Monday, July 30, 2012

The Surreal Work of the Kali Yuga - UPDATE

Kailash Om
UPDATE:....On a previous post regarding the SURREAL Animal Rights/Web Investigations into the Canada Cannibal, and the "stellar" police misprision non-investigation. I refer you to this exclusive exposé link at DANGEROUS MINDS.   
I would have to say that the earthly temporal manifestations of the divine leela have gone pretty far over into the surreal category at this point, and certainly exceeding my own weirdest entheogenic future-visions of my early out-of-time explorations. Back then, there seemed to be an undetermined open-endedness, a wealth of possibilities, directions, resolutions. In these times, isolation is intensified, in every outing in these environs, by the distinct repeated impression that what is surreal to me is simply accepted(?) as normal for pretty much everyone around, both 'asleep' and 'awake'. But, in two months I have had a face-to-face true reality check-in with another human only once since my close friend left on his journey, and that was in conjunction with a student music lesson. (If the teaching goes good, a sacred window can be opened where the rasa of Adbhutam - wonderment/awe - blows in and transmissions happen spontaneously in the form of gestures and glances, and you drop into a place where the topic is all-inclusive…) But that isolation trend has been consistent for some years now, not exactly new. I used to be fairly adept at steering conversations away from bullshit, but, for one, I'm tired, and second, most in my age-group are seemingly shell-shocked or have a white-knuckled death-grip on illusion-maintenance.  Maybe it's because I've been surrounded by lazy humans for too long, who haven't been at the work they should have been? That's part of it, but also can't deny my own laziness. Maybe I 'should' have gotten out more? It's hard to be 'elder-ly', goddamnit! You do what you can to keep the melancholy at bay. 

Apparently, if you have your shit together in certain areas, you don't actually have to 'do' anything…more like stopping 'doing' is the general idea. Then you get made aware of things like grace, synchronicities, appearances of 'open windows', revelations of one's true desires, and such. I've never been apprised of any technique to call that in, but have met some individuals with a unique magnetic field that seems to attract a lot of that. (They all did the work.) Some fairly interesting hits have been recently coming in my direction, though I'm very reticent to grasp hold of the idea of a 'trend'. I do need to cross some big threshold into a different reality here, and that feeling of being damn near out of patience is non-stop. Hell, that's why my bro hit the road and crossed the border, gettin' the fuck outta Dodge.

Synchronicity, for me, isn't always wonder-full and awe-inspiring, and sometimes it's downright sorrowful and tragic -  the Karunyam rasa. Karunyam also invokes compassion too, of course, but it doesn't spare the grief.
But I've had both of those two types of so-called 'emotional empowerments' manifest in synchronous ways recently. Just noticing and observing.

 
I was looking at videos to rent and picked out a story of a Mississippi bluesman, and a minute later an old friend, a local master blues-guitarist who I'd not seen in a couple years, was standing next to me. He handed me a film called "Throw Down Your Heart", saying "this is the shit for you, my man". He couldn't have been more right on. Made in 2008, it follows banjo master Bela Fleck on his journey to bring the banjo back to Africa, it's place of origin. Specifically, Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia, and Mali.
I could only find Hulu versions with annoying commercials searching for "watch online for free" sites, so I encourage readers to rent and watch, including the 'extra' out-take extended tracks. It's a hell of an inspiring film, and great to watch Fleck gradually drop into the African vibe as he throws himself into the unknown through his many musical encounters. It's heavy, too, considering the dual ways to interpret the idea of "throwing down your heart"….but that's to be discovered in watching. This film precisely depicts what music is really about in the latter days of the Kali Yuga. That was the awe-rasa synchronicity. Here are 3 clips up on YouTube from the film:
And with the extraordinary Oumou Sangare - (been listening to her cassettes for 25 years):

 

Another synchronistic film-related event (karuna rasa):
I rented newly released "The Hunter", starring Willem Dafoe (met him last year), not knowing much about the plot. Back home, opened an email entitled "A Glimpse of What We've Lost: 10 Extinct Animals in Photos". The first photo displayed was of the Thylacine (Tasmanian 'tiger'). Well, holy shit, that is the very animal on which the film is centered. 

