Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Daniel Clark
© 2001, 2002, 2003
Freedom Fighta
Jagannatha's Garden
June 25
We are all in the spiritual world with You at this very moment. In
fact this moment is all there is. The past and the future are
illusions. All we have to do is remove the cloudy illusions from our
inner vision. We don't have to memorize a lot of details about You
as if in preparation for an exam. We know You already, in our real
state. Our work is just to accept reality. Then we wake up and see
You, back in our happy home, in love.
Adventure Movie
July 5
Evil is weak, and conquers through weakness. You, God, are the
source of strength. Evil cuts itself off from You. It knows only
weakness and sees only weakness. But it is very skillful at what it
does, being so single-pointed in its attention. Evil instantly sees
others' weaknesses and plays on them to gain power. Evil
capitalizes on its own weaknesses by forcing others to serve it out
of pity and guilt. "I am so weak, you must do what I want, out of
compassion for me." That is evil's most subtle deception.
Krishna is so kind.
He gives Himself to you
as Guru, Shastra, Paramatma --
Avatara too.
Brain researchers tend to see things one way -- the mind is part of
the body -- or another way -- the mind is separate from the body. I
propose a third way: the body is part of the mind. Well, what is the
mind? The mind is the universe in its totality, the aggregate of all
the matter and consciousness that makes up the universe. The
mind is not localized. It's not "my" mind. It's universal. It seems to
be mine only because I identify myself as this physical body, and I
assume this body's fragment of mind to be mine, or me. But really
all of us here share the same mind. And we'll be liberated from it
when we realize we're part of You.
August 5
Tumor Tango
sung by a female vocalist to the tune of the mid-20th Century popular song
"Jealousy"
O - o - o estrogen!
Won't give me cancer in my breast again --
I'm swearing off the stuff.
No more chemicals! Enough! Enough!
Artificial hormone therapy --
they told me would for sure take care of me.
Sometimes it stopped the flash.
But the cancer cost me lots of cash.
O - o - o liver flush!
With herbs that mother nature gives to us,
is what the body needs
to help it beat the disease!
September 3
September 5
September 6
September 10
The Dalai Lama says, "The concept of violence is out of date. The
destruction of your neighbor is actually the destruction of
yourself." As the terrorists shall find out. And as we shall find out
after we destroy them. The legacy of violence is passed along the
line until someone refuses it. The Pope says the two sides should
renounce violence and sit down and talk. Dorothy Holland, who
lives here in Sebastian, wrote a letter to our local paper, the Press
Journal. The PJ published it a few days ago. She stated her
conviction that "violence cannot be overcome by more
violence...the answer is to look at the root causes." Holland
suggests that the political, religious, and ethnic leaders of the
world "listen to those who fear, resent or hate our nation. They
would then ask what can be done to alleviate the sufferings of
poor nations... then would declare war on the situations that are
so hopeless for so many." She concludes, "This is simply 'loving
our neighbor.'" Vengefulness at the Treaty of Versailles was the
root cause of World War II. Czarist exploitation was the root cause
of the Cold War. European-American imperialism was the root
cause of the Vietnam War, as it is also the root cause of Islamic
terrorism. Every religion has its fundamentalists. Only when
fundamentalism can unite with the hatred born of economic
suppression, does it create a clearly defined and demonized
enemy against whom the envious can struggle ("jihad") and gladly
sacrifice their lives in the conviction that they will then pass into a
welcoming Paradise. The trigger is economic, military, and political
repression. The US can solve the problem. We can demand that,
on pain of losing all American aid, Israel stop giving preference to
members of the Jewish faith and become a secular nation, thus
limiting the power of the fundamentalists who now drive the
occupation of Palestinian territory. We can pressure monarchies in
Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait to institute political reforms and
become parliamentary democracies. We can lift the embargo of
Iraq which, like the embargo of Cuba, only hurts the people and
not the leaders. These steps, and more like them, will bring us the
homeland security we depend on for our happiness.
September 29
In the movie Lost Souls God's army and Satan's army are at it
again. The sulphurous one is about to make his appearance, but
Winona Ryder saves the day. In the light of our President's recent
preachings against evil, the theme tasted sour to me. I didn't buy
it. Something occurred to me. A culture's yearning for the earthly
triumph of absolute good creates a corresponding desire in that
culture for the earthly triumph of absolute evil. The God Vs. Satan
Battle for Earth, a venerable theme in Judaic-Christian-Islamic
culture, has obsessed us for too many centuries. Admittedly, it has
spawned plenty of compelling end-of-the-world narratives. But it's
also fueled the fires of war, torture, and subjugations of all kinds
both public and private. I prefer the Hindu view, where good and
evil exist as qualities of human behavior -- or superhuman
behavior, as in the struggles between the gods and the demons --
with no Manichean Deity of Doom to blame our frailties on.
