Jesse S. Hanson's Blog, page 6

Pre-Christmas Promo ~ Free PDF version of my Novel

My Publisher, All Things That Matter Press, has just informed me of an amazing pre-Christmas promotion in which I have enthusiastically chosen to participate.

So here it is–Between now and December 7th, my spiritual fiction book, Song of George: Portrait of an Unlikely Holy Man, is available in PDF format FREE. This is a short term opportunity for you to read my novel absolutely free. All you have to do is ask.

Just send an email to me at dragonssong100ml@yahoo.com and I will send you the PDF.

Merry Christmas and Happy Reading!

Feel free to tell your friends. No Strings. My goal is just to gain exposure for my novel.

Jerry Schwartz Reviews Song of George

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I was quite gratified by this review of Song of George, by Jerry Scwartz, author of Pixels of Young Mueller. It's very perceptive and it clearly conveys some of what I would like people to know about my book.

As always, thanks for stopping by my blog and feel free to make comments to your heart's content. (:<)> jesse s. hanson

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Review: Song of George: Portrait of an Unlikely Holy Man
October 29, 2010 06:55:00
Posted By Jerry Schwartz

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Song of George: Portrait of an Unlikely Holy Man. Jesse S. Hanson. All Things That Matter Press, 2010. 248 pp. $16.99.

I enjoyed reading Jesse Hanson's Song of George, the story of "a guru in the prison mental ward." Graduate students Ansel, Ozwald, and Jeff are permitted to study and record the inmates of floor 41 for two months, during which time they learn not only what life is like in a large federal correctional institution, but also of the effect that George, the "unlikely holy man," has on his fellow inmates.

Hanson's unorthodox approach to telling George's story appealed to me from the beginning. Through a hodgepodge of quotes, songs, inmates' recollections, messages of George transcribed by Ansel, and poetry, the spirituality of Hanson's work shines as he relates his tale. I give Hanson extra points for making George a vegetarian. (How spiritual can you truly be when you are eating your fellow creatures?)

Admittedly, on several occasions, I became lost when reading this book. For instance, at one point, when the narrative switched to verse, I found myself wondering who "wrote" the poem. One of the inmates? Or was it the author stepping out from behind the curtain to assist me? My solution was to keep reading, and each time, I was rewarded. I love it when an author takes chances, and I like it even more when those risks pay off.

Song of George: Portrait of an Unlikely Holy Man is well written, engaging, and inspirational–four out of five stars.

The King and the handmaiden and the Doctor

Sirio Carrapa Ji - Sant Mat Master - Ribolla, Italy

Here, Master Sirio Carrapa Ji, of Ribolla, Italy, gives a beautiful satsang on a story of  the Sufi Sant/poet, Maulana Rumi.

The satsang is taken from a collection of Sirio Ji's satsangs, letters, and other writings, in English, titled One Word. One Melody. One Glance.
The Master graciously granted me permission to post this one satsang, as the collection is in an editing process.           
As always, thank you for visiting,      jesse s. hanson
 
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The King and the handmaiden and the Doctor

Maulana Rumi

Do you know why your soul-mirror does not reflect as clear as it might? Because dust has begun to cover it; it needs to be cleaned. Here's a story about the inner state that's meant by soul-mirror.

In the old days there was a king who was powerful in both his kingdoms, the visible as well as the spiritual. One day, as he was riding on the hunt, he saw a girl and was greatly taken with her beauty. As was the custom, he paid her family handsomely and asked that she come to be a servant at the palace. He was in love with her. The feelings trembled and flapped in his chest like a bird newly put in a cage. But as soon as she arrived at the palace, she fell ill. The king was like the man who had a donkey but no saddle for the pack. Then he bought a saddle, and wolves killed the donkey. He had a water jar but no water, then he found water but the pitcher fell and broke.

He brought his doctors together, "You have both our lives in your hands. Her life is my life. Whoever heals her will receive the finest treasure I have, the coral inlaid with pearls­—anything."

"We'll do what we can; each of us is the healing-savior of our regions. Surely we can find a cure."

