Photo taken at top-secret U.S. installation even as guards were looking on. Bwuaha-ha-aha-ha-aha-ha-ha!!! (US Post Office:)

Proof of America imprisoning and dis-appearing our rebels.

There is no justice for the Comfortable Many.

No wonder we riot to show our standing in-solidarity with the oppressed and then go home after ‘secret’ police hold us for a couple of hours and wring our hands. It can’t happen here they wailed throughout history.

We stand at the barricades and then, when its time for some other diversion, we go home; having done what we can, we insist.

We can skateboard on ramps with impunity. We are white Americans fed up with the status quo. Hear us grumble for Organic Chamomile Tea and coffee that is made from beans that have passed through the digestive system of Civets in Viet-Nam. Haven’t the Civets given enough of themselves to support Fine Perfumes? We are White America (or wanna-be-white america, ouch!) and we have a ‘Heart’! Look at this nice wooden one I bought at Target, it hangs over the couch next to the other wooden ones that say ‘Family’ and ‘Love’ Not that there is anything going wrong there, it’s just that the deep need to express love is the same for all of us.

And, the saddest part is that we do care, we have just never developed a language or system or cultural/social ways to show this in the more personal ways. We buy the expression of feelings from others so we can display them and wonder why we feel just a tad empty. It is what poetry, writing, art and music and such are used for, yet they are in a way an impediment to feeling the real thing when that is what is called for. Like now.

It takes time to feel and be still.

It takes great effort to be still and feel.

To be still within effort and feel that perhaps

Stillness is sufficient on too itself

And, there is more…

Quiet helpers in the world

just sitting there apparently doing

nothing, the quiet helpers of our world

just rest and wait until called upon to

hold some thing, to shed light on another,

to unfold and to support out activities;

a little stool to sit on while sorting, or

to lay a book up on, so we can get on

with the day. Someone, somewhere,

helped to build and assemble, box and

ship, then deliver all these helpers to us,

for us. We don’t consider them often

enough, all the helpers. It’s easy to

believe we really matter and are all

alone. Gaze around and see,

don’t just look. Eyes are

Two-way streets

So the cheerful little flower

jumped into the path and said,

‘just keep walking you’ll find

that you don’t have that far to

go, soon enough you’ll be there, and

somebody will see your numbers and

say hey, I’m older than that right now.

American

American male

American anglo male

American anglo male heterosexual

American anglo male heterosexual boomer

American heterosexual ….lefty-anrcho-liberal, semi-conservative, vegetarian, Buddhist, autodidact, pro-socialist-anti-communist jazz-fan and movie-buff and reader of history and religion and art and fan of noir movies who thinks Woody Allen is an asshole who should by now have gotten over himself; and who thinks that John LeCarre and Phillip Kerr are great modern writers and who hates the Washington Post and Fox News with equal vigor because they get paid by the same ad agencies; so they can’t be really (I mean Really!) That Different and thinks that SNL is a poorly re-constructed hash of the original subversive and bright Show of Shows, and that SNL is racist and bigoted in its presumptions that its ok for Black comedians to make fun of Latinos and if Blacks portray themselves as stereotypes that only whites laugh at, its ok; because “we are all in on the joke”and we are hip…not so! Not even close.
American….blah blah blah, who in conversation with others that he feels kinship with, realizes they have some very strange takes on reality and can’t really be trusted.

American…blah etc; who thinks we should make like Woody Allen and get over Ourselves. Maybe examine our presumptions and ideas about what the real world is when all we’ve ever done is lived at the Height of Empire and guzzled and eaten the world while politely discussing that it is a shame how the world is not being treated right.

Oh, Mother Earth! Where are you going? I want to neglect you more! I promise to change tomorrow. Not just yet though, but tomorrow for sure! Right now I just need little time to myself. To, you know, gather in and reflect and see where I can really make a difference; maybe more than half-assed recycling and carrying my Trader Joe’s bag to Whole Foods (a whole other order of American schweinerei, I actually don’t shop there. One must have some standards, plus they are to expensive for me. My personal Class War is giving Whole Foods store’s The Finger when I drive by one; below the dashboard off course. Standards. Are they still in business? Anyway…

American…blah…ad nauseam. I want to explain to you how if you changed a few of your views we could all prosper and be comfortable. I want to explain to you that all people and all cultures and all thoughts and all behaviors and all actions are ultimately just an expression of our deep need and wish for Oneness. But, I gather it is best if I do as I say do rather than I do, do. so…

American blah…bull-shitter; who is so wrapped up in his explanation of himself (or her explanation of herself [Inclusiveness Double Paranthetical],), that he can’t see beyond his (like opinion) nose and when he does is, all he sees is you, which which happens to be a pair of ears that connect to a brain and now needs brand new information about the actual reality of life and what you need to know in order to change, if certain parties are ever going to have a chance at happiness. You know who I’m talking about!

I think a ventricle just cleared up a bit.

Through much of the Buddhist world, practitioners of its’ teachings take a series of guidelines for the conduct of their daily lives called “The Precepts”. They are not a big deal in an astounding amount of  Buddhism in the West (The Americas), because we don’t like ‘rules’. Several other teachings that are at the core of Buddhism are also ignored or hushed up because so much of Buddhist teaching has been ‘improved’ and ‘made more accessible’ to the western mind/psyche by our Base Religion of Therapy/Psychology. (Mandatory disclaimer coming up.)…Of course Therapy and Psychology help an astounding number of people with problems they (the number of people), can’t quite describe or put their finger on, so to speak.

Whoops, digression zone ends in several inches, with any luck………here.

So, the Precepts that are commonly taken by Buddhist lay practitioners (non-monastics), throughout much of the Buddhist World are typically called ‘The Five Precepts’.

1. Refrain from the taking of life.
2. Refrain from taking that which is not given.
3. Refrain from saying that which is untrue.
4. Refrain from indulging mere desires.
5. Refrain from using, selling or causing others to use the Wine of Delusion.
   (The refraining concedes that we are human and will at least try.)

# Five, at its most coarse level reminds us that alcohol and drugs distract us from our natural minds and we can’t think clearly when under their influence. At a bit more subtle level we also can’t think clearly when we have strong opinions, or strong beliefs, or varying degrees of certainty about any personal mixture of ideas regarding life, society, science, politics, religion, morals, behaviors, etc. And, when we want to talk to other people about our ideas etc; and convince them they are missing something in their views and ideas; And we can help point out those shortcomings etc. AND, Yes you are welcome.

Most standard conversations whether in a bar, at an event, in church, over family dinner being consumed on the ride home from a long day of family stuff, are variations of consuming, selling, encouraging others to imbibe our own delusive ideas about reality and join us; as we join others in their views of Life and its little Realities.

All news, all TV, all reporting, all discussion in public spheres, all opining, all insights and for sure all Expert Views are absolutely wines of delusion; Because they decrease clarity and fix our minds and hearts into a Certainty, of some sort And, then we are off to the races.This is the condition that makes us human and worrisome and wonderful as a life form.

So, there’s no way any of this is going to change measurably for quite some time is my guess. But, and this is a But and an AND, we can, each of us, cut back just a little from the habits/addictions to using of the wine of delusion, and maybe refraining just a tad when we want to convince others, or ourselves, about some insistence regarding some thing that we believe to be true. Just cut back a little.

Ease on up.

Relax once or twice a day and not indulge ourselves in the stuff that we know to be True. Let’s just keep it to ourselves, once in a while on most days. Gotta start somewhere.

I’m going to start my little effort at the end of this sentence. I am too!