"I think if Chopin had played guitar, he would have sounded like Lenny Breau" - Chet Atkins

I was first introduced to Lenny by a guitar playing old friend of mine. He came over to my house in sort of a state. We'd planned to head for lunch, but at that point, nothing was possible. My friend was adamant that we absolutely had to sit down and listen to Cabin Fever, an album Lenny recorded while living alone in the woods of Canada. I quickly understood why. Lenny is one of those rare guitarists who combine glorious technical virtuosity with beautiful musicality.

Home at last

It has been a while. I've been back from the wilds of Colorado and buddhist boot camp for a little over two weeks now. Up until this afternoon, I'd entirely forgotten that this thing existed. I've forgotten what it was that jogged my memory, but there was more than a moment of hesitation as I pondered whether or not to reignite this curious passtime. Had I choosen not to, my studies would certainly have benefitted, however I enjoy this shared forum for banter, inane and profound, much too much to let it go at this point.
The nine weeks I spent at Shambhala Mountain Center were wonderful. It was hard at times. I missed Kitty a lot, and the schedule was much like being in school--but we didn't get any weekends. I met an ecletic group of interesting and intelligent people, and left with a handful of new friends. I don't think I'm going to try and give a blow by blow of the entire two months, but I'll start with a brief and general introduction.
The first month I spent in a program called "Sutrayana Seminary". During Sutrayana, students study the teachings of buddhism as conveyed by the hinayana and mahayana. These are the most widely accepted of the buddha's teachings and are common to most sects of buddhism (one couldn't call oneself 'buddhist' without a foundation in the hinayana). This was followed by a month of studying the Vajrayana, a path towards attaining enlightenment in this lifetime (or, quite simply, much more quickly) that one undertakes after preliminary (and foundational) preparation in the hinayana and mahayana. In a very loose sense, the three vehicles (towards attaining enlightenment (yana can be translated as 'vehicle')) can be summed up in these three phrases by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche:

Do no harm [hinayana]
Benefit others [mahayana]
Enjoy life [vajrayana]

And there you have it, the entire teachings of buddhism in seven words. It's really rather simple, and yet these simple phrases, when properly understood and wholeheartedly applied, can have very profound and far reaching ramifications. You might then wonder, why all this intensive study and elaborate ceremony? The most straigforward answer is that it is necessary because we just don't get it. Over and over, again and again, we make the mistake of believing in the solidity of both ourselves and the phenomenal world exterior to us (this seperation is itself rather questionable). This is not to espouse some sort of nihilistic nothingness. The phenomenal world is still very real and everpresent. You've probably heard of 'the middle way' before. The middle way is a mahayana idea that lies at the heart of a proper understanding of emptiness or shunyata. My favourite translation of shunyata (usually translated as 'emptiness') is 'empty of suchness'. It's the idea of suchness that is key for me. What buddhism is essentially saying, is that most of our relations with the phenomenal world are enclosed in concepts that we construct and believe to be real, self-existing, and independant, when in fact they are simply the result of many different factors coming together at once. This is also true of our idea of self, it too is a mental construct.
I'm reminded of a conversation I had last night with a friend of mine. We were talking about causation and he mentioned that David Hume said that causation was nothing more than conjunction. I'm not sure that I've fully thought this through, but I believe that that is fairly close to the buddhist understanding of interdependance in which nothing can be pointed to as a first cause.
I haven't explained this terribly well. I will write more later. I hope no one feels that I have ranted excessively or any such thing. I will try and write more again soon.

Love Evan

Power of Purpose

I've got some purpose for all of you. How would you like to get paid $28 a word to write a modest 3500 word essay. Go check out Power of Purpose. You'll find details about an essay competition with a 100,000 grand prize. This isn't in your inbox, it's not a joke. Go win some mad cash, find your true purpose.

Update

The links have been update. In addition to the Alfred Hitchcok links, I've added a link to Textism and Philsophy. Both are blogs of sorts. I haven't really explored the latter, but it seems interesting. I came across the former last night while not doing my paper that was due today. The reason I've posted a link to it is because it has a very nice overview of the 20 excellent type faces/fonts.

