04 Feb 2013 · 09:30

Love is … – Blog No. 12

mozart-love-soul-geniusI have asked of others – many a time – a definition of love. If anyone knows one comprehensive definition, please give it to me. And God is Love does not qualify. It’s too bland, and besides, before you can use that statement you have to know who or what God is about. Since none of us know that, exactly, we are precluded from using the statement sweepingly until we gain a better understanding. What love is, is pure and sweet and simple. Love, too, is dark and deep and complex. The dark is necessary for the light. Love is like a compound eye. It has that many facets. Love is not blind. You are not blind to another’s faults. You can pretend to yourself and whomever else you are trying to convince that they are not there, but the truth is you see them. And each one, though on some level it may disappoint, is not something for you to judge or criticise. It is something for you to celebrate. It means – thank goodness – that that person is like you. We share common traits. In effect, we are one. Find solace in our similarities, for they are there and they are too numerous to count. I never yet met a perfect person – and I am quite relieved. I do not for one minute believe that any god watching over us would expect us to be flawless. Is God flawless? Who knows. Maybe he made some mistakes in his time. I would like to think so, half of our human charm is in our imperfections. Our mistakes help define us as individuals, as much as our successes do. Take note of why you choose what you do – and take note, too, if you will not learn from your mistakes. If you learn something from each mistake then its job is done. But, if you fail to change something about yourself – whether it be your perception, your perspective or your opinion – the same mistakes will visit you time and again. They will roll around and trip you until you DO something differently. That is the cycle of life. We will be taught until we learn. So learn to think differently. That is in your control. If God is out there watching us, he is very patient. I think he is waiting for us to stop, and focus on what matters.

What can we shift in our own lives to make space for a change? What out-moded thinking can we get rid of? We can get rid of our determination to judge other people. We spend too much time being the guardians of others’ fates. We interfere in business that is not ours to comment upon. It is important to understand that in actuality we have nothing to do with another’s fate. Our fates are our own. We are the transcribers of our own scripts, the creators of our own landscapes. If you choose to bind yourself to another’s fate, that is your business. You reserve that right. We are bound across countless paths in our lifetimes and on each we can find freedom, we just have to see what it is that we have left to learn. And there is always, always, something left to learn.

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01 Feb 2013 · 12:44

Asia needs to wake up – Blog No. 11

0131.crushcage.Bile_bear.568The Asians have been abusing bears  for 2000 years.  It is time for them to change their ways.  They have been live-farming bear bile and using it as a medicine to treat various feeble ailments, including hemorrhoids and sore throats, bruises.  It is an inhuman practice.  The cages housing the bears are cramped and the creatures live out their days unable to move around, being drained of their bile.  They are used as a sustainable resource.  Despite the trade in bile being illegal, about 13 000 bears are currently being exploited on bile farms across Asia.

The wild animals – sun bears, moon bears and brown bears – are trapped or bred into captivity and kept in deplorable conditions.  They are kept alone, captive and in pain.  A permanent metal catheter is inserted through a cut in the abdomen into the gall bladder and the bile is bled off into a plastic bag, or the bear wears a ‘full jacket’ which extracts the bile into a box worn by the bear.   All the extraction techniques are human inventions and they are barbaric.  These bears have a life-expectancy of five years, after that their ‘productivity’ starts to wane and they are killed off for their whole gall bladders, their paws and their skulls, teeth.  What kind of life is that to afford a fellow living, breathing creature?  How can we call these people humans?  Really.  I battle to make the correlation.  A human being should have a natural conscience.  A human being should not have the desire to visit pain upon another living creature to procure profit.  The trade in exotic animals is as heinous.  I think the men behind these thieving agencies that supply the demand should be taken out of the equation altogether.  The Global Watchdog (there should be one, the UN does not count) should storm Asia and close down all the bile farms.  The tree frogs and frilly-necked lizards that are snatched from their jungles in Indonesia and shipped worldwide should be illegal to own.  It should be illegal to possess an exotic pet.  That includes pythons, they are high on the hit list, too.

