“I came here to count the bells,
that live upon the surface of the sea,
that sound over the sea,
within the sea.
So, here I live.”
- Pablo Neruda (Chilean poet - Poem written overlooking the pacific from the coastline of Chile)
The Earth speaks, and we don’t listen. The Earth belts and we think we may have heard a faint noise. It happens again and again and few things change, very little is done to dialogue with the Earth. Last night, an 8.8 earthquake hit Chile, a country that i just came home from three weeks ago. Yes, the event is a disaster, it is a shocking societal event that has changed many lives from one moment to the next. And, like Haiti, it represents something besides the obvious, it represents something more than just the disastrous reality upon these places.
An earthquake is a physical manifestation of “the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves.” But, as we are coming to understand and investigate, not everything can simply be measured and dealt with through the sometimes limiting ‘eye’ of materialistic facts and realities. And yes, “Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults”, but again, this is only physical. So if the Earth does quake, and humanity is threatened, if societies are displaced, and infrastructures destroyed, what are other lessons to be learned besides the simple - ‘preparing better for the next one!’?
The Earth is more than ignored, it is more than forgotten, it is misused and abused. It is intentionally exploited and destroyed. And then this happens, another disaster, and we scramble to rescue our brothers and sisters, and rightly so, we fret over rebuilding the infrastructures that make it all seemingly smooth running, and we try to get back to the ‘norm’ again, with a little more caution of our own vulnerability. Of course, we have a duty to tend to the present moments of crisis, to give ourselves fully to harnessing the wildness of a disaster, but then, what is next? What comes after the dramatic storms of natural disasters have settled?
Maybe, a real change is needed. Maybe, things aren’t just Ok. Maybe we need to raise New questions and give attention to New possibilities, New callings. ‘Gaia’ is loudly trying to dialogue with us. Mother Earth is bellowing out for our tending, for our attention and care. How is the language of ‘Gaia’ meant to be understood? What is the meaning of these ambiguous events of our time? Chief Seattle said: “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” And similarly, “Carl Gustav Jung suggested that the archetypal mother was a part of the collective unconscious of all humans”. Maybe the web is the collective unconscious. Maybe ‘Gaia’ is an integral manifestation of our collective unconscious. I would suggest that there is a part of us deep inside that is trying to make us aware of what lies outside, but also more deeply at the center of, the mass of constructs of civilization, the manifest Mind. By neglecting our interface with the Earth, we are actually neglecting a deep and authentic part of ourselves that needs to be recognized - and more so, begun ‘acting’ from.
The Earth has an intention. We can have an intention. We can dialogue with the Earth to create shared intentions. We can continue our patterns of aggressiveness, of living somewhat ignorantly and disconnected, and of constantly facing despair, or we can take an active role in rebuilding and becoming the ‘healthy’ inhabitants of an Earth that doesn’t lie. Biodynamic Agriculture is an example of a practice - a discipline in living - that co-intends and co-creates a new Earth and Humanity out of the experience of Gaia’s Community. The Biodynamic preparations are medicinal remedies for Mother Earth (and all her years through indignity) that not only strengthen and sharpen her true maternal forces but also clarify and activate our Human Will to Create. Biodynamic agriculture is just one example of a practice that is engaging with Gaia in a new way, but there are many ways, simple and complex. A daily prayer of gratitude for the Earth - or a walk into nature, where we can again meet our spiritual resourcefulness, the source of creation, is all it takes in our beginning to authentically co-exist and Unify. And so I end with a poem of rilke.
Archaic Torso of Apollo
We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,
gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.
Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur:
would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Monday, 22 February 2010
A Vallejo Poem
“I would rediscover the secret of great communications
and great combustions
I would say ‘storm’
I would say ‘river’
I would say ‘tornado’
I would say ‘leaf’
I would say ‘tree’
I would be drenched by all rains
moistened by all dews
I would roll like frenetic blood on the slow current of the eye of words
turned into mad horses
into fresh children
into clots
into vestiges of temples
into precious stones remote enough to discourage miners
whoever would not understand me
would not understand any better the roaring of a tiger”
- Cesar Vallejo
and great combustions
I would say ‘storm’
I would say ‘river’
I would say ‘tornado’
I would say ‘leaf’
I would say ‘tree’
I would be drenched by all rains
moistened by all dews
I would roll like frenetic blood on the slow current of the eye of words
turned into mad horses
into fresh children
into clots
into vestiges of temples
into precious stones remote enough to discourage miners
whoever would not understand me
would not understand any better the roaring of a tiger”
- Cesar Vallejo
Saturday, 20 February 2010
The Shape of Loneliness
In societies and cultures where we are constantly surrounded by people, by images, by sensorial stimulation, etc. I ask why we, at times, still find ourselves in a despair of loneliness? With most of us living in cities where we can barely escape the noise of other voices, or the sight of other faces, i ask again, why we, at times, still find ourselves in a despair of loneliness? That which shapes our sense of being, is it outside, over there, or is it here, inside ourselves, fully able to be activated by our conscious effort?
