The emperor of the South Sea was called Shu [Brief], the emperor of the North Sea was called Hu [Sudden], and the emperor of the central region was called Hun-tun [Chaos]. Shu and Hu from time to time came together for a meeting in the territory of Hun-tun, and Hun-tun treated them very generously. Shu and Hu discussed how they could repay his kindness. "All men," they said, "have seven openings so they can see, hear, eat, and breathe. But Hun-tun alone doesn't have any. Let's trying boring him some!"
Every day they bored another hole, and on the seventh day Hun-tun died. ~ Burton Watson translation ~
When we try to force round pegs into square holes, we destroy both the pegs AND the holes.
When Della signed onto AmeriCorps, we sent an introduction letter to the various property management firms in the Columbia Gorge. This letter explained our own unique circumstances plus we included a standard note from the Washington Service Corps. The latter sheet explained the mission of the Washington Service Corps/AmeriCorps and asked potential landlords to consider waiving or lowering the fees associated with property applications, security deposits and/or monthly rents. The idea here is that, since AmeriCorps volunteers are choosing to serve local communities, those communities can give back by offering some modest financial breaks to the volunteers.
It is a nice sentiment, but it doesn't appear to be playing out in the real world, at least, not the real world in the Columbia Gorge!
One firm responded immediately by telling Della they had nothing to offer. A second firm seemed far more enthusiastic and the representative told Della that they were willing to "work with her." Unfortunately, as Della learned yesterday, "working with her" simply meant that they were willing to show her apartments and houses with no special financial considerations. This covered the apartment she looked at on Saturday. The large security deposit requested makes renting that place prohibitive.
Look, we aren't expecting someone to offer Della a $10,000/month apartment for $100. We realize in this financial climate that landlords -- just like everybody else -- need to pay their bills. On the other hand, we were hopeful that her decision to serve in the Washington Reading Corps would mean something to these companies. It would say something about her character as a caring person.
Sadly, the situation seems to be solely about money. If you have wads of cash, there are a plethora of choices to choose from. If you don't, then tough luck.
Since we keep striking out in the White Salmon/Hood River area, we're now taking a look at some of the housing choices in The Dalles, Oregon. The Dalles is the largest town in the area (population of around 13,600), but it is located 25 miles southeast of White Salmon. If we strike out there too, then it looks like Della is on her own until the middle of July and I'm stranded here without a car.
Six at the top means:
The great prince issues commands,
Founds states, vests families with fiefs.
Inferior people should not be employed.
The war has ended successfully, victory is won, and the king divided estates and fiefs among his faithful vassals. But it is important that inferior people should not come into power. If they have helped, let them be paid off with money, but they should not be awarded lands or the privileges of rulers, lest power be abused.
Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.
The Zhuangzi often makes reference to fame as the enemy of the sage, but seldom (it seems to me) in a way that makes it immediately clear why this is so. Take for an example its reference in the introductory passage of Chapter three: "In the making of 'good' there-should-be-no going near name and fame. . . ." (Wu) We are often given examples of how name and fame (which are more or less equivalent) frequently lead to some form of persecution. This parallels a similar negative consequence of "usefulness"; draw attention to yourself, and someone will want to make use of you. The bark of the cinnamon tree is tasty, so we take it and kill the tree. Politically, if you rise above others, someone will surely wish to bring you down. These might be described as external punishments for fame. But though this is an important consideration in the Zhuangzi, possibly revealing a deep affinity for the philosophy of Yang Chu (who, according to his detractors, "would not give a single hair from his body to save the world"), it is not, I think, its most important dimension. That would be in the internal consequences of having a 'name'.
"The sage," we are told, "has no name." This has more to do with her own self-awareness, than it does with how others perceive her. She is not "somebody" to herself. She is empty. Because the world does not revolve around her, she is able to embrace all the world and each of its 'things'. This is the heart of her sagacity. This is her freedom.
Name (reputation, fame), when grasped as a value, renders impossible transcendence of egoic self-absorption. "For every name, we think, there turns out to be a substantial reality, so we take ourselves too as some kind of palpable material." (Chap. 23; Ziporyn) Name is that which helps establish us as 'someone' when the Daoist goal is to be no one.