Instead the Hindus point to the workings of Maya, illusion,
personified as a goddess surprisingly described as a servant of
the Supreme Truth. Subtlety and paradox characterize this
comprehension. In the relative world, there will never be an
absolute triumph. Absolutism belongs to the spiritual world. Here,
good and evil chase each other around an endless circle. It
doesn't mean good people should capitulate. The struggle has
meaning. But we shouldn't fool ourselves about who's doing the
fighting, or what the real goal is -- to hold deviltry in check, not to
try to eliminate it absolutely.
September 30
Dear Lady Goddess and Lord God, Lady and Lord of Love, please
help us feel kindness, compassion, and devotion toward one
another. Help us serve each other. Help us understand that Your
ways of Love are the only answer to the problems that beset us.
That we have no self interest or national interest or global interest
other than Your interest -- Love. Help us make Your ways our
ways. "We must love one another or die." Our life, our happiness,
our success resides in Love. And You are Love.
♥
We come to this world to enjoy ourselves. To explore our
possibilities. After doing so, and after suffering great pain as well,
we return to God with stronger love. Before, love was given to us.
Now, we choose love.
slowly
gently
take me to that place
where only you can send me
you alone possess
the secret of my longing
that's why i confess
I am simply your belonging
slowly
gently
let me see your face
so i may worship reverently
We just got back from seeing K-PAX. What did it say to me?
Throw away the answers. Stay with the questions. We want
something solid, dead. But the essence is alive, changing. We
hide inside certainties. To be real is to cast oneself into the
current. God is a question. God is to be accepted, not figured out.
When we ask the right question we have discovered God. When
we face the truth we face a mystery. It exists, it is real. But it's not
an object to be scrutinized. It's a world of action. God is not a
concept, something to be taught. God is an adventure. God is a
person. God is love. God is "What can I do for you?" The
response is not an answer, but the same question, "What can I do
for you?" Then the words stop and the doing starts. Yes, even the
questioning stops. No more theology. What's left is love, and
loving the endless mystery. Nothing remains for me except to run
after those flashing feet!
Isha Upanishad
AUM
That is complete. This is complete.
The complete creates the complete.
If the complete is taken from it,
the complete remains complete.
God controls all of this --
whatever's created within the creation.
Accept your portion, set aside by God.
Don't be greedy for another's wealth.
November 5
The area where the circle of the soul and the circle of the body
intersect is the mind. The mind is not anything in itself, but just a
conglomeration of soul-consciousnesses and atomic bodies. The
soul is me, the mind is partly me, and the body is not me. Mind
functioning as memory is what the soul perceives when it regards
the world of the body. The soul cannot see the atoms themselves.
Instead it sees a dream of atoms, memories of bodies, echos of
music but never the initial tones. But extracted from the atomic
grip and delivered into the world of spiritual bodies, the soul at last
has direct contact with reality.
November 19
In windless corners,
where the soft grey dust settles,
that's where you'll find me.
"The void is not really the void. It is the real domain of Dharma."
-- Huang Po, Chu Ch'an
mother hara
grant us the grace
of the supreme
father hari
Art brings us to the raw substance of life. The word Art denotes a
category of things: things intended to be presented to the physical
senses. Something is art to the extent that it is intended by a
human being to be presented to the senses. The word Art in itself
has nothing to do with form, content, or value.
There can be beautiful art and ugly art, significant art and
insignificant art, virtuous art and evil art. Judgments of quality may
be applied to art, but that doesn't affect its standing as art.
Art is simply an object, event, activity, or experience created or
selected by a human being with the intention of presenting it to
one or more of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling,
and touching. It might be horrifying -- as in the art of torture -- it
might be pleasant -- as in the art of massage -- to give two
examples of touching. Both are arts.
Because art refers to the physical, technique and skill play an
important role. So we often talk about "the art" of doing something,
even when the action as a whole has no artistic intention. You
may be skillful at placing papers into folders in a file cabinet, and
may be considered to have mastered "the art" of filing. That usage
and many others do extend the reach of the word Art. But strictly
speaking, an event such as filing becomes art only when the
practitioner intends to present it as sense experience. That shift
takes place when the practitioner begins concentrating on, let's
say, the sound of the papers sliding into the folders, or the
movements of hands and arms. It may only be the filer who
perceives the art, or it may be an appreciative audience of other
office workers. In either case, when sound becomes music, when
movement becomes dance -- then we enter the realm of intention,
the realm of art.
A painting made by an elephant is art only when a human being
holds it up for viewing. A sunset is art only when its glory is
pointed out by a human being. The sound of a photo copier
making multiple copies is art only when a human does something
with it, such as using a recording of it as a rhythmic foundation for
a musical composition.
