Modern Life

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Do you feel the ebb and flow of your own inspiration?

 

Mmmm...I do...and why is that so?

[manitou]

Mmmm...I do...and why is that so?

 

 

I was hoping you could tell me.

 

Ennui

Comes and goes

Like a friend

Who gives you no warning.

 

This friend has been here for

A few days

And is beggining to smell

Like an old fish.

 

I suppose things rise

and things fall.

I guess I'll just

hang around and

See What Happens.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

I just had a friend tell me a bunch of things got screwed up in her life because "Mercury's in retrograde". Wooooooaaahhh, watch out! Might as well just stay in bed for 6 weeks. What is it with these people that like to announce to you that your life is about to get a lot more difficult because of this planetary aberrancy? I mean, why talk about it? Even if it does have some screwing up effect on the world, what can you do about it? I'd rather not know about this phenomenon, thanks very much.

Edited April 7, 2011 by TheSongsofDistantEarth

[manitou]

I sometimes think that's a convenient tool to gloss over things people should be responsible for themselves. Believing that their life is taking a dump because of the position of a planet is way beyond victimhood. It elevates it to an art form.

 

I hope you're doing well. It's been one grey day after another up here in Ohio. Spring better happen soon, or I'm outta here. I've got confused crocuses and daffodils.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

I think I sounded like Andy Rooney in my last post.

 

Aw, come visit Arizona, it's nice and sunny here, you sexy old thing..

[manitou]

LOL, you do sound just like Andy Rooney.

 

I'm listening to Donald Trump railing about Obama's birth certificate. Is that swoop-haired money monster actually thinking about running for president? Jeez.

 

And yes, you've called it correctly. I am a sexy old thing. So's my 86 year old mom. She has the men at the retirement home drooling. At least I think that's why they're doing it.

[zerostao]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNtRO3IrGg4

[stan herman]

I sometimes think that's a convenient tool to gloss over things people should be responsible for themselves. Believing that their life is taking a dump because of the position of a planet is way beyond victimhood. It elevates it to an art form.

 

I hope you're doing well. It's been one grey day after another up here in Ohio. Spring better happen soon, or I'm outta here. I've got confused crocuses and daffodils.

 

Just ran across this old post but it tickled me. Say Manitou, do you think that grey day in Ohio was because of the positions of clouds and wind, or is that just victimhood as an art form?

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Nothing to Do by Shel Silverstein

 

Nothing to do?

Nothing to do?

Put some mustard in your shoe,

Fill your pockets full of soot,

Drive a nail into your foot,

Put some sugar in your hair,

Place your toys upon the stair,

Smear some jelly on the latch,

Eat some mud and strike a match,

Draw a picture on the wall,

Roll some marbles down the hall,

Pour some ink in daddy's cap - -

Now go upstairs and take a nap.

[manitou]

Did you ever read The Giving Tree by Silverstein? I was given it as a young child and it made me cry every time I read it; somehow that seemed to set a type of template for my life that I can't even put a finger on. Like it made me feel guilty for taking anything....it all had to be giving. This is not a particularly good book to give to a young girl in a dog-eat-dog capitalistic society.

[Adishakti]

-

Edited August 23, 2011 by Adishakti

[tulku]

As I go through my day, I often look around at the world and wonder how people work the places they do or do the jobs they do without totally getting depressed or giving up. I mean, pick out some little business in a strip mall that someone owns, and has the keys to and operates, fretting about the economy and dealing with the small trickle of the world that comes through their door. Seems depressing to me.

 

How do those people at the bank stand there for 8 hours under flourescent lightsand do transactions with the general public, 40 hours a week for years, and keep a smile on their face and not hate where they go every day?

 

I just flew through LAX yesterday and dealt with the absolute madhouse of airport security, and wonder how those poor fuckers do it? I can barely stand to go through it myself for a short period of time. I berate myself for being so sensitive to environments sometimes, thinking I 'should' be more present, aware, compassionate, non-judging, equanimous, etc...but seriously, I think I would just walk away from it at some point.

 

But many people have marvelled that i do what I do, which they consider difficult, and I think "no, you've got the difficult job. I love what I do". They are thinking the same thing about me.

 

Isn't that funny?

 

This is because they are trapped in the maras of sex, good food and fun.

[Marblehead]

This is because they are trapped in the maras of sex, good food and fun.

 

You just can't get off that horse, can you? The poor thing is dying of exhaustion.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

'Damn Thirsty'

 

First

The fish needs to say,

"Something ain't right about this

Camel ride-

And I'm

Feeling so damn

Thirsty"

 

 

-Hafiz

[manitou]

'Damn Thirsty'

 

First

The fish needs to say,

"Something ain't right about this

Camel ride-

And I'm

Feeling so damn

Thirsty"

 

 

-Hafiz

 

How much truer can it get than this? the distribution of wealth on a global scale is just so terribly unfair. some of those fishes need a trip to the desert.

[strawdog65]

How much truer can it get than this? the distribution of wealth on a global scale is just so terribly unfair. some of those fishes need a trip to the desert.

