FEBRUARY 2018 - GLOBAL AWARENESS MONTH - be ready --------------------------------- UPDATE: 2:2:2018: 1:2:2018 ‘Floydy’s’ Global Awareness Gig - Set-list: Oh Death, Tumbling Tumbleweeds, Sinefiasmeni Kyriaki, Man Of Constant Sorrow, Lost Highway, Edward, That-s The Story Of My Life, Joe Hill, Sunday Morning, Donna, Silly Boy Blue, Scarecrow, Golden Hair, Long Gone, No Good Trying, Panic In Detroit, I’m Set Free, White Man In The Hammersmith Palais, Run For Your Life, Love Oh Love, Say You, Johnny Too Bad, Shocking Love, Stealing Stealing, Police And Thieves, Riding On A High And Windy Day, Out On The Street, Teardrops Falling, Everything I Own, Dreamland, Pressure Drop, Mellow Mood. https://www.facebook.com/allan.clear/videos/10213688222133787/ https://www.facebook.com/allan.clear/videos/10213688682985308/
Once when I was fishing I fell overboard when hauling on a line - I was terrified as I bobbed slowly to the surface of the freezing numbing cold water in my heavy clothes and boots which I couldn’t seem to kick off.
When I surfaced I saw my tiny boat upside down in the waves and knew I had no chance of turning it over. My major muscles were already going into agonizing spasms of cramp and I knew that I was almost certainly going to be dead in about three - maybe four minutes. All fishermen know the deal even if they don’t much like to talk about it.
I was in hell. Every limb and portion of me wracked with pain and fear. I was also choking on brine and vomiting uncontrollably. I started to trip out a bit, felt like I was melting or something - weird shit was happening and I knew I was dying. The glimpse of strange bliss disappeared and I felt the worst feelings I had ever known.
And then - a hand grabbed my back and hauled me into a small boat.
When I came round I was wrapped in blankets - and he was rubbing my feet. When he saw my groggy eye open he laughed heartily and passed me a bottle of cognac - “You’re some fuckin’ lucky - boy!” he laughed and soon I was laughing with him.
Lagos and I became inseparable buddies from that day on - I owed him my life! My very life! But every time I tried to thank him he just took the piss and pretended it was all a great joke.
I would have cut my arm off for that man and loved him more dearly - with more warmth and fullness than I have ever loved another person in this world.
Naturally I regarded his nautical skills as almost supernaturally advanced and hero-worshipped him as a type of ideal man, hiding his many fine qualities under a bluff and blokey front. If I ever introduced him to people as “The Man Who Saved My Life” then he would always call me “Mr Flotsam” or some such thing. Always avoiding praise and meeting any kind of flattery with his rich and original sense of humor.
Once I was out in my boat alone - without Lagos for once and I’d grabbed a local newspaper along with a few snacks and shoved them into a carrier-bag for the journey. It was a beautiful sea so once I was out past Tater Du a bit I just sat and drifted, watching the ganets, or ’bomb-birds’ - as my daughter likes to call them.
I had a couple of bananas and a drink of juice and settled down to read the local paper - the notoriously dull Penwithershins Gazette.
Local Man Leigh Goss Taken Into Custody On Heroin - Prostitution And Human-Trafficking Charges After Assault On Two Women -
Mr Goss (44) a fisherman from New Lynsmouth, will appear before Trewrew Magistrates on Monday following the discovery of several teenaged refugees at his remote country home in Trewither. Almost an ounce of heroin was also removed along with several sets of shackles. Two women had to be hospitalized following the incident which eventually resulted in armed police surrounding the house. More details will be released after the initial Hearing at Trewrew Court of Justice.
I looked at the waves so dark and cold, pulling me down again. My stomach cramped up like I’d been punched and I vomited over the picture of Lagos.
My head was spinning as again I stared into the dark boiling waves - Oh God! What now! What now?
