About this clown

My photo
I often feel that we're all spinning slowly... like a mirror ball. Yes, we are all mirrors to each other. And so, it is the Light between us that I hope to help reveal and celebrate. /// J'ai souvent l'impression que nous sommes une boule disco qui tourne lentement. Nous sommes tous des miroirs pour les uns les autres. C'est donc la lumière qu'il y a entre nous que j'espère contribuer à souligner et à célébrer.
Showing posts with label interconnectedness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interconnectedness. Show all posts

Monday, June 8, 2015

Jungian élan

Pour arrêter de penser
Pour arrêter de penser à la violence, à l'hypocrisie, à l'injustice, à la guerre, à la torture, à la possibilité du Mal.
Aux cata-strophes.
Battante ou moine disciple de l'indicible? indécise.


Pour arrêter de penser.
Et pour rêver. Créer du rêve, et du lien, pour
 interrelier, intelliger, tisser des toiles
à l'envers du décor,

Décorer nos corps,
 qui encore et encore
se fracassent les uns contre les autres,
qui s'érrafles et s'évanouissent, qui s'éradiquent...
des tutsis, des hutus, des tibetains, des chinois, des roms, des palestiniens, des Catalans, des Mohawks, des Québécois, des ... ''nations'' partout qui se partagent... la panète, le territoire, et la tracent de frontières.

Je rêve d'une révolution qui détruirait les murs et les frontières fictives qui nous séparent.
Je rêve à des fois à l'évolution de notre espèce, par l'évolution de la conscience. Une sorte de boost, de reset, de re-synthonisation ou de re-synchronisation. Ou du moins tendre vers une meilleure harmonie. C'est pas une utopie l'harmonie, merde!
Je comprends le rêve collectif d'une Unitié mythique, d'Ur à Monte Albàn en passant par Shambala et Jerusalem. La cité, avant qu'elle ne devienne contaminée par les marchands et les étrangers, par le bazaar des barbares.

Pointée vers l'origines, c'est bien. 
Un tout. Du tout au tout se tourner sur l'origine. L'arché. Le moyeu. La roue.
Psychologie Jungienne.
Revenir vers nos mères, revenir à la Terre. 
Retrouver l'âme des choses, 
anima et animus, 
comme en mythologie.

Conscience collective.

Je veux vous parler de conscience collective, de poésie, et de soirées comme celles-ci
Diseurs de mots, nouveaux griots
Amants de la langue, maîtresse du flots.
À coups de grandes geules, pour dénoncer les failles et les maux, les douleurs, les espoirs,
à coups de grands mots,
aux grands moyens,

En descente vers le plus profond noir hivernal, en chûte libre, de glace, figés là sur la place, publique, voie publique, vois!
Vois! Public.
Public... avisé ou assujetis?
Victimes de la psychologie vampirisée par le capitalisme sauvage?

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Perfect Love

Tonight I opened one of my old books randomly, called Perfect love, Imperfect relationships. I read something about love being like the sun (yes, I do feel it this way) and how ''the sun's warmth makes clouds by prompting the earth to release its moisture'' in the same way that love makes our wounding and our fears arise... which often veil the presence love.
Yes, I know that.
Furthermore,
 ''Our ability to feel a wholehearted yes toward another person fluctuates with the changing circumstances of each moment.''

I feel it and ponder it every day. I love to muse over relationships as mirrors. I do love love. But I also want to be ''careful''.

I'm not exactly cynical. I see the phenomenon called ''falling in love'' as a mechanism, basically. Not a machine, more like a process. There's attraction, projection and chemistry. There's timing. There are needs, some of them conscious and others not. There will generally be some pushing and pulling.
But if the two fall at the same time, we'll have what I like to think of as the crucible.

Though the crucible doesn't actually necessitate commitment between two lovers ( though someone could very well notice their attractions, and observe their projections in order to bring more consciousness onto their individual patterns and yearnings.
 It's deeply... transformational, when two individuals can and do commit to the relationship. This will happen through the wounds and fears, and other ''trigger points''. This pushing of each other's buttons may lead to fighting, or to freezing/numbing, or to... fucking (the 3 Fs).
To the extent that a partnership is consciously worked with,  what we loosely call love can be an excellent opportunity to grow as a human being. I think this is marvelous!

So you see, I'm not cynical. It's just that I've read on the matter quite a lot, and, well... I've gone through the crucible too. I now feel more rational about relationships and about the process of love. I'd like for everyone to have it clear once and for all: attraction, infatuation and love aren't the same thing at all. When I speak of love in the context of a romance or partnership, I'm talking about the type of love you have to learn, together.

I also know Love as that light that shine above and through it all. Some sort of Agape. In fact, I'm very much caught up in the two forms and I realize I sometimes have a bit of a hard time distinguishing between the two. I love certain people with all my soul. I feel connected to their soul and I love them profoundly and unconditionally. Sometimes, however, I guess my personal story creeps in a bit. 
Sankai Juku

This story has to do with going to war for love. Whether it is agape or eros, I find myself being called to sacrifice in the name of love. Wouldn't it make sense, in the understanding of the aforementioned mechanism, to want to give up certain things (i.e. own projections, let down some walls) that we might be attached to?

I guess we just gotta make sure we give up the right things... for the right relationships.

Random note: Definition of the term overstanding:
The state of mind that emerges when all illusions- those in the conscious and subconscious mind- are removed; the intellectual state free from mis/disinformation, propaganda, lies, and deception; a grasp of the whole truth; human beings' natural state of mind undisturbed by the ego.



