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There is a great deal about Sri Upasni Maharaj that parallels shamanic practice. For example, he once described a vision that occurred prior to his enlightenment, when two giants came to crack his head open and let the light out. This "discourse" is from 1924 and explains access to the "Temple of Vishnu" on the bi-monthly Vaishnava fast days called Ekadashi.
This is a Dattatreya lineage and has always been syncretic and extra-Vedic, though Upasni was himself a brahmin ayurvedist from a Vaishnava family. Upasni Maharaj was the student of Shirdi Sai and the primary guru of Meher Baba.
Access to the Moving Temple of Vishnu on Ekadashi katha with Sri Upasni Maharaj (1924) It is customary to visit a temple to have the Darshana of God on an Ekadashi day, as the portals of Vaikuntha are supposed to be open particularly on that day. (Ekadashi means observing fast on the eleventh day from the full and new moon days, i.e., twice a month. Vaikuntha is the abode of Vishnu meaning the Infinite Bliss.) Darshana of God on this particular day means one's entry into Vaikuntha. It should be well-borne in mind that to go for the darshana of a saint is virtually going to Vaikuntha for the darshana of God. Today is the Ekadashi day meant for a visit to Vaikuntha, Sometime ago I have spoken about the story of a moving temple, Anybody who is qualified to enter that temple can do so any time at his will. But on Ekadashi day anybody could get into it. This temple is peculiar in that it consists of halls within halls, which are moving in opposite· directions, the doors of which are located in opposite directions, and whose domes are also situated opposed to each other. If the outer hall has its door towards east, it is moving in a clockwise manner--has its dome in the normal position that is directed above, then the next hall within has its door towards the west, it moves in anti-clockwise direction and its dome is kept in a reversed position - i.e., upside down. The third hall is opposed to the second in every way. The God is sitting in the innermost hall of this temple. It is thus impossible for a commoner to enter this temple and have the darshana. A man who is, however, qualified can enter the temple and pass through the different halls and have his darshana. Just as a guard or a person, who knows how to do it, can alone enter a running train and nobody else, in the same way a man, who is qualified and knows exactly how to go about, can enter this peculiar temple any day he likes, even though it happens to be moving at a high speed. Just as for a commoner there are stations instituted for getting into a train, similarly for a commoner to get into this temple the Ekadashi day is instituted. It is on this particular day that all its doors' come in one straight line, one behind the other, and the temple becomes stationary; anybody can get in on this day. Just as even in a stationary train standing at a station one can get in only when armed with a ticket, in the same way, anybody who knows and observes the cogent regulations can alone have an entry into it on the Ekadashi day. Just as a man without a ticket is not permitted to enter a train, in the same way, a man who has not observed the cogent regulations cannot get into it even on this day. Just as a train always stops at a station at the appointed time whether there is a passenger or not, in the same way, that temple becomes stationary on the Ekadashi day. Just as a person who wants to travel has his food, luggage, a ticket, etc., and is ready to enter the train, in the same way, if a man has been following the various regulations and thus qualified himself, he can have the darshana on that day. A man who is not desirous of having the darshana does not naturally worry about any rules or regulations. The temple becomes stationary at the appointed time and a qualified man can enter it. A person, who knows how to get in and all that, can of course enter the temple at any time he likes; it is for the commoner that the regulations are there; he has to observe a fast on that day; the eleventh day [after full and new moons] is reserved for that purpose for certain reasons. Observe the regulations on that day and qualify yourself to enter the temple.  Now the moving temple is this body. The halls arranged in opposite direction are the three - Sthula, Sukshma and Karana bodies (the gross, the subtle and th causal). The Vaikuntha is the Brahmanda situated in the head. The fasting on Ekadashi day means to starve - to stop the ten senses and the mind' from undertaking any action; to stop the activities of these eleven like that is observing the fast correctly. A man, who observes a fast like that, i.e., observes the Ekadashi, becomes qualified to have' the darshana of Vishnu situated in the Brahmanda located in himself. One can also have similar darshana of Vishnu in Brahmanda by associating with [someone] who has experienced it and who is ever in it, i.e., a Sat-purusha. (scanned from an ancient, battered 6 vol. set of Upasni's Talks I purchased in Shirdi). | | |
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- Callwords:appalachia, coal, cultural studies, culture change, ecology, economics, news, resistance, video, west virginia, wv
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Forget Shorter Showers | Derrick Jensen | Orion MagazinePosted using ShareThisEdit: Hmm, the share thing doesn't give much info about this article from today's release of ORION. Here are a couple paragraphs: Part of the problem is that we’ve been victims of a campaign of systematic misdirection. Consumer culture and the capitalist mindset have taught us to substitute acts of personal consumption (or enlightenment) for organized political resistance. An Inconvenient Truth helped raise consciousness about global warming. But did you notice that all of the solutions presented had to do with personal consumption—changing light bulbs, inflating tires, driving half as much—and had nothing to do with shifting power away from corporations, or stopping the growth economy that is destroying the planet? Even if every person in the United States did everything the movie suggested, U.S. carbon emissions would fall by only 22 percent. Scientific consensus is that emissions must be reduced by at least 75 percent worldwide. Or let’s talk water. We so often hear that the world is running out of water. People are dying from lack of water. Rivers are dewatered from lack of water. Because of this we need to take shorter showers. See the disconnect? Because I take showers, I’m responsible for drawing down aquifers? Well, no. More than 90 percent of the water used by humans is used by agriculture and industry. The remaining 10 percent is split between municipalities and actual living breathing individual humans. Collectively, municipal golf courses use as much water as municipal human beings. People (both human people and fish people) aren’t dying because the world is running out of water. They’re dying because the water is being stolen. | | |
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Here's an oldie but a goodie... an expose of Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy. This is the sort of corporate leadership behind the thugs in the earlier video posted today (and the mastermind who "keeps America's lights on").
