Eleven ISIL Rules for the Press

Excerpted from the online magazine This Ongoing War
Isis releases 11-point guide for journalists
Matthew Champion
According to the website Syria Deeply, journalists and activists still based in territory ruled by Isis have smuggled out official guidance issued by the jihadist group for journalists who continue to work in the areas it controls.

These 11 rules were reportedly issued in Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria.

1. Correspondents must swear allegiance to the Caliph [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi … they are subjects of the Islamic State and, as subjects, they are obliged to swear loyalty to their imam.
2. Their work will be under the exclusive supervision of the Isis media offices.
3. Journalists can work directly with international news agencies (such as Reuters, AFP and AP), but they are to avoid all international and local satellite TV channels. They are forbidden to provide any exclusive material or have any contact (sound or image) with them in any capacity.
4. Journalists are forbidden to work in any way with the TV channels placed on the blacklist of channels that fight against Islamic countries (such as Al-Arabiya, Al Jazeera and Orient).Violators will be held accountable.
5. Journalists are allowed to cover events in the governorate with either written or still images without having to refer back to the Isis media office. All published pieces and photos must carry the journalist’s and photographer’s names.
6. Journalists are not allowed to publish any reportage (print or broadcast) without referring to the Isis media office first.
7. Journalists may have their own social media accounts and blogs to disseminate news and pictures. However, the Isis media office must have the addresses and name handles of these accounts and pages.
8. Journalists must abide by the regulations when taking photos within Isis territory and avoid filming locations or security events where taking pictures is prohibited.
9. Isis media offices will follow up on the work of local journalists within Isis territory and in the state media. Any violation of the rules in place will lead to suspending the journalist from his work, and he will be held accountable.
10. The rules are not final and are subject to change at any time depending on the circumstances and the degree of cooperation between journalists and their commitment to their brothers in the Isis media offices.
11. Journalists are given a license to practice their work after submitting a license request at the Isis media office.

i100.co.uk has not been able to independently verify that the decree is genuine but Isis expert Shiraz Maher said it was eminently feasible. “It certainly seems possible,” he told i100.co.uk. “And it's written with the verbosity one would expect from Islamic State.”

According to Syria Deeply, journalists that did not agree to these terms have left Isis territory, with some receiving incentives to return and others threats that their families would be crucified if they did not. There are not thought to be any foreign journalists still working in Isis territory, so it would follow that these rules would only apply to Syrian and Iraqi reporters.

The Book of Job Revisited

I just published my fourth book: The Book of Job Revisited. It is an extension of my novelette, A Taxi Romance (word count: 28,000). If you haven't read it you can skip it because that story is a story within this one.
I realized I left out some important events and elements that needed to be included adding 30,000 to the word count to 58,000 doubling the story
The most important aspect left out of A Taxi Romance was Max's head injury and concussion... how the even the medical profession had little understanding of the long term affects: depression, drug addiction, alcoholism and sometimes violent or angry outbursts.
Veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have amplified the impact of brain trauma and contributed much to the treatment of it in the psychiatric and medical community. Additionally, MRI's and CT scans have helped to detect the physical condition as well as the response to therapy in patients.
I believe I have hit on a topic that was not understood at all when I suffered a basal fracture in 1985. Concussion was taken more lightly with short term affects unless there was obvious physical problems with debilitating nerve damage to limbs. I was told by the Nuero-surgeon that  treated me that I would get over it within a few months. I still have problems associated with it but I am one of the lucky ones that have found treatment.

I'm a STAR!

Did you know that rat spelled
backwards is Star.
I'm a STAR!

Star or not... I am not pleased I have rats on my lanai and neighbors that play hip-hop loud. Life! Why does it have to interfere. 

Gretel_Grimm

Evidence that we had alcoholism and over-indulgence long before AA.

Morningstar East

Morningstar Mesa above Arroyo Hondo

I have been searching for pictures of the pueblo at Morningstar East on the mesa across the highway from New Buffalo in Arroyo Hondo New Mexico. I have only found a few and none that show the most marvelous part of the structure, the kiva. Nothing has been published and I'm wondering whether anyone took pictures of anything on the east side of the highway. Reality Construction Company shared the same property and I don't find anything of it either.