 

 

We are ALL so thirsty because we live so removed from the essence of

our being....Nature.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

I wonder how the bums generally feel about getting OLD. I mean elderly, debilitated, demented. I suppose if I become a Taoist Master, it would be alright, but otherwise it just seems weird and sad getting old. It really gets me when I run into someone I knew from my youth and they are middle-aged now and barely recognizable...(at 53, I don't have any grey hair or receding hairline, so I look pretty much the same as I did). I suspect a lot of us do energy cultivation as 'insurance' against the ravages of aging.

 

Although I love old people in general, I have had the occasion to spend quite a bit of time lately in 'Old Folks Homes', i.e., nursing homes and assisted living, and there is a gradient of broken-downedness, from functioning people all the way to the living almost-dead. It's very weird to see humans warehoused like they are...I'd rather go out consciously than lose my mind and fade a-w-a-y

[manitou]

I wonder how the bums generally feel about getting OLD. I mean elderly, debilitated, demented. I suppose if I become a Taoist Master, it would be alright, but otherwise it just seems weird and sad getting old. It really gets me when I run into someone I knew from my youth and they are middle-aged now and barely recognizable...(at 53, I don't have any grey hair or receding hairline, so I look pretty much the same as I did). I suspect a lot of us do energy cultivation as 'insurance' against the ravages of aging.

 

Although I love old people in general, I have had the occasion to spend quite a bit of time lately in 'Old Folks Homes', i.e., nursing homes and assisted living, and there is a gradient of broken-downedness, from functioning people all the way to the living almost-dead. It's very weird to see humans warehoused like they are...I'd rather go out consciously than lose my mind and fade a-w-a-y

 

 

Hi songs! Nice to see you!

 

What a great query. Getting old and decrepit. I spend a bit of time in an old folks home too because my 86 year old mother is there. I think the worst of it is the depression that seems to waft throughout the place. sure, the staff is wonderful, and they have programs all the time for the seniors. But most of them, including my mother, are just depressed beyond belief.

 

If she's not down in the dining room, which she does twice a day, she's up in her room laying on the couch with her arm crossed over her eyes. It's like she's just...waiting to die.

 

What an incredible difference from the way elders were treated tribally or in extended family settings. Today's families tend to be small in the US - provisions and plans for taking the elder in with the rest of the family have gone by the wayside; the whole industry of elder care is one that is growing. I think the reason elders in these places feel so lost is because they have no function any longer. If an elder were utilized as a babysitter within a tribe or extended family, the elder would still feel useful, even if their capacities had diminished. But the elders of today, including my mom, have not much to live for in that sense. At least the ones living in Mom's place - and there's nothing wrong with that place. It's beautiful, the food is great, etc. It's her mindset.

 

On a more personal basis, my short term memory is going. I'm following her right into dementia, and I'm okay with it. But I've found that even though my short term memory is closing in on me, my ability to think abstractly is expanding, strangely enough. I can get way out there, see things from all different angles, triangulate. But I can't tell you what I had for breakfast.

 

If any of us morph into masters along this road, we'll know because the child comes back. Hence the metaphors about the master and the fool being the same; in one sense, the master is the fool. He just doesn't take seriously everything that everyone else does. He can see beyond that. People regard him as nebulous and dense because he doesn't 'see the big picture' in their minds. In essence, he sees an even larger picture in which fear doesn't come into play.

 

If you think about it, the dementia thing is only a problem for those around the one with dementia. Once in a great while the dementia can be the other side of the coin of an enlightenment of sorts. The master takes pains over his lifetime to learn to Be Here Now and take in the whole thing. The elder with dementia does the same - they are totally Here Now, often because they allow their mental lives to become miserable. This could be a wonderful time in their lives, although the medical problems certainly come into play. The mindset is the thing. To be in a 'warehouse' with a more enlightened and positive view could be a hell of a lot of fun. I'm actually looking forward to it in the not too distant future.

 

What seems to hover over the elders in the Townehouse (mom's place) is also a sense of unfulfill-ment. Lives not lived up to expectations (theirs or someone else's). They have PLENTY of time to reflect back (if they still can) and see what went wrong. But unfortunately unless they've found a way to utilize this self-knowledge (if they're lucky) it will remain in a continual state of blame of others for their condition at the present time. This is what I see, and this is what I hear when I sit down and talk to just about anyone in there.

 

There are one or two in there that have a ball. One lady dances with herself all over the room when someone comes in to play the piano. she loves it. But you should hear how the rest of 'em talk about her, like she's from outer space. They don't like her, she's too much of a 'free spirit' for their comfort zone.

 

I don't know about other places, but negativity goes around her place like a flu.

 

But I'd like to address something else too. When we find the Path inward, something does happen to us. Don Juan Mateus would tell this to Castaneda. When the warrior starts to appear within, the body starts changing. I can attest to this wholeheartedly. My whole life I've struggled with my weight. Always. Never huge, but never slim. Chunky. When I was 'captured' by the Toltec path and I started to get into it, my weight just went down. My hair and nails are growing faster than they've ever grown before too. I'm healthier than I've been since I was a teenager. My skin is looking great. Something happened. Yes, I think a master of any sort could have a ball growing older. It's all in our choice of mindset.