 
The film is pretty well done, filmed in Tasmania, billed as an intense 'thriller', little violence though nor any animal abuse involved. But be forewarned: it is a very tragic and disturbing film with the lead character hired by an evil POS biotech corporation to 'get' the last surviving individual of the species for DNA marketing purposes. Wetiko qualities are readily displayed. In the end, Dafoe's character chooses a shocking, desperate, redeeming(?) action.

I have been despairing that my best (consistent) student had moved away, but yesterday acquired a new student via Skype. O...K...grace. This is a new experiment for me, but seemingly worth trying. Others have been increasingly contacting me over last couple years to do this, so, while this tech is still around I figure I may as well take advantage. It's free, too, so…may as well spread what the wetikos hate.

Still trying to ward off the melancholy on a daily basis.
I take some comfort from being made aware that, due to the work of Jill Robinson and her dedicated local allies, over 1000 Chinese doctors (DOMs) at 8th Shanghai International Forum of Infection Control have pledged to not use/prescribe Moon Bear bile products. (Rhinos next!!) She has been rescuing bears in Asia since 1994 (close to 400 now), and has the website AnimalsAsia as well as many YouTubes, including lovely tours of sanctuaries established throughout Asia. She is a true major world-class front-line heroine who deserves all support and resources possible. Up there with Capt. Paul Watson - who, btw, is now on the run in hiding from the Japanese whaling and shark-finning mafias. Wetikos are getting pissed.
A very heart-rending vid here of the rescued and now sanctuaried bear, Oliver, who survived 30 FUCKING YEARS caged.

 

This shit is impossible to get one's mind around. We're in a fucked up matrix of which there are no words to even get close to defining. The wetikos are frothing at the mouth for more and more of the same. Its what they do, and feed on. That's why I try to repeatedly banish despair as it arises - just to deprive them of a few snacks. Not from me, you extermination-deserving lifeless archontic pieces of fecal matter!

"Have a nice day!"

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Talking Grief and Joy, Words of Power and Silence

I honor and respect the power and magic of the written and spoken word ('in the beginning'), but also tend to be geared more to sound vibration for it's true primacy (primal Aum), and that probably connects to my having been drawn to instrumental music, rhythm, and mantra-based vocal traditions. It did not surprise me to find an infinitely deepening pathway to inner discovery in a lifetime of exposure to more and more layers and levels of sublime subtlety and power there. But that is a path experienced by only a privileged few, and a privilege it is, accompanied by great gratitude. 

But we inhabit a world not so tuned to pure sound (Nada) and silence, but more to ideas written and spoken. And I'm in that matrix as much as everyone else. I'm also not 'a writer', in the artist/professional sense. But it is a curious contemplation to me about the 'process'. The only process I know involves certain steps: becoming aware of the 'calling' of the moment (of mental/emotional freedom), listening to the vibrational spectrum of the drone, matching the precise harmonics and overtones of my instrument at every point till I feel the merging in my body (shanti), and then becoming aware of what the instrument 'wishes to say' in relation to the moment and environment. 
I have no idea if there are similar or completely different processes involved in the art of 'wordsmithing', storytelling, and oration. My own processes can be either instantaneous or drawn out, and maybe that is the case in the latter practices. I don't know. But in this life I have experienced occasions where the power of both written and spoken word have reached comparable depths as those of musical expression. These have all involved spiritual/emotional/empathic dimensions, and have come from 'unknown' teachers, friends, poets, writers, orators and mystics living and dead, and those would include Rumi, Hafiz, Kabir, Trudell, Prechtel, MLK, Ramana, and a number of others - all of whom have entered into the 'bhav' and channeled timeless truths. What was said stays with me, becomes part of my 'remembrance', and I return there to heal my tribulations. 

