Been havin'

God - Ancestral lineage of wisdom present and beyond. 

Been havin' to pour my creative energy, life force, into something personal.

Human Nature 2

Humans,

Nexistential artisans of love

Who create habitually -

We commune naturally.

Despite suffering, illness and delusion

We can live a life free of despair!

Because humans naturally care.

As does the witness that lies beyond

Watching, waiting, fond

Of life's natural grand illusion.

Writing various paths at once. Is that what writers do? With characters, plots, stories, techniques all entwined into one artful act of catharsis. When I write, I feel good. Even though writing is only one way of channeling life's overwhelming forces of creation, destruction and regeneration. I read, and writers erace my fear of phrasing, long senrtences and ambiguous grammar. Like saints.

"See you soon!" I said to the Ashtanga Mistress. Not knowing when soon would be.

One practically yoga-less week in, only a weekend ashtanga-quickie came to pass. The next week culminated in a moment's complete devotion. A moment Of Fleeting Devotion Breast-Feeding on Soul.

Been havin' a lot of work after the summer break. Substitute teacher help is needed every day. Illness accompanies communities. Teachers have lives. I subbed every day. K-12 schooling is hard. A lot must be learned while coming of age in a given community. And now, our humanity extends well beyond a school district, or village, or nation. We are the people of Planet Earth. Millions of us. Who share the resources of finite ecosystems. 

It felt poetic that I spent the first day of school with the same class from the last day of school back in May. I took it as a good omen. In two weeks, I helped care for and instruct over two hundred students, from kindergarden to eighth grade plus special needs. I left bits of my soul in the classroom. Rearing children demands an unbelievable amount of life force. Of course! Education is a vital aspect of inter-being as a human species in terms of wisdom and wellbeingin in the larger context of a finite planet. Mysterious, galactic, universal and non-existent as it's said to be. A planet, nontheless, we all share. We dwell together. We carry each other. Peaceful, caring and kind coexistance guided by wisdom is vital for the wellbeing of a planetary community. But dealing with fifty fifth-graders all day makes my brain feel fried. And when a very troubled middle school student threw a nasty comment at me, I spat out Buddha's First Noble Truth in response. "I know you suffer, so do I, we all suffer." And the moment passed us by. 

And my heart yearned for ashtanga yoga as the world (samsara) pulled me in like a magnet. I wondered, is yoga with me (dharma) even if I can't practice full physical mastery (karma) of it? Complex and all-encompassing as yoga is.

Asana is vital. Sure, breath is everywhere, awareness always available. But to train body and mind in the asana-artful way (body physics), is irresistible. Even in a spiritual context, why should I feel ashamed of being deeply physical while I embody a material human form? 

Human Nature 3 -                    La naturaleza humana 3 -     
I am content with my                 Me siento contenta con 
relationship with Jesus.              mi relación con Jesús.  
He who embodied.                     El que encarnó.     
I know what Jesus                      Yo sé lo que Jesús  
means to me.                              significa para mi.       

Yeah, been havin' to experience samsara asceticism, the world without yoga study. Labor, human communal responsibilities, society, all call for observation, for careful attention. All that worldly stuff that engulfes the human soul with its perpetual calls. All that, which makes it possible for anything to be. But it pulls me away from philosophy. Thank God for a weekend's study quickie! The yoga scholar summarized yoga history and philosophy in an hour. Then the ashtanga mistress introduced a list of asanas for another hour. The scholar drew a chronological sketch mapped from scripture. Having studied with him for years, I’ve heard him relate scripture-based yoga history and philosophy before. This time, the mention of ancient fire ignited a different thought.

Physical Master B.

Timelines are important though relative.
They give a sense of being and relation.
Ancestry is embedded in our subtlest flesh,
To engender what lies beyond.

Before, the spiritual fire of ancient Indian philosophy evoked in me a paleolithicish feel, a Stone Age vibe. A prehistoric-to-ancient perspective characterized by matrifocal, non-hierarchical and nature-loving traditions. I had already learned about Marija Gimbutas’ work on the Civilization of the Great Goddess in Old Europe (“Neolithic Europe before the Indo-Europeans”, 7000-3000 BCE (Before the Common Era, i.e. B.C. (Before Christ (birth year zero)))*. I thought of the communal, nurturing, sensual, and earthly female fires of a ubiquitous Mother Goddess. Marija's work made me wonder: Is archeology scripture?

