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Friday, November 21, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
**One's life is an act with no actor, and thus it has always been recognized that the insane man [person] who has lost his mind is a parody of the sage who has transcended his ego. **The sphere of the Bodhisattva is thus what Gerald Heard call "meta-comedy", a jargonesque and up-to-date equivalent of the Divine Comedy, the viewpoint from which the tragedy of life is seen as comedy because the protagonists are really players. So, too, the lower outcaste, whether criminal or lunatic who cannot be trusted, is always the mirror image of the upper outcaste, the impartial one who takes no sides and cannot be pinned down. But the former retreats from the tragedy of the double-bind because it appears to him to be an insoluble problem. The latter laughs at it because he knows it to be nonsense. When society cannot distinguish between these two outcastes, it treats both alike.
[Paragraphs snipped]
This "knowing where to stop" is more generally called wu-wei, a term whose literal meaning is nonaction or noninterference, but which must more correctly be understood as not acting in conflict with the Tao, the Way or Course of nature. [How could one act in conflict with Tao?] It is therefore against the Tao to try exhaustively, to pin its unceasing transformations to names, because this will make it appear that the structure of nature is the same as the structure of language: that it is a multitude of distinct things instead of a multitude of changing relations. Because it is the latter, there is actually no way of standing outside nature as to interfere with it. The organism of man does not confront the world but is in the world.
Language seems to be a system of fixed terms standing over against the physical events to which they refer. That it is not so, appears in the impossibility of keeping a living language stable. [This may no longer be true. Are computer languages living?] Thinking and knowing seem to be confronting the world as an ego in the same way that words seem to stand over against events; the two illusions stand or fall together. Speaking and thinking are events in and of the physical world, but they are carried on as if they were outside it, as if they were an independent and fixed measure with which life could be compared**
Alan watts
One of the blessings of easy communication between the great cultures of the world is that partisanship in religion and philosophy is ceasing to be intellectually respectable. Pure religions are as rare as pure cultures, and it is mentally crippling to suppose that there must be a number of fixed bodies of doctrine among which one must choose, where choice means accepting the system entirely or not at all. Highly organized religions always try to force such a choice because they need devoted members for their continuance. Those who rove freely through the various traditions, accepting what they can use and rejecting what they cannot, are condemned as undisciplined syncretists. But the use of one's reason is not a lack of discipline, not is there any important religion which is not itself a syncretism, a "growing up together" of ideas and practices of diverse origin.
**Yet if the main function of a way of liberation is to release the individual from his "hypnosis" by certain social institutions, what is needed in California will not be quite the same as what is needed in Bengal, for the institutions differ. Like different diseases, they require different medicines.
Alan watts
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
"..freedom has a twofold meaning for modern man: that he has been freed from traditional authorities and has become an 'individual,' but that at the same time he has become isolated, powerless and an instrument of purposes outside of himself, alienated from himself and others; furthermore, that this state undermines his self, weakens and frightens him, and makes him ready for submission to new kinds of bondage. Positive freedom on the other hand is identical with the full realization of the individual's potentialities, together with his ability to live actively and spontaneously."
Eric Fromm
Escape from Freedom
The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.
Aldous Huxley
Alan Watts
on FAITH
Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.
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No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
Alan Watts
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No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
Alan Watts
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Christian humanism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christian Humanism is the belief that human freedom and individualism are intrinsic (natural) parts of, or are at least compatible with, Christian doctrine and practice. It is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles.[1]
Origins
Christian humanism may have begun as early as the 2nd century, with the writings of Justin Martyr. While far from radical, Justin suggested a value in the achievements of Classical culture in his Apology[2] Influential letters by Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa confirmed the commitment to using pre-Christian knowledge, particularly as it touched the material world and not metaphysical beliefs. Already the formal aspects of Greek philosophy, namely syllogistic reasoning, arose in both the Byzantine Empire and Western European circles in the eleventh century to inform the process of theology. However, the Byzantine hierarchy during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118) convicted several thinkers of applying "human" logic to "divine" matters. Peter Abelard's work encountered similar ecclesiastical resistance in the West in the same period. Petrarch (1304-1374) is also considered a father of humanism. The traditional teaching that humans are made in the image of God, or in Latin the Imago Dei, also supports individual worth and personal dignity.
Selected Humanist Teachings of Jesus
The Second Great Commandment
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" -- Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27 (also Leviticus 19:18)
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ -- Matthew 25:34-40
.
Prominent Christian humanists
SIDDHARTHA
http://www.indiaparenting.com/stories/greatindians/gi004.shtml
Gautam Buddha
Buddha, means 'the enlightened one'. And Gautam Buddha was one of the greatest religious teachers that the world has seen. His teachings expounded in Buddhism, are immensely popular in Burma, China, Japan and other South Eastern Countries.
