Monday, December 17, 2012

A Transfiguration



For most of us most of the time, the world of everyday experience seems rather dim & drab. But for a few people often, and for a fair number occasioonally, some of the brightness of visionary experience spills over, as it were, into common seeing, & the everyday universe is transfigured...

Here is an entirely characteristic description of the transfiguration of the everyday world:

"I was sitting on the seashore, half listening to a friend arguing violently about something which merely bored me. Unconsciously to myself, I looked at a film of sand I had picked up on my hand, when I suddenly saw the exquisite beauty of every little grain of it; instead of being dull, I saw that each particle was made up on a perfect geometrical pattern, with sharp angles, from each of which a brilliant shaft of light was reflected, while each tiny crystal shone like a rainbow.. The rays crossed and recrossed, making exquisite patterns of such beauty that they left me breathless... Then, suddenly, my consciousness was lighted up from within and I saw in a vivid way how the whole universe was made up of particles of material which, no matter how dull and lifeless they might seem, were nevertheless filled with this intense and vital beauty. For a second or two the whole world appeared as a blaze of glory. When it died down, it left me with something I have never forgotten and which constantly reminds me of the beauty locked up in every minute speck of material around us."

Similarly George Russell writes of seeing the world illumined by "an intolerable lustre of light"; of finding himslef lookin at "landscapes as lovely as a lost Eden"; of beholding worlds where the "colors were brighter and purer, and yet made a softer harmony." Again, "the winds were sparkling and diamond clear, and yet full of color as an opal, as they glittered through the valley, and I knew the Golden Age was all about me, and it was we who had been blind to it, but that it had never passed away from the world."

Heaven & Hell
Aldous Huxley

Pablo Picasso painting with light.
via butdoesitfloat

This is what I wish to whomever; that amidst the impossibility of sight, may we always find what has always been.

HAPPY 12, HAPPY 13, HAPPY ETC.


Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Words: Freedom & Captivity

Every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the linguistic tradition into which he has been born - the beneficiary inasmuch as language gives access to the accumulated records of other people´s experience, the victim in so far as it confirms him in the belief that reduced awareness is the only awareness and as it bedevils his sense of reality, so that he is all too apt to take his concepts as data, his words for actual things. That which, in the language of religion, is called "this world" is the universe of reduced awareness, expressed, and, as it were, petrified by language.

The Doors of Perception
Aldous Huxley



Image




Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Mating Dance



I find this so refreshing and my interior animal, does in fact, feel like mating.

Flako via Soundcloud

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

029 / Light Through The Veins


Jon Hopkins did a LOG for noiselab.tv during his visit to Mexico during MUTEK.

Cannot and will not turn it off.





click on LOG FOR FULL LISTEN

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Goodbye

Lo que nos junta no soy yo, es lo que ES.
What brings us together is not me, it is what IS.


C. Pre-Adolescence

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Thrown



Doing some homework for MUTEK.MX interviews I found this on the Erased Tapes Soundcloud. Right amount of old and new and surprise.

FB.

Monday, September 17, 2012

F R E E D O M

As promised, Part I. (of III.) of the Mutek MX short film series. Just in time for October. Save the first week because the line-up is probs one of my Mutek favorites. In the meantime enjoy the abstract aesthetics and the vaporizing eye of Brutal Inc. Films as it captures what the festival is, how it moves the city, and the way Mexico is perceiving electronic music.




I´ll be doing the interviews again for the upcoming dates, I´ll keep you posted.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

D E S P I E R T A · M E X I C O





Mensaje de Consejero Ciudadano del IFE Nuevo León

Monterrey, Nuevo León a 4 de julio de 2012

Mi nombre es Carlos Gabriel Quiroz Sánchez. Soy consejero electoral ciudadano del Distrito 6 del Instituto Federal Electoral en Nuevo León.

Decido tomar la palabra para externar mi inquietud sobre las acusaciones de fraude electoral en la elección de Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos que han sido denunciadas públicamente en nuestra entidad federativa y en la república. Pienso hacer llegar este texto a los distintos niveles del Instituto Federal Electoral y hacerlo público.

Hablo en mi calidad de consejero electoral, puesto que supone que como ciudadano a su vez sirvo a los ciudadanos que desearían vigilar y expresarse sobre el proceso electoral, pero que por cuestiones de tiempo por responsabilidades laborales, familiares, estudiantiles, de salud o alguna otra índole no lo pueden hacer. O que por simple lógica de números sería inefectivo tener a cientos, miles o millones de ciudadanos con los derechos que tiene un consejero. Por lo tanto los consejeros deberíamos ser el micrófono, los ojos y los oídos de los ciudadanos.

Así que haré el mejor esfuerzo por reproducir la información y las opiniones que están comunicando un número altamente significativo de ciudadanos por medios sociales, protestas, marchas, declaraciones ante medios de comunicación, publicaciones y directamente a mí. Me disculpo y hago la observación que por falta de tiempo no he podido documentar todo esto de forma metodológica.

Las acusaciones por sí solas no son pruebas de delitos o fallas del sistema. Pero la percepción que se ha generado sobre el IFE y del proceso electoral amerita atención y acción decisiva de las instituciones electorales. Sin importar si sea poca o mucha la validez de las acusaciones, su volumen y la gravedad son en sí mismas una crisis política que cuestiona la legitimidad de nuestro sistema político entero.

Me permitiré repetir este punto. Está en cuestionamiento la legitimidad de nuestro sistema político entero. Esa es causa suficiente para iniciar una evaluación completa y urgente de la efectividad e integridad de nuestro sistema electoral.

En otras palabras, tenemos que responder concienzudamente “¿Está nuestro sistema electoral cumpliendo con su misión de organizar y dar validez a la elección de representantes elegidos democráticamente?”.

Y de no ser así, ¿entonces qué ES lo que está haciendo?

De cierta forma los ciudadanos deberían ser los clientes para los que trabaje el sistema electoral y los que deberían quedar satisfechos. Si no está sirviendo a los ciudadanos, ¿a quién le está sirviendo? ¿A quién está dejando satisfecho?

Repasemos las señales de alerta y descontento.

1. Compra de votos. Abundan reportes por observadores electorales y ciudadanos sobre la compra de votos en domicilios particulares, instalaciones de partidos y afuera o cerca de casillas. No son reportes esporádicos sino por todo el país. Circula un video titulado “Señoras Priistas Enojadas por No Recibir Pago por Parte del PRI en Azcapotzalco” en la Delegación Azcapotzalco en el Distrito Federal. Reportes alrededor del país de pagos de 500, 750, 1000, 1200, 1500 y 4mil pesos.

2. Regalos por votos. Reportes de regalos de todo tipo. Resaltan las tarjetas de distintos tipos, incluyendo las tarjetas de Soriana regaladas por el Partido Revolucionario Institucional que detonaron compras de pánico por rumor de su cancelación. De la página Sin embargo.mx leí del caso de la tienda Soriana en la colina Juan Escutia en el Distrito Federal en el que cientos de personas intentaron pagar mercancía con estas tarjetas en las cuales supuestamente iban a tener un saldo de mil 500 o mil pesos, pero al revisar el saldo no tenían esa cantidad. También recibí un reporte de regalo de celulares.

