An Ego A Day...

The teachers from the East, Buddha, Krishna, Rama, Siva, etc., all have one thing in common, they warn us of the enslavement of the Spirit, though not always called that, to Ego in one form or another. I have always thought that if the Creator gave it to us, then it must have some purpose in the grand scheme of things.

The best reasoning that I have heard, which made surprisingly good sense to me when I first heard it, was that the ego started off as a warning system for the body to notify the Spirit that it was in need of something.  Bodies do tend to be needy little creatures, always needing food or shelter or something.

Somewhere along the line, the Ego became aware that it could manipulate Spirit into giving into desires that did not actually serve a purpose, but were pleasant feeling.  We like pleasure, especially over pain, and the Ego was off and running.

I have often written and spoken of the fact that we are Spiritual, eternal, entities and that physical bodies are just the theater used to interact within this thing we call creation. We create, experience and destroy (Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva) the world of Maya (illusion) around us.

Learn to recognize the Ego when it is requesting an actual need, take care of it, the body is a gift bestowed upon us. Also learn when the Ego is attempting to run amok, it will ask for anything and everything. By watching and learning, you (the Spirit Entity) regain control over the alarm system and in time the Ego will go back to what it was supposed to be.

Oh no the Devil didn't

I was brought up with the idea that the Devil was out there in a spiritual war with God and that all people were the pawns in this cosmological warfare. Later I learned about how I would spend eternity in either Heaven or Hell based upon how I fared in the above battle. I also became aware that unless I turned into Linda Blair's character in "The Exorcist" that a comedic punchline of my youth was impossible, "the Devil made me do it."

Short of possession, the Devil, or any other spirit, cannot make you do anything, at best they can suggest, lure or tempt. Think about it for a moment, if you are possessed, you are not in control, so how can you be responsible for your actions, the possessor is.

The awkward fact is that we are responsible for our actions because, like it or not, conscious or not, we made the choice to do the act. This choice is why we are "damned" by our actions.

I cannot help but laugh at this idea of being damned, it is so like us to create our gods in our own image. Judgment and punishment are what we would do, so of course our gods have to do likewise.

Salvation comes from our learning of such things so we can make better choices. Grace comes from the simple idea that no matter how lost we get in the "illusion" of this reality, our true selves are unaffected, we remain a part and parcel of God's totality.

So awaken to your choices and by becoming aware, you will do better with each attempt. Just remember when you slip up, be kind to yourself, learn from it and remind yourself, "Oh no the Devil didn't."

Oxymorons of our day

I hear people complain about what they see as wrong with the world (I am amazed how much of this time is spent with the dog-and-pony show presented by the media), but the vast majority are not willing to actually DO anything, they would rather go hang with there friends at the club or watch TV until their brains turn into something with the consistency of tapioca.

If we continue our current path of apparently shortsighted and selfishness as a people, what does that say about us and where will it take us?  So I hereby place a few of the most obvious (to me at least) political/cultural oxymorons of our time;

1. How have we convinced people that their children do not need an education while at the same time discussing the dumbing down of the nation and its inability to raise children who cannot compete in the global marketplace?
   
   I hear people talking about the privatizing of basic social services, from schools to even police and fire departments. Should I be happy when I see a child carrying a textbook that is labelled as "sponsored by Company-X?" Can I count on it being accurate?
   
   
2. How was it that the poor and middle-classes have been convinced that any social safety-net should be done away with during a difficult economic time, but the mega-rich deserve to keep tax cuts that would have paid for it all, not new taxes but the expiration of a temporary easements, that's why they were called "tax cuts" to begin with. Has anyone noticed the Reagan's "Trickle Down Economics" seems to have been dammed somewhere between the mega-rich and the middle-class, not to mention the lower-class.
   
   
3. I remember being told that "Freedom of the Press" was what made us so much better than them, but the press in this country is no longer free, I would propose that it is currently less free in America than it was in the former Soviet Republic's "Pravda".
   
