Happy Being 'Nobody', 'Nobody' Knows Everything

Not really feeling like writing so much these days (days filled with a lot of work around the homefront - dealing with 30 years of denial, 'landlord' devoid of any notion of responsibility, will probably require search for new base by fall). I'm hearing similar stories from friends...aah, the ethics of private property/ownership and the idiocy of the two-leggeds. 
So, onward.....

Steve Best posted this, but worth reposting - shows what's possible with a little solidarity and creative spontaneity:
 

As for spontaneity, this is what came about one week in March. My friend thought I should talk about the study and process of learning the Indian drum, pakhawaj, for the benefit of those possibly interested - the 'what', 'why', and 'wherefore'. Simply done, gradually getting into the esoterics after basic discussion. 
 

Some things that rocked me, musically, in the last week....enjoy!
  

A masterful 'jhalla' (free-form rhythmic improv) by Uday, accompanied on 'jori pakhawaj' (traditional Sikh-style 'tabla' with wheat-paste on bass) by Sukhvinder Singh:
 
Part 2 of their set, with composition in 10 beats is excellent also - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKK9G6F-y6s

I'm tempted to write a whole post on the phenomenon of blog and/or website 'leaders'/'administrators' going all fascistic in conjunction with their 'fans/followers' piling-on with the group-think lynch-mob mentality toward anyone who even questions the 'authority'/'expertness'/'omniscience' of said writers, whether the subject is public/political or private/personal. But actually, it's so disgusting that I can't waste my energy on it. It is for this reason that I now mostly refrain from commenting on other blogs or comment-threads, with a few exceptions. Just in case anyone was wondering....I see that shit going on, demonizing and labeling good people 'psychopaths' and 'megalomaniacs' (um, projection?), and I'm outta there. Enough said.  

Pathless Land

 

"I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. 

 

Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular path. ... 

 

This is no magnificent deed, because I do not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth. 

 

I am not concerned whether you pay attention to what I say or not. I want to do a certain thing in the world and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies."    - J. Krishnamurti

 

"To be truly critical is not to be in opposition. Most of us have been trained to oppose and not to criticize. When a man merely opposes, it generally indicates that he has some vested interest which he desires to protect, and that is not deep penetration through critical examination. True criticism lies in trying to understand the full significance of values without the hindrance of defensive reactions."      - J. Krishnamurti

 

 

 

 

Small Axe Sutra

Ah, the beautiful Land of Enchantment, home sweet home, I read is now "one signature away" from becoming the home (Roswell) of the first new horse slaughterhouse, thanks to Monsanto's Tom Vilsack, sec of Ag/USDA, and his boss', Prez O, allowance of the decades-long ban to expire.  Evil never sleeps.
You can easily go crazy reading each new 'study', published practically monthly, about 'new' discoveries of the extreme levels of emotional and psychological sensitivities of non-human sentient beings, and how they could 'possibly' exceed those of humans. It's taken a long time, but the Wetiko epidemic has pretty much taken over the vast majority of our species, and the evidence is everywhere you turn and coming at you each second of the day and night. (Hi, bacon-loving truthers!) 

What's really exhausting and vimpiric, energy-wise, in the human realm at this point in the yuga is the pseudo- and phony bullshit "spirituality"-slash- religion that forever claims to be of some benefit to sentient beings while the legions of self-appointed and self-deluded 'teachers' mis-lead, mis-direct, and ignore their own hypocrisy and humility-less allegiance to dubious 'traditions', scriptures and buzz-phrases somehow accepted as 'gospel' by the majority of normal human beings throughout the planet. This goes on even while millions of intelligent people are at least nominally aware that all modern cultures have come about through the historical crushing of the knowledge traditions of their indigenous ancestors. It's a wonder. And it's your job as a human being to cut through the bs and acquire a sense of the long view of our presence on earth and its ancient and continuing evolutionary processes, as well as to reclaim what's left of the many streams of intricate wisdom about how to live naturally on the Mother. I guess I'm really sick of the god-and-me, jesus-and-me, krishna-and-me, yahweh-and-us, ganesh-and-me, green-tara-and-me, allah-and-me, my-guru-and-me, even entheogenic-entities-and-me, etc etc trips, and the lack of recognition of the universal mystery of Spirit. And a little humility, for fucks sake.  

