words are like water.

It is a funny business posting personal thoughts "publicly" to the zero people who actually read this blog, besides me. The idea behind posting to a blog instead saving "documents" on Word, is it feels somehow less robotic and more personal, albeit, if only for me. My relationship to blogging is like a casual, noncommittal hobby. Writing only when the the mood strikes me, the act is self indulgent and secretly self gratifying. I come and go as I please. Yet, within the act, some greater good emerges. Clarity.

Clarity is like an elusive lover. When Clarity is present, the world, my thoughts, my experiences feel… well… clear. Life feels better. Music sounds better, colors seem brighter, knowing the meaning of my existence feels like it is just a reach away. But this lover eventually leaves me for greener pastures. Or perhaps it is I who becomes distracted. Carried away with life, I lose sight of the point. The greater picture is no longer clear and translucent, palpable and understandable. Confusion, distraction, dis-ease creep over like a dark cloud obstructing the reflection of the sea, above.

 The point is, writing gives me a chance to collect myself. We call this "centering" in Buddhism. For me, it is the point of meditation. Sure there are deeper, more esoteric points in meditation, such as experiencing the void, the death of ego, Union and the dissolution of the self. But for the shallow practitioner-- the act of centering is like the practice of returning awareness to the breath. It is a constant and simple reminder, of returning to the center. In this way, writing, and meditative centering, feels astonishingly familiar, like a mother's embrace. Grounding, familiar, as if returning home from a long journey away.

I would also like to specify, the words shallow and deep often carry subjective connotations. I admit, I too use these words to convey, compare and make judgments. So in order to clarify the words for myself, I would like to invite you to imagine:

A shallow lake, no deeper than whatever depth instills a sense of comfort. Now, for whatever deficiency the lake has in depth it compensates for in distance. The shallowness is expansive; this lake is vast and warm due to its lack of depth. It is a pleasure to be in, easy to enter, fun to splash in. And since it is shallow, there is a natural clarity in it. You may even be able to see the lake floor.

Now, imagine the depths of the sea. Deep down, there is darkness where the sun cannot reach. There is much less clarity for the light cannot illuminate what we wish to perceive. For any lack of perception, we may feel a sense of mystery in the unknown. Perhaps we also feel fear, for it is cold down in the dark, depths of the sea. This is not a place to splash around and float about. For most this depth is impenetrable, untouchable and unknowable. It takes time, effort and deep commitment to travel to the depths. A certain disposition-- a certain curiosity-- that naturally separates those who are comfortable in shallow bathwater, to those who seek the mysterious darkness of the depths.

Words are like chameleons. They are shape shifters. Words are like water, they take on the shape of their container, they can penetrate and are permeable. They can be felt, and like water, words can be manipulated: cooled heated and damed, dependent on the speaker's intention. Yet, water has a natural course as well. And so do words-- without the judgment of "good or bad", without subjective misuse,  words have carry particular existence. Words, like water, have unique expressions, unique meanings, and with enough force, they have a unique flow. Same with water. Water gives birth to the earth-- by rain, rivers, creeks and streams, water flows and restores. Giving life a chance to express itself and to enjoy its pleasures. Same with words. Yet, water can also carry destructive forces that erode beaches, tear down trees and drown life. Same with words.

Howard Gardner

"So I wrote about what I wanted, and I said the average household makes about $40,000 a year, I think that nobody in America should be allowed to keep more than $4 million dollars a year, 100 times as much. They can make as much as they want, but anything above $4 million they either have to give back to the government or they have to set up a charity."

http://bigthink.com/ideas/16280

"I could not believe the guff I got from people who are wealthy, people who are average, and truck drivers and cab drivers. They all hated it because somehow, I made it, it's mine, and no one can take it away from me. That's insane. It's insane in any analysis, and yet I think that's what we have breathed in in our air, probably to some extent over hundreds of years, but certainly in that toxic Reagan/Gingrich—what did Reagan say? “Government is not the solution; it's the problem.” That's the stuff we've been sniffing. It isn't marijuana; it's that markets can do no wrong."