3. Accarreo. Numerosos reportes, incluyendo el de Alianza Cívica de los resultados de su observación electoral a nivel nacional publicado el 3 de Julio en el que indican “los reportes señalan que hubo acarreo en el 14% de las casillas observadas en todos los estados.” Los estados que observaron fueron Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Distrito Federal, México, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Veracruz y Yucatán.

4. Coerción del voto. Reportes de coerción del voto por medio de intimidación, amenazas de consecuencias laborales o amenazas de violencia física afuera de las casillas. Un reporte de hombres armados con palos afuera de una casilla, donde se amenazaba a electores que si no votaban por cierto partido ya sabían lo que les sucedería.

5. Violación del voto secreto. Situaciones en las que se le cuestionaba a los electores por quién iban a votar o por quién votaron. Llamo a la atención lo que se incluye en el mismo reporte de Alianza Cívica mencionado anteriormente en el que reportan que 21% de las casillas observadas se reportó que los ciudadanos no pudieron votar en secreto y del que cito: “observamos que la principal irregularidad fue la utilización de niños acompañando a votar a diferentes ciudadanos, en diferentes ocasiones –los llamados halconcitos- en el Estado de México, Chihuahua, Sinaloa y Jalisco. Había personas con listas de votantes, que iban palomeando (diferentes a la lista nominal de electores); o bien había personas hablando en la fila o antes de que llegaran con los ciudadanos, haciendo alguna forma de presión.” El mismo reporte indica “La presión fue a favor del PRI-PVEM en un 71%, 17% a favor del PAN, 9% a favor del PRD, y 3% a favor del Panal.”

6. Gasto en las campañas. La percepción de un gasto excesivo y hasta ilegal de campañas, junto con la impresión de que el Instituto Federal Electoral no actuó asertivamente para investigar ni frenarlo. Muchos ciudadanos también tienen la percepción de que muchas campañas reciben financiamiento de dinero del narcotráfico. La creencia generalizada del desvió de recursos públicos.

7. Favoritismo y manipulación de la información en medios. Acusaciones de que los medios de comunicación, particularmente en televisión y periódicos, favorecieron a la campaña de Enrique Peña Nieto de la coalición Compromiso por México.

8. Manipulación de las encuestas / las encuestas como propaganda. Descontento desde semanas antes de la jornada electoral en la que los ciudadanos percibían que encuestas populares, como por ejemplo la promovida por el grupo Milenio y Consulta Mitofsky estaban erradas o simplemente eran deshonestas.

9. Violencia electoral. Agresiones contra protestantes durante las campañas, agresiones contra observadores electorales y asesinatos, incluyendo el asesinato de Tomás Betancur Gaytán, coordinador del Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (MORENA) en el municipio de Juárez aquí en Nuevo León.

10. Robo de urnas. Incidentes en distintos estados de robo por la fuerza de urnas durante el transcurso de la jornada electoral. Como fue el caso en la sección 1513 de este mismo distrito.

11. Pago a representantes de casilla. Reportes de una alta inversión en contratar a representantes de casilla y representantes generales para tener representantes en casi todas las casillas del país.

12. Pasividad del Instituto Federal Electoral y la FEPADE. Sentimiento de que el IFE no tiene la iniciativa de poner la lupa ni de hacer valer la ley. De evasión de confrontamiento con los partidos o de complicidad. De que la Fiscalía Especializada no tiene el interés en detectar ni investigar delitos electorales.

13. Boletas que sobraron y duplicación de folios. Desconfianza sobre las boletas que sobraron enviadas a los distritos para armar los paquetes electorales. Detección de folios duplicados.

14. Paquetes electorales en manos de simpatizantes de partidos políticos. Videos, fotos y testimonios de paquetes electorales en las manos de miembros o simpatizantes de partidos políticos.

15. Lápices especiales para votar. Desconfianza de los lápices por su posible facilidad de ser borrados. Desconfianza de que simplemente sea un lápiz.

16. El Programa de Resultados Electorales Preliminares (PREP). Desconfianza del PREP y sospecha de manipulación de los datos presentados como lo son las diferencias entre las actas, las mantas de resultados y los datos en el PREP. Críticas de casillas donde se muestran porcentajes de participación ciudadana arriba del 100% y a veces hasta el 300% por ciento o más. Lo que debiera ser un instrumento para generar confianza de los resultados es ahora una enorme fuente de incertidumbre.

17. Coordinación del mensaje del consejero presidente Leonardo Valdés Zurita con el mensaje de felicitación del Presidente Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. Sospecha y descontento sobre el mensaje de los resultados del conteo rápido seguido de la felicitación del Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos al candidato Enrique Peña Nieto. Considerada una implícita declaración de victoria de las elecciones, cuando esto le corresponde al Tribunal Electoral. Sospechas de negociación entre el Presidente de México o el Partido Acción Nacional y el Partido Revolucionario Institucional.

De ser ciertas suficientes de estas acusaciones, las implicaciones son que el Instituto Federal Electoral es un sistema de lavado de votos. En la cual lo que entra al sistema, dígase votos comprados, manipulación de la percepción pública, coerción, acarreo, etc. es maquillado con un proceso intermedio validado por el trabajo de los funcionarios de casillas y los consejos distritales y locales para darle legitimidad y brillo.

Esto convertiría a los funcionarios de casilla y a todos los ciudadanos que laboran en buena fe en el IFE tanto en víctimas como facilitadores de un gran engaño en el cual el ciudadano inconscientemente ayuda a servidores públicos corruptos para llegar a puestos de poder. En otras palabras, entonces estaríamos organizando una simulación de la democracia para tener un pase directo a nuestros bolsillos con nuestros impuestos, cuando seríamos nosotros mismos quienes les pavimentemos el camino para que abusen más de nosotros. En el que se usan nuestros impuestos para llegar a puestos para quedarse con aún más de nuestros impuestos.

Que sería entonces un fraude aún mayor, ya que ser funcionario de casilla es una obligación cívica y sin remuneración, fuera del pequeño apoyo que reciben para alimentos durante la jornada electoral.

Lo cual sería increíblemente triste. Ya que como mis labores como observador electoral en el proceso del 2009 tuve la oportunidad de conocer a muchos funcionarios felices de su participación a pesar del calor en Nuevo León. Y porque los últimos meses he podido conocer a capacitadores, supervisores, técnicos, asistentes y vocales que creen en la democracia, creen en los ciudadanos y dedican horas bajo el sol, horas en la calle yendo de casa en casa, comprando comida para los funcionarios, desvelándose, despertándose temprano, teniendo problemas en su casa por el tiempo que le dedican a su trabajo, descuidando a sus familias y en muchas ocasiones descuidando su propia salud.

El costo también se paga de otra forma personal. Quienes laboran en el IFE o tienen algún vínculo con el instituto desde antes de estas elecciones ya recibíamos comentarios de otras personas de que el IFE es corrupto, a veces incluso preguntándonos si nosotros también lo somos. La imagen del IFE es tan mala, que personalmente le empecé a pensar dos veces los últimos meses antes de contarles a otras personas que yo era consejero electoral, cansado de recibir ese tipo de comentarios descalificativos. Lo que debiera ser razón de orgullo, es cada vez más razón de vergüenza.

Pero si gran parte de estas acusaciones están equivocadas, entonces las instituciones electorales deben hacer un mejor trabajo en comunicar por qué y cómo funciona lo que se está haciendo. Explicar y demostrar por ejemplo cómo es que el PREP y el conteo rápido son de confiar a pesar los errores que se detecten. Lo que se esté haciendo bien no es suficiente que algunos lo sepan, hay que demostrarlo.

