Total Prosperity & Universal Truth

Refinement or Misogi

2010-10-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

Misogi is a Way of Honor. It is the epitome of self-discipline and living for the welfare of others: Total Prosperity. Misogi is refinement, cleansing, purification, and this is applicable to mind, body, and spirit, as well as place, community, and environment. It is a concept of constantly living Rightly, of Principle, and refining our lives in order to live consistently within the parameters of Natural Law. Natural Law, the foundation of all existence, all society, includes the processes or systems of Nature that function holistically to ensure the health and stability of our world, therefore, for our people. Living outside of Natural Law, within the fabricated world of Man’s principles that are focused more toward profit, self-attention, and materialism, means that we compromise the welfare of our world and severely inhibit the welfare of future generations.

Refinement does not mean to accumulate wealth, possession, or knowledge. It means to pare down excess and sharpen or hone our “edges” to be in a keen state of awareness and living purely. This is accomplished through many physical forms of hardship or trials, which can include dumping buckets of frigid water over one’s head in the early winter mornings, ringing bells and chanting, swinging incense, or self-flagellation with cattails, depending upon the belief system. In Nature, refinement means seeking an ascetic lifestyle, freeing oneself of luxuries, possessions, and attachments to contrived ideas of comforts and needs. It is about losing attachments to extravagance and excess in order to reach a pinnacle of awareness and existence within and as part of the fabric of Nature. Our culture teaches us to move outside of that awareness, to treat Nature as a separate source to exploit in spite of ourselves.

Satori means to be in a state of no separation between the self and Truth of Nature. It means to be indistinguishable from the Whole, that there is no inner or outer dimension, only the reality of being an inexorable and integral part of the Universal cycles infinitely outward and infinitesimally inward. It is a state of existence in which we do not separate ourselves as physical, autonomous beings that exist within Nature, but that we recognize that we are indeed Nature, and we are the part of the Universe that acknowledges itself. There is no subjective thought of principles, no human design based upon a relative world, but only the action of living the Principles of Nature. This means that we must be of a clear mind, only functioning as a vessel within a synergy of universal actions and natural cycles. Still aware of our soul, our inherent place and purpose, we are not driven by the trappings, desires, fears, or attachments of Ego, but instead live within the infinite span of each moment allowing all of Creation to flow through our senses unrestricted. So what this means is that our minds must be clear, we must achieve a Way of existing of Mushin or “no-mind” so that we are not compromised by selfish indulgence or distractions that create obstacles to apprehending the Truth of all things happening around us.

This is not easy to understand, and it is not easy to describe, because using language to put parameters around this is similar to trying to grasp air or water. But the point of this is Refinement, anyway, not Satori.

Refinement is an unending process of striving to reach the perfection of the Creator even knowing that there is no end point to reach. It’s not about getting to the end, but rather about the experience of the journey. It is an adoption of a Way of living to constantly shed attachments and become as pure as possible in order to realize our true connection to the Whole. It is a Way of living perfectly, seeking perfection, and being perfectly imperfect. There is always room to grow and opportunity to change. Our guideline of the Principle of living Rightly is to follow Natural Law, which means to live in a manner that preserves natural systems and cycles, habitats and species. In other words, it is living to be a healer or caretaker that nurtures the world, while living as a warrior of Peace who protects the world. It is seeking Compassion, Harmony, Justice, and Peace in their truest forms, not in the shallow manner that society has defined them.

So we seek to reach this purification by refining our actions. We seek to understand Nature, our place of origin that sustains us, by refining ourselves in order to be closer. We seek to temper our Ego just as a sword-maker tempers a blade, a blade which, when wielded, can either cut us or help us.

Part of this process is to begin to strip away attachments we have to contrived needs. Our culture believes that we need many things to live, but we have gone far above and beyond needs and deeply into wants and exorbitant comforts. Our world is now rife with artificial items and technologies that give us a much easier life, that distract us from the reality of our impacts upon the environment, the world, and our own spirits. Easier does not mean better. We have developed a dependency on the artificial world, and we are evolving relative to this fantasy-land rather than relative to the natural world from which we cloister ourselves. Refinement means to shed all of the extra stuff, the luxuries, the distractions, the definitions, and the fears that keep us attached to this tangible dream-world. Refinement is finding the purest fundamental form and function of our being and existence. This can be accomplished by learning the skills of the Original Instructions. These are the skills of our ancestors who lived without dependency on technology, money, and power. The skills of our ancestors, the physical skills, all have deep spiritual aspects, and as we learn these skills and hone them, we also refine our spirits.

As we practice our skills, whether practicing how to build shelter or find wild plants for food, making fire with sticks, or in the techniques of Aikido, we are shaking off the excess, losing the rough edges, smoothing things out, sharpening connections with the natural world or other beings, sweating out impurities, trimming the fat, learning to clear our minds. We are always finding new ways to become more efficient, more precise, more effective. Acknowledging the spiritual aspect means making a deeper connection to the elements beyond the physical, appreciating our feelings (not emotions) during our purification and perfection of the skills, during the processes of gathering, creating, and doing. We are acknowledging something beyond our personal interests and working not for ourselves but for something beyond. Ideally, we become adept at our skills to the point that immersion into Nature is inevitable, we travel with nothing at all, no tools, no knife, no money, no fear or desire, but only in absolute freedom from all attachments. We travel as an extension of Nature.

Etiquette is something that also has a significant impact upon our refinement, particularly socially. Etiquette, or manners and respect, is crucial for mollifying Ego. Etiquette is not a mere matter of following rules of protocol. It is about establishing social parameters so as not to step upon others’ toes, so to speak. But more than that, it’s a tool used to temper oneself, to keep the Ego in check.

Etiquette takes discipline, and this builds integrity, because as the Ego is tempered, our minds are able to open, our awareness expands, and then we are not distracted by thoughts, fears, and desires. When our minds open, and our senses expand, we are living in a state of Presence or Awareness that allows us to be connected to all things around us, whether the environment or another person, including an attacker. So etiquette keeps us humble and respectful, and it means overcoming some things that are uncomfortable or awkward, and it helps us to build our fortitude to be able to push ourselves harder in our training, harder in our drives to perfect our skills, our techniques, and to take new challenges. It also creates a more cordial social atmosphere in which rules of engagement are established so as to preclude entirely awkward or even humiliating situations. When we show respect and follow a protocol socially, whether in public, at a gathering, or in the dojo, then we maintain a smoother flow to the event, which avoids having to stop to address disruption and avoids complacency or negligence that can easily arise, otherwise.

Children need parameters and rules. Without them, they are free to cross boundaries of etiquette, of which they may not even be aware, and have no structured guidance in their development, socially. With those guidelines established, though they may not like them, rules and etiquette make the child feel loved and cared-for. They rebel, because that is the nature of establishing independence, to test the waters and see how much they can handle while under some structure before going off blindly on their own. Imagine being fledged into the world with no firm foothold on any kind of foundation. Rebelling is fine, but outright insolence breeds contempt, disrespect, and worse. Further, if parents do not enforce rules, but treat them with indifference or lack of discipline, then the child will also see that this is how to treat responsibility, that it’s okay to be complacent, and they will expect things to be “let go” when they are faced with accountability for their actions.

It may not be important to enforce rules with an iron fist, or by whacking someone with a switch, but it is certainly useful to establish and live guidelines that foster a respectful social environment, which will also nurture one’s self-discipline and refinement.

Vision Quest Experience

2010-10-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

I spent a solid ninety-six hours in a tiny spot in the woods. It’s weird to think of it in terms of hours rather than in terms of experiences. Regardless, I left early Sunday morning for my Vision Quest. I brought a gallon of water and a heavy blanket to my spot, and when I arrived I sat down and ushered in the sunrise and the awakening, natural world with excitement.

Sitting for the first day was not too difficult; it was comparable to a significantly extended Sit Spot visit, which I’ve done on many occasions. I met the first half of Sunday full of eager alertness and a sense of great joy just being out there in the middle of my little grove of trees, waiting to see what would unfold for this Quest.

There was no real consideration or concern over the seeming duration of time passage as I filled my experience studying everything around me and connecting to the spot. Surrounded by young Pine trees on the transition edge of a mixed-deciduous forest with Oaks towering overhead, I was sure that I had found a perfect place. There was only one opening to my East side, but that didn’t go too far across the field of moss, perhaps fifty feet, before hitting another edge of forest.

Life surrounded me on all sides, but I could only see beyond the edge of my spot on one side. Chipmunks, squirrels, and mice constantly rustled through the leaves, chased each other, or came no closer than ten feet from me wondering what kind of creature had taken up occupancy in this place of theirs.

The transition area smelled of the moist, dew-laden earth of the forest and field, and only the deep-forest birds like the Tanager and Woodpeckers were making significant sounds of starting their industrious day.

I found myself in and out of states of mind that morning, alternating between thinking and being in Presence. I tried to meditate and to let go of the brain’s need to grasp a sense of time altogether.

So, I spent the first half of Sunday contemplating my mind’s need for thought. But the second half of the day I spent reflecting on the purpose of this Quest. I came to many realizations and insights during the next several days.

I had to take some time to really assess what this was all about, because it wasn’t about me; it couldn’t be. I wasn’t there to make a gain or to create an image. I was there because I am attempting to fulfill a need for my children. I made sure to acknowledge my purpose and speak it to the elements surrounding me so as not to be there in vain. I explained that my entire purpose, if nothing more, was to at least complete the physical part of the Quest, to show my children the integrity of sticking something out, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable it may be. I further explained in supplication that any Vision, message, or insight was not strictly for my gain, but rather for the passing down of information from experience—wisdom—to our progeny. Whatever came of this experience was as a means to an end for the betterment of all beings, for the purpose of healing Grandmother Earth.

That evening, Grandfather Sun sank behind the trees in the Western corner nearest me, but he left a coating of light on the trees across the field on the Southern end. This is the time that a small murder of five Crows moved to their evening roosting area in the West. This is the time that chipmunks and squirrels quiet considerably, while mouse and shrew become active in the leaf litter. There is a porcupine juvenile in a large Pine on the Western edge a few hundred feet away, and he whines constantly at his mother. All night long, he sounds like a baby constantly being nudged to mind his manners, or prodded to stop being naughty. This is the time that Pileated Woodpecker, who’s been laughing at me throughout the day, heads from the woods behind me in the North, to wherever he stays at night in the South. This is the time that daytime, human families are buckling down to finish homework and have supper, and I know my own family is doing just that before they say their Thanksgiving Address, as I’ve been doing out here. This Gloaming, or dusk, is a significant transitional time, and I feel like I’ve been part of it for eons as I grow closer to the little group surrounding me.

It wasn’t until this wall of light faded, replaced by a rising veil of shadow and these trees were in darkness, that the night began to show its true form, when the stars popped out randomly, and Grandmother Moon peeked through the Eastern trees.

As I lay back on the first night, my thoracic spine in knots, I rested my head on my hand and tried to relax into the night scene. I must have relaxed too much, because I woke up after several minutes of dreaming, still propped up on my hand. I blinked, but then found myself waking up again after another dream still propped on my hand. This happened maybe five times. I tried to stand up to shake off the sleep, but I was near drunk with sleepiness, and the next thing I knew I was waking up after a couple of hours as Grandmother Moon was vanishing over the Western edge of my area. Quite unhappy with myself for sleeping, I stood up and cursed in my mind at my lack of integrity, and I vowed to stay awake from then on.

On the second day—Monday-- the initial excitement of the Quest hadn’t eased, but I found that I began to dredge through regrets and mistakes in my life, and I also found that patience is certainly a virtue that one must possess to undertake sitting in one spot for twenty-four hours straight, let alone ninety-six. Although, I will admit that I did not sit the entire time. I sat, stood, kneeled, lied down, crouched, and squatted as if in some kind of extreme Sunday-morning mass, over the course of my time out. My back was not happy with a lack of a back-rest, so the dynamics of this scenario were difficult. I learned much about my physical center, as well as getting an intense, crash-course in Ki extension. This carried over into the third day, particularly during the nights in which I tested myself by wearing next to nothing as Grandfather Sun set and Grandmother Moon took his place across the sky bringing quite a chill along with her.

I scanned my relatively restricted spot that morning, and I felt compelled to investigate a place that was only twelve feet away, deeper into the transition-line of Pines and Oaks. The young trees—from ten years old to twenty years old—grew more densely packed there, and I could see a perfect nook within, from underneath the branches, that beckoned me. I reassessed my initial place, and the openness concerned me greatly; I felt I needed to go deeper. So I moved into the little grove where there was essentially “standing room only.”

No matter where I turned my body in this nook, some of my siblings’ branches stroked some part of my skin. The confined space left little visibility beyond four feet, and this seemed much more appropriate for the purpose I sought.

As I sat and greeted my little group of trees, I could only see the open sky above and the tops of the mature trees on the field edges about a hundred feet away. Standing, I was able to see the forest at the Southern edge of the field several hundred feet outside of my spot. I could see the wind blowing the tops of the edge-trees while my group of saplings stayed quite still. It occurred to me that this was similar to the mental process of going deeper into oneself in order to move into the spiritual realms. If the winds were thoughts, then the calm place immediately around me was like my mind absent of thought, quiet enough to experience the purity of the moment and place. But beyond my inner circle of quietness, out there where the winds of thoughts blew the trees heavily, there also needed to be calm in order for me to see details and hear subtle sounds more clearly in the further spheres. So I began to contemplate how to go about reaching deeper within, but beyond my inner, central self, to find a way to calm those thoughts that seemed so out of reach, beyond the subconscious into the unconscious, it seemed. This would consume me for the next day and night.

While standing facing south earlier in the day, I felt that there was somebody approaching me. I looked frantically through the trees, spying through the branches and underneath them, out as far as I could to locate any movement. I listened for alarms or footsteps. There was nothing. But I got this sensation from the trees around me as if there was something intriguing happening. Still, I found no sign of any other entities nearby, and then my mind slipped into a ridiculous thought process about something back in the secular world, and I actually went into a lengthy diatribe with the trees about how this issue concerned me. About ten minutes later, I finally noticed the alarm calls that had progressed already up the field from the South, and I noticed movement about twenty feet away. It was Dakota coming to check on me. I turned away, as was the established rule, for there can be no communication, not even eye contact, during the Quest. He saw that I was still alive, and he left accordingly.

Then I mentally beat myself up for being such an unobservant, disconnected idiot. I was beyond upset that I hadn’t noticed his presence there, and I even came close to blaming the spirits for not alerting me. But I knew that it was my own foolish ignorance that kept me from being aware. Then it occurred to me that I HAD indeed been notified: ten minutes prior. I had been notified that there was someone approaching, and I had found that this feeling came through sensing the presence of the trees and other life around me. What I didn’t do was put the feeling together with a deeper exploration of imagery or other sensation. I used no inner vision to establish how far, who was coming, what direction, or why. So then I apologized to the spirits, and I mentally beat myself up even more.

Then I let it go. I became so engrossed by my frustration that I realized that I was beginning to anticipate things. My mind was mimicking my inner vision, and I made predictions based more upon paranoia than true feeling. This became even more consuming and frustrating, so I had to allow myself to forgive myself. Only after hours of this torture was finally able to just let it go.

The chipmunk that would be my closest four-legged neighbor, by this time, came to within a couple of feet of me, exploring my presence when I was IN Presence. Acorns randomly dropped and plunked thick branches, plopped in mats of leaves, or cracked on large rocks around me.

Porcupine whined at the Gloaming, at dusk, and I went back to Presence, to extending Ki, and I let the energy of Nature flow through me again.

On that Monday night, I learned how much the winds shifted and moved from the cooler woods and wet area back and forth through my sit area. I also learned that in the winds, the Oaks overhead dropped massive air-strikes of acorn-bombs all around me. I found this somewhat comical because I had felt particularly compelled to be in this spot, so either it was a set-up by the spirits or my subconscious self, or it was an opportunity. I sought the opportunity. I found that if I stayed in Presence, I developed a sense of the proximity of falling acorn-bombs. I was hit on the back only one time during my days and nights there, and it was during a time that I was thinking rather than being. Very powerful lesson. Those things hurt.

In the gusting winds I thought I would freeze. I hadn’t eaten since Saturday, and I was trying to drink my gallon of water sparingly, as well. I take this concept of the “little death” seriously, so I deprived myself of as much as possible without tipping myself into the risk of absolute, physical death. Unfortunately, after two days of drinking only a pint of water, I found that my muscles were cramping considerably, and the already frigid nights reaching into the high thirties were bringing me to unbearable shivering from deep inside my core, nearly expelling me from the Quest.

I bundled up and sat awake that night for as long as possible, listening to branches rustle and acorns thwap the ground. It was a good chunk of the night that I sat awake, too, as Grandmother Moon hit somewhere near the midpoint above, and then my back forced me to change position again. And, again, in doing so, I lost the battle with sleep. I spent an extremely uncomfortable and fitful night of strange dreams and pain on the ground.

On Tuesday morning I stood again before Grandfather Sun broke over the tops of the Eastern trees, and I again cursed myself for being such a weakling. I knew I would do better that night. I prayed I would do better, and when I prayed, I then realized that I hadn’t actually made my purpose for this Quest clear to anyone: not to Nature, the Great Spirit, and not even to myself.

As I eased back into Presence, all senses open and experiencing the Now, I thought of how we, in society, seem to chase after time, horde it, and then waste much of it. We fill time with distractions, believing we’re experiencing the Now while we’re actually living in spite of it, like inviting a friend to visit you while you listen to music through headphones by yourself. Even things we do as families can be devoid of experiencing time in the present, as we’re so busy chasing the event that we’ve assigned to a particular spot in a schedule. Rather than letting Time come to us at the center, we overlay it with things to do.

We also miss things in the present while we’re so busy chasing it. While we’re busy focused on some task or event, we miss the present of an event and only see the wake left behind. If not in Presence, then I don’t feel the actions of the creatures around me; I miss the presence of all beings and events happening at the same time I’m living, and I only see the effects after the events. Then I would wonder something like: How did that happen? How did I miss that? What was I doing? And that’s not a way to exist, to me. When living in Presence, I’m riding in the boat, not chasing the wakes.

When in Presence, there is no sense of time duration, only experience. When out of Presence, time can feel as if it goes by fast or slow depending upon our interpretation. This, to me, seems like a vast waste of existence, never experiencing the reality of life as it happens. This, to me, is like getting second-hand stories of events that are truly important and should be experienced at the time. This life of catering to schedules and slating events is like fillers for an existence that we find otherwise scary or uncomfortable in its realness. We constantly cater to our mind’s beliefs, assumptions, and interpretations, even before we know the reality of those situations, and we mitigate our assumptions with fluff, experiences that lack substance, even if they seem deep and significant. In fact, it is during the deepest and most significant times that we should be in Presence. This way, we gain a fuller, richer experience of the Now.

So I found that while in Presence during this Quest, time had no meaning, and it was more like moving from within one state of progressive Now, rather than moving from minute to minute. There was no fast or slow, only Now, and all linear perception vanished while everything persisted progressively. In other words, it was an astounding insight.

While being in a state of Presence, it is reasonable to extend Ki, as this is part of the full experience of the Universe. Extending Ki is a natural part of being in the moment. It is a constant state of readiness, a state of being centered at all times. Extending Ki is the energy aspect of Presence, which sets the physical and mental in synchronicity. This is Unification of mind and body, which, to me, is an essential aspect of Presence.

So on this, my third day—Tuesday—I ventured into deep meditation on things happening in my life. I found that an Aikido school of Nature seemed to be a very logical and important step in the evolution of the purpose I am uncovering in my existence. Then it occurred to me that we’re quite presumptuous to believe that we must have some kind of grand purpose in our existence in order to live a rich and fulfilling life. Another attachment: trying to seek the purpose rather than letting it unfold along your path with the things you do. In other words, as long as we live rightly, according to the Natural Laws, then we will find our purpose when it happens, because it is the inevitable culmination of our experiences. In other words again, if we live trying to figure out what’s at the end of the path, we lose the experience of the journey in fullness, and we also get attached to the idea that there is an ending.

I didn’t want to be caught in that thought-trap.

So I did much contemplation about Ki extension, Presence, and the techniques of Aikido. I put myself into a “trance” of sorts, of envisioning the techniques while extending Ki and practicing in the deeper level of consciousness: what some would consider the spiritual realm. This infuses the techniques into the mind and body, but also allows one to explore them beyond three or four dimensions of time and space, but also spiritually as units of Ki interacting with others in pure reflection, Mushin, No-mind.

During this day I was hanging out with the trees again, facing South, and I was in Presence when I got an inexplicable urge to sense presence specifically within my sit area. Sensing presence and being IN Presence are not entirely the same thing, but in order to sense presence, I need to BE in Presence. (This “inexplicable” urge also prompted a deep contemplation about science being supposedly objective, but unwilling to explore the spiritual realm as another extension of science itself.) Anyway, while sensing presence, I felt that the trees in the area were “paying attention to something.” It was as if something had caused them to shift their “tree-vision” to something outside my small circle.

When I obeyed my inner vision drive to look into the distance through the branches, I saw movement in the distance. This time, it was Quinn, my middle son, approaching from a few hundred feet away bringing me water. He was too far to be heard, and he had not yet set off the alarm I knew would be coming from that area, and I could only see his head coming over the field of Showy Goldenrod from the distance. This time, I got the message, and even though I may have missed the message that may have come ten minutes earlier, I very strongly received this one that came in plenty of time to teach me an extremely valuable lesson of awareness and connection. I was quite pleased with this lesson.

Quinn brought the water. I turned away before he got to my spot. He left the gift, then went back home.

That evening, the Crows glided from the East to the West, following Grandfather Sun from a distance. Pileated Woodpecker darted out from the forest behind me, made a short appearance, then slipped over the Western tree-tops, within which Porcupine whined as if mother was annoying him again with waking up for the night.

That night, I drank the water deeply, and I embarked the oncoming of the frigid night with next to nothing on my body. This was a time to test my extension of Ki. After four days devoid of food and two nights rife with fitful sleep, at best, not to mention sitting in one spot for three days, I wanted to push my test to prove that I was worthy of being a vessel of healing and protection of all my relations for the Creator.

I put myself into a state of Presence as Grandfather Sun dropped behind the trees in the West. As night diluted the colors of day with tones of gray, the temperature also dropped significantly, and continued to do so as the winds picked up and began an upheaval of near gale-force proportion. Extending Ki as night enveloped me and my place, I watched Grandmother Moon rise and stood in my position as the cold intensified around me. I was always the type of kid who wore t-shirts in the winter when going to school, or who would swim in the frigid waters just to show off a little bravado—all Ego garbage, of course—but this was different from “attacking” the cold with pure mental will or obstinacy. This lesson became a matter of not resisting the cold, but rather embracing it as something real that I could turn into even stronger Ki that created a buffer over my skin, or maybe just beneath it, kind of like a layer of Ki fat! I found that while extending Ki, I could indefinitely stay in the descending temperatures without exhausting Ki. However, I also found that it takes a toll mentally and physically to stand and focus in this way, and my back ultimately became the culprit that betrayed me. Not because of a lack of Ki, but because of a lack of spinal fortitude, I had to take a break and try to rejuvenate myself. I suppose I’m just not made to “sleep” on the hard ground for several nights in a row anymore. Alas. But I did stay with Grandmother Moon, extending Ki to my siblings around me, well into the night before I had to rest. Of that, I am satisfied.

On Wednesday, I thought it would be the easiest day because I was at the last leg of the Quest. I thought Tuesday, the third day, would be the longest. There were points throughout the Quest, during which my Ego spiked and grew frustrated, irritated, and impatient. I constantly had to temper this mind with will and strength from the Creator to let these petty emotions go. But Wednesday had me quite bound by my Ego at a couple of moments. I found this particularly intense when I started thinking about exactly what I was going to eat when I left the next morning. I even found that in my night-fits of strange dreams that it wouldn’t be uncommon to dream about gigantic apples or other strange foods. Oddly, as starving as I was convinced I must be, I didn’t really feel too hungry. When I finally did eat upon my return, however, my body certainly didn’t respond the way I had thought it might.

Many new insights, particularly with inner vision or intuition came to me during that day. Some things are too personal to mention, but it was a poignantly productive day with lessons I needed to learn about dealing with certain aspects of my life, which included trying to hone my inner vision. This led me back to the concept of trying to calm the winds outside of my inner circle, deep into my unconscious, spiritual awareness. If I could control the “winds” of thoughts directly in my mind, within my inner consciousness, then perhaps the outer consciousness was about controlling the winds of thoughts in the mind of my spiritual self. This again set me on the meditation of extending my spiritual self and taking a very different approach to the spiritual mind from that which I’d taken previously.

If I were to qualify any particular aspect of this Quest as the “Vision,” I would say that this was a most powerful aspect of it. It is something I will continue to explore for quite a while, I’m sure.

It was on this day that the chipmunk neighbor decided to come within inches of me to see what I was up to.

The Pileated Woodpecker once again bubbled from overhead, flying Southward across the field and over the distant trees. The small murder of Crows drifted from the Eastern tree-line across the forest in the distance, circled several times as they moved, like a spiraling tide of black leaves caught in a gentle whirlwind, casually diving at someone, then disappeared fully in the West.

Porcupine started whining again, and it was officially the buckling-down time of evening.

This Wednesday night, night number four, I said my Thanksgiving Address as I always do, and I then took time to apologize to our Earth and our relations for the way our people have treated them. It was then that I really sat and relaxed in a deep sense of camaraderie with the wilderness that I have not really felt before. I’ve always felt deeply connected to Nature, and I’ve felt familiarly close for a very long time, but this was deeper in a way of being immersed to the point that I actually didn’t feel like a human hanging out with my woodland family. Rather, I felt as if I had become one of the trees, taking a spot among my relations. I felt rooted to that spot, and I could feel myself on the threshold of feeling the extension of sensing the presence and messages, feelings, and personalities of other beings in the area beyond sensing their pain or sensing their contentment. And, no word of a lie, it was then that a shooting star bolted from East to West overhead. And as Grandmother Moon began to move up behind the canopy in the East into the thickening clouds, I heard the strangest sound to my right, to the West. It was the sound of a monstrous creature choking on something: I pictured a buffalo coughing up a hairball. It took me a moment of honing in my ears to realize that the sound was high above, not at ground level. As it cleared its throat, Barred Owl began an overture that spurred the calls of several owls in the area until a full council was hooting back and forth for several minutes. I attempted to participate, but my throat was swollen and dry from not drinking enough water, and I only sounded ridiculous to the point that I’m pretty sure they scoffed, laughed, and flew away.

During that night, I seemed to be surrounded with animal activity, unlike the other, quieter nights, as if there had been some kind of curfew lifted and everyone was allowed to return to business as usual as my Quest wound down to completion.

The next morning, I watched for the last time on that Quest as Grandfather Sun stretched from behind the trees in the East and day saturated night, enlivening darkness with color. When He reached the point at which I met him on my first morning, it was time for me to leave. I said a heartfelt Thank-you to my little family, to the Keeper of that spot, and silently departed into one of the most brilliant and enriched mornings of my life. Not many things have looked more glorious, tasted sweeter, smelled so beautiful, felt so refreshing, or sounded so pleasing as the emergence from the Quest.

TenFires 合気道
"I used to wish and hope and pray that I would have a teacher, when I was a kid. I wanted that "Grandfather" figure or "Master" to guide me. That wish gave me some impetus to dig myself in to really learning whatever I could, for I wouldn't want to be a disappointment if the day ever came that I met this incredible person.
I never met this one person, though. But I realized, after about fifteen years, in retrospect, that I had been quite fortunate to have had so many different influences of so many different aspects of Aikido, primitive living, and philosophy, after all. Ultimately, Nature was my greatest teacher, with all of these people of so many cultures and ages being my guides.
I'm so fortunate that not only do I still have these guides, but that I find new ones constantly, and they are often children, my own included.
I used to believe that I needed someone to show me how to be spiritual. Now I know that I only needed someone to show me THAT I could be. Nature and genuine passion did the rest.

The most valuable lesson I've learned, though, regarding striving for the pinnacle of existence, is that there is no greater power than a need beyond the self.
Doing this (trying to be on a selfless path but for selfish reasons) to become enlightened, I've found, only brings one to an intellectual grasp, if that.

But when living literally for the welfare of all other beings, for the rights, peace, and freedom of all others, for the preservation of our world as a Whole, in earnest, and being willing and happy to die for this, then incredible things begin to happen.

My ideas of needs and comforts have always been minimal and conservative, but the idea, when I was younger and more foolish,was always to bring ME closer to Nature, which I had to learn the hard way was doing little more than creating lots of stagnation and frustration.

After becoming a father, and after really grasping how much we are a family in this world--all of us--I've found that very need that exists beyond my selfish ideas and that going to extremes has become necessary, easier, and has brought me much deeper than I had imagined possible BECAUSE of the need to live beyond myself."

Healing Through Unification

2010-10-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

September 10, 2010

The body is not simply mechanical, but progressive; it changes organically. If it were mechanical, then any body could be re-started in any state, like a car, but this is not so. Cells die, and no amount of “jump start” can ignite the body when the life force leaves permanently. Earth is a progressive organism. Science says that Earth is not really "alive," because it does not breathe, eat, eliminate, and reproduce in the same manner that we "living" beings do. Earth doesn't follow the description that we've invented for a living being, and some say it is not a living organism because it has no conscience in the way we define our sentience. But many feel that Grandmother Earth is a living being regardless of a restricted employment of a language of science that humans have invented to categorize and quantify the processes of the Universe.

Many see Earth as an organism comprised of a synergy of living systems. Many feel the energy of Grandmother Earth, her spirit, in the breath of the winds, the heartbeat of the pulsating oceans, the eruptions of her internal fires, the flow of blood of the rivers and streams, and in the recycling of nutrients in the placenta of the soils. So it may be scientifically "unreasonable" to say that Earth is alive, but it is far from being a wrong or ridiculous position. Even atoms and all forms of energy have some construct of consciousness, albeit not a protocol of thought, as we have. Earth, of course, expresses consciousness through the perpetuation of systems of living and dying. But to extend just a little further with respect to our place here: If all systems of Nature are combined to be the living organism, then it follows that our own minds must be the collective mind of Grandmother Earth: consciousness of the Universe acknowledging itself. Unfortunately, we are allowing Ego to infect our Mother organism as we perpetuate our pathology.

In our bodies, which are reflective of Earth and our siblings here, we can strengthen our minds and bodies by unifying with the Universe, which means to extend Ki and allow Universal Ki to fill us, which means maintaining a relaxed and positive state. Positivity comes from peace, which is derived from the mind and body and actions being coordinated; in other words, living in a way that we do not contradict our principles. Principles derived from Nature benefit all beings, as long as they are not contorted and bastardized through influences of Ego. Principles from Ego only serve the few at the expense of others, which fosters the cancer, the disease of the minds and bodies of us and Grandmother Earth.

As we heal our “own” minds through acknowledging our souls and spirits, we inevitably heal the collective mind of Grandmother Earth. This acknowledgment must come from freeing ourselves of being controlled by Ego, by thoughts, attachments, fears, and desires, but instead using the Ego as a tool to help us understand and interpret communication from the Whole through our feelings (not emotions: emotions come from beliefs, feelings come from innate, even inexplicable "movement" beyond the physical senses), visions, dreams, etc. This is accomplished by releasing the grip of Ego by letting go of all thought and anticipation. This is further facilitated by maintaining the One Point (at the hara), and constantly extending Ki (unconditional, healing Love).

The exercises of Aikido accomplish this because one must maintain that center when exploring the movements, turning the forms of techniques into a formless second nature action, a mere echo of another action in the Universe. They do not work through brute force (Ego), but are only accomplished while relaxed and even joyous, but certainly while at peace. Aikido not only establishes your personal center (which is everywhere in the infinite universe), but also teaches you how to work in conjunction with others, while their centers may be troubled, or aggressive, or otherwise. This then brings harmony to the Universe. The extension of Aikido (more of an aspect than an extension, actually) is living rightly. This, of course, means upholding natural law, which means to live in a manner of compassion and justice for all life and all natural systems, so that all beings benefit. And it is by this way that we may begin to heal Grandmother Earth. ;)

"Science is a language Man created to describe Nature. Adhering to Science in and of itself is similar to adhering to literal translations of a Holy Book. This is not the true essence of Science. One must learn the Science of Spirit, as well as the physical, in order to wholly grasp Truth. To separate the two is catastrophic folly. Science must be utilized to protect Nature and bring health to all beings, rather than being utilized to exploit Nature and separate ourselves from Nature. Not grasping the spiritual aspect of existence is a thought-trap of science, of the Ego, believing that the physical, measurable quantifiers are the only reality and truth. It is a personal form of denial, even widely accepted amongst peers in the scientific community, just as any other religion that excludes open-mindedness and forsakes that Nature is not separable into specialized pieces, but rather must function as a whole, so that even the currently "inexplicable" must still be considered as very real and integral to Truth."

Nature Deficit Disorder. Do You Have NDD?

2010-10-08T10:34:00.001-07:00

If we let ego determine our grounds of belief for ourselves, and we pass those beliefs onto our children, then we do them a grave disservice, and it typically stems from ignorance.

In other words, the goal of all beings right now should be about preservation of our future generations, and this means preservation of Grandmother Earth. Failing this, our grandchildren are doomed. So it is crucial that we teach them ABOUT Grandmother Earth, and how we actually fit in, rather than teaching them society's ways of exploiting our world. By teaching them about Nature, they foster a love for Nature (unless we teach them that life is a commodity), and with love comes protection. We protect what we love. Our species doesn't really show that it loves Nature anymore.

So it begins with letting our egos take a rest and thinking of the welfare of the children in spite of ourselves. This means we start bringing them outside and nurturing their curiosity, Love, and respect for the natural world by implementing activities, walks, and discussions/stories that are about being immersed in a sunset, for example; or a particular trail, flower, or animal track; perhaps write a song about the seasons; have them draw a picture of an insect they saw on a plant; play hide-and-seek in the woods; build a camp; put on a puppet show....the games and activities are endless. Teach them to understand the plants by having them draw pictures and play "field guide" scavenger hunt.

My kids are required to sit outside in a favorite spot for a minimum of 30 minutes every day, so they can learn about the life and transitions of that spot. They do what I call "bio sheets" every day on different beings, and they all can go into the wild and survive on their own with no Manmade tools or equipment. All of them can collect edibles from the yard/woods, and I always have them help me gather medicinal plants, as well. And it's all done in a way that they have fun and want to learn through the experience. We just hang out, and they learn lessons as life predicts.

They suddenly find that they don't care about missing television or worrying about sleeping in a bed or eating from a plate. The quality time of life is spent living, not worrying about living.

It's very easy, too. Kids know everything! :DD Get some field guides on plants, then ask THEM to teach YOU about any particular plant you find fascinating. YOU ask THEM questions because you don't know, and they will be happy to educate you. Nature gave us all curiosity and freedom to wander according to our soul's direction, so tap into it and have fun!

What Happened to Religious Freedom?

2010-10-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

Why can people of other cultures, of other religions, come here and practice their religions freely, but I am forced to contradict my own and live a life of hypocrisy in my native land?

I am a Pantheist. I acknowledge and integrate elements from Buddhism, Shintoism, and Taoism, but it all boils down to worshiping Nature and Natural Law as the Source of Creation, driven by a Universal Creator or Spirit-that-moves-through-all-things, which functions as Unconditional Love. Unconditional Love perpetuates all life systems, which means that the default action of the Universe is to evolve, to continue processes--even destruction is part of those processes, of course--but ultimately, the processes perpetuate life, which is what we see established here on Earthmother.

