One World Flag- blogAn international symbol of diversity. A Bigger Flag to Fly. Spread the World!2011-02-04T04:40:57ZUser 568David Bartholomewhttp://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/OrgSpace NewsLogThis web log and its content is copyrighted 2007 by David Bartholomew. All rights reserved.Thoughts on Censorship Inspired by Egyptian revolt and Ginsberg's "Howl"Events like the current revolt in Egypt-- with its government's initial censorship and attempt to close-off avenues of communication by "the opposition" (although how "the people" become "the opposition" to those chosen (or not) to represent them is always beyond me)-- seem to offer the sides of o... Events like the current revolt in Egypt-- with its government's initial censorship and attempt to close-off avenues of communication by "the opposition" (although how "the people" become "the opposition" to those chosen (or not) to represent them is always beyond me)-- seem to offer the sides of other governments and other oppositions the opportunity to strategize end-arounds and think-ahead on how to avoid pitfalls toward victory in their own future skirmishes.
A recent viewing of the 2010 film "Howl", focusing on the obscenity trial of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, publisher of Allen Ginsberg's famed poem, offers some insight on censorship of its own.
I put it to you that substitution of the word or concept of "freedom" being on trial here, anywhere "obscenity" or "censorship" appears in the following, might put a more immediate spin on this depiction of continual attempts to limit God-given rights, additionally delineated in the 1st and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
"Every word in this film was spoken by the actual people portrayed," reads a card prior to the film's opening.
Cutting to the quick, I offer up some of the closing remarks, summarizing this landmark censorship/obscenity case; those of Jake Ehrlich (as portrayed by Jon Hamm), Judge Clayton Horn (Bob Balaban) and Allen Ginsberg (James Franco). These are followed with links to websites where portions of the actual court transcript may be found. It is clear that while the dialogue lifted from the film is accurate to that read in the transcript, at points it is condensed, and certain additional passages have been removed for the sake of brevity and/or effect.
(Ginsberg defense attorney, also, according to Wikipedia, said to be the model for television's Perry Mason) Jake Ehrlich:
"The United States Supreme Court has said that obscenity is construed to mean having a substantial tendency to corrupt by arousing lustful desires. Is the word relevant to what the author is trying to say, or did he just use it to be dirty and filthy."...
"There are books that have the power to change men's minds, and call attention to situations that are visible, but unseen. Now whether "Howl" is or is not obscene is of little importance, to our world, faced as it is with physical survival. But the problem of what is legally permissible, in the description of sexual acts or feelings in arts and literature is of the greatest importance to a free society.
What is prurient? And to whom? The material so described is dangerous to some unspecified susceptible reader. It is interesting that the person applying such standards of censorship rarely feels as if their own physical or moral health is in jeopardy. The desire to censor is not limited to crackpots and bigots; there is in most of us a desire to make the world conform to our own views. And it takes all of the force of our own reason, as well as our legal institutions to defy so human an urge.
The battle of censorship will not be finally settled by your honor's decision, but you will either add to liberal educated thinking, or by your decision you will add fuel to the fire of ignorance. Let there by light. Let there be honesty. Let there be no running form non-existent destroyers of morals. Let there be honest understanding."
Judge Clayton Horn:
"In considering material claimed to be obscene it is well to remember the motto -- honi soit qui mal y pense --'Evil to him, who evil thinks.'"
(from the transcript) "Therefore, I conclude the book "Howl and Other Poems" does have some redeeming social importance, and I find the book is not obscene.
The defendant is found not guilty."
Allen Ginsberg:
"The poem is misinterpreted as a promotion of homosexuality. Actually it's more like promotion of... frankness... about any subject... When a few people are frank about homosexuality in public it breaks the ice, and then people are free to be frank about anything. And that's socially useful.
Homosexuality is a condition. And because it alienated me or set me apart from the beginning, it served as a catalyst for self-examination. Or detailed realization of my environment, and the reasons why everyone else is different. And why I am different."
For more from the official court transcript and/or by other accounts:
And so it seems the ongoing historical tug-of-war-- between those fighting to limit the expressions of others and those fighting for the free expression of all-- continues.
For my part-- it is all God, all part of the Oneness, all what makes a horse race, and if I don't like it, I can exercise my right to steer away from "it"... whatever "it" is... so long as "it" is taken on by the consenting (and where appropriate and necessary, adults), without being perpetuated on the unwilling or unsuspecting.
It is my sincere heartfelt wish that that those buttinski's in the world and their legacy of control, manipulation, oppression... which they attempt to justify and rationalize under so many banners, credos, traditions... and especially under severely limited interpretations and the hubris of determining for others what "divine will" might be... finally, for once and for all, accord others the same degree of freedom of expressionthey demand for themselves.