All that being said, I would say that I'm willing (and able) to grow in love. I would still need to experience that initial spark of attraction, and for it to be reciprocal. That's the tricky part, the one no amount of rational thinking can provide. I need some magic

Well, anyway, thank you science for helping elucidate this crazy little thing called love. I wish we could collectively decide to focalize this abstract concept we call love, to better define love's multiple facets (Here's an interesting article titled ''The Ancient Greeks' 6 words for Love'') and give ourselves a chance for some radical changes. I don't know if it can be done.

In the meantime I'll keep trying to figure out that whole thing about how ''to feel a wholehearted yes toward another person''. Can I keep my heart open, and whole, in front of those who do not seek the same relationship? Should I? I tend to think I should, but then again it can be such a painful experience sometimes. Can I keep my heart open with those people I feel an attraction for, as well as with those who I do not particularly wish to engage deeply with? (What's the difference? There is one of course, but underneath it all...)






Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Syndrome post-samsara

Étourdie, j'inspire.  Je me sens inspirée car je me suis arrêtée, un moment pour m'asseoir, et que la terre continue de tourner. C'est pour ça que la chose la plus difficile à faire est d'essayer de s'arrêter.
Et c'est que ça tourne là-dedans! Ça tourne, les pensées comme des singes qui junglent dans nos esprits, qui s'accrochent les unes aux autres; des idées, des théories. Des projections, dans toutes les directions.

Théories des systèmes, résolutions de problèmes complexes, il nous faut nos machines pour calculer ce qui se passe... mais pourquoi?  Calculer pourquoi? Pour prédire, pour... s'assurer?  Pour se rassurer? Se sécuriser? Est-ce que ça marche aujourd'hui?
Pseudo science. Néolibéralisme vampire et suicidaire. Avarice, cécité. Peur.

Trêve de lyrisme. Si je suis si particulièrement étourdie, c'est parce que j'ai écouté un film ahurissant ce soir, au théâtre de la Verdure, Parc Lafontaine.  La semaine dernière c'était Pina (!), ce lundi : Samsara.



Que dire? Quand on sait qu'une seule image vaut déjà mille mots!? Je ne vais pas pour entretenir de telle ou telle scène, je vous somme plutôt de laisser le film vous toucher. Nous en discuterons par la suite.

Et c'est de songer à toutes les personnes qui étaient présentes ce soir et toutes celles qui on vu ce film.  Quelles pensées, quelles associations surgissent dans leurs esprits? Quelles émotions surtout? Ça, j'ai le feeling que peut-être on se les partage celle-là. J'aimerais tant qu'on en parle! Pour le moment j'écrirai seulement que l'oeuvre me jète dans un abîme de complexité. Il me semble qu'aucun système de pensée philosophique ne pourrait désormais rendre compte du monde.


Alors on est tous là à se regarder dans le miroir, inconfortables.

Et je repense toujours au fait que cela fait à peine cinquante ans que la photo du Earth Rise a été prise. (Avec tout ce que ça symbolise dans la conscience collective de l'espèce humaine).

Ce sont cinquante années sur ... Ça dépend jusqu'où on décide de remonter! Disons 1537 ans depuis la chute de l'Empire Roman, 5000 ans depuis la fondation d'Ur, 65.5 millions d'années depuis la disparition des dinosaures. C'est quoi, cinquante ans?!


Et nous voilà aujourd'hui perchés, accrochés dans la stratosphère, reliés par des satellites qui se promènent comme des étoiles.

Nés poussières et nous retournerons poussière [d'étoiles].


Armés de caméras, obsédés par l'images et la représentation.



Nous photo-graphons. Nous marquons la lumière d'empreintes de nous-mêmes. Nous visons.



Combien de concepts pouvons nous encore créer?


















Sunday, August 4, 2013

''Présence Autochtone'', racines et aspirations


Je songeais à un truc...

Il leur fallait ''la foi'' pour survivre ces hivers, pour défricher et bâtir sur ces terres.  Il leur fallait une enceinte où produire de la chaleur humaine. Combien d'églises ont joué ce rôle rassembleur?  La religion catholique est partie intégrante de notre histoire et j'aimerais qu'on en discute.

Je ne parle pas verser nos économies dans la dîme des prêtres, de se laisser marcher sur la tête, ou de sacrifier nos corps pour la procréation de la race (bien que, comme je tiens toujours à le rappeler, il nous fasse aussi reconnaître que nous ne parlerions peut-être pas français aujourd'hui n'eût été de l'injonction de procréer ). Je ne parle surtout pas de poursuivre dans la voie de la négation de notre élan vital, de baigner dans la culpabilité et la peur. (Car nous devions aussi être ''sauvage'' pour apprendre à vivre ici.)


Je m'adresse au peuple québécois tout en m'adressant à tout le monde.





Cette semaine à Montréal se tenait la vingt-troisième édition du Festival ''Présence Autochtone''. Que dire...

Entre le sentiment malaisant que me procure ''La place des Arts'' et ses odeurs de Panopticon (ou comme si l'art pouvait se restreindre à des espaces choisis, prédeterminés, bétonnés, encerclés, commandités!), et la part de soulagement que je ressens à voir cette présence...
Un teepee moderne, géant, accroché à 40pieds dans les airs par une grue. Malheureusement la photo que j'ai prise est prisonnière de mon appareil photo qui est vraisemblablement kaput (émoticon triste) (Serait-ce le moment de m'offrir la caméra de qualité dont je rêve depuis un long moment?), mais la scène est génératrice de sens... (Quelques photos que je ne peux pas partager - vivement les Creative Commons- et qui vous donneront une idée se trouve sur le site de nul autre que... Loto-Québec, fier commanditaire! (Émoticon ''ironique'')

Je tergiverse tant! Ève, reviens dans le droit chemin.

