In a spiral galaxy
beats a rhythmic skin
a heavy thud
akin to the creation and dissolution
of consciousness.
A big bang,
a weaving of mystery and soul-fire.
The stars drip juice,
a desert, a sphinx, a moments echo
eternity.
A mountain as high as Kailash
in Tibet, Nepal, India
China, Japan, further east.
A ship sails in rough seas
the captain mans the wheel
violent storm-hewn waves
rush the deck.
A seed is planted, grows, dies
a fruit is born, a race rules
countless dynasties edge
their legacies into histories.
A honeycomb contains a bee
whose buzzing, constant buzzing
alarms Dickenson of deaths trance.
A mother holds her child,
who nestles the milky juice
of throbbing life
which follows her child
into the icy grave.
the earth melts,
its potential vacuumed
into black holes.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Psychedelic Space
A small pocket of the universe contains small carbon based life forms
Things
pass by, drive away, turn on, shut off, open up, ressurect, readjust, sink, rise, manifest, vanish, reappear, live, breath, dream, die, reincarnate,
FOREVER (is just a word).
I have no more change in my pocket,
My credit runs out,
The machine TURNS off.
When I was small, after visitng the art museum, my grandmother would take me to McDonalds. I was forbidden to go to Wendy’s, because Wendy’s controlled woman’s bodies.
At a soccer game, I dislocated my shoulder and my mom put it back in place on the sidelines.
I got drunk once.
The super bowl,
Terminator 2.
LOVE shines from her eyes where her smile used to be.
Before I was born, where did I live?
Zen claps wake up the emaciated AIDS patient.
How many eternities find their way into the dropping ball which signals millennium to the masses?
Mr. T: “No More Jibber Jabber”
No more credit, no more pocket.
The more turns the turns off.
Mo machine credit off. Machine.
FOREVER is just a word
that means forever.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Ode to Walt Whitman
Rough, worn, pithy, hearty,
earthy
dance of life
hand in hand
glide into the invisible
behind the eyes
kaleidoscopes
of one central self
teaching learning
anew anew
ever refreshed
the corpse the grass
the leaves
the kosmos
oh Walt
oh thee
container of all selves
the soul of eternity
stepper over of infinities
untier of illusions
into juicy truths
and poignant agonies.
Great journeyer
weilding a staff
wrought with the bark
of all people, all things
of all moments
Can I ever thank thee
for teaching, revealing
my own self
and leading me on
searching anon.
I know deepest within
me and all else,
"I stop somewhere waiting for you"
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A note of day, of birds, of speech
Signs
Love poem on the Bus
watching zeppelin wail
Watching zeppelin wail
and jive and freak to
percussive and distorted
heavy twisted metal blues
fucking excellent
hair argyle raw blues sentiment
rolled up in a dollar bill
And tossed to the
hard living wind
new is pure
1, 2, 3, 4
crash bang
adrenaline and excitement
flailing your body into
annhilation
the fairy tail recluse quips
blue eyed golden haired
Led Zeppelin
Jimmy page
is sitting down
to tell it like it is
in middle metal earth.
Hes inventing new worlds
from the same ol soul
and emotional octane.
Mystic Hindu Dance
1
A thousand arms,
manifest heads.
Colors Holi
River Ganges
Brahma Sadhu
unkempt dreadlocks
ashes strewn on
naked naga bones
drawn to energies
of destruction.
shiva kali
destroyer myths
demon mystic
nataraja
creation dance
kundalini
wrapped around
shivas trident
found in graveyards
drinking the blood
of skull chalices
harnessing deaths
innate powers
destroyed egos
crushing personalities
annihilating identatities
rebirths
into
transcendent realities.
Om Namah Shivaya!
Vibrates Krishna's flute
bellows Shiva's drum
world shattering
vibration of creation
upholding manifestation
belying destruction
Om Shiva Om Om!
Blows the Eternal Conch.
Om Hari Krishna Om!
Sounds the mystic mantra.
Om Rama Shiva Om!
Heralding liberation.
Baba Nam Kevalam!
Supreme awakening.