So, the shape of loneliness could come in a variety of ways, from outside maybe, from within ourselves, by the flailing unknowns of the human psyche, by the over-penetration of societal superficiality, by the physical and emotional distance we may feel from that person who filled our sense of being so greatly that we almost forgot about being only powerfully with ourselves. But does the shape of loneliness have to appear at all in the image of ‘being’, or are we capable of freeing ourselves from that all-binding and limiting sense of ‘being alone’, when that is far from any true reality.
I propose a question that you must seek in yourself. But, i can mention my seeking of this question in myself.
Loneliness, or the sense of ‘being alone’, comes from a failure to recognize ourselves, who we are, what we are capable of, and what really surrounds us, magnificently. When we Stop the chaotic distractions of outward grappling for ‘things’, for ‘answers’, we may feel distant from the actual beauty of the World, but this distance itself was created by false, or weak, patterns of cognition. Isolation does exist, but only in its ability to spark the longing and striving for the infinity of being together, of being an essential part of something important and true. The one who is alone, who feels great distances from the ‘Normal’ rapid sleepy existing (and for who - we may ask?) is really on the verge of recognizing and becoming the great belonging. Belonging is the archetypal sense and transformation of knowing yourself as waking up from a sleepy ‘identification with products of what is Not Conscious’ - to having real participation in the creation of Your Life, of this shared reality.
When i feel and follow the shape of loneliness, when i throw it against the form of Pure Presence, it is easily out-shadowed by something in which it longs to become. Loneliness longs to become belonging, the one who feels totally alone, and accepts the depth of this natural Soul quality, is the most capable of developing the needed face of pure presence.
Societies of our misused caliber, tend to over indulge in the habitual formations of tendencies toward un-supported loneliness. But, I believe, our task is to support each other’s natural loneliness that comes in our such authentic efforts to discover who we are, but to recognize its potential for unfolding a greater strength, a greater freedom. Only through the authentic support systems we can create by means of our modern human potentialities can we access, surrender to, and transform the depths of loneliness to constantcys of even deeper ‘Being’.
I am alone, but only insofar as I let my distance become my only closeness. When, however, I change this far off thing, what seems to be in other worlds, into what my hands can grasp and feel, I begin belonging to its shape - I begin sculpting its shape Myself. There is no aloneness as long as we have the courage to begin shaping our lives.
So, the shape of loneliness could come in a variety of ways, from outside maybe, from within ourselves, by the flailing unknowns of the human psyche, by the over-penetration of societal superficiality, by the physical and emotional distance we may feel from that person who filled our sense of being so greatly that we almost forgot about being only powerfully with ourselves. But does the shape of loneliness have to appear at all in the image of ‘being’, or are we capable of freeing ourselves from that all-binding and limiting sense of ‘being alone’, when that is far from any true reality.
I propose a question that you must seek in yourself. But, i can mention my seeking of this question in myself.
Loneliness, or the sense of ‘being alone’, comes from a failure to recognize ourselves, who we are, what we are capable of, and what really surrounds us, magnificently. When we Stop the chaotic distractions of outward grappling for ‘things’, for ‘answers’, we may feel distant from the actual beauty of the World, but this distance itself was created by false, or weak, patterns of cognition. Isolation does exist, but only in its ability to spark the longing and striving for the infinity of being together, of being an essential part of something important and true. The one who is alone, who feels great distances from the ‘Normal’ rapid sleepy existing (and for who - we may ask?) is really on the verge of recognizing and becoming the great belonging. Belonging is the archetypal sense and transformation of knowing yourself as waking up from a sleepy ‘identification with products of what is Not Conscious’ - to having real participation in the creation of Your Life, of this shared reality.
When i feel and follow the shape of loneliness, when i throw it against the form of Pure Presence, it is easily out-shadowed by something in which it longs to become. Loneliness longs to become belonging, the one who feels totally alone, and accepts the depth of this natural Soul quality, is the most capable of developing the needed face of pure presence.
Societies of our misused caliber, tend to over indulge in the habitual formations of tendencies toward un-supported loneliness. But, I believe, our task is to support each other’s natural loneliness that comes in our such authentic efforts to discover who we are, but to recognize its potential for unfolding a greater strength, a greater freedom. Only through the authentic support systems we can create by means of our modern human potentialities can we access, surrender to, and transform the depths of loneliness to constantcys of even deeper ‘Being’.