 

I look forward to my demented days at the Townehouse, probably, and will be playing the keyboard daily for the other dements.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

[Encephalon]

Grateful to see you initiating this thread. Turning 51 last September and having my first child 3 weeks later has stretched out my conceptions of time and aging into dimensions I may never fully comprehend. I am reminded of an observation Simone de Beauvoir made: she once wrote that she used to regard the elderly as dead people whose legs continued to function. That gave me a chuckle, but I've discovered in midlife that I can connect with the young spirits that reside beneath the wrinkles of the elderly, but at the same time I find myself transformed by my 7-week old daughter, who has now acquired enough consciousness to look her mother and father in the eye while breaking out in smiles and laughter. I am immensely grateful that I still have extremely good health and feel secure in the knowledge that with a disciplined diet and a consistent nei kung and meditation practice I could well see my daughter into her own midlife.

 

I am also grateful on this Thanksgiving Day that I am not in Los Angeles but up in Northern California

with my wife and daughter visiting my family. We drove from my mother's house, a small but beautiful geodesic dome up in the hills of the Mother Lode, to the San francisco Bay Area, and are enjoying a lot of fine food, fresh air, and good times with our relatives. Showing off my beloved daughter for the first time is tempered by all of today's sobering news. Somehow, I have reconciled the joy of parenthood with the prospect of the Tao and Mother Nature hitting the reset button sometime before the 22nd century. And I am grateful that I live in a part of the world where I can access the wisdom of the East in securing a meaningful life, in spite of what the future may hold. I should send out some small thanks to Sean for creating this website. Sometimes it is infuriating, but my practice would not be as productive as it is today without the knowledge and information I gleaned from its members.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Poetry. Real Poetry.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZZajMAbCag&feature=related

 

Down To You

Joni Mitchell

 

Everything comes and goes

Marked by lovers and styles of clothes

Things that you held high

And told yourself were true

Lost or changing as the days come down to you

Down to you

Constant stranger

You're a kind person

You're a cold person too

It's down to you

It all comes down to you.

You go down to the pick up station

Craving warmth and beauty

You settle for less than fascination

A few drinks later you're not so choosy

 

When the closing lights strip off the shadows

On this strange new flesh you've found

Clutching the night to you like a fig leaf

You hurry

To the blackness

And the blankets

To lay down an impression

And your loneliness

 

In the morning there are lovers in the street

They look so high

You brush against a stranger

And you both apologize

Old friends seem indifferent

You must have brought that on

Old bonds have broken down

Love is gone

Ooh, love is gone

Written on your spirit this sad song

Love is gone

 

Everything comes and goes

Pleasure moves on too early

And trouble leaves too slow

Just when you're thinking

You've finally got it made

Bad news comes knocking

At your garden gate

Knocking for you

Constant stranger

You're a brute-you're an angel

You can crawl-you can fly too

It's down to you

It all comes down to you

 

Ooh, love is gone

Written on your spirit this sad song

Love is gone

Everything comes and goes

Pleasure moves on too early

And trouble leaves too slow

Just when you're thinking

You've finally got it made

Bad news comes knocking

At your garden gate

Knocking for you

Constant stranger

You're a brute-you're an angel

You can crawl-you can fly too

It's down to you

It all comes down to you

Edited November 25, 2011 by TheSongsofDistantEarth

[John Zen]

Relevant quote:

 

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society"

-- Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

And I cannot say it any better.

[9th]

walking on the heads of garbage dwelling

rodents, crushing toe cheese between hangnail

alley cats and cat house spinnerets, funky

bass line popping booty stop drop and rolling

in a deadly kung fu disco party, moves called

as performed, i.e. "donkey punch!" and so forth

purple bruises and throbbing veins begging to be

lanced, teenyboppers hanging posters for fancy lancelots

riding three toed sloths clashing with mighty ocelot

legions scattering hamster wheels to the wind

splashing slogans from infested chemical air wave

pollution, microscopic dust devas, peeking and winking

begging a great seer for another hot spanking

another double penetration, double geyser overload

flipped up, laid down and cold, got to be, baby

electromagnet flow spreads endless pleasure princess

Edited November 26, 2011 by 9th

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

walking on the heads of garbage dwelling

rodents, crushing toe cheese between hangnail

alley cats and cat house spinnerets, funky

bass line popping booty stop drop and rolling

in a deadly kung fu disco party, moves called

as performed, i.e. "donkey punch!" and so forth

purple bruises and throbbing veins begging to be

lanced, teenyboppers hanging posters for fancy lancelots

riding three toed sloths clashing with mighty ocelot

legions scattering hamster wheels to the wind

splashing slogans from infested chemical air wave

pollution, microscopic dust devas, peeking and winking

begging a great seer for another hot spanking

another double penetration, double geyser overload

flipped up, laid down and cold, got to be, baby

electromagnet flow spreads endless pleasure princess

 

Poetry. Throbbing veins begging to be lanced?