When is man going to stop this plunder?  Bears in Asia are on the vulnerable list, the poaching and unregulated hunting is taking its toll on their numbers.  The numbers continue to shrink, the bears live in unbearably cruel conditions and the rhino (whose horn has NO medicinal properties, incidentally) is seriously threatened by a trade in ancient folklore.  I think it is time the rest of the world realised that what an Asian person chooses to believe is of huge consequence.  These people have arcane belief systems and nature is paying for their ignorance.  Can someone please educate Asia?  There has to be a change.

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28 Jan 2013 · 13:39

Freedom from/to – Blog No. 10

images-16If you had to choose between freedom from and freedom to, which kind of freedom would you choose?  Or would you insist that freedom in its entirety comprises both the ‘from’ and ‘to’ options?  Freedom from oppression, for example.  Or freedom to choose.  Freedom from persecution.  Or freedom to be?  In our first world we are privileged.  We have the freedom to choose both.  Imagine the value of just one type of freedom when you have never had any.  Who is one man to say that this person can speak their mind and that person cannot?  Who is one man to dictate the conditions of another’s existence?  Why should the Dalai Lama not live where he chooses?  Who are the Chinese to tell that man where he must sit in this life?  I think they have too much audacity for a country that is slowly destroying (the peace of) our planet.  Clearly they are not the only ones, but they are the only ones that operate without either fear (of repercussion) or respect (for this world).  They do, however, revere their panda.  I wish someone from China would explain to the rest of the world what they are thinking when they do the things they do – because watching them behave leaves a great many questions hanging.  Their sullen silence does not help.  The sooner we begin to understand each other as ‘a people’ a ‘breed’, the sooner we can draw a line in the sand and accelerate our evolution.  I don’t believe we are doing all we can to evolve to our full potential as human beings.  There are so many restrictions, so much censorship, so few true guidelines.  I think we need to save ourselves from the butterfly net that would capture our freedom.  I think the big fat corporations are very effective butterfly nets.  I think outdated curricula are very effective butterfly nets.  I think China is a very effective butterfly net.  We need to breathe new, think new, feel new.  It is time to air the archives.

Heart.  Courage.  Remember in this life it is who we are that counts.  Who we are becomes what we are.  We are in Nature.  Ours is the same cycle, as any in life.  If we go to ground with our music still in us, then it bleeds into the earth.  The soil sings.  When the trees grow, they sing that same music – but it will be organic, it has run through another system after all.  The wind takes that song from the lips of the leaves, those whispers, and sends fragments of songs, flying.  We breathe in those fragments.  We build a new song.  We are another system, after all.  Do you not think it is a beautiful cycle of life, this?  We should maybe all appreciate it a little more.  

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25 Jan 2013 · 09:41

The Magic Triangle – Blog No. 9

Triangle_2560In the magic triangle – the golden triangle – the perfect triangle – the two make the third, the third is one, and the one is two.  Or, one is three.  It’s the same as the father, the son, and the holy ghost.  Trinity.  The entity – the extention of yourselves – that is created with the union of two people.  That entity becomes a ‘third’ person in your relationship, no matter who you are with or what you are doing with them.  You have to realise that a love deep enough and profound enough will build in you, and independent of you, another.  Have you ever asked yourself why you married, got involved?  If you can look your partner square in the eye and explain to each other the reasons for your togetherness then you can laugh when you understand that in part you were hoping for someone to bring you up.  In our world, too many women are married to too many men for the wrong reasons.  I am not sure if men ever marry for the wrong reasons?  Aren’t men strong enough to say yes, or no, to a woman and mean it?  Or perhaps that’s not about strength?  Perhaps it’s about their propensity for straight-talk.  They are better at straight-talk than any woman I have met.  Women talk in circles.  Their concept of communication is different to that of a man.  Often when a woman tells you she is fine, she is not fine.  You have to learn to understand her language.  Fine means ‘you had better check with me in a minute what my problem is otherwise I am going to make it yours’.  When a man tells you he is fine, he IS fine.  So there is woman-fine, and man-fine.  Women must speak 23 000 words a day.  Men feel the need to use 3 000.  That says a lot.

