For me a clarifying point regarding open mindedness is a dynamic posed by Don Juan Matus. He posited that each of us has an assemblage point. It is the point or perspective around which we consciously and unconsciously yet deliberately assemble the picture of our world that we call "real." Many factors enter in to the positioning of this point. Religious faith is one of these, but most of the factors are subliminal and not available to our reasoning minds--yet we sense that we are reasoning. This dynamic is born out to a great extent not only by a study of human mentality as a discpline, but by self examination as well. The injunction "Know Thyself" is not to be taken lightly, but is a tool for honesty, insight, and wisdom.
On the level of religious affiliation, if we accept this idea of an assemblage point, we could ascribe that name to our understanding of our own faith, that of others, and of their relative positions on various value scales. Yet, as someone earlier on in this thread mentioned, what we profess and how we act as Catholics are quite dissimilar according to pew polls. I would imagine that in order to remain sane, it would be necessary to "compart--mentalize" our thinking in order to experience a smoothness that includes contraries. Mark Twain said that man is not a rational animal, he is a retionalizing animal. There seems to be some truth in that.
K.G. Mills said ""Perhaps the root of the problem within the world and within yourself is the refusal to face conflicting beliefs, which are obliterated by correct Identitiy." Correct Identity, we might say, can be approached by knowing our Self. This is an intense activity requiring aciduous honesty. There is no room for dogmatic piety or parochial attitudes in this search. So I would say that being closed or open minded is an internal function relative to the integrity one has within the entire arena of their awareness.
For my own part, I had to go through a revison of my entire inventory of beleifs when I had a near death experience. I had to incorporate new experiential data. You might say that my assemblage point was moved for me. It was a rude awakening. I saw clearly that I was not allowing communication between different "persona" which emerged in different situations. There were too many "me's" to have any sense of integrity. I can't say at this time that I am healed and whole, but I can say that I see with different eyes and have compassion for myself and those who are in the trap of a mind closed to itself. I guess I am now more concerned with the beam in my own eye as distinct from the mote in someone else's. It allows me to talk dispassionatley about potentially "loaded" subjects with other "beamers." You might say that my mind is more open because I saw how closed my own can be.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
My "religion."
I sent this as a repy to someone who asked what I beleive in as a religion. I am open to any comments or criticsms from anyone who was an associate of Dr. Mills, or anyone who experiential knows the meaning of "Advaita" or "Non-dualism."
"Thanks for your interest. What you might term a religion, I might term a "Standpoint." Though I am not a Christian Scientist, the founder of that faith put it rather well: "The Universe must be interpreted from the Standpoint of the Creator of the Universe.." She also said "God is universal; confined to no spot, defined by no dogma, appropriated by no sect." It should not be mistaken from my quoting her that she is by any means the sole or definitive example of what I stand for. My own Mentor in this Way, Dr. K.G. Mills, used every appropriate quote or passage from any Proponent of this Way he could find. Like a good piano teacher, which he was, he instructed his associates by the study of passages appropriate to the moment, using his own experience and statements as an encouragement and example for the growth in unique expression of each of his voluntary charges.
I say "voluntary" because his contract with us was that he would speak if asked, and otherwise remain ordinary in appearance. Yet I would class him in terms of understanding and action with such Giants as Buddha, Lau Tze, Jesus, St. Francis, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta, Merrell-Wolff, Shankara, Byron Katie, and others of their ilk. "Their ilk" is the company of all those Saints and Sages of the ages who, independent of time, location, culture, or training, had and were examples of a revelation of amazing homogenaiety. This revelation has been called Advaita in the East, and I use that name only as a convenience. In the West it might be called Non-Dualism. That said, any "ism" is a limit and makes distinctions, as such is the nature of mortal mind.
In any case, the revelation predicates itself on an experiential understanding of the Allness of God. This makes all of these folks "atheists" in the realm of the ordianry understanding of God as a Being apart and objective to a Creation. The sole reason for this radical* understanding is that the fundamental premise of this Way is the knowledge by Identity** that the component we call "I" is not seperate from God. If a god seems separate, it is due to the misallignment of the component called "me" or "person" which necessarily exists only as an aspect and function of time and space. The delusion of separation is due to the false association fo the "I" with the appearance and association with the limited sensatons of living as a seeming "part" in space/time. This association with a viewpoint also strongly fosters the convincing need for a subject/object mode of awarenss, as distinct from the undifferentiated Consciousness from which it stems and is not separate from.
On examintation, it is possible to discern that we interpret our experience according to language and assumptions we accept, necessarily, as children, from people whose experience is generally survival oriented and parochial to whatever degree. These languages and attitudes have inherent defects due to their temporal and "ad hoc" origins and nature. If we use our innate ability to step outside ourselves and see ourselves in a greater context, as a phenomenon, then we are proceeding in a direction of discovery as to the Nature of our experience as distinct from its circumstances. The examination of this Nature is found to be rooted in Consciousness. Without Consciousness as a Principle supporting our experience as awareness, we really have no life. My Mentor stated that "Consciousness is the Light to the awareness of ideas and thoughts."
The Understanding of life and its exigencies, as well as its natural phenomenon, structures and systems, each and all, from the Standpoint of interpretation that it is all at the root ONE expression of undivided Divinity, with our individual senses of existance not seperate from that, might be said to constitute the premise of Advaita or Non-Dualism. This is not a denial of any feeling or appearance of individuality, it simply attributes the Source of that feeling, etc. more correctly as a pointing to its actual origin.
From that premise comes the ultimate sense of morality. How could I do wrong to myself appearing as another, whether that is person, place, or thing? Is God divided against himself? No. But mentatlity in a space time continuum, due to the appearence of difference, can construe arbitrary divisions based on an animalistic sense of survival not founded in Reality. Knowing that Reality of root Oneness precludes harm to others by any means.
Think about it. If people who dump crap in streams or empty stacks into the air asked themselves " Would I put this in my own home?" woud there be pollution? If people who create money as banks from nothing against your labor and added value asked themselves " would I commit usery on myself?" would we be in the current financial crisis? And on it goes.
A vast simplification of Advaita is simply stated in the two forms we all know the name of: "Do not unto others what you would not have done unto yourself; do unto others as you would have done unto yourself." What does anyone think those admonitions are based on? For may part, a correct reading of the Bible would reveal that Jesus Himslef was a proponent of Advaita. He pretty much declared it by saying "It is not the son of man that doeth the works, but the Father in me that doeth them. " and "I and the Father are One." Not "me," dear angel, but "I." The one and only "I" that ever was or will be, appearing for the sake of the play and brief moment on the stage as you an me. That is a mystery, a miracle, and a joy passing understanding.
I hope that the above has been of some use in a way of understanding at least in theory what is being pointed to."
* it would be worth looking up "radical" and discovering its word origin.
**There is a saying in Borneo: " All knowledge is theoretical until it is in the muscles." Knowledge by Identity is distinct from book learning, assumptions, prejudices, information, beliefe, or any other way of "knowing." It is well and thoroughly treated in Merrel-Woff's book "The Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object." His arrival at the points therein are fascinatingly described in his first book, "Pathways Through to Space."
"Thanks for your interest. What you might term a religion, I might term a "Standpoint." Though I am not a Christian Scientist, the founder of that faith put it rather well: "The Universe must be interpreted from the Standpoint of the Creator of the Universe.." She also said "God is universal; confined to no spot, defined by no dogma, appropriated by no sect." It should not be mistaken from my quoting her that she is by any means the sole or definitive example of what I stand for. My own Mentor in this Way, Dr. K.G. Mills, used every appropriate quote or passage from any Proponent of this Way he could find. Like a good piano teacher, which he was, he instructed his associates by the study of passages appropriate to the moment, using his own experience and statements as an encouragement and example for the growth in unique expression of each of his voluntary charges.
I say "voluntary" because his contract with us was that he would speak if asked, and otherwise remain ordinary in appearance. Yet I would class him in terms of understanding and action with such Giants as Buddha, Lau Tze, Jesus, St. Francis, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta, Merrell-Wolff, Shankara, Byron Katie, and others of their ilk. "Their ilk" is the company of all those Saints and Sages of the ages who, independent of time, location, culture, or training, had and were examples of a revelation of amazing homogenaiety. This revelation has been called Advaita in the East, and I use that name only as a convenience. In the West it might be called Non-Dualism. That said, any "ism" is a limit and makes distinctions, as such is the nature of mortal mind.
In any case, the revelation predicates itself on an experiential understanding of the Allness of God. This makes all of these folks "atheists" in the realm of the ordianry understanding of God as a Being apart and objective to a Creation. The sole reason for this radical* understanding is that the fundamental premise of this Way is the knowledge by Identity** that the component we call "I" is not seperate from God. If a god seems separate, it is due to the misallignment of the component called "me" or "person" which necessarily exists only as an aspect and function of time and space. The delusion of separation is due to the false association fo the "I" with the appearance and association with the limited sensatons of living as a seeming "part" in space/time. This association with a viewpoint also strongly fosters the convincing need for a subject/object mode of awarenss, as distinct from the undifferentiated Consciousness from which it stems and is not separate from.
On examintation, it is possible to discern that we interpret our experience according to language and assumptions we accept, necessarily, as children, from people whose experience is generally survival oriented and parochial to whatever degree. These languages and attitudes have inherent defects due to their temporal and "ad hoc" origins and nature. If we use our innate ability to step outside ourselves and see ourselves in a greater context, as a phenomenon, then we are proceeding in a direction of discovery as to the Nature of our experience as distinct from its circumstances. The examination of this Nature is found to be rooted in Consciousness. Without Consciousness as a Principle supporting our experience as awareness, we really have no life. My Mentor stated that "Consciousness is the Light to the awareness of ideas and thoughts."
The Understanding of life and its exigencies, as well as its natural phenomenon, structures and systems, each and all, from the Standpoint of interpretation that it is all at the root ONE expression of undivided Divinity, with our individual senses of existance not seperate from that, might be said to constitute the premise of Advaita or Non-Dualism. This is not a denial of any feeling or appearance of individuality, it simply attributes the Source of that feeling, etc. more correctly as a pointing to its actual origin.
From that premise comes the ultimate sense of morality. How could I do wrong to myself appearing as another, whether that is person, place, or thing? Is God divided against himself? No. But mentatlity in a space time continuum, due to the appearence of difference, can construe arbitrary divisions based on an animalistic sense of survival not founded in Reality. Knowing that Reality of root Oneness precludes harm to others by any means.
Think about it. If people who dump crap in streams or empty stacks into the air asked themselves " Would I put this in my own home?" woud there be pollution? If people who create money as banks from nothing against your labor and added value asked themselves " would I commit usery on myself?" would we be in the current financial crisis? And on it goes.
A vast simplification of Advaita is simply stated in the two forms we all know the name of: "Do not unto others what you would not have done unto yourself; do unto others as you would have done unto yourself." What does anyone think those admonitions are based on? For may part, a correct reading of the Bible would reveal that Jesus Himslef was a proponent of Advaita. He pretty much declared it by saying "It is not the son of man that doeth the works, but the Father in me that doeth them. " and "I and the Father are One." Not "me," dear angel, but "I." The one and only "I" that ever was or will be, appearing for the sake of the play and brief moment on the stage as you an me. That is a mystery, a miracle, and a joy passing understanding.
I hope that the above has been of some use in a way of understanding at least in theory what is being pointed to."
* it would be worth looking up "radical" and discovering its word origin.
**There is a saying in Borneo: " All knowledge is theoretical until it is in the muscles." Knowledge by Identity is distinct from book learning, assumptions, prejudices, information, beliefe, or any other way of "knowing." It is well and thoroughly treated in Merrel-Woff's book "The Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object." His arrival at the points therein are fascinatingly described in his first book, "Pathways Through to Space."
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Elections, "opposames," and helmet straps
Sorry, the original entry was deleted due to its rather negative perspective. This is a time where we really need to look to what is the very Best in ourselves and all around us. We can all find lots of information that leads us to an unsavory picture, but it is by looking at our highest possibilities that we have and are a Star to steer by. By that means, anything that is unlike an Ideal will be revealed as specious and unworthy of our attention.
Update: I was just sent this by a good friend. It is a quote from our Mentor, Dr. K.G. Mills, and it applies here.