Bref. J'ai adoré mon expérience de ce ''festival''.
1) Découverte de l'artiste Shauit, musicien et chanteur reggae, natif de Maliotenam sur la Côté-Nord: du rap-reggae en Innu! (Talk about reclaiming a language et prendre la parole!) 

2) Rencontre et conversation avec Yvan.  J'ai vu Yvan pour la première fois mercredi soir dernier, lors de la projection du film ''Ramer d'une seule voie'' ( Cliquez ICI pour le voir: ça vaut le 15minutes.) au Musée McCord.  Il était dans l'audience, tout simplement.  Dans le film, un drapeau que j'aperçois pour la première fois:



Vendredi soir donc, sur la place des Arts, le même drapeau.  Je m'approche pour m'enquérir un peu au sujet du symbole, etc.  Je me faufile dans la foule et me retrouve devant cet homme, Yvan, longs cheveux raides et noirs, yeux pétillants, ceinture fléchée et colliers traditionnels. Dans sa contenance par contre: la vibe d'un ''québécois''. Son accent, son nom, son aura.  Bref, j'apprends que le signe d'infini a été adopté par la communauté Métis.
'' On est tous issus du métissage.''
''Nos ancêtres se sont alliés. Les colons étaient des hommes et des femmes courageuses, notre culture est une culture de la terre d'ici, des conditions et des besoins d'ici.  Notre culture est remplie de la présence autochtone: nos canots, nos raquettes, nos textiles, notre courge et notre maïs, notre langue...  Notre emphase tend à porter sur l'inimité, sur la blessure et les autres facettes souffrantes de la colonisation.  Certes, il est essentiel qu'on se fasse ce devoir de mémoire.  Mais serait-ce possible que le temps soit venu pour outrepasser la grande blessure et pour entreprendre un dialogue qui continue d'aller de l'avant?

Un autre drapeau déjà aperçu: blanc avec un arbre dessiné dessus: La famille. ''Et ce drapeau-là, tu peux m'en parler un peu?'' ai-je demandé à Yvan.
''Ça c'est La famille. Ça veut dire qu'on est tous une famille et qu'on doit se rappeler ça, des racines vers le tronc, puis les branches, nos parents, d'autres branches, nous-mêmes, et nos enfants...''
''Et notre connexion avec la terre'' je rajoute.
Il me sourit. ''Oui'' ''Et y'a les racines surtout, parce que si on coupe les racines, l'arbre meurt.''
''Nos aînés, nos ancêtres...''

Euh...
Partage d'un ''pregnant silence'' (une belle expression que les anglophones utilisent). Et je lui confie, ''sauf que c'est justement quelque chose qui me fait peur; au Québec, cette relation défectueuse avec nos aînés, notre incapacité à conjuguer la ''vie moderne'' et le prendre soins de nos parents. (À ce sujet, un l'Institut du Nouveau monde entretient un dossier TRÈS intéressant: http://www.inm.qc.ca/a-propos/paroles-de-linm/la-declaration-des-generations-2011) Ça ne me donne pas beaucoup d'espoir.''

Yvan me regarde et me dit, d'un ton scintillant:  ''C'est pour ça qu'il faut qu'on regardes dans les yeux des enfants. C'est eux qui nous montre la Vie.''

Une conversation de quinze minutes, droit au fond des choses. Amen

Je n'ai pas fini ma tirade sur l'Église et la spiritualité au Québec.  C'est évidemment un travail en cours/ work in progress.  But you get the point...
J'ai dis qu'il fallait la foi.  J'aimerais qu'on parle du mot.

Église sur une réserve près de New Richmond, dans la Baie des Chaleurs.





Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Puisque tout est politique.

Un texte pouvant peut-être sembler un peu décousu.
C'est que le fil est transparent.
N'hésitez pas à commenter!



Une amie me racontait: ''Pour moi tout est politique.  Des fois... ça devient un peu fatiguant.''

Je me dis, en effet:
J'aimerais, par exemple, savoir comment prendre le temps
de prendre soins de jeunes plantes

Parce que 1) prendre le temps est un geste radical, à contre-courant du mode compétitif effréné dans lequel se vautre notre culture économique; et parce que  2) prendre soins est un geste radical et trop peu valorisé: ça ne fait pas partie du PIB!
S'appliquer, s'engager, s'efforcer à faire émerger la vie, à fournir la juste dose de tout ce qu'il faut pour que prennent racines: c'est radical. Imaginer une production alimentaire significative à même nos milieux urbain, faire respirer la cité-bitume, semer sur les toits de nos appartements, dans les craques des trottoirs, dans nos bacs à double-fond et nos jardins grimpants...
Ça requiert tout un engagement.

Cultiver.

Naturer.

Arrêtons de prétendre que nous ne comprenons pas ce qui nous arrive. Certes, encore aujourd'hui, tous les angles ne sont pas visibles.  Mais ne pourraient-on pas rendre compte de ce qu'on a appris et de ce qu'on continue d'apprendre? Je continue de croire qu'il nous faut créer des espaces dans lesquels on se permettrait d'explorer, c'est-à-dire de ressentir, les sentiments qui se rattachent à l'Histoire.

Reconnaître notre ignorance et notre vulnérabilité en tant qu'espèce. Intégrer ce que nous avons appris depuis Nietzsche, Freud, Fromm, etc. Célébrer le chemin parcouru. Considérer les motivations psychologiques derrière la tendance réactionnaire et la puissance grégaire. Expliciter le phénomène et se donner les outils pour ne plus commettre de telles violences.  Car c'est nous-même qu'on continue de mutiler.