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 (Relatively speaking, of course.) Giant Naked Goddess to be Carved into Hillside
A 400-yard naked "Green Goddess" is to be carved into the Northumberland landscape, under a new plan revealed by a mining company.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5715111/Giant-naked-goddess-to-be-carved-into-hillside.html
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Proclamation We hold these Truths to be absolute, though not self-evident, that all Men are created in the same image, and are endowed by their Creator with one and only one unalienable Right, the Right to Choose one’s responses and actions in any given situation and at any given moment. We believe that the universe operates based on certain timeless, absolute, and immutable spiritual Laws, among these are the Laws of Truth, Love, and Justice. We believe that though not self-evident, the lie will ultimately self-destruct and Truth shall prevail. We believe that Love will transmute all things into goodness, and that Justice is the order of the Universe in which we live. We believe that we are also endowed with certain privileges that are the byproducts and indirect outcomes of the way we live. Among these are the privileges of Life, Liberty and the Ensuing Happiness. We believe that Life is not a Right, but an outcome of the choices that we make. The privilege of being alive and being permeated with vitality is one that we need to consciously express in every choice that we make. That Liberty is not a Right bestowed upon us by our Creator, but a way of approaching our choices. We believe that we are endowed with the privilege of choosing freely, in spite of our external circumstances or outer pressures. And we believe that Happiness is what ensues as a result of the type of choices that we make, that when we choose to align ourselves with the Universal Laws and pursue the right and the good, then happiness will automatically be bestowed upon us. We believe that no government and no individual has the Right, nor the Ability to determine what we believe and what we think. That no entity can limit or suppress our Divine Right to Choose. We believe that although our privileges are temporal and may change by circumstances outside of our own control, our one and only Right and Power cannot be revoked. That at any given moment we have the Right to express who we are, think what we will, and choose what we wish. It is self-evident that our choices have consequences, and that we may revoke one privilege for attaining another. But which to forego and which to express is entirely our choice. We believe that at all times we have the right to believe what we will, including believing in this document, and at all times we have the right to choose to change our opinions, thoughts, and beliefs, without any prior notice or warning. Ó Shahriar Shahriari
Vancouver Canada
February 9, 1998 http://www.zarathushtra.com/z/article/american.htm - Callwords:allies, cosmology, ethics, history, india, interfaith, iran, liberty, pavo, praxis, theodicy, work
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By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Washington Post, Friday, July 3, 2009 Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse? If ever an issue deserved President Obama's promise of change, this is it. Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day -- the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly -- to blow up Appalachia's mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams. They have demolished 500 mountains -- encompassing about a million acres -- buried hundreds of valley streams under tons of rubble, poisoned and uprooted countless communities, and caused widespread contamination to the region's air and water. On this continent, only Appalachia's rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not -- obliterating the hemisphere's oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests. Highly mechanized processes allow giant machines to flatten in months mountains older than the Himalayas -- while employing fewer workers for far less time than other types of mining. The coal industry's promise to restore the desolate wastelands is a cruel joke, and the industry's fallback position, that the flattened landscapes will provide space for economic development, is the weak punchline. America adores its Adirondacks and reveres the Rockies, while the Appalachian Mountains -- with their impoverished and alienated population -- are dismantled by coal moguls who dominate state politics and have little to prevent them from blasting the physical landscape to smithereens. Obama promised science-based policies that would save what remains of Appalachia, but last month senior administration officials finally weighed in with a mixture of strong words and weak action that broke hearts across the region. The modest measures federal bureaucrats promised amount to little more than a tepid pledge of better enforcement of existing laws. And government claims of doing everything possible to halt the holocaust are simply not true. George Bush gutted Clean Water Act protections. Obama must restore them. First, the White House should fix the "fill" rule the Bush administration adopted in 2002 to allow coal companies to use streams as waste dumps. Under this perverse interpretation of the Clean Water Act, 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been interred under mining waste. Obama could reverse the "fill" rule to reflect its original meaning, which forbids waste matter from being dumped into waterways. Second, the Interior Department should strictly enforce the widely ignored "buffer zone" rule that forbids dumping waste within 100 feet of intermittent or perennial streams. Third, our laws require companies to restore mined areas to their original condition. The administration should end the absurd fiction that extraction pits filled with unconsolidated rocks and rubble where trees will never grow and streams will never flow are "reclaimed." Fourth, current law forbids the issuance of "fill" permits that will cause "significant degradation" to waterways. It is absurd for the Army Corps of Engineers to endorse the canard that filling miles of streams is not causing significant degradation. The president should require the Corps to deny and rescind permits where operations will cause downstream damage. Fifth, the Clean Water Act requires mining operators to prove that they can restore the "function and structure" of affected streams. Operators have never been compelled to make the functional or structural analyses of the aquatic ecosystem required by the act. Obama should order his officials to stop ignoring this requirement. Sixth, the administration should enforce the law requiring an environmental impact study for each permit when a mine "may have significant environmental impacts," individually or cumulatively. The Corps of Engineers routinely allows coal operators to escape this mandate -- an illegal practice that should stop. Instead of acting to enforce these laws, administration officials indicated last month that they will allow more than 100 permits to go forward while they carefully review their regulatory options. If they act accordingly, the ruined landscapes of Appalachia will be Obama's legacy. President Obama should go to Appalachia and see mountaintop removal. My father visited Appalachia in 1966 and was so horrified by strip mining -- then in its infancy -- that he made it a key priority of his political agenda. He complained that Appalachia, with our nation's richest natural resources, was home to America's poorest populations, its worst education system, and its highest illiteracy and unemployment rates. These statistics are even grimmer today as mining saps state wealth. In 1966, 46,000 West Virginia miners were collecting salaries and pensions and reinvesting in their communities. Mechanization has shrunk that number to fewer than 11,000. They extract more coal annually, but virtually all the profits leave the state for Wall Street. The coal industry provides only 2 percent of the jobs in Central Appalachia. Wal-Mart employs more people than the coal companies in West Virginia. Last week a major study documented how coal imposes a net cost to Kentucky of more than $100 million per year. Coal is not an economic engine in the coalfields. It is an extraction engine. Obama has the authority to end mountaintop removal, without further action from Congress and without formal rulemaking. He just needs to make the coal barons obey the law. The writer is senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. - Callwords:appalachia, coal, culture change, ecology, economics, links, news, politics, resistance, url, west virginia, wv
