Lifted and Grounded
lifted from my imaginary weight,
what was thought,
weighed more than what was not,
and if we congraulated
based on thoughts,
would we shake each others hands
every moment we were caught.
so why feel that we can go
anywhere from here
when every second contains
all potential, all the same.

Thought for the Day: " One can't believe impossible things, "Alice said. "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as 6 impossible things before breakfast."
~Alice in Wonderland ~

All Too Serious

I see the world as two children playing,
My left hand and my right hand.

Everyone is going places, leaving, arriving,
With only one foot foreword, one behind.

The teacher and pupil, doctor and patient,
Need each other to find themselves.

The potter molds his own soul into matter,
Because creation is growing limbs out of the creator.

Tips of mountains and ocean floors, there is one way.
Throw away your razors, everywhere is their edge.

The hilarious are me, the tortured are me, all in-between.
Children, don’t take my dream too seriously.

"We have to function in the world. So don't walk around trying to be smart. Instead what we do is function in the world as ourselves. Be yourself. If you are yourself, then you're safe. In other words, you're not trying to be anything. Just be yourself.

What does it mean to be yourself? To live spontaneously. Most of us live from the past, as you know, and we worry about what we are going to do in the future. If you learn to forget about the past and the future, you are safe. If you live spontaneously you would have no have time to think, and that is when you become the witness. Thoughts are simply about the past and the future. True? You want to act in the moment. When you are acting in the moment you can not think because you are acting. Therefore, your thoughts are only on what you're doing and that stops other thoughts. Then you go on to the next thing. You should not try to analyze the thing at all. Everything will work out whether it's good or bad, whether you're making something out of it or not, whether it's in your favor or against you. All that has got to go."
~Robert Adams~

I Will Know When

I’m beginning this message my self,

To the self that is listening: why did we

Ever separate.

My message writes with the ink of all my thoughts,

With each sunrise and sundown spent inscribing

Hemispheres to ask the question

Of completion.

The slower I act, the more action is delivered,

Delivered in parts.

What it is, it tries to tell, describing dichotomy.

For my cause, I look to the world and that old world is

Just new words asking me

For its cause.

What in return is ever written but absence of experience? To pretend

To be that which I am not is valuable enough.

A process by eliminating experience to know that

Which I am.

When no longer have I plagiarized points of view, I will

Seal it.

When no longer I search for the address, I will

Post it.

And when I know my message is me,

I will open it.

Piece of Wisdom for Peace
Which parts do we see, conditions arising from other conditions, our own projection as to what is real? What exists of itself? We build things from materials, those materials come from somewhere else; the mind thinks of the plan and sets it forth, so where does it exist first? The raw materials all come from outside us. The tree is wood, which was grown from carbon that was taken from our very breath. A breath given from that tree releasing oxygen from the process of growing, so where do our bodies stand? What do we have to prove we inherently exist, riddle me this. We eat an apple and parts of the apple become us, we break it down and use the molecules to create energy. When it comes down to it, we trick ourselves into believing our separateness – this person, that blade of grass, the energy of the sun, the cardinal sitting in the dogwood tree. We isolate these experiences and filter them into bipolar vision – the ‘this’ and ‘that’.
To understand this concept is what Buddhists call emptiness – which means things do not exist in and of themselves. Emptiness does not mean, in Buddhist reasoning, that nothing exists. Rather, everything is a compilation of causes and conditions which appear to us at this point in time to be ‘something’, but we rarely contemplate their parts, how they got to be, and what made them that way. When we start out on this question, we find that everything is causing everything to happen, and when we put ourselves in the equation we begin to dismantle the illusion of who we think we are.
Everything is constantly changing; every moment is different than the previous one. Is there anything that remains constant? Contemplate this, and expand your awareness a hundred years, even a thousand years if you can – you may find realize that the phenomena which you perceive daily is likely to be different in the future. The body ages every second, cells die and are regenerated, mutations occur, our bodies do not stay the same. Despite what commercials are telling us, even a diamond will not last forever; it too is subject to impermanence and change.
It is our consciousness that creates it that way. The way we think creates for us this world which is merely a product of our ignorance brought to us by karma. It is the ignorance of not knowing who we are, and the karmas we create by acting out of ignorance – this cycle perpetuates itself – we continue to create from ignorant action and that action shows us an illusionary view of the world, which we believe to be true. We may be happy one moment, then sad the next, desiring love then repelling it; it is hardly satisfying. So why still grasp to the phenomena of our own creation, when we know it can never bring us lasting peace. We may seem to suffer, but the reality is that suffering is even part of the illusion. What may be pleasure to one, may be pain to another. What is delicious to one, is repugnant to another. Show me the dessert that I can constantly eat without getting sick of it. These things are not in and of themselves satisfying, it is only the thoughts that we hold of them to be; if they were then they would always provide satisfaction no matter how often we partake of them.
The question then remains, what view will bring us peace, what way of thinking can we adopt to remove our illusions and ultimately allows us have a deeper state of being? At any moment we have the potential to be fulfilled, satisfied, content, peaceful, joyful, blissful and in harmony – it is not some future state dependant on external conditions. This path of thinking starts at the only point we can be, in the moment. Awareness and a determination to just fully be allows the illusions to fade away. When we are not grasping, we are observing. Without attachment, sufferings have no where to stick, and we might find ourselves expanding in the moment. Gaining the wisdom of peace is this consciousness which is content in all situations, all places, and with all people.

"To be a human is easy, to live a human life is hard; to desire to be a human a second time, we fear is even harder. If you wish to be born into the Happy Lands, there is one easy way - say what is really in your heart, then you'll reach your goal."
-God's Chinese Son, pg 45-

Haikus

Resting as a corpse,
Rocks become smooth in the stream,
Leaves give up purpose.

Clinging on dead twigs,
The sun reveals every color,
Bubbles are lifetimes.

Rapids create sound,
A mind lets go of hearing,
The rain from last night.

Liberated seeds
Wind reveals its true nature
Geese take advantage

Itching in the past
A mosquito memory
Sacrifice the now

Peeking from tall grass
A strand of spider’s silk shines
It’s not just a rock

Clouds swirl overhead,
A breeze enlightens pine trees,
The sky becomes clear.