They neglected, in the pride of their accomplishments, to say "If God wills". I don't mean that just the saying of the phrase would have helped. There was a coldness and a closed quality in the omission. There are many who do not say Inshallah, and yet their whole soul resonates with it all the time!

So the doctors began, and no matter what they tried, the girl got more pale and thin. The effects of the medicines were the opposite of what they expected. Oxymel, produced bile, almond oil caused dryness, mirobalen, instead of loosening the bowels, constricted them. Water seemed to feed the fever. The king saw that his doctors were helpless. He ran barefooted to the mosque; he knelt on the prayer rug and soaked the point of it with his tears.

He dissolved into an annihilated state, and as he came out of that, he spoke this prayer, "You know what is hidden here. I don't know what to do. You have said, "Even though I know all secrets, still declare it outwardly with an action."

He cried out loud for help, and the ocean of grace surged over him. He slept in the middle of his weeping on the prayer rug. In his dream an old man appeared. "Good king, I have news—tomorrow a stranger will come—I have sent him. He is a physician you can trust—listen to him."

As dawn came the king was sitting up in the belvedere of his roof. He saw someone coming, a person like the dawn. He ran to meet this guest. Like two swimmers who love the water their souls knit together, without being sewn—no seam.

The king said, "You are my beloved, not the girl! But actions spring from actions in this reality. What should I do?"

"We should always ask for discipline. One who has no self–control cannot receive grace, and it's not just himself he hurts. Undisciplined people set fire to the landscape!

"Withhold your giving and no rain clouds will form. When sex goes on between every body all the time, epidemics spread in every direction. When you feel gloomed over it's your failure to praise. Irreverence and no discipline rob your soul of light."

This very beautiful story by Maulana Rumi, it's taken from the Mahasnawi and it is typical of His style. All of this big work of His (more than a thousand pages), it's characterized by a common continuous story telling, from which He often goes far off to ponder over certain truths with which the story in itself doesn't seem to have much in common. In actuality, there is a subtle leading line that allows our poet to go back again to the story He was telling, maybe for just a few lines, and then again to start pondering about some thing else. So all the book is written in this fashion. This story also does not end this way. Here we have stopped it because whatever it has been said up to now, it's what is relevant with us. Now the rest may be taken over in some other occasion.

"As dawn came, the king was sitting up in the belvedere on his roof.

He saw someone coming, a person like the dawn. He ran to meet this guest.

Like two swimmers who love the water their soul knit together

Without being sewn, no seam."

Here the great Sufi Master (Maulana Rumi) wants to make us understand that up until we have the good luck to meet our Master, towards whom we feel a spontaneous attraction and an innate soul affinity, in no way anything really meaningful may happen in our spiritual life. There can't happen that opening of the heart, that falling in love that is a sine qua non conditioning for a real spiritual awakening. It's somehow similar to what happens to the king of the story who, by seeing the beautiful girl, falls in love with her and does what he can to take her with him.

The same thing has happened in the life of each one of us (some more, some less), when at some point we have found the man or woman with whom we have fallen in love madly. In a magic way we suddenly started liking every thing about that person, and even if there was something wrong we didn't want to consider it.

Ok, in the path of mystic love it has to happen, exactly the same thing. We have to meet that Master that we like madly. His way of being, of talking, of watching life, and of explaining the deep truths of existence make us very fond and ring bells within us. His truth must be evocative of our own truth, and there must be something in Him that makes vibrate some very deep strings of our being. It must bring, on the surface of our consciousness, deep forgotten truths, unthinkable in the common state of physical and sensorial consciousness. When we meditate with Him and we find our self in His presence, we have to feel a spontaneous love that makes vibrate all of our being. It's like the mother that, enchanted, looks at the tiny face of her baby—thus we become enchanted in looking into His face.

So it's not the matter of converting one self to a new religion, which may be to us more or less familiar or unknown. It's not the matter of following a master because he might have thousands or lakhs of followers. It's not like following a master because some of our family members or friends follow him.

