You have no history

“You have no history” was the common complaint of Australia by European immigrants I grew up with. Their history is the lattice windows of village life or perhaps the rock work of Stonehenge. That history is structure that blinds them from the natural history of Arnhem land that perpetuates the myth of land in terra nullis. There were no monuments, there seemed to be no history.  

I suggest the cute windows or rustic hut of a pioneer or convict is also a myth because we see history though the lens of our own story. The story of school documentaries and Time Team. We don’t experience history directly. We experience our story as told by media, our parents, and at times we find letters and artefacts that reshape our personal land collective memories.

History is memory, shaped and reshaped . Unfortunately governments want myths of glory to hide national shadows.

You are a dirty glass

The truth is water poured into your glass, and mixes with all your muck. Then you go and tell your family and say “here  have a drink!” and you wonder why they say “ughh yuk”.

The purpose if spiritual work is to stir up the sludge so you can filter the water and give others a drink.

Unfortunately, some of us have made our spirituality an ego experience. We feel good as the muck loosens from our soul but hang onto it, as if it is “we” who are doing the work. As if “being good” is a trade off, from seeing ourselves. We feel  good for bringing the muck to the surface, while our family still only see the mud.  As Gandhi said of some Christians, they worry so much about sin , they become great sinners.

Spiritual work helps us make distinctions between truth hand illusion. What upsets us reveals what illusions we value. All our impulses are ego trying to get back in.

Life offers us a crisis, which we seek to negotiate, and eventually we realise the ego doesn't know but tricks us with stories we tell ourselves that life should be. When eventually we let go to life, and  trust, we experience an epiphany we feel we have touched the face of God. For months, maybe ears, years we feel we are spiritual, we feel we are blessed, that we are “God’s spoiled brat”, but we are still in our ego. 

This is where some spiritual types stay stuck in spiritual pride.  Then suddenly life collapses again. We face our dark night of the soul. The shadows that haunted us return, but on a deeper and higher level. It seems we have lost even God. It seems that every day we need ask “What attachments do I need let go in my life?”

The ego drives the millions of micro decisions we make in unconscious guilt. Ever upset is unconscious guilt we have not released and keeps us from peace. When finally we realise that Spirit is in charge “there is no ego to decide there is anything but love”.

If ever that was possible, the glass would clean, and maybe even the glass would dissolve as flow in the river of life.

Blacktracker...Blackwriter....Blacksubject

Blacktracker...Blackwriter....Blacksubject

Sometimes, when  pick up a pen, I’m the blacktracker following an ink-trail across a page of country, to find lost and wayward words. And then sometimes, when the grasp of the pen is very good, I’m the blackwriter , the blackwriter who can sense the resentment of other blacksubjectswho have been denied the Queens diction. With or without the pen though, I’m always the blacksubject, the blacksubject  scouting out uponan endless trail of the Queen’s death-notes. Propoganda and poison ink: the medicine the Queens children now use to edit blacksubjects. Occasionally, I’m the blacksubject, blackwriter and blacktracker, and we all ride out together. The Queen pas the blacktracker for some of my dirty work, the blackwriter feels my Dreaming to the Queens tongue, and then blacksubjects don’t come come to my poetry readings, thus I pay for my words. Alienated only as the blacksubject. But with or without the pen, it’s the blacksubject who will inherit the earth. Because at the end of the day, the blacksubject can’t be seduced like the blackwriter, ‘cause the blacksubject will always know ... it’s with the pen that the lies are used to overwrite the Dreaming, and the written word will never be worth the country it’s written on.

-         -  Samuel Wagan Watson 

There no place like .............?

“We are one, we are many, from al the world we come”

-          Bruce Woodley.

Australia is no longer a 19^th century patriarchal domicile behind a 1950’s picket fence. The perfect family is mythical and so are our tangled imaginings of our national home.  We all yearn for a place to call home, but home is in our imagination. As imaginary as the bush hero our coast fringed, urban Aussies will never be.

Home is not just a place of heat and rest. Home has always being our source of deepest conflict and transformation. We imagine its peace but are triggered by its shadows.

Australia is a land of immigrants, exiles and the diaspora. Add to this challenge gays and feminists ask of our domicile and  home is not so clearly defined. Nor is the identity of the homeland.

The post 9/11 fear mongering inspired the call for Australian Values. But what are they? “You don’t kick a dog when it’s down” was what was an Aussie truth I was bought up to believe. Post Tony Abbot we add “unless you’re a refugee.” 

Fear can turn an accommodating people into a mob demanding conformity. This spasm of concern is pimped by politicians with an eros of nationalistic passion. Where three word slogans confuse  the common good with vote grabbing.

I am a patriot of informed choice, and considered decisions. I am a patriot for open debate for  the long term good of all: Not flag waving Australia Day drunk who cheat the law a week later. I do not believe in a reality built on prejudices, slogans and misconceptions. I do not bow to a mandate that squelches debate.

A true patriot examines the nature of country to find the common good. A true patriot supports his community: we should never under estimate the unique potential of each individuals gifts to flower in the light of encouragement.  A true patriot also seeks to peacefully change what is against community long term benefit.

Non violent resistance and protest of injustice are therefore a patriotic act.

But now challenge the media norm and expect a backlash. I understand many fear a loss of community. We seem increasingly like globalised tourists, and vagabonds, homogenised by globalisation.

You may be born here from parents of brown skin of a foreign religion, and never feel at home at home in this land of your birth. The inflated threat of migrant terrorists has made citizenship increasingly precarious. Disagree and you expect to be told “Go home.”  I am a 6^th generation Australian born of British descent and yet I have been told to “go back to India”. Why? Because I objected to a father allowing his children throwing stones on a train.

I realise we sentimentally over value some socially imagined common understanding of what we should practice as if that legitimises our shared Australiana. But other than rejecting terrorism, what does that mean?

Social exclusion can also be about how you see yourself; especially if you feel excluded by skin colour, religion or family traditions.

Of course, all nations have shadows that haunt: Aboriginee, woman and immigrants are subtly excluded here.
We hunt refugees and Aboriginee from our awareness like dingoes scattered to the desert. Off the TV screen is out of sight and out of mind. We don’t want to look beyond the Anzac legend, but we are not  White Australia.

