I found this on A political BLOG written by a Woman.
Category: Blogging

Palin:

 This woman isn't naturally likable.

Men like her right now - they haven't gotten past the cheekbones and the complexion and tits. Yet.

Women are a lot smarter when it comes to other women.

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A bold New Vision for Media: Goodbye Hollywood
Category: Blogging

The last twelve months has been a most momentous time for me as a writer/director cruising between Hollywood, the WEB.2 EXPO, and MY SPACE. I can see clearly now a volcanoe getting ready to explode, but it's still under the radar of the traditional blind media that I no longer respect much.

I am willing to make two bold predictions.

In less then thirty years Hollywood will not exist.

In less then three years some Gen Y genius will make the defining film classic that will define this emerging generation and thus join the 1967 Boomer classic, The Graduate and the 1985 Xer classic, The Breakfast Club within the pantheon of generational cultural milestones.

Also this Gen Y genius maybe a gal, not a guy.

In my talks with boomers, Xers, and Yers this stunning vision has emerged.

But there is more much, much more.

Because of the digital technology rushing and wiring the planet. Hollywood will  be only one fatality among others....

M    

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Olympics Mania....2008
Category: Blogging

I remembered watching the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Olympics in Israel. Of course the 1972 Olympics were tarnished by the Munich tragedy. Israel was in mourning. I was so impressed by the 1976 running meets, I, myself, started running 5 miles a day. It was a great way to stay in shape and it was also a kind of meditation.

Then I came back to America and didn't bother to watch the Olympics until 1988 in Seoul after I graduated from UC Berkeley. I was an options trader at the time and made quite a bit of money from the comfort of my own home, so I watched the whole extravaganza in my bathrobe while also studying yoga diligently.

Then I dropped out of society and didn't bother to watch the Olympics again until this year in Beijing via the internet. What has amazed me is what a huge commercial, political, and mythic circus the Olympics has now really become.Complete with doping scandals and a high stakes brand-mania.

The advances in sports science shown on the net videos also were impressive. I wondered whether it was all for some future bionics project with the Olympics as a mere excuse. Good stuff for a future sci-fi movie.

Pure entertainment.

The enormous psychic stress the athletes are under is part of the drama. It's called being in the ZONE.

These star athletes are the equivalent of over-exposed rock stars and many have this enormous charisma, especially many of the women athletes who are now hot sex symbols, but also inspirational icons for both genders too. If you can't get enough of them via the internet feeds on NBC. You can also watch more of them strut their sports stuff on YOU TUBE and also read about their lives on Wikipedia.

That's interacivity for you. A limited kind anyway. I don't bother voting on internet polls.

For better or worse the Olympics are like traditional war, but without the flaring guns. Still, one does get a thrilling peek at what a real global community could look like some day because of the expanding planetary nature of the games This is why I don't support political boycotts. Neither does the Dalai Lama despite the Tibetan flap earlier in the year.

The universal energy of the games is palpable, electric---and if this emerging global circus with all its excesses could replace real war.

Then I say, so be it!

Maybe aliens would too.

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Disney, the Steve Jobs of Animation
Category: Blogging

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The jewel of Listening
Category: Writing and Poetry

The Jewel of Listening

I had returned from the monastery during a time of serious tension. It had been rumored that a nun had attained absorption--but it was almost impossible to really know for sure. The anxiety surrounding the incident was high and the monks were keeping a strict poker face about the matter. Indeed, the repercussions if this entire matter. If it were true would be potentially embarrassing. This is why I decided to keep quiet and go for a walk in the forest.

I had heard about absorptions, but had never really experienced one, nor had I really spoken to anyone--who had attained concentration that was possible of really generating one. The entire matter was quite mysterious to me. Yet, here I was in the forest contemplating the possibility that someone I knew in the monastery had actually attained an absorption. It was hard to know the truth. But I was determined to discover it. No matter what it took--even if it meant arousing the anger of the monks. It was well known in some circles that I was a fearless detective.

