Miss Understanding dropped by again today.

She's wormed her way into the hearts and minds

of all who think because we walk upon two legs

we are bound to know the way.

Life At Home

For most Americans, life, like trash, is loads of fun,

and, anyway, who needs a Sun, it's chicken, can't it

take a joke?

We need our toys, we're afraid to be alone with our minds.

Who needs sunshine?

Where's my phone?

Who said children can't be made to work?

Who needs sunshine?

My age? not important.

neither young nor old am I

as fresh as a morning glory

what perceives but is not itself perceived

sees everything new in unspoiled glory

from the soul of my third eye

and an unseen wave flashes rhythms to the nameless unexplained for those awake who listen a stone shall call their name

and the lightening and the thunder accomplish all wars, all trials and tribulations, resolve the agony of more than a million witches, put away envy and ambition, unload boxcars of bad tradition, leaving simple people singin' from the soul of real gospel

bringin'...

toss all weapons in the ocean,

lean on Mother Nature's motion

you ain't afraid a nuttin';

wives remember tenderness,

husbands forget failures' bitterness,

no need to blame a pregnant wife no more, no more, and

a child shall lead them home…

come,

follow me

Just a kid, like me.

Who is that there you are trying so hard to shape, mold, preserve and control?

A 'nother perfect begotten soul cast from the mold of the Mightiest Craftsman?

What do you imagine there would be if you were to find it in your heart to let him be

as what he is?

What are you afraid of, really?

My God! Look into your self for just long enough you'll see the source of the fright in thee-

it's your self you've been so afraid to uncage, don't you see?

Jesus returns when no one's looking and you see one out of a billion more or less accidentally

as the orphan nobody cared to spend time with,

see what he is becoming, it's enough to make you see

who you and I could be... were we so left uncontrolled and free.

Who is that kid there, holding his breath, you are trying so hard to shape, mold, preserve and control to death?

He is your teacher, Silly!

photo by Bill Lancaster 2018

As Perfect

As perfect as the clockwork of some God

it shall happen to everyone living again tonight…

Darkness upon the Earth which is without form and Void.

Impossible is it to conceive of Evil or conceive of Good.

For all living beings Sweet Dreamless Peace prevails for so long as does it, hours, many hours of it. Was there no body? Unaware of such... was there a mind? Unaware of such. Not dead though. Aware of that. In stillness, I know I am.

Then At First Light Creation. Miracle of a New Day. Be fruitful. Multiply. Breathe. Conceive. Breathe. Conceive. Be fruitful. Multiply. Yet, I know if my body is well and free of pain I am unaware of it. Same is true of mind.

As perfect as Divine clockwork OneDay is my own as OnePresentMoment.

In mercy I tremble. Impossible to conceive of Good or Evil. All is Peace.

Been there. Done that.

I am.

Naming, grading, meddling, tampering, timing, weighing, measuring, separating, branding, testing, corralling, cajoling, threatening, serenading, beguiling, rewarding, scourging, breeding, detailing, preparing, rousting, alarming, forecasting, inviting, ejecting, housing, evicting, studying, picturing, recording, hammering, cursing, flattering, classifying, drugging, numbering, securing, arming, authorizing, stripping, searching, interviewing, coaching, disgracing, directing, coordinating, conducting, inducing, invading, vaccinating, judging, questioning, arresting, charging, convicting, manipulating, torturing, killing, raping, robbing, graduating, honoring, bestowing, withdrawing, praising, criticizing, hiring, drafting, firing, promoting, demoting, retiring, replacing, contacting, ignoring, applauding, booing, electing, impeaching, photographing, texting, emailing, including, excluding, eulogizing, burying, cremating.

What time do we start loving?

Stop The Human War

Asking the national governments to do something to stop the human war is like asking them to stop collecting taxes. Or planning. What else can a government do? But plan for you?

They want something. See. You say you do not. Then you do. How did it happen to you? Schemers all. We all live off the war. Hitler wanted to make the whole world German, I was told. British persons resisted, of course. Yet they are cousins. That don't make sense. Today Jews in Israel wear military uniforms, strut, and blow people away. That don't make any sense. That is absurd!