The other side is stereotype: a faulty stereotype destroyed for me when I first moved to India. I attended a party where one girl was clearly a Muslim. Most were dressed in curvy but modest clothes.  Only later, did I realise that 60% of all the girls present followed Islam.

Repeatedly I found most Muslims did not stand out at all.  We see first those dressed differently – and I bless their uniqueness – then so wrongly label a whole community by that perception. Unfortunately, identity politics solidifies communities within narrow imagined boundaries. It ignores the shared good and finds instead fearful shadows.  

I am a devotee of the god of small kindnesses; a sannyasin to generosity across the picnic rug. I am a pilgrim to the community hall of challah and falafel, of roti and dim sum embraced in the shared gift of every heritage.  I honour the sleeping black babe wrapped to a mothers back, and the fruity sip of ouzo at the taverna.

Few of us thrive on our own power. It is the church, or the ashram – in  the power of community – that were are inspired to find our gifts and offer them. Alone we sink into our own selfish shadows.

But the boundary posts are shifting. Australians are no longer British on holidays. The nuclear family will no longer model the modern nation state.  

We need a new language. We need a new vocabulary broad enough to embrace our new extended family of migrants, exiles and diaspora. Our anthem should be opportunity, and our invocation the responsibility to share our gifts for the greater good of all.

   

Aphorisms on Nature

Aphorisms on Nature

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Nature! We are surrounded by her and locked in her clasp: powerless to leave her, and powerless to come closer to her. Unasked and unwarned she takes us up into the whirl of her dance, and hurries on with us till we are weary and fall from her arms.

She creates new forms without end: what exists now, never was before; what was, comes not again; all is new and yet always the old.

We live in the midst of her and are strangers. She speaks to us unceasingly and betrays not her secret. We are always influencing her and yet can do her no violence.

Individuality seems to be all her aim, and she cares nought for individuals. She is always building and always destroying, and her workshop is not to be approached.

Nature lives in her children only, and the mother, where is she? She is the sole artist,—out of the simplest materials the greatest diversity; attaining, with no trace of effort, the finest perfection, the closest precision, always softly veiled. Each of her works has an essence of its own; every shape that she takes is in idea utterly isolated; and yet all forms one.

She plays a drama; whether she sees it herself, we know not; and yet she plays it for us, who stand but a little way off.

There is constant life in her, motion and development; and yet she remains where she was. She is eternally changing, nor for a moment does she stand still. Of rest she knows nothing, and to all stagnation she has affixed her curse. She is steadfast; her step is measured, her exceptions rare, her laws immutable.

She has thought, and she ponders unceasingly; not as a man, but as Nature. The meaning of the whole she keeps to herself, and no one can learn it of her.

Men are all in her, and she in all men. With all she plays a friendly game, and rejoices the more a man wins from her. With many her game is so secret, that she brings it to an end before they are aware of it.

Even what is most unnatural is Nature; even the coarsest Philistinism has something of her genius. Who does not see her everywhere, sees her nowhere aright.

She loves herself, and clings eternally to herself with eyes and hearts innumerable. She has divided herself that she may be her own delight. She is ever making new creatures spring up to delight in her, and imparts herself insatiably.

She rejoices in illusion. If a man destroys this in himself and others, she punishes him like the hardest tyrant. If he follows her in confidence, she presses him to her heart as it were her child.

Her children are numberless. To no one of them is she altogether niggardly; but she has her favourites, on whom she lavishes much, and for whom she makes many a sacrifice. Over the great she has spread the shield of her protection.

She spurts forth her creatures out of nothing, and tells them not whence they come and whither they go. They have only to go their way: she knows the path.

Her springs of action are few, but they never wear out: they are always working, always manifold.

The drama she plays is always new, because she is always bringing new spectators. Life is her fairest invention, and Death is her device for having life in abundance.

She envelops man in darkness, and urges him constantly to the light. She makes him dependent on the earth, heavy and sluggish, and always rouses him up afresh.

She creates wants, because she loves movement. How marvellous that she gains it all so easily! Every want is a benefit, soon satisfied, soon growing again. If she gives more, it is a new source of desire; but the balance quickly rights itself.

Every moment she starts on the longest journeys, and every moment reaches her goal.

She amuses herself with a vain show; but to us her play is all-important.

She lets every child work at her, every fool judge of her, and thousands pass her by and see nothing; and she has her joy in them all, and in them all finds her account.

Man obeys her laws even in opposing them: he works with her even when he wants to work against her.

Everything she gives is found to be good, for first of all she makes it indispensable. She lingers, that we may long for presence; she hurries by, that we may not grow weary of her.

Speech or language she has none; but she creates tongues and hearts through which she feels and speaks.

Her crown is Love. Only through Love can we come near her. She puts gulfs between all things, and all things strive to be interfused. She isolates everything, that she may draw everything together. With a few draughts from the cup of Love she repays for a life full of trouble.

She is all things. She rewards herself and punishes herself; and in herself rejoices and is distressed. She is rough and gentle, loving and terrible, powerless and almighty. In her everything is always present. Past or Future she knows not. The Present is her Eternity. She is kind. I praise her with all her works. She is wise and still. No one can force her to explain herself, or frighten her into a gift that she does not give willingly. She is crafty, but for a good end; and it is best not to notice her cunning.

She is whole and yet never finished. As she works now, so can she work for ever.

To every one she appears in a form of his own. She hides herself in a thousand names and terms, and is always the same.

She has placed me in this world; she will also lead me out of it. I trust myself to her. She may do with me as she pleases. She will not hate her work. I did not speak of her. No! what is true and what is false, she has spoken it all. Everything is her fault, everything is her merit.

