..."Now there are times, when a whole generation is caught in this way, between two ages, two modes of life with the consequences that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple acquiescence"... The above quote is from the book, Steppenwolf, by Herman Hess. The quote describes a whole society involved in self conflict because of a premature overlapping of an older generation by its succeeding generation before the older generation was ready to retire. The consequence of such a condition left a whole society in a battle of wills, unable to evolve existing principles into acceptable standards of conduct for its future survival along with chronic unrest, and all corresponding noticeably well with the kind of symptoms exhibited in our present society.
Our current unrest is so profound and so deep that it cuts across all aspects of our society: economic, educational, political, spiritual. Everyone seems to be cut away from existing cultural principles of structure and conduct, searching desperately for some kind of reliable standard of thought and conduct that would ease and stabilize our unrest and give us our bearings, so that we could chart a true and accurate course into the future. Our once "blind-faith" approach to our religions, and our reliance on the "rock solid, copper sheath" framework of our government have been riddled by skepticism and cynicism. Where once our society had clear vision and purpose drawn from high virtue and noble values, it now sees no farther then sensual and psychological gratifications. Where once our society built its hopes and future on high principles of justice, equality, and tolerance, it now places its hopes and future on appearance, personality, and scientific powers. The once high principled fabric of our society has been ripped by the attributes of our lower self: greed, privilege, indolence, indulgence, selfish ambition.
No where in our relatively brief history has there been a period of transition of the comprehensive magnitude as we are now experiencing. The Civil War was a devastating event, and almost laid ruin to our fledgling society, yet it didn't reach the spiritual and intellectual comprehensiveness as is true of today's transition period. The Industrial Revolution, although comprehensive in the field of sociology and economic material affects, didn't expose our basic principles of thought and conduct to the threat of dissolution. The Decade of the 60's, with its protests and rebellion, was not as comprehensive a transition period as is being experienced now. Although a direct assault was launched against established governmental and moral principles, its main focus was on specific, perceived injustices. When those injustices were satisfactorily dissolved, so too was the greater part of the 60's social conscience.
The closest parallel to our current period of transition is that of the Roman Empire; that period just after its zenith, and at the beginning of its descending arc. That period, like ours, was marked by unusual forms of ideas and activities involving the dissolution of principles of thought and conduct, and perceptual novelties both of a spiritual and intellectual character. See if you can detect any similarity in the thought and conduct of the Senate of the Roman Empire during its declining period with the thought and conduct of our U.S. Congress and other governing bodies of our society: ..."divided hopes, indigent at the institutions of the state which it ruled, and yet incapable of even systematic assailing them, vacillating in all its conduct except where its own material advantage prompted decision, a picture of faithlessness toward its own as well as the opposite party, of the inward inconsistency of the most pitfall impotence, of the meanest selfishness, and an unsurpassed ideal of misrule"...
The match between the declining Roman Empire and our current society is obviously not perfect, but the similarities are striking. If this match were studied in detail, no doubt many remarkable insights could be drawn about the condition and possible future of our society, but we will leave that study to a motivated scholar. Here we are interested in drawing a wider, more universal comparison. Our society is comparatively much younger then the Roman Empire of the period under consideration. The Roman Empire had already progressed to its zenith and was in decline. Our society is still progressing. To a true student of Universal Nature the fact that our society is in a growth phase of development would be very significant. To him or her, a society is effected by the same cyclical and periodic "Laws of Nature" imposed on all manifest things, from the cosmic to the local. All things revolve according to Nature's Grooves: first, from birth to growth, leveling at some middle point, then decay and finally death. Nothing is exempt from these Laws.
By a comparison between the periodic phase of the Roman Empire with our current society, we will have discovered a fundamental principle at work within Universal Nature. With this knowledge we can begin to unlock the meaning behind our period of transition. (It should be obvious that what is being done here is developing a paradigm for purposes of drawing an analogy. Statistical accuracy is not necessary, approximations will do.)
Our country, as an independent society, is relatively young, some 240 years old. If we mark the average life expectancy of new civilizations at 1000 years, for no other reason then it seems empirically reasonable, then our society, at this point in time, has spend approximately one forth of its average life. This places our society within the growth phase of Nature's Grooves, and also places us in a position for a positive evolutionary out come for our society.
All societies are created out of the minds of human beings. That there should not exist a direct causative relationship between the thoughts and conduct of the human beings that make up a society and the society itself, is absurd. Add to the above reason that human beings are, in composition, microcosmic representations of the macrocosm, and the reasons begin to crystallize. Thus, knowledge of the processes and phases that function within human beings can be applied, by direct analogy, to the processes and phases of a larger scale, namely our society.
Human desire invokes a passion which in turn becomes its vehicle for force that fires the imagination and will toward the gratification or achievement of the desire. However, the power that is felt by desire is mixed with an element of danger, which is a blind spot, lacking the experience necessary to foresee the effects of the use of the desire. Not only does this position of ignorance leave itself vulnerable to unseen consequences, but also vulnerable to the manipulation of a stronger more experienced will.
