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Archives from recent homepage, part 2
You Are a Great MysteryKrishnamurti on LOVE "The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed." "...when there is love you have nothing more to do. Then where you are, you have heaven; then all seeking comes to an end." "When you get rid of attachment, there will be love." "Love cannot come to those who have a desire to hold on to it, or who like to become identified with it." "One has seen the torture of love, the dependence on it, the fear of it, the loneliness of not being loved, and the everlasting seeking of it in all kinds of relationships, never finding it to one's complete satisfaction. So one asks, is love satisfaction and, at the same time, a torture hedged about by jealousy, envy, hatred, anger, dependence?" "When there is love in your heart, in your eyes, in your blood, in your face, you are a different human being." "If you suffer pain, anxiety, ambition, and soon, you don’t know what love is. You want to have power, position, better house, better cars. Have you ever understood that a man who is ambitious has no love in his heart." "You cannot practice love. If you do, then it is a self-conscious activity of the 'me' which hopes through loving to gain a result." "...love alone can transform the present madness and insanity in the world - not systems, not theories, either of the left or of the right." "The problem, if you love it, is as beautiful as the sunset. If you are antagonistic to the problem, you will never understand." "You know, if you love something, you never get tired of it -- I mean love in which there is no seeking of a result, no wanting something out of it. When you love something, it is not self-fulfillment, therefore there is no disappointment, there is no end." ******************************************** YOUR BEAUTIFUL QUESTIONS Are you strong enough to live without answers: as a flaming inquiry into the truth? The following passage is from an essay in praise of asking questions rather than hoarding answers. It was written by A.H. Almaas, and is available in its entirety HERE from "The Flame of The Search" by A.H. Almaas How do you know that the knowledge you get from others is the truth? How do you know that your teachers, or even the great philosophers, have the answer that is appropriate for you? Christ says to love your neighbor. Do you really know that that is what you need to do? Buddha says that enlightenment is the best thing. How do you know that is what you need? Some people say you have to learn to be yourself. It sounds good. Some people say you should be free from your personality and develop your Essence. It sounds great. How do you know it will resolve your situation? You don't really know whether any ofthese ideas are relevant or true for you. You can't know with certainty until you have experimented and learned from your own experience. Until then your action is based on faith or belief If you assume unquestioningly that what someone else says is the truth, your inner flame will be extinguished. You will believe that you have answered questions when you haven't answered them; someone else has. And they haven't answered them for you, but for themselves. We comfort ourselves by believing that others know, and that we can use their knowledge. It's a very comforting thought; it encourages us to be lazy. We comfort ourselves by saying to ourselves, "Somebody knows, and in time I'll get around to studying it. It's already known and always available to me." But do you, yourself, really know in your heart what is supposed to happen? Do you ever allow yourself to question, to have a burning question--and not put out the flame quickly with the first answer that you hear? You put out the flame so that you can return to your sense of comfort and security. Someone tells you that it's good to pay attention, to be aware. When you try it, it helps a little--but you still don't know whether it's the answer. You don't know whether it will actually resolve your situation. And if you believe you know, you're lying to yourself. You need to keep the question alive while you investigate for yourself. MORE ************************************************ "Some day after we have mastered the winds, the waves and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love; and then for a second time in the history of the world, humans will have discovered fire.” -Teilhard de Chardin ************************************************* THE DISEASE OF MATERIALISM from Jacob Needleman's The American Soul Our world, so we see and hear on all sides, is drowning in materialism, commercialism, consumerism. But the problem is not really there. What we ordinarily speak of as materialism is a result, not a cause. The root of materialism is a poverty of ideas about the inner and outer world. Less and less does our contemporary culture have, or even seek, commerce with great ideas, and it is that lack that is weakening the human spirit. This is the essence of materialism. Materialism is a disease of the mind starved for ideas. Great ideas are always part of a living system of ideas, all of which are necessary for the full understanding of any one of them. When we speak of the "idea of America," we are speaking of many interconnected ethical, social, and metaphysical ideas, which all together offered hope to the world. The idea of America, with all that it contained within it about the moral law, nature, God and the human soul, once reflected to some extent the timeless, ancient wisdom that has guided human life since the dawn of history. America was a new and original expression, in the form of a social and political experiment, of ideas that have always been part of what may be called the great web of Truth. Explicitly and