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 30 Jul 2010 @ 16:30
Anton Walter Smetak, 1913-1984, wrote in an enigmatic way, mixing contemplations of art with philosophical speculations and humanistic insights of profound depths.
My take on his way of seeing life may not be accurate and I don't know therefore if he himself would have approved it or not.
But he shares a particular direction of viewing, in common, interestingly enough, with fellow Frenchmen Pierre Verger (1902-1996), Claude Lévy-Strauss (1908-2009), and the Englishman David Bohm (1917-1992), to name a few, in that they touched Brazilian ground, especially the magic land of Salvador, Bahia, and reversed their occidental way of seeing Life, Universe, and Everything. Some, like Smetak and Verger, never left, others kept dreaming of being there (Lévy-Strauss: Tristes Tropiques & Saudades do Brasil) or traveled on to other mystic lands, like Bohm teaming up with Krishnamurti.
They all seem to have parted from the nightmarish occidental vision of having fallen from grace, expelled from paradise and they do not endorse the Western lifestyle of consumerism, its ever more obvious decadence, increasingly so in recent decades. Some try to find their way back to nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson-style, and decry the impact of modern technology on human conscience, but they very well know that the wheel cannot be turned back.
Setting foot on Brazilian soil changes perspectives, at least of some of the great thinkers of the past century, and, beyond mere escapism, enables a positive stance, a shimmer of hope, for societies of the future:
Like Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) puts its [link] : "Perhaps Brazil, Italy and Japan are in this respect more advanced societies than America. Pessimism itself is something that only afflicts Western values and is itself part of Western values."
Below, or behind, these contemplations we can find another paradigm, and Walter Smetak examplified this point clear and concise like no one else:
the question of diversification versus global norms, the former a natural phenomenon in all cultures of the past around the world. the latter now imposed, and even enforced as necessary, equally on all countries on Earth.
It seems that Brazil left the impression on the noted thinkers that it could escape this dictate and preserve at least a portion of its stunning diversity. As time passes on, this too seems an illusion, the tollbooth barring access to once public roads look alike in Brazil and Italy and the United States, and nobody seems to notice that it is a fall-back to medieval practices that were believed to have been overcome. The ever-expanding laws to rule the individuals and their families in every little aspect of their lives walk their grim path forward in unison in every part of the globe.
Smetak proposes, carefully implicitly, that a standardization of cultures is AGAINST the law of Nature, that it may be even blasphemical to curb or squelsh the variety that the human mind produces. That any truly religious man, whatever denomination he may count himself to belong to, should stand up against it and insist that diversification is the 'will of Gxd', whatever name you'd call her or him, if there should exist anything beyond the symbol of itself.
Nature's innocent vanity, its display of beauty on every dimensional level, from the stars at night to the fractal beauty of visualized mathematical formulas, and to the wondrous world under the microscope, indeed would seem to prohibit any 'norm' on any level as an interference with the divine will, the expression of the sacred behind the appearance of the ordinary.
It seems that nothing can slow down the invasion of our last jungles by the global food chains which are implanting their plastic & uniformal trade-marked stamps on everything they touch as they eat they way through our societies.
But it is the people, or better, the manipulated consumers who were made to think that they would have a 'choice', that makes it possible. And who could stop this disastrous march by simply insisting on their own culture. Or by creating other alternatives... More >
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 29 Jul 2010 @ 16:58
One of the great Brazilian minds barely known outside Brazil was Walter Smetak [link] . Born in Switzerland in 1913, he became Brazilian in 1968. Working originally as a luthier, he was an amazing, musician, philosopher, teacher,composer, and inventor of 'musical instruments as sculptures', he called himself a 'modern discomposer'.