To repeat: art need not be beautiful. Beauty is a quality. Art is a
thing. Art is characterized by its presentation to the senses, not by
beauty, or truth, or goodness. An art work will gain by possessing
these attributes, as a person also might. But a person lacking
them is still a person. And an art work lacking them is still art.
There are many beautiful things in the universe that are not art,
unless we want to call them God's art, or Mother Nature's. The
Andromeda Nebula is magnificent. A spider's web is fascinating.
Their beauty enriches our life. They can inspire great works of art.
But ugliness can inspire too. Goya's Caprichos are not pretty. Art,
in its direct appeal to the senses, subverts the dualities that our
minds impose on life and brings us to the raw substance of life
itself.
PALS
• Perceive
• Accept
• Love
• Serve
Perceive the situation, don't hide from it. Accept the other person's
behavior, don't try to change it. Love and Serve, don't ruin your
relationship just to prove yourself right. The "P" might also be
Pause: don't rush in with anger. The "A" might also be Attitude:
remember your affection for the other person.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------Eternity------------------------------
--------the relaxed, peaceful world of openness--------
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---------------[ * the tense , * ]---------------
---------------[Birth *anxious world* Death ]---------------
---------------[ * of limits * ]---------------
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-------------------------------Eternity-------------------------------
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Param Atma
Guardian Angel
Help Me Feel You
Here Beside Me
Param Atma
Guardian Angel
How I Need You
Please Please Guide Me
Which is more important, what I'm saying or who I'm saying it to?
I'm not suggesting that I should be a flatterer. Or a yes-man. That I
shouldn't speak my mind, or lose the courage of my convictions.
I'm not suggesting that I should change anything about the
content or character of what I say. But I'm beginning to feel that
the person I'm addressing my words (or thoughts) to is somehow
more significant than what I'm saying. In other words, you are
more important than this.
Martin Buber wrote, in the Third Part of Ich und Du, that all Your
names are hallowed because they've been used not only to speak
of You but also to speak to You. I've been considering what You
say twice in the Bhagavad-gita (9.34 and 18.65), "man-mana." It's
been translated as "think of me," "think about me," "bear me in
mind." I like expanding the meaning to include "think to me," as
Buber has suggested. Both times when You pronounced "man-
mana" You prefaced it by saying it's the "most secret" knowledge
(9.1) and instruction (18.64). The two "man-mana" verses go on
with "become my devotee, offer to me, bow down to me, and you
shall come to me." So the thinking of You, or to You, isn't an
ordinary affair. You are God. Then I take it seriously when You say
it twice -- the secret doctrine of the Gita is simply that one should
apply one's thought to You. My thinking has always been a kind of
talking to an ill-defined "myself." Thus the real work of my spiritual
life is to be aware of Your presence next to me, and to address my
thoughts to You.
This method of Thinking to God that I'm writing about isn't meant
to replace any other practice. It isn't meant to replace a 20-minute
morning meditation. It isn't meant to replace going to church. It
isn't meant to replace prayer, although it's similar to prayer. But all
those practices are "special" times. They're times away from the
racket and jostle of daily events. That's essential to them. What
I'm concerned with is all the ordinary times, which of course
outnumber the special times by a large factor. I'm interested in the
ordinary times because my guru said we should be Krishna-
conscious 24/7. Well, that's a tall order. That involves my thought
processes during the ordinary times. So I go on with my ordinary
thinking, but it becomes extraordinary because I'm Thinking to
God.
May 13
Detachment
Why A Poem?
A poem is a song.
It needn’t be short.
It can be long.
But not a news report --
in its design,
rhythm, composition,
it divines
the music and the vision
in the ears and eyes of the soul.
Instead of notes on staffs,
language plays that role.
It can be words in paragraphs
or any pattern that gives a clue,
that works like a key,
to what people do
in the world of ecstasy.
Heart’s desire found
in meaningful sound:
what God knew all along.
A poem is a song.
The Neighbors
Down To Size
The Moral
Humans down
through history
have manicured
The Mystery.
Safe Indoors
Madanmohan Damodara
Giridhari Govinda
Radharaman Bhagavata
Sadgosvami Devata
The Paramatma
Paramatma
Guardian Angel
Help me feel you
Here beside me
Paramatma
Guardian Angel
How I need you
Please please guide me
Udelowa
Uwa
Dear Mother Goddess
Love Source
Wabasso Beach Bather
Japa
Sixteen ounces
make one pound.
One day's japa is
sixteen rounds.
