Tuesday, November 29, 2005

New Shameless Plug for Stuff via Capital Machine

I have dumped Amazon for Froogle. simply search under my name, one word, at gmail dot com. I will add more of my worldly desires later.

I smile largely, ironically, deeply.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Running in Retreat

Dan Raa poses a good question on November 22: is retreat running away?

By retreat he means meditative retreat: the kind that where you sit by yourself most of the day doing an internal practice. Sometimes that practice is simply concentration, sometimes it is analytical thinking about one's existential status, and sometimes it is devotional intention towards a deity in preparation for analysis. There is a lot you can do just sitting. Actually the phrase "just sitting" is more of a Zen concept in which one tries to simply be. Zen practitioners will sit and do this, or just sit, while on retreat. Dan, however, is talking about Tibetan style practice that is often quite different. When he mentions the mala, I think he is speaking of mantra recitation: devotional practice oriented around a particular deity who is resident in one's own teacher that has the added effect of developing concentration.

Point being: retreat in this sense is a retreat from the mundane concerns of life that necessarily draw one's attention into a social sphere. Taking care of business is consuming of time and attention as well as intention. Westerner often think that meditation retreat is escape and hiding from the ills and concerns of everyday life. In a conventional sense, they are right. However, from the perspective of the practitioner, sitting still to do one's mantras and practice can be something more deeply concerned with the welfare of the world than shouting protests on the street corner.

I have always shyed from public protest. I have certainly participated in them from time to time, but they often felt (both in practice and in my own reflections upon them) impotent. Social confrontation like protest does not get to the root of the world's problems. I think that if humanity is to "get better" (implicit morality), we must transform our intention. If we organize people and change social policy, we can make the world a better, homier, comfier place. But, the fact is that in organizing societies, someone will always be on the losing end of the stick. Even if they are the oppressor and, by all Marxist thinking, deserve a forced diminution in living standard, they will still be forced upon and will suffer by it.

If people transform from the inside out, their intention to do good can be the force of good in the world. If people are transformed from the outside, where their actions are made to fit a large vision of society, the individuality that drives moderns will be squashed.

Hmm... I am not sure I have been clear, but don't blame me too much: I am stuck in O'Hare limbo hotel bar and have to go get Nils from the jaws of the capital beast.

Peace, comments, and thanksgiving.


Oh, I forgot about the running part, I will get back to that.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Dark at 4:30

A week has passed since I have posted last. I have been writing a lot, but not on this blog. Mostly, I have been writing about Jurgen Habermas. Incidentally, Habermas did his Habilitation at the University of Marburg: the alma mater of my friend Nils. Nils is coming to visit Wisconsin on Wednesday for a week. I am very excited. It is good that he is from northern Germany, because the sun sets here around 4:30pm, if not earlier. I wonder if the cold will come back, though, because as dark as Germany can get, the depths of Wisconsin winter are far more frigid than Germany's long nighted season.

I don't have any particular insights this evening (at least none that I have the time to inscribe here). I helped lead a Buddhist meditation node at church this morning. My friend Dan helped by leading a classic metta meditation. It was very nice.

Oh, in the spirit of interactivity, I would like to open a discussion on the wonders and problems of potlucks. In Madison, especially in the winter, they take on a dominant role among modes of socializing, especially on the east side.

So, the question is: what do you think of potlucks? How often do you go to potlucks? What dish do you bring or would you bring? Can you describe a particularly remarkable potluck? Has anyone had a bad potluck experience?

If you haven't commented before, here is your chance to engage. It's easy, fun, and somewhat rewarding.

Monday, November 14, 2005

On Suffering

In response to kbryna's post and commenters I do not agree with. The post is entitled "crying, notsleeping."

Malpractice? Don't make me ralph.

I think that is a very good question. It asks kbryna to look at the possibility that pathology may rule her life for the rest of her life. It fact, I think it is pretty certain that for as long as she (and, for that matter, all of us) lives she and we are going to be constantly embodied. We are going to be flesh that is both physical and biological; flesh over which we do not have full control.

There are wonderful things to that embodiment upon which kbryna is often remarking. However, it mostly means that we will forever be dealing with suffering of the body and of the mind stuck in the body that, in large part, is driven by pathological emotions anyway.

Indistinct from that, there we are. We are messy, ugly, bags of puss. We are also passionate lovers, inspired thinkers, creative writers, and transcendent singers. Go figure.

I am not a therapist for sure, but I do think about this very thing a lot and I feel it is deeply liberating to confront oneself with the nasty truth: we suffer. A lot. All the time. And it is not going to end until we do something about it because suffering is a condition of the liminal space, the betweeness in which we exist as humans. We are gods and animals all wrapped into one and it sucks, it is confusing, and it is amazing.

