Who Put the Brutes in Charge?

Who put the brutes in charge?
All around us black rain falls:
war, incarceration, empowered police,
draconian and paternalistic laws,
intolerance of gays, drug users,
homeless, immigrants, liberals,
religious intolerance and prejudice.
Societal problems are answered
with military might,
with repression and invasion,
with incarceration,
and with death.

Who put the brutes in charge?
This should be the age of global equality,
with water and health,
with education for all.
We have the wealth,
we have the technology,
and multitudes of people
who want to help,
who long to make a difference.

When did we put the brutes in charge?
When did we empower military adventurism
and social repression?
When did we give our permission
to ruin the global economies,
and to wreck the environment?
Who said we should let oppression continue,
and corporate adventurism to thrive?

Why did we put the brutes in charge?
Are we so addicted
and conditioned to control and punishment
that we let social justice die?
We give our conscience money
to diverse charities
while permitting dictators
and repressive regimes to continue unscathed.
We repeat platitudes about
doing unto others
while the Pope, advocating abstinence,
condemns condom use to control Aids.

Who put the brutes in charge?
Who empowered such greed
for wealth and power
to control our lives,
and the future of the planet?
We did, and we continue,
to stay with what we know,
to respond to our conditioning
to the propaganda of greed and hate,
to the politics of fear and consumerism,
to do the easy thing.

We put the brutes in charge:
isn’t it time we changed
our political criteria?
Isn’t it time for thinking people,
for caring people,
to make our voices heard?
Where are the intellectuals,
the social liberals, the progressives?
Where are the religious moderates,
and dinner party philosophers
who call for a better way?

We put the brutes in charge:
this brutish geo-political Ferris wheel
must stop, must become a nightmare of the past,
must join the Inquisition,
the Salem witch trials,
the Holocaust,
the Khmer Rouge,
al Qaeda,
on the trash heap of history.
Thinking people must speak out,
and make our voices heard:
an ever growing thunder
that heralds the dawn
of social renaissance,
of change,
of the way that things can be,
should be,
must be.
Who put the brutes in charge?

Depression

The following is not a happy poem, but I had been reviewing the "Anger.." series and it came to me as relevant to the series, as one in three Canadians suffer from this affliction which, in far too many cases, becomes a permanent and life changing condition.


Depression

Wave after dark wave descends,
crashes down upon me
with the suffocating weight
of myriad sorrows,
far, far too much to bear.

Thoughts swarm like bees
to cover me with the pervasive buzz
of worries, of pains,
of soul-wrenching sadness:
I cannot breathe.

I struggle, frantically seeking light,
the comfort of past glories,
the glow of happy memories;
but the solid black blanket
stifles even faintest spark.

I am exhausted, and withdraw
further into my besieged core,
where there remains nothing
of the person I once was:
I am gone.

Childhood's Dream

I had a dream in which I grew
from childhood to old age;
through adolescent awkwardness
into a young man’s rage.
The challenges of parenthood,
each day a separate trial,
brought me slowly forward,
learning all the while.

My life was filled with wonder,
diversity, and thought:
sometimes my choices rang with truth,
other times they did not.
I slowly trekked my chosen Path
and learned from each mistake,
trying not to dwell too long
on Paths I did not take.

My peers and I grew older:
some sickened, others died,
while all along Serenity
grew closer to my side.
My body slowly weakened,
but my mind grew calm and wise,
and I cherished each clear starlit night,
each morning’s bright sunrise.

Then suddenly I wakened-
the sleep had left my eyes,
and I wept to see the marvel
of bright and strange new skies.
With sudden understanding
I knew that all was One,
and accepted with glad laughter,
that my Childhood had begun.

Credo Ergo Sum, Mark III

I have been working towards encapsulating my basic spiritual beliefs into an understandable form. This remains very much a work in progress, as all of life is, but this is only beginning, and not the end, of my own personal Path and Dharma.

When we moved to Timmins as economic refugees from Nova Scotia in 1947, my mother was faced with the daunting task of making new friends, while not having the funds nor furniture to entertain in our home. When we first arrived, in September, we lived on Birch Street North, with my Uncle Willis (Crooks) and Aunt Val. Later that winter we moved to 7th Avenue, but on Birch Street we were just two lots away from the Pentecostal Tabernacle, where Mum’s cousin, Marguerite (nee Latham) Harman and her family attended. Mum decided we would start to attend.

