Postmodern Epiphany in B Flat

Postmodern Epiphany in B Flat

Only be identified with that which is
Prior to consciousness, knowing that the
Ether, (which is itself consciousness),
Guarantees the interconnectivity of all,
And therefore fear, which is just another
Dualistic trap anyway, has no basis.  It's
Drama, and the audience left weeks ago.
Neurosis has no friends, and its sister
Little Miss Insanity really is broke, so

She panhandles outside of the night clubs

After midnight in  downtown Oakland, while
A cool moon winks and the people that you
Really want to send off somewhere bug you
For spare dollars and cigarettes.  At that
Moment, in nearby Berkeley, the doors are
Opening to allow the bhaktas to dance with
Lord Sri Krishna and Srimati Radharani, at
The same instant that everything else is
Going down worldwide; all over the planet
Earth, or as the poet John Curl once said
To me: "Everything that can happen is
Occurring somewhere all the time!"  So let
Us send postmodernism off with a shrug, a
Footnote in the history of existentialism.
And let us all identify with that which is
Prior to consciousness, free and ecstatic.



Craig Louis Stehr
20.II.'15
Berkeley, California

Effective Activism for World Peace, Justice, and Environmental Stability

Rain from the Pineapple Express storm has subsided, and the afternoon sunlight brightens the writer's desk in my room at Berkeley's Piedmont House travelers hostel.  Swami Sivananda's book entitled "Concentration and Meditation" is open.  Practically, it comes down to having a yogic

"double vision", wherein an aspect of the individual is always objectively witnessing, while one performs one's social role well.  This, as opposed to unconsciously acting in a world defined by continuously changing phenomena.

     Cultivating an ongoing meditative awareness, is the critical direction to go, because anything else leaves one unconsciously entangled in samsara, disoriented, and vainly searching for an elixir to remedy the situation.  As the ancient Indian rishis pointed out, there is no elixir!

     Regardless of any other factor, moment to moment to moment, the key is to cultivate an ongoing meditative awareness.  Sages in every tradition have testified that identifying with the superconscious state is liberation from the suffering that results from identification with the body and mind.  As Nisargadatta Maharaj, the cigarette salesman and jnana yoga master from Mumbai, India said: "Stop identifying with the body and mind, and your problem is solved."

     People the world over are concerned about peace and justice, and the condition of the planet earth's environment.  Lately, there is concern about global climate destabilization.  However, without a primary focus on realizing the superconscious state, called "sahaja samadhi avastha", the confusion which characterizes the postmodern global social situation has no possibility of significantly changing.  Unless the individual consciously evolves, this civilization cannot possibly move in a spiritualized direction.

     Therefore, the most profoundly crucial activism is the conscious cultivation of unending meditative awareness.  From that, world peace, justice, and environmental stability may manifest. OM Shanthi

Craig Louis Stehr
February 8th, 2015 A.D.
Blog: http://craiglstehr.blogspot.com
Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com
Snail mail: P.O. Box 809, Berkeley, CA 94701-0809

Abdu'L-Baha Quotation

"Man must be the seeker after the Reality; he must be like the butterfly who is the lover of the light from whatever lamp it may shine, and the nightingale who is the lover of the rose in whatever garden it may grow."
-Abdu'L-Baha

Link: http://www.bahai.org/abdul-baha/