Category: Planes

If it were indeed the breath of god, its absence from your lungs would cause your immediate death from spiritual asphyxiation would it not?

And if in fact you can be godless, that is, without the breath of god, and still be breathing, well, that’s quite a thing, isn’t it?

Quite a fine how do you do.

But let’s assume it is the breath. Are we also assuming that once the breath has kick started us, given us the jaws of life so to speak, the old slap on the back jumpstart into the land of air breathers, that we take over the maintenance phase? That is, once we start breathing on our own, that is really is “on our own” and not continually gods intervention that keeps us from suffocating in our sleep. That’s a big assumption that we actually cannot prove one way or the other.

How can you prove or disprove unseen intervention UNLESS it leaves some trace behind? And how convenient would it be to suggest that it would be impossible for any mortal to actually witness anything of the divine directly. That’s why you never see and should never need proof, right? Because I said so.

Yeah that always works.

Except when it doesn’t.

That’s why God is good, except when He ain’t. But it’s still all good, right?

Ok. So there’s the deep end come and gone. We’re in open water now.

You don’t know nothing. I don’t either. For sure. And the more we thrashing against each other up in this motherfucker, the more likely we are to die by drowning cause we’re too damned to stupid to stop swinging at one another and start helping everybody tread water.

Because to coin a phrase, the water is rising. Winter is coming.

Time to figure out a way to convince people to get along and treat each other with respect, decency, and dignity, without inventing an unseen, omnipresent, omnipotent, omnivorous deity to scare them into doing it.

Who was it that said that? Leo Buscaglia? Love is Letting Go of Fear?

Don’t be afraid. You’re not missing anything.

01 OCT 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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It’s all in your mind, right? But like Dumbledore asked somewhat rhetorically, “Why does that make it any less real?”

So, the issue is YES. And it’s in your mind. But just THINKING about being a good, decent, wonderful, warm, kind, human being isn’t enough, is it? The proof is in the pudding. And the pudding, to be useful at all, must be actual and not virtual. Present not future.

The present makes all the difference.

That’s the only real difference between Thusness and what I like to call Thisness.

Thusness is sometimes called Suchness. Meaning that a thing that is 100% itself is itself, as such, and beyond which there is no such-er. Or something like that. In essence, the Nisargadatta exhortation to focus on “I Am That”, uses That (which I’m also thinking is Thus) to encompass the everything that simply exists in absolutely completeness and needs no introduction, build-up, or conclusion.

Thisness, for me, is a more immediate (one might also dare say more imminent AND immanent) experience of selfless unity with the energy of the universe. It is of course the ultimate goal of self-enquiry, right, to no longer need the question, “Who Am I?” because once you actually KNOW the answer, the question, like a boat you’ve used to cross the ocean, is no longer needed once you’re on new ground. Or something like that.

I don’t want to quote any chapter or verse from ANY source, despite the grand and ultimately self-defeating practice of most human beings to seek both experience and qualifications from their gurus. You want the moon, not my finger. Trust me.

Which raises an interesting idea:

What humanity really needs is an interview guide for gurus. You know, what questions to ask to really get at the experience, qualifications, and general skill set required of someone you’re counting on to keep you advancing ever forward, excelsior, to the next impossible dream.

It might be called “How to Get the Guru You Want While You’re Waiting for the Guru You Need”.

Because if you’re going to take something as seriously as we seem to take our “spiritual” lives, there ought to be a sound basis for staking your soul on it.

Right?

30 SEP 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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Or why Schrödinger may have a point.

Honestly, I’ve never seen a cat of any kind get harnessed and pull any kind of weight.

So hoping somebody’s got the heart of a lion when they’re pulling a two-ton shitwagon ain’t really much good, is it?

How about the legs of an elephant instead?

That’s why circles work. Whoever has the right skills leads for now. Just right now – until that problem is actually addressed. Then control passes naturally to whoever is best suited to lead the next effort. No power transitions or fiefdoms.

Everybody leads. Everybody serves. Everybody works. Everybody plays.

Of course it works like that already. We just forget what game it is.

Right?

