WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE

Oh, my name it ain't nothin',
My age it means less.
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest.
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
That the land that I live in
Has God on its side.
Oh, the history books tell it,
They tell it so well:
The cavalries charged,
The Indians fell.
The cavalries charged,
The Indians died --
Oh, the country was young,
With God on its side.

The Spanish-American
War had its day,
And the Civil War, too, was
Soon laid away.
And the names of the heroes
I was made to memorize,
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

The First World War, boys,
It came and it went;
The reason for fighting
I never did get.
But I learned to accept it,
Accept it with pride;
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

The Second World War, boys,
It came to an end.
We forgave the Germans,
And then we were friends.
Though they murdered six million,
In the ovens they fried,
The Germans now, too, have
God on their side.

In the 1960s, came the Viet-Nam War;
Can somebody tell me
What we're fightin' for?
Too many young men died,
Too many young mothers cried;
So I ask the question,
Was God on our side?

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life.
If another war comes,
It's them we must fight.
To hate them and fear them,
To run and to hide,
You never ask questions
When God's on your side.


[LAST TWO LINES IN PUBLISHED VERSION:]
[And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.]
[VERSE OMITTED:]
[But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust.
If fire them we're forced to,
Then fire them we must.
One push of the button,
And a shot the world wide;
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.]

Through many a dark hour
I been thinkin' 'bout this,
How Jesus Christ was
Betrayed by a kiss.
But I can't think for you,
You have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot had
God on his side.
Now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell.
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell.
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor;
And if God is on our side,
He'll stop the next war.

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Infared Andromeda from JPL.
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Click on image above for music against "Elective War." Dylan's Masters of War: http://freevision.org/AAMusic/Masters_of_War_Bob_Dylan.mp3
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Firing today. This is the kiln offering altar.
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Shiko Munakata. I think he was the greatest genius of the original Mingei group.
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The Mingei Spirit, By Warren MacKenzie
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In time the popularity of Wabi style tea increased, and Wabi was further developed by Sen no Rikkyu (1522-91), who would become the most legendary tea master. Rikkyu's tea ceremony is remembered in part for his introduction of koraimono (Korean objects, which he purported held qualities markedly different from those of Japanese and Chinese arts) and in his promotion of the new pottery known as Raku, which would eventually become the preferred pottery form for tea bowls, or chawan.
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I heard an interesting program on KQED today. The makers of the movie: Mana, Beyond belief and also the author of The Biology of Belief. Both of these seem to parallel a non-mechanistic/non-materialist approach to creativity.
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Francis Bacon defined the mission of modern science shortly after the onset of the scientific revolution (1543).? Accordingly, the purpose of science was "to dominate and control Nature."? To accomplish that goal, scientists had to first acquire knowledge of what "controls" an organism?s structure and function (behavior).? Concepts founded in the principles of Newtonian physics defined the experimental approach to this quest.? These principles stipulate that the Universe is a "physical mechanism" comprised of parts (matter), there is no attention given to the invisible "energy."? In this world view, all that matters is "matter."? Consequently, modern science is preoccupied with materialism.
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BILL MOYERS: "The story I've come to share with you goes to the core of our belief that the quality of democracy and the quality of journalism are deeply entwined. I can tell this story because I've been living it. As Dr. Wilson said, it's been in the news this week, including more attacks on a single journalist, yours truly, by the right wing media and their friends at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. As you know, CPB was established almost forty years ago to set broad policy for public broadcasting and to be a firewall between political influence and program content. What some on its board are now doing today, led by its chairman, Kenneth Tomlinson, is too important, too disturbing, and yes, even dangerous for a gathering like this not to address it. We're seeing unfold a contemporary example of the age old ambition of power and ideology to squelch -- to punish the journalist who tell the stories that make princes and priests uncomfortable." BILL MOYERS
Lee Love

Interesting overview of Zen. I especially liked the encapsulation of Dogen's thought in the nine points below:

These are nine points that can be extracted from Dogen's thought:

1. Identity of self and others. Zazen is the complete realization of self, identifying with others. He said: "To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things. To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barriers between one's self and others.?"

2. Identity of practice and enlightenment. There is no difference between practice and enlightenment. There should not be any attachment to the outcome of the practice.

3. Identity of the precepts and Zen Buddhism. Novice monks must know the 16 Bodhisattvas precepts before becoming monks. There is no difference between the precepts and Zen itself. When enlightened he is already endowed with the precepts.

4. Identity of life and death. Although most people love life and hate death, nobody can avoid death. Once you come to terms with death, there is no life or death to love or hate. Both are part of the life of a Buddha.

5. Identity of time and being. Time is being and vice versa. Time can only be experienced but cannot be cognized. Now is now which includes past, present and the future. Without now there are no others. Now is absolute and eternal. Once lost it never returns. So practice continuously without delay.

6. Being and nonbeing. Nonbeing is not nothing. It is being and vice versa. In non-dualistic terms, both are absolutes. So we have both the Buddha-nature and we also do not have the Buddha-nature in non-dualistic viewpoint. Nonbeing in Zen is never the nothing of nihilism but it is a lively and creative function of the Way.

7. Men and women. There is no gap between right and wrong, clever and foolish, high and low social status, or men and women. All can realize Buddhahood. The Way is open to men and women equally.

8. Monks and lay people. Both can practice, but monks are free from world affairs. Lay people can pursue the Way but their practice must be intense and persistent. Of course the best is to become monks and follow the precepts. Remember Dogen?'s teaching is that practice takes precedence over theory.

9. Sutras and Zen Buddhism. The Way of the Buddha-mind is beyond letters and sutras, because attachment to the letters and sutras is itself a hindrance. So it is the attachment to the letters and not the letters that must be cast away.



Lee Love

This is one of the last texts I studied with Dainin Katagiri Roshi.
Lee Love

"I seem most instinctively to believe in the human value of creative writing, whether in the form of verse or fiction, as a mode of truth-telling, self-expression and homage to the twin miracles of creation and consciousness. " --John Updike, essay for the "This I Believe" Project.
Lee Love

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/speeches/Beyond_Vietnam.pdf
Lee Love

The Book Of Tea
Lee Love

Not as well known as The Book Of Tea.
Lee Love