Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Leaving El Dorado

It's been almost thirteen months since I signed a lease at the Emperor Norton Inn at Post & Taylor in the heart of San Francisco.  Spent most of the time sending out networking emails far and wide, waiting to see if anything of importance developed from all of the conversations, and daily went to St. Patrick's Catholic church in the evenings to enjoy a higher plane of reality.
  
   On January 1st, I'll be flying on United Airlines to Honolulu, staying again at the excellent alternative Plumeria Travel Hostel on Piikoi Street.  

Whereas I do not have any further reason to be living on the U.S. mainland, this move is auspicious.  I am looking forward to my final chapter on the earth plane; I'm ready, wherever it goes.


     Wishing everybody a joy-filled Christmas season, and as we witness the collapse of postmodernism, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
 
    For those wishing to join with me in getting their inner hula on, email me at CraigStehr@inbox.com.  ~Aloha~

Man is in Pain, 1955

Philip Lamantia

Man is in pain
ten bright balls bat the air
falling through the window
on which his double leans a net the air made
to catch the ten bright balls

Man is a room
where the malefic hand turns a knob
on the unseen unknown double's door

Man is in pain
with his navel hook caught on a stone quarry
where ten bright balls chose to land
AND where the malefic hand carves
on gelatinous air THE WINDOW
to slam shut on his shadow's tail

ten bright balls bounce into the unseen
unknown double's net
Man is a false window
through which his double walks to the truth
that falls as ten bright balls
the malefic hand tossed into the air
Man is in pain
ten bright spikes nailed to the door

Truth Not Realized

"The depth and solidity of substance in the world is similar to the distance and substantiality of things seen in a mirror.  The truth is not realized in life because the body of the observer is itself involved in this reflected appearance called the world."

~Swami Krishnananda  (General Secretary of the Divine Life Society in Muni-ki-Reti, India from 1958-2001.

Link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishnananda_Saraswati

Sunday, November 26, 2017

The Eternal Witness

When I was performing karma yoga at the Yogaville Community in Buckingham, Virginia in the fall of 1993, the "guru who opened Woodstock", namely Sri Swami Satchidanandaji Maharaj was answering questions in Sivananda Hall.  A woman  visitor asked, "What is God?"  The guru replied, "God is the eternal witness."


Twentyfour years later, today was spent riding around on San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit trains with no particular destination.  Deboarding on to buses and visiting various east bay locations at random, resulted in a wonderful afternoon, enjoying the light rain and frequenting bookstores and coffee houses.  Continuously watching the mental factory produce thoughts, not attaching to any of them, while observing the activity all around me.  

Additionally, I am wearing a large silver pendant of Jesus Christ crowned with thorns and radiating light, the ultimate symbol of non-attachment!  My Catholic rosary beads are skulls carved from ox bone, reminiscent of Saint Francis contemplating a skull and pondering the inherent emptiness of all phenomena.  Mind absorbed in the Absolute, no place to go.
 
 Everyone on the earth plane is welcome to stop identifying with the body and the mind.  

All sages and saints recommend identifying with the eternal witness, and thus be free from rotting in the quagmire of samsara.  Spiritual masters of various traditions whom I have asked, shared with me that if you really want to save this world, then liberate yourself first.  It's just a matter of having the courage to be what you are.

Craig Louis Stehr
November 26, 2017
San Francisco
Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com

Sunday, November 12, 2017

Gregorian Chant Mass @ Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, November 12, 2017

   Please enjoy the ongoing blessings of the season, which are all around us.  Just attended Catholic mass and received Holy Communion at the cathedral in San Francisco.  The sermon focused on "the end times", enjoining everyone to prepare for their own leaving of the earth plane, and also to be ready for the second coming of the Lord, and finally our going to heaven.  

   As I sat dispassionately in the pew, fully realizing that life on the earth plane has never been more than a disjointed, dislocating ride on the worldly roller coaster, at some times dangerous, often horrifying, disturbingly insane, and routinely enjoyable too, it was clear that the constantly changing spectacle must be let go of.