John Fire Lame Deer in "Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions":
"A medicine man shouldn't be a saint. He should experience and feel all the ups and downs. The despair and joy, the magic and the reality, the courage and the fear, of his people. He should be able to sink as low as a bug, or soar as high as an eagle. Unless he can experience both, he is no good as a medicine man.
"Sickness, jail, poverty, getting drunk - I had to experience all that myself. Sinning makes the world go round. You can't be so stuck up, so inhuman that you want to be pure, your soul wrapped up in a plastic bag, all the time. You have to be God and the devil, both of them. Being a good medicine man means being right in the midst of the turmoil, not shielding yourself from it. It means experiencing life in all its phases. It means not being afraid of cutting up and playing the fool now and then. That's sacred too.
"Nature, the Great Spirit - they are not perfect. the world couldn't stand that perfection. The spirit has a good side and a bad side. Sometimes the bad side gives me more knowledge than the good side."

Stems

When simplicity courses
Through blood and sap,
A tree connecting biology
Of man and simple thoughts,
Life becomes one. A white
Wall is the written work
Of man and simple thoughts,
The consistency of novels
Never made. How to progress
On a circular path, the addition
Of man and simple thoughts,
Defies the dimensions of one.
Just to be, casts out society,
Breaks down the education
Of time, let it be known
In blood. It is the heart and soul
Of man and simple thoughts.

My Motor

When I was young, I took
apart many toys to learn
the workings. The gadgets
of a child explored, to put
back together again, a drive
to know how and why
the wheel spins and speakers beep.
The motors of remote controlled
cars found new use in coming apart,
in concepts coming together,
I never stopped asking and testing
magnets, coils, motors, all foiled
to only know why was the easy
part, giving up was twice as hard.
Moved on to teenage fascination driven
by an image, hooked up Hondas came to pieces.
expensive education of tow truck drivers,
mechanics putting back together
my questions, my riddles. Pieces
of engines became gears in my mind,
turning for why, turning for how. This
classroom of a garage was greasy, I
spent more time reading, tinkering, bleeding
with frustrations and cut knuckles,
the chuckles of family and friends
misunderstanding why I why, to fend
off my own enemies, concepts and theories
never satisfied hunger, thirst, the hole
in my thoughts that was shaped for only one
question. Now, my training in probing, asking,
seeking lends me science to figure me out,
why am I? The taking apart
of thoughts, the pondering
of the self that ponders, I look for the motor
and trace to the Source of Power.

be the only you,
i'll be me
and reflect the you
in me.
the eyes are a mirror,
the seen and unseen,
what you view by me,
your loves and fears,
critiques and praise,
it's yourself judging self,
why not just set it free?

Tathagata

Thus come, thus gone,
What is between?
Nothing obtained.

Thus come, Thus gone,
How many times?
Never lived it.

Cricket chirps in night; existing.

Thus come, thus gone,
Did you see who?
Nobody there.

Thus come, thus gone,
Why do you say?
Never named it.

Rain showers over grass; nature.

Thus come, thus gone,
When is it so?
Not serious.

Thus come, thus gone,
Will it return?
Never dreamed it.

Cup of green tea brewing; emptied.

Nothing obtained, never lived it,
Nobody there, never named it,
Not serious, never dreamed it.

Thus come, thus gone; Tathagata.

Backstage

A change of form, different colored
Clothes and thrift store masks, creation
And re-creation. Do we weep with the changing
Leaves, do we lament when they fall
To give life to the earth? Understand the everlasting
Principal, to have no attachment eating your drumsticks,
A best friend dead and you’re swatting at flies, when
People starve in silent African lands and people blown
By the falling of a silent bomb, understanding a change
Of form, nothing dies but concepts. It is selfish to ask
Monotony, it all stays the same but never in front of our
Eyes. It’s just a change of form, from the wardrobe
Of the seasons, it’s creation and re-creation.
When children become the teachers, when grandparents
Complain it’s not how it used to be, they don’t
Really see that it’s always been the same, in and
Throughout all things, the undying principal eternal
Makes puppets and divine plays for itself, poor
Become beggars, rich become presidents, a swan stays
In the pond, a chicken is caged and slaughtered,
A murderer is euthanized, a child is diseased. We build
Monuments out of fallen forests to glorify
Fallen heroes, yet never glorify this fallen moment. We
Are creating and we are re-creating. The self
Hums to itself, the self knows only One Self.

I AM THE SUN

I AM THE NEVER SETTING NOW,
I AM THE SILENCE STANDING THE HORIZON,
I AM THE ALL PIERCING RAY OF AWARNESS,
I AM THE THOUGHT UNLIMITED ALWAYS NEAR,
I AM THE DAWN AND DUSK IN EVERY BREATH,
I AM THE BURNING FUSION OF SELF REALIZATION,
I AM THE SOURCE, I AM THE SPARK, I AM.

Ablaze

I search the freezer with mind, Sweat bubbling
On the tips of baby hairs, air sweltering and stagnant,
The wind cures embers, pavement black, flesh
Buckets burned, evaporation wounds, mind
The freezer found, Opened to let the cold condense into a thick
White rolling fog, a crisp plastic bag frozen
With soy, let the rambling blood cease, the snow
Flake door with suction
Magnetized, sealed to skin on my shoulder stung with
Ice, tap-water white, medicinal and potent, Dropped
In a chasm at poles, snapping dynamics, dry,
Compressed, conditioned, at the moment I have
No unit, ablaze with chills.


To Peel a Banana

An elongated elation
Banana with a crunch in whole grain cereal
Banana as a quick pick me up of insulin
A cramp defender packed with potassium
Sweet and salty with Peanut butter protein
A tropical climate brought
A peel, a peel, a peel
Banana mashed in cooked oats
Banana sliced to company fellow fruits
Over ripped bruised to blend, bake, and rise
A secret banana in pocket
A locket for taste to remember
The taste of tropics which the eye never sees
A bite of hard shelled green boomerangs
Antiperspirant on the palate
Banana splits into three
A fleshy Tri-chotomy
I’ve held finger sized bananas
Bananas in yellow bunches
Thai fried in coconut batter
To peel a banana is a process
Begun with a seed
In the ever equatorial sun leafed jungles
Bananas are regional
Yet the stomach draws no borders

Angles or Demons

Angels or demons,
Can’t we just be?
Look at paws
To see a part of me
Dissected.
Who can I see,
Reflected,
With a veil
Shading?

