My Blog
SITAR CLASSES at Cathedral Lakes
Don Pope of the group Katmandu and myself are going to me teaching sitar near Keremeos, BC in July and August 2008. Plenty of free/cheap camping and lots of nature. For more info contact me via tribe.CORN
CORNI was in the land of the Aztec and there my body was stretched over the sacrificial alter and with an obsidian blade she cut my heart from my chest and left my corpse to fall down the 87 steps of the pyramid. There it lay for five days and early one morning, before the sunrise what was left of me departed that world and following an instinctive path I returned to my homeland. Without a heart I wandered in the darkness until an Eagle woman took me under her wing and said “I give you my home to live in.” With her hands she massaged new life into me and and I into her. A new heart beat in my chest and new blood flowed through my body. She told me how the coca leaf had robbed the priestess of her pleasure and left her to thirst for rain. Only when the rain falls can the seeds sprout and the corn grows and life is nourished. With my new life I made music, my heart grew stronger as did my body. I ran around the lake and climbed the hills until I felt I was whole again. From the top of the mountain I sent an image to the priestess to let her know that I was whole again.. to thank her and to let her know that we are all part of a great mystery.
Then one day after I had played my sitar the priestess appeared to me. She looked the same yet different. She was beautiful and wearing new garments. She moves to the music of another land and held within her some of the joy that had been taken from her. When she saw me , she appeared surprized, she knew I was alive again, but seeing is a more intense experience. I was touched with emotion to see her again. She had taken my old heart and made possible a new beginning. I wanted to thank her but my words still lacked strength. I wanted to invite her to travel around the lake or climb the mountain. I wanted her to join in my music and know that I appreciated her part in the mystery. I left in sorrow and returned to the home my lover had given me. Sleep would not come until the next night. On the following morning a healing woman met me and together we ran by the ocean. My heart gathered strength and I saw the answer. The hole in my chest had been filled by the lover, the morning sun and the healer. The rain that falls from my eyes nourishes the corn and gives life.
Phone number recovery
My Phone was washed over by the tide at Deep Cove so I may have lost YOUR number.. Kindly send me it again...FriendsOde to a Box of Matches
Ode to a Box of MatchesThe fiendish hand which fate so untimely guides
Hath, true to its own selfeffacing temperament,
Foresaken one and all, and left them
To search, amidst the sudden darkness, for that
Which only yesterday, was so carefully placed.
But where? I long only to gaze upon
The pyric stars that light the eyes of the one most fair,
But she, alas, has parted in despair
And ventures out. with silver coins in hand.
A container of sulphurous kindling for to barter.
by James Hamilton Calcutta, September 14 1989
"Sound" Universe
Here is a posting I made a while back on Crossroads of Religion.
From a philosophical and cosmological point of view, sound and sound vibration have been discussed in relation to the origin and make-up of the universe. In Indian (India) cosmology the primorial sound of the universe is referred to as Nadabhraman. As such it is the fundamental vibration of the universe from which the univrse came into being. A parallel can be seen in Genesis where God said “let there be light.” The sound, or in this case the speaking of a word, is the initial action that signals the creation of the universe. In as much as light is also a form of vibration, it is connected to sound. Light is sound at a higher vibrational level.
In Indian thinking sound vibration is seen as to have two forms. These are known as AHAT which is struck sound, and ANAHAT which is unstruck sound. This is to say that anahat sound was not created or initiated by any action whereas someone or something made ahat sound. The primordal sound of the universe is anahat or unstruck sound in that it is eternal. All if the subsequent sounds of the universe would be ahat or struck sound in that they were created and continue to me made.
In this model, the eternal unstuck sound of NadaBhrahman is the source of the universe.
Within this universe we hear forms of struck sound. These sounds range from noise to music based on content. Humans and other creatures within the universe have the ability to generate their own sound and/or to use other objects to create sound. When these sounds are organised in terms of features such as melody rhythm and/ harmony then music is made.
This concept bears a resemblance to Pythagoras’ concept of the “music of the spheres”.
Here the motions of the planets in the heavens were said to make an etherial music.
Atlantisrising?
from Atlantisrising.comThe weakness of the fundamentalist interpretation of Atlantis is based largely on ignorance and an unwillingness to consider information that is readily available to all! In this discussion I am using the word fundamentalist to refer to proponents of theories on Atlantis who hold that Plato's account is accurate.