"Excellence, engagement, and ethics; that’s what I call good work. Good work is the people who know what they’re doing, are engaged in it, and try to do it in a responsible way. Then we flip the E another 90 degrees to W, for we. You can’t ask other people to be good workers unless you do it yourself and joining together to do good work is the replacement for money, markets, and me, and the way that we spread excellence, engagements and ethics."

"I said you've got to try something out, try to get some other people to support you, and if it doesn't work, what can you learn from it?"

- "is whether there's anything that I can do in any particular role to nudge upward the amount of good work that's done, work that's excellent, engaging and ethical. And I made a big decision five or six years ago to begin to work much more with young students, secondary students, college students, trying to get them to think about ethical issues at a time when they aren't already having to hit a payroll and do what the boss says. And I'm still feeling that way.
I mean, the problem prehistorically was, people could be very bad workers, and they could destroy their society, but the rest of the planet would survive."

"but I'm a great believer that people cannot deal with any kind of complex issue unless they've had to engage and think about it, discuss it, role-play and so on."

"Now we're in it all together, you know, whether it's, you know, disease or money or human beings. We circulate all around the world. Somebody who wants to do mischief could destroy the planet, could destroy all the people on it. And unless we develop the Good Work muscle regionally, locally, nationally and internationally, there won't be a planet."

" But here's the big question we don't know, and that is, what is his existential intelligence like? Existential intelligence is one that I use kind of playfully, and that's the interest in big questions. John Kennedy really achieved nothing, practically, as President. But he had enormous power to excite people, to motivate them to think differently, and that's why we still remember him, you know, 50 years after the fact""

And the truth is, until a century or so ago, formal education for the elite was fine, but there was really no need to educate the mass of society, at least beyond the basic literacies. But now it's completely obvious that unless people are not only educated to a higher level, but want to continue to learn—can be motivated to continue to learn; don't feel it's a gun to their head—that they will not be very useful to themselves or to their society.

"The problem is that a small proportion of the population gets a very good education. For shorthand I would say the international baccalaureate crowd, which is a kind of education which elites are able to get whether or not they belong to the IB. But of course that's expensive education, and it presupposes a lot of parental and teacher support. In large parts of the world that's just not a practical reality, and that's why people who are in policy, which I don't, think about much more macro things ranging from one laptop per child toward making sure that women are able to go to school, to ensuring that the country isn't last on some kind of international comparison. And we can't think about education in that—as if it were just one thing."

"The consequence of colonization, domination, dehumanization, militarization and war. Unfortunately, these conceptions and behaviors have become the metaphorical bricks and mortar of the current unsustainable world order. They are expressed in a number of documents issued in the fifteenth century by the Holy See at Vatican Hill in Rome; these documents called for the domination of all non-Christian peoples throughout the world, and for the theft of all our lands and territories. To this day, the ideas found in those papal documents are woven into US Indian law and policy."

The essence of community. Has it been maintained?

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/an-open-letter-to-occupy-wall-street-a-shawnee-lenape-perspective/

‎"What They did not want you to ever find out is that your generation, the generation born between 1980-1995, actually outnumbers the Baby Boomers. They knew that if you ever turned your eye towards political reform, you could change the world.

They tried to keep you sated on vapid television shows and vapid music. They cut off your education and fed you brain candy. They took away your music and gave you Top Ten pop stations. They cut off your art and replaced it with endless reality shows for you to plug into, hoping you would sit quietly by as They ran the world. I think They thought you were too dumb to notice.

Indeed, I thought They had won.

But I watched you occupy the capital of Wisconsin. I see you today as you occupy Wall Street. And I see a spark, a glimmer of the glorious new age that is yours. A changing of the guard, a guard that has stood for entirely too long and needs your young legs to take his place.

I watch you turn away from what is easy and stand up for what is right. I see you understand we as a society are only as strong as our weakest link. I see you wise beyond your years. And I am proud. Give ‘em hell, kids. You are beautiful." -Kate Danley

We are the 99% and together we are strong.
Together, we will triumph as we merge once again to 100%.

By: John Cleveland

The Documentary stage

click on the title below to get to their website.

