Spiritual Alignment

LET US ALL SPIRITUALLY ALIGN OURSELVES AND COOPERATE FOR

Canis assidere vitae terram.

WORLD PEACE

 The seasons go around and around and the earth goes around and around and the turning wheel of time goes around and around and the yugic cycles go around and around and the view from the center is
perfectly still.

 Scriptures declare that the appearance of avatars is inevitable,and will happen as a direct response to the decline of civilization, in which demonic forces will be destroyed as a prelude to a brand new civilization based on the immortal spiritual Absolute.

 In terms of this present earthly civilization, there is no other direction for it to go, considering that everything is a circle,and even the postmodern global crisis is subject to change,dissolution, and transformation as a return to the beginning source
of all continues.

 The environmental report is bad. Climate scientists are
increasingly in agreement that a tipping point of no return will be
reached before 2020 Anno Domini. The date of August 21, 2017(which
marks a solar eclipse) is noteworthy, as the irreversible moment
beyond which ecological systemic implosion is certain.

Both ongoing peace and justice activism and radical
environmental organizing have been educational, and have clarified
contemporary global situations, which are now well known and
reported daily by the media. This has not, however, resulted in
adequate changes in lifestyles or appropriate governmental
legislation. The dramatic changes needed to avert ecological
systemic implosion are not happening. Therefore, what has been
effective in the past is no longer sufficient. Historical political
and environmental activism is not successful today in producing the
results necessary.

 This leaves the question as to what is capable of deterring the
forces which are responsible for the worsening global condition.
Returning to scriptures of different traditions, the instruction is
to align oneself inwardly with powerful spiritual reality, and take
action from there. In other words, the instruction is to center
one's mind at its source, and act accordingly. This guarantees that
the individual is unified and associated with all present and
future spiritual restorative actions.

 There is a way to proceed in the midst of worldwide confusion, and
those who have cultivated a spiritual life may practice in their
own unique manner. Om Shanti

Craig Louis Stehr
Blog: http://craiglstehr.blogspot.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
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Tuesday, 31 December 2013

Summary: Wishing all of the D.C. radical environmentalists,
anarchists, and those who have additionally cultivated a spiritual
life a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! On to the spring offensive, y'all.

Please accept my most profound wishes for a spiritually centered,
effectively active, and mentally peaceful twelve months.

 Know that I have received an email from Jesse Schultz, in which he
informs me that the reason the politically liberal activist houses
in Washington D.C. do not welcome me to live there, is because I
have been mis-branded a sex pervert due to so-called "lewd
comments" which I am accused of having made on my previous DC
IMC newswire postings. 

I state here clearly that I am the straightest arrow in the heterosexual 
quiver, (but am not narrow minded). I do support gay rights, am 
pro-choice, and support the legal rights of sex workers, but myself have NEVER had a kinky
relationship, and am thoroughly sane.

 It is true that I am a developed writer, editor, and have been
active with radical publications for decades. Beyond this, I spend
most of my time chanting ancient powerful mantras which originated
in India, and having thus centered my good mind, take action in a
radically environmentally effective manner, which simultaneously
promotes peace and justice.

 I am interested in permanently relocating to the Washington D.C.
area. 

 HAPPY NEW YEAR
Craig Louis Stehr (craigstehr@hushmail.com)
Blog: http://craiglstehr.blogspot.com

Report from the Algiers, Louisiana Twilight Zone

Seasonal Greetings, Last Friday I got stuck on the other side of
the Mississippi River, because the ferry boat had mechanical
problems.  So, after waiting two hours, three of us went over to
Harrah's casino and split the fare of a taxi cab.  I then headed
for the Old Algiers Point bar and drank pints of hoppy Hopatoula
beer, exchanged shots of Jack Daniels, smoked cigarettes, and
proceeded to tell everybody within earshot about my friend Bork's
infirmity and her general lack of support, despite her heroics to
save public housing here, and much else that she has done for the
good of society.  I did this out of my unbearable frustration at
not being able to get her anything beneficial.  Following the local
band's lively set, I walked waveringly back, only stumbling
once...had to sit down and throw up the whiskey, and then ambled
back her place, on the couch, whereupon I chanted the Hare Krishna
mahamantram until I fell asleep.  The hangover lasted a day and a
half.