implicitly, the idea of America has resonated with this ancient, timeless wisdom and has allowed something of its power to touch the heart and mind of humanity. It is necessary to recover this resonance, this relationship, however tenous and partial, between the teachings of wisdom and the idea of America. All the rights guaranteed by the Constitution were based on a vision of human nature that calls us to be responsible -- responsible to something within ourselves that is higher than the all-too-human desires for personal gain and satisfaction; higher than the dictates of the purely theoretical or logical mind; higher than the instinctive loyalties to family and tribe. We need to rediscover the deeper, "mythic meaning" of our nation. We need ideas; but we need ideas expressed in ways that touch our feelings of wonder and the sense of the sacred. Many of us may think of myth as something opposed to fact, as falsehood or superstition. But in the root meaning of the word, the great myths of mankind are representations of cosmic and spiritual ideas, expressed in a way that touches the deeper springs of the mind -- the intelligence of the heart. The mythic world does not exclude the world of concrete, everyday reality, but includes a greater awareness of the paradox of human existence...a reflection of the mystery of the two levels within human nature -- the divinity within man joined to the all-too-human. We need to reclaim our mythic symbols before they are destroyed by narrow "realism" or naïve "idealism." We need to reclaim them in a way that corresponds to what is necessary for us now in our own era. Ideas communicated through myth show us a world that is perceived through the vision of wonder, love of truth, and the sense of the sacred, the impulse to serve and to participate in a greater reality----what we may call the inner world.These myths live in our subconscious, and we need to let them come forward and act upon us again. As it is, they are now being covered by a foolish realism that sees only "facts" of the outer world and is blind to the laws of the inner world... Democracy in its specifically American form was created to allow men and women to seek their own higher principle within themselves. Without that inner meaning, democracy becomes, as Plato and Aristotle pointed out 2500 years ago, a celebration of superficiality. We need to re-mythologize the idea of America. MORE…. ************************************************* Glossary: You, Too, Can Speak Brezsnian by Os Davis Ask any acolyte just what distinguishes Rob Brezsny from the typical star-crossed astrologer, and two features are certain to be mentioned: his prose style and his philosophy. Between the two, certain inexpressible concepts key to the nature of macho feminism are bound to overcome the constraints of current linguistic boundaries. Below is an informed glossary of a handful of uniquely Brezsnian terms; feel free to salt and pepper your own tongue with these goodies in every day life. Hell, if Shakespeare can add 4,000 words to modern English, this alternative philosopher's gotta be good for a couple. apocalypse (n.) 1. The utter destruction of the order. 2. Revelation, resurrection, or great awakening. 3. Both, simultaneously. asshole (n.) A dear or beloved person. disinfotainment (n.) A sociological state caused by severe, oppressive, and usually televisual amusement no longer informative or entertaining. [Antonym: infotainment] Drivetime, The (n.) Liminal non-spatial wormhole connecting the Dreamtime and Waketime experienced only through a hypnogogic state; The Great Inbetween; the mobius strip-like seam at the heart of the tantric yabyum. entertainment criminal (n.) One responsible for perpetuating the genocide of the imagination through disinfotainment. kill the apocalypse (v.) To use humor, to show childbirth regularly in prime time, or to generally spread love and beauty and truth with the intent of overturning the phallocratic powers-that-be. macho feminism (n.) A male school of thought calling for extreme sensitivity to and reverence for women, while not sacrificing any aspects whatsoever of traditional aspects of the most robust, virile masculinity. pronoia (n.) The sneaking suspicion that the whole world is conspiring to shower you with blessings. [Antonym: paranoia.] psychethanatoil (n.) Soul-death due to overwork. Particularly affects Capricorns. psychevivatoil (n.) The blooming of the soul through work. radical intimacy (n.) A virtuoso art requiring the mastery of nurturing positive qualities in a lover's personality whilst simultaneously thriving in the glow of the same person's worst qualities. [From the as-yet unpublished Brezsny work entitled The Dictionary of Tricky Love] reverse panhandle (v.) To generously give of one's own money to passers-by. shamanatrix (n.) A high-ranking feminist soul sister in the Menstrual Temple of the Funky Grail; one who seeks to kill the apocalypse. sacred janitor (n.) One who assists in cleaning up after those requiring maintenance of their physical environment or their karmic consequences. whirlygig (n.) A fact-finding mission entailing steeping oneself with the intention of attracting lessons not really needed and meandering the streets at random in order to strike up conversations with strangers. ************************************************ FUN-damentalist Humanifesto Earth Art Gaian Politics Beyond a Culture of Fear CIA: Syria Harboring More Than 15 Million Known Arabs Pigs at the Trough Arianna Huffington says we can't depend on leadership from Washington. It's time to turn to the leader in the mirror. The View from Wonderland A Prayer For George Dubya Ashcroft Rejected by Newly Created Bride of Ashcroft Rediscovering Fire The Universe Story The Shamanic Response: As a marginal figure standing outside