BiPolar Etcetera

Old Mother Hubbard's Bare Cupboard - Blame the Diet Experts

2012-02-22T07:07:00.000+02:00

Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard
To get her doggie a bone,
When she got there
The cupboard was bare...

...that's because a 21st century diet expert had paid Mother Hubbard (who lived 100 years prior) a visit and tossed all the *unhealthy* stuff out of her pantry cupboard:

Salt
Butter
Sugar
Milk
Bread
Flour
Eggs
Meat
Coffee

All that was left, it seems, were a few apples, not enough, even at the rate of "an apple a day" to keep the doctor away.

Seriously: If you went by what the modern diet experts said, very little would be left in the pantries from yester-year. The list of *healthy* stuff is shrinking fast.

(It's a pity the starving people in Ethiopia didn't have access to Old Mother Hubbard's Cupboard. The dieticians there would have a different mantra, I'm sure. Something like "It's all good")

Best Advice I've ever Received

2012-02-03T10:33:00.000+02:00

the 2 choices

2012-01-16T08:44:00.000+02:00

Rosarch Test on Steroids (or acid...)

2012-01-08T10:50:00.000+02:00

I've spent many hours in the past week mesmerised with a new Surrealist artist I have discovered - Roberto Matta. I find all of his work absolutely incredible. The best site to see Matta's work is here.

Above is just one of his paintings - "However" - done in 1947. Actually its only part of the painting - I had to trim it to fit the blog so that detail would still show. (full painting here)

My question to all readers: What do YOU see in this painting?

I would be fascinated to know.

2012 - A Blank Slate

2012-01-02T09:38:00.000+02:00

Fill it with happiness

WAR, SLAVERY & IGNORANCE

2011-12-22T11:32:00.000+02:00

I've been reading Orwell's Classic- 1984 - a book which just seems to get more and more relevant.

In the book the Totalitarian State incessantly promotes 3 mantras to the enslaved populace:

WAR IS PEACE
SLAVERY IS FREEDOM
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Current Parallels circa 2011:

WAR IS PEACE
The Western World is at Peace at present. Actually it's not - thats just the way it seems. The only way we will have Peace is if we invade Iran, as they may have WMDs which means we are actually at War.*

SLAVERY IS FREEDOM
Wow, isn't it great to be alive and free in the Western World:

"You think you’re free? Trying going anywhere without fucking money." ~ Bill Hicks

...or, as David Graeber more eloquently puts it : "If Aristole were around today He’d probably conclude that most Americans were, for all intents and purposes, slaves."

...it's even got a name: WAGE SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
Remember WikiLeaks anyone? Remember how all the politicians jumped on Assange denouncing him as a serious threat to National Strength?
WikiLeaks response: "Which country is suffering from too much Freedom of Speech? Name it, is there one?"

*Are our memories that short? Havent we been duped with this line before??

Once you are awakened, then what?

2011-12-11T15:37:00.000+02:00

The title of this blog post comes from WillBeFine's excellent comment on my recent post about awakening through meditation

I've gotta admit - WBF's question stumped me. So I spent lots of time thinking about it, and some even meditating about it and finally I've come up with a semblance of an answer:

Q: Once you are awakened, then what?

A: You become a clever fish.

Don't worry, this is not one of those infuriating Zen Koans. Here is how I reached my answer:

Many years ago I had the privilege of knowing a very accomplished artist. We were talking about where creative ideas came from and he said to me he sees it like this: "Imagine that your mind has a fishing rod and it can cast out into the universe and hook ideas and reel them back in. The people that can cast furthest, and in the right places, catch the most 'far-out' and creative ideas."

This analogy impressed me, and has always stuck with me. However, after meditating for a few years, I have become aware how thoughts can creep up into the mind and take you off in their own direction, without you even been aware that it is happening.

So my proposal is that, no, my artist friend actually got it totally wrong. There is not some crafty fisherman sitting in our minds casting his rod. No - we are actually the fish. And its the ideas and concepts out there that have the rods; they're the ones dressing up the bait on the hooks; they're the ones casting into our minds to see if we'll take the bait, get hooked and pulled in uncontrolled directions.

Can you ever be totally awake 24/7? No. But by meditating you can learn to be a bit more alert when it comes to tasty morsels floating around in the idea-sphere. And instead of just gobbling at first sight, to try and examine morsels a bit closer before engaging with them.

PS: I'm going away for about a week so may not be able to respond to new comments for a while.

And a Happy Full Moon to you

2011-12-10T10:13:00.000+02:00

This is a pic of the beach where I live. Tweaked with the iPhone Apps: 100cameras and Camerabag.