I am alone, but only insofar as I let my distance become my only closeness. When, however, I change this far off thing, what seems to be in other worlds, into what my hands can grasp and feel, I begin belonging to its shape - I begin sculpting its shape Myself. There is no aloneness as long as we have the courage to begin shaping our lives.
Friday, 19 February 2010
The change coming.
The change coming
is not like a pack of wolves
ravaging the same prey
owned by the same desire.
It is different
it belongs to the Self
it comes with a passion more powerful
than just surviving.
When you are howling
for this change
you will be echoed
by the birth of being.
is not like a pack of wolves
ravaging the same prey
owned by the same desire.
It is different
it belongs to the Self
it comes with a passion more powerful
than just surviving.
When you are howling
for this change
you will be echoed
by the birth of being.
My journey to the Soil.
Biodynamic Agriculture - Not only a new agriculture!
“Indeed, not many people know that during the last few decades the agricultural products on which our life depends have degenerated extremely rapidly. In this present time of transition for the Kali Yuga to a new Age of Light, it is not only human moral development that is degenerating, but also what human activity has made of the Earth and of what lies just above the Earth.” - From Rudolf Steiner’s Agricultural lectures (Introduction, pg. 3)
When I first encountered biodynamic agriculture I was enrolled in a creative writing program in the local university (I wanted to become a Poet!). I had decided to work on a small biodynamic farm for the summer and i thought what a great place it would be to have the space and inspiration to write! Well, things change a little. As the summer progressed, deepened, and heated up, i found myself so engaged with the daily rhythm of the farm - and less so with my writing. I found the nature of the community there to be so rich and unique as we were practicing new ways of living together with common interests away from the mayhem of urbanization, and discovering what was possible when people came together, gathered around the Soil, but in spiritual awakeness. This is really a ‘modus operandi’ of Biodynamic Agriculture, gathering around the Soil, to consciously take part in its healing (which becomes our healing), but with a new kind of spiritual awakeness, spiritual presence.
I was so artistically engrossed with the ‘work’ of the farm, the seemingly effortless chores, such as feeding animals, cleaning there living areas, weeding, harvesting, making and spraying the biodynamic preparations that it became a kind of ‘writing of poetry with nature’, it became a creative-rhythmic process belonging to Nature and I. It awakened a subtle spiritual awakeness in me, both for the Earth and for Myself, and this was when i realized it was more than ‘just farming’. This gave me the beginning of a true relationship to what Steiner was trying to awake in us through his agricultural lectures.
By mid-summer I was reading all the BD literature i could get my hands on, secrets of the soil, culture and horticulture, the agriculture lectures, etc..And I had been lucky enough to come across a wonderful documentary on Peter Proctor’s work with Biodynamics in India - How to save the world? One Man, One Cow, One Planet. This film was revolutionary for me as it linked my long time interest in the spiritual traditions of India to the Soil. It showed me how a society, or a culture, can be actively and wholly engaged with the land, with the Soil, while effortlessly retaining the spiritual striving of their ancestors, of their people, and do this out of a transition from destructive chemical agricultural practices. Wow!
By the end of the summer, I had participated in Native American sweat lodges, I had stirred and applied preparation 500 and 501 a numerous different occasions, I had eaten fresh biodynamic eggs, I had harvested a field of potatoes by hand, i had dropped a water pump in the river (oops!), and many other things. I had been a participant in a process of engaging with ancient wisdom, modern insight, and ‘real living’, and all in the context of a Biodynamic farm.
And, by september, I was not in my local university studying creative writing, but I was at Emerson College in the UK studying Biodynamic Farming. How things do change!
Why is Biodynamic agriculture ‘not only a new agriculture’? Yes, Rudolf Steiner did give the agriculture lectures to practicing farmers, gardeners, and veterinarians based on the reality of the time - soil depletion, crop failures, unhealthy livestock, etc. but I believe there was a little more to it than what meets the eye. He was not merely a scientist who had studied agroecology and by deductive measures created these fairly eccentric remedies for Nature, he was not simply looking to create the most efficient food production system, and he was not anticipating global warming for all survival purposes. He was creatively engaged with Consciousness and with Spirit, and by these means he led himself to insights of Intuition that would awaken the Earth, that would awaken the Human Being. I believe that we cannot expel Biodynamic agriculture from the context of Anthroposophy to understand it as a way of farming. Although there is a large feeling among young people like myself to work with and develop anthroposophy in a new light, away from the dogmas that have created themselves, biodynamic agriculture, to stay true to its impulse - and to become a true impulse in new minds and souls, must always have the possibility of Remembering its essential task as a real Art, a real creative work of body, mind and soul. It cannot always be labeled or practiced in such a way that only fits the scheme or the chaos of the present agricultural armageddon. It does, of course have the ability to most effectively transform the ‘Food and Climate Dilemma’ of our time, but we must not loose our ability to recognize and experience its essential spiritual task to lighten consciousness through the great interface with the earth, our Mother Earth. There is a beautiful subtle way of being totally engaged with something practically - as a real solution and Work - and yet not loosing the experience of the innate ‘Whole’ reality we belong to.
