Python Liberation Front

Identity

there is something beyond
the borders of my ego
it is not mystical, it is not natural
it is what it will be and always was

if my fathers bore the weight of karma
and my brethren the weight of sin
then my children shall fly as eagles
some glad morning

Artifacts and Angels

The picture to the left above is of a painting of John the Baptist by Carravaggio, an artist of the Italian Renaissance. John made the way straight for the Lord, eating locusts and honey. Herod had him beheaded at the request of Salome.

Next is a picture of a Chinese statue of Kuan Yin, a Bodhissatva, in other words, one who attains the state of Enlightenment, but, rather than entering Nirvana as a Buddha, takes a vow to not enter Nirvana until he/she has helped obtain the enlightenment of all living things, in other words, the entire world and all people.

Both pictures are marred by artifacts caused by the photographer's lack of skill, putting glare from a camera flash on them, especially the glare on successive folds of the poster containing the picture of the Kuan Yin statue.

Zoroaster was a Persian Prophet who founded a religion that originated many concepts later incorporated into Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These concepts are often known in English by words borrowed from the Persian, such as "angel" and "paradise". Zoroaster taught that there is a war between good and evil, and that one should choose the good.

Much later, Nietzche wrote "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and talked about Supermen and Beyond Good and Evil. Nietzche bemoaned the effects of Semitic religions on European civilization, preferring to hark back to Greek and Persian values.

Later still, Richard Strauss wrote a tone poem called "Also Spake Zarathustra". This music was chosen by Stanley Kubrick to be the theme song for his movie adaptation of Arthur Clark's novel "2001: a Space Odyssey".

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the Centaur

These are my two dogs, Lucky and Lucy. Lucky, a short hair Jack Russel Terrier is lucky we picked him, lucky we kept him, and lucky to be alive. He is 10 years old, originally the runt of his litter, we picked him although he was abnormally shy. I still recall how the only way I could get him to relax, that day when we brought him to our home for the first time, was to put him snuggled up inside my armpit while we both took a nap on the sofa. After we moved to a new city, Lucky was atacked by a wild animal and almost died. Lucy, a long haired Jack Russel Terrier, came along a little later. I sometimes call her Lucifer because of the mischief she gets into. Once, she attacked Lucky and again put him in the hospital.

Like Lucky and Lucy, I am part animal. I can not deny the part of me that is animal in nature. I eat, sleep, have animal metabolism and characteristics.

Yet within me I recognize a spark of something else, something I will call a divine spark. Maybe this is a reflection of something from outside myself. Maybe people have evolved a consciousness that is the first thing in the physical universe that can recognize that spark of divinity.

Did that divine spark not exist before it evolved in humans, or before humans evolved the ability to recognize it? I can not offer proof, but I choose to believe that what we might call the divine spark (without realizing what it really is) was always there, at least in potentiality, and thus it was pre-existent and eternal. For if it came into existence only by human evolution, then it could just as easily cease to exist if humans became extinct.

If it did pre-exist, then it is the essence, the divine eternal.

I am not that eternal, but I partake of it, I reflect it, however imperfectly.

This divine spark is present and can be seen in all people. We cannot define it, sub-divide it, or contain. It is what we mean when w use the word divinity. If it is only an artifact of evolution, then we are in a sense “creating God”. But if it pre-existed, then it represents a primordial consciousness and moving force in the universe.

We cherish the divine spark. We seek to emulate it, emphasize it, unfold its inspired virtues and traits. But we can not be wholly one with the spark, for we are part animal also, and the animal part, the evolved part, is what finally obtained the ability recognize the divine spark.

I can not deny the animal that is part of me. But I can admire and worship the divine spark that I recognize.

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the Wall

The Wall is real. It exists. It seperates us from experiences that should be ours, that are right within our grasp...



...the road not taken...

This nature center is within an easy walking distance from the front door of the house I have lived in for the last ten years...the longest I have lived in any one house in my adult life. I only discovered it, though, this summer; right before I must move away for good....due to the contingencies of postmodern life...

This nature center was the site of an old water mill. The painting below is of a different old mill, built by my great great grandfather and his sons. Call it a picture of a picture, and of a completely different mill, just for misdirection, don't you know....

speaking of pictures of pictures, the two shots below were taken by me, a long time ago, on my first business trip to Europe, of Stonehenge. I used a disposable camera bought on the spot. I did not sleep on the plane, I had been up for 48 hours in fact, and when my host picked me up at Heathrow, he asked me what I wanted to see. I said Stonehenge, and we had just enough time to stop by in a mad dash before our first appointment. At the time, they let you go right up to the stones. Soon thereafter, it was fenced off and one can now not get anywhere near as close.

Hey, I wonder what delights are within an easy walk from your front door, but are hidden by the Wall ...

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