In relationship with my father, Clyde Turner

For anyone who thinks Clyde's family as posessing some kind of internal cohesion, the general air of mediocrity will dispell the idea in them very quickly and be an immense puzzle and a disappointment. The notion that Clyde is a virtuous innocent in this dreadful state of affairs is unacceptable.The rest of the family has been driven into extreme positions as a result of Clyde's obsession with power and control.

Clyde cannot belligerently presume to be in the right in a world where he turned his oldest son, me, into a severe drug addict at 13 years of age and a wage slave for nearly 30 of my 40 odd years. For decades there has been a culture war raging between us under the surface. Apalling racist stereotypes that Italians smell like garlic and Koreans smell like Kimchi are evidence of Clyde's current position on the matter.

I am still being destroyed by suffocation and desperation not because of my agression towards my brother or ineffectiveness in school or work but because Clyde has been setting and still wishes to set the agenda. Loyalty should be based on what the facts are and what Clyde owes to his sons and I'm well passed the point of the imposed deprivations, tyranny and inflexibility of Clyde's long role as king. Clyde's complete monopoly on coercion has eliminated any semblance of democracy or diversity and introduced immense hostility.

He placed too high a value on conformity, opportunism, flattery and getting along rather than risking new ideas, criticism or dissent. And he has taken to exterminism: the idea that if you don't get what you want or if something displeases you it is possible simply to blot it out as when I was criticising him for letting me be an underaged drug addict for 10 years and then he said that any letters he receives from me will remain unopened. What kind of muddled idea of integration was it to wipe out his oldest son and smash his family with unification as the goal.

The most disheartening was that my brother, victim of the same brutal logic appears to have supported Clyde's actions and didn't sympathise with me at all. Clyde's money and dependency on Traditionalism/Conservatism and Las Vegas Casinos created more rifts and problems than they healed. My unresolved plight speaks to an undomesticated cause of my rebellion and a son paying a very heavy price for it.

And so I join the flood of semi-forgotten, uncared for people who shadow the Christmas shopper. Appeals to tradition and conservatism have been frighteningly effective.When, in retaliation, I wrote a letter to all Clyde's associates he adopted a posture underscoring "our" Judeo-Christian, white, male heritage and my nefariousness, cruelty and immaturity as do all the good old "boys", male or female by their silence, who work with him on the board of trustees over at Sierra Corp. I am not free of Clyde's monopolizing attitude toward history. It was not much good in the past and the quicker he finds an alternative the better.

Surely it is one of Clyde's unhappy characteristics to have produced a migrant refugee in exile as an afterthought to his conflict with my mother, producing the waste and misery of my mutilated life. The marginal, subjective, migratory energies of my life are too toughly resistant.The root of Clyde's addictive, acquisitive accumulation of capital which continues unchecked is irrational.

The costs to protect it and of living in an atmosphere of permanent crisis are exorbitant and not worth the gains. Not everything can be bought off. All these hybrid counter energies for sale that no one wants to buy hint at ways of living not based on coercion, domination and appropriation.

The reasons why I wasn't able to accomplish many of my musical and life goals much earlier was because I spent too much of my life earning a living through manual labor. I didn't have enough leisure time and the time I did have was devoted to acquiring and taking drugs and also commuting to and from work often by bicycle or by bus. My father and mother thought that children don't make themselves useful enough so I was working at Taco Bell even before the legal age.

I did not have access to institutes, equipment, large libraries, or special collections devoted to artistic persuits at an early enough age. I also did not have a family who supported my sobriety let alone involvement in artistic or intellectual activities. I was not free to express any opinion.

I was not able to travel freely and there wasn't an influx of highly educated foreigners who enjoy intellectual endeavors for their own sake.

I was not able to get significant others to agree that my work was creative. I wasn't able to orient, plan, execute and evaluate my musical compositions until I was 42. I had a fairly clear work objective but not enough autonomy and wasn't presistent or persuasive enough in selling the idea to people.

My father continually dominated decision making and discussions used, as he was, to making decisions from on high as the president of a Las Vegas Casino and also exacerbating conflict therefore reducing or nullifying the effective benefits of diversity. My family and I didn't have good conflict resolution or problem solving skills. I wasn't able to define the world or other people in a way that allowed me to do what I wanted.

My sense of identity came from narrative forms alien to my family and friends. The modern cultural era's values were still operative in my environment though I was living in postmodernity.

Electricity in Oriental Medicine

Well, here I am sitting in a smokey computer room in Korea. I recently had some back pain from moving my gamelan instruments around the house. I couldn't stand up straight or walk very well and decided I should go over to the Oriental medical doctor's office on the fifth floor of the building where I teach.

I had been there before for some respiratory distress which turned out to be a mild case of pneumonia which lasted several weeks even with medication from a proper hospital. Anyway, he gave me some accupunture on both sides of my spine and the back of my neck in the first visit. He's also got an automatic massage chair which feels pretty darn good located in an aromatherapy room.

On the second visithe said he would put needles in both the hands and feet but he forgot to put them in my hands. When the nurse came back she was surprised that she couldn't find the needles I told her, in my best Korean, that there weren't any more.

Then she hooked me up to a machine that has suction cups with a pulsing air stream so that they stick to your back without giving it a red hickey. There's a wet sponge in the cup to conduct electricity to your body. The electricity comes in gentle waves and they have a knob for increasing the intensity which I let them do.