We must say that in the majority of cases people join the group of a guru because of several of the things we mentioned before. Maybe the movie star or any kind of renowned person that we like, who has converted to some religion, so we also do the same (it may look funny, but often it goes like this). Or our dear friend, or somebody in our family, is now following such and such a master or spiritual path, so we become convinced that it's good for us as well.

It may be that the master of the case comes from a far away country or culture and this creates a halo of mystery that makes him very fascinating, so we follow him. Maybe we don't understand much of his teachings, maybe he uses big words, sentences or stories that seem mysterious. It could be that he often uses Sanskrit, Tibetan or Arabic words, and this makes his message the more appealing because it sounds very mysterious and enchanting, so we are fascinated.

Well, often these factors, which are very appealing for beginners, who are always in need of people that come from a far away country, different culture or religion, to be able to give credit or value to a spiritual message. Therefore, for westerns will be interesting masters that come from India, China, Japan—or from the Amazon forest (may be with a good cup of some kind of drug, called "sacrament", to commune with God).

For Indians it may be more interesting, a guru coming from the west—American or European. I've seen on more occasions that for Indians, is not at all difficult to understand a western as a valid master—much easier than for westerns.

Any way these kinds of motivations, that may take us to follow a person as a guru or guide, are not sufficient to assure us an authentic spiritual awakening. Rather we can say that when these are the motivations then we can be sure that a real soul to soul contact, it's lacking; otherwise these motivations would not be needed at all. We think about the qualities and the wealth and the reputation of the family of the person we want to be married to when there is not a great love. If this is there, than all else is unnecessary. The extreme love and passion for the beloved will be sufficient warranties.

When I met Master Kirpal in 1973 I didn't need to ask Him any thing about who He was, His social status, how learned He was, and how many followers He had. Who ever thought about that? When I got down from the bus that took me from Dehra Dhun to Subash Nagar I had the clear feeling, like I had placed my feet on another planet. I clearly saw a halo of light all over the area around the Ashram, and when I passed over the holy threshold of the Ashram, it was for me, just as if I had entered Heaven because so heavenly was my inner condition. After walking for about twenty meters I saw the Master sitting on a chair in meditation under the veranda of His house, and I saw Him all wrapped in Light, just like if His body was not of flesh, but of Light. Then two intuitions flashed into my mind with absolute certainty. The first it was, I have found what I was looking for—my quest is ended. The other one was, If it is true that God incarnates on earth in human form, then this man must certainly be God on earth.

After thirty two years I can say the same thing, "Yes, I had found my Path, and my Guru, and if it's true that God incarnates on earth, then Kirpal was, for sure, one of the great divine incarnations. In my all life I never met anyone, even if I have met tens of gurus, who has captured or fascinated me as much as Lord Kirpal. Why? Not because I think that He was the greatest of all, this is not what I mean. It was because in between me and Him there was such an affinity, which it is just indescribable. I liked every thing about Him—His way of walking, His way of sitting, His way of talking, of gesturing, His deep voice and His free [rough] way of rebuking, and to put to test by refusal and sending you away (I was put to test in a pitiless way).

Of course the good wisher and the moderate ones, those who are afraid of losing themselves, will say that such an attitude is dangerous—that we have to be very careful not to lose our head for no one, that many a one has been disappointed, and so on and so forth. Nonetheless the Mystic Path needs a great love to be travelled. We have to recognize the Divinity in the person we accept as a guide, and to trust and surrender completely. We have to become like the one with whom we have fallen in love because in Him we see the face of dawn, and we want that our face too, becomes as beautiful as His.

The records of mythical history are full with tales of the great love that the disciples tell to have experienced in their meetings with their Masters. If we only think about the love between Lord Krishna and the gopis, between Lord Buddha (the awakened) and His intimate disciples, between Lord Jesus and His Apostles, between Maulana Rumi and His Master Shamas Tabriz, between Saint Francis and Brother Leone or Saint Clare, between Saint Jhon of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Avila, between Kabir and Daram Das, Guru Nanak and Guru Angad, Baba Sawan Singh and Sant Kirpal Singh, between this last one and Sant Ajaib Singh, etc.