Dream Escape Postcard

Dream Escape Postcard

Time passes…

I’m awake.

My lover sleeps.

What holds me

In the past?

What holds my heart in abeyance?

Where does shame become

A bludgeon to wake my dreams?

Longing takes a turn

Towards rage and rage

Takes a detour:

A flat … air let out… a slow leak.

Mahayana wheels

Worn to the wires

On the rutted-road of remorse.

Changing the tire…

Shit! No spare…

Echoes of high Himalayan

Despair’s night of the

Void I rest my soul…

A vehicle frozen in time.

High desert landscape

Left of old Route 66…

An empty highway

Nostalgia sick

I send a postcard dreamscape

Of this glassy mirage.

Are You a Psychopath?

From an article in Salon. Psychopaths: how can you spot one?

By Tom Chivers

Posted 04/06/14

Here is a list of 20 criteria, each given a score of 0 (if it doesn’t apply). 1. (if it partially applies). 2. (if it fully applies). The list is composed by the criminal psychologist, Professor Robert Hare, creator of the PCL-R, a psychological assessment used to determine whether someone is a psychopath.

If ya feel like taking a look... how do you score?

     1.      Glibness and superficial charm.

     2.      Grandiose sense of self-worth.

     3.      Pathological lying.

     4.      Cunning/manipulative.

     5.      Lack of remorse.

     6.      Emotional shallowness.

     7.      Callousness and lack of empathy.

     8.      Unwillingness to accept responsibility for actions.  

     9.      A tendency to boredom.

   10.     A parasitic lifestyle.

   11.     A lack of realistic long-term goals.

   12.     Impulsivity.

   13.     Irresponsibility.

   14.     Lack of behavioral control.

   15.     Behavioral problems in early life.

   16.     Juvenile delinquency.

   17.     Criminal versatility.

   18.     A history of revocation of conditional release (I.e. broken parole).

   19.     Multiple marriages.

   20.     Promiscuous sexual behavior.

A pure psychopath will score a perfect 40. A score of 30 + qualifies as a diagnosis of psychopathy. Most certainly above 35 or 36.

The terms cognitive empathy and emotional empathy were of the most interest to me. Cognitive empathy is the ability to know what others are feeling and emotional empathy is the ability to feel what others are feeling. A typical psychopath lacks emotional empathy but is quite adept at knowing what you are feeling, thinking and so on. 

I suspect that most people read these lists and see many of these traits in ourselves... at least I do. At various times it appears that most of us just don't give a damn one way or another how others feel about anything outside of our immediate circle of family or friends. CEO's, politicians, sales people, and poke players may have developed a high degree of cognitive empathy but are sometimes lacking emotional empathy. They can say "I feel your pain" but simply don't give a shit accept for manipulating our emotions to close the deal. 

I include myself in this analysis. My emotional empathy is stunted. I know it is and am sometimes actively developing a seed of it that needs nurturing. I don't say this to set myself aside from those who are naturally empathetic so much as to recognize it for what it is. Though I'm no Ted Bundy, I am confident that I score higher than most. I'm thinking that this might have something to do with being an Alpha male. Maybe... maybe not.

Fear of Death

Renunciation is realizing that samsāra is full of shit.

Chogyam Trungpa: Wisdom of No Escape

&

The question was posted on facebook: “If you were given a book with the story of your life, would you read the end?” My snide answer was, “Sure, why not. Most of it fiction anyhow.” I should qualify my answer: That depends on who is writing it. It would be okay with me if I was the author because I would have been in control of the ending. If it is written by the great magician of samsara; Kama-Mara, then it would not be so bad either because I would know that this too is an illusion. I would know that the bag of skin I call George drops away. It does so eventually at regardless of who writes it.

