Immersed in Sentience

Nataraj - exoticindia.com

What makes a person able to recognize and be horrified, confused, and deeply disturbed by the insanity of the Matrix at a very young age? Or, conversely, accept or barely notice that nothing feels or appears right? It's something I've never been able to figure out. Admittedly, growing up in the 50's amerikkka we were immersed in an atmosphere of mostly 'normalcy' and 'progress'. Shiny sleek cars, cinemascope, vacations, school-spirit & cute cheerleaders, and the Norman Rockwell vision effectively pushed racism, militarism, classism, domestic abuse of humans and other sentients, conceit and hubris, and such things into the background, sort of. Some of us noticed some glimpses through the cracks.
But by early teens, things really looked unmistakably unnatural and 'off', even without being personally subjected to the horrors of some of our peers. Maybe I just 'caught the vibe' from my father, who definitely was not enthusiastic about 'civilization' and the superficial lives of his contemporaries. His favorite pastime was spending a day by a stream with a fishing line in the water, quietly listening and feeling the surroundings, lovingly expressing his joy at being a dad to his only child. When he was 65, and I was 13, he confessed that he was actually no longer comfortable about the suffering of the fish, and that the pastime was losing its appeal. Pity he only lived another year, but that day remains clear in my mind. 

Three years later 'they' blew JFK's brains out (for purposes of demonstration), and by then I had zero doubt that we were living in a kind of hell realm unequalled since the inquisition/witch-hunt days (was I there, then?). I knew also that we were headed into a sci-fi nightmare of massive horrific slaughter of 'gooks' (better death through chemistry), repression and backlash in 'the south' and northern ghettos, destruction of the environment along with inevitable fucking up our DNA, and fastly increasing downpressing of the youth - since my generation, and those slightly older, were coming into a consciousness change. Yes, even before drugs(!) some saw the writing on the wall. There was also a feeling of a very possible mass awakening and exciting anticipated victory over the old order. But, not to be. Some of us renounced the old paradigm and never looked back, bailing college, self-educating and experiencing the greater world, eventually ending up as 'old hippies'. Hmm. Others didn't, and spent the next 4-5 decades carrying on, trying to manage an increasingly difficult balance of 'normal life' and adjusting to perplexing constant change. I've just never been sure why I was a part of the former group, or why so many of my generation became the latter only to have to confront their own kids' non-acceptance and/or rebelliousness in other (d)evolved forms.

I'm not even sure the 'choices' were truly choices. Teachers and experiences appeared before us and turning away only seemed absurd non-options. Never knowing a permanent home was irrelevant, we were exiles and gypsies, and the whole world was our home. 'World citizens'...heh. Great masters opened their doors to us. The finest traditional artists on the planet coached us through our initiatory processes. We had our work cut out for us, a long-term learning process with no end in sight. A real 'mission impossible' in our view.
Should I name-drop a mind-blowing list of the most eminent gandharvas of our age, whom we studied with and gigged with, or should I just refer the reader to the "Mridang Artist's" page? Pretty pointless, since the names mean nothing to all but a few hundred people in the 'western' world, but that's how it played out, probably by some pre-birth arrangement. And I'm ok with it. Those listed folks, for 40 years, have been my real 'family'. [Now days, when I drop back into the sangeet world, what I constantly hear is, "You are more Indian than we are!" Cracks me up every time. I don't know exactly why, but I have some suspicions.] The 60's were a different experience for some of us who felt the deep auspiciousness of the moment but didn't identify with the general alternative "star-focussed", western-centric vibe. Some percentage grasped the necessity and importance of getting a deeper understanding of older and colonized cultures, and the focus was drawn in that direction. Being at a major underground publication enabled us to associate with many prominent personalities and creative folks, allowed us access to backstages of revolutionary events like the Be-Ins/Gathering of the Tribes, Monterey Pop, Fillmore, Winterland, and such, as well as exclusive interviews with iconic 'stars' of the time. As a member of Micky Hart's ensemble, we opened for big acts and hobnobbed with the blow-snorting, primo-smoking set, etc. But when I got a call to tour with a great world-treasure traditional musician, I immediately packed my bags and said goodbye. I could see things were soon going to shit, and the real 'revolution' was going to get sidetracked. Too much ego, self-obsession, fame-ambition, and historical ignorance in the hangers-on/wannabe scene. And ultimately booooring. It killed many of my friends from that time. The revolutionary movement was going to proceed from within. I also preferred entheogenic sacred medicine journeys solo, in the deserts and forests, not with 20,000 inebriated freaks.