The Great Spirit is the very force of Unconditional Love, and there is energy in all things, that we all share, and it is all around us. This energy is demonstrated in emotion, "vibes" we get from other beings or things, magnetism, electricity, and in the chemical reactions in our bodies.

As Nature is the foundation of our existence, as it is what sustains us, where we come from, and an extension of ourselves, as we are part of the Universe that has been gifted with acknowledging itself, then it follows that protecting and preserving Nature, the environment, natural processes, and upholding Natural Law, is not only logical, but necessary in order to ensure the welfare of our future generations.

It has nothing to do with money, technology, or fabricated ideals and ethics established by the beliefs or powers wielded by society. Anything that opposes Nature or Natural Law, anything unnatural, unreal, anything that causes destruction or inhibits natural systems in its creation, use, or disposal is counter-productive to our environment, therefore, to us.

Our fears have caused weakness, and this has caused us to form beliefs that oppose Natural Law. This has further caused us to attempt to conquer and control Nature, changing it to fit our desires rather than adapting ourselves to it. This aberration has caused us to create technologies that severely imbalance our efficiency in a way that allows us to be more complacent while turning out far too much at the expense of other life and systems. It allows us to cater to our fears and desires while also bolstering our weaknesses. It has caused us to become pathological, to become parasitic, to devour our host while expanding rapidly and building tumors of cities and roads and developments while poisoning our host. We've become a cancer. I choose not to be part of this.

As a Pantheist, as a Paleo-Pantheist, my spiritual calling is to live in harmony with the natural world, to restore balance by living according to the Original Instructions of the Creator, those instructions that dictate my inherent place in the natural world, as part of it, not in Man's fabricated world. My duty is to be a protector of the natural world, to adhere to Natural Law, and to be an integral, productive part of the natural systems in order to benefit all life, not just human life.

As I have been given the option, of free will, to choose to be a Taker or a Caretaker, I have chosen to be a Caretaker, and my religious rights, as well as my inherent birth-rights, are being violated by the modern systems of Man.

It is against my religion to have a car, to live in a house, to use money or even this computer, to be part of a system that destroys Nature as a rule, to participate in the building of roads, cities, parking lots, bombs, machines, and any other artificial construct of Man that adversely affects the natural world, including war, agriculture and other farming, logging, and mass-fishing, or any mass-harvesting for any purpose.

It is a violation of my religion to participate in any way, whether financial or by some default idea that living on these soils makes me an automatic cohort or supporter, with the raping, exploitation, or manipulation of the natural world in a manner that harms the environment and other beings, as well as our future generations, in order to cater to our modern fears, greed, and desire for luxuries or anything beyond our inherent needs.

It is against my religion to participate in expanding our population and maintain an ecological imbalance.

It is against my religion to humor the ludicrous idea of "owning" property, of treating life as a commodity. These concepts are grave sins.

It is against my religion to do any of these things. But it is in line with my religion to live in the pristine, natural world, where my birth-right is to be able to roam freely anywhere my feet or my horse can take me, without having to recognize any borders, signs, or fences.

It is my birthright to drink of the waters of Earthmother from any freshwater source without having to worry about human-induced toxic- or bacterial-pollution.

It is my birth-right to eat any plants or wildlife, in the water, air, or on the land, that I can forage or catch, within the Natural Laws of reverence and in the mindset of the Caretaker, so that I may live and feed my family or tribe, without having to worry about boundaries, licenses, fees, fines, or any Manmade regulatory protocol or pollution.

It is my birthright to live anyplace that is suitable for me and my family to build shelters, without worrying about taxation, property expenses, or property delineation.

It is my birth-right to breathe clean air.

It is my birth-right to not have to deal with the noise of aircraft, of munitions, of vehicles, of machines, or to deal with the residual run-off or leaching of toxins and other pollutants or Manmade elements into the wilderness.

It is my birth-right not to have to deal with encroachment of cities, roads, and any other constructs or practices of any society that does not live in accordance with Natural Law.

However, I am under duress by modern society to participate in and perpetuate these unnatural practices and perversions, to bolster a system that violates our inherent birth-rights, that compromises the welfare of other life and our future generations. I am forced to adhere to Manmade law through violence and threats of losing my physical freedom. I am forced to contradict my religion, to show hypocrisy to my children, to leave a legacy of destruction and poison to my grandchildren, and it's not ethical, right, or just for society to do this, and I categorically denounce modern society and renounce my participation. I am being violated by modern society, and it is not my true self that participates in these things, but my un-living self, devoid of the true spirit of my inherent purpose. I deny being part of this society and willingly relinquish my connection to this society and its practices.

Until I am free as my wild brothers and sisters, free of the influences of Man, I am living death.

The Human Decision

2009-07-04T09:33:00.001-07:00

Humans have the capacity to change. Humans have the capability to gain knowledge, to use intuitive judgment based upon True Principle (different from contrived principle), and to live according to this Principle in a real way that benefits all. This is Wisdom...

The problem is that while humans can tap-in to knowledge and intuition, they can also make a decision to understand, to be compassionate, to participate in productive progression, to live Rightly . . . or not to. Tapping-in to intuition does not automatically imply tapping-in to positivity; this is a grave misconception. Doing so can also mean exposing oneself to negative intent. Further, being inherently inclined to this destructive intent is as real and common as being right-handed as opposed to being left-handed. It is natural; but, if there is too much destruction, we all suffer and perish. Likewise, if there is not enough destruction, then we grow beyond our natural capacity, and we perish.

There must be balance.

Another crucial element that makes the most significant difference in this logistic is alignment. If we align our principles to the principles of the subjective, artificial world of Man, then we base our entire system of Truth upon a system of fundamental Beliefs. Interpretations of Truth are not Truth. Therefore, our principles become beliefs rather than Truth, and beliefs foster self-serving attachments, as well as a grand system of destruction. This is clearly seen in the paradigm of modern societies that are not living in a mutualism with the Natural world.

Not understanding Truth and Reality is the common mindset, because those things have been nurtured out of us—or at least wholly suppressed—in our modern cultures of technology, attachments, false ideas of progress, greed, power, luxury, commodity, and irreverence. But if one is willing and wanting to explore Truth and Reality in earnest, then that person has made the choice to exercise his or her capacity to gain Wisdom through change, thus, contributing to the welfare of all.

If, however, one chooses either not to understand or to live in denial while perpetuating the destructive memes, the contrived needs, the dependency, and the addictions of modern society, then this person is inherently inclined to destruction. Now there becomes a need for resolution. To remain indifferent or to ignore this is to participate in the perpetuation of the disease, as well: to do nothing is to enable the cancer.

It is a fact, like it or not, that America and several other countries were literally established and built upon terrorism. Even if we were not directly involved in these events, we are not without accountability. Supporting the end is to tacitly condone and justify the means.

If you buy fur coats, leather seats, steaks, gelatin, or any vegetables under the justification that you didn’t actually kill anything, you are ignorantly still condoning and justifying the farming and murder of animals and plants on a massive scale in which life is treated as a commodity. This is the same with any system or method that treats life as a commodity. You don’t have to participate in the heart of the process to support the process. You don’t even have to participate in the process at all to support it. Everything is tied together economically in our modern industrial systems of destruction, of Taking. Simply participating in economics means to support the overall system that literally parasitizes the planet like a cancer and treats life as a commodity.

You literally support the terrorism, genocide, slavery, rape, torture, extortion, exploitation, and deceit that started this and other countries. You literally become a resource, contributor, or even cheerleader for the gang-style tactics that are implemented today to keep the terrorist-derived system rolling smoothly. You become a terrorist by association and participation, even if you didn’t burn infants in their villages.

You have an option. This is your gift of free-will. You can choose. Even if your free-will is restricted to a limited amount of choices offered by the Universe, it’s still free-will, and nit-picking it is absurd and relatively useless. The point is that you have every opportunity to choose to align with Truth and Reality, or to choose not to, keeping in mind that choosing nothing is still choosing something, as all of your actions still affect the Whole. Understand that there will be consequences that accompany your decision; some will endorse you, and some will defy you. Your spiritual integrity is really the element that is at stake.

Truth Does Not Come From Within: It Flows Throughout

2009-07-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

The problem is that most humans have been nurtured away from seeing it. Further, "would-be" spiritualists convince folks that it is "mystical" and that it means forsaking part of the self--especially the physical self--in order to reach "enlightenment," which typically turns out to be less enlightenment and more denial.

But it's all very simple, actually. Let's get your inherent compass to point to True North.

You must breathe to survive. (Some creatures don’t need oxygen, such as anaerobic bacteria which respire with Glycolysis, but all living organisms respire.) This is Truth.

You may believe that breathing is annoying or fun. You may believe that you are lucky it is involuntary. You may understand the processes of metabolic reactions in your body are stunning. But these are interpretations of the fact that you must breathe. They do not have any bearing upon that Truth.

You need food in order to live. All living beings need to eat food. This is Truth.

You may look into the nutrient contents of foods, learn the cell structures and how they work in our bodies. You may create a diet based upon what you believe you need from certain foods. You may assign a monetary value to foods. But these are interpretations of Truth, not Truth.

You may not like the taste of some foods. You may like some foods warm and some foods cold. You may like to smell some foods cooking, while others make you ill. But these are interpretations of food, and have nothing to do with the Truth that you need to eat food to survive.

You must drink water to survive. All life on this planet began with water. This is Truth.

Like the foods, you may break-down the mineral or nutrient contents of your water. You may draw pictures of the molecular structure of water. You may mix powdered drinks into your water. But these are interpretations. They do not have anything to do with the fundamental Truth that you must drink water to survive.

All systems on Earth are connected, and their balance and integrity need to be maintained in order for all of us to survive. This is Truth.

No matter how much we feel that we can take what we want or what we believe we need at the expense of other beings and ecosystems, our impacts affect all beings and ecosystems. But these systems have taken billions of years to develop, and they are intertwined. If we treat them as commodities, we sign our death-certificates.

So you must have certain factors met in order to survive. This is Truth. You cannot defy Truth, or you will cease to exist in this physical form.

There are Truths of existence throughout Nature. The process of Nature is progression of evolution, growth, change. It is about continuance of life. If the default action of Nature were self-destruction, then it would never have existed. Life persists. Nature creates cycles and processes of evolution and adaptation specifically in order to maintain an equilibrium of change and life. This is called Unconditional Love. It is the default programming of all of Nature.

Within this programming is destruction. This is fact, and it is necessary. But it is not the dominant process, only part of the whole. This applies to the physical world and the spirit world, both of which are manifestations of energy.

Since all beings on Earth are made of Earth, depend upon all of the plants, the waters, the animals, etc, as parts of a whole system that is literally the manifestation of the unconditional love, the perpetuation of life established by Nature, then that means that our basic needs for survival depend upon the maintaining the integrity of these pre-determined processes. What is good for all things is good for us. This should work both ways. This is Principle. It applies to the physical and the spiritual.

But Man has taken to interpreting this Truth. Man has decided to move away from the integrity of these cycles and seek to make existence more luxurious at the expense of other life and the cycles. Man has decided to lose spiritual integrity and allow logic and knowledge run his existence within an alignment of selfishness.

Now the world that Man has created is based upon beliefs, but not Truth. It is the natural result of the natural processes that occur when we ignore our natural roles and defy natural laws. We have become perfectly unnatural by natural law because we have attempted to defy natural law.

We have moved away from grasping Truth. We no longer live Truth. We even define our modern interpretations of Awareness, Oneness, Enlightenment, and Spirituality by the artificial parameters that Man has created. We are attempting to program ourselves to be spiritual, but we’re missing the Reality of spirit. Instead of immersing ourselves in Truth and establishing our inherent connection to the Whole, we have formed spiritual concepts and beliefs that make us think that disconnecting ourselves from our Whole beings is spiritual.

This is not Truth. It is true, but it is not Truth.

In order to understand Reality and our True selves, we must first understand how to distinguish Reality from Belief. This can only be accomplished by utilizing a “carpenter’s level” of Indisputable Truth. By “indisputable,” that means it must apply to all beings, all life. This Truth is the Reality of Nature. Nobody can argue this without invalidating their very existence. If we are foolish enough to believe that nothing really matters, or that nothing really exists unless we perceive it, or that our impacts are irrelevant because we are here to extort our physical existence, then we contradict ourselves and our logic immediately, and this is at the expense of the welfare of all other life. This is Mego at its most selfish.

The Reality is that we cannot separate our physical welfare from our spiritual. It is not possible to favor one without the other suffering, which, in turn, affects the favored one anyway. Your spirit is not more important than your body. And your body is not more important than your spirit. They are equally significant. They are gifts of Truth, and they must be treasured and maintained in the healthiest way possible in order for each to grow and function with vitality and integrity. This is Truth. This is Reality.

In this light, we see that our health in both physical and spiritual form comes from the health of Nature. It is from the foods and waters we ingest, as well as the air we breathe. Thus, our taking care of Nature is paramount in taking care of ourselves.

The Natural corollary to this is that when we take care of Nature, our spirits also blossom. In order to take care of Nature, we must immerse ourselves within the processes and become part of them again. We must give up the beliefs of our perceived needs, our desires for materialism, for power, for luxury, and we must not treat life as a commodity. Our immersion into Nature means that we give up the smaller self, the Mego, because we must let ourselves go in order to live. In the Natural world, to live from the place of the self is certain death.

This immersion into Reality, this giving-up of self is the becoming of a Caretaker. It means accepting our inherent role or Original Instructions that we programmed into us from Nature, not programmed through the nurtured interpretations of Man. This immersion reveals our True Selves, our true place and purpose. When we give ourselves to Nature, we find our True Selves because it is only there that we can establish the connection to that which created and sustains us.

You do not know your True Self until you can break all dependency upon what is interpretation rather than Truth.

Money is not Truth. Plastic is not Truth. Electronics are not Truth. Anything that is made or practiced by Man and has a detrimental affect upon the Natural world in its creation, usage, or disposal, is not Truth. They are perceived needs, and they foster beliefs and attachments. Imagine if these things were abandoned.

You cannot know your True self unless you live fully in the Natural world. This is Truth.

The "Faces" of Judgment

2009-06-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

Aratama: Control of the Spirit

Judgment is crucial when properly aligned with universal law or principle. This is True or Right Judgment.
Judgment is shown in economy of action and in the wisdom based upon properly aligned principle. A person of Right Judgment is a person of sensibility, possessing courage and wisdom of morality...

Right Judgment is not the shallow judgment of exclusivity, which represents intolerance, bias, subjectivity, and lack of compassion and understanding. Right Judgment is not the shallow judgment that foments destructive anger, which inhibits introspection, thus attaching us to the ego of another through the ego of self. This attachment further inhibits our ability to empty the bias and distractions of the mind, which restrict our freedom and prevent our movements from presenting as pure and responsive. Shallow judgment does not allow us to emulate the harmony of Nature, but instead causes us to be reflective of the initially applied aggression, or to be the source of the disconnect and disharmony that elicit conflict.

Coupled with the principle of Beauty in Living, (Nigitama), it is the expression of consideration for all other beings under the principle of universal law: the welfare of all life (Total Prosperity based upon Universal Truth). This is presented as a “parental” role of compassion, but not displayed as the mere, superficial “kindness” that is often administered in society as a forced “front,” to mask deeper issues of pain; as a “show,” to appear confident and inspirational to others; or as the opposite face of underlying disdain. Often this “opposite face” is characteristic of “superficial acceptance,” or “Tolerant Intolerance,” that is rampant in our society when standing in judgment of others based upon the smaller self and misalignment of principle. We regularly “disapprove” of judgment as a matter of etiquette, but this does not imply that we have abandoned shallow judgment altogether. Our unwritten meme is to: “Love others face-to-face, but despise them in the sanctity of home.”

True compassion, courage, and judgment reveal Truth in existence. The essence of proper judgment and courage is that of reform and revolution, a constant evolution of personal refinement which is extended through Beauty of Living to all of society, thus the beauty of life is identified and preserved through the productive change of Total Prosperity.

People seem to misinterpret a candid presentation of Truth for shallow judgment, particularly if it exposes something within themselves that they do not wish to see or embrace at the moment. Further, this revelation of Reality exposes a responsibility for accountability that many would prefer to ignore. Exercising Right Judgment, however, for the welfare of all of us, particularly if the actions of others are directly affecting the rest of us in a destructive manner, is different from excluding anyone based upon personal preference, bias, or belief. Shallow judgment lacks understanding; Right Judgment embraces understanding and the welfare of all life, and through Love and Courage reveals Right Living by the Principle of Universal Truth.

Triad Chart

2009-06-22T15:27:00.001-07:00

Just as food nourishes the physical body, Information nourishes the Mind. Love/Harmony nourishes the Spirit. Our modern society has done wonders for seeking information, and we have turned foods into artful endeavors and scientific disciplines, as well. We seem, however, to have lost hold of the concept that in balancing the nourishment of Body, Mind, and Spirit in order to be a Wise person of Love, Peace, and Justice, it is crucial to be of the most organic and pure alignment of consciousness. Further, neglecting essential elements required for a well-rounded and healthy existence is inherently self-defeating. This societal trend—this pandemic of our species—needs to stop if we truly wish to attain global, holistic Peace.

Just as eating foods that are not chemically treated, preserved, irradiated, enhanced, or over-bred into unnatural forms is best for your body, it is also important to “ingest” the purest and most organic forms of Information and Unconditional Love. These, in Nature, are manifestations of Truth. It is by and within this very Principle of Truth that we find the most balanced and nutritious diets for the Triad, thus enabling us to integrate each aspect of ourselves as a system of checks-and-balances.

Our personal faith (faith in oneself) and Will are the driving forces of seeking personal refinement, but it is only against the “carpenter’s level” of the Natural world that we can find the pure and true form of Principle that applies to all beings of Nature, and that will allow us to reach the pinnacle of Enlightenment and Right Living, thus, facilitating holistic Peace.

Aligned to the Manmade world of subjective ideas, values, rules, fears, and morals, however, the Principle of personal refinement is diluted and artificial, at best: a subjective interpretation of Truth, but not Truth itself. Much of the Spiritual aspect in our lives becomes suppressed, if not entirely lost or ignored, by following this paradigm, and the Mental aspect is touted as the highest aspiration. Peak physical genetics, strength, and flexibility take a runner-up position in priority, as the Mind is the commodity most prized for the “technical and ethical advancement of a virtuous and productive society.”

Clearly this is not a viable prospect for our species, or for any other on this planet. Because of our deficiencies in the aspects of Spirit and our lack of alignment to True Principle, we have become a literal cancer upon this planet, killing thousands of our sibling species per year while parasitizing our Earth, poisoning and denuding the environment, and blanketing the lands with tumorous cities and asphalt roads.

Food is the ruling element of life and death. All living beings must eat, and we are directly sustained by food, then, when we die, we become food for food. Organic food creates healthy tissue, productive energy, and promotes excellent health, function, and vitality. We are only as healthy and real as the food we eat, and when it is tampered-with and tainted in so many ways, including synthesis, chemical injection, massive and cruel slaughter, and harvesting with no reverence, then we also pay a price beyond the financial cost.

Information can also come in many forms, whether it is the junk-food form of comic books, tabloids, or sitcoms or the more “grocery store” forms of book-store collections and public libraries. The most organic form of information comes as the Truth of information gleaned from experience of the world that created us, simple interaction with and observations of the cycles and laws of Nature as every day living. But we have slowly let our sense of Wonder of the amazing elements and mysteries of Nature become overshadowed by our Curiosity of figuring out how it all works, and why, and then how we can exploit it.

Our inherent Awareness, derived of a proper synergy of our physical senses that form our extended, Spiritual perceptions, has been snuffed in favor of our Comprehension of technical concepts and the language of Science that is Spiritually detached from the Natural world. Our extension of Awareness of our inherent Physical, Mental, and Spiritual connections is considered to be a deterrent to our growing Inspiration of technical luxury and convenience. Now our Spirits are thirsty for the Communion with all other beings, yet our brains have allowed us to nurture Intellect out of balance. We have glorified muscular growth and physical flexibility and fitness, along with Intellect and Reason, through physical Work and Logic, but Communion, Equanimity, and Intuition are falling by the ancient wayside as we perpetuate blind faith in believing that our alignment of Principle to that of the manufactured world is Truth and Justice.

Our instincts, our basic needs that drive us, are being neglected Spiritually, and only met in a superficial way Mentally and Physically, thus, we are evolving against an artificial existence of contrived Principle that does not work globally for all life. Compassion, instead of being applied to all life on this planet, has been leashed to only the human species and a handful of “non-advanced” species that are endangered, threatened, or dear to humans as pets or commodities, such as livestock, puppies, and honey-bees. But it is not a true Compassion, but rather an idealistic favoritism, and our Spiritual Integrity is in a serious state of jeopardy. This contorted concept of “saving ourselves in spite of the repercussions to all others,” is indicative of a severe deficiency and misalignment of a large portion of the Spiritual column in the attached chart.

Now we give superficial and shallow meanings to the concepts of Love, Awareness, Conscience, Principle, Compassion, Justice, and we convince ourselves that we are truly following these guidelines, living virtuous lives, yet we all feel the Wonder that has turned into longing for our Spiritual deprivations. Thus, we have idolized the Mind, creating diversions and distractions, false glories of Intellectual Achievement at the expense of our True purpose and place in the Real world. And when we fall short of these romanticized ideals, we then numb our feelings of failure, misery, stress, worthlessness, and hopelessness with drugs, alcohol, depravity, and other addictions, including smoking, shopping, eating, and indulging in mindless hobbies or activities that in no way contribute to personal refinement of the Triad.

True Peace, Wisdom, and Unconditional Love can only be achieved holistically, for the welfare of ALL species and natural systems. This can only be accomplished through alignment with the Principle of Truth, which is the Natural World.

Some Truth about Truth: Part 1

2009-05-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

According to the logic of many so-called “spiritually aware” and religious folks out there, being connected to Spirit is something accomplished by having an understanding of God, of Divine Will, that we possess Divinity within us, or that we are becoming more spiritually aware as a species supposedly progressive in understanding quantum mechanics, transcendental theory, worldwide belief systems, and the fact that we are all bound by an eternal and infinite energy.

What this implies then, is that our intelligence, our sentience, is the catalyst or the bridge between our Earthly existence and God. It implies that as we learn more about how the Universe seems to function on a scientific level, and as we learn more about religious doctrine—what of them “works” and what of them doesn’t—that we grow, tacitly, in spirituality. We are taught about interpretations of Love, of Compassion, and of the teachings of significant spiritual “leaders” of the past. We are inundated with information of the New Age spirituality, the “Discovery of Self,” and how we all have an opportunity to shine the brilliant light of divinity from within us, as long as we believe in the faith being, passed-down or presented in the best-selling book for $34.95. We love to be told “how to do” in our very hectic, time-is-money, instant-gratification world, rather than being taught “how to learn.”

The further implication here is that spiritual awareness and connection demands sentience. Our society insists that spirit can be found in being well-read of a broad spectrum of interpretations, philosophies, and ideas of what Spirituality, Love, Self, Compassion, Truth, and Oneness are. We seek the doctrine of aged religions, steeped in mythology, to guide our very disconnected souls in a fabricated world. We thrive on assigning parental figureheads authority to give us guidance and restrictions so that we feel as if we are adhering to Divine Will, when what we are really doing is catering to fear, guilt, spiritual void, and subjective ethics that define what we are taught to believe is justice. We are the two-year-olds that run ahead of our parents, seeking a sort of independence, but continue to stop to look back over our shoulders to make sure they are still following closely, safely. We are taught to adhere to human codes of morality, all based upon the evolution of ourselves and our cultures against fabricated worlds that defy Natural laws.

The corollary to this is that without understanding, without sentience, we cannot attain spiritual awareness. (It also implies quite incorrectly that spirituality can be enhanced through technology, which is created via the demons of fear and contrived necessity.) Thus, flowers, trees, fish, bobcats, cardinals, and mosquitoes cannot be spiritually connected to God. If they cannot understand, how can they possibly be spiritually connected? Our perceptions of spirituality come from a strictly humanized standpoint, rather than from a holistic, connected standpoint (which is no standpoint at all, but rather a neutral center of Unconditional Love. See how this works?) Our interpretations of Love are shallow and mostly selfish, even when we believe they are selfless. Our ideas of progress violate Nature by creating a net-deficit, as do our ideas of the value of life, compassion, and justice. We claim to value life, but we only demonstrate that we love some HUMAN life under some circumstances. Otherwise, we create imbalance in the world that is created by God by infringing upon and eliminating ecosystems, entire species, and treating other flora and fauna as commodities. We don’t value life so much as we value what life we can Take and use. Our world is rampant with conditional love, which breeds segregation and hatred. Our conditional truths breed contempt and delusions.

Truth is not personal. That concept is garbage. Truth is not what we decide works for us or fits in our lives. That’s selfish, and anti-spiritual. We selfishly and arrogantly see ourselves as little fountains of Divine Will, sanctioned by God because we say we believe in Love and Truth, as if we are separate but become enlightened and imbued with the power of the Divine upon an epiphany or because we have adopted a belief system that seems to fit our perceptions of Reality at the moment. We actually say things like, “What’s true for me is,” and, “I have to live my own kind of Truth.” That kind of “truth” is ephemeral. As long as we see ourselves as SELVES, then we function not unlike the perpetual water fountain that re-circulates the same water via electrical pump. We re-circulate a concept of Truth or Love or “special gift” and offer others to drink from our pool of “Divine Energy,” albeit, a gift we’ve been bestowed by God. But this is not Real.

We are more like the spray attachment installed at the end of a garden hose. The garden hose is our thread to Reality. The water is Spirit. All we do is let it flow through us. That’s it. Some settings might be “spray,” while others might be “stream” or “trickle,” but everyone is a spray-attachment for spirit. If your attachment is gummed-up with the mud and gunk of religions and faiths, then you are not going to have a pure flow—if any flow at all—through you from the source. This does not take sentience. This takes Original Instructions. Forget the books and the prophecies and the scriptures. It’s useless, I promise. Truth is not relative to each of us. It’s not about how we perceive it and how it fits into our lives, but on the contrary, it is about how we see the purity of it, unclouded by bias, judgment, and teachings, and how we fit into it.continued

Some Truth about Truth: Part II

2009-05-11T15:52:00.000-07:00

A flower does not go off from Nature and try to find its place and purpose through texts and self-discovery courses. Neither does a deer, nor a mouse, nor a beetle. These are all manifestations of God, direct embodiments of the Great Spirit, our brothers and sisters, literally. They are already playing out their Original Instructions. They are already in the Now, enlightened by not even knowing what enlightenment is. They are One with the Whole. How can we be so stupid and selfish to not see this? Why are we so obsessed with outthinking Reality? Learn from them, those who are already there, those who are clearly superior in their ability to connect with God, directly, to just BE.
Spiritual awareness and connection is not in church, nor in books. It is not in the lectures put out by televangelists, nor is it residing in a Pope’s station.

Truth is about how we go out to Reality, the very same Reality that works FOR ALL BEINGS—and that is the most important part; it has to work for all beings, all species. Truth does not judge, but it selects through Unconditional Love. Truth has no net-deficit, no restrictions save for the dynamic of Reality. What you put into Truth, you receive, but there is no personal gain, no ulterior motive. There is no reward of Heaven, no punishment of Hell awaiting us. These are the concepts we create moment-to-moment and always. What we do affects all other things, and our ripples will elicit ripples to return to us from others. If we put out Unconditional Love, we are more likely to elicit Unconditional Love, and if we put out anger, fear, destruction, then we are more likely to see that rebound. Karma is not ulterior motive, grudge, or vengeance. Karma is Truth of action elicits reaction. If I plant a seed with love and care, then it will grow and yield fruit. This is Love, Truth, and Karma. It is Now.
The misconception that runs rampant in our societies is that Truth is relative, or that we have to discover our own Truth. But that is backward. It’s not Truth that is relative to us, but it is how we uncover the same, Universal Truth that is the Truth for all of us. It is how we go out and immerse ourselves INTO Truth, into Nature. We have to go out and experience Reality and adapt ourselves TO IT, and not try to adapt it to ourselves. That is Truth.

If you do not go out into Nature, into God’s very creation, and adapt yourself to it with no artificial creations of Man (which are NOT God’s creations, folks; that ludicrous mindset I have already thoroughly disproved as being valid), but only your naked body and what God supplies directly as an unadulterated, un-perverted, un-blasphemed manifestation of Itself, then you have no grasp of the Reality of Spirit. If you cannot prove Reality, then you are still caught up in Self, which automatically means you are not Awake. You cannot claim Spirituality or Oneness if it is selfish. You do not possess any Divine Power or Will because you as a Self do not exist in Reality. You are not above the animals and trees, and the majority of what you do in your life is driven by fear and desire. If you truly want to “know” God and yourself, then you must submit yourself fully to God by going out to where God exists, which is Nature. God may exist in your heart and mind, and that’s all nice and romantic, but it’s useless if you don’t truly know what that means. If you do not make the commitment, then it is a shallow, conditional possession of what you believe God/Love/Reality/Nature is. You cannot accomplish this as a “knower” of Nature, but only as a PART of Nature. Living in and participating willingly in a society of Takers from Nature, of destroyers of God, is not how to attain spiritual growth.

Mental, spiritual, physical growth is established by continually adapting ourselves, purely, to our environment. It is not established by adapting our environment to ourselves.

My Mom

2009-05-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

I can always go to my mother when I need to feel comforted, when I need to have someone accept me and dissolve my frustrations.
My mom always listens to me, but with her heart, and I never feel judged.
She always feels the need to feed me. My mom perpetually has something out for me to eat and drink. That’s one of the best things about how moms nurture us, with the validation of care and attention, especially when I am not fighting with my brothers and sisters or stealing their toys.
One of the most soothing things about my mom is her voice. When she speaks, it’s like having my spirit lifted into the Universe.
And my mom has the most amazing stories to tell from eons past. She is very Wise.
My mom is beautiful, and when the Great Spirit made her, she was so lovely that I think It made all moms beautiful like her.
My mom lets me know that I have purpose, that I am never alone and always loved. She sets an example for me, trying to be loving and caring to everyone, all of my brothers and sisters.
I wish everybody loved my mom as much.
She is Earth.

The Fallacy of Spiritual Technology: Part I

2009-05-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

When I go into the wild, into Reality, to gather food, it is with reverence and respect. Life is not a commodity. It is not to be taken without an honorable reciprocation of some kind. This process of taking from Nature, to me, implies an immense amount of gratitude and a depth of investment not for my own welfare, but for the welfare of our future generations, for if I take for myself with no regard for the future, then I steal from our progeny, and I disgrace the purpose of my existence within the flow of the predetermined cycles of Nature.

When I take a plant, I do this peacefully, ever aware of my surroundings, staying in tune with all of the movements and sounds, the smells and sensations, always absorbing the life and the cycles around me, immersing myself into the flow of Reality so that I am part of it rather than being an invader, or a trespasser. I ask spirit for guidance, tapping-in to my inner vision or intuition, but always from a place of neutrality, free of thought and subjectivity so that I am not influenced by otherwise detrimental forces of the spirit realm. Productive and Destructive elements are crucial for the growth of all things, but these things are not subjective. Humans are afflicted with a biased concept of Productive and Destructive, and our actions, when coming from a biased place, become tainted. These are the demons of our selfish minds, and they are not part of the growth cycles. What this means is that if I forget that I am part of Reality, part of the Whole, then my actions become biased, distracted, as I lose my place within the Now, a place of constant thanksgiving. This is a place of moving meditation, so that I am not sedentary of body, but moving in a rhythm according to the flow of the Natural world, the slowed down tempo of creation. I must function from a point of openness and change, between action and reaction where Intent can blossom into productive progression or resolution of the Unity of opposites or of other conflict. Growth comes from this Unity, born of constant conflict, which is not to be confused for “bad” or malevolent. This is change. This is the Now.

From this place, when I find the plants I seek, I sit with the family of them, and I talk to them, letting them know my intent, my purpose, and that I do honor and respect them as my family, and not as underlings or inferior beings. I respect them because they live in the purest of form, the purest of spirit, never needing anything fabricated to exist, giving themselves wholly to the care of life and death of the Creator. I am not there to conquer, and I am not there to take for myself, but in consideration of both my progeny and theirs, as well as that of all of Creation. And in this prayer, this giving of thanks, I choose plants that are fighting for survival in clusters in which they will ultimately succumb to their stronger brothers and sisters. I remove plants as a process of culling, to remove the weaker, the sicker, so that the strongest and healthiest grandparent plants remain. I take only what is needed for my family, and I leave the rest so that my family of wildlife can also have plenty for their own. I leave the strongest so that the plant family propagates seed from the healthiest stock, now with more room for spreading their roots and gathering sunlight and water from the places where I’ve removed our less hearty brothers and sisters, and this ensures that there will be a healthy and strong population of plants for the future. As I pass down this practice to my children, they take the lesson of honor which will also feed our grandchildren, and this will flow along the ages until an anomaly may change it.continued

The Fallacy of Spiritual Technology: Part II

2009-05-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

The plants I have taken are also told that I mean no disrespect, and that I am grateful that they will become part of my own body, that we will merge physically and spiritually, and that I honor the greatest gift of life that they are allowing me to take.

In my actions of living, I must always be reciprocating so that there is either no net loss on either side, or so that I leave Nature with the net gain. This is honoring the Creator. This is respect, and it is balance.

These things that I do to live with Nature take skill and work. This activity helps to keep me strong, alert, healthy, cleansed, and it is a way that I honor the Creator for the physical gifts I have been given. As well, I must keep my mind sharp, always aware of everything, connected to the Now and never lost in dwelling upon the past or anticipating the future. I earn what I need to live, and I return with all that I do, never taking for granted anything with which I’ve been blessed. I am grateful to be healthy, aware, and strong and capable, and I would never undermine these gifts of the Creator. Now I fulfill my role in the Real world, where I also submit my entire life and death to the function of Love, to the Natural cycles, because there is no fear in Reality of dying or loss. There is no external possession, and there is no possession of self. If I allow these things to happen, then my mind and spirit become affected, and I then begin to cater to my selfishness, seeking to fulfill desires and to cater to my fears.

In this case, however, learning to fear death, learning to find discomfort in the Reality of cold winters or rainy days of tracking game, I begin to seek ways to mitigate my fears by creating tools that will make my life easier, so that I can be more comfortable, so that I can find more time to immerse myself into distractions rather than in Reality.

Instead of going to gather the plants, I will develop fields of plants that I can easily harvest with increasingly efficient tools. I will eliminate the ecosystems of other beings in order to make more room for my crops and livestock so that I can feed my growing family, as well as the families of others. Now that we fear death and loss, we will strive to develop technologies to stave off death. We will have hospitals and synthetic medicines that will kill diseases or fight bacteria. We will numb our pains of birth and death, and we will make dying harder while we make birthing easier. As we develop more comfortable and safe surroundings, taking up more land with bigger houses, roads, infrastructures, and cities, we will begin to evolve relative to our fabricated world. Now we will not need to have sharp eyesight, body-hair, and good ears for hunting and staying warm. We will not need to hunt at all. Life will be a commodity. As our senses numb, our brains will compensate, and we will build technologies to fill-in as crutches for our physical shortcomings. Thus, our future generations will be born with evolutionary deficiencies and anomalies that would not let them survive in the Natural world, yet as we have developed increasing fear of death and loss, we will invent technology to salvage them, to bring them into existence deformed and sick, because we are too selfish to let them go.
We will need more land for industry and agriculture, as well as residency for our increasing population. Now taking from Nature is a dead matter of course, a callous continued

The Fallacy of Spiritual Technology: Part III

2009-05-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

event of a system that is more like a machine than a personal connection to Reality. Now we live in spite of Nature. As our population grows, we will begin to find that we have differing belief systems from others, and we will push each other into smaller spaces, competing for food and now for the new god of money. Eugenics begins to take over so that those with more money live better in spite of their physical weaknesses, while those with less money have less and suffer. Subcultures will develop, and there will be war internally between cities or clans. As international travel increases, more dissension will ensue globally, and nations will seek power by jockeying for positions, using people to annihilate each other with violence and hatred for a common cause relative to each nation, that is used to extort our natural tendency for cooperation, so that we are lulled by a pseudo-patriotism, a propagandist brotherhood, and our weapons will be increasingly technological so that we can kill more people, eliminate more land from greater distances and with less effort.