I bring this up because, for one, this is the blog world and I have been minimally involved as well as much enjoying others' expressions, but also because I have more and more recently become bored with the spiritual and temporal superficiality of many of the popular contributions. There are a few exceptions, and those ladies know of whom I refer. I read for spiritual insight, tracking collective emotional 'weather', and for deep research into the forces and motivations of our adversaries as well as updates on the guerrilla successes against the wetiko institutions. I have neither the time nor interest in following either doom-predictions or external-salvation-hopeyness, nor narcissistic cooler-than-thou wanna-be sage and hip western cultural icons. I guess I'm just stuck with my artistic authenticity values extending to all realms. And 'deep' seems to be a matter of personal perspective. I've never gotten over the shock of realizing how little western man is satisfied with, as well as the tendency to claim expertise in subjects which one has not been deeply, genuinely immersed in. I really don't want to go there now, so I'll say no more.

Speaking of hopeyness, I appreciated the below-linked transcript of a sermon given last Sunday in Austin by Robert Jensen, which came from a site I subscribe to. Good on him for speaking the spiritual truth in a Christian church. I consider this to be a small example of right use of the spoken word ('vak'=siddhi of speech).
Hope Is For The Lazy: The Challenge Of Our Dead World
"Nature does not negotiate."
"Avoiding reality because it is harsh is not a winning strategy."
"There may, in fact, not be a winning strategy available to us at this point in history. But we have an obligation to assess the strategies available, and work at the ones that make the most sense. That is how we make a credible claim to being human. We don't become fully human through winning. We embrace our humanity by acting out of our deepest moral principles to care for each other and care for the larger living world, even if failure is likely, even if failure is inevitable."
He quotes Wendell Berry - “You can't know who you are if you don't know where you are.”
"To be truly hopeful is to risk irrelevance when engaged in polite conversation in mainstream America. Irrelevance, in these situations, is a virtue. Our chance of saving ourselves depends on enough people willing to be irrelevant soon enough."
He also quotes James Baldwin - "[we] must remember, however powerful the many who would rather forget, that life is the only touchstone and that life is dangerous, and that without the joyful acceptance of this danger, there can never be any safety for anyone, ever, anywhere." 
"The two, grief and joy, are not mutually exclusive but, in fact, rely on each other, and define the human condition."

Well, irrelevance is a pretty familiar feeling for me these days, even though I'm able to avoid 'polite conversation' most of the time. Maintaining a retreat status with sound, silence, and a nourishing natural environment works well and keeps my focus off stress, preferring the words and expressions of the masters. Reading and viewing some archival films of a genuine master, intimately connected to the natural world, I came upon unknown details of an astonishing story. It relates to the sage Ramana Maharshi of Arunachala, South India. The story itself is the relationship he had for many years with the cow "Lakshmi". (There's even a book called "The Life of Lakshmi the Cow".) Lakshmi (name of goddess of abundance) was given to him in 1926 and became a visibly ardent devotee engaging in daily conversations with the master, demonstrating full sentience, informing him of her needs and joys, insisting he be the first to welcome each new calf (often on his birthday), attending daily meals with devotees, insisting he be the first to enter her new shed/quarters and bless the foundation ceremony, always facing his room/window, and many other marvelous episodes which continued for decades. Ramana also had deep connection with deer, peacock, crow, dog, etc, many of  whom have their samadhi/tombs on his ashram grounds and are kept up to this day. Lakshmi's passing in 1948 was attended to by Ramana in the manner afforded to a mahatma, as he personally guided her over into ultimate liberation (videhamukti), accompanied by tears of grief and joy. There is much more in the details, which can be read at the Ramana blog.
"It is not true that birth as a man is necessarily the highest, and that one must attain realisation only from being a man. Even an animal can attain Self-realisation."

So, there you have it, read it and weep. Life is stranger than any of us know, and places like India are not just 'other cultures' but other all-inclusive realities, worlds within our world which include unknown truths (as well as supreme lies and frauds). We have been tragically discouraged from outer, as well as inner, exploration in our wetiko-controlled delusional system, and it's nearly infected the whole planet. 

To wind up this 'word' post, I leave you with this short talk of exceptional words of power - 
Philip Wollen: Animals Should Be Off the Menu 
[Full debate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNED7GJLY7I&feature=relmfu]