Adding to the list
Of limitations,
Charting the path
To imprisonment.
Where is the problem
In letting things be?
All things be or else
They wouldn’t be.

Isness I AM.
This business
Of boxing
Squares
Leaves no room
For circles.

Entities from One,
That never defines
Should and Shouldn’t,
None be evil,
None be good.
Man sets his
Standard
To stay in suffering.

As all is divine,
In the thought
Is where we
Confine
Connection.
Dismissing selves
Miss the path,
Of no path
But being bliss.

A Birth to Night

I recognize my God,
To not employ faith
Anymore. The reflecting saw
How to accept the vain
In a leaf as its own.
I drawl my inherited
Claim. Sleep no more
Takes me with outstretched arms
Pleading to let a dream
Rest at the wake. I bless
A transition into the right
Light of thought, to kiss
A dimension of twinkling
Dirt and blackened root. A mess
As birth smiles.

The Last Asking

She called me again with wanting

Stinking on her breath, this time
Was the last time, I was asleep
Until the dream desired more,

I am angered
That she only sees me

As a tool and banker, I still give
Her time, a Friendship pulls
Buckets until the well of response

Runs dry, once more I have

To give out of sweeping love
To hollow my heart larger

To know there is
Enough.

As It Is

Flowering
To connectivity takes petal
To petal, an expanding
Of chest, a breath
Of giving, being all
In a body emerging without
Suckling, another breath

Of giving, reading the world
As an autobiography
Of a seed, cycles of yourself
As a creator and gardener,
With moments

To fertilize, and one plant
To care for, our earth
Is round, our bodies
Are round, our spirits circle
Enslaved neurons, life dies
As we see it, immortal
As we live it.

See, Answer.

How many births, how many
Deaths must I see before me,
Before I will see, as stillness,
I count time in numbers before
The Roman Christus calendar,
How many risings, how many
Settings, look up but to see the orange
Fettered cloud whitening, one
Before, one behind – grey
And curved for darkness,
A shimmer of one more
Gone, a reflection of past again,
So I say how many until I
Weather, loosing grip willingly,
To the core of my eye where
I will see,
A day in perspective,
Elephant, mosquito and
A turning away and to,
A revolution not counted
By them, yet number to us,
What are the additions for, when
We can multiply the living
Of a second and get the same enduring
Answer.

Peach Memories

My palm holds the
Texture of security and
Sent of endless summers
And nectar squeezed from
Lips of passions past.

But now I hold the memory
Before I entered this
Flesh dance of destiny.
How about this peach, forever
One letter away from peace.

EMF
I am trapped in the hollows of incandescence.
The penetrating hums of air conditioners
This summer night, makes me feel
Cold in search of a healing space.
I stroll empty of my human silence.
The electricity numbing a humanity
Mesmerized by light, makes me forget
Of wisdom only legible by night.
I am blind in the fields of fluorescence

Much can be learned by listening. I fear we have placed too much emphasis on sight, that we are blind of our other senses. Are not they just as adequate at perceiving? Indeed we have overdeveloped our sense of eye sight as to practically neglect our other senses, and nearly loose our even finer ones. For is not everything just a vibration, a switching of on and off of nerves, this binary code that sends messages to the brain – 0 or 1? How else could we model our computers? Our senses are just developed to pick up different frequencies of these vibrations, and these vibrations may have infinite frequencies, for the breadth I can not know of. Science has found that the brain can only process one of our senses at a time. Though our neurons are quick, at any moment we limited to use only one of our senses. This theory I have found to be true, for when I deeply listen to music I seem to forget my surroundings, even when my eyes remain wide open. I have come back from a delightful symphony to recall I don’t remember seeing anything at all! Ask a blind person what do they perceive and they may tell a world of sounds and textures, a world alien to most of us sightseers. The Rishis of India are seers, though one can not compare our common sight with theirs. They see the divine in everything – a frequency lost unto the majority. Indeed it is yoga that teaches me to perceive the more subtle vibrations of life through blocking off the lower senses, and concentrating on a different channel of receptivity. So I say if you want to know the beauty of the world, shut your eyes and listen first. You may then be propelled to take deep breath in through the olfactory and learn what is afloat. Above all, follow your intuition, do not trust your eyes but your heart, for it is the greatest perceiver we have. When your heart is able to listen to the heart of all things, then it may speak as well. And when your heart speaks it can only sing of bliss; this is the only frequency that may befall the ears of Truth. So when we are ready to fully see our reality we need only to ask with the vibrations of our heart.
If we are to know sound, we must know the soundless.

The microwave scrolls “PRESS START” across its indigo screen. There was one second left before I stopped it from further radiating my oatmeal. What’s one second anyway? One second less of the bombarding waves. One second less agitating for my molecules. Would I miss one second of my life if it was taken from me? What would I do with one more second?
The BEEP.
Finished.
Done cooking.
STOP/CLEAR.
The plateau
Of motionless.

It is not the separation of states that divide countrymen; it is the multitude of churches that estrange us. For what need do we have to put a different church or temple on every corner, save to support our capitalistic desires, competition I say. Freedom of religion? but this phrase is rooted in our forefather’s freedom of economy; every man for himself – the richest men can make the laws. Name, if you will, any religion which is truly free, which one will not ask you to attend to it? It is only the naturalist which may claim nature as having such qualities, but it would be a misnomer to call Her a religion, for Nature asks naught of us. Which religion could survive without any human benefactors? Religion is but of Man, while Nature depends not on Man for Her survival, in fact, she implores Him to do nothing at all. One may point to the Native peoples as having a religion of the Earth, however, we must see that they know nothing of religion and everything of a way of living. If they merely believed, as one does in a religion, then we may not know of them at all, for faith in something suggests separation from it, and they lived only to hold no such thoughts. To be separated from such a power, indeed our source, is to die a slow, chilling death. Evidence of such a claim may be found in modern man, captive in his zoos, possibly in your mirror.
So why is it I was told I must go to church every Sunday? Does it matter not which church I choose? Oh, but it does – it must be the church of my fathers, else I will not be saved. Saved from what? Man creates his own poisons, undoubtedly, and I might be well enough to stay away from all that Man has constructed. I must claim it is only the James which can save me from thoughts of separation. It is Sunday and I take to my best Sunday clothes and hop on my bicycle. Riding through Richmond this morning, the churches are not without their custard. People gathering to enter their holy places spy me with a pity in their eyes as to suggest I might be a lost gorilla, but did they see the pity reflected in mine? The children’s energy speaks differently, their eyes ask if they could worship where I’m going today – “no, no child, you’re already here, you might as well go through with it,” the tall ones say. From one church to the next, as the road I take passes at least six of these medieval buildings, they feel the same to me - all of them splitting the city into race and class. Though I have known solace in a church before, it was only when nobody was around to tell me what to think, or how to pray. There is a peace that survives in the echoes of tall halls, but it all gets pushed out when too many bodies are forced in a place they wouldn’t rather be, with their minds in a place they ought not to be. So I take to the River James as both a place I want to be, and a place I ought to be, for gorillas have no life in the city.

