Thursday, June 19, 2008

Thank Goodness for my folks, The Force Is with Me, Invisible Sun, Basket Case, Hope, I Won’t Back Down, Strength

Aloha from sunny California,

Thank goodness for my folks. Mom and Dad have made dealing with cancer nearly tolerable and continue to help me with life on a daily basis.

The physical, mental, spiritual, financial, and mental aspects of dealing with a hideous disease can seem insurmountable at times. So much so that I need to draw upon the Ancient Texts from a Galaxy far, far, away from a time long, long ago. My teacher Yoda said to me in the swamp of eternal muck, stench, and despair, “For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes.” Yes, Yoda has some good insights on life.

Excerpts from “Invisible Sun” from “Ghost in the Machine”, the Police

“It’s dark all day, and it glows all night
I face the day with me head caved in
Looking like something that the cat brought in
I don’t ever want to play the part
Of a statistic on a government chart

There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
That gives us hope when the whole days done”

As you can clearly see by my writing, the events of the last year have turned me into a basket case. I wanted to use the Police’s “King of Pain” lyrics in this post but I did not feel clever enough to write,
The MRI shows a new little light spot on my right temporal lobe of my brain today.
The spot could be dead tumor but we do not know for sure.
My current therapy may be working just perfectly to cure the glioblastoma multiforme in my skull.
There is a hopeful technology that creates a virus from my tumor and white blood cells. The virus technology makes sense to me and is being used in a clinical trial.
I have so many good people in my life I want to live for.
I love life and I want to live.
There is always hope if only a fool’s hope.


Tom Petty, “I Won’t Back Down”, Full Moon Fever
“Well I won't back down, no I won't back down
you could stand me up at the gates of hell
but I won't back down

Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around
and I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
gonna stand my ground and I won't back down
Well I know what's right, I got just one life
in a world that keeps on pushin' me around
but I'll stand my ground and I won't back down

Hey baby there ain't no easy way out
hey I will stand my ground
and I won't back down
No, I won't back down”

Peace and Love everyone.

I am bouncing off the ropes and feel good. My life and quality of life are good. I do appreciate the help and prayers. I believe having something to live for makes for a beautiful world and by golly, gee willakers, test, test, sibilance, sibilance, I love life and I am looking forward to catching a beautiful rainbow trout and releasing it unharmed back to the river.

The Alarm, "Strength' Lyrics,
Who will light the fire
That I need to survive
Who will be the life blood
Coursing through my veins
Like a river flowing
That will never change
Someone write me a letter
I need to know that I'm still alive
Someone give me a telephone call
I need to hear a human sound
Someone open up a door
And let me out of this place
I've been caged up for oh so long
I don't know if I'm living or dying
GIVE ME LOVE
GIVE ME HOPE
GIVE ME STRENGTH
GIVE ME SOMEONE TO LIVE FOR

Be well,
Jack “Never Quit” Burton

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Ancient Texts, MRI Results, Surgery, Gandhi, Wild Mountain Yoga, Thank you Dubya, Seat of the Teacher: Breathe, All You Need Is Love

Greetings from Sunny California!

I consulted the Ancient Texts and learned something or perhaps relearned something. “When in doubt, follow the 3 S’s of Anusara Yoga – Shri, Satya, and Svantantrya. Do what is life affirming, truthful, and freedom-enhancing.” That is more complicated than my decision and action process which is based on who and what I love. What I love is life affirming, truthful, and freedom-enhancing. When doing stuff like teaching yoga I think using the 3 S’s gives focus to my teaching and more clarity to the lessons.

My MRI results were interesting. There is a new image on the results that indicates that we will have an MRI next month when no MRI was scheduled. The image could be showing dead tumor from the radiation treatments in December, January, and February. That is what I think the spot the size of a dime is in the area I received the greatest dose of radiation. The spot could also be showing stuff that gives me the “heebie jeebies” so I will not give any energy to those thoughts. My University of California Doctors are happy with the results of my current treatment. I shared some of my metaphysical concerns with my doctors and what I am feeling is not brain tumor induced but part of the normal human experience.

The spot in my right temporal lobe shown in my recent MRI has me energized to ride my bicycle more and do yoga more. If the spot indicates surgery down the road I choose to be as strong and healthy as possible. I am in good shape now but there are several yoga postures I would like to manifest more beautifully. My latest physical goal is to be able to rest the crown of my head on the soul of my foot while balancing on one leg. Will I reach this goal by my birthday? "Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the result", Mahatmas Gandhi. Jack Burton has a long way to go which is so very cool that I get to experience so much improvement in my balance, strength, flexibility, and determination.

