Thursday, June 05, 2008

Sanātana Dharma Bums & Heavenly Hobos

Yes. That's what we are. Sanātana Dharma Bums, eternal hobos wandering the earth or huddled around a fire in the slackheap of the present.

Things I learned in a hobo jungle
Were things they never taught me in a classroom
--Merle Haggard

The hobo used to be be an American archetype. There was a time, before the age of political correctness, when they weren't necessarily patronized as "homeless." Rather, one of the great privileges of America was that one was free to be homeless, to wander, to stay in motion, to not put down roots, to follow that dream wherever that dream may lead. The homesteader and drifter form the warp and weft of the American fabric, like container and contained, male and female, infinite and absolute.

I guess I grew up a loner,
I don't remember ever havin' any folks around.


I don't remember much from my film school education, but I do know that this is an archetype that appears in American cinema, often in westerns, in which the drifter, or outsider, who is "above good and evil," is needed to save the established order. Or, you might say that the establishment is threatened by the uncivilized from below, but rescued by the "post-civilized" from above. John Wayne often played this kind of character. Today he would be arrested by liberal thought police and placed in sensitivity training. Note that George Bush's evocation of this male archetype was completely unacceptable to a thoroughly castrated and feminized left.

I never travel in a hurry,
'Cause I got nobody waitin' for me anywhere.


In Old Europe, the person without place was always considered dangerous, a threat to the established order, but America was founded by wanderers, half of whom put down roots, the other half of whom kept on wandering, first westward, into the frontier, and then, when the physical frontier closed in the late 19th century, inward and upward. (In fact, now that I think about it, my father, who emigrated here from England in 1948, was pretty much of a hobo, working and traveling from town to town until arriving on the west coast and marrying my mother in 1954. In so doing, he was living his childhood vision of America, and having an adventure he never could have had in the Old World.)

Home is anywhere I'm livin',
If it's sleepin' on some vacant bench in City Square,
Or if I'm workin' on some road gang,
Or just livin' off the fat of our great land.


But drifters do not only wander upward. Again, exactly analogous to the dangerous outsiders of the old west, some ventured downward, which was essentially what the whole counter-culture movement was about, beginning in the 1950s and '60s -- Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Alan Watts, and all the rest.

But in order to break out of the established order, something must first be broken, so it's not surprising that a lot of would-be celestial drifters were initially attracted to false teachers before getting on the right pathless path. Fortunately, God protects the sincere individual who has purity of intent from being fundamentally damaged by these corrupted teachings and teachers.

Culturally and politically speaking, the "downward movement" of the counter-culture became the new establishment of the subsequent generation, now casting conservatives in the role of outsiders and rebels. As Flynn writes in A Conservative History of the American Left, when all of the dust from the 1960s settled, the insurrectionists became the guardians of a new dreary establishment and life-denying conformity, expertly marketing it from childhood on up, from MTV to Rolling Stone, from CNN to the New York Times, from preschool to postgrad, in movies, music, literature, and every other medium.

This is what is so ironic about the Obama campaign, since it has nothing whatsoever to do with real change (as opposed to agitation) or revolution (as opposed to rebellion), certainly not from "above." Rather, it is simply the embodiment of the "acquired truths" and "stale pieties" (Flynn) of the past, now enforced by the mechanism of political correctness and the heavy-handed propaganda arm of the MSM. It is utterly conformist to the core, which is what makes it so simultaneously flimsy and frightening.

I heard Obama's much-praised speech on Tuesday, and -- please, I'm not invoking Godwin's law -- the first thing I thought of was Hitler, not Martin Luther King. When masses of people get swept up in this kind of irrational and hysterical vacuity, it should give pause to any sufficiently sober and detached person. This is not good. Until now, the left was a contemptuous vanguard that had to lead the reluctant masses by the nose. But now, it seems that the boobs are leading the vanguard, which is precisely what knocked Hillary for a loop. "How can these ungrateful little people be thinking for themselves? Even the negroes! How dare they!"

(Obama "sees the necessity of reeling in those of faith, and making them part of the class struggle, while avoiding the harsher approach of demanding that the people give up their faith as a consequence of their commitment to revolutionary change. Americans have proven much more stubborn in the religious realm than the Europeans, who fell hook, line and sinker for Marx, Lenin and Stalin. America might seem more amenable to the kind of Third Way socialism that Hitler brought to Germany, while cunningly using Christian jargon to wile his way into Aryan minds and hearts.")

