spell of the sensuous

In Chinese medicine, disease is defined as that which goes against the Breath of Nature (Bian Hua變化). This statement begs the question: If human disease is that which goes against the breath, how are we going against the breath? Or more specifically, how did we get to this point of widespread cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, allergies, and depression? David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous offers some important insight.

Once upon a time, humans were inherently tied to the land as hunter-gatherers – to survive they were required to follow the laws of nature and the land that they inhabited. With the advent of agriculture and the ability to store surplus grain and consequently generate wealth, a separation arose. No longer did man have to toil day in and day out for food and his survival, but with smart farming techniques and the eventual domestication of grain, the more wealthy could pursue intellectual pursuits: the creation of the aleph-beth emerged as a technology that could transmit some of these intellectual constructs.

Abram discusses the consequences of this gradual transformation from oral to written culture as a divorce from the embodied sensorial experience of time-space to a domain that is referent only to the human domain. “Only with the emergence of the phonetic alphabet, and its appropriation by the ancient Greeks [from the Hebrews who consciously did not encase the majestic air as written vowels] did the written images lose all evident ties to the larger field of expressive beings. Each image now came to have a strictly human referent: each letter was now associated purely with a gesture or sound of the human mouth.” (p.138, italicized comments mine). Instead of seeing language in everything around us – the birds, the wind, the trees, the earth itself – encapsulating speech into written words divides humans from the very world in which we depend on for our well-being. The written word is no longer a transient mutating form, but a fixed non-breathing non-living reference to be analyzed, discussed, and returned to for all time. In short, the written word divides us from nature because it is in and of itself completely unnatural; simply a construction, a technological advancement, of the human mind.

When I go to write something down, I do so to preserve the present moment so that in some future time it can again be accessed. But my words, no matter how poetic or successful at describing some part of a scene or mood must fail to express the entirety of the scene. The pure infinite nature of the present is incapable of being recorded in this linear, discrete fashion, exported into the future to be re-experienced. So language itself, and written language even more-so, is limited*.

Besides the wealth generation of agriculture, the invention of the phonetic written word can be seen as the grandmother of the technologies we enjoy today. But these technologies come at a price. Because they are invented for humans instead of for the world in which humans live, using these inventions inherently reinforces this division. In this way man can then manipulate the environment for his gain. Thus, man is not required to observe, much less follow, the breath of nature. Sometimes we do follow the breath, and we are healthy and vibrant. But often we go against the breath, and we develop diseases that ultimately kill us.

Abrams describes the healer's role (in shamanic cutures) existing at the edge of society, constantly nourishing the border between human beings and the other beings – the animate and seemingly inanimate creatures of nature. For it is through this membrane that nature communicates with us, and where the answers lie to cure disease and live in the balance that is necessary to sustain life.

＊“The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao.”
名 可 名 非 常 名

the places in between

rory stewart, a scotsman, decided to walk across Afghanistan in January of 2002, on foot, by himself. if you'll recall, January 2002 was about 3 weeks after we installed the new government in Afghanistan. it was and still is a terribly unsafe place for westerners. as it turns out its even unsafe if you're an Afghani. Afghanistan is a country that is primarily still medieval: tribes based on ethnicity, religion, and location are constantly battling each other. this book is rory's travel diary of the trip, and in short i have a man-crush on this guy. equipped only with his knowledge of the local language and an amazing craft to avoid trouble when it is staring him in the face, he nearly dies (twice) and survives on a piece of bread daily for days at a time while hiking 60km a day. this was the look at Afghanistan that I was looking for that the Kite Runner only could provide in part.

fourth of a lie?

So in honor of it being fourth of July and all, I picked up Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" and read about the revolutionary war. All I can remember from American History in high school was the famous phrase, "taxation without representation." And that's bad, right? Well as is usually the case, war is more complicated than a simple phrase and the Revolutionary War was no exception.

Before the colonists' dissent was directed at Britian, it was directed at the upper class here at home. In fact a study of the Boston tax lists of the early 1770s shows that 5% of the population was controlling 49% of the city's assets. This imbalance led to many riots and ransacking of private property. This made the people with the private property - the rich - understandably nervous. As a whole, the colonists had a huge amount of natural resources, were tired of fighting wars against the Spanish and French in the name of Great Britian, and the ruling class in the colonies was worried about losing their own wealth due to this growing dissent. It is no wonder then that their main objective was to direct this animosity towards Britain. In fact this redirection of anger was so tenuous, many of the poor in the army were forcibly enlisted and there was often mutiny, abandonment, and riots. The few who did join the army on their own will did so out of a necessity to advance their financial position - just as is done today. We likely would have lost the war if it were not for the support of France.