"Why should we, in our thought - organized and manifested life stream, ever consider those moments when nothing seemsto be happening to be devoid of the incredible Spirit of Newness and Fecundity? Yet we feel the "depression" is something that has come upon us by means that are totally blamed upon a handful of people. Perhaps it has, but we don't have to believe that Power rests in such control." >>Kenneth G. Mills, The Key: IdentityGreen Stuff pg. 334
http://www.kgmfoundation.org/
Update: I was just sent this by a good friend. It is a quote from our Mentor, Dr. K.G. Mills, and it applies here.
"Why should we, in our thought - organized and manifested life stream, ever consider those moments when nothing seemsto be happening to be devoid of the incredible Spirit of Newness and Fecundity? Yet we feel the "depression" is something that has come upon us by means that are totally blamed upon a handful of people. Perhaps it has, but we don't have to believe that Power rests in such control." >>Kenneth G. Mills, The Key: Identity
http://www.kgmfoundation.org/
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Letter to the Venus Project
I recently encountered a wonderful site on line that advocates the idea of a resource based economy as distinct from a scarcity based economy. It is called The Venus Project. (http://www.thevenusproject.com/) I liked what they had to say, but was concerned about a procedural matter, so wrote them the following:
"Dear Friends,
"I call you 'Friends' because I feel a bond with anyone who is doing work toward the fulfillment of our potential as Conscious Awareness Beings on this Earth. I have some questions that I do not see addressed in your material, at least in any heading form. These questions have to do with the deconstruction of the present form of plutosocial systems that are in the hands of private individuals and which control governments. As we have seen, money obstructs change. We have also seen that possession of a human body only denotes potential, not fact or fulfillment. It does not even imply control of that body or its potential ability to precipitate experience, including technology, but especially change within or without the person. In apparent fact the vast mass of humans is unaware of other than their immediate circumstances and the needs engendered by such. This is true of persons living in hunter/gatherer societies even through the populations of great cities which use the inventions of others and therefore think themselves civilized.
"When Mahatma Gandhi toured London he was asked by a reporter "Mr. Gandhi, what is your opinion of Western civilization?" He replied "I think it would be a very good idea." This statement epitomizes the dilemma of the soul based Conscious awareness confronting the plutosocial momentum of those manipulating and those enslaved mentally to the systems currently holding sway over our ways and means. In other words, the general population is unaware of any other way, or even the possibility of any other way. Indeed, if such a way is suggested, as I am sure you know from experience, it is most likely met with the resistance of a cornered animal. A case in point might be the popular ignorance of the actual mechanics and consequences of the fractional reserve banking system.
"So, from the economic top one percent of the world population which owns about 40% of the world's defined material wealth, down to the economic bottom 50% which collectively owns about one percent, we are dealing with a mass of animal reactivity momentum interspersed by a fractionally very small number who are capable of conceiving original thoughts and directions. It is these few who can technologically change things whether by language or instrument. That change is mitigated, as stated, by the factor of those who are invested in the protection of paper and material wealth. The level of attachment indicated by that protection includes every kind and degree of inhumanity ever perpetrated. We have to conclude that there is an immense dysfunction for these people and their minions of whatever description in the quale of self identity. That self identity is attached to and greatly resists being dislodged from identification of self with material comfort and power.
"So, to my question: How do the proponents of the Venus Project, as vastly wonderful as their vision is, propose to confront the laws of inertia as manifested in the plutosocial realm? I greatly acknowledge in this regard the importance and basic rightness of your vision. Indeed, it says in one book that "a nation without vision shall perish." It means, I think, vision in accordance with Nature, and we are currently witnessing and experiencing the lack of vision on the part of the population that has allowed themselves willingly into slavery. I am asking, therefore, what steps you advocate, other than disseminating information encompassing the Project and agreement with it, to precipitate the changes you desire?
Best regards and Q'plah,
Anton Nemeth"
"Dear Friends,
"I call you 'Friends' because I feel a bond with anyone who is doing work toward the fulfillment of our potential as Conscious Awareness Beings on this Earth. I have some questions that I do not see addressed in your material, at least in any heading form. These questions have to do with the deconstruction of the present form of plutosocial systems that are in the hands of private individuals and which control governments. As we have seen, money obstructs change. We have also seen that possession of a human body only denotes potential, not fact or fulfillment. It does not even imply control of that body or its potential ability to precipitate experience, including technology, but especially change within or without the person. In apparent fact the vast mass of humans is unaware of other than their immediate circumstances and the needs engendered by such. This is true of persons living in hunter/gatherer societies even through the populations of great cities which use the inventions of others and therefore think themselves civilized.
"When Mahatma Gandhi toured London he was asked by a reporter "Mr. Gandhi, what is your opinion of Western civilization?" He replied "I think it would be a very good idea." This statement epitomizes the dilemma of the soul based Conscious awareness confronting the plutosocial momentum of those manipulating and those enslaved mentally to the systems currently holding sway over our ways and means. In other words, the general population is unaware of any other way, or even the possibility of any other way. Indeed, if such a way is suggested, as I am sure you know from experience, it is most likely met with the resistance of a cornered animal. A case in point might be the popular ignorance of the actual mechanics and consequences of the fractional reserve banking system.
"So, from the economic top one percent of the world population which owns about 40% of the world's defined material wealth, down to the economic bottom 50% which collectively owns about one percent, we are dealing with a mass of animal reactivity momentum interspersed by a fractionally very small number who are capable of conceiving original thoughts and directions. It is these few who can technologically change things whether by language or instrument. That change is mitigated, as stated, by the factor of those who are invested in the protection of paper and material wealth. The level of attachment indicated by that protection includes every kind and degree of inhumanity ever perpetrated. We have to conclude that there is an immense dysfunction for these people and their minions of whatever description in the quale of self identity. That self identity is attached to and greatly resists being dislodged from identification of self with material comfort and power.
"So, to my question: How do the proponents of the Venus Project, as vastly wonderful as their vision is, propose to confront the laws of inertia as manifested in the plutosocial realm? I greatly acknowledge in this regard the importance and basic rightness of your vision. Indeed, it says in one book that "a nation without vision shall perish." It means, I think, vision in accordance with Nature, and we are currently witnessing and experiencing the lack of vision on the part of the population that has allowed themselves willingly into slavery. I am asking, therefore, what steps you advocate, other than disseminating information encompassing the Project and agreement with it, to precipitate the changes you desire?
Best regards and Q'plah,
Anton Nemeth"
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Antidote
I received a return e-mail from a dear friend who bemoaned the depressing nature of some forwarded information on food addatives. Here is my reply:
"Yes, there is a lot of depressing stuff going on, the worst of which "they" are not even telling us, if my alternate sources are correct. However, that is not the point, as I see it, anyways. We are here to grow in Conscious awareness, and promote that growth overall by our presence as the Light to the mundanities of life. Part of that, for me, is being aware of the exigencies of existence in an ego maniacal world. That means information, both about Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, and their ilk, as well as MSG. It is why I am associated with the Consciousness Cinema here, and with other local groups working to reduce suffering through knowledge of whatever sort.
"Primarily, I feel we need to build the harmonious community of our friends. If anything, we can foster the feeling of being more than "this." You do that by just being who you are, _____. It is a great work in this day and age, just Being. There is no other antidote to ego. So, it isn't about saving the world, or fighting the corporations or the governments, or any such thing. It is about being Awake. The enemy is not an institution, it is sleep and ignorance of Self. When we are awake, good public results may follow. Or not. No one said that the human experiment had to work. We are a race that traditionally crucifies its saviors and in the name of a loving god commits wholesale slaughter. But we are also gifted with Giants, such as our dear Teacher, Guide, and Friend. We are privileged to stand on his shoulders and the shoulders of others like him and thus be granted a larger, more inclusive view. And don't discount that you chose to climb up to stand there, however much MSG of any psychic or other form you might have swallowed. That's what counts, my friend. That's why we feel the love that we do."
"Yes, there is a lot of depressing stuff going on, the worst of which "they" are not even telling us, if my alternate sources are correct. However, that is not the point, as I see it, anyways. We are here to grow in Conscious awareness, and promote that growth overall by our presence as the Light to the mundanities of life. Part of that, for me, is being aware of the exigencies of existence in an ego maniacal world. That means information, both about Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, and their ilk, as well as MSG. It is why I am associated with the Consciousness Cinema here, and with other local groups working to reduce suffering through knowledge of whatever sort.
"Primarily, I feel we need to build the harmonious community of our friends. If anything, we can foster the feeling of being more than "this." You do that by just being who you are, _____. It is a great work in this day and age, just Being. There is no other antidote to ego. So, it isn't about saving the world, or fighting the corporations or the governments, or any such thing. It is about being Awake. The enemy is not an institution, it is sleep and ignorance of Self. When we are awake, good public results may follow. Or not. No one said that the human experiment had to work. We are a race that traditionally crucifies its saviors and in the name of a loving god commits wholesale slaughter. But we are also gifted with Giants, such as our dear Teacher, Guide, and Friend. We are privileged to stand on his shoulders and the shoulders of others like him and thus be granted a larger, more inclusive view. And don't discount that you chose to climb up to stand there, however much MSG of any psychic or other form you might have swallowed. That's what counts, my friend. That's why we feel the love that we do."
Friday, July 11, 2008
Quotes from Nisargadatta Maharaj
I was introduced to the words of Nisargadatta Maharaj by my Dear Mentor, Dr. Kenneth G. Mills, without whose instruction and example as Presence the following quotes would have no meaning for me. I offer them as an invitation in the consideration of what constitutes our right Identity, That, which we are before we think we are this, and without which there could not be the perception of thought.
"The search for reality is the most dangerous of all undertakings for it destroys the world in which you live."
***
"I do not accept paths... All paths lead to unreality. Paths are creations within the scope of knowledge. Therefore, paths and movements cannot transport you into reality because their function is to enmesh you within the dimension of knowledge, while reality prevails prior to it."
***
"Realization is of the fact that you are not a person."
***
"Personal entity and enlightenment cannot go together."
***
"There can be no person that is Self-realized."
***
"Why does this conflict normally occur? Why this dispute between us? People come here with some profound concept of spirituality. They think they have spiritual knowledge and they want me to give them a clean certificate: "yes, you are knowledgeable". This I don't do. I blast their concepts, and hence the confrontation... All knowledge is ignorance."
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
"The search for reality is the most dangerous of all undertakings for it destroys the world in which you live."
***
"I do not accept paths... All paths lead to unreality. Paths are creations within the scope of knowledge. Therefore, paths and movements cannot transport you into reality because their function is to enmesh you within the dimension of knowledge, while reality prevails prior to it."
***
"Realization is of the fact that you are not a person."
***
"Personal entity and enlightenment cannot go together."
***
"There can be no person that is Self-realized."
***
"Why does this conflict normally occur? Why this dispute between us? People come here with some profound concept of spirituality. They think they have spiritual knowledge and they want me to give them a clean certificate: "yes, you are knowledgeable". This I don't do. I blast their concepts, and hence the confrontation... All knowledge is ignorance."
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
Irony
Yes, irony is rampant in this world. I think that the greatest one is that a biological group that is emotionally and intellectually underdeveloped, due to misidentification of Self, is charged with its own survival in a very adverse and catastrophic situation of its own creation that can take not only other species but also global systems with it. We have the gift of foresight and insight, and as a group subvert those to fear and greed. Our public policies are all of the "last man standing" philosophy, exactly the opposit of what is desperately needed. The last lesson of all this in retrospect will be: "We should have dropped everything and cooperated for all our own best interest." But we seem to want to have that conclusion forced on us as a consequence as distinct from a free choice, a joy, and an adventure into newness. What will change this, our suicidal, fratricidal group tendency?
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
A city with a view
I maintain that cities ought to be designed around people. That means to me, that since the human brain is wired, they say, for about 500 close "people recognition" connections, cities ought use units of + or - 450 people as an organizational basis. This means that a city could be built of "blocks" that precisely house that number of diverse occupants, with perhaps "blocks" that house specialty cultural components, such as artisans or bachelors, or whatever. Each of these "blocks, would have upper and lower story buildings that house a family on one level and a business on the lower level. This eliminates needs for both community stretching and travel for basic goods.