I recently mentioned the book The Earth Spirit by John Michell. It is a good introduction for anyone with a spiritual interest, and especially for the earth-disconnected Western scientific mind. Another, much deeper, and revelatory volume, that should be the main text in every school on the planet, is Voices of the First Day - Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime, by Robert Lawlor.  I'm not even going to begin to review or describe this book. Just see for yourself, and be astonished. We're talking real basic spirituality 101 here, and in more detail than ya can barely handle. 100,000 years of STORY of human-and-extra-human experience; read it and then talk to me about the 5000 yr old monotheistic 'traditions' being something new under the Sun or having something to teach about living. I think it is not much different from the Naga Babas' "Book of Life".
Another fun read is the volume of stories that tie together the Irish/Welsh traditions with the Indian Vedic/pre-Vedic - Celtic Heritage, by Alwyn & Brinley Rees. Don't know about these connections? That's because the his/her-STORIES have been successfully crushed, and we know nothing of our true roots. 

Well, here I put in a 30' Shri Yantra next to the garden a couple years ago, before I moved here. We just uncovered it from a covering of waist-high grass, and will soon set it (semi-)permanent with some stones and plants. 

     
I've been putting off telling a certain story and description of personal experience for a long time, but I'm feeling it needs to be expressed now. I've only alluded to it in the past on these pages. 
But first, I came across an essay a couple days ago, which some might find interesting, while others will probably have problems with parts of it. I mean those who are 'cooler' than everyone else, who absolutely know that 'left' and 'right' have no meaning in historical political or any other sense. Yes, I'm fully aware of the fact that the Wetiko disease has infected the entire political spectrum, but I also lived through the 50s and 60s with Vietnam, the revolts, the assassinations and all the rest. If you weren't there, you might find it difficult to grok the points made here: Imperialism Is Now Murdering Stories. Anyway, this post today probably will have something to do with 'stories'.

In my town there is a plot of land with various structures, including a temple containing a large marble Hindu deity, a couple of large residences, institutional-equipped kitchen, guest rooms, bookstore, large garden areas, camping sites, and facilities to feed several hundred people weekly and for festivals. It operates under the banner of "remember god, love everyone, feed the people" and other such benevolent concepts. 
In actuality, it is a perfect microcosm of our sick, hypocritical societal structure, and run by a thoroughly psychopathic and elitist 'non-profit' board of directors who chose new members from their own clique, aka 'team players'. This is not known to the general public, either locally or internationally. Families from India, spiritual practitioners from around the country and the world, scholars, 'hippies', the damaged survivors of babylon, and every life-style existant, all arrive daily to seek refuge, meditate, serve, offer talents, create sacred music, or just soak up the vibe that appears to be one of unity, compassion, benevolence, kindheartedness, equality, humaneness, equality, respect, openness, and dignity. 
That is what appears on the surface. It takes a while to lift the veil of deception. I have observed it for 23 years, and known of the cult secrets for 30. So, why would I even give it any energy, or write about it? Because, for one, it provides perfect metaphors for our spiritual disease and the consequences of new-age 'culture', and two, both myself and my dear friend, as well as dozens of my very close brothers and sisters, have been seriously abused psychologically over the last 25+ years for attempting to make a potentially unique community resource function in a sane and respectful/reverent manner.

