One day the sun admitted,
I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you
The infinite incandescence
that has cast my brilliant image!
I wish I could show you
when you are lonely or in darkness
The astonishing light
of your own being.
-Hafiz
The Atlas of Curiosities: Part 9
Though he did not reveal by what craft he had captured the birds, or in what environment he kept them, the boy indicated that he renewed his attempt at flight each morning. Though it was unclear how he had secured the yarn around them, or by what magic they were uninjured and unescaped, he nodded solemnly when we inquired into these details, ensuring us that he had taken the birds welfare into consideration. The cold winter’s morning brought that strange feeling to our noses, and our breath was visible as he trudged out into the field. Looking around, he seemed satisfied that there was plenty of space for an attempt.
He gazed quietly up at the clouds, perhaps judging windspeed, or contemplating the conditions of Michigan’s upper atmosphere. Then, he looked down, holding his chin against his chest, and with a flourish he extended his arms, allowing the birds to extend their wings. They surged upwards and for a moment the silence was broken by their squawking, struggling attempts at liftoff.
The boy did not look up, but after several seconds had passed and his feet had not left the ground, he sighed and lowered his arms. Pulling on the lines of yarn one by one, he brought the birds back into his arms and covered them with his jacket. Black feathers floated down around him, landing one by one in the snow.
“I try,” he said quietly. “Everyday I try.”
He began walking quietly back to his home, where his mother, and perhaps his daily chores, were waiting. While our boots crunched the snow, he paused, and we caught up to him, and he looked up at the sky again.
In which Tim Treadwell is kidnapped by rabbit scientists, turned into a bear, cloned, put in a rocket ship, flown into outer space, landed on an alien planet and subseqeuntly consumed by a ferocious alien.
I experienced a roller coaster of emotions.
According to the The Guardian, a Spanish teenager who was recognized by Tibetan Buddhists as a Lama (reincarnated spiritual leader) has denounced his Buddhism and returned to Spain.
As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped as by monks who treated him like a god. But the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader has caused consternation – and some embarrassment – for Tibetan Buddhists by turning his back on the order that had such high hopes for him.
Instead of leading a monastic life, Osel Hita Torres now sports baggy trousers and long hair, and is more likely to quote Jimi Hendrix than Buddha.
...blah blah blah…
According to the foundation biography, another leader suspected Torres was the reincarnation of the recently deceased Lama Yeshe when he was only five months old. In 1986, at 14 months, his parents took him to see the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The toddler was chosen out of nine other candidates and eventually “enthroned”.
At six, he was allowed to socialise only with other reincarnated souls – though for a time he said he lived next to the actor Richard Gere’s cabin.
By 18, he had never seen couples kiss. His first disco experience was a shock. “I was amazed to watch everyone dance. What were all those people doing, bouncing, stuck to one another, enclosed in a box full of smoke?”
It is only a matter of time before he reaches enlightenment. The original story of the Buddha, of course, is one of a rich prince, Siddhartha, who is not allowed to leave the palace until he reaches adulthood. Feeling rebellious, he convinces a servant to bring him into the surrounding town. Once there, he witnesses sickness, old age, and death, things that were hidden from him throughout his early life. Confronted with the reality of the world in which he lives, Siddhartha embarks on a life of harsh monasticism, nearly starving himself to death. Later, realizing that neither hedonism nor deprivation is productive, he finds the Middle Path, and becomes the Buddha, the awakened one.
This is the same story, it is just happening in a slightly rearranged order. The kid will be under a Bodhi tree intercessing for all beings in short order.
During the years following Vietnam, the army became convinced that the Chinese had thousands of children who were clairvoyant. Somewhat mystified, the CIA, NSA and DIA did their own research into mind-control, remote viewing, and other New Age concepts. Among the largest and most well funded of these was the First Earth Battalion which originated on the ideas and writings of one Jim Channon.
His philosophical impetus is as follows:
Chinese monks were often attacked by robbers. They developed a new fighting system based on using the force of the attacker against him. Likewise the soldiers of the First Earth will learn martial arts with the same ethical basis. No Earth soldier shall be denied the kingdom of heaven because he or she is used as an instrument of indiscriminate war. The conscience will be developed together with the ability to neutralize the opponent.
Skill sets he hoped to ingender in the armed forces included the following categories of warrior monks:
PEOPLE
All warrior monks, but an interdependence of New Age skills as well.
[The graphic shows the following skills, all emanating from a central Spirit Wizard]
* Spirit wizard
* Meditation leader
* Martial arts wizard
* Nutritionist herbalist
* Vexillographer (flags and banners)
* Cinematographer
* Old tapes
* Holographer
* Printer
* Minstrels
* Video technoid
* Satellite technoid
* Laser technoid
* General systems theorist
* Physicist
* Futurist
* Builder
* Conservationist
* Indian tracker [sic]
I would hope to be a spirit wizard (which sounds neat) mixed with a futurist/indian tracker (to help me find dinner at lunch time). I would settle for Vexillographer, but to be honest, I wouldn’t want to be Printer. That sounds boring.
