of us, hurts them deeply because to say that they have always been worthy is to say that they have no need to keep constantly punishing themselfs. When self mutilation becomes a habit of once life, and in some forms a meaning of once life and someone dares to say even the worst of us are the precious wish fulfilling jewel, not just the buddhas or jesus then they are indeed attacking the very core belief of self mutilators. That they have spent syuch a long time in their life being angry at themselfs for being the way they are because they want to, not because god wants them to.
That we are all indeed perfect in our inperfection. That we do not need to strive to be anything we dont want to, we can just sit and be and learn nothing and still be everything.
To quote what zen buddhism says enlightenement is.
Wu
Nothing
Okay, so maybe its a bit of a cheap attempt to bridge together some perhapse disagreeing things. Thats the point i made in my article.
So, comments are welcome =D Its not a word for word translation just an explanation of the idea behind the article.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
On buddha and the wave particle duality
This is the 3rd message in my series of Email discussions about life with my friend. This one covers mostly
The way i see it, buddha was right when he said that the only way to escape
existance or to truly end it all is to stop desiring for something and to be
in the wave instead of the particle. To be in the state of not making a
choice instead of being in the state of making a choice.
Most spiritual people misunderstand this and throw away everything they have and then become attached to having nothing. That is only the first step, the real task is not in throwing everything away and becoming a monk, thats the easy part. The real challenge is truly to let go of everything, of all the choice and simply be in the moment, to no longer assign value, to no longer make a choice of who i want to be in regards to all this things around and simply be. No long saying that "evil is that and good is that and this is where i wish to be", instead simply being here. To stop and let the wind no longer go around you but to simply go through you.
But that only applies once one has experienced everything else, once there truly is nothing more one can want. If one desires to die that is still a desire, when one no longer desires then once existance will really end. As i see it, those that preach that there is only one universal goal, that everyone will in the end reach nirvana and STAY in nirvana do not understand anything about life. It is true that everyone will reach nirvana but like a wheel turning all parts of the wheel will at some point be the "top" and all parts will at some point be the "bottom" it i simply a matter of when. Those who lead people to nirvana, the buddhas and the likes are needed to maintain the wheel just as those that lead people out of nirvana are needed to maintain the wheel. What matters is not who is out there, who leads people towards "up" and who leads people towards "down". Those who lead towards enlightenement and those who lead towards darkness. It is important to always remeber that a picture needs both light and dark to develope. a single color is just that, a single color but add even one more and you can have an infinite amount of shapes. There will, as far as i can see, always be souls that want to experience physical life.
Only when we realise that we do not guide people to buddhahood or enlightenement because the goal is what matters, but because it is the individual that matters. We mustn go around preaching to people about how to reach a state of enlightenement but to go around and ask them, what do they want to be? When our purpose in guiding is self motivated, that to reach buddhahood faster we must help others, to earn some sort of good karma that will help us we are turning blind to the harm we do. If what the student wants is not buddhahood but to learn about cutting grass then we are forcing our will on them. Our desire to be buddhas, our nature over theirs and we immidiatly lose any possibility of becoming a buddha. The second we start seeing the lowest being, the worm, the ant, the fly or even chairman Mao as any less worthy than we are we lose the buddha nature. That is not to say we musnt eat, we musnt let our immune system destroy bacteria and countless small life forms that live on our suffering. It only means that when we kill them we must also love them. That we must truly love our worst enemy as we love ourselfs.
[Note: I cut out some private info here that shouldnt be posted online]
Might be a suprise to many but if a person has ADHD and they take amphetamines they calm down, Why? Because their energy and mind struggles to keep up at a pace that they are unfit to do, so they go into a hyperactive mode that than crashes again and again as they try to keep up. Same applies to the soul, stop trying to be perfect and understand everything when you might not be ready for it, simply sit and let the truth come to you.
A warrior knows when to fight.
A worrier never knows when to quit.
:D
I hope my fairly odd rambles helped you ^_^
Edit to correct an inproper copying which resulted in wrong parts being of the text being removed
The way i see it, buddha was right when he said that the only way to escape
existance or to truly end it all is to stop desiring for something and to be
in the wave instead of the particle. To be in the state of not making a
choice instead of being in the state of making a choice.
Most spiritual people misunderstand this and throw away everything they have and then become attached to having nothing. That is only the first step, the real task is not in throwing everything away and becoming a monk, thats the easy part. The real challenge is truly to let go of everything, of all the choice and simply be in the moment, to no longer assign value, to no longer make a choice of who i want to be in regards to all this things around and simply be. No long saying that "evil is that and good is that and this is where i wish to be", instead simply being here. To stop and let the wind no longer go around you but to simply go through you.