La suma de todo esto es que percibo dos realidades probables. O alguien conspiró para hacerle algo terrible a México o el país está viviendo un estado de histeria colectiva en la que alucina que sucedió un fraude electoral masivo. Lo cual debe darle suficiente trabajo tanto del IFE, ciudadanos y psicólogos para descubrir a cuál grado cada uno es cierto.

Si la realidad es que hubo una conspiración para engañar a los ciudadanos, repito, habrá que tomar las acciones correspondientes.

Personalmente me molesto y me disculpo. Como consejero electoral debí haber sido más proactivo, debí pasar más tiempo en campo, debí buscar incidentes.

La humildad no es un pecado. La humildad nos puede causar vergüenza pero al saber que algo se hizo mal por accidente u omisión tenemos la oportunidad de cambiar aunque nos duela, aunque tengamos que confesar que no somos las personas que pensamos que éramos. Porque es la única forma en la que nos convertiremos en las personas que queremos ser. Y en la institución que queremos ser. Y en el país que queremos ser.

Llamo a que cualquier ciudadano que sepa algo, que tenga cualquier pedazo de la verdad en sus manos o en la punta de la lengua, que lo haga público. Llamo a que cualquier miembro del Servicio Profesional del IFE, consejeros, supervisores, capacitadores o cualquier empleado dentro del instituto que haya detectado irregularidades internas las denuncie públicamente. Les suplico. También les ruego que hagan todo lo que tengan en sus manos por iniciar un proceso sincero de evaluación del instituto para que no se repita lo que está sucediendo.

Le solicito a los partidos políticos y a nuestros legisladores electos que hagan todo lo posible por implementar reformas en las instituciones y la ley electoral. También les suplico que si están enterados de delitos electorales que sucedieron dentro de sus propios partidos que lo denuncien en público y hagan todo lo posible por transformar sus propios partidos. Quiero creer que ninguna persona que desea que exista la justicia permitiría a sí misma ser cómplice de un partido que comete delitos electorales. Que lo reportaría o denunciaría. O que renunciaría a su partido por incompatibilidad de valores.

No esperen el permiso para hacer lo correcto. Dense el permiso ustedes mismos.

Agradezco su tiempo y atención.

Carlos Gabriel Quiroz Sánchez

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

We are a Visionary Bloom in the Void





As you don´t clearly & continuously realize that it is all a hallucination made out of mindstuff, ignorant wrinkles on the surface of it, you go on being a victim of this first defilement of Individuation, of ´making-out´seeing & perceiving which is the basis of ignorance.

As I look at your body, I realize it is just a visionary bloom in the void, it has no hold on Reality. Where do the elements come from, that give your body its bodiness, and how do they sojourn here?... They come from everywhere; this is a Sea of Mystery.

Jack Kerouac





Wednesday, June 13, 2012

We Are Spectators

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked through understanding; and to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.

And is there aught you would withhold?

All you have shall someday be given; therefore give now that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors´.

You often say, "I would give but only to the deserving." The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withold is to perish.

Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and nights is worthy of all else from you. And who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.

And what desert greater shall there be, than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?

And who are you that men should render their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life- while you, who deem yourself a giver are but a witness.


The Prophet, Khalil Gibran

InDia



This place is everything your mind was oblivious of, a place your dreams wished not to dream. It is lonely and dusty, noisy. Never had my ears heard such noise. Though apparently abandoned there are no empty spaces, there is room for nothing, belief upon belief spring up in this arid well, making the well juiceless. So many voices wanting to be heard yet detoured in human-ness. India has aproximately 330 million deities. Earth turned so many times, all that remains is earth, dust, sand. The blossom is rare. Maybe this is the reason so many pilgrims find truth, life is easy to recognize in the midst of a lack of water, in a desert.

Further than this fact is even if we thought we were out of water the real source is and always has been inexhaustible no matter how dry we´ve left the well.



Saturday, May 26, 2012

· Beauty is Eternity gazing at itself in the Mirror ·


But you are eternity & you are the mirror.-


The Prophet
by Khalil Gibran


photo · beijing-based japanese architect yohimasa tsutsumi/anzas dance studio

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Knowledge, Ephemerally Infinite


HOW THE WORLD WORKS HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE SAME, THE ONLY THING THAT CHANGES IS OUR UNDERSTANDING OF IT.

EXPLORATION & DISCOVERY IS INHERENT IN HUMAN NATURE. WE WALK AS EXPLORERS, AS CONCILIATORS. WE MOVE TO UNCOVER THE INFINITE, FOR INFINITE ARE THE SECRETS OF OUR UNIVERSE, AND THEREFORE OUR NATURE CONTAINED IN THE UNIVERSE IS ALSO.

EVERY HUMAN LONGING, AT A "LARGE", "MEDIUM", "SMALL" SCALE IS SYNCHRONIC WITH THE OTHER, WE LONG FOR EVERYTHING. TO KNOW WHAT WE DO NOT AND CANNOT UNDERSTAND, TO GET THERE FASTER, ERASING OURSELVES INTO THIS ILLUSORY OBLIVION, TRYING TO FIND MEANING IN SOMETHING SO HUGE IT LOOSES ALL MEANING, STAYING THERE AND BASKING IN THE DARKNESS OF WHAT WE CANNOT UNDERSTAND OR THE LIGHT OF WHAT WE FOUGHT TO UNDERSTAND. NEITHER IS BETTER NOR WORSE, THEY ARE, THEY ARE THE STEPPING STONES TOWARDS THE LITTLE OR LOT OF TRUTH WE DECIDE TO LET OUR BODIES BE FLOODED BY.

PATIENCE, FOR WHO COULD DEFINE WHY A PEACH TASTES LIKE A PEACH AND A PEAR A PEAR? AND HOW YOUR MOUTH AND MINE EVOKE STORIES ONLY YOUR MIND COULD TELL.

SO IF YOU PRAY FOR SOMETHING ASK FOR DISCERNMENT AND UNDERSTANDING. LISTEN LIKE A ROCK UNAFFECTED BY FALSE JUDGEMENTS. TOMORROW YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE SAME THING COULD BE TOTALLY DIFFERENT. YOUR ONCE HELPFUL KNOWLEDGE MIGHT LEAVE YOU IGNORANT.

THE ONLY UNCHANGEABLE, UN-SHIFTABLE NOTION IS LOVE...

AND LOVE, FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW, IS EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING THAT UNITES IN THE FACE OF SEPARATION.

AND THOSE WHO CLAIM THAT IT IS A MYTH, THEY HAVE LOST FAITH, THEY LET GO TOO FAST, THEY WERE BLINDED BY MOMENTARY PAIN, THE LOVE THEY THOUGHT WASN´T LOVE AT ALL, IT CAME FROM THE BODY AND THE BODY ALONE WITHERS AWAY, FOR TRUE LOVE IS TIMELESS.


Monday, April 30, 2012

WAKE UP!