Early Life
The Buddha was born in 563 B.C. as Siddhartha to Shuddhodana the king of Kapilavastu in Nepal. His mother Mayadevi expired when he was just 7 days old and he was brought up by his stepmother Gautami. Siddhartha was made to lead a very sheltered life as the astrologers had predicted that he would give up worldly pleasures to follow a different path. The King wanted to avoid this at all costs and so did not let him out of the palace. He hoped that Siddhartha would one day become king.
Life Changing Experiences
When Siddhartha had grown into an intelligent young man, he ventured out of his palace one day, and chanced on a few sights that changed the course of his life. He first saw a very old man who could barely walk, a sick man who was in a great deal of pain, and lastly a corpse. He had never been exposed to pain before, and so these sights had a deep effect on him. His servant explained that pain and death were inevitable.
This made Siddhartha very sad and he started to rethink his life and began to try to fathom the reason of existence. Seeing him so thoughtful, his father decided to get him married and get his mind off such serious topics. He was married to a beautiful princess called Yashodhara, who soon gave birth to a son who they called Rahul.
A Search for Light
Despite this, Siddhartha found no happiness in materialistic pleasures and so left the palace in search of salvation - ' Moksh'. He was only 29 years old. He roamed the country, meeting various sadhus and saints in his search for inner peace. He lived the life of a hermit and underwent rigorous ' tapasya' to achieve his purpose, but still could not understand the meaning of or reason for life and death.
Finally, one day he reached Bodh Gaya. He was very tired and so sat under the shade of a tree. He shut his eyes and was blessed with a divine light. This was the turning point, as he realized the truth is within every human being. The search outside was pointless. After this he was known as ' Buddha' or the enlightened one.
The Right Path and Immortality
For 45 years, Buddha spread his message of a spiritual life. He did not believe in rituals but pointed to an 8 - fold path towards salvation - that of right speech, understanding, determination, deeds, efforts, awareness, thinking and living. According to Buddhism, by following this path one could overcome desires, which were the root cause of grief and misery.
The Buddha died in 483 BC at the ripe age of 80 years, after successfully spreading his message to the world. Buddhism still lives and has a strong following in various Asian countries.
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VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY
( http://www.greatriv.org/vs.htm )
What is voluntary simplicity?
Voluntary simplicity means doing/having/living more with less--more time, meaning, joy, satisfaction, relationships, community; less money, material possessions, stress, competition, isolation. It doesn't mean depriving yourself; it doesn't mean buying "cheap" and always pinching pennies; it doesn't mean poverty. It does mean wanting what you have, and finding joy in having less; and recovering the connection with other people and with the Earth that alone makes life really worthwhile. (For some suggested reading, see the Voluntary Simplicity section of the book list.)Voluntary simplicity is a growing movement of people who have realized that happiness and fulfillment do not lie in having more money, or new and bigger things, but rather in the time with loved ones and connection with community. They are questioning the consumer society's insistence that possessions, especially of the newest design and color, are the means of fulfillment, or that any material possession can possibly be "to die for." They are questioning this definition of "normal," by columnist Ellen Goodman:
" 'Normal' is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car, and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it."
Benefits to individual and society
The benefits of voluntary simplicity to the individual are great:
- More time to spend with family, friends and community.
- Less money spent on almost everything.
- Less stress in high-paying jobs or commuting to them.
- Less worry over possessions getting stolen or damaged.
- More satisfaction in learning to do things for oneself, such as fixing and maintaining possessions, cooking, gardening and putting food by, mending and sewing, as well as making music and fun.
- Other benefits that are corollaries of these, including more time to read, less ill health, more opportunity to exercise and do satisfying physical work, less chance of getting in an accident on the freeway, and a general reordering of values from a focus on materialism to to a focus on relationships.
- Less pollution from transportation, and less traffic congestion, accidents and need for new roads.
- Less environmental impact from resource extraction and manufacturing.
- Less need for new power plants and new water treatment plants as people waste less electricity and water.
- More community cohesiveness, resulting in less crime and more neighborliness, safer streets and better schools.
- More grassroots democracy as people take more interest in how their communities operate.
- More ecological restoration as people find simple pleasure in connecting with their local environment and seek to heal it.
- A flowering of local culture--music, storytelling, drama, games, poetry.
Ways to simplify
Here are some suggested actions you can take to simplify your life. (For more, go to the page on Bioregionalism.)
