L.A.
was burning. The riots had broken out on the very day I decided
to visit Lindy. She was a good friend of mine who lived near Playa
del Rey. Lindy could get so scattered at times that she couldn't
even remember how to open the security gate at her condo. Lindy
was a political science professor and a futurist. Lindy's condo
was right next to the airport and this was pretty convenient for
her. I mean she was always taking off on information safaris all
over the world. I got a great kick looking at all the planes take
off from her bedroom window. I mean LAX had a lot of memories
for me. It really did.
I also enjoyed lounging by Lindy's pool. It was the L.A. life-style.
The place was going up in smoke. But it didn't seem real to me
yet. Once the army took control of the city, Lindy and I went
sight-seeing with our trusty cameras. South-Central was now a
chaos of burnt ruins. But it was completely safe. Soldiers were
standing on every corner. The gangs were in hiding. L.A. was now
under military occupation. This was so powerful to watch. I mean
it was life at its most real. People watched it all live on TV.
But it was something else to drive by and look at all the sad
black twisted guts of what were once thriving neighborhoods. I
did a lot of prayers. There wasn't much else I could do. This
was all pretty wrathful stuff.
It
was simply Mahakala time. I went to the old bookstore where
Nakpa Yeshe Dorje had given his empowerments. The Tibetan guy
who owned it told me that people had tried to break in from
the back and that he had to frantically ward them off with a
gun. Then at around late afternoon, he and all the nervous merchants
made sure that they all closed-up at the same time. Nobody wanted
to be ALONE.
It
was important to be careful. America's fascination with high-tech
was creating this wasteland of the heart. That's what South-Central
was really all about. The loss of hope and the anger it had
unleashed was a warning to us all about the limits to our minds
disconnecting from our hearts now. This was the message of my
little monk hero who was just lost in his world of dreams and
looking for a way out. I had to keep this in mind as I drove
through the alien and zoomy landscape of southern California.
|