We're getting sidetracked, aren't we? What can I say? I'm a heavenly hobo and one of Hermes' hermits.

Where I've been or where I'm goin'
Didn't take alot of knowin'


One of my favorite chapters in Meditations on the Tarot is Letter IX, The Hermit. In fact, that's him, on the cover of the book, with a walking staff in his left hand and a lantern in his right. Although I'm not sure, something or someone tells me that this will segue nicely with the material under discussion.

"For it is the venerable and mysterious Hermit who was master of the most intimate and most cherished dreams of my youth, as moreover he is the master of dreams for all youth in every country, who are enamoured by the call to seek the narrow gate and the hard way to the Divine." For surely, we are on a journey, except that it is an inward journey. This is not our home!

No, we are on the move, staff in one hand, fleshlight in the other. The Hermit "possesses the gift of letting light shine in the darkness -- this is his 'lamp'; he has the faculty of separating himself from the collective moods, prejudices and desires of race, nation, class and family -- the faculty of reducing to silence the cacophony of collectivism vociferating around him, in order to listen to and understand the hierarchical harmony of the spheres..."

Thus, he could never be part of the Obama hysteria, for he represents the very opposite of this luciferian movement, which doesn't walk upright unaided, and certainly carries no light! Rather, they all stand in the dark with mutual assistance, otherwise known as a mob. To put it another way, gravity is not a "movement." Rather, it is merely stasis in action. I don't want to be there when it hits bottom, or when the bottom dwellers hit us.

The Hermit moves, but always with both feet firmly planted on the ground, one step at a time, assimilating what he has learned and weaving it into his own substance before moving on: "he possesses a sense of realism which is so developed that he stands in the domain of reality not on two feet, but rather on three, i.e., he advances only after having touched the ground through immediate experience and at first-hand contact without intermediaries -- this is his "staff.'"

With this staff -- which is also the staff of the Sanātana Dharma, or what is always true for all time -- "he creates light, he creates silence and he creates certainty," which is none other than Coon Central, or the supramental clarity of "harmony with the totality of revealed truths and of that which is the object of immediate experience."

As such, this Hermit is "a wise and good father who is a reflection of the Father in heaven." Is it any wonder that Obama -- who knew only a deadbeat father and wooly-headed counter-cultural mother -- was attracted to a sick and twisted father (Rev. Wright) and now wishes to be that mother-father to the rest of us?

But what if you are a Son of the Real who doesn't need Big Government to be your mommy and daddy and shape you into its beastly image?

Then get out of the way, bum! You're blocking the Unity!

... and Unity's just another word for no freedom left to lose...

Keep thyself as a stranger and pilgrim upon the earth, who hath nothing to do with the affairs of this world. --The Imitation of Christ

Rise above time and space
Pass by the world, and be to yourself your own world
. --Shabistari

To be the heavenly Father's Son, one has to be a stranger to the world... --Meister Eckhart

But I keep thumbin' through the phone books,
And lookin' for my daddy's name in every town.
--Merle Haggard, I Take A Lot of Pride In What I AM

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gagster,

Have you ever read THE WAY OF A PILGRIM? It's an account of the archetypal Holy Wanderer you're describing here, as lived out in the Eastern Orthodox tradition.

Gagdad Bob said...

Oh my yes.

NoMo said...

I have to add this hobo song of slack to the mix. And here in A/V.

Back to reading.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's just me but I'm already sick and tired of Obama barking at me.
I'm not sure if I heard it correctly but in a recent speech I heard Obama make reference to, I think his Mother, and the inferrence to the realization of a (her) dream.
Just what we need as President, a "man" avenging his mommy's resentments on the entire populace.
His view of this country is so skewed that I don't even know where to begin and he'll do nothing but empower and encourage the worst among us, powered by a coalition of the guilty and easily duped, PCbots.
John McCain had better give up the Mr. Rogers Neighborhood act and start kicking some ass if he expects to have a chance against these marxist cutthroats.

Gagdad Bob said...

Yes, that is why Rudy was my man. Only he possessed the "higher ruthlessness" to really go after these nasty people.

Van Harvey said...

"I heard Obama's much-praised speech on Tuesday, and -- please, I'm not invoking Godwin's law -- the first thing I thought of was Hitler, not Martin Luther King. "

Anyone notice during that speech, the dropping of the Mr. Affable pose, and picking up the Mr. Furrowed Brow glare?

Gagdad Bob said...

