Alain... profile picture

Alain...

By deeds, defined.

About Me


Deep down, all of us are probably aware that some kind of mystical evolution is our true task. Yet we suppress the notion with considerable force because to admit it is to admit that most of our political gyrations, religious dogmas, social ambitions and financial ploys are not merely counterproductive but trivial. Our mission is to jettison those pointless preoccupations and take on once again the primordial cargo of inexhaustible ecstasy. Or barring that, to turn out a good juicy cheeseburger and a strong glass of beer.
– Tom Robbins
Wheels within Wheels, Mysteries upon Mysteries.

With two eyes, I am distracted by your vision and my reflection. But can I see my original face?

Welcome to my bit of narcissism.

I like stretching out my arms during windy days and feeling the wind wrap around me and go through my fingers…

I don’t know who I am really. Am I a collection of memories? Am I the footprints of my history?

I’d like to think that who I am runs a bit deeper than that.

I look around and I am always utterly amazed - Struck by beauty in every place. I couldn’t have dreamed any of this.

Especially the platypus…and maybe rhinos. They get me every time.


" In a series of books (e.g., A Sociable God, Up from Eden, and The Eye of Spirit), I have tried to show that religion itself has always performed two very important, but very different, functions. One, it acts as a way of creating meaning for the separate self: it offers myths and stories and tales and narratives and rituals and revivals that, taken together, help the separate self make sense of, and endure, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. This function of religion does not usually or necessarily change the level of consciousness in a person; it does not deliver radical transformation. Nor does it deliver a shattering liberation from the separate self altogether. Rather, it consoles the self, fortifies the self, defends the self, promotes the self. As long as the separate self believes the myths, performs the rituals, mouths the prayers, or embraces the dogma, then the self, it is fervently believed, will be "saved"--either now in the glory of being God-saved or Goddess-favored, or in an after-life that insures eternal wonderment.
But two, religion has also served--in a usually very, very small minority--the function of radical transformation and liberation. This function of religion does not fortify the separate self, but utterly shatters it--not consolation but devastation, not entrenchment but emptiness, not complacency but explosion, not comfort but revolution--in short, not a conventional bolstering of consciousness but a radical transmutation and transformation at the deepest seat of consciousness itself."
- Ken Wilber
"How truly liberated is our own mind? How vast is our perspective? Is our interest in enlightened consciousness so inspired that we always seek for a way of seeing that is free from unexamined assumptions? As much as we may believe we want to, we'll never be able to truly evolve in hell. Do you know what hell is? Hell is not even knowing that we are lost. Hell is being unconscious, adrift in the inner world of isolation and suffocation that is created by a self that is enslaved by the separate ego. And unless we become aware of how bad it really is, we'll never find the courage or the inspiration to do whatever is necessarily to finally liberate ourselves here and now in this very life. I can't emphasize enough how urgent this is. So few of us take the possibility of our own liberation deadly seriously. And the main reason for this is, once again, that we just don't know how bad things are."
- Andrew Cohen
We don't really know what these cometary knots are headed toward. The guess is that they will grow cold and dark and will then dissipate. But sometimes when I'm staring at them I pretend that they are in fact enroute to becoming solar systems all by themselves. It helps me remember that throughout the Milky Way there are clouds of such gas collapsing, even now, into new solar systems. All of it via the same dyanamics that created our Sun and Earth. That's the great thing. The same creative energy is at work in the cometary knots, as in the birth of new stars, as in our bodies as we wake up and drag ourselves down to Starbucks and wonder about the day. We are that same energy with the added burden and privilege and knowing that in fact we are the creative energy of the universe."
- Brian Swimme
"I've always wondered if there was a god. And now I know there is -- and it's me."
- Homer Simpson
"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself. "
- Joseph Campbell
"A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom. "
- Bob Dylan
"To be a hero or a heroine, one must give an order to oneself."
- Simone Weil
"The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by."
- Felix Adler
"Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes."
- Benjamin Disraeli
"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost."
- Alton Ashe
"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

