The Saudi Oil Bombshell

"There is only a small probability that Saudi Arabia will ever deliver the quantities of petroleum that are assigned to it in all the major forecasts of world oil production and consumption," Simmons writes in Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. "Saudi Arabian production," he adds, italicizing his claims to drive home his point, "is at or very near its peak sustainable volume ... and it is likely to go into decline in the very foreseeable future."

First, a few words about the author of Twilight in the Desert. Matthew ("Matt") Simmons is not a militant environmentalist or anti-oil partisan; he is chairman and chief executive officer of one of the nation's leading oil-industry investment banks, Simmons & Company International. For decades, Simmons has been pouring billions of dollars into the energy business, financing the exploration and development of new oil reservoirs. In the process, he has become a friend and associate of many of the top figures in the oil industry, including Bush and Cheney. He has also accumulated a vast storehouse of information about the world's major oilfields, the prospects for new discoveries, and the techniques for extracting and marketing petroleum. There is virtually no figure better equipped than Simmons to assess the state of the world's oil supply. And this is why his assessment of Saudi Arabia's oil production capacity is so devastating.

"The 'twilight' of Saudi Arabian oil envisioned in this book is not a remote fantasy. Ninety percent of all the oil that Saudi Arabia has ever produced has come from seven giant fields. All have now matured and grown old, but they still continue to provide around 90 percent of current Saudi oil output ... High-volume production at these key fields ... has been maintained for decades by injecting massive amounts of water that serves to keep pressures high in the huge underground reservoirs ... When these water projection programs end in each field, steep production declines are almost inevitable."
More here:
http://www.jcrows.com/saudioil.html

Material Objects

Padampa Sangye says:

Material objects are like clouds and mist; never think they might last.

-- The Words of My Perfect Teacher, by Patrul Rinpoche, Shambhala

Original Sin

ORIGINAL SIN

Coming from a tradition that stresses human goodness, it was something of ashock for me to encounter the Western tradition of original sin....It seemsthat this notion of original sin does not just pervade Western religiousideas; it actually seems to run throughout Western thought as well,especially psychological thought. Among patients, theoreticians, andtherapists alike, there seems to be great concern with the idea of someoriginal mistake which causes later suffering -- a kind of punishment forthat mistake. One finds that a sense of guilt or being wounded is quitepervasive. Whether or not such people actually believe in the idea oforiginal sin, or in God for that matter, they seem to feel that they havedone something wrong in the past and are now being punished for it..... The problem with this notion of original sin or mistake is that itacts very much as a hindrance to people. At some point, of course it isnecessary to realize one's shortcomings. But if one goes too far with that,it kills any inspiration and can destroy one's vision as well. So in thatway, it really is not helpful, and in fact it seems unnecessary. As Imentioned, in Buddhism we do not have any comparable ideas of sin andguilt. Obviously there is the idea that one should avoid mistakes. Butthere is not anything comparable to the heaviness and inescapability oforiginal sin.

--Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, From "The Meeting of Buddhist and Western Psychology" in THE SANITY WE ARE BORN WITH: A BUDDHIST APPROACH TO PSYCHOLOGY

A vague and convenient concept

The self is simply a vague and convenient concept that we project now here and now there onto a stream of experiences, and it is nothing in or of itself.

--Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

Summer Solstice

Intention is the karma of the mind.

­ Gunaprabha, The Treasury of Abhidharma

Nagarjuna writes:

Amassing wealth, watching over it and making it grow will wear you out.Understand that riches bring unending ruin and destruction.

--The Words of My Perfect Teacher, Patrul Rinpoche, Shambhala

Through the force of its habitual tendencies, the confused mind manifests as the illusory appearance of a variety of colors, shapes, forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects, and sensations.

--The IX Gyalwa Karmapa, The Ocean of Definitive Meaning

Follow the Lies

The Downing Street Memos
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

pun intended

I sent ten puns to all my friends hoping that at least one
would make them laugh.
Sadly, no pun in ten did.

June 18 2005

I am re reading Tsultrim Allione's Women of Wisdom lately. The energy leaps. Ringing, is her elaboration on the twilight and condensed languages of the dakini.Carry on everyone.