His insights into the Primay Split [link] and its foundations within the Vedas,
are so remarkable that I couldn't resist translating a bit from one of the book he wrote "Retorno ao Futuro" ("Back to the future"), written in 1982, three years before Zemecky's film,(but unfortunately available only in Portuguese):
Walter Smetak:
"The passage from unity to diversity could be called 'the discovery of
the worlds'. Outside the unities are hidden the higher worlds, the
middle and the lower ones, and right here begins the process of
self-knowledge.
The unity divides itself into two parts, and, in an enormous downfall,
takes part of matter. Using what is already known through the
tradition of names, however without knowing profoundly the substances
that make up matter. After a certain while of intense studies, it
perceives that the diversity is as limitless as the spirit is itself,
and, within a certain zone, it then begins to confuse itself with
subtle matter of the spirit. However, with his mental body being
unable to advance his knowledge beyond the structure of the allowed,
it oscillates in its meditation between the personal and the
impersonal. In a more exact language, it would be between the
impersonal Brahma and Vishnu, with Vishnu being an Avatar of Krishna.
For the occidentals it appears as an antropomorphic God within a
medieval concept. All investigations by philosophical research of the
liberation of today's man becomes useless because another sentence
makes itself heard very distinctly: the primordeal Law has no need for
reforms." More >
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 15 Jul 2010 @ 22:05
Most people are totally convinced that there is one and only one reality. Unfortunately they also think that this reality should be the same for everybody.
But our picture of the world depends on how we connect our ideas and concepts, the Memes, with each other to form a more or less congruent model with a minimum number of internal contradictions. This could be called a 'reality map'.
Behind the map is however yet another map, let's call it a 'meta-map' for lack of other words. This map is created by the 'why questions' and their collective and individual answers, as 'everybody know', haha.
Many thinkerers don't make that clear destinction. Science, for example, as the modern reality map 'by definition' often forays into the meta-models of philosophies or religion or denounce them as futile and false even though it should be none of their business.
The most interesting feature of these maps and models is that they can contain areas of complete and utter obscurity, illogics, and stupidity, and nobody would complain, of they notice them at all, of course, as long as there is a number of sufficient other areas that have been 'verified' as to be 'logical, sane, clear, obvious, etc etc'. This fact has been used by tricksters since the dawn of human language to take advantage of their fellow men. Today we see the perfection of this art in every aspect of life.
As Frater Otto wrote once: "If Darwinism were right (or what people claim nowadays it should be), humankind would be in dire straits. While aristocrats are incesting itself to extinction, the new clique of global robbery and deceit would create a human tribe with the worst attributes thinkable, of rotten morals and evil intent, destroying every positive value still in existence..."
These harsh words may be very much exaggerated but the principle holds true.
No matter how realistic the reality map, no matter how perfect the logics within the meta-model, WITHOUT a positive intent, 'good will' as Kant would have said, nothing goes. Even the best model, when overlayed with evil intent, produces destructive results.
On the other hand, the worst system of thinking may still yield good fruits, or as Kant pointed to as "good will without any qualifications" being the 'only good'.
Maybe we should rate governments on a 'good will' scale (from minus 10 to plus 10). Maybe some would even be on the 'plus'-side of the scale..
Another fascinating aspect that I witnessed when doing a complete life analysis (for far more than a thousand clients over the years!), is that I never came across just two people sharing a 'reality map' or a 'meta-model'! Everyone truly has their own way to behold the Universe!
The true sage, methinks, recycles his own reality map periodically and swaps his meta-models just for fun and as a spiritual-mental exercise a few times per year, whatever the pantheon, whatever the symbols used, whatever the implications may be.
After all, the peak state of looking at the world without any reality map in one's mind IS FUN!!!!
Perhaps we should add a 'map-clear' to our collection of superman titles? More >
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 14 Jul 2010 @ 14:52
(Preamble)
We the People of the Galaxies, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure intergalactic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Warfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to Ourselves, our Ancestors, and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United Religions of the Galaxies.
Article I
Section 1
No legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested to any Congress in whichever parts of the Galaxies.
