Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Composition and background
Regarding " background," if you look at the "solid" or mottled backgrounds in the works of great painters, it becomes apparent that these are not random splotches of color or brush strokes. There is a patterning in them that "recognizes," if you will, the structure of the main composition or subject. In fact, it can be argued that these subtleties, together with the alignments in the "main" part, the one you think you are looking at, serve very much as lines of perspective and of motion, such as might be more obvious in an architectural drawing or a city-scape. The subtlety of these suggested lines, along with their efficacy in directing the feeling of the eye may bear great importance on the success of the painting as a whole.
The broken open heart
Rumi said that you have to keep breaking your heart until it opens. That's because the heart you think you have, the one they told you is "yours," isn't. When that one breaks, you realize with your feelings and your mind that you ARE the Heart, wearing what you thought was you. Then you see that the depiction of the Sacred Heart is a self portrait; you are looking at yourself in the mirror.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
religion? Politics?
Few people give received beliefs a second thought, many--or all--of which were installed before the so-called "age of reason." I.e., they are pre-verbal and pre-cognative. More intelligent people tend to be more reflective, or at least make more effective use of their mirror neurons. Not that everyone can't, but the emotional bonds to the "pre-" stuff is so strong in many that they never choose to look, feeling their sense of self threatened. More mature individuals seem to be able to divorce their sense of self from any thought train, cluster or habit. It is a HUGE advantage to be able to do that.
The ability to separate sense of self, to abstract it, even to, and especially to the point of identifying as awareness itself, brings an incalculably important transformation to bear on one's life experience. And while this used to be an arcane and esoteric feat, it is nowadays accomplished somewhat more simply, as there is not nearly the religious and social danger of perusing it as once was, say in Catholic dominated culture before the Reformation.
The ability to separate sense of self, to abstract it, even to, and especially to the point of identifying as awareness itself, brings an incalculably important transformation to bear on one's life experience. And while this used to be an arcane and esoteric feat, it is nowadays accomplished somewhat more simply, as there is not nearly the religious and social danger of perusing it as once was, say in Catholic dominated culture before the Reformation.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
About reading
I never had the "childish" notion that reading isn't "cool." Rather the opposite. Reading is and always has been a vital connection with the ideas that interplay to appear as the world we live in, and how we live in it. Both non-fiction and fiction apply here, as they deal with the outer and the inner worlds, the worlds of measuarability and of meaning, and their connectivity, or lack of it.
My personal list includes books on origins and foundational ideas. This is because if I'm going to be a functional man, not just an entertained one who consumes, it is necessary and vital to have a working knowledge of the paradigms by which people have and do live their lives. It doesn't mean I agree with them, it just means that I can account for them in my own view in terms of making observations and decisions. After all, you cant think about something you don't have an idea of, and therefore don't understand or even perceive if it is in front of you. And that is how we repeat history, or make stabs at re-inventing the wheel, yes?
The most vital area, I feel, of reading and practical inquiry, is into how we ourselves work, as physical and mental creatures. It is pretty clear to me that most folks don't do much self inquiry of any sort, especially of the sort that leads to the possible tranformations of the awareness itself. In fact, I'd hazard that beyond some drug use of some kind, the usual individual may not even be aware of some of the possibilities of their own nature. And I'm definitely not talking about hingy-bingy new age stuff. Neither am I talking about prayer, no matter how sincere,save in one particular instance.
Another vital area, hugely neglected, is the history of our race. For instance, few know about the actual nature of money, how we got to the ideas hinted at in the Constitution, especially the separation of church and state, and the vast and complicated history of our involvement with resources and their utilization and the consequences we have imposed on ourselves and our children through that. And there is, of course, that astonishing wonder of the sheer immensity and complexity of this planet and its origins and context.
I don't think there ever will be enough of reading and sharing. Also it is my observation that I have seen more drastic changes in understanding in my book club than I have in any church, or anywhere else, save one. We are currently going through Ken Wlber's "A Brief History of Everything." I can't recommend it enough, along with a few others. Why? Because to be a Man in the generic sense, and on of the greatest freedom and effectiveness, it is vital to know oneself. And ultimately, one's "self" cannot be separated from all that came before it and now surrounds it as the flow of time and its elegant turbulence.
My personal list includes books on origins and foundational ideas. This is because if I'm going to be a functional man, not just an entertained one who consumes, it is necessary and vital to have a working knowledge of the paradigms by which people have and do live their lives. It doesn't mean I agree with them, it just means that I can account for them in my own view in terms of making observations and decisions. After all, you cant think about something you don't have an idea of, and therefore don't understand or even perceive if it is in front of you. And that is how we repeat history, or make stabs at re-inventing the wheel, yes?
The most vital area, I feel, of reading and practical inquiry, is into how we ourselves work, as physical and mental creatures. It is pretty clear to me that most folks don't do much self inquiry of any sort, especially of the sort that leads to the possible tranformations of the awareness itself. In fact, I'd hazard that beyond some drug use of some kind, the usual individual may not even be aware of some of the possibilities of their own nature. And I'm definitely not talking about hingy-bingy new age stuff. Neither am I talking about prayer, no matter how sincere,save in one particular instance.
Another vital area, hugely neglected, is the history of our race. For instance, few know about the actual nature of money, how we got to the ideas hinted at in the Constitution, especially the separation of church and state, and the vast and complicated history of our involvement with resources and their utilization and the consequences we have imposed on ourselves and our children through that. And there is, of course, that astonishing wonder of the sheer immensity and complexity of this planet and its origins and context.
I don't think there ever will be enough of reading and sharing. Also it is my observation that I have seen more drastic changes in understanding in my book club than I have in any church, or anywhere else, save one. We are currently going through Ken Wlber's "A Brief History of Everything." I can't recommend it enough, along with a few others. Why? Because to be a Man in the generic sense, and on of the greatest freedom and effectiveness, it is vital to know oneself. And ultimately, one's "self" cannot be separated from all that came before it and now surrounds it as the flow of time and its elegant turbulence.
Saturday, December 20, 2014
In the dark?
I worked at the OpSci center of the UofA many years ago. The staff photographer had his facilities in the building, and was gregarious at sharing things about himself. One thing he did, I found out, was that he asked people if they had any idea of what his life was like. Of course, many of us said no. If anyone inquired as to what it might be like, his response was the same in each case. He conducted them to his dark room, told them to go in, said he'd be right back, and locked them in with the lights off.
When it came my turn to be in the dark, I found myself in a state of curiosity. I looked at my many optic sensations, listened hard to fans and vague through-the-wall sounds, and payed attention to information from my nose. I experimented with the difference between looking at trying to see with my eyes, and seeing as one does when off riding a thought train. It was altogether interesting, a sort of sensory deprivation chamber, and many varieties of thoughts and sensations came up. It was a sort of involuntary meditation, if you will. In any case, I found nothing disturbing about being there, even found a kind of confidence.
When the door opened, it was the photographer who seemed upset. "What's with you?" he asked. "Almost everyone I do that to is pounding on the door in a few minutes at the most!" What seemed a brief time to me had been about 25 minutes on the clock. He actually had gotten worried that I had fainted, or something. In fact, I was just comfortable with being with myself, and found no threat in darkness, at least knowing that I wasn't in a jungle I had no skills for.
But I came to realize that many people do find that they are unskilled in the jungle that must be, I speculate, made from the suggestions of their mind, if they are alone in the dark, or alonein a room without media, or if there is just silence when others are around. There is a disturbing, to me, lack of comfort that people have about themselves, and what might happen if they were left alone with what their mind puts up for consideration. It is, it seems like a chemical dependency to have a constant stream of stimulation. And perhaps some do very extreme sports to break into a space where there is enough focus required that the wide band stimulation narrowed to the moment where a single movement stands between life and death.