As we evolve in the fabricated world, surrounded by artificial lights and artificial life, plastic surgery, sports, gambling, drugs, video-games, rock-concerts, drag-racing, cults, Klans, and a mentality of tolerance that means putting up fences and boundaries to keep everyone away from us while we share the same grocery stores and gather with small factions of like-minded folks in churches or clubs so that we try to maintain a sense of society, of belonging, we find ourselves becoming engulfed in bitterness and misery.

Our jobs are unfair and take all of our time and lives from our families. Our children grow up too fast, and we find that we’ve missed more of their upbringing than we thought, even while we were home with them, as we needed to escape into sports, newspapers, television shows, or other pastimes just to get some relief from the stressful day of dealing with so many people or demands in the name of money. We find that we are tethered to the system of a repeating record, a rut of: daycare, school, college, jobs, careers, marriage, home, children, retirement, and death. Our elders are disposed of in convenient facilities so that we can remain unfettered and productive. This is the way of the new culture, and we’re lucky if we can even claim to have accomplished anything that isn’t outdated or replaced by technology before we die. We even believe dying is an ending because we define ourselves by possession and all that we leave behind. We believe we can own parcels of land, upon which we spray poisons and then plant invasive species that work to compromise the local flora and fauna so we can have the most beautiful, unnatural green lawn on the block. We establish property lines on an Earth we cannot own, and we either ignore or demolish the natural world within.

As technology develops, I don’t have to go out and gather my food. I don’t have to listen to the cycles of Nature. I don’t have to fit in and participate. Now, I can rape from afar. I don’t have to hunt; I don’t have to make my own clothing; I don’t have to heat a small home I built with my hands with only what Nature gave me in its purest form. I can now buy synthetics that have a net-detriment to the environment that our children will inherit, instead. I can pollute and justify it with recycling, just as much as I can sin for the week and justify it with religion on Sunday. I have no need to invest myself in the natural cycles anymore, not only because I have invented technology to do the work for me, but because I cannot even survive in Reality for having such atrophied senses and skills thatcontinued

The Fallacy of Spiritual Technology: Part IV

2009-05-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

. . . have developed within the artificial world. Now, I don’t even need to touch Nature at all. I can go from my house to my driveway to my car to a parking lot to an office building and I can negotiate city streets and subways to get my needs met. Nature is alien to me, now. I justify my blasphemy by blaming Nature for being too harsh, too hard, too cruel, and I actually call Natural cycles “natural disasters” when they cost my society money. I can even call all of my inventions “natural” by some contrived loophole since the synthesized materials I gathered actually came “from Nature” technically in their unadulterated form. But this is naïve and selfish. This is the mind of the destructive, the demons.

Technology now makes it possible for me to interact across the globe with electronics, like a new fangled miracle of spiritual epiphany. Now, instead of being connected to Reality, I can plug myself in to the artificial world, to the computers, and I can be connected to the machine that perpetuates fear and subjectivity, always downloading what I’m told is important. I am a fish in a barrel as a target for brainwashing because I have become so dependent upon the artificial world that I cannot leave it, and I will justify it and defend it wholly. I will convince my deprived spirit that this is “God’s will” or the “divine plan” and that I am too helpless and not even obligated to change because this is the way it’s done around here. I will believe that I am above that which sustains me, and that I am entitled to take what I wish, to live to any excess I can establish, to reap the “most” out of life, all in spite of reverence and Reality. My existence is to be the parasite, the cancer, and technology allows me to do this with great efficiency.

My mind is full of confusing messages and beliefs. I am convinced that the only just existence is one in which I find my “true self’ relative to the sick, fabricated world, and I assimilate as best I can. I am no longer part of the Real world, so my spirit is deprived. Technology offers distractions to my busy mind so that I can pacify my spirit, ignore it. But I still feel a yearning, a craving to see the Sun, to smell fresh air, to watch a fire or sit by the water. I miss most of life now, because I am tunnel-visioned on my own existence in the fantasy world. I am now concerned with clocks and efficiency, and I cannot afford to worry about sending my children to daycare to be raised by surrogate mothers. I can’t afford to worry about my broken car, my rent, my sick mother, my own health, because I need to be a productive cog in the wheel so that I can have technology to make my life easier and pacify my sick spirit. Now I need a vacation from the artificial world. Now I leave my artificial home in my cookie-cutter neighborhood (or my private acreage that I know nothing about in the countryside), and I jaunt off in a jet to a gigantic, commercialized amusement park that not only utilizes the utmost in technological blasphemy, but tries to simulate Nature, but in a much more comfortable, less offensive way, so that it is more approachable—but still out of reach--to me and my sensitive species. Or we might go to the beach so that we can sit on towels and blankets in an overcrowded spot of sunbathers who are into the scene to take advantage of the landscape, to indulge in personal matters of relaxation, to usurp the land and the sun, to leave the trash from the fast foods and soda bottles, with no regard of the impact on the environment they abuse. I will stop with my family at signs that say, “Scenic Overlook” for moments of mock admiration and awe at the picturesque landscape so that we can take advantage of a photo-op before getting back into the air-conditioned Hybrid SUV--that makes me feel like I’m contributing to environmental consciousness because I ignore the real impact of detriment it has on the environment—which I bought based upon an imaginary system of discrimination made up of theoretical value called “credit,” and my genetically modified, test-tube children restart their DVD players or iPods so that they don’t have to interact with the family or their surroundings while we travel from point A to point B with efficiency at 40+ mpg. I will not get lost because I have a trusty GPS that talks to me.Last Page

The Fallacy of Spiritual Technology: Part V

2009-05-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

My gift of free will has been biased by fear, and I am the disease upon the planet. But not everyone is this way. There are many who wish to return to the Real world, to connect to spirit.

Technology creates complacency, ease of living that undermines the purpose of the hard work it should actually take to experience life, to maintain health and balance in Reality. This was living. Life in the ancient cultures was Law, and Law was Life. The honor and dignity of hard work created a sense of pride, tempered with the humility of accountability. It was a matter of seeking perfection in all that we do, whether making a beautiful pair of moccasins or cleaning the latrines. Technology allows us to cater to our fears, discomforts, shortcomings, and desires. It facilitates selfishness. Spirit cannot flourish when we are inhabited and inhibited by selfishness, fear, and desire. Spirit is not about money, possessions, or personal gain. Never has been, never will be. Technology does not bridge us to the spiritual. Technology directly opposes it, creates a rift of dependency and numbness, instead. It causes harm to the environment, ecosystems, and other species. This is fact. Our overpopulation is a testament to this entire document. We are destructive right now.

As long as society treats life as a commodity, as long as society believes that land, air, and water can be owned, then those with money will have more, and it will be owned by those who know the least about it. Society facilitates this disgusting practice. Technology reinforces it because we depend upon it because we are spiritually deprived and depraved. Using technology is an indication of spiritual sickness. This is fact. And as long as society maintains this paradigm, then people who do not want to participate in this system will continue to be forced to do so, to give up their inherent rights to live in Reality, to live as Caretakers, because there will always be human impact, pollution, development, landownership, taxes, anthropogenics, and increasingly less viable tracts for any natural colonies to be able to survive. This is tyranny; it is injustice. The selfishness and spiritual depravity of modern culture infringes upon the inherent rights of other humans to live out of modern culture.

Nobody can prove at all in any way that modern technology is beneficial to all life. If anything creates a net-deficit to Nature or any ecosystem or species of Nature, then it must be abandoned. The majority of our needs are perceived and selfish, and we have no right to continue this existence with any sense of morality or righteousness.

Ethics are subjective in the human world, and this is not viable. Anyone believing that technology is beneficial or is “positive,” and that we have no accountability to do something to change this sickness, is naïve and diametrically opposes Nature. There is no spirituality in modern technology. And when you multiply its usage by billions of people, it is staggeringly despicable and destructive. It’s not about personal preference, because that’s a load of selfish garbage. It’s about being realistic and stepping-up with responsibility for accountability and doing what’s right for the Whole.

This is fact. Nature cannot be proven wrong, and it takes a truly sick and depraved mind to believe otherwise. The only Divine Plan is found in Natural Law, not in man’s doctrines and beliefs. Touting technology is advocating the spiritual numbness. No matter what we do to this planet, she will recover some form of balance in the future, once we’re gone. But all we really have left to change, to be accountable for, is spirit, the Intent with which we leave this physical form. Is our existence going to be a constant push of destruction or are we going to finally embrace Love and Reality?

The Middle of Now

2009-05-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

Darkness exists in the absence of light, but darkness is the absence; it is the default. Light is energy that fills the darkness. Cold is the absence of heat; heat is energy that fills the coldness. Silence is the absence of sound. Death is the absence of life.

The Earth pulls us to her. Life pushes away from her. Trees and plants sprout and push away, reaching toward the sun. The roots and the ground are the Unity of body. The leaves and the Sun are the Unity of energy. The pull is the female entity, the push, the male. The place between the darkness and light, the push and pull, the heat and cold, the stillness and vibration is Unity. There is a resonance of harmony as the twilight of extremes; this is where unconditional love is found.

Night and Day oscillate with one another. Their frequency creates a Unity of cyclical progression, a recurring movement of cycles of seasons, growth, and death.

If I pass a rope over a smooth branch and hold one end in each hand, I can move my hands in opposite directions in order to create motion of the rope sliding over the branch. If I push with one hand too hard or fast, the rope slackens on the push side, and the pull side has to catch up. But if I pull too hard or fast on the pull side, there is resistance from the slower push side. Only when they work in harmony is there Unity and smooth progression with no tension and no slack.

The Sun pulls the planets to it, but they also fall away. If the Sun did not pull, the planets would fly away with the push of centripetal force, while if the planets were not pushed away by this force, then they would collapse into the Sun. This Unity creates orbit, constant motion.

If you push against me while I face you, and I push back, we have conflict. A push opposes a push. Likewise, if you pull against me and I, in turn, pull against you, we also have a stalemate of conflict. Now if you pull and I push, we have motion. Likewise, if you push and I pull, we also have motion. But this motion can never reach full night or full day as long as we face one another with no resolution to the motion. Essentially, we play see-saw back and forth until we either grow tired or into infinity, but there is no progression. However, if I change my position when you push, and I contribute to your push with a tangential pull, thus making your push come from MY center instead of yours, I can direct your energy into my absence of energy, which I will then switch in our dance as I contribute my energy into bringing your absence of energy to resolution. I will now illuminate your darkness by extending your energy with mine away from me, or I will extinguish your energy by embracing you into darkness. Light added to light creates brighter light. Push added to push must not conflict, but make a unified movement toward resolution.

Movement pierces stillness and intention pierces perception.

Mushin is the absence of thought, of preoccupation with the past (missing or regretting) and the future (wishing, expecting, planning), which facilitates Zanshin or complete awareness of our connection to all things (Mitakuye Oyasin), which is accomplished through being Unconditional Love, which is accomplished through being part of Reality in mind, body, and spirit, which means living with the land (Original Instructions), which means we experience Musubi, or the Now, the place between action and reaction. It is the place of Change, of Intent, which means that our existence is always in a state of present progression, or active stillness. Mindfulness means embracing the Now and making positive, productive change by being connected to Reality through being wholly grateful for all of Nature and emanating Unconditional Love/Compassion for all life and Natural Law (Mitakuye Oyasin), which means losing the concept of self which then allows us to experience Satori or Oneness.

Truth of Unconditional Love

2009-05-05T06:59:00.000-07:00

The Great Spirit expresses Unconditional Love in three ways:

1. Unity of “opposites.” The logical course of cause and effect, yin and yang, life and death. This is the Original Instructions.
2. Through the physical manifestation and movements of these processes that abide by Natural Law of Original Instructions.
3. Through the energy of intent, through progression of the processes of unbiased Unconditional Love. The Energy of life, the vibration of being that bonds all things.

Not all beings think in the way that humans think, but all of Nature functions as a matter of existence, as a product of the logical processes of cause and effect and must adhere to those Laws of Nature. All energy, no matter how active or static it may appear, plays a part in the course of Natural events.

The Great Spirit manifests energy into physical form as a Unity of atomic process. The atom is the threshold of Unity between energy and matter. The physical world is the ever changing manifestation of God’s Love.

Unconditional Love is the function of productive intent and progression that is God’s Love that exists throughout the Universe and within all of us. It is the spirit that binds all things of Nature. Unconditional Love happens Now. Unconditional Love is a present experience. Every instant of growth and progression is the effect of Unconditional Love at that moment, not in the past, which is gone, and not in the future, which is irrelevant, but only in every moment of the Now.

Unconditional Love means to experience the Now always of the mind of harmonizing with Nature. It is not the sentimental, shallow love of the human mind, but the very essence of the Great Spirit. It is the Caretaker Mind for all of Nature with no judgment and no self-serving intent or motive. Our role is to be an extension of the Self as a channel or portal for the Universal Spirit, which means to lose the concept of the smaller “self,” or ego in order to be full of the Universe.

The Great Spirit is logical, but it is not logic. It is philosophized, but it is not philosophy. It is a balance of the Triad of mind, body, and spirit. One may talk about the logical ideas of the Great Spirit/Unconditional Love, but unless one also trains the body and the spirit through living in harmony with Nature, through Being part of the Whole, then one cannot fully embrace and BE Unconditional Love.

How can I show you the function of the Universe if I do not live as a reflection, as an integral part, of the function of the Universe? What kind of brother would I be to all beings of Nature if I could only TALK about Unconditional Love of the Great Spirit and if I do not constantly train my mind, body, and spirit in this Way? How could I NOT have lived (and now strive for all of us to live) with Nature but still embrace the essence of Unconditional Love? It is more than thought and belief; it is Truth, which can only be understood by Being Truth, not by talking about Truth. Men can never understand childbirth completely only by witnessing it and talking about the science of it. And those that oppose Truth and Love, who fight against it, have and will conquer us if we do not condition our Triad out of respect and reverence for the Great Spirit. We cannot Be Truth only partially.

It is not random acts of kindness. It is not tolerance. It is not passivity. It is not recycling. It is not driving “green” vehicles. It is not trying to be a “good” person. It is not financial wealth. It is not financial donations, either. It is not doing what makes us happy. Unconditional Love is not relative to Self. It is unconditional. It is compassion that upholds the integrity of Universal Justice. It is active, and it is hard work for growth of the Triad.

If you are thirsty; I give you water. If a tree is thirsty; I give it water. If you are being wronged; I will stop it. If a tree is being wronged; I will stop it. If the Great Spirit says it is your time to die; I will bring love to your spirit. If the Great Spirit says it is time for a tree to die; I will bring love to its spirit.

Nature has no need for the unnatural. Nature has no need for buildings and cars, for money and televisions. If we were to vanish, Nature would consume all of these inventions of the dream-world so that they would no longer exist. If God existed in a building, then why would all life cease if we put a church or shrine on every square inch of the Earth? God is Nature. If you put Nature on every square inch of the Earth, we flourish, as would all beings, and God’s Love would create balance and harmony.

Drop the Addiction.

Drop the Addiction!

2009-05-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

It’s almost as though people don’t want to give up the addiction of life. We know that we have traits sometimes that are less than virtuous, and we’ll even admit, humorously, that we know of these traits, but we don’t actually seek to shed them. People cling to things like emotions almost as if they’re hits of some drug, whether enjoyable or miserable because it is an impacting sensation that our deprived spirits need, almost like a jump-start. We love to hate, we love seeing friction, we love to love, we love to laugh at people, we love to cry, and even if we hate any of those things, we love to hate them. The modern life is full of addictions, but addictions can be dropped, just like any habit. We can choose to stop indulging. It’s not easy, but it is very viable, and it is quite refreshing.

We let ourselves become lulled by conveniences that money can buy, like washing machines, vehicles, telephones, and refrigerators. As we adopt these conveniences, we lose a valuable connection to the Real flow of life, to the reality of accountability of existing in the Real world. If I don’t have to be attentive to my life at every moment because I have “convenient technologies” to take up the slack or to make life “easier,” then I can find other distractions to fill the void in my existence, and I thus lose an essential element of being part of everything. Understanding Truth and one’s true place and purpose means literally being part of the experience all the way. It’s a complete investment in BEING.

If we can finally decide—because it really comes down to a personal decision—to drop these addictions and habits of experiencing the shallower aspects of life and ourselves, then we can empty our proverbial cups and let new things happen. It is not viable to learn about being part of the Whole before experiencing it. It’s like the difference between understanding birth buy studying books and watching births, and then never giving birth first-hand. You can “get” Oneness and then experience it. You need to experience it in order to “get” it. This is why I can’t stress enough to not believe anything you are taught or that you read by any teachers, gurus, wisemen or wisewomen, or any other authority, elder, or prophet because you have to experience Truth in order to understand what it really means.

We become so oppressed by the world into which we are raised and molded, that we accept it and defend it fiercely because we don't even know how to escape it. It's the only "reality" we know, and when anyone challenges it, we get very upset because it quakes our entire idea of our place and purpose. In fact, even those who claim to "know" Reality are typically part of this Matrix and only teach how to better assimilate to a sick society rather than seek our true place and purpose in Reality, because even they don't know what Reality is.

This concept of life most people have is an addiction. People thrive on the acid hits of emotional ups and downs, of massively brain-numbing stimulation of video games, movies, rock concerts, etc, etc, and the rut of going from birth to school to job,family, home, retirement until they lie on their death-bed and reflect with some romanticized notion that they, "had a good life." It's not as good as they want to convince themselves, but it fills the void with distractions, and it's all they have. Some folks can drop the addiction, and some folks need an intervention, and some folks will simply spiral to destruction, but we do have the right to make sure they don't bring us down with them.

I've Lost Myself . . . So Here I Am!!

2009-05-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

Being truly happy means letting go of all of those things that MAKE us happy, and just simply allowing ourselves to BE happy.

I don’t need to buy the things that I need to live on this Earth because I can find them in Nature, directly from the Great Spirit.
I do not need to contribute to modern methods of damaging the Earth and treating living beings as commodities because I can listen to Nature and exist within. I am free from the restrictions and nurtured drives of money.
In Nature, I am endlessly entertained and in awe of the work of the Great Spirit, and I am constantly seeking perfection in everything I do. I am not tethered to fabricated and spiritually deprived distractions of the mind.
In Nature I am forever grateful in a circular manner, always aware of all that exists because I live in a moving meditation of gratitude for all things of the Creator. I do not need rituals, religions, and doctrines to schedule gratitude.
My whole Self functions as a tool for Creation, thus elimination my perceived self. I am never lonely and I am never alone.
I emulate the twisting grapevine, the pouncing leopard, the spinning cyclone, the undulating waves, and I am a constant reflection of the Universe because the Universe exists in all things of ever-changing Nature.
My teachers are the cycles of Nature, and my heroes are the beings that live and forget; exist without desire but with only pure purpose so that we all may share this experience in harmony.
I am not a person anymore, but I am a vibration in Human form. I have been all things, and I will forever be all things because death is not an ending but a transition. In our existence, there is nothing to be tied to that will not be with us forever. There is no material loss, no emotional tether, no legacy, no ownership of any thing or concept. What works for all beings works for me, and I am NOT more important than or above what sustains me.
Nature is not found in building and books, it is not found in manmade constructs, it is Universal Truth that always has been and always will be.

When we free ourselves from dependency upon artificial life and perceived needs and desires, then we see that all of the things we found so important no longer have power over us. We can choose to release what makes us sad or happy and we can embrace true peace. Even when we are happy and content in the fabricated world, we are always afraid that we will lose it, that we must preserve it, that we may become sad again, and this is a demon of fear that must be crushed by the Sword of Truth.
What we do not own, we cannot lose.
What we truly love will stay with us forever.
If we banish fear, we raise ourselves above the demons of hatred and deceit, ulterior motive and malevolence. We raise ourselves from the nagging tether of finding happiness, satiation, of feeling loss, of mourning death, of fearing death. We lose the false parameters that define the smaller self, and we hatch from the fabricated cocoon but not as a mere butterfly, yet as the essence of the vibrations of color, sound, and presence. That is the death of self. This is when physical death is a birth-out, not an ending.

Mob Mentallity

2009-05-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

We are social beings now, but our interests changed our motives. Several thousands of years ago, when we lived more like our primate cousins, we were creatures that interacted socially for breeding and for protection. It made sense to function as groups that could have more eyes to see stalking predators, but also to form physiological bonds with one another in order to make procreation successful. We are a species that emulates our parents and elders in order to establish a pecking order so that we may fulfill our inherent roles in the group, but also so that we understand some common rules of conduct within our group. This form of group-loyalty kept us closely knit so that we were family oriented and fiercely protective, which meant that our actions for survival and protection of our young were self-serving to a degree of maintaining our bloodlines.
It made no sense to extend courtesies to other groups because their survival would potentially put them in direct conflict with our own group for space and food. Our concerns were made for our family. But even as such, we were a foraging species. There was nobody cooking meals for the rest of us; there was nobody collecting baskets of fruits for the rest of us. Each individual foraged for themselves when the entire group went to a feeding area. Our collective activity was not to provide food for one another, but to provide eyes for one another. A predator was a threat to any individual, so we all had a common interest in fighting-off predators as a unit. But an individual that could not fend for itself became a detriment to the group, thus, if one could not find adequate sustenance, then one would likely perish, which would ultimately keep the group stronger in two ways: the individual would not become a parasite on the group for food and care, but also that individual would become the slower, weaker, sicker meal for that predator, at least temporarily diverting its interest away from the rest of us so that we could continue to survive and procreate.

Over time, as we began to take advantage of the feeding patterns of large predators, who might feed at a kill, but then leave it for a rest only to return later for more, we learned that this carrion was a rather convenient form of nourishment that could be divided from a single source amongst everyone in the clan. Now, instead of feeding as an exposed group for long periods on seeds, nuts, berries, and insects, we could go out in a more surreptitious manner and bring back a meal source in one-fell swoop to supplement. This made life easier, especially because we are a cooperative species. When hunting meant living, it was a benefit for small groups of men to form hunting parties so that they had better odds at catching bigger game that they could carry back together in order to feed the clan. Our cooperative efforts were performed directly for our best interest of survival. Not only could we hunt more effectively, but we could stave off other predators and scavengers as we developed our cooperative logistic. Further, cooperation made agriculture more lucrative, thus we could move our berries, roots, and other veggies closer to home where we had more defenses against would-be predators or conflicting tribes.

But Nature always kept a balance. We did not fear death as we do now. No other creature actually fears death; only humans possess this unfortunate trait. All creatures fear attacks. All creatures fear the potential threat of the unfamiliar, which displays as a “fight” or “flight” response, but this is not to be confused or misconstrued as a fear of death itself, because it is neither productive nor realistic to fear death to the point of contradicting Natural Law.

So as we formed these cooperative units for living, we did this as a species that sought survival, not as a species that sought immortality. Our actions were self-serving only to the point of logical “survival of the fittest.” There was no ulterior motive, no deceit. Our actions for the cooperative were united by each of us having a personal interest in the actions and the results. If I did not hunt or forage, I would not survive. (Keep in mind, this is different from: “I do not want to die, so I must prevent my death by eating.”)

More recently, however, our cooperative nature has become exploitable, particularly as our minds have become less spiritually aware and more subjectively connected. This comes from a new evolution of fearing death, which means seeking a safer existence with technologies to stave off death, which means developing a more sedentary and comfortable lifestyle as we strive for the station of gods. We take from Earth without reverence, and we now live in spite of Nature. Our cooperation makes this possible. As our minds have evolved into the more abstract ideas of ethics, which have become wholly elastic as they are established by belief systems rather than truths—interpretations of truths that have become twisted to fit our desires and to absolve our otherwise less-than-virtuous consciences—we have figured out ways to influence others by giving them a sense of purpose and a sense of loyalty relative to modern ideals—corrupt or otherwise—as a new way to satiate the hunting party mentality that we have not yet lost in our de-evolution from Reality. Now, instead of hunting parties working toward a common, personal interest for a small, familial clan, we have become fraternal recruits into our new paradigm of patriotism by being convinced that we are honorable to stand up and fight for what’s “right” for “everyone.” When what’s “right” is subjective, when it works for the few but not for all, then it is not virtuous. That is the essence of corruption and terrorism. Our modern wars are fueled by economics, international dominance, and land-possession, if not for mere variations in belief systems. Our wars do not benefit us in any personal way, and, in fact, cause severe detriment to the many environments, which in turn affects all other species, as well as our own progeny. Our wars are counter-productive, made to serve the powerful, the wealthy, but our military is presented as a brotherhood of honorable patriots fighting for freedom that never existed. Our soldiers are now gang-members, recruited because they are the hunters who need the camaraderie of the hunting party. We see this also reflected in subcultures of police and firefighters, sports teams and the fans that live vicariously through the teams.

If we could eliminate all of the subjective ideas of what is valuable to society and start getting back to Reality, to true Spirit, so that we understand and embrace what is truly valuable to all beings—such as our basic needs, and the virtues of Bravery, Love, Friendship, and Wisdom—then we could cooperate to bring ourselves back into balance and disconnect from the fabricated world of corruption and false ideals. In order to “cooperate” ourselves out of the fantasy world of man, we have to understand that we were “cooperated” into it under false pretenses.

Travelling Up a Mountain

2009-05-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

When we begin life, we utilize very basic movements of mind, body, and philosophy to enable us to function. This is not new information to you. Our verbal language must develop through a progression of steps, at first learning the structure of letters, then the combinations to form words, then to coordinating the words to express thoughts. Further, the structure of our thoughts is growing similarly through nurturing, believing, observing cultural norms and taboos, listening to our parents and teachers, and understanding the framework of society. As our information grows, we can manipulate more abstract concepts, eventually even allowing us to extract ourselves from the parameters of conventional thought.

Our physical body must crawl, stand, wobble, walk, run and then it can progress to more tempered and disciplined movements found in gymnastics, yoga, dance, martial arts, until we can begin to interpret and respond to abstract stimuli with movement. These new, advanced and honed movements thus become the way in which we interpret the Universe. They are the second nature of our shed basic selves, like the statue revealed from beneath superfluous stone.

As a teenager, I knew information that I was taught whether by learning through exploration or by classroom programming. I knew information, and I began to understand that in all life, in all the Universe, there is a common thread, an invisible energy, essence, spirit, bond that flows through all things. And as I learned more mentally, I also learned more spiritually and physically, one element always springing upward off of the other two in a metaphorical mountain climbing journey.

But at first, when I would speak of these things of Nature, I did not have the experience yet to know why I should believe the things I did. I knew they were "right" things, but I did not know why they were "right." In this case, I would use my base reflexes, and I would argue and push to try to get people to understand. Yet I could not even find many who would listen, particularly while I did not understand yet myself. I did not understand resolution through redirection of combined energy for a productive outcome, either. I did strive for that, but it seemed that only the Enlightened could exercise this skill, and I could only accept that resolution may need to be found in overpowering others with information rather than guiding with patience.

I'm still learning this now.

But it occurs to me that as we train ourselves toward temperance, we move toward a place in which our skills culminate to become our temperance, like being a blazing fire that heats a pool of water-skills whose steam rises only to fall down and quench the fire. The more physical skills I learned and practiced, the more secure I became to be able to handle not only various physical attacks, but also to handle the way each attack would progress. I learned adaptability. This was the same with language and thought. The more I learned about what Nature says, the more adaptable I have begun to become when discussing these things. Now, the information allows me to relax with increasing confidence to become a gentle guide for my children or anyone interested in going this Way. Now there is less fear of "losing control," because control is a weakness of fear. The confidence of skill and knowledge tempers that fear, replaces weakness with strength, but it also opens the mind. A closed mind inhibits growth and connection to others and with the Whole. If this connection is closed, then the other elements of the Triad stagnate. Thus, spirit also shines because each of the three elements in the Triad help to raise the other two to new heights up the mountain. And when spirit is unfettered by fear, open-minded with unconditional love of seeking productive resolution, then we ultimately see all of these skills that brought us along have been a vehicle used to arrive at a place where we will not need them any longer.

This is a fascinating trip. :)

Finding Peace I

2009-05-03T11:06:00.001-07:00

We are made of Earth. We are literally constructed of elements that come from the planet, thus, from the Universe. We are that which makes us. Energy that exists in the Universe exists in us. Consciousness that exists in the Universe exists in us. The progressive processes that occur on the Earth, the order that comes of chaos, the evolution of cycles, exist in us. We live, think, sense, grow, and function as a reflection of the predetermined cycles that surround us, holding a place of our own in the Universe, the very Universe that is reflected within us at the same time.

As beings built with thought processes of learning the logical and integrating the artistic, we are of Mind. As beings made of matter that evolves within progressive cycles (in which the strongest and most fit perpetuate growth), we are of Body. As beings of intuition, emotion, and awareness, we are of Spirit. Each of these three facets of the Triad of life must be kept in balance in order for us to experience peace and happiness. Peace and true Happiness are the result of Mind, Body, and Spirit being individually tempered and coordinated or synergized. Until we reach Satori, or Oneness, or Enlightenment, we can be in positions of relative peace while we advance in tempering and strengthening the elements of the Triad. (The term relative is important to keep in mind.) Our peace can start within, but then extends to our home, then our community, then our nation, then our world, then our Universe, and so forth. So if we temper ourselves, we then extend that temperance as a method of existence outward. But we also must understand that we receive ripples from outside of us, as well, which we must then resolve in order to maintain the cycle of peace throughout our Universe. What this means is that as we grow, as we deal with everyday existence, and we must face conflict as a rule of existence.

Life is a series of conflicts. Birth is conflict with death, the bodies of mother and child fighting toward bringing the child into this existence, to breathe. Rain is conflict with Earth, pounding the plants and soils with much needed water, carrying nutrients and detritus to the streams, rivers, and oceans. Healing is conflict as the body protects its injury from further damage, new bone and skin grow, antibodies fight infection, and healing energy displaces stagnant or disrupted energy. Standing is conflict, the body constantly shifting on minute levels to oppose gravity, as the heart beats, the lungs oscillate, the muscles change, and the Earth moves. Death is conflict with life, but only to perpetuate existence. All of these things are necessary for evolution, survival, and growth. Conflict is integral to existence. The more aware of our ever increasing surroundings we become, the more ripples we encounter, and the more we grow as we resolve conflicts to obtain inner peace that can then translate to resolve outer conflicts. In other words, if you have inner peace and peace in your home, then your existence is restricted to the inside of your home. But when you realize that there is a community, and that you are a part of it, turbulence in the community becomes turbulence in your existence, which means you have conflict to resolve in order to obtain peace on that level or in that sphere of existence. This concept moves forever outward, into the spiritual, and perhaps beyond. Part II

Finding Peace II

2009-05-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

If I have a broken leg, then my body is not in balance. If my body is out of balance, then I am not at peace. There is something out of sorts, something not as it should be. I can be mentally centered, and I can be spiritually centered, but I am not physically centered with a broken leg. That disturbance compromises my personal peace, and my body must resolve the conflict of the injury and healing in order to attain peacefulness again. If my logical mind does not understand something, cannot grasp a concept that is crucial to my well being, then it will not be at ease until that concept is grasped. I can still be physically centered and healthy, spiritually centered and healthy, but I will not be mentally at peace, so my Triad is not in balance. I cannot be truly peaceful until I grasp that misunderstood thing. Once I understand, then I feel relief, and I can bring the Triad back into balance for peace. In spirit, if I become emotionally or morally agitated, if I feel disturbance in the course of life, if there is suffering or anger, then I must find resolution in order to balance my spirit again. My mind can be logically sound and centered, and my body can be physically fit, but my spirit feeling something discordant needs to be balanced once again. We can feel the depression or utter terror of other beings in danger or being killed. We can feel the energy of other beings; we call it “getting a vibe.” If we are spiritually unaware or if we tamper with our spiritual awareness with biased input, clouding our intuition, then we need to find our spiritual center once again for balance and clarity. The stronger and healthier my individual elements of the Triad are, then the more effective two of them will be to help bring the third into balance. If one aspect is out of balance, then my Triad suffers more over time unless I restore the equilibrium.

Beliefs affect our perceptions of peace, as well. If I believe that killing trees for profit is a just and good thing to do, then killing trees will bring my mind into relative or perceived balance, and I will feel a sense of peace. But if my spirit feels the suffering and discord this causes on an environmental level, I must either ignore it with distractions, i.e.: alcohol or other mental diversions to offset the disease, or I need to reassess my perspective for bias. In other words, this is why it is crucial that our perceptions be as pure as possible based upon a universal truth as our frame of reference. In other words again, as part of the Whole, what I do should benefit the Whole. If my actions contradict or harm any part of the Whole, then I am compromising my balance through ripples that will return directly or indirectly. (Splashing in a pool causes ripples. If the ripples bounce off the walls of the pool back to me, then I am experiencing a direct repercussion. If my ripples cause another person in the pool to respond with splashing, then their ripples are the indirect effect of my ripples.)

There is a difference between being at peace versus being indifferent. In maintaining peace, we must understand that it is an active process. Balancing each element of the Triad takes constant tuning and work, which is conflict resolution, in order to maintain the harmony of elements that keep the entire Triad in balance, thus, allowing peace. But it is also important to understand that our personal Triad extends outward to the entire Universe, as well. We cannot be autonomous. We depend upon the Earth for our survival. We are inexorably connected to the planet, thus, to every other being on this planet, thus, to all spirit within all things, thus, to the entire Universe and beyond. There is no separation aside from perceived separation. Perceived separation means seeing ourselves as independent from the Whole (“I have evolved beyond the need to be tied to the Natural world because it will exist with or without me.”); ignorant of the Whole (“I exist in the world I’ve created and acknowledge no outward connection.”); or living in spite of the Whole (“I am not obliged to give, but am here only to take.”) This spiritual denial of accountability allows for a false sense of peace through indifference or skewed beliefs. If I disconnect from the Whole, then I have no accountability, I have no awareness of the truth of the Whole, I am closed into my restricted perception of the world, and I am content to know nothing because it would be too unbearable, too much to handle, or too depressing. This defines self-centeredness, and being content in ignorance does not imply spiritual balance; therefore, the Triad cannot be balanced, which means true peace cannot be achieved. As an integral part of the Whole, how could we be truly peaceful if the Whole is not truly at peace?Part III

Finding Peace III

2009-05-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

When we acknowledge our inherent connection to all things, then we also experience the reality of all things. We experience what affects the Whole. When we accept that we depend upon the Earth for our survival and that we are integral and inexorably connected, then we begin to see that taking care of the Earth, in spite of our wants but in respect for our needs, is beneficial to all beings. As natural beings, protecting Nature so that all of Nature prospers means automatically protecting our progeny. This is preservation. This is the natural order of cycles and evolution. It is the default program that Nature implements, which is unconditional love. Nature doesn’t default as destruction, otherwise it would be non-existent. Self-destruction is not the rule. Survival is the rule, and even a parent sacrificing its life for its child is to serve a greater, progressive law of altruism through unconditional love. We are meant to follow the law of perpetuation of our progeny, but we counter that by destroying the very thing that keeps us and our progeny alive in order to cater to our wants with irreverent parasitism. This means that our spirits cannot be in balance. We are letting our fears and emotions rule our actions, and this is not peaceful. As integral parts of the Whole, how can we be personally at peace if our greater self is not in peace? We cannot.

