Musings

Be at peace with your own soul
then heaven & earth will be at peace with you.

Enter eagerly into the treasure
house that is within you,

And you will see the things that are in heaven,
for there is but one single entry to them both.

The ladder that leads to the Kingdom
is hidden within your soul...

Dive into yourself and in your soul
and you will discover the stairs
by which to ascend.

Saint Isaac of Syria (circa 7th century)
Nestorian monk from Beth Abhe on the Persian Gulf
Bishop of Nineveh (circa 660-680)

Essential Recording: Natty Dread

Natty Dread captures Bob Marley's critical transition from the Wailers band (Peter Tosh & Bunny Wailer moved on to solo careers)to reluctant frontman and preeminent writer/composer. With a sharply-focused lens, he set the world ablaze with a unique blend of Rastafarian metaphysics, socio-political critique, conscious lover's rock, historical reflection & clairvoyant vision. This 1974 release is rooted in a deep tradition of protest and acerbic wit. Al Anderson's transporting guitar frills, Bernard Touter Harvey's telegraphic keyboard, the I-Threes' angelic harmonizing and a wicked horn section provides a fully matured & riveting reggae at its most focused, righteous and rhythmically irresistible. 

Enjoy!!



:::MixMasterE:::

The Story Of Stuff

(This is the dirty little secret in Economics that teachers/mainstream journalists are loathe to tell. After all, they have to keep the habituated consumer mentality alive without the intrusion of some nettlesome critique of the "invisible hand" of the market. Shop til you drop, y'all! Make some time though to at least consider the points made in this presentation).

Peace

::MixMasterE::

We Are Together: The Children Of Agape

Agape (pronounced “AH-gah-pay”) is from the Greek for “brotherly love.” Agapic love is charitable, selfless, patient, undemanding and chaste. Those who have it do not expect it to be returned. Agape is best illustrated by those who anonymously help others.

After watching "We Are Together: The Children Of Agape", I was amazed at the resilience, creativity and courage of the human spirit in the face of the most tragic of circumstances--HIV/AIDS. Those of us in the West who take so many things for granted are but spiritual orphans when compared to this group of children from the Agape orphanage in South Africa. Their beauty is haunting & redemptive, strangely transporting, but also potentially discomfiting. I will not review the film here, but I will encourage everyone to look at it and fully appreciate & absorb the meaning of agape which the great Martin Luther King describes as, "... an overflowing love which is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless, and creative. It is not set in motion by any quality or function of its object. It is the love of God operating in the human heart.”. We all fall short of this ideal, but we have to try for without this type of love and understanding, our lives are somewhat diminished, I think.

Here is a preview of this illuminating HBO Special(check listing for time):



I encourage all to buy the soundtrack as all profits fro this CD will be donated to help improve the lives of children affected by AIDS in South Africa. I put together a sample of each song on the following playlist:



ONELove!

::MixMasterE::

Letter To An Atheist

The position of atheists has always perplexed me. Whether they base their beliefs on empiricism, humanism, naturalism, scientific skepticism or some other mode befitting their idea of "free thinkers", they seem so sure of the non-existence of God. Sometimes it seems more than a non-belief -- more of a hatred of anything related to the concept or belief in a Creator. I wonder -- can Love be explained or rationalized? Can intuition? Mystical experiences? If not, then how can God be explained? And if one does try to put God in a neat, air-tight analytical framework, how does one explain the need for believing in God that goes back to the dawn of humanity? Whether mono- or polytheistic, most human cultures have held on to some notion of (a) supreme entity/entities. Other than music and poetry, my belief in God is confirmed everyday by observation and awe at the wonder of creation--the formation of a rain cloud & the way light filters through it, a hummingbird looking for food, ants lined up in order with some purpose in mind, twilight, a new born baby....it's endless.

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in all of your philosophy"- Shakespeare writing as "Hamlet")

Words can be trite when trying to explain the ineffable. The handiwork of God is writ large in the pictures below. Rationalize away, oh lonely atheist!





















OneLove!!

:::MixMasterE:::

Another Summer Soul Mix

MME's Basement Mix (Remixed)

OneLove!

:::MixMasterE:::

On Knowing Yourself

When I listened to this interpretation of the classic "Tin Man" (originally done by America) by one of the most eclectic groups in the business, namely, Incognito, I finally understood what the song was about: You may find yourself in a situation or with a group of people that seem alien. You find your head spinning as you try to adapt and fit in knowing deep inside that what you're experiencing is far from what you consider real or authentic. In the end, the key is to know who you are. Just like the Tin Man in the Wizard Of Oz which the song references, you may find that there is something inside you that you didn't know existed, but it was there all along.

You just have to know yourself.

..what is reality?

Clasik- What Is Reality?

Real Is -

- what nothing that comes in a bottle can ever give you.

- what the poet feels when he taps into his veins and spills his blood on the page out with a truth so absolute that it would shatter if one letter were out of place.

- what you feel when you read a poet’s words and tremble as if some long-silent part of yourself had written them.

- what separates the song you first heard ten years ago that can still stir up the marrow of your being, from the song you just heard on MTV that you won’t even remember ten days from now.

-when you can find it in yourself to let it go, even though you know you’re right.

- when a cool breeze and the presence of a gently laughing tree are enough to make you feel at home in the universe.

-when you find something that you didn’t know you needed until the moment you see it — and when, years and decades hence, you can’t imagine it never having been a part of your life.

-when you never needed to ask the question, and s/he never needed to give you the answer.

- every choice you ever make that you will never regret tomorrow, no matter how much it takes out of you today.

-what you both have that keeps you with each other without needing to be in the same room.

- whatever name you give to the greater power that you’ve always been a part of.

- when it hurts like hell, but you wouldn’t dare give back a moment of it.

- when you can smile as you burn yourself away to a pile of ashes, not just because you’ll rise out of them again and not just because you know how it will feel, but because you’ll know exactly how much it means.

- when you don’t want to do it but you do it anyway.

- when you are near the one you love and you feel like you just got home.

-everything you can’t find words for — because you never need to.