That seems like a temporary version of the single movement away from identifying with personal self. It certainly must have benefits, but seems to rely on physical and somato-chemical conditions. Perhaps actual dependency addicts have this in common with extreme sporters in a way. I don't know. But I do know that the precious moments of alone silence are jewels in my lap. And those don't seem capable of being shared in telling, save to someone who has their own.
When it came my turn to be in the dark, I found myself in a state of curiosity. I looked at my many optic sensations, listened hard to fans and vague through-the-wall sounds, and payed attention to information from my nose. I experimented with the difference between looking at trying to see with my eyes, and seeing as one does when off riding a thought train. It was altogether interesting, a sort of sensory deprivation chamber, and many varieties of thoughts and sensations came up. It was a sort of involuntary meditation, if you will. In any case, I found nothing disturbing about being there, even found a kind of confidence.
When the door opened, it was the photographer who seemed upset. "What's with you?" he asked. "Almost everyone I do that to is pounding on the door in a few minutes at the most!" What seemed a brief time to me had been about 25 minutes on the clock. He actually had gotten worried that I had fainted, or something. In fact, I was just comfortable with being with myself, and found no threat in darkness, at least knowing that I wasn't in a jungle I had no skills for.
But I came to realize that many people do find that they are unskilled in the jungle that must be, I speculate, made from the suggestions of their mind, if they are alone in the dark, or alonein a room without media, or if there is just silence when others are around. There is a disturbing, to me, lack of comfort that people have about themselves, and what might happen if they were left alone with what their mind puts up for consideration. It is, it seems like a chemical dependency to have a constant stream of stimulation. And perhaps some do very extreme sports to break into a space where there is enough focus required that the wide band stimulation narrowed to the moment where a single movement stands between life and death.
That seems like a temporary version of the single movement away from identifying with personal self. It certainly must have benefits, but seems to rely on physical and somato-chemical conditions. Perhaps actual dependency addicts have this in common with extreme sporters in a way. I don't know. But I do know that the precious moments of alone silence are jewels in my lap. And those don't seem capable of being shared in telling, save to someone who has their own.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Someone complained about the making of a rather wonderful animated video featuring a phantasmagorical musical instrument. They suggested that there are much better things to do, and he suggested a few. He apologized for having a "Scrooge" attitude, but insisted that there were more important things to do than making cartoons of imaginary music machines. Here's what I wrote back:
Nothing "Scrooge" about your stance, Lex. And as someone who is part of the EDC Senior Peer Counseling group, I completely agree with your alternative suggestion, or anything similar. There IS a lot of time spent on stupid, stupid things, some of them inadvertently or deliberately evil. And I don't often use that word.
Nevertheless, after reading such people as Buckminster Fuller, Robert Heinlein, Jane Jacobs and others, I have a somewhat different angle of view on such things. It has to do with the Nature of people as such, and what an actual civilization, which we DON'T have, (don't get me started....) might in fact be about. And a prime thing about those is related to "school.
"School" actually has to do with leisure: the leisure of anyone to take time to study the phenomenon of their own existence and the things presented to them as serving suggestions called "living." Generally that means, ideally, keen and free perception of data, both hard and soft, critical thinking, and creativity. Fact is, with what we have today, very few people would have to work in order to feed everyone and be in good relationship with each other and our battered Mother.
This flies in the face of our habituated consumer ethic which feeds the process of vacuuming wealth from what could be a citizenry, but in fact are cash cows. So in fact, if anything, I'm way more in favor of MORE of what that cartoon represents, AND more, way more, of the visiting, helping, etc. But neither of those is incompatible with good economics.
And part of that good economics, from my point of view, MUST be a far greater understanding and participation in real, live Music. Instead we are trained to have attention spans that can't easily go beyond a sound bite to the contemplation of a painting, a symphony, or a thought experiment. And yes, proficiency on an instrument is a hard earned reward, for the player and the audience both. (I know, as it is difficult enough to play a darbuka with any degree of proficiency,--I tired-- let alone a piano, horn , tablas. sitar, violin, bass, whatever!)
The pictured instrument reminds me of Rube Goldberg as well as your references. And we really don't know how it came to be. It is really slick, but may still be an exercise for producing other types of things. The Arts are a major part of California economy, and a major part of that are CG effects, from medical instruction videos to "I'll be back..."
The point I'm trying to make is that advancement for all of us comes primarily from "play" in its wide definition. That means from getting socialized in kindergarten on the playground, to playing in a drum circle or symphony, or staring at the fire mulling quantum equations, or a blank canvas or page--paper or electronic. In any case, it is play, not rote work that advances us.
When we look at such works as "Dark Age Coming" or "The Meaning of Human Existence," a very interesting picture of the absolute necessity of free time as the treasure trove of the possibility of survival and prosperity emerges. The drudgery of work, as we have come to accept it and bow to it, is a fiction invented for the benefit of a few. It could be all that and WAY more under different ways of organizing our efforts. And those efforts yield results when there is a large part of our population free to make cartoons of bouncing balls.
So, from here, I'm WAY more concerned about getting more people into a position to do that, and WAY fewer people making some rich by creating fake money and using it to wring blood from human turnips to keep them from thinking or feeling or volunteering to die in wars to protect oil barons and their kin. We tend to forget that if things were different, if there was complete equity (I'm not necessarily for that, btw) each man, woman and child would have 11 million dollars at birth to go on. That would make for some leisured schooling. Then perhaps the things that would have created an actual paradise on Earth would already be in place, instead of being suppressed to ensure slavery and control over the wasted potential of untold generations of astoundingly gifted, but grossly undeveloped humans thrown on the workheap of mental and economic slavery.
So I'm for the bounding balls, the visiting, the instrument playing and artwork, even if it is stick figures and sour notes, because that signifies, to me, exploration and discovery through development of technique and discipline. And from here, it would be great if people could do that without worrying about the temperature in their home, or what might be on their table or not, and if they can get to work to earn enough to be with their kids for more than a few minutes at bedtime. To me, the greatest triumph of Humanity would be to have playtime as a way of life. If it was, we might already be on a bigger and better Enterprise than anyone ever imagined.
Nothing "Scrooge" about your stance, Lex. And as someone who is part of the EDC Senior Peer Counseling group, I completely agree with your alternative suggestion, or anything similar. There IS a lot of time spent on stupid, stupid things, some of them inadvertently or deliberately evil. And I don't often use that word.
Nevertheless, after reading such people as Buckminster Fuller, Robert Heinlein, Jane Jacobs and others, I have a somewhat different angle of view on such things. It has to do with the Nature of people as such, and what an actual civilization, which we DON'T have, (don't get me started....) might in fact be about. And a prime thing about those is related to "school.
"School" actually has to do with leisure: the leisure of anyone to take time to study the phenomenon of their own existence and the things presented to them as serving suggestions called "living." Generally that means, ideally, keen and free perception of data, both hard and soft, critical thinking, and creativity. Fact is, with what we have today, very few people would have to work in order to feed everyone and be in good relationship with each other and our battered Mother.
This flies in the face of our habituated consumer ethic which feeds the process of vacuuming wealth from what could be a citizenry, but in fact are cash cows. So in fact, if anything, I'm way more in favor of MORE of what that cartoon represents, AND more, way more, of the visiting, helping, etc. But neither of those is incompatible with good economics.
And part of that good economics, from my point of view, MUST be a far greater understanding and participation in real, live Music. Instead we are trained to have attention spans that can't easily go beyond a sound bite to the contemplation of a painting, a symphony, or a thought experiment. And yes, proficiency on an instrument is a hard earned reward, for the player and the audience both. (I know, as it is difficult enough to play a darbuka with any degree of proficiency,--I tired-- let alone a piano, horn , tablas. sitar, violin, bass, whatever!)
