Showing posts with label freeform writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freeform writing. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Random Thoughts from 6 months in
6 months now in CA. Does the name Mr. Mississippi still apply? Today I move from the room I was renting in Huntington Beach to a room in Westminster. I always get philosophical on move days, they represent a certain type of paradigm shift. I'm now into co-leading my second teacher training and I have been teaching a lot the last month or so. Lost my car in a crash so I bike everywhere now. Noel's in Eau Claire for the 4 months or so. She doesn't have a job right now so we are pretty broke. It's interesting living genuinely close to the ground. I've worked on some Eddie Entropy music with Nick, that's been fun. Listening to Japanese thick psychedelic rock from the 70s right now. It is strange seeing all your possessions in one small corner of a garage. God is everywhere and I'm really into it right now. The living of life as the supreme manifestation of life. This space is rather hidden all things given so it's like my private little freak-out zone, kind of cool really. I have a private livejournal too but I like the idea of this blog being hidden in plain site. Will I continue to write here? I have seen current mainstream movies in the past six months than in the last 6 years combined. A few positive surprises and a few complete turds. Been very into krautrock lately, this whole time out here has been rather like a travelogue through my different musical phases. Before I was listening to a lot of industrial from the 80s and 90s, I've been putting together a huge mixtape series of primarily industrial stuff, it's been fun. Now I've switched over to Herbie Hancock, reminds me of hanging with Kelli in Bellingham. Time is rather fluid and there's some hidden tensions going on in my life but mostly I feel pretty energized. I feel youthful vigor but don't feel young. That's a good combo. Teaching yoga has been a trip out here, people here seem to get my energy better than they did in MN, that's cool. I'm going further off the grid now, cancelled most all of my internet subscriptions though I'll probably re-subscribe to Netflix when I have a little more money. I've enjoyed the current series of Doctor Who more than any other since the show's come back on the air, it's gotten me even watching some of the old classics. Spent a lot of time hanging out with the Hare Krishnas. Spent a little time hanging with Lon Milo Duquette's Monday Night Magick Group. Used to go up to LA for yoga and Kirtan all the time. Saw Krishna Das, Bhagavan Das, Donna De Lory, Snautam Kaur, C.C. White, Dave Springer, Deeva Premal (who had the drummer form the Doors and the preacher from Agape join her on stage) and a bunch of other people too. Lots of great yoga with Shiva Rea and some kind of silly yoga with Steve Ross. It's weird out here so many people casually know a number of "famous" people, it's just sort how things roll. Xiren is coming over in 15 minutes to help me move so I should do my last round of gathering everything together. Jai! Jai! Jai! Jai! Jai! (jai five, I'll explain later).
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
language of love
I met with my dear friend Chris today and she recommended that I write down some of the ideas that we chatted about. It's strange, I really enjoy conversing about some of these ideas but when it comes time to put them down into the written word I am resistant. For that reason, I"m just going to write without self editing at all. Later, if I want to expand or detail any of the ideas I'll dig in. Thanks Chris for the inspiration.
The conversation in which most of modern culture is engaged is a language of fear and greed (and though I put those as two separate ideas, frankly I believe greed to be an offshoot of fear). Most of our news, advertisement, etc. draws upon the language of fear in order to communicate. This spills over into everyday communication so that our baseline reactions to many of life's challenges is one of fear.
In the rare times where love is used as a tool, it is usually used to sell something, i.e. a McDonalds billboard of a cheeseburger telling us "Go to your happy place". However, I believe that it is possible for us to change the language by which we communicate with society. I believe that it is possible to begin to speak inside the context of the language of love. Imagine what it would be like if our baseline reactions to something new, or challenging were based on love rather than distrust and fear? This isn't to say that fear will disappear from our vocabulary, it will simply not be the first response. This is not an utopian ideal where all life is always perfect. To be honest, our lives will get easier in many ways because a great deal of our anxieties are not the deep issues we deal with as much as they are the fear of the issues we deal with.