Then we could add Paulo Solari's verticalization ides and have these units stacked in buildings that would have internal transportation built in, as well as an energy producing skin incorporating the energies of sun, wind, and falling water. Any idea how much energy a 50 story rain downspout can produce and cache as drinking, etc., water? This concept also frees up land for agriculture, perhaps recapturing some of the field and orchards acreage we have paved over to provide insularity for our overblown sense of consumerism and artificial false privacy. Our "current" society is geared to make money for everything that depends on oil, and we have forsaken the treasure of ourselves so that we can commute an hour or more to get a home with a view.
I'd personally be happy with a home having a large deck 25 stories up that overlooked farmland or ranches that provide my food, and from which I could commute to work by elevator and slidewalk. I could even have neighbors to talk with and go shopping on foot on the way home. Heck, Bucky Fuller even designed self sustaining cities for 10,000 that could float not only in water, but also in the air, freeing even more land. The problems really are in our greed and in commercial favoritism, and that means, again, that we do not think for ourselves and vote with our money and our voice at crucial times. Who said "It is great luck for leaders that men don't think?" It was Adolph Hitler. Anybody remember him?
Consciously or not, haven't we cooperated with corporations who, consciously or not, have cooperated with this observation by one of the most adept mobilizers of these last so many decades? How can we more quickly mobilize the same amount of energy and organizational ability to do good, even to the point of saving ourselves from an ignominious end? Was Walt Kelly right when one of his characters misquoted and said "We have met the enemy, and he is us!" Or was it a misquote? Either way, wouldn't our own defeat of our own squanderous ways be our most glorious victory?
Then we could add Paulo Solari's verticalization ides and have these units stacked in buildings that would have internal transportation built in, as well as an energy producing skin incorporating the energies of sun, wind, and falling water. Any idea how much energy a 50 story rain downspout can produce and cache as drinking, etc., water? This concept also frees up land for agriculture, perhaps recapturing some of the field and orchards acreage we have paved over to provide insularity for our overblown sense of consumerism and artificial false privacy. Our "current" society is geared to make money for everything that depends on oil, and we have forsaken the treasure of ourselves so that we can commute an hour or more to get a home with a view.
I'd personally be happy with a home having a large deck 25 stories up that overlooked farmland or ranches that provide my food, and from which I could commute to work by elevator and slidewalk. I could even have neighbors to talk with and go shopping on foot on the way home. Heck, Bucky Fuller even designed self sustaining cities for 10,000 that could float not only in water, but also in the air, freeing even more land. The problems really are in our greed and in commercial favoritism, and that means, again, that we do not think for ourselves and vote with our money and our voice at crucial times. Who said "It is great luck for leaders that men don't think?" It was Adolph Hitler. Anybody remember him?
Consciously or not, haven't we cooperated with corporations who, consciously or not, have cooperated with this observation by one of the most adept mobilizers of these last so many decades? How can we more quickly mobilize the same amount of energy and organizational ability to do good, even to the point of saving ourselves from an ignominious end? Was Walt Kelly right when one of his characters misquoted and said "We have met the enemy, and he is us!" Or was it a misquote? Either way, wouldn't our own defeat of our own squanderous ways be our most glorious victory?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
About the possibility of a "Dark Age."
(This post is an excerpt from an ongoing discussion about such books as "The Long Emergency" and "The Comming Dark Age" as it appears in a forum called JUSTCOZ at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/justcoz. It is a site dedicated to the promotion of self sufficiency in local communities.)
Yes, Jacob's thesis (in "Dark Age Comming") appears pessimistic, but she states clearly that it is the description of a tendency, not a fate. She has great faith in our ability to change our course and the book is meant as a lens to focus our energies on specific leverage points.
In this regard I certainly agree with the simile of wealth as energy. Money is a symbol of work done, therefore can represent energy and its governance. Faith based and politically based systems are inadequate to deal with money as they are, to various degrees, adversarial systems, and though possibly valid within themselves,
ultimatley not accurate as models distributed wholley over the Universe. Being that they are localized, they are parochial attempts to get by in and explain "Life," and are, as we know them, at the root of the failure of Western society to cope with the world as it actually IS in an epistemological or ontological sense. That is why
societies that percieve Mankind as a function of Nature as distinct from a controler of Nature have a more one-to-one accuracy in their experience of existence, and a more accurate psychological map of our relationship with the World. Anyone as a physcist might appreciate the importance of this perspective as it is outlined in
Bohm's "Wholenesss and the Implicate Order" or Talbot's "The Holographic Universe."
Herein lies the link between personal maturity and responsibility. I am personally convinced that the founders of the great religions had the insight that we (I) and the Universe IS One in Essence, and based their ethic on that premise. This was dogmatized into faith systems, corrupted, naturally, into that by lesser souls who sold it to well meaning folk of lesser insight who were ready to recieve whatever
leadership would help their emotional nature cope. This is the human way. The "highest" path described in religious literature that I am aware of is known by its practitioners, among other names, as "The Path of Ultimate Responsibility."
That Path is at the root of the desired success of the bumper sticker that says "Do No Harm." Why would one harm what or who is Essentialy themselves, or their Self? The vastly immature understanding and practice of the concept of "Self" contributes to the afformentioned adversarial relationships in the most destructive ways. It is why the "Golden Rule" in either form lacks practice. I suspect that if translators had a more accurate grasp of the implications and referents of the the word idea translated as "I" from Aramaic and other languages, we might have a far different face on our dogmatized faiths, whether religious, political, or scientific. The idea of discreet individuals in competition with Nature and each other is an egoic invention punctured by the demonstrations of cooperation based on Love. That sees only Itself growing in maturity and wisdom, incapable of not bringing all its manifestations as people and their world with it. Such a standpoint also enables the perception of dissolution to be experienced as a function of creativity, where the
falling apart of a system is only the necessary step required for the enabling of a more encompassing functional understanding. But again, that requires the impersonal maturity and responsibility of the participents, eh?
Yes, Jacob's thesis (in "Dark Age Comming") appears pessimistic, but she states clearly that it is the description of a tendency, not a fate. She has great faith in our ability to change our course and the book is meant as a lens to focus our energies on specific leverage points.
In this regard I certainly agree with the simile of wealth as energy. Money is a symbol of work done, therefore can represent energy and its governance. Faith based and politically based systems are inadequate to deal with money as they are, to various degrees, adversarial systems, and though possibly valid within themselves,
ultimatley not accurate as models distributed wholley over the Universe. Being that they are localized, they are parochial attempts to get by in and explain "Life," and are, as we know them, at the root of the failure of Western society to cope with the world as it actually IS in an epistemological or ontological sense. That is why
societies that percieve Mankind as a function of Nature as distinct from a controler of Nature have a more one-to-one accuracy in their experience of existence, and a more accurate psychological map of our relationship with the World. Anyone as a physcist might appreciate the importance of this perspective as it is outlined in
Bohm's "Wholenesss and the Implicate Order" or Talbot's "The Holographic Universe."
Herein lies the link between personal maturity and responsibility. I am personally convinced that the founders of the great religions had the insight that we (I) and the Universe IS One in Essence, and based their ethic on that premise. This was dogmatized into faith systems, corrupted, naturally, into that by lesser souls who sold it to well meaning folk of lesser insight who were ready to recieve whatever
leadership would help their emotional nature cope. This is the human way. The "highest" path described in religious literature that I am aware of is known by its practitioners, among other names, as "The Path of Ultimate Responsibility."
That Path is at the root of the desired success of the bumper sticker that says "Do No Harm." Why would one harm what or who is Essentialy themselves, or their Self? The vastly immature understanding and practice of the concept of "Self" contributes to the afformentioned adversarial relationships in the most destructive ways. It is why the "Golden Rule" in either form lacks practice. I suspect that if translators had a more accurate grasp of the implications and referents of the the word idea translated as "I" from Aramaic and other languages, we might have a far different face on our dogmatized faiths, whether religious, political, or scientific. The idea of discreet individuals in competition with Nature and each other is an egoic invention punctured by the demonstrations of cooperation based on Love. That sees only Itself growing in maturity and wisdom, incapable of not bringing all its manifestations as people and their world with it. Such a standpoint also enables the perception of dissolution to be experienced as a function of creativity, where the
falling apart of a system is only the necessary step required for the enabling of a more encompassing functional understanding. But again, that requires the impersonal maturity and responsibility of the participents, eh?
Thursday, June 26, 2008
"My" world
Lately I have been playing a game that defeats blame and makes me take responsibility for the things I like to complain about and forces a different perspective. When I see something in the news or wherever that I don't like, I say to myself "That's me; I am doing that." That one statement dumps responsibility for my life squarely where it belongs: with me. It is not the other guy's responsibility to change my life and make me live a default. I make my life as it is by creating a harmonic way or by accepting someone else's plan for me as their cow. My Mentor, Dr. KG Mills, said "'You' are the world you wander through. What will it be like?"
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Declaration:
It is a gift of the Human condition that critical circumstances are generally met with spontaneously creative innovations that speak immediately to the challenge at hand. This is true in our local situations, whether household or community. Finding now that due to the measurably global impact of our local actions, our definitions must grow to include all the peoples of the world, because these impacts cumulatively and seriously can be seen to threaten our viability as men, women, and children on this planet, as well as the viability of global systems that sustain any and all life as we know it.
As a response in kind, we choose to form cells and organs of perception and action to meet these challenges that are now widely recognized to impinge on all the peoples of our planet. These challenges are personal, spiritual, economic, psychological, and political in scope, encompassing a re-examination of the very nature of our being as humans and our roles within ourselves, within our families, within our communities, within all levels of our commercial and financial systems, and within all levels of our govern-mental structures.
To these ends we unite in circles of group action, that like the rings of a small stone tossed in the water reach to all the shores of perception and action as waves of change. Remembering that the root meaning of "eco-" means "house," these changes are collectively intended to harmonize with and support the laws and means of nature without harm to its systems on any level of ecology, as Stewardship, of this, our global home.
We know that there is no certainty or law that says our collective experience, encompassed as the Human experiment, will succeed. Nevertheless it is our will as the masters of our individual ship and collective fleets of soul, to steer as the Star of success innate in each of us in our synergized endeavor to grow into an unexpected and yet abundant fulfilment of our highest possibilities.
As a response in kind, we choose to form cells and organs of perception and action to meet these challenges that are now widely recognized to impinge on all the peoples of our planet. These challenges are personal, spiritual, economic, psychological, and political in scope, encompassing a re-examination of the very nature of our being as humans and our roles within ourselves, within our families, within our communities, within all levels of our commercial and financial systems, and within all levels of our govern-mental structures.
To these ends we unite in circles of group action, that like the rings of a small stone tossed in the water reach to all the shores of perception and action as waves of change. Remembering that the root meaning of "eco-" means "house," these changes are collectively intended to harmonize with and support the laws and means of nature without harm to its systems on any level of ecology, as Stewardship, of this, our global home.
We know that there is no certainty or law that says our collective experience, encompassed as the Human experiment, will succeed. Nevertheless it is our will as the masters of our individual ship and collective fleets of soul, to steer as the Star of success innate in each of us in our synergized endeavor to grow into an unexpected and yet abundant fulfilment of our highest possibilities.
Monday, March 10, 2008
What to do: a mustard seed.
Recently I was confronted with a cloud of ideas that had to do with solving this or that problem in the world. This came in the form of a letter by e-mail from someone concerned with the world situation. This was my reply:
I have considered this matter for years, since my childhood. At first I took it personally, as in dealing with "my" problem. How could I do otherwise? A child learns to make do in his own environment. But as I grew up, I saw that there were others who were having the same problems as I was. I started to postulate the problem as one that "we" had, or as the problem of a bigger "I." A lot of "us" who are part of a "we" make a larger "I." Later, I found out some astonishing properties of this "I." There is even a book now, by a doctor, called The I that is we.
To make a long story short, I realized that we make our problem(s) worse by labeling them as specific to a group. In other words, names divide. I saw clearly that we disipate our energies and fight our like minded brethren by calling a problem as having specifically to do with a group o other person. We call it a problem with American teens, or with immigrants to our country, or of the illiterate in our cities, or the homeless in Chicago. We call it the terrorists, the Mafia, or the government, or the corporations o the banks. We even call it religion and the love of God. We manifest it as a race by acting like animals that defacate in the space that they live without cleaning it up.