The pictured instrument reminds me of Rube Goldberg as well as your references. And we really don't know how it came to be. It is really slick, but may still be an exercise for producing other types of things. The Arts are a major part of California economy, and a major part of that are CG effects, from medical instruction videos to "I'll be back..."
The point I'm trying to make is that advancement for all of us comes primarily from "play" in its wide definition. That means from getting socialized in kindergarten on the playground, to playing in a drum circle or symphony, or staring at the fire mulling quantum equations, or a blank canvas or page--paper or electronic. In any case, it is play, not rote work that advances us.
When we look at such works as "Dark Age Coming" or "The Meaning of Human Existence," a very interesting picture of the absolute necessity of free time as the treasure trove of the possibility of survival and prosperity emerges. The drudgery of work, as we have come to accept it and bow to it, is a fiction invented for the benefit of a few. It could be all that and WAY more under different ways of organizing our efforts. And those efforts yield results when there is a large part of our population free to make cartoons of bouncing balls.
So, from here, I'm WAY more concerned about getting more people into a position to do that, and WAY fewer people making some rich by creating fake money and using it to wring blood from human turnips to keep them from thinking or feeling or volunteering to die in wars to protect oil barons and their kin. We tend to forget that if things were different, if there was complete equity (I'm not necessarily for that, btw) each man, woman and child would have 11 million dollars at birth to go on. That would make for some leisured schooling. Then perhaps the things that would have created an actual paradise on Earth would already be in place, instead of being suppressed to ensure slavery and control over the wasted potential of untold generations of astoundingly gifted, but grossly undeveloped humans thrown on the workheap of mental and economic slavery.
So I'm for the bounding balls, the visiting, the instrument playing and artwork, even if it is stick figures and sour notes, because that signifies, to me, exploration and discovery through development of technique and discipline. And from here, it would be great if people could do that without worrying about the temperature in their home, or what might be on their table or not, and if they can get to work to earn enough to be with their kids for more than a few minutes at bedtime. To me, the greatest triumph of Humanity would be to have playtime as a way of life. If it was, we might already be on a bigger and better Enterprise than anyone ever imagined.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
O Arjuna!
When spirit degenerates and avarice rages on earth
I reincarnate—
Erupting from the unmanifest,
Bright as a hundred thousand suns,
I come to destroy evil and to resurrect righteousness.
—Bhagavad Gita
SONG OF GOD REVISITED
Prince Arjuna’s eyes flicker wildly over the ranks of the enemy as his chariot blazes across Kurukshetra, resting for crucial seconds on the faces of gurus, relations and friends. As the unspeakable horror that is looming strikes him afresh, a tidal wave of doubt and fear paralyzes the ambidextrous master archer. Shaken, the star of the Pandavas manages to refocus his gaze upon the radiant figure engaged in skillfully steering his chariot through the seething battlefield: it is his comrade and kinsman,Krishna, also known as the Blue God, who has agreed to serve as his driver and counselor in this apocalyptic clash between the forces of good and evil.
Krishna is garbed in colorful attire that flashes like lightning on a stormy night. His skin is hued the dark turquoise of a newborn cloud. Sparkling diamonds adorn his person and a peacock feather waves gaily from his headband. And yet Arjuna is sharply aware that it is not Krishna’s physical glory, but his incandescent wisdom that alone can restore his world to righteous balance. “I beg your counsel, O Krishna!” the Prince cries in desperation. “Evil as my cousins are, I cannot battle my own kin! Is it not an ungodly act to fight those who once showered upon my family their great love?”
But Krishna only flashes Arjuna an inscrutable smile, and the Prince’s handsome head droops onto his chest in despair. “I’m no coward, O Krishna,” Arjuna mutters darkly. “I know the Kauravas are blinded by lust and jealousy...indeed treachery has become their second nature. Yet how can slaying them increase our happiness? Should I not offer myself to be killed, unarmed and unresisting?” And with an exclamation of disgust, Arjuna throws down his magical bow Gandiva and refuses to fight—a good thing, perhaps, since the intensity of his moral dilemma inspires Krishna to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos before him.
As limitless life-forms radiating streams of light separate and merge again to form the boundless being of the god of gods, the Prince hears Krishna’s resonant voice cutting through the din: “Certainly you mean well, O Arjuna!” Krishna says. “And yet your sorrow is sheer delusion: wise men do not grieve for the dead, nor for the living. Never was there a time when I did not exist, or you, or these kings—and nor will there come a time when we cease to be! These bodies come to an end, but that vast Self is ageless, fathomless, eternal!”
This cosmic vision blasts open Arjuna’s inner eye; suffused by grace, the Prince discerns the role of the gods in human life, the impeccability of karmic law, the immortality of the soul, and the way of the noble human. An enormous burden falls away from his hurting heart as he accepts that the spiritual duty or dharma of a spiritual warrior is to first determine what is right, and then to fight the encroaching darkness, disregarding consequences. And with a roar that resounds across Kurukshetra and straight up to the heavens, the shining star of the Pandavas reaches for his bow and recommits to leading his side into battle.
Ψ
Namasthe!
MiraWhat you can do, or dream you can, begin it --
Boldness has magic, power and genius in it.
Goethe
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.
Tacitus
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.
Tacitus
Friday, September 26, 2014
Lovely, from Michael Markham!
The cathedral of self is built from and buttressed by its imaginary gods. The only light that enters streams in through stained glass windows. It is not God or Jesus that I am trying cast from their nest in the dream of personal autonomy. It is god-thinking that is the culprit and is the focus of intent. Man and his god
are like peas in a pod. They are mutually co-dependent. They need each other to exist. Whenever one falls.......they both succumb. The mind of man bolsters its delusional stance and its illusory persona with the idea that there is something bigger and better than itself. It carries its crosses, crescents, flags and banners into its daily battle to keep its little homestead safe and secure. It forms alliances with those predisposed to the same delusions. They prod each other along the dark roads of the unknown.......winding ever downward into the caverns of their own imagination. It doesn't matter if one's god lives in heaven or in a hole in Iran. One's god can be a collage of "oneness", "advaita", "big self", "enlightenment", "hope", "love", "country", "charity", "guru", "vegetarianism", ancestors, movie stars or rap artists, web forums, crosses, crescents, flags, symbols, etc, etc, etc. Ultimately all gods emerge and live in the hominid brain and as long as they are granted power over the dream-kingdom people will submit to their iron hand. That's alright for most folks. That's their entire world.
They are born and die......never having opened their eyes. That's the dream. But a few rebels will always be standing on street corners to speak of a far more open, flowing place just outside of the fetid little stagnant pools to which the mind of man gravitates. The whole cast of gods and demigods.....saints and martyrs......icons and matinee idols....actors and politicians...priests and gurus......keep the sense of self centered and secure in its inferiority. And when one shines a light into their lair......their minions scurry around to protect them......they feign anger.....they posture aggressively and threaten recriminations or even expulsion from the group and will even threaten physical death. They speculate on what their gods would do if they were confronted with a similar confusing circumstance. Heretics are never welcome in any land....real or illusory.
There are no spiritual youngsters that are attracted to non-duality. Every person here has spent years searching for the essence of being. And I honor their efforts. I honestly believe that this journey into self is the bravest adventure that a human mind can endure. In truth, I am not speaking of God and gods and the lunacy of the belief structures they support. I am speaking to the innate suffering that accompanies the sense of being a separate self and the tendency to rely on religion to assuage that ever present pain. I am speaking to the aching loneliness that follows the I amness like a hungry animal and the terrible fear that arises from the objectified apperception of its own impending doom. I am speaking of the self and its highly evolved functions and support systems which sustain its imaginary personal pseudo-reality. Its "higher powers" are merely conceptual stars used to triangulate itself in the dream and assume a location. When the charade is seen through......there is no location......no relativity.....no self. And that apperception is all that "enlightenment" really is. I am speaking about the resilience and tenacity with which the sense of self sustains its illusion of autonomy.
