Quantum of Solace

My Friends,
   Today was my last day at my full-time job.  I had long been unhappy there and only stayed due to the relative comfort; a bad reason to do anything that does not make you happy.  When I realized it was affecting my work and relationships with co-workers I figured I'd end on a high-note.
   Now while this should enable me more time to blog (that post about rape is just around the corner from being done), I will actually have the internet equivalent of radio silence from about 3pm tomorrow until March 3rd.  The reason for my absence from my favourite haunt (read: teh webs)???  I am going to be in Egbert, Ontario participating in a 12-day Vipassana meditation course.  I don't know exactly what it is and maybe that's the point.  I initially signed up for it as a convenient way to get out of work (that aforementioned job I was not happy at), but now that I have quit there the thought has occurred to me that maybe I don't need to go to an intensive meditation course because I have all the free time I could want.
   Welllllll, no.  I am notorious for dicking around and procrastinating and even when I do meditate my mind tends to wander before I drift off to sleep.  I am hoping to step my meditation game up a little over the next week or two although I am not going in with a specific goal.*
   So what to expect?  Not really sure.  I know that I will be taking a vow of silence for the duration of the stay which will be damn near impossible for me.  I am forbidden from killing anything or doing any harm (translation: I'll be eating lentils), and of course no internets, telephones or even notebooks.  So I guess I will have to remember all my sweet raps in my head-piece.
   Why would someone do this (ps no drugs or alcohol either)?  I guess I just want to drink life in and try everything there is to be tried.  I don't mind adversity as long as there is a pay-off and the adversity is itself is part of the reward.  Suffering is great as long as it is joined with reward.  This is why I have willingly subjected myself to things like hitch-hiking and going to Afghanistan.  Of course these things can be shitty but they also have a certain appeal which is intrinsically tied to the shittiness.  In other words you can't separate the two.

*****

   Beyond these details, this past Sunday me and some friends put on an improv show at Homegrown Cafe in Hamilton, Ontario.  It was an important success if not a resounding one because it taught me a lot about what I personally want to focus on and I think my chums share the same ideas as I do.  I am looking to start performing live at the same time and venue every week following my return from Nirvana.  Through constantly putting ourselves out there and developing on our feet so to speak I think the gains will come much quicker as well as the confidence to start exploring other forms of performance art.  So we'll see.

   In any event, I must bid you adieu.  There is much internetting and perhaps intercourse to get up to before the night is done.  Because oh yeah, no sexual activity during the meditation course which in my case will translate to (ahem) no self-abuse.

Stay Thirsty,
-Andre Guantanamo

*Usually when I meditate I have the goal of astrally projecting or lucid dreaming.  I have had limited success in these regards.

Six Week "Adventure" Recap: Part 2

My Friends,
   When last I left you I was relating the events of an altercation I had at Toys R' Us prior to Halloween.    Well although I managed to purchase the Batman mask I sought, I left not entirely satisfied with how events went down because I was far too adversarial.  I didn't realize how bad I felt however until...

I Went to a Meditation Class
 
   Yes, one class.  And I should have done my homework better beforehand because what I thought was going to be a two-hour guided meditation (fun, right?) turned out to be an hour long Buddhist wisdom class, followed by Q&A, followed by a comparatively brief meditation.  Now, to clarify, I have nothing against Buddhism per se, but I am suspicious of any -isms in general.*  However, I have learned that apprehensions and prejudices should not be allowed to detract from the passage of actual knowledge; you must scrutinize all information without reference to the messenger.
   So I listened to the teacher talk and actually asked a question or two, and whether from Buddhist enlightenment or from his years lived on Earth, he showed me some small insight into a problem I face in my own life.  It was actually kind of refreshing to talk with someone who thinks about things as much as I do, or at least the same kinds of things I do as much as I do.
   Also, I found the guided meditation helpful; while I didn't make very good account of myself on the astral plane due to my earthly, flesh vessel's inability to get comfortable I did pick up a small breathing technique which I have employed since.  And of course, I mentioned that the session made me ruminate over my encounter with the Toy R' Us manager the week before.  I actually got very upset about it (read: I cried) when I mulled it over in class.  This guy was a brother of mine and I wilfully set myself in opposition to him because of my arrogance.  In a very real way I had done violence to him and I don't want to do violence to anyone.**
   I called him up the next day (he remembered me, surprise surprise) and we talked.  I made it clear that my feelings about rules in general notwithstanding, I had been too adversarial and put him in the lamentable position of having to flex nuts (prove his manhood).  He appreciated my call and explained that he hadn't been trying to profile me.  I listened politely but I wasn't really interested in talking about the profiling aspect because the real issue was the presumption of guilt implied in a "NO BAGS" rule.  We made peace and said our good-byes but to be honest there was no resolution for next time I go to Toys R' Us.  I guess it will be up to me to achieve mutually desirable outcome.

So Why the Disdain for Rules?

   Have you ever wondered why a rule applies to you?  I think most have not?  Certainly many have questioned the arbitrary natures of the rules, regulations, statutes, and codes, the creation of which seem to be the sole prerogative of so-called "authorities," but I think most are of the mindset that such rules, at least from governmental sources, apply to them, justifiable or not.  I have begun to question this mindset and actually study said rules and the flagrant violators of them.  This may be old news to some but there is actually a group called Freemen on the Land in Canada (Sovereigns in the US) who reject the authority of the government and subscribe instead to a do-no-harm mindset.
   While that brief description certainly colours the groups as out there or crazy, they actually speak a lot sanity: they propose actually reading the acts/codified law-books which we all subscribe to without knowing if they apply to us; a large part of the movement is knowledge of self and realizing that we a divine beings whose freedom can not be taken, but must be handed over willingly (we do this everyday if you think about it); and of course a large part of the movement is responsibility, because our criminal codes are meant for those not responsible enough to comport themselves like adults.
   "No" you say?  Our codified laws apply to all?  Well think about it like this, if you don't work for a corporation, say Pfizer for example, can you be expected to adhere to Pfizer's employee rules & regulations?  No, you can't.  If you are not the employee or agent of a corporation its rules do not apply to you.
   So what if I told you that our government is a corporation?
   "Sure" you might say cynically, "Government is just a business. Everyone knows that."  But there is a way in which people make these observations absently not actually seeing the truth of their words or the implications.  Sure, government is a business but its still a legitimate institution dedicated to the management of the state entity.  Well...