- De-clutter your house. Go through clothes, kitchenware, knickknacks, gadgets, small appliances and other possessions and give away or recycle some. Do this until you feel there is some air in your home, some space between the things.
- Try cooking more meals from scratch. This may sound like the opposite of simplifying, since cooking from scratch can take more time and be more complicated than microwaving a meal from a box, or ordering a pizza. However, you can make larger quantities and freeze the extra for a quick meal later. You also can avoid huge amounts of packaging, which is expensive and wasteful.
- Ride public transit or a bicycle to get around. If possible, don’t even own a car. You’ll save thousands of dollars every year from insurance, registration, maintenance and gas. And you’ll never have a freeway accident, a breakdown or get caught in a traffic jam.
- Buy products with the least packaging possible. You will save money as well as resources and reduce your garbage.
- Buy in bulk. Food co-ops have many foods available in bins from which you fill your own container.
- Learn to mend clothing, toys, furniture and other items. Sewing holes in shirts and pants can be a relaxing activity. Darning socks and tights is a bit more difficult, but can double or triple the life of these items.
- Instead of going to a movie, invite some friends over to play charades, Trivial Pursuit, Scruples or some other game, play music together, or read a play. Storytelling as an art is coming back—anyone can tell stories.
- Borrow or rent large items that you don’t use often, such as tools, garden equipment and party utensils. You can even rent a car for trips.
- Instead of traveling to faraway places for vacation, look closer to home. Explore the place you live. You will save money on travel as well as accommodations and food, which always cost more at popular vacation spots.
- Buy clothes and household items second-hand.
- Get off mailing lists. Write to: Direct Marketing Association, Mail Preference Service, P.Ol Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11725-9008 to have your name removed from lists rented to catalog companies and other direct mail solicitors. This will reduce your mail, save paper and trees, and reduce your exposure to tempting merchandise. Remember to request that your name not be sold to other companies whenever you subscribe to any publication or join any organization.
- Start a compost pile for yard waste and food waste from the kitchen. This may seem less simple than throwing everything into the garbage, but it will help you to waste less food as you become more aware of where it is going, while reducing garbage, which could save money. The side benefit is, of course, a rich soil additive that will make your garden and all your trees and shrubs grow healthier.
- Reuse everything you can, from jars and containers to nails to clothing. You will need to buy much less new stuff.
- Don’t fall for the new advertising gimmick using the language of simplicity to sell all kinds of things—even $30,000 cars. Simplicity isn’t about having the right stuff. It isn’t a style. And don’t fall for the idea that you need a lot of special containers, boxes, and so on to organize your stuff and thereby achieve simplicity.
Voluntary simplicity study circles: getting support
Living a life that goes against the current of consumer society and, indeed, Western culture in general, can be a challenge. Support is essential--going it alone can be overwhelming.Fortunately, voluntary simplicity study circles and support groups are popping up all over. Check churches or religious institutions in your area. If you can't find anyone already involved in a study circle or support group, start your own. There are a number of resources available now for groups to use.
Voluntary Simplicity study circle developed by the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) and available from Great River Earth Institute in Minneapolis. This course, which is designed for groups of 8 to 12 in workplaces, neighborhoods, churches or other organizations, helps people sort through what simplicity means for them and how it affects the Earth and community. To ask about voluntary simplicity groups in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, call GREI at 612-305-1232 or e-mail us.
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Francis of Assisi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the opera by Olivier Messiaen see Saint-François d'Assise.
| Saint Francis of Assisi | |
|---|---|
 Saint Francis by Cimabue Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi. | |
| Confessor | |
| Born | 1181/1182, Assisi, Italy |
| Died | October 3, 1226, Assisi, Italy |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Canonized | July 16, 1228, Assisi by Pope Gregory IX |
| Major shrine | Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi |
| Feast | September 17 October 4 |
| Attributes | Cross, Dove, Pax et Bonum, Poor Franciscan habit, Stigmata |
| Patronage | animals, Catholic Action, environment, merchants, Meycauayan, Italy, Philippines, stowaways[1] |
Francis of Assisi (Giovanni Francesco Bernardone; born 1181/1182 – October 3, 1226)[2] was a friar and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans.