Sonnent
The Appearance
To Wish Ya
whatever it is
ya might be doin
whatever the biz
ya like pursuin
heres the right thing
to wish ya
may ya do it nicely
for Krishna
Campfire Advice
Sad Child
PATH OF LIBERATION
You Suddenly Empty
Yourself Into Nothingness-------Then---------------GOD
psychology...peace TAKES
OVER
PATH OF LOVE
You Gradually Transform GOD
Yourself By Serving----------------Then--------------TAKES
philosophy...passion OVER
Pleasure
Plan In Motion
YYA TOLA MUN-DAY
I'm Tired
BUBBLY TEM RIP
BUBBLY TEM RIP
BUBBLY BUBBLY
Nama Japa
Hi Bob
Daniel
We now live in the absolute world. But we don't know it. We think
we're in the conditional world. Therefore we suffer. Here's why.
Picture a diagram in the shape of a rectangle. The left edge is
black, the right white. Between the two is a gray area shaded from
dark to light, left to right. This diagram represents the absolute
world, the only world there is.
The black is Goddess. The white is God. The black is absolute
matter. The white is absolute spirit. The absolute world contains
both matter and spirit. Matter forms spirit. Spirit informs matter.
The gray area is made of souls. They're moving from left to
right, dark to light. Matter directs itself to spirit eternally. The souls
are in the gray area but they know of the black as their origin and
the white as their goal. Issuing from Goddess. they worship God.
Moving from black to white, they achieve God. But as soon as
they achieve God, they are within Goddess, because the two are
one. Then they flow out from her blackness along the stream of
her love, toward God, worshiping. As soon as there's the flash of
light of achieving God, there's the womb of darkness inside
Goddess, because she is more powerful. Then the souls take birth
again to go to God, worshiping.
This cycle of ecstasy is occuring right now for all of us. But we
don't know it. We deny that we're in the absolute world. We say
we're in the conditional world, and that becomes reality for us
because we insist on it. We've constructed an all-gray world.
We've blinded outrselves to the black and the white. The
conditional world is the absolute world with the best parts cut out.
In the conditional (relative) world, some say that matter will
some day become spirit. They've noticed the human evolution
from the bottom to the brain. But this concept of history
transported along a time line touches neither absolute matter at its
beginning nor absolute spirit at its end. It's all in the gray scale. It
goes from dark gray to light gray, not black to white.
When the current of history reaches the lightest gray (the brain
stage), it collapses back to the darkest gray (the bottom stage).
Round and round it goes in an endless time cycle. History
gradually evolves and suddenly devolves. The idea of evolution in
the conditional world is inspired by matter's inherent impulse
toward spirit. But, lacking an origin and a goal, it fails, and falls
back into ignorance. Rising and falling, the course of history
proceeds along its purposeless path.
What is called salvation or liberation or enlightenment is
accomplished by one's simple acceptance of what is: the
absolute. As my teacher once said, the absolute "is not an
inference or a vision. It is a fact." It's just the way things are. You
can choose to see it or not. In fact, we are in the absolute world.
See?
Everything exists. Existence admits no exceptions to its rule.
No nothingness allowed. Everythingness is the law. It's all here
now. We just have to open our eyes and see it. Open our ears
and hear it. Open our mouths, noses, and hands -- and taste it,
smell it, feel it. It feels good!
Knock'le Sandwich
Hiranya Kashipu
Nara Simha
Bhakta Prahlad
January 10
January 15
Cozmix 1983
Scannerisms
A few years ago at the library I was scanning issues of the Sebastian Sun to
include them in the library's database. Especially with newsprint, even the best
scanners aren't always accurate. Some funny combinations of letters result.
Here they are. I guarantee these are exactly as they came off the scanner, with
no editing.
January 21
January 22
January 23
--Hey, you can't just walk in. I'll have to see if you're on the list.
What's your name?
--Frank Quitely.
--Yes, but what's your name.
--That is my name.
--Well, frankly...
--No, Frank.
--Yes, well, of course, quite frankly...
--No, Frank Quitely, you've got it wrong, Frank Quitely!
--Will you stop fooling around and tell me your name!
--That is my name, Frank Quitely.
--What? Frankly, you haven't quite told me yet.
--You see, you're still getting it wrong!
--Oh never mind, just go in.
January 24
January 26
The Chief had a mission for us. "You must banish the last of the
Great Eggs from the world." To accomplish the task, he gave us a
clock. It was made in the shape of a human face. The nose served
as a pivot point for the hands. We traveled afar to Egg's Isle.
Walking on the entrance bridge, we saw below us many of the
youth engaging in Egg Stream Sports. Their dangerous activities
had left some of them cracked and oozing. Along the island's
streets were pitched the townspeople's tents, neatly numbered
and named. We searched for the largest of them. There it was.
Two, "A Great Egg's Tent." We called at the flap. Out came the
Great Egg. "This clock is a present to you from your admirers," we
told him. "Do you like it?" "Oh, a grayed eel," he exclaimed. "It's
Mos Eisely -- and Haile Selassie! I will live my life by this clock.
But, what kind of clock is it?" We answered, "A Head of Time."
Immediately he disappeared into the future. There he remains,
pushed out of reach forever.