An excerpt of Jack Kerouac´s Wake Up! A Life of the Buddha //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// By nightfall he (the Buddha) resposed (under the Bodhi tree) peaceful and quiet. He entered into deep and subtle contemplation. Every kind of holy ecstasy in order passed before his eyes. During the first watch of the night he entered on "right perception" and in recollection all former births passed before his eyes... Knowing full well that the essence of existence is of onesuchness, what birth could not his Bright, Mysterious, Intuitive Essence of Mind recall? As though he had been all things, and only because there had never been a true "he" but all things, and so all things were the same thing, and it was within the purview of the Universal Mind, which was the Only Mind past, present, and future... It had been a long time already finished, the ancient dream of life, the tears of the many-mothered sadness, the myriads of fathers in the dust, eternities of lost afternoons of sisters and brothers, the sleepy cock crow, the insect cave, the pitiful instinct all wasted on emptiness, the great huge drowsy Golden Age sensation that opened in his brain that this knowledge was older than the world... In the ears of the Buddha as he thus sat in brilliant and sparkling craft of intuition, so that light like Transcendental Milk dazzled in the invisible dimness of his closed eyelids, was heard the unvarying pure hush of the sighing sea of hearing, seething, receding, as he more or less recalled the consciousness of the sound, though in itself it was always the same steady sound, only his consciousness of it varied and receded, like low tide flats and the salty water sizzling and sinking in the sand, the sound neither outside nor within the ear but everywhere, the pure sea of hearing, the sound of Nirvana heard by children in cribs and on the moon and in the heart of howling storms, and in which the young Buddha now heard a teaching going on, a ceaseless instruction wise and clear from all the Buddhas of Old that had come before him and all the Buddhas a-coming. Beneath the distant cricket howl occasional noises like the involuntary peep of sleeping dream birds, or scutters of little fieldmice, or a vast breeze in the trees disturbed the peace of this Hearing but the noises were merely accidental, the Hearing received all noises and accidents in its sea but remained as ever undisturbed, truly unpenetrated, and neither replenished nor diminished, as self-pure as empty space. Then in the middle of the night, he reached to knowledge of the pure Angels, and beheld before him every creature, as one sees images upon a mirror; all creatures born and born again to die, noble and mean, the poor and rich, reaping the fruit of right or evil doing, and sharing happiness or misery in consequence... The groundmist of 3 A.M. rose with all the dolors of the world. Birth of bodies is the direct cause of death of bodies. Just as, implantation of its seed was the cause of the cast off rose. Then looking further, Where does death come from? he saw it came from life-deeds done elsewhere; then scannning those deeds, he saw they were not framed by a creator, nor self caused, nor personal existences nor were they either uncaused; he saw they themselves obtained along a further chain of causes, cause upon cause, concatenative links joining the fetters binding all that is form- poor form, mere dust and pain. Then, as one who breaks the first bamboo joint finds all the rest easy to separate, having discerned the cause of death as birth, and the cause of birth as deeds, he gradually came to see the truth; death comes from birth, birth comes from deeds, deeds come from attachment, attachment comes from desire, desire from perception, perception comes from sensation, sensation comes from the six sense organs, the six sense organs come from individuality, individuality comes from consciousness.... In him, thus freed, arose freedom and he knew that rebirth was at an end, and that the goal had been reached...

Thursday, April 26, 2012

"Christianity in Crisis"

I don´t actually agree with what Jefferson did to the Bible, but Andrew Sullivan gives an insightful perspective on the current "crisis" of the church and on Jesus´ true nature. I scrolled down to view some of the comments to find people who didn´t find the title too objective, which left me with the sensation of wanting to answer (this person reminded me of someone I know really well)... This crisis is a physical one not a spiritual one, if anything, there is a current spiritual revival. If your faith has deep roots in God/Jesus, the crisis is nonexistent, if this faith is in doubt most likely it is rooted in something other than God, i.e Man. People who feel outraged with such a piece cannot really see what´s unveiling right in front of our eyes, and it´s something I wrote on a couple of posts back... This conscious or unconscious weakness inherent in humanity, those who uphold false truths and those who out of ignorance subscribe to them. The church, a clear example. Even if I intuit an eventual downfall, there is nothing to be afraid of people, didn´t you ever read somewhere you were your own temple (not to be confused with you are your own god, which is sadly how many people might interpret it)..., that you didn´t have to go far to find God, for He being the Creator and breathing life into creation lives in intrinsic communion with everything that is LIVING. So before any hardcore believers panic, I hope you find peace in knowing God cannot be eradicated, the Church is simply a human-made place to find shelter, a building that´ll eventually crumble, everything physical eventually passes, and that´s fine- it´s part of a natural order, the only thing Eternal is the Spirit. I invite you to find shelter in yourself, in the good nature of your heart, in the elevation of your thoughts, in the lightness of the Spirit, to find this Something that created Everything. Photograph by Kwon O. Chul, TWAN

A Postmodern Prayer

Colección Jumex

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Sunday, April 15, 2012

I only have eyes for you

After having a really bitter taste throughout yesterday night and this afternoon, the palliative.

Jose C.





Eres de mis personas favoritas y todo mundo lo sabe.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Pictor´s Metamorphoses

Report from Normalia

...We are quite simply inmates of an enormous asylum full of madmen. And the question of whether it is we or the others who are the madmen constitutes the principal subject matter of the philosophies and speculations of our men of genius. We others, we who are older and more detached, are of the opinion that it would be pointless to distress ourselves with questions that cannot be answered, and it matters little to determine whether one is crazy or normal, whether one is the monkey in the cage or the gawking member of the Zoological Gardens who stares through the bars from the outside; rather, it is more proper and fitting to see Existence as a game, one far from problem-free, but genuinely meaningful and charming, and to be glad of the many good and beautiful things we can experience while playing it.

_____________________


In a decaying civilization, one that is diseased with a lack of sense and slowly dying, for individuals as well as for the community as a whole, there is no other medicament and nourishment, no other source of strength that enables one to go on, than the encounter with that which, in spite of everything, gives meaning to our lives and our actions and justifies us. And in the recollection of a whole lifetime of holidays and gatherings, in listening to the sounds and stirrings of the soul-even as far back as the colorful wilderness of childhood, in gazing into beloved eyes long since extinguished, there is demonstrated the existence of an intelligence, a unity, a secret center we have circled around - now consciously, now unconsciously - all our lives. From the pious Christmases of childhood, redolent of wax and honey in a world seemingly sane, safe from destruction, incapable of believing in the possibility of its own destruction, through all the changes, crises, shocks, and reevaluations of our private lives and of our age, there still remains a core, a sense, a grace residing in no dogma of the church or of science, but in the existence of a center around which even an imperiled and troubled life can always find itself anew, from just this innermost core of our being, a belief in the accessibility of God, in the coincidence of this center with the presence of God. For where He is present, yes, even the ugly and apparently meaningless may be borne, because, for Him, seeming and being are one and inseparable, for Him everything is meaning.




Hermann Hesse

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Rebirth to Resurrection, Death Overcome

I think enlightened souls are born at crucial moments in human history, for within them lives specific knowledge necessary for that period of human understanding, the world observes and still learns. How does one explain Plato, Bach, Buddha, Einstein, and thousands of others, what gives birth to such people?

In my own studies on religion, I´ve drawn a line observing the spiritual man, - the "enlightened man" - or the chosen man of the scriptures and this man according to his time: from Adam, to Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon,... Jesus. Jesus as evident epitome of this man, and no longer man, nor "enlightened" but simultaneously Son of God and Son of Man. Conditioned to human form and law, yet whose spiritual conciliation goes far beyond anything we´ve ever seen, cause and effect no longer governs.

