Underground


Relaxing with a wee dram of Jura 16 year old single malt and a good book (presently reading Eknath Easwaran's translation of The Dhammapada) is how I imagined life to be as a school teacher after hours. Sadly, I do not have the opportunity of making such things as a nightly ritual, but would really like to. Perhaps throw in smoking a pipe (an affectation, but aromatic), wearing a nice cardigan (I own one that I bought years ago in Scotland, but it itches) and scratching my grey-flecked beard thoughtfully as I venture into writings for literary greats and incredible histories. This is how I imagined school teachers to be in my youth – eccentric individuals immersed in academics and the pleasantries of being grown up in smoky, dusty home dens. Perhaps this is how it was when I was young; after all, in my youth, there were still shop keepers, men wore fedoras, shoe salesmen actually made careers of selling shoes, chain stores did not monopolise the planet and, generally speaking, life just seemed to have more substance. I'm not being a romantic here – conservatism was rife, women oppressed and minds somewhat narrow, but there is a certain je ne sais croix that was abounding back then.

As a teacher today, I feel fortunate to work with some amazing people. I am distressed, however, at the number of teachers who teach things like History or Literature, but never crack a book on these subjects themselves. Part of the reason is certainly much like why I can not engage nightly in the aforementioned ritual – folks are busy. The workload on teachers today is immense, and the general 24/7 high-speed mentality of Western culture adds to an overall drain on working people. Add in families with all the parental responsibilities, and one is left with a calendar, sparse in spaces.

Ultimately, however, I blame much of this on Western culture in general. For example, I went to see Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" performed the other evening. Though German opera tends to be a bit heavy and make you want to die, what really depressed me was that the majority of the crowd (approximately 75%) was old and grey, and the opera being performed was written in the 1800's. Simply put, when we go back the past 2500 years in human history, we are saturated with incredible music, Philosophy, Literature, Art, etc. Though there are many great late 20th C/ early 21st C writers and performance, the general standard of popular culture has disintegrated into a ball of chimpanzee smegma in the past 25 years especially. In stark contrast to Wagner was the Halloween dance at my school today where I endured monotonous bass, lyrics with no substance and songs that basically takes all the progress we have made in regards to women's rights and sexual liberation and reduced it all to crude and disrespectful degradation.

Perhaps these are the senile ramblings of a middle-aged man, much like my parents disliked my writing "Ozzy" on my knuckles and biting the heads off rubber bats in junior high, but I don't think so. Back then the bands were writing songs about things and playing instruments. Today, Guitar Hero and Rock Band have eclipsed the real stuff and innocent (but provocative) screaming of "God hates us all" has been reduced to some punk propagating the gangsta lifestyle and demonstrating the inability to wear a belt or his hat straight. I am hyperbolising for effect here, but I am simply trying to make a point…

People today are generally self-absorbed and apathetic. Television has reduced us to the lowest denominator ruling, our leaders have no vision and we seems like sheep heading to slaughter. People are afraid of dealing with real and heavy matters. We are oblivious and de-sensitised to things going around us to the point that it's scary. People with ideas are punished in our general corporate mentality that permeates throughout most organisations running our societies, and spirituality is either dead, made into a fundamentalist fanaticism or corporative (i.e. Yoga). We are all sleepwalking toward death. We are missing the beauty of sensuality. Life has become a matter of quantity, not quality. We crusade against smokers, but fund leaders who commit genocide. We talk about freedom and democracy in Afghanistan, committing our soldiers of whom nearly 100 have perished and many more have been de-limbed or de-brained, but only 57% of people voted in Canada's last federal election. We worry about lead in toys made for our children in China, while pumping their future fresh water into oil wells so that the multi-nationals can make an easier buck. This is insane.