So this fourth of July, when you're barbecueing and drinking your beer, definately enjoy them. But remember what you are celebrating - a successful redirection of animosity at a time when real revolution may have actually been possible. For the common man, the Revolutionary War was no different than any other war. The poor have the "priveledge" and "duty" of protecting the wealth and assets of the rich. Sound familiar?

An Inconvenient Truth

Awesome. See it.

As you'll find this is not a political movie, just like Global Warming is not a political issue. Global Warming is a scientific truth and a moral issue.

the tao of physics

by fritjof capra. this book followed naturally from the holographic universe and far exceeded my expectations. in fact, it is amazing. capra is an accomplished physicist and sets out to describe the relationship between sub-atmoic particle physics and eastern mysticism. basically, the largely successful idea of classical physics and the macroscopic objects it describes completely breaks down in the sub-atomic realm. the blending of space and time, the uncertainty principle, and the interchangeability of matter and energy are likened to the ancient ideas of Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism.

of note:
*the scientific method of abstraction is very efficient and powerful, but we have to pay a price for it. As we define our systems of concepts more precisely, as we streamline it and make the connections more and more rigorous, it becomes increasingly detached from the real world.

* Einstein: "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."

*The knowledge of matter at this [subatomic] level is no longer derived from direct sensory experience, and therefor our ordinary language, which takes its images from the world of the senses, is no longer adequate to describe the observed phenomena. The Tao that can be named, is not the eternal Tao.

*At the subatomic level, matter does not exist with certainty at definite places, but rather shows 'tendencies to exist.' The solid material objects of classical physics dissolve into wave-like patterns of probabilities, and these patterns, ultimately do not represent probabilities of things, but rather probabilities of interconnections. Quantum theory thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated 'building blocks', but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole. These relations always include the observer in an essential way. The Cartesian partition between the 'I' and the world, between the observer and the observed, cannot be made when dealing with atomic physics.

* in the extremely dense nucleus of an atom, because the protons and neutrons are restricted to such a small area, they scream around at about 40,000 miles per second!

* the idea of an elementary particle, or building block should be entirely done away with, and is a holdover from an antiquated classical view.

* at the subatomic level, the solid material objects of classical physics dissolve into wave-like patterns of probabilities, and these patterns, ultimately, do not represent probabilities of things, but probabilities of interconnections. These interconnections always include the observer in an essential way.

* Quantum theory thus reveals the basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units.

* E = mc^2 matter has appeared through experiments as completely mutable; particles can be created from energy and return to energy.

* Hinduism: as long as our view of the world is fragmented, as long as we are under the spell of maya and believe that we are seperated from our environment and can act independently, we are bound by karma.

* space-time diagrams: mathematically identical interpretations yield anti-particles (positrons) moving forward in time or particles (electrons) moving backwards in time!

* Like the quantum field, Qi is conceived as a tenuous and non-perceptable form of matter which is present throughout space and can condense into solid material objects.

* the relationship of the I Ching and particle/anti-particle relationships (p. 283). modern physics and chinese thought both consider change and transformation as the primary aspect of nature, and that the structures and symmetries resultant of change are secondary.

the brooklyn bombers

comedy shows, riding the subway, actually winning $ at the horse races, eating Allison's cooking, seeing dead people, seeing collisions, playing video games, eating NY pizza, staying out late, playing the drinking man's thinking game (middlemost), and laughing till it hurts. These were just things that I did. But what made it memorable were my friends.

keep the internet free

this is so obvious i shouldn't even need to comment on it. but please, do take a quick moment to sign the petition.

fugitives and refugees

by chuck palahniuk. this guy is the author of fight club, choke, and lullaby (none of which i've actually read - yet). but he lives in portland, and this book is basically a list of things to do here, interspersed with zany stories about all the weird people in portland (there's lots). so, rather than a book review, this serves as a list of "things to do in portland"