So what does this mean for every other mortal?

From rebirth to resurrection, the legacy left by two of the "last", and in my eyes, most important spiritual figures that have imprinted their life and soul on this earth.


Siddhārtha Gautama and Jesus Christ.


What both achieved is done in defeat of the shadow of our imminent physical death and the suffering it implies.


Saṃsāra
The endless cylce of birth and death.

Samsara is governed by cause and effect, by karma and dharma. Karma is simply a lesson imparted by life that has not been learned hence leaves one in a state of ignorance, and dharma being a lesson already learned - produces knowledge. When one has the fruit of knowledge one may act firmly and with an extended parameter, when one has the fruit of ignorance one is left to wander limited terrain... Life will continue to try and teach us certain lessons over and over again until we uncover significance. Though both ignorance and knowledge produce suffering.

Nirvana
Freedom from suffering.

Buddha attained Nirvana freeing the physical body from physical bondage, cleansing the soul and liberating the body through this transparent self-soul.

Christ made free the spirit through the Spirit, in spiritual chronology the body by way of Buddha was already free, was no longer bound to Samsara. (Buddha lived about 500 years before Christ.) What this implies, "making the spirit free by the Spirit" is this: the law of spiritual cause and effect is undone. Humans may no longer assume to be superior to others by their actions, karma and dharma are tools instead of burden. The preamble is that man felt superior to others for practicing apparent exterior "holiness", "cleanliness", "impeccability" but was everything but- inwardly, this movement became automatic and shallow without honest intent and had only cultivated grounds for segregation. The body may live by physical cause and effect, but the Spirit becomes integrated to its true and simpler nature: Grace, Love. Through Grace man is made equal in the eyes of God and in the eyes of man.

Through Jesus´s example we may come to understand one of its pillars: Resurrection. How man passes from wandering and incessant rebirth, cessation of suffering, into resurrection. Christ died a mortal death to defeat Death, this "Death" with a capital D is the shadow I mentioned earlier. It is the illusion of Death while man is still alive, it is his proclivity to something he is not, it is his escape from life because his suffering is too great and he has not yet understood and been made free from suffering. Christ is said to have died "for our sins", the cross being the symbol of suffering, of human betrayal to the gift of life, to me an atrocious mirror of the worst we´re capable of doing to any other man or to ourselves. Even though we crucified a man who professed Love and goodness, he never wavered this Love, He gave it freely and equitably, thus exemplifying the first human reference to PERFECT Love, unconditioned Love, a Love only before known by God. Humanity had not been ready until this moment. This resurrection means to be born of God, and in God, and us to find this same life in Him and through Him.

This isn´t an invite to die for Love, that´s already been done, just a picture of the little or a lot we´re able to give towards Love or hate. In an extreme but subtle way one requires life the other death.

If one gets the depth, (s)/he may understand why Christians believe Christ is the way unto God. There are many many others, but none direct, others will require you overcoming your physical self which is physically impossible. When people are still fighting over ridiculous religious truth, I believe in freedom to learn and unity, everything works hand in hand with the other, to pave a path that may be solid from a personal and faithful conviction- where roots grow in a profound yet organic manner, to question and challenge human doctrine because it is full of error, to be empathic with this same doctrine for we are everything but perfect.

"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's."
Matthew 22:21

If our heart is true, we will not only find Truth, but live by it.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

The Lost Son




11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Luke 15: 11-32

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If you read the previous post, "Everything has always been", this passage may take on a new perspective. In knowing that all is necessary for us to see life in the light or darkness we choose to give it.

There are three characters in this parable: the father which symbolizes God, the elder son which represents the pharisee*...

* The pharisees for those who do not know, was the group who saw to the crucifixion of Jesus with the support of Roman Rule and the misinformed/ignorant crowd. The pharisee was the holiest and highest ranking official in the Jewish order, the most pure, the ones who upheld the law word for word instead of opting for consciousness and action, enveloped by love; in other words they had knowledge, they had the word, they lived by the word, but this word was bidimensional, flat, they let themselves be led by a decidious ego, an outdated self, one no longer congruent with the time- this being what Christ challenged.

All too familiar right?

... and the younger son, which represents man.

Man in search of freedom may at first believe God takes this freedom away or conditions it. Man then alienates himself from He who created him because he has not yet understood the Love of his Father, and for man -without understanding- this same love has become a burden. The Father gives his Son his share and lets him go. After sacrificing his inheritance, which value he does not know, he then enslaves himself to his mind, to others, to other things.

The son begins to think of his return, after acquiring consciousness of his slavery, knowing he´s become exactly what he thought he was running from, that he himself made himself a slave. He realizes his Father may have better grounds for his being, he goes back. When the son returns he sees his Father is different than the idea he had of him, that his Father welcomes him back with open arms and prepares a feast, his Father doesn´t even mention that the son has wasted what he was given, for this is in the past.

The elder son, the "irreproachable" man, does not understand and questions his Fathers love, he serves only because he is looking to be rewarded, or be recognized superior to others. What he does not know is that his ambition has made him blind to the Love and learning he´s always had.

We then realize that God is Father, and we his sons and daughters, one of the main messages of Christ, that the Love of the Father is free, that there is nothing we can do to be separated from this Love. The only thing man suffers from is the distance from this truth, the illusion of distance, and we ourselves are made slaves to the physical cause and effect of our thinking and our actions. If we wish to be part of the wilderness we will live according to the law of the wilderness.

The sky at intersection with earth, holds other "laws".

Everything has always been

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it. I suspected this when I was still a youth and it was this that drove me away from teachers. There is one thought I have had Govinda, which you will again think is a jest or folly: that is, in every truth the opposite is equally true. For example, a truth can only be expressed and enveloped in words if it is one-sided. Everything that is thought and expressed in words is one-sided, only half the truth; it all lacks totality, completeness, unity. When the Illustrious Buddha taught about the world, he had to divide it into Samsara (cycle of suffering) and Nirvana (illumination), into illusion and truth, into suffering and salvation. One cannot do otherwise, there is no other method for those who teach. But the world itself, being in and around us, is never one-sided. Never is a man or a deed wholly Samsara or wholly Nirvana; never is a man wholly saint or a sinner. This only seems so because we suffer the illusion that time is something real. Time is not real, Govinda. I have realized this repeatedly. And if time is not real, then the dividing line that seems to lie between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion."


"How is that?" asked Govinda puzzled.


"Listen, my friend! I am a sinner and you are a sinner, but someday the sinner will be Brahma again, will someday attain Nirvana, will someday become a Buddha. Now this "someday" is illusion; it is only a comparison. The sinner is not on the way to a Buddha-like state; he is not evolving, although our thinking cannot conceive things otherwise. No, the potential Buddha already exists in the sinner; his future is already there. The potential hidden Buddha must be recognized in him, in you, in everybody. The world Govinda, is not imperfect or slowly evolving along the path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment; every sin carries grace within it, all small children are potential old men, all sucklings have death within them, all dying people- eternal life. It is not possible for one person to see how far another is on the way; the Buddha exists in the robber and dice player; the robber exists in the Brahmin. During deep meditation it is possible to dispel time, to see simultaneously all the past, present and future, and then everything is good, everything is perfect, everything is Brahman. Therefore, it seems to me that everything that exists is good - death as well as life, sin as well as holiness, wisdom as well as folly. Everything is necessary, everything needs only my agreement, my assent, my loving understanding; then all is well with me and nothing can harm me. I learned through my body and soul that it was necessary for me to sin, that I needed lust, that I had to strive for property and experience the nausea and the depths of despair in order to learn not resist them, in order to learn to love the world, and no longer compare it with some kind of desired imaginary world, some imaginary vision of perfection, but to leave it as it is, to love it and be glad to belong to it. These, Govinda, are some of the thoughts that are in my mind."
Siddhartha bent down, lifted a stone from the ground and held it in his hand.