Now, the mention of ancient Indian philosophical fire felt alchemical. Perhaps, because I revisited the subject of alchemy recently. A philosophical fire, indeed, with a more masculine flair, which has burned since prehistory and all through patriarchy. It's effects distinct from those of ancient female fires?

“Alchemy, the secret art of the land of Khem, is one of the two oldest sciences known to the world. The other is astrology. The beginnings of both extend back into the obscurity of prehistoric times. According to the earliest records extant [still existing], alchemy and astrology were considered as divinely revealed to man so that by their aid he might regain his lost estate.
…
    The earthly body of alchemy is chemistry, for chemists do not realize […] that so long as they study only material elements they can at best discover but half of the mystery. Astrology has crystallized into astronomy, whose votaries ridicule the dreams of ancient seers and sages, deriding their symbols as meaningless products of superstition. Nevertheless, the intelligentsia of the modern world can never pass behind the veil which divides the seen from the unseen except in the way appointed – the Mysteries.
   What is life? What is intelligence? What is force? These are the problems to the solution of which the ancients consecrated their temples of learning. Who shall say that they did not answer those questions? Who would recognize the answer if given?
…
   Evolutionists trace the unfoldment of the arts and sciences up through the growing intelligence of the prehistoric [human], while others, of a transcendental point of view, like to consider them as being direct revelations from God.
…
   The Chaldeans, Phoenicians, and Babylonians were familiar with the principles of alchemy, as were many Oriental [people] [the Harappans? I wonder]. It was practiced in Greece and Rome; was the master science of the Egyptians. Khem was an ancient name for the land of Egypt; and both the words alchemy and Chemistry are a perpetual reminder of the priority of Egypt’s scientific knowledge.
…
   Many interesting solutions to the riddle of alchemy’s origin have been advanced. One is that alchemy was revealed to man by the mysterious Egyptian demigod Hermes Trismegistus [who] is credited by the Egyptians as being the author of all the arts and sciences.”**

I wonder whether Hermes Trismegistus is a type of force, a bridge (yoga) between what is (essential knowledge) and inspiration (what is expressed in sharing information (discourse, learning-teaching). I think of Patanjali, author of the ancient Indian scripture the Yoga Sutras. I read somewhere, that patanjali means something like prayer or gift from heaven. Is Patanjali, too, a kind of force yoking essence and the expression thereof (Plato)? Like Hermes, who is the source of science and the arts (understanding). Patanjali is also said to have written the perfect Sanskrit grammar, as well as Ayurvedic medicine, in addition to the ultimate existential guide, the crème de la crème of philosophy: The Yoga Sutras.

Been havin' doubts. Ballet class is about to begin again, after a month-long break. Will I be able to find a balance between study (yoga, kung fu, ballet), work (labor, responsibilities), and art (philosophy)? I guess we'll see. I sense things will change again. And again. Of course! The world is full of changing phenomena arising and passing. That's what Goenka taught that the Gotama Buddha taught through his contemplative technique. Come to think of it, Vipassana Meditation Master S.N. Goenka is one of the best philosophers I've known. His teachings come straight from the Buddha's mouth. A lion's roar that makes my heart beat to the rhythm of ancient drums as my body's many strings light up and catch on fire. That's what Ashtanga does. Asana. Yoga. Embodiment. So what? If I'm going to feel physical being, then I want to feel it whole and on my terms. Is not the feeling of it, or at least the winessing of the feeling of it, pure spirit indeed?

Why is Prakriti (Indian philosophical figure) imagined as a dancer? When dancing in the world, even one of your own creation, is so hard. It demands practice, patience and persistence. But the world demands so much more! Prakriti = nature. Is Nature a divine phenomenon? Divine as in: a grand existence, a phenomenon that extends beyond, one with a transcendental and ubiquitous status. 

Samkhya philosophy identifies two grand, all-encompassing philosophical figures: Prakriti and Purusha. A dancer and a witness to her dance. Nature's entangling dance of distractions. Distracing the observer while observing. Purusha observing what, if not Prakriti? A witnessing force aware of the universe. Because there is no self in Purushaland. In fact, there's nothing. But can there be anything unobserved? There must be gazing, whether inwardly or outwardly. Without awareness can a witness even be? To what extent does purusha (witnessing, observation) show up in prakriti (all of nature and the universe)? In observing (which is formless) does form manifest? From what does form draw its presence? Or does form draw observation through its sheer existence? Is form per se? Only how? What are some examples of observational manifestation? Perception per se, the act of witnessing, the attention that bounces back and forth in any ecosystem. Is a phenomenon such as fame en example? Is purusha truly anonymous?*** Why does it need senses and nature to realize itself? Why does Purusha need Prakriti if he is tultimately not to be at all?