Let's consider the 9500 B.C. figure that is much touted as the year Atlantis sank. I think this figure is arbitrary and misleading. The year 9500 B.C. is clearly prior to times when there were written records of life on this planet. Therefore any information from this era must have been handed down by an oral tradition. Assuming 33 year generations (for sake of argument) and 9000 years time, then this story must have been passed down through the oral tradition for approximately 200 generations before writing came about and thereafter for another 100 generations till the time of Plato. ( I believe that Solon who is believed to be in the chain of story transfer, lived about 5 or 6 generations before Plato and the two men may have been related) Given the chain of humans and length of time over which the story was allegedly handed down I believe there was ample occasion for details to have been changed. This includes years, locations and facts. For this reason I do not take Plato's account on face value.
If we examine the story objectively, the first thing to throw out is the year 9500 B.C. and the second thing to go is probably the Atlantic location. Phrases such as "beyond the pillars of Hercules" can also mean "once upon a time" or "in an unknown land." They serve to indicate that Plato did not know where his Atlantis was located. Other statements on the sinking of the "continent" are also suspect.
Putting together the remainder of Plato's information and using research in classical studies and geology we can come up with a few more probable scenarios. Personally I think the Minoan one of about 1600 B.C. make most sense.
Sitar
Thu, March 31, 2005 - 10:08 PMRe: Sitar adapted to Arabic music?
Check out my site for some Ragamala paintings with early versions of the sitar.
The word sitar is derived from the Fasri word Sehtar however the connection between the Persian sehtar and the Indian sitar is rather indirect. Both instrument are long necked lutes, but the Indian sitar has many features in common with the Indian Beena (Veena, Bin). The necked lute feature of the instrument is probably from the family of instruments that came from the Iraqi (mesopotamian) Tanbur of Khorisan.
Regarding arabic music on the sitar; it can be done because the sitar frets are moveable to any intonation. Although thw intonation on the sitar (as used in India) seems similar to western intonation, it really is different (from a microtonal point of view). For example the intervan C to E (Major third) is smaller in Indian music
Can Computers Think?
Re: Can Computers think?If I can summarize what you are saying; we don't know if computers will ever be able to think but we should not discount it.
My line is that what ever abilities a computer has, they are just an extension of the programmers abilities. They are not original or creative or intuitive.
To me a thinking thing has to have a mind of its own--not be a tool of someone elses's thinking. This requires an organic life base i.e Spock's brain. If you cloned or transplanted a living brain into a computer and accepted that organic matter as a part of the computer, then it would be able to think...how well...who knows!
As for the human being as a machine programmed by genetical factors, thiis is a scientific model which many outside the field would disagree with. In the Gnostic perspective the human body is a vehicle for the soul and spirit. With out the latter it is dead. This vehicle has bears some similarity with a machine but again it is different. It is born, it grows, it adapts, it procreates, it evolves etc.
Fundamentalism
Sun, May 15, 2005 - 10:34 AMRe: Spiritual Warfare
I think that the problem with "fundamentalist" interpretations of religion is that they presume to be the correct interpretation. This is an article of faith... not one of study or investigation. You mention "Jesus who walked the earth." What do you actually know about this person? John Allegro (who was a scholar who translated parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls) has made a very good case to show that Jesus as mention in the King James version of the Bible was probably a fictitious person. The teachings attribute to him are from a Jewish sect known as the Essenes. The text that we have as the "Bible" appears to draw from the Essene tradition as mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls. I would think that a serious study of Jesus and his teaching would necessitate looking into this.
In another thread I compare Christ/ Krishna as spokespersons for a set of beliefs;
" I think that there is an interesting parallel between the development of Christianity and Krishna version of Vaishnavim. Basicly I think what happened it that the promoters of theses two Ideologies wanted a person to be the focuss of the belief system and therefor apppointed (or annointed) Christ and Krishna respectively to the position. It is debatable as to the historical existence of either person but that does not matter. All they needed was a spokesperson for a belief system. Note how both persons are given the highest of credentials (god incarnate) in order to add some weight to what they have to say. Christ spoke a version of Essene philosophy which has a component of Gnostic wisdom in it. It is probably that the meaning of what he said was known to a select group of initiates. The early Church tried to change the message from one of wisdom to one of faith. With Krishna, he is the spokesperson for Upanishadic Theism. Similarly, the Non- Theistic version of the Upanishadic tradititon (the wisdom tradition) was replaced by a faith based system. In this capacity Krishna takes on a similar role to Christ. What is interesting is the emphasis on faith, belief and devotion that runs through the popularist versions of both traditions."
The world has many religious practitioners who never get beyond "fundamentalim." I do not think that God gave us a mind and intellect to have us shut it off!