I end with Ginsberg own manifesto of the holiness of all things, excerpted from "Howl and Other Poems".
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000038.htm2011-02-04T04:40:57Z2011-02-04T05:05:57ZEveryone is Allowed… One: a Rant for Those Who Missed the Point of 9/11[In attempts to provide a “fair and balanced” side to this eternally optimistic warehouse of writings, I take my first opportunity to really Rant! as the anniversary of 9/11 looms in the air, the heads of at least half of us continue to be stuck in the sand (or somewhere else where the sun doe... … as pulling one’s head out of the sand, overcoming denial of cosmic proportions, thinking through these half-hearted ploys, applying equally discriminative processes of evaluating and forgiving friend and foe alike, bringing a little more Christ into our Christianity, Mohammad into our Islam, and taking some action beyond waving a national flag and pointing our innocent, undereducated youth (who have been stripped of most other options) in the direction of hapless citizens on their own soil, in order to fight these corporate battles under the ruse of “democracy” and smiling Uncle to the world… is to the one who only knows this as a path toward “patriotism”.
There are days when I think that-- that one more beer-swilling, country-singing, gun-toting Nascar fan with an “America: Love it or Leave it” bumper sticker, denying that torture issued on our part negates our righteous cause in going after the other torturing guys, and pre-emptively at that … or that next indoctrinated “Christian” foaming at the mouth to (forget that pesky “Thou Shalt Not Kill” commandment, this is an exception) Support the Troops in their mission to do everything other than turn the other cheek… might just put me over the top like some symbolic Martin Sheen as Capt. Willard, sacrificing himself in calling in an airstrike on his own beloved countryman Col. Kurtz for going too far “off the reservation”. I can almost be swayed to think we are missing the mark by that much, that the grand experiment has failed and we just might not get it.
Thankfully, I am entrenched enough:
in my own sense of not wishing to become the other;
in my faith that this is all being played out as scripted;
in my knowing that God or the Creative Force in the Universe is big enough to handle things and watch in the role of silent, compassionate witness as each of us learns our life lessons, right on schedule… patient in the knowledge that none of us “gets it” until we are ready to get it, despite the desire of some among us to be God’s hall monitors and henchmen-- faithless, petty weasels; slighters, negators; keeping close track of the missteps and imperfections of God’s perfect creatures;
in the law that states matter can neither be created nor destroyed, that no Godstuff is truly getting lost, on the way to everyone finding these Truths to be self-evident for themselves…
… enough so, that my “going postal” doesn’t ever seem to be an actual possibility.
But I do need to occasionally vent my frustration in as non-destructive of a space as possible, and work back around to this remembering I have worked so hard to reclaim.
I tire of intentional, prideful ignorance: period, and especially when based on some construct that never was. News Flash: going back to… the Fifties… or whatever glorious, conservative day… would be to go backward. Past days entailed cumulatively more ugliness the farther back you went-- a lot of ugliness. It was just easier to hide it on the other side of matching curtains, sequester such across the wrong side of the tracks, and muffle so many cries in the dark.
These days (i.e., yesterday, today and tomorrow), believe it or not, are the most enlightened times in which we have ever lived. We continue to shine a brighter light on discrimination, oppression, abuse and the like-- international, national, familial and self. We might see more of any of the dark, unresolved stuff than before… because we have more media by which to spotlight this; but we also have more tools, more consciousness, more of a network and web by which to find resources to amend and correct such inequities.
We have at hand more ability to meet and greet, honor, assess and transform/transmute the shadow than ever before. And I guess I sometimes just get flabbergasted that we aren’t doing more of it. We can’t do it by sweeping it under the carpet; we don’t do it by cutting ourselves off from those other people in preference of those just like us… because it all boils down to the person in the mirror in the morning. As push comes to shove, those of us who need to divide and separate ourselves from those who don’t think like us… ultimately discover we can find disagreement within the smallest gathering, down to a group of two. That is, we find what we are looking for. The observer affects the observed. So what about, instead, looking for the good?
It disappoints me that so many use a spiritual arrogance to cut away so much of God. If it is all God and all Godstuff and nothing is outside of that… which part don’tcha like? Which part is imperfect, such as it is? Could it be a lack of dedication on the part of any of us-- to seeing, witnessing, experiencing… empowering… the divinity in any other-- that could be the larger lesson at hand? Could this be the way back to… the Garden? To heaven on earth?
“You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one,” John Lennon sang. And I assume each of us has some combination of songs or poems or proverbs or quotes that allows us to experience… the ideal. So how about us calling our selves to task on remembering these… on programming them into our cellular structure… on setting some alarm that goes off with them ringing in our heads just as we are about to forget?