He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment and Italy, and it is customary for Catholic churches to hold ceremonies honouring animals around his feast day of 4 October.[3]
Childhood and early adulthood
Francis was one of seven children born to Pietro di Bernardone, a rich cloth merchant, and his wife Pica Bourlemont, about whom little is known except that she was originally from France[4]. Pietro was in France on business when Francis was born, and Pica had him baptized as Giovanni di Bernardone[3] in honor of Saint John the Baptist,in the hope he would grow to be a great religious leader. When his father returned to Assisi, he was furious about this, as he did not want his son to be a man of the Church and decided to call him Francesco, in honor of his commercial success and enthusiasm for all things French.[5]
As a youth, Francesco—or Francis in English—became a troubador and yearned to become a writer of French poetry.[2][5] And although many biographers remark about his bright clothing, rich friends, street brawls, and love of pleasure,[4] his displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded him came fairly early in his life, as is shown in the "story of the beggar." In this account, he was selling cloth and velvet in the marketplace on behalf of his father when a beggar came to him and asked for alms. At the conclusion of his business deal, Francis abandoned his wares and ran after the beggar. When he found him, Francis gave the man everything he had in his pockets. His friends quickly chided and mocked him for his act of charity. When he got home, his father scolded him in rage.[6]
In 1201, he joined a military expedition against Perugia, he was taken as a prisoner at Collestrada, and spent a year as a captive.[7] It is probable that his conversion to more serious thoughts was a gradual process relating to this experience. Upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis returned to his carefree life and in 1204, a serious illness led to a spiritual crisis. In 1205 Francis left for Puglia to enlist in the army of the Count of Brienne. In Spoleto, a strange vision made him return to Assisi, deepening his ecclesiastical awakening [2].
It is said that thereafter he began to avoid the sports and the feasts of his former companions; in response, they asked him laughingly whether he was thinking of marrying, to which he answered "yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen", meaning his "lady poverty". He spent much time in lonely places, asking God for enlightenment. By degrees he took to nursing lepers, the most repulsive victims in the lazar houses near Assisi. After a pilgrimage to Rome, where he begged at the church doors for the poor, he said he had had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the Church of San Damiano just outside of Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified came alive and said to him three times, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins". He thought this to mean the ruined church in which he was presently praying, and so sold his horse and some cloth from his father's store, to assist the priest there for this purpose.[2][8]
His father Pietro, highly indignant, attempted to change his mind, first with threats and then with corporal chastisement. After a final interview in the presence of the bishop, Francis renounced his father and his patrimony, laying aside even the garments he had received from him. For the next couple of months he lived as a beggar in the region of Assisi. Returning to the town for two years this time, he restored several ruined churches, among them the Porziuncola, little chapel of St Mary of the Angels, just outside the town, which later became his favorite abode.[8]
Hipster (contemporary subculture)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Indie kid)
In the late 1990s, the 1940s slang term hipster began being used to describe young, urban middle class and upper class adults with interests in non-mainstream fashion and culture. Actually defining what a hipster is can be a difficult task considering the idea that hipsters are thought to exist as a "mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior[s]."
History
[edit] 1940s-1950s
- See also: Hipster (1940s subculture) and hip (slang)
"Hipster" derives from the slang "hip" or "hep," which are derived from the earlier slang "hop" for opium.
The first dictionary to list the word is the short glossary "For Characters Who Don't Dig Jive Talk," which was included with Harry Gibson's 1944 album, Boogie Woogie In Blue. The entry for "hipsters" defined it as "characters who like hot jazz."[3]
The 1959 book Jazz Scene by Eric Hobsbawm (using the pen name Francis Newton) describes hipsters using their own language, "jive-talk or hipster-talk," he writes "is an argot or cantJack Kerouac in describing his vision of the Beat Generation. Along with Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac described 1940s hipsters "rising and roaming America,... bumming and hitchhiking everywhere... [as] characters of a special spirituality."[4] designed to set the group apart from outsiders." Hipster was also used in a different context at about the same time by
[edit] 1990s and 2000s
In the 1990s, the term became a blanket description for middle class young people associated with alternative culture, particularly alternative music, independent rock, independent film and a lifestyle revolving around thrift store shopping, eating organic, locally grown, vegetarian, and/or vegan food, drinking local or brewing beer, listening to public radio, riding bicycles, and reading magazines like Vice and Clash and websites like Pitchfork Media.[5]
Robert Lanham's satirical The Hipster Handbook described hipsters as young people with "...mop-top haircuts, swinging retro pocketbooks, talking on cell phones, smoking European cigarettes, ... strutting in platform shoes with a biography of Che Guevara sticking out of their bags."[6]