    Allow me to take this opportunity to thank everyone who befriended me on our collective earthly journey.  This body-mind complex is 68 years young.  I do not know how much longer it will be seen on the planet earth.  I really don't care.  Having given my all for the sake of peace & justice, and for the advancement of radical environmentalism in the face of materialism and its idiotic servants, I am ready to depart upwards.

     I invite all who are interested in cultivating a deeper spiritual experience to stick with me, and to the rest of you, I wish you well wherever your trip goes.  Good luck!

Craig Louis Stehr
November 12, 2017
San Francisco, CA, USA

Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Society of the Anti-Spectacle

I am sitting here at a public computer at the Berkeley, CA library, typing up a message to be shared with all, and published. Postmodernism is fucked! I've got, as so many others do, a lot of unscheduled time, some money to spend, good health, and a fully enlightened spiritualized consciousness. I am NOT "rotting in the quagmire of samsara".

     50 years of front line radical environmental and peace & justice direct action, decades of selfless service work to benefit the masses, and today I am asking you: "where are we collectively headed?"  The pointlessness of the Trumpocalypse politically reigns supreme, the planet earth's climate continues to get warmer with all of the resultant catastrophic weather consequences, and the social fabric is generally not holding up very well.  

I just read in the news of another mass random shooting inside of a church.  Now that's real madness, isn't it?  What we must constantly be on guard against, is "accepting the situation", because that is what the insanity of postmodernism is all about.  It is all about getting everybody to be so dead spiritually, that the current situation is not responded to.  Postmodernism wants everyone to not do anything at all.  

Postmodernism wants you to stay stoned, keep drinking, and not take any significant action in response to global socio-political circumstances.

     If you have realized how bad this is, go ahead and contact me at CraigStehr@inbox.com.  I just might join with you to take down the spectacle.  What say you?

Craig Louis Stehr
November 6, 2017
San Francisco, CA, USA
Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

A Brief History of Washington D.C.'s Olive Branch Catholic Worker House

Just sitting here in my room in San Francisco, remembering the five times I was at Washington D.C.'s Olive Branch Catholic Worker House at 11th & M Streets in the Shaw neighborhood, beginning in June of 1991. 


Initially, the district's Catholic Worker group moved out to a more comfortable location, and then claimed that they had succeeded mightily by turning over the house to the homeless whom they had taken in, thus doubling in size the Washington D.C. Catholic Worker group, housing formerly homeless individuals, and pulling off a small miracle essentially.

     Reality is that the group did in fact move to a more comfortable house in a higher income neighborhood.  Otherwise, the Olive Branch Catholic Worker House was a crack house!  The previously homeless residents never joined with the Catholic Worker volunteers who showed up to volunteer at Zacchaeus Kitchen, and who were initially unaware of the crazy situation in the house.  If that weren't bad enough, an assortment of feminists moved in, taking advantage of the rent free living situation, and none of them gave a shit about anything spiritual at all, and they did no service work.  The ensuing chaos from their aggravating anti-social behavior, (supposedly appropriate to uplift downtrodden women everywhere) made the house rat population look friendly.  At war with the crackheads, the punk bitches moved out and the rats stayed.

     And then something actually worthwhile happened around April 16, 2000.  For three days thousands shut down Washington D.C. in protest of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund policies.  We had the Midnight Special Law Collective in the front room downstairs.  We had a media center set up two blocks away in Blagden Alley in an artist collective studio.  We housed an endless stream of direct action oriented radical environmentalists and the black bloc.  We shut down Washington D.C. for three days and informed the whole world about the global situation of materialism's insanity.  Finally, the Olive Branch Catholic Worker House was important.  I guess Jesus just woke up!!

     Later, the house was used by anarchists to challenge Washington D.C. city government insofar as the mistreatment of the homeless population was concerned.  Eventually, the Metropolitan Police Department raided the house, tossed everyone out onto the sidewalk, boarded up the front door, and pressured the owner into selling the building.  Currently, the building is divided up into condominiums.  Jesus moved out.  We don't know where He went.  

