INDIAN PHILOSOPHY AND IDEOLOGY

HARMONIC MATERIALISM: All Indian knowledge and thought corresponds to its own social reality and to reality in relation to Mother Nature, with whom human life is integrated and of whom human life is a consequence.

Nature, living beings, humans, and human social organization are all the same. Entities with only minor differences, they are brought together and governed by the same laws and integrated into the greater whole, the Universe or Cosmos.

The natural Cosmos is a great, organized body whose elements, governed by opposing and complementary forces and energies, regulate the place of each and the equilibrium between all, thus generating order and harmony throughout its infinite existence.

Humans and nature are organized matter, from the simplest to the most complex, in constant movement and transformation, internally and externally, all in complete order and complete harmony. This is the universal characteristic which governs our knowledge, our world view, and the spirit of our culture.

COSMIC ORDER: In the universe and in nature all is order, all is harmony. There is no “struggle of opposites” or breaking into parts to generate dynamics and change. Rather there is complementary opposition between the distinct parts of greater and lesser unity that constantly generate new states, always in harmony and order, never in chaos.

In the universe all elements are organized collectively and communally. They are characterized not by unequal antagonisms but by positions and situations which are different, complementary, and harmonic.

COLLECTIVISM AND COMMUNALISM: Humanity is an integral part of nature, an extension of the universe. Since it functions under the same laws, humanity should organize itself in a collective and communal form as the universe is organized.

In the beginning, the organization and the philosophical-ideological concepts of humanity were the same as the current characteristics of the Indian people, without inequality and with collective organizational practices. There existed an equality and harmony between humans throughout the planet and between humans and other living beings. This is the essence of the Indian spirit. We Indian people practice the philosophy of non-antagonistic contradictions which is the fundamental characteristic of dialectics, the general law of the universe.

In accordance with this Indian concept, nature, humanity, and society are the same thing, not exclusive parts or enemies one of the other. The great antagonistic and destructive inequality which exists in the world today was generated by the European-derived societies. The equality and harmony of the original human societies, the “primordial community” egalitarianism which everyone acknowledges, degenerated into slavery in the European-derived world. Slavery is the form of society where people fight among themselves, private property is valued above natural resources, and a vertical hierarchy predominates, along with individualism, egoism, and exploitation of some people by others. This inequality, this unnatural disharmony generated since the time of slavery, today has become stronger and more sophisticated, reaching a stage of barbarism which they themselves call imperialist capitalism.

In today’s world there are two different, irreconcilable systems: the Indian system, which is collective, communal, human, loving, and which respects nature profoundly; and the European-derived system, which is exploitative, individualistic, and egoistic, and which destroys nature. The problem is not merely a struggle of classes, not only rich against poor or right against left. The problem is between two different systems, between two different forms and attitudes toward life and existence. This is why Indian people are a forceful model for the future of humanity. The Indian system is human collectivism living in complete harmony and love with nature. The European-derived system will disappear because it is antinatural. Its peoples, and our brothers and sisters, who followed obscure and uncertain paths for many generations will return to be natural beings, to join with us in a united humanity, without hatred or inequality, with love and respect for Mother Nature, for all life and all existence.

Source: Working Commission Reports: Second Conference of Indian Nations and Organizations of South America. Tiwanaku, Bolivia. Berkeley: South American Indian Information Center. 1983.

Read the whole thing here.

WHOLENESS

“…the illusion that the self and the world are broken into fragments originates in the kind of thought that goes beyond its proper measure and confuses its own product with the same independent reality. To end this illusion requires insight, not only into the world as a whole, but also into how the instrument of thought is working. Such insight implies an original and creative act of perception into all aspects of life, mental and physical, both through the senses and through the mind, and this is perhaps the true meaning of meditation…”

David Bohm,
Wholeness and the Implicate Order.
Read the whole book here.

THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS

“O, what a world of unseen visions and heard silences, this insubstantial country of the mind! What ineffable essences, these touchless rememberings and unshowable reveries! And the privacy of it all! A secret theater of speechless monologue and prevenient counsel, an invisible mansion of all moods, musings, and mysteries, an infinite resort of disappointments and discoveries. A whole kingdom where each of us reigns reclusively alone, questioning what we will, commanding what we can. A hidden hermitage where we may study out the troubled book of what we have done and yet may do. An introcosm that is more myself than anything I can find in a mirror. This consciousness that is myself of selves, that is everything, and yet is nothing at all – what is it?
And where did it come from?
And why?”

Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.
Read the whole book here.

THE WAY OF ZEN

“To the logician it will of course seem that the point at which we have arrived is pure nonsense-as, in a way, it is.  From the Buddhist point of view, reality itself has no meaning since it is not a sign, pointing to something beyond itself.  To arrive at reality–at “suchness” – is to go beyond karma, beyond consequential action, and to enter a life which is completely aimless.  Yet to Zen and Taoism alike this is the very life of the universe, which is complete at every moment and does not need to justify itself by aiming at something beyond…

…to the Taoist mentality, the aimless, empty life does not suggest anything depressing.  On the contrary, it suggests the freedom of clouds and mountain streams, wandering nowhere, of flowers in impenetrable canyons, beautiful for no one to see, and of the ocean surf forever washing the sand, to no end.

Furthermore, the Zen experience is more of a conclusion than a premise.  It is never to be used as the first step in a line of ethical or metaphysical reasoning, since conclusions draw to it rather than from it.”

Alan Watts, The Way of Zen.

SONGS IN Ab

OUT NOW ON Cath ‘n’ Dad Records: “Songs in Ab” the brand new record by Adam John Miller.
Download for free or Pay What You Like and Every Penny will go to the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

 

Introduction;
To paraphrase Aiester Crowley, the Surrey Mystic, “Here is Adam John Miller’s new record”
or, to put it another way; “give me 11 Adam John Millers and Ill give you the World Cup.”
Listen;
Crack, crack, crack.
A record is not an egg.
I’ll tell you a story;
When we were knee high to our respective grass hoppers I was Adam and Adam was Ray.
Get this;
Adam cracked the egg…
But I digress.
Sorry;
the wind is on fire and your ears have begun to bleed.
Penultimately;
Walt Disney is crying from where he is.
The denouement;
The only balm is out of reach.
Enjoy the fire.

John Perry 2014