THE PUSUIT OF IDEALS

Ideals are not true. That is all you need know about them. They are on the same level as all other untruths one might think up. Where they lead is not where you want to go is lesson enough for any intelligent critter.

None of the so-called lower animals deal in ideals of any type. A male lion wants to be just that and has no interest whatsoever in being “King”. So, who is more intelligent? those who want to become an ideal or all the other animals? It takes a strong intelligence to see through the illusions of the adept tricksters of this world. 

As a child I was introduced to an ancient ballad written in my ancestors’ neck of the woods. I do not recall now who read that tale to me but I do remember I knew at the finish I had been given great treasure I must learn to follow...heroes.. When older, I read it myself. 

The yarn is of a would-be Knight of the Round Table named Gawain or Galahad in some translations. Gawain was a relative of Arthur the famous English King who ruled from Camelot. Prime stuff that.

What will be shared here is only the meat of the tale and not all its details although it be highly recommended to suffer the reading of the whole of it. It is all idilic. Made of the stuff of promises and oaths and bargains concerning the future. So familiar is it. A child is told of the dream to become an ideal knight of the court. He pursues the dream and it is realized. Almost all who pursue the dream will fail or the ideal would be useless to the realm. And we all know that the future is not ours.

In the Ballad a Green Giant shows up at Christmas to intrude upon the great celebration of King A and his knights, including Gawain, his nephew. The Giant challenges all. “If I bend my head in offering to any brave enough to cut off my head then I expect that one to meet me one year hence at the Green Chapel where I  dwell and give me freely the same opportunity at his head. Anyone up to the challenge?  

Gawain accepts. Arthur allows it. The Giant’s head is severed…but…the rest of the Giant remains standing alive. The headless man picks up his own head, laughs, mounts his horse and rides away after reminding Gawain and those present of Gawain’s duty to honor his promise to appear one year hence.

Thus begins a year of great agony for Gawain who does eventually survive many ordeals in order to keep his promise. This writing ends the tale here because what was seen on the reading was that Gawain was a young man who wanted badly for an ideal to come true. Ideals are not true. All of them are contrived by a society through its leaders as a scheme to rule over the wealth and resources of a territory claimed on behalf of those who follow some ideal of hoped-for splendor to be realized in the future. Let us not dwell on such nonsense further.

I met a woman once who bedazzled me with her splendor. I told her “You are the goddess all men desire!” She replied, “yes, and I believe all women are” 

For quite a while I interpreted her remark to mean…I believe we all have the capacity to become goddesses. Now, I know she meant something quite different…”all women are goddesses”.

It strikes me now the anonymous author of The Green Knight believed that but a few young people have the capacity to become Knights and thus the ending of the Ballad is cloudy and mysterious, or, at least, in the version I was given. 

My point is that at the outset Gawain could have saved himself all the agony of that horrible year pending his certain beheading and the trek to the Green Chapel, which was loaded with trials, by keeping his silence, ignoring the Giant’s challenge to accomplish an ideal…which has never, never, never been done by anyone.

Some may point out that Gawain was bound to follow his dreamed of ideal as he spoke up and honor requires it of him. This writer would point to a prior time when Gawain first undertook the ideal to become a Knight of the Round Table which eventually led him to the confrontation with the Green Knight years later and ask, what if Gawain had been more interested in being himself than in undertaking that pretense? The real challenge, absolutely and solidly based in truth, is “Am I not enough as I am?” And not “Am I enough to become an ideal based in complete illusion sponsored by a corrupt society promoting ambition and greed?”

So, some of you may decide I am foolish to fail to realize how strong is the pull on young people to “become” an ideal person in some fashion or another such as, famous as an artist, athlete, warrior, intellectual, peacemaker, etc. All ideals say “I am one out of millions who achieved greatness”; while it has been said in scripture all over the Earth “ each of you are, as you are, one out of millions born to be the unique being you are and contribute a vital role to the whole world”. Such people have nothing to live up to.  

