Banter 6 Tuesday, November 16th 7pm

(fruit fly ovum and sperm)                                                          (human ovum and sperm)

BANTER 6 TOPIC: Consider our arrival to a month of deer and elk hunting in our area, the current wolf debate in Montana, the season of going into darkness & winter, a time of scarcity for wildlife, etc. to keep the topic in sync with some of our local goings-on.  

If there is one, what is the difference between a human killing an animal for food/sustenance (incl. hunting, slaughterhouse, farming) and an animal (predator--eagle, wolf, wolverine, cheetah...) killing another animal for food/sustenance? 

• explore your own opinions & internal reactions to the above question
• explore the readings and try to broaden your perception of the topic
• write down your initial & evolving thoughts on the topic as you read the prep-work & bring to banter 6

And if you don't see a practical difference, what about an emotional/ethical/spiritual difference between the two?  (We aren't addressing predator to predator killing or human murder/animal cruelty issues in this topic...but basing the discussion around predatory/prey instincts & sustenance). We can also feather the topic into death itself--what is different, for ex., about an elk grazing in a North Fork meadow vs. one in the back of a pick-up?

Sam's contribution:  E.M. Forster's "The Other Side of the Hedge"  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Side_of_the_Hedge

Pam's contributions:

http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1567/1/

& http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/yellowstone_bison_vs_bear_photos_go_viral/C41/L41/

Mike's contribution:  "The Meat Eaters" from NY Times blog (sent via email)

Anna's contribution:  attached four pieces of art (sent via email)

Sabine's contribution: “Grub first, then ethics.”--Bertolt Brecht  &  excerpts from The Jungle, The Wolverine Way, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (sent via email).

Shawna's contribution:  excerpt from Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac:  "Wolf Killing"  http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/chrisj/leopold-quotes.html

Judy Chicago's Birth Tear

Ahimsa (yogic principle)-nonviolence toward self and toward living beings

Buddhist monk, self-immolation (or bonzo) against Vietnamese regime, Saigon, Vietnam, 1963:

Loving Kindness (Buddhist) Meditation:  May all beings everywhere be free from suffering and the causes of sufferingMay all beings everywhere be free from violence and the causes of violenceMay all beings everywhere be free from fear and the causes of fearMay all beings everywhere be free from sadness and the causes of sadnessMay all beings everywhere feel safeMay all beings everywhere be happyMay you be free from sufferingMay you be free from violenceMay you be free from fearMay you be free from sadnessMay you feel safeMay you be happyMay I be free from sufferingMay I be free from violenceMay I be free from fearMay I be free from sadnessMay I feel safeMay I feel happy. 

Inuit mother & child

Frida Kahlo's The Little Deer

Rwanda, the Hutus against the Tutsis, 1993

Klimt's Death and Life

Banter 5: How do you distinguish Self from Other?

Tuesday, October 26th at 7pm

in Sabine's living room

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.  

~Carl Jung

**Thanks for Banter 5 tonight--it took its own route as our collaborative banter walked down nine varying paths into Self and out to Other.  I particularly appreciate the way the Banter Nights are allowing discourse without attempting uniform arrival or group consensus on these topics (ie, badgering or standing on a soapbox).  I would, however, like to see us move even further out onto the precarious limb of simultaneously considering multiple angles that are not in line with our own and thus away from banter (very stable &) rooted in opinion.  It's something like keeping two feet on the ground for a sense of safety and thinking that is the entire world...or climbing up into the branches (that may break) and seeing that the world is quite a lot more than your forest.**
READINGS:

Isaac's contribution:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/39006581/Isaac-s-reading-for-Banter-5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0uaNn_cl14

Kari's contribution:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/39129756/Kari-s-contribution-to-Banter-5
Jill's contribution: 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/39005194/Jill-s-Readings-for-Banter-5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRou8B31Hic

Sabine's contribution:                          http://www.scribd.com/doc/39009390/Sabine-s-Contributions

Joel's contribution:

Episode:Who Am I http://www.radiolab.org/2007/may/07/



Episode: Who Are You
http://www.radiolab.org/2010/may/14/



Episode: Words
http://www.radiolab.org/2010/aug/09/

Pam's contribution: A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.     --Albert Einstein, as quoted in “How can I help?” by Ram Dass and Paul Gorman
Alli's contribution:

"Ego is able to convert everything to its own use, even spirituality. For example, if you have learned of a particularly beneficial meditation technique of spiritual practice, then ego's attitude is first to regard it as an object of fascination, and, second to examine it. Finally, since ego is seemingly solid and cannot really absorb anything, it can only mimic. Thus ego tries to examine and imitate the practice of meditation and the meditative way of life. When we have learned all the tricks and answers of the spiritual game, we automatically try to imitate spirituality, since real involvement would require the complete elimination of ego, and actually the last thing we want to do is give up the ego completely. However, we cannot experience that which we are trying to imitate; we can only find some area within the bounds of ego that seems to be the same thing. Ego translates everything in terms of its own state of health, its own inherent qualities. It feels a sense of great accomplishment and excitement at having been able to create a pattern. At last it has creatives a tangible accomplishment, a confirmation of its own individuality.

If we become successful at maintaining our self consciousness through spiritual techniques, then genuine spiritual development is highly unlikely. Our mental habits become so strong as to be hard to penetrate. We may even go so far as to achieve the totally demonic state of complete "Egohood"." ~Chögyam Trungpa

Carrie's contribution:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/39014440/Carrie-s-Contribution-to-Banter-5

Matthew's contribution:  forthcoming

Mike's contribution: forthcoming

Anna's contribution:  forthcoming                                  ________________________________________________________                                                             Questions for reflection pre-banter:              1. Read at least a portion of each of the above readings.  Annotate or journal as you like while reading.

2.  What is your sense of Self vs. Other.  Write down, bring to share.  How do you determine what your Self is, from what your varying parts are, to what is simply not you, and Other, outside of you?

3. Pam's question:  how do you work toward embracing other w/out compromising self?


4. Assimilate the ideas presented in the readings into your idea of Self and Other.  The readings are diverse.  If there is something you disagree with or see as irrelevant in the readings, please don't discount them, but incorporate that which you don't like/agree with into your sense of how that topic doesn't have to do with your sense of Self or Other, write it down, bring it to share.

5.  This is banter.  Push on your edges and on each other's.  

People wish to be settled:  only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, 1841




                                                                                                (Photo of Jung)

The body is a house of many windows:  there we all sit, showing ourselves and crying on the passers-by to come and love us. 
                                    ~Robert Louis Stevenson

And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.  ~Confucius


I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart.  I am.  I am.  I am.  ~Sylvia Plath

All men are sculptors, constantly chipping away the unwanted parts of their lives, trying to create their idea of a masterpiece.  ~Eddie Murphy, 1979

We are happy when for everything inside us there is a corresponding something outside us.  ~W.B. Yeats