obsessive thinking and pre-occupying worry

An old Sufi story tells of a man who found a bottle with a genie inside of it. He pulled the stopper out of the bottle and with a huge puff of smoke, the giant genie was freed and would grant the man anything he wished for.

“But”, the genie told him, “I haven’t had anything to do for a thousand years and am starved for work. So, you must keep me busy or I’ll eat you.”

The man thought that he had been granted a wonderful gift and was sure that he could keep the genie busy with no trouble and would finally get his fondest wish granted. The man immediately told the genie that he had always wanted to have a wonderful castle and no sooner had he voiced it than the wish was granted and a spectacular castle appeared before him. It was the grandest castle in the world. He thanked the genie and promptly wished for some food. In a flash, the worlds best chefs appeared before him with their most famous dishes prepared and ready to be eaten.

The man sat down and started to eat when the genie bellowed, “The only thing that’s going to be eaten is you – if you don’t give me some work to do.” The man trembled in fear and quickly said, “Bring me the most beautiful women in the world to amuse me.” Once again, he was amazed to find that his wish was instantly granted and the room was filled with women of all sizes, colours, nationalities, and all spectacularly beautiful. He had just started to introduce himself when he became aware that the genie was licking his lips and looking hungry.

It was then that he realised that he was in real trouble and didn’t know what to do. He then made his first wise wish – “Genie, take me to the wisest man in the world.” In a flash, he found himself on a mountaintop seated in front of a little old man in a robe. He said, “I know you are the wisest man in the world because that’s who I wished to see and all my wishes come true, but now I don’t know what else to wish for and if I can’t keep the genie busy, he will eat me. Please sir, help me.”

The wise man told him, “All your wishes were selfish. What you must do is promise to share your wealth with everyone everywhere and I will help you.” The man quickly agreed as he became aware that the genie was sharpening up his knife and fork while putting a bib on.

The wise man pulled a hair out of his curly beard and told the man to give it to the genie and command the genie to straighten the hair and keep it straight. The man gave the genie the hair and the command to keep it straight. The genie held each end of the hair in his hands and pulled it straight. With a hungry look, he let go of one end and reached for the man so as to devour him. But, the hair then sprang back to its curly state. The genie then pulled it straight again, leered, and started to grab at the man. Once again, the hair curled up and once again the genie stopped his attack and pulled it straight. The man saw that he had finally given the genie a task it would never finish completing until he wished him to.

He thanked the wise man profusely and kept his vow for the rest of his days. And the man lived happily ever after.

***

If you happen to be in Cape Town this evening, Kev at Labyrinth is exploring century old spiritual tools to cope with obsessive thinking and pre-occupying worry. In his words "forward the invite to your friends - they get lost inside too!"

An economic-cultural crisis is in the works

Guy Rundle has a couple of articles up on Crikey in which he proposes a post-capitalist system that "reverses the current relationship between culture/society and market/economy so that the former determines the latter and not, as currently happens, economy dictating to society and culture."

A neat excerpt:

2) Relocalisation and decommodification -- the current culture economy web of capitalism is based on an implicit social contract, that no-one ever signed up to. Under this contract you work longer and harder, while the price of essentials -- especially home ownership -- are ramped up into lifelong servitude to payment to institutions. The pay-off? Cheap consumer durables and entertainment services.

Forget the civilisational critique of this for a moment -- on its own terms, it pitches the whole society into trembling economic fragility in which a whole way of life is based on Xmas sales, and shopping becomes an essential patriotic activity.

Of course this can't continue -- but the expectations it has raised in people cannot be assuaged by any shift to a harsher economy. A half-century ago, you could get people to work 48 hours a week for a weatherboard, a radiogram, a pub counter meal once a week and three course meal when their daughter got married. Any breach of the current contract -- 50 hours in the office partition for $12 cocktails and DVD box sets -- ain't gonna fly.

Protestant capitalism cannot be re-established after consumer capitalism. And consumer capitalism cannot continue to sustain the Western economy. An economic-cultural crisis is in the works.

and later he says..

a left vision grounds itself ethically on the notion -- promulgated in the great religions, secularised by Kant – that humans should treated each other as ends, not means.

