when the forests disappear
as they are doing even now
when the glaciers melt as
they are doing even now
when the wildflowers bloom too soon as
they are doing even now
when the honeybees come too late as
they are doing even now
when the snows melt too fast as
they are doing even now
when the rivers run dry as
they are doing even now
who will we blame
at the last instant before extinction?
—little running bear
[Upon reading the latest news about Glacier National Park in
Montana and the advanced effects of climate warming noticeable
in present lifetime spans.]
2014-11-24
Dorothy Initiated in the Mandala of Mass Destruction
[Ragga Muffin dropped this off before heading back out into the
vortex...]
“Toto, I don’t think we’re in a mandala anymore,” Dorothy
lamented. “This whole society seems like a victim of fetal-alcohol
syndrome.
“staggerring around in a virgin forest conqueror drunken rage,
ditching its overkill horsepower factory-town chariot with a blown
profit-margin head-gasket, stranded flagging down some kind of sanity
ride from passing co-opted cultures on their way to international noetic
auction, falling spinning gushing crude guilt leaving only kidney
stones, and collapsing delirium tremens in a dustbowl parking-lot
babylon wasteland coma;
“abusing its technology kitchen-appliance wife, putting her on the
electric-grid dole 24/7 and selling her at a middleman flea market for
trinket notions of convenience;
“inheriting newborn innocence mortgage career bottle-formula menu
dependence, enrolling in institutional denial artificial comfort
doughnut privilege, working at industrial shining armour cynicism
processed bavarian cream filling credentials, and graduating cum-laud
Job Security contingency in lesser-of-two-evils deep-fat fryer
authority;
“pimping revelation tricks out of a thrills and spills whorehouse,
working the intention street to pay off the misgivings bag-man on the
corner, test-driving little bliss sisters in the everlasting love
demolition derby, knocking up discipline and housing it in the bottom
line, bequesting the illegitimate potential to the highest drifter;
“driving a white-wheeled jones limosine cut with passive/aggressive
dice on the obsession rear-view mirror, pawning diamond ring virtue
until fit as a prop in a skillful means sting operation to cover the
karmic liquor-tab, defending experience terrritory with hired accountant
objectivity and chain-of-custody memory, smoking out happy-hour sessions
where everyone gets the clues they need;
“barely camped in feudal flophouses on a Western civilisation
cattledrive, giving up garden children to the automation orphanage,
posing starving artist oatmeal porridge poverty as line-of-credit
shop-window double chocolate sleaze glamour, panhandling in front of
hypocrisy for enough doubt to chug a tallboy delusion, stockpiling
over-budgeted excuse hostages in do-or-die bombshelter backroom
phone-call vindication, and keeping a hot date for the personal
transformation prom with the head of the class noted-prophet
cheerleader;
“trading fabricated guilt, junk Holy-Writ bonds on the sour-grapes
morality exchange, fixing manifestion effectiveness rates on the
incarnation trading floor, floating expectation indebtedness backed by
spiritual-materialism tourist sales, loan-sharking technology symbols
and proprietary metaphors, bootlegging perscription principles,
exporting meme raw materials, grandfathering self-made pedagogues and
importing factory-built sophistry, and jumping karmic-ground Titanic
ship before it sinks in the samsaric bathwater vortex;
“bidding on belief villages to host the Religion Olympic Games,
building preconception stadiums in the field of consciousness for
archtype competitions, the doubt-fear-boredom triathalon and pretty-lies
marathon, requiring loyalty oaths to the divisibility of matter and
permanence of tangible substance, doctoring cold-comfort urine tests to
mask traces of steroid world-views, boycotting contentious convictions,
banning spiritual cures and blacklisting human-nature wildcards to the
sobriety penalty box, calibrating experience timepieces and attitude
instruments in double-blind-study timetrials, and sponsoring dream
training, communication exercises, and visualisation blind heats before
the nostalgia panel of judges for inheritance gold-medals.”
Dorothy followed manufacturers’ instructions to the ends of the
earth, trying to pay no attention to the brilliant flash of human
potential carny behind the discriminating consciousness curtain. She
sometimes needed intuition and allies to help her out of a jam, and
quite accidentally came upon Divine Right Davenport by the side of the
road fixing his vehicle, “Urge”. He dug out an old copy of “Mandala”,
the I-Ching and some coins from his toolboxes equipped to
change a motor on the side of a mountain.
“What you’ve been going through is not necessarily big problems or
goods and wickeds, but finding your way through a mandala,” he said.
“From the point of view of the Book of Changes (which is kind
of like GPS for mandalas), situations exist for the purpose of our being
able to center and create ourselves anew through them, which we can
construe or misconstrue. The only thing to change is one’s attitude. As
intuition seeps through and you begin to see the patterns and
self-existing structure of your reality, these situations become
teachers, your understanding (what you know) is reflected more in who
you are, and your life evolves as shown more by the mandala.