People at the end of life are divided into two groups 1) those who pursued an ideal to its logical conclusion to discover they never really lived after it is too late and 2) those who believe they either did not even try to achieve an ideal and, so, are cowards or they tried and are failures. The one job all fear most is to trash ideals to simply live fully as who they are each day. That remains a rarely attempted third option.

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 A MONOLOGUE

As it is sung to us in the language of Bob Dylan we all chase a shadow that really is who we are and wish to be it all the time. The song is called “Mr. Tambourine Man” It happens to be up to each of us to discover we can be that then live to dance beneath the diamond sky.

Nobody has ever even seen me here. When they consider me at all, which is seldom, they see some image they have concocted standing on my feet. 

Nobody cares. Not really.

How could they? I’m invisible.

I do not matter.

I may as well eat worms and die. In fact, 

When I hear myself say these words I am undressed, unburdened from carrying heavy thoughts not my own and I am free. And that makes no sense, but is true. Makes no sense it should come when I don’t matter but it is true. THAT IS WHAT WALT WHITMAN SINGS OF TO ME.

There it is. It is an understanding for all…there can be a knowing that makes no sense and it can be proven to be so. So, maybe what makes sense to someone looking for it is always nonsense. There goes another one of those rascals that escaped ordinary good sense and goes running off laughing at me. This is a strange, esoteric truth known to everybody and practiced by few.

If I tell you that although unpopular among the crowd I am in fact well known by them all would you believe me? I am the same reason all people at rare times experience moments of awe whereby all concepts of their identity are erased from consciousness and the reality is indivisible existence. Nameless, and without a single concern, are we at those times. And all know this but very few practice it. What if we did?

Wise people have always told others when you feel bad do not try to escape the feeling or deny it live inside it; it is who you are for the moment. Should you fail to examine into it you will always remain ignorant and be one whose picture will remain incomplete in your own mind. And that is a tragedy because we are always complete even though we may seldom know it. Should you crawl inside the bad feeling when it comes there is every likelihood it will be exposed as nonsense followed by freedom from them heavy thoughts not my own! Not freedom from stupid people but free of what they think having just been one. So, the reply to anyone telling me what they think I should do is “them ain’t your thoughts, Sir or Madam, they were acquired by you from someone else. They are old and dead thoughts.”

And that is being true to life. And that is followed by a pure action with great passion otherwise incomprehensible to the known universe. Then, later, you call it “art”.

For Jackson on his 18th birthday! From Papa

 BECOMING LOST IN LIFE 

The most common way to get lost and stay that way in life is to spend time writing or thinking or singing or preaching or watching or listening about the greatness of those who change the world. These are the world’s heroes, the record setters and those who strive to be a part of it. The result, naturally, is that the vast majority of people are considered losers and think of themselves that way. That’s how it goes, man.

The world you were born into is a game. A MAD GAME. That kind of activity is not creative at all. It’s invention. Nothing really changes and that activity even supports any who want to prevent real change. And, for certain, the really creative people will not be mentioned because they are gone from the view of those who wallow in chaotic and idiotic changes inside the human game. Anyway, the name is not the thing. The label “World Champion” is not that at all. For anyone willing to actually accept things exactly as they are, this moment, a wonderful, astounding and unexpected change in consciousness of all humanity occurs that opens a new universe.

Greatness is not personal. Greatness is completely selfless activity. Some have said such people are “too far ahead of their time”. That’s absurd. Time has nothing to do with it. Greatness is perfect. So perfect it transcends suffering. 

Greatness creates whole new worlds. Whole new universes. The Creative IMPULSE behind the known universe started something limitless. Science will from time to time catch and report glimpses and theorize there are other parallel universes as a sign to anyone who is paying attention while science itself continues to debate this one cultivating seemingly endless troubles for those who fear greatness. 

 PARENTS

WHAT IS A PARENT, ANYWAY? 

Don’t toss out your first answer and move on. Stop. Be still. Go blank. Take a breath. The answer is blowin’ in the wind. 

No man owns the seed. No woman the egg. All share the common understanding of one soul. We are born in relationship. No islands. Children everyone.

