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