“Searching is a natural attraction towards what is at yet
unexplained. The cracks in the dominant delusion are not hard to find, I
dare say, and how the light gets in, so they are appreciated as
prajna (wisdom). Imagination is the key to the highway,
possibilities are points on the map and suggestions are rides. Guided by
one’s connection to the source journeying through a mandala, however,
all roads lead to their maker. You found me by the road of false
pretense industrial civilisation on which I’ve spent most of my life.
The totality of that mandala gives an aerial view of mass destruction.
“The secret to a mandala is how people relate to it. Here the natural
response of the path has been co-opted by lifeless asphalt, the speed of
relationship to it has been motorised complicated, and goals of the
journey are blaring billboards, whose subject matter attainment
constantly eludes us. Method becomes a pre-occupation, right things are
done for the wrong reasons and we can’t see the subtlety or irony of
things. The purpose of a mandala is to know your spot, and the Mandala of Mass Destruction is store-bought experience!!
“Media is mistaken for a reference point, slavery for practice,
irradiation for purification, tolerance for acceptance, repetition for
understanding, reaction for acknowledgement, credentials for merit,
ticketstubs for accomplishment, authority for empowerment, loss for
renunciation, accuracy for truth, payment for appreciation, imminence
for prophecy, shoplifting for revolution, sensitivity for mindfulness,
movies for experience, stimulation for bliss, synchronicity for insight,
slaughter for production, programming for big mind, imitation for
adornment, stability for authenticity, protection for vision.
“The I-Ching identifies this system of patterns as ‘The Marrying
Maiden’, hexagram #54. Traditionally noted characteristics include
trying to use feelings to arouse essential nature,
taking the false for the real, good reasoning with wrong view, inwardly
moved by externals, a good man with bad teachings, a good woman in bad
circumstances. Described as attempting to nuture wood with metal, it is
nothing other than the devil’s bargain; because ultimately
metal breaks down wood — temptation distracts desire and virtue hasn’t
been seen around here in years.
“What appears to be a hopelessly bad deal, however, can be attributed
instead, as Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche so often reminded us, to undue
haste; like choosing players without a programme. The recommended
survival strategy is to persist until the very end for the truth,
separating the wheat from the chaff, seeing the real within the false,
and to be content with your circumstances even if they are below what
you deserve. If one can hold on and not compromise one’s principles for
convenient circumstances – like a maiden remaining chaste until Mr.
Right comes along, even if it means marrying below her station; then
punishment will turn into merit and one will be able to snatch the truth
within feeling and restore it to essence. Essence loves the
righteousness of feeling, and feeling loves the goodness of essence.
“In particular, lay low and find your spot in the style of don Juan,
being careful about where you go and keeping it to yourself. This also
means not acting as though the rest of the world is your spot – arousing
hatred and cutting oneself off from others. One cannot insist on proper
response if one still has doubts, uses questionable means or takes
things personally. It is better to remain unnoticed on the outside and
work on one’s illumination inwardly, awakening to inherent goodness
through cultivation rather than presuming upon it. Keep your connection
to the essential and don’t worry about losing the rest (like leaving the
boat after crossing the river), and the way will open up itself for you.
“My guru gave me these books and coins for my sadhana
(practice). When one understands the teachings, one may say they have
received the teachings. It is a blessing if they may be a guide for you
as well as for me. By this merit may all obtain omniscience. Jah guide.
Sat nam. all my relations.”
2014-08-30
Sudden Awareness
Instant awakening with the rumble sound from deep inside
house timbers
Earthquake, no other sound like it
Fifteen seconds of eternity
Wondering "is this the big one?"
At some point as the waves crest, the answer "no"
The house stands, the walls intact
Little puppy the first to react
Howls in the back room, the other two dogs
Nonchalantly return to sleep
First action, roll over and press the smartphone to check time
3:20am
Joseph is already estimating the Richter reading
TV has late night talk show reruns and infomercials
The place to check for news at this hour is the Internet
USGS already has the first report on their map
6.0 American Canyon
Oh I remember American Canyon the year I drove up and visited
Shields Library at University of California, Davis
That country is photo perfect for sunset colors against the
Golden grasses of late summer
Twitter already reporting damage in Napa
As the Bay Area emergency response plans are triggered
Later that week, data from wearers of the Jawbone
wristband
(Which monitors body vital signs)
Showed that 93% of the population within 15 miles of the
epicenter
Woke instantly to the shaking
The stats fall off significantly further away
Nevertheless everyone I asked agreed
The earthquake woke us all
Peter Berg might have called it a
Bioregional Sudden Awareness Event
(and to think there was no Internet Web the last Big Earthquake
we had in 1989)