"This," he said, handling it, "is a stone, and within a certain length of time it will perhaps be soil and from the soil it will become plant, animal or man. Previously I should have said: This stone is just a stone; it has no value, it belongs to the world of Maya, but perhaps because within the cycle of change it can also become man and spirit, it is also of importance. That is what I have thought. But now I think: This stone is stone; it is also animal, God, and Buddha. I do not respect and love it because it was one thing and will become something else, but because it has already long been everything and always is everything....


Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Wolf Like Me, Tractate on the Steppenwolf



Hermann Hesse is truly an astonishing writer, whomever knows me knows the impact he´s had on whatever I am/have become/will be. This video shows a pictorial version of Steppenwolf from 1974 (via.debs). What Hesse produces goes well beyond catharsis if such a feeling exists. His world was the word-world though he himself didn´t actually believe in words, he thought the world of the word was only a half-world, a half-truth. Seems curious for a writer, maybe because nothing ever consumates unless a writer has a reader -the action, the flesh, the body that might give life to any and every word-, in physical terms; writing might be illusory until sex.

The real encounter- person to person. Not word to word.

Or Better said: SPIRIT TO SPIRIT.

Monday, March 26, 2012

North to the South, South to the West




Austin you are beautiful, your peoples are beautiful, your 45 minute wait for raw fish was worth every second, you somehow managed to reunite almost all of my ex-bfriends, your food trucks are ridiculous, your weather held up even if you threatened with rain every single day you noble son-of-a-bitch, took a 45 minute bus ride with a guy singing 867-5309 and the whole bus singing along on St. Patricks Day (!!!!) (sounds like the worst moment in SXSW history and it was, but for a second my bitterness made me laugh), and on the day I left I saw a thunderstorm on a terrace which nostalgically transported me to the time when my family and I sat in our parents room and watched lightning run across the city all night.

Texas you used to be part of Mexico, maybe that´s why I love you so much.


Highlights of my SXSW

SHLOHMO.
Got cut off mid performance while everyone was getting into it. 100 people watching, don´t enjoy that particular venue, but it´s still 100 people, another reason for my love for Austin and SX.
* Met Tennesse Bunny in the bathroom told me how the The Like had split up (boo) and that she was looking forward to seeing Pond, didn´t get to it.




BLOOD ORANGE
Almost 2 million views, and 100 people at the show, including the lovely Alexa Chung. Interrupted mid song "I don´t wanna be a dick, but come onn who´s setting up during my show?" Clapping righteously followed.
Devonté sat at our table at the Whole Foods Market thing, talked to him briefly, seemed super nice. DF soon maybe.




APPARAT BAND
UF UF UF. Ah the full band experience at SXSW seems rare sometimes (when you´re into electronic). Apparat especially runs deep. Amazing, stopped by DF a couple of days before, had the chance to interview Sascha, full interview will be out for Mutek by PFAS.




SBTRKT
No surprise here, I knew this was going to live up to its expectations. Everyone, literally everyone went bananas.




NICOLAS JAAR
FINALLYYYY. Saw him at a church, acoustics- one of the best.




PICTUREPLAAAANNEEEEE
Travis I love you for you, Real def is a feeling.




BLONDES
Saw them at a shitty underground place that reminded me of the Lower East Side. Few times does one see A.I so happy, worth it.




TR/ST
First day killed. Thnks to SN.




POLIÇA
In memory of Jose.




FRED FALKE
The surprise.





To name a few.

Monday, February 13, 2012

"Confronting the False Spirit of the Age", Institutions Failure and its Aggregates.

The devil stops by as guest in Seth Meyers Weekend Update in this SNL sketch commenting on Westboro Baptist Church members who were protesting about "God Hating Gays". The devil goes on to stay… “First of all, God doesn’t hate gay people — God doesn’t hate anyone, that’s his whole thing. God doesn’t even hate me! I mean, he’s disappointed in me, you know, but he doesn’t hate me.”

It is truly sinister how people take such a concept as God out of context and use him towards detestable means. The church in so many instances a more than embarrassing illustration.

Below an excerpt by Henry Ward Beecher that might ignite a small fragment of what God is by way of Jesus, because if we wish to put God on a human level, we must do so through Jesus´ teachings. God, who is infinite does not entirely fit into a mortal mind. Jesus, being the person who brought such concepts into human consciousness; first being man, living as Son of Man and Son of God by example, is our closest platform. The passage also an exemplification of what we’ve forgotten and misunderstood.

____________________


The spirituality of God, the fact that religion is an affection of the soul, and not a routine of action, that God is a universal God, the same everywhere, accessible to all of every nation without other labor than that of lifting up pure thoughts to him, and that he dwells in the heavens yet is present everywhere, so that no one need seek him on the high mountain, nor in any special temple, but may find him near, in their very hearts, this was taught by the prophets, by Samuel as really as by Isaiah, by Moses as clearly as by his successors.

But the knowledge was practically lost. If the clearer minds of a few discerned it, yet it was to the many indistinct, being veiled, and even buried, by the ritual, the priestly offices, and the superstitious sanctity given to temples and altars. Men felt in some
mysterious way they derived a fitness to approach God by what the altar, the priest, or the influences of the sacred place did for them. That a holy God demanded purity in those who approached him, they knew; but they did not realize that he himself purified -by his very presence- those who came to him.

The filial relationship of every human heart to God did not enter moral consciousness of men until they learned it in Jesus Christ. In him every man became a priest, his heart an altar, and his love the only offering required. Men were loosed from the ministration of ordinances, of rituals, of days, moons, and the whole paraphernalia of a gorgeous and laborious external system, and henceforth the poor, the untaught, the sinful, had a God near at hand and easy of access. He was no longer to be regarded as a monarch, but as a Father. No longer was it to be taught that he reigned to levy exactions, but to pour boundless treasure out of his own heart upon the needy. God sought those who before sought him. The priest stood no nearer to God than the humblest peasant.

-All the expedients of external worship in this world are but crutches to a weak soul. The true worship is in Spirit. It requires neither altar, nor priest, nor uttered prayer, but only the grateful heart, open before HIm who knows better than anyone can tell HIm all that men would say.-

The Life of Jesus The Christ
Henry Ward Beecher

* The poor being those who are weak in mind, heart, spirit, body.
* The sinful those who live in prolonged falseness.
* Grateful being someone elated about being alive, a heart full of life, isn’t life after all what makes us brothers?

______________________________


I mention the Westboro Baptist Church protests that have btw been going on since 1991!!! to depict in an extreme way how in MAN institutions have failed, Beecher makes clear note, he implies how many have missed the central message of what Jesus came to do, it’s astounding how 2012 years after some still have an obscure notion. And the church, seriously??? It’s like an institution founded on universal love promoting hate - killing for power, or a free country promoting censorship – killing for power, or a country oblivious to present civil war – killing for power.

