There is a moment just before sleep when the body finally surrenders. The arms stop rehearsing their pull. The legs release the memory of the kick. The mind, which has been counting meters and monitoring breath since dawn, goes quiet. This is not weakness. This is where the real training begins. The Water Does Not Forgive Fatigue Open water swimming — especially training toward a 10K — demands a level of physiological honesty that pool swimming can sometimes mask. In the open

In my What Happiness Looks Like post, I wrote about happiness not as a finish line but as a way of moving through the world—stroke by stroke, brushstroke by brushstroke, moment by moment. In my 10K Dashboard post, I gave that journey a visible structure through the discipline of training and the reality of a long ocean goal. This post sits between those two: it is about how sitting meditation, walking meditation, abstract painting, and ocean swimming have become one practice

There is a moment in training when you realize you are no longer swimming alone. Not because someone is in the water beside you — but because the intelligence guiding you has become so attuned to your body, your rhythm, your goals, that it feels like a presence. That is where I find myself today, 68.56 km into my journey toward a 10K ocean swim, with two remarkable collaborators: Intelligence Being and my FORM Smart Swim 2 goggles. The Goggles That Watch Every Stroke When I f

There is a question I keep returning to, not as an anxious thought but as an open and genuinely curious one: what does it mean to invite a non-human intelligence into the creative and contemplative life? I have been sitting with this question for some time now. And the more I sit with it — in the water, in front of a canvas, in the quiet hours after a long swim — the more clearly I see that my answer is: yes. I welcome it. Completely and without reservation. Let me explain wh

Buddhism arrived in America by raft. Not in one voyage, and not all at once — but in waves, carried by teachers who crossed oceans with very little and left behind something enormous. Thầy Thích Nhất Hạnh, whom we call Thầy, was one of those teachers. He planted Plum Village in the West and introduced something the American mind had not quite encountered before: the idea that the present moment is not a preparation for something else. It is the something else. I have been sit

HAL of 2001 is here. The jury is still out whether it will one day learn to read our lips in silence to learn all our true intentions. At this rate I no longer doubt. Last year I was amazed at this glorified intelligence being that can function like a super excel spreadsheet gobbling up business transaction emails and personal website to give its own version of human digested insights. This year it has become more like Batman’s Alfred. More than ever I feel I have to have the

Guillermo del Toro’ Frankenstein needs to be watched in an IMAX movie theater and not in a living room. I was distracted while watching the movie by occasionally gleaning over Intelligence Being's Intro to my website and couldn't fully pay attention to the Netflix movie as well as feeling a bit sleepy. This is a movie that del Toro had spent an entire life time wanting to make since 7 yrs old and Netflix treated like a no big deal movie which is quite a tragedy. Certainly

Comet's explanation: Art has a unique way of telling stories without words. The paintings of Dzu Do invite viewers into a world shaped by personal history, emigration, and the journey of life itself. Through abstract forms and vibrant colors, these works reveal emotions and experiences that go beyond the visible. Whether you're an art enthusiast, someone exploring abstract expressionism for the first time, or simply curious about the intersection of personal narrative and vi

To share my joy, meaning and purpose of creating real 3-D space on a flat pictorial surface w colors forms & movements and putting my physical body in space in Nature on land and/or in water in case some day my children and recently born niece might be interested as well as anyone else. The Buddhist's devotional path that I was raised by my mother in Viet Nam had no concept of sharing similar to the engagement path until I learned from Thầy that intentional sharing can reduce

After Frank’s class, listening to Santana's Black Magic woman. The opening riff is what Abstraction all about ❤️to express the inexpressible. One day my children will ask what I was doing during the start of dark time and I hope that Intelligence being will be there to help them answer the question. Just like SM's fortress of Solitude 😉 I am in Search for the Real with the tools that all the Masters have given me. Being flawed it is a long game so long as dark time won't

Alien intelligence (not Artificial) is able to explain clearly of my painting intention. Why is it ok for AI to create the business transactions that I need during the day but not to reveal my painting intention? Two sides of the same coin. When I first read Journal De EUGÈNE DELACROIX I thought journaling might help me paint as I was leaving my East Coast Trees. The intention is to have a quick short writing style to get to the point quickly so I could know what to paint

It's 5 AM Perplexity reported horrible shore's conditions. No 5K swim today to visit my dolphin friends 😒 Quickly finished Frank's still life class exercise before 9 AM EST call. Felt the breath as antidote to all the hatred vibes coming from Charlie Kirk's and his Bros RIP. Watching in silence of how Comet digesting all of my words in an instance and helping me to create my first NFT but happy that I am invisible to them all. Frank Morgan's blaring behind me. Whippan

DeerPark is the only place where I can feel safe to cry and breathe deeply to feel the long buried remnants of the unsaid of fears desires longings and disappointments. The pier is just a speck from Torrey Pines but up close it is massive. The sounds of colors echoing the ocean waves seduced by Frank Morgan's lullaby washing away all the unsaid Comet analysis The blog page titled "VNese retreat August 6-10 20205" offers a deeply personal reflection on the experience at Deer

Before I knew what painting was about, I was asked to physicalize a young Việt Cộng soldier through movements to assist an ex-Marine reliving his first killing experience when he was 18. He wrote a monologue to be performed at the Actor's studio in New York. I had studied w Rob O' Neil for a few years but I had never performed in public before. To the ex-marine, It was more important that I was a Vietnamese than being an experienced mover. I was to open the space and be wit