Bluegrass Train
an appeal
A many faced self portrait
A Many faced self portrait.
Like the multi-faced incarnations of Vishnu, the multitudes contained in Whitman, or the many minstrels of Bob Dylan each reflecting one sympathetic self, I too contain multitudes. Within me is a stream that flows in many directions, an aggregate of cultures, a kaleidoscope of personalities. These juxtapositions coexist sometimes in harmony and at other times in tension, but they all flow from the same stream, from past experiences to present impressions into future possibilities. The first and most salient is the inheritor of my parents generations values and worldviews which came to a focus in the 1960’s. This forms a backbone of sort, because these values produced a liberal, free-thinking, and inquisitive mind which allow a peaceful interaction with all of the other cultures balled up within me. The 1960’s is also manifested through the countercultural, carpediem, ecumenical tendencies of the aquarias age. Then there is the jew, the brains of the operation. Some part of me is a frail, sickly and transcendent scholar poring over talmuld folios shrouded by infinite stacks of commentaries and obscuria, all the bookish knowledge and wisdom through the ages. On the flipside of and informed by the jewish scholarly face, is the bespectacled cardigan wearing literary, artsy-fartsy intellectual. This academic self is endlessly dissecting the visionary mythology of blake and comparing 18th century romantacism to the philosophical alchemy of the Ancient Chinese Taoists. Here is the sinophile face – throwing the I-Ching oracles and fumbling over the klutzxy jewish scholar whilst striking a Tai Chi pose or mocking the tones of mandarin. Accompanied by Da-We the Taoist, is Devendra the hindu yogi perched on a mountain top retreat twisting and struggling into the lotus pose but again hindered by the inner jewish klutz. Treking behind the yogi on top of the mountain is the quasi outdoorsman pseudo working man cowboy plucking bluegrassy tunes and self-consciously crooning woody Guthrie. Contradicting him is the self-absorbed adolescent skater boy imbibing the teen angst of punk rock and posing the cool of hip hope street culture. All of these faces are contained and contradicted within my quintessential American and multicultural gloobalized identity. This is to say nothing of the unconscious impulses and patterns which would require all of Freuds writings and millions of dollars worth of psychoanalyse to decode.
Roots Poem
roots Is pure
roots is from
the seed of
the earth, it’s
all and all
for one, for
the people
to smile
feel so nice
when we hug
listen to
each other and
everyone else
when we see
inside our
selves and
our being
we see one
thing only
one thing
beautiful
when were
here to now
here to four
and three and
one here for
ever more
feel
the ever-joyous
tune
dance with its
intrinsic harmony
and feel for
ever mine and yours.
Philosophical Dialogue between Mssr. Daniel Greenwald and myself.
These words of Winston Niles Rumfoord reflect a recurring theme of
Kurt Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse V: becuase
something was ordered to happen, it happened and it is remembered, it
"shall always be here". Vonnegut's characters take the view that
because an event is a singular, unique point of space time,and thus
the event is like a statue or picture in reality that always occurs.
Taking other cues from Buddhists, Kant and Einstein, it can be
further stated that time is a relative phenomenon, which when
experienced by our limited mental faculties is linear (like the earth
is flat to the eye). When one is a Tramafoldorian (omniscient Alien
race) or an Awakened Buddha or a Quantum physicist one sees time and
space for what they are, a point in an infinity, and since there are
no boundries, no beginning no end, everything that happens/happened
always exists and will exist. This theme is also present in Borges'
obsession with Pascal's "Infinite circle".
Our life is not purposeless nor meaningless, its just there is no
purpose outside of its own existence, outside of our very own selves.
Thus the meaning is within ourselves: discover the meaning, discover
the infinite. We are part of an infinite circle. This very moment
and our selves is the production of everything else and we are all
existing in one Giant harmonious infinite circle which only seems
inharmonious to our own mental cognition, a cognition necessarily
limited by our dependence on instinct and reason.
We existed, do exist, and shall exist because we were, we are, and we will be.
We are part and parcel of one infinite, constant, and mysterious event
that we are only partially aware of. Our eyes can only see in front
of us, but a great deal, the rest of existence-known and unknown, is
left out.