            Death is where the rubber hits the road in spiritual practice. A life well lived, while not exactly welcoming death, is certainly most prepared for it. Once I thought that all this preoccupation with death of most spiritual disciplines were fear based but I came to realize that death is always near us. The seemingly randomness of it can be frightening until it is accepted. There are combat veterans that can relate to the way a bullet or a bomb can zap… crack the illusion of life in a nano-second. In that nano-second the veil of karma is exposed as part of the delusion that one life is more important than another. It just doesn’t matter how good or bad you are, how brave or cowardly, or even how well trained… in the field of combat there is no choice. Shit happens and then whew! Gone.

            Religions can be based on fear of death; but, in actuality, religions merely present a door to be opened to the realization that death is nothing to fear. A better question for this idea is: “Where were you before you were born?” The answer for me would be: “OM.”

geo 5,667

More on Doctor Dode

Three days ago I posted a link to an article by a Dr. Lance Dodes on Salon.com that my AA, NA, and non-addict friends might find interesting. Dr, Dodes has some misconceptions about AA and how most of us employ the Twelve Steps and I don't doubt his sincerity. I’m trying to find some stats on the success of Dr.’s therapy based recovery and couldn’t find any online; so, I’m looking for stats on the success of non-Twelve Step and therapy based recovery programs. Though I haven’t found any yet, the Dr. in the article I posted the other day stated AA has about a five to ten percent success rate. I can add that Dr. Dodes has a book he hawks on 7 steps of his treatment: "The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry." By Dr. Lance Dodes, M.D., and Zachary Dodes. Copywrite 2014, Beacon Press.

            I can say first that I have no beef at all with non-Twelve Step therapy based programs. It is an industry and industry functions best in a competitive atmosphere. Whatever floats your boat is my attitude, based on my experience, and that is the attitude expressed in all 12-Step literature from its very beginning: the Dr. implies otherwise because he confuses rehab institutions with recovery programs. Besides that, his chief objection seems to be that AA is a religion based program with dismal if not unscientific and questionable, results. Secondly he objects to the first three steps that demands surrender to helplessness over drugs and alcohol of the acolyte and that he/she be convinced of having an incurable disease: thus, the only remedy would be treatment in the Fellowship, conscious contact with a Higher Power and proselytizing for the organization. These points alone would suppose that the good Dr. has a cure and that the cure he proposes has garnered as good or better results than programs that employ a Twelve Step approach. I, for one, would like it to be so but I doubt it. He speaks of a cure in his treatment of a mythical Dominic.

            One objection of the Dr. is in the opening statement of Chapter Five, in the Big Book, that boasts: “Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.” He says that this puts the blame for failure on the individual and not the disease the Dr. ironically says the person doesn’t have. Clarifying this issue further on the paragraph, but not well enough for the Dr., the Big Book excuses: “There are such unfortunates, they seem to have been born that way.”

            Personally, I wish it would read; “like alcoholism, these people are not at fault any more than a patient is responsible for the ravages of one’s cancer. But we are responsible for following treatment.” This is to me as far as it ought to go. We do not fail if we slip.

            The Dr. also objects to the Twelfth Step itself in that he believes it is a commandment to go out and spread the word. Having no grasp of the Twelve Traditions that parallel the Eleventh Tradition that states; “Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need to always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.” The Dr.’s error here is an understandable misconception because so many celebrities don’t get it either and there is also much confusion about what is AA and what is a Recovery Program… some of which loosely apply Twelve Step principles.

            Lastly, I would like to point out that most of the objections to AA are usually based on a cursory understanding of what the Twelve Steps are supposed to accomplish and how recidivism of the addict isn’t necessarily a failure in the long run. No one likes to admit the importance of hitting bottom and, from the outside it is hard to understand what that means. Complete incomprehensible demoralization turns out to be the fulcrum that applies the lever of willingness that lifts the burden of our disease from our backs. Many of us are encouraged to, and have sought, healthy therapy to bolster the positive aspects of recovery. Dr, Dodes seems to believe that his medical solution excludes a spiritual one and doesn't grasp the fact that often the medical model of recovery is most compatible with 12-sStep ones.

geo 5,673

The History of Genocide

How far back can we go pointing fingers of blame on the effed-up ethnic relationships of the twenty-first century? 

  Here is a brief list of the generations of abuses in the West (I’ve skipped several but, is there room?): 1. the city states of Mesopotamia did it to each other and when the dust settled 2. the Egyptians and Persians threw in to the bloody mix everyone and anyone in their way. 

