Tamarack's New Dog

Apparently, the business of selling fakelore, whites-can-be-Natives books is not making quite the blood money it used to, so Tamarack has decided to begin mining "Zen" for fun and profit.

We guess the Warrior Way website and the Wolf zoo he was hoping would draw in more suckers did not pan out. It would not surprise us if Tamarack closed the Teaching Drum as a wilderness guide program and re-opened it as a "Zen" monestary (money-stary) in the near future.

To: Teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Tamarack Song"
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:49:40 -0500
Subject: [Teaching_Drum] Why Zen?

----- Original Message from Andrew------ --

Tamarack, you wrote: "It appears to me that any consolidated approach to spirituality will evolve similar structures: canons, hierarchy, and methodologies to assuage fear of death. If we want this type of medicine, it probably doesn't matter which one we pick, as they all do the same thing."
From this I wonder, why *have* you picked Zen then? What about Zen is different from these other consolidated approaches, to make it such an important part of your own discoveries?

Good morning Andrew,

Great question! In actuality, I have picked Oneness rather than Zen. When Jesus says we do not need to toil or reap because we are provided for, I am one with Jesus; when Buddha suggests we not worship likenesses of others, I am one with Buddha; when my neighbor looks up at the Moon and comments on how her moods change with the Mooncycle, I am one with her.

So why have I written a book on Zen? It is on Zen, the universal concept, rather than Zen, the religion. Knowing that language conveys culture, I did etymological research on the term "Zen," tracing it back to the Pali (pre-Sanskrit) culture of ancient India. The term, both then and now, simply means "awareness." Today the term can be found in most Eurasian and American cultures. "Sign" is our way of pronouncing "Zen," and what is a sign other than a way of increasing awareness?

Of course, in our materialist culture we have secularized the reading of a sign. And yet, even here in contemporary America, I can still be given a sign and it will be a profound, mystical experience.

So why have I written a book on Zen? Because it is a book on awareness. The term is merely a touchstone -- an awareness-raising tool. In the book I explain in detail what I have touched upon in the paragraphs above. I could have written the book on any of a hundred other topics and it would still be the same book, the same words.

If I can clarify more, give me a holler.

Tamarack

A Lap Dog, Quitter, and Perpetual Tourist Leaves the Teaching Drum

Helkenn's outta there!

Yeah, surprise surprise. The racist tourist's reputation now sinks to an all time low as he leaves yet another "community" for supposedly greener pastures, which makes him kinda like a creepy priest looking for a new parish, if you ask us. We guess Tamarack will be putting the word out soon for a new errand boy to take moldy food drops out to the Seeker-Suckers, as well as provide the requisite dewy-eyed ego massages.

Helkenn's parents obviously raised him to be an unaccountable white male supremacist who bails at the first sign of real, long-term committment (let alone accountability to indigenous people) - and he continues drifting aimlessly on along in that vein. As a dorm Resident Director, he is little more than a white overseer in charge of indigenous students. Why couldn't the University of Alaska find an Inupiaq person for this position? The answer of course is racism, you know, the kind that always puts anything but an indigenous person in charge. And Glenn Helkenn is johnny-white-guy on the spot to take the job from a real Native person.

Surprise, surprise.

To: teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Glenn Helkenn"
Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:04:57 -0000
Subject: [Teaching_Drum] Alaska

Hi all,

For those that haven't heard, I left the Drum about a month ago thinking I was moving to N. Carolina to work as a wilderness guide for an adult addictions therapy program. After one very disappointing shift on the job and two very worthwhile weeks with old friends down there, I was offered another job in Alaska and took it.

I'm now in Fairbanks working for the University of Alaska as the RD of a dorm for natives (mostly north slope Inupiaq) coming in from the remote rural villages for their first year on campus. The job looks like it will be quite a challenge, but hopefully one I'll be able to rise to in a good way and learn a few things from. On the nice side, the job gives me two months off in the summer (in addition to normal
vacation time), free tuition to grad school to study part time, and the possibility of being able to teach some primitive stuff for the university through their outdoor adventure program.

At any rate, it's both wonderful and a challenge (a wonderful challenge perhaps?) to be moving back to my homeland. It's been 16 years since I lived in the land of my birth, and the major part of my desire to return is to reconnect with this land and my family. Since my parents raised me to be a conservative evangelical Christian farmer on "the last frontier", things are a bit different upon return (i.e. to put it mildly ;-) ). At any rate, wish me "luck" eh?

wild peace,
Glenn