WBF - I will get back to your excellent question on last post soon. It needs some thought - stumped-at-first-sight :)

The Awakening

2011-12-05T08:06:00.000+02:00

I've attended several Buddhist teachings lately, including a weekend retreat 2 weeks ago. And I've been thinking a lot about meditation.

"Buddha" is most usually translated as "The Awakened One". Most people have some understanding that Buddhist Enlightenment involves some type of awakening.

The popular perception is that this Awakening is a major paradigm-altering step involving some kind of Awakening into an Otherworldly realm.

Maybe it is. But on another level one can experience Buddhist awakeness at a very practical level. A level that can even address the skeptics retort "I dont need to awaken - I was never asleep in the first place."

If you've ever meditated you will likely know that the crux of the practice is about being aware of what you are thinking about, whilst you are thinking about it. "Observing the observer" is how some people put it. And you will also probably have experienced first-hand how difficult it is to accomplish this, even for a few minutes, without your mind wandering off. Once you realise that your mind has wandered off, the task is to let the run-away thought go and bring your mind back to its self-aware state.

In my personal meditation experience I have never really had trouble letting the errant thought go, once it has been recognised. My problem has always been the "drifting off" part, the fact that one minute I am sitting concentrating on what I'm thinking about and then the next minute, unbeknownst to me, my mind is in a totally different place. All meditators will be familiar with this experience.

So lately i have been trying to pinpoint and articulate this elusive moment of wandering off. What actually happens? What is it like?

Answering this is not easy as at the point when it happens you are, by definition, not aware of it happening. The observer has been lost sight of. But recently I've been thinking that perhaps the closest experience to this "slipping away" happens to us every night when we fall asleep. Think about it: despite falling asleep every single night of our lives, we can never pinpoint the exact time that we transition from normal thoughts into dream thoughts. Because, if we could do this - we wouldn't be asleep. We would be awake.

So next time you hear about the great Buddhist "Awakening", do not be intimidated that it is some far-removed concept only attainable by cross-legged monks sitting in caves in the Himalayas for years and years. You can experience it every day, in ordinary meditation, right where you are.

Mastering it of course, is another issue altogether...

Take Cover

2011-11-25T12:31:00.000+02:00

Source

Comments on OccupyWallStreet circa 1910

2011-11-14T10:49:00.000+02:00

Incidentally, for those who have accused the Occupy Movement of Communist sentiments - Mr. Ford was a car-maker and prominent Non-Communist

PREOCCUPIED? A prelude to the Occupy movement?

2011-11-04T14:30:00.000+02:00

If you've been following my Twitter Stream of late you will know that I'm a big supporter of the OccupyWallStreet movement and its offshoots around the world.It kind of resonates with what I've been thinking for a while. Here's a blog post I wrote over 5 year ago which, in the light of #Occupy, is worth republishing:

Thursday, March 16, 2006

THE SYSTEM SUCKS

Has anyone actually sat down and worked out how much money an individual will need to live adequately on planet earth from birth to death? Millions! Taxes, food, mortgage, transport, education, kid's education, health... In other words we are born into HUGE debt.

WHY? Are the birds and squirrels and fish born into debt?? Nah. Only the clever species - homo sapiens.

Think we've made huge progress since Feudalism? Bullshit. We're just as tethered to our desks as the serfs were ever tethered to their fields. Just as subject to our CEO's whims as they were to their feudal lord's. At least our great-great-granddaddys got to see the sunshine. Feudalism's just got a new name: Capitalism. (And, NO, just because I can see the F-up of capitalism, doesn't make me a communist)

Did you ever read about the poor souls who used to slave for 11 hours a day in the cotton mills in England? I bet you thought to yourself: "Silly Fckers, why did they put up with it?" Well, I've got news for you - When did you last work 11 hours at your desk? If international statisitcs are anything to go by - probably 3 days ago.

That's what really gets me. Is that everybody just seems to go along with it. We've given in. "This is just how things are." "Make the most of it". And in the background the cotton mills just hum along, drowning out the protest from the odd dissident.

Is this just the rant of a guy whose on the verge of accepting that his latest business venture is a failiure? Or is it a glimpse of the naked emperor?

Likely a bit of both...

********************************************

And I can now safely update my conclusion back then:
No, my business venture didn't fail. It succeeds to this day.
Yes, the system still sucks. Probably even more than it did 5 years ago. Only now, a few more peeps seem to be glimpsing the Emperor's nakedness.