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- Callwords:allies, america, ancestors, calendar, culture change, economics, freedom, history, holiday, ideation, liberty, politics, resistance
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- Callwords:allies, america, ancestors, calendar, culture change, economics, freedom, history, holiday, ideation, liberty, politics, resistance
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"Much against the wishes of the elite..." (8/20/1939, International News Wire)   | | |
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 Parshuram Mantra
CHATURDHA PARSHURAMAM CH RAJYAPUJYA SUSHANTIDHA ATSI PUSHPSANKASHO DURVA DALNIBH | | |
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Ayatollah: Green Twitter Avatars 'Number One Threat' to Regime
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, convened an emergency meeting in Tehran today to discuss what he called "number one threat to this regime": green Twitter avatars. Khamenei told associates at the meeting that Iran's government had stared down many challenges to its authority since the 1979 revolution, but none have been as "terrifying and intimidating" as the ubiquitous green avatars. "The green Avatars must be stopped!" he roared, pounding his fist on the table. According to sources close to the Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah is considering a number of measures to combat the avatars, including banning the color green and distributing free smiley-face emoticons across Iran. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/ayatollah-green-twitter-a_b_219517.html | | |
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- Callwords:allies, art, folkart, history, india, interfaith, iran, magic, meher baba, mystery, pavo, pictures, politics, prayer, resistance, spell
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"Maybe I am Avatar of God or the Devil. So, once and for all, see within and find out if you are confused or fused." -- Meher Baba Amusingly and in light of the Irani political events that are capturing the attention of many Baba folk, the one occurence of the word "twitter" in the 20+ volume biography of Meher Baba called "Lord Meher" occurs immediately after an unusual reference to the alphabet board Meher Baba (who observed silence after 1925) used to communicate:Before entering seclusion, Baba instructed Padri to cut a small piece of bamboo from the partition in the cage-room built originally for the mast Karim Baba, so that he could communicate on the alphabet board without being seen. His seclusion this time was to be much stricter than before. Baba entered seclusion in the cage-room on Meherabad Hill on Friday, August 1st, 1941, exactly a year to the day after his previous seclusion. At the time, no other mast except Chatti Baba was in Meherabad, and Baba continued working energetically with him, seeing no one else. It was absolutely still. Pendu, Padri, Kalemama, Masaji, Chhagan, Vishnu and Baidul, while on watch, were most cautious and saw to it Baba was not in the least disturbed. They prevented the dogs from barking and would not even permit a bird to twitter. The women mandali on Meherabad Hill would also tread lightly and not let the slightest sound escape their lips. The graveyard silence led one to believe that the Hill was now uninhabited. SOURCE
Before his enlightenment experience, in childhood, Meher Baba (Merwan Sheriar Irani) seems to have had a spiritualized connection to Iran:
"IN HIS YOUTH, Merwan was in the habit of gazing at the stars and moon – sometimes for hours late into the night. At times his friends would join him, but he would become so absorbed that he would seemingly lose himself – neither replying to their questions nor sharing in their conversation.
Late night and early morning were the best opportunities for Baily to be with Merwan since, as mentioned previously, Shireen did not like him. Baily would sit outside with Merwan and ask him what he saw in the sky. Merwan would sometimes reply, "I saw the court of Emperor Jamshed." Other times he answered, "I saw the peacock throne." Once he said, "I saw the formlessness of God in form!" After these comments he would laugh and Baily would be annoyed with his replies, thinking Merwan was not being entirely candid." SOURCE Meher Baba's June 1931 trip to Persia was also interesting, including unusual access to the shrine of Imam Reza (one of the most culturally significant sites in Iran--certainly unprecedented access for a Parsi!).
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Here is part two of the "Mounds and Deo Pavo Work" ( Read more and see pictures beneath the cut... )
Part one is linked here.... Part three coming soon). - Callwords:alexander, altars, ancestors, animism, appalachia, art, culture change, ecology, feri, folkart, gods, magic, meher baba, pavo, peacocks, resistance, spell, theurgy, work
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This is the first of three posts about a recent spirit working. Much of my magic nowadays is very intuitive and is prompted by the relationships I have with Ancestors, Allies and Gods. My methods use the rational mind, but the work itself is something different. I feel that such work works on me and on the world. Altars are immanent, resonant, willful prayers and draw Spirit into our ken and into expression. This prayer/spell started with a request for an all-white altar with an offering of flour and egg, worked its way into the building of a small outdoor mound intended to be a first step in the mysteries of practical earthworks as well as a spell/prayer for the protection of the Appalachian mountains and the restoration of the American Chestnut tree. There were also some vague dreams about Mounds and about my past visits--they were more promptings than sources of information. Deo Pavo/Peacock Angel took over, weaving in my Wyrd allies, especially Meher Baba, and fire worship, and reached a stage of completion concurrent with Iranian elections and subsequent unrest (a surprise resonance that didn't factor into my timing, but which probably isn't utterly irrelevant given the political foci and the Irani connections in my background). So the energies that emerged in this working started with a Damballah/Paga Legba flavor, threaded through contemplation of the ancient Appalachian mounds I've made pilgrimage to in the past (including two in West Virginia and the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio) and moved into the court of Deo Pavo, who manifested with a very Irani/Zoroastrian flavor and brought Meher Baba and other Allies along with Him (adding some clarity to that nexus of spirit energies and refining my sense of what's going on with them). So the effect is to honor and grow closer to Spirits, though the intention remains connected to the spirit of place and the need to protect our mountains and restore the nearly extinct Chestnut. After some interest in mounds and making a mound emerged in discussion on Facebook, I also started a group there called "Appalachian Earthworks". Below are some links to historic mounds in the Appalachian region; on the Facebook page, I'm also posting links to folks using earthwork sculpture as art or ritual. I am partly exploring it as a parallel to the "Dragon's Nest" (a ring of organic material) as an organic ritual form, one perhaps well suited to work with spirits of place, the ancestors, and spells to stop mountain top removal. Here are pictures of outdoor phase 1, begun last Dark Moon. ( Ritual Description, Photos and Mound Links )
Part Two coming soon.- Callwords:altars, ancestors, animism, appalachia, art, culture change, ecology, folkart, gods, magic, resistance, spell, theurgy
- Locus:Temple of Great Good Fortune
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 From Koyambedu Sri Vaikundavaasa Perumaal Temple (Chennai)There are 3 trees uniquely grown very close to each other. There is one Vilvam tree between 2 neem trees on both of its sides. It is said that Vilvam signifies Lord Shiva and one of the Neem tree represents Sri Parvathi and another Neem tree signifies Her brother Lord Vishnu. It is believed that it is like the wedding scene of Lord Shiva where Lord Vishnu presides over their marriage by joining their hands together. A Vilvam and Neem tree inside a Vaishnavite temple is a very rare sight.
