Soul's Code

Just how destructive is our Pain Body?

It’s hard not to be excited by a new group of websites showing the destruction of various consumer products. The simple question WillitBlend.com poses gets put to the test with every type of imaginable product and substance. Conceived as a marketing strategy for a blender company, the videos can be stunningly addictive. Tom Dickson offers a straight-man delivery of canned jokes, that when combined with a blender, can be quite funny. Some of the best videos are the blending of a digital video camera, an iPod, glowsticks, and an annoying Valentine’s Day gift.

Then there’s the more orgiastic destruction of an Apple Powerbook by a German lady dressed in a black Ursla Andress style bikini, red high-heel boots and utility goggles. That video is different from others appearing on the Bikinirama site in that the destruction seems to be motivated by a malfunction. Other videos on the site involve more of a ritualistic destruction, seemingly for no other reason than our amusement. Various consumer electronics are presented in the harsh light of what could be an underground parking lot or a fetish dungeon then destroyed with vigor.

Then there’s the Office Space Printer Take Down that is arguably the progenitor of the genre of consumer electronic destruction (The video link has some language and lyrics that some may find offensive).

Is this any different than watching a violent movie, or gawking at a car crash? If you’re an Eckhart Tolle fan, you’re apt to say…

SOUL’S CODE — Here we were about to do a post about Paris Hilton and the psychological phenomenon called “object constancy” — you know, Tinkerbell, her addictions, her revolving door of lovers — and she throws us this perfectly spiritual curveball.

During her comings and goings to prison, paparazzi have photographed Paris several times conspicuously carrying the Holy Bible and — wait for it — Eckhart Tolle’s cross-over spiritual self-help hit, The Power of Now. This week Hilton told Barbara Walters on ABC’s The View that she’s reading the books to cope with depression and doing time, adding that she has experienced an epiphany about the superficiality of the life she’s led.

Well, let’s offer a prayer to Paris to hold that new awareness.

Meanwhile, the endorsement momentarily boosted The Power of Now’s sales ranking on Amazon from 5,000-and-something back into the top 200.

Drawing on ideas and idioms from mysticism and transpersonal psychology, HBO’s The Sopranos was the most Soul’s Code show on television — until LOST took over

BY PAUL KAIHLA — “Read for the rapture” was a signature phrase in the penultimate episode of The Sopranos, which aired during the second week of June, 2007. We’ve come to love and learn those epiphanic flourishes of dialogue — and this one came from an FBI agent, of all characters.

Could we agree that the greatest series, ever, in television history is The Sopranos? Or could we at least agree that it ranks as the most spiritual show on TV? Here’s why:

1. You’ve heard homeless people ranting on the street. Step a bit outside of your own head, and realize that they’re simply voicing aloud the kind of thought-strings that race through most of our minds every minute. Since the homeless have little left to lose, they are less defended — and to put a generous spin on it, feel liberated to share their ‘inner voice’. The Reflections promo for the homestretch of The Sopranos channels that dynamic through Tony — overlapping, Altman-esque tracks of internal dialogue looping through the mob boss’s head. Ramana Maharshi himself couldn’t have showcased the mental noise of a neurotic mind more poignantly.

The trail had lots of hikers but few pilgrims

PhyllistheAuthor — Two friends have asked my Baptist husband if after the pilgrimage, he is going to become a Roman Catholic. How much these people missed the point of the Camino. It was not a religious exercise like kissing the hem of the Pope’s robe. It was a spiritual journey.

In fact, I didn’t meet anyone who was overtly religious on the Camino. No one wished us a “Blessed day” or mentioned God or religion. I have no idea what, if any religion, my fellow pilgrims followed. In asking people what brought them to the Camino, I got a variety of answers. No one said he/she was doing the Camino for a religious purpose. We only met one person who made a point of the fact that for him, it was just a hike. We met only one woman who proclaimed that she had no faith.

In contrast, signs of a spiritual journey were everywhere: In the stones left at kilometer marking. In the hearts, flowers, and crosses along the way. In the quiet contemplation of the pilgrims in churches. In journals being kept by pilgrims, In the respect shown the countryside through which the pilgrims walked. In the kindness of one pilgrim to another.

A koan from the Zen master, Goso, and the legend of Seijo

SOUL’S CODE — We stumbled onto this Zen Koan and thought it worth sharing.

Chokan had a very beautiful daughter named Seijo. He also had a handsome young cousin named Ochu. Joking, he would often comment that they would make a fine married couple. Actually, he planned to give his daughter in marriage to another man. But young Seijo and Ochu took him seriously; they fell in love and thought themselves engaged. One day Chokan announced Seijo’s betrothal to the other man. In rage and despair, Ochu left by boat. After several days journey, much to his astonishment and joy he discovered that Seijo was on the boat with him!