Well, I haven't been a witness to all the other examples which I have mentioned, but I have been a witness to the great love my Master Kirpal had for His Master Baba Sawan, and of the one Sant Ajaib had for Sant Kirpal.

An absolute faith, limitless love, complete devotion, and dedication, and surrender, this is what I could see with these great Beings. And what kind of benefits did They get? They got completely transformed by absorbing from their Beloved all His good qualities. They had somebody they just needed to remember and their Heart would simply overflow with love, and tears would wet their eyes. In human love, as much selfless as it might be, there is always some trace of self interest. In spiritual love, it is required, a complete giving of one's self without egoism or self interest of any kind.

I know many people that at the age of fifty, sixty or seventy keep looking for the great love of their life, or hope they may fall in love again. Well, I tell them, "My advice to you is that you look for a spiritual Master with whom you may fall in love, and devote to your spiritual evolution, the few years you are left with. The love for a Master will never betray you. The love of an ordinary Human being, though the person may be good, will always be limited and will have personal interests more or less evident. The love of the Master will instead be completely selfless, and will inspire you to develop a ruling passion for the Divine that is in the very nucleus of your being."

Irreverence and lacking of discipline rob the soul

of her light, and he does not harm only himself,

undisciplined people set fire to the all landscape.

In this last line of Rumi's story we are faced with two big dangers on the spiritual path, irreverence and lacking of discipline. We may meet the Master, we may fall in love with Him (not in a sentimental way, but in a spiritual way), we may decide to take Initiation from Him in His inner Path, and make so many beautiful promises about our future spiritual life. Nonetheless in between saying something and doing it there is a vast difference. When difficulties come up, because of our numberless imperfections and our limitless faults, and we are unable to continue in the same attitude of loving submission, then we become irreverent and we give up the discipline which is very important to continue to walking on the path of self perfection. Irreverence towards the Master, it's a great danger and a dark threat in our relationship with Him. It's not that He really gets upset because He very well understands human limits and the difficulties in the battle with our low tendencies. He knows how to forgive, and even if sometime He gets impatient with our dishonesty and stubbornness, His heart is any way as sweet as honey, and He is not able to dwell upon upsetness for long. As soon as He sees our good intentions, and our willingness to correct our selves he immediately forgives us and He is again ready to help us in our difficulties.

Lack of discipline, it's the other big problem. Poor human being is a victim to so many weaknesses and imperfections so it is very difficult to keep up with a disciplined life in which daily he devotes time to his spiritual practices to acquire self control over his physical and mental faculties. The impediments are many, and they come from our day to day life, by the people we spend time with, who willy nillly, influence us with their typical atmosphere, their mentality and often absurd convictions. It doesn't matter how steady we want to be with our convictions and our radical decisions; in the majority of cases we are not able to avoid that their typical centrifugal energy disturbs ours with centripetal tendency. Just by osmosis their empty thoughts penetrate into us and somehow we absorb their bad qualities without being aware.

Anyway if we think that by keeping far away from society we'll be able to be more disciplined and steady in our proposes it's not at all true. Those who are not able to be steady and uninfluenced in the midst of society, will not be able to be disciplined even if one goes to live in the country, in a wood just the way I do. In this last case there comes up other types of difficulties that any way go to test our own determination and would be all the same difficult to face.

Certainly it is very important to go from time to time, far away from the town and from the usual environment and go to a spiritual place (a place where there is a spiritual energy) to spend time with an enlightened soul: to meditate with him or her, listen to his words of wisdom, and here also, allow his spirituality to penetrate in us by osmosis and to transform us deeply. If periodically we expose our selves to such situations and we do our best to be disciplined—at least in these occasions—by giving out our best, than these experiences will go to strengthen our selves enormously, and will allow us to live better, our day to day life, with the several difficulties that come up.

Who knows? It may happen that sooner or later, during one of these retreats and deep meditations with him our soul will be uplifted so much and our heart wounded by the arrow of divine love, our consciousness so awakened that from then on we will not go back again to what we were before; so then our purpose is served! We will not go back again to harming our selves with our laziness and sloth, with our procrastinating the spiritual work by leaving it always hanging up, and giving fire to entire situations with our undisciplined and wandering life. So we have to try to become like rocks which are not shaken by weak or strong winds but stay at their place no matter what happens. Only this way we may become bridges on which souls may cross over from the kingdom of matter to that of the spirit.