"Who can free himself from achievement and fame / Descend and be lost amid the masses of men? / He shall be like Dao, unseen. / He shall go about like Life itself, with no name and no home." (Merton; The Way of Chuang Tzu; misquoted from memory)
Perhaps the most significant aspect of this insight is not the presentation of an ideal goal, but the realization of how this hunger for name is always with us and then working with it. It is unlikely that I, at least, could ever realize the ideal. This being the case, the true value of engaging in the Daoist sense of spirituality is in the engagement itself. If the process is not itself sufficient in itself, then the whole project is senseless. Goal-bound living is not philosophical Daoism; goals there are, but it is the living that counts; always we are affirmed where we are, as we are; the journey is all.
You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.
Six in the fifth place means:
There is game in the field.
It furthers one to catch it.
Without blame.
Let the eldest lead the army.
The younger transports corpses;
Then perseverance brings misfortune.
Game is in the field--it has left its usual haunts in the forest and is devastating the fields. This points to an enemy invasion. Energetic combat and punishment are here thoroughly justified, but they must not degenerate into a wild melee in which everyone fends for himself. Despite the greatest degree of perseverance and bravery, this would lead to misfortune. The army must be directed by an experienced leader. It is a matter of waging war, not of permitting the mob to slaughter all who fall into their hands; if they do, defeat will be the result, and despite all perseverance there is danger of misfortune.
Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.
In 2012, for the first time in at least a generation, the number of active-duty soldiers who killed themselves, 177, exceeded the 176 who were killed while in the war zone. To put that another way, more of America's serving soldiers died at their own hands than in pursuit of the enemy. Across all branches of the US military and the reserves, a similar disturbing trend was recorded. In all, 349 service members took their own lives in 2012, while a lesser number, 295, died in combat. ~ from US Military Struggling to Stop Suicide Epidemic Among War Veterans by Ed Pilkington ~
There are many things one could say about these gruesome statistics and, maybe, I will choose to address the more expected ones some other day. What jumps out at me is not that suicides outnumber combat deaths, but that the combat death figures are so low. It goes to show that the innovative America has discovered a method of war that is far more sanitized than it used to be.
In the days of yore, going to war meant massive deaths and casualties for your side as well as the people you were attempting to defeat. This is why jingoistic rhetoric was so important. Politicians had to devise ways to get their own citizens so whipped up emotionally that they would accept thousands of body bags and funerals. War was hell for all concerned.
Vietnam was the last such war the US initiated and for good reason. Owing to extensive news coverage and massive protests all over the country, US leaders were forced to get out of Vietnam before they wanted to. The people demanded that the troops come home and that is what they did.
Since Vietnam, US leaders have devised a glorious new strategy. When the US goes to war now, we do so in such a way that the nation being attacked incurs almost all of the direct carnage (we still suffer from a tremendous amount of indirect carnage which is what Pilkington's article is about). Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands still die, but few of them are OUR soldiers. Less death for OUR side means less public outrage and less public outrage means a greater capacity and frequency of war.
Today the US has become a bigger bully than ever before. We are waging "war" -- though we don't even call it that -- in scores of foreign lands. Our leaders are able to keep adding new "enemies" to the list because, with so few body bags making their way to our shores, the American public really isn't even conscious of the fact that we are killing others with impunity. As long as the killing fields happen somewhere "over there," we can sip our lattes and watch mindless dribble on TV without having to give a thought to the obscenity of war.
In our frequent discussions of each individual following their own path, this point often is thought of in terms of human beings alone. I suppose that is natural because we humans know those who are like us the best. We have only begun to scratch the bare surface of comprehending the life of other species. Because of this, it can be difficult to discern what constitutes a path for a giraffe or a geranium.
But when we look at our fellow humans, our task is made more difficult because subjective opinion and analysis tends to seep in. We are apt to place value judgments on what we experience. If someone heads in a direction we favor, then we might say that the person has chosen a good road to walk. If someone heads in direction we disagree with, then we might say that individual has chosen a disastrous path. More often than not, we don't look at the choices through the eyes of the one making them. We only know the vision that pertains to our eyes alone.