January 27
February 3
UmaBlend
February 4
February 5
February 6
February 9
Mantra Block
February 11
February 15
Roseland Ishwara
February 17
Painted Pebble
Mas d'Azil, France, ca. 12,000 BCE
From the website of the
Logan Museum of Anthropology,
Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin.
February 20
Wabasso Stone
February 21
February 22
Hridayanath
Liar, Liar
The facts are that prior inspections and sanctions and threats
have failed to deter Saddam in his pusuit of weapons of mass
destruction and ambition to head a pan-Arab state in the Middle
East.
[Is this the best our scrivener has to offer? All we decent
civilized chaps arrange ourselves in a row and shake our fists?
Our righteous indignation is going to give Hussein sleepless
nights? I presume the real point is, "Do what we want, or we'll
reduce your country to a trash heap!" But that wouldn't be a very
civilized thing to say as the editorial nears its ending.]
Sadly, some political leaders see advantages in contrary tactics,
and a great many demonstrators just don't get it.
February 25
March 9
Archangel Uriel,
pour your light onto me.
Archangel Uriel,
pour your light onto the world.
Archangel Uriel,
pour your light into me.
Archangel Uriel,
pour your light into the world.
Names
Bedtime Prayer
March 28
The Giant
[Stan Brakhage passed away on March 9th. I wrote this appreciation of him. It
appeared on the IndieWire site.]
The first Stan Brakhage film I saw was Anticipation of the Night. It
was 1962, at the Charles Theater on Avenue B in the East Village.
The film showed me it was possible to create a totally visual
stream-of-consciousness cinema experience. The impact it had on
me was tremendous. I'd already been thrilled by the innovations
coming from Europe. But Brakhage's work was so far ahead of
what Godard, Antonioni, and the others had done. The film lasted
40 minutes, most of it taken up by repetitions and re-viewings of
haunting, iconic images. I had only a vague comprehension of a
narrative of sorts holding it together. But it didn't matter. It was the
depth, the integrity, and the silent rhythm that hypnotized me. It
seemed to be coming out of the best part of myself. Brakhage's
relentless, obsessive pursuit of some central core of meaning -- a
pursuit carried out through image and movement alone -- won me
over. From that point on, I was his student. My own films as I went
through college and graduate school were improvisations on
themes by Brakhage. My Master's thesis, "Brakhage," which sold
a few copies in the form of a monograph kindly published by
Jonas Mekas' Co-op, was my final offering. After that my life took
another direction. But Stan stayed in my heart and mind as a
guide. From those school years, I remember his extraordinary
generosity. For a film series, I wanted to show the just-completed
Prelude to Dog Star Man. I wrote him. He said OK. I received the
16mm film by post and was astonished to see a film with
hundreds of splices! Not a seamless print, but something straight
off his editing bench! It was like a holy artifact of some kind to me.
We projected it, the college audience loved it, and I sent it back,
hoping that no damage would come to it. He repeated the favor,
with a print this time, sending me the the whole five parts of Dog
Star Man for me to inspect frame by frame for my thesis. I only
met him in person twice. Once at a party at Willard Maas'
apartment, perhaps in 1965. I was too much in awe of him to say
much more than hello. Then in LA in the late 70s, I think at UCLA.
After the screening I gave him a box of freshly-baked chocolate
chip cookies my wife had made for him. He thanked me, admitting
he was pretty hungry. Yes, Stan was the true Starving Artist. His
uncompromising adherence to his principles and his muse, along
with his ability to see and create miracles, made him a genius of
the arts and a giant among us. God bless you, Stan Brakhage!
It's Them!
Glasses on my nose,
eyebrows raised in scorn,
I peer into your soul
and see why you were born --
just to torture me
in everything you do.
I would live so peacefully
were it not for you!
March 31
April 1
April 9
ELLIELLIELLIELLIELLIE
L O L
L V L
I ELLIELLIE I
E O O E
L V V L
L ELLIE ELLIE L
I O O I
E V L V E
L ELLIE OOO ELLIE L
L O V V V O L
I V E E E V I
ELLIE LOVE LOVE ELLIE
L O L L L O L
L V O O O V L
I ELLIE VVV ELLIE I
E O E O E
L V V L
L ELLIE ELLIE L
I O O I
E V V E
L ELLIELLIE L
L O O L
I V V I
ELLIELLIELLIELLIELLIE
April 18
April in Paradise
April 20
in a garbage pot --
in a gardener's kitchen --
smell the gardenias!
Doo-Wop Mantra
Oh Baby
Baby Krishna
Baby Krishna
Wo-oh-wo-oh
New Ditty
May 12
liquidly lounging
lazily lollygagging
long languorous legs
May 14
The word "religion" can refer to a tradition from the past. Or it can
refer to a feeling I have in the present. The two often cooperate.