~End of Story~


Craig Louis Stehr
October 17, 2017
San Francisco

Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Letter to the editor March 19, 2017

 Mar 19

 Have you ever wondered why radical action in America often doesn't succeed?   I will tell you something:  the problem is the liberal mind and its constant attempt to mollify radical action.  Of course the alt. right is crazy.  But much worse, is the liberal fuck puke that is responsible for radicalism NOT being more effective against the alt. right, and this is because the liberal fuck puke wants all of the credit for effective opposition, and therefore works against radical action.

The liberal fuck puke is inherently stupid.  That is why they do not overcome the alt. right.  Unless you are a total mental fool, you need to go out and destroy that which is against you!  You might consider beginning with the liberal fuck puke.  The alt. right is satisfactorily self-imploding presently, and besides, you can always finish that motherfucker off later.

Happy Vernal Equinox!  
Craig Louis Stehr
Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com

San Francisco

Chanting in the Abyss of Postmodernism

March 14, 2017. Woke up this morning and immediately began mentally silently repeating the Krishna mahamantram: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.  The performance of japa (chanting) will continue until laying down the body in the bed for rest tonight.  And then upon awakening in the morning, immediately beginning mentally silently repeating the Krishna mahamantram until laying down the body in the bed for rest at night.

 Considering the stupidity of postmodernism, there is no reason for me to follow any other spiritual path in the forseeable future.  I am sending out this email update because I have been receiving messages from many of my associations regarding how I am doing generally, what my current views are socio-politically, what I believe ought to be done in lieu of the Trumpocalypse and its deconstruction of all environmental governmental entities, and lastly, inquiries as to where precisely I am at spiritually nowadays.    

Please know that I have a lease at a travel inn located in the lower Nob Hill section of San Francisco until June 1st.  I have no plans beyond that.  All creative suggestions will be considered.  What would you like to do?

Craig Louis Stehr  EMAIL: CraigStehr@inbox.com
March 14, 2017
 Mechanics Institute Library San Francisco

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Anavopaya

"O Shiva, you have produced a three-world drama which has in its interior Maya as the source of all the existents.  You have presented the introductory portion of the drama.  

Where is the creative artist other than yourself who can bring about its conclusion?"  ~Shiva-Sutras, Section III, Anavopaya, Sutra 9). 

Source: "Siva Sutras: The Yoga of Supreme Identity", translated by Jaideva Singh, p. 153.  Motilal Banarsidass, First Edition: Delhi 1979.  (Introductory Blessing: Swami Muktananda).

Yogic Wisdom for the American Presidential Inauguration January 20, 2017

1/20/17 "Birth and death, bondage and freedom, pleasure and pain, gain and loss, are mental creations.  

Transcend the pairs of opposites.  You were never born.  You will never die.  Thou art the immortal Self always, O Prem!  

Thou art ever free in the three periods of time.  It is the physical body that goes and comes."  

~Swami Sivananda, (Founder of the Divine Life Society, Muni-ki-Reti, India)

http://www.sivanandaonline.org

CA Taxpayers Targeted by State to "Double Pay"

Please know that I met with the branch manager of the Berkeley, CA Mechanics Bank today.  We had a thorough conversation, in regard to my being harassed by the State of California to essentially "double pay" the sum of $51 plus interest, my tax liability for 2014.  
    

     We agree that the State of California is guilty of sending out notices to collect back taxes that have already been paid, thereby profiting from all of the fools who send in another check, for whatever reason, such as to not be further bothered, or because they are senile, or just too lazy to research their tax records.  For whatever reason, it is clear that the State of California is receiving double payment from California citizens, which is more than morally wrong.  It's criminal!

     To that effect, I have an understanding with Mechanics Bank that if I should receive another bogus demand from the State of California to inappropriately double pay my 2014 tax liability, the bank will assist me in a lawsuit, and will also accompany me into the San Francisco offices of the FBI to demand a federal investigation.  Please know that the Berkeley tax preparer whom I used has already telephoned Sacramento several times to complain that I am being asked to pay what I have already paid in full.  The proof of payment plus letters from the state have been faxed back to Sacramento for their perusal, so that they could adjust their records insofar as my account is concerned, and thus not send me any further inappropriate notices (which I could only satisfy by idiotically double paying).