This is from the final part (part three) of Guy Rundle’s rather in-depth but interesting musing on the state of the modern Left, and it's vision of the future.
Part two - "The past and future of the Left" and part one - "The Australian can’t tell its left from right" are also online at Crikey.

Good friends, there's more spirit in a quake than a shake

Here’s a fantastic newspaper article by Melbourne columnist Catherine Deveny of The Age, describing in a wonderful, humorous way her experience of visiting a Quaker meeting last Sunday. Her reflections are even more striking when compared to her experience and previous article about a mega-church youth event she attended.

This article helped me realise why I'm feeling more and more at home with the Quakers, those 'Selfish, power-hungry bastards'. Have a read and please do laugh!

AS I was leaving for the Quakers’ meeting, my mate said: "You need to get there 10 minutes early for the Unveiling Of The Relic".

"What happens then?" I asked.

"Well, the men with the beards, wearing the hoods, shave, brand and sacrifice the newest member, known as The Unclean, before they perform acts in the Circle Of Darkness on The Goat of Truth."

"So who quakes?" I asked.

"Everyone," he said. "Wear clean undies. Trust me."

A discussion then followed about what Quakers were, that, typically, ended up more about what they weren’t. "Aren’t they the ones with the big hats and buckles?" No, they’re the Pilgrims. "Aren’t they the ones who make furniture?" No, they’re the Shakers. "Well, are they the ones with the horses and buggies, Abe Lincoln beards and Little House On the Prairie outfits, who raise barns?" No, they’re the Amish.

Eventually, and after a mention of Uncle Toby (as in the oats), I was off for some red-hot Quaker action. And I was excited. In a grey carpet, fluorescent lights, lots of pamphlets, instant coffee kind of way.

And I wasn’t disappointed. There was indeed grey carpet, fluorescent lights, lots of pamphlets, instant coffee … and 20 chairs in a circle.

If you like sitting in a circle staring into space, you’re gonna love the Quakers. They’re the Claytons religion. The religion you have when you don’t have a religion. Because they’re not a religion. They’re a ‘‘religious society of friends’’. You don’t even have to believe in God to be a Quaker. You don’t even need to be a Quaker to be a Quaker. You can sign up and become a member, or just be an ‘‘attender’’. Jesus! Would it kill you to give me something to be scared of? I’m an escaped Catholic.

They don’t have a church. Or clergy. Or parishioners. Or a doctrine. Just friends, a room, and an ethos of truth, equality, peace and simplicity. Selfish, power-hungry bastards.

"Our worship follows no ritual or order of service. We gather together in a silent meeting, for an hour."

And so we did. Sitting round a coffee table covered in pamphlets with a pot plant in the middle, we mostly sat in silence. Part meditation, part group therapy, part sitting in a doctor’s waiting room.

Every now and then someone would say something about faith, journeys, occasionally even God. One woman talked about a Quaker meeting as a place you come to have your answers questioned. The idea is the spirit connects us all and anyone moved by the spirit can speak.

I was more moved by a dozen people sitting in silence than I was last week by a thousand or so being force-fed mumbo jumbo between power anthems at Planetshakers. I felt more connected to the man asleep next to me at the Quakers than the Planetshaker who spoke in tongues through a song about Opening Your Legs For Jesus, or something.

At the end of the meeting we all held hands and had coffee. I chatted with some Quaker friends who were lovely, despite their belief in an imaginary friend in the sky. They talked about how Quakers are about working it out yourself. DIY spirituality. And how the nature of people being attracted to spiritual anarchy made it difficult to get decisions made and stuff done at times. "God loved the world so much she didn’t send a committee," one joked.

I couldn’t help thinking there’d never be a Quaker terrorist cell. Their inherent non-conformity would make it impossible for them to be extremist about anything. I relate with them. The only thing I believe in is nihilism.

Quakers are mavericks. God, no God. Member, no member. Turn up, don’t. They encourage people to explore other religions. "Quakers do not have a fixed creed, but believe that each individual must find their own understanding of God, and is guided by their conscience in finding the way to live."

It’s hard to be cynical about the Quakers, but that’s not going to stop me. I kept thinking about comedian Bill Hicks talking about the anti-marketing dollar being a good market.