And yet, Biodynamic farming is so new, is so unique and called by the earth right now. It is a practice of today and of the future really. It is just experiencing its birth. The loveliness of farming, of farming biodynamically, of growing healthy vegetables and grains, and of raising healthy livestock, can be assisted and enhanced by the active participation in the biodynamic principles. We can develop active intuitive relationships to the preparations, but we can also use the context of the farm, of the interface of what is Human, Animal, Plant, and Mineral, to strengthen our meditative life, the attendance to consciousness. Biodynamic is not only a new agriculture, it is a new method of discovering what it is to be Human, but to be Human in a relationship with the Earth and the Cosmos.
“So tonight as we look up at the evening sky, with the stars emerging against the fading background of the sunset, we think of the mythic foundations of our future. We need to engage in a shared dream experience.
The experiences that we have spoken of as we look up at the starry sky at night, and as, in the morning, we see the landscape revealed as the sun dawns over the earth - these experiences reveal a physical world but also a more profound world that cannot be bought with money, cannot be manufactured with technology, cannot be listed on the stock market, cannot be made in the chemical laboratory, cannot be reproduced with all our genetic engineering, cannot be sent by e-mail. These experiences require only that we follow the deepest feelings of the human soul.....Within the universe, the planet Earth with all its wonder is the place for the meeting of the divine and the human.” - From Thomas berry’s Evening thoughts
“Indeed, not many people know that during the last few decades the agricultural products on which our life depends have degenerated extremely rapidly. In this present time of transition for the Kali Yuga to a new Age of Light, it is not only human moral development that is degenerating, but also what human activity has made of the Earth and of what lies just above the Earth.” - From Rudolf Steiner’s Agricultural lectures (Introduction, pg. 3)
When I first encountered biodynamic agriculture I was enrolled in a creative writing program in the local university (I wanted to become a Poet!). I had decided to work on a small biodynamic farm for the summer and i thought what a great place it would be to have the space and inspiration to write! Well, things change a little. As the summer progressed, deepened, and heated up, i found myself so engaged with the daily rhythm of the farm - and less so with my writing. I found the nature of the community there to be so rich and unique as we were practicing new ways of living together with common interests away from the mayhem of urbanization, and discovering what was possible when people came together, gathered around the Soil, but in spiritual awakeness. This is really a ‘modus operandi’ of Biodynamic Agriculture, gathering around the Soil, to consciously take part in its healing (which becomes our healing), but with a new kind of spiritual awakeness, spiritual presence.
I was so artistically engrossed with the ‘work’ of the farm, the seemingly effortless chores, such as feeding animals, cleaning there living areas, weeding, harvesting, making and spraying the biodynamic preparations that it became a kind of ‘writing of poetry with nature’, it became a creative-rhythmic process belonging to Nature and I. It awakened a subtle spiritual awakeness in me, both for the Earth and for Myself, and this was when i realized it was more than ‘just farming’. This gave me the beginning of a true relationship to what Steiner was trying to awake in us through his agricultural lectures.
By mid-summer I was reading all the BD literature i could get my hands on, secrets of the soil, culture and horticulture, the agriculture lectures, etc..And I had been lucky enough to come across a wonderful documentary on Peter Proctor’s work with Biodynamics in India - How to save the world? One Man, One Cow, One Planet. This film was revolutionary for me as it linked my long time interest in the spiritual traditions of India to the Soil. It showed me how a society, or a culture, can be actively and wholly engaged with the land, with the Soil, while effortlessly retaining the spiritual striving of their ancestors, of their people, and do this out of a transition from destructive chemical agricultural practices. Wow!
By the end of the summer, I had participated in Native American sweat lodges, I had stirred and applied preparation 500 and 501 a numerous different occasions, I had eaten fresh biodynamic eggs, I had harvested a field of potatoes by hand, i had dropped a water pump in the river (oops!), and many other things. I had been a participant in a process of engaging with ancient wisdom, modern insight, and ‘real living’, and all in the context of a Biodynamic farm.