Being a detective is like falling into an abyss. One walks off the edge of a cliff looking for clues to solve the mystery. Getting an absorption is very much the same proposition. The absorber is just swallowed up in an ocean of total mind. The absorber begins to drop away from the sensory realm and begins to weaken the ego which feeds off it. Sex and food become less important. The mind enters into a more subtler space and the craving for sublime experiences becomes the new trap-door for the unsuspecting absorber. The new sublime experience generated a soft saintly glow in the absorber.

This is what I had observed then in the nun under observation. Her ignorance of meditation theory had served her well. There had been no expectations. The mind had been caught off guard and now she was glowing. She also refused to serve the monks and this had added potential insult to injury. Many of the monks had sat for years and had failed to attain absorption. Now an upstart nun has accomplished the feat in three weeks. Or so it seemed.

Only a master with super-normal powers could know for sure. However this monastery had only one candidate for this honor and he was keeping quiet. This canidate was the abbot. I had spoken to him and he had confirmed the nun's achievement--but a few hours later, his assistant had denied he had said such a thing. Thus the matter was thrown into question once again. Perhaps, politics was involved. Perhaps not. There had been a lot of politics lately. The detective was no stranger to any of this.

There was actually two questions that had to be answered. Had the nun achieved absorption and if she had which one? For there there were eight and each higher absorption like a rung on a ladder led to a higher bliss state. The abbot had mentioned that the nun had just gotten to the second absorption--but this had all been thrown into question by the assistant's denial.

Unfortunately, the climate for cool and careful inquiry was not a serious possibility, for the detective had been angered by the behavior of one of the monks. This monk had ripped up and thrown away a photograph of the detective sitting in a chair in front of a group of standing monks. The incident could have been trivial to an outsider, but in the monastery voices had been raised over the incident. It was rumored that the negative had also been destroyed. But this was impossible to independently confirm. It was in this state of curious affairs that the detective found the jewel of listening.

I had been sitting near a tree when I noticed a slight shimmering near a pile of dead leaves. ..r inspection the shimmering revealed a small piece of glass no larger than a marble. It looked quite ordinary.

The detective would have completely ignored it had he not also noticed a slight tinkling in the air. Indeed it was barely audible.

The matter of solving the riddle of the nun continued to plague me. I didn't have time for pieces of glass or tinkling noises.

But the tinkling became louder until the detective was compelled to pick up the object in question and for reasons not fully understood he put it in his ear to listen. To his great surprise he heard a voice. At first it was faint. But with time it grew louder. The tinkling sound became an ocean roar. The detective could hear a voice now. It said: " All negative thoughts are black magic. "

I was startled by this message. I was worried about absorption and this piece of glass was telling me that negative thoughts were black magic! perhaps there was something to this--but there was no time to worry about this. A mystery needed solving. But once again the piece of glass spoke: " Listen to your heart. " This message startled me.

The detective became sad. He thought about a young girl he had fought with and had realized too late that he really adored her. A last minute reconciliation had opened a hole in the wall between them and it was through this hole that now something warmer wanted to flow through. Alas the young girl was gone and now the detective sat in the forest alone. Dusk was setting and he picked himself up to go to his cell for a good night's rest. The piece of glass felt slightly painful as the detective lay on his stomach. The detective was really no stranger to pain.

The piece of glass continued to talk. The detective listened in the dark. He could hear the voice saying" Go into that stillness so deep...." the voice then trailed off. The detective strained to listen. He heard the voice again: Out of bliss comes intelligence, out of misery comes stupidity. " The detective was startled by this and quickly sat up in his bed and listened to his labored breathing. He realized that he could now hear his heart. All he had to do was just listen....

The next morning the detective was walking in the courtyard when the nun passed him by and gazed at him with her deep penetrating blue eyes. The voice quietly said: " I want to be loved. " The nun shifted her gaze and walked on. Then a monk passed by and the voice said: " I want peace. " The detective was startled. What could this mean? Then he heard the voice within himself say: " Do you love her? Do you love him? Stop chewing on the crust and start biting deeper into the loaf. "

The detective remembered something the nun had told him. She had told him that space and time were an illusion. That you somehow had to go beyond it in order to be a good listener. The detective thought how stupid it all really was. He lived in a culture that chopped up and sold to the highest bidder bits of space and time. The struggle for these bits of space and time created a lot of high anxiety. How can someone really buy and sell time?

