Ol’ Man River

Few maxims are as misunderstood as the wisdom of non-interference. It may have begun with Lao Tsu, and later picked up by Isaiah, with the same intent. Much later Oscar Hammerstein echoed the ancient wisdom.

We start with the pursuit of Tao: that elusive Unknown that resides in our Unconscious.

“In pursuit of knowledge,


every day something is added.


In the practice of the Tao,


every day something is dropped.


Less and less do you need to force things,


until finally you arrive at non-action.


When nothing is done,


nothing is left undone.

True mastery can be gained


by letting things go their own way.


It can’t be gained by interfering.”

The “pursuit of knowledge” is an attempt of our ego to make do without relying on the input from our Unconscious. The problem is that knowledge deals almost exclusively with what is dead; or with the empty space of which we are made, and which surrounds us. Or even with the light from stars millions of light-years away, which possibly had long ceased to exist.

When Lao Tsu says that “nothing is done, nothing left undone”, we have arrived at the gate of the Unconscious, and have become instruments of the Infinite.

The words are echoed in Isaiah’s Psalm 23.

“The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want,

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

He leadeth me by the still waters,

He restoreth my soul…

… my cup runneth over. ”

The Lord symbolizes Infinite Potential within the Unconscious. The “green pastures” assure us of never having to struggle. The “still waters” refer to the peace of mind, and “my soul” is, of course, the Subconscious, or the experience we have gathered from the beginning of time.

When eventually “our cup runneth over,” we return home.

And then Oscar Hammerstein:

“Old Man River, Old Man River,

He don’t say nothing, he must know sometin’

Old Man River, he just keeps rollin’ along

You know, you know he don't plant taters


And we all know the man don't plant no cotton


And then, then they plant 'em


Oh the Lord knows they are soon forgotten


But Old Man River, he just keeps rollin' along.”

Truth must be continuously rediscovered. Ol’ Man River symbolizes the eternal Tao. The “Ol’ Man” does nothing—what we do, all knowledge, is soon forgotten.

Perhaps in a few millions years we shall accept that we are instruments of the Eternal Flow, which carries the intent which is, and might forever remain, unknown; even as our mind cannot encompass the universe. Perhaps we might be consoled that we are indispensable drops of water in the Mighty River that flows eternally; that continuously covers new grounds, and eventually returns to the Eternal Ocean from which we all once emerged. Yet every drop is indispensable to carve a new bed, to round new corners, to deepen some parts, erode others. We are all indispensable.

It is not a bad way to be. 

The AVATAR SYNDROME

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Submission

No, this is not about Shades of Grey. Nor is it about the religion of Islam (which means, inter alia, Submission). And I happen to agree with Richard Dawkins that the world would be a better place without religion, but NOT on his terms. Faith is what brings us together—religion is what sets us apart.

Richard Dawkins also states that: “Evidence is the only reason to believe something.” Paul of Tarsus claims that: “Faith is the belief in things not seen.” One of them must be wrong. Surely, if you already have evidence you don’t need faith. On the other hand, faith gives us strength and perseverance to procure evidence.

Neither of the gentlemen are likely to give up their point of view. One because he’s dead, the other… well, he must have his reasons. The alternative left is submission to a “higher authority”. The question is: to what?

According to ‘evidence’ that which motivates our minds is a great deal more than just evidence. This is because the totality of our psyche consists of the Unconscious, Subconscious and Conscious. While our Conscious(ness) is “in charge”, we draw on our experience stored in our Subconscious to continue our everyday affairs. However, to cross new territories, those NOT covered or explained by evidence already in our possession, we must enter the realm that originates in the Unconscious. Unless we draw on our Unconscious, we’ll make no progress. We would be stuck in fundamentalism, which relies only on already established (no matter how wrong) premises. Thus we’d all succumb to mental stasis and the ensuing stagnation.

However, to venture into the unknown, we need faith, and we need faith in ‘something’. That something is the belief that the ideas that reach us from the Unconscious are intended to enhance our image of reality. Once we assure ourselves that it is so, and this may take a lifetime and only happens when we actively keep crossing the border of the unknown, we begin to submit to our ‘inspirations’. No matter what others say, no matter how absurd it may have seemed, great composers, visual artists and, yes, even scientists submit to that silent voice which nudges us towards the unknown. In time we resign ourselves to total submission. We become the instruments of the Unconscious, drawing on our Subconscious to convert the new ideas into a language that others might understand.

The wise men of the past could not explain all this for lack of vocabulary that generations of philosophers, psychologist and psychiatrists have added to our language. Concepts such as id, ego and superego, advanced us towards today’s understanding. With noted exceptions such as Einstein or Feynman, most scientists, as do religionists, deal almost exclusively with the past. New grounds are left us. Simple folks. Like you and me.

I welcome your input.

