Way Cool

Knowledge does not contradict faith. (It's ok to ask questions)

Faith is good. Let no ill words be spoken about it. What do you have faith in? Maybe something to meditate upon. A certain type of gravity, perhaps?

What is meditation, or *a* meditation. I will allow it to be many things. It's the answer to a question but as an answer, it leaves itself deliberately unformed (and perhaps unanswered). Meditation is also the quieting of one's self which can be very difficult and requires practice. I suppose it can also be quite like a prayer or the recitation of mantras stilling and directing the mind: An inquiry and a study.

A prayer is an invocation. Whether a prayer is "heard" or not... That's not my meditation. I seek the strength to affect positive change in my own life through something like prayer. I evoke spells through the articulation of will. I don't ask myself for things but rather, as I said, the strength for myself and others, and that perhaps the abstract winds will remember us favorably when considering our fate.

Science is a spiritual devotion and the schism between it and "religion" is what I would call conspiracy. Yes, conspiracy. UFO cover-ups, 911: An inside job, the Kennedy assassination... No, a far more sinister agenda at work, that knowledge is evil and arrogant and that it contradicts faith.

Mysticism, to me, is how we approach the singularity of God (or Truth) and how we ideally desire to absorb into IT completely and totally, but never fully can, and never fully do. Such a lifetime inquiry is the discipline of real art, absorbing, interpreting, and reacting to life. Answers represent beginnings and not endings.

God is a constant challenge of the imagination, an overwhelming sensation of purpose and meaning. Evolution is real. The imbreeding of thought is the destruction of the human soul. It would appear that in life, our own universe constantly contracts like a shadow descending on a weakening flame. Our struggle is in the keeping of this light as we fight against the entropy of total darkness that threatens our spiritual reality. Faith is how we keep waking up every morning because maybe otherwise we might choose not to.

Multiplicity

Hey folks and friends!

This is the new Secede From The Union / Succeed for the Union weblaunch 2.0 to describe it in a technostupid way. The last version of this site lay dormant for quite some time as it contemplated its own identity. What is or was secede from the union? Well, it's a non-politically affiliated blog rant that takes root in what I like to loosely call, impressionism. Politics does not actually represent even 1% of my thinking on this subject. I know there's always "secessionism" movements cropping up here and there. I hardly care. The idea of a union could imply a singularity of sorts and the act of seceding could be the act of stepping back to view oneself from afar in order to get a greater understanding or just a different perspective maybe.

The last incarnation of this blog contained writings inspired by a certain contemporary political climate, one that I felt only an "impressionist" relationship to. I agree that such charged topics as American politics are complex from all angles, but I tried to have a perspective that was entirely that of a disgruntled taxpayer, one not adequately versed in the minutiae of politics, but one demanding job performance from my elected officials. Yes, that 'we the people' are the EMPLOYERS and not the other way around. It should also be inherent in our patriotism that we be skeptical of politics at its root and should embrace a 'guilty before proven innocent' relationship to it. In any case, I live in a little bubble here in Portland, Oregon and care very little for politics these days. Sometimes the voices on the outside are the most interesting. We can't rely on CNN to tell us anything interesting.

The bottom line with these writings is that they be sort of feral and true in their analysis of whatever. Our people believe strongly in "intelligence" or "anti-intelligence" where we stand at our particular cultural coordinates. I believe that, for me, the brain is only part of our portrait. We need to understand the inadequacy of our language to get to our bigger truths and to arrive at mutual understandings that exist between us. Spoken and written language, even in their most complex and articulate manifestations, are often primitive cave scratchings of our soul and we are often left vulnerable to misunderstanding and misrepresentation through them. We are often searching for the correct words to describe ourselves or our thoughts, often times to ourselves.

So, we need to step back and take a fair look. I believe that we need patience with our community and ourselves because the phenomenal world is wrought with misinterpretation and misrepresentation and we are its interpreters.

In short, I believe in pursuing the religion of 'love'. Such a spirituality implies patience and understanding. It requires faith. Love is clearly a religion unto itself and could involve a lifetime of meditation on the subject in order to maybe approximate its meaning. I am proposing what I like to call a 'mystical' meditation on the subjects of unity, multiplicity, and the spirit of revolution. Different, just like everyone else. The outer shell and the essence. Substance and meaninglessness. Rock 'n Roll and nap time.

I'm very excited to be back again with this blog. I have a couple other internet things set up as well including the podcast radio, all the music related stuff, and Drinking Zen which I plan to finish some day (the book). Writing is good therapy or rather, a good way of solidifying one's beliefs. I've said in the old blog that I believe the devil to be 'the great deceiver' as I'm sure the Bible describes him and thus all 'good' should suspect of its diabolical potential. When I talk about nonsense like critical thinking, I believe it is this accurate portrait of the Christian devil that exemplifies and possibly demands that we apply patience and skepticism to even our most cherished beliefs.

It's a beautiful day outside today.. I think I'll go for a hike in the Gorge and call it good.