Des outils comme le discours critique, ou comme la compassion! Nous sommes en train d'apprendre à nous émanciper.  Nous y oeuvrons maladroitement depuis 2500 ans (avénement de la philosophie occidentale. Le processus émancipatoire tient sans doute de bien plus loin...) L'apprentissage est là, étape par étape.

Ce qui me fait penser... aux Lumières!


Par exemple, pourquoi ne pas outrepasser la philosophie des Lumières? Questionner le libéralisme, la science moderne, le capitalisme industriel... l'État!  La philosophie des Lumières, ce n'était pas l'aboutissement de l'histoire, la ligne d'arrivée!  Pourquoi ais-je l'impression que ''la société en générale'' en est demeurée avec les idôles de ce temps? ''Liberté, raison, ... égalité''.  Le culte de l'individu et de sa supposée raison!  Démocratie?  ''Droit fondamental''?  Pourrait-on seulement continuer de porter une pensée critique sur ces Idées ?

Je ne suis pas la première à dire vouloir rappeler le lien qu'il existe entre l'État moderne et nos pires cauchemars: holocauste, hiroshima, génocide au Rwanda, corruption, violence policière, etc.  La justice et la liberté n'existent qu'en Idée. C'est autre chose qu'on choisit, il faut arrêter de se leurrer.  J'appellerais ça le Sentiment de Sécurité?

On le voit bien qu'il faut questionner!  On le sent, et c'est pour ça qu'on s'entre-mêle dans des tirades émotives et des rassemblements de peuple - tant de phénomènes que nous le savons voués à nous faire perdre la raison.

Rassemblons-nous alors!  Je sais que plusieurs philosophes contemporains sont derrière moi, entre autre parce pour ce qu'ils ont influencé ma vision du monde : Le sauvage, le non-ordre, le courant libre et créatif.. tout ça se doit d'avoir une place dans nos vies!
C'est dommage que la société québécoise du spectacle ait co-opté tout ça.



Le carnaval existait bien longtemps avant le cirque du soleil, le festival de Jazz de Montréal. Le carnaval existait avant Jésus-Christ, avant les Romains, avant Gilgamesh! Peut-être parce que l'être humain a bel et bien besoin de ces rites (de purification?), de cette intoxications, de cet ex-stasie (hors d'état).  C'est nécessaire, pour l'équilibre des choses.

Il y a une charge, une énergie, qui coure et constitue le flot des choses.  On ne perçoit que les presq'équilibres; on n'en sent que la tension, que la réverbération d'un mouvement minuscule qui devient séisme dès qu'on arrête de se tenir occupé.

Pourquoi, à quoi résister?
Quand on s'arrête de bouger, le cosmos lui tourne encore.
Résister au changement? Résister au status quo?
Les deux forment un tout.
(Y aurait-il un tierce élément à considérer?)

Bref.


Notre sensibilité est palpable.

Alors pourquoi nier?  Pourquoi tout enfouir?  Nos déchets et nos échecs, notre incapacité à gérer l'affaire. Les dépotoirs comme l'ombre de nos Lumières. Du matériel inconfortable à gérer, dont on préfère rester inconscient. Un barrage mental - qui a servi sa fonction - prêt à exploser.







''Je ne pense pas que je sois si politisée que ça''.
Mon amie était surprise.
 - ''Toi? Une fille qui étudie et qui va enseigner la science politique... et qui n'est pas politique!...Ah!''
On a bien rit.

Les cégeps existent depuis 46 ans.
Avant, la grande majorité des francophones du Québec
ne poursuivaient pas d'études au-delà du secondaire. Qu'est-ce qu'on a appris ?
Bien sûr que je suis politique.  Comme toi, je vois un système et je suis curieuse de le comprendre. C'est seulement qu'il y a quelques années j'ai aussi compris que mon intellect et mes efforts de logique servent d'abord à apaiser un feeling.  Je ne suis pas la seule.  Il faut en parler.

Tout est politique.

Alors je choisis de vivre en communauté et de chercher à définir le sens du terme, de créer des espaces de croissance et d'émancipation, d'enrichissement et de résilience.


Qu'il est sublime de voir un plant de haricots spiralé son chemin vers la lumière!







Monday, December 3, 2012

Apoca-postmod-idiosyncratisme... et Jean Gebser

Just do it.
Write it down.  It doesn't matter if it makes no sense at first.  Eventually, it will.
Because I feel it in my being.
Visions that come from instincts.  Now I want to use conscious projection, now that I have come to see it clearly: The world is made up of psychic projections.  Call it Maya, or the Veil.  And that's what I mean when I say I want to talk about: the Apocalypse.  (Okay I admit, I don't actually say that often. But in my head I do.)  For,
An apocalypse (Ancient Greekἀποκάλυψις apocálypsis, from ἀπό and καλύπτω meaning 'un-covering'), translated literally from Greek refers to a revelation of something hidden, although this sense did not enter English until the 14th century.[1] In religious contexts it is usually a revelation of hidden meaning - hidden from human knowledge in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception.
Isn't it time we lift the Veil of ignorance, together, so as to acknowledge how we've been going down a path of falsehood and lies, which seems to be leading us towards catastrophic times?  Isn't time we dare to recognize the impact of our behaviors?  Modern man has prided himself on the capacity to use logic and lay out the laws of cause and effect.  Modern man has gone too far in wanting to use these sciences in order to control the world, for his own ends.  Modern man doesn't have control...

But do not despair!  For ''post-modernity'' has been formulating responses!  Tadam!  Thanks to Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, Einstein, Derrida, Heisenberg, etc.  (Some womyn in there ??)

If all that is human is projection, if God is finally dead (thank God!) and humanistic morality has showed itself to be but another unsatisfying panacea against the depth of our existential guilt and anxiety,  if relativism today gets thrown around by social and natural scientists alike... what can postmodernism give us?