A little history: it was begun as a private 'country club' for friends and followers of a certain ivy-league psych professor/jewish comedian/guru wannabe, and who subsequently also got involved with a sick-ass jewish brooklyn woman who claimed to channel various dead Hindu saints and started an ugly mind-control cult in Florida, deplete with all the terror, mind- and sex-manipulation, sexual predation, pedo-abuse, drug-abuse, kidnapping, etc etc. Later, the local place here gradually came to be called an 'ashram' under the name of a noted authentic Indian saint/yogi who had numerous decent followers in India. Now, a number of us do know where the bodies are buried and where the money went, but if I exposed that, I would probably be subject to death threats, as I have been before. 
As the years rolled by, the 'ashram' became a somewhat significant feature of the community as well as a pilgrimage destination of Indian immigrants, who donated most of the upkeep funds eventually. The Indians think it's great, just like home, and they respect the dedication and true bhakti spirit of the locals.  It became apparent, though, to local people who did all the work for decades (some paid, but many doing "selfless service") to keep the place operating, that the place was actually operating like a maquilladora, breaking all normal labor laws, treating employees like slaves (with lectures on "selfless service") - I know, I know, the Magna Carta has been rescinded, we're back to the dark ages - hiring and firing at whims, hiring those most incompetent but submissive for supervisory positions, to the horror of all who dedicated many hours and years to the community 'satsang', and who know of many members continuously marginalized who have extensive experience, knowledge/talents, and cultural awareness and sensitivity to share and build something we have always envisioned as a beautiful sacred space for dharmic practices. So for years, the best of us have been getting the hell outta there, and mostly outta town, never to return, spending a good spell processing the abuse, and finally getting on with their lives. Then the next crop arrives, always a constant stream of newcomers, naive, idealistic, and unaware of the abusive and disrespectful history, to take their places. It works out great for the psychopaths in charge. 
What the psychopaths always claim is that the abuse and disdain toward their 'inferiors' is a spiritual teaching process, a sort of 'for purposes of demonstration' leela of 'the guru' (to reveal your hidden fucked-up-ness), and that He has 'everything under control' - so all you need to do is submit and surrender to His divine wisdom....the dead guru, that is. 

Did you know that in the Voodoo tradition, the creation of a Zombi involves an "enforced sacrifice, decreed by an external agent...an act of transgression par excellence...a capture of [the person's] 'small good angel' (which enables personality and will to take hold and manifest). When the 'small good angel' is captured, the roots of the will are thrust into a slavery...the mouth is [symbolically] sewn shut, shutting the Zombi off from the healing power of Naming."  (Just thought I'd throw that in there, as it might have some relevance or resonance.)
 
People only see what's immediately apparent on the surface. I have spent extended time with the big mucky-mucks and the 'sacred music' 'rock-stars' of the cult over some years (they wanted to make use of my drumming skills, that is, until they realized that I'm an artist trained extensively in improvisation and gandharva aesthetics). It was a curious case study of perverts. They give their spiritual raps, hold their expensive retreats, and drive off and laugh all the way to the bank. They care nothing about anyone unless that person can be of some service or benefit to them. They have really nothing to teach, because they've never surrendered at the feet of a real teacher, nor been initiated into the deep, long-term fires of any tradition, but only met a saint once-upon-a-time and concluded that this made them somehow extremely special and important and above all other mere mortals.  They know practically nothing about Indian culture as its lived, and have no interest in it, only what they've read about or heard third-hand in the realm of 'babas' and the god-selling business.
The board members and the elite cult-identifiers all support their rock-stars, belittle or take no interest in anyone with anything authentic to offer the community, and continue promoting the philosophy that learning and practicing anything in the traditional way is uncool, and that faking that coming-from-your-heart thing is what it's all about (and being a 'star' and having fans, of course), otherwise you're nothing but shit. The very word 'community' is a forbidden word, never to be used, as it will elicit paroxysms of anguish, panic, and fear of overwhelming attack (from the unwashed cattle). Edicts are issued down and no questioning is allowed, summary dismissal with no prior notice can happen for any or no reason. Workers doing 12-14 hr days have been basically on food rations, while "feeding the people for god". Its as bad as the old missions south of Broadway.
Well, I guess that all sounds pretty standard for spiritual cults, and really no surprises here. 