the scene
Save the humanS

Bi-Cycles
The decomposing purple fructose
The battlefield of red stickyness
Stops me and my squeaky seventies bicycle
For a double take
Can it be true? What a rare treasure –
And where have all the pirates gone to plunder?
For surly I can not be the first to acknowledge
This scene
Yet, they float among the outstretched branches
Rubies in fruit form: Plums in the city!
The pavement explains the history of weeks –
The flesh of matured soldiers did their best to carry
Out their purpose
And now the others wait for their time
Following in the same fashion of their brothers
A shake of a branch and two drop into my sack
Another shake and more fall
I rescue what I can, but I can not save you all
It is rare when a city seed can serve its purpose
Even rarer still
Are those who stop their self constructed cycles
To participate in the one they were born into

Seeing
He said phrases like “let me dingle with it” and
“If you want to see God, look into a mirror”
It was a blur of speech, my mind didn’t have time to drink his gushing words
“When you’re asking three questions you know your dealing with a Hindu”
It was like opening your mouth in a snowstorm, with flakes flying all around,
You can see thousands of them, but it takes a while
Before you get just one flake on your tongue
He spoke with satire and a sandpaper Hindu accent
He was hairy too
Hair grew all over, and I could see it. I wasn’t looking for it
But it was almost all I could see, except for his squirrelly brown eyes
He wore a tight white tang top
“If someone came to you saying they could walk on water, you say: Ahh, that’s very nice my friend, now come with me and let’s get on this boat.”
He looked like a professional wrestler
Ready to throw me against the ropes of my own spirituality
He had running shorts that didn’t fit his body,
And a belly overlapping the leather fanny pack
The shorts were maroon and covered just enough to be legal
“When they come with exclamations of truth and dogma,
its ok, let the dog bite the dogma.”
His forested legs shot massive trunks into black high top army boots
“We are all allowed to have happiness in our dreams,
just don’t force your dreams on another.”
They were laced so tight that his calves were molting over the top of his boots.
“Under the soul of things, there’s always something more”
Like a scoop of ice cream on a mini cone
“There’s no Cielo out there, Cielo means heaven in Latin, we got telescopes that have seen as far as four hundred years into the past and future. You want to find heaven, look right here,” he taps the worn glass countertop, “look, oh, but you scratched it.”
His laugh turns into a cough that’s unnatural
“I’ve been meditating for thirty years.”
Out walks the wrestler self titled “the Hindu priest”
In walks the Man – photo badge says department of state
The kind that still thinks he’s a high school jock – calls this place a head shop
Makes jokes about drugs, he bets there’s drugs in the back
He won’t tell anyone
Questions the validity of the magnetic copper bracelets under the worn glass countertop
Conduct a scientifically controlled experiment and sue for false advertising
“I love bullshit like that just so I can prove it wrong”
Cynical – bullshitting, he calls Christian Science bullshit
“I want to see it”
Metaphysics is bullshit
“What are you doing working at a bullshit head shop like this?”
After he finds out I’m a VCU senior about to graduate in environmental studies
He gives me fatherly advice and admits he’s sounding like my father
He hopes he’s giving me wisdom
“I hope I’m giving you some wisdom here”
Oh he is – if he only knows the universe I see in him
“Religion is such bullshit, show me the proof, right? I mean, come on…”
When you have such a hard shell, there must me something you are trying to protect
So dearly
Something so vulnerable that you surround yourself with jagged overconfidence
“Why don’t you have any self hypnosis CD’s? You think you would at least have that”
I saw it peak out, checking if the coast was clear
“I gave him all these great opportunities. I talked with some people to get him a job with NATO. But he didn’t want to, now he works at a cleaners
Where the most intelligent thing he says all day is ‘um, that’s $1.75.’
When I was a kid no one gave me those opportunities, no one gave me anything”
You thought I was your son, you brought me up. I played along, because.
We talked about global warming, bullshit,
“I’m going to live till one hundred and twenty”
Seriously, with a straight face.
“I’m not that old now, but I remember Virginia Beach and how the beach houses
had more than fifty feet of beach, now its all gone to shit.”
The bullshitting made the air smell like Napoleon
Like a battle had been fought down to a drawl
Out walks the suit
In walks twenty something tattooed girl
She buys the magnetic copper bracelet under the worn glass countertop
“I love copper”
Next customer
“You look familiar, have I seen you before?”
God is everywhere
Am I looking into the mirror yet?

pure magnolia
Save the humanS

Pure Offerings
They look like white mammoth butterflies,
Perched with nothing better to do than
Show off their metamorphosed beauty.
The magnolias are in bloom.
Born in bloom,
This towering, flowering tree is right
In the stern gaze of General Lee.
A living monument to behold
Where otherwise one would catch carved stone down
This historic Avenue
But today the rigid General has given
Up his pedestal to the pure offerings of blossoms
June stops her tears and clears her eyes
The pigeons dive for dinner

Greece under my converse
I did it with complete confidence that it could be done - a climb to the highest point with high top chucks, at one point they were the highest pair of black canvas high star shoes in all of Greece.
No reservations while others took minutes to strap up their waterproof, ice gouging, ultra hiker 6000 boots,
No hesitations when even our guide slipped and was injured, nope, not one when I stayed behind to assist him, carry his bags, and get snow to ice his injury.
Up and down in two days and all Chuck could say was “let me know when you need a break Mike cause we can run circles around those overweight Tims – come on let me at em” They did it too, boy they did. What? the water that did seep in provided some extra cool and cleansing to my sweaty toes, and the rubber that rubbed off a bit was just to carry the experience further, a trophy, a scar to be proud of - like a knife fight or wrestling crocodiles. And that’s Mt. Olympus – Zeus’ biceps, triceps, and pecks flexed with the snow capped curves and rocky ridges, his seat was taken over by a bunch of foreigners who gulped thinner air and carried digital cameras. Temporarily. For all who make it to the top respectfully hand over to its caretaker and only take back the pebbles that get stuck in between their toes. On the way down the pines patted us on the back because they also know only One can throw lightning bolts with the accuracy of justice.