My Interests

Technology, Revolutions, Computers, Programming, Ruby on Rails, Art, Creative Expressions, Authenticity, Evolutionary Spirituality, Universe, Earthlings, Peace and all that jazz, Enlightenment, Kosmos, Activism, Metaphysics, Platonic Idealism, Pythagoreanism, Family, Heroism, Philosophy, Integral Psychology, Wondering, Thelema, Chaordism, Meditation, Learning, Asking Questions, Living Answers. Dancing, Books, Travelling, Riding horses, Vegetarianism, Singing karaoke, Manga, Mythology, Math, Existentialism, Poetry, Ying Jow Pai kung-fu, Religion, Philosophy, Yoga, Qabalah, Taoism, Anime (the good ones), Comic Books (the good ones), RPGS, Video Games, Making video games, Loving, Trying to do something for the world, Deejaying, Making music, Camping, Dancing, telling that person who stands in the middle of the dance floor to start dancing or go sit down, long conversations, caffeine (in moderate amounts), degrees of awesome, blah, blah blah...woohoo

I'd like to meet:

The Future.

Music:

Ambient/ Downtempo:
Boards of Canada, Kitaro, Rokysopp, Enya, Clannad, Waterjuice, Sasha, Kings of Covenience, Telepopmusik, Frost, Imogen Heap (frou frou), Yoko Kanno, Loreena McKennit, Lotus

Metal (Yeah thats right - METAL):
Stratovarius, Dream Theatre, Symphony X, Luca Turilli, Blind Guardian, Epica, Iced Earth, Hammerfall

Electro/Electro-Clash/Electro-funk:
LCD Soundsystem, ARE Weapons, Le Tigre, VHS or Beta, Melody Club, Ladytron, Electric Six, Baumer, Scissor Sisters, Fischerspooner, Black Box Recorder, Freezepop, Ok Go, Klaxons, Tom Vek, Bloc Party

Techno/DnB:
Hybrid, Tiesto, Taucher, Ayla, Armin Van Buuren, Drag'n Fly, BT, Paul Van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold, Dave Ralph, Chemical Brothers, York, Daft Punk, Dieselboy, Shpongle, Hallucinogen, Infected Mushroom, Moby, Groove Armada, Ed Rush, Optical, Basement Jaxx, Aphex Twin, )E|3( , Pendulum, Muffler, Overturn, Ill Skillz,

Micromusic :
Mr. Osbyte, Desert Planet, Tryst,

Others:
Pink Floyd, Psychedelic Furs, Broken Social Scene, Bond, A-Ha, Secret Machines, Arcade Fire, Mandrake, U2, Depeche Mode, HIM, Stuart Davis, Madonna, Little Death Orchestra, The Pretenders, Skankin' Pickles, Grand National, Postal Service, Afro-Celt Soundsystem

more to be added soon...i got tons of music...too much to list. Everytime I come to this part of the profile my brain goes dead from overload. Can't we just admit that music is a universal force that anyone and everyone enjoys at some level? Its like gravity but sounds better.

Movies:

The Flight of Dragons, The Last Unicorn, Kung-fu Hustle, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Waking Life, I *heart* Huckabees, What the Bleep Do We Know, Labyrinth, Legend, Willow, Gladiator, Braveheart, The Dark Crystal, King Kong (just about anything by Peter Jackson), Moonwalker, Dark City, Wizards, Star Wars, Dune, Matrix trilogy, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Memoirs of a Geisha, Lord of the Wu-tang, Akira, Unico, Advent Children, Princess Mononoke, Nausicca, Princess Bride, Spirited Away, Twilight of the Dark Master, Locke the Superman, Fist of Legend, The Last Starfighter, Macross Plus, the Golden Child, Pi, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Ghost Dog, Hackers, War Games, Johnny Mneumonic, Return to Oz, Napoleon Dynamite, Krull, Shaolin Soccer, Battlefield Baseball, Kung-fu Hustle, V for Vendetta, Pan's Labyrinth, The Science of Sleep, Children of Men, The Fountain, David Lynch films...so many good ones.

Television:

Heroes, Carnivale (when it was on)...thats about it. I don't even own a TV at this point. Where's my award?

