.
More quotations from Christmas Humphries.
Zen is the apotheosis of Buddhism. This direct assault upon the citadel of Truth, without reliance upon concepts (of God or soul or salvation), or the use of scripture, ritual or vow, is unique.
So fierce, indeed, is the Zen technique, and so scornful of the usual apparatus of religion, that it has been doubted whether Zen is a Buddhist School at all. The task in hand is the breaking down of the bars of the intellect that the mind may be freed for the light of Enlightenment.
In Zen the familiar props of religion are cast away. The purpose of Zen is to pass beyond the intellect. The intellect has its uses and it is an essential faculty of the human mind. But just as the emotions have their use and abuse, their range of usefulness and a limit to that range, so the intellect, by which men reach to the stars in science and philosophy, must pause and fail at the gates of spiritual knowledge. For the intellect can learn about it but can never, as the finest intellects discover, KNOW.
What KNOWS? The answer is Buddhi, the faculty of direct awareness [intuition, metaphysical or spiritual intelligence]. The intellect is itself a device or means, and Zen is the way of direct enlightenment. All must be freely abandoned before the seeker finds. Even the fact of seeking, and the will to find.
Bodhidharma, known as Daruma in Japan, expressed his teaching in four lines of verse:
A special transmission outside the Scriptures;
No dependence on words and letters;
Direct pointing to the soul of man;
Seeing into one’s own nature.
First the intellect must be transcended - for it is where the intellect pauses, baffled and at bay, that Zen begins. The intellect is a developed instrument for the use of knowledge, but only the senses and the intuition acquire knowledge at first hand. The thought-machine, therefore, too easily becomes a cage, a workshop for the handling of second-hand material.
Just as the senses acquire direct experience by touch and taste and the like [what I would call feelings], so Buddhi, intuition, acquires direct experience [often through those ‘feelings’ - often through feeling awe and wonder in response to sensory stimulus] and KNOWS.
In the ideal process of development, this higher faculty [Buddhi] increasingly illumines the thinking mind; in usual practice the intellect claims a final validity and closes its doors to direct experience. Hence Zen is largely a breaking into the closed doors of the human mind to let the light without flood in, and any and every process that will shock the mind into such an opening is useful and may be used.
Zen has produced its own techniques for the sudden path to Satori, the Zen name for Enlightenment. The two most famous devices of Rinzai Zen (less used in the Soto branch) are the MONDO, a form of rapid question and answer between Master and pupil, and the KOAN, a compressed form of mondo - a question, word or phrase that is insoluble by or unintelligible to the intellect. [e.g. What’s the sound of one hand clapping? Most of the questions we ask ourselves are pretty stupid. ‘Why am I here?’ Duh! ‘What is God?’]
‘How shall I escape from the wheel of birth and death?’ asked a pupil? The Master asked in reply, ‘Who puts you under restraint?’ A laugh, an oath, a shout, a shaking, even a blow may do what years of ‘meditation’ have failed to achieve.
Asked why he meditated all day long, a pupil replied that he desired to become a Buddha. The Master picked up a brick and began to rub it. Asked what he was doing he explained that he wished to make a mirror. ‘But no amount of polishing will make a mirror!’ ‘If so, no amount of sitting cross-legged will make thee a Buddha’, was the deep reply.
[Mondos and Koans tend to produce dialogue or interactions that appear to be basically nonsense - that is non-sense - which is the essence of Zen. Intuition and direct experience - metaphysical intelligence - are ways of directly KNOWING that don’t require mediation by ‘sense’ - meaning intellectual or verbal or conceptual or analytical means.]
Sense is the product of reasoning and logic, of the laws of thought; Zen roars with laughter at all of them. Zen is the joke in a joke, and cannot, like a joke, be ‘explained’. It is the life within the form; it is that which reasoning tries to enshrine and frequently strangles. It is the river of life that cares not for the palaces of thought, the dictionaries and definitions, the understanding or the decisions of those upon its banks.
Zen technique, therefore, is like an explosive, designed to break the log-jam in the river, to let the waters flow freely, and all who flow with them ride free.
Theravada Buddhist philosophy is all arranged in three of this and four of that with a twelve-fold Chain of Causation. Very neat, says the Zen practitioner, but as Dr Suzuki says, ‘The Buddha was not the mere discoverer of the Twelvefold Chain of Causation: he took the chain in his hands and broke it into pieces, so that it would never again bind him to slavery’. In Zen the emphasis is on the breaking and not on the chain.
All objects, of thought or emotion, whether things we touch or the things that stand in our mental way, must sooner or later be smashed and removed. As the Master Rinzai himself proclaimed, ‘Do not get yourself entangled with any object, but stand above, pass on, and be free’. All phrases, dogmas, formulas; all schools and codes; all systems of thought and philosophy, all ‘isms’ including Buddhism, all these are means to the end of KNOWING, and easily become [though are not easily perceived as] obstacles in the way.
Zen technique is designed to develop the mind to the limits of thought and then to drive it to the verge of the precipice, where thought can go no further. Why not go over? For only then can WE go on, and progress is a walking on and on to the Goal.
It is true that at a later stage one learns that there is no walking and no Goal, but that is Zen . . . . Meanwhile, until we achieve the goal of purposelessness, let us have this purpose: Said the Master Ummon to his monks, ‘If you walk, just walk; if you sit, just sit. But don’t wobble!’