Open Letter To All Religious Teachers Planning To Teach At London Rigpa Centre
16th January 2018
Dear Teachers -
I speak as someone who would very much like to see the Holy Dharma flourish in new areas such as the western world where it can benefit innumerable beings - However we have a problem - A very big problem indeed that will not go away - Just to be clear: I am talking about abuse within the Dharma community - specifically the case of the Lama known as Sogyal Aka Rinpoche or Mr Sonam Lakar -
I do not claim to speak for anyone but myself and it may be that no-one agrees with me but my inner voice will shout out anyway -
Although certain efforts have been made to address the problem of Mr Lakar-s insane and dangerous conduct these efforts have so far been woefully insufficient and ineffective -
I am suggesting three crucial steps that need to be taken before the Rigpa organization can even begin to seriously consider continuing to operate as a valid conduit for transmitting the Holy Dharma -
First that the Rigpa organization publicly denounce Sogyal as a false-teacher who-s conduct undermined and discredited his message -
Secondly that somebody or some persons within the Rigpa organization actually take responsibility for the various egregious forms of oppression and exploitation that have been committed under the guise of spirituality - This would naturally involve a fully independent inquiry into the abuses - The nature of the inquiry would be determined by direct democratic participation of the entire Rigpa Sangha and would result in:
Thirdly - Genuine compensation to the many women and men traumatized by Sogyal-s predatory behaviour - a public apology and a democratically designed system of protection so that our daughters and sons can study the highest truths of humanity without being groped and punched - humiliated and stolen from by a man corrupted by wealth and power or any other form or manifestation of a false and deluded teacher -
In my heart I sincerely believe that if these remedies are not applied then the Rigpa organization will never have a chance to recover its gravely damaged reputation and many people will make it their life-s work to expose the skeletons in Rigpa Org-s cupboard - This would obviously have an extremely detrimental effect on business but people who have suffered years of exploitation are prepared to give a great deal of energy to a righteous cause -
The truth cannot be suppressed - this approach simply does not work - I ask you to consider the future of Buddhism in the west and realize that its acceptance in the west is dependent upon how it is perceived by the secular general public - not by the Buddhist community - We must see it the way the public will see it if we wish the best for the Dharma and sentient beings - That is my opinion and thank you for considering it - I wish for the best result to come out of this disastrous situation and ask you all to engage with the real issue of human suffering at the centre of all this -
Sometimes it can be hard to think clearly - I know it-s not just me because I-ve heard others say the same- There is an inner-censor that must be assasinated if we are to be honest people - Of course - we-ll look a bit strange if we do kill this internalized spectre of bourgeois consciousness and truly speak out - It-ll make the rest of the world look rather constipated - but hey - they-ll catch on eventually!
Rigpa refers to something at the centre of nature that cannot be claimed by any human hand or word - what people are arguing over is not Rigpa but rather the Buddhist organization of the same name - I think it-s good that we all remember that as I am sure we all do constantly -
When you go to a bad restaurant do you give up food -
If you get a bad lover do you give up on love -
Even if a fucking parrot blurted out the teachings it would not alter their validity -
Better to learn from the beak of a song-bird but a parrot will do if you-re in a fix -
Sadly a VAMPYRE BAT will not do - It-s not wise to give them your ear -
For people getting over the confusion of finding out that their spiritual teacher is not what he seems I have opened up the RIGPA FREE SPEECH UNION - This is for people who have been fleeced or otherwise by the artist formerly known as Sogyal Rinpoche - a man who has used and abused the bodies of countless women and also fucked with the spiritual progress of countless thousands of sincere seekers after the deepest truths of this life - Anyone who thinks a true Lama can act in such a monstrous and vampyrish manner and still be a valid source of the truth is - I cordially suggest - mistaken -
For those of you who are dumb enough to believe that I will burn in a specific infernal realm known as Vajra Hell for calling my old teacher a bastard - well grow up - Isn-t that kind of bullshit the reason most of us strayed from the Christianity of our forefathers in the first place ~
He wasn-t even practicing Dharma most of the time! The silly fucker was watching TV and eating rare pork like a slob while some poor lady sucked his oojamiflip - - - If you don-t believe me ask the several thousand witnesses -
Enough of this non-inspiration - go to the RIGPA FREE SPEECH UNION on you-know-where and start the practice of one hundred thousand syllables of free speech - followed by another hundred thousand etc etc
RIGPA FREE SPEECH UNION is international and is a zone of uncensored free speech for the benefit of former and current students of Sogyal Aka Rinpoche who are coming to terms with his history You do not need to register but can if you wish - and if you don-t like what I have said then you must please excuse my marignorance - Trashy Delay Babies!