Life is good. School is nearing its end for the year. Two more weeks, then exams and then I'm done.

Dyl is heading to Oman, and then perhaps to Madagascar.

Hope all of you are doing well.

A Contrast

I had a most wonderful film class this afternoon. We began with a very animated discussion of an article by Arlette Farge about the relationshp between History, film, the subject, and history. From there we moved onto a general discussion of the New Wave. We'd all read an article by Antoine deBaeque that situates the New Wave in a very specific historical context, 1957-1962. As part of this dicussion we watched a few excerpts from some classic new wave films. Most notably, we watched a wonderful scene from Godard's "Band of Outsiders". The scene begins with the three main characteris seated at a table in a brasserie. They are having a conversation that is at once mundane and profoundly philosopical. At some point, the conversation moves into a discussion of silence and then, whoopp!, all of the sudden the sound dissapears, and we the viewers enjoy a 'minute' (actually around 40 seconds I think) of silence. Dialogue, and sound, then return with an invitation by one of the three to dance. A very cheerful, upbeat, dance routine then begins. At some point however, all the onscreen sound stops, and we hear Godard's (off-screen) voice narrating what's going on between the characters. It then returns to dancing, then to Godard, then dancing, till the scene ends. I couldn't stop tapping my fingers and humming for quite a while after we'd stopped watching. The song the dance to is great (I'll have to look it up). The reason this post is titled contrast is because after this jovial movie watching experience, we quickly finished the discussion and the prof screened Alain Renais' "Nuit et Brouillard" (Night and Fog) for us. I don't want to hasard a description of this film. It is a very well done documentary of the Holocaust. Very painful. Very sad.

Maynard Loves his Wine

It's not often that I find my different interests crossing paths in this way. A recent article on the Winespectator website details Tool singer, Maynard James Keenan's passion for wine. I can't say that the article is particularly interesting (though you should check it out for the picture of Maynard), either from a musical perspective, or a wine perspective. It's one of those human interest stories that doesn't really say much of anything, at least in and of itself. There is perhaps something interesting in watching the counter-cultural become not quite so counter. But I don't think it's really that big a surprise. We all remember Zack and his Ford explorer don't we. Well, Maynard is the proud owner of near complete verticals of Grange, and in his own words, "A page and half of Sassicaia [very good, very well known, Italian Cab Sauv with a little Cab Franc] on one wine list is enough to make my heart stop." Now I quite agree with his sentiment, and I would be most delighted to have verticals of Grange in my cellar. But it just goes to show you how rare trully revolutionary discourse really is. I guess I should add that I don't think Tool has ever really sold themself on more than their particular aesthetic (unlike RATM). So I don't begrudge Maynard his wine. It's just funny to see how he and Tool get presented to the public and, in turn, how the public chooses to receive them.

Friday Night

It's Friday night down here in the United States of the Americas. What the hell is that? Isn't Canada a part of the Americas? How 'bout all those South American countries? God damn american hegemony!

I'm too tipsy to be talking about politics. Spearhead is currently playing. I'm in the middle of a radio show. I'd like to say the crowd is bumpin' in front of me, but alas, that is not the case. It has been, but not tonight. There seems to be something going on in the SU that is more enticing than my music. What has this world come to. We're now moving to the "Seed 2.0"; just a little soundtrack update.

This week has been good. Uneventful, but interesting. My lit theory class has moved on to Marxism. Thus far, we've been looking more at it as cultural theory/critical theory, though I guess the two are in many ways inseperable from lit theory. Marxism seems to make the point, or at least maintain the hope, that there could be something better. Modern day capitalism on the other hand, views us humans as inherently self-interested; sadly, it seems to have proven a more accurate description of reality, but perhaps that is just because it has dominated the discussion. Aha, the Marxist conceit. Ahhhh! somehow my not so sober mind made it back to politics, and I haven't even been very eloquent.

I'm drinking bourbon. That's about the extent of my life at this present moment. Ohh, I'm also listening to MC Solaire.

But I think this is enough for now. I hope all of you are having as much fun as I am.