[The Zen attitude is that we need to focus in the Now, and give our full attention to whatever we are doing, so as to do it, whatever it is, properly. The assumption is that we only choose to do the things in life that are important and necessary to us at a given time, and we should cease to endlessly worry about things we’ve done in the past, or may do in the future. ‘By our actions you shall know us’, and we should ensure that our actions are proper and good, even if they are only walking or sitting. We can’t change the past, we can’t control the future, but we can be mindful of ourselves from moment to moment, and ensure that our lives are well lived in the present.]
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Layer 13 More Thoughts On Buddhism
It now seems incredible to me that our education system does not insist that we all need a thorough understanding of Buddhism - its ideas, beliefs and practices. It seems self-evident that we should all be able to benefit from its philosophy, psychology and day to day practices, especially meditation.
As an educationalist I take a different approach to learning about Buddhism, and especially Zen, than that normally taken by religious ‘believers’. Young people in particular should not be subjected to any form of indoctrination by adherents to a particular faith. In any case they don’t in general have any inclination to sit for long hours of ‘instruction’, and they don’t have the time or inclination to read complicated textbooks on what appear to be esoteric matters beyond their own experience or interest.
What I see the need for is initially some sort of concise overview of the key ideas of Zen or Buddhism in general, which ought to stimulate the novice to undertake further enquiries and studies. If the summary or overview fails to do this, then clearly the reader is not ready for further exploration. But we do need to provide short, stimulating texts that will hopefully whet the appetite to find out more.
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To begin with, we need to understand the role of intuition, using processes of direct experience and meditation, in developing and expanding metaphysical or spiritual intelligence.
What Buddhists call Buddhi is a faculty - call it intuition - that has the power of direct dynamic spiritual awareness [or metaphysical intelligence], unfiltered by the intellect and its bewildering myriad of helpful and unhelpful words and concepts. Ultimately words, as human constructs, can mean whatever we want them to mean. Wisdom and enlightenment, which are eternal and immutable and lie beyond the intellect, are acquired from Buddhi.
Where is the opportunity to acquire wisdom and enlightenment in our schools and colleges?
To be a Buddha is to be Awakened, Enlightened, made Aware. Which of us wouldn’t aspire to this, or aspire to even a small degree of spiritual awareness, wisdom or intelligence? But how many are fortunate enough to have spiritual intelligence as part of their school or college curricula? Is learning ‘about’ morality and religion actually contributing to the development of “direct dynamic spiritual awareness”? Of course not.
Satori (the Zen word for spiritual experience), and Samadhi (the last step on the Noble Eightfold Path) are steps on the way to enlightenment and wisdom. Nirvana (or Nibbana) is its human goal.
“Yet beyond [Nirvana] lies Parinirvana, for Buddhism is a process of becoming, and admits no conceivable end.” (Humphries)
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More quotes from Christmas Humphries:
It is the criterion of all Buddhist teaching that it conduces to the achievement of Enlightenment.
Bodhi, supreme Wisdom (Maha Bodhi), is the purpose of all study, of all morality, of all attempts at self-development. It is for this that the false and separative self is slain and the true Self steadily developed; it is the sole end of all progress on the Eightfold Path; it is the Buddh in Buddhism.
In the end each living thing will achieve Enlightenment. This is the hope and the promise of Buddhism. All study and attempted practice that loses sight of this ultimate, supreme experience may be useful, but it is not Buddhism.
‘Our essence of mind is intrinsically pure’, according to the Patriarch Hui-neng. ‘All things are only its manifestations, and good deeds and evil deeds are only the result of good thoughts and evil thoughts respectively.’ Imagination, thought and willpower make deeds, and by our deeds we make ourselves. ‘All that we are is the result of our thoughts; it is founded on our thoughts, and is made up of them.’
To Buddhists, therefore, all weight and emphasis is on the mind, and none on circumstance. ‘Our mind should stand aloof from circumstances, and on no account should we allow circumstances to influence the function of our mind.’ All value lies in the mind.
To the Buddhist the moment alone is of supreme importance; all speculation and all conceptual belief are therefore valueless until made real.
[We should be valued by others and learn to value ourselves for our day to day actions and deeds. There is no point in dwelling upon or speculating about the past or the future. Only in the Now can we find joy and satori, and contribute to the joy and satori of others.]
Now is the moment of salvation, of the making an end of suffering. ‘Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof’, and its undoing.
Life is a bridge - build no house upon it; it is a river - cling not to its banks; a gymnasium - use it to develop the mind on the apparatus of circumstance; a journey - take it and walk on!
It is hard indeed to focus on infinity, and all men have at times preferred to focus on something just so much ahead of them, and not too far. Hence thoughts of Gods and gods, Saints and Saviours.
And yet, the Void is already full. It is filled with Tao or Zen or Life or Light. These names are man-made noises for the Infinite. ‘The Light is within thee’, said the Egyptian Hierophants; ‘Let the Light shine’.
The Mahayana stands upon the twin pillars of Wisdom and Compassion, of Law which manifests as justice, and Love which proves as mercy. Yet ‘Love is the fulfilling of the Law’, and like light and darkness, male and female, life and form, the two are ultimately and immediately One. [Yin & Yang. Justice is the dark side of love. Those who fail to love, those who hurt others, can expect to reap what they sow. Karma will return to them their lack of Loving-kindness, manifesting as some kind of self-punishment, as it were.]
