103-Following The Law of Intention And Desire, In The Time Of The Renaissance

You are what your deep, driving desire is.

As your desire is, so is your will.

As your will is, so is your deed.

As your deed is, so is your destiny.

Brihadaranyka

The Law of Intention and Desire

Inherent in every intention and desire is the mechanics for its fulfillment... intention and desire in the field of pure potentiality have infinite organizing power. And when we introduce an intention in the fertile ground of pure potentiality, we put this infinite organizing power to work for us.

                                                                                      Upanishad IV.4.5.                                                   

                                            Just Ask A Horse

Now You See

I've Got This Light 

It's From These Mountains

That I Bring

Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season), The Byrds

102-From the Belly of the Beast

"As one changes himself, others around him are also changed. The salutary effects of their law can be seen in the transformed and transforming lives of all great Masters."

"One who gives sincerity that is not appreciated or is abused is casting away "Pearls" uselessly: the wise reserve their spiritual treasure to benefit those who are receptive."   

The Second Coming of Christ

The Resurrection of the Christ Within You

A regulatory commentary on the original Teachings of Jesus

Paramahansa Yogananda

Volume 1

Discourse 30

Matthew 7: 1-5,6

                                  “From the Belly of the Beast,

 Once, I stood strong and tall atop America’s highest mountain peak. Turning I faced Mecca toward the East, to my eyes came this vision of a holocaust that brought me to my knees, touching the very depths of my soul. I saw the American Armada’s storming the seven seas. Hear my voice ring, for truth and freedom for the children! To every nation’s mountain peaks, from the depths of the belly of the beast!”

101-A Simple Protest Poem

 

                                                Upon the Ocean’s Breezes

 Listen! The ocean breezes are beckoning across the Isle Ellis. They are calling extraordinary artisans accustomed to nature listening. Apres’ her lady’s commissioning to let our collective lights shine brighter than the torch lit for Liberty, to let our collective voices be raised for all of Humanity, crying from the ocean’s depths of Peasantries, combating the silence of indifference, armed with swords of insignificance, to stem the rising tides of Russian Armageddons. Turning back the raging seas of Radical Extremism’s blasphemies spewing from the cauldrons tended by the World’s Aristocracies, beckoning across the sea of mediocrity.

How do you even begin to address the atrocities that are being waged against the Nation of Ukraine? My thoughts are very hawkish at the moment. Yes, the tide of World Outrage is shifting and it does look like we will get there. Do not let the simplicty of the Poetry lessen the urgency of the Mission.

If I Had A Rocket Launcher, Bruce Cockburn

100-Journey of an Awakening

 I stand on the rocks of the Rio Grande Trail in the John Denver Sanctuary and read the words of Rocky Mountain High and Annie's Song etched in to the surrounding stones. I  stare down at my hiking boots and think of how many trails and mountain peaks I have walked, climbed and skied to arrive here at this moment. The words ring clear in my mind and are part of the reason that I looked to the open road in search of sunrises, snowflakes and sunsets. It is a lot like reading Walt Whitman and Poems like Song of the Open Road. Each word, note or phrase touching a part of me and reaffirming everything that I believed in. All the reasons to continue on to another winter and another town or mountain to ski. "Aspen Colorado," I say to myself in my mind. Twenty Years in a town I thought I would never set ski boot in. It wasn't the Lure, the mountain is not king here, although beautiful and challenging in places, I can't put my finger on what has kept me here. Why didn't I go Chamonix, France. The draw was there. The lure of extreme skiing. The ever deeper snow and steeper mountains. It is the thing. Is it age? I am in my late 60's. I only went to Colorado to take Film and Screenwriting courses in the early 90's. A ski bum looking for a way to salvage a career from a mis-pent youth. In 1973 I took a year off from an Engineering Degree to go skiing, I never went back. Too late to be an extreme skier in Valdez, Alaska, too old. Part of the heart wants to carry on, even now, but the body refuses to. So you entertain other options. Ah! Aspen, the other option. The words to Rocky Mountain High pass before my eyes as I begin my walk down the Rio Grande Trail. I reflect on my time in Aspen now as I have left it. I am all right with that. It was time. It is unique and there was no other ski town in the world like it. I know I have tried them all. While I never cared much for the mountains there myself. This place has been a home and friend. It has allowed me the success for the freedom I wish in the future. Perhaps It is time to pick up my screenplay that I began here about Arapahoe Basin and complete it. I do not underestimate the work and I understand the challenge of getting it to market. The difficulty of Publishing Mountain writing will be a challenge. A challenge that others have faced and overcome. A young Nepalese Mountaineer Nimsdai Purja just conquered all of the world's 14- 8,000 meter peaks in seven months. (To put this into perspective Mount Everest, which was one, is 8,848.86 meters. Reinhold Messner an Italian Mountaineer, considered the World's Greatest Mountaineer, took 16 years to accomplish this. In all fairness Messner accomplished it without supplemental oxygen. Nimsdai used it above 8000 meters. Youth knows no limits. The will to accomplish what you were put on Earth to do cannot be denied at any age once it is realized and acted on. You do not often realize your goal or mission in life when you do you should not deny it. Accept the challenge and conquer it.) Reinhold has expressed a desire to make a film about a mountain which is encouraging and he is also the author of 80 books, however many are not published in the U.S. The difficulty is great but I believe not insurmountable.