The very citizens who rail most loudly of their patriotism and are quick to point out a traitor are the same folks who tell we should all be willing to send our children to war at our country's call and yet they, themselves, begrudge the government each dime of their tax bill. They will send the kids to die and kill but are much less willing to part with dough. Now, remember it is also those most vocally patriotic who also in every culture that has ever existed manage to arrange through political channels or bribery, or both, safe passage for their own children to save those lives they hold more dear while living in the land where it is sworn to be so that all people are equal. That's absurd!

You are brilliant and something wants you to be dull, it's safer they report. Safer for whom? Our gods have become the rigid, inflexible patterns of past behavior created, praised, and reinforced as unquestionably enduring to the glory of mankind to be continually celebrated. Run by professionals each is reverently called by its name; names such as religion, politics, national defense, education, medicine, economics, mathematics, music, art, culture, and all the rest of it. All of it known by every citizen to be wasteful, inefficient, unreliable, inflexible, unfair, cruel and quite limited in application. Do it we must! That has become its most loud ordination. It is absurd to think what is ordained by trepidation, dread, and terror is to be lauded as trustworthy nor is it liable to bring forth good fruit.

I have learnt an important secret now to be communicated. The thing is that all those who become greedy or needy and deceitful are automatically moving forward with a plan to do something that means harm to someone else. They believe it necessary. Necessary for whom? But anyone who remains brilliant is going to see right through them, no problem, and stop them in their tracks. It so happens that anything done to further a false interest separate from the whole becomes obvious to a brilliant being who has no agenda at all and never shall have such. On that plane it is clear when an agenda is near. Truth is brilliant. Deceit or darkness has a weakness and it is light. So, inevitably, the movement on behalf of a nation or a group of nations actually must leave clues, fingerprints, footprints, and a money trail for examples, and all these clues truth will use to bring down the movement like a melting snowman being undone by the Sun. The importance of this cannot be overstated.

In summary, once you are clear that you have been drafted into an absurd world by the mere chance of birth, you will be given an opportunity, a merciful gift, really, to take an even more absurd stance than those who call themselves your fellow man have taken and by so doing leave it yet remain. Yes. Remain anywhere you happen to be yet exist outside the absurd world. That's really absurd!

The way I see it, now, there is a brilliant light within us that is unaffected by outside circumstances. It is often spoken of as hidden but it seems hidden because we never look where it happens to be in a place so obvious and so available it resides on fair and equal terms inside every living being. Nothing need be done to have it! It is actually unimaginable. (Pause.) There exists an unimaginable goodness in each one of us. And therein lies the fairness, equality, justice, excellence, peace, and harmony to the delight overflowing of all people who intuitively seek. In the wrong palace we worship seeking what we have already. We seek and seek and seek. Never do we find. It is absurd to keep on striving in the same hopeless manner! And so sad. From the outside world of imagination it is not going to materialize. How could it? We have it! Stand boldly for this most absurd reality for a change. The change referred to is the one you always hoped for but never realized. Stand for your own brilliance! Be amazed! Then light another candle!

Note: The more absurd stance referenced in the paragraph immediately above is an individual one that cannot be done for you nor can it be done as a group or team. One takes the step alone.

2

Many Mansions

A Song To Sing As Your Work

When Nothing Interests You

The Search:

In A Song I have friends, know I'm not the only freak completely lost all alone

but it gets harder and harder these days to lose sight of what we never could hold onto

as our own;

and anyway it's not ever only been that we search to be the first one

to find that elusive philosopher's stone; and in my heart

I know if the happy day should come

the first thing will matter to the lucky one

is to share all the great and wonderful yet to be discovered

properties of that stone;

and my friends I just found it, did you notice and also find the stone?

find what was unknown?

knowing with me we are nevermore gonna be only an imaginary, lonesome person

pretendin' gold at the end of the rainbow 'til the angel of death takes him home?

The Work

My friends, we can build around us many mansions but none can ever feel like home.

My wife and I having it were homeless and each had to leave it to roam.

Weary of roaming found nothing's enough in a sigh of relief each sang, I'm home,

in A Song where we are one with all freaks completely lost all alone pretending to have lost what we search for we find nothing's enough in a sigh of relief sing, I'm home.