- Callwords:animism, culture change, gods, hinduism, immanence, india, interfaith, magic, manifestation, signs and wonders, temple
- Locus:Temple of Great Good Fortune
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- brass
- O.E. bræs, originally an alloy of copper and tin (now bronze), in modern use an alloy of two parts copper, one part zinc. A mystery word, with no known cognates beyond Eng. Perhaps akin to Fr. brasser "to brew," since it is an alloy. It also has been compared to O.Swed. brasa "fire," but no sure connection can be made. The meaning "effrontery, impudence" is from 1624. Slang sense of "high officials" is first recorded 1899. Brassy "debased yet pretentious" is from 1586; in the sense of "strident and artificial" it is from 1865. The brass tacks that you get down to (1897) are probably the ones used to measure cloth on the counter of a dry goods store, suggesting precision.
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Two folks on LJ have reported dreams to me that involve Father Divine (or Brother Divine, as the case may be ;-)
In my own words today, I found the pairing of FD and the word "dream." Third time may be charmed... it seems to me that a productive trope for organizing ideas about Father Divine and similar figures I work with may be "Dreams of God."
If I write about Father Divine or Meher Baba, for example, as "dreams" of /about God, I would be able to relate their stories and the responses of their followers respectfully but would not have to spend much time addressing empirical doubt. It keeps what they are intuitive, symbolic, and mysterious, and it helps to explain some of the stranger things they do. And it certainly allows me to take the hopes and aspirations of the followers seriously and respectfully.
And I think it could be done respectfully in a way that invites the reader to share the dream as an exercise in ideation without imposing any doctrinal claims (mine or theirs).
*two other people have told me verbally about dreams involving FD and me, so it's a theme. The "third time" is the third in writing.
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I'm no longer sure how I feel about general and open teaching of magic. On the one hand I grew very bored teaching the sorts of 101/102 surveys of basic skills, and I grew very bored with the people drawn to them and the reasons they are drawn to them. On the other hand, I know it's an indispensable part of culture change and I'm very glad others are doing it, and other forms of teaching that address groups of people. I practice magic for personal apotheosis and for social/economic revolution. I could never be a for-hire spellworker because I'd end up fixing all my clients when I got fed up with love and money spells, and because I'd tie a red string around their wrists, look them each square in the eye and say, "Don't remove this until your desire is fulfilled. If you lie to me or have any baneful intent, I will return it to you 100 fold. This spell is done by the Gods and will work to align you with the Gods and destroy all that is not aligned with the Gods." Not good for business. The only serious, deep, "let's make this change the scope of our consciousness" teaching I've done has been one-on-one. The REALLY serious teaching has been mutual, in relationships of equality and organic friendship (and that's what I crave most right now but do not have). But here are three books I'd like most people to read before they ever commence to learn about forms of magic (or religion) that involve 1) Spirits, 2) materialization, 3) relationships of Mystery that can give one person power over another (a power that is easily abused). I have read many books that are explicitly about magic, high and low, serious and not. I believe that at least for the magic(s) I know something about, these three books provide a better introduction than any of the books meant to do that. 1) DAIMONIC REALITY by Patrick Harpur 2) MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS by C.G. Jung 3) MARIE LAVEAU (fiction/novel) by Francine Prose Maybe these are books for people who already deeply know that the Spirits are real powers, but who are just beginning to interact with them intentionally. In addition, books about the tricks and excesses of gurus, stage magic, suggestion/PR, etc. are useful (cause Spirits & magic teachers pull the same tricks--none of which invalidates the reality of Spirits or magic). Faith, especially the blind sort, is utterly inappropriate to a path of magical spirituality... unless you intend to invite Trickster's renovations. Of course, we invite Trickster anyway... but it pays to be conscious. Doesn't keep us from getting tricked, but it assures that we learn from it. I read the novel Marie Laveau after someone I admire called it their favorite book ever. I can see why. It does much more than entertain, more than provoke thought. | | |
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This seems to be just another way of saying "postmodern," but having many ways to say that is the point of it all, and I'm liking this Open Source Religion networking site and its concepts and content. I'm going to keep checking it out, though I'm already digitally overextended in terms of joining up to produce content... though this LJ seems right in line with that tribe's ethos... | | |
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For the decade that my spiritual life was focused on the teachings and person of Meher Baba, I frequently recited the Zoroastrian 101 Names of God, a litany that Meher Baba passed on to his followers (though most other Zorastrian influences in his corpus are subtle; they include emphasis on the number 7, a complex emanationist relationship between dualities, and the ritual of the dhuni fire). ( 101 Names of Yazdan )- Callwords:contemplation, cosmology, ideation, india, interfaith, iran, meher baba, pavo, praise, prayer, spell, words
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From Here:
The Goddess of Democracy (民主女神; pinyin: mínzhÇ” nÇšshén) was a 10 metre high statue created during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Inspired by New York’s Statue of Liberty, it was constructed from styrofoam and papier-mâché in only four days by students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. It was erected in Tiananmen Square on 30 May, facing the large portrait of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Gate, and destroyed by the army during the massacre on 4 June.
