Monday, March 21, 2005

All Aboard- Sailing on The Ship of Fools.

They say you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs. They don’t tell you that you won’t have any kind of an omelet if you kill the chicken. It’s also said that when the blood of the innocent is spilled there will rise a warrior from every drop of blood. Given the intricacy of reincarnation, there may be no innocent bystanders. Then again, what came first, the chicken or the egg?

It’s also been said that the ultimate destiny of evil is that it destroys itself. There’s an obvious irony here. As with most obvious ironies, it’s not apprehended unless the necessary detachment from the process exists. In other words, it’s hard to objectively reason from a subjective mind set.

Most anyone of average intelligence could see, if they chose to, the strange case of global corporations whose insane quest for profit seems destined to destroy not only the quality of life it presumes to improve, but the resource for their product as well. It’s amusing, were it not so tragic, to see Coca Cola machines in elementary schools alongside junk food vending machines. Then to hear the pronouncements of the corporations that no harm comes from the enjoyment of their products. One is also told that moderation should of course be exercised. One is also told that this needs to be instilled in the home. Of course, by that reasoning it’s all the fault of the parents. In a way that’s true. If you don’t protect your kids from unwise choices, who will?

Most parents can’t follow their young daughter into her bedroom with her boyfriend when they are away at work. It’s assumed they were raised to comprehend the results of all the choices that confront them. Does anyone reasonably expect an eight year old to know that junk food and soda destroys their health at a time when good diet is more important than at any other point of life?

It’s puzzling how fashion designers, magazines, television, music and any number of resources where one receives images and information about how life is to be lived and how best to enjoy all of the beckoning fruit on the vast tree of plenty... It’s puzzling, the ‘push me pull you’ effect that says, “Hey baby, it’s all here for you.” followed by the small disclaimer to ‘use our product wisely’. It dangles before you, it creeps like sugar plums into your dreams. It strokes your body as you move through it. A thousand voices call from all sides; all the tantalizing possibilities where the packaging does not truthfully declare the contents; not at all.

Everything in life emerges from a spiral. You have your upward spirals and your downward spirals. There’s involution and evolution, there’s entropy and the divine order. It shouldn’t be hard to see the state of a nation’s culture and the implied direction. Then again, as I’ve said, it’s not possible to reason objectively from a subjective posture. If you’re a feeding, rutting unit in the midst of an orgy of opportunities how can you measure the guaranteed result against a necessary restraint? If you add in the imprimatur of religions that are no more than corporations selling a product they do not even possess, well then. You’re born with the thing they’re interposing themselves as agents for. You live and move and have your being in it.

I think what we are seeing are people selling their birthright for a mess of potage. It seems okay within the context of the surrounding phenomena. Eat drink and be merry and get a few extra pallbearers. Obesity is seldom associated with spiritual advance. When you watch an entire nation descend into the slough of a comforting, swallowing flesh you would think that the bells of reason might peal. It’s hard to hear with the ipod going and the cellphones ringing.

Maybe I’m an alarmist. It’s all good right? The thing is, there are so many indicators dove-tailing to the same conclusion. Anyone who thinks there isn’t a concerted effort at mind control is assuredly under control. The governments, the corporations, the religious propaganda mills and the blanket control of media present a chilling picture. For those of us who recognize that the present cycle of history is just another chapter in an age old system of reoccurrence, there’s no surprise to be had.

I suppose this puts a number of us into the same position Lot was in. The cities of industry and distraction are always aflame. They have an unchanging intention and result. The glamour is powerful, more powerful than most would admit. It all seems so real doesn’t it? Turning into a pillar of salt is an interesting metaphor for something or other. Did you know that if you take a blood sample on a slide and drop a particle of salt into it that all movement ceases? The higher science, the one we don’t practice generally, reaffirms every truth that we have been given by the occasional messenger of truth. In the most mundane of events, the spirit is present and acting according to law.

The ark of contemporary life is not seaworthy. It’s interesting that so many would think they could pile upon the thing and that it will bear them away toward some promised land. That ship does not have the paper work to enter such a sheltered harbor. The very hubris of its assumptions guarantees it will sink.

Powerful men and women in all walks of life trumpet the blessings of comfort oriented progress. Far be it from me to oppose new discoveries in medicine, food production and the like. But if the thing itself is rotten to the core it’s still a case of diminishing returns to find new ways to plug a leak when the thing is rotten to the core.

I’m not a paragon of virtue. I’m not Jeremiah wailing at the end of a righteous fast. I struggle with all of the things anyone might encounter. I do have the advantage that there’s nothing I really want except self-realization. This has come about as a result of periods of excess, no question. But I was always searching for the same thing, even if I was looking in the wrong place.

Your leaders are marching into the desert. There is no water there. There is no food there. Peer pressure might prevail upon you to crowd aboard the ship of fools. I’d advise against that. But what do you do? Can you run in some other direction? Is there an agency you can contact? How will you be found among all the rest, even with the greatest of intentions to be realized and reached, how will you be saved?

The key is in the recognition that you are connected at all times to that great power out of which every good and bad thing is formed. It is conscious and present. The most important thing is to strive for that connection. The most important thing is to recognize that you are connected. Living in the consciousness of that connection brings a daily increase of assurance. What you put your heart and mind upon are the things of value you receive. So why are all of the horns blaring? Why is the surround sound carnival, everywhere in evidence, wailing at such a shrill peak? Why is the force of material splendor so incredibly strong in appearance? It must be that another door is opening and that the entire circus is designed to distract your attention from it.

Although I am not a member of any church, save the unchanging hierarchy to which every sincere soul, in every creed is bound, you can indeed find the roadmap in The New Testament. You can find it in the Bhagavad-Gita. You can find it in the Book of Nature and you can find it most certainly in the secret temple of your heart. It should be no surprise that the world is calling out and calling hard for as many as will be led into the ship that will not sail. But you should ask yourself; why is it at such a state of high pitch at this time?

Do you want to be free or do you want to be bound? You become a slave when you cease to be your own master. Oh, we all have a master, one way or the other. You do have to serve somebody. But the freedom of the one is beyond the calculation of your mortal mind. And the bondage of the other is too. Maybe you don’t care. There will be other opportunities, though they will come with the price of great suffering- even such as you may be suffering now, or worse. But if you want your real reward make sure you are waiting in the right line.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bingo! Well done.

Anonymous said...

Another excellent commentary on the world as we know it, or, unfortunately, do not know it.

z a

Anonymous said...

You rock!!!!!

CC

Anonymous said...

Outstanding Les. Something has happened to the interface here and I can't log on anymore. This is a super piece of writing, like sunshine turned into words. I hope you won't go so long between writing. It's so great to come here and find something new.

Anonymous said...

I find myself always saying the same things. However I don't want you going away because you aren't getting any feedback. So I chime in regular even though I have to repeat myself. I notice you get far fewer comments than you get page views and I guess that is fairly universal unless you are being intentionally controversial.

Anyway, inspired writing as ever. I wander through my day and something you said always gets played out in front of me at some point. It's a whole new way of looking at things. They really aren't the way they appear are they? I'm double hip to the heavy pressure of the glamor. It's everywhere. It's extremely hard to not get pulled in. Part of the mind just naturally goes that way. Well, I struggle on.

The best to you always.

Bruce

Anonymous said...

An ongoing stream of excellence! Just beautiful writing. Your thoughts are so cohesive and elevating. It's a real pleasure to come here. Encore! need I say.





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