     If I do NOT receive any further bogus notices from the State of California, then this matter is ended.  If however I do receive another one, Mechanics Bank agrees that we are "going to war with the State of California".  ~End of Message~

Craig Louis Stehr
January 18, 2017
Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com
Snail mail: P.O. Box 809, Berkeley, CA 94701-0809

Spiritualizing Consciousness in Postmodern America

     With the 45th American presidential inauguration upcoming, I spent the afternoon at San Francisco's Ocean Beach chanting "

Om Namah Shivaya" for a couple of miles, as I walked leisurely along and enjoyed the sunset.  This bhakti yoga practice replaces the garbage thoughts, such as have been accumulated during 67 years mostly spent living in postmodern America. 

     The worthless experience at my private high school in Milwaukee, the failure of the New Age in general to offer me anything of real depth, the insane staff position at Golden Gate University, the 23 years of unpaid service work with Catholic Worker (which the Catholic Church did not appreciate, but only tolerated), and all amidst the alienated, directionless American social experiment in freedom and democracy, reportedly now headed for the far reaches of the Twilight Zone.

     I returned from the beach to my rented room downtown to check the latest news on my laptop computer, and read on NBC that president-elect Donald Trump has Tweeted that he objects to a skit on Saturday Night Live.  The skit satirizes him for, as rumor has it, hiring prostitutes to urinate all over themselves in his presence, which the skit suggests that he found pleasing.

     I have for many years performed Indian based yoga practices, particularly Shaivite practices of a tantric nature which I was introduced to in India in 1994, so that I now have a spiritualized consciousness, as opposed to the thoroughly deranged postmodern alternative.  I encourage everyone worldwide to provide for themselves a spiritualized consciousness, of whatever variety you might choose, so that you "have a place to go to" and thus be able to live satisfactorily in crazy times.

Craig Louis Stehr
San Francisco
Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Rolling Stone : Interview: Climatologist James Hansen (January 11, 2017)

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2017/20170111_RollingStones.pdf

Rolling Stones 11 January 2017 James Hansen
 I do few interviews because of the time required and my difficulty in making things clear orally. The Rolling Stone interview by Jeff Goodell was an exception, a testimony to his abilities.

An important number in the story was not right, but is being corrected. It made me wonder how to make that number simple enough for people (including ourselves) to remember easily.

The number is the amount of carbon that we must somehow suck out of the air, if we want to get back to 350 ppm CO2 in the air by the end of the century, which is a first approximation, a first target, for what must be done to keep climate close to the Holocene range, the relatively stable climate of the past 11,700 years during which civilization developed.

[You may say, well that’s a stiff requirement, so let’s just allow climate to be hotter. But that would mean you are willing to accept a continually receding shoreline, with eventual loss of all coastal cities. When that would happen is debatable – an inherently difficult nonlinear problem – but each new piece of evidence is pushing it sooner than the experts had been estimating. And remember that coastal cities include more than half of the world’s large cities, likely many of the cities you love, with lots of history. Consider the implied humanitarian and economic debacles, with hundreds of millions of refugees.]

Back to the number: we showed in a 2013 paper that we would need to extract 100 GtC1 to get back to 350 ppm by 2100, if we began reducing emissions in 2013 at the (optimistic) rate of 6%/year. 100 GtC is almost as large as the net historical emissions from deforestation, so it is about as much as we could hope to extract via improved agricultural and forestry practices. However, emissions did not begin to decline in 2013.

Emission growth slowed down from about 3%/year in the preceding two decades to an average 0.6%/year in 2012-2015. Because of the time it takes to move politics and to change energy infrastructure, in our newest paper (now under review) we assume that global emissions will change little in the next four years. If we further assume the same 6%/year emission reduction rate beginning in 2021 relative to 2020, the extraction from the air required to get to 350 ppm by 2100 is ~150 GtC.

