A MILLENNIUM GREETING

Well, my friends, children, grandchildren in process, in-laws, sister, nieces, nephews and ex's, the digits have swung around to a bunch of zeros. Whether this signifies a millennial change, or is one year short of it, or whether this fact has nothing but arbitrary attributes, probably wrongly dated at that, or is merely another example of western cultural imperialism, or a combination of the above, we leave to the blurred edges of the holographic paradigm we are commonly constructing. A bit of chaos theory, as it were. But registering a bunch of zeros it certainly is. After a thousand years (give or take) of using one thousand as the preamble to our annual markings we are now using two thousand.

To speak of this milestone as simply a human contrivance is to miss the point. A very great deal of our reality is, you might note, precisely such human contrivance. We are, in essence, creators of contrivances. Of course this year's creative contrivance is next year's given reality. This process is not uniquely human, only the time frame is. Biology, as told by the story line of evolution, has been a prolific contrivance creator, witness the spectacular diversity with which it has filled the biosphere. except that this evolutionary time frame is measured in tens of millions of years rather than millennia, our human historical scale, or in decades, our recent technological time frames. And before that, atoms contrived to create the wonderful diversity of chemistry, over even longer periods of cosmic history. From the big bang to you and me, we come from a long line of contrivers. Rather than a disparagement, contrivance creation is our heritage and our legacy and our proudest contribution to reality's mostly static story line.

So Y2K, a skipped heart beat, comes as a wake-up call. In addition to our being imbedded in the biosphere and its underpinnings in chemistry and particle physics, we are increasingly embedding ourselves in our humanly created contrivances, the economic, informational, technological, energetic, creative, societal, organizational, medical and spiritual superstructures of our common humanly created reality. We are very busy creating this reality. Busy, busy, busy. Busier than we've ever been. And what exactly is this reality we are so busily creating?

Although profit and resulting wealth seem to be the local, personal and immediate objective of this busyness, its global features are far more interesting. In spite of CEO to worker pay ratios being obscenely high, most of the more recent human creative activity has had a leveling effect on the population in which it occurs. The richest American tunes into the same TV, movies, music, reading material and news-source channels as you and I. He or she depends on the same general networks for the distribution of food, water and medication, for transportation, communication and energy, as you and I do. His car, as expensive as it might be, is a far closer relative of yours than a horse was to your walking ancestor. He flies in a different part of the very same aircraft you do. The marketplace now caters much more to the general buying public than to the wealthy few. This has rarely been so in the past. The democratic principal has been much more successful than might be otherwise imagined. There is, of course, a long way to go before humanity as a whole will be confident in its application and success. But certainly, the cutting edge of our millennium's progress has been the success of democracy and its economic ally, the economic voting machine called free enterprise, over all comers.

And "science" has proved to be the other major and most rewarding undertaking of this last millennium, a spectacularly inclusive human project, with contributions flowing in from all regions, belief systems, language groupings, races and cultures around the world. A truly planetary venture that attempts the systematic uncovering of the truths of our material universe, of the components of life and of the genealogy of ourselves and our cosmos. Although not thought of as such, our scientific vision creates a magnificent and awesome ode to creation, an epic poem lauding the harmony, beauty, lawfulness, intricacy and glory of this, our cosmos. When have the ancient wisdom traditions demonstrated so incontrovertibly the unified oneness of all reality. Which of the ancient wisdom traditions matches the grandeur of science's description of creation, of the vast galactic and sub-microscopic physical universes, their interdependence and sidereal  unfolding. Which of the ancient wisdom traditions could talk of a 15 billion year story of continuous incredible creativity and ascendance, from the big bang to the genetic coding that produced you and I.

But what about spirit? We are adrift, clueless. The older paradigms discredited, the center doesn't hold. We are not at all sure if what we're busy building is human or inhuman. It seems to have a life of its own, beyond anyone's or any group's control. It's rudderless, sailing unchartered waters, danger everywhere apparent. Our dearest societal concepts have become hopelessly devoid of transcendent value. We are alienated from our past, unsure of our present, doubtful of our future. Where has science and democracy gotten us?