Entering "Stephen Harper" in the search field.

The list of businesses by that name.  Notice the last one.

Should you ever wish to do business with the Government of Canada corporation, you can order its credit report from D&B to make sure they pay their on time.

I pulled that screencap from Dun & Bradstreet which is a credit database for every registered corporation.  It turns out that our legitimate government is provably a business instead of the democratic institution most believe it to be.  So at election time we are simply electing a new CEO.  Going back to the government's so-called rules or "laws," if you actually look at the 6,000,000+ legislative acts which have been passed in North America, you will notice that they dictate statutes, sections and regulations as opposed to laws proper although there is a persistent tendency to use the blanket term, "law" to describe the rules outlined in such acts.  Any so-called law which you at one time or another felt was unjustified because violating it didn't hurt anyone was probably not a law at all, but a codified law or statute, applicable only to persons/corporations.  You on the other hand are a human being.

   However, another aspect of the movement is taking control of your legal person/government given identity and using it as your tool of commerce by acting as the agent or administrator of the identity assigned to you.  Its not YOUR identity after all, its the government's identity (ever notice how any ID card always says that is the property of the issuing body?), which is why they can charge that identity with legal infractions.  And as long as you ignorantly agree that you are that identity, they hold you culpable.  But if you separate yourself from that identity (and there are ways to do it) and realize that you are not a legal person (and this is where knowledge of self comes in) you begin to realize the presumption of so-called authorities who have the audacity to think they can tell you what to do and that you're guilty.

"Man is free the moment he decides he is" -Unknown

   There is a lot more to say about the sovereignty/freeman-on-the-land movement but if you are interested in finding out more the most common starting point seems to be the E-Book, "How I Clobbered Every Bureaucratic Cash-Confiscatory Agency Known To Man" by Mary Elizabeth: Croft but I have found that the youtube videos by Robert: Menard very enlightening.  As an added bonus, if you compare his original unedited interview with the CBC to the snippets they used in their heavily biased expose on the freemen movement, you will see that the CBC is not the bastion of credibility and journalistic integrity most Canadians assume it to be.

Note: I have brought this concept up to a cop friend of mine and he responded with insults and denial.  Call it a case of seeing what I want no matter what, but I found this hostility very telling.  

So Why the Meditation?

   So I have been meditating.  Its partly because I want to relax.  Its partly because I want my self to reach a contemplative state where I can ponder things absent my ego.  But mostly it is because UI wan to increase my vibrational frequency to the point where I transcend this dimension.

But srsly though, I am not what you would call a superstitious person and I certainly don't believe in the supernatural, but I do think we must expand our definition of natural to include things which we may not understand or which mainstream science has yet to deal with.  After all, if it can happen, its natural.  And certain metaphysical ideas which might be popularly viewed as psuedoscience actually have a solid empirical foundation.  Of course, due diligence requires that a critical thinker not take solid foundations and make leaps of faith from them.  But when a plausible causal chain is shown to exist that can be put to test, any critical thinker has a moral imperative to experiment for themselves.  And that's kind of what I'm doing.  I find the science behind consciousness, meditation and dimensions very interesting and I think it is an aspect of our existence which has been lost in the daily grind.
   I can't really go into the depth I would like to here because RECAP implies brevity, but if you would like to know more check out Spirit Science, the Heart Math Institute and lectures by Dr. Nassim Haramein.  For those who don;t know Dr. Haramein he is a bit of a polymath, but he is mostly known for his contributions to physics.  His biggest contribution thus far seems to be solving the Grand Unification Equation...

...which was being worked on by this guy before he died.

   Well that's all for now.  Unfortunately I had to type the last part about meditation again because I deleted it this morning while tired after publishing the post last night.  So if you read it last night and are for some reason reading it again, I hope the rewrite retained the original magic of what was lost.  

Stay Thirsty,

-Andre Guantanamo  

 *To reinforce this point, during the Q&A, another student was asking the teacher about clearing your mind of conceptual thought when attempting to meditate.  The teacher explained that the so-called "emptying" of your mind was not a sought-after goal of meditation and it was instead it was a prevalent misinterpretation of Buddhist goals which arose from a HERESY in the 1200s or 1300s.

Heresy...

I think that there can be no heresy without an overbearing, dogmatic, institutionalized ideology; the one presupposes the other.  Its the universe's way of keeping balance.  Maybe I am learning something from Buddhism after all.

**There is a certain amount of violence which we all must inflict to survive in this world.  It is often abstracted through monetary exchange and the victims of your violence are often so removed from you that you are unaware you are hurting them.  Furthermore, it is not one person's vilence which hurts others or you but an accumulation of the others' violence which hurts everyone else, so in a very real way everyone's culpability is diffused among everyone else.  "Don't hate the player, hate the game" is a common defence for such violence and if you think about this defence it implicitly states that we are all chipping off each other in some way.  I acknowledge that I am complicit in structural violence and that can not be helped completely because I also must survive, but to whatever extent possible I would like to reduce my participation in explicit physical and verbal violence.
Seriously though, heresy is a problematic word and I am wary of any group who uses it to ostracize others.