By analogy then, our nation is at a present stage of development equivalent to a fifteen or sixteen year old human being. Where the unfolding of desire coupled with the force of passion has recently been installed into our nation's consciousness. As a nation, we feel this power and begin to express it through all aspects of our national life, and because we haven't enough experience to integrated this power with regard to control, it escapes our higher reason. Consequently, as with any initial developmental phase, there will be many failures, followed by feelings of frustration, anger, and impotency. It is like a young child at the walking stage. He stands, wabbles, and falls many times before gaining enough strength and stability necessary to walk. Because we are involved with the development of a faculty of mind that must be integrated with other mental and physical faculties, the difficulity of mastery is compounded many times. This difficulty of mastery can be sighted as the cause of our general feelings of unrest, and as the motivation behind the widespread feelings of caution and conservatism, and anger and violence.
Simply, our nation is making the mistakes of a human adolescent; letting the force of passion and emotion have full reign over our conscience, our higher reason, while oblivious to the consequences. Because of the low moral stamina associated with this phase of human development, our desires are bent toward our lower natures. This reign of our lower natures has overwhelmed our higher reason to the point that we resemble those persons which Plato describe that have no experience with wisdom and virtue: ..."they look ever downward and feed...they kick and butt with iron horns and hooves and kill one another, because of their insatiate desire..."
We have let our lower passions loose, and have given them reign over the fabric of our nation's consciousness; a mistake of an adolescent. Our national, moral conscious has consequently been voluntarily distracted by all manner of vice, amusements, entertainments, and personal, material ambitions, and gratifications. Yet as serious and dangerous as is the present state of our national consciousness, hope and courage can be raised from the idea that this condition is temporary, (remembering that the word, "temporary" when related to a growing society can mean 50 to 100 years). Every parent who has successfully guided his child through adolescence can testify to the difficulty and enormous effort involved, and to the tremendous reward in seeing the blossoming of a good young adult.
This then is the nature of our period of transition where we are in the process of evolving existing national principles into new standards of thought and conduct which correspond to the unfolding of our expanding consciousness. On a more practical level, we can correctly say, that we are in the process of changing national habits. Pain, suffering, and disorder are the natural symptoms of this transformation, but are also motivations for progress through the unlocking of our national consciousness.
It is through suffering and yearning for the light that we sharpen our virtues and advance, and when the light comes then also comes, great peace and wisdom, and our hearts are temporarily at rest, until then next evolutionary transition.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
to those unaffiliated with a religion
I was watching a documentary, by Bill Maher called Religulous. In it, he mentions some where, that there are 50,000,000 people in the U.S. that are unaffiliated with a religion; last year, '08, I had heard on public radio that there were 30,000,000 people unaffiliated. I always have a skeptical eye with all statistics. Most are a momentary snap shot into what ever is being analysed. For instance, in 2010 the Census will be taken, and as soon as the results are published, the count will have changed, and as a matter of fact, the results would have changed the first day of recording. Also, most statistics take on the bias of the entity initiating the analysis. To me objectivity in relationship to statistics is a misnomer. However, I gave that 30, to 50,000,000 unaffiliated statistic some value because I understand that voluntarily abandoning a religion can be a stepping stone for spiritual seekers. I know that because I lived through that experience, and I intuitively understand that in an developmental way, humans are seeking points of truth to help guide their spiritual progression, especially woman. Where ever there is learning or training in the broad spectrum of human development woman are there, in much greater numbers than men. I believe that the days of men leading the U.S. are numbered, and by the turn of this century, women will have taken most of the leadership roles from men.
Forthcoming, is a synopsis of my experience of abandoning my inherited religion. I had sixteen years of formal religious education: eight years of Catholic Grammar School, four years of Catholic High School, and four years of Catholic College. You would think that such a long, active association with a religion would at least generate a modicum of "real" spiritual identity. It did not.
In grammar school, I went along with religious instruction and tried to put into practice what I had been told. I didn't use foul language, prayed daily, confessed my sins, fasted on appointed days, went to Mass on Sundays, and received the sacraments. Retrospectively, my religious education was comparable to "brain washing," the only difference being I had the consent and approval of my parents and culture. Regular doses of dogma were introduced into my mind, from what I was told to believe an infallible source. The doctrine of the Catholic Church says that the Pope acts infallibly when rendering doctrines or decisions of faith and/or morals. I swallowed whole. I could readily regurgitate doctrine, simulating mastery, and I could practice as though spiritually motivated. In truth, I carried undigested and unfelt concepts, ideas, values, attitudes, and objectives that belonged more to the instructors than to me. My primary motivation behind my religious education was fear of punishment, and not deep-felt convictions or believes. I feared blackening my immortal soul with sin, and the consequence of suffering eternal damnation in hellfire. There were times when I would concentrate so singularly on the idea of eternity that I was able to gain a mental sensation of that idea. I was frightened by that sensation, but I was terrified when I associated that idea of eternity with that of eternal damnation. Accompanying my fear of punishment were anxiety and guilt. I was anxious over the continuous encounters with "mortal sin," and forever guilty over the weakness of my will to resist.
By the time I entered high school, my religious education had become mechanical. I bit off large chunks of Catholic dogma, partially chewed, then swallowed. My spiritual development was completely repressed and overshadowed by the strict infallible doctrine of the Catholic Church. The problem with chasing after other's ideas, values, attitudes, and objectives, I discovered, lies in the area of limited physical energy and misplaced attention. We have on average, a life expectancy of 75 plus years of life. Consequently, any energy misdirected is a squandering. Following others' goals, we spend our scare energy, maximizing their objectives at the direct expense of maximizing our own human potential. In this process of achieving other's goals our minds are also misdirected. The one essential tool necessary for realizing full human potential is occupied with the attainment of subordinate objectives. This kind of misdirected attention limits our mind by narrowing its range of focus and capabilities.