In McCain's case, he's nice to his enemies and an asshole to his friends.

Van Harvey said...

Yep.

julie said...

Being an Arizonan, I actually swore I'd never vote for him for president...

but then reality struck.

My DH's former boss had a comment around the time of the 2000 elections - it was "the evil of two lessers." Thankfully, one of those "lessers" - the winner - was greater than we ever expected.

This election seems more like the evil of a lesser and a malignity. Let's hope the lesser gets elected this time - and that he manages to exceed our expectations.

I don't expect it, but I do hope.

Anonymous said...

Hugh Hewitt had the same reaction to Obama's speech that you did. He noted that Obama's exhortations that we all need to work together to care for the sick, end war and heal the planet demonstrated a fundamentally fascist mindset. Jonah Goldberg, please call your office ...

Unknown said...

I like the whole concept of the wandering Hobo. But the guy that stands on the corner of the busiest street in town holding a will "work" for food sign is some mythical knight of the open road. He is a wastrel that needs to get his act together.

As far as McCain vs Obama they both are lacking, but I do not know who I think will damage this country more. I had been feeling pretty good about Bill Richardson minus the UFO comments but I think either way this next President is going to hurt us. But they all seem to, don't they.

Anonymous said...

According to Tolle, the national psyche has a "pain body" which is analogous to the mind parasites of which you have spoken.

Only the Hermit can rise above the individual and collective pain bodies or mind parasites which overlap and cause emotional upheaval in the psyche.

This evaluator puts Obama in the White House, and also puts him falling under the control of the national collective need to have enemies and he WILL WAGE WAR despite his pacifist outpourings. Your comparison to Hitler is spot-on in this regard. Let us hope Obama becomes a Hermit before this comes to pass.

This evaluator puts the trouble spot that kicks it off as DAMASCUS and subsequently MEGIDDO and the latter indeed in the YEAR 2012, Month of May.

You read it here and should it come to be you'll nod your head and sat "It came to pass as I had read on One Cosmos."

Anonymous said...

Even if it doesn't come to pass, I'll nod my head and say I read it on One Cosmos.

Anonymous said...

You must be the Obama is the incarnation of Ka God of war psychic who predicted that he will become warlike if elected.
Can you give me a powerball winner anytime in the near future?
Obama has his own interior pain bodies that don't need to blamed on the national collective.
For the most part, this evaluator believes the national collective seems to be pretty spot on at being able to see evil beginning to spead globally and do something about it.

Anonymous said...

Pacifist outpourings my ass.
Take a look at his compatriots and tell me a pacifist hangs around them for longer than a nanosecond.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

I take all prophecies with a grain of salt: like a concession stand pretzel!

crunch, crunch.

I recall the three youths in the furnace: 'If our God saves us, that's fine, and if he doesn't, that's fine too.'

Anyway, I thought about Mind Jazz today...

Er, back to MySQL.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Er, I don't think the homeless beggar is necessarily a hobo. He might be, or he might just be a dude with some mental issues who can't hold down a job. Begging is not necessarily bad... it's the folks that you see at the same place for 15 years that points to 'hmm, not really a hobo...'

Hard to tell without a single eye.

Gagdad Bob said...

Yes, most of those we call "homeless" are simply severely mentally ill people who were tossed out of mental facilities due to liberal legislation.

Unknown said...

I thought the homeless/mentally ill problem was one that dated back to the Regan era and his policies. Or was that just in California?

Anonymous said...

I hope you're joking.

Van Harvey said...

River said "...Er, I don't think the homeless beggar is necessarily a hobo. He might be, or he might just be a dude with some mental issues who can't hold down a job..."

Or he might be... they might be... a bunch of musicians whose drummer fled back to Montana... and they're wandering around the beaches of San Deigo area while hunting up a surfer with his own drum set... oh... wait a minute... that'd be the early-mid 80's Reagan era... sorry... back to my SQL....

Van Harvey said...

... and yes w... ahem... they were mental cases, but not certifiable.

And they were very clean.

Anonymous said...

All is not lost; there are not just two presidential candidates, but three; iowahawk is in the race.
(If I were clever I would have one of those blue things connecting you directly to iowahawk's campaign web site, but I'm not.) So relax your bitter grip on your gun, pop a Pabst and check it out.

Anonymous said...

Heh, I don't think anybody was swept up in irrational hysteria - he had just won, of course his supporters would be happy about that :P

While watching the speech, I thought he was being funny.

walt said...

