Baron Michael Mojohito John Richerson von Tchudi

Capitalism needn’t be destructive – when balanced with responsibility rather than greed, creativity can flourish, especially in affluent societies.  A responsible capitalism aligns closely with the ideals of Democracy: all people are offered the same opportunities to succeed, all people have an equal voice in government.

In practice, however, even a cursory look into the actions of government and big business reveals ethical indiscretions.

In the United States of America, we can see a fairly steady transition from free enterprise to oligarchy: as individuals and then corporations accumulate wealth over time, they naturally are able to have a greater influence on economics – and thus government.  A pattern emerges in which the people at the higher levels of government have extensive connections with those in power at large corporations.  Greed and simplicity has overshadowed a moral obligation to due process and the citizenry, and thus lobbyists and handshake deals more thoroughly influence our political climate than does public opinion or national elections.  These indiscretions go so far as to lead to violent conflict both at home and abroad, such as street crime, alleged terrorist attacks, and endless wars both public and secret, including economic warfare.

It is at this point that popular opinion in the country of origin begins to swing in opposition of the dominant government in protest of social inequality, and when the voices of people are not responded to, they become aggressive.

A new culture of civil disobedience has grown in North America, starting, it seems, with the Seattle Washington WTO meetings in November 1999.  These demonstrations can easily be thousands or tens of thousands of attendants; the experience is frightening, as the herd is emotionally enflamed, feel left out of significant conversation.  The expectation of the police is not to serve and protect – but apparently to defend the corporate and political privacy, and use force if necessary to do it.

Thus there is a strong negative charge at massive demonstrations and the fear is what is picked up on and reported by popular media.  A militant sense of defiance backed by righteousness  is what is expressed by these gatherings, but the egalitarian principles that underly the indignance are little extolled.  Demonstrators, seeking to express themselves and educate the populace are instead perceived as chaotic and frightening – which serves to alienate moderate people from the cause and having ultimately negative results.

The principles of liberty and freedom that the U.S.A. was founded on do still exist, but we cannot count on our temporary [Right-Wing Fundamentalist Christian] government to encourage or protect them.  Our freedoms are available to us, but we must take responsibility to ensure their sovereignty.  

In my day to day life, I want to contribute to other’s happiness rather than make anyone’s life any harder.  I like to leave the spaces I use nicer than I found them.  I prefer not to contribute to hostility by vehemently arguing in opposition to my government’s decisions or speaking with an impolite tone when addressing those who have political opinions different from my own.  I envision a positive future, and live my life each day as though success is guaranteed.  I vote with my dollars by seeking out small business and local merchants and farmers.  I believe that each person I treat with kindness is a victory.

As I mature from a young person into an adult, I am reevaluating my ideas of success.  In the past I have tended to shun a higher salary in exchange for a preferable quality of life, but now I begin to consider how I can raise healthy children and offer them educational opportunities as my parents did for me, or how to offer my parents resources as they age.

Perhaps, if I’m using it to help others, pursuing money as part of a business sharing Dharma isn’t necessarily evil.

In my studies of energetic medicine and the patterns of consciousness that underly all of existence, I tend to prescribe to a model in which intention is the precursor to action and indeed predetermines action and outcome.  Consciousness itself has intrinsic value more important than any commodity.  As people grow and advance, accelerating learning and broadening perspective through world travel and advanced communications systems, they are more and more attracted to activities that help them develop their consciousness – an obvious example is the growth in Yoga teaching as an industry.

I posit then, that I can utilize the tools of intention and manifestation, clarity of vision and insight, to create a center of consciousness development via clean lifestyle choices – what is popularly called a “business”: we utilize the tools of commerce and money to create something truly accessible and available to people so that they can get an enjoyable experience learning about – for lack of a more accurate word – Dharma.

In the meantime, I can generate capital – something done with expert recklessness in the Silicon Valley – for myself and family, as well as employees and teachers.  Since we will use manifestation to ensure our business is successful, we can diversify, opening franchises ad facilitating social projects, generating revenue that we can use to reinvest in our community.  All the while living in comfort and luxury to support deep personal meditation practice.

Ah, activism:

• By emphasizing the positive rather than the negative, your movement can recruit and educate people rather than frighten and alienate them.
• When you focus on the brilliance of loving kindness, compassion, can feel love and forgiveness to your “enemies” rather than hatefulness and malaise.
• Rather than continuing to re-articulate the obvious problems in our society in endless social dialog, emphasize cultivating a quality of consciousness that allows you to see through the problem to discern the specific techniques you can employ in your life to have an impact.
• Help people orient towards a model of health that involves independence and quality discernment to inform their health choices – in this way, people can see beneficial results in the ways that they want to without having to prescribe to anothers’ dogmatic ideas on health.
• Vote with your dollars!  These speak louder than ballots in todays one-world-political-industrial complex.

