Magical Dao

The world gets weirder every day in the appropriately misnamed Weirdale. As it happens the name using those letters might form Wiredale suggesting a Dale with fibre optic cables and Weirdale seems to be already in use as a word for a Dale brewing unusual ale. The point being that words have magic power sometimes and writers use them to enchant the reader who may miss the symbolic intention. Clever rhymes (not doggerel) and puns (not overworked), mystical allusions loved by many and understood by few (Blake's Universe in a Grain of Sand, Eternity in an Hour), all draw in the reader.

As is known, this blog, you might say a long running essay, is a contemporary form, always moving as if on Camino, trying to communicate the Dao by avoiding nouns, fixed things, employing more verbs (or verbing), trying to avoid reference to an I or me or mine in order to reprogramme my own mind into this new reality discovered that your blogger is not separate from all that is, though not less but infinitely more. The absence of full stops and the irritating use of three dots instead to signify infinity was part of plan. Rather like neuro-linguistic programming without the Common Purpose cult.

Now Dao or Tao appears in the Blog title as if by accident, explained initially as the Camino starting point (River Wear where I lived) and direction of travel (Rio Dao a river in Portugal which doesn't actually reach the sea). Astute philosophers may note an echo of Here and Now, which some say is all there is in deep reality. Let's say serendipity, a favourite word meaning a coincidence with significance, pointing towards weirdness and magic. Since Dao was the current teaching, its lessons embodied in the whole adventure in freedom which was wonderful in its entirety, Santiago de Compostela never the destination, Life School seen as the reason for a whole life and more, the three treasures according to Lao Tse (Tzu) translated for me as: Compassion, Simplicity and Patience. The first two came easy to be honest. Mum modelled Compassion, money never attracted me as long as there was enough, but Patience was tricky all this Life, always in a hurry to change the world (correctly seen as in dire need of Revolution of some kind or other).

Dao then in Life School may be seen in two parts: First theory, second practice. Theory of Dao may well include the Dao De Jing and scholars will have studied it in many translations in numerous languages, ancient and modern. However, just as reading an instruction manual called "How to Swim" is not much use until the reader jumps in to the water, so learning Dao from Lao's wise words is far from the amazing reality embodied by jumping in to the stream, or Way, or whatever words we use. Pilgrimage perhaps? Though even that is just a long walk with a halo some say!

Dao as a route to Truth and Power is well known and misused often when ethics are neglected, so Patience is indeed vital, but Simplicity is too, and Compassion or Universal Love is essential or the magic will eventually wear thin. Dao as an organised religion? No thanks, that falls into the trap of other religions, building castles in the sand. So, is Dao atheistic then? Absolutely not! Denial of God or gods or Theos or whatever makes no sense; a belief system itself, soon disproved when magic appears, which when observed and incorporated it does. In fact early researchers in the quantum world discovered the observer and the thing observed inseparable, which still puzzles scientists and philosophers.

And so, the experience of the Magic of Dao continues daily in Stanhope. Well qualified strangers pop up to explain a point and disappear. For example, a young Indian researcher into Virology came for coffee with his Persian friend who trained in Plant Medecine. A few days later they arrived with an Indian meal they prepared to further discuss important questions, which basically taught that the current viral crisis was contrived for nefarious reasons by power players at World Economic Forum level. In India itself it seems, folk are too busy dying young from hunger to concern themselves with masks. These are not exceptional at all. A Scholar and well qualified Lawyer and Philosopher turned up on the Fell and conversed an hour or so on topics of interest, naming famous philosophers of the West, but with little knowledge or experience of Buddha or Lao Tse.

Meanwhile, in the virtual world, where basically everyone can talk to anyone about anything, huge cartels control the way we see the world. FB and YouTube, for example dominate the field, though alternative platforms come and go. Their motive is money and how to make more for ever. Immortality being the delusion of the Plutocrats, storing their bodies in deep freezers as if consciousness does not continue when the body and brain are burnt or rotting in the ground.
Magic for me, the centre of my own universe like everyone else, means meaningful films are offered daily, FB access is limited to save the constant chatter and philosophical discourse occurs on the Fells, the street and in the Retreat House, which is always open for business.