     I shared all of this with a Krishna devotee acquaintance who
is in India, and he said for me to just keep chanting.  He
understands that my real misery is that at 64 I have no spiritual
sangha for support.  He said that he will help with this, which I
appreciate.  With Christmas two days away, I feel like I am living
in the Twilight Zone with a mahamantram nama japa practice. 

 I informed him that I do not have sufficient money at this time to
just go somewhere...and that if I did, I would also be in India!!

     Meanwhile, my friend Jamie "Bork" Loughner's situation is
difficult but not critical.  She'll survive postmodern America as
will I.  Please pray that I win the lottery, some day have for
myself an appropriate spiritual sangha to enjoy, and eventually may
we all laugh our way back to Godhead.
     Hare Krishna, Craig Louis Stehr  December 23, 2013

Christmastime in New Orleans

Got a call in Cali from anarchist "Bork"
Said she needed some help for a number of reasons
I jumped on a bus and rode for three days
Arrived travel lagged with no map in the haze
Took a ferry boat ride across the Mississippi River
Nobody knew of her or my destination, but then
A bartender recalled the location of the health clinic
That Bork co-founded, and sent me off in the general direction
All the locals knew the place and I walked and walked
Found her place next to a mosque, the word MAGIC
Appeared in a window, flowering plants on the steps
And lots of Mardi Gras beads hanging from the iron railing
One block from the railroad tracks just before the
Huge bridge linking The Big Easy with the west bank
Algiers, established 1719, where slaves were brought to
Be prepared for servitude, and we're just four blocks
From Gretna, where a statue of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan
Stands in front of the court house!  Algiers got
Annexed because politicians needed more votes
The last eleven mayors won due to supportive
West bank voters, and Algiers has paved streets now
I met Swamp Rat Jack who told me the whole history
His house was burned down by neighborhood drug dealers
So he's rebuilding and chatty with all who pass by
And Bork's friend Nellie invited ne to a Thanksgiving
Dinner at her compound of three houses while some
Of the extended family removed a truck engine in the
Yard and talked about the Saints football team and
Nellie and Jack and Bork are organizing the Neutral Ground
Social Centre to benefit youth who need a serious political
Education and so they talked and talked about the details
Of establishing such a place in Algiers and how they must
Prevent it being fundamentally changed, like the health
Clinic which went from serving anybody who walked in the door
To now requiring appropriate insurance and it just received
Federal designation and a three quarter of a million dollar grant
But the poorest of the poor are once again living at risk and
Bork herself is no longer welcome even though she co-founded it!
Bork has a smashed spinal column and no top frontal teeth, because
The police beat her because she was attempting to prevent the
demolition of the 1940s public housing units after the devastation
of Hurricane Katrina...certain forces did not want the poor to
return Here, after shipping them out of state, and bulldozed the
units so
That they would have no place to return to.  This is called"racism".
Bork is nearly crippled, walking with a cane, is in constant pain,had
Her I.D. stolen, does not receive significant social benefits such
as food stamps, because the insurance provider and the caseworker
like Many others here are praying that she move somewhere else, her doctor
Says that she needs one more risky operation which might leave her
in a Wheel chair, and Bork refuses to consent to having her spine
severed to
Qualify for assisted living.  Meanwhile, she throws up all of the time,
Drinks a lot of soda pop to remain conscious while fighting the
nausea
Which is resultant because the insurance company does not provide
Adequate medication for nausea, to offset the painkillers.  And she
Cannot get the broken teeth removed and replaced with dentures
because the insurance provider, etcetera.  The other night, I came
back and Found her on the floor, where she had been for two hours
unable to get Up; she said do not call 911, because they send an
ambulance which Takes her to Tulane's emergency room where she is
refused medication Because the staff perceives her to be a homeless
woman trying to get Drugs to get high.  So, she argues all night
with the staff and police,
And then they drive her back.  She said that she might as well stay
Home and save herself an unnecessary trip; her next doctor's
Appointment is January 3rd to discuss all of this.  Extremely
Frustrated with her overall situation, she cries and then I help
her get into the eleven thousand dollar massage chair that her
doctor got
For her.  She once again begins to speak of the emerging Neutral
Ground Social Centre, as I make dinner which she will not keep
down, and wait For when she collapses in her bed, and I will light
incense, sit on the Couch fingering my neem meditation beads from
India, and quietly and Elegantly watch everything fade away.