As a six year old, I found church boring, although Sunday School was sometimes fun. Further, the church music was fun and bouncy, rather than slow and sad. It was only during the mandatory Altar Call, with the mournful, I-am-a-miserable-sinner-save-me-lord music that accompanied the Call, that I really objected to being there. Another thing that I found disturbing was the speaking in tongues, where one of the congregation, in the grip of religious ecstasy, would stand and speak in a weird language, while everyone else chimed in with expressions of “Halleluiah,” “Praise the Lord,” “Yes, Jesus,” and the like. It was a scary time for me at six, and continued to be scary until I stopped going to church at sixteen.

We often hosted visiting preachers from the southern USA, and their stories of heathen, and Catholics in foreign countries torturing good Christian missionaries disturbed me greatly. I knew Catholics, and they were certainly not looking to torture anyone, any more than Buddhist Tommy Wong’s parents were going to burn me at the stake.

I found the many Bible stories boring (I was reading four or five library books a week by the time I was nine) and found the parables of the New Testament, and the many troubles of the Old Testament Israelites of no relevance to me and my situation. The constant pleas for me to “accept Jesus” and “let Christ into your heart,” confused me, and made me feel somehow unclean and not worthy to be with these people. I had no quarrel with Jesus, but these people selling him made me feel guilty: hey! I was a kid like all kids, no better, no worse, and could not see my actions as causing Christ any pain. I am sure that when He said “suffer the little children” that He did not mean to make them feel uncomfortable and guilty.

I continued to read, both fiction and non-fiction, history, science, and geography, and found much satisfaction and enjoyment in learning about our human condition, a welcome contrast to old Bible stories. I read about the Reformation, and that prior to that, the entire Christian church was Catholic!!! Slowly I was discovering that I had very little in common with the good and sincere people of the Pentecostal Tabernacle.

It was the 50s, and rock ‘n’ roll was beginning. To hear the minister preach against the evils of rock, while I had been reading in the newspapers about the lynching of blacks in the Southern USA, and the Jim Crow laws, and the vindictiveness of McCarthyism, seemed a strange dichotomy, and one that I could not reconcile. Oh, and let us not forget the evil of movies, and the newer television, although if you used the TV to watch the insane televangelist Oral Roberts, or Billy Graham, it was okay. Girls, don’t use lipstick or you are headed directly to Hell. Further, I found it difficult to accept that if you were not born again, you were lost. Period. Talk about being excluded.

In short, although the people of the congregation were good and kind people, their focus was not the same as mine. Their Hell sounded to me, a little more comfortable (although not a lot) than their Heaven, with milk, honey, manna, and walking around praising God forever. I could never understand why an all powerful God should look like an old white guy with a beard. No thank you. I understood that the church gave my mother some degree of belonging and spiritual peace, and, as such, it was a good thing...for her.

That is how my search started, way back at age sixteen. As I grew older and travelled further, and read more, I still did not know the nature of my spirituality, but I became increasingly aware of what it was not.

My travels with Foreign Affairs put me into intimate contact with a variety of people from a vast cornucopia of religions. Cocktail parties and dinner parties had me talking to atheists, agnostics, intellectuals, and minor and major functionaries, many of whom contributed to a psychedelic smorgasbord of ideas that made the chemical dreams of Dr. Timothy Leary seem small and monochromatic.

These are some of the quotes and ideas that have shown me that others think as I do, with the slight variations that make us unique and different.

Kimya Dawson: from “I Like Giants”

When I go for a drive I like to pull off to the side
Of the road, turn out the lights, get out and look up at the sky.
And I do this to remind me that I'm really, really tiny
In the grand scheme of things and sometimes this terrifies me.

But it's only really scary cause it makes me feel serene
In a way I never thought I'd be because I've never been
So grounded, and so humbled, and so one with everything
I am grounded, I am humbled, I am one with everything

Rock and roll is fun but if you ever hear someone
Say you are huge, look at the moon, look at the stars, look at the sun
Look at the ocean and the desert and the mountains and the sky
Say I am just a speck of dust inside a giant's eye
I am just a speck of dust inside a giant's eye.


Beatle George Harrison wrote, in "Within You Without You" the following:

We were talking
about the space between us all,
and people who hide themselves
behind a wall of illusion
never glimpse the truth
then it's far too late
when they pass away.