What we fail to notice is that in dividing it up like that and not cleaning up our mess, we are missing the core perception of the problem, which is the only level at which we can do any good or effect any real change other than cosmetic. Without naming all the links in the chain, we can go directly to the piece that anchors the problem in our experience. That piece is Identity.
All problems are expressions of the activity of defining identity. Fear is the feeling of threatened identity, love is the feeling of validated identity. Fear is the threat of being a solitary entity against a hostile environment, Love is the feeling of being so One with it all that any threat of the perceived environment is trivial.
What we might need to address is how the human system of conscious awareness, which has now been proved to stem from an identical source in Africa, can globally function at every level of organization with the result of promoting and fostering the feeling of Unity with all his fellow humans, but especially with that "I" that is we.
The Human Idea is of a piece. We now know that at many levels, from the genetic to the cosmic. What we don't know is how to install a pattern of behavior in our children that is big enough to accommodate growth into a cooperative global economy. Now remember, that "economy" stems from a word that means "household management." I cannot think of a more appropriate word to encompass the enormity of all the levels of human experience from internal physiopsycospiritual health to the finding of pied a terre's sin the stars.
In the same way that my Mentor stated that "Consciousness is the Light to the Awareness of Ideas and thoughts" we can and must, if we wish to continue as a productive growing species, proceed in our relations with each other from the most fundamental of ideas. This idea has to be rooted in the muscles so deeply that we cannot harm another. and that brings it back to Identity. If I am established in the feeling that the other person is myself wearing another suit, how could I do harm? Would I harm myself? The Bhagevad Gita says "Established in Unity, act." The two forms of the golden rule say "do unto others as you would have done unto you." and "Do not do unto others what you would not have done unto you." It also o says "Know ThySelf." Could this last have a greater fruit that an experiential knowledge of the "I" that is we? Who would not want to help themselves?
This alone may be our only fundamental problem, and our only task might be to see the fundamental unity of all the seemingly seperate systems that constitutes our world. The most basic system is the human pattern and we share it, each an every single an plural one of us. We carry within us, as our own conscious awareness, the solution to all our ills. It is the recognition that WE ARE ONE is not platitude, it is a Way, but as GK Chesterton said about Christianity, "it's not that (it) doesn't work, it just hasn't been tried yet."
I have considered this matter for years, since my childhood. At first I took it personally, as in dealing with "my" problem. How could I do otherwise? A child learns to make do in his own environment. But as I grew up, I saw that there were others who were having the same problems as I was. I started to postulate the problem as one that "we" had, or as the problem of a bigger "I." A lot of "us" who are part of a "we" make a larger "I." Later, I found out some astonishing properties of this "I." There is even a book now, by a doctor, called The I that is we.
To make a long story short, I realized that we make our problem(s) worse by labeling them as specific to a group. In other words, names divide. I saw clearly that we disipate our energies and fight our like minded brethren by calling a problem as having specifically to do with a group o other person. We call it a problem with American teens, or with immigrants to our country, or of the illiterate in our cities, or the homeless in Chicago. We call it the terrorists, the Mafia, or the government, or the corporations o the banks. We even call it religion and the love of God. We manifest it as a race by acting like animals that defacate in the space that they live without cleaning it up.
What we fail to notice is that in dividing it up like that and not cleaning up our mess, we are missing the core perception of the problem, which is the only level at which we can do any good or effect any real change other than cosmetic. Without naming all the links in the chain, we can go directly to the piece that anchors the problem in our experience. That piece is Identity.
All problems are expressions of the activity of defining identity. Fear is the feeling of threatened identity, love is the feeling of validated identity. Fear is the threat of being a solitary entity against a hostile environment, Love is the feeling of being so One with it all that any threat of the perceived environment is trivial.
What we might need to address is how the human system of conscious awareness, which has now been proved to stem from an identical source in Africa, can globally function at every level of organization with the result of promoting and fostering the feeling of Unity with all his fellow humans, but especially with that "I" that is we.
The Human Idea is of a piece. We now know that at many levels, from the genetic to the cosmic. What we don't know is how to install a pattern of behavior in our children that is big enough to accommodate growth into a cooperative global economy. Now remember, that "economy" stems from a word that means "household management." I cannot think of a more appropriate word to encompass the enormity of all the levels of human experience from internal physiopsycospiritual health to the finding of pied a terre's sin the stars.
In the same way that my Mentor stated that "Consciousness is the Light to the Awareness of Ideas and thoughts" we can and must, if we wish to continue as a productive growing species, proceed in our relations with each other from the most fundamental of ideas. This idea has to be rooted in the muscles so deeply that we cannot harm another. and that brings it back to Identity. If I am established in the feeling that the other person is myself wearing another suit, how could I do harm? Would I harm myself? The Bhagevad Gita says "Established in Unity, act." The two forms of the golden rule say "do unto others as you would have done unto you." and "Do not do unto others what you would not have done unto you." It also o says "Know ThySelf." Could this last have a greater fruit that an experiential knowledge of the "I" that is we? Who would not want to help themselves?
This alone may be our only fundamental problem, and our only task might be to see the fundamental unity of all the seemingly seperate systems that constitutes our world. The most basic system is the human pattern and we share it, each an every single an plural one of us. We carry within us, as our own conscious awareness, the solution to all our ills. It is the recognition that WE ARE ONE is not platitude, it is a Way, but as GK Chesterton said about Christianity, "it's not that (it) doesn't work, it just hasn't been tried yet."
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Rant
Jane Jacobs said in her book "The Coming Dark Age" that the disappearance of the middle class is the cause of the abyss of ignorance that constitutes such a period. My guess is that such a period is somewhat of a time of egoistic safety and power for those stuck in the trap of "wealth equals good." In my opinion, all the greedy people could have ten or more times what they think they don't have if they took others with them, i.e. promoted global popular wealth at least to just over the point where each person could have some leisure from economic pursuits and be insured of health and elder care. Along with that would have to go some education, a terrifying prospect for bankers. Such global enhancement would mean cooperation and a seeming reduction in personal power for those who control comparatively vast amounts of money.
I think that personal power without an underlayment of wisdom is a very destructive aberration of the human psyche, as far as it is based on separatism and blindness to the underlying Unity of Nature, and therefore of our ties with each other. Such might be the corporate, and especially the banking mentality of today, which in one documentary was shown to be sociopathic. But if anyone can see the "other" as an aspect of their own self, how could they do harm? Who would deliberately harm themselves? Yet the illusion of being discreet individuals allows many to seek dominance rather than cooperation. One of the forms of this dominance is the destruction of the educational system, especially any aspect of it that fosters the ability to think rationally or feel deeply. It may be why we have gone from first in education in the industrialized world to 29th in 20 years. This may very well be one of the factors in the growing, unfilled gap between the very rich and the very poor in this country.
Many look to the "American Dream" of making it on yur own. And of course, this does work, but again, it seems it is for the few. Rugged individualism also, as an American ideal, is a wonderful phase, and necessary, but it is a teen years phenomenon, necessary only for separation of the sense of self from identifying with the parents. A mature adult has a sense as well of community to which he can fully give that sense of uniqueness he has acquired through trial, and a sense of that community's interdependence with Resource. Yet we are popularly trained to be emotionally reactive, thalmic based cash cows for the comfort of the few and the destruction of all. "Be the best that you can be" should not only be the motto of the US Army recruiters, but of all the educators and their students. But in order to do that there has to be a major reassessment as to the ends and means of society, and therefor of what individuality truly means. Historically, this has happened mostly on a one-by-one basis, and we have for the most part crucified one way or another those who would lift us up, all under the auspices of fear agitated by those who would loose their economic comfort. As a good friend said, "money (of the very rich) stops progress," and this seems to be so for the general population as they are drained of economic resources by miseducation and the ideal of comfort, as corportions infest the public thoughts with false ideals, and the lack of education stops the supply of ideas and patterns fostering wisdom and insight.
I think that personal power without an underlayment of wisdom is a very destructive aberration of the human psyche, as far as it is based on separatism and blindness to the underlying Unity of Nature, and therefore of our ties with each other. Such might be the corporate, and especially the banking mentality of today, which in one documentary was shown to be sociopathic. But if anyone can see the "other" as an aspect of their own self, how could they do harm? Who would deliberately harm themselves? Yet the illusion of being discreet individuals allows many to seek dominance rather than cooperation. One of the forms of this dominance is the destruction of the educational system, especially any aspect of it that fosters the ability to think rationally or feel deeply. It may be why we have gone from first in education in the industrialized world to 29th in 20 years. This may very well be one of the factors in the growing, unfilled gap between the very rich and the very poor in this country.
Many look to the "American Dream" of making it on yur own. And of course, this does work, but again, it seems it is for the few. Rugged individualism also, as an American ideal, is a wonderful phase, and necessary, but it is a teen years phenomenon, necessary only for separation of the sense of self from identifying with the parents. A mature adult has a sense as well of community to which he can fully give that sense of uniqueness he has acquired through trial, and a sense of that community's interdependence with Resource. Yet we are popularly trained to be emotionally reactive, thalmic based cash cows for the comfort of the few and the destruction of all. "Be the best that you can be" should not only be the motto of the US Army recruiters, but of all the educators and their students. But in order to do that there has to be a major reassessment as to the ends and means of society, and therefor of what individuality truly means. Historically, this has happened mostly on a one-by-one basis, and we have for the most part crucified one way or another those who would lift us up, all under the auspices of fear agitated by those who would loose their economic comfort. As a good friend said, "money (of the very rich) stops progress," and this seems to be so for the general population as they are drained of economic resources by miseducation and the ideal of comfort, as corportions infest the public thoughts with false ideals, and the lack of education stops the supply of ideas and patterns fostering wisdom and insight.
Monday, March 3, 2008
A reply to someone who credited the "fish brain" as the root of evil.
I agree with you about the fish brain (also known as the reptilian or monkey brain to some) theory to some extent. One of my favorite sayings is Gandhi's reply to a reporter who asked him, after a tour of the modern wonders of London, what he thought of Western civilization. Gandhi replied "I think it would be a very good idea." I took that mostly to mean that appearance dosn't necessarily mean substance, despite our looking like, or agreeing with each other that we are cultured.
Similarly, it is my opinion that Satan, the name for the fallen Lucifer, is a symbolic--yet very functioning--aspect of awareness. More precisely, of the lack of awareness of higher functions and perceptions, particularly those having to do with the unitary nature of Being. Lucifer means "Light Bearer." In the scheme of things, it seems to me that the fall of "Lucifer" from Heaven is the development of the human ego. My mentor said that hell is the sense of separation. Conversely, the feeling of Unity can be called heaven. And this to me is the crux of "salvation." Salvation is the deliberate or serendipetous regaining of the feeling of Unity with the Source. It is why the religions that postulate a god seperate from a creation can only be misleading the "faithful." They who believe that are doomed mentally to found their belief in god as one irrevocably separate. How hellish is that? And there can be found the foundation of guilt. On the other hand, one who feels that the "other" is an aspect of his own impersonal Essence, though seemingly different, cannot do harm. Who would harm themselves? And thereon is founded an actually viable morality, as far as I can tell.
Similarly, it is my opinion that Satan, the name for the fallen Lucifer, is a symbolic--yet very functioning--aspect of awareness. More precisely, of the lack of awareness of higher functions and perceptions, particularly those having to do with the unitary nature of Being. Lucifer means "Light Bearer." In the scheme of things, it seems to me that the fall of "Lucifer" from Heaven is the development of the human ego. My mentor said that hell is the sense of separation. Conversely, the feeling of Unity can be called heaven. And this to me is the crux of "salvation." Salvation is the deliberate or serendipetous regaining of the feeling of Unity with the Source. It is why the religions that postulate a god seperate from a creation can only be misleading the "faithful." They who believe that are doomed mentally to found their belief in god as one irrevocably separate. How hellish is that? And there can be found the foundation of guilt. On the other hand, one who feels that the "other" is an aspect of his own impersonal Essence, though seemingly different, cannot do harm. Who would harm themselves? And thereon is founded an actually viable morality, as far as I can tell.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Maki gamma
If you are the tribal sort, or a potter, you would have enjoyed the event that I found myself invited to and participating in last Friday night. A local professor in the ceramics program at Folsom College has a large "maki gamma" on his property. That is Nipponese for "wood kiln," this variety being based on a sixth century model also known as a "dragon kiln." Such a kiln is loaded and fired with great ceremony and celebration.