I keep coming back to some sense that there needs to be some version of an international atonement, repenting, asking for forgiveness, copping to our shadow and making amends kind of day. In addition to Thanksgiving, Ramadan, Yom Kippur, every Sunday at confession and whenever the anonymous addicted get around to Step 8 of the 12… what might it look like if we could all address our biggest “shamey”? And get it off our chest? What would it be to just sit with each of us being works in progress? What could the day after this look like?
I believe it is absolutely the unaddressed shadow that kills us, and causes us to keep killing others (to whatever degree of soul-killing or -stealing that continues to look like). In a black and white world there isn’t really a place for gray shadow. In a hypocritical world others have a lot of it, to our little or none.
To those who feel the only way to exemplify my way or the highway “America” and “patriotism” and “democracy” (or your own country/philosophy/ideal)… or that the only honor (or option) to be found… is in war… I beg you to check in with yourself on where you stand with shadow. Hiding behind an ideal, and acting out of accordance with that ideal, sullies and soils it and renders it meaningless. One becomes complicit-- an accomplice-- in the bloody act allowed… out of ignorance, the self-serving agenda, apathy, etc.
To elevate the holy ones-- Jesus, Mohammad, your deity here-- to espouse their ideals… and to then invoke them in actions completely out of alignment with those ideals… out of some groupthink bumper-sticker identity or limit or laziness or inability within the imagination to construct a solution other than that which only destructs and/or divides-- well that is the karma, the “what goes around, comes around” that shall continue to be the lot (the cross to bear as it were) of those who continue to choose spiritual/ideological smugness over… pulling out the family dictionary and looking up the definition of the word irony.
We have it in us to do better. We have it in us to rise up, take the lumps for our past wrongs, and begin cleaning the slate. We have it in us to “get right with God” and to answer honestly to ourselves “What would Jesus do” and all the rest of the slogans that no longer need be hollow homilies mindlessly stamped into neon rubber bracelets or crafted into ribbon-shaped magnets stuck to the hineys of our gas-guzzling cars.
I remember what we-- my wife, a friend and I-- did that first 9/11-- the one that restarted the clock: we got together and prayed/meditated/contemplated. We cried for the souls, yes. But we also sang and chanted them to the light. Then Joan went down to paint. I drummed, and went on to finish the rowboat I was restoring for her. We cooked, gave thanks for, and ate a homecooked meal. We knew instinctively to give attention to compassion, understanding and healing… and then to commit ever more deeply to beauty, creativity, acts undertaken in the name of love… and possibility. We recognized our sacred duty to hold the highest vibration we could achieve.
We keep this tradition alive and attempt to align and entrain with this highest frequency… and look for those also wishing to resonate with the best in us all. Whatever you do to commemorate this day, we hope you will see the fear and bluster out there for what it is, and instead find your own way to honor a day where we--mankind-- didn’t get it right, by firming yourself in the idea that we still can and shall.
This is the “bigger flag” that we fly. “Spread the World!”
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000037.htm2008-09-11T07:27:41Z2008-09-11T07:55:10ZOur Work Here in this Life... is to Be Happy.That's not some hackneyed cliché' that just wants to roll off the tongue because I don't have any real thought to add. It is my core belief, instilled in me in a perfect moment on a swingset as a kid (and probably much before that), and honed in 48 years of personal work on the planet. This is ba...
Don't then the actions of others become more a projection from our own program, aimed at causing us to reflect on why we might still need to see such mirrored back to us, why such still remains interesting to us, what work and choices and actions and maintenance of our thoughts still needs to be taken on by us, within our own program, to graduate to the next level of the game/program?
If we truly do not wish to see or experience the judgement calls of lesser or dark or lower emotions/thoughts/actions carried out outside of us within our program... isn't for us to just hold ourselves to task, to maintaining these within ourselves?
Doesn't this reframing—
-- from detached, more or less helpless, outside witness of circumstance attempting to effect others... to being in charge of our own boat--
-- shift the experience of the game/program completely?
I believe it is for all of us Lightworkers-- intentional do-gooders by whatever moniker we choose-- to
work ourselves back toward resolution into Light from all within us that has not been revealed or experienced as such
to live and breath ourselves back to Joy, Peace, Compassion, Trust, Faith, Hope and the like... if that is what we are professing to be working for from this old paradigm perspective of what life outside us wants to be
and that emanating such, from our role within the game/program... will simply cause the most profound change in the life outside us of this game/program.
It seems it is we who sometimes are getting stuck in the patterns of how we play this game; and as we lose our perspective we begin resonating/entraining to that which is lower, as opposed to that (which we state is more optimal) which is higher. It is like we didn't get the Cheat Sheet or didn't read far enough down in the Instruction Manual to anchor in this long-lost rule; OR, we have to cop to really wanting/needing to play a game that includes the darker stuff, because it is still interesting to us on some level. And in the latter possibility, we have to get off of it, quit pretending to be different than those other guys, cop to our responsibility in what we see in the outer and begin enjoying that option more.
