Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Smokey The Bear Sutra
by Gary Snyder
***
Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting beings--even the grasses, to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth.
"In some future time, there will be a continent called America. It will have great centers of power called such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur, Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon. The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature."
"The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth. My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger: and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."
And he showed himself in his true form of
SMOKEY THE BEAR
A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and watchful.
Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;
His left paw in the mudra of Comradely Display--indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that of deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;
Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the countless men oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often destroys;
Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the west, symbolic of the forces that guard the wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the true path of man on Earth:
all true paths lead through mountains
With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali-yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;
Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;
Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs, smashing the worms of capitalism and totalitarianism;
Indicating the task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses, canned foods, universities, and shoes, master the Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash.
Wrathful but calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him...
HE WILL PUT THEM OUT
Thus his great Mantra:
Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana Sphataya hum traka ham mam
"I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND
BE THIS RAGING FURY BE DESTROYED"
And he will protect those who love the woods and rivers, Gods and animals,
hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick people, musicians,
playful women,and hopeful children:
And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television,
or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra-shovel.
Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.
Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.
Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.
Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.
Will always have ripened blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.
AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT
...thus we have heard...
***
Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting beings--even the grasses, to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth."In some future time, there will be a continent called America. It will have great centers of power called such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur, Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon. The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature."
"The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth. My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger: and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."
And he showed himself in his true form of
SMOKEY THE BEAR
A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and watchful.
Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;
His left paw in the mudra of Comradely Display--indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that of deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;
Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the countless men oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often destroys;
Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the west, symbolic of the forces that guard the wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the true path of man on Earth:
all true paths lead through mountains
With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali-yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;
Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;
Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs, smashing the worms of capitalism and totalitarianism;
Indicating the task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses, canned foods, universities, and shoes, master the Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash.
Wrathful but calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him...
HE WILL PUT THEM OUT
Thus his great Mantra:
Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana Sphataya hum traka ham mam
"I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND
BE THIS RAGING FURY BE DESTROYED"
And he will protect those who love the woods and rivers, Gods and animals,
hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick people, musicians,
playful women,and hopeful children:
And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television,
or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra-shovel.
Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.
Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.
Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.
Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.
Will always have ripened blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.
AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT
...thus we have heard...
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Charcoals: Electron Microscopy Study
I worked some connections here at NC State Univ. and got a co-conspirator to scan some of the charcoal samples I brought back from Thailand with an electron microscope. SEM images are so cool!
The images just below are of charcoal made from longan wood (Dimocarpus longan). There are loads of these of these fruit trees throughout southern China, southeast Asia and the region around Pun Pun Farm. They grow them from layering and the trees never develop a strong tap root. So they have to prop the limbs up or the trees will blow over in a storm. And they have to prune them often - so it's very common to make charcoal from the prunings.
You can really see the macropore structure in some of these shots (note the scale bars at the bottom of each image...a "um" is a micro-meter, 10^-6 meter, or 1/1000 of a millimeter, for those not conversant in scientific notation).
This charcoal is made from coconut husk. It was not the best kind of coconut to made charcoal from - the thin hard shells of young coconuts. Probably charcoal made from the thick, woody shells of mature coconuts, and/or the coir would be better for our purposes. But this stuff does show some interesting surface morphology.
We would have to use TEM (transmission electron microscopy) to see the smallest pores, at the molecular scale (1 millionth of a millimeter and smaller). Then we'd actually be looking at the crystalline structure of the charcoals - that would be totally sick. But these SEM (scanning EM) images are good for getting a since of how porous charcoal materials are at the micro-level. So you can see how a couple tablespoons of this stuff can have the surface area - at the molecular level - of a football field. Plenty of space, in other words, to adsorb contaminants like nasssty pesticides!
Below is charcoal made from rice husks. It's an interesting material, but probably not very good for water filtration purposes because of its naturally high ash content from all the silica and minerals that make up the husk. Also, rice husk charcoal is not made in a kiln - husks are just piled onto a fire and allowed to smolder. So the pyrolysis is pretty low temperature, and oxygen is not well excluded - thus it doesn't develop awesome porosity/surface area and so is not a great water filtration charcoal.
But still interesting to look at in SEM - in the image, the husk on the left shows the underside, on the right the outer side of the husk. Cool eh? Very different morphology inside and out!
I had a great chat the other day with my man the electron-microscopy ninja when he brought me these images. (He snuck our samples in between runs of "official" work.) I told him about the project and our efforts to design simple/cheap systems for drinking water purification and he is down like 4 flat tires. So I will keep sending him samples and he will sneak them in all clandestine like - so more cool images to come, ha!
Renegade science is so much fun!
aqsolutions.org
The images just below are of charcoal made from longan wood (Dimocarpus longan). There are loads of these of these fruit trees throughout southern China, southeast Asia and the region around Pun Pun Farm. They grow them from layering and the trees never develop a strong tap root. So they have to prop the limbs up or the trees will blow over in a storm. And they have to prune them often - so it's very common to make charcoal from the prunings.
You can really see the macropore structure in some of these shots (note the scale bars at the bottom of each image...a "um" is a micro-meter, 10^-6 meter, or 1/1000 of a millimeter, for those not conversant in scientific notation).
This charcoal is made from coconut husk. It was not the best kind of coconut to made charcoal from - the thin hard shells of young coconuts. Probably charcoal made from the thick, woody shells of mature coconuts, and/or the coir would be better for our purposes. But this stuff does show some interesting surface morphology.
We would have to use TEM (transmission electron microscopy) to see the smallest pores, at the molecular scale (1 millionth of a millimeter and smaller). Then we'd actually be looking at the crystalline structure of the charcoals - that would be totally sick. But these SEM (scanning EM) images are good for getting a since of how porous charcoal materials are at the micro-level. So you can see how a couple tablespoons of this stuff can have the surface area - at the molecular level - of a football field. Plenty of space, in other words, to adsorb contaminants like nasssty pesticides!
Below is charcoal made from rice husks. It's an interesting material, but probably not very good for water filtration purposes because of its naturally high ash content from all the silica and minerals that make up the husk. Also, rice husk charcoal is not made in a kiln - husks are just piled onto a fire and allowed to smolder. So the pyrolysis is pretty low temperature, and oxygen is not well excluded - thus it doesn't develop awesome porosity/surface area and so is not a great water filtration charcoal.
But still interesting to look at in SEM - in the image, the husk on the left shows the underside, on the right the outer side of the husk. Cool eh? Very different morphology inside and out!
I had a great chat the other day with my man the electron-microscopy ninja when he brought me these images. (He snuck our samples in between runs of "official" work.) I told him about the project and our efforts to design simple/cheap systems for drinking water purification and he is down like 4 flat tires. So I will keep sending him samples and he will sneak them in all clandestine like - so more cool images to come, ha!
Renegade science is so much fun!
aqsolutions.org
Global Freshwater Scarcity
Interesting article from the August Scientific American on Facing the Freshwater Crisis
Graphic showing the possible influences of population growth and climate change on water scarcity:
Graphic showing the possible influences of population growth and climate change on water scarcity:
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
State of Our Soils
Excellent article in the Sept. '08 National Geographic Magazine on the state of the world's agricultural soils: Our Good Earth - The future rests on the soil beneath our feet
Photo showing loss of topsoil in New Mexico from only a few decades of bad farming practices.
Photo showing loss of topsoil in New Mexico from only a few decades of bad farming practices.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Check the Activist
New article on D-I-Y water filtration in the Autumn '08 issue of Permaculture Activist Magazine (#69). Check it out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