As I've mentioned before, I learn a lot of the lessons of Taoism through watching my pets. Each has his/her own personality and each follows a different path in life.
Last night I bought bones for my two dogs. Chewing bones is good for their teeth and it's a great way to reward them for putting up with the strange man -- me -- they live with!
As soon as Lily (the hairless dachshund) received her tasty treat, she dragged it into the front bedroom. Anytime the other dog or cat came anywhere near that room, she growled like she was ready to rip a head off. I didn't see her for hours, but I could hear her merrily chomping on her bone. Well, I think it was the new bone, but it could have been one of many because Lily likes to collect and guard every bone in the house!
Jasmine, on the other hand, is not so protective. She likes to offer her bone to me. She'll chew on it for a while, then she'll pick it up and try to drop it in my lap. I try to explain to her that I'm an ardent vegetarian -- I don't like to touch anything associated with meat -- but I think Jazzy would like nothing better than for me to use my mouth to take the bone out of her mouth. (Yuk!)
When examining these two different ways of handling bones, I don't say that one is the right way and the other is the wrong way. Each of my girls follows her own path in this regard and I simply accept them as they are. One is massively overprotective and the other is about as giving as a creature could possibly be.
Now, if only I could be so accepting of other humans!
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
Do not be an embodier of fame; do not be a storehouse of schemes; do not be an undertaker of projects; do not be a proprietor of wisdom. Embody to the fullest what has no end and wander where there is no trail. Hold on to all that you have received from Heaven but do not think you have gotten anything. Be empty, that is all. The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror - going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing. Therefore he can win out over things and not hurt himself. ~ Burton Watson translation ~
Fame, as we all know, is a double-edged sword. For all the perks, there are the gravest of dangers. So, why do so many seek it at all cost?
Like everyone else who does email, I receive spam. Some of it is offensive. Some of it is annoying. And some of it is funny, though I don't think that is the intent. I've decided to share some of it with you periodically in a feature I call, Spam I Am.
There are so many things wrong with the following email that it would take hours to go through them all. Just note the lack of capitalization to start sentences or the informal manner of the text. Of course, in our hyped up world of fear mongering, I have no doubts that some people will fall for emails of this nature.
Me? I think it's quite hilarious.
ANTI-TERRORIST AND MONETARY CRIMES DIVISION
FBI HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON DC
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS J.EDGAR HOOVER BUILDING
935 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535-0001
Ref: FBI/DC/25/113/13/2012
https://www.fbi.gov Urgent attention needed We have been informed through our global intelligence monitoring network that the sum of $10.500, 000.00, has been released from a bank in Africa bearing your name as the beneficiary without dist certificate to clear your name and fund from every terrorist or drug or money laundering activities The bank knowing fully well that they do not have enough facilities to make this payment from any part of the world to your account directly, used what we know as a secret diplomatic transit payment (s.t.d.p) method to make the payment. direct transfers are difficult and secret diplomatic transit payment (s.t.d.p) are not usually made unless the funds are related to terrorist activities and we ask why must your payment be made in a secret transfer if your transaction is legitimate. We do not want you to get into trouble as soon as these funds reflect in your personal account, so it is our duty as an international agency to correct these little problems before this fund reflects into your personal account. we advice you to contact us immediately, as your funds have been stopped and are being held in our custody, until you are able to provide us with the dist certificate within 3 days from the country that authorized the transfer to certify that the funds that you are about to receive are terrorist/drug free or we shall have cause to impound the payment and subsequently prosecute you for cross border terrorist financial activites. based on our findings, our investigative department wish to warn you against some miscreants, hoodlums and touts who go about scamming innocent people by claiming to be who they are not and thereby tarnishing the image of this wonderful country. By sending out fraudulent emails without our official logo and emblem we shall release your funds immediately we receive this legal document and we will ensure that you receive your payment without any further delay. Note We decided to contact you directly by email to acquire the proper verifications and proof from you to show that you are the rightful person to receive this fund, because of the huge amount involved. Be informed that the funds are now with a top bank in the united state in your name and under the monitoring/custody of the FBI. At the moment, we have asked the bank not to release the fund to anybody that comes to them, unless we instruct them to do so, and only if we receive the dist certificate this is to enable us carry out a comprehensive investigation first before releasing the fund to you. hence, you are to forward your dist certificate to us immediately if you have it in your possession, if you do not have it, then let us know so that we will direct you to the appropriate authority to obtain the certificate then you are to send it to our office. And thereafter, we will instruct the bank holding the funds, to go ahead and credit your account immediately. If you fail to provide the documents to this office, we will prosecute you and take appropriate action against you for not proving the legality of the funds. Finally if you truly want to receive this funds without F.B.I troubles then reconfirm the following below Name…………………………………………………. Address……………………………………………….. Sex……………………………………………………… Contact number……………………………………….. Country of origin of funds…………………………….. Yours Faithfully SPECIAL AGENT JUKE WILLIAMS FOR FBI DIRECTOR MR. ROBERT S. MUELLER.