I learned an interesting factoid about my emergency craniotomy surgery that Dr. Frankenstein performed on my brain on November 21, 2007. My surgery was a good surgery but more conservative than if I had the surgery done at let’s say Duke or UCSF Medical Centers. However if I would have had surgery at one of those institutions, there would be a much greater chance now that my eyesight would be impaired. I believe I had exactly the correct surgery for me. Thank you Dr. Frankenshtone. I love my vision and thank you Artemis for going to Canada with me for my Waveform Lasik surgery before the technology was approved by the United States FDA.

I completed my second yoga class in Nevada City, California at Wild Mountain Yoga. The instructors are good and the students are nice. It is fun for me to experience new styles of yoga and yoga teachers. I think my fellow Anusara Yoga practitioners would enjoy yoga at Wild Mountain Yoga. I am experiencing as many yoga instructors as I can now that I am on a path to being a certified yoga instructor. I will probably certify in Anusara because the teaching methodology and practice is gorgeous and feels good to me and has freedom for the practitioners.

Below is a paraphrase of an entertaining article I want to include in this post for my gentle readers, http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/ .

"Thank you Dubya for your embarrassing rejection of science, your refusal to support any climate change initiative, for furthering the war-for-oil agenda, for blocking stem-cell research, for serving all your masters in Big Energy, Big Agribusiness, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Auto. Thanks for gutting the Constitution and front-loading the courts and trying to hack away at women's rights, gay marriage, privacy rights and on and on.

Because it turns out, inviting all that darkness and corruption and holding back all the energy of progress and change is less about hastening the Second Coming (sorry, better luck next time), and more like pulling back on a slingshot. It just gets tighter and tighter and the pressure builds until eventually you just gotta let go, and then boom — or I should say, Obama.

Maybe King George is exactly what we needed. Maybe Bush's brand of frighteningly inept politicking has been just the right kind of sociocultural emetic to induce a true purge of our congested system, just the thing to finally snap us out of our lethargy. Hell, sometimes you gotta go deep into the darkness to realize just how much you need the light.

So thank you, George, for exemplifying and embodying everything that's wrong with the neocon agenda, for serving as the final death knell of the failed conservative movement, of a once-noble Republican Party that's run out of ideas and has turned bitter and nasty and paranoid.

Thank you, Dubya, for setting the stage for Obama and Hillary. Because the truth is, even as recently as eight years ago, if you'd have asked if we as a nation would be anywhere near ready for a female or black president, it would have felt incredibly premature, a good 20 years off before we could entertain such an idea. But so potent has been the recoil against everything you stood for — the misogyny, homophobia, classism, fear of "the other," of foreigners and minorities and alternative beliefs — that we are ready to be inspired and reinvigorated sooner than anyone thought possible.

Thank you, George W. Bush
Without your dark and spectacular failures, we wouldn't be so ready to leap forward. Kudos!"
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, June 13, 2008

Jack Burton commends Mark Morford on his fairness and restraint in commenting on King George the duly, U.S. Supreme Court appointed President of the United States of America. I think King George should feel what it is like to be in Guantanamo for the rest of his natural life. George can go to jail after his presidency because tricky Dick may be able to do more harm than Mr. Mission Accomplished. What do you think about water boarding and electro shock you spineless, thin lipped, beady eyed coward? I suppose Jack Burton can be a little more divisive that Mark Morford. I feel good about the restraint I used in this post on my thoughts and feelings towards a very despicable manifestation of a human being. I suppose my comments about George "Silver Spoon Up His Butt" Bush has just put my home on the Office of Homeland Security's Threat Level Red. That's OK. I see color and do not typically solve problems with black or white, yes or no, this or that, and with us or against us dogma. I believe in an abundance of solutions to issues and my tool box has many tools I wield skillfully. I suppose that is why I am employed as a problem solver.

Seat of the Teacher:
Take a deep breath and hold briefly at the top of your inhale. Fully exhale and return to your natural breathing rhythm. Notice the bright green new leaves of Spring on the trees. Listen to the songs of the birds and the calls of the crows and Stellar Jays. Are you fortunate to hear the screams of the Osprey fishing? Feel each breath bring new energy and goodness into your being. Direct the goodness to parts of your being you wish to make strong, compassionate, loving, more free, or more stable. Life is good. Breathe.

Peace and Love,

Jack Burton

All You Need Is Love
The Beatles
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be in time
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
All you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Consider All the Possibilities, Valium Induced Magnet Ride on Friday, Baby Blessing, Wild Mountain Yoga

Aloha!