Despite the sensible shoes, serviceable clothes and no-nonsense haircuts, the Quakers know how to have a good time. They’re holding a ’50s night next month called Quake, Rattle and Roll. You gotta laugh. Or not.

What a fantastic column, and sense of humour! Catherine has a new fan!

it's gypsy music time

Ever since my 'balkanology' experience in cape town, I've really enjoyed balkan-gypsy-ish music. it seems like australia-land does too. I went to a Cat Empire concert a while ago, and their support band was Paprika Balkanicus. Combine Balkan sounds with big band jazz and a DJ and you get a very fun night out!

In just over a fortnight's time, there's another Melbourne act coming to town - The Woohoo Revue - and they are combining with Canberra's Mr Fibby for a night of story-telling and musical goodness.

Apparently I should "Expect a big, brassy and very sweaty show from them and a theatrical performance from Mr Fibby that combines Eastern melodies with preposterous stories." Sounds like fun. More about the event here.

doubtful intelligence

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

-- Bertrand Russel

I love this quote. Seems to be true of most progressive people (and faiths) that I know. A big struggle within Quakers is that there is no emphasis on telling people what Quakers believe (because you can only find it out for yourself/there is 'that of God' within you) yet many of the young members' frsutration with the Society comes from the lack of explicit teaching of Quaker principles and values. How do you teach your truth humbly, with the knowledge that there may well be other 'right' ways, and the aim that people think for themselves?

Russel seems to be pretty sure of his intelligent opinions though!

still here (sort of)

I'm still here, just wondering what to do with this blog of mine - close it, archive it or start a new one.
In the meantime, for more recent updates, follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/gbeyers

Quote of the day

"When does the mandate of victimhood expire?" he asked. "At what point does the Nazi genocide of Europe's Jews cease to excuse the state of Israel from the demands of international law and of common humanity?"

Fintan O'Toole, the Irish Times' resident philosopher-in-chief, daring to speak the unspeakable.

If you aren’t tired of all the media coverage and speculation by western writers from their safe offices (like me!) , then you can read the Robert Fisk’s full article, Wherever I go, I hear the same tired Middle East comparisons, in The Independent here.

Fisk continues to say that “journalists should be on the side of those who suffer” – sounds like liberation theology to me.

For a visual representation of O’Tooles thoughts, see Zapiro’s two most recent cartoons.

And then, to balance it out, here’s another well argued piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, from a different point of view - It's too easy just to blame Jews.

Whoever is to blame, it is still a very complex and sorry situation. I hope the violence stops soon, though I’m not holding my breath. Ever since I was old enough to read, I can recall newspaper headlines about violence in the ‘Holy land’ region. When will we realise that violence is never redemptive?

smile!

I've stuck up a few photos of our Sydney travels (Surry Hills and a capoeira roda in Newtown) on Facebook if you want to check them out. We're currently in Melbourne for new years adventuring... photos will be sure to follow.
More importantly, tomorrow i'm off to the MCG for the final day of the test match against Australia... where SA will (hopefully) make history and win the series! Who would have thought this possible after our dismal batting on day two? Forgive me if i have a smug grin on my face for the rest of the week!

the longest day

On Sunday I'm playing in the Longest Day Beach Ultimate Tournament on Sydney's North Narabeen beach, with some friends from Canberra. Billed as Australia's top beach tourney, I'm looking forward to it - especially the boxes of fruit that they bring in for refreshments! Beach, sun, ultimate, fruit, ocean, summer... aah.. what more could one want?
Seeing how much we enjoyed Sydney last time, Julie and I are going to make a weekend of it. We found some budget accommodation at the Quaker House in Surry Hills, so are leaving tonight. Tomorrow we will squeeze in a capoeira class with Mestre Roxinho, window shopping on the colourful Oxford street, dinner in Surry Hills and maybe some more big city excitement.
Today is also the last day of work before the Christmas break, so this is a great way to celebrate the end of the year. Woohoo!

pearls of wisdom from c&h

Calvin and Hobbes is one of my favourite cartoon strips. For me, it ranks right up there alongside the Far Side, Madam and Eve, and Zapiro. I think Calvin has a fabulous imagination, and ridicules 'adult' norms very well. Get your daily dose here.

Here are some priceless quotes for today:

Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out-of-body experience.
~ susie to calvin

People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children.
~ calvin