Six in the fourth place means:
The army retreats. No blame.
In the face of a superior enemy, with whom it would be hopeless to engage in battle, an orderly retreat is the only correct procedure, because it will save the army from defeat and disintegration. It is by no means a sign of courage or strength to insist upon engaging in a hopeless struggle regardless of circumstances.
Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.
Oh boy, here I go again, talking about that of which I have barely a clue. But since what I have to say is so simple, maybe I won't go too far wrong.
Shamanism is not a spirituality toward which I have much sympathy or interest, primarily because I see it as imbued with more hocus-pocus (magic, spirits, spiritual powers) than with which I am comfortable. This may very well be, at least in part, symptomatic of the disease of modern civilization to which some aspects of shamanism may be a cure.
Before discussing that disease and its possible cure, perhaps it would be helpful for me to consider why I have an antipathy toward shamanism generally. I could turn to Zhuangzi who clearly saw shamanistic practices as a distraction, if for no other reason than that they required dependence on the magic, spirits and powers with which they purport to deal. We are told that Liehzi, who is presented as symbolic of someone seduced by such things, could ride the wind. Zhuangzi responds that that was just one more thing to depend on, one more fetter holding him back from release into Mystery. But this antipathy predates my discovery of Zhuangzi and is probably mostly rooted in my disillusionment with Christianity (to which I had been thoroughly committed) and a subsequent aversion to any spirituality that requires belief — in anything. In any event, shamanism has never seemed to me to offer any truly transformative solutions to my existential needs.
Or perhaps it is because I do suffer from that modern disease of the modern mind, the ("scientific") objectification of Nature which has made of it an altogether separate Other. And it is this alienation from the intersubjectivity of the Whole, from the Gaian phenomenon, that shamanism may offer, if not a cure, then at least some insight.
David Abram, an eco-philosopher who has studied and experienced shamanism in the field, remarks in his The Spell of the Sensuous that much of the shamanism as currently (somewhat) practiced in the West in the context of New Age spirituality has largely missed its most vital aspect, namely its rootedness in the spirituality of Earth, herself. The shaman hears the voice of Gaia; she hears the voices of the deer, the lizard, the trees and the stones. He has yet to have lost the intersubjective intimacy with Nature which we all once knew when we roamed the African savannah in search of our next meal while trying to not be something else’s.
It is a rediscovery of this intimacy with the organic whole of Nature which Abram suggests may help us discover a spirituality that will halt our headlong rush toward the destruction of the wholeness of Nature which sustains us. Philosophical Daoism, I suggest, also provides us with this perspective, though it may do so more effectively if takes the more primal hand of what shamanism also has to offer.
You can check out Scott's other miscellaneous writings here.
Six in the third place means:
Perchance the army carries corpses in the wagon.
Misfortune.
