file under childhood-hits: "Killer Of The Soul" by 108

I was maybe 17 or so when 108 released their phenomenal swansong album "Threefold Misery". On this album, there was this song which blew me straight out of my pants. The passion in the singing, the lyrics, the K.I.L.L.E.R. guitar riff right in the beginning, the straight message, it all made sense to me, it spoke to me like a prayer, it all came together and created a true classic. After all these years this song and the album remains to be one of my all-time favorites. Wow, this is still so good!

there is an extensive 108 interview somewhere here in one of my previous blogs.


*** Yes, the lyrics are preachy. But besides that, they bare some wisdom in them.


Killer of the soul...
satanic ritual set the corpse upon the table,
cosmetic religion,
hide your horns,
if you are able.
killer of the animal,
only a demon could dine on the flesh of the dead,
each hair on the back of each cow,
is birth you'll spend in hell.

the killer of the soul,
whomever he may be,
will be forced in the darkest regions,
embrace your decisions,
in the darkest regions of hell.

self killing ritual, set the bottle upon the table,
cosmetic ignorance, kill the pain.
killer of the animal within, liquid poison to wash your brain,
drown in your misery, your life becomes a hell.

the killer of the soul, whomever he maybe, will be forced in the darkest regions,
embrace your decisions, in the darkest regions of hell.

i won't kill my soul

How is simple?

In recent times I've experienced uncertainty and random confusion. My objectives seem clear and unclear at the same time, which makes it difficult to cope with even the ordinary details of my everyday life. I find it hard to distinguish what matters and what doesn't in my life right now. How serious should I take life's constant way of throwing stones my way.
Well, then I heard that one of the best ways to cope with this moments is to make your everyday life as simple as possible. The possible benefit from this is supposed to help me not to feel overwhelmed with daily life.

So I gave this some thought and like a lot of times when we humans try to solve a problem, we tend to ask in this moment what is simple or what is simplicity?

Dictionaries, lexicas, and Wikipedia offer a few explanations, one of them is this:

• "simplicity is the property of a domain which requires very little information to be exhaustively described. The opposite of simplicity is complexity." -- haha, thanks for the hint, asshole!
  

So far so good. Or not?! Because the real question, the real challenge is how is simple. How do you or I do simple.

Theory vs. action - the infinite challenge. I ask this because ultimately that's where the crux is in this matter. Understanding is one thing, theoretically being able to understand, but to really practice or perform the difference between theory and reality is to be able to distinguish in your actions and consequently in your thoughts, and your mind: "What is the next simple step in my life? How will it look like?" rather than pondering over a theoretical equasion that ultimately will stay a theoretical one unless it is transformed into the clear and into action.

To understand is not to change. To understand is to draw an inner map of the world, such as a real map is the blueprint of the shape of land and water. But it is not the land or the water itself. It is a picture, a cenceptual understanding of it. The map helps us as a device for orientation, but it is not the act of walking through the streets of New York City for example. Understanding obviously is beneficial in quite a lot of our situations in our lives, and in the way that our world is set up. But it can only help us so and so much, we still need to walk ourselves to get to the place we desire to be at.

Honestly though, I believe that sometimes the understanding of things can be in your way of actual change. You may wonder what I mean with this and I will try to explain. The world how we perceive it, appears to us in our mind through our thinking. It is a direct result of our thinking. Our thinking is shaped through our experiences throughout our life, our enculturization (a part of our ever ongoing process of socialization), and the things we say we know. But this knowledge inevitably at some points in our lives every once in a while may also stand in our way of seeing what really is. Behind our shaped concepts of postmodern and post-postmodern, or even our integral-transcendental views on life. Zen says, cut through the thinking-mind and your mind becomes clear like a mirror and you will see what is: a tree is a tree, the sky is blue.

Where does this take me: I don't know. I am thinking this probably might not the best time to make changes. But what do I do with the changes around me and in me? I don't know. I guess I'll just sit with it for a while.

Tibet under a wave of violence

Once again the Chinese government proves its cruel and unrelenting violence towards freedom of speech, right of assembly, and peaceful opposition in Tibet. Similar to the protests in Burma, the buddhist monks started their rallies earlier this week to claim more independence and autonomy in cultural and spiritual affairs.
The protests gathered attention with other groups of the population and ordinary people who are now joining the protests.


Today the conflicts came to a head in an outburst of military and police brutality. According to the BBC many people had been hurt and an unspecified number had died. A report of an eyewitness stated there were tanks on the streets and he had seen people being carried away on stretchers. Also the BBC spoke to a traveller who witnessed a protest by monks from the Sera Monastery earlier this week in this video.


The U.S funded, Radio Free Asia, reports that the rioters have "ransacked Chinese shops and the police fired live ammunition into the crowd. No-one is allowed to move around in Lhasa [Tibet's Capitol, edit: i.Integral] now."


In classic political fashion and mischievous rhetoric the chinese government accuses the Dalai Lama to be the mastermind behind the riots. The Dalai Lama who leads the tibetan government-in-exile appealed to the chinese government to "stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people." He also said: "I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence."

pure admiration

Whoever thought that skaters or bmx kids were the only youth subcultures that find unbelievable spots in streets, parks, and on benches, to perform some crazy ass shit, you've just been officially proved wrong. This is it! Capoeira-style-roofball!

occupation

Recently during one of my jobs of giving certain tests to pre-school kids to collect research data, I came across a quite smart boy. On top of being smart, he was also still quite young, elaborate, patient and persistent to find a solution to the problems presented embedded in a game-setting.

I was a little nosy to find out what his parents occupations are, expecting them to be teachers or similar, that must spend a lot of time to encourage and educate the little man.

So I ask my question what his parents do for a living. He looks me in the eyes and says full of implicitness: "My mom is losing weight."

Classic!