I'll roughly paraphrase one of my favorite Sufi stories as an example:
A merchant is traveling into the city of Pompeii. About a day's journey away from town he meets another man on the road. He greets the man and says "Hello sir, are you heading into Pompeii?"
"Indeed I am." the other man replies.
"So am I!" the merchant exclaims, he is happy to have found a traveling companion for the remainder of his journey. "I'm a merchant and I'm going into town to sell some silk from my cart. What's your business in town?"
"Ah, you see I am death and I am going into Pompeii to bring a plague that is going to kill 200 people."
The merchant is thoroughly shocked by this news. "A plague? My God, I've never heard such a story!" The merchant laughs off the man's words as the delusions of a fellow who had seen too much time on the road.
However, once the merchant does reach town a horrible plague does indeed descend on the city. Over the course of the week that the merchant spends in town over 1000 people die of this plague.
Lo and behold, as the merchant finishes his business and leaves Pompeii who should he see on the road other the Death. The merchant calls Death over to him.
"You sure fed me a line. Oh, it's true enough that you brought a plague with you into town, but you told me that it would kill 200 people. Over 1000 people died of this horrible disease. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Death smiled his cold smile. "Oh no, you're mistaken dear merchant. The plague I brought to Pompeii did indeed kill only 200 people. It was their fear of the plague that killed the other 800."
That's what happens now to people trapped in the language of fear. It multiplies their woes by a multiple of five and causes untold misery in their lives. Once we learn to set aside fear, our load will get lighter. I suspect that in the same way that fear multiplies are woes so too does love, to an equal degree, multiply our joys. What would life look like when lived inside of joy?
The conversation in which most of modern culture is engaged is a language of fear and greed (and though I put those as two separate ideas, frankly I believe greed to be an offshoot of fear). Most of our news, advertisement, etc. draws upon the language of fear in order to communicate. This spills over into everyday communication so that our baseline reactions to many of life's challenges is one of fear.
In the rare times where love is used as a tool, it is usually used to sell something, i.e. a McDonalds billboard of a cheeseburger telling us "Go to your happy place". However, I believe that it is possible for us to change the language by which we communicate with society. I believe that it is possible to begin to speak inside the context of the language of love. Imagine what it would be like if our baseline reactions to something new, or challenging were based on love rather than distrust and fear? This isn't to say that fear will disappear from our vocabulary, it will simply not be the first response. This is not an utopian ideal where all life is always perfect. To be honest, our lives will get easier in many ways because a great deal of our anxieties are not the deep issues we deal with as much as they are the fear of the issues we deal with.
I'll roughly paraphrase one of my favorite Sufi stories as an example:
A merchant is traveling into the city of Pompeii. About a day's journey away from town he meets another man on the road. He greets the man and says "Hello sir, are you heading into Pompeii?"
"Indeed I am." the other man replies.
"So am I!" the merchant exclaims, he is happy to have found a traveling companion for the remainder of his journey. "I'm a merchant and I'm going into town to sell some silk from my cart. What's your business in town?"
"Ah, you see I am death and I am going into Pompeii to bring a plague that is going to kill 200 people."
The merchant is thoroughly shocked by this news. "A plague? My God, I've never heard such a story!" The merchant laughs off the man's words as the delusions of a fellow who had seen too much time on the road.
However, once the merchant does reach town a horrible plague does indeed descend on the city. Over the course of the week that the merchant spends in town over 1000 people die of this plague.
Lo and behold, as the merchant finishes his business and leaves Pompeii who should he see on the road other the Death. The merchant calls Death over to him.
"You sure fed me a line. Oh, it's true enough that you brought a plague with you into town, but you told me that it would kill 200 people. Over 1000 people died of this horrible disease. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Death smiled his cold smile. "Oh no, you're mistaken dear merchant. The plague I brought to Pompeii did indeed kill only 200 people. It was their fear of the plague that killed the other 800."
That's what happens now to people trapped in the language of fear. It multiplies their woes by a multiple of five and causes untold misery in their lives. Once we learn to set aside fear, our load will get lighter. I suspect that in the same way that fear multiplies are woes so too does love, to an equal degree, multiply our joys. What would life look like when lived inside of joy?
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