Cause and effect are one, though we see the two sides of the coin in the relative illusion of time. For causation is only interrelation expanded into the ‘past’, ‘present’, and ‘future’ for convenience of our understanding.
Each must perfect himself, his own brief vortex in the flow of life; each is responsible for the changing complex of attributes called Self which grows only as the craving ‘ego’ dies.
‘Work out your own salvation with diligence’, said the Buddha. How? It is immaterial. The mountain peak is indifferent to the path by which men climb.
[As is the peak of Maslow’s pyramid!]
There is the soft way of Shin Buddhism. There is the harder road of the Theravada, with its Right Understanding and Right Action. Then there is the hardest (because the straightest) road of Zen - the direct road up the mountain-side. Meanwhile, for the vast majority of men, there is no road at all, only the drift of suffering minds.
The implications of the doctrine of Karma (Cause-Effect) are vast, and frightening to all but the strongest mind. If all that we are is the result of what we have thought [and done], then all that we shall be is the result of what we are thinking now [and what we do].
We are building now our tomorrow, creating hour by hour our heaven or hell. There is no such thing as luck or chance, and no such thing as fate. We are predestined now by the previous exercise of our own freewill. The world of time and space is seen as the workshop of an individual character.
[The so-called self] contains no single permanent factor, nor anything resembling a changeless and immortal ‘soul’. The evolving consciousness achieves successive states of spiritual development [or intelligence].
The Four Noble Truths concern the omnipresence of suffering; its cause (selfish desire); its cure (elimination of that separative desire); and the way to this removal. ‘Cease to do evil; learn to do good; cleanse your own heart’ - this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
There is no word of faith [in Buddhism], save that which a man has in a guide who tells him of a journey and a goal and a way to it; no word of a Saviour who will make that journey for him. Each must develop his own mind. There is no instrument yet invented that can do more than the mind of man can do when its powers are fully developed.
The purpose of Buddhism is to attain enlightenment, and in the lower stages of the climb all means and devices are legitimate, to be discarded when their use is ended. (Like a raft after crossing a river on it, to mix the metaphor.)
There comes a time, however, when all devices are seen as hindrances, and even the Scriptures are fetters about the awakening mind. Authority is a term which daily lessens in meaning, and the sole criterion of all value passes within. The faculty of Buddhi (intuition) slowly but steadily awakens, and the world of discrimination, which lives by the dreary comparison of opposites, is steadily left behind.
Tolerance widens, compassion deepens, serenity becomes a constant companion which neither the passions nor the problems of the human mind disturb. Certainty comes with intuitive awareness, and though sorrow still be the portion of the ever-returning night, joy as certainly comes with the morning.
The developed will begins to take the hill straight. The veils fall steadily and there comes an increasing awareness of that which lies beyond all veils. The ‘three fires’of greed, anger and illusion begin to die for want of fuelling. The stream is entered and all effort becomes increasingly ‘right’ effort.
In brief, the faculty of Buddhi [spiritual intelligence] is awakening, and the fact that it dwells in all [of us] and needs but awakening is cardinal to Buddhism. ‘So far as Buddha-nature is concerned, there is no difference between an enlightened man and an ignorant one. What makes the difference is that one realises it while the other is ignorant of it.’ (The Sutra of Wei Lang.)
In the words of The Voice of the Silence, ‘ Seek in the impersonal for the eternal man, and having sought him out, look inward - thou art Buddha!’
The process of becoming is a circle; the process of becoming more, of growth, is a spiral, either up or down according as the growth is towards or away from wholeness. Buddhism begins with the Buddha’s Enlightenment and ends with man’s.
And the final goal? We know not, nor is it yet, or likely to be for aeons to come, our immediate concern. The faint of heart will ever seek some resting-place, some weak finality; for the strong, the first and the last word is and ever more will be - Walk On!
As an educationalist I take a different approach to learning about Buddhism, and especially Zen, than that normally taken by religious ‘believers’. Young people in particular should not be subjected to any form of indoctrination by adherents to a particular faith. In any case they don’t in general have any inclination to sit for long hours of ‘instruction’, and they don’t have the time or inclination to read complicated textbooks on what appear to be esoteric matters beyond their own experience or interest.
What I see the need for is initially some sort of concise overview of the key ideas of Zen or Buddhism in general, which ought to stimulate the novice to undertake further enquiries and studies. If the summary or overview fails to do this, then clearly the reader is not ready for further exploration. But we do need to provide short, stimulating texts that will hopefully whet the appetite to find out more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To begin with, we need to understand the role of intuition, using processes of direct experience and meditation, in developing and expanding metaphysical or spiritual intelligence.
What Buddhists call Buddhi is a faculty - call it intuition - that has the power of direct dynamic spiritual awareness [or metaphysical intelligence], unfiltered by the intellect and its bewildering myriad of helpful and unhelpful words and concepts. Ultimately words, as human constructs, can mean whatever we want them to mean. Wisdom and enlightenment, which are eternal and immutable and lie beyond the intellect, are acquired from Buddhi.
Where is the opportunity to acquire wisdom and enlightenment in our schools and colleges?