My present feeling about God is intimately interwoven with
language and sensory impressions conveyed to me by a tradition.
But the two can also be at odds. When tradition becomes
overbearing and smothers the religious feeling of the moment --
and, perhaps in response to that, when I escape from all tradition
and allow myself only a featureless mysticism -- then that severed
religious life lives only weakly. How to maintain a balance? How to
honor the subtle correlation between what I've learned from others
and what I directly experience myself?
The usual way to combine the present and the past is to adapt
a tradition to make it relevant to us today. We graft various
modernities onto the tradition. We do some editing, hoping to
preserve the essence. But there's a danger here. Our focus is on
the tradition as an object that can be fussed over, rearranged,
refinished. We choose nick-nacks from the current world to
decorate the old-time religion. The procedure may result in a
charming embroidery or an imposing edifice. We are pleased with
our creation. But, having concentrated on this art object so
devotedly, we've lost the sense of spontaneous relationship with
God that gave birth to the tradition long ago.
Preserving a tradition or adapting a tradition -- neither one will
suffice. The attention is misplaced. Tradition is part of us without
our having to work on it. What's also with us, though, is our
present world. The current time and the current place are part of
me. When religious worship gushes out from me spontaneously,
it's also the world doing worship, the world that's part of me. I don't
have to work on that either. It happens automatically. So both the
past and the present are naturally expressed if my attention is
simply placed on God. The historical and the modern come along
naturally.
Try to hold onto a tradition, and you've lost God. Try to conform
to changing customs, and you've lost God. But try to deny either
of them, and you've lost God too. Stop trying. Change your
emphasis. Open your heart. The God of the past, the God of the
present, the God of eternity, is right beside you. God accepts your
love in whatever form it takes. For you, religion is God. For God,
religion is you.
I Let It Go Through To You
A Romance of Catholicism
May 23
May 24
May 25
In this statement, feel free to replace the word "thing" with other words, such as
"face," "voice," "love," "thrill," or "tree," "car," "pen," "food," or thousands of
other words.
You As
June 3
A God Sensor
Sensing U
Sensing U
I Am Sensing
You-u-u-u
Sensing U
Sensing U
I Am Sensing
Youuuu
June 4
I See You.
June 5
June 15
FootSwash
The Servant
Now that everybody's stopped talking about last year's movies, here's my list.
It's films I saw for the first time in 2002. So there's one from 1976, one from
1985, etc. And I've included 2002 releases that I saw through June 2003.
Amazing
Superb
Excellent
Good
All or Nothing -- Mike Leigh 2002
Star Wars 2: The Attack of the Clones -- George Lucas 2002
Kate and Leopold -- James Mangold 2001
The King Is Alive -- Kristian Levring 2000
Sunshine State -- John Sayles 2002
Windtalkers -- John Woo 2002
Festival in Cannes -- Henry Jaglom 2001
Gaudi Afternoon -- Susan Seidelman 2001
City By the Sea -- Michael Caton-Jones 2002
Enigma -- Michael Apted 2001
Igby Goes Down -- Burr Steers 2002
Auto Focus -- Paul Schrader 2002
El Crimen de Padre Amaro -- Carlos Carrera 2002
Chelsea Walls -- Ethan Hawke 2001
Adaptation -- Spike Jonze 2002
Equilibrium -- Kurt Zimmer 2002
Chicago -- Rob Marshall 2002
Nora -- Pat Murphy 2000
Evelyn -- Bruce Beresford 2002
Under the Sand -- Francois Ozon 2000
Happenstance -- Laurent Firode 2000
Dork Doom
July 25
Love Power
God is everything,
I've heard them say.
But how can everything
come out and play?
God is a friend of mine,
I've heard in a prayer.
But how can a friend of mine
be everywhere?
I want to treat you
as a friend,
but not
to trivialize you.
I want to bow down
to your splendor,
but not
de-personalize you.
And so I walk,
I try to walk,
along a narrow line.
I know that God's
Almighty God,
but, I feel, a love of mine,
close to me all the time,
close to me all the time.
Love Is Everything.
Love Is Everything.
Love Is Everything.
Love Is Everything.
Love Is Everything.
Love Is Everything.
Pronouncing Worcester
August 2
August 6
an icon to click on
August 14
August 15
digits: the new theme for the Library's personal computing section.
What sets this section of the building apart from the rest is the
intensive use of fingers. People are tapping, clicking, and pressing
diligently with their digits. I wanted to name it according to an
organic, not a mechanical, specialty. I'm so tired of fixating on
"computers." Of course we're dealing with digital technology too.
So we have an extension of biology into bits, digits morphing into
digits. Plus, digits are numbers. The logo shows five fingers. The
first computer was the abacus, which uses a numerical base of
five. Using numerology to add up the alphabet positions of the
letters d-i-g-i-t-s (d=4 i=9 g=7 i=9 t=20 s=19), we get a total of 68.
