178 posts from 2008

'Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries.'
 - Corita Kent

"There is for each man, perfect self-expression.  There is a place which he is to fill and no one else can fill, something which he is to do, which no one else can do; it is his destiny!
This achievement is held, a perfect idea in Divine Mind, awaiting man's recognition.  As the imaging faculty is the creative faculty, it is necessary for man to see the idea, before it can manifest.
So man's highest demand is for the Divine Design of his life...
...The perfect plan includes health, wealth, love and perfect self expression.  This is the square of life, which brings perfect happiness.  When one has made this demand, he may find great changes taking place in his life, for nearly every man had wandered far from the Divine Design.
I know, in one woman's case, it was as though a cyclone had struck her affairs, but readjustments came quickly, and new and wonderful conditions took the place of old ones.
Perfect self expression will never be labor; but of such absorbing interest that it will seem almost like play.  The student knows, also as man comes into the world financed by God, the supply needed for his perfect self-expression will be at hand.
Many a genius has struggled for years with the problem of supply, when his spoken word, and faith, would have released quickly, the necessary funds."  -- From The Game of Life and How To Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn.

"The thing you really believe in always happens...
and the belief in a thing makes it happen."

-- Frank Lloyd Wright

"When a man is willing and eager, the Gods join in."

--Aeschylus

"Heart physiologists find more chaos in the healthy heart than in the sick heart."
-- Ralph Abraham, mathematician via page 21 of Pronoia by Rob Brezsny.

Have you ever taken a picture of a favorite scene on tv?  Yesterday we caught the last half of Gus Van Sant's "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and it inspired us to do just that.  This shot is when our plucky heroine, Sissy Hankshaw (she's an amazing hitchhiker on account of her giant thumbs) wakes up from her night spent with a wise man in his mountain-top cave.  The night before she had asked him what he believed and he just laughed - "Ha ha, ho ho, hee hee."  When she wakes up, she sees this rock, on which he has written, "I BELIEVE IN EVERYTHING, NOTHING IS SACRED.  I BELIEVE IN NOTHING, EVERYTHING IS SACRED."  And of course, since this movie is based on a totally brilliant Tom Robbins novel, the next rock she sees says, "BE YOUR OWN FLYING SAUCER, RESCUE YOURSELF."

Lately we've been invited to wander into some dark forests and down some dark hallways.  In our effort to remain fearless, we meditate, we read and we create.  It helps, it really does.  And so does learning about things like this:

"Bat - Rebirth
Steeped in the mystery of Mesoamerican tribal ritual is the legend of Bat.  Akin to the ancient Buddhist belief in reincarnation, in Central America, Bat is the symbol of rebirth.  The Bat has for centuries been a treasured medicine of the Aztec, Toltec, Tolucan, and Mayan peoples.
Bat embraces the idea of shamanistic death.  The ritual death of the healer is steeped in secrets and highly involved initiation rites.  Shaman death is the symbolic death of the initiate to the old ways of life and personal identity.  The initiation that brings the right to heal and to be called shaman is necessarily preceded by ritual death.  Most of these rituals are brutally hard on the body, mind and spirit.  In light of today's standards, it can be very difficult to find a person who can take the abuse and come through it with their balance intact.
The basic idea of ancient initiations was to break down all the former notions of 'self' that were held by the shaman-to-be.  This could entail brutal tests of physical strength and psychic ability, and having every emotional 'button' pushed hard.  Taunting and spitting on the initiate was common, and taught him or her to endure the duress with humility and fortitude.  The final initiation step was to be buried in the earth for one day and to be reborn without the former ego in the morning."

From Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams and David Carson. 

We love so many things about Vivienne Westwood.  Recently, we've been privy to her Active Resistance to Propaganda manifesto and found an almost equal number of points agreeable and disagreeable.  Luckily, we know how to hold opposing ideas simultaneously and in the end, there is more here we like in terms of philosophical moxie than anything that slightly rubs us the wrong way.  We enjoy a special interest in manifestos and savor thoughts of cultural rebellion in the morning like the honey on our toast.  So, to that end we'd like to wet your whistle with some of the more delightful snippets from the 21 page manifesto...

"the whole future of art is at stake and depends on you and others controlling your imagination and listening to your best self,  - your human genius. 
Imagination is the driving force in human nature.  But it is likely to run wild and escape into the chaos of endless desire, unfulfilled longing and alienation."

"Art happens - no hovel is safe from it, no Prince may depend on it, the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about, and puny efforts to make it universal end in quaint comedy, and coarse farce. 
This is as it should be.  Why after centuries of freedom from it and indifference to it should the people have Art thrust upon them?  She has no desire to teach, no purpose to better others.
Art seeks the Artist alone.  Where he is, there she appears, and remains with him - loving and fruitful...  And when he dies she sadly takes her flight.
With the man, then, and not with the multitude, are her intimacies; and in the book of her life the names inscribed are few - scant indeed, the life of those who have helped to write her story of love and beauty."

"You are expensive - crap is not good enough for you.  Time is your luxury.  You like to be alone because you like to think.  As art lovers and readers you will converse with the highest forms of intelligence.  You will form your own opinions and your ideas will be the avant-garde.  Ideas will give you power and you will fire the imagination of your friends."

"Your journey has revealed to you that human beings have a choice: - we can cultivate the human genius and build a great civilization on earth.  Through art we can see the future.  It holds up a mirror of our human potential..."

To experience the manifesto fully, please see:  http://www.activeresistance.co.uk/

  

"The universe is a big dream machine, churning out dreams and transforming them into reality, and our own dreams are inextricably woven into the overall scheme of things.  The mechanics for the fulfillment of these dreams are contained firstly in the power of knowledge, known in ancient India as gyan shakti, and secondly, in the power of intention or desire, known in ancient India as iccha shakti.  But the power of knowledge and the power of intention or desire find their immeasurable strength and potentiality in the power of transcending, known as atma shakti.  Atma shakti, the power of the self, is the power of Brahman, where the infinite organizing power of the universe resides.

The Veda says, 'Know that one thing by knowing which everything else can be known.'  Know that deep inside you, in the innermost recesses of your heart, are the Goddesses of Knowledge and Wealth.  Love them and nurture them, and every desire that you have will spontaneously blossom into form.  For these Goddesses have only one desire: And that is to be born." -- All this from the final pages of Deepak Chopra's slim tome - Creating Affluence.

'My girl is the queen of the savages
She don't know the modern world and its ravages
Instead of money she's got yams and cabbages
She lives in a dome,
I don't care if I never get home.

My girl is the queen of the Jungle Folk
You should see the things we see when we smoke
We think all of life is a funny joke
She's sharp as a tack,
I don't care if I never get back.

My girl is the queen of 10 villages
We live on the fruits of her pillages
She eats other queens
She's a re-realist
She doesn't use a fork
I don't think I'll go back to New York.'

 - Lyrics from 'Queen of the Savages', by the dreamy Magnetic Fields

Seems we cannot live without art making.  Creative expression is our love, our solace, the treasure map to our dreams, our divine purpose, our most trusty companion.  So we understand Yoko Ono when she says this: 
"Art is a process-oriented tool.  With the help of this tool, you can better understand life's complexity."