Can energy be saved? (personal "zest" energy)

2011-10-14T11:26:00.000+02:00

I'm not talking about energy as in petrol, electricity etc. but the energy that powers us people in our waking hours.

I've written many times about how the main effect BiPolar has on my daily life is that when I'm Up I've got boundless energy and when I'm Down I've got very little.

Up until now I've always been of the opinion that "Make hay whilst the sun shines!" In other words - on the days when you've got boundless energy USE it - get as much done as possible, so that you're not behind when you hit the bad days and can't do a damn thing. I suppose you could nutshell it as a "USE IT, OR LOSE IT" personal energy policy.

But lately I've been thinking - will I really lose it if I don't use it? Is there a possibity that by NOT rushing around and going into overdrive on Up days, I could maybe conserve some energy for the down days? Like maybe there's some kind of Energy Reservoir?

I don't have any answers yet and would LOVE & APPRECIATE FEEDBACK, and maybe we could carry on with the conversation...

Psychiatric Oppression Opposed: Landmark Case

2011-10-04T12:52:00.000+02:00

"Albert Haines has spent 25 years of his life locked up. He was convicted of a minor crime and handed over to a mental institution. Psychiatrists have refused to let him out, even though they can’t really say what’s wrong with him and keep changing their diagnoses. They are a law unto themselves, and once entrapped by them, you are at their mercy."

You can read the full article here

Below are some of the excerpts which I think worth re-iterating:

"...he is the first person in the history of England to obtain a public hearing, instead of the standard secret tribunal in which the psychiatric system is answerable to no one."

"...the psychiatrist has set up a self-fulfilling diagnosis. If Haines disagrees, or worse, if he resists, then by definition, he’s paranoid and psychotic."

"This is called psychiatry. It’s a secret system, one that keeps prying eyes from seeing behind the walls by saying it’s for the patient’s benefit. If they were so sure of the legitimacy of what they do, why must they keep it secret?"

"If you think this couldn’t happen to you, keep in mind that there have been 100,000 secret tribunals in England over the last seven years. Who are these people? We simply don’t know. It’s all locked up behind those walls."

Recent events around the world, from the Arab Spring, to the current Occupy Wall Street movement are demonstrating very clearly that the world is sick of Old School Authoritarians who wield an inordinate amount of power and have, for centuries, been beyond question. Dictators have had their day, now its bankers... maybe tomorrow it will be the PDocs.

Tom Robbins on Meditation

2011-09-23T08:58:00.000+02:00

Snippet from the novel "Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates" by my favorite author of all time (at the moment anyway - always subject to change) Tom Robbins. Robbins is not just an author, he is a philosopher - and a very wise one.

Keep your reality away from me

2011-09-10T06:48:00.000+02:00

...from my fav new blog to start the day with:

One of my biggest problems:

2011-08-29T07:25:00.002+02:00

T & C's apply

2011-08-03T17:29:00.000+02:00

Terms & Conditions:

1)Last time one of my blog posts consisted of an "The End" image, I had a whole lotta folks panicking that I had hit some real DEEPSHIT depression. So, without showing a lack of appreciation for concern: PLEASE NOTE: I'm happy right now, I just like the twist in the tale.

Elasticity of mind

2011-07-25T09:38:00.000+02:00

Everybody has what I'm going to call their own "perception of reality". And if you could choose a quality to "improve" your perception of reality, I'm guessing a lot of people would choose ACCURACY or something similar.

Personally, after giving it some thought, I'd choose for my own perception of reality to have more ELASTICTY. I arrived at this conclusion due to several factors:

there is NO such thing as a singular accurate reality. Those that believe otherwise are deluding themselves
Reality is continually unfolding. The "unreal" could happen at any second in the furure
Judging by the sheer paranois of my PDoc* (at a recent appointment) at the prospect of me ever hitting another full-blown psychosis my personal choice should be governed by limiting the possibility of my mind ever snapping again. The antidote then is a more elastic mind that can accomodate more scenarios without freaking me out and tipping into paranois.
With the explosions in technological possibilities, now is a more important time than ever to allow for more flexible perceptions of what is realisitically possible and what is not. As one of my my gurus Philip K Dick said "we are going to have to get used to dealing with entities that can be siad to exist and not-exist at the same time."

* NOTE TO SELF: Get a new P Doc already. The current one is severly unbalanced.

Doesn't work...

2011-07-13T07:22:00.000+02:00

from my favourite daily blog

The usual suspect

2011-07-06T14:55:00.000+02:00

see highlighted text below:

why

"Philosophy is Dead" ?