Breath Made Visible: Anna Halprin;

2012: Time for Change;

Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision;

Hempsters: Plant the Seed;

Vanishing of the Bees.

What are documentaries? To me they are a lens in which I can see the larger fabrics and workings of our society, environment and the world at large. This is a great way to tap into community, the whole community. Of course, there is an agenda and direction that is taken by the cinematographer and editors, but the essence of documenting, acknowledging the vast ecosystems of thought, rather than a monoculture, gives me the viewer a greater understanding of what is at stake. Though the documenters may approach such a process with a desire to express their personal intentions, views and ideas, the messages underlying these five films above have touched a deep chord of resonance and wholeness in me.

I see the pressing nature of time and circumstance. The human race is accelerating at a speed that will catapult us into a great change. History has laid its tracks for us. At some time, quite painfully and at others with joy. And yet, there is a considerable sense of apathy and inaction in my generation- or is this just what the dark forces want me to believe.

There is no questioning that forces of power, control and domination exist. We can see it in Vanishing of the Bees, by the corporations and mega-agriculture businesses who put money above life and health. We can see it in the Hempster situation, when the DEA and US government burn off a sustainable and secure source of wealth and holistic well being from US farmers and Native American Nations. The motives behind such actions, portray the caricature of the devil, laughing at peoples suffering.

Is that what's really happening? Is it right to demonize those who condone practices that appear illogical, irrational, unsustainable and dumb?

Or do we decide that we do not know the entire story. That people do not deliberately and essentially make wrong decisions, perhaps they just don't know any better, or their hearts where in the right place but it came out in the wrong way. Who is to judge? Society is complex.

This juxtaposition between solitude and community is peculiar. As soon as I think I have a grasp at some concept, I find immediate contradiction coming to my mind. Yet a sense still floats within. Perhaps all this learning and knowing is transient, but the senses we acquire in our life time remain. For example, this idea of peace and community. As far as our history-- our ancestors and all actions of the past-- has led me to understand that war, violence and theft are just as much part of reality as is love, peace and justice.

To live in a community and a society at large that is based on these principles, if sometimes only unconsciously, is futile. What I mean is that for every action there is a reaction and causal effect. The acceptance of duality puts me in duality. On one side I become indifferent to the effects that occur in the world, while on the other side I pray and advocate for harmony.

Does Harmony include the harmony between war and peace, love and hate, acceptance and rejection?

Vanishing of the Bees- Documentary

"Nurture the food systems that will take care of all (with your fork and dollar)"

Here's what happens: a systemic pesticide is imbued in monoculture agriculture and/or genetically modified seeds.

The name: many call it Colony Collapse Disorder; in France they called it the Mad Bee Disease

Videos were made around sunflower fields and corn fields. When the bees came in contact with plants under systemic pesticides, they eventually become disorientated and confused, and may simply fall from the flower. Some bees are so severely effected that they can not make it back to their hive. If they do, the pollen they bring into the hive is polluted, tainted, a harm to the rest of the colony.

This is an epidemic; an illness and dis-ease! The attacks on the bees' nervous systems and circuit systems, which disrupted their ability to function properly, and ultimately killed millions of bees. If an attack on the human body was interfering with our immune system and our ability to learn, on a massive scale, would we let it happen?

Note: bees observed around organic sunflowers behaved in a natural order, deliberate and calm inside the flowers.

Bee problems began in 1994, coincidentally when farmers started using the systemic pesticide Gaucho by Bayer. French beekeepers took to the streets in demonstration. They fought with their expression, together.

To quote Henri Clement, UNAF President, "at first we surprised Bayer.. because they thought beekeepers were inconsequential farmers and hippies that could never organize."

Well they united hired a lawyer and sued.

Ultimately, the French Minister of Agriculture, Jean Glavany, banned the Gaucho on sunflowers and corn. He was quoted saying, we suspended the use of Gaucho because it is our job to protect the environment."

And the United States continued in ignorance ten years after the events.

When bees began vanishing in 2005, our government did nothing.

Farmers from the states flew to France to see if they could get the scientific studies that were done so they could use it. The problem was relational. The difference between time and affect could not give enough "proof" to the American beekeepers in their fight against the epidemic.