Each instant is forever.
Nothing is lost,
everything is found.
Search far enough within
and you will find infinitude.
Search far enough without
and you will find
the same goddamn thing.
"Such as it was
such as it is,
such as it will be".
writing, digest it and give it a well thought out reply. Thank you.
Second. I took a bit of poetic liscense in it and I’m aware that the
logic behind it might not all fit together, I kind of sent it out on
an impulse on top of that.
Third. Mostly these are just descriptions of experiences had outside
of my logical mind that different writiers, philosophers, and
scientists attempt to communicate. My understanding and enthusiasm
for “infinite circles” comes from intuitional experiences during
meditation. Thus in the words of the Chinese, its like a finger
pointing to the moon, no experience except for a symbol can be derived
from the finger, you must turn your attention to the moon.
But ill try to answer your questions and comments, and clarify my own
ideas to the best of my ability.
“In what capacity does the infinite tie into meaningful existence?
What I mean is that..howcome..as soon as the infinite is
recognized..and its recognized internally..does life have meaning?
Surely a sick person who realizes that he or she is a part of the
infinite circle will not be comforted by this realization. On the
contrary. That realization for a sick person could actually cause
bitterness because he or she will not be there to experience it for as
long as others.”
First we have to define meaningful existence. What is “meaning”.
Generally its thought of as the reason for something, the evidence.
Why something is the way it is, or the cause for some effect. And
where is the reason why, the cause of some effect? Cause is an
experienced phenomenon that precedes or produces the effect. And this
phenomenon is found through the senses, it can be proved and verified
empirically as an isolated phenomenan, a fact, if it is to be
considered a “true” meaning. Thus it is data. So the data lays in
experience. This verification of meaning through causality is also
known as logic. Now the question “what is the meaning of the universe,
or our existence?”. Well our existence is the result of everything
else’s existence ala Darwin/evolutionary theory. We are looking for a
meaning of existence, something that produced and preceeded all
existence. So then you are asking to verify the cause of existence, so
this thing necessarily does not exist in the same sphere as our sense
experience, but created the experience. But since this lies before
experience, it cannot be verified with logic because logic deals with
empirical experience, but this must preceed empirical experience since
this phenomenon created it. So logic, or reason cannot be used to
describe or experience it since it’s the world that preceeds the world
of our senses, or underlies it.”. To discover the world that proceeds
sense experience, you must use another way of verification, you can
not use your senses. This is where intuition comes to play. Now we
must define intuition.
Intuition is finding out not through cause and effect, but knowing or
learning something outside of the rational mind, through a different
capacity of mind. For example making a decision that you are
convinced is right but not knowing why, not having any logicalanswer
to support your intuitiojn. It is based on feeling. You feel it is
right. Meditation, Yoga and Tai Chi are intuitional because you don’t
learn them through reason or accumulation of facts, IE how to meditate
and what happens when you do, but through meditating, through feeling
it with your whole body/self and opening/relaxing body self into the
flow. Same with drumming, dancing, basically learning anything.
Except in meditation the goal is to experience your self outside of
your personality, identity, history, or “I” feeling. When you relax
yourself or open yourself up enough you realize that there are no
barriers between you and the moment, you and everything else. And you
actually feel that is all one, everything is complete, whole, and
because of the absence of temporality in this mindstate, infinite.
And this realization only comes about through the sssrrender of the
subject/object mimnd, the sense of self. So if so much exists outside
of your sense of self, what is the worry about death? Your ego may
not allow this realization, but at least it is chastened a bit and you
have another perspective to arm yourself with, so to speak.
You learn that you really are everything else and everything else is
one. You can learn it based on the mountains of evidence/data we have
that points to that fact, but this would not change your attitude or
offer any comforted to the sick person. Or as you said, it would
offer very cold comfort. Or you can meditate and open your self,
become more intuitional, relax yourself into the flow of your
“gestalt” and see that your sick body/mind is just a very shallow part
of yourself, but your real self is a oneness that pervades the whole
universe, and may even be deeper than that. And this is what happens
when you cultivate your intuition, you have a “peak experience” where
you step outside of your limited “I” and become one with everything,
or the “gestalt”. Intuition is awareness of the objective flow of the
“IT”, a merging of our subject with the object of our body’s
intelligence, and the worlds intelligence. Reason is an argument.