How about being at the highest point one day and the lowest point the very next – sea level, 2918 meters to 0. Sarti, the second peninsula in the north provided slim recuperation time – my legs needed it and my converse needed to air out. Yet hiking along the sidewinder roads along Greece’s ancient fingers provided a different kind of air – the kind men of the sea have multiple words for, they swear and sail by them. Our goal was in mind too – our very own private beach to lie out and camp for the night, and so my legs didn’t buckle but to carry the rest of my body to the sand we staked out. The radioactive quartz contrasted the ice sea – its one of those things you just have to jump into head first.
The night was ended with bread, beans and rice under the night’s sky – with billions of worlds watching us and us watching them and hopefully no one watching our illegal campfire.
See the barnacles and snails? The water was so clear that it turned blue, it’s like the sky doubling over on itself – for all infinite things carry a similar color. Wait, did you see that thing? – I think one touched me... it did. I didn’t know brine shrimp were so brave.
Nearing the afternoon we pack up and aim towards town along the path where our shadows give the dirt a chance to cool off. Bus leaves at 5:30 – its 5:10 now, yeah? You want a crepe? Is there chocolate on my face? That was the best banana chocolate crepe one could ask for sitting under the awning of a café. Across the street is his competition, and probably his uncle, selling exactly the same thing at the same price but with a different name tag – different colors. Sorry, the red and white had me sold. Wait a second, what time is it? We quickly pay, Ciao and a wink returned and we’re off. To the bus stop around the corner where we sit down on the bench and wait for the bus to come.
And wait for the bus to come.
I think we missed the bus. No we didn’t. we were only 4 minutes past 5:30. We didn’t. Those crepes were good. Is there chocolate on my face – why didn’t you tell me! I think we missed the bus. Go ask them...
I don’t want to, they’ve been staring at us since we got here. These guys with tight jeans and mustaches – drinking frappes and beer all day on the corner. You do it, no you do it….I DON’T SPEAK GREEK!
We go to some other lady and she informs that the bus came and went and evidently we were eating crepes. Oh well, next bus is tomorrow at 7am. YOU mean tomorrow as in after the sun goes down and back up again – that tomorrow where Omar has an exam at noon? Oh ok, thanks dear. This is expected when you decided to go backpacking without a watch, but we’re adaptable, right? The ATM is out of cash and all we have is enough money to pay for the bus ticket back to Thessaloniki – a 4 hour ride that cost us 13 euro each to get here.
Our food money is down to maybe a euro and a half – couldn’t even buy another crepe and its only 6 pm…..what to do, what to do…
I got it! lets go up to the main road see if we can hitch a ride
But they don’t do that here in Greece, I mean, its rare, especially with a bunch of sunburned foreigners – come on.
No, we’re going to try at least for an hour, then we can figure out what else we can do. I’m pretty sure someone will stop – in the back of a truck or whatever, we’ll get some place where we’ll have more options.
We throw down our gear at the top of the road – look both ways along the lined asphalt where we can see for miles on either side. Nobody. I grab a stalk of dried grass and start to chew on it while Omar is lying out in the middle of the road. Minutes later a car is coming and we’re waving – they wave back and keep going, no, they actually accelerate. We got a routine down, thumbs up, money in hand – Thessaloniki?
An old Greek native comes strolling up the road behind us. Silence. He has the aged skin and the sun worn shirt and pants, a mouth grown never tired of feta cheese and olives. The long eyes stared miles ahead, Thessaloniki?, I must be using the wrong accent, or maybe it’s the chocolate on my nose. What was funny was that we were pretending that we meant to be standing there at the top of the single lane road with all our bags, like this was our destination. Yet, it was that we were a bit ashamed of the whole thing, for his presence caught us up in deep reverence for the simplicity of old, as the experiences and wisdom floated before us - we were too ignorant to see past our situation as apparently left behind in a quite town which we perceived as having nothing we could use or want. We were nothing to him because we had already turned our back and our desires rushed to be anywhere but here, we weren’t there and he didn’t see us.
Fewer cars went by than minutes and even fewer gave any sign that they understood what we were doing.
Up pulls a four door fiat with a burly Greek from the same road behind us coming out of the town. Thessaloniki? – hop in
and we didn’t step twice about it
Introductions and pleasantries were due - all in Greek of course and then not much else to be said – he was going where we wanted to go and had 3 extra seats. Theres something satisfying in traveling 100mph in a car with a man you don’t know sitting next to you smoking cigarettes like they were after dinner mints. Minutes of uninterrupted silence – slowing to let the curves do what they do and slowing to let the goats do what they shouldn’t do.
A stop at a café: Frappe, Coke, Beera?
No, no, but thanks, ok?
Ok, coke then
The drivers buying – quite men are the most generous if not but to give the silence a turn to talk.
We continue on with smiles hurting our faces, the sunburn didn’t give it away? I’m American. More silence and wind banging on my window because its wants a ride – wouldn’t you get tired of chunks of metal flying through you at ridiculous speeds?
Thessaloniki in an hour and a half and I believe we beat the bus that never needed us anyway. The old man was Poseidon reminding us that what’s behind us is just as important as what’s in front.

To be continued…..