Recently, I had to visit the grand new shiny "cancer center" in the nearby big city. I noticed a plaque on one wing, saying "donated by Lockheed-Martin, Sandia Labs, Los Alamos..." Do you get it? What I'm talkin' about is the biblical shit about "ye shall know them by their fruits/works". Such atrocious horseshit. NO! You shall know them by spending 'quality time' in their fucking presence, and seeing where they're really at and coming from, how they relate to and treat others, and what their daily focus is on and the level of self-discipline. People and institutions everywhere have their 'fronts', their make-believe appearances of 'doing good works', caring about something other than themselves, respect for the diversity of life and spiritual experience. What-ever. Everything is fucking upside down. Here's a different scripture:
Why boasteth thyself
Oh, evil men
Playing smart
And not being clever?
I said, you're working iniquity
To achieve vanity (if a-so a-so)
But the goodness of Jah, Jah
I-dureth for-I-ver                         -Small Axe sutra             



     

Oh, what you gonna do about me?

Oh, sweet brother, we heard you then and now. Our souls reverberate forever from the power of your songs, we were moved, awestruck, and the magic of the love flowing from the vessel you brought to us, and gathered us within, reaches the most distant stars, returning again and again. Until the next time....onelove.

 

 

 

Choices We Make, Graces That Are Bestowed

Mother orangutan clings to last tree in her forest before being rescued from palm-oil plantation bulldozers

Played a gig this last weekend with an extremely talented young Bengali woman singer of Tagore songs - 'Rabindra sangeet'.  It was a sold-out performance at the major jazz club in the state, with minimal advertising, and ended with a standing ovation and encore calls.  The lady artist concluded her set with the following song, widely known as a favorite of Mahatma Gandhi's:

        "Ekla Chalo Re" - Rabindranath Tagore, 1905

        If they answer not to thy call walk alone

        If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,
        O thou unlucky one,
        open thy mind and speak out alone.

        If they turn away, and desert you when crossing the
        wilderness,
        O thou unlucky one,
        trample the thorns under thy tread,
        and along the blood-lined track travel alone.

        If they do not hold up the light when the night is troubled
        with storm,
        O thou unlucky one,
        with the thunder flame of pain ignite thy own heart,
        and let it burn alone.

Having had only an hour's pre-gig sit-down with Smt. Kamalini Mukherji (to get the talas for the songs), I was as blown away as the audience by her consummate skill at deeply expressing the emotions of the extraordinary range of Tagore's poetry, which she first translated from the Bengali. The lyrics and the melodies (sung with awesome vocal chops) draw on both the classical Dhrupad tradition as well as the iconoclastic Baul folk style. Quite a rare mix, and worth checking out if she performs in your area. 

Back at the home front, my beloved friend recently pulled a precious old volume from my bookshelf titled The Earth Spirit: its Ways, Shrines and Mysteries - by John Michell, 1975 - and read again to me the first few paragraphs. 
I think it's worth reviewing, just for context here in this post-2012 time-warped, incomprehensibly crucial and spiritually demanding moment in the life of the planet and all sentient beings....