I have picked up Jean Gebser's book ''The Ever-Present Origin'' again.  I'd started reading it two or three years ago but had lost momentum (this is one thick and dense piece of philosophical work!); today, the timing feels just right...

Structures of consciousness: archaic, magic, mythical, mental... integral.
I won't get into all of this right now, but my idea was to try and put some of the myriad of concepts and intuitions in ''order''.  (How faithful to the mental's obsession with ''dividing and conquering''!)

So as a point of departure, let's sample a few quotes:
It is of fundamental importance that we clearly distinguish between ''irrational'' and ''arational,'' for this distinction lies at the very heart of our deliberations.  Arationality has nothing to do with irrationality; their only connection exists in the fact that a rationality is not possible without irrationality, or far that matter without the pre-rational or the rational.
Wow.  I was just thinking about this recently!! Well, that's what I was coming closer to express, though my thinking was incomplete.  I was pondering the anti-rationalist stance I seem to have gradually adopted over the last decade.  How can I become a CÉGEP philosophy teacher (I'm about to go back to school and get some teaching tools and credentials) when I can also picture myself writing a Ph.D dissertation on the topic of wildness and the necessity to overcome and transcend rational thinking?!  Would that make me a hypocrite?

Gebser says it so well.  It's time we integrate all structures of consciousness.

Furthermore addressing my conundrum and the fear I have about teaching, he writes:
Two difficulties present themselves in these deliberations with which we must contend.  The first is inherent in the demand of any treatise for a sequential presentation, which is necessarily contrary to the simultaneity of an integral mode.
Believe it or not, this actually speaks to what I was telling my mom, just last week!
''I don't know if I can be a good teacher,'' I was admitting to her, ''because I don't consider myself very eloquent when it comes down to conveying the knowledge I'd like to share.''  She said she thought I'd be a great teacher, on the contrary.  ''I don't know.  I feel disillusioned and borderline resentful towards half the curriculum, and whatever I am passionate about, I have such a hard time verbalizing in a clear, concise, and linear fashion!  I feel like a webpage with dozens of hyperlinks: I want to open them all, enter in every concept, explore all angles and all directions so as to really get the whole picture!''

My mother laughed.  I felt that she understood and it felt good.

No doubt I could keep this blog entry unfold to great lengths.  I mean, I didn't even get to explore my first idea in sitting down to write a blog today!  I wanted to reflect a bit on Gebser, but I also wanted to explore the intuition I've been having, that my addiction to food (it's so intense these days!! Compulsion galore!) could have something to do with the shift we-I are going through.

Making loose parallels between the fast burning, highly concentrated energy which is characteristics of fossil-fuels consumption (along with their long-term consequences), and the energy resources I am fueling my own body with: carbohydrates and simple sugars.  Isn't there a parallel there?

Immediate gratification versus health.  Why can't I stop reaching for breads and sugars, when I am perfectly well aware that it is not good for me?!  I call this an addiction.

The good thing about this is that I get to belong and remain part of the collective.  (Belonging is a vital and primary need.)  Observing my addictive behavior fills me with empathy for all the addictive behaviors everyone is grappling with.
The ecological crisis is a question of addiction.

Oh! There's got to be a thread linking the contents of this entry... the apocalypse, postmodernism, Jean Gebser's genius work, and my idiosyncratic challenges and ways of making sense of them...

The thread?  Consciousness.


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

politics and the phenomenology of paradox

Sitting in my former school, the California Institute for Integral Studies. Soaking in. Reading and meditating on the different objects of my attraction.  On the one hand, mysticism and the taste for a free, unconditioned experience of Life.  On the other hand, visions and fears concerning the condition of matter, humankind, society, and Mother Earth.
I've been reading Mircea Eliade on Yoga.  I've also been seeking those with explicit inclinations towards consciousness studies... taking full advantage of this special Bay Area spirit.  It's clear to me, a region produced by the frontier mentality had to be permeated by idealism.  This place was born out of the necessity and capacity to see further, to open up paths into the unknown, to envision riches and dig for it.  The gold rush is of the past, but furher riches are being unearthed here. 
We've colonized land to the very edge of the new continent, and so came facing the unchartered territories of the mind, aided by the wisdom of Indigenous (behind) and Asian (ahead) cultures... This to me is one of the greatest gifts of San Francisco.

I am re-membering the pieces of my own journey.
I am considering the nature of time, and space.
I miss Montreal and the nation of my ancestors.  And in the material plane I wonder, I feel, that I can contribute something of what I've been learning...

Back in Quebec, the elections have been officially announced by the prime sinister - uh, minister.  Given what has sprung out of the "Printemps Erable", Charest might be right on one point: these could be the most important elections in the history of the province.  Or not.

It's 2012.  How many are able to dare and be visionaries?  How many would agree with my intuition; that we too are of a certain frontier mentality?  We are made up of pioneers (though we were first enslaved to the Catholic Church, and since then, to our fears and victim mentality.), ingeneers (for we had to keep ourselves warm and sufficiently fed) and hard-working families.  We were multicultural from the start, all immigrants on indigenous territory.  We have wide spaces and tons of ressources; water, minerals, wood.  We have circumstances, which point to warmer climates and future population growth.

We have so much potential.  If we acknowledge it.
If we can truthfully consider the power structure and the dynamics that are making up our society.  If we can keep talking amongst neighbours to revitalize the connections we have with one another; if we can let this be a strength that helps us out of fear and stagnation.  If we can imagine what is possible through emancipation and cooperation.