More about such problems in my book. I’d love to have your views. You might care to state them in a review. Other readers would appreciate it also. 

DELUSIONS—Pragmatic Realism

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Lost in the Wonderland

Most of us see life as a period we spend wading through morasses of daily challenges just so that, one day, if we’re lucky, we might retire in the never-never land we refer to as heaven, and spend the rest of eternity doing absolutely nothing but basking in the eternal light of G

In order to make such a dismal prospect achievable, we’d created a God in our own image, and endowed Him, or possibly Her, with an abundance of very, very noble attributes. The alternate permanent residence is the exact opposite of this prospect, yet equally as dismal.

Why?

Because they are both based on the assumption that eternal dolce far niente, known to us as “sweet doing nothing”, which due to their proximity to the Vatican the Italians had brought to near-perfection, is the way to be.

It is.

And it is a reward.

For a day.  A week. Maybe two weeks. But Eternity? Any definition of hell would be preferable.

To anyone who ever experienced even brief moments of creative force flowing through their veins, let alone their awareness, be it in heaven or in hell, nausea is equally abhorrent.  

And yet there are those ephemeral fragments of eternity when we long for the stasis from which we emerged as innocent souls in search of adventure, and want to return to the peace that is beyond human understanding.

A paradox?

Not really. We must accept that heaven is not a happy retirement ground, but a mode of awareness that celebrates accomplishments we achieved on Earth. Here we must stretch our creative wings, try the seemingly impossible, cross far horizons, so as to earn holidays from our Herculean labours. Why Herculean? Because nothing less is worthy of the reward.

Heaven is a state of consciousness wherein we, tiny fragments of the Whole live our dreams without any danger of waking up in the middle of them. In heaven we dream our dreams in full consciousness, in limitless ability to do the impossible, the intangible, yet eminently real.  

Hence, if we carry out tasks that we have assigned ourselves, the desire to return home becomes compelling. Alas, only in moments of deep meditation we are capable, and only sometimes, to confirm if we have fulfilled our dharma. Our raison d’être. No, these are not synonyms but in this context are complementary. Our self-assigned tasks may be large or small, yet always requiring all our efforts, and in all cases we choose only such tasks that we are capable of carrying out.

Thus we have only one thing to discover. We must learn why we, the irreplaceable and indivisible unites of the Whole, are here.

Good luck.

Below is the story of Sacha. He was obsessed with finding his dharma. Eventually, he did. His commitment earned him the highest levels of heaven, while they’d proven dire for those who tried to oppose him.

The novel might help you find your own purpose. And never forget, heaven is always within you.

SACHA—The Way Back

Alexander Trilogy Book III

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The Purpose of Life

Since our scientists had proven that atoms are made up of almost exclusively empty space, we had no choice but to review our vision of reality.

We often confuse Life with biological functions capable of self-replication. At best we should refer to them as biological life; at worse, as infestation. In fact, Life is the creative process of Becoming, from potential to experience. It promotes emergence of ideas that lie dormant in our unconscious, organizes patterns for action at our mental level, and finally ignites those patterns with our imagination and emotions to become manifest in the reality in which we experience our Becoming.

There is a philosophical duality that is, on occasion, hard to accept. While only the ideas which ultimately become manifest in physical reality have true substance, the ultimate material manifestations of such are the only means of assuring that they have been developed to the level for which they have been intended. Hence the material reality, though ephemeral and transient, remains of great importance.

Once we develop the ideas to the level intended, we incorporate them into the irrepressible storage of experience of our subconscious.  We take them with us to enrich the reality of first ‘heaven’ and enjoy them for extended periods of time. Periodically, we return to the transient stage of our Becoming, to further enrich the gamut of our experiences. As for periodicity of our returns, it is related to the level of consciousness we have achieved. As our awareness moves towards the Unconscious, time become more rarified, until it reaches absolute stasis, or our true ‘home’, the reality of Being.

In physical reality we soon use up the potential of our physical bodies to conduct such experiments. This is erroneously known as dying. The consciousness, which directs the creative process in the mode of Becoming (Life), is, of course, immortal.

As mentioned, the first step on our way back ‘home’ is the reality of our subconscious. This is where the memory of all our successful experiments are stored in temporal abeyance. It is an immense reality, which, like all transient realities, bridges the modes of Being and Becoming. They are tailor made and directly related to the level of understanding, which units of consciousness entering them can appreciate.

Each unit of consciousness reaches a level according to its capacity to receive. This applies to all realities, including the physical one. As each unit is indivisible and indispensible part of the Whole its eventual capacity is infinite.

These cycles of advancement are endless.

We refer to those inner realities as heaven.  Each mode of Becoming although transient and existing only in an experimental mode, is a magnificent gift, but ONLY the most transient reality, the physical one, enables us to convert the potential into experience. As such, to deprive anyone of the opportunity is a crime against the Universal Laws.

