Humanize the Earth!

Silo’s Message - The Book (VI. Sleep and Awakening)

I have read Silo’s Message many times, mostly in pieces. After a long time lapse, I continue publishing it here, in it’s entirely. The message is in 3 parts, The Book, The Experience and the Path. Today is chapter six of The Book.

VI. Sleep and Awakening
The fourth day.

1. I cannot take as real what I see in my dreams, nor what I see in semi-sleep, nor what I see when I am awake but in reverie.
2. I can take as real what I see when I am awake and without reveries. Here I am not speaking of what my senses register, since naive and dubious “data” can arrive from my external and internal senses as well as from my memory. Rather, I am speaking of the activities of my mind as they relate to the “data” being thought. What is valid is that when my mind is awake it “knows” and when it is asleep it “believes.” Only rarely do I perceive reality in a new way, and it is then that I realize that what I normally see resembles sleep or semi-sleep.

There is a real way of being awake, and it has led me to meditate profoundly on all that has been said so far. It has, moreover, opened the door for me to discover the meaning of all that exists.

see also: The Book (V. Intimation of Meaning)

Silo’s Message - The Book (V. Intimation of Meaning)

I have read Silo’s Message many times, mostly in pieces. I have decided to publish it here, in it’s entirely. The message is in 3 parts, The Book, The Experience and the Path. Today is chapter five of The Book.

V. Intimation of Meaning
The third day.

1. At times I have anticipated events that later took place.
2. At times I have grasped a distant thought.
3. At times I have described places I have never been.
4. At times I have recounted exactly what took place in my absence.
5. At times an immense joy has surprised me.
6. At times total comprehension has overwhelmed me.
7. At times a perfect communion with everything has filled me with ecstasy.
8. At times I have broken through my reveries and seen reality in a new way.
9. At times I have seen something for the first time yet recognized it as though I had seen it before.

…And all this has made me think. It is clear to me that without these experiences I could not have emerged from the non-meaning.

see also: The Book (IV. Dependence)

Silo’s Message - The Book (IV. Dependence)

I have read Silo’s Message many times, mostly in pieces. I have decided to publish it here, in it’s entirely, in serial form. The message is in 3 parts, The Book, The Experience and the Path. Today is chapter four of The Book.

IV. Dependence
The second day.

1. Nothing that I do, feel, or think depends on me.
2. I am mutable and depend on the action of my surroundings. When I want to change my environment or my “I,” it is my environment that ends up changing me. Then I seek the city or nature, social redemption or a new struggle in order to justify my existence. In every case it is my environment that leads me to choose one attitude or another. In this way, my interests and my surroundings leave me here.
3. I say, then, that it does not matter who or what decides. I say on these occasions that I have to live since I am in the situation of living. I say all this, but there is nothing that justifies it. I can make a decision, hesitate, or remain where I am. In any case, one thing is only provisionally better than another; ultimately there is no better or worse.
4. If someone tells me that those who do not eat die, I will answer that this is indeed so, and that, spurred by their needs, they are compelled to eat. But I will not add that the struggle to eat justifies one’s existence—nor will I say that this struggle is bad. I will simply say that all of this concerns an individual or collective fact related to the need for subsistence, but that it has no meaning in the moment that the last battle is lost.
5. I will say, moreover, that I feel solidarity with the struggle of the poor, the exploited, and the persecuted. I will say that I feel “fulfilled” in this identification, but I understand that these feelings do not justify anything.

see also: The Book (III. Non-Meaning)

Silo’s Message - The Book (III. Non-Meaning)

I have read Silo’s Message many times, mostly in pieces. I have decided to publish it here, in it’s entirely, in serial form. The message is in 3 parts, The Book, The Experience and the Path. Today is chapter three of The Book.

III. Non-Meaning
After many days I discovered this great paradox: Those who bore failure in their hearts were able to illuminate the final victory, while those who felt triumphant were left by the wayside like vegetation whose life is muted and diffuse. After many days, coming from the darkest of darkness, I arrived at the light, guided not by teachings but by meditation.
Thus, I told myself on the first day:

