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#1641 - Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - Editor: Jerry
Ben Hassine
NDS
The Heyoka is a sacred fool, a clown with a great deal of power. The "contrary", the person who does everything backwards. They are yin and yang, sorrow and laughter, good and bad all rolled into one. They are one of the most important of the Medicine People in the Lakota Nation. Usually Heyokas’ are men but some women have Heyoka inside them and therefore must become a Heyoka.
The Heyoka’s power comes from the Great Winged Ones, which the whites call Thunderbirds. They have control over the weather and certain sicknesses. They are "Thunder dreamers" and once you have a dream of thunder or lighting you become one of these contraries- whether you want to or not.
The Heyoka has strange and enormous powers even though they make everyone laugh with their backwards behavior. There is a great reverence and fear of the Heyokas as their contrary behavior is intimidating to most people and you never know what they are going to do next.
The Heyoka’s power is usually used for good but because they are Heyoka one never knows.
http://davidmichaelkennedy.com/dancers/lakota_heyoka.html
The scoop from Ben and Jerry
Jerry,
Once you wrote Umba was wearing his shoes with heels to the front, the other way around so to speak. Maybe he was some kind of Heyoka?
Ben
Hi Ben,
That's interesting. ... At one point years ago I came across the interpretation of wearing shoes backward as symbolic for destruction. The power of Umba (a visionary being who came to me when I was a kid) was that he uttered a mantra, which represented creation, and wore shoes backward, clomping noisily in them, which represented destruction.
Yet his coutenance and body were very strict, solid and in place, which represented the maintenance quality of existence. So he was a holistic characterization. The Heyoka also served to make his society holistic.
Now the other visionary character that was with Umba, was totally relaxed and almost laughing at Umba. To me he represented what was beyond existence, or nondual reality, although as a kid I didn't have the words for it, but I felt it. The 'fool' quality of Heyoka might represent the nature of the guy who was with Umba.
Anyone could ask what the Heyoka in their life is. It's that expression of existence-energy that gives wholeness, thereby making life properly livable, while also providing the door to understanding what wholeness is, in case anyone who wishes to go more deeply into the nature of existence.
I don't imagine one's Heyoka is hard to find. It's not really necessary to 'use' anyone else's Heyoka. Those who push their Heyoka on the world aren't doing anyone a favor. Yet it's probably okay to remind people they have an Heyoka.
Jerry
Daily Dharma
”Those who recite many scriptures but fail
to practice their teachings are like a cowherds counting
another’s cows. The do not share in the joys of the
spiritual life. But those who know few scriptures yet
practice their teachings, overcoming all lust, hatred, and
delusion, live with a pure mind in the highest wisdom. The
stand without external supports and share in the joys of the
spiritual life.”
~~ The Dhammapada
From the book, "The Dhammapada,” translated by Eknath
Easwaran, and published by Nilgiri Press
The Other Syntax
"I'm an Indian and we Indians have always
been humble and have
done nothing else but lower our heads. I thought humbleness
was not
in the warrior's way. I was wrong! I know now that
the humbleness
of a warrior is not the humbleness of a beggar.
"The warrior lowers his head to no one, but at
the same time, he
doesn't permit anyone to lower his head to him. The beggar,
on the
other hand, falls to his knees at the drop of a hat and scrapes
the
floor for anyone he deems to be higher; but at the same time, he
demands that someone lower than him scrape the floor for him.
"You like the humbleness of a beggar," he
said softly. "You bow
your head to reason."
An Appointment with Knowledge
TALES OF POWER
Carlos Castaneda
Bob
NDS
Serial Killer or Serial Coder? You be the judge
The faster you go, the better you'll do...
http://www.malevole.com/mv/misc/killerquiz/
Jerry
It's true. If you go with your very first impression without thinking or figuring, you'll do well. And if you can see where the thinking and figuring starts, then you've honed in on another photo: the photo of thought. Is it a programmer or a serial killer?
Gill Eardley
Allspirit Inspiration
Each man has only one genuine vocation ~
to find the way to himself.
His task is to discover his own destiny ~ not an arbitrary
one ~
and live it out wholly and resolutely within himself.
Everything else is only a would-be existence,
an attempt at evasion,
a flight back to the ideals of the masses, conformity;
and fear of one's inwardness.
~ Hermann Hesse
Humanitate
NDS
Hello Salon:
I have a question for you guys. Who would you say is an
enlightened
guru living NOW...on the level of Nisargadatta or Ramana????
Maybe Eckhart Tolle?????Nome?????etc.etc.??????
Remember they are living NOW
thanks,
Humanitate
JP
Hello H,
I would say it's the talking Gerbil.
For sure.
The talking Gerbil is a real killer. He belongs to
the living lineage of rude, loud, foul-mouthed Naths.
Just like ole Nisargadatta.
The talking Gerbil will cast(e) your illusions aside.
Here, now:
http://www.joecartoon.com/pages/mantra/
Last Train Home
There are no enlightened living
gurus...no sages....there never has
been such a thing.
Ramana and Nisargadatta were manifestations through which
All-That-Is
sings to itself.
If All-That-Is wants you to travel the world looking for your
self....that will happen.
.....but there is nothing to find "out there".......and
no one to
find it........no teacher can help you........You Alone Are!
Harsha NDS
There is this place I go to sometimes.
All you can eat.
Last year it was 5 dollars.
Now it has gone up to 6 dollars and 50 cents.
They have everything.
Broccoli, tomatoes, hummus, tofu, pizza, international foods,
soda,
milk, desserts, etc.
I used to go often but after a month would gain 5-10-15 pounds.
Now I go sometimes and am more careful.
Has anyone studied the psychology of "all you can eat
places?"
Do such places exist in other countries besides the U.S.?
One can sit for hours there and simply keep eating.