Hipsters are considered apathetic, pretentious, and self-entitled by other, often marginalizedbohemian and/or "counter-culture" artists and thinkers as well as poor neighborhoods of color.[5] sectors of society they live amongst, including previous generations of
In 2005, Slate writer Brandon Stosuy noted that "Heavy metal has recently conquered a new frontier, making an unexpected crossover into the realm of hipsterdom." He argues that the "current revival seems to be a natural mutation from the hipster fascination with post-punk, noise, and no wave,” which allowed even the “nerdiest indie kids to dip their toes into jagged, autistic sounds.” He argues that a "byproduct" of this development was an "...investigation of a musical culture that many had previously feared or fetishized from afar.”[7]
In 2008, Utne Reader magazine writer Jake Mohan described “hipster rap,” “as loosely defined by the Chicago Reader, consists of the most recent crop of MCs and DJs who flout conventional hip-hop fashions, eschewing baggy clothes and gold chains for tight jeans, big sunglasses, the occasional keffiyeh, and other trappings of the hipster lifestyle.” He notes that the “old-school hip-hop website Unkut, and Jersey City rapper Mazzi” have criticized mainstream rappers who they deem to be poseurs or “…fags for copping the metrosexual appearances of hipster fashion.”[8] Prefix Mag writer Ethan Stanislawski argues that there are racial elements to the rise of hipster rap. He claims that there "...have been a slew of angry retorts to the rise of hipster rap," which he says can be summed up as "white kids want the funky otherness of hip-hop... without all the scary black people."[9]
The hipster aesthetic of irony extends to the appropriation of elements of lowbrow or working class identity in an ironic fashion, such as Pabst Blue Ribbon beer as well as the multi coloured keffiyeh "initially sported by Jewish students and Western protesters to express solidarity with Palestinians, the keffiyeh has become a completely meaningless hipster cliché fashion accessory".[5]
In his article for The New York Times, "Leaving Behind the Trucker Hat," Allen Salkin explores the experiences of two hipsters who moved to Tivoli, New York to work on an organic farm. Those without access to farmland are growing vegetables in their backyards and patios. Hipsters are gathering at the local food co-op to exchange seeds and ideas while gaining an identity with a greater sense of irony.[10]
BEATNIKS
History
Author Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948, generalizing from his social circle to characterize the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York at that time; the name came up in conversation with the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published an early novel about the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: "This is the beat generation"). The adjective "beat" was introduced to the group by Herbert Huncke, though Kerouac expanded the meaning of the term. "Beat" was from underworld slang - the world of hustlers, drug addicts and petty thieves, where Ginsberg and Kerouac sought inspiration. Beat was slang for "beaten down" or downtrodden, but to Kerouac, it symbolised being at the bottom and looking up. Other adjectives discussed by Holmes and Kerouac were "found" and "furtive."
Kerouac's claim that he had identified (and embodied) a new trend analogous to the influential Lost Generation might have seemed grandiose at the time, but in retrospect he may have been correct[1][2]
In "Aftermath: The Philosophy of the Beat Generation" Kerouac criticized what he believed to be the distortion of his ideas:
- The Beat Generation, that was a vision that we had, John Clellon Holmes and I, and Allen Ginsberg in an even wilder way, in the late Forties, of a generation of crazy, illuminated hipsters suddenly rising and roaming America, serious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way--a vision gleaned from the way we had heard the word "beat" spoken on street corners on Times Square and in the Village, in other cities in the downtown city night of postwar America--beat, meaning down and out but full of intense conviction. We'd even heard old 1910 Daddy Hipsters of the streets speak the word that way, with a melancholy sneer. It never meant juvenile delinquents, it meant characters of a special spirituality who didn't gang up but were solitary Bartlebies staring out the dead wall window of our civilization... [3]Kerouac explained what he meant by "beat" at a Brandeis Forum, "Is There A Beat Generation?", on November 8, 1958, at New York's Hunter College Playhouse. Panelists for the seminar were Kerouac, James A. Wechsler, Princeton anthropologist Ashley Montagu and author Kingsley Amis. Wechsler, Montague and Amis all wore suits, while Kerouac was clad in black jeans, ankle boots and a checkered shirt. Reading from a prepared text, Kerouac reflected on his Beat beginnings:
- It is because I am Beat, that is, I believe in beatitude and that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to it... Who knows, but that the universe is not one vast sea of compassion actually, the veritable holy honey, beneath all this show of personality and cruelty? [4]
Kerouac's address that night was later published as "The Origins of the Beat Generation" (Playboy, June 1959). In that article Kerouac noted how his original beatific philosophy had been ignored as Caen and others had intervened to alter Kerouac's concept with jokes and jargon:
- I went one afternoon to the church of my childhood and had a vision of what I must have really meant with "Beat"... the vision of the word Beat as being to mean beatific... People began to call themselves beatniks, beats, jazzniks, bopniks, bugniks and finally I was called the "avatar" of all this.