To be a Buddha is to be Awakened, Enlightened, made Aware. Which of us wouldn’t aspire to this, or aspire to even a small degree of spiritual awareness, wisdom or intelligence? But how many are fortunate enough to have spiritual intelligence as part of their school or college curricula? Is learning ‘about’ morality and religion actually contributing to the development of “direct dynamic spiritual awareness”? Of course not.
Satori (the Zen word for spiritual experience), and Samadhi (the last step on the Noble Eightfold Path) are steps on the way to enlightenment and wisdom. Nirvana (or Nibbana) is its human goal.
“Yet beyond [Nirvana] lies Parinirvana, for Buddhism is a process of becoming, and admits no conceivable end.” (Humphries)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
More quotes from Christmas Humphries:
It is the criterion of all Buddhist teaching that it conduces to the achievement of Enlightenment.
Bodhi, supreme Wisdom (Maha Bodhi), is the purpose of all study, of all morality, of all attempts at self-development. It is for this that the false and separative self is slain and the true Self steadily developed; it is the sole end of all progress on the Eightfold Path; it is the Buddh in Buddhism.
In the end each living thing will achieve Enlightenment. This is the hope and the promise of Buddhism. All study and attempted practice that loses sight of this ultimate, supreme experience may be useful, but it is not Buddhism.
‘Our essence of mind is intrinsically pure’, according to the Patriarch Hui-neng. ‘All things are only its manifestations, and good deeds and evil deeds are only the result of good thoughts and evil thoughts respectively.’ Imagination, thought and willpower make deeds, and by our deeds we make ourselves. ‘All that we are is the result of our thoughts; it is founded on our thoughts, and is made up of them.’
To Buddhists, therefore, all weight and emphasis is on the mind, and none on circumstance. ‘Our mind should stand aloof from circumstances, and on no account should we allow circumstances to influence the function of our mind.’ All value lies in the mind.
To the Buddhist the moment alone is of supreme importance; all speculation and all conceptual belief are therefore valueless until made real.
[We should be valued by others and learn to value ourselves for our day to day actions and deeds. There is no point in dwelling upon or speculating about the past or the future. Only in the Now can we find joy and satori, and contribute to the joy and satori of others.]
Now is the moment of salvation, of the making an end of suffering. ‘Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof’, and its undoing.
Life is a bridge - build no house upon it; it is a river - cling not to its banks; a gymnasium - use it to develop the mind on the apparatus of circumstance; a journey - take it and walk on!
It is hard indeed to focus on infinity, and all men have at times preferred to focus on something just so much ahead of them, and not too far. Hence thoughts of Gods and gods, Saints and Saviours.
And yet, the Void is already full. It is filled with Tao or Zen or Life or Light. These names are man-made noises for the Infinite. ‘The Light is within thee’, said the Egyptian Hierophants; ‘Let the Light shine’.
The Mahayana stands upon the twin pillars of Wisdom and Compassion, of Law which manifests as justice, and Love which proves as mercy. Yet ‘Love is the fulfilling of the Law’, and like light and darkness, male and female, life and form, the two are ultimately and immediately One. [Yin & Yang. Justice is the dark side of love. Those who fail to love, those who hurt others, can expect to reap what they sow. Karma will return to them their lack of Loving-kindness, manifesting as some kind of self-punishment, as it were.]
Cause and effect are one, though we see the two sides of the coin in the relative illusion of time. For causation is only interrelation expanded into the ‘past’, ‘present’, and ‘future’ for convenience of our understanding.
Each must perfect himself, his own brief vortex in the flow of life; each is responsible for the changing complex of attributes called Self which grows only as the craving ‘ego’ dies.
‘Work out your own salvation with diligence’, said the Buddha. How? It is immaterial. The mountain peak is indifferent to the path by which men climb.
[As is the peak of Maslow’s pyramid!]
There is the soft way of Shin Buddhism. There is the harder road of the Theravada, with its Right Understanding and Right Action. Then there is the hardest (because the straightest) road of Zen - the direct road up the mountain-side. Meanwhile, for the vast majority of men, there is no road at all, only the drift of suffering minds.
The implications of the doctrine of Karma (Cause-Effect) are vast, and frightening to all but the strongest mind. If all that we are is the result of what we have thought [and done], then all that we shall be is the result of what we are thinking now [and what we do].
We are building now our tomorrow, creating hour by hour our heaven or hell. There is no such thing as luck or chance, and no such thing as fate. We are predestined now by the previous exercise of our own freewill. The world of time and space is seen as the workshop of an individual character.
[The so-called self] contains no single permanent factor, nor anything resembling a changeless and immortal ‘soul’. The evolving consciousness achieves successive states of spiritual development [or intelligence].
The Four Noble Truths concern the omnipresence of suffering; its cause (selfish desire); its cure (elimination of that separative desire); and the way to this removal. ‘Cease to do evil; learn to do good; cleanse your own heart’ - this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
There is no word of faith [in Buddhism], save that which a man has in a guide who tells him of a journey and a goal and a way to it; no word of a Saviour who will make that journey for him. Each must develop his own mind. There is no instrument yet invented that can do more than the mind of man can do when its powers are fully developed.
The purpose of Buddhism is to attain enlightenment, and in the lower stages of the climb all means and devices are legitimate, to be discarded when their use is ended. (Like a raft after crossing a river on it, to mix the metaphor.)