New Mexico Magazine

[Excuse me a moment. Have to encourage the hummingbird who flew in to head back out the door. Ahh. Thanks for visiting!]
..But traveling abroad and in Asia, friendly, hospitable folks were everywhere. We just assumed that our fellow citizens would somehow 'get it' and everybody would eventually get up to speed in their own time and come together, no problem, and a global transformation would no doubt eventually happen organically. But, by the mid-80s, came the stark realization that we weren't fully paying attention, and that the depth of depravity of long-forgotten (experienced?) burning-times had been, well, forgotten/repressed.

I personally undertook a massive, lengthly study of all the intricacies of many of the worst periods of known human history, searching for the roots and origins of the spiritual error, and at the same time, via a spiritual 'transmission' from Sri Hanumanji regarding monkey-export trade happening in India, what became a thorough, detailed examination of the atrocities taking place in the worlds of our fellow sentient beings, and became somewhat involved in various forms of activism. This drove my 'friends' crazy and away. Tracking ever-increasing revelations in these areas over the following decades became a continuous study, and the picture unfolding of the true reality of the depth of degeneracy grew into a dark vision beyond comprehension and description. Living in urban amerikkkan environments, where my art took me into 'new age' and 'spiritual' communities, became a constant nightmare of being treated as a shit-disturber and a disturbed unevolved 'dreaming the dark' negative unwelcome outsider. I shouldn't dwell on such 'dark' things, and attend more crystal prosperity workshops. I retreated into relative isolation, and kept my professional and musical life going by keeping my mouth shut on other subjects, letting others assume I was a newage 'team player'. Inside, I felt intense disgust toward these worlds of half-baked 'spirituality' and guru scams, pervasive spiritual materialism. Mediocrity, posing, and profound ignorance of the real horror of our situation was to be maintained at all cost.

And, here we are. Long time passing, and still billions continue to sleep-walk, entranced in the illusion of 'normalcy', while murderous psychopaths commit unspeakable crimes against everything beautiful and innocent. Ancient Hindu scriptures warned us of this time, but the realities surpass those visions, and even 'old testament' scenarios, at least in scale if not in depravity. No wait, I take that back. We are experiencing equally deep depravity and horrific insanity as our ancestors/selves did in the burning times, but mostly on a vibrational level only because it's happening to other peoples and to the natural world as a whole, including all other species. We here in the 'privileged west' just don't witness it first hand much. But it's common knowledge to all those tuned into the inter-webs that the human race, and Gaia herself, is on the brink of oblivion. It shouldn't surprise us here in the center of the insane world empire, as the 'puritan founders' viewed Wilderness itself as 'satanic'. Only the terms have been updated, as we can clearly see from this (shocking?) new excellent report on the USDA's "Wildlife Services". Obviously, and unfortunately for humans, the Savonarola-types and all their 'specialist' cohorts have also somehow gained incarnation in this time. Maybe that's the point. Malleus Maleficarum has been re-released in a new updated edition. McGowan's Programmed to Kill is the new Cliff Notes version (and should be a required school textbook). There's also a new addendum/epilogue HERE if you wanna get up to speed on the sordid, gory details. Most readers here though, I don't think, need more evidence. The veils are thin enough already. Orwell's dark vision was true and prophetic.
"The object of persecution is persecution.  The object of torture is torture.  The object of power is power."
"How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?  Winston thought.  By making him suffer, he said."
"Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself."
"In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement.  Everything else we shall destroy, everything."
There you have the Archontic-Weitko-bloodline program in a nutshell.
Actually it is just one part of the program. The up-close and personal part. The other part is the Geo-Terrorism 'disaster' area. Things like Christchurch, Haiti, BP-Gulf, Katrina, Fukushima, and who knows how many others. Some say Fuku is equal to 10,000 Chernobyls, and that the gene-pools of all animal, plant, and micro-oganism species will be degraded within 2 or 3 generations.
That is what is seen when looking in a certain temporal and historical direction. Here, our options are shifting dimensional realms and planetary relocation.

