Path of Simplicity -- an Introduction

[The unknown poet of the Third Galaxy, having backtracked on his success with the Short Short Path, addresses his promise of speaking about the Path of Simplicity]

"Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be..."

If it was just a question of what we needed to say in order to find understanding, the answer would be with us in an instant -- in the twinkling of an eye, as it says in the Book of the Holy Idaho [Cornytheans 15:52].

But it's not that simple. In fact, it is simple -- however, the simplicity is of an order of subtlety more than we can know through an intellectual understanding communicable through words or ensconced in traditions or sacraments.

Yet, in reality, it remains the corner stone which the builders ignore. It can be seen in an instant -- and lost just as quickly. We can say that it happens -- but it is useless to ask what makes or causes it to happen. Indeed, in saying that it happens, too much has already been said. And yet, is there not a bright corner, some tiny place where it constantly happens?

It's like with the neutrino, that ittsy-bittsy particle which passes through everything. Each and every moment hundreds of millions of them pass through every one of us, through every square inch of the Earth. But no one notices, in fact, no one can notice it happening.

That is the nature of reality -- you take a breath, hear a sound, taste the spit in your mouth, see the light in your eyes. This is at least an echo of what-is and if this was-not, then what would there be? Would there, could there be any thing?

There is nothing to be concluded here and nothing to say -- except, all the time I was talking about it, the pageant was passing by, unfolding in all its subtle glory. Afterwards, I can understand, intellectually at least, that I was seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing, tasting without tasting, touching...and so on...yes, even thinking without thinking, thinking that I knew something when, in fact, I knew nothing, nothing, nothing at all...

It is a shattering experience to suddenly see that one has seen nothing at all, to realize that we have eaten a meal without tasting the food, lived a life without noticing the love. In such moments the vanity of our lives boggles the imagination leaveing it gasping for breath like a fish on dry land.

Complexity has its place, but without simplicity, there is nothing, nothing, nothing at all.

It would a conceit of the first order to imagine, because you have simplicity, that you have anything -- the moment you have simplicity, once again, you have nothing. As the Holy Idaho supposedly said, foxes have their holes and birds their nests, but the son of man has not even a place to rest his head [Look 9:58].

"And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight."

-- Elder Joseph Brackett of the Shakers

Raping Opium in the Third Galaxy

[Rampant dishonesty and hypocrisy about what was really going on in the Third Galaxy, politically, economically, environmentally, were ignored by the Bankers of Illusion and together they brewed the cocktail which brought on the Terrible Times. Occasional mention, ouch as the one below, occurred only in small media outlets -- these were, of course, ignored by the mass media (unless there was a sex scandal involved)]

The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Farawaystan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society. And the weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine gun causes the same terror and bloodshed among civilians no matter who pulls the trigger...

[The rest of the article can be found here: ]

When a Short Short Path Isn't...

It appears that the unknown poet of the Third Galaxy, not long after his proclamation of having taken the "Short Short Path" had to eat his words. Well, at least we should give him credit for that much honesty, a commodity in short supply on that unfortunate world...

Well, dear hearts, sorry to say I have to admit that the Short Short Path to Total Complete Enlightenment has a few drawbacks I was not aware of...

First of all, it isn't short, let alone "Short, Short" -- in fact it isn't even a "Path", neither is exactly "Enlightenment" and, therefore, cannot be called "Total" or "Complete".

Secondly, if you have lived all your life with your head up your ass, it will, since it is the nature of things to return to their former state, in this case, pop right back to where from you pulled it out.

Thirdly, the experience of pulling your head out of your ass is just that -- an experience. How can any experience be "complete"? Well, if you blow your brains out or something final like that -- maybe, but then, don't you know, that makes a number of assumptions about the way things are which may not be valid.

So, it would seem the situation is hopeless -- however, there may be hope...

During those few moments of seeming freedom, those rare moments that seem to come to us all., you can blow your nose, take a breath of fresh air and get a somewhat less shit-eyed view of the world. If one is truly fortunate, the concept may dawn for you that there actually is, for want of a better word, a Reality.

Such understanding, can, in its unfolding, become the first steps on the Path of Simplicity.

More about that later...