It wasn't until my last year in college that I finally gained enough experience to truly begin, with awareness, directing my destiny. This period too, begins my unfettered search for spiritual identity. Unfettered in that I no longer was bound by the thoughts and desires of authorities other than myself. I had castoff the excess baggage in my mind, and was thrust into the initial stage of becoming my own authority.
I chewed all information thoroughly, digesting and assimilating what I believed valuable, and jettisoned the rest. Now, I looked to outside authorities only for verification of my own ideas, and as a stimulating source of bairn-food. This change in seats of authority brought a complete rethinking of Catholic doctrine. I adapted a skeptical eye with regard to its spiritual value. My daily experiences suggested other less debilitating ideas and concepts more in line with spiritual identification to assimilate and use. I developed a humanistic philosophy which greatly flattened out the idealized Catholic doctrine, and substantially decreased the debilitating effects of fear and guilt. The "Catholic Way" didn't sustain, comfort, or guide my spiritual life. Here I was , 22 years of age, religiously derelict, but ready for spiritual awakening.
There is an important distinction that must be made clear between spiritual and religious. It is like the old argument of what came first, the chicken or the egg. What came first, that which is spiritual or religious? After I voluntarily abandoned my Catholic Faith, many would say, I than also discarded my spiritual life. Most people associate spiritual expression exclusively with religion. However, spiritual expressions are often completely separate from religion. Spiritual expression originates from within human beings, as an expression of their essential spiritual core, and although religious rituals and ceremonies, can initiate a spiritual response, religion is not the source of spirituality. Religion is a direct effect of a spiritual cause. So therefore, as I am a living argument, it is possible for human beings to be highly spiritual without being religious. Even at this late date in my life I remain unaffiliated, and none the worse for it.
For most of us, what is sensed on the material plane is what is believe. The spirit, (our essential core), lies within the medium of the intangible, beyond the ordinary reach of the ordinary use of our senses. Those dependent entirely on ordinary sense perception try to see the spiritual aspect or soul by dissecting the physical organ, the brain. When the senses do not reveal it, they deny its existence. Then there are those who believe the soul exists and that it is the result of the physical form we call the body. Consciousness, thought, soul and all mental phenomena, they say, is a function of the brain. Every special form of thought is a result of the activity of a special portion of the brain. When we see things or think of seen things, the optical convolutions of our brain are activated. A certain portion of the temporal lobes are activated when we hear, and so on. If the brain functions stop, all associated phenomena will instantly cease. Because of our heavy reliance on our ordinary senses, the above reasoning is very difficult to overcome. Most of us stop at this barrier or feebly attempt to cross. The truth cannot be made manifest by philosophically based arguments, they help or by religious doctrines, they also help, but by a honest answer to several questions. When your own heart asks: What happens to me after death? When your own heart asks: Is there something beyond my physical reality? When your own heart asks: How is it that I can sometimes know what is true, and sometimes feel what is beautiful without the use of my reason? How will you respond? Will you rationalize your answers to conform to your affections or will you answer with a heart that unconditionally seeks to understand what is true?
So, brotheren and sisteren of the "unaffiliated," if you have something to say about your unaffiliation send me an e-mail.
Forthcoming, is a synopsis of my experience of abandoning my inherited religion. I had sixteen years of formal religious education: eight years of Catholic Grammar School, four years of Catholic High School, and four years of Catholic College. You would think that such a long, active association with a religion would at least generate a modicum of "real" spiritual identity. It did not.
In grammar school, I went along with religious instruction and tried to put into practice what I had been told. I didn't use foul language, prayed daily, confessed my sins, fasted on appointed days, went to Mass on Sundays, and received the sacraments. Retrospectively, my religious education was comparable to "brain washing," the only difference being I had the consent and approval of my parents and culture. Regular doses of dogma were introduced into my mind, from what I was told to believe an infallible source. The doctrine of the Catholic Church says that the Pope acts infallibly when rendering doctrines or decisions of faith and/or morals. I swallowed whole. I could readily regurgitate doctrine, simulating mastery, and I could practice as though spiritually motivated. In truth, I carried undigested and unfelt concepts, ideas, values, attitudes, and objectives that belonged more to the instructors than to me. My primary motivation behind my religious education was fear of punishment, and not deep-felt convictions or believes. I feared blackening my immortal soul with sin, and the consequence of suffering eternal damnation in hellfire. There were times when I would concentrate so singularly on the idea of eternity that I was able to gain a mental sensation of that idea. I was frightened by that sensation, but I was terrified when I associated that idea of eternity with that of eternal damnation. Accompanying my fear of punishment were anxiety and guilt. I was anxious over the continuous encounters with "mortal sin," and forever guilty over the weakness of my will to resist.