If you attack my brother because you are angry or because he has something you covet, then your Triad is out of balance. But your attack means that my spirit is automatically disrupted because you are part of the Whole as I am. Look at spirit as being an ocean. We are boats on the ocean. If your boat suddenly spins out of control, it may hit another boat, and it will cause many ripples of disturbance over the waters that we share. Your ripples will affect all beings on the ocean in some manner. My job as a fellow boater is to help your boat get back on course before it goes careering into someone else, including my own boat, and does damage. This is a law of perpetuation of altruism because by helping you not destroy your surroundings, I ultimately aid my spirit and our progeny. I would be remiss to ignore your boat and sail away. I would be abandoning you to cause potentially much suffering and possibly to capsize. Plus, the waters I sail would still ripple with your disruption, and I would not be able to exist in a peaceful way. I cannot force your boat to be stable, because that means I would have to hold it steady indefinitely, and I am not capable to steer everyone’s boat for them. What I could do is bring my boat alongside yours to offer stability while I help you get your boat back under control and balanced. If you choose to ignore my help, but to maintain your destructive course, then I will sail alongside you until you either change your mind for the benefit of all on the ocean, or until your engine fails. If I am an able boatman, then my relatively stable boat can use the wind to sail, even use your own power to move it along while it keeps your boat from crashing into others until you gain control or run out of power. In other words, I need to be as personally centered as I can be in order to be an effective element of Nature to bring balance, then peace, to the rest of the Whole. This is Aikido. If my personal balance and peace are self-serving, then it will only be superficial, as my inherent connection that I choose to ignore will ultimately contradict my perceived autonomy, thus revealing that no matter how peaceful I believe I am, I cannot separate myself from the reality of the Whole. I either live in a closed-off world of selfish indifference, or I am aware of the destruction and suffering of the world around me, of the disrespect and endangerment for our progeny, and I realize my obligation to help seek resolution on a broader scale. What is the difference between my human brother being attacked and my plant and animal relatives being attacked? Part IV

Finding Peace IV

2009-05-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

If the world is physically sick, if there are pollutants in the waters and air, if the trees that give us life are being eliminated, then I will ultimately feel the physical ramifications with physical debt and, eventually, death. If the world is out of sorts with disagreement and segregation and no “meeting of mind” as a Whole, then I will also feel the disease of general misunderstanding as a result of varying belief-systems instead of agreement derived from the frame of reference of Natural law. In other words, if Natural law says that we should be Caretakers, yet we choose to be Takers, then my mind will not be able to rest at ease until this situation is resolved in a way that makes sense for the benefit of all beings. If the world is causing suffering and lives being governed by fears, greed, depravity, power, and emotion, then I will feel the ripples of this spiritual deprivation, and my own spirit, as part of the Whole, will be ill at ease. We do need to maintain the balance of our personal Triad, but we need to accept our inherent responsibility to use this to uphold the balance of the planetary Triad, lest we lose the sanctity of the planet that is our very means of survival. Existence is cyclical. If we continue to mutate ourselves away from natural existence, particularly in a linear fashion of Takers in spite of the future, then we continue to ignore Reality, thus shielding ourselves with selfish bubbles of ignorance and indifference that spurn accountability.

If our own species is destroying the planet, then we are accountable to stop our species from destroying the planet. Non-action or indifference can often be misconstrued as peace, while it is actually fear, ignorance, selfishness, or all three. This is spiritual folly, cloaked with peace while there is no action toward resolution. Passive protest is action toward resolution, but the participants need to be ready to carry it as far as it needs to go. Since peace is active and can only exist through constant, productive resolution of conflict, any non-action is not peaceful. Resolution of conflict does not imply violence and aggression, either. It simply means an attempt at bringing conflict to a productive or non-destructive completion. In obtaining peace, the reality is that beings will die, yet it has to be by their own will. In fact, obtaining peace for the existence of the planet means that we need to find a viable balance in our population-to-environment ratio. You can choose to stop thrashing in the water so you do not drown, or you can choose to thrash and drown, but you cannot hold the water accountable for your decision. Doing nothing to stop the destruction being done to the planet means we are as spiritually culpable as those that are doing the destruction. If we do not try to stop it, if we simply accept that it happens and live around it or in spite of it, hoping for the best, then we may as well accept that we are not only part of the problem, but that we are enabling the problem. I will not be part of the destruction by choice.

Perception and Reality

2009-03-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

When a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound? Of course, I’ve addressed this before, but it’s worth revisiting because it says something about how we exist, as well as our true purpose. A tree falling does not make a sound, but it causes vibrations in the air. A sound occurs when there is a receiver that translates the vibrations. We hear a sound because our ear-structure is affected by vibrations. Sound is a complete process; it does not occur prior to reaching our tympanum, but is the result interpreted afterward, instead. It is the same with all of our physical senses. Sight is not accomplished without eyes to interpret light reflections and refractions. The light is a vibration, and the eyes perceive the vibrations, turning them into sight. Our senses function as part of a process.
A television set kind of functions in the same manner. A television is a body that is designed to receive signals, then turn them into sights and sounds, which are then transmitted at vibrations to us, who then turn them into the sights and sounds appropriate to our design. We know that our biology is similar throughout our species, similar enough to speculate that we all see, hear, smell, feel, and taste things relatively consistently throughout. We also know that other creatures with different designs of the same organs, such as an insect’s eyes, interpret the same vibrations that we receive in a different manner. So we know that reality is perceived in a relative manner, but reality itself is consistent. In other words, that platitude: “We make our own reality,” is garbage. Reality cannot be made by us. Reality already exists and always has. We simply interpret reality in our own ways.
If I am blind, I am now unable to translate the signals or vibrations emitted by the world that is affected by light. I can no longer perceive the visual existence, so it is effectively non-existent for me. But that is my interpretation. Yet, since the absence of sight does not preclude the absence of light being reflected, and since reality exists whether I can interpret it or not, does that then mean that part of me does not exist, instead? What if I cannot hear? Vibrations will still be made in the air. If I cannot smell or taste, particles will still be dispersed from perfumes and cookies. If I cannot feel by touching, matter does not dissolve. So if there is no completed circuit, so to speak, between the transmitted world and my receiving capabilities, does that mean that I, effectively, do not exist? If I were in a room with another person, and that person could not see, hear, smell, feel, or taste, therefore, had no perception of me at all, does that mean that I do not exist for them, but that they do exist for me?
How does a being that does not see, hear, feel, taste, or smell perceive other beings? What does a tree do, well, before it falls in the woods? How does it perceive? How is it that we can affect particles of energy simply by observing them? If we had no senses at all from birth, would we have any way of grasping that there is a world?
Our bodies are vessels. Our bodies are designed with purpose. Just as a computer is designed for a purpose, while a radio is designed for a different purpose, and a television for yet another, etc, we are equipped with certain “hardware” that has function. We were designed with our physical senses for a reason of completing a circuit, receiving and interpreting signals. It is through these channels of perception that we create a bond with reality while inhabiting these vessels. When we leave the vessels, our essence continues to oscillate, but our restrictive perceptions are gone. This means that our physical purpose is tied to the physical world designed by the vibrations of the universe, or, the Creator.
Without our senses for perception, we are spirits locked inside of a container with no viable reception to outside stimuli, kind of like satellite television on a cloudy day. The energy exists, but there is nothing happening because the signal cannot be received and interpreted. We are meant to interact with the outside world, because it is through this range of interactions that our spirits have connection, sustenance, while inside the vessel. The richness of our sensory perception will directly affect our spirit.
What if your television received video, but the audio was static? What if the audio was clear, but the video kept freezing or blacking out, like when too many clouds interrupt the signal? What if the audio was extremely loud, but the video was fine? What if the television did not allow you to touch or smell the things you see and hear? That would mean that the experience is incomplete. If our spirits are part of the Great Spirit, part of the universal energy, and the universal energy is something like a gigantic satellite signal, and our bodies are the receivers for the signal so that our spirits can have a complete, fulfilling experience of reality, then does it make sense to inhibit those signals?
The Creator force, the universal energy, manifests in physical form in numerous ways. We see this in any natural entity, such as that tree, a bird, a crab, a flea, a banana, and anything that has not been manipulated by human hands. Reality already exists, remember; we cannot create it. We alter the physical forms of reality, but artificial things are not real, they are only tangible. Imagine, for example, that your body is altered synthetically to form a plastic bottle. Your purpose has been altered, and you are not a real human any longer. The bottle is not one that was found in nature, so even though the physical element is made of real matter, it is not fulfilling its natural role. Plastic bottles do not readily occur in Nature—although, they can be found in Nature, now, because humans put them there. A television is made of natural materials, but televisions do not readily occur in nature; they have no purpose in the natural world. So the Creator force is readily found in whatever form the Creator naturally assumes, which means it is designed with purpose in the greater, holistic scheme of Nature. Therefore, if the Creator designed Nature, and the Creator designed us to be bodies with perception that contain spirits, does it make sense that we have a purpose in the holistic scheme? Does it make sense that our spiritual connection to purpose and completeness, therefore satiation, would come from the manifestations of the Creator instead of from the artificial?
So, as part of reality, if my spiritual satiation comes from my perceptions of reality, then does it matter HOW I perceive reality, or only THAT I perceive reality?
First, knowing that my holistic existence is contingent upon my physical perceptions, which enrich my spirit because the senses (and breath, which is covered elsewhere), are the keys to connecting contained spirit to universal spirit, then THAT I perceive reality is a pretty crucial matter. Now if reality is that which exists prior to any human creation, then if I put walls up around me, does that not disconnect me from reality? If I put walls around me, and a roof over my head, and I close out sound, weather, and scent, essentially residing in a dark box, is that not similar to shutting off my senses? If I shut off my physical connection to reality, does that mean that reality effectively ceases to exist for me? Does this mean I effectively cease to exist, by cutting off the circuit of perception, to reality? It’s not really anything transcendental or deep. Basically, by being disconnected from the real world in my physical form, I cut connections to the Whole, essentially trapping my spirit in a box. From there, it can either move out of the box and connect to reality through the senses, or it can leave my physical form and re-integrate with the Whole. (Being disconnected from physical perception does not mean that my spirit does not exist in reality, it means that I cannot make a connection, I cannot satiate my spiritual place and purpose, similar to a battery being full of potential energy that has no form or function until it makes the right connection to fulfill its purpose.)
But the brain is an organ that needs occupation. It is active, always perceiving, reasoning, absorbing, thinking. What happens if I disconnect from reality, from the spirit manifest in Nature, and I reside in the dark box with no interaction, no mental or physical stimulation? I am living death. What would there be to occupy my ravenous mind if I had no perception of anything at all? What if, in my dark room, where my senses function, but have no signal to receive, there was suddenly light? What if there was a television? My mind would focus on the stimulus. There would be distraction. I could watch a television show. I could see a movie, and I could laugh. What if I could control the temperature of the room and even have food provided through a hole in the wall? I could keep my mind occupied, but does occupation imply spiritual satiation?
Artificial things are not found naturally occurring. If the Creator did not implement them into the cycles of natural progression, then they do not fit. Artificial things typically use natural resources in a parasitic way; pollute the natural world in their creation, their disposal, or both; and have no function other than to satisfy a human perception of need that is based upon fear or discomfort, which are perpetuated by living in an artificial world. Therefore, if I occupy myself with things that are artificial, do I find spiritual fulfillment and satiation, or do I simply occupy my busy mind in spite of spiritual fulfillment and satiation?
If I exist in an artificial world, which is not a human interpretation of reality, but a fabrication in spite of reality, then I am sacrificing my definition and purpose based upon reality, so that I develop my identity and occupation within artificial parameters. My body literally begins to assimilate to the artificial conditions, and evolution shows that my progeny will further transform or mutate to assimilate in direct correlation to these artificial conditions. This implies that as my progeny evolve relative to the fabricated world that shuts us off from reality, they will no longer be real. If our core design was meant to function within the larger design of Nature, and we literally close ourselves off from Nature and replace spiritual connection with mental preoccupations or distractions, it means that we are ignoring our inherent realness. It means we are spiting Creation. Our senses and physical structures will atrophy the more we replace reality with distractions and comforts. We don’t hunt and gather anymore, so our senses and natural, physiological tools are watered down through false evolution. We let televisions and iPods, alcohol and drugs, and myriad other distractions infiltrate our systems and saturate us with stimulation so that our inherent abilities become numb. We change our landscape for more easy negotiation so that we don’t even walk correctly anymore, if we walk at all. We fight death and aging, and we literally breed increasingly weakening traits into our species because we can offset them with technological crutches. This fabrication means that we live in an existence that is nothing more than a larger version of Disney World, and just as superficial, driven by the rules of Monopoly. This means that we effectively do not exist as real beings any longer, and that implies that our spirits are prisoners being brainwashed and intoxicated with distractions. If we reside in a world of fabrication, so that we ignore our senses, so that instead of developing them in reference to reality, we mutate them in reference to the artificial, then we neglect spirit. How can anyone be spiritual in an artificial world of so many different types of walls? How can we be truly happy if we don’t even realize our true place and purpose? How do we make a spiritual shift, if our spirits are drunk on preoccupation instead of real purpose?
Reconnecting to reality begins with experiencing it. It begins with being outside, in the presence of the manifestation of universal truth, or, the Creator. It means acknowledging what is natural. But it is not a form of absolution, like going to church on Sundays in order to dump out a trashcan of sins so that you can spend another week filling it up again. You cannot simply hang-out outside and have a smoke, just to return to the death of the artificial world and expect to make spiritual strides. Developing spirit means developing the senses through developing awareness. There are far too many layers to Nature, thus, to ourselves, to believe that spirit can be satiated, fulfilled, accurately tuned by only acknowledging the uppermost layers. The deeper we delve into reality, means the more intimately we connect. Our senses will strengthen, and our bodies will follow. Intention elicits action which elicits wisdom and growth. In order to exercise the awareness, we need to enhance the senses, which means we need to begin to push physical boundaries and explore our potential. We need to integrate reason, thought, emotions, and actions so that as we gain awareness, we gain insight, which then pushes us to gain physical skill in order to go deeper. This is the course of life. It is progressive, and it causes us to develop temperance in order to grow. Ultimately, as we strive to find the peak potential of our spiritual connection through finding the peak performance of our senses and skills in reality, we come closer to Satori, to allowing the universe to completely infiltrate us until we find that there is no barrier any longer. This is not something we can embrace simply through speculation and understanding, for that is only part of the triad that creates the synergy. You cannot reach Satori by living in, relating to, and valuing the artificial. It is time to wake up.

Evolution

2009-03-21T15:47:00.000-07:00

This is actually one of my favorite anecdotes regarding evolution:

"An example of evolution resulting from natural selection was discovered among "peppered" moths living near English industrial cities. These insects have varieties that vary in wing and body coloration from light to dark. During the 19th century, sooty smoke from coal burning furnaces killed the lichen on trees and darkened the bark. When moths landed on these trees and other blackened surfaces, the dark colored ones were harder to spot by birds who ate them and, subsequently, they more often lived long enough to reproduce. Over generations, the environment continued to favor darker moths. As a result, they progressively became more common. By 1895, 98% of the moths in the vicinity of English cities like Manchester were mostly black. Since the 1950's, air pollution controls have significantly reduced the amount of heavy particulate air pollutants reaching the trees, buildings, and other objects in the environment. As a result, lichen has grown back, making trees lighter in color. In addition, once blackened buildings were cleaned making them lighter in color. Now, natural selection favors lighter moth varieties so they have become the most common. This trend has been well documented by field studies undertaken between 1959 and 1995 by Sir Cyril Clarke from the University of Liverpool. The same pattern of moth wing color evolutionary change in response to increased and later decreased air pollution has been carefully documented by other researchers for the countryside around Detroit, Michigan. While it is abundantly clear that there has been an evolution in peppered moth coloration due to the advantage of camouflage over the last two centuries, it is important to keep in mind that this story of natural selection in action is incomplete. There may have been additional natural selection factors involved. "

It is in print in an article here (and this is not spamming, just linking to info): [url=http://anthro.palomar.edu/evolve/evolve_2.htm]Early Theories of Evolution: Darwin and Natural Selection[/url]

It is interesting to note that humans have evolved even recently because of our tendency to allow weak genetics to persist in our species. We actually foster the evolution of trait deficiencies as a rule. (We're also the only non-water-dwelling species that defecates in our water as a rule, but that's a tangent.)

Baldness (lack of fur for warmth and presentation); poor eyesight (not good for former hunter/forager creatures); numbed sense of smell and hearing (easier prey targets); and then our teeth and bones have become less dense because we no longer put the stresses on them that our ancestors did. Most of our recent changes (as I've stated before) are mutations relative to our artificial world and habits. We have even forgotten how to walk properly because we no longer need to hunt, nor do we worry about roots, rocks, and potential dangers when walking along a nice, flat sidewalk or tiled floor.

Evolution is technically a theory, but a theory (Meister beat me to this) is actually pretty solid in the face of intensive scrutiny and testing, and is, for all intents and purposes, tacit fact by deduction. There are other things, such as atoms, that are technically theoretical but accepted as fact. Here is another article regarding as much, as well:
[url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-fact.html]Evolution is a Fact and a Theory[/url]

Evolution exists. As someone who has lived in the wild about as wild as one can be, I submit that appreciating the application in the adaptations that nature creates is an amazing and beautiful thing.

But there is also energy. Energy exists. It is what makes thing happen. We function by virtue of electrical influence. Lightning is raw energy, as well. The energy inside of all of us exists in all elements, as that very atom vibrates in all things.

We can even feel the energy emanate from others. We are stimulated to sympathy when a loved one is sad. Laughter of a baby makes many of us smile. And rude actions from another incite anger. We protect others from abuse inherently. This is the essence of raw energy that is formed as spirit. It is that thing that prompts our energy to move. Spirit is like the ethereal blasting cap for the chi or ki. We all share it with all things.

The universe is the embodiment of energy. The productive force of that energy is called unconditional love. Cycles have developed over billions of years in a progression of chaos and order always working as conflicts resolving to productivity and growth. The default of nature is unconditional love. Some call this "the will of God." The gift we have from nature--nature: the only reality upon which we can all agree--of free will and to appreciate the beauty of it all may be considered a construct of God. And it is because we are all part of this construct together, all made of exactly the same universal dust, that we have an opportunity to find a unity by this truth.

In other words, no matter what happens, we are accountable for striving for healthy and productive spirit for the whole, because we cannot be separate. Again, what may be called the will of God, and what should be based upon the truth of Creation, which science proves.

In other words again, why not accept evolution as proof of God's amazing versatility, creativity, and allowing us the gift of forever changing and adapting with our free will to become the best that we can be?

Just to stretch it a bit further (more appropriate to expound on the other thread, I know), but science is actually a great sounding board for not so much disproving the existence of God (that's impossible in any form), but for helping us to understand the real messages passed down, filtered, and interpreted for hundreds of years so that we don't make the mistake of bending interpretations of truth to fit our subjective desires.

What if Jesus didn't magically multiply a few fish and loaves of bread into a plethora to feed the masses? What if, instead, he gave every single person in the masses a tiny, equal portion, and made them understand how to appreciate sharing, getting something--but not more or less than anyone else--and how to appreciate what they were given by God? What if the water didn't turn into actual wine, but instead he taught the people how to savor and appreciate God's water--Earth's blood--as if it were the sweetest most flavorful wine of sustenance in the world?

I submit that Science and Creationism can work together. (Better than Politics and Science or Religion and Politics any day!)

Experiencing Nature

2009-03-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

I've killed lots of people. I ran a guy through a wood-chipper once, and I relished every second of the event. I froze one person to the point of his insanity-driven necrophilia and ultimate demise. I've even grown a tree with a man inside. I've committed the most heinous of offenses, and I savor the administration of mental torture through the omnipotent puppetry of my work. That is the horror-fiction writer side of me.

But I also read textbooks for fun. A fan of MacGyver and a student of primitive survival skills, as well as an accomplished martial artist, I thrive upon knowledge and pragmatism. I crave detail and resolution of both the minute and the massive.

I have done something that most people in the modern world have not done. I lived in the wilderness during a year-long transition between military service and a wobbly, albeit earnest, attempt at assimilating into the system of our modern society. Not many people can say that they've lived in the wilderness for any long term without bringing any tools, clothing, food, weapons, equipment, matches, maps, or potato-peelers. I did.

I have slept in the rain, and I have swum in muck, and I have been a fox, and I have killed with the utmost reverence, for my survival. I have been mesmerized by the elements, and I have been mystified by what most consider to be the mundane. I learned that magick is real, and I learned that it is impossible to be lonely because in the natural world, no one is ever truly alone.

I lived in a way that I depended upon no artificial technology. The only safety-net I brought was the ability to walk out of the woods and return to my parents' home if I needed to, but I forced myself to disconnect from that option unless anthropogenic influences forced otherwise. I was living in a way that my survival was contingent upon not only my technical skills, but also my reconnection with the natural world. If I could not let go of my perceived self, then I would die, and I would accept that.

Technical knowledge and skills can keep an individual alive for a directly proportional amount of time, but there is a difference between surviving and living. In order to live with the wilderness, I needed to shed any shred of my subjective self and become a child of the Earth once again. It was my duty as a natural being to realize my role, my Original Instructions, and fulfill my true purpose in the real world.

We know that nature is reality. That is a given, and it is the fundamental concept I carried into the wilderness when I began this adventure. Based upon this universal truth, I was able to identify all subjective, artificial elements that defined me in the artificial, man-made world. At first I was lonely, but I wasn't scared because I was cocky. And when I had my first experience of awakening to deer "blowing" in the middle of the night outside of my poorly-constructed lean-to, I began to understand how scared I really was and that cockiness did not facilitate a smooth, comfortable transition into reality. I learned similar lessons when sleeping on moss in a downpour, as well as experiencing the reality of winter without fur.

During this time of being rudely awakened, I was not learning to find myself. I wasn't learning self-awareness and how to "center myself" in order to deal with life's every day stresses and become more economically productive and financially secure. In fact, I was learning past those concepts. Those concepts are the ending places for societal "self-help" workshops and books on cd, and they are empty, having no purpose beyond man-made parameters. I knew that money was a false idol, and I could not base my existence upon theoretical values. What I learned was that I was not really so much a "self" at all. Once all of my society-based definition was removed, based upon what was kept as essential in the reality of living in the natural world, I learned that I was not an "I", but that I was part of everything.

This turning point elicited a liberation. It allowed me to become imbued with nature, to lose the restrictive cabinetry of categorizing and labeling parts of nature in a scientific manner and instead channel my sensations and awareness of the natural universe through me, as if I'd become an essential component in a circuit between the ground and the universe.

In order to understand this role, I needed to realize the function of nature, what made it tick, how the system of reality worked. I needed to see how the vines wrapped around the trees, how the ants communicated with one another, how the rocks made the water flow, and how the stars revolved around me at night. I had to experience the chaos of a windblown seed's journey and witness the order of its finding a place and germinating, carrying on its line. I saw that the universe and the cycles of the ecosystems that the Earth established over billions of years were conditional, but not biased, and that all existence was a function of productive resolution in an endless oscillation of chaos and order, and that it all boiled down to love.

I learned that all things are connected, and as I studied the patterns of the wilderness, the cultures of the animal-people and the tree- and plant-nations, I learned more and more of the intricacies of their languages. But I learned how they needed each of the other nations of creatures within their environment to exist. And I understood that it extended from the micro-habitats all the way out to the universe in a procession of concentric ripples. The minute needed the grandiose to exist, and the grandiose could not function without the minute.

I am a Tracker. My passion is to study the marks and signs that creatures and things make upon surfaces. It would take decades for me to understand that those marks also translated to the spiritual field, and that all things are affected not only by the smallest movements from across the universe, but by mere thoughts, as well. Although many of us are not highly attuned to sense these subtle disturbances, they are there, and many of use experience these "vibes" often in our daily lives when they are strongly emitted from other influences around us. What we miss in our modern "de-evolution" or "mutation" is that we actually CAN become attuned once again.

In the tracks I learned that there is much more to a footprint than identifying the physical characteristics of the maker. Seeing a track and simply identifying the maker as a female deer of one-hundred pounds with a hip injury, for example, was basic, and merely following the tracks to find the deer could be difficult, but was essentially simplistic. As all creatures in the natural world are affected intimately by their natural surroundings, then their tracks, logically, were imprinted with their responses, and I knew that the entire universe could be seen inside of the tracks, not unlike seeing the reflection of the universe in a body of still water, and not unlike reflecting the entire universe in my quieted, tempered soul.

I could see that I was a link, and I therefore embodied the entire universe as I also held a place in the center of the universe. I became a track, and I recorded my place and responses to all of creation in my footprints. I needed more.

I learned that in order to become more attuned to the world beyond the physical, to the spiritual realm, I needed to quiet the waters of my soul. I needed to temper bias, temper emotion, and become the truth of the unbiased reality of nature so that I may channel truth with no personal, subjective influence. In doing so, I would become a carrier of truth, a fulcrum by which others would be able to find resolution. Aikido became the physical manifestation of my center and unbiased love. It would allow me to bring physical conflict to productive resolution while restoring the health of the natural world. Temperance would allow me to act purely so as not to become a bully or a tyrant that forces others to follow my rule, but instead assists others by offering opportunity for awareness and growth, offering the opportunity to reconnect with their original instructions and become children of the Earth once again.

And now I can see what is happening because I have lived with one foot in each world: one of the reality of nature, and the other of the fabricated world of man. I can feel what nature feels because I relinquished my false idea of self-import, superiority, sentience, and dominance. I let go of my fears of mortality and other natural laws. Now I speak for nature, not because I am grand, but contrarily, because I know I am not.

I am happy and fulfilled in the real world of nature. I am free, and it is the birthright of all beings to be free in nature. No one should be ruled by another. I strive to bring this opportunity for freedom to everyone, but these messages passed from countless generations before us fall upon fearful, deaf ears.

We have the potential to be amazing. We are blessed with the gift of free-will. We are accountable and we need to be responsible enough to follow natural laws and become Caretakers once again. We are in debt.

Intuition, and Time the Killer

2009-03-19T16:03:00.001-07:00

In the real world, the natural world, one begins to lose touch with the calculated bridle of secular time in what often takes only one setting and rising of the sun. This adjustment can be an uncomfortable feeling, at first—a proverbial culture shock--for anyone who has strictly succumbed to the adherence of schedule and routine in the modern world to the point of depending upon time-pieces in order to function, in order to feel as though one has place, purpose, and occupation. Without measured time, the modern human often feels lost, bored, and lacking positive or productive progression. This is called a rut, a conditioned, psychological dependency and sickness.

In the wild, loss of time feels disturbing for the first few days, and even longer for those who do not transition from the fantasy world to the real world well or regularly. But in the real world, when we lose the constraints of time, we begin to liberate our spirits, feeling less and less tethered to the commitment of perpetuating the mechanism of the fabricated society. As we release our spirits from that burden, we allow ourselves to open other portals of awareness. When we can clear our thoughts and worries of the secular world and temper our emotions, we allow awareness to flourish. Our senses begin to function again, in a similar fashion to our ancestors, as we settle ourselves into our surroundings and begin to see the wildlife that we’ve taken for granted or have missed for so long, in spite of its proximity. We begin to catch new scents and movements, and we begin to hear beyond the obvious. Natural things taste different and better as our senses of taste and smell are allowed to recover from the barrage of ornamental flavorings and seasonings that we use to shock our senses into some form of compulsory enjoyment, not unlike a burnout who needs increasingly intense narcotic experiences to penetrate the numbness induced by the habit.

In the real world, we assimilate to the natural rhythms; we get tired when the sun sets, and we awaken when it rises, in spite of our conditioned routines in our controlled “bubble” environments, e.g. houses, cars, offices. But what’s astounding to me is the way that our intuition blooms when we unwrap the shroud imposed upon it by life in the fabricated world. When intuition opens, we begin to follow feelings, moods, whims, and curiosities of otherwise unknown origin. There is a world outside of the physical world that encompasses all time, all events, all life, and it is from that influence that we may receive “gut feelings” or “signs” and other signals that we may or may not recognize, but that can guide us in many circumstances. Sometimes a “vibe” we pick up from another being sends us a signal that we cannot always identify in words or rational terms. Sometimes we simply feel as though we should explore a certain thing, whether it is trivial or otherwise is irrelevant. Sometimes we might get a feeling that we should avoid something, even if there is no obvious sign of danger. Often, we suddenly remember something that we had been trying to figure out—on the tip of the tongue--or that slipped our minds. In any case, following these signals can lead us to avoiding dangerous situations, about which we could not have possibly known otherwise, or they can lead us into extremely positive situations. Sometimes the mere following of a whim of intuition may open a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, or a life-saving one, that would have otherwise gone unnoticed had we been restricted to the brainwashing governing of secular time and routine.

In the real world, we become real again. We connect to the cycles of reality in far more than a physical way, and we are allowed to tap-in to the natural signals or vibrations of the natural world that cannot be opened in the secular existence. In the fabricated world of man, we condition ourselves to subdue and even snuff our intuition, and we often only hear of those “gut feeling” as anecdotes resulting from encounters of life-threatening situations.

In nature, those messages and feelings are commonplace, part of everyday existence, numerous, and they lead us to the most amazing discoveries and information, from which we otherwise cut ourselves off because of losing touch with reality. This is another example of why living in the artificial world with artificial technologies and artificial belief systems is literally ruining our species and devastating life on this planet, and it is an example of something we’ve lost in our inherent selves that we need in order to feel connected to something bigger that loves us unconditionally, which can’t be found in the manmade world, and without which, we feel lonely, lacking, and without purpose.

You Don't Even Walk Like a Human . . . or Do You?

2009-03-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

Here’s an example of taking things to nature. There is something to be said about how much we’ve disconnected ourselves from the real world when one considers the extent to which we’ve even forgotten how to walk. Nobody walks correctly anymore, and we generally face an inevitable fate of joint problems, from the ankles upward, even through the spine to the base of the skull, particularly if one does a harder form of motivation, such as running or other high-impact sports.

In the old days, before cars, Nikes, and sidewalks, natives had been walking correctly—globally—as a matter of course. Nature teaches the body what it needs to do to be the most efficient and effective for surivival, for when going to the refrigerator is not an option for complacent snacking, and turning up the thermostat or jumping into the car weren’t even a consideration, people had to walk for a living. Now, we ride everything everywhere, and walking seems to be increasingly passé. When people walk, it’s typically a short distance on a very flat and unforgiving surface, which is mitigated by all manner of footwear. Walking now is an entity in and of itself, a faddish concept, part of a routine scheduled in a chunk of a day as a means of “staying fit.” It usually involves a large facility with a track, or could even be in a room in a house with a television—or, God forbid, not without an iPod. Far be it from anyone to experience the monotony of walking on a machine for twenty minutes without that life-saving technology to distract the mind. Then there are the shoes. There are actually people out there who wonder how the natives ever managed to survive without so many of the amenities we have available in our infantile dream-world. How did they ever manage to walk or run everywhere in moccasins, let alone barefoot? Native mail runners used to cover a hundred miles or more in a single day on foot. They didn’t have technologically advanced, aerodynamic, air-pumping, anti-odorant, spring-loaded sneakers, either. Guess what: They also weren’t crippled with knee injuries, hip injuries, and spinal fusions. The natives used their feet and legs in the way that nature intended.

It drives me bananas seeing people out there in their Lycra suits with windbreakers and six-thousand dollar sneakers—don’t forget the iPod—running up the paved street on their heels. Our sidewalks and blacktops have created a world virtually free of roots, rocks, sticks, debris, and holes. Granted, in some of the less-attentive cities and well-used towns, there are potholes or frost-heaves here and there, but the travel-ways are relatively obstacle free and smooth when compared to the natural landscape. In the real world, however, all of those toe-stubbing, ankle-twisting hazards created a sense of awareness in the people closely connected to the land. They needed to be highly conscious of where they stepped, not only to avoid a brittle stick that could betray their presence to game animals, but also to avoid anything that may become a little irritated at being stepped on and may retaliate with venom.

Walking was done with deliberation. It was an experience that involved all of the senses and some physical control. This is one of the most effective and important ways to develop total awareness. Walking meant moving quite slowly, imperceptibly at times, and blending with the surroundings to the point of being virtually invisible. Anyone who’s experienced the amazing ability of ungulates—hard-hoofed animals such as moose, deer, and the like—to utterly vanish like ghosts, becoming silent and invisible while only a handful of yards away, can appreciate the art of walking correctly as a matter of survival. Anyone who’s developed joint problems, or who has been walking across the lawn and suddenly dropped heel-first into a depression that jars the entire spine might appreciate how walking and running correctly could have saved them the trouble, as well. It’s actually humorous to me to watch people crash into things—or each other—because modern walking is a process of absent commitment to steps perpetuated by momentum. Natural walking means being able to stop on a dime, handy when one has small children, pets, or goes to places where the rest of you modern-walk.

Natives used to carry themselves in a position called Dog-body as a matter of course, as well. Where most modern people move around in a manner of: heel-ball-toe, heel-ball-toe; the natives moved in a fashion of: toe-ball-heel, toe-ball-heel. Any good martial artist or dancer SHOULD be familiar with this concept, but that’s not always the case, either. In fact, there’s another “acid-test” to see whether your instructors are old-school and worth their salt, or whether they are Xeroxed entrepreneurs with the franchise mindset. If they don’t even know how to walk correctly, pretty good chance you’re being taken.

Think about the design of your foot. Think about the design of your dog’s or cat’s foot, too. Ever notice that your pets walk on their toes? Did you ever consider that there’s a valid reason for that? Those animals are called digitigrade walkers. That means they are designed to be fast runners or rapid-fire pouncers, and they actually never touch their heels to the ground unless they are sitting. Even when a cat is about to jump six times its own height, the heels don’t touch the ground; they come close, but not quite—well, unless your cat is obese. Cats and dogs walk on what would equal our own toes and ball-mount. Bears and porcupines, however—the wide-bodied animals—are called plantigrade walkers. This means that their heels are involved in their foot placement; however, the contact is minimal upon impact, unlike the human’s, who’s is devastating. We are plantigrade walkers, but we even do that wrong.

Imagine that your foot is like a diving-board from the ankle to the toes. You can flap your foot up and down, just like some little person is bouncing on your instep getting ready to do a great belly-flop into the pool. When you stand on your toes and ball-mount, you flex your calf, utilizing that ankle as a fulcrum. This gives you spring and power on push-off, but it also acts as a natural shock-absorber upon impact. When a roomful of ballet dancers leap across the floor, they should not be landing in a way that suggests the bounding of elephants. Instead, they should sound similar to a group of feral cats landing with stealth and relative silence. (I say “feral” cats here because I know that some house-cats do sound like elephants now, particularly when they can access their vittles anytime they wish throughout the strenuous days of napping.) This stealth is accomplished by landing toe-ball-heel. When you walk or run, you should be utilizing your natural shock-absorbers in this manner. Your impact should be mollified in your ball-mount, translated through your “diving-board” into your calf, then further absorbed into your thighs and gluteals. In doing this, you will eventually notice that your calves tone quite nicely, and you will notice much less strain on your entire back. Walking is similar, in that your landing should be plantigrade, incorporating your heel, but the majority of the impact should be taken with most of your weight on your toes and ball-mount first. There are, further, many different styles of walking, as well, but that can be for another essay or workshop.

