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

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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!"

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