The pre-Requisite - International Prose

The pre-Requisite
by jude Thursday, May 7 2015, 11:52am
international / prose / post

In my early travels I visited various exotic cultures to learn from their ancient cultural traditions, the cultures that offered the most valuable lessons were of course cultures that had the oldest written histories and cultural traditions, which were extant when I began my personal search for an alternative to the materialism of the west. It became clear in my university days that Marxism and capitalism, for example, were two sides of the same materialist coin and I knew that other non-materialist philosophies existed, especially in the East. The ancient cultures of Persia, China and India offered a wealth of new information and ways of perceiving the world, which to me were vastly superior to the limited view of the materialist west.

I met numerous fascinating people that could trace a cultural lineage back thousands of years, in that regard the west was clearly infant in its development; in fact, the west was forced to source many Eastern philosophies to fill its cultural void. This is easily determined by tracing western philosophy and theology back to its origins in the East; so in a cultural, philosophical perspective the East was clearly the wiser more mature source; all we could learn from an infant is infantile behaviour and thought, America is a good example of a self-willed, non-cooperative, impulsive, arrogant and delinquent infant culture. The fact that it is an international bully and imagines itself exceptional, for no credible reason, speaks for itself.

Ancient Persian and Chinese poets were a source of constant inspiration as they alluded to a new unfettered consciousness and reality; India on the other hand encoded its profound cultural knowledge in ‘sacred’ texts which preserved its history though draped in mythology and symbolism.

I was not only overwhelmed by these refreshing new perspectives I embraced them until I finally achieved results.

I was also fortunate to encounter ‘modern’ Eastern revolutionary thinkers such Jiddu Krishnamurti, Vimala Thakar and some very wise Buddhist monks, all of whom had similar experiences of a revolutionary consciousness that completely transformed individual consciousness from the particular to the universal. Krishnamurti constantly referred to a consciousness which was not anchored in any cultural tradition but to a fresh new passionate process borne of real freedom (from the known).

The Persian poet Rumi and the Chinese poet Lao tzu also referred to this consciousness, which is somewhat more difficult to access as they encoded their experience in poetic form, nevertheless, if appreciated with an unbiased mind the message is clear. In fact, all the ‘latest’ semiotic and post-modernist theory I studied at university was essentially encoded in these ancient texts – there is nothing new under the sun regarding human experience, how could there be, humanity has been around for a very long time.

What is of particular interest is the commonality of the experience described in different ancient cultures, in other words, the experience is common to human being, regardless of time, place or culture -- on condition that one is willing to work for results.

To sum up I would refer to an old well known adage, ‘you cannot make a silk purse from a sow’s ear,’ if you want silk, think ‘silk’ not pig! If you want social change then first transform/change yourself as without a new consciousness there can never be a new vision or new external reality. You must first be the revolution you desire socially/externally. Krishnamurti accurately referred to our troubled chaotic world as an expression of our troubled chaotic minds.

Clarity, peace and harmony must first be achieved within before they have any hope of being realised without.

Jungle Drum on Disc/Stick