Now, if you take that theoretical diving-board and place it up on its end on the pool-deck or patio—in other words, standing it upright--then you sit up on the high end and bounce up and down on your tailbone, how is that going to feel? Since there is no springiness translated through the board lengthwise, as there was laterally, the impact will be excruciating. This is similar to the way modern humans walk. Landing on the heel directly shocks the heel-bone and translates up the tibia and fibula to the knee. Walking is a very complicated series of starts and stops, so consider that when we slam our heels into the concrete, we actually lock our knees for a split second, which means that the impact further translates up our femur into our hips and lower back. This can actually cause shock to ripple all the way up into the base of the skull. Just try jumping in one spot a few times, landing only on your heels with locked knees. Where do you feel it? That’s how you walk, too, believe it or not. The military calls this “marching.”

Walking correctly actually implies slowing down, as well. But our society is so enamored with speeding everywhere all the time, that slowing down has to be scheduled. Regardless, this is one of the most basic and essential examples of how disconnected we are from reality, from our roots and core purpose. When we take our ideas, practices, and bodies into the natural world, we see the reality of what is viable and what is not. Nature is the carpenter’s level, and it is clear that we are straying very far away from it.

Make your own reality in three easy payments of $29.99! Seriously?

2009-03-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

Reality exists in the form of Nature. There is no end or beginning of reality. We do not create our own reality; we simply process stimuli based upon former experiences and sensory perceptions, and even now, we utilize artificial tools to help us interpret increasingly smaller parts of reality, which respond in a manner that our limited physical world cannot comprehend. Our experiences are based upon our interpretations of reality. We use restricted parameters of language to define, discern, and categorize our interpretations. “Blue,” for example, is a color in the spectrum of natural light. It is absorbed by certain elements, and is thus translated by our eyes as a particular frequency of light. But “blue” does not exist unless there are beings who can interpret “blue.” The light exists, and the elements that reflect the frequency for “blue” exist, and the frequency for “blue” exists, but the word “blue” is a name for our human optical perception of that frequency, which does not create color unless there is an eyeball available to receive and interpret it. It does not change the reality of light, elements, and vibrations. We interpret this vibration, and we label it. “It shall be “blue.””

But what if a person is color-blind to “blue”? “Blue” then does not exist in their interpretation of reality. But reality still remains constant for all beings. The vibration or frequency for the color of “blue” is happening, but if a person’s eyes cannot interpret that vibration, they simply cannot see that color that other eyes can pick up. Does that make them wrong? Does it make them delusional? Or does it make them different? What if our species wasn’t supposed to see “blue,” but through an anomaly (genetic mishap), there were some people born with the ability to translate “blue,” and they kept breeding people who could see “blue”? Now, the person who could not see “blue” is the anomaly, yes? But how does it affect their natural role? Perhaps being able to see “blue” or other colors has led us to develop more and more “blue” things that have become problems for the world as a Whole. Does our new ability to see “blue” make us “justified” simply because the majority is now able to see “blue”? Or are there simply more of us who are “wrong”? Can you understand why I keep saying, “Take it to nature,”? We must see beyond interpretations to the core of universal truth in order to know what is viable or not and what is ethical and just or not.

When we label things with language, we restrict their value, their inherent meaning, and their vastness. We subvert the spirit of the thing we label. If we call a woody perennial a “tree,” then we have just restricted all woody perennials as “trees.” Then we might narrow the field and call a tree with certain leaves and bark a “birch tree,” but that is still too restrictive for the individual tree. And no matter how deeply we go with labeling parts, we will still lose the essence of the “personality” (a dangerous term here, I know) of the single birch tree in question, because we are relating to it in an artificial and superficial way. In other words, my name is “Jeff,” but there are other people named “Jeff” in the world. Are all “Jeffs” the same thing? What about the deeper aspects of all of these “Jeffs”? Does my physical construction and DNA make me unique, or is there more to this “Jeff” than that? (Some people might say there’s nothing deeper; perhaps “two monkeys and a yo-yo” in my noggin. But I guess even that says something about our interpretations, or lack thereof, of essence and realtiy.)

Once again, we are using names to define our interpretations of things, but this means that we begin to develop superficial perspectives of reality. Take the word “infinity” or even the word “void.” Those things are beyond our restricted interpretative abilities, particularly as we continue to lose touch with spirit. Even labeling them restricts their reality, their inherent essence and vastness, yet we do it in order to have crutches for our minds to “get a grip of the intangible.” We need to learn to “let go” of ourselves as individual beings who need those crutches. You cannot grasp the infinite if you are stuck in a realm of finite, subjective, interpretative tools, folks. Even with spirit we do this; we invent religions that give us crutches so that we can imitate some form of spiritual awareness for lack of having true connection as we continually reinforce our fabricated existence in our artificial world. While we interpret things subjectively, we devalue life. In turn, we treat other beings as commodities. We kill, extirpate, rape, reap, poison, enslave, buy, sell, and throw-away other life. This is shameful, but as long as we decide (and I say “decide” to illustrate that we are taking grave advantage of our gift of free will here) to interpret reality, we can get away with whatever evil we wish. Well, at least until the Realists stop it from continuing. This is coming.

Going back to “blue,” if I can see “blue,” and I like “blue,” then I will tend to gear my perceptions of my existence toward “blueness.” I might paint my walls “blue,” and I might wear “blue” clothing. I might even try to develop ways to turn my food “blue.” But I am not creating a reality; I am simply adopting what I desire based upon my interpretations of reality, and I am ignoring and even inhibiting things that do not fit my personal desires within my interpretation. Further, I may cater to my appeal for “blue,” which mitigates my spiritual deprivation in some way, by compromising the integrity of other life-forms through pollution or destruction so that I can turn my entire world “blue.” This is how we function as a species. We do put ourselves into—or allow ourselves to be restricted by—these “tunnels” of interpretation through our existence. We base our paths upon not only what we interpret as “reality,” but even upon what we are told is reality by other interpreters. Can you not see that this is insane? Probably not, because your tunnel has diverged from the reality of Nature. How can you experience the smell of the outdoors, the feeling of the breeze and moisture on the air, the sight of the forests or oceans, the sounds of the wildlife, and the connection with the spirit of the Whole, while you’re driving in a closed, climate-controlled vehicle, wearing your sunglasses, the radio assaulting you as you attempt to watch the road while sipping coffee and negotiating vehicles, lights, and pedestrians . . . ?

We do not live in reality. We seem to exist in spite of it, actually. We live in our interpretation of reality, and it is subjective, which means it will never and can never be viable for all beings. It’s time to change. It’s time for a spiritual shift. And if people can’t make a spiritual shift in the real world, then others will change “their reality” for them.

Forgiveness and Revenge

2009-03-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

To err is human, but to forgive . . . well, is also human. It’s interesting because forgiveness and revenge are human concepts, as are good and bad. They do not exist in the natural, real world. I find it extremely difficult to believe that there are humans that would willingly “forgive” anyone who shot their child in the head, kicked their dog, raped their sister, or any number of despicable things that humans do based upon way out of balance emotions. If we were a forgiving species, we wouldn’t have created prisons, guillotines, law-suits, weapons, and tactics of destruction. What right do we have to forgive anyone anything anyway? Consider this: a person bulldozes twenty acres of land, wiping out entire ecosystems and killing thousands of creatures. Or a group terrorizes and murders villages of families with infants notwithstanding. Do we forgive? Well, in a sense, yes, but not the way secular society believes, particularly not with the “turn the other cheek” mentality. Turning the other cheek was not a way of saying, “You slapped me, but I am going to turn away, forgive what you’ve done, and let it all go.” That would be ludicrous. It would make us indifferent doormats to be used and abused by those with no honor, respect, pride, and integrity. The message was, “You have slapped me, and this is disgraceful, but I am going to give you an opportunity to rethink this action, and we can either come to a resolution peacefully, or you can slap me again, and I will take you down, because I’m not to be disrespected and abused.”

Forgiveness is not even universal, as the universe doesn’t judge. It doesn’t hold grudges. The universe simply functions, and it does not care about whether you are an ass or not, because the universe is unconditional love always, and it will just keep going. Resist all you wish, but it will always rule and overcome. Back to the scenarios above with the twenty acres and the village. None of us has any “right” to absolve anyone of anything; we’re not deities. Forgiving an action should not preclude doing something in a way to productively resolve the action. We humans tend to utilize forgiveness as a cop-out for activity. If I forgive you, then I absolve myself of guilt for being supposedly “selfless” and “bigger,” which means I may then wash my hands of further accountability. Go ahead and show me a truly selfless act, I dare you. But if we’re going to forgive without taking accountability for the actions of one another as a species, as a society, as part of the Whole, we are as guilty in our indifference as the party that committed the act. We still need to accept that we are ethically and spiritually obligated to maintain the integrity of nature and ourselves and not let other abuse the welfare of all things.

In the fabricated human world of modern society, we live in a blatant hypocrisy. We damage the world as a rule, and we create poverty, social stratification, depravity, despair, suffering, and myriad other issues as a rule, as well. Who dares to claim to forgive anyone of anything? Living in a subjective culture of subjective ethics and subjective justice certainly does not afford anyone the clout of that sort of judgment, but that is one of the reasons that we see so many problems in the world. If we utilize forgiveness as a method of indifference and pseudo-self-absolution, then we let heinous things happen around us. Karmically, we are all screwed. Anyone who claims to abide by the golden rule of karma must know that the majority of us are absolutely screwed. Modern humans live in direct violation of natural laws, that means spitting in the face of creation, and it means hypocrisy, which is blasphemy, which means karma is going to be biting LOTS of arses.

Revenge is human. Forgiveness is human. But if we approach the issue from a tempered perspective, abandoning the emotional aspect, we find unconditional love, which does not preclude positive progression, which further does not preclude eliminating the destructive elements. In other words, when someone proves to be detrimental to the welfare of the species, to the welfare of the environment, to the Earth, or to spirit, then those elements need to be filtered by the laws of nature. We are certainly not in any position to judge, but we are in a position to fulfill our roles within natural laws and universal truth. Unfortunately, our society is moving drastically away from realizing and accepting universal truth any longer. Therefore, any actions of forgiveness or revenge are subjective, which means we are tacitly as guilty as the wrong-doer. In the real world of universal truth, or nature, forgiveness and revenge are not personal, but they present in a way of maintaining unconditional love for all beings no matter what “crime” they commit. If you kill my child, I still love you unconditionally as a being that shares my spirit, my physical constituents as part of the Earth and Universe, but I’m also going to eliminate you because you have proven to be a detriment to the welfare of the species. Creatures are built to protect their offspring. This is altruism. Attack my offspring, I will kill you. If nature determines I am stronger, you die. If I am weaker, then I die, and the stronger of the species carries on. The problem here is that we have let emotional bearing evolve to an extremely unhealthy point.

What it boils down to is that forgiveness and revenge are the same, but they are human constructs, and we are not in a position to determine who should be forgiven and who should be punished. If all situations are dealt with from a balanced perspective of unconditional love, then we have positive progression, which means some will die, and some will survive. This is reality. Unconditional love precludes emotions, forgiveness, and revenge altogether, but it is very difficult to attain. Barring this temperance, people need to understand that their actions are not necessarily as pure, just, and spiritually “safe” as they may wish.

Addendum: For a fantastic example of the implicit "forgiveness" or "acceptance" of unconditional love of nature, read "The Giving Tree."

Forgiveness and Revenge: Part 2

2009-03-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

Human forgiveness means that we've qualified something with a value relative to our perspective in order to make its being compromised forgivable. We must decide, therefore, whether we can allow ourselves to move beyond a point of anger and retribution or revenge toward another, based upon the loss we’ve incurred via the actions of another, relative upon this concept. This is one of the reasons that any retribution based upon morals and ethics or values—whether cultural or personal—that are subjective cannot work globally or universally. Ethics, morals, and justice cannot be subjective.

What’s interesting, too, is that loss incurred means that we typically follow a progression of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. This can apply to the loss of a family member, or the loss of a job, a vehicle, or a home, and anything to which we assign a value. Inherent values lie in things that we love unconditionally, such as our children. The grieving process of loss, while working through these stages, means that we must come to some form of closure in order to obtain acceptance, then forgiveness. When we forgive without experiencing the grieving process, we are prolonging denial, which is unhealthy. It is a form of blocking-out pain and accountability for ethical retribution.

When Jesus said: “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do . . ., “ he didn’t mean, “Please forgive them, and ignore their selfish, destructive ways indefinitely, because they are simple creatures who will never learn.” This is a grossly common misinterpretation. But if we look at it from the perspective of reality, of natural progression and unconditional love, then it means: “Please, Great Spirit, have compassion in spite of their misdirection, for although natural recourse can cause loss for them, they still have the potential to be amazing Caretakers once again.” What he meant was that we need to realize that nature has compassion and can adapt to our mistakes, but that ultimately, if we remain ignorant and selfish, we are going to find ourselves in devastating ramifications. He meant that we have an opportunity, and a responsibility to reconnect to reality. Right now we are experiencing spiritual forgiveness in a way that we still have an opportunity to make a shift for the welfare of all of nature, thus, for our progeny, and for the progeny of all beings. However, if we continue to misinterpret what Jesus said--what the Bible, the Koran, the Kabala, or any other man-made texts and doctrine have misinterpreted relative to human ideas and perspectives outside of the reality of nature (where, by the way, God actually exists in the most pristine manifestation)—then we are going to face utter destruction. It has nothing to do with vengeance, nor does it have anything to do with forgiveness; it is simply cause and effect, and it is the progression of unconditional love in the Universe, because nature seeks productive movement through chaos and order, which includes destruction.

If someone tries to kill your child, do you simply let it happen and then “forgive and forget?” Of course not. That’s absurd and anti-altruistic. It makes no natural sense, whatsoever. You risk your life to save your child; and you kill the attacker if necessary—often, parents kill attackers even if “unnecessary,” because we transform to primitive mind when protecting our offspring. The corollary to this is that if we lose our child, we also must find closure in order to reach that final stage of grief, which is acceptance. How dare anyone say that part of closure is not revenge or retribution? What closure does a parent really obtain if the person who murdered or raped their child gets tried by the state, then goes to jail where he gets free meals, a place to sleep, an education, and other amenities based upon “good behavior?” This is an unrealistic paradigm, and it is another violation of natural law.

If you kill my child, because I could not stop you by taking your life, first (keep in mind that some accidents do not warrant retribution in this manner, but this is in reference to an aggressor who is purposely trying to do harm), then I will still end you even after the fact. The saying that: “Killing the killer won’t bring your child back,” is sanctimonious, and it is a way for us to dismiss our responsibility, to block out our natural tendencies, and to deny reality. It may not bring my child back, but my child will be avenged, because he could not defend himself, and that killer will not kill another child. Remember that turning the other cheek, asking for forgiveness, and forgiving others does NOT NECESSARILY MAKE YOU VIRTUOUS, particularly if it’s misapplied and subjective. It means that you are willing to let others abuse you and yours as long as you feel you can “morally” block out the reality of the loss and associated grief. What this further means is that we can overlook certain things that our species does to the planet, thus to our progeny, because we detach ourselves of accountability with too much pseudo-forgiveness and convenient cheek-turning, if not overly-passive hypocrisy. We might exercise a little more shame and reverence before we can go regaling ourselves with such “virtues” as those of the natural, tempered Universe. Look at Gandhi, Jesus, and Buddha for example. Do not mistake their calm, tempered, inner-peace in their dealings with society, for complacency and denial. These leaders have tried to lead by extreme example in order to get us to pay attention and understand. They were able to do this, because they reached enlightenment; they understood what the Universe was saying. If everyone would stop and pay attention, then all of us would understand exactly the same thing, and we would find that spiritual harmony, universally. We would become Caretakers, once again. Otherwise, I’m going to continue with this new kind of wake-up slap, because, on the whole, nobody’s really appreciating what these leaders have actually done, and the reality for which they died. Once we’ve all reached true enlightenment, or Satori, THEN we can call forgiveness, true forgiveness. Until then, we are only putting up a shield of denial, born of false virtue, and grounded upon subjective ideas.

So if we stop misinterpreting what Jesus said, for example, then we understand that he actually died in vain if we don’t change. He didn’t die with accountability for our sins so that we could sin indefinitely, people. He died to show that HE had FAITH in US, and that we could wake up and CHANGE for the better of all of nature.

Listening to the Universe

2009-02-26T10:25:00.001-08:00

Someone said to me, “Saving the dominant species means that the world would be saved,” or something to that effect. Obviously, humans are not the dominant species in the natural world. We are a prevalent species, but we are far from dominant in reality, if for no other reason than that we’ve removed ourselves from the natural role we once occupied. As a species that has chosen to diametrically oppose its Original Instructions, we have become a cancer. If we are to look at “dominant” in the context of being oppressive, abusive, and destructive, then, perhaps yes, we are dominant. But dominion doesn’t necessarily imply oppression, at least not in its purest form. “Dominion” represents being an overseer, a Caretaker. A gardener has dominion over her garden, but she does not rule by oppression; she oversees and protects and cares for the garden, for it is her well-being. We are far from being Caretakers any longer, yet we are dominant in destructive force.

We speak to the Universe in our actions and in our intentions. When an action occurs, there are ripples that emanate from the source of the action, and there are effects that occur, each one with its own ripples, and so on. There is a mesh overlay of ripples in a fabric of occurrences that happen constantly throughout existence. The more things that happen, the more disturbances that are caused, but now these natural rhythms (which are typically harmonic in the established reality of nature) are also impacted by the actions in the fabricated world of man, similar to a discordant sound interrupting a pristine symphony. Further, man’s senses are dulled within the artificial existence, and his awareness of the natural rhythms is consistently numbed. Human de-evolution or mutation is manifesting as physical detachment from reality or nature. Things occur always, but we have become so accustomed and/or numbed to those ripples that we are drowning in stimuli, and we choose to escape into our own interpretations of reality instead of living in a dual perspective of the physical and spiritual in order to discern and escape from the artificial influences, which would reveal reality. This is where the Medium or Channel would find peak potential, but this can only be accomplished by realizing that the artificial world violates natural law, which is a contradiction to reality, thus, a deterrent to spiritual awareness. In order to see reality in its purest manifestation of truth, we must abandon subjective values of society, lose our self-awareness as defined by those values, and be part of the natural world entirely, living by only the fairness of give and take without artificial influence. This is how we see pure truth and purpose.

When we function, the Universe responds. There are no accidents in the Universe, but only to humans. An accident is the undesired or unintentional result of an action we put forth. To us, when something occurs that we do not plan or did not intend to happen, we interpret it as an accident. To the Universe, actions have affects that elicit effects and often fairly predictable results. Chaos and Order happen, but there is a rhythm (unconditional love/productivity) to their dynamic. One thing causes another to happen. Our existence should be utilized as an enormous opportunity to learn how to find balance and purpose in reality. The Universe will continue to exist and function whether we do or not, but our stay on this planet can either be destructive and parasitic, and quite limited at our own doing, or it could be productive and spiritually satiating. Regardless, we will end someday. Do we end as a failure, or do we end with honor?

Humans being removed from the natural world would not cause a breakdown of the web of life. Each species is a strand in the web that functions as a whole. We humans have eliminated strands, weakening the overall function of the whole. As we continue to eliminate strands, the integrity of the whole is compromised. Further, the supports upon which the web is constructed are being weakened as we denude landscapes, pollute air, waters, and land, and continue to expand and consume. If humans were eliminated, the web could further unravel due to cause and effect, or it could begin to be re-spun. We could choose to begin re-strengthening the support system of the web so that it could be rebuilt by time and natural processes, but instead we continue to expand, pollute, and parasitize. The web will fail, and so will we. The Universe responds to what we say, but we do not heed these things; the Universe speaks, we choose not to listen. When a tree falls in the forest, we see nothing more than a tree falling in the forest. But when a tree falls in the forest, and a person is sitting under the tree not paying attention, then we call it a “catastrophic event.” We build cities in earthquake- and tornado-zones, and when our houses are devastated by earthquakes and tornados, we call it a “natural disaster.” When we see HIV and cancer and other pandemics occur as a response to our overpopulation or in response to our tampering with ecosystems and biodiversity, we do not heed the warnings, we choose to fight against them so that we may continue to expand and parasitize. Effectively, humans believe that the Universe is wrong, and that we deserve to have relative immortality.

We are a “have your cake, and eat it, too,” species. We want to have the cake so that we may admire the decorations, and so that we may smell its sweetness and enjoy the anticipation of tasting it. We want to be spoiled with possessing such a thing, but we also choose to indulge and gluttonize, devouring the cake for lack of self-control or temperance, and because we believe there will always be more cake available—maybe not for the grandchildren, but at least for us now. Let them deal with it when they get here. (Which actually means that we will deal with it in another life to come, we just don’t accept that for now.) This is an unacceptable method of existing.

Saving the humans necessitates saving the Earth and all of her inherent systems first. Saving the planet does not necessitate saving the humans.

Everything Happens for a Reason

2009-02-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

"Everything happens for a reason." This platitude comes up frequently in our society, but it is used more as a casual, verbal sigh, utilized to shrug off an otherwise inconvenient event that doesn’t make sense in its occurrence, and which is usually attributed to Murphy’s Law. It is most often not submitted as a serious reminder of universal fate, as it is just something to say at a time when no other ready-made explanation fits some stroke of ill-fortune. Many people don’t believe that everything happens for a reason, at all. That, to me, is absurd, for everything certainly happens for a reason, because our existence is very much established by cause and effect. However, there is more to it than mere mechanics, but not too much more.

It is false that “good things happen to bad people,” and that “bad things happen to good people,” in the sense that the universe has some ulterior motive. The truth is that things happen. Further, things happen to people. That is fact. Our interpretation is subjective, regarding whether these things that happen are good or bad. Good and bad, however, do not exist in the natural world. There are light and dark, positive and negative, productive and destructive; these things are natural and real. One extreme cannot exist without the other. However, good and bad are human perceptions based upon our beliefs and preferences, not based upon universal truth. One person’s good is another person’s bad. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Things just happen. Assigning personal projections to the universe is selfish and outright absurd, but people do it all the time, and it causes tons and tons of trouble.

Things happen because of direct influences. Things also happen because of indirect and even roundabout influences. This is what the Butterfly Effect is all about. Regardless, a direct action would be represented by dropping a ball into a bucket. An indirect action would be represented by a Rube Goldberg machine that drops the same ball into the same bucket, but only after the ball travels through an extensive network of physical mechanisms, such as levers and springs. Life is a mixture of both types of influences. The confusing part arises when we don’t see the direct connection between things we do and the outcome. Things that happen to us for seemingly no reason are effects of random influences that, once put into motion, must resolve somewhere in the world, or even out in the universe. Life is a series of chaotic and ordered events, one always feeding the other, always working together. Everything happens for a reason. That’s just the way it works, whether we can see the reasons or not, and whether we like the reasons or not. But this is the one side of the issue.

Things happen as the causes of events, yes, but from the other side, we could say that there are other, non-physical influences that cause things to happen in order for us to take advantage of opportunities. Most often, these opportunities are lessons we can utilize to acknowledge something we previously ignored or something we didn’t see at all. These are opportunities to confront something we need to learn so that we may gain wisdom. It is entirely possible that our actions, being based upon personal fears and insecurities, and whatnot, are influencing our surroundings. This is fair since we do as we believe; action follows thought. This is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, as well. In this motion, there will be repercussions of our actions, whether our actions are conscious, subconscious, or unconscious is hardly relevant, as we are still driven by our beliefs, desires, fears, and emotions. Logically, the ramifications of our actions can create circumstances that affect us in a way that we must confront these shortcomings that drive the entire process in the first place. Further, other beings can, and often will, be affected by our actions. They may be affected because their own actions put them in that place for a reason, or because they were randomly affected by the course of chaos. However, just because something happens to someone for seemingly no reason at all, certainly does not mean that it actually had no reason. Sometimes, as beings that share a common existence on a common, planetary organism, things happen to us because we are integral elements for the process of someone else’s lesson to be accomplished. This is another reason that global unification of spirit and truth need to be embraced. As a consistently functioning union of beings across the globe, and as part of the natural world once again, we will be able to make the most of these situations, helping one another and gaining the most wisdom from these lessons universally. The wrong thing to do is take it personally, or be selfish and think that the universe has ulterior, biased motives. Do not project, do not assume. Things happen. Things happen for reasons. Things happen to all beings. Seek the opportunities. Gain the wisdom.

The Constitution vs. Reality, et al.

2009-02-08T09:35:00.000-08:00

Several days ago I got a visit from a couple of nice young men who were on a “mission.” They were interested in offering any assistance that we may need at our household regarding any physically laborious tasks, which I found to be an awfully nice gesture. They also wanted to make sure that my family was aware that the aforementioned mission was to offer this kindness in the name of their belief system. This was not presented in a way that suggested that should we accept their offer of help with raking leaves, for example, we would become obligated to sign-up for attendance of their church services.
Although their presentation was nothing close to being pushy—as some door-to-door zealots might be considered—these poor gentlemen were obviously not aware that I have been teaching philosophy of Universal Truth for two and a half decades in this very region, and that as one of a handful of people in the modern world who have lived primitively in the wilderness for a year, I’ve been the subject of numerous articles on Tracking, martial arts, and wildlife. They did not know, as of our introduction, that I am one of the most outspoken advocates for nature and natural rights who has contributed oodles of editorials regarding nature, natural philosophy, and other topics for at least ten of that twenty-five year duration.
I don’t know how long the average visit and dissemination takes for the missionaries, but they were not leaving my door until nearly two hours after succumbing to their very own, private sermon from yours truly. As I said, to the apparently befuddled boys, “You’re not preaching to the choir; you’re preaching to the preacher.” And it turns out that within my lecture, speaking on behalf of nature, they were able to draw many similarities and recognitions to their own belief system.
Because nature is the common thread of all beings, it is easy to find parallels in all belief systems based upon this baseline of reality being truth. In other words, since nature is the only universal truth upon which no being can realistically disagree without being a walking contradiction, then it follows that there will be common core elements, even if fuzzy, between interpretations of that reality. Unfortunately, however, most, if not all, religions are moving drastically far away from the core truths and morphing into self-serving doctrine that humans utilize to mitigate fears and guilt, as well as to create subjective forms of ethics and justice. Ethics and justice, when based upon natural law, are universal. No one religion can corner the proverbial market on what is inherently fair or just for any being, culture, nation, or species. It has to work for all beings—and not strictly human beings—in order for it to be just.
The problem stems from a grave disconnection from the natural world. I’ve already written about and illustrated that “Sustainable Living,” which is supposedly the new fad available to make us feel “more connected” by “preserving natural resources” and getting the most out of them with the least waste. The idea that this form of sustainable living is further a form of “connection” is a farce. It is a wholly subjective, self-centered, idealistic concept of having one’s cake and eating it, too, which is little more than prolonged, environmental rape. (I’ve tried being nice and p.c. about these issues for around twenty of my twenty-five years, now, and nice and p.c. don’t really seem to get the message through. If it’s not in the form of an action movie or a rock-song, then society seems to overlook it because we have evolved into an infantile culture that embraces ignorance of things we do not wish to hear, no matter how true. We go through great lengths to avoid uncomfortable issues that are not directly facing us down in a tangible way. We lie to others and ourselves; we censor, delete, throw away, turn the channel or the page, and also turn deaf-ears to topics that disturb or challenge our beliefs and comforts. This is unhealthy for everyone.) So, yes; it is rape. It is what it is, whether you like it or not.
So I’m not going to re-write the volumes of information I’ve published at other times. I’m going to stick to the point of the thought that started this article: listening to “God.” (God is quoted because with so many religions come so many names, and “God” is the accepted, generic form.)
While speaking with these young men at my door--a relatively captive audience for not wanting to be rude by cutting me off and turning on their heels to bolt--one of them said that he knew that God spoke to him because he could feel the presence of a late family member in his life, and he knew that God was showing him that he was still loved and considered by this deceased person. He told me that he knew that God spoke to him regularly and that he knew how to listen because he could feel it in his heart. Here’s the thing, though: If we are to believe that God speaks to us based upon our emotions and suppositions, then that must imply that all belief systems are correct, because that’s simply how EVERYONE believes they hear the thoughts and beliefs, from their God, which drive them. That every religion is right, of course, is impossible, because any system of God’s truth, which is universal truth, must work for all beings, not for only humans, not for only one culture, not for only one person. We are all related, and we cannot have separate realities. We can interpret realities differently—which is what causes so much conflict and hatred in the first place—but that does not change reality.
Nature is real. Nature is the manifestation of God. Even if you don’t believe in a “God”, you have to know that you are created by and sustained by nature. It is a universal truth. Without nature, you do not exist. Therefore, the only truth that we can use as a baseline is reality, which is nature, which consists of mind, body, and spirit. All truths are derived from this reality. That means that subjective interpretations are not viable. If it doesn’t follow natural law, then it must be abandoned. Justice and ethics should be based upon natural law, not by biased, self-serving interpretations of natural laws. Now our laws and ethics are corrupt and selfish, catering to power, money, and emotion. In order to understand reality, one must be unbiased, which means being tempered, which means understanding the true place and purpose of self. This can only be accomplished by living in reality, in God’s world, directly connected with nature. It cannot be accomplished by living in an artificial world, because the artificial world disconnects us from our true place and purpose according to natural law. Again, I’ve already proven this in extensive writing that can be found elsewhere. Regardless, your job is to prove me right or prove me wrong. This isn’t my information. It’s not my “belief system.” It simply is truth. This comes from eons of wisdom gained by primitive cultures that lived by natural laws as everyday life. We have moved away from our natural place and purpose. When cells in a body do this, what do we call it? We are similar to cells in a body, as the Earth is our host, a holistic organism that sustains us, from which we breathe, feed, and exist.
Living in the natural world doesn’t mean camping out once in a while. It requires a commitment and an investment of time and energy into learning the skills that our ancestors utilized in order to live in a relative balance with their environment in order to survive, also in order to ensure the survival of their progeny for generations. It means having respect and reverence for life at all levels—much further than saying grace before supper and going to church--and it means not worshipping money or cheapening life by putting a financial value upon it. God cannot be heard in the fabricated world by anyone who contributes to the destruction of God’s creation by participating in a system of materialism, hungry for power and immortality. God doesn’t want us to live forever. God doesn’t want us to have money, fancy cars, big houses, televisions, cell phones, and property lines. That’s what WE want. God doesn’t actually advocate wiping out forests—even if we plant idealistic monocultures after eliminating pristine old-growth tracts—and God doesn’t really like us to dump oil, heavy metals, and other toxins into the waters, nor into the air. If you have been raised by any belief system that advocates these things, even indirectly (which most do), or if you’ve participated in any of these “self-help” courses that teach you how to assimilate to a sick society, then you might want to reconsider where it all pans out in the big picture. Natural law will always prevail over any manmade law, whether we survive it or not.

Listening to God

2009-02-08T09:34:00.000-08:00

Breath

2009-02-08T09:33:00.000-08:00

Most humans believe that although plants and insects and fish are alive, that they are devoid of souls, do not feel physical pain or emotion the way that we do, and are, therefore, inferior to us. A tree does not breathe the way that we do; it does not speak in our language; it does not eat in the same way that we do, so it must be a lesser being. It mustn't have a soul, and it doesn´t feel pain. It becomes expendable. We allow ourselves to believe that since this lifeform does not fall within the parameters of what religions teach us about souls, then we do not need to feel guilt, reverence, or remorse when killing these soul-less creatures.

Garbage.

I´m not even going to get into sentience right now, because sentience is obviously something we humans are not able to temper with reality and spirit. Sentience is what has gotten us into so much trouble, makes us arrogant killers, makes us greedy and depraved. Only creatures that do not possess our way of thinking have not strayed from their Original Instructions and become cancers upon nature. That´s us.

It was believed in primitive cultures, and has been taught for eons in Asian, Indian, and other "older" cultures, that breath is the key to spirit. It is through breathing that we establish a bridge to the spirit from our physical forms. Breath is the key to life, and it is the fuel of the blood and the energy that run though our bodies. Breath is healing, cleansing, and settling. It aids in bringing us to open states of awareness in order that we synchronize our senses and move beyond their physical restrictions to tap into the Whole. It has been said that in moving from the vastness of the Whole, that the breath of the body allows the spirit to inhabit the vessel.

The thing is, the shallow, conceited humans believe that breath must imply the very act of inhalation and exhalation that we perform involuntarily on a regular basis. Since many humans can barely see past the end of their nose, they assume that reality is whatever they project from their personal perspectives.

Garbage.

Breathing is accomplished in trees through leaves and roots. In fish, through gills. In insects, through knees. But it´s all breathing. It is all still a process of taking in gases via our prevailing atmosphere and replenishing our bodies so that we continue to function.
A fetus breathes. It does not breathe in the conventional way that we do postpartum, but oxygen is still taken in and carbon-dioxide still released within mom´s body, and with her assistance. But the fetus is still autonomous to the point that it still inspires and expires via the lungs. The fetus has a heartbeat, it has muscle function, and it can feel pain. If breath is the key to the soul, then a fetus has a soul. Someone moved into that vessel. It is the same for all other creatures on this planet, made by the Great Spirit.

Humans really need to get out of the box and start seeing the truth.

Masculine and Feminine Energies (stream of thought)

2009-02-08T09:31:00.000-08:00

In the natural world the feminine is the life-bringer--not the life-maker, as that is the duty of the Great Spirit. The female gives form to life, gives it a place to "cook" with the ingredients supplied by the male. But it would make more sense, especially following the feminine role of Earth as the life-bearing, life-sustaining "mother", that the female of the species, at the very beginning, would have been created before the male. It's as if the female was meant to be the foundation, the perpetuator of life, while the male was almost an afterthought, little more than a necessary tool in order to facilitate the female's accomplishing her purpose.

The male is the protector. The role of the male is to defend the female, protect the life-bearer, preserve her safety and place, and to fight for position against other males in order to perpetuate the strongest bloodline. The male supplies the necessary ingredients, but then his role is to stand guard while the female builds his children.

I don't see how a male can rule a female. It is absurd. She is possessed as long as she wishes to be possessed by him, and he is possessed by her as long as he wishes to be possessed, but neither rules the other. They are equals with different, vital roles. The average human male thinks about or imagines erotic situations or sensations frequently (some say every six seconds, but that does not account for the duration of the actual thought, fantasy, or sensation that falls around the six-second intermissions). Men are motivated, primarily, by their genitals. Seriously. Our testosterone is created there, and we are hormonally driven to do "manly" things by that influence. We are driven to be combative, to establish territory, dominance, and to even to gather food. But we are wholly broad-sided by the female. The female is our goal, our ambition. The female makes us lose mental function, to sweat, drool, palpitate, and to follow the unyielding, otherwise insatiable drive of our genitals. In the natural world, the woman has unbelievable power. In the natural world, the man has extraordinary strength and senses, but he is no match for his own hormones when a woman catches his fancy. Men are suckers for girls.

It makes sense that the Earth is a feminine entity as a mother, as a provider of comfort and sustenance to all of the children. Women have a crucial role that is unlike anything a man can do. The role of the female is to bring forth life. What does it say about a society, in which females are pushed and nurtured into taking over otherwise masculine roles? How can a society ruled by left-brained testosterone expect to be anything but violent, destructive, and wholly unproductive? When females forfeit their natural roles to be life-bearers, then how can it not be obvious that we are very very wrong?

G.A.I.T. General Track Features: Aggregate Substrates

2008-09-22T06:10:00.000-07:00

I'm not particularly fond of the acronym, but it's what we've got, and it's just cheesy enough to be memorable. Use this list to study tracks during practice and recognize the features until they become natural for you to spot. Obviously do not to bring it as a reference to a real tracking situation.

Guild of Advanced Interpretive Trackers (G.A.I.T.)
General Track Features: Aggregate Substrates (Revised)

After Concentric Line, look for: CCC BAT BLIGHT BRAT when Tracking through detritus and other matter.