I caught a funny commercial the other day that made me laugh out loud. The commercial was for some bone headed Investment Company or pharmaceutical company and had a slogan something like, “Anticipate All the Possibilities”. This is Jack “No Limits” Burton’s response to obvious misuse of the English language.

No Limits

How may we imagine or predict all the possibilities?
W assist each other realize what is possible.
We show each other a world of infinite possibilities without limitations.

A thousand trillion human lifetimes may only faintly illuminate some of what is possible.
Visualize a beautiful possibility for those you love.
Let us follow our hearts and find divine bliss.

I get to sit in a noisy, clunky, cold, magnet for nearly 2 hours this Friday morning and drop a blue valium. Woohoooo! Oh sure, valium is fun. Actually I hardly notice the valium at all. I basically meditate and practice yogic breathing, pranyama, the whole time I am in the magnet. I will visualize the tumor leaving my body and my brain being healthy.

Two of the most physically and metaphysically beautiful people I know have completed the holy trinity. They are due for a baby in July. I went to a baby shower/blessing for them and it was way cool. I met several people there and had a good time. I gave a one word blessing and the word was “Love”. Of course it took Jack “No Loss For Words” Burton about 5 minutes to set up and deliver the one word blessing to the nearly captive audience of about 40 people. Long Live Love!

While I am in California I got a four day pass to do yoga at Wild Mountain Yoga in Nevada City. My first class was very good. It was a BKS Iyengar style and fun. It is going to take me awhile to accumulate my 200 hours of yoga teaching to become a certified yoga teacher so I am experiencing as many teachers as I can. I have learned something from every teacher.

Peace and Love,

Jack Burton
“Our inability to forget is far more devastating than our inability to remember.” Mark Twain

Friday, June 6, 2008

Honored To Be Placed in the Seat of the Teacher, Laughing, Mom, Rock is Heavy, John F. Kennedy, A Farewell to Kings, Yoga, Ted Kennedy

Aloha!

I taught my second yoga class ever on Tuesday. I am honored to teach about 20 yoga students of varying experience. Teaching yoga is different than practicing. I accomplished my intention for class which is to safely make people feel good, make them aware of their innate strength, grace, power, and beauty and challenge everyone while not overwhelming beginners.

I encourage my students to laugh. I think I was demonstrating half moon pose, tree, standing hand to toe, or a bound side angle pose and I said something like, “Now we will do the other side” which elicited some laughter from some of the students that toppled over in the forest as we were doing some tricky balancing. I think three times I used the line, “Now to make the posture more advanced and bring your practice to the next level, smile.” It was fun and I look forward to teaching my next class.

Mom has been taking great care of me. She is a wonderful roommate, house keeper, cook, gardener, landscaper and friend. We had our first yard debris burn Saturday and the coals lasted until Monday. We burnt allot of yard debris.

My neighbor is selling her home after her recent divorce and has donated some river rock and some rotten wood to me free for the hauling. Rock is heavy.


John F. Kennedy said something like and I am only cleaning up the sexist language in this paraphrase, “Today’s problems will not be solved by cynics and skeptics that are limited by obvious realities. We can build a future from people who dream of things that never were.

I was listening to Rush’s Album, “A Farewell to Kings” the other day and I will share a couple of excerpts.
A Farewell to Kings and Closer to the Heart
When they turn the pages of history will they read of us with sadness,
and the seeds that we let grow.
Cities full of hatred, fear, and lies.
Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise.

The hypocrisies are slandering the sacred halls of truth.
Ancient nobles showering their bitterness on youth.
Can’t we find the minds that made us strong?
Can’t we learn to feel what’s right from wrong?

And those that hold high places, must be the ones to start.
To mold a new reality, closer to the heart.

Yoga is all about expressing goodness and beauty from the heart.

Despite the horrible, sensational, journalism you may be reading about Ted Kennedy, I have hope for a cure for me. Sometimes cancer is cured, even glioblastoma multiforme. It is true that generally doctors talk about treatment rather than a cure because that is the reality for many patients. Fortunately, Jack Burton is not a statistic. Jack Burton is a person with many good people surrounding him for support. I do have and edge on some others afflicted with terrible diseases. I have learned to tap into the goodness that surrounds me which gives me power, courage, strength, speed, and some whacky visualizations about condors and vultures eating dead cancer cells. I may have to send the vultures after cholesterol soon. My cholesterol and triglycerides are all in the healthy, excellent range as last week’s blood test proves. I may just send the visualizations off to other patient’s that may need help after I am cured soon.

Peace and Love,
Jack Burton