D E E P I N T O A R T L I F E WEST
Showing posts with label selections from the anthology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label selections from the anthology. Show all posts

Sunday, August 21, 2011

the catalytic converter model of progress

There are no coincidences.  Keep that in mind when nine eleven's ten year global observance ceremonies come round.  We will be told the alerts are way up there, they will rub Breveik, Loughner and Ft. Hood in our faces while never mentioning Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Following the bomb's birth from Enola Gay's belly, right away the victorious occupiers began a study, now documented in the National Geographic Explorer series "The First 24 Hours After Hiroshima" as if it was an altruistic thing, a study concerning exactly what happens to detonation sites aka Ground Zeroes, for the good of the future.  I'll say that again so you can interpret what that was supposed to mean in the year 1945 AD ... The-Good-of-the-Future.  You would think, wouldn't you, having researched and tested and retested the incredible damage done to life and infrastructure from genocidal weapons of mass destruction that there would be no such thing as a Nuclear Lobby and nuclear power plants, anywhere.  But the satanic treasure chests these things bring forth have a hold like none other.  It is hard impossible for us to find anything altruistic and progressive about what was and is happening.  It is my hunch, Fukushima is played down because not only will the truth crush already waning public opinion, but also the Japanese don't want us with our gifts that keep on giving, anywhere around.  Certainly, plenty of people in Japan are reliving the hell on Earth they experienced as infants... all over again.

Regarding recent comments on "Simplicity" during our last posting here, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima, and all the people purchasing and using dosimeters, losing their homes and livelihoods, their families and their faith and the many who are already ill and dying of radiation poisoning, and for the remainder of their lifetimes live in paranoia cancer will one day take them down, birth defects, contaminated food, NONE of it had to happen, even Somalia's famine did not have to happen IF we had been a loving, compassionate, spiritual people from the start.  Now we have layer upon layer of unnecessary complexity (©John Michael Greer) jamming up the works so that nothing flows smoothly or efficiently.  Its almost as if we grew catalytic converters out of the tops of our heads to survive the Twentieth Century and no one pointed out how absurd and unnecessary it was so we went further and built monolithic exploding catalytic converters in  every vacancy the money was available to pay for it, and if the money wasn't there, the IMF was.  This is insane because a catalytic converter does not make a vehicle's engine run.  It is an unnecessary and expensive "part" that must be rigorously inspected every year or two depending on your state's DMV requirements in order to register a vehicle (again, that does not need it to "go") to be deemed legal, i.e.; free from impounding.  (Mandate alert) This analogy is only one of billions cataloging unnecessary parts, actions, expenses, activities, employments and improvements in progress, growth and market opportunities that make life for everyone a Brillo scathing hell on Earth.

Not a day passes in our lives we are not somehow impacted by senseless tragedy.  Every dead animal run over on our streets is another senseless tragedy.  Make way, its Man!  Run, run.

For the past two days there has been a curious discussion for the masses started by a NYT opinion columnist's piece concerning angry space aliens warring with Earthlings because we trashed this place and our trash threatens the balance of the galaxy.  The MSM is having a diversionary heyday with the idea.  Little do they realize how close to the truth they may well be.  Unfortunately, it is just another PR trick to 1. divert public attention and 2. deny responsibility.  Aliens have every right to be angry and you'd better believe if they were warring with us, you would not need the MSM to carry on in satire to tell you about it from their moral depths of sheer depravity and lush experiences rewriting history to suit the victors.

How can anyone call themselves a victor anyway when to achieve that label, entire nations lose everything?  Collateral damage is a nation.  There is no such thing as blowing up a region without civilian deaths, even at testing sites, if the bomb doesn't kill them, cancer will.  They have yet to design a selective bomb affecting solely combatants no matter how many joystick jockeys wearing cammies and jackboots guide the drones. Does it make the Victors feel good to kill and mutilate, is that feeling good the feeling of victory, pride, honor and glory?  Let's get real here my friends, those are not feelings descriptive of anything remotely simple, humble or compassionate.  Those feelings are only more of the full-on twenty first-century advancement in the catalytic converter model of progress.

For an exercise in what you do not need in order to live a kind and decent life, look around you at this very minute and count the many things, elements, situations, behaviors in your very own location of the moment that you do not need for your survival.  While I have said here many times we can boil the righting of most everything wrong down to Do No Harm, we should add to that:  Do No Harm and Unburden Yourself of Excess.  Be ready for anything, unconsciously, while everything you attempt becomes itself, doing it so perfection in action is achieved as you and "the attempting you" are integrated in the simplicity of one streamlined model of natural efficiency.