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible This is an absolute Incredible Inspiration for anyone who ever dreamed of accomplishing any Great Feat.

 On my way from the park I look up into Oklahoma Flats at the big log mansion that Kathy and I managed and lived in. It is dusk and I marvel at the beauty and the expense. I find joy in the freedom of not being a slave to it. I own my soul, my backpack, my hiking boots, and my Mac Air stuffed with my latest project. I have two tickets to Awake: The life of Yogananda, for Monday night in Carbondale. I still climb peaks to sit and meditate on. Even though they may be smaller hills these days. I am looking forward to an evening with my Guru and with my family. Things for me now are simpler. Maybe I look at things differently these days.

 I smile when I sit on the cliffs of Encinitas, California and meditate on the benches at Swamii's overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and Thank God that I was shown this Ashram by my wife. Although it is now somewhat commercialized it is still the most Beautiful Ocean Cliff in Southern California.

 I devoured Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket as a young man in the Eastern United States and I hope to return home soon to pay respect for my Father's Passing during the Corona Virus Time and look forward to seeing the Atlantic once again. However my die has been cast and I have no choice but to accept what God's Will is for my future. I am after all tested and ready.

Years ago I saw a concert in the Palace Theatre in Albany, New York. The group was called Renaissance. I was poised to set my feet on the road and try my hand at being a true to life ski bum. 
" Carpet of the Sun" became my song of the open road.
"Carpet of the Sun", Renaissance

99- What Are The Dreams Of An Odd Beat Poet?

      I remember a line to a song that said, "such are the dreams of the every day housewife you see anywhere any time of the day." What are exactly the Dreams of an Odd Beat Poet. I always thought my dreams were of the white. Snow, skiing, mountain sides covered in white snow, being above timberline. A climber friend of mine in Vail once told me, "I get very quite above 20,000 feet in elevation." Do you think? The silence of mountaineering and the white and the solitude and the quite is deafening to me. It touches me deep in my soul. My back pages are filled with mountain scenes. I have consciously chosen places to live where mountaineering and skiing were a by product. Dreaming of my golden years and acclimating to being around people and society in Oregon, preferably Eugene, I still have mountains on my mind. How about the Three Sisters in the Cascades, Mount Hood and Mount Bachelor? What is it about not letting it go. Do you ever really give up your first love? In Vail I had Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek, and the Beaver Creek Children's Theatre. I'm sensing a theme here. Is old age spent in trying to recapture your youth? Ah to be twenty five again. I was in the best shape of my life for skiing in Aspen at forty after taking my wife's skiing conditioning class at the Aspen Athletic Club. I would like to think that I move on. However my obsessions are still my obsessions. I am a schemer, a dreamer. Dreaming about the ocean and walking on the beach and writing short stories and conquering the writing challenges that I envisioned for myself in my youth. I still find myself googling Mount Ranier and wondering how hard it would be to climb. I find myself taking long walks with Kathy these days under the pretense of staying in shape. I secretly think the Odd Beat Poet is plotting advanced workouts to get in shape for a major climb, somewhat similar to a Walter Mitty adventure. He googles late at night, "The oldest man to climb Mount Everest."

What are you doing? Those days are gone, not forgotten but gone.

Why is it that men attach feminine characteristics to inanimate objects. I know that almost every mountain that I have climbed or skied, I have at some point looked back at it and said, "isn't she beautiful." My most favorite ski run has to be the Pallavicini at Arapahoe Basin. Even tho it is next to impossible to rule out Utah and British Columbia, run for run my heart belongs to the Pali. I think that because in the early days you would have to start at the top of Montezuma Bowl traverse the cornice run to access the Pali. It was a long traverse with a giant tuck and a herring bone climb, if you didn't hit it hard enough to reach the top of the Pali.
All good things eventually come to and end. In bounds skiing gave way to out of bounds, open snow fields and steeper runs with deeper snows. Long climbs and incredibly steep unforgiving chutes, couloirs. Places where you came to the bottom rested on your ski poles your knees knocking together and your heart racing in your chest and couldn't wait to climb back up and do it again. Even those came to and end with age, fear, and disability. The body and mind betrays you. A ski patrolman friend of mine always said, "there are old ski patrolman and bold ski patrolman, but there aren't any old bold ski patrolman."
There is a new youth and they are more daring than my friends and I ever thought of being. I secretly envy them and wish I had thought of skiing off cliffs with parachutes or gliding suits. There are amazing young men and women accomplishing feats of daring that are astounding.
The Walter Mitty Odd Beat Poet flashes back to reality and he is walking along the Colorado River, with his champagne toy poodle and wife of twenty-six years, in Laughlin Nevada in the desert and avoiding other people so we don't get. Covid. We still talk about Oregon and will go there this summer. The Russians have invaded Ukraine and I am letting life flow with the Beautiful River. Since the beginning of the Pandemic Kathy and I have watched the news and said is it time to stand up hug each other and wail? We came very close watching the invasion lately. A full scale assault on Innocence, Freedom, Sovereignty and Democracy. If I was younger I would go and fight. I had a high draft lottery for the Vietnam war and did not have to go. I went to ski! It is out of my control,  at least I will write today. My writing is getting good. Hopefully, I'll write about my Love of Mountains.