Let's pause to remember, dear friends, what we learned from our own spiritual journeys, the maturing of our own wisdom, the growth of our own inclusiveness and mastery. Our movement has mostly required a letting go of previous constructs, earlier definitions, belief imposed limits. Being adrift is being in our most creative mode, ripe for new insights, new connections, capable of grand conceptual leaps forward. We are in the process of redefining ourselves. Deconstructing white European male world-views in order to re-form them into more inclusive constructs is a necessary and worthwhile undertaking. Eastern equanimity is being combined with western creativity on an as needed basis. Images from space engender planetary self-consciousness. SETI is distributing intelligence among PC users, to filter incoming cosmic signals. We are beginning to understand and care for our spaceship earth. In spite of the bloody wounds parts of our planet suffer from, mostly old grievances fought with modern and very deadly firepower, I detect a hopefulness in the dimensions and inclusiveness of our being and our doing. We are just beginning to develop a planetary nervous system, to learn its parameters. There is a tangible global effervescence in the air.
 

I believe that these two major but separate projects of this last millennium, the "democratic" and "scientific" lineages, these conceptual "memes" as some have called them, will converge in this coming millennium. I believe that this convergence will take the form of the scientific study of the great spectrum of human consciousness. It is a much more difficult undertaking than is the study of the physical world. It involves continuously changing multiple realities converging to form and reform evolving social constructs. It is parallel processing at its most complex. It is truly a holographic paradigm. It's democratic aspects will determine the nature of political and economic voting disciplines. It's personal aspects will determine the inclusiveness and in-tunement of our individual world-views. Its belief system aspects will take over the work originally set forth by the masters of the wisdom traditions. Its resultant discoveries will, I believe, promote peace, cooperation, mutual well-being, and dare I say, love, on the widest scale imaginable. It has already started, the world wide web being its first wild and wooly undertaking. It's a great time to be alive.

Look, people, although I might sound like an optimist, I'm a realist. I'm betting with the odds. You and I are the product of having had 15 billion years of successful ancestry, from the big bang to now, not one break in the lineage, not one misstep. Every one of the links in that lineage successfully negotiated its allotted life time, successfully created a successor generation, successfully passed on attributes learned to those successors and successfully contributed, in their own fashion, to the building of more complex successor constructs with more inclusive awarenesses. And, at the end of that successful chain, here we are. With all those successes behind us, we can confidently bet on our continued success. Our future success is an odds-on favorite, almost a sure thing... not quite... but definitely a good bet. We are living in fascinating times. The millennium milestone marks it distinctively. Optimistic or realistic, it makes more sense to root for the team that you are on than to root against it. So, with that in mind:

TO YOU AND YOURS THIS YEAR2K:
MAY MILLENNIUM MAGIC MAGNIFY,
PERENNIAL PURPOSES PERSONIFY
AND ECSTATIC EPIPHANIES ELECTRIFY
ALL SOULFULLY SINCERE SENTIMENTS,
AND INSIGHTFULLY INTEGRATED INTENTIONS.
MAY CLEAR CONSCIOUS CONCENTRATION CREATE
BEAUTIFULLY BENEFICENT, BOUNTIFUL BLESSINGS
AND GENERATE GENIAL AND GENEROUS GIVING,
READY TO RECEIVE THE RIGHTEOUS REWARDS OF
AND TOGETHER TOTALING TERRIFIC TESTIMONIALS TO
A LONG LIFE OF LIBERTY, LAUGHTER AND LOVE.
 

A Japanese Emperor needed a chief samurai so he placed a notice in the public square. At the end of a month he had three applicants, a Chinese Samurai, a Japanese Samurai and a Jewish Samurai.