The kiln, about 40' stem to stern, is decorated with offering ranging from flowers and fruit to sake and cakes. Candles and incense are everywhere. Excepting a thin moon, the stars, and a rare shooting star, that is the only light in the pitch black countryside. The other, but small, exception is a campfire nearby where tidbits from a table laden with potluck offerings are washed down with lemonade or ale. It was quite a spectacular sight . There were circumambulations, prayers, invocations, offerings, libations, and many thanksgivings. Then one of the students who had been active on the project was surprised with the honor of actually starting the fire.
The kiln will get increasingly hot over 24 hours with folk tending it over night and through the day. At peak, it will reach 2300F, no little accomplishment using only wood. At its height the kiln will spout an eight foot flame from the flue, signifying its having reached the height of its ability. The over 100 pieces stacked in the belly of the beast in ranks reflecting the seniority of the potter's work included, will be soaked in fire and wood ash, giving them the characteristic chocolaty rust color of such a firing, with white accents form the lime in the rice straws on those so decorated before immersion in the heat.
After the lighting the forty or so people, who came to partake of the initial ceremony or to aid with the vigil of stoking the dragon over night, stayed for food and drink that was there in generous supply. There were home made soups, enchiladas, pot stickers, munchies and chips of every description, and a rainbow of drinks. All this was had around a four foot fire ring that contained a blaze made from 8" aged pine logs cut in 1' segments. Soon it felt like the campfire was competing with the kiln, and all the folk around it from all their walks of life were making a happy noise of talk and laughter, doing what people are meant to do: be together in the love of life, enjoying their cooperative productivity. With all the harvest offerings on the kiln, and this being the Thanksgiving season here, it somehow felt like home, if one feels that the presence of heart makes it so.
Reading back, there was an element of the kiln lighting ceremony I neglected to mention. I had said about the circumambulations. I had also said about the profusion of candles and incense. What I didn't do was adequately describe the trappings and surroundings of the kiln, a factor which led to one of the thrills of the evening, as you shall see.
Imagine, if you will, a structure framed of 6"x6" timbers holding up a corrugated tin roof, the far end of which was pierced by the diameter of the kiln flue. The mouth of the kiln faced a bank of straw bales which served as seating for many of the participants. On either side, about four and eight feet left and right, was stacked cord wood of several descriptions intended for different stages of the firing, such as warming, ash production, and final heating. Over everything between these walls of cord wood, including over the kiln itself, was
a layer of rice straw of various thicknesses. At about three feet, set all around the kiln, was a 3" hawser elaborately woven of rice straw, the purpose of which was to define the sacred space of the kiln within which the Fire Goddess would do her work. On the kiln itself there was an additional burden of festive autumn leaves and pine boughs. These were over the layer of base straw. This was the setting into which were placed some 80-odd candles and perhaps an equal number of incense sticks, all aflame.
It was a scene to make a fire marshal have a serious threat of cardiac arrest, especially had such an official seen the tentative and indecisive placement of some of those fiery objects in their bed of tinder. A further agitation might have been the casual use of smudge bundles and punks that were part of the assemblage of incense offerings. None of this compared, however, to the final insult to any consideration of safety. I speak of the companion of the minister who, wearing a styled western hat, black overcoat, boots and beads, was doing the walk arounds, chanting and waving feathers and a rope of smoking sweet grass.
The companion to this picture of shamanic priesthood was a mutt of large size and, most notably, of wagging tail and inquizitive muzzle. This creature, judging from its coat, must have had as parents a dalmatian and a large Labrador. Certainly, whoever they were, each contributed a very active happiness-and-tail-wagging gene to the animal in our company. I nearly jumped and grabbed the dog a number of times, as his tail whisked within inches of a candle or votive. I felt great relief when it settled down and ceased threatening to cause a conflagration that might be seen for miles, had it happened. But that was short lived, as the beast again took to patrolling too near the many flames, any of which could have brought the whole structure to an untimely end. Indeed, as the dog made some turns in the narrow spaces, I thought of Mrs. O'Leary's cow and the great Chicago fire. We were, you know, surrounded by feilds of dry grass and a pine/oak forest.
Nothing happened as a result of the dog in the space of time between the lighting and the final self-immolation of the candles. All the straw on the kiln, and the offerings, were at a certain point removed. The growing heat of the kiln itself demanded that. But the whole scene with its inherent dangers left an impression on me. I remembered all the dangers and stupidities I had miraculously survived, especially in my younger years. No doubt, had we enough time for their stories, each one there could have told tales of escapes from near certain death. Somehow, with all the adrenaline generated by the thrill of the event, augmented by the random threats of a dog's tail, I was left with a greater trust in the wonder of life, and a feeling of an inherent good intent.
Was it chance that saved the scene from a wagger knocking over a candle? Or did the fashioning of the protective dragon at the prow of the kiln, all the elaborate thanksgivings and prayers for success, did these form a shield of safety and well being around and through the event? Was there a Fire Goddess, or was this simply the working of our own Nature intent on an end? In any case, I felt part of something special, an event of gathering, doing and finding. And as is the usual case, more than anything else, I found more of the adventure of my own self's journey.
The kiln, about 40' stem to stern, is decorated with offering ranging from flowers and fruit to sake and cakes. Candles and incense are everywhere. Excepting a thin moon, the stars, and a rare shooting star, that is the only light in the pitch black countryside. The other, but small, exception is a campfire nearby where tidbits from a table laden with potluck offerings are washed down with lemonade or ale. It was quite a spectacular sight . There were circumambulations, prayers, invocations, offerings, libations, and many thanksgivings. Then one of the students who had been active on the project was surprised with the honor of actually starting the fire.
The kiln will get increasingly hot over 24 hours with folk tending it over night and through the day. At peak, it will reach 2300F, no little accomplishment using only wood. At its height the kiln will spout an eight foot flame from the flue, signifying its having reached the height of its ability. The over 100 pieces stacked in the belly of the beast in ranks reflecting the seniority of the potter's work included, will be soaked in fire and wood ash, giving them the characteristic chocolaty rust color of such a firing, with white accents form the lime in the rice straws on those so decorated before immersion in the heat.
After the lighting the forty or so people, who came to partake of the initial ceremony or to aid with the vigil of stoking the dragon over night, stayed for food and drink that was there in generous supply. There were home made soups, enchiladas, pot stickers, munchies and chips of every description, and a rainbow of drinks. All this was had around a four foot fire ring that contained a blaze made from 8" aged pine logs cut in 1' segments. Soon it felt like the campfire was competing with the kiln, and all the folk around it from all their walks of life were making a happy noise of talk and laughter, doing what people are meant to do: be together in the love of life, enjoying their cooperative productivity. With all the harvest offerings on the kiln, and this being the Thanksgiving season here, it somehow felt like home, if one feels that the presence of heart makes it so.
Reading back, there was an element of the kiln lighting ceremony I neglected to mention. I had said about the circumambulations. I had also said about the profusion of candles and incense. What I didn't do was adequately describe the trappings and surroundings of the kiln, a factor which led to one of the thrills of the evening, as you shall see.
Imagine, if you will, a structure framed of 6"x6" timbers holding up a corrugated tin roof, the far end of which was pierced by the diameter of the kiln flue. The mouth of the kiln faced a bank of straw bales which served as seating for many of the participants. On either side, about four and eight feet left and right, was stacked cord wood of several descriptions intended for different stages of the firing, such as warming, ash production, and final heating. Over everything between these walls of cord wood, including over the kiln itself, was
a layer of rice straw of various thicknesses. At about three feet, set all around the kiln, was a 3" hawser elaborately woven of rice straw, the purpose of which was to define the sacred space of the kiln within which the Fire Goddess would do her work. On the kiln itself there was an additional burden of festive autumn leaves and pine boughs. These were over the layer of base straw. This was the setting into which were placed some 80-odd candles and perhaps an equal number of incense sticks, all aflame.
It was a scene to make a fire marshal have a serious threat of cardiac arrest, especially had such an official seen the tentative and indecisive placement of some of those fiery objects in their bed of tinder. A further agitation might have been the casual use of smudge bundles and punks that were part of the assemblage of incense offerings. None of this compared, however, to the final insult to any consideration of safety. I speak of the companion of the minister who, wearing a styled western hat, black overcoat, boots and beads, was doing the walk arounds, chanting and waving feathers and a rope of smoking sweet grass.
The companion to this picture of shamanic priesthood was a mutt of large size and, most notably, of wagging tail and inquizitive muzzle. This creature, judging from its coat, must have had as parents a dalmatian and a large Labrador. Certainly, whoever they were, each contributed a very active happiness-and-tail-wagging gene to the animal in our company. I nearly jumped and grabbed the dog a number of times, as his tail whisked within inches of a candle or votive. I felt great relief when it settled down and ceased threatening to cause a conflagration that might be seen for miles, had it happened. But that was short lived, as the beast again took to patrolling too near the many flames, any of which could have brought the whole structure to an untimely end. Indeed, as the dog made some turns in the narrow spaces, I thought of Mrs. O'Leary's cow and the great Chicago fire. We were, you know, surrounded by feilds of dry grass and a pine/oak forest.
Nothing happened as a result of the dog in the space of time between the lighting and the final self-immolation of the candles. All the straw on the kiln, and the offerings, were at a certain point removed. The growing heat of the kiln itself demanded that. But the whole scene with its inherent dangers left an impression on me. I remembered all the dangers and stupidities I had miraculously survived, especially in my younger years. No doubt, had we enough time for their stories, each one there could have told tales of escapes from near certain death. Somehow, with all the adrenaline generated by the thrill of the event, augmented by the random threats of a dog's tail, I was left with a greater trust in the wonder of life, and a feeling of an inherent good intent.
Was it chance that saved the scene from a wagger knocking over a candle? Or did the fashioning of the protective dragon at the prow of the kiln, all the elaborate thanksgivings and prayers for success, did these form a shield of safety and well being around and through the event? Was there a Fire Goddess, or was this simply the working of our own Nature intent on an end? In any case, I felt part of something special, an event of gathering, doing and finding. And as is the usual case, more than anything else, I found more of the adventure of my own self's journey.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Response to a lady about interrracial dating
I thought I would respond to your correction, not having seen your original post. It sounds like you were sincere. I'm a "white boy" and took no offense from your use of that phrase. I think that was, though, because of how I grew up: as the child of immigrants in Berkeley, CA, where we lived on Ashby street where the BART station now is. My best friend was Jimmy, the son of a black family we were very close to. I was often there, and even, to my recollection, went with his folks on shopping trips. They had a car, we didn't. I guess that looked odd to some folks, the sight of a dark black family with a lily white blond boy in tow. I was close to them to the point that I was at their house on Christmas day for several years. I had not only seen a picture of Jimmy sitting on Santa's lap, but sat on Santa's lap myself a few times. My Mother didn't know what to do with me the first time I saw a white Santa. I freaked, wondering what had happened to dear Santa!
Anyway, that is just to say that I grew up close to black people in a number of settings. There are some stories around that, for sure. I lived and worked with "people of color" all my life and always found it awkward to make any distinction based on color. There were so many beautiful colors in my experience. For many years my closest friend was a wonderful Jamaican man. My white wife and I were often some of the very few whites at some major parties in our neighborhood, both at our house and at others. My distinctions were always behavioral distinctions. If a person was courteous, kind, considerate, and aware, they were OK in my book. This allowed for differences in education, and even of temperament. I was always interested in some one's story. I was without exception disappointed when someone attributed a fault in behavior to "race." I found people of any color did this: misattribute behavior to race. It was, to me, similar to religion. I saw that religious people were not necessarily good or bad by way of their particular religion, they were that way by way of conviction, something that to me was deeper than religion, but could find its expression through religious beliefs.