This, I believe, is the choice we have finally trapped ourselves into needing to make, after a longtime of playing this game/program and dodging it.
Do we choose to only resonate/entrain with that which is of the highest vibration, most light, most Godliness, your term here... and quit allowing ourselves to get sucked back toward the other end of the spectrum?
Or do we just let go and get in there and play-- and enjoy-- more War, Cowboys and Indians, Doctor, Taker and all of the other scenarios?
There is really no right or wrong. But there is-- choice that is in alignment with the wiring of your character, within the rules of the game/program you have chosen.
So now Lightworkers!-- What say we keep our eye on the ball, remember we have chosen that Joy/Love is real and Sadness/Fear is illusion within our rules and the backstory of our game. Let's play by the rules. Let's get happy-- and dance... sing... paint... cook... play. Let's do the good work we continue to choose to do... under perhaps this slightly different mindset.
We win when we get others to entrain to our high vibration. We lose when they get us to entrain to their lower vibration.
[I know it's politically correct to say we're not in it for the winning. But a win-win, with no losers, seems to be the same thing.]
Make the Game... play. Play the Game better. and let’s see where it all ends up.
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000036.htm2008-08-14T19:26:31Z2008-08-14T19:33:23ZSee the Thing That Needs to Be Done (including-- Managing the Size of Your But)[excerpted from DoingIt!, May, 2007]
I get together with a bunch of friends for some regular hyjinx, and each time, in order to divide the labor, we choose “captains” to setup and cleanup the space, bring or replenish certain items, etc.
Taking turns is, theoretically, a good way to hav... Didn’t wait to get nominated, assigned, roped into it. Required no cajoling, shaming, ribbing or admonishing. Just put our shoulder under the canoe, bellied up to the bar, opened up to a new… casual… way of being where such opportunities to serve the whole were continually sought out and easily dispensed with.
I work with guys who will kid each other, spur each other on— especially one on an off or lackadaisical day— with a good-natured, slightly sarcastic, “Don’t be afraid of it!” As in-- don’t be afraid of the work, of doing your share. There is “x” amount of work to be done and it needs to get done before we “knock off” for the day.
I like this. Even on the odd occasion that I am on the receiving end of the jab. Because… you can all talk about it for so long. You can give it the once over, the twice over. You can postulate and pontificate. And sooner or later… someone’s going to have to do it. Or—face that it might not get done.
I have chosen to be one working toward getting it done, and I hope you are with me in this noble endeavor. “If Not You, Who? If Not Now, When?,” went the unforgettable slogan on the wall of the team locker room at my high school. I have always understood that that motto could help one crank out a couple more reps on the bench press… or, taken to the nth degree, into a space of increased personal integrity.
Beyond the world of “I got mine” and “It isn’t my turn”; across the sea from “It’s not my job”; on the far shore that has never heard echoes of “I didn’t put it there, why should I pick it up, waa, waa, waa?”…
… is a land where the buck stops with each person, integrity and accountability are increasingly on the rise and greater possibilities reveal themselves every day.
This line of thought goes beyond the tendency of the reticent ones to relegate and dismiss such aspirations and encouragement as hackneyed, clichéd, cornpone and naïve. It becomes one of the simplest, foundational building blocks toward a better world. And p.s., it feels great on the other side of having taken it on.
As we look for the menial… and make it meaningful… we come to understand the satisfaction of serving each other on a whole ‘nother level. And isn’t this who we have come to be?
“The difference between what we do
and what we are capable of doing
would suffice to solve
most of the world’s problems”
~~ Mahatma Gandhi
“Little by little one walks far”
~~ Peruvian Proverb
"Attentiveness
is the natural prayer of the soul."
~~ Nicholas Malebranche
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000035.htm2008-04-10T20:16:37Z2010-11-06T15:19:09ZOn Humility: Smaller and Dumber… and Very OK With It[excerpted from DoingIt!, April, 2007]
I have been finding myself feeling much smaller and aware of being way more ignorant each passing day, and that it feels… swell, and freeing, to be in the midst of this.
No, this is not some masochistic tendency aimed at satisfying self-loathing on a... I know how we got this way.
You see, as a survival mechanism we came to name things. Had to. We would experience a given thing, give it a name, file it in our reptile brains as threat or non-threat, and once we felt comfortable with that thing as a non-threat, we could easily scan it the next time we saw it, presumably file it again in the non-threat bin and move on to scanning for other things that might be out there waiting to harm us-- like saber-toothed tigers and multi-national corporations, plagues and telemarketers.