* visit USS Blueback
* visit the self-cleaning house
* tour the underground shanghai tunnels
* watch or participate in adult soap-box derby - August 10
* drive on timberline highway: driving down from the lodge turn right under the first ski lift post.
* fire department ride-along
* monk for a month at the Trappist Abbey in Lafayette
* visit OMSI - museum of science and industry
* watch the drama at eviction court: Multonomah County Courthouse Room 120 M-F 9am
*restaurants that chuck likes: alibi, delta cafe, fuller's, le happy, western culinary institute (6 course meal for $20), wild abandon
* visit mount gleall castle: 2591 sw buckingham ave
* ride to sauvie island
* see the real knife from psycho at movie madness
* galleries: BICC at OHSC, Art Gym at Marylhurst, Cooley Gallery at Reed, Archer Gallery at Clark College.
* see the mills used for grinding my steel cut oatmeal at bob's red mill
* the smallest park in the world: mill end park at sw front and taylor
* other parks: Columbia Gorge Hotel, Maryhill Museum, bishop's close (11800 sw military lane), elk rock island, the grotto at rocky butte, the recycled gardens, rooftop sculpture garden (9th floor mark o. hatfield courthouse).

the holographic universe

by michael talbot. this is a fun forray into the grand theory of everything. basically, everything is a hologram acording to physicist David Bohm ("Wholeness and the Implicate Order"): waves interfere with each other to form images, objects, everything. that which we can perceive is the explicate order and that which we cannot is the implicate. the implicate contains the explicate, and the boundaries are also constantly wavering. the interesting thing about a hologram is that every part of the hologram contains all parts of itself. therefore if you take a piece of holographic film and split it in half, the image does not split, but remains as two whole images. the results are quite profound: the normal distinctions we draw don't actually exist. you and i don't exist as separate entities but are just an interference pattern from the same cosmic unity. moreover, time doesn't exist in the linear sense that we think it does, the "past" and "future" are equally accessible as the present.

talbot starts from the interesting results of quantum mechanics (nonlocality, uncertainty, conscious observer effect) and moves on to note findings in not only physics, but neurobiology, dreaming, psychokinesis, near death experiences, out of body experiences, religious miracles, reincarnation, psychic powers, and even ghosts. see? fun! what's more interesting is that people are starting to study things like psychokinesis and the results are startling - it seems that we all have the ability (at least to some degree) to control and effect the world around us with our beliefs and minds.

moreover, there is a bias or trend in science to discount these experiences as not testable or verifiable, which means they are often not studied or simply ignored. it has also been shown that the belief of the scientist running the "new agey" experiments influences the actual results of the experiment. children often experience these "other dimensions" more often than adults perhaps because adults have had so much conditioning as to what "is possible."

some interesting notes:
*an ink drop spun in a glycerine tube undergoes reverse entropy
* stigmata is manifest through deep belief: stigmatists portray wounds on the palms instead of the more accurate location of the wrists. this is likely due to artistic interpretation of crucifiction occuring on the palm.
*when we dream, we typically have access to information that is beyond our waking knowledge (i.e., we can learn new things when dreaming).
*in chinese medicine, the method of mapping the entire body to the foot, or the ear is an example of a hologram
* people being able to see with with the tips of their fingers, ear lobes, tip of the nose, and even, yes, armpits.
* Immanuel Kant's *Dreams of a Spirit-Seer* an account of Swedenborg: "we are constituted by the intersection of two flows: one direct from the divine, and one indirect from the divine through our environment."
* The Conibo Indians of the Peruvian Amazon use of ayahuasca ("soul vine") - a hallucinogenic plant that when taken transports even lay people to exceedingly similar dimensions that the Conibo shamans visit regularly.

Personality Test

these are fun. and probably meaningless.

Extraversion |||||||||||| 46%
Stability |||||||||||| 50%
Orderliness |||||||||||||| 60%
Accommodation |||||||||||||||| 63%
Interdependence |||||||||||||||| 70%
Intellectual |||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Mystical |||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Artistic |||||||||| 36%
Religious |||||||||||| 43%
Hedonism |||| 16%
Materialism |||||| 30%
Narcissism |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Adventurousness |||||||||||||||| 70%
Work ethic |||||||||||| 50%
Self absorbed |||||||||||| 43%
Conflict seeking |||||| 30%
Need to dominate |||||| 30%

Romantic |||||||||||||||| 70%
Avoidant |||||||||||||||| 63%
Anti-authority |||||| 30%
Wealth |||||||||||| 50%
Dependency |||||||||| 36%
Change averse |||||||||| 36%
Cautiousness |||||| 30%
Individuality |||||| 23%
Sexuality |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Peter pan complex |||||||||||| 50%
Physical security |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Physical fitness |||||||||||||||||||| 84%
Histrionic |||||||||||| 43%
Paranoia |||||||||||| 43%
Vanity |||||||||||||| 56%
Hypersensitivity |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Female cliche |||| 16%

Siddhartha

"I am telling you what I have discovered. Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it. In every truth the opposite is equally true. A truth can only be expressed and enveloped in words if it is one-sided. Everything that is thought and expressed in words is one-sided, only half the truth; it all lacks totality, completeness, unity. But the world around us, is never one sided. Never is a man or a deed wholly Samsara or wholly Nirvana; never is a man wholly a saint or a sinner. This only seems so because we suffer the illusion that time is something real. Time is not real."