I-m inviting World-famous Tibetan Lama Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche to debate me on the policy of ZERO-TOLERANCE OF ABUSE IN BUDDHISM as I think we all need to be clear that true Buddhism will never turn a blind eye to abuse under any name or in any form whatsoever - Surely authentic Buddhism should neither be deaf to the cries of the world - from whatever source they come - My own view is that the best deterrent for institutional abuse is to shine a searingly bright light into the heart of that institution whilst sounding a siren to wake the town and tell the people -
Institutions - be they prisons or monasteries - be they police-departments or job-centres - schools - armies - mental-hospitals or trading companies - tend to be hierarchical in structure and thus require submission of a portion of sovereign autonomy from constituent members - these structures are often arranged like concentric rings of power or tiers of a wedding-cake - The point is that some people - like me - believe that your own conscience should be the boss - the Guvnor - and even the most respected opinion can only resonate with our own - not impose or dominate it! As usual I have said too much - so here is the letter:
Open Letter to Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche – 8th
January 2018
Dear Rinpoche
I have offered to the Three Jewels the policy of
ZERO-TOLERANCE OF ABUSE IN BUDDHISM and would be so delighted to receive at
least a verbal endorsement of this idea from a real Tibetan Lama –
I would like to invite you to debate me on youtube for at
least one hour of unedited free and open discussion of the above offering and
its connotations –
I understand that Rinpoche is an unusually busy man and it
may be some time before you find the appropriate hour to do this but as I
recently discovered that you were visiting my country it seemed timely to
extend the invitation -
When you are able to make this meeting I recommend it be in
a secular space so free speech can prevail without causing possible offence to
anyone-s beliefs –
My view is that for the Buddha-Dharma to flourish in the West
and in the World generally it-s representatives will need to conduct themselves
in a manner that inspires trust and respect – When the teacher is advertising
teachings to the general public my view is that the teacher-s morality must be
seen to be at least as good as those he or she is going to teach and possibly
even a little bit better - Given a stark
choice between Enlightenment and Human Rights most people I know will tell me
exactly where I can put my Enlightenment –
It would make me very happy to see the Buddha-Dharma
flourish in new countries like Britain but I know these people and when it
comes to teachers - school or religion – we have high standards –
The more Buddhism spreads in the modern world the more
attention is focusing on the teachers - the Lamas and Gurus who are spreading
this extraordinary message – Some of them have already achieved a status
approaching that of a minor pop-star (in worldly eyes) and obviously H H The
Dalai Lama is a massive super-star by any definition in this world –
Whilst some of the less critical Buddhists are unwilling to
hear tales of abuse within Buddhism I can assure you that the more public
Buddhism becomes as its success spreads – then countless secular media people
are going to be looking for ways to attack the Dharma – Are we going to hand them
a box of weapons –
If abuse continues within Buddhism the media will root it
out – they have barely given it any attention so far in history because
journalists follow leads – so far there have not been many – In the future we
might even see Buddhist-Journalists who make it their life-s work to root out
abuse and throw it on the table before the eyes of the world – Personally I
would respect a journalist like that –
I look forward to your response Rinpoche
Kind regards – Jeremy Schanche – Penwith - Kernow – Britain
– The West
Well this is how naive I am - I was looking for a nice photo of a Tibetan Snow Lion to put on this blog as I thought it would go well - Just a few seconds ago I discovered that the snow lion is a mythical or celestial animal - not to be found within Animalia! I heard about them years ago and I always thought these beasts were real - and I also prided myself on knowing a lot about Tibet! Hmmm - Perhaps I-m just an ignorant pig and nothing more -
Well - don-t panic anyone! We-ll just have to make do with a picture of a real animal from my country - Palores Kernouac Yw - Pyrocorax pyrocorax - The Cornish Chough - Note how generations of being used down tin-mines has led to the visible evolution of a pick-axe bill -
British Buddhists totally reject any tolerance of any form of abuse whatsoever being practiced in the name of religion - We demand Pure Teachers - We do not welcome fraudsters who teach Dharma one minute and punch Nuns and other Buddhists the next - We do not support organizations or events that will not openly declare for ZERO-TOLERANCE OF ABUSE IN BUDDHISM -
Open Letter To: The Lama Formerly Known As Sogyal Rinpoche Date: 4th January 2018 Re: Conduct Dear Sonam - I sincerely hope you are recovering from your period of illness and wish you to be healed as soon as possible - From now on you must look after your health properly - Were it not for the scale of the matter I would not disturb a man recovering from a recent operation but sadly I am compelled to do so You have posed quite a riddle for your students Sogyal - How can what seems so high co-exist with what is so low - I will puzzle over that one day perhaps - I am an anarchist and I think - speak and act for myself - using my conscience as the highest authority - I have learned that relinquishing autonomous sovereignty leads to downfall - a valuable lesson - I also think Shakyamuni Buddha held the same attitude - as did Sokrates - If the Buddha-Dharma is to continue to flourish in the World it will need to be seen as something wholesome and its teachers need to be good people to whom we can entrust our daughters and sons- I have asked you to never teach again as you are utterly discredited as a man fit to teach the Dharma - If you ever emerge in public and try to present yourself as a man worthy to speak the Dharma I will nail your ass to the nearest telegraph-pole - Ian Maxwell was a good man - an apology would be nice - Later - Jeremy
