The problem plaguing the Bush administration and its supporters...Republicans, evangelist Christians, deep social conservatives...is that they are trying to straddle the highway of morality and they've got both feet in the ditch. On the one side, domestically, they're pushing moral absolutes...Texas hangman's justice, the so-called sacredness of life (Terri Schiavo), anti-abortion, anti-gay...there must be more but I can't think of it right now. And on the other side, mostly international, they're sinking in the moral quagmire of war in Iraq, war on terrorism, neglect of Africa, politics of oil, politics of the Middle East, war on the liberties of their own citizens.
These are the same people. It's a disgrace to let Terri Schiavo die, but not such a big deal for millions of Africans to die of AIDs. Gay marriage is an abomination, but bombination of children in Baghdad is OK.
It's impossible to square this circle. What is absolute about morality? Murder is wrong. But state murder is OK? Even the Buddha, in a previous incarnation, killed in order to prevent the death of 500 others. The key was in his knowledge, his motivation, and the acceptance of the consequences. What Republican has that much insight?
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Saturday, July 02, 2005
My Way or the Highway (to Hell)
I've been reading Henry Miller again. Sexus at the moment. Read it many years ago, but I'm recycling. What an odd juxtaposition of philosophy and pornography. He must be the first writer to put the words "cunt" and "Lao Tzu" on the same page. No wonder he got himself into so much trouble.
Which brings to mind the erotica seminar at the recent CanWrite conference...I couldn't stay for the whole thing, or even most of it. But I did have one observation. All the panelists were women. Why is that? Women write erotica and men write pornography?
At least I was able to hear that we've all gotten past the "throbbing member" and "heaving bosom" stage. Apparently. On the other hand, I did happen to overhear the panelists discussing (before the session started) how hard it was to read out loud in public words like "nipples" and "blow job".
But that's not really what I meant to write about. Here's a quote from the "First American Publication" of Sexus, the Black Cat paperback, which must have employed amateur or semi-literate typesetters or lazy proofreaders...either that or they were so preoccupied looking for the sexy bits they forgot to pay attention to integrity of the manuscript...Anyway, p. 270 of the paperback:
The world has not to be put in order: the world is order incarnate. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order, to know what is the world order in contradistinction to the wishful-thinking orders which we seek to impose on one another.I don't know enough about Miller's life to know whether he really believed this or not. Seems to me anyone with a modicum of wisdom eventually learns this. But knowing and practising are two different things. And don't I know that...?
Knowing and practising...What Miller says here has actually been percolating in my brain for a couple of months. I think it's mostly what is wrong with the world today. We're beset by fanatics everywhere who insist on having everyone do things the way they would like to see them done. Nobody wants to mind their own business anymore. We're all too busy minding everyone else's business. And so we go from a concept of government (for example) in which people freely band together in order to promote the common weal, the greatest good for the greatest number, to a seriously anal nanny-state which has the temerity to say "You'd better start eating fruits and vegetables instead of french fries or we might have to exclude you from any sort of health care..."! ie. we don't like your lifestyle, therefore, we're going to make it illegal. I begin to understand what the Michigan Militia is on about....
OK. So maybe I really am an anarchist at heart. And why I was so attracted at the tender age of 15 to Marx's idea of the withering of the state.
Yep, everybody wants things ordered to suit themselves. And so they begin to meddle. There should be a 12 Step program for compulsive meddlers. Probably every politician alive could be a member. You know, one of the slogans is Live and Let Live...
Of course, if you're a Buddhist, you maybe realize that this is a congenital condition. You take what is and organize it by means of the senses and sense consciousnesses...you organize it to suit yourself. You perceive it this way and no longer see what is. Rather, you see an interpretation of what is. One step removed from reality.
Ah, but knowing and practising...Here's what I want to get at...see, the next step, of which I have been egregiously guilty in recent months, is that what we do next is take our interpretation of what is and try to order that to suit ourselves. By now we're twice removed from reality! How many times have I set rules about the way things should be? And nobody seems to be listening! And when you come up against the intractability of reality, the invariable tendency of reality to be precisely what it is, all the way down to coffee grounds on the kitchen counter...the utter impossibility of lining up all the condiments in a perfect row just because you say so...what happens? You get angry. Thus is born the meddler! The self-righteous arranger. The warmonger. The dictator. The abuser.
How does that saying go? "If you want serenity, resign as manager of the universe."