If you, dear reader(s) are in the area or wish to stay a day or two, you're welcome. There is no charge; the experience is priceless. Which is good on many levels, not least because complaints are minimised and agencies seeking tax revenues have nothing to tax or regulate.

Time for breakfast before the morning wander, with no fixed route or expectations ...

History, Her Story, Mystery or My Story ...

I love to play with words! And worlds come to that, since words which become languages of different kinds, become stories which in turn become the worlds we see and hear, smell and touch, experience each uniquely as they are processed through uniquely conditioned brains or minds.

So, why you might ask, do whole swathes of human beings, agree on particular and often peculiar realities, more or less? Taking a standpoint of ethics, for example, killing each other has generally been forbidden for most of the societies on Planet Earth for at least three thousand years. Exceptions are made at different times in different cultures. For example Governments reserve the right to kill those they perceive as dangerous to the interests of those who control the Government. Cynics sometimes sneer at uncivilized societies who not only fight each other tribally but also eat the dead bodies of casualties. A more rounded view points out that the practice is justified since it honours the slain and saves the effort and danger of hunting wild animals for meat. Meanwhile, hypocrites from more advanced civilisations happily execute legally transgressors of their laws, especially those who can't afford top lawyers, whilst espousing Christianity fervently and committing innumerable atrocities; perhaps the most egregious example being the high level dropping of nuclear bombs on two cities in Japan. These were clearly war crimes, justified by the sadistic nature of the guards in the Prisoner of War camps in Burma and other places.

Now it is not unknown for women to be violent, but Herstory might say compassion and forgiveness are vital and ethics essential along with cooperation, whilst History tends to favour competition and the consequent violence seen in regimes especially those holding Judao-Christian views, with a Creator God, always male, often smiting or allowing world wars, earthquakes, capital punishment despite claiming omniscience and omnipotence.

Atheists reject the whole system, but that's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Where then does Mystery enter the story?

Well, Mystery as a word of course is often used by religious fanatics to justify the ubiquitous violence described above, but that's false. In fact any attempt to organise the Truth is doomed to fail, since it seems what some call God and others not is impossible to describe or nail down. Religions as fellowships are fine in moderation, but appointing bossy blokes and, even women in some non-conformist organisations, undermines the integrity of the follower as well as the leader or guru.

Mystory on the other hand infers that Truth may better be approached through the Consciousness of each and every human being, an ancient heresy often rewarded by men and women finding themselves tortured and burnt alive for expressing their opinion. The heresy, or mystery, is gaining ground these days by mystics and scientists alike, confident to embrace the amazing and inspirational idea that God, Allah, Jehovah, Dao and so on exists in each of us and everywhere in Nature, in every atom, not separate, interconnected.

Immanent ...

A Middle Way ?

In a radical revision of writing, the topic of today suggests a Middle Way. This includes full stops.
Personal pronouns may pop up as well. Verbs will take their turn with nouns, and attention will be paid to grammar, inasmuch as it is understood; semi-colons indicating a pause longer than a comma, but shorter than a whole colon. And both longer than a full stop. Though starting a sentence with "And" or "Though" are often frowned upon by pedants, not to mention a sentence without a verb.

Following the thread from yesterday's title, New Normal, itself a buzzword from the plot against freedom, known as The Great Reset, much discussed this past year since it's quite unusual to have democratic governments joining governments without democracy in declaring Martial Law.
The fact that this old blogger found his boat trip to France en route to another pilgrimage cancelled focused his mind on opposition to the Coup. That and the instruction to the Elders of the Dale to stay indoors in case of flu, though previous flus, not more lethal than this one, had locked no-one up. Winter flu often contributed to the death of many old and vulnerable people, but that rarely stopped them going out. In fact many said they were determined to end their lives in good company, not sitting indoors lonely.

Observers of a spiritual inclination advised transcending the mundane matters of politics, not bad advice since the Stanhope Retreat House was comfortable, with kind neighbours, an expanding Library, walking routes all round, sufficient shops nearby for supplies and a stable mind, more or less. To be honest there was a revolt against the iniquity and opportunities were seized to ignore the rules and subvert the locals wherever possible. Being free of TV and radio turned off along with newspaper propaganda freed the mind from the hypnosis employed by the Authorities, national and local. Gradually a broader picture emerged: a well coordinated plan to encourage the people of the world to travel less, buy less rubbish and generally act as if the Planet needed more responsible citizens. Which may be the case!