This process of naming for this purpose worked for a good deal of our evolution… but it no longer serves. For now we have come to a place where we have named just about all things, are quick to name the new things, and somehow think that we know all there is, or all we need know of these things. Done. A handful of facts on a flashcard.
We know... tree, water, Bill in accounting, ladybug, ham sandwich… and there is no surprise there, no magic and very little mystery. And so life has become rather boring and miracle-free. Sterile.
Many continue to try to experience more extreme activities, events and things… but these quickly get named and filed as well… under “been there, done that”. Hmmph, what next?
As a race, almost down to the man or woman, we wait for someone to create that next thing to amuse us, for whatever interval it can last. Having lost our way in this respect, we have become eager consumers, and look to feed this beast, this void, at the expense of resources. Empty, we sit as if at the Saturday matinee at the Roman Coliseum, and look to others to perform whatever outrageous acts they might, to fill us, at the expense of their and our own self-respect.
And so it comes back to the quest for humility, the courage to look at that common thing anew… and with an intent and focus to take the process to a level of detail where amazement is undeniable. To boldly go… inward… following our way back to our connection to that which is deeper.
Try this with a blade of grass, a penny, a living being, a drop of water. Similar to the trick where you can’t take a piece of paper of any type or size and fold it more than 7 times in half (try it)… this quest for understanding of even the smallest and most basic thing cannot be taken more than the first few steps before boggling the mind-- discombobulating it with just how much one can’t know of even the seemingly simplest nature or aspect of it or how it came to be.
Bring yourself to this point with one object… then multiply this humbled state by the millions of drops, blades of grass, leaves, particles of air within your field of vision no matter which way you turn…
… and we understand that, yes, up to this point in time, it would not have been safe to contemplate just how great the Creative Force is…
… but now, we are in a time where we are working our way back to being able to process more and more of that-- wonder, awe, majesty, any of those words that begin to sound of religion and mysticism. And rightly so.
We are working our way down this path, because we are beginning to understand at the same time, that we are extensions of this Creative Force, this Godstuff. Being with more of this understanding; processing more of this creation, light, energy; is the way we will work our way back home to more and more of it.
This is the place of richness, and true riches.
This is where humbleness and humility come in for me. I feel as a grain of sand in a talk entitled “The Precious Garland” given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When asked what it is to be a bodhisaatva-- an enlightened one—His Holiness answered, by way of this talk, that if you imagined an immense beach… with every grain of sand comprising that beach... a lifetime lived… and then enough lifetimes to fill an almost endless number of such beaches … only then could one understand what it might be to be to have the wisdom of a bodhisaatva.
On the one hand, this could be a depressing thought-- to think we might have so far to go; but on the other, to me, the sense that I am on this path, headed in the right direction… working toward being able to take in so much more wonder, beauty, all of it in every glance… witnessing myself growing in small increments in this practice… far outweighs the downside that feeling smaller and dumber, with so far to go, could otherwise take me.
Keeping the focus on all there is to appreciate… and all the fun in that-- all the times that shall be spent with so many others who we’ll come to know and appreciate, layer by layer; all the nuances and sublime lessons to be taught us by each named thing out there in our world; keeps me very excited about this process, however long it might take.
And I believe it was Kabir who said, “Path presupposes distance.” So maybe we, in all humbleness, might not be so far away after all.
First, a mountain is a mountain.
Then, when I open my eye, a mountain is not a mountain.
After practicing further, then once again a mountain is a mountain.
~~ Zen Proverb
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000034.htm2008-04-10T20:04:37Z2008-04-20T21:52:08Z40 Days in the Desert[excerpted from DoingIt!, April, 2007]
As winter is yielding to spring I bear witness that a number of people in my sphere, myself included, seem to be somewhere in the middle of a bout of 40 days in the desert, a visionquest, a sundance… whatever equivalent of a time of immense purification ... Every bit of the being, the way of being, the roles, the fears and illusions of each of us… are being laid upon the table. Everything is being offered up for amendment and correction. And piece by piece, inch by inch, sweat-soaked night after night each of us is showing up to reclaim more and more of our authentic selves.
Friends of mine have put their relationships into the hopper and have been rewarded for their dedication and hard work, with richer levels of connection and commitment on the other side of that trust and commitment. Some of us have put fear and hope, money and intimacy issues on the line… and are feeling more openings being breathed into these formerly tight situations.
I don’t feel it a coincidence that this time has us bearing down upon Easter and the season of resurrection myths and archetypes across numerous traditions; and as plants, trees, flowers, the Earth herself are being reborn across at least one hemisphere.