We need to use our relationships wisely.  Each one is there to teach us something about ourselves.  Learn yourself through others.  You will learn more from that than from listening to your inner Narcissus.

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21 Jan 2013 · 09:42

The Road to Utopia – Blog No. 8

68637_524425970922339_1527996228_nThe road to Utopia is not an easy road. You need smarts, wits, tenacity and a very good vehicle. It would be good if you could read from the stars, the sun. It would be advantageous if you had your own vision of perfection and were keen to strive towards it. You are advised to wear a seatbelt and to expect the unexpected. If you are not good at expecting the unexpected, then practice. Give yourself surprises until you get used to embracing the unknown. Do something new. It’s the only way forward. In this age of über-speed we need to know how to move smoothly with the chaos of an everyday. Do you realise how much information you are processing every minute? What are you absorbing, what are you hearing and adhering to? What you need to realise is that each moment of each day you are moulding your future with the choices you make based on what you respond to. That is how much control you have over your destiny. It is all in your hands. Unfortunately, a lot of people are dropping the ball.

The road to Utopia is worth finding. It’s worth travelling. More importantly, it’s there. That Yellow Brick Road that Elton John said goodbye to, is there. That is something to inspire hope in all but the totally hopeless. And worringly, there are those. A great many of those. We find people of every sort on our path to perfection and I can attest to the fact that it is in your acceptance of each kind of person you come across that you will find your own freedom. We all have something in common. Ourselves. Who cares what colour your skin is, really. Do you think a black family feels any different to a white family when their child is stolen from them? Their sense of loss will be the same. Will the 40 000+ children the LRA has stolen be forgotten by any single one of those parents? They will not. Is £30 million raised each time a black child is kidnapped and turned into a child-soldier? No. They are left to their own devices, those bereft families. When will the people realise that the theft of those children’s souls feeds the evil of Joseph Kony’s regime? I have to wonder how one black man can ‘disappear’ like he does. Do not tell me that nobody on this planet knows where Joseph Kony is hiding. Somebody knows. They must just be motivated to say so. What would motivate a man who has already sold his own soul? Think about it. Does an Indian man’s heart break any differently to that of a Welshman? I don’t believe so. I believe we are all subconsciously striving to be our best – whatever that best is. Even the cartel works to its best – with a kind of precision that is almost as flawless as the German language. When we start to understand the rituals and behaviours of our fellow men (incidentally, I am not a feminist) we will be more likely to succeed at making this planet less of a contemporary nightmare for millions of people. And that should be our collective goal. Any human being with one iota of conscience would want a more equal world for a lot of people. Freedom is everyone’s dream, I feel. Can you imagine how precious that ideal must be to someone who has never experienced freedom? And sadly, there are those. Our world needs to right a few wrongs, accept a few anomalies, make its peace with the past and get progressive.

Have a conscience. Feel how it is to be someone with internet, someone with a hot bath, someone with food in your fridge. You don’t have to suffer for your privileges, just realise them. I find it hard showering and thinking of all the starving mouths of thirsty Somalian babies. I can afford to let pure clean water run while I brush my teeth because the country I live in has a surplus. Also, I can afford to pay for that which I waste. It’s crazy. It’s also frustrating. How many countries have surplus crops that could be sent to where they are needed if there was no bureaucracy or corrupted politics getting in the way? How much money given to charities goes to the cause you think you are supporting?

Living in this world of contrasts takes a lot of thinking. Or it should. Living right means seeing beyond your comfort zone to a place where you are facing yourself in a new frame. Who is it that you are? What do you care about? What do you need? What do you want? Ask yourself. The answers are always interesting.

