From Worm To Cougar and Back

There is an unbroken chain from worm to cougar and back, a priceless trove the owner of which is unknown; and I am allowed myself to be included among its treasures, or not. If not, I chase nonliving gold instead with which I hope to buy freedom from the ungraspable source of life. Either way, I serve somebody. Have you noticed churches and hospitals and yoga teachers hoarding chests of gold? Why fear life? Death? Is that it? Which way?

Coming in or going out?

The gold misers who stayed on dry land at home paid with gold for the whalers on ships with ample stores for years at sea to go and carry back the dead whales' oil to be turned back into more gold at marketplace where unknowns happen to be despised. The market bases its strength in a thesis there is not enough to gratify everybody; thus creating the appearance of finite certainty so the accountants' manipulations create a price for every commodity. And yet, uninvited guests have a way of upsetting the plans of men who marry wives. And, the weirdest of all things happening are the prayers of the misers that the Phantom who adores the Big Fish protect their erstwhile treasure from harm, bless it, and keep it safely out of the hands of other thieves than themselves. Where and from whom and how long can these fools hope to hide?

To Be Humans Again

The salt of the Earth. That is what a man who loved people called us. And it seems to me we have fallen so far from that role it staggers me to imagine how did it happen?

A truly dedicated man who was somehow still playing the role originally assigned to all of us, Salt, who was named Sebatsiao drew pictures of us with a light box which enabled him to see through a lens what most of us cannot or will no longer see to show us to us, that man, taught me something true. It was in watching a documentary of the life of this man and his loyal wife that it was possible. For more than twenty years I have been trying to understand what I saw in an hour or two one day in the studio of a stone carver in Austin. I realized then that the trade of stone mason arose at the time men slaved to build pyramids. But why? I asked myself, would any human being willingly spend their one life in such a way? And no answer came except, well, they did...and the do still.

I have slowly seen that even in the lives of very adventurous humans who go into the unknown regions of reality as brave and lonely explorers at the behest of some calling...or some kick in the pants from behind...which? Both. Depending on what is needed at the moment. Oh, yes, I did not make a complete sentence. So what? I'll continue as of it is perfectly as it should be. Even in those lives, the explorers lives, one finds a point where the trailblazer vanishes into the stone mason chain. Have you seen that? Yet?

The photographing holy man I spoke of earlier became so sick of what he drew with his camera that he could go on no more living at all, unless, he found something else to behold to take him away from the Hell he had displayed so boldly before us. And he did.

Know what that man...one man, who listened to his wife ask, why don't we replant the forest that once was your home and is now a barren wasteland, did? As impossible as the idea seemed to him and others who heard it, they began to replant trees, tiny little plants. In 15 short years it had become a magnificent green forest again. You can go to Brazil today and tour it. Or, search it on the internet with the aid of sat-il-light and look at pictures drawn with the light there that are meant to depict its glory.

The man was restored himself. He who gave so much he almost died lives as whole man, Salt Man. Not just the great forests can be restored, humans!

Johnny Smith,

traveler to this land

longing to be human being

p.s. And the new forest in Brazil? Why, that is no longer owned by Sebatsiao's family that is a dedicated public park.

Alas, look!

For Billy's tale to be concerned with whether he was shot to death by the law or escaped to live in another place for many long years is to completely overlook the dignified stance of one who is trying to maintain, I am here! You have no right to tell me I do not belong where you find me. A mountain lion and a tiger and an eagle and an elephant know and Joe Hill and Woody Gutherie and Bob Dylan, and Jesus! Have you seen dignity? That's what this story is about! This blindness comes from reading so many books you actually are concerned with survival. Real people know that nobody survives. What counts is what you were doing when the moment comes.

FIRST THING

THE

You have been told that it is important to know the first thing. I want here to point out why it is so important and what you have when you know the first thing. You will surely appreciate the fact that life works this way. 

All the clergy would resign today if they knew the first thing. All politicians would blush and resign as well if they only knew the first thing. Anyone who considers himself or herself to be a professional this or that would quit immediately, pick out an instrument, and go on the road if they knew the first thing. Every general in every army in the world would toss off his uniform and run to sign up for dance lessons if he knew the first thing. All the teachers would excuse the students from attendance in class and promise each student an A if they knew the first thing. We would all fall in love if we knew the first thing.

When you know the first thing...actually know it, it is the same as knowing everything. Why? It is the nature of the first thing that it includes all things. It is universal. The moment one knows, “I know the first thing”, one will realize, My God, I know it all! I know it all! I know it all!

