A Midwest Journal

– Please pardon this political interlude –

Found this amazing lecture from Alan Watts, an Episcopal priest turned Zen Buddhist – and a very prolific and accomplished lecturer.

Here is a fascinating commentary on how government is actually optional to the person who is enlightened, who is independent, who is secure in their own being.

Government gets very insecure when people are secure and independent on their own.

They don’t like to have little facts pointed out to them, little accuracies in their lives like:

Mr. Obama – you say we are 1.4 trillion dollars in debt, yet we just approved two “stimulus” packages of over 700 billion each (and doesn’t this add up to that amount?) – and a lot of this is getting paid back with interest. Now if you just worked at getting it all paid back, wouldn’t that just take care of that debt?

Now you in the same speech say that having an increasing debt is very bad – but why are you then proposing a budget which spends way more than we are going to take in?

And did you know that the last time taxes were cut, it was the fastest response to any recession, and revenues actually increased?!?

So, Mr. Obama – how about you don’t spend more than you take in, that you look up what’s worked before, that you make these bail-out funds actually return to our Treasury?

Too simple?

It’s not my insecurity, after all. I’m happy out here with my little farm, finding beatnik philosophers like Alan Watts and Lester Levenson who are secure in their own skins and talk about it.

The knuckleheads we’ve somehow elected to represent us need some security in the worst way. Maybe they’d be more sensible if they were. Like those who aren’t going to get re-elected – they’re free to do and say whatever they want. Term limits anyone?!?

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If you’ve found it valuable, please consider donating via PayPal to enable my continuing research.

Our latest upcoming release, “Freedom Is — (period.)”

Just woke up from a nightmare involving Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. Which is weird, since it’s been years. Used to have them regularly. And practically, only my study of Huna as a comparative belief-system actually was able to get any sense of these (and make them quit).

Scientology is a closed system, a religion which doesn’t believe in any God, but rather emphasizes the spirituality of the individual.

It’s run by a corporate cult, in that in order to live and work and succeed around that organization, you have to believe and act in certain ways. A lot of that involves kowtowing (bowing deeply in subservience) to the existing corporate heads and to Hubbard in absentia.

From an outsiders’ view, simply look how North Korea acts and you’ll have some parallels.

Sure, I’m being critical here. Probably the last time I’ll bring this up.

But there’s a difference between the philosophy of Scientology and what Hubbard created as a management body to carry on after he left. Even Anonymous - on it’s two-year anniversary of protesting against this corporation – respects the beliefs of those followers and staff, but not the decisions the corporation makes and continues.

Philosophically, Scientology was taken off the rails right at a policy called Keeping Scientology Working, where Hubbard said that he alone created and distilled this body of work and that no one else was going to be permitted to help him with this after that point. Lots of contribution helped him get to where he was. And when you look over his work, you’ll find that he got all of his ideas (yes, every single one) from some earlier author. Everything can be traced back. Everything.

In order to sort out my own head after 20+ years as staff, I’ve had to do considerable amount of this back-tracking. I’ve described this scene graphically:

Imagine a basketball court whose floor is filled with ice cream sundaes. From side to side, right up to the bleachers which surround it. Scientology is the cherries picked off all those sundaes. The best part (and most filling) has been left on the floor. People are told who study this work that “that is all there is”. But frankly, they are missing the best part.

While Hubbard would tell people in his “Way to Happiness” to not be critical and to treat others according to the Golden Rule, he didn’t follow his own advice. His recorded lectures are intensely critical of many different subjects. You can find all of Hubbard’s recordings online now – check it out for yourself.

Essentially, he wanted to get rich and was successful in that. He also died mysteriously, on psychiatric drugs. No family or friends present, only a caretaker who was last heard about as hiding from corporate Scientology.

But you take Hubbard’s belief-system and compare it with Alan Watt’s description of Zen that he gave in a lecture once. He said Zen has no doctrine, no dogma, no belief-system you have to accept. It’s simply a way of life.

Now then, if one must try to say something about what Zen is, and I want to do this by way of introduction, I must make it emphatic that Zen, in its essence, is not a doctrine. There’s nothing you’re supposed to believe in. It’s not a philosophy in our sense, that is to say a set of ideas, an intellectual net in which one tries to catch the fish of reality.

Scientology is no way of life. It’s a dogmatic belief-system enforced by threat of excommunication and shunning. And even Hubbard agrees that Zen Buddhism civilized the bulk of this planet.

It’s actually easier to research Scientology than it is Alan Watts. My opinion on why this is so is that the corporate structure Hubbard formed is so destructive in the actions it takes that it engenders antipathetic comments and criticism. Fuels the very fire that is burning it.

I should know, I was part of it for years. And for those I hurt with my actions, I apologize.

Since, I’ve worked as I can through my books,  this blog, and other sites to help others find their own way out of the winding labyrinth which Hubbard created through his corporate Scientology. You’ll see on this blog that I’ve got several proposals which can help people get their own life back.

So others don’t have to have recurring nightmares anymore.

This write-up was probably overdue. In October, it will be a decade since I left. And it’s only been through an intense study of scams in the last two years, where I saw that the “long arm” of the legal and PR branches of corporate Scientology are nothing to fear. Rather, they are subject to simple pity. Even the heads of these branches have been leaving that sinking ship in droves, lately.

Your life is and has always been your own. Live it as best you can. And any current or former Scientologist who wants to get relief – just contact me via this blog. I’ll help as best I can.

Thanks for visiting my blog and reading this entry.
If you’ve found it valuable, please consider donating via PayPal to enable my continuing research.

Our latest upcoming release, “Freedom Is — (period.)”

Come to learn how to raise grass fed beef cattle or help your Self?

Photo: Flickr's uhuru1701

This blog/site continues to evolve – just as I do.

Note: This site is now static, an archive. See my post about why I’ve moved on to other activities.

The popular posts and pages are in the sidebar.

Of particular interest to me:

• Grass Fed Beef Cattle
• Release Technique
• Spiritual Training

Of course, you’ll find people have been coming here to find out about phenoms such as Burt Goldman and his Quantum Jumping.

I write, edit, and publish books from my working Missouri farm.

Notable ones are:

“Go Thunk Yourself!” – a self-help guide

“Get Your Self Scam Free!” – obvious

“The Online Sunshine Plan” – Internet marketing guide

and a recent addition (my last self-help book)

“Freedom Is (period.)”

And my current plans are to segue over into cartoons, as I’ve been drawing these all my life and people like them – plus it brings me peace to help others smile. (Stay tuned, as this will be it’s own new site.)

Now, below these few paragraphs is a longer explanation of what I’ve been up to. But you can simply skip over to the sidebar to find out what’s interesting to you.

What  you’ll find on this site is what continues to interest me. And I hope it resonates and is helpful you you on some level or other.

Continue reading ‘Welcome!’ »

Thanks for visiting my blog and reading this entry.
If you’ve found it valuable, please consider donating via PayPal to enable my continuing research.

Our latest upcoming release, “Freedom Is — (period.)”