• C = COHESION (when blades of grass (especially damp ones) stick together by water molecules and compression)

• C = CREASE (A dedicated fold in a leaf, stem, or other matter)

• C = COMPRESSION (overall or general pressure in shape of foot (or other object) in substrate and detritus)

• B = BREAK (typically found in dry material, a break caused by compression)

• A = ABRASION (friction that causes damage to matter, most common between stones or other matter against stone.)

• T = TEAR (can be in any material, but caused by opposing frictional forces or rooted matter getting caught in a shoe and pulled apart)

• B = BEND (a non-dedicated fold (less than a crease) in a leaf, stem, or other plant part, or a leaf (such as grass) bent away from the node)

• L = LOFT (the relative way the substrate depresses (negative loft), lifts, springs back, or “fluffs” after recoil or pivot)

• I = IMPRESSION (like a compression, but an indentation found in a plant stem or leaf caused by something like a stone in the substrate or shoe tread after compression)

• G = GLAZING (when drops of dew, rain, or blood, etc. are smeared upon a surface such as a leaf)

• H = HAZE (dust or discoloration caused upon a plant leaf by pressure or friction (not damage, as in an Abrasion))

• T = TRANSFER (substrate or matter moved from one place to another by adhering to shoe)

• B = BIAS (directionality indicated by the bending of matter from its normal state caused by compression)

• R = RANK (an alignment of plant parts or blades of grass so that the flat sides face the same direction showing dulling or shine)

• A = ADHESION (the substrate particulates that stick to the bottom of matter following compression)

• T = TWIST (leaf attached basally to stem twisted from its natural position against stem)

Tracking III: Movement Indicators

2008-08-30T19:19:00.001-07:00

Movement Indicators

Anyone who has been the least bit interested in Tracking, and has looked into the science and art as presented by Tom Brown Jr., has heard of Pressure Releases. I started trying to figure these mystical Pressure Releases (more commonly known as PRs in the tracking-circle) since I was a kid. I am now in my twenty-fifth year of working on this puzzle. I started learning from the books by Tom, which presented the concept without too much detail. Mostly, as I struggled to understand what exactly he was seeing in a mere footprint that could tell him vast and detailed stories of the subject and the environment surrounding the subject, I was going by faith. I only attended the Tracker School, Inc., in New Jersey when I was in my early twenties. By that time, I had become extremely proficient in the survival skills (I had already done a primitive year in the woods in New Hampshire), and I was becoming increasingly aware of the workings of the PRs. In fact, by the time I began taking the classes at the school, I was using them more as a system of validation than a resource for information, particularly for anything that was already covered in the books. I took the basic information and concepts from the books, and I ran with it, and I began to see things that weren’t in the texts, which started me on this path of exhausting, infuriating, research and development with no way to find any validation except to find proof in the tracks.

Though the Tracker School takes the student to a certain degree of Tracking knowledge, there seems to be a cut-off point for the information. Not only have I tried to speak to Tom personally in the workshops, to no avail, but I’ve actually mailed and emailed drawings and my own definitions of these things that I’ve found in the tracks that seem to be consistent with particular conditions and circumstances. Regardless of whether I was “right” or “wrong” in the school’s eyes, I never heard anything back, except from one former instructor who confirmed one of the prs that I found, but admitted that the pr information seemed to be locked up pretty tightly at the school otherwise, and he had no other information available.

Therefore, since I have attempted to make contact several times, to no avail, I could only continue to work on this study of Tracking by creating my own version of maps, concepts, definitions, and names for my discoveries. By no means am I the creator or inventor of these things in Tracking, whether you call them Pressure Releases or Movement Indicators. In fact, the Pressure Releases number in the thousands in presentation, and they were established by Apache Trackers (on our continent, anyway) over generations. I am attempting to put together whatever I can in a few decades, and I’m not sure I’ll come close to thousands. I do, however, have a good handful, and I’ve established what I feel is a pretty solid foundation for my interpretations. I have attempted to give different names to everything from what the Tracker School uses so as not to be claiming anything that I didn’t actually earn. I admit out front and off the bat that I learned the basic PRs that are found in Tom Brown Jr.’s book: The Science and Art of Tracking, from Tom Brown Jr. However, as far as Tracking goes, all other information regarding Fine-motor and Visceral Movement Indicators, as well as the mapping of zones of the body, are by my own research into other concentrations, such as kinesiology and gait analysis, as well as—and for the most part—practical and empirical investigation, or, good old trial and error. Nobody stood over my shoulder, and nobody gave me any information regarding the intricacies, details, or advanced principles of Tracking. The advanced concepts are my own work. Further, because of this, I’m going to take out some of the advanced details and descriptions I had in this writing for a couple of reasons.

1. It has taken a lot of time and effort (and ridicule and heckling) to develop what I’ve accomplished so far. I figure that if someone else is out there teaching it to the military and police, and making millions of dollars on the information, I’d rather keep the details to myself and a very close few.

2. If you are truly passionate about it, then you can either figure it out like I’ve been doing, or you can make a decent donation toward helping my family live in this god-forsaken system and toward helping me establish my Communal Village. I’ve already given lots of information out to many people for free, and it hasn’t helped my family avoid discrimination and persecution, so I guess I’m done with that, sorry.

3. Yeah, the military and police thing? I’m not into giving even more power of information to the very entity that forces me and my family to compromise our beliefs, integrity, and health (you’ll know exactly what I mean if you read the other articles in the blog). So I’m not about to make myself a hypocrite and give this stuff out for the government to abuse. Look at what they did with Einstein’s work.

So, why am I writing this, then? Because I’ve been teaching and talking about this stuff for decades, and I’ve developed some really good concepts and practices (including Clock-Tracking and the Golden Ratio Height formula), and I figure that even if I don’t so much care about making millions for selling the information, I still would like it to be known that I did this. Even if it’s just that my grandchildren find my buried and tattered writings one day in the future, I want them to know that I was one of the forerunners in putting together this information about Tracking while most people thought Tracking was little more than identifying and following footprints. I’m putting it out because there are so many would-be Trackers out there who claim they can see things (“head-turns” is a really common one) regularly in the tracks, yet they’re asking what these more intricate and delicate indicators are. This tells me that something doesn’t jive. Reading “head-turns” accurately and consistently is not as easy as folks would like to believe it is if you don’t know what to look for. And if you only practice what’s in the books, you don’t really know yet what to look for. But that’s okay; just don’t get cocky.

This article was meant to go into Wikipedia, so it’s somewhat clinical, I suppose. If it makes it, cool. But since I am the only resource for the majority of the information here, there’s nothing to cite, and I don’t have the funding or the connections to gain any “official research date from an accredited agency” or any garbage like that, so I don’t believe it will hold up on Wikipedia. It is what it is. If you don’t buy it, it won’t hurt my feelings.

Movement Indicators—a term coined by Jeff Rychwa, for use in Tracking, to describe the responses and reactions of any substrate or surface to the influence of an applied force, typically associated with the force of a subject’s foot upon a surface. A movement indicator, or MI, is the simple result of physical force—in this application, a force of kinesiology, various gait patterns, and physiological affects—applied to a surface or substrate so that the reaction of the applied movement is recorded in a meaningful, legible way.

There seem to be three categories of MIs: Gross Motor, Fine Motor, and Visceral. As well, there seem to be three zonings or “maps” that generally coordinate these movements and influences with particular regions aligning with the body of the maker of the tracks. For example, a gross-motor movement of the right leg being placed forward of the horizontal centerline of the left foot will display movement indicators within the ball-mount and digital areas of the left foot track. However, general indicators of issues regarding the right leg, such as a muscle injury, will present within the heel area of the right foot track. Further, a movement or injury on one side of the body will show counter- or compensatory-indicators either on the opposite side of the coordinating track, or even in the opposite track altogether. This is particularly prominent with issues or injuries compromising leg functions.

Gross-motor and Fine-motor MIs seem to present as “hard” influences upon the substrate, while Visceral MIs seem to present as “soft” influences. In other words, the action of propulsion in a substrate such as dampened beach sand will cause a recoil in the substrate, which can be seen as a portion of sand being pushed backward due to wasted energy in overcoming inertia that breaks the substrate’s coefficient of static friction. The amount of substrate and the degree to which it is dislodged and moved is directly proportional to the amount of energy is used to overcome inertia and the friction in order to propel the body in a particular direction. Other elements must be considered, as well, such as the content of the substrate regarding moisture and other impurities such as rocks and foreign objects. Further, slope of the substrate and other topographical conditions must be accounted in determining the proportion of recoil to acceleration in any given track.

It seems that animals, particularly quadrupeds, move in a way that eliminates recoil, or severely hampers recoil, as they move their center of gravity in a more efficient and unified way than humans, who contrarily move in a series of stalls and starts, dropping the center of gravity into a deceleration, only to throw the body forward and push off again into an acceleration. Recoil is common in human gaits, and it seems to testify to the inefficiency of human movement as a condition of our species moving away from it natural tendencies.

Visceral MIs are the most erratic, difficult to see, and difficult to interpret of the Movement Indicators. The Viscerals are also the most difficult to convince an increasingly untrusting and skeptical society of their existence. Even in reading Viscerals and pointing them out to individuals, many subjects are loathed to accept their validity, similar to the way society has taken on difficulty in accepting many relatively far-fetched truths when introduced, such as the Earth being round, or the existence of germs, bacteria, and even atoms.

Viscerals appear to be created of energy influences primarily. Gross-motor MIs are large, physical movements of leverage and torque, whereas Fine-motor MIs are more subtle, dealing with seemingly isolated musculoskeletal and skin movements, while Viscerals are caused by fluctuation of energy, perhaps even blood circulations and otherwise invisible shifts of fascia, ligaments, and muscle fibers. However, the influences of energy seem to be logical as energy flowing throughout the body does cause things to function and malfunction; simply look at twitching muscles, the heart beating, and even random pains and itches. These are all directly related to neural transmissions by way of electrical and chemical impulses. Another grossly simplistic model of such energy transfer is found in creating static electricity by running a plastic comb through dry, clean hair several times, then holding the comb within a half-inch of a smoothly flowing trickle of water from a sink faucet. The electricity will bend the stream of water. It seems to follow that energy will directly translate from the body to the substrate with which it makes contact, leaving various patterns upon the substrate, thus indicating particular conditions within coordinating zones of the body. This part of reading the Movement Indicators in Tracking is closely related to Reflexology and other studies of energy flow and manipulation from around the world.

An example of a Gross-motor MI would be the recoil of acceleration upon the sole of the track, in the form of the substrate being pushed backward for a forward acceleration. An example of a Fine-motor MI would be the feathering of the substrate (particularly damp sand), caused by skin movement in response to the torque of the upper body and head twisting in a particular direction. An example of a Visceral MI would present as a rectangle or “boomerang” shape in the sole of the track within the zone of the bladder area indicating the bladder being full to some degree.

To make things more complicated, since the body functions as a closed system of checks and balances, there will thusly be MI that must present in order to back-up other MIs in any particular movement. The numbers of back-up indicators for any particular movement or condition would logically be staggering, depending upon the depth and size of indicators one would choose to incorporate into a reading for increasing detail and accuracy of the reading of the tracks. This is where the task of attempting to recognize, define, and coordinate all of these MIs--particularly considering that compensatory MIs can cause confusion in and of themselves—becomes intimidating at times, and daunting at best.

Composition of Visceral MIs can be of extremely fine particles of sand or dust. However, even a basic shape can show up in a particular zone as a dust-line shape, a crevasse shape, a butte, or a depression. These subtleties lend a great deal of confusion to the process, let alone finding coordinating MIs to pinpoint a particular, coordinating condition or action. Fortunately, as the body is systemic and stems from the nervous system for function, Jeff speculates that tying together MIs in order to develop more accurate and detailed readings will be much “easier” based upon the logic of synergy rather than trying to read each MI as its own entity.

It is worth mentioning Identifiers here, as well. Identifiers present in the tracks in the same way that MIs do, except Identifiers seem to appear consistently in a particular track (always in the right footprint, for instance) and for a particular subject, no matter what action the subject performs. In other words, Identifiers look similar [to Jeff] as typical MIs, but they don’t have function. Identifiers can be created by a blatant injury or anomaly, such as a wound to the sole of the foot, or a wart, for example, or by a particular deformity, anomaly, irregularity, or other condition or pathology particular to an individual. There seem to be several Identifiers in any given track, and, since they are consistent and “fixed” to the track of that subject, the combination of them may be used as a reliable method of identification for an individual that may not be found in any other individual of that species, much like a human fingerprint.

Tracking II

2008-08-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

Tracking was used by ancient cultures around the world for thousands of years for many purposes. In some cases, it meant survival for a tribe whose scouts could find and interpret the tracks and movements of the enemy. But tracking was primarily a skill used for finding, following, and taking game. Tracking was so necessary for survival that it stretched far beyond the common concepts of tracking that we believe today. It developed into an art-form of sorts and a science, and ancient trackers essentially were the first forensic investigators. Their abilities were not limited to following footprints, but also included reading the landscape, interpreting signs, weather, and other animal activity. Tracking was a gateway to a holistic awareness that was crucial for survival.

Now, as a wildlife control operator, tracking was a staple of my work, as well as a key to being successful and efficient. As an Expert Tracker, there isn't the luxury--and, frankly, nor is there a necessity--of laying out tracking powder; there is no putting paper into suspect structural holes in order to assess usage; there is no wondering where to put an evictor or where to place a trap. It’s all in the tracks, and the tracks never lie.

I talked with another pest control company one afternoon about trapping large mammals—my shirt logo, which reads, “Forensic Tracker” prompted his asking for an explanation. I explained that there are several levels and methods of tracking, and that Forensic Tracking involved studying and interpreting subtle actions within the tracks. I said that tracks reveal much more about the maker than its taxonomical Family and direction of movement. Tracks told a story, and also indicate crucial elements about the maker, especially regarding our line of work. I asked him about his process of identifying and trapping a nuisance animal. He shrugged and said that he just goes to the site, if the client says they have a skunk, he simply sets some traps with skunk bait and keeps trapping until the skunks are gone.

I was baffled. I said, “but what if you’re trapping a skunk that has babies in the den?” He responded, “well you just have to take into account the time of year and assume there will be babies.”

I suppose at least that is the safe way to assume. But I don’t see that as particularly efficient. I went on to explain that my inspection consists of isolating signs and tracks of the animal involved, but also what other animals may be involved, and what draws them there in the first place. Further, if you’re trapping skunks, for example, it’s useful to know whether you’re catching the skunk from under the house or the skunk from under the neighbor’s shed, not to mention that there are often other animals sharing that space with the skunks, such as cats and opossums. If you funnel the traps off the entrance, how do you know how many to set? How do you know the client didn’t mistake the identity of the animal? (I had a call for an opossum in someone’s bathroom one night. It turned out to be a long-tailed weasel.) And in Search Tracking, for a missing dog for example, how do you maintain that dog’s trail if they’re in coyote territory with coyote-sized feet? It’s all in the tracks.

He didn’t believe me when I told him that it is possible to read pregnancy, gender, and even ailments in an animal’s track. That’s okay, though. I’m not the one wasting time with superfluous trips to check and alter my trap-sets.

Granted, I don’t always make my catch on the first rotation. I’m not a “Master Tracker.” But I can read tracks to the point that I can make more cost effective decisions and take appropriate actions. I was called to investigate skunk activity around a wheelchair access ramp on the front of an apartment building. The landlord said that the tenants had seen several skunks walking around the yard and that the animals were living under the ramp. The ramp was snugged tightly to the building on one long side, and it was flush to the ground on the other side, except for the place that the skunks dug out for entry. Now, according to biology, it didn’t make sense at this time of year for a bunch of juvenile skunks to be walking around with mom. The tenants described the skunks as, “about six inches long” from nose to butt. It didn’t follow. But weirder things have happened.

I found two sets of tracks on that day. Two different skunks had made the tracks. One set went under the ramp. That set showed me that my culprit skunk had given birth. And it was because of that indication that I had the landlord’s carpenter help me tear up the ramp the morning after I trapped mom. And I pulled out five newborns. (You can see a blurry shot of them on my website, in fact.) Mom and babies were reunited and relocated to a rehab together. This isn’t an isolated incident.

All of my technicians must learn tracking. They must be able to identify tracks, gaits, and signs, and they must be able to see tracks on a variety of surfaces from leaves to dirt to plastic and concrete, whether raccoon, mouse, or snake. It’s not easy. But it works.

Tracks display Identifiers, which are marks made within the tracks that are specific, particularly in combination, to a particular maker. There are also Movement Indicators, which show everything about the maker of the tracks and how the subject responded to their surrounding stimuli. The MIs display Gross Motor movements, Fine Motor movements, and Internal fluctuations. These MIs can be anything from a mound of substrate shoved in a particular direction to a fine ridge of dust on the floor of the footprint. There can be many forms and shapes of these indicators that typically take on associative names, such as: hockey-stick, pirate’s-hat, or chains, and they represent transfers of energy and kinesiology. In other words, indicators can be constructs of simple, physical mechanics of leverage, or they can be made of energy that moves throughout the body. If you’ve ever built up static electricity by rubbing a balloon on your hair and sticking it to a wall, or by combing your hair with a plastic comb and holding the comb near a very slow, steady stream of tap-water, you can see a dramatic example of how this energy works.

These MIs are very difficult to discern without a guide. And they change shape, position, and texture, because the body is a malleable organism. Just when you think you’ve finally pinned one down for a particular, coordinating action, it will change or vanish altogether and make hours of hard work turn into a frustrating disappointment. But they are there. And when someone shows you what to look for, they become easier to see. However, for me, even after twenty-five years of trying to figure out the art and science of tracking, I have not been able to put together complete combinations of MIs for all situations. I get by so far on being able to pick out key MIs and extrapolating by using other clues, for now. There’s just too much to figure out for one person in one lifetime, but it doesn’t mean I’m not trying.

Tracking & Movement Indicators

2008-08-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

In order to be a well-rounded and effective Tracker, I don't believe in studying only the Movement Indicators. (Some circles call them "Pressure Releases" based upon the teachings of Tom Brown Jr., but since I didn't learn these from him, and since I'm developing a list of functional indicators, I will only refer to them as Movement Indicators or MIs, so as not to infringe or plagiarize.) That wouldn't be realistic because Tracking is not restricted to one perspective or paradigm.

Personally, I study things like:

Landscape (Glacial impact, topography, etc.)
Water flow
Flora
Fauna
Ecology
Forest age and composition
Sunlight
Wind
Weather
Substrate conditions, structure, and make-up
Travel routes
Draws
Concentric lines
Bird activity
Human activity (roadways, distant smells, sounds)
Skeletal structure
Animal biology
Foot Morphology
Clinical Gait Analysis/Kinesiology
Natural, Physiological Gait Analysis
Stride, Straddle, Pitch, Trail Width
Dust & Grit Impressions
Fingerprints

Signs:
Rubs
Chews (and dental morphology)
Scratches
Smudges
Scrapes
Scat and Urine (smells, composition, make-up)
Hairs from different parts of the body
Blood spatter
Kill Procedure
Feather Morphology
Decomposition and associated Entomology
Burns (bark, bones--whatever)
Litter
Breaks, bends, tears, creases
Basic Mycology
Nutrient Impact on soils, invertebrates, flora, and up the chain
Pollutant Impact
Tracks
Movement Indicators

It's all Tracking. There is no "right" or "wrong" method; there is no one better way than another. As far as I'm concerned, it's just a matter of how much information you want from the scene and surroundings.

I just happen to be extremely passionate about the movement indicator element because it gives me more accurate detail on a deeper level of knowing the maker of the tracks.

Again, I wouldn't waste my time if it was invalid or useless. It's part of my job.

Identifiers are like tags or fingerprints that are specific in their combinations to a particular maker, and they present consistently no matter what the maker may do to try to camouflage them. Identifiers are important when tracking a specific subject, such as a missing person, or, more commonly in my experience, a missing- or “nuisance-“animal. At this point, aside from developing an ability to establish identifiers in tracks, I have been able to identify movement indicators representative of these functions (barring general locomotion):

• Full/Empty Bladder
• Full/Empty Colon
• Knee injury/ailment
• Back injury/ailment
• Male/Female indicators
• Menses
• Carrying objects over five pounds (in either hand, both hands, or on back)
• Arm movements (major positions)
• Head Turning, lifting, lowering
• Internal shifts and disturbances in several areas:
o Stomach/abdomen
o Sinuses
o Lungs/Diaphragm

I’ve noticed that there are at least two major “maps” of zones for discerning the gross motor, fine motor, and internal indicators, and much of them overlap. As well, many of the gross motor indicators present in the opposite places that they occur, making reading tricky at times. There is much research to do, as I am working alone to develop a system based upon methods supposedly established by generations of native trackers.

I’m also confident that the indicators I am discovering are useful to identify internal ailments on at least an elementary level for use in Chiropractic treatments, for example.

It's relatively easy to see the gross motor mi's (recoil, overthrusts, sweeps, etc.) and to practice getting to know how they work. That's the beginning. As you become proficient in one medium, take it to another and become proficient there. Even in one medium you will not see the exact same overthrust every time you do a specific turn, but there are reasons for that that simply have to do with the body not being a robotic machine. You will, however see the same overthrust for that turn every single time.

If you want to figure out the fine motor mi's, start with something "simple." Walk through your box. Then walk through your box carrying a ten-pound object. You'll see a difference, but you won't know why. Then you'll look closer and after a while you'll think you found it. Then when you do it again, it will be different. Now do this hundreds of times. Eventually, you'll figure it out. This is what I've done. Nobody stood over my shoulder or gave me documentation on this stuff.

But this neither precludes nor excludes any other element of Tracking. Study EVERYTHING, and find your own comfort level. The point is to find your place in the progression of elements where you feel satiated with your Tracking. The cool thing is that the progression is limitless.

"Money" revisited

2008-08-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

Money equals life. It equals the food we can eat. It equals the space we are allowed to occupy. It equals the clothing we wear. It equals the comforts of homes.

Even if you plant a garden, you must have a place to do so, which costs money, and you must have access to water, seeds, and even tools and equipment, such as a plow and fencing, in order to properly maintain the plot and make the most efficient and cost-effective return for your efforts. But no matter what, living, in modern society, costs money. There is no true freedom anymore, because society has a grip on all we need to survive, and in order to obtain those essentials, we must be part of a system of economics.

Money equals happiness. Money buys nice things, good clothing, entertainment, healthier foods, more efficient vehicles and more land. Money is also equal to the obtainable types of depravity in modern society in all forms of contraband. Money equals generosity in the form of donations to a charity, while it also measures sycophantic behavior in the amount given to celebrities, whether they are actors, singers, or sports stars.

We will readily spend billions of dollars on politics, religions, wars and entertainment--as well as other depravities—yet we still have masses of poverty-stricken families in the economic society. Even destitute people will find ways to come up with money to support their addictions and cravings.

Money equals freedom; it is restitution for some crimes committed, and it is a cost of bail, as well as the potential for legal defense in the attorneys we can purchase.

Money is the god of our society, for it rules all life, health, and happiness in the majority of our culture and species.

There are few who understand that true happiness is not found in the provisions of money, but realistically, these people must know that not partaking in the economic system means having no access to the necessities of survival. Having more money means having a better life.

We give money readily to the celebrities, and that means they deserve a better life than we do if we are not celebrities. People who sing songs, throw balls, and play-act are better than we are. People born into affluent families are better than the rest of us, and they deserve a better existence than we do. Most of our society says that this is not true, but we know that it really is, otherwise we would have to face the fact that we really do worship materialism, instant gratification, and depravity.

Those with more money are allowed to own more land. They have no idea of how to be Caretakers for the land, but those of us who do know are typically not interested in contributing to the system of economics. We know that money corrupts, and it supports materialism and destruction.

The modern system of economics supports technology, which is the foundation of artificial existence. Artificial things—things made by humans and that are not found in the natural world—make up the fantasy world in which most humans exist. In order to maintain this dream-world illusion, money must move throughout the system. By supporting this paradigm, we support the overpopulation of humans (which is a provable fact that propagandist, disinformationists in denial will try to justify, but can easily be disproved), the over-extraction of natural resources, the spreading of diseases to all species worldwide, the pollution of the air and waters, the destruction of established forest ecosystems, and so forth. It is a fact that participating in the economic system supports destruction of nature and life.

Money only equals life in the artificial world.

Money also equals a new kind of economic Darwinism or Natural Selection called Eugenics. Eugenics means that in spite of one’s inferior genetic traits, such as lack of fur, poor eyesight or hearing, lack of the proper, biological “tools” to survive and propagate in the natural world, one can still not only survive, but thrive in the artificial world. In fact, the artificial world bolsters genetic deficiencies and anomalies. No matter what the physical condition of a being, if that being gains money by being corrupt, depraved, throwing a ball, or having a nice voice, or being conditionally “attractive,” that being is entitled by economic status to have a better existence than anyone with less money. That being is entitled by the standards of the artificial world to pay less to live, yet to leave a larger impact of damage upon the environment that we all need to survive. And by contributing to this system, no matter what one’s income status is, we support eugenics.

Eugenics means that if I have more money, I get privileges that even your sick child does not get. The rich have health insurance or at least enough money to pay out-of-pocket. The wealthy have better schools. And since money equals life, power, happiness, and health, if I have more to spend, then I can buy more favor than other people can. It means I get preferential treatment. It means that I get organic food and solar power and more land than you do, in spite of your knowledge, spirit, or genetic superiority. If I live in a poor community, then even the foods and resources available to me are going to be limited and governed by money. Just by my place in society, I may have access only to inferior necessities than others do, who have more money to live in more prosperous areas. I always thought that a body of water, such as a lake, would be accessible by natural right to anyone for swimming and fishing. However, humans “purchase” and “own” lakeshore property, and they have “no trespassing” signs and boundaries that prohibit others from accessing the majority of these bodies of water save for miniscule public landings. Having more money means one can afford to be in denial, and one can afford to think only of one’s own welfare because they have tricked the rest of us into giving them more than we have.

We are not allowed to not participate in this system. We must pay for all of our needs. That means that if we want to live, we must pay money to live. That is an abomination. That means that our people have determined that money is god, and that this idol rules over all inherent freedom and rights. I cannot leave this system because it is now impossible to survive anywhere without being charged for a place where the land is viable enough to live freely, and where there are no ill-effects of the detrimental impacts of our sick society. Even now our society is actually developing new ways to alter the amount of sunlight to hit the Earth, as well as to change weather patterns.

What if some of us do not wish to contribute to this system? What if we do not want any part of living in the artificial world of greed and idolatry? What if we do not wish to have the weather tampered, or the waters polluted, or the land paved? Where do WE go while the rest of the humans destroy this place? I ask again: To whom do we take our grievance if the highest authority is the source of the destruction and depravity?

Of Secession, Warriors, and the Elusive Truth

2008-08-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

In my writings on this blog, it is easy to see that I strive to adhere to natural law above all manmade law, and that if we, as a species, wish to survive and insure a healthy future for our progeny, we must abandon our fantasy-land existence and overcome our fears of mortality and our desires for power and luxury.

My purpose is to provide information based upon Universal Truths so that we may all find our true selves and our true place and purpose; so that we may learn to temper our spirits and become reasonable by existing from a neutral center based upon the reality of the natural world instead of as defined by artificial parameters of a manmade world; so that we can stop the devastation that we cause upon the Earth to the environment and to other species; and to preserve the well-being of ALL forms of life, and not just our own.

In order to accomplish these things, we must all embrace the Truth—the same Truth about which Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus Christ, and Buddha spoke—that creation is reality, and that manmade ethics and materialism are distractions and depravities that will taint our spirits and cause degradation of our species to the point that we become a cancer that consumes the lands and eliminates itself. Unfortunately, most people of the modern world are in denial of the state of existence we occupy: living in a dream-world and losing our connection to the reality of nature.

I seek emancipation in order to shed the perversions of modern existence and to move away from the corruption of economics and manmade-biased justice, but I’m not sure I see the efficacy of appealing to a dishonorable culture of terrorism with honor and passivism. Further, a true Warrior does not immediately resort to violence in order to enforce a point or justice. Instead, a true Warrior seeks balance through peaceful, but not pacifist means. In other words, following the essence of Aikido, for example, a true Warrior did not seek conflict or control through strength, power, or clout—that would make a person nothing more than a bully or terrorist. A true Warrior also did not sit idle and wait for the Universe to solve all of the problems created by Man—as some modern folks suggest is the right thing to do. I submit that this attitude provides us indemnity from accountability and responsibility for cleaning up our messes and helping ourselves. “God doesn’t help those who don’t help themselves,” correct? As well, that mindset of letting the Universe handle our problems reminds me of the anecdote of the man who sat on his roof in a flood praying to God to help him. [When a floating log came by with people hanging off of it, and they offered him help, the man said, “No; thank you. God will save me.” As the waters rose, a man in a row-boat came along and offered help. The man on the roof said, “No; thank you. God will save me.” And he continued to pray. Then, as the waters rose closer to the peak of the roof where the man now perched upon his chimney, a helicopter hovered above him and dropped a ladder. The man shouted, “No; thank you. God will save me.” And the man finally drowned. He approached God and complained, “Lord, I was faithful to you, and I prayed for your help. Why did you let me die?” And God said, “Pffft! Whadd’ya want? I sent a log, a boat, and a helicopter!”]

My point then is that in order to obtain peace, one must be willing to embrace what may be inevitable conflict and seek a productive resolution. In other words, if I am attacked, I will not simply sit idly while you beat me, because that is not a viable resolution to the conflict. Instead, I will embrace your attack and seek resolution that benefits us all. A Warrior understands this. A Warrior understands that his actions cannot be based upon his interpretations or biased concepts of Truth and Justice, but that they must come from a Universal Truth in order to be righteous and just.

The concept of “turning the other cheek” is part of being a true Warrior, but it does not mean to let oneself be abused. This pseudo-enlightened mindset of pacifism is not realistic, and it has been proven over and over throughout history that it is also ineffective against a corrupted entity. Jesus was assassinated. Gandhi was assassinated. And so have many other martyrs been killed in the name of peace. But modern society is still overwhelmingly selfish, greedy, depraved, twisted, and destructive to Creation, as well as defiant toward natural laws. No, the enlightened Warrior does not sit, because if you sit still, you will be destroyed by that thing you oppose. The Warrior is realistic, and there is more than one way to stand-up for oneself without resorting to violence. But if violent acts are made upon the Warrior, then the Warrior is prepared to redirect those actions into a viable resolution.

Sovereignty is an inherent right, because no being should be ruled by another. So utilizing the legal system (which means supporting the legal system that is not real and is the way of the oppressor in the first place) to fight the system in order to gain the sanction of the system for an inherent right seems wholly illogical. If you need to defer to a power in residence to allow you your freedom, doesn’t that mean that you are still ultimately ruled by that power?

Since the U.S. makes the laws, the U.S. can change, interpret, and bend the laws in order to win and gain what they want. This is not a new concept. You can sue the U.S. all you want, but you can’t win if they don’t want you to.

I absolutely understand seeking sovereignty in light of the situations that others, such as the Lakotah, for example, face in their society. Poverty, disease, abuses of many forms, loss of culture—I get that. If for no other reason, then I at least honor their efforts to seek restitution and justice for the horrific conditions set upon them by the deceit and terrorism brought by the United States. I wish them all the luck and power for their effort. But I am not so “fortunate” to be part of a nation within a nation. I was born into the modern, Western culture. Regardless of the base of my ancestors, I was born here, on this soil, and I am native. And at birth my inherent freedoms were stripped, just like yours. I understand the Truth of the Universe and natural law, and I do not wish to contribute to the modern system of economics, eugenics, materialism, power, and destruction of our Earth. I face a different kind of discrimination and persecution from what others face, as I am expected to mind my place because of my birth, not in spite of it, and I am the outcast in a society of people who do not understand what reality is anymore. I have lived in the natural world by using the old ways, and I have a connection to nature that most modern people do not understand anymore. I want my inherent freedoms back, but I cannot even begin to be heard, let alone to bring my case to any forum that understands Truth. Where does one go for justice when the highest power doesn’t even see Truth?

I am tired of being pushed into despicable conditions of living, abuse from schools and those in positions of power, and being backed into a proverbial corner. It is not uncommon to be ridiculed and insulted by others when discussing Truth, even though Total Prosperity is a concept that works in favor of all life in the natural world. I’ve even been told that all of the information I have gathered from uncountable resources over the past twenty-five-or-so years is completely made up of “misinformation and disinformation,” while all the information that everyone else has researched is apparently absolute fact!

I speak on behalf of Nature. After having lived primitively in the natural world, I have gathered knowledge of Truth, and the information in my writings is, and has been, proven. Therefore, I will persevere and attempt to bring Truth to all people, because it is only through natural law and a unified consciousness of reality that we can hope to preserve the welfare and Total Prosperity of all beings.

I wish there was a way for people to band together and reclaim our birthrights, to reinstitute the Caretaker ways of aboriginal people worldwide in order to begin a model of bringing back health, vitality, and balance to the Earth, as well.

I have to believe that there are many others in my situation who wish to live a non-destructive lifestyle out of the grasp of any modern government, as well as to make efforts to stop the pollutions and destructions that compromise all other life and the potential for us to reclaim our inherent freedom to live upon the wild lands without facing the harms brought about by those pollutions and destruction. I would really love to bring everyone together to move toward the change that needs to come, not with violence, not with passivism, but with resolution of Truth and Total Prosperity.