26 Sep 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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So many thoughts:

I can’t keep up, and even if I could I’m not so sure that clinging to them all will serve the long term view.

Of course they come.

The monkey mind will have its day or night; and you will learn the ritual despite everything in your being screaming out, “Don’t be a joiner! It’s a club! Used for beating somebody!”

And then I think we’ll just see about that.

But you don’t really want to “kill” thought. It’s not nihilistic at all. There’s no end because there’s no beginning. No stop because there’s nothing to start.

So at the risk of coining a well-hurled phrase (LOL), if we stop taking care of “business”, i.e., busy-ness, is what remains simply our is-y ness? Our your my their his her “izness”?

Why on earth would you think so?

Just asking for a friend. Don’t worry he’s imaginary. He’s running an underground lab-lair breeding open minded liberal compassionate people.

He’s got a theory, you know. Here it is:

Nisargadatta Maharaj said life is a river. A wide river with a decent current.

Of course it has two banks. One side is Pleasure. The other side is Pain.

(he also suggested that desire is the memory of pleasure and fear is the memory of pain a quite intriguingly lovely idea but perhaps off topic here LOL)

If you go with the current you may taste a little of each side while maintaining an equilibrium in the energetic forward movement of life.

All seems well. You’re healthy and happy. Any friends you meet along the way are in the streambed (to get a little Celtic lol) with you and you inspire each other. Inspire, love, create, work, teach, learn, sing, dance, hop, paint, build, heal, help, protect, serve, defend, improve, and all that too, in its time and place which if you’re really on top of it is always here and now isn’t it?

You wonder sometimes when you start writing these things just exactly where you think it’s gonna go. I mean there’s an idea: a kernel of a thought triggered by a passing statement, something you read or heard in a conversation on TV, in person, in your ear or just in your head. And that idea either does or doesn’t gain momentum. It’s like that biblical parable isn’t it? Ideas are like seeds thrown out to sprout. Believe or not some folks used to grow food that way. I’ve seen it. Hell, I’ve done it. Point is: some of the soil they land on is better for those seed than others. The danger comes when you start thinking about the benefits to one particular kind of seed versus another. And consider this: different seeds actually require different kinds of soil. Some thrive in rocky, crowded, or difficult environments. The harshest conditions can produce the finest olives, grapes, living things, physical wonders, fascinating overflowing and seemingly limitless humanity.

Which raises the question, doesn’t it?

Is there a limit to humanity?

Should there be?

Now of course I feel a little like Arlo Guthrie because I didn’t come all this way just to talk about all that.

We’re gathered here because I wanted to talk about this:

I’d like to consider revising the definition of “sane”.

And using it more clinically to prevent people from harming themselves or others in service to themselves. I think you may know where I’m coming from on this one. If not, well, it’s been nice knowing you. Enjoy the ride. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. LOL. You know, there is a certain amount of vanity in rambling on like this with no determinate end point purpose direction velocity or any of that techie talk.

Any who doesn’t have

Empathy

Should be discouraged of course in the kindest way possible (isn’t that just the way to describe the bulk of human history in a nutshell) to refrain from participating and/or responsibility for in any of the following:

Children, animals, nature, safety, health, law, government, religion

Other occupations? YMMV.

The REAL question is who decides how much empathy is enough? Will there be, as Jello Biafra predicted, a squad of “suede denim secret police”?

Is that what we’re afraid AI really is?

Are we right?

26 Sep 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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Yeah sure it may be just a trope
or just talking to yourself out loud
but if you’re going to say something

(if ya gonna SAY sumthin’)

why not say Something. Isn’t that it?

Yeah maybe it’s the rhythm and the warp and the woof and the tangible and the legible
the horizontal and vertical
but so are you
already.

You say Something
and it don’t even have to be out loud
and then maybe

you’ll HEAR Something.

And that would be something, wouldn’t it?

Of course you already know that.
You just forgot.