"The first men, by all traditional accounts, lived in perfect harmony with nature and the gods. Of their own accord, said Ovid, without the compulsion of law, they were honest and true. There was no punishment or fear, no judges or soldiers. 'The earth itself gave all things spontaneously, and men were content with its uncultivated produce.' Plato in his Laws refers to Hesiod's myth of the age of Chronus, when 'all that life requires was provided unasked and in abundance', the reason being that the men of that time were ruled not by other men but by spirits, these corresponding to the eternal element in human nature. The men of the age of Chronus were wanderers, living under the direct guidance and protection of the earth spirit, following the migratory paths of their ancestors, vitally concerned with the cycles of animal and plant life, the progress of the seasons, the movements of the heavenly bodies. Perambulating each year the wide range of their native territory, they traced the steps of the gods who first created it, thus living out a cosmogony in which every spot, every feature of the landscape had its mythical significance, reflected in the activities that took place there. Time was cyclical, not linear; creation was a continuous process, and the spirits that promoted it were ubiquitous and eternal.
…..
Before civilization sets in, the earth is the one universal deity; not the material earth, but the spirit by virtue of which, according to the ancient philosophers, it is a living creature: a female, because it receives the power of the sun, is animated thereby and made fertile. The body of the earth, like the body of a man, is corruptible and subject to change, but its spirit is unchanging, and therefore the essential nature of this planetary being is spiritual; indeed, Porphyry states that the physical earth is merely a symbol of the earth as it really is. The orthodox view that survived into the middle ages from prehistoric times is expressed by the alchemist Basilius Valentinus: 'The earth is not a dead body, but is inhabited by a spirit that is its life and soul. All created things, minerals included, draw their strength from the earth spirit. This spirit is life, it is nourished by the stars, and it gives nourishment to all the living things it shelters in its womb. Through the spirit received from on high, the earth hatches the minerals in her womb as the mother her unborn child.' Man in his natural state, enjoying the abundance of the virgin earth, considers any proposal to violate it, or to modify in any way its superficial appearance, to be sacrilegious as well as superfluous….
The oldest and deepest element in any religion is the cult of the earth spirit in her many aspects. Especially to wandering men, nomads, pilgrims, itinerants, tramps and half-wits, she is the mother, and they, her children, partake of her sanctity. The pious duty of settled people is hospitality to travelers, for they are acolytes of Hermes [Hanuman?], the errant spirit of earth, who, as Mercurius, is also the Virgin…"

Earth Spirit is a unique and exceptional book, both for its text and the many photos and illustrations. John Michell is the notable author of View Over Atlantis, City of Revelation, The Dimensions of Paradise, The Lost Science of Measuring the Earth*****!, Confessions of a Radical Traditionalist, How the World is Made: The Story of Creation According to Sacred Geometry, and many many other important works. He has been a major influence on my life since the 70s, and was a wonderful chap to meet in this world.

I am personally making spiritual/mental choices each day and each moment. I do not avoid the dire developments and predictions regarding the earth's, and our own, apparent fate as it appears according to the scientific data. I do not keep myself from mourning the terrible suffering everywhere, from the children of Palestine and Syria to the dogs in China and Korea...It is immeasurable and the intense reality of our time. I do, however, and at the same time, celebrate every precious moment of the love and creativity that surrounds me, and will do so till my last breath.
Hell, I was absolutely certain that the entire world was going to cease to exist, either by nuke madness or Shiva's pralaya, on a particular date in 1969. I sat on the banks of the Ganga till the sun went down, then made a chai and food and drummed till the wee hours. That was one terrific meditation.
 
I recently played with an extraordinary group of musicians and drummers in Atlanta (from around the country and world), and it involved 10 solid full days of exquisite rehearsals, collaboration, gentle and fervent brotherhood and mutual admiration all around. (I was also the only non-Indian, heh, but that's the norm.) Among the group was my new bro, Amit, a mind-blowing sitar maestro and jazz guitarist, based in Prague. Looking through some of his YouTubes, I came across this interview about a musical collaboration based on the Bhagavad Gita. Now, that is a subject around which there is much confusion, both world-wide and in India. In this interview Amit gives the most excellent take I have come across on that which is called "Arjuna's Dilemma". See if what he is saying resonates: This whole thing has been, and continues to be, obfuscated by so many pontificators, it has driven me crazy, and I personally know this gentleman is both a wise traditionalist and a hip philosopher, and also funny as hell if you're lucky enough to hang with the dude. And I am just relieved at how someone finally talks some straight sense around this subject.

"Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true"  -  Thomas Paine

Hope all your lives are graced with love and creativity for the duration. Onelove, bholanath
ps - Hanuman Jayanti coming this full moon!