I cannot deny my vocation for political philosophy.  I also cannot deny my understanding that there is an Ultimate reality, beyond the illusion of separation and the fear of ego death.
I wonder how to honor both.
I am sitting at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

etc. Weekend du Monde, etc.

wWe have seen many rainstorms since the solstice.  The weather here is simply fabulous.  The way one feels the air charging up, the clouds forming and moving across the sky, the sun, getting up with the birds to then dance his arc-dance... zenith, burning white sun.  In the evenings winds awake as our light slowly goes to rest.  

This ain't Istanbul,
 but it's not bad either!

I don't know where to start!
I need to write about a thousand things:

- Reflections on the bûto workshop I took last week with Mario Veillette and Lucie Betz, in Québec city.

- The ''Symposium de Land Art de Bellechasse'', which was organized by a woman who's the mother of an old friend (and who gave me a wonderful contract as an event coordinator, this past winter).  She'd caught my interest a few months ago.  I wanted to participate, and I still see it happening in the future.  So, I wanted to check it out.  Photos in a following blog.

A spinning spire, buzzing with breakfasts of all of our guests.  Visitors from the West, across Canada on trains and bikes, crashing at our place for a pair of nights.  7... 9 of them.

Or: today.

Today I was opening up at Touski.  Got up and went.  Had a slow day, but still.  I was tired from so much going on over the past two weeks.  I thought I was going to work a double shift today - that's another story - but then found out I had my evening... so I decided to go see my friend N. perform with a Congolese ensemble (they're from Ottawa) at the Festival ''Les Weekends du Monde''!!
First of all,
I CANNOT BELIEVE THE NUMBERS OF FESTIVALS THAT ARE TAKING PLACE IN THIS CITY !!!

Week-ends du monde provides the entire population with the chance to come and see the riches of 60 different cultures through their music and dance performances and their culinary specialties. The event is free and it runs over two weekends: July 7-8 and July 14-15, 2012.

I biked across the Pont Jacques-Cartier and actually met P. on the bridge.  We got on site just on time for N. performance... except that the schedule had changed ! Easy to kid around and say: ''African time'' (or I could as well say, ''non-European'', that regimented, regulated form of time consciousness we've inherited from monks and later adopted by our dear factory owners...)

Old Montréal.
Mixing History with fine dining.
But I disgress. (It's what I like best!)
I spent on the Saint-Hélène Island - where the Parc Jean-Drapeau- is located.  The sun was hot.  The people... were... so diverse and magnificent!




Very interesting choice..

The highlight of my day was perhaps the Ceremony of Purification that was performed by an elder of the Huron-Wendat nation (who mainly live near Québec city, in Wendake.)

She didn't seem like an expert in public speaking.  Her countenance was ... how to say... extremely laid back and candid.  She said whatever came to her mind, while leading us spectators, through a bit of a closing and cleansing ritual.

She gave her prayer while briefly presenting the elements the First Nations' worldview.  the six directions.  The guides.

''We have to understand,'' she said, ''that whether you pray to a series of saints from your church, or whether these guardians reside in nature,  it's all the same.''


Her prayer addressed our commonalities.
We stood there, spectators,
black, yellow, white, and red...

with only one Mother Earth for us all.  And the Great Creator, the animating Spirit of Life, the One with three.. or ten thousand names!

My favorite moment of all day, was to watch around the circle and witness such different faces, hearing the words of this Native American elder woman.  In prayer.

Flip side.  The spectacle is always with us.  Photo cameras.  For we want to seize the day.


 

 






In the end, I didn't stay for N.'s show.  I biked back right before sunset.  I climbed up the hill only to be told by a girl-police that the bridge was closed.
There's some huge International fireworks festival going on!  See what I mean?  On the same weekend: the Jazz Festival, ''Montréal complétement cirque'', and the other festivals I'm not even aware of!  What!?  These people sure know how to maximize a summer!

I was directed to take Pont Champlain instead.  That meant riding to the opposite side of the Sainte-Hélène island to take the bridge, and landing in the Old Port of Montréal.  What a detour!!

But hey... blessing in disguise.  I saw a completely new face of the city, again!  Sunset on a boardwalks and old narrow streets, ice creams and cold drinks, terrasses.. so many people!

Biked across town and finally got home.  But not before one last happening: a small peaceful protest, a hundred people of so still raising their voice against tuition hikes.. and capitalism.

Booyah.




Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Of minds and men (Mtl, Moscow, Mind)

Création d'espaces créatifs
All things are well in the midst of the Squirrel's Spire.

  Beautiful encounters over the past few das, the past few weeks.  I am trying not to make sense of it all but rather to experience it, with trust.  With breath.  
If the results of this experiment in abundance have been positive so far, I simultaneously feel another strong emotion... The depth of the Unknown, the compulsive fears and reactions, the anxieties of eminent change, of a potentially profound transformation.

Power to the Neighborhoods!
(Oui!)
As the Second Quiet revolution is starting to take place, we, the people, and I, actually, are starting to wonder... what's the point again?
''Le tintamarre des Casseroles'' is still happening, every night, though in reduced numbers now.  It has been going on since May 18th.  That's almost one month!  Every night, some... citizens get out and start following sidewalks and banging on their pots and pans.  Neighborhoods concentrate and relate, in this demonstration against the undemocratic absurdity of Loi 78.  Oh yeah, that's why!

But people also go to work everyday.  They also eat and so they cook or buy food.  They go for a drink or two, they see their friends.  We want the revolution AND life as usual.  We want to eat well and to be surrounded by people we love.  And why not?  You can't be on the battlefront at all times; because then, what are you fighting for?
Is the movement losing its breath?  I don't know, 'cuz I haven't been to the protests!

I am fighting for the Beauty and the interconnection in All things.  I am fighting for the Mystery of Life.
But sometimes I find it hard to sustain the fight.