(Wikepedia, the Free Encyclopedia)
BOHEMIANISM
( From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia)
The term bohemian, of French origin, was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century[1] to describe the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, musicians, and actors in major European cities. Bohemians were associated with unorthodox or antiestablishment political or social viewpoints, which were often expressed through non-marital sexual relations, frugality, and/or voluntary poverty.
The term emerged in France in the 1800s when artists and creators began to concentrate in the lower-rent, lower class gypsy neighbourhoods. The term "Bohemian" reflects a belief, widely held in France at the time, that the Gypsies had come from Bohemia. ( Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia)
Friday, October 17, 2008
( Note: This article from Skip Stone is culled from a certain website which I can no longer remember. I copied these as part of my research of the hippy lifestyle...I am not very sure if I got this from the hiplanet.com or from another website... I hope I am not violating any piracy law, since I am creditting this artcile to its original author)
The Way of the Hippy from "Hippies From A to Z" by Skip Stone
…maybe it’s the time of year. Yes, and maybe it’s the time of man.
And I don’t know who I am. But life is for learning.
Joni Mitchell/CS&N (Woodstock) 1970
What’s a hippie? What’s the difference between an old hippie and a new hippie? Once a hippie, always a hippie? These and similar questions are the source of much debate today. New subcategories like web-hippies, cyber-hippies, even zippies have become fashionable. But what is a hippie and are you one?To answer this question, let’s see what defines a hippie. Some say it’s the way people dress, and behave, a lifestyle. Others classify drug users and rock 'n' roll fans or those with certain radical political views as hippies. The dictionary defines a hippie as one who doesn’t conform to society’s standards and advocates a liberal attitude and lifestyle. Can all these definitions be right?
It seems to me that these definitions miss the point. By focusing on the most visible behavioral traits these limited descriptions fail to reveal what lies in the hippie heart that motivates such behavior. To understand The Way of the Hippy, we must look at those circumstances that preceded the birth of the hippy movement, the important events that changed our lives, our resulting frustration with society, and the philosophy that developed from our spiritual maturation. el for a profound, invisible, underground, evolutionary process. For every visible hippy, barefoot, beflowered, beaded, there are a thousand invisible members of the turned-on
Hippy is an establishment lab underground. Persons whose lives are tuned in to their inner vision, who are dropping out of the TV comedy of American Life.
Timothy Leary (The Politics of Ecstasy) 1967
My view is that being a hippie is a matter of accepting a universal belief system that transcends the social, political, and moral norms of any established structure, be it a class, church, or government. Each of these powerful institutions has it’s own agenda for controlling, even enslaving people. Each has to defend itself when threatened by real or imagined enemies. So we see though history a parade of endless conflicts with country vs. country, religion vs. religion, class vs. class. After millennia of war and strife, in which uncounted millions have suffered, we have yet to rise above our petty differences.
The way of the hippie is antithetical to all repressive hierarchical power structures since these are adverse to the hippie goals of peace, love and freedom. This is why the “Establishment” feared and suppressed the hippie movement of the ’60s, as it was a revolution against the established order. It is also the reason why the hippies were unable to unite and overthrow the system since they refused to build their own power base. Hippies don’t impose their beliefs on others. Instead, hippies seek to change the world through reason and by living what they believe.
Imagine no possesions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world.
John Lennon (Imagine)
To be a hippie you must believe in peace as the way to resolve differences among peoples, ideologies and religions. The way to peace is through love and tolerance. Loving means accepting others as they are, giving them freedom to express themselves and not judging them based on appearances. This is the core of the hippie philosophy.John Lennon (Imagine)
…see the whole thing is a world full of rucksack wanderers, Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, …all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume, I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of ‘em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures. Jack Kerouac (The Dharma Bums) 1958
The hippy movement erected signposts for all to see. Some warn us of impending danger, others direct us towards richer, more fulfilling lives, but most show us the road to freedom. Freedom is the paramount virtue in this system. Freedom to do as one pleases, go where the flow takes you, and to be open to new experiences. This engenders an attitude that allows for maximum personal growth.
If you want to be free, be free, because there’s a million things to be.
Cat Stevens (If You Want to Sing Out)
Our society only permits you one or two weeks a year of freedom to pursue your own agenda. The rest of the time we are slaves to the system. Hippies reject the 9 to 5 lifestyle and therefore are objects of ridicule by those whose lives run by the clock. Programmed people are jealous and resent the freedom we possess. The unmitigated freedom that hippies represent is the greatest threat to any system in which control equals power.I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road towards freedom - external freedom is a way to bring about internal freedom.