The other beautiful image, it's that of the ship or boat that takes across the souls from the kingdom of death to that of immortality. We can go across over these bridges, go across on these ships or boats, there is no other way to reach the land of the blissful and the liberated ones. The Master will be our bridge, our boat or ship.

Therefore there is nothing that is more helpful in the spiritual life than [to] leave off our involvement with the world and to devote our selves with body and soul to come in contact, or contact again the Light within us in a retreat with a Master who has great experience in the way of the Spirit and is a channel chosen by the Most High to spread His Light.

Take advantage, come to the retreats that we have here at Sant Bani Ashram. It's a special place and whatever happens here, it's also very special. Your spiritual life will be orientated again and your face will again shine with glory.

Good-bye,

See you soon

Sirio

 
 

 
 

 
 
 

 

The Primatives to be part of 150 Year Celebration, UU Congregation, Smithton, PA

 

The following is a re-post from The Primatives Official Website .
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150 Year Celebration Concert for UU Congregation, Smithton, PA

My review of pixels of young mueller by Jerry Schwartz

The following is my review of the fine debut novel by All Things That Matter Press author, Jerry Scwhartz, Pixels of Young Mueller. This review has been  posted on Amazon.com and Goodreads.com

Thanks for visiting and please feel free to comment.    jesse s. hanson

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pixels of young mueller

     I really enjoyed these pixels of a young aspiring artist named Mueller. It is a fact that the modern world is chock full of musicians, writers, and all varieties of artists struggling–asking for the slightest attention to our "real" work, as we "don't quit our day jobs" yet. I say "our" as I am one such musician, writer, artist myself. I can relate.

     I actually put it in a song of my own, "I want you to see me–I want you to hear me–just another nobody." But of course we're not really nobodies. Whether we make it or not we do affect those who come in contact with us, some more, some less. We really do. And some of us will even achieve success as the society of the world measures its artists. Many of us will not.

     Jerry Schwartz tells the story of one of us with an engaging and entertaining style. I liked the presentation, in which the narrator knows very little more than the character knows. So the reader gets the story straight, so to speak, whether it is from Mueller as a pre-schooler, Mueller as a member of the work force, or Mueller the multi-talented artist.

     Does he make it? You'll have to read it to find out. Well written and relevant, even spiritual in a notably subtle way, I most surely recommend it. Four stars for the very fine debut effort. I think Schwartz is capable of better yet.

The Unheard Voices Project* A re-post from Open Democracy-free thinking for the world

"The United States has 5% of the world's population, and 25% of the world's prisoners."

My friend, Dr. Sylvia Scholar, has been an unfailing source of encourageent to me in my literary efforts, especially in regards to my recently published novel, Song of George: Portrait of an Unlikely Holy Man, which is set in the mental ward of a fictional U.S. Federal Prison.

It's through Sylvia that I've become aware of the remarkable UK based forum, "Open Democracy-free thinking for the world". The following series of posts from The Unheard Voices Project, published by Open Democracy, clearly reveal the devastation caused by America's stubborn and brutal insistence on waging the drug war on their own hapless individual citizens who are easily detained and prosecuted. Long term prison sentences and life with a record for these, while the real corporate criminals of our society live high and easy.

These articles are not of the world of fiction. "Truth is stranger…" as the very profound cliche' states. Please take a few minutes, go to the website http://www.opendemocracy.net/unheard-voices and read about this most American phenomenon as reported by The Unheard Voices Project.

As always, thanks for stopping by. You're certainly more than welcome to comment.

                                                                                       jesse s. hanson

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The Unheard Voices Project

The Unheard Voices Project is a documentary archive of testimonies from offenders, ex-offenders, family members, and experts on the far-ranging consequences of the American criminal justice system.