Here we have a choice of two explanations. One points to defeat because someone other than the chosen leader interferes with the command; the other is similar in its general meaning, but the expression, "carries corpses in the wagon," is interpreted differently. At burials and at sacrifices to the dead it was customary in China for the deceased to whom the sacrifice was made to be represented by a boy of the family, who sat in the dead man's place and was honored as his representative. On the basis of this custom the text is interpreted as meaning that a "corpse boy" is sitting in the wagon, or, in other words, that authority is not being exercised by the proper leaders but has been usurped by others. Perhaps the whole difficulty clears up if it is inferred that there has been an error in copying. The character fan, meaning "all," may have been misread as shih, which means "corpse." Allowing for this error, the meaning would be that if the multitude assumes leadership of the army (rides in the wagon), misfortune will ensue.
Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.
Apartment hunting in the Columbia Gorge has been a real challenge. As I've discussed before, affordable housing options there are few and far between. We have noted one basement apartment in Hood River, Oregon, that, while at the extreme upper end of our limited budget, might work for the remainder of Della's 6-month term. She will go view it tomorrow morning.
We are hopeful that the letters we sent to the various property managements firms will be of some assistance. If the company that manages this particular apartment sticks to their general requirements -- very HIGH security deposits -- then this will be a no go. On the other hand, if they are willing to make allowances for a volunteer's AmeriCorps service to the community, then it might be doable. I will still need to crunch some numbers.
I've warned Della not to get her hopes up. The transition to living alone in a strange town has not been easy for her. I don't want to see her feel crushed if this apartment doesn't work out. She tells me she's trying to be realistic, but that can be hard when a person feels as if they are living in a very unreal situation.
The best we can do right now is to cross our fingers.
This song is called Alice's Restaurant, and it's about Alice, and the restaurant.But Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that's just the name of the song, and that's why I called the song, Alice's Restaurant.
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back, just a half a mile from the railroad track
An' you can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on - two years ago on Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the restaurant, but Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and Fasha the dog. And livin' in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of room downstairs where the pews used to be. An' havin' all that room, seein' as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn't have to take out their garbage for a long time.
We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it'd be a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the city dump.
Well we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the dump saying, "Closed on Thanksgiving." And we had never heard of a dump closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage.
We didn't find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we decided to throw ours down.
That's what we did, and drove back to the church, had a thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, went to sleep and didn't get up until the next morning, when we got a phone call from officer Obie. He said, "Kid, we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of ab' a half a ton of garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it." And I said, "Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope under that garbage."
After speaking to Obie for about fourty-five minutes on the telephone we finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said, that we had to go down and pick up the garbage, and also had to go down and speak to him at the police officer's station. So we got in the red VW microbus with the shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the police officer's station.
Now friends, there was only one or two things that Obie coulda done at the police station, and the first was he coulda given us a medal for being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn't very likely, and we didn't expect it, and the other thing was he coulda bawled us out and told us never to be see driving garbage around the vicinity again, which is what we expected, but when we got to the police officer's station there was a third possibility that we hadn't even counted upon, and we was both immediately arrested. Handcuffed. And I said "Obie, I don't think I can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on." He said, "Shut up, kid. Get in the back of the patrol car."
And that's what we did, sat in the back of the patrol car and drove to the quote Scene of the Crime unquote. I want tell you about the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where this happened here, they got three stop signs, two police officers, and one police car, but when we got to the Scene of the Crime there was five police officers and three police cars, being the biggest crime of the last fifty years, and everybody wanted to get in the newspaper story about it. And they was using up all kinds of
cop equipment that they had hangin' around the police officer's station. They was taking plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints, and they took twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach, the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to mention the aerial photography.
After the ordeal, we went back to the jail. Obie said he was going to put us in the cell. Said, "Kid, I'm going to put you in the cell, I want your wallet and your belt." And I said, "Obie, I can understand you wanting my wallet so I don't have any money to spend in the cell, but what do you want my belt for?" And he said, "Kid, we don't want any hangings." I said, "Obie, did you think I was going to hang myself for litterin'?" Obie said he was making sure, and friends Obie was, cause he took out the toilet seat so I couldn't hit myself over the head and drown, and he took out the toilet paper so I couldn't bend the bars roll out the - roll the toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll and have an escape. Obie was making sure, and it was about four or five hours later that Alice... Remember Alice? It's a song about Alice... Alice came by and with a few nasty words to Obie on the side, bailed us out of jail, and we went back to the church, had a another thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, and didn't get up until the next morning, when we all had to go to court.