We were talking
about the love we all could share,
When we find it.
To try our best to hold it there
with our love, with our love
we could save the world
if they only knew.

Try to realize it's all within yourself
no one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small
and life flows on within you and without you.

We were talking
about the love that's gone so cold
and the people who gain the world
and lose their soul.
They don't know, they can't see:
Are you one of them?

When you've seen beyond yourself
then you may find
peace of mind is waiting there;
And the time will come
when you see we're all one
and life flows on within you and without you

These following extracted definitions have been useful to me on my Path, and will clarify some of the subjects I write about:

Zoroastrianism: Truth and order are in universal conflict with falsehood and disorder. Active participation in life through good thoughts, good words and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep the chaos at bay.

In the Taittariya Upanishad (II.1) where Brahman is described in the following manner: satyam jnanam anantam brahman - "Brahman is of the nature of truth, knowledge and infinity". Thus, Brahman is the origin and end of all things, material or otherwise. Our Atman (or soul) is readily identifiable with the greater soul of Brahman.

Dharma signifies the underlying order in nature and life (human or other) considered to be in accord with that order. The word dharma is generally translated into English as 'law' and literally translates as ‘that which upholds or supports' (from the root ‘Dhr' - to hold), here referring to the order which makes the cosmos and the harmonious complexity of the natural world possible.

Karma simply deals with what is. The effects of all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain and joy it brings to them and others.

After years of trying to meditate, listening to guided mediation CDs, reading books on mediation, I finally, one afternoon in the early fall of 2007, managed to reach a meditative state. After a time of enhanced visual perception, the position of my hands, my knees, and my feet seemed to be in lotus shapes. Colours became heavy, and overlaid with that type of golden light that comes late in a sunny autumn day. I was focussing on the lotus bud shape that my hands, fingertips touching, were making, when a swirling gold/red maelstrom started to form visually, causing my lotus/hands to disappear. I felt that I was on a dark earth, looking at the heavens, and seeing this red vortex as, perhaps, a vast galaxy, or even universe.

I then started receding as though I was being removed in perspective from the maelstrom at an incredible speed. Shortly I could see that the maelstrom, now starting to get smaller because of my rapid perspective change, was in fact the eye of an indescribably large idol, not unlike the Easter Island statues. As I receded further into the cosmos, I could see that the eye was moving, and that the idol was actually sentient. Although the only feature of this Being that my mind could comprehend was the eye, I could see what appeared to be a blob of dust collected in the corner of the eye, and intuitively knew that our planet, and indeed our entire galaxy, was within this blob.

Speeding faster and further away, the Being continued to shrink into the growing cosmic distance, and I could see that this Being was looking at, and bowing to, yet another similar, but unbelievably larger, Being of the same general composition. That Being, I soon came to see, was doing exactly the same thing with regards to yet another, and larger, Being. I intuitively understood that the same thing would have happened had I looked inward rather than outward, and that the Beings were whole, complete, and endless, and that our souls were inextricably bound to, and part of, this endless Cosmic All.

Throughout this vision, I could see waves of energy pulsing and flowing like a cosmic aurora borealis, and I could both hear and feel the tonal vibrations generated by these waves. Simultaneously I felt a sense of profound understanding, and a certain knowledge that these waves were the pulse of the Cosmic Good, the universal feng shui, as it were, the basis of chakra tones and colours, and the Prime Warrior in the universal battle between Order and Chaos. I knew that by being aware of, and listening to the timbre of these waves, I could align, to tune, my life to extract the most benefit from this universal flow, and indeed, through positive thought and action, contribute to the victory of Order.

The lotus shape of my hands started to come into focus again, and I had the profound feeling that it all went on forever, and in more directions and dimensions than our feeble human condition could ever comprehend. We were part of it all, and all was connected to all. Time, space, and reality existed on every level imaginable, and we are all connected to everything that ever was or will be.

The lesson I gleaned from this profound experience was simple: listen to the universal vibration, and live life so that your spark of Brahman guides you, and enables you to burn more brightly. Further, we are part of everything, and always will be, and our only rational course is to burn our brightest in the Now, whenever that Now may be.