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."
Albert Einstein
US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

Tradition

The Tao does not speak of itself
So the Two came forth to describe but One
The One body is a mountain – knowing sun and shade
The One body is a stream – being swift yet still
The One body is a pine – yielding but strong
Harmony with Yin and Yang, there is nothing wrong
The landscape is forever intimate, knowing when to stop and begin
The One body is never divided in Yang and Yin

GOING HERE
Some people just can’t sit still – they got to go all around in circles, see this and that, and forget about that stuff under their feet – what’s that? Oh, its HERE. Well excuse me for butting in but I’m HERE, where are you? What’s the problem with just stopping for a second, or even for a day, but sorry to trouble you for you got the whole year planned out and you can’t be bothered to stop until you get there. But where are you actually going? Well you can run in circles all you want but what happens is that you end up forgetting yourself, because you’re never completely HERE to think about it. and what’s the trouble with just stopping for a moment to see your reflection, no not the mirror to see how you look for the dinner you have tonight then you got to make sure that its all tidy and in order on the outside cause you know that its got to cover up what it really looks like on the inside. what it is – is that your afraid of what might reflect back to you when you stop – so you keep going only to let yourself forget about it until one of two things happens: either all this mess builds up on the inside, where the pressure becomes too great cause you haven’t been paying any attention to it – then – boom the mess is released in a fury of tears and you’ve lost control - you are forced to feel all that which you have been running from – well, not forced to because its natural, just that you have been delaying all those little guys saying we need attention and your just delaying having to deal with them, and then finally they all get together and protest and break down the castle doors and demand to get their issues resolved – they just want justice. That’s option number one and I’ve seen it happen. Option number two is stopping for a minute and letting someone like me talk you into just sitting for a minute and playing a game called who can be silent the longest – allowing you finally to arrive to that place you’ve been running to, you thought it was behind your back but now its in front of you. The HERE is telling you to take off your shoes and stay a while. The Here is telling you how to deal with those guys lined up behind that big door you put up, one by one. whispering in your ear that you are all you ever need and that you’ve got it right HERE. Both options are difficult, but one involves a lot less suffering to learn an important lesson – I cant tell you, I cant, but what I can do is point you in the right direction where we don’t have to be running anymore, where we don’t have to have a check list to make it look like we’ve gotten things done – because once you sit to let this hurried you take in some oxygen, take in some serenity, then you just might realize that you’ve done it all before and it always seemed the same, I mean you didn’t actually go anywhere at all and you’ve been carrying all this suffering around so why not try something new that is actually doing nothing at all, but then you might find out that you were doing this all along – nothing. So why waste the energy when you don’t have to do anything for the same results? If you put all that energy into HERE, then you might actually go places…..I’ve seen it.

The beautiful lights reflected daily
Pregnant women and pastels
Grey men and grey beards
Walking sticks and hobbles
The ones in neck braces
Children with chocolate on their faces
Triplets and twin smiles
The ones sitting and holding hands
Asian ladies and Mercedes
Enthusiastic stylists and invitations
Coffee cake bakers and talkative shoppers
The cashier offering nickels
Task givers and task takers
The teenage music fakers
Last minute lecturing and tea searching
Business men and business cards
Motorcycle couples thinking hard
Black men in plaid and black ear hair
The Cell phone glued with gold flair
Large sunglasses and divorced mothers
Angles sparkling and walking in the sun

A visible night
There’s a people that’s invisible
That’s why we’re here
We offer our solidarity
For eye opening light to be there
We accept the aching bones
The lone concrete for this night
For my brothers and sisters
Who don’t deserve to live in fright
For a country that we’ve never seen
For a people that we’ve never met
The possibility of pervading peace
The sustainability of one society
We go without certain needs
Even our prayers prayed on their knees
That’s why we’re here
We offer collectivity
For soul strengthening love to be there

Listen, Sweetheart
Do I seem the same
Look at the eye that remains,
For eternity.
The green blankets just cover,
My salutations,
Under my breath I bless.
We walk for shade,
And put on sunglasses.
Never questioning the brightness,
Which sustains and grows,
With an intensity only One knows.
Lets not forget,
The little balls of light,
Which dance and sing,
When our thoughts hold their hands.
Looking something like this -
The squiggles and the straights,
To form sense in cooperation,
Yet still barely blanketed with green.
Now some will lay,
Absorbed unconsciously playing,
With the fluffy energy that tickles,
Asking only for the barriers to be broken.
The sun shines,
And only the ones in the way create shade.
Didn’t you know, sweetheart,
Sunglasses are for the blind.


Shining Questions

Everything shines in its presence
Love knows no distance
Light smiles of tranquil tones
White footprints not alone
A seeming breeze
Stirs a question out loud
Where was I, just now?

One love

All we need to know
One eye, one sight, one truth
One love
One step, one path, one word
One love
One earth, one body, one purpose
One love
Multiple moments converge into one
One chance, one effort, one action
To know one
One love
It takes one
One death, one life
One man, one woman
One love
One passion, one fruit
One moment, one memento
One love
One child, one miracle
One creator, one destroyer

One heart

The words of Lao Tzu:
In order to contract,
It is necessary to first to expand.
In order to weaken,
It is necessary first to strengthen.
In order to destroy,
It is necessary first to promote.
In order to grasp,
It is necessary first to give.

To my dearest
To the paths that present themselves
You are not the path
To the words that weave themselves
You are not the word
And to the thoughts that arise out of silence
You are not silence
What are you all doing here?
I invite you elsewhere
To my eyes that keep watch
You can retire
To my ears that stiffen their drums
You can relax
And to my back that straightens it all out
You are relieved
Duty is your calling, yet
Duty you do not call
I need you inasmuch
As I need to realize I don’t need you
The master is ready to serve
While the servants are eager to master
Such is the law abiding light
Those who carry it, have the lesser need
I cry let the light shine
I cry in the ignorance of your night
To my tears which have been held back
You can flow

Silent Student
What is all around can be found
In daily stepping
Observing without sound
Actions of masters who have managed so far
Teachers that don’t even know they know
What am I in this mess
Absorbing it so fast
The wisdom can not be put in words
The words only imply wisdom
But what I feel is beyond:
My thinking mind - My daily tunnel vision
Hovering between sound and silence
For the deepest lecture means nothing
Without the silence - which teaches just the same
When I find the boundary between the two
It will describe my state exactly
Because I’ll know the only boundary that exists
Is the one I’ve constructed
Sound is the same as silence – I’ve found
But these words try to imprison my ideas
With the overabundance of speaking lips
That creates an empty sound
I prefer taking silent sips
From the silent tea that awaits silently
To teach me

blue ridge mountatins - lonely pine
Save the humanS

Over stepping
why are we afraid
of the eyes of passer bys
we may reflect ourselves
I'm tired of the taboo
of feeling something
I'm not supposed to in you
anxiety breaks bridges of experience
of true feeling we're never
told about
there's no doubt
we bury our treasure deep
inside
we weep for attention
yet receive with apprehension
trusting illusion over intuition
confusion over realization
becoming beggars on the path to peace
we distract ourselves with waiting
over stepping simple bliss release

Her Sacred Cavity
the void gives rise to that which is erected
space provides room for existence
that which receives can hold the sending
spontaneity lends its self to structure
whence do all things come and go?
being nothing, now we have something
emptiness knows existence
through being filled in
alas! members need a place to sit
which comes first -
the breathing in or the breathing out?
Substance is nothing - no thing
how else could we measure it?