There comes a time, however, when all devices are seen as hindrances, and even the Scriptures are fetters about the awakening mind. Authority is a term which daily lessens in meaning, and the sole criterion of all value passes within. The faculty of Buddhi (intuition) slowly but steadily awakens, and the world of discrimination, which lives by the dreary comparison of opposites, is steadily left behind.
Tolerance widens, compassion deepens, serenity becomes a constant companion which neither the passions nor the problems of the human mind disturb. Certainty comes with intuitive awareness, and though sorrow still be the portion of the ever-returning night, joy as certainly comes with the morning.
The developed will begins to take the hill straight. The veils fall steadily and there comes an increasing awareness of that which lies beyond all veils. The ‘three fires’of greed, anger and illusion begin to die for want of fuelling. The stream is entered and all effort becomes increasingly ‘right’ effort.
In brief, the faculty of Buddhi [spiritual intelligence] is awakening, and the fact that it dwells in all [of us] and needs but awakening is cardinal to Buddhism. ‘So far as Buddha-nature is concerned, there is no difference between an enlightened man and an ignorant one. What makes the difference is that one realises it while the other is ignorant of it.’ (The Sutra of Wei Lang.)
In the words of The Voice of the Silence, ‘ Seek in the impersonal for the eternal man, and having sought him out, look inward - thou art Buddha!’
The process of becoming is a circle; the process of becoming more, of growth, is a spiral, either up or down according as the growth is towards or away from wholeness. Buddhism begins with the Buddha’s Enlightenment and ends with man’s.
And the final goal? We know not, nor is it yet, or likely to be for aeons to come, our immediate concern. The faint of heart will ever seek some resting-place, some weak finality; for the strong, the first and the last word is and ever more will be - Walk On!
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Layer 12 Buddhi, Can You Spare A Dime? Who's Missing?
.
Today - on Radio 4
Thought for the Day
The Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sachs.
Passover - the Exodus.
Children have suffered badly in the modern world. They suffer the effects of an appalling rise in depressive illness, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, and other stress-related syndromes among the young. There are more than 3 million children who live in poverty in Britain, even in this age of affluence.
There’s another kind of child poverty - emotional and psychological, says JS. Children need their parents’ time more than they need money. They need their parents’ attention more than they need computer screens and video games. They need values and a sense of identity more than mobile phones and credit cards.
The average child spends 35 hours a week looking at a screen, but only 35 minutes a week talking to their father. Those that value lifeless things eventually become lifeless. Only civilisations and cultures that cherish the young, stay young.
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I’d go further than the Chief Rabbi and say that since children spend so many hours per week in schools, it’s crucial that schools are the place where they get quality time and attention.
They need positive interaction with adults and children alike, opportunities for communication and collaboration, and an atmosphere of caring and trust. They need all these things far more than they need sitting passively in silence, attention focused on the teacher at the front, desperately being drilled towards better test results.
Emotional deprivation and abuse goes on in too many schools, mainly because of the corrosive effects of pressure for higher test scores. The curriculum and the ability to perform in tests are now all that matters. Those who suggest we should be ‘child-centred’ are regarded as dinosaurs and idiots, if not actual loonies.
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Enemies of Mankind
Tyranny, poverty, disease and war are the 4 common enemies of mankind, according to the late John F Kennedy. G. Brown is calling on Americans to remember these words and engage with these enemies. Meanwhile, 30% of children in Britain are officially living below the poverty line, whilst the richest and fattest in our society have got richer and fatter under his economic policies. More on happiness and inequality below. And don’t even mention the war.
Brown wants the US to lead the ‘remaking’ of global institutions - the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, etc. Brown at least seems to recognise that tackling the causes of poverty, disease, tyranny, anger and resentment is more important than and more effective than trying to contain and deal with their effects.
America, however, according to informed opinion, cares not a fig for the impoverished and the wretched of the earth and will continue to use its incredible wealth and power mainly and essentially to fight its ‘war on terror’ and combat its declared enemies, principally Islamists and leftists. No time or money there for greater equality and fairness in the world. What we have is ours. I got mine. I’m keeping it. I may have stolen and embezzled a lot of it in the first place, but I’m planning to grab a whole lot more of it whenever and wherever I can. So fuck you.
Remember - world illiteracy could be eliminated for the cost of two weeks’ operations by American forces and ‘contractors’ in Iraq.
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Happy Go Lucky
Mike Leigh’s new film, released today, is called Happy Go Lucky. Primary school teacher Poppy refuses to let herself be unhappy. She’s fulfilled, centred, focused, non-materialistic, anti-miserablist, serious and sensible, caring for others and determined to make life better for others. Where does resilience come from in certain individuals? Upbringing, family circumstances, attitude? Luck? Genes? Schools and parenting? Mike, in his interview, was clearly not sure, and as an artist he probably doesn’t even aspire to certainty, isn’t interested in analysis or the ‘science’ of happiness, as such.
Professor Richard Layard has made ‘happiness’ an academic study. I’m about to start reading his book on happiness which is subtitled Lessons From A New Science. He says the three keys to happiness and resilience are 1) caring for others - not just living for yourself, 2) seeing the glass as half full, 3) living within a ‘trusting society’ - eg Scandinavia, where progressive social and economic policies have contributed to a sense of social solidarity and collegiality, where differences in earnings and wealth have been for decades kept within a much narrower band than in the UK and the USA, thanks to progressive tax and redistribution policies.