J Whooper Swan

Austin, Texas

Aug 18, 2016

Come As Far As You Can

A man cried out from his heart:

“Oh, Lord, if you hear me, I feel so lost and do not know what I am to do about it. Can you help me to be free from the chains of worry, doubt, and confusion?”

The answer came to the man's heart, “It is simple. Love everybody on Earth which I have provisioned for all people to live together in peace.”

The man sadly responded, “I cannot. For I do not even know how.”

And the answer came to his heart, “Then come as far in the direction of pure love as you can, my lost rolling stone. I will come the rest of the way.”

And the man rejoiced to hear these words and fell silent, at peace at last. He felt with certainty he was being led, and feeling a certain unfamiliar assurance that, for him, it is done, stepped forward, one tiny baby step. At first, he thought, “Lord, you have forsaken me, I am a fool!” Suddenly, he saw ahead of him a clearing where a small boy who seemed to be lost stood crying. And he was ashamed for a moment but almost immediately he knew what to do and it was as if he had always known what to do, every step of the way on this path of his new life.

Then he made a costly decision. Someone suggested in his ear that he tattoo a message on his forehead to remind him of the truth. So he did. On his face, above his eyes, he had written:

“Come as far as you can

I will come the rest of the way”

The Lord of My Understanding

Most of the time, he could not see the message so he fell into his old pattern. Too often was he caught up in doubt again and then the misery would grab hold of him. He came to notice, however, that many others he knew were getting happier and happier while he was growing sadder and sadder. How can it be so? He wondered. This is unfair. I was given the answer and knew it and all these other people I meet never even prayed and yet it seems they are receiving my happiness. Woe is me.

Then one day while shaving he glanced up and saw the message he carried on his forehead that had become so familiar to him that he had not really noticed it for a long time and knew that his friends were reading the message on his own head while he had been slowly growing blind to it. He laughed at himself. He shouted, “The very things that enable me to see have caused me to go blind!”

And, oddly, he knew that he would never again be far away from the choice to resume this new path anytime he stepped away from it, for, from now on, the pain of worry, doubt, and confusion would be his guides and so what were enemies are now good friends and allies. This makes life at least doubly wonderful, the man thought, and he wanted to tell about it.

WAR BIZ

Who makes baby gore
run out red on mama's clean floor? Who makes a business of war? Who killed them-
why?
and what for?
You can call me weird 'n throw me no bone
but, you can bet it was not the work of a lost rollin' stone
and you know it was not the act of a soldier, some kid actin' alone
it was a whole society of killers; not just their hired drunken army
who think difference enough reason to hack off a branch of the one living tree.
who fear so deeply they lose touch with plain reality; send death wishes across a wide open sea aimed at people...people...who with two hands, two feet, two eyes and two ears, yearn just like me.
This song's not a-pointin' at anyone else you can see it's a sad song- the saddest on Earth-it wonders only when will we show we know:
what they want and we want are the same
Yes, what they want and we want are the same Yes, what they want and we want are the same
-to be free 

The Proper Mode

All of science and mathematics and technology put together will never bring a human being closer to understanding how the world, or any part of it, operates.

  
And, All the world's religions together could never bring a human being closer to understanding how the world, or any part of it, operates.

The great teacher, Gregory Bateson, once stated that all of mankind's 

problem's are traceable to one thing: the difference between how people think 

and how nature operates. That is what I am talking about. The best thinking 

of man is always off base. The good news I have for you is that man can be 

shown how to think in a new way. And, the funny part is, the teacher of the 

new way is going to be yourself as shown in what follows.

Human beings are given an intelligence that operates precisely as does 

the whole of nature. In that mode can we know, finally. That is the mode of: 

Know thyself. The most obvious is overlooked by science and religion. We 

humans are not separate from nature, but inside it. The way it is organized, 

no one will ever understand the world by studying mosquitoes for only 

another mosquito can know what that existence is like. But, duh, we can 

study ourselves, each one a scientist in his or her own right, and realize that 

we already know. By knowing me, truly, I know the mosquito, the eagle, the 

elephant, and all other men and women. If this sounds too simple to be true, 

let me assure you that to know oneself is a mighty undertaking. But that 

should not prevent an effort to do so since nothing else even has a chance of 

showing us how much we have thrown away of the original gift we were 

given with our first breath of life. We all agree that the ocean is made of tiny 

drops. It turns out to be so that the ocean is inside the tiny drop of water as 

well. Do not take anybody's word for this, find out! Know thyself.