It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell. – Buddha
Dear Friends,
I’ve taken a hiatus from Turfing, and Earthrites blogging for the last month. (as you may have noticed)
Frankly, I have been overwhelmed by the work outside of Caer Llwydd, and trying to finish up the magazine for publication among other things, like Rowan our son graduating, deaths in the family etc. Of course, there is the dithering as well. I have been on Facebook a bit too much, but I have been spreading art there in various forms. I have run into people lately who I haven’t seen for some 40+ years. Amazing that. I will take the dithering for the reconnections at this point. Two of them greatly influenced my aesthetic and spiritual searchings early on. A tip of the hat to Craig & John for their works that so moved me.
I ask you to be patient whilst I catch up with life a bit. I tend to slice off more than I can handle at times, and lately this has been the case.
80)
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This edition of Turfing has many of the familiar elements that marks it for what it is, the ramblings,the quotes, the music, poetry and an article. I still like that format. I hope it still pleases you.
Bright Blessings,
Gwyllm
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On The Menu:
Buddha Quotes
Nick Drake – Pink Moon (Full Album!)
Lenore Kandel Poems
Buddhist Anarchism
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Buddha Quotes:
A jug fills drop by drop.
All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?
An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.
Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
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Nick Drake – Pink Moon (Entire Album)
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Lenore Kandel Poems
Enlightenment Poem
“We have all been brothers, hermaphroditic as oysters
Bestowing our pearls carelessly.
No one yet had invented ownership
Nor guilt, nor time.
We watched the seasons pass,
We were as crystalline as snow
And melted gently into newer forms
As stars spun round our heads –
We had not learned betrayal.
Our selves were pearls,
Irritants transmuted into luster
And offered carelessly.
Our pearls became more precious and our sexes static
Mutability grew a shell, we devised different languages
New words for new concepts, we invented alarm clocks
Fences, loyalty.
Still… Even now… Making a feint at communion
Infinite perceptions
I remember
We have all been brothers
And offer
Carelessly.”
~~
Hard Core Love
To Whom It Does Concern
Do you believe me when I say / you’re beautiful
I stand here and look at you out of the vision of my eyes
and into the vision of your eyes and I see you and you’re an
animal
and I see you and you’re divine and I see you and you’re a
divine animal
and you’re beautiful
the divine is not separate from the beast; it is the total crea-
ture that
transcends itself
the messiah that has been invoked is already here
you are that messiah waiting to be born again into awareness
you are beautiful; we are all beautiful
you are divine; we are all divine
divinity becomes apparent on its own recognition
accept the being that you are and illuminate yourself
by your own clear light
~~
Love-Lust Poem
I want to fuck you
I want to fuck you all the parts and places
I want you all of me
all of me
my mouth is a wet pink cave
your tongue slides serpent in
stirring the inhabited depths
and then your body turns and
then your cock slides in my open mouth
velvety head against my soft pink lips
velvety head against my soft wet-velvet tongue
your cock /hard and strong/ grows stronger, throbs in my
mouth
rubs against the wet slick walls, my fingers hold you
caress through the sweat damp hair
hold and caress your cock that slides in my mouth
I suck it in, all in, the sweet meat cock in my mouth and
your tongue slips wet and pointed and hot in my cunt
and my legs spread wide and wrap your head down into me
I am not sure where I leave off, where you begin,
is there a difference, here in these soft permeable membranes?
you rise and lean over me
and plunge that spit-slick cock into my depth
your mouth is on mine
and the taste on your mouth is of me
and the taste on my mouth is of you
and moaning mouth into mouth
and moaning mouth into mouth
I want you to fuck me
I want you to fuck me all the parts and all the places
I want you all of me
all of me
I want this, I want our bodies sleek with sweat
whispering, biting, sucking
I want the goodness of it, the way it wraps around us
and pulls us incredibly together
I want to come and come and come
with your arms holding me tight against you
I want you to explode that hot spurt of pleasure inside me
and I want to lie there with you
smelling the good smell of fuck that’s all over us
and you kiss me with that aching sweetness
and there is no end to love
~~
God/Love Poem
there are no ways of love but / beautiful /
I love you all of them
I love you / your cock in my hands
stirs like a bird
in my fingers
as you swell and grow hard in my hand
forcing my fingers open
with your rigid strength
you are beautiful / you are beautiful
you are a hundred times beautiful
I stroke you with my loving hands
pink-nailed long fingers
I caress you
I adore you
my finger-tips… my palms…
your cock rises and throbs in my hands
a revelation / as Aphrodite knew it
there was a time when gods were purer
/ I can recall nights among the honeysuckle
our juices sweeter than honey
/ we were the temple and the god entire/
I am naked against you
and I put my mouth on you slowly
I have longing to kiss you
and my tongue makes worship on you
you are beautiful
your body moves to me
flesh to flesh
skin sliding over golden skin
as mine to yours
my mouth my tongue my hands
my belly and my legs
against your mouth your love
sliding…sliding…
our bodies move and join
unbearably
your face above me
is the face of all the gods
and beautiful demons
your eyes…
love touches love
the temple and the god
are one
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Buddhist Anarchism
Buddhism holds that the universe and all creatures in it are intrinsically in a state of complete wisdom, love and compassion; acting in natural response and mutual interdependence. The personal realization of this from-the-beginning state cannot be had for and by one-“self” — because it is not fully realized unless one has given the self up; and away.