The self is the cause and result of conceptual confusion. It is the cause and center of psychological suffering. There is no evidence that there is anything higher than the sentient-awareness that has evolved in homo sapiens. There is nothing greater.....or anything that has a broader or more profound experiential pallet than the perceptual mind map that is experienced through the human brain. All concepts of a higher being only serve to diminish the ego's personal reality and keep it in a position of abject servitude and self-serving gratitude. To give the awe of being to imaginary powers strips the awareness of man to that of a beggar and is a tragedy that would put the Greeks to shame. Life as a human being needs those who rock the cradle........and those who seek the understanding of which the sages speak.......need those who rock the boat. toombaru
are like peas in a pod. They are mutually co-dependent. They need each other to exist. Whenever one falls.......they both succumb. The mind of man bolsters its delusional stance and its illusory persona with the idea that there is something bigger and better than itself. It carries its crosses, crescents, flags and banners into its daily battle to keep its little homestead safe and secure. It forms alliances with those predisposed to the same delusions. They prod each other along the dark roads of the unknown.......winding ever downward into the caverns of their own imagination. It doesn't matter if one's god lives in heaven or in a hole in Iran. One's god can be a collage of "oneness", "advaita", "big self", "enlightenment", "hope", "love", "country", "charity", "guru", "vegetarianism", ancestors, movie stars or rap artists, web forums, crosses, crescents, flags, symbols, etc, etc, etc. Ultimately all gods emerge and live in the hominid brain and as long as they are granted power over the dream-kingdom people will submit to their iron hand. That's alright for most folks. That's their entire world.
They are born and die......never having opened their eyes. That's the dream. But a few rebels will always be standing on street corners to speak of a far more open, flowing place just outside of the fetid little stagnant pools to which the mind of man gravitates. The whole cast of gods and demigods.....saints and martyrs......icons and matinee idols....actors and politicians...priests and gurus......keep the sense of self centered and secure in its inferiority. And when one shines a light into their lair......their minions scurry around to protect them......they feign anger.....they posture aggressively and threaten recriminations or even expulsion from the group and will even threaten physical death. They speculate on what their gods would do if they were confronted with a similar confusing circumstance. Heretics are never welcome in any land....real or illusory.
There are no spiritual youngsters that are attracted to non-duality. Every person here has spent years searching for the essence of being. And I honor their efforts. I honestly believe that this journey into self is the bravest adventure that a human mind can endure. In truth, I am not speaking of God and gods and the lunacy of the belief structures they support. I am speaking to the innate suffering that accompanies the sense of being a separate self and the tendency to rely on religion to assuage that ever present pain. I am speaking to the aching loneliness that follows the I amness like a hungry animal and the terrible fear that arises from the objectified apperception of its own impending doom. I am speaking of the self and its highly evolved functions and support systems which sustain its imaginary personal pseudo-reality. Its "higher powers" are merely conceptual stars used to triangulate itself in the dream and assume a location. When the charade is seen through......there is no location......no relativity.....no self. And that apperception is all that "enlightenment" really is. I am speaking about the resilience and tenacity with which the sense of self sustains its illusion of autonomy.
The self is the cause and result of conceptual confusion. It is the cause and center of psychological suffering. There is no evidence that there is anything higher than the sentient-awareness that has evolved in homo sapiens. There is nothing greater.....or anything that has a broader or more profound experiential pallet than the perceptual mind map that is experienced through the human brain. All concepts of a higher being only serve to diminish the ego's personal reality and keep it in a position of abject servitude and self-serving gratitude. To give the awe of being to imaginary powers strips the awareness of man to that of a beggar and is a tragedy that would put the Greeks to shame. Life as a human being needs those who rock the cradle........and those who seek the understanding of which the sages speak.......need those who rock the boat. toombaru
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Fb reply about poor grade in "Common Core" math
And yes, some of the core methods lead us to a gray area in grading, because in that approach, it isn't the answer that is the point, though it is a verifier of the process. For many, the "why's" of some of the core methods are opaque, even though, as the article above points out, it is in fact what we ordinarily use, say in making change.
So now we have a great portion the people who hated math in school getting upset because the point of teaching math has shifted to include and actually emphasize the "why" of the answer. The level at which most of us engage math is, in the math world, kind of kindergarten. Similarly, a semester in high school band isn't comparable to Horowitz' playing the piece Tchaikovsky compose for him. though the rules really are the same. The core approach is to understand principles and be able to distribute that understanding over the rest of experience. Back again to the Music analogy, kids who learn especially keyboard early on test up to 30% higher IQs because the patterns inherent in Music are universally inherent in nearly everything. It isn't so much about "music," as it is consciously, or even unconsciously, experiencing patterns and relationships
So from here, the reaction to the core approach to math is more a reflection of the vast misunderstanding the public owns of what math isn't about, or is. And like anyone who doesn't know something, the ignorance of it includes its actual usefulness as experience. Many hold knowledge of math to be the equivalent of being human. Heinlein was so convinced that math was of paramount pattern importance to the brain that he had a character say "Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make a mess in the house." As a corollary, "One man's magic is another man's engineering."
This isn't question of human value, really as such, but an indictment of the ordinary person's lack of living up to potential due to imposed ignorance through the tools of politics and "education." I mean consider any one of your cameras or lenses. While you have a phenomenal ability use them as tools to produce wonders of aesthetic creation, have you any clue as to the volumes of mathematical and engineering understanding that went into every tiny part of it? We dismiss vast libraries of human experience in the casual act of picking up and using something like a camera, drive a car, or cook a dinner. We might appreciate, intuitively, the wonder of such things, but our appreciation is incompetent of the complexity of what we are using. Often it might be compared to the innocence of a puppy accepting a bowl of milk.
Consider that most people cannot comprehend the simple and deadly hoax of how our monetary system works, or the deadly implications to civilization at this point of having no clue about the working of logarithmic functions as applied to population, resources, and what is naively passed off by the ridiculously oversimplified epithet "pollution." If these were as emotionally understood as the plight of Kim K or the Housewives of, there would be blood on the streets, and banks along with capital buildings burned to the ground.
So for my part, I'm for it, regardless of some degree of squawking of many who both haven't read the common core guidelines before exploding their assumptions on the public, or who simply haven't a clue to start with, the rightful defensive stance of parents notwithstanding. The intentions are usually good, but very unconsidered and from standpoints not up to an actual understanding of what's going on.
So now we have a great portion the people who hated math in school getting upset because the point of teaching math has shifted to include and actually emphasize the "why" of the answer. The level at which most of us engage math is, in the math world, kind of kindergarten. Similarly, a semester in high school band isn't comparable to Horowitz' playing the piece Tchaikovsky compose for him. though the rules really are the same. The core approach is to understand principles and be able to distribute that understanding over the rest of experience. Back again to the Music analogy, kids who learn especially keyboard early on test up to 30% higher IQs because the patterns inherent in Music are universally inherent in nearly everything. It isn't so much about "music," as it is consciously, or even unconsciously, experiencing patterns and relationships
So from here, the reaction to the core approach to math is more a reflection of the vast misunderstanding the public owns of what math isn't about, or is. And like anyone who doesn't know something, the ignorance of it includes its actual usefulness as experience. Many hold knowledge of math to be the equivalent of being human. Heinlein was so convinced that math was of paramount pattern importance to the brain that he had a character say "Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make a mess in the house." As a corollary, "One man's magic is another man's engineering."