   In today's United States, the slavery of the press is not to the government, but to the corporations that either own the media or pay for and extort the media through advertising.
   
   
4. When people think Rush Limbaugh is a reporter, he's a political commentator (analyst at best) last time I checked, and Fox News actually compares itself to political satirists as proof of its validity to be claimed as news, (let's not even discuss "fair and balanced"), what does it say about where we have gone as a nation?

This is by NO means a complete list of issues in this country, but it is a beginning, a place to begin.  The simple fact is that if you think things are bad now, without some course correction, it gets a lot worse.

The longer things are allowed to follow their current path, the harder it will be to not only actually institute change, but the barriers placed by those who have accumulated power will be all that much harder to remove.

So I will leave you with some favorite quotes from one of the Founding Fathers;

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories."

“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

Thomas Jefferson

Problem Solving 101

I have heard it said on many occasions that the only constant in the Universe is change. Depending on the day, ones mood, what the latest change is and how you deal with it will determine you feelings toward this.

I have been going through a plethora of changes as of late. I thought the end of last year was going to be the majority, but so far this year has all been about changes. I sometimes forget that when I go through these moments that I can get so close to them that it is like walking up to a cliff-face, knowing there is something wonderful up there, but being so close, all I can see is the looming wall in my way.

These moments are actually good things, blessings. When you face them, know that it is NEVER insurmountable, and if at all possible, remember that you placed it there. Celebrate the moment of growth that is before you.

I know that sounds a bit silly to many of you, but if you can re-align your perception of the moment from viewing it as an obstacle to viewing it as an adventure, you will find whatever it is to be much easier to get through.

One of my favorite benefits of this view is that it allows you to reclaim your power over the situation. You are no longer its victim or having it done TO you, but now you have the power to DO TO IT what you wish.

The first few times it can seem impossible, but take a step back, a deep breath or two and just look at what is directly in front of you and deal with that. Then you can go on to what appears next, if you deal with it in this way, before you know it, that MAJOR difficulty suddenly becomes a collection of tiny little problems and before you know it, they are all out of the way and you can look back and ask yourself; "What was I thinking?"

Rocky Horror Memories

I am so amazed with Ryan Murphy's show "Glee." Every time I think he has done something that is going to be impossible to surpass, he surprises me. My first amazement was his "The Power of Madonna" show and then he blew me away with his Lady Gaga "Theatricality" episode. I was watching this weeks episode from last night and good luck topping tonight's.

Now I will admit freely that part of the difficulty Ryan's going to have is he hit a topic close to my heart and just completely full of memories; The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The first time I went to see Rocky Horror, I didn't care for it; the audience was constantly screaming, I couldn't hear half the story or the numbers, people were throwing stuff and what I could make out of it did not make ANY sense to me, I never expected to go back.

(Mom and Dad, you may not want to read this as you are going to learn some things you probably did not know and ignorance may just be bliss...)

Sometime around late 1979 to early 1980 I was hanging out with a group of friends and they decided that they wanted to go and I was not very enthusiastic about it.

At this time in my life I was coming to grasp with just what my differences meant in my world of the time, social outcast (or pariah), what was left of my home life falling apart and my beginning to become aware that "I" had no say in any aspect of my home life and I had tended to start spending as little time at home as possible.

I went to the Varsity Theater at 6610 Delmar Blvd in University City and stood in line with a collection of punks, glams and costumed characters waiting around smoking everything from Marlboros to Jakarta Cloves and a few things that are still not legal in most towns. What should I have expected for a movie that only runs on Friday and Saturday nights starting at midnight?

At the Varsity, Rocky Horror always started with a cartoon I cannot remember, the video intro to Meatloaf's "You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth" followed by "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and finally Tim Curry's "I Do the Rock." The room would go dark and a giant set of lips would begin to appear on the screen while a cast of live characters would do the "Science Fiction/Double Feature" line dance, kinda a Bob Fosse on a lazy day (I still remember all the steps and motions -- frightening).