Then know again what matters is to share with everyone

all the great and wonderful yet to be discovered properties

of that philosopher's famous stone;

and my friends I just found it, did you notice and singin' the Blues find the stone?

find what was unknown?

knowing with me we are nevermore gonna be only an imaginary, lonesome person

pretendin' gold at the end of the rainbow 'til the angel of death takes him home?

My friends, we can build around us many mansions but none can ever feel like home.

Sing, sing, sing, it out-we can build around us many mansions but none can ever feel like home. A superior craftsman has done for us what we cannot do on our own.

I. M. A. Nonymouse

After the Beginning, when man had been around on Earth awhile, Man and God had a meeting under a tree.

Man: God, ummhh, Sir, Lord, that is, I have a plan to present on behalf of all men and women.

God: Oh? What is it?

Man: We are practically unanimous in our belief we want a world we can call our own.

God: The one made does not suit you?

Man: Well, it is fine for all the others, but, for humans it is stifling.

God: You have been forced to be free and it stifles?

Man: We do not experience it that way. We do not even exist is how we feel about it. So many choices. So much uncertainty. Turn left, turn right. We are stuck. We need something we can count on. We need orders. Rules. A Plan. We really need examples to follow. 

God: Umm. Go on then.

Man: Lord, we drew up such a Plan and I have it here. Now it is complex and lengthy and if were to undertake to spell it all out for you I would have to talk for my whole lifetime and not be finished and I do not wish to spend my life that way and you are so wise and I believe if I tell you some of its parts you will see it all quickly enough and be able to give us your blessing and we can begin. Is that in accord with your will. Lord?

God: Proceed.

Man: Thank you, a thousand thanks.

God: A simple thanks will do.

Man: We begin by making it abundantly clear the Plan is always to be administered under your ultimate authority and in accord with Divine Will. No question.

Next, we want to install human authority directly under your command and wishes and provide that all such authority flows directly from you and is to be obeyed as Your Will on Earth. That idea will be repeated and repeated so often it cannot escape the attention of all You have equipped with some slight even power of intelligence and the rest will be made to follow as lambs follow a shepherd. In this way we guarantee all humans will love and adore and serve you above all else.

God: That is about the silliest thing you guys have come with so far and the saddest thing ever spoken is to hear you tell that you think a human exists who is not fully equipped for the task of following its nature to do its part in a play of wonder and delight. But continue and get to the essence soon. I have business.

Man: Naturally, Lord. As we see it, only by establishing strong rule by certain qualified, properly instructed humans over the rest can we assure You that You Are In Charge. It's like this. We'll kick 'em in the ass but as clearly as possible with the understanding it is Your Holy Foot they are receiving. We plan to add it hurts us more than the victim. And statements that amount to: hey, this is not my idea, it is the Will of God Almighty!

For example, Lord, we are to have family units, comprised of two parents and their legitimate children as defined by law. Parents will dominate the children with a firm hand but only along with a frequent reminder in clear and hefty terminology that the head of the household serves God and is to be treated that way by his children. Surely that will show them.

God: That's absurd! My young children, who know me, legitimate or not, will make fools of you. It is clear to me already you have no idea who you are nor to whom you are addressing these complaints. Am I correct? Never mind. Continue.

Man: We are counting on many techniques, clever and slick ones, like flags, school songs, parades, saluting, bowing, allowances, manners, career ladders, drafts, polls, advertising, gimmicks, prizes, diseases, school holidays, threats, meetings, drills. Many, many others. Parents will share, not equally mind you, but share in complex systems of power and control over all that the kids will be made to desire. It will work. Give us a chance, won't you?

God: A chance? You propose to me an absurd world that is bound to drive every child insane. I told you that in My World, (stop capitalizing my name!) in my world (that's better) all are made to be free. There is no gift so grand as that of freedom. You make the absurd proclamation that all authority rests with me ultimately so why in heaven's name do you insult me with a concocted set of symbolic gestures and games and unintelligent ritualistic hogwash to ensure me a palace above it all? I bet you have hidden somewhere in that plan of yours some silly pointy hats. Do you believe you can mock me? Should you defy me and create the world you have outlined to me it is promised here and now i will have nothing to do with it. You, who experience pure freedom as non-existence! Get out of my sight to open your own eyes to see. It has been so ordered.