Mantra for Migrants

Mantra for Migrants

Always becoming, will never be

Always arriving, must never land

Between back home unfathomable, is me 

– By definition: immigrant

I’ll always be oh glorious

Glorious unchangeable

In truth, I am in flux

Immigrant I will forever be

Migrant oh yes, oh migrant me

Migrant immutable amazing unchangeable

Always becoming, will never be

Always arriving, must never land

I pledge citizenship, unerring

Loyalty, to this State of Migrancy

- Shani Mootoo The Predicament of Or

Jonah and a whales throat

I am reminded of a story told by Buddhist meditation teacher Tara Brach:

A young girl listened as her teacher explained that while a whale is big its throat is too small to swallow a man.

"But Jonah was swallowed by a whale!" exclaimed the distraught girl.

"Well, a whales throat is too small. A whale could not have swallowed him."

"Well, I'm gunna ask him when I get to heaven."

"How do you know Jonah didn't go to hell?" asked the frustrated teacher.

"Well then, you can ask him!"

Me a feminist?

Recently media has highlighted the campaign of (Western?) women loudly proclaiming “I am not a feminist.”

I am a little amused.

Isn’t the right to stay at home, to not burn your bra, and to be a mother, the right of the femininity of choice?

As Joan Scott reminds us in The question of Gender:

“In the age of democratic revolutions, ‘women’ came into being as political outsiders through the discourse of sexual difference.
Feminism was a protest  against women’s political exclusion; its goal was to eliminate ‘sexual difference’ in politics, but it had to make its claims on behalf of ‘women’ (who were discursively produced through ‘sexual difference’). To the extent that it acted for ‘women’, feminism produced the ‘sexual difference’ it sought to eliminate. This paradox-the need both to accept and refuse ‘sexual difference’-was the constitutive condition of feminism as a political movement through its long history.”

In other words ,feminism acted in terms not of its own choosing, but in response to the discrimination of the time.

Women have come along way. Now, at least more woman can choose how they exercise their power, their bodies and their sexuality.

Some may comfortably choose the traditional role, especially if they feel their partners treats them as equal partners. Especially if they glorify in the roll they adore.

However, I wonder if  we can go back and learn from some more feminine tribal experience. The Kibbutzes of earlier modern Israel often saw children raised by a sig le mother figure, and in some tribal cultures men are often away, leaving children to a group of women, each supporting each other.

The feminine collective should be encouraged. A place where women can be feminine without response too the gaze, attentions of, or politics of men. Here they can refresh themselves of their feminine energies, recreated and refreshed, when once again they re-engage – hopefully as equals – with men.  

The Eros of Nationalism

 

While I disagree with him, I have profound respect for Philip Ruddock. He ran former Prime Minister Howard's  border protection policy, but he had visited refugee camps before his work with that government, voted against discriminatory policies of his own party and respectfully debates and allowed himself to be interviewed by those he knew opposed his views.

However, the present turn back the boats policy is performed in secret. If history is to judge this policy kindly then it must be open for all to see. In a democracy we should have the  facts before us to decide whether we agree. But debate has been censored.

In watching a the recent debate IQ2 Debate: History's Judgement will be to Vindicate our Treatment of 'Boat People', televised on the ABC, I began to wonder.  

The government is elected to make decisions including tough decisions. I accept that in International law  all nation states have a right to defend our borders. However, if the Australian Government honestly believes  policy is to be praised as humane then it should be able to stand up to public scrutiny. Unlike Mr Ruddock, the present Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison can hide behind military secrecy.

Secondly, I have walked the slums, and spoken to the children whose lives are of the type many refugees are trying to escape.

I found it morally repugnant that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop could blatantly compare the refugee camps of Manus Island, when, the same day, it was reported she saw them from a distance but did not enter these homes.

Sadly this was not reported enough.

I believe that all decision makers of government policy must spend time  – and I do not mean flying visits, with Ministerial or NGO comforts – living with the people or environment of the people whose decisions will be effected. Try for atleast a week. (Imagine an Environment Minister who never entered a forest, but made decisions about the ecology while only ever enjoying an air conditioned office in his concrete jungle?).
My experiences in India convince me that most businesses and NGO’s entering that country are  shown a rent a crowds that support officials with views of minds already decided.  

Get among the “stake holders”, as the “Poli-speak” would call them, and see whose lives you will effect. 

I honestly believe we must make decisions on the basis of our whole person. That is, we must decide, not just with our disembodied heads, but also with our heart.

I believe a nation can be patriotic without being jingoistic. Unfortunately, patriotism is a lot like erotic love: short term and intense. The  ancient Greek writer Thucydides described the erotic decision to go to war against Sicily.
But Sex can other unite or hurt and disillusion.  Lust can rush a man or woman to a choice they later regret, just as nationalism can thrust a nation toward passion or hatred.It seems to me that linking the punishment of already marginalised  and afflicted with patriotic fervour risks being found out as a dissatisfying and disillusioning experience.

But why choose between Patriotism and universal reason? Could it be that politicians triggering fear against the unknown other simply because we fear the uncertain?

Our Immigration heritage, is often flagged with patriotic joy, much as New York has been for the USA’s immigrant history. The same nationalism rushed both Australia and the US into a war based on misinformation.  

So it is I now come back to our debate on boat people arriving in Australia.

I ask if you are a politician debating the issue of “boat people” then please spend a week in a slum, or a detention centre first. Know what peoples lives are like first.

Then, if after that you as a whole person can still defend Australia’s position, then I salute you and respect your for your integrity,  even if I  grudgingly disagree.

 You see, part of the argument has implied the belief that new Australian should uphold a minimum set of Australian values. I believe most do. However, when I went to school e were taught an Australian value I still wish we would uphold:

“You don’t kick a dog when it’s down”.

Sending the Navy against unarmed refugees seems more akin to thuggery.

Back to the Tribalism again?

The savage who loves himself, his wife, and his child with quiet joy and glows with limited activity for his tribe as for his own life is, it seems to me, a more genuine being than that cultured shade who is enchanted by the shadow of his whole species.... In his poor hut, the former finds room for every stranger, receives him as a brother with impartial good humor and never asks whence he came. The inundated heart of the idle cosmopolitan is a home for no one....- Johann Gottfried von Herder

We all like to enjoy relaxed and friendly unpretensious time of a national holiday but sadly some hooligans turn these days into racist harassment of minorities. 