Six plus eight equals five. You can count it on the fingers of one
hand. Dig it?
Physics
If objects in motion
did not come to rest,
then life as we know it
would be a big mess.
We love each other when I see myself in you, and you see
yourself in me. When we are equal. When "the two become one."
We don't disappear as individuals. We complete each other. We
identify with each other. Couples who've been together for a long
time take on each other's mannerisms. They grow more and more
alike. The fundamental principle of love is equality.
I've always assumed that love means you value somebody more
than yourself. You love them because they're greater than you.
Idealize them. Put them on a pedestal. Look up to them.
In the standard description of the relationship between Radha and
Krishna, their love, which is the most intense love, is described as
"mutual subjugation." Each of them submits to the other as the
ruler of their affections.
So, what is love? It's said that you can love another only if you
love yourself. Or let's say, only if you feel good about yourself.
Yes. Because when I love you I see myself in you. If I feel bad
about myself, it's certainly not love if I see my unworthiness in
you. I'm blocked from loving you. When I get myself straightened
out, I can love.
We might also feel like a parent who takes care of God, or like a
passionate paramour. There the element of God's majesty
recedes into the background. Love comes the foreground.
Any two people are the same as each other, and different from
each other. The similarity is in our qualities. We all possess the
same qualities. We even possess the same qualities as God. The
difference is in the quantity to which we possess those qualities.
For instance, the devotee and God possess the same qualities,
but quantitatively speaking God possesses them to a greater
degree.
But no, I love you. If I find myself in you, that means I trust you to
keep me there, in your heart. You are the object of my affection.
Me-in-you is just the entrance to you. Love requires a minimum of
two. There must be a passage from one to the other, a flow of
energy.
God loves us all. Isn't it true, though, that we are all part of God?
God's love for us is God's self-love. That doesn't weaken God's
mercy, God's compassion. In the same way, our love for another
person is not a sham even if it is self-love. In the largest context,
we are all sparks of the same flame, selves of the same Self.
August 31
September 1
Neon Lotus
I wrote most of this in 1979. Thought I was done with it. But it's kept on
haunting me. Originally, I heard Mick Jagger's voice singing it. That was long
ago. Today I added a verse, tidied it up a bit. (There's a tune, too.)
September 4
September 24
The Passage
where is the road
where is the highway
what will be my way
to the truth
take up the quest
cast off confusions
dig up illusions
by the roots
bow to the impulse
live in the sunlight
give up what's not right
stand up and sing
rescue the creatures
from their cages
listen to sages
feel everything
passage to God
passage of yearning
bridges are burning
one by one
out of belief
into knowledge
then out of knowledge
into love
All At Once
"And therefore [they believe] the United States, being the most
powerful nation on earth, should impose its power, impose its will
and its interests on the world, and it should do it looking after
itself.
October 2
October 3
Door of Speech
Slish
Land
"Six heures !
Seize her, Caesar !"
At six o'clock the maiden
is apprehended by the king.
Now may my true self
be captured by you,
Monarch of the Mysteries!
Vapor Stone
Ancient Sage
He's a poet.
He's a dreamer,
in the flow. It's
his demeanor.
He's a pauper,
going naked,
cloth and copper
long forsaken.
He's a mystic.
If you're deadened,
he can fix it.
He's from heaven.
A sage who is unflawed
can take you back to God.
Happy
Happy is a feeling that you feel inside.
Happy is a feeling you alone provide.
When you shoot it down, you're as good as dead.
So give it up. Live it up! Be happy instead.
Pepper
Robes
Together
A Word Play
October 18
Sweet
The persona of the Nature Boy intrigued me. Nat King Cole sang
of him, and there was a recluse in our town by that name. I
wondered if I would dare to live that way, maybe as a naked wild
man in the woods. Then a Natural music, doo-wop, transformed
me into a creature of ecstasy. I said then that it "changed the
molecular structure of my blood." On a dark night when the others
were asleep I left the house and walked naked through the tall
grass in the back field.
Rock 'n' roll thrilled my soul. Any religion of mine would have to
accomodate that bliss.
After much reading and probing for the truth, I'd reduced my
bookshelf down to two volumes: the Bhagavad-gita and a Zen
treatise, On the Transmission of Mind. The Gita represented Love.
The other, Knowledge. I didn't know if Love or Knowledge was the
source of everything.
Of the two books, the Gita was winning on points. But it was
Swami Bhaktivedanta who finally tipped the scales in favor of
Love over Knowledge. (His name itself means "love is the goal of
knowledge.") I attended a couple of meetings at the little storefront
where he held forth. At the time of the next scheduled meeting, I
found myself on 7th Street, on the sidewalk across from Tompkins
Square Park. I was headed for the apartment of a friend of a
friend to buy some mescaline. I stopped and compared the two
possibilities. The lure of drugs had faded. I went to the storefront
to experience Love.