We walked in, sat down, Obie came in with the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, sat down. Man came in said, "All rise." We all stood up, and Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog. And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry, 'cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American blind justice, and there wasn't nothing he could do about it, and the judge wasn't going to look at the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. And we was fined fifty dollars and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but that's not what I came to tell you about.
Came to talk about the draft.
They got a building down in New York City, it's called Whitehall Street, where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning. 'Cause I wanted to look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted to feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York, and I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all kinds o' mean nasty ugly things. And I waked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the psychiatrist, room 604."
And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin' up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and he started jumpin' up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the Sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."
Didn't feel too good about it.
An' I proceeded on down the hall gettin' more injections, inspections, detections, neglections and all kinds of stuff that they as doin' to me at the thing there, and I was there for two hours, three hours, four hours, I was there for a long time going through all kinds of mean nasty ugly things and I was just having a tough time there, and they was inspecting, injecting every single part of me, and they was leaving no part untouched. Proceeded through, and when I finally came to the see the last man, I walked in, walked in sat down after a whole big thing there, and I walked up and said, "What do you want?" He said, "Kid, we only got one question. Have you ever been arrested?"
And I proceeded to tell him the story of the Alice's Restaurant Massacre, with full orchestration and five part harmony and stuff like that and all the phenome... - and he stopped me right there and said, "Kid, did you ever go to court?"
And I proceeded to tell him the story of the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and the paragraph on the back of each one, and he stopped me right there and said, "Kid, I want you to go and sit down on that bench that says Group W .... NOW kid!!"
And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W's where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committin' your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean 'n' ugly 'n' nasty 'n' horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me and said, "Kid, whad'ya get?" I said, "I didn't get nothing, I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage." He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?" And I said, "Litterin'." And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I said, "And creating a nuisance." And they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench, talkin' about crime, mother stabbing, father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the bench. And everything was fine, we was smoking cigarettes and all kinds of things, until the Sargent came over, had some paper in his hand, held it up and said.
"Kids, this-piece-of-paper's-got-47-words-37-sentences-58-words-we-wanna-know-details-of-the-crime-time-of-the-crime-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say-pertaining-to-and-about-the-crime-I-want-to-know-arresting-officer's-name-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say", and talked for forty-five minutes and nobody understood a word that he said, but we had fun filling out the forms and playing with the pencils on the bench there, and I filled out the massacre with the four part harmony, and wrote it down there, just like it was, and everything was fine and I put down the pencil, and I turned over the piece of paper, and there, there on the other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on the other side, in parentheses, capital letters, quotated, read the following words:
("KID, HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF?")
I went over to the Sargent, said, "Sargent, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin' here on the Group W bench, 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug." He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send you fingerprints off to Washington."
And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a study in black and white of my fingerprints. And the only reason I'm singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if your in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into the shrink wherever you are ,just walk in say "Shrink, You can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant.". And walk out. You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.
And that's what it is , the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come's around on the guitar.
With feeling. So we'll wait for it to come around on the guitar, here and sing it when it does. Here it comes.
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back, just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
That was horrible. If you want to end war and stuff you got to sing loud. I've been singing this song now for twenty five minutes. I could sing it for another twenty five minutes. I'm not proud... or tired.
So we'll wait till it comes around again, and this time with four part harmony and feeling.
We're just waitin' for it to come around is what we're doing.
All right now.