By the time I entered high school, my religious education had become mechanical. I bit off large chunks of Catholic dogma, partially chewed, then swallowed. My spiritual development was completely repressed and overshadowed by the strict infallible doctrine of the Catholic Church. The problem with chasing after other's ideas, values, attitudes, and objectives, I discovered, lies in the area of limited physical energy and misplaced attention. We have on average, a life expectancy of 75 plus years of life. Consequently, any energy misdirected is a squandering. Following others' goals, we spend our scare energy, maximizing their objectives at the direct expense of maximizing our own human potential. In this process of achieving other's goals our minds are also misdirected. The one essential tool necessary for realizing full human potential is occupied with the attainment of subordinate objectives. This kind of misdirected attention limits our mind by narrowing its range of focus and capabilities.
It wasn't until my last year in college that I finally gained enough experience to truly begin, with awareness, directing my destiny. This period too, begins my unfettered search for spiritual identity. Unfettered in that I no longer was bound by the thoughts and desires of authorities other than myself. I had castoff the excess baggage in my mind, and was thrust into the initial stage of becoming my own authority.
I chewed all information thoroughly, digesting and assimilating what I believed valuable, and jettisoned the rest. Now, I looked to outside authorities only for verification of my own ideas, and as a stimulating source of bairn-food. This change in seats of authority brought a complete rethinking of Catholic doctrine. I adapted a skeptical eye with regard to its spiritual value. My daily experiences suggested other less debilitating ideas and concepts more in line with spiritual identification to assimilate and use. I developed a humanistic philosophy which greatly flattened out the idealized Catholic doctrine, and substantially decreased the debilitating effects of fear and guilt. The "Catholic Way" didn't sustain, comfort, or guide my spiritual life. Here I was , 22 years of age, religiously derelict, but ready for spiritual awakening.
There is an important distinction that must be made clear between spiritual and religious. It is like the old argument of what came first, the chicken or the egg. What came first, that which is spiritual or religious? After I voluntarily abandoned my Catholic Faith, many would say, I than also discarded my spiritual life. Most people associate spiritual expression exclusively with religion. However, spiritual expressions are often completely separate from religion. Spiritual expression originates from within human beings, as an expression of their essential spiritual core, and although religious rituals and ceremonies, can initiate a spiritual response, religion is not the source of spirituality. Religion is a direct effect of a spiritual cause. So therefore, as I am a living argument, it is possible for human beings to be highly spiritual without being religious. Even at this late date in my life I remain unaffiliated, and none the worse for it.
For most of us, what is sensed on the material plane is what is believe. The spirit, (our essential core), lies within the medium of the intangible, beyond the ordinary reach of the ordinary use of our senses. Those dependent entirely on ordinary sense perception try to see the spiritual aspect or soul by dissecting the physical organ, the brain. When the senses do not reveal it, they deny its existence. Then there are those who believe the soul exists and that it is the result of the physical form we call the body. Consciousness, thought, soul and all mental phenomena, they say, is a function of the brain. Every special form of thought is a result of the activity of a special portion of the brain. When we see things or think of seen things, the optical convolutions of our brain are activated. A certain portion of the temporal lobes are activated when we hear, and so on. If the brain functions stop, all associated phenomena will instantly cease. Because of our heavy reliance on our ordinary senses, the above reasoning is very difficult to overcome. Most of us stop at this barrier or feebly attempt to cross. The truth cannot be made manifest by philosophically based arguments, they help or by religious doctrines, they also help, but by a honest answer to several questions. When your own heart asks: What happens to me after death? When your own heart asks: Is there something beyond my physical reality? When your own heart asks: How is it that I can sometimes know what is true, and sometimes feel what is beautiful without the use of my reason? How will you respond? Will you rationalize your answers to conform to your affections or will you answer with a heart that unconditionally seeks to understand what is true?
So, brotheren and sisteren of the "unaffiliated," if you have something to say about your unaffiliation send me an e-mail.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
education
Mark Twain is reported to have said that he never let his schooling interfere with his education. That statement seems, at first glance, to be an interplay of synonymous words, used for the purpose of humor, but a closer review exposes, in an overtone of sarcasm, the narrow understanding our society takes with regard to education. Our society clings steadfast to an iron clad understanding of education that says, only formal schooling equals education, Q.E.D. All other types of learning such as, self introspection, "self taught," (we forget that many of our country's founding fathers were self taught), through informal mentorship, or the learning that Twain was alluding too in his statement, bold and informal following of one's own ideas in areas of inquiry not sanctioned by formal schooling. All of the above and more, are viewed by our society as something other then education. In the book, Hard Times, Charles Dickens describes the pedantic attitude of Thomas Gradgrind, a teacher of great reputation.
"With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket sir, ready to weight and measure any parcel of human nature and tell you exactly what it comes to."...
Our society would whole heartily applaud and support Mr. Gradgrind's attitude.
In our society, we allow a system of formal schooling, with its initiated authorities and experts, to define and establish educational objectives and the manner in which learning takes place. These experts, over many decades, lead us through a pedantic maze of intellectualized formulas of education all of which included some form of quantitative evaluation to prove the value of their formulas. The overall result of this quantitative approach to education has been to install a strict framework for educating. That is, it keeps learning strictly on a lower or practical bases which subsequently exercises the lower and lower-middle ranges of human principles. It isn't that the lower and lower-middle principles of human beings should be neglected, but to make of them the foundation on which to build an educational system is at best shortsighted, and at worst an obvious display of ignorance about the true composition of human beings.