Section 2
1: No one shall ever speak in the name of any Gxd, any Master, Ascended or Not, spirit, or any other person or unperson. Let these guys talk for themselves, dammit!
2: The headquarters of the United Religions shall be located in the city of the Holy Rock in Brazil, in the state of the Holy Paul.
3: These, the United Religions, shall be known as TRIMONOPAN, ending once and for all the endless war amongst the people of the Galaxies whether Gxd is one, many, a duality, a trinity, or simply everything.
4: Its founding day, July 14th, shall be only holyday in all the Galaxies, replacing, 4th of July and other odditities.
Section 3
1. There shall be only two actions required for joining the Universal Religions of TRIMONOPAN: a) contemplating Gxd as local/personal ("MONO") AND AS non-local/infinite ("PAN") AT THE SAME TIME, and b) contemplating what is IN BETWEEN the ONE and the MANY ("TRI")
2. Whoever says anything else shall be automatically excommunicated.
Section 4:
(Recommendation to the now superfluos antic religions:
1. Make "every holy city", a religious venue. Like a theme park, where everyone who goes there is a visitor, and can never take up residence and claim it as thier own. You know, like our national forests, you can only camp there, for a few days only, with a permit, or in designated areas for up to 7 days!
Signatures on file at the local county clerk:
Mr. Kaabamax, Frater Otto, Solomoreno, Bushman, and all the other Founding Boys
mx f8, S/M, xxx, et alii
The City of the Holy Rock, this Wednesday July 14th, in the year of the MegaLord 2010 More >
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 11 Jul 2010 @ 14:31
Germany arrived at the very last second of the match for the third place [link] of the Worldcup 2010 with a one goal lead and the Mexican referee granted a free kick [link] to the team of Uruguay.
I heard a scream in my head "Don't look! Don't look!". It was my mother, God bless her, who raised from her grave to give me one more advice. She was convinced that 'not looking' would help to avert such serious danger. And so it did! I turned my head away, and, and, and, Forlan hit the cross bar. [link]
It worked!!! Both my mother and Quantum Theory were right on! Thank you for all!
But then, some people do the opposite, they STARE at an event to make it work. Whatever the resulting eigenvalue may sum up to, that is the big question.
The property of non-locality of the 'hidden variable' postulated by Einstein, Podolsky (not the one in the German soccer team!), Rosen, Bohm, etc pp is still at debate for whoever cares to argue about.
Meanwhile our ancestors, riding the wave across time through our memories, are still acting up to lend their support to vital questions such as national honor and whether eggs should be fried with butter or with olive oil.
For my part I am convinced that the question of the 'hidden variables', aka Quantum Potential, has been solved thousands of years ago through the system of Ifá and its 256 possible potentials; 256 of them, not 242 as Alain Aspect and Paul Kwiat have counted [link] .
The proof is in the pudding, of course, as we all know (and our mothers, too): the moment you look, it already changes. And if you don't look, whoever plays Germany will hit the cross bar instead of making a goal! This is the crux of quantum events and Ifá alike: you can never prove it being correct using the established 'scientific method' [link], the Pater Noster [link] of Science, the post-positivistic religion of our times.
Well, I shall use the few hours before the final of the wordcup 2010 to meditate once more about the ancient Koan "are the hidden variables of Ifá (the 'Odu') local or non-local"? Please join me in my meditation! Dive deep into the morphogenetic field and the living memory of our ancestors to find the solution to all the questions that were never asked! More >
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 3 Jul 2010 @ 13:32
Brazil dethroned before being crowned: a lesson not just for Brazilian fans and pros but also for the sideline philosopher.
All went well before the interval, the match appeared already decided. Whatever happened during the break, we may never come to know. What we do know that the game of the 'seleçao' disintegrated inexplicably. The consequence of a lack of harmony within a system demonstrates itself in strange ways: a seemingly unimportant action escalates to a game-breaking event. Processes like that have been come to be known as the 'butterfly effect'. The fact is that the team of the Netherlands, of which South and North Hollands are merely provinces, did not have a single chance in the first 53 minutes of the game but the Brazilian "Eigentor" gave it wings to finish off the rest.