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18 Jan 2013 · 11:48

Blog No. 7

britains yobboesWhat is the UK to do with its generation of delinquents?  It’s like on a universal scale they have inherited the teenagers of the planet.  And most of those teenagers are parents.  I hope those Lib Dems are skilled in the art of parenting.  We needn’t ask the Conservatives.  Their children are not a common part of the real world.  I would say the UK faces a major crisis.  How to bring up a bunch of defunct, emotionally bankrupt yobs?  That’s hard to do when they have no idea what a family is.  That means there is an abundant lack of family values and for a society, that is a big problem.  There is a generation of takers the UK needs to re-educate, and soon.  How difficult is it to confer family values upon those who have no concept of such?  It is very difficult.  But it is not impossible.  A family does not have to be traditional in order to be a family.  Family, like Christmas, is a construct.  It can be what you need it to be, what you want of a ‘family’, of a ‘Christmas’.  All these names have duties, jobs to do, in our worlds.   How we put them to work depends on how we understand the terms.  People who come from broken homes, or no homes, will be different.  Who will they be?  Who are you to other people?  How does your mouth speak about other people?  That is an important indication of what kind of a person you are.  For example, if you are an unkind person you will know.  You cannot hide your unkindness from yourself.  Remember your unkindness will sound as ugly to the ears of your listener as it does to you.  If your unkindness sounds powerful to you, you need to reassess your understanding of intimidation.  If you enjoy intimidating, you are a bully.  If you choose to feel good about assassinating another’s character then you need to address your self-esteem.  You are insecure.  Realise that your criticism is as much for your own ears as it is for the ears of your listener.  Also, try whatever you like, you cannot avoid facing your own short-comings.  They affect your every day.  It is important in life to realise what it is that you are – and what it is that you are not.  What you are not is nothing to be afraid of.  It is how it is.  When you realise what you are not you can modify your goals and dreams.  You can refine your own process and build yourself into a better human being.

If you are not a kind person, don’t pretend for the sake of your face that you are.  Saving your reputation for your own sake is a total waste of time, never mind saving it for the sake of others who judge.  Always check who it is that judges you before you take their judgement to heart.   If they do not know who you are, pay them little attention.  How can a person have a sensible opinion on something they have never understood?  Either make yourself known or ignore the criticism.  There is no point sitting in the corner crying about something that is under your control.  Don’t waste your energy on others’ negative projections, prides, or egos.  Negative voices are noise.  Just try to understand that for everyone it is nearly impossible not to judge.  Be aware.  We judge ourselves all the time and we judge others by our expectations of ourselves.

How can the UK solve its problems?  It can face up to them first of all.  That stiff upper lip needs to crack a humble smile.  Those myriad repressions need addressing.  That attitude of resenting success needs adjusting.  It can start by accepting its failing infrastructure – whatever the reason for it.  It can stop rewarding the benefit parasites with money that would be better spent on university grants to an ambitious youth.  If they had any brains they would wean their dependents off their ‘wages’ and feed said money back into their (once great) education system – which is also falling apart.  Another thing – Britain can stop behaving as if it still controlled all the tea fields and rice paddies on the planet.  The Empire is long-gone, her reign is over.  I wonder why the colonialists are such hard-core hangers on?  Their attitude is out-dated, their behaviour archaic.  How many colonial genes pollute the DNA of the inheritors of Great Britain?  The question to ask is how can we go forwards unless these people – the collective – and these places, take accountability for their past, their future?

Drop the idea that the world owes you a living, Britain.  Your future is what you have made it.