Craig Louis Stehr
December 17, 2013
c/o Jamie "Bork" Loughner
333 Socrates Street
New Orleans, LA 70114
Email: craigstehr@hushmail.com
Blog: http://craiglstehr.blogspot.com

Hsin-hsin Ming: Verses on the Faith-Mind

By Seng-ts'an, Third Chinese Patriarch

Translated By Richard B. Clarke

---

The Great Way is not difficult
for those not attached to preferences.
When not attached to love or hate,
all is clear and undisguised.Separate by the smallest amount, however, and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth.

If you wish to know the truth,
then hold to no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind.

When the fundamental nature of things is not recognized
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
The Way is perfect as vast space is perfect,
where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.

Indeed, it is due to our grasping and rejecting
that we do not know the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,
nor in ideas or feelings of emptiness.

Be serene and at one with things
and erroneous views will disappear by themselves.
When you try to stop activity to achieve quietude,
your very effort fills you with activity.

As long as you remain attached to one extreme or another
you will never know Oneness.
Those who do not live in the Single Way
cannot be free in either activity or quietude, in assertion or denial.

Deny the reality of things
and you miss their reality;
assert the emptiness of things
and you miss their reality.

The more you talk and think about it
the further you wander from the truth.

So cease attachment to talking and thinking,
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

To return to the root is to find the essence,
but to pursue appearances or "enlightenment" is to miss the source.

To awaken even for a moment
is to go beyond appearance and emptiness.

Changes that seem to occur in the empty world
we make real only because of our ignorance.

Do not seek for the truth;
Only cease to cherish opinions.
Do not remain in a dualistic state;
avoid such easy habits carefully.

If you attach even to a trace
of this and that, of right and wrong,
the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.

Although all dualities arise from the One,
do not be attached even to ideas of this One.
When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way,
there is no objection to anything in the world;
and when there is no objection to anything,
things cease to be— in the old way.

When no discriminating attachment arises,
the old mind ceases to exist.

Let go of things as separate existences
and mind too vanishes.

Likewise when the thinking subject vanishes
so too do the objects created by mind.
The arising of other gives rise to self;
giving rise to self generates others.

Know these seeming two as facets
of the One Fundamental Reality.

In this Emptiness, these two are really one—
and each contains all phenomena.
If not comparing, nor attached to "refined" and "vulgar"—
you will not fall into judgment and opinion.

The Great Way is embracing and spacious—
to live in it is neither easy nor difficult.
Those who rely on limited views are fearful and irresolute:
The faster they hurry, the slower they go.

To have a narrow mind,
and to be attached to getting enlightenment
is to lose one's center and go astray.
When one is free from attachment,

all things are as they are,
and there is neither coming nor going.

When in harmony with the nature of things, your own fundamental nature,
and you will walk freely and undisturbed.

However, when mind is in bondage, the truth is hidden,
and everything is murky and unclear,
and the burdensome practice of judging
brings annoyance and weariness.

What benefit can be derived
from attachment to distinctions and separations?
If you wish to move in the One Way,
do not dislike the worlds of senses and ideas.

Indeed, to embrace them fully
is identical with true Enlightenment.
The wise person attaches to no goals
but the foolish person fetters himself or herself.

There is one Dharma, without differentiation.
Distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind with the discriminating mind
is the greatest of mistakes.

Rest and unrest derive from illusion;
with enlightenment, attachment to liking and disliking ceases.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.

They are like dreams, phantoms, hallucinations—
it is foolish to try to grasp them.

Gain and loss, right and wrong; finally abandon all such thoughts at once.
If the eye never sleeps,
all dreams will naturally cease.

If the mind makes no discriminations,
the ten thousand things
are as they are, of single essence.
To realize the mystery of this One-essence
is to be released from all entanglements.

When all things are seen without differentiation,
the One Self-essence is everywhere revealed.

No comparisons or analogies are possible
in this causeless, relationless state of just this One.
When movement stops, there is no movement—
and when no movement, there is no stopping.

When such dualities cease to exist
Oneness itself cannot exist.
To this ultimate state
no law or description applies.

For the Realized mind at one with the Way
all self-centered striving ceases.