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant (Excepting Alice)
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
(I said) Walk right in it's around the back, just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Embosom all the myriad things, / Taking each one under your protective wings. / This may be referred to as universality. / The myriad things will be equally regarded, / There being no long or short among them. (Wandering on the Way; [Zhuangzi, 17]; Mair)
We are exhorted to embrace all things because of our oneness; and this is only accomplished when "each" thing is individually protected. Because of their participation in one reality, their individual uniqueness is affirmed. Because of their equally affirmed uniqueness, we understand how they are all equal. This view from Dao is not the view from humanity which, together with all things, sees itself as more important than everything else: "From the point of view of the Course [Dao], no thing is more valuable than any other. But from the point of view of itself, each thing is worth more and all the others are worth less." (Chap. 17; Ziporyn) We are encouraged to allow the vantage point of Dao to inform our vantage point of humanity. The one is not the negation of the other, though the mind finds it difficult not to make it so.
In terms of the environmentalism in which this passage is being considered, this difficulty in understanding the paradox of our special worth and the equal worth of all things is mooted in the realization that our single-minded grasping of our sense of being special is bringing us to the brink of our own extinction. We need not appeal to the spiritual sensibility of Dao, therefore, to practically demonstrate the need for an appreciation of the equal worth of all things; we have neglected it to our own impending ruin. Self-preservation requires the preservation of all.
The author of this acclaimed chapter of the Zhuangzi has already demonstrated, like Zhuangzi himself, how our comparisons between things are merely an arbitrary convention of the mind (which is not to say that they do not have their necessary uses). If we say something is short, this makes sense only with reference to something longer, and the longer makes sense only with reference to something shorter. But there is always something longer or shorter still, and thus everything is equally long and short. Personally, I've never quite understood what this says about things as they actually are, but this is not really about how things are at all; it is about how the human mind works. It is an attempt to drive a wedge between how we think about the world and how it actually is. It shows us that the mind imposes its methods, its grids, upon the world. This may be unavoidable, but Daoism suggests that it can still be informed, and thereby relativized, by the view from Dao. The problem is not so much that we have our necessarily limited and inaccurate theories about the world, which we cannot avoid, but that we think they are 'true' of reality.
This very day some species will cease to exist. Can we see how this is equivalent to the loss of our own species? The view from Dao would enable us. And it would also enable us to do so without despair, for it also tells us that ends are also always beginnings. Nothing is lost. We are shown how to care with all our heart and yet not to despair.
You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.
The next day Lieh Tzu brought the shaman to see Hu Tzu. When they had left the room, the shaman said, "I'm so sorry - your master is dying! There's no life left in him - he won't last the week. I saw something very strange -- something like wet ashes!"
Lieh Tzu went back into the room, weeping and drenching the collar of his robe with tears, and reported this to Hu Tzu.
Hu Tzu said, "Just now I appeared to him with the Pattern of Earth - still and silent, nothing moving, nothing standing up. He probably saw in me the Workings of Virtue Closed Off. Try bringing him around again."
The next day the two came to see Hu Tzu again, and when they had left the room, the shaman said to Lieh Tzu, "It certainly was lucky that your master met me! He's going to get better - he has all the signs of life! I could see the stirring of what had been closed off!"
Lieh Tzu went in and reported this to Hu Tzu.
Hu Tzu said, "Just now I appeared to him as Heaven and Earth - no name or substance to it, but still the workings, coming up from the heels. He probably saw in me the Workings of the Good One. Try bringing him again."
The next day the two came to see Hu Tzu again, and when they had left the room, the shaman said to Lieh Tzu, "Your master is never the same! I have no way to physiognomize him! If he will try to steady himself, then I will come and examine him again."
Lieh Tzu went in and reported this to Hu Tzu.
Hu Tzu said, "Just now I appeared to him as the Great Vastness Where Nothing Wins Out. He probably saw in me the Workings of the Balanced Breaths. Where the swirling waves gather there is an abyss; where the still waters gather there is an abyss; where the running waters gather there is an abyss. The abyss has nine names and I have shown him three. Try bringing him again."
The next day the two came to see Hu Tzu again, but before the shaman had even come to a halt before Hu Tzu, his wits left him and he fled.
"Run after him!" said Hu Tzu, but though Lieh Tzu ran after him, he could not catch up.
Returning, he reported to Hu Tzu, "He's vanished! He's disappeared! I couldn't catch up with him."