An Eigentor is a goal made by a player against his own team. (for the etymology of 'Eigen' see [link],_eigenvector_and_eigenspace ). But the goal in question wasn't even that. Melo, the unlucky Brazilian fellow credited with the goal, happened to just be in the way of the ball which found its own way through the phalanx of players right into the Brazilian goal.
The sideline philosopher is being prompted with the question: at which point do parts of a working system fail and turn against the system itself? Many have tried but nobody I know of has yet found a clear answer, whether we look at cancer in medicine or "homeland" terrorism in social sciences.
[pausing here to see the match between Germany and Argentina]
Well, here I am again, during the interval, "Halbzeit" (halftime), to throw in another Germanism.
1:0 for Germany. Nobody seems to have learned anything from the previous games. Like Brazil yesterday, the German team failed to draw advantage of a strong first half of the match. Except that Argentina is playing much, much stronger than the Netherlands. Balls shot high over the goal and failure to make the obvious pass to the fellow player. In the attempt to gain the credits for goals for oneself and not for the another player of one's own team, more chances have been wasted in this cup than the total number of goals so far.
As mentioned, the quality of the players is at such a high standard for ALL teams that more than ever the final decision of a match lies within the attitude, or even bias, of the refereree and the strategy of the coach. Besides some luck, of course.
Luck? Does luck really exist or is it just a statistical event in a situation tilted towards a certain result? Germany was lacking the 'Wille zum Tor" (will to score) after the early hit, just like Brazil yesterday. Methinks 'luck' is always on the side of who really wants to score and even a biased referee must ultimately yield to goals shot, whether he wants a certain team to win or not. We will see shortly, who will emerge from the 15-minute break and have the 'will' to decide the match...
[pausing here for the second half]
Wow! They did it and it was good for a 4:0 in the best game yet of this world cup. And a game with a low number of fouls and a pleasure to the eye (more on the aesthetics of ball games at another time).
Germany has the youngest team of all in this world cup, way to go for the future. Of course, the idea of a 'national' team appears a bit out-of-date for teams like Germany or France with African, East-Europe, and Southamerican natives who have been 'naturalized' (with soda??? or how??). Most of the rest of the native-natives of the team are playing in countries than their own. Given the fact that many nations employ coaches from other countries one may very well state that the time of 'national teams' is over and the original idea lost in the shuffle.
In any case, I should really change the picture for this article. But I will need to take a break before seeing the next game Paraguay against Spain this afternoon. Over and out. More >
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 1 Jul 2010 @ 22:02
Someone gave our little Anthony (3 yrs 2 months by now) a Vuvuzuela. BIIIIIIG MISTAKE!!!! Knowing already how to squeeze out sounds out of didgeridoos and everything that looks like a pipe, it took a mere 0 point five seconds to figure out how to drone along. For the full range, he needs some more physical strength, fortunately, but this will be only a matter of time. Meanwhile, at the most innocent moments, the sacred tranquillity of the Sandorian Grove is threatened by the mark-shattering call of the Vuvuzuela.
At the wedding of a neigbour of the Grove the other night, we forced him to let go of the develish thing. if I would have known that the bride showed up on a super-bike, a trike to be precise, I would have thought twice about it. A trike is one of the oddest solutions to the transportation problem. Considering where we live, I would have expected a lot of horses in front of the chapel. which would have made much more sense to me.
But, as we discussed already more than once on this BLOG, deep down in the religions of mankind the purpose of this Universe, life, and Everything can be summarized ultimately as sheer VANITY. Vanity in caps, to be clear. Only this bitter-sweet truth can also justify the current crazyness about some balls being kicked around on grass spots in South Africa.