But that only applies once one has experienced everything else, once there truly is nothing more one can want. If one desires to die that is still a desire, when one no longer desires then once existance will really end. As i see it, those that preach that there is only one universal goal, that everyone will in the end reach nirvana and STAY in nirvana do not understand anything about life. It is true that everyone will reach nirvana but like a wheel turning all parts of the wheel will at some point be the "top" and all parts will at some point be the "bottom" it i simply a matter of when. Those who lead people to nirvana, the buddhas and the likes are needed to maintain the wheel just as those that lead people out of nirvana are needed to maintain the wheel. What matters is not who is out there, who leads people towards "up" and who leads people towards "down". Those who lead towards enlightenement and those who lead towards darkness. It is important to always remeber that a picture needs both light and dark to develope. a single color is just that, a single color but add even one more and you can have an infinite amount of shapes. There will, as far as i can see, always be souls that want to experience physical life.
Only when we realise that we do not guide people to buddhahood or enlightenement because the goal is what matters, but because it is the individual that matters. We mustn go around preaching to people about how to reach a state of enlightenement but to go around and ask them, what do they want to be? When our purpose in guiding is self motivated, that to reach buddhahood faster we must help others, to earn some sort of good karma that will help us we are turning blind to the harm we do. If what the student wants is not buddhahood but to learn about cutting grass then we are forcing our will on them. Our desire to be buddhas, our nature over theirs and we immidiatly lose any possibility of becoming a buddha. The second we start seeing the lowest being, the worm, the ant, the fly or even chairman Mao as any less worthy than we are we lose the buddha nature. That is not to say we musnt eat, we musnt let our immune system destroy bacteria and countless small life forms that live on our suffering. It only means that when we kill them we must also love them. That we must truly love our worst enemy as we love ourselfs.
[Note: I cut out some private info here that shouldnt be posted online]
Might be a suprise to many but if a person has ADHD and they take amphetamines they calm down, Why? Because their energy and mind struggles to keep up at a pace that they are unfit to do, so they go into a hyperactive mode that than crashes again and again as they try to keep up. Same applies to the soul, stop trying to be perfect and understand everything when you might not be ready for it, simply sit and let the truth come to you.
A warrior knows when to fight.
A worrier never knows when to quit.
:D
I hope my fairly odd rambles helped you ^_^
Edit to correct an inproper copying which resulted in wrong parts being of the text being removed
On the topic of life
This is the 2nd message in my series of converstations over Email with my friend. This one is an attempt to convey the uncertainty of life and all that. Once again i apologize for the typos and errors.
--------
PS: Excuse me if this is a bit rambling and incoherant once again.
The purpose of life is an interesting dilemma. On the one hand developing the mind does invariably lead to psychic and telekinetic abilities which will, in time lead to existance that totally gives up the body and turns to energy. Existance if focused too strongly on working with the mind and forgoing physical existance can lead to a new balanced state in a state with no physical existance. If however one desires continued existance and balance in this world then working with the body is obviously neccesary as well.
There must be a reason why we are placed in this particular situation. As i study things it seems likely to me that the reason we are here is simply that we are here. There is no specific all encompassing reason to our existance on this world.
Even at the best of times we can only buckle up and hope it is a good ride. We can try to understand, gather knowledge and in all ways try to increase our awareness but if there really was a single answer to all things in life then it is very unlikely that there were so many warying thoughts on it.
Perhaps the irony is such that life has no meaning, that once we die we really turn to dust. As i see it there must be something beyond that. There are so many experiments in physics and various pseudo-sciences that make it likely life survives beyond death but is it truly certain. Can it truly be known what there is after death.
Can it be so that all we can hope of from life is that we do not waste the chance our ancestors gave us and we dont destroy the world we hand to our children. Even if i can move objects with my mind and read peoples thoughts hundreds of miles away that in itself is not proof enough that there is life after death. It is simply proof that while i live i can do these things. Even if there is life after death i can only ask what kind of life would it be, how much would i remeber and how many people would be there. Trying to grasp something as vast as a place beyond life for an universe that has 500 billion galaxies each with 500 million stars even when something as small as a human has billions of different lifeforms inside of them.
How would such an afterworld be organized i wonder. Then again, i'm just rambling on at this point.