Man: But, Lord, I am... I am... I am...

God: Do you perceive me?

Man: Certainly, Lord.

God: Who then perceives a god? Is it not more than the perceived? Go! Trash your Plans. Take a lantern of intuitive faith. Find the unperceived. It is so ordered!

Faithfully written as it was heard spoken,

Alberto Swan

Ride the Wind

I ride with the pride of the Spirit of the Wind

and am so happy today

to call every dog Perro Rey!

Ride with pride

Ride with pride

Ride with the pride of the Spirit of the Wind

It's About Time

Where time bends travel in time begins

(dum dum dum dum)

Einstein said that

Trick is, to take action before any intent can form

then, not even the angels can blame you your whole life through,

in fact, everything that acts without intent gotta support gotta support

whatever you do.

I said that

I cannot show the way it is to be done; (dum dum dum dum) just say, “that is how this writing for you

was begun”

(dum dum dum dum)

Should ya try to be a student of it, intent, already jelled holds a gun.

(dum dum dum dum)

So, when I die I'll take that knowledge w' me.

'Til then I'll warp time. Travel. Have fun.

(wild furious romp of notes off into the unknown)

HISTORICAL RECORD OF UNKNOWN MAN

So, sadly, man destroyed the world he lived in without ever really knowing who he was. The question interested him so little. He was mesmerized by the wonder of everything perceived but himself, the perceiver, I mean.

Had he but known what he was, the perceiver, I mean, he would have done everything so differently. He seemed to busy himself in the process of identifying people to praise and giving them awards so as to feel their imagined glory reflected in a mirror of his mind; his chief purpose being to own or possess an essence of another since he knew not his own worth. Many forms of enslavement are in evidence. So he called the reflected image “me” and the combined population he called, “My world”. He became a lost mess. In short, he let the jackal of his mind drag him into the cave of despair and he suffered and died there.

Called By Name

Only a few days ago I made a new friend named Abbey. Her age is seven years. I remember Abbey when she was a baby but she cannot remember me from that earlier time. It so happened that she said to me on seeing me, “As soon as I heard your name I thought you were famous.” “Really?” I replied. Feeling a bit shaken by her proclamation of my fame I failed to ask her what she was told was my name. Next day, we were out for a walk to a store together and she brought up the subject again and again. I wondered what she meant. Then she said so brightly, “Johnny Whooperswan, I was sure you were very famous when I first heard your name.” She repeated my name several times in a hurry and each time it rang with joy from her young, little heart. I cannot say how marvelous it made me feel. Then she told me, “I am going to tell all my friends I met Johnny Whooperswan and he is very famous”, and laughed out loud.

Now she calls Johnny Whooperswan whenever she decides to call me. And the manner in which it flows from that child is music. And the best part, the reason I want to tell this story, is that I understand from the sounds in my ear when she does that Abbey does not mean by “famous” what definition is locked in my head of words. The very name to her has a real magic quality I feel when she says it. It is definitely related to music. And it makes me feel so very special. And it brings up in me a memory of a time when I myself was most strongly drawn to a sound that I could rely on to open up a door to a special place where something good lives. Somehow that search is innate to humans.

Then I heard, via Netflix, Joseph Campbell, an expert in myths from all around the Earth introduce one from India that ends up by telling that all people are in some way titled as special and we are countless in number and we arise from the belly of Vishnu with a bag of thunderbolts to serve awhile but whenever we get to feeling arrogant about it we become as one more tiny ant. In the midst of the wonder of my name spoken by Abbey with such definite purpose I like the myth very much indeed and accept its challenge for me. I been noticed. But I understand I am just an ordinary man living an ordinary life which happens to be miraculous!

LENS TO LIFE

#1

a simple look into

elements of freedom

nameless newborns when you meet 'em

infatuated

in perfect readiness

direction anybody's guess

express yourself

exhaust expression

life fulfilled

move on

#2

document, weigh-in, age 'em

bound up

in conflict once you cage 'em

house broken

domesticated.

substitute local elements of conformity

switch off self-navigation sensibility

nothing here is rash

unexpressed

left-over hash

two meet

one has little or no preparation for it

the other has been preparing for a long time

would it surprise us to learn it is the unprepared who will last as an eternal flame in the hearts of others; the other quickly fade to dullness. Mixed-up. Flimsy. A rock sack of techniques?