He’s particularly concerned about schools - the wellbeing and happiness of children - and creating programmes (of cognitive behaviour therapy?) to build resilience, enjoyment of life and better behaviour. We especially need sympathetic treatment of disadvantaged and challenging children, he says.
And so say all of us.
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Amazing Journey - The Story of The Who (BBC4)
Two hours of pure joy. Watched it on D’s bass-rich TV, with the clean, digital sound also pumped through the sound system in the sitting room. Great crashing waves of sound - thumping and pounding drums, throbbing bass; scolding, scowling, scalding, howling, screaming and wailing lead guitar. Just like it sounded live back in the Sixties - immediate, raw, dynamic, thrilling . . . and quite shocking and scary.
Before The Who nobody actually frightened an audience, but back then we were innocent and unprepared for a bunch of unpredictable maniacs who thought nothing of smashing guitars, bashing in and toppling speaker stacks, scattering drum kits and hurling microphone stands.
If you were a working class lad who felt exactly what they were feeling and understood what they were saying (Bam bam bam bam . . . bam bam bam bam - People try to put us down! - talking ‘bout my g-g-g-generation!!!!) you absolutely loved it - after taking a few seconds to adjust to the initial shock of what you were witnessing. If you were a middle class mid-teens girl just out there having fun, or waiting for your heart-throb Herman and the wretched Hermits to come on as top of the bill - you covered your ears and ran for the safety of the back of the hall.
They revelled in their own power and fury, and if you happened to be standing next to the stage, up close and personal, you were likely to be flattened and blown away by the loudest, baddest and most anarchic experience of your tender young life.
Interesting to go back to the very beginning of the band, the accidental way they came together, the energy, the personality clashes, and their collective love of soul and blues. Mods weren’t into pop - we loved Tamla, soul and blues. The Who synthesised all of that, made it their own, and cranked it back out again with a full-on rock sensibility. They ROCKED!
But The Who were more than that. They were experimental, they took risks, and they were highly original. And “so much more powerful than anyone else”, says the Edge. And there’s a man who should know.
Noel Gallagher said some very acute and some very moving things about the right of Sixties bands to continue to perform, to tour, to keep on rocking. He’s always interesting to listen to when being interviewed because he’s such an intelligent observer and student of what’s gone on through the history of rock, and he speaks with wit, passion, precision and absolute conviction. Easy to see why Russell Brand considers him a mate.
John Entwhistle died of a heart attack whilst on tour at the age of 57. He was a unique musician. Nobody ever played a bass guitar in a manner so arresting (whilst being so still and minimalistic in his movements on stage), so outstanding, so inventive, so technically and dynamically perfect. He was the only trained musician in the band and he played bass like it was a lead instrument. That’s why they only needed, they only had room for, two guitars in the band. There was barely space for Townshend to perform in, let alone another rhythm instrument. In any case they didn’t have and didn’t need rhythm. They rocked.
Townshend and Daltrey both spoke with real love and affection for John, and for Keith Moon, who was a tragic figure in many ways, but whose drumming powered the band from the back of the stage with an awe-inspiring cacophony. He too was irreplaceable, which basically means that all three of the instrumentalists in the band were original and had a talent that touched on genius.
Townshend, the ex art student, was without a doubt a stunningly original and powerful artist. He peaked early, it’s true, and didn’t write very much of real quality either musically or lyrically after he fell into pretension and ego-tripping with Tommy, the first so-called rock opera (yuk!), which was one of the most over-rated albums ever. Belatedly he seems to have recognised that with the odd exception (Won't Get Fooled Again) his early stuff was by far the best, and so now he’s happy to be still performing those great, original songs from the Sixties. No shame in that at all.
It’s fairer to say that the first hour or so of this documentary was pure joy, rather than all of it, as it contained the best of the music and described the band’s joyful growth and development into a world-wide phenomenon. The second hour, the story of The Who’s decline and descent into musical mediocrity and craziness, together with the deaths of two of its members, was quite sad and disturbing, though still fascinating and insightful.
Seeing them back together again playing live at Wembley Arena with Sue in 1996, from a sitting/standing area quite close to the stage, was utterly brilliant. Zak Starkey, Son of Ringo, was on drums and was excellent - very powerful and reminiscent of the great Keith. Roger sang really well, and Pete windmilled away as effectively and enthusiastically as ever. And of course Steady Eddie, Johnny the Bass, drove it all with massive vibrations that jiggled and twanged every fibre in your body for every second of the show. You left with your ears ringing, your brain spinning and your whole body vibrating. And a great big grin on your face. The smile of the Buddha.
I doubt if I’ll ever see them again. Or the like of them. Last year’s show, back at the Wembley cattle shed, only this time with my good friend N, the only black guy in a sea of white, just wasn’t the same. I’d spoiled it anyway by seeing a ‘preview’ on TV. (They did virtually the same set at Glastonbury, just a couple of weeks before Wembley, including having the same fairly naff videos on a huge screen behind them.) Hence no surprises and no thrills. Also - we were too far away.