I have positioned my lifestyle to have its primary emphasis be on natural health: I eat primarily an organic whole foods diet, engage in energetic movement practices such as taiji and yoga, and maintain a daily awareness practice, all within the context of my living and working environment: a residential school of Asian medicine and bodywork. Our program emphasizes the “School of the Center”, the Sattvic path. I attempt to put these principles into practice in my daily life, with a goal of moving continually towards balance.

However, I fluctuate in my practices, at times abandoning organic foods for the immediate gratification of the service and richness of the restaurant experience, or forgoing movement practices in order to focus on employment or entertainment goals. Even now, my practices are not infallible, and I still experience extreme moods and attraction to intoxicants now and again. But more so now than ever before, I am able to witness and moderate these fluctuations, and herein lies my faith in my movement towards balance: in the past, I felt a victim to happenstance, unable to control or buffer my shifts in mood or desire. Yet with a continued commitment to a spirit-based lifestyle of service and practice, I continually feel more at home in my bodymind, able to sit in silence and meditate.

I keep my mind engaged, eager to seek out new experiences to learn from, and am not particularly plagued by foggy thinking or profound laziness. I have a fit and healthy body, though it occasionally experiences Cold and Damp and Yin Deficiency. I am able to maintain healthy relationship with others, and when I find myself being insensitive or selfish, I am usually able to take responsibility for my feelings and communicate my desire to find mutual contentment. My commitment is to a path of service based in the concept that all beings and things are interconnected, and the one true purpose is Universal harmony.

I believe that the most effective course of action for me to bring myself closer to total balance is to continue to apply the principles I already have: deepen my commitment to a diet of fresh and local organic whole foods as the foundation for a practice of mindful living, seek out teachers of medicine and the Tao who I can respect and learn from, and perpetuate relationship as a practice of service, supporting the people in my family and community.

Like last summer, I’ve been slightly exposed to poison oak, leading to a systemic reaction.  This photo is of what I hope to be the pinnacle of the reaction, since I received a steroid shot at the Redwood Clinic in Redway yesterday morning.

I know my sudden departure may come as a shock to you, but in truth, it has been a long time coming.

Since I arrived, in fact.

I ought to have told you earlier in our relationship, but I’m not the type to settle down, and no sooner do I arrive than I am already looking at the exit door. It’s a pattern I need to work on, I know. Because we started some things together. Things that when we started, I thought I was ready to commit to. A real career, a real community. I took on a lot of responsibility for our growth together, and I saw early on that I got in too deep too quickly. That happens sometimes when we meet again after a long time apart, and the new traits make even the old familiar ones exciting again.

An adage I use often: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I suppose figures of speech become so because they speak to us on many levels, sometimes eluding us with simple complexity…

Anyway…

I got in too deep too quickly, and I tried to correct for that. I noticed you notice me withdrawing, and even as I did so, I was really intending to come back with fervor, stoke the coals and grow back stronger, but, well, that just didn’t happen. And I left you hanging.

I’d like to say, Reno, that “It’s not you. It’s me.” But it is you. You left me hanging, too. I thought you’d pick up the slack in our relationship, see that the distance I was creating was for my own protection, realize that you could keep us both safe by stepping up to the challenge of taking care of your old friend. But that didn’t happen. You stayed needy, quietly, and I just couldn’t keep feeding you all I had.

Reno, you’re a Gateway place, some intersection of laylines gives you purpose. The last place between lush free Pacific and desolate, barren dystopic desert – just look at all the “Burners”, those transhuman souls desperate to re-create the excitement of cosmic life who pass through you in droves on their annual pilgrimage to the psychotic other-land of their imagination, forced by the tight white collar of this doomed culture to flip out in the opposite direction, Reno is their gateway to that land. Also between the hot south Vegas Angeles and the cool north Portland Seattle, while not a pit-stop for most, Reno, you are the fulcrum.

Even more, Reno, you are a portal between above and below, the reality of the living and the realm of the discorporeal. I meet as many disembodied beings as embodied ones, searching for the warmth of connection with another soul, able to envelop and protect them from their own limitless hunger.

Take a look at yourself, Reno: you exist as transition fixed, progress frozen at each step. You amaze me with your progressive stationaryness. A lot of people, well, they need to spend time on the threshold – from here one can look forward and backward through time, peer at the notion of the soul, obsess over sureality – until they become ready to tip the balance of their own destiny in the controlled repetitive falling of walking forward.

Reno, I’m sorry to leave you. It makes me sad.  It does. I’ll watch you from afar, and check in, but I’ll miss all the games we started that we didn’t quite finish. Or really, even quite begin.

But it isn’t you, it is me.

I am thrilled for the future! One can only stand on the precipice of destiny for so long before being drawn in. Not that I believe in destiny, necessarily, or karma, but with observation the patterns of life are undeniable. Not sitting still says something about me: I am not complacent. I am not waiting for something better to come along, I am beckoning it. And consequently, my life continually improves, quality of life gets richer, growth and learning accelerate.