2011-06-27T08:06:00.000+02:00

Stephen Hawking recently pronounced: "Philosophy is dead". He claimed that whilst science had made incredible progress in the last 50 years, philosophy had not, and as a result was no longer even relevant.

These "X is dead" pronouncements are dangerous territory. The first, loudest and most famous such pronouncement of this kind came from none other than Nietzsche: "God is dead".

...to which some canny graffiti artist came up with:

NIETZSCHE: "GOD ID DEAD"
GOD: "NIETZSCHE IS DEAD"

A more recent philosopher - Francis Fukuyama - boldly pronounced "History is dead".
That slogan too will go down in the history books, but I fear that although Francis is still living, its going to be another case of:

FRANCIS: "HISTORY IS DEAD"
HISTORY: "_ _ _ _ _ _"

And now for Hawking. Don't get me wrong - Hawking's classic, "A Brief History of Time", must rate as one of the most enlightening books I've ever read. (The new Illustrated version is high on my wishlist). One quote from that book resonated so strongly with me that I actually included it in a book that I wrote:

"Up to now, most scientists have been too occupied with the development of new theories that describe what the universe is, to ask the question WHY... if we find the answer to that... we would know the mind of God."

Although Hawking penned those words many decades ago, even then he took a swing at how stagnant philosophy had become, but at least acknowledged that the philosophers were: "the people whose business it is to ask WHY..."

So what happened? How did Hawking jump from there to "Philosophy is dead". Have scientists themselves discovered the answer to WHY? No.

Has the WHY question become unimportant ("Why is dead"?). No. It might have for millions of mindless, secular consumers, but not for someone with such a gifted enquiring mind as Hawking.

That leaves only one option, which is probably what Hawking would argue: "Philosophers are no longer asking WHY".

Perhaps.
Or perhaps post-modern philosophy has, in its own right, become so complex that most people (including scientists) can no longer keep up with it - in the same kind of way that the people and philosophers aren't keeping up with science. So, they wouldn't actually know if WHY is being asked or not.

Or maybe philosophers, having being confronted with the single most difficult question for so long, have developed a much more tenacious patience than the scientists. Has Hawking finally lost his patience?

Perhaps some philosophers have even realised that the WHY question is unanswerable (ultimately they might argue for the good of mankind). But they also realise that even if this were true, the critical thing is that somebody keeps asking it. Because if we don't, we'll land up where Nietzsche predicted - Nihilism.

"What is nihilism? - When "why" finds no answer" - Nietzsche

This can only ever happen when we stop asking. And if people as brilliant as Stephen Hawking are losing patience with the WHY question, and throwing the towel in with its asking - the task of the philosopher is now more important than ever.

WordProject ish

2011-06-05T12:24:00.000+02:00

Full set of my WordFoto pics here

Been playing around with a new MINDBLOWING iPhone App I discovered - WordFoto

It was a natural hippy trap for me -the WordProject, an early website of mine, is all about the intersection of Word & Image

"Let's split"

2011-05-24T07:23:00.000+02:00

The meditative mind is a mature mind. We are not born with it.

We are born with Juvenile Mind. Or "monkey-mind" as seasoned meditation practitioners call it. The juvenile mind, like a 4 year old, needs constant entertainment. You cannot leave it for less than a few minutes without feeding it a constant stream of new sights, sounds and thoughts. It is demanding, mischevious and manipulative. It throws tantrums. Increasingly it is inflicted with ADD.

That is why, after a few minutes of meditation, when you have finally managed to gather all of your body, all of your sensations and all of your thoughts to the one SAME place - the silent retreat from the relentless tumult - the Juvenile Mind rebels. It needs new stuff, stimulating stuff, entertaining stuff. Switch it all off and there is Boredom - an unendurable boredom. Undendurable even for a minute.

That's when you have to keep your eye on the juvenile. The minute you turn your back, the juvenile will sneek out of the retreat, like a thief in the night, back into another land of thoughts and fantasies. You will be none the wiser.

Faced with the intolerable boredom, the juvenile mind says : "Let's split"

There is a lot in that. Let's split.

Afrikaburn - Burning Man in South Africa

2011-05-07T07:26:00.000+02:00

Just returned from Tankwa Town in the Karoo where South Africa's Burning Man equivalent - Afrikaburn - took place. It's my 3rd year in a row now and without a scrap of doubt my favorite place to be. "Condoned Insanity" is what I like to call it - one of the only enclaves in the known universe where this liberating condition exists. You can see all my Afrikaburn pics here