The way to end suffering, I think, is to step away from our liminal existence. We will not escape it, but there is something about the leading motion.

We can step deeper into our animal bodies as most choose to do: living in desire, anger, ignorance, and other animalistic pathologies. As animals, we will chase around the food, the fuck, and the kill. We will react constantly to things that excite our attraction and elicit our fear or anger. We will claw our way to the delicious, the lusty, and the shiny. We will bristle with fear and disgust when confronted with the nasty and we will ignite in anger at that which threatens us.

Or, we can step higher into our divine bodies by choosing observation instead of reaction, peace instead of riotous emotion, and compassion instead of fear. In pursuit of spirit, transcendence, the good, or just the better we can find ourselves lighter, happier, freer, or just less afflicted.

The ideals seem lofty and may be unattainable. I am more interested in the direction, because I am drawn in that way. I do not find comfort there. I do find some flavor of peace, though. It is not constant or monolithic, but I not only taste it, I believe in it. The high road is not easy, but it is necessary; necessary if we are going to go anywhere and not self destruct at the hands of a filthy (read: toxic) environment, fragmented psyche, or cannabalistic society. These are all real threats that are flowering broadly in the soil we have spread over the seeds we have planted.

"What if you felt this way for the rest of your life?" (deeply sad, addicted, afflicted, oppressed) You could, you may, and in some way, you will. If it isn't your choice, it is nobody's and, frankly, the choice will simply not be made: the way of the animal.

If it is your choice, then you can do what you will in the place where you are. A choice can be made: the way of the god (read: human).


I love you k.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Why the Poor Riot or Don't


This is a link to the Luebkenator's blog in which he suggests that 'Merika (Bushism) ain't that bad because the Parisians have race riots too.
I respond below.

Once Upon a Time in the East: Nameless

Not enough on that! The reason that a police killing of two kids sparked two weeks of firey riots in Parisian suburbs is not that they have greater disparity of wealth, but because police killings are rarer there.

If white cops shoot black kids in the US...well, it happens every week, doesn't it? Nobody notices that because the police state is farther along in this country.

Surely France has their own racial and class problems to deal with. They are not doing a very good job with the riots. However, I think that civil society is much healthier in France where riots break out over the killing of children. In our country, we watch cops shoot black kids for entertainment on TV.

Obviously, violence is not the answer. A truly healthy civil society engages in public debate. It considers multiple, reasoned view points before figuring out, through representative or direct means, what to do. However, I think that a group of underrepresented people of liminal political and economic potency demonstrate a healthier civil society in general by taking to the streets. What do people do to resist in our country? More interestingly: who resists? The poor and disempowered often don't have the time or energy or leisure or educational foundation to resist effectively. The poor are too busy working a job a Wal-Mart before going to their second job wherever Manpower wants them to clean the floors. The people who have time to resist are less effected by The Man and aren't very good at the resistance they do.

Perhaps I have overextended here. I think of the Rodney King riots in California as being similar to the Parisian riots. LAPD put the smackdown a lot quicker, though. Additionally, there are poor people's movements that are doing great work in this country. See the CIW's work in organizing farm workers in south Florida and the Strategy Center's work in organizing a bus rider's union in SoCal.

Thoughts anyone? What is the current state of resistance in the US? Would race or class based rioting last nearly as long in the US as in the case of Parisian suburbs? What is the difference? Does anyone have any specific knowledge about French or other European police states and their ability or will to oppress? Anecdotal evidence is the most appropriate for the blogosphere, I think, so I would like to hear a story or two, if anyone has any to offer.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Blazing Splendor

Blazing-Splendor - The Memoirs of the Dzogchen Yogi Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche I am blogging this mostly for my own reference. I am holding a blogged correspondence with the author of this blog concerning a ritual text I am using for my thesis.

Welcome to the wild world of Kagyu/Nyingma blended Tibetan style Buddhism.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Padmasambhava to Trisong Detsen upon his arrival in Tibet

And you, king of barbarian Tibet,
King of the country without virtue,
Uncouth men and ogres surround you.
You rely upon famine’s serfs,
And neither joy nor good humor are yours.
As for your queens, they are raksasi in human shape.
Beautiful purple ghouls surround them,
Sandalwood, turquoise, and gold adorn them;
But they have not hearts and no minds.
You are king, your lungs swell.
Great is your power, your liver is well-satisfied.
Scepter in hand and haughty, you stand high.
But I, sire, will not bow down before you.
And yet, in accordance with my conjoined vows,
Having come to the heart of Tibet, here I stay.
Great king, witness, have I come?

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

lettuce prey four whirled peas

lettuce prey four whirled peas A blog of aphorisms and photos. good ones.