The sick person will be comforted and ultimately rejuvenated (his/her
perspective will shift drastically) by the awarness of the deeper
self, not the argument that such a self exists.
“ I think that there is a disconnect between "cosmic consciousness" or
"awakened dharma" and the generally obvious realization that
experience, time, now, then, here, there is an infinite and immaculate
happening. The knowledge, or the intuition that would lead one to
understand the nature of space-time, or time, or space, or experience,
or existence, makes one wise. Or wiser than a pawn. Or wiser than
someone who isn't paying attention. However, the peace of mind that
an "awakened dharma" or however you want to call it, comes from a
deeper intra-personal understanding. Like a realization of oneself as
opposed to a realization of everything outside of oneself. “
Well the intellectual understanding of the nature of experience and
the intuitional understanding are very similar when described but
wholly different when experienced. Again one is a fact, or a
collection of data. The other is an intuitional experience. One is
saying that yeah, it makes sense, the other is seeing the world from
the perspective of no boundries. One is knowledge, the other is
Wisdom. There is a saying that knowledge gains and wisdom loses.
With knowledge you gain a fact, the fact that the universe is not
linear as we are wont to see the universe. With wisdom you re-orient
yourself, you empty out all your facts, history, self-consciousness,
your complexes, so you can see the world clearer - from the
intuitional perspective of “don’t think, feel” as Bruce Lee says. Of
course this is extremely difficult to maintain 24/7 and sometimes the
thinking impulse is necessary, but you can make the intuitional
impulse stronger and stronger, so you go more and more with the flow
of things, operating out of a different sphere. And this is the
practice of meditation. It is an exercise to make your mind more
intuitional, to become more subtle, and queit so the flow is clearer
and the chatter is softer. There are anthropological and
philosophical reasons why this intuitional wisdom is associated with
religion, and terms such as “cosmic consciousness” and “awakened
dharma”, but the crux of the matter is that it is a wholly
psychological shifting of perspective. Thus when the Buddha was
asked, “what are you, a god, demon, angel?” he replied, “I am awake.”
Wai-Guo-Ren
Is there some point, one the flight, where you are in a foreign country and you become a foreigner. Is it when you step on the plane and it is full of people from the country where you are headed, and you immediately become self-conscious that you look conspicuously different then the rest of the passengers, the rest of the citizens of the country that you are conspicusously not a citizen of? A feeling of sonspiciousness that tralils you like your shadow for your entire sojourn in the opposite hemisphere of your homeland. Is there a kind of benchmark when you can say you live here and aren’t just a visitor? Ive heard from other foreigners who have lived in Taiwan for 20 even going on 30 years that there isn’t among the Han Chinese. One is always a Wai-Guo-Ren, with all its perks and irritants.
The feeling that I am living in a foreign country is most conspicuous when I emerge from a friends house, a fellow foreign friends house, after spending the afternoon engaged in the discourse of Americans, and I step out onto the street and everyone is looking Chinese speaking Chinese, writing in Chinese, and everything smells Chinese (Incense and deep-fried soysauce).
I want to order noodles. I see everyone eating noodles, so Ill just say noodles, in my tone-deaf mandarin, and point to the unassuming noodles-eating customer’s plate and say “same”, in my stuttering, half-sure, sputtering, bending, waving, sounds that are vaguely reminiscent of something like mandarin. In the end the likewise bewildered waitress serves me dumplings.
In a taxi, around 230 AM, looking out the window, the dim streets appear to be any metropolis anywhere in the wee hours of the morning. I put on my glasses, and half-lit advertisements become visible, displaying people with joyous smiles of clean teeth and matrimony bliss in a lush green meadow framed by the pictograph Chinese script, a weird mix of an ancient cultural lineage dating back to the times of oracles and hieroglyphs, and modern, subrurban wet dreams.