secular society, the shaman is in the position to question the predominant moral authority. This is required in this time of moral vacuum in the White House and rampant political and corporate greed. The Non-Profit Universe: The primordial fire that sparked millions of galaxies is the same fire that sparks the human creative impulse. ********************************************************* The Second Superpower Rears Its Beautiful Head BY James F. Moore As the United States government becomes more belligerent in using its power in the world, many people are longing for a "second superpower" that can keep the US in check. Indeed, many people desire a superpower that speaks for the interests of planetary society, for long-term well-being, and that encourages broad participation in the democratic process. Where can the world find such a second superpower? No nation or group of nations seems able to play this role, although the European Union sometimes seeks to, working in concert with a variety of institutions in the field of international law, including the United Nations. But even the common might of the European nations is barely a match for the current power of the United States. There is an emerging second superpower, but it is not a nation. Instead, it is a new form of international player, constituted by the "will of the people" in a global social movement. The beautiful but deeply agitated face of this second superpower is the worldwide peace campaign, but the body of the movement is made up of millions of people concerned with a broad agenda that includes social development, environmentalism, health, and human rights. This movement has a surprisingly agile and muscular body of citizen activists who identify their interests with world society as a whole --and who recognize that at a fundamental level we are all one. These are people who are attempting to take into account the needs and dreams of all 6.3 billion people in the world-and not just the members of one or another nation. Consider the members of Amnesty International who write letters on behalf of prisoners of conscience, and the millions of Americans who are participating in email actions against the war in Iraq. Or the physicians who contribute their time to Doctors Without Borders/ Medecins Sans Frontieres. READ THE REST ************************************************* YOUR ASSIGNMENT by Clarissa Pinkola Estes I assign you to be a beautiful, good, kind, awakened, soulful person, a true work of art as we say, ser humano, a true human being. In a world filled with so much darkness, such a soul shines like gold; can be seen from a far distance; is dramatically different. Want to help? Show your deepest most divine self to the world. There is nothing more rare, more strange, more needed. Why would you wait? Not worthy? Oh piffle. Not ready? Okay, so when? Next lifetime? Don't be silly with me about this. Inferiority complex? Okay, let me put it this way to you: you're not good enough to think you're not good enough. And you can quote me to yourself whenever you have need... Dr. Estes said so. Have you forgotten that you made promises to your Beloved before you ever came to earth? The time to fulfill these is truly now. You want to cease feeling helpless, and you want to help the aching world? Serve someone and something. Everyone on earth serves someone and something. This means being your truest self now, fulfilling the promises you made to heaven long ago. Anything you do from the soulful self will help lighten the burdens of the world. Anything. You have no idea what the smallest word, the tiniest generosity can cause to be set in motion. Be outrageous in forgiving. Be dramatic in reconciling. Mistakes? Back up and make them as right as you can, then move on. Be off the charts in kindness. In whatever you are called to, strive to be devoted to it in all aspects large and small. Fall short? Try again. Mastery is made in increments, not in leaps. Be brave, be fierce, be visionary. Mend the parts of the world that are "within your reach." To strive to live this way is the most dramatic gift you can ever give to the world. Consider yourselves assigned. P.S. Too, limit the amount of news you watch or listen to, remembering that sensationalism's goal is to bring in advertising dollars, and thusly certain sources may not bring the most accurate newscasting. For risks you hear about that are accurate, take reasonable measures. For what you cannot do anything about, pray for those who can. Prayer is a mantle of protection for other souls, a tower of psychic strength for others to lean on. For risks that are dreamed up in the Chicken Little, "the sky is falling" overwrought style," file them under Poof! Invest yourself in humor as often as possible; find friends to laugh with. Everyone should have at least one very funny friend, and at least two others who love to laugh themselves silly. Read funny books. Go to funny movies. For many, right now is not the time to go see Chainsaw Massacre on 33rd Street. Now is the time to create memories of the good kinds. This is done by gathering together with those you care for and doing something you all can remember with smiles afterward. ************************************************* For the long-term freedom, health, prosperity, and security of Americans – and the world's other six billion people, and all its other species, too – there is no more critical task in the coming months than to oust George W. Bush and his inner circle from public office in November 2004. Our great-great-great-great-great grandchildren will thank us. Ballots Can Keep Bullets From Flying -- A Call To Register to Vote For Peace Register to vote! Some states allow on-line voter registration, but not all. Go to www.rockthevote.org and find the easiest way to