Soccer, like any sport, is utterly useless, a waste in time and resources for everyone except for More >
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 30 Jun 2010 @ 14:51
After three days full of soccer, heaps to eat, and lots of heated discussion, our sweet family came back from my mother-in-law who resides in a safe distance of more than 120km from the Grove. We survived the welcome-back kisses of our Rottweiler and Shepherd with only one blue eye and two torn shirts and I'm back in business again. Thanks to Mortimer, I got reminded of the grim prospects of the 'real' world, the oil still flushing out in the Gulf of Mexico, a fact much worse than Mexico's loss against Argentina on the soccer field.
The parallels are frightening: as on the soccer field, the players are running around like crazed chickens and nobody is stepping up to take a decisive action. TIME IS RUNNING OUT and and the rules are not as clear as to whether Nature will grant us humans an overtime or not.
Like in this worldcup what is lacking is 'der Wille zum Tor!", the 'Will to score', the will to take a concrete action to bring about a decision.
We're not talking just about good intentions here, not about wishful thinking or or public declarations. This 'field of dreams' is real, and large parts of it are under water now, water mixed with oil and hitherto unknown chemicals.
Is it simply the inability of the players on the field to put an end to the drama or is there a hidden strategy behind this? Some spectators begin to ask themselves who may be the coach behind the team of global players, and if those are perhaps just puppets on a string. As I mentioned in the 'worldcup for dummies', Italy's coach coaxed the downfall of his own team by ignoring the most simple archetypal strategies [link] of the soccer game until the last 20 minutes of the knock-out game. With only a few minutes more his late wisdom would have born fruits, but alas, time was running out and the acting world champion joined the fate of vice-champion France: going home early.
Unlike in the worldcup, though, mankind does not have a place to retreat to and rest: our playing field is Earth and it is the only field of dreams we have for now.
More >
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 26 Jun 2010 @ 20:45
but why wait so long to shoot some goals????
Now the soccer fever finally swapped over to the States. Even Bill Clinton and Mick Jagger are discussing the game in the VIP section of the South African soccer stadium.
More than time, overtime so to speak, to explain why such a simple game is able to move so many emotions all over the world. Too late of course, oh well...
Worldcup for Dummies (from [link] )
(An archetypal analysis of ad-hoc teams for novices, experts, and fans alike)
This year the entire world entered into the soccer fever for an entire month. Worldwide? Well, the average North-American is clueless how 22 adult men can run after a ball for 90 minutes without shooting a single goal and still talk of a fascinating game. For someone who was not raised with this sport, who never played even a little bit at the beach, the fascination with this game is certainly an enigma. And those who know the game usually don't think much about its ṕsychology, its unwritten implicate rules - they simply enjoy the drama as it unfolds.
And a drama it is, a spectacle with well-defined characters, with its good guys and its bad boys, its fouls, fools, and everyone under the sun is an expert. While its actors are fighting to the last second with self-less dedication, the adrenaline level is building up significantly every minute. All the losses and misses, nearly-goals, lost chances, shots onto the goal being saved heroically, all of these increase the tension of actors and spectactors to seemingly unsupportable heights. Only then the final climax of a ball entering a goal can become an orgastic experience or a traumatic shock, depending which side one is supporting in the game. Without becoming a fan for one of the sides, the game is a pointless waste of time indeed. But if one does, for 90 minutes life has another meaning. And only so it can happen that the whistle of the referree after a match without a single goal can cause a huge sigh of relief, make ordinary people dance in the street in cold rain and create new symbols in today's life and culture. More >
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 1 May 2010 @ 20:03
What looks a bit strange, if not obscene, then opens with a strong fragrance, makes a popping sound in the evening, and finally falls down to Earth?
Don't know it yet?
OK, it's attracting all kinds of strange birds that are fighting over it and it has a name that is as glorious and superlativistic like itself!
Aahh.. you got it!ù
It's.. More >
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