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Monday, August 20, 2012

Common Sense

I returned to Moab yesterday, camping out in the heat last night.

The Peace Corps reunion in San Diego went really well.  My Peace Corps friend, Stephanie, drove me there from Colorado, and, of course, it was splendid getting to know her better.  We were both so happy we overcame our reluctance to go. It was the first I'd seen most those folks in 23 years, since we were in Ecuador together.  I was actually really surprised to see how little everybody had changed.  Joe Griffith (I think voted the "sexiest" in Peace Corps training), who had disappointed his fellow female volunteers (and some male :-)  by marrying an Ecuadorian, pretty much organized the whole event.  His Ecuadorean wife and sister-in-law even cooked up a gourmet Ecuadorean feast for us, which brought back a flood of magical memories.

On returning to Moab, I got to spend time with Carolyn and her new boyfriend, Thembe, who had dropped into the area for a couple weeks.  They then brought me to Fruita, Colorado, to visit my parents.

In Fruita, I discovered a group of new friends (Kyle and Jeanine, Ken and Rachelle, Cullen and Veronica), and a rad, artsy center they'd created, called Cavalcade.  They wanted to jam in Cullen's woodshop (he also makes harps and guitars), and I figured I'd join these refined musicians with my rookie guitar skills.  There were a bunch of woodsaws hanging up, and somebody jokingly asked if anybody played the saw.  I said, "yes," and sawed some tunes with them.  They convinced me to stay longer and play saw in Cavalcade's variety show with Kyle Harvey.   

Meanwhile, I've been reading a book my Missoula friend, Kate, gave me, "The Spell of the Sensuous", by David Abram. At first I'd thought it was just another nice nature book.  The title kind of throws you.  But it is utterly profound, with revolutionary ideas.  Maybe if it had a different title, and not classified as a nature book, it might be more well known, in fact revolutionary, to scientific, as well as theological and philosophical, thinking.  It's helping me crystallize ideas developing for decades in me.  I hope to write them out sometime.  Meanwhile, here's some musings it inspires in me:

COMMON SENSE

All physical reality is sensual.
All physical reality is known only by the senses.

The senses are the prophets, the seers, the sent,
bearing witness to Unchanging Consciousness.

To repress the sensual is to deny physical reality,
To deny the sensual is to deny compassion,
to deny the Word in the flesh,
Consciousness in the flesh.

Paradoxically, to repress the sensual is to be a slave to the sensual,
to express and share the sensual is to be served by the sensual.
To express and share passion is compassion.
How?

Passion is sense.
Shared sense is common sense.
Common sense is common passion.
Common passion is compassion.

Senses hidden, senses not shared,
Passion hidden, passion not shared
are our slaveholders,
are our destruction.

Compassion is Omni-pre-sence
Omnipresence is God in everyone,
One Consciousness in everyone.
Compassion is Common Sense.

All physical things are sensed.
To share all things is to commonly sense.
To share everything is common sense!
Common sense is concensus.

To think we own anything
is to deny common passion,
to deny common sense,
is to deny omni-pre-sence!

To breathe is to share,
air common to all.
To breathe is to be alive.
To breathe is to sense.
To breathe is to make sense.

To breathe is common sense!
To breathe is to respire, inspire,
be filled with the Spirit,
To realize all life
literally is One Breath,
One Spirit,
Whole Spirit,
Wholly Spirit,
Holy Spirit.

Can you possess air?
can you own breath for later? 

To deny this common sense
is to deny Omni-pre-sense.

Possession means possessed.
Possessed means not free.
Not free means bought and sold.
Only slaves and prostitutes
can be bought and sold,
Slaves to our senses,
because we repress our senses.

Free means priceless.

Free Market is an oxymoron!
Free literally means free!

Market is price institution.
Price institution is pros-titution.
Prostitution is commerce.
Commerce is common market.
Common market opposes common sense.
Common sense is com-passion.
Common sense is consensus.

(In Hebrew, commerce is canaan.
All the world has become Canaan).

Mammon is delusion.
Delusion is idolatry,
mistaking illusion for reality.
Compassion is reality.
Reality is omnipresent.
Omnipre-sence is common sense.

Either love Mammon
and hate Reality
or vise versa.
It 's impossible to love both.
Can you simultaneously love
both the Prostitute of Babylon
(Queen of Commerce)
and the New Jerusalem
(Queen of Grace, of Gratis)?

If life cannot share
how can it be life?
To buy and sell life is to deny life.
Every particle in the Universe is life.
Universe means omnipresence.

To not share is to reject all the Universe,
to repress your own senses,
to not sense the senses of others,
to reject compassion,
to not make sense,
to reject common sense.

Compassion is the Spirit
breath, sense,
Spirit confessing the Word in the flesh,
beyond words.
Any spirit that does not share
denies the Word made flesh.
Because any spirit that does not share
is in a lung that does not breath,
not speaking the Word beyond words.