You could say that patriotism is Janus faced phenomenon,. At times it calls for freedom and then its dark face of patriotism verges on fanaticism. Warriors all to often claim they fight for freedom. But freedom for who?

Patriotism can also be expressed as an exclusive pride not just reactionary hype. To my mind, a person who stands up for what is tight – in the hope of redirecting attention to a peoples noble intentions is more patriotic denouncer of any justified critique.A democracy of equality, community and pluralism. The risk is that as markets tighten a renewed dogmatic adherence to ideology will arise under a pseudo claim of pragmatism. 

I have said for nearly 15years we were approaching a historic cycle a kin to the 1930’s with its risk of nationalist fervour, abused misuse of history to marginalise decent and the demand for new resources.

The idea of the nation state as we know it is relatively new, developed around the French revolution . But since Wordl War II we can no longer assume a nation has some a collective to agreed view point  or historical ideology.

Most myths are full of holes even though we don’t want to collectively admit it.

Gordon Brown and Sarkozy tried to push their version of history. Now Vladimir Putin demands the return Crimea to Russia. John Howard had his photo under a wattle tree as he tried to unify the idea of national identity and shared Australian Values (whatever they are?).

One value  may be a respect for diversity. 

However, this value in itself implies a cohesive genuiness to that shared ideal that as David Goodhart reminds us could turn on the champions of this open hearted value.

Hmm questions to ponder ...

Adam in Eden's Gilded Cage

“The Gilded Cage”, St George Hare, 1857-1933

Adam lay naked in his gilded cage

while Joseph is caste naked in his underworld

& from his rib, Sarah and Rebecca,

were concubined  

Wives made sisters for the harem 

by husbands inept.

If God rescued women from Egypt & Philistia

why didn’t he save Dinah from rape?

What does it say of God

that rLot  offered his daughters to be raped?

& Kingship is slavery

of concubines  to David and Solomon?

Can Civilisation Be Civil?

I remember in high School my history class civilisation was defined "scientifically" by the presence of writing, monuments and religion.and social structure. True, The early social scientists of Europe were heavily indebted to Greece, with all its monuments, democracy and history. Still, civilzation was defined by exclusion. Non Greek's were Barbarians, the Chinese described them selves as wise, holy and civilised, the rest uncivil. Islam sees Mohommads light revealled to a darkened world. The Brahman of Banares may believe others too inferior to be touched.

We seem to define civiisation in terms of them and us. In terms of our own ethnocentric culture. We may be civilised but act anyrhing but civil. We are human – but regularly forget to be humane. Humanity is found in all societies and so cannot fit the classification schemes of social scientists.

The result was that in the West atleast an apparently benign classification scheme tended to define Europeans as civilised, Asia as semi civilized with black peoples unworthy of the term. We may see ourselves as less racist, still, textbooks tend to present the dominant ideology to an impressionable audience. The Media adds to division even more since complete anaysis is impossible in 600 word news grabs. Once labelled the process of difference – which seems to divde us further.

Is a monument creating civilisation with no written language uncivilised? By atleast one definition yes. To the British Australia's inhabitants had no monuments – their apparently miserable lot justified to many a belief that survival of the fittest required white society to let them die out. African archeology was often driven by a need to prove racial theories.

It of course works both ways, the Khoikhoi of South Africa were denigrated by the Portuguese as some of the lowest human beings on Earth. Yet, the term Khoikhoi means 'Men of Men' or the 'Real People' was as a collective name for themselves. This implied that only cattle owning people like themselves were real men while the stockless bushmen tribes were not .

We are reminded by Pandit Ganga Prasad Upadhyaya that in all the conflicts of the twentieth century, aggressors used defence of culture to give a while face to make an offender appear less selfish and cover his dark interior (Vedic culture, Vijaykumar Govindram Hasanand, 2001, Dehli).

What interests me here is Upadnhyaya's understanding of a more inclusive use of the terms culture and civilition that has been perhaps lost in millemia of tradition and layered in historical pain.

Upadnhyaya asks us to question the militant social model by asking us to consider the hardship of motherhood. The ancient Shatapatha Brahmana describes a mother as ones first guru and preceptor. "This is the germ of civilisation which nature has put into our mothers" he writes quoting the vedic phrase "Ekoham Bahusyam' 'I am one, let me be many.' A model of selflessness that supports the weaker babe for the future. Civilisation should be defined not by antisocial conquest but by the act of becoming civil or social. The word civil means to become social.

Go back to that ever so misused word 'culture': From the Latin colere it means to till or to worship.Within is found the word cult.

We may not immediately link culture to the idea of tilling a field. We do however, talk of agri-culture, or horticulture.The tiller of the field seeks to aximise his effortsand efficiently harvest from the sees he has planted.

In Sanskrit krishi means to till. Another related Vedic word is Krishti meaning a fully cultured man – but also it can mean the common man. Upadnhyaya reminds us that the word man is tracable to the Sanskrit Manu or Manushya – the thinking being.

"Culture includes all the things, big and small, from beginning to end, which contribute to the actualisation of a sentient beings potentialities or seed powere... It is a sum total of many things which play their part in their own places, but whose function is severally and jointly to turn the seed into a full grown tree. Krishti or man is that tree, and all those small or great things which help the fullest development of this man go by the collective term 'culture.' "

Of course the term is less well used in practice – much as there are good and bad agriculturalists.

Point is that civilisation is one of the seeds that that helps actualise the seed potential of our humanity.

This point of inate humaness is not unique to the Vedas.The Dalai Lama also suggests the maternal instinct of mammals evidence the innate compassion within our design. We are not, says the Dalai Lama in The Art of Happiness, the egocentric Freudian Id driven by nothing than a destructive inner animal.

We are a social animal but we are not just society. We are individuals and there is a tension in growing and building each to synergistically grow the other.

I know that at this point many a Western reader will critically suggest this is not the India they read in history or see described in documentaries. British social policy from 1857 realised the only way to rule India's teaming millions was divisde and conquer – flare up divisions betweem Hindu and Muslim even where they were not been before.