I harm a child when I call him or her my own. Stop. Be still. Go blank. Take a breath. The answer is blowin’ in the wind. The very action of claiming ownership is tainted. “My” baby. Look into it. The idea makes the child my property and that naming is mere illusion.The child is her own being. Illusion makes a parent. And that answer blew in on the wind just now. Parenthood is illusion.

Adults need to care for the child to prevent harm. Try. Try it. Cannot be done. And the pain of it is too much to stand. So we escape the fact. We invent a Father’s Day and one for Mother. We flatter each other with “you are a good parent”. All illusion, and, as such, untrue.

One time this writer accepted a position with a firm for money. On the first day at work he was told by a supervisor, “The law requires we have an officially designated safety coordinator and as new man we have decided to appoint you.” I replied, “I know nothing of safety coordination”. “Do not worry. It is only necessary to give a name to the proper authorities” was the supervisor’s reply to that. I did not toss out an immediate answer and plow ahead. Instead, I stoppped. Became still. Went blank inside. Took a breath. The answer blew in on the wind. It was, “I do know that happy, content, satisfied people are the safest people and love makes that happen. So, my task was to love these people.  I did just that. I loved my co-workers and they came  to love me back. Instead of signs crying “DANGER!  I took every opportunity to remind them how wonderful they are and how valuable how appreciated and how fortunate to be alive.” So simple. That just might be good advice for anyone stuck with the tag “SAFETY COORDINATOR” since it is impossible to imagine a thing wrong with that. I just would carefully add “love them as they are, without one alteration on my account”.

The wind says it is time to address a common misunderstanding. It has been my experience that every human who accepts a role of authority over even one other forgets the “love” part of the equation from time to time and really forgets the “acceptance without one change” part. A good place to find material like this is in relationships between adults and teenagers. It is rife with material for study. At 14 my daughter asked to come live with me. Her mom and I had been divorced since Shannon was a baby. My ex-wife told me she could no longer handle Shannon. I was thrilled to have her live with me but…at first she was prone to take off and not return until long past my expectations. Feeling mistreated, I vowed each time that upon her return I would give her the lecture of her life and demand she change! However each time when she did appear the memory of the lecture left my consciousness completely and all I wanted was to hug Shannon and welcome her back and love her as she was without a change of any kind on my account. In fact, I heard my voice tell her, I know you know what is good for you, Shannon, and trust you to do that for yourself.  She seemed not to believe that could be my real response at first but as it continued she gradually relaxed into the love. In a short while, Shannon and I became so close I did not believe it could happen to me and she never has ceased to trust me nor I her right up to this day some 30 years later. 

 LIFE’S A SONG?

Suppose with me for a moment life’s a song. Not unlike this one.

And educated scholars call that song “consciousness”and “un” 

to impress and deceive the unstudied lay m’on.

 

If life’s a song?

then we all sing along? Right? So,

what if we do only that much and no more?

We might just discover what we are here for?

And in the multitude of notes, harmonies, and the rhythms of life learn from the song we truly belong?

And like a dog chews its bone we rock, roll and get stoned

while the song goes way out where there’s no right or wrong?

Because love is the song?

And, if love is a song and we all sing along

what if we do only that much and no more?

We might just discover what we are here for?

(Repeat forever)

If life’s a song?

then we all sing along? Right? So,

what if we do only that much and no more?

We might just discover what we are here for?

If love’s a song?

then we all sing along? Right? So,

what if we do only that much and no more?

We might just discover what we are here for?

                                                                    -Johnny Smith

                                                                       AKA WHOOPER SWAN

 ENTITLEMENT

Prior to this century, all nations, cities, and all the thousands of institutions that are invented to belong in them were written on paper in ink. Now, these entities are written in cyberspace. Same thing. Both are very vulnerable to erasures. And both are the invention by human hands long, long following the creation of nature to which all living creatures belong. And long after humans were endowed with certain inalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And inalienable means rights that cannot be taken away or given. They are stuck too solidly in each human HEART.

