I have friends who are Quakers, friends who are Unitarian Universalists, friends who Dialogue in the Bohmian tradition, friends who are Mystics, friends who are Poets, and so many other friends who live lives of wisdom and wonder... this is my account of the meeting with these friends...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

An Exquisite Poem


“They say that other country over there, dim blue in the twilight, farther than the orange stars exploding over our roofs, is called peace, but who can find the way? This time we cannot cross until we carry each other. All of us refugees, all of us prophets. No more taking turns on history’s wheel, trying to collect old debts no one can pay. The sea will not open that way. This time that country is what we promise each other, our rage pressed cheek to cheek until tears flood the space between, until there are no enemies left, because this time no one will be left to drown and all of us must be chosen. This time it’s all of us or none.”

- Aurora Levins Morales


found on Darvish- who found it from Wild Dervish Writes, who found it from a great visual arts/poster site, Northwood Poster Collective- you must see the artwork that goes with this!

Conceived in Iniquity - Born in Sin


"Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money ."

~ Josiah Charles Stamp, (from wikipedia) 1st Baron Stamp, Bt, GCB, GBE, FBA, (June 21, 1880-April 16, 1941) British civil servant, industrialist, economist, statistician and banker- Director of the Bank of England- Chairman of the London Midland and Scottish Railway.

This quote was found in part 4 of the below links "Money as Debt"- a video series that I first saw well over a year ago, that goes into some wonderful explanation about our banking system, and how it is something that is merely created out of thin air... see the home page for the producer of this series, and also there is a great page of the quotations used in the movie is here

1. Money as Debt - Cartels Robbing the Public (1/5)

2. Money as Debt - How Money is Created (2/5)

3. Money as Debt - Money is Debt(3/5)

4. Money as Debt - Monetary Reform (4/5)

5. Money as Debt - Warning about the NWO (5/5)


Comment on Where Paradox Meets Bedrock

I found the quote below by Edward Abbey on Forest Wisdom's blog- his post and his reader's comments called Paradox and Bedrock, led me to write a long-ish comment which I decided was worth cross posting here- but do go and see the whole thing on yonder page!


"Leading me away from the narrow dirt road, an alluring and primitive track into nowhere, meanders down the slope and toward the heart of the labyrinth of naked stone...looming over a bend in the road, is a balanced rock about fifty feet high, mounted on a pedestal of equal height; it looks like a head from Easter Island, a stone god or a petrified ogre.

Like a god, like an ogre? The personification of the natural is exactly the tendency I wish to suppress in myself, to eliminate for good. I am here not only to evade for a while the clamor and the filth and confusion of the cultural apparatus but also to confront, immediately and directly if it's possible, the bare bones of existence, the elemental and fundamental, the bedrock which sustains us. I want to be able to look at and into a juniper tree, a piece of quartz, a vulture, a spider, and see it as it is in itself, devoid of all humanly ascribed qualities, anti-Kantian, even the categories of scientific description. To meet God or Medusa face to face, even if it means risking everything human in myself. I dream of a hard and brutal mysticism in which the naked self merges with a non-human world and yet somehow remains intact, individual, separate. Paradox and bedrock." --Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire


my comment:

This quote (reflects) exactly where I came to name my own blog as the "meeting"... paradox and bedrock- its perfect! everyones comments are perfect!

paradox will come to us at the end of our measurements - if we understand this notion of measurements as a field, then at the edges of this field is where paradox appears - bedrock, naturally, is the ground beneath all... so to come to that meeting-place where all of our measurements can be held in suspension- our names, our positions in society, our history, our dreams of "future"- all of these measurements of "who we are" exist in time, past and future... so to be able to hold them in suspension, to not need to see everything around us in the natural world (of which the man-made world is a part) through these filters, but to meet it all raw- naked- without being clothed in "who we are"... this meeting place is easiest seen at the edges of the field of measurement... of course, it must be understood that the meeting place is everywhere, the bedrock is beneath everything- but its at the edges of our measurements where we come to the place where words will fail utterly- its there where form meets the formless- the ultimate creativity- the complete breathlessness of ones participation with that which discludes nothing, the Whole...

there is no paradox, when we come to where our measurements can see their own end... there is no paradox when words fail and we allow them to do so... paradox is a "mathematical" term, if you will- and since it is found at the edge of our ability to measure (the mathematical/grammatical mind) it is bound to frustrate- this will seem very brutal or "dangerous" indeed to the "who-we-are"... the who-we-are will be quite insistent on measuring out its "place", in order to stay alive... but the body-wisdom- the natural wisdom of our true selves, need not believe that these measurements are anything more than a ping- a tool to move about in the primordial soup that is still this living that we do...

we are "meeting" with the bedrock all the time- it is the ground of being- its all around, ever present, and utterly without time... time only comes into existence for us humans, with our measurements (past/future- if/then- I/other)... bedrock gives not a whit whether we meet it or not- its always there, its always supporting us... it is Love itself... it only knows itself... there is nothing that separates from bedrock- there is nothing that can exist separate from bedrock...

where paradox meets bedrock-

where the ending of our measurements meets that which cannot be measured ...

where a bird comes and alights on a branch, and the witness disappears in the event... this is the wholeness - this is the "mystical" (un-measured, mystery) - this is Love loving itself... ever present, ever available for our participation... no practice will come to this- no wisdom will "get" us this- there is no "having" of this... we already ARE this... fully, wholly, immeasurably... words fail, here in this, because this is before "we" are born... in every moment- reborn and dying to this...

