Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita,” a bitter satire of Soviet life at the height of Stalin’s purges, captured the surrealist experience of living in a brutal totalitarianism. In the novel’s world, lies are considered true and truth is considered seditious. Existence is a dark carnival of opportunism, unchecked state power, hedonism and terrorism. It is peopled with omnipotent secret police, wholesale spying and surveillance, show trials, censorship, mass arrests, summary executions and disappearances, along with famines, gulags and a state system of propaganda utterly unplugged from daily reality. This reality is increasingly becoming our own.
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Monday, March 10, 2014
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Mind and reality
Thoughts...
- Poetry
"Poetry is the only concrete proof of the existence of man." - Luis Cardoza y Aragón - Life
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
-Henry David Thoreau - The Blackness
"When you see the blackness like this, then you will know this blackness is the beginning of your work."- Mirror of the Philosophers
Definitions
Reading Material
Gabriel García Márquez: Living to Tell the Tale
The incredible saga of Gabriel García Márquez' life.Nelson Foster: The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader (Ecco Companions)
One of the best book detailing the lives and teachings of some of the Chinese Ch'an masters who created what we now know as Zen Buddhism. Excellent!Gabriel Garcia Marquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
From my favorite author, my favorite book.Chris Hedges: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
Classic Chris Hedges who thinks deeply about our empire and our world culture. He goes to the root of the world problems we face.Wade Davis: One River
The tale of two generations of Harvard ethnobotanists who explored the jungles of South America discovering the amazing array of unknown plants particularly the hallucinogens, rubber and coca. Living with and learning from the native people what they discovered has crucial relevance to 21st century man.Gene Sharp: Power and Struggle (Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part 1)
Professor Sharp has made a life of study deconstructing Non-violent action throughout recorded history. In this 1st volume he elucidates the reasons that non-violent action works and what are the realities of power and what power derives from.Eihei Dogen/Kazuaki Tanahashi/John Daido Loori: The True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Three Hundred Koans
A beautiful collection of Zen Koans by the great zen master Eihei Dogen, translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi with commentary and verse by John Daido Loori.Baisao: The Old Tea Seller: Life and Zen Poetry in 18th Century Kyoto
A very special book about a Zen monk who leaves the monastery and sells tea on the streets of Kyoto. A beautiful translation.Jim Baggott: A Beginners Guide to Reality
A tour of how our minds create reality...David Chadwick: To Shine One Corner of the World : Moments with Shunryu Suzuki
Suzuki Roshi at his finest. Collected by David Chadwick
Poetry
Dorianne Laux: Smoke
An original and beautiful look at the world through open eyes.Charles Wright: A Short History of the Shadow: Poems
Charles is a fine poet, His poems are sensitive and illuminating.Peter Dale Scott: Minding the Darkness: A Poem for the Year 2000
An epic poem by a poet who is a Buddhist and a researcher of the US government's secret activities. An extraordinary piece of literature!Christopher Buckley: The Geography of Home: California's Poetry of Place (California Poetry Series)
An anthology of California poets, a great collectionOctavio Paz: The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987: Bilingual Edition
a crystal willow, a poplar of water,
a tall fountain the wind arches over,
a tree deep-rooted yet standing still,
a course of a river that turns, moves on,
doubles back, and comes full circle,
forever arriving;Wislawa Szymborska: Poems New and Collected 1957-1997
"All poets are in a perpetual dialogue with the phrase I don't know. Each poem, marks an effort to answer this statement, but as soon as the final period hits the page, the poet begins to hesitate, starts to realize that this particular answer was pure makeshift, absolutely inadequate."Ed: Czeslaw Milosz: A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry
An anthology of poems selected for how they render the realities of the world palpable and immediate.
Music
Antonio Carlos Jobim: Passarim
Brazil's great songwriter.Leonard Cohen: Cohen Live Leonard Cohen Live In Concert
Some singer-songwriters fade with age. Leonard did the opposite, sparkling until the end.Yo-Yo Ma: Essential Yo-Yo Ma
A beautiful collection of fine Yo-Yo Ma recordings.Thomas Tallis: Spem in Alium
Magnificat: Thomas Tallis: Spem in Alium
Extraordinary!Iris Dement: Infamous Angel
Iris is a true songwriter and an extraordinary one at that. Her insights are wonderful and her singing and playing are equally wonderful.Enigma: Le roi est mort, VIVE le roi
Ambient, New Age? A great listening album.Cure: Disintegration
In my opinion, the best album of the 80's. Robert Smith's style of playing the 6 string bass is inspired. Prepare to be depressed, it's good for you.Harold Budd/Brian Eno: the Pearl
Classic ambient, produced by Daniel LanoisMorelenbaum2/Sakamoto: Casa
Paula Morelenbaum sings, Jaques Morelenbaum plays cello, and Ryuichi Sakamoto plays piano. They play the works of Antonio Carlo Jobim in his house using his piano. An incredibly fine tribute to one of the giants of Brazilian music. Click Here To see this album
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