All I'm saying here is that we have some basic wiring going on that we misunderstand. We are, to make an analogy, very much like similar computers that have the same DOS but are loaded with different programs. We make a HUGE deal out of the differences in programs, ignoring that they are content, not substance. And we ignore, as well, that our basic operating system is identical. So we do what? Argue and get emotional about differences in programming instead of going back to our basic operating system and move from a point of agreement to see how the differences were programed in. Then we can find what is universally common, like air, food and water, clothing, shelter, MUSIC, etc, and go from there. Anyway, I could write a book, but this is already too long.
So yes, I would go out with a black woman, and gladly. Right now, lol, I'd be glad to go out with anyone, lol! I would also know from experience that there would be inherent difficulties both from within and without. Any man and woman getting together have problems, because they are individuals, not because they are of different races. Interracial couples might have external problems as well. I remember walking with a dear friend, very black, very pregnant, and the wife of a white friend of mine. We loved to talk with each other and I went with her for her exercise when her husband couldn't go. We lived in the same house with some other friends, and that was easy to do. We were all in our late 20's. We were occasionally cursed and sworn at, even threatened, by some passing black men. It was very uncomfortable, as you might imagine. It is too bad. It didn't stop me or her, and it didn't stop me from dating black women (I've even been propositioned a few times as well; that was nice, lol) but it has it's social baggage in some areas. I find this very sad, and don't know what to say about it generally, except people would do well to grow up. To me, that means to get out of a limited personal perspective, back off, and look at a BIG picture, and start questioning a LOT of assumptions. The best piece of advise I ever got was to question my mind. Like Taj Mahal says, "Take a giant step...outside your mind."
Well, there is my two cents worth. I hope it might mean something to you. I think it was courageous of you to ask. Thanks.
Anyway, that is just to say that I grew up close to black people in a number of settings. There are some stories around that, for sure. I lived and worked with "people of color" all my life and always found it awkward to make any distinction based on color. There were so many beautiful colors in my experience. For many years my closest friend was a wonderful Jamaican man. My white wife and I were often some of the very few whites at some major parties in our neighborhood, both at our house and at others. My distinctions were always behavioral distinctions. If a person was courteous, kind, considerate, and aware, they were OK in my book. This allowed for differences in education, and even of temperament. I was always interested in some one's story. I was without exception disappointed when someone attributed a fault in behavior to "race." I found people of any color did this: misattribute behavior to race. It was, to me, similar to religion. I saw that religious people were not necessarily good or bad by way of their particular religion, they were that way by way of conviction, something that to me was deeper than religion, but could find its expression through religious beliefs.
All I'm saying here is that we have some basic wiring going on that we misunderstand. We are, to make an analogy, very much like similar computers that have the same DOS but are loaded with different programs. We make a HUGE deal out of the differences in programs, ignoring that they are content, not substance. And we ignore, as well, that our basic operating system is identical. So we do what? Argue and get emotional about differences in programming instead of going back to our basic operating system and move from a point of agreement to see how the differences were programed in. Then we can find what is universally common, like air, food and water, clothing, shelter, MUSIC, etc, and go from there. Anyway, I could write a book, but this is already too long.
So yes, I would go out with a black woman, and gladly. Right now, lol, I'd be glad to go out with anyone, lol! I would also know from experience that there would be inherent difficulties both from within and without. Any man and woman getting together have problems, because they are individuals, not because they are of different races. Interracial couples might have external problems as well. I remember walking with a dear friend, very black, very pregnant, and the wife of a white friend of mine. We loved to talk with each other and I went with her for her exercise when her husband couldn't go. We lived in the same house with some other friends, and that was easy to do. We were all in our late 20's. We were occasionally cursed and sworn at, even threatened, by some passing black men. It was very uncomfortable, as you might imagine. It is too bad. It didn't stop me or her, and it didn't stop me from dating black women (I've even been propositioned a few times as well; that was nice, lol) but it has it's social baggage in some areas. I find this very sad, and don't know what to say about it generally, except people would do well to grow up. To me, that means to get out of a limited personal perspective, back off, and look at a BIG picture, and start questioning a LOT of assumptions. The best piece of advise I ever got was to question my mind. Like Taj Mahal says, "Take a giant step...outside your mind."
Well, there is my two cents worth. I hope it might mean something to you. I think it was courageous of you to ask. Thanks.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Had Enough?
From:Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening?
Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff,we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the
damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and
maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?
I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two
years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to-as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
Who Are These Guys, Anyway?
Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them-or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.
And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or
liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make
us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of
Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?
The Test of a Leader
I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points-not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.
So, here's my C list:
A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of
the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer thelatter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.
If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different
ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was
calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.
A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President-the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well.'Mr President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, "Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't.
Leadership is all about managing change-whether you're leading a
company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.
A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the
mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it'sdenial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.
A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the
difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths-for what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his
daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are
questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man
of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.
A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes
for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage.
George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.
If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you
know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.
To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION-a fire in your belly.
You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President-four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake.
It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only
ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.
A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy.
Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where thefuture of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela erkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.
A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've
got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to
surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just forstarters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.
You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this
Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know-Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.
Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic
home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world-and I like it here."
I think our current President should visit the real world once in a
while.
The Biggest C is Crisis
Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis.
It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.
On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other
time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day-and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we weregoing to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.
That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what
did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to
Iraq-a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.
A Hell of a Mess
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan
for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.
But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the
leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than
making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina.
Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the
hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can
restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed
that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen-and more important, what are we going to do about it?
Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down
the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care
problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on
your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?
Had Enough?
Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying
to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in
America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises-the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.
By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening?
Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff,we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the
damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and
maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?
I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two
years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to-as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
Who Are These Guys, Anyway?
Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them-or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.
And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or
liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make
us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of
Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?
The Test of a Leader
I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points-not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.
So, here's my C list:
A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of
the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer thelatter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.
If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different
ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was
calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.
A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President-the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well.'Mr President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, "Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't.
Leadership is all about managing change-whether you're leading a
company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.
A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the
mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it'sdenial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.
A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the
difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths-for what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his
daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are
questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man
of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.
A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes
for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage.
George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.
If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you
know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.
To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION-a fire in your belly.
You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President-four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake.
It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only
ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.
A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy.
Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where thefuture of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela erkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.
A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've
got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to
surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just forstarters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.
You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this
Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know-Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.
Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic
home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world-and I like it here."
I think our current President should visit the real world once in a
while.
The Biggest C is Crisis
Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis.
It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.
On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other
time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day-and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we weregoing to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.
That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what
did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to
Iraq-a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.
A Hell of a Mess
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan
for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.
But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the
leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than
making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina.
Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the
hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can
restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed
that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen-and more important, what are we going to do about it?
Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down
the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care
problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on
your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?
Had Enough?
Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying
to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in
America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises-the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
We Who Witness the Heart (poem)
We Who Witness the Heart
We who witness the Heart are naked, walking
Bemused through countless avenues of feeling.
We are tracked by the stares of those who hide,
Cowering, not daring to look inside
The deep blue shade that's caused, somehow,
By living anywhere but now.
We wander with purpose, undermining
All the ordinary lack of meaning
Of prosaic run of the day-mill man
And woman who scrambles to sense what they can
Through the anesthetic layers of culture
Fed to them by any corporate vulture
Who can grab their hungry attention and stuff
Into their minds commercial froth and pale fluff.
You and I have met here serendipitously,
Not looking for each other, but consciously
Knowing that the Universe is not so unkind
as to prevent any true seeker from the Find
Of this lifetime--or of the string of them all--
That would burst them through this world's sensory wall
Into the Freedom that can send one flying, reeling,
Into the realms of genuine heartfelt feeling.
Here I truly, squarely stand
Stretching out this trembling hand
Holding out an olive branch
That is very nearly wrenched
From incoherent fingers
By a shaking that won't stanch
A feeling that still lingers.
My cheeks are drenched
Weeping, sobbing, belly laughing
Through the blissful pain of being.
Laughing through the pain I feel,
Knowing only Now is Real,
I extend my hand to you,
Trusting you can feel this, too.
We who witness the Heart are naked, walking
Bemused through countless avenues of feeling.
We are tracked by the stares of those who hide,
Cowering, not daring to look inside
The deep blue shade that's caused, somehow,
By living anywhere but now.
We wander with purpose, undermining
All the ordinary lack of meaning
Of prosaic run of the day-mill man
And woman who scrambles to sense what they can
Through the anesthetic layers of culture
Fed to them by any corporate vulture
Who can grab their hungry attention and stuff
Into their minds commercial froth and pale fluff.
You and I have met here serendipitously,
Not looking for each other, but consciously
Knowing that the Universe is not so unkind
as to prevent any true seeker from the Find
Of this lifetime--or of the string of them all--
That would burst them through this world's sensory wall
Into the Freedom that can send one flying, reeling,
Into the realms of genuine heartfelt feeling.
Here I truly, squarely stand
Stretching out this trembling hand
Holding out an olive branch
That is very nearly wrenched
From incoherent fingers
By a shaking that won't stanch
A feeling that still lingers.
My cheeks are drenched
Weeping, sobbing, belly laughing
Through the blissful pain of being.
Laughing through the pain I feel,
Knowing only Now is Real,
I extend my hand to you,
Trusting you can feel this, too.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Canoe Haiku
Cedar slats and ribs
Sharp brown knife in the water
Shiney new canoe
How thin the wood wall
That curves two ways around me
As I paddle home
This canoe seats two
As the sun sets I plow home
With one place empty
Knees chaffed by cedar
Kneeling for hours working
Bright hardwood paddle
Wiley pike looks up
Wooden bubble floats above:
My cedar canoe
Hickory paddles
Stab and rip black silk water
Through green lily pads
Waveless glassy lake
Sound of a couple laughing
Canoe almost still
Sharp brown knife in the water
Shiney new canoe
How thin the wood wall
That curves two ways around me
As I paddle home
This canoe seats two
As the sun sets I plow home
With one place empty
Knees chaffed by cedar
Kneeling for hours working
Bright hardwood paddle
Wiley pike looks up
Wooden bubble floats above:
My cedar canoe
Hickory paddles
Stab and rip black silk water
Through green lily pads
Waveless glassy lake
Sound of a couple laughing
Canoe almost still
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Advaita, "in" vs. "as"
Yes, I understand that there is much good in many religions. I certainly affirm that my Catholic school education was in many regards superior. I am very grateful for that. I'm only commenting on aspects of the whole religious phenomenon that might keep those pious folks ignorant who have the capacity and will to discover something more foundational for themselves.
I'm not sure that "Advaitist" is even a word, but I have used it as a tag to loosely point in the direction of what I understand to Be. "Advaita" is an Indian philosophical system based on non-dualism. It might, I have recently found out, be called "Non-Dualism" in English. Very simplistically, it is predicated on the premise that God and Creation are One and inseparable. Or one might say "There are not two, there is only one." So the statement attributed to Jesus that "I and my Father are One" is a statement of the necessity of being, not of a special kind of person-ness or miraculous manifestation.
It has much to do with your question about "in" and "as." As far as I can tell, most "Christian" religions are dualistic in nature. By this I mean the idea found in many religions that there is a God and an objective world created as something apart, or objective to, God and vice-versa. To me, this is a misinterpretation of existence now being addressed by quantum physics as it has been addressed for thousands of years by the Great Teachers. In fact, a reading of some of the words attributed to Jesus in the Bible lead me to this conclusion as well. That is based on the observation that a very important sense of the word "I" does not translate into English in other than an egoic way.
"Christian" is in quotes because of the simple fact that if there was one Jesus called The Christ, then the several main Christian denominations, not to mention its unnumbered subdivisions, cannot all be practicing what must have at one time been an original teaching. They are all, in a word, beliefs. That is a fancy word acceptable to adults for "let's pretend." That is fine, there is nothing wrong with that, except that if you take it for Reality, you lose. What do you lose? Any chance of perhaps perceiving what that original Teaching might have been. You also lose a lot of playmates because you insisted that it is your game and they have to play by your rules and die or suffer if they don't. This is true of many non-Christian faiths as well, and many "-isms" and "-ologys."
The crux (lol) of the matter is perhaps the difference in knowledge by information and knowledge by identity.