The method chosen by the United Nations, World Economic Forum, World Health Organisation and others, supported by Common Purpose slowly taking key positions of power over 20 years or more, required the shock and awe modelled in the invasion of Iraq, putting the populace in fear and thereby controlled and compliant. This part is unethical to say the least and leaves your blogger looking for a Middle Way, which is to say that the Plutocrat Pandemic and Green New Deal and Socialist System coming next are unacceptable, though Simplicity, Renewable Energy and Minimum Income Guarantees sound like good ideas.

Stepping up a level is the key, transcending Divide and Rule, love of Money and Fear of Death, as taught by Buddha, Lao Tse, Ramana, not to mention mystic scientists, the Messengers.

If this sounds Cosmic, maybe it is, but we aren't solving the fundamental issues now becoming critical using the tired old ways. If the Age of Aquarius is finally upon us, let's embrace it enthusiastically. If you are old enough to recall the dawning and the attendant joy and freedom of our liberated youth, you may be really lucky to see it lighting up the Earth!

New Normal ...

Since this blog is being written in linear time, let's say 1950 - 2021, the birth year of the blogger and the current year, whether or not the last as yet unknown ... the events of living memory, inasmuch as this fragment of the Whole of Nature, known as "I" with all the baggage of an ego self examined but not fully understood, playing with the grammar in order to avoid over-nouning and full stops, not to mention the amusing task of writing cogently with minimal personal pronouns ...  the art being to remain present as the hero of the blog, telling a story as if autobiography, while subverting the mindset of the reader(s), if any ... thereby removing the illusion of the I and me and mine, preparing the world in "my" mind for liberation of a kind ... according to teachings from Lao Tse in Dao, Gautama in Buddhism, K in whatever he was saying along with friends like Bohm and Aldous Huxley ... and hinted at obliquely in the title of the blog, with reference to two rivers as well as a clever rhyme ...

Occasional feedback from friends and readers, not ostensibly deranged, encourages the old blogger to continue ... self knowing including the ever present danger of slipping into delusion, and while paranoia is identified as a psychological issue to beware of, the compassion of those readers and their willingness to criticise honestly from their perspective offers evidence that eccentricity is not normally diagnosed as abnormal or subnormal ... just maybe a different kind of normal ...

Normal, of course, is in the mind ... of each individual human being ... their Reality you might say ... and the more individualistic the society, the more opinions arise and coalesce around groups to form consensus reality, previously the realm of national identity, where whole countries clashed in wars, often allied with other countries, empires indeed, to ramp up the horror ... meanwhile power players play with human minds to bend group reality through hypnosis using levers like television and newspapers, susceptible to corruption and enforcement (as in D notices in UK) ... simple and consistently repeated messages in times of crisis however created, lead whole populations to agree, that previously abhorrent practices like mass wearing of masks and vaccinations become a New Normal ... normality as decreed by the World Economic Forum, offering lockdown release contingent on enslavement ...

All of this strange story, by the way, is only one version of reality as processed through the weird mind of one rebellious entity, playing human games with certain preset conditions like family constellations, birth date and so on, sent into a world soon perceived as in need of revolution in many ways ... gross inequality, violence at every level including mass murder in wars ... and this fragment of the whole found allies with similar aims, whether some branch of communism or Buddhism or other isms and none ... leading to today's offering, not too far removed from contemporary structures like Science and Non-Duality and countless others looping round to Dao and the primacy of consciousness itself to up the game of humanity, see through divide and rule, love of money, Fear itself and notably the illusion of fear of Death ... which is to say: Immortality is available ... but if you think you can buy it you're crazier than me!

Redcar Poet takes the stage ...