However, the oldest Vedic texts describe a more monotheristic and egalitarian world before caste and sexual domination took hold. Monotheistic reformers like Dayandanda Sarawasti decried what they saw as a corruption of a pure faith that preced the caste system and promoted equal rights for women inclding their education, and making Sanskrit texts available in Hindi. Earlier, Ram Mohan Roy was a prime mover in having the British ban sutee as "cruel murder, under the cloak of religion" (1830, Abstract of the Arguments regarding the Burning of Widows Considered as a Religious Rite) arguing women were as morally strong – if not stronger – than men.His belief of a Divine Unity inspired a dream of a universal religion inspired Rabindranath Tagore to observe that Roy "realized that a bond of spiritual unity links the whole of mankind."

I am not arguing here for any religious view. Rather, I make a simple request for a Western reader to look beyond what (s)he thinks (s)he knows of India and the Vedas. In this, I include myself.

When exposed to a new culture, there is a neurological neccessity to link to what we know. To gain our bearings in terms of past experience – especially at first. Sadly, it limits the questions we seek to ask.

I want to focus on an older ideal to see if it is useful in our modern world.

Consider Upanhyaya's image of culture as a tree again.

Another Sanskrit word for culture is sanskriti from kri (to do) and sam meaning well literally meaning "purification and refinement which ultimately means growth" like a seed buried in the ground the outer husk decays, its obstruction removed and growth begins. "The soul is also covered so to speak with outer coatings, a non -soul matter, so to speak" writes Upanhyaya. These obstacles are to be removed. "Saskriti means its elimination, so thjat the inner qualities may be allowed the fullest play without any hamper.'Krishi' and 'Sanskriti' both mean culture because culture does not mean the outer covering. It deals directly with inner essence. " The elimination of what is foreign to our refinement.

My thoughts are do our cultures promote the greed and lust, or refinement? Or is this part of a greater teleological plan to force us to realise the folly of our ego? Or do we misuse a word to justify our greed? Should culture mean we be a cultured individual. Is it that just as there are good and inneffective agriculturlists there are refined and poor culturalists – or tillers – of the soul?

It is too large a stask to assess every aspect of ancient Vedic ideas here. Gurucharan Dass analyses the moral dilemnas the complexity of Vedic debate with a modern bent in his book The Difficulty of Being Good in the Mahabharata epic. A text where karma catches up with everyone in complex ways just as it does the Greek epics of Homer. Individual characters challenge even basic assumptions most make of India life. No one is black or white but entwined with karmic shadows driving the unconscious with a sympathy that reminds me of Leo Tolstoys works.
Still, I think we can agree civilization implies communing together. You can herd sheep into a group as you can people, but civilization implies a shared intent.

Consider the word for society: Sabha. The related word Sabhyata is called 'for all practcal purposes' a synonym for civilization, the process of making social. Sabha imay be derived from bha, to shine, and sa, meaning together which Upadhyaya describes as 'wonderfully illuminative". 
" Sabha means that the individuals of which try to make others shine, so that the lustre arising out of each individual may collectively form a centre of light. " Like light rays that individually not sun, but each makes a contribution to the whole.

This requires we go beyond ourselves. Capitalism sin is Greed says professor Amarya Sen in The Argumentative Indian, the sin of socialist societies is envy. Enforced equality rarely works. So to be truly civilized a society we must be inspired to grow within if we desire to make others shine. If like a mother we have the compassion to be the guru and preceptor to make our one many.

Many of the esoteric traditions believe in a teleological purpose leading man back to a spiritual source, A return that socially mirrors the personal return to meaning after we have exhausted the increasing demands of our ego. Will we mature as a society? Can we go beyond ourselves, or self destruct.

Nobel Lauriat for Chemistry, Ilya Prigogine, demonstrated that we, societies and peoples, grow in direct proportion to the amount of chaos we can sustain and dissipate. All systems go through different life stages. Each time a system is overwhelmed by too much energy it becomes more and more chaotic, being unable to dissipate the excess. Pushed to the brink, the system either breaks down or breaks through. If it breaks through it reorganizes at a higher level and the adjusting system grows dynamically.

In other words, we are forced to do better or we collapse. I dont know if you believe are we bbeing pushed to redesign ourselves the collective good. It my seem a fantasy to a secular mind. So, I ask you, what to you is a usable and civilising model of Civilization? To be more than a collective mob – to be civil – requires a looking above and beyond ourself. We may like to look at that in some practical, even political terms.

But it is all to easy to see the differences, and contrast others, and then condone and justify our own inequalities. We forget we live in a Universe.

"It is called a Universe" writes Upashyaya "because here is a particular unity pervading it - a factor which harmonizes all its different constituents."

A Persian proverb reminds us "God did not make five fingers equal." Why was this inequality designed? The answer is quiet clear. to give them a harmony. Exactly five fingers could not have worked harmoniously.

In the garden of ideas and people we call culture, we need to remember that plants and animals come in all shapes and sizes and evolved to fill a niche that services the whole while filling an individual need. When diversity is reduced by mass agriculture other problems surface.
Similarly, we need to respect our differences and see power in diversity. Homogenity only crushes the creative innovative spirit.

For example, I know full well that many from my Western home will scream that there tradition of freedom extends back to Grecian democracy. They object: What about the Indian caste system?, although untouchability was outawed in 1950. But then Athernian Democracy extended only to the 20 percent free male population of Hellas. They forget, or do not know, that Emperor Ashoka, who died 332 BCE, decreed equality for all citizens, 100 percent, of his kingdom of all castes, male or female even animal.
We all know it: both East and West have had moments of tolerance and inhumanity. Both East and West have preached for the benefit of all mankind and equally drifted into selfishness. Many of the corruption issues plagueing the growing India were issues that plagued the West just as grossly up to World War II.

Perhaps to be civilised requires that we should be prepared to accept truth and reject untruth. To seek the whole picture.

The objective of society should be to do good for the whole world - physically, spirtually and socially, claims the Aryta Samaj, founded by Sri Dayananda mentioned earlier. Most other religions and societies agree. But this must start on a personal level - when we act according to our dharma, after considering both right and wrong. What a Christian may call following his conscience, after considering the rights and wrongs of the case.