This isn't question of human value, really as such, but an indictment of the ordinary person's lack of living up to potential due to imposed ignorance through the tools of politics and "education." I mean consider any one of your cameras or lenses. While you have a phenomenal ability use them as tools to produce wonders of aesthetic creation, have you any clue as to the volumes of mathematical and engineering understanding that went into every tiny part of it? We dismiss vast libraries of human experience in the casual act of picking up and using something like a camera, drive a car, or cook a dinner. We might appreciate, intuitively, the wonder of such things, but our appreciation is incompetent of the complexity of what we are using. Often it might be compared to the innocence of a puppy accepting a bowl of milk.
Consider that most people cannot comprehend the simple and deadly hoax of how our monetary system works, or the deadly implications to civilization at this point of having no clue about the working of logarithmic functions as applied to population, resources, and what is naively passed off by the ridiculously oversimplified epithet "pollution." If these were as emotionally understood as the plight of Kim K or the Housewives of, there would be blood on the streets, and banks along with capital buildings burned to the ground.
So for my part, I'm for it, regardless of some degree of squawking of many who both haven't read the common core guidelines before exploding their assumptions on the public, or who simply haven't a clue to start with, the rightful defensive stance of parents notwithstanding. The intentions are usually good, but very unconsidered and from standpoints not up to an actual understanding of what's going on.
Homo Novis
".....We define thinking as integrating data and arriving at correct answers. Look around you. Most people do that stunt just well enough to get to the corner store and back without breaking a leg. If the average man thinks at all, he does silly things like generalizing from a single datum. He uses one-valued logics. If he is exceptionally bright, he may use two-valued 'either-or' logic to arrive at his wrong answers. If he is hungry, hurt, or personally interested in the answer, he can't use any sort of logic and will discard observed fact as blithely as he will stake his life on a piece of wishful thinking. He uses the technical miracles created by superior men without wonder nor surprise, as a kitten accepts a bowl of milk. Far from aspiring to higher reasoning, he is not even aware that higher reasoning exists. He classes his own mental process as being of the same sort as the genius of an Einstein. Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.
"That is why there is always room at the top, why a man with a leetle more on the ball can so easily become governor, millionaire, or college president--and why homo sap is sure to be displaced by New Man, because there is so much room for improvement and evolution never stops.
"Here and there among ordinary men is a rare individual who really thinks, can and does use logic in a single field--he's often as stupid as the rest outside his study or his laboratory--but he can think, if he is not disturbed, sick, or frightened. This rare individual is responsible for all the progress made by the race; the others reluctantly adopt his results. Much as the ordinary man dislikes and distrusts and persecutes the process of thinking he is forced to accept the results occasionally, because thinking is efficient compared with his own maunderings. He may still plant his corn by the dark of the moon, but he will plant better corn developed by better men than he.
"Still rarer is the man who thinks habitually, who applies reason, rather than habit pattern, to all his activity. Unless he masks himself, his is a dangerous life; he is regarded as queer, untrustworthy, subversive of public morals; a pink monkey among the brown monkeys--a fatal mistake. Unless the pink monkey can dye himself brown before he gets caught.
"The brown monkey's instinct to kill is correct; such men are dangerous to all monkey customs.
"Rarest of all is the man who can and does reason at all times, quickly, accurately, inclusively, despite hope or fear or bodily distress, without egocentric bias or thalmic disturbance, with correct memory, with clear distinction between fact, assumption and non-fact. Such men exist, They are "New Man"--human in all respects, indistinguishable in all appearances or under the scalpel from homo sap, yet as unlike him in action as the Sun is unlike a single candle.”
from Gulf, a short story in the anthology Assignment in Eternity by Robert A Heinlein
"That is why there is always room at the top, why a man with a leetle more on the ball can so easily become governor, millionaire, or college president--and why homo sap is sure to be displaced by New Man, because there is so much room for improvement and evolution never stops.
"Here and there among ordinary men is a rare individual who really thinks, can and does use logic in a single field--he's often as stupid as the rest outside his study or his laboratory--but he can think, if he is not disturbed, sick, or frightened. This rare individual is responsible for all the progress made by the race; the others reluctantly adopt his results. Much as the ordinary man dislikes and distrusts and persecutes the process of thinking he is forced to accept the results occasionally, because thinking is efficient compared with his own maunderings. He may still plant his corn by the dark of the moon, but he will plant better corn developed by better men than he.
"Still rarer is the man who thinks habitually, who applies reason, rather than habit pattern, to all his activity. Unless he masks himself, his is a dangerous life; he is regarded as queer, untrustworthy, subversive of public morals; a pink monkey among the brown monkeys--a fatal mistake. Unless the pink monkey can dye himself brown before he gets caught.
"The brown monkey's instinct to kill is correct; such men are dangerous to all monkey customs.
"Rarest of all is the man who can and does reason at all times, quickly, accurately, inclusively, despite hope or fear or bodily distress, without egocentric bias or thalmic disturbance, with correct memory, with clear distinction between fact, assumption and non-fact. Such men exist, They are "New Man"--human in all respects, indistinguishable in all appearances or under the scalpel from homo sap, yet as unlike him in action as the Sun is unlike a single candle.”
from Gulf, a short story in the anthology Assignment in Eternity by Robert A Heinlein
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Coyote, ugly?
Recently on Facebook, I made a reply to someone who was upset that I took the sounds of a successful coyote hunt as something acceptable, where she herself would have done something to frustrate it.
Clearly it hits a nerve in many to present as being OK with carnivorous animals doing their thing. But we don't drive our Land Rover in the path of a hunting lion, chase sharks from their prey with subs, or interfere too much, if at all, with the global boil of things eating other things. We even contribute to it with our own kinds of often catastrophic hunting.
But it hits a very tender nerve for many to hear a prey animal in its last moments at the claws and fangs of its predator. Of course, I feel that too, when I hear it. How can one not? Sound can trigger emotions, deep ones. And the sounds at the end of a chase can hit hard, unless one is calloused by training.
It may be easier to take if it is something in the distance. But if a pet disappears, or worse, as has happened, then we are naturally in degrees of upset equal to the proximity of the emotional bond with what's lost. Nothing could be more natural.
But there is nothing evil in the happening of animals hunting. When full, prey and predator can sometimes be seen in close proximity. There's even the video of the lioness putting an infant baboon back into the safety of a tree, though she had just killed its kin. This process in Nature is far more selective, kind, and useful than what we do as humans in too many instances. Animals don't kill for sport, nor do they raise other animals for slaughter or parts.
Perhaps the actual cause of our revulsion when we hear or see the result of a hunt stems from our sanitized experience of the animal kingdom. That, and one more thing: we can, some of us, emotionally identify with the prey, and that reminds us of our own mortality. Prey therefore triggers the whole complex surrounding thoughts of our own demise, or the pain of loss of a loved one. Or simply the injustice an unfairness of life, despite its wonders.
That is all hard to take, as we all have some sense of battle pertinent to our existence. There is no defense against the processes of Nature, save one: Being a good warrior. That means acceptance of what is, and doing one's best as far as one is able. Part of that can be to create and defend Life. Or to make Art, of any kind. At any rate, it has to do with living as a productive Spirit that transcends the appearances of inevitable decay and demise without denying it. Creativity is the only anti-entropic force there is. And essentially, we are that. If we weren't we couldn't experience Love.
If anyone has read Castaneda's books on the way of Yaqui sorcerers, they might remember Carlos' character asking his mentor, Don Juan, the difference between an ordinary man and a warrior. Don Juan told him that "when an ordinary man meets an 'ally' (a terrifying spirit entity ) in the desert, he pees his pants and runs. When a warrior meets an 'ally,' he pees his pants, but stays." We are always in that kind of position, though we may not see it. And it is kind of the only choice we have; to run or to stay. Our emotions are wonderful guideposts, and ought be felt fully, but they are not the event itself, unless we let them carry us.