Monday, June 13, 2005
Mad Cows
From an article in the NY Times on June 11/05 reporting on the discovery of an American mad cow, possibly one that was not fed in Canada:
What a weird world, eh? A few months ago the US farmers convinced that judge in where was it? Wisconsin? Minnesota? One o them there border states...to put the stall on reopening the border. Hole up there, Bessie! So what have we got? Americans suffering. Canadians suffering. Cows suffering. Cows most of all, I guess.
I still cannot comprehend what flaming idjit decided it was a good idea to feed a bunch of ruminants meat byproducts. And how the hell did he convince anyone else?
But having said that, I bet we're going to find in the not too distant future that the US has been lying all along about the incidence of BSE in that country.
Beef has soared to record prices in American grocery stores, and meatpackers have struggled from the lack of Canadian cattle they normally count on.
What a weird world, eh? A few months ago the US farmers convinced that judge in where was it? Wisconsin? Minnesota? One o them there border states...to put the stall on reopening the border. Hole up there, Bessie! So what have we got? Americans suffering. Canadians suffering. Cows suffering. Cows most of all, I guess.
I still cannot comprehend what flaming idjit decided it was a good idea to feed a bunch of ruminants meat byproducts. And how the hell did he convince anyone else?
But having said that, I bet we're going to find in the not too distant future that the US has been lying all along about the incidence of BSE in that country.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
And Speaking of Lyrics
Back in '73, Steppenwolf released an album called Monster. The title tune was a brief history of the creation of USA, leading into the disaster of VietNam. Find that if you can and listen to the words.
Part of the song is a section called "Amerika" which goes like this:
Part of the song is a section called "Amerika" which goes like this:
Amerika, where are you now
Don't you care about your sons and daughters
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the Monster
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Leon Trotsky Puts His Finger On It
Here's an interesting tidbit from Trotsky written in 1932:
In 1932 Hitler ran for President of Germany but lost. Meanwhile the Nazis were in a state of combat with the Communist Party, the direction of which was controlled by the Stalinist Communist International.
It wasn't until January 1933 that Hitler became Chancellor in a coalition government. Then in February...just days before an election...the Reichstag fire. Hitler managed to put the blame for that on the Communists, although there is still great suspicion that it was in fact the Nazis themselves who set the fire as an excuse for a security crackdown. In any case, the Communists were soundly defeated in the election of March 5, 1933. Hitler won a majority of seats in the Reichstag, and within a couple of months had stripped it of its powers. He then proceeded to annihilate all workers' organizations.
Trotsky clearly saw this before it occurred. Perhaps he was thinking of Italy and Mussolini. He compared the situation to that of a ball sitting at the top of a pyramid. The ball might slip right, or it might slip left. He argued for decisive action by the German Communists...something which was impossible because of its slavish adherence to the almost invariably wrongheaded policies of the Comintern.
But now...think of what he said there. How right he was. Germany slipped right. Right into war. World war. Millions of deaths. Billions of dollars worth of destruction. World War II created both Communist China and the Iron Curtain. "The fate of all humanity for decades..." We're still living with echoes of the Holocaust. We're living with nuclear weapons...developed in order to win the war.
It's a shame that Trotsky had to spend so much of his later life fighting rearguard actions against the Stalinists. The history of the Soviet Union would have been much different if he had not been manoeuvred out of power. (It may not have been better, but it would have been different...)
But in all the reading I've done over the years about this, I still cannot figure out how Trotsky managed to let himself get beaten by a man who was so much his intellectual inferior. We might think that Trotsky was not ruthless enough...but his record during the civil war contradicts this. So what was it, exactly, that allowed Stalin to gather so much power to himself?
Maybe Trotsky's flaw was this: he always relied on the logic and the justice of his arguments. He analysed the evolution of the Soviet Union into a bureaucratic state bolstered by lies, fear and intimidation. He did not see, perhaps, that in one way at least, Hitler and Stalin were identical: not logic and justice, but power. Power was their primary argument.
At the present moment Germany is passing through one of those great historic hours upon which the fate of the German people, the fate of Europe and in an important measure, the fate of all humanity will depend for decades.
In 1932 Hitler ran for President of Germany but lost. Meanwhile the Nazis were in a state of combat with the Communist Party, the direction of which was controlled by the Stalinist Communist International.