This reflection was distracting the detective from solving the riddle of the absorption. He walked over to the rose bushes and heard the glass speak: " You are not your mind. Go beyond it and listen inside the stillness. That stillness is the heart speaking. Learn to listen...."

All of a sudden the abbot came out and asked the detective what he was doing. The detective failed to answer and the abbot pointed to the hose nearby. The detective failed to listen and the abbot raised his voice. The detective still wasn't listening and the abbot was now shouting. His face wore an angry scowl....this startled the detective.

I finally understood what the abbot wanted. I uncoiled the hose and began watering the roses. The abbot calmed down and began to smile. I then asked him: " did she attain an absorption? " The abbot smiled and looked at the roses. I then asked: " Number one or two? " I pointed towards my fingers. The abbot raised two fingers and continued gazing at the roses. I realized now that this business was concluded.

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Obama in Berlin: The Anti-Bush
Category: Blogging

Obama's speech in Berlin hit all the right notes and with great
cadences. Obama is an American citizen, but also a citizen of the
world. Will enough Americans decide to join the rest of the planet in
November? We shall see....America has its global candidate. But is
America's electorate a globally minded one as well?

If it is, it means a rare break with history.

I'm observing with very keen attention.

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Spiritual Martathon 2008: Part Three
Category: Blogging

On the final day of the spiritual marathon I and my production assistant did a furious sprint. We covered three Tibetan retreat centers in a single day. If you had a soundtrack about this feat. Mike Oldfield's Ommadawn would hit the nail on the head, alright.

Luckily all three Tibetan places were in the Santa Cruz area. Call it karma, call it what you want. But the Vajrayana has hit Santa Cruz pretty hard. Good!

Vajrapani was first. This place was founded by Lama Yeshe. One of the first Lamas to come to the USA in the sixties. Lama Yeshe was a maverick. He often took off his robes and put on regular clothes to observe the Americans incognito. Lama yeshe often materialized things out of thin air and pulled off all kinds of miracles like appearing in multiple places at once.

How true this is? Well, I wasn't really there. I arrived at Vajrapani in late 1994 in the dark pouring rain with a certain significant other and it was the start of a dangerous thriller rivaling anything seen on The Exorcist or the Twilight Zone.

Most Tibetan places are run by Americans because there really is no big Tibetan population in America. Many Tibetan Lamas come to give teachings usually and don't hang around long to deal with the exploding karma. Watching Americans doing Tibetan Buddhism can be perilous. Most don't really understand the practices and they can transform things that are going on in the vicinity quite RAPIDLY.

I learned this the hard way.

The visit this year forced me to climb up and down big wooded hills in order to find my old meditation spots. The energy was insanely intense. My production assistant started freaking out as powerful energies were released in quick order. It was here at Vajrapani that I started Harvest of Gems vol 4. My most esoteric tome by far. I don't think it will ever be published.

Lama Yeshe was cremated at Vajrapani and his new incarnation was found in Spain. A young boy named Lama Osel. Was he the real lama Yeshe? I don't know, but recently he disrobed and became a film student!

Like I said, think out of the box when dealing with this kind of energy....

We hurried on to The land of the Medicine Buddah retreat-land which is affiliated with Vajrapani. My production assistant went to a cafe to meet an old poetry teacher while I quietly sat in the shrine-room here. A huge prayer wheel could be seen slowly spreading out healing mantra energies to the planet. LMB and I don't have much history. I spent a furious week  in 1996 studying Joseph Campbell's epic and ground-breaking books on mythology. I was so absorbed in this that I was quickly kicked out! I didn't have time to do the agreed upon work-exchange. Sometimes things like this happen.

Chuckle.

We finally arrived at Pema Osel Ling. My production assistant was now running on thin psychic fumes and the visit was pretty short. But great and wonderful things happened anyway. We swiftly trodded down to my old tent-site where I wrote Harvest of Gems vol.3 in early 1994. It was here that I truly broke free and became a pretty good writer. I finally understood what superior word collage was all about.

I could feel Kerouac and Joyce, Dante and Shakespeare peering over my shoulder. If Vajrapani was the graveyard of my relationship with my significant other who came back from Prague to be with me. Then Pema was were it lifted off and peaked into that high-octane stratosphere. We were able to voyage deeply into the mysterious IM.