Books:

Enlightenment is a Secret, Embracing Heaven and Earth, Seeds of Contemplation, the Bible, Thus Spoke Zarasthustra, A Brief History of Everything, Dead Sea Scrolls, Gnostic Gospels, Torah, Zohar, Koran, The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Process and Reality, 777, The Books of Thelema, Tao te Ching, Spiritwalker, The Golden Dawn, Science and the Akashic Field, Visionseeker, Medicinemaker, The Lensmen Trilogy, The Star Maker, The Self-Aware Universe, The Universe is a Green Dragon, The Secret of the Golden Flower, The Wizard of Earthsea, Songmaster, Harry Potter saga, Lord of the Rings, Ender's Game, The Hobbit, 'Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality', 'Grace and Grit'...list goes on and on.

Heroes:

Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Cohen, Mahatma Gandhi, Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Howard Bloom, Ken Wilber, Father Thomas Keating, Thomas De Zengotita, Otto Scharmer, Reverend Michael Dowd, Brian Swimme, Michael Nagler, Don Miguel Ruiz, Paramhansa Yogananda, Dalai Lama, Sri Aurobindo, Rabbi Lerner, Christine Forte, Michel Bloch, Paul Bloch, Carol Bly, Benjamin De Pauw, Jesus Christ, Siddhartha Gautama, Hank Wesselman, Alan Moore, Yoshitaka Amano, Grant Morrison, Israel Regardie, Aleister Crowley.

My Blog

Shes an Elemental.. part 2

Your mouth is the urn of my ashesLips red from fiery crashesOh, in those flames did I burn.Dark one, I am torn by your waysThen, soft as the moon, your gazeSees my tortured self reborn.... more to com...
Posted by Alain... on Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:57:00 PST

She’s an Elemental.. part 1

Are they blue, grey or green? Mysterious eyes(as if you were looking through a mist)in alternation, tender, dreamy, grimto the match the shifting vision of the sky.That's what you're like in this seas...
Posted by Alain... on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:35:00 PST

angsty!

How far -I am -Half finished sentences to - Half-myself, half-man, Half -The hubris is wanting more than a side-step graceI pray at the foot of my desertThe past, decaying in the labors of oblivion Th...
Posted by Alain... on Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:49:00 PST

For Therion

On my birthday the infamous Great Beast 666, Aleister Crowley, died. In commemoration of him, I am posting this poem I made, inspired by his own prose:"Eros seeks the new form of the aeon. Whosoever b...
Posted by Alain... on Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:26:00 PST

Just a poem

Love, so it is written.Felt as well. How deep?There are currents, and streams,Fountains, and oceans.It comes from the sky and bubbles from the muddy ground,Surprising those who sink, thinking it was f...
Posted by Alain... on Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:56:00 PST

Last night I bit the moon.

Im in San Diego right now, and I just had one of those nights. You know what I mean; like the first time you crashed your car, or a first kiss. A night you won't forget.I came here a couple days ago o...
Posted by Alain... on Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:53:00 PST

Glow-worms, Fire-flies, Raw-Milk, and Shooting-Stars in Mary-Land.

Elkton, Maryland is pretty quaint. I stayed out there for the past five days doing some work with a new client. It was great. It was probably on of the most chill series of meetings, I've ever been to...
Posted by Alain... on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:34:00 PST

Fly Southwest. Be amused.

I flew to the East coast for five days on a Southwest flight. The Flight attendant has been hilarious. This is what she was saying over the intercom. I kid you not:"If the airline suddenly becomes the...
Posted by Alain... on Sat, 11 Aug 2007 07:54:00 PST

Change is like a storm

Last night I danced underneath a sudden stormy sky. And while the lightning flashed, I chased the rain to the river front and watched the sky break. I, drenched in every hidden pore, felt electric gol...
Posted by Alain... on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 09:33:00 PST

10 weird & random things about me

I have had several people request for me to do this, so here I go...1. I am left-handed, but pitch with my right.2. I have moles mainly on the right side of my body.3. I once was in Dick Tracy look-a-...
Posted by Alain... on Tue, 26 Jun 2007 08:45:00 PST