Doubts and irresolutions vanish
and the Truth is confirmed in you.

With a single stroke you are freed from bondage;
nothing clings to you and you hold to nothing.

All is empty, clear, self-illuminating,
with no need to exert the mind.

Here, thinking, feeling, understanding, and imagination
are of no value.
In this world "as it really is"
there is neither self nor other-than-self.

To know this Reality directly
is possible only through practicing non-duality.

When you live this non-separation,
all things manifest the One, and nothing is excluded.
Whoever comes to enlightenment, no matter when or where,
Realizes personally this fundamental Source.

This Dharma-truth has nothing to do with big or small, with time and space.
Here a single thought is as ten thousand years.

Not here, not there—
but everywhere always right before your eyes.

Infinitely large and infinitely small: no difference,
for definitions are irrelevant
and no boundaries can be discerned.

So likewise with "existence" and "non-existence."
Don't waste your time in arguments and discussion
attempting to grasp the ungraspable.

Each thing reveals the One,
the One manifests as all things.
To live in this Realization
is not to worry about perfection or non-perfection.

To put your trust in the Heart-Mind is to live without separation,
and in this non-duality you are one with your Life-Source.
Words! Words!

The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is no yesterday,

no tomorrow

no today.

Happy Holidays from New Orleans

Warmest holiday greetings, It is true that the Mardi Gras floats are already being constructed one block from where I am staying in the historic Algiers neighborhood, which was established in 1719.

But with the Saints NFL football team winning, and the Christmas season beginning, the French Quarter is not in any lull at all.  I walked around Bourbon Street after going to view the St. Louis Cathedral on Sunday (since my Catholic heritage is the reason that my middle name is Louis, after the king of France and leader/financier  of the 7th crusade), and Bourbon Street was already filled with revelers, anticipating the night game of Saints versus Panthers.  

Although I do not drink much, don't indulge in any drugs, and am eschewing tobacco in preference of the magical foggy air which gives the Vieux Carre its voodoo quality, it is
still tittilating to have the Hustler honeys encouraging a visit to the club.  She says, "Relax...it's only sex!"
     
Meanwhile, the effort to establish the Neutral Ground social centre in the westbank neighborhood continues.  I have been helpful to my nearly crippled anarchist friend, who had her spine smashed and teeth knocked out by the local police, when she attempted to
prevent the unnecessary demolition of otherwise perfectly goodpublic housing built in the 40s, after Hurrican Katrine.

     The poor were loaded onto buses and shipped to other states, demolitions ensued (which would guarantee that the poor would not have housing to return to), and the bulldozers efficiently finished the job.  That's racism in Louisiana for ya.

     I am presently assisting my friend Jamie Loughner, who really
needs 1.successful spinal surgery, 2.teeth implants, insurance
company which is realistic, 4.a social service caseworker who is
realistic, and 5.a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Ku Klux
Klan cops who beat the fuck out of her, because she attempted to
physically prevent the demolition of the public housing units.

     I do not know how much longer I will be in the NOLA area; I am
uncertain what more I can offer of help, beyond what I have already
contributed.  However, I am making the best of a very unusual situation.

     Of course, if I win LOTTO, I will make good on my intention to
relocate to Washington D.C., even if the liberals don't like me.  
I can always associate with political radicals, who are more
interesting anyway, plus a few conservatives who do occasionally
surprise me with holding similar views to mine.

     If nothing intelligent happens, I might return to the San
Francisco bay area where I am generally appreciated; of course I'll
be homeless, but who cares?  Hey, I'll be in San Francisco, which
is always cool.

     I seriously wish everybody a happy holiday, and encourage you
to stay in touch with me.  As my mother used to frequently say,
"Good friends are hard to come by."

     To contact Jamie Loughner, please email her at
jamieandjoe@hotmail.com, telephone (504)302-9951.  To send a
message to the emerging Neutral Ground social center, email
NGsocialcentre@cox.net, and to inform me that you have sent money
for my use, email me at craigstehr@hushmail.com.

     Tell Santa, if you see him, that I've been good this year. ;-)

Craig Louis Stehr
December 9, 2013

Crucial Swami Sivananda Quotation

"Nothing exists.  Nothing belongs to me.  I am neither body nor mind. Immortal self am I."  
--Swami Sivananda, founder Divine Life Society