You only pay once.
Then, its all you can eat.
It is very close to being enlightened.
One always feels full and yet empty.
The distinction between inside and outside is lost.
Food appears both within and without.
One gains in stature and weight.
Jackie Mason on Starbucks
You want coffee in a coffee shop, that's
60 cents. But at Starbucks,Cafe
Latte: $3.50. Cafe Creamier: $4.50. Cafe Suisse: $9.50. For each
French
word, another four dollars.
Why does a little cream in coffee make it worth $3.50? Go into
any coffee
shop; they'll give you all the cream you want until you're blue
in the face.
Forty-million people are walking around in coffee shops with jars
of cream:
"Here's all the cream you want!" And it's still 60
cents. You know why?
Because it's called "coffee." If it's Cafe Latte $4.50.
You want cinnamon in your coffee? Ask for cinnamon in a coffee
shop; they'll
give you all the cinnamon you want. Do they ask you for more
money because
it's cinnamon? It's the same price for cinnamon in your coffee as
for coffee
without cinnamon - 60 cents, that's it. But not in Starbucks.
Over here,
it's Cinnamonnier - $9.50.
You want a refill in a regular coffee shop, they'll give you all
the refills
you want until you drop dead. You can come in when you're 27 and
keep
drinking coffee until you're 98. And they'll start begging you:
"Here, you
want more coffee, you want more, you want more?"
Do you know that you can't get a refill
at Starbucks? A refill is a dollar fifty. Two refills, $4.50.
Three refills, $19.50. So, for four cups of coffee -- $35.00. And
it's burnt
coffee. It's burnt coffee at Starbucks, let's be honest about it.
If you get
burnt coffee in a coffee shop, you call a cop. You say,
"It's the bottom of
the pot. I don't drink from the bottom of the pot. But when it's
burnt at
Starbucks, they say,"Oh, it's a blend. It's a blend."
It's a special bean
from Argentina....." The bean is in your head.
And there're no chairs in those Starbucks. Instead, they have
these high
stools. You ever see these stools? You haven't been on a chair
that high
since you were two. Seventy-three year old Jews are climbing and
climbing to
get to the top of the chair. And when they get tothe top, they
can't even
drink the coffee because there's 12 people around one little
table, and
everybody's saying, "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse
me..... Then
they can't get off the chair. Old Jews are begging Gentiles,
"Mister, could
you get me off this?"
Do you remember what a cafeteria was? In poor neighborhoods all
over this
country, they went to a cafeteria because there were no waiters
and no
service. And so poor people could save money on a tip. Cafeterias
didn't
have regular tables or chairs either. They gave coffee to you in
a cardboard
cup. So because of that you paid less for the coffee. You got
less, so you
paid less. It's all the same at Starbucks - no chairs, no
service, a
cardboard cup for your coffee-except in Starbucks, the less you
get, the
more it costs. By the time they give you nothing, it's worth four
times as
much. Am I exaggerating?
Did you ever try to buy a cookie in Starbucks? Buy a cookie in a
regular
coffee shop. You can tear down a building with that cookie. And
the whole
cookie is 60 cents. At Starbucks, you're going to have to hire a
detective
to find that cookie, and it's $9.50. And you can't put butter on
it because
they want extra. Do you know that if you buy a bagel, you pay
extra for
cream cheese in Starbucks? Cream cheese, another 60 cents. A
knife to put it
on, 32 cents. If it reaches the bagel, 48 cents. That bagel costs
you $3.12.
And they don't give you the butter or the cream cheese. They
don't give it
to you. They tell you where it is. "Oh, you want butter?
It's over there.
Cream cheese? Over here. Sugar? Sugar is here." Now you
become your own
waiter. You walk around with a tray. "I'll take the cookie.
Where's the
butter? The butter's here. Where's the cream cheese? The cream
cheese is
there." You walked around for an hour and a half selecting
items, and then
the guy at the cash register has a glass in front of him that
says "Tips."
You're waiting on tables for an hour, and you owe him money.
Then there's a sign that says please clean it up when you're
finished. They
don't give you a waiter or a busboy. Now you've become the
janitor. Now you
have to start cleaning up the place. Old Jews are walking around
cleaning up
Starbucks. "Oh, he's got dirt too? Wait, I'll clean this
up." They clean up
the place for an hour and a half. If I said to you, "I have
a great idea for
a business. I'll open a whole new type of a coffee shop. Instead
of 60 cents
for coffee I'll charge $2.50, $3.50, $4.50, and $5.50. Not only
that, I'll
have no tables, no chairs, no water, no busboy, and you'll clean
it up for
20 minutes after you're finished."
Would you say to me, "That's the greatest idea for a
business I ever heard!
We can open a chain of these all over the world!" No, you
would put me right
into a sanitarium. Starbucks can only get away with it because
they have
French titles for everything, Nazi bastard sons-of-a-bitches. And
I say this
with the highest respect, because I don't like to talk about
people.
--- Jackie Mason
Harsha
NDS
I saw this somewhere, maybe Readers
Digest.
This lady had been reading a book in her hotel room.
In the morning she left and went to the Airport to catch her
flight.
Realizing that the book was missing, she frantically called the
hotel.
"Please, I need that book back! Whatever you have to do,
find it!"
The hotel manager assured her that the staff would do their best.
"I must have that book," she cried.
"Sure, sure, we will look for it."
"What is the name of it madam," asked the manager.
"It is called, 'Don't sweat the small stuff!'" said the
lady.
We write what we see or
know, best we can. And others get impressions.
Whether those impressions are positive or negative is only the
concern of
the person having the impression. They're responsible for it. I'm
not
responsible for anyone's impression. I am responsible for
communicating
accurately and fully, though I'm not sure that's always done.
Jerry