As the collective consciousness is embracing more quantum thought, more of the Law of Attraction and self-as-co-creator lines of thought, I feel we are beginning to move well along the way to new possibilities. But I also believe as so many are in the infancy of their time playing with these new theories, the lag between voicing and authentically believing in the prospects they are affirming… is sending small bits of intentionally veiled fear rippling into being as well.
Fear not. For as the first wobbly outings on a two-wheeled bicycle transition into a lifetime mastery and years of smooth riding… so shall these affirmations and resonations with higher frequencies and limitless outcomes come as naturally in short order.
Continue along your path. Continue doing what you are doing, which is only, and always… your best.
Allow this walk through the desert to be as pleasant as possible. Feel the sun on your face. Rest as things get too hot, and then continue the journey by the light of the moon. Allow the mind to trick itself into respites and spates of relief in the form of the occasional oasis. Use whatever of these tricks you need, until you achieve their incorporation and mastery on the other side, and are able to drink and quench from waters beyond illusion.
Feel each footstep as it gently pads the ground and know that one never covers the same ground twice. You are no longer who you were. And you are that much closer to who you are becoming.
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000033.htm2008-04-10T19:54:56Z2008-04-20T21:36:10ZTaking The Wheel of Life Out For a Spin[excerpted from DoingIt!, March, 2007]
Life, so they say, is just a game,
and we let it slip away
~~ We May Never Pass This Way Again,
by Seals & Crofts
Having come, by a truly awe-inspiring and humbling set of circumstances, to a greater awakening of devotion—
-- to the Ea... This film documents the bi- or tri-annual pilgrimage by thousands upon thousands of monks and devoted worldwide, to the village of Bhod Gaya, India, reputed to be the place where the Buddha is thought to have attained enlightenment. So many staggering stories of acts of devotion— 3000 mile journeys, over 3 years, of millions of uninterrupted prostrations… the twelve day Kalachakra ordainment/initiation process… the building of the intricate “wheel of time” sand painting-- mandalic outer representation of the over 700 hundred manifestations of the Buddha consciousness… symbolizing the inner, three-dimensional visualization of the same … built by few, witnessed by thousands, and wiped away clean soon after.
So much respect in the witnessing of this chronicle, for those who guide us toward possibilities of what devotion , true devotion, can look like; these reverent people and their actions serving as signposts… large arrows pointing us in a direction on a path that many of us have newly accessed.
Such stark contrast to my being able to get myself on a consistent daily practice, stay in control of the rudder of my emotional boat, or to any of us who allow “life” to interfere with our spiritual preparations intended to evolve us into our best selves.
My devotion-- to growth, respect, integrity, you name it-- and yours can look infinitely different than theirs. Their example mainly inspires me from a perspective of scale, magnitude, degree of commitment, unwavering discipline… and especially, in the undertaking of all of it with so much joy, even through street level trials more demanding than those with which most of us might be challenged.
I come to view this program after a really fun chat with a new friend from Brazil, Luiz, an ethnographic filmmaker and “daimista”-- 17 year devotee of a Brazilian ayahuasca tradition and interested visitor/witness/participant of numerous other rituals and disciplines worldwide. During this enjoyable talk we worked our way from tradition to tradition, noting the recognition of that uplifted state achieved in so many practices out there. He mentioned it a commonality among daimistas he has known to go out and sample and share the traditions and sacred practices of others, collecting these memories and moments, as it were; perhaps pollinating the seeds of utmost inspiration here and there; this, in his noted observation, in contrast to some only comfortable enough within their own tradition, who don’t, perhaps, allow themselves the gift of witnessing the ways in which others celebrate and re-create their unique aspects of divinity and consciousness.
Alas-- to deprive oneself of the experiencing and understanding of so many of the threads that make up this tapestry of evolving humanity, to eliminate much-needed examples that so many others are DoingIt!
These are the important things going on in the world today-- in your world. Turn off the “news” that speaks and illustrates otherwise; fuel yourselves instead, as often as possible, with these true capsulizations of the real human experience-- these bits of ammunition (flower power!)—to ward off any surfacing doubt that mankind is achieving any sense of its original objective. That you, in your sphere, are doing better, getting it… are exactly where you need to be and are realizing your individual purpose.
Continue to take time and create your own acts and rituals of appreciation and celebration. Work yourself into a state of joy. Bring the sacred into even the most mundane tasks.
And devote some time to seeking out how others might be doing the same.
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000032.htm2008-04-10T19:47:59Z2008-04-20T21:52:40ZWhat’s Working: Creator of Moments[excerpted from DoingIt!, February, 2007]
I consider myself a Creator of Moments— one who throws out a pinch of magic dust into an everyday situation— a conversational tidbit, a zig where one would normally zag, a fat pitch of a comedic straight-line— a real zinger— tossed right over ... I stopped and turned around recently and had to get her name and tell her how much she is appreciated.