Clearly it hits a nerve in many to present as being OK with carnivorous animals doing their thing. But we don't drive our Land Rover in the path of a hunting lion, chase sharks from their prey with subs, or interfere too much, if at all, with the global boil of things eating other things. We even contribute to it with our own kinds of often catastrophic hunting.
But it hits a very tender nerve for many to hear a prey animal in its last moments at the claws and fangs of its predator. Of course, I feel that too, when I hear it. How can one not? Sound can trigger emotions, deep ones. And the sounds at the end of a chase can hit hard, unless one is calloused by training.
It may be easier to take if it is something in the distance. But if a pet disappears, or worse, as has happened, then we are naturally in degrees of upset equal to the proximity of the emotional bond with what's lost. Nothing could be more natural.
But there is nothing evil in the happening of animals hunting. When full, prey and predator can sometimes be seen in close proximity. There's even the video of the lioness putting an infant baboon back into the safety of a tree, though she had just killed its kin. This process in Nature is far more selective, kind, and useful than what we do as humans in too many instances. Animals don't kill for sport, nor do they raise other animals for slaughter or parts.
Perhaps the actual cause of our revulsion when we hear or see the result of a hunt stems from our sanitized experience of the animal kingdom. That, and one more thing: we can, some of us, emotionally identify with the prey, and that reminds us of our own mortality. Prey therefore triggers the whole complex surrounding thoughts of our own demise, or the pain of loss of a loved one. Or simply the injustice an unfairness of life, despite its wonders.
That is all hard to take, as we all have some sense of battle pertinent to our existence. There is no defense against the processes of Nature, save one: Being a good warrior. That means acceptance of what is, and doing one's best as far as one is able. Part of that can be to create and defend Life. Or to make Art, of any kind. At any rate, it has to do with living as a productive Spirit that transcends the appearances of inevitable decay and demise without denying it. Creativity is the only anti-entropic force there is. And essentially, we are that. If we weren't we couldn't experience Love.
If anyone has read Castaneda's books on the way of Yaqui sorcerers, they might remember Carlos' character asking his mentor, Don Juan, the difference between an ordinary man and a warrior. Don Juan told him that "when an ordinary man meets an 'ally' (a terrifying spirit entity ) in the desert, he pees his pants and runs. When a warrior meets an 'ally,' he pees his pants, but stays." We are always in that kind of position, though we may not see it. And it is kind of the only choice we have; to run or to stay. Our emotions are wonderful guideposts, and ought be felt fully, but they are not the event itself, unless we let them carry us.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
There is a Universal Good that is lensed through the serial iterations of the Holy Books. It is again lensed through the inculcations of serial priests., imams, rabbis, whatever. It is again lensed through the exigencies of one's personal experience and relative "knowledge."
Is there truth in the Holy books? Insofar as they word what is Truth in ones heart already there, yes. But because of the parochial nature of enculturations, those Truths are attributed, necessarily, in the minds of the faithful, to the most common religious denominator of their environment. And it stays that way, unless deeply examined. The result is that many, either through lack of motivation or just sheer habit never look to the roots of their beliefs, other than to verify them in the paradigm they have beforehand adopted. This adoption is most often at a pre verbal, pre cognative level. Of course, then, the paradigm appears to be to the believer as fundamental truth.
So the actual Universals are cloaked in parochial clothings of whatever kind. And those clothings become the reality of the believer, as they soon become attached to and mistaken for the sense of Self. But they themselves are no more Self than software is the actual nature of a computer, or better, the electricity that runs it. The lack of deep examination of one's beliefs, political, social, and religious, results in the insistence that the thoughts in one's head have a one/one correspondence to the Truth, or Reality. Nothing could be farther from the Truth of Reality. In fact, these unexamined beliefs breed violence, the violence we have thrown up in our face each day, if we are even slightly aware of what is going on around us.
This is why it is said that the unexamined life isn't worth living. Because it is a life of sleep in the illusion of having a handle on Reality. But the fact is that Reality isn't accessed through acquisition. It is accessed through discovery. And that discovery is done as interior work and is ultimately free of the paradigms of the structures of uses as a defense against what in fact simply IS. It is discovered in the inner reaches of one's own self, in solitude and silence. It is where the Minotaur lives, where the Fair Maiden is rescued from, where the dragon is slain.
And that all plays out in one's own being, in the reaches where no priest, no politician, no banker, no psychologist, no friend, no one, holds our hand. Even if they might encourage us, however accurately or delusionally. None of them know our own Truth. They can't. And therein is the failure of organized religions, and the triumph of inquiry, self inquiry, which necessarily is the deepest and most honest form of prayer, which can ultimately lead to a salvation unimagined in the rote ceremonies of faiths, however sincere and emotionalized, and no matter of the intellectualize about the truth of the lineage and form. Ultimately, none of that is Self, only trappings.
I can be noted that a deep study of the origins of one's religion ultimately yields the realization that one's perception of its history is but a fiction, loosely based on events and meanings most often presented as self verification of the faith one practices. The depths of history don't bear out what the popularized story is, in any case. That is why study of the Holy books is almost exclusively done as an inside job, not as a remote viewing, such as an alien sent here to study human phenomenon might have. Too many simple questions, such as might be asked by such a being, lead to aggravation, frustration, and the horror of facing that one is only a trained believer, not a "Selfonaut."
And Mark 4:33,34 offer a clue for christianists. But the best one is to look deeply into the actual implications that one is made in the image and likeness of God. If this is true, the blueprint is inside, not in a book. In fact, the book and thoughts about it may be a barrier to the cleansing mirror of self that requires deep scrutiny in the greatest of humility and honesty. God never bears the mantle of a religion. And Divinity won't even bear the illusion of separation. And therein lies the root of the Great Commandments and the Golden Rule. And knowing that prompted someone to inscribe "Gnothi Seauton" over the door of a Temple. "Know ThySelf." Sage advice, if there ever was such. The mirror ultimately reflects no form, and who that IS, and what it isn't, will perhaps have you laughing and weeping in gratitude!
Is there truth in the Holy books? Insofar as they word what is Truth in ones heart already there, yes. But because of the parochial nature of enculturations, those Truths are attributed, necessarily, in the minds of the faithful, to the most common religious denominator of their environment. And it stays that way, unless deeply examined. The result is that many, either through lack of motivation or just sheer habit never look to the roots of their beliefs, other than to verify them in the paradigm they have beforehand adopted. This adoption is most often at a pre verbal, pre cognative level. Of course, then, the paradigm appears to be to the believer as fundamental truth.
So the actual Universals are cloaked in parochial clothings of whatever kind. And those clothings become the reality of the believer, as they soon become attached to and mistaken for the sense of Self. But they themselves are no more Self than software is the actual nature of a computer, or better, the electricity that runs it. The lack of deep examination of one's beliefs, political, social, and religious, results in the insistence that the thoughts in one's head have a one/one correspondence to the Truth, or Reality. Nothing could be farther from the Truth of Reality. In fact, these unexamined beliefs breed violence, the violence we have thrown up in our face each day, if we are even slightly aware of what is going on around us.
This is why it is said that the unexamined life isn't worth living. Because it is a life of sleep in the illusion of having a handle on Reality. But the fact is that Reality isn't accessed through acquisition. It is accessed through discovery. And that discovery is done as interior work and is ultimately free of the paradigms of the structures of uses as a defense against what in fact simply IS. It is discovered in the inner reaches of one's own self, in solitude and silence. It is where the Minotaur lives, where the Fair Maiden is rescued from, where the dragon is slain.