Take the time to watch this young skier.
Skier Takes An Insane Run Down A Tiny Gap Between 2 Mountains

A Song of and Odd Beat Poets Love.
Judy Collins and Leonard Cohen "Suzanne"

97-The Children's Crusade (Unfortunately Revisited) Living in the Time of the Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

 First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-
 Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me. 
Martin Niemoller

   There is a destiny that makes me fear not the rag man. The rag man was not a fictitious character but a real one. As a young child, I would cower and hide in my grand parents house behind the front door. I would kneel down and peak out the mail slot and listen for the rag man's call.
   "Rags! Rags for sale!
   "Clop, clop, clop, clop," the old work horse's hoofs would ring clear on the roadway.
   "Rags! Rags for sale!
   He was coming to get me. Just as my sisters had foretold because I had been bad. I lived in fear of the ragman in some form or another the majority of my life. I choose to no longer fear the reality that was the rag man or is now Vladimir Putin. They cannot have the children, Wake up America and the World! They are killing the youth of today, in Ukraine, they are bombing a Nuclear Power Plant. Threatening to make all of Europe Radioactive! Give us back the Children! We must find a way to re-engage the young into our society and make them a part of our world. We must create our own Children's Crusade and make it real or face another blight of Hitler's Youth where they will be coming for law abiding citizens under the guise of some social injustice.

   I don't have and answer as to how to reach out and engage disaffected discouraged youths and citizens. Doing nothing is not working, as the number of mass shootings and domestic terrorism grows. Innocent citizens named by the generic term "soft targets" are dying by the hundreds while politicians can't seem to pass any gun legislation to keep AK-47's from the hands of these murders. Does gun legislation work anyway? Could we make all of these radicals, writers and poets instead? Writing has allowed me to channel my former life anger and desire for revolution into a productive channel of change. If not for society, but my own betterment I no longer want to tear down the fabric of society today as I did as a youth. The answer is not a simple one and people have to come together to address the problem or we will continue to become targets.

Eve of Destruction, Barry McGuire

96: When Do You, Release The Kraken?

A little over Thirty years ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a Film and Screenwriting Course at the Aspen Writers Conference. The course was taught by Ira Wood, a Fiction Novelist who went to Hollywood to write a Screenplay for his best selling novel The Kitchen Man. He used two books by Syd Field, Screenplay, and The Screenwriter’s Workbook, as a course syllabus. I was immediately enamored to the course by the beginning quote. “Writing is a personal responsibility -- either you do it, or you don’t.” I didn’t know at the time just how prophetic that quote would become in my writing life. You see I chose the latter, not to write for many years. All the essentials were there for my writing success. I chose not to write. I wanted to write. I had the ability to attend the best writing classes the motivation to do so and to participate in the process. However, like many people have told me in my life, Al you are your own worst enemy. I let life get in my writing way. Oh yeah I dabbled with poems here, a fiction story there, I said things like, “Writing is just a hobby, it’s not what I do for my living!” No wonder writing has just been my hobby and has never become what I do for a living. I don’t need to have an Avalanche roll over me, to get the point. I guess unless you structure you life around your writing and not the opposite it will always be a hobby and not a living. Now that I have retired it is time to move forward with years of writing projects. Working on several long range projects. My short stories about my mentor will be woven into a novel about my early writing years and later years in Colorado and finish in Cortina, Italy. The location of the 2026 Winter Olympics, Milano Cortina.

Both Ira Wood and Syd Field have said, “A screenplay is s story told with pictures.” I have just decided to go back to the Film and Screenwriting notebooks pull out my screenplay about The sale of Arapahoe Basin to the Ralston Purina Corporation in 1978 and polish the opening act that I have already written and to finish the project. (I am not foolish enough to think it a simple task! You must Conquer it or it will forever Conquer you.)

 So Picture this, I feel like Poseidon in the new re-make movie Clash of the Titans and I’m the God of my own destiny and I’m getting ready to say, “Release the Kraken.” 

Albert Bianchine