Perhaps I should not think so much and join the masses in the bliss of their ignorance and denial. Perhaps it is I who am dead. Perhaps I am as Wagner's Dutchman – damned within a conformist society, sailing the seas until the day of judgement, which, ultimately, is the day that I cease to be. I know, I'm being melodramatic like those silly theatre people with perhaps a rather haughty self-concept. Perhaps I should loosen my belt, parade around with my boxers on display and wear my cap wonky. I've always felt a fraternal bond with Dostoevsky's Underground Man. But sometimes one needs to be dramatic so that they might be heard. Cheers to the aesthetic and the romantics!

On Teaching Being to Beings


I began practising Yoga in the late 1990's, and that gradually developed into trying to live my life within the teachings of primarily Buddhism, with a wee bit of paganism and Hinduism mixed in for good measure. I feel better for it, though it is upsetting to see how Buddhism and Yoga has transformed into a cultural industry, therein losing much of its substance. Still, as all fads tend to perish when the next craze comes along, I do hope that this trend will have introduced many to practise and that they carry on doing the work.

As a special needs teacher at the junior high school level, I find myself gently introducing pieces of my practise into my classroom with amazing results. The reason I teach is to experience those mind melting wow moments when a students experiences success beyond his or her imagination, and also those little moments – very subtle in nature – where I see a spark developing in a student's eyes. I deal daily with children who have horrendous home lives, who live in poverty and who suffer from several cognitive delays and things like foetal alcohol syndrome, ADHD, etc. In spite of their challenges, they are amazing kids and I adore them. They are also solid indicators of my belief that education should be a holistic endeavour, addressing each unique individual and their needs.

There are several instances that I have added Yoga and meditation into my teaching. For example, I have a number of ADHD students who, upon our agreed signal, will close their eyes, take three slow, deep breaths and then return to work on task. I recommended to one parent that she and her daughter take a yoga class to do a bit of bonding, de-stressing and work on their focus. I had my Art class colour mandalas, but before beginning, I turned out the lights, all the students sat with their eyes closed and took five slow, deep breaths, before beginning their work under subdued lighting. This normally chatty class worked in absolute silence for 30 minutes ( a miracle in any junior high!).

One of my favourite moments occurred this past Friday. I did what I've called "suicide yoga". Basically it works like this: in Gym class, I spent 30 minutes running the students into the ground. We begin with running 'suicides' (line sprints), followed by a number of other drills including hopping on one leg to the end of the gym and back, running while spinning, army crawling, bear walking, crab walking, ballet leaps, etc. When the running is done, I make the class do several push-ups in unison. At this point, the students are truly gasping, sweating, and can barely stand up (excellent when dealing with large numbers of ADHD special needs students!). Then I have the students roll over on their backs. Immediately, students groan "not sit-ups!". Now here's the Zen bit…

As the students lie on their backs, I tell them to close their eyes and place their hands on their bellies and listen/feel their breath. I then turn out the lights. I then take students into a guided meditation. First, I have them focus on their bodies and how exhausted they are. Next, students are instructed to feel the floor on their back and to be thankful that, as much as they are hurting and tired, to be thankful that they are on top of the ground and alive, rather than below it. I go on about how one day we will be below the earth, but until that time, we must live our lives to their fullest – to challenge and push ourselves – to be thankful that we can run and are feeling the exhaustion of our bodies. I then go on to praise them and compliment them on not giving up – that true character is developed by adversity and that oftentimes our minds trick us into thinking we are not capable of more, but when we really dig down, that we are far more capable than we ever thought. I emphasise how this exercise has made them stronger and that they are amazing people, etc. You could have heard a pin drop during this, and, in the end, there was a profound difference in the way that the students looked in a very positive way.

Our minds and our bodies are amazing thing. To maximise their strength, we need to reflect, but we also need to look at ourselves through different lenses. I am pleased to see how many school boards, including the one that I work for, are beginning to take this as their platform for education. While I feel we are still far from where we need to be in terms of holistic approaches in life in many areas of our society – Education and Health Care in particular – I believe we are slowly making our way in the right direction. This is good, and I hope that I can play an effective role in this evolution.