The sensation was quite pleasureable on the first go-round. The next day I came, while almost dozing off for the electricity treatment, it gave me a bit stronger of a shock than it's supposed to. I involuntarily groaned and spasmed.

I called the nurse to come and asked her to please turn down the intensity. It seemed not to be giving a consistent level of electricity this time like the current wasn't being transmitted as it should. I was worried that it was building up a charge and sure enough, it shocked me again later.

Not as much as the first time but I'd had it with the electricity treatment. My back doesn't hurt anymore though fivedays later which might be attributed to my body's own powers of recuperation but can't be sure entirely. I think the electricity treatments helped since it felt so good the first time. The massage chair was also a contributing factor too I'm sure.

He says I've got a serious problem with perseveration which is a sign of organic damage from a history of neglect and severe drug use which started in junior high school and didn't stop until 10 years later. Also, he said this is related to TMJ which I've developed in the last 4 years. I've read elsewhere that TMJ is related to not speaking to family often enough which is definitely my case.

An acquaintance, Peter, came over and we had fun playing all my gamelan and Korean traditional instruments. He had been looking for a Korean flute so I gave him a Taegeum and a Sogeum which I wouldn't be using anymore. He was happy. Other people might have come but they couldn't come or canceled. They might come next time.

I met a young female Kayageum player in a Chinese restaurant who might be able to play on some of my future recordings which would be great.

About Garunaga's Music

I compose music because its a big part of myself. If I don't put something on paper and play an instrument everyday, I will get cranky. Now, when I'm composing music, I start with the big picture and I mean really big.

In talking about it, it quickly veers into politics, sociology and the philosophy of religion. I ask what I'm trying to communicate. I'm usually trying to communicate something mystical, transcendant, infinite, communal and/or abundant.

I try to recreate a feeling of the mystical, transcendant and infinite through the use of drones, chimes, gongs and finger cymbals, and through the use of rhythmic cycles. I also try to create a sense of transcendence by including techniques and instrumental timbres foreign to my own roots of rock, jazz, classical, guitar, sax, violin and piano.

As far as the music communicating or, better yet, actually building and strengthening ties between community members, I try to write music with at least a few easy parts so that anyone, even children, can also participate and I try to have a high tolerance for change and diversity based on the needs of other people playing with me. However, even I have limits. I would like to create music for people's daily activities or at least tied to utility somehow such as when two people make love, exchange massage or good conversation.

I'd like to explore more dance and rave music. Sometimes, I try to mix quartal jazz piano voicings (because its good for minor and pentatonic music) with pop bass ostinatos (because popular styles are the authentic voice of the individual), rhythms from around the world (because I would like to think that I could love all kinds of people), reggae guitar parts (because it is the most widely spoken musical dialect),

I usually write modal pieces at a medium fast tempo which is heterophonic. Solely playing the singular melodic lines of monophonic or homophonic music generally implies a philosophical foundation that does not have or want a relationship with the neighbors.

The independant lines of Classical counterpoint recreates the feeling of too much western individualism. The heterophonic line of two melodies playing the exact same thing, similar to the steps of some ballroom dancing, comes from a philosophical position that two people should come together. In the case of ballroom dancing, it's a man and a woman no more than 5 years apart usually.

It's never 2 women or 2 men and its REALLy never 1 woman and 4 men etc... It is nonverbally communicating the culture's expectations for sexual and other kinds of relationships and marriage. The man leads.

The woman follows. There are certain steps to follow too. It means there is a right and a wrong way to live your life.

In order to be accepted you must becomne a dependable cliche' like everyone else or be outcast.

I want to make abundant music because we can all look forward or open ourselves now to the good things that life has to offer us. However, there is a limit. Creative people like complexity but too much will alienate the audience.

Popular styles almost never have more than 5 parts occuring simultaneously so I try to keep my music just under or at that limit. Well formed rhythms, as well, are defined as between 2 and 6 rhythmic events about every 5 seconds. So, I usually keep my parts near the high end or at that parameter.

These are just 2 of the ways I accomplish a feeling of abundance.

Building and strengthening ties between community members is a delicate balancing act because too many times if someone wants to appeal to blacks for example then the fact of the matter is that many whites, Irish, Scottish and what have you will, unfortunately, not identify or want to be associated with it. Or if you try to appeal to Asian Americans, you alienate regular Asians, blacks, whites, Scottish, Irish etc... In trying to appeal to too many people you lose everyone.

Many if not most traditionalists and conservatives won't like my music. I didn't make it for them. I'm affirming a completely different set of values that they're not ready to appreciate or understand.

I've thrown them a bone by not being ignorant of their concerns but I really don't share them at all. That's about 2/3rds of America, Europe, Australia and NewZealand right there who I will probably never reach.

I know why the rural bible belt identifies with country/western and Christian music in the U.S. and understand why conservatives identify with 19th centuy classical music. However, to be very blunt, in my opinion Country and Christian music comes from a biased philosophical position that they are the chosen people by God to be better than everyone else. And If they have money, then they believe this proves that a God favors them.

Perhaps, in a few short years when America is no longer a global super power cowering under big Asian players and American whites are in the minority in their own country, hopefully the arguments presupposing their innate superiority will be seen for exactly what they are, a bunch of nonsense thrown together by pseudo-intellectuals bolstered and supported by the uninformed, mentally lazy and/or the willfully ignorant.