Love is-

It is very difficult to actually define what love is. We may try to define it in terms of what love is not. Love can not be contained; it is nothing made of molecules. Love is not taking anything; it is not wanting. Love is never the cause of unhappiness; it is not a weakness. Love is not sexual in nature; it is not of the physical senses. There are many conventions which we may attach the word love to – but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Love is indeed so simple that we make it all complex and wishy-washy, and we get in trouble when we try to define it with our limited terms. It is just as crazy as defining what God is – can we really put it in a box of conventions and hand it to someone else – we say “here is my love, look, don’t you see it?” Oh, the trouble we get ourselves into. Indeed we feel pain at this misunderstanding.
To feel love is to feel everything – who can describe that? Jesus said “God is Love”, well then Love is God. It is the one thing we all have, yet go about looking for. What we really desire as humans is to give it – for the more we give away the more we open ourselves to receive it, though it is not something we can run out of. It is the all underlying cause of our life – for we search for that which makes us smile – to be happy at the end of the day. And this is realizing that we are in love – in love with life. Love is the eternal fabric of our being – and the single most ‘thing’ that we realize is worth living for. When we hear all the business of that we are all connected somehow – well love is that connection. It is more than the connection, but the page in which we write our words on. It is the canvas that we paint on. So how is it that we are not all brimming with love in bliss with each other? We see the fascinating colors and objects painted in this world – yet we easily forget that none of it would exist without the painter – and the painter wouldn’t be able to paint without the underlying canvas which allows the paint to be visible. The canvas is love, for it gives us a chance to experience life while humbly staying in the background. It asks not to be recognized. To the one who can see beyond the pretty colors, love presents itself! And we say “Ahhh, it’s so simple and it was there all along, how did I ever miss it?” Use whatever metaphor you like, for love can be found in everything.

Most of us have kept the dove of our spirit bound in a cage, it has forgotten how to fly. It has become weak without exercise - this is the stagnation of the spirit. This is the deeper cause of our sufferings - for the beauty of the dove is not to be kept in a cage - it is to let it fly out into existance and experience. Let us have no desire to keep it for ourselves, for true bliss is not to be contained.

"Both music and poetry lead us to what this world is about, which is a dance." - Alan Watts

Bible thoughts for today -
Mark 16:15-18
Then he (Jesus) told them: “go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation. The man who believes in it and accepts baptism will be saved; the man who refuses to believe in it will be condemned. Signs like these will accompany those who have professed their faith: they will use my name to expel demons, they will speak entirely new languages, they will be able to handle serpents, they will be able to drink deadly poison without harm, and the sick upon whom they lay their hands will recover.”
Interpretation according to Michael:
Accepting baptism during the time of Jesus was accepting the truth of the spirit. It is a first step to outwardly accepting that we are more that our bodies and ‘baptism’ was the ritual for this, using the cleansing and renewing symbol of water – which is a powerful symbol in almost all religions.
Signs will accompany those who have professed their faith – this profession is the total acceptance of the realization of who we actually are. By professing we are doing more than speaking out, we have no doubt – we have understood a greater truth and are amazed at the bliss we have found! There is no other way to express our new found love but to profess it unto others through every expression of our being.
With this realization we are able to live through the greater Will of God, there are no limits, no boundaries to our minds – miracles can be worked. But actually they are only miracles to those who have not opened up to this greatness – deeming what they see to be impossible! That is what we call miracles – but to the spirit, there is no miracle at all – only actions coming and going, for no definition can be placed on God. What it comes down to is that the realized soul is beyond suffering – for they will be able to do what most perceive as fatal, handling snakes – drinking poison and such. It is even more amazing that we are then bestowed, through right discernment (only because our discernment is the same as Gods), the power to heal through the laying of hands. This similarity also follows most other spiritual / religious thought (reiki). The dispelling of demons was also another way of healing disease – for in that era unexplained medical conditions were thought to be caused by demons. Indeed, that is why the bible is thick with cases of when Jesus expelled demons. Though what is illness other than a malady of the spirit caused by ignorance?

Mans Eternal Quest
words by Paramahansa Yogananda:
"When we pass through the door of the spiritual eye, we see inside ourselves the factory of intelligent Life energy that has created the whole universe. Because we don’t concentrate within, we are mystified by the imprints of the invisible Spirit in nature. We behold the productions of God; His name written in the flower and in the sky, in everything – but He is silent. As human beings we are very much privileged, for among all God’s creaters man alone has the physical, mental, and spiritual endowment necessary to seek Him, to find Him, to know Him, and to understand His language of silence.
To be happy under all circumstances is real success.
Success is not a simple matter; it cannot be determined merely by the amount of money and material possessions you have. The meaning of success goes far deeper. It can only be measured by the extent to which your inner peace and mental control enable you to be happy under all circumstances. That is real success. When you can look within and your conscience is clear, you reason unprejudiced, your will firm yet flexible, and your discrimination strong; and when you are able to obtain at will the things you need and the things you consider worthwhile, you are a success.
Receive Knowledge directly from spirit.
Don’t waste your time. God wants you to be a balanced individual. If you allow your life to become unbalanced you will be punished by the cosmic law. Live simply, have daily physical exercise, study rewarding books, and cultivate the habit of daily meditation. If you meditate you will find much more happiness than you have ever known. All knowledge will be given to you from within.
Learn how to cultivate the consciousness of Spirit. That is why you were born a human being. You were created under the evolutionary law that you might exercise your divine powers to find God. The only meaning of life is to find the all loving God, who has kept us apart from Himself by shyly hiding from us. We must find Him. Mankind is engaged in an eternal quest for that “something else” he hopes will bring him happiness, complete and unending. For those individual souls who have sought and found God, the search is over: He is that Something Else. There are various techniques for discovering the Spirit. Silence is one of them. Practicing silence means to silence all desires that try to percolate into your consciousness from outside, so you can go deeper within to feel your soul".