We all know there are other directions, both without and within, often simultaneous. Luckily we have had these options and time for inner and outer journeys, had we chosen to avail ourselves. One day, in the mid-70s, I contemplated an early exit from this plane. Figuring on 'forcing' a divine response, I positioned myself on the edge of a figurative abyss while 'altered' and aided by deep immersion in Shri Yantra meditation.
The shocking response was an extended invoking and darshan of the Goddess Kali. But this was not a mere frozen tableau appearance. It was a complete sense-surround dynamic exposition of all of the scriptural heritage of ages of seers' visions of the deity. She literally carried me with Her through eons of Her evolution and works at hyperspeed. It was something that took years to digest and assimilate. Much later I heard the scriptural descriptions, and they matched perfectly, and brought me weeping to the floor (still does). My understanding of this event and type of phenomenon is that of something accessible to humans (and maybe other sentients) in a particular form in a particular environment if there is openness to it. She is simultaneously rooted in the land and in the consciousnesses of the inhabitants, living and passed. Kali is, of course, a widely revered and worshipped goddess in many parts of India, also including various other forms and appearances, and extending back in time beyond all historical recording. And, importantly, far from being a disembodied 'voice in my head', 'my' own consciousness 'existed' as the sole divine primal masculine consort (Shiva), experiencing an 'existence' alternately given and taken away by Her (our?) dance of creation and destruction. All else 'outside' of Shiv-Shakti was/is maya. Maya, though, is not 'illusion'. All that exists is an integral part of this divine coupling. Sentience is both the conscious awareness of, and manifestation of, Shiv-Shakti. There is nowhere in the organic living world without sentience. We are everywhere surrounded by, and imbedded within a matrix of sentience. I believe Kali is one form of Gaia's sentience which can manifest for our edification. Maybe sometimes as Kwan Yin or White Buffalo Woman or Washer At The Ford, or one of many animal familiars?

So, how do we relate/interact with what surrounds us - sentience? If this is a 'school' planet, no one graduates without mastering this basic lesson. There's no 'auditing' of the course, or ass-kissing the teacher for a passing grade. Once one's completed the 'homework', there's still the 'field-work' project to be successfully undertaken, which requires a creative demonstration of one's mastery. That is the great challenge, no easy task, but what I have come to understand is required after a life of many attempts at shortcuts. Can we demonstrate the sovereignty that is our true Shiv-Shakti essence in the face of the pressure of the supreme lie of 'separateness'? We seem to be in the season of our final exams, and I may be using metaphors that make no sense, but it is as close as I can get to what I have been given to understand. There's a huge amount of sentience aligned with us in this endeavor, including our mother planet Herself. I think we will all collectively determine what goes down, and when, in this continuous creation in fluid temporality. I am both scared shitless and exquisitely chillaxed about it all. I am not a 'decider', prophet, or 'in charge', but agree every moment to move forward toward that which arises before me, with integrity and dignity, since that seems to be the example set by the rest of the natural, sentient world. The above is merely one individual's perspective, neither 'enlightened' nor comprehensive. Nothing more, nothing less.

Fox friend - The Wildlife Center

Daily lessons never stop coming. I have taken on a couple dogs after some years without, and since I'm a 'fire dog' it's mostly a great pleasure, as well as 'schooling'. Recently happened upon a video called "Dogs Decoded" (free online), showing some recent advances in scientific research. Seems while archeological evidence points to 30,000 years of domestication, the mitochondrial DNA says 100,000 or more. DNA research also shows ALL dogs have evolved solely from wolves. Russian research with foxes has demonstrated that selection for non-agressiveness and human interaction actually changes the shape and appearance of the animals on its own over a number of generations. Dogs have uniquely evolved with the ability to respond to the human 'pointing' gesture, as well as paying extremely close attention to human eye movements for the same purpose. (Though I think my cat has picked up this skill too, heh.) There is a hormone called Oxytocin, excreted by the hypothalamus and called the 'love hormone' or 'trust hormone', produced in the brain during childbirth and breast-feeding. Turns out that when petting a dog, both the human AND the dog produce this hormone. What does that tell you? This co-evolution is a beautiful mystery. Kukkuripa would understand.
Makes you wonder how, after thousands of years of mutual service, humans can be so fucked up and blind as to abuse such sentient friends. It's like the multi-generational symbiosis between the dolphins and the fishermen of Laguna, Brazil (check it out). Don't even get me started on pigs ("smarter than dogs") and a whole bunch of other 'food animals' (question: is someone who 'grows' 10 million chickens a "farmer"??!). How Asians could even consider eating dogs is so beyond the pale I can't even begin...And the horrid treatment and attitude in Muslim countries too is unbelievable. There ARE a whole shitload of 'useless eaters' and I can't even get up a shred of compassion for them. I mean, last week 1000 people in UK surrounded a research beagle breeding facility and started passing dogs over the fence to friends who stuffed them in their jackets and sped off.
On a closing note, there are bills pending in 25 states (US) that seek to publicly ID animal abusers just like sex offenders, and establish online registries. It's about time.

OK....video time! I love kora, maybe next life....