About as far away as I was when I saw them at Charlton football stadium in the Seventies - the last open air gig I went to? The last tour before their 1996 reunion? A gathering of bad vibes, violent throwing of half-full beer cans by drunken twats, and typical stadium-show crush, tedium and hassle. A nasty business that for me signalled the end of the dream, drew a line under any hope there ever was for a peaceful revolution through love and togetherness. By then all the mods and the hippies had disappeared anyway, leaving only a detritus of long-haired echos of something that used to be genuinely rebellious, idealistic, peace-loving, beautiful, stylish, dynamic and original.
So then there were two. Two men who nowadays love and respect one another, and have fun when they get together. Two men who as The Who have been through it all. But it just isn’t the same. RIP Keith and John.
Noel G suggested that if you could translate the amazing bass figures that John did in My Generation into words then he should have them for his epitaph on his gravestone. Bam bam bam bam, bam bam bam bam - tuddly dum, duddly dum, dum dum dum. Brilliant.
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And to think I was meaning to write something about economics and the credit crunch. But fuck it. Why don’t they all just f-f-f-f-f-fade away?
.
.
.
Today - on Radio 4
Thought for the Day
The Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sachs.
Passover - the Exodus.
Children have suffered badly in the modern world. They suffer the effects of an appalling rise in depressive illness, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, and other stress-related syndromes among the young. There are more than 3 million children who live in poverty in Britain, even in this age of affluence.
There’s another kind of child poverty - emotional and psychological, says JS. Children need their parents’ time more than they need money. They need their parents’ attention more than they need computer screens and video games. They need values and a sense of identity more than mobile phones and credit cards.
The average child spends 35 hours a week looking at a screen, but only 35 minutes a week talking to their father. Those that value lifeless things eventually become lifeless. Only civilisations and cultures that cherish the young, stay young.
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I’d go further than the Chief Rabbi and say that since children spend so many hours per week in schools, it’s crucial that schools are the place where they get quality time and attention.
They need positive interaction with adults and children alike, opportunities for communication and collaboration, and an atmosphere of caring and trust. They need all these things far more than they need sitting passively in silence, attention focused on the teacher at the front, desperately being drilled towards better test results.
Emotional deprivation and abuse goes on in too many schools, mainly because of the corrosive effects of pressure for higher test scores. The curriculum and the ability to perform in tests are now all that matters. Those who suggest we should be ‘child-centred’ are regarded as dinosaurs and idiots, if not actual loonies.
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Enemies of Mankind
Tyranny, poverty, disease and war are the 4 common enemies of mankind, according to the late John F Kennedy. G. Brown is calling on Americans to remember these words and engage with these enemies. Meanwhile, 30% of children in Britain are officially living below the poverty line, whilst the richest and fattest in our society have got richer and fatter under his economic policies. More on happiness and inequality below. And don’t even mention the war.
Brown wants the US to lead the ‘remaking’ of global institutions - the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, etc. Brown at least seems to recognise that tackling the causes of poverty, disease, tyranny, anger and resentment is more important than and more effective than trying to contain and deal with their effects.
America, however, according to informed opinion, cares not a fig for the impoverished and the wretched of the earth and will continue to use its incredible wealth and power mainly and essentially to fight its ‘war on terror’ and combat its declared enemies, principally Islamists and leftists. No time or money there for greater equality and fairness in the world. What we have is ours. I got mine. I’m keeping it. I may have stolen and embezzled a lot of it in the first place, but I’m planning to grab a whole lot more of it whenever and wherever I can. So fuck you.
Remember - world illiteracy could be eliminated for the cost of two weeks’ operations by American forces and ‘contractors’ in Iraq.
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Happy Go Lucky
Mike Leigh’s new film, released today, is called Happy Go Lucky. Primary school teacher Poppy refuses to let herself be unhappy. She’s fulfilled, centred, focused, non-materialistic, anti-miserablist, serious and sensible, caring for others and determined to make life better for others. Where does resilience come from in certain individuals? Upbringing, family circumstances, attitude? Luck? Genes? Schools and parenting? Mike, in his interview, was clearly not sure, and as an artist he probably doesn’t even aspire to certainty, isn’t interested in analysis or the ‘science’ of happiness, as such.
Professor Richard Layard has made ‘happiness’ an academic study. I’m about to start reading his book on happiness which is subtitled Lessons From A New Science. He says the three keys to happiness and resilience are 1) caring for others - not just living for yourself, 2) seeing the glass as half full, 3) living within a ‘trusting society’ - eg Scandinavia, where progressive social and economic policies have contributed to a sense of social solidarity and collegiality, where differences in earnings and wealth have been for decades kept within a much narrower band than in the UK and the USA, thanks to progressive tax and redistribution policies.
He’s particularly concerned about schools - the wellbeing and happiness of children - and creating programmes (of cognitive behaviour therapy?) to build resilience, enjoyment of life and better behaviour. We especially need sympathetic treatment of disadvantaged and challenging children, he says.
And so say all of us.
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Amazing Journey - The Story of The Who (BBC4)
Two hours of pure joy. Watched it on D’s bass-rich TV, with the clean, digital sound also pumped through the sound system in the sitting room. Great crashing waves of sound - thumping and pounding drums, throbbing bass; scolding, scowling, scalding, howling, screaming and wailing lead guitar. Just like it sounded live back in the Sixties - immediate, raw, dynamic, thrilling . . . and quite shocking and scary.
Before The Who nobody actually frightened an audience, but back then we were innocent and unprepared for a bunch of unpredictable maniacs who thought nothing of smashing guitars, bashing in and toppling speaker stacks, scattering drum kits and hurling microphone stands.