So, the bottom line is that the 8-year period (2013-2020) of continued high emissions changes the required CO2 extraction from 100 GtC to 150 GtC – another easy # to remember. Is it possible to store 150 GtC in the biosphere and soil?

Say, even if we make all plausible efforts to employ biochar where it has other benefits and apply rock dust in conjunction with reforestation and agricultural processes where it has other benefits? We will discuss that in a later message. Here I only want to note that the 8-year delay has made the task much more difficult, increasing the magnitude of carbon extraction from 100 GtC to 150 GtC. 1 1

(GtC = 1 gigaton carbon = 1 billion tons carbon = 1015 grams carbon = 1 petagram C = 1 PgC; so a GtC is exactly the same as a PgC. Much of the community seems to be switching to PgC, but here I still use GtC. Also note that we give the mass of carbon, not the mass of CO2. Because the atomic mass of C = 12 and O = 16, the CO2 mass exceeds C mass by a factor 44/12 (~3.67). Fossil fuel emissions today are ~10 GtC, easy to remember.

Let me also comment on the realism or lack of realism of the 6%/year rate of reduction for CO2 emissions. Some people say that is implausible, and then, out of the other side of their mouths, they say that we need a plan to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050. I’ve got news for them. An 80% reduction by 2050 implies ~5%/year reduction, for the common assumption of exponential reduction, i.e., the percent applies to the fossil fuel emissions still remaining, a reasonable assumption, because you take the low-hanging fruit first.

An alternative scheme to get 80% reduction would be linear reduction of emissions, so 80/30, i.e., ~2.7%/year, if reductions start in 2020. In this linear case the percent reduction is relative to 2020 emissions, not relative to the prior year’s emissions. The truth may be between these (exponential and linear) cases. There is some truth to the low-hanging fruit concept and the fact that some emissions may be recalcitrant, which favors the exponential approximation. However, if a carbon fee rises gradually over time, the linear case might be a better approximation.

The important point is that the reduction rate to achieve 80% reduction by 2050 is conceivable. However, it will not happen unless the world comes to its senses in the next few years and agrees that it is necessary to have an across-the-board (oil, gas, coal) rising carbon fee collected at domestic mines and ports of entry, thus making the price of fossil fuels more honest by including their costs to society. This would make economies more efficient and spur economic growth.

Finally, I note that even my colleagues did not “get it”, that in the (true) Holiday Tale, I was the Mad Hatter.. Oh, well, no more poetry for me.

 2 It takes two to dance. I have always said that it requires an agreement between either U.S. + China, Europe + U.S. or Europe + China to be made near-global via border duties on products from non-participating countries and rebates to manufacturers for products shipped to non-participating countries. I had thought that either pair involving Europe was unlikely, because, as the Science Adviser to the European Commissioner said, pointing to a building of EU bureaucrats, “you need to persuade them.” However, recently there are some murmurs in the EU about the carbon fee concept, albeit not yet by the major parties, so, given other political developments, maybe it is possible for Europe to play a leading role, despite its current struggles. 

3 During the Victorian age, it is said, hatters (not, in that case, the wearers, but rather the hat makers) were prone to be mad, because mercury was used in the manufacture of felt hats, leading to a high rate of mercury poisoning. Resulting speech, memory and other neurological problems tended to make hatters appear quite mad, whether at tea parties or not.

Bushels of Bliss for Ron Huber

Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra (from Rig Veda 7.59.12)

Om Try-Ambakam Yajaamahe
Sugandhim Pusstti-Vardhanam
Urvaarukam-Iva Bhandanaan
Mrtyor-Mukssiiya Maa-[A]mrtaat

1: Om, We worship the Three-Eyed One (Lord Shiva),
2: Who is fragrant (spiritual essence) and who nourishes all beings.
3: May he sever our bondage of samsara (worldly life), like a cucumber
   (severed from the bondage of its creeper),...
4: ...and thus liberate us from the fear of death, by making us realize
   that we were never separated from our immortal nature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adyjwFgXRNY

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Holiday Greetings

December 8, 2016. Warmest spiritual salutations, Please know that I am NOT accepting any more invitations to consume alcoholic beverages.  On Monday, I happily visited Vesuvio's for three bottles of Anchor Steam's Christmas Ale which was delicious, and a shot o' Chivas Regal.  