Policing Styles, Operational Strategies, and Tier Organization

2008-07-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

Policing styles have evolved over the past 170 years in direct correlation to the predominant need or ruling conditions as determined by the developmental periods of America’s systems of politics, economics, and sociology. In the 1840s, just following the deaths of thousands of Cherokees who were deceived and sent away per President Van Buren’s order upon the Trail of Tears, and just as the war with Mexico was being ignited—all events being related to the business of expansion by a growing, greedy, and self-centered people--which, whether pro-war or anti-war, the majority of political leaders desired, as they were entirely motivated and supported by Capitalist powers of landownership and its spoils, as well as industrial progression. Racial discontent in the South, coupled with class struggles in the North, such as the Anti-Renter movement in New York—one of many riots and strikes that would surface over the era--would see a growing need for policing in the communities, in spite of the military rule. Sheriffs would be hired to act as agents for the landowners to collect rents from tenants—little more than elected errand boys--but disorderly conduct would typically be handled by military interventions, especially in large-scale uprisings. In fact, it is not surprising that the first police department in New York was formed in 1844, one year before the rejection of the Anti-Rent bill, and the consequential revolt.
As more immigrants flooded American soils, and populations increased--the population of New York alone went from 13,000 in 1820 to 1,000,000 in 1860 (Zinn, 1995)—there became an increasing need to stabilize the American economy in order to quell an economic turbulence that caused such devastating conditions of destitution and filth-ridden living conditions that spread disease to the lower class masses. It was crucial for politics to appeal at least to the rhetoric of Democracy in order to raise a civilian sense of worth and recognition in the labor class, while the Capitalist class held the power of wealth and property, and, therefore, the power of law through political influence. Politicians’ interests lay in the welfare of the economy because the Capitalists were the financiers of American growth and held territorial power, and only landowners had the right to vote. This gave the police the compulsory role of being the governmental “thugs” who acted as strong-arm enforcers of laws that would benefit the wealthy materialists who possessed interest in the welfare of nothing more than their purses. Laws were created first and foremost to protect the assets of the wealthy and to prevent sedition, whether this discontent was natively incited or suspected of activist immigrants, such as the French, who had just come from their own revolution abroad.
Further, as prices for basic necessities, such as food and housing were increased, wages were offset in favor of industry by either lengthening labor hours or quotas for productions. It was not uncommon for entire families, including children around four years of age, to be working in poor factory conditions for sixty and seventy hours per week, earning livings in ghettoes of disease-ridden buildings, while wealthy landlords and factory owners were living in luxurious homes in the country.
Strikes and riots ensued in the names of numerous causes, such as the Flour Riot of 1837 in New York, because of these conditions, and police, although not yet organized into formal departments, were employed by the government authorities—i.e., governors, mayors—as muscle to overcome and disperse (often with military assistance) the thousands of people who would participate in these protests and inhibit industrial or trade function. This “order maintenance” was the standard of policing during the political era, and it was not uncommon for the police to exercise a certain promiscuity of employment, even working in league with the criminal element if the bribe or corruption, e.g. blackmail, was effective. It was the era that the Watchman, the civilian guard, used discretion based upon personal interests, hearsay, or circumstantial evidence to handle the more traditional crimes, while serving the political and economic rule as a foot-soldier in the mitigation of what the powerful defined as seditious acts or behavior. The Department of Justice even backed up a sprawling organization of “upstanding members of society,” such as bankers, railroad men, and the like, numbering nearly 100,000 across six hundred cities and towns to act as agents under the heading of American Protective League, akin to others such as the American Defense Society, formed in 1917, which enlisted patrols to put an end to sedition. As America was entrenching itself in the first world war, lack of enthusiasm in citizens and outright opposition of Socialists caused the government to bear down hard on “treasonous attitudes” in order to push for the war that would enhance the economy, a much needed boost at the time. Their method of mitigating treason would be sending these “agents” to investigate the personal lives of suspects in order to establish seditious behavior. (Zinn, 1995).
Police became more necessary than ever to deter uprisings and activism; however, because of their close ties with the civilians in their neighborhoods, they were often of little efficacy, so the military would be employed by the government to intervene, thus, the creation of the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878, Sec. 15 of which states: “From and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful to employ any part of the Army of the United States, as a posse comitatus, or otherwise, for the purpose of executing the laws, except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may be expressly authorized by the Constitution or by act of Congress; and no money appropriated by this act shall be used to pay any of the expenses incurred in the employment of any troops in violation of this section And any person willfully violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars or imprisonment not exceeding two years or by both such fine and imprisonment.” According to an article written by John W. Probst, Lieutenant Colonel and Commander, 90th Missile Security Forces Squadron, F. E. Warren Air Force Base, U.S. Air Force: “The provision created by "except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may be authorized by the Constitution or by act of Congress" allowed the use of federal forces against the 1919 rioters in Chicago, the so-called Bonus Marchers in Washington, D.C., in 1932, and the railroad workers who went on strike during the administration of President Truman, who temporarily nationalized the railroads under the Army Corps of Engineers (Baker, 1999).” Just as with most other regulations, the government imposes a compulsory double standard, so there are loopholes to the act making it viable for congress to utilize military intervention in civilian matters, e.g.: the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Officials Act in 1981. Probst (2004) goes on to say: “Congress passed the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Officials Act in 1981 to clarify the Reconstruction-era Posse Comitatus Act statute in key areas, particularly with regard to the use of the military to train civilian law enforcement personnel and to provide such personnel with military equipment and facilities to assist civilian police in enforcing drug laws.”
The terrorists that founded and formed America were facing their own internal terrorism, and the existing powers were determined to push their economic growth beyond any point of return no matter what the “necessary costs” of doing so.
This method of the Watchman style of policing carried on for decades, into the sixties, especially during times of rebellion from civil rights and equal rights activists. Minorities were beginning to gain an activist foothold, and they wanted to be seen and heard, treated as equals to everyone else, and to pursue the spoils of their labor, as well as the rights to which the rest of society was obliged. The martial Watchman style of policing has been effective--especially as it is influenced by military structure and technology, thus, imparting a militaristic mindset which is a tenuous application to citizens versus enemies of the country (Weber, 1999)--in suppressing the desires for substantial civilian uprisings, particularly with the advent of sophisticated weapons of mass impact, sheer numbers of officers, as well as advanced technologies that are not available to the public. The initial tyrants took quick hold of the reigns and effectively annihilated and pacified opposition, subduing the public with force and a powerful grip of territories, while further mollifying them with vices, i.e., cigarettes, alcohol (which would lead to escalated public drunkenness, prohibition, then a predictable abrogation), moving pictures, and advancements in technology to make life “easier,” to mitigate resentment.
This style of policing is still evident today, and it is my opinion that it would be logistically predominant in neighborhoods and regions in which strong social bonds exist between police and communities, mirroring the earlier days of corruption and bias. I can also see this mode of operations prevailing where strong unanimity or subcultural cohesion exists within a region regarding its political, social, or religious predisposition or preference, which then influences the community policing principles. For example, an officer who patrols the neighborhood in which he was raised, or lives, or has strong familial or social ties may very well exercise a Watchman-like discretion when dealing with “hoodlums” who disturb the relative peace of the officer’s community. As well, officers, perhaps even more readily found in the bonds of Team Policing, may be prone to elements of mob-mentality in their neighborhoods or districts toward any outsiders who enter their territories. Much like a gang defending its turf, officers may very well justify martial law against anyone who violates or opposes their community’s dominant beliefs, even supplementing Watchman policing with unyielding black-and-white Legalistic technicalities, leaving no margin of error for unfavorable outsiders, in order to “keep the peace.” In fact, the community may also encourage such order maintenance. A predominantly white, wealthy community may conveniently “look the other way” while officers “educate” a minority for violating societal expectations.
I can see the logic in the integration of the Legalistic policing style in the early twentieth century, particularly as we moved into a century of foreign wars. Masses of young men were being enlisted—routinely by conscription—and were emigrated from society to fight battles in other countries or at sea as the United States sought opportunities for international profiteering, if not major global clout, and intervened in foreign political situations. Large numbers of young men, the predominant demographic of criminal acts, were being exported from the community. Wars stimulate economy, as well, and this was much needed after the stock market crash (Great Depression) in 1929. The generation born into the poverty of that era, destined for the compulsory criminal tendencies suspected to arise from such conditions of deprivation and desperation, would find themselves a “ticket” so to speak, to an opportunity of salvation through either joining the war effort directly, or benefiting from the pick-up in the economy created by it.
In the 1930s, the Reform or Progressive Era for the police, at the threshold of World War II, America was shifting focus from warring internally, as it was becoming relatively unified in directing its elicited indignation at “the enemy” entities overseas. Police departments were left the charge of American soils, and justice was in need of tempering while scientific policing was not yet significant for inter-social/community-oriented strategies. Thus, by-the-book Legalistic style and an at least more professional approach to policing develops as officers begin to see this line of work as a budding career opportunity (Weber, 1999). As the period progresses, wars would continue to bring work to the public, but a greater rift in the dichotomy of active protests and a new wave of Jingoism throughout the country increase. This growing concern for constitutional rights in America would reasonably give the local police an opportunity to direct efforts toward reform and exercise a more professional crime-fighting approach. With the progress of scientific management, advancements in technology, and a broadening understanding of human behavior, police have been able to turn their attention toward figuring out the how and the why of crimes while becoming more effective at solving the who and making more arrests.
Organizational structure of police rank-and-file emulated military chain of command and new roles within began to develop, creating a working division between line operations and staff operations. Diane Cecilia Weber, a writer on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, in her 1999 report titled: Warrior Cops: The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in American Police Departments states: “To gain control of the rank and file, police chiefs assigned military ranks and insignia to personnel, and some departments required military drills.” (p. 6) She also states: “State and local police departments are increasingly accepting the military as a model for their behavior and outlook.” (p. 1) I would tend to speculate that this sophisticated and professional new approach in policing would be seen as a potential deterrent to would-be criminals. However, other conditions such as subcultural loyalties, the pros of jail-time versus living in the streets, and the potential exponential pay-offs of crime for the effort involved, may very well have offset any deterrent properties of the new Legalistic style.
I view the Legalistic style as kind of a house-cleaning style—a step toward tying up loose ends from the political era—sweeping out the cobwebs and organizing the inventory, so to speak. Legalistic departments seemed to want to lose the image of the corrupted thugs of the political era by implementing a concise method of strict rule enforcement. Military image was sharp and clean, for example, the State Trooper “Smokey bear” caps resembling the Drill Sergeant caps of the military, along with uniform design, decoration and chain-of-command, so the clinical Legalistic style seemed to follow suit. Technically, according to this style, the slightest variance from the law on the books would constitute justification for legal consequences. I would imagine that the young liberal generations of the fifties, sixties, and seventies would have considered this form of Fascism totally “uptight” and unfair; a passive aggressive form of being monitored and controlled by “big brother.”
In this era, the police did not erase the poignant contextual image of being abusive and racist from the war periods, and now they donned an Authoritarian hat; the younger generation would consider them to be bullies who supported wars that America shouldn’t be fighting, particularly during the sixties and seventies. The police still served a political lord, but they were not military, and they needed to find new ways to fight crime in society, or face the potential for the rebirth of vigilantism or revolt by a public that feared for its safety and welfare as crime rates were still rising in spite of the professional policing. The police needed to develop skills necessary to interact with people that were used to the distant and disconnected police organization.
It was later in this era that the image of the police officer would begin to take on the more hero-like crime-fighter to the young generation. This is the image that we came to know on television shows; the westerns made heroes of nuggets of truth from the vigilante days of Charles Lynch and Wyatt Earp--stereotyping the once honorable Native Americans as ruthless, murderous savages--and the new shows, such as CHiPs and Adam 12, turned the police into action/adventure supermen of the modern age.
In comes the Community era of policing. This would be the foundation of the Service style of police working in league with the community to try to prevent crime through an active maintenance of mutualism. The same operational strategies that have been used for decades still apply in this new era, although methods have evolved in many ways. Police still patrol beats or districts by foot, horse, bicycle, motorcycle, car, or even boat or ORV in some cases, in order to establish a presence that imparts a sense of security to the general public. Routine incident response is becoming more apparent in the PCR practices—except in the Legalistic style that doesn’t like to bother with minor infractions and disturbances that they figure can either be resolved without their intervention or overlooked as trivial, not worth legal attention until a crime is actually committed, most likely thriving in middle- to upper-class districts with relatively low crime rates.
The integrations and applications of all three styles may function in a rotational manner, the prevailing factors of crime and civil pressures in society at any given time determining which style to apply and to what degree. Otherwise, community input, political influence, and officer discretions will determine the predominance of any particular style. I can see them overlapping one another quite easily.
In the community policing model, response times to routine incidents and emergencies are going to be considered as a measure of responsibility and efficacy of the police by the public who, in this case of the “business” of policing, are the clients who retain the services of the organization. This is also where we begin to see a tentative tether to political influences in contrast to public service in this PCR relationship, which I see as a risky line for the police to walk.
The delineation of community service relative to politics is blurred when police seek tactics to implement crime prevention programs and service in their communities. I would think that the police must become liaisons of sorts between their communities and the government in order to vie for strategies, monies, or sanctions for crime prevention. In order to execute programs such as DARE, Project Identification for children, community/neighborhood renovations, and other campaigns, the police departments need to appeal, particularly on a local level, to the government for funding and equipment at the very least.
Community Oriented Policing is a fantastic public relations move, gaining the favor and admiration of the public by making officers more approachable, not unlike social workers with badges--and functioning more as a service industry rather than an Authoritarian chaperone in the community. However, paramilitarism is an inevitable by-product of police-military interactions and cooperation, especially in this era of national security. Unlike the Native American form of national security, which was attempting to create a peaceful coexistence with Europeans, the modern form of national security is based upon paranoid restriction of civil liberties, heightened oppressive scrutiny, and integration of more military tactics and technology. According to an Eastern Kentucky University study of SWAT teams, performed by Peter Kraska and Victor Kappelar in 1997: “…nearly 90 percent of the police departments surveyed in cities with populations over 50,000 had paramilitary units, as did 70 percent of the departments surveyed in communities with populations under 50,000.” (p. 5-6)
What this tells me is that the war on drugs and gang violence, and now the war on terrorism, is just that: war. Our police are precisely expected to be fighting battles on a daily basis to combat issues with which they’ve been charged by an increasingly fearful society. Further—and possibly the more poignant influence of paramilitarism in police function—is the protection of assets that the government has established. Wars are truly sponsored by economics, and the government seeks to preserve the functioning of the economy, as well as the fealty of an ignorantly blissful people to do so. It is proven and obvious that the government is lustful of power and greed, as are most modern people, which is why it is willing to send hundreds of thousands of citizens to their deaths in order to satiate those desires—deaths for otiose concepts of “freedom” and “peace” that the soldiers will never enjoy. The propaganda of Jingoism is powerful, however, and the public is impressionable—particularly so considering the limited scope of reality and regulation we are provided by those who rule our world.
In light of this mentality of preserving the peace by enforcing law and warring against crime, the decentralized levels of policing become centralized once again as their efforts coordinate and training, information and intelligence, and tactics are shared. Now, the federal police work on an international level, the state police function regarding statewide transactions or occurrences, and the local police maintain community relations and order. Although the decentralized surface delineations are relatively clear, they still function as an increasingly focusing centralized unit that is more deeply imbedding itself, as seeds taking root in soil, in the social lives of the citizenry. Those personal ties in the more unprofessional era of the police in the early 20th century are now re-established but in a more professional manner. Instead of (or along with in many cities now) cameras on the streets, police are installed as chaperones in the community under the intention of being as helpful and community oriented as the Boy Scouts, with the charisma of low-level politicians, and with the disposition of soldiers. And in light of recent acts of terrorism, much of the public seems to welcome the intervention with open arms. If the police happen to violate the newly earned trust or the civil liberties of the public, especially on the local level, this effort has the potential to quickly turn in an unfavorable direction.
The major weakness of this structure and function is: thanks to the coercion of all levels of police and military forces by corrupt politics and industry, and to the lack of knowledge and care for the welfare of the natural world, our society continues to create laws and regulations that directly and indirectly harm the environment and all species on this planet in order that we satiate our wants and desires at further expense to our spirits. Humans no longer measure effort at a cost of energy crucial for survival; we now measure worth of effort to cost in comfort. Economically-centered law enforcement has facilitated the ability for humans to continue to expand their range and numbers, wiping-out and harming critical habitats for wildlife and eliminating species. Laws protect the wealthy from any real accountability for destruction of habitat in the name of progress (remember Jimmy Pflueger and the Kaloko Dam, for instance?), and laws protect the weak, fostering propagation of poor genetics and evasion of natural selection and natural laws, thus, impacting the natural world in a negative way with overpopulation and resulting by-products of pollution, stress, fragmentation, and depletion. This country was founded upon false principles of materialism and greed, and it is in large part credited to police and military acting in the name of political justice that our society has become ignorant to the value and necessity of protecting the natural world in a more substantial way than only preserving its economic value as economics are not real. The police and military industrial complexes support the institution of these laws and maintain, through force and violations of natural freedoms, the destructive momentum for the decadence and false pretense of the human society.

References:
1. Zinn, H. (1995). A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present (Rev. and updated ed.) New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
2. Probst, J. (2004, July). The Posse Comitatus Act: What does it Mean to Local Law Enforcement? The Police Chief Magazine. (Vol. 71, No. 7). Retrieved Aug. 3, 2007, from http://policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=print_display&
article_id=335&issue_id=72004
3. Baker, B. (1999, November 1). The Origins of the Posse Comitatus. Air and Space Chronicles. Maxwell Air Force Base.
4. Weber, D. (1999, August 26). Warrior Cops: The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in American Police Departments. CATO Institute Briefing Papers (No. 50). Retrieved Aug. 3, 2007 from http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a37d86efe2982.htm
5. Kraska, P., & Kappeler, V. (1997). Militarizing American Police: The Rise and Normalization of Paramilitary Units. Social Problems, 44, 5-6

Restorative Justice Article

You Probably Follow Satan in the Name of God

2008-06-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

Considering all that has been said and written about these topics of nature, spirit, and our roles as Caretakers--which ultimately facilitates finding our true purpose and true selves by following the natural laws--it becomes easier to see the meanings of other religious doctrine through the unbiased eyes of simple, universal truth and unconditional love.

Many of us are familiar with the teachings and parables of the bible. The truth of the words that have been passed down by many hands and many interpretations and influences can be easily deciphered against the level of the only reality, which is the natural world made by God.

Instead of imbuing the writings of religions with magic and myth—oddly, the very heretical facets that these religions claim as blasphemies of the earth-based belief systems—use the level of the simple truth to see that the reality of the messages gives us guidelines that are more logically and realistically applicable to our purpose and place in the natural world. In other words, understand the meaning of the words and stories instead of simply taking someone else’s subjective interpretations as truth. Prove it wrong or prove it right, but don’t believe simply for the sake of: “that’s how it’s always been done,” as if you’re one of the chimps in the primate experiment.

Science helps us to understand more of the reality of the writings, as well. Science is a language we have designed in order to understand, or de-code natural processes. In fact, the more we use science to understand nature, the more we see that the practices of the old, Aboriginal cultures worldwide made sense, thus, the more we integrate the concepts of those practices. Unfortunately, as I’ve thoroughly proven already, it is not possible to live with modern technology and modern concepts of ethics while simultaneously preserving the integrity of the natural processes and God’s creations.

We know that God created the universe in a manner of compressing unfathomable amounts of energy into an infinitesimal point, which exploded and gave us the universe, then, ultimately, our mother planet after billions of years of processing or evolving. We know that “seven days” was metaphorical. We know that Jesus was a real person, but was no more a “god” or the embodiment of God than we are. Jesus simply understood what God really desired—to have us live as Caretakers of His creation and to live in the luxury of the natural world by reaping what we sew, and by taking only what we need without compromising the welfare of other species, nor the function of natural processes. We know that Jesus didn’t actually turn water into wine, nor did he turn a few loaves of bread and some fish into a plethora to feed the masses. Instead he divided what was available and taught the masses to appreciate what they’ve been given, to see that all should share in a tribe—and “tribe” is not solely composed of humans--and that all should get equal, and that when given the blood of the Earth, provided by God, it should be savored more than the finest wine. Jesus performed magic of spirit, of nature, because he was in touch with the cycles and signs that were part of the processes that God created. He was in tune with the natural world of reality, just as the Aboriginals of all other continents.

This real world of nature is the base, or the foundation of it all. It is the default place to which all creatures should be able to return should they so choose—and we should all choose. For our own species to, in the form of a governing entity, tell us that we may not live in the old ways in the natural, real world, is a blasphemy. It is a sin to deny us our natural rights and freedom. It is a sin to live in a manner that violates or opposes natural law.

Our species, however, given the gift of free will, has chosen to deny natural law. We have used our free will to oppose God by violating natural cycles in order to cater to our greed and comforts. We ignore the natural cycles because we fear death, and because we strive to learn the language of science in order to understand God’s mind and purpose so that we might be as smart as God. We certainly strive to control God’s creation, and we destroy pieces of it as a rule.

By living this way, it is clear that we have succumbed, as a species, to the will of Satan. But because humans live in the fantasy world of modern technology, in an artificial existence, we have given ourselves the luxury of denial, and we ignore the messages that have come from those who are the most connected to the reality of God’s nature. By living in the artificial world of money and material desires, by setting our ideals of comfort and mortality far higher than is ethical, and, in fact, by making our concepts of ethics and justice subjective, we have strayed directly into the hands of Satan, who now sits back with the smuggest grimace, knowing that we are too far gullible and gone to turn back. We are so captivated by Satan’s whims of artificial living and defying death and discomfort that we willingly avert our attention from the truth, bending God’s words to fit our greed and mollify our fear, in order to maintain the lifestyle that Satan has cultivated in our species.

I have proven this again and again for decades in all of the writing and speaking I have attempted to disseminate. You are perpetuating the will of Satan if you follow the literal interpretations of religious doctrine, and I can prove it. You are violating natural laws by following the materialistic and selfish practices of our modern cultures, by striving to gain money, by assigning lives monetary values, by allowing yourself to give-in to the artificial luxuries of technology. You are living exactly how Satan wishes, and you are defying what Jesus taught, and no amount of superficial church-going or tautology can repair that as long as you choose to ignore the truth.

Fight Satan’s grip by giving up money, artificial technology, cultural eugenics and idolatrous empowerment. All the things that your modern priests and religious leaders teach you about God and spirit and our place and purpose in the real world are typically misinformed or misled concepts, if not outright lies, influenced by political forces and trends for thousands of years. These people who preach and teach are at the forefront of Satan’s plan, living with artificial amenities and still violating the natural laws that God created for us in order to maintain balance as the Caretakers who were charged with dominion of God’s creation.

Reality is not what we make it. Reality exists whether we do or not. Reality has always existed, and we have a chance to be an integral part of it again in a productive way, instead of being the cancer that destroys it. By following the ways of modern society, you are a part of the self-serving cancer that will destroy your progeny. If you are willing to be part of the destruction of the natural world, then you are serving Satan, and God will have those who choose ignorance eliminated. Consider whether you are prepared to deal with the spiritual ramifications of your lack of temperance and selflessness.

Aikido & Indisputable Truth

2008-01-08T13:37:00.000-08:00

A beautiful element of Aikido is that it facilitates the resolution of conflict without compromising free will. In other words, it does not force another being—mentally, physically, or spiritually--into a position of oppression or duress. Aikido is a Martial Way that represents a philosophy that is not merely applicable to everyday life, but is the foundation of all life in the real world.
The natural world is reality. The natural world is directly created by something that has allowed processes to develop over time (evolve), establish, and give us existence. All parts of the natural world are real, because they contribute to the cycles and conditions that make it possible for all life to exist on the most fundamental level. Anything that is not found in the natural existence, does not contribute to the natural cycles and conditions, or is a detriment to natural cycles or conditions, is, therefore, not real. Even tangible things are not necessarily real. A car is tangible, but it is not real. A telephone, a book, an mp3 player, and a plastic cup . . . all tangible but not real.
Aikido channels reality in a way that neutralizes influences and anomalies to real cycles and conditions. These influences can either be positive or negative in essence, and Aikido will resolve them accordingly—in other words, positive and negative influences exist because of one another in the productive/destructive cycle, and the principle of Aikido is of being a catalyst that maintains a harmony in their co-existence. (The manmade concepts of “good” and “bad” however, are simply embraced by unconditional love and resolved to truth, not unlike crystals of salt or sugar being dissolved in a container of water.) As Aikido is governed by unconditional love, it, as all of nature, seeks an equilibrium that contributes to the welfare of all natural beings and conditions; this is the premise of natural law. There are infinite fluctuations of chaotic events, positive and negative, that create a net equilibrium of life, existence, or processes because nature seeks neutrality. Mountains erode over time by giving way to gravity and weather. Oceans crash against the shore by influences of gravity, temperature, weather, and the moon, while water seeks level and stillness. The cycles of nature perpetuate by random events, i.e.: a seed dropping, the wind blowing, rain falling; that facilitate a relative balance of biodiversity and function, which contributes to the holistic health of the entire Earth as an organism, and therefore to the Universe as part of nature. This applies to both the physical and the spiritual.
All life is conditional—if the sun shines, then plants will eat; if the water dries up, then animals will suffer--but the temperance that governs the equilibrium is unconditional, and must remain that way or there will be imbalance. In other words, nature is not biased; it simply is. The oceans, for example, are influenced by random conditions, but the results of these conditions resolve to create an opportunity for life. For instance, the ocean may crash against the rocky shore and create conflict, but the rocky shore embraces the conflict and dissolves to be the very foundation upon which the ocean exists. Aikido is everywhere, always.
To be unconditional means to be based upon indisputable truth, otherwise there exists compulsory subjectivity. Aikido is a response, whether mentally, physically, or spiritually, to any influence in a way that it strives to maintain harmony within all natural cycles based upon what benefits all of nature. If a positive influence is applied to me, as an Aikidoka, then a productive result would occur. If a negative or destructive influence is applied, then that must also be resolved to maintain a productive course that benefits the natural world. If my actions, however, were subjective or based upon beliefs that are not derived from indisputable truth, then I become a tyrant. I become a disruption.
If a person attacks an Aikidoka with words or fists because that person is angered by something, then it is the Aikidoka’s responsibility to make sure he is responding based upon a truth that benefits all life; otherwise, he is attempting to alter the free will of another with subjective influence. Likewise, if the Aikidoka attempts to change another’s actions or decisions based upon subjective emotions or beliefs, then he is again creating conflict by compromising another’s free will. Aikido neutralizes subjectivity in the real world. Our modern society, for example, exists in a way that compromises the welfare of the natural or real world. The natural world is subject to the ramifications of how our species lives, how we feel, what we believe, what we fear. As an Aikidoka—as a natural being--it is one’s responsibility to inform our species so that everyone can see the common, indisputable truth, which will allow everyone to make decisions that benefit all existence. The Aikidoka has no business spreading personal or subjective beliefs, as those beliefs cannot work for or include all of us.
If the truth that is represented by the Aikidoka is ignored or denied, however, then conflict still must be resolved based upon objective reality. In other words again, if the Aikidoka tries to sway one’s beliefs or manipulate one’s perspective with deceit or other questionable methods, then he would be attempting to control one’s actions by subjective means, thus contradicting Aikido. The principles must stand-up to the scrutiny of reality or nature as a frame of reference, not unlike a carpenter’s level.
Further, it seems to be a common belief that the philosophy of Aikido and peace is obtained through passivity or indifference. But if measured against the reality of nature, we can see that this is fallacy, and can be as dangerous as a direct aggression.
If, for example, a man throws trash on the ground, then I, as an Aikidoka, have a responsibility to the welfare of the natural world and all things to respond:
I can pick up the trash and throw it in his face, and then I can yell at the man and tell him never to litter again. However, this is an aggression that creates conflict, which will most likely escalate. This is not Aikido.
I can take what many mistakenly label as a “Zen” approach and do nothing but “embrace and accept the action as nothing more than a small ripple in a pond that will ultimately find its stillness as the universe unfolds as it should.” Meanwhile, especially if many of us adopt this approach of relative indifference, that man and many others will continue to litter because there are no ramifications applied and no spiritual resolution. Our trusting that “it all comes out in the Karmic wash,” and merely resolving to “let things be as long as we live our own lives as just and good as we can,” is dangerous and, relative to the truth of the natural world, it is irresponsible. We become enablers and deny accountability for being Caretakers not only of the physical world, but the spiritual, as well. This is not Aikido.
I could also very deliberately pick up the trash and make my disapproval blatant to the man as I throw the rubbish in a proper receptacle, in the hope that he may learn from this action and choose to take a more responsible path of etiquette in the future. However, there is no connection obtained, and it this passive-aggression is still passivity and enabling. As well, we humans tend to depend upon society to pick up the slack in many cases. Further, we tend to disregard what we do not see or feel directly unless it concerns us in a more empirical or tangible way. “Just leave it; someone will get it eventually,” right? This is not Aikido.
What I also could do, however, is represent that carpenter’s level or frame of reference by simply embracing the man, who has initiated a movement into my space as a part of nature, with all the unconditional love I give to my own child and all beings, and I can offer genuine concern, compassion, and empathy so that I may gain insight to his perspective. I can utilize this as an opportunity for both of us to grow. Then I may attempt to intimate why this action is something that disrupts the natural world. In discussing this thing, I may help to reveal a deeper trouble with this being that shares life with me, or I may open a proverbial doorway into seeing reality. First, I must see his perspective, because that is the Aiki Way. Then, I can be the central frame of reference for the real world and bring the disruption to resolution. (Keep in mind that “I” is a restrictive term that only applies to illustrating a point, as there is no separation of self from the natural world.) If, however, the man becomes aggressive, then I can also bring the physical confrontation to resolution. In any case, I must be absolutely tempered and grounded in indisputable truth, otherwise, I become unbalanced and ineffective. This would make me biased, and my actions would become subjective. Again, it is the responsibility of the Aikidoka to offer information so that others may see that there are options, after which they may make their own decisions—even with some assistance or guidance--relative to indisputable truth. It would not be fair, just, or responsible for the Aikidoka to try to change anyone. However he or she must be the center by which all actions may be resolved to the productive benefit for all life.
The Aikidoka also has a responsibility to try to preserve the safety and free will of others. In other words, a person may attack at their will, but the Aikidoka can only embrace the movement and bring it to a productive solution so that growth may be facilitated. Escalation would defeat the principle. Similar to jumping into a pool: the harder one jumps, the bigger their splash. Yet the water does not attack, it embraces. The more one thrashes, screams, or fights, the more likely one is to drown, but the water remains neutral. However, if one begins to accept that the water is a truth of the natural world, one may learn to stop attacking and become calm. Then they may float. Truth may be found through Aikido.

Neutral Center

2008-01-08T10:32:00.000-08:00

One man's good is another man's bad. If there are many different belief systems, then there will always be many perspectives of what is just and what is not. What I have learned is that no matter what beliefs you may follow, there are indisputable truths in the universe that frame a viable foundation for justice. Universal truths apply to all of us, no matter what our layers of differences may involve over the core truth.

In other words, religions, politics, cultures, and even sports fans all have differing beliefs and loyalties based upon the ways they are conditioned and taught. Since, however, we are all natural beings, all literally of the same composition and subject to natural laws, we have a common thread of truth that runs through all of our lives, no matter what beliefs or rituals we otherwise integrate.

Justice in America is based upon several elements of religions and philosophies and laws that we choose to accept. Justice defined in other cultures we may see as inadequate or even over the top. True justice and morality cannot be subjective, otherwise the intentions between parties become swayed, and it then boils down to who is more powerful, more deceitful, and even better armed.

I, as a natural being, cannot afford to be swayed by subjectivity of my personal beliefs, desires, strengths or I become a hypocrite when I impose my intentions upon others. I must function from a center of indisputable truth, something to which we all must adhere. That truth is found in the natural world. To learn this, I spent a year living in the natural world with no tools, no equipment, no gear--only me and what the Creator provided. This taught me that I am not independent, and I am not separate, but that I have the option to temper myself and be a useful tool for the natural world. I am an extension, just as we all are.

So, I agree that it would be unjust to affect anyone's particular "brand" or perspective of what they believe justice to be. And the only true carpenter's level we have available to us is the natural world because it is the foundation of all life. Natural laws and predetermined cycles govern what the parameters of our justice really is, and it has no connection to emotional bias nor to fabricated belief systems and doctrines.

Free will, which follows here logically, is a whole other element, but it is important to recognize that it is also a gift that comes with responsibility and conditions to follow. Aikido, in any case, as it emulates the natural world in movement and philosophy, is emulating truth, using us as channels and advocates of that truth. To truly "do" Aikido, is to be the center of the universe while embodying the universe all at once. This must manifest in our actions and words, and we become the focused center of unconditional love that others can trust and lean on in order to repair a sick world.

Self

2008-01-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

There are so many self-help workshops and self-discovery books and self-awareness exercises out there that one might reason we have developed a meme of being a self-absorbed bunch of people. Where did all of this need for self-discovery come from? Is it because we need to find purpose? Is it because we need to find place? Is it because we have lost perspective of our personal appreciation? Perhaps we have lost our spiritual connections with…something.
I honestly believe that we possess issues that involve more than any single one of these above ideas. I also believe, however, that we tend to seek guidance through this mysterious journey into the self on the bows of boats going to no particular port. In other words, our self-this and self-that courses take us so far on this journey but only create within us a sense of stability relative to the world in which we function. In other words again, we have created an existence that ties us up with so much stress, burden, and scheduling that we become unbalanced and compromised. Our immune systems suffer; our minds are battered with a fireworks display of responsibilities. We find ourselves losing track of fundamental joys, and many adopt crutches that make everyday existence bearable, such as alcohol, smoking, video games, and such.
Eventually we can see that our spirits suffer and crave something more fulfilling, so we might seek some kind of stable and firm center from which to function. Thus, we enter the self-this and self-that world, and we learn how to slow our paces down and appreciate ourselves more. But is that really finding your true self? Is it true spiritual awareness and satiation? Or is it a relaxing pastime, like model airplane building or reading?
I submit that there is something much deeper and essential required in order to explore the place in this journey that the boat does not travel. It begins with this idea: In order to truly know your fundamental self, you must know the fundamental frame of reference by which you are defined. (I’m going to attempt to put what amounts to several chapters of this concept into a “nutshell” and get to the point.)
We exist on a planet that has at least two different worlds. One world is that which has been here since the inception of Earth and has created a process of evolution and life-sustenance based upon billions of years of chaos and order working together. We can call this world: Nature. It is, for all intents and purposes here, our fundamental reality. The other world is very new; it is an infant world. This is the world by which most of us define ourselves. It is the world of dreams—creations brought to physical existence from the mind. This is the world of artificial things that are tangible, but not real. This is the world that has given rise to amazing creations but also less virtuous traits, and, within which we seek money, fame, beauty, luxury, and power. This is the world that compromises our spirits, makes us lose our footing and center. We are born of the natural, real world, but we are born into the dream world. So, again, do you define yourself by human ideas of your wealth and status, your fashion sense, your company title? If so, are you defining your true self, or are you merely defining your place in society? Defining yourself by memes and fluctuating, subjective societal ideas is only describing your relative worth and position in the manmade world. This is not a true definition of your inherent essence, however. That must come from a fundamental reality. That reality is the natural world. When we define ourselves against the frame of reference or the ‘level’ of the natural world, we can then begin to know our natural place and purpose. Then we can use that level as a foundation for temperance and awareness, based upon a very simple universal truth. Further, it becomes clear that in order to find our true selves, we must let ourselves go. In other words, all of the self-this and self-that is just the boat, but the real understanding means disembarking. It is at this place we can recognize that we are more than ourselves, more than part of a people, but that we are part of everything. I know—that statement is almost hackneyed. It’s something you hear a Zen master telling the pupil in martial arts movies. However, there is a very big difference between appreciating its entertainment value versus experiencing what it really means.
I only write this as an invitation for you and the children to go outside, to step out of the rut and change perspective. I used to operate a martial arts school in Peterboro many years ago. I tried to teach nature awareness as part of my martial arts curriculum, but most people seemed only to want to practice the self-defense portion, so I ultimately closed the doors. But it hasn’t changed the fact that I’ve been trying to disseminate this information for over twenty years now, and I believe we have a responsibility to ourselves, our world, and our children. Going outside and enjoying nature—and I’m not really talking about four-wheeling and shooting things, so much as just taking walks and observing, truly taking it all in—fosters a like for the natural world. The more we learn, the more we like it, and, eventually, we rediscover our inherent love for nature. What we understand, we come to love; what we love, we protect. It’s springtime; play with the kids outside. Ask each other questions about anything to which your hearts lead you in nature. Sometimes it’s fun to find the answers in field guides, but it’s not a requirement, and it shouldn’t be. Sometimes the answers don’t come to you for a year or more, but that’s okay. It’s when we lose the desire to discover more, that we know our spirits need to find center once again.

