At a Table on a Sidewalk

...that there is so much we will never, and maybe can't ever, fathom can be comforting and terrifying, but not, usually, both at the same time...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 121:354

...at a table on a sidewalk in front of the Good Karma Cafe...(actual place, 22nd & Pine, downtown Philly, State of Noisy Contemplation, USA)...drinking coffee ’til I’m too wired to sit still...cars and the occasional bike float past...no question which is America’s favorite mode of transportation...then, no question who’s enjoying the ride more, either...

...reading about a woman at a silent vipassana retreat...trying to be silent, peaceful, meditative, and mindful, and not doing such a good job, by her own estimation, at any of the above...makes me wanna give her some encouragement...say at least you’re one up on me...I’m just reading about it...

...borrowed a pen, and actually returned it...which probably makes me prouder than it should...have never consciously stolen a pen, and yet never buy them, but somehow always have lots...am strangely unconcerned about what this means in terms of karma, sin, or ethical behavior...


...even excess can be kept to a reasonable level...
Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 163:889

Imperfections R Us

...said sorry, not feeling quite myself today...though knowing that simmering misery is at least as much myself as anything else I might be feeling...

`I can't explain MYSELF, I'm afraid, sir' said Alice, `because I'm not myself, you see.'
Lewis Carroll

...been reading this book called Just Kids by Patti Smith, about herself and Robert Mapplethorpe as young artists in NY in the 60’s...listening to Blonde on Blonde and Beggars Banquet over and over, but too broke to go and see rock concerts...young artists aware of the legendary Andy Warhol factory scene nearby but lacking the cache to get anywhere near it...kind of funny, in a way...later on, Patti Smith asked should I pursue a path so twisted?...a line I’ve always liked...perhaps because the straight and narrow has only ever tended to get me hopelessly lost...

...one thing none of the yoga books say is that there’s probably no better time for a neti pot than when you’re sick-drunk....or that there’s no better cure for a serious hangover than a really intense vinyasa class...the kind that makes you silently chant what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger...

...another thing they don’t say is that getting sick-drunk might indicate that you’re in a very different...perhaps less placid...state of mind than you might have been telling yourself...

...recently read this book called Letters From the Dhamma Brothers...about a vipassana meditation program for inmates in a southern maximum security prison...(which, like the Dhamma Brothers movie, is worth checking out)....in one place, the point is made, in reference to participants who’ve been addicts, that meditation shouldn't be used as a substitute for drugs...and I get that...these techniques were developed with higher goals than another addictive behavior or a buzz...just like yoga wasn’t invented for killer abs and firm butts...but, at the same time, can’t help thinking if somebody’s looking for a buzz, wouldn’t it be a whole lot better to get it from meditation than from heroin?...or, would it be better if the yoga-as-exercise crowd joined the 40% of Americans who don’t exercise at all?....all in all, am inclined to think that if people are replacing something unhealthy with something healthy, that’s a good thing...even if it’s a watered-down version of a better thing...

...I useta use all kindsa crap to dilute my coffee before finally learning to enjoy it black...

...(yeah, I just compared yoga to coffee)...(but, ya gotta admit, better that than crack)...

...still not so sure, though, about the food co-op employee heard a couple days ago proudly proclaiming that he smokes organic cigarettes...

*cross posted at Elephant Journal*

The Dhamma Brothers (Kind of a Movie Review #8)

No human being should be considered beyond the reach of redemption.
John Lewis

...went to see this movie called The Dhamma Brothers...no, that’s not the name of a southern rock band...though the movie does take place in the south, and contains music by bands like Sigur Ros....apparently dhamma’s an alternate spelling of dharma...and no, it’s probably not playing at or anywhere near your local multiplex...but you should go see it anyway...I make no bones about the fact that this is more like kind of a plug than kind of a review...

...that’s because this is probably the best film about prisoners...in terms of ringing true with my own experience working with maximum security convicts, as well as, more recently, parolees...that I’ve seen...though Shakespeare Behind Bars comes close....with this one, in the opening scenes, I experienced a touch of the feeling I’d get as the gates closed behind me every week...kinda like walking through the wardrobe into Narnia...except, instead of a magical land of talking animals and mythical creatures, I found myself in a terrible, grey world where people are kept in cages and an unending threat of violence seems to permeate the air...where words like correctional should be used only with the deepest sense of irony...

...the movie also gives as good a cinematic representation of non-religious Buddhist meditation as I’ve seen on film...as a group of hardened Alabama prisoners, many of them doing life sentences for murder, enter an in-house vipassana meditation retreat...nine days of sitting and silence... as one of the program’s leaders points out, vipassana means to see things as they are...during which they’re inevitably confronted with all of the anger and hurt that they’ve experienced...as well as all they’ve caused...

...and, after so much so-called true to life voyeuristic when-animals-attack style violence-porn like Oz...not to mention that a full one percent of the population of the United States is currently in prison...we desperately need depictions that’ll help foster a more intelligent and compassionate conversation...not to present some utopian fantasy in which everybody’s simply a victim of the system, but to portray people who, no matter how much pain they’ve caused to others and to themselves, are still, like any of us, more than their worst actions...as bad as those might be...

...anyway, like I said: check it out: www.dhammabrothers.com...