It wasn't until January 1933 that Hitler became Chancellor in a coalition government. Then in February...just days before an election...the Reichstag fire. Hitler managed to put the blame for that on the Communists, although there is still great suspicion that it was in fact the Nazis themselves who set the fire as an excuse for a security crackdown. In any case, the Communists were soundly defeated in the election of March 5, 1933. Hitler won a majority of seats in the Reichstag, and within a couple of months had stripped it of its powers. He then proceeded to annihilate all workers' organizations.
Trotsky clearly saw this before it occurred. Perhaps he was thinking of Italy and Mussolini. He compared the situation to that of a ball sitting at the top of a pyramid. The ball might slip right, or it might slip left. He argued for decisive action by the German Communists...something which was impossible because of its slavish adherence to the almost invariably wrongheaded policies of the Comintern.
But now...think of what he said there. How right he was. Germany slipped right. Right into war. World war. Millions of deaths. Billions of dollars worth of destruction. World War II created both Communist China and the Iron Curtain. "The fate of all humanity for decades..." We're still living with echoes of the Holocaust. We're living with nuclear weapons...developed in order to win the war.
It's a shame that Trotsky had to spend so much of his later life fighting rearguard actions against the Stalinists. The history of the Soviet Union would have been much different if he had not been manoeuvred out of power. (It may not have been better, but it would have been different...)
But in all the reading I've done over the years about this, I still cannot figure out how Trotsky managed to let himself get beaten by a man who was so much his intellectual inferior. We might think that Trotsky was not ruthless enough...but his record during the civil war contradicts this. So what was it, exactly, that allowed Stalin to gather so much power to himself?
Maybe Trotsky's flaw was this: he always relied on the logic and the justice of his arguments. He analysed the evolution of the Soviet Union into a bureaucratic state bolstered by lies, fear and intimidation. He did not see, perhaps, that in one way at least, Hitler and Stalin were identical: not logic and justice, but power. Power was their primary argument.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Brigitte Bardo
Brigitte says think of everything as contingent
All fluid, all in flux
nothing static, all things intermediate
sleep the prelude to waking
dream the dawn of reality
life the afterbirth of death
death the doorway of life
cycling, cycling
nothing stays the same,
nothing static
stillness full of movement, sound...
the noise of TV alters the shape of shovels
three floors down in the garage
moment by moment everything collapses, reassembles
too fast for thought
64 parts to a moment
the blink of an eye already too much to consider.
No need to wait for death, says Brigitte
Bardo is here now
in the space between thoughts
All fluid, all in flux
nothing static, all things intermediate
sleep the prelude to waking
dream the dawn of reality
life the afterbirth of death
death the doorway of life
cycling, cycling
nothing stays the same,
nothing static
stillness full of movement, sound...
the noise of TV alters the shape of shovels
three floors down in the garage
moment by moment everything collapses, reassembles
too fast for thought
64 parts to a moment
the blink of an eye already too much to consider.
No need to wait for death, says Brigitte
Bardo is here now
in the space between thoughts
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
And speaking of the Buddha...2
What would the Buddha do?
He'd say, "Jesus Christ! What the hell are all you moneychangers doing in the temple? Get out! Enlightenment is not a commodity. Go sit. Find a tree. Spend forty days in the desert. Don't come back until you've found the real gold."
Or not.
He'd say, "Jesus Christ! What the hell are all you moneychangers doing in the temple? Get out! Enlightenment is not a commodity. Go sit. Find a tree. Spend forty days in the desert. Don't come back until you've found the real gold."
Or not.
And speaking of the Buddha...
Coincidentally, this is also the one hundredth anniversary of Buddhism in Canada, the first temple opening in Vancouver in 1905. There you go, Buddhism in Canada is as old as Alberta. Something for Ralph Klein to think about.
Victoria Day or?
Yesterday just happened to be the day on which Buddhists traditionally celebrate Saka Dawa, the anniversary of the Buddha's enlightenment. I'm sure the ghost of Queen Victoria thrilled to the sight of all her Canadian Buddhist subjects lighting candles, burning incense and filling the sky with fireworks.
"For us? Oh my children, thank you, thank you. You are loyal and sweet and we shall not forget you. Now excuse us while we go to see if Prince Albert is still in his can..."
"For us? Oh my children, thank you, thank you. You are loyal and sweet and we shall not forget you. Now excuse us while we go to see if Prince Albert is still in his can..."