It all begins and ends with a breath.

Namaste.

Making Connections


When one typically thinks of a village, we tend to envision a small, close knit community where everyone knows everyone else. It is so sad to see, however, that this same community vision is lost in the global community. In spite of being more able to reach out via instruments like the Internet, we, as people, are typically becoming more disconnected, existing in a haze of independence where we take everything and everyone for granted.

In the village vision, if Ted the farmer was having difficulties, then the rest of the community would respond to help him out. In the global village, people are deluded into thinking that what is happening to a farmer in South America or Africa has no effect on someone living in Germany or Canada. People do not look at their basic amenities and whatnot, and do not realise the whole interconnected reality of our world between all things.

Take, for example, an apple. Think of the process that brings an apple into our hand. There is the long historical and genetic chain connecting the apple to its tree and everyone and everything that made that apple possible. More immediately, there was the farmer who grew and nurtured the apple, the person who picked it, the person who shipped it to the warehouse, the warehouse workers, the drivers and shippers who took it to the store, the stock person who placed the apple in its place in the grocery store, the check-out person and, finally, the person who paid you so that you could buy the apple to eat.

The apple is a simple symbol of everything we own – our clothing, furnishings, government, sewage and sanitation, electricity, etc. Independence is truly impossible as is self-sufficiency. It is also rather sad that a very large number of things upon which first world countries exist on, is based on third world exploitation. Using any urban centre as an example, the haves live in nice neighbourhoods in big houses guarded by hi-tech security systems, while the have-nots live in the rough parts of town with high crime rates, violence, drugs, etc. Quite often theses two worlds face off through home invasions, armed robberies, drug deals or other violent, detrimental acts. On a larger scale, looking at nations, we see a plethora of violent revolutions, coup d'etats and genocides all through the continents of Asia, Africa and South America. Young Muslims with nothing to lose are wearing suicide vests and detonating themselves in public markets. Young people in first world countries make their way into racist organisations, Christian fundamentalist sects or the military to find something to believe in or to vent an anger they do not understand.

I do not know what is more frustrating, that many people do not understand, or the many who believe that they do. Present armed struggles in Afghanistan and Iraq are excellent examples of this. The cultures in these nations are millennia old, and diverse. Many of the people in these cultures to not understand their own culture, despite living there, so how can countries like England, the United States, Canada, France, etc. go in expecting that they can set things right? Having traveled lots myself, one quickly realises that people all over the world are not as we may think and, if we visit them as tourists, steering off the main road, we will learn to see others in a very different light.

For example, I moved to Czechoslovakia, just as the fall of the Eastern Bloc was taking place and did not quite know what to expect. After all, just like I was taught in school that the USSR and it's mates were brutal governments looking to jump at the first opportunity to nuke us and take over our countries. But the Slovak people with whom I lived provided me with one of the best years in my life, with incredible hospitality and friendships.

In the first world countries, we walk around like our feces don't stink and that we are entitled to all that we have. How can not see how these attitudes will impact us in the long term, not to mention be so negligent in our attitudes towards others? How can we look at a poor person and simply state that they simply need to pull their finger out and get a job? How can we justify spending exorbitant amounts on sweatshop clothing, knowing it was most likely the product of child labour? In Canada, people seem unanimous that child pornography should result in a criminal prosecution of the sick bastards who view and make the stuff, and I agree with them 100%. But some third world child working long hours everyday in poorly lit and poorly ventilated sweatshop receives a blind eye from us because that would leave consumers with an inconvenience. Ultimately, we would have to give up most of our big brand clothing, forcing them to have ethical working regulations, which would translate into higher priced clothing for the first world consumers.