He first invited the Chinese Samurai to demonstrate his skills. In walks the Chinese Samurai holding a small box. He opens the box, out comes a fly and the Chinese Samurai whips out his sword and in one swoosh cuts the fly in half, the two pieces dropping at the emporer's feet. Very impressive thought the Emperor.

He then called the Japanese Samurai who also enters carrying a small box, opens the box, draws his sword and in two swooshes cuts the fly in four pieces that land at the emporer's feet. Even more impressive thought the Emporer.

Finally the Jewish Samurai is called in. The Jewish Samurai also carries a small box which he opens and out flies a third fly. The Jewish Samurai quickly draws his sword and swing it three times at the fly but the fly continues buzzing around the room.

"What's this" cries the Emperor, "the fly is still alive."

"Circumcision" replies the Jewish Samurai "is not meant to kill" .

 MILLENNIUM

The end of this millennium was marked
Not able to eat, sleep, shit, smoke or fuck
As if somebody accidentally parked
His brand new fully loaded pick up truck
Upon my throat and belly and remarked
On noticing me underneath: Good luck!
So random, casual was the hit I took
A thrown coat, sliding down the wall, that missed the hook.

But now I’m slowly pulling out of it
Some of those holy pleasures have returned
Here I am out making a night of it
With friends whose friendship has most brightly burned
Telling the last one thousand years to shove it
Although I know there’s something we have learned
That there’s an immutable link, a bond
Connecting everything before, right now, beyond.

And all of us from stardust were created
And everyone to stardust will return
Within a billion years our sun is fated
It’s customary movements to adjourn
Leaving everything incinerated
The earth a final funerary urn
So that our dust and ashes may be spilled
In space, new galaxies and life forms to rebuild.

So what’s a thousand years or so ‘tween friends
Each hundred years a century will come
Time’s just a way to count, it never ends
Ten centuries make a millennium
How fast or slow it goes, that all depends
A nanosecond is too long for some
A million years flies by in just a blink
For distant stars burning on the galactic brink.

So cuddled cozy round this glowing fire
We celebrate the passing of the years
If they, about our little lives inquire
We’ll say they’re sprinkled with some laughter and some tears
We’re ready for whatever might transpire
Knowing the spirit always reappears
And even living flesh and blood and bone
One day upon the Master Potter’s wheel
Into new golden vessels will be thrown.

                            Copyright - Rose` Santa Fe, 12/99

---


STROKE
(For Tony Price)

A lightning flashes in the sky
And splits the atmosphere in half
Peels back the veil, reveals the way
And no one sees it but yourself.
A stroke of lightning hits the flesh
And sends the body in a slide
Two limbs, a mind, the rest all ash
So stricken no one dares to trade

His place with you, to take that ride.
It’s harder than exchanging blood
To switch your cloaks of living dread
And try each other on inside
Where organs roar and tissues flood
And colors all are shades of red.
 

Copyright - Rose` Santa Fe, 12/99

---


THE GHOULS OF MERCY

The ghouls of mercy at the hospital
Devour the flesh to save your bloody life
Called from your chair there in the vestibule
They lead you to the lazer or the knife
Or to the great machine, the monster eye
That sends a beam of radiation thru
Your every cell so it can crucify
That renegade and cancerous voodoo.

You lie down in position on the slab
The mask locked to your face to hold you tight
Technicians war against cancer the crab
That clawed and multiplying parasite.
Upon this field of honor, life and death
You thank the ghouls of mercy with each breath.

                                       Copyright - Rose` Santa Fe, 12/99

I came to attending Jewish services late in life, infact it started here in Hawaii in the early ninetees, I was nearing sixty. So I look at its elements, its prayers, ceremonies, holy books and stories somewhat like I look at the accoutremonts of any other wisdom tradition. What I recoil at is the mythic elements, the miraculous, the unbelievable, the presenting of an exclusive relationship with God and God's ways. I dont think the founders, the patriarchs of the great wisdom traditions, including Moses, knew that they were starting a religion. They believed they were living and teaching wisdom, a wisdom that was not readily available at the time and indeed, even today, is not readily available. The wisdom they were teaching is that there are laws governing human consciousness that if followed will lead to higher states.