   3. The Israelites are recorded in the Old Testament as doing it to the inhabitants of Canaan and 4. everyone else did it to the Jews. 4. The Greeks did it to each other and everyone between Pakistan and the Pillars of Heracles. 5. the Persians tried to do it to the Greeks. 6. The Romans had it done to them by the Etruscans so they did it to everyone else including the Greeks, Jews, Celts, Brits, Gauls and so on and on.

   7.  From the East poured into the West as the Huns, Visigoths, Vandals and Mongol hoards of the Khans sacked what was left when Rome and Byzantine fell.

   Skipping ahead a few centuries: 8. According to the Koran the Jews were the first victims of Islam, as Mohammed and his followers put the sword to anyone in their way. 9. Eventually the Moors did it to the Iberian Peninsula. invading Spain into France on one side and almost to Vienna on the other before the Crusades did it back at Islam. 

   10. Spain did it to the  the Jews, heretics, Basque and Catalonians in an inquisition there that lasted into the last half of the Twentieth century and, as if this didn't keep them busy, wiped out or enslaved whole nations of First People here. Spain had their hands in North Africa too.

   11. The Brits did it to the Irish, the Welsh, the Scots and the First People of America, India and Africa… 12. So did the French and some Germans. 13. The Dutch did it to Indonesia and the Portuguese messed things up a bit in Brazil. 14. Nothing can be compared to what the USA did to the tribes and nations of the First Peoples… i.e., the trail of tears etc. 15. Can’t leave out 300 years of the enslavement of Africans either. That is just a few in the West but I haven’t forgotten; 15.  the French in Southeast Asia followed by the Japanese....

   16. The atrocities of the Germans against Slavs, Jews, the Romani, and dissidents of all shades are still fresh in our minds. I haven't much room on this site to mention the list of atrocities imposed on each other in Asia. There are so many... the list goes on forever and NO ONE’S hands are clean. 

So, let us stop bitching and get our act together.

I'm Back!

The extraordinary qualities of great beings who hide their nature escapes ordinary people like us, despite our best efforts in examining them. On the other hand, even ordinary charlatans are expert at deceiving others by behaving like saints.

Patrul Rinpoche

&

So much of what shapes us has sadly predictable results in how we live our lives once we have passed the indoctrination period of our lives. Our rebellious nature is tamed enough for preschool and then we are roped in by the authority of “those who know”. Those Who Know teach us more than reading, writing and arithmetic in our formative adolescent years. They teach us subtle, and not so subtle, forms of submission to those who know. Those who learn best are most often those who submit best. This works for us to some degree because it prepares us to become vital cogs in the machine of social engineering. The machine of social engineering is usually done... finished by the time we are adults and our view of how to function in society is damned near set in concrete by the time we become fully formed adults.

Thus we are set up to be manipulated by authority and, if we choose to go against that, there are a plethora of charlatans waiting outside the gates to lead us by the same rings in our noses of social engineering with a new labels pasted over the old back into a delusional fold. Or, as Ken Kesey once noted when asked to join an anti-war rally in Berkeley, “You have only changed uniforms. You have leaders with bullhorns and tye-dye tees have replaced the fatigues of the National Guard… it is all the same.”

So what is the point of all this negativity? Where do we take this observation? Some escape the meat-grinder our social engineering has prepared us for via drugs and alcohol. Others go insane (Read Howl by Alan Ginsberg). Some go back to their adolescence and subject themselves to the guru of the hour, or preacher, and adopt a dogma that seems to be able to fulfill the emptiness of expectations denied and prepare us for death with promises of reincarnation or the eternal bliss of heaven. Spirituality under such motivations is little more than another manipulation: I.e., prayer and meditation is useful in that we are better equipped by our mantra for middle management of the cogs. Escape we must but our priorities demand we find our core so that our wobbling of confusion isn’t just another button to push.