A leading role, in North East England at least, is taken by a charismatic poet and stand-up comic, from the Red Wall community of disenchanted steel workers ... London Labour Party stalwart, having been brought in to lead the troops, obviously lacking the talent of sophisticated so-called socialists with globalist intentions, Anna Turley ... was cruelly ditched by an ungrateful electorate, breaking the habit of voting Red or Pink, demanding a bloody nose for an Establishment seen to yearn to merge with the E.U. , helped the opportunist Johnson claim the crown ... before declaring Martial Law, part of the Globalist agenda, organised through the World Economic Forum and World Health Organisation, both agencies of the United Nations, itself usurped years ago by the Plutocrats ... aided by Common Purpose who brainwashed themselves to assume the right to tell the rest of us how to live our lives ... Neuro-linguistic programming in other words ...

Anyway, Chris McGlade's the name and he's ready to oppose the Plan and all the divide and rule nonsense ... lock up your grannies? Don't hug or see your grandchildren? Don't travel too far or visit pubs or cafes? Really? Have we been hypnotised en masse? It seems as if we have ...

Meanwhile, the coldest winter since the last very cold one is set to thaw as the Easterly breeze from Siberia swings South and that's where the Sahara lives ... from minus 10 to plus10 in a few days, crikey! It's global warming on steroids ...

Valentine's Day offers commerce a wintry opportunity to use guilt to extract cash from pockets ... in the local Co-op a last chance red rose is priced at a very modest £6, or £72 for a dozen if you really fancy some action later ... the Greengrocer, usually closed on Sundays, kindly opens up with flowers, chocolates, cards and all those life-saving tokens of eternal love for blokes who forgot yesterday ... excuses that Time does not exist in Reality unlikely to cut the ice with disappointed spouses and lovers ... phew! Easter soon, chocolate eggs already in store ... don't they know Money's not Real either?

After Rovelli back to Blom, this time Fracture, Life and Culture in the West, 1918-1938 ... the brief time between WW1 and 2 and the causes of the second, linked of course to the first and doubtless onto a Third of some kind or another ... the inevitable destruction of the planet hopefully preventing some renegade madman pressing big red buttons believing any nuclear power could win ... a lose lose solution you might say!

And so, on to the starting point, at the beginning of this post ... clearly our time is a crisis of World War proportions, plutocrats still pulling strings, Empires changing hands ...Shock and Awe employed already, softer solutions ready to roll ... except when things begin with Fear they rarely move seamlessly to Universal Love, do they?!

Carlo Rovelli and Time ...

When it comes to exploring the Nature of Reality, certain ingredients are essential, including the Uncertainty Principle itself, not to mention the essential falseness of Languages as they blunder around, doing their best to explain the inexplicable with words, which are never the thing described ... poets may point musically towards it, scientists forensically may examine it, either and or both and others, philosophers perhaps, even posit consciousness as necessary ...the last of which is so crazy that even Carlo leaves the question open!

Question everything still stands as an essential condition in the never-ending search for Truth ... supported by Rovelli, who happily quotes Buddha as well as the seers of the quantum world, long limited by an orthodoxy focussing on the amazing potential of manipulation of particles, or waves, in support of economic and political goals, some beneficial to the world and humanity, some not so much ... do read his beautifully written book on Time and its fundamental falsity, not to mention the fundamental falseness of the small self itself ... as for the fragment of the Whole writing this blog, he wonders how Rovelli constructs his thesis without mentioning David Bohm and K, who explored The Ending of Time not so long ago, arriving at similar conclusions with remarkable success in practical terms, including schools worldwide and Centre too, mainly identified with K as World Teacher, as proclaimed by the Theosophical Society ... though K, of course, questioning everything in his younger days, renounced the title and taught adherents to be leaders of themselves, since organised religions, with gurus leading and others following, always led to problems ... without trace of irony, followers of K proceeded to follow him with added fervour ...

Psychology comes into play to comprehend this tendency in humanity to avoid the awful Truth of our non-existence, whilst happily quoting mystics from many religious traditions ... Philosophy in this regard says: Know Thyself, i.e. first look inside before projecting all your hopes and fears into the void, creating worlds, perhaps as holograms, to be judged as good or bad, them and us, your team or mine ... needless to say the most inflated egos of all may be found around the Gurus, Popes, Bishops and all the rest claiming spiritual authority over their flock ... not to mention cocksure atheists, throwing babies out with bathwater, asserting the impossibility of anything they can't imagine, usually miserable types like Dawkins asserting selfish genes as facts, while scientists with open minds happily embrace the only logical position of agnosticism ...