Information is always by its own nature partial. It is always a best guess, an ad hoc, or a pro tem. Due to the human need to be right, to be validated, which is an emotional, not scientific, issue; partial understandings masquerading emotionally as reality get adhered to and practiced unflinchingly by many who wish the security of a closed system. Information is not a closed system, and beyond that, it is a speculative endeavor largely because of the narrow band perceptive ability of our senses, which are further restricted by operating in local time and space, as far as I can tell. This is the realm of operation of most, if not, all religions.
Knowledge by identity works Now, outside of time and space. It works outside of time and space in that it is "bigger" than that continuum and the only substance to it. If you put a pencil dot on a very large piece of paper and called it "all of time and space," the paper would represent Eternity, but wouldn't be nearly large enough or even begin to have enough dimensions. Moreover, that Eternity has no component of duration. It IS. Advaita is the descriptions offered by those who know this of what IS as distinct from what seems to be. Those descriptions are offered as a way to alter thinking in order to bring about a thought pattern congruent with Reality in order that an individual might SEE, and thereby exponentially know At-Onement with Reality, or God. In other words, there cannot, as is purported in Christian and other religions, be a Creation apart from God. Creation is a manifestation of God Himself. The human mind, being limited in scope, is the seeming barrier through which God, Reality, can experience Self from a localized perspective and thus enjoy the infinitude of Creation. But the sense of Self is unlimited and genuine and Whole. It is why many who become enlightened exclaim, "I have not been deceived!" It is the aspect of Divinity called Soul, which Dr. Mills referred to as "The feeling of Being I AM."
This is why to me to say that God is "in" something smacks of pantheism. Yet to say that God is manifesting "as" this or that allows at least the possibility of acknowledgment of the inseparability of, what to our senses, only seems to be a discreet object. The idea of "objects" having no independent existence is as well in accordance with quantum physics.
You might, in addition to F. Merrell-Wolff's books, enjoy David Baum's Wholeness and the Implicate Order.
I'm not sure that "Advaitist" is even a word, but I have used it as a tag to loosely point in the direction of what I understand to Be. "Advaita" is an Indian philosophical system based on non-dualism. It might, I have recently found out, be called "Non-Dualism" in English. Very simplistically, it is predicated on the premise that God and Creation are One and inseparable. Or one might say "There are not two, there is only one." So the statement attributed to Jesus that "I and my Father are One" is a statement of the necessity of being, not of a special kind of person-ness or miraculous manifestation.
It has much to do with your question about "in" and "as." As far as I can tell, most "Christian" religions are dualistic in nature. By this I mean the idea found in many religions that there is a God and an objective world created as something apart, or objective to, God and vice-versa. To me, this is a misinterpretation of existence now being addressed by quantum physics as it has been addressed for thousands of years by the Great Teachers. In fact, a reading of some of the words attributed to Jesus in the Bible lead me to this conclusion as well. That is based on the observation that a very important sense of the word "I" does not translate into English in other than an egoic way.
"Christian" is in quotes because of the simple fact that if there was one Jesus called The Christ, then the several main Christian denominations, not to mention its unnumbered subdivisions, cannot all be practicing what must have at one time been an original teaching. They are all, in a word, beliefs. That is a fancy word acceptable to adults for "let's pretend." That is fine, there is nothing wrong with that, except that if you take it for Reality, you lose. What do you lose? Any chance of perhaps perceiving what that original Teaching might have been. You also lose a lot of playmates because you insisted that it is your game and they have to play by your rules and die or suffer if they don't. This is true of many non-Christian faiths as well, and many "-isms" and "-ologys."
The crux (lol) of the matter is perhaps the difference in knowledge by information and knowledge by identity.
Information is always by its own nature partial. It is always a best guess, an ad hoc, or a pro tem. Due to the human need to be right, to be validated, which is an emotional, not scientific, issue; partial understandings masquerading emotionally as reality get adhered to and practiced unflinchingly by many who wish the security of a closed system. Information is not a closed system, and beyond that, it is a speculative endeavor largely because of the narrow band perceptive ability of our senses, which are further restricted by operating in local time and space, as far as I can tell. This is the realm of operation of most, if not, all religions.
Knowledge by identity works Now, outside of time and space. It works outside of time and space in that it is "bigger" than that continuum and the only substance to it. If you put a pencil dot on a very large piece of paper and called it "all of time and space," the paper would represent Eternity, but wouldn't be nearly large enough or even begin to have enough dimensions. Moreover, that Eternity has no component of duration. It IS. Advaita is the descriptions offered by those who know this of what IS as distinct from what seems to be. Those descriptions are offered as a way to alter thinking in order to bring about a thought pattern congruent with Reality in order that an individual might SEE, and thereby exponentially know At-Onement with Reality, or God. In other words, there cannot, as is purported in Christian and other religions, be a Creation apart from God. Creation is a manifestation of God Himself. The human mind, being limited in scope, is the seeming barrier through which God, Reality, can experience Self from a localized perspective and thus enjoy the infinitude of Creation. But the sense of Self is unlimited and genuine and Whole. It is why many who become enlightened exclaim, "I have not been deceived!" It is the aspect of Divinity called Soul, which Dr. Mills referred to as "The feeling of Being I AM."
This is why to me to say that God is "in" something smacks of pantheism. Yet to say that God is manifesting "as" this or that allows at least the possibility of acknowledgment of the inseparability of, what to our senses, only seems to be a discreet object. The idea of "objects" having no independent existence is as well in accordance with quantum physics.
You might, in addition to F. Merrell-Wolff's books, enjoy David Baum's Wholeness and the Implicate Order.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Typical Daily Update
Hi Mom, Everyone,
The floors were finished today, with grout included. The floor tiles in both the bathroom and the kitchen are the same, but will have slightly different grout colors to tie in the other features in each room. The toilet is now also installed and working (YEAAAAA!!!!). the kitchen cabinets are also all in, as well as the microwave. That includes the little cabinet for pots and pans which will also be a work surface for the stove. The electrical is not tied in anywhere in the new construction, however, and the pulls all yet have to go on to the doors and drawers.
Yet another person stopped by today to ask "Who did the landscaping?" It is certainly an eyecatcher. Today I spent some time in the yard because the weather was just too lovely to pass up. I trimmed the bottlebrush tree so it can be walked under without fear of poking something. A rose bush also got trimmed, as well as the birch in front. I did some cleanup in the back yard, but a good deal of time was used to clean the multitude of weeds from the junipers in front of the house. The Wong's benefited a bit from that as well, because I did their half of the junipers between the two driveways and some of their planter near the birch to "spruce" that up, lol! A little bit was done along Schmidt, from the corner up through the first section of fence.
The lawn is to be mowed by Wednesday. It is growing like wildfire! It is one of the richest greens I've ever seen. Everyone compliments Joseph's design and work. The painter, Frank, stopped by to check how it was going with the windows, and I told him that Marcio expected the windows to be arriving this week some time. He also said how nice the place looks, and I thanked him for his good work. I have had a chance to look around the house and see how they did things, and I was pleased to see that even the roof vents were nicely done to complement the house. Gia the realtor was here as well and like what she saw and unlike Marcio estimated ten days to completion. I hope Marcio's estimate of seven is more accurate. Gia also encouraged me again in my artistic pursuits. (I found a gallery in Albany that will take what I have on the coming truck on consignment as soon as it gets here.)
The next major thing outside is the back yard and finishing at least a cursory cleanup of the curb plantings on Schmidt. The garage driveway is now clear of debris, which clears the way for more cleanup in the back, of which there is a lot. I've got the behind the garage area done, and have started piles of various catagories of trash for disposal, recycling, greenwaste, and hasmats. Right now, the inside of the garage is a hasmat and maybe that will be my priority tomorrow as the dumpster will be useful in that regard.
Love and blessings,
Anton
The floors were finished today, with grout included. The floor tiles in both the bathroom and the kitchen are the same, but will have slightly different grout colors to tie in the other features in each room. The toilet is now also installed and working (YEAAAAA!!!!). the kitchen cabinets are also all in, as well as the microwave. That includes the little cabinet for pots and pans which will also be a work surface for the stove. The electrical is not tied in anywhere in the new construction, however, and the pulls all yet have to go on to the doors and drawers.
Yet another person stopped by today to ask "Who did the landscaping?" It is certainly an eyecatcher. Today I spent some time in the yard because the weather was just too lovely to pass up. I trimmed the bottlebrush tree so it can be walked under without fear of poking something. A rose bush also got trimmed, as well as the birch in front. I did some cleanup in the back yard, but a good deal of time was used to clean the multitude of weeds from the junipers in front of the house. The Wong's benefited a bit from that as well, because I did their half of the junipers between the two driveways and some of their planter near the birch to "spruce" that up, lol! A little bit was done along Schmidt, from the corner up through the first section of fence.
The lawn is to be mowed by Wednesday. It is growing like wildfire! It is one of the richest greens I've ever seen. Everyone compliments Joseph's design and work. The painter, Frank, stopped by to check how it was going with the windows, and I told him that Marcio expected the windows to be arriving this week some time. He also said how nice the place looks, and I thanked him for his good work. I have had a chance to look around the house and see how they did things, and I was pleased to see that even the roof vents were nicely done to complement the house. Gia the realtor was here as well and like what she saw and unlike Marcio estimated ten days to completion. I hope Marcio's estimate of seven is more accurate. Gia also encouraged me again in my artistic pursuits. (I found a gallery in Albany that will take what I have on the coming truck on consignment as soon as it gets here.)
The next major thing outside is the back yard and finishing at least a cursory cleanup of the curb plantings on Schmidt. The garage driveway is now clear of debris, which clears the way for more cleanup in the back, of which there is a lot. I've got the behind the garage area done, and have started piles of various catagories of trash for disposal, recycling, greenwaste, and hasmats. Right now, the inside of the garage is a hasmat and maybe that will be my priority tomorrow as the dumpster will be useful in that regard.
Love and blessings,
Anton
A "Take" on Good and Evil
Someone asked me about good and evil and this is what came to me:
As for the problem of good and evil, it has according to my best lights, nothing to do with God, as the God I know is not a personal God. I find the idea of a personal God an impossibility and too small to fit the facts as I see them. The sort of personal God I percieve as being commonly worshiped by most religionists can at best be a well developed entity far enough beyond ordinary men as to appear to be God like, in the way a competent technician might be to someone of a mentality that could belong to a so called "cargo cult." God, in my estimation, is so far beyond any anthropomorphization that our ideas offered about a diety by religions is insulting to and demeaning of Diety, and astonishingly misleading as to what might be called "salvation."
Good vs. evil, as I see that dynamic, is the evaluation of events natural or artificial by standards pertinent to personal wishes of happiness or well being. Ignorance, particularly ignorance of the laws and forces of Nature, or Self, have not yet been recognized publicly as similar in nature to such things as hurricans, tsunamis, and avalanches. These things are not "evil," they are conditions of of our nature. As I see it the vast majority of humans are uncivilized, ignorant, and immature, despite good intentions and aberrant ideas of self esteem. I agree with Mahatma Gandhi's reply when he was asked what he thought of Western civilization. He said "I think it would be a very good idea." This applies equally to the ones who have the toys which control the ways of the world, namely banks, corporations, governments, and religions, likely in that order. These are for the most part found to be sociopathic institutions if they are subjected to ordianry personality tests. These institutions, and people who do harm, do it because they are looking out for their best perceived self interest. This is normal and everyone does it. The difference might be in what those percieved best self interests are. Being on the whole a phenomenally uncivilized and experi-mental race, few of us are on the same page, even nearly, with those who have an inclusive overview of what our potential as interactive beings might be. In other words, "evil" is Nature's way of saying "Hey! You (plural) are not congruent with your own best self interest! Wake up!"
Of course, one of the most impossible things to do is to tell someone who is asleep to wake up. It takes forcefull action. Imediate action, in fact, if the house is on fire, for instance, such as our planet is at this moment. Thing is, too many are too involved with what's in front of their own nose to notice, i.e. physically feel, that things are horribly awry. "Evil" is a teleological component of life and seems to result from the ignorance and immaturity of individuals who have not percieved their own right identity as co-creators with a rather astonishingly beyond-our-intellectual-understanding WONDER of a Universe. Conscious and aware of our underlying unity we can build a paradise. Ignorant of it, we will continue to blunder against each other's ignorance and create the result of that. Primarily, ignorance is not necessarily of facts and knowledge, it is of the nature of Self. One who knows experientially what they are before they the sense of being a person cannot harm others without knowing that they harm themselves. In either case, experience of good and evil is for the benefit of our education. But no one said we had to survive it as person.