Pushed on to Zeitgeist to play the jazz & blues on the juke box, and enjoyed a $13 Margarita featuring Herradura Silver tequila, plus a monster cheese burger which included a fried egg.  Eventually I left Zeitgeist, and went to Ghirardelli Chocolate on Market Street for an ice cream sundae. 

 Returned to my room at the Emperor Norton Inn and slept very soundly.  Awoke feeling fully satisfied.  Therefore, I have no reason nor interest to engage in this sort of activity any further.  If you wish to associate with me, suggest a spiritually & culturally worthwhile endeavor.  

Beyond all of that, am OMing silently on the out breath.  Hoping that your holiday season is as satisfying as mine.  
Peaceout.  Merry Christmas.  Happy New Year.

Craig Louis Stehr
December 8, 2016
San Francisco

Thoughts Following the Appointment of a Climate Denier as Head of America's Environmental Protection Agency

"Fuck your goddam stupid group-mind!"  That's what I really want to say to the incoming Republican political administration.   Okay, let's all say it together:  

Large steaming pig shit pile
"FUCK YOU AND YOUR GODDAM AGGRAVATING INSANE MOTHERFUCKING STUPID GROUP-MIND, YOU POSTMODERN PILE OF PIG SHIT!"  
\
And by the way, let us all understand clearly that any further participation in the American liberal left wing's protest movement's activities is a complete waste of time.  Only a total moron would fail to realize that nothing at all was recently accomplished!  Indeed, what the hell is Jill Stein doing with a recount effort?  Why are the Clinton's supporting this worthless thing?  What was the visionless Democratic Party doing undermining the Bernie Sanders primary campaign?  And what was the fool himself doing supporting the bastards who fucked him over after he found out?
 
    What is up with this constantly crazy stupid imbecilic shit in Washington D.C.?  What is Obama doing meeting with that bizarre New York son of a bitch at the White House?  Why doesn't Obama just punch him in the mouth?  What is Al Gore doing attending a meeting at Trump Tower the day before an Oklahoma climate denier is appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency?  And ultimately, precisely what is the American society trying to accomplish anyway?  There's no going back to the 19th century to remake America.  So just do this instead: get spiritually centered before you go mad too!  That will work.  Do that.


PLEASE SHARE THIS (AND BETTER YET, PUBLISH IT).  THIS IS CRAZY TIMES!  AND IF YOU DON'T DIG MY MESSAGE, THEN WRITE A BETTER ONE.

Wandering in the Dark

Spent Friday night going from Vesuvio's (after two beers and a shot o' Powers Irish Whiskey), wandering around the Mission district in the dark.  Popped into Benders located at 19th Street and South Van Ness.  Hockey was on the sports screen, so I occupied a bar stool and enjoyed two pints of Pliny the Elder and a dark rum drink, which washed down the killer sandwich and grilled brussel sprouts.  Wandered off into the night, finally ending up at Ghirardelli Chocolate on Market Street, and gorged down a huge ice cream sundae.  Purchased a bag of peppermint squares, which I gave to the front desk at Green Tortoise travel hostel upon my return.
 
    On Saturday, I attended Mass at old St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mission Street.  Afterwards had a chat with the priest, who will pray for my getting a permanent place to live.  Am presently requesting assistance from the Catholic housing network.  Whereas I did perform 23 years of unpaid service work with Catholic Worker to benefit the poorest of the poor, the priest agrees that it would be appropriate for me to have housing for myself in a Catholic environment.

     Am right this moment on a public computer at the Mechanics Institute Library, enjoying my renewed membership.  Holding fast to the Constant, ready for more inspiration to creatively write, accepting all insightful responses.  What would you do in this world if you knew that you could not fail?

Craig Louis Stehr
November 27, 2016
Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com
Telephone messages: (415)834-1000, Room 34B