Jim Morrison
With all this freedom comes a lot of responsibility. The system does not make it easy for us to survive without sacrificing our values. Therefore we must discover alternative ways to make a living without being a drag on our planet’s resources and our fellow humans. Hippies have pioneered numerous lifestyles and alternative businesses including communes, cooperatives, holistic medicine and health food. We focused everyone’s concern on the environment to highlight our responsibilities to our planet and to future generations.I’ve been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one.
And I believe it could be, someday it’s going to come.
Cat Stevens (Peace Train)
And I believe it could be, someday it’s going to come.
Cat Stevens (Peace Train)
Other beliefs that spring from our core philosophy are: an earthy spirituality such as a belief in Gaia (the earth as an organism), the Greens movement (political activism), even shamanism and vegetarianism. These philosophical and political views reflect a respect for nature and the planet as a whole, something lacking in our capitalistic and materialistic societies. The world needs hippies to point out alternatives to the entrenched system and warn of the impending disasters that await us if we don’t change our lifestyles. The goal is not to make everyone a hippie (what would we have to protest?). Rather we can try to influence others by example, through tolerance and love and teaching the virtues of the hippie way.
You create your own reality.
Seth (Seth Speaks)
So being a hippie is not a matter of dress, behavior, economic status, or social milieu. It is a philosophical approach to life that emphasizes freedom, peace, love and a respect for others and the earth. The way of the hippie never died. There have always been hippies from the first time society laid down rules, to Jesus, to Henry David Thoreau, to John Lennon, to you and me. I believe there’s a little hippy in all of us. It’s just been repressed by our socialization process. We need to find it and cultivate our hippie within. Only then can we reach our true potential.Seth (Seth Speaks)
I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost (The Road Not Taken)
As hippies age they come to terms with the same situations all humans must face. Wiser than before, let’s help the younger hippies find a way to save the earth and achieve more freedom than exists in our wildest dreams. Let’s find our common ground, build a worldwide community, and once again let our freak flags fly and become all we are destined to be.Robert Frost (The Road Not Taken)
Peace and Love, Skip
Humanist Manifesto I
The Manifesto is a product of many minds. It was designed to represent a developing point of view, not a new creed. The individuals whose signatures appear would, had they been writing individual statements, have stated the propositions in differing terms. The importance of the document is that more than thirty men have come to general agreement on matters of final concern and that these men are undoubtedly representative of a large number who are forging a new philosophy out of the materials of the modern world.
— Raymond B. Bragg (1933)
The time has come for widespread recognition of the radical changes in religious beliefs throughout the modern world. The time is past for mere revision of traditional attitudes. Science and economic change have disrupted the old beliefs. Religions the world over are under the necessity of coming to terms with new conditions created by a vastly increased knowledge and experience. In every field of human activity, the vital movement is now in the direction of a candid and explicit humanism. In order that religious humanism may be better understood we, the undersigned, desire to make certain affirmations which we believe the facts of our contemporary life demonstrate.
There is great danger of a final, and we believe fatal, identification of the word religion with doctrines and methods which have lost their significance and which are powerless to solve the problem of human living in the Twentieth Century. Religions have always been means for realizing the highest values of life. Their end has been accomplished through the interpretation of the total environing situation (theology or world view), the sense of values resulting therefrom (goal or ideal), and the technique (cult), established for realizing the satisfactory life. A change in any of these factors results in alteration of the outward forms of religion. This fact explains the changefulness of religions through the centuries. But through all changes religion itself remains constant in its quest for abiding values, an inseparable feature of human life.
Today man's larger understanding of the universe, his scientific achievements, and deeper appreciation of brotherhood, have created a situation which requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion. Such a vital, fearless, and frank religion capable of furnishing adequate social goals and personal satisfactions may appear to many people as a complete break with the past. While this age does owe a vast debt to the traditional religions, it is none the less obvious that any religion that can hope to be a synthesizing and dynamic force for today must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present. It is a responsibility which rests upon this generation. We therefore affirm the following:
FIRST: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.
SECOND: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process.
THIRD: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.
FOURTH: Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization, as clearly depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with his social heritage. The individual born into a particular culture is largely molded by that culture.
FIFTH: Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values. Obviously humanism does not deny the possibility of realities as yet undiscovered, but it does insist that the way to determine the existence and value of any and all realities is by means of intelligent inquiry and by the assessment of their relations to human needs. Religion must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific spirit and method.
SIXTH: We are convinced that the time has passed for theism, deism, modernism, and the several varieties of "new thought".