If you were a working class lad who felt exactly what they were feeling and understood what they were saying (Bam bam bam bam . . . bam bam bam bam - People try to put us down! - talking ‘bout my g-g-g-generation!!!!) you absolutely loved it - after taking a few seconds to adjust to the initial shock of what you were witnessing. If you were a middle class mid-teens girl just out there having fun, or waiting for your heart-throb Herman and the wretched Hermits to come on as top of the bill - you covered your ears and ran for the safety of the back of the hall.
They revelled in their own power and fury, and if you happened to be standing next to the stage, up close and personal, you were likely to be flattened and blown away by the loudest, baddest and most anarchic experience of your tender young life.
Interesting to go back to the very beginning of the band, the accidental way they came together, the energy, the personality clashes, and their collective love of soul and blues. Mods weren’t into pop - we loved Tamla, soul and blues. The Who synthesised all of that, made it their own, and cranked it back out again with a full-on rock sensibility. They ROCKED!
But The Who were more than that. They were experimental, they took risks, and they were highly original. And “so much more powerful than anyone else”, says the Edge. And there’s a man who should know.
Noel Gallagher said some very acute and some very moving things about the right of Sixties bands to continue to perform, to tour, to keep on rocking. He’s always interesting to listen to when being interviewed because he’s such an intelligent observer and student of what’s gone on through the history of rock, and he speaks with wit, passion, precision and absolute conviction. Easy to see why Russell Brand considers him a mate.
John Entwhistle died of a heart attack whilst on tour at the age of 57. He was a unique musician. Nobody ever played a bass guitar in a manner so arresting (whilst being so still and minimalistic in his movements on stage), so outstanding, so inventive, so technically and dynamically perfect. He was the only trained musician in the band and he played bass like it was a lead instrument. That’s why they only needed, they only had room for, two guitars in the band. There was barely space for Townshend to perform in, let alone another rhythm instrument. In any case they didn’t have and didn’t need rhythm. They rocked.
Townshend and Daltrey both spoke with real love and affection for John, and for Keith Moon, who was a tragic figure in many ways, but whose drumming powered the band from the back of the stage with an awe-inspiring cacophony. He too was irreplaceable, which basically means that all three of the instrumentalists in the band were original and had a talent that touched on genius.
Townshend, the ex art student, was without a doubt a stunningly original and powerful artist. He peaked early, it’s true, and didn’t write very much of real quality either musically or lyrically after he fell into pretension and ego-tripping with Tommy, the first so-called rock opera (yuk!), which was one of the most over-rated albums ever. Belatedly he seems to have recognised that with the odd exception (Won't Get Fooled Again) his early stuff was by far the best, and so now he’s happy to be still performing those great, original songs from the Sixties. No shame in that at all.
It’s fairer to say that the first hour or so of this documentary was pure joy, rather than all of it, as it contained the best of the music and described the band’s joyful growth and development into a world-wide phenomenon. The second hour, the story of The Who’s decline and descent into musical mediocrity and craziness, together with the deaths of two of its members, was quite sad and disturbing, though still fascinating and insightful.
Seeing them back together again playing live at Wembley Arena with Sue in 1996, from a sitting/standing area quite close to the stage, was utterly brilliant. Zak Starkey, Son of Ringo, was on drums and was excellent - very powerful and reminiscent of the great Keith. Roger sang really well, and Pete windmilled away as effectively and enthusiastically as ever. And of course Steady Eddie, Johnny the Bass, drove it all with massive vibrations that jiggled and twanged every fibre in your body for every second of the show. You left with your ears ringing, your brain spinning and your whole body vibrating. And a great big grin on your face. The smile of the Buddha.
I doubt if I’ll ever see them again. Or the like of them. Last year’s show, back at the Wembley cattle shed, only this time with my good friend N, the only black guy in a sea of white, just wasn’t the same. I’d spoiled it anyway by seeing a ‘preview’ on TV. (They did virtually the same set at Glastonbury, just a couple of weeks before Wembley, including having the same fairly naff videos on a huge screen behind them.) Hence no surprises and no thrills. Also - we were too far away.
About as far away as I was when I saw them at Charlton football stadium in the Seventies - the last open air gig I went to? The last tour before their 1996 reunion? A gathering of bad vibes, violent throwing of half-full beer cans by drunken twats, and typical stadium-show crush, tedium and hassle. A nasty business that for me signalled the end of the dream, drew a line under any hope there ever was for a peaceful revolution through love and togetherness. By then all the mods and the hippies had disappeared anyway, leaving only a detritus of long-haired echos of something that used to be genuinely rebellious, idealistic, peace-loving, beautiful, stylish, dynamic and original.
So then there were two. Two men who nowadays love and respect one another, and have fun when they get together. Two men who as The Who have been through it all. But it just isn’t the same. RIP Keith and John.
Noel G suggested that if you could translate the amazing bass figures that John did in My Generation into words then he should have them for his epitaph on his gravestone. Bam bam bam bam, bam bam bam bam - tuddly dum, duddly dum, dum dum dum. Brilliant.
------------------------------------------------------------------
And to think I was meaning to write something about economics and the credit crunch. But fuck it. Why don’t they all just f-f-f-f-f-fade away?
.
.
.
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