solitude&community- playing the divine dance: September 2011

Saturday, September 24, 2011

The Documentary stage

click on the title below to get to their website.

2012: Time for Change;

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?

Friday, September 23, 2011

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

Monday, September 5, 2011

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

August 31st

Watching film.

The idea behind watching foreign films is tri-fold. Firstly, reading subtitles while listening to a foreign language, is a fascinating way for me to absorb a movie. In creating a particular relationship between understanding and not understanding words, I am looking at the emotive context and searching for the universal human connection. Secondly, I am interested in seeing cultures that relate and behave possibly different from my own up-bringing. Thirdly, I am interested in examining what messages are expressed from artists living outside my culture.

I have been watching an Italian film in sections for the last couple of days. It is called Mid-August Lunch, directed by Gianni de Gregorio. The film begins with Gianni reading a novel to his mama who lives with him and is under his care. The cast of characters expand as Gianni continues to be coerced and convinced to take care of additional mamas, as the Italian holiday approaches.

What charmed me in this film, because it was not particularly- openly enthralling, were the subtle nuances in attitude, behavior and world-views coming from the Italians. I watched with pleasure while Gianni guzzled white wine and made meals with love; The mamas: the way they handle and carry themselves- gave me a glimpse into past; into the days between 1920's and 1950's.

I watched this film alone and my intention was exactly that. Now that school has started and other responsibilities are piling up, I found a doorway into a form of solitude while also connecting to a larger sense of community.

I sit with myself, watching and reading a film, and allow my primordial brain to float between the now and then.

Fun and cool.

http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/midaugustlunch/