Open Letter To: Patrick Gaffney &; Phillip Phillipou - Bored Members of the Rigpa mind uk Corporation International
Date: 5th January 2018
Re: Zero-Tolerance of Abuse As An Offering To The Three Jewels
Dear Patrick and Phillip -
You and the other members of the Hallucination Bored (the organization that took over control of Primordial Essence Of Mind Incorporated) such as Phillip Phillipou still cling to the position that Sogyal aka Rinpoche (The Precious One) is worthy to teach Buddhism -
This board has failed to denounce a man who is considered by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama as "disgraced" - as the world knows - and owing to the sordid and disgusting nature of Sonam-s crimes this is not acceptable to me - the vast majority of other Buddhists who have ever had any connection with Sogyal or the general public - perhaps you would like to check with the latter two groups for confirmation -
In the view of this - combined with your fascistic refusal to honourfree speech and communicate with the Sangha properly - and your wasting Dharma-funds on lawyers to try to frighten and bully the people into silence - I thought I-d just defame you and your cronies on the jewel-net and see what happens-
Defamation: Patrick Gaffney and Phillip Phillipou are a pair of slack - unreliable - pignorant -Dharma-warping - cheap - lying - stealing - embezzling - collusive - dishonest nun-humping- rubber-necked - unworthy - treacherous - false - duplicitous - greedy - slimy - disrespectful - cowardly - exploitative - drunken -nun-punching - drug-abusing - womanizing - gamboling - poodle-grooming - shit-eating - anathemic - money-lifting - malfeasant - egregious - iconoclastic - dehumanizing - gang-banging - pant-wetting - pickpocketing - car-stealing - crack-piping - sheeple-rustling - tax-avoiding - work-shy - fare-dodging - jay-walking - litter-dropping - fly-tipping - acid-tripping - self-aggrandizing - copyright and art-stealing - good-for-nouts who couldn-t organize an orgy in a Fake-Lama-s five-star hotel room - and you both secretly dress as girlies and dance around the room to disco music turned up moderately loud - so there goes your fame -but does a yogi care for name and fame and worldly games or does he humbly eat the blame for bringing Dharma into shame -
Therefore until such time as Vision Board Inc publicly denounce Sogyalex-Rinpoche as a man who-s public verbal teaching was legendary - but - and it-s a big-butt - whose secret conduct was disgusting and vile - and until a real public apology is made to the survivors of Sogyal-s egoic tyranny and until such time as Vision Board Inc agrees to a revolution of democracy within its system -
You can expect trouble -
This will take a number of unpredictable forms and names - never violent or illegal of course - just nice friendly Buddhist ways to kick yo ass to Chicago - suckers -
Jamie Leigh Clark was never found guilty of any crime - an innocent British citizen who was served by his local constabulary of Llanelli to the kind of sadistic disregard for humanity that we fought a couple of wars over back in the old times -
In essence the British legal authorities have considered this matter and come to the conclusion that no policeman did anything wrong - none of the several policemen who savaged Mr Clark received any disciplinary response of any form whatsoever -
How fortunate for the British state that the great majority of the British people are quite happy to do nothing about cases like this other than sit around pushing buttons on machines until the prole-feed drags them down to slumber -
If a large number of people imagined that authority existed outside of themselves and were extremely fearful of challenging that State - or Guru - or work-boss - or whomsoever - then that would suit the exploiters very well and they could steal fingers from innocent people and get away with it - - - and walk free to offend again
So no problem with State-torture - mutilation - grievous wounding etc etc and cops picking up severed fingers in the hall of the cop-shop - the State finds no problem over this yet if somebody made a fake plastic severed finger or other body-part as an art-expression the cops came and started sniffing around authoritatively -
Conclusion:
Plastic model severed fingers are a crime against society and art
Real warm human severed fingers on police-station floor after disgusting assault by gang of thug-cops - no problem at all -
I'm Jeremy Schanche, British artist and activist. This blog features my paper, The Limpet. Here I write about human rights, the environment and politics. Please see my articles about Harold Hempstead and Florida Department of Corrections, with more at Harold Hempstead Caged Crusader Wordpress.com.
I have another blog that's completely different - it's where you'll find The Caterpillar, a journal of collage, poetry and surrealism that is remixed as The Caterpillar Dub - the world's first Dub newspaper. Both of these can be found at:
http://yecaterpillar.blogspot.com.
In October 2024 I published my first paperback book of fiction - The Horned Whale or An Morvil Kornek by Jeremy Schanche - available at various bookshops and at Amazon.
ISBN: 9780993490903.
175,710 words.
£15.
Contains the mystery novel - The Kramvil, plus two novellas, poetry and glossaries.
