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Singing the Dawn

by Mankh (Walter E. Harris III)

But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
– Bob Dylan

Cardinal and Carolina Wren singing the dawn,
They have not forgotten their songs.

Yet man, on the other hand,
what went wrong?

A couple-few weeks ago i was starting not to obsess
about washing my hands, when
wham-bam-media-scam
but real lives at stake,
Cold War 2.0 lukewarm
McCarthyism 2.0 red hot
bringing the world to its Knee-o-
NotSees been part of the government in Ukraine since 2014
but you not see that mentioned
in the mainstream corpserate media
where the chatter is not gonna feed ya
rather make you jittery as hell
with a cute little hand-basket on sale, that’s their spell.

PsyOps with Keystone Kops but it’s brutal,
this, no silent screen, rather hear the common people scream.
Gliding the life-giving waters,
a battleship called economic hardship.

One makes a choice to be a voice for the voiceless
but where are the screams for the screaming
all these years in Yemen and Palestine, Syria, Libya and Iraq
all invaded with the boot of the spiritless man and woman,
where are the cries for Original Nations protecting the land?

Social media breeding instant
cyber causes and movements,
everyone’s an expert,
everyone’s a pundit,
everyone’s a charitable brand.
What if people make a point to make time before reacting.
What if people do their homework before acting.
What if people be genuine instead of acting.

Gratitude to the blazing or the clouded sun each morning,
when the world seems unblemished.
There and then, is where the songs are made.

If we are all singing the dawn,
then there wouldn’t be all this fighting on.

Birds chorus singing the dawn
Sunlight in the throat
quivering with the cosmos.

Let us speak from this voice,
sing from this place,
bird’s eye view
show us what to do
and not do,
show us how to feel
the Sun again,
then there wouldn’t be all this fighting on,
birds chorus singing the dawn.

Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic, where this poem first appeared. Check out his newest book Moving Through The Empty Gate Forest: inside looking out.

In addition to his work as a writer and small press publisher, he travels a holistic mystic pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. His website is here.

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Consciousness is all there is

By William T. Hathaway

As Mark Twain once said, “It’s not what you don’t know that gets you in trouble, it’s what you know for sure but which just isn’t true.”

Humanity is now in trouble because its fundamental assumption about the nature of the universe just isn’t true. The materialist worldview that has dominated science and philosophy for the past 200 years has crumbled. Discoveries in quantum physics have disproven it, but no consensus has been able to take its place. Materialists and idealists have been arguing back and forth for decades.

This lack of shared understanding has repercussions that go beyond the laboratory. Without a consistent, agreed-upon worldview, societies don’t function well. As cognitive confusion spreads, our common basis for problem solving weakens.

Now Dr. Tony Nader has developed a holistic worldview that resolves this deadlock. The new knowledge is presented in his recent book, One Unbounded Ocean of Consciousness, and in a series of 14 videos, Consciousness: A New Paradigm. In these works he unifies the dichotomy between matter and spirit, integrating what had been previously thought of as mutually exclusive opposites into a coherent synthesis. In doing so, he makes the paradigm shift complete. And he communicates this in a way that makes these profound topics understandable and relevant to our personal lives.

By overcoming the conceptual gap separating matter from mind, science from spirituality, the human from the divine, he takes us beneath these superficial dualities into the wholeness of life. He conveys the unity underlying all diversity, and he resolves the apparent contradiction between free will and determinism. He even makes the dynamics of spacetime understandable.

Dr. Nader convincingly refutes the prevalent view that our consciousness is just a product of electrical or biochemical activity in the brain. Expanding on the latest developments in unified-field physics, he establishes consciousness as an infinite reservoir of creativity and intelligence out of which matter and the entire universe manifest. Consciousness is all there is. It is every person’s true Self and the ultimate reality of everyone and everything.

He states that understanding and expanding consciousness is fundamental to any attempt to solve the existential, environmental, and social problems we all face today.  The way to develop our personal consciousness is to directly experience the unbounded ocean of pure Consciousness, which is the source of every person’s thoughts and feelings. Accessing it is not difficult; on the contrary, it is simple, easy, effortless, and natural.

When you experience this unbounded ocean of Consciousness, you are experiencing a fourth state of your personal consciousness. This state is entirely different from waking, sleeping, or dreaming. This transcendental consciousness has its own physiological parameters and mental characteristics. It is more restful than deep sleep and more mentally alert than ordinary waking consciousness.

Dr. Nader describes how to reach this fourth state and also higher ones in One Unbounded Ocean of Consciousness  and in Consciousness: A New Paradigm.

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William T. Hathaway is an emeritus Fulbright professor of American studies at universities in Germany, where he currently lives.

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How to Get into a Jam: Four Stages of Personal Evolution

The following excerpt from Flutes Jam: A Guide to Improvisation addresses issues that apply to group music in any context, whether playing a drum or flute or other instrument. It could apply as well to the daily performance (or jam) we call life.

  1. Unconscious self-absorption

Not listening, not paying attention to others or the wider music. Maybe focused on the instrument, the melody, the rhythm, but in solo bubble: inspired by some private muse, but unaware. Or simply daydreaming, fantasizing, worrying, thinking… buffered from the living organism of the jam.

  1. Hyperconscious self-absorption

“When you’re nervous it’s because you think everyone’s looking at you and the first thing to realize is they’re not. It’s just a big ego trip. Plus, when you’re feeling like that, all the energy is coming in toward you. You’re making it happen that way. The thing to do is turn it around and send the energy out. To be giving energy to what’s happening. Like Olatunji says, Service.” —Friday Night Jam

  1. Global awareness, energy of all, witness, transparent eyeball

Present in the space: listening. Harmonizing, gelling in time, joining the flow. Holding steady, with wide-lens focus, soft gaze. Attention to breath, posture, pace, dynamic. Blending in. Ready to shift, when the moment is ripe.

  1. Spiritual warrior, intuitive jazz, heart-centered

Effortless mastery, without thought. Flying above, or rooting below. One with the organism, the living machine; breathing and dancing together. “Right action, without attachment to the fruits of action.”

We don’t always achieve or embody mastery but we can always be mindful, or remind ourselves, that there is more to be gained by deepening and opening our awareness. For more insights into the art of improvisation, with practical tips and visual learning aids for solo practice and group creation, see the newly released Flutes Jam: A Guide to Improvisation. 

“An intricate and in-depth presentation of a world of musical styles and genres. The book’s approach to the learning process opens the doors to infinite possibilities of improvisation—the intuitive aspect of music playing, too often overlooked in academia.” —E. Nep