Bringing us to Giordano Bruno, Spinoza, Buddha, Lao Tse, K and Bohm perhaps, Rovelli too, though modern scientists avoid words which may infer religious notions as they approach the calm certainty of Gautama, for example ... though Rovelli, interestingly, having cited Buddha, suggests his core teaching is Suffering, as modelled on the Cross by Christ, whereas the Four Noble Truths first acknowledge Suffering, or Existential Angst, then proceed to transcend it, leaving our hero serenely teaching what he found in profound meditation ... and, to be clear here, this by no means infers that a whole religious set-up, with organisations of different kinds called Buddhism, with gurus yet again in charge, is necessary or helpful except as entertainment or maybe steps along the Pathless Path ...

Back in Stanhope, snow lays thick and solid for another day before thawing tomorrow ... conversations on the Fell, in the street and the shops, assert the basic human rights and necessity for kindness, attention and fun ... anti-human regulations to prevent these rights ignored, of course ... what else can you do?

Killing Time ...

The day before yesterday, soon after posting the story about never-ending low cloud, Sun appeared in the Eastern sky, as if to disprove the observation about February ... in reality the whole day was splendid, clear blue sky, bright warm Sun sparkling on powder snow ... a bitter Easterly wind brought intermittent spells of snow to top up the supply ...

In the caravan park, heading West, three workers chatted before commencing ... joining the discussion briefly led to talk of revolution, starting in Stanhope ... the current dictator who saw his destiny as Churchill, a known narcissist, widely mistrusted, nailed as fit to be crucified, though not as Jesus Christ, who he played last Easter, emerging from his viral break on Sunday as if risen from the dead, a miracle indeed! ...all subliminal messaging of course, the script written with advice from the Behavioural Insights Team at Cabinet Office ...

Through the woods and up the Dene, a friend emerged from her house accompanied by two small white dogs, looking forward to playing in the snow, and soon after a neighbour joined the walk, sharing her experience of despair at being isolated, husband having died followed by dog ... Martial Law was the last straw, as it is for many. .. to be honest the effects of Lockdown, whatever the view of viruses and the Fear engendered by the Cabinet Office, designed to make us fit to behave sensibly and comply with instructions no-one understands, are far worse than declared deaths from Sars Cov 2 or other related diseases ...

Meanwhile cancer treatment is delayed along with many other life preserving solutions, and seasonal flu is strangely quiet this year compared to previously, as covid demands attention, not least in official statistics ... an acquaintance on the street, masked but recognised, living alone, stops to engage in conversation and reveals he is "killing Time", his eyes revealing hopelessness, thanks to our compassionate leaders ... bastards basically if metaphorically, so damaged by their emotionally deficient rearing and sense of entitlement from Eton that psychopathic tendencies emerge and cause havoc ... the Coup is revealed day by day, at local level ordinary folks rebel, finding ways around the pointless regulations and soon, perhaps sacking the illegal Government, demanding trials of the liars ... and refusing to comply. ..

Reading continues as well as vids on the Tube ... like a television but with almost infinite choice, including Blom and Rovelli, plus scientists not bribed of which there are plenty, though you won't find them on the Beeb,  on its last legs anyway, though scandalously selling out to the neo-fascist regime, along with all mainstream media ... while google owned you tube kindly reads my mind, or rather the device this deluded ego is plugged into, and sorts short films from its store of content posted by citizen film makers ... including various views on Orwell and Huxley, shared to fellow humans on a rival big tech corporation platform ... yes folks, that's the much-loved FB, possibly the greatest stroker of egos ever seen ... though weirdly many humans survive without the hourly fix ... the Editor of the blog you're reading being one ...

As Marx K and Engels F proved a while ago in Capital, Capitalism inevitably eats itself, hence monopoly regulations ... as post-capitalism, let's say Corporatism, assumes power, new regulations are required, since plutocrats are hardly the best specimens to regulate themselves ... far from it ... though Pikkety's update of Capital has warned the Gods of a need for a new order for the world ... maybe an order to  be led by them, whereby a fairer distribution of goods and services applies to those surviving, and token gestures lauded as charity is enough to convince a grateful populace of their power and great compassion ...