In addition to the constricting structure of our education system, its experts have build into it an enforcement process of rewards and punishments. What this enforcement process does is to compound the already low focus of education by directing the student's mind to the low desire to be first, while at the same time inflaming passion for honor. On the other end, it humiliates and depresses all expression not within its education parameters, and it evaluates, classifies, medicates, and names all offenders.
Our education system, as expressed through its institutions, tilts the students mind towards the lower human principles of animal desires and passions, under the false mantle of high intellectual development. Under this system if a student successfully meets the system's objectives and becomes wholly intellectual, his entire nature begins to bend downward, for intellect along is cold, heartless, and selfish, because it is not lighted up by the higher principles.
The sad fact is that most of our formal schooling is pure display or vanity. In his Republic, Plato says, "What the mind can grasp and throw away is vanity." You have been schooled to be good test takers, accurate accountants, award achievers, good employees for the corporate world, etc. etc. Yet as practically beneficial as that schooling may have been, it was not directed at the development of your higher principles; towards helping mold you into a "good" human being. In other words, directed at your higher-self; those more noble characteristics such as, a moral sense, self-sacrifice, compassion, service.
Through some kind of unspoken assignment, that higher part of your education was allotted to religious institutions, parents , and yourself. However, when all the above are products of the same quantitative, intellectualized system of education, all are infected by the same low results. Except for a few brave and unfettered souls like, Mark Twain, Fredrick Douglas, Thoreau, Emerson, and others of the same consciousness, whose lives help us to have a peek under the weighted veil of our own educational confinement, we carry our low educational symptoms around with us, ignorantly contaminating all we contact.
The primary objective of any education system, or any endeavor for that matter, should be to awaken the higher principles of human nature. Given the human composition, and its total involvement with its own process to evolve and express its higher principles, any objective other then the awakening of the higher human nature is a form of vanity. You have at your life core the spark of the Supreme-Consciousness-Power of the Universe, and to recognize and express that god-hood is the most fundamental of human objectives.
To those educational experts who are today in an uproar over the inability of the current educational system to educate, and are under pressure to find a more comprehensive way to educate, let them read a simple book called, The Education of Little Tree, by Forrest Carter. The entire book is a manual for the successful education of children, and in the chapter entitled, Mr. Wine, the secret to a successful system of education is revealed.
"Mr. Wine said figuring was important. He said education was a
two-part proposition. One part was technical, which was how you
moved ahead in your trade. He said he was for getting more modern
in that end of education. But, he said the other part you had better
stick to and not change it. He called it valuing.
Mr. Wine said if you learnt to place a value on being honest and thrifty,
on doing your best, and caring for folks; this was more important than anything.
He said if you was not taught these values, then no matter how modern you got
about the technical part, you was not going to get any wheres atall.
As a matter of fact, the more modern you get without these
valuings, then you would more than likely use the modern things for bad and
destroying and ruining."...
I will let Charles Dickens have the final words on this topic. In his book, Hard Times, Dickens exposes an ironic flaw in the esteemed teacher, Thomas Gradgind:
"If he had only learned a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more."
"With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket sir, ready to weight and measure any parcel of human nature and tell you exactly what it comes to."...
Our society would whole heartily applaud and support Mr. Gradgrind's attitude.
In our society, we allow a system of formal schooling, with its initiated authorities and experts, to define and establish educational objectives and the manner in which learning takes place. These experts, over many decades, lead us through a pedantic maze of intellectualized formulas of education all of which included some form of quantitative evaluation to prove the value of their formulas. The overall result of this quantitative approach to education has been to install a strict framework for educating. That is, it keeps learning strictly on a lower or practical bases which subsequently exercises the lower and lower-middle ranges of human principles. It isn't that the lower and lower-middle principles of human beings should be neglected, but to make of them the foundation on which to build an educational system is at best shortsighted, and at worst an obvious display of ignorance about the true composition of human beings.
In addition to the constricting structure of our education system, its experts have build into it an enforcement process of rewards and punishments. What this enforcement process does is to compound the already low focus of education by directing the student's mind to the low desire to be first, while at the same time inflaming passion for honor. On the other end, it humiliates and depresses all expression not within its education parameters, and it evaluates, classifies, medicates, and names all offenders.
Our education system, as expressed through its institutions, tilts the students mind towards the lower human principles of animal desires and passions, under the false mantle of high intellectual development. Under this system if a student successfully meets the system's objectives and becomes wholly intellectual, his entire nature begins to bend downward, for intellect along is cold, heartless, and selfish, because it is not lighted up by the higher principles.
The sad fact is that most of our formal schooling is pure display or vanity. In his Republic, Plato says, "What the mind can grasp and throw away is vanity." You have been schooled to be good test takers, accurate accountants, award achievers, good employees for the corporate world, etc. etc. Yet as practically beneficial as that schooling may have been, it was not directed at the development of your higher principles; towards helping mold you into a "good" human being. In other words, directed at your higher-self; those more noble characteristics such as, a moral sense, self-sacrifice, compassion, service.
Through some kind of unspoken assignment, that higher part of your education was allotted to religious institutions, parents , and yourself. However, when all the above are products of the same quantitative, intellectualized system of education, all are infected by the same low results. Except for a few brave and unfettered souls like, Mark Twain, Fredrick Douglas, Thoreau, Emerson, and others of the same consciousness, whose lives help us to have a peek under the weighted veil of our own educational confinement, we carry our low educational symptoms around with us, ignorantly contaminating all we contact.