What is the IM?

Well, tune into YOU TUBE in order to find out later this Summer.

Hah!

My production assistant was truly amazed by the towering and colorful statue of Padmasmbhava that presided quietly at Pema Osel Ling. Padma was the wrathful founder of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet. He had come from India like flashing lightning in order to pacify the Tibetan priest sorcerers and he did a really good job of it.

In 1998, I had visited a remote temple in India with a different significant other to experience the weird E.T. energy of the place where Padma had gotten his major initiations from the higher forces that were entrenched there.

It was really trippy.

In 1994 I had had a remarkable dream that I was climbing up some stairs and at the top of the stairs was Lama Tarchen, the founder of Pema Osel Ling. At the time, I was in San Diego recuperating from my epic trip to Eurasia that I took in 1993-94. Then when I arrived very late at night at Pema a few weeks later. I went to the shrine room and then up some unfamiliar stairs.

Lo and behold there was Lama Tarchen! The great adventure back then was about to begin.

Now in 2008, I was once more climbing the same stairs not far from the Padmasambhava statue; and as I, and my production assistant got to the very top. I quickly stepped up the pace and there was Lama Tarchen again! I had not seen him since 2001 just before 9/11 hit the planet.

It was a pretty good omen.

I exchanged happy greetings with Lama Tarchen and even snapped a photo of him with my production assistant's cell-phone camera.

It was quickly over.

We ate a late dinner in Santa Cruz and got back to SF after dark.

I knew deep inside that we had gotten some big, big blessings on this trip. Necessary protection for the challenges that lay ahead later this year and for the rest of my life and beyond .

Tashi Shok!

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Accelerated Spiritual Marathon: 2008 Part Two
Category: Blogging

Tangpulu monastery in Boulder Creek is a densely powerful place. It is now something of a ghost town. Unlike the Cambodian monastery that I earlier visited Tangpulu was practically empty. The Burmese donors had fled long ago. Politics always ruins everything. But when I arrived at Tangpulu in 1990. It was humming with life. A massive stupa had just been consecrated and the Burmese throngs were in a festive mood.

I write my best stuff at holy places. My animated figure---Ginger Smudge had been created at the Cambodian monastery. Here I wrote Little Monk and the first two Harvest of Gems books all during the first Gulf war. I had told a nervous retreat person at the time that we would be stuck in Iraq for quite some time. Never in my wildest dreams did I predict that we would be stuck in Iraq almost twenty years later with another Bush-monger.

Tangpulu had been a huge forest master in Burma. When I arrived at the monastery he had long since departed the body, but his presence was everywhere. His room was powerful. You entered in and got whacked immediately. A sweet, silent density just squeezed the life out of you. You experienced a massive dense stillness that lifted your mind high and sunk it down deep simultaneously. You had to experience this to really appreciate it.

Laing-tet Sayadaw one of Tangpulu's main disciples was the abbot at the time. I got to know him quite well. This master had a weird absence of presence. All the Buddhist books that talked about emptiness now made sense to me. Somehow Laing-Tet's body no longer really mattered in the real scheme of things. You felt in him this unconditional love that somehow came out of this strange and silent absence of presence.

Laing-Tet took me under his wing. What can I say. he had a soft spot for crazies. Human politics swirled furiously around us both domestically and globally, but in that dense stillness that protected us none of this seemed to matter.

Now as my production assistant and I walked around Tangpulu only a few scared Burmese monks remained who spoke almost no English. We manged to persuade them to let us stay the night and I dreamed of Tangpulu and his great magnificent presence. Like in Stockton whatever meditation practice you brought it got super boosted here.

Here was real gold, not fool's gold.

The next morning the marathon continued. We were off to see the Tibetans.

Michael

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Accelerted Spiritual Marathon: 2008 Part one
Category: Blogging

Hey, Readers

I dropped out of society in 1990 for ten years pretty much doing a Kerouac gig around California and Arizona and twice around the world but hitting monasteries and holy spots and meeting big masters of all denominations. Not boozing and tripping out. It was just my car, snail mail, and collect calls on pay phones. No internet for the most part until the late nineties. In many ways I miss this slower paced era. Well, it was fast at times, but I had more control of the pace.