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The Zoroastrian concept of Asha is probably very useful in reconstructing concepts of Ma'at. | | |
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In substantive terms "love all" and "harm none" may not be separable... but nevertheless there seem to be many different "inflections" to the two injunctions.
It seems to me that "love all" more often makes people focus on those who are suffering, on remediating the effects of harm.
It seems to me that "harm none" lends itself much more to the prevention of harm and to greater concern about the roots of harm. | | |
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Obama and his team are word and media savvy, but conservatives who criticize the "empathy" buzzword around Sotomayor should perhaps be met with the 18th century concept of "sympathy" that was a key concept shaping the culture and debate of the US founding generation. The backdrop of that 18th century debate throws the simplicity and banality of the current level of criticism into high relief. These links would be rich places to start understanding that context: From Irresistible Compassion To Conditional Sympathy: Investigations into the 18th Century Formulations of Humanitarianism as an Emotional Reaction of Compassion
One way to approach humanitarianism is to define it in terms of emotionality. In this sense, humanitarian action can be understood to be motivated by the emotion of compassion at the sight of suffering and pain. This definition as its starting point, the paper aims to investigate the ‘roots’ of modern humanitarianism in the 18th century Europe. In this historical task few relevant themes of the 18th century humanitarian discourse will be discussed. The first part of the paper discusses the visual aspect of 18th century humanitarianism that was based on the emergence of the spectatorial perspective. The following two parts of the paper will discuss two 18th century formulations of compassion related to the emerging emphasis of visuality. The first kind of compassion could be called the ‘irresistible compassion’, and it represented the idea that compassion was a natural, reflex-like primary passion of the soul. The second formulation took the form of ‘conditional compassion’, and emphasized the role of imagination as a constitutive element of the emotion. The last part of the paper discusses some of the highlighted themes of the 18th century humanitarian discourse in contemporary context, and offers few preliminary remarks about the ways in which emotions, including compassion, could be understood and studied today.
The Limits of Sympathy: Rorty, Hume, and the Politics of Sentiment
In this paper I consider Richard Rorty that a politics of sentiment which places our ability to imaginatively identify with others as "one of us" should be at the center of the pursuit of social justice. Such ideas about sentiment and sympathy derive from mid-18th century thinkers like Hume, Rousseau, and Adam Smith. I argue that a politics rooted in our capacity for sympathetic identification, though not without certain merits, ultimately fails to provide the crucial impetus for action. The cultivation of fellow-feeling as a political program continually runs the risk of becoming a blueprint for imagining ourselves in the place of others and sharing their feelings of pain in lieu of actually doing something about it. Hume's conception of sympathy, achieved through an operation of the imagination, proves too partial to those close at hand to meet the requirements of Rorty's sense of a "larger loyalty," and the reflective process Hume proposed to "correct" this bias and to give sympathy a universal relevance can only be achieved at the cost of dulling its capacity to move us to action. Moreover, Hume, like Rousseau and Smith, fully understood that sympathy was not enough; at crucial moments they fall back on an appeal to "nature," often quite explicitly, to pick up the slack. Rather than sympathetic imagining, or putting ourselves in the place of another, I argue the ability to grant full reality to another's suffering is the operative element in acting on behalf of others. Given Rorty's anti-realism, however, the notion of "reality" as such has at best an uncertain status in his thought, raising serious doubts about the efficacy of his approach. Secondly, I underscore Rorty's neglect of the pragmatist idea that any species of concern for others must be linked to "habits of action."
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It seems to me that the truths of reason depend on the truths of sensation. The most interesting part is that the truths of emotion occupy the space between, intimately linked to "self", always mediating reality.
The relationship between reason and sensation is empirical. But the emotional part [always] disrupts the empirical equation. There's no "pure" relationship between sensory data and reason; there is a systems relationship that ipseity and cognition depend on.
Whatever else it is, the emotional part is connected deeply to symbolism and to narrative; it's the part that's driven to arrange isolated perceptions in facts, isolated facts into story, story into role, role into consensus (creating an emotionally invested social grouping), and consensus into "reality." The emotional part is connected to identity, forms perimeters of reference in which reason operates.
The emotional part is itself contained by sensation. Logically, sensation is purely biological. Meditation and energy work suggest that sensation is a pulse pervading all things, that it gives rise to the instruments of its perception, perhaps that it forms those instruments. (Various forms of body-centered and body-centering meditation focus on the locus of "pure" sensation; I find the Empedocles-derived method of Peter Kingsley to be the easiest and probably one of the clearest, minimalist and pretty much devoid of all excess religious and cultural baggage).
It seems that the emotional part is deeply connected to meaning, perceives and constructs the most important truths, and is the seat of the soul. Sensation may be the soul-stuff itself. | | |
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Lord Krishna Advises the Young Aeon,
an Old Song at Daybreak
I am ONE GOD
Primal and Unborn
from Whom all else arises--
and my chosen pastime
is to sport in verdant groves
and sensuous pastoral fields
and with the droves of kine!
But for you, I am a king
and for your better disposition
I suffer imposition;
because of you, I am
cause and thrust of war.
Kamsa, ha!
Again the demon head
rises to the blade.
What I AM you are also;
My Infinitude, alive in one blue body
alive in two arms that formed of flesh
can do so much, can lift mountains
can shelter aeons of richest folk,
also lives in what you do
when-ever you're awake
what-ever you may do
what-ever you have done.
There is only perfect dharma:
Natural imbalance will devour artificial balance,
for only nature knows true caste
and only nature manifests it.
My Prakriti is perfect,
the only thing I worship.