Monday, May 23, 2005
Laura B's Lucky Charm
Just what exactly is Dubya thinking? I watched the news last night wondering how those guys in Washington could even remotely think that Laura or anybody could recover goodwill in the Middle East without right action. What level of unreality are these people working with? It's almost a truism...the people are not collectively stupid. (You can fool some of them some of the time...) They can't help but see poor Laura's Charm Offensive as Uncle Sam's Offensive Charm.
If I were Laura, I'd be tellin' Dubya when I got home, "No sugar for you, honey, 'less'n you set up straight 'n fly right!"
Canadians will fall for a pretty face. But Hezbollah won't. You need to have some there there before you go there.
If I were Laura, I'd be tellin' Dubya when I got home, "No sugar for you, honey, 'less'n you set up straight 'n fly right!"
Canadians will fall for a pretty face. But Hezbollah won't. You need to have some there there before you go there.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Kerouac Gets a Comeuppance
I have always said that the greatest shock Kerouac ever got in his life was when he walked into my house, sat down in a kind of stiff-legged imitation of a lotus posture, and announced he was a Zen Buddhist ... and then discovered everyone in the room knew at least one Oriental language.
Kenneth Rexroth, 1971
Notes on Emptiness #4
obscure birdcalls from the big pine next door
disappear when you search for them
like trying to thread the needle of emptiness
disappear when you search for them
like trying to thread the needle of emptiness
Cornell Ring Cycle #2
the weight of Wagner
under heavy grey sky
too much for this suburban guy
the wit of Williams
little wagon red
wonder what the cavedweller said
under heavy grey sky
too much for this suburban guy
the wit of Williams
little wagon red
wonder what the cavedweller said
Cornell Ring Cycle #1
walking down Cornell
with my buddhanature tucked under my arm
blue jay squawk, crow caw
cardinal breaker breaker breaker
robin warbles Christopher who?
squirrel sez Nuts!
with my buddhanature tucked under my arm
blue jay squawk, crow caw
cardinal breaker breaker breaker
robin warbles Christopher who?
squirrel sez Nuts!
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Friday, May 13, 2005
Meditation Files: #3
Look around you...nothing comes from nothing
everything has its cause
what is the cause of you?
Body has a physical cause...the blending of earth fire water air
but the body is not you
Mind is not earth fire water air
Mind is what?
What its cause?
Is the mind you?
And if your mind loses its body...is it still you?
everything has its cause
what is the cause of you?
Body has a physical cause...the blending of earth fire water air
but the body is not you
Mind is not earth fire water air
Mind is what?
What its cause?
Is the mind you?
And if your mind loses its body...is it still you?
Friday, May 06, 2005
Sign for a Garage Sale
Books!
Thin books: 25 cents each or 3 for $1.00
Fat Books: $1.44/100grams
If your name has a Y in it and you correctly guess the number of Whys in the book you want, it's yours.
No book may leave without a cover. If the book you want has no cover, we'll rip a cover from another book and tape it to the one you want.
Canadian Classics are rare. If you have one and give us $2 we'll take it.
American Classics must pass through the metal and lie detectors.
Thin books: 25 cents each or 3 for $1.00
Fat Books: $1.44/100grams
If your name has a Y in it and you correctly guess the number of Whys in the book you want, it's yours.
No book may leave without a cover. If the book you want has no cover, we'll rip a cover from another book and tape it to the one you want.
Canadian Classics are rare. If you have one and give us $2 we'll take it.
American Classics must pass through the metal and lie detectors.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Yikes!
A whole month gone by with no posting!
Let's put it this way. I've been otherwise occupied. As I just told a friend: burrowing under the Yoni School for Wayward Poets. Digging a big tunnel. Like in the Great Escape.
Trivia: The movie was fabulous, literally. Steve McQueen was never in that prison camp. Nor was James Garner. In fact, there were no Americans involved in the Great Escape.
Many things going on. I should really put in a little every day. Then I wouldn't have to try to play ketchup. Most significant for me right now is the possible transformation of my Buddhist study group into some form of Dharma Centre. No time to go into it right now, but soon.
Let's put it this way. I've been otherwise occupied. As I just told a friend: burrowing under the Yoni School for Wayward Poets. Digging a big tunnel. Like in the Great Escape.
Trivia: The movie was fabulous, literally. Steve McQueen was never in that prison camp. Nor was James Garner. In fact, there were no Americans involved in the Great Escape.
Many things going on. I should really put in a little every day. Then I wouldn't have to try to play ketchup. Most significant for me right now is the possible transformation of my Buddhist study group into some form of Dharma Centre. No time to go into it right now, but soon.
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