They went to a nearby city where they lived for several years and had two children. But Seijo could not forget her father; so Ochu decided to go back with her and ask the father’s forgiveness and blessing. When they arrived, he left Seijo on the boat and went to the father’s house. he humbly apologized to the father for taking his daughter away and asked forgiveness for them both.

“What is the meaning of all this madness?” the father exclaimed. Then he related that after Ochu had left, many years ago, his daughter Seijo had fallen ill and had lain comatose in bed since. Ochu assured him that he was mistaken, and, in proof, he brought Seijo from the boat. When she entered, the Seijo lying ill in bed rose to meet her, and the two became one.

Zen Master Goso, referrring to the legend, observed, “Seijo had two souls, one always sick at home and the other in the city, a married woman with two children. Which was the true soul?”

In response to our pilgrimage, one person asked how could anyone believe in a God who let babies die. Implicit in the question is the belief that death is bad. And it does seem so to those who are left bereft. Yet it may be the greatest good for those who die. For the innocents who die it may be a shortcut to fields of flowers, singing birds, endless rainbows, pure joy.

If death is not bad, the problem then is not dying, but suffering. How does one understand suffering? One only has to read The Book of Job to appreciate that suffering is difficult to understand. It once was thought that suffering was redemptive, and I suspect it can be so. More often, it seems to be a dessert of endless sand, parched earth, and prickly cactus, a no man’s land of pain. Could it be the suffering is the price, the passport, for entering into the delights of death?

Or could it be that suffering is not about the person suffering? Could it be instead about us and our call to be kind? How can anyone believe in a loving God without experiencing love in their lives?

SOUL’S CODE —  Nothing hurts more in a news story than hearing about kids getting hurt or tortured. In this sick story, reported by the BBC, a woman discovered 26 sewing needles in her body when she had blood in her urine. Ouch! How did she not notice earlier? Her grandparents had stuck her with needles when she was a very small child, doctors say. It’s a literal manifestation of what the spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle calls “the pain body.”

SOUL’S CODE — What do you make of the movement-of-the-day about telling people exactly what you think?. At one level, it sounds like the core of integrity and right speech. You’re being compassionate and respecting those around you by being honest. There’s no pandering or no assumption that they won’t be able to deal with whatever truth you would unveil to them.

Here’s a fun exhibit of the issue from a recent Esquire article:

Once again, I felt the thrill of inappropriate candor. And I felt something else, too. The paradoxical joy of being free from choice. I had no choice but to tell the truth. I didn’t have to rack my brain figuring out how to hedge it, spin it, massage it.

The thing is, the separate cubbyholes of my personality are merging. Usually, there’s a professional self, a home self, a friend self, a with-the-guys self. Now, it’s one big improper mess. This woman and I have either taken a step forward in our relationship, or she’ll never return my calls again.

PhyllistheAuthor— Have you ever noticed how when you buy something like a new car you suddenly see that make of car everywhere? Psychologists call the phenomenon parataxic distortion. Since our journey along the Camino de Santiago to Compostela, Spain, we see scallop shells—traditional symbol of the pilgrimage—everywhere. Even Coquilles St. Jacques, a favorite scallop recipe, takes on new meaning.

In spite of my heightened sensitivity to scallop shells, on a recent visit to the new archeology museum celebrating the 400th anniversary of the settlement at Jamestown, I was taken aback to see three Compostela pilgrim badges displayed among the artifacts. I have lived three miles from Jamestown since 1985 and frequently visited there, and this is the first time I have felt a real connection to the early settlers. It is often said that everything is connected, and I’m beginning to believe that is true.

Many years ago, I read a novel called The Fountain by Charles Morgan. The story turns around a dying man’s withdrawal from life into the divine. As his body fails, little by little the man subtracts himself from the things of earth, from status, possessions, and even the love of his wife. Such release is at that heart of meditation and the Christian message of losing one’s life to find it.

Walking the Camino, we left behind status, accomplishments, and possessions. The way and the weather were so uncertain that we were never sure where we would eat, rest, or spend the night. The physical demands were so great the day came when we was too exhausted to go on. We had to recognize our limitations, give in, get a hotel room, and rest. We had to give up control.

The image of a fountain gets to the heart of the Camino experience. As the burdens and the clutter of the world fell away, I felt a lightness of spirit. The rainbow that we followed for hours one day reappeared inside of me. Joy bubbled up and splashed out turning dried grass into diamonds.