The unprepared born to perfect readiness simply loves itself to death.

How I Retired at 45 With No Capital

It was simple. I was considering my situation carefully. I had tried several careers with no feeling I was even close to enjoying my work. Once again I was penniless and out of work. I wondered whether I was just so out of whack that there was no hope for my success as a person. Mostly, I thought of that, success, as being a respected member of some group that had it together enough to feel proud of themselves for what they did that brought sufficient wealth for an enjoyable way of life, materially speaking. Honestly, I did not wish for a lot of wealth, just enough. And it was definitely more important to me to like myself when I looked in the mirror than what car was parked in my drive. Still, I was not drawn to a life of doing without expensive things. That's about as clear as I was thinking at 44. And narrow was my focus. Now, looking back, I admit it, I was stupid. And for sure my vision for some glorious victory was chained down and heavily guarded by what I thought other people thought of me. You can probably feel how little respect I had for my existence as only me without some tribe to give me the formula. Yet, when that did come, as I will reveal, it was irony, complete irony and I laughed out loud, then gave a holler for joy! The tribe was a bunch of total losers, like me, with the wisdom to understand my needs, and the formula, if you call it that, was, hey, be true to you. There were no dues or fees.

My trusted advisers implored me to run a private, very personal experiment and if I did not find what I was looking for they would refund my misery and I could go on my way. What did I have to lose? What, indeed!

Am I religious?

Life is my God.

Love is my God.

Life's love comes on a breath of wind several times every minute of my existence.

I appreciate that when I am aware. Life is in the wind I draw inside of me. To appreciate a breath is the truest, most intimate, sacred expression of the love of one's God. I appreciate my children, I do, and yet when I remember that there is something that allows me to appreciate anything at all I cannot go wrong. To remember my Lord in all things bolsters me up to bear beams of love from that Giver.

Am I religious?

I hope I have not frightened you away with language that might imply I am in some organized religious group. I am not. Am I Religious?

If it is a simple matter of appreciation for unconditional love meant for me alone which love nobody can find to destroy or steal I am.

Since my decision at 45 to run that experiment I have always had work that is gratifying.

Enough and more has been mine by simply getting serious long enough to discover my nature, what makes me tick, and live it. To live, I discovered, absolutely requires a person to be present for life. Now. Keenly aware. And there is no better feeling.

I shall stop here. I want to give enough without meddling in your affairs. It is your life you are living, not mine. Do not believe what I have written above. Find out for yourself or else there is nothing at all to be gained from my small effort.

The reason anyone would offer to help you copy a formula they are in possession of for how to make a million is because that person wants two million. Think about it.

Apply this metaphor to anything at all anyone offers to help you find. If you are serious about it, you are liable to find out what a fool resembles. What did your parents promise you conditionally? What did your wife or husband promise when encouraging you to marry them? What did your religious leader promise when encouraging you to join that group and become one of them? What did your boss promise? What did your coach promise? What did your doctor promise? Your lawyer? Your elected officials? Was it not bottomed in self-centered desires? You or I will treat others we are responsible for only as well as we have been treated which will have determined how well we treat ourselves. How long before we learn? Someone who cares about you will be ever so unwilling to advertise services to be rendered on your behalf. You will have to lower your ego enough to ask and receive, if you are granted that chance, with no charge or recompense of any kind expected. For that person, the joy of serving you will be payment in full. But do not imagine you are entitled to it. Not for a moment. That will not be permitted.

If a child, any child, gets the things it needs it will flourish. But how much do we know about what any human being needs? What if all that is needed is to be left to the guidance of some force that is the source of its existence absent meddling and enough room to wander about freely and the privilege to be poor of everything else if that is what it turns out the child wants? Do you get my drift? Really? I am pointing to a realm nobody in this world but that child can know about or reach into and spoil or steal from it. So, it's an important thing indeed. Most no longer have a clue what is being pointed out. And that is sad.