The primary objective of any education system, or any endeavor for that matter, should be to awaken the higher principles of human nature. Given the human composition, and its total involvement with its own process to evolve and express its higher principles, any objective other then the awakening of the higher human nature is a form of vanity. You have at your life core the spark of the Supreme-Consciousness-Power of the Universe, and to recognize and express that god-hood is the most fundamental of human objectives.
To those educational experts who are today in an uproar over the inability of the current educational system to educate, and are under pressure to find a more comprehensive way to educate, let them read a simple book called, The Education of Little Tree, by Forrest Carter. The entire book is a manual for the successful education of children, and in the chapter entitled, Mr. Wine, the secret to a successful system of education is revealed.
"Mr. Wine said figuring was important. He said education was a
two-part proposition. One part was technical, which was how you
moved ahead in your trade. He said he was for getting more modern
in that end of education. But, he said the other part you had better
stick to and not change it. He called it valuing.
Mr. Wine said if you learnt to place a value on being honest and thrifty,
on doing your best, and caring for folks; this was more important than anything.
He said if you was not taught these values, then no matter how modern you got
about the technical part, you was not going to get any wheres atall.
As a matter of fact, the more modern you get without these
valuings, then you would more than likely use the modern things for bad and
destroying and ruining."...
I will let Charles Dickens have the final words on this topic. In his book, Hard Times, Dickens exposes an ironic flaw in the esteemed teacher, Thomas Gradgind:
"If he had only learned a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more."
Sunday, April 5, 2009
crying out into the wilderness of existence
I cried out into the wilderness of existence,
hearing only reverberations of my own voice.
When the last echo died, silence appeared, and
within it, I heard a voice; not with my ears,
but with my soul.
The voice said, "Compassion and advancement
are the hungers of the Universe; divinity is an
inherent legacy of humans; consciousness is the
Ultimate Power, and all are unified within that
Power; physical death is the end of one cycle
and the beginning of the next."
Through the Voice in the Silence, I found
the "path," and a companion to travel with.
hearing only reverberations of my own voice.
When the last echo died, silence appeared, and
within it, I heard a voice; not with my ears,
but with my soul.
The voice said, "Compassion and advancement
are the hungers of the Universe; divinity is an
inherent legacy of humans; consciousness is the
Ultimate Power, and all are unified within that
Power; physical death is the end of one cycle
and the beginning of the next."
Through the Voice in the Silence, I found
the "path," and a companion to travel with.
in silence
In silence, a man dwells within himself;
bringing forth the stillness for a reckoning.
Sitting nose to nose with his truth,
he unmasks his true purposes,
his true motives.
He opens his fears, pierces his latent desires,
and animates his most secret thoughts.
He dares to compare the wrong things
with the right ones.
"And when I am pinned and wriggling
on the wall, then how shall I begin?"*
Then in a final summation, with whom
can he make his appeal?
*from T.S. Eliot's, "Love Song of J. Alfred Proof Rock"
bringing forth the stillness for a reckoning.
Sitting nose to nose with his truth,
he unmasks his true purposes,
his true motives.
He opens his fears, pierces his latent desires,
and animates his most secret thoughts.
He dares to compare the wrong things
with the right ones.
"And when I am pinned and wriggling
on the wall, then how shall I begin?"*
Then in a final summation, with whom
can he make his appeal?
*from T.S. Eliot's, "Love Song of J. Alfred Proof Rock"
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
does anyone know what it is like?
"Danny's dead? It can't be!
I played handball with him
two days ago. He seemed fine then."
He died , sitting in his chair
in front of the TV; reading the
TV Guide.
Two days ago, I had a friend,
today he is gone.
The unsettling part of that idea is that
I am in the same death line as Danny.
His death moves me closer to mine.
As soon as your life is spawned
on Earth, so is your death.
In the beginning your position
in the line of death is so far behind
that it takes decades to realize you
are even in line.
However, the movement towards
death is relentless, closer, closer,
second by second.
You call to those ahead of you,
"Does anyone know what it is like?
If you do please tell."
No answer, only the steady movement
forward.
Each generation marches, with growing
trepidation, to the precipice of death and
invariable falls in.
One by one, an entire generation gone,
and marching from the rear, the next
generation.
Each calling ahead, as did the previous
generation, "Does anyone know what it is
like? If you do please tell me."
And as always, no answer; only the steady
movement towards the inevitable.
I played handball with him
two days ago. He seemed fine then."
He died , sitting in his chair
in front of the TV; reading the
TV Guide.
Two days ago, I had a friend,
today he is gone.
The unsettling part of that idea is that
I am in the same death line as Danny.
His death moves me closer to mine.
As soon as your life is spawned
on Earth, so is your death.
In the beginning your position
in the line of death is so far behind
that it takes decades to realize you
are even in line.
However, the movement towards
death is relentless, closer, closer,
second by second.
You call to those ahead of you,
"Does anyone know what it is like?
If you do please tell."
No answer, only the steady movement
forward.
Each generation marches, with growing
trepidation, to the precipice of death and
invariable falls in.
One by one, an entire generation gone,
and marching from the rear, the next
generation.