            Buddha danced to a different drummer. Buddha is but an icon, however… an icon of the dance to a different drummer. No one knows what he really taught or said but the gist of it was there in the sutras; written and expounded upon by his disciples long after he was gone. Christ also did so and broke away from the conventions of authority… at least that is what the New Testament his disciples tell us. But he too is merely an icon of enlightenment. Mohammed is but an icon too: never mind what is written in the Koran and that too long after he was buried under the sands. Filtering through what is left of what they might have said or done, the most important part of each story is that these went off alone into the desert, under a tree, off to a cave, and found their core. They each became independent of the prevailing paradigm. That, my friends, is what each of us must do if we are to escape the gears of the social norms if… and only if… we are so compelled to be free. Otherwise, we might as well stay where we are because where we are is better than the nothing we find outside the gates. Outside of the gates is only for the few, the fools, and the wild, who declare, "I'm Back!"

geo 5,645

Outside of Society

There have always been warriors. That is to say that war and warriors have been a caste in cultures almost universally, even before tribes began putting walls around agricultural communities that evolved into cities and nations. Societies have classically been partitioned into four classes: Warriors, Priesthood, Administrators, and Workers. Then there are rare individuals who simply don’t fit in. There is nothing within the social confines for them behind walls and they must go outside of society either of their own will, or forced out by one or all four of the classes within the walls.

Outside of society are the mentally ill, the criminal, the artist, the poet, the shaman and so on. I might add the alcoholic and addict or just plain ole F” ups but these are luxuries in one sense and the wise ones know it. To serve no useful purpose inside the walls of social norms is a frightening thing for those who are forcibly exiled for one reason or another. This can be true for artists, poets, alcoholics and addict who want nothing more than to “fit in”… to be in the “in crowd”. I hear it all the time from those in recovery who wish “to be productive members of society.” But, to a few, criminals or artists and shaman, nothing could be more repulsive than to be accepted by the norm. We go where we don’t want to be protected by Warriors (and, in many cases, we have more in common with the Warrior than any other class), blessed by the Priesthood, categorized and taxed by the Administrators, or to be welcomed back into serfdom as a Worker.

Patty Smith sang it best; “outside of society, that’s where I wanna be!” Is it so wrong that some of us don’t want to become a cog in the machine… a part of the meat-grinder? Is it a compromise if we yield to leaching off the excesses of it? I think so… but then it is hard to escape it… only a few… only a few.

If there were a Mount Rushmore of the few who succeeded, whose four images would you carve on it? I can draw my four from four of these:

·         Buddha

·         Jesus Christ

·         Boudicca

·         Miyamoto Musashi

·         San Juan de la Cruz

·         Galileo

·         William Blake

·         Red Cloud

·         Morihei Ueshiba (O Sensei)

·         Mark Twain

·         Jack Kerouac/Alan Ginsberg/Neal Cassidy

·         Alan Watts

·         Mother Teresa

All of these and more. I have left out the great reformers of our time because they were working within the frameworks of Society. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and so on were indeed great enough to be put on a Mount Rushmore but these aren’t striving to be outside.

geo 5,626

A Bitter End for a Sweet Man

I haven't felt like posting much since my Dad passed away. It is a peculiar phenomenon that I don't quite understand. It is as though my ideals, my ideas, my perceptions really don't matter much... not as much, at least, as the abiding essence of life... no, that's not it... it is something else... something I can't put a finger on and name... or a story that goes on without a name. I wonder whether his story meant anything to him as he lay there in his hospital bed with what appeared to be not much more to be concerned about than his next breath. I grieve, of course, but I believe I might be grieving for myself as well: I.e., born to die.

   Dad was a robust and healthy man up to the last ten years of his life. He went down fast as his mind was captured by a strange and cruel dementia. A sharp, bright man with a great sense of humor was reduced to scanning for one liners in order to speak. It was a harsh way to go and he was a good man that I believe deserved the best as he exited from this life. The man earned his way and his payment was this! Damned if the Gods aren't sadistic!