The irony, the real irony, is that how ever much we can prove that we can get information from beyond the grave there is always another explanation for it. Even if someone comes back and says things that only he could know, to verify those claims someone else has to know it and immidiatly the question of communal aura comes to play. Perhapse it is not really the person come back but a reflection of all the people gathered there.
Then again i write these words not because i invented language and i invented computers and all of this. I write these words because the universe has spent almost 15 billion years evolving and leading up to a point where i can sit here on my big butt and wonder about such things. I am in essence simply a collection of ideas from a universe vastly bigger than i can ever hope to understand. The universe itself is composed of nothing more than basic forms of matter that react to thoughts. I can look at a light particle and it changes it shape and funcgtion depending on what i think of when i look at it. Yet who is the observer that looks. What is this creature that sits here and writes these questions. We are in a world that gave birth to something that, through the power of the mind can shape that very world. So is it not possible that we are the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end. The creator and the created.
That we, who sit here and write and read and live, through our existance in the world create the world. There truly is, nothing to this thing called existance. It is shadows playing in the dark when the flame on the candle flickers, which created which i wonder.
Perhaps there really is no center to life, that there is no afterlife because there is no life to begin with. There is no death beacuse there is no birth. There is no past because there is no future. That there really is nothing outside of the most hated concept. Ego.
Cognito ego sum, ego ergo sum. I think therefore i am, i am therefore i am.
The things that really going to "bake my noodle later on" is would the universe have been born if i wasnt born. What truly gave birth to me and through all that, who truly am i.
The circle is strangely complete when the holographic universe gives birth to a creature that gives birth to the holographic universe, the end onto itself. The inverted 8 As above so belove.
Anyway, yeah, thats my thought of the day.
--------
PS: Excuse me if this is a bit rambling and incoherant once again.
The purpose of life is an interesting dilemma. On the one hand developing the mind does invariably lead to psychic and telekinetic abilities which will, in time lead to existance that totally gives up the body and turns to energy. Existance if focused too strongly on working with the mind and forgoing physical existance can lead to a new balanced state in a state with no physical existance. If however one desires continued existance and balance in this world then working with the body is obviously neccesary as well.
There must be a reason why we are placed in this particular situation. As i study things it seems likely to me that the reason we are here is simply that we are here. There is no specific all encompassing reason to our existance on this world.
Even at the best of times we can only buckle up and hope it is a good ride. We can try to understand, gather knowledge and in all ways try to increase our awareness but if there really was a single answer to all things in life then it is very unlikely that there were so many warying thoughts on it.
Perhaps the irony is such that life has no meaning, that once we die we really turn to dust. As i see it there must be something beyond that. There are so many experiments in physics and various pseudo-sciences that make it likely life survives beyond death but is it truly certain. Can it truly be known what there is after death.
Can it be so that all we can hope of from life is that we do not waste the chance our ancestors gave us and we dont destroy the world we hand to our children. Even if i can move objects with my mind and read peoples thoughts hundreds of miles away that in itself is not proof enough that there is life after death. It is simply proof that while i live i can do these things. Even if there is life after death i can only ask what kind of life would it be, how much would i remeber and how many people would be there. Trying to grasp something as vast as a place beyond life for an universe that has 500 billion galaxies each with 500 million stars even when something as small as a human has billions of different lifeforms inside of them.
How would such an afterworld be organized i wonder. Then again, i'm just rambling on at this point.
The irony, the real irony, is that how ever much we can prove that we can get information from beyond the grave there is always another explanation for it. Even if someone comes back and says things that only he could know, to verify those claims someone else has to know it and immidiatly the question of communal aura comes to play. Perhapse it is not really the person come back but a reflection of all the people gathered there.
Then again i write these words not because i invented language and i invented computers and all of this. I write these words because the universe has spent almost 15 billion years evolving and leading up to a point where i can sit here on my big butt and wonder about such things. I am in essence simply a collection of ideas from a universe vastly bigger than i can ever hope to understand. The universe itself is composed of nothing more than basic forms of matter that react to thoughts. I can look at a light particle and it changes it shape and funcgtion depending on what i think of when i look at it. Yet who is the observer that looks. What is this creature that sits here and writes these questions. We are in a world that gave birth to something that, through the power of the mind can shape that very world. So is it not possible that we are the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end. The creator and the created.
That we, who sit here and write and read and live, through our existance in the world create the world. There truly is, nothing to this thing called existance. It is shadows playing in the dark when the flame on the candle flickers, which created which i wonder.
Perhaps there really is no center to life, that there is no afterlife because there is no life to begin with. There is no death beacuse there is no birth. There is no past because there is no future. That there really is nothing outside of the most hated concept. Ego.