Joseph Campbell said that Christianity is the overinterpreted parochial history and manufactured geneology of a single sub-race of a south-west Asian-semitic people by no means what its own version of the history of the world makes it out to be. What seems reasonable to Christians is nothing more than the sum total of all their prejudices and myopic views. Today there can be no central point on which to concentrate.

Elsewhere, he says, "though empty barrels make the most noise, they are required for new wine and noth the uncritically accepted and/or enforced customs of the old wine. Conformity is not now a necessity.

I once read a criticism by a classical music lover's/conservative's criticism of popular music. He said that pop styles were simplistic because they used pentatonic scales whereas classical music had followed a progression to 7 note scales, then to the use of chromaticism in the romatic era and dodecaphony in the postmodern era and used large orchestras of the most difficult to construct instruemnts that could only be played properly by virtuosos.

I submit that a music's worth (or a person's ) is not determined by where it (or they) are placed in a Darwinian evolutionary scale of complexity or by the expense of the instruments but by the philosophical/ spiritual ground from where it grows and therefore by it's usefullness to living people as opposed to meeting the entertainment needs of dead kings and popes as Frank Zappa has said or by carving out an identity for those who are empty and shallow among the rich by attempting to emulate the wealthy aristocracy of a Europe in ages past.

Some of my acquaintances will not like to hear it but the quickest way to make everyone, except the most arrogant of the filthy rich or their wannabe's, feel alienated is to play opera.

If Sufi mystics can use the names Buddha, Jesus and Mohamed in the same sentence then I want to be a part of that. If that's and affront to your identity as a cowboy or a Christian then come back when you're ready to see the larger world just outside your hometown which is literally surrounding your tiny little cultural pocket.

For your information, half the internet is in Chinese. How many Chinese characters do you know? How many Chinese characters would you be willing to learn?

I don't need traditionalists to lose the identity they grew up with. It's fine really and can be fun too. To be fair, they're certainly not the only one's guilty of arrogance combined with being uniformed.

It's the self righteousness that has traditionally come with those identities which alienates the entire world that me and the rest of humanity could do without. We also would like traditionalists to join uis in a larger space. If not now, then sometime in the future. Better sooner than later though.

They had to believe in that culture in order to integrate with it because that is where they found themselves. However, such an attitude has outlived it's usefulness. In saying these things, I feel like Salmon Rushdee writing the Satanic Verses.

Traditionalists looking at Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus see only irreconcilable differences which are quite real. We and the other 1/3rd of America see more of the similarities which are also just as real and want to see how Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism will inform western spirituality and how western spirituality can inform the Eastern. And how a relationship with actual Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus can enrich our lives.

I want a musical form that carries the message of open minded dialogue between cultures, faiths and real people which is why I'm attracted to Indochina and Indonesia. India was, of course, Hindu and China has a long history of Buddhism. Indochina has absorbed the best and worst from both of these immensely important cultures.

So, the dialogue between China and India/ Buddhism and Hinduism has been taking place most intensely in Indochina. Also, from a Buddhist perspective, and while standing in Asia, Christianity and Islam look almost identical. This is the kind of perspective required to move forward now and in the future.

Joseph Campbell said that now, the only appropriae in-group is as a world citizen. I believe this is correct.

My music sometimes uses Middle Eastern rhythms because I want to include Middle Eastern peoples in my world and be included by them in theirs not because of a European feeling of exoticism that doesn't know who the musicians that they're appropriating music from are or their histories. I don't want the styles of electronica either that are empty of context and content.

About 1/4th of America, if you believe some estimates, are the cultural creatives. They're not perfect either. Much of the New age faction seems to think that you can toss logic completely out the wind and buy spirituality.

Maybe that's good for my business but I blieve that real spirituality comes from relationships with other peole and with nature. So I'm very serious about having a relationship with people who visit my site whether or not they buy anything. What they seem to want to buy is sometimes Hindu iconography and either Hindu or Buddhist ideas.

In the case of hinu mythology, westerners who adopt it are fooling themselves if they think they can graft an alien religion onto themselves, plagued by all the same problems as our own, while cutting off their own root.

Budhism is a special case from most cultural creative's viewpoint. Buddhism has a lot to recommend it. My mother Nichiren Daishonen Buddhist for a time and later, I considered myself a Buddhist for a significant period of my life.

More Americans seem to be attracted to Japanese Zen Buddhism than other forms because it is sometimes teaching an artistic and philsophical orientation which can see or wants to see each second of life as beatuiful and perfect. However, what Buddhism IS teaching and what Americans want to believe about it are sometimes two different things. Americans want to try to accept, at least theorhetically, the good with the bad and avoid the misuse of drugs, alcohol and coffee, the abuse of children and women and killing more than one needs to in order to live well. It embraces the part of feminism that believes people should let women in positions of leadership.

American Buddhists and other cultural creatives want to improve social injustice and damage to the environment and have seemd to only be willing to do that peacefully. Ideologically at least, it rejects sexist and racist viewpoints and challenges the notion of Western superiority. Bad that happen to others ultimately affects us also.

In order to be thought of as a bonafide participant in the present in-group of world citizenry, you have to be aware of all the different cultural experiences; ethnic, religious and gender.

Intuitively understood but unbeknownst to most people, music is intimately bound up in all of these considerations of political, cultural and religious identity. At least, thats my position. Joseph Campbell has also said that all ways, already found, known and proven are wrong since they are not discovered by personal inquiry. People must be moved to ends proper to themselves.

