On Monday we had a very successful event with Iraqi Journalist Raed Jarrar.   Over 200 people showed up to hear Mr. Jarrar give a talk entitled:  “The U. S. Role in Iraq: Liberator, Occupier, or Peacekeeper?”

The talk was hosted by the The Church of the Holy Cross and co-sponsored by The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Puna, The Center for Non-Violent Education and Action, Amida Hawaii.  The American Friends Service Committee provided the funding to make it possible for Mr. Jarrar come and speak in Hawaii.    I did the foot work - arranging a venue, coordinating publicity, building a “coalition” of sponsors, and generally beating the bushes.

Mr Jarrar made it very clear that the US media in general is not giving full or complete coverage to the political realities on the ground.  According to Mr. Jarrar the first thing that must happen to stabilize the situation in Iraq is a complete withdrawal of ALL U.S. troops from Iraq.

He was also explicit in bringing our attention to the horrible toll on human life this war is having in Iraq:  1 million Iraqis killed and 5 million Iraqis displaced.

What has all of this killing been for?  What have we or the Iraqis gained from this expensive and devastating war in the middle east?   Oil is over $4 dollars here in Hawaii.  We have less freedoms in the U.S. and are being subjected to a high level of surveillance by our own government.  Relations with U.S. allies and friends have been strained by several years of running roughshod over the international community.  There is also the ever increasing national deficit, which is really a tax on future generations and administrations.

We and the world are in no way made better by this war!  Which is, of course, the very nature of war -  War kills, destroys families, ruins trust, and plants the seeds of hatred and future violence.  War is a one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse and as such does not “ride” alone.  War is always accompanied by Death, Pestilence, and Famine.

What does it say about us that we are so willing to unleash the Four Horsemen on the world?

Peace, Paul

It is hard to believe all that has transpired in the last 2 years.   Well actually the last 5 years!   Yes, before we pulled up stakes and moved to Hawaii, I had helped form and “build” a Buddhist Center.  It was a bumpy road, but something beautiful was indeed created a vibrant center of spiritual practice and social engagement.  We ran events throughout the week: Meditation, Study, discussion, and various ritual activities.  I engaged with local churches and volunteered with hospice (5 years) and the prison system (4 years).  We started a local Chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.  We put on a successful concert fundraiser to reach out to the public at large.  We also hosted many teachers, mostly Tibetan, as they gave profound teachings on the Buddhist Dharma, everything from basic meditation and ethics to Dzogchen.

And then, for me at least, it all went wrong.   Things that I had ignored, both in the group and in myself, came together to create a situation I was ill prepared to deal with.  I left.  However, I am happy to report that the Buddhist Center continues on and seems to be maintaining a full schedule.

Shortly after it all hit the fan, Judy and I were offered an opportunity to go to Hawaii to start and run a Buddhist Center on the Big Island.  In hindsight it was probably too soon.  We needed time to heal.  Nevertheless, we sold pretty much everything and relocated to the Big Island.  Once again it went wrong, and very quickly.  This time I think it is fair to say, given the rapid melt down of the situation, that much of the unraveling was about the organizations involved and the powers and people above us in those organizations, and not so much about us. We just chose the wrong situation based our own karmic tendencies.

In any case, for a few short months we successfully ran and built up a Buddhist retreat center.  We also organized and supported many teaching events around the Island.

I did not see it at the time, but this second organizational implosion was to mark a shift in my approach to religion.  In fact the last year and half have forced a deep process of self analysis and critique.  (In the meantime, I have been living simply, some would say primitively, and working on a peace and justice farm, growing food and challenging the violence and injustice that is creeping into our society because of a lack of vigilance by us, the citizens.)

The inspiration for the original Buddhist Center arouse out of a vision of the potential for Buddhism to be a transformational force in society.  After all, the world is suffering from the plague of violence.  Buddhism has a very strong and clear stance, so I thought, against violence and killing.  The goal of Buddhism is the elimination of Dukkha, suffering, which seems like a very noble goal on both the practical and ontological levels.

It is this vision of societal transformation that has driven and formed my life over these last many years.  I have been trying, again and again, to align my life with this vision.  It is and was a powerful vision. It has wrapped itself around my being and cannot be shaken.  It is what I must do, even if I fail and fall on my face again and again.

The question now is, where to begin?  Religion, philosophy, metaphysics, mysticism, spirituality, gnosis, occultism, whatever we call it, must be about the transformation of society in very real and concrete ways.  Inner personal transformation or salvation alone is not good enough.   We, as a species, are up against the wall.  Our normative social, religious, and economic paradigm has brought us to the edge of total violence (nuclear war) and ecological disaster.