Since 1999 after I gave up my car I started cruising the internet full-time and having all kinds of virtual travels and projects. Mind travel replaced bod travel. I did not bother to get a cell phone until three years ago. My how things have changed! Not always for the best.

Last Thursday, I did a fast spiritual marathon with one of my production assistants. It was great. We first left San Francisco to go to Stockton to look at my storage unit which I had not opened up for over three years. Old books, pictures, and archives from as far back as 1907. Looking at old diaries made me less nostalgic than I thought I would be. Writing on paper is important. But now I write mostly on my laptop.

Many files and photos got lost in other locations in the last three years and certain people had to be given the boot swiftly for this. But enough remains on the net and in a few other material storage places to still have a crucial memory bin for later creative projects. But it hurt to lose what was lost.

Anyway....

Stockton was hot. Steaming, unlike SF. Also going into gas station convenience stores made me completely cringe. All that crappy junk food and and popular magazines filled with these junk thoughts. Yuk! Hello America! Eat crap and feel like crap in both mind and body.

I am on a relatively strict vegetarian diet and feel much better for it. Stockton because of its central geographic location also has tons of imposing corporate warehouses and we visited the main storage depot for Trader Joe's. Vast rows of low-priced and exotic food goods for demanding yuppies and frantic forklifts going around the storage vaults, non-stop---like crazed scary ants.

Stockton is also the foreclosure capital of America. Banks have failed like crazy here and homes have been foreclosed in huge numbers as America continues to sink into recession now. Sorry for bursting your bubbles, my cyber-friends. The worst is still to come!

So it was an improbable scene to go to this unknown Cambodian monastery on the outskirts of Stockton. But that's where we went. It was Bhante's monastery. A Cambodian master I had met in 1992 and who died at the end of my pilgrimage years in 1999. I had met Bhante almost as a fluke and there had been just one crappy building on his property at the time.

Now it was covered with buildings and temples and a weird Buddhist Disneyland was being constructed on the property. Colorful bigger than life statues of Buddhist and Hindu figures could be seen everywhere. It was surreal. In 1992 it had been just an empty field.

Bhante died at age 111 and was a master healer. He had been George Lucas' inspiration for Yoda and I felt very privileged to know Bhante. After tangling with western doctors this year with their meds it was a relief to be in a holy energy field that healed the mind directly, because it's the mind indeed that's the ground ZERO of all illness. The more it gets stressed out, the more the body gets whacked and America is indeed stress-ville USA.

It was also instructive to know that unlike my acupuncturist who needed needles to tap and unblock the meridians of subtle energy in my body. Bhante could do this simply with his powerful mind. Look, Ma! No hands! No physical anything!

The Cambodian monks were generous in letting us stay the night, to soak in the good vibes. Indeed any meditation practice is uplifted and boosted in this kind of holy environment. The food was pretty good too. Tasty and non-fattening. Some old Cambodian nuns remembered me fondly too, even after nine years of absence on my part and they fed us well.

Hooray!

We then furiously drove on to Boulder Creek near the Santa Cruz Mountains. To feel the vibes of the great Burmese master Tangpulu Sawyada. More words tomorrow and also cool pics next week.

Cheers,

Michael

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Death of the Free Internet?
Category: Blogging

Hey, Readers...

Be on the alert.

Michael

Death of Free Internet is Imminent

Canada Will Become Test Case

By Kevin Parkinson

21/07/08 "Global Research" -- - In the last 15 years or so, as a society we have had access to more information than ever before in modern history because of the Internet. There are approximately 1 billion Internet users in the world B and any one of these users can theoretically communicate in real time with any other on the planet. The Internet has been the greatest technological achievement of the 20th century by far, and has been recognized as such by the global community.

The free transfer of information, uncensored, unlimited and untainted, still seems to be a dream when you think about it. Whatever field that is mentioned- education, commerce, government, news, entertainment, politics and countless other areas- have been radically affected by the introduction of the Internet. And mostly, it's good news, except when poor judgements are made and people are taken advantage of. Scrutiny and oversight are needed, especially where children are involved.