Each calling ahead, as did the previous
generation, "Does anyone know what it is
like? If you do please tell me."
And as always, no answer; only the steady
movement towards the inevitable.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
my two cents
"My two cents" is a phrase used to add one's personal opinion to current conditions where every one is giving an opinion. With the great volume of advice given out freely "My two cents" adds to that volume only two cents worth. My friend Burke and I worked for a private high school, and at lunch, as we reviewed the administration's latest policy, he would invariably say, "If my opinion counted for something, here is what I would say." So even though one's opinion means little in the ocean of opinion, there is an impulse to say it regardless. As an empirical proof of that, think of all the call-in radio shows, there are always people ready and willing to give their opinion; think of the TV programs where "public" opinion and voting is solicited as a main part of the show. Here is my two cents about our current economic crisis.
If you read my early '08 blogs, "Donkey Economics," and "Emancipation from Donkey Economics," you would have gotten the idea that our economic condition at that time was dangerously, over inflated. We were on a rampage of consumer spending, stimulated and pressured by economic propaganda ,(keep the economy fired up by consumption its your duty) and advertisement (see this flat screen TV, how about this i-pod, haven't the cash, no problem, use your credit card, every one else uses theirs; why deprive yourself, you deserve it). It was a "perfect storm" of consumer obsessive, inflamed desire, meeting with businesses insatiable appetite for profit, and the ambition and greed of financial institutions to take advantage of the opportunity granted by Congress for every American to partake in the"dream" of owning a home. This was a run away train moving towards an inevitable crash, and the most remarkable reality of it was, nobody saw it coming. It was like, a person crossing a railroad crossing, and finding a wallet between the rails; opening it up and finding many $100 bills in the fold, and then to count the money wright where he stands, oblivious to the train rolling right at him. The most cogent telltale sign I heard that the bust was coming, is when I heard some one on the radio, interviewing a person who had just been evicted from his apartment because he could not pay the rent. The interviewer asked the man what he was going to do, and the man said, very matter of factually, "I will buy a house."
As the economic bubble burst, and the damaging effects began to spread through out the US and the world, every one started to point fingers and supplying causes: the greed of the financial institutions, the politics of Congress, the hands off or blind eye response by the oversight bodies to high risk financial instruments being traded, the free wheeling strategies used by the mortgage institutions, the criminal input by Madoff, Petters, Stanford, and the like, and lets not forget the greed and "getting and spending" obsession by the millions of credit card users, (we the people). It is obvious that there is enough blame for everyone to accept and the degree of blame is in relationship to the opportunity afforded to advance your greed. For instance, if "we the people" had an opportunity to trade "derivatives" and/or "swaps" gaining mega-profits, would most of us do so? The answer is, fill in the blank_____.
The understanding for the economic bubble and its bursting comes under the heading of, the principle of Karma. "Hold on!" I can hear you say. "You are going to explain economic causes and effects by applying a philosophical principle? Unorthodox to say the least." Yes I am.
The word, "karma" is the nominative form of the Sanskrit word, "karman," literally meaning, doing or making; action. The idea of karma is not indigenous to any specific culture. Although the East has embraced the idea as a fundamental doctrine most closely suited to their spiritual bend of mind. Karma is more a principle or universal law than a developed philosophical doctrine. It is analogous to the scientific principle of gravity, where its universal application and manifestation is taken as an immutable law. However, karma is far more universal in its application, and virtually eternal in its expression.
The keynote of karma is balance and harmony. Nature works incessantly to restore equilibrium wherever it is disturbed. Science knows of this balance-reaction as the law of "cause and effect;"that every action and reaction are equal and opposite. Science focuses exclusive attention on the phenomenal causes and effects or in other words, the outside wrapping in our world. Karma's focus is on the comprehensive world; the world outside and inside, unerringly considering all planes: the physical, psychic, moral, and spiritual. Karma considers human beings to be the initiators of their own causes, and as such, are directly and totality responsible for the consequences of those causes. Every thought, word, or deed is karmaicly tied to its initiator.
When a human desires (intends), thinks thoughts, or acts he creates an expenditure if his own native energy. His energy puts into motion an effect that brings forth either an instantaneous or delayed reaction, and that reaction in turn impacts his immediate environment, including Nature in general. In other words, Nature reacts against the impact of a human's expended native energy, and the combination of these two causative and reactive energies is what is called karma.
Karma, as an active principle, is all embracing. It goes beyond the idea of moral retribution. However, most people in the US have an understanding of karma at an individual moral level. You hear people say, "That is good karma," "That is bad karma," "If you want to dance you have to pay the band," or "What goes around, comes around." Karma incorporates causes put into motion by all of Nature, from atom to star. Nothing escapes this great "law," for it operates within the infinite breath of Universal Nature. The inference here is that not only is there individual karma, but also national karma, international karma, global karma, cosmic karma, galactic karma, and all the way down the micro side, atomic karma, etc.