Daughter Kelly and I had an online discussion in January (2008) about personal comfort zones, and how it was important to challenge one’s self on occasion. I then realised that at this stage in my life I am more reclusive, spending my days at Greyhavens in domestic and parental peace. I like to think that I am as open-minded and think “outside the box” as much as ever, but challenging my comfort zone is now (more or less) a thing of the past. We concluded that this contemplative stage was part of the life cycle. During part of our lives we gather experiences and get to know ourselves by expanding ourselves, our minds, our comfort zones and then when we reach a certain point, we can withdraw from the search and still be expanding our souls. (Kelly’s words, with which I fully concur.)

She then went on to formulate the following image.

Imagine that we are like a pebble dropped into a pond. Then imagine we can chose to remain the pebble all our lives, or we can chose to become the energy of the ripple, expanding our reach and horizons. If we stay safe and remain as the pebble, our world is eternally limited and tangible. But, if we become the ripple, we expand ever outwards (during the ensuing phase of life) expanding our comfort zone and knowledge. Then we become still, on the shore of our lives, part of the pond, part of the forest, part of the world and the universe beyond. This is the contemplative part of our life, when withdrawing can be an expansive act. End of Kelly’s image.

We each, as we travel the Path, encounter different choices, different forks in the road: the measure of the man is not in the fork he chooses, rather in how he adapts to, and makes the best of, the choices he has made.

Since early 2008, I have reached a different place in my outlook: oh, I still have my opinions, strong and different, but I no longer feel that I must make those opinions known to others. I am content within myself. I call it "being in touch with the Spark of Brahman," or "listening to the Universal Vibration," but, whatever it is, it has given me the peace and tranquillity that I have long sought.

I continue to despair at organised religion, while finding that the various religious writings offer certain similar glimpses of a universal truth. As far as the various formal religions ever agreeing on what is the best way to work together to achieve a greater good for their adherents, it can never happen, simply because the formal organisations are self-perpetuating, and serve themselves, albeit ostensibly in the service of a greater power.

For me, the communication between a man and his higher power, whatever that may be, is the responsibility of that man, not of a political and self-perpetuating clergy who seek to direct and to use that man to further their ambitious plans. It is not the individuals in any religion or belief system that do harm, it is the guidance of the hierarchy that seeks to pervert and bend universal truth for its own end. Hence, spirituality becomes a personal thing, a means of communicating directly with one's higher plane. One who is truly content and at one with the universe does not seek to convert, merely to encourage each man to think for himself, to question absolutes, to avoid dogma and platitudes, and never resort to using the word "faith" in any discussion as a valid argument point.

The first step to finding a means for all people to work and live together is for each person to find what is right for them, within themselves. They do not need to be told. The various parables of sheep and shepherds are telling, in that they show how an established clergy view their parishioners. We do not need to be given "messages from God" by one who claims to be the mouthpiece of said god. Any god worth his salt would speak directly, not through a plastic haired mouthpiece with a Texas accent, or a turbaned fanatic with flecks of spittle in his beard as he calls for jihad. They need to find acceptance of themselves within themselves. They need to find peace within, and stop trying to sell others on their own personal version of Truth/Peace/Eternity.

We are evolved beings, and we each have the means of doing right and finding Truth. We need to recognise that all the prophets, including Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Gautama Siddhartha, and Zoroaster, were like all of us, and some of what they speak is universal and true. We need to know that whatever we call the higher power, be it God, Yahweh, Allah, Brahman, Cosmic Balance, Universal Truth, does not require fear and abject obedience, nor conversion: it requires simply that we listen to our inner voice, and do the right thing by us and by our neighbours in this global village that is our present earth.

To me the world's religions are not meant to be taken literally, but to be interpreted as parables of various sages who offer their beliefs in an attempt to enlighten some small corner of human knowledge into the mysteries. With regards Jesus, I truly cannot say whether or not he existed as the man/god described in the New Testament, I have read texts that suggest the stories were based upon an actual teacher and sage, and other texts that claim he is an amalgamation of various other man/god characters from earlier history. My belief is that it really does not matter. His core teachings, whether or not plagiarised from earlier philosophers or not, are valid ... the bastardisation of those teachings by a power hungry Church establishment are of no consequence to me.

The basic moral concepts are available to everyone through the world's religious texts, and, as I say, have only been modified from their original Truth and clarity by a clergy greedy for influence and control. All of this, of course, is in my humble opinion, and is not to cast down anyone's belief system. Whatever works for anyone, as long as it does not impact negatively upon ones fellow man.