- Callwords:deo pavo, gods, hinduism, ideation, india, interfaith, krishna, mythos, peacocks, poem, poetry, praxis, scriptura
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Distortions Aside, Clergy Support Gay Rights in Surprising NumbersRecently released results from a survey of Mainline clergy reveals that, when policies are portrayed honestly, the number of clergy who support same-sex marriage, adoption, etc., nearly doubles. QT: "Progressive religious leaders have been working hard to make it clear that religion and religious people are not only on the “anti” side of the gay rights movement. Now there’s new evidence for widespread support among Christian leaders for public policies that protect the rights and lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and for their full inclusion in the life of the church." "An in-depth analysis of Mainline Protestant clergy shows large majorities of support for anti-discrimination laws, hate crimes legislation, and the right of gay couples to adopt children. Even same-sex marriage, so often portrayed by Religious Right leaders as an attack on the church, draws support from nearly half of Mainline Protestant clergy when it is clarified that no church would be forced to bless same-sex couples." http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/1490/distortions_aside%2C_clergy_support_gay_rights_in_surprising_numbers | | |
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Police Remove 11 During Raleigh County, W.Va. Protests of Coal Sludge Dams and Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining; More Protestors Expected This Afternoon FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 23, 2009
CONTACT: Sludge Watch Collective 304-854-7372 COAL RIVER VALLEY, W.Va.-- This morning, eleven activists in two civil disobedience actions were removed by state police. As part of the continuing campaign to end mountaintop removal, six people locked themselves to mining equipment on a Patriot Coal-owned mountaintop removal mine on Kayford Mountain and another group floated a 20-by-60-foot banner on the surface of Massey Energy?s Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment near Pettus, W.Va. The activists are part of a coalition that includes Mountain Justice, Climate Ground Zero and concerned individuals. At noon today, more protestors are expected to converge at the gate to the Brushy Fork dam with hundreds of pairs of shoes to represent the number of immediate deaths should the dam fail. "The toxic lake at Brushy Fork dam sits atop a honeycomb of abandoned underground mines, " said Chuck Nelson, from Raleigh County, W.Va. "Massey wants to blast within 100 feet of that dam. The company's own filings with the state Department of Environmental Protection project a minimum death toll of 998 should the seven-billion-gallon dam break. EPA should override the DEP and revoke this blasting permit for the safety of the community." Nelson did not participate in the civil disobedience actions this morning, but is expected to speak at the Brushy Fork gate this afternoon. The floating banner unfurled this morning atop Brushy Fork read, "West Virginia Says No More Toxic Sludge." "If the dam fails, 7.2 billion gallons of toxic coal slurry will flood to 38 feet deep, 26 miles down the Marsh Fork of the Coal River, from Pettus, past Whitesville," Mike Roselle of Climate Ground Zero said. "These coal companies, the land companies and their corrupt politicians are destroying the headwater streams that supply drinking water to millions of Americans downstream." In the Kayford action, independent photojournalist and Rock Creek, W.Va. resident Antrim Caskey was removed from the direct action site by police. She previously had been cited three times for trespassing while embedded with Climate Ground Zero. "About 12,000-acres of Kayford Mountain has been destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining," said Maria Gunnoe, Boone County resident and winner of the 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize. "Not another family should be forced to move because a coal company is going to blow up the mountain above them, then bury and poison their streams." Gunnoe did not participate in the civil disobedience actions. The people who locked down on Kayford Mountain unveiled a banner reading, "Never Again." "The regulatory agencies that are supposed to be the people's watchdogs are acting instead as the industry's guard dogs," said Willie Dodson of Mountain Justice, one of the Kayford protesters. "Neither Governor Manchin, the DEP, President Obama, nor the EPA are enforcing the law, so we have no choice but to come out here and do it ourselves." On Feb 3, five people chained themselves to mining equipment and eight others were cited for trespassing while attempting to deliver a letter to Massey Energy insisting that the company cease all mountaintop removal operations on Coal River Mountain. Since then, four related actions have occurred in the Coal River Valley. "We are forced to take action today because we have exhausted our legislative and litigatory options," activist Charles Suggs of Raleigh County said. "We have walked the halls and pounded the doors of our state and national capitols, asked the DEP to complete studies, met with the EPA, filed lawsuits, and what happens? Our West Virginia legislature passes bills to let the destruction continue, and opposes bills that would stop poisoning our water and bring permanent, sustainable economic development to the state." NOTE: Massey's filing with the WVDEP that indicate sludge depth and distance are available upon request. Video, still images and breaking news will be posted continually to www.mountainjustice.org. | | |
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Culturally and mythologically, the God of Torah, God of Bible and God of Quran must be treated as different Gods or aspects (and I would say the same of the Mormon God and the Baha'i God).
It seems to me that, at least in provisional social and academic terms, there's more respect in speaking of them as different Gods. Or, at least, to do it much more clearly as "different concepts of God" than most American Christians and post-Christians do.
The Jewish religion, as much as any other, is complete in itself.
Yet the God of the Bible is a God who develops differently, who takes the core of the Jewish theophany and renarrates and recontextualizes it.
The American experience did something very similar for European Christians (and their Mormon offspring, too).
Slavery did that to African traditionalists, African Muslims, and African Christians. Again and again. For centuries.
Paganism does this to the religions of the ancestors. (Even reconstructionist Paganism does it)
Esoterically, it seems to me that the Christian narrative encodes the journey of the soul in its successive God images, with:
1) a near demiurge Father (not a consciously awful agenda, but instead just a bad explanation for suffering that nevertheless has some psychological and "karmic" truth);
2) Jesus as a success-in-failure humanistic mid-point; and
3) the both-hand Kosmic Logos, Alpha and Omega, appearing after all the shamanic-alchemical trauma and synthesis--way post crucifixion--of the Truly Resurrected (Twice Resurrected, like Osiris) Immanent-Transcendent Christ of Revelation ("apocalyspe" means uncovering, revealing, unveiling).