Unheard Voices was inspired by Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation Institute, another documentary archive project that gathered video testimonies from survivors and other witnesses to the Holocaust. In many respects, the American criminal justice system, and the drug war that has driven its explosion, has resulted in a cultural holocaust. So many people are in prison, so many families and communities have been destroyed, and so many generations have been lost, that those who do succeed us will need a living record of the devastating impact these policies had on American society.

The United States has 5% of the world's population, and 25% of the world's prisoners. At 2.5 million, the US has more prisoners than China. Not more prisoners per capita, more prisoners. And there are an additional 5 million under what's known as "Correctional Supervision" (probation, parole, and court monitoring). On top of that, the security and livelihood of millions more has forever been altered by an arrest or conviction record. This so-called "Land of the Free" punishes more of its citizens than the rest of the world, prompting even the conservative Economist to declare that "never in the civilized world have so many been locked up for so little."

The testimonies of The Unheard Voices Project testimonies will help put a human face on a critical social issue that has been overwhelmed by fear, politics, racial prejudice, and intolerance, in an era where the public attitude has been, "out of sight, out of mind."

When the stories hit home, the policies begin to change. 

Thursday 30th September

Born Illegal – The US Federal Analogue Act

Charles Shaw, 30 September 2010

This is the story of Anthony Reed, a promising young man with a very bright future who was arrested and charged with a felony under the infamous "Analogue Act" for possessing one dose of 2C-I, what he thought was a "legal" substance. Includes an interview with Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, the inventor of 2C-I.

Tuesday 28th September

oD Drug Policy Forum: Front Line Report – Week of September 27th, 2010

Mark Weiss and Charles Shaw, 28 September 2010

We lead this week with the release of the much anticipated trailer from Charles Shaw and openDemocracy's The Unheard Voices Project, a testimonial documentary about the far-ranging consequences of the American criminal justice system.

Sunday 26th September

The Unheard Voices Project: Trailer

Charles Shaw, 26 September 2010

The Unheard Voices Project has just released a four-minute trailer of their documentary archive of testimonies from prisoners, ex-offenders, family members, and notable experts on the far-ranging consequences of the American criminal justice system.

Monday 5th July

CALL FOR STORIES – The Unheard Voices Documentary Project

Charles Shaw, 5 July 2010

The Unheard Voices documentary project is seeking interviews and testimonials from offenders, ex-offenders, family members, and relevant experts on the far ranging consequences of a criminal conviction.

My new approach to blogging and a borrowed post about the great Sant, Tulsi Sahab

     I started out rather tentative with my blog, I will admit. And again I will admit that my main purpose was to create a platform on which to create interest in and help to sell my novel, Song of George: Portrait of an Unlikely Holy Man.  I thought, Don't reveal too much of yourself (like those kids–and many adults as well– on facebook who tell every little detail of their lives) don't be too vulnerable, which means don't be too controversial. There will be very very few who agree with...

What can other people know of the condition of one's heart?

Found the following quote by Sant Kirpal Singh Ji on facebook. It brought back a flood of emotion to me, as this profoundly hopeful statement by Him (perhaps in a different form, but this sentiment) was like a lifeline to me so many years ago in the most difficult times of my life.

And seeing it again, I realize that it still has the same effect.        jesse s. hanson

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What can other people know of the condition of one's heart? If ...

Some People Might Say…

Some people might say that this book, Song of George: Portrait of an Unlikely Holy Man,is too wild – to the point of being fantastic, even sacreligious.

Others, less inclined toward the possibility of Divine intervention, might say, "It's too pious – even naive, this allegory of a God Man.
Well, it's all up to the reader. Why not get a copy and decide for yourself? It's about the price of dinner for one at a very modest restaurant. But I think you'll remember it for a lot longer.

NEW: The Primatives Official Website

The following is a copy of the post I made yesterday on the new The Primatives Official Website http://theprimativesrock.wordpress.com/.  All part of my effort to keep all my stuff as together as possible. As always, Thanks to the friends of The Primatives for all your support.

Bhot Accha, You Found UsPosted on September 16, 2010 by jesse s. hanson

Bhot Accha, you found us.
Just developing this site. I'm planning for this to be the main outlet for info and updates re: The Primatives

I've put...