Musings of a Middle Aged Man

Of all the world's religious leaders, I most admire His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Not because I consider Buddhism to be true, rather because the Dalai Lama has a propensity to not harass people to convert to Buddhism in any of its forms. In fact, he discourages conversion from other religions, arguing it is safer and better to stick with ancestral or cultural faiths because switching risks supe...

Mired, as I am, in Western linear modes of thinking, I have a difficult time grasping the circular time concepts comprising the Vedic texts and the Bhagavad Gita, especially the lifetime conjecture scope in the opening quote. I was indoctrinated with the belief the human scope consists of a single lifetime, where the Gita outlines multiple lives dictated by reincarnation cycles bent by Karma Yoga,...

While I have never had the pleasure of living in Bear country, I have hiked and camped in Bear's world and had the ecstatic experience of seeing a Grizzly Bear sow and her three cubs. Seeing them in the Montana wilds, separated only by physical space, induced feelings of reverent terror coupled with awe that is impossible to achieve when viewing Bear from the safety of the protective barriers...

Most mornings, I sit meditating at my altar under the watchful eyes of Ganesh, Buddha, Athena, the Venus of Willendorf, three skulls of two raptors, one corvid, and an obsidian Raven with yellow eyes. Today, my space is scented by a slow-burning, earthy incense stick. I generally wait until one stick is consumed by the subtle flame before lighting a second of a different ilk to prevent intercourse...

wonder, does the spider know the insect net it creates by first laying down the Y frame, followed closely by radial spokes, all connected via the sticky spirals, giving it the classic shape depicted in Charlotte's Web, doubles as its own prison? That madame spider is at once guard, inmate, and executioner? That she is simultaneously a bull and fish, patiently awaiting the arrival of fresh fish...

Too often, the word chaos is burdened with a negative connotation. Think: disorder, confusion, unpredictability, and lack of control that overwhelms or destabilizes. It is often associated with evil or malevolence, a consequence of what some call sin, undermining god's so-called perfect order. It is a view requiring walls to be arrow straight, all corners set at a perfect 90 degrees, all circl...

Modern religious expression has become as fouled by selfishness as carcass-contaminated water. All who drink from it risk their mental health from toxins that infiltrate and infest the mind, undermining the ability to be a loving human. It is no longer an individual path toward spiritual supremacy, but a performance where the believers accost the non-believers (aka thinkers) to boost the number of...

This quote hit me with the force of slamming into an overhanging tree branch while running with abandon at full speed in the dead of night. Yes, I had to pick my ass up off the floor and it took me quite some time to return to my senses. On separate occasions, I have laid hands on the trunks of three trees, thousands of miles apart, and felt them vibrating with an energy that used my hands as a co...

f asked to diagnose society's ills, I would say the root cause of most, if not all, of humanity's problems boils down to polarity, the arbitrary divisions that are imagined and prevent us from unifying as a collective whole. Typically, those characteristics leveraged to keep us divided are nugatory, trifling, amplified such that we encounter others with our hands firmly grasping a war club...

Harmony serves as a core principle in multiple belief systems, emphasizing interconnectedness, balance, and peaceful coexistence with other humans, animals, plants, and the objects we tend to arrogantly misclassify as inert. I can attest to rocks having unique spirits by virtue of the 19 rocks gracing my altar, each emanating stable spirit energy unique to their character. Harmony is a tenet of Co...

s it any wonder that people living intimately with the Earth view all things as having life, spirit, and personhood? This encompassing perspective sees these three qualities inherent even in those things Western philosophy has relegated to the lowly, inanimate classification. They are treated as pretty much irrelevant in the grand scheme and completely devoid of that spark that gives life and agen...

n Thoreau's book, Walden, he creates the illusion he is far from civilization, where he is immersed in solitude, far, far from anything and anyone intrusive, enabling the opportunity to bask in the soothing salts of solitary living. However, Walden was only a couple of miles from his home. His temporary cabin was on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Henry was far from being isolated. He frequ...