In the Buddhist liturgy it says Truth is the essence of life because only truth continues to live after the death of the body. Truth is eternal and will still remain even though heaven and earth shall pass away. By understanding this you are Chakravarti.

In the Buddhist canon, the Abhidharma says that the only thing that can be said to be inherent is truth which is not conditioned.

On what should everyone in the world concentrate? There are as many answers as there are people. Joseph Campbell and I would have everyone concentrate on what truthfully heals you and makes you happy. Besides an experience of nature and other people, ambassadorship, medicine, literature, music, art, gardening etc... are possible foci.

Concerning relationships with other people, western traditionalists and some conservatives are well networked. They may meet every Sunday in Church, in the board room or at power lunches. Cultural creatives think they're alone and there's nowhere to meet. The Unitarian Universalist church is trying to be everything but they wind up alienating just about everyone.

Many Buddhists and Hindu's want to eliminate all desire for happiness. This is one of the problems of cultural creatives. But if the truth is that gardening makes you happy now, no amount of Buddhist philosophical gynmnastics about it ULTIMATELY not making you happy since it's not eternal is nonsense in my opinion.

What is eternal is this moment we have now which is all there ever is. If what makes you happy changes over time then change. It's not that difficult to do, in fact, its inevitable. Anyway, we don't need to be copying Jesus or Buddha, we just need to live up to our divine nature.

Primordial Cosmic Ocean Khirasagara

Ksheerasagara Manthanam
I'm always doing research and I wanted to find a story that told the creation or lack thereof in a way that was in alignment with my own contemporary understanding of things such as the current state of affairs with chaos theory, nuclear physics etc... Usually people don't believe in something bcause it's proved to be true, they adopt it because they believe it will protect them or they've had a direct perception of it often in the form of an experience of horror, order or beauty which is the real basis of faith. They've perceived what appeared to be gods or the structure of the universe in as direct a manner as might be possible and don't just believe because they were born into a church that told them to believe.

They don't just believe because they need to believe in order to be accepted into their thickly ethnocentric communities. They actually encountered it with their own eyes or with their inner eyes. Of course such experiences are always subjective but there are reasons to say one believes in the unseen if they HAVE seen it, however visionary an experience it may have been.

It doesn't have to be some profound vision though, it can just be a general sense or intuition. Many Hindu stories resonate well with me. One story of the Hindu creation says that before the universe there was the primordial ocean(that was NOT a void which is an idea the ancients never held).

From within the cosmic ocean stirred the World Serpent Sheshnaga. The sound of Om started to reverberate through the murky depths and this created an egg. From within the egg was born Vishnu who then slept on the unmanifest coils of cyclic time that is the body of Sheshnaga.

From his navel sprang a lotus blossom which contained the god Brahm with 4 heads. Vishnu intended Brahm to create the universe which he did. I like this story because it shows the Asian creation idea that things can be made from chaos. And that chaos and order are not mutually exclusive.

A related story is the churning of the cosmic ocean. Here is a link to a very short version of the story. http://www.sanatansociety.org/indian_epics_and_stories/the_churning_of_the_ocean.htm
Essentialy the gods and demons wanted to get the elixer of immortality known as Amrita and needed each other's help. They wrapped the world serpent-this time Vasuki-around the cosmic mountain that they placed upside down in the waters in order to turn it.

They gods pulled on the tail and the demons pulled the head. As they churned the ocean the snake vomited poison which Shiva put in his mouth. Then the mountain began to sink so Vishnu became a giant turtle to support the mountain under the water.

The ocean produced many things both terrible and wonderful. This story is told in stone at Ankor Wat in Cambodia as well as in other places. The story exactly explains how I see the creative process. The elements are just small steps similar to molecules of water, fat, calcium etc... different things come together in a formless mixture.

Then as an artist goes through all of the possible permutations of combinations he is able to form both good and bad ideas. He probably needs help from others as well to arrive at that point just as in the story. It's the artist's job to know which ideas are bad, good and great and which are worth persuing.

I relate a great idea to creating the elixer of life Amrita. So, I've adopted this story as a truth which I believe and am happy to see the Southeast Asians see it's value as well.

Architecture, Techno, Sacred Sites and Religion

I wanted to point out the similarity between the architectural technique of gradually changing detail elaborations as one walks through a postmodern building and the gradually changing groove in techno and of placing the background into the foreground or elsewhere such as putting paintings on ceilings or where the floor flows into the wall which becomes the ceiling in one big swoosh. This may be related to polyphonic inversion where the melody is played in the bass or where the accompaniment is used for a transition or an entire section.A related point is the congregational aspect of western religious buildings and the aspect of pilgrimmage of far easternsacred sites where one circumambulates the structure which might not even have a room one could enter.

The eastern buildings are based on perfect symmetry and forms such as Ankor Wat and the pyramid at Giza which are intended to be magical talismans to ward off evil and to spread good fortune emanating from above. To the eastern mind, spiritual power is constantly coming down and in here. To the western mind spirit is up and out there. Hell is down here.

Eastern music is often of a ritual nature and for the gods. The Indonesian gamelan might play all night for the benefit of the village with no one attending the concert. African music is often a ritual for the gods and there's no thought of making a pretty sound for people to listen to.

