I’ve been neglecting Zen recently, so this being Christmas and all, it’s time to get back to it.
One of the most interesting places I’ve ever visited is Mount Koya [Koya-San - Mr Koya] in Japan. Beginning with a single monastery in the year 819, the Buddhist community on Mount Koya (in central Honshu) grew and spread into a fantastic agglomeration of temples and monasteries.
Considering that Buddhism is a philosophy and a way of life that advocates individuals looking within for truth and enlightenment, it might be asked why on earth so many Buddhists would want or need to gather together in one place.
It seems logical to me to consider that Buddhism is a kind of anarcho-syndicalism in practice - where individuals reject the notion of a ‘god’ and some higher external authority, they take responsibility for their own individual decisions and actions, but they find it useful and practical to band together in sects or syndicates to develop and pursue their various beliefs, teachings, rituals, etc.
There’s also a security and self-defence aspect. Living on a semi-remote mountain, or for that matter, within any walled and gated community, would provide some degree of safety, in times that could be hazardous and perilous.
Anarchists and Buddhists are essentially non-violent, peaceful individuals, who reject the idea of aggression and harming others. They even reject the notion of harming animals, insects, etc. However, when it comes to self-defence, Buddhists developed the martial arts, which have a very spiritual basis and can never be used for aggression and domination, if you’re a true Buddhist.
Clearly it makes sense in certain circumstances to join with one’s fellows in order to provide protection against bands of lawless and dangerous outlaws. Hence the need for syndicates. It makes a lot of sense for individuals to learn the principles and practices of Buddhist philosophy together in groups, under the tutelage of spiritual leaders, and it makes sense for those who have graduated to work together in groups to spread their philosophy.
It was very interesting this year to witness the mass demonstrations led by Buddhist monks and nuns in both Burma and Tibet as they attempted to shame the authorities into allowing them more freedom and civil rights. These mass movements, or attempts at revolution, if you will, remained peaceful and orderly - at least on the side of the Buddhists.
They may not have reached their objectives by such methods, but they were very effective in calling attention to their grievances and raising consciousness. But the revolution must be peaceful, otherwise it is gained by illegitimate means. True anarchists have the same beliefs and practices - they do not seek to impose their beliefs on others, and they refuse to bow to the beliefs of others. An anarcho-syndicalist believes in bonding and peaceful association with like-minded others, not the violent overthrow of a system.
In the USA this year a mass movement was mobilized to support a peaceful revolution that was led by Barack Obama. People who had never joined a political party, and often never even voted before, got together to raise funds, raise awareness, and ensure that the masses voted against the Republican movement that has done so much to damage and destroy peace and wellbeing in the world.
Obama’s peaceful revolution has been an astonishing event. Virtually no-one had previously believed that a black man with obviously liberal views, who had voted against the invasion of Iraq and denounced the notion of a ‘war on terror’, could possibly be elected in a brainwashed and propagandized America. But it happened. So the people weren’t so brainwashed after all. There’s hope, after all. We’ll soon see what it all really means in practice.
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The word ‘gore’ interests me. Collins says it may be derived from the Old English ‘gar’, meaning spear. But the definitions are all to do with blood and violent stabbing. And yet Gore Vidal chose it for his first name, probably for his own sardonic and amused reasons, as discussed in the last blog - because he liked the play on (Russian) words, as well as the link with his family.
The first time I stopped to think about ‘gore’ as a concept was when Arlo Guthrie, son of the great Woody, working class hero and inspirer of Bob Dylan, used it in his track ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ back in the 60’s. The track he recorded is really a monologue about how he was called up to serve as a soldier in Viet-Nam and how he went about being interviewed for the draft.
I walked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper which said, "Kid, see the psychiatrist, room 604."
And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I
wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and
guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill,
KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and
he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down
yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me,
sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."
Didn't feel too good about it.
To find out how the story ends visit:
http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/alices.shtml
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Last Word on God
This is just to mention that last week the Today programme on Radio 4 had someone doing Thought For The Day who talked about the need for religion to act as a corrective to people’s tendency to self-delusion, when they become too full of feelings of omnipotence, possibly as a result of having too much political power.
Well a fat lot of good it did for both W and Blair, who both believed that God spoke to them directly, and presumably told them it was right to bomb and invade Iraq, killing thousands of innocents in the process, and starting a societal breakdown that’s still harming thousands, and affecting the wellbeing of millions, every day. We’ll never forget Blair’s “I did what I thought was right”. Never mind what anyone else thought, or how many got killed and wounded.
The speaker was completely without irony, and it was as though he’d never come across Dawkins’ The God Delusion. Self delusion is bad enough, but deluding oneself with God is even worse.
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The Pope (aged 81) has been having a rant. The man’s an inspiration for us anti-ageists. You may not be able to think as logically and intelligently as you get older, but by God you can still have a damn good rant.
According to the BBC website:
Pope Benedict XVI has said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.
He explained that defending God's creation was not limited to saving the environment, but also protecting man from self-destruction.
The pope was delivering his end-of-year address to senior Vatican staff.
His words, later released to the media, emphasised his total rejection of gender theory.
Pope Benedict XVI warned that gender theory blurs the distinction between male and female and could thus lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.
So here we are, on a planet that has an increasingly unsustainable population, and this nutter is banging on about the human race dying out unless we can somehow prevent people being, or becoming, homosexual.
Aaaargh! Where do you even start on this?
The Today programme interviewed the editor of the Catholic Herald, who might have been expected to say, well look, the message has been mistranslated . . . He didn’t actually say . . .
But no. She banged on even more insanely:
“We’re dying!” “There’s not enough children being born!” “Biological truth!” “Christian wisdom!”
I love this idea of Christians having a very special kind of wisdom that the rest of us can’t access. What a fucking arrogant ignoramus.
So there we have it - all you gays had better get busy fucking one another and having babies, or the human race is doomed. Doomed!
This is the best Christmas message ever. Proof positive that Christians are led by total crackpots who are even more barking than the dog next door.
Later in the programme Jarvis Cocker did a brief interview with Richard Dawkins, who said, “The human imagination can do a lot better than the invention of God”. I love that man.
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Today featured another complete crackpot in the form of the American ambassador, Mr Tuttle. His job was to support the notion that George W is leaving the presidency ‘with his head held high’.
So this is the way it’s going to be with the Right from now on - a cast-iron belief that W was a good president who brought democracy to the Middle East, did more to combat Aids in Africa than anyone else, and brought unprecedented prosperity to the people of the USA.
The interviewer put it to him that the USA is now trillions of dollars in debt, has a ruined economy, a busted financial system, huge unemployment, and has inflicted financial collapse and ruination on the rest of the world. It made no difference - the man stuck to his mantra, and clearly will do so for evermore.
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