3rd anniversary

The Iraq War began four years ago March 18th. Here are the numbers:

Minimum Iraqi Dead: 33638
American Dead: 2311

Total Minimum Dead: 35,949

Portland is holding protests on March 19 and I intend on joining them. If you don't support this war, I encourage you to get out in your town and vote with your feet. Stand up and be counted and call for change.

it's getting hot in here...

Probably the single most atrocious act the Bush administration has committed is ignoring the worldwide scientific evidence that the world is warming up, it is our fault , and we're not doing anything about it.. It's not sad that we will cease to exist as a species. Everything that lives must die. What is sad is that if we and the rest of the planet cease to exist because we didn't change our behavior to be more in tune with the laws of nature and we could have done so. Don't wait for the government to sign on to these treaties. Don't wait for Ford to come out with a green car. Take action, yourself, now.

why we fight

a film by Eugene Jarecki. This documentary explores the idea that America is controlled by what President Eisenhower saw as a growing "industrial-military complex." That is, since WWII America has used the industrial revolution primarily to build the biggest army in the history of the world. This is not news. What is interesting about this film is how it explores the motivation for war from a business perspective (the defense industry operates on an average profit margin of 25% and is rife with sweetheart deals) and the ideologies that purport that America should be the lone super-power in the world. Most Americans don't know why we are at war in Iraq, yet it is tolerated. Just as it was tolerated in any previous war - the original reasons for going to war eventually evaporate in a cloud of lies and secrecy.

Who is to blame? We are, essentially. We elect congress and they sit idly, ignoring these problems. So called "liberal democrats" constantly support funding of defense contractors because their constituents are employed by these same contracts. The contractors intentionally distribute the manufacture of their goods across the states to build political clout.

The federal budget for 2007 is 2.2 trillion dollars. Depending on what you're counting as military expenditure (and I'm inclined to agree with the latter number) somewhere between 20-50% of federal taxes are spent on the military. I pay $246 a month in federal taxes. This means that I'm donating somewhere between $50 - $123 a month to kill and influence people. That makes me physically ill.

The real reason we're in Iraq? To extend American imperialism. How does one do that? Insure that the military remains strong. Iraq is a strategic target in that it contains the world's second largest oil reserves. This oil is for your cars, sure, but its also to secure our place as the number one super-power. If the oil goes away, so does the ability for us to operate our armed forces.

What are we afraid of? What do we think will be taken away from us if we are suddenly not the superpower we are now?

If you disagree with me, you should be able to answer this question.

Cal Rugby!

A funny thing happened when I was in New Zealand hitch-hiking around the south island. I was standing literally in the middle of nowhere. There was a car about every 30 minutes and I wasn't getting picked up. After an hour (although you wouldn't bat an eye at an 0-2 record in the states, its worth mentioning that the kiwis always pick you up), this small RV pulls up and two americans ask where i'm headed. We're going to the same place so I jump in. These two guys turn out to go to Cal and are on the Rugby team! Even when you're down under its a small world. I'll hopefully be in seattle at the end of march to watch them cream washington.

Here's their schedule.

administration spying

so, i'm concerned about all this hubub about the administration spying without warrants. i'm not a lawyer. i have no idea whether it was illegal or not, and at some point that will be decided. but i do know that if it isn't illegal, it sure as hell should be. we have these checks and balances in place for a purpose, and the spirit of the law as i understand it is that this type of warantless spying should be illegal. if there was a loophole that was exploited i sure hope we close it. and quick.

still life with woodpecker

by tom robbins. this has truly been a year of tom robbins. and he is genius. still. this is my friend sam's favorite book of all time and i read it on his recommendation. it did not disappoint. there are a lot of really great nuggets in here, and i bookmarked many pages to remind me, but instead of quoting them all i'll just say go read it your damn self and be your own explorer. its better when we're told that there's gold in them thar hills and we risk finding it ourselves. even if it turns out to be fool's gold.