Maybe long ago some people went astray and what they thought continues to this day. Hunters were out doing the hunt. They found nothing to kill that they were willing to eat and feed to their families. It was to them a bad day. They went out again. No luck again. For many days they went on the hunt and returned empty handed. People in the village were starving. Someone died. A child. Then another. This time was very sad and difficult for these people and the survivors later spoke of it as “The Terrible Hunger”.

They made stories to tell each other to remind themselves of how terrible it can get. One slip up caused them to change into a warring tribe that was always afraid of not having enough to feed everyone. It never occurred to them to take a careful look inside, at themselves, and see their role in the what came to be known popularly as the period of starvation. What they did was draw a conclusion on the wall so it would be kept uppermost in the minds of all for the rest of their existence as a tribe.

A series of events enough like this one occurred where tribes of humans lived all around the Earth who had never met, but would eventually meet, that this world, Earth, became a place where people expected to go to war and so kept large armies on the ready and fed through stories the fires of hatred toward others they would expect to war with over enough. Children were taught war games. There resulted groups around the Earth who have actually hated each other for thousands of years. They blame each other for the pain of war as matter of fact. It is not a fact and never will it be. Seems every tribe now has a current Big Hatred brewing in the background for instant use when thought necessary by its leaders.

I can imagine a scene for us all. When we die and meet God, as individuals, and are asked, "Well, how was it? Tell me the truth.” each of us will stammer and then realize we have to speak truly and we will say,

“I always wondered, Lord, why you planted a tree of good and evil if you knew in advance we would eat from it? It was trouble, Lord. It all began when we went out for food one day and found nothing.

It was a terrible day.”

And God, speaking on behalf of it all, will answer simply, “Beams of love. Beams of love.”

Upon finding a relic of beauty from the ancient past

that captivated his heart,one of the explorers wondered 

aloud, 

“Who was the one who came here so long ago who took 

the trouble to make this lovely object and leave it 

to be found by one such as me?”

Another replied, “You did, silly.”

An Important Factor For Living

There is something important. 

What is important matters. 

It is not important because you make it so. 

It is important. 

What you make important is paltry.

Furthermore, what trivial thing you make important 

will determine your fate and you will not like it. 

All drama is based upon it, someone makes a mess and the hero

has got to clean it up. 


In the drama he makes what is insignificant to begin with

into a hollywood brand of successful ending. In real life 

trifling things are only made worse by continued meddling. 


All the experts are put to work day and night

to make sense of a situation when the situation 

defined by them which they address with such vigor 

never was of any importance. It is so for the reason 

that what is seen as being in need of repair is not remotely 

related to the important

thing.

Better to find what is important as soon as possible 

and act upon it. It will determine your fate and it 

will surely be a pleasant one. In the words of a true

genius, “You don't explain what happened, you dig it.”

For Elliot

For a long time

it has been popular to tell that the real culprits who are running our lives are not the men or women with guns or the politicians who order them to shoot but the media bosses behind the scenes, or the illuminati who meet in secret cells of corruption to plan the world, or the masters of war who own the politicians and who sell the rockets, bombs, weapons, and bullets at a huge profit from promoting the annihilation of enemies in war after war after war. So far, it's always finger

                      pointing >

Why? Maybe it is a simple matter that there is no profit in, no money to be made from, no power to be gained over fans and admirers by telling a crowd that they have no enemies to hate for who will join a movement and pay to hear that? How can one make a hot selling video game for peace? 

It will be settled one day, if ever, by a simple awakening by individuals who realize suddenly,

“Oh, my God, it is me. I create the world that terrifies me by the thoughts I have allowed into my head. And I can change the world I live in by finding a way to put those thoughts at bay. Someone told me once I would find this place of understanding and swiftly would I act upon it.”

The rest, a new life, will unfold effortlessly rather automatically.

                                                         

                                                               

There is no video game for peace!

If you cannot count what is important you make 

important what you can count. Soldier, Vietnam

No part of the body is separate from the whole. 

 It is a unified instrument. 

The human underbelly is definitely not separate from the whole society. 

 In that way, one can understand that when you punish a criminal you punish yourself and in time it will start to show and one day must lead to a great

fall 
      fall
           fall.

