Kiler Davenport on vocals; backup studio musicians
Monday, January 31, 2011
Death and Dying
Death is a subject most people would rather not talk about. It’s a tough subject for most living conscious beings to grasp except on a very basic level.
Television is full of death and dying both real and fiction. Video games depict some of the most vicious and perverted scenes of death and destruction. Yet when it boils right down to it death is foreign to us all. It is something that happens somewhere else to someone else.
Millions of people have died since the beginning of our species. Thousands are dying as I write these words. Millions more will die in the future and still each of us have trouble seeing ourselves as dead.
We bury the dead. We burn the dead. We immortalize the dead through cryogenic freezing. We spend exorbitant amounts of money preserving and burying the dead. With all this we still think death is something that happens to someone else somewhere else.
Being a former paramedic and working around the funeral / cremation business for thirty years or more. I can tell you death is the business for the living and not the deceased. The Bible says the dead know no more. They are asleep.
When I worked at the funeral home I used to go into the embalming room, or prep room as it is sometimes called, and just stare at the dead bodies as if they were going to wake up any minute and talk to me. If you look at a dead person’s chest long enough you can see them breath. Of course it is an illusion. The brain cannot believe death. The living cannot relate to this odd state of being.
Everyone should take death very seriously because it is lurking around the corner to take you away. Death has no respect of persons. It doesn’t negotiate terms or time. Death is the final destination. A one way trip to the unknown.
Human beings love to be in command and control. They love to call the shots. Competition is the name of the game until death shows up at the door and tells you time is up. The game is over. Let’s go. Since the dawn of time people have found ways to overcome their fear of death or at least lighten its sting.
The concept of life after death is very soothing and comforting. The belief that God has the whole world in his hands helps us to approach death with a little less fear. But still we wonder. We doubt. We contemplate. We tremble, because we really don’t know what awaits us on the other side. If there is another side.
So many questions without answers. Where did God come from? How long is eternity? Is there life on other planets? Do we go to Hell if we are bad? If God is good then why does he let so many bad things happen? Once saved, always saved. Reincarnation, purgatory, agnostic, humanist, atheist, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Satanic cults, witchcraft. Religion with all its divisions and dogmas. It is all very confusing and overwhelming to the open minded observer because for every answer there is another question. It is enough to drive some people over the edge.
With all this said one thing is for sure. You are going to die. Each and every one of you will face that final moment alone. There will be no turning back. No second chance.
It is my firm belief that humanity is spinning out of control. We have lost hope in ourselves and our country. We are a nation pretending to have all the answers to the world’s problems calling ourselves a super power while rotting from the inside out with moral decay. A trillion dollar deficit and a government that is dead set on destroying itself all in the name of democracy.
I have had two heart attacks, been bitten by a copperhead and two rattlesnakes, been run over by my own car, and I’m still here to write these words. I have met death face to face and eye to eye. I can tell you it was a life changing experience. It made me think about how I treat people. It made me think about love, my family, and my friends. It opened my eyes to a new world. Facing death made me see just how important every second of everyday is.
We have a chance to save ourselves from ourselves. We have a chance to turn our lives around. We have a chance to forgive and forget because death is coming. You cannot and will not escape it. We must learn to lift each other up. We must learn to respect each other. We must learn that war is not the means to an end but the beginning of the end.
Complex Communications
Why do people lie, cheat, steal, mame, and murder? What is the root cause of all their chaos? Why is there so much hate and anger in the world? Why do so many totally disregard the laws of the land? Some would say it was the Devil’s fault. Others in the scientific community would call it abnormal psychology, neurosis, or psychosis.
There are a few things we know for sure.
Human beings are capable of anything.
What ever can happen almost certainly will over time.
Whatever one vividly imagine, ardinently desire, and enthusiastically acts upon will come to pass sooner or later.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
For us to say we know anything for sure beyond the shadow of a doubt is absurd. The only possible thing anyone anywhere can ever know for sure is that we don’t or can’t know anything for sure.
We live inside the illusion of time and space where thoughts become things and things bring forth thoughts, concepts, ideas, formulations, and computations. The unexplained is where we come from. The unknowable is who we are.
As conscious living beings we constantly strive to make since of what we call reality. When in fact reality may be trying to make sense of us.