1. There is no meaning in life if everything ends with death.
2. All justification for actions, whether these actions are despicable or admirable, is always a new dream that leaves only emptiness ahead.
3. God is something uncertain.
4. Faith is something as variable as reason and dreams.
5. “What one should do” may be thoroughly discussed, but in the end there is nothing that definitively supports any position.
6. The “responsibility” of those who commit themselves to something is no greater than the responsibility of those who do not.
7. I move according to my interests, and this makes me neither a coward nor a hero.
8. “My interests” neither justify nor discredit anything.
9. “My reasons” are no better than the reasons of others, nor are they worse.
10. Cruelty horrifies me, but neither because of this nor in itself is it better or worse than kindness.
11. What I or others say today is of no value tomorrow.
12. To die is not better than to live or never to have been born, but neither is it worse.
13. I discovered, not through teachings but through experience and meditation, that there is no meaning in life if everything ends with death.

see also: The Book (II. Disposition to Comprehend)

Silo’s Message - The Book (II. Disposition to Comprehend)

I have read Silo’s Message many times, mostly in pieces. I have decided to publish it here, in it’s entirely, in serial form. Mostly so I could read it again bit by bit. The message is in 3 parts, The Book (published earlier as The Inner Look), The Experience (Eight ceremonies) and the Path. Today is day two.

II. Disposition to Comprehend

1. I know how you feel because I can experience your state, but you do not know how to experience the things I am speaking of. Therefore, if I speak to you without self-interest of that which makes the human being happy and free, it is worth your while to try to comprehend.
2. Do not think that you will arrive at understanding by arguing with me. You may argue if you believe that through opposition your understanding will become clearer, but it is not the appropriate path in this case.
3. If you ask me what attitude is appropriate, I will tell you that it is to meditate profoundly and without haste on what is explained here.
4. If you reply that you are busy with more urgent things, I will answer that since your wish is to sleep or to die, I will do nothing to oppose it.
5. Nor should you argue that you dislike my way of presenting things, for you do not criticize the peel when you like the fruit.
6. I state things in the way I consider appropriate, not as might be desired by those who aspire to things remote from inner truth.

see also: The Book (I. Meditation)

Silo’s Message - The Book (I. Meditation)

I have read Silo’s Message many times, mostly in pieces. I have decided to publish it here, in it’s entirely, in serial form. Mostly so I could read it again bit by bit. The message is in 3 parts, The Book (published earlier as The Inner Look), The Experience (Eight ceremonies) and the Path. Today we start with the first bit from the Book.

I. Meditation

1. Here it tells how the non-meaning of life can be converted into meaning and fulfillment.
2. Here are joy, love of the body, of nature, of humanity, and of the spirit.
3. Here sacrifices, feelings of guilt, and threats from the beyond are rejected.
4. Here the worldly is not opposed to the eternal.
5. Here it tells of the inner revelation at which all arrive who carefully meditate in humble search.

How to Disappear by Pete Leki

Please go read this very short book by Pete Leki: How to Disappear. I love it. I’ve also been working on a wiki with Michael here How to Disappear Wiki. We’re not sure yet what’ll come of the wiki project, but we’d really like to see this book widely read.

book story

So my friend Dave is also known as Mr. Bike. And he’s just out recently with the second edition of the fabulous book, Urban Bikers’ Tricks and Tips. Sadly, I say it’s fabulous not because I own a copy, but because my friend, former roommate and shareholder/member at the Hub Housing Cooperative with me, John Stoner, has a copy and I’ve read parts of it. So anyway, I was talking with Dave last week and I asked him how it would be best for him if I wanted to buy his book. Should I buy it through his website or from the publisher or what? He said the best is to buy it from any bookstore, that way, it shows demand to the store and maybe they will buy more than one copy.

So I went into my local independent bookstore in downtown Chicago, Brent Books at Franklin and Washington. Last July I went in there when they had a 50% off sign in the window. The sale was only for that month. It’s still there. That’s a bit worrying. And in July they let me order books they didn’t have, no problem. This time, they suggested I order from Amazon, even though the publisher is here in Chicago. When I didn’t jump at that excellent suggestion they said if I wanted to prepay, including a shipping charge, they could order it for me. So that’s what I did. Hopefully it’ll come in soon.

bad link fixed

If Women Do Fall They Lie by Kameron Hurley

Read this really great short story the other day by the author of Brutal Women. Check it out: If Women Do Fall They Lie by Kameron Hurley

The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions

I just finished reading Sister Helen Prejean’s 2005 book The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions and on the same day, this post from last December came up in my rss reader (didn’t seem changed either - weird): Sister Helen Prejean’s Blog: I’m Inviting You to Help …. Great follow-up book to Dead Man Walking.