And that all plays out in one's own being, in the reaches where no priest, no politician, no banker, no psychologist, no friend, no one, holds our hand. Even if they might encourage us, however accurately or delusionally. None of them know our own Truth. They can't. And therein is the failure of organized religions, and the triumph of inquiry, self inquiry, which necessarily is the deepest and most honest form of prayer, which can ultimately lead to a salvation unimagined in the rote ceremonies of faiths, however sincere and emotionalized, and no matter of the intellectualize about the truth of the lineage and form. Ultimately, none of that is Self, only trappings.
I can be noted that a deep study of the origins of one's religion ultimately yields the realization that one's perception of its history is but a fiction, loosely based on events and meanings most often presented as self verification of the faith one practices. The depths of history don't bear out what the popularized story is, in any case. That is why study of the Holy books is almost exclusively done as an inside job, not as a remote viewing, such as an alien sent here to study human phenomenon might have. Too many simple questions, such as might be asked by such a being, lead to aggravation, frustration, and the horror of facing that one is only a trained believer, not a "Selfonaut."
And Mark 4:33,34 offer a clue for christianists. But the best one is to look deeply into the actual implications that one is made in the image and likeness of God. If this is true, the blueprint is inside, not in a book. In fact, the book and thoughts about it may be a barrier to the cleansing mirror of self that requires deep scrutiny in the greatest of humility and honesty. God never bears the mantle of a religion. And Divinity won't even bear the illusion of separation. And therein lies the root of the Great Commandments and the Golden Rule. And knowing that prompted someone to inscribe "Gnothi Seauton" over the door of a Temple. "Know ThySelf." Sage advice, if there ever was such. The mirror ultimately reflects no form, and who that IS, and what it isn't, will perhaps have you laughing and weeping in gratitude!
Thursday, September 11, 2014
9/11/01 What should we remember?
I feel deeply for all the victims of the events of 9/11/01, and their families. I was living in Buffalo at the time. I was lucky, not losing any of my friends who lived or worked near the tragedy. I also felt the wash of response and reaction to the events of that day, some of them effecting the course of my life, a minor thing compared to what happened on and around the scene of that day.
On that day in 1973 an equal number of people died in Chile under Pinochet. Cultural icons and others were rounded up and killed. That event happened with US support. As did the punitive bombings in Germany which resulted in a 9/11 kind of loss every night for months. And while we live in remembrance of 9/11 and some smaller versions of it, many Nations in the world, who are, in the last analysis, no less our kin than those we lost that day, they live daily under the threat of bombings, attacks, abduction, imprisonment and torture, never mind the general fear and tension of just being there.
I'm not against abstracting our own great loss as a memorable event of great pain and sorrow. It is right and just and necessary to do so. What is good to remember also, in our relative, though diminishing relative comfort, is that we are remembering the actions of humans on other humans. So, what is "our own?"
Notwithstanding the artificial labels, or artificial borders and artificial economics and artificial religions, we all in fact carry the same gene from an original and actual human "Eve," as any geneticist will tell us. There is, similarly, I believe, an "Adam" gene. The variations we call races and cultures are superficial fictions carried as software in the expressions of the very slightly varying hard wiring of being Human.
All the 9/11 events in the world, all those and all the other horrors and indignities perpetrated on humans are perpetrated by other humans who artificially decide that someone else isn't, whether that decision is unilateral or mutual, All these are humans doing things to humans. Indeed, the iconic Walt Kelly may have summed up the entire dynamic in one paraphrased sentence from his Pogo character in that famous comic strip: "We have met the enemy, and he is us!"
We are not surprised to hear that someone is "their own worst enemy." Why? Because we all are. And the cumulative result of that, manifesting as economic systems, political systems, religious systems, anything based on hypothetical fear and lack, whether of food, money, or God, all of that is intrinsically violent. Yes, even religion, on examination, is intrinsically violent. And there is no doubt that "economy" as we practice it is hugely violent, and clearly brings violence on us. And indeed it is a far stretch to relate what we do for money to the root meaning of "economy," which means managing a home. Earth is our home, and our violence to the Earth is but a side effect of the violence we do to ourselves and each other.
And one of the worst forms of violence is passivity. Not doing is the grand rationalization of someone who is comfortable, who is not under a threat perceived as immediately life threatening, who can see that "of course" the evil in the world is being done by someone else.
But still, by omission or ignorance, belief being one of the chief ways of being ignorant, we are violent to ourselves. We are violent by the lack of work on ourselves, and on not calling each other on crap in a useful way, or by reacting to being called out when we know, especially when we fear that we are doing crap. This is especially true when we are doing crap in the name of the God we make up to justify ourselves. Or and especially when we feel that our bankbook, our insatiable bankbook, is threatened not even by diminishment, but by an inadequate rate of growth.
And we have these fears because in fact, at root, we have no clue about who and what we are, and we feel cast out even within our family and friends, never mind our block, town, city, or Nations. Few do the work to dig at the mine/mind of their own habitual inculcated person to find the Real gold there. Those who believe we are "created in the image and likeness" might well note that, more than they do dogmas and tenets, and look at what the blueprint is in reality, and not of some modification of a Teaching diluted by ignorance and years.
We can see that somehow, while we revere the ones who truly show some compassion for the human situation, we fail to notice that they have that compassion because they have suffered greatly. They suffered greatly by their circumstances, but mostly it was because thy faced their own internal monsters,. their own lies, their own prejudices, and their own beliefs. Not only have they suffered greatly, but somehow they were able to make the great leap across the chasm that separates one from another. They were and are able to generalize and distribute their own condition over others as a recognition of identity.
These are men and women who to some degree and kind, even if not perfect, know in their stomach that even their purported enemy is but themselves wearing another body and another life experience that led them involuntarily, for the most part, to their differences. These people, these men and women who recognize and feel the incompetent humanity of their enemy actually know what the Golden Rule or the Great Commandments are about: They know that when they face their enemy, they are looking in the mirror. Literally. In the mirror. So they act that way.
But we are a people, uncivilized and with dangerous toys, who crucify their saviors. We will gladly impale them, poison them, nail them up, hang them, shoot them, or whatever. Why? Because they had the insulting effrontery to require of us--by their example of doing so themselves--to look within our own self. And far, far worse, again and more dangerously by the example of doing it themselves, to change. This is the most audacious crime against our comfort, and we won't bear it in other than small homeopathic doses.
But sometimes that homeopathy takes hold. MLK or Gandhi precipitated movements for change. They made it unavoidable to look at ourselves. And they still do that from beyond the grave they went to, too early. The difference is that they earned their rest; many above ground are dead and rotting and don't know it. At the very least they are sleepwalkers . Is it a wonder that zombies, eating the brains of the living, are so popular? It may be symbolic of our actual situation.
So what might be some signs of life, if living is indeed what we wish to do, and we know that, and that there is change involved? First, perhaps it would be good, as simplistic as it sounds, to acknowledge and often remind ourselves of what it is that we fundamentally are, and what is the only thing we fundamentally and inevitably have in common with everyone and everything sentient: ask "Am I aware?" Ask it a lot, no matter how silly or strained it might feel. There is gold and riches in that question.
Second, are you capable of sitting for ten to twenty minutes looking intently at the inside of your eyelids, keeping awake, and not making up a story, or at lest just watching your thoughts go by as a story? Can you unstick yourself from your story about you? There's a job. And if you can do it, how you look at other "people" will change radically. You might even experience peace. And if there is any fitting memorial for all the 9/11s of the world, that might be it.
I feel deeply for all the victims of the events of 9/11/01, and their families. I was living in Buffalo at the time. I was lucky, not losing any of my friends who lived or worked near the tragedy. I also felt the wash of response and reaction to the events of that day, some of them effecting the course of my life, a minor thing compared to what happened on and around the scene of that day.