In the Buddhist view, that which obstructs the effortless manifestation of this is Ignorance, which projects into fear and needless craving. Historically, Buddhist philosophers have failed to analyze out the degree to which ignorance and suffering are caused or encouraged by social factors, considering fear-and-desire to be given facts of the human condition. Consequently the major concern of Buddhist philosophy is epistemology and “psychology” with no attention paid to historical or sociological problems. Although Mahayana Buddhism has a grand vision of universal salvation, the actual achievement of Buddhism has been the development of practical systems of meditation toward the end of liberating a few dedicated individuals from psychological hangups and cultural conditionings. Institutional Buddhism has been conspicuously ready to accept or ignore the inequalities and tyrannies of whatever political system it found itself under. This can be death to Buddhism, because it is death to any meaningful function of compassion. Wisdom without compassion feels no pain.
No one today can afford to be innocent, or indulge himself in ignorance of the nature of contemporary governments, politics and social orders. The national polities of the modern world maintain their existence by deliberately fostered craving and fear: monstrous protection rackets. The “free world” has become economically dependent on a fantastic system of stimulation of greed which cannot be fulfilled, sexual desire which cannot be satiated and hatred which has no outlet except against oneself, the persons one is supposed to love, or the revolutionary aspirations of pitiful, poverty-stricken marginal societies like Cuba or Vietnam. The conditions of the Cold War have turned all modern societies — Communist included — into vicious distorters of man’s true potential. They create populations of “preta” — hungry ghosts, with giant appetites and throats no bigger than needles. The soil, the forests and all animal life are being consumed by these cancerous collectivities; the air and water of the planet is being fouled by them.
There is nothing in human nature or the requirements of human social organization which intrinsically requires that a culture be contradictory, repressive and productive of violent and frustrated personalities. Recent findings in anthropology and psychology make this more and more evident. One can prove it for himself by taking a good look at his own nature through meditation. Once a person has this much faith and insight, he must be led to a deep concern with the need for radical social change through a variety of hopefully non-violent means.
The joyous and voluntary poverty of Buddhism becomes a positive force. The traditional harmlessness and refusal to take life in any form has nation-shaking implications. The practice of meditation, for which one needs only “the ground beneath one’s feet,” wipes out mountains of junk being pumped into the mind by the mass media and supermarket universities. The belief in a serene and generous fulfillment of natural loving desires destroys ideologies which blind, maim and repress — and points the way to a kind of community which would amaze “moralists” and transform armies of men who are fighters because they cannot be lovers.
Avatamsaka (Kegon) Buddhist philosophy sees the world as a vast interrelated network in which all objects and creatures are necessary and illuminated. From one standpoint, governments, wars, or all that we consider “evil” are uncompromisingly contained in this totalistic realm. The hawk, the swoop and the hare are one. From the “human” standpoint we cannot live in those terms unless all beings see with the same enlightened eye. The Bodhisattva lives by the sufferer’s standard, and he must be effective in aiding those who suffer.
The mercy of the West has been social revolution; the mercy of the East has been individual insight into the basic self/void. We need both. They are both contained in the traditional three aspects of the Dharma path: wisdom (prajna), meditation (dhyana), and morality (sila). Wisdom is intuitive knowledge of the mind of love and clarity that lies beneath one’s ego-driven anxieties and aggressions. Meditation is going into the mind to see this for yourself — over and over again, until it becomes the mind you live in. Morality is bringing it back out in the way you live, through personal example and responsible action, ultimately toward the true community (sangha) of “all beings.”
This last aspect means, for me, supporting any cultural and economic revolution that moves clearly toward a free, international, classless world. It means using such means as civil disobedience, outspoken criticism, protest, pacifism, voluntary poverty and even gentle violence if it comes to a matter of restraining some impetuous redneck. It means affirming the widest possible spectrum of non-harmful individual behavior — defending the right of individuals to smoke hemp, eat peyote, be polygynous, polyandrous or homosexual. Worlds of behavior and custom long banned by the Judaeo-Capitalist-Christian-Marxist West. It means respecting intelligence and learning, but not as greed or means to personal power. Working on one’s own responsibility, but willing to work with a group. “Forming the new society within the shell of the old” — the IWW slogan of fifty years ago.
The traditional cultures are in any case doomed, and rather than cling to their good aspects hopelessly it should be remembered that whatever is or ever was in any other culture can be reconstructed from the unconscious, through meditation. In fact, it is my own view that the coming revolution will close the circle and link us in many ways with the most creative aspects of our archaic past. If we are lucky we may eventually arrive at a totally integrated world culture with matrilineal descent, free-form marriage, natural-credit communist economy, less industry, far less population and lots more national parks.
GARY SNYDER
1961
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The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast. – Buddha
(The So Called Higher Self – Adam Scott Miller)