Has anyone read Eugen [sic] Herrigel's Zen and the Art of Archery?  Highly recommended.  You can find references to it, but good luck locating the work.  Just as wonderful is Gilbert Highet's The Mystery of Zen describing Herrigel's journey into archery under the tutelage of a Zen Master.  Again, that work appears to be only available in the Norton Anthologies, compilations of brilliant stories and essays, most of which are not available online.  If you should come across either work, you will discover a beautiful way to think about not thinking unnecessary thoughts and integration of your actions into the activity itself. 


Here is a very simple thing: The Wildlife Center in New Mexico needs our help.  As a wildlife lover, I have an insatiable desire to give over to the cause and ask you to join me.  This summer's horrific fires created a deluge of wildlife in need and we must help however, wherever possible.  While you are downsizing your lifestyles, please consider sending your extras to the location where they will be most useful.

The following is a quote from Cheryl at the Wildlife Center:
... For those interested in monetary donations, checks can be mailed to The Wildlife Center ... or donations can be made via PayPal on our website ...  For those who wish to donate food and other supplies, here is a current list of needs.  If somebody wants to donate produce, please have them check with us prior to purchase to ensure we don’t have too much of one thing on any given day, as some items cannot be frozen ...
          Dry kibble dog food – puppy and adult
·         Dark leafy greens (no iceberg or cabbage)
·         Celery
·         Carrots
·         Grapes
·         Bananas
·         Apples, other fruit
·         Honey
·         Gerber Rice Cereal Boxes
·         Apple sauce
·         Frozen mixed veggies (NO LIMA BEANS!)
·         Wild Dove Food (PetSmart)
·         Finch and Canary Seed (PetSmart)
·         Wild Bird Seed (limited amounts)
·         Bleach
·         Powdered Laundry Detergent
·         Paper Towels
·         Ziploc Bags – Freezer, Quart and Gallon
·         Copy paper

My note:  If you can get produce shipped with a one day delivery it might work, otherwise, I'd go for the less perishable items on the list. Injured bears are the heavy users of dry dog food. Our Animals and Avian bredren are gravely suffering and we must make it up to them or we will lose them forever.   Address, email, etc. at the website.

Monday, March 08, 2010

The world is too much with us ...

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! 3
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus 4 rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton
5 blow his wreathed horn.

William Wordsworth, 1770-1850

3. Gift, sordid refers to the act of giving the heart away.
4. An old man of the sea who, in the Odyssey, can assume a variety of shapes.
5. A sea deity, usually represented as blowing on a conch shell.


Anywhere Out of the World 8

Life is a hospital where every patient is obsessed by the desire of changing beds. One would like to suffer opposite the stove, another is sure he would get well beside the window.

It always seems to me that I should be happy anywhere but where I am, and this question of moving is one that I am eternally discussing with my soul.

"Tell my, my soul, poor chilly soul, how would you like to live in Lisbon? It must be warm there, and you would be as blissful as a lizard in the sun. It is a city by the sea; they say that it is built of marble, and that its inhabitants have such a horror of the vegetable kingdom that they tear up all the trees. You see it is a country after my own heart; a country entirely made of mineral and light, and with liquid to reflect them."

My soul does not reply.

"Since you are so fond of being motionless and watching the pageantry of movement, would you like to live in the beatific land of Holland? Perhaps you could enjoy yourself in that country which you have so long admired in paintings on museum walls. What do you say to Rotterdam, 9 you who love forests of masts, and ships that are moored on the doorsteps of houses?"

My soul remains silent.

"Perhaps you would like Batavia 10 better? There, moreover, we should find the wit of Europe wedded to the beauty of the tropics."

Not a word. Can my soul be dead?

"Have you sunk into so deep a stupor that you are happy only in your unhappiness? If that is the case, let us fly to countries that are the counterfeits of Death. I know just the place for us, poor soul. We will pack up our trunks for Torneo. 11 We will go still farther, to the farthest end of the Baltic Sea; still farther from life if possible; we will settle at the Pole. There the sun only obliquely grazes the earth, and the slow alternations of daylight and night abolish variety and increase that other half of nothingness, monotony. There we can take deep baths of darkness, while sometimes for our entertainment, the Aurora Borealis will shoot up its rose-red sheafs like the reflections of the fireworks of hell!"

At last my soul explodes! "Anywhere! Just so it is out of the world!"

Charles Baudelaire, 1821-1867


8. Translated by Louis Varese. the title (given in English by Baudelaire) is based on a line from Thomas Hood's poem "Bridge of Sighs": "Anywhere, anywhere - out of the world." Baudelaire probably found the reference in Poe's Poetic Principle.
9. Large Dutch seaport.
10. Former name of Djakarta, captial of the Dutch East Indies and now the capital city of Indonesia.
11. A city in Finland.