A B S U R D, right?

I'll leave each of you to further questioning.

Coming back to the point of the church and so I don’t get too dark, I’d be inclined to think a lot of people had no idea how straightforward the whole thing is and should be. No rituals, no ceremonies, no asceticism required to have direct contact with God if one seeks him out with an honest heart. (I sound like an infomercial) All too easy? It is. So why have we screwed it up? I have a theory.

Beecher underlines the base idea in Jesus´ teaching:

The conciliation of God and Man.

How man approached God a priori of Jesus, since his coming, takes a radical shift. We are invited through love to direct contact with God without artifice, as fellow brothers of Jesus and each other, as fellow sons of God. Why has man then been so keen on taking pure ideas as freedom, equality, love and misconstrue them into power and control? Does he not feel reconciled? Is his heart not sincere? ... I find it curious when I hear people blame institutions or each other for personal failures, the church, government, education, family, the etcetera line is too long. Has anyone ever asked themselves who created and subscribed to for centuries to these manmade institutions?

WE HAVE.

Holy shit when anyone believed “God hates Gays”, yes even those out there who are in fact gay and believed something you didn’t personally explore. How well do we know what we’re professing, let alone sustaining such a repulsive sense upon? And it goes both ways, either the church towards gays or gays toward the church. Let´s keep in mind that it is in any manifestation of ignorance where hate may arise.

In what moment did you give anyone-anything the power over your soul?

* If you´re still reading, you do in fact believe in a soul, if you wish to put it in somewhat tangible terms, the soul is the recipient of your conscious, unconscious, subconscious, and preconscious. It differs from the Spirit, which I believe to be a collective oneness.

It is evident we are the ones who either enter into something ignorantly or are too rigid, critical or arrogant to view it in sincere subjective objectivity. We went to automated church, stayed at some job, voted for whomever, enrolled at this school, married that person, supported that ideology, and even dared to blame a God we didn’t believe in. And what seems even more astounding is information is there, today more than ever, the mind can be easily quenched, the heart- ideally be open, body-evidently, the Spirit first and foremost; we have it all, yet we still place the blame outside. I don’t say this for us to fall upon guilt or self-victimization, but to wake up to a notion of acceptance - we are the ones to be held accountable, denial or transference is no longer an option. We have made this, and in us lives the possibility of anything different. It is not some invisible evil person behind a desk, or some church, it is us.

We live in a world where everything or a good part of everything hasn’t lived up to our perfect expectations. Today what makes us think we can do any better? In my eyes the answer is simple: If we demand democracy, liberty, love, equality, justice, honesty; we must put it forth in equal measure. First in ourselves, then in others and other endeavors. Basic math. We might fail at first, but trying our best will bring us closer. What’s at fault is we’ve demanded way more than what we’ve given, our structures are obviously imbalanced. Responsibility is essential, in acknowledging individual responsibility however small, some true sense of collective change may come to spark.

Behind these grandiose ideas of love, equality, freedom, peace, lie the foundations where most institutions were built, there IS truth -we are the ones who also figured those out, but the road toward such truths are journeys, never destinations. Journeys willing to shift over time in perspective and inclusion, protected from personal and/or mutual cynicism and passions. In a transitory world such as the one we live, absolutes destroy more than edify. When man has fallen comfortable in his place of power it is in such comforts where corruption nests.

I would think of how does one makes an un-absolute-something-anything-everything, one containing infinite or gleams of infinite knowledge, wisdom, love, grace. A hint is it’s already inherent in every single man and it’s not something we can acquire, buy, or make, but it is something we can enhance, brighten, and polish. In each of us the DECISION to stop living falsely through hate, indifference, idleness, corruption, ego.

This is once more an invitation to evaluate what you think you know. Inform yourself. Think for yourself. Be free of the proscriptions of a half dead society. Look deeper, don’t conform to the surface of anything, not even your pretty little selves. After you’ve done this in all humility and honesty, ask where haven’t YOU lived up to what you believe in and see how that has taken a major toll on everything around you.

The teachings of Jesus came to bring freedom to the conditioned heart set by certain establishments, to undo the automated hegemonies of the manmade institution. I mention his example in hope of remembering and taking as living reference what true revolutionaries and prophets do; singlehandedly “confront the false spirit of the age”. I believe we are at a time where enough blood of innocents, geniuses, prophets, saviours has been shed. It is our turn.

We have been marked by a generation who turned us on to individualism, but a negative one; one that is egotistical and feels autonomous from others, we are the resented generation. What if this individualism, which would no longer be called “individualism”, balanced and leaned towards its positive pole? We’re already halfway there.

Individually. Together.


*All of the previous has 90% base in the Bible, specifically Romans and the four gospels, The Life of Jesus the Christ by Henry Ward Beecher, and popular culture (in that order), in case anyone wishes to not take my word for it, which is what I’d encourage you to do.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

SEE.THROUGH


Painting by Dennis Wojtkiewicz

“In a state of grace, one sometimes perceives the deep beauty, hitherto unattainable, of another person. And everything acquires a kind of halo which is not imaginary: it comes from the splendor of the almost mathematical light emanating from people and things. One starts to feel that everything in existence—whether people or things—breathes and exhales the subtle light of energy. The world’s truth is impalpable.”—Clarice Lispector

via. but does it float

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Cuando Intuiciones Se Encuentran (O NO) / VENDER vs. SER

Si tuviéramos que escoger entre autonomía o que nos digan qué queremos, qué hacer y cómo hacerlo, qué escogeríamos?

¿No brainer verdad?... Se sorprenderían.

Firmemente soy partidaria de creer en el espíritu del ser humano para tomar decisiones de la mejor manera que ve, sabe y puede. En una búsqueda personal por humildad e igualdad (que antes no tenía) comprendí a base de putazos que cada quien (o por lo menos gente con buenas o intentos de buenas intenciones) actúa en base a la máxima capacidad de su consciencia y voluntad. A mayor consciencia mayor capacidad de tener una voluntad libre-congruente en pensamiento, sentimiento y acto; una que piensa, siente y actúa en sincronía. Pongo mi confianza en la capacidad intuitiva y cognitiva de la gente, en una esperanza sin tiempos que ve el valor intrínseco del humano, se equivoque o no, arriba del juicio que simplifica y descarta. Aunque el humano suela decepcionar (a si mismo antes que a nadie mas), hay sustancias visibles e invisibles infinitamente más sólidas donde existe una inteligencia viva que nos entrelaza con todo otro por ende nos hace iguales. Yo lo veo como Dios, tú lo puedes ver como quieras.

Menciono esto por que ayer me topé con dos cosas que me hicieron evaluarlo. Una frase de un libro que estoy leyendo llamado Air Guitar, ensayos sobre arte y democracia, y un comentario hecho por mi tío , aconsejando a su hijo de 18 años sobre relaciones, por que acababa de tener su primera y más dolorosa desilusión amorosa.