SEVENTH: Religion consists of those actions, purposes, and experiences which are humanly significant. Nothing human is alien to the religious. It includes labor, art, science, philosophy, love, friendship, recreation — all that is in its degree expressive of intelligently satisfying human living. The distinction between the sacred and the secular can no longer be maintained.
EIGHTH: Religious Humanism considers the complete realization of human personality to be the end of man's life and seeks its development and fulfillment in the here and now. This is the explanation of the humanist's social passion.
NINTH: In the place of the old attitudes involved in worship and prayer the humanist finds his religious emotions expressed in a heightened sense of personal life and in a cooperative effort to promote social well-being.
TENTH: It follows that there will be no uniquely religious emotions and attitudes of the kind hitherto associated with belief in the supernatural.
ELEVENTH: Man will learn to face the crises of life in terms of his knowledge of their naturalness and probability. Reasonable and manly attitudes will be fostered by education and supported by custom. We assume that humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking.
TWELFTH: Believing that religion must work increasingly for joy in living, religious humanists aim to foster the creative in man and to encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life.
THIRTEENTH: Religious humanism maintains that all associations and institutions exist for the fulfillment of human life. The intelligent evaluation, transformation, control, and direction of such associations and institutions with a view to the enhancement of human life is the purpose and program of humanism. Certainly religious institutions, their ritualistic forms, ecclesiastical methods, and communal activities must be reconstituted as rapidly as experience allows, in order to function effectively in the modern world.
FOURTEENTH: The humanists are firmly convinced that existing acquisitive and profit-motivated society has shown itself to be inadequate and that a radical change in methods, controls, and motives must be instituted. A socialized and cooperative economic order must be established to the end that the equitable distribution of the means of life be possible. The goal of humanism is a free and universal society in which people voluntarily and intelligently cooperate for the common good. Humanists demand a shared life in a shared world.
FIFTEENTH AND LAST: We assert that humanism will: (a) affirm life rather than deny it; (b) seek to elicit the possibilities of life, not flee from them; and (c) endeavor to establish the conditions of a satisfactory life for all, not merely for the few. By this positive morale and intention humanism will be guided, and from this perspective and alignment the techniques and efforts of humanism will flow.
So stand the theses of religious humanism. Though we consider the religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate, the quest for the good life is still the central task for mankind. Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement. He must set intelligence and will to the task.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: There were 34 signers of this document, including Anton J. Carlson, John Dewey, John H. Dietrich, R. Lester Mondale, Charles Francis Potter, Curtis W. Reese, and Edwin H. Wilson.]
Copyright © 1973 by the American Humanist Association
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Interfaith Manifesto for Peace
________________________
Because we believe that PEACE IS POSSIBLE.
Because we acknowledge, at our present time, the opportunity to transform the culture of war and violence into a culture of peace and non-violence.
Because this transformation demands the participation of each and everyone of us from every sector, every religion, culture and ideology.
Because we feel the urgency to put an end to the decades-old conflict in Mindanano which has caused the loss of lives, homes and livelihood to Muslim, Christian and Lumad communities.
WE PLEDGE IN OUR DAILY LIVES, IN OUR FAMILIES, OUR WORK, OUR COMMUNITIES, OUR COUNTRY AND REGION TO:
1. “Respect all life.” Respect the life, dignity and sacredness of every human being without discrimination or prejudice to any gender, tribe, religion, culture or belief.
2. “Reject violence.” Practice active non-violence, rejecting violence in all its forms: physical, sexual, psychological, economic, social and political.
3. “Share with others.” Share my time and material resources with others and use our combined resources for non-violent, compassionate action to manifest love and justice among all beings on Earth.
4. “Dialogue and listen to understand.” Always choose dialogue and listening in appreciation of the richness of our cultural and religious diversity.
5. “Protect and heal our mother earth.” Promote consumer behavior and development practices that respect all forms of life and preserve the balance of nature on the planet.
6. “Strengthen solidarity.” Be sensitive to the suffering of others, especially the marginalized and displaced, and exert our full efforts to contribute to building peace in Mindanao where Muslims, Christians and Lumads can live together in harmony and mutual respect for each others’ rights.
WE STAND, UNITED AS BROTHERS AND SISTERS - MUSLIMS, CHRISTIANS AND LUMADS - TOGETHER WITH OTHER RELIGIOUS AND FAITH TRADITIONS AND JOIN THE CALL:
For the immediate stop of hostilities in Mindanao.
For the protection of civilian communities.
For the members of the Peace Panel to go back to peaceful negotiation and dialogue to find lasting solutions to the issues and roots of the Mindanao conflict.
For all concerned sectors to participate in continuous dialogue to reach lasting peace in Mindanao the soonest time possible.
_____________________
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