When I reunited with you, Reno, it was meant to be only a short time. That short time extended, and extended some more until I didn’t know for sure when we would separate. (I hope you didn’t get too comfortable during that time – I didn’t.) So the last half a year has been borrowed time… I hope you can understand.

I’m leaving you to be with Heartwood Institute again. Heartwood is a village, a school, devoted to healing arts. My students are here and there, but my teachers are waiting for me there. Accelerated growth, deepening of practice is the hallmark of that kind of life. For all of our amazing projects, I feel stagnant where I am.

It’s time for me to move on.

It’s both of us.

Let’s try not to have a drawn out farewell. I ain’t one for no emotional goodbye…

Seven days ago, Heather and I left Emerald Earth. It was eerie, as every other person at the Sanctuary left for events, and our last day was also our first time completely alone there. So we pranced naked in the middle of a courtyard, just for the thrill of it, even though the weather was unseasonably cold and foggy.
We hauled ass across the state to our new (temporary) home in Reno at my parent’s house, which is on the market to sell; our jobs are to facilitate that process and do research.
It rained the following night, a fortuitous omen of our arrival, and indeed, Reno has matured significantly. I am pleased to see my friends here, and impressed with the work some of them have been doing.
The Great Basin Food Co-op had its grand opening on Tuesday, which I attended and signed up to shop. THe organizers have done an amazing amount of leg-work to get the thing up to speed, first with a CSA and now the Co-op. The space is small but ample, and the selection of products is impressive. They emphisize local and inexpensive, so the products are excellent quality and cheaper than I’ve seen anywhere.
I am especially excited to report that I have been invited to produce and bottle and sell kombucha to the co-op. Hito’s Homemade will hopefully be on the market in ten days or so! This is possible becuase the co-op is technically a private club: only members shop there, and all memebers sign a waiver that indicates that they understand the risks involved with raw food. Very exciting.
Much is happening. This is just a taste. Suffice to say that I am pleased to be back in Reno, something I hadn’t expected.

October will be a fun month in Mendocino County! First of all, it’s C’mon Home to Eat, local food month: the challenge is to eat within 100 miles of where you live. There will be a couple of great local-food potlucks and other events, including a workshop called Acorns for Food – a pertinent topic considering that acorns were the primary staple of indiginous people in California for porbably thousands of years; considering the risk of food shortages in the wake of peak oil concerns, this information may be invaluable in the near future! So: Sepember 30th is Oz Farm’s Harvest festival (www.oz-farm.com/harvest_festival.htm) and the Hoes Down Harvest Festival is on October 7th at Full Belly Farm in Capay Valley (www.hoesdown.org/).
Emerald Earth (www.emeraldearth.org/) is having a work party the weekend of the 7th and another workshop around the 20th. There’s a real push to get roofs finished before rain comes, and the energy is really electric.
Of course, I won’t be at any of these events, as my priorities are elsewhere. Yesterday we made an offer on 45 acres outside of Lower Lake, California. Today, offer received, and we’re in escrow. I’ll be doing a lot of research and meeting people for perc and hydrological tests, learning about the legal status of a defacto easement and seeking to negotiate a modification if necessary. Reno will be home base until the house is sold, and I’m expecting a lot of travel to Lake county for preparations. I am officially on the payroll.
Heather and I leave EE in four days. We’re antsy to transition, but know we will miss this beautiful land and the interesting harmony of community living. It will be interesting to return to a city with all of my new skills and abilities acquired while living and training in the boondocks. Interesting Autumn indeed.

I’m writing from the Heartwood library, where I am pleased to see that they have installed three new iMac computers. A fine upgrade over the one shoddy Windows machine that used to be here. Makes it comfortable to sit here and write a little bit.
Heather and I are just visiting; there’s no kitchen interview, as we’ve decided not to work at Heartwood, though I’m sorely tempted with an offer to run the Wellness Center here. Instead, we’ll head to Reno, as was once upon a time the original plan. This will allow me more face time with the folks for planning our land inhabitation, and an easier deployment for going to Lake County (or wherever) to look at land or meet with officials. Heartwood would mean being further from the places we need to go and less likely to get time off from the ol’ J.O.B. We can find work in Reno, but things are more looking like working part- to full-time on the land project. We’re sad not to be living at Emerald Earth for much longer, or to be working at Heartwood, but truly, moving to Reno just feels like the best thing for us!
It’s beautiful to be visiting Heartwood, familiar and new faces. Spending time with my dear friend Alexis, who is now a student in the same Asian Healing Arts program I just graduated from.
Stress is relieving due to positive interactions with family and colleagues. Our plans are looking more realistic than ever, and things are moving rapidly.