These paper nations, cities, and institutions invented as illusions have been forced into the shape of unquestioned human reality by illusory authorities, more inventions on paper, also forged into mental reality for all humans. All this comprises governance by superstition. It is justified by the theory that humans cannot discipline themselves (in other words, are incapable of being human) in the face of facts that tigers have no difficulty being tigers and elephants likewise easily are elephants and bugs are and so on and on. But humans, it is theorized, cannot manage to be human. It is striking to this writer that in this new reality the subject has always been “humanity”. The primary standard for measuring all conduct is “to be humane”. And yet, the system in place requires us to be obedient to a teacher a sheriff a judge a pool of lawmakers a king or president a priest or elder of an organized religion and a boss invented also on paper by…those human hands! Query: if I am incapable, on my own, to be humane what makes the system think all these invented authorities, also only human, will make me so? The scandals say it is otherwise. 

And, get this, the founders of nations and religions all admitted openly and profoundly that it is otherwise. All professed a belief that some power in every human makes it possible for any human to be expected to live in humane harmony according to the nature of humanity in order to justify authorities’ use of violent force against their fellows. Usually the authorities take an oath upon entering office to act under the influence of such an existent power which created them to be human. There exist humans who, knowing with clarity themselves this truth, live in that precise way daily. Such people are lovers of life. As in poker, why not call the hands of all these authorities at once with one voice and walk away from their table? Then the authorities must fold ‘em for lack of an audience. The ace up their sleeve is revealed hypocrisy. We must all then be ashamed and lock arms as one in a new peace.

 REALITY

So many scriptures, so many poems, 

so many songs, so many eloquently spoken speeches have summed up the human situation as “it may be terrible now but one day a Mighty Force will intervene on behalf of all who suffer and bring down the forces of evil in a ghastly explosion of fiery retribution and they will know how awful they have been to the good ones just before they are swallowed up forever. 

That message, as old as it is, has the ears of the self-made righteous in a way that it actually keeps the horror show moving onward with all its unfulfilled promises. Call it the message of “someday”. 

Take note that the message of “someday” always depends on a solid belief in the “righteous” and the “evil forces” who oppose one another. That reality is an invention of the thinking minds of human beings. Words divide. The result of this type of reality in a mind is Hell on Earth. We know it well. It is where those live who are hoping for a “someday”. Can I love my enemies?

Have you noticed the fact that all organized religions are a bundle of promises that never come true? Their focus is always “out there”. Another term for “forces of evil” would be  “the out there  bunches”. Hell, every person who lives on greed is a religious freak for “out there is going to be enough”. Do not jump to defend something. Pause. Pay attention to what you know. 

Try to see that every time someone is hurt psychologically the concept of “good people and bad people” instantly emerges. The thought is supposed to make the injury go away or at least to diminish in intensity. The real truth is the injury will remain to plague its owner for as long as he lives unless the injured party can discover there is another reality. Life in a divided world is Hell. It has to be. Let us  turn to that other reality now.

Another reality. It is this: Heaven is here and it is now. In that case, my only difficulty is that I am ignorant of its presence. My ignorance is the cause of my my belief that some other human being has the power to injure me psychologically. My problem is that I do not know myself completely. I think of myself in the way I was taught to do it. I am my image of myself, in other words. I imagine I am what I think others think I am. In that state I am controllable by flattery and by insult to my image. I can see now how long I have been vulnerable in this way and how often I have been controlled by the opinions of others. I also see that the very concepts of “good” people and “bad  people” are based on my vulnerability to all those “opinions”. I see now that I have been conditioned to substitute a fake world in the place of the real one. The fake one is the invention of thoughts. Obviously, the real one was not invented by human thought. 

Can I change? Do not ask “how?” That would only be the fake world’s conditioned response. We are in need of creativity, not invention of another fake world. Creativity arises in immediate perception. Is that not obvious? Ye are gods having nothing to do except enjoy Heaven in communion with all you meet. I once became angry enough to  want to kill a little old lady for driving too slowly and it turned out that her slowing me down caused me to make a stop I had intended but had failed to make for months on a matter very important to me! Kindness abounds.