We are directly responsible for committing genocide in many Western nations whether through neglect helping many third world nations. The whole gold and diamond trade is the main cause of the present state of Africa, and much of this dates back to the early days of De Beers, colonialism and slavery. Though we can't go back way back then and change what is history, the present blood diamond trade is very well and alive. I cringe every time I see a person wearing diamond – especially self-righteous black hip hop artists who are all about black power and mama Africa. Are they really so stupid to what those diamonds and gold represents? Does anyone, tying the knot, really want that symbol of love to represent their love's union? Perhaps there is a curse that has resulted in Canada's 50% divorce rate.

Think of how "me" focused we are. People starving, yet we throw away enough food everyday to end hunger. People being brought up in poverty, missing out on the chance to become literate, to receive potable water or healthcare, while we in the West feel entitled to buy mansions, drive Hummers and Mercedes, have massive plasma TV's, own jet skis and a ski-doo, etc. In this country people will pay $100+ dollars to go out and watch a hockey game being played by a bunch of millionaires. Imagine the pain, suffering and violence that could be ended with that kind of money! More importantly, why can we not pull ourselves from the vacuum of our self-absorption to see this? How can we care so little about others? How can we let our greed for fossil fuels take priority over our air, fresh water supplies and environment in general?

This is why people need to travel. I can't imagine that someone could go to a place where there is famine and watch children die, knowing that this could all be stopped with a little wealth distribution. Perhaps if more people visited the poor parts of the Middle East and saw what the foreign policies of many countries has done to these people though war, sanctions and creating policies to de-stabilise the region, something may click.

I know, sadly, that this won't work for everyone. An American friend of my wife who is working on the Obama campaign as a volunteer told her that he was making calls in Nevada the other week. One of the very matter of fact replies that he received was "not too long ago we used to own blacks, so I won't be voting for one of them to become president".

Ultimately, we need to live more consciously and awareness. Though we are individuals, we also share an interdepenacy. Not making this realisation will simply result in history continuously repeating itself and civilisations living in fear and ignorance, perhaps inevitably leading to the destruction of the global village.

Sisyphus' Rock Rolls Into the Pool


I can really identify with the mythical character of Sisyphus. Those of you who know the story understand the futility and masochism of this legend. For those who don't know of him, he was this guy who spent an eternity rolling a boulder up a steep hill, only to watch it roll back down to the bottom after reaching the summit. Sisyphus would then make the trip down the hill, and begin rolling the rock back up. This is truly a metaphor for life. It seems that humanity, in spite of it's evolution, is much like Sisyphus as we ebb and flow with the same cycle of war, violence, peace making, famine, fundamentalisms, fanaticisms, hate, etc. Millions of years on and we still don't get it. Like with Sisyphus, the answer is blatant – stop pushing the damn rock up the hill! Same applies with many of our social, political and environmental issues – the solutions are simple and ready for accessing, but we carry on our paths of destruction, thinking that if we piss in the pool that we are somehow immune to it.

I'm one of those people who spends way too much time in their head, I admit. I also have this duality of thought going on when it comes to the human race. On the one hand, I see us as a gangrene-like force on the planet that is contemptuous, and for which there is little hope. On the other hand, I spend every moment trying to spread a socialist message of peace with a desire to help and make things better. So, I guess you could say that Sisyphus is a bit of a role model for me. People really piss me off, but I want to save the world.

Perhaps a large part of what taints me is having lived most my life in Canada and European societies. In the so called "first world" we are bombarded with materialism and people have grown so mesmerised by bright shiny toys and the sand-box mentality of "mine" that we have become self-absorbed, apathetic, bureaucratically bowing corporate clones, addicted to Coca-Cola and paying people more for their tits and asses than we do the people who grow our food, research cures for diseases and teach our children. In the experience I do have visiting poorer countries, these things simply don't exist as people are more concerned with having enough food to get through the day or scraping together enough money to live. In most my travels, I've rarely been invited by strangers to their homes for a drink or a meal, with the exception of Eastern Europe immediately after the collapse of Communism and in small town Mexico. Most of these people had virtually nothing in terms of possessions, and thus were not addicted to them. Yet these were some of the friendliest people that I've ever met. I was invited into their homes, fed, watered and entertained.

