Lyric Of The Day – Who’s Gonna Take The Weight? by Gang Starr

Posted on by Duncan Toms

In honour of MC Guru who is unwell, an absolute classic:

And just imagine if each one is teachin’ one
We’ll come together so that we become
A strong force, then we can stay on course
Find your direction through introspection
And for my people out there I got a question
Can we be the sole controllers of our fate?
Now who’s gonna take the weight?

Knowledge is power, and knowledge can be the difference between life
Or death…you should know the truth and the truth shall set you
Free.

Verse 1

I was raised like a muslim
Prayin’ to the east
Nature of my life relates rhymes I release
Like a cannon
’cause I been plannin’ to be rammin’ what I wrote
Straight on a plate down your throat
So digest as I suggest we take a good look
At who’s who while I’m readin’ from my good book
And let’s dig into every nook and every cranny
Set your mind free as I slam these thoughts
And just like a jammy goes pow [fx: gunshots]
You’re gonna see what I’m sayin’ now
You can’t be sleepin’
’cause things are gettin’ crazy
You better stop being lazy
There’s many people frontin’
And many brothers droppin’
All because of dumb things, let me tell you somethin’
I’ve been through so much that I’m such
A maniac, but I still act out of faith
That we can get the shit together so I break
On fools with no rhymes skills messin’ up the flow
And people with no sense who be movin’ much too slow
And so, you will know the meaning of the gang starr
Guru with the mic and premier raise the anchor
Swiftly, as we embark on a journey
I had to get an attorney
I needed someone to defend my position
Decisions I made, ’cause now it’s time to get paid
And ladies, these rhymes are like the keys to a dope car
Maybe a lexus or a jaguar
Still, all of that is just material
So won’t you dig the scenario
And just imagine if each one is teachin’ one
We’ll come together so that we become
A strong force, then we can stay on course
Find your direction through introspection
And for my people out there I got a question
Can we be the sole controllers of our fate?
Now who’s gonna take the weight?

Verse 2

The weight of the world is heavy on my mind
So as my feelings unwind I find
That some try to be down just ’cause it’s trendy
Others fall victim to envy
But I’ll take the road less travelled
So I can see all my hopes and my dreams unravel
Relievin’ your stress, expressin’ my interest
In the situation that you’re facin’
That’s why I’m down with the nation
Spirituality supports reality
We gotta fight with the right mentality
So we can gain what is rightfully ours
This is the meaning of the chain and the star
Land is power, so gimme forty acres
Let’s see how far I can take ya
Original invincible
That’s how I’m lookin’ at it
I use my rhymes like a glock automatic
Any means necessary, I’m goin’ all out
Before the rains bring the nuclear fallout
So let me ask you, is it too late?
Ayo, who’s gonna take the weight?

Dependence

Posted on by Duncan Toms

We have never questioned the whole issue at all, why each one of us seeks some kind of dependence. Is it not that we really, deep down, demand security, permanency? Being in a state of confusion, we want someone to get us out of that confusion. So, we are always concerned with how to escape or avoid the state in which we are. In the process of avoiding that state, we are bound to create some kind of dependence, which becomes our authority. If we depend on another for our security, for our inward wellbeing, there arise out of that dependence innumerable problems, and then we try to solve those problems – the problems of attachment. But we never question, we never go into the problem of dependence itself. Perhaps if we can really intelligently, with full awareness, go into this problem, then we may find that dependence is not the issue at all – that it is only a way of escaping from a deeper fact.

-Krishnamurti

Get Off The Grid With A Bloom Box

Posted on by Duncan Toms

In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that’s inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it. One of them, Bloom Energy, is about to make public its invention: a little power-plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard. You’ll generate your own electricity with the box and it’ll be wireless. The idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid. K.R. Sridhar … says he knows it works because he originally invented a similar device for NASA. He really is a rocket scientist. He invented a new kind of fuel cell, which is like a very skinny battery that always runs. Sridhar feeds oxygen to it on one side, and fuel on the other. The two combine within the cell to create a chemical reaction that produces electricity. There’s no need for burning or combustion, and no need for power lines from an outside source. “It’s cheaper than the grid, it’s cleaner than the grid.” Twenty large, well-known companies have quietly bought and are testing Bloom boxes in California. The first customer was Google. Four units have been powering a Google datacenter for 18 months. They use natural gas, but half as much as would be required for a traditional power plant. John Donahoe, eBay’s CEO, says its five boxes were installed nine months ago and have already saved the company more than $100,000 in electricity costs. eBay’s boxes run on bio-gas made from landfill waste, so they’re carbon neutral. “In five to ten years, we would like to be in every home.” [Sridhar] said a unit should cost an average person less than $3,000.

A stability not of the mind

Posted on by Duncan Toms

If you really listen – not merely verbally but profoundly – then you will see that there is stability which is not of the mind, which is the freedom from the past. Yet, the past can never be put aside. There is a watching of the past as it goes by, but not occupation with the past. So the mind is free to observe and not to choose. Where there is choice in this movement of the river of memory, there is occupation; and the moment the mind is occupied, it is caught in the past. And when the mind is occupied with the past, it is incapable of seeing something real, true, new, original, uncontaminated.

– Krishnamurti

Washington Times Reports 9/11 Inconsistencies

Posted on by Duncan Toms

A lingering technical question about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks still haunts some, and it has political implications: How did 200,000 tons of steel disintegrate and drop in 11 seconds? A thousand architects and engineers want to know, and are calling on Congress to order a new investigation into the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7 at the World Trade Center.