Needless to say, by the end of the evening I was hooked. I really got into what was going on and made a collection of new friends and acquaintances that did something no one else in my life had until that time, like and accept me for me, not what they wanted me to be.

As I said, things at home were not going well and the Psychiatrist my family had me going to creeped me out completely so I was not getting any "therapy" there. Rocky Horror became my new therapy. I could go every Friday and Saturday night, let my hair down, be myself, enjoy everything and release the last week's frustration and anxiety.

Very quickly I became friends with and later joined the "cast" as Riff Raff, the Butler/Handyman. I spent time and what little money I had at the time to buy a tailcoat and made a hunchback out of an old military backpack I had which also came in handy for the additional props one takes to Rocky Horror; rice, newspaper, water pistol, lighter, rubber gloves, noise-maker, toilet paper, toast, party hat, bell, cards and hot dogs.

I made such an effort to go EVERY week, I rode my bike about 10 miles each way on many occasions, I even "borrowed" my parents car once in a while to get there. I remember fighting with my parents about going to that "cult" film and trying, in vain, to explain that this was not the Moonies but a regular group of people who return week after week.

I will never forget one night on the way home with a group of friends when I made the fateful decision to be the last person dropped off and we got pulled over for having a headlight out. I had the pleasure of being carted off to the local police station, in full costume and makeup, then transported to Juvenile Detention for being out after curfew and I enjoyed sitting in a holding cell till around 9 or 10 the next morning before my step-mom came to pick me up.

As the years went on, I would continue going to Rocky in cities all over the country and recently decided to finish the last 12 theater viewings to make 1000 shows (I don't count video and DVD viewings, not nearly as much fun). Likely I will finish this off at the Nuart Theatre in West Los Angeles.

For me, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has been one of those threads that has joined all the periods of my life through the years. I have met people that have amazed me in their variety and joy, all brought together by a film about a cross-dressing mad scientist, his creation and the innocent young couple who stumbles across an intergalactic party, set to fun music that has kept it's joy for 35 years.

So Ryan, I salute you for your comment about why Rocky Horror spoke to me and all those like me:

“It [Rocky Horror] was for outcasts, people on the fringes who had no place left to go but were searching for someplace, anyplace, where they felt like they belonged.”

Will Schuester

Sparing the Rod

I was reading a personal ad earlier by a young man looking for a partner in life and he wants to have children. He comes from a more traditional background and spent part of his ad discussing his beliefs in child-rearing and specifically mentioned the following;

He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.

Proverbs 13:24 (NIV)
There seems to be an assumption in today's world that this, and other similar verses, are a justification for spanking, hitting or beating children, it is not.

One of the things we forget about in trying to understand the scriptures of the world is often to put them into cultural context so that we can make heads-or-tails of the metaphors that are used. In the case of the Hebrews the predominate metaphor is that of a shepherd and his flock.

When a shepherd uses his rod to guide the flock, it is not about beating the livestock, but about putting a barrier in front of, prodding and maybe an occasional tapping at most. When my cats attempt to get into what I am eating, I often take my hand and put it between them and their object of interest. They are not particularly fond of it, one occasionally hisses at me for a moment, but it supplies guidance to where they may or may not be.

Children need guidance from their parents, it is how they are kept safe and taught what is and is not acceptable behavior. I find that more than spanking a child one can talk with, not at, them and the child learns.

The biggest place that I find most parents losing the game is through a failure of consistency. I so often hear parents set a barrier for their children and then not follow through, children are a lot brighter than we often assume. I hate to say it, but children learn how to manipulate their parents very early, it is part of the early stages of learning to communicate so it is not as bad as it sounds.

So when we talk about "sparing the rod or spoiling the child" we are talking about what all parents have to do, supply guidance for their children. Discipline is a way of supplying guidance, but physical abuse and beatings are not, remember that!