Lance -

Edmund G. "Pat" Brown was Governor of California prior to Ronald Reagan. During his administration, legislation was passed which required the release from mental hospitals of large numbers of mental patients, for a combo of legal, political, and cost-cutting reasons. This law took effect when the newly-elected Governor, Reagan, took office. Hence, the Left has always claimed that the "heartless Reagan" was to blame for the problem.

There were hobos prior to this time, of course, and were hermits scattered in the population, but the "explosion" of street people in California began in the late '60s due to that legislation, and the influx of street-loving hippies.

Unknown said...

Walt,

Thanks for both the clarification as well as the polite answer. I did not know for sure but I figured someone here might be able to clear it up for me.

Anonymous said...

Lance: "I thought the homeless/mentally ill problem was one that dated back to the Regan era and his policies. Or was that just in California?"

We had/have the same problem in Canada because of the same liberal policies.

Now the great liberal minds accuse the society of being heartless and not dealing with the homeless problem.

Anonymous said...

When in doubt about the source of a societal problem, just assume liberal policies created it. At the very least, they exacerbate the true problem, which is human nature.

walt said...

Bob,
Since you cotton to The Hermit as an archetype, you might remember this quote from MOTT, that describes the Gagdaddian "style" pretty well:

>>It follows that the Hermit is in no way a "neutralist" -- although he applies himself to the "neutralization" of binaries or polarities, to the solution of antinomies or opposites, and to the peace of the rainbow or unity in diversity. He knows how to say "no" to the tendencies aiming at false peace, just as he knows how to say "yes" to everything which aims at the true.<<

Stephen Macdonald said...

Well Cuz, I've adopted the position that everything the MSM prints or broadcasts is a lie unless proven otherwise.

I except sports scores, notices of local barn dances, etc. Everything else is presumed to be false or at least misleading.

It is remarkable how closely my policy comports with reality.

Rick said...

Bob,
Letter IX may be my favorite. I don’t know about you, but the image on the cover was close to how I pictured our Unknown Friend telling his story. He sounded timeless and in the room; even though he didn’t so clearly show up until Letter IX; which you could say happens around the center of the book.

Now, the cover started it, sure, and I suppose that’s natural to reading. Or rather we’ve gotten used to that.

Rick said...

Smoov,
That just so happens to be my policy for movie reviews these days.

mushroom said...

One of the things I struggle with is that tension between "This world is not my home, I'm just a'passin' through" and Jesus telling us to "occupy until I come". I believe the Kingdom is very much present or can be, yet I know that what is seen is temporal.

I don't think there is a middle way between. I don't think it's moderation. It more like the pilgrim makes the kingdom possible. Or maybe I've been awake too many hours today. Or both.

Rick, If you are not familiar with it libertas is a pretty good site for movie reviews. It's conservative but a little more mainstream than something like Ted Baehr's Movie Guide.

Libertas likes John Wayne. They can't be all bad.

robinstarfish said...

smoov said:

"Well Cuz, I've adopted the position that everything the MSM prints or broadcasts is a lie unless proven otherwise. I except sports scores, notices of local barn dances, etc. Everything else is presumed to be false or at least misleading."

It's safe to stick with everything, e.g. the MSM reported that the Celtics beat the Lakers tonight. Even ABC faked the footage.

Gagdad Bob said...

Yes, that last one was very disturbing. They even misreported that Paul Pierce came back into the game after that season-ending injury to his ACL.

Anonymous said...

Anon of 11:31 AM yesterday,

Don't know about you, but I have relied upon the power of now to notice that Obama has already declared war, and it's on ME!

Anonymous said...

An unrelated and non-political question.

Since you were discussing Dharma and the Vedas of late, I was curious if you felt that any of the common modes of Vedanta, such as Advaita, correspond with your view of Cosmos.

Anonymous said...

I find the "top three" each for different reasons, not only incompetent to the real troubles of our times but as well personally offensive to me. For the first time in over forty years of voting, I have chosen to sit this one out. It truly "makes no difference" since I cannot tell which disaster is worse.

Anonymous said...

If this country elects John McCain president, it will be a disaster. This is nothing to be afraid of. Our country has survived a great many disasters before (Jimmah Caahtah for one), and it could survive a McCain presidency.

What this country cannot survive is a CATASTROPHE -- which is what we will get if we elect Obama.

If you are lucky enough to be given a choice between a survivable disaster and an unsurvivable catastrophe, it's pretty obvious which one you should pick...

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