“In order to bring down this kind of mass in such a short period of time, the material must have been artificially, exploded outwards,” says Richard Gage, a San Francisco architect and founder of the nonprofit Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

Mr. Gage, who is a member of the American Institute of Architects, managed to persuade more than 1,000 of his peers to sign a new petition requesting a formal inquiry.

“The official Federal Emergency Management [Agency] and National Institute of Standards and Technology reports provide insufficient, contradictory and fraudulent accounts of the circumstances of the towers’ destruction. We are therefore calling for a grand jury investigation of NIST officials,” Mr. Gage adds.

The technical issues surrounding the collapse of the towers has prompted years of debate, rebuttal and ridicule.

He is particularly disturbed by Building 7, a 47-story skyscraper, which was not hit by an aircraft, yet came down in “pure free-fall acceleration.” He also says that more than 100 first-responders reported explosions and flashes as the towers were falling and cited evidence of “multi-ton steel sections ejected laterally 600 ft. at 60 mph” and the “mid-air pulverization of 90,000 tons of concrete & metal decking.”

There is also evidence of “advanced explosive nano-thermitic composite material found in the World Trade Center dust,” Mr. Gage says. The group’s petition at www. ae911truth.org is already on its way to members of Congress.

“Government officials will be notified that ‘Misprision of Treason,’ U.S. Code 18 (Sec. 2382), is a serious federal offense, which requires those with evidence of treason to act,” Mr. Gage says. “The implications are enormous and may have profound impact on the forthcoming Khalid Shaikh Mohammed trial.”

via Inside the Beltway – Washington Times.

Book of Life, 26 Feb

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Must we know drunkenness to know sobriety? Must you go through hate in order to know what it is to be compassionate? Must you go through wars, destroying yourself and others, to know what peace is? Surely, this is an utterly false way of thinking, is it not?

– From Krishnamurti, Book of Life, 26 February

Entity

Posted on by Duncan Toms

It is entirely unclear if such thing as an entity as me exists.
It seems like there is, in an everyday way.
Everyone, mostly everyone, thinks there is.
But when I look into it, it seems very uncertain, slippery, shady.
It’s easy to make people, ourselves, into entities, into a who.
Even animals I can make into a who.
Even objects.
We make everyone into a who.
Even ourselves.
But there does seems to be a who,
in the sense of a doer,
a willer,
an observer,
a watcher.
The one making an effort.
Continue reading →

To be or not to be

Posted on by Duncan Toms

So what do we mean by goodness? Surely, there is goodness only when there is total attention. Attention has no motive. When there is a motive for attention, is there attention? If I pay attention in order to acquire something, the acquisition, whether it be good or bad, is not attention it is a distraction. A division. There can be goodness only when there is a totality of attention in which there is no effort to be or not to be.

– Krishnamurti

Murder, War, Evil, Ideas

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Obviously, the present crisis throughout the world is exceptional, without precedent. There have been crises of varying types at different periods throughout history – social, national, political. Crises come and go; economic recessions, depressions, come, get modified, and continue in a different form. We know that; we are familiar with that process. Surely the present crisis is different, is it not? It is different first because we are dealing not with money nor with tangible things but with ideas. The crisis is exceptional because it is in the field of ideation. We are quarrelling with ideas, we are justifying murder; everywhere in the world we are justifying murder as a means to a righteous end, which in itself is unprecedented. Before, evil was recognised to be evil, murder was recognised to be murder, but now murder is a means to achieve a noble result. Murder, whether of one person or of a group of people, is justified, because the murderer, or the group that the murderer represent, justifies it as a means of achieving a result that will be beneficial to man. That is, we sacrifice the present for the future – and it does not matter what means we employ as long as our declared purpose is to produce a result that we say will be beneficial to man. Therefore, the implication is that a wrong means will produce a right end and you justify the wrong means through ideation… We have a magnificent structure of ideas to justify evil and surely that is unprecedented. Evil is evil; it cannot bring about good. War is not a means to peace.

– Krishnamurti

Where are we?

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Driving along the road. How come this is even happening? Sure, I understand evolution, of us and of technology. So me driving a car is happening. But what’s it happening in? What is this world? I know what it is made of, but what is it inside of; where is it? What is this universe? Inquiry into time, space, matter is the only answer. But to do that in science you have to become a specialist and because it is so advanced, become esoteric. What about us, the non-specialists? Can we find out what is going on? The answers must be wider than those the specialists give – the philosopher, the scientist, the man of religion. I start with the fact that this mind, this brain within this skull, is of this universe, is of this mystery, is these things. Time and space are within us as matter and we are of it. So we can touch it, or are being touched. I feel this is the only way into the mystery of existence.

…

There is evil in the world to which we are contributing, as we contribute to the good. Man seems to unite more in hate than in good. A wise man realises the cause of evil and good, and through understanding frees thought-feeling from it.

– Krishnamurti

The Brown Celtic Warrior

Posted on by Duncan Toms

I look at the keys. I don’t know what to write.
They are not keys. They are lights on a screen.
Early morning. I wanted to stay in bed.
After two snoozes, some yoga.
Why are snoozes always nine minutes?
It’s interesting to do some yoga despite the reluctance.
Mostly in yoga I have gone with the reluctance.
But yoga is long-term, requiring a little regularly.
Some pratapana, some standing poses.
Warrior.
I don’t feel like a warrior.
My name means ‘brown celtic warrior’.
That’s funny.

Why do we divide life into the thing called good and the thing called evil? Is there not actually only one thing, which is a mind that is inattentive? Surely, when there is complete attention, that is, when the mind is totally aware, alert, watchful, there is no such thing as evil or good; there is only an awakened state.

– Krishnamurti