No effort, One activity

Don’t be strewn across the landscape of activity
Let thine eye be single
A One pointed mind can move mountains
And there is no difference between this and that
Because that is this and we are all that
Which is One
So let no effort be carried out
Without the effort of knowing nothing else
Other than that the effort has become
One with the single eye and the One pointed mind
This is the way of no effort
This is the way of One activity.

Bliss Simplicity

Waking up and going to sleep
Just give me twenty four hours
To understand life and death
It all comes and goes in a day
All an entire lifespan
Of learning life and giving it away
To dreams that last seconds
But seem like years
Gaining hope and overcoming fears

In the calmness of the afternoon
It comes to me
Bliss simplicity
In the aura of the setting sun
It comes to me
Bliss simplicity

The Immutable

I walk among ghosts
I walk among zombies
I walk among the dead before they have died
Who are these souls so young and so old
So accepting of time
Of which has no bearance on the soul
Why have they forgotten the immutable?
Why have they forgotten that
It is not by their will
That blood runs through their veins.
They have given up giving up
So much so they drop bread to the birds
And say that they are hungry
So much so they sleep with lions
And say that they are afraid
So much so they follow like sheep
And say that they have no direction
Who are these souls so young and so old
So influenced of mind
Of which has no bearance on the soul
Why have they forgotten the immutable?

Check out this link for a creative flash animation about the Meatrix.

The man who changed my day:
Stumbling old man, with overgrown light blonde beard with hints of rust, snot accumulating on his mustache. Tattered jacket with dirt smudged sweater underneath. Ripped jeans, with black tennis shoes with Velcro.
“I’ve been great until now”
“I moved into a new place and it stinks. Well it doesn’t stink the people do.”
“People are like assholes – everyone has them and they all stink”
(walks away…then comes back 15mins later)
“You took these pictures?”
“I used to take pictures, when I was in my twenties.”
“Where are these?”
“I ate fish soup twice a day at gunpoint for three years”
“I was shot down over Cambodia.”
“I was a helicopter pilot, fighting in Vietnam.”
“The beat me everyday, knocked my teeth out, I have a metal plate in my skull, and replaced knees”
“They pissed and shit on me everyday.”
“When I got back I wanted to piss and shit on the President”
This let me to realizations: that the keys to solving many of our present problems are forged in the past. so many of us are conditioned by habit, fearing that we are stuck someplace we can never get out of and always a victim of reality. Really, - we create our own prisons cast out of our own judgments – creating these cells we choose to live in, or choose not to. Some things that happen may lie beyond our power of control, but we determine how to view the situation, and it is never beyond our power to heal and be at peace.

I am currently accepting paint donations - acrylic, oil, watercolor, anything I can use and you dont need. pretty please?

Heres the next find worth 15 points. There's a hint in the photo: 10 North - what may this mean? Lauren is up with 10 points!
Save the humanS

All things go back to their source
Nature is the highest metaphor for the way we can live best. It the way of teaching through creation, and through natural law, which simply equals being. Trees give oxygen, we breathe oxygen. Trees need carbon dioxide, we breathe out carbon dioxide. So it is in the cycle we are ever attached to what is outside us, breathing in creation. There is nothing beyond this very breath, for death looms with every inhalation and exhalation. “Breath is the cord that ties the soul to the physical body.” This works at the highest level as well, being that we can not live on ‘bread’ alone, that spirit is breathing into us life, and we get to be life, due to our actions and the actions of the spirit. It is never one or the other but a mutual balance. It is said that “man shall not live by bread alone, but from every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”(Matthew 4:4) What are words but breath and vibrations? This says to me that it is the spirit that brings about life through the vibrations of energy creation – thoughts of God – and the breath is the flowing winds of our soul. We must not forget our creative power of words and intention that we have inhearited from our creator.
The quest of water is not unlike our own. Every drop flows in a manner that it is taking the path of least resistance, yet flowing with a purpose to return to its source – the ocean. So what is our purpose? To flow without resistance – to aim towards an immoveable bliss, as every being wants happiness and not suffering. If we return to our essential nature – our source – we can only find that we have all it is we are looking for. And it had been inside us all along – realizing the self is the path of water – realizing that although it seems we are separate molecules racing about this way and that, we are actually flowing towards a greater awareness of our being, which is eventually the goal of becoming one with the great ocean of truth: Love.

10 points to anyone who can find these buildings in richmond!
Save the humanS

steeple for the people
Save the humanS

i made a professional photography site ---please check it out ===>HERE

the new paint job - sea foam greenie - now accepting jobs for painting your bicycle!!
Save the humanS

there’s nothing right

there’s nothing wrong

there’s nothing in between

and that’s where we are

The buddha that helps evolve the world - 12" X 12" canvas
Save the humanS

wisdom
Save the humanS

I die in the moment
Leaking through the picture screen
My eyes dazzle and dance for the unseen
If only for a moment’s high
I lift my heart up in a burning sky
To unveil – to encompass
Speaking syllables of silence
In the temple of unfaltering bliss
The light lets me know what it means to die
If only for a moment’s high

This Land
The mountain of my spirit
springs forth a stream of tears
to renew the valley of my heart
just as fields are most fertile
after the rageing floods
so shall my land be bountiful
with the bread of bliss again

My Sumi Tea Art -
Save the humanS

Intention is the infliction
That rides upon the vibrations
Of syllables on our tongues
Intention is creation

Bottle Opener

I am a wave, but I see no Ocean
Tossing and churning
Likened to monkeys swinging
So ignorant that I think my water
Is independent from that which surrounds me
I am bottled from the source
And labeled with a delusion
That there is some difference
To the purity that lies
Within this one of a kind skin
When we close our eyes
It all has the same taste
And satisfies all thirst desire
I am but a wave
Yet, it is the Ocean
That empowers me

The Old Barn
Save the humanS