ADDICTION

I was once hopelessly addicted. I continually saw what it was doing to me and could not stop. That is Hell.

Once you see what it is doing coupled with how powerless you are to stop, then you know a loneliness at its most terrifying.

Now, somehow, anyway it can be done, it is so important it cannot be overstressed to ask yourself, what is it about me that has allowed this to become my natural state? If you cannot, then ask yourself, how come I cannot even ask myself such a question when I know I would not refuse to ask it of a friend? Can it be turned around? Can I love myself enough to be a friend to me? Is there a friend somewhere who will understand me? To nothing with a name you have given it, inside, beg, please, show me such a friend.

Open your eyes. Open all senses at once. Open your heart.

Follow.

PEACE IS HERE NOW

Everybody agrees there is a tragedy that underlies the contemporary human condition. I come here to suggest to you the tragedy is best described as an illusion that overlies the truth that sets men free. So dig.

Shovel away the dirt of misunderstanding and you will uncover a peace that is already here. A peace that unites all people on Earth as one people. So, I ask you, is it not more intelligent for us to undertake the digging effort rather than continue past behavior spending enormous resources on trying to change the illusory condition which traditional behavior has always included war after war after war and has after all these thousands of years shown no reasonable potential, not even a hair of it, not even a grain on a hair, of potential for solving anything at all? How many times must the wiser ask, “We know we spend billions on war, what is the budget for peace?” before we understand the question at depth?

It is a shallow thought drives the train of this nation and it is this- peace is a name for a period when we are not making war, while preparing to make another. I tell you if you dig for it you will find a deeper thought and it is this-peace is not the absence of war, oh, no, war is the absence of peace. Peace, my friends, is truth, war a lie. Much wiser to spend resources on peace.

There is a popular western story told in American books and films throughout the Twentieth Century and beyond right up to this very day. In that popular distortion a town in the West is besieged by a tyrant and his dastardly gang of cutthroats. The town folk seek a hero to save them. Along comes the star of the show who, with a six shooter, kills about 25 men without reloading. It fits, actually, the rest of the farce. Nobody asks, what is the role of these pathetic town folk in this absurd drama? And only The Lone Ranger seems to know they will soon attract another set of hoodlums to town and again expect to be saved. But, this is good for business. It is all fun when it can be replayed in ink or on a screen again and again for dollars happily paid by foolish people who want to believe themselves to be right and others to be wrong. But it is bullshit! Bullshit soaked in innocent blood.

Want you give peace a chance? First in your own heart then among the others you will soon meet after you awaken? To awaken, or begin, all that is required is a glimpse of the truth just read, that peace is here now in me. I am the hero of my story.

It Is High Time

The following is just one example of so many well known messes around the Earth over thousands and thousands of years one could not count them in a lifetime. And that fact ought to stimulate a reader.

I am watching a film about the movement west in the building of a nation called America in the Nineteenth Century. This film is just like all the others I have watched since childhood. It depends upon my willingness to pretend to be stupid for its purpose.

Here is the story: It was 1874. The nation was in a severe depression economically because greedy railroads had gone bankrupt that had promised prosperity to all who came to America to work hard to realize it. Many were out of work. There were still many disastrous consequences of the terrible Civil War that had just been over a short time. Lots of hatred prevailed on both sides under harsh conditions. Politicians believed the answer might lie in the movement of many people west as soon as possible to get them busy and away from the memories of that war with a chance for a new start claiming unsettled land where at present only what were considered to be uncivilized Indians lived as they had lived for centuries. The push was on.

Gold was discovered in the Black Hills of Dakota. Problem was, the American government had promised the Black Hills to the Indians as an undisturbed place to live forever after having taken already by force from those Indians much, much of the land that lies between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, always with promises to take no more. Now, here is the part that stands apart as ridiculous-the makers of the film want me as a viewer to accept without question that the nation's best cure for its existent economic woes had to be to get that gold from the Black Hills; the only consideration being how best to accomplish that. I am not to even ask myself the question: who made the mess? I am not even to ask the question: what other ways might be open to the people who at the time called themselves Americans to address the needs of many of them to attain the means of enjoying an adequate level of material prosperity? I am to pretend I do not know there were many ways other than the option to mine the gold of the Black Hills which had been given to the Indians. I am to ignore the obvious truth that to the Indians who had no hand in the bringing about of the Civil War nor any share in the greed that brought on the economic depression back East gold was of little or no value. In addition, I am to ignore my clear understanding that to see only one option is blindness of a huge magnitude and the best name for that is greed!