Religion, to paraphrase Neitzche, is dead.   Religion still has power, but has sold its soul.  It has, in its many forms, aligned itself too closely with the “principalities and powers” that are leading us down the path to disaster.   There are, of course, religious people and even organizations that are doing great things.  But on the whole, religion is a lead weight pulling us down. This is not to dispute the fact that within the vast accumulation of religious literature and teachings from the past thousands of years there are not to be found valuable tools that can be used in the struggle to transform society.   Many teachers and teachings have historically appeared in the world and challenge normative society and its values.  However, today, we do not have the leisure of thousands of years to work our the salvific principles of a given religious teaching in history.  We are on a short timeline. We have decades not millennia. 

I do not yet have a form or specific direction, but I can feel the pressure to begin and I know that this time the shape will be very different from my past experiments with manifesting this vision.

Peace, Paul

This past Saturday Malu Aina hosted another successful farm day.  In addition to the regulars we were joined by 3 students from the university and a young couple on holiday from Vancouver.   It rained on and off through the morning but we still managed to plant some sweet potatoes and weed the ones planted last month.

Additionally, we transplanted our “Taro Collection”.  The collection is made up of about 22 varieties of Taro which we are cultivating to help maintain the genetic diversity of Taro.  Before the Hawaiian islands were colonized by europeans there were said to be over 200 varieties of Taro being grown.  Currently, there are only about 50 or 60 in cultivation.

Everyone was in good spirits and lingered over lunch until 3 in the afternoon.  Though this was a joyous and hopeful event, I am trouble by the many ominous signs and dark tidings from around the planet.

The paper today, as on many days, was filled with dire news.  The cost of oil continues to rise, which makes everything more expensive.  Living on an island, we feel the higher cost of fuel very quickly.  The prices we pay for food seem to rise weekly and the cost of gas moves upward on a daily basis.  There are also reports from around the world of food riots.  These have been triggered both by scarcity and the fact that staple foods are becoming unaffordable.   More and more people on the planet are lacking the necessities of food, water, shelter, and basic medical care.

As a society we should ask ourselves what role have we played in the creation of this current crisis?  What is it about our societal system that is creating such privation and suffering.  Why are we “choosing”, consciously or unconsciously, to live in,  participate in, and perpetuate a system that requires that others go without?

Dorothy Day saw the systemic nature of the evils we as a society participate in with such cold thoughtlessness.  She called it the “filthy rotten system.”  As a Catholic, she saw the “Works of Mercy” and teachings of Jesus as way out, a way to build a new system based on love and compassion.   She spent most of her adult life battling the “filthy rotten system” and trying to create something new and better.

Are we willing to do likewise and challenge and change the system?  There doesn’t seem to be much time left before things really get out of hand.  Those of us living today are the ones that must do the hard work of eliminating the many threats to humanity created in the last 50 years.  If we fail in our work, or simply do not see it as necessary, some of us may be alive to usher in the end of the human era.

The transition between yugas (cosmic aeons) is always a messy affair.  It is a point of transition, a bardo of sorts.   It is a moment in time in which change happens quickly.  However, we, collectively, must be the instruments of change.  There will be no rapture or miraculous divine intervention that saves us at the last minute.  We are on are on own and must awaken to this bardo, this time of transition.

If we are to survive then we must abandon our suicidal pursuit of greed and violence and find the resources for positive change within ourselves.  We must, as Gandhi said, “become the change we wish to see.”  It is a teaching far more profound than it appears at first glance.  It is formula for change from someone who took on, and defeated, the then most powerful nation on the planet. 

The possibilities of the future lie within us .  Will we choose the path of gods, and create and protect life, or the path of demons, who love death and slavery?

Peace, Paul 

Friends,

Here is an article entitled: Study Based on Farmers’ Experience Exposes Risks of GE Crops.

The article is a little technical, but has some good information.  The question which we should all be asking ourselves, as we face a worldwide food shortage and even food rationing in the U.S. is, are Genetically Engineered crops really the answer?

In my mind the issues around food, resource distribution, and world hunger have a lot to do with the massive shift to industrial agriculture and away from small local sustainable farming. 

Recently I had the very good fortune to give some talks on Genetic Engineering at the the University of Hawaii at Hilo.   What blew my mind though was the the students’ general lack of knowledge about agriculture, farming, or even gardening.  In one of the classes not a single student of the the 25 or so present had even grown vegetables in a garden!  I was completely stunned.  I had just assumed that most people had some minimal exposure to growing food.  That is obviously not the case.

The statistic on farming is that less than .01% of the US population is involved in agriculture.   The students at the University made this statistic very real for me.