The "jessed," following the idea of karma, is the result of individual and collective, national and international excessive, intention, thinking, and action about "getting and spending," profit, wealth ambition, supplemented by hubris and greed. All that initiated energy interfaces with Nature and Nature responds by ingesting the excessive energy, than working to bring balance and harmony. Nothing can sustain itself forever. Even our great light and life giver, the Sun, must succumb to Nature's cycles of birth, growth, decay, and death. Presently, we have cycled into a recovery and balancing stage, and its duration is related to the degree of negative energy expended. Full recovery, then is probably several years away, but remember, the cyclic wheel continues to revolve, inevitably bringing future economic bubbles and busts. The severity of the next bubble directly depends on our awareness of the causes and conditions of this current economic depression, and the degree of our positive energetic application for healing it.
If you read my early '08 blogs, "Donkey Economics," and "Emancipation from Donkey Economics," you would have gotten the idea that our economic condition at that time was dangerously, over inflated. We were on a rampage of consumer spending, stimulated and pressured by economic propaganda ,(keep the economy fired up by consumption its your duty) and advertisement (see this flat screen TV, how about this i-pod, haven't the cash, no problem, use your credit card, every one else uses theirs; why deprive yourself, you deserve it). It was a "perfect storm" of consumer obsessive, inflamed desire, meeting with businesses insatiable appetite for profit, and the ambition and greed of financial institutions to take advantage of the opportunity granted by Congress for every American to partake in the"dream" of owning a home. This was a run away train moving towards an inevitable crash, and the most remarkable reality of it was, nobody saw it coming. It was like, a person crossing a railroad crossing, and finding a wallet between the rails; opening it up and finding many $100 bills in the fold, and then to count the money wright where he stands, oblivious to the train rolling right at him. The most cogent telltale sign I heard that the bust was coming, is when I heard some one on the radio, interviewing a person who had just been evicted from his apartment because he could not pay the rent. The interviewer asked the man what he was going to do, and the man said, very matter of factually, "I will buy a house."
As the economic bubble burst, and the damaging effects began to spread through out the US and the world, every one started to point fingers and supplying causes: the greed of the financial institutions, the politics of Congress, the hands off or blind eye response by the oversight bodies to high risk financial instruments being traded, the free wheeling strategies used by the mortgage institutions, the criminal input by Madoff, Petters, Stanford, and the like, and lets not forget the greed and "getting and spending" obsession by the millions of credit card users, (we the people). It is obvious that there is enough blame for everyone to accept and the degree of blame is in relationship to the opportunity afforded to advance your greed. For instance, if "we the people" had an opportunity to trade "derivatives" and/or "swaps" gaining mega-profits, would most of us do so? The answer is, fill in the blank_____.
The understanding for the economic bubble and its bursting comes under the heading of, the principle of Karma. "Hold on!" I can hear you say. "You are going to explain economic causes and effects by applying a philosophical principle? Unorthodox to say the least." Yes I am.
The word, "karma" is the nominative form of the Sanskrit word, "karman," literally meaning, doing or making; action. The idea of karma is not indigenous to any specific culture. Although the East has embraced the idea as a fundamental doctrine most closely suited to their spiritual bend of mind. Karma is more a principle or universal law than a developed philosophical doctrine. It is analogous to the scientific principle of gravity, where its universal application and manifestation is taken as an immutable law. However, karma is far more universal in its application, and virtually eternal in its expression.
The keynote of karma is balance and harmony. Nature works incessantly to restore equilibrium wherever it is disturbed. Science knows of this balance-reaction as the law of "cause and effect;"that every action and reaction are equal and opposite. Science focuses exclusive attention on the phenomenal causes and effects or in other words, the outside wrapping in our world. Karma's focus is on the comprehensive world; the world outside and inside, unerringly considering all planes: the physical, psychic, moral, and spiritual. Karma considers human beings to be the initiators of their own causes, and as such, are directly and totality responsible for the consequences of those causes. Every thought, word, or deed is karmaicly tied to its initiator.
When a human desires (intends), thinks thoughts, or acts he creates an expenditure if his own native energy. His energy puts into motion an effect that brings forth either an instantaneous or delayed reaction, and that reaction in turn impacts his immediate environment, including Nature in general. In other words, Nature reacts against the impact of a human's expended native energy, and the combination of these two causative and reactive energies is what is called karma.
Karma, as an active principle, is all embracing. It goes beyond the idea of moral retribution. However, most people in the US have an understanding of karma at an individual moral level. You hear people say, "That is good karma," "That is bad karma," "If you want to dance you have to pay the band," or "What goes around, comes around." Karma incorporates causes put into motion by all of Nature, from atom to star. Nothing escapes this great "law," for it operates within the infinite breath of Universal Nature. The inference here is that not only is there individual karma, but also national karma, international karma, global karma, cosmic karma, galactic karma, and all the way down the micro side, atomic karma, etc.
The "jessed," following the idea of karma, is the result of individual and collective, national and international excessive, intention, thinking, and action about "getting and spending," profit, wealth ambition, supplemented by hubris and greed. All that initiated energy interfaces with Nature and Nature responds by ingesting the excessive energy, than working to bring balance and harmony. Nothing can sustain itself forever. Even our great light and life giver, the Sun, must succumb to Nature's cycles of birth, growth, decay, and death. Presently, we have cycled into a recovery and balancing stage, and its duration is related to the degree of negative energy expended. Full recovery, then is probably several years away, but remember, the cyclic wheel continues to revolve, inevitably bringing future economic bubbles and busts. The severity of the next bubble directly depends on our awareness of the causes and conditions of this current economic depression, and the degree of our positive energetic application for healing it.
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