Sunday, February 8, 2009

50 Billion Dollars lost

Money is not "lost"

isnt this, like, an important thing to realize?

money is never "lost" ... it just moves from one persons control to anothers...

the real question here is, is money even real?

can we begin to ask that?- and inquire into what to do about what we find in that inquiry... or are we back to "what about me/ what about mine/ wheres my cut?" already...

of course, if you lost money, I will want to bring compassion to that, to you... you are feeling it now- and I get it... but the bigger question has always been looming... now that you're here with some of us who have always been asking this question- now that you are without "wealth"- maybe you would like to join the deeper inquiry... or, we can just set about getting 'more where that came from'...

see, it is never "lost"... there is always more where that came from...

so what you are really afraid of, is time (theoretically, lack thereof) ... and there is where you enter the mystics home... time IS money- and we all know this... this is absolutely true ... the mystic dares to ask (and its a real live inquiry, not some pie in the sky mystical hoobie-goobie)... the mystic asks, "is time real?"...

when we see the truth of this- then compassion comes - then compassion acts... debate ends- "what about me?!" ends- expertise ends- and compassion comes in and acts... compassion is not a possession... war is a possession... compassion is the absence of possession... this is important...

is it time to inquire into this? I hope so...

Dont be scared...


... its just that... its just time, to take personal responsibility - THIS is what "Expertise" looks like... it is completely indistinguishable from a lie...


if ever there were a reason to look inward, and end the outward pointing (debate) that goes on in this world, this video would be it...

what you are seeing here is precisely what comes to my mind when I hear people talking about "compensation packages" being necessary to attract the "most talented people" to whatever business...

please do look at this with me- inwardly, deeply- and see where this fits in with what we dearly hold as "truth", around our economic and educational systems...

additional video of roundtable
Watch Madoffs Body Language

A Business Man


From Wikipedia:

Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff (born April 29, 1938) is an American businessman and former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange


sometimes, just the simplest of statements can sound deeply and resoundingly ironic...

Ive just watched this terrific video of world-class Whistleblower Harry Markopolos testifying to Congress on the Madoff case...

also this statement from Ron Paul (found on this page and video):

If you look at the principle of fractional reserve banking, that in a way is a Ponzi scheme. This gets people doing things and building a mountain of debt… debt on debt, in this manner.


It was in watching these two videos together today, that set up this incredible irony in the phrase "An American businessman"...

theres so much more to say, isnt there?... we can let it rest in the silence though... more will come from looking at this later...

Friday, February 6, 2009

Crash Course

Ill comment more later- but I just wanted to post this to get it up on the page here sooner than later- I do have some notions as to why this may still miss the mark, but its none the less well worth the time to go through and learn from this guy...

The Crash Course, by Chris Martenson

The Crash Course seeks to provide you with a baseline understanding of the economy so that you can better appreciate the risks that we all face.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Winter's Trees


sometimes, a post that I make in a forum or a blog, comes not from the "head"- is not born of intellect- but rather is from that "poetry-place" that we know so well... it may be written in the prose form, but it comes from the same place as the poem comes from, or any sort of creative act for that matter- music, a photo, a painting, a meal-well-prepared, a child-well-raised... the poet in me can meet and act in any of those life places...

here is something I wrote that arrived like that - its from late fall of a year ago- but some friends were talking about trees just recently, and that reminded me of this post, and so I pulled it out from the archives, and thought I might share it here too...



when prose becomes poetry...

when the telling becomes the asking...

when the teacher becomes the student...

when the context becomes the leaves of the fall... beautiful, and exuberant - but fall they must - for they are not the tree... the celebration of the story is a marvelous season of the tree, but only a short season... fall they must... free words are dying words - they are beautiful in their dying... going down in a blaze of color and windblown lightness...

winter is the trees reflecting time... free of the context... alone with life and death...

the questions that the tree asks in winter, are not the sorts of questions that are taken up by the leaves... they are bare questions... sparse - simple questions... the leaves no longer drawing up the sap and the energy... so the energy that is there, is all poured into that reflection... into those sparse questions... about life and death and treeness itself... the celebration has now quieted completely... it is time to face the bare reflections in the ice born mirror...

free of its concerns for reds and yellows and oranges and goldens and long gone greens... free of concern for the fruiting and nut-making - having given what it has to give to the squirrels and birds and humans below...

what did krishnamurti call this inquiry? ... "discontent", wasnt it?... "now is the winter of our discontent"... ha ha!

yes - I think this whole thing that we do here - is about freeing up the words in the sense of "meanings"... freeing meanings - is losing the context - in this natural, seasonal way... reflection I dont think goes away... it just no longer adheres... its not concerned with "figuring it out"... that is not what the "asking" is... this period of alone reflection is the healing - not just for the tree, but for the forest itself... so it asks about death, not because of some story that it has to tell - that is long since dropped off of its branches... it asks for the purpose of healing... the whole forest is asking this question, bare of its contexts... safe in what has been stored for later use, that is no longer of concern...

how interesting, to see just how wealthy the forest is, in winter time... if one really looks... its all stored deep, down, in roots and burrows, for later use... safe in that knowledge, look at what it is able to reflect upon - leafless - fruitless... just bare reflection - on treeness... on forest, foresting... on life and death... in the quiet of winter...