Consequently I had to spend a tremendous amount of time during my talk explaining very basic things about farming - like how plants grow and pollinate, how they are planted and how they can be harvested.   I gave information on all of the things that go into growing food on large farms (Industrial Ag.) and small family farms.   I talked about organic agriculture and sustainability.

Let me say it again, I was stunned by what these students did not know about the growing of food!

It cannot be good for people to be this disconnected from the land and the source of the food upon which their lives depend.

Peace,  Paul

We are into the full on growing season here in Hawaii.  The rain has moderated a bit and the days are longer and we are striving to stay ahead of the weeds and various vines that thrive in this weather.  Are farm is organic, low tech, and off the grid.  That means that we do most of the work by hand using sickles, shovels, and hoes.   (Though there is a 50 year old tractor for some of the heavier work.)  It is a good life filled with long days and hard work.

Here are some photos from around the farm, enjoy.

Our first crop of corn this year.   We just put in a second planting and are looking forward to having sweet corn for several months.

Lettuce growing in our “screen house.”  We get a lot of rain here in Hawaii and the lettuce just can’t stand up to the showers:

Here is some young taro that has recently been weeded.  For those of you who do not know, Taro is the staple crop of Hawaii.  It is a very strong plant, a good producer, and easy to grow.  You can eat the whole plant and it is quite tasty.

Here is some taro that is about ready to be cut for leaf.  The corm (root) will not yet be ready for some time:

Some sweet potatoes that were weeded today.  This is another good staple crop.  Unfortunately the pigs really like sweet potatoes as well.  So I may be sleeping in the field with the dogs when harvest time rolls around.

Here are some beans that will be ready to pick in a few weeks. (They look weedy, but really it’s not that bad!)  This is one of the crops that we sell at market.  Taro is the other main cash crop.

Everyone should grow a little of their own food.

Peace, Paul

Here is an article from Time Magazine on what they call the biofuel scam, tough words coming from Time Magazine.  To quote the article:

“… several new studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what its proponents intended: it’s dramatically accelerating global warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it.”

Clean Energy Scam

Read the article and let me know your thoughts.

Peace, Paul

Below is a link to an article on Monsanto from the May issue of Vanity Fair.  I have to admit that even I was shocked by some of the information revealed in the article.

Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear

Peace, Paul

While Judy was taking her Scuba course I remained on the Farm, for our monthly volunteer day.

There were 5 of us total, and I was the youngest by about 20 years.  (I am 42!)  Nevertheless, “many hands make light work”, and in a few short hours we had planted 8 rows of Taro and 3 rows of sweet potatoes.  (The same task, if done by myself alone,  would have taken several long days of hard slow work.)  I was very thankful for help with the work!  

After working in the fields, we shared a delightful pot-luck meal.  Fresh steamed taro, chickpeas, salad, and bread mixed with joyful stories and fond remembrances to bring a warm end to the day.

Peace, Paul

Over the weekend of March 23rd & 24th Judy took, and passed, her Open Water Scuba Certification Course.  Yeah!

Here she is at a dive site called “drain pipes” in Hilo, HI.  It was a great dive.

Judy and I are looking forward to diving more sites around the island.

Peace, Paul 

After much torrential rain, we are now in a drought.  What survived the deluge is now wilting under constant heat of clear dry days.

However we are trying to take advantage of these weeks of dry weather.  We have cleared the “Peace Trail”, repaired the road by pouring concrete and laying down fresh gravel,  installed a new solar panel on the main house (effectively doubling our photovoltaic wattage), replaced and shifted batteries around the farm (heavy!), assembled a new “carport”, undertook some spring cleaning (We found the breakfast table and a whole new room - really.),  painted new peace placards (of course!), and continued our many peace activities (vigil-ing, protesting, community organizing, networking, letter writing, and keeping the heat on our various elected officials).

March 19th will mark the 5th year of the war in Iraq.  Interestingly this “anniversary” falls in the middle of the Christian holy week.  It is the week that Jesus marches into Jerusalem to face the worldly powers of his world - Rome and the Temple.   As a result of this confrontation, sedition in the eyes of Rome, Jesus was tortured and executed.

The question that should be before all Christians this week is:  What meaning does Jesus’ life and death have for a country that is at war?  Is the killing of 100s of thousands of Iraqis - men, women, and children - really the “fruit” of the Christian tree?

Many would argue that Christianity has nothing to do with this war.  Perhaps they would be right in arguing that proper belief is all that is required of Christians.  The life and death of Jesus has meaning only for those concerned about the afterlife and the state of their “souls”, and not for our lives lived in society.

If this is indeed the case, and there is much evidence to suggest that it is, what need do we have for churches at all?

Peace, Paul