Kim Dungee, who could just be shoving that spare hand in her jeans pocket and dutifully flagging everyone by because it’s her job… is instead transfiguring even the most jaded, tattered-script-toting, self-absorbed, Porsche-driving, latte-drinking, producer wannabees of the canyon… from mumbling, grumbling, clock-watching, stuck in second gear monsters of rudeness… into sweethearts.
She, as my character in “The Penny Man” -– who turns up face-down pennies, leaving all that good luck for others to find—is skirting around the law that for each and every action there is an equal and opposite reaction… and turning the asphalt, morning drive equation of a root canal appointment… into nothing but warm fuzzies.
She is a saint in the sun. She bakes so we can wake. Alright—she probably doesn’t need me to coin her an ill-thought-out slogan.
The point is—how many times, in how many places… are we on auto-pilot? How many times do we just go about our business and leave well-enough alone when we run up against someone who isn’t well, might be feeling alone… and it could be within our power to help them shift… with us receiving perhaps more out of the exchange?
I know, from our brief meeting and brief chitchat in the middle of the road, that Kim has a lot more going on, intentwise, than she lets on. Hers is a mission— a one-woman plan to tidy up her corner of the world and, hopefully, I assume, to have those well-wishes and happy na-na’s be passed forward by whatever means by their grateful recipients.
And I am for this becoming a movement.
As Arlo Guthrie advised in “Alice’s Restaurant” (in reference to protesting the draft, but you can make the mental leap)— You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both ____ [insert word, no longer politically correct, here] and they won’t take either of them. And if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin’ a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in singing a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.
So, like-minded friends-- sign on the dotted, or polka-dotted,or zebra-striped line, to join the Creator of Moments Movement. Go to ordinary places and kill people… with humor, kindness, joy and peace. A-men.
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000031.htm2008-04-10T19:35:36Z2008-04-20T21:35:41ZA Blank Slate[excerpted from DoingIT!, January, 2007]
Your consciousness slowly, hazily, fades up from black… stirred back from… somewhere… by a gentle rocking and the click-clack along the track of a well-worn New York subway car methodically easing its way toward Coney Island. Gradually the strobin...
“How much of our past lives--
the thousands of moments we experience-- help to make up who we are?
If you took all of these remembrances, these memories away,
what would be left? How much is our personality, our identity,
determined by the experiences we have… and how much is already there? Pure us?”
-- from Unknown White Male
Enter-- fugue state. About three blocks crosstown from the Twilight Zone, remember your transfer, then grab the M line.
“The fugue state, according to an expert in the film, “ is a very interesting condition in which the individual does not have the ability to retrieve information about their past. They may not even know who they are. But what makes it so interesting is that they’re not aware of that at the time. They may be traveling or functioning in some way for hours, days even weeks… not knowing who they are. But until they are put in a situation where somehow this is brought to their attention… they’re unaware of it. At the moment they become aware, then the fugue state per se is broken, and they realize they don’t know who they are.”
I want to experience fugue state! Or an equivalent, albeit voluntary state of rediscovery. Talk about the power of now!
And, now, newly into 2007 and grappling with what of yesterday’s self to bring forward with us into our intended, intentional lives and brighter futures, such concepts are quite mad hats to try on.
Doug’s rediscovered old friend Jim summed it up this way: “He has to make the decision now as he gets to know his past which bits to re-embrace and which bits to discard. In some ways he’s quite lucky he’s in a position where he can make that decision. He can suddenly meet someone that he doesn’t like anymore and say, ‘Sorry I’m not the same person I was. Piss off’. It would be great!”
And somewhere swirling around all these thoughts, wherefores and what-if’s that this film has engendered in me, is a renewed challenge-- to myself, and you-- to really, consistently attempt to reinvent myself and ourselves… constantly. To consistently evaluate without prejudice, through clearer and clearer lenses and filters-- all that which we wish to continue to bring forward in our lives, our world; and to work toward discarding again and again any of the old thought patterns and actions, programmed thinking from bygone days, all the rusty iron filings of our lives that somehow are still magnetically re-aligning in our “field” upon each morning’s awakening, by way of habit and inattention.
“He’s had the great opportunity to reinvent himself and become a completely different person”, mentions his sister. “Not many of us get that chance. You know, start afresh and put behind all the things we wish we’d done differently or hadn’t done at all. And every day is a new day and brings new things and he learns from it, and we tend not to do that. We get sort of stuck in our daily routine and we don’t learn daily”.
Aware that this might be sounding like an endorsement of bonking ourselves on the head to achieve our own amnesiatic state (warning-- do not attempt this at home)—how luscious might it be to rediscover the taste of chocolate or a light snowfall for the first time? Or to get to fall in love with our beloved ones all over again? Every day!