I've never cared for wealthy people. Perhaps this is because I had little growing up, with an abusive single Mother whose literacy levels were depressingly low. So, maybe, I'm suffering from a bit of penis envy. But ultimately, in the present, I simply have no desire to own a bunch of expensive crap. As a result, I voluntarily spend my life working with poorer people, and there can be no better experience than this. There is a brutal realness amongst the people known as "poor", but the fact is, these people are richer than any millionaire in their genuine nature and sincerity. I hate people who bullshit me and I hate self-righteous professionals who spend their days in the slums and then go home to their American Dream. What I really detest about the rich, however, is that they have the power to transform our world into a better place for everyone, but they won't share a sliver of their pie.

Like it or not, we are all connected and our survival depends on the benevolence of others. How can we justify our gluttony in the West while people are starving on the other side of the world? I recently saw Henry Rollins do a spoken word gig here in town and he made a very good point that there are people in this world who would give anything to eat our warm vomit, they are that desperate for food. He also noted that there is enough food discarded from the Seoul airport every day to feed the famine stricken people of North Korea, which is only 40 Km away, but Kim Jong Il won't allow the food to come in, just to site one example. When are we going to truly address these narcissistic fascists and end the rhetoric of Axis of Evil as we opt for war every time over diplomacy?

The apathy and the low turn-out at the Canadian Federal Election last week made me cringe. The fact is, if you didn't vote, then you are part of the problem. If you voted for Harper, then you voted for big corporations, for war and basically said screw the environment, so that blood is on your hands because the party you voted for was put there for you and by you. Granted, all the parties were about as inspired as watching sloth's race a marathon, but don't blame the politicians for being non-entities. Blame the nation of couch potato, self-indulgent, American Idol watching, brain dead corporate bitches (with some exceptions) that sat on their asses, said nothing, and did nothing to make things happen. When our civil liberties are eroded, when our bosses censor our freedom of speech because we are now their property and when the next witch hunt begins and we get dragged into more earth neutering, generation eliminating armed conflict, remember that the status quo are not victims but accomplices in all of this. You determined what the market would bear. You paid pro sports athletes, lip-syncing plastic surgery disaster idiots and whatnot millions, while the writers with brains, activists, artists, teachers and others working for the social good were neglected, under funded and unheeded.

Perhaps I am being harsh, but I am angry. My words are perhaps cruel, but, for some reason, I'm trying to wake people up. I don't care if people don't agree with me, that's not the point. What I want is to provoke – to engage and have people think. I'm not afraid of being wrong and am not threatened by others educated points of view. What scares me are the people who have all of the power and no insight or vision. How can we have people living in mansions while there are children dying from starvation? It's not a matter of shit happening – there is enough food in the world. The problem is that few who can are willing to deliver. What scares me is that two planes crash into the World Trade Centre and, instead of asking "why" the response is invasion and occupation. What scares me is that global warming is apparent, yet some dickhead feels that he still has the right to compensate for his small dick by driving a Hummer. Scarier still are the women who are turned on by this! I'm terrified that many people in my country have never left the confines of the world out there to see that humanity is all swimming in the same pool and that lots of us can't quite figure out to swim. Religion that generates hatred through corrupt messages of love scares me. Bush and Harper scare me.

…So I guess you might say the world has me pretty freaked out, yet the spirit of Sisyphus lives on. Perhaps I'm an idiot for holding any hope. I can live with that. Stop existing and start living. Be passion, and to quote Ghandi, my hero: "be the change that you want to see in the world".

Election Eve In Canada, Are You Awake?


Tonight is the eve of yet another federal election here in Canada. It makes me sad that most of the Canadians that I have spoken with are more excited about the November 4th Presidential election south of the border than they are about the Canadian campaign. I can not blame them for the most part as Obama does make me wonder optimistically if there are still individuals with a vision, without being fundamentalist extremists, vying for political office in the world. I truly hope that Obama becomes the next President of the United States, and that he is the whirlwind of positive change that he has campaigned on.