These patriarchs, Moses, Christ, Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, Lao Tzu, learned of these laws, through a combination of their own experiences and brilliant flashes of insight, no doubt tapping into higher sources. What they learned was that there is a methodology for reaching higher, more inclusive, more loving, more joyful and clearer states of consciousness. They saw clearly and undeniably that there are actions one might take, words one might use, deeds one might do, and even thoughts one might have, that either further or set-back this journey toward higher consciousness. The founders of the great wisdom traditions understould this and offered an accounting of the do's and dont's of consciousness raising. The Ten Commandments, is the archatype of these teachings. Following it's mandates will promote your journey to a higher, more conscious state of being. Denying them will slide you back into a narrower, more primative and constrained existence. We hope, as Jews, that we inherit these affirmative values and mind expanding techniques.

The difficulty is, as with most wisdom traditions turned religion, that we, those who came afterward, who try to describe the patriarchs and their teachings, turn it all into a mythic occassion and the mythology that we, of lesser wisdom than our patriarchs, create, overwhelms the original message. We focus on law defying smoke and mirrors, our need to feel exclusive, unique and important, our childish fascination with thunder and lightening rather than on the quitely spoken message of lawfulness, practice and goodness. Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments with all the fanfare of a Cecil B. Demille production, and with all the legendary exclusivity of a Tribal bonding ceremony, and we Jews kvell that this miracle of miracles happened to our tribe.

I mean imagine if F equals M A, Force equals Mass times Accelleration, a great Newtonian law of nature, came to a small Mediterranean tribe written in fire in the sky, and the tribe began to believe that the law was given to them because they had a particular closeness to the creator of such law. It would be laughable. F equals M A is a universal truth that needs no further mythic embelishment to give it value. It's value lies in its truth, its usefulness and its great and wonderful applications, by any and all who seek to understand it, as all wisdom does.

All the wisdom traditions seemed to have been degraded by this immersion in the magical/mythical dimension their founders had just transcended. And this dimension became the touchstone of most religion's exclusivity. Since the magical/mythic dimension can't be verified by experience, or by reasonings route, it must be bought into as a belief system. Its attraction is touted as the real way, the only way, God's way. I overheard an Orthodox Rabbi saying to a Reform Rabbi "We're both doing God's work, you in your way, and I in His." One joins by affirming this notion of exclusivity. It's right to believe that God gave the Jews the Torah. It's wrong to believe that Christ was the son of God, or visa versa. Who's to say? Even Buddha, the most avowed anti-mythologist, has ten thousand gold statues built in his honor.
It's hard to take the other guy's mythology. It usually seems so silly.

It's hard to disregard the mythology and listen to the message. If we did, I'm convinced, we would hear very similar messages. Someone described enlightenment as the top of the mountain on which there are many paths that can get you there. All the various paths lead to the very same top. The top is one, only the paths leading there are different and numerous. But I think the paths share some commonality. They all start from a world of confusion, angst, sef-pity, suspicion and ignorance, and they move toward clarity, awe, gratitude, love and wisdom. Their self absorbed magical mythologies are palliatives to this confusion, angst, self-pity, suspicion and ignorance, and their messages move us toward clarity, awe, gratitude, love and wisdom. As we move up the mountain we converge. We no longer need the palliatives. We start practicing the message and we see that we are all both many and one.

From the Ten Commandments to the American Constitution, it has all been one great societal  journey toward that still far off summit. The last millennium saw the laws of our physical world detached and freed from their church dictated heavenly spheres and mythological domains to give us all the wonders of our present technological achievments. Perhaps this millennium will see the laws of consciousness detatched from their magical/mythological imbedment, and freed to be universally agreed to, to be universally used to produce a higher, clearer, wiser and more loving world society.