Once this game plays out, mere mortals see there are other ways to organise relations, a kind of anarcho-syndicalist local collective scheme as seen by Pythons, the seers from previous decades, still stored on dvds and data banks ...a new religion with Python gods to be revered may offer diversions, though discriminating minds may say snakes are best not trusted in reality ... experience teaches us that ...

Snow continues to block roads, a problem for travel on wheels and those whose feet and legs and rational brains resist the call to head for the hills ... supplies in local shops seem ample, Sun shares sky with snow laden clouds another day or two, a walk high on the Fells calls ... that's really heaven in this old blogger's deluded mind!

Spring soon ...

There's nothing wrong with February as far as months go in the Northern Hemisphere, but shall we say it's redeeming feature weatherwise is its short duration and frequent days of low cloud holding rain, sleet, snow or no precipitation at all, just sitting there blocking the Sun a challenge ... still, walks are always possible, if not obligatory, heating in the Retreat House more than adequate, bright lights for reading and more books than this blogger will ever read ... anyway, it's a Library after all and who knows which book will turn which visitor on?

The Library grows and changes as it must ... Philipp Blom continues to enthral with his contemporary take on events, using History as a starting point, gathering information widely to create his version of Reality, drawing on cause and effect correlations in fields as diverse as psychology, criminology, biology, physics, sociology and philosophy of course ... all limited, as he states, in a Western Judao-Christian frame ... as a polymath and public intellectual, the frame is erudite, well researched and daring enough to make unusual correlations ... and yet when quoting the perennial philosophical insights, sticks with Ancient Greece and Rome, whilst Buddism, Dao and other Eastern traditions are discarded. ..

Meanwhile, Spinoza's Ethics awaits, along with Giordano Bruno, who was burnt to death publicly for a major indiscretion in the Dark Ages when a Pope censored debate ... both resonating, strangely, with the perfectly reasonable conclusion, discovered between intellect and intuition, that what may be called God is not an entity with a gender, separate from us or the rest of Nature, but actually immanent, infinitely so ...therefore holy, or Whole, and surely beyond understanding!

Carlos Rovelli steps forward as the latest scientist mystic to fuse duality into unity, or if not fuse return unity to its proper place by removing the blockages to Reality ... a great communicator in English, he employs knowledge of the Ancient Hindu insights chiming with the findings of the pioneers of physics, still explained as hypotheses to be disproved or moved into the realms of theory where Nobel prizes are found ... even though well founded theories are often disproved later in Time as microscopes and telescopes, clocks and watches, reveal higher and deeper Truths ...

Lighter reading includes Paul Theroux's strange tale of Millroy the Magician, Private Eye, rather tarnished since the medical section shifted from challenging official lies, and Viz, still amusing the small boy finding toilet jokes hilarious ...

As for small boys, the ones who will soon enough inherit the world, along with girls, not to mention all the other parts of Nature ... a kind Grandmother shares their wisdom and energy as their parents take a break from the joy of taking care of two brothers keen to talk to adults at the same time, when not distracted by television or video games ... and persuaded that exercise and fresh air daily is essential to their health, a view not always shared by young people aged 6 and 8, armed with their own opinions and brave enough to share them ... this version of Society, having atomised and dispersed generations, often leaves Elders without roles, Children short of role models, Parent(s) over-stretched and Society rather dysfunctional. .. new solutions are tried with greater or less success ... that's progress, of a kind!

Meanwhile February moves inexorably towards March and Spring, the daylight hours in Stanhope increasing, snow and ice lingering awhile longer, international plots play on with SAGE in charge, not wise, but smart enough to confuse mere mortals ... Sun itself, though hiding still appears to rise and fall as Earth appears to hurtle through space, though humans tend not to fall off even though the hurtling is accompanied by spinning ... all of which may be explained by Carlos and friends, while normal folks keep calm and carry on, as if the world is flat, the mystery embraced, kindness the Way to survive the madness ... Time for breakfast and a walk!