Wednesday, August 28, 2002

 

Greetings from the Brahma....

Due to a lack of any original thought, the following is reprinted from
Brahma's World


From: Bum's Rush....Jesus Christ never comes when you say his name nicely, never mind when you add superlatives like "jesus fuckin christ." Perhaps he is tired of the insults, "jesus fuckin christ, you're an idiot", or "jesus christ, what did you break this time?" Is it any wonder he hangs out with people baa-ing his name in those psychotic breaks of personal crisis, prayer, and church.

Now, I'm as gullible as the next mid-westerner (must be something to do with the pleasures or the trauma of being breast fed by my mother - standing on this side of infancy, I hope for me it was the latter), but here is a old fashion country yarn of sorts, one of those spooky coincidences that have no consequence at all. It seems that Darrell Porter may have died somewhere near where a friend of mine, Larry Witkowsky, died during my sophmore year at Shawnee Mission East (yes, there was a north, a south and a west - the real hicks compared to us sub-urbanites). It was always a mystery - some kind of drug reaction, which on an impressionable young mind traumatized (I hope) by breast feeding on my mother, and now under the influence of a chemical inbalance verging on the religious, wondered several times if the little tablet I had ingested and was making my stomach hurt might be one of those "Larry Witkowsky" hits. Alright, reason (?) and experience soon prevailed and I was able to let that notion go, but I am beginning to wonder whether there might be more false ideas out there that people hold on to and which lead them to strange thoughts and actions. What do you think, is it possible that people in this country do not always have a firm grasp of reality?

I was watching C-Span for a few minutes, and President Bush said that if we stop calling for a repeal of the tax breaks he fortune-ately out gave before the collapse of everything and the 600 billion dollar federal surplus became history, things will get "gooder." He was as inspiring as jesus christ on the cross those sunday mornings we actually went into the Prairie Village Presbaaterian Church (second largest congregation in the nation behind Schuller's house of glass in South CALIFORNIA) if we let the demand for "gooder" services hire more people and make the service "gooder". I want things to get gooder too.

Your thoughts please on making the country and our backyard (the rest of the world) a gooder place to live. I don't know, but I think jesus plays a role in this gooder world that is only a button away - Armagedon or bust. Nietzsche (Ray, Jack, or Fred, I'm not sure) said that eagles love little lambs because they taste so good - have you ever noticed how similar the image of christ on the cross is to an eagle swooping down on its pre(a)y - arms stretched out, eyes directed on what's below. How do I get to have gooder taste so jesus will talk to me?

From Leslie: From: Leslie. Sent: 8/14/2002 12:09 PM
Great post Bum's Rush.

Gave me some food for thought.


Your question of whether there are"more"false ideas that people hold onto that leads them to strange thoughts --brings to the table what I believe is a the foundation of the archetecture of disassociation or alienation. with the world

I'd argue that perhaps all ideas (on a conscious basis) are false-- due to the dependency on communication and the inevitable bias of self interest in communication-- whether interpersonal, educational, historical , religious etc

The question for me is..."what if anything is fact other than a negotiated reality with the world around us, We try to bend the world to our view but we also follow the view of others. Our collective reality is a synthesis of perception and will ( both self serving and other focused). "leaders "are driven by stronger wills to effect their perceptions as the reality.

Our individual reality, however, comes from the integration our rational or conscious mind with our subconscious or more primal perceptions/beliefs. Our sanity comes from how well these two are integrated.

Bum's Rush -- thank you for the interestng image of Christ as bird of prey/pray

I hate to be cliched ( oh well -- I really don't mind anymore)-- but John Lennon was a very smart man ( although his subconscious was in major league discord with his consciousness), who when trusting his subconscious talked of improving the world by improving yourself
Along this line of thought , one of the basic teents of Judiasm is to improve the word/repair the world..I think it's called Tikka Olam ( not sure -- but something like that). The belief is that the messiah will only come after enough people are rightous ( definition of righteous, of course, subject to the influence of power/will and self interest).Perhaps a good part of relion as there is a parallel in most religious belief systems/
Nonetheless, simple acts such as showing/giving kindness, charity, compassion, love all help. Honesty and integrity are of course key. John Lennon-- you may say he's a dreamer...but I hope he's not the only one...

well those are my initial thoughts on making the world a gooder place. Let hear from more of Brahmanians on this issue

The Brahma responds: From: The Brahma Sent: 8/16/2002 12:52 AM
Dear Bum's Rush....and all seekers of truth.

I've read your posting and question more than once with great interest. I wonder if Miss Manners or Dear Abby get correspondence like that. If they do, they probably turn it in to the proper authorities.
I've been spending time making important pages like "The Wide World of Sports", as a form of enlightenment, but you (assuming you were not presently influenced by a "Witowsky hit") have raised the level of conversation to a point where other than being a current member of the human race, I'm "bearly" qualified to formulate an answer. These images of crucifiction, bad drugs, breast feeding and Ray "Nietzsche" are very disturbing.
Fortunatly, we have Leslie as a member to put up such an elequent response as he has. Certainly he's right that that change for the better starts from within one's self. But then there's the problem of the perception of truth. I particularly liked Leslie's thoughts on the integration of the conscious and the subconscience. To me, I see the subconscience as being the closest to our own personal absolute truth. However, I was raised in essentialy a fully functional family, where I was taught basic right/wrong. This is currently becoming a rare occurence, so it may not even be relevant today. But occasionaly, (some more than occasionaly) situations arise that make it inconvienent to react as our "truth tellers" direct us to. It's during these times that our conscious minds negotiate a settlement. We rationalize our way to a decision that's acceptable to us. That is the truth that we agree to live with, and nothing more. As Leslie stated, our sanity is directly related to the integration of the two. So choose wisely.
The question Les raises of the negotiated reality with the rest of the world is more convuluted, for the world is made up of people dealing with their subconscious within, rationalizing their own truths, then declaring their result as absolute truth. The more people they can get to agree, the righter they are! But I believe this to often be just a continuation of the ol' sub/conscious battle. The other person takes the place of the subco, while still trying to make his own deal within. Too often, the purpose of the discussion is just to assure the person that his/her conscious made a rational decision, rather than pass along entirely useable information.
I don't have a problem with people deciding their own truths. If some holy roller declares that Jesus came to him and plucked out his cancerous tumor, I have no reason to doubt him. If modern medicine failed him and he prayed to Jesus and was then declared cured....I say whatever works. I've heard similar stories from people who used visualization instead of religion to the same results. Apparently, the power of true belief is a very powerful thing. No wonder we're all searching for it. My problem would be with those that insist others must accept their truths for their own justification.

Thank you Bum's Rush and Leslie for your prevocative questions and comments,....and for forcing the Brahma to think!

posted by ~Brahma 1:34 AM