The Whale Who Dreamed It Was A Bear Who Dreamed It Was A Whale
Billions and billions of years ago, way back
when the Universe was a much warmer, much
younger, and a much more blue place there lived
a giant whale named White-Bear-Dancing who swam
between the dusty expanses of exploding
supernovas and newborn stars on sparkling
dancing waters that -- due to the ever-faster
expansion of the Universe -- have since become
thin and diffuse and no longer capable of sustaining life.
As it swam along fast-fluid corridors of warm
vibrant liquid White-Bear-Dancing breathed in
great gulps of life-giving liquids and through
the gargantuan black-gaping blow-hole situated
on the top of its head the giant whale spouted
enormous geysers filled with condensed gases and
tiny droplets each containing the seed of life
growing deep inside its dark cavernous lungs
forever breathing in and out, in and out.
Since the Universe was (and still is) round
White-Bear-Dancing found that it had to swim in
circles and though it really didn't know why, it
discovered by trial and error that it much
preferred swimming to the right to swimming to
the left and so the giant whale imparted a
right-hand spin to all the life-giving waters it
blew out its spout as it circled to-and-fro
throughout the Universe always turning to the right as it went.
The giant whale didn't remember where it came
from nor did it have a particular goal in mind;
it simply never occurred to it to wonder at the
wonder of it all, but it did finally fall sleep
after many eons of wandering amongst the
fast-forming galaxies and dreamed a dream of a
beautiful blue world spinning endlessly in the blackest of nights.
One day after a sleep of many billions of years
the giant whale woke up and discovered the
Universe had become a mean polluted place filled
with plastic bottles, beach balls, and used
computer monitors that clogged its blow-hole and
caused it to sneeze mighty sneezes that made
galaxies collide and stars wink out in an
instant like candles on a birthday cake.
White-Bear-Dancing went in search of the source
of the ever-growing stream of trash, eventually
following the trail back, back, back to the
little blue dream planet spinning madly around a
tiny yellow star in an otherwise unordinary and
spectacularly unspectacular part of a cartwheel
galaxy known as the Milky Way to the speckled
people who populated the pale blue dot known as Earth.
Gazing down onto the tiny treasure, the giant
whale suddenly realized that even though the
Universe was forever growing larger, larger,
larger, the whale itself was not and so now it
was no longer a giant whale but merely a very
large one, and as the gaze was a gaze (like
everything the whale did) to the right, it
spiraled down, down, down into the atmosphere of
the tiny blue planet plummeting faster and
faster until finally impaling itself in the
middle of a soft muddy bog in the middle of a
large continent that would one day become known as North America.
The rather large whale carved out a hole in the
land that would one day fill with water and be
called Lake Michigan but for now it lay gasping
to get the breath back that had been knocked out
with the sudden stop afforded by the soft yet
still remarkably resilient bog in which it had settled.
Then, a bright star rose up into the sky and
shining down upon the large whale began to dry
it out and cause it to shrink smaller and
smaller and smaller until it lay in the middle
of a vast depression formed when it hit the earth ages ago.
As it dried out the whale's fins became arms and
legs and its tail disappeared to a little nub
and it grew fur over its body and it learned to
grunt and growl in pleasure and pain like the
bear the whale had become as it made stunning
discoveries about this new world it now inhabited.
The bear didn't remember being a whale; the bear
didn't remember anything at all before it became
a bear and in fact such a thought never entered
its head in all the days of its life... the bear
met another bear and had cubs, raising them
together in a warm cozy den that the bear
entered by entering a cave and turning right several times.
The bear became known as Boo Bear, third cousin
to Smoky Bear (though twice removed by marriage)
and best friends with Master Yogi, who taught a
night class in mindful meditation at the local
community church on Thursdays and Saturdays and
worked a day job as a garbage man (or sanitation
professional as he preferred to be called) in the local forest preserve.
One day Boo Bear and Yogi were sitting on the
long wavy green grass by a rainbow waterfall
having a discourse over the collected works of
Plato when an arrow came shooting out of the
nearby brush BLAM! striking Boo Bear in the
middle of her breast, piercing her aorta and
filling her left lung with blood, which gushed
from her mouth and nostrils as the life ran out
of her body and her arms and legs twitched
spasmodically and Yogi ran in circles screaming and shouting.
The Hunter came out of the brush chasing Yogi
away and then kneeling and cutting Boo's liver
from her still warm body, raising it to the sky
in thanks, not realizing what he had done in the
name of his hunger, never knowing what wonders
Boo had seen, not caring for the cubs at her den
who would never see their mother again.
As per her last wish, her cremated remains were
scattered to the breeze whereas a tremendous
mighty wind arose and blowing the ashes higher
and higher in a clockwise spiral they finally
blew all the way back into the night from which
she had fallen so many years ago, and she
remembered the dream she was dreaming and became
a whale once again, riding through the stars
leaving a little trail of broken pieces of her heart as she goes.
----------------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:15:25 -0700
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [MD] Smokey Bear Sutra
>
> SMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRABY GARY SNYDER
>
> Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in
> this corner of the Infinite Void gave a discourse to all the assembled
> elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the
> flying beings, and the sitting beings--even the grasses, to the number of
> thirteen billion, each one born from a seed, assembled there: a Discourse
> concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth.
>
> "In some future time, there will be a
continent called America. It will have
> great centers of power called such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt.
> Rainier, Big Sur, Everglades, and so forth;
and powerful nerves and channels
> such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon. The human race
> in that era will get into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck
> everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature."
>
> "The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings of volcanoes
> are my love burning deep in the earth. My
obstinate compassion is schist and
> basalt and granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that future
> American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure the world of loveless
> knowledge that seeks with blind hunger: and mindless rage eating food that
> will not fill it."
>
> And he showed himself in his true form of
> SMOKEY THE BEAR
>
> A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing
on his hind legs, showing that
> he is aroused and watchful.
>
> Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath
> appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on
> the fires of greed and war;
>
> His left paw in the mudra of Comradely Display--indicating that all
> creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that of deer,
> rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and
lizards all grow in the realm of
> the Dharma;
>
> Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the
> countless men oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often
> destroys;
>
> Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the west,
symbolic of the forces that guard
> the wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the true path
> of man on Earth:
>
> *all true paths lead through mountains*--
>
> With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali-yuga,
> fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and
> lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and
> Green Earth of One Mind;
>
> Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food
> enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;
>
> Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs, smashing the
> worms of capitalism and totalitarianism;
>
> Indicating the task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses, canned
> foods, universities, and shoes, master the Three Mysteries of their own
> Body, Speech, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune
> out the sick limbs of this country America
and then burn the leftover trash.
>
> Wrathful but calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those
> who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him...
> HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.
>
> Thus his great Mantra:
>
> *Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana Sphataya hum traka ham mam*
>
> *"I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND BE THIS RAGING FURY BE
> DESTROYED"*
>
> And he will protect those who love the woods and rivers, Gods and animals,
> hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick people, musicians, playful women, and
> hopeful children:
>
> And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television, or
> the police, they should chant *SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:*
> DROWN THEIR BUTTSCRUSH THEIR BUTTSDROWN THEIR BUTTSCRUSH THEIR BUTTS
>
> And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his
> vajra-shovel.
>
> Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will
> accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.
>
> Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.
> Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.
> Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.
> Will always have ripened blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine
> tree to sit at.
>
> AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT
>
> ...thus we have heard...
>
> --
> ------------
> Self is Choice, so choose good
> ------------
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