I have seen many animal prints in the backcountry, but never one left by Lord Bear. I have encountered Grizzly in Montana, Black Bear and Black Bear scat on the ramp to the Kuwohi observation tower in Smoky Mountains National Park. Relative to Grizz, the Black Bear looks like playthings, really, really large dog-type companions tagging along on a forest jaunt. Looks are deceiving. The Black Bear c...

When I need inspiration, respiration, a catalyst, or a spark of divinity, I must exit syphilization, stage left, and immerse myself in a comforting bath of wildness. There, the plants, animals, rocks, dirt, and insects conspire in relationship to infuse my soul with a serenity that draws from Earth's vast resources. There is no specific habitat type that anchors me. The biome can be anything f...

Numerous times, numerous seasons in my life, I have fantasized about simply walking away from my place in syphilization and taking up residence in the back country for a life of abject solitude. In that respect, I envy Jack (no middle name) Reacher's nomadic life. Off-grid. Out of society's clutches simply by boarding the next bus on the road to everywhere and nowhere. The key difference....

I was infused with the attitude of a contrarian in my genetic makeup. I have always existed at odds with the collective. Many in society would consider the trait to be a dross gift, the dregs of Santa's bag, worse even than lumps of coal in the stocking earmarked for the naughty list. However, despite the associated challenges with going against the societal grain, I consider my propensity to...

am reading a book that nauseates me, similar to the disgust I experienced when reading Nabokov's book, Lolita, which immerses in the mind of a pedophile in the process of seducing his preteen step-daughter. The book that has my attention now is set in the 1600s, in what the colonizers renamed from Wendake, 'The Island' in the Huron language, to Ontario, Canada. The book, Orenda, center...

Since my early youth, I have been enamored with words. My earliest word recollection is their arrangement into the Hardy Boys Mysteries, which I would devour whenever I could convince my mother I was in desperate need of yet another book in the series. I vividly recall the time I was reading in my bed on a summer's day when she forced me to go outside to play on "such a nice day." I...

have long believed the sign of a quality mind is the ability to change even the most strongly held beliefs when contrary evidence is presented. To do otherwise exposes a dearth of intelligence, a condition detrimental not only to the individual but also to society. Imagine a society that operates on dogma at the expense of data. What a flippin' mess that would be. Correction. A reliance on dog...

It seems to me all, but the ardent sociopaths or psychopaths are acutely aware they have a darkness dwelling within. The same applies to our bright side, which is also inaccessible to those suffering from Antisocial Personality Disorders (APD). On the whole, humans are a balance between dark and light, evil and good. A dualistic nature possessing innate capacity for both profound compassion, empat...

recently experienced what I can only account for as a eureka moment. A pure flash of clarity emerging from the business end of an incense stick, releasing a heady scent of sage mixed with sweetgrass, two sacred plants. When I inhaled deeply while purifying my energy, the prayer smoke took not only my utterances but also my vision to elevated heights. I floated out of myself on the wings of the smo...

he American mythos is embodied in the mythical Marlboro Man, ruggedness and independence, extolling the virtue of individualism, a right enshrined in our foundational documents, guaranteeing the right to pursue our own happiness. So important is the idea to our collective legend that children across the country are indoctrinated into society's collective hallucination with a daily school recit...

Possibly, the saddest twist of human existence is the failure of most individuals to recognize their inherent divine nature. Followed closely by the heartbreak of people glomming onto external concepts of the divine instead of dwelling within their personal divinity. In the West, where I am a dwelling deity, it is ingrained culturally that we are born unworthy because we are saddled with a sin nat...

Religion threatens us with the mythical gates to hell for all eternity unless we diligently adhere to the oft-conflicting commands espoused in self-proclaimed holy tomes, despite being littered with errors. Not being a theist of their ilk, I understand the threshold they fear is actually the doors of perception, exposing truths the sacred books prefer to keep hidden behind closed doors, for fear o...

Powaqa invades my dreams...conclusion