To be led by the dictates of love and justice and look for ones welfare in the welfare of all. This requires looking beyond ourselves. To see the interconnectedness of all things.

We may call this a spiritual goal. But then, in the Vedic system, says Upadhyaya, "culture begins with the gradual realisation of ourself as a non-material spirit. The more we realise this fact, the more we are cultured."

What do you think?
　

Image: Civilization by ~polatsamuk

Will Chilli Heat Up Atruism on the 9th of Av?

I have just finished watching a debate on ABC TV(Australia)  – “Is Wikileaks a force for Good?”

It has done good – but a force for good? Poker machines raise money for good causes but I could not call them good. I wonder if instead of being a force for good. should we ask if Wikileaks is possible only because of our stage in history?

As my as my Indian friends fry the poha and Jewish friends fast on this the 9^th of Av – the day the temple was destroyed (twice) - I wonder what is good anway?

I am convinced that history repeats in a loosely four generation cycle and we like the post WWI generation want change. Britian had lost the will to keep an empire. The world wanted freedom and an end of all war. Of course the USA – that pushed its 14 point peace plan back then, did not ratify it and kept its military while Britian had 30% less weapons pre WWII than before WWI etc.

Long before the recent recession, I often predicted we would enter economic and social upheaval of the 1920's and thirties. Now I am no prphet – it just seemed logical.

As the US economy size declines compared to China, the West is again repeating the same (economically driven?) call for a reduction in military expense. I often compare the US to Republican Rome which gained much of its power before the empire by military and economic pressure, at times as a mediator between warring sides, negotiating treaties to its advantage.

Now it is China that has the money – and a military presence not unlike the USA had as Britians military declined post WWI. Now the USA struggles over the will to empire.

The only thing I am uncertian of is how Chinas 1 child policy will effect its ability to innovate in future. Innovation is usually fueled by youth.

Will this mean that India will surpass China as an economic power house in say 20 years? Perhaps it will depend on India's ability to deal with its massive curruption problem.

Octavius was declared Augustus after defeating Cleopatra and Marc Antony in what was a battle od different world views. Augustus claimed to be the offspring of Apollo who sedjuced his mother in a temple- rational and military. Cleopatra claimed to be Isis (who the Romans pointed out was to them Venus and as a mother to children of both Ceasar and Antony easy to be labelled a prstitute), whose worship called for knowlwdge in the realms of intoxication. Antony, like alexander the Great, dressed as Hercules.

Are we now fighting a conflict of freedom versus control?

Naval historian Cyril Parkinson, of Parkinsons Law fame (“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”), wrote a book East and West in 1963. He argued that the shifts from East to West and back again are traceable to Babylonian times. He predicted the rise of China.

I wonder whether the shifting sands of time will focus more narrowly in the increasingly universal world of the internet? Will national boundaries bwecome less influential? Personally, I think that greed will force a more universal call to action – but whether it is sustainable will depend on whether we can realise the overall benefit in altruitic action.

I admit I dream of a world much as Rabindranath Tagore:

“I believe that there is an ideal hovering over the earth, an ideal of that Paradise which is not the mere outcome of imagination, but the ultimate reality towards which all things are moving. I believe that this vision of Paradise is to be seen in the sunlight, and the green of the earth, in the flowing streams, in the beauty of springtime and the repose of a winter morning. Everywhere in this earth the spirit of Paradise is awake and sending forth its voice.”

Writers like Tagore, and Sri Aurobindo describe a teleological view of history leading to a utopian future. The Western meta historian Arnold Tovey wrote with a similar bent.

The problem I see is that life is multifaceted. There are two sides to a coin. As I travel the world I see people point to the good of their culture and ignore the bad.

For every good there is always an equal and opposite social force. Sometimes one force is focused in one person or entity – and so holds sway against diffuse apposing ideas.

In the thirties Nazism grew because Germany had no middle ground. There was Communism or Nazism.

Are we becoming as polarised?

There is an idea in kabbalah that describes the ten divine qualities, or sephirot, in three lines or three pillars in the tree of life. The Pillars of Mercy, Severity and Balance. I am not wanting to sound “Madonna – ish” and I admit a gross over simplification here.

Now I admit, Kabbalah is used and abused to jusify anything these days. Anything can be called kabbalah these days. Anything can be called spirituality these days.

One of the triangles on this model balances expansive, kindly, flowing chesed with the fiery focus of gevurah. The middle line is compassionate but practical Tiferet, often described as serving a greater cause. But even there a fighting for a greater cause can degenerate into bigotry when selfishness takes over.

Perhaps it is in moments of calm reflection – in meditative stillness – we can see the balance of forces heaped upon us.

Or perhaps that is not enough. I once read a quote from the Chassidic leader, Rebbe Schneersohn who replied to someone who wrote he was avoiding social activism because it had been feeding his ego: “And without the activism there is no ego? Better a haughty activist than a self-centered do-nothing!”

A friend of mine was raised by Mother Theresa, who according to her, had an ego.

Egoless detachment may be an ideal for observation but ego drives achievement as well.

The question is whether we can turn our desires from self centredness to the greater good. I just finished Bob Geldoffs autobiography, and he certianly had an ego. But used it to make good.

The kabbalistic teacher Michael Laitman, points out that in kabbalah the soul achieves graded attainments called worlds. The word "Olam", world, derives from "Alamah" or concealment.

These are the degrees of concealment of unity. Unity is the ultimate, most intense delight that one can possibly feel. That the collective soul is seeking.

Laitman wrote: “It is said that there is no greater pleasure in our world than settling doubts. After being lost in doubt, after searching and being confused, a person gets confounded in contradictions and is unable to resolve a problem. Then suddenly a person finds a solution. The solution comes because two extremes merge into a single whole and form unity. They complement one another and exist thanks to one another.”

I am agnostic in my wait and see attitude towards messianic chronologies. I dont know if I can pin utopian dates on mankind as do some who see the Messiah in the Rebbe or the revealling of unity that Michael Laitman suggests was predicted by kabbalist Baal Ha Salum.