Common Breath
Common Sense

I said in my heart, 
"Concerning the condition of the descendants of Adam, 
God tests them, 
that they may see that they themselves are animals."
For what happens to the descendants of Adam 
also happens to animals; 
one thing befalls them: 
as one dies, so dies the other. 
Surely, they all have One Spirit*.
Adam has no advantage over animals, 
for all is emptiness.
All go to one place: 
all are from the dust, 
and all return to dust.
(The Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:17-20)

*Hebrew, Ruach, meaning Spirt or Breath.

  


11 comments:

  1. All physical reality is sensual.
    All physical reality is known only by the senses.

    LOL, I just saw a sermon by Peter Hiett at the Sanctuary Downtown in Denver, CO. He spoke about the trouble people have with the admonition by Paul in 4 of his letters to: "Greet all God’s people with a holy kiss".

    Life is meant to be lived. Thank You Suelo!

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  2. Daniel, we loved having you in Fruita! And your saw-playing skills are amazing. Hope to see you again soon - you're welcome anytime.

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  3. Greeting from san diego. Your life is such an inspiration! Thank you for making us aware that there is more to life than just wealth. God bless.

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  4. Wow, Common Sense is a lovely work Suelo! The Cavalcade reminds me of my teenage years. Back when I was a guitarist in a a local band we would go to a little place here in Fort Wayne called Jam Crib to meet up and play shows. It is very similar to the cavalcade. That and The Fire House Tea and Coffee Cafe. It was and old fire station converted into a restaurant and theater! So much room, so much history, such authenticity! I can remember it being wall to wall to with young happy and free people. There to enjoy music. To enjoy life! No worries. All of their friends in one place, everybody coming together as one to enjoy themselves, to support us local musicians. To show love for the community. I still remember being in those moments. Never wanting them to end. Why can't every moment of everyone's life be as fun, be as unified, and simply be as happy? Every moment of life should be as fulfilling and just as memorable!
    To have it any other way is love and life lost.
    It is our duty to make it count :)

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  5. Very beautiful, Suelo.

    There are a couple things I've been wanting to share with you.
    1. Have you ever heard of EFT (emotional freedom technique) aka tapping? It is a self-help form of healing and I have overcome lifelong depression and phobias. EFTUniverse is a great resource to learn about it. Here is an interesting link that you might find interesting (think Quantum Physics, Reality, and more)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0aHgkfKKbM

    2. Interesting book: "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins

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  6. Well I disagree with the concept that suppression of the sensual is to become a slave of the sensual. In fact, to not have control over our passions, the sensual can become our slave.

    Passions are neither moral nor immoral, but how the free will acts them out.

    The child molester or rapist are acting out their passion to serve the sensual which was never kept under control.

    Same is true of the thief or CEO who robs his employees pension fund. Both are serving their passion which in their own self-serving appetite, is an apparent good, for themselves.


    Passions can have an apparent good, while at the same time be actually evil.

    It's why a philosopher once wrote, "true freedom isn't necessarily the privilege of having the choice between good or evil, but the ability to choose only good."

    This is because what we see as good, is often serving our own appetite, rather than the common good. The thief sees the benefit the money will do him as good, but refuses to see the evil it does to the victim.

    Just my own thoughts here.

    Jim



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    1. I see what you're saying, Jim. But there is a vast difference between suppression of passions and basic control of passions. Suppression is denial of something's existence, based on the belief that it is evil. No good can ever come from suppressing anything that exists in nature. Suppression of passions results in those passions coming out in unhealthy ways, such as rape and child molestation. We see this playing out in the rampant child molestation and rape in a religious system that has for centuries regarded passions as evil, to be repressed. One can never, ever have control over something repressed. Push a seed under the ground and it will grow. When what is natural is acknowledged as natural, brought to the Light, then it begins to serve us, rather than us serving it. What is kept in darkness eventually controls us.

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  7. I see the answer as being to share what you have.when we get the people of the world to truly engage in that,we will have an equitable ,non exploitive world.I think this is really the message you seek to share,Suelo.work without expectation of payment is really just sharing your life energy with another.Anyway my take on all this.

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  9. I like reading your comments. There is enough for everybody's need but not for anybody`s greed. I started washing my clothes by hand i don't have a car anymore no credit card only spend what i have.Bring much stuff to the recycling for other people or go to the recycling myself take my bicycle to go places. This lifestyle is loads of fun. I also think about growing my own food. Thanks suelo,you give me inspiration.

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  10. Suelo...I just received an activist email from CredoAction : "Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Don't frack near Arches National Park." More copied content: "Despite the clear danger to these precious national treasures, and serious concerns over nearby Moab's drinking water, BLM is moving forward with a February oil and gas lease auction without even preparing an environmental impact statement to determine the full consequences."

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