Eastern sacred music is often based on perfect cycles which repeat indefinitely though usually additive (5+3) and not usually divided in half as in (4+4).One article I read said that if one were allowed to make sweeping generalizations, the eastern position comes from a fear of foreign people and ideas or at least negative spiritual influences and a willfull denial of the death of the individual personality wishing it to continue after the death of the body in some imagined magical relationship with geometric perfection. About 1/4 of westerners explored the world in the age of exploration and seem to embrace the alien other/foreign neighbor and ideas or at least are willing to entertain them and therefore must deal with both the positive and negative aspects of admitting the enemy.

However, not all eastern music or easterns fit this generalization and neither do westerners. As if a fine line could ever be drawn. Another point was that symmetry in art and music usually comes only after the establishment of city states. The Mongolian shaman riding on horseback playing his spike fiddle took his aesthetic from the natural environment unconsciously.

Trees, mountains and rocks are not perfectly symmetrical and neither was his musical form. I imagine the Nomadic aesthetic of musicians in the deserts of Africa and Arabia are assymetrical as well.This is also related to Japanese music which was purposefully/consciously assymetrical. This was desirable to Zen Buddhists (those that didn't denounce music entirely) because the surprising changes caused by extreme assymetry represented egolessness to them.

The Mandala World

Here's another story I wrote that was based on a painting I did. You can see it here with a couple of other things but be warned they're not just a photos. They're for sale. http://www.cafepress.com/mandala_art

The Mandala World

Our hero was in a realm of chaos here there was no place even to stand. Our hero wanted to find a pure land so he made a magic painting and sang a magic song. The song carried him across an infinite expanse of greyness to a sphere of sound and light. There were four inhabitants of that region each having a giant golden with with eight spokes.

The realm of sound and light was in the body of a dragon queen who had divided her body to creat the world. Her contiinuing sound current created every living thing and its echo sustains all the spheres that follow. If she ever stops singing the life stream would stop and all material and mental worlds would ceast to exist. She is the mother of all including men and monsters.

The golden wheels continuosly rolled through her body killing trespassers. Her body was also used as food for the devotees of the magic of chaos. Our hero continued on his travels.The wheels came to crush our hero but the guardian Driterashtra, king of hevenly music, heard our hero's song. It was the most beautiful music he had ever heard. Driterashtra immediately made our hero king of that realm.

I am Driterashtra, guardian of the east and kikng of heavenly musicians known as the gandharvas. My music controls the forces of nature. I dictated the Therma of the Ghandarva Veda.

I'm director of the Gongchime Ensembles in Shangri La, Shambhall, Nirvana, the western paradise and the eastern pure land. I sustain the Shabd; the soundless sound, the sound current which sustains life and creates worlds the prehistoric orgasmic kaleidoscope of sound and colored light that that created the omniverse and calls spirits home. The unity into itself.

My music is the rainbow bridge as difficult ot cross as a razors edge that connects worlds of heaven and earth through which the sould travels and clothes itself. My music is the lost chord which is more sublime than any earthly music. I inspire all profane earthly music which is but a pale reflection of my concordance.

I make the river of forever flow in both directions simultaneously. I come down the tree of life to awaken the seven powers of light.

The king of heavenly music also taught him a new song and the new song carried him across another infinite expanse of greynbess to a sphere of soil that made the other expanse seem like hopping over a puddle and hadn't been so far after all. In this region lived the goddess Gaia.
Gaia could bestow peace, love, beauty, wealth, strength, wisdom and even a family.

Her function is as a barrier to the other spheres. She was about to stop our hero and kill him with an army of gnomes and elves but when she saw his magic painting, the light of it pierced her heart. She thought if mere artwork from this person can pass through my body how could I stop its creator. So, she made him king over all the earth and gave him a wonderous treasure.

He was not happy here because there were no people or food to eat and nothing to use to build a shelter. She let him pass through her body giving him access to the third infinite expanse. The third sphere was a realm of water patroled by Naga dragons who ate tresspassers.

The giant king of the Naga serpents was about to eat him when she saw his wonderful treasure. The naga serpent already had a treasure of his own but could never get enough. Our hero gave the treasure to him in exchange for not eating him.

The Naga king was so happy , he made our hero king of the waters and gave him a magic alphabet and 8 beautiful maidens who secretly loved him. Anyway, he didn't like this new world though because still there was nothing to use to build a shelter and no good food to eat. He couldn't take his new wives with him so he left them all behind.

The Naga let him pass to the fourth infinite expanse which made all the others seem like only pools. The next world was a sphere of fire whose light he saw while approaching it through the greyness. The realm of fire usually would have burned tresspassers but our hero spelled a magic word in the air with his new alphabet and the fire king, a salamander with the wings of a Phoenix, parted the flames to let our hero pass.

"So, the Naga king has give you his magic alphabet. He hasn't given that to anyone in a long time. Actually, I've wanted that alphabet for as long as I can remember but no one will sell it to me. Our hero was glad to just give it to him and the king of fires was so happy that he made our hero king of fires but our hero didn't like it there because it was too hot.

The Salamander took some water from the Naga kingdom and heated it with a little fire and made a magic cloud. Our hero rode the magic cloud across the next infinite expanse to a sphere of air.

(insert)

Our hero agreed because it must be the best world by far. They went to explore the temple and entered through the northern gate which had a small pool in front. It was guarded by the king of turtles who let them pass.

