my nurture. and yet my mass seems to
know its own elusive boundaries. Put on it by the unknown and it does
not step into a void of endless fear that I see but it seems to feel the
immanence of love. Ebb and flow is the cycle of life and hi all things this exists. No matter what you do and no matter how you fear - The ceaseless protects your shell until its light returns. Don't ask why these spirit less moments endure. For time is only of the earthbound.
Know this... That circles do meet and sorrows pass to love. It has been so and will always be. When the time comes, the questions drop and the tight of love provides its truth. Unconquered by boundaries, there you shall find a plane... beyond what you now comprehend and not return. For we never return to the same place as sure as we grow...places and
tunes fall away... as they will. New experience replaces old. Past love remains undaunted, for only it is true. And as my spirit flys beyond me now... I ache for its return, know it will be greater.. having left my wearisome body... Finding nourishment in places only it can go. -Robert Shannon
Some thoughts after a trip to Whiskeytown Ca, Apr-87 by Bob Shannon April 14, 1987
When I was young, philosophies -filled me, as did the naive answers and panaceas that I thought would fix the world. I had an overly high regard -for my prophecies however and folks wearied of my dooms day projections. Instead of attending college classes I skipped them to hang out across the street in a pub of sorts, by the name of The Bell Bar (some pub?!). Here I wiled away the hours imbibing quarts of bathtub gin (Annie). Actually it was beer and as far as I can reckon, it was gallons that went down. In Ohio, the 18 year old could drink 3.2% beer and I did do that with a vengeance. Never really got drunk though, just more philosophical.... sometimes accurately philosophical. Real drunken times were to come much later.
Sometimes folks actually listened as I told them of the war machine and the problems with the environment. This was however, 1965 and the type of folks who hung out at the Bell Bar were unaccustomed to worrying about such as this. These were the working folks and usually did not take a liking
to mildly long haired types who drank and rambled.Have I lost that philosophy....No way!. Problem is that most folks that used to listen and agree have assimilated into the materialistic cultures like the Sacramento area, which to me is a large shopping mall and growing outwards like some functional cancer.... something landed from a strange world above and talked its way into our living rooms then grew around us till we are about to strangle from Korean imported clothes.... gas pump hoses that pretend to re-uptake the harmful vapors but actually emit them at more remote sites....and malls of concrete that hold out the heat and stay cool inside by utilizing hundreds of thousands of dollars in air conditioning. And everyone who hasn't visited a mall today will visit one tomorrow, so the highways are bumper to bumper and they all seem to be in that same old hurry they were in back in 65 but there are more of them and they are going faster even though the speed limit is lower. The illusionary world has its Zen paradoxes as well. First they enticed us to the valley with^tales of swimming pools and a leisure life, then they showed us the* environmental price tag. Entropy exists at this macroscopic level and the big bang which started it all will be far from our ears as we end it all with a whimper.
How far I have come though and on which . path? Or is there only one and it weaves from this to that as I understand more and more. One cannot see three young girls being raised in the wilderness (or what is left of it) without feeling a great compassion in the heart chakra. Now this compassion would be raised in any commonly decent person of which I hasten to add there are not many left....but these young girls being raised by a single mother? And one who is accomplishing the task because she has realized that this isn't a task at all but life itself...and she is just breathing it all in and sharing it with those she loves. God how I am empathetic. I feel the calling of the road....The old time wanderer in me. Watching the sun rise on Pikes Peak as I walked my way across Colorado in '63 AWOL from an Army that wanted to send me off to kill orientals ,and now my best friend an oriental. How ironic! Sleeping in farmers fields and waking to the sounds of a cow bell as ol' Bessy munched hay and stared at my slumbering self. Was this a 23 year old dream? One knew the spirit in those days. I felt the sun warm my body which had been warmed at night by only a jacket pulled tight over my head...sometimes waking at night shivering, but knowing that all was really ok.
A feeling is generated. A spark is ignited. Somewhere inside my chest a
kindling has taken place. I knew it was coming. The past three years my
spirit has called me to read and with a voracious appetite I read book
after book. Krishnamuriti, Merton,Watts, Taoism (my favorite), Zen,
Theosophy, Ram Dass...and on and on., then as I watched The Razors
Edge, it came to me that reading was only the beginning and the real
work was going on somewhere deeper inside. Questions were being asked
and being answered. The spirit was taking control. The Kundalini was
awakened without my knowledge of such a thing nor am I sure that
calling it by that name defines anything more than a feeling that
others can relate to. Metaphysics, God, Christ, Krishna...what was all
this and what did it mean to me? New Physics? What did it have to do
with synthesized and original Hinduism and how did this all relate to
me and the world. I asked and I still ask but the question becomes more
vague and the answers are less important as my eyes begin to open to
the real life of the world passing on by me.Is there a future for me? I should hope so...And where is it? Methinks it is right in front of me and if I see the signs correctly, I have always been living the truth and AM the truth but never realized it. Life is too beautiful to be closed minded and life is too short to be blinded by a faith of materialism that can never replace a second growth redwood tree or a small girl playing on the beach. One who was trained at home and knows how to interact with her world and ours. In the Gnostic Gospels, books that were found in Egypt in this century, was one quote that answered it all. This more esoteric quote from the Gospel of Thomas which is not a part of the known bible but one of the mystic texts excavated during the post war generation...yet it displays a knowledge that one can derive from Buddhists and Hindus as well.
"Become passers by"
And if I can pass by with my eyes open and my mind open and my heart open, then and only then can I succeed in my given task. Only I know what that is and it is revealed to me in the world of ife itself..... trees. ... animals.... lakes and waters and oceans...and unicorns and those who blow the pan flute. Some who walk the roads with none more than a backpack of down and for all I know may be Sanyasins.... angels woods with no shoes. Some who write Some who write them. Those who flash the peace sign. Those who travel to Central America to help others who are oppressed by our government. And those who sleep in vans with their small but spiritual/mystical families. This is the heartbeat of the world. Without these and those of us who see them and are with them in spirit, the world would not exist...yet even if it did...I would not wish to be a part of it...sorts.