The power that is Love is like electricity. Directed, it can do immense good. Undisciplined, uneducated and undirected it wreaks havoc. In any case it is the same force. And regarding the idea that "good" and "evil are a matter of vibrations high or low, vibrations of every kind and degree always already exist. The point is: am I aware of them and what they mean at various levels of consequence. (the consequences reveal the rules.) If I'm not, I am certain to step on toes, and that will be called evil. If I learn and change, that might be called good. The labels of good and evil belong to a limited two valued logic system which is incapable of including the actuality of the infinite value system of Universe. Good and evil judgements are blinding us from perceiving and acting on dynamics that would free us of the need to make such poor and inadequate evaluations.
Where is Music and Art in Schools??
This is one of my favorite rants, so I will refrain from anything of book length here, since it is a response to another's journal posting.
All subjects are important as facets of a diamond are to the proper reflection of its light. Music is the Queen of all of these because its practice can form neural pathways that correspond to actual relationships in the universe of experience. Art is the way of practicing connectivity with the palpability of the invisible, which is the very source of ideation. Both of these disciplines act to form an individual of perceptive and expressive facility, as does a firm foundation in grammar, which is the rules of expression of words as music. This means that if there is the right grounding in language, the speaker/writer can use the instrument of language to convey nuances of exquisit finess and practicality, and even of poetry. The understanding of patterns and the ability to detect semantic error are enhanced as well. But most of all, a competent teacher or Mentor in any discipline can guide the pupil in the ways of maturity. This maturity would be the "table" of the diamond, that part that gathers and reflects the light of experience. Enough for now, and thanks for asking a very important question. (You might find it interesting to look at my journal entry about the nature of the artist.)
Oh, as for technology, I agree with Mahatma Gandhi's answer to the question he was asked in London after visiting the spectacles of the city. He was asked "What do you think of Western civilization?" He answered "I think it would be a good idea." We seem not even to have the tools to percieve our monumental lack of development of our own remarkable abilities. We have, as a culture, dismissed maps of experiential and physical reality that were at one time easily navigable and were richly rewarding. We have given them up, perhaps, to be willing wage slaves of a few astonishingly wealthy individuals. Do the math on who earns what for doing what. Are you happy with it? As Adolph Hitler said "It is great luck for leaders that the people don't think." In part we don't think because our schools don't teach us to. In part it is because we have broken the links of social interactions that brought us the subtlties of percieving our own worth and abilities, both of which are, it seems, "old fashioned." We also do not police ourselves and thus invite tyranny. The soul of you, before it is stiffled by a religious definition, is an astounding treasure of incalculable wealth, and most do not know they wear its key to the grave.
All subjects are important as facets of a diamond are to the proper reflection of its light. Music is the Queen of all of these because its practice can form neural pathways that correspond to actual relationships in the universe of experience. Art is the way of practicing connectivity with the palpability of the invisible, which is the very source of ideation. Both of these disciplines act to form an individual of perceptive and expressive facility, as does a firm foundation in grammar, which is the rules of expression of words as music. This means that if there is the right grounding in language, the speaker/writer can use the instrument of language to convey nuances of exquisit finess and practicality, and even of poetry. The understanding of patterns and the ability to detect semantic error are enhanced as well. But most of all, a competent teacher or Mentor in any discipline can guide the pupil in the ways of maturity. This maturity would be the "table" of the diamond, that part that gathers and reflects the light of experience. Enough for now, and thanks for asking a very important question. (You might find it interesting to look at my journal entry about the nature of the artist.)
Oh, as for technology, I agree with Mahatma Gandhi's answer to the question he was asked in London after visiting the spectacles of the city. He was asked "What do you think of Western civilization?" He answered "I think it would be a good idea." We seem not even to have the tools to percieve our monumental lack of development of our own remarkable abilities. We have, as a culture, dismissed maps of experiential and physical reality that were at one time easily navigable and were richly rewarding. We have given them up, perhaps, to be willing wage slaves of a few astonishingly wealthy individuals. Do the math on who earns what for doing what. Are you happy with it? As Adolph Hitler said "It is great luck for leaders that the people don't think." In part we don't think because our schools don't teach us to. In part it is because we have broken the links of social interactions that brought us the subtlties of percieving our own worth and abilities, both of which are, it seems, "old fashioned." We also do not police ourselves and thus invite tyranny. The soul of you, before it is stiffled by a religious definition, is an astounding treasure of incalculable wealth, and most do not know they wear its key to the grave.
Bell--A Ringing Revelation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?hpid=topnews
This might have to do with the post below titled "Where is Music and Art in schools?" Thanks to Hugh Comerford of NLP Canada ( www.nlpworks.com )
Making Our Own Prison Bars in Other's Minds
Habits can facilitate skills or be prisons. Judgement is one of the most common prisons. It puts one behind the bars of their thoughts of what someone else ought to be like. In a way the judge-mental person is in their pretend mind of somone other than themselves. So if we do this we are either in God's business or someone else's business. This means that in judgement we are not at home in our own business where we all rightfully belong. Unfortunatley, we may, through habit, not know we are not home by attempting to live an opinion as someone else's "ought to be."
A simple way that can remind them (and us) of where they (we) are, if there is a modicum of honesty, is to ask four questions, like this: "Is it (what is being said about someone) true?" If "yes," then ask "Do you know it is absolutley true? (as in: are you a God who can see every tiny possibility, and is the judgement absolutly true in every case?) Most often it can be easily seen that there are exceptions or differences. Then ask "How do you feel when you think that thought?" like anger, disapointment, etc., including how the body feels when that thought is paid attention to. Then ask "Who would you be (in that situation, with that person) without that thought?" This question often allows the person to assume an impartial perspective or emotional distance. Sometimes it can be asked if there is an unstressful reason to keep the judgemental thought, or if there is a situation contrary to the thought that is equally true, even in some instances. Then turn it around. In other words, if the judgement was "So-and-so is blah, blah," say "I am blah-blah." See if it fits and how, and see if there are more ways of varying that turn around. Never try to give up the thought, just see if there is any reason to, or if there is some other possibility that simply wasn't on the radar, or wasn't given weight. Just seeing in this way allows the thought to leave you of it's own accord. As my Mentor, K.G. Mills* said, "The thoughts you think are not your own." Attention to a thought gives it, and its train,** life. This method allows the hold of attention to be broken so the thought can go back to where it came from. In some cases these questions have changed lives. They are from Byron Katie,*** a woman of remarkable compassion and understanding.
*Kenneth G. Mills www.kennethgmills.com
** train of thoughts, or the training of habits
***Byron Katie www.thework.com
Crow's feet and Fire
I like to see the lines on the face of someone mature and experienced, perhaps more than the unlined porcelaine face of youth. Those lines are the marks of having been somewhere, of gathering the material of personal transformation, the riches without which we have no fuel for the fire of change, the refiner's fire of our own realization.
This is silly, but someone asked....
One of the favorite sports at a particular dating site is sniping at the "Improve Matches" questions, whether it's their logic, lack of appropriate choices, grammar, or what ever. This one I responded to was about spelling: "What are 'mosqutoes?'" from the question "If you could kill all the mosqutoes in the..."Well, there are churchtoes, templetoes, synagogtoes, and mosqutoes. They all look pretty much the same and have to wear different things so they can tell themselves apart because if they were naked they couldn't. They fight each other because despite being exactly the same they think their special "clothes" make them the best and only, despite each acting exactly the same. People come from other planets trying to figure this out. "Why do all these 'toes that are exactly the same destroy each other so no one has anything when they could all have everything, because they are all the same and want the same things, except they make themselves think thay are different. Why, why, why?" No one has figured it out yet, and then they all leave because they are civilized and don't wish to be in such rude company.
To Val, re Winter and Cedar Canoes
Boy, I sure miss all that chipping, scraping and shovelling of snow and ice....NOT! Funny you mention about the canoe. Last night I dreamt about that scene you described about being out on the water at night.... I love canoeing, and used to go out in a friend's cedar canoe. It felt like it was alive, and it fit into the water so well, and knew it had it's right place in the wild. It felt more like it was drawn to where I was going, than me having to paddle it there. The paddling was like something to keep me busy while the canoe hunted out secret places like a ranging dog. It also knew when and how to be still, so in its shadow I could look down and see pike and bass waiting.... I often came back with wild rice in the belly of the boat, and scraped it up for the cook. That boat was a lake skimmer of the highest order as it shinned and glistened its way, quiet and fast in the silk/velvet water, propelled into its ways by warmth, sunshine, and air that was like a smooth, cool elixir of peace.
In the Moment
E.E.: You ask some fascinating questions. My Mentor defined Heaven and Hell in these terms: Heaven is the feeling of Unity, Hell is the feeling of separation. I'd add that we can experience each to various degrees. But the important thing is, like Shakespeare said, "... thinking makes it so." The Heart of each of us desires whatever the mind convinces us leads to the feeling of Unity. Since the mind works by making destinctions, it is quite capable of misleading us as to what will, in Fact, lead us to that certain, gut felt, intuitve knowledge of Unity. My sense is, that ultimately all of our experimentation will lead to the discovery that there never was a separation, but the we created the sense of it in order to find that out at an experiential level, no matter what the cost. Love, it seems to me, at one level, is absolutly impartial and will let you find your own way. That way it is utterly and irrevocably yours. You made it, you own it, and ultimately you know what it means. Maybe our difficulties stem from trying to find happiness as an addition of something from "out there" as we decline to percieve that the difference between "in here" and "out there" is purely cognative and is supported by English grammar which is emphatically not true to fact. I think that fits both with many Eastern systems as well as with quantum physics. It is the way of complete responsibility. (See my journal entry on Ho'oponopono.) I think also that it fits with Christianity as it was originally intended before its coruption. (I agree with the famous Christian playwrite, G.K. Chesterton: "It's not that Christianity doesn't work, it just hasn't been tried yet."*) This Way of complete responsibility has been taught for ages everywhere under many names and is, as far as I can see, the root of many religions. Religions happen as an attempt to codify the undefinable, experiential Teaching of a Master and are therefor poor substitutes for being in The Presence. It is also why those who accept the responsibility to whatever extent seem to naturally seperate from those imersed in the re-ligion** of dogma. One could write books on the awesome miracle of it all, but for "pop" digests, one might see Down the Rabbit Hole and The Secret, both oversimplifed, yet useful.A moment or forever? Most folks think that eternity has duration, with which come the commensurate myths of Heaven and Hell. That it doesn't have duration is what makes it eternal and therefore able to support a moment and one's thinking it is this or that. Now there's another book!
I am wondering how common, and how popularly unsupported in the West, your experience with your Hindu friend might be, the one where you realized "IS IS." I was what, maybe 17, and walking throught the house thinking about the nature of things and it hit me: IS IS!!! It was such a remarkable insight for me that I, right there at that moment, penciled it in under the light switch for the kitchen overheads. It was there for years. I could walk by and see it even years later when I came to visit.
This is not where I would go in to my 28 year association with my Mentor, but suffice it to say that just at the time that, due to the undeniable pressure of experience, I started to question my birth religion, I met him and very soon after I heard his first lecture he reconciled my ambiguities about Eastern/Western religious thought in a spontaneously given poem.
For me it had yet another resonance. My Dad was an armchair Egyptologist. Of course, one of the great goddesses in that pantheon is ISIS. I later became more intruiged by MAAT, but at the time of my inspiration I was quite taken by the coincidence in the name of Isis.
Lately, in addition to the Ho'oponopono, I have been reading Byron Katie. You might enjoy her work as well. It is VERY IS IS.*this statememt of Chesterton's resonates for me with what Gandhi said when he was asked what he thought of Western civilization. He said "I think it would be a very good idea."
** look up the root meaning of the word; compare to the verb "to be," 1st person singular.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