Judaism has a wealth of esoteric wisdom in other parts of the narrative and in Qabala, and there's a parallel positive ego development from figures like Cain and Abraham (Isaac episode) to the social prophetic voice and the conceptualization of the Messiah, a reiterated pattern of development in all the wanderings and restorations.
My new favorite Bible snippet
"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"
Isaiah 43:19
(maybe good for some forms of American magic,too--taken esoterically, I like the passage it comes from).
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-- Time is not accelerating. Time is an integral relationship between consciousness and matter. Its regularity and value as a measure are determined by matter. Perhaps the psychological ("psychic") perception of time has changed. The perception of time is a matter of lifestyle and cultural context. In the case of modernity, the perception of acceleration in time comes from lifestyle and culture apart from the Real time that inheres in matter. The perceived acceleration of time is symptomatic of derangement from matter and heralds psychic and cultural crash.
-- The mathematical concept of "Singularity" applied to the psychic realm is absurd, particularly when the psychic is divorced from the material. It is being used to describe a point at which human cognition breaks down in imagining its capacities and its own future; as "God" is for many, "Singularity" is being misused as an explanation for the unknown or what lies beyond the limits of the ego. It is slippage, an equivocation. (It's also being used to deify discontinuity). [Gravitational singularity may be more apropos]
-- The present human construct, deranged from nature, is not materially or psychicly sustainable. In other words, all that is accelerating is the rate of superfluity in the human imagination, the rate of distraction from the real purpose that inheres in the relationship between consciousness and matter.
-- Books like Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Near" highlight the derangement from matter. It's subtitle is "When Humans Transcend Biology."
-- Calculation of return and the rate of return depends on what you value and therefore measure. What is increasing is the rate of unsustainability, the rate of bad returns. What is increasing is human derangement from nature (and hence, from Spirit). The computational power of the human brain, whatever else it is, is also the power to imagine the unreal in place of the Real.
-- This is the 1960s generation (and others) hoping that it won't age and die and rot. They will, every one. Rapture theology and alien abduction come from the same profound sort of existential hopes and crises and are no more rational than this set of ideas. The delusion has mythic/archetypal meaning, but it's not going to literally manifest. (As with the alien abduction phenomena, many people are experiencing what Jung called "archetypal possession" around the 2012/Singularity ideas).
-- It is also an attempt to avoid the real horrors of life on earth, most especially the encroaching horror of global warming. Kurzweil and others enrapt in their wet dreams by the phantoms of singularity conveniently ignore the resource needs of their "inevitable" technologies. Thinking computers will not solve spiritual problems. Over-reliance on and deification of technology are part of the problems, the primary causes of the problems.
-- The imagined "God" who fills the void beyond human imaginal capacity is, in this case, a machine.
-- "Intelligence" is an attribute of consciousness, but it is not a synonym.
-- Consciousness and reality are not mechanistic. Matter itself is not mechanistic. Proponents of technological singularity misunderstand both matter and consciousness. It is a form of technologically induced retardation.
-- God is not the unknown (alone) nor power (alone); God is the All. Matter is God's Body. Matter is the Singularity, and traditional mysticism (Hermeticism or "Perennial Philosophy," for example) asserts that the human organism is capable not only of knowing, but of containing and expressing the All. If this is true, humanity is fully equipped now and was fully equipped 10,000 years ago. Technology is irrelevant.
-- The technological world Kurzweil describes is a species of Hell that others pursue to the detriment of all. It is a program that should be resisted. (It is a hubris unlike individual religious pursuit and more like fundamentalism in that it seeks to impose an epistemological regime, this time through technology).
-- What we have is what we had. If we're sensible and lucky, we'll keep it and restore it. | | |
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I knew he wasn't telling the truth the first time I heard his story, but I couldn't figure out his angle besides lashing out. He's after the property.If you click the link, be aware that most of the article's assertions are based on Garcia's claims about his childhood memories and are uncorroborated. Mother Divine, his own mother, and other members of the Peace Mission deny that he was ever treated uniquely or "anointed" to replace Father Divine. Many children describe similar positive treatment, especially when they lived on Peace Mission property. Father Divine made everyone feel unique, and those who got to be around him closely and frequently often felt uniquely loved or chosen. This is a common guru dynamic. It can be a power play, but it can also be the dance of deepest relationship. Garcia, especially in the older material linked at the bottom of the article, seems bewildered himself about what was going on. He wants the booty and to usurp Mother Divine because "God" took his mother away when he was little, and he's out to punish. I understand THAT very well. Edit: I also think it's likely that someone in the leadership of the Peace Mission saw in him a propensity to seek power and wealth, and that that's one of the unstated reasons why he's not in a leadership position today. I think he's trying to seize something he wrongly believes he's entitled to.
I also find it interesting that he's been telling this story for 20+ years, but only now are journalists finding it worthy of their time. Why is that? The lawsuit alone?Edit 2: the lawsuit is unlikely to go anywhere on legal merit; I think he may be attempting to force a financial disclosure because he believes it will embarrass the Peace Mission and weaken the influence of its leaders. If he succeeds, I think he'll be surprized at how little liquid wealth there is despite the relatively recent sales of major properties. As with the last remaining Shakers and their now million dollar furniture, the security FD left to the Peace Mission was in the form of real estate. Membership is low and the movement now operates few businesses. | | |
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 There's an image of the Goddess Iris from a medieval (15th c) manuscript. Looks like she's clothed in seven peacocks. I found this in John Opsopaus' Pythagorean Tarot page for the Temperance card. Here it is larger on his server. The relationship to the peacock of alchemy is interesting and turns a key. The seven colors of the white light, always extant but arrived at in awareness through distilation, can only be sustained in rich, diverse, concurrent manifestation through conscious tempering. | | |
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The transitions leave something to be desired, but the strange imagery and music are somehow strangely well chosen, and a fit offering for Mothers Day. I wonder how these 10 classical forms or aspects emphasized by the Shaktas might correspond to the Tetraktys and the Tree of Life?
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This is very lovely. Sung responsively, it has the sound and longing of a bhajan, but obviously springs authentically from a contemporary English-speaking heart.
