Samsara?

"This is the 22nd Century, baby. The most civilized millennium in all history. It's happening times,dude. You can have anything you can possibly want. Let your imagination run free."

There are full-service hotels in the world where room service will bring you anything you want. Anything. From a bucket of ice to a potion of ground penis of the rare white tiger so that you can get an erection to a small child for use as a sexual toy and to murder if that's your pleasure to a six-pack of beer and a balogna sandwich to a shot of morphine to a Bentley limousine to a painting by van Gogh to hang in your suite to a chocolate on your pillow when the bed is made.

Anything.

All you need is the money and the power.

The photograph at the top of the page is an image of power. It is a book-burning in a recent age. Not the most recent burning. They happen all the time. Figuratively if not literally. But don't kid yourself--quite literally. And in your own backyard. We don't need a distant country or a distant time to discover a display of gross ignorance.

This type of power is abetted every day. In our sports. Our politics. Our religions. Our child rearing. Our security forces--both national and local. Our personal relationships. It permeates every level of our society. And it always ends up as a bruised face, a scarred psyche, a stunted childhood, a loose cannon, a crushed ego, a mutilated child, a battered wife, a smashed automobile, a gutted retirement account, a vandalized schoolroom, a murdered student, a murdered teacher, a murdered tourist, a bombed city, a leveled forest, a destroyed religious icon, an ostracized people, a manipulated thought, or a burnt book.

The only thing that has changed about us as a race since we stood up and became homo erectus
is that we've learned more about the world around us, we've learned how to manipulate our environment (to questionable ends), and we've refined our technology. Spiritually we have not taken even the tiniest Mother-May-I?-Baby-Step forward. There may be a few more refinements to our society--on the surface in certain neighborhoods at least--but spiritually we still wallow in the primeval ooze.

As a species.

My personal opinion is that there is room for growth.

And what better place to begin than with yourself. If you start determining who needs guidance more than you do, you may as well toss another book on the fire. There are those who obviously need help--and some, a great deal of it--but you should first make sure that the image of them in the window you're seeing them through is not distorted by the filth on your side of the glass.

Personally, and with a great sense of irony, I have decided to take the slightly revised slogan of a military force as my spiritual daily prayer--'Be! All that you can be!'

I truly wish that this will be my last time around. As an un-enlightened being.

If that's what happens. Reincarnation doesn't make any more sense to me than living in a big condo in the clouds and shooting pool with Jackie Gleason or discussing humanity with Sam Clemens whenever I want and complaining about the angel-service to my wife.

But I see Hell around me--a Hell created by the foolishness of my youth. It is a pet theory of mine that the things we say, "Who cares?" about in our youth become the Hell of our adulthood because society doesn't care unless you do and these things that we pass off became the norm. The good that was attempted in my youth has done harm. The harm that was done has spread. The greed that was felt has multiplied.

The only constant I have discovered, besides the eternal stupidity and greed of man, has been Love. Any pure love that I ever experienced has grown or at least maintained and has not been sullied.

And so Love must be the answer. Every god in human form has said so. It is our true Path and yet it is so difficult to keep our feet upon the narrow road. How does one love one's enemy? How does one love the mosquito draining one's arm? How does one love?

The love must be pure. It is not the condescending love of pity that is often nurtured, but the encompassing love of compassion. One separates, the other includes. That is the distinction. If this love of mankind will get me to my final breath with a gentle smile on my lips, hate pushed out of my heart and mind, and peace in my eyes, I'm going to find out how to do it and give it a shot.

What follows is the blend of my options.