   In thinking about old age... our declining years... our end... I can comfort myself with the suspicion that, by the time we go, we are ready to go. Our infirmaries prepare us for the end of it. We think, "This is awful, let's get the eff out of here!" and then we go... just like that. I suppose a good life like the one my Dad lived is reward enough... he had love in his life and compassion for us all, as well as comfort in his so called Golden Years. That ought to be enough.... Shit, what am I bitching about?

geo 5,625

Loving Kindness

It is with gratitude that I look back on my past and think of all the small gestures of kindness that got me through. The simple light of hope stayed kindled just because someone simply smiled or gave me shelter when I had no home. I have found loving kindness from high and low. I don’t have to think long and hard to remember a Christmas dinner, the books on the shelves, the kind hosts, and the house on Addison Street in Berkeley some forty plus years ago. I don’t have to strain to recall them but I do have to give some extra effort to bring up incidents whereby the opposite occurred. I can recall only a little of the pain, the heartbreak, the disappointment of rejection and grief caused by indifference, hatred or fear. Those dark clouds have passed and, when my mind is opened with strong emotions of loving acts of kindness, I am still impressed and gratitude encourages me to be kind if I want to be remembered. Let resentment slip away if I will and allow my soul to be embraced by the Heart of Compassion in which there is no fear disappointment, despair, or hatred.

geo 5,619

Old Cow Practice

Remember the example of an old cow:

She’s content to sleep in a barn.

You have to eat, sleep and shit ---

That’s unavoidable --- anything

Beyond that is none of your business.

Do what you have to do

And keep yourself to yourself.

Patrol Rinpoche

&

When it gets right down to it my faith is un-faith. I get all tied up in a knot with dogma and credos when I depart from the basics. The basics to me are the simple things I must do each day that must be done. Life gets complicated when I start adding things to it. If my attention strays from its center I am useless to myself and to anybody else. Moralistic jingoism gets set aside along with patronizing self-righteousness. They are replaced with a humility that allows others the freedom of their own dignity. Do the next right thing and then shut up about it. Allow the merit of compassion to sink in before I take credit for it because compassion is its own being and knows no restrictions. I become content to be free of encumbrances as an Old Cow practicing the three basics: eating, sleeping and shitting.

geo 5,615

Om/Amen

Amen: Old English, from Late Latin amen, from Ecclesiastical Greek amen, from Hebrew amen "truth," used adverbially as an expression of agreement (e.g. Deut. xxvii:26, I Kings i:36; cf. Modern English verily, surely, absolutely in the same sense), from Semitic root a-m-n "to be trustworthy, confirm, support." Used in Old English only at the end of Gospels, otherwise translated as Soðlic! or Swa hit ys, or Sy! As an expression of concurrence after prayers, it is recorded from early 13c.

Om: mystical word in Hinduism, Buddhism; an utterance of assent, 1788.

֍֍֍

I've wondered if the words Om and Amen have anything in common; after all, they are both affirmations. We usually think of Amen as an affirmation: i.e., “So be it.” Not being an etymologist I just Googled up a couple of snips at the word. I do believe that the word, Om, is as undefinable as the word God or the word Love. We all know what we think we mean by it but, when asked, most of us would impose a variety of definitions we have been taught through the lens of culture.

Most of this crap can be nothing more than mental masturbation. I prefer to drop all that and simply use the word as Paramahansa Yogananda did as a conscience raising vibration in his Metaphysical Meditations: “O infinite energy, infinite wisdom, recharge me with thy spiritual vibration.”

There are often times when I think all this spiritual stuff is nothing more than a bunch of mumbo-jumbo but then, in the morning, I sit on my cushion and begin my usual prayers with an Om. My spirit lifts a bit and, by the time I get to the end of my prayers or chants, I am ready to meditate. My battery is recharged and, for the most part, I go about my day ready for whatever comes. I don’t have to define God or Om. It is enough to connect with the Heart of Compassion and for my feet to get grounded. Amen.

geo 5,613

Inclusive Esoterica

If you turn your light inwardly, you will find what is esoteric within you.