It seems well and good, but the research Channon conducted went on to be used in part for “enhanced interrogation techniques” and methods used at the standoff at Waco, Texas. In short, his hippy powers were used for evil.
To learn more about the interesting goings-on and the writing of Channon, go here.
Atlas of Curiosities: Part 8
While heading in to shore off the coast of southern Australia, we were approached by two men in a small rowboat who claimed to have an animal unlike any we had ever seen. Holding up a large glass jar, we were confronted with a mass of foliage not unlike that of a carrot, or a clump of seaweed. Remarkably, the plant began to move about, seemingly in possession of not only the gift of locomotion, but of sentience.
Asking for a closer look, we were told that the creature could only be viewed for a price. Growing irate, a young member of our crew leapt from the deck of our vessel into the sea and hoisted himself into the rowboat. In the ensuing scuffle, he won control of the jar, only to see it smashed in his hands by an oar swung the more dexterous of his adversaries. Diving into the water after the beast, the young man found himself in a sea full of weeds, and for the life of him he could not discern the direction in which the true specimen had fled.
“Lost!” he moaned as he climbed back aboard, “lost forever.”
Once ashore, we met a town doctor, who was familiar with the species. After telling him of our misadventures, he remarked that the young man’s actions had likely saved the specimen’s life, as he could not fathom such a creature surviving in a glass jar for more than a few hours. We passed this information on to the young man, who, upon seeing the rendering our artist produced of the beast, insisted upon the jar being drawn as well. Without it, he said, the depiction was “wholly unbelievable.”
Here is an interesting paradox:
Suppose you walk past a barber’s shop one day, and see a sign that says
“Do you shave yourself? If not, come in and I’ll shave you! I shave anyone who does not shave himself, and noone else.”
This seems fair enough, and fairly simple, until, a little later, the following question occurs to you - does the barber shave himself? If he does, then he mustn’t, because he doesn’t shave men who shave themselves, but then he doesn’t, so he must, because he shaves every man who doesn’t shave himself… and so on. Both possibilities lead to a contradiction.
Apparently this problem gave mathematicians like Bertrand Russel a big headache at the beginning of the 20th century, and almost made some people give up on life entirely.
I don’t think it is that big a deal, because the barber could just be a woman.
Paradoxes are kind of fun though, especially ones about God being all powerful and all. One nice one goes “Could God create a burrito so big that even God could not eat it?” I like this one because it helps me imagine what an infinite burrito would be like, and it also helps me imagine God eating that burrito in an instant. What this would do to the divine digestive tract is anyone’s guess.
The Atlas of Curiosities: Part 7
Wandering through the Nagano prefecture of what was once the Shinano district, we came upon a grassy field. In the distance there was a lone tree in full bloom, though it was not the season for flowers. How was this possible?
Our host told a story which to us seemed tangentially related:
“There was once a pauper living in this district who was called Issa. He was an orphan, which in that place and time meant that he had little chance of material success or happiness. Beaten as a child, he traveled from place to place, living off the kindness of others and writing short poems to himself. In time achieved enough stability to get married and have a son. Soon though, even this short period of calm was disturbed as his wife and his son both passed away. Despite his great suffering, his haiku are radiant in their humility, their compassion, and their friendliness towards life.”
How was the story of this pauper related to the tree in full bloom, we asked our host.
“Issa believed that all things issued from a central source which was, if nothing else, beautiful. This was how he was able to maintain his compassionate nature despite the trials life threw at him.”
Yes, yes, but the flowers…we urged him.
“Near the end of his life,” our host said with a sigh, “Issa lived alone in a small wooden hut in this district. The old man had three possessions: A lamp, a pen, and a bedroll. During a stormy January night, he was preparing to sleep when with a bump from his elbow he toppled the lamp and set the straw floor of his hut ablaze. He escaped, but it was only a matter of minutes before his hut was fully engulfed in flames. He walked away from the blaze in the quickly deepening snow. As he walked he grew weary, and, knowing he could go no further, lay his bedroll onto the snowy ground.
He was found in the morning; he had passed away in the night. Under his pillow was found the last of his 20,000 haiku.”
We listened, in silence now.
“There are thanks in order:
the snowflakes on this bedroll,
they too, are from god.
This is the last haiku of Kobayashi Issa.”
Wind blew, and we were no closer to understanding the mystery of the tree in full bloom. I asked that the scene by committed to our records, along with the verse as our host had translated it. Strangely, the tree’s resplendent bloom eluded our artist, who was forced to settle for bare branches in his recreation.
The Atlas of Curiosities: Part 6
While in the state of Yap we were shown the remarkable form of currency used by the local population since antiquity. Giant stone disks, crafted on Yap or on neighboring islands are valued not only based on their mass, but on their age and history. Strangely, the money often changes hands without being moved, as it would take over twenty men to lift a single coin. In past ages, we were told, the giant monies were moved by canoe, though today they are largely stationary.
Producing a coin from our treasury to show our host, we were met with laughter. “That is your great wealth?” he gasped. “That?”
Inquiring about the history of our coin, he was concerned to find that we could not tell him who the previous owners were, nor where the thing was made or during the reign of which ruler.
Lone man gets down with his bad self
And is apparently contagious.