At the end of the yoga scholar’s flash lecture, a scientist in the audience confessed that she recognized what she had learned in Western science in what yoga philosophy expressed. Parallels. An interesting phenomenon, they both concluded. My suspicion, that all human seeking will encounter the essentially same knowledge and understanding, is reinforced by prehistoric, ancient and contemporary perspectives.

Thank God for Labour Day Weekend as exhaustion sets in. The bleeding has begun again. The time for rest has come. 

Human Nature 1

Saw a shadow
Reflected
In a darkened mirror
At dawn.
I thought it was the devil.
But it was I.
Why must the devil be
so much like me?

*Gimbutas, Marija. 1991. The Civilization of the Goddess – The World of Old Europe. Edited by Joan Marler. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY. Preface.
**Manly P. Hall. 2010. The Secret Teachings of all Ages. Dover Publications, United States. A newly reset, unabridged republication of the text of the work originally published by H.S. Crocker Co. San Francisco, in 1928. Manly Palmer Hall (1901-1990) “This book is dedicated to the Rational Soul of the World.”
  I must say that seeing when this text was originally written put some controversial remarks into context. Back in the 20^th century, particularly the first half, certain sensitivities were still lacking I.e. sensitivities pertaining to the use of the word “race” –  a word I despise for its abuse and all horrible human behaviors attached to it. Because, in truth, there is no hierarchy in nature nor in the universe. Thus, I prefer to speak of different people, ethnicities, societies, or civilizations, who are all essentially the same humankind. Manly also consistently uses the word “man” as opposed to “woman”, “human”, or “person”. Looking at it 24 years into the 21^st century, it comes across as insensitive, even if the cause is contextual ignorance. I would expect more from true seekers of the mysteries. For, the mysteries know no gender, race, caste, or other category of any kind tainted by hierarchical pathology. In its nature of always changing, the world, as the universe, is cyclical, equanimous and temporary.
*** Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States of America (2008-2016): “When you become famous, well known, you lose your anonymity. … The natural, everyday thing of being able to sit in the world and observe it and not be observed. Sitting in a park and watching the world happen with nobody pulling you out of it. …That’s a tough thing that I don’t think people think about when they think of power and fame. There are some downsides to it.” (Interview on Jay Shetty Podcast on YouTube, Jan.8, 2024)

On the Question of Cellular Wisdom (part one)

“We kissed.
I closed my eyes.
All I saw were images
of the video game we’d been playin’.”

“If I can’t formulate it on the page, it causes upset in my flesh.”

 

Sunday rolls around and all I desire is to philosophize. Actually, I desire philosophy all the time. But the day-to-day distractions are aplenty. So many distractions I love and adore. Love more than wisdom? Adore more than God? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I don’t know for sure. Distractions, wisdom and love fill my days. Am I blessed or delusional?

* * * * *

Are we what our cells are? Information seekers, processors and professors. Do we exist to learn, to collect information – about the environment, the world, our own existence? About what feels good or bad or neutral? About what is desirable, what is not?

How is it possible not to judge under such circumstances? How to discern! say the wise.

Wisdom transcends information. But how?

* * * * *

Yogi Richard Freeman interestingly said, in a monthly online studio talk with Yogini Mary Taylor, where they share the wisdom of their refined philosophical minds, their experience of living with yoga, as well as its sacred ancient teachings. He said that “religion is a scary word because it’s one of the most dangerous things”.*

Why is religion dangerous? What does it mean to be religious? And, to what extent is Yoga religious?

A documentary** recently awakened me to the fact that Buddhism is not entirely pure in practice. Not unlike the scandalous Catholic Church institution. It was said that the Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhist religious leader) is also a political figure in a historical context on the world stage of rule, responsibility, and duty to the well-being of humanity. And yet, this world spiritual leader was not allowed by his institution to publicly advocate in favor of abused women and children, nor to speak out against criminal participants in the religious establishment he is the head of. The reason that was given is because of his role as a political figure in the context of the China-Tibet conflict.

Is religion dangerous because it is political? Is religion institutionalized spirituality? What is the importance of spirituality in political affairs? What is it like to live a spiritual life on practical terms? What is spirituality?

The Lure of Books, 1911 by Coles Phillips.
Life Magazine, June 8, 1911.

So, religion can be bad. When is religion good?