The Short Short Path to Total Complete Enlightenment

I've been away for a while, doing deep research into the Absolute Truth, 21st Edition and return now with a report of what that enigmatic fellow, the unknown poet of the Third Galaxy had to say about the Short Short Path...

Well, dear hearts, I finally did it -- I took the short, short Path to Total, Complete Enlightenment.

As you know the Method is quite simple: bend over, grab your right ear with your left hand, your left ear with your right hand and (briskly) pull you head out of your ass.

As I suspected, it does hurt a bit -- however, when one has acquired Total Complete Enlightenment, one does not say, "OW!" or curse and swear -- being detached and overflowing with love and bliss, the Enlightened One does not fuss over things that amount to small skeeter bites...however:

"OW!GAWDDAMN!THIS!SHIT!HURTS!@!#!&!" somehow slipped past my lips.

However, being Totally Completely Enlightened, I realized at once that if people can hear you five blocks away it's okay for an Enlightened One to scream. In my case, I received not only complaints from my neighbors but from people I've never seen before. In fact, there was a notice in the Poosah City Gazette that people thought that a wounded animal had escaped from the City Zoo.

That said though, take some advice from a Totally Enlightened with a sore bum --before taking the Short Short Path, make some serious effort to deflate the empiric ego -- pulling his inflated ego out of his ass is what made the Path so painful for this fellow.

They Suck

Indeed they do, suck, literally, the banks.

When signing the "Stimulus" bill, Bulimo Charisma said that the thing wasn't perfect and he wasn't just whistling dixie, not that I'd ever expect him to whistle "Dixie".

A minuscule part of the "Stimulus" is $40 billion to help the states defray unemployment costs.  

This is necessary, because, the final brainfart of the outgoing Codpiece administration was to give hundreds upon hundreds of billions to the mega-banks so that they could give billions in bonuses to their top management for greeding them into the financial collapse which got them the billions of tax payer dollars with which they were intended to help struggling businesses and people in trouble with their loans and mortgages.

The mega-banks smiled and put the money in their back pocket, to keep their butts warm -- the upshot is that the collapse of the economy continued unabated, in fact was exacerbated and the unemployment curves took a nose dive worthy of a WWII Stuka dive bomber.

That is why the 40 billion in unemployment was a necessity.  The banks of course smiled once again and cut a deal with the states so the states could save money -- those receiving unemployment are given plastic cards and the banks charge them money to withdraw their money.  

When the unemployed call the bank to ask about these fees they are docked with a fee for calling the bank.

Until the money for  the unemployed is actually paid to the recipients, it sits in the banks and draws interest -- which goes, no, not to the unemployed but to the banks.

That dear hearts is how the banks are helping stimulate themselves, I mean the economy.

The Pale Worm

[I've long had a suspicion that the unknown poet of the Third Galaxy was one sick puppy. In this, one of his later sonnettes his malaise with life nearly oozes out of the words. On the other hand, living your life with prophetic knowledge that your world will self-destruct not long after you die is enough to make anyone bang their head against the wall, or a bottle...]

I wish there was a way that I could say
exactly what it is that is killing me.

I caught a glimpse of it the other day,
but was too afraid to really see
it close and -- in a flash -- it was gone!

I havn't the courage to dare to give it a name,
that pale worm, sixty light years long...

With its heart of ice; with its breath of flame:
its coils are squeezing the life out of me!

Could I but look that beast square in its single eye,
I would be free at last! It's not likely
I'll ever do it and that is why, ever faster, I die...

I am tormented by the things I never did,
wracked with words I never said, but hid.

Legal Torture

[The later sonnettes of the unknown poet of the Third Galaxy are often direct as well as cryptic -- the couplet which introduces the sonnette is apparently his]

When torture is legal, the eagle grins
and without hope, without end -- the nightmare begins...

Legality was then seen to be
a luxury which we could ill afford.

The authority of our democracy
was then given to the Security Boards
who met secretly in soundproofed rooms,
rooms which many entered but few returned.

Across the land there settled a restless gloom
as the canker of security slowly burned
into the soul of our once fair nation,
something ugly and evil, a horror to see.

In fact, at the height of the terrible conflagration,
torture was shown on national tee-vee,
live, on prime time, from coast to coast,
"...and without commercial breaks!", announced the host.