register in your state. At the bottom of the page, click on "Register to vote." Hippie Crap Saves the World To Stay Healthy and Sane, Let's Read All of Mark Morford's Columns DO NOT LOSE HEART! Letter to a Young Activist Let's Build on the Successes of the Antiwar Movement Jon Stewart, War Hero Bush Subconsciously Sizes Up Spain for Invasion ****************************************************** Tune out the propaganda and tune in to the real news at KPFA, WBAI, KALW, KPFK, KPFT, KBOO, or Pacifica You can find older links to stories about the invasion of Iraq and stuff that was recently on this page here. *************************************************** "Real ability is to respect relative truth without damaging oneself by refusing to realize that it will be superseded. When you observe that today's controversies often reveal not relevance but the clash of the untaught with the wrongly taught, and when you can endure this knowledge without cynicism, as a lover of humankind, greater compensations will be open to you than a sense of your own importance or satisfaction in thinking about the unreliability of others." -Idries Shah, A Perfumed Scorpion ************************************************* "In contemporary life we do whatever we can to deny intuition of the invisible realms. We clog up our senses with smog, jam our minds with media overload. We drown ourselves in alcohol or medicate ourselves into rigidly artificial states with antidepressants. Then we take pride in our cynicism and detachment. Perhaps we are terrified to discover that our "rationality" is itself a kind of faith, an artifice, that beneath it lies the vast territory of the unknown." - Daniel Pinchbeck from his book Breaking Open the Head ************************************************** "The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others." -Carl Jung ************************************************* Reviews of Rob Brezsny's book, The Televisionary Oracle and CD, Give Too Much by Patrick Schabe at www.popmatters.com This Isn't Your Father's Anti-Patriarchal, Quasi-Pagan, Mediastrological, Neu-Age, Goddess-Loving Dreammobile There has been a lot of publishing ink (and quite a few PopMatters articles) of late devoted to the idea of post-feminism. But like so many concepts that evolve from a locus point of radical change, post-feminism is but one branch of the tree of the progressive feminist movement. Another branch of the feminist movement, albeit a highly tailored and personal one, is to be found in the works of Rob Brezsny. He calls it "macho feminism," and if it sounds a little funny, maybe even a little hokey, that's because it's supposed to. In the world of New Age-y, utopian-iconoclast writing, such humor is a two-fisted approach. On the one hand the humor is meant to disengage the reader from taking things too seriously, to show that the author has a sense of fun and his or her own silliness. On the other hand, this humor is meant to draw our attention to the oxymorons, paradoxes, and incongruities of language which force us to think about what terms mean and how incompatible terms create phrases that reveal our own predispositions. For Brezsny, or at least for one of his incarnations, "macho feminist" is a self-descriptive term. He is both silly and serious, the collusion of masculine and feminine, and a crafter of mutated memes. Rob Brezsny is the essence of the contemporary Renaissance Man. He's a big-time astrologer, a small-time rock star, and now a novelist of post-patriarchal idealism. He also moonlights as a quasi-pagan trickster god, and as a communal husband. Given that only a small fraction of the population actually believes in the veracity of these ideas and vocations, it's likely that Brezsny will seem like a kook. In reality, Brezsny is merely holding his own place next to other cultural shamans such as Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, Reverend Ivan Stang, William S. Burroughs, and Ken Kesey. Although Brezsny's current fame might not be as extensive as that of some of his counterparts, it seems to be growing exponentially. Brezsny is most well-known for his work as an astrological columnist. His weekly "Free Will Astrology" (formerly "Real Astrology") is currently syndicated in 124 newspapers internationally and claims a readership of nine million. Brezsny's column sets itself apart from other astrology blurbs by its reliance on creative problem-solving through mythical, literary, and culturl allusions. Rather than a by-the-numbers, fortune-cookie-style take on astrology, Brezsny creates a column that is actually fun to read and, more often than not, educational. Brezsny has also spent a number of years sidelining as a musician. His band, World Entertainment War, was briefly signed to CBS Records, briefly managed by Bill Graham, one of the most famous names in rock history, and one of their albums won the California scene's equivalent of a Grammy. And now there's The Televisionary Oracle, which, with any of the luck that Brezsny has created for himself, will only further his reputation as a carnival barker of positivity. The Televisionary Oracle is both a light read and a complex tale. Difficult to describe in summary, it is buttressed by being more than a little autobiographical. In fact, as a novel by and about an iconocalst, it succeeds by creating a narrator/focal character while at the same time redefining the author himself. In excellent form, it makes the boundary between history and fiction inscrutable. Read the rest of the review HERE. You can buy Rob Brezsny's book, The Televisionary Oracle and CD, Give Too Much Check out Rob's Facebook page. |
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© 1995-2010 -- Rob Brezsny. All rights reserved
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