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14 Jan 2013 · 09:16

Blog No. 6

SA-poaching-stats-2000-2011How can the Chinese be as conscienceless as they are?  Do they not respect the laws of Nature?  I wonder how hard karma is going to hit that country, those people.  They have bred and are busy growing a monster and the world stands by and watches, impassive.  Or perhaps not impassive, but certainly not discouraging.  How dare they still use rhino horn for whatever purpose they use it?  How dare they?  Why are they allowed to butcher and massacre and rape and pillage?  In this day and age shouldn’t somebody – some watchdog, somewhere – be saying, ‘hey guys, can you climb another ladder on your way to world domination, please, this one is for HUMANKIND.’  I am generalising, naturally.  However, the collective wears the label and the collective needs to do something about its reputation.  How can you sell a live goldfish as a cheap keyring?  How can you beat animals to death with a club?  How can you skin animals alive and leave them in a slippery pile to die?  I was reading about how they will peel skins from the living bodies of animals.  Why visit that sort of pain on another breed when there is a choice?  Their savagery leaves me breathless.  I don’t care for their impressive heritage if it means they have evolved into cruel and senseless human beings.  Or is it that the Chinese always were cruel?  It is important to remember that the richness of their culture can readily be overlooked when you see how they conduct themselves around creatures.  If god is a rhino, for instance, they are in serious trouble.  If god is a Tibetan, China is in very serious trouble.  Where is god, actually, when it comes to the Chinese?  They are too busy feeding their peculiar cancer with the world’s resources to look for themselves.  I think they should look AT themselves.  I should like to know how they intend to save the state of their face when they weigh in on the scales of justice?  I think they have a lot to answer for.  I think they will be asked all the questions, in one way or another.

I wonder at the vanity of harnessing the Yangtze River.  Do you know how powerful her force?  Her flow?  I think she does not like being dammed by man.  In fact, I am quite certain of it.

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08 Jan 2013 · 08:31

Love = Love – Blog No. 5

happybuddha11Some will say that love is not enough.  Perhaps it’s not.  Perhaps gratitude and respect are necessary, too.  But what is love without respect or gratitude?  Is it even real?  If love (in its entirety) is not enough then we are chasing an illusion of unity.  If God is love – which he purportedly is – then would he mind if we changed his name to Love?  God = Love, therefore Love = Love.  And love does beget love.  Do you think ours is the type of God who would mind having his image upgraded?  I don’t think he is.  I think he’d appreciate a facelift.   What is his name – just ‘God’?  There must be more to him than that.  I wonder – why weren’t we told more than we were about who our God is?  Everyone got sidetracked with Jesus.  I believe we have evolved enough as a people to ask who this God was who said.    Because in the bible, he just said.  He said, and things happened.  How did he do that?  I wonder if Jesus was not a magician.  How to tell the world their saviour works magic?  It’s not easy.  They came up with the bible as metaphor, as explanation.  Miracles and magic – what is the difference, essentially?  Maybe the Jews were afraid of Jesus’ tendency to perform ‘miracles’ and wanted his ability to confound the senses censored, or silenced?  It’s all in the supposition.  Maybe there are reasons for their seriously savage treatment of Jesus.  Maybe.  I am not sure – if the bible is anything to go by – whether they didn’t go slightly overboard.  He was one man.  He caused a lot of panic and a lot of hatred.  It’s interesting.

Maybe God has gone deaf.  He is old, it’s possible.  If he is deaf, then how do we get him to hear our prayers for a better world?  We speak to him in different ways.  If we must learn new ways, he must learn new ways.  How else can we all go forward?  I think his whole image needs a make-over.  The Christian God, that is.  I think Buddha is happy with his status and his scope.  I am sure Shiva is doing what she always did.  Etc.

If we can learn to speak with our hearts instead of defaulting to our heads every time, things could change.  When trusted, the heart speaks truth through your actions.  The heart speaks truth usually when there’s no time to do anything else but trust it.  That is pure motivation.  That is measured risk – which is not the same as gambling.  That means you can move with chaos, and know your way forward.   Trust your heart in the rush of your every day.  It knows you best.