The irony is, of course, that nature is telling us. "Very often traditional knowledge gets there before science" says Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of our Food, and professor at UC Berkely. As with one of the major issues and themes within our Industrial Era, is that the human brain wants to declare its omniscience. That we, the huMans, know better. But how much ignorance and closed mindedness to nature and the ecological checks and balances, must we dump on the earth, before we start to listen once more to mother knowledge?

All monocultures are unsustainable and unnatural. The more we separate ecosystems into their disembodied parts, the worse it will get.

Some questions that came up: Why do we continue this? They say 95% of the food in America is treated with pesticides. Is this really true?

What is the percentage of land that is a monoculture? in the North America; South America and onward>

Why do we take illness so lightly?

To bring Robert Kull into this, I think perhaps he struggled so deeply with himself out in Chile was precisely because he was sick. Illness in the psyche, body, spirit, soul, nervous system, cellular system, chi, environment, etc. If they are not addressed-- meaning looked at, sat with, and truly embodied and accepted, then what hope do we have for the human race?

How can modern farming live in harmony with the environment?

How can nonviolence live in harmony with the violence in the world?

How can we work at our Bodhisattva nature while consciously knowing that oppositional forces exist? Is it arbitrary?

If nature works itself out and as Kull writes, that perhaps our role as humans is to self-realize the natural world, then harmony can be attained. Or am I just an idealist.

A personal note: When I am in this place we call "nature", I tap into an informational system, not much different to a phone call. When we dial in, we connect with the ones we love. Through antennas and wave-lengths we are talking to someone, or something, that may not be visible to the individual eye. But that is not to say that the person we are talking to on the phone does not exist, we talk through a medium. So then why is it so hard for us to know and hear the conversations that can be with the natural world.

Kull writes, "I was seeing the sound of rain." p. 248

also, p. 250 Kull explains to those who look for messages and lessons from nature (such as I) that there a number of realities that cannot be overlooked.

1. "A romantic vision of idyllic harmony and cooperation in nature is as misguided as an exclusive focus on competition."

the Ying AND Yang. Solitude AND Community. Peace AND War. Dualism is essential to this physical world.

2. "Aggression/competition can be so extreme that it is self-defeating."

Some animals (us included) focus and expend so much energy for combat and mating, to the extent that energy expended on so much more is overlooked. Animals, obviously also expand quite a bit of energy on consumption. We are probably the best example of such gluttony.

3. 'Patience pays off"

Is that true with everything? What about the critical moments of action that must be taken, when one can no longer rely on patience for the pay off? Revolutions, protests, fighting, standing up for something.

The duality of action and rest, was overlooked by Kull here.

Lastly I'd like to leave with one more quote from Kull, "the only way to be free from the hustle is to give up trying to create a solid self or solid social presence. This doesn't mean we disappear or stop being active, only that we can relax and let ourselves do whatever comes naturally without worrying about results."

...for the ego, this can be a truly scary idea."

and yet it still continues...

Some people and books to look into for ENV knowledge: Michael Pollan In Defense of Food

Simon Buxtan Shamanic Way of the Bee

Maryann Fraizier http://ento.psu.edu/directory/mxt15

September 1st

Oh my!

I watched The Baader Meinhof Complex by Ulli Edel.

What a powerful film. My heart was pounding through the entire film. I actually had to pause it a couple of times to regain my composure.

It tells a "true story" of the years after WWII, in West Berlin, during which a left-wing extremist "terrorist" group- RAF- the Red Army Faction- demanded change to the German social-economic system. That is the basis of the film, but what stuck out for me, was how confidence, desperation and stubbornness will people to go on, when they believe so strongly in a cause.

Of course as time passed, and with the help of the media, RAF appeared more extreme, and public support died.

I am interested in looking further into this time in history because the juxtaposition of human rights and freedom of expression to the force of suppression and elite power, still exists and dominates.

This situation is not new. People want to fight for a cause. They want freedom. They want justice. What happens when it doesn't fit within the norm?

http://www.baadermeinhofmovie.com/trailer_bmc/index.html