“Anybody who can´t sell a handful of air with a dream in it doesn´t deserve to call himself an American (Insert Nationality Here), much less an art dealer.”
Dave Hickey, Air Guitar

Esta frase de Dave me hizo preguntarme cuál es la manera más directa y transparente de interactuar con otro ser humano: Vendiéndote (selling a handful of air with a dream) o confiando en la capacidad de comprensión invisible tuya y de la otra persona o sea, el encuentro de dos intuiciones que se reconocen y se filtran hacia la cognición? Ya que soy muy mala vendedora, opto por pensar que quitando todo juicio falso y superficial que solemos hacer acerca de otra persona basado en lo que vende, hay un lenguaje que va más allá de la superficie. Respondiendo a través del lenguaje intuitivo y confiando en el, ayuda a comprender que ni somos lo que pensamos que somos, ni lo que decimos que somos, ni lo que pensamos que estamos vendiendo. O consideran que su supuesta identidad (la que tiene cuatro hermanos, papás divorciados, lee a Hermann Hesse, estudió Moda, disfruta películas de Gondry, prefiere la cerveza ámbar y ve atardeceres -reitero soy mala vendedora-) resume lo que realmente son? Da una idea vaga, pero diluye la materia.

En dónde estamos poniendo nuestra certeza para evaluar:

En qué tan efectivamente alguien te vende aire (una idea)…
o
En qué tan efectivamente tu consciencia está equipada para captar la esencia de la idea?

Suena muy bonita la teoría y faltan pasos, ahí van, el problema que observo reside en que la gente no sabe qué quiere y mucho menos quién es, en efecto se produce una necesidad exterior de información que desvía y entretiene, quieres que alguien te diga qué hacer ya que tu identidad está revuelta y diluida, entonces la solución más corta es la predilecta. Decido en base a pequeños puntos de encuentro frívolos. Esta es la sociedad actual. Una crisis individual que ha goteado y permeado prácticamente toda práctica e institución colectiva por demasiados años. ¿Dónde quedó la autenticidad y el estomago para digerirla? Hoy interacciones humanas están basadas en qué tan bien vendes el producto, que falso sería el intercambio si un lado no viene preparado con buena retórica, con una mente que cuestiona y que formula preguntas que analizan aquello que te están vendiendo. Todo estaría (está) chueco, con puntos extras para el oportunista. La realidad es que no nos han enseñado a hacernos las preguntas indicadas, sí pero no. La carencia de herramientas nos ha hecho cojos.

Al punto de mi tío, pasando por cierta crisis en su matrimonio le dio a mi primo ésta perla de consejo…

“Nunca te puedes ir de nalgas por una mujer, no puedes dejarla saber que te tiene seguro, ni en el amor ni en el dinero.”

PUFFFFF FUCK ME si ese futuro es lo que le espera a alguien tanto en un matrimonio o en una relación. ¡Qué hipocresía! Ahí el claro ejemplo del emotional baggage que nos dejan como herencia nuestros padres en amor hacia nosotros (sin sarcasmo) y quién los puede culpar, ellos tratando de darnos el mejor consejo para evitarnos su sufrimiento… Aquí es donde regreso a mi idea inicial de tener empatía con las consciencias y acciones de la gente, they fucking don´t know any better. Más sí hay consecuencias, la realidad es que se construye exactamente lo opuesto de ahorrarnos dolor, nos hacen espejo de el.

Cómo relacioné la frase de Dave con la de mi tío, la intuición y el ser?

Que nuestro bagaje emocional funciona como la base de nuestro carácter, ahí la crisis de identidad, ahí la falta de intuición. Cuando sólo te estás viendo como reflejo de alguien o algo más, cómo puedes verte en materia tangible de algo verdadero? Andamos como espectros de otras personas, de otra vida. Con toda honestidad y algo de tristeza no sé qué tan listos estemos para la sinceridad y una sinceridad ilimitada y sin miedo, lo digo ya que nuestros complejos están mega saturados con todo ese bagaje que llevamos cargando desde ese día que tú papá te dijo que le hicieras al juego para no salir como imbécil. Hoy veo cómo es que se plantan ideas falsas y cómo hacen raíz en nuestro inconciente y nosotros sin ninguna base firme en nada, la creemos y nos formamos alrededor de ello. Me es impactante nuestra poca capacidad para discernir, para no escoger, para comprar lo que claramente no le ha dado resultado a nadie ya entrados en el momento en que nos dimos cuenta. Si alguien alguna vez consideró culpar a Dios, el único responsable es el humano que se conforma con lo inmediato, con lo que cree que sabe, con lo que le dijeron.

Entonces vuelvo a preguntar, ¿qué queremos? Que nos vendan aire o que aprendamos a intuir y a formular pensamientos en base a un cuestionamiento profundo, real, entrelazado…

Por mi lado seguiré pensando que la intuición es la base de construcción para cualquier relación, e intentaré confirmar que más allá de cómo te vendes, un intercambio verdadero se da en planos más avanzados que el físico. Mi decisión, voluntad y destino se moldean a partir de qué tan despejada está mi intuición y la tuya. Concluiría que es un 80% encuentro de intuiciones y cogniciones que ayudan a evaluar algo por lo que realmente es, 20% lenguaje.

Más en un mundo ideal me encantaría no tenerte que vender la idea de mi.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

T E X A S

The branch upon which the blossom hangs may be long or short, rough or smooth, strong or weak according to our expectations, but the redness of the blossom is irrevocable, and the word "red" tells us next to nothing about it. There are thousands of colors in the world and only a few hundred words to describe them, and these include similitudes like teal and peach and turquoise. So, the names we put on colors are hardly more than proper names, like Smith or Rodriguez, denoting vast, swarming, diverse families of living experience. Thus, when color signifies anything, it always signifies, as well, a respite from language and history- a position from which we may contemplate absence and death IN THE PARADISE OF THE MOMENT..

Air Guitar
Dave Hickey


Flying into the city that watched me grow up, I´ve passed through you briefly since my return to Mexico, never in such lucidity as today. I don´t think words suffice to describe internal expansion, they never do. Color might do it justice if you could only see with my eyes.

You still smell and sound and taste exactly the way you did twenty-three years ago. Like cold air on sunny days, turkey sandwiches and messy sundaes, alternative 90s music and oldies but goodies. I love you for so many intrinsic reasons a lifetime could nearly describe. You are my happiest childhood and ignorant bliss. A home built by love on Cielo Vista Rd overlooking the city that beheld it and also watched it fall apart.

Your territory majestically unfolded to create foundations, you are a great deal of the map.


Friday, January 6, 2012

M É X I C O

Los siguientes posts dedicados al top 5 de los países que visitan I´LL BE YOUR MIRROR el mes pasado.

Si alguien quisiera incluir alguna imagen de su país para postearla mándenla en mi profile está mi mail.

B I E N V E N I D O S & Gracias por pasar. Me parece impresionante el alcance de éste medio y que pueda compartir y extender los bordes de mi realidad.

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The next posts dedicated to the top 5 countries that visited I´LL BE YOUR MIRROR last month.

If someone wants to include an image of their country, send it in, click my profile and you´ll find my email.

W E L C O M E & a warm thanks for visiting. I´ve never ceased being impressed by the scope of this medium (internet) and to be able to share and expand the bounds of my own reality.




Paseo de la Reforma 1870



Mi bisabuelo, escultor Jesús F. Contreras a lado de su magnum opus Malgré Tout "A pesar de Todo", completada después que le amputaron el brazo.

My great grandfather, sculpter Jesús F. Contreras next to his magnum opus Malgré Tout, Despite Everything, completed after the amputation of his arm.



Palacio de Bellas Artes



Chichén itzá

Hello U.S.





안녕하세요 한국







Amazing aerial images of Korea.

привет Россия