Religion, perhaps, is good when it coexists with discernment. The study of scripture is key. Doubt is study’s wife. And, in wisdom, they bear discernment. 

“From the point of view of the Buddha and Patanjali alike, the suffering that is fundamental to the human condition is a defilement that can be removed through religious and meditative practice.” (Barbara Stoler Miller, 1998. p.9) *** Can religion help remove suffering despite being able to cause it as well?

And, is suffering a defilement that results from delusions, or is illusion an inherent part of experienced reality? Thus, underscoring the undeniable presence of delusional facts.

The Buddhist monk Geshe Kelsang Gyatso talked about delusions on the social platform “X” recently. Buddhist wisdom seems harsh to me sometimes. Perhaps because it is straightforward, and unafraid of “uncomfortable” truths. But is Buddhism inherently true?

“The reason we develop delusions naturally, whereas we have to apply effort to cultivate virtuous minds, is that we are very familiar with delusions. Our minds have been acquainted with delusions since beginningless time and so deluded mental habits are very deeply ingrained.” (Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Aug 2, 2024 on X)

But I wonder, are not also virtuous habits very deeply ingrained? Otherwise, how would cells ever make it?

“Delusions can be removed from the mind by abandoning self-grasping, which is the root from which they all arise. (Aug 3)
Our delusions are so strong that they are constantly compelling us to commit negative karma, which causes us to take rebirth in samsara again and again. (Aug 5)”

I wonder whether only negative karma causes rebirth in the world. There appears to be a significant focus on the negative here. It makes sense, problems demand solutions. But what about all the positive phenomena?

What if we are deluded about the extent of suffering in the world?
Suffering is an inescapable fact of life, no doubt. To what extent must it be pushed on us though? Suffering can be mediated, even remedied. Siddhartha Gotama Buddha showed us how.

Consider the following social media post by Zuby I loved on X, @ZubyMusic on August 6th:

“Shout out to everyone who is doing honest work, treating people well, telling the truth, raising good kids, and doing good things to make the world better. Big and small.
The world is held together by a quiet army of decent people.
I appreciate you even if I don’t know you.”

I feel the same as Zuby. And it makes me wonder…

Do the dharma and karma wheels spin simultaneously?
Does the true nature of things lie beyond such wheels?
What does lie beyond cycles and change?
Constancy?
Of what?

Cellular wisdom and subtle consciousness? But these are also constantly changing. Or else evolution would cease to exist. Then, what does remain the same?

God?

* * * * *

Does it matter if I praise God, if He is one and the same with Her, the Great Goddess? Father and Mother, the same creative force? Equally regenerative and destructive as well?

Except, nuance matters. Why do certain distinctions matter, if it’s all the same creative force per se? Because forces have many manifestations. The same force can manifest in different ways. Innovation, spontaneity, and variation are important keys for evolution.

Evolution is the cosmic-planetary, psycho-physical phenomenon of living, doing, dying, being.

Prehistoric Eurasian civilizations appear to have had “a profound belief in a life-generating Goddess who represents One Source while pictured in many forms.” (Marija Gimbutas, 1991. P.222)****

“From as early as 25,000 B.C. [BCE], She is depicted with exaggerated breasts, vulva, and buttocks, indicating the centers of emanation of her procreative powers. A study of symbols in Paleolithic art demonstrates that the female, rather than the male, was the deity of creation. In fact, there are no traces in Paleolithic art of a father figure. The bearing and nourishing of offspring –plant, animal, and human– was the primary model for the development of the image of the Goddess as the all-generating deity. […]
The Goddess personifies the eternally renewing cycle of life in all its forms and manifestations.” (ibidem)

The multiple categories, functions, and symbols used by prehistoric peoples to express the Great Mystery are all aspects of the unbroken unity of one deity, a Goddess who is ultimately Nature herself.
… the Goddess who personifies the generative forces of nature. […] the various life propagating, birth-giving, life-maintaining, and life-stimulating aspects of the Goddess.
… the Goddess who personifies the destructive forces of nature – the Death Goddess […]
… the Goddess who of Regeneration; it is she who controls the life cycles of the entire natural world. […]

The Goddess of the Paleolithic and Neolithic is parthenogenetic, creating life out of herself. She is the primeval, self-fertilizing “Virgin Goddess” who has survived in numerous culture forms to the present day. The Christian Virgin Mary is a demoted version of this original deity. […] it seems clear that woman’s ability to give birth and nourish children from her body was deemed sacred, and revered as the ultimate metaphor for the divine Creator.” (ibid. p. 223) 

I shared this information with the philosophy club as we talked about panpsychism, pantheism, and transhumanism. I’m not sure why the ancient religion of the Great Goddess popped into my mind as I read the papers on these philosophical phenomena. I began wonder to what extent the religion of the Goddess might be panpsychic (ubiquitous mind), pantheistic (ubiquitous divinity) and transhuman (technology biology)? To what extent are philosophical categories renewed attempts at formulating existential phenomena? Subjects, perhaps, we humans understood far better in ancient civilizations.  Subjects that inherently exist, and are formulated, forgotten, remembered and reformulated.