I have composed “Jim’s Guide to Enlightenment” and the Sutras therein to codify some of beliefs and discoveries. I use the Vedic format rather than the later Buddhist format because I consider the earlier philosophy much closer to my belief than is the much younger Buddhism. These definitions have been gleaned from Wikipedia and explain my belief much better than I can.

In Hinduism the 'sutra' is a distinct type of literary composition, based on short aphoristic statements, generally using various technical terms. The literary form of the sutra was designed for concision, as the texts were intended to be memorized by students in some of the formal methods of scriptural and scientific study. Since each line is highly condensed, another literary form arose in which commentaries on the sutras were added, to clarify and explain them.

One of the most famous definitions of a sutra in Indian literature is itself a sutra and comes from the Vayu Purana:
"Of minimal syllabary, unambiguous, pithy, comprehensive, / non-redundant, and without flaw: who knows the sutra knows it to be thus."

Vedanta is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality (Brahman) and teaches the believer's goal is to transcend the limitations of self-identity and realize one's unity with Brahman. Vedanta is not restricted or confined to one book and there is no sole source for Vedantic philosophy. Vedanta is based on two simple propositions:

1. Human nature is divine.

2. The aim of human life is to realize that human nature is divine.

The goal of Vedanta is a state of self-realisation or cosmic consciousness. Historically and currently, it is assumed that this state can be experienced by anyone (given the proper training and discipline), but it cannot be adequately conveyed in language.

The Upanishads speak of an universal spirit (Brahman) and of an individual soul (Atman), and at times assert the identity of both. Brahman is the ultimate, both transcendent and immanent, the absolute infinite existence, the sum total of all that ever is, was, or shall be.

In short, I find good in all religions, but abhor the absolute "we are right" attitude that goes with most of them. I believe that the essence of truth, as applied to our species, can be distilled down to these two ideas:

1) Harm no one, or, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

2) Listen to your soul, your conscience, your Spark of Brahman, your Atman, and through that listening, learn to hear what it tells you.

At the core of my belief is that we are all connected (the Spark of Brahman, our Atman, of which I speak) and when we pass from this existence, the spark reunites with the Cosmic whole, from whence we came. The vast nebula of human knowledge and religion does not even begin to explore nor understand the Cosmic mysteries. We can only grope about in the darkness and try to sense a small portion of the ultimate Truth.

The Quest continues...

Meteorite

We burn intensely for our brief time,
as though the atmosphere of living
is too intense for these
transitional vessels
we call our bodies.

Parents and other relatives,
friends and neighbours,
strangers whom we have never met,
all pass in one fleeting moment,
leaving only an afterimage,
a cosmic afterglow,
on the retina of our lives.

To endow it with meaning
we create gods, and interpret dreams.
We sing songs, and create stories.
Some meditate, yet others despair,
finding anguish, not solace,
within.

Yet we continue to dream
and create; to contemplate
and medicate.
We dance our wild dance,
living in this moment,
this magic, tragic and fleeting
        *** flash ***
that is our sum total.

And when it is our time
to burn across that starry sky,
our afterimage will long be felt,
not for the brilliance of our passing,
but for its absence
in a darkened sky.

Come the Revolution

Come the Revolution

Over the past several days there has been an acrimonious discussion taking place on a CBC News forum over the refusal of the Canadian Minister of Science, Gary Goodyear, to state whether or not he believes in evolution.

Two terrifying facts that this discussion has brought to light are:

a. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states, right at the beginning, "Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law: ...", and,

b. The Globe and Mail poll yesterday (circa 16 March) shows that fully 46 percent of respondents do not believe in evolution.

Given that our present government has moved us, via the politics of fear, closer to a fascist state, with a much stronger morality-based enforcement industry, and a culture that proclaims "everyone in a uniform is a hero," I fear that, should we continue our jackbooted march upon this road, the fundamentalist mob will start rounding up all atheists, agnostics, animists, and non-Christians, citing the Charter as justification and praising our Kevlar-clad "heroes" as they taser us into submission before dragging us off to "re-education" centres where we will be forced to endure plastic-haired televangelists preaching at us with southern U.S. accents.

To quote John Stuart Mill, "No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought."

It is long past time for an intellectual revolution.