Inside the temple was very beatuiful but simple and the ceiling was a dome like that of the sky of this world. The corners were pillars like that of the four trees holding up the sky of this world. The eastern gate was gurded by a tigetr king of the forests but who was very kind to them since they had been invited by the dragon and the lion.

The southyern gate had a small fire in front and it was guarded by a phoenix who lived in the fire. The western gate was guarded by a golden king of dragons who offered all his treasure to them if they would take up residence in the temple which they idid becausethere was plenty of food in the fields, they could drink from the pond and cook in Phoenix's fire.

At tnight while taking walks in the garden and fields they could see a star shining directly over their temple where they lived happily ever after.`

The Farmer and the Naga

Here's a story I wrote which has the spirit of the stories of Southeast Asia. Maybe you'll agree. You like stories don't you?

The Farmer and the Naga

There's a farmer that lives on a mountain side who wants to build a house but the big Naga serpent living on/under the land doesn't want him there because he thinks the farmer has come to steal his treasure so keeps preventing his crops from growing and making earthquakes that destroy the farmers house.

The farmer goes out onto the lake to catch some fish because he has to eat SOMETHING but the snake scares away all the fish and makes a giant wave that almost kills the farmer and pushes his boat onto the land. Some fish wash ashore which the farmer eats
One day the farmer comes back from the fields and the giant serpent has moved in to his home.

The farmer goes to the local shamaness who does a divination, looks at his astrological chart, makes a magic diagram the farmer has to sleep in for the night to incubate a dream, an amulet for the farmer to wear, gives him a tattoo of a Garuda bird (the snakes mortal enemy) made of urine, soot, oil and graphite{which bothers the farmer very much and a voodoo doll they stick with pins and hammer nails into which all don't work. He has no dream.

Next, he offers cakes, rice, incense, alcohol and warrior castles (piles of rocks as a toll) to appease the serpent and tries to hypnotize it (which seems to work for a second) and conjure him into a small box made of yarn but the Naga doesn't want to eat rice and sneezes at the incense. He says, "Anyway, I don't drink, I'll never fit into that box and I have all this land. What would I do with more rocks?." He makes them take it all away.

Next, they perform a sacrifice and offer up a cow for the snake which it eats with a smile on his face but still doesn't move out of the house.
Next night, the shaman starts by bathing the reflection of the Buddha to make holy water, lighting fire crackers, ringing several large bells and brandishing a sword. Then drumming and chanting mantras which keep the snake awake at night so the snake chases the shaman off to get some rest but not before the shaman throws the water on him and black feathers which don't work either.

The farmer wants to try to kill it but the shaman says that if they just kill it, the farmer will have lots of bad luck. His crops won't receive any water and the land will be barren because the Naga controls all that. Anyway, they're difficult to kill.

The shaman and the farmer go back to the shaman's hut where she begins to chant 100,000 repetitions of the mantra of her tulpa which is a spiritual entity the shaman has created. She sends it to haunt the Naga's dreams. This begins to drive the Naga crazy but he still won't get out of the house.

Next the shaman summons her ancestors by drumming and jumping up and down and asks them to haunt the Nagas dreams too. She also asks them for guidance. Now the naga is going completely nuts.

The shamans grandmother tells her to go to the Crimson lake and persuade the female Naga there to call him to her cave. She agrees because she has seen him before and thinks he's handsome. They also took 10 cows for her to eat.

She goes to the farmer's home where the Naga is staying and they fall in love immediately but instead of going back to her cave she moves into the farmers home too.
Now the farmer is hopping mad and tells the shaman she's completely worthless because now he has two Nagas to deal with and no cows.
That night the shaman dreams of where the Naga's cave is and tells the farmer that they'll be rich beyond they're wildest dreams because if the snake is in his house, whose guarding the treasure?

They hike in the mountain and sure enough find the Nagas cave. They take wheel barrows full of treasure down the mountain.
They confront the Naga and say that he can keep the house because now they have their treasure and will move to a really nice home on the seaside.

The Naga finally comes out of the house to kill him but the shaman reminds him that the tulpa and her ancestors will haunt his dreams forever in that case. Anyway, they brought him the love of his life so the treasure was appropriate payment. The dragon reluctantly agrees.

The shaman and the farmer get married and live happily ever after. The Nagas do too.

On the Ramayana

I had encountered Hanuman-one of the main characters in the Ramayana who is the flying monkey leader of the monkey army- ocassionally in New Age book stores in Las Vegas either as an art motif in batik or sculpture or mentioned in books on India. I had read Sant Mat-Saint Path which was comissioned by Maharaj Charan Singh Ji when I was taking too much LSD. He had said something to the effect that the Ramayana was the source of their spirituality which had given me a thread to follow.

I knew people who were followers of Charan Singh attending Satsang meetings in Las Vegas and later in Sedona, Arizona. I don't follow those teachings anymore and I don't take drugs anymore either. Really, not for more than 18 years. No, not even marijuana.

Anyway, I was attracted to the spirituality of India, as so many Americans were, after the Beatles went to India and studied with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and brought back the Indian Sitar player Ravi Shankar. One reason we were all attracted to other spiritualities is that traditional spirituality in America, namely Christianity had lost most of it's meaning. It's symbols didn't speak to us.

As Joseph Campbell, the master of myth, has said; Christianity is the overinterpreted and manufactured geneology of a single southwestern Asian semitic people by no means the history of the whole world as it sets itself up to be. Even in the 12 century people could not tolerate the imposed ordeals of an alien imported religion out of touch with everything and held in force only by terror. What they teach hinders education and rests on myth.