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03 Jan 2013 · 14:04

Blog No. 4

mirror-reflection-in-sphere2NOTE TO SELF:  1987 (minor 2013 edit – important:  1987 ‘man’ = mankind, as such)

The construction of man was undoubtedly a miracle, although one might wonder whether or not it was (initially) an act of boredom.  Had civilisation progressed as God had intended it to, there would be no cause for concern, but modern man has travelled so far along forbidden paths in his quest to discover the meaning of Life that his creation and the purpose behind it has been ignored (for years).  One wonders whether it hasn’t been conveniently deleted from his memory completely.

Man has evolved into something totally contrary to what was expected.  Man in modern society assumes that he is invincible – a story-book hero with limitless powers.  He sees himself as the epitome of perfection and will not admit the potential presence of any weaknesses.  Stated more accurately by a certain A. Grit, “Nature didn’t make us perfect, so she did the next best thing – she made us blind to our faults.”  Man’s denial of imperfection is (nearly) imperceptible, although he is surely aware that somewhere deep within his (superior) being there is something that needs correction, something that he cannot do without.  Perhaps it would be destructive to admit it – even if it was just to himself – it might taint his opinion (of himself) or crack the fragile shell of his ego.

For man to understand himself accurately, it would be necessary for him to see himself as he appears in reality.  Without much effort, he could merely stand before a mirror and study his reflection and draw his conclusions from his observations.  However, it is easy to escape unharmed by staring at your reflection in a normal mirror because the reflection is superficial and does not extend further than skin deep.  What he (actually) needs is a large two-way mirror that reveals his surface features from one side and when he moves behind the mirror to the other side he can see his inner turmoil and associated imperfections.  Only then, under constant scrutiny, would he begin to discover for himself that although he is a human being of miraculous proportions, he has also been made with his share of (inherited) insecurities and problems.
The most difficult thing for him to understand however, is that by viewing himself subjectively as well as objectively, he is in no way conceding to or admitting defeat, (but that) he is actually on the way to self-discovery.

A mirror in itself is a means by which man can unravel the mysteries within himself.  By turning to face a mirror he can unjumble the confusion inside of him and make sense of his situation in order to proceed (effectively equipped) in a ‘weird’ world of reality.  There is no doubt that man’s true reflection will not hold any substantial pleasure initially, but perhaps for him to come to terms with himself it is an effective measure.  It would surprise him to discover that instead of being the all-knowing figment of his imagination, he has become the ignoramus who stares back into his eyes so helplessly.  Man has become disillusioned and must learn to deal with his disppointment in order for him to begin again.  Maybe by participating in a venture of this nature, society will change and follow a more positive path towards the future.  Maybe, just maybe, by doing this man will revolutionise his outlook and turn out to be what was expected of him the moment the dust with which he was created, had settled.

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31 Dec 2012 · 03:35

Blog No. 3

alice-character-new-era-59fifty-fitted_1I think Alice is still wandering around Wonderland. I don’t think she ever resurfaced. When faced with the choice of returning to this world as it is, she said, ‘No thanks very much, I think I’ll pass.’ She’s busy in an Underworld we see only in our dreams.

I wonder why there is no global body that can say ‘no’ to unacceptable happenings. Why is there not a resounding universal ‘no’ when it comes to rhino poaching, for instance? Why don’t governments stand for what is right these days? I think people need to remove political correctness from their agendas. This world needs a shake up. Syria needs peace. Gaza – is Gaza. People need to stop squabbling over land and let go of fighting for the honour of their past ‘heroes’. Who says anything ‘belongs’ to anyone in the first place? Like the way man will rape Nature’s resources and disrespect her convention. Or make rules for outer space. Space etiquette is more important than behaving like a reasonable human being on terra firma. I wonder some days just who we think we are on this planet.

I trust people with experience. I love learning, and being taught. I think we are all learning, all the time. It is a constant. As is change. To resist change is not brave. Change is what keeps the flow in this world, going. The richest languages are those evolving all the time, those in a state of flux. The same applies to people.

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