Cognito ego sum, ego ergo sum. I think therefore i am, i am therefore i am.
The things that really going to "bake my noodle later on" is would the universe have been born if i wasnt born. What truly gave birth to me and through all that, who truly am i.
The circle is strangely complete when the holographic universe gives birth to a creature that gives birth to the holographic universe, the end onto itself. The inverted 8 As above so belove.
Anyway, yeah, thats my thought of the day.
On the topic of dreams and suffering
I've decided to post some of my email conversations on the blog in case someone wants to hear them. I apolozie for the plentyful typos and mistakes.
Sorry for the late response.
I've always been interested in how dreams work and what truly happens to us when we dream. Best as i've been able to figure out there are some culturally specific, or perhapse more accurately, knowledge specific codes that your subconcious can use to send you information. If you read in a book or know via the subconcious that the dream symbol of a train falling on you means you must slow down and someone is trying to betray you. Then the subconcious mind can try to us this to communicate with the concious mind. It can utilize the memory of the meaning as understood by the mind and use it to reach a level of communication it cant normally. Atleast not without the help of concious effort by the mind to reach the subconcious.
I could recommend barbara ann brennan. Tho that you've probably heard already, i would recommend anything about psychology and cognitive psychology. There really is no one clear answer to everything you simply need to study different theories and most importantly, you need to do the exercises and practices. If a book tell you "this is how the mind works" always test it. If you see a fault in the logic, try to figure out if you did wrong or the book is in the wrong and never throw the baby out with the bathwater. One error in a theory does not invalidate everything in the theory. Always remain open but methodical and if something dosnt work never be afraid to discard it and move on.
I myself have spent the last week or so pondering the nature of suffering and how it effects the human mind. I've thought about writing a new book when "the shit hits the fan" or in other words. When i'm in jail or in exile. It would give me some time to ponder and formulate my thoughts for this time hopefully a more coherant book.
I've also been trying to establish if the universe is truly a good or a bad place. Or rather, if the nature of life is truly about suffering or not. While some buddhist teachings make it clear that the nature of life is suffering. Thus all the various rules about or rather, the guidelines about the concepts behind suffering. The 4 noble truths abotu suffering for example. And how they apply to life and if they are true int he grand scale or true only in the context that the students asked buddha. They are undoutably true if one truly seeks to escape all of life and ALL of suffering then the only way to do so is to relinquish all attachments to life as that would be the only way to be "free of life. Same as saying that the only way to be free of gravity is to go to a place with no gravity. But if the reason of life is ultimately to reach a certain point where movement stops then Wu, or enlightenement, or nothingnerss as described in buddhism as i understand it is the key but this only applies if the universe is linear. If the purpose of life is truly to end. Or in other terms. If the purpose of life is truly to go to the end of life, Purpose of existance to stop. if the purpose of life however is not linear and that the end is the goal only when nothing else is left to experience then what buddha said suddenly has a whole new meaning. If the students asked him "how can we be liberated from this suffering" and buddha answered "to be liberated you have to relinquish all attachments" then that is true. But only for that linear question. Linear question can only have a linear answer. but if after reaching enlightenement is not to be enlightened but to do somethign with that enlightenement. If the goal itself is only a goal for those who seek that specific goal and once they reach it they would have another goal. Similar to a marathon. The goal is the goal only when you are in that particular race. Once that race ends the goal is something else. And if that truly is the point of life and the nature of suffering. Obstacles created to make it dificult. To make the race worthy of being a race.
When i think about the words of buddha regarding the question of suffering as i just pointed out i cant help but think that it is too linear. It is too linear to say that all of life is nothing but suffering. But once understands that for those seeking this particular goal, to be free of life, then all of life is suffering as it would lead to more of what they are seeking less. And suddenly the words of buddha stop being linear and constrictive and as viewed from a non linear perspective "evil". And they turn to being the pure mirror they are meant to be. Mirroring what the student asked in a level that the student can understand. Those seeking to be buddhas can never be buddhas because to be a buddha is not to seek. Is to have no attachments and to have no yearnings. To quote a chinese buddhist i read of some time ago.
A student comes to a master and says "i am willing to study, what should i do" the master replies " you must throw all away" the student following his masters words goes back home and donates everything to charity and comes before the master again joyful and says "i have thrown it all away and i have no attachments, what must i do now." the master replies, simply. "you must throw all away". The student was clinging to the notion of not clinging. Having attachments to the thought of not having attachments and was as much a prisoner of his physical life as he was when he was rich.