For some reason, Indian spirituality seemed more pure. Probably because we couldn't see all the Jimmy and Tammy Faye Bakers and Jimmy Swaggarts of the Indian religions. This was something the Beatles encountered in their relationship with Mahesh Yogi when accusations of sexualy impropriety surfaced around the Maharishi and some of his female followers.

I had read the long version of the Ramayana but it was hard to visualize, though not as bad as the Mahabharata or the Bagavad Gita which is one of the Mahabharata's chapters. I was disappointed. How could this story be the root of their spirituality. It obviously wasn't "TRUE" which was my criteria for evaluating it's worth at the time.

Eventually, I was able to find a short internet version which I shared with my students. I may share it with you at some point.

The Ramayana is especially important to me because I would like to stage a production of it with my musical compositions as accompaniment either in an actual theater or in a computer graphic production maybe even along the lines of the loveable scamps found in the tv cartoon "South Park." You can hear some of the music I've written so far at http://www.broadjam.com/artists/artist_playlist.asp?artistID=18238.

Then, Sita let loose the arrow in her bow from Behind Rama. It struck Ravana in the heart and so he died.

On Following the Bliss of Gamelan

I started this blog with a creation story because the Western world's narrative has an originary point that I want to recover. The Buddhist and Taoist orientation doesn't suppose a beginning. The Asian narrative makes the middle to be more important that the beginning.

It's completely different to be a story teller with no first story. This isn't to say that Asian narrative is better than western. Preserving and resurrecting western narrative forms is important as well.

On Following the Bliss of Gamelan
I was studying music at Northern Arizona University in 1999 and scouring the library for interesting books of all kinds. I looked in every section but I gravitated towards topics such as the classical music of India and especially ethnomusicology. I came across two very thick books.

One on Balinese and another on Javanese gamelan music. Within their rough, old and dusty pages were reams of descriptions and transcriptions of performance practices that I made copies of and studied. I had enjoyed what little I had seen of the Southeast Asian aesthetic in watered down movie presentations such as The King and I.

I also watched movies liestened to cds and read books about the cultures of S.E. Asia. One documentary told the story of a man looking for a certain tribe in Borneo. He befriended people in a different tribe to help him find them.

He received a tattoo from an old woman that I thought was the purest expression of spirituality I had ever seen. It was a vine motif that had eyes. To the unchristianized Dayak, the native inhabitants of Borneo, plants and animals of the jungle are like cells of a larger organism that is sentient.

This is similar to the much debated Gaia Hypothesis. While having difficulty finding the tribe they were looking for during weeks of trekking in the jungle, the native of Borneo, acting as guide, had a dream. It was as if the jungle told him where to find the members of the other tribe.

I felt a strong desire to encounter these cultures, musics and spiritualities directly. One of my favorite C.D.'s was the soundtrack to the movie Siamese Twins by Bangkok Blue. I have never seen that movie but the music was the best that I had ever heard. Here's a link to hear clips from the album. Sometimes it doesn't play but revisit it at another time if it doesn't play the first time you try it. http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,208150,00.html

It combined traditional Thai music with jazz including marimba. I didn't make much money and I didn't see how I was ever going to make enough money to visit S.E. Asia or retire there. And, while researching jobs at the career placement office at school I discovered that I could teach English overseas.

From the testing office and from reading, I knew English was one of my marketable aptitudes. So, at the age of 35, I got my passport and studied how and where to apply for jobs overseas and found a job in Korea through the website Dave's ESL cafe. I chose Korea because the pay and benefits were better than other countries in Asia and S.E. Asia.

Living in the center of Asia made it easier to travel around here. On my first trip I went to Bangkok and then to Ayuthaya, the ancient capital of Siam. While I was there I bought cds of traditional Thai music that I just loved.

I also went to a music store that sold Thai instruments. I wanted to buy everything but could only afford a flute. When I returned to Korea, I met a musician only who had been a guitarist for Frank Sinatra( but he's not Tony Mottola who I have also met) and claims to have been the inventor of the first optical reader which is the basis of cd technology.

He invited me to come stay at his home in the souther Thai city of Hua Hin. I thought I would apply for some jobs while I was there as an experiment to see what I could get. When I went to a junior high school, I discovered they had a music room with thai instruments.

Again, I got to see up close the circular pot gongs and the wooden xylophones that look like boats. One day, by chance, I went to the larger temple downtown and there was a traditional ensemble rehearsing. The director was an elderly man standing in front facing them playing cymbals the size of an average pair of hands.

I had my Lonely Planet Thai Phrasebook and when they stopped playing said to the director in Thai that I had taught music in America to junior high school students. He was very happy to meet me. He invited me to play each of the instruments in his orchestra. They seemed to be impressed with my mallet work and shawm playing.

He invited me to come back the next day for a concert. I came the next day and there were a lot of people. Chairs were placed in a roofed pavilion.

I sat about 3/4 of the way back. Everyone wore their best clothes and some men were wearing what looked like white Naval uniforms. There were younger orange robed monks wearing long mala beads talking to people and making preparations, mostly offerings on the altar.

An old man got up to speak wearing one of the white uniforms. He spoke for a long time and everyone sat quietly listening. When he stopped speaking, the buildings very loud fire alarm bell rang that surprised me a great deal and the musicians began playing simultaneously.