At the same time, this knowledge alone is enough to fill our mode of Becoming, or “biological life”, with an abundance of joy. 

NOW—Being & Becoming

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More than Human?

No, not more than human. Just human—but more than males and females, which is purely an animal designation. Physically we are all animals. That is because we identify with the bodies we inhabit, even as we identify with our jobs or areas of expertise.

Once, the designation “ladies” and “gentlemen” identified members of our species who displayed grace, charm and excellent manners. These titles died with the dissolution of “upper classes”, not to mention with the demise of exemplary manners.

Later, but before graphics took over our literary world, in England where I lived at the time, the public washrooms were identified with signs of “ladies” and “gentlemen”. Now, in Canada, those two offensive words are no longer in public vocabulary. They fell into disuse, and have been substituted by “males” and “females”. It seems that women are no longer proud to be women, let alone ladies. Now they seem to wish to be differentiated from other members of the Homo sapiens only by their sexual, or perhaps hormonal, orientation and reproductive ability. They do so by displaying their primary and secondary sexual characteristic to the extremes permitted by law. The absence of good taste reduced “ladies” to “women”, and then to “females”.

Men were not left far behind. After Beau Brummell liberated them from giving poor impersonations of dandyish peacocks, they went through a short phase of manhood, only to sink to the other extremes of displaying their dubious masculinity by reverting to their simian origins. They build up testosterone muscles instead of brains, and display three-day stubble for their female counterparts to admire. As for men’s or now males’ attire, any remnants of elegance remained the domain of people in public service, and this none too often. 

Whatever happened to ladies and gentlemen? And I don’t just mean as designations for public washrooms.

I’m at a loss to find either members of the species who’d be proud to display how they advanced beyond their animalistic urges. I do not deny women’s right to display their god-given curves, their voluptuous pulchritude, but don’t they have anything else to offer?

Did I mention that I love women?

And can’t young men get a shave, put on a pair of trousers in which the crotch rises above their knees, and the beltline is kept above the crack of their buttocks? Couldn’t they pretend, once a week, to be men, let alone gentlemen? Surely that would not be too offensive to the other members of the species.

Yet, I refuse to give up. Perhaps I am an incurable optimist. Perhaps, in desperation, I’m reaching out too far, but there are moments in my life when only thoughts of the future sate my need for order, harmony and the resulting beauty. And even then, it rests on the shoulders of the proverbial Few. It is with this in mind that I offer you a man and a ‘woman’ who may satisfy your needs. Perhaps they are both superhuman? You might decide. 

 

GIFT OF GAMMAN

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Vicious Cycles

No, it is not a vicious circle. They are cycles, of both, ascending descending spirals. As always, there are the Chosen Few and… the Many. The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on. So do we, the wondering minstrels—on the way to Paradise

Five years ago I wrote a novel, “Headless World”, a sequel to the “Avatar Syndrome”. I never imagined that a great deal of what I’d written would actually take place during my lifetime. I’d written about a total renewal Vatican policies. The new pope, Francis, could have read my book. Only, obviously, he didn’t. Perhaps he reached back to the potential flooding his unconscious mind and what came out raised the vicious circle to the level of a cycle. A step up, even though it too was based on premises that enlivened the Church some 2000 years ago. He seemed to have gone to the first principles upon which the church was built, and thus changed the axis of rotation upon which the Church spins. He raised it by taking the church back.

And yet the Moving Finger will record his activities as a profound step forward. There is no time—just cycles. Ever rising, retreating only to more forward, again, to a higher plane of perception.

The same is true of each one of us. We are all intended to move forward on an ascending spiral, yet the vast majority of us appear to have slipped into a vicious circle. We continue to make the same mistakes, expecting different results. Einstein defined such behaviour pattern as insanity. And yet, we, or most of us, continue to practice this inane conduct as logical, indeed as the preferred system. All empires fell when plutocrats took over from what could be referred to as the “middle class”. Yet, once again, the smartest amongst us, the very, very rich, those who have proven to have the wits to outwit almost everyone, tumbled into the depth of insanity.

They and they alone cause the empires to fall. Why? Because riches give them power, and power corrupts. It sets us apart from the golden middle where the balance that sustains empires resides.

There are two rays of hope that might lift us from the edge of the precipice. One is “Pepe”, also known as President José Alberto Mujica Cordano, the recently retired president of Uruguay. A former guerilla fighter, later, while wielding enormous power, donated 90% of his income to charities that benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs.

Try to imagine, any other president or prime minister to sink to such abysmal level of generosity.

The second ray of hope comes from the present leader of the Vatican. If he survives, he might, just might help turn the vicious circle into an ascending spiral.  

As for the rest…

 History tends to repeat itself. The other presidents, prime ministers and other plutocrats will be long gone. As will most of us.