However, when there are potential profits open to a corporation, the needs of society don't count. Take the recent case in Canada with the behemoths, Telus and Rogers rolling out a charge for text messaging without any warning to the public. It was an arrogant and risky move for the telecommunications giants because it backfired. People actually used Internet technology to deliver a loud and clear message to these companies and that was to scrap the extra charge. The people used the power of the Internet against the big boys and the little guys won.



However, the issue of text messaging is just a tiny blip on the radar screens of Telus and another company, Bell Canada, the two largest Internet Service Providers (ISP'S) in Canada. Our country is being used as a test case to drastically change the delivery of Internet service forever. The change will be so radical that it has the potential to send us back to the horse and buggy days of information sharing and access.



In the upcoming weeks watch for a report in Time Magazine that will attempt to smooth over the rough edges of a diabolical plot by Bell Canada and Telus, to begin charging per site fees on most Internet sites. The plan is to convert the Internet into a cable-like system, where customers sign up for specific web sites, and then pay to visit sites beyond a cutoff point.



From my browsing (on the currently free Internet) I have discovered that the 'demise' of the free Internet is slated for 2010 in Canada, and two years later around the world. Canada is seen a good choice to implement such shameful and sinister changes, since Canadians are viewed as being laissez fair, politically uninformed and an easy target. The corporate marauders will iron out the wrinkles in Canada and then spring the new, castrated version of the Internet on the rest of the world, probably with little fanfare, except for some dire warnings about the 'evil' of the Internet (free) and the CEO's spouting about 'safety and security'. These buzzwords usually work pretty well.



What will the Internet look like in Canada in 2010? I suspect that the ISP's will provide a "package" program as companies like Cogeco currently do. Customers will pay for a series of websites as they do now for their television stations. Television stations will be available on-line as part of these packages, which will make the networks happy since they have lost much of the younger market which are surfing and chatting on their computers in the evening. However, as is the case with cable television now, if you choose something that is not part of the package, you know what happens. You pay extra.



And this is where the Internet (free) as we know it will suffer almost immediate, economic strangulation. Thousands and thousands of Internet sites will not be part of the package so users will have to pay extra to visit those sites! In just an hour or two it is possible to easily visit 20-30 sites or more while looking for information. Just imagine how high these costs will be.



At present, the world condemns China because that country restricts certain websites. "They are undemocratic; they are removing people's freedom; they don't respect individual rights; they are censoring information," are some of the comments we hear. But what Bell Canada and Telus have planned for Canadians is much worse than that. They are planning the death of the Internet (free) as we know it, and I expect they'll be hardly a whimper from Canadians. It's all part of the corporate plan for a New World Order and virtually a masterstroke that will lead to the creation of billions and billions of dollars of corporate profit at the expense of the working and middle classes.



There are so many other implications as a result of these changes, far too many to elaborate on here. Be aware that we will all lose our privacy because all websites will be tracked as part of the billing procedure, and we will be literally cut off from 90% of the information that we can access today. The little guys on the Net will fall likes flies; Bloggers and small website operators will die a quick death because people will not pay to go to their sites and read their pages.



Ironically, the only medium that can save us is the one we are trying to save- the Internet (free). This article will be posted on my Blog, www.realitycheck.typepad.com and I encourage people and groups to learn more about this issue. Canadians can keep the Internet free just as they kept text messaging free. Don't wait for the federal politicians. They will do nothing to help us.



I would welcome a letter to the editor of the Standard Freeholder from a spokesperson from Bell Canada or Telus telling me that I am absolutely wrong in what I have written, and that no such changes to the Internet are being planned, and that access to Internet sites will remain FREE in the years to come. In the meantime, I encourage all of you to write to the media, ask questions, phone the radio station, phone a friend, or think of something else to prevent what appears to me to be inevitable.



Maintaining Internet (free) access is the only way we have a chance at combating the global corporate takeover, the North American Union, and a long list of other deadly deeds that the elite in society have planned for us. Yesterday was too late in trying to protect our rights and freedoms. We must now redouble our efforts in order to give our children and grandchildren a fighting chance in the future.


Author's website: http://realitycheck.typepad.com/

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