At some point people started to go up onto the altar. Some bowed with hands placed together in a "Wai. which is the gesture of hands folded as if in prayer used as a respectful greeting in Southeast Asia as well as India." Some placed flowers and other offerings such as incense or fruit.

What finally became aparent to me was a long rectangular white box with gold trim in the middle of all the flowers and that it might be a casket. An older woman who had been at the rehearsal the day before motioned for me to go up to the stage but I didn't want to break the solemnity of the mood by distracting people with the presence of a blond haired, blue eyed foreigner. It was the same woman who began to cry as people slowly filtered out.

No one was comforting her so I put my hand on her shoulder and she eagerly put her arms around me to be held as she cried. She must have been his wife. She eventually wanted to leave with a female friend and pulled on my belt for me to come too but I just stood there.

I felt it was sad that she had to let go of me when she needed someone so much, the same way she had to let go of her husband. I went back to the temple again over the next two weeks but I never saw the musicians again.

Creation of Garunaga's World

In the beginning, Garunaga created a world from a broken marble, populated it with men, women and beings with more fluid sexualities then dropped it in the paint water, which created the oceans and made the sky blue. Then he was playing with this world and some others by spinning them like tops. This is why the planets revolve around each other and the stars move across the sky.

I'm writing this blog to make a beautiful pleasure garden for you to get away from the confines of modern architecture where you probably find yourself, as well as to get away from the barage of consumer goods that, lets face it, are hard to escape from. Where I can share with you my immense enthusiasm for Southeast Asian art, music, and literature among other things around a campfire under the full moon by the beach and why those things matter to me. So, if you ache for the ocean waves of a Southeast Asian paradise and a sensual massage by the water, you've come to the right place.

To get you in the mood here is a link that will take you to a forum with three long pages in a thread devoted to Southeast Asian dance with large pictures of Southeast Asians in traditional clothes, dance postures and modern stage settings. http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t50993-50.html Gorgeous.

If you don't know what gamelan is click here for a short description http://www.contemplationgarden.bravehost.com/gamelan.html

You can hear mp3s of my music here; http://www.broadjam.com/artists/artist_playlist.asp?artistID=18238

You can see pictures of me here; http://www.contemplationgarden.bravehost.com/Pictures.html

If you're interested in learning how to compose for gamelan or how to play gamelan then the following links are for you.
http://www.efn.org/~qehn/tunes/index.htm

http://www.calarts.edu/~drummond/p5.html

http://www.cba.hawaii.edu/remus/gamelan/bali.htm

http://www.efn.org/~qehn/tutor/

http://www.craggvalegamelan.co.uk/music.html listen to the sample

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:iBoxa0Kj2t0J:www.calarts.edu/~drummond/gamelanGlossary.pdf+gamelan&hl=en

http://images.google.co.kr/imgres?imgurl=http://trumpet.sdsu.edu/M151/BalGamGong.gif&imgrefurl=http://trumpet.sdsu.edu/M151/Indonesian_Music2.html&h=204&w=389&sz=4&tbnid=UXxkmEvFeQwJ:&tbnh=62&tbnw=118&start=64&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgong%2Bmusic%26start%3D60%26hl%3Dko%26lr%3D%26newwindow%3D1%26sa%3DN

http://www.ancient-future.com/bali.html

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.redshift.com/~dcanright/fibgam/fig6.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.redshift.com/~dcanright/fibgam/gifs.htm&h=1279&w=833&sz=31&tbnid=onbtukByABkJ:&tbnh=149&tbnw=97&start=18&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgamelan%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.redshift.com/~dcanright/fibgam/fig1.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.redshift.com/~dcanright/fibgam/gifs.htm&h=743&w=826&sz=16&tbnid=XDpfYnEkuxYJ:&tbnh=128&tbnw=142&start=62&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgamelan%26start%3D60%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/musik/gamelan/pix/nbsp2.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/musik/gamelan/gamelan6.html&h=800&w=800&sz=17&tbnid=eiXdPEUh1NwJ:&tbnh=142&tbnw=142&start=74&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgamelan%26start%3D60%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cctr.umkc.edu/user/bhugh/recit/debnotes/Image9.gif&imgrefurl=http://cctr.umkc.edu/userx/bhugh/recit/debnotes/gamelan.html&h=252&w=346&sz=4&tbnid=g5dwjWu1z6gJ:&tbnh=84&tbnw=115&start=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgamelan%26start%3D120%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

http://www.jacqui-rutten.com/scan0002.jpg

http://www.markvigil.com/images/pno2.jpg

Here's a link to Cambodian music http://images.google.co.kr/imgres?imgurl=http://www.asianclassicalmp3.org/Mahori.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.asianclassicalmp3.org/mahori.htm&h=300&w=198&sz=19&tbnid=L2X5eCOgwOYJ:&tbnh=111&tbnw=73&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmahori%2Bmusic%26hl%3Dko%26lr%3D%26newwindow%3D1

And a link to Sundanese Gamelan http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:7xJhlfYW1mcJ:www.open.ac.uk/Arts/music/mclayton/wayang-golek.pdf+kendang&hl=ko%20target=nw

Here's a link to traditional Thai music on my personal website http://www.contemplationgarden.bravehost.com/Thai.html

and a link to Thai People Culture and Customs on my site http://www.contemplationgarden.bravehost.com/Thailand.html

Garunaga