Hu Tzu said, "Just now I appeared to him as Not Yet Emerged from My Source. I came at him empty, wriggling and turning, not knowing anything about `who' or `what,' now dipping and bending, now flowing in waves - that's why he ran away."
After this, Lieh Tzu concluded that he had never really begun to learn anything. He went home and for three years did not go out. He replaced his wife at the stove, fed the pigs as though he were feeding people, and showed no preferences in the things he did. He got rid of the carving and polishing and returned to plainness, letting his body stand alone like a clod. In the midst of entanglement he remained sealed, and in this oneness he ended his life. ~ Burton Watson translation ~
I liken the shaman in this story to the spiritual hucksters in present society. They can provide you with all sorts of preformatted answers. They are adept at convincing people that they can see into a person's "soul."
For the most part, the ONLY things they "see" are opportunities to make a bucket load of money and a name for themselves.
Two days ago I scheduled a post for this time slot that addressed a terrible outrage. I climbed onto my soapbox and -- may I say? -- it was a splendid diatribe. Then a funny thing happened on the road between then and now. The incident that spurred the outrage was amicably resolved. So, the post went away. Funny how things go like that sometimes.
Nine in the second place means:
In the midst of the army.
Good fortune. No blame.
The king bestows a triple decoration.
The leader should be in the midst of his army, in touch with it, sharing good and bad with the masses he leads. This alone makes him equal to the heavy demands made upon him. He needs also the recognition of the ruler. The decorations he receives are justified, because there is no question of personal preferment here: the whole army, whose center he is, is honored in his person.
Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.
Embosom all the myriad things, / Taking each one under your protective wings. / This may be referred to as universality. / The myriad things will be equally regarded, / There being no long or short among them. (Wandering on the Way; [Zhuangzi, 17]; Mair)
I have just begun reading a book on deep ecology and am thus made more aware of how Daoism speaks to the 'issue'. At this point in human history it hardly seems adequate to speak of our earth environment as an 'issue'; our survival as a species may very well be threatened, and that of myriad yet-to-be-extinct species is almost certainly guaranteed. We are careening toward a certain cliff, seemingly without the ability to stop. As Zhuangzi would say, "How sad."
The quote above speaks to the caring that the Daoist perspective brings to our relationship with all things. This caring is rooted in a sense of universality; all cognitively limited boundaries are dissolved in a single vastness which unites them all, while each thing-in-itself is simultaneously affirmed in its uniqueness. Their oneness affirms their uniqueness; their uniqueness affirms their oneness. We cherish all things. At the same time, the Daoist perspective releases us from the fear of doom and loss. Nothing can be lost. One Reality loses nothing. All is well.
I say these things with relative ease, but can't begin to say them well. They are paradox in any case, and cannot be cognitively understood, but only pre-cognitively so; viscerally so. In thought, we can only juggle oneness/uniqueness and mattering/not-mattering without grasping any one extreme. Yet, it is essential that we embrace them both, for either extreme alone would either break our hearts or deaden them.
We would give all within our power to save our sick child, but our life would not end with hers. We cherish our parents and want that they ever remain with us, but they must surely pass and we must go on without them. "Fix the broken / though it will surely break again. / Heal the sick / though they shall surely die in the end." (Chen Jen) None of it makes 'sense'; nor should we think it should.
For earth we must weep; for what we take today as the norm was yesterday catastrophe. But there is so much yet to preserve, so much more to lose. Philosophical Daoism does not offer us a list of ethical imperatives, but suggests an organic way of integrating with our apparent reality that it might show us a whole and healthful way. And out of this arises the call to care for all things, to care for this earth as for our mother. It does not tell us to go to the barricades, but it may very well lead us there, for without putting our own lives on the line, without deep involvement, 'caring' is just a useless and painful emotion. What must we do to stop the Keystone Pipeline, an artery of death that would transect the North American Continent and threaten not only that, but the entire earth? How can we not take a stand here? Our madness erupts everywhere, but perhaps here is a place to say an immoveable "No" out of the depths of our boundless "Yes".
You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.