And, by september, I was not in my local university studying creative writing, but I was at Emerson College in the UK studying Biodynamic Farming. How things do change!
Why is Biodynamic agriculture ‘not only a new agriculture’? Yes, Rudolf Steiner did give the agriculture lectures to practicing farmers, gardeners, and veterinarians based on the reality of the time - soil depletion, crop failures, unhealthy livestock, etc. but I believe there was a little more to it than what meets the eye. He was not merely a scientist who had studied agroecology and by deductive measures created these fairly eccentric remedies for Nature, he was not simply looking to create the most efficient food production system, and he was not anticipating global warming for all survival purposes. He was creatively engaged with Consciousness and with Spirit, and by these means he led himself to insights of Intuition that would awaken the Earth, that would awaken the Human Being. I believe that we cannot expel Biodynamic agriculture from the context of Anthroposophy to understand it as a way of farming. Although there is a large feeling among young people like myself to work with and develop anthroposophy in a new light, away from the dogmas that have created themselves, biodynamic agriculture, to stay true to its impulse - and to become a true impulse in new minds and souls, must always have the possibility of Remembering its essential task as a real Art, a real creative work of body, mind and soul. It cannot always be labeled or practiced in such a way that only fits the scheme or the chaos of the present agricultural armageddon. It does, of course have the ability to most effectively transform the ‘Food and Climate Dilemma’ of our time, but we must not loose our ability to recognize and experience its essential spiritual task to lighten consciousness through the great interface with the earth, our Mother Earth. There is a beautiful subtle way of being totally engaged with something practically - as a real solution and Work - and yet not loosing the experience of the innate ‘Whole’ reality we belong to.
And yet, Biodynamic farming is so new, is so unique and called by the earth right now. It is a practice of today and of the future really. It is just experiencing its birth. The loveliness of farming, of farming biodynamically, of growing healthy vegetables and grains, and of raising healthy livestock, can be assisted and enhanced by the active participation in the biodynamic principles. We can develop active intuitive relationships to the preparations, but we can also use the context of the farm, of the interface of what is Human, Animal, Plant, and Mineral, to strengthen our meditative life, the attendance to consciousness. Biodynamic is not only a new agriculture, it is a new method of discovering what it is to be Human, but to be Human in a relationship with the Earth and the Cosmos.
“So tonight as we look up at the evening sky, with the stars emerging against the fading background of the sunset, we think of the mythic foundations of our future. We need to engage in a shared dream experience.
The experiences that we have spoken of as we look up at the starry sky at night, and as, in the morning, we see the landscape revealed as the sun dawns over the earth - these experiences reveal a physical world but also a more profound world that cannot be bought with money, cannot be manufactured with technology, cannot be listed on the stock market, cannot be made in the chemical laboratory, cannot be reproduced with all our genetic engineering, cannot be sent by e-mail. These experiences require only that we follow the deepest feelings of the human soul.....Within the universe, the planet Earth with all its wonder is the place for the meeting of the divine and the human.” - From Thomas berry’s Evening thoughts
Friday, 13 March 2009
Just a beginning. . .
There is a time and a place for everything. Now is the time for open dialogue, words that can reach everybody and be discussed by anybody. Now is the time when our thoughts can rejoice, for we can both speak the word freely and find ourselves listening to true freedom. The freedom that can be embarked upon is now wanting to work with the word, with language, to create a communicative peace and a conversation of love.
“None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.” - Goethe
We are no longer obliged to be committed to enslavement against our will. Not enslavement of the mind, heart, or body. The only enslavement that can exist for the human being now is the one that we, with our minds, create and live by, shackled and in the gloom of self-destruction. There is little value in taking on a idea of individual freedom, “Am I free or not?”, when freedom moves through humanity as more of a feeling than all else. Therefore feeling free is the true freedom and this is the way that it can reach each individual humanly and healthily.
If this blog can be a place where freedom is spoken of and made outwardly accessible than it is working to open mind and heart, and it is fulfilling its task.
“None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.” - Goethe
We are no longer obliged to be committed to enslavement against our will. Not enslavement of the mind, heart, or body. The only enslavement that can exist for the human being now is the one that we, with our minds, create and live by, shackled and in the gloom of self-destruction. There is little value in taking on a idea of individual freedom, “Am I free or not?”, when freedom moves through humanity as more of a feeling than all else. Therefore feeling free is the true freedom and this is the way that it can reach each individual humanly and healthily.
If this blog can be a place where freedom is spoken of and made outwardly accessible than it is working to open mind and heart, and it is fulfilling its task.
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