I do know, that the increasing bipolar division of a schitzoid political debate needs to seek unity. But unity is more than the short term thrill of politcal promises over sold and under delivered.

“Yes we can” …....... but will we? I remember when Kevin Rudd and Barak Obama thrilled us with utopian ideals I really doubted they could pull it off. The cycle of an aging baby boomer generation costs an economy.

Still, from the time of colonialism on, after the hoo haa of cut backs it was trade and exchange that rebuilt the market …. and a public works program that we usually associate with Labor or the US Democrats.

Hopefully we can tackl the swings of history like yachts against the wind, narrowing our focus on an atruistic ideal.

For thinkers like Laitman “this unity which the souls reveal in everything, even in our world, is perceived as the greatest delight ….peace is savored after a war. That is to say, first we sense a contradiction, reveal the lack of unity, completeness; realize the evil. Darkness should precede light because otherwise we will attain nothing.”

Mystics of East and West – and Laitman rejects the label of Mysticism for Kabbalah, atleast not in the sense the word came to used with the rise of Christian thought – describe the seeking of opposites like lovers, opposites merging as one. Sufism, Christian mystics and Jews describe a marriage be it of God and Israel, Jesus and Church or Allah and his worshippers. Ancient Hindu monotheism similarly marries apposing aspects of the divine.

And lovers, like Romeo and Juliet, may go through trial and tribulation to be together to enjoy the sweetness of love.

Meanwhile, the worlds of Montague and Capulet fought on regardless.

What of us?

Rather than divide our world Cleopatra against Augustus, freedom againsy structure, perhaps we need to seek a practical, yet altruistic middle ground. Peace historically has thrived in times of structure which, ironiucally meant there were powerful people gulty of abuses.

Turning back to Wikileaks, I find myself asking is whether it will do more good – or will its revelations be one sided as totalitarian regimes simply keep their secrets hidden and laugh at the free world.

Assange himself has threatens any would be Wikileaks employers with a 12 million dollar fine if they break ranks. Again we see that for every social force we see the opposite even within the same organisation and person.

Freedom and restriction are a matter of perspective.

Of course, we could ask to what extent we are really free – how much of our choices are a product of biology and social conditioning, or the agonies of our personal and historical pasts ….......

…... but that I suppose is another question and for another time.

As it is, I have just finished cooking Poha Upma, a recipe from Andhra Pradesh. Before I first visited India I would like may a Westerner squrmed at the amounts of chilli in the dish. As in many Indian foods, different ingredients cool what are hot ingredients.

The balancing of tastes makes for a harmonious whole. Ayurveda extends this to personality temprements that left unbalanced go to extremes – just like the chilli if unbalanced in a dish.

And of course for a true democracy – if one really exists – people should be able to make informed choice. But we dont have all the facts – even from Wikileaks which may dump a bunch of pages online but does little to help evaluate the total picture.

Meanwhile, the Jewish crowd go hungry waiting for the ever approaching sunset.

One friend emailed “As the person does not eat or drink for a day, and he know there is nothing he can do about it, resigns to the fact, suddenly he is free of worrying about that part of his body, catering for himself, and suddenly all that energy, activity, thinking process becomes free for other activities.”

Unlike in India, fasting is not a very Jewish activity, as it is associated with Jewish mourning. Still, I witness clarity of thought among fasting Indian friends, who enjoy the cleansing experience. To sit back as if from the distance of Pluto to see that so much of what we call important ultimately is nothing.

Is this what Ken Wilbur meant by adulthood? Someone who takes FULL responsibility for  their emotions, and their results in the three basic arenas  of life?

We long for freedom but need structure. Without it we will forever be needing Bob Geldoff to form another sing along ….....

I wonder if he looks back and asks about the long term good for all his efforts?

…....... he certianly tried hard enough

I Want to Kill that Bird!

I want to kill a bird! One of the feathered variety.

Don't worry I wont actually do it. I care about animals.

But ….

The flaming neighbours cockatoo has mastered the sound of a telephone – and squawks ring tones from dawn to dusk …... and beyond.

Its enough to hope they will answer the phone and hold its neck very tightly!

It reminds of my recent travels through India.

On the satellite TV news three lines of banner ads pumped product, news flashes and so much banality it was nearly impossible to concentrate on the news reader.

Maybe the Australian news was more subtle but not the glut of silly season promotions.

As far back as November I heard a barrage of 'you better watch out, you better not cry” wondering if they forgot what it is suppose to be about.

I am all for respecting peoples right of religious belief and practice. It stil makes me wonder. December 25 (December 21/22 Gregorian calendar) was the Roman Saturnalia. Anyway ....

Be that as it may, the advertising is as annoying as that bird.

I wont try and kill your festivities. But, even if I did celebrate Christmas – I don't – I would yearn for a “Silent Night”.

Not the squawking commercialism that is ringing in my ears as annoyingly as that cockatoo.

Reflections on the Aga Khan Palace

Just around the corner in the suburb of Chinhwad, the road already has two temporary platforms blocking the road for the Garnesh festival, or Ganipati. Idols of the little elephant – promising wealth and prosperity - are everywhere.

A Pune firm has even managed to make an environmentally friendly version.

It is perhaps appropriate that I visited the Aga Khan palace and the Peshawar palace just before the Garnesh festival. In the palace, I read a memorial to Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856 – 1920) among the many reminders of Gandhi and his philosophy.

I am told the British had restricted the right of association, and Tilak turned the once small family festival into a major social unifier and nationalist event.

Flouting British restriction, the festival became both a right of association, religious worship and nationalism.

Tilak was impressed by his grandfathers recollections of the Pre-British Peshawar Marathi kingdom – the last to fall to the British in 1817.

In 1833, my ancestor Hannah Cox gave birth to William Hicks Cox on March 25, claims a hand written family record. He died there on June 27, the same year.

So we took off to the Aga Khans palace where I bought a homespun kurta and handkerchief.

The Sultan Muhammed Shah Aga Khan III built the palace in 1892 to offer employment following a famine, in Yerwada region in eastern Pune suburb that joins Kalyani Nagar (Kalyani City), also called Neelkanth Kalyani after a city industrialist and founder of the Kalyani Forging company.