Thoughts?  If the human species disappeared, it would take no more than a hundred years for planet Gaïa to rejuvenate Herself.
We are not indispensable.

 By now, we have to acknowledge that, since our arrival, we have been the most destructive species on Earth.  We need to acknowledge this reality, our reality, if we want to move forward.

And so once more it seems it comes down to some primary Guilt.  Damn guilt.
When you mama gave birth to you, it was the most painful and mystical experience... and yet.
 It's just how it is.

(Plus we now have epidurals anyway.  Not that I'm against it, just that we have adapted to make birth less painful and less dangerous.  Less mothers die I suppose.  That's a good thing!  But we get born in these conditions now, shielded and numbed from the pain of birth, and so we carry this on later in life, using more drugs, which I am not saying I am against either... given that it's all interconnected, and that the Earth also gives us these plants...)
(I could go on and one with musings on sacred medicine, but that'll have to be for another time.)




In short, all in all, consciousness is quite a phenomenon...

What are they trying to sell to us?


Une affiche, un manifeste non-signée. (Centre-Sud.)
 Of course I am trying to make sense of what's going on.  Why wouldn't I?  Why wouldn't a tree drink from its roots and tend toward the Sun?


 I don't need a lot of money.  What would be nice, however, is a good camera...





P.S. Remember !  The whole world is going through its revolutions.  One hundred thousand people gathered yesterday in Moscow, to overtly protest Putin's government and ask for new elections.  

Since embarking on his third presidential term, Putin has taken a stern stance toward the opposition, including signing a repressive new bill last week introducing heavy penalties for taking part in unauthorized rallies

Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Tens+thousands+flock+anti+Putin+protest+Moscow/6768552/story.html#ixzz1xbCWp9cE
Yep.  It's happening in Russia right now.  Same thing!



A famous photo from Germany.  Cops suddenly take off their helmets and escort the anti-capitalist protests taking place in Frankfurt...  May 19, 2012.   (That was about two weeks ago.)



And in Poland, also yesterday!  :D  This is in parliament.

Monday, May 21, 2012

From Spring to Summer... the Movement keeps on...

Helicopters are filming everything.  In the streets, violent clashes are taking place.. at this very moment.
The government of Québec just passed a ''special law'' making popular assemblies illegal.  Bad move: now it's explicit: you are fascists.
It's a strong word, but it's a reality: the government is desperately trying to repress the revolution.  Riot squads are out, day after day.
It's been 98 days.

The temperature has been particularly hot here in Montreal, and it got me thinking...

We are entering Summer season.  This means that Spring is ending, and what does that mean for the movement?  We've been calling it the Québec Spring, but now a new season is at our door...  What will it look like?  How long can the students persist?

They have been made to look like their are alone with their cause.  Everyday we talk about the situation, and everyday I raise the same point: for change to occur, there needs to be more sectors of society that join the movement.  Students don't have much power... they are just a bunch of idealists.  They're not part of the machine yet, so they can't actually stop it.  They can make a lot of noise, but it's easy for the common people to overlook what they are trying to say.

Who can say that this crisis does not concern them?  Who can say that education isn't the concern of everyone?  Who can say that they wish for education to become accessible only to those who 1) can afford it, or 2) play the game and get into debt?  Who can say that this isn't going to increase the gap between the rich and the 99%?

Now, some may say that they understand all of this, and they still choose to denounce the student movement.  Those people do not value socialism.  They have opted for the race... to the mountain top; they may believe it's a matter of ''survival of the fittest.''
They haven't understood the concept.

The fittest are those who know how to work together, how to share, how to communicate.  The fittest are those who understand that we are all interconnected.

I don't understand how the movement can be so isolated still.  Their are plenty of supporters: teachers, parents, professors, workers, thinkers, artists, doctors even... They are out there, marching every night.  They march in peace, by the thousands, and not a single newspaper is talking about that.  The media focus on the violence...

It must be the movement's ''fault'', in part.  How come they didn't try to get more unions to show support?  Now is the new season.  This Summer, every one who believes in a more equal and loving society must get up from in front of the tv screen and get out to see what is happening.

Historically, revolutions happen when the discomfort becomes too great; when too many mothers become unable to feed their families.  Then, they take to the streets.  It is true, many of us are quite comfortable and well-fed in today's Québec.  (Though many struggle, too.)
History is a spiral, however.  There seems to be a pattern unfolding... a mix of repetition and linearity.  And to me, something very special has the potential to take place.

Sure, we have made it this far.  Sure, we take long hot showers and we eat fancy foods.  We have worked hard to acquire all of this, we deserve it, and we shouldn't complain with our mouths full.  We shouldn't make a fool of ourselves by raising up our hopes, or ideals, our utopias...

Or should we?
Québec is a relatively comfortable nation.  It is a nation, yes.  We are proud of our unique identity, even though we are still working at defining it.  But the world is One now, more than ever.  My generation barely remembers a time before the internet.  We can choose to travel or work abroad, we are fully aware of the global village and of the issues other nations struggle with.  We are well aware, also, that we are all in it together.
This is why we march in the street.
This is why we want to bring about a revolution.   From our place of privilege, we want to create an even better world for our children to grow up in and take care of.  We want the integrity and equality of all human beings to be recognized.  We want to organize in ways that can reflect and sustain that.

If you are reading this from another country, please tell me, have you heard about the Student Protests?  Do you know about the DAILY confrontations between the police and the people?  Do you understand what I'm talking about?

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

the concept of Economy

A sweet Tuesday en la casa.... doing nothing.  Doing nothing?  No.  I'm writing.