“Archeologists and historians have assumed that civilization implies a hierarchical political and religious organization, warfare, a class stratification, and a complex division of labor. This pattern is indeed typical of androcratic (male-dominated) societies such as Indo-European but does not apply to the gynocentric (mother/woman-centered) cultures described in this book. The civilization that flourished in Old Europe between 6500 and 3500 B.C. and in Crete until 1450 B.C. enjoyed a long period of uninterrupted peaceful living which produced artistic expression of graceful beauty and refinement, demonstrating a higher quality of life than many androcratic, classed societies.
[…]
The primordial deity for our Paleolithic and Neolithic ancestors was female, reflecting the sovereignty of motherhood. In fact, there are no images that have been found of a Father God throughout the prehistoric record. Paleolithic and Neolithic symbols and images cluster around a self-generating Goddess and her basic functions as a Giver-of-Life, Wielder-of-Death, and as Regeneratrix. This symbolic system represents cyclical, non-linear, mythical time.
 The religion of the Goddess reflected a matristic, matrilineal, and endogamic social order for most of early human history. This was not necessarily “matriarchy,” which wrongly implies “rule” by women as a mirror image of androcracy. A matrifocal tradition continued throughout the early agricultural societies of Europe, Anatolia, and the Near East, as well as Minoan Crete. The emphasis in these cultures was on technologies that nourished people’s lives, in contrast to the androcratic focus on domination.
 The Old European social structure was in direct contrast with the Indo-European system that replaced it. As archeological, historical, linguistic, and religious evidence shows, Old European society was organized around a theacratic [spiritual government], communal temple community, guided by a queen-priestess, her brother or uncle, and a council of women as the governing body. In spite of the revered status of women in religious life, the cemetery evidence […] does not suggest any imbalance between the sexes or a subservience of one sex to the other. It suggests, instead, a condition of mutual respect.” (ibidem, p.viii-xi)

According to Samkhya Philosophy, “that which has never existed can never be brought into existence.”*****

Peace is our past. Peace is human nature. Peace is our future.

“It is a gross misunderstanding to imagine warfare as endemic to the human condition. Widespread fighting and fortification building have indeed been the way of life for most of our direct ancestors from the Bronze Age up until now. However, this was not the case in the Paleolithic and Neolithic. There are no depictions of arms (weapons used against other humans) in Paleolithic cave paintings, nor are there remains of weapons used by man against man during the Neolithic of Old Europe. From some hundred and fifty paintings that survived at Catal Hüyük, there is not one depicting a scene of conflict or fighting, or of war or torture.” (Gimbutas, 1995. p.viii-x) 

Birth-giving, in Catal Hüyük temple wall painting, 7,000 BCE.

So, what is the role of spirituality in politics and government? What does it mean to be a spiritual society, a spiritual civilization? What is the nature of the illusions that craft human realities? Are deluded mental habits deeply ingrained more than virtuous ones? And, do an embryo’s cells stand in competition and conflict with its mother cells, or do they share in a divine dance of cooperative cosmic creation, destruction and regeneration?

To be continued …

 

*FreemanTaylor Yoga @ YouTube, June 2024, “Five Steps to Embodying Happiness”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDX9vL-SpJI

**Buddhism, the Law of Silence - Abuses in Tibetan Buddhism (youtube.com), Direction : Elodie Emery Wandrille Lanos, Producer Tv Presse Productions. 2023.

***YOGA – Discipline of Freedom. The Yoga Sutra attributed to Patanjali. 1998. Barbara Stoler Miller. Bantam Books, New York, New York.

****Marija Gimbutas, 1991. The Civilization of the Goddess – The World of Old Europe. Edited by Joan Marler. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY.

*****Samkhya Karika of Ishvara Krishna with the Tattva Kaumudi of Sri Vacaspari Misra. Translated by Swami Virupakshananda, 1995. Sri Ramakrishna Math Printing Press, India.