The Moving Finger writes, and having writ, moves on…

HEADLESS WORLD—The Vatican Incident

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The Big Chess Game

To sate their greed for power, politicians treat masses as pawns they can use, with utter impunity, in the great geopolitical chess game. It is the very concept of being “in charge” that seems to stimulate their way of thinking, their aims and ambitions. They seem to be completely unaware of that every single life that is affected by their strategies bears indelible consequences on their own lives.

Here, we call it the Law of Cause and Effect. It concerns physical objects and energies. In the East, this is called Karma.

Karma includes mental and emotional activities.

I am not talking about wars that are the domain of homicidal maniacs. I am saying that if a mother loses a child due to seemingly inconsequential and apparently logical decision made by a political pundit, the plutocrat will bear the totality of the pain he’d caused to the child and the mother. The consequences of his or her deed will come back to hunt them until the balance is restored in the Karmic equation. Another example would be to imagine billionaires being reincarnated as homeless people in the favelas of Rio, or as members of the now illegal but still ‘striving’ cast of the ‘Untouchables’ in the slums of Calcutta.

Divinity, as I pointed out recently, is not what is good for some and bad for others, but what lies in the elusive and tremulous center where the opposites meet in perfect harmony.

The most misunderstood aspect of the Karma is that ignorance of Law might diminish one’s responsibility for restoring the balance. Not so. Over eons of time, advanced individuals have compiled codices to aid humanity. They found ample evidence of reincarnation, hence of indestructibility of our consciousness.

Regrettably, this knowledge had been usurped to create religious organizations, which would serve to control the minds of their ‘faithful’. This was accomplished by adding a superstructure of carrot and the stick, in the form of heaven and hell.

It is self-evident that empires cannot be built without playing the game of geopolitics. It is equally as evident that the consequences of playing such a game are inversely proportional to how it affects those involved in such games. How long any empire can last is directly related to how far it strays from the golden centre. Once upset by the greed for power, the death throes of the empire are written in sand.

In YESHÛA I wrote:  “Over three thousand years ago Egypt had been united into a single kingdom. The “Old Kingdom”. There had been six dynasties of Pharaohs… Their secret was that the Pharaoh was not above the law. His power was limited.

 Darius wielded absolute power. The difference of the efficacy of the ruling systems can be measured in time. The six dynasties of the Old Kingdom—one thousand years, Darius—thirty-five years. While the power of Persia obviously lasted longer, it never matched the glory of this briefest blink in the eye of Brahma.” 

YESHÛA—Personal Memoir of the Missing Years of Jesus.

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Our Younger Cousins

A friend of mine once wrote, “Animals are people too.” The thought stuck with me. Of course the Bible, written by and for very primitive people, no matter how inspired, couldn’t conceive that if God could create man from dust, He could also breath ‘higher’ consciousness into a ready-made simian, and save Himself the trouble of starting from scratch.

Likewise, I can think of no reason why God couldn’t invent physical evolution. After all He/She/It is almighty, and therefore He/She/It could do whatever He/She/It wants, or in case of our past, wanted. Looking at some of my distant friends, I think it likely that they, indeed all of us, began as amoebas, and then, over millions of years, slowly developed into species who like to murder each other. Wars, armed conflicts, military interventions, and other forms of wholesale murder are, nowadays, run of the mill.

Cats and Dogs don’t do that.

They are our younger brothers, much more advanced than amoebas, but not quite up (or perhaps down) to our dismal, depraved, degenerate level. All right, we do have a Mother Therese now and then, but lets face it, they are few and far between. The rest of us do not necessarily kill other members of our species, but we think nothing of slaughtering countless millions of other animals, other not-as-yet human people, to stifle our need to sate our gluttonous appetites. At best, if we are not actively murdering each other, we accelerate our physical demise through rampant obesity. 

Cats and dogs don’t do that either.

Cats and dogs are our younger brothers. So are countless other species who have not sunk, as yet, to our level. There is ample evidence that animals at large, with few exceptions, love one another. Great many are vegetarians. Others kill only when hungry, and rarely achieve level of obesity cultivated by rapidly increasing number humans. Even our social networks are replete with numerous examples of such amity among different species of animals, let alone their own, as is seldom seen among humans.

Cats and dogs have slowed their evolution by contact with human beings. Again, not all cats and dogs, and not with all human beings. But some are trained to become vicious, to sniff drugs, to attack on command. None of these acts are natural to them.

Cats are natural born hunters. Even with a bawl of dry biscuits waiting for them, they do bring home an occasional rodent. Now and then—a bird. But the last six or seven birds my cats brought home were alive and well. They brought them home as presents, and released them into my hands without much struggle. I strongly suspect that they wouldn’t catch them if they had no one to give them to.

That’s my personal experience. What’s yours?

CATS & DOGS

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