Humans are such an over consuming, gluttonous, selfish breed. We’ve somehow managed to climb our way up out of the slime to invade this magnificent sphere like a band of drug crazed zombies devouring everything within site or hearing.
Existence breeds competition from the molecular to the universal. The big ones will always be eating the little ones. The strong will devour the weak. The wise will rule the ignorant. The rich will overshadow the poor.
This is called doing unto others before they do unto you and it is what most people do best whether they admit it or not. It is very unfortunate I think that we have evolved into such a dog eat dog world.
It is amazing if not astounding how a species can be so diverse and different and yet have so much in common. It makes one wonder if chaos is in some way responsible for the continuation of our existence and evolution.
The human being, a microbe on a spec of dust in a vast and endless space of a trillion, quadtrillion galaxies struggling to save itself from itself.
In our mindless quest to plunder the earth of all its beauty and natural resources. We have forced her revenge upon us.
We take and take and take without giving back her overdue return. How much longer can we pretend everything will be alright.
We are a guest upon this place. Parasites indeed. With the clock slowly ticking down we must pull together in every way possible to repair the tremendous damage we are doing not only to each other but to the ground beneath our feet.
Our government is only an extension of ourselves. Like the pen I write with is an extension of my arm and my arm an extension of my brain.
The outward appearance of things is a manifestation of my personal experience derived through massive multidirectional multi-sensory programming.
To know thyself is to know thy past. For one is only as good or bad as one’s ability to exercise control over one’s environment in a positive and productive way.
People are constantly surrounded by diverse influences that seek to persuade by their very nature. One must overcome the tendency to lean toward the negative influence with the positive appearance.
Remember for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
We have been endowed with the process of conscious reasoning which allows us to make choices based on past and present experience. On the surface it might seem like a very simple process. But to the trained and dedicated observer it is one of the most complex activities to be performed within time and space, hence reality.
Unfortunately many individuals have evolved into mindless drones who aren’t really aware and really don’t even care of this complex aray of variables going on both inside and outside of their environment.
(Know Thyself)
Set Me Free
I really know me
If you only knew me
The one you see is not me
Its only the one I want you to see
Its only the one I pretend to be
Do you think I’m happy trying to be
Who you want me to be
If you only knew, if you could only see
How much more there is of me
It would be nice to know why we
Play this never ending silly game
Sometimes I want to tell you I’m not the cat
For you to tame
Can’t you understand that I a me
And you are you
Trying to control each other
Is something we should never do
Love is free
Not bound and tied
If I told you different
It would be a lie
Open the cage
And let me fly
Deep down inside I’m not the person
You want me to be
So open this cage
And set me free
Don’t box me in
Just be my friend
Neither one of us should have to bend and bend
To blend in
Love me for who I am
And not who you want me to be
I want to know the real you and you me
But that will never happen
Unless we set each other free
We can still be together
But independently
True love cannot be begged,
Borrowed, bought, or sold
It has to slowly grow
From deep down in the soul
It’s based on respect, honor, and trust
Not dominance, jealousy, and control
Let’s learn to live life to the fullest
Let’s take each day one step at a time
Let me be me
And you be you
Just be a friend of mine
Empty Space
To except one’s self is to find love
To let others be who they are without harsh judgment
Is to find release
To let things be is so sweet
To interact with what is
To be in the in the now without regret
To find one’s self not wanting is to have everything
Close your eyes and see
Do not listen and you will hear
The sweet sounds of nothing
And all will be clear
Be still
Be consumed with quiet, peaceful bliss
Stop the forward movement
Let pressure cease
Trade control for understanding
Trade worry for the dark, silent, empty place
Do not fear this temporal plane
Time eternal takes its place
Past, present, future
Last forever
Empty space
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Complex Truth
Kill the I, the me, the us, and the them. Learn the art of unbeing. Cease to self seek. Peer beyond the curtain of the material world. There are no new truths or ideas. Concepts are but misguided energies. Thinking is a dangerous past time. It will bind you up in yourself. It is a road that never ends.
One must learn to unlearn, to unthink, to take apart what is put together. Especially those thoughts that stem from or have their root in lust, greed, or anger. One needs to try and cultivate right mind or middle way. Get out of yourself and look at the new world around you. Be quiet long enough to see, hear, feel, smell, and touch the manifestation of the essence of all things.
Quiet the minds endless, senseless, and foolish chatter and you will see the complex truth.
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