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Aesop on "The Man and the Wooden God"
In the old days men used to worship stocks and stones and idols, and prayed to them to give them luck. It happened that a Man had often prayed to a wooden idol he had received from his father, but his luck never seemed to change. He prayed and he prayed, but still he remained as unlucky as ever. One day in the greatest rage he went to the Wooden God, and with one blow swept it down from its pedestal. The idol broke in two, and what did he see? An immense number of coins flying all over the place. Osho on Ramakrishna's EnlightenmentSo Totapuri said, Try this: when the image of Kali is before you pick up a sword and cut her in two. Ramakrishna said, Where will I find a sword? What Totapuri said is the same as what is said in Ashtavakra’s sutra. Totapuri said, From where did you bring this Kali image? bring a sword from the same place. She too is imaginary. She too is an embellishment of your imagination. Through nurturing it for your whole life, through continuously projecting it for your whole life, it has become crystalized. It is just imagination. Not everyone sees Kali when they close their eyes. [...] Ramakrishna found courage. He raised the sword and cut Kali in two pieces. When Kali fell apart he became nondual: the wave dissolved in the ocean, the river fell into the ocean. It is said that he stayed immersed for six days in this ultimate silence. He was neither hungry nor thirsty – there was no consciousness of the outside, no awareness. All was forgotten. And when he opened his eyes six days later, the first thing he said was, ”The last barrier has fallen! | | |
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Dea Fortuna seems to like Aesop a lot (makes sense as she's partial to former slaves). Here are four interesting ones that seem to be working on me today: The Swallow, the Serpent, and the Court of Justice
A SWALLOW, returning from abroad and especially fond of dwelling with men, built herself a nest in the wall of a Court of Justice and there hatched seven young birds. A Serpent gliding past the nest from its hole in the wall ate up the young unfledged nestlings. The Swallow, finding her nest empty, lamented greatly and exclaimed: "Woe to me a stranger! that in this place where all others' rights are protected, I alone should suffer wrong."
The Traveller and Fortuna
A Traveller, exhausted with fatigue after a long journey, sank down at the very brink of a deep well and presently fell asleep. He was within an ace of falling in, when Dame Fortune appeared to him and touched him on the shoulder, cautioning him to move further away. "Wake up, good sir, I pray you," she said; "had you fallen into the well, the blame would have been thrown not on your own folly but on me, Fortune."
The Boy Hunting Locusts
A BOY was hunting for locusts. He had caught a goodly number, when he saw a Scorpion, and mistaking him for a locust, reached out his hand to take him. The Scorpion, showing his sting, said: If you had but touched me, my friend, you would have lost me, and all your locusts too!"
The Old Man and Death
AN OLD MAN was employed in cutting wood in the forest, and, in carrying the faggots to the city for sale one day, became very wearied with his long journey. He sat down by the wayside, and throwing down his load, besought "Death" to come. "Death" immediately appeared in answer to his summons and asked for what reason he had called him. The Old Man hurriedly replied, "That, lifting up the load, you may place it again upon my shoulders."
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Published on Monday, May 4, 2009 by Daily Yonder Making a 'Sacred Zone' in Appalachia:
It's not enough to stop mountaintop removal coal mining. The goal is to build a new Appalachia.
by Bob KincaidWhen people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory. --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 3 April 1968
( Read more... ) </div> | | |
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... and we who [seek to?] honor the ancestors should remember this part and learn the fuller story and keep the genius alive in many locales! '34 General Strike Laid Base for Counterculture
These days, when San Franciscans of a certain age respond to the visitors' (or their grandchildren's) query, "What made San Francisco different?" they tend to think culture. Beat poets, flower power and Castro Street are instantly recognizable tropes reflecting the city's historically tolerant attitudes and liberal politics.
But these iconic San Francisco moments and movements are actually more the lucky heirs, rather than ancestors, of what is uniquely San Franciscan. Although one might argue that the city's identification with things progressive arrived with the Gold Rush, its modern incarnation took form 75 years ago in an event now fading from living memory: the great San Francisco General Strike.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/28/EDUO170IKA.DTL
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OK, this one's difficult to report but I'm not sure why... perhaps because these things are becoming so much more tangible. My partner can verify this one, too. So back in the winter I noticed that a mole above my knee had changed and darkened. This isn't a good sign in my family, which is prone to benign skin cancers, and sometimes worse, but always caught in time. It grew and changed more, and I became more concerned. It looked like textbook examples of melanoma. Then I remembered this man and his ideas about baking soda and cancer, and I thought of the Egyptian uses of natron. I got the notion to put a paste of baking soda on the mole. When I got that notion, I heard Father Divine intervene. He said to "apply this for a week" and to "put a bandage over it, and it will dry up and fall off, for it is no part of you." I thought, "Why not?" and did so. At the end of the week, it was drier and more like a blood scab. I stopped doing it, and within a couple days it returned to its previous appearance. Father Divine checked in again to say "Do it for a month." I did so. It dried up and fell off at just about 1 month, a lunation. I varied in applying the soda paste once or twice a day, depending on frequency of bath/shower. I used the butterfly knuckle bandages, breathable fabric. "Flesh" colored (that and "butterfly" might be part of the magical side, ph probably being the chemical side). The surrounding healthy tissue was completely unaffected, and it left a small pink wound, now healed. The mole was gone, both in normal and abnormal manifestations, no melanin concentrations. It is gone. I also did some magical talking to the mole and developed a habit of tracing a counterclockwise circle around the bandage. That's all I know to say about it, and won't claim more. Whatever that particular problem was, or the problem of how much a doctor would have charged, was answered with a small amount of baking soda. There was no doubt about the effectiveness. It quickly dried up and fell off. It itched at the end, when it must have been separating. I also refused to ask or bargain. Just to do. Thank you, Father, for Wyrd things and for the Presence materialized, and thank you Kosmos for the knowings of nature, and thank you ancestors and allies. | | |
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