The Sutra of Hui Neng

&

Esoteric is a term that implies elitist or exclusive, as in the mumbo-jumbo only the in-crowd understands. Having preferred to be the out-crowd my whole life I am not so inclined to try to be accepted anywhere that demands I join the in-crowd to “get it”. In or out, it doesn’t matter because what is important is that I find the center… the core… the esoteric within. It comes with a certain confidence that can’t be faked because such confidence comes with enough humility to appreciate the esoteric center in others. It is an inclusiveness that is qualitatively juxtaposed to the exclusiveness of sects or cults. Inclusion means that I accept you as you are just as I accept myself as I am. Or, as Martin Buber would have called it, the union of “I and Thou”. In even more common terms by the Beatles, “I am he and you are me and we are all together…” It is so perfectly put that it comes off as corny to the more cynical but it is true golden mean. It is so simple that it becomes esoteric to anyone seeking the answers or approval from others. Or, as the Carpenter said, “The kingdom of heaven is within.”

geo. 5,607

Everything Counts

   Whatever we have done with our lives makes us what we are when we die. And everything, absolutely everything, counts.

Sogyal Rinpoche

&

   Another famous show business personality was taken out by substance addiction. His friends, and people in the industry of the sublime narcissism of fame, were taken aback and some even expressed shock. Others took on the onus of Job’s councilors by trying to make sense of it… the dissolution of his marriage and etc. When someone we know falls it is a natural response to try to figure it out without grasping the reality of the delusion that has most of us bound by one desire or another unfulfilled… of never having enough or knowing what we want out of life.

    This leads me to think about spirituality that is as delusional as any substance addiction. Some very intelligent and aware people I know of have this idea that they can attain ecstatic states of consciousness and perform miracles. Some gurus or preachers exploit this spiritual materialism and have also convinced followers that by merely sitting in the presence of the “master” they can become enlightened. But, what is enlightenment if it doesn’t transform and tame the ego? If enlightenment doesn’t result in loving-kindness and thereby free us of our addictions, it is delusional. No matter how many disciples we gather around ourselves we die alone with the ego as our only companion. The Carpenter had it right when he said that the fulfillment of the law is The Heart of Compassion; compassion for myself, and for all others.

geo 5,606

The Pot Bowl: Hawks and Broncs

Super Bowl?

Saturday morning… clear sky… all the news is about the Super Bowl. Some call it the Pot Bowl because Denver and Seattle are open cities for the recreational use of marijuana. I don’t give a crap about the debate around marijuana. I no longer smoke it but I ain’t against other people using it. Those who rant against it as a gateway drug to other addictions are misinformed. The truth is that any drug is a gateway drug. Alcohol, pot, tobacco, prescription pain killers… Jails and prisons are full of folks who got introduced to the criminal culture via the procurement or sales of marijuana… or standing in front of the 7/11 to get someone to by a case of beer or pack of smokes for them.

            The way I see it is that there are those who see any inebriant as a social evil because drugs are a chemical shortcut to bliss. For many this is a knee-jerk reaction to a dislike of anyone obtaining some kind of pleasure that they consider immoral. Using a crutch like “the Children” as an excuse to ban it or for reasons of health… be it mental, spiritual or physical health compels them to legislate against any and everything they oppose. I only have to witness the self-righteous indignation some ex-smokers confront smokers with. Many non-smokers, whether they once smoked or not, want to ban smoking in the confines of one’s home; even out in the open having already banned it on beaches and parks in some areas.

In this country we have the experience of the era of Prohibition that opened a door to the growth of criminal gangs and we can see the results of the War on Drugs and the correlation of that with the gang culture hear and in Mexico. It is my belief that those who directly or indirectly profit the most from prohibition are those who wish to continue it. I believe that the Crips, the Bloods and the Sinaloa Cartel most likely agree with Bill O’Reilly, preachers from the pulpits, and pundits on TV. Yes, keep the War on Drugs going. Don’t even get me started on the subject of how illegal pot farming has ruined our pristine National Forests and so on…

I say: Go Seattle Seahawks… Go Denver Broncos. Smoke it up! It ought to be a great Super Bowl whether anyone smokes a bowl or not. I am one of those annoying people who think the government has no business in our homes, how we defend our homes, our bedrooms, our love-life, or our use of drugs (prescribed or not). The more we give up power and self-determination to the government in any area of our lives the more confined and prohibited our neurosis will explode.

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