Invocation to Kali

It is time for the invocation, to atone
For what we fear most and have not dared to face:
Kali, the destroyer, cannot be overthrown;
We must stay, open-eyed, in the terrible place.

Every creation is born out of the dark.
Every birth is bloody. Something gets torn.
Kali is there to do her sovereign work
Or else the living child will be stillborn.

It is time for the invocation:

Kali, be with us.
Violence, destruction, receive our homage.
Help us to bring darkness into the light,
To lift out the pain, the anger,
Where it can be seen for what it is—
The balance-wheel for our vulnerable, aching love.
Put the wild hunger where it belongs,
Within the act of creation,
Crude power that forges a balance
Between hate and love.

Help us to be the always hopeful
Gardeners of the spirit
Who know that without darkness
Nothing comes to birth
As without light
Nothing flowers.

Bear the roots in mind,
You, the dark one, Kali,
Awesome power.

— May Sarton, born this day in 1912
Read fuller excerpt from poem.

Beyond all Shores and Seas

— Jane Barlow

Birthday indulgence

I have come to realize that the way my emotional life has something in common with the way Charles Ponzi managed money. That is, I am constantly engaged in planning for the future, promising myself a success or a joy, and (what is ironic) delighting for real in the anticipation of a reward which is a mirage.

On days that I work hard, exercise for health, create something, learn something, reach for a political goal, I am genuinely happy.  On days that I seek to reap my reward (Happy Birthday!) I feel shortchanged, and consumed by emptiness. ‘Is this all there is?’

When I see through this it can be a Cosmic Tragedy, but equally well it may seem a Cosmic Joke.

— Josh Mitteldorf, born this day in 1949

The most successful Ponzi schemes make some investors quite rich before they collapse.

My brother

“You can rob a man of all he holds dear and get him to thank you for it.  But try to take away his suffering, and he’ll fight like hell.”

— Bruce Mitteldorf, born this day in 1952

Eat til you’re tired, sleep til you’re hungry.

Breathing Exercise: A How-To Poem
For Gil Fronsdal, and in memory of Mark O'Brien (1949-1999)

The distance between the brightness
at the top of the spine
and the darkness below it

is not far
but when you shrink your mind
it is enormous

the whole length
of human history
can be fit inside it

One way to reduce it a little
is with practice and preparation

(the latter takes minutes each morning
the former has taken me years)

to gather the sensations in our belly
into our in-breath

(do this slowly and with enjoyment
the darkness deep inside us
should be like the jungle in Thailand

where we may acknowledge the presence
of unseen pythons and kraits

but our actual sensations
as we search the deep canopy
for crimson sunbirds

are of lazy butterflies
and flowering lianas)

and then by a skilled relaxing
of both muscle and nerve
guide our breathing

slowly up the back of our spine
so that it breaks over the top
like a wave breaking over a quiet beach

to drench the scattered thoughts
spread out to no purpose
and then draw them slowly back down

in the descent of the out-breath
to the dark easy rhythm

of the untiring diaphragm
where the in-breath began

Relax the spaces in between
each vertebra
let each space slightly expand

until in each out-breath
you can exhale metta (loving kindness)

commingling the cool light
and warm darkness

to those whom you usually consider
enemies and friends

— Peter Dale Scott

Privilege for what?

Elizabeth Fry was an early British Quaker, moved to translate her faith in God into work for political change.  Her family founded the Barclay Bank of England, but she worked to house the homeless.  She used her freedom to work on behalf of prisoners, advocating successfully for reform.

I wish the state of enthusiasm I am now in may last, for today I FELT there is a God. I have been devotional and my mind has been led away from the follies that it is mostly wrapped up in.

Elizabeth Fry, born this day in 1780, is now depicted on the British 5 pound note.

Oh Lord, may I be directed what to do and what to leave undone

Principia Mathematica,

the masterpiece of Bertrand Russel’s youth, was published 100 years ago today.  In it, he and Alfred Whitehead sought to put mathematics on a firm logical footing, by proving that every well-formed statement that could be made from a minimal set of math symbols was either true or false.  Math may be subtle, but at least mathematicians can be sure that they’re not on a fool’s errand, trying to devise a proof when, in fact, none is possible.  Russell and Whitehead published their book, despite recognizing that there was a small loophole left to be plugged in

This was a bulwark of Logical Positivism, helping to distinguish a philosophy that eschews abstraction, and posits that the physical universe is all we have, and all that we have any business talking to each other about.

No one imagined that the thesis could be false, except Kurt Godel, a young German mathematician who worked hard not to prove but to disprove it. In 1926, he demonstrated that every mathematical system has an infinite number of statements that seem to make perfect sense, but they are are ‘in limbo’, forever neither true nor false.  There is no proof and no disproof that can resolve this.

Other problems with the Positivist program soon surfaced. The Quantum Theory at the basis of physical descriptions of reality describes a world quite alien the Logical Positivists.  For example, individual particles have no separate existence, but can only be described (as in a laser) as part of an indivisible multi-particle state.

Today, Logical Positivism is alive and well, in that most Westerners who think of themselves as enlightened and above superstition treat the world as if it were rational and objective.  The fact that the foundation of their faith has failed the test of empiricism doesn’t seem to bother them.

To me, the point is that there is a portal from science to mysticism.

‘Being a scientist is a special privilege: for it brings the opportunity to be creative, the passionate quest for answers to nature's most precious secrets, and the warm friendships of many valued colleagues. Collaborations extend far beyond the scientific achievements, no matter how great the accomplishments might be, the rich friendships which have no national borders are treasured even more.’

Stanley Prusiner, born this day in 1942, discovered that an infectious agent could exist without any DNA or RNA.  It is simply a misfolded version of one of the body’s essential proteins.  Is it just chance misfortune that copies of this protein twisted in a particular way have the ability to transform other, properly folded proteins into the wrong shape?  The Creutzfeldt-Jakob prion reproduces selfishly as though it were an evolved parasite.  But evolution works on DNA, not on proteins (which are always derived from DNA, and never vice versa.)  This mystery remains unresolved.

‘Because our results were so novel, my colleagues and I had great difficulty convincing other scientists of the veracity of our findings and communicating to lay people the importance of work that seemed so esoteric! As more and more compelling data accumulated, many scientists became convinced.’

Prusiner is being modest.  He began his researches 20 years after the first prion hypothesis, and though his results seemed absolutely conclusive, it required another 15 years for the medical community to accept his results. 

Women lead toward peace

LYSISTRATA:  We need only sit indoors with painted cheeks, and meet our mates lightly clad in transparent gowns of Amorgos silk, and perfectly depilated; they will get their tools up and be wild to lie with us. That will be the time to refuse, and they will hasten to make peace, I am convinced of that!

...

CLEONICE: ...But if our husbands drag us by main force into the bedchamber?

LYSISTRATA:  Hold on to the door posts.

CLEONICE:  But if they beat us?

LYSISTRATA:  Then yield to their wishes, but with a bad grace; there is no pleasure in it for them, when they do it by force. Besides, there are a thousand ways of tormenting them. Never fear, they'll soon tire of the game; there's no satisfaction for a man, unless the woman shares it.

In 411 BC, Aristophanes wrote about bold women who put their bodies on the line to strike for an end to the Peloponnesian Wars.  In 1915, in response to the madness engulfing Europe, Jane Addams organized the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.  Today, some of the bravest and most creative actions to expose the lies that support war in the Middle East come from Code Pink.