IT'S ALREADY DECEMBER 21, 2012

"Many visionaries and prophets expect there to be a huge and sudden shift in the world's story sometime soon. Whether it happens on December 21, 2012 or a later date, a sizable proportion of them even predict that it will be "in the twinkling of an eye" -- a sudden cascade of events that completely changes everything everywhere.


Some paint the scenario in broad, catastrophic strokes, expecting something -- they're not sure what -- that will have the impact of a large meteor strike or nuclear war or pandemic disease. Others harbor a more benign but equally fuzzy expectation, speculating that maybe some higher psychic powers will kick in to the multitudes all at once, or that benevolent extraterrestrials will arrive to solve our energy crisis.


What very few of the prophets do, however, is make a precise prediction about exactly what will happen. Their visions contain no assurances, no specifics. And in my view, that's worse than useless. It fills us with a vague buzz of fear or amorphous sense of hope, but offers no concrete directions about what to do to prevent the dreaded thing or help create the hoped-for thing.


And the fact is, as I see it, they can't possibly know what the Big Shift is -- if, that is, a Big Shift is really looming. The very nature of any Big Shift will be so unexpected, so beyond our imaginations, and so utterly alien to what we understand, that we can't possibly delineate its contours in advance.


I'm reminded of Jung's formula, which is that we don't so much solve our problems as we outgrow them. We add capacities and experiences that eventually make us bigger than the problems.


This theory can be applied in reverse: If we have not yet grown wiser than our current predicament, then we can't see what the evolved state is beyond the predicament. Our minds are as-yet incapable of embodying the vision that will catapult us beyond the problem we're stuck in.


When the Big Shift comes, whether or not it comes in the twinkling of an eye, it will be something that no one foresaw, let alone described in detail. It will be beyond our comprehension, unlike anything we could have visualized headed our way. (Thirty years ago, did anyone imagine the Internet or the impact it's having?)


And if that's true, then the inescapable conclusion is: There's no use trying to plan ahead for it. It's counterproductive to hold a particular scenario in our mind as the likely development. And it's downright crazy to harbor a chronic sense of dread about an unknowable, unimaginable series of events.


The best way to prepare for a Big Shift is to cultivate mental and emotional states that ripen us to be ready for anything:


* a commitment to not getting lost inside our own heads;


* a strategy to avoid being enthralled with the hypnotic lure of painful emotions, past events, and worries about the future;


* a trust in empirical evidence over our time-worn beliefs and old habits;


* a talent for turning up our curiosity full blast and tuning in to the raw truth of every moment with our beginner's mind fully engaged;


* and an eagerness to dwell gracefully in the midst of all the interesting questions that tease and teach us.


Everything I just described also happens to be an excellent way to prime yourself for a chronic, low-grade, always-on, simmering-at-low-heat brand of ecstasy -- a state of being more-or-less permanently in the Tao, in the groove, in the zone."

a drum beat will ripple whiskey in your glass

a Ting-Sha chimes out aural vibrations washing over the distance from metal struck to ear passage hoping for clearance eight auspicious symbols conch knot fish lotus parasol urn wheel banner   

a drum beat will ripple whiskey in your glass dirt underfoot poofs up in brown sugar detonations the wave will give and the wave will take away surfers ride it as far as they can then paddle back out into the blue again (content, happy)  (OK:  stoked) 
this is everything and nothing
a miracle and commonplace 

a cracked earth gave the rising sun eight minutes to cover a distance between massive epicenter and strangely underwater 

"Here's what you need to do", I said to me.  

"Forgive yourself and everyone you have ever been.  Forgive your friends and enemies.  Lost lovers.  Strangers.  Librarians.  Do it now Nemo.  Don't wait.  What you have will slip through your fingers.  Let go the weight as it drags you under the atomic wave."

after three days

after three days the stone was moved

time behind us new day today 

here the mirror the universe you make as you wish 

¡Hola! come out of your shell day

Sol has the amps plugged and ready 

Venus laughs sweet and will mix the drinks Tikki Tavi 

whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers

that you do unto me 

remember this this is important

Ganesh lost his head to Shiva

enraged Parvathi said save him

and Shiva did 

with a sleeping elephant of all things 

large ears to listen more

small mouth to talk less

axe in one hand to cut ties

rope in another to pull nearer

a third hand to bless

a fourth to toss out 

really 

the tomb was empty just the words "I'm not there"

scrawled in red paint 

10 earths can stack inside a fiery solar plume

riding a whale on the Sea of Cortez

squirtin horseclams on Osprey Island

playing pounce with Mao Zedong

back in time my father 18 

a skinny sailor home on shore leave 

Los Angeles 1958

i jumped in the river and what did I see?

i jumped in the river and what did I see? black-eyed angels swimming with me a moon full of stars and astral cars all the figures i used to see all my lovers were there with me all my past and futures and we all went to heaven in a little row boat there was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt there was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt there was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt there was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt 

kiwi spooned morning

kiwi spooned morning sweet earth's gift to us work is not my life evening washing black metal clean she's at Jakes watching the sun dip beneath the sound smoked porter one month after a family piece dies hard to explain music blood I won't back down nothing is as important as sweet sweet burning life I am not afraid of you and I will beat your ass how do you like me now?

black pint lullaby

the vine that strangles the tree embrace your demon and it will spit in your face break your favorite things spread darkness like black marmalade mess up what you had in place so a pint for the lost a pint for the dead a pint for those who left a pint for those who ran away a pint for Love a pint for Hate a pint for Truly a pint for Fools a pint to all my friends a pint to everyone i have ever been they say there is strength in numbers so put it on my tab i will gladly repay you tuesday in black globlets washed up on key west for tonight i couldnt find the table my face was planted on nor the front door the last call the street lit up by oblivions light

for Dan

Fall Moon Festival

What will happen when form collides with emptiness,
and what will happen when perception enters non-perception?
Come here with me, friend.
Let's watch together.
Do you see the two clowns, life and death
setting up a play on a stage?
Here comes Autumn.
The leaves are ripe.
Let the leaves fly.
A festival of colors, yellow, red.
The branches have held on to the leaves
during Spring and Summer.
This morning they let them go.
Flags and lanterns are displayed.
Everyone is here at the Full Moon Festival.

Friend, what are you waiting for?
The bright moon shines above us.
There are no clouds tonight.
Why bother to ask about lamps and fire?
Why talk about cooking dinner?
Who is searching and who is finding?
Let us just enjoy the moon, all night.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

When the Day Came

When the Day came --
The Day I had lived and died for --
The Day that is not in any calendar --
Clouds heavy with love
Showered me with wild abundance.
Inside me, my soul was drenched.
Around me, even the desert grew green.
- Kabir


Sometimes

Large fingers pushing paint
You're god and you've got big hands
The colors blend... the challenges you give man

Seek my part... devote myself
My small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
Sometimes I know, sometimes I rise
Sometimes I fall, sometimes I don't
Sometimes I cringe, sometimes I live
Sometimes I walk, sometimes I kneel
Sometimes I speak of nothing at all
Sometimes I reach to myself, dear god
- Eddie Vedder

Odin's Ordeal

by Georg Feuerstein

Nine days.
Nine nights.
Speared by his own hand,
he hung silently
on the tree at world's end.
The cosmic winds were tearing
furiously at his bones.
His mind was spread out infinitely
in the reliquary of time.
He waited breathlessly,
every fiber surrendered,
every flickering thought
hovering in the nowhere
of the ever-present moment.
He, single-eyed Odin,
waited dispassionately
for death to end
and new knowledge to burgeon.
All was as it will be.