Living in the Dream World

2008-01-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

My religious beliefs are not categorized in any particular doctrine aside from Pantheism and Animism, to an extent; a shade of Shinto in its earliest form. Regardless, the concept is all about Total Prosperity, or living in a manner that benefits all life, not only select species. But where many doctrine and dogma emanate from translations of stories and morals based upon interpretations of God’s word—or whatever such name one might assign to the Creator—my beliefs stem directly from the Creator’s autobiographical work itself, with no intermediate filters. It comes directly from the reality of the natural world, where the authority is natural law—something which none of us can really expect to conquer or avoid. My beliefs dictate, through the predetermined cycles of nature, that participation in a system of economics directly opposes natural law. In other words, I would be compromising my beliefs if I were to contribute to any kind of materialistic or artificial existence that does not purely preserve, or which compromises, the proper, pre-established function of the natural world. This is something that I’ve had to do for far too long, and existence has been miserable, living in hypocrisy and participating in a destruction that I unconditionally oppose.
Now, with a foreclosure, and with the extreme lull of my business (I’ve never claimed to be a good businessman—I’m about the least qualified--in spite of being quite skilled at the labor), my family is faced with the discrimination of “non-viable credit.” And we’ve heard every pitch there is to rebuild, recondition, and reintegrate, but it all severely misses the accompanying matter. This form of prejudice eliminates opportunities for living and for employment. Our foreclosure has happened as a result of many factors—none of which, by the way, are laziness, complacency, or lack of skill, in spite of the compulsory connotation associated with such labeling—but it seems the proper catalyst toward finally establishing that there is some need of reform in our society even beyond economy.
As an expert survivalist of the Aboriginal methods of living, and in consideration of my convictions, not to mention simply being a creature born on this planet, I would expect that the option to live primitively in the natural areas of the state and country would be a given. In other words, if anyone chooses not to participate in the modern system, how can there not be an option to live according to the Original Instructions of the natural world? Along with the violation of 1st Amendment rights, according to the doctrine of this government, eliminating anyone’s birthright as a natural being to live naturally is an outright injustice.
So the result is that my three children are homeless because authorities are saying that we cannot exercise our birthright of freedom to live purely with the environment while not contributing to the destruction of it. My skills only have worth in our society if I use them to oppose my beliefs, which makes existence worthless and wholly wretched, or because someone is actually trying to insist that living freely as the Aborigines who were all but eliminated and oppressed is not an option. Why is it that a vast variety of religions can be brought to this country to be observed and practiced here, but the native beliefs that support the welfare of the natural world cannot be without contradicting them? I know I’m nearly alone in this mindset, but seriously, when nobody listens or even cares, and the highest point to which one can take an injustice is the very source of the injustice itself, something needs to change. Inherent freedom can’t just be dissolved, and this concept of land being owned by everyone except for those who live the most closely with it is kind of absurd. There need to be options and tolerance.

Greed and Stability

2008-01-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

Having children implies a necessity for stability, as this is what provides a sense of security and place for them. We all need to feel the security of a solid foundation. A sense of rooted place, especially when surrounded by family and friends, is a bolster to the wellness of spirit. However, as humans believe that owning land--as if the Earth were a commodity--is possible or even reasonable, it is increasingly difficult to obtain the natural lifestyle that was standard only a few hundred years ago.
As we feed our desires and greed with morsels of land and the fast food of rapidly-depleting natural resources, we literally sacrifice the welfare and sustainability of the future generations. We’re a society of living in the now by taking from the future. Obviously, this is unwise. This isn’t mere tree-hugging propaganda; it is proven fact.
As this destructive course is the case, my family and many others are forced to live in impoverished conditions that make life utterly miserable.
With winter approaching, and with the imminent governmental threat against taking-up primitive residency in the proximal wilderness areas--not to mention the audacity of the system’s convoluted logic of taking away my children if I bring them into the real world to exist rather than putting them through the integration process of the fabricated world--the ability to provide my family with the stability they would need in the natural world would be seriously compromised at best. Not only would we need [ideally unpolluted and uncompromised] natural resources such as water and plants, as well as game and wood and space, but we would also need the ability to implement practices that would create a mutualism between us and the environment. The government will not allow this. Somehow, our birthright has become prohibited. Again, at best, I could see setting-up a home-camp, then being routinely bumped out by “authorities” for camping on “public land.” I could foresee being fined or arrested for having fires, as well as for hunting and fishing without a license and with primitive methods. In other words, trying to follow our beliefs and living naturally is illegal, and the government would see it fit to expose my family to absurd amounts of trauma in order to impress the importance of conforming to the existence and subjective ideals of the artificial world.
After we were evicted from our home—because I actually tried, folks; I sacrificed my beliefs for a long time in order to try to “fit in” and maintain peace—we literally had nowhere to go. In spite of letters I wrote to everyone from the Governor to public radio, there was no response whatsoever to this situation, which many people face, and we have been falling conveniently through the eugenic cracks of society. Now we five humans and several pets, which make-up our family, are tucked away in a tiny box amongst tumor-like structures that are filled with disconnected inhabitants. The only signs of real life are disjointed, residual freckles of trees and plants that are used as catch-alls, like back-street alleys, for old tires, shoes, bottles, and myriad rubbish items.
Our sleeping space is little more than a compartment that further files natural beings into unnatural existence. Being here without being surrounded by the natural world, without having the space to live and breathe, subject to the practices and disturbances of others who live willingly in the fabricated world, creates a palpable sense of oppressive stress and paranoia. There is a big difference between living as an outcast in a subjective society, versus living in a communal or tribal setting of extended family. My children suffer this stress greatly, and being surrounded by this emptiness and death means seeking distractions in television or other artificial media. Even going outside to play bears negligible exposure to the natural world as nature is constantly being biologically infected and surgically altered with facelifts and implants that retain no resemblance to the healthy, pristine, former state. The wilderness shouldn’t be undermined as an “escape” or “vacation,” used as a novelty then otherwise ignored. Not only should we be allowed to return to our natural state of existence, but this modern lawnmower of society’s paradigm needs to be stopped. The children deserve to know the truth at the very least.

Reverence

2008-01-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

Due to documented history, we are afforded a grasp of the concept of a thousand-year time period. The span of a few millennia is fathomable because we have tangible, exhumed pieces of history in museums and evidence on cave walls, and we have easily accessible documentation regarding, with impressive detail, the paradigm of life over the past several thousand years. But stop for a second and wrap your mind around billions of years. A million of something is still a sizeable concept to comprehend, but billions of something is more elusive, especially in the form of time. The Earth is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old. Think about that. For billions of years, this planet has floated through space, revolving around this sun, developing life and intricate systems of biology. Imagine the Creator painstakingly adding minute details of colors, shapes, and compositions over billions of years not only to the canvas of the landscape, but to microscopically-scaled organisms and elements—and beyond--enabling Earth to reach this point of fine-tuned, yet still-evolving, relationships and processes that we have only begun to unravel. Imagine taking that kind of time to invest yourself in a project as intricate, for your entire existence, and then opening the door to a bunch of infantile, disrespectful miscreants who throw a keg-party and devastate your work in one night. It has only taken us a relative handful of years—a few hundred—to turn billions of years of God’s work into a mocking mess.
What organism expands rapidly, consumes its host, creates tumorous growths, and makes its host utterly sick? Humans? Cancer? Both? And how does one treat cancer?
I don’t want to participate in the pathology of a cancer. In fact, it seems particularly unfair that we who don’t want to be part of the process, but who would rather go back to the Aboriginal lifestyle, are forced to contribute to the wanton violation of the Earth. Yet if we were “permitted,” to live by Natural Law once again, with no obligation to modern society, we would still have to live with the residual effects of modern impacts. Living naturally would involve listening to jets rip across the sky, smelling pollution from nearby cities, treating polluted waters for consumption, dealing with fragmented, stunted, and unhealthy ecosystems--not to mention the constant “progression” of encroachment—and so much more. Even if we reclaim our neglected inherent rights and freedoms, we are still going to face the enduring wastes and detriments of modern society. This is like suffering the effects of a housemate who smokes, leaves garbage everywhere, stinks, never flushes or cleans the seat, plays music too loudly, and throws hammers at the walls for fun. Society needs to take accountability once and for all and get a grip on the reality of Natural Law and Total Prosperity and stop making such permanent and drastic alterations to the environment. Many of us are offended at the very least, and it is wholly unfair and unrealistic to continue this romanticized idea of “progression,” at the expense of other life, our own inherent rights and beliefs, and the future generations. As admittedly impressive as modern technology is, it is not real, and it is detrimental to real life. In spite of the current fad of “sustainable living,” it is impossible for life to be sustained and healthy in a world that fears mortality, loses reverence for and connection with its foundation, and creates artificial things. Any artificial item, simply by virtue of its creation, is harmful to the environment, therefore, to ourselves. We don’t need the things we believe we do, and even though we’re too “habituated” to change lifestyles, it is crucial that we teach our children to live in the real world. We literally borrow the Earth from the future, and we are just as literally stealing it from them with this paradigm. Why are we allowing a proven destructive system to over-rule and deny the emergency of reality indicated by members of its own species? In other words, just because the masses embrace the luxury of artificial existence and the captivation of vices, it doesn’t mean they’re right; it just means that we have a serious problem. If the system doesn’t contribute to the welfare of not only humans, but of all life, then the system must be abandoned.

The Level

2008-01-08T10:17:00.000-08:00

As a species, we have developed an unhealthy fear of mortality. We defy aging with chemicals, cosmetics, supplements, and surgeries. In fearing death, we strive to lengthen and save lives. It seems like a no-brainer, that these measures would be common-sense and beneficial; but where’s the carpenter’s level as a frame of reference for the validity of that notion? Since the only reality is nature, and since there is far more to existence at stake than the welfare of humans, we must extend the measurement of the concept beyond subjective ideas of what we consider to be important in our fabricated world. In the real world, the natural world, death is an essential counter-balance to life for many reasons, not the least of which is a reciprocation of nutrients, biomass, and space. A being that utilizes these things in life must return them for another being by dying. It’s natural law. Further, this oscillation maintains a relative balance of distribution of not only a particular species, but of biodiversity. Native biodiversity is crucial in maintaining a healthy and viable environment. You can think of biodiversity as analogous to an immune-system. A diversity of organisms keeps other organisms in check, so there is no extreme of consumption or depletion. This is why monocultures don’t do well without constant intervention. Unfortunately, the introduction of foreign species to an ecosystem is exactly the same as an introduced virus to a human.
Our modern practices mean an effective increase in our population. This, in turn, means that the more humans that exist on this planet, which has a relatively finite amount of usable biomass, the more we take away from other life-forms. (This is something I mentioned in a letter, years ago, regarding natural burials versus embalming and entombing, which exacerbate the problem of not returning necessary nutrients and elements to the environment. In fact, I said that we not only take from the earth in life, but now also in death.)
Nature is constantly seeking equilibrium through chaotic events; as a living organism, chaos and order must co-exist in order to create balance and life. Nature seeks to correct the aberrant systems. By staving off death and increasing our population, we create what are called density-dependent circumstances. However, we are also subject to density-independent circumstances simply due to making ourselves more numerically susceptible to those situations. In other words, the more humans we spread across the globe, the more will succumb to such systems such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and other “natural disasters.” There’s an interesting relativity in there.
Density-dependent circumstances, however, are created by the impact of our numbers upon the environment, which can otherwise be called anthropogenesis. Some anthropogenic impacts are direct and obvious, although we commonly subvert their severity, such as air pollution, water pollution, forest fragmentations and the like. The consequences of these impacts are logical responses to our lack of maintaining a proper balance and mutualism with nature. Ticks, for example, can carry diseases that affect humans; that makes them vectors. Deer often carry vector-ticks. Deer favor the pioneer growth of clear-cut areas that humans create. Deer are also an important revenue-generating game species. That means that humans foster a “healthy” deer population and that we create habitats and situations that bolster them—another imbalance. That means, in turn, that deer-ticks also benefit from anthropogenesis, thus, the diseases they carry further benefit from anthropogenesis. And that means that more humans will suffer the tick-bites and the diseases. (This isn’t to mention how mice are significantly involved and affected, either.) But instead of reforming our approach to living with nature, we counter with further suppression tactics that distance us, such as poisons and repellents and other things that cause increased detriment to the environment, and the problem perpetuates in a geometric fashion. We can see the same thing with fleas, mosquitoes, and particularly with viruses and infections such as Staphylococcus aureus, now better known as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), and the new, super CA-MRSA (community-associated-MRSA). These density-dependent diseases, much like rabies, are natural responses to imbalances. In other words, these diseases exist for a reason, whether we like it or not. How can we be so selfish to strive for god-like stature and resist natural law, which perpetuates an imbalance in the very environment we need to survive? It’s not only hypocrisy, it just doesn’t make sense.

Instant Gratification

2008-01-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

At what point does comfort become complacent, or need become greed? “Don’t we have a right to be comfortable and enjoy life?” a new acquaintance recently asked of me. I believe that we do, but we also have a responsibility to temper our desires and to consider how our actions affect all other life on this planet. We are quite equipped and capable of eliminating all life from the planet, but should we? Why not? The way I see it, it would not be a benefit to destroy the foundation of our existence. It seems counterproductive to disrupt, let alone eliminate, the source of our needs for survival. Yet we live in a manner that does adversely affect those things that we, and our progeny, all need to survive. In a very basic way, our treatment of the Earth and its resources is going to affect our physical well-being for generations to come. If you plant a garden that feeds your family, you must take up space to do so. This means that you will be compromising the welfare of anyone else that had need for that space. But if you decide eventually that you would like to install a hot-tub, which means sacrificing a portion of the garden, you will be compromising the welfare of your children in order to enjoy a “comfort.” This is how humans treat the environment right now. Why are we obsessed with creating structures and roads and altering the landscape in relatively permanent ways? What exactly gives us the right to make these alterations and assume this god-like position on this planet? How can anyone argue that the Creator has given us this authority while we categorically destroy and pollute what the Creator has created for our own comforts? We are a species that prides itself on having “higher functioning” faculties of logic and philosophy, yet we deny accountability to follow natural law, and we live in a depraved manner of materialism, money, and aesthetics, while we deplete the environment for luxuries and ignore true temperance and justice in order to cater to our infantile gratifications. Evolution is supposed to be change that facilitates a viable integration of a species and its environment in order to create a viable existence in the natural cycles. Evolution is about developing strategies genetically in order to conform to one’s environment because nature constantly seeks an equilibrium of fluctuations between chaos and order. Humans, however, do not adapt to their environment. Humans alter the environment to meet immediate preferences. In other words, we have eliminated our proper role in the natural world, and because we alter the world to meet our desires, we allow ourselves to perpetuate genetic anomalies, and we also subvert any need to make genetic changes that keep us aligned with nature. In other words again, we have created an ability to de-evolve. We deaden our senses with artificial environments and stimuli; we constantly muffle and suffocate our spiritual ties to the Creator by shielding ourselves from creation; and we compromise our spirits with distractions and unnatural practices, which we mitigate with depravity, such as drinking, drugs, and myriad variegated vices. All in the name of what? To what end? How can we call spitting in the face of God progress? It doesn’t matter what religion one follows when it comes to the reality of truth. No matter what one believes about the Creator--whether or not one even believes there is a higher power or if it can be broken down to some sort of physics—and no matter what doctrine or dogma one follows or by what name one addresses the Creator, there is a fundamental truth that all must accept and follow: Nature is real, and it is our source of life. Nature is the only reality, and by compromising it for our desires for more and more comfort, we are showing a severe lack of temperance, responsibility, and respect for the Creator who is embodied within the natural world. Even those who only believe in science must have the capability to see that the logistic equation applied to our species, coupled with the planet’s carrying capacity, not to mention affects of fragmentations, pollutions, and stresses, are leading us to a very dire place. Scientists must at least be rational enough to see outside of the box and understand that all of this technology is detrimental to nature, and it is detrimental to us on several levels, and ignoring our mortality means creating a major imbalance in biodiversity and biomass, which means we will reach a devastating breaking point. Even those who don’t believe in a Creator must appreciate the virtue of temperance and that in order to find true justice and ethics there must be an indisputable, universal truth from which they can be derived, right?
Comfort is subjective. It changes in direct proportion to the advances in technology, to depletion, and to extortion of natural resources. As well, our perception of comfort enhances complacency and self-importance that truly undermines our responsibility to follow natural laws established by the Creator. Enjoying life and being comfortable is fine, until it begins to affect others in a detrimental way. We do not have the authority to determine whether any life is valuable or not. Therefore, we do not have the right to adversely affect other life for our selfish desires for comforts and luxuries. It just doesn’t make sense. We are not as important as we think we are…but we could be if we once again became Caretakers instead of Takers. Finding the line of discretion is simple: if what we do adversely affects nature’s predetermined cycles, then it should be abandoned. If what we do contributes to the welfare of nature, it should be applied. All artificial technologies are detrimental, in spite of the compulsory propaganda that accompanies them. Think about what it takes just to make something artificial. The process at the most basic level is detrimental to the environment, no matter how “green” or “clean” anyone claims to be. Then take it to the spiritual level. Does this artificial thing or does this action compromise temperance of your spirit? In order to know that, you must first have that indisputable truth as a frame of reference for spirit: nature. In other words, you must know your true place and purpose by natural laws. That means living in the natural world with no artificial or corrupt influences. How can you define your true self by artificial parameters?

Realistic Sustainability?

2008-01-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

I can’t seem to escape the sounds of back-hoe back-up alarms, chainsaws, and dump-trucks during the warm seasons anymore. Attempting just to listen to the birds and insects—or to the quiet times of nature, even—is futile, as there is, inevitably, a passing jet, a gunshot, tires squealing, ridiculously thundering tail-pipes, or some kind of construction or destruction around every corner, as small plots of forest are perpetually razed for the expansion of our species and our economy.
Last night, (6/24), the missus and I watched a documentary reporting of the new technologies being used to research the potential for life on other celestial bodies; Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, was the particular point of focus in this episode.
And, as I have done regularly for a quarter of a century now, I shrug my shoulders at all of these “progressions” and “advances,” and I ask with the utmost rhetoric: “Why? To what end?”
As our technology advances, and as we reveal more of the countless layers of the natural world, we face compulsory ethical issues of our impacts, the stresses we create, the natural resources we use, and the other species we affect. This subject, of course, involves some deep philosophical exploration to the point that I would need the space of a book or a forum of large capacity and numerous hours to effectively address even the basics. Here, however, I would simply like to point out—once again—especially in light of our new, local fiascos of diggings and pavings (contributing to the reported 10 billion gallons of oil run-off into the oceans every 8 months), that it would be prudent for society to consider the reality of where we believe we are trying to go as a species on this planet.
There is so much talk of sustainable living these days and better management practices with natural resources, such as timber, crops, and game. What I find amazingly interesting is that these practices that come off as new and innovative ideas seem to resemble in the most elemental ways the practices of the aboriginal people from around the globe. In my philosophy of Total Prosperity—the allusion being the word “Total” in my local company’s name: Total Wild—which is a philosophy based upon the indisputable truths of nature, it is common to hear me utter the phrase: “The answers are in the past, not in the future,” which I typically employ as a cautionary statement to those who are so excited and tunnel-visioned with the rush of technological advancement. As impressive as our engineering may be, our species moves through life like a drill bit through soft wood, always seeking the other side of the material with diligence. Unfortunately, there is only so far we can go.
There seems to be a spreading epidemic of faith in our society—and by “society,” I refer to our modern species on a global level—that in spite of our usage of natural resources, in spite of our increasing population, and in spite of the impacts we have already made and continue to make, we are going to be able to continue to live in a material world while our numbers continue to grow, and that we will be able to have everything we need as long as we cut down on our emissions by 2050 and start implementing more sustainable practices.
I have always had an issue with the naiveté of the concept of being able to live in balance with the natural world while enjoying the amenities of technology and artificial items that we now consider necessities in our modern lives. What I mean is that no matter how green our vehicles become, no matter how many of us ride bicycles to work, no matter how sustainable our practices, we are always going to need to create a negative environmental impact because we have evolved our way of living to a dependency upon artificial items and cultural conveniences that neither fit nor facilitate the predetermined natural cycles. In other words, as a very basic example, even if all of us rode bicycles to work every day, we might be eliminating a significant amount of vehicle emissions, but the bicycles would still have to be manufactured in factories; tires would still need to be produced; and smoke stacks would still need to blow off exhaust. Even with filters on them, the filters need to be manufactured, and once they are filled to capacity, what happens to the waste then? How far can it go? There will always be an impact upon the natural world as long as we keep creating artificial things.
Then there is population. Think about the basic dynamics of organic biomass. A few thousand years ago there was a particular distribution of biomass, the physical properties or elements that make up creatures and things in the natural world. There were so many trees and so many fish and so many people, and they all existed in some sort of proportion, with some biomass being locked-up in caches within the Earth, and with negligible amounts of materials falling to our planet from space considered. But in a relatively short amount of time, we have shifted the proportions of organic biomass by clearing millions of acres of forests, by implementing hundreds of years of fishing and hunting or harvesting for a growing population, and by expanding our own species. This shift in proportions can only go on for so long before it’s simply not possible to continue. Not only must we face a particular carrying capacity, which includes, physical space to exist, food availability, and now our own dependency upon technology to provide us with potable water and to remove our wastes effectively, but we must also face a finite physical capability to transfer biomass. Think about how much biomass 6.6 billion people consume on a daily basis. Think about how much carbon dioxide and energy 6.6 billion humans at 98.6º F contribute to the atmosphere every day. Then factor in the way we entomb ourselves when we die instead of giving the biomass back to nature to be recycled.
What all of this means is that our “practices” are only buying our species, and others, some time. It means that we have some extremely sensitive philosophical issues with which to deal before we can make a significant change for the benefit of all life on this planet. It means that we need to start considering that we put far too much blind faith in agencies and authorities to attend our environment while none of the people who run them actually live closely with the environment at all, but learn to interpret natural conditions through a figurative lens with a language we’ve invented for such purpose, called science. And it’s not so much that science is faulty or invalid. It’s that science is incomplete and limited in its ability to encompass the spirit of nature. It’s that science is relatively new, and it sets risky conditions that are clinical, which keep us disconnected from the natural world with a fence of textbooks, studies, labels, and statistics—not to mention the economic and political influences. It’s that science allows us to cater to our fears of death and discomfort to an unhealthy degree.
It would pay-off to our progeny that we consider the broader impact of our actions, the reality of our future, and the simple truths of the natural world that we’ve been given by the Creator. It is our responsibility; and how proud could we be to call ourselves Caretakers once again instead of Takers?
I apologize for the clipped, abridgement of this subject. It is a topic, about which I’ve been writing and teaching for decades, and trying to put it into editorials is like packing a small suitcase. But if the article didn’t burst out onto the floor when you opened the paper, I guess we’re okay. I suppose, at least, it’s food for thought. Unfortunately, it may taste like canned spinach, but it’s very important that we eat it.

Strike Proposal

2008-01-08T10:02:00.000-08:00

It doesn't matter if you are in or out; just pass it on to as many people as you can; whether they "care" or not is irrelevant. To those "humans" stuck inside the Matrix: here's an opportunity to begin breaking out of your cubicle where your time clock keeps you tethered.

STEP UP, AND BE REAL AGAIN!

I propose a strike. As a teacher and follower of Total Prosperity and Universal Truth, I cannot participate in the perpetuation of an artificial society based upon a system of equating money with life under a supposition of relative freedom and happiness through distractions that offset the myriad diseases manifest in what is not even evolution any longer so much as mutation of body, mind, and spirit. I cannot participate in a system that extorts the planet, treating it as a commodity in order to distort natural equilibrium in a devastating way through the raping of the environment and outright murder and disrespect of other creatures in a mechanized, cold paradigm that further caters to false idolatry, gluttony, and pseudo-independence from the spirit and predetermined cycles of the natural world. We cannot be better than that which gives us life, and I resent being automatically integrated by the default of being Homo sapiens into a system that takes as a rule and severely compromises the health of the planet, of all species, and of our future generations.

My birthright, as a being made of this planet and of this universe, is to be free and to depend solely upon my inherent connection and adaptability to the natural world I’ve been given as a gift from the Creator. It should be my right to exercise my gift of free will and choose to live as a Caretaker of my Earth and as a guardian of our children’s future. I cannot and will not willingly contribute to a society or species that opposes natural law and is guilty of heinous acts against the natural world on any level.

Our basic needs for survival should not be fenced from us if we are capable of living the natural ways with no artificial creations. Money is a fabrication, and it is the driving force of a depraved and brainwashed society created from imagination disconnected from the natural order. Food should not cost money; water should not cost money; heat and shelter should not cost money. The land cannot be owned, and it is only by violence and tyranny, motivated by power and greed, that it is horded and kept from the access of the true Children of the Earth. This is not opinion, and it is not new information; it is proven truth. (Only those in denial would debate these facts and attempt to blindly justify morals and ethics that are based upon fabricated beliefs and dogma.) The way of the Children of the Earth is to follow the pure truth of the manifestation of the Creator, and our abuse of the natural world is spitting in the face of our Creator. Our lives are therefore stolen, and our spirits are therefore snuffed. Eugenic evolution and blatant civil discrimination are blasphemous, and I propose a strike.

I propose that the Children of the Earth who resent the complacency and greed that our society fosters and upon which it thrives, remove themselves from the system wholly. By living with indifference, or passively, or even in our cloistered parcels primitively, we are not permitted to serve our true purpose, and we are not only enabling but facilitating the continuation of destruction and TERRORISM. I propose we stop paying taxes; we stop working for money to “live”; no more cars, no more phones, no more houses, no more bills and nine-to-five, and no more spiritual deprivation and artificial living; we stop participating, and we take back what was stolen from our species and all others.

I propose that we demand our inherent freedom, untainted wilderness, pollution-free waters, and no obligation to the dysfunctional demands and expectations of a society of fabricated, corrupted existence.

Who’s in?

Intent and Justice

2008-01-08T09:12:00.000-08:00

Without intent, there is no action, therefore, a lack of accountability. That, to me, is passivity or indifference, which neither seeks to maintain nor destroy productive equilibrium or harm. Indifference, though, especially in light of a society that has attempted to change nature in order to fit its selfish wants, rather than adapting itself to what nature provides and natural law, still obligates us to culpability. For example, if I see a group of men murdering a creature, my indifference and doing nothing puts me in a moral position of being as culpable as they are. Here's where we need the carpenter's level of indisputable truth. In our culture we have given value to money. Money now equals life. Literally all of our basic necessities are designated a cost of this fabricated value system. Further, in order to protect those who may have more than others, we have created laws that apply to this situation. Because our species places value upon fabricated ideas, and because we cater to our fears of mortality, we create technologies and laws that bolster our security, laws that even strictly oppose natural law. Legal systems are subjective. In our country, stealing gets you a fine, community service, or jail time depending upon severity, and we utilize an adversarial system. In another country, one may have his hands amputated as a consequence of stealing. In the natural world, stealing implies possession, but possession is only based upon the fundamental truth of survival. A shelter, a carcass, a child--possessions of necessity and even altruistm, but not of fabricated or materialistic value. If another creature takes one of those things, it is a matter of survival that weeds the sicker and the weaker and maintains equilibrium. A big difference is that the INTENT is to survive. There is no maliciousness behind it. In our culture, revenge and malicious intent are rules. In fact, our criminal subculture exists BECAUSE of our culture's values and eugenic process. Looking at tribal, aboriginal cultures, this concept of possession and fabricated values was quite tame to nearly non-existent. In other words, I may possess a pair of really nice mocassins, but if you needed to take them, then the tribe would deal with the situation in a hollistic circular manner, in that everyone would be involved, and even family members would share culpability. The tribe would seek to mitigate the core of the problem, not simply punish one for the act. Further, if you need them, then I will give them to you; or I will help you make some. Stealing was quite uncommon in those societies. Anyway, legal systems and the like are for another thread, I think. In actions of defense, my intent must be to preserve the predetermined cycles of nature or natural laws. It's not something I apply "at the time," so to speak because living this way means always having the presence of that mind. In other words, I cannot claim to be better than that which made me, and it is part of my existence to offer thanks all day everyday in my life to all of nature because the energy and intent I put out to the universe is a reflection (both ways), and I have an obligation to represent nature as a point of unconditional love all the time. Therefore, if I am attacked with force, it must resolve to the purest result that I can apply. If it means death, then that is the outcome. We tend to have a significant moral issue with death, because we are taught for the most part to fear it and do whatever it takes to avoid it. Our natural survival instinct has been supplemented and layered with fears and preventions--we even fight aging with all sorts of artificial methods. I won't go on. What it boils down to is taking it to nature. You're correct, I believe, in saying that the legal systems wouldn't agree. Nature is to be conquered and treated as a commodity in most modern culture. If we take our actions to nature, which is our gift, which sustains us, then we see if the outcome will be productive and contribute to the perpetuation of natural cycles, or whether our actions are detrimental, which means they should be abandoned. This is where free will comes into play. And our free will causes us great confusion when trying to determine what is moral and what is not because life has become subjective and we have lost our ties to the reality of natural laws. If I use free will and decide that I want to catch a fish for supper instead of eating berries, then I must choose a place where fish live in order to increase my odds of catching one. I might use a very long stick to reach way out over the water, as well as a thin line of cordage, which increase my odds. I may choose to use a hook made of bone, and I may continue to use my free will to choose a bait of worm rather than fly to catch a particular fish. All of these things I do are designed to increase my odds and create a desired outcome based upon my free will. However, none of the things I use are synthetic. None of the things I use are detrmental in their existence to the predetermined cycles of nature. In fact, much of my outcome is going to be determined by my skills. However, the free will options I apply are restricted in nature. At some point, I must simply wait. I will either catch a fish, or I will not. I believe that there is enough room in this universe for all of the popular elements: skill, intent, prayer, luck, fate . . . why not? So intent is actually quite relative. I even ask the fish for help, and I honor them with respect and by using every part of the sacrifice they provide for me. But, still, my intent to catch a fish is driven by my primal need to eat, which means survival on a basic level. In the cycles of natural law, this is just, because I am not causing imbalance or harm to nature. I am part of the process. Further, in doing this thing, it is important that I only take what is needed and help to maintain a pristine habitat so that I give something back. I am a Caretaker, and I fulfill my natural role. If I am attacked, then I respond with the intent of finding resolution. But I am a nuetral center only seeking an equilibrium. Nature is also a nuetral center seeking equilibrium, there is no ill-intent, only the intention that all life perpetuates. If creatures choose to live in a contradictory way to natural law, then the consquence is going to ultimately be imbalance and death. It is not malicious intent on the part of nature, it just simply is the outcome that is most productive for the overall balance of natural law. I must mirror this. If the attack means that one of us dies, then that is how it shall be. But it must resolve itself, so my actions must be honed, thoughtless--oddly enough, and centered, and they must also reflect my spirit, which should happen naturally as a result of training with my spirit in this place of indisputable truth.

How do you not feel robbed?

2005-11-26T14:52:00.000-08:00

Where are the children of the earth? Where are the caretakers? There is so much happening in this world right now, so much destruction for want and greed, to meet theoretical goals and standards; but it doesn't have to be this way.

There has been more damage done to the Earth by man in the past 100 years than has been done in the past 10,000. Why is this continuing?

People seem to be under the very misguided impression that we are meant to live this way. Further, because of the luxuries of material gains, our society predominantly chooses to perpetuate this way of life.

Our world is split. There is a world that is created by man--a dream world that does not fit with the natural way. Cars, houses, televisions, computers, cell-phones, and much more are creations of the human mind. These things are dreams brought to existence. But there is a drastic price to pay for these things.
The real world consists of all things of nature. The real world is created with no influence of man. The real world exists long before and potentially long after we do. But the real world suffers for our desires, which separate us from the reality of nature.
In nature, all things prosper or fail in a way that only nature determines. By making our impact for our own gains, we have eliminated species, devastated forests and waters, and continue to parasitize the planet, in spite of our grandchildren's' welfare. We are a "live now for ourselves," society instead of a "live now for the future," one.
But another misgiving is that our technology is progression. It is treated as though it were a positive thing. As long as anything in nature suffers at the hands of our progression, then our function is not viable. We inhabit this planet in an abundance that throws biomass and equilibrium out of kilter. We spread rapidly and suck the life from the earth. We build concrete cities and paved roads, and we strip the immune system of the planet by poisoning, timber-harvesting, and spreading our "tumorous" structures across the lands. How can we not see what a cancer we are? Ironic that cancer is one of our greatest nemesis to fight.

Not long ago, people lived on this planet with a very intimate connection with the lands and flora and fauna. They depended upon nature, and only by taking care of nature did they ensure their survival.

In the real world of nature, there can be no segregations, there can be no bias, no good, no evil. These are creations of man. Nature is chaos and logic, functioning together in a check-and-balance of evolution and altruism. Nature is unconditional love. There is no definition, no ultimatum, no condition to interpretations.

Total Prosperity is about the well-being of all things--even humans. We do not have to live in this dream world. We have the birthright of living close to nature, as did the tribal societies. People say that it is not possible that we have the fortitude to give up our material possessions and greed and go back to living close to the earth. But we do have that option. It was done for thousands of years, and only those who despise nature, despise the Creator, would spit in the face of nature and choose to ignore our responsibility as caretakers.
It used to be every day that humans sat by the fire and worked on skills and crafts for survival. It was every day that men fished and hunted properly, and played in the waters and snows. It was life. Now, many of us call it vacation. We work for machines and earn money that is taken away from us because we are told, "it's how it's supposed to be." But it's not.

We are taught that the lands that were stolen and acquired by rape, thievery, enslavement, and coercion are to be owned. Now only the rich have the best and the most lands, but they are the furthest removed from our roots. The land can be owned no more than any life can be owned.

We work for our society because we are forced to. Children of the earth cannot find refuge in nature any longer because it is "owned." So we work for things to satisfy the denial with which we are nurtured, and our purpose becomes to study, to work, to retire, to die. We have the right to live as freely as any animal. Why do we let ourselves be imprisoned by cageless walls? Because we fear the free lives that the wild things have.

A necktie is a leash when you go into the world, but then it becomes your noose.

Children of the earth who speak out against this way of things that destroys nature, but speaking is ineffective. The ways of society cannot be argued by society's rules and laws. Laws are made for the weak, for the ones who cannot survive in nature by nature's ways. Only natural law is real; it is the end-all be-all of everything. We are arrogant to believe we can override and veto this truth.

Nature is a universal truth. It cannot be denied, and all things created are done so by the Creator, whether it is God, Yaweh, Quantum Physics, The Great Spirit, Gaia . . . the names are not important. The fact that we destroy the things that the Creator has made, it is slapping the Creator in the face, and we do ourselves and our grandchildren a grave injustice.

We cater to our weaknesses and provide crutches for our genetic faults. We breed our weaknesses into our species and keep bolstering our deficiencies because we fear death. It is our way; it is our learning. Fearing death means we try to overcome and ignore its presence. We stave-off the inevitable to the harm of natural things.

We fear being alone and lonely, because we have lost touch with our natural place. We define ourselves by our friends, family, wealth, stature, etc. But being lonely is about not knowing who we really are. No matter how many people surround you and how many drinks or drugs you take, no matter how loud you turn up the television or stereo, loneliness is still there, only camouflaged.

There are so many self-help and self-discovery books and lessons available, but they all tend to fall short of the important next step in the process of finding your true self. In order to find yourself, you need to lose yourself. You need to give yourself over to what's real. What's real is Nature. If you cannot become part of nature, you will never find your true definition, and your spirit suffers. Therefore, we all suffer. You cannot see this anymore because there are too many distractions. You will feel it as you age, and many elders do now. Those of us who are close to death realize that there is something important missing. There are regrets for how quickly life went by and for how much of it was spent being part of a machine and living in a rut, a false world of the flesh rather than enjoying the essence of living. There are regrets for leaving the grandchildren with not only a horrific mess to clean-up, but still the battle of making it all stop.

The Creator has given us this amazing gift of free will. We have the option to be caretakers, or to be parasites. Yes, parasites are natural, but they do not eliminate hundreds of species for their own material gains. We do. As long as harm comes to nature, all of this should stop immediately. It is not agreed by all in this world that the ways of man are correct and should continue anymore. We used to be respectful and nurturing of nature. Now we are corrupt and infantile in our greed.

Where are the children of the earth? Individually, we are unheard, brushed away like a hair on the shoulder. Together, we can make a difference.

How can you not feel robbed?