You can be the richest person on the planet, physically speaking and still have no attachments and vise versa. You can live in a monastary in france, have no money and devote your life to helping others and acting well and still have attachments enough to bind to galaxies together. :)
Hope some of my ramblings help you. I apologize if i am of little help.
Sorry for the late response.
I've always been interested in how dreams work and what truly happens to us when we dream. Best as i've been able to figure out there are some culturally specific, or perhapse more accurately, knowledge specific codes that your subconcious can use to send you information. If you read in a book or know via the subconcious that the dream symbol of a train falling on you means you must slow down and someone is trying to betray you. Then the subconcious mind can try to us this to communicate with the concious mind. It can utilize the memory of the meaning as understood by the mind and use it to reach a level of communication it cant normally. Atleast not without the help of concious effort by the mind to reach the subconcious.
I could recommend barbara ann brennan. Tho that you've probably heard already, i would recommend anything about psychology and cognitive psychology. There really is no one clear answer to everything you simply need to study different theories and most importantly, you need to do the exercises and practices. If a book tell you "this is how the mind works" always test it. If you see a fault in the logic, try to figure out if you did wrong or the book is in the wrong and never throw the baby out with the bathwater. One error in a theory does not invalidate everything in the theory. Always remain open but methodical and if something dosnt work never be afraid to discard it and move on.
I myself have spent the last week or so pondering the nature of suffering and how it effects the human mind. I've thought about writing a new book when "the shit hits the fan" or in other words. When i'm in jail or in exile. It would give me some time to ponder and formulate my thoughts for this time hopefully a more coherant book.
I've also been trying to establish if the universe is truly a good or a bad place. Or rather, if the nature of life is truly about suffering or not. While some buddhist teachings make it clear that the nature of life is suffering. Thus all the various rules about or rather, the guidelines about the concepts behind suffering. The 4 noble truths abotu suffering for example. And how they apply to life and if they are true int he grand scale or true only in the context that the students asked buddha. They are undoutably true if one truly seeks to escape all of life and ALL of suffering then the only way to do so is to relinquish all attachments to life as that would be the only way to be "free of life. Same as saying that the only way to be free of gravity is to go to a place with no gravity. But if the reason of life is ultimately to reach a certain point where movement stops then Wu, or enlightenement, or nothingnerss as described in buddhism as i understand it is the key but this only applies if the universe is linear. If the purpose of life is truly to end. Or in other terms. If the purpose of life is truly to go to the end of life, Purpose of existance to stop. if the purpose of life however is not linear and that the end is the goal only when nothing else is left to experience then what buddha said suddenly has a whole new meaning. If the students asked him "how can we be liberated from this suffering" and buddha answered "to be liberated you have to relinquish all attachments" then that is true. But only for that linear question. Linear question can only have a linear answer. but if after reaching enlightenement is not to be enlightened but to do somethign with that enlightenement. If the goal itself is only a goal for those who seek that specific goal and once they reach it they would have another goal. Similar to a marathon. The goal is the goal only when you are in that particular race. Once that race ends the goal is something else. And if that truly is the point of life and the nature of suffering. Obstacles created to make it dificult. To make the race worthy of being a race.
When i think about the words of buddha regarding the question of suffering as i just pointed out i cant help but think that it is too linear. It is too linear to say that all of life is nothing but suffering. But once understands that for those seeking this particular goal, to be free of life, then all of life is suffering as it would lead to more of what they are seeking less. And suddenly the words of buddha stop being linear and constrictive and as viewed from a non linear perspective "evil". And they turn to being the pure mirror they are meant to be. Mirroring what the student asked in a level that the student can understand. Those seeking to be buddhas can never be buddhas because to be a buddha is not to seek. Is to have no attachments and to have no yearnings. To quote a chinese buddhist i read of some time ago.
A student comes to a master and says "i am willing to study, what should i do" the master replies " you must throw all away" the student following his masters words goes back home and donates everything to charity and comes before the master again joyful and says "i have thrown it all away and i have no attachments, what must i do now." the master replies, simply. "you must throw all away". The student was clinging to the notion of not clinging. Having attachments to the thought of not having attachments and was as much a prisoner of his physical life as he was when he was rich.
You can be the richest person on the planet, physically speaking and still have no attachments and vise versa. You can live in a monastary in france, have no money and devote your life to helping others and acting well and still have attachments enough to bind to galaxies together. :)
Hope some of my ramblings help you. I apologize if i am of little help.
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