The present Prince Shah Karim al-Hussayni Aga Khan IV was a supporter and associate of Gandhi, and it was here, that the British transported Gandhi during his 1942- 1944 house arrest. He gave the palace to the public in 1969 becoming the he Gandhi National Memorial.

To Westerners Gandhi is best remembered for his political achievements which he described being of “little value.” The title Mahatma “pained me” he said.

In the 1925 introduction of his biography,he claimed the had been “striving and pining to achieve these thirty years is self realization, to see God face to face, to attain Moksha.”

“For me truth is the sovereign principle … This truth is not only truthfulness in word, but truthfulness in thought also, and not only the relative truth of our conception, but the Absolute Truth, the Eternal Principle that is God.”

In 1930 Gandhi wrote letters from his Yeravda Central Prison stating “the {Sanskrit} word Satya (truth)

is derived from Sat, which means 'being.' Nothing is or exists in reality except truth. That is why Sat, or Truth is perhaps the most important name of God.”

“It is more correct to say Truth is God, than to say that God is truth.”

Gandhi believed there are “innumerable definitions of God, because His manifestations are innumerable.”

“They overwhelm me with wonder and awe and for a moment stun me. But I worship God as truth only. I have not yet found him, but am seeking after Him.” he wrote in 1925. “I am prepared to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of that quest. Even if the sacrifice be my very life.”

As shown in .Attenborough's film, Gandhi's wife, Kasturba, and also his long-time aide, Mahadev Desai, both died there while under house arrest. Samadhis (memorials) were built by Charles Correa. To the side lay Gandhi's ashes – although friends claim the majority were separated to an number of locations.

One of the most poignant moments for me was reading Gandhi's words after the death of Mahadev Desai – sadly I could not find a copy online.

Mahadev Desai (1892—1942), a journalist, was born in 1892 in the Surat district of the Indian state of Gujarat. A student of philosophy, logic and law he loved literature First meeting Gandhi in November 1917, Desai joined Gandhi full-time becoming viewed as a son by the Mahatma and his wife.

He died on the August 15th, 1942 in the Aga Khan Palace.

Gandhi wrote he expected he would be buried by Desai. Gandhi could not bear to hand his 'son' to the British – who could not aford to have Gandhi visible in a public funeral. Thet relented allow Gandhi to perform the Hindu rites an d cremation on the grounds.

“ ... [Mahadev Desai] was much more than [Gandhi's official secretary]. He was in fact Home and Foreign Secretary combined.” wrote Verrier Elwin “He managed everything. He made all the arrangements. He was equally at home in the office, the guest-house and the kitchen. He looked after many guests and must have saved 10 years of Gandhi's life by diverting from him unwanted visitors....”

Gandhi's room and bathroom are protected behind glass – much like a shrine to Keterba, who died there. Along with his spinning wheel, its simplicity reminded me how great men often remove superfluous distractions in pursuit of dreams and principles.

There is a walk down to the Samahdi for Desai and Mrs Gandhi. Here Ghandi daily trod the path to his daily observances. Kept free of commercial distraction, this area, like the gardens, are tranquil and reflective

Once a clinic for leprosy and other skin conditions, homespun is available for charitable fund raising..Gandhi loved children and on one side near the Samadhi is a children's nursery.

I bought my first homespun garment – a kurta – for 288 rupees. I also bought two of Gandhis books and one by his grandchild for 30 rupees. The only commercialism (found nearly everywhere) is the far higher entrance price for non Indians.

There is a beautiful air of calm in the gardens. The lawn is mowed by an electric mower and swept clean by women with straw brooms.

Gandhi was arrested for speaking out against war. Curiously, as we sat in the gardens carpark we were approached by a women holding the Watchtower – itself banned for political neutrality during the war.

Then, as we left the Aga khans palace, a flatila of cars and a crowd of young men were gathering outside – the flag of Congress – a fist in bands of Indian Orange, white and green – blazed as the cars drove off. Indira Gandhi's grandson, Rahul was in town – and I found out later, he visited youth in my area of Pimpri – Chinhwad purportedly top hear their concerns.

We discussed the Indira and Rajiv Gandhis earlier policies – his plan for voluntary sterilization. I had recently listened to an Indian professor who described the period of democratic suspension by Indira and Rajiv as a dictatorship but afew friends believed at the time tough – focused leadership was needed. She believes India needs a single President figure, USA style, who can get things done. I still feel a single powrful figure needs a president/Governor General counter balance when the constitution is threatened.

We drove through the older part of Pune - Shaniwar Peth. I hope to return to photograph the beautiful old buildings and then to the Shaniwar Wada. This fort was built by Shrimant Pahile Bajirao Peshwe taking two years to complete in 1732. It was the used by the Peshwa rulers until 1818 when the last Indian kingdom surrendered to Britain.

The massive stone construction has large steps – not the size a child would like to run up - held off the British.

Expanded to include, fountains, courtyards, gardens, offices, quarters and audience halls, it was guttered by an unexplained fire in 1827 that lasted 15 days. What remains of the perimeter and fountains hows it was once formerly magnificent.

My own interest in the city comes from It was here that my ancestor Hannax Cox gave birth to son William on March 25, 1833, claims a handwritten family document. He died June 27.

Although the British base, now a suburb named Camp, is further south, it is Shaniwar Wada that made victory so crucial to the British. The Peshiwar legacy is still a catch cry to freedom in Pune. The dynasties founder, Shivaji, has the most locations and statues named after him. He is also a symbol to Hindu nationalism and Marathi pride.

Although offering helpful services, I wonder whether Gandhi would have preferred a more inclusive less parochial politics.

Truth is straight and narrow, he said, it is a 'razors edge' impossible to be achieved by the arrogant, to attain it the seeker must be “humbler than dust.”

Gandhi believed his message of truth and non violence was not new but “as old as the hills.”

Its just that moral lessons are quickly tainted by greed, power and self interest. We easily totter off the razors edge.

Then we forget - or ignore - the truth that we innately know.

Thus endeth the reflections.