On that day in 1973 an equal number of people died in Chile under Pinochet. Cultural icons and others were rounded up and killed. That event happened with US support. As did the punitive bombings in Germany which resulted in a 9/11 kind of loss every night for months. And while we live in remembrance of 9/11 and some smaller versions of it, many Nations in the world, who are, in the last analysis, no less our kin than those we lost that day, they live daily under the threat of bombings, attacks, abduction, imprisonment and torture, never mind the general fear and tension of just being there.
I'm not against abstracting our own great loss as a memorable event of great pain and sorrow. It is right and just and necessary to do so. What is good to remember also, in our relative, though diminishing relative comfort, is that we are remembering the actions of humans on other humans. So, what is "our own?"
Notwithstanding the artificial labels, or artificial borders and artificial economics and artificial religions, we all in fact carry the same gene from an original and actual human "Eve," as any geneticist will tell us. There is, similarly, I believe, an "Adam" gene. The variations we call races and cultures are superficial fictions carried as software in the expressions of the very slightly varying hard wiring of being Human.
All the 9/11 events in the world, all those and all the other horrors and indignities perpetrated on humans are perpetrated by other humans who artificially decide that someone else isn't, whether that decision is unilateral or mutual, All these are humans doing things to humans. Indeed, the iconic Walt Kelly may have summed up the entire dynamic in one paraphrased sentence from his Pogo character in that famous comic strip: "We have met the enemy, and he is us!"
We are not surprised to hear that someone is "their own worst enemy." Why? Because we all are. And the cumulative result of that, manifesting as economic systems, political systems, religious systems, anything based on hypothetical fear and lack, whether of food, money, or God, all of that is intrinsically violent. Yes, even religion, on examination, is intrinsically violent. And there is no doubt that "economy" as we practice it is hugely violent, and clearly brings violence on us. And indeed it is a far stretch to relate what we do for money to the root meaning of "economy," which means managing a home. Earth is our home, and our violence to the Earth is but a side effect of the violence we do to ourselves and each other.
And one of the worst forms of violence is passivity. Not doing is the grand rationalization of someone who is comfortable, who is not under a threat perceived as immediately life threatening, who can see that "of course" the evil in the world is being done by someone else.
But still, by omission or ignorance, belief being one of the chief ways of being ignorant, we are violent to ourselves. We are violent by the lack of work on ourselves, and on not calling each other on crap in a useful way, or by reacting to being called out when we know, especially when we fear that we are doing crap. This is especially true when we are doing crap in the name of the God we make up to justify ourselves. Or and especially when we feel that our bankbook, our insatiable bankbook, is threatened not even by diminishment, but by an inadequate rate of growth.
And we have these fears because in fact, at root, we have no clue about who and what we are, and we feel cast out even within our family and friends, never mind our block, town, city, or Nations. Few do the work to dig at the mine/mind of their own habitual inculcated person to find the Real gold there. Those who believe we are "created in the image and likeness" might well note that, more than they do dogmas and tenets, and look at what the blueprint is in reality, and not of some modification of a Teaching diluted by ignorance and years.
We can see that somehow, while we revere the ones who truly show some compassion for the human situation, we fail to notice that they have that compassion because they have suffered greatly. They suffered greatly by their circumstances, but mostly it was because thy faced their own internal monsters,. their own lies, their own prejudices, and their own beliefs. Not only have they suffered greatly, but somehow they were able to make the great leap across the chasm that separates one from another. They were and are able to generalize and distribute their own condition over others as a recognition of identity.
These are men and women who to some degree and kind, even if not perfect, know in their stomach that even their purported enemy is but themselves wearing another body and another life experience that led them involuntarily, for the most part, to their differences. These people, these men and women who recognize and feel the incompetent humanity of their enemy actually know what the Golden Rule or the Great Commandments are about: They know that when they face their enemy, they are looking in the mirror. Literally. In the mirror. So they act that way.
But we are a people, uncivilized and with dangerous toys, who crucify their saviors. We will gladly impale them, poison them, nail them up, hang them, shoot them, or whatever. Why? Because they had the insulting effrontery to require of us--by their example of doing so themselves--to look within our own self. And far, far worse, again and more dangerously by the example of doing it themselves, to change. This is the most audacious crime against our comfort, and we won't bear it in other than small homeopathic doses.
But sometimes that homeopathy takes hold. MLK or Gandhi precipitated movements for change. They made it unavoidable to look at ourselves. And they still do that from beyond the grave they went to, too early. The difference is that they earned their rest; many above ground are dead and rotting and don't know it. At the very least they are sleepwalkers . Is it a wonder that zombies, eating the brains of the living, are so popular? It may be symbolic of our actual situation.
So what might be some signs of life, if living is indeed what we wish to do, and we know that, and that there is change involved? First, perhaps it would be good, as simplistic as it sounds, to acknowledge and often remind ourselves of what it is that we fundamentally are, and what is the only thing we fundamentally and inevitably have in common with everyone and everything sentient: ask "Am I aware?" Ask it a lot, no matter how silly or strained it might feel. There is gold and riches in that question.
Second, are you capable of sitting for ten to twenty minutes looking intently at the inside of your eyelids, keeping awake, and not making up a story, or at lest just watching your thoughts go by as a story? Can you unstick yourself from your story about you? There's a job. And if you can do it, how you look at other "people" will change radically. You might even experience peace. And if there is any fitting memorial for all the 9/11s of the world, that might be it.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
We need to decide if we are a society with a government that wishes to represent our collective and actual needs as a Nation in a world dynamic that is failing, or if we wish to be bent over a barrel and be "done" by the financial fathers of our family in the worst incestuous way. So far, Congress has only more often and more drastically aided the very rich in taking our pants down farther and faster and more often.
Our government has become, if it was ever else, the obvious instrument of commercial interests destructive to our Nation and the world as banks and other corporations under false flags and legal fictions become the new empires which supercede and in practice largely replace States as our fundamental rulers. It appears to us, the citizenry, that Congress is willingly complicit and even eagerly willing to contribute to our slavery as a Nation and a People. This is in contempt, vile contempt, or the reasons and purposes to which our alleged representatives were elected. This is a parasitic and suicidal dynamic, as while only 1% of our citizenry are millionaires or better, over 50% of Congress is in that category, and the rest appear to aspire to join them. This is evidenced by the perhaps literal suck-up of the majority of Congress to the owners of fictitious persons whose primary concern is a sociopathic physical and financial ravaging of this Nation and as much of the rest of the World as possible.
This is a polite, sincere, and urgent call to action. May I remind the reader that historically, such as this, if not acted one, precipitated far stronger social reaction than what is now already a too-soft urging toward practical change. Please contact that part of you which is awake and aware and activate those perceptions and movements which could result in bringing us back from what is obviously a suicidal edge. It literally is up to you.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
The problem may largely lie in the fact that we think our beliefs are reality. The fact that we believe is the most dangerous aspect of being human, to ourselves and others. I have often said that believing itself is the enemy. It is Resistance; it is refusal of the actual world, of Self, of inquiry into the only useful area of what might produce significant change. Belief may have a provisional use in allowing one to arrive alive in your teens or perhaps beyond. But maturity only comes when the nature of the mind itself, as a thinker/believer, is penetrated and overcome.
What overcomes it? Knowing yourself as Awareness. Nothing else can overcome it. Anything else is only a manipulation of defenses, called thoughts, their trains, and "reasoning" with them. These constitute actual ignorance. These defenses are the picture of the world as we want it to be, because we never had cause to question the picture, to go through the looking glass, to understand what the mirror is. When we have cause to question, we begin to take a step toward maturity. Until then, we are merely indoctrinated children, obeying the puppet strings of our upbringing, or our reaction to it.
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