Yesterday, Yves-Marie Abraham - associate professor at the prestigious HEC and one of the main organizers of the De-Growth Conference - did a presentation about the concept of ''the Economy.''
''What,'' he asked, ''is the definition of the economy? "
He didn't mention the etymology of the term: oiko-nomia = management of the house, but he instead gave us the definitions of those who play at the top of the field.  And it turns out that the modern concept of ''economy'' is inextricately tied to the notion of ''rarity''.  He didn't use the word scarcity, but the idea is the same.  Economy has do to with the managing, that is the production and distribution, of our rare resources.
 (I didn't write the definition verbatim, because I was busy doing some half-assed whisper translation for my anglo neighbors.)
Abraham went out to ask, ''Is the concept of economy then fundamental to all of humanity?''   What he found out, is that a brief research through anthropological lenses and research (what he called ''the anthropological detour) shows that many societies of hunter-gatherers do NOT live with this notion at all.  Even though they do not accumulate as much as we do (my addition), they do not know ''rarity'' (perhaps they know scarcity, however, and perhaps this is where the difference lies between those two words!), simply because they don't seek to satisfy a increasing number of their needs.
They are a-economical.

And this uproots our conception of human nature as homo economicus, doesn't it?

We can envision another mode of social patterning.  We could reconsider individual value as coming from other realms than ''professional'' or ''marketable'' value.  We can come out of our isolation and wake up to each other, and the ties that have been there all along: you are not alone.  And once you see and know that, you don't have as much of a need to go out and buy things.
It's become a cliché already and it doesn't seem to affect people anymore, but it is so true:  capitalism sleeps in the same bed with the advertisement industry (which has benefited so much from modern psychology uncovering our fundamental fears and insecurities) by creating more insecurities and fears, more needs...

Seeing this side of reality makes me sick to my stomach.  Because I participate in it everyday.

How can we change an entire system then?

By creating another one at the periphery.

In a post-economical world, we won't be working 40hours/week.  We'll work much less in fact, and we'll spend more time together.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Political ecology: we're relating


I had diner with about 14 roommates tonight. It was the Shire family from downstairs, and us all squirrels from the spire; a last supper before many leave us for the summer, to plant trees in British Columbia, to go back home to Barbados, or to move forward to new adventures as new parents! Next week, things will be so different.

We can all feel it. Something is changing. ''What's next?'', we ask.
The conversation some of us are having is the whole point.
Citizens engaging in endless debates, exposing their opinions, and thus exploring and exposing their values. Citizens finally having a conversation, so at least, there is finally some kind of communication happening. We are mobilizing, organizing, and talking about our pains and our visions.
Not everyone, but many are starting to consider the puppeteers casting shadows on the cave wall, we are naming it: the illusions propagated by the media. The veil.


Apocalypse:
Emprunté au latin apocalypsis (« révélation »), lui même emprunté au grec ancien ἀποκάλυψιςapokálupsis (« découvert »), et non pas « révélation de Dieu » comme cela est communément admis. Provenant du verbe grec καλύπτωkalúptô (« cacher »), précédé du préfixe de privation ἀπό ápó. Littéralement donc « dé-caché », et donc par extrapolation, « dévoilé au yeux », « retrait du voile », « le voile est levé ». Ce n’est que bien plus tard que les écritures religieuses assimileront le mot pour l'associer au jugement dernier et donc à la découverte de la vérité de Dieu.

In Le Devoir online, a reader started a debate about strikers being constituted of a great majority of students of what she called the ''soft sciences'', i.e. human, social, literary sciences. Oh my friend, you should have read what other people responded! (You can click on the link above). This sort of debate is happening anonymously, which creates a certain distance, but I find it wonderful, that citizens be sharing their point of view.




Someone recently told me: ''We shouln't talk about politics when we're in family.''

Well, I think we should. It's hard to come face to face with disagreements. Discussions get heated. It's easier to shy away from conflict and mute the tensions that exist. It's also dangerous, as a collective, to deny the issues that concern us all.
We should gather around, people of Montreal. What we have is something so special: French, English, and a dozen more ''nationalities''.. we should open up that discussion about what ''nationality'' means, to acknowledge the inescability of ''politics'', and to generate thoughts and actions that will contribute to a better tomorrow.


We should share in the excitement of not knowing what tomorrow is going to look like, and share in the fears that come up for us too. We should see the web we have been waving, and use it for Good.
(So far, in my book, Good = sustainable.)


--------

I can't believe that I'm living in this city, at this time. i can't believe that I do live in the co-op I have been talking about for years! Yes it's hectic and it's sometimes crowded, but so is the world out there. We are social researchers, organizational revolutionaries, even though we're still so much working at what it all means.

Yes I live with ''a bunch of students'', and somehow I sometimes struggle with that thought. As if it was a pejorative classification. As if it was "better'' to have already found your place (read: a career) in society. But tonight as we were talking about politics and ecology, I smiled to myself and realized that it is a privilege and a huge responsibility, to be studying this society and this world we are about to ''enter'' and take part in.


students digging for books!


In other words: this is the way we take part in it. This is our way of showing maturity. We are rebelling, taking to the streets, as an existential response and a duty, as citizens of tomorrow.
Are we complaining with our mouths full? Sure. (Is it better to complain after you've gone hungry?) Our mouths are full of genetically modified food, soaked in pesticides and chemicals meant to kill other creatures. Our mouths are full of foods that are being produced by underpaid farmers and sent halfway across the world, in gas guzzling trucks, on highways that are built on the lands of indigenous people. 

We want to do politics with what we're learning through ecology. Everything is interrelated.
Seems to be the new cosmology. It would seem that humans have always organized according to the myths that underlie their understanding of the universe.