You may notice that none of this had anything to do with faith or
belief, nothing to do with moral codes or being an upstanding
member of society. Those things I associated with Christianity. I
had nothing against them. They were admirable. But they didn't
reach into the core of my consciousness. Because of my
psychology, I moved in the direction of immediate, intense
experience that engaged the physical as a vehicle for the spiritual.
The Swami's pitch about Krishna being "the reservoir of pleasure"
and about "spiritualizing the senses" by immersing them in
devotional service to God appealed to me. The long singing
sessions with energetic dancing to a tribal beat appealed to me.
The Swami's lectures, spiced by stories featuring India's villagers
and jungle beasts, appealed to me. The importance placed on
vegetarian food (I was already vegetarian) offered to God as a
means of liberation also appealed to me.
I might as well end it at that. There were many more things that
appealed to me. But you get the point. That's how a Protestant
New Englander became a Hindu. Still, that transition happened in
1966. Now, in 2003, I don't think of myself that way. Oh, I'm so
much more normal now!
December 3
So many people really hated The Matrix Revolutions, the third part
of the Matrix trilogy. Confusing, no point, uncreative, predictable,
gooey, dull, revolting! After a gigantic opening weekend, the box
office tanked. The geeks, especially, loathed it. The movie didn't
go their way at all.
But, what's wrong with ME? I really loved it, even more the second
time I saw it.
I'd say that the proclaimed failure of the film rests in what is also
its success, and the success of the whole trilogy: it insists that we
accept new paradigms.
The special effects are like nothing we've ever seen before. The
extent of its conceptual grounding is unique. Has any other film
inspired philosophy professors to write books about its
ontological- epistemological-political implications? However, these
innovations may have worked against the critical success of parts
two and three, which were released four years after the first part.
Viewers were astonished by the newness of the first part, and
expected its successors to match the scale of its leap into
unknown. They were disappointed. But the three films should
really be seen as one film. Then the continuum of effect can be
accepted.
Another challenge for us: the trilogy is a cool head trip that
paradoxically insists on the intuitive over the logical. The films
pose several intellectual puzzles. But the solutions aren't achieved
by logic. Even though one is tempted to intellectualize what's
going on, one must feel one's way through. This is brought out in
the conceptual structure. The Oracle (intuition) finally overcomes
The Architect (logic). Agent Smith's ascendancy is "a result of the
equation trying to balance itself," says The Oracle. Only when she
and Neo allow Smith to assimilate themselves into himself, is
Smith destroyed, and they triumph. Their surrender makes no
sense rationally. But it gets results.
By the time the third movie came out, those viewers Alfred
Hitchcock called "the plausibles" couldn't take it any more. Many
of them expressed severe disappointment that the story didn't go
the way they wanted it to. Some of them felt the Wachowskis had
"betrayed" them. It's unlikely that people who insist on logical
explanations for things are going to feel comfortable with the
trilogy as a whole. They'll content themselves with watching the
first part and ignoring the other two.
To make matters worse for that crowd, I get the impression that
part two is a deconstruction of part one, and part three a
deconstruction of that. We can see this, for instance, in the
character of Morpheus. He changes from an all-knowing guru, to a
pompous windbag, to just one of the gang. Neo also changes --
from a superhero, to the sixth version of an experiment, to a
suffering servant. But more important to the theme of the Matrix is
what happens to Free Will, Belief, and Purpose. At first they're
staunchly proclaimed, then they're all but shattered, then they're
resurrected. Unlike Baudrillard, who deconstructs to reveal
emptiness, the brothers W. go beyond nihilism. They expose
nihilism as a sham, showing the meaningfulness that shines
beyond the void.
December 4
In his castle, the Thing King moans, "There are too many things
that require too much thinking." Heavy hangs the head of the
Thing King.
December 5
December 6
December 9
I just finished reading Ulysses. Dipping into his next book, I find I
can understand it better. But. Jim's joy's to be a spanker of the
inklish linkage, for finicky's sake. Me too? In my way. Over the
years, I've been repeating my message. Using the same styles
and structures. And tricks. It's over now. And digital graphics too,
finished. I'm building a loom. I'll weave yarn with my fingers.
Here's the seed concept for a tapestry pattern I want to do:
December 12
Footsteps
Now I feel the urge to cast off all that later baggage. To walk away
from it. To contemplate the placement of the feet. To meditate on
footsteps. To concentrate on the patient making of impressions
and leave them trailing behind me. To work once again at the
sunrise of humanity in full knowledge of what I'm doing.
I'm not returning to the past. I'm walking into the future, into the
next phase of human life.
Footsteps Serving Lady God