Obama aside, it appears that the corporate bureaucrats have eclipsed the academics and visionaries in many aspects of society – especially in Canada. This has not limited itself to just politics, but rather has permeated down through various facet's of Canadian society including Education, the Arts, the Legal System, etc. This has been personified to an even greater extent by public apathy and deterioration of grass roots organisations. Standards are lax and accountability is almost non-existent as we allow every aspect of our lives to be run as a business, making our cities homogeneous wastelands of box stores, anonymous neighbourhoods and a non-substantial popular culture that encourages nothing, fails to provoke action and leaves us as benign non-entities. Our society is largely superficial, issues have become seldom pursued fashion statements and the bandwagon rides are uninspired and short-lived like a run in the hockey play-offs.

Take the present federal election. We know that it will be another minority Conservative Government, with a slight adjustment in the opposition forces. There is no ground-swell of public emotion, and voter turn-out will be probably one of the lowest in Canadian history. None of the major issues have taken a back-seat to jabs about Harper's sweater vests, Layton's moustache and Dionne's incomprehensible English. Pathetic.

Let's look at what the issues should have been for starters:

· The Environment. Canada has amongst the world's largest natural resources reserves in the world including oil, water and trees. Drinking water is a non-renewable resource, yet we do little to conserve our supplies. In fact, we allow oil companies to pump it into their wells to assist them in extracting the oil with greater ease. There are viable energy alternatives out there – wind, solar, electric – but once the water is gone…
· Arctic sovereignty. The Danes, Americans and Russians are all vying to make claims on the Canadian north. This would upset most nations to the point of war, but we do nothing.
· Afghanistan. Almost 100 Canadians have died in this war. Our country is divided on the mission. Where is the dialogue and debate that should be making this a major issue? Do the lives of our Armed Forces and all the tax dollars supporting the Afghan campaign not deserve our most astute attention?
· The Current Economic Crisis. I'm not just talking about the present Stock Market crises, but the general erosion of the Canadian middle class. National stability depends on a stable and large middle class. Impoverishing more Canadians leads to increases in crime, lower educations levels and child poverty.
· The decline of Canadian Health Care. Issues of privatisation are huge (or should be), wait times are ridiculous and there are millions of Canadians who can not find a family doctor. This is absurd and I can not believe that more Canadians are not raising this issue with much more vocality. Also, the non pro-active approach we have to health in this country is pathetic.
· National Unity. Regionalism is huge in this country. There's Western alienation, neglect to the Maritimes, Quebec separatism, issues in First Nations communities, immigration issues. Still there is no debate. Canadians should truly ask if we should be a single nation at all and, based on the result of this discourse, develop a framework that will allow all to move forward.
· Social spending. Are some groups getting more than they should or not enough? The Arts? Education? Sport? Welfare? Corrections? Bureaucracy? Regional Development? We require dialogue! Debate!
· Our view of our place in the world. Should we become neutral in the spirit of countries such as Switzerland and Sweden? What are our global priorities?

This is only scratching the surface, as I am certain that I could probably come up with a plethora of other issues. Blame in this area can not rest solely on the politicians. In fact, it is the responsibility of this country's citizenry to raise these questions, debates and force what matters to the fore. Our apathy is what has led us to the current situation. I'm disgusted that we have more fanfare and debate over Canadian Idol candidates or replacing the Hockey Night In Canada theme song than we do about who leads our nation. Perhaps we deserve this benign state of affairs. Perhaps we need a domestic tragedy to wake us from our social slumber. Perhaps "isms" should come to the fore again, and if that comes in the form of fundamentalism, then that is perhaps just be what the status quo need to wake up. Political campaigns are becoming too much like job interviews. We are told what we want to hear, nothing controversial is stated and you can't fire the bastards after they fail to follow through.

Think. Vocalise. Act. Vote!