And so I am inspired to attempt to voluntarily enter into as much know-nothingness as I can each moment, to continue DoingIt! by achieving, to the degree possible, a state of childlike wonder. The realm of the blank slate. This is my resolution. Happy New Year.
Hey, has anyone seen my keys?
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000030.htm2008-04-10T19:28:59Z2008-04-20T21:35:26Z3 Seconds of Bliss[excerpted from DoingIt!, November, 2006]
My friend Vicki summed up what I believe is the general quest of us all—the carrot at the end of the stick however we are maneuvering toward attaining it-- with eloquence and a simplicity that really drove the point home.
She was relating an experi... Her focus was not on what she had lost in coming back into mind and body, or how limiting words were in capturing it; rather, how amazing it was to have had it at all.
These are the moments that keep us going, that keep our eyes on the prize. Like a first wobbly and short-lived, training-wheel-free, maiden journey on a two-wheeler bike the exuberance comes from the knowledge of what is possible, and the sense of how much more of it is available… and not all that far off. Forget the skinned knee; let’s get back on and do it again! We are getting the hang of it.
We can put so much effort into a specific endeavor, and then there comes that instant-- so memorable-- that is the turning point. We measure life by these dividing lines-- between life lived before and life truly lived afterwards.
Such are our rites of passage in life. Everyone has their own precious set, held close to heart and always ready to be called up by minds in need of remembering. That we are getting it. That we know what it—our life’s purpose-- is generally about and that we are on our way there, making progress despite any mental chatter or doubt to the contrary.
There is so much talk, so much effort devoted to achieving the state of being in the now in the air these days. So many systems, philosophies and ideas on how to be in the moment have bombarded us, confused us, attempted to allay our confusion. All in all I feel it is safe to say that-- aware of it or not—the bulk of history has been lived in attempts of achieving this same natural state (a lot of work devoted to becoming natural) yet again. Certainly all or most of recorded history, and more than not of the conversations and actions mankind has taken… can be followed (in less than six degrees of separation, with or without Kevin Bacon in there somewhere), distilled down to their motivation to achieve this connection, this beingness that can only happen in the moment.
The aims of wars. The striving toward peace. Pursuits toward love, community, security, or away from hurt, pain, suffering in all planes; the endgame of every urge, by way of any discipline--religious, academic, art, sport, physical/intellectual/sensual; is to come home to this place.
Play with this. Follow any line of thinking, any thought, action or drive, any episode out of personal or world history… and see if the epitome of such does not attempt to bring all participants home, in the way they understand it; and in a way that transcends mind and the limitations of the senses (especially in trying to do it justice in the telling of it) as it is attained successfully.
Perhaps the only difference between the enlightened and those less so, the more conscious vs. the less conscious… is a keener sense of what means might yield more lasting gains and fruits of these labours.
For my money, it is never about the money. So many conquering peoples have stepped over spiritual dollars to pick up material dimes; so many of the civilized have missed the basic point lived out so successfully for so long by the indigenous ones conquered or subdued at their hand.
I am encouraged, though, and my heart is stirred by how many former pillagers of one sort or another now seem to be in better and better alignment with the highest of these principles… and are coming around to what for many has been the long-awaited obvious. I truly do seem to be catching small clusters of news stories that validate this theme on a given day—unrelated stories of folks who are getting it.
This is a time to take hope, to focus on, to share and communicate these changes, these success stories, where those still living from the acquisition paradigm have an at-stakeness in them not seeing the light of day and catching fire perhaps; but where, equally, there are potential openings and opportunities to speak to the parts in them that are ready to drop their yokes and shed illusion.
There is much good occurring in the world despite what you might be shown or told out of fear or an agenda. And this is the season to continue to direct our attention on the momentum that light and harmony seem to be achieving, in the oddest places.
I have been graced by contact, friendship and relationship with so many who are throwing more of their two cents’, and three seconds’, into the community pot in these respects-- you who continue to support the ideals of DoingIt! in your lives key among these.
I hope you will take a few moments to inventory the chunks of time-- large or small-- that you have accumulated in the now, from your deepest sense of home, throughout your life… all those times you ate or drank or spent quality time at the Source from which you stem. Let us use this season to pool our bliss and to allow it to compound, with increased interest and focus paid to it.
Events like the current revolt in Egypt-- with its government's initial censorship and attempt to close-off avenues of communication by "the opposition" (although how "the people" become "the opposition" to those chosen (or not) to represent them is always beyond me)-- seem to offer the sides of other governments and other oppositions the opportunity to strategize end-arounds and think-ahead on how to avoid pitfalls toward victory in their own future skirmishes.