22 SEP 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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Another singing bassist friend (Keido Toby Rider) posted something about singing and playing bass simultaneously recently, and as it’s a subject dear to my heart, I’ve been thinking it over. My first “real” musical inspiration was Paul McCartney, so I’ve pretty much been a “singing bassist” my whole life. Outside of jazz, my non-singing bass influences are few. Geezer Butler. Steve Harris. John Paul Jones. Most of the rest sing a lot.

So here’s my take on it. For ME, singing and playing bass is the ultimate meditative activity. It is absolutely and completely about being mindful. Of the lyrics and your parts, certainly. But more than that, mindful of the MUSIC. Particularly the beat. Voice and bass from ME require a solid pocket of the right depth for the cargo at hand. Right?

At its trickiest, the singing is more serpentine than anything else. It weaves and winds around the groove you’re creating [and don’t get confused here. The BEAT is created by the drummer, who is the master of time. The GROOVE is created by the bass player, who is the master of space. Thus endeth the lesson.]. That CAN make things hard, unless you’re the kind of bass player who doesn’t need to look at their hands. Work on that. Definitely. It’s essential. You CAN look but watch out, because you REALLY need to be watching a whole lot of other things. Like the lyrics to a crazy ass request that you’re reading from your iPhone cause it came in written on a twenty. In other words, you really HAVE to be comfortable playing the bass for this to work.

Of course, sometimes it’s easier, if the bass line is easier. But you have to be careful that “easy’ doesn’t mean ‘mediocre”. You know where that line is. And you know what happens when you cross it. Word to the wise, etc.

Bottom line for the bottom line: lock with the damned drums. And don’t ever let go. Even in your mind. LOL.

But that of course just one end of the stick, the fingers end. Now to the torch end: the voice.

Of course, it helps to actually BE a singer. There are a lot of folks out there who really ought to know better than to approach a microphone without thinking about it. Seriously. NOT to be discouraging. Of course, everybody CAN sing. That’s what they say. But like Mick Jagger once quipped (and I’m certainly if not paraphrasing then interpretive dancing), if there was a school for rock and roll singers, nobody would be themselves. Or any good. LOL. Not sure whether the sarcasm there was from me or Mick. I’ll take the blame and let Mick have the merit.

So. If you’re a singer or not, this will probably work. YMMV. I ain’t evaluating your bass playing OR your singing. That’s not my circus. You ain’t my monkey, Mickey.

Of course it helps to know the song. The words. To have a reasonably good relationship with the melody. And you will need to practice the singing separately, just like you practice the playing. Until you get them BOTH right. You know, left hand right hand both together. Olde schule music lessons.

Practice without holding a microphone. Without having the microphone right against your lips. Because as a singing bass player that’s NOT going to happen. You’re going to have to be expressive without your hands. Some folks just can’t do that, can they?

Not gonna teach you how to sing. There’s lots of other places for that.

Next time, we’ll start THINKING about putting one and one together and getting three.

19 SEP 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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Forget all that nostalgia and mumbo-jumbo;
clinging to the past never made a single step forward
(as if that’s where we’re sure we want to be)
and anyways the kids won’t listen to it
unless it’s got a good beat
and you can forget about all this bullshit
for a while.

There’s no method, no teacher, no way, no journey.
Because there’s nowhere to go.
It’s all in your mind.

And that’s OK.
But it doesn’t just belong to you.
You’re just borrowing it
unless you’ve already lost or broken it
in which case it’s yours by default.

Forget what you think you think you know;
there really is so much unknown.
It’s almost overwhelming, isn’t it?
the amount of crap we just can’t won’t don’t imagine.

I forget why I’m even writing this;
how could it possibly ever matter
when it’s not a makeover or a lifestyle change
but an actual revolution:
you have to start over.
Every time.

They say that knowledge is cumulative, that it builds
on everything you’ve ever experienced
and cataloged
and organized
and canonized
and codified

in a never ending, never high enough mountain
on which you stand
desperately trying
to touch the light.

Maybe that’s why you never see it shining.
That light comes from you.

It can’t be that simple.

Forget what you know about complexity. You’ve obviously constructed that in your mind.
Nice feat of engineering.

Too bad it won’t fly.

But if you have your mind right, you won’t have to.

15 SEP 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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