The film blithely continues to unfold its story in ignorance of more very important facts:

1. The goodness within all human beings that will move them from greed to love in a heartbeat.

2. The resourcefulness of a free people to save themselves.

3. The willingness, the desire even, of people to endure hardship brought about by their own failures rather than to break a promise made in good faith.

4. A natural humility which is a human necessity to ask another for mercy and receive alms. At some time everyone of us will be down and in need.

5. It was, and still is, the selfish interests of politicians and those who own them who call the shots that make wars. Most of us want peace. But, we are too weak and lazy to insist upon it.

I am just saying it is high time we make a new beginning-all of us all around the globe- and insist upon telling the truth about ourselves.  

PURE PRESENCE

When you come to the place where there's nothin' left to believe 

in,

well, maybe, just maybe, 

that's the time to stop all your believe in

and to check closely to find what you know to be so.

Then follow the knowledge you discover

while you forget belief.

I found mine to be a smoke mirage taught me by someone else.

One fine day I realized I was sick and tired of my own opinions

(none of which were really my own) and found myself to be free.

That was all that had been necessary...freedom is pure presence.

So, I am reading Hemingway.  Never thought I'd want to. After Old Man and The Sea. I am reading For Whom The Bell Tolls. Immediately after I bought it for a buck I watched a preview of a new film with Donald Sutherland wherein he plays a professor of Literature and he states "Hemingway is a much misunderstood genius in America.  James Joyce in Ireland was amazed by him and declared he was the first to write prose that is poetry."  So, I began reading the book with that in mind and am coming to believe it is so.

Yesterday I read this-(he is in a war and speaking of a man who stayed at his post throughout a severe snow storm until relieved even though he was not required to do so and everybody would have understood  had he come back to warm up)

"To stay in a storm, in a way, corresponds to a lot of things. It is not for nothing the Germans call an attack a storm. I could certainly use a couple more who would stay." page 209

In those few words, carefully selected I imagine, he says a whole lot to me.  I want to stay with it and feel it a long time. Just the use of the term "corresponds" covers so much ground of understanding. I plan to use it. Just wanted to pass this on to you.  Recommend the book.  

For Ran

Hey, Let's Just Play Like We Care

Just for the purpose of a discussion let me suggest a game...basketball.

It was invented by a Canadian up North to give students some practical

outlet for physical exercise during winter months. Simple.

It caught on across the country. Kids enjoy the game. It is healthy play.

It even has the added benefit of teaching teamwork and cooperation and

the beauty of our bodies. Good things. Still, it is a game. That may be an

important thing to remember. Let us see.

Because what happened next was that people have forgotten it is a game to

provide play and promote the health of youngsters. They have come to

believe it to be worthy of the dynamics of adults in the pursuit of its...what?

Imagine such a thing in the bee world. Bees decide to play basketball. What

if spinach did that? Water? Air?

Politics is a lot like basketball. It's a gamble too. Religions? They are too.

Oh, and for sure, corporations and money and the stock markets and the

real estate game and banking and all the other gambling schemes for becoming

rich...these begin in the minds of men also... and lead to a world where people

cannot feed one another. Don't even want to feed one another. Bobby Kennedy

found this to be unbelievable and he asked, “why don't we...feed one another?

We're rich!

Oh, well, we can always play games. But, is it not important at least to consider

seriously what is worthy of grown-up human endeavor? Should we not feed one

another? Of course, food for the belly. What of adequate shelter and clothing?

Opportunities to learn? What of food for the heart? Nourishment for the instincts

to be kind and generous and fair? Beauty? Enough beauty for everybody? What

would that be like? Love enough for everybody. What would a world like that be

like? What if all people spent time diligently working at the creation of something

with but the single purpose of expressing beauty? Are we really so unworthy of such

a world as that one?